#so courtney had to be EXTRA careful on their first date | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

demolition-lovers-blog · 3 years

Text

BROUGHT TO SUBMISSION

Jimin x reader/y/n

Smut-angst-fluff

7 Dominants owned a school to teach submissives girls how to properly act. How to take care of there dom etc. This is Jimin and Y/n’s story.

Sorry not edited!!!!

Y/n watch as the gates opened in front of her, her mother driving through and up a long winding road to a massive building it almost looked medieval she thought. There were smaller less intimidating buildings surrounding built on as extensions attached by closed in walkways with tinted windows. She could feel her stomach doing backflips as the school got closer looking over at her mother with her face in a blank stare.

She still tries to think how she ended up here, she knew when she was around 17 1/2 that she would have to be sent off to training school but what she wasn’t prepared for was her father dying leads then a year ago her mom remarrying in less then 6 months after and her new step-monster- father convincing her mother that she needed to go. He claimed she was not compliant, and was definitely not as submissive as she should be for her age.

Thinking back on all of it now, her father dying, her mother starting to date this man almost instantly, and her being sent off make a unsettling feeling creep up her spine. Nothing made sense especially not the woman who just parked the car sitting next to her. Gone was the loving, caring, mother she knew in her place was someone y/n didn’t know and even though she was scared shitless to start this school at such a young age she can’t say she wasn’t grateful to be away from the place she once considered a home, that feeling died with her when her dad passed.

“ Come on they are expecting us let’s not keep them waiting y/n.” Her mother turned to her with something she thinks was her trying to smile but failing miserably. Y/n just nods at her mother and grabs her backpack and follows behind her mother. Y/n is fidgeting while her mother presses the call button to let them know they had arrived.

“Stand still,this is why-“ her mother suddenly cut off by the door swinging open and gorgeous man stands in front of them both stunned to silence, but for different reasons. Jimin smirks at their reaction, he can instantly tell the younger girl in front of him silenced out of embarrassment of her mother’s scolding being heard and her mother from both being caught reprimanding her daughter, but also from the beautiful face of the man standing in front of her. Jimin clears his throat

. “Come in we’ve been expecting you, I’m Jimin and you must be the Lee’s” “Yes, I’m Courtney, and this is my daughter y/n.” Her mother shakes Jimins extended hand. Jimin closes the door behind them and them leads them to his office. He directs them to have a seat at the two chairs in front of his desk as he closes the door.

“So” Jimin starts taking a seat behind his desk “I’d like to just get this out of the way first.” He starts folding his hands on his desk and slightly leaning forward. “ we take girls of any age, as you well know. What is the reason that you are enrolling y/n in our school 2 years before it’s technically time?” He asked raising his eyebrow.

“Well Mr.Park, my husband and I feel that y/n needs extra training, he doesn’t he doesn’t feel that she ever submits her will to him.” Her mother states and y/n wants to roll her eyes or scream that she is a lair but is sure that would only prove her mother’s point. Jimin nods and then brings his attention to y/n. “Why do you feel your father feels this way y/n?” Shaking her head and in so quietly that Jimin almost misses it “He isn’t my father, my father dies almost a year ago.” Jimin knew right there he honestly didn’t even need to talk to her mother anymore, they had seen this before it’s her stepfather who is behind the reason she is her.

He feels himself soften for the younger girl, she looked so defeated and can imagine dealing with her father’s death and then have moms new husband come in and take over has broken her in a way. He is sure him and the boys will help her get back to a place where she is happy and comfortable with herself. “ Okay well this is where you say your goodbyes and we will have someone follow you out to get the rest of her belongings out of your car.” He told your mother as he stood up from his desk and motioned for your mother and you to follow him. You said a quick goodbye to your mother you felt no emotion knowing she was leaving you and as much as this place scared you you were also relieved not to be going back home.

Now 3 years later your 18th birthday is in a few days and you will start training in the very sexual aspects of being a submissive. 3 months of classes with all women teachers and props or toys for your “learning tools” and then there is 6 months of what they call the live-in phase of training the last and final training before being paired with a dominant. Y/n will admit when she first came her she was scared and just unhappy but the 3 years she has been here have actually been great. She got close to the 7 guys who ran the school, they are younger then one would expect but they have made a name for this school and themselves.

BTS or Brought To Submission is one of the leading schools in the country and you are proud of them you have looked at them like brothers and they you, well almost all of them. Jimin yes Jimin you had a little crush on him when you first started and assumed it would go away but to your misfortune it has only grown to something much bigger. You have it bad for Jimin but you hide it, afraid of rejection, thinking you would never be able to get with a guy like Jimin, him being 4 years older then you and you have overheard some of the girls telling stories about him. And you have to admit they don’t match that ethereal angel face that you have become very close to. The boys usually took a submissive during the live-in but not always,they actually had a few dominants that they knew well and trusted help with that part of the training. There where small apartments around the campus that the girls would live with their dominant for 6 months while they trained them. Y/n was happy that your live-in training was set by you. You could choose to have a domestic only live-in with out anything sexual or you could do both.

A contract was written up when you meet your dom and if you have any hard limits at that time, and could always add on to it as they learned more of what they liked and didn’t. The boys were always very clear to the girls that they held the power with that contract and even when their time to leave came they would not just pair them with a dominant the girls got to interview them and in the end chose who they wanted to be with. Y/n considered herself lucky, so many girls just got picked by a dom with the girls never having a say, but not here the boys were big on making sure the girls knew that they wanted the best for them and believed they should be in control of their futures. Y/n sighs as she lays on her bed thinking about all of this, she hates that she’ll never get to be with the dominant she truly wants, but Jimin could have anyone and she knew that after this she would have to pick a man and pretend this is who she wanted because she could never have who heart wants to be with.

Eventually she grabs a folder sitting on her night stand and starts looking at profiles of dominants that she has to choose from. As y/n starts reviewing her options Jimin is sitting at his desk finishing up his work for the day when a swift knock comes on the door, before he even has a chance to say “come in” Namjoon is strolling in.

Namjoon smilies widely at Jimin as he takes a seat in front of Jimins desk. “ Please come in” he chuckled at his friend. Namjoon just smiles bigger and starts in on what he wanted to talk to Jimin about. “So live-in is roughly a week away, ha e you decided if you are going to train anyone this year?” The boys didn’t always choose a girl to train some years they didn’t feel it, once or twice they were in a relationship with their own submissive. Namjoon came here to set a fire under Jimins ass. “All the boys have decided to take a trainee this year, I just don’t know if you were planning on it.” Jimin nods “ have they decided who?” Namjoon explains that some of the boys are all ready paired up but Jungkook and Tae were still deciding. “Do you have anyone in mind Jimin.” When Jimin says nothing he decided to help him along. “Well Kook was thinking about asking y/n.” Ha barely got finished his sentence and Jimin was jumping up from his chair. “He what? What the fuck I’m going to kill him, he knows better!!” Namjoon just raises an eyebrow pretending to be curious why Jimin is acting like this. He knew he’ll they all knew, but he was tired of Jimin dragging his feet and decided he needed a little push

. Namjoon smiled to himself as Jimin made some excuse and quickly left his office. As Namjoon is walking out he says to himself, “An that’s how you get a stubborn jackass to finally make a move.” He chuckles as he left it really was to easy

After about an hour and finding no one she was interested she just stares at all the applications that she tossed on the coffee table she was definitely frustrated no one appealed to her, feeling defeated she let out a long sigh leaning her head back against the top of the couch cushion.

A loud knock has her head snapping up and looking towards her door. She huffs and drags herself from the couch to her door and when she swings it open it’s none other then reason she is in this position to begin with. “ Hey y/n.” Giving her his big beautiful, eye disappearing smile. “Sorry to interrupt, but I was. Wondering if I could come in an talk to you?” Y/n nods and smiles bright at him. She closes the door and follows behind him quickly trying to fix her hair that she knows has fallen out of the bun, an looks down an almost panics when she realizes she is in short sleep shorts an a tank top. Jimin has taken a seat on the couch an she sits on her bean bag chair across from him and waits for him to talk

. “I’m sure you are wondering why I’m here at 9pm, I wanted to talk to you about something. I that alright?” He asked her holding eye contact.

She swallowed hard an nodded “Sure Jimin,anything.” That made him smile. “Live-in is approaching fast and as I can see from all the folders that your trying to decide who you want to be with” he took a breath. “ I don’t want you to feel obligated but I was wondering, if you haven’t made a decision yet if you would be interested in having your live-in with me?” “Yes!” She shouted an then tried to make herself not seem so excited. He gave her a knowing smirk, she wanted to kick herself. “I have to let you know before you make any final decisions that I can be a hard dom but also very attentive, and this might change your mind.” He stopped to look at her again. “I like it to be not just domestic.”

Y/n blinked a few times registering what he had said. When she didn’t answer he started talking again. “I can give you some time to think about it.” “No,no I want to do it.” She said an then looked down suddenly feeling shy. “ are you sure?” He needed to double check. Fuck he really wanted this wanted her but only if she was 100% sure. Again she nodded an told him yes. “Ok then we have just about 2 weeks so start getting your stuff together and after classes each day we’ll bring some over.” He explained to her while they were walking to her door. Jimin stooped an turned to face her, he cupped her cheek with one hand, leaned in an gave her a soft kiss on her lips. “See ya soon baby girl.”

An with that he left a stunned girl standing next to her front door. When realization hits she starts dancing around her apartment. “He wants me!” She screamed out. No idea that he was still standing by her door in the hallway, he chuckled to himself and started walking back to his place. The 2 weeks leading up to the live-in y/n was nervous an excited. She got a few rude comments at lunch one day when everyone was saying who they were paired with for live-in.

Some girls were jealous some were mad, but most congratulated her. Y/n was surprised when she found out that her 6 closest friends each got one of the boys for live-in apparently they had each gone to visit a girl that same night and the girls were all extremely excited with who they were going to be there doms for the next 6 months.

The day finally arrived an y/n hadn’t slept at all the night before. Jimin walks into her dorm room not even knocking. She figured it was because the dynamic between had begun and she was his now so he didn’t really need to ask permission for most things. Jimin helped her settle all her things in his spare bedroom.

He explained to her at first it’s better this way and as they evolve if it was something they both wanted after a while then they would do that. Jimin slid the contract to y/n an after she read it she looked at him confused. “You said you didn’t want just domestic.” He smiled at her. “ And I still do but, I figured we can explore things together and then you can decide if you like them or not. You really don’t have anything to go off of yet.” “Your right.” She said “I like that idea.” “Great now lets get some sleep and you can decide what you would like to start with tomorrow, sound good?” He stared at her waiting for her to answer. “Yes, sounds good.”

As she laid in bad that night she was trying to think about what she wanted to do with Jimin first, her mind going crazy. She finally fell asleep with dreams of everything Jimin could do to her.

The next morning y/n woke up and panicked when she noticed lit was almost noon. Jimin hadn’t given her a time to be up but she still felt that this was going to be unacceptable, she was worried she would be in trouble her first official day with him. She brushed her teeth get dressed and hurried out to the living room where Jimin was sitting on the couch. “Hey baby girl, how’s my little sleepyhead this morning oh wait I mean afternoon.” He laughed. Y/n came rushing around to stand in front of him.”I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to sleep that late please forgive I-“ baby baby calm down. Your fine sweetheart, I’m not mad at you. Come here.” He held his arms out to her and she nestled herself into his chest and he wrapped his arms around her giving kissing her temple. “ it’s all good baby, no worries ok?” She looked up at him and smiled “ok” They spent the day just getting comfortable with each other as Jimin put it.

Cuddling on the couch watching movies, soft kisses that eventually turned into heated make outs and then grinding against each other. She started whining against Jimin, but he told her they weren’t going any further tonight. He kissed her lips softly as she poured up at him. “Your an eager baby aren’t you.” Y/n nodded. “Alright off to bed with you, and no arguments.” Y/n pouted but did as she was told. Days went on like this for the next week and y/n was convinced he was trying to kill her.

Until about the sixth night when about an hour after he sent her to her room she heard her door open and then the soft click of it closing, then she heard nothing. Y/n assumed he must have just looked in to check on her until she felt the bed dip down. Jimin got under the covers and pulled her back to his chest they just laid there in silence for a moment until Jimin spoke. “I’ve really been trying to not rush this didn’t want to pressure you or anything but I’m not sure I can do it anymore.” He spoke quietly into her ear so close that she shuddered from the heat of his breath against her ear. Y/n turned and faced him “ then don’t.” That’s all it took for Jimin to send his lips crashing down on hers. His hand starting out holding her waist but soon after made its way under her shirt. Y/n moaned into the kiss when his fingers lightly began picnching her nipples. “Does that feel good baby.” He coped at her. “Uh huh” she panted out. “Lets me are this off.” He said while tugging her shirt up. Y/n lifted her arms up so he could pull her shirt over her head. “Fuck your beautiful” he said before bringing his lips down and encasing her nipple and sucking. “Oh” was all she could say as her fingers were holding tight to the sheet.

He spent a good amount of time on her chest sucking, licking, nibbling and leaving marks in his wake. As he brought his head back up to kiss her again he ran his hand down her stomach until it reached her panties only hesitating a moment before he slid his hand in and slipped his finger between her fold going back and forth. Y/n moaned it felt so good everything he was doing felt amazing.

She felt herself getting a little self conscious as he slid her panties down and she noticed she was completely naked while he was still clothed. “ look how prett you are all naked and spread out before daddy.” She nervously tried to close her legs but couldn’t do to the fact he was sitting in between them. “But your still dressed, take it off.” She whined she gasped when a hard smack came down on her inner thigh. “Who’s in charge here, baby girl is it you?” Jimin started down at her. “N-no daddy” still starring at here his voice almost a growl “Who is then, if it’s not you?” “You are daddy.” Jimins smile returned “that’s right baby and you’ll do well to remember that.”

Y/n just nods but that seems to be enough for him. Jimin leaned up to kiss her it was a long deep kiss both exciting her but at the same time comforting her. She whined when he pulled away from the kiss. “Shhh baby, I need to taste you waited so long, just know your going to taste so sweet my little little love.” He murmured as he was pressing kisses to her inner thigh. The pet name he gave her making her tummy do backflips.

The last thing she hears him say before he Started his assault was “fuck wanted this, thought about, mine.” And then he licked a long slow path from her hole to right under her clit, not paying attention to it at first. He went back and did it again y/n gasped and he growled “just like I thought so fucking sweet little love.” Y/n was whimpering this was amazing Jimin was licking every inch of her pussy she could tell he was enjoying himself from the moans and grunts and the little “so good little love” she thought it couldn’t get any better but oh was she wrong, when Jimin licked up her this time he brought his hands up to her waist then using his thumbs pulled the hood of her clit back and wrapped his lips around the exposed nub and he sucked. Y/n jolted up, but his arms over her waist held her down. He started out with light sucks but they got harder then his tongue flicked it, while he was sucking. “Oh my God daddy!” She yelled. Jimin smirked up at her. “You like that little love?” She nodded he went back to what he was doing, he removed one arm the other still needed to keep her from bucking her hips up.

He looked up at her while he took his index finger into his mouth and sucked on it, removing the wet digit never breaking eye contact her brought it to the entrance of her cunt. He watched her face as he slowly inserted into her. She winced for a second but when he started moving it in an out slowly. Y/n’s eyes rolled back in her head. “I’m going to add another one baby, gotta make sure I prepare you to take my cock.”

She was in heaven there was a stirring in her belly and she moaned out. Jimin could tell by the way she was clenching around him that she was close so he pulled out his fingers and backed away from her kneeling on the bed. She whined out a no when he left her. “Shhh, your ok little love, I just really want the first time you come to be around my cock. Wanna feel you tighten and spasm around my cock your first time yeah?” He cooed at her. “You want that to don’t you baby?” He asked her sincerely. “Yes,yes daddy I want that.”

Jimin stripped as she watched in awe he was so fucking beautiful, his body seemed like it was sculpted from the Gods, y/n didn’t know what she did to deserve this gorgeous angel, but she was so thankful that she got to experience this with him. Jimin laid over her body elbows next to her head and he kissed her with everything he had tongues were battling but of course Jimin control.

Keeping one hand on her cheek while he kept kissing her hopefully distracting her from any discomfort while his other hand was bringing his rock hard cock up and down her dripping wet slit so make sure his cock was properly soaked. He then told her she could rake her nails down his back if she needed to and then bent back down to kiss her as he slowly pushed himself in. Y/n scrunched her face up but Jimin soothed her with sweet words and gentle touches to her face. It was uncomfortable at 1st but with Jimin keeping a rhythm it started to feel better. “Are you close little love, I’m not gonna last the first time baby, but I won’t cum until after you.” Y/n nods “I think I am my tummy feels weird.” “ I got you baby.” Jimin said as he brought his hand between them and started rubbing circles into her clit. The coil in her tummy got tighter as Jimin pressed down harder and faster on her clit. “I feel strange daddy.”

Jimin knew she was about to cum she was clinching so tight around his cock he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to hold back his orgasm another minute. “Come on baby need you to let go for me yeah? Be my best girl and cum for me, I can feel it your right there just need you to let go, let go for me, I want it so bad baby, wanna feel you cum on my cock soak it properly, make daddy proud.” At that y/n came hard it was amazing the euphoria that encompassed her body was amazing she felt like she was in heaven. “Shit,fuck,fuck, baby I’m cuming gonna cum in this tight little pussy, my tight little pussy all mine.” And with that Jimin came thinks it just might have been the best orgasm of his life.

As they laid in bed y/n had her head laying in Jimins chest while he was lightly running his hands up and down her back. “That, that was amazing Jimin.” She smiled up at him. He bent down and placed kissed on her cheeks, forehead, and finally her lips, he pulled away with a satisfied hmm. “Just think little love, that was just a basic introduction. I have so much to show you, your gonna be my little whore. I’m gonna train all your holes to take me and only me. Gonna show you how to get on your knees and suck daddy’s cock the way he likes, your gonna be tailored just for me, and I’m gonna make you feel so fucking good baby. Gonna make you cum everyday, fuck if I have my way you’ll be cumming every hour. This is just the beginning, the best is yet to come.” He whispered into her hair as she yawned “Can’t wait daddy.” She said before she drifted off. “Me either little love, me either.”

@manggaechuu @esthemin @ella-mella @tokkikookie @mimlove @nightq11 @tokkikookie-lilmeowmeow-pupmochi @njrwifey @esthermin

A/n: I hope you like this I have rewritten several times. I am really nervous with this one. I plan on a part 2 with Jimin before I decide if I am going to expand to the rest of the boys. Guess I’ll just wait and see how it does. 😈😘🖤💜

#jimin smut #park jimin smut #bts #bts smut #jimin x reader #jimin x oc #bts suga #bts fanfic #bts jin #bts namjoon #bts jungkook #bts jhope #bts taehyung #dom jimin #jimin oneshot #jimin imagine #bts imagines

120 notes · View notes

chaoticbi-cheesecake · 4 years

Text

The Birthday Thing (Hournite)

Summary: It's Rick's birthday and Beth makes sure it's a great one.

Warnings: none

Category: Fluff

See notes at the end:)

Light flooded Rick's room. He groaned, angry at himself for forgetting to shut his blinds after coming back from patrol the night before. Pulling his blanket up over his head he hoped he could fall back into slumber, but had no such luck.

He rubbed his eyes, seeing his alarm was going to ring anyway and stood up from his bed, he went and grabbed his clothes before heading to shower.

He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror and took not of the large purple circles under his eyes from the lack of sleep. With hair disheveled and greasey, he turned the water on to hot and washed away the traces of last night's patrol.

When he returned to his room, he grabbed his phone from it's place charging on his nightstand. He looked at the date and realized, it was his birthday.

His first birthday since he found out the truth about his parents. His first birthday since he joined the JSA. His first birthday since he and Beth had gotten close.

He didn't even have time to process when he saw a text from Beth reading,

'Happy Birthday, Rick!!!🎉🎉🎉'

He smiled, because of course Beth would remember his own birthday before he did. He could just imagine the bright smile on her face as she typed away at her keypad, probably with goggles hanging around her neck.

He peeked out the window to see if his uncle's truck was out in the yard. It wasn't. That was probably for the better, seeing as the best birthday present he could possibly imagine was crushing it under his fist like the first time.

He glanced at the clock and saw it was almost time for him to leave. Grabbing his backpack, Rick left his house and began his walk to school. It was slow walk, fog had settled over the road giving the path a spooky yet calming atmospher.

Rick had thought a lot about what today meant. He didn't feel any older, or smarter. He compared this birthday to his last birthday. Before, he felt alone on his birthdays. His uncle wasn't around long and it's not like he had friends.

Though, the year before, Beth had noticed something was off about him at lunch. When she asked him about it, he was surprised that she had spoke to him, let alone noticed he was in more of a mood than usual. But that was Beth after all, observant as hell.

He had almost snapped at her when she asked, knowing it was none of her business, but when he looked up at her face, the real concern drawn over it made him rethink it.

'I'm not really loving my birthday this year.' he explained as honestly as he could without spilling the whole truth.

'Oh, why didn't you say so earlier?' Beth exclaimed before digging a hand into her bag and pulling out a small plastic box full of brownies.

Rick's eyes widened.

'Do you just have sweets at the ready for all occasions?' He asked as monotone as possible.

She nodded her head brightly.

'Yeah, pretty much.' she stated and slid the container over the him.

He picked one cautiously and took a bite. He swore to himself he would never admit how good they were out loud.

'Thanks.' He nodded gratefully before the two fell back into silence once more.

Rick's thoughts came to a halt when he saw the tree. The one where his parents were murdered, the one he punched down when he first got his powers.

He crouched down, gently running his fingers over the bark. Tracing the hourglass figure he had carved wood.

"Some birthday," he muttered bitterly, as if they could hear him.

He stood and continued his walk, finally making it to school with only five minutes before the bell rang. As he entered the building he was immediately tackled in a hug.

He knew it was Beth right away, her arms snuggly wrapped around his torso as she buried her face in his chest. She let go after a moment and beamed up at him,

"Happy Birthday!"

"How are you so energetic," He asked before dropping his voice low. "We patrolled till what, three in the morning?"

"Oh, I didn't go to sleep last night. I'm certain it will come back to bite me in a few hours. Anyway, I have something for you." she grabbed something out of her bag and handed it to him. It was a container of brownies, much like the ones from the year prior.

"They're the same recipe as last year, and..." she grinned before taking out two cards from her folder.

One was store bought and had in bright letters,

'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!'

"This one is from Court, Yolanda, and Pat." she gave it to him before extending out another card, stuck in a a closed envelope which read on the back,

Rick

In loopy letters.

"And this one's from me. Don't open it until after training though." she instructed.

He nodded happily before opening the box of brownies and taking a large bite. They were just as good as they were before. But this time they were still warm.

"Beth, did you stay up all night because you decided to make me brownies?"

"No. I stayed up all night because I had a ton of homework to do. And because I decided to make you brownies."

"You didn't have to do that."

"I am very aware. But I really wanted to, and either way, by the time I was done with my homework, I only had a couple hours until I had to wake up. It seemed like a good idea to me."

He smiled widely, he couldn't remember a time anyone had ever done so much for him.

"Thank you." he said.

"Anytime." she smiled playfully.

He opened his mouth to say more when her heard two voices behind his yell,

"Happy birthday."

Rick turned to see Courtney and Yolanda smiling.

"Thanks guys."

"I'm just really glad we made it in time. Traffic was crazy this morning." Courtney said.

"Did you guys drive here together?" Rick questioned.

"Umm-umm, we did," Yolanda stuttered out. "You know, carpool is good for the environment and all tha-"

"Is that your shirt from yesterday?" Beth asked innocently.

"Is that the bell?" Yolanda prompted. Then a loud beep confirmed her statement. "It is, see you guys at lunch, bye. Happy Birthday, Rick." she spoke loudly as she dragged Courtney with her. The blonde waved sweetly before turning back to Yolanda and rushing across the hall.

Beth giggled.

Rick thought it was the most amazing sound in the world.

"They're getting really bad at excuses. But the carpool thing might not be all that bad of an idea." the girl thought aloud. "Okay, well I'm going to head to class, see you at lunch."

"See you."

Beth squeezed his had once before pulling away and walking off to class. Rick stood frozen, absolutely certain he looked like a love struck idiot in the middle of the hallway, but he didn't care.

The day dragged by slower than usual and lunch came as a relief to Rick who had been dozing of in every class he had been to.

When he walked into the cafeteria, he realized he wasn't the only one that was exhausted. Courtney had her head on the table, hair covering her face. Yolanda was leaning on her, blinking rapidly in an attempt at staying awake. Even Beth, who had seemed quite energetic in the morning, had her chin in her hand, eyes closed.

"You too?" Rick asked the group.

"End my suffering." Yolanda muttered against Courtney's hair.

"We should really invest in 5 hour energy." Beth declared sleepily.

"Or cocaine." came a muffled reply from Courtney.

