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lewkwoodnco · 7 months

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Hii I wanted to request Anthony Lockwood×fem!reader with Invisible string, where they're neighbours for years, and used to play together as children. When Lucy joins the agency, she becomes friends with the reader, so the reader starts to be more around their house. Then Anthony starts interacting with her more, and they become friends, but Anthony realises his falling for her, so he starts to become awkward and shy around her she notices it and confronts him about it, then he confesses.

Invisible String - Lockwood x Reader

A/N: fluffy fluffy, though there is like the baaarest hint of angst which is kind of brief as long as you dont dwell on it too long + most of it gets resolved hehe and its made up for in the happy happy ending! yay!! personally i imagine the song she's humming at the piano to be invisible string heheh wc 5.4k

Lucy is waiting by their garden gate impatiently. They weren't running late for their job, but it was chilly out and she wanted to get in a cab before it got much colder. Lockwood walks out soon enough, holding a letter, but he walks to the fence rather than the gate. Over the fence, there's a girl pulling on her gloves as she walks towards her own gate, but Lockwood waves her over.

"What's this? Another lawsuit?"

"Not for me, at least. Our mail got mixed up again."

"Ah. Thanks."

They talk about their week for a while. Lucy watches Lockwood's polished exterior melt as his body language becomes more casual and fluid. The girl pockets the letter and the two of them look at each other for a while. He lamely gestures to her outfit.

"You look nice. Going on a date?"

"Yeah, with this guy in my pottery class."

"That sounds nice. Have fun."

"Thanks. You stay safe."

"I'll try."

Lucy walks over, looking at Lockwood meaningfully while he stiffens reflexively. "Who's your friend?"

"We're just neighbours." The girl smiles pleasantly, but Lucy doesn't miss the way he carefully watches her. They introduce themselves to each other. They chat a little, and Lucy picks up on her good-natured teasing of Lockwood appreciatively.

"So you must have known Lockwood for a while now, right?"

"Try ever since I was born. Our parents got on so well that we used to have dinner together every other day. And that was excluding brunch on the weekends. Trust me, I've had enough playdates with him to last a lifetime."

"Lockwood! You've never mentioned her, not even once."

"Well, to be fair, that was all years ago. We've been a little busy for the, um, last decade or so." There's a silence.

"Oh, there was that summer..."

"Yeah."

"Hmm."

"That had been nice."

An uncomfortable prickling accompanies the silence this time. She finishes fiddling with her gloves and looks ready to walk away, but Lucy recognises the suppressed look in Lockwood's eyes and tries to salvage the situation.

"You should come over sometime. We're doing some spring cleaning tomorrow, if you want to join."

"Luce. Let's not burden Y/N with chores."

"No, no, that sounds nice. I'd love to help. Though Lockwood never struck me as the spring-cleaning type."

"He's being coerced. We're holding his favourite rapier hostage."

Her lips twitch as she slices the envelope open. "Well, I wouldn't want to keep you from your job. Be careful. Mum sends her love." She says the last part more to Lockwood, who smiles with a warmth Lucy had seen little of. He watches her walk out, skimming the letter, and it isn't until George joins them that he looks away.

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Their case is so exhausting and Holly piles so much work on him the next morning that he forgets that she's coming over. It isn't even until the afternoon that he realises she's there at all, when looking for someone to help him rip the stitches off some old curtains. He walks into one of the spare rooms, calling out for George, but he stops short when he sees an unfamiliar figure standing on the bed, peeling posters off the wall. She glances behind and he suddenly remembers the events of last evening.

"Oh - Y/N. Hello. Have you seen the others lately?"

"Lucy went out to get another scraper and I think George went down to the Archives. Holly just left for the post office."

"Oh. I see. Er, do you need help?" She turns around from the poster she was steadily peeling off, dropping it into the pile with satisfaction.

"Nope, that was last of them. Anything I can help you with?"

He hesitates, and she picks up on it.

"Lockwood, I don't have anything to do until Lucy comes home anyway. I don't mind, really."

He relents and she agrees to help immediately, poising to step off the bed. She pauses before making the step, looking at the floor nervously.

"...need help getting down?"

"No. Just...give me a minute." She tries to hold onto the bed's headboard but still suffers from some internal struggle in stepping down. The image triggers a decade-old dormant memory in him, of the time she had slipped from the picnic tabletop in her garden and twisted her ankle. Instinctively, he holds out a hand, which she grabs thankfully and is down so quick he doesn't even realise until she pulls her hand away. The feel of her fully-grown hand in his is a jarring yank back to the present.

"Still so afraid of heights?"

She shudders. "My ankle still twinges if I so much as think of making a small leap. Now, where are those curtains?"

They decide to occupy the couch in the living room, and it's a bit of a tight squeeze with the piles of linens towering around them, but they manage.

"So you take the seam ripper, like so," Lockwood fumbles with the comically small seam ripper but somehow slots it under a tiny stitch, "and you rip the seam. Just like that."

She rips the stitch on her curtain with greater efficiency than him. He looks mildly startled. She glances at the pile of curtains next to her, and then the one next to Lockwood.

"Looks like I'll be done with my pile first."

There's a pause as Lockwood processes her words and the glimmer of competition in her eyes, and then they both leap into action, tugging down yards and yards of fabric, painstakingly unravelling the seams stitch by stitch. It doesn't take long for them to start playing dirty. She tries to block Lockwood's vision by flapping the dusty curtains at him and he tries to slow her down by holding her curtains down. But by the time the rest return, they're too engrossed to sabotage each other so that Lucy finds them sitting in some weird contorted manner, ripping seams feverishly.

"I was only gone two hours! Both of you've done all that?"

She tries to shush Lucy, already feeling herself slow down as she tries to free up enough mental capacity to answer. She feels rather than hears Lockwood giggle in delight as he picks up his pace. Lucy shakes her head, walking out to the kitchen.

"Find me when you're done, I'm having tea." She groans, heavily enticed by the suggestion of biscuits and sweet tea after an afternoon of stringing her fingers to bits.

"Wait, wait, truce please, I want tea."

Lockwood reluctantly lets up, stretching under the sea of curtains around them. They part ways for the evening, taking breaks or helping out with other smaller projects, but they reconvene after dinner, though with significantly less fervour.

An hour or two past midnight, once his neck had started to ache too much, he looks over at Y/N, and realises she's fast asleep. He moves to shake her awake, but she looks so peaceful and alarmingly similar to the little girl he remembered her as that it gives him pause. Lockwood wasn't one for sentimental doting, but it felt nice to have a piece of his long-forgotten childhood in his home again, safe and warm.

He makes a quiet phone call to her parents before fetching a blanket for her. That night, the childhood memories he falls asleep to are warm and happy.

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Lucy wakes up from her nap in a delightfully warm haze. The house is quiet, likely because of everyone staying up late the previous night. She shuffles to the kitchen, but pauses when she hears a curious sound echoing in the hallway. She blearily follows it to the living room, where she sees Y/N and Lockwood sitting opposite each other at the coffee table, playing poker. She seemed to be trying her best to stop giggling, yet failing, while Lockwood berated her.

"Your poker face sucks, Y/N. I know more about your cards than I do mine."

She shakes with silent laughter, covering her face with her cards ashamedly as Lockwood joins in with the laughing. It's a weirdly surreal sight to see. Everntually, Lockwood's eye drifts and he spots Lucy standing in the doorway.

"Luce. Have a good nap?" Lucy grumbles some incoherent reply, pulling a biscuit out of the biscuit tin. She sits down and watches them shriek at each other (Lockwood was right, her poker face was downright terrible) as they finish the game, and Lucy can't help but smile over the idiots.

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"Where's Y/N?"

The first words out of Lockwood's mouth the next morning were arguably his most poorly-chosen yet, especially without any buffer from the relentless mocking of Lucy and George. One of them alone was bad enough, but with both of them joining forces, it made for a very weary breakfast.

"Cool it, she's my friend. Get your own."

"Then what does that make us, if not friends?"

"Neighbours." Lucy smiles innocently as Lockwood throws a dish towel at her.

The rest of breakfast passes up uneventfully, which makes the incident the first thing out of Lucy's mouth as soon as she steps through the door.

"Morning!"

"Lockwood missed you at breakfast this morning."

"Did not."

Between Lucy's smirk and Lockwood sullenly hiding in the shadowed hallway, she wasn't sure what to start with.

"Did too, he so wanted you to be there."

Lucy turns to Lockwood, daring him to contradict her. Holly steps out of the kitchen, straightening her pinafore, but doesn't pick up on the tension so she just smiles. His eyes dart between the three of them and some part of his body decides that panic is the best reaction of choice.

"DEPRAC wants to steal my papers," he says as some odd form of explanation, before disappearing into his room. Lucy snorts while Holly and her share a puzzled look.

"I think he's talking about our case report."

Whatever it was, it was being tucked away into his coat when she ran into him at the front door about ten minutes later. His smile is part grimace.

"Sorry about earlier." He stops talking, but looks like he wants to say more, so she patiently hovers. "About breakfast - I just feel bad for doing all this free labour, breakfast is the least I could offer-"

"Don't sweat it, I'm fine."

"Well, I'd feel a lot better if you popped by for a bun every now and then."

Her lips twitch. "Maybe I will."

There's a concerned look in his eye and his gaze that lasts a little too long to be comfortable, and it reminds her of the last time he looked at her like that. It had been near the tail end of the summer a few years back, late at night. She had been crying something awful on her front porch after a certain Noah Lewis had dumped her, and he was neighbourly enough to play a good samaritan in talking her through it.

It had started with a lot of unrestrained swearing and dragging of Noah Lewis' name through the mud as soon as she walked through the front gate, the kind that made her father peer out the window in alarm and then disappear back into the house. After a good quarter of an hour of this, her rage faded along with her energy, and she ended up crying embarrassingly on Lockwood's shoulder. "That's it," she had sobbed into his soft, forest green sweater that smelled like clean cotton. "I'm done with dating. It's the single life for me from now on." What flimsy grip she had managed over her emotions started to slip once more, as she burst into a new set of wails.

"Oh God, I'm going to die alone!" Lockwood rubbed comforting circles on her back as she clutched him tighter.

Looking back, she understood the smile on his face a little better, though a part of her still wanted to stay peeved at him for laughing at her misery. At least he had the decency to cold-shoulder Noah when he came around a few days later.

The memory occupies the back of her mind for the rest of the day, and it's still there when Lockwood returns. She doesn't realise it, but it makes her soften around him, though not noticeably so. By then, they've cleared up enough of the house to uncover the piano tucked away in the basement. Holly had spent the afternoon lovingly tuning it and polishing it up, but no one else seemed much interested in it.

After dinner, she sees Lockwood sitting at the piano, watching the keys as if he's too afraid to touch them. She joins him at the bench, taking in the sight of the glossy keys she could barely hear being played from her room when she was a child. Maybe that's what she's thinking about when she asks him to play something for her, and he obliges.

He plays a short piece that isn't extremely elaborate by any means, but it's beautiful and makes her want to rest her head on his shoulder. When he finishes, there's a short silence, and she tells him it was beautiful. She feels him smile against her head. Her fingers meander over the keys and she plays the occasional note as she hums some tune tucked away in the recesses of her mind. He picks up on it after a while, playing a more complete accompaniment to her stilted humming. She tilts her head where it rests on his shoulder to look at his face, and his hand slips on the note. She wishes to stay there forever.

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"Hey."

"Hey." The last one was from Lucy, and it earned her a reproving glare and there was this silent yet intense communication between the girls. It's the next day, and now they've started on the library, sifting through the masses of newspapers dating well back into the past century. Lockwood had just returned from helping George at the archives (all the dust and cleaning was making his allergies act up so he wasn't at peak performance, as much as hated to admit it). She finally looks away from Lucy with the air of washing her hands of her, looking up at a forgotten Lockwood.

"Your coat collar's turned up."

"He does that to look cool. And because you're here. Dunno if you've noticed, Lockwood, but the coat hanger's by the door."

"Ha-ha. I'm leaving for Satchell's soon. Just...wanted to see how you were getting on."

"Wanted to see how Y/N was getting on."

"No, no." But his voice is a little too high-pitched to be fully convincing, and Lucy bursts out laughing, and his annoyance evaporates his nervousness. "Just making sure you haven't bullied her to tears, Luce."

"I've been such an angel."

She traces the outline of Lockwood's coat with her gaze fondly. "I remember the morning you bought it." She leans conspiratorially towards Lucy. "Preened in front of me for a good ten minutes, shifting his weight around to look cool. He only stopped when he heard my dad coming out to get the paper."

"That's awfully patient of you. George and I just try to suffocate him when he gets too unbearable."

"Are - are you hearing this? Admission of assault."

'Oh hush, you big baby."

She smiles as she watches them bicker. Lockwood clutches his chest with an exaggeratedly injured look, and their eyes briefly meet. He looks away first.

"What can I say? When you're stuck with this...peacock of a neighbour, you're bound to be forced into being an adoring audience on more than one occasion. Comes in and disrupts my peaceful mornings."

"Someone had to appreciate it, and you're always up at the crack of dawn."

"So are you, but you don't sleep so it doesn't count."

Lockwood lets out an uncharacteristic bark of laughter. Lucy's eyes look like they're about to fall out of her head.

"Sue me for wanting to share first thing I bought with my hard-earned money with someone."

She chokes on her breath, barely holding herself back from a fit of giggles. Lucy looks as though Christmas had come early.

"Lockwood had a job? Like, a proper one?"

"Well, I don't know if I'd call it a job so much as a cosplay of being working class. But yes, he manned a frozen yogurt cart in the park a few summers back. First and last time i've seen him willingly sit out in the sun."

"Oh, please, at least I didn't spend my days making eyes at Noah Lewis."

She shrugs in mock ignorance in a way that Lockwood can't help but match her smile. For a while the only sounds that could be heard were of the girls shifting through the newspaper with inky fingertips, until Lockwood finally gets up to leave for the client meeting.

It's an uneventful trip and consultation, but looks promising enough in terms of commission. It's tedious enough to make him peckish for a mid-morning snack. When he returns, he walks into the kitchen to sneak a biscuit and finds her fiddling near the stove.

"Oh, hi. Lucy and I wanted some tea but I'm not quite sure I know how your kettle works..."

He fiddles with the plug a little, twisting the wire in ways that make her concerned for his safety, but eventually they hear the kettle hum cheerfully, and they silently wait for the water to boil. She fidgets, trying to make small talk.

"How's George's room coming along?"

"I told him to pick out his favourite biohazards. The rest would have to go."

The kettle starts to crackle louder now. She eyes it apprehensively but Lockwood doesn't seem to even register it.

"House looks...pretty much the same."

"Yeah."

"I like it."

"Thank you. But I'm glad we're doing this. The spring cleaning, I mean. Sometimes I wonder if it's too crowded."

"I like it. I think it's crowded with life."

He gives her a soft smile and when he looks at her, he's not as quick to look away as before. But then he remembers her outing last evening and carefully broaches the subject. After all, it had been a while since they talked about things like this, and she was by no means obligated to, but he tried.

"How was your...date?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes. It was alright. He's a nice guy. Patient. Down-to-earth Unlike someone I could mention."

Her teasing smile is back, and Lockwood feels as though a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. His features contract into a familiar melodramatic expression.

"I'm sorry I disrupted so many peaceful mornings."

A smile slides back onto his face as she scoffs and gives him a shove. "Very funny. You were plenty insufferable before your friends came along. You're lucky I wasn't as creative as them."

"Mm, so grateful."

More silence. "They seem nice, George and Lucy. I see why you spend so much time with them."

And not so much with me, she wanted to add, but she didn't want to cause unnecessary strife, so she just focused on keeping her tone light. But Lockwood still picked up on the subtle edge of bitternes.

"I thought you...moved on to other things in life. You don't stop to chat by the fence much anymore."

"You got so busy with your agency business. I didn't want to impose."

She glances at Lockwood's genuinely puzzled expression, his lips barely parted as she saw the cogs turning in his head, trying to reconcile the idea of their chats being an imposition. She feels awkward in a way she's never felt with him, even when it was just the fence in between the two of them. They went from close, to distant, to kind of close again for that one summer they were 16, and now...now she wasn't sure.

"I'm sorry I made you feel that way. I...I didn't mean to."

"Yeah, well...you can say hi more often. Or bye. If you wanted to." It was stupid; she knew she was being childish but she couldn't help it. Something still smarted inside of her when she saw the three of them traipsing off most nights, something she didn't quite understand.

"I always want to."

"Lockwood? You better not be withholding tea."

They get startled by Lucy's voice and take a step back. Lockwood fumbles as he pulls off the top of the cottage-shaped container, scooping out piles of teabags. "Look, plenty of tea. All the tea. Please don't tell Lucy."

She shakes her head, bemused, pouring water into their mugs just as Lucy walks in, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at Lockwood. Luckily, she gets distracted quickly enough and starts dumping sugar into her mug. She watches Lucy for a while until Lockwood fold his jacket over his arm, brushing her shoulder as he walks past.

