#this would be Elias if he had big brown baby man eyes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

justa-starrynite · 4 years

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Choices: One

A/N: It is finally here! We have been excitedly talking about and anxiously waiting on posting our first Collaboration story together. We have been working on these for a month or so. Finally we get to share it with you all. We hope you enjoy this little adventure we’ll be taking you all on!

This is new territory for us so bear with us! For now, this page is solely for this story, but you never know what can happen down the road!

If you would like to be added to the tag list, feel free to leave a comment or shoot us a message!

Co-authors: @justahopelessssromantic & @starrynite7114

word count: 4175

tagged list: @chibsytelford @phoenixhalliwell @lady-pswrld @carlaangel86 @cocotheclown @mrsjaxtellerfan @loveandglamour26 @nakusaych9 @courtrae89 @briannab1234 @vicmackeybullshxt @gemini0410

Felipe had his gun drawn, cautiously making his way up the driveway of an old friend he knew so well. ell. Looking behind him he saw a few of his colleagues surveying the area. Seeing the footsteps and the front door that was wide open, he knew that they were too late.

“I think we’re too late.” Felipe told his colleague.

Quickly, they made their way up to the front door and found the place in disarray. The smell of gunpowder was still fresh in the air.

Felipe heard the cries then. Making his way to the back of the home, he saw his former colleague and his wife, face down, their blood pooling under them. Their daughters surrounded them, crying as their parents became colder and colder.

“Mommy,” Amelia shook her mother, begging for her to wake up. “Arper, she no wakey.”

Harper frowned, shaking her mother as well with the same result. She turned when she heard the footsteps, immediately wrapping her arms around Amelia. When she realized it was Felipe, her face scrunched up, the tears now flowing down her eyes. Felipe picked her up, his colleague, Jorge picking up Amelia.

“It’s okay bebita, Tio Felipe is here now.” Felipe kissed her head.

This was the reason he started anew in California, why he had to keep Angel and his newborn, Ezekiel along with his wife Marisol away from this. The cartel was hardly forgiving, and this was evidence of that. Looking at the two young toddlers in his arm and Jorge’s, he knew he had to do the same for them.

Harper sat down by the computer in her room, letting out a sigh. Packing was a bitch. Moving from Seattle all the way down close to the border was a feat. It’s not like she couldn’t find a place in Seattle to work. Plenty of hospitals needed nurses, but she wanted to work at an underserved community and well, her recruiter found her a job in Santo Padre. Which was fate bringing the puzzle pieces together.

She’s been wanting to see Felipe, to thank him for everything he’s done for her all these years.

More importantly, she wanted to meet Angel, Felipe’s eldest son and the man who’s had her heart since she was eight years old. It was surreal how this all began over the phone and after all these years, they’ve never met face to face.

Her adoptive father, Jorge, always spoke highly of Felipe, they used to be comrades of war. He never spoke about it often. But every once in a while, when he had enough to drink to let his inhibitions go, she could get a few things out of him.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but your parents love you dearly.” He would always tell her that, yet, he would never elaborate what happened to them. She knew they were no longer in this world and she had a sister, but from what her father told her, when he found her at an orphanage, it was only her left.

Harper remembered bits of pieces of her childhood, but at times, she felt that she blocked it out.

Too traumatic or some shit.

Regardless, here she was, spending her last night at her parents home. Her older brothers Oliver and Dominic were having a hard time letting her go, even though they themselves no longer live in Seattle. Oliver was currently stationed in San Diego with the Navy and Dominic was in Arizona. Right now, they were in Seattle since they were going to drive down to Santo Padre with Harper. No matter her age, Harper would always be their baby sister, no amount of degrees or make up could change that.

Her parents taught her the value of hard work.

They provided a roof over her head, gave her things that she wanted as long as they could afford it. They were never rich in the sense of materialistic things but their family was always rich with love and laughter. Jorge seemed to be a very strict man due to his military background, but he was the biggest jokester of them all. Harper’s friends growing up love coming to her home and just talking to her father, hearing his stories. Her mother, Elia, was an amazing cook and much like her father, a jokester.

Harper felt blessed to have her family. She couldn’t even say she missed her biological parents cause she never knew them.

But she was grateful for being blessed with Jorge and Elia. Along with her two doofus older brothers.

Dominic was the eldest at thirty four years old. He was currently a manager at a bank in Phoenix, Arizona where he resides with his partner, Brandon. They were in the process of adopting a baby boy, four months old. Oliver was thirty-two years old and was currently an active member of the Navy. He currently resides in Coronado, close to base, with his fiancé, Haley.

The three were all close growing up, the two boys taking in the toddler than their father brought him. They always wanted a sister and they got one in Harper. Blood or not, Harper was their baby and no one would ever harm her, especially not the people that killed her parents.

“Harp! Is everything packed?” She heard Dominic holler at her.

“Yes! We’ve been over this for the seventeenth time!” She yelled back.

“Okay smartass, if you fucking forget one thing tomorrow I’m throwing your ass in the lake.” Dominic warned.

Harper laughed before she stopped and rechecked her items. She wasn’t taking everything, this would always be her home after all. The most she took were her clothes and this dresser her father had made for her, she could never truly part with it.

There was a knock on her door.

“Come in!” She called out. “Who knew you knew how to knock Dom.”

Looking up, she found her father, a small smile gracing his lips. This has been difficult for him. He didn’t want her to move. Though the threat may no longer be there, he was still hesitant to part with his baby girl.

“All packed?” Jorge asked as he sat beside Harper on her bed. The bed where she shed tears over the first boy to break her heart. The bed where he read her endless stories about happily ever afters. The bed where he would hold her and lull her to sleep whenever she dreamt about the night her parents were slayed. The bed where he promised her that no matter what, he would always protect her.

“Yes, don’t believe Dominic, he’s just being an asshole.” Jorge gave her a look and she immediately corrected herself. “A jerk, Dom’s being a jerk.”

“You’re twenty-nine years old Harper, you’re allowed to cuss.”

“Yes well, you’ve embedded it in me that if I get that look, that means I’m not supposed to do something.” Harper gave him a sheepish smile.

“I know.” Jorge chuckled. “I decided to come along with you and your brothers, it would be nice to see Felipe again.”

“Really?” Harper grinned. “That would be great, you two could catch up and you could ease my nerves about moving to a new place.”

“You’ll be fine mija. If there was one kid I wasn’t worried about, it was you.”

Harper chuckled. “Thanks dad.”

She was ready for this new chapter. However nerve wracking it may be, she had a good feeling about this, that she was on the right path.

It was the path that led her to Angel and unbeknownst to her father, her sister.

Miguel fastened the last button of his white shirt as he walked into the dining room greeting his family. “Buenos días my beautiful familia.” He grinned looking as his two favorite women and his precious little girl. He gave his mother a kiss on the cheek then leaned over cupping his beautiful wife Amelia’s face in his hand leaning in for a soft kiss before turning to the other side and placing a sweet kiss to the top of his daughter, Marisela’s head. He then took his place at the head of the table unfolding his cloth napkin and setting it across his lap. “How was everyone’s night?” He questioned as he looked to Marisela. He had been working all night so he had not come to bed. The last thing he did before shutting himself in his office was tuck his daughter into her bed and read her favorite bedtime story. He was hoping last night was finally the night she could sleep by herself, nightmare free. The poor thing had been suffering from terrible nightmares, waking up crying in the middle of the night before finding comfort in her parent’s bed. He loved her dearly but it could only go on for so long before something had to change.

“I had ‘nother nightmare.” Marisela spoke up quietly looking up at her father with her big brown eyes. “A scary monster came and swooped me away from you and I would never see you again.” She recalled, her little eyes filling with tears.

Miguel and Amelia’s hearts broke at the sight. They felt for their daughter and wished more than anything to be able to rid her of these fears. “You have nothing to fear mi princesa.” Miguel spoke softly to her, “Papa would never let that happen. You’re safe, surrounded by people who love and protect you.”

“Like tio Nessy?” She asked, perking up a bit. Nestor and Marisela had a very special bond, the little girl holding a special place in his heart as well.

“Ella,” Amelia spoke up catching her daughter’s attention. “Did you know Mama used to get terrible nightmares too when she was little like you?” Amelia had suffered from nightmares that would plague her after she was adopted. They were always so vivid and felt real but at the end of the day they were just dreams and eventually they faded with time. Hopefully it wouldn’t take Marisela’s quite as long to disappear for her.

“You did?” Marisela asked, eyes wide. “How’d you make ‘em go away?”

“Eventually they just did, baby.” Amelia said, giving her a comforting smile and reaching out to brush a curl behind Madisela’s ear. “Yours will too.”

Miguel watched on intently, Marisela was beautiful looking just like her mother and he thought about how lucky he was to have his family. “So,” he spoke up taking a sip of his coffee, “What are our plans for today?”

“Well, we’ll probably just have a little girl’s day.” Amelia said buttering her toast, “Do some shopping, maybe get our nails done and then dinner at (restaurant name)?”

“That sounds wonderful. I’ll make sure we have a reservation.” Miguel said.

Nestor stepped into the room instantly gaining the attention of Marisela. She perked up at the sight exclaiming, "Nessy!" Nestor smiled at the little girl walking over to her as she bounced on her seat. He'd never get tired of the excitement she had every time she saw him. Looking up at him as he got closer Marisela pouted. Where the nightmares were a terrible feat for her she also knew how to use them to gain the sympathy of those already wrapped tightly around her little finger. "Had 'nother scary dream tio Nessy," She informed him, bottom lip jutting out as her eyes watered over.

"That's no good," he said brushing the stray tear away that trailed down her cheek.

Amelia looked to Miguel hoping she could have a moment to speak with him. The nightmares had been at the front of her mind for some time now. She hated seeing her daughter suffer through similar things to what she had growing up. She also missed having the bed to herself and husband again, the frequent addition blocking any and all intimacy between the two.

Miguel picked up on his wife's silent signal. “Why don’t you go wash up," He suggested to his daughter, "You've got a big day planned ahead, mi princesa. You'll need to be heading out soon."

"I'll take her, Mykie." Nestor offered lifting the girl off her seat and taking her hand. "Come on now little Ella." Amelia smiled at her daughter as Nestor and Marisela walked out of the room to clean up leaving Miguel, Amelia, and Dita still sat at the dining table.

Amelia’s smile faltered as she sunk down in her seat exhausted once her daughter was out of sight. She looked to Miguel again. “We can’t keep doing this Miguel. The nightmares have to stop. Marisela is barely sleeping." She rubbed her temples between her fingers in an attempt to massage the stress away. "Maybe it would be good to seek outside help, find someone she can talk to. Someone who could help her more than us."

Miguel grabbed her hand, stilling her movement and bringing it down to his lips for a kiss to the back of her soft skin. He held it tight giving it a squeeze as she placed her other hand on top of his “I think that’s an excellent idea, amor." He agreed. "We’ll find someone, look into it together. I promise."

Dita sipped her tea remaining silent throughout the conversations until now. “She’s a child, they have nightmares all the time.” She spoke up waving it off, “She doesn’t need a shrink messing around in her little mind and filling it with nonsense." She set her cup down on the table looking to her daughter in law "What she needs is for you to stop letting her sleep in your bed every time she has a silly little dream. The sooner she learns she doesn't have you to fall back on she'll get over it." She said sternly. "She's a Galindo, strong like her father." Dita smiled at her son.

Amelia gave her mother in law a tight lipped smile in return. It took everything in her to keep her calm. She and Dita did not often get along, Dita thinking Amelia belonged in the role of loving mother and doting wife nothing more and certainly not getting involved with the cartel business. What Miguel and Amelia had was a partnership though. She refused to be left in the dark. They respected each other, were a true power couple through and through. It was because of that that their marriage remained strong.

Amelia was adopted by the Mendoza’s, another powerful cartel that was south of Sonora. Together, their marriage would unite the two powerful cartels, sparing bloodshed between the two. The Galindo’s never crossed a certain border, helping the Mendoza’s retain their power in that part of Mexico, while the Mendoza’s helped the cartel keep their territory intact. After the DOJ’s meddling, the Galindo’s were not as powerful as they used to be. The partnership, forced partnership, with the government made them look weak, leaving distaste to other cartel families. But they also understood why everything occurred the way it did. And now, Miguel Galindo was in power and it was different to his father’s reign. They were unsure of his prowess, but he has proved that he could play their game, they just didn’t know how well he could. Regardless, the Mendoza’s allied themselves with Miguel, strengthening their partnership with a marriage. If they had a marriage, a child, it would be hard to betray one another, the fallout would be far too great.

Amelia and Miguel knew one another from when they were children, and always had polite conversations. When they were informed that they would be arranged, there was no fight from either as they knew their fates. Powerful families rarely wanted to marry outside of their class. Even though it seemed ridiculous at this time period, with all the progressive ideals that has been put forth, old habits were difficult to break. They’ve been married for

Miguel made her a promise the night their engagement was announced.

‘I know this is not ideal Lia, but I will protect you. I promise you that no matter what happens, it will be you and me against whatever is thrown against us.’

And Miguel has kept that promise. He’s even gone against his mother for her.

Miguel squeezed Amelia’s hand in support as he addressed his mother. “This is between Amelia and I, Mama. Marisela is our daughter. It is our decision to decide what is best for her. Even a Galindo could use a helping hand every now and then.”

Amelia gave Miguel a grateful smile, squeezing his hand back. Dita gave them both a tight smile before leaving the two alone. Amelia didn’t hate Dita, but she didn’t particularly like her either. More often than not, Dita always inserted herself in their marriage.

Amelia smiled as Marisela slowly awoke from her small nap during the ride over to town. She had to drop off a few things at the post office and she figured no better time than the present to see who her Pediatrician would recommend for Marisela to meet up with. Though, they most likely would go to San Diego as the choices were by far vast.

Hearing the familiar roar of the motorcycle, she looked as two Mayans passed her by, parking across the street at Carniceria Reyes. Coco and Angel dismounted, taking off their helmets and placing it on their handles. Coco looked back, his eyes meeting Amelia’s. She managed to give him a small smile and he returned it, their past memories running through both their minds.

What could have been.

What should have been.

“Still can’t believe she’s married to Galindo.” Angel shook his head. “Hola Amelia, come estas?”

Amelia rolled her eyes and flicked off Angel.

“Very nice to do in front of your kid.” Angel further teased her.

Coco smacked Angel’s arm, shaking his head. “Leave it, you don’t want Galindo breathing down our neck because you’re fucking with his wife.”

“You’re right.” Angel nodded his head, stepping on the sidewalk to make his way over to his father’s butcher shop.

Coco knew that no matter how he felt, this was the best for Amelia. Like what Miguel told him the night Amelia collapsed in his arms, she was better off with him. He could get her the proper treatment for his condition and he, a nobody, could barely reap his benefits from his military service. It was one of the hardest things he had to do. A relationship that lasted less than a year had such an effect on him, still did to this day. He dreamt of her often, how she would laugh at his corny jokes, take in his words of wisdom and always compliment on how intelligent he was. Those were the most cruel dreams, they were equivalent to nightmares, since it was a taste of what he had and could never have again.

“Yo, you alright?” Angel broke him away from his thoughts.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m good.” Coco turned away from Amelia, moving towards where Angel was.

Much like everything else in his life, Amelia and his children, were pushed to the side, because they were better without him. He would just ruin his life, much like how he always fucked up in his.

The club was the only family he had and it would always remain that way.

Harper walked in, the nerves in her stomach were going inside. Her father Jorge followed after her, smiling at Amelia’s excitement. He was glad that she was finally able to meet her Tio Felipe again after all these years. Ever since Marisol’s death, Felipe’s visits were sporadic at best, but Harper understood she always did.

“Be with you in a moment,” Felipe had his back turned to them, preparing the meat he was going to place in the display case.

“Take your time.” She responded.

“Compadre, you’re moving slower, should we be concerned?” Jorge couldn’t help but tease Felipe.