"Yeah, that too." Yolanda agreed yawning.

"Maybe we should just skip training today." Rick propositioned.

"No, we have to get used to the exhaustion. It's apart of superhero life." Beth pointed out.

"Shhh." Courtney said. "Secret identity remember?"

"Sorry," Beth mumbled as her face slipped lower and lower down her arm.

"But what about homework. How can we do that and spend all night out?" Yolanda questioned, now buried in Courtney's blonde locks.

"Chuck knows all." was Beth's only reply.

"Are we all just going to fall asleep at this table right now?" Rick questioned seriously.

"Mmhm." Yolanda hummed

Rick shrugged, pretty okay with that option. He rested his head against the cool table and let sleep overtake him.

And there they were. The new JSA sleeping in the noisy school cafeteria.

Fifty minutes wasn't enough to make up for their long night, but it was better than nothing. When the bell rang for lunch to end, the group awoke. They said their goodbyes and parted ways until they could go to training.

The school day couldn't end fast enough in Rick's opinion. As soon as the bell rang, he flung out of his seat and walked to the front were he was met by a much more energized group of girls.

"You guys look better." he teased.

"Yeah, we got an extra hour in history. There was a sub and a video." Yolanda informed gesturing between herself and Courtney.

"Same here. I just slept and asked Chuck to record the whole thing." Beth smiled.

"Good for you guys. Pat's picking us up right?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, we might even pick up some pizza for your birthday." Courtney confirmed.

"Thanks." Rick said, surprised they were still going on about his birthday.

They saw Pat roll around into the parking lot. The man waved at the four teens.

Rick leaned over to Beth and asked slowly,

"Do you think he realizes he unintentionally adopted us?"

Beth smiled up at him.

"Do you really still think it was unintentional?"

"Fair." Rick nodded.

They entered Pat's car. Courtney sitting upfront while the rest sat in the back. Rick was seated between Beth and Yolanda.

"Happy Birthday, kid." was the first thing Rick heard as he got in.

"Thanks, Pat."

"I already dropped Mike off at home so we have extra time for training today. Unless you all want to get pizza first?" Pat swiveled his head to the back.

"What kind of a question is that. We always want pizza." Courtney spoke for the group.

They all nodded in agreement.

"Alright then, pizza it is."

Beth rested her head against Rick. He relished in the comfort of her body against his and sighed in content.

Courtney heard this and moved her head to look at the two.

Rick caught her eye and narrowed his eyes in confusion. She wiggled her eyebrows as she eyed the two.

Rick's jaw clenched and he glanced down to Beth, who's eyes were closed. The sun that came through the car window cascaded across her face and gave her an angelic glow.

His features softened as he took in her appearance. He knew Courtney was right in her teasing gaze, but he still did not crack.

He tore his eyes away from Beth and back to Courtney. He pointed at her before turning his hand on himself and drawing a line against his throat in a threatening manner.

The blonde simply rolled her eyes and shook her head, turning her gaze back to look at the road.

Rick allowed himself to lean against Beth and relax his body. His hand fell and it landed right against Beth's. The boy froze, unsure of what her reaction would be. He was relieved and ecstatic when she intertwined their fingers together.

Her eyes were still closed and a small smile played on her features.

After they got pizza and pulled into the garage, the teens got out of the car one by one and stood outside the door to their training room.

Pat got his keys and unlocked the door. Rick was shocked by what he saw.

The room was decorated, there was a table of snacks and a cake in the center of the room. Above that was a large banner that read

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY" in colorful letters.

"Wha-" Rick could barely spit out before everyone in the room yelled,

"Surprise!"

"What is all this?" he asked dumbfounded.

"It's your birthday party." Courtney stated like it should was the most obvious thing in the universe.

"You guys did all this for me," he asked softly as he looked around the room in awe.

"Well, most of it was Beth's idea. But Pat got all the snacks and the cake. The cosmic staff helped us decorate. " she explained.

"It was kinda hard not telling you all day. I'm surprised Beth didn't crack." Yolanda admitted.

"Honestly, the exhaustion made it slip my mind for almost three hours." Beth said and smiled sheepishly.

"This is," Rick searched for the right words. "the best thing anyone has done for me. I don't think there's anything better than this."

"I will take that as a challenge." Beth warned.

The boy smiled down at her.

"Okay you guys, have your fun. There's water and punch at the end of the table. But remember, we are having training tomorrow, so don't have too much fun." Pat chided.

"Okay, thanks Pat." Courtney said before pulling Yolanda to the snack table, leaving Rick and Beth alone.

"So, all of this," Rick gestured to the decorate room. "Was your idea?"

"Well, the concept of birthday parties aren't very new." Beth tried downplaying, but at the look on Rick's face she cracked. "Yeah. A lot of it was my idea. Though, Court did bring up the option of keeping it a surprise, pretend we forget your birthday or something, but I never was a fan of that. So we just settled on not telling you about the party."

"This is pretty awesome. You know, I honestly think this is the nicest thing someone's done for me since my parents...you know." Rick trailed off.

Beth grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before pulling the teen in for a hug. He gladly accepted and wrapped his arms tightly around the smaller girl's frame.

"Thank you," he mumbled against her hair.

"Anytime. Now come on, its pizza time." she grinned and pulled away from his warm embrace. He frowned at the loss of contact but followed her to the table anyway.

For the next hour the two talked, laughed, sometime in between Courtney and Yolanda joined the two with glittery party hats on their head.

Beth giggled and happily put one over her head. Then the three girls turned and looked at him expectantly.

"Nope. No thank you."

"Come on. It's your party and you're going to be the only one not wearing a hat." Courtney tried.

Rick shook his head.

Beth grabbed his hand with both of hers and gave him a pleading look.

"C'mon please." she begged.

They got him. Rick couldn't say no to her.

He hung his head low.

"Crown me." he said in defeat.

Beth grabbed a hat and put it on his head. Pulling the strings over his face and tucked them behind his ears.

He looked at her and took in the close proximity of their faces. Her hands remained on his cheeks for a bit longer than normal before she pulled away when Courtney coughed.

"Cake?" she proposed.

"Oooh, yes." Beth cheered. "Let's go sing 'Happy Birthday' and blow out candles."

The teens walked over to the center of the table where the cake was. Courtney gestured Pat over from where he was tightening a screw on his STRIPE robot. The man stood and made his way to the group.

Pat grabbed a box of matches and lit the candles stuck in the cake. The group sang Rick 'Happy Birthday'. Beth told the boy to make a wish.

Rick closed his eyes and focused on his wish. He blew out the candles.

The teens clapped and hollered out a string of 'whoops' and 'happy birthday's.

"What'd you wish for?" Courtney asked.

"You can't ask that. If he tells you, the wish won't come true." Beth warned.

Courtney raised her hands in surrender before grabbing a plastic knife off the table and slicing the cake. She served Rick first before grabbing slices for herself and Yolanda. The two girls walked off yet again leaving behind Beth and Rick.

"What do you think they do when they leave us alone?" Beth wondered aloud.

"Not sure. Talk maybe. Plot world domination?"

"I thought it was our job to stop that from happening?"

"Oh yeah. That's true." Rick chided playfully, earning a small giggle from Beth.

"Thanks for the party." He said as he took a bit of cake.

"You already said that." Beth smiled.

"And I'll say it again. Thank you, Beth Chapel for the best birthday ever," he thanked once more before grabbing both her hands with his own. "I have no idea what I'd do without you."

The girl simply rolled her eyes teasingly, not believing she was worth all the praise. But the look in Rick's eyes made her feel like the most important person in the world.

They talked for the rest of the party. Debated about classes, superhero names, and everything in between.

They had such a good time they didn't even realize it had gotten dark until Pat tapped them on the shoulders.

"Hey kids, it's getting dark. I should probably be taking you home."

Beth frowned knowing she'd have to stop talking to Rick but quickly replaced it with a polite smile.

"Alright Mr. Dugan, let's get everything cleaned up."

The man nodded and went to the table, beginning to clear out the empty bowls of chips and candy.

"I probably shouldn't take the cake home. My uncle probably won't be too happy about it." Rick stated

"We can leave it here in the mini fridge. Eat it after training tomorrow. Right Mr. Dugan?" Beth called.

"Sure thing."

"See, probably solved."

"Okay then," Rick said.

The four teens helped clean the table and soon the training room looked just as it had before the party took place.

They walked outside and to the sidewalk where Pat's car was parked.

Courtney and Yolanda got in while Beth stood with Rick.

"I think I'm just gonna walk," he told Pat.

"Okay, stay safe kiddo." Pat instructed. "Beth?"

"Gimme a minute, please." she said as she moved closer to Rick.

She turned to him and lowered her voice so the others didn't hear her.

"I had a lot of fun tonight." she smiled.

"Me too, all thanks to you."

"I'm really glad I met you." Beth confessed.

"I'm really glad I met you." Rick laughed. "What's with all the seriousness?"

"I just know it's not easy. Spending so many birthdays alone. But I just want you to know that as long as I'm around, you'll never have to spend your birthdays alone ever again."

Rick had no idea what to say to that. He wore a shocked expression before shaking it off and grabbing her face in his hands gently.

He leaned down and kissed her forehead before resting his own forehead against hers.

Rick could've stayed like that forever and he'd be the happiest guy alive, but Beth pulled away.

"I'm gonna go. I'll see you at school tomorrow. Happy birthday." she waved as she got into the car.

He waved back before turning around and walking all the way home with the widest grin on his face.

Once he got home, he was relieved to see his uncle passed out on the couch.

Rick made his way to his room and fell onto the bed. He tossed his backpack to the side of his room and rested on the bed.

His eyes snapped open when he remembered the card Beth gave him that morning. He scrambled off the bed and shuffled through his bag until he found the envelope with his name on it.

He carefully opened it and took out the card inside.

It looked to be handmade and the cover was decorated with hand drawn balloons outlined in glitter.

The cover had the words,

'Happy Birthday, Rick' on the front and right below in the bottom corner were Beth's initials.

He opened the card and read the words inside.

Dear Rick,

It's your birthday. Yay! I hope you've had an amazing day and I really hope I was one of the reasons for it.

I know the past years have been tough for you and birthdays might not be your favorite memories but I promise, as long as I live I will make sure that every day you will have good memories. Cause you deserve them.

If I could choose one person to spend the rest of my life making happy, it would be you. You are the greatest person and you absolutely deserve the world and I will make sure you get it.

If you listened to me and read this after training like I told you, I hope you liked the party. If not, you just ruined your own suprise.

Anyway, I hope you've had a very happy birthday. Best wishes and lots of love.

-Beth

Rick looked at the card, smiling ear to ear at Beth's sweet note. He would never get tired of her antics. He moved back to his bed card still in hand. The teen held it close to his chest.

The last thought on his mind before he slipped into his dreams,

"I'd do anything for Beth Chapel."

80 notes · View notes

elskamo · 3 years

Text

Guess who’s been playing Sims 4 again? I only played 2 in game days but there was still enough going on that I could make an update. I’m also debating putting up some separate posts so people can actually see the characters I’ve been rambling on about the past few weeks? Let me know if that’s something you wanna see! And now for more rambling...

Playthrough:

- Kristin and Farley aged up into toddlers with the angelic and silly traits respectively. In the other household Lawrence also aged up into a toddler with the independent trait. (And because I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before Kate and Carlos are both children, Kate has the self assured trait and Carlos has the evil trait!)

- Scott and Courtney paid a visit to the newborn twins while Jo and Brick were at work, during the visit Alejandro and Duncan were still completely ignoring their son while Heather was attempting to take care of the twins while Bridgette resumed work.

- Back at home Scott spent some time with his daughter Lawrence and despite getting off to a rocky start they eventually began to bond. The second Brick got home Lawrence ditched Scott so she could play with him instead.

- Scott and Courtney both attempted to bond with Kate in their own way, Courtney through chess and violin and Scott through awkward conversation.

- Brick scheduled a toddler playdate for Kristin, Farley, and Lawrence for the next day... at that point he still hadn’t met either of his twin daughters and had instead been helping Jo with her and Scott’s daughter.

- In the other household Bridgette finally confessed her attraction to Heather but things immediately got awkward between the two of them. Heather was somehow completely happy to have their first kiss immediately afterwards though.

- Heather and Bridgette ran off to the hot tub as soon as they became official and began to woohoo... meanwhile Duncan attempted to stop one of Bridgette’s twins from playing in the toilet while Alejandro had to search for the other one after she wandered out the house.

- Back at the other house Brick and Jo kept swinging back and forth on whether or not they felt comfortable flirting with each other despite them having spent the past couple of days essentially co-parenting Lawrence together.

- Heather brought Bridgette’s twins to the playdate the next day since Bridgette was working again and wouldn’t arrive until the event was almost over. Brick finally got to bond with his daughters with some help from Jo while Heather trashed their house.

- When Courtney and Kate got back home the two of them spent some time working together on an extra credit project for Kate to take to school and the two got a lot closer.

- As Courtney got closer to her due date both she and Scott took family leave off of work to prepare for their new baby.

- By the time the toddler playdate was over Brick and Jo were finally feeling comfortable enough with each other again to make things official! As soon as they got together they tried for a baby and Jo got pregnant immediately.

Side notes:

- Brick, Courtney, Jo, Kate, Lawrence, and Scott live in the original house. Both Courtney and Jo’s babies will end up being raised there too, bringing the household up to the 8 Sim limit.

- Alejandro, Bridgette, Carlos, Duncan, Farley, Heather, and Kristin live in the neighbouring house. There’s only room for one more Sim in the household.

- Alejandro and Duncan’s adopted son Carlos is named after one of Alejandro’s (presumably older) brothers in the main series.

- Courtney and Heather’s adopted daughter Kate is named after Courtney’s younger sister in the spinoff series.

- Scott and Jo’s daughter Lawrence is named after Jo’s voice actress Laurie Elliott.

- Brick and Bridgette’s twin daughters Kristin and Farley are named after Bridgette’s voice actress Kristin Fairlie.

Charts:

#total drama #sims #sims 4

4 notes · View notes

dontlikedarkness · 4 years

Text

Wonderland

Growing up together meant a lot of things. At first, it meant nothing more than following each other around daycare and annoying the living hell out of each other. Courtney would put on a front for their parents so that she’d be seen as the victim - but she played the part too well, and soon, she was spending half her time at Duncan’s house. Her parents worked a lot, so they jumped at the chance to have somebody pick her up after closing time. They thought extra time with her friend was an added bonus, although her mom didn’t quite approve; she’d learned through the grapevine that Duncan was a troublemaker at school, but was desperate enough to risk it. Besides, she was confident (and rightfully so, for the most part) that Courtney had inherited enough of her own stubbornness and need for structure to resist Duncan’s antics.

Once they’d moved on to kindergarten and eventually grade school, leaving Courtney with the Bivona household for after school care became a matter of convenience. Duncan’s eldest brother was soon old enough to watch them himself, once his mom had gone back to work after maternity leave, and Courtney’s younger sister, Kate, was easy enough to look after. They both appreciated the company of another kid their age - though they’d never admit it.

It became natural for the two to be together. Her dad would drive them to school in the morning, and his mom would pick them up after, so it made sense that they’d hang out in the times in between. Not that they ever meant to, but they were comfortable around each other, as it tends to happen when you’ve known someone since they were in diapers. They’d gravitate towards the other’s familiar face on the first day of school, and be paired up together every day afterwards. Teachers thought they were a good balance, though they never quite understood it. Courtney was useful when Duncan’s attitude and issues with authority needed reigning in, and Duncan always knew how to bring her out of her shell. As odd as it was, it worked.

The roof had been his idea, of course. Who else would see a house and wonder how much of the neighborhood they could see? Purely for devious reasons, he’d said, though she knew better than that. It took months upon months to convince her to go up with him, and it was her roof - had it been any other roof, chances are she wouldn’t have agreed. The only reason she’d said yes in the first place had been pride, because he claimed she was too chicken to go up there, and she’d needed to prove him wrong.

She’d fallen in love with the spot fairly quickly. It was easier to see the stars up there, and she could get out of her house without ever having to leave. It wasn’t breaking the rules - it was skirting them. Which was good enough for her.

Soon enough, it had become an unofficial meeting ground. A safe place, of sorts. He always knew where to find her when she was stressed and overwhelmed, and she knew where to find him when he was pissed about something. They would go up there just to talk, and sometimes they’d stay for hours before Courtney inevitably realized it was past midnight and they had school in the morning.

Even before they’d started dating, it had been there. It started with innocent cuddling in the fifth grade, because Courtney got cold easily and neither of them ever remembered to bring blankets. They’d bring a laptop up and watch movies until the battery died, or until they found themselves talking, too distracted to focus on the screen. Slowly that had progressed into cautious hand-holding, a gentle swipe of his thumb over the back of her hand. She would lay on his chest, eyes on the stars, pointing out every constellation she knew, and speculating on the ones she didn’t. Eventually he knew them by heart, and he’d hold her hand as she gestured at them, naming them off before she could so much as open her mouth. As much as she pretended it annoyed her, she found it oddly endearing. It meant he cared enough to listen, and he didn’t care about anything.

“Princess” had been his nickname for her ever since they could remember. She’d been playing dress-up one day while he idled about, making off-handed comments about how dumb she looked, when she’d decided on the princess outfit. “It makes me feel powerful,” she’d told him, tiny hands on tinier hips. “Whatever you say, princess,” he’d shot back, and it had stuck. When the name began to send a torrent of butterflies through her stomach, she’d known she was in trouble. That was when the hand-holding had transitioned into kisses; soft at first, and completely innocent. He’d kiss her hand and say “your highness” with a mock bow, she’d kiss his cheek and then ruffle his hair in response to the rare but steadily more common compliment. His forehead, when she was proud. Her nose, because she’d complained about her freckles. Neither of them could admit that they wanted more. It was too scary an admission - she thought they were too different; he thought she deserved better. And so the no-longer-quite-so-innocent kissing and cuddling and whatever else continued for a while.

It was sophomore year when she’d decided enough was enough. He helped her push her boundaries in every way - so why not this? His pining had become painfully obvious, and everyone was urging her to do something about it, because while he acted like a lovesick puppy, he respected her too much to make a move without some sort of sign from her. Of course, there had been many signs, but he was incredibly oblivious to them, blinded by thoughts of ‘she would never want me’ and ‘I’d only drag her down’. It was up to her to take matters into her own hands.

So she invited him to the roof, under the pretext of having a movie night. She was up for re-election as student body president, and he needed an escape from his overbearing father; it wasn’t entirely out of left field that either of them would want a night to relax. She spent an hour up there making everything perfect: she had blankets and pillows and all their favorite snacks, and a slew of romantic comedies neither of them would particularly enjoy lined up to watch. He was quick to figure out something was up, fixing her with an expectant stare the moment he’d finished scaling the trellis. “Somebody die, princess?” He’d asked, and she turned beet red. She’d gone overboard, because that was what she did, and she’d set up a date for an entirely different set of people. All they ever really needed was some cheesy thriller and a bucket of popcorn, not some elaborate set up, but she’d let her nerves get the best of her and had immediately gone into overdrive to take her mind off of it.

He could sense her building panic, and he silenced it all with the gentle brush of a hand over her cheek. She squeaked out a meek protest, though both of them knew she didn’t mean it. Her hand snaked up to twist through his hair, pulling him closer, and before he knew it her lips were on his. Gentle, but demanding, leaving him gasping for air. Nothing had ever felt so right, to either of them.

The transition from best friends to more was nowhere near as complicated as she’d expected. They were slightly more public with their affection, he’d sneak into her room for sleepovers and late-night cuddling, and they kissed a hell of a lot more, but beyond that, very little changed. They still bickered to no end and argued over the simplest things, but it was never enough to split them up. It hadn’t before, and it still wouldn’t. They had a bond no one could explain - nor hope to break.

The roof had weathered it all, a constant throughout their relationship, even as it grew and changed. It was a symbol of everything they’d overcome and everything they had yet to endure, and it gave Courtney the strength to believe in them. The strength to speak up.

“Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, princess,” he teased, feathering a kiss on her nose before pressing his forehead to hers, content in their closeness as they lay beneath the stars. She frowned, shifting herself up slightly so that their eyes were level. “You can’t tell me you don’t see the way she looks at you, Duncan. Like she’d worship you if she could. Like you’re some sort of god and she’s a mere mortal, awed to be in your presence.”

His thumb brushed across her chin before settling there, with her head cradled in his hand. It was difficult to find words when she was there, looking so unbelievably beautiful, ebony eyes wide and almost wounded. He could drown in those eyes. Probably would, if he let himself.

“I hadn’t noticed, no.”

A scowl replaced her frown and she rolled her eyes, though she didn’t stop herself from leaning into his touch. His warmth was addicting. “She’s practically drooling after you.” He pulled her closer, letting her shift against his chest until she was comfortable, his shoulder acting as her pillow. “What can I say? I’ve been distracted.”

“You have?”

“It’s hard not to be, when you look at me like I’m the stars in your sky. You don’t idolize me like she does - you see every part of me, the good and the bad, and you still think of me as your equal. Your better half. Tell me, Court, how could she ever hold a candle to you?” His tone was heartbreakingly gentle, and the soft brush of his hand down her spine had her at peace. “Duncan?” She asked, propping herself up again so that she could see him.

“Yes, princess?”

She sighed then, her hair falling across his face as she leaned forward the tiniest amount. “Thank you. For putting up with me. I know I can be… a lot, at times, and I’m not the easiest person to be around. The fact that you stay… It means a lot. More than you could possibly know.”

A sharp intake of breath was the only indicator that he’d heard, and they both remained silent for a few moments before he spoke, his voice slightly unsteady. “God, Courtney… You make it sound like such a chore.”

“What?”

“Just… being around you. I don’t put up with you, because I don’t have to. Every second I get to be near you is a gift. You are so fucking special, princess, and it hurts that you don’t see everything I see. You are gorgeous, and talented, and smart, and brilliant and funny and all sorts of amazing. You are my everything. You keep me steady, you give me a shake back to reality when I’ve gone too far, and you talk me down when I need it. Nobody understands me the way you do, without even trying, and shit… You complete me, Court, you really do. And it’s terrifying and awful and scary but you are beyond worth it. Princess, I…” He choked up suddenly, and gazed up to her, hoping she’d understand everything he couldn’t find the words to say.

“Duncan?”

He broke, then, a single tear sliding down the side of his face. She brushed it away, leaving her hand there, so small a gesture, and yet so incredibly tender and powerful. He held it there, rubbing gently circles into the back of her hand, relishing the intimacy of it all.

“Fuck, Courtney, I love you. So much. And you don’t have to say it back, but… I needed to say it. I think you needed to hear it, too.”

He expected her to tense up, to push him away; anything to signal that she wasn’t ready, that he’d moved too fast, and screwed everything up as per usual. When she didn’t, he thought that might be worse.

“Duncan.”

“Hm?” He responded, a quiet hum of a response, because words were failing him now.

And then her hand slid free, tangling itself in his unkempt hair, her nails pressing softly against his scalp. “Kiss me, damn it. I love you too. More than anything in the world.”

They melted together, then. Two souls perfectly in harmony, against all odds. Beautiful, and perhaps doomed. But none of it mattered. Not in that moment; not ever, because they didn’t care. They would fight for each other, always. A constant in each other’s lives, just as the roof had been in theirs. Forever entwined.

this can also be found on ao3 here

#duncney #total drama #total drama courtney #total drama duncan #td courtney #td duncan #total drama island #my writing #dontlikedarkness #queued post

58 notes · View notes

okay-j-hannah · 5 years

Text

Synonyms For Home

Smosh : Prompt

Damien x Reader

Word Count: 3486

Warnings: Just the most relateable ish I’ve ever written... except for having THE actual Damien Haas in my life 😭 I heckin’ wish

Request: ““sometimes home has a heartbeat” First of all THANK YOU for writing damien haas because I can never find any inserts of him :( also I chose this dialogue because I really like it and can be used in a friend to lover thing? I’d like a angsty gone fluffy one? I often run away from potential relationships and I’d like something based around that. thank u for doing what ya do <3″ - @dancingpanda137

Prompt:

31. “Sometimes, home has a heartbeat.”

Note: I completely understand running out of Damien Haas fics 😂 I have definitely read about 99.99% of the content out there! Also I totally feel your pain about running away from potential relationships... this was a lot of fun to write!

A/N: At one point you’re going to have to stop running away from every potential relationship; there’s more to life than just stressing about it

Part Two: Homeward Bound

(this gif... This Gif... THIS GIF... ThIS giF... What am I going TO DO WITH MYSELF?!)

(Y/N) was speeding down the office hallways, a satchel at her side along with multiple plastic bags on her arms and a large drink carrier in her hands. A pencil stuck awkwardly from behind her ear as she mumbled the checklist she'd made earlier that day.

Sharply turning a corner without hesitation, she made it to the meeting room and gave a quiet, but swift knock. She opened it carefully and wiped her face of concentration to replace it with a wide grin.

