im still cleaning my room and im realizing just how many dresses i own

which wouldnt be surprising if it werent for the fact that i usually present vaguely masculine/androgynous

Paprazzi

“Y/N over here” 

“Nikki”

“Come on Y/N can I get a smile from you”

The flashing lights never stopped, every time your eyes would try to adjust, another storm of flaring lights would blind you. When you and Nikki first got together you were able to deal with the paparazzi, some were actually quite nice and would only ask for a picture or two and then leave you alone, some were more determined to get as many pictures as they could but still they were never rude ;however, as time went on their attention and actions shifted. They once were only focused on yours and Nikki’s relationship but recently they started following you even when Nikki wasn’t there. Their words changed, they once would compliment you, tell Nikki how lucky he was, and would have nice small talk with you, but now, they want to know where you’re going, who with, and for long, insults can be heard when they’re around, they run after you, and follow you in cars, and will sneak around regardless of where you are. 

Today was supposed to be just a normal day, you and Nikki had gone out to get away from the spotlight, the plan was to just go and sit in a cafe hours away from your guys’ home in a small town hoping no one would recongize either of you so you guys could get away from the camera and spend a day without the stress that comes along with being famous ;however, as soon as you guys pulled into the parking lot men with cameras came jumping out of their blacked out cars, all running torwards your direction.

You looked at Nikki, who was looking at the crowd. “Shit” Nikki put the car in reverse but before he could take his foot off the brake the car is surrounded from every angle. Loud screams were coming from outside the car. “Y/N and Nikki” “Y/N and Nikki” “Y/N and Nikki” that’s all you heard, over and over again.

It was never ending, minutes had passed and Nikki had given up, he’s sitting in the front seat with his head resting on the back and his hands covering his face.  The men were clearly getting frustrated and changed their approach to getting what they wanted.

“Nikki, how good is Y/N? You think you’d ever give me a chance to find out”

Nikki removed his hands from his face and looked outside the car.

“Hey man, don’t start”

A guy standing outside your window speaks up.

“Well, if she’s gonna dress like a whore she’s gonna be treated like a whore.”

Nikki was mad, his emotions were all over his face, you could tell he wanted to say something. “Nikki don’t, they just want a reaction” Nikki looked at you then looked down. “We need to leave.” Before you could tell Nikki theres no way to get out, Nikki once again put the car in reverse and began backing up.

Loud shouts from the back of the car were yelling at him to stop, Nikki rolled down his window and told them to get out of the way. Again, the man from your side speaks up.

“Hey Nik, are those things real on her?”

Nikki ignored him.

“I think fake tits look like shit.”

Again, he ignored him.

It wasn’t until the man just flat out called you a whore when Nikki finally snapped and swung the car door open, the man saw Nikki and tried to calm him down.

“Hey, no no Nikki it’s just my job, i’m just doing this for money, I didn’t mean it man, seriously.”

Within seconds Nikki was threatening to beat his ass, there was pushing and shoving and screaming with flashes from the camera. You were done, you wanted to leave, with numerous insults and what felt like thousands of photos being taken, you were just done.

Rolling down the window you yell for Nikki multiple times, he made his way back to the car, clearly still pissed off and got in immediately driving off. “I can’t believe it, I can’t fucking believe it.”  Nikki sighed and looked at you.

“Are you alright, babe.”

You just look at Nikki, give a soft smile, grab his hand, and look out the window. The car ride back was quiet, except for the occasional whispers coming from Nikki, complaining about the paparazzi and muttering a bunch of threats.

He squeezes your hand causing you to look at him “I’m just saying I would’ve beaten his ass if you would’ve let me”. You roll your eyes and smile. “I know babe” Nikki looks at you.

“I’m being serious”

“I know you are”

“Really? Cause I feel like you don’t believe me”

You and Nikki continue back and forth the entire car ride home, completely forgetting about everything that just happened. Realizing only then that you two didn’t need to drive hours away to go somewhere to feel some sort of peace and forget about everything else going on in your lives, the entire time the two of you could’ve just found peace in each other.

Bro. I hate the ending. With a passion. I rewrote it about 7 times. I didnt wanna give up. But i’m tired. Ready for a nap. So enjoy.

This Is Where You Stand With Me (part 3)

Pairing: Charles Leclerc x reader

Warnings: none

Part 2 here

Y/N's pov

We flew to Spain ten days before the Grand Prix. Carlos wanted to introduce Sophie to his family, and since his family is in Madrid, the two of them decided to go there for two days.

It's Friday night in Barcelona and Lando asked me if I wanted to go out with him and the boys. Of course I agreed because I don't plan on being in the hotel room until Sophie and Carlos come back. Since Lando is the only person with whom I am closest, I asked him to wait for me so that we go to the club together. And him being the sweetheart that he is he agreed to wait for me.

A few minutes after I replied to his text, here he is knocking on the door of my hotel room.

"Give me a second!" I yell as I quickly throw on an oversized t shirt and some shorts on myself.

"Hello!" I smile from ear to ear and tilt my head to the side as I open the door for him.

"Y/n!" He shouts. "Your hair is wet and still in a towel! You haven't even started getting ready yet!!" He scolds me as he enters my room.

"Well I told you I just got out of the shower! But don't worry I usually don't take long to get ready." I assure him.

"Yeah, yeah sure. We'll see." He rolls his eyes as he throws himself on my bed.

"If your shoes touch my sheets, you're going to have a problem with me." I warn him and he laughs at my threats, but listens to me and takes off his shoes.

"By the way you look very handsome." I compliment him. He was wearing a short-sleeved white linen shirt and loose, but not too loose, light blue washed jeans. And of course two necklaces around his neck that fit him so well.

"Thank you, now please start getting ready so we can see what you'll look like."

"So? How do I look?" I ask him 45 minutes later as I pose in front of him.

"I-I.." He looks stunned, measuring me from head to toe with his mouth open. He's never seen me dressed up like this before and I must say I'm flattered by his reaction.

"I hope that's a good sign?"

"I'm sorry." He laughs nervously. "You left me speechless, you look beautiful."

"Thank you Lando." I blush at his compliment.

"Shall we go?" He asks extending his arm for me.

"Be sure I'll hold your hand until we get there because I don't wear heels very often."

"As long as you'd like."

It was around 10.30 p.m. when Lando and I arrived in front of the club. We didn't get out of the car right away because there was a bunch of paparazzi in front of the club and I was slowly starting to get anxious. I didn't feel comfortable being photographed and ending up all over the internet the next day just because I came with Lando. I didn't feel very safe either, and I surely didn't want them to spread any rumors about Lando and me.

"Are you okay?" Lando asks me because he noticed that I was squirming in the seat and breathing rapidly.

"Yeah, I'm just, I'm a little nervous. There's a lot of them." I say biting on my lower lip and he puts his hand over mine.

"Just hold onto me and we'll be inside in a few seconds okay?" He says and I nod.

"Okay."

The driver opened the door for us and Lando got out of the car first. As soon as he stepped out of the car people started shouting his name and the camera flashes went off like crazy. For a moment I thought about not getting out of the car at all but asking the driver to take me back to the hotel, but luckily the desire to have a good time was stronger than that.

"You okay?" Lando was so sweet checking up on me.

"Yeah, let's go."

I climb out of the car and keep my gaze down holding Lando's hand tightly with one hand and trying to cover my face with the other. It definitely looked like we were a couple and that's why the paparazzi immediately began to bombard him with questions.

"Lando who is this? Is this your new girlfirend?"

"What's her name?"

"Look over here! You two look great together!"

At that moment I didn't care about the questions or the comments, I only cared about whether I would trip and fall in my heels in front of all those cameras. About thirty seconds later, which by the way felt like 30 minutes, we finally got inside the club.

"I must say you've got a pretty tight grip." Lando says and I can't help but laugh at his comment.

"I'm sorry." I try to pull out my hand from his, but he doesn't let go.

"I don't mind though."

And so we continued to make our way through the crowd of people until we reached the VIP section with a booth where Pierre, Kika, Max and Charles were. As Lando and I got closer I felt that all eyes were on us. Before my and Charles' eyes briefly met, I caught him scanning Lando and me and looking at our hands. I wasn't surprised when I saw that Ava wasn't with them.

"Hello, guys." Lando greets them and I give Kika a hug.

"Hi!" I wave my hand and everybody but Charles, of course, greets me back.

The night went great, we danced, we sang, we drank, some of us maybe a little too much, but that's okay.

At one point we all left the booth and went down into the crowd to dance. That was by far my favorite part of the night. I was so relaxed and careless I enjoyed every second of it.

Lando was dancing with me, he'd spin me around every now and then while we were singing to spanish songs from the top of our lungs even though we didn't understand a single word. If only Sophie and Carlos were here, I'm sure it would have been even better.

"Are you having a good time?" Lando slurs. Out of all of us he drank the most and it was very obvious that he was wasted.

"You're so drunk." I laugh. I was a bit tipsy, but I knew when to stop drinking because I didn't want to get drunk. He ignored my observation that he was drunk and continued to bring drinks.

"Lando, you should really stop. You've had enough."

"Nooo." Whining like a baby, he pulls me into a hug and rests his head in the crook of my neck leaning his weight on me. You could see it was time to go to the hotel because his eyes were closing from tiredness. He could barely stand on his feet.

"Lando, your're heavy, we're both gonna fall down. Stand up straight please!" I say struggling to somehow hold him so he doesn't fall and brings me down with him.

"You're gonna knock her down you idiot." Luckily, Charles noticed the situation and pulled Lando off of me. "C'mon it's time to leave." He says to Lando who protested a little, but listened to Charles anyway.

"I'll help you with him." I say and we start making our way to the exit.

A car was already waiting for us in front of the club, so all three of us sat in the back seats, Lando between Charles and me. As soon as he sat down, he fell asleep. My feet were killing me and I couldn't wait to go to sleep, and Charles seemed tired as well. I'd say he was a little tipsy too, but nowhere near as Lando. He definitely outdid us all tonight.

Charles and i haven't spoken a word tonight and I didn't want to be the one to start any conversation in the car so the ride was quiet, but luckily short. When we got to the hotel, first Charles got out of the car, then I.

"Lando, wake up." I say gently shaking him by his shoulder. He just mumbled something refusing to get out.

"I would prefer leaving him in the car to sleep since he had to drink this much." Charles says getting annoyed at him. "Lando, wake the fuck up or I'm gonna leave you here."

When we somehow managed to get him out of the car, I held him by one side and Charles by the other and so we started to walk to the elevator. We entered the elevator and I pressed the fifth floor on which Lando's room was and mine was on the floor below.

"Does he normally drink like this when you guys go out?" I ask.

"Not really, this is the first time I've seen him like this in a long time." Charles replies.

"Really?"

"Yeah, maybe you are a bad influence on him." Charles says, but I can't tell if he was joking or what he already meant by what he said.

"Yeah, sure." I roll my eyes at him.

When we reached Lando's room, we barely managed to find the card in his pants that unlocks the room. I was a little surprised, but relieved that he didn't lose it. We get inside the room and lay him down on the bed.

"Fuck, I'm sweating." Charles says while stretching his back.

"Should we just leave him like this?" I ask referring to his clothes and shoes.

"Well, I don't know. Aren't you gonna take care of him tonight? I bet you were gonna spend the night in his room anyway." As the words leave his mouth, I feel as if someone has knocked the breath out of my lungs. I was shocked at what he said.

"Excuse me?" I was immediately overcome with anger and the alcohol coursing through my veins definitely contributed to that feeling. "How dare you say such a thing to me? Who gives you the right to insult me like that? You don't know shit about me!" At this point I was almost yelling and I didn't care about Lando sleeping because he was passed out anyway he couldn't hear a thing.

"Well you two came holding hands, he was all over you the whole night hugging you and dancing with you. What else can a person think?"

"Lando is nothing but a good friend to me and someone who I trust and feel safe next to when I'm here alone without Sophie and Carlos! And I don't look at him as anything other than a friend!" I continue to justify myself to Charles for some unknown reason.

"And you don't trust me enough to ask me if you need anything while they're gone?" He asks and I just can't believe what's coming out of his mouth. For a moment I wonder if I'm crazy or if he is.

"Are you seriously asking me this right now? How do you think I trust you or even feel comfortable in your company when you constantly treat me like this? Ever since we met, I've been nothing but polite and nice to you and you just keep putting me down for literally no reason! One minute you are nice, attentive and caring and funny and then the next you have some unnecessary rude comment to say to me, or you don't even deign to greet me, or even better you don't even acknowledge my existence! You're so pathetic Charles! I had such a good night, but you managed to ruin it, congratulations!" I almost run out of breath after my angry rant and I can already feel tears welling up in my eyes, but he got what he deserved.

"Why do you seem to remember so good all those situations? Why do they bother you so much if you don't care, huh?" He asks taking a step closer to me. I am irritated by his calmness while everything inside me is burning with anger.

"I don't know maybe because I'm a good fucking person who doesn't treat other people the way you do so I don't except to be treated that way from you either if I've been nothing but kind to you! And you know what else? I keep thinking how badly your girlfriend treats you because she isn't there to support you when you need her. I felt so bad for you for the Monaco Grand Prix, I even wished to comfort you when she wasn't there to. But the further I go, the more I think that maybe you are the problem, not her." I turn on my heel and head for the door, a tear escaping my eye in the process. I was fighting them back really hard and I'm furious at myself for letting him make me feel this way.

I leave the room, but he follows me outside and stops me by pulling me by my hand.

"Wait." He says.

"No, don't touch me!" I say yanking it away from his grip.

"Then why weren't you there for me instead of her if you wished to?"