Felipe froze and turned around. “Jorge?” He wiped his hands with his apron, taking it off as he made his way towards them. His eyes then landed on the young woman beside him and his smile even grew larger. “Harper?”

“Hello,” she shyly greeted him.

“Don’t be shy now, go hug him.” Jorge gave his daughter a slight push.

Harper walked over to Felipe, wrapping her arms around him. The warmth she felt was similar to the one she felt when her father would embrace her. The men who saved her and her sister, wherever she may be.

“Mija, you’re so grown.” Felipe rarely smiled, but seeing Harper in front of him, even though he had seen Amelia numerous times, it was different. Harper was kept away, just to assure that the two would not be put together and hunted down. It was ironic how Amelia was now married to the family who got her parents killed in the first place. Felipe didn’t know who Amelia was going to be adopted too, he trusted a friend of his to find a good family for her, a family who would be able to afford her condition.

And those were the Mendoza’s.

“What are you doing here?” He questioned Harper once he pulled away. “What are you both doing here?”

“Came to help her unpacked, make sure everything is in order at her apartment.” Jorge wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“I got a job here as an ER nurse, I’ve always wanted to serve underserved communities and my recruiter found me one here.” Harper excitedly told him. “I jumped at the opportunity as I’ve been wanting to see you and Angel as well.”

Felipe chuckled, shaking his head. His eldest son was enamored with Harper. Ever since they were younger, Angel always spoke to Harper. It was odd that they became as close as they’ve been, but Felipe was thankful. He felt that he failed Angel, that he didn’t give him the love that he deserved. He would make it up to Angel eventually, but he was glad Harper was here now, just so the two could finally meet face to face. Every time they would try and meet, it was never the right time. It was upsetting to say the least, but Angel always pushed through.

“Angel has been looking forward to meeting you for so long, I’m sure it would make him immensely happy to see you.” Felipe chuckled. “Have you two eaten? Let’s go grab some food and bring it back here.”

Felipe went to the back to lock up and change, Jorge following after him. Harper stood by the counter, checking her phone. The bell rang, indicating someone walked in. She looked up and found two men, one taller than the other, wearing leather vests. Giving them a small smile, Harper’s attention went back to her phone.

Angel studied the young woman before him, his eyebrows furrowing. “Amelia, weren’t you just outside?”

Harper looked at the man behind her and gave him a confused look. “Amelia? My name is Harper.”

Angel froze.

Harper.

He knew that voice.

It was her voice.

Angel didn’t know how he could feel so strongly about someone he never met. He’s always felt at ease with Harper. He could even say that he loves her. She’s been his best friend, his confidant for years. And to have her in front of him, he was in disbelief.

“Is it really you?” Angel studied her face, she looked just like Amelia, but she just looked different, seemed different. The smile on her face was brighter, more genuine. Her hair was burgundy stuck out to him. He remembered when she was nervous about coloring her hair and she looked beautiful. The half sleeve tattoo on her arm caught his eye, a sleeve she had shown him before.

God, she was gorgeous.

“Want to pick up your mouth bro, it’s kind of embarrassing.” Coco couldn’t help but tease Angel. Though it was eerie how much she looked like Amelia. “Fuck, I owe Gilly money.” Coco took his phone out, preparing to text their third musketeer.

And the fact she wasn’t a dude really surprised Coco.

His voice registered to Harper then. Her mouth dropped open before she shrieked and ran over to him, jumping in his arms. Angel’s arms immediately wrapped around her.

“Angel!” Harper buried her face at the crook of his neck.

“Fuck, you are real.” Angel couldn’t even explain how overjoyed he was to finally have Harper in his arms. He always thought that maybe life was playing a cruel trick on him and he was being fucking catfished, especially since she would never show him pictures of herself. She reasoned that her parents wouldn’t allow it, that people were looking for her and his father explained the same thing to him. Angel never pushed it, which was surprising for him, but he knew it must have been something if even his father and mother advised that it would be best to wait to see Harper

#angel reyes #angel reyes fic #angel reyes x oc #angel reyes fanfic #coco cruz fanfic #mayans mc #mayans mc fanfiction #coco cruz x oc #miguel galindo

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honestsycrets · 4 years

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Tell Me The Truth | [ Ivar x Reader (Peaky AU) ]

❛ pairing | ivar x reader, ubbe x reader, freydis x reader

❛ type | doubleshot, peaky blinders au

❛ summary | despite what you want, the lines on ivar’s hand don’t lie.

❛ warnings | bad palmistry, cursing in another language idk how accurate it is (whore), peaky blinders au (very loose), gypsy!reader (stereotypes i’m sorry okay?), requested piece, “hallucinations”, idk what the song name is that I included anymore.

Read the patterns on my skin

He has big hands.

Let the fire somehow get in

The kind you get lost in.

See my heart line is intact

The kind that hold a whole world in his hands

So this is what I lacked

And don’t even know it yet.

“See something?” he breaks the long-winded silence. You, cradling his hand, find yourself staring at the long lines of his palms between curtains of candles that illuminate your caravan. Yout thumbs run over the lines of his large hand, comparing them to your memory, marking out everything you saw.

“Instinct. Same thing I always see. Your natural talent for adaptation. The need not to hold back,” You slur, taking a long drag of the singed cigarette between your index and middle finger. You draw out a flood of smoke into his face, grey and light. He swats away the smoke and emerges from it, his pale face cut like a bag of crisp diamonds, or whatever else he packed in that baggie.

You reach your hand out toward it, and he rests back in the chair, a picture of a great man, one that anyone should fear. Under all that, the energy radiating of a boy on an uncertain path. It wouldn’t help him to know that. Maybe he’d take off that grey cap and swipe you in the face if you said that.

“What else?” he closes his fist, tucking the bag into the pocket on the inside of his suit. You scowl, lips pursing, the coins on your wrist tinkling as you flick your hand toward him, caught in indignation.

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Ivar,” you say, pronouncing each word sharper than the last. “Every time you come here it is the same--”

“You’re holding something back.”

He says it with such evenness. You knew he would. He draws the button of his suit jacket together, obscuring the chain on the inside, and the buttons latch together. You roll your lips in-- god, he’s become so beautiful. It’s been some time since he came back from Paris, his body changed, and yet he’s the same boy you knew before the war. Your lips are sealed. Keep sweet. Keep quiet.

“It’ll hurt,” you tell him, despite the fact that you know you aren’t talking about yourself. It wouldn’t just hurt you. It would hurt… deeper than that. You stand up, forgetting the instruments of your trade, the cards on the table and the crystals. Everything that would help Ivar get what he wanted from you: answers. “You know I wouldn’t hurt you.”

The scoff bursts from your lips in a short-lived chortle.

“You’re a man. Not just any man-- one of those men.” You say, and though you stand all straps and coin and cloth, you bring his hand to your lips. A chaste kiss blossoms along his scraped and bruised knuckles. “It’s what you all do. You’re destructive.”

“When have I ever hurt you? We’ve known each other… mm, how long?” He stands up then, his gloved fingers settling on his cane to steady him. He’s tall when he’s at height, pumped up on medication, he turns his head to you.

“Twenty-four years,” you say. “Give or take.”

His dark lashes pull from eyes rimmed in that god awful blue. You run your hand over your shawl, slipping it off your shoulders and setting it on the table. His eye flickers, catching fresh skin. “So tell me,” he whispers, turning his head, and you struggle against what he asks of you.

“You should go.” You tell him, backtracking toward something or anything other than the truth. That he is, or he isn’t, one of those god awful blinders. He steps forward. The floorboards scream under your feet, and suddenly your pressed to the bed you share with your own ghost of the past.

“Say it again,” he tells you. This time he raises his tanned hand to your cheek, flicking once, snatching your attention with one smooth swat across your cheek. Just enough to get your attention. “Call me it again.”

“You’re a Blinder. That’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it?” you call him by name, and its enough, because the wrinkle in your nose is enough to say what you think of those sorts of men. He holds your gaze, sorting out the remnants of lost affection, all mixed and masked in some foreign longing. He devours your fear, voice lilting nice and soft, sucking you into him. “Now you’ve got it--”

Ivar snatches your throat, pitiful under his large hand. “That’s right. Now answer me what I came here for.”

He’s grown big. You think back to that boy that used to come to play when Aslaug would come to visit her forefather’s home. How he revered the scars of his big brother, mapped stratagems for him with Ubbe, and worked so hard.

Now he nearly had everything that you told him would come. All but a few things that you worked so hard to suppress despite knowing that nothing and no one could keep one back from their true calling. You never failed to answer him in the past. That’s what he needs. Someone real to latch onto.

“You’ll find love. That’s what I saw in your palm.”

One day. But it wouldn’t be today. Even tomorrow. He’s settled enough with the prospect to release you, step aside and fix his coat.

“I already knew that. We’re opening the pub tomorrow,” he tells you. “Stop by.”

“But Ivar--” you protest. “She won’t be what you think she is.”

“Shht.” Ivar says, flipping his cap and settling it back on his head. “You worry too much.”

It’s not an order. Not by the way he says it as he hobbled to the door, stopping for just a second, long enough to share a bated breath with you. “Stop by. There are men there. Elias didn’t give his life down there to see you here.”

He wouldn’t want you to be alone. In his memory you give Ivar a very short nod, remembering those god awful mines. The ones that caved in on themselves and—“I’ll see you. Have to get to the docks, eh?”

There are men there, he said.

You drew your shawl over your shoulders, obscuring the beaded dress as much as you could, and opened the door. Inside there were men. Ones that buzzed around the room like bugs, swarming and drinking, and you made your way forward squished between chests and backs, booze and cigarettes.

“Anotha’ whiskey da’lin, anotha’ whiskey!” the night had only just begun, and yet, the men were already trashed. Behind the long stretch of a barstool stands a girl. Her hair chopped at her nape, painfully pale, with a look in her eyes the same of a dull horse. Freydis, her name flickers across your head, like a great dull name. Before you and behind you, a chill runs down your arms. Hairs lift, and you look straight ahead, past the warm brown waxed countertop, through the women there. She smiles like tainted ink in a pure pool, spreading her tainted nature around in a pool of stupid men.

Take care’a my boy, a voice whispers. Your head snaps, bouncy curls at your neck, and you mind yourself to stay firmly in reality, rather than in the plane between, where no one here could be.

“(Y/N)!” That deep voice, thick and heavy, reeks of an old friend. Appearing beside you, you find the tall one: Ubbe. It’s been some time since you’ve seen him.

“Ubbe…” He’s grown taller, if possible, with a handsome beard where his brothers faltered. His eyes shine with a warmth Ivar usually lacks, despite the war. It’s not changed him in the same way that it changed the others.

“Surprised to see you here. You hate drunks.” He offers you his elbow to take.

“Ivar invited me,” you grumble. Invited was a kind word for what Ivar did. Because really, it was no invitation-- not when you wanted to know where he was, where he… “Besides, it is nice to see the boys.”

Bjorn was nowhere to be seen. But Hvitserk was drinking heartily at the bar, throwing back booze after booze, while Sigurd played jauntily with a small crew by his side. None of them looked like war-stricken hounds. Except-- Hvitserk, yes, Hvitserk. Hvitserk looked like--

“The boys,” he laughs. “And me?”

You suppress that damn laughter and turn toward what was really on your mind. “When did that curvă show?”

“The girl?” Ubbe sets his hand to yours as if there are more important things to focus on, but there isn’t. Your head follows her even after Ubbe has rounded the corner to the back office. “Ivar’s new girl.”

“Margrethe--”

Ubbe shakes his head. That’s the end of that. Margrethe, expired. Freydis-- the new girl. His new girl. Dead girl walking. And still she’s the lucky one. The envy in your belly twinges. Then it burns.

“Are you okay?” Ubbe asks.

“Do you want to have whiskey?”

“Now?” he prompts.

“Well,” you shift over the table, spreading your legs over the table, slightly dangling. “Ivar did say there would be men here. It could be like old times.”

He lingers in front of the door, likely feeling a thousand thoughts, but it’s pointless really. His eyes close, just enough that you know he’s debating it-- and what for? Had Ivar not made his choice? He’s tempted enough. Despite the rattling of voices behind that door, he’s thinking about it. You shrug off your shawl, clap back on heels, step by step, until you’re there-- in front of him. He can’t. Not at first, not until you bring his hands around your back, pressing into him. He willingly squeezes your ass, leaning his head back, gazing at you to weigh your seriousness.

“Like old times.” Like old times implied being second-- second to his baby brother. But for one night, should he really care? Ubbe spins you around, jerks your ass to his back, and you feel him growing hard against his slacks. He thinks back to all those days before coming back, swatting your hips with emphasis.

“Go get the whiskey.” You move-- toward the stash, but he stops you cold. “No. Go get it from Ivar.”

@tephi101 @alicedopey @supernaturalvikingwhore @tootie-fruity @titty-teetee @queen-see-ya-in-valhalla @ethereallysimple @deathbyarabbit @deathbyarabbit @readsalot73 @natalie-rdr @lol-haha-joke @lisinfleur @hissouthernprincess @marvelousse @dangerous-like-a-loaded-pistol @vikingsmania @wish-i-was-a-mermaid @lif3snotouttogetyou @gruffle1 @cris101071 @gold-dragon-slayer @babypink224221 @wonderwoman292 @naaladareia @beyond-the-ashes @generic-fangirl @chinduda @laketaj24, @peaceisadirtyword, @ly–canthrope @cris101071 @daughterofthenight117 @unassumingviking @ladyofsoa, @inforapound @winchesterwife27 @feyrearcheron44 @readsalot73 @squirrelacorngliterfarts @gold-dragon-slayer @medievalfangirl @sallydelys @bluearchersstuff @affectionrabbitt @whatamood13 @notyouraveragegirl17 @igetcarriedawaywithyou @unacceptabletatertots @ivarandersen @stra-vage @tgrrose @cookies186 @learninglemni-blog @theleeshanotlouise @soiproclaim @msmorganforever

#ivar x reader #ivar/reader #ivar the boneless x reader #ivar the boneless/reader #vikings imagines #vikings imagine #vikings/reader #vikings x reader #ubbe x reader

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imalwaysintune · 4 years

Text

Barbershop Au

This is purely for my own indulgence, as I thought of this idea and couldn’t get it out of my head. I woke up at 5:30 am this morning in a cold sweat and intensely wanted to write about these four funky little men in a barbershop group. No I don’t know why.

Also, I got my new laptop today (yay!) and this is the first thing I’m writing on it, so it’s basically officially cursed now. I also blame @ggracee for fueling this fire.

Enjoy! Stuff under cut!

------------------------------------

In the Archives:

Martin had been quietly working on his notes when he suddenly felt the air behind him grow colder. His stomach dropped and he turned his chair around, just as he saw the air shift and Peter fade into view. It was terrifying the first time he’d seen it, had seen the way the space shifted and how it looked like the universe was going to collapse into a black hole.

But it hadn’t, and Martin had gotten used to Peter’s comings and goings. Peter himself, on the other hand, was another story. He was cold and heartless, and he had ripped Martin from all his friends and would chastise him every time he even so much as look at another member of the archival staff.

Martin sighed as he leaned his head on his hand, and waited expectantly for Peter to start talking. It was just better this way.

“Hey, Martin. I see you’re busy here doing... things. Um, you know, I was wondering if I could ask you a favor,” Peter seemed almost nervous, to Martin’s surprise. He didn’t normally look Martin in the eye out of habit, but this seemed intentional.

“As if I have a choice?” Martin sounds bitter, probably more bitter than he meant. He had just been having a rough day, rougher than usual. He wanted nothing more than to talk to Jon, but Peter made that virtually impossible.

“Oh come on Martin, I deserve more credit than that,” Peter looked at Martin directly then, and he looked nervous. It would’ve taken Martin aback if he cared enough. He just rolled his eyes and made a lazy gesture with his hand that roughly meant “go on”.