Ian paused his presentation of a fresh project by waving at (Y/N) and gazing excitedly at what she brought.

"Don't mind me," she whispered, the same thing she said every day when she made her deliveries.

All the Smosh Pit cast were there, including the Squad, Tommy, Monica, Matt Raub, and Garrett. They were going over ideas for Smosh Winter Games, something that hasn't happened for a few years.

But (Y/N) was more focused on getting her own job done, starting with the drinks and passing them to their corresponding owners. She did it in such a fluid motion that no one doubted their cup was exactly what they ordered.

Next, she opened the plastic bags digging into her arms and handed out sandwiches and salads, as an added treat. She normally pitched in a few extra dollars to buy a better lunch for her coworkers, and she could see the speculating eye from Matt Raub as he accepted his deluxe.

She put her best smile on and waved a hand, "Don't worry about it." And before she left, she reached into her satchel and extracted a small box of cookies, "For dessert."

And before anyone could protest the homemade treat, she ran out of the room with a few more drinks and meals to pass out.

This was such a frequent occurrence for (Y/N) and the Smosh Family. She had become kind of like the mother of Smosh, taking care of the numerous little things while still finding time to take care of the cast and crew with goodies and smiles.

That didn't mean she never got stressed.

Her step was quick again as she made her way back through the halls, waving at a few friends as she went. That checklist in her head never seemed to grow smaller:

Get Damien his coffee

Give cookie box to Smosh Games

Find Sarah for guest star progress reports

Check to see if Damien actually ate his lunch

Write paper about that Tinder for Hotdogs idea

Give Tommy a hug and see how he's doing later

Invite Shayne to the hangout Damien came up with

Text Courtney about filming in her tiny car

Find Damien a date for...

Someone crashed right into (Y/N), sending the last few cups of coffee into the air and all over her shirt. She jumped at the steaming hot liquid, pulling against the fabric to keep it from her skin.

"Oh, damn, I'm sorry (Y/N)."

She winced and peered up to see Damien's sympathetic face, "It's... It's fine. I'll - I'll just bump a few things on my list and go get changed and grab more coffee."

He immediately knelt down to pick up the remnants of the cups and carrier, "I'm guessing this one's mine? Serves me right not looking where I'm going."

He gave her a smile, his eyes crinkling up as he did so. It made her heart skip a beat.

"Don't worry about it. I'll just..." she was still holding away her sticky shirt, closing her eyes and thinking hard, "I'll figure something out."

Damien sighed, "I just ruined your whole agenda, didn't I?" He picked up her pencil and quietly slid it to behind her ear, "Please don't stress out about it."

She had to give herself a few seconds to process his last sentence before continuing, "Um... that's almost physically impossible at this point. With summer ending we've got to find a whole new season of things to do."

He listened but contorted his brow at how uncomfortable she was standing there, "You know I have one of my Smosh sweatshirts in my office. You want to change into that? Get yourself out of brewing in your own shirt."

When he laughed at his own jokes it made (Y/N) stutter so uncontrollably, "Uh... actually, that'd be really nice. Then I won't have to drive home when I run more errands."

He led the way to his desk, smirking, "More errands? Do you just intentionally want to give yourself a busy schedule?" He extracted a colorful pastel sweatshirt and handed it to her.

"Well, who's going to pick up the new Mario Party release?" she walked away to change in the nearby bathroom, "You have to film today."

It only took a minute to change, but maybe two minutes to stare in the mirror and tell herself she was wearing Damien's sweatshirt. Not to mention smell his cologne from the collar.

"And I know that if you get stressed out, I just stress out more and then there's this whole cycle of intense panic." She paused when she met him at his desk again - he was holding her satchel and a strange look was in his eye.

"You look cute."

She had to focus all her energy into not widening her eyes at his words, "I got to go, thanks for the sweatshirt! I promise I'll get you something else later today for that coffee fiasco." She was practically running out of the room by the end of her sentence.

It always took a few minutes after a talk with Damien to convince herself that he only saw her as a friend. That he cares about her because he's her friend. That the possibility of getting so close to him was absolutely terrifying.

But she had to push past it, always the one to run away from those potential relationships.

She had to hurry back on her list if she had hopes to finish everything before the big hangout that night. And by big hangout, she meant Damien, Shayne, and Courtney. (Y/N) always considered scenarios where Damien was involved a big deal.

Completing a majority of running errands and skipping her own lunch to do so, she ran over to Smosh Games to deliver cookies and catch up with Wes and Mari. Whenever she could, (Y/N) always tried to make time to talk to each of the cast and crew.

It's always nice to know you have a friend at the office.

"Guess what I brought?" she flashed a dazzling smile, opening her satchel.

Wes practically flew as he turned in his chair and wheeled towards her - thankfully his headphones were Bluetooth and not attached to the monitor.

"Suckers? Cupcakes? Oh! Please say it's..."

(Y/N) extracted her homemade box and shook it in front of him, "Chocolate chip cookies."

Mari wheeled around too, "You're going to be the sole reason he's gonna have a sugar coma later."

He practically squealed, a large childish smile on his face, "You're too good to me, (Y/N)." He quickly pulled one out and took a bite, "Oh... you are way too good to me."

She laughed, pulling Damien's empty chair from his gaming console to sit down, "Where is everyone?"

Mari shrugged her shoulders, "Probably sneaking around to plan my reception."

Wes paused in his munching and widened his eyes, "Hm? I - I thought they were..."

"I know they left you here to keep me distracted," Mari smirked, "I also know that Peter left you guys in charge of ensuring I'm a happy bride - so don't lie to me."

Shaking a few crumbs from his fingers, Wes rolled his eyes, "Fine. They're coordinating who's decorating your car."

"Which reminds me," Mari flashed her gaze back to (Y/N), who was fidgeting in her seat. "Have you found yourself a date for the wedding yet?"

Wes gasped and nodded enthusiastically, "I thought for sure he was going to ask you by now."

"I'm not asking anyone out," (Y/N) stated adamantly, "You know I'm no good with... wait - did you say...?"

"I thought you were just going to go with Damien," he paused before quickly adding, "As friends."

(Y/N) felt the heat residing in her face, panic building in her chest, "No, I was actually supposed to find Damien a date later this week. I didn't want him to go alone."

"But you are?" Mari asked, leaning across the desks, pointedly raising an eyebrow towards Wes.

"I'm not the best at the whole dating - relationship thing. So, it's best if I just stay out of it."

Wes mumbled, "With the amount of stress you handle every day at work you'd think going on a date was nothing for you."

(Y/N)'s breathing was hitching, her trying to hide her fidgeting hands at the subject, "Can we please talk about something else?"

"Is that sweatshirt new? I've never seen it before," Mari was smirking again; she knew full well whose sweatshirt it was.

It took Wes only a few more seconds to realize it as well, "Did Damien give that to you?" He had the biggest fan boy eyes (Y/N) had ever seen.

But she was consumed with her own overwhelming emotions. The thought of so many people rooting for Damien and her to get together sent her nerves to the maximum. Sure, they were really good friends, but only that.

Any other possibility would melt her insides.

"Whatcha guys doing?"

Damien came waltzing into the room, followed closely by Joven and Laser. His eyes fell immediately onto (Y/N) sitting stony in his chair - the sight made him smile, but he hesitated.

"Are you okay, (Y/N)?" He was always the one that stepped in before she fell into a full state of panic, unbeknownst to him that he was normally the subject of the panic.

"I... I just - I don't know."

He walked over and outstretched his arms to her, giving her a sympathetic gaze to will her up to him.

Joven snapped his fingers to grab the attention of the other SG members, crazily pointing to usher everyone out.

(Y/N) sniffed and averted her gaze, finding her legs disobeying her to a standing position. And Damien wrapped his arms around her, holding her so tightly.

She was consumed by his presence, feeling her heart drop into her stomach. Hugs from Damien weren't uncommon, but they were always nerve-wracking.

"I told you not to stress out today." He rubbed a hand up and down her back, "But I definitely ordered your favorite food for tonight just in case. And we can play whatever game you like - even the scary games."

"But Shayne hates the scary games," she mumbled, the pang in her chest resounding at his comfort.

He laughed, "Shayne can hide behind the couch."

She could feel his heartbeat against her head. It pounded until it resided into her mind. It was always that that calmed her down. It was the same feeling she got when she was safe at home after a long day.

Was his heart beating a little fast?

"Feel better?" He pulled her back slightly to get a good look at her face.

She wished his arms were still around her, "You know I always do when you're there."

There was his laugh again that sent a shiver down her spine, "You look a little red in the face." He brushed a finger against her cheek to confirm his suspicion, "You're not sick, are you?"

Lovesick?

"I gotta go. Thanks for the hug, I really needed it." She grabbed her bag and became completely oblivious to how Damien's shoulders sunk. "I'll see you later tonight."

She rounded out of the Games room, smacking the side of her head as she put a hand to her temple. There was a pounding there that she was sure was going to grow into a headache.

She closed her eyes, needing to focus:

Bring treats for the editing room

Gather viewing statistics from Spencer

Not think about Damien

Help Monica with writing Tinder for Hotdogs

Confirm spot on the SmoshCast for next week's episode

Order dress for Mari's wedding

Not think about Damien's laugh

Start notes for the Two Truths episode she was going to direct

Not think about Damien's smile

Meet with Ian about Winter Games

Not thinking about falling asleep on Damien's lap tonight

Buy more ingredients for Wes' cookies

Check that the makeup room is fully stocked

Not thinking about Damien pulling a blanket over her before he would leave

It was almost impossible to concentrate on anything else as (Y/N) entered the film studio for Smosh Pit. Shayne was immediately waving at her and raising his eyebrows in a questioning manner.

She shrugged her shoulders, pointing towards her temple and mouthing, "headache," over the sound being tested through the mics.

That pounding was still resounding in her head.

Shayne nodded and mouthed back a, “sorry,” before patting the spot next to him on the couch. She gave a short smile and walked over, taking a deep breath.

“Having a day?” he whispered, the mics still being tested above them.

She bit her bottom lip, “Just a little one.” Then she folded her arms and leaned her head against his shoulder.

He started shaking with a laugh he was trying to hide, “You really are having a day. How many times to I get to see affectionate (Y/N)?”

She pouted, lightly smacking his leg, “I just got a Damien hug, of course I’m feeling affectionate.”

“Ah, yes, the Damien hug,” he moved into a character voice, “I’ve seen many a traveler receive one of those and never return the same.”

“Shayne!” Matt Raub could be heard behind the cameras, “I wasn’t kidding when I said we were checking sound.”

Shayne waved an apology and lowered his voice more, “So, that’s two strikes for having a stressful day. One: a Damien hug, and two: snuggles.”

(Y/N) turned her head to bury her face between Shayne’s arm and the couch, “I can’t help being busy at work.”

“But we can help take a load off,” Shayne muttered leaning over and reaching for something near his feet, “Got you a little something.”

She sat straight again, surprised at the gesture, “You got me something?”

“Don’t act surprised. Just because you give people treats all the time doesn’t mean they can’t give you something.” He handed over a medium sized box that was obviously just thrown together, “It was more Damien’s idea than mine, but we went during lunch.”

“Of course it was him,” she smiled, pulling back the lid and finding a few spa day essentials, goodies, and a couple new games for her PlayStation. “How did you know I wanted these games!”

His eyes widened at seeing hers light up, “You always talk about them, of course we knew you wanted them. And we got you some weird bath bomb-lotion-spray-flower stuff.” He threw his hands around as he talked, trying to amp up the quality of the present, “Just... we want you to relax every once in a while.”

A pair of hands came down on (Y/N)’s shoulders, causing her to jump at first, “We knew that one was your favorite scent.”

It was Damien again, hovering near her head as he leaned over the couch. (Y/N) cursed her mind, thinking that she would’ve been able to get away from his perfect eyes in the Squad room.

“Um... we called Courtney to figure that out,” Shayne stated with squinted eyes but a smile nonetheless, “She also was the one who told us where to find it.”

“I like to think I know what (Y/N) likes,” Damien retorted, hands still on her shoulders. “We thought maybe you should get a gift for a change.”

She didn’t know what to say, setting the box down and pulling away from Damien. His hands left a lingering touch on her shoulders.

“That’s really kind of you guys. I – I guess I’m not used to accepting presents,” she watched the strange exchange move from Shayne to Damien. They were looking at her with puzzlement, but she continued, “I thought you had filming to do, Damien?”

He looked slightly downtrodden, “I do – here. I’m shooting a Smosh Pit Weekly.”

A sigh left her lips, but she plastered on a smile, “Oh, I must have my schedule mixed up. You know what that means – I have to go straighten it out. I’ll see you guys, thanks for the...”

“(Y/N), are you avoiding me?”

Shayne whipped his head between his two friends, disbelief hanging in his gaze. He wasn’t sure this conversation was ever going to be brought up. Therefore, he practically skidded out of the studio, rolling off the couch.

(Y/N) could feel that panic filling up her chest, the pounding in her head. The redness was hitting her face again and the oversized sweatshirt was feeling strangely restricting.

“You’re getting red again. (Y/N) what’s wrong? What are you stressing about?” Damien walked around the coffee table and stopped when she took a step away from him.

“I only ever stress out about one thing.”

He heavily sighed, “I’m gonna need you to give me a little more than that.”

As he inched closer, she felt the panic manifesting itself in shaky hands and stutters, “We-We’re friends, right?”

She thought she saw his face dip a little, “Yes? What’s this about?”

“I - I only seem to feel overwhelmed when-whenever y-you're there.”

He paused, immediate hurt on his face, “Oh, I didn’t realize... I thought... I’m sorry that I...”

“But I also never feel better until you are there,” she gazed at the ground. “It’s very conflicting.”

“(Y/N), I think it’s about time we just get a few things off our chests,” he stated, a bit of redness hitting his own cheeks this time. “I’ve wanted to ask you something for a while.”

She finally peeked at him, “I always run away when I think I’m getting too close to a guy. I don't know why, but the thought of being that close to someone really scares me. But it’s also the only thing I can think about.” She watched his face go through a range of emotions as she held her breath in anticipation.

It was his smirk that got to her first, “I’ve been wanting to ask you to be my date to Mari and Peter’s wedding, but you keep running away every time I think I can start talking to you about it.”

Her breathing literally stopped, “Your date?”

“So, you run away from me because you want to be with me?” He was taking a few more steps towards her, practically right in front of her now. But she couldn’t move.

“That sounds complicated,” she whispered, eyes flickering all around his face.

He gave her a momentary cautious gaze, “Do you want to run away now?”

She eyed the close proximity of his face, “Only because you’re stressing me out. But I know I won’t feel better unless I stay with you.”

“Then this is okay?” he was wrapping her into one of his hugs, “I don’t like that I make you scared like this.”

She let out a breath that she felt like she was holding for hours, “I’m only scared about what’s going to happen next.”

She pulled away just enough to see his face, their arms still wrapped around each other. He leaned his forehead down against hers and gazed into her eyes. She swallowed hard, finding her hands moving – one sliding down to his chest and the other to the side of his face, feeling his jawline.

She realized that the pounding in her head had stopped. It was replaced with a pounding happening against her hand.

It was Damien’s heartbeat. The thing that’s been bombarding her all day.

Flickering her eyes back into his, she found Damien giving a slight smile as he peered down towards her lips. She gave a small smile back and before she knew it Damien was leaning all the way to meet her kiss.

It was instant fireworks exploding in her chest. Those spouts of panic fueled the butterflies in her stomach. Wrapping her hand to the back of his head, she tangled her fingers into Damien’s hair.

She could feel him smile into the kiss.

And as quickly as it began, they broke apart. Though they didn’t pull away from their embrace, still touching foreheads.

“I’m not going to let you run away this time,” Damien muttered, keeping a grip on her waist.

“I think I’m here to stay.”

She felt his heartbeat again, fast and strong against her hand. The one thing that’s always been able to comfort her.

And recognition had finally settled into her mind.