"Hm?"

He stops by the door to the kitchen, a familiar easy smile on his face. He looks like home.

"Bye."

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"Why do you call him Lockwood? Surely you knew him when he was 'Anthony,' or - or was it 'Big A'? Please tell me it was 'Big A.'"

She had started to become a regular visitor at the breakfast table, which meant more time for Lucy to spend interrogating her on everything and anything about Lockwood. Even George had joined in briefly; it was too good of an opportunity to pass up for an enigma like Lockwood. All the while, he anxiously flitted around, on guard to brush off anything too incriminating.

He carries the kettle away, mildly peeved. "I think that's enough tea for you, Luce." Lucy makes a face behind his back and the girls share a muffled laugh.

"Oh, he hasn't been Anthony for ages." She smiles briefly, but gives Lucy's hand an intentional squeeze, her eyes asking Lucy to not press it. She doesn't realise how Lockwood has suddenly become much more interested in the paper only because she too is avoiding eye contact.

She remembers it like it was yesterday. Her parents had done their best to help Lockwood, but there was only so much they could legally do (not that it stopped her mother from sniffing disapprovingly at every inept social worker that walked up the garden path). It had been after Jessica's funeral, and for once they were both on the same side of the fence: sitting on the steps to the porch. He was wearing a suit that was a bit too big for him, not unlike his daily attire now, and the smell of burnt rubber hung in the air.

"I don't think I want to be Anthony anymore."

It was a decision that never confused her, not even for a minute. Anyone would have needed a reconstruction of identity after going through such traumatic experiences at an age as young as his. Adjusting to the change had been surprisingly smooth too; he didn't look much like Anthony after that day either. But it was bone-deep agony to watch time drip by, like lazy honey, and only being able to hope that he was getting happier.

Lucy picks up on the hint and starts asking George about the rooms they need to tackle today. Meanwhile, she walks past the kitchen window, nearly bumping into Lockwood. They breathe a reflexive apology and laugh lightly. Her eyes land on the angry red cut on his forehead.

"How's the-?"

"Oh, it's fine. Just a scrape. I've had worse."

"Aw, you poor baby."

Lockwood laughs weakly as she gently tugs at the skin near the cut, which at least seemed to be better than the previous night. When looks away she notices the pink tinge to the tips of his ears. She frowns at the slightly ajar window, closing it firmly. There still was a chill in the air from the frost that hadn't completely melted away yet.

True to his word, Lockwood comes home with a broken wrist a few days later. George is rather miffed and Lockwood insists that he's making it sound worse than it actually was, but that doesn't stop her from wincing when George claims he heard the snap of his bone from the floor below. Despite Lucy's insistence that he had survived much worse, she can't help but fret over him a little.

"I can pour my soup myself, you know."

"Yes, yes, you're a big strong man who needs no help. Now go sit down, I'll bring your toast." It might have been more convincing if she hadn't been absent-mindedly muttering, or even without the pat on his head, but he still took his seat at the table, not entirely unhappy. George had managed to wrestle him into his bed in the afternoon and his body finally succumbed to the beckoning of sleep, making him sleep through dinner. It was just the two of them in the kitchen, one anxiously watching the other sip their soup.

"Really, you didn't need to do this. It's no trouble on my wrist."

"Lockwood, the doctor said not to put any pressure on it. It is, by definition, trouble on your wrist."

He sighs, frowning at how she worries her bottom lip. "You're not...doing this out of guilt, or something, are you?"

She opens her mouth to deny it, to say how preposterous such a suggestion is, but her protests die on her lips. She takes a shaky breath.

"I was thinking about the days after...you know. How exhausted and lonely you must have been. How I didn't care enough to visit you more, to even cross that fence, unless it was to come running to you with my own silly problems."

"Y/N," he looks like he wants to smile but is trying not to for the benefit of the situation, and it rubs salt in her wound. "Of course you cared. You were just a kid, acting like kids do."

"I yelled at you about Noah when I was 16. 16."

"And I appreciated it. You gave me something more normal to be mad about. You made me feel like a teenager again." He reaches out and covers her hand with his uninjured one. "And I don't ever want you feeling like any of your problems is too tiny or insignificant to bother me with. I'm your neighbour, what else am I good for?"

She gives him a watery smile, feeling the tension that had been bunching around her temples all afternoon start to dissolve. He always knew just what to say, the ointment to every wound and scratch. He made it easier to live, easier to breathe.

"Wait, where's Lockwood?"

"Going down to Arif's."

"With a broken wrist?"

"He still has his left hand!" Lucy calls after her, but she's too busy scrambling for a pair of mittens and hurrying to the front door. Luckily, she catches him just as he's about to head out, and a smile cracks open on his face when he sees her.

"Everything alright?"

"You forgot your mittens."

He eyes the patterned woollens in her hands. "Y/N. I haven't worn mittens since I was...six, maybe."

"Obviously, since that's about how long they've been collecting dust in your old coat - which, by the way, is in no shape for the Salvation Army. You didn't set it on fire, did you?"

"Look, when it comes to fires, I may have an affinity for them but not necessa-"

"Fine. Just wear the mittens."

"I'll only be a minute! What's the worst that could happen?"

"Oh, yes, because a cold is exactly what you need on top of a snapped wrist and cut." She holds the mittens out expectantly, and he reluctantly takes them. They spend a few awkward minutes trying to figure out how to get them on without his cast getting in the way, and Lockwood nearly drops them when he gets startled by the brush of her fingertips on his palm, until she decisively puts them on his hands herself. When she looks up, his ears are tinged red again, as well as his nose.

"See, you're already getting cold. Are you sure I can't go to Arif's for you?"

They hear a scoff from behind, and turn to see George watching them. She looks at him questioningly but he ambles past her to the kitchen, muttering words under his breath she couldn't quite understand. Lockwood takes advantage of the pause in her fussing and steps out before she can continue protesting, but the sight of the mittens securely pulled over his fingers gives her some relief.

George turns his snigger into a poorly concealed cough.

"What now?"

"If you keep kissing his scrapes better, he'll throw himself off a cliff one of these days."

"George." Lucy admonishes him while she tries to settle the awkard swooping sensation in her chest.

"It's true and you know it."

Lucy nods awkwardly at her. "I mean...he's got a point."

When she thinks about it, it makes her feel funny in a way she can't deicide.

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Later that evening, she's sitting on her porch, brooding, when Lockwood leans over the fence.

"Home so soon?"

"Thought I'd come here for some quiet thinking."

He nods affably, his flyaway hair gleaming in the setting sun. "You left your cards in the living room."

"Come on over," she says unexpectedly, possessed by a sudden desire to be close to him. It surprises her as much as him, but as she watches him walk out of his own gate, and strangely walk into her gate, the foreign sight reassures her with a distant sense of familiarity. She had been on so many crazy misadventures, but they all led her back to the same place: in his arms. Maybe the universe had grown hoarse from yelling at her to open her eyes to what was right in front of her.

He sits down next to her and hands her the cards. She looks at the quiet face of Anthony hiding inside the sallow face in front of hers, and marvels at how the same time that put her through hell as a child had somewhat healed his wounds. She puts them to the side and links her fingers in his, resting her head on his shoulder as their breath misted in the chill.

"Remember that summer at the yogurt shop?" She feels him relax against her as he hums in agreement. "You looked so fresh in your teal shirt."

"I wondered what you were doing, sitting under that tree all day. Was it really just to watch Noah all day?"

She shrugs. "Maybe. It was a weird sort of year. I had this restlessness in me...this desire to sit outside in the world and wait for things to start happening to me. For someone to find me and for my life to begin." She shifts, a ghost of a smile playing on her lips. "Speaking of Noah...did you know he got married last year?"

"Someone wanted to marry Noah Lewis?"

"You say things like that as if I wasn't ready to have his children just two years ago."

"To be fair, you weren't the brightest two years ago."

"Anyway, they're expecting a child. Him and his wife. I even sent him a baby shower gift."

"A gift? What, TNT?"

She laughs into his shoulder, and she can feel him metaphorically swelling with pride. And when she stops laughing, there is nothing to distract her from the dull ache in her heart, the string that tugged at it as it desperately reached for Lockwood's. Lockwood, who invigorated her spirit and quelled her anxieties, who was the balmy breeze on a warm summer evening, who smelt of a pleasantly sharp soap. She stumbled and fell a million times with all the wrong people in all the wrong places, but now she felt as though she were being reeled home by the invisible string that permanently and irrevocably tied her to him.

She looks up at the sky, a thousand different shades of blue, purple and pink. The temperature continues to drop, but with Lockwood's arm wrapped around her after a particularly vicious gust of wind, she feels warm enough. She murmurs into his neck and feels the hair at the back of his neck stand against her lips.

"Isn't it just so pretty to think...all along there was some invisible string," she inhales, "tying you...to…me."

#fanfiction #lockwood & co #anthony lockwood x reader #anthony lockwood x you #lockwood and co #anthony lockwood imagine #fanfic #lockwood and co netflix #lockwood x y/n #taylor swift #folklore #invisible string

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dejwrld · 9 months

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˚₊𓆩༺🎸༻𓆪₊˚ — summer of 22', choso kamo

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐈𝐈𝐈 — FIREWORKS AND FIRST KISSES

🩰 — choso & y/n attend a summer festival together as technically their first real date, but feelings and the summer heat kinda get the best of them.

ᩍ before reading please be advised of the following warnings — female reader, female anatomy describe, slice of life au, band member!choso, skater!choso, record shop worker!choso, extremely fast paced fic, tooth rotting fluff, kinda my own ossumption and characterization of modern choso, profanity, mentions of family drama, reader & choso making out, slight exhibitionism kinda, brief clit play, kinda, festival chapter yay, mentions of other characters: utahime, geto, maki, yuji, mimiko and nanako (whose aged down for plot purposes) | mdni, taglist, masterlist, other creations

chapter playlist | moment by vierre cloud, small infinity by houston kendrick, honeymoon fades by & sabrina carpenter

It’s been a week since Choso admitted to having a crush on you and your mind still was running rapid about him telling you this. You’ve completely ignored the fact that he was crushing on you when you two would text or talk on the phone late at night. You adore how patient he was with you, even though you were sure he craved to hear your thoughts on the crushing situation—he didn’t pester you about a decision on if you like him back or not.

He was so soft with you that it caused your stomach to fill with butterflies and your cheeks to radiate so much heat. Choso clouded your mind so heavily that even your little class of eight-year-old dancers could tell that you were thinking of someone. The innocent teasing of them claiming you have a boyfriend when they catch you staring off with a smile. Currently, Utahime is sticking a beautiful pink flower hairpin in your braids that was pulled back into a perfect bun.

“Your head has been in the clouds lately, are you okay?” Utahime questioned as she glanced in the mirror in front of your vanity. “I’ve noticed you dazing off when you practice.”

“It’s nothing.” Your words tumble out so quickly that Utahime knew that was a lie. She finally managed to neatly place the hairpin in your hair before she glanced in the mirror at your reflection.

“Is it that boy?” Utahime questioned. “It’s so strange because your mother always would say the same thing when she would space out. Just to find out she was daydreaming about your bonehead of a father,” Utahime chuckles before she motions for you to stand from the seat you were sitting in.

You stood up smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles from your attire before speaking, “He admitted to having a crush on me.” Your eyes glance down at the geta footwear that was on your feet before you glance at Utahime’s teasing smile.

“That’s so cute, but he’s a nice guy. I met him when he first got hired at Suguru’s shop.” Utahime pointed out. “How do you feel about that? The last time you were serious with someone, it was that one guy. What was his name?”

“Naoya. I wouldn’t count that as anything serious. We didn’t really get anywhere. He just was a bed warmer after long hours in dance class.” Your shoulders shrug. “I don’t know, maybe we’re moving too fast.” Your words sting your own tongue even saying.

You liked Choso, you liked him more than you expected actually. He brought a smile to your face without you realizing it. He made you feel so alive that on some occasions you forgot to breathe. He was a breath of fresh air in your suffocating world of dance and you loved that.

“Do you think you’re moving too fast or are you only saying that to consider self-sabotaging what you guys are growing into?” Utahime waltzs around you to ensure that your yukata is perfect.

Which it was. The floral print and pastel pink shades complement your complexion wonderfully. You felt like a princess that just got pampered and frankly, you couldn’t wait to see the way Choso’s eyes light up brightly when he saw you.

“Maybe, I am self-sabotaging. I’m only here for three months before I have to return to the States for university.” You grabbed your clutch to place important things in it. “What’s the point of putting my all into something that could be temporary to the both of us.”

“You don’t know that Y/N,” Utahime says. “You don’t know if he views this as a temporary thing. You’re just overthinking.” She playfully slaps your shoulder.

The sound of your phone ringing interrupted your next words and your cheeks heats immediately seeing his name flash on your phone. Your thumb drags alongside the screen to answer the call and hearing Choso’s voice sent a nourishing quiver down your spine.

“Hey, I’m outside. I was wondering if you wanted to walk to the festival together.” He then kisses his teeth. “I should have asked this earlier, but I was helping with the inventory at the shop, so I forgot.” He rambles on about his day of counting records for Suguru and your lips curve into a smile as you’re mouthing a farewell to Utahime and leaving the room.

“I’m coming down now, just give me a couple of seconds.”

You end the call and when you finally make it down, Choso is leaning against a wall waiting. The black kimono he wore hugged his figure nicely and displayed that whatever free time he had outside of being a responsible older brother, skateboarding, working in a record shop, and being in a band—he worked out. When his eyes landed on you, his smile grew bigger and his eyes glimmered while he closed the gap in between you.

“Wow.” was the only thing he could utter as his dark eyes glossed over you one more time. He extends his arm for you to grab upon and you do immediately. “The festival isn’t that far away, so I hope you don’t mind if we walk. I just thought it would be nice to do so.”

You smile at him while gripping his arm while walking, “I’m okay with that. I’m just glad to be spending time with you.” You look over at him and notice the tip of his ears immediately reddens at your words. “Does your ears always do that?”

“When a pretty girl has me blushing, yup!” Choso bluntly admits as he walks in the direction of the festival. The two of you can already hear the loud music from different instruments.

“That’s good to know. It means I’m doing a good job at winning you over.” You playfully nudge his side with a smile. “I’m glad you invited me to this, I would have been stuck being bored in Utahime’s place.”

“They have a pretty cool firework show at the end and I thought it would be cool to watch it with you.” Choso smiles and now it was your turn to feel your heartbeat quicken and your cheeks steam with heat.

You peek down at your shoes before speaking, “Then thank you again.” You quickly pressed a kiss on his cheek before continuing to walk.

This time not only did his pierced ears illuminate a shade of red, but his cheeks also. You had a charm on the man and you knew it. “Did you ever talk to your brother? You guys left off on a sour note,” You pointed out as you glanced over at him.

“He actually hasn't been home lately. Staying over at a friend's house because it’s closer to his internship,” Choso’s lips form a straight line as if he was trying to believe his own words. “But he’s supposed to be here tonight because he volunteered to work at one of the booths.”

“Well, I still think you guys should talk. It seems there's some tension between you two,” You point out. “But we don’t have to talk about it,” A comforting smile spreads across your face while you continue to walk. Your eyes look ahead seeing the decor for the festival bit by bit.

“I don’t want to dampen the mood, it’s just when our mom just up and left leaving us with his grandfather—it took a toll on him when he was younger. He told me he saw her again when he was out with his friends and she completely ignored him.” Choso comment. “So, I feel like he’s doing this just to try to get her attention. Which he’s never going to get.” Choso sighs.

A frown appears on your face hearing his words and you sigh, “I’m sure he’ll realize that she isn’t a good person.”

“But I just don’t want him to realize it when it’s too late,” Choso interjects and when you two finally make it to the entrance of the festival, the gloomy look that decorated his face disappears. “But on a lighter note, let’s have some fun.”

You didn’t want to pester him anymore about the situation. You gave him a smile and let him guard you through the crowd at the festival. As you two ventured through vendor booths and food booths, Choso noticed Noritoshi holding the hands of Mimiko and Nanako while talking to this dark-haired girl who wore a royal blue kimono.

“Choso!” Noritoshi yells while waving the hand he briefly detached from holding one of the twins.

You approached the group with a smile and Noritoshi couldn’t help but return it.

“Suguru, went to go find Satoru in this crowd of people and I’m stuck with the two lovely twins.” He motions to the twins who were gripping his attire completely shy since it was a certain stranger by you.

“Mimiko and Nanako, how’s dance class?” Choso bends over to their height to open his arms and let them run into them. He picked both of them up with ease. “You know, my friend here always is a dancer.”

“Really?” Nanako glances over at you and you wave at her but her shyness overcomes her again and she hides her face in the crook of Choso’s neck.

“So, Choso. This is Maki, she's the newest employee at the shop and guess what? She’s a bassist player,” Noritoshi smiles at him.