"Because of all the things I just said. And why don't you start giving some answers instead of just asking questions?" With that I leave him standing in the corridor of the hotel as I hurry to the elevator and into my room.

part 4 here

can u do one w their sister where she lies and sneaks out to a party with her friends but they show up to the same party and see her there and take her home and she has to talk about it with them

Caught

Sturniolo Little Sister (SLS) x The Sturniolo Triplets

Warnings: Alcohol, House party shit, etc.

SLS/N's POV

Did I feel bad about sneaking out and betraying my brother's trust, by going to a house party in LA with my friends? Yes. But is it gonna be worth it? Hell yes!

It was tight, sitting in the back of some random dude's jeep, with a whole bunch of girls that had way too much perfume on. But Kylie, my best friend since I moved to LA, somehow managed to score us invites to the most popular guy in our school's house party. How could I say no to that!

I didn't say no, my brothers did.

-

I got home from school today, happy that I got invited. I was mentally planning my outfit, hair, and makeup out in my head as I opened the front door and walked into the kitchen, where Nick, Matt, and Chris were.

"Oh my gosh, you guys won't believe it. Kylie and I got invited to go to Logan's House party tonight! Logan's! I need to get my dress, curl my hair, and make sure my makeup is-"

"Um, I don't think that's such a good idea, SLS/N. It's a school night."

I felt my heart drop as those words left Nick's mouth. I looked at Matt and Chris for support, but they were nodding in agreement with Nick.

"Oh c'mon! I'll never get a chance like this again! please, Nick?" I beg, wanting to cray a little.

"I'm sorry, but I said no, and I think your brothers agree with me too." He says, signaling that the argument is over.

But I wasn't done.

"What? This is fucking bullshit!" I say, stomping up to my room. I know I was acting like a brat, but this was so unfair.

-

I sat in my room for what felt like ever. But then Chris came up and asked,

"We're going out, wanna come."

I shake my head no, not even looking up at him. He steps into my room.

"SLS/N, c'mon, don't be like this. you-" He began to say, but I caught him off.

"I said I don't wanna go, Chris!" I kinda felt bad for shouting at him, as he gave me a nod, and walked out of the room.

Shortly after, I could hear the car being pulled out of the driveway and down the road.

But Then I got a text:

Kylie<3

Hey girl! Pick you up at 7?

I thought for a second, then smiled, texted her back, and then went to my closet to get my dress.

Sounds good

-

So that's how I ended up in my current situation. One that I completely regret even thinking about.

This party was filled with about a hundred drunk, sweaty, loud teenagers, and a couple of older guys that looked like straight-up druggies.

And to put the cherry on top of my night:

My brothers weren't out.

They are here.

-

I quickly duck down behind the pool table, trying to move along the edge of the house to the front door.

“SLS/N, what are you doing?” I hear kylie say, grabbing my hand and pulling me up.

“Oh-I-uh…nothing! I was just gunna go get some air!” I say, brushing the dust from the floor off my dress. Kylie nods and walks to go find another group of friends.

-

I finally made it to the door, quickly opening it and stepping out. But just before I close the door, I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around to see who was about to get me caught.

Matt.

He glares at me, not saying a word. Then he grabs me by the wrist and walks down the front porch, all the way to our van.

He lets me go and gets in the drivers seat pulling out his phone. I climb into the back seat and close the door as Matt brings his phone up to his ear. “We need to go. I’ll explain in the car.” He says, then hanging up right after. He puts his phone back into his pocket.

“Matt, I-“ begin to say, but just as I start talking, the doors open and Nick and Chris climb into the car. They both look at me with confused faces.

“Guess who snuck out?” Matt says sarcastically. At this, Nick sighs and puts his face in his hands, while Chris just shakes his head and looks out the window.

I feel the tears well up in my eyes at their disappointment.

-

The van was silent the whole way home. When we pulled into the driveway, we got out of the car and went inside, and I started to walk to my room.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of this.” Chris said, as all my brothers sat down in the couch. I sighed, and sat went to sit in the far side of the couch.

“Do you even understand what you did?” Nick asks me. I feel a lump in my throat grow at his question.

“I-I…” I stuttered, trying not to cry. Nick interrupted me,

“SLS/N! You literally did the complete opposite of what we told you. We were going to surprise you and bring you with us! You need to understand that we said no to protect you!” I nodded, tears rolling down my face.

“Did you like that party? Was it worth it?” Matt asked me.

“…no.” I say with a shaky breath. Then I finally know what I need to say.

“I’m sorry. I just- it’s harder being a kid here than in Boston. It’s like have to re learn how to be liked by people all over again! I was scared to say no and then everyone would think I’m lame. I’m so so sorry. P-please, I’m sorry.”

I say all of this crying. But at the end, I completely break down. Hating myself for making my brothers lose trust in me.

I was sunk down in the floor at this point, balling my eyes out. I felt arms wrap around me.

“I know it’s hard being in a new place, believing me, I know. I’m sorry you feel like this, but your safety is more important than going to some stupid kid’s party where you could get hurt.” Matt says, pulling me closer to him.

I nod, and snuggle into his embrace.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m-“ I keep mumbling, wanting to be forgiven.

“Shhh, you’re okay, we forgive you kiddo.” Chris says, joining the hug, Nick close behind.

-

My brothers and I cuddled on the couch after our long night, our hair wet from our showers. I snuggle closer into their sides, grateful that I have such understanding brothers.

I feel like this is cringy again 😂

tell us everything about your day yesterday

oh, ok!

i woke up at 5:30am and went out for a run. it was pretty short, 3 miles, i was back in a half hour. i got really sick a few weeks ago and my lung capacity is still not 100%, i ran five miles a few days ago and i threw up on the sidewalk.

anyway, when i got back home i paced around in the backyard for ten minutes to cool down, and then i slipped back into the house to my bedroom and woke up jake by sucking his cock. we fucked (me on top, no real foreplay, the cocksucking only lasted a few seconds and we went straight to fucking) and we came at the same time, and then i laid in bed leaking while jake got up and showered as the kids woke up. at this point it was like 6:40. i got up and made oatmeal for my kids (with blueberries!) in a robe and jake was all dressed and ready before 7, so i left him to get the kids dressed and stuff and i answered a bunch of emails. i do this now in the mornings so i can get to the office after everyone but i already have them working on stuff. LOL.

the kids were playing for a bit before school, and margot woke up, so jake made breakfast for me and margot and himself, so i ended up out there with them having coffee and chatting until 8:10, and I was still in just a robe, so Jake walked the kids to school, which is usually my job.

i got dressed (no shower, LOL. white panties, no bra, jeans and a t-shirt - very professional) and margot was making a shopping list so i tried to remember everything i needed (i forgot most of it, i always do, so i have to go to target today). and then jake got home so i kissed him goodbye and left for work. i got to the office at 9:20. i had meetings with various little teams from 10-12 and by the end of the second meeting I was very bitchy and everyone was like, "OK stop giving angel new information" which i thought was a very insightful analysis of me as a coworker.

i had coffee and two cigarettes with jane, a fairly recent hire who is like a 40s goth punk chick who reminds me a lot of ivy if ivy had never gone corporate and had a dozen babies. i love jane, she's 15 years sober from heroin and she rocks. she also compliments my waist a lot, she (like many of you lol) can't believe i pushed two kids out of my pussy.

then i walked to my friend casey's work to meet her for lunch. i don't know if i ever talked about casey. i think so? she is like 27 years old and she has a baby and a much older husband and a stepdaughter who is 19. when i was in my lexi-obsessed phase she was adjusting to returning to work with a baby in her life so we didn't hang out much but now we see each other all the time.

we had lunch at a bagel place and i was back at work by 1:45, just in time for more meetings, but these were with clients and i was nicer. the t-shirt with no bra was a very good strategic decision, one of the bigger guys at the company stared at my tits the whole time, and agreed with everything i said. i wore my hair down too and played with it a lot, you know, alternating between ditzy hair twisting and sort of gathering it and arranging it behind my back like i was about to put it into a blowjob ponytail.

N.B. the ponytail blowjob is such a stereotype/meme but i never do that. i let my hair fall all over the place when i am sucking dick. men love my hair.

i had an hour in my office during which i accomplished literally nothing. i looked at my phone and deleted some emails. that's it. then i had a meeting with my boss, and we talked exclusively about sex with our respective partners. his wife is cumming really easily lately, which on the one hand he likes and on the other hand doesn't like because she's wrapping up sex really early. he said about half the time he doesn't get beyond eating her pussy; she cums and then sucks his cock and won't stop until she's swallowed every drop. but even when they get to fucking, he said she cums in like 40 seconds and hops off to suck his cock. i told him to start slapping her clit with his cock to stop her orgasms. he said she'd get so mad at him if he did that and i said, "i would beg for more." anyway, he told me i am doing a great job with the team lately so i flashed my tits at him.

alice called me at 4 and just clearly wanted to talk at me, but i let her, it's kind of like a podcast, and so she was in my ear for the end of my work day and my ride home.

when i got home, margot and the kids were in the park, so jake fucked me in the kitchen, quick and hard, panties and jeans down, bent over the kitchen island, his hand on my clit. he came inside me again and i pulled my jeans and panties up right over the mess and walked around like that all afternoon, making dinner and catching up with everyone. dinner, did a puzzle with my daughter, bathtime for the kids, storytime, bedtime, and i just took my jeans off and relaxed on the couch with jake and margot and we watched a movie. i fell asleep on jake's shoulder after the movie was over, and he moved me over on the couch, took margot to her room, fucked her and came on her tits, took a picture of it and sent it to me, which woke me up, LOL, but i was too tired to move so i let jake come in, naked, and carry me to bed. at some point in the night i took my panties off because they were full of dried cum, and this morning i woke up next to jake, he was naked and i was in just a t-shirt, so i pushed my ass against him until he woke up and fucked me from behind nice and slow. i came twice.

New Vegas - Now Under New Management!

In 2301, the city of New Vegas had been a raiders’ paradise for nearly twenty years. In the Jackal-run Ultra-Luxe hotel, with Cal's help, Auguste continues investigating the murder of his dog.

Chapter 3: You’re Gonna Go Far Kid [ao3 link]

I was never allowed in the Tops’ Presidential suite. It had been claimed by Fresno when they took Vegas, and they only ever let my father or the cleaning people in there. My father and I shared a two-bedroom suite with a view, several stories up but not quite at the top. Fresno would’ve given him the Presidential or the High Roller or any other fancy room at the snap of his fingers, but he wasn’t picky. All he wanted was some windows and for me to have my own little space.

Cal took one of the old Gomorrah boss’ suites for himself, but he was almost always sharing it with someone. Unlike Fresno, he didn’t go wasting all that space on just himself. There were three other big suites by his, and they were usually occupied. By who, I had no idea. Judging from the all the noise I’d hear whenever I visited Cal’s room, it was probably more than one raider at a time with as many whores as they could afford.