It wasn’t until that moment that he realized Peter’s hands were held behind his back, and he appeared to be holding something. When he brought his hands forward, they were holding something that looked like a piece of clothing. It was covered with red and white pinstripes, and Martin just stared at with mild surprise.

“So, I know we aren’t really friends. At least, you don’t consider me a friend. But there was no one else we could ask. We lost out last tenor to the Hunt and Elias doesn’t want to switch just to spite me now that I forced him to sing lead, so... you’re basically our only hope,” Peter was almost stumbling over his words, and in that moment he seemed more human to Martin than he had ever seen the man.

“Okay,” Martin said, remembering how much fun the show choir had been when he was in high school. That felt like so long ago now.

“Okay? Just.. okay? Like that? No fighting? You don’t even want me to beg?” The nerves that had fueled Peter just a second ago were replaced with bewilderment.

“I mean, you can if you want. But, I have nothing better to do, and frankly, the prospect of seeing Elias in that ridiculous suit you’re holding is just too good to pass up,” Martin said as he sat upright in his chair. He grabbed the suit from Peter’s hands and left the room, going to one of the many bathrooms that were littered around the institute.

He didn’t know what he expected of the suit, but he was pleasantly surprised when he felt the fabric grow and shrink to fit Martin’s form. He absentmindedly wondered what kinda freaky fear magic was used to make the suit fit so well as he examined himself in the mirror.

For how ridiculous he thought the fabric design had looked before, he quite liked how it flattered him. It made his ginger hair pop, and his body looked good. He’d never worn a suit that was properly tailored to him, so it was a nice change.

He walked out of the bathroom and back into the room where he knew Peter would be waiting. His eyes lit up as they landed on Martin, standing up from where he had sat down and walking over to the shorter man.

He beamed like a proud dad as he pulled out two more items from seemingly nowhere. He held out an iconic boater hat in one hand, and a bright red and white cane that matched the pattern of the suit.

Martin had the urge to laugh, something he hadn’t felt in awhile, so he let the laughter flow as he grabbed the items from Peter. It almost felt surreal, but it would seem that the being who took away all of Martin’s happiness would also be the one to provide it

Skip forward a few weeks to Elias’s office:

Martin stood outside of Elias’ office, debating whether or not he should follow through with his plan. However, as he figured Elias would already know he was there, he opened the door anyways.

Elias’ was staring up at him from the huge desk in the middle of the room, and Martin swallowed hard.

“Can I help you, Martin?” Elias drawled, looking up at Martin expectantly.

Martin crossed the room towards Elias, holding a stack of papers that looked like they were dangerously close to spilling everywhere. When he got to the desk, he dropped all the papers on the desk and started rifling through them, looking for a specific paper.

When he finally found it, he picked it up and walked around the desk, coming to settle next to Elias. He placed the paper down and pointed to a specific area on the page.

“I was trying to practice my part of ‘Coney Island Baby’, but I can’t get this one phrase here on page 7. I was wondering if you would work with me on it so that I have something to compare my part against and maybe it can help me-” Martin was abruptly cut off by the dreaded feeling he got when Peter was about to show up.

Sure enough, the space in front of them started to shift and soon Peter was just... there. Martin mentally chastised himself for being so careless. Of course Peter wouldn’t want him talking to anyone outside the time he allowed, even if it was to get help.

“Now, Martin, you surely know why I’m here. I have to say I’m majorly disappointed in you,” Peter didn’t sound disappointed. He sounded like he always did. His inflection rarely changed but it didn’t stop the words from stinging.

“Look, I’m sorry Peter, but I was just asking for Elias’ help on a part. If you don’t let me ask him for help when you’re not around, how am I supposed to get better?” Martin regretted challenging Peter as soon as the last word left his house.

Peter didn’t look angry. Far from it in fact. He looked like he’d been struck by genius. Martin’s stomach dropped when Peter finally revealed his brilliant idea.

“Here’s an idea. You can sit in the Lonely until all your sheet music is memorized! You need to learn to be part independent, Martin. You’re in the big leagues now.

Before he knew it, Martin felt the air around him grow thick as him and his papers were thrust into the dimension. Right before he lost complete contact though, he managed to thrust out “Can I at least have a pitch-pipe-” before disappearing into the Lonely.

It was Elias who broke the silence, sighing heavily. “You know, Peter, just because I offered you Martin to use for your secret little experiment doesn’t you can take him away from his work. He was doing important filing-” And suddenly with another ‘whoosh’ of Peter’s hand, Elias was destined to join Martin in the Lonely.

He could almost imagine the fit Elias was having, but he told himself that it was all for the best. This was the most productive they were going to be until Simon showed up.

Ah Simon Fairchild, the wild-child of the group. He was unpredictable, rarely showed up rehearsals and yet always seemed to know the sheet music intimately. It was as frustrating as it was liberating, to know that at least someone was serious about the group.

Oh well. At least this fun little experiment will test if his boys are up to the test.

A non-disclosed theater:

A few weeks after the “Lonely” incident, Peter, Elias, and Martin all gathered at the theater Peter had rented out for their rehearsals. Martin thought it was a bit much, but Peter thought the huge auditorium was perfect. Martin couldn’t even fathom how much something like this cost.

Suddenly, Martin had the familiar sinking feeling in his stomach. He looked over towards Peter, who was smiling giddily.

To Elias’ left, a being popped into view. He was wearing a dark green suede suit, brown and tan saddle shoes, and a wide brimmed hat that outlined his face like a halo.

Martin had never seen this person before, but Peter was looking at the figure in elation, walking over to him and enveloping the figure in a hug.

When Martin looked towards Elias for any sort of assistance, he sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Martin, this is Simon Fairchild. He’s our Baritone. Even though he rarely shows up to rehearsal, I have to admit, he’s a borderline musical prodigy,” Elias explained to Martin.

Peter and Simon seemed to be in deep conversation, and Martin strained his ears to hear what they were saying.

“-but it seems entirely unfair that you would send them into the Lonely without me. I could’ve helped them! They could’ve been out in half the time. Plus, I’ve never actually been inside The Lonely so it truly would’ve been quite an enlightening experience-” At this, Martin couldn’t stand to listen to Simon again. Talkative, that one.

He turned towards Elias and opened the sheet music for the latest song Peter had assigned to them and got to work. If Simon and Peter wanted to goof off, that was on them. At least he and Elias would be productive.

“One, two, a one two three four-” Martin began, and him and Elias erupted into wonky two part harmony. It wasn’t the most beautiful thing, but it was the most alive Martin had felt in months.

- THE END!

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This one is so cursed I’m sorry-

I just really wanted to write about these stupid cursed men if they joined force and made a barbershop group. I don’t have everything I wanted to write about in here, so maybe there will be a part 2 if it seems like y’all want it. Don’t be afraid to hit up my ask box and my ao3!

Words: 1708

#the magnus archives #tma #my work #elias bouchard #martin blackwood #simon fairchild #peter lukas #Barbershop AU #Barbershop #pls dont ask me why i had inspiration to write this #id love to hear yalls feedback lmao #Barbershop quartet

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fericita-s · 4 years

Text

Beginning After The End (Part 4)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

This concludes this story about Thea and Hubert falling in love after the deaths of Elias, Agnarr, and Iduna. Thank you @the-spaztic-fantastic for being the best beta ever and saying “YES MORE” when I said I wanted to think about these two and their lives after the events of WAIL. And for her many contributions including the idea of getting Henrik back with these two for some shenanigans and many of the gift ideas. Thea deserves good things!

Elias had shaved every day at home, lathering up with a soap with a distinct scent that Thea had come to associate with him. She missed the smell of it. He came home from expeditions with a beard that was coarse and full. Its roughness against her face when they kissed hello was part of the homecoming ritual, as was watching him trim and then shave it off, the time spent apart measured in how long it was. She would cup his smooth cheek with her hand and say “There you are!” when he finished and then together they began their favorite part of his homecoming.

Hubert kept his beard short. This was becoming a greater challenge now that the white hairs in it were growing faster than the brown. He would turn to Thea from his dressing table with the mirror propped up and the scissors in his hand, exasperated and possibly wistful and say “Why are the old-man hairs the ones most intent on announcing their presence?”

She found the best way to assuage this particular fear was to kiss him on the lips while her hands scratched at his bearded cheeks. “I like it. It makes you look distinguished. Very reliable for knowing the best way to introduce ice cars to the national railway.” Often the scissors would be abandoned as his hand found places to caress that elicited less verbal sounds of satisfaction from her.

***

Elias had presented her with gifts throughout their courtship and marriage through the imports his family was so involved in. He paid attention to the latest fashions that his mother and Linnea followed closely and seemed to always be giving her a new bonnet or pair of gloves or piece of jewelry or box of books. He bought her paints and pigments for her artwork and she exclaimed over the expense, grateful he knew how important it was to her. She hadn’t packed any of those gifts in the trunks that came to Antwerp, though she had tucked her wedding ring into a pair of woolen socks, unwilling to part from it completely and yet wanting to try living without its constant presence on her hand.

Hubert was similarly generous with gifts. For their first Christmas together, he had given all of the children their own horses and when Thea gently pointed out that perhaps the twins and Elias were too young for a horse, he bought them ponies as well. Vadik had also received a pocket watch that Hubert had been gifted from his own father at the age of ten and a letter Elias had written to Hubert announcing Vadik’s birth. Sasha had gasped when he presented her with a Stradivarius violin. They hadn’t seen her for the rest of the day, the pastoral symphony from Handel’s Messiah filling the house the only evidence of her presence and a testament to her delight.

To Thea, he had given his mother’s diamond ring, resized to fit her hand. He had shrugged at the extravagance, saying only “Antwerp is known for diamonds and I never gave you a ring when we were wed.” But she had seen how pleased he was when she wore it, how his eyes looked at her hand and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Later, Sara had hugged her tightly and whispered how glad she was to see her brother in love.

That night when the last carol had been sung and the last candle extinguished, Hubert lit one in the bedroom to tell her of another gift.

“I saved the letters Elias wrote to me over the years. Yours too, but it’s his I think you might like to see. We started corresponding the year we were all at the Royal Sommerhus together,” he said as he crossed the room to the tall chest of drawers. He opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of papers tied neatly with a piece of string.

“I should have told you about them before, but I wasn’t sure if they would cause joy or bereavement. But I think either way, the decision is for you to make.” He was looking at the letter on top, and even with only candlelight Thea could see that it bore the creases of having been once folded as a letter. Hubert didn’t raise his eyes to hers as he continued speaking.

“He loved you so much Thea. And he said that so often in these letters. Sometime casually, sometimes in grand declarations. And they’re yours to read whenever you want to; alone or with me nearby.”

The diamond had spun on her finger and she twisted it back around as she answered him, careful to keep her voice even so he wouldn’t hear grief in her voice and regret this gift. “Thank you, Hubert. I’ll read them another night.”

He returned the letters to the drawer and then got back in their bed.

“Thank you for all of the gifts. The children and I - we’re so lucky to have you.” She hoped he could hear the sincerity in her voice, how much she meant it to be true. Thinking about Elias was still a wound but it was more of a bruise now, not the gaping wound it had been before coming to Antwerp. And one she preferred, at least for now, to prod and examine by herself.

“I love giving you good things,” he said and she knew he was trying to say something else.

***

The night before Vadik was born, Thea had been so uncomfortably pregnant that she sent Elias to Hudson’s without her. “Bring me back krumkake if there is any. Or skolebrod. Or both,” she’d said as he kissed her goodbye. He’d returned with both.

When she was so heavily pregnant that only one dress fit and none of her shoes, she felt her stomach had no room for any food. Hubert begged her to take one more sip of soup, one more bite of bread, and when her contractions began said he would go for the midwife himself and fetch Sasha from school until Thea told him she would rather he remain close by and to perhaps send a servant instead.

“Try not to get drunk like Elias did when I labored with Sasha. All will be well. There’s nothing to fear,” she had said as he left the room.

Thea had cried out once when the midwife said “There’s another!” Hubert rushed in and saw the birth of the second while clutching Thea’s hand, his mother’s diamond leaving a mark in his palm.

***

Elias had taken the children sailing and riding and swimming and hiking, sometimes with Thea and sometimes not. He rolled to the very edge of the bed when Sasha and then later Vadik came into their room at the sound of thunder and needed to sleep pressed against their mother. He put a steady hand behind Thea as she carried their babies, pushed the pram or nursed.

Maybe because there were two at once, or because he was older when he became a father, or just because he was a different man, but Hubert held the babies at every opportunity. They bought a second pram shortly after they realized the need for it, but the twins, Helen and Castor, were still small enough that they fit in one, tightly swaddled and fit neatly together as the family walked through De Zoologie and exclaimed over the animals. Hubert pushed the pram and Thea would have thought that was the way of it in Antwerp except every other pram they passed was pushed by a nursemaid in uniform. Hubert smiled and waved to those passing and Thea thought his pride in his family, in their family, was visible to even strangers.

***

“Three babies in two years; I know it’s been rare for you to have time to yourself,” Hubert said, with his hand on the doorknob. Thea appreciated that he didn’t list the tragedies of those years, only the happy surprises: little Elias and Helen and Castor. Little Elias was so big now that no one ever called him “the baby,” especially since the twins were currently taking up quite a bit of energy and attention, even spread as it was among Hubert, Thea, Sara, the nursemaids, and their older siblings.

It was their first anniversary, after all, and Thea was determined to have a happy day. She had planned a menu with the cooks that would rival a royal wedding celebration. Hubert’s friends and colleagues, who would probably have come to their wedding had it happened with any notice, were attending an anniversary dinner. Even Henrik was coming. He was in the country to discuss the use of ice in train transport with Hubert and had promised to bring a few surprises of his own. Thea had raised her eyebrows at this, but Hubert had been uncharacteristically unconcerned.

They were outside of a room Thea thought might be one of the sunrooms. The Bonfrey family estate was large and she was still learning where everything was located a year into making it home. The children seemed to learn it perfectly after one tour from Sara on the very first night. But Thea would sometimes open several doors before ending up where she meant to, and wasn’t helped by the way the children were constantly leaving their books and playthings scattered in different places, a trail of unhelpful breadcrumbs like those from one of Hubert’s book of German fairy tales.

“Sara and Sasha helped me set this up the way they guessed you’d like,” said Hubert, and Thea was surprised to see a red flush on his cheeks, a nervous flexing in his hands. They’d seen each other through so much this year - the grief of a funeral for beloved friends, a hellish trip across the sea, the birth of the twins - but she hadn’t seen him act like this before.

He opened the door and gestured for her to enter first and she did.

“Oh Hubert!”

The room Hubert had led her into had been a sunroom. The floor-to-ceiling windows let in natural light that displayed the contents of the room to full effect: paints and pigments, canvases stacked high, chalks and charcoals, several easels, hog bristle brushes, even a pantograph for reducing or enlarging sketches. On the wall were shelves that were mostly empty save for a handful of books.

“They’re photo studies. Of statues, paintings. Some landscapes and some models,” Hubert said as she stepped forward and traced the embossed titles along the book spines.

Thea moved about the room, her hands running along shelves and then on to the paintbrushes, experimentally brushing them against her palm.

“I thought you could use a place to be by yourself, to think and to paint or even to just sit and read. I can move the letters from Elias in here if you’d like.”

Thea turned to him and nodded. “I would like that. I like all of this, Hubert. So much.”

“Sasha said you’d like those the best,” he said as she examined the canvas. “ And Sara suggested we paint the room white and take out most of the furniture so you can choose how to decorate it. We left a chair and a stool for you, and the couch for whoever wants to pose.”

Vadik suddenly ran in the room with little Elias close behind and Hubert scooped him up before he collided with the glass jars standing at the ready for mixing.

“And the best part,” he said, reaching into his pocket and taking out a key, “is that you can lock it to keep out any unwelcome visitors.”

“Like who?” Vadik asked. “Uncle Henrik? But he just got here and Aunt Sara told me to fetch you to greet him!”

