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sacredthethreadgvf · 2 months

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Limelight | Jake Kiszka x Reader | Part 1.

Word Count: 13.7k

Prologue

Chapter Warnings: Smoking the herb, Jakes kind of an asshole, kissing and making out. Slight mentions of poor mental health that could be triggering for some. Mentions of self pleasure (f).

A/N: Thank you for being patient with me while I put this story together for you meticulously. I cannot wait to continue to share this story with everyone and I truly hope you all enjoy the slow burn that is only part 1 of our dear series. Buckle up, we have quite the journey together. I have to give the biggest shout out to @joshym, my dear Elisabeth, this story would truly be nothing without your insight. Thank you for your undying support while I navigate this story and for helping me button it up to share with everyone.

Dear readers, as always, if I have forgotten to add something to my warnings or if there is anything that is triggering, please mention it so I can add such to my warning label.

Enough of me rambling, I hope you enjoy!

****

July 28th

STARCATCHER

Houston, TX.

Your alarm blared wildly at 3 am on a Monday morning to your dismay. You had barely slept unfortunately due to the dread of getting on a plane and meeting your new boss in about 13+ hours. Normally, when you are contracted with a new artist there’s a meet and greet between you to see how you would mesh together, to understand what your new boss is looking for in their assistant, what was a big no and what was a necessity. You took this part of your job very seriously.

When Brian informed you that the boys were already on the road and you could not meet in the safe haven of the office with Brian one seat away from you, your heart sank.

You were going into this new job knowing nothing about your boss other than what you were able to research on your own.

Jake Kiszka. A young guitarist seemingly at the height of his career with his brothers and his friend.

Your flight to Houston had ultimately gone faster than you wanted it to. Your anxiety grows more and more as you watch the time tick by on your phone screen. You tried your best to distract yourself with music and reading but found that trying to force your brain to not think about something only made it mock you and remind you about it more. Once you landed, you were immediately meeting with the band's current assistant Rose, who was coming to pick you up from the airport with a “runner”. You were going to be thrown to the wolves quite literally tonight. There was a show and you were told to be ready to go to the best of your ability.

Grabbing your bags off the carousel you walked to the doors in the busy airport, your lungs begging for fresh air after sitting in a stuffy plane for a few hours now. Stepping out you felt the Houston heat invade all your senses and looked to your left to see a short brown hair girl waving you down with a big smile in front of a white van. That must be Rose.

As you approached closer you got a good look at her features. You could describe her as a cute “mousey” looking girl. Small nose, adorable little smile, and a short bob with bangs which she tried her best to tie up and away from her neck.

“You must be Y/N!” She said, greeting you with a wider smile.

“That would be me!” You smiled back at her.

“Here let me help you with your bags.” You helped her pick up your very full suitcase and lay it in the van. You followed her into it shortly after you got your luggage situated. “Alright Chris, were ready to go!” She said, patting the headrest of the driver's seat. She turned to you and gave you a soft smile.

“So, Y/N! Tell me about yourself. I already know a bit from what Nick told me about you after connecting with your agency but tell me more!”

You softly giggled at the energy Rose was giving off. You knew you two would be fast friends.

“There's not much to tell honestly!” You really hated questions like this.

“Oh cmon, how did you get into the industry!” She sat a little closer to you as the van made a sharp turn.

“Let's just say my love for music really attracted me to this career choice. I have zero musical talent but I do love being around it. So I figured I would settle for the fun life of knowing what goes on backstage and working with artists one on one.”

“Ah, you're chasing after the limelight huh?” Rose grinned at you.

“The limelight scares me.” You both laugh.

After a few beats of silence and a quiet moment of watching the bustling city streets from your window Rose spoke up again. “You'll love the boys. They really are the most genuine down to earth men I have ever had the pleasure of working with. And you'll love Jake,” She winked at you once she had your attention. “He's a looker and a sweetheart.”

You blushed a bit thinking back to your wine fueled night when you went down a spiral into Greta Van Fleet on the internet.

“So,” Rose pulled out a little notebook. “Your main focus is Jake tonight, don't let any of the other boys try and con you into helping them out, they're probably going to ask you to do some ridiculous favors just to test you and get under your skin. Especially Joshua.” She rolled her eyes and smirked.

“I thought you said they were all sweethearts.” You snorted.

“They are, but they also all have an affinity for trouble. It seems to follow them everywhere.” She giggled. “I'll try to introduce you to Jake when we get to the venue and he can take it from there. I do apologize I cannot show you around much, we are a couple of hours away from the show now and my attention needs to be on Joshua as he can be quite the diva.”

You raised your eyebrows at her and she rolled her eyes. “Don't ask.”

***

You had a brief moment to drop your bags off at one of the tour buses, which you watched immediately get placed into one of the compartment bins on the side. ‘There goes the promise of a shower and a comfy bed tonight’ You thought to yourself. You were running behind Rose attempting to keep up with her speed walking through the back doors of the venue into the noisy white brick halls, clearly on a mission.

“Were later than expected,” Rose said, her tone alarming as she glanced at her phone. “Were already past soundcheck, gosh I hope it went okay.” She muttered to herself.

“Here I got you a pass so you don't get thrown out of the venue.” Her tone lightened a bit but you could still see a hint of anxiety in her eyes. “You could easily pass off as one of the boys’ fans and we cant have security throwing out a newbie on day one.”

You took the little lithograph pass and hung the lanyard from your neck observing its intricate details in the picture. Rose had then given you her phone number and directed you to sit in a dressing room and wait to meet Jake, she apologized profusely that she had to go run off to tend to Josh and you waved her off, understanding that you were the one that was in the way today.

Sitting on the little loveseat in the room you took your time to observe your surroundings. The typical food and drink set up in an artist's dressing room caught your eye. So he likes wine, you noted that to yourself for future reference. You noted the neatly placed hairbrush, dyson air wrap, little make up bag. Your eyes finally settled on the silver suit hanging from the back of one of the doors in the room. You pulled your phone out of your little bag and sent a text to your roommate and parents letting them know you at least made it to the venue and you would catch up with them at a later time as you now had to prepare yourself for work mode.

Your silent moment was interrupted as a tall gentleman who you recognized as the boys’ manager Nick, walked through the door followed by the young guitarist himself. They clearly were in the middle of cracking a joke back and forth as the sound of laughter filled up the once peaceful room.

“Miss Y/N!” Nick waved towards you with a gesture. “Glad to see you made it here in one piece! Thank you for coming on such short notice, I understand this is moving quite quickly for you. Probably more than you're used to, no?”

You stood from your spot and extended your hand to shake Nicks. “It's no problem at all. I am a fast learner.”

“Love to hear that!” He stepped aside briefly and gestured towards the other man occupying the room. “And here is Jake!”

Jake. Everything you didn't expect and more, although you shouldn't have been surprised. You had only seen photos of Jake on stage when you were doing your “homework”. As you two got closer to one another, his bergamot cologne overpowered your senses but not in an unpleasant way. He was dressed casually. Almost too casually. A cut off shirt with another button down and jacket laid on top and a pair of way too baggy slacks hanging off of him and a pair of sunglasses hiding his eyes from your view. His hair having a slight wave to it hung from his head.

“Hello Y/N.” He smiled softly at you and extended his hand out for you to shake. You just met the man and yet you already loved the way your name sounded coming from his mouth.

“Hi.” You heard your own voice squeak in your ears. Why am I like this? You internally rolled your eyes at yourself.

“Well,” Nick said. “I will leave you both to it. Show time soon Jake. Be ready.”

Jake nodded and saluted Nick as he walked out the door leaving you both alone. Timidly you watched as Jake waltzed around the dressing room comfortably, grabbing a corkscrew and picking up a bottle of wine from the selection displayed on a table in front of him.

“You drink?” He asked as he began to pour himself a gracious cup of the red liquid.

“Uh, yeah I do sometimes.”

“Would you like a glass?” He reached across the table in front of him to grab another plastic cup and gestured to you.

You waved him off immediately, “Oh no, no I'm okay thank you.”

“Cmon, have a bit of wine with me. It's customary when I meet someone to break into a bottle.” His sunglasses still hide his full face from your view.

“Maybe another time,” You sat down on the couch in the room and pulled a notepad out from your back pocket with a pen. “What do you need me to do for you tonight?”

Jake's eyebrows raised. “Suit yourself I guess.” He approached the vanity opposite where you were sitting and leaned back against it, one ankle crossing over the other.

“I suppose since we don't have much time I will get myself ready tonight as usual.” You could almost hear the hint of distaste in his mouth.

You watched his Adam's apple bob as he took a big gulp of wine. “I'll just need help with side stage stuff.” His eyebrows furrowed. “Why are you writing that down?”

While his tone had a hint of curiosity you easily picked up on the scoff that passed his lips. What a prick..

“Just want to make sure I dont forget anything important is all. That a problem?” You challenged.

You watched as his eyebrows rose slightly over his sunglasses. “No.”

“So what is it that you need assistance with at the side stage this evening Mr.Kiszka.”

He smirked slightly. “Just need to make sure my towels are swapped out every few songs, make sure I have water nearby, and make sure this,” He gestured across the room to the display of wine. “To stay pretty full at all times.”

“Seems simple enough.” Your pen lifted off of the paper. “Anything else?”

Jake shook his head no and smirked at you. “Wanna read that list back to me or what?”

What a douche..

“I'm good thanks. Hey, you good here for a moment? I want to go grab something from my bag on the bus.”

He took another gulp of wine and you watched as his demeanor changed. “All good.”

You felt like you couldn't get out of that room fast enough, your anxiety taking over. But for what? Why exactly were you feeling like this? Was it the fact that you felt like you couldn't handle the workload given to you? The very minimal workload at that. That couldn't be the case. You had done so much more before this job, juggling multiple members of bands before as a stagehand. Maybe it had something to do with the rather attractive guitarist that you were now working for.

No no, stop thinking like that you just met him

He definitely was not what you had expected to be in person.

***

The countdown for show time came faster than you really wanted it to. You felt like you weren't even close to being prepared for what was ahead of you for the evening. Rose met back up with you again and pulled you along with her to the greenroom where the rest of the band had gathered to say a little prayer before walking to the stage. You picked up on a few things that were said, “May Josh's vocals shine bright, may Jake's guitar never fail, may Danny's drums not break, and let's pray that Sam's bass and mellotron carry us along for a journey.”

“Alright boys!” Rose said rather loudly next to you. “Time for stage!”

You were not yet prepared for all eyes landing on you at once and for some reason it made you feel rather small all at once.

“Boys, this is Y/N! Jake's new assistant. Be nice, we want to keep her around.” Rose gestured to you. You watched as chocolate eyes all were focused on you.

“Hey Y/N!” Everyone but Jake said in unison.

“This is Josh, Danny and Sam. You will have more time to chit chat and get to know them later on,” Rose said. “For right now, we are cutting it a bit too close for comfort so lets get a move on!”

Following the boys, security and Rose through the hallway that led to the venue you could hear the screams of anticipation in the background mixed in with the sound of classical music. You could feel a hint of nervousness and tension fill the air as the boys got their cue to enter the stage. This venue was huge, bigger than the ones you were used to seeing. The sound of screams from loyal fans going up an octave once they saw the boys enter the stage which prompted the rest of the venue to follow suit.

Nothing at all could have mentally prepared you for this moment, nor the events that followed.

***

Everything had gone terribly wrong.

You had managed to miss every one of Jake's stage cues. To your defense though, you didn't even know what those cues even were or what he had wanted. To further your frustration and embarrassment, you even had a roadie get mad at you and take over grabbing Jake a fresh towel and placing it within reach for Jake. By the time Jake had come off the main stage to go to B Stage in the back of the venue, he was glaring at you.

“Why don't you just go sit in the dressing room, you're clearly just in the way!”

You wanted nothing more than to hide away but Rose had come up to you after watching the little incident between you and Jake and encouraged you to stay, just stand stage side on the main stage and let Jake breathe it out. Your heart had been beating wildly in your chest and you couldn't wait for the show to finish to have a moment to yourself.

Rounding the corner your mind felt like it was a mess, buzzing away at a rapid pace with anxious thoughts. Were you made out for this? Smaller bands it was a breeze helping out and working for them, but this felt bigger than you anticipated. Jake seemed to get more and more frustrated with you as the show went on until that moment before the encore. You're praying to the heavens that your face doesn't give away the fact that you were crying, thankful you had packed your mascara into your little purse you had.

Backstage was buzzing with people. Everyone was currently packing up bins and rolling them to the buses, others shouting orders to one another and pointing in many different directions. The chaos was unnerving compared to earlier before the show. Walking down a long hallway you passed through a few curtains hung up for privacy between the dressing rooms when you heard him.

“This might have been a mistake.” Jake softly spoke to someone. “She managed to ruin every single thing that I needed tonight.”

Just let it go, you thought to yourself. It’s not worth getting upset over. He just had a long night.

You just tried to keep yourself busy, helping out in any way you could that didn’t leave you in everyone’s way.

But just as you had decided to pretend as though you were oblivious to his harsh words, it was what he said next that had you throwing that sentiment clear out of the window.

“I mean, Jesus. You’d have to be some kind of an idiot to not be able to handle something so simple.”

Idiot?

That was most definitely not going to sit comfortably with you. At that point, it wasn’t about “letting it go,” it suddenly became necessary to defend yourself to your new boss who felt the need to say such horrid things about you on your first fucking night.

Your eyes burned with tears of frustration and exhaustion after your long day. You burst through the black curtain and marched up to Jake.

“First of all, I just fucking got here and had no time to adjust to anything or learn anything about you or what you needed or where to find it.” Your arms crossed in front of your chest. “Second off we don't even know each other and you expect me to know you like the back of your hand? New flash Jake, I dont. So don't just blow me away and throw me to the curb because of one bad night and give me a damn chance.” Your chest was practically heaving by the time you were done speaking. Both Jake and the roadies eyes were wide as saucers staring at you.

Jake's mouth opened a few times but no words came out.

“How about instead of undermining me we sit down and actually talk about what you need from me and how I can actually do my job and in a week if I dont ‘have a grasp’ on anything and Im still fucking up? I'll leave you without a word and you won't have to hear from me again. Deal?”

The roadie Jake was speaking to failed to cover up a laugh with a fake cough and you shot him a glare. He glanced briefly at Jake whose eyes were locked on you with an unreadable expression and then turned away and left you two alone.

“Y/N, I-” Jake seemed to find his voice just as you started to walk away.

“Save it.” You shot back at him over your shoulder and muttered under your breath. “Fucking prick.”

Walking through the same black curtain you had burst through not moments ago you collided with someone who must've been standing close by. “Oh my god Im so sor-”

“That, that was fucking awesome.” Frontman Josh Kiszka himself was grinning wildly at you.

Your heart leapt out of your throat. “Jesus! Eavesdropping much?” You clenched a hand to your chest.

Josh laughed and wrapped an arm around your shoulder and began to lead you down the hallway, far away from Jake. “No one other than myself or my other brothers really stand up to Jakey boy. You're really giving him a run for his money. I like you!” He flashed you a wide grin.

“Im s-so sorry,” You stuttered. “That was so unprofessional of me to say-”

“No! It was not unprofessional, dont worry about it.” Josh's arm dropped from your shoulder. “Trust me, he's been such a prick these last few weeks he really needed someone to stick it to him other than his own family.”

You weren't listening to Josh and you were letting your anxiety get the best of you for the second time tonight. You could not lose another client due to a complication. As much as your boss stuck it out for you, you knew he was also not thrilled with your recent issues with the last band you worked with.

You broke away from Josh and sat in a rouge chair in one of the hallways and held your head in your hands to shield the tears that were beginning to bubble up again in your throat.

“Hey, Y/N right? That's your name?” Josh asked, placing a comforting hand on your shoulder. You nodded but refused to look up at him until he pulled your hands back from your face. “Give him some time. Like you suggested, just have the sit down with him and figure out what the hell he needs from you. But maybe save it for tomorrow? No offense, but you look like shit.”

You huffed a laugh and wiped the rouge tear that slipped down your cheek. “Gee, thanks.”

“Just trying to lighten the mood,” Josh's voice rang like a song and you felt him reach for your hands. “You seem like you've had quite the day my dear. Here, let me show you to the tour bus and your bunk! I'm assuming you will be riding with us since you're going to be hitched to Jake.”

“Your assumptions are correct, unfortunately.” You gave him a soft smile to which he returned.

“My twin definitely has quite the temper sometimes, let me tell you.” Josh sucked a breath between his teeth. “But I promise he's nice. Underneath all the mystery he likes to pretend he holds, he's easy going.”

“You're twins?” You were surprised.

“I'm five minutes older so I'm superior.” He threw you a wink.

“A superior pain in the ass.” Jake's voice rang out behind the two of you. Your breath caught in your throat again as you took a glance at the man who you had raised your voice at not nearly 15 minutes prior.

He had apparently showered in a short span of time and his hair was dripping onto his soft beige button up he was now sporting. His eyes were hidden by the same pair of sunglasses from earlier and you watched as he slung the backpack he was carrying over his shoulder.

“Don't you have somewhere else to be?” Josh rolled his eyes. “Come now Y/N, were almost there.”

“Don't go stealing my assistant now.” Jake shot back at his twin and Josh just shook his head. Clearly there was some twin telepathy that you were missing as you felt the tension between the two rise.

