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klaumiel · 3 years

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You are all I’ve got, Austin.// Chapter 2: Mama Knows Best

I was sitting in my favourite armchair in my parent’s house, sipping tea and chilling like every other Saturday morning. She makes the best tea in the world, like a magic elixir for all my fears and problems. Checking my phone every few minutes, I looked at my mum sitting on the sofa focused on filing her long red nails. She is beautiful as always, so classy and sophisticated, with her beautiful long black and curly hair, big brown eyes. She looked like a proper lady in her brown pencil skirt and white shirt neatly pushed inside, long legs like a model, nobody can tell that she just turned fifty-two. She was glowing. And yet, there was this familiar sadness in her eyes, I’ve seen it so many times, this look when she stares in the distance lost in her thoughts, hurts me every time seeing her like this because I know exactly what it means.

Dad promised her that this will be his last deployment and he will retire so they can finally live their lives the way they wanted, but he said that last time as well and one before that. She knew that he always wanted to reach the Captain rank, and she let him follow his dreams. Even if that meant leaving us for months every year, missing Christmas, birthdays and challenging times. He got promoted four years ago and finally, after over thirty years in the army, he had his dream job. My mother never complained, she loves him too much, after all, he was her first love her ‘hero’ as he always calls him.

She was devoted to her work as a music teacher, that always helped her in worse times, we grew up with her beautiful songs and a voice of an angel, her powerful cante flamenco only proved how magical and emotional music can be.

It was tough for her to leave Sevilla, her family and friends, but she did it for love, for my Dad. My grandmother was against it, but she did it anyway. A nineteen years old music student with no language or money, completely alone only a handsome soldier that she fell in love with a few months before. She knew that she will have a beautiful life; she took a risk, and it paid off. Well, that’s what she uses to tell us, was it really what she always dreamt off? Being part-single single mother with two kids, praying every day for her husband to come back in one piece and not in the wooden box? I think she tried so hard to convince herself that in the end, she believed it.

She is the most caring and loving person I know, always two steps ahead of us catching us before we fall, still supporting even if what we are doing it’s just stupid and illogical.

We didn’t give her a hard time as kids, as twins, we naturally looked after one another without even thinking about it, if one was in trouble or going through a hard time the other one always knew. It always freaked me out how this is possible that being somewhere else I can still feel Shaun’s emotions and vice versa. We are the same in every aspect, like the same things, react the same way to everything.

‘Maya!’ She snapped me from my thoughts ‘I asked you if you want more tea and some cake? Lemon cheesecake your favourite.’ Did she just said lemon cheesecake !?

‘Oh my god, Mum! You don’t have to ask twice. You know that I would die for it’ She laughed and walked to the kitchen.

I looked at my phone again. Just a few silly messages from Gemma describing Greg’s best bed tricks. I swear she will eat this poor guy alive! After a few conversations with Greg, I convinced him to give her a chance, he finally understood that we can’t be together as the feeling wasn’t mutual.

They went on a date a few days after, and now they are inseparable, I felt a little guilty that I left this for so long I could’ve pushed them earlier to try.

I called Gemma while my mum was in the kitchen.

‘Hey, girl! What’s up?!’ She answered I could hear Greg in the background; I guess I just disturbed something. Did he just moan?!

‘Nothing much, I’m just chilling here with my mum and wanted to check how are you doing, but from your texts, and what I can hear I guessed you are nice and comfy whenever you are’ I laughed

‘Well, I’m with Greg … I had to pull him away from work, he spends way too much time working on things that don’t matter, he needs to relax, reports and taxes can wait until Monday I am more important right now’ she giggled

‘You know he is a workaholic, but I can see you are doing a great job in changing that, I’m glad to hear it. ‘

‘And how is your prison bae? Did you decide if you are going to visit him? I thought that was your plan for today, to surprise him. Did you chicken out?’ I checked if my mum wasn’t coming back from the kitchen, and I lowered my voice.

‘I didn’t chicken out, I called yesterday, but I was late for booking. Plus I am not sure if surprising him is a good idea, maybe I should discuss this with him first ‘ I saw my mum coming back from the kitchen.

‘Is your call girl, you know him better, but you have to make up your mind. Six weeks of only texting and sending hot pics is a long time. You are long overdue for the next level. Just don’t get too invested if you are not sure if you want to make a move, plus is not like you two have much of a future… I think you should look elsewhere is pointless to waste your time on him at this point, he has no future ’ Not much of a future ?! Waste my time?! What the hell was that about?! I was just about to call her out, but I saw my mum in the living room pouring tea and putting three plates on the table.

‘OK, Gemma, I have to go. Have fun, just make sure you can walk on Monday. Sara is only waiting for a chance to shame you in front of everyone…Bye’ I hang up before she could answer. I couldn’t believe that she said that. What got into her? She was very salty about the whole Austin situation from the start, and recently she avoided me. Just talking about herself and Greg. Even in the office, we didn’t chat as much as we use to. I was puzzled and hurt at the same time, that was so mean and entirely not like her.

I tossed my phone on the table with anger, and I was just about to dig into my cheesecake when I heard a doorbell.

‘I will get it Mum!’ I run to the door, I knew it was Shaun I could feel it, smiling from ear to ear, his black curls wet from the rain falling in his green eyes.

I am always so happy to see him, my little brother. Well, three minutes difference, but still, he is younger than me, and he hates it.

‘Hello, sis! I think I need a towel is absolutely lashing out there’ He said, shaking his wet hair while coming inside.

‘Here it is sweetheart, just in time, cake is on the table.’ My mum always two steps ahead, always prepared. She hugged him and dried his head with towel messing his hair up.

As soon as we sat down, I heard my phone ping. A familiar tune that made me smile each time I heard it. It was him! Of course, it was, I didn’t talk to anyone else there. I grabbed it as fast as I could, Shaun and Mum were busy chatting about some series on Netflix that I didn’t see, so I took the opportunity to focus on the conversation with Austin. He had a shitty day, so I decided to cheer him up a little. I’ve sent him a picture of me holding a tray with the pie that I’ve made the day before from the recipe he gave me. I was covered in flour from head to toe my hair was all messy. He joked about the mess I made in the kitchen. We talked about our favourite desserts, we had the same taste, so it wasn’t surprising to me when he said that lemon cheesecake is also his favourite. It was a short conversation, his time in the library was over. He kept his phone there, in one of the books.

I was happy to have at least this ten minutes with him. Made me feel better that I managed to cheer him up a little bit, he was a bit tense lately. I had a feeling he is hiding something, but I didn’t want to push him.

I’ve put my phone down, and I saw Shaun and Mum staring at me.

‘What?’ I asked nervously looking around myself to see what they are looking at. ‘Did I spill some tea? ‘

‘Who was that sweetie?’ My Mum smiled at me ‘Was it Albert?’ Why would she think it was Albert?

‘No, why you think it was Albert? I didn’t hear from him for weeks, plus we left it as they were. I don’t want to waste my time on him. I don’t even know when he is coming back, could be months. I made my decision, one soldier in the family is enough. I want my man to be next to me every day. I am not strong enough to go through the same as you’ her smile dropped instantly. Fuck! My big mouth again! ‘ Mum I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to..’

‘It’s ok love, I know what you mean, and I fully understand it’s not an easy life, and if you don’t feel like he is worth that kind of commitment you shouldn’t waste your time and wait for him. I stuck with your father because he was the one, still is but if you don’t feel like Albert is that’s only fair’ she paused for a second, and her smile came back ‘ So if not Albert who was it then? You were smiling and giggling the whole time. I didn’t see you like this for a long time.’

She was right, I didn’t feel like this for a long time, this whole Luke situation messed me up pretty badly.

‘It’s nothing, is just a guy from Lovelink that I am chatting with. Really, not a big deal’ She didn’t believe a word I said. Shaun shoot me an angry glance. Mum always knows when we are lying.

‘You are not getting away with this, not this time, you just blew your cover by giggling like mad! He knew about Austin, I told him everything, and I felt like it is time to share it with mum. At this stage, I was too deep into this, and she already knew that I am hiding something. We never had any secrets in the family, we made a promise that we need to share everything so we can help each other when we needed, and I didn’t want to break it.

I looked at my phone again and saw the last message from Austin.

“Bye messy pie ’’

I smiled. He is so fucking sweet, sometimes. Took a deep breath.

‘OK, I will tell you but please don’t freak out.’

She poured more tea to the mugs sat comfortably on the sofa, put her hands on her knees. She was ready, that’s what she thought, but she wasn’t.

‘About six weeks ago I matched with this guy, Austin Russo. I wasn’t sure at first, but I swiped because he intrigued me, I saw something interesting in him. See for yourself.’ I showed her his profile picture and the one he sent me a few weeks ago with his pop. I kept shirtless to myself.

‘Wow, handsome man. So far, so good.’ God, she is so not ready for that. Shaun smiled, he knew I was shitting myself, I didn’t want her to know.

‘Well, we really clicked, not right away. In the beginning, I thought that he is a bit of a prick, rude and arrogant, but he started to open up and … we were texting every day, getting to know each other. He is a bit rough around the edges but is getting better. I think I am bringing his soft side now. You will like that… he is a poet.’ I had to start with the right things, prepare her. She loves poetry.

‘Oh, that’s so romantic. You seem to like him.’

‘Yes, I do. I feel like we have a connection, even tho we’ve been only texting, we didn’t really meet in real life yet, but we have something special.’

‘ He didn’t take you for a date in six weeks? Why? That’s a red flag sweetheart ‘ Fuck! Here we go. Just say it! I looked at Shaun, begging for help, but he nodded reassuring me. I took a deep breath and looked at my Mum. My mouth was dry as sand, I took a big sip of tea, brushed my hair nervously She is going to flip.

‘Mum, we couldn’t go on a date because he is in prison’ My heart pounded in my chest, I desperately searched for her reaction. She had a poker face, but I knew she was shocked, she didn’t say anything because she knew this is not all ‘He was falsely accused of murder seven years ago.. he is innocent, but there is not enough evidence to prove it.’

She didn’t say anything, just looked away then down. I felt my eyes filling with tears. She is disappointed, she won’t even look at me. I caught Shaun looking at her. Finally, she said quietly slowly bringing her eyes back to me.

‘Well, this was unexpected.. how long is his sentence?’ Mum was very serious, but I could see that she cared, she was worried. There was approval in her piercing brown eyes. That approval that I needed right now.

‘He is on the death row.’ I nearly whispered, looking at the floor, tears flowing. I felt horrible. On one side, my mum, always wanting me to find a good Nobel man and have a perfect family, one that we never had. And on the other side Austin, the not ideal partner for her perfect daughter, another criminal

‘Oh my god, sweetie.’ She sat on the floor next to me, took my hands in hers and looked at me ‘Are you hundred per cent sure he is innocent?’

‘ Yes, I believe him.’ I whispered

I told her everything. How Austin and his pop ran a chop shop together, how his half-brother Bennie started using heavy drugs and his father kicked him out, so he decided to take them down with his new gang; they got into a fight and Bennie tried to shoot Austin but his pop pushed him away and took the bullet. Bennie and his thugs knocked Austin down and left him next to his dead father with the gun in his hand. Unfortunately, this was enough evidence to prove him guilty and sentenced to death.

I didn’t even notice that I was crying like a baby the whole time. I must’ve looked pathetic.

‘ I know that you think I must be stupid, he could be lying and just playing me, but I really have feelings for him. I can’t even explain it. I believe him, he would never kill his father, he loved him, I could feel it from the way he spoke about him.’ I took a deep breath trying to calm myself ‘I saw his rough side when we started talking, but now he is a different person… he opened up ‘ Suddenly all the thoughts of losing him went through my head

‘Mum... I have to help him … I don’t know how but I can’t let him die.’ I felt her arms wrapped around my shoulders when she squeezed to sit next to me. She wiped my cheeks and lifted my chin.

‘ Sweetheart, I would never think you are stupid. Love is never stupid, I would’ve been a complete hypocrite to think this way. You are my daughter, my whole world, and I love you with my whole heart. You are exactly like me when you fall for someone you fall deep. I can see that you care about this boy. And your golden heart won’t let you just leave him like that. Maya, if you believe he's innocent, I trust you’ She pointed at my phone ’ I don��t see a murderer in him, there is good in his eyes. And what’s most important you see a good person in him, you gave him a chance because you knew is right.’ Her expression softened ‘ We better start thinking about how we can help him.’

Shaun sat on the sofa, resting his head on his hands, suddenly he got up.

‘Sis, we will figure something out. There must be a way to get him out of this, talk to him see what you can learn. I’m sure he knows what to do but is holding back, is too proud to ask you for help. He is too young and definitely not ready to die…Listen… Dad will be back in a few weeks maybe he can pull some strings, in the meantime try to convince Austin to let you help him.’

I wasn’t expecting my mum to understand, but she saw something more than just a stupid girl falling in love with the guy who most likely will never see the outside world before saying goodbye to it. She felt my determination and will to get him out of this shit, and as always she was two steps ahead.

‘ What was the other evidence apart from the gun?’ She asked while walking back to the sofa

‘ Partial DNA on him, which by the way is the same as Bennie’s, if we could have his DNA that would be a full match. I’m sure that would be enough to prove him innocent. I spoke with him about this, but nobody knows where Bennie is now, and police aren’t even looking for him. Plus is not easy to convince Austin to let me help him, he is stubborn, he lived with the idea that there is no chance for him to get out for seven years and now when there is a small chance he is scared, he won’t admit it, but he is scared someone will get hurt because of him again.’

‘You have to convince him’ Shaun said ‘ I am sure he knows something, a guy like Bennie can’t just disappear without the trace unless they are dead. Then we are screwed… Talk to him and don’t do anything stupid alone, you have me’ He smiled and flicked my nose

Next day I spoke with Austin about the possibility of finding Bennie, of course, he didn’t want me to get involved. How someone can be so stubborn!?

But that day, I decided that I had enough of him pissing around. After he got stabbed in the library by few of Bennie’s thugs who tried to cut his tongue, to make sure he won’t speak before the execution.

This was the point in which I drew the line, it was too much. My man was in grave danger, and I suppose to sit with my arms crossed? No fucking way! But before he managed to get proper angry he told me that we will give it ago, he had information where Bennie was last seen, he sent me an address and asked me to wait until we make a plan. He clearly doesn’t know me as well as he thinks he does.’

The moment Austin went offline, I put the address in my GPS and drove there. I looked around the place that seemed to be a chop shop. Austin texted me when I was hidden behind the fence. He was fuming, I didn’t listen to him after all, he specifically told me to wait. Sorry not sorry, darling.

We confirmed that the bike outside the shop was Bennie’s, I went to look around searching for anything useful, but then my luck reached its end together with my common sense.

Bennie found me. I had only one chance to use this to my advantage, he was meters away from me. I only needed a bit of his hair, that's all.

I could stir it anyway I could, I had him right in front of me, but no. I did the only thing my stupid mind told me to.

I agreed to go on a date with a murderer. How wonderfully clever of me. Mama will be proud.

It was the stupidest idea ever, but it was the only chance I had to free Austin, or at least save his life.

Austin wasn’t happy with the idea, but he knew it is the only way. Only one shot, he’s the only door to freedom.

We planned everything, go in get the hair and get out. Simple as that. Nothing can go wrong, right? Right.

I called Shaun, I was stupid and desperate enough to go on a date a murderer but not dumb as to go there alone.

#austin russo #austin russo fanfic #lovelink #lovelink fanfic #love #fanfic #lovelink austin

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rainandhotchocolate · 4 years

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Coffee and Books

A/N it’s day TWO FOLKS - this is a coffee shop au kind of thing, super fluffy, literally just fluff. and fluff. anyway enjoy the fluff xx

Sirius watched as Y/N heaved the large packaged box through the front door of Grub Street Books as he absentmindedly washed a large glass over and over again in his hands.

“Stop staring you freak,” James elbowed him, grinning as Sirius had to stumble forwards to avoid breaking the glass in his hands.

“I wasn’t staring,” He grumbled, giving another quick glance out the window and across to where Y/N had been standing. She was gone. Sirius looked away quickly, trying to look busy stacking up the rest of the glasses on top of the coffee machine before the 6am rush. James was babbling behind him about his latest attempt to get one of their regulars, Lily, a pretty redhead who ordered 3 shots of coffee and sat working on her computer furiously for hours on end. He nodded along slowly, ducking under the counter to grab more glasses.

“Uh hello?”

A voice came from above the counter, making Sirius jump and bang his head on the shelf.

“Oh hi, hello, oh hey!” Sirius brushed his hair out of his face, surprised to see Y/N standing in front of him, smiling expectantly.

They both spoke simultaneously.

“You’re not usually in this early.”

“Could I grab a strong three-quarter latte?”

“Oh sorry, of course, I normally prepare regulars orders in advance so it will just take a few minutes.” Sirius backtracked, feeling his cheeks flush as he spoke over her again.