Sometimes home has a heartbeat. And home was where she was going to stay.

~~~

Buy Me a Coffee?

Tag List:

@wierdlywonderful @caswinchester2000 @joenjoenshire @liamakorn

Remember to check out my tag list so you’re updated when a fic you like is posted on my blog! Tag List

#damien haas x reader #damien haas fluff #damien haas #damien haas angst #damien haas x you #damein haas smosh #dames #smosh x reader #smosh pit #smosh fandom #smosh games #smosh

496 notes · View notes

harryandmolly · 4 years

Text

Change of Pace - 18 (Summer 2019)

cowritten by @achinglyshawn

summary: Shawn and Maya meet again 10 years after life got in the way of love

warnings: language

wc: 12k

-----------

“—acting on your best behavior, turn your back on Mother Nature—“

Shawn is 20 minutes early to pick Maya up.

“—wants to rule the world.”

He’s parked a block away, humming to Tears For Fears as his fingers tap anxiously across his jean-clad thighs.

He couldn’t sit still at home. He closed the shop early so he could comb through his closet that he’s suddenly worried is too poor-artist-chic (read: covered in paint) for the new Maya.

Not that he thinks she really cares about anything like that, but he’s seen her clothes. They’re way fancier now. He’s almost jealous.

He’s always had a thing for nice clothes and fashion. He’s just never had enough extra money to spend on those things. He always spent whatever profit he made on instruments to refurbish and materials for new models and other toys for his shop.

He thinks, maybe, he needs more hobbies. And he needs to start traveling.

He’s a bit intimidated as thinks of all the things Maya’s seen and done and the places she’s been. He’s lived a life shacked up in his workshop. He’s sheltered compared to her.

They both used to be sheltered before. Now he feels miles behind her.

Finally fed up with what he’d considered meager offerings from his own closet, Shawn decided to borrow a clean, plain black t-shirt from Geoff. Then he tugged on the new pair of deep blue skinnies Maya bought him the other week and tried not to feel weird about it.

Now he sits in his Jeep and listens to music, his light denim jacket hugging his biceps the way she says she likes, and he’s hoping it’s enough to impress her while still looking, like, chill enough for go-karting.

He’s probably overthinking it.

The alarm on his phone finally goes off.

7:04 pm. Perfect.

Shawn turns up Celebrity Skin by Hole and cranks the engine of his aging Jeep. He drives cautiously around the block, just to kill at least another few minutes, then finally parks in front of Maya’s cottage. He contemplated hooking into the alley to park in her garage like he had all summer, but tonight is different.

She’s offering a fresh start for them, if he wants it. He’s not going to fuck it up before it even gets going.

Maya fidgets, poking at an errant splotch of nail polish that made it out to her cuticle from when she painted them earlier. She’s been trying to distract herself all day from their date. Surfing, painting, drawing. She ate ravenously around 5:30, feeling like a grandma. But she wanted plenty of time to get ready.

How do you dress for a first date with the love of your life?

Go-karting is inherently casual, which is in a way harder to dress for. Casual summer feels skimpy to her and she doesn’t want to look like she’s expecting to get laid tonight. Because they’re Not Doing That. Slow and steady.

So she wants to show some skin but not so much that she’s irresistible just… distracting. After a long debate, she chooses a pair of cigarette-thin white capris and a turquoise tank that makes her tan glow. Even with that and the light makeup and hair, Maya is ready outrageously early. She curses herself for it because now she has more time to sit and stew.

What if go-karting is a bad idea? I mean, they’re trying to be grown ups. Maybe this is the wrong move? No, no it’s fine, it’s supposed to be low key and fun. What if they stumble over talking to each other all night? What if they don’t know how to be grown ups?

Maya rolls her eyes at herself and flops back on the bed just in time to hear his Jeep crackle over her gravel driveway. She flings herself upright, fixes her hair and scurries down the stairs, quieting her steps so he doesn’t hear how eager she sounds.

He climbs the stairs to her porch two at a time, trying to get the nervous energy out any way he can before he sees her. He hums. Rocks on his toes, then his heels. Checks his phone. 7:10. A little too on the nose. He takes a breath. 7:11. Good enough.

He knocks.

She opens the door with a glowing smile, deciding it’s not too much to look happy to see him.

“Hey,” she says breathlessly, “You look… so great.”

She ducks her head a little, blushing like a teenager.

He’s a little busy staring at her to reply immediately; he looks at her as if he doesn’t already know how beautiful she is. It feels like he doesn’t. Everything feels new, tonight, somehow. New, but also better.

Shawn finally snaps to.

“You look way out of my league,” he says with a laugh, puffing his chest slightly as he tries to pretend his cheeks aren’t turning red.

Maya chooses to ignore his comment and decides to focus on the seeping blush in his cheeks because it looks so very good on him.

“Oh,” his brows raise, and then he shoves his hand into his pocket, fishing out the wine red and navy woven friendship bracelet he hid there earlier. He always meant to give it to her. He hadn’t finished it before she left.

It feels a little silly now. A near 40-year-old man dangling something he made as a kid from his fingers like she’ll think it’s as special as he does.

He wants her to have it, anyway. Even if she thinks it’s silly and throws it away.

“I, uh, I found this. A few weeks ago, like, buried in an old college bag I was digging through. I didn’t-- I mean, it wasn’t finished so I finished it and I thought you might like it. But now I’m thinking that I probably should’ve gone with daisies.”

She watches curiously as he digs through his pocket and produces a present. She recognizes the thread, remembers that he used to spend hours on the beach while she surfed tying bracelets together. It was good for his fidgety fingers when he didn’t have his guitar.

Maya shrugs and feels a flush in her own cheeks that she knows she can’t fight. “Daisies die. This will last longer,” She holds her wrist out with a smile, “Would you tie it on for me, please?”

Shawn’s lips spread in a pleased smile. She wants to wear it. It seems like a stupid thing to be happy over but. He can’t help it.

It feels special. Little victories, right?

“Oh, yeah, totally. C’mere,” he murmurs, corner of his mouth quirked. He cups the back of her hand to bring her wrist closer, then loops the thin bracelet around her, tying the frayed ends together tightly enough so it won’t fall off, but with enough room for her skin to breathe.

Maya likes the bracelet very much. It’s like a portable version of her painting of them as kids at the Avila house -- a reminder of who they were and what they can become if they hold on.

Shawn smiles at her when he’s finished, stepping aside so she has room to close the door and lock up behind her. As she navigates her keys into her bag, Shawn tilts his head. “Still okay with go-karting?”

“Completely. And I thought maybe we’d get ice cream after.”

A little impulsively, because she thinks it’ll help take the edge off for both of them, she leans in and pecks his cheek quickly.

Shawn turns scarlet. Her lips on his cheek burn in the sweetest way. He grins at her, slow and coy, as she drops away from him. He catches her wrist as she goes, slipping his hand into hers, fingers intertwined.

“I like ice cream,” he murmurs, then tugs her along, guiding her down the stairs and to his Jeep. He helps her inside and definitely does not let his gaze linger on the curve of her ass as she climbs onto her seat.

Shawn closes the door once she’s settled then jogs around to the driver’s side.

She didn’t have to worry for very long whether the cheek kiss was a good idea. The heat rushes to his face fast and furious. He takes her hand in his own gesture of closeness and helps her into his car like a gentleman.

He smiles at Maya as he slips into the car. He revs the Jeep to life, Courtney Love once again rasping through the speakers. Hooking an arm around the neck of the passenger’s seat, Shawn backs down the driveway and into the street. Then they’re off, driving along the beach towards the go-kart track.

“So,” Shawn starts, trying to sound far more casual than he feels, “How was your day?”

Maya smiles at his music choice and makes a mental note to ask him about it later. It’s a good, easy step into their deep pool of getting to know each other again.

She looks back at him from the singing white sand of the beach. She stifles a goofy grin at his question because it feels so very first date-y and she likes it. She likes the effort they’re both putting in tonight.

“Uhm… it was good. I got out to the beach early, the surf forecast looked great. I got my longboard out there for a couple hours. I stayed and swam around with a snorkel for awhile too, I found some cool fish that were kind of silver, I tried to google them to figure out what they were…”

Maya rambles. He likes it. He could listen to her ramble all day, about anything. He loves her voice, has always found it soothing. He smiles as he listens.

She hears herself stalling. She cuts to the chase.

“And I spent all afternoon in my studio working on a new piece. It’s almost finished.”

“Oh yeah?” She hasn’t really mentioned her art to him all summer. He doesn’t feel like he knows Maya the artist at all anymore, save for the thimble on his back. He hopes she hasn’t changed her mind about letting him get it inked into his skin.

“Do-- I mean, can you tell me about it? You don’t have to, but, you know. I like knowing about your art.”

Shawn glances at her, his lips pressed together as he watches her watch the beach. He gets his eyes back to the road before she can catch him.

Maya feels the difference. This is the kind of question she would’ve dodged all summer. As close as he got, as close as she wanted him, she could never let him in this far. But after their showdown last week, it feels different now. It feels better.

“I started it last week after… uhm, after we fought. I had this image in my head that I couldn’t really get away from so I thought getting it out in paint would help. It’s… it’s a memory, I guess, of you and me and our last night in Avila. We’re on the daybed watching the sunset on the deck. To me, it’s a reminder. That we’re not kids anymore. That we can be more than that now if… we want.”

She looks over from her window to smile at him. “But I’m painting it to look like a photo so all the detail, y’know, it takes a while to get it perfect. I’ve been smelling like turpentine for days.”

“Oh,” he chokes, like an idiot. Shawn wasn’t expecting all of that. He’s not sure what he imagined her painting this summer, but he never let himself think it had anything to do with him.

He feels the flush creep up the back of his neck again.

“That sounds really cool, Maya. I think, you know, I’d like to see it some time. When it’s finished or whenever.” He pulls up to a stoplight, leans his head back against his seat and looks over at her. He smiles. “But only if you’re okay with that.”

He knows, almost better than anyone, that art can be personal. It’s why he doesn’t play his music anymore. It digs too deep and he doesn’t know how to share that with people, except for the occasional lyric or two with his therapist, or a song here and there with Geoff.

It’s hard, baring your soul for people to critique. He doesn’t want to push a boundary by asking to see hers too soon.

Maya is surprised by how much she wants him to see it once he offers his interest. All summer she’s painted. She’s illustrated loud, catastrophic shapes without definition or meaning and none of it has felt like her at all. She never painted that way before. Now that she’s creating her own way again, she finds she really does want to share it with him. She doesn’t want to hide.

“I’d love to show it to you. I only need a couple more hours with it I think before it’s officially time to leave it the hell alone.”

Maybe after they’ve spent some more time together, this slow, pressure-free, easy time, maybe he’ll let her draw or paint him again. She hasn’t sketched him since she came back to Avila. She looks over at him while he pulls into the parking lot and looks critically at the planes and angles of his face, imagining him in charcoal or fine graphite pencil. He’d be beautiful.

Shawn can feel Maya looking at him. He tries not to blush. He feels her gaze on him the way he used to back in college, when she would think about which angles of his she most wanted to draw. Which were dramatic, or soft, or romantic, or somber.

She used to go on about it, but now, if she’s thinking it, she doesn’t share. Just watches him as he navigates the parking lot, then slides into a spot with enough room on either side for them to get out.

He kills the engine. Turns to look at her with a careful smirk tugging his lips.

“Hi,” he starts. “Finished staring at me?”

He calls her out with that smirk she loves. She beams at him. “I’ll let you know.”

She lets herself out of the Jeep and links her fingers with his again while they head toward the go-kart track. It’s outdoors, so they can hear the engines and smell the gas. It makes Maya chuckle.

“I haven’t done this in… god, I have no idea, actually. It’s definitely safe, right?”

She’s not too worried, it’s a family friendly joint and they have helmets and stuff. Maybe it’s her residual first date nerves that have her keyed up.

Shawn grins, turning on his heel to walk backwards as he squeezes her hand reassuringly.

“C’mon Lemon. It’s obviously super safe. And I’m pretty sure they got brand new carts like 6 months ago.”

He gives her a wink then turns back around, navigating his arm over her shoulders while keeping their fingers linked.

He calls her ‘Lemon’ again and it makes her light up from the inside out. She wants to spin around in circles and squeal like a teenager who just got asked to prom. Instead she shivers at his wink and lets him cuddle up to her. He smells great, just like he always does. She puts her arm around his waist and enjoys the way a middle aged mom looks at them while she waits for her husband and sons to wrap around the track.

There are a few people in line at the little kiosk outside, so as they wait, Shawn pulls out his wallet and holds onto it. He doesn’t want her getting any funny ideas.

He’s been planning to splurge on the all-access wristbands that let them do as many laps as they want and play as many arcade games as they want. So, endless air hockey, if that’s what Maya wants. `

His wallet dangles casually from his fingers, but in her line of sight. Just so she’ll get the hint. He squeezes her hand again.

Shawn is up front with the wallet and she appreciates it. She would’ve of course offered to at least split it but he sends the signal loud and clear and it’s sweet and boyishly romantic. She squeezes his fingers right back.

He springs for the good wristbands and she cracks a joke about him basically paying to have his ass kicked repeatedly at air hockey. They get to pick helmets and she picks a pink one.

“So this isn’t like bumper cars, right? I don’t get to smash into people if they’re in my way?”

Shawn barks out a laugh. What he would give to watch Maya chase people down on the track. He shakes his head as they head for the cars.

“I think you should try it and see what happens, eh?”

She giggles. “I don’t want to get us kicked out of this place before the date even really starts.”

But she knows as well as he that she gets carried away with her competitive drive sometimes. So who knows.

Shawn slips his lime green helmet on his head and clicks the strap beneath his chin. There’s another line to wait in, set up between metal bars that lead to a row of karts. Shawn flips around and leans against one bar, fingers curling around the metal as he smirks down at Maya.

“Air hockey might be your game, but I’m about to kick your ass at mine.” Shawn reaches from the bar for her wrist, pulling her closer to him in line.

“Can you ever forgive me?”

Maya follows suit and slips on her neon pink helmet. The strip digs in under her chin but he distracts her easily by tempting her with a challenge.

She closes her eyes and sighs as he pulls her in. She plants a hand next to where he leans against the rail and tilts toward him conspiratorially.

“You’re awful confident for a 35-year-old going go-karting.”

She smirks triumphantly.

Shawn shrugs, grinning and looking down at his old chucks. He glances up at her without lifting his head.

“Maybe there’s an Avila go-kart league. You don’t know.”

Maya snorts and pictures it, Shawn, and surely Geoff because where Shawn goes, Geoff goes, even to this day -- the two of them bouncing around a go-kart track, chasing each other around like children, having a blast, one-upping each other whenever possible.

He grins, then straightens up, sliding down the bar as the line moves along. They’re near the front, but the line stops again as all the karts are on the track. Shawn sighs and pushes himself off of the bar.

He slips behind Maya and drapes his arms over her shoulders. He presses his chin to the top of her pink helmet.

“Wake me up when it’s our turn, Lu.”

Maya keeps her silly grin in check as he drapes himself comfortably over her. She feels dainty. It’s kinda nice. As the line moves, she shuffles forward, pulling him along.

She places her hands over his wrists and rubs his forearms where she knows he gets sore from detailing instruments all day. She hums from the back of her throat curiously.

“Why are you so tired, hun?”

Shawn sighs, shuffling along behind her.

“Couldn’t sleep,” he says, flipping one hand over so he can catch her fingers in his. He tugs at her gently. “Too nervous thinking about my date with this really incredible woman. I dunno if you know her.”

She could tell he was nervous, too. Hearing him admit it is kinda sweet, though. She imagines him rolling over in his bed, rumpling the sheets, heaving a sigh because he can’t decide if he wants to wear a blue shirt or a white shirt. It makes her smile so big her face hurts.

His fingers are thick and warm between hers. She massages them gently and lets herself bask in it a little.

“Bet she was nervous too,” she murmurs.

Eventually, Shawn has to untangle himself from around Maya as they’re ushered out of the bars and towards the line of now unoccupied go-karts. He keeps their fingers linked until the last moment, only dropping her to climb into his kart.

He buckles in, looking over as he watches Maya crawl into her own kart.

“What do I get when I win?” he calls to her, grinning wide.

The karts are bigger than she pictured but still small enough that watching Shawn crawl into one makes her laugh. As the engines rev, he gets cocky.

Maya drapes her fingers over her steering wheel and steps past the dozen or so dirty jokes she’d make right now if it were a week or two ago. She smiles falsely.

“There are prizes in the gum ball machine out front, cowboy. Or were you thinking of something else?”

Shawn can’t stop grinning. Maya never misses an opportunity to tease him. He likes it. He likes that she keeps him on his toes.

“I was thinking you could buy my ice cream. And let me get extra toppings.”

He winks at her, can’t help it, can’t feel anything but excited, nervous jitters right now that have his cheeks hurting from all the smiling.

Maya tips her head back and laughs, feeling the adrenaline start to surge.

“Any topping you want,” she promises. When she gets like this, she’s hard to beat at anything. She’ll have fun watching him try.

Over the speaker, a man announces 30 seconds until the green light. Shawn shifts in his seat, settling a bit lower and curling his fingers around the steering wheel. He revs the engine, still blocked in behind the gates that have yet to drop.

He wonders, for a moment, if letting Maya win is the polite thing to do. But Shawn knows she’ll give him so much shit if he does that. She only likes winning if it’s a fair game. He looks over to her, seated in her kart with her hands draped casually over the wheel.

He smiles. The countdown continues.

Shawn settles in and she thinks it’s completely ridiculous how sexy he looks revving up a go-kart. It sets off a flurry of excitement that she knows is only egged on by her need to win.

She tightens her fingers around the wheel when the countdown hits the five second mark. When it hits 0, “GO!” flashes big and bright on the screen over the track. Maya’s reflexes are better, probably honed by surfing, and she gets off the blocks first.

The kart is bulky and difficult to manage, probably to keep people from going too fast or getting too dangerous. She gets distracted trying to turn around the first corner. Shawn gets the inside edge.

Maya swears under her breath and careens around the turn behind him, swerving around a middle schooler who’s not strong enough to turn the wheel quickly. She stomps on the gas around the second turn and comes up on the outside, but he holds her off.

The remaining thirty seconds of the race have Shawn holding steady in first place. He wins pretty handily. As they pull back into the start gate, Maya huffs.

“How do you turn this thing so easily? What are you, the hulk?!”

He knew he would win, if only because he and Geoff do this like, more often than they probably should as grown-ass adults. It’s a beach town thing, though. The go-karting league is totally real, too, and something he’s pretty good at.

They’ve got unlimited access to the track with their wrist bands, so they get to sit and wait for the next round while others climb out of their karts and new drivers pile in. Shawn grins, leaning back in his seat and draping his arm over the steering wheel as he shrugs.

“Not my fault you skimp on arm day, Lemon.”

They watch as the new drivers get settled into their karts, and the announcer makes another 30 second warning.

“C’mon baby,” he says, glancing over her as the countdown nears 5, “Don’t go so easy on me.”

He winks, and the lights on the screen above the track flash from red to yellow to green, then ‘GO!’ and with that, they’re off.

Maya makes it off the block before him again, but he’s got the first turn clinched. The steering wheel isn’t so much heavy as it is bulky and awkward, and he knows that’s what Maya struggles with as he zooms past her on the inside of the track.

Three laps later and he zooms past the finish line and pulls into the gate about 3 seconds before she does. He settles back into his kart with a smile.

“I think that was better than last time,” he laughs.

By the time they’re pulling back into the start gate, Maya’s ears are still ringing from him calling her “baby,” even just teasingly. It feels like a year since he’s called her that. She decides to quietly blame that for her bad second race.

She pouts and slaps the steering wheel when they pull back into the gate. “You are way too good at this. We need to get you out more if this is how you and Geoff are spending your Friday nights.”

She smirks because she’s kidding but also because she wants to be the one he spends his Friday nights with. Hopefully not go-karting because she totally sucks at it.

Shawn laughs, clicking open the hook of his helmet strap.

“No, no. Fridays are usually karaoke at the Sandtrap. Saturday is for go-karting. Plus, you just don’t like losing.”

He grins, wide and crooked at her, then plucks his helmet from his head and unfurls himself from the kart. He meanders to her kart, tucking the helmet beneath his arm and holding out a hand for her.

Maya sighs and lets her hands fall to her thighs. “Air hockey or ice cream next?”

“I guess I could let you kick my ass in air hockey. Make you feel better about sucking at go-karts.”

Maya tilts her head back and sighs pathetically, putting on a playful show. She lifts her hand weakly into his and lets him help her out of the kart. With one hand in his, she maneuvers out of the helmet and starts pulling him toward the arcade with a spark in her eyes.

“Let me or don’t let me, I’ll kick your cute little ass anyway, Mendes,” she teases.

Shawn laughs, shaking his head and squeezing her hand gently.

He waits until they’ve given back their helmets to taunt, “You think my ass is cute,” in a lilting, sing-song tone.

Maya giggles. “Your ass is adorable and you know it.”

She stops short of smacking it. But she thinks about it.

They head into the arcade and find that one of the two air hockey tables is free. Maya goes for the red paddle before he can argue. She squares up at one end of the table, patting her paddle on the table, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Any last words, babe?”

Shawn’s left with the blue paddle, but he knew he would be. They both love red, but Maya, the reigning champ, gets whatever she wants. He swipes his paddle and glides it in a large circle over the table.

“Just get the puck and show me what I’ve been missing, Lemon,” he urges with a smirk.

Maya hunches over the table and puts the puck in place, looking back at him with a mischievous grin when she flips the switch that turns on the air. The table whirs to life and the puck starts skimming around, sliding every which way the air blows it. Maya strikes first, shooting the puck across to him. He bounces it back, but Maya has it on the backstroke and slams it into his goal quickly.

“Your grip’s too tight,” she advises with a wizened nod, “Don’t choke down on the paddle.”

She’s good. Faster than he is getting to the puck. He thinks he’s too tall for this game, because he can’t hunch over the way she does to get nice and close to the table.

“Hey,” he grouses, reaching down for the puck in the slot. He twirls it between his fingers. “I didn’t trash your go-kart technique.”

He drops the puck on the table and clamps it down with his paddle. He glances up at her, then back down to his paddle.

Deep breath in, and then. He raises his paddle, releases the puck, and sends it flying towards Maya.

(He takes her tip about his paddle grip. It’s a pretty good one.)

His next shot sails into Maya’s goal before she can fling it back toward him. She smirks.

“Maybe the student’s becoming the master.”

She fishes the puck back out and repositions it. She and Shawn volley back and forth until he loses some focus and she swings another shot past him. She cracks her neck back and forth theatrically.

“Mmk, I’m all loosened up now. You’re not getting another shot past me.”

“Your confidence is truly inspiring, Lemon,” he answers with a smirk as he pulls the puck out from his slot.

He takes another shot.

Maya wins. He knew she would. He keeps up, mostly, scoring on her after she scores on him, but she always manages to stay a few points ahead. When she scores the winning goal, Shawn huffs and slides his blue paddle away, into the middle of the table where it floats around on it’s own, the air carrying one way then the other.

“Why do I even try?” he laments, pressing his palms into the edge of the table as he hangs his head.

Shawn looks back up at her after a moment, smirking a little. He tilts his head. “Will you give me a chance to win my dignity back? I can play a round of skee ball and get you that stuffed lion.”

She loves that she can still beat him in air hockey. The universe feels right and balanced. It’s cute the way he loses, though. He gets grumpy but not mean.

Maya strolls over to his side of the table and fishes one of his hands away from it, slipping her fingers between his to comfort him.

“By all means, please. I don’t think I have a lion from the safari you won me 15 years ago. My collection is sorely lacking,” she teases.

“Well,” Shawn hums, smiling down at her as he slides his thumb across her knuckles, “No animal kingdom is complete without its Lion King.”

She tugs him away from the table toward the row of skee ball setups, considering what she could beat him at next. Probably pinball. She’s always been so good at pinball.

He follows her to skee ball, holds his wristband over the scanner on one of the games that then shoots out a shiny white ball. He picks up the ball, spins it in his fingers and drops Maya’s hand.

“All right, honey,” he purrs, rolling the ball between his palms, “Get ready to be amazed. I’m even better at this than I am at go-karting.”

It’s probably not the sexiest thing to admit, but he’s always been good at skee ball. Long arms and all. Plus he’s got pretty good aim. God, he feels like he’s in high school, trying to impress the girl he likes by winning her prizes. It’s mostly a joke, but Shawn’s sure there will always be a part of him that wants desperately to impress Maya.

No matter how slow this relationship goes, that won’t change.

Shawn tosses the ball in the air once, catches it, then glides it along the smooth slope of the skee ball machine, where it flies over the ledge and pops up towards the corner. He holds his breath, and then the flashing lights go off as the ball drops into the hole that reads ‘100!’

“See,” he says with a grin, reaching for the next white ball the machine spits out. “Lion’ll be your before you know it.”

Maya stands back to watch as he starts racking up points. She crosses her arms over her chest and bites down on a stupid smile. He’s right, he’s excellent at this. And he’s a lot of fun to watch. His eyes are all focused until they light up just like the game in front of him.

“At this rate, you’re gonna win the whole jungle,” she laughs, shaking her head as she watches the point count on the board go higher and higher.

She props herself up against the wall. “Can I ask you something?” She decides not to wait to ask her question. “What made you come back to Avila after LA?”

He tosses the last ball just as she makes his heart stop with her inquiry. He wasn’t expecting it, like, at all.

The ball pops into the 50 point hole, and then it’s game over. Tickets start streaming out of the little slot at the bottom of the machine.

Shawn swallows and turns to face Maya, slipping his hands into his pockets. He rocks back on his heels and shrugs.

“Do you think I could-- I dunno. Could we get ice cream first?”

It sounds like a cop out, but he doesn’t think this is something he wants to talk about while waiting for the skee ball machine to finish spitting out their tickets.

Maya seals her lips together. He goes a little tense at her question and almost misses his shot. She swallows, hoping this isn’t too much too soon. She just… she wants to get to know him again.

Maya nods sheepishly and helps him fish his enormous bundle of tickets off the floor. They stack them in Shawn’s fist and start heading toward the prize counter.

Maya plays with her fingers as they walk in silence. It’s grating.

“I… sorry. I mean, you don’t have to talk about this. I don’t want to pressure you. I understand it might be hard to talk about.”

Shawn frowns. She doesn’t need to apologize. And he doesn’t not want to talk to her about it. When it was happening, she was the only person he wanted to talk to at all. He’s not sure why he hadn’t thought to tell her about it sooner, other than that he was subconsciously trying to pretend like their time apart never happened.

He can’t pretend anymore. He wants Maya to know everything about him, just like she used to.

“Hey, no,” he says when they reach the counter. He presses the tickets into the glass as they wait for the clerk to finish helping a gaggle of teen girls. “I want to talk about it. Just. Not while juggling all of these tickets.”

He gives her a crooked smile and reaches for her hand, now that his are free.

Shawn does a very effective job of making her feel less awkward about the question. His voice is warm and soft and he takes her hand comfortingly.

She loves holding his hand. It’s such a simple pleasure, but she found herself missing it in their many years apart, when she let herself think about him. She wraps her other hand around his so it’s sandwiched between both of hers.

“I can be patient,” she murmurs meaningfully, smiling up at him.

The clerk takes their tickets and Shawn asks him for the egregiously large stuffed lion that sits atop the mountain of prizes. Maya laughs when he hands it over. She tucks it under her arm.

“I don’t know where I’m putting this guy. Maybe he can live in my art studio,” she muses.

Shawn laughs, reaching over to fluff up a matted section of the lion’s mane.

“I think he’ll make a great companion for you there. Like a muse.”

Maya pictures propping her new lion friend up in the corner as a reminder of him. She likes that idea.

As they head toward the ice cream bar, Shawn lifts their linked fingers, bringing Maya’s knuckles to his lips. He brushes a kiss across her skin, another gesture of reassurance.

“Okay, Lu,” he says once they fold into the line, “What’s your poison?”

He looks up at the menu, considering which treat will go best with talking about his terrible time in LA. Probably anything with chocolate.

His lips kiss over her knuckles but the goosebumps spread far and wide. She sidles up next to him, holding his hand and cupping her other hand around his arm as he scans the menu.

“I’m going Classic. Chocolate dipped swirl with strawberry syrup and chocolate jimmies.”

She hasn’t gotten ice cream from a truck like this in so long. She smiles, turning in to press her lips to his shoulder while he decides.

Shawn grins. He likes Maya’s order. She always knew how to indulge. He feels her nudge a kiss into his arm, so he leans over and brushed his lips against the top of her head.

Maya thinks it’s funny how they’ve been kissing all night, just not on the mouth. They’ve never been shy about PDA. She doesn’t think they’re shy now either, but she does think they’re both taking the slow part of their new relationship seriously. And they’ve unspokenly decided too much kissing on the mouth is a bad idea.

She doesn’t mind, actually. Especially because the idea of getting one single, perfect goodnight kiss out of Shawn has her light on her feet.

“That sounds delicious, sugar,” he hums, then looks back to the men. “But I think I’ve gotta go with with Neapolitan swirl. Chocolate dip and rainbow jimmies.”

He wiggles his wallet out of his pocket as they step to the front of the line to order, feigns like he doesn’t remember giving her shit about buying him ice cream for winning at go-karts.

He places both of their orders and pays, leaving a few too many ones in the tip jar. He’s always been a hefty tipper, though. He gets it. He lived off of tips for long enough.

She decides not to fight him on paying, not after that absurd date she dragged him on a couple weeks ago. It’s not that she’s hurting for cash or anything, she just thinks that feeling on equal footing for as long as possible is good for them right now. She does kiss his cheek, though, a fat, wet plant of her lips with a giggle behind it and a “thank you” murmured in his ear.

Shawn’s lip twitch with a hint of smirk when Maya places a messy kiss on the apple of his cheek. He doesn’t get a chance to reciprocate, though, before they’re handed lavish ice cream cones that take a bit of extra effort not to drop.

Shawn guides Maya to one of the small plastic tables set up in front of the truck. He drops her hand so he can pull her seat out for her, a plastic green chair that scrapes obnoxiously on the asphalt beneath it.

She sits in the seat he offers and crosses her legs, taking a first few swipes at her cone to alleviate some dribbling. When they’re settled in, she smiles over at him chasing some jimmies down his hand. She decides to wait for him to launch into the LA thing because she doesn’t want to feel like she’s badgering him.