Maki adjusted her glasses on her face before waving, “Suguru told me you guys needed a bassist player,” Her voice trails off before speaking. “So, here we are. Do I need to like audition?”

Choso and Noritoshi share a look and you were expecting for them to say yes because that’s what bands do. They held auditions for members to join, but they shook their heads and let out a similar laugh. “No, if Suguru hired you, you got to be one hell of a player,” Choso answers.

He places the twins back down, ruffling up their hair before looking at Noritoshi and Maki. “I’m going show Y/N around, text my phone.” He stops abruptly to give Noritoshi a warning look. A look that told Noritoshi to not call his phone at all while he showed you around.

“Jeez, I get the memo. Remember you’re opening tomorrow, so don’t stay out too late.” Noritoshi’s eyebrows weary together. “Now, who wants taiyaki?” He asked the twins who cheered excitedly and grasped Maki’s hand to follow Noritoshi into the crowd of festival attendees.

Now you and Choso were alone again to enjoy the festival, engaging in childish games at booths, and now enjoying food before the firework show to conclude the evening. You ate your food and soon you felt someone staring at you when you glanced up from your food, you met Choso’s alluring gaze as he tapped his silver ring-covered fingers on the table you sat. You swallowed the last bit of food that was in your mouth before speaking, “Is there something on my face?” You question while hands embarrassingly brushing anything off your face.

“You don’t have anything on your face, Y/N.” His lips swell into a smile before adding. “You’re just so beautiful.” He sighs happily and leans forward to pick up one of the dumplings from your food and pop one in his mouth.

Your body grows hot and a tingling chill travels down your spine before clearing your throat and sipping at your throat. “Thank you. But I must remind you, if we want to have a nice spot for the fireworks show, we should hurry.” You glance at the time on your phone.

Choso continued to eat as if your words went into one ear and exited out the other. He takes a bite out of his food and shrugs his shoulders, “I know a spot that has the best view of the fireworks. Don’t worry,” He flashes a comforting smile that causes you to ease in your seat—correction, make your whole body fill like a bowl of putty Geto’s twins possibly play with.

“Special spot? I’m flattered, have you brought every one of your dates to this special fireworks viewing spot?” You ask.

“No, I usually don’t go to these types of things. But I thought it would be romantic to take you,” He grins and you can’t help but return the smile.

Choso finishes his food and tosses it in the trash closest to you before speaking again, “Do you have doubts that I’m actually interested in you?” His dark eyes that you tend to be afraid to gaze at look at you.

“It’s not that.” You split your last dumpling in half—picking it up with your chopsticks and guiding it towards Choso’s mouth. He eagerly eats the half you offered and waits for your response. “It’s just I refuse to believe that you’re single or it’s not other girls in life or interested in you.” You eat the last bit of your food.

Choso picked up your trash to throw away before finding his seat yet again. His fingers comb through his jet-black strands of hair, “Obviously, there are girls that are interested in me. That private message me on social media, and believe it or not—even a groupie or two. But they don’t pique my interest as much as you.” He explains.

He watches you chew at the straw of your drink before grabbing your free hand. Despite the summer heat that had you sweating in your attire, the coolness of his rings cooled you down. The pad of his thumb rubs against your hand, “I know, we only have such little time together before you’re back in New York. But, I feel good about this. About us. As hopelessly romantic and cliche as this sounds.” He sighs and removes his hand from yours.

You felt empty when he drew his hand away to stand up.

“Are you ready to see some fireworks?” He extends his hand for you to take and you grab onto it because you wanted his touch more than ever.

You let him guide you through the crowd of people who were making their way closer to the sight of the fireworks. But, when Choso made a turn in an area that you were sure wasn’t meant for festival goers—you gripped his hand tighter, and like the gentleman he was, he returned the squeeze just to comfort you that you were going to be okay. He opened the gate and let you walk through first and the two of you followed a trail that led to a hill that overlooked the festival. Many people that were wandering around looked like ants compared to where you and Choso were. Completely starstruck from the view, you didn’t notice that Choso put down a blanket for you to sit on. You kick your shoes off and sit down on the blanket next to him just in time for the first firework to decorate the night sky that had a sprinkle of stars twinkling down on you.

Your eyes glance at the colorful works of art in the sky, but you didn’t even notice the stare Choso was giving you at the moment. As his body was sprawled out on the blanket and his head resting in his hand, he stares at you as if you’re the best piece of art in the world’s exclusive museum. As if you were the muse of every song he’s written with Noritoshi. While you were astonished by the fireworks in the sky, he was astonished by you and your beauty that causes the blood to rush to his olive shaded cheeks.

“If you take a picture, it’ll last longer,” You turn to look at him, your body moving a bit to be closer unintentionally.

“Maybe I should do that,” He fishes for his phone and put the camera on you. “Smile.”

You smile for the camera and when he was done, he show you the picture. You wanted to admit that this the happiest you’ve been when you were away from home. From traveling to Russia to Europe, your ballet trips around the world were eventful—but lonely. You’ve spent the time with your peers, stunned everyone with your skills, but still felt alone. But this summer, you felt as warm as the weather that kissed your skin when you left Utahime’s apartment. He made you feel this way.

“Can I ask you something?” Choso breaks the calming silence between you two. His eyes glancing at the fireworks but then back at your face to meet your curious look.

“Sure, ask away.” You respond.

“Can I kiss you, Y/N?”

Your heart pulses in your chest and you are forced to swallow the lump that suddenly formed in your throat. Timidly, your head nods because you are lost with words—but if those words were to untie and come undone, they would be eagerly saying yes. Yes, that Choso could place his soft pink shaded lips on yours as if it was the end of the world.

When he leaned up to meet you halfway, his lips crashed on yours so intensely that your mind immediately froze. Choso kissed you as if you’ve never been kissed before. Stealing the thought of every guy that you’ve lip-locked with and tossing it in the trash because they no longer mattered. The kiss was hot—moist and breathy, the two of you weren’t per se trying to win a battle of who’ll kiss harder, but more so still learning what kissing technique can cause the other to gasp in a hot moan or cause goosebumps to garnish each other’s skin. Less likely a battle, but a union—a mere collaboration to want to be close with each other. Surely, Choso knew this. He’s urging you on your back under the blanket that was on the ground, while his large frame climbs on top of you—not breaking the kiss at all.

You wanted to curse yourself for deciding to go all out at this festival. Utahime made it known to you that you didn’t have to wear the attire because people also go to the festivals in regular clothing, but you want to respect the culture and be in the spirit of the date insisted. Now it was in between the steamy moment of Choso’s guitar playing hands from free roaming your frame. His lips travel across your jawline, kisses, sucks, and nibbles. The sound of the fireworks blocks out your moans, but just at the sight of Choso’s pierced ears growing red—you knew he could hear them. He knew he was making you feel better even if he couldn’t indulge in the wetness in between of your thighs.

His lips travel back to yours to deepen a kiss that made your heartbeat. Your eyes shift close in the bliss of the moment before your fingers comb through his hair. You tugged his long strands just a bit to gain a moan before he finally gave you what you wanted. His touch.

The fireworks expand brightly in the night sky above you two, practically being the only source of light you and Choso had. His fingers dance behind you to undo the knot that holding your kimono together and close. But he didn’t fully push it open, just a bit to help him be comfortable in between your thighs that he used his own knee to push them apart.

His hand disappeared in between your bodies and you anticipated him to slide those guitar-strumming fingers in your panties, but teasingly—his index and middle fingers pushed upon your folds. Even you can feel how wet you were due to such a small task causing your panties to stick your lips provocatively. Your eyes finally open and you’re met with Choso staring down at you. His cheeks were stained with a crismon colored blush and kissed swollen lips were curving into a smirk.

“All we did was kiss, Y/N.” He reminds while fingers trace alongside the waist line of the seamless nude panties you wore.

You cover your face in embarrassment just in time to feel your face warm up. “Oh shut up.” You slap his shoulder playfully.

“Do I have that much of a charm on your, hm?” He rubs his fingers in a circular motion, not even bothering to pull your panties to the side. But to let you wither under him as he teases you.

“Maybe you do,” Your words were like a broken record. You can hardly get your words out with him toying with you like this.

“That’s good to know,” He clicks his tongue and he pulls your panties to the side. His lips kissed you so sensually until you were moaning mess beneath him with each motion of his fingers.

You’ve heard many rumors and jokes about how band members are splendid with their fingers and gosh, was he proving those rumors to be as true as ever. He haven’t even inserted any in you yet, but just the way he strummed your clit as if it was his guitar caused you to moan out his name.

Choso. Choso. Choso.

In a faint whisper in tune with the fireworks, he says in your ear, “That’s right, say my name.”

Through the cracks and booms of the fireworks, for the remainder of the night—the only name you knew was his and the fact that he was very talented with his fingers.

(🎸🩰) — tags. @maydayaisha @spiderpunkfien @bbytamaki @honeybleed @yeagerzprettyblnt @smileyy-cakee @hoohoohope @theclassbookworm

#choso kamo x reader #choso kamo fanfic #jjk fanfic #jjk x reader #jjk smut #anime fic #anime x reader #angelshubnetwork #anime smut #choso kamo smut #female reader #black reader #x black reader #⊹˳⁺ ♡ 𝒻𝒶𝓃𝒻𝒾𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒸𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈

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j-eryewrites · 7 months

Text

Please Hold to My Hand

Part Four of A Sinner's Redemption

SERIES MASTER LIST | MAIN MASTER LIST

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Word Count: 11.4k

Warnings: Canon typical violence, gun violence, people, death, gore and injuries, lots of feelings, horrible jokes (that I even laughed at), language. (Let me know if I have missed anything)

Author's Note: Finally! It’s out. I’ve been writing this between classes and really haven’t had time to review the work. Piper is finally letting down some walls and so is Joel! Yay! We get some more flashbacks and, of course, Ellie and Piper's shenanigans. I hope you enjoy this chapter. If you liked it, I’d love to hear from you either with comments or reposts! Thanks!

Dirty. Piper felt dirty as she stood in the moldy gas station bathroom. Moss grew from the cracks in the ceiling and she was sure the black substance behing the sinks was something otherworldly. Shivering, Piper squeezed her limbs as close as she could to her body making herself as narrow as possible. Behind one of the bathroom stalls was Ellie, taking a bathroom break.

Piper couldn’t understand how her sister could relax herself enough to use the restroom in a place like this. With the creak and slam of the bathroom stall door, Ellie appeared with a care in the world. Again, Piper shivered and took a step away from her sister as Ellie stepped in front the the broken mirror.

“Jesus Ellie let’s go,” Piper said before turning around to face her sister. “What are you–” Piper laughed and for a moment she forgot about the disease infested place she was in.

“Pew, pew. Pew,” Ellie whispered. In her hand was the gun Piper had given from her.

Piper shook her head at her sister’s antics. “No, no, no. Here’s how you do it.” Stepping forward, Piper reached out a hand to grab hold of the gun, but Ellie pulled away.

“Hey, let me do my thing,” Ellie begged.

Rolling her eyes, Piper crossed her arms and sighed. “Well you’ll shoots someone’s eye out. At least take out the bullets.”

“Hmm,” Ellie hummed not realizing that was an options. She turned the gun around looking for a way to remove the tiny deathly objects in the gun.

“Here,” Piper muttered as she showed Ellie how to remove them. The young girl watched and took note of everything that her sister did. The dull metallic bullets fell out the cartridge and into Piper’s hand. “See?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah,” Ellie said and she retrieved the gun from her sister’s hand. Once again Ellie raised the gun at the mirror and put on her best menacing face. It was practice for when she actually got to shoot the weapon. In her mind, Ellie wondered if she would be as good of a shot like Piper was.

“Can we go now?” Piper asked. Her shivers got worse and Piper began to believe she could turn infected from just standing in the bathroom any longer.

Cocking the gun back, then shoving it deep into her backpack, Ellie nodded and the two girls trudged through the mess and out the doors to the fresh dry air.

Coming around the corner, they saw Joel just as they had left him; On the ground with one knee raised as support as he blew into a long straw like thing.

“We have to do this every hour?” Ellie sighed.

Piper could see Joel was just as annoyed as Ellie when it came to stopping every hour. “Gas breaks down over time. This stuff’s almost water. Back in the day, we’d drive 10, 12 hours on one tank. You could go anywhere,” Joel said.

“So,” Piper asked, “where’d you go?”

Joel looked up at the two girls. His eyes squinted underneath the bright light of the summer sun. “Pretty much nowhere.”

“Boring,” Piper muttered before finding a rock to kick around.

Joel continued blowing into the big straw.

“Nice!” Ellie leaned in close. “How does that work?”

“It’s a siphon. It’s when liquid…” Joel paused thinking about his words. “travels against gravity because pressure…”

Ellie smirked and chuckled. “You don’t know.”

“I know it works,” Joel quipped back making Ellie laugh even more.

Once the laughter was over, the young girl soon sought other sources to still her boredom. Lifting her legs up comically into the air, Ellie began to peruse around the rusted cars that Joel was searching for gas from.

As her eyes followed the rock on the ground as it rolled back and forth, Piper called out to Ellie. “No wandering”

With the biggest sigh she could conjure, Ellie replied. “Okay. This is your fault then.” She warned. Then dropping her backpack to the ground she pulled out a small book. Flipping it open she began to read. “It doesn’t matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.” Briefly, Ellie looked up to gage Joel’s and Piper’s reaction. Laughing, Ellie revealed the cover of the book. “No Pun Intended, Volume Too” by Will Livingston. “Volume Too.” Look. You get it? “Too”? Like, T-o-o.

“Jesus,” Joel grumbled.

“What did the mermaid wear to her math class?” Ellie paused. “An algae bra. Like, algae bra. Okay, I stayed up all night…”

“No.” Joel tried to interrupt Ellie, stopping her from telling the next horrible joke.

“wondering where the sun went…,” Ellie continued. “...and then it dawned on me.”

This joke made Piper laugh. It wasn’t so much the joke, but how much Joel despised them. His face contort with each failed attempt at a joke and it made both of the young girls laugh.

Joel sat up and glared at the two of them. “Feel free to wait in the truck.”

Piper’s eyes widened at the warning. “Going now,” She mumbled before leaving her rock on the ground for the safety of the boiling hot car.

“Ugh, okay,” Ellie sighed. “but just know,” the young girl warned, “you can’t escape Will Livingston. He’ll be back. There’s nothing you can do to stop him.”

As the girls hopped back into the car, Joel returned his mind back to retrieving gas. It was only a few more minutes for the dark liquid shot thorugh the hose into the gas canister and Joel was ever grateful for those few minutes of silence and solace from Will Livingston and his terrible jokes.

꧁_____________꧂

Everything was the color of rust. Rust was the color of time and those forgotten and neglected, left to the mercy of nature. It was boiling and there was noting the air conditioning in the car could do. There wasn’t anything in sight except for dirt, sand, and crumbling cars. Even the normally blue sky was tinted a shade of brown. Piper felt like she was stuck in a valley of emptiness, not a living thing around.

As the car drove further and further down the road, Piper moved her gaze away from the window and instead to the rear-view mirror. There in the mirror she saw something alive, something that kept her alive and going, Ellie. The younger girl sat lazily in the back of the truck using her bag as a head rest. Meanwhile, her hand gripped a pencil dragging it back and forth across a notebook. At least someone was entertained.

Eventually, Piper brought her sight back onto the endless road in front of her. Cars were pilled high to the sides as if something huge parted the sea of metal carcasses.

“Must’ve been some truck,” Piper mumbled.

Joel glanced over the side at the girl. “Yeah, they used to stick big-ass plows on them, and clear the roads for their tanks and such.”

Piper nodded her head in response. It seemed like Ellie had tuned into the conversation, her sketch book forgotten beside her. “I wanna see a tank,” Ellie chirpped as she scanned the sea of vehicles.

“You will,” Joel assured Ellie. “Tanks, choppers, all that stuff. But they’ll fight the wrong enemy. Just scattered around now.”

Bitting the inside of her cheek Ellie pretended to listen beyond the words “You will” before changing the topic.

“I got somethin’. Here,” Ellie passed up a small tape. Joel, curious, snatched it from her hands. “This make you all nostalgic?”

He had to pull the tape farther away from his face to read the fine print. His eyes pulled into a thin line finally making the words readable. Damn he was getting old. “This is actually before my time,” Joel corrected.

Ellie’s smile faltered. “Great,” she mumbled.

A strange tightening in his chest formed at the disappointment in Ellie’s voice and Joel couldn’t help but want to salvage the situation. “It’s a winner, though.” Ellie’s smile was back on her face. Upon seeing her smile, Joel placed the tape into the slot and hit play.

♪ We met in the springtime when blossoms unfold ♪

Tapping her finger on Piper’s shoulder to the melody of the song, Ellie’s flashed with a wicked glint. Withdrawing her hand and shoving it into her bag she pulled out something new. “Oh, man. Got somethin’ else,” Ellie said. Joel and Piper mindless nodded at her words. “It’s, uh… light on the reading, but it has some interesting pictures.”