“Oh, we are trialling opening earlier to get people walking to work,” Y/N laughed loudly, a throaty sound that made her whole-body shake. Sirius had a pang in his chest as he heard it and struggled to not lean on his forearm and watch her.

“Ok so mornings don’t suit either of us then,” Y/N breathed out a final laugh, smiling brightly at him. Sirius was desperately trying to calm his heart doing acrobatics in his chest.

“Yeah,” He smiled back at her, “You’d think I’d be much better since I do this every day.”

“Perhaps you need some coffee,” She winked and moved to the other side of the counter where patrons usually waited for food. Sirius went to reply but instead opened and closed his mouth before moving towards the coffee machine, cursing internally. James sniggered from behind him as he poured out a double shot and tried to ignore him.

“Oh, shut up, you can’t get a date to save your life,” He hissed in response, but instead of putting James out, his grin grew wider.

“Just you wait, you’ll be at our wedding,” James replied, pushing Sirius forwards and towards where Y/N was walking, “Talk to her.”

“What do I say?”

“Anything!”

“Did you get your haircut?” Sirius called towards Y/N who had turned around to wave goodbye and stopped clumsily to hear him.

“Oh,” She reached out and felt the edge of her hair, “Yeah, I put some colour in it.”

“It’s…nice.”

“Thanks, it was due for a change,” She smiled at him, still twirling her finger through her hair, “uh, so see you.”

“Yeah,” Sirius waved at her, turning to face the counter and putting his head directly onto it.

“That was not smooth,” Sirius raised his head to see Lily standing in front of him, a smirk playing on her lips as she pulled off her large winter coat.

“Shut up, Miss workaholic, I’m yet to see you make conversation with any potential dates,” Sirius glared at her, placing a glass underneath the coffee machine where James had begun making her order but became periodically distracted with her dark green, figure hugging sweater.

“You have yet to see me outside this café, I do well enough thanks,” Lily winked at Sirius, taking the glass of triple expresso and taking her regular spot at the counter. At first, Sirius had wondered why she bothered sitting at the counter when she seemed to seethe at James’ general existence and constant attempts to ask her out on a date, but he’d soon seen the soft smiles she gave when James wasn’t looking, mostly when the next door neighbours kids came in and he gave them all babycinos with different little pictures in the milk and chatted with them as they stared up at him with awe.

“She is right, that was awful.”

“Yeah thanks mate, that definitely needed to be said,” Sirius grumbled, turning on his hospitality smile, the one that always got him extra tips, and facing the queue of early morning customers who had begun to trek into the café, leaving a trail of wet snow and rain at the entrance.

The day was a long one, it always seemed to get significantly busier when the holidays began, customers wanting a warm drink and to stare at the cold weather from the large glass windows. Sirius was happy for the distraction, wanting to completely forget he ever spoke to Y/N like an absolute prat and focus on the regulars instead. Lily stayed later than usual, still tapping away loudly at her computer when James and Sirius had begun closing up, James humming jingle bells (which had been blasting through the speakers all afternoon) as he mopped the floors.

“I’ve seen you with other customers,” Lily said suddenly, not looking up at Sirius. Sirius had semi-forgotten she was there as he cleaned out the coffee machine and turned to her in surprise.

“What?”

“I’ve seen you chatting to other customers, girls who come through, you could flirt the panties off an old lady.”

“Did I ever tell you how charming you are?” Sirius rolled his eyes, deflecting her insinuation. He knew he was a bit of a flirt; it was something he’d learnt from his parents. Dress well, compliment something specific, plaster a shit-eating grin on your face, and people will trust you. It was automatic at this point, having worked in hospitality for the last 5 years it was ingrained into his system, and as much as he’d rather not thank is parents for anything, it had definitely gotten him a few good nights.

Lily sighed at him, finally closing her laptop and leaning over the counter. Her bright green eyes were a little mesmerising as she glared up at him. Sirius had the sudden thought that perhaps James made her mad just to see this look.

“You get at least one phone number a day, and you can’t even have a fucking conversation with this girl? What’s the deal?”

Sirius continued cleaning the coffee machine, ignoring her continued stare and irritating silence. He groaned, putting down the large bottle of detergent.

“I actually like her, ok? Its like my whole body shuts down when she’s around and I become this… blithering idiot of a human being.”

Lily suddenly broke into a huge smile. Sirius gave her a suspicious look.

“What…”

“Sirius is in love!” Lily cried, her smile somehow getting wider, eyes twinkling up at him. The noise caught the attention of James who was still humming the same three lines of jingle bells. He skipped up to the counter, leaning against it and looking similarly up at Sirius.

“I’m sorry, do repeat that for me, would you?” James put his hands under his chin and crooked his head. Sirius wanted to swipe out a hand and make his hands fall out from underneath him.

“This little immature boy is in love!” Lily said again, without a hint of sarcasm towards James, still grinning. It took James a second to realise that she wasn’t making a snipe at him.

“I -uh, oh!” James’ eyes flickered between Lily and Sirius, hiding his confusion terribly. Lily ignored him regardless, beginning to pack her things back into her large tote bag.

“Just talk to her, pick a subject to ask her about or something, it’s sad seeing you so… well desperate,” Lily gave him a slightly apologetic look before standing up, “Alright, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.

James watched her as she walked out of the café, already on her phone.

“Ok, she’s in love with me,” James lifted his arms up, fists clenched, a look of triumph plastered on his face.

“She was nice to you one time, and that’s your conclusion?”

“You’ve got to have hope, my poor lost in love friend,” James patted his shoulder sagely. Sirius twisted around and pushed him off playfully.

“I’ll kill you,” Sirius grabbed his oversized trench coat and gloves, starting to turn off all the lights as James followed suit.

“You couldn’t live without me,” James made kissing noises, dodging out of the way as Sirius swung towards his ribs.

They locked up and began walking towards their apartment three streets over. The wind was howling now, making the trees lined up across the street sway dangerously over the power lines. Sirius pulled his coat tighter around him, forcing himself to keep looking forwards instead of flicking his eyes back to see if the light was still on in Y/N’s store. I wonder if she is by herself-

“You’ve got the keys, mate,” James nudged him, looking expectantly at the front door they were now standing in front of, pulling Sirius out of his thoughts.

“Right, right,” He replied absent-mindedly, pulling out the large set of keys he kept on hand and finding the right one to bring them into the warmth of their home. They’d lived together ever since school finished, even though James’ parents lived two suburbs over in a huge terrace house near Hyde Park. Whilst James was one of the messiest people Sirius’ had ever come across, and possibly had no idea how to cook anything other than omelettes and stir-fry’s, they’d yet to get into a proper argument that wasn’t just about Sirius distracting James when they were playing FIFA. Which is likely why Sirius’ cranky mood sparked James’ interest.

“What is wrong,” He elongated each vowel, trailing after Sirius who had thrown his coat across the couch and began thumping his way into his bedroom, “Is it just about this girl? What’s her name, Y/N? You really weren’t that bad this morning.”

“Can you just, please, leave me alone for a minute,” Sirius kept his voice calm, not wanting James to start prodding him with his bony fingers.

“Alright, alright,” He put his hands up in defeat, “I’m ordering Indian if you want some.”

Sirius grunted a yes, kicking off his boots outside his room and laying face forward on the bed. Idiot idiot idiot.

Y/N had started working at the shop next door a nearly a year ago now, replacing the previous manager who had come into Sirius & James’ café every morning and complained that their service was too slow. She’d come in and introduced herself, and Sirius dropped a whole tray of saltshakers across the floor. He wasn’t quite sure what it was that made him so nervous. Maybe it was way her smile took over her whole face, crinkling her nose and making her eyes close-up slightly and her dimples show. Or the parade of brightly coloured coats she seemed to own that seemed to both clash and go with what she was wearing all at once. Or when he’d asked her about her favourite books and her eyes lit up like a child and her voice got louder and louder when she spoke about her favourite characters. Or perhaps it was because she was god damned pretty.

Sirius groaned into his pillow as James called out that food had arrived, joining him on the couch in silence. After a moment, James turned to face Sirius, an unreadable expression on his face.

“Do you… do you think that Lily actually likes me… just like, as a person?” James said earnestly.

“I…” Sirius was thrown a little of guard, a spoonful of dahl still in his mouth. He swallowed quickly, “I mean, yeah, I think so. I think she just doesn’t really like when you act like a twat around her.”

“Mm,” James turned back to his food, looking pensive. Sirius thumbed the spoon he was holding a little awkwardly.

“You just need to stop harassing her, act like a normal human being. She always watches you with other customers, you know.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really, I’m not going to make shit up to make you feel better,” Sirius gave him a smile, shoving him slightly.

“Y/N watches you too you know. When you’re making her coffee, she basically can’t take her eyes off you.”

“Mm,” Sirius kept his face neutral but could feel his heart rate spiking.

“Anyway, want to play FIFA?”

The next morning snow had begun to fall heavily, wind banging against the windows of James and Sirius’ apartment. James was huddled around a bowl of hot porridge as Sirius came into the kitchen to grab some breakfast before they made their way to the café.

“Are people even going to come today, it’s so bloody cold,” James groaned, watching the snow fall outside the window.

“You know it will be stupidly busy,” Sirius muttered, rubbing his eyes. He felt like he’d barely slept, going over what he could have said, should have said, to Y/N. James groaned again, leaning back into their large brown armchair.

The snow had become slush, and made what was normally a 5-minute walk, 15. Reaching the corner of the street Sirius noticed a small figure huddled out the front of the café, wrapped in a large deep red coat, head dipped to avoid the wind. When the figure noticed the two boys, they looked up, giving them a warm smile and making Sirius want to melt into the pavement once he realised it was Y/N.

“Hey!” She called out, standing up and brushing the snowflakes off her shoulders. James pushed Sirius in front of him as they reached the front door.

“Uh, hey! What are you doing here? I mean, not in a bad way, it’s great that you’re here, but like it’s cold a-“Sirius shut up with another kick from James.

“Yeah, sorry, I’ve been locked out,” she grimaced, dancing on the spot a little to keep warm as James unlocked the door. Sirius had the urge to wrap his arms around her. James pushed the door open and let her in with a smile, turning into a go and fucking talk to her glare when Sirius reached the doorway.

“What happened?” Sirius gave James a scowl in response and followed Y/N into the café.

“The lovely owner decided to change all the locks last night. She said there would be a spare key in the letterbox but there is nothing,” Y/N huffed, pulling off her coat and gloves, rubbing her hands together to warm them up, “I’m so glad you guys are here early, I have to wait for her to come in and knowing her it will be at least another hour.”

“You’re lucky it’s snowing out, we normally leave a lot later,” James grinned at her, pushing Sirius over from the coffee machine so that he could make her coffee and force Sirius into talking instead.

“That’s why I’m here early too, anticipated falling over at least 4 times on the way over,” Y/N turned her smile on Sirius, her y/e/c eyes gazing into his.

“So, you, uh, live near here as well then?”

“Yeah! Just around the corner, moved closer when I got the job. Where do you live?”

“About three blocks away, with James.”

“Oh wow, what’s it like working and living together?” Y/N laughed, and Sirius’ stomach jolted.

“Haven’t killed him yet, so not awful,” Sirius grinned back at her, leaning against the counter.

“I just moved into a place by myself, I’m still not sure if I like having no roommates or not, but at least I’m not cleaning every fucking afternoon,” She shook her head, turning her smile on James as he handed her the mug of coffee.

“You’re telling me! This one doesn’t know how to do his own laundry,” Sirius pointed at James who looked affronted.

“What! How old are you? How can you not know how to do laundry!” Y/N’s smile grew wider as they fell into easy conversation about James’ lack of ability to function without his family.

A loud alarm went off on Sirius’ phone, making both Sirius and Y/N jump.

“Oh shit, we need to open shop,” Sirius swore, rushing to grab the coffee from the storeroom as James finished setting up each table and swung around the open sign.

Lily was the first through the door, grumbling about being stuck in the cold for an extra 2 minutes than she’d planned this morning. She stopped short when she saw Y/N sitting on the counter, a smirk playing on her lips.

“Hello there,” Lily dropped her bag next to Y/N and held out a hand, “I’m Lily.”

“Oh, Y/N. Are you a regular here?” Y/N glanced at Sirius who had stared on Lily’s order and nodded.

“You could say that, so you’re the Y/N who works across the road yes? At the bookstore?”

“Uh, yes,” Y/N breathed out a laugh, “Have you been in before?”

“Once or twice,” Lily gave Sirius a mischievous smile, ignoring his eyes flashing at her.

Sirius went to interrupt them but a line had formed behind the counter and the first customer had begun tapping obnoxiously on the linoleum floors.

“Sorry, been a bit of a mess this morning, what can I get for you?”

The morning rush, as Sirius predicted, was worse than usual, with many people using their café as an excuse to get out of the cold for a few minutes. Sirius watched out of the corner of his eye Y/N and Lily continue to chat, giggling to each other every few minutes. He felt sick, what was she telling her.

Finally, the crowd eased, and Sirius turned back to where Y/N and Lily had been sitting to find some excuse to steal Y/N away, but she was gone. He stared at the spot momentarily, Lily having already pulled out her laptop and was tapping away aggressively, before he heard a small cough in front of him.

“Sirius?” Y/N had pulled on her coat and was standing in front of him.

“Oh hey, I thought you’d left-“But Y/N interrupted before Sirius could embarrass himself further.

“Lily was telling me that you were having trouble finding a new book to read, you should come by after work, I’ll grab you some new books,” Y/N smiled brightly, grabbing her coat and waving goodbye to James.

“Oh, yeah, that sounds good,” Sirius beamed, waving her off into the snow. His heart was in his throat. What just happened?

“Success!” Lily looked over her laptop, having obviously just eaves dropped on their entire conversation, grinning at him.

“What did you do?”

“Exactly what she said, that you were looking for a good read,” Lily shrugged, “It’s really not that hard when she’s so clearly into you.”

Sirius scowled at her but couldn’t help feeling a slightly bit grateful for her intervention.

“Also, where’s James today? He hasn’t annoyed me once, I was worried he might have died,” Lily returned to her laptop, but Sirius was sure he didn’t miss the flush that hit her cheeks.

“Oh, he’s around, perhaps he’s realised you’re not interested,” Sirius winked at her.

The rest of the day seemed to drag, each minute to 6pm ticking along so slowly Sirius swore that the clocks had stopped multiple times throughout the day. Finally, the last customer had left, and Sirius had begun biting his nails whilst he wiped the counter down again.

“Oh my god, go Sirius, before you go insane,” James grabbed the towel from his hands and swapped it with his trenchcoat, “Come on.”

“Alright, alright,” Sirius swatted him away, pulling on the coat, pausing when he reached the door, “Are you sure you can close down everything by yourself?”

“Stop stalling you freak, go.”

Sirius gave him a grimace as James gave him the finger and indicated for him to leave again. Wrapping the Trenchcoat around himself he stepped into the bracing wind, watching carefully for cars before running across the road to Grub Street Books. The lights were still on, but Y/N had turned the open sign around to deter any customers. He knocked on the door, feeling supremely awkward about knocking on the door of a store, watching as Y/N looked up from what she was reading and smiled, bounding down from the sales desk to meet him.

“You came!” She ushered him in, closing the door quickly to keep out the cold.

“Well you know, can’t turn down free books,” Sirius breathed out a laugh watching her move back to the desk.

“Who said they were free?”

“Oh, I’m sorry I just presumed, I – “

“I’m kidding,” Y/N laughed, and Sirius felt himself let go of the breath he was holding. Get a grip, Black.

“Sorry, I’m a bit all over the place today,” He met her at the desk, “So what books can you recommend me?”

“Well I might need a bit of help on your end, given there’s about 20 billion books out there. What are you into?”

“Thrillers, mostly. A bit of sci-fi?” Sirius pulled a hand through his hair, enjoying watching Y/N’s eyes trail his hands before meeting his.

“Ok, I can work with that, give me a second,” She slipped away towards the bookshelves, humming something Sirius couldn’t quite make out. Sirius leaned against the counter, trying to avoid biting his nails. The store was small, but in a quaint way that felt like you could sit in the corner and read for hours without realising it. Sirius had only been in a few times, given that the previous manager was a dick, and his working hours usually overlapped, but he noticed that Y/N had put up a couple of large posters of classic rock bands along the walls.

“So, there’s three I can think of right now that I reckon, you’ll like,” Y/N came out of the shadows holding three, very large books.

“Three is plenty, I’m a very slow reader,” Sirius grinned as she came and displayed them in front of him, standing by his side. Sirius couldn’t help but wonder how easy it would be to just slip his hand on the small of her back, or into her fingers. He could feel her body heat radiating into his shoulder, her hair inches away from his.

“Well I’ve read this one,” She pointed to the largest, a book called Dune with a sunset colour across the front cover, “it is quite long because it’s like multiple books in one? But definitely worth the read.”