The lion sits on the table between them as Shawn settles into his cone. A few sprinkles fall from the ice cream and onto his fingers as he takes a bite from the top. “Mmph,” he mumbles as he sucks the colorful jimmies from his skin.

Maya laughs with her ice cream cone next to her mouth as she watches Shawn strategically attack his. She does her best not to slurp at hers but it’s hot and melting quickly.

He looks up at Maya from over the slope of the stuffed lion’s back and realizes she’s waiting for him to talk about LA. He licks a drop of ice cream from his lip and considers where to begin. He hasn’t spoken about this with anyone in like, four years. He’s only ever really discussed it with Leah and his therapist. Geoff was there, so they don’t have to talk about it.

“So, LA, right? I think the problem with LA is that, unless you have a solid game plan and like, people you can really trust, the city will chew you up and spit you out. And I didn’t have those things. I figured, I dunno, I could skate by on talent and sheer passion alone.”

Shawn shrugs, looking away from Maya to lick at the top of his ice cream. He crunches on sprinkles and licks chocolate sauce from the corner of his mouth.

“I never found a band that I really gelled with. Not musically, anyway. Either we disagreed about, like, our musical vision or whatever, or our personalities clashed or they were more obsessed with fame and drugs and hookers than actually like, being musicians.”

She listens intently. He doesn’t sound too broken up about it, helped, she suspects, by many years between then and now. Still, she considers as she watches him affectionately, it was his dream and he let it go.

She ducks her head in disappointment at his assessment of his former bandmates. “That must’ve been so hard. To feel so disconnected from them on something you’ve always wanted.”

She hopes he’s not too disappointed about his trajectory. He seems truly happy with his shop. She hopes he doesn’t have regrets.

Maya sounds sad for him. He doesn’t want that. He doesn’t feel sad about it. Not anymore anyway.

He takes a bite of his ice cream, crunches the jimmies.

“It’s okay. I mean, yeah, it sucked, but it also helped. It was formative, or whatever. And it made me realize that I didn’t really want that life, anyway. If I had really wanted it, I would’ve kept fighting for it. And I probably wouldn’t have done so much coke just to get through the nights.”

He doesn’t know how else to bring it up. That he fucked over his body in a way they both always said they hated and would never do.

It was easier to do it when he was alone and tired and disappointed with his life. He doesn’t ever miss it these days, though.

Maya feels like her heart drops into her stomach to slosh around with some melted ice cream. The vision of him is cold, standing in dirty club bathrooms waiting to go on at 2am with bandmates he doesn’t like, snorting a line off his hand. She closes her eyes.

“God, sweetheart,” she rasps, clearing the tears out of her throat with a shake of her head. They sting as they threaten to fall. She nourishes her sore throat with another bite of cold ice cream before she speaks again.

“Maybe our experiences weren’t so different,” she admits, lowering her gaze as she remembers her late nights spent on the opposite coast buying Adderall from her bro-y coworkers so she could work until 3 or 4am on an all-too-consistent basis.

His heart breaks at the sound of her voice. He didn’t mean to upset her with any of this. But she asked and he doesn’t want to tell her half-truths anymore.

“Lu,” he murmurs. He guesses he should’ve known, should’ve put it together, that being a hardworking business woman in Manhattan meant long days followed by longer nights only survived with the help of a stimulant or two. He hates that she got caught up in it too.

But it’s life, he guesses, and it made them who they are now.

She lifts her eyes to his, unafraid of his judgement, knowing he won’t put it on her. She smiles weakly. “I guess we can’t harp on this kind of stuff. We did what we felt we had to to survive. And we got ourselves out.”

Shawn scoots his chair around the table towards Maya, plastic legs scratching noisily across the asphalt. He turns it to face her, his knees digging into the arm of her chair. Reaching for her free hand with his, he pulls it into his lap and curls their fingers together.

“Hey,” he says with a smile, bringing her fingertips to his cold lips, “I’m glad we’re here now. You know?”

Maya watches with a nearly bursting heart as Shawn pulls himself over to sit closer to her. His lips are soft and cool. She thinks about leaning over to taste them but feels like the moment doesn’t quite call for it. Instead she thumbs at the dimple in his chin and smiles a little wider.

“You have no idea how glad I am that we’re here now,” she replies almost breathlessly.

She thinks he probably does have some idea, especially given how rough his years apart from her are starting to sound. They’ve been through the wringer. They both deserve to relax and take it in a little. The fact that they get to do it together is something Maya never imagined could happen again. She could let herself get swept up in it but wants to keep things fun and maybe a little lighter on this date because first dates are supposed to be fun.

Maya swipes her tongue around her dripping cone and traces her finger against his jaw affectionately. “Would you let me draw you again soon?”

He’s got an overwhelming urge to kiss her, but he resists by licking at his dripping ice cream instead. He’s making himself wait. He wants to deserve it. He wants her to remember the moment crisply, with the same sort of clarity you remember something that truly affected you, a sharp contrast to everything else because of how it changed your life.

Maybe he has romantically high hopes for this kiss.

Some habits die hard.

Shawn’s eyes fall shut as she traces the angle of his jaw. He sucks in a soft breath.

“You can draw me anytime you want, Lemon,” he murmurs, gazing at her from under hooded as his fingers curl around her wrist.

“I always thought I was a pretty good model,” he bites into his cone, giving Maya a crooked smile as he chews.

Maya goes pink. He reacts so well when she touches him, always. She leaves her warm fingers around the side of his neck, stroking gently at his curls. She loves the tiny ones that sit around his ears.

“You’ve always been my favorite model,” she promises, nodding firmly, “I have sketchpads full of proof of that.”

She smiles and bites into her own cone, looking off to reminisce. “I actually have all my old sketchbooks. If you go back far enough in my catalog, you can find the week we met. I think I started drawing you only a couple days after. I wasn’t very good then. I could never get your eyes right.”

He feels himself blushing. He misses the weight of her gaze on him as she sketched. He misses the way she would nudge his face with her fingertips to make sure his features caught the light just right. He misses how her cheeks would turn pink each time she finished a drawing with which she was particularly pleased.

He misses the privilege of admiring her many sketches, of him or otherwise, most of all.

“I always liked the way you did my eyes,” he hums, crunching into more of his cone.

“You made this one less droopy,” he says with a grin, pushing at the corner of his lazy eye. He laughs, “I really was so self-conscious about that back then.”

Maya finally lets him go with a swipe of her fingers through the curls at the nape of his neck. She takes another bite of ice cream and giggles with him, catching his fingers from his face to squeeze them in hers.

“I always loved it,” she tells him honestly after swallowing, “When you got tired, you looked like a puppy.”

She thinks of the nights they stayed up pretending to study in between long, languid kisses. They kissed like they had their entire lives to do it. They kissed arrogantly back then, like kids.

Maya takes the final bite, finishing off her cone. She clears her throat and looks over at him. “Don’t look much like a puppy now, though. All grown up.”

She can feel the heat in her face when she says it despite the frozen treat. She’s… hitting on him. It’s kinda funny.

Shawn is busy licking the remains of his ice cream from his fingers when he’s distracted by the raspy tone of her voice. He releases his thumb from his mouth with a wet pop and quirks a brow at her.

“Are you saying I’m not cute anymore?”

He pouts, but he can’t hold it for long and cracks a smile after a moment.

She swallows roughly and shakes out a laugh, then bashfully looks away. He knows how cute he is. He also knows how absolutely heart-stoppingly gorgeous he is. He wears it well, warmly and modestly, but he knows it’s there. He wears the confidence better these days than he ever used to.

After a moment, Shawn pushes his chair backward to give himself room to cross his ankle over his knee and fold his arms behind his head. He leans back and looks at Maya.

Maya watches as he relaxes into his chair. She follows suit, crossing her long legs and leaning forward to look up at the stars.

“Can I tell you something? I, uh, I felt weird saying anything before, but I want you to know. I want you to know everything now, so.”

She blinks quickly, a little startled. She wets her lips and glances back at him. “You can tell me anything. Of course.”

She really believes that now.

Shawn bites at his lip, cheek bulging with a slight smile before he continues.

“So, you know that guitar I showed you? The first one I ever made?” His fingers scratch over his thigh, nails picking at his jeans. He takes a breath, wets his lips.

“I named it after you,” he finally says with a soft laugh, shaking his head a little. “Lulu. Guess I was still kinda lovesick.”

Maya was preparing herself for something worse, something harsher. He pleasantly surprises her. A bubble of a giggle rises in her throat. She’s delighted and totally honored. She goes a warm pink color and settles further into her chair, slumping down as she beams at him.

“Really? Wow. I’ll take a guitar named after me over a ship any day of the week.”

She laughs again, blushing furiously, raking a hand through her hair, “Especially if you made it.”

“Could name a whole series after you, sugar,” he murmurs, sitting forward and leaning his forearms on his knees. He tilts his head. “Would you let me do that?”

He’s been thinking about it for a while, now. Starting a proper series with a name, instead of just fucking around with whatever he wants, or only refurbishing. The money’s better with refurb. But that’s why he saves, and that’s why he keeps strong relationships with his elite clients. Elite is classiest way to say famous, he’s pretty sure.

Anyway, he thinks naming a series after Maya would be. Nice. Maybe a little cheesy, and sentimental. But he’s a little cheesy and a little sentimental. He can’t help it, not with her.

Maya is flooded with pride. She aims her gaze down at her feet and takes a deep breath.

“I’d love that. When you decide I’ve earned it.”

She doesn’t want them getting ahead of themselves again. It’s so easy for them to do. But she wants stable, she wants a foundation, not building blocks just tall enough for them to keep climbing with nothing to hold onto.

But someday? Yeah. She’d like that.

She’s right about earning it. Not that he doesn’t think she already deserves it, because she does. He’s the one who needs to earn it. And they need to earn it together, too.

He stands up, tucks the lion under his arm and reaches for Maya’s hand when she stands, too. His thumb brushes her knuckles while he leads her toward the parking lot.

“Do you wanna, I dunno, drive around and talk a little? I don’t think I’m too sick of you yet,” he asks with a wry grin, glancing down at her as he gives her fingers a gentle squeeze.

She’s relieved when he mentions an alternative to taking her straight home. She doesn’t want this night over yet. Because he’s not coming home with her.

“That sounds perfect,” she assures him, walking a tad closer to his side, “We should do Shore Drive and check out all those crazy massive mansions on the north end of the beach.”

Shawn grins. “You love Shore Drive. Why not get a fancy mansion yourself?”

He’s teasing, really. He loves her cottage. It’s comfy and cozy and so perfect for Maya. He knows why she picked it.

Maya grins and shrugs. “I do love Shore Drive but I just like to gawk at it, I wouldn’t actually live there. When I was dreaming of Avila I always pictured myself in one of the old historical cottages in my neighborhood.”

She also pictured herself with him if she’s being honest, but that kind of admission doesn’t go well with the “take it slow” plan they’ve devised.

Shawn leads her to the passenger’s side, opens the door and helps her inside with a gentle smile. She’s got her bare feet kicked up onto the dashboard by the time he’s tucked the lion away and slid into the driver’s seat.

Maya makes herself comfortable in her seat. He looks happy to see her there. She watches him carefully stow the lion in the backseat and start the engine. The radio turns on like it always does in his car to a station playing some mellow John Mayer. She smiles and turns it down just slightly so they can talk over it.

“So I’m taking the long way, right?” he asks, looking at her as he slows to a stop at the red light leading out of the parking lot.

Maya smiles again, softer this time. She burrows down into her seat that smells like him. “Yes please. I like taking the long way with you.”

The fastest way to Shore Drive is to the right, so when the light turns green, Shawn hooks left. He flicks the button above the rear view mirror and the sunroof glides back. He rolls down the windows and hangs an arm outside as they whip down the beachside highway.

Maya purrs with the wind in her hair. Usually she gets sleepy sitting in the car but she’s strangely energized tonight. She watches moonlight bounce off the ocean with a sparkle in her eye. She takes a deep sea-salted breath and releases it slowly through her nose.

“So,” Shawn starts after a moment of driving in silence. “I wanna know. You said— before-- you said I don’t know you anymore. And I want to. So let’s, I dunno, let’s play twenty questions or something.”

He glances over at her, feeling his cheeks twinge. He smiles, then looks back out to the road.

“I mean, if you want.”

Maya nods at his idea, considering. She has so many questions floating around in varying degrees of heaviness, she’s not sure where to go first. She bobs her head back and forth, considering.

“Hmm… ok… how about… other than blow, what are your chosen vices of the last 12 years?”

She says it with a smile so he knows he’s safe with her.

“Oooh,” he purrs, smirking slight as he glances at her. “Only on question one and already getting gritty?”

He chuckles, then sinks his teeth into his lower lip while he thinks. He racks his brain for a good, not-boring answer as he chews at his lip, then soothes it with his tongue.

“Hm,” he murmurs, shrugging a little. “Besides weed and Wednesday night s’mores? I guess those M&M cookies from Panera. Good snack when I’m at the shop late.”

He glances at Maya, corner of his mouth tugged into a frown. “That’s super fucking boring. I’m really boring compared to like, Manhattan people.”

Maya tosses her head back, laughing. “M&M cookies! Those are the best. The chocolate chip ones have nothing on the M&M cookies.”

She wonders if she could pull off baking him a batch herself. Probably not. She might try anyway. He’d probably like that.

“So what about you?”

Maya smiles conspiratorially. “I used to have an online shopping problem. I would order so much stupid shit in the middle of the night. Once I ordered a tangerine orange Kitchenaid mixer.”

Shawn thinks if he were as well off as Maya, he’d have an online shopping problem too. He laughs, shaking his head. Pressing his palm into the steering wheel, he carefully banks the Jeep around a twisting curve in the road.

“Can you even bake? Is that a secret skill you learned?”

Maya exhales so her lips flap comically. She shakes her head and looks down at their twining fingers. She smiles.

“I definitely can’t bake. I can sometimes make chocolate chip cookies without burning them. Like, sometimes.”

She chuckles at herself. She thinks of all the Amazon returns she made in the cold light of day with a blush in her cheeks for even ordering it in the first place.

“Ok. Your turn.” She turns her head to look out at the water.

Shawn switches hands on the wheel so he can reach across the console for her. He glides his palm over the back of her hand, slotting their fingers together so the tips of his brush her wrist.

“Mm. New question for you. What’s your go to comfort movie? You—“ he clears his throat, “You said I don’t know your favorite movies, but I used to. So—“ his lips twitch, “—I wanna know again.”

Maya’s very sure Shawn could still reel off an impressive list of all her favorite movies, even now, even after all this time. She vaguely recalls crying at him the other day about having go-to movies she’d put to calm her down and help her fall asleep when she was in the thick of the stress at work.

“I mean, I still love all the movies I did. I adopted a couple that used to be what I’d put on to fall asleep. They’re weird choices, actually. One was “The Other Woman” with Leslie Mann and Cameron Diaz. I really liked all their outfits and their houses. The other one was Casablanca.”

She tilts her head back at him with a shy smile. Casablanca was her favorite fantasy, apart from the ending.

Of all the gin joints in all the cities in all the world. Shawn said something like that to her recently, before their blow up. She hasn’t forgotten.

Shawn frowns, foot easing off the gas as they pull onto Shore Drive, slowing down a bit so Maya can admire the mansions.

“I have a love-hate relationship with Casablanca. I don’t like a sad ending, I guess.”

Maya nods in understanding. It is a heartbreaking ending. She was usually asleep before it ended, though, mercifully. She thinks she wouldn’t like it as much if she watched the ending regularly. It would hit too close to home.

Maya doesn’t think she’s as interested in the mansions as she expected to be, not with him sitting here, captivating her like he does. She glances over his shoulder at one of her favorite Shore Drive houses and back at him.

The Jeep rolls to a stop when they come to the stop sign at the end of the second block. There’s no one around at the moment, so Shawn looks from the road to Maya, only to find she’s already looking at him. He smiles.

“Tell me a secret,” he says, dragging his calloused thumb across her knuckles, “Something you haven’t told anyone ever. Even if it’s silly or stupid. Or embarrassing.”

He grins, quirking a brow.

Her nose twitches. She strokes her free hand through her hair. What secret could she possibly have to share with him that he doesn’t already know? He used to know everything. What’s left?

Her brows pull together, then apart. She smirks. “This isn’t exactly a secret but I haven’t told anyone I did this, only people in my office know. When I quit my job, I didn’t give notice or anything, I just walked out one day during lunch in my $2000 Gucci suit and took the subway to Central Park. I ate a hot dog. And then I ate another. And then I got a third one and ate it on my way into my boss’s office. I told him I quit, I crumpled up the wax paper and tossed it on his desk. I packed up my office and never went back.”

She smiles warmly. “It’s one of the proudest moments of my life, I think.”

“Holy shit, Lu.”

He says it before he can stop himself, doesn’t mean to sound as bewildered as he does. He’s not so much surprised by the story as he is impressed. Proud. Thankful she stood up for herself when she needed to.

He grins, reaches from the steering wheel to cup his other hand around hers, so he’s got her completely encompassed by his broad palms.

“That’s really fucking awesome. I don’t think I’d have the guts to do that,” he shakes his head, squeezing her hand gently.

Maya preens at his reaction. She lets him take her hand and gush at her a little. Bubbling under his gaze, she reaches up with her free hand and draws a blunted fingernail against his jaw, admiring the perfect line of it. Her fingers twitch in his for her pencils.

“But, ah, I think you’ve always been braver than me,” his smile softens, and he carefully brings her hand to his mouth, his fingers wrapping around her wrist. He presses a soft kiss to her knuckles, thumb pushing into the middle of her palm.

“I don’t think that’s true,” she murmurs.

Shawn was brave even when she wasn’t. He got himself to LA even without her as a parachute. When it didn’t go to his plan, he was brave enough to get himself out and start fresh and new where no one knew him. He’s been brave his whole life -- she feels she’s only been brave in the last few months.

His lips are a compliment all their own. She accepts it with an extra pulse of her heart.

Shawn blushes. The flush starts in the tips of his ears and spreads to his cheeks. No one gets him this bashful anymore. It used to be easy, but the years have hardened him. Now, it’s only Maya.

He pulls a hand from hers and takes the steering wheel. He starts driving again so he doesn’t kiss her. His Jeep is a dangerous place to kiss. They used to fuck all the time in the Jeep he had in college. This newer model has even more room for them to mess around.

He doesn’t need the temptation. Go slow.

Maya inhales as her chest falls back with the gentle lurch of the car. It’s good they’re moving. Moving means not stopping, not crawling into the backseat, not getting carnal at the corner of Shore and Shell. Moving is good.

“If it’s my turn to ask a question again,” she starts, voice soft and quiet over the lapping of the waves on shore, “What’s the last song you wrote?”

Maya’s question almost makes him choke. The only songs he ever writes anymore are about her. The songwriter part of him feels like a remnant from before, from when he was so in love with her he couldn’t contain it to their relationship, so it poured out of him as music and lyrics.

It’s a way to cope now.

“I uh,” he laughs, “I wrote a few stanzas on the harp the other day.”

Safe answer. Neutral.

But then—

“I guess that’s not, like, a real song though. The, ah, the last real song I wrote was a few weeks ago? It just kind of came to me at the piano. The music anyway. I’ve been jotting down lyrics all summer.”

She clears her throat and continues admiring the houses as they pass slowly on the deserted street. She’s glad to hear he’s been writing music even if he gets a little cagey about what kind. She nods like she’s not dying of curiosity.

“Oh, that’s great! What… um, what’s it called?”

A thinly veiled version of “is it about me?” if Maya’s ever heard one.

He doesn’t feel like hiding from her anymore. The parts of himself he shared in the beginning of the summer were the easy ones. The ones she already knew. The songs he used to write about her were simple. Juvenile. Important, but he’s outgrown them.

The ones he writes now cut a little more deeply, in ways he didn’t want her to know about when he was busy acting like they were the same people they’d been in college.

“Oh, eh, I don’t really have a title yet. That’s always the hardest part for me. But I think, well, it’s definitely about us. About you.”

He wants to say if that’s okay, but his adult brain reminds him he doesn’t need her permission to write music about things that are important to him.

Shawn doesn’t hesitate to tell her he’s written about her. She can’t say she’s completely surprised. It’s nice to hear, though. The confirmation from him feels good. He cares enough to write.

Maya nods. She glances past him at an old Victorian that’s stood the test of time. It’s weatherbeaten and stately and it’s not going anywhere.

“I think it’s good for us both,” she assures him, “That we’re both re-exploring what we love to do. That we’re working on ourselves that way. And that we’re honest about it.”

She talks about them like they’re a team. That’s really all he’s ever wanted. His heart flutters in his chest. He thinks it’s good, too.

“It’s not a happy song,” he says, because he can’t stop the honesty now. He wrote it when he still thought she was going back to New York. At the time, he thought it was evidence that he could cope with her leaving.

Now he thinks it works with the new relationship they’re embarking upon. He can fiddle with a couple of the lyrics, anyway.

Maya casts her eyes out at the water. She hums.

“They can’t all be happy songs, I guess.”

She thinks all they can do is hope the rest of their songs will be happy. They deserve that. They both do.

He glances at her as he turns off of Shore, down a small beach road that will spit them back onto Main Street, eventually.

“But I could play it for you sometime. If you want.”

She feels his eyes again. She looks back with a quiet smile. “I’d love to hear it when you’re ready for me.”

Coming back to Main Street means the end of the night. Maya sighs and hopes it doesn’t come off too dramatic. But the truth is, this was a hell of a first date. She feels better with him now than she has all summer. Cards are on the table.

As he pulls into her driveway to drop her off, she grins.

“You still owe me about 16 more questions,” she laughs, “Rain check?”

Shawn feels like he is the embodiment of the sigh she releases. He doesn’t want the night to be over either. He goes as slowly as he can on the way back to her house, squeezing her hand every now and then.

He throws the Jeep in park and lets his head fall back against the seat. He smiles.

“What if you ask me one more while I walk you to your door?”

He lifts his brows, then gets out of the car and jogs to the passenger’s side so he can open the door for Maya.

Maya fights the embarrassed chuckling that threatens when he scampers around the side of the car to help her out. She takes his hand and steps out, her sandals hooked in her fingers. She keeps hold of his hand and walks slowly up the cobblestone path to her front door. She glances over at her porch swing and thinks maybe she’ll come out here after she gets ready for bed with her sketchpad, something to take the edge off before she sleeps.

In the warm lamplight, Shawn glows. She takes his other hand and steps a little closer to him. She swallows any nerves left and fixes her eyes on his.

“Ok, last question. How do you feel about how tonight went?”

Shawn drops one of her hands in favor of cupping her neck, thumb stroking across her jaw. He smiles, hanging his head a bit closer to her.

“I feel like it was the best first date I’ve ever been on.” It sounds like a line, but he says it as earnestly as he can and hopes she’ll know he means it.

His gaze drops to her lips, but only briefly. He looks up, wetting his own lips and pressing them together.

His voice is raspy when next he speaks.

“I also feel like I’d really like to kiss you now,” he clears his throat. Then, gently, “Please.”

Maya’s eyes flutter. His thumb is hot and rough on her skin. When he’s standing this close, she can smell his cologne, shampoo, body wash, him. She fights a pathetic whimper rising in her throat.

It’s just a kiss. It’s just a kiss.

He looks down at her lips and she nearly lunges for him. Apparently it’s a kiss she’s fucking starving for.

She exhales slowly trying not to pant at him.

“Yeah. Yes. Mhmm. Please. Kiss me.”

Kissing Maya is so easy and so hard at the same time. Easy, because they’ve done it so much, hard, because they’ve never done it like this. He’s never had to walk away from her after.

He presses his thumb to the apple of her cheek as he brings his lips to hers, his chest deflating with a soft murmur as he releases a breath he’s been holding all night. He sighs into her mouth, stepping closer to her until their bodies are flush together.

It’s a dangerous game, sipping at her lips and holding her close while not letting it go any further. He’s delicate with her, doesn’t try to coax her mouth open with his tongue, even though the instinct is there, twitching in his fingers.

He resists. It’ll be worth it, in the long run.

The kiss is somewhat chaste but it doesn’t feel unsatisfying, exactly. Just cautious. It’s warm and soft and so tender.

She wants to suck on his lower lip or tangle her fingers in his hair. She wants to let them in so they can stumble up the stairs, shedding clothes as they go. She doesn’t. She just kisses him back, inhaling as he sighs.

They separate gently. She licks her lips, like she just wants to taste him again.

She’s panting, not because the kiss was so hot, but from the strength it takes to control herself.

“So uhm,” she murmurs, “Do you want to… I dunno, hang out again tomorrow?”

Is that too soon? What does taking it slow feel like?

Shawn has to take two full steps away from her to make sure he doesn’t stumble inside after her, like he’s done so many times this summer.

Go slow.

She sounds unsure of her offer, but he wants it. He grins.

“Yes-- Yeah. Yeah, totally. I do want that. I fuckin’--” he laughs, shaking his head and scrubbing a hand through his hair as he looks at his feet, “I miss you already.”

Maya chuckles back and it sounds a little raspy.

“Yeah,” she replies, “I know what you mean.”

She doesn’t know exactly if he’s referring to missing her even though she’s still standing with her hand on the doorknob or missing her because if it were a few weeks ago, he’d probably be inside her at this time of the night.

Either way, she feels it too.

With one last slightly shaky but still hopeful smile, she lets herself inside to dig out a sketchbook.

----------

Taglist: @smallerinfinities @the-claire-bitch-project @achinglyshawn @infiniteshawn @mendesoft @singanddreamanyway @alone-in-madness @abigfatmess @shawnitsmutual @awkwardfangirl2014 @september-lace @sinplisticshawn @rollingxstone @yslsaint @randi-eve @fallmoreinlove @heyits-claire @itrocksmysocks @parkerspicedlatte @simpledomain @abeautiful-and-cloudy-day @thecurlsofgod @magcon7280 @bensbuttercup @shawnsmusical @paigeasourous @tell-me-when-ur-ready @softmendesss @searchingunderthestars @buggy-blogs @mendesficsxbombay @siennarossi @lostinshawnsmemory @umbreakablesoul @sleepybesson @shawnsheaven @desire-to-live @jillian-nd @shawnwyr @curlsofshawn @graysonmendes @tnhmblive @meltingicequeen

#Shawn Mendes Imagine #shawn mendes #shawn mendes blurb #shawn peter raul mendes #shawn mendes fan fic #shawn mendes fic #shawn mendes fluff #shawn mendes fanfic #shawn mendes fan fiction #shawn mendes fanfiction #shawn mendes fiction #shawn mendes series #shawn mendes smut #shawn mendes au #shawn mendes angst #shawn mendes drabble #shawn mendes one shot

73 notes · View notes

secretkidcolor · 4 years

Text

A Good View from the Sidelines

A simple game of basketball with a bunch of sweaty guys in shorts shouldn't be that big of a deal. Naturally, it ends up being a bigger deal once Tyler meets someone from the other team for the first time.

Also posted to fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own under the same title~

Happy Pride Month!

“Bro, you might want to sit this one out.”

Tyler adjusted the sweatband keeping some of his hair out of his face as he heard his friend’s advice. Well, friend was a loose term. He and Geoff weren’t exactly close, but they got along fine. Geoff, who oozed coolness with his fondness for open-chested shirts and cowboy hats, had no reason to invite Tyler to hang out as often as he did. But that was Geoff’s character-defining trait. He was cool in every sense of the word. That included being nice to everyone. So when he advised Tyler to sit out, Tyler knew it probably wasn’t in a way that was meant to be disrespectful.

“No way dude,” Tyler said, “I just got warmed up. Afraid I’m gonna beat you guys?” Tyler and Geoff were at the local park with two other guys, DJ and Duncan, and were supposed to be shooting hoops together. They hadn’t started yet though, which was why Tyler was confused. Usually he’d play a couple rounds, hurt himself, and sit out to watch, but he was in perfect shape still and wanted to take advantage of that for what little time he was able to maintain it.

“Pffft, as if,” Duncan cut in, rolling his eyes. “That new guy, Alejandro, is going to be coming by with some of his buddies to play us in a little game of three on three. And no offense, but we want to win.” Unlike Geoff, Duncan was most likely intending to be disrespectful. With his bright green mohawk, various piercings, and constantly pissed off expression, Duncan scared the crap out of Tyler. Whether it was death threats (followed by an unconvincing “Kidding!”) or just senseless violence against people Duncan deemed uncool, Tyler tried to stay off his radar as much as possible. There had been a brief conflict between them when Tyler had dated Lindsay, and the jock had truly feared for his life for a moment, but that had come to pass.

“Ale…” Tyler’s voice trailed off as he tried to replicate the name. It was clearly Spanish, but Tyler wasn’t the best speaker to begin with. “Alejandro,” he managed to say finally. The name sounded vaguely familiar. “He’s new?’

“Chyeah dude,” Geoff said, dribbling the ball in place. “He just transferred here over the weekend. Bridge said that all the girls were talking about him today. Even Heather.”

“I was getting an icepack from the nurse when I heard him introducing himself to Principal Mclean,” DJ spoke up from his spot on the ground. “That man doesn’t like anybody, but this guy pushed all the right buttons. Mclean even offered to let him skip his first class of the day. He’s smooth as Mama’s gravy.”

“Which is why it’s important that we beat his ass at basketball today,” Duncan said, his eyes narrowing. “Nobody makes our chicks talk but us.” Tyler winced a little at the possessive wording Duncan used. Duncan’s girlfriend Courtney would probably throw a fit if she heard him talk about her like that, and Tyler wouldn’t have ever dared claim ownership over Lindsay.

While Tyler’s relationship with Lindsay was solid, it was certainly an anomaly to everyone at school. At first the idea of a pretty- no, beautiful. Tyler believed she was the most beautiful girl he had ever met. The idea of a beautiful, blonde cheerleader dating a jock was a given. It was less of a given when it was apparent that Tyler wasn’t very good at any of the many sports he participated in. He was clumsy to a fault and spent more time on the bench than actually playing, and the few times he did play he usually ended up getting hurt. This normally didn’t put a damper on his spirits though. He had won the Team Spirit award every season since freshman year. His teammates had given him flack for it at first, but Lindsay’s immense popularity and their immediate connection had helped with that. By now, most of the other school athletes admired (at least secretly) his perseverance and now that he was a junior, he saw some of his younger teammates actually looking up to him. Rival schools still gave him a hard time, but he had come to rely on his teammates to have his back when that happened.

Tyler wasn’t an overly spiritual man, but he thanked the higher powers for putting Lindsay into his life. She was the perfect girlfriend. Sweet, caring, smar- okay she wasn’t that smart. But that hardly mattered anyway, especially after she had gotten past always getting his name wrong. Their relationship had started as a quick burst of teenage passion and had actually developed into something meaningful. As they got older they began to rely on one another for more than just a physical release. Tyler considered Lindsay to be his best friend and he trusted her with everything, and that bond only seemed to strengthen when they had stopped dating (there was a bad incident with her forgetting his name in front of his parents). He trusted her with everything. Well, almost everything…