I knew the Ultra-Luxe had the biggest, fanciest suites to match the rest of it. I’d never seen them myself, but one would have to assume from the name alone that they were the best of the best. And like every other raider I knew, naturally, the Jackal matriarch had taken the biggest, best-est suite for herself. At the very top of the Ultra-Luxe hotel was the Penthouse suite, and it was at least twice as big as Cal’s room and three times as big as my father’s. There were armed guards outside of the elevator, and armed guards at every corner as we passed through the corridor and bedroom. I had to wonder what she was so afraid of. These guys weren’t stationed here because she knew we were coming; we barely had to wait two minutes before we were brought up here. Maybe she just liked having a bunch of men watching her at all times. She didn’t even bother to get dressed for us, still laying nude in the pool in the middle of the suite. Shit, I’d kill to have my own pool. “Oh, wow…” She said when she saw me, sitting up in the shallow water, her feet floating. “I haven’t seen you since you were…” She lifted her hand out of the water, holding it a few inches above the smooth surface. “This little. I think it was your birthday. I gave you a teddy bear. Do you remember?” No, I didn’t remember. I’ve got three teddy bears in my room, and two of them used to belong to Brutus. And all three of them were from my father. I also don’t recall having ever seen this woman before in my life. I think I would’ve remembered the sharp teeth, missing eye, and the odd hollow scars along her arms. But instead of saying any of this, I kept my mouth shut and looked at Cal. He’d insisted on doing all the talking, so I was gonna let him. “I don’t think he does. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be this shy.” Cal teased, then put a hand on my head and ruined my hair. I kept my hands in my pockets and bit my cheek before I could do anything stupid. I won’t let him hear the end of it the second we’re out of here, though. “He might get all upset if he starts talking, though. I’m sure you've heard.” She hummed, and took her hair in her hands, squeezing and wringing it out. It reached just below her shoulders and looked natural. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a raider with nice hair before. “No, I don’t think I have. You’ll have to enlighten me.” “Well…” Cal glanced at me, then continued. “Someone shot his dog while he was taking him out for a walk about a week ago.” She gasped dramatically. “Oh, that’s horrible!” “It is.” Cal went on. “And the shot could’ve only come from your hotel.” She was still for a moment, then flung her hair over her shoulder before her hands went under the water again. “Callipho, dear, you’re not saying what I think you are, are you?” “Dee-” “Dia.” She cut him off. "Dia.” He went on. “Your hotel is huge. You’ve got hundreds of men. You’ve got dozens of rooms anyone could rent out with a view of the whole Strip. I’m not saying you had anything to do with it, personally, but someone in the building last week did. And as you can imagine, this place is our only lead. So, if you could help direct us to, I dunno, a guest book to start, that’d be great.” She beckoned one of the men as she stood up, and he brought a towel to her immediately. She wrapped it around herself, but not before I could notice more of those weird scars along her legs. “We don’t let anyone rent out our rooms. We’ve filled them all ourselves. We live here.” She explained, her voice darker now. “If you insist that someone in our hotel shot the mutt, then you’re insisting it was one of us.” “He wasn’t a mutt!” I snapped. “He was a Belgian Malinois, one of the last purebreds around, and he was easily the smartest and most loyal dog anyone could ever hope to have!” “Easy.” Cal put a hand on my shoulder, pulling me back a little. “She’s not gonna help you if you’re rude.” I smacked his hand off my shoulder. Why the fuck was he treating me like a child? Dia sighed almost wistfully. “Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry you lost your puppy.” She went on, stepping out of the pool to stand before us. She smelled almost sickly sweet. “But I promise we had nothing to do with it. And I would never let some stranger stay in my hotel. I do wish I could help, but…” “Then help.” I said sternly. “I just want to know who did it. I don’t care who else was or wasn’t involved, just-” I swallowed. Fuck, this was useless, even if she did know, why would she tell me anything? I didn’t even know what questions to ask her, and neither did Cal. This was a pointless trip, I was never gonna find out who killed Brutus, and I wasn’t even sure Cal would be able to, either. “You’re not gonna cry, are you?” Dia asked, sounding all concerned, touching my cheek. “I couldn’t bear it if you did.” “This has all been a lot for him.” Cal said quietly. “That dog was the only friend he’s ever had.” “Oh, I can imagine…” She ran her hand through my hair, and I refrained from giving her a look as she tried to fix it. “Well… I can’t make any promises, but I suppose I could tell you what I know. I got a noise complaint about a week ago, maybe even on the same day as the… you know. It was said to be gunfire, shot somewhere on the twelfth floor.” “From one of the residents?” Cal asked. Dia hesitated. “If I had to guess, I’d place my bet on Rocco.” She said quietly. “He has a room all to himself with a view of the Strip. That was his only request; a room with a view. His favourite pastime is marksmanship. Now, I’m not saying it was certainly him, but…” “It’s as good a lead as any.” Cal said, putting an arm around my shoulder in a half-hug. “Thank you, Dia. You’ve been a real help.” “Don’t make me regret this, dear Callipho. Get what you can from Rocco, then leave. We have enough issues as it is without outsiders making things worse.” Dia said firmly. Then she gave me a smile. “And Auguste, sweetheart… you should come visit more often. It’s a shame we don’t get to talk more.” “I will.” I said quietly, probably lying. I’d rather never come back here again if I could help it, but I was starting to realize Cal had the right idea bringing me along to meet her. I was like the cute kid door-to-door salesmen brought along to prevent poor saps from slamming the door in their faces. Cal and Dia said their goodbyes, she reminded him again not to make her regret this, and we were led out of the suite and back into the elevator. The man tending it was about to take us back to the ground floor, but Cal politely requested being dropped off on the twelfth. The Ultra-Luxe’s hotel wasn’t nearly as winding as Gomorrah’s, but I still felt lost. Each floor felt nearly as wide as the hotel was tall, with hallways the size of streets and a sitting area around every corner. I wouldn’t be surprised if every room was half the size of the Penthouse suite. There were a lot of people lounging around, well-dressed enough that they almost passed as tourists, but they were all clearly Jackals. I got a lot of stares. Cal did not. He also seemed to know exactly where we were going, leading the way to the far end of the twelfth floor, all the way to the last door. He stopped right in front of it, and I nearly bumped into him. “This is important.” He spoke in a hushed, serious tone that sounded odd coming from him. “I need you to let me handle this. We don’t know how dangerous this man is and it’d be better if I did all the talking. If you don’t think you can keep quiet, wait out here for me.” I just nodded. I’ll do whatever the hell I want, but if I didn’t act compliant here, he probably wouldn’t let me into the room at all. I stood by and waited for him to pick the lock or pull out a master key or something. Instead, he knocked. “‘S open.” The voice was muffled by the door, but not far from it. Gruff and deep enough that it could only be a man’s. I looked up at Cal as he slowly opened the door all the way. This wasn’t a suite. It was a broom closet. A big broom closet, but a closet nonetheless. It was just a little bigger than my own, and most of the space was taken up by a mattress on the floor and a shelf up against the wall with a few metal boxes on it. Cal stepped around the mattress and I followed, closing the door behind me. At the other end of the closet, oddly enough, was a window, open wide with an older man sitting on the ledge and looking down. Next to him, in the corner up against the wall, was some sort of scoped rifle. “Are you Rocco?” The old man didn’t even look at us. Unlike the rest of his crew, he wore ordinary clothes; slacks and a simple button-down shirt that wouldn’t be out of place in a pre-war catalogue for the common man. There was nothing formal about him, but he didn’t quite look like a typical raider, either. He leaned further out the window and spat, then grinned as he must’ve hit something or someone. “I’m Cal, proprietor of the Gomorrah. My friend here is Auguste, son of the courier. Perhaps you’ve heard of us?” Cal went on, as casually as he could, trying the get the geezer’s attention. “I saw you come in.” He said, still not looking at us. “Could’ve nailed you then, if I wanted to. But I didn’t see the point.” I bit my cheek to keep my mouth shut. Not yet, not yet… “Thanks for sparing us.” Cal said lightly. “You must have quite a view from up here. Mind if I take a look?” “Get any closer and I’ll jump.” He said quickly, but with a grin. “Then you’ll never know.” Cal showed his hands in mock surrender. “Alright, alright, we’ll stay right here… So you are Rocco?” “Whatever.” I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Are you Rocco or not?” I barked. That made him finally look at me. He didn’t look as old as he sounded, but he was dirtier than I first thought. Maybe they gave him a closet to himself for a reason. His eyes were a cold, steely grey that narrowly focused on mine. “Rocco, I am. The fuck do you want, you uppity little whelp?” Cal put a hand on my shoulder, barely containing me as he took over again. “We were told you might’ve shot a dog from up here recently. That true?” “I ain’t talking to you, Gomorrah. I asked the runt a question.” I took a breath before speaking again, doing my best to ignore the smell of dust and something stale. “Did you or did you not shoot my dog?” I asked, firmly. “He was a Belgian Malinois, a big dog, we were walking back to the Tops from Vault 21…” I tried to look past him without leaving my spot. We were pretty high up; all I could see from the door were signs and the top of nearby buildings. “Yeah. I shot a dog.” Rocco casually admitted. “Is that all you came here for?” “Of course not.” I snapped. “I want to know why you shot him!” Rocco chuckled lowly, letting his head fall back against the window sill. He looked at me sideways. “Why? ‘Cause I missed, that’s why.” Missed. Missed? Missed the shot? Tried to hit something, hit Brutus instead, missed… I opened my mouth to ask the next question, but it didn’t come out. I didn’t make a sound. It only made Rocco laugh more. “Oh, you stupid, spoiled little shit.” Rocco went on, staring right through me with that signature Jackal sharp-toothed grin. “I wasn’t aiming for the fucking animal. I was aiming for you. And I missed.” He said with a slight shrug. I forgot how to breathe. My heart felt heavy and my whole chest felt tight, but my hands were twitchy and fast. I went for my gun faster than Rocco could laugh at me again, but Cal was even faster, pinning me to the door with just one arm, his other hand gripping my wrist, keeping my pistol pointed to the floor. “Auguste, look at me, now.” Cal said quietly, but I couldn’t just look away from the murderer. “Step out and wait for me, alright? Just let me take care of him.” Fuck no. If I let him out of my sight for even a second, how the hell would I know for sure he was dealt with? I needed to shoot him. I needed to put a bullet through his head, watch the brain matter splatter all over his filthy mattress, watch him bleed out until there was more blood out than in, then throw his corpse out the window for good measure. I needed to kill him as many times as it took for him to stay dead. For Brutus, and for my own damn life. But the more I pushed back, the harder Cal pinned me against the door. Rocco picked up his rifle with one hand and pointed at Cal with it. “I believe the boy still has his questions.” He said. “Let him ask.” Cal hesitated, but not for long. He kept a close eye on that rifle as he loosened his grip and slowly backed off. I still had my back to the door and didn’t move. If I lifted my gun, even a little… “Now you know why I shot the dog.” Rocco said, turning his whole body so his back was to the rest of the world, facing us, letting his feet rest on the tiled floor. “I really didn’t mean to. I’ve got no reason to kill any innocent animals anymore. There’s plenty of meat around here.” “Why me?” My voice was small and pathetic and not nearly as composed as I’d like it to be. “Why not?” Rocco shrugged again. “I don’t like you. You’re loud. Your clothes are loud. You walk up and down the Strip like you already own it. You piss away all your time and money the same way everybody else around here does. You look even more disgusted looking down from your ivory tower than you do when you’re walking amongst the great unwashed. You can’t even let yourself enjoy the view or the music. You’re a spoiled little nepotism baby with no purpose, a frivolous waste of life. Every single filthy fucking raider you hate so much has done more for the human race than you ever will in your entire fucking life. Even your own mother hates you. It’s a fucking miracle for you that no one else has tried to kill you first. That answer your question?” I wasn’t sure if I was more angry or scared. All I really knew is that he’d been planning it for a while, and it really was a miracle that he missed. A really fucked up miracle. It almost made me think I didn’t deserve it. Brutus sure as hell didn’t. “Is that all?” I asked after a moment. Rocco’s body jerked a little as he half-laughed. “No, that’s not all. I was always content with waiting for the day you die some stupid death. But somebody else sure wasn’t.” Cal perked up at that, but kept quiet. It was my turn to handle things. “Who?” I asked. “I dunno.” Rocco said. “Man didn’t give me a name. Just a few thousand caps and a polite request to blow your brains out. He just walked right up to me while I was taking potshots at some Fiends outside of Freeside. Honestly, I probably would’ve done it for free with how nice he asked.” A few thousand caps. Just a few thousand. Three thousand? Four, maybe? That was all my life was worth to someone. What was pocket change to me was more than enough to motivate almost anyone to kill me. Why wasn’t I dead yet? “Did he tell you anything else?” Cal asked when I couldn’t talk. “What’d he look like, what was he wearing?” “You’re not gonna figure out who he was with what little I know.” Rocco insisted. “He came up to me, complimented my aim, and asked if I was interested in some work. Thought it was odd, but I listened to him anyway, and he just really seemed to want the ‘courier’s kid’ dead. He gave me the caps upfront and didn’t really say anything else. Whoever he was, I think he just wanted to see some chaos. A bit misguided, though. No one would actually give a shit if you died. Hell, if anything, people around here might celebrate.” “What did he look like?” Cal repeated. “I dunno. I didn’t look at him.” Rocco said. “I was staring down my scope the whole time we talked. He sounded funny, though. Talked like he was on official business. Used big words.” “You seriously didn’t get one look at him?” Rocco was still talking, but I stopped listening. He finally stopped staring me down, actually looking at Cal as he spoke to him. It was easier to move when he wasn’t fixing me with his gaze. My hand twitched, just a little, like it wasn’t sure if it wanted to move. Like it wanted to see how perceptive he really was. When he didn’t notice, I let him talk for another moment, then raised my gun and shot him. Then I shot him again. The first bullet narrowly missed, grazing his shoulder, tearing his shirt, but it startled him enough that he dropped his rifle. The second shot went right through his pec, and I didn’t even know where the third bullet went because it knocked him down and out of the window faster than I could blink. He didn’t even scream on the way down. Cal didn’t yell at me right away. He went over to the window, looking down to see where the body fell, then checked out the rifle he dropped. He opened the magazine. “It wasn’t even loaded.” He muttered, then set the gun down in the corner. “He was gonna kill me.” I tried to say, but I choked. I covered my mouth and stared at the floor, bit my cheek until it bled, almost as hot as the spot behind my eyes. I could feel pressure building, threatening to make my head pop as I tried to blink the tears back. I couldn’t keep my eyes shut for more than a second without getting another glimpse of cold eyes and sharp teeth and ripped flesh and- “Kid?” I just choked again. Squeezed my jaw shut as hot tears streamed over my hand and down my neck. My other hand lost grip of my gun, dropping it. Instead of giving me shit, Cal just came over and picked up my gun. He didn’t give it back to me. He pocketed the gun and put a hand on my shoulder, gently. “Ten minutes, then I’m taking you home. Alright?” I didn’t look at him. It didn’t stop him from stepping out and closing the door behind him, leaving me alone. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I let go and gasped. Looking up at the window, at the blood on the sill, it made it difficult to breathe. My head was starting to pound louder than any music or yelling coming in from down below, and I really didn’t feel like alleviating that tension. I dried my eyes on my sleeve, relieved that they seemed to stop crying. There was no way in hell I’d be able to walk out of here sobbing like a bitch. I took a step closer to the window. How far down was the drop? How high up did you have to fall from to die? Did he land head-first on solid concrete? Maybe I wasn’t the one who killed him. Maybe it was just gravity. He was sitting on the ledge, looking down, maybe he was already planning on doing it himself. His rifle wasn’t loaded; he didn’t have anymore bullets to shoot himself. Maybe falling was the next best thing. I wasn’t even halfway to the window when I stopped. The yelling from outside was different, less rowdy and more… angry. If I looked down, I knew I’d be met with ants looking back up at me. I’d see a mangled old murderer in a pool of blood. I didn’t feel like losing what little lunch I’d had, so I didn’t step any closer. I instead opened the door and went back out into the hallway. Cal looked surprised to see me, but he didn’t say anything. He just started leading the way through the hotel again, and I paid even less attention to where we were going, eyes on his back. I was more focused on avoiding the stares and keeping my back straight and my stance confident. If people were gonna know I killed a man, they were gonna know I did it on purpose, and that it didn’t scare me at all.

Caution and Care Pt. 7

Part 1: Link Prev: Link Next: TBA

Listening In

“Is the space shirt too much?” Mad asked as he looked at himself in the mirror at the end of the hall of dressing rooms. 