As Piper and Joel whipped around Ellie’s smirk grew.

Gotcha! She thought.

“Oh. No, no, no. Put that back. That’s not for kids. Ellie!” Joel’s and Piper’s voices seemed to blend together as they tired to discourage Ellie from looking further.

Playing align with the ruse, Ellie buried her face between the pages, getting a good look at the images upon them. “How would he even walk around with that thing?”

“Fuuuckkk,” Piper groaned as she placed her head between her knees.

“Please get rid of it,” Joel begged. His hand reached back to take the magazine away from her.

Ellie swatted his hand away. “Hold your horses. I wanna see what all the fuss is about.” She quickly perused the rest of the magazine, except for a few pages. “Why are all these pages stuck together?”

Piper gaged like she was about to throw up.

“Uhh… the…” Joel was speechless.

Then Ellie burst out laughing. Her head thrown back as the giggles overcame her small figure. “I’m just fuckin’ with ya.” A window rolled down. Dusty wind blew around the car. “Bye-bye, dude!” Ellie had thrown the magazine to the wind.

♪ Alone and forsaken by fate and by man ♪ Oh Lord, if you hear me, please hold to my hand ♪ Oh, please understand ♪ Oh, where has she gone to ♪ Oh, where can she be ♪ She may have forsaken some other like me ♪ She promised to honor, to love, and obey ♪ Each vow was a plaything that she threw away ♪ The darkness is fallin’, the sky has turned gray ♪ A hound in the distance is starting to bay ♪ I wonder, I wonder what she’s thinkin’ of ♪ Forsaken, forgotten without any love ♪

꧁_____________꧂

The scene had changed now. It was green. There were trees and fields of grass. It was a welcomed changed to the drylands they had just drove through. The air was cooler now and the car wasn’t as hot. Piper could even imagine she was on a real roadtrip driving through the world before the outbreak. She felt normal.

She pressed a button and the passenger window opened. A brisk air kissed Piper’s face blowing the freed stands of her hair behind her. Yet she wanted more, so she slowly pulled out the hairtie. Her scalp groaned as the pressure was released. Then came the bliss as the wind weaved between the strands of her hair massaging her scalp. Her eyes close shut opening her arms to the comfort the wind gave her.

A shiver creeped up Joel’s shoulders and he turned his head to Piper. His mouth hung open with his forgotten wish to close the window. She seemed at peace as the music played and wind blew through her hair. She looked like what a kid like her should look like: Brow not filled with the worry of survival, hair not tied up and closed off to the world, happy, calm, and content. A thought of pity grew in Joel’s chest. This is how Piper should be living. Both her and Ellie. Afterall, they’re just kids. Kids with the future of the world on their shoulders. It was a weight they shouldn’t have, that no one should have. Joel knew that better than anyone.

“All right,” Joel sighed. “That’s enough for today.”

The wind release Piper’s hair from it’s hold as the window rolled back up. Rocking side to side, the truck turned away from the road into a grassy field. They were headed to the forest up ahead. A forest that would give them shelter for the long night.

Together, they did their part to unpack and get food started for dinner. Sitting down on the ground, the three of them ate. Piper wasn’t quite sure what they were eating, but it was cold and good. The square like noodles just slide down her throat easing her stomach’s plea for food. It was delicious.

A slurping noise came from beside her. “Jesus, Ellie. Slow down,” Piper said.

Ellie was slouched over her bowl devouring the food. Red sauce encased the skin around her mouth. “This is slow,” She mumbled with her mouth full of food. “What am I even eating?” Ellie asked.

Joel using his fork to point to the food inside his bowl answered. “That is 20-year-old Chef Boyardee ravioli.” His tone made the two girls think that this was the best food ever created on planet earth.

Ellie shoved another fork full of food into her mouth. “That guy was good.”

“I actually agree,” Joel added.

“Hmm…” Piper hummed. “How long we staying out here?”

Placing his bowl down into his lap, Joel replied. “I figure I sleep tonight… and drive tomorrow all day, all night, get us to Wyoming by next mornin’.”

Ellie sighed and rubbed her now fully belly. “So can we start a fire? I’m freezing.”

“No.” There was no hesitation in Piper’s answer.

Ellie rolled her eyes. “Well, you’re not in charge, now are you Piper?”

“Hey, hey,” Joel interrupted and waited for the two girls attention to be on him. “Now, why am I gonna tell you no?”

Sinking into the ground with disappointment Ellie answered, her voice as monotonous as they come. “Because Infected will see the smoke.”

Joel shook his head. “No. Fungus isn’t that smart. This is too remote for Infected, anyway.”

“People?” Ellie guessed. “So what are they gonna do? Rob us?” There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice as if being robbed was so horrible.

It was Piper who spoke next. There was no emotion as she spoke. The peace Joel had seen her face earlier evaprotated and he could almost see the ghosts hiding behind Piper’s brown eyes. “They’ll have way more in mind than that.”

“Okay.” Joel softly said as he observed Piper. There it was again, that same tightness his chest, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything to her. Instead he told the girls to hurry up and eat then get ready for bed.

“Actually smells kinda good,” Ellie commented as she flung her sleeping bag out, laying it onto the ground.

“Well, that would be Frank’s then,” Joel replied doing the same with his sleeping bag until a shuffling nearby caught his eye. “What are you doing?” Joel asked Piper.

Her sleeping bag was still bound. Instead, she stood by the truck grabbing something from her bag. It was a gun.

“Getting ready for watch,” Piper said. Her focus on checking her gun.

Joel pushed himself off the ground and approached the girl. “No. We’re all sleeping.”

Piper ignored Joel as she checked the bullets, counting them out. Joel did the only thing he thought would work. Placing his hand on the gun, her forced Piper to lower the weapon and look at him.

“Trust me,” Joel said. “No one is gonna find us.” His voice was clear and full of comfort. It was the same voice he’d use whenever Sarah cried to him at night about the monsters in her closet.

The teenager scoffed. “Bullshit…” Yet the longer she looked at Joel, the more she felt like letting go of that gun and letting the walls fall just this once. Her eyes fell to the ground. “jesus fuck…fine.”

Removing his hand, Joel returned to his sleeping bag. He watched as Piper placed the gun next to her sleeping bag, which now laid out on the ground next to Ellie’s. Eventually the girl did lay down, pulling the covers over her shoulders. Satified Joel followed suit and the lamp light dimmed until it was dark.

“Joel,” a small voice whispered. “Joel.”

Joel groaned. “What?”

“Can I ask you a serious question?” It was Ellie.

“Ellie…” Piper warned with a tiredness in her voice.

“I’m serious!” Ellie said.

“Yeah,” Joel said giving her the go ahead.

“Why did the scarecrow get an award?”

Joel was silent for a moment before he answered. “Because he was outstanding in his field.”

A whispered wave of giggles escaped the two girls. Both of whom didn’t expect the answer.

“You dick! Did you read this?” Ellie asked a bit louder.

“No. Now go to sleep.” Joel commanded.

“Hm,” Ellie mumbled before settling back down. “...Those people you said… there’s no way anyone knows we’re here, right? No one’s gonna find us.”

With those words, Joel was thrown back into his past and all he could hear was his daughter crying in the dark of her room. All sign of sleep and exhaustion evaded him now. “No one’s gonna find us.”

“Okay. Goodnight Pipes” Ellie whispered.

“Night Els…,” Piper replied. “...night Joel.”

꧁_____________꧂

There was no way Piper could ever sleep. Her sister’s words floated around her head and Piper had to be sure. Ellie had to be safe. It felt like eternity waiting to hear Joel’s breathing slow. Once the old man had fallen asleep, Piper peeled herself free from her sleeping bag. Each movement was carefully calculated to achieve the least amount of noise as possible. With her gun in hand and jacket zipped up to the top, Piper climbed on top of the truck, finding a seat on the roof of the car.

She had to admit, the forest was beautiful at night. There was a low chirping noise rumbling throughout the trees. Crickets, Piper guessed and she prayed it wasn’t something more. After a moments, contemplation the teen concluded her original hypothesis was correct and she soon tunned her ear into the other sounds of the night.

Piper was glad that they had the truck. It proved to be a useful vantage point. Even in the dark, Piper felt as if she could see more of the forest, than she would on the ground bringing the teen comfort.

The girl and the woods fell into a rhythmic cycle as the minutes passed. There was the cricket’s song, the breeze tickling the trees, and her own breathing. Again, and again this cycle came. Crickets, breeze, breath. Crickets, breeze, breath Crickets, breeze, breath, shuffling. Piper froze. Her head whipped around, and her gun raised defensively. She was ready to shoot.

“Kid?” A gruff voice spoke. It was Joel. Piper’s shoulders lowered at the sight of the man. “What are you doing?”

Piper didn’t answer for a moment. “On guard.” Not wanting any more conversation, she whirled back around, her sight on the forest once again.

Joel stood up and his hands found their place on his hips. He looked at Piper as she sat defiantly on the truck. Her back turned to him. The sight almost made him chuckle as he saw himself reflected in her figure. Almost. Instead, a worry fell over him. She was a kid. A kid who deemed sleep just as pointless as him. Releasing his hands from his hips, Joel pinched the bridge of his nose. Piper needed to sleep, but she was stubborn. Just like him and if he guessed now, Piper wouldn’t go to sleep without a fight.

He was too tired for this and too old to fight a headstrong teenage girl. Instead, Joel kept his mouth shut, picked up his rifle and turned his back to her, guarding the other half of the forest.

The two held their ground in silence and the forest fell back into the rhythm again. As the pattern repeated, the more Piper felt unease. Sighing, she turned around to find Joel.

“I’m sorry,” Piper said. She wasn’t even sure why she said it, but she knew she needed to.

Joel turned his head around at her voice. He wasn’t sure why she apologized yet still he replied. “It’s fine.”

Silence fell over them again and Piper bit the inside of her cheek. It was awkward to say the least. She waited, but then realized Joel wasn’t going to say anymore, so she turned back around.

“...the stars…are nice,” Joel noted.

Piper looked up for the first time that night. There they were. The stars were breathtaking. She hadn’t ever seen them that clear. “Yeah,” she agreed. Together, Joel and Piper withdrew their attention from the forest to the sky. “You know, Ellie is a fanatic for the stars, space, whatever else is up there.”

Joel glanced at Piper and there he saw it once more. The very expression in the car he saw on her face, now bloomed under the night sky. There was the kid she should be.

“...that one, the one that looks like a demented spider. Apparently its called Hercules.” Piper pointed up into the sky.

“Huh,” Joel hummed.

“Yeah, that’s about all I know. Ellie, I swear, knows them all.”

Joel tore his eyes away from the demented spider constellation. “Kid, you should get some sleep,” Joel suggested.

“In your dreams, Joel.”

꧁_____________꧂

It was official. Ellie hated sleeping outdoors. This was the second time she woke up with a knot in her back. Groaning she pushed herself off the cold ground of the forest. Looking around, she saw the rolled up sleeping bags nearby.

“Look who’s finally awake,” Piper commented as she walked by Ellie carrying her supplies to the truck of the car.

Ellie waved her middle finger in the air for Piper to see earning a laugh from her sister. Soon the young girl’s stomach began to rumble. Fueled by her hunger, Ellie crawled over to the pots and dishes piled together hoping to find something to munch on.

Lifting a lid, she found a boiling liquid. Taking a brief sniff, she pulled back and slammed the lid back on. “Ugh! The fuck is that?”

“You don’t like coffee?” Joel asked.

Whipping her head around to face him, Ellie replied. “If it smells like that, no.” Piper walked up beside her sister and crouched down, lifting up the lid to the coffee pot. Ellie saw the darkened circles underneath her sister’s eyes. “How’d you sleep?” Ellie asked Piper.

“Like shit,” Piper replied. She eyed the coffee. “Can I have some?” Joel nodded and Piper grabbed a cup and poured the black liquid into it. She raised the cup to her lips and drank.

Ellie gagged. “You are no longer my sister.”

Piper chuckled. “You’ll get it one day.” Ruffling Ellie’s hair, Piper stood back up to help Joel finish packing the truck.

“Is that seriously what those Starbucks in the QZ used to sell?” Ellie questioned.

“Well, theirs was a lot fresher than what Bill saved up, but, yeah, this is what they sold,” Joel explained.

Ellie shook her head. “Smells like burnt shit.”

Piper laughed once more. “Alright, hurry up and eat. We’ve gotta leave soon.” Leaving Ellie, to scavenge once more for food amongst the pile of dishes, Piper sipped her coffee. She hoped that maybe the caffeinated liquid would keep her sinking eyes awake and the exhaustion in her bones far away.

꧁_____________꧂

“Eyes on the map,” Joel instructed. His voice clear and firm.

Piper shot up in her seat. Her eyes wide open. She observed she was in the car. The vehicle hummed as it traveled along the road and Piper couldn’t recall how she even got into the car in the first place.

“Alright,” Joel said as the car pulled off to the side of the road, coming to a stop. When the shift stick was in park, Joel turned to the back seat. “Ellie, switch with Piper.”

Shaking her head, Piper replied. “No, I’m fine, just–”

“In the back,” Joel said and Piper knew she couldn’t fight him on this.

Unbuckling her seat belt, Piper reluctantly opened the passenger side door and crawled into the back. On the other hand, Ellie was esctatic to sit up in the front next to Joel. Jumping in her seat and getting a feel for the cushioned leather, Ellie beamed.

“Wow, it’s so much nicer up here. I’m never sitting in the back again!”

Just as Ellie was about to fiddle with the stereo, Joel shoved the map into her hands.

“Here.” Joel pointed to the map. “We’re here and need to go here. Remember.”

Ellie’s eyes narrowed, following Joel’s thick finger as it danced across the map. “76 west and then… 70 west for, like, ever.”

“Yep. Now eyes on the map.”

Rolling her eyes, Ellie glanced back down at the map. Her small fingers ran along the path that Joel had shown her moments before. Each time she got to the end, the image in her mind only grew more potent until Ellie was confident she could recite the map from memory. However, there was only so much of “eye on the map” she could take and soon Ellie diverged her attention elsewhere.

First, she experimented with the rearview mirror. It wasn’t something Joel particularly needed, so Ellie had free rein, so long as she didn’t annoy the old man. The small rectangular mirror, let her see the dusty road behind her. She ogled as the cloud of dust rippled out behind the truck clouding the green scenery behind her. Soon Ellie discovered that the mirror could move, tilting up and down and side to side. She tilted the mirror to look at Joel for a brief moment before she caught his glare. Quickly, she turned the mirror to herself. She extended her legs, leaned in close, and chuckled. Her face looked more stretched out than it normally did, and her eyes looked funky.

Ellie could have looked at herself for god knows how long if it weren’t for the pothole the truck conveniently rolled over. Thumping down in her seat with a huff, Ellie found a new target in the rearview mirror. Piper was fast asleep. Her body limp as her head rested on the stacked up sleeping bags in the back seat. Ellie thought Piper looked weird sleeping. It seemed against her older sister’s nature to relax and be at peace. Afterall, Piper was always on guard with a battle happening deep in the pit of her eyes. Yet, the sight of her sister asleep in the back seat created a warm feeling in Ellie’s chest. Even if the sight of Piper in a dormant state was bizarre, Ellie knew it’s what her sister need. It’s what Piper deserved.

“Where in Wyoming did you say your brother was?” Ellie found herself asking now that the mirror was back in place after Joel corrected the tilt.

“Last contact came through a radio tower close to Cody,” Joel replied.

Nodding Ellie peered down at the map scanning the tiny words and roads for Cody. “Cody, Cody. Ah, man. That is deep up in there.”

“Yeah,” Joel said.

“...And if he’s not there?”

“Then odds are he’ll be near a settlement, probably close to another city out there. Ain’t too many of ’em in Wyoming,” Joel explained.

Soon, Ellie found herself finding the other cities in Wyoming. “Chee-Yen,” she read aloud.

“Cheyenne,” Joel corrected.

Ellie’s eyes widened at Joel’s correction. It couldn’t be right. “Che… really?” Joel nodded. Ellie continued to look for cities. “Cheyenne… Laramie… Casper? What’s his name?”

“Whose name?” Joel wondered.

“Your brother,” Ellie clarified.

Joel breathed in deeply before answering the curious girl. “Tommy.”

“Younger or older?” Ellie curiously asked.

“Younger.”

Peering back at Piper, Ellie asked yet another question. “Why isn’t he with you?” Afterall, her and her sister were always side by side. Never apart and always together.

“A long story,’ Joel said hoping that it would satisfy Ellie. It did not.

Ellie scanned the map once more. “Is it longer than 25 hours? ‘Cause I think that’s what we got.” She peered up at Joel with the most convincing eyes she could conjure.