She turned to gauge his reaction, her face suddenly inches from his. Sirius swallowed hard, desperately trying to avoid glancing down at her perfectly shaped, soft pink lips…

“Uh, yeah… that one sounds… good,” Sirius breathed out slowly, still watching her closely. Y/N hadn’t moved either, keeping her eyes latched on his. Fuck it.

He leaned slightly closer, his heartbeat getting louder and louder in his chest as he breathed in the smell of her shampoo and watched her inch close to him as well. His hand crept around her hips and pulled her in suddenly, pressing his lips softly against hers. She leaned into him, placing her arms around his neck as they moved slowly together.

Sirius pulled away first, feeling exceedingly giddy, looking down at her with a goofy smile.

“I was sort of hoping you would do that,” She breathed out, smiling up at him as well.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I was worried I’d have to get out the mistletoe,” Y/N smirked, still leaning in close to his chest.

“I actually have something else I wanted to ask you,” Sirius murmured, loving the feeling of her stomach pressed up against him, his arms around her waist.

“Is that so?”

“Did you want to get dinner sometime?”

“No.”

“Oh, I- “

“Not some time, what about tonight,” Y/N bit her lip, still smirking at him.

“Give me a heart attack why don’t you,” Sirius closed his eyes, shaking his head at her as he barked out a laugh.

“So, you free?”

“As a bird.”

“You definitely need to read more if that’s what you’re going with,” Y/N laughed again, a little nervously. Sirius wanted to revel in it, the slight hitch in her breathing as she looked up at him.

“You’re probably right.” Sirius wasn’t smiling now, but watching her, standing in front of him.

“What?”

“Nothing, you’re just… very beautiful.”

Y/N flushed a bright red.

“Well that’s a bit better,” She ducked her head, but Sirius lifted up again with his hand and leaned in to kiss her once more.

“So, dinner?” He said softer now, his forehead leaning against hers.

“Dinner.”

Taglist: @averytruerayofsunshine @siriuslyjanhvi @blushingskywalker @blackpinkdolan @thebabblingbookworm @cherrie511 @imlukesnirvana @avengersassemblee @maraudersandco @sly-vixen-up2nogood @katbernoulli @sirius-lysad @evyiione @minerva26love @aikeia @gollyderek @greatwombatblaze @songforhema @your-typical-giggle @myownviperroom

Advent taglist: @maraudersandco @gollyderek

#rainandhotchocolate #sirius x reader #sirius fanfiction #sirius black x reader #sirius imagine #sirius black imagine #sirius black fanfiction #marauders #james potter #marauders imagine #marauders x reader

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purplesurveys · 3 years

Text

1230

When was the last time you felt like “getting into someone’s pants”? Way back last year.

What is your favorite energy drink, if you have a favorite at all? I find energy drinks nasty.

Would you have kids with the last person you kissed? That wouldn’t be possible even in the literal sense.

Do you know someone who threatens to kill themselves? Before.

Would you ever completely dye your hair the color green? Yes, but I would opt for a darker shade rather than a bright or neon one.

Have you ever been in a long-distance relationship before? I have not. Thinking about it, I’m pretty low-maintenance so I could probably handle it if I ever find myself in that situation, as long as I’m invested enough in the relationship and my partner.

What is your favorite food to eat around Christmas? I like anything my family prepares really, but I definitely go for lumpia first if I see a whole container of it.

Do the people in your town speak like rednecks? No and I’m not sure if we have an equivalent for that here.

When was the last time you cried happy tears? Like a week ago when the Permission to Dance video came out. The ending when everyone was taking off their masks and smiling was really heartwarming.

How liberal are you? Enough to make most of my relatives uncomfortable.

Would you mind living near large predatory animals? Yes. I’ve lived in gated villages all my life so it will take a lot of getting used to.

Have you ever experienced altitude sickness? I don’t think so. The ‘worst’ I’ve experienced is just feeling pressure in my ears and having weakened hearing whenever we drive up mountains; it takes a while before mine do the popping thing and I get my normal hearing back.

What’s your biggest priority right now? To be consistent at improving at my job and making fewer mistakes as I go. I shared this with my boss recently and she told me not to worry too much as I’m doing better than I think I am and that the mistakes I beat myself about have actually been small and fixable ones, but the perfectionist/workaholic in me just refuses to be reassured lol.

If you’ve stayed overnight in a hospital, how did you entertain yourself? The last time this happened, public wi-fi was still mostly a myth so I had to contend with A LOT of forced napping just to make the time pass by. I didn’t have a phone either, so my experience was extremely dull and boring.

Are your hands unsteady? They’re not surgeon-level stable but I think they’re fine for the most part.

Do you listen to a lot of mainstream music? I used to until I got into BTS. I haven’t really listened to any other artist since getting into them back in April lol.

Do you think you’re pretty? Some days.

Have you ever added someone you don’t know on Facebook? Yeah, a few work contacts like bloggers whose names I recognized but have never talked to/engaged with.

Do you have dirty pictures in your phone? Nope.

Have you ever looked up porn on the internet? Yes. I have my on-and-off phases when it comes to porn though and these days I don’t watch a lot of it.

Would you ever shoot someone right in the face? In a case of self-defense where I was clearly trying to be killed, that's right where I would aim. But otherwise, of course I wouldn't. < Sounds about right. But holy shit that sounds like it would look so gross.

Have you ever sold drugs? I’ve never been around drugs ever.

Did you ever try cutting yourself? It was a coping mechanism many, many moons ago.

Who’s the last guy you texted? It was a - surprise surprise - delivery guy who needed directions again to my house.

Who do you know that wears the most make up? I’m not sure, but then again most people I know don’t really put on makeup these days because lol Covid and stay-at-home orders??

Do any of your friends have kids? None of my friends do but I know several acquaintances and people from high school who’ve already given birth.

Have you ever been tied up? Yeah.

How many times have you been cussed out? Nearly everyday as a teenager.

Are you anyone’s first love? I think?

Have you ever had an out-of-body experience? Nope.

Do you have more than one personality? Nope.

Do you prefer gory horror films or the psychological ones? Psychological ones for sure, but I don’t mind gore as well as long as it’s fun to watch and that it’s not too corny.

Do you have a favorite YouTuber or do you not watch much YouTube? I haven’t watched a lot of YouTubers these days, but very recently I’ve been gravitating towards soothing vloggers like Anna Park and Mejiwoo. Their vlogs are greeeeaaaaat and I’m excited to discover similar creators so I can watch more videos that carry the same vibe.

Are you a good dancer? I dance only when alone or when drunk. That said, I’m no good at all.

If you could find one long-lost friend of the past, who would it be? Continued from yesterday. It’d be nice to reconnect with Raegan for like a day, just to catch up. Then again I’ve since been able to track her down on social media, so it’s nice to be able to see how she’s doing, at least from afar.

Was your sixth grade teacher a man or a woman? The teacher-in-charge of my section was a woman. They didn’t really appoint guy teachers to be TICs until recently.

Have you ever had any teeth pulled? Yeah, but it had been a decayed tooth at that point that really needed to be pulled since it technically didn’t have a purpose anymore.

Do you wash your hair or your body first when taking a shower? Hair.

Have you ever been to a nursing home? I don’t think so.

Have you ever lived in a house that has been broken into? Fortunately, no. My mom’s childhood home was robbed though, and their grand piano ended up being stolen :( To this day they have no clue how the thieves were able to pull it off without making too big of a fuss.

Is there someone in your life you don’t want in it? I don’t think I dislike anyone that much at the moment.

How many different people of the opposite sex have you cried over? Three. Two of them because they died, and the other one is my dad for the times we had to drive him to the airport though I only cried over it only as a kid.

Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with? Andi.

Has anyone ever told you they were in love with you? Yes.

Pretending to “never get the text” from someone who annoys you. Is that you? Not really. I reply, just not quickly enough.

If your ex came up to you and asked you to take them back, what would you say? Honest to god I would probably be smug about it, and ask what led to the sudden change of mind. I’m doing too okay now to entertain the request though, so idk if I would agree to it or not because I’ve worked pretty hard to get here.

Do you prefer boys to shave down there? I wouldn’t know; I’ve never been with a guy before so I haven’t really had a chance to establish a preference.

How much does your mother know about your sex life (or lack thereof)? Nothing.

Do you enjoy watching cooking shows? I have my moods. I prefer my cooking shows on YouTube, though.

Do you worry about gaining weight? No.

Have you ever seen the movie A Walk to Remember? Cliche or worth watching? Yeah the acting was so fucking cheesy the first 5 minutes the only thing left for me to do was gag. What’s one event your town has that you don’t like to participate in? They don’t really organize stuff here, or if they do I never join them to begin with.

Are any of your siblings married? What are their spouses' names? Nope. I know my sister doesn’t want to get married + I don’t speak to my brother, so I dunno if I’ll ever have any in-laws tbh.

Do you like being home alone or does it freak you out? Well obviously I crave it these days, so it actually feels nice when everyone in the family has errands to run on the same day.

Did you lose friends when you started dating someone? I lost Sofie, but I also blame college life for that loss.

Did you leave milk and cookies for Santa when you were little? No.

To who did you last give the finger to? I haven’t had to flip someone off in a while. I’m guessing just some stupid driver.

Do you talk in your sleep? Nope. At least I have never been informed that I do.

Do you have a good relationship with your parents? It’s civil enough for the house to stay quiet most days, but it’s nothing excellent.

Have you ever been a featured member on any website? I don’t think so.

Do you feel that your previous relationships were a waste of time? Yes.

Do you prefer hot chocolate with or without marshmallows? Without. I HAAAAAATE marshmallows.

Which do you like better: Regular cakes or cookie cakes? I never got the point of cookie cakes tbh lol.

Have you ever been hit by the opposite sex? No.

If your significant other cheated on you, would you take them back? I know I definitely have the capacity to be dumb enough to do this, but it would also depend on how invested I am in the person.

What was the last song you listened to? I'm currently listening to a slowed down version of Jungkook’s cover of Biebs’ 2U. 4 AM things.

What do you look for most in a friendship? I’ve answered this question on a previous survey, same with a few of the following questions.

#survey #surveys

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catbowserauthor · 3 years

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A preview of the next TMNT Empathy story “Aftershocks”

So it’s been forever and day since I worked on my TMNT Empathy series but I got inspired tonight and am finally making progress with the next story, which takes place directly after “Damage.” Or, right after Kala has severed ties with Michelangelo. Here’s a short little preview.

@brightlotusmoon

***

Mess with me and I will let karma do its job. Mess with my family and I will BECOME karma.-Unknown

“This way.”

Michelangelo gave a slight yelp as Raphael pulled him along. He barely had time to straighten his hat to hide his appearance before his older brother was dragging him into the nearby doors. “Dude, why the rush? You have been acting mondo-bizarro.” That was the understatement of the year. First and foremost, when he had dragged himself out of bed, he had been utterly dumbfounded that there was no one shouting at him to get to the dojo. Early morning practice came even before breakfast but no one was rushing him along. When he had rushed into the dojo, certain that he was late, it was empty. Thinking he was beyond late and certainly due for a lecture that would make his ears bleed, he ended up running through the Lair only find that Master Splinter had merely left a note that he had taken Leonardo with him for some meditation practice away from the noise of the Lair.

But what noise? It was silent! Not even workaholic Donatello in his lab!

At least until Raphael practically ambushed him outside the main entrance (“Thanks for the heart attack, compadre!”) and threw the trench coat on him before pulling him through the sewers, proclaiming about them going to be late for the “best morning ever!” He had begun babbling about how there was a special going on with breakfast pizza and how the House of HaHa had their “best acts” performing all day and then how Donatello had some type of special surprise for them before lunch and then they were going to have to raid the comic shops when they opened.

Michelangelo was officially freaked out.

The red banded turtle gave his brother a cheeky grin, rolling his eyes, “Since when does the party-turtle turn down a good time?”

Cocking a suspicious brow ridge, the teenager responded “And since when does my super-cranky amigo become Mister Rogers?”

Raphael pouted, though it never seemed to look right on his face. That was more of a Michelangelo move and even then, not very often. So, he instead pasted another smile on his face, “What, I can’t want to spend some time with my bud every so often?”

Michelangelo tensed “Aw, man, amigo, did you get hit with Donatello’s Personality Alterator again?” That HAD to be the only reason for this maximum-weirdiozo behavior! Raphael, while not cruel, was also not the spoiley, let’s-have-a-guys-day type of turtle. He would go along with it if you pestered or offered but actually instigating it? This was Outer Limits-level odd! Outer Limits crossover with Twilight Zone-kind of odd! If it wasn’t so unnerving, he’d really be enjoying it but given it was such a random shift….he had so many things on his mind after…after Friday night…and he really didn’t need dissecting a brother’s totally nutsoid behavior added to the list.

“Will you stop giving me the tenth degree and just come on?!” Raphael snapped. He stood, pushing his sibling into one of the chairs near the front of the club. There weren’t a lot of people; never really were for a morning show as the House of HaHa was definitely more of a ‘night club’ type of scene but that didn’t mean they didn’t have any acts in the morning. The owner had been proclaiming about it being “a day of laughter” all last week, promising “our best acts every hour!” so Raphael thought it was the perfect spot! After all, he always got a kick of it. His brother could be a LITTLE more appreciative.

“Okay,” Michelangelo admitted with a half laugh, “THERE is Raphael.”

Rolling his eyes, Raphael flagged down one of the servers and asked for “your largest breakfast pizza, all the fixings, and a pitcher of Coke,” before sitting down across from his brother, “Look, sorry that I’m trying to give you a good time. Should I mark it down that Michelangelo wants to foot the bill then?”

Shaking his head, Michelangelo clarified, “It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, compadre.” He stressed that. “It’s a bodacious idea…breakfast pizza and a free morning…but why?” No lying there. A breakfast pizza, soda and a morning to not worry about training or exercises was totally righteous! That didn’t mean that he didn’t wonder what brought it on though!

Raphael shrugged “Eh, seemed like a good idea and I wasn’t about to turn down Sensei stealing Leonardo.”

Michelangelo nodded, though he didn’t believe him (he knew his brother too well) but their attention was divided when the first comedian made his way up to the stage, obviously not happy at the small group (there were only about three other tables with customers) but when you were a starting comic, you didn’t exactly get top billing. The House of HaHa rarely got what you would call “top notch” comics (given its small size) so it wasn’t usual for small, beginner comics to try their routine on the group. Sometimes with good results, sometimes with bad.

The red banded turtle HOPED the owner hadn’t been lying about the “best acts” part. He needed good comics. He needed to get a laugh out of his younger brother! No more of this mopey, sad and depressed Michelangelo. He couldn’t take it!

Raphael grinned and nudged his brother, “Hey, it’s Joey! Remember him?”

Michelangelo couldn’t say so much he remembered him so much as he recognized him. When they’d saved Raphael from Barney Stockman and Pinky McFingers and their ‘Gag-a-magnifier’ (seriously, who came up with these names?) there had been two comedians with Raphael and this older man was one of them. Apparently, he was still semi-popular as a few of the patrons seemed to recognize him. Michelangelo wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing but he took a sip of water that was offered and focused his attention.

Raphael wanted him to laugh, to feel better. If he was any more blatant about it, it would have been announced with a gong. Raphael had never been good about covering up his emotions, at least as far as Michelangelo was concerned. After the…disaster of a date Friday night, he’d finally gone to bed and had moped around the Lair most of Saturday. When he woke up today, he really didn’t feel much better and would have liked nothing more than to just lay around the Lair doing nothing but what could he do when Raphael had been so insistent? His brother was trying to cheer him up and judging by his statement that Donatello would be joining them later, his other siblings were in on it too. Pretty sweet of them. For all their teasing towards one another, they did love each other, just had different ways of showing it.

So, while Michelangelo inwardly cringed at what might pass for ‘funny’, he had to give a half smile as he went along with it. “Sort of…” he offered his brother but opted not to finish because Joey was starting his routine.

“’Morning Folks,” Joey greeted them. “Glad to see you all. Got a whole new load of questions for you today!” He paused, seemingly for dramatic effect, “So, the other day, I’m chatting with the baker down at the store, just the usual catching up kind of thing and he tells me that he and his wife weren’t able to get the new car they were planning on. Know why?”

Michelangelo groaned inwardly as Raphael and for that matter, most of the audience, finished with “he didn’t make enough dough.”

Joey smiled and offered a wink. “You got it folks. Felt bad for the guy, I really did. He’s got two kids, see, and his daughter’s been feeling really down in the dumps. Heck, she went to the river yesterday to…”

“Fish for compliments,” Raphael chimed in.

A few of the audience members clapped but Michelangelo winced, burying his face into his arms to suppress a groan. Man, this guy was bad. Nothing against the guy but the jokes…they were painful!

“And you know the other day, I found out that it’s not just humans that can be rude. I met the rudest bird in my garden. He was a …”

“Mocking bird!”

Michelangelo did groan that time.