“I think it’s fun.” Anti came out of one of the dressing rooms, wearing the same galaxy-print shirt as Mad. 

“We’ve already gotten so much. Maybe we should put these back and call it a day.” Mad tugged on the bottom of the shirt. It was starting to get a bit overwhelming with everything they’ve done. He was so worried they were pushing it, and they’d anger the alphas and they’d be kicked out of a new home already and-

“Maddy, it’s okay.” Anti noticed the way Mad’s eyes were widening with panic. “Remember what you told me? We’re safe.” 

“We’re safe.” Mad echoed, smiling when Anti kissed his forehead. 

“I like the shirts. I think these will be the perfect final thing to get before going back. We can eat our candy and cuddle and watch some TV together.” 

“I’d like that.” 

“Me too.” Anti giggled and kissed Mad’s forehead again before stepping away. 

The two got changed and stepped back out of the omega changing rooms, finding Wilford, Dark, and Chase sitting together on a bench, surrounded by shopping bags and chatting. Wilford was in the middle and pointing to something on Chase’s phone while Dark leaned over Wilford’s shoulder to look at the screen as well. 

“When that kit comes in, it’ll be a lot easier to see what would look good on Marvin,” Wilford said. “Pictures never do the jewelry justice. The first set I got for JJ was a completely different shade than the pictures showed.” 

“They were more than willing to replace the chains when you showed up ready to bite someone’s throat out.” Dark chuckled. 

“My Jamesy deserves the best and I was going to get it.” Wilford protested with a prideful puff to his chest. 

“At least you found someone that matches your energy.” Chase gestured to Wilford’s horns. “Doesn’t it take JJ like hours to touch those up?” 

“Well…we’re not painting the whole time,” Wilford said with a grin. 

“What else are you doing?” Anti asked with his own grin, finally letting the three know that he and Mad had been standing there. The alphas froze for a second and then Wilford broke out in a loud while, Chase awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, and Dark stood to properly greet them. 

“Are you two done?” Dark asked.

“These shirts are the last of the bunch,” Anti said as he handed Dark the shirts to add to the little pile they’ve made for this shop. 

“We’ll ring these up with the rest and then-” Dark stopped when his phone started buzzing. “It’s Edward. Could you two take care of everything while I take this?” He didn’t wait for an answer as he stepped away and answered his phone. 

Mad gave Anti a look and Anti knew that look all too well. He watched as Dark went to a corner of the store, away from others, and seeing that no one else would be around, he nodded at Mad and gave him permission to sneak off. Anti’s always loved Mad’s curiosity and tried to let him indulge as much as possible, he just liked being sure he’d be safe first. The checkout counter was close, so he’d still be able to see Mad in case something did happen. 

Anti guided Wilford and Chase to the counter, pointing out which items were his and which ones were Mad’s. He was good at rambling and kept both of the alphas attentions enough that Mad could easily slip away and tuck himself into a circular row of clothing, getting close enough to listen to Dark. 

“How much do you think they’d want for it?” Dark leaned his shoulder against the wall. “If it’s just a bribe to get those documents so you can do your job, I’m willing to pay it. The last thing they need is a reaction to something.” Mad peeked through the clothing some more and saw Dark’s face. He looked sad and worried. Mad chewed his cheek in thought. 

Dark was talking to Edward. Edward was the doctor. Edward was getting documents…

Did Edward find his and Anti’s medical history?

“Add an extra grand and see if you can pry out of them who their last pack was. I’d like some words with them.” Dark’s eyes hardened and he growled. 

Mad couldn’t stop the little whimper of fear at Dark’s anger, he softly gasped when Dark looked his way and he quickly ducked into the clothing. Maybe he’d get lucky and Dark didn’t see or notice him or would think nothing of it since he wasn’t visible. Mad flinched when the clothing was pushed aside and his hiding spot was now feeling like a trap as Dark looked down at him. 

“Were you eavesdropping?” Dark asked, voice soft and calm, the opposite of what Mad expected. Mad chewed on his finger and nodded his head. “What did you hear?” Dark felt his heart ache at the way Mad curled away in fear when he got closer. “I’m not angry.” He spoke even softer as he crouched down, making himself shorter than Mad and thinking maybe that’d help. “What’d you hear?” 

“You found mine and Anti’s records?” Mad rubbed his horn in a self-soothing manner.

“Well, Edward technically did and by that, he did some digging around and discovered the hospital he’s associated with is also connected with your old pack.” Dark noticed that his answering Mad seemed to relax him a bit. Mad didn’t seem to like not knowing things and Dark’s willingness to explain made him feel better. 

“And you’re trying to find our old pack?” Mad asked.

“I’d like to.” 

“They’re dangerous. You’ll get hurt.” 

“Don’t worry about me, I know how to fight back.” Dark gave a confident smile. 

“You look like it.” Mad softly chuckled, lowering his hand. 

“So, the listening in, was that yours or Anti’s idea?” 

“It was mine…I got curious.” 

“Curiosity is a sign of great intelligence.” Dark winked before straightening up and Mad felt his face go warm. “And you two were supposed to keep an eye on both of them.” He scolded as he saw Chase and Wilford joining them. Anti giggled as he went by and went into Mad’s hiding spot. 

“Are you blushing?” Anti asked when he saw the pink on Mad’s cheeks. 

“Dark called me smart,” Mad explained. 

“I mean, he’s right. You are the smartest man in the world.” Anti laughed when Mad covered his face with his hands to hide that he was now blushing even more. “You are just too cute!” Anti continued to tease as he pulled Mad into a hug. 

“I will bite you.” Mad weakly threatened. 

“Save that for when we're back in bed~” 

“Anti!” 

Working Girl

I want him to love me.

It seems like asking for the world, asking to be loved by a man who probably doesn't realize I exist, despite having passed me fifty times going to meetings, signing contracts, getting his coffee order- black but really he took a splash of milk that I hid under the cover. Our first little secret.

Maybe it was obsessive, checking the schedule, seeing his name and knowing the next day I would take the extra time to curl my hair, whiten my teeth, wear those heels that made men look back to see me. I wanted him to look at me twice, see the way that I looked like a cool drink of water on a hot day.

And it was Thursday, he had a meeting at three.

I wore a tight black sheath dress, had my hair in this low bun that looked professional, that sexy secretary. Patent leather black heels, no red bottom because this is America and the pay scale never is equal to the work you do. By three o’clock my hair had fallen out of the bun, coming down my back and my feet ached from the heels that I had really bought second hand at Goodwill and never really broke in.

“Hey darling, I have a three o’clock .” I looked up, exhausted from making pots of coffee for men who didn’t say thank you and slapping hands that tried to pinch my ass.

There he was, a cigarette between his fingers, sunglasses over his eyes, those lips that just were begging to be kissed. If I was religious he would be the God that I worshiped. But as he stood there he did something different, hand going up to his sunglasses as he pulled them from his face, squinting softly as his green eyes looked at me.

“Let me buzz you right in.” I went to reach for the buzzer but he reached out, touching my wrist and doing a soft shake of his head. And what was I supposed to do? I just froze, looking up at him as he watched me.

“You look like you’ve had a hard day.” A hard day wasn’t even half of it. Getting screamed at for my bosses inability to park the car that cost more than my rent for five years, the lunch i never got to have because I had to set up a conference room for men who called me sweetheart and snapped their fingers when they wanted me to light their cigarette, and all the stress of doing my job after all our our secretaries had quit because of the blatant misogyny that was our office culture.

“Life is a string of bad days that we’re supposed to make the best of.” Was I flirting with him because it felt like I was flirting with him and I didn’t even stutter. This was going way better than I could have even imagined laying in my bed at night; I did lay in my bed at night thinking about the day he finally saw me.

He smirked at that, tilting his head softly as he let go of my wrist. I liked the way he tried to hide his smiles by licking his lips, like his happiness had to be a secret only he knew about and felt. I was trying to bite back my own smile as I leaned forward, pressing the buzzer and playing it cool as I used the intercom to my bosses office.

“Sir, your three o’clock, Izzy Stradlin, is here.” I took my finger off the button, watching him surprised that I was dismissing him and not the other way around. Maybe he thought I was used to being hit on by rockstars, which was true. I had my fair share of rockstars asking me to sit on their laps during meetings and asking me to come to the show later.

None of that interested me. None of them interested me until I saw Izzy.

He had walked in with the rest of his band. A bunch of dudes who looked like they needed to be deloused and given a new wardrobe. This could be done two floors down in what we called the makeover suite or in prison. Which, with the look of the five guys they could have ended up in either place. But the ragtag bunch had Izzy, who wore his suit jacket and leather pants. Smoked cigarettes, holding them so easy and cool like he had been smoking since he was twelve, not a picked up habit from parting in LA. He didn’t seem to be excited to be in a record label office, or really care about the surroundings. Maybe just the aura, the nonchalant way he looked around, unimpressed was what impressed me. But I was hooked.

“Send him in and bring us drinks.” I looked up at Izzy who was still staring at me like I had probably done a thousand times before to him. He wanted to say something, it was there, in the way he looked at me but he was quiet.

“You can go in now. I’ll bring in refreshments in a few moments.” I was standing up, walking away from him. Making sure that as I moved my hips swung, looking over my shoulder as I turned the corner to the little kitchenette and there he was still standing but his eyes were watching me.

The shoes had been worth it.

He had noticed me.

Having been waiting for this day for the past few months I had pictured it going several ways. Usually my mind would go to the part where he fucked me on my bosses desk, or fucked me in the bathroom, or fucked me against the glass as I closed up teh office way after everyone had left. The last one was a personal favorite. But never had I pictured myself just saying a one liner and shooing him away.

I made his coffee, secured his lid and also made sure there was water, and booze on the tray before heading back to the office. I never bothered with knocking, no one ever noticed me anyway and as I stepped in this afternoon only Izzy turned to look at me, a small smirk on the edge of his lips. I didn’t say anything as I started to dole out drinks. Keeping quiet as I moved around, not thinking about anything but how he smelled like tobacco, velvetier and oranges. The last one was this hint of a scent that I’d have to bury my nose against him to really smell. Maybe it was his body wash or the chapstick he wore on his lips. Both made me want to taste him to find out where the fruity flavor was hidden.

But instead I was turning, leaving the office and heading back to my desk.

He’d be out soon. Not soon enough that I didn’t have time to go to the bathroom, apply lipstick, redo my hair. But he had noticed me just how I was and something about that made me not want to change anything about me now.

So I sat and I waited…and I waited and I waited…and I…

The door swung open, my boss following Izzy out. He is leaving and I expected him to keep walking to the elevators as I filed the reports but instead he stood in front of my desk and cleared his throat. My boss, who was chasing him, probably mad at something he wouldn’t agree to, froze as I looked up at the guitarist.

“What time are you done here?” he was checking his watch, the old fashion sort of thing on his wrist. It reminded me of something  my dad would do, checking the time when I walked in past curfew in high school, ready to tell me how late I was. But here he was, Izzy Stradlin, a rockstar using his old man watch. It was endearing.

“My shift ends at five.” he nodded his head in understanding, moving to the lobby and sitting down, picking up a magazine as my boss looked from me to him. The fury on his face was clear as he stormed over to where Izzy had his leg on his knee and was flipping the cover to the latest Cream Magazine.

“What are you doing? You walked out of a meeting and now you’re reading magazines in the lobby. I expect this from the others but not from you.`` The fury on my bosses face made me smirk, trying to look away so I could finish everything as fast as possible.

Izzy didn’t seem to care, he was looking at his magazine, lighting up another cigarette as though he did this everyday and he was being interrupted from the regular scheduled program of his life. I envied the collectiveness.

“I want to take your recretary on a date so I’m waiting for her shift to be over.” This bit of information flabbergasted me and my boss, who turned to look at me as I kept my eyes down, not wanting to get yelled at for something that I had no hand in.

Izzy wanted to take me on a date.

“You can’t date my employee.” Izzy looked up now, he seemed annoyed, tired with whatever conversation was going on. Standing up he was a couple inches taller but he carried himself bigger, had a presence about him that made it clear he was going to get what he wanted.

“Honey.” I looked up at the nickname, so used to being called some rendition of one during the work day but not minding the sweet name from Izzy’s lips, “Do you want to go to dinner with me at 6 when you’re done here?” I nodded my head and Izzy smirked, satisfied by this, “And you, Franklin. You want me to agree to go on this tour, right?” he nodded his head, knowing that Izzy was going to get his way. “So I’m going to go on a date with your employee.” my boss turned, annoyed and glaring at me as he moved into his office slamming the door.

A date. He wanted to go on a date. With me.

I was trying to get everything else done. I didn’t want any excuses as to why I had to stay late. I needed to get it all done and sneak out of here at 6. But a shadow was in front of my desk, and I nearly jumped when I saw Izzy standing in front of me.

“I wanted to ask you out on a date since the first time I came here. The day you had that blue scarf tied around your throat and the small pearl earrings in. But you always seemed to be so serious that I didn’t want to risk your job. But today, when I saw you when the elevator doors opened, I knew. I knew I couldn’t come in again without going out with you.” my heart thundered, his words seeming to find their home.

Finally. Finally it was happening.

“You know, I bet I can leave early. He won’t want to pay me for all the overtime I’ve done this week.”

And maybe I would get fired. Maybe this was all just a fluke situation where a rockstar cons some pretty girl out with him and we all know what happens.

BUt maybe, maybe he would love me.

Ultimate Girls Night

*Contains Smut

After a particularly hard case, Penelope suggests an ultimate girls night, all the BAU girls that have been in the unit.