Joel could feel her expectant gaze on him. Biting his tongue, he continued to drive in silence until Ellie’s stare grew too much. Finally, Joel “Tommy’s what we used to call a ‘joiner.’ Dreams of becomin’ a hero. So he enlisted in the Army right outta high school. A few months later, they ship him off to Desert Storm. It’s what they called that war. It doesn’t matter. Point is, bein’ in the Army didn’t make him feel much like a hero. Cut to 12 years later, outbreak happens. He convinces me to join a group makin’ their way up to Boston, which I did… mostly to keep an eye on him, keep him alive. It’s where we met Tess. And that whole crew, we, uh… Well, for what it was, it worked. And then Tommy meets Marlene. She talks him into joinin’ the Fireflies. Same mistake he made when he was 18. Wants to save the world. Pipe dream. Him, Fireflies, all of ’em… delusional. ‘Course, last I heard, he quit the Fireflies, too. So now he’s on his own out there, and… I gotta go get him.”

“If you don’t think there’s hope for the world, why bother going on?” Ellie asked. Joel glanced at her with his brows raised. “I mean, you gotta try, right?”

He shook his head. “You haven’t seen the world, so you don’t know. You keep goin’ for family. That’s about it.”

“I’m not family,” Ellie blurted.

“No…,” Joel paused to look at the young girl next to him. “You’re cargo. And I made a promise to Tess. And she was like family.” There was a flash of change in Ellie’s expression. “But you have Piper. Piper’s your family.”

“Yeah she is,” Ellie said with a dejected tone. “You know she reminds me of you.”

“How so?” Joel wondered as his eyes glanced into the mirror to catch sight of the sleeping teen.

“You’re going for Tommy. Piper goes for me.” Ellie said. “What if you don’t find him?”

“I will.”

“How do you know?” There was a challenge in the young girls voice.

“I’m persistent,” Joel answered.

Ellie smiled. “Yep, exactly like Piper.”

There was an uneasy feeling growing in the pit of Joel’s stomach at Ellie’s conclusion. It was to similar to the thought he buried deep in the back of his head. Piper was like Joel. It was something he didn’t want. Piper shouldn’t be like him. Joel was damaged, old, broken, and cruel with walls built as high as some of the skyscrapers that existed before the Outbreak. Piper was a teenage girl. She was still a kid. She shouldn’t be like him at all.

“Ya got up pretty early,” Joel mentioned. “If you wanna grab more sleep like Piper…”

Ellie waved Joel off. “Pfft. I’m not even tired.”

“Sure,” Joel said trying to fight of a smirk.

꧁_____________꧂

A quiet snore escaped the young girls mouth as she dozed off in the passenger seat. The smirk on Joel’s face finally won when Ellie had closed her heavy eyes. It was now peaceful in the car with the two girls sleeping. Their inhales and exhales were in tandem. Both of their faces were calm as the mid-day dreams over came them.

Joel’s momentary peace and quiet was never meant to last. Soon, there was a stirring in the back seat and a head of dark brown hair sat up. Piper’s hair had frizzed up in her slumber and the young teen tried to soothe the mess with her hands before giving up.

“How long I was out?” Piper asked as the sleep slowly left her voice. Her eyes scanned the scenes passing by the car windows.

Turning his head back to face her, Joel replied, “A few hours.”

Piper nodded before carefully peering over the front seat to find her sister fast asleep. “How long has she been out?”

“Not very long,” Joel said.

“Hmm…,” Piper couldn’t help but softly smile at Ellie as she brushed some stray hairs from her sister’s face. “Where are we now?” Piper grabbed the map from Ellie’s hands.

“Not far from Kanas City,” Joel explained.

She scanned the map and her surroundings for any signs to signify where they were. It didn’t take long for the teen to estimate their spot along the highway. Joel was right. They weren’t far from Kanas City. “We should go around,” Piper whispered.

Joel’s brows raised as his ears caught Piper’s words. “What do you mean?”

Piper solemnly glanced out the window. Her eyes darted back and forth as the sight flew by them. “Heard the QZ is horrible. Definitely not a place we want to be.” Once she had finished speaking, Piper had grown eerily quiet.

Joel wanted to say something. To ask if she was okay, but his vocal chords refused to make a sound. Soon the shuffling of the girl in the passenger seat drew everyone’s attention.

Piper smiled. “Hey there sleepy head.”

Ellie’s eyes closed and opened as they adjust to the harsh light of the day. “Fuck you,” she groaned. Her response made Piper laugh, but her laugh was cut short by the slowing of the truck.

The teen hadn’t been aware of how close they actually were to Kanas City. The road between all the cars and trucks was significantly more narrow than before. In front of them was an obvious barricade. They weren’t able to drive through this. Piper’s jaw clenched as she watched Joel unbuckle his seat. She wanted to tell him to drive back and go around the city. She was sure she saw a route they could take, but it was Joel’s voice that spoke instead.

“Stay put,” Joel told the girls.

Piper and Ellie watched the man look around the cars and underneath the larger trucks before he trekked back with a scowl on his face.

Fuck, the girls thought.

“Where are we?” Ellie asked as soon as Joel got back into the car.

“Kansas City,” Joel grumbled. He motioned for the map and Piper placed it in his hands.

“How far back do we have to go to get around this?” Ellie peered over Joel’s shoulder as worry spread across her face.

Joel sighed looking at the map. They’d have to turn around and drive a few hours just to get around the barricade. To Joel, it wasn’t worth it. Tommy was waiting. Time was precious. “Screw it.” Without another word, Joel pulled away from the barricade and drove the car onto the exit ramp. The road led straight to Kanas City.

Panic filled Piper’s being. “What are you doing?!” She yelled at Joel, “No, no, Joel. Away from the city. I’ve heard some things back in Boston QZ, we don’t–”

He knew the fear in Piper’s expression well, but a teenager’s fears weren’t going to add more time onto their trip than needed. “We can jog right around this tunnel… take the next ramp… and we’re back on the road. Minute tops,” he hurriedly explained to calm the girl.

Piper glared at Joel as she bit her lip. Tears began to well up in her eyes from the pain. The disturbing turning in her gut only got worse as they drove deeper and deeper into the city and the only comfort she could find was gripping the handle of her gun.

“Where the fuck is the highway?!” Joel fumed. His eye frantically over the map and then the road in front of him.

Ellie did her best to help. “I can’t tell from this. I’m all turned around!”

“Don’t look at the state map, Ellie. Look at the inset.” Piper was on the verge of snapping. “That there!”

The younger girl’s voice began to break. “Well, I don’t know where we are in that either! This is my second day in a fucking car. I mean, I think we’re heading north?”

“It’s gotta be the right,” Joel muttered, before swerving the car to the right.

The car jolted everyone as Joel tried find a way out of the labyrinth like city.

“Stop!” Ellie hollered.

The car came to a halt. Tires screeched and Piper barely had time to brace herself on Ellie’s seat. “What the fuck?” She asked her sister. Ellie just stared at pointed out the window.

“Is that the QZ?” Ellie asked. Everyone was now looking at the burned down gate. Smoke was still in the air. “Where the fuck is FEDRA?”

Piper wanted to spew. “Joel–”

“Hey! Please help!” The voice came from outside the car. It was a man. His right leg hung limp behind him and his arms waved in the air.

Her eyes widened and, using her free hand, she grabbed Joel’s shoulder with a painful grip. “Joel, we need to get the fuck out of here!”

Joel’s eyes darkened. “Put your seatbelt on,” he said with a low voice.

Ellie searched his eyes. “Aren’t we gonna help him?”

“No,” Piper and Joel said simultaneously.

There was a click. Then a stomp. Soon the car jumped forward as Joel pressed his foot down on the gas. The truck was headed straight for the man.

“Joel! Reverse!” Piper screamed.

“Fuck!” the man yelled as he jumped out of the way. “Go, go, go!”

In an instance, there was a deafening thud. The car slid. Joel turned the wheel to a nearby building’s glass doors. Gun shots fired. Their heads ducked down as they braced for impact. With a crash, the car came to a halt.

“Fuck,” Joel groaned. He turned to Ellie. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Ellie wheezed.

Quickly, he turned to Piper. “You’re not hurt? Nothin’?”

Piper shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Their momentary relief was destroyed by bullets firing. They had hit the truck’s windows.

“Belts off. Fast!” Joel shouted.

The girls did not waste time unbuckling the seat belts and opening the doors of the truck.

“Let’s see you, motherfucker! Give us your shit, you make it through this! I promise!” One of the raiders yelled.

Once all of them had left the truck and found brief cover, Joel looked around the room. “Hey, you see that hole?” He pointed to a small hole in the drywall. “Can you two squeeze through?”

Ellie and Piper followed Joel’s hand. With one scan of the hole, they knew they could fit.

“Last chance!” the raider snarled.

“When I say go, you crawl to that wall, and you squeeze through, and you don’t come out until I say, okay?” Joel instructed the teens.

Ellie nodded her head. The shock evident in her eyes.

Piper shook hers. “No, let me help.” She raised her gun up for Joel to see.

Joel growled and his jaw clenched. “This is not a negotiation. You’re going.”

A gun shot echoed around the room. They seemed to be getting louder and louder with each fire. Ellie felt her legs go limp and a cold sweat over come her body.

“they’re not gonna hit you. Look at me!” Joel told Ellie, “They’re not gonna hit you.”

Bang!

“You stay down, you stay low, you stay quiet,” Joel explained and Ellie absently nodded her head.

“I’ve got you Els,” Piper whispered to her sister.

“Mm-hmm,” Ellie hummed back with tears in her eyes.

“Okay,” Piper said before turning to Joel and nodding.

“Okay,” Joel commanded. “Go!”

Immediately, Piper shot off the ground and grabbed Ellie’s jacket collar dragging her along. They stayed low to the ground until they reached the hole. “Come on, go!” Piper yelled before shoving Ellie through the hole.

Bang!

Piper cried out in pain as she examined her shoulder. She was shot. The bullet had grazed her arm. “Fuck!” She cried before crawling through the hole.

Another shot was fired.

“Fuck! You motherfucker!” One of the raiders screamed.

There was another shot and Piper could hear the sounds of guns falter. Joel was doing it. He was taking them out one by one.

Crunch.

Glass had been broken and there was heavy breathing. It was breathing that did not belong to the old man. A shadow covered the hole. Ellie’s eyes widened and Piper pulled her back against the wall.

There was a grunt. “Now you’re gonna fuckin’ pay! What you fuckin’ did, you fuckin’ killed yourself, motherfucker!” A raider yelled. The girls could hear the voice so clearly.

Bang.

Something had run into the wall. Piper flinched and Ellie was no longer by her side. Turning her head, she saw her sister at the hole. Her gun in hand.

“Ellie, no,” Piper pleaded as Joel struggle with the raider.

Ignoring her sister, Ellie crawled through the wall.

“Fuck,” Piper groaned before following her sister out the hole.

The sight in front of her was pure chaos. Joel had his head tilted back with a long rifle underneath his chin. Behind him stood a raider. Piper didn’t care to note the specifics about him except for the fact he was choking Joel. It wouldn’t have been long before Joel would lay unconscious on the floor of the abandoned laundromat.

A clear shot rang through the air. The raider fell to his knees. The rifle choking Joel was gone. Ellie had shot the man. Her shoulders were stiff and her eyes were cold. Her skin was paler than white as the gun followed the man as he dragged himself across the floor.

The demeanor in the raider had flipped. Tears screamed down his eyes as the violence in his voice fled. It was replaced by terror as he pleaded with Ellie.

“No, no, no, no, no! It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s over. We’re not fighting anymore. I’m gonna go home. I’ll tell everyone you’re good,” his voice broke as a cry escaped his lips. “I don’t know what to do. My legs don’t work. My mom isn’t far, if you could get me to her. We could trade with you guys. We could be friends. I didn’t know.” Ellie stood unwavering. “I’m Bryan. I’m Bryan. What’s your name?” Bryan whimpered.

Joel stepped forward. “Wait, wait, wait!” Bryan pleaded, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. “You can have it… It’s a good knife.” He tossed the knife to Ellie. It fell to the ground beside her feet.

“Get back behind the wall,” Joel muttered to Ellie. He was still out of breath. His hand came to her shoulder, breaking her from her trance. Lowering the gun, Ellie turned her back to Bryan and crawled back through the wall. “Kid,” Joel said to Piper.

“I’m not a kid,” Piper whispered. With Ellie’s gun was quickly replaced by Piper’s. Joel’s eyes widened.

Bryan’s cried got louder. It annoyed Piper. Someone who moments before seemed to strong, now was at her feet begging for mercy. Something she didn’t have. Not anymore. “No, no, no, no! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please, please. We could just talk. I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please, please. No, no, no! Please! No, please! Please! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please! You don’t have to! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please! No, no, no! We can just talk! Mom! Mom! Mom!”

Piper’s heart clenched at Bryan’s call for his mother. It was a brief moment, before her finger squeezed. A shot thundered around the room. Then there was silence and a small hole in the forehead of what used to be Bryan. Piper wanted to revel in it, but instead she felt sick. Swallowing down the rising bile, she lowered her gun. In the silence, adjusted the straps of her backpack and moved to the hole in the wall.

“Let’s go,” she mumbled.

“I can’t fit through,” Joel said.

Piper sighed and grabbed her shoulder massaging the pain. “There’s a door to the next room just around the corner.”

Joel nodded as he shuffled around to the door before turning the knob. The door didn’t open. It wasn’t locked, but it just didn’t open.

“There’s some stuff against the door,” Ellie voiced.

“Well, can you move it?” Joel asked.

“Uh…yeah.”

It didn’t take long for Joel to hear scrapping and shuffling behind the door. Soon the blockage was free and the door swung open. Joel stepped inside and closed the door behind him and darkness flooded the room.

“You okay?” Joel asked to either girl.

Piper didn’t answer. Ellie did. “I’m okay… I’m good. I, uh, got some food in here still, and I got your light still.” Ellie handed Joel the light. “What now?”

“We go up,” Joel answered.

Ellie looked up at Joel. “To get a better look?”

Joel nodded. “Hopefully, we spot a clear route out.” Leaning back, Joel peered out the door, briefly shutting it. His eyes flitted between the girls.

“Ready?” He asked.

Ellie nodded. The two of them turned to Piper. The elder teen gripped her gun close and raised her head up an down.

Light spilled into the room. The bright light momentarily blinded the three of them as they rushed outside. Their bodies crouched down low as they ran. One fact rang clear in their minds. They had to get far away from here. Some place safe, although it seemed as if they’d never be safe again.

꧁_____________꧂

“You fingers go here and then…Piper are you listening to me?” Levi asked with a knowing smile on his face.

“Huh? Oh yeah. Totally,” Piper chirped back.

“Right. How was I telling you to hold the gun?” Levi knew Piper’s reaction before the guilt on her face could manifest.

“Like…this?” Piper fiddled with the gun in her hand and Levi shook his head.

“No. Here,” Levi said as he reached over to fix Piper’s grip on the gun. Fingers go here and use both hands.”

“But that’s not how–,” Piper muttered.

“I know that’s how you were taught by FEDRA. It’s wrong. Now listen to me sweetheart,” Levi continued on with his demonstration. “...Soon enough you’ll be able to shoot.”

After some adjustments, Piper finally mastered her grip on the gun. Levi beamed. “See, now. I want you to try your hand at shooting. Don’t be afraid to miss.”

Piper huffed and moved her feet to a better stance, the very one she saw Levi take when he used his gun. Her small eyes narrowed to the targets on the other end of the room. They were old beer bottles, but viable targets nonetheless. Taking a slow breath in, Piper pulled her finger back, trigger the gun to fire. She missed.

“Fuck,” Piper hissed.

Levi chuckled. “Hey, what did I say? You can miss. You’re safe here. You miss here so that when your shot counts, you don’t miss. Got it?”

The young girl nodded before turning to look back at the targets. Piper puffed her cheeks with disappointment. She wanted to hit the target. She wanted to never miss again. She wouldn’t make a shot that night. She wouldn’t make a shot until it counted. Yet, time and time again, she heard Levi’s voice saying, “Try again,” and she’d get back up to fire once more.

꧁_____________꧂

Refuge was found in a broken down bar. The windows were sealed with old newspapers. To pass the time, Ellie tried to read the clippings. Some were stories about dead people. Boring. Then there were some stories about what the local school board was doing. Also boring. As she jumped from story to story, Ellie concluded that the news was boring. Instead she took to peeking out the window in the cracks where the news didn’t cover.

“They’re not FEDRA, and they’re not Fireflies, so who are they?” Ellie asked. She peered up at Joel who was also looking out the window.

“People,” Joel grumbled.

Ellie nodded and drew her knees in close. Her tiny body crumpled together on the wooden floor. “Are we okay in here?” Ellie’s voice was small.

Joel’s ear’s perked at the sound of uncertainty in Ellie’s voice. He withdrew from the window and sat down on an abandoned chair. “For a little bit, maybe. Looks like they’re checkin’ out apartment buildings first. But they’ll be coming through these places soon enough.”