Thea laughed and ruffled his hair. “No, sweet, Uncle Henrik is most welcome. Come with me so he can exclaim over how tall you’ve grown.”

***

The anniversary dinner party went so late into the evening that it was the early morning hours before any guests left for home. Though Hubert gripped the table when Henrik gave a toast, it was entirely appropriate and never once mentioned Paris, for which Thea knew Hubert was extremely grateful.

When Hubert was walking the last of the guests to the door, Henrik revealed his surprise - paintings and sketches Thea had made and left in Arendelle. She went through the neatly preserved stack and was delighted to see among them Sasha, age ten and playing her violin, Vadik as a baby sleeping in his crib, Elias in the pond by the Royal Sommerhus, teaching Sasha to swim. She had left them in Arendelle hoping to leave some evidence of her family behind in case they all sunk to the bottom of the sea. Looking at them now, she was surprised to feel only joy.

“Linnea brought them back on her last visit and asked me to deliver them to you personally,” Henrik said.

He didn’t ask why she hadn’t brought them when she and the children moved here and she was grateful. He reached for the portrait of Elias that she was now tracing with her hand - one of him in an Arendelle navy uniform, trying to look serious but his smile rendered fully in the watercolor. “Thea, you know he loved you. And you know he would have wanted you to find love again. To be cared for and to care for others. To not be closed off and grieving for the rest of your days.” He placed the painting back in the pile and squeezed her hand. “He liked Hubert. He would have liked this for you, even though he would never have liked to leave you so permanently.”

***

Hubert helped Thea arrange the paintings Henrik had brought from Linnea. With each painting she felt a fragmented piece of herself realign and became part of the whole, like a dried out watercolor palette being worked over with water and blending brushes. Hubert had his hand on the doorknob to leave, but she didn’t want him to go.

“Henrik asked again if I wanted him to pose for me. Nude of course.”

Hubert laughed. “Again? Is this something he does often?”

“A handful of times. I think usually it was just to bother Elias,” she said as she fiddled with the nearby paintbrushes and straightened the stack of canvases that were already in a very neat pile. She picked up the lay figure and worked its arms and legs. “Thankfully you’ve given me this so I can decline.”

“If you ever need a live model, I’d be happy to do it. To spare you the sight of Henrik.” He said and took his hand off of the doorknob. “It’s why the couch is here after all.”

He sat down on it and then she did too.

“Did I tell you about the time Elias offered himself for the same purpose?”

“No,” Hubert laughed.

“I was very flustered - we weren’t yet engaged. I told him of my art classes and the sketches we would do, how both men and women had posed nude for us. I was trying to impress him with my worldliness. And he said ‘I’d be very pleased to pose for you anytime you’d like.’” Thea glanced at Hubert who was smiling at her story, and smiled in response and in memory of her attempt to show off.

“I told him there was no need as I’d already seen more men naked than I could count, and then he said ‘Just wait until you see what I do with it.’” Thea reddened and put her hand over her mouth, laughing. “I’m sorry; you don’t want to hear that!”

But Hubert was laughing too and reached for her hands to squeeze them in reassurance. “You can tell me anything about him. We can both remember him.”

“Thank you,” Thea said, and she leaned her head against his shoulder, feeling like another piece of herself was connected and whole again.

***

She loved him. She wasn’t sure when it started. Probably long before she said it, probably when her heart didn’t know what to call it anymore. He had been patient and allowed her to find her way to it, not demanding it of her even when he said it freely and showed her in a hundred different ways.

“Ice liebe dich,” she said, and kissed him on one cheek and then the other. “Je t’aime.”

The space between their lips was so small that she could feel his words as he spoke them, warm as they fell across her lips.

“I love you too. So much,” Hubert said as he gently rested his forehead against hers and put his hands on her shoulders. He rested them lightly and she could feel them tremble.

“Ik hou van je,” she said. She had saved that one for last.

Hubert spoke German when he was in a nostalgic mood and French for everyday. Flemish was his language for murmuring in her ear while in bed at night, his body surrounding hers and bringing them both pleasure. He spoke words of affection in Flemish after moments of ecstasy that she guessed he didn’t know if she was ready to hear. But now, she was. And she was ready to say them too.

“Is that right?” asked Hubert, and pulled back from her so she could see his face. His was smiling and his eyes were full of such hope and tenderness she knew he meant it was all he wanted. “You love me in three languages?”

“I love you in every language. And I’ll learn them all, too, to tell you. You loved me back to life and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to say thank you enough.”

Hubert’s smile faltered a little and his brow furrowed. They were small tells, but she could see them. Someone who loved him could see that he was bothered.

“Saying ‘I love you’ is better than ‘thank you.’ As long as it’s not an obligation. As long as you don't think you have to say it to stay here and be my beloved,” he said, speaking gently and patiently, like always.

She answered and kept her eyes on his. She wanted him to feel the truth in what she said. “No, I feel free. You’ve made me free to love again. And I love you.”

He smiled and she saw the relief he felt at her words, the joy. He moved his hands to her waist and her cheek and pulled her towards him in language their bodies were familiar with. “Well then. Let’s love.”

#WAIL #Thea #Elias #Agduna #Hubert #Beginning After The End #lots of angst #with a happy ending

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beg-for-it-black · 4 years

Text

LDWS Week 1 Voting

Guys! Voting is HERE! As of right now, voting will stay open until Monday at 6pm EST. You all have 1 vote for most favorite and 1 vote for least favorite drabbles. Participants are encouraged to vote, but you may NOT vote for yourselves! I should explain a bit more how this works, I guess. The winner isn't decided by whoever gets the most most fav votes. Each most fav vote gets +1. Each least fav gets -1. Once those are tallied, a winner will be determined. If there's a tie, there will be a tie breaker so that there is one winner and one person eliminated. Please, try not to vote on a drabble just because you like a pairing. Take into account the quality of the writing and how well it fits the prompt! When you vote, just send me a message stating the number and the title of the drabbles. Do not send messages on anon. The prompt this week was "Well that was a bad idea" and had to be between 440-450 words.

#ldws #ldws voting

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staytiny-angel · 5 years

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Safe Haven 2/?

Co-written with @scream-qween

Pairings: Drew McIntyre/Becky Lynch, Eventually Drew McIntyre/Becky Lynch/Seth Rollins, Jon Moxley/Renee Young, Sasha Banks/Bayley/Charlotte Flair

Warnings: Violence, Language

Word Count: 1799

Summary: After an 8-year absence, 25-year-old Seth Rollins returns home to his pack but in no way resembling the Beta Werewolf that ran away after a violent misunderstanding with his brothers.

Seth is feral, and trapped in a form the bitten wolf shouldn't even be capable of, it turns out that he is the victim of a powerful curse that would make him a mindless slave.

Meanwhile Alpha Werewolf Drew McIntyre and his Part Banshee, Part Sea Witch mate Becky Lynch have joined the unorthodox pack of Haven in search of the final member of the Triad a seer told the pair they were destined to be apart of.

Taglist: @sethsevolution @feathers-and-flesh-and-wrestling @deepdisireslonging @writtingrose @pikapuff316 @hitory--chan @finnsauroraborealis @the-beastslayers-queen

Becky slowly walked toward the cage, not taking her eyes away from the deadly predator currently staring at her with golden-brown eyes. Kneeling next to her mate she took his hand in hers and hesitantly reached through the thick sliver infused bars with the other.

Seth lifted his massive body up to sniff almost delicately at her hand before whining in the back of his throat and laying back down.

"I believe that's a 'Yes, you can touch me', Spitfire" Drew says with a slight smile.

Becky took a deep breath and reached into the bars again waiting until Seth lifted his head up to smell it once more. "If he bites me, I'm killing Reigns" she muttered. Much to her surprise however, Seth let out a content like a sigh and nudged her hand with his snout.

"He let you touch him?!" Roman exclaimed in surprise, causing Seth to growl at the sound of his big brother's voice

"Shut the fuck up, Alpha," Becky said quietly, "If he bites me I'll fucking drown you, dry land or no"

"Shhh, It's okay." Becky uncharacteristically cooed gently at the trapped wolf "That big dumb brother of yours won't say another fucking word."

Becky started to chant underneath her breath and an ocean blue light surrounded both the hand holding Drew's and the one she had placed on Seth's head.

Seth closed his eyes, sighing, revealing dark brown eyes, as Becky's magic faded. "Becky!" Drew yelled as the redhead almost collasped. "I'm fine, he's fine"

Seth barked in response, wagging his tail. "Fucking dork" Roman chuckled

"You might want to get the siren" Becky said shaking her head to clear it. "That curse is a fucked up thing, it's powered from his life energy. I managed to block it from siphoning more off of him but I don't know how long my shield will last"

Becky stood up and flipped the latches on the cage door and opened it. Seth practically lept at the redhead knocking her back down

"Becky!" Drew called out

"I'm okay," Becky said on an almost giggle as the 400-pound werewolf licked her face and nuzzled at her like an overgrown puppy

The sounds of footsteps pounded down the basement stairs as Hunter, Stephanie, Mox and another heavily bearded man with an acoustic guitar strapped across his back filled the basement

"Hey baby brother," Mox said as Seth ran over to him, Stephanie petting his head. Roman slowly got up and left, Seth noticing and whining. "He's wondering about that" Elias said, sounding bored. "Give him time to adjust honey, he hasn't forgiven himself"

Seth yipped in response shaking his head "You've been gone a long time doll, shit changes." Elias told him before sitting cross-legged in front of the wolf and placing a hand on Seth's head, a green glow surrounding both of them. "Whatever shield you put up against the curse...magic can get through to him easily now." He says to Becky

"Don't get used to this, brat." The acerbic man tells Seth, "You owe me free coffee and a place to perform for the rest of my life once you get your shop up and running. No offense to Cesaro, but his coffee will never be as good as yours"

Seth somehow managed to make an expression of disgust and grunted at the siren

"Now you and your Alpha will hold up your end of the bargain?" Drew asked Mox.

"Sure, if you like sharing your food with a pair of vampires" Mox replied with a shit-eating grin

"WHAT?! You betray our kind" Drew snapped, Seth, stepping in between them and barking.

"He says thank you for helping him but please don't disrespect his family, ANY of his family," Elias says to Drew quietly

"Violet babysat him when he was little" Stephanie says "Finn played Lego with him, they are his family. We only found him in the woods because Violet smelled the blood from the mansion" the older witch shook her head.

"If Violet and Finn had been anything other then Vampires, they absolutely would have raised him themselves. It broke their hearts just as much as ours when he left" Hunter added

Seth whined "Oh yeah kid, you're in deep shit. Queenie is gonna get you for running off like a little bitch" Elias says with a nasty smirk

Seth looked down guiltily and nudged his brother. Mox immediately began petting his head. "Who did this to you?" Drew asked Seth who barked in response

"What?!" Elias' magic flashed poison green before settling back into a more mellow shade "Paul Heyman?! He says he went looking for his birth parents. He wanted to know where he came from...about a year ago he got in a fight with Heyman's pet monster and ended up like this. Hold on you've been like this for a fucking year?!" Elias exclaimed "You were trapped in full shift for a year. You were only feral for 3 months the best that you can guess?"

Seth whined, and looked down. "Seth, honey. Why didn't you tell me? I could have found them" Stephanie said.

"He didn't want to" Mox said. "That's what we fought about. I said that they were probably dead. Ro...he said he'd be turning his back on us if he went looking for them. Roman lost his temper and attacked him, that's why Seth ran"

Seth howled "I'm sorry little brother. I...shouldn't have said that bullshit." Mox says dropping to the ground and wrapping his arms around his brother.

"That's where I know that curse from" Stephanie says quietly "Heyman. He developed it. It strips Born Shifters of their humanity....holy shit. That's why it didn't work on you, Starshine. Heyman's curse only works fully on Born Shifters. He must have assumed you were one."

"We have to turn Seth back to normal first," Mox said firmly. "Before I rip Heyman to pieces"

"Take him to Finn and Violet," Elias said, "You can turn him back now I assume?" He says looking at Becky and Stephanie

Stephanie nodded looking at Becky "If you can keep your shield spell up, I know the counter curse for this. I've done it for someone else in our pack that used to be one of Heyman's pets. Cesaro wasn't under it for as long as Seth has been."

"Your gonna need a big ass circle for this one, boss lady." Elias told her "and you are definitely gonna need Balor to fortify it. A lot of energy is pent up inside Twinkle here."

"Can I ask what's with all the star references? He wears a shooting star necklace too." Becky asks

Seth dropped to the floor in embarrassment, "Oh its because he's obsessed with space." Stephanie explained with a smile "He wanted to be an Astronomer when he was a little boy"

Seth let out a series of mumbles that made Elias chuckle. "He still has that potty mouth"

"Do you think Heyman knows that the spell didn't work on Seth?" Hunter finally speaks up

"Let's hope he didn't think it wasn't powerful enough, last thing we need is him boosting his magic" Stephaine replies

"Are you strong enough for this?" Stephanie asked Becky, who nodded. "Let's finish it and bring him back." The younger woman replied

"Come on Seth," his mother told him. "Time to face your other set of parents."

The group headed along the path that winded through the south woods that bordered Haven to a large mansion that looked like It had been dropped there from the Victorian era.

"This place makes so much sense now that we know who lives inside." Becky told her mate.

"Yeah" Drew grumbled, still unhappy about this turn of events.

Seth had stuck close to the pair the entire walk, at times dancing around them and nipping at their heels like he was excited about something.

Elias looked down at the wolf and snorted "You know all hell is about to break loose when everyone figures that out right?"

Seth barked at him, giving his friend a wolfy smirk before he turned to Mox, with an evil glint in his eyes.

"Don't you fucking dare-" Mox was suddenly shoved down, landing in dirt, Seth howling at him, looking at Drew and Becky, the pair laughing.

"You little shit" Mox growled, taking his jacket off before shifting himself, turning into a reddish brown wolf before tackling Seth.

"What will cause all hell to break loose?" Becky asked Elias

The siren let out a rusty laugh, like it wasn't a sound he made often "I hope the two of you like living in Haven. He won't want to leave again anytime soon" he says cryptically before taking the guitar off his back and strumming it as he walked along

"He won't want to leave again?" Becky whispered to her mate "He as in Seth?"

"I don't understand love. Sirens are...cheeky" He teased.

"Damn right" Becky grinned, slapping Drew on the ass before continuing her path.

The group came across a wolf sitting on the stairs, jumping from his spot. "Hey Baron" Elias greeted. "We need to see Finn and Violet"

Baron looked at the blond streaked wolf and let out a howl.

"Yep, your senses aren't betraying you, the Prince has returned" Elias answered him

The huge black wolf spun and ran up the stairs of the mansion barking his head off.

"Baron!" a woman's French-accented voice called out, "What is that racket you are making Mon Loup?"

An unnaturally pale but beautiful blue-haired woman came into view followed by a bearded man with short brown hair.

"Finn, Violet something happened while you were away from home" Stephanie says

Violet sniffed at the air, and gasped at the familiar, long missed scent "My baby?!"

Seth barked and ran forward, Drew unknowingly tensing. "I missed you Chaton," Violet said, kissing his furry head.

"Why is he fully shifted….he shouldn't be able…." Violet started to ask as she unceremoniously sat on the foyer floor and pulled the huge wolf into her lap. Finn sat down next to her and Seth immediately moved so that he was draped across both Vampires as he growled softly at them.

"Hey twinkle? My French and Gaelic are both real fucking rusty, would ya mind thinking in English?" Elias sighed rubbing his temples. "I know. I know. Automatic reaction to being with your Vampiric parental units. Apology accepted."

"He says….Twinkle I know, that part has to be in French I do know that word." Elias rolls his eyes in exasperation "He says he's sorry for leaving without telling you, Maman."

"Do it again and I'll kick your fuzzy little ass" Violet says quietly, but with feeling

Finn sat there petting Seth before saying "Don't you EVER worry us like that again." A low growl entered his voice, his eyes flashing blood red. "All THREE of us will kick your ass."