This kind of back and forth continued for about ten minutes before Joey finally left the stage when he stopped getting laughs and even the other people in the club were starting to look disinterested. Raphael could see the owner gesturing to him from the side and finally he got the hint. Well, Joey had never been the best of that group of three, at least in the red banded turtle’s opinion. Raphael looked up to his younger brother and made a face. Michelangelo had buried his head into his folded arms but he wasn’t asleep. Looks like he wasn’t the only one with that opinion. “Eh, okay, Michelangelo so Joey’s talent isn’t exactly his jokes.”

“Mondo understatement, Dude.” He remarked. Lifting his head, he remarked “I mean, I give the Dude points for gettin’ up there and trying but those were really mondo-bad.”

The server finally brought out their pizza at that point and it was excellent timing. Raphael had a feeling that this wasn’t going like he had hoped. Best acts his shell! He had a few words to exchange with the owner over that. Aside from a small smile at the beginning, his brother still had that depressed look and darn it, Michelangelo was not meant to be depressed! He was the turtle that was supposed to be full of life and happy and smiling but…because of a girl’s selfish actions, here he was, trying to cheer up the cheerleader! It was completely backwards!

“Alright! Bodacious!” Michelangelo took hold of the nearest slice, grinning widely. Loaded down with all the fixings, yes, this looked wonderful. He took a giant bite of a slice, relishing in the egg, sausage, bacon, tomato and even the thin coating of grits that was underneath the cheese. Breakfast pizza was usually more complicated and they didn’t routinely make it so getting a large one was a real treat. It gave him something to focus on besides what was rushing through his head. Despite his brother’s attempts, Michelangelo found his thoughts still drifted to Kala.

Why wouldn’t she let him help her? He’d do anything to help her! Hadn’t he shown her that? Didn’t she know that—

“Hey! Daydreamer!”

His brother’s sharp tone snapped him out of his somber thinking and he blinked, taking in Raphael’s concerned-but-covered-up-with-annoyance look. He knew that look anywhere. You didn’t grow up with someone and not learn their looks, despite how they might try and hide them. “Oh, major league sorry, Raphael. What did you say?” He took another bite of the pizza slice in his hand, realizing he must have been thinking a bit because some of it had tumbled onto his plate. Not like him to waste pizza toppings.

Rolling his eyes, Raphael responded “I said not to let Joey throw you off. They DO have good comedians here! Hey, they liked my routine!”

Michelangelo didn’t say anything for a moment. Okay, so his brother wasn’t HORRIBLE per say but he wouldn’t exactly say that he was ‘great’ either. At least not when he was trying to be funny. “Oh.” He finally said but then promptly wanted to slap himself in the forehead. Michelangelo didn’t say ‘oh,’ he didn’t just sit there and stare blankly ahead either. He was totally failing in his brother role right now! He was supposed to be supportive of family goals and his brother was totally going out of his way to make him feel better and he was being a major wet rag about it! Maybe he should pick up the tab…

“Hey!” Raphael chimed in, oddly enough, not hurt. “I’m pretty good!”

Refocused again, Michelangelo clarified “When you’re not trying, you are, Dude.”

Under normal circumstances, Raphael would have taken that as an insult. However, Michelangelo had been showing since Friday night that his humor radar was deeply off kilter. Plus, he hadn’t said he _wasn’t_ funny, just that he was funny when he wasn’t trying. Well, what did that mean?! Raphael took the bait and inquired as much with another bite of pizza himself, “Whatta you mean, when I’m not trying? I put a ton of work into my jokes, I’ll have you know!” He gave his sibling a half pout but once again, that look just didn’t work for him.

“Oh, believe me, we know” Michelangelo replied to his brother “But your jokes aren’t when you’re funny, Raphael,” he responded simply “Sorry to bust your bubble, amigo. It’s when you’re just talkin’ about our family or our mondo-crazy lives or the latest near-death avoidance fiasco that you’re funny.” He added “See, real life is funny enough and you’re bodacious at pointing that out.” He took another bite of pizza, swallowed and said “You try, like, way too hard, compadre, to be funny. Don’t try so hard.”

Raphael had to admit that this took him by surprise. He had always thought that being funny meant pouring more skill into his writing of jokes and routines. But faced with this information, he frowned, considered.

“Well, that settles it.” Pushing his plate aside, Raphael stood and made his way to the front of the room. Michelangelo reached after him, calling for him to come back, no doubt thinking that he’d hurt his feelings but the red banded turtle was on a mission now. His little brother needed to smile, damn it! And if the comedians provided by this club weren’t going to cut it, then shell it all, he’d do it himself!

#tmnt #1987 tmnt #1987 teenage mutant ninja turtles #BIG BROTHER RAPH #heartbroken mikey #depressed mikey #family support #family love #empathy series #Mikey is a sweetheart

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curiousstrawberry · 4 years

Text

otp tag

i was tagged by @bitterotter and i think @impossible-rat-babies thank you <33

I’m gonna tag @dep-yo-tee @moon-sugar @atomirotta @dorkousloris and anyone else who wants to do this consider yourself tagged (also feel no oblagation to do this)

Also otp of choice is Adam and Desideria because why not

DISAGREEMENTS.

Who is more likely to raise their voice?

· Ah that’s difficult... both of them are short tempered and equally likely to raise their voice but it’s very short lived and they will apologize, or at least try to. This also comes from both of them being stubborn and not realizing their feelings. I think deeper in relationship this is not an issue at all and only fights would be more related and likely without raised voices.

Who threatens to leave but never actually does?

· No threatening of leaving, just leaving for a moment if it gets too much.

who actually keeps their word and leaves?

· Again, if it gets too much either leaves to cool down for a moment. Usually it’s Adam who needs more cool down time, but they are pretty on par with that.

who trashes the house?

· Nope, if you don’t count accidentally smashing some furniture due to emotional constipation

Rest is bellow cut because it’s very long and contains adult stuff

do either of them get physical?

· NOPE

how often do they argue/disagree?

· Ah well, it’s not really disagreements or arguments more like different opinions on things and challenging each other, which does happen quite often especially when it’s work related. But they respect each other’s options, even if they disagree with it.

who is the first to apologize?

· Neither is really good at apologizing, both of them are really stubborn but they do always apologize. I think Des is likely to apologize first but not by much

SEX.

who is on top? Who is on bottom?

· Depends on mood I guess? Neither mind switching.

any kinks?

· Not sure about Adam but Des is lot into praising and hair pulling.

who has the strangest desires?

· I mean I wouldn’t say either of them do? I think Des is likely to try new stuff though

who’s dominant in bed?

· Adam is, it’s likely difficult to leave someone else the reigns even in the bed. Des is mostly fine with it, but they do switch things around.

is head ever in the equation?

· Yup, Des is more for giving than receiving but yeah.

if so, who is better at performing it?

· Likely Adam? He’s likely more experienced so let’s go with that.

ever had sex in public?

· Ah I don’t think either would be very comfortable with that.

who moans the most?

· I think both of them are kinda same level of noisy or well not as noisy. I do entertain the idea of Adam being louder though.

who leaves the most marks?

· Des, or well she’d love to

who is the more experienced of the two?

· Adam? This one is difficult. I’d say that with Adam not being with anyone since he was turned makes them about equal way experienced?

do they ‘fuck’ or ‘make love’?

· make love duh

how long do they usually last?

· Average?

rough or soft?

· Hmmm, soft. I mean rough too sometimes too but usually it’s all about intimate touches and kisses and just being able to explore each other and be near each other than the actual sex itself.

is protection used?

· Yup, better be safe than sorry.

does it ever get boring?

· Not likely no. I think neither of them really essentially needs to have sex so this is not an issue.

where is the strangest place they’d have sex?

· Hah nothing very extreme I’d say. Really no idea. Likely Des’s room at the warehouse? Really nothing that strange

FAMILY.

Do they plan on having children/or have children?

· Des isn’t very into the idea of having children. Like she won’t say no, she would have to think about it very hard and it would be far in the future but for now it’s very strong no. It has lot to do with her childhood and with her mental health she doesn’t want anyone else to be introduced to that, especially not child.

If so, how many children do they want/have?

AFFECTION.

who likes to cuddle?

· Well, Des is touch averse but once she gets comfortable with someone (she cares about) she’s cuddle monster

who gets naughty in the most inappropriate of places?

· Neither? They are boring like that.

who struggles to keep their hands to themself?

· I think Adam later in relationship will have trouble with keeping hands to himself in terms of I’ve been touch starved for 900 years and now I met my soulmate.

how long can they cuddle until one becomes uncomfortable?

· Depends, likely if they watch some movie or something they do keep close

what is their favourite non-sexual activity?

· Believe it or not but combat training. They both have a lot of fun with that, well Des does later when she knows what’s up more. Also quiet night watching some old movies or reading a book and just being near each other is something they really do enjoy.

where is their favourite place to cuddle?

· Bed or couch

SLEEPING.

who snores?

· Neither. Though idea of Adam snoring is hilarious

if both do, who snores the loudest?

do they share a bed or sleep separately?

· When Des is in warehouse or Adam visiting her they do share bed, but they do not live together at the moment (who knows if they will)

if they sleep together, do they cozy up together or lay far apart?

· Likely fall asleep being close to each other but not really like entangled limbs or anything,

what do they wear to bed?

· Hah literally no idea what would Adam wear hmmm, I could imagine him in some pajama pants? Des is likely to wear some large shirt (she will absolutely steal Adam’s shirt)

are either of them insomniacs?

· Don’t think so? Adam just doesn’t need much sleep and Des has bad sleeping habits.

can sleeping pills be found by the bedside?

· Nope, no pills at all for Des unless she absolutely has to.

do they wrap their limbs around each other or just lay side by side?

· Side by side, holding hands, Des curled to Adam’s side but nothing that would invade each other’s space too much.

who wakes up with bed hair?

· Des

who wakes up first?

· Adam, I mean he doesn’t need as much sleep so there’s that.

who prepares breakfast in bed for the other?

· Adam doesn’t really eat so there’s not much preparing stuff for him but he does make Des coffee or tea.

what is their favourite sleeping position?

· When Des is alone she sleeps on her stomach, head buried in too many pillows. When she’s with Adam she’s usually curled to his side, hand thrown over his stomach, him wrapping arm around her.

do they set an alarm each night?

· Lol Des has like six of them neither works.

who has nightmares?

· I guess both but Des does more. And no she would not like to talk about it she’s fine.

can a television be found in their bedroom?

· Nope.

who has ridiculous dreams?

· Neither? For Des it’s usually realistic flashes rather than something completely ridiculous.

who sprawls out and takes up most of the bed?

· Des

who makes the bed?

· Adam

what time is bed time?

· Hmmmmmm I mean after work is done? When Des feels like she’s tired? Usually around midnight and later

any routines/rituals before bed?

· The usual brushing teeth etc. Des pulls her hair into a bun or braids it because there’s lot of hair and it’s not fun when someone lies on it.

who’s the grumpiest when they wake up?

· Des, she really is top grump in morning. Adam thinks it’s cute but won’t admit it.

WORK.

who is the busiest?

· I’d say Adam, not that Des isn’t but you know he’s more workaholic type

who rakes in the highest income?

· Likely Adam

are any of them unemployed?

· Nope

who takes the most sick days?

· Des does. Some days are just too much you know.

what are their jobs?

· Des is a detective. Adam works for the Agency

who sucks up to their boss?

· Hahaha Adam would I think? Or well is more candidate anyway. Des doesn’t know what respect for authority is. She’s not an outright dick but you gotta earn the respect she won’t suck up to anyone.

· who is more likely to turn up late to work?

Des, even with the amount of alarms she has set, she’s not a morning person.

who stresses the most?

· Des does, but she won’t let it show

do they enjoy or despise their careers/occupations?

· I think Adam enjoys what he’s doing. As for Des.. it works?

are they financially stable?

· Yes

HOME.

who does the washing?

· Both

who takes out the trash?

· both

who does the ironing?

· Des does iron her own clothes... or well folds it well so she doesn’t have to iron it later.

who does the cooking

· Des does but she hates cooking even if she’s not bad at it. She’d rather order take out.

who is more likely to burn the house down just trying?

· Neither, but I can’t imagine Adam cooking.

who is messier?

· Des by default since Adam seems like neat freak

who leaves the toilet roll empty?

· Neither

who leaves their dirty clothes on the floor?

· Des

who forgets to flush the toilet?

· Gross neither

who loses the car keys when it comes time to go somewhere?

· Des does, she puts them somewhere and then forgets. Actually happens quite often.

who answers the telephone?

· They use cell phones only and each has their own.

who mows the lawn?

· No lawn.

who does the vacuuming?

· I mean if they would live together then both.

who does the groceries?

· Des, though she would drag Adam along to carry bags

who takes the longest to shower?

· Des does

who spends the most time in the bathroom?

· Again Des, with the amount of hair she’s bound to.

MISCELLANEOUS.

is money a problem?

· Nope

how many cars do they own?

· Des’ very old seems to be falling apart car

what’s their song?

· Hah I return to this later no idea for now

do they live in the city or in the country?

· Wayhaven strikes me like smaller town?

do they own their home or do they rent?

· Des’ rents her apartment, Adam lives in the Agency’s warehouse

do they enjoy their surroundings?

· Des is very fine with the small town environment, not lot of people. Adam doesn’t seem to be enjoying it as much.

what do they do when they’re away from each other?

· Work, think about each other, Des might even text Adam, but yeah work is usually at the first place

where did they first meet?

· At work, introduced by Des’ mom, best and worst day of Adam’s life likely lol

who spends the most money when out shopping?

· Des would

who’s more likely to flash their assets?

· Neither

any mental issues?

· Hah, Des has problems with depression and anxiety, is generally touch averse (though not sure that counts here), and now adding trauma with kidnapping and being experimented on... so that’s fun

who finds it amusing when the other trips over?

· Neither. I mean in theory Des would but I cant see Adam trip over

who’s terrified of bugs?

· Not terrified but Des isn’t a fan

who kills the spiders around the house?

· Not kill but Des will ask Adam to relocate them, she would do so herself but if Adam is there well less anxiety.

do they have any fears for their future?

· Hahaha well there’s the whole mortality thing that I think Adam thinks constantly about. Des is generally anxious about future but again won’t let it show.

their favourite place?

· Hmmm no idea? But it could be the way from the station to Des’ apartment since I imagine Adam often walks her home.

who’s more likely to surprise the other with a fancy dinner?

· Eh no fancy.

who pays the bills?

· Each pays their own bills, if they’d live together they’d split

who’s the tallest

· Adam is, but actually not by lot as Des is relatively tall

who’s more likely to just randomly hop into the shower with the other?

· Hmmm Des? But she would ask before

who wanders around in their underwear?

· Des does, especially in summer, might give Adam a stroke

who sings the loudest when singing along to the radio?

· Neither, Des does occasionally hums along

what do they tease each other about?

· They don’t really? like Des knows how touch and emotions are difficult for Adam so she won’t tease him about that. Maybe when he tries to show off she would.

who is more likely to cringe at the other’s fashion sense at times?

· I mean cargo pants so....

who crushed first?

· Hah Adam does. Des is more like ?????!!!!

any alcohol or substance related problems?

· Nope, unless you count candy and sweets addiction

who is more likely to stumble home, drunk, at 3am?

· Des doesn’t drink and Adam likely cannot get drunk

who swears the most?

· Des does swear a lot once she’s outside station.

#thanks again!! <33 #desideria becker #twc

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thotwonu · 5 years

Text

‘til the casket drops... pt. 1

the rest of Katia’s day went normally. her mind kept circling back to the boy who would come in earlier. she could practically hear her sister’s voice telling her to go to the old mayor’s estate house down the block and make up some reason to talk to the man some more. actually...Katia picked up her phone and called her sister. “what have i told you about that Maya?” she huffed as soon as her sister answered. her sister’s giggle tinkled across the phone. “don’t think so loud and maybe i wouldn’t be able to hear your thoughts.” Katia’s eyes shot up to the door where her twin sister was leaning.

the squeal that spilled from her lips was something she would deny to her grave, but she ran across the store and tossed herself into her sister’s arms. “fuck i’ve missed you!” Katia just held onto her twin for a second and let her calming aura fill her. it only lasted a second though because the comfort of family was overwhelmed by the thrumming of excitement in Amaya. “alright, spit it out. what’s got you so excited? also why are you even home? what happened to mr. muse or whatever his name was?” Amaya was jumping, practically vibrating. her aura around her was pulsing like a disco light, Katia almost had to squint to look at her sister. “he came home with me!” Katia’s eyes grew wide. her stomach flipped and for a second she wondered if the man she’d met earlier had been her sister’s musician friend and her stomach dropped. “god Kat no! he was a friend of my boyfriend’s but no. Brandon is sooooo not my type. i mean i’ve only met the guy like once but still.”

the way Amaya rolled her eyes before smirking at her sister made Katia wanna hide. “you really liked him?” Amaya’s eyes sparkled with mischief and Katia just turned around and walked back behind the counter with her sister hot on her heels. “i don’t know what you’re talking about Maya. who is Brandon?” Katia winced at her own words. anyone who has ever had a sister knows how nosy the can be. but having one that could actually read your mind, literally the worst. “oh my god Kat, you’re ridiculous. c’mon, let’s close the store early and head over.” Katia turned to face her sister with terror in her eyes, “nope, no thanks. i’m good.”