Word Count: 2300

“I think after that case we need the ultimate girls night.” Penelope says as the team puts their bags on their respective desks. They just got back from a tough case and everyone is mentally beat. JJ turns towards Penelope, “ultimate girls night?” Penelope nods enthusiastically. “We get all the BAU girls, past and present, and have a girls night. Think about it, we have always done them with the current BAU members, but never with all of them.” Penelope pointedly looks at each female in the room. JJ looks like she is amused, Emily is calculating how that would work and Tara is skeptical. JJ shrugs, “it would be nice to see Elle again.” Emily chimed in, “it would be nice to put faces to names for some of them.” Tara shrugged as she didn’t care, a girls night was a girls night.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Friday night was finally upon them. Penelope had created a group chat to send out the details the night before. The plan was to meet at a club then sleepover at one of the houses that was to be determined later. Penelope, Emily and JJ carpooled to save on ride share prices for the night. They showed up at the club and waited outside for the rest of their group. Penelope was in one of her bright pink outfits. Emily was wearing the same black dress she used to talk to Viper on that one case. JJ was in dark jeans and a sparkly green shirt. Tara showed up next in a black pantsuit. Elle arrived next and walked up to the group. She hugged Penelope and went to hug JJ who was not-so-subtly staring. Elle was in dark jeans like JJ, but was wearing a black fitted corset top. “Long time no see, JJ.” Elle says with a smirk bringing JJ in for a hug. Alex and Kate show up at the same time. Alex was wearing something similar to a work outfit, black slacks and a button up shirt. Kate was in light wash jeans and a dark pink red shirt.

Introductions were made by Penelope and then they made their way inside. The music was loud, the bass reverberating in their bones. The group made through the crowd to an empty table and set down their things. “First round is on me.” Alex says making her way to the bar. Emily turns to Tara,”how is it we have just sat down and there’s already a woman making eyes at you?” Tara looks at her confused. Emily points with her eyes to a female, probably in her thirties maybe forty’s. She is cute, black slacks and button up shirt that would be too much for work, but perfect for the bar. “Nah, I just got dumped. I’m not ready.” Tara says, but keeps glancing at the woman, clearly intrigued. “Rebecca broke up with you a while ago. I’m not saying go and ask her to get married, just go and dance with her, remember how to have fun.” Emily encourages Tara with a smile.

Alex arrives back at the table with the first round of double shots. Tara downs her shot in a second while the others follow shortly. Tara looked down at Emily with something in her eyes. She grabs Emily’s hand and drags her to the dance floor. Emily sputters in confusion. “I’m remembering how to have fun.” Tara smirks at Emily when they arrive at the dance floor. Emily smiles and puts her arms around Tara’s neck, enjoying how the conversation ended.

The rest of the girls were on their second round of shots. Kate sat on the innermost chair and took in her surroundings. She hadn’t been out like this since she gave birth to her second child. She had been out, but it was a bunch of moms, so it was much different than this. She couldn’t do this each weekend, but once in a while was super fun. She downed her second shot and looked around at the females around her. Penelope was practically vibrating with excitement about everyone being together and was talking Alex’s ear off. JJ and Elle were catching up and looked quite cozy. Emily and Tara were still on the dance floor. Kate felt her mouth curl up into a smile. She had missed these women she had worked with for such a short amount of time. “So how are the two children we all love so much?” Penelope asks switching her and Alex’s attention to me. “Meg is a typical teenager, but she is also so sweet. She loves her little sister, even when she is mad at Chris and me she would protect her sister through anything.” Kate responds with a smile. Penelope squeals with happiness while Alex smiles softly at Kate. “How’d teaching, Professor Alex?” Kate asks jokingly. Alex chuckles and glances down. “It’s good, I actually really enjoy it. I love the students and the topics.” Alex responds, “I don’t know how you,” she looks at Penelope, “are still doing the job.” Penelope chuckles. “I wasn’t for a few years. I only came back recently to help with a new case.” Penelope responds. “It hasn’t been easy, to be honest. But I am a new person so it’s different, but familiar.” “Only you could take a break from the job, then go back to it.” Alex chuckles.

“So, how do you like being a profiler, JJ?” Elle asks with a smile. She had kept in touch with JJ over the years, but it has dwindled recently. Life got in the way, but there was an invisible tug towards her that never let Elle completely let JJ go. Even throughout her marriage to Will and birthing two incredibly cute kids. Even knowing it could never happen, Elle was just happy to be able to call JJ her friend. “It’s been good. Sometimes I do miss being communication liaison though. It was easier in different ways.” JJ responds, “reminds me of the time you were profiling next to me.” JJ smirks at Elle sliding a little closer to her. “Let’s dance.” JJ says dragging Elle to the dance floor.

Emily and Tara have been dancing and progressively got closer to each other. They have only had one double shot each, but between the music and being so close to each other, they felt like they had multiple. Tara’s hands were roaming all over Emily’s body. Emily’s arms slowly pulled Tara closer to her. They both had heat in their eyes. Their mouths crashed together passionately when their bodies could get no closer. They clawed at each other’s bodies as if they couldn’t be close enough. Their tongues fought for dominance while exploring each other. Emily tilted Tara’s head backwards and started kissing her neck. Emily made her way down to in between Tara’s chest. Tara lifted Emily’s face and captured her mouth with hers again. Tara broke the kiss and led Emily to the bathrooms.

Tara led Emily into the single person bathroom and locked the door. “Are you sure?” Emily pants as Tara pins her against the door. Tara gives Emily a look full of lust. She doesn’t break eye contact while Tara slips her hand under Emily’s dress and moves her underwear to the side. Tara starts circling Emily’s clit causing Emily to throw her head back. “Yeah, I’m sure.” Tara says and then kisses Emily with a bruising pressure. Tara kissed down Emily’s body until she was on her knees before Emily. Tara pushed Emily’s dress up to her waist and then slid her underwear down and threw them to the side. Once Tara had unrestricted access she took one of Emily’s legs and put it over her shoulder. She then sucked and licked as if she was starving. Emily was a writhing mess above her. A couple more sucks had Emily falling over the edge. Tara guided her through with her fingers while standing upright and taking Emily’s mouth into hers again. Emily threw her head back as Tara was still pumping her fingers and started circling Emily’s clit with her thumb. Tara kissed Emily’s neck, up to her mouth again.

As Emily’s second orgasm dwindled down, she turned them so Tara was being pinned against the door with a kiss. As they make out Emily searches for the zipper on the side of Tara’s pantsuit. She gets it unzipped and smugly tugs it down Tara’s body as she leaves kisses in her trail. Emily stops and plays with Tara’s already free breasts as she finishes taking off the pantsuit. Once the pantsuit is discarded by her underwear Emily continues her descent. Emily inserts a finger and starts pumping lazily kissing her way back up. Emily kisses Tara’s mouth twice then whispers, “you going to be a good girl?” Tara whimpers slightly and nods causing Emily to add a second finger and thrusting them faster while circling Tara’s clit with her thumb. Emily could feel Tara was on the edge, “cum for me.” That was what Tara needed to spill over the edge. She slumped against Emily who held her upright fusing their mouths. Tara winded Emily’s gray hair in her hands, pulling her head back to deepen the kiss. Emily moaned into the kiss which encouraged Tara to deepen the kiss even more. They get pulled back into the world when someone knocks on the door. They quickly get their clothes fully on and then Emily leads Tara back to the table.

Penelope gives Emily and Tara a knowing look when they get back to the table. “You are very behind on shots.” Kate says pointing to the shots at where their stuff lays. With reality weighing in on Emily, she starts shooting back the shots. Tara looks at Emily shooting the shots like nothing and gives her a concerned look while slowly shooting her multiple shots. “Where’s JJ and Elle?” Tara asks noticing their absence. Alex nods towards to where they are on the dance floor.

Elle and JJ are dancing with no space in between them. Elle keeps looking at JJ’s lips and having to remind herself that it isn’t the past, JJ isn’t single anymore. She’s not the type to cheat on her significant other. Elle really should put space between them, but she just can’t bring herself to move back. JJ has her arms wrapped around Elle’s neck and everything seems right. If JJ wanted space, she would create the space.

JJ sees the heat in Elle’s eyes, she has the same heat in her eyes. Memories of the past in her head haven’t stopped since she laid eyes on Elle. She hasn’t failed to notice Elle constantly looking at her mouth. Memories of her doing that right before kissing them in a hotel room on a case floods JJ’s brain. JJ grabs Elle’s hand and drags her to a secluded space in a random hallway out of view. “Elle, you’re my hall pass.” JJ says and Elle is confused at first, but then she understands. JJ kisses her as soon as the confusion leaves her face. They break apart and stare at each other for a second. Elle then spins them and pins JJ against the wall with a bruising kiss. JJ wraps her arms around Elle’s neck pulling her closer. Their breathing becomes pants and Elle unzips JJ’s jeans. Elle rubs JJ’s clit and whispers,”are you going to be good just like all those years ago?” JJ responds by moaning into Elle’s mouth as she initiates another kiss. “Yes mommy.” JJ says while Elle adds a finger and starts pumping in and out. Soon JJ is tumbling over the edge. Elle adds another finger, “c’mon baby, you can give me another one.” JJ could feel another orgasm coming up. She kisses Elle hard in between pants. Elle sticks her other hand down her own jeans and starts circling her own clit. “You’re not to cum until we cum together.” Elle says slowing her pace on JJ and upping her pace on herself. JJ whimpers, “I’m not gonna be able to hold out much longer.” Elle gives her a look and then kisses her. Pumping at the same speed for each of them, soon they both were finishing and Elle took her hands out of their pants. She pushed JJ more up against the wall and put their bodies flush against each other. Elle kissed JJ softly then pulled back, “I missed you.” JJ’s eyes soften, “I missed you too.”

Elle kisses JJ one more time, then leads her back to the table. Elle whispers in JJ’s ear, “we’ll continue this later.” JJ blushes while she sits down. Penelope gives them the same face as she gave Emily and Tara. Kate and Alex look in between the two couples that formed tonight with a smile on their faces. “Well, let’s head out, we can go to my house!” Penelope says starting to gather everyone. Alex butts in, “we can actually go to mine, I have more bedrooms for people to sleep in.” Alex smiles at Penelope and Penelope nods in agreement. Alex gives out her address and they piled in two ride shares.

They arrived and Alex’s house was beautiful. It was a medium sized house, but it was perfect for a married couple. James, Alex’s husband, was away on work so we had the whole house. Alex led us in and Elle and JJ took one room, Emily and Tara took another and Penelope and Kate took the family room. They all met in the kitchen getting glasses of wine. All of them were at least tipsy from the shots at the bar. The girls ended up staying up until late in the morning just enjoying each other’s company.

Promises at Prom

Word: Prom. Pairing: Gentarou/Kengo. Request: @askrikkaiandhyotei

Technically, Gentarou wasn’t going to prom with Kengo. He was going with Ryuusei, who was no longer a student at their school and therefore wouldn’t be there at prom if Gentarou wasn’t his ticket. 

And technically, Kengo wasn’t going to prom with Gentarou, since he was going with Jirou. This was, of course, so that Ryuusei could be with Jirou. It all worked out, numbers-wise, since Yuuki would be with Miu, JK would would be with Shun, and Tomoko had invited the real Nadeshiko, to everyone’s surprise.

But the technicalities didn’t mean anything, since it was Gentarou arriving at Kengo’s apartment on the Machine Massigler, dressed up in a white suit with an orange handkerchief in the pocket, and it was Kengo, in a navy blue suit, getting behind him, holding on to his waist as they made their way to the prom venue. 

It still seemed unreal to Kengo that they were third years, that they would be graduating soon. Of course, he hadn’t expected to even be a third year, but that was on him underestimating Gentarou. 

Lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t realized they were there until they were in front of the ridiculous limo either Shun or Miu had brought the rest of the Kamen Rider Club in. 

“Gang’s all here!” JK said cheerfully, throwing his arms around the two of them once they joined the group. “Too bad you guys didn’t come in the limo, it rocked!” 

“Do you want me to take your photo?” Jirou asked politely, watching Gentarou do the handshake with Yuuki, who was also in a navy suit. 

“Heck yeah!” JK cheered, handing over his camera, since he had joined the school newspaper as a second year. 

“We’re really gonna leave, aren’t we?” Yuuki said after the pictures had been taken.

“Don’t cry,” Kengo warned. “If you start crying, Gentarou will start and we’ll never get into the prom.” 

“That’s right, so let’s go inside,” Miu said authoritatively. “After all, you guys can’t miss your last dance, can you?” 

“Here, here,” JK said, pushing Gentarou, Kengo, and Yuuki towards the doors. “Come on, I wanna show off my moves!” 

“Please don’t break anything,” Kengo said as he let himself be pushed, Gentarou’s arm in his. 

The room was tastefully decorated, the band already set up and playing something that made JK immediately perk up. The group got into a little circle, JK and Yuuki doing most of the actual dancing for a few songs with the others cheering them on and doing very basic dance moves. 

It didn’t take Kengo long to tire of that, choosing to sit down and sending Gentarou to dance with others outside of the club. It bothered him a little to see him dancing with others in his arms, but he knew at the end of the night he’d be with him. 

“All danced out?” Ryuusei asked, sitting down next to him and handing him a glass of punch. 

“Saving my energy for the last dance,” Kengo replied, accepting the drink. “You?” 

“Taking a break.” 

They sat in comfortable silence, Ryuusei clearly watching Jirou dance with Tomoko and JK, while Kengo watched Gentarou do some sort of funky dance thing with Yuuki once a certain song played. 

Ryuusei left, and as the dance went on, other members of the KRC came and went, Kengo accepting a dance every now and then (JK wore him out with his, while Miu steered him around during a slower dance). Kengo was more content watching them, knowing that being there was enough. Oosugi tried to get Kengo to dance more at one point, but someone (thankfully) accidentally knocked over a bunch of chairs, sending the suspenders-snapping teacher away. 