For a moment there was uncomfortable silence held between the three of you and you did not have the heart to speak up. That silence was quickly broken by the sound of diesel engines roaring in the distance and the footsteps of the twins as you walked in between them. Your arms crossed against your chest again, a sign of defensiveness and protection around the strangers you had just met only hours prior. You three walked through a wide entrance into a huge garage lined with at least 8 buses. Chaos was ahead as you watched workers and roadies buzz about getting things packed into different compartments and wheeled to their respective places.

Jake's pace sped up and he weaseled his way around you and Josh who were now walking side by side. You watched as Jake got on one of the tour buses and disappeared deeper into it without another word to either of you or the workers around.

Josh sighed next to you and grabbed your hand briefly and you both stopped walking. “Listen, if he gives you a lot of trouble, come find me. Or Sam. Or Danny. We will keep Jake in check. You seem like a really nice girl and already a great addition to the team. Don't let him get under your skin. He will come around.”

“But Josh, you barely know me. I feel like I messed up big tonight and-”

Josh held a hand up to stop you from talking which you obeyed. “I don't believe that. Give yourself a chance. I can tell you have the vigor and the right attitude to do this job and I expect we will see great things from you. Plus we have all the time in the world to get to know each other” He winked at you and bumped you with his elbow.

“Thank you Josh.” You smiled softly.

“Anytime.” He held his arms open for a hug which you graciously accepted. “Now let's get you settled on the bus yeah?”

***

July 29th.

Denver, CO.

You awoke to the sound of multiple voices talking back and forth and the sound of shuffling feet and bags. The clear ring of Josh's laugh falling through the tight hallway of the tour bus bunks. You rubbed your eyes and reached for your phone out of the side pocket of the bunk.

10:44 AM

Your moment of peace in your secluded bunk was disrupted by a small pull on the drapes of your bunk and you shielded your eyes from the bright light coming from the overhead lights.

“Rise and shine sleepy head,” Rose smiled at you softly. “Duty awaits.”

Rose was gracious enough to re-close the drapes to your bunk to shield you from the prying eyes of anyone walking past to exit the bus. You quickly gathered your water bottle phone and charger and pulled the curtains back, still feeling groggy and not processing your surroundings. You realized pretty quickly that having a moment to sit in peace and quiet was not an option as you made eye contact with Jake's reflective sunglasses lenses and Danny's smirk, the aisle of people sitting at a stand still similar to the aisle of a plane.

“Well well, looks like someone got a good night's sleep.” Danny said, smiling at you and gesturing to your head.

You felt your hair with your hands, a clear rat's nest on one side of your head and then noticed the feeling of drool on the side of your mouth. Your eyes widened, horrified and you pulled the curtain closed again to hide from the men standing eye level right next to you. An absolutely horrifying experience as you heard the two giggle and mutter something along the lines of ‘I remember when I used to crash in bus bunks like that.’ ‘I remember when I had my first real night's sleep.’

You wished at that moment that you could curl up and cease to exist.

What a way to start a day.

Voices and the sound of feet got further away in a few moments and you peeked your head out of the curtain and saw the coast was clear enough for you to finally crawl out of your tour bus coffin and seize the day ahead of you.

After gathering your necessities and locating your bookbag tucked away in a random corner on a couch, you walked off the bus which was located in a back parking lot of a hotel and you were met with Rose once again awaiting your arrival. “Here, I grabbed your suitcase for you. I'm sorry, I should've told you to keep your book bag stocked last night, at least for small items like your hairbrush for the bus. That was my fault.”

You grimaced as you were trying to work out the knots in your hair with your fingers. “It's no worries, I think I was too tired to properly function anyways yesterday to even consider it.”

“Get used to it kiddo,” She began walking towards the hotel. “You will have to learn how to thrive on no sleep with these hooligans. They will surely give you a run for your money.”

“Were not all that terrible!” Danny had caught up with you and Rose.

“That might be the best joke I have heard all week!” Rose said.

Danny covered his heart with his hand. “I'm wounded Rose, I'm wounded real deep.”

Rose rolled her eyes and looked back at you as she approached the front doors of the hotel. “I already gathered everyone's room keys and checked the team in, something one day you and I will hopefully switch off on because it can be a lot of work.” You watched Danny grab a hotel key from Rose's hand, you weren't even sure where she pulled it from.

“You will be rooming with me for most of this tour so we can assist each other with duties. Even though you primarily work with Jake it will be easier for me to help you with things from time to time to make sure we are all on the same page with the band.”

You nodded at her in agreement and followed her into the hotel elevator.

“I wanted to apologize for last night. I really did throw you to the wolves and that was my fault. I told Jake to come by our room in about an hour so we can sit down and discuss your duties in further detail so what happened last night doesn't happen again.” She threw you an apologetic look as you grimaced.

“I feel bad about last night.” The elevator dinged announcing your arrival onto your designated floor.

“Seriously Y/N, don’t. Shit was all whacky and all over the place and you had no clue what to expect. I should've had you shadowing someone, I should've had you shadowing me for the night so you could see how the boys work. I blame myself for this one.”

You arrived at your room and Rose swiped the keycard for entry. The room was modest, two queen beds, tv, little desk and table in the corner and bathroom. The beds white linens looked rather inviting for a nap later on if you had the time to take it. Just as both of you were getting settled into the room, you for a shower and Rose unpacking a few of her personal items you heard her sigh rather loudly.

You paused what you were doing, “What's up?”

“Hmm? Oh nothing,” Her head softly shook. “Just Josh needing a multitude of things. I will be back shortly, I must go tend to the king of vocals.”

You both laughed. “Enjoy your shower!” She said, and with that she was out the door and you were left alone in peace.

Your shower was not living up to your standards with the dang water pressure being practically nothing but the warmth of the water, the smell of your favorite soap, and the normalcy of your shower routine put a satisfied smile on your face.

Hopping out, you wiped some of the steam that had collected on the mirror and stared at yourself. Thank goodness for showers giving you and your hair a fresh start. That rat's nest had been worse than you expected this morning on the side of your head, understandable why the boys smirked at you.

You heard a soft knock at the door, assuming it was Rose you didn't bother to put on any clothes and just clung the towel closer to your body. Unfortunately for you, when the door swung open you were met with the young guitarist whose eyes seemed to bug out of his head at the sight of you wrapped in a skimpy white towel.

“Oh my god I am so sorry,” You panicked and pulled the towel tighter around yourself. “I thought you were Rose.”

Jake cleared his throat and attempted to maintain eye contact with you. “It's, uh, its not a problem.”

“Uh, come on in, I just need to grab some clothes really quick.”

You stepped aside to let Jake into your room, heart in your throat out of embarrassment that your new boss has seen you in your current state. You quickly grabbed a tshirt and leggings from your bag while Jake made himself comfortable at a little table that was in the room, pulling out a notebook and setting it in front of himself. You locked yourself back in the bathroom and took a deep breath to ground yourself.

You made your way out of the bathroom to find Jake now across the room looking out of the window at the view of Denver, Colorado and its bustling streets below. His damn outfit makes your head feel fuzzy. His half unbuttoned shirt half tucked in his pants.

“Hey.” You said softly.

Jake turned around and you watched as his wandering eyes traveled across your now fully clothed body, briefly meeting yours as his lips curled in the smallest, barely there smirk. “Hello,” he uttered, the corner of his mouth still upturned.

“Listen, I want to apologize for raising my voice at you yesterday. I totally understand if you want to drop me as your assistant, that was highly unprofessional of me .”

Jake waved you off quickly. “No, it was unprofessional of me to even be talking that way about you. If anything, I’m the one who should be sorry. You were right, I haven't even given you a chance.” He gave you a soft smile, his chestnut eyes glimmering as they peered into yours. “How about we start over. Forget about last night, yeah?”

“I think I’d be okay with that.” You gave him a soft smile back, finding it hard not to at his contagious charm.

“Great,” he says, offering you a firm hand for a more professional greeting.“Hello I am Jake,”

“Hi Jake, Im Y/N.” You took his hand in yours, fighting back a giggle as the blush began to rise on your cheeks. The goosebumps instantly began to prickle your skin at the feeling of his touch. You gasped softly at your own body's reaction and tried to cover it up. You were unsure if you were successful or not but Jake did not acknowledge it so you were hopeful.

“Y/N, it is nice to meet you. I look forward to working together.” He gave you a wide toothy grin now which naturally, you should've guessed, was breathtaking.

No wait, stop. Don't think like that. This is your boss, your job. Remain professional dammit..

Jake gestured to the table behind you, “Why don't we get started.”

You nodded and grabbed your own notebook, pen and planner from your bookbag and joined Jake at the little table.

“I'll go easy on you I swear.” He flashed you another dazzling smile, this time with an added wink and a sweet chuckle under his breath. Why God..why..

“Rose might have some more things for you, I know she's excited there will be someone else around to assist but you are first and foremost my assistant so you'll be handling my things primarily and then I may share you with the rest of the crew as needed. You okay with that?”

You clicked your pen, “Of course!”

“Fantastic.” He opened up his little notebook which had a little bullet point list written down. You glanced at it and were able to read out most of it but averted your eyes out of respect. You didn't want him to think you were nosey. At least not yet.

“I know we already talked about most of this last night so it may be repetitive, my apologies for that. I'll keep things pretty simple for you and just reiterate some things,” Jake wiped the corner of his mouth. “Pre shows Im just looking for help with getting ready. Making sure my suits are ready to go, my boots that I need are clean of scuffs. Might need help with make up here and there,” He cleared his throat. “Just some eyeliner nothing fancy like Josh. Maybe some things with my hair but I'm not sure.”

“I can definitely help you explore some ideas.” You gave him a soft smile that he returned.

“Rose usually handles the food and drinks and making sure the venues have everything we need, I'm not sure if she wants to keep it that way or not but we will have to ask her.”

“Might be easier for her too but yes, we will discuss.” You said.

Jake turned a page in his little book, “Okay now on stage stuff, I know you also got a brief idea of what that would be for me.”

You grimaced slightly at the memory of Jakes harsh tone at last nights show telling you to ‘fuck off’ when you were so clearly in his way and not helping. At least now that you're sitting down, hopefully that won't happen again.

“Basically I just need those fresh towels ready, need my drinks to stay topped off like I mentioned, making sure the roadies follow the schedule for which guitar for which song, yada yada. Making sure I have guitar picks ready to go.” He paused to turn the page again and read down the list. “Then I guess just tending to my basic requests throughout the tour. I promise I'm really not that high on maintenance even if it didn't seem that way last night.” He gave you another soft smile.

“This is all very doable for me. My only request is to keep an open communication with me and work with me, not against me if things go a little haywire while I get used to the flow of your tour.”

Jake nodded. “Deal.”

“So I guess Rose is not making this little meeting of ours.” You giggled softly and began packing up your notebook and pen.

“I'm not surprised,” Jake said, mirroring your actions. “Josh can be very demanding of attention you'll learn that pretty quickly.”

You giggled. “I think I already have.”

***

August 4th.

STARCATCHER

Seattle, WA.

“Damn, you really have some dedicated fans.” You said, looking out the van window at the fans lined up on the street along the venue.

Jake pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. “We really do, they're awesome.”

You subconsciously twisted the rings on your fingers in your lap from the feeling of anxiety creeping up in your throat. Jake was the biggest artist that you have worked for so far. Even after your conversation with him the other day where he laid out everything he needed from you in detail once again, you still felt unsure about how tonight would go.

You felt Jake's hand on your shoulder pulling you back to reality. “You okay over there? You're a million miles away.”

You glanced over at him and smiled softly, “Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just a little nervous I guess.”

“No need to be Y/N, things will go smoothly! I promise not to be an asshole tonight.” You both shared a soft laugh.

Things did not in fact go smoothly…

When you and Jake had initially arrived at the venue you were met with a very frazzled looking Rose and others bustling around.

“Rose, what the fuck is going on?” Jake had sat her down on the couch in one of the green rooms. Josh on the opposite end of the couch, threw his arm around her for comfort as tears streamed down her face. Across the room Sam and Danny stood unusually quiet and still.

“One of the runners,” She blew her nose. “Dropped off your stage outfits at the dry cleaners too late and I don't know if we will even have your stage outfits ready to go, let alone everything else adding up. Were missing mic packs somewhere and-and..” She hiccuped. Across the room you saw Danny give Sam a slight nudge with his elbow.

“Okay deep breaths Rose Bud, remember like we practiced the other day?” Josh said, pulling her closer to him. “We will get this figured out. Don't forget Y/N is here, maybe she can help out a bit.”

“Yeah, Y/N can help out.” Jake spoke up, volunteering you. “I don't really have much on my list today and I don't need her until later.”

Rose sniffled and looked up at you. “Would you be able to help?”

All eyes were on you and the panic you felt in the van crept back up in your throat. “Yeah, uh yes I can see what I can do.”

Rose jumped up off the couch and gave you a tight hug, “Oh thank the heavens!”

Shortly after Rose had calmed down a bit, everyone dispersed for the most part. You followed closely behind Sam and Danny as they exited the green room. You picked up on their quiet whispers shared between each other as you turned the corner, your presence apparently going unnoticed.

“Dude, you gotta go get those mic packs.” Danny whispered, bumping Sam with his elbow like he did in the green room.

“I know, I know!” Sam responded, squeezing past a few dolly boxes. “I have to go dig them out from my case.”

“Okay,” You spoke up. “So am I to assume that you two had something to do with the disappearance of those mic packs?” Both of the boys' heads turned quickly in your direction and their eyes grew wide. They had been caught.

“I do not know what you are talking about Y/N.” Danny gave you a sly grin, turning around to face you.

You rolled your eyes, “Of course not. You know, you two have some impeccable timing it seems.”

“Well it's not like we knew everything would go to shit today!” Sam threw his hands up defensively. You couldn't contain your giggle as a smile broke across both of their faces.

“You two are terrible and you're officially on my radar,” You pushed on both of their shoulders lightly. “Lets go get them. At least then maybe Rose will stop crying.”

To your luck, the boys had not so sneakily hid the mic packs in plain sight in Sam's wardrobe case and you had them returned to Rose who swore up and down that you were a good luck charm. She had directed you to give them to Dale who was managing sound and tech for the shows. Walking through a little passageway you made your way into the arena where the beeping sounds of heavy machinery seemed to bounce off the ceilings. Techies and roadies alike were bustling around hanging lights, hooking up mechanicals and wires. The stage was being built and even chairs were already being set up on the floor. You had found Dale pretty quickly who seemed relieved to see the mic packs in your hands and thanked you before turning back to a few other workers and continuing directing them on where things will be going.

You took a moment before reentering the winding halls of Denver's Ball Arena to admire how big the venue was from where you stood on the floor. You couldn't begin to imagine playing to an arena packed full of people like this night after night. The empty seats reaching as high as the ceiling made your stomach churn at the thought of sitting up that high. You wondered how many people would pack in tonight to see the boys play their music. You then noticed a small movement out of the corner of your eye as you panned the rest of the arena in awe.

Was that? No..

Your lips separated with a low gasp. Jake was running. He must've been doing laps around the arena. You stood frozen in your spot watching him closely as he rounded the corner of the venue furthest away from you. His hair was tied back in a low bun against his neck, he had abandoned his usual attire and was sporting a pair of running shorts (something you couldn't picture him wearing) and the skin of his bare torso so clearly glistening in the lighting from the sweat on his body.

You hadn't realized how hard you had been staring until he rounded the corner and was running towards you. He smirked at you as you locked eyes and your heart leapt in your chest at the realization that you had been caught ogling him. You quickly turned on your heel before he got any closer and booked it down the hall.

What the hell is wrong with me..snap out of it..

“See something you like?” You heard his voice ring out behind you. Cocky bastard.

You turned around and looked at Jake, it was even worse having him up close to you now. Subconsciously you waited until he caught up to you to continue walking down the hall.

“Cat got your tongue or something?” He smirked at you as he wiped his sweaty face with a towel. His cologne became ever more powerful as it was radiating off of his hot skin. It was intoxicating. The scents of bergamot and vanilla create a sensual aroma that clouded your mind. Your mouth ran dry and you tried so hard not to steal glances at his sweaty chest. You probably looked like an idiot screaming at yourself mentally to respond to him.

“What would you like for lunch Jake?” You cleared your throat finally. “Anything specific you like for your post run ritual?”

“Mmm, a hot shower.”His tone caught you off guard.

Was he doing this on purpose?

You took a chance and looked his way and you caught what you thought was the tail end of a wink sent towards you. Was he fucking flirting with me? No, no…no way.

He let out a booming laugh, “I just usually have some sort of chicken wrap. Rose should have it already somewhere if you don't mind grabbing that for me.” He wiped the back of his neck and let his hair down as you two got closer to his designated dressing room.

“Sure.”

His fingers grazed your lower back as you cut the corner to the dressing room and your skin felt like it was on fire.

***

The rest of the day ended up running a lot more smoothly than the morning did. Rose was able to get the dry cleaners to expedite the cleaning of the stage outfits and they were back at the venue right as the boys finished their soundcheck and you and Rose hastily worked together to get Josh's jumpsuits laid out for the evening after hanging up suits in other dressing rooms. You had written down a small list in your phone of everything you needed for Jake to have a smooth show tonight.

Towels by his guitar case. Check.

One towel on the amp. Check.

Check with Tim to make sure Jakes guitars are all tuned and ready. Check.

Snacks and drinks in the dressing room. Check.

Wine bottles in guitar case. Check.

Water. Big check.

You felt really prepared for tonight and mentally ready for his cues on stage. Luckily for you, Jake said he had a handle on getting himself ready for tonight and you found him laughing along with something Danny and Sam had apparently said as you walked into the green room for final checks before the walk to the stage.