“Chill dudes,” Geoff said. “Alejandro’s bringing three friends so it’ll be four guys to a team. Tyler can sub in at some point. Is that cool?” He looked at Tyler as he asked this, and Tyler nodded.

“Yeah, it’ll give me extra time to warm up!” With that, Tyler began to do some push-ups for effect. Soon enough, four guys could be seen walking toward the court as Tyler flopped on the ground after his push-ups. He groaned as Geoff, Duncan, and DJ greeted the approaching four guys. There were a couple of voices he could recognize as the guys talked.

“I’ll be the first one sitting out,” said Justin, a guy who ran a modeling Instagram account. “This is the perfect lighting for some sporty pics. You guys just let me know if you need me, okay?’

“Pfft, whatever,” Duncan said and Tyler could practically feel his eyeroll. “Are we gonna stand around all day or actually play?”

“Lightning’s ready to play!” That was another voice that Tyler definitely recognized. Lightning was the star quarterback and the only student who referred to himself in third person almost constantly. Tyler never really cared for him as he was one of the less kind football players when it came to Tyler’s habit of injuring himself. His dad was a big name in sports broadcasting and donated generously to the football team though, and Tyler did like the new uniforms each year.

“My friend, are you in need of some assistance?” A voice flowed through Tyler’s ears like silk and he looked up to see a tan hand being offered. He grabbed it and was immediately surprised by the firm, but careful grip that pulled him to his feet. Tyler steadied himself and found himself face to face with one of the most attractive men he had ever seen. That…sounded weird, but it was true. This man was jacked, and while Tyler himself was pretty muscular he felt a little self-conscious as he looked at the guy in a totally objective way. He was wearing a dark red shirt, not too much darker than Tyler’s own, which clung to his muscles. There was something tied to a cord around his neck. A skull of some kind. His hair was long, but well-maintained. The closed-mouth smile he gave Tyler seemed to just be polite, but his eyes were…calculating. Not recognizing him, Tyler assumed that this must be Alejandro.

As Alejandro’s eyebrow raised, Tyler realized he must have been staring at him for an unusual amount of time and looked down, only to see that he was still holding his hand. He quickly withdrew his own hand and sputtered out the first thing that came to mind, “I-I uh, I like girls!”

What.

Alejandro didn’t even seem fazed by the remark. “Noted,” he said politely. “Although probably not relevant to basketball.” He chuckled and Tyler really hoped that nobody else had heard his remark. “My name’s Alejandro,” he said, confirming his name. “And you are?”

“Tyler,” the jock responded quickly. “Uh, nice to meet you…er, yeah.”

“Um, are we gonna play or what?” Duncan asked impatiently from a few feet away. He held up the basketball.

Alejandro nodded at Duncan and turned back to Tyler. “Best of luck Tyler,” he said with another closed-mouth smile.

“Uh thanks but I’m actually gonna be sitting this one out,” Tyler said, backing up off the court.

“Pity,” Alejandro replied, “but I hope you enjoy watching the game then.” Another smile. Tyler felt his face begin to heat up, but fortunately the guys were quick to start their game.

Thirty seconds of watching the game and Tyler had come to the conclusion that basketball was the world’s most unnecessarily sexual sport. Growing up, Tyler had played more sports than most, and he was just now deciding on this fact. Contact sports, while intensely physical, usually involved the wearing of gear for protection. Basketball? While it wasn’t an intentional contact sport, there were still plenty of points of contact during a single game. And with no gear, there were no barriers between skin. Nothing between smooth, sweaty, tan skin.

Oh.

Tyler had started the game trying to focus in on his friends and provide moral support from the sidelines, but that quickly stopped when he saw Alejandro on the court. Tyler had never seen someone play basketball so gracefully before. Alejandro moved with confidence and power, but he clearly possessed total control over himself and the ball when he had it. None of the other guys could even touch him as he practically glided across the court. At one point, he even seemed to turn and look right at Tyler.

His calculating eyes.

Slowly widening in alarm.

A large orange orb slowly growing bigger over his face.

Wait.

A flash of pain and Tyler’s vision temporarily darkened as the basketball collided straight into his face. His head snapped back, his neck making a soft pop as he fell onto his back. Fortunately, he had been sitting in the grass and the back of his head came into contact with untrimmed grass and not the concrete of the basketball court. Tyler may have developed a high pain tolerance, but he wasn’t invincible and concussions were no joke.

Tyler could hear laughing, and some concerned shouts, but soon that seemed to fade away as he saw Alejandro’s face appear hovering over him. “I am so incredibly sorry,” he said, and Tyler could feel a hand on the side of his face. Alejandro had such smooth skin. He slowly helped Tyler up to a sitting position, asking him the usual questions that coaches and trainers asked Tyler after he got took a hard enough blow to the head. It was all very professional sounding coming from someone who likely was the same age as Tyler, but there was something else too. Alejandro had come off as so confident and in control of everything when he had introduced himself not even fifteen minutes ago, and yet now he was flustered and worried and just reacting. And yet he still oozed confidence. And if anything, he was even more beautiful for it.

Hmm.

“It’s all good dude,” Tyler finally said after the round of questions and Alejandro was convinced he didn’t need medical attention. “I’ve taken way harder hits before.” He reached up to rap his knuckles against his skull for effect, Alejandro’s soft hiss under his breath made him reconsider. “But,” he offered, “I’ll probably stay out for the whole game to be safe.”

“Yes, I…I think that would be best,” Alejandro agreed. “It was an accident, I swear.”

“Doing us a favor honestly,” Duncan muttered. Geoff jabbed him with his elbow. “Kidding,” he added.

“Is it cool if we keep playing?” Geoff asked Tyler. “As long as you’re good.

“I’m good,” Tyler said with a slight nod. Duncan went to get the ball and the guys tried to figure out where to position themselves for the game to resume.

“Hey Alejandro,” Tyler said with a grin as Alejandro stood up to resume playing, “I knew what you were doing. I know you just needed to take out the strongest player before he could turn the game around on you guys.”

Alejandro look’s initial look of alarm quickly changed to match Tyler’s grin. “You caught me,” he said in a teasing tone. “It seems you’re too smart for me Tyler, and I was intimidated by the athletic prowess you possess. I do hope you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me.” They shared a laugh and after a few seconds Alejandro gave him a nod before heading back to the game.

Tyler rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling where a bruise was going to form, and leaned back. If he wasn’t going to play, he was at least going to enjoy watching the world’s most unnecessarily sexual sport. Of course, there was one player he tended to focus on more, and he was pretty sure that player caught his glances multiple times without breaking his concentration on the game.

In the end, Alejandro’s team had won by a lot of points. Duncan was annoyed, DJ seemed a little embarrassed, and Geoff was chill like always. The guys still shook hands with one another, and Alejandro walked over to shake Tyler’s hand as well.

“Again, I do hope you can forgive me for your bruised face,” he said, which Tyler just waved off. “Maybe next time, when you’re able to play, your friends won’t lose quite as badly.”

Tyler looked over at his friends and then at Alejandro, meeting his amused gaze with a smirk. “Yeah,” he said, standing up, “because next time…we’re gonna win.”

“Well then I might have to hit you with the ball again,” Alejandro remarked, again with that teasing tone.

“Well then I guess we’ll have to keep playing until my face becomes so strong it bounces the ball right back at you!” Tyler declared.

“Sounds like we’ll be playing basketball together for quite a long time then,” Alejandro said, and Tyler realized that while their handshake had stopped, neither of them had let go of the other’s hand. Tyler felt his face begin to heat up.

“Guess so,” Tyler said, but his voice sounded much less confident than it had moments ago. Alejandro chuckled and released Tyler’s hand.

“I’m sure I’ll see you around Tyler,” he said before turning to leave. “Let me know if you ever want to just play one on one.” It was a normal enough offer but the way he said those last three words sent Tyler’s mind racing as he watched Alejandro walk away.

It hadn’t been a lie when he told Alejandro he liked girls. It was more of a half-truth. But maybe Alejandro had known that from the start. He would have to ask Lindsay what she thought of all this later tonight.

As Tyler said goodbye to his teammates and headed home, he used his phone to check the bruise on his face. It was big, but it would heal quickly. Just in time for another game of Tyler’s new favorite sport.

#writing #fanfiction #total drama #pride

3 notes · View notes

curtjoey · 4 years

Text

。· . ˙ ☀ ⌈ courtney eaton + female + she/her ⌋ yo , have you meet that POGUE , josephine joey curtis , yet ? — no ? well , to give you a little heads up before you do , they’re a TWENTY year old, GROCER, and have been living in coston for SIXTEEN YEARS. since i’ve known them , they’ve reminded me of HALF PAINTED CANVASES, AFTERNOON THUNDERSTORMS , FRESH CUT FRUIT & CITRUS , LATE NIGHT DRIVES , SUNRISE SURF BREAKS , WORN & FADED DENIM , SECRETIVE SMILES . usually they’re quite ENDEARING & ALTRUISTIC but just make sure you keep an eye out for them around town because i heard can be quite CYNICAL & TEMPERAMENTAL as well so here’s hoping they aren’t the ones to undo this whole peace pact they have going on this summer . but just between you & me , i kinda hope it all falls apart . the rivalry keeps this whole boring town interesting . ✏ lou, 26, she/her, aest

yo i’m lou and i have no idea what i’m doing. no seriously, no bloody clue. this is my first time trying my hand at a tumblr roleplay so please hold my hand and tell me i’m doing a good job even if i’m not. i reside in sydney, work in consulting and am currently stuck in my home trying to stop my brain from melting. my hobbies include drinking red wine, ordering food and online shopping. i am here with my wholesome trash baby josephine joey who will ruin your life with a smile. you can hit me up on discord @ fleabag#6681

JOEY CURTIS

“sometimes i worry, i wouldn’t be such a feminist if i had bigger tits.” – fleabag (but also joey curtis at some point. probably)

&& THE BASICS

full name: josephine “joey” meredith curtis birth date: 10 june, 1999 sexuality: bisexual zodiac: gemini mbti: isfp alignment: chaotic neutral temperament: sanguine

&& A PORTRAIT

joey moved to coston when she was four years old, but coston and specifically the cut has been part of who she was since she was born. she’s the unlucky daughter of harriet curtis, a woman who found value in how much attention a man would give to her. a woman who decided to follow a man across the country when she was seventeen only to end up pregnant and with nowhere to go.

she’s thankful she can’t remember those earlier years, the strings of men, the moving from town to town. eventually her mother packed up and moved back to coston after a break up with another boyfriend. it was there that the pair moved in with joey’s beloved grandpa, a staple of the coston community and the owner of a humble greengrocer in town. a man with a huge heart who, despite not having himself, constantly gave back to the community—a trait joey has adopted from her pa.

joey has a big heart, it’s just buried under a lot of dry humour and sarcasm. she doesn’t give away much, you need to put in work if you want to get to know her and it’s always been this way. she wants love, but she watches how freely her mother gives that away and gets taken advantage of. joey wants more for herself, she’s just not sure what.

her mother’s reputation has followed joey as well. it’s that old saying “like mother, like daughter” but with joey it’s not the case at all and a few mistakes with guys when she was younger has earned her the same reputation as her mum. but joey takes it in her stride, and if anybody gets on the wrong side of her she’s not above teaching them a lesson. a lot of coston guys have been met with a knee to their junk courtesy of joey curtis.

she’s never been one for the spotlight, much preferring to keep the attention off her. throughout school she kept her head down, trying her damnedest to get a scholarship for college. her social life? it existed and she’d go to the occasional party but shit always ended poorly - a fight, some guy trying something that ended with joey kneeing him in the dick. she much preferred spending her time surfing, painting or with people she actually liked (and there weren’t many of them). she knew she needed to work her ass off so the rejections were a huge fucking blow to her pride. joey feels stuck now and she’s spent the past few years licking her wounds but has started picking up the brush again.

&& HEADCANONS

you can find her at her grandpa’s store most days. she’s basically taken over running the joint as he’s gotten on in age

they donate a lot of their food to families and people in need around the area and what extra money they have her grandpa usually donates

she lives in a small granny flat out the back of her pa’s two bedroom home

has a garage filled with canvases and paintings. her grandpa won’t let her throw out any

lost her virginity at 15 to a fucking kook who told the world about it. it sucked. she hates him. will never date a kook again.

“yes i did fuck your boyfriend” but not really

early morning surfs are like crack to her

will rip your dick off if you try anything - she has some unresolved anger issues ok, and guess what? you probably deserved it anyway

will tell you she doesn’t give a shit about you but also drop off a care package to your house and tell you it’s from her pa and not her

hopeless romantic who reads austen and swoons about hand touches but would rather choke than admit it

420 and chill

her mum still comes and go’s from coston a lot, following whatever man she’s after at the moment. she always comes back though, to take advantage of joey’s grandpa’s generosity, sleep with the men in town, piss off people and then leave again—but joey won’t ever say a bad word about her, it’s her mum after all

has no idea who her dad is and has no desire to track him down

desperately wants to get out of coston, has the brains to do so, but has kind of accepted that she’ll likely end up here no matter what

good kid at heart, just got dealt a shitty hand

no she will not paint you nude

&& WANTED CONNECTIONS

support your local girl gang - her ride or dies thank u very much. in this house we stan strong women

the kook she slept with when she was 15? there could be some animosity between the pair, a bit of angst, unresolved shit

anything and everything?

#coston.intro #i will tag this nicely later #just wanted to post it before work consumes me

3 notes · View notes

artificialqueens · 3 years

Text

Galactica, Chapter 75 (Group Fic) - TheDane/Veronica

A/N: Click here if you’re looking for previous chapters (or here if you’d rather read on AO3). 💫

Previously: Everyone had a pretty chill Christmas Eve.

This Chapter: Christmas Day. Let’s see how long the fun lasts...

***

It was stupid. Very stupid. Bianca knew it was stupid, and yet she couldn’t help her mind from spinning, from torturing her with weird little anxieties, vague feelings that she couldn’t properly pinpoint. She’d been dating younger women for years, and never given so much as a second thought to their parents. But somehow, something about seeing Courtney’s mom tonight had caused her to obsess…

Here they were, together in a gorgeous place, Courtney warm and soft in her arms, the scent of her familiar and comforting, and yet Bianca was anything but relaxed.

She really needed to chill. But the more she squirmed, the more her restless mind spun out, the more she realized that she wouldn’t be able to calm down until they talked about it.

“Court…” she whispered, moving aside her hair to press a kiss to the back of her neck.

“Mmm,” Courtney sighed, snuggling backwards, clearly content, and Bianca felt a stab of guilt. Should she really be waking her? She’d had such an awful week, and she was finally resting.

Bianca bit her lip, holding her tighter. Maybe it would be better to just deal. After all, they could talk tomorrow. She swallowed, resigned to let it go for now, until Courtney spoke again, voice sleepy.

“Are you okay, baby?” Courtney asked, shifting.

“Yeah, I just...I have a question about your mother.”

“What?” Courtney’s eyes opened and she turned towards Bianca. “What about her?”

“Well…” The truth was, Bianca wasn’t totally sure why it had popped into her head. She’s only spoken to Courtney’s mother twice before. The first time was a few weeks before, after Courtney had told her about their relationship. It had been a bizarrely casual conversation, considering the circumstances, Courtney’s mom kneeling in the garden harvesting vegetables while they chatted.

And then there was tonight. Perfectly sweet, perfectly pleasant. Something didn’t add up.

“She was just really friendly. Really...nice.”

“Well, she is nice.” Courtney still looked slightly puzzled, her brow furrowed.

“I just kind of...was expecting her to hate me a little bit.”

Courtney laughed, wrapping an arm around Bianca’s waist. “How could she hate you? You’re so lovable.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little weird that she like...approves? I mean, I want her to approve. But I kind of figured I’d have to work for it.”

“Yeah. I mean, I get what you’re saying. But, that’s just her, I guess...” Courtney shrugged, resigned. “She and Dad have always just kind of let me do my thing. They’re not really big...disapprovers.”

“Okay. If you say so. I was kind of worried that she might just be like...faking the whole nice thing while planning my murder.”

“Nah,” Courtney chuckled. “They have their own age gap, you know.”

“They do? As big as ours?” It was hard for Bianca to tell how old Courtney’s parents actually were; her whole family looked like they belonged in a J.Crew catalogue.

“Well, no, it’s like 10 years. But in a way it’s worse, because they met when Mum was like 15.”

“Yikes...”

“Exactly. So it would be hypocritical for them to disapprove of us.”

“Being hypocritical would never stop my mom from disapproving,” Bianca told her.

Courtney laughed, curling up against Bianca and pulling her close.

“I promise they’ll be cool. And once they meet you...they’re gonna love you.”

Bianca smiled, pressing a cheek to the top of Courtney’s head. It was nice that Courtney could be so sure about her family’s support. Bianca still had her doubts, but she supposed for now she could let them go.

“I’m sorry for waking you,” she murmured. “I’ll make it up to you tomorrow. With presents.”

“You better,” Courtney giggled, snuggling in closer.

***

“Hey, not so fast!”

Kelly rolled her eyes, pulling her robe closer around her body as she watched her dad snatch her little brother up, putting him on his hip so he couldn’t race down the hall.

“But-” Owen pointed towards the living room, but Detox covered his little hand with his own.

“I know champ,” her dad smiled, “But Auntie Fame’s things are expensive.”

“And ours aren’t?” Juju was holding Julia’s hand, her mom waddling along. She looked exhausted, even more so than she usually did on Christmas mornings after staying up all night wrapping presents.

It was early, way too early if you asked Kelly, but her siblings had refused to stay in bed for another second.

“Darlings!” Fame smiled brightly as they rounded the corner. She was wearing a white sweater and white lounge pants, an outfit like that the most casual Kelly ever saw her. “Come quick, or we’ll simply drown in presents!”

Kelly saw Julia’s eyes widen, her mom releasing her as Detox put Owen down, and the twins ran over to the tree, a regular mountain of gifts underneath it. They began to tear into them like wild animals, shrieking and squealing over every gift.

Kelly rolled her eyes once again, saying, “You know, teaching them to worship at the altar of commercialism and become good little corporate consumers is really bad parenting. You’re totally giving them warped values.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Juju turned towards her, a look of irritation with just a hint of amusement on her face. “I didn’t realize that you were so against material things. I guess you don’t want this…”

She pointed towards a box wrapped in red and white striped paper. Kelly shrugged, pretending not to care, as she knelt down and slowly peeled the paper off, revealing a brand-new MacBook Pro. Exactly the one she wanted. She turned towards her parents with a big grin.

“I mean, I’m not against all material things…”

“Right.”

“Thanks,” she laughed, smiling wryly and giving her dad a hug then reaching towards her mom.

Juju smiled, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head before settling down on the sofa.

Fame leaned over Kelly’s shoulder and handed her a purple gift bag. “I agree with you about the material culture, dear one. So here’s something that’s...more of an experience. From me and Uncle Patrick.”

Kelly moved the tissue paper aside to look in the bag. When she saw, her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. Six VIP tickets plus backstage passes to see One Direction at Madison Square Garden. She leapt up and flung her arms around Fame’s neck.

“Thank you thank you thank you!”

“You’re very welcome, my love. I hope you have a wonderful time.”

“Kelly?”

Kelly looked down then to see her little sister tugging gently on her pajama pants.

“Yeah?”

“This is for you.”

She handed over a small, clumsily-wrapped present--she’s clearly done it herself, which was pretty cute. Kelly unwrapped it slowly for extra drama, prepared to ooh and ahh over whatever trinket her sister had gotten for her. Inside the paper was a small clay heart, glazed with purple.

“It’s purple because that’s your favorite color and a heart because I love you,” Julia said, her brown eyes earnest. Kelly scooped her up into her arms.

It had been a hard adjustment, when the twins were first born. Going from being an only child for the first 13 years of her life to suddenly dealing with babies who constantly needed attention was a huge pain in the butt. And now with this new baby coming, plus the pressures of high school, Kelly had been fairly checked out where her family was concerned. However, sometimes it was good to remember that the twins weren’t all bad.

“I love you too, and this is beautiful. Thank you,” Kelly told her, and got a big, beaming smile on Julia’s face in return.

“What was that about bad parenting and the wrong values?” Juju asked from the coach, smirking deeply as Owen climbed into her lap to show her his new sandbox dump truck.

“Uhhh...you know, you guys aren’t the worst parents,” Kelly admitted with a laugh. “I guess the new one can stay.”

***

There were few things in the world that made Bianca happier than giving presents to the people she loved. Even when she was a kid, when there was no money, she used to leave tissue paper flowers and scrunchies made from fabric scraps on her sisters’ pillows, and she never came home from 7-11 without a 100 Grand bar for her mom.

It was easier now, of, course, when she could turn every passing whim into a present, a chance to show her love. She laid a wrapped box on the pillow beside Courtney’s peacefully sleeping face and began to gently rouse her by trailing her fingers up and down her arm and whispering in her ear.

“Mmm…” Courtney made a wonderfully contented little sigh as she stirred.

“Merry Christmas, my love…”

Courtney turned toward her, a sleepy smile on her face as she held out her arms.

“Kiss me.”

“Don’t you want to open a present?”

“Kiss first,” Courtney pouted, and Bianca happily obliged, kissing her deeply as she hoisted herself up into a seated position beside Bianca, the sheets falling away to reveal her bare chest.

“So...is tits out the rule this vacation? Because I could get behind that.”

Courtney laughed. “I mean, if you agree to the rule, then…” She let her gaze drift downwards, landing on Bianca’s satin bra, then looked back up pointedly, raising an eyebrow.

“Mine need support. But I'll give you a peek whenever you want.”

“Okay, fine,” Courtney giggled, pulling her in for some more lazy kisses. Once she was properly loved up, she leaned back on the pillows with a sigh.

Bianca grinned down at her, dimples deep in her cheeks as she turned her attention to the presents, ready to spoil her silly.

First, there was the sparkling silver star-shaped clutch bag, positively stuffed with jewelry.

“I had to be strategic about packing,” Bianca explained, when Courtney peered inside the clutch and gasped with delight. She pulled every item out individually, exclaiming over how utterly perfect everything was. (And Bianca had to admit to herself, she’d done an excellent job picking things that were exactly to her taste--the multicolored sapphires were a big hit.) Once she’d gone through that bag, Bianca brought over the rest of the gifts: extravagant shoes, clothes that were tailored to perfection, a faux-fur wrap that would be perfect for evenings out back in New York. The best part was Courtney’s reaction, watching her eyes get bigger and bigger with every new item, seeing her happy face shining happily.

“I have presents for you, too!” Courtney exclaimed at one point, jumping up from their bed, which by then was covered with unwrapped gifts, to grab a few items from her new suitcase. She turned back towards Bianca, the expression on her face a bit shy, saying, “They’re not...um…very big, but-”

“Come here.” Bianca gestured to the spot beside her on the bed, then held her close as she slowly unwrapped the gifts that Courtney had clearly so lovingly chosen for her. A stunning, out of print book on 1960s fashion, a vintage Hermès scarf in the bold red that Bianca wore all the time, and a pair of truly perfect art deco-style earrings.

“Do you like them?”

“I love them,” Bianca told her honestly, truly touched by the obvious care that must have gone into picking them out, and only a little concerned about how much she must have spent. “Thank you so much, angel.”

Courtney grinned, lifting a hand to cup Bianca’s cheek as she kissed her hungrily.

“I have one more for you,” Bianca said, once they separated, getting up to find the little Tiffany’s bag in her carry-on. “Well, two more, actually, but one of them isn’t really something you can wrap. And it’s not exactly...finished. So we can save that for another day.”

She retrieved the bag and headed back to the bed.

“Is it the fact that you’re taking me on this dream vacation?” Courtney said, “Because I think this counts.”

Bianca shook her head, sitting down beside her, chewing on her lip, unsure why she suddenly felt so anxious.

“So...um, this was kind of a late addition. I just thought, that maybe...um...here.” She finally just handed over the bag with a slightly uncomfortable chuckle.

Courtney’s face looked curious as she carefully pulled off the ribbon from the small Tiffany’s box and opened it, gasping when she saw what was inside.

“B, is this…” Courtney touched the little sterling silver heart, then the black key fob attached to it.

“It’s keys to my place,” Bianca clarified. “Because I really...I would really like it if you moved in with me.”

Courtney’s eyes were wide, and Bianca couldn’t tell at first if she was happy or horrified. It was soon, of course Bianca knew that, but she felt strongly that this was the right thing to do, for both of them. She continued, heart in her throat.

“I love you so much, Court. And I don’t want you to go back to that place. I...I want you with me…” She reached out to softly caress Courtney’s cheek. “What do you think?”

“What do you think?”

Move in with Bianca? Move in to a fucking Upper East Side penthouse? Courtney’s brain felt scrambled, like a cartoon character who’d been hit over the head with a frying pan, as she tried to figure out all the reasons the universe would just not let something like this happen to someone like her.

“But...what about my lease?”

“Please,” Bianca scoffed. “That place is violating about 27 different rental codes. You can get out of it easily...if that’s what you want. Is it...what you want?”

Courtney gazed at Bianca, disbelief turning to breathless excitement and then sheer joy as she lunged forward, face buried in Bianca’s hair.

She was hit with a visceral memory, of watching Bianca from afar at the Halloween party less than two months ago, the stabbing pain in her chest as she watched her flirt with someone else, the inexplicable desire that had caught her completely off-guard, made her worry that she could never be worthy.

The fantasies that started out so small...the feel of Bianca’s fingers on her skin, what her lips would taste like, soon spiraling out of control and making Courtney feel crazy.

And now, Bianca was hers. Not only loving her, but loving her so much that she wanted to live together. It was almost too much to comprehend. Courtney was absolutely beside herself, nearly dizzy with happiness as she clung to her tightly.

“Is that a yes?” Bianca asked softly.

“Yes!” Courtney exclaimed, squeezing her eyes shut. “Yes, yes yes!”

“Perfect…”

***

Murni was watching everyone unwrap their gifts, her house filled with chatter and laughter, a smile on her face.

Her children had arrived just before lunch, she and Raja deciding years ago that one of Sutan’s presents was that he didn’t have to wake up before 8 to make the drive out to Long Island, since her son was born with a sleeper’s heart.

[Ah!] Raja grinned, pulling the last of the wrapping paper off of her present. [Mom, you didn’t have to-]

[I did,] Murni smiled, watching as Raja held her new cookbook to her chest. It was the exact same one she had in her own kitchen, the pages even a little wrinkled too, the text entirely in Indonesian.

While Raja and Sutan didn’t have that much contact with their cousins, aunties and uncles back in Indonesia, Murni was emailing with them every single day, one of Raja’s aunties stumbling over the cookbook at a friend's house and offering to send it over.

She hadn’t had the time to keep so closely in touch with her relatives when her kids were little, when both she and her husband had to work full time to help support everyone, but now, that was a different story, Raja and Sutan coming together to pay her mortgage, utilities and basic bills every month.

[Thanks mom,] Raja pressed a kiss against her cheek, her lips incredibly soft.

Murni Amrull had never expected to end up in America. When she was younger, she and her husband had both worked in Jakarta, Raja and Sutan watched after by their grandparents in the small village they came from outside of the city, mainly seeing their parents on the weekends.

They were happy enough, but her husband had always wanted more for them. He had suggested that they try the America visa “lottery” game, and Murni had agreed, not even her wildest imagination allowing her to believe that they’d succeed.

And then. They had.

She had been hesitant, scared of the changes and scared for how their children would handle something turning their world upside down, to be taken from everything they knew. They were just kids after all, but her husband had kissed her forehead and told her that it would all be okay, and she had believed him.

They had found their home in a tiny house in a suburb in Iowa, a cousin of a cousin knowing someone they had worked with that was looking for hardworking people, and that had always been her husband.

[Open one of your presents mom,] Sutan smiled, putting a small, neatly wrapped box on her lap.

[Sutan,] Murni raised an eyebrow, but Sutan just grinned, her kids always showering her with presents even when she told them not to.

Murni had never thought she would celebrate Christmas, her faith in Islam a cornerstone in her life even after their move to a brand new country.

Everything she believed in, however, changed one day when her children had come home from school, their small faces looking so very different. Sutan was crying, his whole body moving with desperate sobs as he clung to her, while Raja looked like a thundercloud, her rage ready to tear everything and even herself apart.

They had been made fun of and bullied for not celebrating Christmas, and Murni had felt true heartbreak that day.

She could still remember how outraged she had been, how her husband had called their school, his broken English not even getting him past the secretary. The shame from those desperate days still crept up on her sometimes.

She remembered how it felt like they had tried everything, but everywhere they turned they had been sent away, no one interested in helping the weird new family that all smelled of spices they didn’t know, and had a skin tone they had never seen.

That year Murni had bought a small tree and presents for her family, cooking up everyone's favorite meal to eat together around the table. The presents they had given had been almost embarrassingly small, a tie for her husband, a denim jacket for Raja and a comic book for Sutan, but she had seen the pride on her children’s faces as they walked off to school in January, both of them glowing, and knew she had made the right decision.

In a storm, even the proudest oak could break, but a reef always survived.

“The next one is for you, Violet!” Raven grinned, getting up on her knees to hand it to her. She was sitting on the floor, already wearing the brand new diamond earrings Raja had given her.

“Thanks,” Violet smiled, leaning forward on the couch so she could take the present, her lip between her teeth as she looked for a card.

When Sutan had called and told her he was bringing someone to Thanksgiving, Murni had thought he was joking, but she was so glad he hadn’t been.

Violet was quiet, shy and painfully polite, so unlike Kahmora who Murni had never liked, and even Jinkx who was overflowing with positivity but whom she had only met briefly, the relationship and engagement ending before it had begun.

It had taken her a while to get used to Raven, to see what her daughter so clearly adored in the dark haired beauty, but she had come to love her in time, and was happy that they had decided to get married.

“There’s no name on it.” Violet looked around the room, clearly a little unsure on what she was supposed to do.

“It’s from me.”

Murni watched as Sutan raised a hand, a smile on his lips as he watched her opening the box, her jaw dropping as she pulled the wrapping paper aside.

“Sutan, another?” Violet looked up, her eyes wide, a tan box with Louboutin on the lid on her lap. “You didn’t have to- You already gave me-”