#shai writes #seth rollins #Rollintyre #Rollynch #Rollynchtyre #becky lynch fanfic #becky lynch #drew mcintyre #drew mcintyre fanfic #dean ambrose #jon moxley #roman reigns #seth rollins fanfic #seth rollins fic #seth rollins imagine #seth rollins smut

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asunafairywizardessheart · 7 years

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Part 4. Thanksgiving in the Country. Goldstein Power

Elias/Asana

Just one more part left after this one as this mini story continues. The good mood in the morning after the community party is ruined by a visit from the businessman who is threatening her family to sell their property. However, Elias puts into action a plan with the help of his father and brother after Fred is assaulted.

Fog clouds ascended from the ground to the high-top mountains hugging the countryside and the snow had stopped falling for the first time since Elias had come to visit Asana’s hometown. He laid asleep next to her with his face buried into the back of her shoulder and his right arm dead from her weight laying on it most of the night. Silence assumed the usually lively house as everyone slept off last night’s fun.

However, Elias drew the short straw as Casper sat on his body. Though asleep, Elias could feel the weight of the feline but it didn’t bother him since the cat had rearranged his positions all night and even had slept over his feet at some point. Casper’s blue eyes were wide awake and his brown smoky ears twitched as he kneaded his paws into Elias’ skin.

“…Casper,” he groaned, pleading for the cat to stop digging his sharp claws of his white tipped paws as he kneaded his skin.

He heard a loud purr as Elias raised out his hand to pet the animal, “…What do you want?” Elias questioned the bright blue eyes around his smoky grey face and petted his fluffy ash fur of the ragdoll breed.

“Meow,” the cat bunted his head into Elias’ hand.

“Are you hungry?” Elias guessed the animal was only being this friendly because he wanted food, “…Alright then, come on. Don’t wake up your owner,” he warned to the cat like it was a child.

Slightly awake from his deep voice and Casper’s meowing, Asana peeped as Elias gently rose up off the lounge where they had slept for the night to be escorted into the kitchen by her cat. Now they had agreed to live together, Asana wondered if it would be okay if they could bring Casper back with them. She loved her pets and missed her beloved pet. Elias petted him and carried him in his arms giving him all the strokes Casper desired, a sight Asana thought was incredibly adorable because Elias spoke to Casper like the cat was a human child.

“Alright, you will have to give me a moment to find your food,” Elias said as he rummaged quietly through the kitchen to find the cat food he had seen Tobias use yesterday. For Elias, it felt weird to be going through her family’s kitchen.

“Meow!” Casper continually rubbed against Elias’ legs with his grey tipped tail pointed into the air, meowing loudly.

“Hush,” he begged the animal to be quiet so not to wake everyone else in the house.

As he rummaged through the cupboards, he found the tin of food he had been searching for, then, the dogs outside resting in their shelters to keep them warm from the snow, began barking. It stunned him but then he remembered they are well trained farm dogs and probably were used to hearing this cupboard door opening and closing, “Don’t they have precise hearing,” he laughed, “I will feed you three as well,” he promised, receiving a yelp from what sounded like the border collie, Meekah. Having met the three dogs during Asana’s tour, he didn’t need to fear the big dogs attacking him.

He gave a scoop of wet food to Casper and some kibble and a saucer of milk for his feast. Like it had been starved, Casper dived his head straight into the bowl and purred loudly in satisfaction. Then, it was onto the dogs. Meekah greeted him first but didn’t jump or pounce as the two German Shepherds, Kibby and Jarrah followed him. Kibby had a black saddle with a tanned coat and Jarrah a redder coat which was how he could tell the difference. Before feeding them, he petted and played with them as their tails wagged affectionately.

“There you go,” Elias’ job was complete after he refilled their water bowls inside the dog shed where they usually slept to keep out of the cold.

Asana pretended to sleep as she heard Elias quietly come back inside, put away the animal food and roamed through the bookshelves in the living room. He saw more novel titles and animal encyclopedias as well as a generational folder marked as family recipes. He went to grab a novel to read but after letting his eyes wander through the shelves found a row of photograph albums. There were some marked as simply ‘family photos’ but the one he was most interested in was marked as ‘Asana’s baby photos’. His mother had shown his baby photos to Asana when they met and he was very interested to see hers.

He gathered the album in his arms with the novel he was interested in and snuggled back underneath the blanket, being careful not to wake her up. Coloured in a powder purple background, blue birds and pink butterflies graced the hard cover of the landscape shaped album with a heart in the middle with Asana’s full name written in cursive gold letters.

“Asana Lee Way,” he read inside his mind and flipped to the first page.

It was not an ordinary album book a person could find in any book store. Her mother was a creative type of person and had created the book by hand as it was bound at the spine by purple and white ribbons. On the front page, there was a list of prolific questions detailing Asana like she was a character ready for a novel.

“Date of birth…5th of March,” he read her mother’s neat handwriting, “Time of birth…eleven past three am,” for some reason, knowing she was born that early made him chuckle.

He continued to read and discovered this was not just a photo album but Asana’s baby book her mother had created so she could remember her little daughter even when she had grown into a beautiful woman. From Asana’s birth to her first year, she had made a note of all the changes and at what age she had begun learning to walk, when she began showing teeth, her first smile to her first bath and the first time she slept an entire night without crying in the middle of it. She had even recorded the difference in her hair and eye colour from when she was born to her first birthday.

Turning the page over, he found her baby photos visually recording the those first twelve months. From those first moments and being held in her brother’s arms to the younger faces of Fred and Edith and her father and mother holding her, those precious memories kept securely within this precious book. Each picture had a caption with her age. As he kept looking through her childhood years, more and more images of her with animals began to appear, along with those bright and round pink eyes and cheerful smile he had come to love, “You are very loved, Asana,” he whispered to her beside him, “I hope you know that.”

Flipping through the many pages of her baby book, he compared Charlotte to his own mother. She had plenty of photos safely tucked away into photo albums as priceless treasures that were her most favourite possessions, but he didn’t know if she kept anything this devoted to him or his brothers. It wasn’t to say his mother loved him and his brothers less than Charlotte loved Tobias and Asana, but it made him realise how warm and close their family ties truly are. He wanted to be a part of that someday as someone they accepted as their son.

Somewhere in the house, he heard a door close and another open and close again, startling him enough to scramble and put the baby book away. It was a treasured item that he’d never be forgiven for if it were to be destroyed or he worried getting yelled at for snooping into family photos without permission. He heard footsteps creak at the stairs and saw Owen’s figure as he touched the bottom of the staircase.

Those greying brown strands of hair were in a mess and he looked as though he was still half-asleep as he let out a yawn and stretched his limbs at the bottom of the steps. His deep set brown eyes looked into the living room where he peered over the sofa to see his daughter still asleep but Elias gone. Putting away the baby book, Elias pretended to browse more of the bookshelf as he felt Owen’s gaze on him.

“Morning,” Owen waved at him.

“Good morning, sir,” Elias returned the greeting with a gentle smile.

Owen still waking up, saw Elias finger tracing the spines of the novels, “That’s right. Asana said you two met at a bookstore,” he yawned, “You like to read?”

Elias nodded, “I do, sir.”

Owen cocked up an eyebrow as Elias referred to him as ‘sir’ again. He wasn’t used to being referred to as formally, but he remembered the amount of times he had referred to Charlotte’s father as ‘sir’ when they first met because he was nervous and wanted the old man’s approval to date his daughter. He let it go, and continued their conversation about books.

“What you into?”

He had to think for a moment, “Mainly ancient philosophy and history but I do enjoy mystical and crime novels too. I don’t mind reading some classical literature classics either. I know Asana reads, did she pick that up from somebody here?”

“Charlotte and I tend to read a lot,” Owen answered him, sleepily, but noticed Asana’s baby book was out of place. His lips curled into a smirk, “Coffee?” he offered, hoping the invitation would naturally lead into a one-on-one conversation with his daughter’s fiancée.

Elias paused for a moment before accepting the offer to share a beverage with her father while the house was still asleep and Fred and Edith had not yet awakened to the glorious morning outside, with soft golden rays warmly creeping across the white blankets of snow, or if they had, they didn’t bother to wake up anyone else. Though, he promised to speak to him and this was the opportunistic moment as Owen seemed relaxed after a good night out and a good night’s rest, “Sure,” Elias accepted and followed the older man into the kitchen but not before checking that Asana was snugged inside the blanket. Owen observed, before turning the corner at the staircase, Elias pulling the thick woollen blanket up to her chin to keep her shoulders tucked underneath.

Owen thought it should have bothered him but it didn’t and it frustrated him that his heart had already decided on Elias before he even spoke to him alone. Pulling two mugs from the cabinet, Elias shortly followed as Owen turned on the kettle, “How many sugars you take?”

Nervously, Elias replied, “Um…t-three, please sir.”

“You have a sweet tooth, huh?” Owen chuckled remembering the playful bickering about chocolate stealing that occurred between Elias and Asana last night at the party, “Asana’s one too. When she was little, we never took her down the confectionary aisle because she always wanted something. We say no, she’d pout and cry, refused to budge from her spot until we gave in. Milk?”

“Y-Yes, please sir,” Elias agreed as Casper sauntered over to him as he stood against the counter in the kitchen, listening to the rumbling of the kettle until the switch clicked off with a sound.

Owen poured the milk and stirred in the boiling water until that bitter yet inviting smell of coffee overwhelmed the room. The metal spoon clanged against the porcelain mug as Owen stirred everything together and handed a cup over to Elias, “Thank you,” Elias expressed his gratitude, taking the warm cup with one hand.

An awkward silence overcame the room as Casper rubbed up against Owen. “Do you want food?” Owen asked down into those blue crystal-like eyes of the ragdoll.

“Oh, I already fed him and the dogs,” Elias informed him, “I received quite the claw massage which is why I was awake early. I apologise if I overstepped any welcome, I did not wish to wake anybody up and Asana already gave me instructions yesterday on what they are fed, so I followed her instructions.”

Elias’ rushed apology amused Owen that he chuckled, “Is that so, Casper?” he bent down to pet his head, “You lured Elias into feeding you and now you want seconds. I don’t think so.”

Owen’s bright smile and sparkling eyes when it came to animals bore a striking resemblance to Asana’s expression when she became surrounded by them or even spoke about them that he could see who she truly idolised and who she had learned the most about animals from. She could read any textbook but her father was her favourite source of knowledge when it came to practice becoming a talented veterinarian.

“Thank you for feeding them,” Owen thanked Elias for doing a chore outside of his responsibilities as a guest in their home, “Do you like animals?”

Elias liked them but didn’t love them on the same level as Owen or Asana, though he had a soft spot for dogs because of the Doberman he raised with Klaus when they were kids. Though, being with Asana, he found a greater appreciation for them, “I do. Especially, dogs.”

“Why dogs?”

“My brother and I raised a Doberman when we were younger,” he reflected back sadly on those happier childhood moments, “…There were some fun times then. I am also fond of horses since I sometimes ride and play polo.”

Owen resumed his usual standing position and sipped his coffee as he watched Elias do the same, “You don’t have much experience around other animals, like the chickens yesterday. Mom tells me you were quite afraid of them,” he said.

It was true, Elias never had much experience around other types of animals and had never stepped foot onto a farm before he came here with Asana, “Dogs, cats, horses and birds, like pigeons and seagulls, I am quite used to but I have never held a chicken or touched a cow before yesterday when Asana showed me around. This is my first time on a proper farm. I have been to ranches but not to a proper farm in the country,” his voice pitched with excitement.

Owen saw his violet eyes pop and his voice become more cheerful as he spoke about the farm. With lips ready to lather up another sip of warm coffee, Owen’s voice reverberated through the porcelain cup as he spoke, “Are you liking it out here?”

He wasn’t going to lie, “I love it out here. Not just because of the farm but the peacefulness of the wilderness and the kindness of the people in town. Everyone here…are there for each other and there’s none of those crunching and shrilling noises of the city here. It is refreshing, actually,” he enthused and took another sip of his coffee.

“Does that mean you're not going to keep my daughter locked away in the city?” Owen muttered his next question, looking into his cup of brown liquid.

Elias tilted his head in confusion at him, “Of course not, sir,” Elias promised him, “Mr Way, this is always going to be her first home. If I may say, I looked through the photo albums on the bookshelf in the living room, and I can tell by the way the baby books and photos are organised to the way you all live off each other and influence each other that this a close-knit family. I want to be a part of that as Asana's husband rather than steal her away from here.”

Something in his voice told Owen he was being sincere with his promise, “...Tell me,” hesitantly, Owen recalled his wife's advice about asking him about his family since a reason why he judged Elias was because of his father, “Are you close with your family?” Owen asked, swallowing another gulp of his coffee as it cooled down in his hands.

Elias searched for the right words to use since his family were close but not quite like Asana's family. They celebrated the holidays and private occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries, together, even helping each other keep up their public profile, despite not caring about what others thought of them, and they came together every Sunday for brunch as their lives became busier.

“I suppose we are...in our own way,” Elias guessed that was the way his family stayed connected but there were plenty of times growing up that he wished they were closer, the image of his father popped into his mind and the countless events he missed because of his job or because he was swooning his clients, “...My family are busy with their lives so it is hard to tell sometimes if we are or not.”

Owen caught the flicker of sadness in his eyes and the painful expression he wore for a brief second, “Not like us, is what you mean?” he wondered.

“Don't get me wrong, I love my family,” Elias showed him a small smile, “We celebrate private occasions and the holidays together, and not to mention we attend public functions to keep up our public profile and even spend Sunday brunch together. If I was, say, in any kind of trouble, they would come to my aid, including my father.”

Owen then recalled the news surrounding his family a few years ago, involving Elias and his girlfriend's sex tape and her alleged extortion of his family, it was an ugly conundrum Owen didn't want Asana to get caught in the middle of if something similar ever occurred again. He did remember his father suing her for defamation as she publically lived off the fame her fabrications troubled Elias and his family, “Like how your father sued that girlfriend of yours for defamation?” he drank from his coffee again, “It was big celebrity news a few years ago now. It's situations like those where I don't want Asana getting caught in the middle of. She's a sweet and simple girl, she wouldn't handle that relentless pounding from the media.”

“I had a similar conversation with Charlotte yesterday about this,” Elias swallowed a sip of coffee and looked Owen directly in the eye, “Sir, I promise. Asana is safe with me and I will do whatever I must to protect her happiness. What happened between my ex-girlfriend and I…it was a mistake, she was a mistake and I should have been wiser than to believe girls like her are pure and honest,” he spoke about his ex-girlfriend with disgust that his violet eyes had a sharpness about them which surprised Owen.

“What did she do?” he asked.

Elias sighed as he told him the truth about his last relationship, “My ex-girlfriend and I met through our parents, and I loved her because she was beautiful and I thought she was a nice person. However, I was very wrong and should have known better those nice smiles and personalities only hide something bitter and ugly underneath. Like Joel and Asana, we dated throughout high school and she was the first girl I ever loved physically. After about a year and a half, her true colours showed she was a manipulative, deceiving and cheating person. Without my permission, her and her football star boyfriend, she had dated during our relationship, began to threaten to publish video and photographic material of us in bed together if I did not pay for her material life. I said no, so she followed through on her threats, and decided to air a video during a fundraiser my mother and sister-in-law organised to assist victims of sexual assault and abuse. She made money and gained fame for exploiting me and my family and as a result, my mother and sister’s philanthropist projects lost support and money for their causes. With the media hounding me and my family, my father’s career suffered from the humiliation and our family’s reputation was damaged. Eventually, my father stepped in a sued her for defamation seeking damages and breach of privacy. I found it extremely hard to trust relationships again and never dated anyone until I met Asana,” he explained.

“In other words, you were heartbroken?”

Elias shrugged, “I was but…I’m glad that it ended otherwise I might still be with that disaster of a human being and would have never met Asana. Or, I might have, I don’t know. All I know is I’m happy she is at my side. Also, she’s a terrible liar and she’s not the type of girl to do such a cruel thing to another person. She’s too warm and kind to even think it.”