“Alright boys!” Rose clapped her hands together. “Everyone has their wireless packs all charged and ready to go?”

Everyone nodded collectively.

“Let's have a show!”

***

August 10th

STARCATCHER

Los Angeles, CA.

The morning had gone smoothly thanks to your multiple alarms set to ring every 5 minutes no matter how many times you snoozed them. You were exhausted. Everyone was exhausted actually. The last week of what felt like back to back shows, sleeping in tour bus bunks and arriving at venues, the first thing at the crack of dawn was catching up to everyone. You wanted nothing more than to keep your head buried underneath the soft white linens of the hotel bed sheets with the AC blasting on full, but duty calls and you had to get your adult child to the venue sooner rather than later. Rose of course was up at the crack of dawn and out of the room already tending to the frontman of the band who unfortunately for her, was an early riser regardless of the time he went to bed the night before.

As you did your morning routine and applied some concealer underneath your eyes you were thanking the universe that you were heading home tomorrow. Just one more day, you thought. One more show after this and I can sleep in my own bed and shower in my own home.

Getting yourself moving in the morning was not bad after you had a few sips of your favorite caffeinated drink, however, getting Jake moving in the morning was another thing. He had a tendency to sleep in until the last moment possible. Not to mention actually getting him ready and out of the hotel room on time was like trying to put a coat on a toddler, near to impossible without some sort of fight. Yet, to your surprise today, he was already up and waiting for you to meet him. He had even called a runner for you two already and was waiting with a breakfast sandwich ready to go.

“When the hell did you get this?” You asked Jake as you buckled up in the white van.

“Shortly after I woke up and decided I was hungry.” He smirked.

You rolled your eyes and decided not to press any further. Thankfully, it seemed as if everything at the venue was in working order. You and Rose caught up on administrative things for the band throughout the day, made sure everyone had their plane tickets booked and ready to go for a quick and easy trip home to Nashville tomorrow. Naturally of course, just because the morning and afternoon had gone smoothly, this meant something had to go haywire before the show.

Rose had finished Josh and Sams make up for the night. You had been giggling to yourself listening to Josh and Sam. You officially learned what a “Rhinestone Diary” was as the bands social media manager, Kaiya, helped put it together. While the Rhinestone Diary offered a moment of fun for a few, for others, tensions were high after so many shows. Lack of sleep and being cooped up together for a period of time was really taking a toll on everyone's emotions.

You were typing away on your computer next to the main green room meant for the band to hang out when raised voices pulled you out of your focus.

“Thats fucking stupid!”

“Jake,” Josh raised his voice. “You cant just make changes like that last fucking minute because you dont want to play Frozen Light.”

“Jake,” Rose spoke softly. “We already sent out the setlist to the sounds and light guys.”

“Okay and?” He snapped. “It's not the first time we've made a last minute change.” Your typing paused and you closed the lid on your laptop.

“Were not fucking playing Highway Tune!” Josh practically screamed. You had never heard Josh raise his voice that loud. You had heard stories of how bad fights between the Kiszkas could get before but nothing could have prepared you for witnessing it in real time.

You had abandoned your laptop and you leaned up against the door frame just as Jake seemed to be exiting the room.

“Fucking selfish prick you know that,” He turned around and looked at Josh. “You know this is just as much my band as it is yours, its called fucking compromise.”

“It's not much of a compromise when we completely change something that I do not want!” Josh's arms crossed and Jake glared at Josh, you and Rose.

Greaaat, now I'm caught in the crossfire.

“What fucking ever.” Jake threw his hands up and brushed past you in the door frame. He began walking down the short hallway towards his dressing room before turning to you. “You coming?”

Without a word you pushed off the door frame and walked over towards him. Your arms had been crossed against your chest in defense from the rising tensions between the boys. Following Jake closely you watched as he yanked his jacket off and set down on the chair in front of his mirror, he seemed defeated.

Your arms uncrossed, “Anything I can do for you Jake?”

“Uh, yeah, I could use some help with my eyeliner pencil,” He let out a breath. “Im shaking so damn bad I can't sharpen the thing.”

You nodded your head and dug through the little makeup bag that was set aside for Jake specifically and located the little black eyeliner pencil that was more than halfway used. The sound of you sharpening the little pencil was the only noise that you heard in the room as you felt Jake observing you.

Unfortunately for you, the soft tip of the pencil kept crumbling in the sharpener as you kept twisting it and twisting it.

“Fuck.” You muttered and felt Jake's eyes glance up at you. “God dammit.” You muttered again as the tip broke for the third time.

“That's the only one I have, stop sharpening it!” Jake snapped at you.

“It's fine Jake we're going home in a day or so, we can get another one.” You kept sharpening the pencil.

“Youre fucking wasting it!” He snapped at you again. This time, he had snatched the pencil and the sharpener out of your hand. “Just go fucking get my phone charger off the bus Y/N.”

“Huh?”

“Go fucking get my charger from the bus. Its not that fucking hard to follow directions.”

You instantly recoiled at his raised voice and your head dropped, you felt like you haad fucked up again. When you took a chance to glance at Jake his back was turned to you and your shoulders slumped. You watched as he examined the pencil in his hands and then threw it forcefully into the garbage can across the room.Great, there I go again. It was a usual occurrence for you to blame yourself for others emotions even if you were not consciously aware of it.

The walk to the tour bus gave you a breath of fresh air at least and allowed you to clear your mind.

By the time you got back into the arena it was already showtime and the boys had been walked to the stage by security. You plugged Jake's phone in and set it on the vanity in the green room, briefly glancing at his notifications but not trying to pay any real attention to them as you saw a list of texts and a few other notifications. Not my business….

Grabbing a bottle of Cabernet off of a nearby table you began your descent to the stage just as you heard the opening lines of what you quickly learned as The Falling Sky and slowed your stride. You knew Jake was angry but you hated that the anger was directed towards you. He had no right to take his frustrations out on something that you didn't cause and you made a mental note to put him in his place another time. Right now, your focus and your job was on Jake putting on a good show for his fans.

Walking up to the side of the stage you checked in with Brian, Jakes “right hand” roadie, that all of his guitars were ready along with additional strings and made a note to tell Rose that you needed more nylon strings for Jakes acoustic as he had already broke a few since the last few shows. Standing near the side stage you observed as the crowd went wild for any little movement the boys seemed to make. Josh's voice echoing like siren through the venue echoing off the same walls you had observed in other venues still made your heart stand still

These boys had talent, talent beyond comprehension, and though you had only known them for a short while you were mesmerized by the craft they created for as young as they were. You found your eyes closely following Jake and while you tried to convince yourself it was because of your job, having to know what he needed at all times, deep down you knew it was because he was the most mesmerizing of them all..

Watching Jake play guitar was like a drug, something you didn't think you needed until it was right in front of you. The raw talent and animalistic way that he played the guitar, the way he made it sing, the way he made it moan and bend to his every need..

Your thoughts were cut short as Rose came up beside you and signaled to the break in the setlist in front of you. Almost simultaneously Jake looked back side stage and signaled to his amp where his cup of wine lay hidden. That was your cue. Staying out of sight you twisted the cap and graciously poured his cup half full. He gave you a half smile and a small thumbs up as a thanks but you returned his gesture with a frown because fuck his attitude earlier. Even if he was feeling better from the energy from the fans in the room doesn't mean that you had forgotten how he had snapped at you.

You made your way back down the stairs side stage and stood by with your arms crossed thinking about how much you wanted this show to end so you could go lay in your hotel room bed and forget about today. You took a deep breath as you heard Jake's guitar wail again, You'll be in your own bed in a few days time, you'll be in the quiet of your apartment, just keep hanging on Y/N..

You watched in horror as Jake approached you, his red gibson swinging on his hips. He stepped down the back stairs with confidence and handed you the white rose he was carrying, “I'm sorry I was a dick to you tonight.”

Oh.

You stood frozen holding the long stem with the white flower delicately on top as Jake gave you a small smile and walked back up the stairs. This was definitely something you were not expecting.

***

August 20th

HOME SWEET HOME…

Nashville, TN.

It had been a little while since the day Jake presented you with his apology. You had accepted the rose willingly when he handed it to you, but you felt in utter shock over it. That evening after the show Jake had sat you down and told you he was really going to work on his attitude towards you, that it was unfair you were taking the brunt of it when his anger had been all towards his brothers. You had parted ways on good terms after coming home to Nashville and you were enjoying your quiet time away from the limelight, and the chaos. You had just sat down on your couch and cozied up for the night when your phone screen lit up next to you unexpectedly.

Jake Kiszka

Hey, you busy tomorrow?

Oh. This is unexpected.

You were snuggled up with a glass of your favorite beverage in hand and your roommate's cat, Beans, purring against your leg as you pet him softly. You had the tv on in the background but you were curled up with your favorite book at the moment, rereading it for the fourth time. Seeing Jake's name across your screen caused your heart to jump in your chest. You haven't heard from him in a few weeks, since the day you parted in the airport to head home when your roommate Addison came to pick you up.

You

Nothing planned, what's going on?

You laid your head against the couch pillow and felt as Beans stretched his paws against you, you smiled in content at the small animal. Your phone vibrated again.

Jake Kiszka

I could use your help cleaning out and re packing my cases for tour in a few weeks. We always make it into a party too with food and drinks and music too so I promise I won't work you too hard :)

You caught yourself smiling a bit. Even though this was going to be work related, the thought of seeing Jake again made your stomach fill with butterflies. Fuck no, stop smiling like that..this isnt right this is your boss for crying out loud…

Yet, you couldn't deny it anymore. You were so clearly lying to yourself.

You were crushing on Jake Kiszka whether you wanted to or not. You couldn't deny how your heart felt at the thought of him and to your demise, you couldn't help but think about him constantly since you ended the first part of the tour. Especially, it seems, at certain moments late at night when your vibrator had fully charged.

Okay, whatever, you were “down bad” according to Addison. You felt ashamed for feeling this way towards your boss but as long as you kept yourself professional around Jake what was the harm in a little crush..right?

****

August 21st

GVF, LLC OFFICE.

Nashville, TN.

You swore you didn't pick out this outfit because you were seeing Jake today. No definitely not the flowy powder blue sundress that was hanging in your closet begging to be worn. You had simply forgotten about it being in there and today was so hot, it was perfect weather for a dress, yeah.

You swiped on a little bit of your favorite lip gloss and fluffed your hair when you caught eyes with your roommate in the reflection of the mirror and yelped. “What the hell is a matter with your Addison?! Don't you know how to knock?” You clenched your heart over your heaving chest trying your best to calm your erratic heart.

Addison wore a proud smirk as she leaned against the door frame, steaming cup of coffee in hand. “Who are you getting all dolled up for? Is it your sweet Jaaake?”

“Mind your business” You turned towards your reflection one more time. One last look to make sure everything was in place. “Don't you have something to do today? Somewhere to be?”

Addison was barricading you in the bathroom. “Nope. Cmon, just admit that you have a crush on him already and I'll leave you be!”

You pushed past her not wanting to acknowledge the feelings growing in your heart and naturally, she followed you as you walked into your room to grab your purse to head out the door. “Keep denying it to yourself and it'll get worse.”

“Yeah well, there's nothing there to begin with, so I don't know what to tell you.” You slipped your favorite comfy shoes on near the front door of the apartment.

“Mhm, suuure.”

At that, you walked out of the door with a dramatic eye roll.

***

The Kiszkas sure knew how to throw a party it seemed.

What had started off as an innocent afternoon unpacking and repacking crates and boxes while listening to music, quickly turned into what Jake deemed “a shit fest” as soon as Sam had located a bottle of tequila hidden in one of his crates.

“Woah!” He had announced to the room, waving the bottle around like a prize. “Lookie what I have here. Who wants shots?!”

Rose stopped packing the box of Tide To-Go sticks in Josh's case. “Sam, were not even finished yet!”

“Why should that stop us? We just struck gold!”

You and Jake made eye contact as you were standing near his dolly box and you both smirked at one another. “Let's go Sammy boy!” He turned and yelled across the room.

“Yes! Jakes in! Now who else?”

One shot turned into, well, several in a short matter of time. You realize the energy had shifted from work to party mode once the music in the room had picked up in volume. To Rose's dismay, the tasks at hand had been long abandoned and swapped in for everyone mingling with each other. The glow of the afternoon sun had settled into darker hues of pink and orange as the sun began to set on the city of Nashville and you had a nice little buzz flowing through your veins. You felt yourself actually relax and let loose and have fun for once, without worrying about being too professional. You were growing quite comfortable around here. Around your little tour family.

You had been perched up against the pool table across the room watching the shenanigans of Jake and Sam fighting each other with plastic swords dramatically. Josh had taken it upon himself to be the ref and Jake had been on and off yelling about how Josh was terrible at his job. You smiled in content as you watched others scattered around the room, watching the childish display or talking amongst themselves.

“What are you smirking at?” Danny approached you.

“Oh, nothing, just uh, feeling happy for the first time in a little while. Grateful I'm here.”

“We're very grateful to have you. Jakes is very grateful, I know.” Danny shot you a small wink over the rim of his cup. Oh?

You were in the middle of talking with Danny about one of your favorite albums to listen to on your self dictated “Vinyl Sundays' in your apartment when you felt a nudge on your shoulder and heard a soft ‘hey’ in your ear. You turned around and were met with Jake, sunglasses on now of course even though the sun had just fully set and a playful smirk resting on his face. A hint of a British accent grazed past his lips when he spoke. “Cmere, wanna show you something.”

Your heart skipped a beat, did you mess something up? No, you couldn't have, not with his body language. You smiled softly at Danny. “Excuse me, it seems my attention is needed elsewhere.”

“Not a problem Y/N, it's been nice getting to know you. You'll have to bring me that vinyl so I can listen to it before the tour starts up again.” He smiled softly back at you.

“I will make sure that I do!”

You followed Jake through the hallways of their management office, both of you silent for a beat before Jake threw a smile over his shoulder at you.

“What were you and Danny talking about?”

“He was asking me about my vinyl collection actually.” You said proudly.

“Vinyl collection huh? Anything good?” He tipped his sunglasses down to throw you a quizzical look.

“Quite a bit actually,” You nodded. “Between my parents collection and my own I would say I have a couple hundred lying around. I try to listen to a new album every Sunday even if it's an album I know or have listened to on a streaming service.”

“Couple hundred?” You couldn't see it now that Jake's sunglasses found their rightful place once more on his nose, but his eyes practically bugged out of his head. You had caught him off guard and you didn't even know it. “Thats, that's quite impressive actually.”

You sighed, “I take pride in my collection but I really owe it to both of my parents, mostly my father, for having quite the exquisite rock and roll and folk collection.”

Jake hummed and flashed you a gut wrenching smile. “I might have to come and listen with you sometime.”

“I'd like that Jake.”

“Which one were you talking to Danny about?” You turned yet another corner in what seemed to be a maze of hallways.

“Oh, I was just going through another box in my parents basement the other day and found quite the gem. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll. One of my favorite songs is on there, Crimson and Clover.”

Jake smiled to himself, “Crimson and Clover, hmm.”

“What..” You were fully ready to defend yourself.

“Oh nothing, seems fitting. Seems very you, you remind me of a little clover. A little good luck clover. You've made my life so much easier on tour lately; it's like you're my little good luck charm. My little Clover.” Jake's fingers played with the stubble on his chin and you felt your cheeks grow warm with blood. “Ahh, and there's the Crimson to go along with it.”

You couldn't hide the smile any longer. The tension was so thick you felt as though you could cut through it with a dull knife.

“Jake?” You asked softly.

He turned towards you, eyes still hiding behind his RayBans. “Yeah?”

“Where are you taking me?” You couldn't help the infectious smile that broke across your face yet again. He was simply electric.

Jake stopped walking and you followed suit. “Ah fuck, Im sorry, I probably should’ve asked this before I pulled you away but do you smoke?”

“What?” You weren't sure you heard him correctly.

“You know.” He pinched his pointer finger to his thumb and raised it to his lips, eyebrows lifting simultaneously in question.

“Oh,” Your arms crossed against your chest. “Yeah uh, sometimes. Not often though.”

“Hmm,” He hummed and reached into the front pocket of his button down shirt. “Well, there's this secret room here that I like to hide away in sometimes and take the edge off after a meeting with the hooligans. Figured I could show you and we could, you know.” He trailed off and his head tipped down towards the ground.

“I'm down I think,” You smiled. “It's been awhile since I smoked though so I might not smoke all that much.”

Jake grinned at you, “Fantastic. No worries, we don't have to smoke it all. Cmon were not far.”

You followed Jake down yet another hallway towards a solid door with a bright exit sign hanging overhead. As he pushed through the door the August humidity engulfed you for a moment but it was short lived as Jake opened another side door from the outside of the white brick building and gestured to you to enter. You were surprised as you stepped into what looked like a, possibly still used, darkroom. Red lights were shining through the room, you could see bins on tables and clotheslines hung up along the walls. At the present moment though, no photos were hung up to dry.

“Woah.” You whispered as you heard Jake close the door behind you. “Is this?”

“A darkroom? Yeah,” He smiled at you softly, his sunglasses finally coming off of his face. “We like to come here and develop the film that we capture. Well, mostly Sam and Josh but I dabble with it sometimes as well.”

“This is really cool.” You said as you walked further into the room. “Kind of disappointed that there's no film developing right now, honestly.”

You heard the click of a lighter behind you and the sound of Jake inhaling. “Yeah, we wouldn't be able to do this though if there was.” He blew the smoke out of his mouth and you watched it engulf his face for a moment in the red light.