***

meanwhile in the mayor’s estate...

when Brandon made it back to the house he could have sworn he saw Katia walking out of the house, except this girl had her hair down and was wearing a completely different outfit, and also there was no way Katia could have made it to the house before him. he walked inside and noticed Edwin standing in the doorway and pointed at the girl, “who is-??” the smile on Edwin’s face told him enough. Brandon’s stomach dropped. if that was Katia, why had she given him her number before? “her name is Amaya, she’s kinda the one who hooked us up with the place. her family is from here. she missed her sister, so when we started talking about vacation i suggested here to Austin and he found this place and she hooked us up with the mayor for a discount.” Edwin was sitting on a couch with stars in his eyes, or maybe hearts? Brandon laughed to himself and sat next to his friend, “so you’re the real reason why we’re in Halloweentown.” Edwin’s grin didn’t slip from his face, “dude, i think i love her.”

Brandon’s look softened. “she clearly makes you happy dude. how long have y’all been together? i didn’t even know you had a girl.” his friend’s face fell a little, “it’s been a few months, you actually met her once, but B, you’re barely around anymore. no one can get you out of the studio. this vacation is lowkey our intervention. we want our boy back.” a hum of agreement came from the doorway, “man we’re proud of you for everything you’re doing, but you’re a damn workaholic.” Zion sat himself on the couch across from them and looked around the room. “i really wish this wasn’t where we came for this damn thing though. this house gives me the fucking creeps.” Brandon had to admit, though the rest of the town looked modern enough, this house was creepy as hell. the Victorian architecture was stunning, but the furnishings were so old world that Brandon kept feeling like the pictures were watching him and that he might break something.

realizing he still had his bag in his hand from his little shopping trip he held it out from Zion, “speaking of you. i was in town and i found this little like spice shop thing, anyway, the girl who worked there sold me some stuff to help you and Nick sleep. she said this should help with the nightmares you’ve been having too,” he handed Zion a little bottle of blended oils. Zion raised an eyebrow skeptically, but accepted the bottle. “thanks man, i guess i’ll try it tonight.” next to him Edwin was bouncing in his seat with the grin back on his face, “so what’s she like? Amaya talks about her all the time. she owns the store by the way, she doesn’t just work there.” it took Brandon a minute to figure out what the fuck Edwin was on about. when the light bulb clicked on he blushed and ducked his head, “so they are twins then.” Edwin laughed and clapped his friend’s shoulder, “is that a blush? bro, that’s adorable.”

Zion was grinning on the couch across from them, “tell us about her then. if she looks like Amaya we know she’s pretty. but what’s got you blushing lover boy?” both of the boys leaned in closer to Brandon trying to see what they could get outta the boy. “ooh, Brandon met a girl? what a miracle.” a third voice entered the room and Brandon groaned hiding his face in his hands. “are we teasing B? this is my favorite game.” the final member of their quintet entered the room and Brandon wanted the couch to suck him into it like a black hole. “Brandon met Maya’s twin and she’s got him all blushy,” Z offered to Nick and Austin who had found spots on the couch next to him.

“did everyone know Amaya but me?” Brandon asked trying to change the subject even a little. “like Edwin said earlier, you been MIA bro.” the boys around the room got a little quiet and nodded. “we could all see you slipping away into the work B. you’ve been missing so much.” Austin’s sad but supportive smile made Brandon sigh. “i really didn’t realize. i’m really sorry guys.” Nick smiled at the group, “look at us. all 5 of us together in one room! honestly like, you’d think we didn’t all live together regularly with how little we all hang out anymore.” the other guys laughed as a sense of brotherhood settled over them. “oh yeah, dude, i got you some stuff at the shop too.” he pulled out the shower melts and handed them over to Nick. “Katia said that if you put one of those in the shower with you the vapors should help get you to sleep.” his friend nodded, “honestly, if we weren’t in this creepy ass house it’d probably help too.”

a knock on the door pulled the boys out of their comfortable banter. “don’t think you’re off the hook tellin’ us about you’re new girl bro,” Nick said hopping off the couch and going to open the door. there was no one there, but a weird note was taped to the door. “okay, i’m ready to leave this town. it’s creepy as hell,” Zion said reading the note over Nick’s shoulder. it was in weird calligraphy and on faded paper. “literally someone translate this shit please,” Edwin said throwing his hands up in the air. “it says, stay away from she who walks in darkness. the river is stronger than she appears, death to those who are entranced by her beauty. the darkness hides in her waves,” Austin said before looking up at the boys who were all giving him funny looks, “what? i took a calligraphy class in high school. it’s not that hard to read.” Brandon ignored the weirdness that was Austin, before turning back to the note, “so the town has a killer mermaid?”

the group broke out into various theories about what the note could possibly mean. “i told you we shouldn’t have come to this creepy ass town,” Nick yelled above everyone. “you can’t really believe that there’s something supernatural going on here?” Edwin scoffed at his friend. “maybe not supernatural, but there is some nut job out there who thinks so,” Zion backed up Nick’s earlier statement. “guys, it’s probably just some kids playing a prank, this houses is known for being haunted, they’re probably just trying to freak us out because we’re tourists basically,” Austin argued back. “Katia, mentioned this place was called Ye Olde Haunted House...” Brandon shrugged. “it’s not actually called that,” Austin rolled his eyes and made the boys all sit down while he told the story of the house.

he cleared his throat and put on mood lighting, turning all the lights down and lighting some candles. “listen if Austin starts chanting i’m out,” Edwin said pointing to the door. Austin flipped him off and began the story. “when the town was first founded, this was the governor’s mansion, nowadays that position is the mayor, anyway so he lived here with his wife and three sons, and it was during the witch trials, there was a lot of tension between the locals because accusations were being tossed around. basically the eldest of the three sons was seduced by a local girl, her name has kinda been lost, but basically she wasn’t noble, and when she got pregnant, she was accused of witchcraft. like in the sense that the only way a highborn man would sleep with her was if she used magic, anyway she fled before her trial and wasn’t heard from ever again. the eldest son married a rich girl and they had a son. within a year every man in the entire family was dead. the rumors now are that those men haunt this house, and that they died because the scorned witch girl put a curse on the family.”

“that doesn’t explain the killer mermaid in the note dude,” Brandon piped up. Austin rolled his eyes, “i don’t know dude. i only do ghosts, not killer mermaids.” the boys all groaned and rolled their eyes. “as fun as this has all been, i’ve got a girlfriend to go hang out with,” Edwin stood from the couch and waved as he walked to grab a coat. “what the fuck man! this is supposed to be a boys trip! she’s supposed to be visiting her sister!” Nick yelled from the couch. “we can all hang out later! i’ll have her bring Katia so Brandon can get all blushy again,” Edwin teased as he walked out the door.

Brandon thought about seeing the girl again and didn’t mind at all. he took out his phone and sent off a text, apparently, my best friend is dating your sister, so you wanna hang tonight with us at the big bad haunted mansion? her response was quicker than he expected, my sister has already informed me that i don’t have a choice in the matter. don’t drink anything she offers you though... Brandon laughed at the message and sent off a few more texts before pocketing his phone. he thought again about the note that had been taped on the door. “hey what’s Amaya and Katia’s last name?” he asked the boys who remained. “Rivera, why?” Zion said looking away from the corner of the room he’d been staring at suspiciously for a few minutes. Brandon shrugged it off...

Katia and Amaya Rivera...

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karazrel · 6 years

Note

stydia :)

thank you love :)

Gives nose/forehead kisses: definitely stiles, he’s so much taller than lydia (and he never lets her forget it) so he’s always bending down to give her a kiss on the forehead

Gets jealous the most: they’re both relatively jealous people but in completely different ways. like stiles? he’s always considered lydia to be miles out of his league so his jealousy is something quiet and hidden between strained smiles and bad jokes. but lydia? she burns hot and fierce and one minute stiles is obliviously chatting to the nice barista and the next he has an arm-full of lydia who’s kissing him in a decidedly inappropriate way for public spaces

Takes care of on sick days: so we all know lydia is like a Workaholic who just.. Does Not Know How To Take A Break, even at her own peril (circa teen wolf 2011-2018) and she is the absolute worst person at being sick, not because she’s whiny but because she absolutely refuses to even acknowledge any illness of hers. so after they’ve finally gotten together stiles makes it his mission to get her to take better care of her health even if it means literally carrying her out of the library in the middle of the day because ‘lydia martin you will get some rest or so help me god i will tie you to the bed’

Drags the other person out into the water on beach day: okay so i have this headcanon that allison absolutely loved the beach and she’d drag lydia to this secluded cliffside strip of beach every weekend regardless of how much she complained (’id really rather not be picking sand out of my hair for the next three months allison’) and eventually lydia grew to love the beach just as much, if not more than allison. but then the nogitsune happened and allison died and beaches became nothing more than another place lydia couldnt go without the memory of allison choking her. and at first stiles didn’t get it because like who doesn’t love the beach? but then scott absentmindedly lets it slip that allison and lydia used to pretty much live there and it all suddenly makes so much sense. and we all know stiles just cannot let things go and so he plans a surprise trip and takes lydia to the very same beach she used to visit with allison and lydia is crushed and furious but more than anything she’s so tired of trying to forget someone who brought her so much happiness. and just when she thinks she’s all cried out, stiles brings out a fucking sharpie pen and tells her that allison deserves to be here with them too, and lydia has tears in her eyes when she writes A.A. on the nearest rock. and when stiles drags her towards the water she’s laughing just as loud and hard as before and it feels something like rebirth.

Brings the other lunch at work: they take turns because honestly? they’re both so damn bad at taking care of themselves. like lydia will spend three days straight in her lab if stiles doesnt send her 10000 messages reminding her to come home. and when stiles is working on a case? he’s damn near unresponsive to anything that isn’t a case file. so they’re both there for each other with food and a reminder to actually get some sleep when it matters.

Tries to start role-playing in bed: okay like definitely stiles 10000% because like he’s a dumbass and now he’s a dumbass with a badge so like think of all the /potential/ and so one day he walks into their house and he strides up to lydia all gruff and confident and tells her if being sexy is a crime then you’re guilty as charged ms martin and lydia just…. bursts out laughing for like 15 minutes straight (she does let him keep the handcuffs though)

Embarrassingly drunk dancer: stiles stilinski, this doesnt even need an explanation

Firmly believes in couples costumes: again, definitely stiles like he’s been in love with lydia for like ten years ‘think of all the couples costumes we could’ve tried out in those years lydia! think of all the wasted potential!’ and lydia pretends to hate it but secretly she loves how dorky stiles is and how damn excited he gets planning their costume every single year

Breaks the expensive gift rule during Christmas: lydia for sure, like stiles’ gifts are always thoughtful knickknacks and handcrafts or photographs, things that warm lydias heart and make her fall in love with him all over again and she’s at a loss for what to get this beautiful man who’s given her everything she’s ever wanted and she knows that stiles doesnt care about how expensive a gift is but seeing him light up when he realises she got him an original star wars figure - or some other nerdy gift that probably cost thousands of dollars - is enough to make her day.

Makes the other eat breakfast: stiles has basically spent the better part of his teenage years making sure his dad stuck to an actual healthy diet and that’s only expanded to include lydia in the past couple of years so he insists that she eat breakfast every single morning or at least take something with her to work and send him a picture of the finished meal because he knows that if left to her own devices she’d have a cracker and call it a day

Remembers anniversaries: stiles! stiles! stiles! again, he just cannot believe that he’s married to lydia freaking martin and so any anniversary is a heartwarming reminder that he’s finally with the woman he loves so he’s always (and i mean always) doing The Most

Brings up having kids first: so one day stiles is visiting lydia at work and he notices this like gaggle of young kids surrounding her being pretty much enthralled by her every word - later he finds out that she volunteered as part of a project aimed at introducing young girls to the STEM field and she’s somewhat of a mentor - but right now all he can focus on is lydia’s brilliant smile and her bending down and talking in soft tones with the kids and answering all their questions and he’s sure his brain has short circuited because how else would you explain why he’s pretty much frozen and incapable of forming coherent words. after that, stiles cant stop thinking about lydia and kids and lydia with kids (their kid specifically) and one date night they’re out in a restaurant ordering food and lydia turns to him with a smile and asks ‘what would you like?’ and stiles just bursts out in a way too loud voice ‘kids!’ which garners a few confused looks but starts a much overdue conversation (and if ten years later claudia asks when exactly they decided to have kids at least they’ll have a funny story to tell)

Kills the bugs: neither! they’re both like borderline terrified of insects altogether so the logical thing to do? call actual saint scott mccall to come save the day and release the bugs into the wilderness

First to define them as a couple: lydia, and not because stiles doesnt want to, it’s just that they’re still so new and he kind of like cant believe that theyre an actual couple, like a couple who go out together, exclusively and he’s still waiting for someone to jump out and say ‘sike! we got you good!’ and so he’s pretty much walking on egg shells until lydia figures it out and decides to overcompensate by literally telling every person they meet until stiles is convinced that yes, this is real, and ‘no ashton kutcher is not hiding in a bush stilinski, so you better start calling me you girlfriend before i find someone who will’

Who hides their guilty pleasures longer: lydia! like stiles is a dork and he owns it, he knows he’s a giant nerd but lydia? she’d rather die than let people know of her weird obsessions (it’s stiles who eventually convinces her that it’s not a bad thing to be a passionate nerd ‘look at me, i spent my entire life being a geek and i managed to marry the most beautiful woman in the world’)

Snorts while laughing: LYDIA. listen, lydia martin may seem like a composed and elegant woman but she is such a giant dork and only a handful of trusted people know it.

send me a ship!

#oh wow this got really long SORRY #i miss stydia so much its not even funny #tw please come back #longpost #stydia #martinski #stiles stilinski #lydia martin #mrtnlyd #asks #writing tag

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nethwan · 6 years

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The assistant

Summary: Lars Janssen never imagined that one day he would be the assistant of an editor of a fashion magazine. They could belong to different worlds but what if those worlds collide?

Note: This is the “very first” fic I wrote about them. Monique is Monaco. Vanessa and Alan are OCs.

Also on: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12388356/1/The-assistant

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13978200

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11876692/1/El-asistente (Spanish version)

He was hired and now he was the assistant of the editor of a fashion magazine. He remembered to see his sister buying it but he wasn’t interested on those themes, he thought it was just about clothes, shoes, and inexpressive models; he had no idea why he was there but he couldn’t back out.

The first day, he was confused because he hadn’t seen his new boss. He had a tour for the entire place and he was introduced to everyone but her, she was in a meeting and the best was not disturbing her. At the end of the day, he went to her office, quietly; she was talking on the phone and then she muttered: “A man? Why?”. She turned around and saw him, she felt a little bit embarrassed hoping that he didn’t realize she was talking about him. “We’ll talk later” she said and hung up.

“So, you are my new assistant…”.

“I’m Lars Janssen, nice to meet you, Miss Wang”.

“I hope we get along well, and please, don’t be so formal, call me Mei, I don’t feel comfortable with that ’Miss Wang’ thing”.

After that, she explained some other details about the job. He understood what she meant with “a man”, because she looked at him as if she was judging him. Well, now there were two whom wondered what he was doing there.

Later that day, Mei went back to the subject because she didn’t think he was the kind of person whom knew something about fashion, and he surely hadn’t read the magazine.

“Why did you hire him, Monique?”.

“Take it easy, I think he is qualified, his CV is impressive, and he is very attractive, don’t you think?”. She said as a joke. Mei didn’t agree.

Lars asked his sister for some magazines to know about that world he ignored. Besides being about fashion, it has interesting articles, it wasn’t that frivolous: it was about travels, health, recipes, interviews with celebrities, intellectuals and artists; and movie reviews.

Mei wasn’t a demanding boss, but he thought she was intimidating because she was so straightforward and always said what she thought, she was energetic, outgoing and disorganized; to the contrary, he was serious, quiet and tidy. He always payed attention at the punctuality of her appointments, and made an effort at give her all that she asked. He arrived earlier than her, and when she appeared, everything was in order. She liked his efficiency, and after reading his CV, she wondered how that business man ended up being her assistant.

One day, he heard her talking with a certain Alan; he called almost every day, at lunch. Was he her boyfriend? Lars didn’t believe it, because she was always busy talking on the phone or in a meeting. Maybe she had a long-distance relationship? But that was none of his business, anyway.

He remembered that there were three photographs in her office: in the fist one appeared a couple, surely her parents; in the second one, it was her and three young men, her brothers of course; and in the last one, a smiling guy, he would be Alan. Lars didn’t want to get involved but it looked like she didn’t have time for them: her family phone calls were brief, even Alan’s. Lars knew from experience that this kind of things never had a happy ending.