And then it was time for the last dance. Kengo found his way to Gentarou, who smiled at him with all the power of the sun. 

Bloom, swirl, pass the usual time, sprout, until the flower blooms,

The girl group sang, and Kengo felt like crying as Gentarou put his arms around him, the two of them swaying slowly. Kengo could almost believe it was just the two of them as Gentarou gently steered them around the dance floor. As the song came to a close, Gentarou put his forehead on Kengo’s. 

“Promise me something?” he asked. 

“What?” 

“That you’ll always be my best friend?”  

Kengo would have snorted if Gentarou had asked this in any other setting, but here, with everyone in their own little worlds and the weight of graduation sitting on the both of them, all he could was nod, bringing Gentarou into a quick kiss before the song ended. 

“I promise.” 

You don't know how bad I want you to write Mafia Boss! Pierre smut based on Gangster's Wife (the song)

Like she's really worried because he's been on a long buisness trip for a week and missed him, so he takes her to a restaurant he owns. He's trying to assure her that he's alright and blabbering about how she doesn't need to worry but all she can think about is how delicious he looks in his suit. So the play a little game of who gets more riled up under the table, ends up with dinner being forgotten and him carrying her to the car so that he can have her in his bed.

Say no more 🤤

You lean your head a little in your hand as you let your gaze rest on your handsome husband. Pierre was finally back from his trip to Abu Dhabi, and you were glad he came back untouched and without any bullet holes or bruises. “I’m so happy you’re back,” you pur and he takes your hand in his across the table, looking at the bracelet that sparkled around your wrist. It was a gift he brought you, he always got you something when he came back from a trip. “I missed you, mon amour,” Pierre says, kissing the back of your hand. “You know you never have to worry, right?” He continued, and you looked at his face.

He went on about how he could always rely on his crew and his partners. You eyed him in the suit he was wearing, causing a sigh to leave your mouth. Your right heel moved towards his ankle under the table. “Are my stories boring you, baby?” Pierre asked, taking a hold of your ankle under the table. You give him a small smile as his fingertips drift over your skin. “You’re distracting me, you know that’s my favorite suite,” you say, taking a sip of your wine. “Is it?” Pierre asks, humming softly in agreement.

“Mr, Mrs. Gasly, how is the dinner?” The cook made a special effort to greet Pierre and his wife, as he owns the restaurant. You took the moment to move your heel higher up his calves, towards his thigh. “It’s fantastic as always, thank you,” Pierre replied, teasing you as much as you were teasing him. “Any dessert? Let me get you a tiramisu, please, it’ll be done within the blink of an eye,” the cook was gone before Pierre could say anything. “Do you want dessert?” You asked, giving him a slow, sultry look in the dim light of the restaurant. “Because I was kind of hoping you’d eat my pussy for dessert,” you say, not hesitating to tell him, even with other couples sitting at other tables close to you.

Pierre’s not surprised as the grin tugs on the corners of his lips. “You’ll have to patience, princess,” he replies. But you were good at teasing under the table. And it continued, your shoe moving higher up his thigh, teasing the bulge in his slacks, your other heel tapping against his other calf. Pierre caught a hold of your ankle again, signing for a waiter to come to your table. “Tell Roberto that we had to leave because of an emergency. He can decide the tip, as always,” Pierre says, dropping your ankle and motioning for you to get up.

He grabbed your coat from the coat rack and already crashed his lips on yours in the hallway. “Can’t resist you, baby. You’re my weakness,” Pierre mutters against your mouth, getting you to his car. His hand was on your thigh, under your dress as soon as he drove off. There’s no denying that you’re already sopping wet for him, and you can’t wait for the car to reach home. Having Pierre back after a long trip of his meant a long night of him making you cum as many days as he had left you alone in bed at night.

Your back hit the mattress as soon as he lifted your past the guards and into the bedroom. His lips left kisses on every piece of your skin, moving down and further down, your silk dress bunched up around your waist, your thong torn apart by his fingers barely seconds ago. Pierre buried his tongue between your folds, licking a fat stripe up your pussy before sucking your clit into his mouth. Your fingers disappear into his hair, moaning as you hear the wet, slurping sounds as he eats your cunt, drawing more of the whines and whimpers from your mouth. There’s no way he’s stopping as he looks up at you, your tits spilling from the top of your dress and your fingers playing with your nipples.

Pierre glides his tongue over your clit again, letting his teeth graze it slightly, teasing your hole. You’re drifting into the heavens already, watching him through hooded lids as he hovers over you, stripping from his clothes. You let your fingertips glide over his delicious body, his abs, the v-lines. You lean up on your elbows, finally unzipping your dress and getting rid of the piece of clothing. Your mouth waters at the sight of Pierre’s cock, the girth, the veins, everything. His hands curl around your waist, lifting you against his chest and on his cock. Your arms wrap around his neck, your lips connecting once more in a lovely kiss.

“Can’t get enough of you,” he breaths against your mouth, just keeping your pussy wrapped around his cock before he starts fucking you deeply, keeping you up all night to make up for the time he was gone.

Too Hot. 10

Chapter 10

As I walked over to the table to eat I was ambushed by my brother. I didn’t have the strength to pull him off me. Dad grabbed him and got him off, I silently thanked him. Once I sat down mom already had a pile of pancakes in front of me. As began to eat I noticed at the corner of my eye dad and Vegeta continuing their conversation. It was not till Videl came down to eat that the room got quiet. Well, that was until Vegeta snickered and left.

Breakfast went uneventful and I let my parents know I was taking Videl home. On the flight to Satan City I was feeling kind of weird. Once we made it to Videl’s balcony I was getting ready to go, till something caught my attention. When I looked back at Videl she was starting to take off my shirt, that I have noticed she was wearing. I didn’t leave right away as plan. I ended up setting on the banister watching her undress.

She noticed me put didn’t say anything. Actually, she giggled and continued to undress. I don’t know when or how but I had her pin under me, on the floor. She was just in her underwear and I was loving the blush that showed on her face. Just as I was about to kiss her lips there was a knock at her door. I groan and angrily walked over to the door, ready to open it when Videl stopped me. She asked who was at the door, which come to find out was Mr. Satan himself. Damn it!

I watched Videl get dress again and headed to the door. She whispered that I should leave before she opens the door. I was rooted to the spot. She walked up to me and begged that I left. I didn’t. Instead I moved her out the way and was just about to open the door, when jackass slammed it open. I was fuming to where I was about to throw a punch to his unexpecting face, when I stopped in my tracks. I put my arm door and started walking to the window.

I could hear he was asking about me to Videl, but their voices were mumbles to me. I flew off the balcony and started flying aimlessly. It wasn’t until I hit a wall of muscle that I blinked a few times. “Um… Dad? What are you doing here?” He looked confused for a moment.

“I’m on my way to Bulma’s. You’re the one who bumped into me.” He said pointing a finger at me. I nervously chuckle and told him I’m heading home. “Son, is there anything you want to talk about?” I could feel my face heating up and I shock my head no. “I’m here for you, remember that.” With that we flew in different directions. For some reason I don’t understand why I felt embarrassed.

Once I made it home I noticed Goten ki was nowhere near the house. I walked inside and saw mom in the floor, doing sit-ups. Not like I haven’t seen her workout before, just wasn’t expecting it. I walked around her as I went to the stairs. Once in my room my senses went to overdrive, smelling Videl everywhere.

That’s when I noticed that Videl panties from the other day was still on my floor. Then I saw that not only was her panties, but her shirt and shorts. I was in the process of picking them up when I felt my mom walking towards my room. Her ki didn’t feel mad or edgy, so probably it’s something small and not worth paying mind to. I just put Videl clothes in a bag to give to her when mom opened my door. She still had sweat from her workout.

“So sweetie, do you think you can give my a hand with lunch?” OK, now I’m worried. For one, mom never out-right ask for help. Second, she’s using her sweet voice. Great. I’m in trouble. I inwardly sigh as I nod my head.

I followed her to the kitchen, when she gave me a list. I looked at it and it was a bunch of herbs and types of meats. When I asked what she wants me to do, she said if I could go gather those up. At first, I was confused, till she told me how dad usually does it, but couldn’t today. I found that weird. Mom always buys everything. Since when does she make dad gather and hunt? Yeah, fish and some meats. But never have I seen him down right hunt a bear or tiger.

When I asked mom about this she said how dad stopped hunting those when he found out about the heart virus. I was still confused but didn’t voice it out. As I walked into the woods I came across something I never noticed before. A tree that had markings on it, almost like someone was measuring a child’s height. I’ll question when I return.

…

I couldn’t believe it. Dad talked to me for four hours straight about boys, and sex. It was so embarrassing. I don’t think I could face my dad for a whole month. To top it off before he left me alone in my room he gave me condoms! What in the world! I already know about reproduction and safe sex, but did her had to make it so obvious and annoying.

The moment he left I was thinking I should take a nap, to take my mind off things. That was until a certain somebody knocked on my window. I walked over to him and opened my window. He doesn’t really need me to do so, but it’s nice that he at least ask. “So what brings you here?”

He seemed more nervous than usually, which I never thought could happen. Even his tail was swinging side to side, as if it too was nervous. I was about to ask again till he pulled me in for a kiss. Then I remembered the conversation dad had with me and I pushed Gohan away. “Hey. Why you pushed me?”

“Get out.” He looked confused and concern. “I need my space.” He didn’t move. Instead he crossed his arms and asked what was the matter with me. I told him about the conversation I had with dad. He turn beat red and then told me that he got a similar lecture from his mom, when ‘helping’ her cook. We then both sat in silence.

“I don’t know if I should be happy that mom spoke to me about it, or scared.”

“I agree. And the way my dad talked about it I wanted to puke.” We both laughed, until there was a knock at my door. Lord and behold it was dad. “Yes father?” He pushed me to the side and grabbed Gohan by his collar.

“Leave boy, or you’ll get hurt.” Instead of backing down, like always, Gohan actually smirked at my dad and told him how dad could try it. I started getting a bad feeling about this, till a certain person popped out of nowhere. Great, just great. Two dads in the same room. Goku pulled my dad away from Gohan. He then apologized and took Gohan with him.

…

As me and dad flew home, I was started to get really annoyed and angry. We were just coming into the first set of mountain range when I finally spoke. “Hey dad.” He looked at me and said yeah. “What was it like when you and mom were younger?”

“What you mean?”

“Like before you two, you know, got married.”

“I met your mom when we kids. I unknowing made her a promise. We didn’t see each other for 6 years. We ended up fighting each other in the 23rd world martial arts tournament. She reminded me about my promise, I properly proposed. We got married, and then a few months in we found out she was pregnant with you. Is that what you wanted to know?”

“No dad. Um… did you and mom… I don’t know.” I then found myself whispering the question. “Did you and mom ever had sex before you married?” I could feel my checks burning up. That’s when I noticed dad looking away and stopped flying. My embarrassment turned to confusing at this.

“No. To be fair, I never truly knew about it until after me and your mom got married.” I tried to flying around to see my dad’s face. And when I did, I noticed a deep blush across his face. And here I thought I blushed like mom, when really, it’s more like dad. “I do remember feeling weird around her up till the wedding, but I didn’t understand it.” Shortly after that he let out a huge laugh. “Man am I hungry. Let’s hurry home to eat your mom’s cooking.”

I was left shocked as dad hit it into full gear to the house.

snakes & bets | part 4.

Summary: Social outcast suddenly makes friends? And those friends are Hogwarts’ most notorious pranksters? Despite being entirely suspicious, Y/N doesn’t question any motives. The world can’t possibly come crashing down around her…

Warnings: This whole story is angsty, hurt/comfort, smut, will end in fluff but goes through all the other stuff first.

Pairing: Marauders x black!reader, eventual Sirius Black x black!reader

Word Count: 4.0k

Previous Part | (Series Masterlist)

Sirius woke up first, followed by Peter then James. Remus always took the longest after Moony Night. The others got dressed and brushed their teeth while they waited for their friend to slowly come to life. Sirius spotted the food first. He picked up a piece of bacon.

“No one’s ever brought up food before. That’s nice.”

“Who do you think did it?” Peter asked as he grabbed some breakfast for himself.

The boys all shrugged. They went through their list of friends, contemplating which one was nice enough to do something like that for them. James came downstairs with a bread roll still in his hand, the other marauders not far behind him. They felt pretty confident in their conclusion when they came to one. The plate of food was decorated with flowers, a lily resting on top of the bread roll mountain. They thought it was fairly obvious. James held up the little limp flower.  

“Lily,” he called into the common room, making the redhead turn around. “Thanks for the breakfast.”

“Don’t thank me, thank your puppy.”

The four of them frowned for a moment. They rolled their eyes before heading to class. Not sharing most classes with you was a blessing. They only had Charms, Astronomy, and Muggle Studies. They also realized that they actually did share Transfiguration with you— it was just that you always sat at the very front in the corner so they never noticed.

But Transfiguration was second to last that day. So, they only had to see you at the end of the day for that class as well as Charms. Their day was a blissful one without you. Peter suggested eating lunch outside since the weather would soon be way too cold to do so. The other three agreed with him, grabbing their food and making their way out of the Great Hall.

You were laying down near one of the big trees, body completely hidden by it. You were waiting on a parcel from your parents with a refill of your contact lenses so you were in your glasses. The school’s garden gnomes were outlining your body with a bunch of wild flowers, occasionally stopping to hold out their little grubby hands for a piece of the bread that you were eating.

The marauders noticed you too late to turn around. You called out their name with excitement and they trudged over to you. They sat a distance away from you to the point that it almost looked like they weren’t even sitting with you. You shooed away the gnomes so you seemed less strange. The boys watched the gnomes run off wearing tiny pink hats that you clearly made for them. You sat up and scooted closer to them.