Damn these red lights, you thought. Jake somehow looked even sexier than he normally did in the low red lights. He looked like he was damned to steal your soul from you, like he was put on this earth to bewitch you into falling in love with him. He smirked as he blew out another big hit. “Are you just going to keep staring at me or would you like to take a hit of this?”

Your eyes widened with fear and you felt your face flush hot. Okay, thank god for these red lights actually…

You reached out to take the blunt from Jake and pulled it to your lips. You took in a generous hit, not aware of how much you had actually inhaled. But your lungs made sure to point that out to you pretty quickly though as a coughing fit began to wrack through your body.

“Woah Y/N, take a breath if you can.” Jake came up beside you and began rubbing your back, pulling the blunt from your fingers and holding it away from your body. Thankfully, you had carried a small water bottle with you and you were able to stop coughing enough to finally take a few deep breaths. You felt the instant head buzz from the high settling into your body. It wasn't alarming or anxiety inducing, you felt calm. Like your worries had no longer room in your mind.

“There we go.” Jake said softly, his strong hand still rubbing comforting circles along your back that definitely awoke a different type of feeling low in your stomach. “Ready for another?”

“Hell no.” You choked out a laugh and his throaty laugh followed suit. His laugh was music to your ears. How could it be possible that a damn laugh could sound sexy?

“Fair enough Y/N.”

You watched as he lifted the blunt to his soft looking lips that were glistening even in the red light. His eyes flicked to you again as the smoke began to leave his lungs and float through the air. Your eyes snapped to the ground out of embarrassment for being caught staring at him yet again. You hated how his lips tilted up in a little smirk as he realized, as well, that he had caught you again.

Clearing your throat you broke the silence, and the tension “What kind of film do you all usually produce here?”

Another cloud of smoke engulfed the space around you, the red lights showing that the room had a slight haze to it now. “Mostly pictures from the tour. I know Sammy boy is more into this than anything, surprisingly. He constantly carries his camera around with him.”

You hummed and pretended like the clotheslines with hooks were suddenly the most interesting thing in the room rather than the man who was dripping with sex appeal next to you.

“Want one last hit before it's done?” Jake asked, gesturing to the now very small blunt.

“Uh, I'm probably okay, I'd like to avoid another cough attack if possible.” You giggled softly as you waved him off.

“Hm,” His lips pressed into a tight line for a moment. “You ever shotgun before?”

“What?” Your eyes widened.

“You ever did a shotgun with someone while smoking?” He tilted his head at you.

“I uh, don't think so no.” You fidgeted with your fingers as nervousness crept up in your throat.

You watched as he moved a little closer to you, closing the space and making your throat constrict. “‘S pretty easy, I take a hit and then blow it in your mouth. It makes it so the smoke isn't as harsh.”

The spicy bergamot of his cologne rolling off of his skin began engulfing your senses and coaxing you into yet another intoxicating cloud of lust that was Jake. Now, of course, this sense was heightened with your current state of mind.

“Wanna try?” He whispered as he moved even closer to you again. You watched as he stepped in front of you so you two were facing each other head on now.

You slowly nodded your head in fear that your voice would fail you if you tried to speak. You bit your lip in anticipation of what was going to happen next. Jake sucked in a soft breath between his lips and brought his hand up to your chin.

“Don't do that,” He whispered. “Drives me crazy when you do.”

Your lips parted slightly as his calloused thumb swiped along your mouth, that very thumb catching the fullness of your bottom lip for just a moment as you released it from your teeth before he pulled away.

Your mouth was undeniably dry as he smiled down at you and you felt the buttons of his shirt graze softly against your skin. The heat coming off of his body was noticeable and by God did you suddenly wish he would just press himself fully against you.

“Okay, s’easy. Trust me yeah?” He brushed your hair away from one side of your face and your heart leapt out of your chest. You didn't have time to fully comprehend what was happening as you watched him bring the blunt to those perfectly soft looking lips and inhale a deep cloud of smoke. What happened next was simultaneously going too slow and too fast all at once. Your brain struggled to keep up with what was happening as his fingertips dipped into your hair and pulled you closer to him by the back of your neck. Holy shit.

You finally felt Jake's body meld with yours as best it could, the feeling of being pressed between the man you desired most and a shitty little table was instantly the most intoxicating feeling you had experienced in a long time. You didn't feel like you could have prepared yourself for the set of events that unfolded shortly after.

You felt that same thumb from earlier brush softly at the bottom of your ear as he tipped your head up towards him slightly. You wanted to close your eyes but your couldn't bring yourself to find the strength to do so. You watched as he leaned in and gasped softly as you felt his lip softly against yours. Your heart sank to your stomach at the feeling of finally being close to him in ways you only had wished for the last few weeks. You suddenly remembered what got you into this position in the first place as you felt Jakes nose nudge softly against yours. Your mouth parted slightly to accept the smoke tucked away in his lungs currently.At your acknowledgement that you were ready to accept what he was giving to you, you felt Jakes lips press a little harder against yours and you felt the hot smoke flood your mouth. You inhaled as best as you could but you also were frozen in place.

Instead of pulling away immediately as you exhaled the smoke from your own lungs, Jake took a chance and softly closed his lips against yours to which you softly reciprocated as well. This kiss was cautionary and you confirmed how both of you felt in the moment as Jake pulled slightly away, hand still tucked in your hair. You couldn't read his facial expression all too well but his eyes had a determined look.

You made the first move to fully kiss him at this point. You tipped your head up and pressed a more determined kiss to his lips. Jake welcomed the kiss. His lips engulfing your own in a soft, pillowy dream of lust. You felt goosebumps spread across your body as you melted further into him, wrapping your arms around the back of his head and you pulled him impossibly closer to you. As your mouths moved back and forth a little less cautiously at this point you made a mental note for yourself how Jake's bottom lip was most prominent in the kiss. His mouth was warm, and so soft but rough against your own as the sexual tension built up in the room. You felt his hands rubbing down the sides of your body and settling on your hips giving them a soft squeeze as you two deepened the kiss further and your tongues touched for the first time.

Inhibitions clearly out the window, you felt him lift you up onto the table behind you without breaking the heated make out that was now happening. As his tongue dipped further against yours, you couldn't help but moan softly. He seemed to appreciate your reaction as he squeezed your hips tighter and dragged you closer to the edge of the table, your clothed core making slight contact with the buckle of his belt. Nothing mattered anymore. Nothing mattered other than Jake and how he felt. Your fingers found their way into his soft hair and you pulled slightly releasing a moan he had been hiding away from you. It didn't feel like enough. More. You needed more….

The shrill sound of an iPhone ringtone broke through the silence in the room making you both jump.

“Dammit Josh,” Jake swore as he looked at the screen of his phone and lifted it up to his ear. “What!” His body was still pressed up against yours and his fingertips were dragging along the exposed skin on your hip. From this position you were in, he looked fucked out and by God he looked delicious.

“I just ran out to my car to grab something dude,” Jake spoke angrily into his phone and rolled his eyes. “No im not in the fuckin, whatever man. Im coming back now anyways chill the fuck out.”

You heard the three beeps of a call ending and Jake sighed and glanced at you, “Sorry Clover”

His fingers grazed across your cheekbone. “Here, let me help you down.”

You felt his hands squeeze your hips again and you felt like you were out of breath. The weight of what happened between you and Jake now settling slowly into your consciousness. Before you could think much further, his fingertips tipped your chin up and he softly pressed his lips to yours one more time. As he pulled away he smiled softly at you and you couldn't help but reciprocate.

He was like a drug, and now that you've had a taste, you weren't sure you were going to be able to give it up. You pressed your fingertips softly to your tingling lips to hide your smile as Jake walked his way out the door, turning around to blow a kiss to you and wave his fingers. His sunglasses take their natural place sitting on his perfect nose once again. You followed shortly thereafter and giggled as you watched the remnants of the smoke pour out the door.

“Cmon darlin,” Jake wrapped an arm around your shoulder. “Let's go have ourselves a party, yeah?”

You smiled and wrapped an arm around Jake's torso, “Lets!” You'll deal with whatever just happened tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow is good.

Remember that harmless little crush you thought wouldn't get in the way of anything?

Yeah, well you might've been wrong but you definitely won't be telling anyone about it.

****

taglist: @brujamagik @anythingforjtk @jakesguitarsolo @do-it-jakey-baby @vanfleeter @violetstarcatcher @myownparadise96@ignite-my-fire @nina-23-45

A/N: If you would like to be added to the taglist let me know :)

#jake kiszka #jake gvf #jake kiszka series

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barbiewritesstuff · 2 years

Text

Tattoos and Miracles

-- Guys it is so late here but I wanted to write something, so forgive me if it makes zero sense.

Tw. Mention of infertility, unsupportive families, pregnancy, etc.

Taglist: @mavswife @unsurebuttrying @dempy

« Right, baby,I’m off »

Your husband kissed the top of your head, one hand to the back of your head to help him push it towards him.

« Mwah » He says with a wink as he releases you from the kiss « I love you. I will be back for dinner »

You walk with him to the door, like you do every morning, and wave him off. As usual, he stops about halfway down the driveway to wave and blow another kiss at you, before he gets into the truck and drives off.

You hate this bit. You have been married to Jake for thirteen years, after being engaged for two years. You had spent a lot of time together and maybe that was why you had to keep yourself from shedding a tear whenever he left.

Part of you thought that was good, because it means you love him, but you’ve heard your family whisper things behind your back. Codependent. Controlled. Wasted potential. They had been furious when you had decided to become a housewife but, they had allowed you to believe for all of two months, they were supportive. Part of you understood why your parents were angry ; they had killed themselves working hard jobs to pay for private education and a damn good university, they had invested in your education in the hopes that you would have a career. But hearing them call you a Waste of Potential had been a hit to your pride, and a bullet straight to the heart. But you had overheard the worst last christmas, it had sent you crying to your room, abandoning your mother with the turkey.

« What is the fucking point of it anyway ? They don’t even have children »

Well, it wasn’t like they knew. You hadn’t advertised that you and Jake had been trying for the better part of ten years, but it just wasn’t happening. Doctor’s visit after doctor’s visit told you everything was fine and sometimes it just takes time. But after ten years of time, anything to do with babies just started to hurt. Walking through San Diego and reading in a park had been your favourite thing, but now the holidays had started children were running about, and going out had become a minefield for you.

You had isolated yourself very effectively, only going out when Jake was coming too. Which, with his schedule, meant never. So, your days were usually spent doing chores. Today was no different.

After Jake left, you busied yourself with the laundry, shoving clothes into the machine till it was full to the brim. Then came the hoovering, the mopping, cleaning out the pet food containers. Soon enough it was lunchtime and then, your daily dose of pain : A pregnancy test. You had done so many it had become its own category in the household budget. Yet, even though you knew what the test would say, you would wolf down your lunch to get to it faster. And every time, before you saw the negative result, you would feel a little pang of hope that maybe this time there might be a miracle.

You inhaled the microwaved leftovers and drank half a litre of water before taking the test, then so well-versed in doing this, you didn’t set a timer and just mulled about for fifteen minutes until you instinctively knew time was up.

Anticipation was making you see double, you were sure of it. You sat down on the toilet lid and took a few deep breaths. A prayer later you looked at the test again. You took out your phone, almost unlocking it to tell Jake but you didn’t. He was working, you would tell him later. You looked at your lock screen.

Thursday 28th of July, quarter past one pm, you were pregnant.

Jake hated leaving you in the morning. He knew you would just stay home and clean. He liked having a clean home, sure, but he liked having a happy wife too. He knew you had stopped reading recently, and watching films was a no-go too, just in case. You were taking things hard, and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t just as affected by it as you but showing you how horrible he felt towards it would just make it worse.

He pulled into the parking lot inside of the base and steadied his breathing a little. Okay, he could do this. He checked how he looked in the reflection of the rearview mirror and then got out of the car.

He could see the rest of the team gathered by the door on the far end. Phoenix's sister had had a baby. It had been the only subject of conversation for roughly two weeks and by the way she was parading her phone around the group, today she had pictures. Jake steeled himself for what was to come, but Phoenix didn't bother him and he was thankful for it.

Their phones rang with a mass text from Mav:

"Beach, 8.am. Meet at Hard Deck"

"We could carpool?" Bob had suggested. They had all folded themselves into Rooster's bronco and Phoenix's fiat. Luckily, the bar wasn't too far.

"I hope you all slept well, because this one isn't going to be easy. Today we're working on your weakest ability: teamwork. Dogfight football, offence and defence at the same time." Mav had explained, standing in front of the bar on the wooden steps like Ceasar addressing his people.

The prospect of football, regardless of rule changes, was making him happy. He played football during highschool, it was his escape then and it still was now, whenever he got the chance to get together with buddies that is.

They got out of their shirts and Jake wished Mav had thought to ask them to bring swim trunks. But he doubted Mav had actually planned this. Mav was a great pilot but he wasn't even close to being a good planner.

"Didn't know you had a tatoo" Phoenix said as the game started and it took him a second to realise she had been talking to him. He had had the tatoo for so long he had almost forgotten about it. The only time he was acutely aware of it was when he was away, his hand seeming to hover over it subconsciously almost at all times.

"What does it say?" Phoenix asked, it distracted him enough for Rooster to tackle him to the floor. She winced at the noise of his back hitting the golden sand and knocking the air out of his lungs.

"Y/n" He replied, using her outstretched hand to stand back up.

"Who's that?"

"My wife"

"Holy shit you're married?!" Payback shouted before Phoenix had the chance to. Everyone turned their heads. He didn't know why this bothered him so much.

Well, he knew. He knew where this would go, everyone always asked the same questions:

"How long have you been married?"

"What does your wife do for a living?"

"So, when are you going to have kids?"

He wasn't ashamed of the life he had built with you. On the contrary, he loved everything about it. He loved cooking together on date nights, he loved watching crappy romcoms, he loved getting married at 20 years old and knowing he had a lifetime ahead of him to spend with you. But he felt so protective over you. He knew how much you were struggling and how unsupportive your family was. And he just wanted to keep you safe, even if you weren't there to hear those questions.

"Uhh, yeah" he answered

"When did that happen?" Coyote asked

"A while ago?"

"Is she like a pilot or something?"

"No, just… civilian"

"Oh nice, you got kids we don't know about too, or just a girl?" Rooster joked.

While you isolated yourself to deal with the grief, Jake had crafted the perfect smokescreen to hide his pain. To anyone but you and your families, he hated children. Eventually, people stopped showing baby pictures, stopped talking about children, and stopped asking him about when he was thinking about settling down.

He tensed up.

The game ended with his team on top, they walked to the bar's back porch, where Penny was waiting with drinks. Mav asked him to stay behind.

"You alright kid? You looked pretty tense earlier"

"I just don't like --" He tried to say but Mav cut him off.

"No" it was a assertive voice, telling Jake he knew exactly what kind of excuse he was going to use.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay" he sighed

Jake wondered if Mav knew what it felt like. The man didn't have any children of his own, but with the way he was treating them all there was no denying the man had a very paternal streak about him. Maybe children just hadn't happened for him. The voice at the back of Jake's head whispered that maybe that's why Mav was single. Sometimes, he could feel the strain this desperate need for a baby was putting on his own mariage but Jake pushed any thought of this out of his mind before the urge to run back to his car and drive home to hug you became too strong.

You were agonising over your decision. He was your husband, he should know. But then again, there were so many cute ways to announce it to him. No, he deserved to know.

You picked up your phone and called him. It went straight to voicemail. You sent him a text to call you back as soon as, and you paced again.

The cleaning had gone straight out of the window the second you found out. Your broom laying discarded against the kitchen wall, your plate still on the table, you had done nothing since lunch.

But, the more you thought about telling him, and the more you grew aware that you were actually pregnant, the more nauseous you felt. It was almost dinner time, Jake would be home soon, you needed to figure something out. You needed to -- you ran to the bathroom and just made it in the doorway before you vomited straight into the empty mop bucket. Once started, it was impossible to stop the urgent need to be sick. Luckily, or not, you hadn't eaten much and soon vomit was replaced with dry retching.

"I know the feeling" Mav had cornered him by the car. Jake looked at him, debating whether or not to pretend he didn't know what he was talking about. But it would be cruel. Clearly Mav was desperate for someone to talk to.

"It's so isolating" He confirmed

"Yeah" Jake let out a sad chuckle "I try to keep it together for her. I don't do a very good job, I think."

"I'm sure she appreciates it, but if it's weighing on you, you need to tell her."

Jake felt a question on his tongue but he stayed quiet. It seemed like Mav was talking from experience.

"Maybe I would still have Charley if I had told her" The older man mumbled

"But you wouldn't have Penny" Jake said

"No. You're right" he sighed, with a sad smile on his face "but I might have had kids"

"You got Bradshaw"

"Hmm and what a great job I did"

He wanted to say something to comfort him but the words he had planned came out as something completely different

"What if I'm not ready when she does get pregnant, you know?"

"I don't think you will be, I don't think anyone is ever ready"

"Yeah but we have been trying for ten years, what if we have a child and I fuck things up?"

Maverick hugged him. His embrace bone-crushing and comforting. Eventually he let go, and Jake drove home.

He turned his keys and the door and went looking for you. The cleaning supplies discarded in every room worried him. Jake was about to shout out your name when he caught a glimpse of you kneeling over the toilet bowl. Your eyes were closed, your cheek resting against the toilet seat.

"Baby, are you okay?"

He pet your head, trying to feel for a temperature. You were okay, clammy with cold sweat, but okay. Your eyes fluttered open and before he could say anything you retched into the toilet bowl again.