“She’s a good person with a heart of gold,” Owen agreed with Elias and wanted to know what his family thought of her, “What does your family think of her? Do they live in the city too?”

Elias nodded, “Yes, my brother works at the university we attend to for study. My sister-in-law has pretty much adopted Asana as her little sister and my parents adore her. When we go home, she’s invited to the Goldstein Estate for our Sunday brunches.”

“What about your father?” Owen worried that Walter wouldn’t like her and the story Elias had just told him sounded more like a lawyer saving his face rather than helping his son from a cruel situation, “You seem alright, but I can’t say the same about your father and worry he might use Asana.”

“...You don’t need to worry about him,” Elias assured him, “My father might be a complicated man but he does love his family and those who come to enter it. He’s a hard and strict person but I know he would do anything for us.”

“You really think so?” Owen questioned it, “Charlotte said that you and your father aren’t close?”

Sadly, Elias admitted they weren’t as close as he’d like to be, “No…no, we’re not.”

Owen gave him time to speak if he wanted to talk about it and finally seeing the sadness Charlotte must have noticed consume his violet eyes. Elias took a deep breath and spoke, “Rather than my father being a role model to me, I relied more on my older brother, Klaus. My father was always working that he never had much time for us. Then, whenever he and I spoke, we usually just fought or we had nothing to talk about because we…never knew anything about each other. We are slowly rebuilding our relationship now, but…where Asana idolises you, I want to become closer to mine, that’s why I want to follow him into law.”

“So, you have something in common with your old man?” Owen asked, a little sympathetic for Elias’ situation.

Nodding, Elias sadly admitted, “My father has paid more attention to me now than he ever had previously. Though, I assure you, sir, I know I intend on following my father into law, I am not going to be sucked into that world of pretentiousness and greed and I will not allow anything to happen to Asana.”

Those harsh words Elias spoke about his world did not escape the careful ears of Owen as he engaged himself in learning more about him. Without even asking, he could see the eyes of a boy who has been tormented in the world he grew up in and found peace with Asana, her warmth and gentleness melting whatever hard walls he had built around him.

“…I’m sad to hear that you don’t have a close relationship with your father,” Owen sincerely expressed his sympathy for Elias, not fully comprehending how a father could be distant from his children since he was close to his or how a son coped without the nurture of his father.

Owen couldn’t bring himself to imagine a life without Tobias and Asana. With Charlotte and the kids, he considered this life his entire world and something he simply couldn’t live without. Likewise, Fred had always been a grumpy and strict man but he was hard because he never wanted to show any weakness in the face of his children. Edith, being the only exception to that rule. Therefore, he glanced up at Elias the moment he had turned his head the other way. Something inside of Owen wanted to reach out to him, to soothe whatever pain he endured through the loneliness of not being able to bond closely with his father.

Elias had to be clear with Owen, “I do love my father and I know he loves me. If someone ever attempted to hurt us, he'd protect us. I don't like the world I grew up in but there's nothing I can do about having been born into that world.”

He made quite a convincing case for himself without trying to lie or cover up and truth in his feelings and opinions but his hands were visibly trembling. Owen stood silently taking in his trembling figure as he tucked his hands into his pockets to conceal his nerves and trying to put up his confidence.

Hesitantly, Owen began to speak, now with more understanding of Elias as a person, “...I...was told by my father last night that you had intentions of speaking to me alone but standing before me you’re a trembling mess.”

“Well...,” Elias nervously answered, “...Y-You aren't just any stranger, sir. You are Asana's father and after the argument yesterday, I don't want my presence to interfere with that relationship but I'm not going to let Asana go either.”

“I see,” Owen was surprised to hear he was only being considerate of their relationship.

Elias continued to speak, “Asana is very fond of you, sir. She idolises you, whenever she tells me about animals most conversations start with ‘My Dad',” he laughed and then looked Owen directly in his surprised brown eyes, “...I want to marry your daughter, but not before I receive your blessing and acceptance. I understand you don't like me, part is because of the world I am from but I sense a large part is you feel as though I'm stealing her away.”

“…I may have had my opinions about you,” Owen admitted and then sighed before putting away his stubbornness to speak truthfully, “…Asana is my only daughter and we’ve always been close. She’s also my youngest child and the last one to leave the nest. I suppose, I’m not emotionally ready to accept that my daughter has grown into a beautiful and independent woman, capable of making her own decisions. Now, she brings home a young man from a wealthy family with intentions to marry him.”

Elias chuckled, “I understand, sir,” he smiled and made it clear to him, she would never forget her roots, “I may be her fiancée but you are her father. You are an important and irreplaceable person as is your wife and son, even your parents and brother. By being here, I can tell how loved and treasured Asana is and I would never dream of her forgetting her roots. You hold a place in her heart that I could never own. So please, don’t be worried about losing her.”

With a deep inhale of breath followed by a low exhale, Owen searched around the room in deep thought. His mind becoming persuaded that Elias was a good person and his heart already approving of him marrying Asana. As they drank their coffee, somewhere a door softly opening and another door opening and then closing again.

“Must be Charlotte,” Owen guessed the soft footsteps and the direction of the noise came from upstairs as his wife woke up to start the day, “Tobias is usually louder. But, I don’t see him being up for ages.”

“I really enjoy his photographs,” Elias commented, “My sister-in-law is obsessed with his creations too.”

“Is that so?” Owen felt proud to hear his son had fans, “He does incredible work out in the field. It worries Charlotte and I when we don’t hear from him for a while, but he travels to some of the remotest parts of the earth. We always worry that someday he’s going to go missing and never return home but he loves what he does so we never say anything. We just make sure he knows how much we love him before he leaves. Are you close to your mother?”

“Yes, I am,” Elias nodded and finished off the last mouthful of his coffee.

“What is she like?”

He swallowed the now lukewarm beverage and replied, “She’s nice and warm, though scary when you rub her up the wrong way. Mother used to work in public relations and now runs her own philanthropy enterprise to raise money or make awareness for various causes. She loves Asana, I would not be surprised if she already has a photo album ready for our wedding.”

“She’s a photo collector to, is she?”

Elias chuckled and looked around at all the photographs he could see on display in the hall, “Yeah, I guess my mother and your wife have something in common. Photograph hording,” he laughed and Owen appreciated the joke too, “One day, I hope I can be a part of these photos just as I hope she becomes part of our photos too.”

“You really love her, huh?”

“I do, I really do love your daughter,” Elias declared strongly with direct eye contact.

Owen threw back his last mouthful of coffee now and could hear the creaking of the steps on the staircase. He didn’t say anything out of curiosity to see if his guess was correct and Charlotte was up. There was a brief silence followed by small whispers coming from the living room.

Charlotte was awake but she spotted Asana admiring her pink sapphire ring in the morning light as she pretended to be sleeping so she could listen to Elias and Owen talking in the silent kitchen, their conversation audible through the thin walls and the echoing hall, “Give me a closer look,” she whispered, startling Asana for a moment but then joining her on the couch, “…Are you eavesdropping on them?”

Asana nodded, “I want a coffee but didn’t want to disturb them.”

“Your father wanted to speak to him alone,” Charlotte informed her.

“Yeah, Elias wanted to speak to Dad too,” Asana couldn’t stop that natural curl of her lips as Elias followed through on his promise to speak to her, “…I know Dad is struggling to accept that I’ve grown up but I would never forget where I came from. Elias and I will come visit and you can come visit us. It’s not goodbye.”

Charlotte kissed the top of her head, “I know, sweetie. It’s a parent-thing,” she explained, “It’s not that your father doesn’t like Elias…he’s just scared that you’re not going to need him anymore and scared that our time as parents is…done.”

“What?” Asana stared at her directly, “Mom, I’m always going to need you and Dad. You two and Tobias, Nan and Grandad and Lucas, you all are important to me. I miss you when I’m in the city.”

“I know, I know,” Charlotte knew, feeling the metal of Asana’s engagement ring on her fingertips, “He’s your father. It’s hard to understand now but once you have children of your own you will understand just how hard it is to let go. Anyway, give me a look at your ring. I haven’t had a good look at it yet.”

Asana raised her left hand and showed her mother the precious jewel, despite knowing the engagement wasn’t real but she was elated this morning since they agreed last night to move in together. Elias’ apartment was now both their homes.

A stream of sunlight flooded the living room from a window to their right, allowing the rose gold band to shine and peach sapphire to sparkle, “Wow, this looks expensive,” Charlotte chuckled, “Is that a real sapphire?”

“I don’t know,” Asana shrugged and laughed, “Knowing him though, it probably was. He said he could never buy me anything cheap, especially if it’s as important as an engagement ring.”

“Oh, how did he propose?” Charlotte wondered.

Thankfully, they had discussed the details of their engagement before they decided to scheme their parents on being engaged. Elias had told his mother, since she loved animals had taken his horse from the ranch on a romantic sunset ride along the beach where he proposed to her.

“Elias’ family own horses on a ranch outside of the city,” she felt terrible about lying to her mother about being engaged but the story was based off a date they went on earlier in the year, “There’s a path that goes over a mountain to a secluded bay along the beach. I thought it was just a date but it was very romantic. Sunset over the waves and he gave me a rose with a ring inside of it and then asked me to marry him.”

Charlotte awed, “That sounds so wonderful.”

“I didn’t even hesitate when I said yes, that’s how much I love him.”

“I can tell,” Charlotte smiled, “The ring really suits you.”

“I know, I love it,” Asana laughed, her cheeks turning pink, “Even if he proposed to me with a cheap ring or onion ring, even no ring, I would’ve said yes.”

Asana’s story stirred Charlotte’s own memories of how Owen had proposed to her, “You know, I had never seen your father so nervous but when he was about to propose to me he was trembling and sweating.”

“Really?” Asana couldn’t picture her strong and stubborn father reduced to an anxious wreck, “I can’t picture that.”

Charlotte laughed at her reaction and the way her head tilted trying to picture it, “He took me up the mountains where we camped for the night. Underneath the stars and around the fire which reflected on our faces and in our eyes, all I could feel was this nervous energy rolling off him in waves. I had no idea it was on the night a meteor shower peeked. Then, he got down on one knee and proposed. I still wear my engagement ring, hasn’t moved since he proposed to me all those years ago.”

“You got married with your engagement ring on?” Asana laughed, though could picture her mother being too stubborn to take off something that meant so much to her as it marked the beginning of their happy marriage, “Elias and I were saying we hope to have a happy marriage the same you and Dad have.”

Throwing her arm around her daughter, Charlotte hugged her close, “You will. Elias loves you.”

“I know he does,” she cheerfully said, knowing she would have a happy life if she stayed with him, “He will take good care of me in the city, Mom. He already does now.”

Charlotte hugged her tighter and kissed the top of her head, “I’m sure he will and I’m going to trust him with my only and most precious daughter,” she kissed her again and pretended to sob, “I’m going to miss you so much.”

“Mom, I’m not that far away and we can always talk on the phone and stay connected on social media,” Asana hugged her in return, “I can give you Elias’ number too if you like if you need to contact me.”

Charlotte had tears in her eyes as the last of her children was set to leave the house, “I would appreciate having his number,” she wanted to have any means of communication with her daughter open, counter to Tobias who she could barely reach, “…And your address, please.”

“Oh, Elias and I live in the same apartment block so the address is the same.”

“Is that how you have been getting your mail?” Charlotte exasperated, “Asana, you must tell people when your address has changed. What if someone moved into your old apartment and accidentally collected your mail because you were too lazy to change the address. Now, what room number is he?”

“Twenty-two.”

Charlotte made a quick note of it on a nearby notepad with a huge grin on her face. Despite her upfront questions on the first night at dinner, she was glad her mother had finally come around and blessed their relationship and trusted Elias to care for her.

“Thanks for accepting him Mom,” Asana suddenly hugged her mother tightly and they both laughed.

Charlotte caught her in her arms, “Oh sweetie, you’re a little too big to jump in my arms now,” she joked but held her. Seeing beyond her shoulders, Charlotte’s pink eyes skimmed the bookshelf and noticed her baby book was out of place, “Did you go through your baby book?”

“Casper the alarm cat woke Elias up,” she had been watching him while she pretended to be sleeping, “He fed the animals and I guess he couldn’t get back to sleep so he searched the bookshelf and read through my baby book. It was embarrassing really.”

“I was going to show him anyway.”

“Mom!” Asana protested, but they soon burst out laughing.

“Come on, let’s get that coffee. I will make you a mocha with marshmallows.”

It was an offer she couldn’t refuse, “Okay.”

Just as Asana could hear Elias speaking to her father, the men in the kitchen could hear the girls in the living room talking and laughing. Elias smiled fondly, “See, sir. I don’t want to marry your daughter until I have gained your acceptance because I don’t want to create a rift between a daughter and her parents. It would hurt Asana and I know it would hurt your wife and you.”

“You’re a good kid Elias,” Owen began to cave in but he lost count on how many times Elias had called him ‘sir’, the formal title he wasn’t used to it, “Also, stop calling me ‘sir’, would you? Owen is fine, or Mr Way if you’re that uncomfortable calling me by my first name.”

Elias wondered if the permission to call him by his first name was the first step towards acceptance by her father. Biting the bullet, Elias looked up to him and asked nervously, “…Now, that you know more about me…,” has he was about to ask Owen, Charlotte and Asana entered the kitchen.

“Refills?” she asked them.

Elias accepted her offer as did Owen, “Thank you, Mrs Way,” he then turned to Asana and smiled happily, his eyes and expression lighting up, “Good morning. I did not realise you were awake.”

“Good morning to you too,” she greeted him with the same lightness and cheeriness he had, “…I heard you talking to Dad so I didn’t want to bother you,” she said it nervously, now knowing Elias knew she overheard them.

Water in the kettle rumbled loudly as it did not take long for the water to heat up again. Charlotte moving around the kitchen relaxed and happily making four cups of coffee, two refills for Owen and Elias and an espresso and mocha for herself and Asana. She made eye contact with Owen, smiling because she knew he had finally accepted Elias and urged him to give them his blessing on their marriage.

“Elias, were you about to say something before?” Owen asked.

Elias shook his head, “Oh, it’s not important.”

“Are you sure?” he raised an eyebrow at him but realised his cheeks were tinged with pink because he learnt that Asana had overheard them speaking while she was awake in the kitchen.

Suddenly, a loud gunshot rang across the paddocks, “Get off my property!” followed by Fred’s angry shout made more fearsome by the ringing of gunfire. Another loud bang sounded, “You get out of here ya scum!” he yelled.

“Frederick!” Edith ran out from the cottage and begged him to stop firing his gun, “Stop, please,” then turned to the city man, “You best leave or else!”

Running to the window, the four gazed out at Fred shooting his rifle into the sky as a middle-height man in a suit began yelling at him in return. Elias ran into the living room where he had left his cell-phone in his jacket pocket and came back to the window setting his phone on record to film the encounter.

“How dare you threaten me with a gun?” he pointed his finger and walked up to Fred’s lanky figure, mocking him and filming the incident, “You will not shoot me because you know you can’t. Mark my words, this farm is mine and I will sell it to an international market and make sure you get nothing!”

With a flicker of anger, the man known as Bradley Aston stared fiercely into the horrified eyes of Edith as he towered over her to appear intimidating. Owen abandoned his cup as did Charlotte and Asana with Elias taking a detailed note of this man’s figure. He cut a clean city look with his sharp navy suit and tie and his sandy brown hair neatly slicked back to help him appear professional. He seemed familiar to Elias but he couldn’t remember where he had seen him before.

Right as Owen came out to defuse the situation, Bradley turned his strict and intimidating gaze onto Fred. His scarred hands held onto his rifle and he wore an unmoving expression to impress how unafraid he was, “I face the Japanese in the pacific boy, your glare will need some more work before you scare me,” he hissed.