They didn’t say anything but kept eating. Sirius leaned away when you tried to stick a flower in his hair, Peter doing the same when you turned to him. You ended up picking the flowers out of your hair. Normally, you kept them in but everyone tended to point and talk about them. You didn’t really get it because flower crowns were in but apparently random flowers didn’t seem to be a trend.

“We missed the last game but my cousin said they’re playing again on Thursday.”

“What?” Peter asked.

“Last week,” you reminded him. “Our family has box seats whenever the Holyhead Harpies play at home. Mary thought we were coming to the last game but I told her something came up. She said they’re playing home again which is awesome because they didn’t have another home match scheduled for a month.”

James choked on his drink. “Box seats? Box seats at a Holyhead Harpies game?”

“Yeah, she said she needed to know now so she could write to Slughorn and McGona—”

“Oh, we’re going!” James declared.

You smiled. “Yeah? Awesome, we have to leave before lunch but we can eat with the team. Ooh, you can wear the sweatshirts!”

“Sweatsh— uh, yeah, yeah, of course.” James quickly covered his own tracks.

You reached into your bag to check your pocket watch. The marauders watched you get up quickly, saying you were going to be late to Potions. You ran off, tripping over your own two feet but managing to stay upright. They snorted as you hit the wall by accident. James turned to the group.

“What fucking sweatshirts?”

Peter shrugged. “Just say we got them dirty or something, didn’t have time to wash them.”

“Sounds good.”

That was the exact excuse they gave you when you met them at the front entrance of the school. You didn’t mind because that meant they wore your present enough to have to wash them. The marauders looked in surprise when a carriage showed up. They were used to James being the richest person they knew. You just shrugged as you ushered them inside.

The Zabini family probably had more money than the Potters even after splitting the inheritance amongst siblings. Your dad wouldn’t have even made it into the family coming from an average muggle-born background if it wasn’t for the fact that he was brilliant at Charms. But thanks to the Zabinis, your parents worked because they wanted to not because they had to.

The carriage sped away with the five of you in it. You jumped out when you got to the stadium, yelling for your cousin. Mary— along with the rest of the team— turned around. You gave her the biggest hug, having not seen her since summer. All of the Zabini cousins were extremely close and they all watched over you since you were the baby of the family.

“You made it,” Mary said, cheerfully.

You nodded like a bobblehead before running over to where the marauders awkwardly stood. Sirius and James flinched when you went to reach for their hands until they remembered that there was company. You pulled them along, Peter and Remus following, so they were standing in front of the team.

“These are my friends,” you said. “James, Peter, Remus, and Sirius.”

Mary shook everyone’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

The team led you all to your seats. The boys were surrounded by Mary’s teammates while she walked ahead with you. Mary threw her arm around your shoulder.

“I’m glad you made friends.”

“Me too. We went to the Halloween dance together.”

“You went to a dance?”

You nodded. “I had fun.”

“Did you go to an afterparty? I remember Ravenclaw used to throw the best ones.”

“We went to their dorm.”

Mary paused and looked at you. “See, when someone says they skipped an afterparty to go to someone’s dorm that usually means…”

You nodded, making your cousin gasp. She looked behind her at the four boys and playfully shoved your shoulder.

“(Y/N)! Which one?”

“All of them,” you whispered.

Mary pulled you ahead even more to gossip before reaching your seats. You told her that you were just friends with them but she was still excited. Like with your parents, the fact that you were starting to make connections at Hogwarts was more exciting to her than you. She left the five of you after making sure everyone was comfortable.

While everyone was enjoying the game, no one was as into it as you and James. Every now and then, Sirius kept looking at you cheer for the Holyhead Harpies. You had a nice smile. He abruptly went back to looking at the game after thinking that. Sirius felt like he was going to be sick even thinking such a thing. He refused to make eye contact with you for the rest of the game and on the way back to Hogwarts.

For once, the marauders gave you a genuine thank you before leaving to head back to their dorm. You awkwardly stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment. You kind of thought that you were going to go with them and hang out after the game but they said they were tired. The boys wanted to add to their map. They were almost completely done with it, just a few corridors left.

“Did you guys see where I put the Invisibility Cloak?” James asked, head buried in his trunk.

Remus chuckled. “Mate, I told you to fold it up and put it in your trunk.”

“Okay, well I was tired, Moony. Don’t be an ass and help me look or we can’t go.”

All four of them began searching their entire dorm. Sirius got down on the floor to look under the beds. He saw the patterned cloth under Peter’s bed, pulling it out and throwing it in James’ direction. He was about to get up when he saw a bundle of bright red fabric. Sirius grabbed it. He dropped the fabrics on his bed. Remus came over and picked one of them up.

“I guess these were the jumpers she was talking about? When did she even do this?”

Peter and James walked over to look at their own sweatshirts. They poked and prodded at them, tracing over their embroidered names.

“Your last game,” Sirius mentioned. “I guess she already finished them… they’re kind of nice.”

Peter laughed. “Well, they better be. All she does is play with yarn all damn day.”

They left the sweatshirts and began to explore the grounds. The marauders barely said hello to you at breakfast the next day. Remus had done the calculations. They earned enough money based off of the bets they did that they didn’t feel the need to go for the little stuff. Now, they were trying to get you to leave them alone. After the quidditch match and the bets, you were useless to them. Even your family being rich didn’t matter when they had the Potters. They figured if they started to ignore you, you would probably leave them by Christmas break. After the New Year, they’d be free of you.

You mimicked their quietness at breakfast. They almost didn’t notice you were there once again as you kept silent and just followed them around. None of them attempted to speak to you either. Even in Astronomy they asked other people if they needed help instead of asking you despite the fact that you were right next to them.

Your hands felt heavy holding up your telescope. This was just one of those days that you couldn’t stay up to watch the stars. Letting your eyes close, your head dropped onto Peter’s shoulder. He pushed your head off of him. You were too tired to notice, staying asleep but now on the floor of the Astronomy Tower. The professor dismissed the class with passes since Astronomy got out two hours after curfew. Everyone left. The marauders got into their beds when Remus looked around.

“Shit, I left my jacket up at the tower.”

Sirius chuckled. “Why do you even bring one if you don’t need it?”

“If I don’t, someone might figure it out.”

“Moons, no one’s going to think you’re a werewolf cause you don’t bring a jacket to Astronomy. Just go to bed, I’ll get it for you before breakfast.”

“Thanks.”

“You can thank me by doing my Charms essay.”

Remus rolled his eyes, knowing his friend was joking. Sirius slipped out before curfew ended right at the break of dawn. The house elves would start cleaning soon and he didn’t feel like tracking them all down to find Remus’ jacket. He climbed the tower steps two at a time. He tugged on his own robe, shivering as he got higher up.

Sirius stopped when he saw you curled up on the floor. He could hear your teeth chattering. Spotting Remus’ jacket, he stepped over you to grab it. Sirius looked down at you once more. He bent down and shook your shoulder, roughly. You woke up, wiping at your face as you sat up.

“How much of the lesson did I miss?” you asked in mild panic.

The raven-haired boy blinked. “Did you sleep here all night?”

“All ni— oh, it’s morning. I guess I did.” You sneezed.  “And someone took my blanket.”

“Blanket?”

“Yeah, I get cold easily. The jacket isn’t enough.” You sneezed again. “I should probably go to Madame Pomfrey before I get too sick.”

You got up, shivering at the cold morning air. Sirius surprised himself by following you to the Hospital Wing. He listened to Madame Pomfrey scold you for continuing to take Astronomy when you constantly got sick in the winter from being left in the tower after class if you accidentally fell asleep.

The marauder frowned a bit. He didn’t think it was necessary for someone to steal your blanket. One day, you might actually freeze to death if it kept happening. Maybe they also could have paid enough attention to at least wake you up. He left when Madame Pomfrey kicked him out, stating that you’d be there all day.

Sirius shook his head when he left the Hospital Wing. He wasn’t even sure why he went down with you. That was a lie. He knew exactly why and it made him a mix of scared and disgusted. There was no way he was developing a crush on you. He was going to need to find Marlene like he did the last time those thoughts popped up. The other marauders looked at him as he handed Remus his jacket before sitting down for breakfast.

“What took you so long?” Peter asked.

“(Y/N) w—”

“Talked you to death about crochet in the corridor?”

“No, she was in the tower. Everyone left her.”

They all laughed except Sirius. He stabbed his fork into his eggs.

“It’s not that funny.”

“What?” James looked at his friend.

“I don’t know, I don’t think her freezing to death is funny.”

“You fuck the little freak twice and now you feel like you need to defend her?”

“I just think we could back off of her a bit.”

James blinked, realizing that Sirius wasn’t joking. He held up his hands in surrender.

“Okay, not funny… is this about her falling asleep or her in general?”

Sirius sighed, throwing his fork down. “I think I like the little freak.”

Whatever conversation that the marauders were having was abandoned. They were completely focused on Sirius, trying to figure out when he started being into you. The more they talked, the more Sirius kept finding little reasons to be into you. James huffed out a laugh.

“Well, glad we finished what we wanted to with the bet.”

Remus nodded. “I don’t think fucking Pads’ girl would end very well, you’re really territorial.”

Sirius glared at him. “She’s not my girl.”

“Please, you ask her out and she’s saying yes in a heartbeat.”

“I’m not asking her out. I don’t want to date her.”

The other three boys nodded in mock understanding. “Ah, yes, you just like her and want to shag her up and down the corridors.”

He scoffed. “She barely turns me on, this’ll go away in a minute.”

“Barely?” James asked. “That sounds like a step up from not at all, doesn’t it, Wormtail?”

“Sure does. Moony, didn’t he say last time that she didn’t get him hard at all?”

“Yep, you barely wanted to touch her. Was it because she’s weird or because you were ready to tear her clothes off?”  

They laughed as their friend growled at them before getting up, tugging on Marlene’s wrist to take her with him. Sirius was determined to get over you. It worked momentarily. The minute Marlene left and you came out of the Hospital Wing, he was right back to square one.

He put himself in between you and James when it was time for Astronomy. Despite the class being only two days out of the week because of how late the class was, you only managed to stay up half the time. With a stuffy nose and a slight headache, you just couldn’t keep up this week. Sirius suddenly felt the weight of your head on his shoulder.

James, Remus, and Peter waited to see what he would do. He poked at your cheek. He poked a little harder when you didn’t stir. Sirius didn’t want to push you off of him but couldn’t take this. You woke up, eyes fluttering open. The other three marauders kept pushing each other as they tried not to laugh at the tinge of pink that suddenly appeared on Sirius’ cheeks when you looked up at him, still with your head on his shoulder.

“You fell asleep,” he said, eyes flicking down towards your lips for a moment.

“Thank you,” you said.

Sirius’ breath hitched in his throat. It was the same sleepy, whiny voice you had when they hooked up with you. He shook his head and went back to paying attention to the lesson.

Every now and then, Sirius looked over to make sure you were still awake. He was aware that he was slowly giving up. James, Peter, and Remus already came to that conclusion earlier. What the hell Padfoot saw in you? They weren’t sure. Sure, Sirius said that all those little acts of kindness worked away at him. They could understand him not finding you annoying. But nice deeds didn’t make someone hot. Did he not see you with the glasses?

When they got back to their room after class, Remus had gladly risked being punched in the face to make the joke that your pussy must have had some type of grip to make Sirius infatuated with you. Instead of punching him, Sirius chucked a pillow at his friend’s face. He fell asleep with a scowl and woke up the same way. The marauders howled in laughter when he confessed that you were in one of his dreams.

Sirius left early with James for his quidditch match so he wouldn’t have to run into you. Usually, you showed up at their dorm a few minutes before the game to walk with them. He couldn’t see you right now. If he did, he would lose all resolve completely. Part of him wanted to yell at you, make you cry so you would leave them alone and he could get over whatever weird crush he felt. He knew that he never would.

It started with the stupid sweatshirts and then the food then the Harpies’ game. You did little things for people just because you thought it would make them happy. Even when it wasn’t reciprocated. Deep down he found that kind of sweet. It was after seeing you half-frozen in the Astronomy Tower that he let his feelings come to the surface. He knew what it was like to feel abandoned by his family at a really vulnerable time in his life. It really stung him that he— and everyone else— did the same to you.

What made it worse was you still saw a good in people that he had long abandoned. He would never be so friendly with people that he didn’t know very well. But you thought you were friends with them and in a matter of days began to do little things for them.

He laughed at himself as he sat down in the stands. He liked you. He liked you and decided that there was nothing wrong with that. Sirius actively made a small space for you to sit next to him when you eventually show up with the others to the game.

You waited till after all the students started heading to the quidditch pitch to leave your room. With the quidditch game between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, you had the boys’ dorm to yourself. You were going to go support James in a minute but you wanted to do something first. Normally, you wouldn’t go behind anyone’s back but this felt sensitive in the way that Remus’ werewolf night felt sensitive. They wouldn’t notice if you nicked their map for half a day.

You just wanted to use it to see if there was a way to sneak to Hogsmeade without Filch noticing. If anyone knew, it would be the marauders. You would simply take the map, go to Hogsmeade as a trial while everyone was distracted, come back and return it. No one had to know you borrowed the map and you never had to worry about Filch catching you attempting to leave campus in the middle of the week again. All the good threads were always gone when the weekend came and new shipments came in on Wednesday.

You carefully crept into the boys’ room in case they were still there. Finding it empty, you strolled in. Last time you saw the map you were pretty sure it was in James’ trunk. You found a lot of things that weren’t the map. Moving on, you closed James’ trunk and went to another one. Four trunks later and the map was nowhere to be found. You pursed your lips in thought. Maybe they were doing something with it earlier? It was probably in someone’s bag.