She was busy all the time, the magazine was her life and she did her best since she was on charge. Lars was concerned because she didn’t eat enough and she looked tired, she even was about to faint twice.

Lars advised her or more like made her go to the doctor, he said she was very stressed, and he recommend her to eat and rest well; so, she decided to take a break, but before, she left him a list of assignments, because soon, she would interview Natalia Arlovskaya, a famous ballet dancer. And, she was so glad to finally spend time with Alan. Lars went into her office to give her a documents, he saw her talking on the phone and then she said: “Why do you this to me?”. He left quietly.

That day, they stayed until late checking documents and reorganizing her schedule, it was a very hard week and some appointments were placed to before her break. When they were done, she cut with a paper and started crying. Lars remained there astonished for a few minutes, and then he approached to her, hesitantly. He gave her a handkerchief, she still cried. Those 10 minutes were eternal.

She apologized and told him how Alan broke up with her because he met someone else, that she missed the three last anniversaries of her parents, how her brothers stopped calling her, no one invited her to parties, she lived alone and almost all her acquaintances were married or getting engaged, even Monique, her only friend, was dating, and now she’d die alone.

“You might think I’m crazy, but I couldn’t stand it anymore…”

“No, I understand, this happened to me too”.

“Really?”

He told her when he worked in a firm, he had a good position, he lived for his work, at that time, he didn’t know that his girlfriend was cheating on him and they broke up; he missed important moments like his brother’s graduation and when his sister started her own business. He hardly talked with his parents, and he has no friends. Then the firm went bankrupt and he was fired, all his efforts and dedication disappeared all of a sudden; luckily, his family was supportive and helped him to find a new job, but he just got a: “We’ll call you”. It was disappointing. Until he was hired to be her assistant…

“We make a great pair then”. She said sobbing.

Mei tried to calm down but Lars told her it was ok, and she needed to vent. He was patient and waited. Then, she invited him to her house to drink coffee, he accepted. She started feeling interested on him, because she thought finally someone understood her.

“Talk me about you, you have worked with me for months and you just saw me in my worst moment. I think it’s fair”.

“I have no much to say. I have two younger siblings, Emma and Henri; now, I’m living with my brother, I like gardening and reading, my siblings say I’m neurotic and a neat freak, I was a workaholic, you know that, I think it’s all, what about you?”.

“Well, let’s see, I have three brothers, I’m the third child, I like cooking, singing and I’m a mess, so I’m so thankful you are a neat freak”. She laughed.

They were talking until late, and then he went home to rest a few hours, even though she gave him a free day, he refused. However, that week he asked permission to go his sister’s wedding. Mei was resting at home, but more like getting bored.

“All right, you can go. You are so lucky, I’m alone and bored”. She said sadly. “And if it’s no much to ask, can I go with you? Sorry, but I hate staying at home”. She added.

“Are you sure? I’ll just be there a few hours”. He was surprised with her petition.

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll bring a present, do you think that’ll be a problem?”.

“I don’t think so; I’ll pick you up, then”. He wasn’t sure about it but he thought she needed distraction.

The ceremony was calm and small, just family and friends. Everyone was surprised when he arrived with a woman. Mei and Emma got on well together. Mei realized that Lars didn’t like Antonio, Emma’s husband, but he tried his best for being kind.

Despite, having a break-up, Mei was in a good mood, she even danced with Lars. During their way home, Mei talked about how beautiful Emma looked and how cute was when Antonio cried to seeing her walk down the aisle. Her voice sounded melancholic: she wanted to get married some day, but looking at her situation, it wouldn’t be soon.

Lars was worried for Mei, her voice sounded sad when she called him. For this reason, he visited her everyday to tell her what happened in the day, just like she asked him; they talked about different things too and he listened to her attentively, even if it was a trivial conversation. When she came back to work, he looked after her, they ate lunch together, and he offered his company so she wouldn’t feel alone. Then she knew that she found no only the perfect assistant but a great friend. He wasn’t like Alan who just talked about himself; Alan never laughed at her witticisms and treated her like a child.

The interview with the ballerina was perfect, Mei had faith everything turned out well, specially, because she knew that Lars was at her side supporting her. As she imagined it was a success, and they celebrated it, but it looked like something was wrong: Lars saw Mei’s smile but her eyes said another thing.

Despite he told her it was enough, she drank more and more, then she told him, she saw Alan, a days ago, with his new girlfriend, she said it as if she was making fun of it but with a bitter tone. He took her home, because she barely can walk, she laughed and said things he didn’t understand, when they finally arrived, she approached to him and tried to kissed him: “Did you know you are hot?”, she laughed again and then she threw up. He didn’t have so many problems to clean her and lay her down in bed; she was way shorter than him. He felt bad for her, he hoped she didn’t remember anything, specially, when she tried to kiss him, although, that didn’t mean anything, she was drunk and she still loved Alan.

In the morning, she didn’t remember anything, she was in bed, completely dressed and she had a headache, she wondered how she had arrived home, she called Lars, and he went to her bedroom, immediately, bringing her something for the headache. He told her he slept in the couch because he was worried to leave her alone. She felt grateful and safe but also guilty for depending so much on him, even worse, out of the work. Then she wondered what kind of things she did, but she was embarrassed to ask. Did she say something weird? Did she try something stupid?

He said her she didn’t have to worry, she drank a lot and he just took her home, that’s all. She was relieved, he couldn’t lie to her, besides, she had never drunk like that, so she supposed that what she remembered was a dream, and a very stupid dream: she trying to kiss him, what a foolishness, she was his boss and he was her assistant, and even though they were good friends, that kind of things were impossible, especially after seeing her at her worst. “Yes, we are just… friends?”, She thought trying to convince herself of it. But what if that wasn’t a dream and he lied to don’t embarrass her. She had that doubt for so long time.

Since then, she found herself watching him. Despite Lars’ apathic personality, some girls looked interested in him. Mei didn’t like to think about it and admitting that maybe she was jealous. Later, Monique told her that maybe, Vanessa, the new girl, liked him.

“What do you think? Should I encourage her? Do you think she has a chance?”

“Why do you ask me? It’s none of my business”.

“Really? Well, maybe you’re right”. She was about to say something but she stopped at time.

Mei didn’t ask but Monique surely got the wrong idea, she told her about the sobbing, when she got drunk and how attentive and patient was Lars with her, but just because he was her assistant, she always emphasized this.

“I’ll ask him, if you want”. She said indifferent.

“Sure”.

That same afternoon while they were working, by chance, Mei talked about the girls of the work, but Lars barely reacted, he said yes, they were nice.

“And what do you think about Vanessa?”

“Vanessa? Ah, the girl who works with Monique?”

“Yes, her”.

“Hmmm she is cool, I guess, I’ve talked with her a couple of times, why?”. He asked her knowing intuitively the intention behind those questions.

“No reason, she is new, so we need to make her feel welcome”.

Lars didn’t believe her. In the next days, Vanessa talked with him with more confidence, but he kept his distance and Mei did the same, her behavior became cold, they didn’t see each other after work nor talked that much. Why was she acting that way?

Mei hated to grow apart from him, but it was the best, they improved their positions of just being boss and assistant. He held her before she fell down; he listened to her when no one wanted to do it and in that very moment, she realized she couldn’t stop thinking about him. But it couldn’t be, because he did all that just for friendship and because he was her assistant. Now she considered herself like one of those people “lucky at cards, unlucky in love”.

She kept watching him at the distance, preparing herself to the day she see him with one of the girls, then she wouldn’t feel that bad, especially because, according to Monique, Vanessa was progressing. Mei tried to avoid her, as if she could protect herself from what she thought was inevitable, she tried to find her defects but she couldn’t judge her because she barely knew her and everyone liked her.

Sometimes, Lars talked with Vanessa, and it’s not that he had a problem with her, to the contrary, she was smart, friendly and pretty, the kind of girl everyone loves, perfect; but there was something: she wasn’t Mei, he couldn’t avoid making comparisons, Mei was funny, she made him laugh with her comments and he liked her perseverance and determination. Then he realized that to him, there was no one like Mei.

When Lars was in Mei’s office, he could feel the tension and her indifference. But he wasn’t the kind of person who liked to face people and ask her what was going on. That happened when he broke up with his last girlfriend, he didn’t want explanations, she just said: “Now, I love someone else” and she left him, but he didn’t feel bad, because he didn’t love her, after all.

He left her office when Mei received a big bouquet of flowers, she read the card, it was from Alan, and in the next days, the flowers kept arriving with letters in which he asked her for a second chance and she was thinking in accepting him again. And when he picked her up, she welcomed him gladly. Lars didn’t like that. He thought repeatedly about that moment, when he saw her holding Alan’s hand, and he felt how he lost her, and he couldn’t do anything because she had made her decision. He thought that the rift between them didn’t have solution.

Mei and Alan went to a restaurant, she saw him talking without listen to him, her thoughts were in another place, she thought in the way Lars looked at her lately, as if he wanted to reproach her something, and maybe, now it was so late. She had seen him with Vanessa, and probably he realized how wonderful she was, then he’d fall in love with her, and well, Alan came back, but now his presence was unbearable, and to think that once she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.

“Mei, are you listening? Are you ok?”

“No, I mean yes, sorry, what were you talking about?”

“Stop daydreaming! I was telling you about my next project…”

In that moment, she had to make herself a favor and stop ruining her day, forgive him was a stupid idea.

“I have to go, it’s over, Alan. Don’t ask for me anymore”.

And she left him without looking behind; meanwhile some people looked at the man trying to hide his surprise. She called Monique to ask her something. She accepted after listen her story but she doubted that was the solution. Then, Lars and she met each other alone, he talked first:

“I want to know what’s going on, why are you avoiding me?”. He tried to go towards her but she kept her distance.

“Because… I asked Monique to exchange assistants”.

“No, I can’t leave you, I don’t understand, it’s because of Alan or… ?”

“I don’t know what are you talking about, I just want what it’s good for you… and for me, so, tomorrow, and you’ll work with Monique”.

“Why didn’t you ask me before? If there is something that bothers you, you just have to tell me”.

“No, it’s no like that… I just…” Mei started crying. “I just want you to be happy and you can’t be it with someone like me, you have seen it with your own eyes, it’s not the best, please, forgive me”.

Then he grabbed her arm, moving her close and he kissed her softly. They separated and looked at each other for a few minutes.

“If it’s what you want, then I’ll do it”.

That was the last time they talked but neither could forget about that kiss. Three months passed since that day.

Mei’s new assistant was nice but she was always late and let details pass. When Mei was with Monique, she avoided talking about work and tried to be there for her, she even asked her if she could introduce her to some guy, Mei deny it. She was busy working, making other activities, visiting her family, meeting new people.

At some point, by chance, Monique told her that Vanessa had renounced because she was going to study a master’s degree in other country. Mei didn’t know if she had to be happy or being indifferent, because even if Lars never showed interest in her, she thought they made a better couple than he with her. At least, with Vanessa, he had time, she never embarrassed him and he didn’t have to feel obligated to look after her all the time. Rumors had it, that they went on dates a few times, she wasn’t sure if that was true. Meanwhile, Lars tried to continue with his life, thinking that was the end and he never talked with her again.

Monique was about to lose her patient with that pair, so, for their own good, she decided to interfere. She arranged them in her office for different reasons. Both saw each other surprised, and then Monique said:

“It’s all I can do for you, now it’s your turn”. And she left them alone.

They rested sitting next to each other in silence. They didn’t find the right words to say what they were thinking. She sighed and said:

“I’m sorry”.

“Why?”

“For everything, for judging you without knowing you, for being a mess… Lars, I’ve been a fool, I got away from you, when I wanted the entire contrary. When I realized I had feelings for you, I was scared. I thought you deserved someone better, someone who wasn’t a disaster, you saw me crying, and you had to look after me when I was drunk, but thanks to you, I didn’t ruin my life”.

“You don’t have to apologize, I did it because I didn’t want you to go through the same things I did, I couldn’t see you suffer, and then when I knew I… was… in love with you, I thought it was too late and I didn’t have a chance”.

“You still have it… if you… still… feel something for me”. She said.

“I’ve never stopped”. He was happy, and then he remembered.

“And… Alan?”.

“I broke up with him… and… ?”

“Mei… listen, I never dated Vanessa, we just eat lunch together once and that was all, believe me, I know you probably listened the rumors”. He felt like he had to tell her.

“Yes, I did, but it doesn’t matter now, would you like to start again and we go out on a real date?” She told him with a smile.

“That’s a good idea”. He said while he hugged her.

Now, they thought they had to thank Monique because she get them together no once but twice.

#nedtai #aph netherlands #aph taiwan #fanfic #appreciate it

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klaumiel · 3 years

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You are all I’ve got,Damien.// Chapter 2: Mama Knows Best.

She is the most caring and loving person I know, always two steps ahead of us catching us before we fall, still supporting even if what we are doing it’s just stupid and illogical.

‘Maya!’ She snapped me from my thoughts ‘I asked you if you want more tea and some cake? Lemon cheesecake your favourite.’ Did she just said lemon cheesecake !?

‘Oh my god, Mum! You don’t have to ask twice. You know that I would die for it’ She laughed and walked to the kitchen.

They went on a date a few days after, and now they are inseparable, I felt a little guilty that I left this for so long I could’ve pushed them earlier to try.

I called Gemma while my mum was in the kitchen.

‘Hey, girl! What’s up?!’ She answered I could hear Greg in the background; I guess I just disturbed something. Did he just moan?!

‘Nothing much, I’m just chilling here with my mum and wanted to check how are you doing, but from your texts, and what I can hear I guessed you are nice and comfy whenever you are’ I laughed

‘You know he is a workaholic, but I can see you are doing a great job in changing that, I’m glad to hear it. ‘

‘OK, Gemma, I have to go. Have fun, just make sure you can walk on Monday. Sara is only waiting for a chance to shame you in front of everyone…Bye’ I hang up before she could answer. I couldn’t believe that she said that. What got into her? She was very salty about the whole Damien situation from the start, and recently she avoided me. Just talking about herself and Greg. Even in the office, we didn’t chat as much as we use to. I was puzzled and hurt at the same time, that was so mean and entirely not like her.

I tossed my phone on the table with anger, and I was just about to dig into my cheesecake when I heard a doorbell.

‘I will get it Mum!’ I run to the door, I knew it was Shaun I could feel it, smiling from ear to ear, his black curls wet from the rain falling in his green eyes.

I am always so happy to see him, my little brother. Well, three minutes difference, but still, he is younger than me, and he hates it.

‘Hello, sis! I think I need a towel is absolutely lashing out there’ He said, shaking his wet hair while coming inside.

‘Here it is sweetheart, just in time, cake is on the table.’ My mum always two steps ahead, always prepared. She hugged him and dried his head with towel messing his hair up.

As soon as we sat down, I heard my phone ping. A familiar tune that made me smile each time I heard it. It was him! Of course, it was, I didn’t talk to anyone else there. I grabbed it as fast as I could, Shaun and Mum were busy chatting about some series on Netflix that I didn’t see, so I took the opportunity to focus on the conversation with Damien. He had a shitty day, so I decided to cheer him up a little. I’ve sent him a picture of me holding a tray with the pie that I’ve made the day before from the recipe he gave me. I was covered in flour from head to toe my hair was all messy. He joked about the mess I made in the kitchen. We talked about our favourite desserts, we had the same taste, so it wasn’t surprising to me when he said that lemon cheesecake is also his favourite. It was a short conversation, his time in the library was over. He kept his phone there, in one of the books.

I’ve put my phone down, and I saw Shaun and Mum staring at me.

‘What?’ I asked nervously looking around myself to see what they are looking at. ‘Did I spill some tea? ‘

‘Who was that sweetie?’ My Mum smiled at me ‘Was it Albert?’ Why would she think it was Albert?

She was right, I didn’t feel like this for a long time, this whole Luke situation messed me up pretty badly.

‘You are not getting away with this, not this time, you just blew your cover by giggling like mad! He knew about Damien, I told him everything, and I felt like it is time to share it with mum. At this stage, I was too deep into this, and she already knew that I am hiding something. We never had any secrets in the family, we made a promise that we need to share everything so we can help each other when we needed, and I didn’t want to break it.

I looked at my phone again and saw the last message from Damien.

“Bye messy pie :)’’

I smiled. He is so fucking sweet, sometimes. Took a deep breath.

‘OK, I will tell you but please don’t freak out.’

She poured more tea to the mugs sat comfortably on the sofa, put her hands on her knees. She was ready, that’s what she thought, but she wasn’t.

‘About six weeks ago I matched with this guy, Damien Jones. I wasn’t sure at first, but I swiped because he intrigued me, I saw something interesting in him. See for yourself.’ I showed her his profile picture and the one he sent me a few weeks ago with his pop. I kept shirtless to myself.

‘Wow, handsome man. So far, so good.’ God, she is so not ready for that. Shaun smiled, he knew I was shitting myself, I didn’t want her to know.