There was a sigh from the corner of the room. Piper’s head fell back against the wall. “There’s a really tall building, like, four blocks away,” she noted. Her long dark hair fell to the side as her eyes cast down. She had lost her hair tie a while back during the chaos of running from building to building.

"Yeah. Saw it,” Joel said.

Ellie sat up and peeked out the window once more. Her brown eyes darted around until they landed on the building, she believed Joel and Piper were discussing. “So that’s the one?” She pointed to the building.

“As soon as we don’t hear a truck, we move,” Joel instructed. “Fast as we can.” There was a loud hum as an armoured truck drove by and Ellie ducked down. The group froze as they listened. Their shoulders were tensed and backs stiff.

The rumbling of the trucks dispersed and a laboured groan escaped Piper’s mouth.

“Are you okay?” Joel asked. He was now standing up and moving towards the young teen.

Piper made a noise that was a mix of a scoff and a snicker. “I’m not the one you should be asking.”

Joel groaned at Piper’s stubbornness. “You were shot, weren’t you?”

“No.” Piper shook her head.

“I saw you got s–,” Joel rebutted.

“The bullet grazed me!” Piper heaved. “It’s not the end of the fucking world. I’m fine.” She squeezed her arm in hopes to divert the pain. “Ellie, how are you doing?” Piper tensely asked.

“I’m alright,” Ellie replied. “Joel?”

Roughly running his hands through his peppered hair, Joel answered Ellie. “Yeah.” Taking a few more steps closer to Piper, Joel crouched down. His body only a few feet away from the girl. “Thing is, is I didn’t hear that guy comin’, and… you shouldn’t have had to… both of you shouldn’t have had to…you know?”

“Well, you’re glad we did,” Piper concluded.

Joel shook his head. He was glad to be alive, but not at the expense of child. “You’re just a kid,” Joel pinched his nose. “You shouldn’t know what it means to… But… shootin’ or… I know what it’s like… first time that you, uh, hurt… someone like that. If you, uh… w… uh…I’m not good at this,” Joel confessed.

“Yeah, you really aren’t,” Ellie commented.

“I mean, it was my fault,” Joel apologized. You shouldn’t have had to. And I’m sorry.”

Those two words echoed in Piper’s head. They were such simple and unthreatening words, yet their delivery broke down her walls. I’m sorry. Piper gulped and dug her nails into the palms of her hands. I’m sorry. A new ache formed in her body at the sound of the words and the pain from her shoulder only dulled in comparison to the pain of her heart. I’m sorry. Instantly, her vision grew blurry, and against her will, a few tears escaped and trailed down her dirtied cheeks.

“It wasn’t my first time,” Piper sniffled . She looked up forcing the tears away.

“Right. Show me your grip,” Joel looked at Piper and never for a moment did he dwell on her tears. Piper was grateful for that as she pulled out her gun and showed Joel her grip. He took a step closer to check. “Good.” Then Joel turned to Ellie asking her to do the same. “Finger off the trigger. Now, who taught you that?” Joel asked Ellie.

“FEDRA school,” Ellie mumbled.

“Figures. Your thumb…over your thumb. Left hand… squeezes down on the right. You got it?” Ellie nodded. Suddenly, Joel’s hand reached out and tried to yank away Ellie’s gun. Her grip stayed unwavering. “There ya go. Look,” Joel noted.

Piper smiled as Ellie’s grin grew from Joel’s praise.

“How come you didn’t check Piper’s grip?” Ellie asked Joel.

Piper chirped up before Joel could reply. “FEDRA didn’t teach me to shoot,” She said and all elements of a smile has vanished.

Joel looked back at Piper before standing up. The joints in his knees and hips were displeased at this sudden movement. His movement created a wave of action from the other girls. Piper stood up and Ellie placed her gun in her hand.

Tapping Ellie on the shoulder, Joel shook his head. “Uh-uh. You’ll shoot your damn ass off.”

Piper snickered. “Be fucking hilarious.”

Ellie whipped her head around to face her sister. “You fucker.”

“Hurry it up, girls,” Joel grumbled as he retrieved his things. The girls quit their bickering to do just as Joel had.

Soon enough, the three of them were standing at the door. They shared a cautious breath as they awaited Joel’s cue.

“We’ll get through this,” Joel found himself saying. His eyes flashed with worry as he glanced at the weary expressions on the girl’s faces.

Ellie shrugged her backpack and looked up at Joel. “We know.”

For a moment, they waited. All their ears tunned into the sounds of the world outside the degenerating bar. With bated breathes they stood. Ellie gripped the straps of her bag tightly finding comfort in the constriction. Piper stood low behind Joel. The pain in her arm was now blaring at her. She clenched her eyes shut, waiting for the pain to subside. All Piper had to do was wait it out. Soon they’d be safe. Soon they’d be out of this god forsaken city.

“Go,” Joel commanded. The door shut behind them and a bar was left empty once more.

꧁_____________꧂

Joel was old. It was a fact that he knew quite well. It seemed to be Joel’s downfall that he was old in a world that favored the young. Especially when it came to survival. Except now, Joel had youth on his side, except this youth seemed…well, partially incompetent.

“You’re just gonna put your foot here,” Joel explained. “One, two…” With all his strength he raised Ellie into the air. The young girl’s arms flailed around trying to find stability.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” Ellie cursed.

Piper couldn’t contained her laughter as she watched Joel and Ellie struggle.

Joel huffed and rolled his eyes at Piper’s reaction. “You could always help.”

“Nah, you’ve got it,” Piper replied.

Ellie cried out as Joel’s muscles struggled to keep her up. “Straighten up. I got you,” Joel said.

It took a moment, but then Ellie followed Joel’s advice. Her hands reached the opening and her fingers scrounged around for a grip. It didn’t take long for the weight on Joel’s shoulders and arms to lessen.

“Okay, I’m in.” Ellie’s voice echoed around the opening.

“Take a look around first. Ellie.” Joel instructed. There was silence from the other side. “God damn it,” Joel muttered.

“Hey, that's my sister,” Piper reprimanded the old man.

As if on cue, a nearby steel door swung open and Ellie’s head appeared. “Where would you be without me, huh?” Ellie smiled.

“By now, Wyoming,” Joel responded as he walked passed Ellie into the building.

Ellie’s shoulder’s dropped. “Oh, yeah. Walked into that one.”

Once they were all in the stairwell, Joel at the two girls. “All right. We’ll make our way up, and come morning, I’ll take a look at the city, and find our way out.”

A large white sign flared in the dark of the stairwell, illuminated by the flashlights of the group. Ellie groaned upon reading the mixture of numbers and words on the metallic surface. “We’re goin’ up 42 flights?”

“Forty-five,” Joel corrected and then shook his head. “But no… not all the way.”

Piper slumped against the concrete wall with a bang. The contents of her backpack were squished between her and the unmoving force of the wall. “Jesus. How far?”

The man’s brow furrowed with thought as he calculated an answer for the girls. “As far as I can make it.”

And so their ascent up the stairs began. Their footsteps clambered along the thick walls echoing to and fro. The stair case had a supreme level of acoustics. It was a fact acknowledged by all three of them, especially Ellie. By floor ten, the young girl’s thigh muscles contracted and with each step the burning sensation only grew stronger. In her mind she prayed Joel could only take so many more. Afterall, he was old. However, Ellie realized she had misjudged Joel’s determination and strength by floor seventeen. Her body was heating up and sweat oozed out of her skin. She was suffering, and it seemed like no one else was. Piper stood stoically as she climbed each step. The only hint of their physical stress was a slight shade of pink that tinted her cheeks. On the other hand, Joel’s brow shimmered under the light of his flashlight. He was sweating. He was feeling the effects of their activities. He was suffering, but not enough.

“What did the policeman say to his belly button?” Ellie asked with a devious smile as she watched Joel’s shoulder’s slump with defeat.

Piper snorted before rolling her eyes at Ellie. “I don’t know…um…hi?”

“Nope,” Ellie bit her lip trying to contain her laughter. “You’re under a vest!”

“Jesus,” Joel mumbled and Piper wasn’t sure if it was a prayer or a curse.

The stairs now echoed a new sound, Ellie’s giggles. “Okay, okay. Next one.” She cleared her throat. “What’s the difference between a well-dressed person on a unicycle and a poorly dressed person on a bike?” Dark brown eyes darted to Piper and Joel for any hint of an answer. “No one? Okay,” and throwing on her best posh accent, Ellie drove the punch line home. “Attire.”

Again, the young girl was thrown into a fit of giggles as Joel grumbled to himself occasionally sending her a warning glare when he broke free from his elderly annoyance of the youth present.

With each joke Ellie delivered, the laboured and steadfast demeanor Piper held up slowly chipped away. She wasn’t sure if it was the fact her body no longer had the will to fight against the abominable two-liner jokes, or if it was the sight of Ellie at such ease and joy from tormenting her and Joel. Although, Piper had to admit seeing Joel at such loose level of discomfort was quite funny. It was moments like these she had to remember when Joel would eventually discard her and Ellie just like everyone else.

“Ooo! This one. Okay,” Ellie cleared her throat. “What did the fisherman say to the magician?” She paused waiting for the internal drum roll to conclude. “Pick a cod, any cod.”

Piper sinched her lips together to contain the outburst waiting to pop. She was so focused on not laughing that she almost ran into Joel. The man had stilled and with his hands on his hips he glowered down at the girls with an unknown look in his gaze.

“No more jokes,” Joel said.

“Okay, just trying to lighten the mood,” Ellie mumbled as she shoved her joke book into her back pocket.

Upon seeing the book placed away, Joel collected his breath and the marched up the stairs continued.

They had passed four more floors when Ellie spoke again. “Hey, you know that guy who said he was hurt?” She waited for Joel’s acknowledgement. “How did you know it was an ambush?”

Joel’s chest rose pushing his shoulder close to his ears. “I’ve been on both sides.” He glanced back at caught Piper’s knowing stare. “It was a long time ago. We did what we needed to survive.”

“You and Tess?” Ellie asked. It was strange to think of Joel and Tess like the man who attacked them. They were protectors and that’s all Ellie had known them to be. She didn’t think she could imagine Tess hurting anyone. Joel on the other hand, she could see it…sort of.

“And the people we were with,” Joel explained. “My brother, too.”

Ellie took in a shaking breath, which she blamed on the physical exertion. “Did you kill innocent people?” Her voice faltered.

Joel was silent.

“Ellie,” Piper interjected. “Save your breath for the stairs.”

Joel’s jaw unclenched at Piper’s words. He was grateful for her interruption. He knew the answer and it was not an answer he wanted to tell Ellie. In a world full of death and decay around everyone corner, sometimes all you could do was kill. So, yes. Yes, Joel had killed innocents. Back then he wasn’t ashamed. He did it to survive. He had to. Now…now Joel just wanted to lie.

꧁_____________꧂

The stairwell door slammed open and Ellie toppled inside. Her knees hit the carpeted floor as breath hit her lungs like a tidal wave. “Holy shit,” she tiredly said.

Piper plopped down next to her throwing her head between her knees. “Yeah,” she agreed.

“Thirty-three floors ,” Ellie barely voiced. “That’s good.”

“It’s gonna have to be,” Joel panted. He placed his coarse hand on the wall for stability. Everything burned: his lungs, his calves, his thighs, hell, even muscles he didn’t know existed burned in a frenzy.

Pushing herself off the floor, Piper crawled to a standing position. “Come on,” she huffed.

Ellie shuffled around before reaching her hand out to Piper. Together the two of them got Ellie to a stand.

Joel looked at the two girls with a puzzled expression. The power of the recovery in the youth astounded him. “Gimme a minute,” Joel begged.

Ellie chuckled. “Get up, you lazy ass.”

“Lazy ass,” Joel grunted as he stood up. “Fifty-six years old, you little shit.”

Piper and Ellie laughed at his response as they watched Joel waddle down the maze of hallways on the floor before entering a large office. The office was in a pristine condition considering the start of the apocalypse two decades prior. The carpet was free of dirt and Piper could still see the design within the fabric. Ellie was in awe at the fluffiness of the couch cushions in the seating area. They were a little stiff but practically new. She smiled to herself as she laid a few of the cushions out on the floor for the three of them.

“Better than any bed I’ve ever slept–Joel?” Ellie turned her attention to Joel who had just shattered the glass door. “Joel.” He didn’t respond. Ellie looked at Piper with a worried shine in her eyes. “Joel!” Ellie yelled.

The man in question turned around with a quizzical look. “What?”

“What are you doing?” She pointed to the glass now on the floor. Not the best sleeping conditions, if she was saying anything.

Joel furrowed his brow as if his actions are obvious. Piper sighed and dropped her bag onto the floor before laying down next to Ellie. “He doesn’t want someone sneakin’ up on us while we’re sleeping.”

“Ohh, I get it. Crunch, crunch, crunch,” Ellie animately said. Her hands marched around in the air like feet ‘smashing’ the shattered glass. “Are you sure you’re gonna hear it?” The young girl asked Joel.

“Of course, I’ll hear it,” Joel said. “That’s the damn point.” He glanced down at the ground. The glass was evenly spread out. It’d be difficult to not step on the makeshift alarm. Satisfied, he shuffled over to the girls and sat down on the open cushion next to Piper.

“If he doesn’t,” Piper added, “I will.”

“Okay. Well, good night,” Ellie said. She snuggled into the couch cushions and drew her jacket tightly around her body.

“Yeah, good night,” Joel whispered back as he laid down settling in for the night.

“Night,” Piper mumbled.

A darkened shade of blue encased the room. Everything was a different shade and Piper could make out each of the objects in the room. The desk was a darker blue than the chair behind it. The ceiling was a light blue, and the young girl was sure she could hear the buzzing of the fluorescent lights, even though they were turned off. Shifting around on the cushion, Piper let out a disappointed sigh. Sleep evaded her.

“Hey,” Joel spoke.

“Yeah?” Piper hesitantly responded. Behind her, a small snore escaped Ellie’s mouth. Piper could hear Joel let out a heavy breath.

“When we were talkin’ about hurtin’ people…,” Joel paused. “What did you mean it wasn’t your first time?”

Piper rolled around onto her side. Her eyes glued to Joel’s back. “…I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“All right,” Joel quietly said. “…You don’t have to. I’m just sayin’… it isn’t fair, your age… havin’ to deal with all of this…”

Piper’s nose scrunched up and a line between her brows formed. “There’s a lot I’ve had to deal with…” Tears built up in the corner of her eyes. Piper wasn’t going to cry. She didn’t want to cry, but why was it so easy to cry at night? “The first time I…I was twelve…does it gets easier when you get older?” Piper sniffled.

“No, not really.” Joel rolled over and found lips pulling into a tight line. Piper was crying. The dark hid her tears well, but Joel was a father. He knew when a child was crying. “But still.”

Piper gulped and took in a shaky breath. She wasn’t crying. She refused to cry, but it was a lie. She knew and she knew Joel knew. Yet, there was an ease that filled her being as she cried on the floor of that office with Joel laying across from her. Even as war and torment surged outside, as people searched for them, Piper felt safe. She was safe under the shadow of Joel’s figure. Piper was safe, so she could cry.

“The reason Ellie asked whether you’d hear the glass or not is ’cause both of us have noticed you don’t hear too well from your right side… Is it ’cause you were shot there?” Piper pondered once her tears had subsided.

“Probably more from shootin’,” Joel honestly replied. “So if you wanna keep your hearin’, you stick to that knife.”

Piper chuckled and a small smile crept onto her face. “Too late.” Piper asked, “Joel?”

“Hm?” Joel raised his brow.

“Did you know diarrhea is hereditary?” Piper smirked.

“What?” Joel’s head turned to look over his shoulder. Utter confusion was placed on his face at Piper’s words.

“Yeah,” Piper whispered. “It runs in your jeans.” Then she laughed. It was a quiet laugh given the circumstances, but a laugh nonetheless.

Joel rolled back over. “Jesus,” he said before laughing along. “That is so goddamn stupid.” He shook his head at himself for laughing at the joke, yet he couldn’t stop. He laughed and then Piper laughed. He feared it be an on going cycle that would awaken Ellie.

“You laughed, motherfucker,” Piper noted. “Just wait till I tell Ellie.”

“I didn’t laugh,” Joel gruffly said. There was still a hint of laughter in his face.

“Yes, you did,” Piper said. She wouldn’t let him deny it.

“Jesus, I’m losin’ it,” Joel smiled. His face felt funny and alien as the smile stretched across his features. His cheeks hurt and his eyes crinkled in a way that they hadn’t in years. Piper had made Joel smile.

“You’re losin’ it big time,” Piper giggled and Joel laughed once more.

“Go to sleep,” Joel gently said.

Piper fondly smiled. “You too, Joel. You too.”

꧁_____________꧂

Sleep found Joel quickly that night. It must have been the thirty-three floors of stairs, the fight for his life, and driving consistently for days that finally brought him some rest. His mind was blank. He didn’t dream and didn’t think of Sarah, of Tess, or of Tommy. He felt at ease. Soon the pleasantry of slumber escaped him. The room was lighter and faded color crept into his view.