“Open it.” Sutan got up from where he had been sitting on the floor, walking over to Violet to sit down next to her on the couch, watching as she slowly peeled the red tissue paper.

“Wow…” Violet seemed speechless as she slowly turned her new shoe in her hand. Murni didn’t know much about fashion, but it was gorgeous with lilac suede, golden details and a pointed toe, the heel impossible long.

“I saw the lilac, and knew you had to have them. They’re from this year's fall collection, and I’d like to add that I found them all by myself.” Sutan smirked, looking mighty proud of himself and so like his dad. “You can’t wear them yet, of course, but you only have a few weeks left with your cast, and I figured-”

“They’re beautiful.” Violet looked up at him, gratitude clear on her face. “Thank you.” She leaned in, pressing a sweet kiss against his lips, Murni only just getting the camera out in time to catch the two of them grinning at each other.

***

“No, Katya!”

“Why not?! They’re so cute!” Katya pushed the open box of flannel pajamas towards Pearl.

“Because! There’s little bunnies in Santa hats! I have a reputation,” Pearl crossed her arms.

Katya was already wearing the matching pajamas, and so was Trixie, as he set up the tripod and camera for a family photo. But Pearl was part of their family, and so Katya wanted her included.

“What, you’re too good for bunnies?” Trixie asked with a smirk.

“No, I just...you guys…”

“Pleeeease, Pearlie-Pearl? Pleeeeeease?” Katya batted her lashes, giving Pearl her very best puppy eyes. “One little tiny picture...for Killer?”

“Ugh, fine! But you have to stop using Killer to get your way. It’s emotional manipulation.” Pearl took the pajama top out of the box, slipping it on over her white tank top.

“Oh, I know. Never again,” Katya lied, grinning.

***

Violet couldn’t wait for the blessed day when she wouldn’t need her crutches anymore. She was making her way back from the bathroom, being as careful as she could not to knock anything over.

Murni’s house was filled with trinkets; flower pots, small figurines, bowls and vases and even crystals taking up every available surface.

It was homey, and lived-in, the house clearly cared for and beloved in a way that made Violet feel safe, the scent of incense and home cooked food engulfing her in it’s comfort.

Violet made her way down the hall towards the living room, the entire wall filled from top to bottom of pictures in golden frames. The first time Violet had visited, she hadn’t stopped to look at it, too preoccupied with the pain of her ankle and all the new impressions, but today, she paused when she spotted a picture of her boyfriend as a child.

It was taken outside, what looked like wild jungle in the background. Sutan was wearing a red t-shirt and holding a large fruit Violet didn’t recognise. He was smiling at the camera, beaming with pride, both of his front teeth missing as he presented his treasure. She could just about make out the date in the right corner, 1978, the picture taken with one of those old cameras that time stamped it.

“Ah, there you are.”

Violet turned her head to see Sutan peak down the hallway. He was smiling, his expression so like the one on the photo, even though his hair had grayed and he had his two front teeth.

“I told Bunda to put this stuff in an album like a normal mom,” Sutan stopped next to Violet, looking at the wall, “but she’s always done it this way.”

“It’s nice.” Violet hadn’t meant to take such a thorough look, but with Sutan at her side, it was hard not to get swept up in this obvious display of how much his mother loved him.

There were more photos of Raja and Sutan than Violet could count, showing their growth from tiny toddlers to full adults. As she looked, Violet spotted photos of a much younger Raven with short hair, of Juju with bleached blonde weaves, of Fame in an orange jumpsuit she’d never wear today and even Bianca with so much kohl around her eyes you could barely see them.

“Oh,” Violet’s eyes widened, as her gaze landed on a photo of Sutan and Raja. “Is that… Did you have pink hair?”

Sutan and Raja were standing side by side, Sutan’s arms around Raja’s waist, a gigantic grin on both of their lips. Sutan’s short hair was dyed pink, while Raja was wearing denim on denim on denim.

“It was 2004, and I haven’t listened to Detox since.” Sutan grinned. “That’s the problem with the wall. Once something goes up. It never comes down.” Sutan tapped a photo, and Violet looked at it, the bottom of her stomach falling out.

It was a photo of Sutan and a woman Violet didn’t recognize. She had caramel colored hair and golden skin, her brown eyes looking directly at Sutan, her smile as big as if he had hung every star in the sky.

It didn’t make sense, but it was clearly a wedding day photo, Sutan wearing a suit, the woman in what had to be a designer dress, a gigantic seven tier cake behind them, plates in their hands.

“Violet?” Raja opened the door to the hallway, Raven right behind her. “Bunda is asking how you want your coffee?”

“Ah!” Raven grinned. “Are we going down memory lane?” She skipped over, coming to stand right behind them. “Which one’s your favorite, Violet? Wait. Ew.” Raven made a disgusted sound. “Are you really looking at those ones?” Raven pointed to the wedding photo, and Violet realized with a sense of horror that there were several more, the woman popping up again and again in pictures that were collected in a little cluster.

“I…” Violet felt her head spinning. She had no idea Sutan had ever been married, and she had no idea who the woman was.

“Can you believe I wore that suit?” Sutan tapped the photo again. “And here I was, thinking you could never do wrong with a Dolce.”

Violet couldn’t see anything wrong with what he was wearing, but it was typical Sutan to be bothered by what he considered an outdated cufflink or a wrong shaped lapel, her boyfriend vain over things that were rarely ever noticed by anyone else.

It wasn’t like she didn’t understand those feelings, but it was amusing to see him fret, the delight cutting through her anxiety for a second.

“Look on the bright side,” Raja smiled, “Divorce means that you get to try again.”

“And hopefully have your bride make better choices,” Raven smirked, nudging Violet with her elbow like they were on the same team, like this was some big joke they were all in on.

“Please,” Sutan rolled his eyes. “Your wedding dresses are going to look the exact same in 6 years time.”

“No they won’t,” Raven huffed, throwing some of her hair over her shoulder, “because we have style.”

“Tell me again how ear cuffs still look great, Rave?” Sutan smirked.

“Fuck off, Tan.” Raja, Raven and Sutan all laughed, heading back to the living room together.

Violet knew she should probably follow, but she shot one last look at the picture, watching the stranger who was apparently her boyfriend's ex wife.

3 notes · View notes

purplebenjy · 4 years

Text

1998

For the second time in his life, Benjy Fenwick had just been dumped. And it still sucked.

What had happened with Ollie had been as close to amiable as break ups could be, but what happened with Lisa cut deep.

“I’m breaking up with you.”

She’d said this against his lips when his hands were under her shirt. He’d laughed, thinking she was joking because she didn’t like what he was doing, but when Lisa had pulled away fully, Benjy had stopped laughing. He redid his pants and sat up in his back seat of the Honda Civic his brothers all pooled together to buy him for his sixteenth.

“Uh, okay? Why?”

Lisa had shrugged and fixed her blouse.

“I’ve got a crush on someone else.”

Jealousy had bloomed in his chest by then and Benjy felt his jaw twitch when he spat out the word “who?”

Lisa fished a pack of cigarettes out of the front pocket of her jeans and lit up. Annoyed, Benjy leaned over her and rolled down the window.

“Does it matter?”

Benjy sucks on his bottom lip for a second.

“What’s he got that I don’t?”

It was pathetic and he knew it, but he was blindsided. He thought things were going good. Not great, but good. Lisa was hot with long blonde hair and good tits. Not great, but good. She liked the same bands as he did, always dated skateboarders and tried to look like Courtney Love. She’d taken one of his flannels and hadn’t given it back and sometimes she blew him in his car after they went to the movies. It wasn’t love, but he was having a good time with her. He liked her a whole lot and she gave him attention and clout among his friends. He figured they’d at least go to prom together in a few months. Benjy watched as she shifted a little in her seat, ashed her cigarette out the window.

“He’s just different, Benjy. I don’t know.”

“Different how?” He tried to keep his voice level, but it still cracked. He reached for her hand but she pulled away.

“You’re a little uh....gay.”

He stared at her as she turned her face to look out the window.

“Groovy.” Benjy muttered, before sliding up and over the center console and into the driver’s seat. He punched the radio off, cutting Cheryl Crow off mid song. They sat in silence, the only sound Benjy’s exhaust. He pulled up in front of Lisa’s house and his brakes screeched as he parked.

“Benjy...” He flicked his eyes up to the backseat to look at her.

“It’s nothing personal.”

Before he could even say anything, she slid out of his back seat and was gone. This sentence has been haunting him ever since. It’s been two days and today when he saw her after fifth period, she was sucking face with that asshole named Trent.

Benjy doesn’t quite remember what happened after that, just Trent’s fist in his face and now his lip is swelling up. He cut the rest of the day and now he was here in the skatepark, trying and failing to try the new kind of flip he’d been practicing for weeks.

“It’s nothing personal.”

“Shit-“

He falls hard on his back, his board going up the half pipe and then falling back down to hit him in the ribs. As he slowly gets up, Benjy decides one thing;

It’s time to make it personal.

It starts out innocent enough, a couple cans on spray paint that he finds on clearance at the hardware store. Finding Asshole Trent’s car is easy too, he’s got a racing stripe on a fucking Jeep. He’s a surfer instead of a skater if the stupid board on the top of his stupid car is any stupid indication. Benjy doesn’t stalk them per se, just follows them to the beach. And waits in his own car until they run off into the waves. And pulls his sweatshirt tight around his face when he runs out of his car, low to the ground, doing a somersault partially to cover more distance but also cause it’s fun. He stands out wildly at the beach, and when he glances around, he sees a mother start to pull her two children in the opposite direction, glaring at him. Benjy snorts out his first laugh in two days and shakes the spray paint can, spraying the day-glo orange over the white Jeep with its stupid green racing stripe;

“Nothing personal.”

Trent’s stupid car, now complete with Benjy’s new tag, was the talk of the school. Most people were able to figure out it was him, but no one beyond Lisa and her new surfer girl aesthetic seemed to care. Benjy had a new hobby. The nothing personal tag started showing up all over his high school campus and around town, usually in whatever color was on clearance that week.

Suki was taking on extra kids during the day as a pseudo daycare so she didn’t have the time to notice that Benjy was late nearly every day thanks to either detention or running around, tagging the town. She didn’t notice, not at all, until he got a ride home in the back of a police cruiser.

All he was trying to do was to tag “nothing personal” on a wall on the side of an alley, when he’d gotten spotted. He’d stopped wearing the hoodie, mostly cause it was warming up but also cause it kept fucking with his hair-naturally that would be his downfall. Benjy’d been so good at out running the cops, so good at climbing trees and dirt mounds and sides of buildings to get away, but the bane of his existence, of course, was a chain link fence. The cop had basically picked him off the links like an apple and had detained him easily, pushing Benjy up against the fence after he’d pulled him down in a way he didn’t totally hate after he’d noticed how built the cop’s arms were. Pissed at himself for getting caught and at this strangely hot cop for catching him, Benjy refused to tell him anything, which resulted in a very confusing search for his wallet after he’d been handcuffed. The cop marched Benjy back to his squad car and all but thrown him inside. He hears the cop call in his name to the radio, reading it off of his driver’s license. He hears something he can’t quite make out and from his spot in the backseat through the bars, he sees hot cop balk.

“Are you sure?”

“Affirmative.”

The car’s engine flips over.

“Where do you live, kid?”

“Get fucked.”

Hot Cop mumbles something and his car squawks once as he starts to back up. And now Benjy still sat there, in the backseat with the bracelets digging into his wrists as the cop talks to his mom. Benjy hears the sound of another car pull up behind them and he twists around just in time to see the person get out of the car. And when Benjy sees who it is, fear shoots through him for the first time that afternoon.

It’s Alastor Moody, his dad’s old partner. He’s not in uniform like the hot cop, instead he’s in a pretty nice suit. When Al looks into the window, Benjy shrinks back into the seat. He watches him as he speaks to the other officer, who then nods and gets into the car Moody showed up in. He twists back around and something tugs at his chest when he watches his mom wipe at her face, obviously upset. He didn’t get why this had to be a big deal, it was just a stupid wall. He wasn’t hurting anyone, if anything he was making a boring thing look better. He sits up straighter now, his argument formed, but it dies in his throat when Al opens the driver side door and wordlessly starts the car. Benjy waits for him to say something, anything. For him to start yelling at him, tell him he’s a disappointment, a delinquent, anything. But nothing. Just silence. Especially when Moody punches off the radio.

“Are you going to read me my rights or what, old man?”

He’s trying to goad him, and it works. Kind of. Moody quietly rolls into a stop and glances up at him in the review mirror.

“You’re not under arrest.”

Somehow this makes Benjy more uneasy. He tugs at the handcuffs, making them clink.

“Then can you take these off?”

“Nope.”

Benjy grunts and props himself up against the door, chin on the windowsill, as much as he can be to be out of view of Al.

They drive for what feels like half an hour, but is probably ten more minutes, getting further out of the middle of town.

“Al?”

“So it’s Al now, not old man?”

“....are you going to kill me?”

Alastor chuckles darkly.

“Probably not.”

“Do you have your gun on you?”

“Do you need me to answer that?”

“Shit.”

He hears Moody chuckle again, and before Benjy knows it, they’re on the Golden Gate Bridge, driving out of the city completely.

“Are you taking me to military school?”

“Shut up, Benjy.”

He does, the events of the past few weeks playing in his head. Lisa. The tag. “You’re a little uh...gay.” Nothing personal. His mom crying. His spray paint covered hands forced behind his back right this moment.

“Al?”

“You’re really bad at following directions.”

“Do I seem too gay to you?”

The eyes that flick back towards him at the next stop light are confused now.

“Are you gay?”

“No.”

“But you....”

“You can be with guys and not be gay.”

“Okay okay, bite my head off. I’m trying to learn. So what’s seeming ‘too gay?’”

Benjy shrugs as best as he can.

“I dunno. Like I’m not masculine enough or something. Fucked up and wrong. Weird or girly or something-“

“There’s nothing wrong with you.” Al says forcibly, before hitting his turn signal and exiting the freeway they were now on. “Well I mean, you’re a degenerate-“

“And artist-“

“-but other than that. Nothing. Got it?”

“Yeah.” Benjy sits up properly now, not totally believing him. They’re quiet again, but it’s not the scary quiet from before, it’s different. Loaded. Benjy waits a few more minutes before he breaks it.

“Are you mad at me?”

“Yes.”

“....did I uh, say sorry about that yet?”

Moody pulls over, getting out of the car and sliding into the backseat beside Benjy. He undoes the handcuffs and clips them to his belt.

“I’m not the one you need to be sorry to, Benj.”

“Well is someone else gonna come and kidnap me so I can apologize to them-I’ll shut up now.” He cuts himself off based on Moody’s look. “Who do I need to be sorry to? My mom?”

Moody sighs and gets out of the car, walking around the front to open the other door.

“Get out. Do you know where we are?”

“Uh...” He looks around, seeing older kids with backpacks, some on bikes and skateboards. Someone’s playing guitar on a bench. “Somewhere with hippies?”

Moody chuckles, ushering Benjy to the sidewalk.

“You’re not wrong. This is UC Berkeley, Benj. Your art teacher thinks you’re good enough to get in here if you keep going in the way you’ve been. And I mean, I don’t know nothing about nothing but from what I’ve seen, I don’t think you’re too shabby either . But you know who they don’t let in?”

It clicks as Moody stares him down.

“.....I’m guessing people with arrest records?”

Moody claps him on the shoulder.

“Bingo. I’m not ever gonna bail you out like this again, kid. I did this for your mom and your dad, yeah, but uh...I mostly did it for you. This looks a lot better to me than prison but...”

Moody shrugs.

“If you wanna throw away something great, that’s your choice. But if you do, the only person you’ll need to say sorry to is yourself.”

Moody lets go of his shoulder and gets in the car. Benjy stares at campus, the ideas Moody planted wiggling around in his brain. He could get in here? People thought he was good enough? He looks a little closer at the people sitting on the grass. They’re dressed a little strange, loose clothes and long hair and just...different. Like him.

He turns to the police cruiser window, hitting it with his knuckles until Moody cracks it.

“Are you sure there’s nothing wrong with me?”

“Other than too much energy and a bad haircut? No.”

“Rude.” Benjy fails to hide his smile in a scowl. His smile grows as he looks at campus. It looks a lot more fun than prison; or even just regular old high school. A strange thrill shoots through him when he notices one of the students on the grass is laying on the lap of another boy. They’re talking about something and the boy laying down laughs before reaching up to tuck a piece of hair behind his boyfriend’s ear. Someone whizzes past him on roller skates and breaks the moment. Benjy turns back to the car window.

“Can I get a ride home?”

Moody takes a sip from his travel mug.

“Only if it’s in the back seat.”

Benjy groans.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. Oh, and your mom told me to tell you you’re super grounded.”

“I figured.” Benj says with a shrug of his own as he casually opens the back door of the cop car and throws the few people across the street giving him strange looks a grin and a wave as he hops in.

“You keep the meter running?”

“I can still arrest you.”

Benjy laughs, suddenly a lot lighter. He sits on the side closest to campus so he can look at for as long as possible as Moody drives away.

“Al?”

“Yeah?”

Benjy leans forward as close to him as he can, face pressed up against the bars.

“Thanks.”

Al just nods, turning on FM radio.

“Don’t fuck it up.”

Benjy settles back in his seat, fingers twitching as he already wants to get home and sketch, suddenly much more motivated. He’s hoping he’s not grounded from that. He wants to get home and apologize, maybe even grovel and try to make it up to his mom. Unfortunately, right before they get to the bridge, they hit rush hour traffic. Benjy shifts in his seat, pressing his face against the bars again.

“Can you turn on the siren?”

“Nope.”

“Pussy.”

It might be a trick of the light, but he swears he sees Moody smile.

#drabble #moody #suki

1 note · View note

aussie-roadkill · 5 years

Text

AAAAAA

Courtney Alister

Personal

* 1) Age?

* 2) Gender?

Nonbinary (they/she)

* 3) Romantic/Sexual Orientation?

girls

* 4) Height?

5’9”

* 5) Race?

White, German descent

* 6) What do they look like? (i.e, hair color, eye color, etc).

Pale white skin with some freckles if you look hard enough, thin face, long pitch black curly hair, light blue eyes, several tattoos, mostly on their arms, thin, b-booty, usually wearing black, white or dark shades of purple and blue

* 7) Any disabilities?

Visually impaired? Not “big” they just need glasses- and the good ol depression and possibly adhd??? Not decided- characters are in a constant state of editing and that’s ok!

* 8) Is there a meaning to their name?

Nah

* 9) What makes them, them?

No fucks given attitude, not commonly outspoken but when they do open their mouth they let you know what they think. Will tear down and vandalise propaganda posters

* 10) What do they want to be when they grow up/what do they want to do with their lives?

Yes and no? They didn’t really have any aspirations until later in their teenage years. They were always musically inclined and enjoyed the art but didn’t seriously consider a career for some time. (They’re in a band)

Family

* 11) Do they have parents? What are they like and how do they act with their child(ren)?

Yeah, neither of their parents really wanted them, so their mother left and they were stuck with their less than kind father, who had no patience for their dig-the-heels-in attitude. Needless to say they didn’t have a good or healthy relationship with each other.

* 12) Do they have siblings? How do they interact with them? If not, do they wish they had siblings?

No siblings, though they would have gladly accepted a younger sister

* 13) Extended family? Do they see them often?

Not really, their father was a bit rejected and never bothered with keeping in touch.

* 14) Do they like where they live? (Is it a safe place?)

Currently, yes. With their father- no.

* 15) Where do they live? Are they wealthy? Poor? Middle-Class?

Not exactly decided? America somewhere. Middle-Class.

* 16) Do they have a lot of expectations/pressure on them from family to do great?

They did before ditching them

* 17) Do they have pets?

Yes! Three bunnies, named Gengar, Clefairy and Jigglypuff

* 18) Who do they look up to the most/are the closest to in their family?

Their grandparents, simply because they’re the only nice family members they know

* 19) Is there anything special about their family?

Not really

* 20) Do they wish they lived in a different family/household?

When they were there, yeah

Friends

* 21) Best Friend(s)?

Good friends with their bandmate Jordan Brooke

* 22) Who was their first friend?

A girl in pre-school, no name as of yet

* 23) What is their friend group like?

Just a gang of fools with an average of three braincells

* 24) Do they have a love/hate relationship with any of them?

nope

* 25) Do they consider any of their friends to be like siblings?

Yes, all of them, friends are family

* 26) Have they ever hurt a friend or lost one?

In the past, likely

* 27) Do they have a crush on any of their friends?

* 28) Do they share classes with good friends?

Social classes yes? They’re not in education anymore but when they were they had a few friends, their group was very on-and-off

* 29) Whom do they go to the most when they need a shoulder to cry on?

They don’t really do that much, but it would likely be Sebastian

* 30) What would this person do without their friends in their lives?

Hang out alone in their house (as usual) jamin’ out, just not in a Band

School

* 31) What grade are they in? If they aren’t in school, how come?

They’re an adult

* 32) Do/Did they like their teachers? Was there a good one? Bad one?

They had a few over the years they liked, but was on the bad kid list for most of them

* 33) Do/Did they listen to their teachers or are/were they goofing off a lot?

Goofing usually, mainly due to an inability to concentrate and not having glasses so being unable to read the boards and such, but tried not to disrupt the students who were interested

* 34) Are/Were they a good student grade wise?

In early years, yes, but at year 4 it started going downhill

* 35) Do/Did they need extra help?

They needed it but never got it with most teachers

* 36) What is/was their school like?

A standard public school, shitty at accommodating neurodivergent students of any kind

* 37) Do/Did they have bullies in school?

A bit, they got digged at a bit but by the teens they gave no shits and punched people

* 38) Have they ever gotten into a fight at school?

Hahah yeah a lot, people would hassle them for being a “guy” with long hair and dressing feminine-ish and they’d throw hands

* 39) Have they ever done something stupid/embarrassing at school?

Probably but they don’t remember it

* 40) How far do they plan to go with school? If they dropped out, do they want to go back?

They were really just staying at school by obligation, didn’t plan on dropping out but didn’t care about getting through “successfully”

Other

* 41) Are they dating anyone? Do they want to date? Are they married? Divorced?

That depend on my good friend Morgan :eyes emoji: (if yes it’s her character Jazz uwu)

* 42) What is their favorite hobby? Do they keep it a secret?

Any form of making music. It’s difficult to keep it a secret as a musical artist

* 43) If they could have one thing in life, what would it be?

Trans rights

* 44) Do they work? If so, what is it? If not, are they looking for one or even want one?

Yes, in a band and takes on any job opportunity they can handle

* 45) Do they use social media?

Yeah mostly twitter for cryptic shitposting

* 46) Have they ever been in the hospital?

Yes, dumb accidents as a teenager, and… depression reasons

* 47) Do they believe in the supernatural, that there is more than the eye can see?

Somewhat- well, yes, they just don’t know what that something is

* 48) What do they do when they get angry, stressed, or upset?

Play the drums really loudly

* 49) Would they consider themselves as a good person, bad person, or morally grey?

A good person truly, but accepts that world peace won’t be obtained by punching capitalists

* 50) Does this OC have any part of you in them? (I.e, personality traits, similar background, etc)

Yeah- all my ocs do- They’re my concentration of anger towards abusers, how I would like to think I’d handle being in that situation- and the unapologetic bluntness I hold deep inside me

@kcuppossibilites bitch do it sorry you know I love you mwah

here’s a blank

#courtney #my ocs #oc meme

2 notes · View notes

okay-j-hannah · 5 years

Text

The Vague Truth

Smosh : Fic

Damien x Reader

Word Count: 3380

Warnings: Just a longer fic with some lovely big bro Wes - which I FREAKING LOVE ❤

Inspiration and dialogue came from this episode: DROPPING TRUTH BOMBS

Request: “Hi ♥️♥️ could I get a Damien x reader where the reader is Wes’ sister. She comes to visit the team a lot and gets put into videos. Fans slowly start to ship her and Damien but they also request for her to be in a video. And the one time she is in a video Damien and her flirt by not meaning too and end up going out on a dinner date that night. Thank you!” - Anon

A/N: You’re practically one of the fam as you visit your brother Wes and his friends on filming sets - subconsciously developing a flirty relationship with one Damien Haas

(Y/D/D) = Your dream date

(Y/S/N) = Your ship name

(Two of the HANDSOMEST BOIS in the same place...? Sometimes I wonder why my heart hasn’t IMPLODED YET)

The incessant tapping of her fingernails on the phone screen filled the extra prop room – the space she always retreated to whenever Wes was needed for more filming.

She loved visiting her brother, feeling like she was a part of the great work community Smosh had built. For the first time since moving to LA, she had felt like she was making real friends; taking solace in their company.

She was currently scrolling through the latest video she had guest starred in; it having been posted that afternoon. Re-watching the fun time she had on Two Truths with her brother and Damien and Courtney as commentators reminded her of this newfound comfort she had in her friends.

But the comments that followed chipped away at that warm feeling.

“I don’t know about that (Y/N) chick – why do they keep bringing on new people?”

“Bring back the old Smosh members!?”

“Let’s just stick with Courtney and Olivia. They’re much prettier.”

“We have Wes, we don’t need another Johnson.”

There was a creak of the floorboards and (Y/N) found her eyes whipping up to the doorway, hiding her phone screen against her chest. Wes suddenly sprinted within the room, silver hair flying as he hurried to plant himself right on (Y/N)’s stomach.

“Wes!” she wheezed on impact. “Can’t… breathe.”

He snickered, watching her squirm, “Are you calling me fat?”

“No! I’m calling you very m-muscular and a foot taller than me.” She shoved her small fists into his arm in an attempt to throw him off her.

Instead his slid off her and the couch to sit cross-legged before her, holding his ankles with his hands, “Whatcha doin’?”

She quickly searched for her phone that was sent flying from her chest when he landed on her. But her frantic movements signaled Wes to look as well, finding the phone and its open contents first.

“(Y/N), are you reading the comment section again?” He kept his eyes on the device and he too scrolled through the responses.

She huffed, leaning back onto the couch, crossing her feet against the cushions, “So what if I am?”

Wes’ usual joyous face began to fall, a frown deepening. He flickered his eyes to his sister, seeing her gaze plastered to the ceiling in burrowing thought.

“You know how I feel about you reading the video comments,” he put the phone facedown in the carpet, folding his arms on the lip of the couch cushion. “You’re going to care too much about what they’re saying.”

“It’s easy for you to say,” she mumbled, feeling him inch closer to her. Wes was always trying to sneak in a hug where he could. “You’re not the unwanted Johnson sibling.”

Wes flexed his jaw, hurt swarming into his gaze, “Actually we’re the Johnson twins…”

“We’re literally three years apart, Wesley.”

“And the fandom knows us as the Johnson twins. Meaning, we’re a packaged deal! If they don’t want you, then they can’t have me.”

(Y/N) smirked, a ghost of a laugh under her breath, “Thanks, Wes. I guess there’s one good thing that comes out of this. People are starting to recognize me.”

He laughed, straightening out, “And it only took three videos – that’s pretty quick.”

She swung her legs over, sitting up and thinking hard, “Now all we have to do is convince them that you copied my hair color. Then I’d sign a permanent contract.”

There was a glint in his eye, and she knew what was coming, quickly pulling her feet up to her chest as he stood.

“How many times do I have to tell you that I got it dyed first.”

She squirmed to where she could slip behind the couch, standing and using the furniture as an obstruction, “But how many times do I need to remind you that I showed you my Pinterest idea board before you dyed it.”

Wes bit the inside of his cheek, planting his hands on his hips, “Are you accusing me of…?”

“You stole my idea – therefore you copied my hair.” She sucked in her lips to refrain from laughing, inching her way around the couch and away from his hands. “If you’re tired of this same old argument – why don’t you just go back to brunette?”

He finally launched at her, tumbling over the side of the couch as she squealed and ran off to the doorway. She paused, one hand on the frame as Wes came barreling towards her, yelling.

“You’re just saying that so you can relish in the victory of being the only one with silver hair!”

She sprinted off again, realizing she left her shoes back in the room as her socked feet pounded against the carpet. She scrambled around another corner, spotting someone casually making their way down the hall.

In an instant she was next to them, pulling on their arm with a huge grin on her face, “Wes is trying to destroy my insides with his tickles!”

She looked into the person’s face to find Damien staring down at her puzzled, a slight red tinge to his complexion.

Wes quickly appeared, huffing slightly at the sprinting he used to get there, “Let the girl go and I won’t tackle you to the ground.”

Damien was finally making connections in his head, (Y/N) hiding against his back and sending shivers down his spine. He folded his arms and gave a pointed eye towards Wes.

“How about you drop the subject and we can go to the Cheesecake Factory?” Damien gave Wes a small wink before tilting his head towards (Y/N) – a smirk on his face.

The brother raised his eyebrows in understanding, pretending to be contemplating the offer, “I do love me a slice of raspberry cheesecake.” A hand was to his chin as Damien silently held up three fingers, counting down.

(Y/N) was pressed tightly against her so-called protector, a grin on her face that wasn’t to last very long. Within a second, Damien turned on her, finding her arms quickly and holding them together as Wes bounded forward to attack her sides.

(Y/N) squealed more, trying to close in on herself as both men began tickling her sides and the crook of her neck. They were snickering themselves as she spouted profanities in their faces.

“I can’t believe… I thought…” she huffed and squirmed against their hands. “This is treason of the highest degree!”

Damien finally let go, his face red from much more than just straining to keep (Y/N) contained. Wes backed off as well, pumping a fist into the air.

“Brother 1; sister 0.”

She was about throw another snide comment back at him when he held a finger to her lips, continuing, “You know the reason I found you in the first place was to bring you to the next shoot. We have a Board AF livestream to film.” And he trotted down the rest of the hallway, sneaking a few giggles as he waved a few fingers in her direction.

“I hate him sometimes,” (Y/N) muttered, holding a stitch in her side. “But I love him for it.”

Damien laughed, slowly starting to make his way forward, “I guess you’re being integrated more into the family – making all these videos.”

She took a deep breath, straightening out and following him, though slightly behind, “Is that a good thing?”

“Technically you’re like the sister-in-law of the Smosh Family, seeing as you’re related to Wes. So, you’re basically already in.”

“That’s not what I asked, traitor.” She fell in step right behind him.

“What did you call me?” He snickered.

“You’re a traitor!” And with that she jumped right onto his back, causing him to stumble a few steps before he wrapped his arms around her legs.

“God, (Y/N)! I could’ve dropped you.” Thank goodness she couldn’t feel his rising heartrate.

She just tisked her tongue and mushed him forward, “You sided with my giant of a brother – you’re a traitor. And as punishment you have to carry me to the games room.”

He shifted her weight on his back before laughing, “You could have just said that instead of surprise attacking me.”

“And you could’ve protected me instead of carrying out an ambush.”

She giggled, lightly placing her arms around his neck and nuzzling her head against his. She found thoughts swirling into her mind without much filtering:

“He smells so nice.”

“I didn’t realize he was this broad.”

“He’s carrying me like I’m nothing.”

“Seriously, what cologne is he wearing?”

But she never thought anything more of these sudden realizations. At least she hadn’t ever before.