Bradley smirked, challengingly, “I know you won’t shot me, Fred.” In the next instance, Bradley used all his strength to knock Fred’s thin and elderly body back into the snow. With that simple nudge, Fred went tumbling down.

“Grandad!” Asana went to her knees to try and catch his fall, “Are you okay?”

Owen stood in front of his father protectively, “Leave, now!” he growled.

A rush of anger ignited in Elias as he watched Fred tumble into the snow after being pushed by the man he had eagerly waited to see. Standing on the ledge of the back door, unseen by Bradley Aston, he remembered where he had seen him.

Court.

He had the same face and hair but a different name but his true identity was Marcus Harrington Junior. Elias remembered him because his father had successfully defended a client he had tried to unlawfully evict off their lands. As a result, an investigation was launched and his Uncle, a top prosecutor had him convicted of fraud, which included embezzlement and tax evasion to fabricated identities, assault and the unlawful evictions of previous land owners he had attempted to persuade in selling up to cash into foreign investors. He was a ruthless and lowly human who had robbed farmers of their homes, promising wealth but leaving them broke. Some farmers spiralled into depression with five cases leading to suicide. He was convicted of their deaths too and sued by the families in civil trials, in which his father and brother both assisted grieving families in getting justice.

“When I come back that contract better be signed or I will burn those greenhouses!” Harrington, falsely identifying himself as Bradley Aston, threatened Fred. He then got into his car and flicked up snow with his tyres, leaving the property.

Elias ceased recording the incident and phoned his father. After three rings, he heard his father’s voice on the other hand of the phone, “Father, it’s Elias.”

“Elias, I thought you were enjoying Thanksgiving with Asana’s family,” his tone expressed his surprise at hearing his son’s voice.

“I am,” he assured him everything was fine but needed a favour, “I need to ask a favour of you if you don’t mind,” he hoped his father would help him and could hear his father typing in the background as they spoke.

“What favour would that be?” Walter asked, unemotionally and with his eloquent speech.

“Do you remember a man trialled a few years ago for fraud, assault, aiding suicide and unlawful evictions of farmers from their properties. His name was Marcus Harrington Junior?” Elias jogged his memory of the highly publicised case.

Walter didn’t need a memory jog to remember that man, “I do. What about him?”

“Well, he’s at it again,” Elias informed him, “Only this time he’s after a few farms in Reitz and Asana’s grandparents and Uncle are among those being threatened and harassed.”

Walter thought for a moment but wanted to know about what Elias wanted to do, “What do you want me to do, son?” he asked, his fingers ceasing typing on the computer as he addressed this urgent issue.

“I need whatever information you can give me on that man,” Elias was going to put the man in his place and use whatever power he could gather to make him squirm, “More than anything, I want to scare him enough that he will never want to step foot in this town again.”

Over the phone, Walter helped Elias hatch his plan as Owen scared the suited man from the property. Elias would wait for next time to really get under the man’s skin and show him what the Goldstein power could do. Though, Owen was slightly disappointed that Asana hyped Elias up and he had the chance now to get rid of him.

“Useless!” Owen growled, “I thought he had information.”

Asana explained to her father, “Elias does. He’s just waiting for the right moment.”

“That was the right moment!” his rage was directed at Bradley rather than Elias.

“No, it wasn’t,” Asana assured him Elias had a plan, “Dad, please trust him. He’s like a hunter, he assessed the prey and now he’s setting the trap for the next encounter. I know how he does things and he never leaves anything half-finished.”

Owen helped his father back into his cottage with the old man’s arm possibly sprained from his fall into the snow, “…We’ll see,” Owen mumbled as he carted his father away into the warm house.

“Mom, Nan, I promise you Elias has something up his sleeve,” Asana pleaded to them and ran back to the house to find Elias and speak to him and found him pacing around with his phone on his ear as he made his way back into the kitchen. A smile coming back to her face.

“Okay,” Elias nodded as he smoothed the details of the plan over with his father, “Understood, Father. Thank you,” he noticed her and after saying their goodbyes, hung up the phone.

“What do you have planned?” she asked him and explained, “Dad’s not happy that you had your chance to tell Aston off and blew it.”

“I haven’t blown it,” Elias promised her, “Men like him will come back. They are like leeches who stick to flesh to drain the blood until it is dried. When he does, my trap is all set. As soon as I saw what he did to your grandfather I wanted to bound out of here and give him a piece or two, which was the original plan, but now…”

Asana loved it when he had the fire in his eyes, “…He’s going to wish he never stepped foot in Reitz?”

“He’s going to wish he never bullied my fiancée’s family,” Elias corrected her, “I stand by what I said last night. Any threat or act of aggression towards your family is a threat and aggression directed at you. Which, then, makes me angry because your family don’t deserve to be treated so disrespectfully.”

As Asana leaned up to kiss him, Tobias entered the room.

“What’s going on?” he interrupted right before Asana’s lips touched Elias’, “What’s with the gunshots?”

“Aston was here,” Asana informed him, “He knocked Grandad over and I think he might have a sprained wrist.”

“Did Elias give him a what for?”

Asana couldn’t wait to see what Elias was going to do, “Not yet. He’s just setting his trap for his prey to return. Right?”

“That’s one way to put it,” Elias smirked, “Do you have a computer with an internet connection? Father has sent me some documents on that man I wish to look through.”

“Documents?” Asana widened her eyes with surprise, “You mean, he’s been in trouble with the law before?”

Elias nodded, “I will get rid of him.”

Tobias turned on the kettle to brew himself a cup of coffee, “Give him hell Elias. I won’t need the computer until after lunch anyway,” Tobias said as he spooned sugar and coffee into his mug, “I’m going to see Grandad once I make this.”

“Okay,” Asana left her brother and escorted Elias to the computer in the study room.

“Sorry if I made them mad at me,” Elias apologised to her as he sat down at the computer chair and grabbed her hand to pull her closer to him, “I truly did not mean to upset your father.”

Standing between his legs, her hands rested on his shoulders as his arms embraced around her waist. Leaning down, Asana gently kissed him and felt his cheeks turn red, “He’s not angry at you,” she promised him, “I guess he’s just desperate now to get rid of Aston. Especially, now that he has assaulted Grandad.”

“They feel helpless?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, “They feel like they’re trapped into a corner because they don’t have the power or money to do anything if Aston decides to steal their land from under them. They’re afraid they’re going to lose our home.”

“They have me,” Elias promised in his heart her family were not going to suffer, “Does your grandfather or Uncle still have the contract Aston gave to them, as well as Bill and Judith?”

“Grandad still has his,” Asana answered, “I can ring Lucas, Bill and Judith to see if they still have theirs?” she offered.

Elias figured he could use her help to gather enough evidence, “Alright, do you want to call them and ask if I may have them to look through and potentially use as evidence against him?”

“Evidence?”

“Also, I need statements from anybody who has been harassed, threatened or assaulted by him,” Elias added and looked up at her with a smile, “Care to be my beautiful assistant?”

Asana couldn’t say no, especially if Elias’ plan meant helping her family and community, “Of course, I will be,” she kissed him and pulled up a chair beside him but Elias grabbed her, “What?”

“S-Sit here…,” he brought her legs up to fall across his and held her warmly in his arms to have her sit across his lap.

“C-Can you work like this?” she wondered as he began logging into his email using one hand to type on the keyboard, “I’m in the way.”

“You are never in the way,” he promised her that he was comfortable, his words honest, “If I hold you, I am reminded why I am doing this. Not only is it good motivation but makes me more determined to help weed out Aston from harassing your family and the community. Also, on an unrelated topic, do you remember what we spoke about last night?”

“Please don’t tell me you regret asking me to move in with you?” she worried he was going to take back his proposal.

Panicked, he rushed to assure her that was not the case, “No, no, of course not. I want to live with you and my feelings have not changed since last night. I was worried that you might have had doubts. I mean, I asked in the heat of the moment but I know it’s the right move to make. I just wanted to make sure you still want to…live with me.”

“Of course, I do,” she relaxed in his arms and stared up into his eyes, using a hand to turn his face to look at her, “…I’ve been smiling about since I woke up,” then she thought about this fake engagement they were parading, “You know, I’m a terrible liar but for some reason it has been…natural or normal…to say we’re engaged and that we live together.”

“I know what you mean,” Elias agreed, the rouse was too easy for them, “…If I did propose to you for real, would you say yes?”

“Of course, I love you,” Asana giggled, “If I proposed to you, would you say yes too.”

Elias tilted his head with confusion because he couldn’t understand why she would propose to him, but had often heard of the woman asking the man to marry her. He was old-fashioned and found the traditional ways of marriage proposals romantic. Bumping his forehead against hers and kissing her lips, he smiled and said, “No.”

“No?”

“Because, I want to propose to you first,” he smiled but he wanted to ask her to marry him, “…You know, I know I promised that we would wait until we graduate before I proposed but we could just have a long engagement and marry after we graduate.”

It was a nice thought, but she worried their different career paths would impact heavily on the type of marriage they would have. Though, she would compromise if it meant being able to stay with Elias. “I want to stay with you,” she declared, “I want to be yours and I want you to be mine forever. I’m just…afraid…of how our careers would impact our lives once we do graduate.”

“We can work around it,” Elias promised her, “I will follow you.”

She was happy to hear that, “I will follow you too, Elias. I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” they shared a kiss which lasted for several minutes.

Elias was the first to pull away from her and bumped his forehead against hers. He had to regather his breath but the urges they had built up last night and the night before last. Asana giggled.

“Are you okay?”

“…I want to touch you so badly it hurts,” he admitted.

“I do too,” she whispered, cuddling her face into his chest.

He sighed and needed to focus on the task of getting rid of Bradley Aston, “We should do this though,” he refocused her attention back to the evidence they needed to gather, “Do you remember what you need to do?”

“Ring Uncle Lucas, Judith and Bill for the contracts they were given and collect statements from anyone who has been threatened, harassed or assaulted by Bradley Aston,” she recited her task to him.

He smiled at her, glad she remembered what she had to do, “Smart and b-b-beautiful,” he shyly complimented her.

She giggled at his shy cheeks and his compliment, “Made only beautiful because of the handsome man who’s beside me,” she complimented him now and his cheeks changed into a deeper shade of red.

“L-L-Let’s just do this,” he urged them to start and access his email account.

In his inbox, his father had already filed all the evidence he needed into one file that he could download. The speed at which Walter had sent the documents astonished Elias but he knew how organised his father could be and probably had the documents on a flash drive as well as a back-up paper copy in his filing cabinets in his home office and in his city office.

While he read through the files, he kept Asana in the comfort of his lap while she began phoning around. First, she called her Uncle’s direct cell number and he answered almost immediately, “Hello, Lucas Way speaking.”

“Hey Uncle,” Asana cheerfully greeted him, “How’s your head this morning?”

He chuckled, “Asana, good morning. My head has a tiny headache but nothing too pounding. Did you call because you were worried about your old Uncle?”

She giggled at him, “I have seen you worse than last night in the past, Uncle. Remember when you put on Aunt Olivia’s purple dress and tried to fight a tree?”

“No one ever lets me live it down and Erica still has the footage on her phone, even uploaded it to that damn internet you kids are into these days,” he dreaded that memory even being dug up but he had drunk way too much that night to celebrate the wedding anniversary of a couple in town, “Anyway, how’s everyone this morning?”

Apart from Bradley ruining their peaceful morning, everyone was happy and Elias and Owen had slightly bonded over a cup of coffee. Of course, she was happy that Elias had asked her to move in with him but this morning’s dark cloud was all she could think about and her poor grandfather now nursing a sprained wrist because he was assaulted, “Well, that depends. Do you want to hear the good things or the terrible things?”

“Terrible things?” Lucas repeated her words, “Don’t tell me your father kicked Elias out or something?” he joked.

“No, no, he wouldn’t do that,” Asana giggled at his joke, “Everything was fine until Aston showed up here.”

“Did he? Elias give him hell like he promised?”

“Not yet,” Asana explained, “Like any hunter, he’s seen the prey and now he’s setting up the trap for the next encounter. He has something planned and I’m helping him gather evidence. I don’t know what he’s planning but I don’t think he’s letting Aston walk away scot-free.”

Lucas hummed, “Uh-huh, I see,” and chuckled, “Can’t wait to watch this unfold. Times like these make me thankful that you nabbed a Goldstein,” he joked again.

“Where are you now? Are you home?” she asked.

“I’m doing the payroll and some paperwork in the office,” he replied.

“Great,” Asana enthused, “Do you mind if I came over and grabbed that contract Aston gave you and some statements from any staff, if they are willing, about Aston’s actions towards them. Also, if you have any footage from your cameras to help us that would be wonderful.”

Lucas wondered what Elias had up his sleeve but if his niece trusted him, he could too, “Sure, bring Elias up here too. I can give him the grand tour of the vineyard,” he invited Elias to the vineyard, “Just let me do this payroll though. Come up at about eleven-thirty, I should have all this paperwork done.”

“Okay, see you then Uncle,” Asana agreed to go to him at the time he set, “I have to call Bill and Judith, so I have to go now. See you soon Uncle.”

“Is he grabbing their contracts too?” Lucas wondered.

“Yeah, I think he wants to read through them and catch onto anything that’s illegal,” Asana guessed and Elias nodded to her assumption, “He’s nodding, so I guess that’s a yes.”

“Alright, I better let you two get on with it,” despite being on the phone, Lucas smiled, “See you both soon,” he farewelled her on the other end of the line, marking the time they agreed to meet in his mind.

“Bye,” Asana farewelled him too and they both hung up at the same time.

Next, she rang Bill and Judith and agreed to meet her in the afternoon to hand over the contracts as well as any other strip of evidence they had to convict him. Meanwhile, in the city, Walter was on the phone to a man who owed him a massive favour and organised for Aston to be removed from the region at a moment’s notice.

Asana decided to grab the contract her grandfather had left in the dining room but had seen her mother stash away in a kitchen draw where they kept papers of all kinds in an unorganised mess, “I’ll get you Grandad’s contract.”

“Thanks,” Elias let her rise first and after reading through the files his father had sent him, needed to speak to Fred, “I’m going to speak to your grandfather. Are you coming?”

Asana left the contract she collected by the computer as he rose to his feet. “How are you going to stop him? I’m curious,” she asked as he went to leave the computer room.

“First, I am going over to see your grandfather while my video is uploading from my phone,” he said and could see the video was only a quarter of the way from being uploaded, “Coming with me?”

“Sure,” she followed him out of the house and trudged with him through the snow.

Across the path, the houses were on a slight hill overlooking the large paddocks of their estate. Bumps of snow covered the path between the colonial two-storey home to the small blue cottage sheltered underneath a large tree and surrounded by a white picket fence. Asana forgot how deep the snow could get around the back gate of the cottage and she ended up falling over.

Collecting a face full of snow, Elias laughed at her, “A-Are you okay?”

“Don’t laugh,” she pouted while flicking white snow out of her mouth with her tongue, “So cold and gross!” she made cute noises as she flicked the snow from her mouth.

Elias still laughing at her and receiving a cold snow ball right in the face, “Hey!” it landed on his forehead and faded into his golden bed of hair, “Oh, that’s it,” he playfully gathered a snow ball up in his hands.

“Oh, no. No, Elias,” she laughed and ran behind the trunk of the tree and arming herself with a ball of snow too. Her giggles didn’t conceal her location for long.

“Your giggling is giving you away,” Elias chuckled as he approached the tree she was hiding behind.

Her arm poked out from behind the skeleton tree as it leaves had been stripped in fall, only snow had been collected along the thick branches. He came around the other side of her but she ran around the tree, but he tricked her in thinking he had followed her and she bumped right into him.

She attempted to run from him and threw her snowball at him where it hit his shoulder with a gentle thud on his thick cotton jacket. But, her efforts were in vain because his long legs easily caught up to her and he grabbed her from behind, picked her up and dumped her into a pile of soft snow that had gathered over a bump in the ground. With a squeal and laughter, she landed softly on her back, her brown hair now dusted with small balls of crunched ice. They were both in a fit of laughter as they played, momentarily straying from their task.