“Joel?” A muffled voice was calling out to him. It sounded worried. It sounded scared. Joel’s eyes widened. “Joel!”

He grunted as he lifted his head. There was Ellie and Piper. Ellie was looking down at him. Her dark eyes reflected the fear and confusion in Joel’s. Piper sat with her jaw clenched. Her shoulder were held back and an inferno was a lit in her eyes. The thing that scared Joel the most was where Piper was looking. She wasn’t looking at him. No, Piper was glaring down the barrel of a gun.

Something cold touched the back of Joel’s head. He whipped around. There in front of him was a child with paint around his eyes. In his hand was a gun.

Well, fuck.

꧁_____________꧂

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꧁_____________꧂

124 notes · View notes

erraticalart · 1 year

Text

Heavy and Medic’s Complicated Relationship

Egg...

Bonus Comic

This comic was solely based on a conversation between Gary and Robin in Shork’s Livestream, and Gary, Robin, John and JB in Streamily on YouTube. One about Heavy and Medic’s so-called “relationship” and another about Medic’s lovely pair of erm... “eggs”. I thought the break-up was just a one-off joke or something that can be retconned until it was part in WSTFTS storyline and I thought, “Oh, shit, the HeavyMedic break-up arc is real? Gotta make a comic about it! This took me weeks to make since I had classes and I got pretty lazy with it especially in the bonus. Limited shading, and copy and paste to get the job done, I guess. Now it’s summer, so yay for me! All jokes aside, I hope you enjoy this silly comic and hopefully the silly lovebirds would just talk and make up already.

P.S. Btw, this comic will also be known as the “Egg Comic” just for shits and giggles. And because of that I also named my Vaccinator, “The Egginator”. :)

Shork’s Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHWx-zBBMoI

Streamily Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go0lJ6UhzOI

#tf2 medic #tf2 heavy #heavymedic #red oktoberfest #tf2 archimedes #archimedes #tf2 sniper #saxton hale #TF2 #Team Fortress 2 #TF2 Fanart #TF2 Art #TF2 Fancomic #TF2 Comic

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lemonmaid · 2 months

Text

Bake Sale

Due to Girl Scout season, (and me buying boxes) I just got an idea, so here yall go! (03. 16. 2023)

'So... hot'

(Name) could only think about how HOT Ramshackle was right now. Thanks to that useless crow of a man, Ramshackle was the only dorm without an AC unit or any type of fan. It's the middle of summer vacation and there is no airflow through the dorm.

"(Name) pleassseee do something about this heat, I think Grim is about to die".

"Wow, I bet you regret skipping Crewl's classes now" chuckled Deuce.

"We are both in summer school, shut up Deuce".

All the mirrors going into the dorms were locked up tight for the summer, leaving all the students who needed to catch up stay in Ramshackle, which was not alot of students.

"Listen guys, if I had the money I would totally buy a unit but I have no money or a job right now".

"UGH" Ace yelled, "why can we just go to the beach or sneak into Savanaclaw's pool!". Ace marched towards the windows and began opening all the ones in the living room.

"Because what teacher will gives us a pass to go relax when you three are supposed to being doing your homework and classwork you missed!". (Name) was getting overwhelmed, they knew they should've taken Leona's or Malleus's offer on staying with either of them during summer break.

"(Nammmmmmeeeeee)" Grim cried, "please do something about this heat", Grim fell to the floor.

"Fine, let me figure something out".

"Yay!!" The three cried.

(Name) walked out the campus kitchen, carrying two buckets of ice with them back to Ramshackle.

'Shit'

The ice was already melting.

'How the hell are we going to live in a magical world and not have any ice magic or spells?'.

As they made their way inside the Dorm they started opening windows, turning on the fans to on the highest settings, on cheap fan on its back with the bucket of ice holding its weight.

'Finally'. (Name) took in the cold breeze that filled the room. Grim came running down the hall putting his fatass in front of the semi broken fan. "Ahhhhhhh finally! Took you way to long henchman".

(Name) rolled their eyes, "Now that's done, I think I'm going to get a sweet treat." The word 'treat' summoned all three braincells.

"What are you gettin".

"Can I have soommme?".

"Can I help?".

'Jesus Christ' (Name) sighed, "I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to bake...."

Ace and Grimm groaned, throwing themselves back onto the "cold" ground.

Deuce looked confused, "I'm sorry perfect, why are you going to bake when it's-"

"Fucking thousands degrees out-" Ace interrupted.

Deuce glared.

"You guys don't have to help with anything, I was kinda of planning on doing this for myself...". (Name) walked away towards the kitchen.

"Nonono, I'll help you perfect!!" Deuce ran after (Name).

(Name) opened the cupboard, 'thin mints orrrrrrrrrr, hmm, wait samoas?'.

(Name) looked over at Deuce, "Deuce, one or two?".

"Um one?"

"Thin mints it is".

♡

Aced let out a moan.

"Damn buddy that's like your 10th one...".

Ace had tears in his eyes,"it's.. so... good".

(Name) gave the three a look; hunched over the counter, all groaning in happiness.

"Are these from your world perfect?".

(Name) nodded, "Yeah, there's actually-".

"Don't care make more!".

"Hench man please!"

(Name) looked at Ace and Grimm in shocked, "you know a simple please would do... also Grimm can you even have chocolate?".

Ace rolled his eyes, "the little shit ate rocks for the past year-". His comment made Duece hit him on the back of the head.

"Anyways, Perfect, do you think we can take some to lunch tomorrow?".

"Sure, I'll probably be baking all tomorrow... nothing else to do".

☆

"Oi oi crabby~ whatcha got there?".

Instinctively Ace put the brown lunch bag towards his chest, "none of your-"

"HEYYY!!". Grimm screeched

"Sh sh baby seal, let me just borrow your bag."

Grimm beated his paws on Floyd's stomach, "No! You can't have that! (Name) made those specially for me!!" He whined.

"Oh~ Shrimy made these?". Floyd popped a cookie in his mouth.

The world stopped for a minute, Floyd giving the three a lead stare. "Uh, you good bro?". Ace went to put his hand on Floyd's shoulder only to be bitten by said eel.

"FUCK HE BIT MY SHIT".

Floyd stole the bag of cookies and made a dash for the door.

"MY TREATS!!" Grimm wailed.

♤

(Name) hummed as they baked their third round of cookies, the last batch being Samoas now they were working on peanut butter. 'I guess always baking with Trey was worth the lessons-'

Que their front door being broken in with two distressed students.

"PERFECT HELP I NEED STERILIZATION STAT-"

"HENCHMAN! I NEED NEW COOKIES! THAT DISGUSTING EEL STOLE MY COOKIES!".

'There goes my peaceful afternoon'.

(Name) grabbed the first aid kit to help Ace, letting the two whine and nag about their day.

Grim plopped himself on (Name)'s lap, "So.... can you give us more cookies?".

"Sure, just don't let anyone take them this time."

♡

The next day at lunch was... eventful...

"ILL TAKE A BAG FOR $10!".

"NO! $50!".

"MAKE IT $90!".

It was like watching a pack of hyenas swarm a prey, three pairs of eyes watched from a distance.

"So... it's just cookies?". Azul observed the growing hysteria with a careful eye.

Jade snickered, "I think it's more than cookies sir~"

Azul grabbed a cookie from Floyd's bag, observing before taking a nibble.

Jade laughed, "so? What's the verdict-".

"Schedule a meeting with the perfect."

☆

"FLOYD PUT ME DOWN!!". (Name) was hunched over Floyd's shoulder.

Azul took a deep breath, "Floyd put the perfect down-".

CRASH

Azul felt a migraine forming, rubbing his temples. "So... perfect". Azul forced a smile.

"I'm not making a dea-".

"Listen! What about a business partnership? With your cookies-".

"No."

"There will be money, 50/50".

"I already-"

"And! I'll ask threaten the headmaster to give your.... Ramshackle upgrades".

♧

'It's so much hotter than the inside of Ramshackle'. (Name) was miserable, sitting at a stand in Port Town trying to sell cookies, THEIR cookies. Luckily, that ocean breeze was... somewhat frequent.

"Hggnnngg Henchman I'm bored.... let's dip".

(Name) rolled their eyes, "You got us into this mess...".

"Ha! How was I supposed to know Azul was also in summer school!". Grim threw himself under the table.

"How's business perfect?~".

"Shrimpy~!".

(Name) gave Jade a glare, "I'm miserable - it's too hot for this shit."

Floyd blew a raspberry, "Well! We have something to cheer you up-"

"A gun?"

Grim came up from the table, "AH! It's me!".

(Name) looked at the two confused, "a cardboard cut out of Grim?".

The cutout was... interesting, depicting Grim in a hat and... boots.

'Is there a puss and-'

Jade smiled softly, "Azul said it could help drive in business having a mascot~".

4/13/2024 I kinda gave up towards the end... this has been sitting in drafts for a year.... I cant figure out how to end this but Perfect gets a pool in Ramshackle in my head so :)

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst crack

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serafilms · 6 months

Text

song 76! now that we don’t talk (taylor swift) + yang jungwon (spotify wrapped event)

i miss the old ways, you didn’t have to change, but i guess i don’t have a say, now that we don’t talk

Going to university has to be one of the best and worst things to have ever happened to you.

On the one hand, you’re getting an education (yay!) which is super important for your future, and you’re learning a lot, which is great. But on the other hand, you chose the same school as Yang Jungwon, and now you feel like someone’s stabbed you in the gut every time you see his face.

You hear a lot about him these days and it’s kind of excruciating. A couple of your new friends are in his major and are always singing his praises.

“Yang Jungwon! He’s a genius, all the professors love him,” Anton told you, beaming. “Oh, and he’s so chill too. He invited me to his friend’s party this weekend if you wanna come?”

You declined, and Anton frowned. “Are you sure? Didn’t you, like, go to school with him?”

“Yeah,” you said, “but we weren’t that close.”

A stone cold lie, of course, but he didn’t need to know that. He didn’t need to know that you and Jungwon had been close, or that Jungwon had kissed you at the start of summer before he went away with his family, or that he had pretended it never happened when he came back.

Jungwon was a big hit at the party, Anton said. Not surprising, because who wouldn’t love him? The attention always made him nervous, he’d told you once. You wonder if he felt that way on the way home.

Then you wonder if Jungwon expected you to be there, if he was looking for you, if he invited Anton in the hopes of you showing up.

Don’t be ridiculous. Of course he didn’t. He doesn’t think about you anymore.

You aren’t at all on bad terms, at least on paper. But you never got an explanation for why he stopped asking you to hang out and stopped texting you first, reducing whatever your relationship had almost been to occasional hello’s and strained small talk.

“We were friends, but we just grew apart. Weren’t close enough for it to stick after high school, I guess,” is what you say to friends who knew the both of you before.

It’s partially true, but you feel your tongue turn silver each time the words escape your mouth. You think back to weekends you’d with spend him, Sunoo and Jake, eating dinner at restaurants and hanging in whoever’s bedroom was free and wonder what he tells them about you. That you grew apart? Had a fight?

Jungwon made a new friend, Nishimura Riki at orientation. You’d seen the two of them together as you quickly walked past to avoid being seen. They were quickly adopted by an older student named Jay, who introduced them and the others to his two friends, Sunghoon and Heeseung. Sometimes you see Jake and Sunoo around, and they give you awkward smiles before turning back to whichever friend they’re with.

They all seem very nice, but you can’t help but think Jungwon seems different. He’s more outgoing and… grown up. He goes to parties and laughs loudly with his friends, and drives them home when they get too wasted.

There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but you wonder what happened to the old Jungwon. It seems he vanished somewhere along with his feelings for you. You miss him, miss the way he used to be. He’s changed, and you don’t like it. But you guess you don’t really have a say now that you don’t talk.

As you wait under a tree outside the Chemistry building for Anton to finish a class, you see a figure walking across the path.

Jungwon’s bag is slung over one shoulder as he talks animatedly to Heeseung. As he looks past Heeseung for a second, his gaze meets yours. He pauses for a moment before he raises his hand in a wave and gives you a small smile.

You wave back, then look back down at your phone. Guess this is how it has to be.

#yang jungwon x reader #jungwon x reader #enhypen x reader #enhypen imagine #enhypen imagines #yang jungwon #jungwon #enhypen #jungwon imagine #written works !#2023 spotify wrapped event !

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rinstrumental · 10 months

Text

lookin’ at you got me thinkin’ nonsense…

ellie williams / 1,261 words

# college au yay, making out (but no smut lol), why is this still so h*rny im sorry, not proofread, you guys are both DOWN BAD

It’s a hot summer night, which means another party. The sun is in the middle of its descent, and you’re here with Dina in the backyard, the both of you clutching to each other to avoid getting broken up too soon. Mosquitoes weave in between the crowd, and it reeks of weed and pool water and sweat. Generally not a great scene, but you’re here anyways.

“Fuck, I really don’t want to be holding on to you right now,’ Dina groans, loosening her grip on your arm slightly. “Do you see her yet?”

“I can’t… find her. Sorry, just stick with me for another minute, help me look for Ellie.”

“I could tell you that girl was waiting for you in hell and you would dig there to see her.”

She’s not wrong. You think that this might just be the equivalent of hell itself. She’s also not wrong about your determination to see Ellie Williams.

Ever since the both of you met and hooked up at the beginning of the semester, you haven’t been able to stop thinking about her. You jumped at every chance to see her, made every excuse. Clearly the same could be said with her - Ellie had skipped class on multiple occasions just to make out with you in a stairwell. You have no clue how long this fling would go on for, but god are you enjoying yourself.

“There she is!” Dina sees her before you do. The moment you spot the back of her auburn head, your breath catches in your throat.

“That’s Ellie, right?”

Her hair is uncharacteristically down from its regular bun. Did she cut it? Your gaze runs down the back of her neck and lingers over her exposed shoulders. You almost drop to your knees and thank god for the sweltering weather and Ellie’s inclination towards sleeveless tops. Her tattoo is on full display, and naturally so are her lean arms. Is that your hairtie on her wrist? You feel lightheaded.

“Jesus, chill. You just caught a glimpse of her and I can see your legs shaking already.” Dina’s sharp remark drags you back to earth and you whip to the side to see a look of disbelief on her face. Before you can respond, she sighs and shakes her head.

“One day I’ll have a girlfriend who looks at me like that.”

“She is not my girlfriend.” You turn to look at Ellie again, who’s talking to some guy you’ve never seen in your life and nursing a bottle of beer. You see her throw back her head in laughter. Jealousy pangs in your chest, even though you know Ellie would sooner kiss a grandmother over any man.

“Yeah, and my name is Jesse,” she shoots back. “Speaking of, I should probably go find him. See you. Call me if you don’t go home with Ellie.”

You finally push Dina off your, mortified but still laughing. “Go. I will.”

“Use protection!” she yells back as she disappears into the crowd.

Swallowing the lump in your throat, you make your way towards Ellie. She turns around when you tap on her shoulder, eyes widening when she sees who it is. God, she looks even more gorgeous up close, green eyes piercing yours and her confident smile

“Look who finally decided to show up,” she quips, leaning in to give you a hug. ‘I told you to call me.”

Ellie is acting cool, but honestly? She truly thinks that she might burst. You look ridiculously sexy in that dress, she thinks when she pulls back, holding you at arm’s length to admire you. Since when did you start doing your hair like that, and why the hell didn’t you start earlier? The sheen of sweat and the flush on your face just makes her want to pull you into the nearest room and-

“Did you cut your hair?” you ask breathlessly. Ellie’s heart skips. She could listen to you talk like that for days.

She subconsciously reaches to brush the back of her head. That is your hairtie on her right hand. “Err, yeah. Just a trim. Do you like it?”

“I love it.” You smile and rub Ellie’s forearm tenderly, still in the post-hug proximity with her.

The mystery man that Ellie had been talking to mere seconds ago is long forgotten. Hell, everyone in this party ceased to exist the moment you walked in. If I don’t kiss her right now, I will actually die.

She cranes her neck to whisper in your ear, enjoying the way your breathing speeds up when she gets close again.

“Why don’t you show me how much you love it?”

A few blurry moments later you’re back in the house in some random poor girl’s room, straddling Ellie’s lap as she kisses your neck, the alcohol making her movements even sloppier and heavier. Your hands are gripping at the hair at the back of her head and you’re grinding mindlessly on Ellie’s thighs. Her hands are on your hips, guiding and encouraging you.

The muffled music from outside makes its way into the room, along with the occasional shouts and screams. A poster of a boy band stares at you from above the bed. This environment is the least sexy thing you could imagine, and yet here you are, thoroughly lost in the pleasure the girl under you is providing. You don’t think you could stop if you tried.

“Every time I see you, you somehow get even hotter,” you say in between gasps. “I don’t know how you do it.”