‘Oh, that’s so romantic. You seem to like him.’

‘Yes, I do. I feel like we have a connection, even tho we’ve been only texting, we didn’t really meet in real life yet, but we have something special.’

‘He is on the death row.’ I nearly whispered, looking at the floor, tears flowing. I felt horrible. On one side, my mum, always wanting me to find a good Nobel man and have a perfect family, one that we never had. And on the other side Damien, the not ideal partner for her perfect daughter, another criminal

‘Oh my god, sweetie.’ She sat on the floor next to me, took my hands in hers and looked at me ‘Are you hundred per cent sure he is innocent?’

‘ Yes, I believe him.’ I whispered

I told her everything. How Damien and his pop ran a chop shop together, how his half-brother Bennie started using heavy drugs and his father kicked him out, so he decided to take them down with his new gang; they got into a fight and Bennie tried to shoot Damien, but his pop pushed him away and took the bullet. Bennie and his thugs knocked Damien down and left him next to his dead father with the gun in his hand. Unfortunately, this was enough evidence to prove him guilty and sentenced to death.

I didn’t even notice that I was crying like a baby the whole time. I must’ve looked pathetic.

‘ Sweetheart, I would never think you are stupid. Love is never stupid, I would’ve been a complete hypocrite to think this way. You are my daughter, my whole world, and I love you with my whole heart. You are exactly like me when you fall for someone you fall deep. I can see that you care about this boy. And your golden heart won’t let you just leave him like that. Maya, if you believe he's innocent, I trust you’ She pointed at my phone ’ I don’t see a murderer in him, there is good in his eyes. And what’s most important you see a good person in him, you gave him a chance because you knew is right.’ Her expression softened ‘ We better start thinking about how we can help him.’

Shaun sat on the sofa, resting his head on his hands, suddenly he got up.

‘ What was the other evidence apart from the gun?’ She asked while walking back to the sofa

‘ Partial DNA on him, which by the way is the same as Bennie’s, if we could have his DNA that would be a full match. I’m sure that would be enough to prove him innocent. I spoke with him about this, but nobody knows where Bennie is now, and police aren’t even looking for him. Plus is not easy to convince Damien to let me help him, he is stubborn, he lived with the idea that there is no chance for him to get out for seven years and now when there is a small chance he is scared, he won’t admit it, but he is scared someone will get hurt because of him again.’

Next day I spoke with Damien about the possibility of finding Bennie, of course, he didn’t want me to get involved. How someone can be so stubborn!?

The moment Damien went offline, I put the address in my GPS and drove there. I looked around the place that seemed to be a chop shop. Damien texted me when I was hidden behind the fence. He was fuming, I didn’t listen to him after all, he specifically told me to wait. Sorry not sorry, darling.

We confirmed that the bike outside the shop was Bennie’s, I went to look around searching for anything useful, but then my luck reached its end together with my common sense.

Bennie found me. I had only one chance to use this to my advantage, he was meters away from me. I only needed a bit of his hair, that's all.

I could stir it anyway I could, I had him right in front of me, but no. I did the only thing my stupid mind told me to.

I agreed to go on a date with a murderer. How wonderfully clever of me. Mama will be proud.

It was the stupidest idea ever, but it was the only chance I had to free Damien, or at least save his life.

Damien wasn’t happy with the idea, but he knew it is the only way. Only one shot, he’s the only door to freedom.

We planned everything, go in get the hair and get out. Simple as that. Nothing can go wrong, right? Right.

I called Shaun, I was stupid and desperate enough to go on a date a murderer but not dumb as to go there alone.

#damien jones #damien jones fanfic #lovelink #damien #lovelink damien #lovelink fanfic #fanfic

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nataliepeebles · 4 years

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GREMLIN

Gremlins are tough to tackle. I have done a lot of work exploring my gremlins over the past two months.

Messages from growing up:

A lot of people in college still haven’t been forced to fully grow up. Well I grew up at the age of 8. My parents divorce has caused me to be the way I am today.

At the roots, my parents got divorced because of cheating. My mom simply could not find it in herself to be able to trust my dad after that. They lied to us for years growing up because they didn’t want us to hate my dad.

This has caused some serious trust issues in my life. Forgiving my dad took a lot of time. I don’t understand why anyone could ever do something so selfish. His stupid choice has royally fucked up my family life for so many more years that he would have even imagined. If people understood the consequences of their actions, usually they’d never do that to begin with. Cheating is something I will probably never understand. I can’t stand cheaters in relationships, on assignments, or even simply people that cut lines. Something about it has been ingrained in my head to be a horrible thing because I am the product of this. I’ve seen the consequences and so when someone told me “everyone cheats” (meaning on assignments) I absolutely obliterated this kid the other day. Not everyone cheats. We should not continue to let this be something that is even moderately accepted in our society. It disgusts me.

I went from my mom’s house to my dad’s house each week from the age of 8 until 18. Yes, I lived out of a suitcase, a lot of the time because you always have your favorite clothes and makeup to carry from one place to another. I always had to know what was being kept where because when I wasn’t organized, I had to make additional trips between houses which has wasted an incredible amount of time over the years. Maybe this is why efficiency is so important to me? A lot of people take not going back and forth for granted. People don’t realize how lucky they are to not have to be on the move at all times. On the bright side, this has made me so much more adaptable because I am able to fit into my various environments.

I have seen the inequalities in life (to put it simply). My dad has had an easy time. He is lucky to have had wealthy parents, that allowed him to excel in school and sports. He went to an Ivy League school (Cornell) and ran track there. That allowed him to find a career he was passionate about (sales and healthcare) so he is now a VP of their existing sales division at Anthem. He has had this career and continued to move up the corporate ladder for the past 25 years. He works his ass off and is a workaholic. He is constantly traveling, but makes a gross amount of money each year. He is cheap and only likes to save, but he is literally in approximately the top 3% of people financially. My mom is decently educated. She went to UConn and studied Psychology, but has barely used her degree at all. She also worked in healthcare for a few years before becoming a stay at home mom to raise us. When they got divorced, my mom did not realize how difficult it would be to reintegrate into the workforce. She has struggled from recruiting job to school jobs. She has never really had a career and at one point growing up we had to go on food stamps because a single mom and 3 daughters without making much money at all is hard to live off of. This has made me so much more empathetic to people and situations, because I believe people should work hard and get to earn more, but I also believe that sometimes bad things happen that you have very little control over, and sometimes these people deserve additional help until they get back on their feet. To go from one house to the other where my mom constantly struggled to my dad who has never had to worry about finances has shaped my outlook on life. It has made me crave stability in all aspects of my life. I never want to have to worry about money especially.

Because of my mom’s struggles with finding a satisfying career, and lack of confidence, she constantly seems to end up dependent on a man. She has literally had every single type of boyfriend; the bad boy motorcycle rider, the Italian, the entrepreneur, the soccer player, the millionaire, the average boyfriend. We kind of make fun of it now but growing up we got introduced to so many different men that also lacked stability and I hate seeing her stay with someone just because she feels more stable with someone. I never want to be forced to depend on a man. I want to have a mutually trusting and dependent relationship by choice. Quite honestly this might be the part of my life that has made me more liberal, more feminist, and more fiercely independent. I can’t control most things in my life. I can’t control other people’s choices, decisions, results, but I can absolutely control my own. This might also be part of the reason I tend to be a control freak sometimes.

My stepmom can be neurotic sometimes. She doesn’t realize how good she is at guilt trips and making people feel bad when she wants them to. This has caused me to have so much more awareness for all situations but it has also made me too apologetic. I sometimes apologize for everything, even if I didn’t do anything wrong because I had to be so empathetic and aware growing up or else someone would get their feelings hurt.

My parents never pushed me too hard growing up. Unlike most parents, mine actually were just proud of the work I did because they knew that I pushed myself (sometimes into the ground). I do think part of the reason I work hard is because I watched my dad work his ass off and how successful he has become from that. I’ve always pushed myself because I don’t want to end up in the horrible situation my mom was in. I push myself because I want to be able to travel and live well. Another reason I push myself is because of my older sister. Cassidy has always been great at everything. Growing up and only being 16 months apart was amazing because we were best friends, but so damn hard because everything was competitive and I hated it. We did all of the same things too. We were on the same soccer team, same track team, both honor students so we had the same teachers, we both even did student government. The main differentiator in sports was that she was way better than me at everything. Of course, she was on the state team, of course she got 5’s on all of her AP tests, of course she had no trouble with the ACT. I really felt like I lived in her shadow growing up. We did too many of the same things, and I constantly compared myself to her in an unhealthy way. It caused me to lack confidence in myself for years. It wasn’t until I started doing my own things such as marching band in high school and coming to a different college to be able to fully differentiate myself from her. For this reason, I hate competitive atmospheres because even when it didn’t seem competitive growing up, I always made it competitive myself.

When I came back to these on October 17, I realized that there was an area that I refused to even talk about. Those were all my big surface level problems but I had an ice-burg underwater that even for this I didn’t want to talk about because I am afraid that you will view me differently after reading this.

There is such a deep level of shame that I waited almost a year to tell my roommates. Boys. I give so much power to boys that use me and throw me away. I give so much power to horrible people that I know I shouldn’t give power to. I am so hopeful about the future and about relationships because I haven’t really seen these great loves in movies in real life, but I desperately want to find that. I think I am someone who gets lonely easily and compares myself to others. So many people think that because I am so focused on school, I can’t also have fun. People think that because I am so independent I don’t want a relationship. Just because I am happy on my own doesn’t mean that I don’t crave and hope for the best kind of real and vulnerable love.

I’m in a weird place right now where I don’t know what I want because I want to move away and this is the perfect time to do so. I don’t want to hold myself back by getting emotionally invested in someone this year for me to just move to realistically a different place than someone else.

I have had a friend with benefits for over a year and I didn’t tell more than a few close friends about it until AUGUST OF THIS YEAR. This is confidential.

I don’t share this part of my life because it completely conflicts with how I am in other areas and I don’t know why I let other people have so much power in this area and it terrifies that I do. My mom always says that I need to stop giving my heart away to people that just hurt me but I can’t seem to stop. Since I have gotten to college and gotten out of a long term relationship there is so much shame associated with how much I hoe around. People don’t know about this side of me and I think it’s because I like how people see me now and I don’t want them to see me as being a hoe. Granted, relative to some people it isn’t even bad at all, but relative to my expectations it is.

And I keep saying that I am going to stop seeing this boy that was HORRIBLE to me. He has held me back from success and I shouldn’t even want that in a friend let alone someone to have deeper feelings with.

I am so afraid of people's perfect perceptions of me being tarnished. I like being known as the hardworking girl who doesn’t have it all, but will work her ass off until she does.

My gremlins if other people would find out (including my friends) would say: you’re disgusting. You’re such a slut. No one will ever want to be with you after this. Why do you continue to make such shitty decisions? You’re so unbelievably desperate.

If I would go on a date with a boy from a dating app (which has happened a few times), I would wait until I knew he was relevant enough to share about to my family. And I said that it has been because I don’t want my family to make fun of me for going on a date, but it truly comes down to shame with my family thinking I am a slut.

This is the least perfect side of myself. My family knows nothing about this side of myself because I am so good at hiding it. I work so hard at everything that I do. I don’t know how to half ass things. That is included in relationships. Growing up, not that my family was conservative because they weren’t but they definitely didn’t encourage me to make stupid choices with boys either.

So much of my life I am a control freak about. I want to have control of every aspect of my life and I simply do not.

I really think shame is a huge point in this realization...

When I hear my gremlins + what they are saying to me:

At class: you’re wrong, don’t even try to answer that question.

At home: Natalie, stop being a lazy ass that just sits in your room all day watching shows

With friends: I never tell my friends all of the details about boys

While running: Don’t stop or everyone will see you

In academics: I try really hard, am I keeping up, I don’t want to disappoint anyone

With boys: you disgusting slut.

I care so much about other people having the perfect perception of me, but deep down I am just searching hard for love and meaning. And as I do everything, i am working really hard to find it. Granted, I won’t settle for less long term, but short term I seem to be okay with it. Why??? I don’t know.

I hide the things that scare me most about other people finding out about me. I used to hide from everyone that my parents were divorced because I didn’t want to be known as the girl with divorced parents because I am so much more than that. I guess it’s because I want to control other people’s perceptions of me because I am afraid that if you find out these things about me then you won’t like me.

My gremlins are centered around things that aren’t at the surface because I never let them be, but deep down they exist and I notice them constantly.

Ideas: buy invisible ink and write things. There are so many things I hide. And that doesn’t mean that they aren’t there, that just means that I am good at hiding them. I know that things are there.

Think about those things that are always there even though no one else sees them… It’s like glasses that I am wearing and see but no one else sees them.

More Ideas: beneath the surface, beneath the iceberg. My titanic. This has the perceived ability to sink me. It weighs me down wherever I go. I carry this baggage with me wherever I go. Bird Set Free by Sia.

I cried 4 times that day that I realized how much I hide. That cut deep to realize. And I don’t usually cry at all. That was an emotionally draining day. I also realized that while I thought I was scared of other people’s perceptions of me changing, in reality I was scared of having to realize my own perception of myself changing because of how much I mess up and because of how high my standards for myself are.

I liked the name as “Bird Set Free” for a while, but now realize that is a great song and metaphor, but not a name. I have renamed my Gremlin, Gnat. Gnat is like Nat or Natalie, but it’s my bad side. It’s my side that is slowly annoying me more and more with its inability to leave me alone. I have trouble not thinking about anything, and my internal Gnat is the reason why my head spins. This is the progress I’ve made thus far and I’m curious to see where I can go as I try to befriend my gremlin moving forward

#gnat #pest #gremlins #iterate #artifact #collaborate #ambiguous

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write-my-dreams · 7 years

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JayTim Day 1: Carnival

Author: write-my-dreams

Pairing: JayTim

Rating: PG

Warnings: None

Summary: Jason takes Tim (along with Dick and Damian) to a carnival in Metropolis.

Read at Ao3

Tim didn’t care that he was seventeen. He could seriously use a drink right now, painkillers be damned. The last few days had been hell. Absolute hell. He’d broken his arm going up against some of Scarecrow’s thugs. Bruce had benched him until he healed, refusing to take no for an answer. Cassie and Kon also refused to let him work with the Titans until he was back to full health. Balancing Wayne Enterprises, his relationship with Jason, spending time with friends, and patrolling as Red Robin had kept Tim’s life beyond busy. Now that he couldn’t be Red Robin he felt restless. Bored. Like the walls were starting to close in on him.

He glanced up from his computer when Jason came through the door. “Timmy! On the computer again I see. Put it away. We’re going out.”

Tim glanced at his screen. He’d just been going over the presentation he was giving tomorrow. “Okay. Where?” He put his laptop on sleep mode and set it aside. Jason was doing his best to keep him entertained while he healed.

“Metropolis,” Jason replied. “There’s a summer carnival in town for the week. Dick found out about it and said we should all go. I said I could stop by his apartment to pick him and the demon spawn up if you’re interested in going.”

Tim blinked. He hadn’t expected Jason to suggest a ‘family bonding’ activity. It’d be nice to see Dick again even though Damian would be involved. “Okay. Give me a minute to get my things then I’m ready.” The alternative was nitpicking the presentation or finding something else to amuse himself. He had been thinking of planting a virus into Ra’s al Ghul’s security network…

Damian approached the colorful gates with trepidation while Dick bounced on his toes. Tim and Jason exchanged amused looks. Damian usually acted like the bored parent being dragged along by his eager child whenever he was out with Dick.

“Poor little baby bat looks like he’s being tortured,” Jason muttered to Tim.

Damian stopped to glare at him. “I am not a baby, Todd. Cease calling me such an absurd pet name.”

“Fine, demon spawn.” He laughed and took Tim’s good hand. “Tim and I are going to the games to win Cass the biggest teddy bear we can find. You two have fun. Keep an eye on Dick and don’t let him get kidnapped.” Jason ruffled Damian’s hair with his free hand for the sole purpose of irritating him. Tim ignored the angry snarl as they walked away. It’d been a long time since he’d last been to a carnival as a guest. There just wasn’t time in his life. “What’s going on in that big brain of yours?”

Tim squeezed Jason’s hand. “Not much. I’m just trying to remember the last time I went to a circus or a carnival. I know Dick and I went the last time Haly’s Circus came to Gotham, what, three years ago? You know how Gotham doesn’t really attract fun.” Too much chaos in the city and too many costumed freaks.

Jason cocked his head. “Roy and I took Kori to a few carnivals last year.”

“What’d she think?”

“She loved it, though she almost made herself sick with cotton candy and elephant ears at the first one. It was fun though. We went on every ride and I think played every game. We won a lot of prizes. So many I could barely fit them all into the car.”

Tim smiled as he visualized it. He stopped as he noticed the rack of prizes behind the ring toss. Given their location, there were plenty of Superman prizes. Shirts, plushies of varying sizes, even a few body pillows. “I’m going to win Kon a Superman plushie.”