~~~

The group of six gathered around the game table, two to each side. Damien had sloppily dropped (Y/N) next to her chair, unintentionally making her stumble and grasp the tabletop for support.

Mari had grabbed her arm in an attempt to help, “What’s wrong with your legs? Couldn’t walk yourself in?”

“Uh – Damien is my slave for the rest of the day.” She sat down, realizing that Damien had already planted himself in the seat next to her.

“That was a one-time thing, (Y/N). Calm down.” His lips curving into a smile as she dramatically gasped.

Leaning over so her chin was grazing his arm, she asked, “What if I fell and twisted my ankle and couldn’t walk and you just so happened to be the only other person around and have to help me?” She batted her eyelashes as he finally turned to watch the teasing glint in her eye, “Would you just abandon me?”

“You know I wouldn’t do that,” he snickered, voice slightly quieter than before.

“Livestream is on!” Matt Raub yelled from behind the scenes, “Have at it, kids.”

(Y/N) continued to have her face right against Damien’s arm, staring back into his bashful eyes, “How can I believe you? You literally ninja attacked me ten minutes ago.”

He accepted some pads of paper Flitz threw towards him, breaking eye contact with (Y/N), “Do all those ice cream deliveries mean nothing to you? Or how about all the times I let you crash on my couch cause your roommates were partying?”

(Y/N) had a finger up towards his face with a speculating eye when Wes unexpectedly shouted to the cameras.

“Hey, guys! Welcome to Board AF. Today we’re playing Dan and Phil’s Truth Bombs.”

“Oh, I love being honest. I’m way too honest,” Joven stated, readjusting in his seat.

Damien gave a classic straining look towards the cameras while (Y/N) happily clapped her hands, “I’m gonna expose all of you.”

“You think so?” Flitz smirked, “You think you know that much about us already?”

“I guess this is a test to see how much Wes talks about us to his family,” Mari laughed, watching everyone’s reaction.

Damien giggled at the scared look on Wes’ face, “I don’t know. I think we can turn that around.” He pointedly stared at (Y/N), “We could be completely exposing you this game – you don’t know what Wes says about you here.”

“I have nothing but kind words for my little sis,” Wes muttered, smiling towards (Y/N) but then flipping to wink at the camera.

“Are you doubting the amount of tea I have on you?” she turned to Damien, a broad, menacing grin appearing.

He just plainly gazed at her, an indifferent smile on his face as he watched her tension in amusement.

She finally huffed, leaning away, “Stop being cute, it’s distracting.”

Flitz put a hand to his mouth, flipping his gaze from one camera to another to catch his reaction. Damien was the complete opposite, bowing his head to try and mask the heat warming his cheeks.

“Damn, alright,” Joven muttered, putting his hands behind his head, “The truth begins to appear.”

“Let’s find out about Damien!” Flitz yelled, slamming a fist into the table.

It seemed to make Dames jump back into his usual entertainer persona, “Okay! Now…” he pulled a pad of paper close to him as he continued, “I’ll be writing my own answers down here.”

“Yeah, we know the rules lover boy,” Mari muttered, leaning into (Y/N) beside her – laughing at the puzzled expression she developed.

“The five questions for me are: Which form of torture would make them confess everything?”

“Cats!” (Y/N) immediately yelled, slapping the table as if there was a buzzer there.

Damien paused, snickering, “What did their parents shout the moment they were born?”

“Cats,” Mari deadpanned, earning a well-aimed high five from (Y/N).

“What one thing would they save from a fire?” Damien continued, then gesturing to the girls to repeat what they’d been saying.

“(Y/N)!” Flitz yelled, throwing his hands to his chest as he started giggling.

“You better save (Y/N) from a fire,” Wes mumbled, eyeing the confused boy across from him.

Damien spluttered, not expecting the turn of events, “If – If (Y/N) was burning in a building and I just happen to pass by, then sure… I’d save her.”

(Y/N) leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder briefly, “He actually does care.”

And it took some real effort for Damien to push past the laughing everyone was suffering from, “Who is one person they wouldn’t mind being set up with?” That didn’t help the butterflies forming in his stomach.

“I think we can all guess that one,” Joven stated, not-so-subtly looking between (Y/N) and Damien.

Of course, (Y/N) was too busy trying to figure out a person Damien would actually like to date.

“If they were an app, which app would they be? Boom…” he set all the cards down and quickly went to his pad to write. “Now these guys get to write down what they think the answers are.”

“I swear – if I get this wrong,” (Y/N) muttered, fingers to her temples. “I swear I know Damien and Mari the best.”

“I’m assuming you’re not mentioning how well you know me because you know no one doubts our great relationship?” Wes stated, grabbing his pencil and batting his eyes at his sister.

She shrugged her shoulders, subtly beginning to peer over Damien’s arm, “|Or maybe I just forgot you were here for a second.”

“Are you trying to cheat?” Damien accused, pushing away the girl beside him and ignoring the sputters coming from the disgruntled Wes.

(Y/N) slightly pushed him back, “No! I know everything about you, remember?”

He jabbed another hand into her side, “Don’t make me ambush you again.”

“How dare you,” she laughed, slapping his hands away, “My ribs are still tingling from the last attack.”

“Just to be clear, we are talking about the tickle fight that happened right before this?” Wes stated, eyeing the duo suspiciously.

Joven threw his pencil to the tabletop, stretching, “Leave the kids be, Wes. They’re young and free to do whatever they…”

“Alright!” Damien shouted, turning to a camera before letting Joven read too much into their conversation. “So, I will read off my answer key first and we will see which questions are correct.”

“What one thing would they save from a fire?” Mari read off the cards.

“My cats.”

“Me!”

Damien and (Y/N) looked at each other for a split second before she couldn’t contain herself at the puzzled expression he gave.

“Sorry, I had to.”

“Well, this person responded with ‘Damien’s cats.’ So, they win a point! Next – let’s do… Who is one person they wouldn’t mind being set up with?”

Mari laughed, “This has to be obvious.”

Damien lifted the pad of paper and hesitated, his mouth slightly open, “I don’t think I want to say her name.”

“Nope!” Joven jutted a finger into the air, “This is Truth Bombs, you have to reveal the truth.”

“What if I was just vague?” he held onto the pad tightly, only looking towards the middle of the table, “For their own protection and my own peace of mind.”

(Y/N) folded her arms, swinging around in her chair and bumping her feet against Damien’s legs, “You don’t want to tell us who you like? Is she, like – a terrible person?”

“Quite the opposite actually,” he snuck a genuine look into her eyes before addressing the rest of the group. “It’s someone from Smosh. That’s it! I won’t say anything more.”

Everyone blew up, throwing angry hands as (Y/N) became antsy. She squirmed in her chair, staring at him and gasping, “Someone at the office? How come I never…?”

“Come on, (Y/N)!” Joven groaned, running his hands over his face. “It’s obviously y…”

“Alrighty, the person responded with my same answer, so they get a point too. Next!” Damien nervously yelled over the protest of everyone at the table.

Flitz stared pointedly into the camera, making it known that he was the one that responded with the same answer as Damien. He started laughing, putting a hand to his mouth and leaning into Joven who was smirking in a defeated fatherly sort of way.

They were quick to pass through the rest of Damien’s cards, his anxious hands shaking against the pads of paper; he was praying that no one said anything more about his vague answers.

(Y/N) was wholeheartedly enjoying herself as it came her turn to answer the questions laid before her, “I’m so excited about these!”

Mari read off her first card, snickering, “What would her dream date be?”

A giggle behind her words, (Y/N) responded with, “Well, probably (Y/D/D).”

“You hear that, Damien?” Flitz questioned, raising an eyebrow, “You better take notes.”

But Dames quickly stiffened his back, his eyes slightly widened as he hushed his friend.

(Y/N) subtly heard and laughed along, “Yeah, Day. It’s a great date to take a girl on. Besides, who can say no to that face?” She leaned over once again to wrap her hands around his one arm, posing for the camera.

Damien snickered, trying to push away the butterflies attempting to squirm out of his stomach, “More like I’m gonna need to find someone to take you on that date. It sounds like a lot of fun.”

Joven was facepalming into Flitz’ shoulder while Wes looked confused towards the two. Mari had a comforting hand on his shoulder as they continued with the rest of the rounds.

It wasn’t until after the game when anything more progressed, Damien dragging a whining (Y/N) behind him.

She had a hand clutching his arm as she persisted, “Just one more piggyback ride to the office and I swear I’ll let it go.”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he stated, raising a hand to the back of his neck. “It’s just a date.”

“With a girl from the office! That’s so specific, yet so vague at the same time,” she pouted, pulling on his arm again. “But with one ride I’ll put my serious interrogation to a…”

“Or you could accept my offer for a day out (Y/D/D) and we can forget all the stuff that happened during the game.”

She paused, dropping his arm immediately, “Me? You want to go on a date with me?”

“Why not?” he stated, staring towards the ground, “I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t know…”

“Well, how could I say no to such a handsome face?” she laughed, watching him whip his eyes to her.

“For real?”

She laughed, snaking her arm back around his, “Like you said, why not? It’ll be fun.”

“(Y/N)! Damien. Glad I found you,” Ian came bounding through the doors with a phone to his face. “Have you seen any of the livestream reactions? It’s going crazy.”

“No,” (Y/N) admitted, not minding anyone seeing her arm wrapped around Damien’s. “What’re they saying.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen more shippers in one place at one time,” Ian laughed, continuously scrolling. “I think you and Damien broke the fandom.”

“The viewers are shipping us?” Damien questioned; his voice quiet but finding himself gazing down towards (Y/N).

Ian shrugged his shoulders, “Could (Y/S/N) be anyone else?”

(Y/N) laughed again, pressing her head into Damien’s arm and feeling him reach down for her hand.

“They’re shipping who?”

Wes came strutting into the hallway, immediately noticing who was holding hands with his little sis, “What is…?”

(Y/N) bit her lip, glancing up, “Listen…” A smile grew on her face as Damien stiffened at the look Wes was giving him.

Perfect chaos.

~~~

Buy Me a Coffee?

Tag List:

@caswinchester2000 @joenjoenshire @wierdlywonderful @liamakorn @aria253264 @bippity-boppity-boopa @wishful-life @inhumanfromcyberlife

Remember to check out my tag list so you’re updated when a fic you like is posted on my blog! Tag List

#damien haas x y/n #damien haas x reader #Damien #dame #damien haas imagine #damien haas fluff #damien haas x you #damien haas x sassy reader #damien haas angst #damien haas #smosh fandom #smosh games #smosh x reader #Smosh Pit #smosh fam

334 notes · View notes