Ellie pauses for a minute to look up at you, her half-lidded eyes gazing at you with what you could only pin as adoration. Her cheeks are bright red and there’s sweat making her bangs stick to her forehead. You’re not even doing anything to her and she looks utterly debauched.

“You don’t know what you do to me,” she rasps. “Even just hearing you say that… I could get off to your voice… I mean, I already do, but…”

Any other day you’d be taken aback bu this confession, but right now all you feel is pride. This girl is like putty in your hands, and to be honest, so are you. You say nothing and yank gently on her cropped hair. Ellie whines, and you could listen to that forever, but you shut her up with a kiss. She tastes like beer and raspberry lipbalm.

“I can’t help myself when I’m with you,” you sigh when you withdraw from the kiss. “I don’t know if there’s a thing I wouldn’t do to just be like this with you… all the time…”

“Just… fuck? All the time?” Her hands are hitching up your dress, running over your ass and up your back. Goosebumps follow in the wake of Ellie’s touch and your back involuntary straightens when she reaches your bra strap.

“Yeah. Wouldn’t you?” Your voice is barely a whisper now, the cool air from the fan hitting your bare back as Ellie unclips your bra. She expertly pulls it off, barely getting it tangled in the sleeves of your dress. Her hungry hands move to massage your tits and you moan, bringing your hands down to grip Ellie’s strong shoulders.

She unzips your dress and it slips down your shoulders, exposing your bare chest. You feel her hips jump a little at the sight, and you feel your heart thump even faster as Ellie leans in to press kisses to your collarbone.

“I think you know the answer to that.”

#ellie williams x reader #ellie williams #ellie x reader #tlou fanfiction #tlou #tlou x reader #ellie x you #ellie the last of us

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blossomwritesthings · 9 months

Text

𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐥𝐮𝐞. | 𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞

⬷ 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 ┊ 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 →

pairing: felix x fem!reader (afab) // chan x fem!reader (afab)

genre: nonidol/collegegrad!felix. waitress!reader. college au. hurt/comfort. angst. fluff. smut - MDNI, 18+ only. reader pov. friends to enemies to lovers au. slowburn romance. lots of pining. cheating. abusive boyfriend/ex. drama galore. the sexual tension is REAL in this one.

content & warnings: explicit & strong language. very thematic elements. felix is reader's estranged childhood bestie. chan is low-key an asshole in this ngl. heavy topics are mentioned such as: abusive/toxic relationships, cheating, and pathological lying. drinking/partying. the summer vibes are real in this one. there will be humor/fluff throughout to balance everything. and ofc smut too because who am i if not a whore for filthy felix smut. 😉

word count: 3.0k

summary: ever since you were born, all you've ever known is living a simple life in the small australian coastal town of bridgeport bay. you're content with working at your parent's beachside restaurant angel waves for the rest of your life, and you're happy with your place in the world - you have good friends and an even better boyfriend. that is, until everything comes to a standstill when a familiar face from the past visits town for the summer. and in the wake of his return, lee felix upturns everything you thought you were content with here in your comforting little beach town.

a/n: damn, I'm posting this SO MUCH later than I wanted to... but school just started back a few weeks ago and I've been swamped with uni hw and working full time and balancing a social life in between. 😩 so you'll have to forgive me if updates are kindaaa slow 💀 anywho- yay, they finally made up in this chapter!! things aren't completely resolved, for obvious reasons, but we shall see how things work out very soon~ 🫣

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ᴅᴏ ɴᴏᴛ ʀᴇᴘᴏsᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ sɪᴛᴇs (ᴛʜɪs ɪɴᴄʟᴜᴅᴇs ᴛʀᴀɴsʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴs). do not copy, spin-off, or write inspired work based off of this fanfic without full permission to do so. ©ʙʟᴏssᴏᴍᴡʀɪᴛᴇsᴛʜɪɴɢs ⤐ ᴀʟʟ ʀɪɢʜᴛs ʀᴇsᴇʀᴠᴇᴅ

The entire week after the party at Jeongin’s, you absolutely threw yourself into staying busy. Whether it was helping your parents out at Angel Waves by serving during the weekend dinner rush or studying for your first big exam for your Advanced Environmental Studies class, you were always on the go.

Soon after the drama ensued between you and Chris at the party, he stopped by your place to apologize.

Well, it wasn’t so much of an apology as it was an explanation.

And a long bout of making out afterward, too.

So thankfully, things were patched up between you and your boyfriend again.

That only left the chaos that was stretched between you and Felix.

You hadn’t seen him since your big blow-up at the Ice Cream Hut. And frankly, you weren’t in the mood to see him for a long while.

At least, that’s what you told yourself most of the time.

But when you noticed his absence on the beachfront every morning since the night of the party, you felt your heartstrings pull taut in an agonizing kind of way. When you began to miss the sound of his laugh and the soothing tone of his voice, you could feel the butterflies flit around in your stomach painfully.

Just like that, the two of you had already fallen back into a routine.

But you always knew that things were bound to collapse.

The murky pasts that you shared was like the elephant in the fucking room, and it just so happened to be the night of the party that everything came to a head.

It was late one Thursday night when you found yourself drifting off to thoughts of... him once more. You had worked a full day at AW but even though you were so fucking exhausted, you still had to catch up on some homework.

So there you were sitting at your desk in your bedroom, watching one of your professors drone on about the impact of Australian coral reef bleaching. Usually, you were very interested in your studies. But lately, you could feel your resolve slipping.

You could practically feel your focus going down the drain, as your mind was taken up with thoughts and worries of Lee Felix. You were still angry at him for what he had insinuated about your boyfriend that night. But mostly, you were just sad that he hadn’t fought for you.

That he hadn’t tried everything in his power to keep you from leaving his side at the Ice Cream Hut. You were still angry about the past, too. About the feelings that he had hurt just by leaving your side that fateful day during your graduation ceremony.

Your computer screen flashed, as the lecture you were watching changed to show a table graph that related to what your professor was teaching at that moment. You could feel a headache start to bloom between your temples from how much you had been studying and how worked up you still were about everything.

Taking in a deep sigh, you resigned to giving yourself a five-minute break from studying to regroup and re-focus your mind. Soon, you found yourself outside, standing on your parent’s front porch and gulping in the fresh sea breeze.

With it being so late out, the waning crescent moon was shining high in the sky, casting a silvery, ethereal kind of glow onto the brown sand below. The high tide lapped at the shore, the deep waters of the coastline looking murky and endless to your eyes.

It was as if you were suddenly possessed by a beautiful Selkie that was hidden just in the depths of the ocean, because soon, you were pulling away from the front porch, bare toes dragging through the soft sand as you made your way towards the shoreline.

Soon, you were wading through the chilly water, wiggling your feet against the moving silt just at your heels. The sound of the biting cerulean sea dancing all around you seemed to lull an aching part in your soul. And soon, you could feel yourself irrevocably relaxing.

Almost like, the filmy ocean waters were melting away the pain that you had been carrying onto for so very long. It was lifting the heavy weight off of your shoulders, soothing your broken heart, and trying its very best to mend the tear in the pit of your soul.

“You shouldn’t be out here so late at night- it’s dangerous.”

The deep voice that resonated out quietly behind you caused your entire body to jolt awake. Spine going completely straight, you fixed your eyes on the horizon before you, gaze drifting up to the shining moon above your head.

And when you didn’t reply, the man behind you continued.

“What are you still doing up?”

You were silent for a few beats, fists clenching and unclenching at your sides as you held in your rising anger. You could already feel it boiling up inside of you from having to deal with his presence again. You continued staring out into the sea, watching the black inkiness of the ocean depths.

“I’m fine, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“I don’t think you’re-”

“Just leave me the fuck alone, okay?!” You suddenly burst out, turning around on your heels, gaze catching with his. His blonde tresses were disheveled, and the white tee he was wearing was wrinkled at the collar. He just gaped at you, with an unreadable expression on his face, lips pressed together in a single firm line and jaw ticking only slightly. “You’ve done enough already.”

Then you were walking away without another word. You didn’t have the energy or patience to deal with his bullshit any longer. Your heart was weak enough as-is. You didn’t need any more abuse towards it.

Especially from him.

You didn’t stop trekking through the warm, slick sand until you felt a firm hand wrap around your wrist, gripping on tight and keeping you from moving any further. You stopped in your tracks, breathing coming out in sharp puffs.

“Wait, Y/N, I-”

Ripping your hand out of his grasp, the blood in your veins shimmering from the way his fingers had felt against your skin - all warm and faint - you could feel the anger rising in the corners of your vision. Painting everything in red again. “I hate you, you know that?”

For a few beats, there was utter silence.

And then,

“What?”

Regard focused on your childhood house that wasn’t too far off into the distance now, your shoulders set with a rigid kind of resolve. “You heard me,” you began, voice low as death and tone cold down to the marrow. “I fucking hate you- have since years ago and-”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Yes, I do.”

“No, you don’t.”

Finally getting fed up with his blatant disregard for your feelings, you twisted around to face him again. Coming up into his space, you pressed a finger into his chest, for the moment ignoring the hard muscle you could feel there. Gazing up into his eyes with narrow eyes, you seethed out. “You don’t get to fucking abandon me and disappear out of nowhere, and then come back around here and act like you know what’s best for me. Don’t act like you know me because you don’t- we’ve both changed and you’re too much of a coward to admit that.” Your voice wasn’t raised in anger. Instead, it was deep and gravelly, throbbing with emotion.

Because although you were angry beyond belief, you were also sad out of your mind.

Then without another word, he was wrapping a few fingers around the one you were jamming into his chest, pulling it away from himself and squeezing there gently. “Every day that I was gone- I died a little bit inside. It killed me to be met with utter silence every time I needed someone to turn to. I missed you so much, I would lie awake in my bed late into the night, aching so much I could hardly fucking breathe- I’d wake up and my limbs would shake from all of the agony.” He was staring down at you, and only then did you realize how close the two of you were. Faces just a mere hairsbreadth from each other.

“Why did you do it, Felix?” You found yourself asking, voice breaking at the end of your words as the cloudiness began to form at the edges of your vision. “I needed you, you know that? I needed you so fucking much and you-”

The tears overwhelmed every part of your system after that, shaking your shoulders and making your legs wobbly. And then Felix was wrapping both arms around your waist, holding you close and pressing the side of your cheek against his warm chest.

“I know- I know,” he choked out, sounding like he was on the verge of tears as well. One of his hands rose from your hips, stroking through your strands of hair gently. “I just- couldn’t deal with the fallout of everything. Like a fool- I left without a word and stayed away. And then one day- I got in contact with Jisung again and he mentioned you and I… I lost it and I knew that it was time for me to finally come home.”

You pulled away from his chest at his words, gaping up at him with slightly parted lips. The tears blurred your vision, making him out to be a smudge against the brilliant starry sky. The moon hung low on the horizon, casting a supernatural kind of glow down onto his blonde tresses and milky skin.

“B-But why, Felix?” You needed an answer. A final and definite one. You were sick of beating around the bush, skirting around all of the issues. For years, ever since your colossal blowup, you had been wondering and obsessing over the sole reason why he had done what he had. Why he had caused everything to go to shit in just a single fucking night.

The silence lapsed between the two of you, and after a few beats, his hand was pulling away from your scalp, moving around to your face. A gentle thumb caressing underneath one of your eyes to wipe away the falling tears, he let out a quiet breath, freckled cheeks dusted with the pinkish hue of sentiment. His finger swiped against your cheek like the kiss of a butterfly wing.

“I think you already know why, angel.”

That nickname…

Angel.

The one he used to use on you ever since you were little kids.

It caused something deep inside you to stir. Something unknown and scary to break apart deep inside of your heart - dancing and leaping around in your soul and painting your mind in an effervescent light of happiness and mirth.

Because no one had ever called you that besides him.

And it had been over four years since you had heard him utter it.

Low, sultry voice wrapping around the word, the sound of it floating out of his mouth and tickling your ears delightfully.

His confession came out all whispery, just barely louder than the waves lapping at your feet. They were meant for your ears only, and at that exact moment, you understood everything.

Lee Felix peered down at you like you were his whole world.

His everything,

And so much more.

And he had been the same thing for you, for so very long.

But then Chris stepped into your life and turned your entire world on its axis.

“You really hate him that much, then?”

“I wouldn’t choose him for you if he was the last man on earth.”

“He’s not that bad, Felix.”

“Hell- I’d rather you date Jisung instead!”

Your eyes widened as you stared up at him, the corners of the night sky starting to become clear again as the tears staved off rather slowly. “You seriously can’t mean that.” Although Jisung had been both of your friends since elementary school, the man was notorious for being horrible with the ladies. He couldn’t charm the pants off of a woman if his life depended on it.

But he was one hell of a good guy and the most loyal person you'd ever met. In your mind, he had always taken a close second place next to Felix.

And when Felix moved away and left you in utter silence…

Well, Jisung was there to help you pick up the pieces.

And Chris, too.

But he was your boyfriend.

And boyfriends were much different than best friends.

Felix reached forward, tucking a loose strand of your wild, windswept hair behind one of your ears. “I just think- he’s not the right guy for you, that’s all,” he canted his head to the side in a quizzical way, trying to find the right words that were jumbled up in his mind. “I never liked him, even before the two of you started dating in high school.”

You raised an eyebrow his way, mind buzzing with millions of questions. Ones that had been left unanswered since you were a young seventeen-year-old girl. “What is it about him that irks you so much?”

He shrugged slowly, the hand clutching on a little tighter to your hip, the other fingers going back to card through your hair. “Honestly, it’s hard to pinpoint… he just, rubs me in all of the wrong ways.”

“And do you think every man that dates me will rub you the wrong way?” You asked, playfully shoving at his chest and putting a minuscule amount of distance between the two of you. The moon was out, and with it being so late at night, the breeze was cool against your skin, forcing shivers to course up your spine.

“Yeah, I think so,” he shot you a devilish grin, the kind that spread across his mouth and brightened up his entire face. But then suddenly, his eyes were darkening and his smile was turning into the serious press of a frown. “You’re too perfect to give up to some cunt of a man- I want to see you with someone much better than him. Someone more… competent.”

Poking a finger into the hidden dimple at his cheek, you laughed heartily at the remark. “Well, that’s never gonna happen because no man is 'competent.' They’re all assholes, except some aren’t as bad of ones.”

Just then he was leaning into your space again, breathing in your scent with a wicked smirk slashing against his lips. “And where do I stand on the totem pole of assholes, huh? Am I the lowest of lows or middle ground?”

Your eyes trailed up to the sky above, searching the stars for an answer. “Hmm- I’d say…” You let yourself drawl on, focus coming back onto him, and his face that was illuminated in the deep twilight. Blonde locks messy from the beach breeze at your side and pearly white teeth showing against a pretty pink mouth. Fuck- that mouth. Why had you never noticed it before? It was so perfect - shaped like a springtime rosebud, red and rosy and so fucking kissable and… Wait. Why were you thinking about his lips? “I- uh, I’d say-” You found yourself stuttering over your words in the next beat, breath catching painfully in your chest as you tried to rip your eyes away from those lips.

“It’s alright, I get it. Such an extraordinary man like me is hard to pinpoint.” Those lips ticked up higher into that familiar smirk of his, forcing your heart to skip over itself about a million times in just under a single minute. “Don’t worry, I won’t hold the judging against you.”

That seemed to break the trance that you were in, and soon, your regard was traveling up his face again, past his regal nose and sharp cheekbones, and locking onto his eyes. He stared down at you with those imploringly. They were dark against the night atmosphere, swimming like the swarthy oceans below, with a myriad of colors and feelings. Dark brows suddenly crumpled together, and it looked like he was about to say something in that halted moment. In that tender, delicate space that had suddenly formed between you.

“I need to get back inside. It’s getting late and I still have to finish studying.” You finally said, breaking through the bated silence that had fallen between the two of you in the last few moments.

Felix nodded once, but he didn’t seem all that committed to the idea. Almost like, it killed him to leave that space with you. To abandon that tightrope that the two of you were balancing on just then.

“Yeah, I’m pretty beat myself.” He said, rubbing a nervous hand at the back of his neck.

Backing up slowly, you started to float towards your parent's house once more. As you neared the front porch steps, you heard the rustling of fabric behind you and turned to see Felix had followed you to the house.

He shrugged, once, gaze leaving your form and traveling over to his own parent's house just down the way. “Figured it’d be safest to see you to the door.”

Rolling your eyes at him in annoyance, you took the first two steps up to the front door. You could feel his eyes on you, stare burning two searing holes into your skin with each small movement that you took. Growing further and further away from him.

“See ya tomorrow, bright and early?” His voice carried out between the distance around you, serenading your ears and dancing in the depths of your soul.

You didn’t even spare him a full glance, just tilted your head to the side and offered him a crooked smile. “We’ll see…” You let your words trail off into the misty night, the high clouds above carrying them up and off into the watery distance of the shoreline. Then, you were slinking across the threshold of your house and closing the door behind you with a soft click.

To be continued...

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