Jason snorted. “Go for it.” He took a closer look at the prizes. “You should win him the body pillow. Or give it to Bruce. The looks on either of their faces would be priceless.” He pulled out his wallet, grinning as they stepped into the line.

Tim rolled his eyes. “Selina won’t be thrilled if she comes by and finds him in bed with a Superman body pillow. Besides, we both know that Dick would steal it. He’ll probably ask Damian to win one for him so he has an excuse to cuddle him.” Somehow he’d have to hide the pillow from Dick so he couldn’t take it for himself.

When it was their turn, Jason paid for Tim’s three tries. The carnie gave Tim’s sling a skeptical look as he handed over the rings. Clearly he thought there was no chance Tim would manage to toss a single ring over the bottles. Completing a ring toss would be no difficulty for him at all. Something Tim demonstrated, to the surprise of the carnie and the line behind them. “I’ll take the body pillow,” Tim said with a grin. “My friend just loves Superman.” He tucked the pillow under his arm. He was meeting Bart and Kon tomorrow so he’d surprise Kon with his very own Superman body pillow. Tim made a mental note to message Bart to record the whole thing.

“He’s going to be so confused.”

“It’ll be great. Oh, look over there.” Tim pointed at two different stands. One involved knocking over bottles with a ball and the other was a shooting game. Each offered massive teddy bears as prizes. “Steph will love that big purple one.” He imagined Cass would be just as confused as Kon, but she would appreciate the gesture. Jason held Kon’s pillow while Tim did the ball toss to win Steph’s teddy bear. Tim could just barely fit both under his good arm as he watched Jason take out each target to get Cass her prize. “Let’s stop at the car and drop these off. I won’t be able to eat any cotton candy like this.”

“Or elephant ears.” Jason carried the bears so Tim could manage the pillow. “Wonder what Dick and the demon spawn are up to right now?”

“Probably going on rides.” Tim glanced up at the Ferris wheel. He wouldn’t mind going on a few himself. He would happily avoid the funhouse or any of the cheesy ‘House of Horrors’ attractions. He adjusted his grip on the pillow when they reached the car. “Looks like Dick and Damian did the same thing we did.” There was an oversized cat plushie in the trunk along with a big pillow bearing the Superman logo. Tim shook his head as he set the pillow next to it. As if Dick didn’t already have his own supply of Superman shirts. And underwear. Quickly he banished the thought of his brother in underwear out of his mind.

The bears just barely fit in the trunk. Jason shut it then locked the car again. “What do you want to do next? Ferris wheel?”

“Not quite. We’re at a carnival, which means we need to eat some cotton candy and greasy fair food."

Jason grinned as he took Tim’s hand. “I like the sound of that. Are we going on any rides or are we going to be too busy eating carnival food?”

“Why don’t you pick? I’ll buy us a bag of cotton candy then we’ll ride on the Ferris wheel. What’s next is up to you.”

“Twister,” Jason said promptly. “We’ll have to get an elephant ear at some point too.”

Tim nodded. “Sure.”

About an hour later, they’d been on most of the rides they were interested in and demolished a bag of cotton candy, a deep fried candy bar apiece, and were now working on an elephant ear. Tim watched Jason scan the carnival as he chewed a piece of the fried bread. A steady relationship had done wonders to ease Jason’s anger. He and Bruce still had their issues, but Tim hoped that would eventually change. Especially if Bruce could see this version of Jason. Eyes bright, having fun, chatting away between bites of the enormous cinnamon elephant ear they’d bought to share only for Jason to eat most of it. Seeing Jason so happy made Tim’s heart swell with love. He didn’t care about their rough history. What they had now was all that mattered.

“Tim?” Insecurity crossed Jason’s face. He dropped the piece of bread back into the basket. “You’re staring at me.”

Tim leaned in to kiss some of the cinnamon away from Jason’s mouth. “Because I love you. And you’re hot when you’re smiling and excited.” He kissed Jason again, this time just because. “We should do things like this more often.”

Jason drew him closer. “Yeah? My workaholic can be pried away from his computer and his case notes without violent protests?”

Tim rolled his eyes. “Yes. If it’s to spend time with you.” He grinned as a blush replaced the insecurity. “Want to go ride the Ferris wheel again and make out in the car?”

“I should make out with you by the cotton candy seller. She was checking you out. So was the fortune teller.”

Tim snagged a piece of the elephant ear. “Better them than some creepy old man.” He didn’t mention who crossed his mind. Jason’s scowl made it clear they shared the same thought: Ra’s al Ghul. Tim took another piece and changed the subject. “Since we’re eating so much unhealthy food we’re going to have to work out tonight. You especially. I’d hate to see your butt get fat.” He smirked at his boyfriend.

“Or your thighs.” Jason gave Tim a wicked grin. “Sex after we drop off Dick and Damian?”

Tim stepped closer. The carnival faded into background noise around them as he leaned into Jason’s space. “I can think of a good way to work off some of these calories. Like I said, you better work hard.”

Jason’s eyes darkened. “Is that a challenge, Timmy?”

“It is.” Tim pushed up on tiptoe to kiss him. “Don’t disappoint me.”

“You know I won’t.”

#jaytim #jaytimweek #jaytimweek2017 #jason todd #tim drake #my writing

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barbosaasouza · 6 years

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GDC 2018: David Brevik on It Lurks Below, Solo Development, and 27 Years in Gaming

There's always something new to learn in any profession, no matter how long one has been involved in it. The art of game design is no different. Even for the veterans, the pioneers, and the legends, there's always something new for them to learn every day. After decades in the business, there's still something new out there.

This is no different for Blizzard North co-founder David Brevik, one of the most respected names in the business. In 2016, he departed from Gazillion Games as its CEO, citing unhappiness with being on the business end of development and vowing to return to what he loved most: designing games. That has led to It Lurks Below, a dungeon crawler with world building elements. While originally intended to be an indie game with a small team, that team soon became Brevik and only Brevik.

That has led to some new learning experiences, something he was happy to share with Shacknews over coffee at this year's Game Developers Conference. Brevik talks about It Lurks Below and what's gone into its development. He speak about learning different aspects of game development, including taking online courses to learn pixel art. He goes into what it's like to be a solo developer (with occasional help from his daughter) with a Twitch channel where he can take feedback in real time. Lastly, Brevik reflects on his 27 years in the gaming industry and ponders all that has changed.

Shacknews: It's great to hear that you're back into game development. I've seen the art style, thought it was really good. I didn't know this was your first time working on the art side!

David Brevik, Blizzard North co-founder: First time! I took a couple of classes online on pixel art and I have a 15-year-old daughter who's extremely talented at art. She helped me out a bit.

Shacknews: Is she looking to get into the gaming world herself?

Brevik: She is! Actually, she's done this... there's this program called Girls Make Games. Her team has won two out of the four years that it's existed. She says she wants to work in video games, especially as an artist. And... we'll see. She's 15, so you know, those things change often.

Shacknews: So tell me in your own words, what is It Lurks Below about?

Brevik: For me, it's really about... I've played an absurd amount of Minecraft. I played a lot of this game called Starbound that I really liked. And I played a little bit of Terraria, but I had problems with the UI and I could just never get into it, but I've watched many people stream it for hours and hours. I really enjoy watching other people play it, but I just don't like to play it myself. And all of these games lack something, the depth that I was looking for. I love the world, the randomization, I love all of these things, but they just felt kind of shallow and goal-less. They're kinda sandbox-y games without much point.

For me, I wanted to put a structure on top of it, tell a little bit of a story, make it an RPG, give the thing depth, have character classes. So the idea of just taking that kind of Minecraft kind of gameplay and crossing it with Diablo, where I have random levels, random monsters, random loot, I just wanted to play that game. So that's where the idea came from, playing these games and looking for something a bit more RPG-ish.

Shacknews: What made you decide to go this alone, rather than gather up a band of hungry developers?

Brevik: I don't really know why I did this. I'm not a control freak. I like getting input from all sorts of people when making a project. But I got inspired by a few indie devs, like this gentleman that made Stardew Valley, made it by himself, for instance. I thought "Wow, that's kinda cool." And then my friends Erich [Schaefer] and Travis [Baldree], these two guys that I worked with for a long time, they made this game called Rebel Galaxy. And it was just the two of them. I thought "Yeah, I could do this with a really small team." I just came from a company with hundreds of people. I don't want to do that anymore. I want to go small. I want to go indie. I knew that and I thought I could do it with a team of five or something like that. Then I started prototyping the thing by myself and I thought, "I think I can do this by myself. I'm kinda enjoying doing this by myself." So I just kept doing it by myself. It wasn't any kind of conscious decision. I always planned on hiring a few people and making a small team. But then as I got going, I was just enjoying it so much, I kept going that way.

Shacknews: But you know how many hours go into making a game. We hear about crunch all the time. So you know the late hours that go into developing a game. Was that a concern for you at all?

Brevik: People don't really know me very well, but honestly, I'm a workaholic. I always have been. If I'm not careful, I could, not exaggerating, literally work all of the time. Sleep three hours and work the rest of the time. Because I love what I'm doing so much, everything else doesn't matter in a lot of ways. But I have a family, a wife, and things like that, so I have to be able to balance that, so in a lot of ways, it's good for me to have this balance of people around me and things to do other than just work. However, that said, any spare moment, I am working. I work 100 hours a week, easily, just because that's what I enjoy doing.

Shacknews: You have something now, and you kinda had it during the Marvel Heroes days, but now more than ever, as opposed to the old days, you have a Twitch channel! You have an audience that can actually offer feedback. Tell me about you use your Twitch channel to aid in your development.

Brevik: This is actually one of the most important parts of the development for me and one of the reasons that I can do this project on my own. It's because of this interaction. First off, when you're making a game by yourself, I'm huddled down in my office in the basement, and I'm working away for a year and... it'll be a year and a half in the summer. You don't know what you're making. "Am I going completely insane? Am I just making a piece of garbage here? I'm not getting any feedback from anybody. It's fun for me, but what do I know? I'm just drinking my own..." whatever. Anyway, so I don't know what it's like. And then to be able to put it out there and get response and get a positive response, which is a big breath of relief, but also get that feedback from people in the community is so helpful.

One of the things we did when we released Diablo, was before we released Diablo, we put this game on a disc for PC Gamer and for Microsoft DirectX. And they shipped a bunch of these CDs, you can buy the little demo before you buy the game, if you bought the magazine or picked up the CD from Microsoft. We got such great feedback from that, that altered the game, actually. The hot bar was not vented before we got feedback from them. We put that in the last three months of development for Diablo. Getting that feedback is the most important thing, because I don't have all the great ideas. I want to hear feedback from people. I want to create the best game I can and the only way I'm going to do that is to get feedback from the community. And people that are passionate about it, that watch our streams, that enjoy the work that I've done and things like that, they'll ask me questions, I can ask them questions, I can interact with them, and they become ambassadors for the product. They're out there saying, "I'm really enjoying this, the developer listens, I'm giving great feedback. Hey, I saw one of my suggestions go in the game and that's really cool for me." Everybody wins, I feel. It's kind of that old CD demo on steroids, with instant feedback that didn't exist. I really enjoy that entire process and that was really important with me in Marvel Heroes. I want to do it even more this time with It Lurks Below.

Shacknews: Is there an idea, in particular, that you saw in chat that made you think, "This is really cool. I didn't think of this?"

Brevik: Yeah, there's been all sorts of things. From suggestions about new wand types, there are suggestions people made of different types of wands that I've put directly in the game. But there's been a lot of great feedback from people. "Oh, I didn't like this. I didn't understand this quest. Let me go ahead and change that." There's been dozens and dozens of changes that people have suggested, plus they find all sorts of weird bugs that I didn't really think about. Because when you're bug testing by yourself... hundreds of people find bugs much faster and do weird things that you never really thought of. So that's also really helpful.

Shacknews: This is something I always used to be told on the QA team. Think outside the box and try to do weird things, because the consumer will do weird things. Think like an end user, but go nuts, because you never know what they're going to do.

Brevik: Also, people play the game and stream it and I'll just lurk in the channel. I'll just watch what they're having trouble with. That's something we used to do at Blizzard back when we made Diablo where we would go to game shows and have the game playable at these game shows. I would just sit back behind everybody and watch everybody play, because I would see where they were getting stuck, what they were enjoying the most, and that feedback speaks volumes often times. And so that is also really helpful. I get to do that from my house now, instead of having to travel to a show.

Shacknews: Do you have an end goal in mind for the game? Because you mention you're a workaholic and you can just go nuts for months on end, but do you have a set goal for how long you want the game to be?

Brevik: I do. I have a set period of when I would like to release it. I'm thinking in the next few months that I want to wrap it up. There's plenty I can add after launch. I'll give updates for everybody that buys it. I'll continue to work on it, if it's successful enough. If it doesn't succeed, then I'll have to get a job and raise some money and make a small dev team. But if it's successful enough, I want to continue to work on it, add features, like someday I'd really like to add multiplayer.

Shacknews: I'd imagine that would be an entirely differnt workload in itself.

Brevik: It is, but I've done multiplayer things so many times now that the game is coded and ready for multiplayer. It's just that multiplayer, in itself, there's so many weird bugs and timing issues and all sorts of stuff that comes up when multiplayer. It's just too big of a scope by myself, especially while I'm funding the entire game by myself. At some point I want to release it and then, if it's successful enough, add multiplayer post-launch.

Shacknews: If the workload does become too much, because you have a lot of ambitious plans for after launch, do you feel like you'll hire on a few developers to help you out?

Brevik: Yeah, absolutely. If it becomes too much. There's no reason not to. The only reason I'm by myself right now is, because I've become a little stubborn about it. Now I feel like I've talked about it and I want to finish it. But I'm not really that attached to any of it, so I could hire an artist who can make better art than I'm making. I could hire a programmer who can help me out with multiplayer and porting it to other platforms. There's all sorts of things that can help me there. I can hire a musician to help me out with some of the music. There's a whole bunch of things I could do to improve my ability to focus on just running the game.

Shacknews: This is really fascinating to me, because you've been in the business for over 25 years, what have you learned on this project? You talked about getting into art, but what else have you learned about game development for the first time?

Brevik: There's been all sorts of little things that I've learned here and there for the first time. Learning how to make pixel art and critique my own art was a challenge, something I've never really done before. I've drawn art for a long time, but it's all been boxes and circles to make prototypes out of. But to actually iterate on art and continue to make it look better and not being satisfied with something, that process I haven't really gone through. That applies to music, as well. I'll write a piece of music, then I'll take a break for a couple of days, I'll come back and listen to it and, "Ehhhh... I like where that's going, but I like this a little bit more." That process of iterating on things; which is what you do when you're programming, you make a small thing, you work it, it wasn't good enough or the code wasn't flexible enough, you gotta improve it, go back and make it more flexible, or whatever. This happens all the time. Same thing happens for the game, you play the game, "I had this idea for this," you play it for a bit, "Eh, it's not good enough, I want it this way instead." That iteration process and applying it to everything I'm doing is definitely a new experience for me. I've never had to apply it to music, sound effects, or art before.

Shacknews: I'm still stuck on what you told me earlier about your daughter doing art for you. It's amazing! Game development is running in the family for you!

Brevik: Yeah, it's weird and there's a few people I know that have second-generation people in the game industry now. I've worked with these people. We're old now. We've got grown kids and they're working in the video game industry. So it's strange, but there's quite a few examples now. It's becoming more and more of a thing.

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Shacknews: Going back to that whole '27 years in the industry' thing. You've been everywhere, from Blizzard North to a startup MMO to now your own project. How have your views on game development changed over the past 27 years?

Brevik: I don't think my views of development have really changed. I'm still super passionate about what we're doing. I believe in the video game industry. I'm super happy that it's extremely popular. The industry itself has changed so much. You can't even compare it. You can't even compare the industry today to what it was three years ago. So much has changed, much less ten years ago or twenty years ago. It's so different. When I started out, it was a niche geeky hobby and only the nerds played video games. Now, it's mainstream and there are millions and millions and billions of gamers. To go from a really small, closed industry to something this massive, where people walk around playing games all day on their portable devices and things like that. It's hard to even comprehend the amount of change that I've seen.

Shacknews: And yet still accessible, from the giant company making a AAA title to a small indie team making a passion project...

Brevik: That's really [due to] the advent of things like digital distribution. And all sorts of really easy-to-use engines, there's all sorts of ways that people can make games that they've never been able to make before, publish them themselves, and do all of these things, which is great in a lot of ways. It's also bad in other ways. The bad is that there are thousands of games released and most of them get lost. And the good is, there's thousands of games released and you get some real gems.

It Lurks Below is aiming for a summer release on PC. For those looking to help Brevik on his development path, be sure to follow Graybeard Games on Twitch and offer some feedback.

GDC 2018: David Brevik on It Lurks Below, Solo Development, and 27 Years in Gaming published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

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