"Did you eat anything wrong? Do you want me to call a doctor or an am--" he lost the rest of his sentence as his eyes rested on your hand. Or rather, what you were holding.

He removed it from your grasp and looked at the test.

Was he seeing double?

He shook the test. No. He wasn't seeing double, you were pregnant. They had waited ten years for this.

All of his previous fears flooded his mind, but as he gazed into your eyes right then, Jake felt on top of the world. He felt that with you he could do anything.

When it came time to tell others, Jake called Maverick first.

#fanfic #top gun fanfiction #top gun maverick #top gun x reader #fanfiction #hangman x reader #jake hangman seresin #original fic #jake seresin #hangman top gun

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legaciestold · 3 months

Text

thread: the prismya incident tuesday, july 25th-friday july 28th, 2006 @everythingheard (leon) also featured in overall incident: @myersbprd, claire, ingrid, mara, & jill

tuesday, july 25, 2006 4:45am (stateside local) mild rain, gray morning skies, humid

the screen is eerily blank for multiple seconds, the sounds of clattering items all that's emitted above the gentle static. muttering comes next, a woman's frustration coming through with no visual to accompany it until a silhouette appears, out of focus.

'come on, come on, yes! it worked!'

emits the voice, hushed but triumphant as what can be assumed is keys of what might be an old keyboard by the heavy sounds of it are pressed in the audio. the picture is grainy, as if there's some kind of interference yet it does finally come into focus to display a woman looking at the camera and addressing an agent with a name hunnigan hasn't come across before. the name is typed into a second monitor upon her station though a voice on the phone she's balancing on her shoulder halts her. tells her to wait and watch. the woman on the screen looks a bit worse for wear. there's a small gash on her forehead that looks as if it's scabbed over and the scrubs she wears look wrinkled and disheveled as if they've been worked in a while. it's not what's shocking about the video. hunnigan has seen a lot both in her own field experiences before she'd taken a desk job and in the displays from messages from various agents she aids who are in the field.

she's seen kennedy a hell of a lot worse for example.

what's shocking comes from the words which emit from the woman's lips. she speaks quickly, to the point, an attempt to relay as much information as possible in an efficient manner. hunnigan appreciates it. a final stage of a virus is synthesized and will have enough produced for the final stage of an attack within forty-eight hours. possibly less, most likely less. she's only piecing together what she's been able to hear and catch glimpses of. she's being monitored constantly but one of the other scientists speaks to her as they work, whenever they get the chance to, and he seems to be an ally. the process appears to be faster because of the nature of vampiric materials.

vampiric?!

the camera is shifted, loses focus for a moment when it's lifted and redirected over a blurry file that hunnigan already knows is going to have to get sent for enhancement. she can just barely see the name claire red.field on it though ingrid isn't sure if she actually saw the name clearly or if it's her brain piecing it together by virtue of the fact the woman voices the name a moment later. the camera pans too quickly over a separate video feed, camera on camera distorting the picture with lines-- yet, some can be made out. maybe the worse of it is the sound.

there's screaming. wild, scared, pained.

there's frenzied movement on the screen of the screen. there's what ingrid thinks is a woman attacking a man in scrubs and then her being forced back down and injected with something and she thinks the woman cries something to the effect of 'not again' after some profound swearing in-between. maybe that's really the most shocking part because ingrid has never met redfield but she's seen agent kennedy's file and seen claire's picture in it because the girl and leon had escaped raccoon together and as distorted as the picture may be, ingrid understands in the pit of her stomach what she's seeing is the same woman.

the camera pans back once more to the woman sending it with her rattling off something about redfield having been the key to the virus and a location. about something being wrong. she shouldn't have been able to get to this terminal let alone send this video she's not sure where the guards are but she's uploading the communication now and praying they get it. to please send the bprd or anyone they can. there's a sound, a groan really, which emits somewhere in the room the woman is in and she looks away before turning back and starting to say to 'tell leon...' something... but it's cut off with the transmission going dark and somehow, that's when something else connects in ingrid's mind and she chastises herself for not having realized it sooner. she's seen this woman's picture in leon's file too. it's his cousin that survived the attack on their family when agent kennedy was a child.

okay. ingrid thinks. okay. okay.

the voice on the phone begins speaking again, giving ingrid little time to recover even as she begins opening various windows at her computer station. it reveals more information to her. information about the bureau of paranormal research and defense. of an outbreak in a polish village the year before, about redfield being part of the bprd-- which doesn't exist on paper except as the fbi's special operations division. it tells her mara a kennedy was an informant in a company run by fucking vampires. vampires! it tells her a select few members of the bsaa, valentine and the other redfield have been contacted and are deploying with bprd on route to prismya where there's been some strange reports of attacks in the last twenty-four hours. they'll meet agent kennedy there and she needs to relay all this information to him and get him on a military flight leaving in two hours. it's a lot. it's chaos. but it's a chaos she can handle. she has to. first, however, she needs to finish dialing agent kennedy's number.

she does and takes an unusual step further, tells him he needs to get to headquarters immediately, with no delays. she needs to meet with him in person. and someone needs to meet with him, a bprd agent myers who'd be going on a mission with him, reinforcements already on-route to meet them there. she doesn't tell him why but her vocal pattern shows the seriousness of it. she greets the bprd agent in a room off the corridor of the building where the light always flickers and the work order for it has gone into the abyss of low priorities. when agent kennedy gets there she tells him all she knows, she shows him the video, and she lets the bprd agent tell him the rest of the pertinent information as she goes to gather more information for herself to aid them in the field.

'leon, be careful.'

she calls out to him as she watches him and the other agent leave for the military base (that transport would get them to europe faster than other means). ingrid, rarely calls him by his first name but this was uncharted territory. this was personal territory, at least for him. almost twelve hours later hunnigan has some communication with the bsaa, redfield and valentine, helps them navigate a nightmare on the ground that they'd flown into. she's not usually involved with the bsaa but this whole mission was.. well, there was a lot of players in the game at once and they all had the same ultimate goals. she had the feeling she'd be patching them all into each other the whole time.

fifteen, almost sixteen hours after leon leaves, when hunnigan gets word from that leon and the bprd agent have gotten separated after they'd gotten to one of the companies' facilities where he thinks the outbreak started (an outbreak that wasn't part of the main plot and shouldn't have happened) and that they'd found indications mara and claire had been moved to some location in the countryside but then leon and myers had gotten separated after a car crash outside a local village she's not surprised so she helps him navigate as far toward the castle facility as her access to sat feeds will allow. somehow, this feels a bit like spain all over again. she certainly thinks the stakes are just as high for her agent in the field. this wasn't the president's daughter but it was his family and his friend and a hell of a lot of innocent people's lives at stake.

wednesday, july 26, 2006 8:13am (prismya local) prismya countryside, mountain valley filled with small villages and an expansive castle complex which used to house the local ruler of the region. has held an increase in activity, construction equipment, and people to the area in recent years. also many disappearances. rainy and dark gray skies, foggy, cloudy, low visibility

she's cold. then she's hot. both make her hurt like a fucking train is chugging through her blood stream and making her want to tear into something but they've taken everything away she could possibly break after she'd managed to turn a part of the bed into something she could stab with. it'd been a blunt edge but she'd still managed with a spirt of strength to impale one of the people that'd come into the room to sedate her with it. her mind is scattered, hair messy and in all directions around her shoulder's when she awakens in a new place. mara's no where in sight but claire is sure she'd seen her. she's positive. she wasn't losing her mind. she wasn't. she'd seen her. she had! metal surfaces are around her, there's a camera too. she attacks it with her bare hands. they come into the room. she can't remember what happened after that. she thinks she drew blood. or they drew her blood? no, she'd hurt one of them. she's sure. the feel of a badge, a key.. she'd hurt him, the man injecting her, but he'd slipped her something. why? she doesn't understand. was he the one mara said was a friend? is she imagining it? but he hurt her. did he have a choice?

wait.. then.. now. then wasn't now. that already happened. key.. badge. her body hurts. she's thirsty but she's not supposed to be. she can't let herself be. remember. remember to fight it. mara had said the longer she does the slower the infection will move through her. she'd said that, back at the other place. where is mara? where is she? her body shifts, rolls over where it'd passed out before. flashes of memories playing at her mind. she tires to piece together her memories. her eyes aren't open but she sees....

there'd been a mission. she can remember that. but then.. so much death. she'd fought. injections.. experiments. she'd fought. she'd screamed. she'd attacked. it hurt. her mind scatters. she remembers a desert. no, that was a long time ago. she remembers a police station. no that was further away. blonde hair.. she remembers a dinner with a child laughing and the surprise on their faces when another person had shown up at their door with pizza from that hole in the wall place she'd taken sherry to and mentioned. it wasn't an every-day thing, the three of them getting to spend time together and so they'd held on to it at the time. a thread, it forms a thread into another string of flashes. a chip. anger... understanding.. an email.

'stop being like that claire, just send the god damn fucking email.' she'd told herself.

the thread.. mission. facility. he'd slipped her something to escape. she'd gotten out. they'd chased her. a crash. something spilled. screams. zombies but.. different, she thinks. had to find a lift. had to find a way up. a way out. metal turned to stone. corridors. maze. castle? they'd found her. blood. she'd stabbed. she'd stabbed them, not bitten. she hadn't bitten. but they'd stabbed her too, she thinks. maybe? find somewhere to hide. hide first. figure out next step after. there'd been a room. supplies in it. boxes. she remembers boxes.. utah had boxes. rebecca had gotten shot. the boxes had fallen. circle the memories back. boxes in front of her. climb. hide on top. she wants to see her brother. she wants to see leon. to not have how they last saw each other be the last... claire passed out.

it's cold against her skin but her body feels hot. sweaty, clammy. dark veins creep along her arms. she's only wearing a thin tank top type shirt with pants, she should have tried to find something but there hadn't been time. it wasn't as much of a concern as escape. the blood across her top is crusty. how long as she been there? there's no wound... it healed. but she'd been stabbed.. she can't think about it. not yet. not yet. find mara. get a cure. escape. no she couldn't.. mara had said something about them releasing it.. hadn't she? or had she imagined it? claire's clearer now then she was, and yet not fully clear either. it's hard to keep a hold of her thoughts, takes effort. she can do this. she has to do this. there isn't a choice. one step at a time.

there's sound. a scuffle. a grunt. gun shots. something had spilled before.. she remembers it.. kind of, sort of. outbreak. shit. she thinks there'd been one before too. back wherever she'd been but now.. had she caused this one? in her attempt to escape? or had it come with them like it had antarctica from rockfort, along with the personnel? shit. shit. shit. another gun shot. wooden door splinter's below, figures move into the dark room, crash across it like godzilla to a city. someone hits the boxes, they all fall down with her with it. ouch. pain radiates and blood fills her senses. someone's bleeding. she knows it like she knows what air is. in a way that unsettles her. it makes her mind go fuzzy, the veins on her skin burn. there's fighting in the low light, another gun shot. one of them stops moving.

claire reacts.

she lifts herself from the tangle of boxes and launches herself at whoever still stands with a sudden fury and strength she shouldn't have. she feels like it's temporary. it's not going to last and some part of her seems to realize the more she exerts herself the more the infection is going to take root but she has to get away. and to do that she has to stop whoever else is there. so they can't take her away again. so they can't hurt her again. so they can't make her veins feel like they are on fire and her so thirsty. it's all nails and desperate punches when she lands as if she's a wild and wounded animal backed into a corner. hair blocking her face as she attacks. she remembers the feeling of the injections. she remembers the experiments. she's angry, it's taking hold. it's overwhelming her, clouding her mind. she can feel it. but whoever she's fighting is strong. they react too and her arms are suddenly being forced to halt, her struggling wildly until some of her hair that was blocking her vision shifts and she sees eyes. his eyes and now a war is happening within her. something inside wants to fight. wants to hurt. but she. claire. she sees his eyes. she sees them. she knows them. she's crying. it burns her eyes. it's his blood she smells. she wants it. no. no. fucking hell no! she's not lost yet. she won't let herself be. this fucking infection wasn't going to take her. she wouldn't let it. she wouldn't hurt him. why is he there? her mind starts to clear, a little. she stops fighting and fear laces her features.

"l--leon?" this is real. he's real. she can feel him. and yet it almost comes out as a question as if some part of her is suddenly scared she's imagined this whole thing to cope and is still in whatever room they locked her in for their experiments. "i-- i'm sorry! i'm sorry.. i-- couldn't... stop.. i thought you were.. i thought they found me.. i thought they were going to take me back.. oh my god.. did i hurt you?" horror washes over her.

#in my defense i had to write three character's worth of interactions and it's a lot of set up so that's why it's so long #obviously you totally dont have to come close to matching length since it's three characters worth haha #but my fucking god i almost lost this entire starter because tumbles logged me out #muse; claire redfield #v; bprd: biohazard timeline #everythingheard #myersbprd

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inlocusmads · 11 months

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HOLY SHIT I AM FREAKING OUT ABOUT THE TRAILER

GABRIEL OH MY GOD. I JUST-- I DID NOT SEE THIS COMING.

Neil: "season 2 is quite gentle and romantic like the filling inside a sandwich" meanwhile aziraphale : "I think I might've started a war"

CROWLEY'S ANGEL OUTFIT HOLY SHIT I NEED TO KNOW HOW HE EVEN GOT THERE

I've only had Muriel for one day and if anything happens to her I'll kill everyone in this room and then myself

CROWLEY SCREAMING AND GOING BATSHIT INSANE OMG I LOVE THAT FOR HIM

"and you're totally certain everything will be better when you're near that one particular person" - I AM SOFT I AM IN TEARS, THIS IS PAINFUL

Everyday it's a'getting closer in the background while literal pandemonium strikes - I can't, I just cant-

"we do it together" "together?"

MAGGIE AND NINA MAGGIE AND NINA MAGGIE AND NINA!!!!!

"surrender the angle" i cant- i cant- (this has like super huge implications, maybe it's the guys from hell, mostly because it is known that they aren't huge bookish intellectuals?? If it was from hell then maybe they're looking to control Gabriel as a pawn?? And Crowley and aziraphale being on their own sides must restore balance?? I am just -- my thoughts are screaming, I might have to actually SCREEEEEE)

Ughhh July 28th CAN'T GET HERE ANY FASTER GODDAMNIT.

#good omens 2 #good omens trailer #aziraphale #crowley #mads is going insane right now send help

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mystikalrootz · 10 months

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July is a month of POWER/ACTION on a collective and individual level. How we use our power and how others in power affect others. Lunar nodes are also changing signs, shifting in new Cardinal energy for the next 18 months! Let’s dive in!

The month begins with with the Sun conjoining Mercury and Venus Squaring Uranus leading up to the Capricorn Full Moon on the 3rd. This is a sensitive and emotional energy that has the possibility to break down walls of fear and try new things creatively. A Mars influence will assist in following through with actions you have put off.

On the 3rd we have the Full Moon in Capricorn asking us to evaluate our work/home balance. As Pluto, the planet of transformation is currently in this sign it is more important than ever to make conscious decisions that stick in this area. This will also affect individuals in different ways depending on your personal Natal Chart. A detox has been needing to happen and this is your chance!

On July 12th brings a Sun/Chiron square that may have some feeling like things are spinning out of control. Energies of others not having matching stories or misinformation are strong that could bring anxiousness and make it harder to access critical thinking. Chiron is about our wounds so wherever Chiron sits in your chart, it is highly likely that is the area this will be felt.

On the 17th the Lunar Nodes change into Aries and Libra for the next 18 months. Aries will have us desiring to jump into things that feed OURSELVES as opposed to others as Taurus has had us in. Libra will assist us in releasing karmic ties that have held us back in order to have harmony and balance. This will be a beautiful Cardinal energy that is welcomed! The New Moon in Cancer also hits herewith a Trine to Neptune. It’s time to stop talking about what you want for your life and start DOING. Daydreaming is great but what is the point if you never act!

The end of the month we will see a Sun/Pluto opposition that shows huge movements that will either build brand new ventures, or strip away ones we had begun but are not showing progress. Underlying tensions could come to boiling points here and things may transpire faster than we can comprehend. On the 28th Mercury will move into Virgo and allows us to look more rationally at what is happening and assist in decisions to move forward.

These energies are huge for the collective, and as mentioned, will affect the individual based on their Natal Chart. I highly recommend everyone interested in Astrological energies to know what is in their personal chart. Their are multiple free sites to have this figured for you to interpret on your own or have a limited overview. If you want more, contact me on FB or IG (Mystikal Rootz). I have multiple packages and price points to suit most needs💫.

#astrology #forecast #intuitive

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libertyreads · 9 months

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Book Review #92 of 2023--

Ruined by Sarah Vaughn. Rating: 2.75 stars.

Read from July 19th to 20th.

Before I get into the bulk of my review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers at First Second for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Ruined is a graphic novel set in the regency era that follows Catherine who society has viewed as ‘ruined’ thanks to a dalliance that has rumors spreading faster than a wildfire. Only a truly desperate man would want to wed a ruined woman. And Andrew is that desperate man. His estate has been run into the ground by the family’s poor decisions and struggling financials. He needs Catherines dowry to get everything sorted out and put back to rights. But what happens when you accidentally fall for your husband? Ruined comes out on November 28th and is available for preorder now.