You sat next to Sirius’ bag on his bed and went through it as gently as possible. You finally found some folded up parchment. Opening it up, you got comfortable so you could memorize the map. You frowned when a bunch of words greeted you instead of a diagram of the castle grounds. Your name caught your eye before you were about to fold up the parchment and put it back.

“Talk to (Y/N) for ten minutes,” you read. “One sickle.”

Your stomach twisted when you saw a little check mark and your roommates’ names next to the task. Half of your brain screamed at you to put the paper back while another half said to keep reading. Your eyes glazed over as you read the list. A lot of different names were on there, along with prices.

You felt stupid as you kept reading. You didn’t suddenly make friends like you and McGonagall talked about. You were a game. For some reason this year they decided to make a spectacle of you for their twisted entertainment. The marauders’ names were written down more than once. You sniffled as you shoved the list back where you found it.

It was beyond humiliating that they were all in on the joke but you. You didn’t know who made it and didn’t really care. They could have left you alone. You would have preferred that rather than being turned into a bet. You weren’t even sure why they would do such a thing. Would they even give you a reason when you asked? You weren’t sure if you wanted a reason. Not if it was going to make you feel worse than you already did.

There was nothing that killed self esteem more than learning that your friends only slept with you because it earned them five galleons. More technically but you didn’t want to add up the money on each individual act. Your feet began to move towards the quidditch pitch even though you wanted to go hide in your room. You had friends. Your heart kept screaming at you that you had friends. Even if they were fake, they were friends and you didn’t want them to leave you because you knew the truth. So you were going to go to the quidditch game and support James like you planned.

You sat down next to Sirius. He immediately split his pumpkin pasty in half and offered you some. He told himself that whatever he felt like doing with you, he was going to. When you shook your head, he gave the other half to Peter. He looked at you again to see some tear stains on your face. Without a second thought, his thumb traced gently over your cheek as he wondered if you were late to the game because you were crying.

“What happened?”

“Nothing.” You shook your head. “My… my mom just wrote to tell me one of our garden gnomes died.”

“Oh.” Sirius nodded even though he had no clue why that was upsetting but he was trying to understand you better. “Well I’m sure he lived a good life that… pesky gnome…yeah.”

“Mmm hmm,” you muttered and turned to the game.

(Part 5)

Part 2 - Surviving a narcissist

Incredibly overwhelmed and feeling sick with anxiety.

That feeling of having an instant connection with someone while doubting your commitment capabilities. I'd never and would never cheat on anyone. It was a feeling of being trapped and confined that scared me.

I met him, Tom, inside the Queensgate shopping centre. I was dressed to KILL. Black leggings and the cutest, most intricate boho braided top. He was casual but smart. Jeans and a plaid shirt. I thought he looked perfect. Everything I'd expected and could barely contain myself.

He kept stepping towards me and I can't lie, fight or flight was there. Everything in me was screaming to turn and run. You're not ready. You're too fat. You are nothing of what a man wants. You don't want kids. You want to travel. You want to buy a house. You want to explore. Have fun. You are the light, fun and energy that hardly can be contained. You want to be totally and utterly committed to someone that wants you and only you. You want a Morticia and Gomez love. You are not enough to be the only thing someone wants.

I pushed forward and he hugged me tight. It was a tight hug, not a secure, safe hug but one that gave the feeling of eagerness and longing.

I pulled back and stared at him. He was stunning. I know that's not what men want to hear. They want manly, rugged and bold compliments.

This man was soft, delicate and fragile. It was endearing, to start with.

We took eachother by the hand. Smiling ear to ear. We walked the streets; talking, chatting, expanding in a new found exploration of minds.

We passed a 'big issue' seller. He caught us. I was neither interested in subscribing nor chatting with him. I wanted to get to know Tom more.

Tom on the other hand, was incredibly polite and engaged in conversation.

Big issue man thought he'd get 2 subscriptions that day. I said I was too young to subscribe, I was only 16 after all. The look of horror on his face as his eyes glanced between Tom and I. Back and forth, back forth. Trying to gauge his next move. Tom clearly looked over 25, with the confidence and beard to show, while my age was questionable. I was 19 but still had that round baby face with clear, baby skin and the giggle of a teen.

Eventually I giggled and pulled Tom away. He was mortified. I laughed and laughed with the look on his face. He was adorable and I was taking great delight in slightly embarrassing him.

He was less than amused but he came around. - He never let me forget this moment.

We went to frankie and bennys for lunch.

I'd ordered a starter and main after much deliberation. Tom was 'surprised I could put that much away' and continued to make jokes about my appetite. It should have been a warning, red flag but it just didn't click at the time.

I insisted on paying my half. I don't want to be indebted to anyone or getting myself into a situation where I 'owe' anyone anything.

We left and kept walking and chatting. Time got away with us. He ended up missing his train. So I offered to drive him home, back to Leicester.

Next red flag id overlooked, I was singing to CDs while driving the hour and a half back to his parents. He criticised that my music, as well as my singing, was utterly awful..

High on happiness and love, I didn't care and swept it under the rug.

He was pretty silent in the car back to his parents.

He was trying to convince me that I should meet his parents. I thought it was a bit soon on a first date but also! My mum always taught me that you never, ever, go empty handed to someone's house.

I eventually conceeded and stopped at a petrol station for a bunch of flowers, a couple of miles from the house.

Again second guessing myself.

We arrived, I was ready to drop him and go home, it was roughly 9pm at this point. He insisted I went in to meet them because he'd spoken to them about me so much that everyone was excited. I went in. Handed his mum the flowers and remarked about how beautiful she was. Everyone has a beauty about them. Whether they know it or not or if they feel it in themselves each day or if they need reminding. There's a sparkle people get in their eyes when they're reminded.

His dad, strong handshake, introduced himself. I liked him immediately. A strong, confident man who could also be sensitive. If this is what I'm getting into, I'm happy. If a man can pass this aura on to his son, I couldnt ask for much more.

A cup of tea and chit chat later, I'd said it was getting late and didn't want to overstep my welcome so it was time I was off. The usual pleasantries and I'd see myself to my car.

A minute or so later, Tom cam running out saying he hadn't said goodbye. He went in for a kiss and I was feeling brave. I took and gave as much of me as I could muster.

We locked, clicked, connected and I didn't want it to end. It felt like passion and love and instantaneous connection that I didn't want to let go of.

But I had to. Eventually we had our goodbyes and I started the drive home.

I sang and car danced and was utterly smitten.

The drive felt like it went so quickly, I was home before I knew it.

I told mum everything. She was happy for me but as mum's do, she told me to take my time and not jump on with both feet. My mum is a wise woman and has the life experience I've yet to experience. I said I'd promised I'd thought everything through and I was being careful.

Today's compilation:

20 Hard-to-Find Motown Classics, Vol. 2 1986 R&B / Soul / Funk-Rock

Yesterday we got into some of the biggest and most well known hits in the history of popular music's greatest ever institution, Motown, but today, with this particular release, we're gonna be digging a bit deeper into the catalogs of the label itself, as well as those of some of its very own subsidiaries, in order to highlight a bunch of tunes that are both very good and, as this album title here indicates, a bit rare too.

And in order to complete this cleverly laid out segue, we'll start off with a Motown sublabel called Rare Earth (pretty good, huh? 😅). Now, naturally Rare Earth's top act was a band you may have heard of before: Detroit's very own Rare Earth! Among only a handful of white acts on the collective Motown roster, this classic funk-rock outfit turned out to be their biggest one. And while the group's most famous song of all, a cover of The Temptations' "Get Ready," doesn't appear on this album, their second most famous song does: the anthemic "I Just Want to Celebrate." And for something rarer, there's "Born to Wander," the first cut off of their 1970 album, Ecology, as well. 

But the Rare Earth label was more than just Rare Earth the band, and to show us just how sonically diverse Motown could really get, the RE label also had a white Canadian guy named R. Dean Taylor on their roster too, whose catchy bit of US one-hit wonder pop-rock lushness, "Indiana Wants Me," made it all the way to the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970. 

We also have the underrated and bluesy Shorty Long, a guy originally from Birmingham, Alabama, whose biggest contribution to popular music was probably the original version of "Devil With the Blue Dress," which was then later much more famously covered by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Shorty's version never charted nationally, though, so his biggest hit would end up becoming the quirky and funky, "Here Comes the Judge," which opens its initial verse with the incredible line of, "stop eating that fudge, 'cuz here comes the judge" 😂.

And lastly, there's Motown's first ever hit too, Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)" from 1959, which was released before the label even went on to adopt its own iconic name.

So, undoubtedly some hits on this album, but the vast majority of them aren't ones that anyone would ever credibly consider to be some of Motown's biggest. A good collection that stands out among most other Motown comps.

Highlights:

Brenda Holloway - "Every Little Bit Hurts" The Velvelettes - "Lonely Lonely Girl Am I" Tammi Terrell - "I Can't Believe You Love Me" Barrett Strong - "Money (That's What I Want)" Shorty Long - "Here Comes the Judge" The Undisputed Truth - "Smiling Faces Sometimes" Rare Earth - "I Just Want to Celebrate" Rare Earth - "Born to Wander" The Supremes - "River Deep, Mountain High" R. Dean Taylor - "Indiana Wants Me" Tom Clay - "What the World Needs Now Is Love"

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1. Is there currently any snow on the ground where you live? Where I live has never seen snow ever.

2. Do you have any nieces or nephews? I don't. I don't think any of my siblings want to be parents either, so I feel like the most I'll have are godchildren from my friends.

3. Have you ever sold anything online? I've sold a few photocards, but that's it. I'd love to try my hand more in selling but I'm just so busy as it is and have little to no time to even respond if inquiries come in. Then there's the effort in making some sort of microsite like Carrd so you look legit, the time and resources needed to pack the orders, then booking the shipping service...I'm just way too busy to become a full-time seller.

4. Have you ever been to an extremely dirty house before? Whose house was it? I don't think I've ever been in a dirty house per se but I've visited families or classmates whose houses are just loaded/packed with so many things in one place. Filipinos like to hoard stuff, so a typical Filipino living room would have things like graduation portraits and diplomas lining up the wall, every single medal their kids have won, religious statues, a bunch of miniature art sculptures that don't necessarily complement, a china collection...the list goes on. Like it's not messy, but it's filled to the brim with so many things that it ends up being an eyesore.

This applies to most households I know of but I'm glad my mom didn't pick up that tendency. She likes to keep the house looking clear and I've ultimately picked up that preference too.

5. Would you ever or do you hunt? It doesn't sound interesting to me in the least and I wouldn't do it.

6. Have you ever blown smoke into a bubble (kids bubbles) before? No. Is something supposed to happen when you do that? Hahaha now you have me curious.

7. What bothers you most about the customers you serve at work? If you don’t directly serve customers at work, what bothers you most about your job in general? It makes work-life balance a myth. Even things like people getting to turn off their notifications in the evening make me jealous because I can't do that – I have to be on call literally, like, 24/7.

8. Do you like to play games on your phone? What games do you play most often? Sure. These days I've been pretty obsessed with Rhythm Hive, which is a (surprise!) rhythm game for Hybe groups. I used to be addicted to In the Seom but I haven't played that in a while. :( I should reinstall that soon...

9. Do you take a lot of pictures of your pets? Of course. I'll whip out my phone every chance I get.

10. Do you screen shot a lot of things on your phone? Way more than I think I do. It's just second nature for me to do so at this point, especially if I feel like I'll need to backtrack on that screenshot sometime in the future.

11. What is the most recent video you took of? Cooper barking threateningly at a nonexistent stranger/noise.

12. Do you have any future tattoos planned out? Will you actually go through with them or is there something stopping you from doing so? I have design ideas but they will always remain as ideas because I'm terrified of needles lol.

13. Who was the last person to break your trust? How did they do so and how did you deal with it? The supplier we got for our event last Thursday. They've been our go-to since last year, never disappointed us, the team's always been a joy to work with; but idk they've had quite a bit of booboos over the last few months and last Thursday was simply mine and my team's last straw. They were extremely unreliable on the day of and for some reason their manpower kept disappearing at crucial points? - like where tf were they hanging out??? - that I had no choice but to manage the entire event myself until the end.

14. What did you dress up as for Halloween? Or if you didn’t dress up, was there a specific reason or do you just not care about that sort of thing? I went to one Halloween party last year, which was Disney-themed, so I DIY'd some clothes to be Winnie the Pooh.

15. Has wind ever done any extreme damage to your home or anything that you own? No. That happened to our neighborhood once though. There had been a typhoon that started off with extremely strong winds, and you could hear windows smashing and glass shattering every minute or so. Fortunately for us we had all of our windows closed that morning so our house was left unscathed.

16. Is your pet very snuggly or are they more independent? Agi lives on being snuggled, and he isn't opposed to whining and barking if he feels like he's not getting enough of it. Cooper is very independent; he'll actively wrestle out of your grasp if you try to cuddle with him haha. Kimi had independent as well.

17. What shirt were you wearing the last time you took a picture of yourself? A white oversized polo with handpainted doodles.

18. Do you enjoy Smile Cookies from Tim Hortons or any of their other charities and/or seasonal promotions? If you don’t go to Tim Hortons, do you dislike the coffee, live too far away from one, or is there another reason? I don't think I've ever eaten anything from Tim Hortons beyond their wraps.

19. Are the photos on your lock screen and on your homepage of your phone the same or different? If you don’t have that option on your phone, what is your background on your phone? They are different, yes. I feel like it'd so boring if they were the same.

20. Do you enjoy taking photos with your significant other or are you just not that type of couple? If you don’t have a significant other, do you enjoy taking photos of yourself more or of your friends and/or family? I definitely take more photos of other people than I do myself.