I wanted to enjoy this one more than I actually did. I loved the idea of falling in love with the husband you met through an arranged marriage. It gives us so many opportunities for mutual pining, longing, angst. Everything my gremlin heart desires. But the graphic novel doesn’t really give us that as the reader. We see them come to a sort of agreement that works until it doesn’t. But we never get to feel the depth of either characters’ emotions so the longing, pining, angst I’m looking for just isn’t there. You can see that they get along well, that they work together to make the household work and improve, and that they are having a good time together in multiple ways (including physically). I just never felt it. And maybe that’s the regency of it all. I’m not a fan of historical fiction really so that could explain it. I just wish we had gotten moments where we see what the characters are truly feeling.

I liked a lot of the side characters more than I thought I would. I really wish Gemma had made more of an appearance in the graphic novel. But the moments we did get were really sweet. I liked seeing the house restored and how that impacted the family unit as a whole. Also, once the couple is separated for a while, we do finally get to the longing that I was longing for. It was just too little too late by that point for me to actually get on board with the romance.

I know that there are absolutely fans for this graphic novel. I just don’t think I’m one of them. If you like regency era romances, if you like historical graphic novels, if you love Pride and Prejudice, this is going to be for you without a doubt.

#book review #Sarah vaughn #book reviews #netgalley #booklr #bookblr #bookstagram #books read in 2023 #2023 reading challenge #goodreads challenge #goodreads #books #bookish #graphic novel

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orchidum · 2 years

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teen-a-day challenge day twenty one: pot head

i maaaaaay be skipping a few days ahead.. i just wanted to make the sim ill be playing with so badly. so here we are.

anyways, this is addie moran- when the pack comes out she’ll have the party animal and romantic traits as well as one of the teen aspirations! addie is a smug asshole who flirts with just about everyone

im so excited to play this pack. july 28th needs to get here faster!!!!

also sorry for not posting these as frequently!! i hope you're all well!!

#teen-a-day #my sims #the sims 4 #i really like her

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gsgroupofficial · 9 months

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Best ways to avoid catching Viral Disease

Monsoons are here and so are the rains! With rain, there are higher chances of catching viral infections. Let us not forget the covid impact which took a viral storm globally.GS Hospital Ghaziabad has come up with an initiative to provide you with prevention and precautionary measures to avoid viral disease this season. Also, World Hepatitis Day is on 28th July 2023. GS Hospital Ghaziabad, the best hospital in India, takes a step forward to bring about awareness globally about the viral disease. This hospital is dedicated to raising awareness about viral disease as a World Hepatitis Day initiative.

Before we take a deep dive into the topic of the best ways to avoid catching viral diseases, let us give you a sneak peek into viral diseases.

What are viral diseases?

As the name suggests, “viral” means “to spread”. Yes, that’s right. Viral diseases are communicable diseases that tend to spread due to their contagious activity. Viral diseases are infections caused by viruses. They are also known as “superbugs.” They tend to spread different types of infection ranging from minor ones like flu or cold to severe ones like HIV.

Different types of viral diseases

The viral disease may affect one or multiple systems of the body from the respiratory system to the brain depending on the severity of the infection and the type of viral attack.

The different types of viral diseases are as follows-

Respiratory viral diseases like, flu, common cold, respiratory syncytial virus, covid.

Gastrointestinal viral diseases like Typhoid or gastroenteritis

Exanthematous viral diseases which include chickenpox, shingles, chikungunya, measles

Hepatic viral diseases like hepatitis A, B, C, D, E

Skin viral diseases which include, warts or HPV virus, herpes, molluscum contagiosum

Hemorrhagic or blood viral diseases include dengue fever, Ebola virus, and yellow fever.

Neurological viral diseases include meningitis, encephalitis, poliomyelitis, and rabies

How does viral disease affect your body?

The viral disease may enter the human body through the following pathways-

Close Contact

Coughing or sneezing causes respiratory problems

Defecation and vomiting cause gastrointestinal problems

Generally, our body is protected from the viruses causing infection with the immune system or defensive mechanism which protects the body by providing a shield. If the immune system is weakened, the body fails to fight viruses. This causes viruses to multiply resulting in infection and attacking other healthy cells.

Symptoms of viral diseases

The general symptoms of viral diseases are as follows-

Flu-like symptoms such as fever

Sore throat

Runny nose

Vomiting and nausea

Loose motions

Swollen tonsils

Skin rashes

Excessive weight loss

Muscle weakness

Loss of appetite

It is important to stop the spread of the virus which may affect multiple systems. In such cases, along with proper medication from your doctor, there is a need to take certain precautionary measures to avoid viral diseases.

Top 8 best ways to avoid catching Viral Disease

The 8 best ways to avoid catching viral diseases are as follows-

1. Wash your hands and sanitize

Handwashing is a must to protect yourself from any germs. Wash your hands regularly and frequently in case of flu-like symptoms after coughing, sneezing, visiting washrooms, vomiting, or even simply eating. Follow the handwashing guidelines-

Scrub your hands with soap for at least 30 seconds

Ensure to wash every part of hands which includes palms, fingernails, back of hands, and in between fingers.

Use sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol content.

2. Avoid touching your face

Keep your hands away from your face, nose, mouth, and eyes to avoid the spread of infections. Touching your face frequently can result in a faster spread of infections by entering your body.

3. Avoid close contacts

Are you going through an active infection? It is important to avoid close contact and stay away from people at around 6 feet. Avoid visiting public and crowded places. It is important to avoid going to school or work and take an off day instead even though you are completing your course of medications

4. Cover while coughing and sneezing

Coughing and sneezing can cause faster spread of infections. They can spread through respiratory droplets in the air. It is important to cover your mouth and nose with your hand or with disposable tissue which is the best option. Post coughing and sneezing always make it a point to wash hands.

5. Stay home when sick

If you are sick, you need to take care and stay home for faster recovery. Not only that, avoiding meeting people during sickness can help prevent the spread of viral diseases. Do not shake hands or touch others when you are sick.

6. Clean and disinfect

Clean and disinfect objects and surfaces which you use frequently. It is important to disinfect your mobile, tablet, computer, laptop, switchboard, desk, and room as well to prevent cross-contamination which will trigger the spread of viral disease. You can use an alcohol-based disinfectant along with sanitizer to help prevent the spread of infection.

7. Boost immunity

Boosting immunity is a must with supplements, a healthy diet, and optimum hydration. It is important to ask your doctor about flu shots, especially for recurrent viral diseases. Babies must be vaccinated to prevent any kind of viral infections which helps in boosting immunity. Remember to take your immunity dose of supplements and follow up with a healthy lifestyle to keep infections at bay.

8. Best medical care

The viral disease may crop up with viral infection with the first sign of viral fever. Some viral fever may resolve on its own. However, it is recommended that if you have a fever for more than 24-48 hours which does not resolve with paracetamol, it is recommended to reach out to the best hospital for your treatment for medical care. Routine check-ups with your doctor and lab tests are a must for avoiding any recurrence of viral diseases to prevent severe infections in the future.

Wondering which hospital is the best for viral diseases? Well, when it comes to healthcare, we all want to choose the best doctor in India. Let’s explore in the next part of the article the best hospital with a team of the best doctors in India for viral issues.

Best Hospital in India for Viral Diseases - GS Hospital Ghaziabad

GS Hospital is considered as ranked #1 amongst the top 10 hospital in Ghaziabad. It is a well-known and medically reputed best hospital in Uttar Pradesh. Thanks to its special expertise with highly-qualified and board–certified doctors, GS Hospital is one of the pioneers in treating viral diseases to prevent a recurrence.

How does GS Hospital provide treatment for viral diseases?

GS Hospital is a highly renowned hospital with a professional team of the best doctors in India along with dedicated staff. They work in the following steps to protect you from viral diseases.

Allocate you to the best doctor for infectious diseases who is a superspecialist

Helps in getting laboratory tests or any other diagnostic test done to confirm the diagnosis

Provide the best treatment and course of action based on your diagnosis for faster and better recovery

Helps provide preventive measures and healthy lifestyle practices to prevent the recurrence of viral diseases.

When should I see a doctor for a viral disease?

It is important to monitor your symptoms in cases of flu-like problems in the initial stage itself. Here are certain warning signals on when you should see a doctor for a viral disease which is as follows-

Fever that reaches 103 F or higher

Severe headaches

Weakness with dizziness

Abdominal or chest pain

Rashes on body

Stiffness of neck

Convulsions if any

Conclusion

Flu-like symptoms for viral diseases may crop up at any point in time. In such cases, it is important to keep medical assistance handy. Knowing where to go for the best medical care and whom to approach is very essential. Along with proper treatment and medications from the best hospital and doctor, it is important to follow healthy lifestyle practices to keep viral diseases at bay in the future and lead a healthy life.

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screenandcinema · 10 months

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Coming Attractions - July 2023

As usual, we present monthly previews of new movies being released. These are the movies that will be hitting your local cinemas (and streaming services) this month:

July 7th

Insidious: The Red Door - Patrick Wilson makes his directorial debut in this fifth installment in the Insidious franchise and acts as a direct sequel to the first two films in the series.

Joy Ride - Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, and Stephanie Hsu star in this comedy about childhood friends traveling to China.

The Out-Laws - Hitting Netflix this month is a crime comedy starring Adam DeVine, Pierce Brosnan, Ellen Barkin, and Nina Dobrov. The fantastic premise alone has my attention.

Biosphere - Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass are the last two men on earth in this buddy comedy from IFC Films.

July 14th

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (July 12th) - Ethan Hunt is back for his seventh impossible mission, and the third directed by Christopher McQuarrie. This post will self-destruct in five seconds, so read faster. Dead Reckoning Part Two is coming in 2024.

Theater Camp - Ben Platt leads the cast in this comedy set at a - you guessed it - theater camp.

July 21st

Oppenheimer - Christopher Nolan directs this biographical thriller about the father of the atomic bomb. Need I say more?

Barbie - Margot Robbie is Barbie, Ryan Gosling is Ken, and Greta Gerwig is the writer/director in this fantasy comedy about Mattel’s fashion dolls.

July 28th

Haunted Mansion - Twenty years after Eddie Murphy visited the Haunted Mansion, Disney is trying it again with a new film starring Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, and Danny DeVito.

Now for a quick look ahead to August, my top picks for next month are Blue Beetle, the Last Voyage of the Demeter, Gran Turismo, and Teenage Mutants Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

-MB-

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pinkchampagneproblems · 1 year

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i cant believe im writing this from the computer room of college - nothing scares me anymore i guess.. i'm so tired and so guilty and so anxious and so sad and so excited and so dumb. since im just making room this semester and skipping all of my classes, guess it's the perfect time for me to update u, lexi. let's start from the beggining (i'm using the computer so now we'll test how good my english really is, without autocorrection - or however this word is written -). well, since i went on vacation - in/on (the english problems are coming faster than i thought lol) July 20-something, that thing that always happens to me happened. the thing that everytime i stop coming here, i don't want to come back. when I had covid and spent 2 weeks at home, just the idea of coming back and having that same old routine i was having before made me throw up - and this time it wasn't any different. well, actually, it kinda was. i was so excited to go to Rock n Rio that i extended my vacations.. i was supposed to come back idk August 28th? something like that.. but my head was telling me "oh no! you have the Justin Bieber concert on Sep4th!! it's on a sunday, you'll be too tired to go to college on monday so just relax till there and then you go back!" and i thought "okay :)". and then there was the Coldplay concert - Sep10th- and the Dua Lipa - Sep11th- and just THEN I came back. but like i said, totally unmotivated and wanting to be anywhere but here. I was "expelled" - lets put it that way - from most of my classes on the last minute and ended up only having 3 subjects, all placed at horrible time!!!!!! leave my house to have 1 class that will last less than my path of coming here at 11 am? hell on earth! i started coming, watched one or two classes of latim, a few more of brazilian fund. and simply *NONE* of the fono class. none. if the teacher passed right in front of me right now i wouldn't regonize him. you must be thinking "oh so you're staying at home?"... of course.. i'm NOT! I come here basically everyday to do this huge amount of nothing and then i go back home - work, actually. this is exausthing and i wish i could drop college to go after what I really want (and even mentioned it here last year. it wasn't crystal clear then but now I know that Journalism is the course that would probably fits me better and put me closer to the life I dream of, and it's something I totally like! way more "me" than this one), but is not that easy... and also there is the fact that im a dumb bitch, we can't forget that!!!! i'll try to write more about it later, i barely can't keep my eyes opened right now

p.s: the fact that everyone else around me in this room is actually doing something college-related and academic project while im here on my sad little tumblr writing about my sad little life is lame af

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mistaeq · 4 years

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Kakyoin Noriaki: Birthday Boy HCs

TW // none

Something special for cherry boy's birthday! Let me point out that these headcanons take place after part 3. Yes. My birthday present for Noriaki is writing of him ALIVE. Because we deserved it.

Kakyoin Noriaki being the best birthday boy Headcanons, neutral!s/o

WORD COUNT: 1.44k

He hasn't celebrated many birthdays of his, so the boy isn't really used to what you usually do during a birthday.

Noriaki spent almost all of his birthdays alone with Hierophant Green, along with his family, because of a sad lack of friends.

When he learns you want to actually spend his birthday with him, Kakyoin's on cloud nine, he couldn't imagine you could care for him so much.

You do your best to make sure his day is happy and full of good things happening to him the whole time. He's so excited at the thought, he looks like a baby.

When you knock at his door at morning, two gifts in your arms, he's already eager to open them, and puppy eyes you when you tell him that the best part and the gifts, too, are for the night.

Just the day before, you told him he would have to dress up and get ready, because you would have brought him in a place that could be defined as a paradise, for him. You could tell from the look in his eyes that he just couldn't wait anymore.

"Since I have no driving license and you can't drive because you're the birthday boy, we'll just get there with a bus. It's a little less elegant than I would have wanted, but we have what we have."

He smiled for the whole time on the bus. Noriaki genuinely didn't care whether you were on a bus or on a limousine, you were already offering a beautiful birthday, and that was enough.

You held on his arm for the whole time on the bus because of the ridiculous and huge amount of people on that vehicle. He was the only thing you could hold on. He blushed a lot.

After you got off the bus you kept holding on his arm.

"How are you still wearing that uniform, Noriaki... it's the 28th of fucking July..."

"It's stylish, y/n. And it's green."

You brought him inside a huge, new, videogame store. It was a part of the city he really didn't visit much, so he had no idea. But now he would have wanted to hang out there more often.

As you were still holding on his arm, he was carrying you around the store like a horse would pull a chariot, and you could just lovingly admire his red cheeks and wide eyes happily exploring the store with his gaze.

After he finally found a new videogame he had been thinking about buying for days, you just quickly took it from his hands and rushed to the cash desk, so that you could pay it for him as a third gift without him knowing how much you had paid for it.

You could tell he was happy, when as soon as you arrived back at his home and you offered to play it with him. You always declined, when he asked you to play with him, but now you wanted to try, for him.

You sat on his lap the whole time, his hands on yours guiding you on how to use the game controller.

When it was finally afternoon, you pulled out of the bag you brought with you some ingredients for something that looked like a birthday cake.

"Hope you at least have the basic stuff like sugar and whipped cream, Noriaki, because I couldn't bring anything more with me."

When he understood you were gonna make a cake, his eyes widened like a cat that's just seen something it likes.

No, unfortunately you didn't play with ingredients as it would happen often, the whole process was kinda successful, but you found the occasion to feed Kakyoin a cherry.

After dinner and before you ate the cake, Noriaki called Jotaro, to tell him about the beautiful day you organized for his birthday.

He wanted you to sing Happy Birthday for him because nobody had ever done that before. He clapped a little before blowing on his birthday candles. He's too special for this world.

While you were trying the result of your intense afternoon of baking, he fed you a cherry, too.

He finally opened the gifts you had brought that morning, but before, he changed his uniform to a comfy, green, elephant patterned pajamas. The cutest thing ever.

The first present, is a large, cream colored scarf. You knew it was a little out of season, since it's July, but you always heard him complaining about the fact that he absolutely wanted that scarf, and you couldn't wait anymore.

Polnareff had bought him the same scarf so when Noriaki told Jean about the gifts you gave him, the french boi had to change his one afterwards.

BONUS SCENE

"You still have the last one..." as you pushed the box towards Kakyoin, your heart started to beat a lot faster. You really hoped he would have enjoyed your surprise, or you would probably have ruined a beautiful day.

You were sitting on the sofa, your legs crossed, one in front of the other, the gift in the middle. He happily untied the bow on top of it, and opened the lid. Another box was in it. Noriaki's gaze flew to yours, giggling. "You didn't." he laughed, opening the second box to reveal a third box.

"Oh my god you did." he playfully pretended to be pissed. "How many boxes are there, come on?" He was so cute, while he was opening the third, fourth and fifth box. He was down to play this mess with you.

"Long, long is the road to Egypt..." you teased him, watching him sarcastically smirk, untying the nth bow. He huffed, quietly giggling.

"I swear to God y/n, if after all of this in the last box there's nothing..." he clenched his teeth, trying to untie a knot too tight. You were sure about this now. You liked him so much, you could tell that you loved him.

"Who knows?" you teased again, laughing and trying to hide the way your heart was pounding in your chest. "What are you gonna do if in the last box there's nothing, Noriaki?" were you provoking him? He looked at you for a couple of seconds, a giggle lingering on his lips, before keeping on opening boxes.

"Think I got to the last one..." probably. Because it wasn't a box anymore. It was just a small, really small, packaging. Kakyoin curiously looked for a way to open it, and let whatever was inside slip on his hand. "What's this... a..." he laughed. "A cherry chapstick?" your heart was going faster than Lightning McQueen.

"This... this is cute, y/n, but... I don't really use chaps-"

"I know." you said, taking it from his hand, his jaw falling as you were the one putting the cherry chapstick on. "I just wanted to make your last present a little more... enjoyable, for you." you heart was now in your throat.

"Wha-"

He was cut off by cherry flavored soft lips on his. It took a bit for him to understand that the gift wasn't the cherry chapstick. But your kiss. Without any doubt, a great gift. As soon as he fully understood what was going on, Noriaki melted in your kiss, wrapping his arms around you.

You felt your heart slow down, now knowing that Kakyoin actually liked you back. Little did you know that he had liked you since the trip to Cairo with the Crusaders, and that it evolved to love afterwards. And it was starting to sting, not knowing whether you loved him back or not.

When you parted from your kiss, it was just because you needed air. Otherwise you would've happily continued. "You've been driving me crazy, you know?"

"Mh?" you asked him, after his words.

"I've loved you for an embarrassing amount of time." hearing that, you smiled and held him closer. "And if today this hadn't happened, I would have been so ready to plan on confessing, y/n. Like tomorrow. I just needed to get that off my chest."

"You?" you booped his nose with yours. "Confessing to me?" you imagined it all, and thought that it would have been worth it to wait. But you couldn't turn back time, it already happened, now. "Sounds good."

After a second, you started to feel your bodies oddly warm, as if something was holding you in a loving embrace. It took you going to check in every room, just to find your stand and Hierophant Green cuddling together.

No doubts. A perfect birthday, for a perfect birthday boy(friend).

#jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo x reader #jojo headcanons #jojo part three #stardust crusaders #noriaki kakyoin #kakyoin x reader

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ygo5dsmonth2020 · 4 years

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YU-GI-OH! 5DS MONTH 2020

We’re back! It’s that time of the year! The mods are excited to announce this year’s themes for YU-GI-OH! 5DS MONTH 2020.

Bored during quarantine? Say no more. We hope you join in this year!

Day 1 (July 7th): Stardust Acceleration

Accelerate! We’re kicking off into overdrive by starting this month off with our hero of the hour! Rev it up by showing us how YOU celebrate Yusei Fudo’s birthday!

Day 2 (July 8th): Sink or Sail

As good captains, we all have a ship we’d set sail on. Which is yours?

Day 3 (July 9th): Story to Story

Our tale begins with a fast-paced story that takes us through the city’s tournament with the Fortune Cup, the Satellite’s peril with the Dark Signer’s, to Crash Town, to once again Neo Domino City’s action with the World Racing Grand Prix to the conclusion with the Ark Cradle. Which arc was your favorite?

Day 4 (July 10th): Songs to Fix a D-Wheel To

Let the music play! Do you have a playlist you wanna share? It can be for a character, a ship, an overall arc, or a fanfiction! Come on Eileen, show us what you got!

Day 5 (July 11th): Bloom of the Black Rose

Pitch dark flower, set to bloom! Today we celebrate the Black Rose, Aki Izayoi! How will you choose to celebrate our loyal psychic?

Day 6 (July 12th): As Above, So Below

Heaven or hell. Signers or Dark Signers. The Crimson Dragon vs the Earthbound Immortals. Whose side are you on?

Day 7 (July 13th): This Town Ain’t Big Enough

Yeehaw! Bring out your ponchos, set your guns to duel, and show us what all Satisfaction Town has to bring? Is it a character? The city itself? A duel? Satisfy us!

Day 8 (July 14th): Power Play

Further Turbo Dueling King, the Master of Faster, lover of ramen, and one hell of a (jack)ass. Today we’re celebrating the King Himself: Jack Atlas!

Day 9 (July 15th): Fly Your Colors

The World Racing Grand Prix! Today is all about Teams, whether it be Team 5ds, Team Unicorn, or even somewhere out of the WRGP- Like Team Satisfaction! Which Team are you on?

Day 10 (July 16th): Free Day I/Introduction Day

Our first free day! Use this day to either introduce yourself to the crowd or feel free to leave it open! It’s up to you!

Day 11 (July 17th): Fly, Blackbird!

This Satellite bird is our man of the hour! Our favorite hardworking, lovable, mother hen for kids, and unbeatable duelist, but what else is there? Show us! Give your love for Crow Hogan!

Day 12 (July 18th): Star-Crossed Lovers

Have you ever wanted to see the cast of Yu-Gi-Oh 5ds paired up with someone from another show entirely? Wanna see Yusei Fudo in a relationship with Dawn from Pokemon? Now’s your chance! Anything is possible today!

Day 13 (July 19th): Flip the Script

We all have a favorite alternative universe we’d like to see Team 5ds in. Whether it be a coffee shop, college, or maybe even a glimpse of the timeline Z-ONE came from! Anything is on the table for this day!

Day 14 (July 20th): Words Have Power

Like the Heart of the Cards, there are many signature catchphrases within the world of 5ds. What’s your favorite quote?

Day 15 (July 21st): Spirit World Walker

The holy light of protection, now cross and become eternal life! She may be small, but she sure is mighty! Bow down to the protector of the Spirit World- Rua/Luna! Today’s day is all about her!

Day 16 (July 22nd): Me and My OC

Most of us out there think of an original character to place into the world of 5ds. For many of us, it’s the start of friendships, self-journeys, or just fun and self-exploration into another world! Show us your OC today!

Day 17 (July 23rd): Polar Opposites

The modern-day story of light vs dark. A tale of contrasts. Ying-Yang. What two opposites do you want to showcase?

Day 18 (July 24th): Heart of the Dragon

Envoy of love and justice! This energetic machinist has as big of a punch as his heart! Today is all about Rua/Leo!

Day 19 (July 25th): Flex Your Canon

We all have our different headcanons about the characters or story. What are yours? It can be anything from changing canon to implementing your own ideas!

Day 20 (July 26th): Free Day II/Support Fellow Creators

Our second free day! You can use this day to submit whatever you wish, or you can shout out your favorite artist, fanfiction author, or just your favorite character! Give someone else some well-deserved love.

Day 21 (July 27th). Spin the Wheel, Throw a Dart

Story tropes! This could be anything from a day on the beach, a sleepover episode, or anything in between! What trope do you wish to see in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh 5ds?

Day 22 (July 28th): Tech Genius

The android with a supercomputer for a brain, Bruno stole our hearts as Antimony and continued until the bitter end. Today’s day is all about Bruno!

Day 23 (July 29th): Bad Guy Syndrome

The series had its swarm of enemies: whether it be Divine, Ruder/Roman, Rex, or Z-ONE. Which is your favorite?

Day 24 (July 30th): We’re Here Too!

Out of all the characters in the entire series, who do you feel is under-appreciated, or deserves more attention? Show us!

Day 25 (July 31st): Dead Guy Walking

Former Dark Signer, leader of Team Satisfaction/The Enforcers, and a brooding man looking for some satisfaction. Today’s day is all about Kalin Kessler/Kyosuke Kiryu!

Day 26 (August 1st): In the Z-ONE

Z-ONE is the man behind the madness. What kind of man do you think he is? A man trying to save the world, or destroy it? Tell us!

Day 27 (August 2nd): Pain vs Puff Pieces

Angst vs Fluff. Do you prefer a fairytale ending or a bittersweet tragedy? Pick one and show off!

Day 28 (August 3rd): Tale of Two Stories

We now have seven Yu-Gi-Oh series! What would happen if one of our heroes from Team 5ds happened to meet someone from the past, or perhaps the future? Whether you prefer to rev it up, high five the sky, or get your game on, show us what you got!

Day 29 (August 4th): You Can See Them Too?

The world of the Duel Monsters is filled to the brim with spirits. Showcase either your favorite duel monster or a moment within the Spirit World!

Day 30 (August 5th): Free Day III

Our last free day! Share with us anything your heart desires!

Day 31 (August 6th): Going My Way!

Today is the last day, but we still have the road to tomorrow. What does the future hold?

#yugioh #ygo #yugioh 5ds #ygo 5ds #ygo5ds #yugioh5ds #5ds #yusei #aki #ygo5dsmonth2020 #jack atlas #yusei fudo

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lovemesomesurveys · 3 years

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“The rest of your life” Are you independent or dependent? Both, but definitely more dependent. Even more so these past few years.

If you could put your life into a category, where would it go? I feel like this would be easier to answer if you gave a list of categories. I don’t know what kind of insight you’re looking for. <<< Yeah, I have no idea how to answer this.

How many animals do you have? I have one doggo. <3

Are you popular? Nope. Never was and that’s perfectly fine.

What time were you born? Around 430PM.

Have you had any candy this week? Nope.

Are you more afraid of tornadoes or hurricanes? I’ve never experienced either one, but they both sound terrifying.

Do you like those nerd glasses? I don’t know what “nerd glasses” you’re referring to.

Have you ever been in a fist fight? Nope. Or any kind of physical fight.

What color is your house? Beige.

When was the last time you saw a rainbow? Hmm. I don’t remember.

Have you ever ate a crayon? Nope.

Ever rode in a helicopter? Yes, after my accident I had to be flown to another hospital.

Do you like rabbits? Sure.

Do you like mushrooms? Nope.

“It’s like you step into the room and just press play” What was the last movie you cried at? On Halloween I rewatched It Chapter 2 and the ending always gets me in the feels with what happens to Eddie, when it shows the loser’s club as kids and then adults, and the letter from Stanley.

What ice cream flavor best describes your personality? Vanilla cause I’m plain and simple and “innocent”, ha.

Would you rather work for a small or large company? I don’t know.

Where's your favorite place to buy clothes? Boxlunch and Hot Topic.

How many languages do you speak? Just one fluently. I can speak some Spanish, though.

What was the worst movie you've ever seen? Hm. There’s been several wtf movies, but I don’t know what I’d say was the worst. I don’t feel like thinking much about it.

What video game have you played the most? Mario bro games and most recently Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I’ve been playing that just about everyday for a lot of this year.

What was your favorite TV show as a child? Nick Jr shows, Playhouse Disney shows, Arthur, The Big Comfy Couch, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Bobby’s World, some Cartoon Network cartoons, and Saturday morning cartoons like Recess and Pepperann.

What's your favorite sport? None.

If you were given a brand new yacht, what would you name it? I have no idea.

Do you believe there’s life on other planets? Not in the form of ugly green creatures with odd shaped heads.

What was the worst place you ever traveled to? Hm. I haven’t been anywhere I didn’t really like.

What is one thing you’re really bad at? Life.

Do you believe in angels? Yes.

Would you rather be a famous actor or musician? Neither.

“where have you been all my life?” If you could have invented one thing, what would it have been? I don’t know.

What's your favorite exercise workout? I don’t have one. I don’t exercise :X

What's your favorite thing to do? Some things I like to do include surveys, reading, watching YouTube, scrolling through Tumblr, and checking my social medias.

What did you do for your 17th birthday? I’m sure dinner with family. Probably invited my aunts and cousins over.

Does your local Wal Mart have benches in them to rest? Yeah.

Was your favorite stuffed animal really a teddy bear growing up? I got more into stuffed animals as I got older to be honest when I started collecting giraffe stuffed animals.

If your house was haunted, what would you do? Uhh I don’t know.

Are you crazy in love currently? No.

Are you good at swimming? No, I can’t swim.

What's worse: Slow internet or slow walkers? Slow internet is suuuuper frustrating.

What is the rudest thing a guy has ever done to you? Use me and play me.

Do you sleep with the sheets tucked in or out? Out.

What do you do to fall asleep faster? I don’t have much say when I fall asleep, but to try and help with that I listen to ASMR.

Do you carry a bottle of water wherever you go? No.

Ae you afraid that one day you might get cancer? It is something I’m afraid of. I’m someone who tends to think it’s always a possibility whenever something is wrong or I’m really sick.

“Letters to Juliet” Are you a fast or slow walker? I’m a fast wheeler.

Do you usually have to wear a belt with your pants? I never wear a belt.

Does it bother you when people's underwear hangs out? Kinda cause as someone in a wheelchair I’m at the level of a lot of people’s behinds lol and yeah, I don’t particularly want to see their underwear. Even worse if their ass is hanging out.

Are you usually the person to try new things with your hair? No.

When's your birthday? July 28th.

Do you own a bobble-head toy? Yes.

What color was the towel you used to dry off with today after a shower? I haven’t showered yet today.

Has anyone ever walked you home? Yeah.

Have you ever liked someone and they were taken? Yes.

When was the last time you went fishing? I’ve only tried it once, briefly. It wasn’t my thing.

True or false: You've read the book Lord of the Flies? True.

Have you heard of the band Yellowcard? Yep.

Have you ever seen the show Teen Wolf? I never got into it.

Do you have any quotes, lyrics etc on your walls? No. Are you a fan of Star Wars? Yes. I finally caught up on season 2 of The Mandalorian so far last night.

“Our parents never let us cross the street, but we did it anyway” Has anyone ever told you that you have nice hair? Yes.

What brand of camera do you own? I use my iPhone XR.

Is there something you're not looking forward to? My next doctor appointment.

Have you ever read the book Thirteen Reasons Why? Yep, back when I was in high school.

Do you wear white pants? No. I avoid wearing white cause I’m a slob haha.

When was the last time you were really angry? My doctor pisses me off. I don’t know why it’s so hard to get a call back regarding some lab results. I call and they say they’re waiting for the doctor to look over them and they’ll call me back to let me know but ugh it’s been taking days.

Have you ever made a 3 pointer in a basketball game? I’ve never participated in a basketball game.

Do you think you look better with your hair up or down? Down, but I always throw it up because it’s easier to deal with. I don’t have the energy or motivation to style or do anything with it.

Do you warm up before you hardcore exercise? I don’t hardcore exercise. Or exercise at all.

Do you want a pair of Converse shoes? Not currently.

Are you more of a studs or hoops type of person when it comes to earrings? Studs.

How many shirts do you have of your favorite band? Two.

Turn on the TV. What channel are you on? It’s already on, it’s currently on The Hallmark Channel.

Have you ever wore a tie before? No.

What did you have for breakfast this morning? I haven’t ate anything yet today, it’s only 5:28AM.

“For the Krusty Krab” Are you good at art? Nope, not at all.

How many times have you read your favorite book? I don’t reread books, actually.

Name one thing that you really hate. My health.

Have you ever tried walking on stilts? No. That would be impossible for me.

Is there a war that you find interesting? I’ve read the most about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. Especially for one of my community college history classes because the professor was a big Lincoln buff and I did a paper on Lincoln and the war.

Would you rather live in the city or country? City.

Do you think $7 is too much for a movie ticket? $7 is okay, but our movie tickets are more than that.

Would you like to be a newscast person? No. Fun fact: I was one of the newscasters on my elementary school’s news program when I was in the 7th grade, though. I enjoyed it, it was fun. It was nerve wracking, too, cause I went to a k-8th grade school and the news program played in every single grade/classroom.

Do you like word searches, coloring or crosswords better? I enjoy word searches and coloring.

Close your eyes and press a random key on the keyboard. j

How many William’s do you know? I don’t know any.

What time did you wake up this morning? It’s 5:34AM, I haven’t gone to bed yet.

Do you enjoy crutches? I’ve never used them, but does anyone actually enjoy them? They’re beneficial and necessary for some, so it’s great that they exist, but I don’t know if anyone actually enjoys them.

What's better: Snapple or Arizona tea? I used to love Arizona teas when I was a teenager. The green tea and the watermelon flavors were my favorite.

Make a word out of the word: Dinosaur. Sound.

“she said I love this song, I’ve heard it before” When you were younger, did you play with legos? Yeah.

Do you like Trix cereal? Yes. I haven’t had it in several years, though.

Do you get nervous easily? Yesss.

How long is your Facebook password? Uh, I’m not sharing that.

Do you like the movie Mean Girls? Yes.

How do you want your wedding to be? I don’t plan on getting married.

Have you seen the movie or show Catfish? Both. I love the tv show.

Do you hate it when you arrive to something early? No, I hate when I arrive to something late.

Have you ever been on Omegle? Yes.

Are you still in love with one of your exes? Nope. I moved on years ago.

Do you think it's attractive when guys wear beanies? It can be, sure.

What's something that makes you feel shy in public? Being in crowded places is one.

Do you like the shows on MTV? I like Catfish and the Teen Mom shows.

If you could go back and relive one day, what day? Hm. I’d have to really think about that if it was just one day.

What's one word you hate to be called? Sensitive. I know I am, but I hate being told “I’m too sensitive.” Plus sometimes it’s like, “no, maybe you’re just mean?”

#personal #text #survey #surveys

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killjoy-loveit · 4 years

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A Little Bit Like Clover

Request: Oh yay! May I please request a Rowoon/Seokwoo Barista!AU? One shot or scenario, Romance/Fluff, female reader, any POV where he falls for a a florist who works in a flower shop right across from his coffee shop. I don't really have a specific plot in mind other than that 😅 thank you! 💕

A/N: I would like to clarify that everything written in this story is complete fiction and isn’t to be taken as a true portrayal of reality. To the anon who requested this, I’m so sorry it took me so long :( I hope that the story lives up to your expectations!! Side note: I wrote this in a style similar to that of one I tried previously for another story, I personally like this style a bit so lmk what y’all think of it :)

Also this was proof-read by the absolutely wonderful 💚💚 @uwunnie 💚💚, whom I wish to thank for taking time out of her day to check over it for me!!

Word Count: 3,914

Genre: Fluff, overall v cute imo

May 3rd, 20XX

The nice old man, Mr. Jones, that owned the bookstore across the street decided to sell. He would always come in on Tuesday of every week to buy flowers for his wife’s grave- Tuesday’s had been their date nights he��d confided in you one day. Sometimes Mr. Jones would choose her favorite flowers, other times he’d tell you to make a pretty bouquet. You were sad to see him leave, but you knew it was inevitable. It was difficult for him to run the store on his own, especially with him going on in years. Now you just wondered who would become your new neighbor. Would they be nice? Would they change from a bookstore? The possibilities were numerous.

June 1st, 20XX

After almost a month the bookstore was successfully purchased. Still, you were unsure of who owned the space. You’d yet to see one individual frequenting the establishment, though it would be hard to pick them out anyways. There was always a gaggle of people moving about the old storefront nowadays, pulling out all of the old furniture and books. Clearly it wasn’t going to be a bookstore anymore. That small discovery made you a bit sad. You would miss going over there on your days off and finding new books to delve into.

July 15th, 20XX

Finally you met the new owner of the store across the street. He’d come in right as you were finishing up a bright bouquet that would be one of the samples for a party planner you worked with. You’d glanced up as the bell had rung, the typical customer service smile coming to your face. As he stepped up to the counter, you wiped your hands on the apron tied about your waist.

“Hi, welcome to Oopsy Daisy. How can I help you?” Your voice automatically switching into the chipper, vibrant tone you used to interact with customers. It must’ve shocked him, you thought, as you noticed his eyes widen a tad.

Nevertheless he smiled politely at you and extended his hand. “Hello, I’m Rowoon, I bought the store across the street from you.”

Surprised, you reached out your hand to shake his, mouth parted slightly. “Oh, wow. I was wondering who’d bought it- now I know.” You laughed lightly, then proceeded to introduce yourself.

“Well, I just wanted to come over and introduce myself. I’m not sure if you know, I changed the layout into that of a coffee shop, so if you ever decide to come check it out the first cup of coffee’s on the house!”

“I’ll make sure to stop by soon!”

July 16th, 20XX

You were up earlier than usual as orders had piled up, what with it being the midst of wedding season. Oopsy Daisy wouldn’t open to the general public for a few hours still, which would leave you plenty of time to make decent headway on the orders. But you would make no progress without having a cup of coffee first. And what better time to try out the new coffee place across the street than right now?

Despite the early hour, right about the time typical business people would be floundering for their first cup of coffee, the shop seemed relatively empty. Two or three customers were placed throughout the shop, two at separate tables sipping on their coffee and looking at laptops, the other sitting in a comfortable chair with a book in hand and a coffee set on a table beside them. The store didn’t seem to change too much, despite the switch to becoming a coffee shop. Bookshelves lined the small brick wall that separated the coffee counter from the seating area. Small tables and comfortable chairs were scattered throughout the area, giving it a cozy feel.

Walking up to the counter, you saw Rowoon standing behind it- pretty relaxed, a book in his hand. A mix of to-go cups and porcelain mugs caught your eye as you got closer, each one had the store name and logo printed on. The logo being a heart made of coffee beans around the shop’s name, which is succinctly called ‘Kinda In Love With Brew’. That made you smile.

“Your store’s name is cute.” You said after reaching the counter, pulling his focus away from the book in his hands.

“Oh, hey! I wasn’t sure when I’d see you again.” Rowoon grinned. “And thanks, I came up with it myself.”

“Really? I wouldn’t have guessed that.” Shifting on your feet, you fiddle with the zipper on your bag.

He just laughs, shaking his head. “A lot of people say that. Do I not seem like I could come up with a cute romantic name for my store?”

“No, it just seemed like a mild romantic sort of name and I guess I didn’t see you as that type. Clearly I was wrong and shouldn’t set out to find a job in profiling.” You joke lightly.

Rowoon sets his book down, leaning his forearms against the counter. “Now that we’ve adequately discussed my shop’s name, should we talk about yours? Or save that for another time?”

“Another time perhaps, I’m on a bit of a time crunch.”

With that said, you quickly order a drink of Rowoon’s recommendation. And once the drink is in hand, you make your way back across the street.

October 28th, 20XX

It’s been a couple of months since Rowoon opened ‘Kinda In Love With Brew’, and you’d met on many occasions. It had become a habit to pop across the street for a coffee when you knew you would be slammed with orders. And he’d taken to coming over and chatting whenever business was slow, leaving his store under the watch of one of his employees. Normally people got on your nerves, which is why you ran your store all by your lonesome- not one employee to help you out. But somehow Rowoon didn’t. You weren’t sure if he had some charm to him that made it harder to be annoyed by him, or if your personalities just meshed well together.

Either way it didn’t matter, you were well into becoming friends. Which is why it almost didn’t surprise you when he knocked on the door to your shop well past closing. After letting him in, you’d questioned his arrival.

“Well,” He replied, taking a deep breath. “I saw the light in your store still on and I wondered why you were still working. It’s almost one in the morning.”

Glancing over at the clock on the wall to confirm his words, your jaw dropped slightly. “I didn’t even realize… I just got carried away, I guess.”

Rowoon raised an eyebrow at you. “Carried away or frantically trying to finish an order before the pickup time?”

You smiled sheepishly at him. “Maybe it was more frantic than being carried away.”

“I just don’t understand why you refuse to hire some help around here.” He sighs, looking intently at you. “You’re practically running on fumes at this point. If you keep this up then you’ll have to start turning away customers.”

“I get annoyed by people easily, especially if I have to explain things multiple times. It just wouldn’t work if I tried to hire someone to help me. The cons would outweigh the benefits.” You mutter, picking at your apron awkwardly.

“I don’t think they would if you found the right person.” Rowoon chided. “But right now what you need is sleep. Go home, get a good rest and finish the order later.”

You shook your head quickly. “I can’t. They’re picking up the bouquets at nine and I haven’t even finished half of them yet.”

“Let me help you then.”

At first you’d been hesitant to let him assist in the bouquet making, but he’d actually done a good job. It turns out that he catches on rather quickly, so after observing you make two arrangements he was able to start making them on his own. It was nice having someone next to you, working in harmony, conversation flowing naturally. This wasn’t something you’d experienced before, and you found that you enjoyed it. Not to mention you actually finished a lot faster than you would have on your own. Hours faster. Once all of the arrangements were finished though, before Rowoon could leave, you promised to repay the favor or at the very least treat him to a meal when he was free.

November 14th, 20XX

It was about five o’clock in the evening when Rowoon rushed into your store, completely frazzled and unkempt. Luckily there was no one inside your shop at the moment, though this was because you were technically closed to the public. The asters you were holding falling to the counter in shock. Never had you seen him appear in such a state, he was typically calm albeit a little goofy. Yet here he was, standing before you, out of breath, with panic written all over his features.

“What’s wrong?” You moved out from behind the counter to where he stood at the entrance, hand smoothing down his back in an attempt to calm him down.

Rowoon gulped in a deep breath. “There’s- there’s a lady in the store, and we already called the ambulance, but I don’t know what to do! How am I supposed to help her? I can’t-.”

You cut him off, worry seeping into your veins and activating your brain. “What happened for you to call the ambulance? Was she injured? Did she slip and fall? Is she bleeding?”

At each of your questions after the first he shook his head quickly. “She went into labor!”

Eyes wide, you stared at him, mouth agape. “And you just left her there? What’s wrong with you?” You smacked his shoulder lightly before rushing out of your store to his.

Sure enough, once you got inside you saw an obviously pregnant woman, sitting on a chair breathing heavily. A man was standing beside her, appearing very panicked, holding a phone talking to a person you believed to be an emergency operator. Only a few other people, all coincidentally men, were in the store, but each one of them appeared nervous and anxious on behalf of the lady who had just gone into labor. All of this energy couldn’t be good for her. The lady in question, looked scared, and all of the people around her weren’t calm either- which was helping nothing.

Hearing the door close behind you, you determined that Rowoon had followed you. “Go get wet a cloth with cool water, wring it out and bring it to me.” You stated without looking at him, but he quickly followed your orders and moved past you.

Without hesitation you raised your voice to address the people in the coffee shop. “Everyone who is not with the woman in labor, please leave! I understand that you came here for a coffee fix, but right now might not be the best time.”

As the other customers departed, you were left alone in the store with three other people: Rowoon, the lady in labor, and the guy standing next to her. As you approached, her gaze was flickered between you and the guy next to her.

“Hey,” Voice calm, you pulled a chair up beside her and sat down. “What’s your name?”

“V-Vee.” She hissed out, teeth gritting in pain.

You worked on keeping your voice as calm and soothing as possible as you conversed with her, trying to help ease some of the nerves. Rowoon had appeared with the cloth in the midst of your conversation, which you’d handed to the guy standing next to her, telling him to help keep her cool. Overhearing the emergency operator state that the ambulance was still a little far out, Vee became panicked. She was blubbering about how she didn’t want to have her baby in a coffee shop, she wanted to have it in the hospital after getting an epidural, how she wasn’t ready yet.

“Breathe,” You reminded her, while you tried to come up with some words that might help. “The ambulance is coming, and soon enough you’ll be able to get to the hospital.” You locked eyes with her. “You can do this. Just think, in a matter of hours you’ll be holding your little one. Isn’t that amazing?”

She nodded slowly, muttering under her breath. “I can do this.”

It wasn’t long after this that the ambulance arrived, sweeping her and the man with her away. Which just left you and Rowoon in the store. Of the two, you were clearly the one with the level-head currently, as it appeared that he was mentally checked out at the moment. After guiding him to a seat and getting him a glass of water, you flipped the sign on his door to say ‘closed’. Then you began cleaning up spilled drinks, most likely occurring from witnessing a woman go into labor. Cleaning the spilled drinks didn’t take too long, thus you continue cleaning the rest of the store as you’d seen Rowoon do many a time through the wide windows of his cafe.

Even after you finished cleaning, Rowoon still seemed to be in a state of shock at what had just happened. So, you did the only thing you could think of- you took his store keys from him, shut off all the lights, dragged him outside and locked up.

“Come on,” You murmured, hand wrapped around his wrist. “I’m going to make you a cup of chamomile tea.”

Making your way across the street, you led him into your store, which you locked after entering, and up the stairs in the back to your apartment. Minutes later Rowoon was sitting on your couch, a steaming mug of tea in his hands. You were starting to get a little worried, as he’d yet to say a single word.

Sitting down beside him, you looked at him with concern. “Are you okay?”

He turned to look at you, the glaze that had previously taken over his eyes dissipating. “I think so,” Rowoon breathed out softly, taking a sip of tea. “I wasn’t expecting anything like that to happen in my store.”

Laughing quietly, you patted his arm. “I don’t think most people expect a woman to go into labor in their place of work, unless you’re at a hospital that is.”

Cracking a joke, it seems, was the right move. Rowoon was able to relax a bit more as your conversation went on. Stories were exchanged of the wildest things to happen in your stores, though you were pretty sure he won, what with what happened tonight. He expressed how amazed he was at your ability to keep calm in such a situation, praising how you’d even helped to calm the soon-to-be mother. That night, Rowoon stayed over- the two of you falling asleep on the couch with a worn-out blanket covering your legs, an old rerun playing in the background, his mug of tea sitting empty on the coffee table.

December 22nd, 20XX

Snow gently floated to the ground, setting the perfect atmosphere for the holidays. Normally it didn’t snow in this area until January, so it was exciting to see it appear before the new year. However, the snow did nothing to calm your nerves as you built the courage to go to the holiday party currently taking place in Rowoon’s cafe. Through the window you could see the crowd of people smiling and laughing, even managing to hear snippets of the music playing inside each time a new person went inside.

Wringing your hands, you finally resolved to pull yourself together and walk across the street. It couldn’t be that hard to step into a building you’d been in numerous times before, could it? Rowoon had invited you, said he was looking forward to seeing you there- you couldn’t just not go. With a particularly deep breath as your fuel, you stepped out of your store and quickly crossed the street after checking the road was clear. You hadn’t been in front of the door to the cafe for more than a second before it was opened by Rowoon himself, a bright smile on his face as he pulled you inside.

“I’m so glad you came!” His eyes crinkled at the edges. “Do you want some cider? Or hot chocolate? I also have eggnog, a few different wines and ales, or water, if you prefer.”

“So many options,” At your words, a dusting of color rose to Rowoon’s cheeks. “But I’ll have to go with the first one, cider.”

His hand remained wrapped around your wrist as he led you through the party, weaving around multiple groups of people, smiling and greeting them as he went. Rowoon only letting go of you to pour a cup of warm cider, which he handed to you with a grin. Shortly after, the two of you fell into a comfortable silence, observing the party-goers together. That is until someone came up, pulling Rowoon away for some reason you couldn’t quite catch. Rowoon had seemed reluctant to go, glancing back at you as he was led somewhere else.

As you didn’t really know any of the people at this party, you kept your place beside the refreshment table. Time passed by rather slowly as you watched everyone socialize, Rowoon having disappeared somewhere among them. Despite his tall stature you couldn’t manage to pick him out in the crowd. Heaving a sigh, you continued to sip at your drink, wondering how long you should stay. With the amount of people in the cafe, if no one stayed around to help Rowoon clean up, he’d probably be here hours afterward. Since he’d helped you on multiple occasions before, the desire was there to help him in return.

Although maybe it wasn’t just that you wanted to help him. Rather, maybe you just wanted to be alone with him. Your mind flitted back to the week prior, when Rowoon had invited you to the party.

He’d walked into your store, head bent slightly, teeth denting his lower lip, and almost walked right into a display of primrose and snowdrops. If you hadn’t moved fast enough he would have bulldozed right into that display, one that had taken you a bit of time to get just right. You had run right over to him, grabbing his wrist and jerking him away at the last second. Rowoon had looked up then, shocked as he stumbled and had to keep himself from toppling over.

“I’m sorry,” You’d apologized breathlessly. “I just spent so long on that display and you were about to walk right into it.”

Rowoon glanced back at where he’d just been, eyes widening a fraction. “No, I’m sorry I should’ve been paying attention. I was too lost in my thoughts.” He offered a sheepish smile.

Eyebrows raised, you cocked your head to the side. “What were you thinking about so deeply you forgot to pay attention to your surroundings?”

“Oh, I was thinking…” He paused for a minute, eyes flickering to the ceiling. “Of the holiday party I’m having next week. Would you be able to come?”

At first you’d been a bit hesitant, mainly because you were aware there’d most likely be a lot of people you didn’t know at the party. But Rowoon had managed to convince you to come. Besides, it was much too difficult to say no when he looked at you with hopeful eyes.

Hours passed by- hours you didn’t note because at one point you’d left the safety of the refreshment table to find Rowoon. Instead of finding him, though, you’d managed to find an old book of poetry half-hidden on a bookshelf. This book had kept you entranced as the party continued and as it eventually wound down.

“Enjoying yourself?”

You glanced up from the book to see Rowoon standing next to you, and the rest of the cafe empty. “Is the party over?”

He nodded, a tired smile overtaking his face as he sat next to you. “Yeah. Sorry I left you alone the whole time you were here. I kept trying to come and find you, but I kept getting pulled about by other people. Being a party host is exhausting.” Rowoon finished with a sigh, elbows coming up to rest on the table as he set his head in his hands.

“It’s fine,” You murmured, setting the book down on the table. “I managed to keep myself occupied.” Silence permeated the air between you for a minute before you stood up. “Do you need help cleaning up?”

“What? Oh no, you don’t need to help clean up.”

“But nobody else stayed behind to help. You shouldn’t have to clean this all by yourself, look at the mess!” You gestured at his cafe, which had empty paper cups and plates strewn about and streamers hanging loosely on the walls.

He stood up, taking in the state of his cafe, lips pursed. “You’re right, it will be hard to clean on my own.”

You waggled your eyebrows at him. “Of course I’m right! Now come on, let’s get to cleaning.”

Before you could walk away to find a dustpan and broom Rowoon’s hand grasped your wrist, stopping you in your tracks. “Wait, I… I need to tell you something first.”

Turning back to face him, head tilted, eyes focused on him. “What is it?”

He blinked rapidly, mouth opening and closing a few times before he blurted out a sentence so jumbled you couldn’t properly understand him. You had to ask him to repeat himself, which he did, but he was so quiet you couldn’t hear him.

Finally, after you couldn’t take the anxiousness anymore, you propped your hand on your hip. “Rowoon, please, will you just say whatever it is? It can’t be that difficult to say.”

“I’m so happy that I bought this place, and that I was able to meet you because of it. I don’t want to ruin our friendship if you don’t feel the same way as I do, but I need to tell you that I don’t want to be friends with you- I want to be more than that.”

You watched as he bit his lip, his eyes flitted nervously around the room as he awaited your response. “You want to be more than friends?” He nodded swiftly. “Are you saying you have feelings for me?” He nodded once more. A smile broke out onto your face, one that he hadn’t caught yet because he was avoiding looking at you. “Hmm, well, I guess we can’t be friends anymore.”

Rowoon’s eyes jerked to you, going wide, mouth parted slightly. “Huh?”

You stared at him innocently. “Does this automatically mean we’re a couple, or do we need to go on a date first?”

He sighed, relieved. “You really drew that out.”

Most people tended to grate your nerves. Most people made you want to whack your head against a door repeatedly. Most people were capable of making you wish for a solitary life. Most people felt like weeds, popping up at the most inconvenient of times. However, Rowoon wasn’t like most people. If he were compared to a weed, he wouldn’t be the kind that covers any and everything like Kudzu, rather he’d be the kind that helps a garden thrive, like Clover. In this way, it’s safe to say that he grew on you unexpectedly.

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