Charlotte could see them playing from the window of the cottage but Owen was still mad that he did nothing about Aston like he had promised. Tobias then whispered into his father’s ear, “He was on the phone before talking to someone. Asana said he’s just set the trap for the next time Aston comes.”

“Why didn’t he do anything now?” Owen wanted to know, “Now, he’s playing with Asana in the snow like they’re four-year olds,” he madly said, “To think I almost gave him my blessing this morning.”

Edith tapped her son on the shoulder, “We don’t know what he has planned. Why don’t we ask him?”

“Yeah, right,” Owen rolled his eyes, “So he can promise us he’ll do something but won’t.”

Fred nursed his sprained hand in a sling, “How the hell am I supposed to farm now?”

“I can help you Dad,” Owen promised.

“What about when you need to do your rounds?” Fred questioned him, “It won’t work.”

“Oh, it’s only a sprain,” Edith shrugged off their dramatic overreactions, “It will heal in a matter of days. As for Elias, he’s been wonderful to us and maybe he knows something more than we do about this guy. However, it’s not fair to him if you’re going to take your anger for Aston out on Elias just because he’s also from the city.”

Charlotte encouraged Owen, “Your mother’s right. Asana has faith in him, we should too.”

With Elias and Asana finishing playing in the snow, they opened the door to the cottage and all eyes turned on Elias as they sat gathered in the living room. On the advice of Edith and Charlotte, he kept his mouth closed but glared at Elias. Asana bounded over to her grandfather, “Are you okay, Grandad?”

“I’m okay, it’s going to take more than that to keep your old man down,” he promised her he was fine otherwise she would just worry, “But, what happened to you keeping your promise about standing up to him?” he snapped at Elias.

“I promise I am going to do something about him,” Elias thought it was best to explain what he was going to do now that he had their attention, “That man, I was at first just going to give him a piece of my mind to make him leave for good. However, knowing what I do know, if I let him go he’s going to just move onto the next town and lure more victims.”

“Victims?” Owen’s eyes widened, “You mean he’s done this before?”

Elias nodded, “He’s a convicted fraud. However, after I heard he destroyed Lucas’ vines and threatened and assaulted Fred, I have decided an enjoyable conversation with him is not going to cut it. He has intentionally hurt Asana’s community and family and he is not going to walk away freely. Please, don’t think I have broken any promise to you about dealing with him this time. I am organising my game plan and putting it into motion for the next time he comes here.”

Edith worried Elias wasn’t going to move in time, “…Do you have time?” she looked sad and afraid as she asked him, wanting to trust he could do something, “This farm has been our life and it’s Fred’s family’s legacy. Reitz, needs our farm. This region needs our farm. We’re powerless against Aston but he could rob us of our land,” she teared up.

“Nan…,” Tobias hugged her since he was closer to her, “That’s not going to happen.”

Asana echoed her brother, “He’s right, Nan. We aren’t going to lose our home and Elias isn’t going to let that happen.”

Seeing her aging brown eyes, the wrinkles around them tightening, as she tried her hardest not to cry, Elias understood why they were afraid but he wasn’t going to allow a fraud to strip Asana and her family of their property or anyone else being threatened and bullied into signing this illegal contract he presented Harrington presented to them. Even he had come to love the peacefulness of the family farm and the warmness of the community, though he wondered just how long Harrington had been menacing her family and the community.

“Listen to your grandchildren, Mrs Way,” Elias’ fierce violet eyes stared her directly in the eye and he met the worried eyes of her father and grandfather too, “I don’t know how long this man has been a menace but I refuse to leave until he has disappeared and you never have to worry about him again. Any threat made to Asana’s family, be it her blood relatives or to the family township, is a threat made against Asana. As her fiancée and husband-to-be, I have promised to protect her and what is important to her. This man crossed a very big line and with me here, you are not powerless.”

He spoke with confidence and conviction that restored Edith’s faith in his ability to eliminate this problem and the stress it weighed on their shoulders. Charlotte too, was convinced Elias could do something about and said, “We’re on your side Elias. If there’s anything we can do to help you?” she asked him.

“You better do something about him next time,” Owen warned him.

“He will, Dad,” Asana spoke highly of Elias, “He never makes empty promises.”

Fred nursed his sprained wrist and had no choice but to trust whatever the famous Goldstein power could do to help save his farm. It almost felt like he was god-sent considering the troubling time he had come to the property to present himself as a suitable partner for his granddaughter. He had no choice but to trust his words and hope he could make Aston disappear. Fred had not vocally accepted Elias into his family but sensed he was not like other city people who only thought about themselves, he cared for his granddaughter like she was a precious gem.

“…What are you going to do?” Fred asked, “You have told us you have something planned but you haven’t told us what it is you intend to do.”

“That’s part of the entertainment,” Elias teased and then seriously replied, “He is going to go back to a place where criminals like him belong. What I do need, however, is visual evidence of your sprained wrist.”

“Your collecting evidence?” Tobias concluded.

“I am,” Elias nodded in reply, “I already have the contract he gave to you and other information my father is collecting from my brother. I had him research Bradley Aston’s movements and discovered his entire corporation does not legally exist. Right now, there are federal agents stripping his hotel room where he is staying in Wiley and his so-called “offices” from other communities he has been previously to coming here to Reitz.”

Owen was surprised he managed to do so much in such little time, “…How did you manage to do all of this in such a short amount of time?” he asked the question the others were going to ask.

“That’s impressive,” Charlotte commented.

“That’s kind of terrifying,” Tobias added with a chuckle.

Edith’s tears seemed to have dried up now that Elias had admitted there was something being done but felt guilty for dragging him into their situation, especially since it’s Thanksgiving. Though, she was grateful for his help, “If there’s anything we need to be thankful for this year, it’s Elias loving our little Asana. Thank you, Elias. This means so much you’re doing this for us.”

He had to agree with her. Had he not been with Asana, he wouldn’t even be aware of the injustice Harrington was trying to pull over her family or the townspeople, “You are good people who don’t deserve to go through this,” Elias honestly said, “Had I not been with Asana, I would not know this was happening either but I am very happy that I am here and I can help you.”

Charlotte could see Owen calming down now that Elias had admitted to slowly reeling in the menace that is Bradley Aston, even before he had promised he would do something about his nuisance presence. He would never admit to having overreacted and instead said, “…We’ll see if it works,” he disguised his smirk behind a cup of coffee he had brewed in the cottage.

Asana proudly smiled, “There’s that Goldstein power,” she joked and walked over to his side and showed him her phone. While they were talking and Elias was convincing them that he was keeping to his word, she had been taking photographs of her grandfather’s sprained wrist, “I took some photos of his wrist. The swelling and it covered up. Are these good?” she showed him.

“Perfect,” Elias could clearly see where she had highlighted the swelling in the pictures, “Can you upload photos from your phone?”

“I can email them to you?”

“Could you?” Elias asked, naturally putting an arm around her as she began to forward them to him in an email, “Do you remember my email address?”

“Isn’t it just Elias dot Goldstein?”

“Elias, dot, capital G, another dot and Goldstein.”

She began giggling, “I just realised something.”

Cheeks blushing and her eyes glowing, she stared up at him with her body close to his where she stood in the small space to show him the photos. Distracted momentarily by her beauty for a split second, he came back to his senses and stared at her confusedly, “What? Something funny.”

“Well, it’s just your initials, if you include your second name, spells egg,” she giggled.

He had no response other than, “Be afraid when we cross the snowy path again,” threatening another dump in the snow for her joke while his threat only made her giggle harder, “You really have no fear.”

“Nope,” she said, a popping sound following her response, “I have an older brother. He once buried me in the snow.”

“You have one older brother, try two,” he challenged as he watched her send the images to his email account and he would download them into a file when they returned to the computer.

“Did they bury you in the snow?”

“Worse,” Elias trembled at the memory, “They buried me in the snow and left me there for hours, pretending they didn’t know where I was. Mom was furious at them because I ended up getting a nasty flu. Dad made them look after me until I was better but their idea of soup was snow soup, which is just boiled water.”

Asana could picture it, “…I could see them doing that. Especially, Klaus. He scares me most of the time. Did you know I spilled his tea on him once?”

“He told me,” Elias laughed, “That was before we met and you put him in a bad mood that day because of it.”

Asana pouted, “That’s not my fault! He should’ve watched where he was going too.”

She remembered the day she had walked into Klaus as she went to a café to study. Tobias had just been published in a magazine and she was on her phone downloading and saving his images for her collection of his pictures that she kept. Klaus had brewed his own tea into a traveller mug and had visited the café for his favourite muffin while reading a book he was going to use in his lectures. With both heads down, they bumped into each other has he was leaving and she was entering the café.

“You are thinking about it, aren’t you?” Elias could see her spacing out, “Then you confused me with him making our first meeting extremely awkward.”

“Don’t remind me!” she turned red, “Not only did Klaus not assume any responsibility for that incident, he gave me quite the lecture on top of that. I thought he was just rude and mean then I saw you and you both look alike. I was grumpy all day too because of him so…”

“You unleashed your anger onto me,” Elias remembered, at the time, being yelled at by a strange girl, “I was very confused but I had seen him earlier that day and he told me what happened. He got mad at me for saying it was partly his fault too.”

“You said that to him?” she seemed surprised.

“Then I left because he glared at me.”

Suddenly, they both started laughing not realising they had drifted off into their own world again while her family were still together under the cottage roof following the incident with Aston.

Charlotte and Owen noted the gentle way Elias’ hand rested on Asana’s waist and the way her body leaned in close to him like they were close to cuddling as she stood just in front of him and they entered their own conversation, unaware that they had become oblivious to the outside world around them. Both faces glowing as they reminisced on the recent past and worked together to deal with Aston.

“She’s grown stronger,” Edith commented quietly.

“Yeah, she has,” Charlotte agreed with her observation, “That’s his influence.”

“I’d say so,” Edith could see how they both influenced each other, “They are perfect together too. Looking at them now, you wouldn’t even know he’s from a wealthy family and she’s a plain and simple girl from the country.”

“Opposites do attract,” Charlotte smiled at them but it was about time to start their day and put this morning’s inconvenience behind them, “Well, I’m going into town to clean up after the festival and get some supplies for the family feast tomorrow. Don’t forget to ask Lucas to bring the wine, dear.”

“I won’t,” Owen promised her and turned to his father, “I best get a start too. I have to go out to the Fawnwood property to check a flock of chickens but I will be back to help you out on the farm Dad.”

Tobias had some photographs to complete and send them off before deadline but had a moment to spare to help his grandmother feed the animals, “I better feed the dogs and I can come help you out Nan.”

Elias caught onto Tobias’ announcement about what he was going to do, “Oh, um, I already fed the dogs and cat this morning,” he nervously informed him and explained frantically, “I had an alarm clock in the form of a very hungry cat with sharp claws digging into my skin.”

“Relax,” Tobias chuckled at him, “Thank you, though. Casper usually doesn’t allow strangers to feed him either. I guess the cat loves you now too.”

“Even the dogs love him,” Asana added.

“Well, Nan. Looks like I can help you right now.”

“I need to go up to the cows and give them some grass,” she had been feeding the chooks when that horrible man turned up and they became frightened by the gunshots Fred had fired into the air.

Fred managed to get to his feet and could at least go check the levels of his crops in the greenhouses. He had been worried that Aston had welcomed himself down to the sheds because that’s where he had frightened him from as he tried to access the greenhouses by using the number pad security feature to keep out thieves. “I need to check my crops. I can at least spray them and check the levels.”

“Don’t over work yourself,” Edith warned him, knowing how stubborn he could be and where Owen had inherited the same trait, “I’m sure Tobias can give you a hand.”

“Sure can,” he didn’t mind if he missed deadline, not when his grandparents could use an extra set of hands to assist with farming duties, “I’ll come down after I help Nan feed the cows.”

“I’ll be fine but if you want to come down, be my guest.”

Elias and Asana had their day already planned and with their free morning, until it came time to go up to the winery, they went back to the house and began reading through the terms and conditions of the contract with Elias highlighting anything that would help to incriminate Harrington and extend whatever sentence he would be looking at now. His father sent him texts and emails with new contracts from other communities he had managed to contact for his son and had him sift through those contracts too for anything incriminating.

#elias goldstein #asanawayMC #wizardess heart #wizardess heart fanfiction #modAU #love #snow #coffee #thanskgiving

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old-souldier · 7 years

Text

Entry 13: Wounded Animal.

It was late afternoon on Jordan's day off when she took for a scenic stroll around the neighborhood she lived in. Thanks to something of a "paperwork snafu", she had pruchased a lovely little cottage in a new development of houses, near the sea. It wasn't the same as her old farmhouse. But that had been destroyed in the Calamity and well one had to pick up the pieces and move on.

This scenic stroll was also a chance to indulge in one of her hobbies: her pets. She spent a lot of time with her steed Pipa and, on non-combat duty, she'd bring along her diligent tortoise Tortimer, long time pet and consumer of extra dark and bitter cabbage leaves. This time, she spent the day riding atop of her youngest and most active pet, Cuddles.

Cuddles was a large brown bear from the North Shroud. He acquired the name because Jordan wrestled the young bear into submission after he tried to ambush the lalafell and her picnic basket of goodies.

Jordan still bore some of the scars from the clawmarks, but what's another half a dozen scars, anyway?

Passing thorugh she came across a couple walking a black wolf pup. They were popular pets these days and Jordan agreed this one was particularly cute as it ambled along, chasing a butterly and getting a bit too far ahead on its lead.

"Evenin'" Jordan said, waving.

The couple stopped. They were middle-aged, though a little younger than Jordan. One of them, Elias Thompson, was a long lean man with graying brown hair nodded and smiled politely. "Evenin'," he said tersely. His wife, Ophelia Caraway, a somewhat short, squat woman didn't say anything, instead keeping her distance from Jordan and Cuddles.

"What a cute pup ye 'ave..." Jordan stopped for a moment, "Didn't ye 'ave another pup? A grey one?"

The couple stopped. The gentleman said, "Well, our son moved out recently n' he took it with 'im. We gre pretty lonely so we... we ended up adoptin' this little one."

Jordan nodded. "Aye, that's nice. Sami didn;t even bother ta taker 'er goldfish when she left 'ome. Little bastard still swimmin 'round ta spite me."

The couple nodded. "Yes, well... Evenin' ta ye, ma'am." The gentleman said as he and his partner walked off.

Jordan finished her ride a few hours later, just after dusk. She arrived at the stables where Pipa was already curled on herself asleep. She led Cuddles next to the chocobo and then placed some vegetables and fish in Cuddles's feeding dish.

"Okay lad, mind ye elder sister n' I'll see ye in the mornin'." Jordan smiled and went inside her home to wind down for the evening.

-----------------------------

It was early in the morning, hours before dawn, Jordan was trying to get back to sleep after being woken up by an overactive bladder.

"Mmm..." the Lalafell grumbled. "There's no cool side of the pillow fer me 'ead..."

There a sudden, but faint growling and gnashing sound, but Jordan turned in her bed.

"Must be me ruddy gut... gotta lay off the midnight sweets," she muttered to herslef before falling back asleep

---------------------------------------------

The next morning, Jordan woke up and, as she left her house to do some gardening, she found the neighborhood in a stir. Jordan wandered towards where the crowd was gathered and asked around.

"What in the Seven 'ells's goin' on?" she asked

"Oh it's simply dreadful," Drulala, an old Lalafellin woman said, "Marjorie Stimpson's prized chocobo Lacy was killed last night. They say it was a ferocious animal that did it, it was." Drulala pointed her cane towards the dead bird, red feathers strewen about. "They say it clawed at it afore it went and took a big bite outta it, it did."

Jordan blinked. "Who in blazes let a vicious animal run loose in this neighbor'ood?" Jordan asked aloud.

Seemingly at once, everyone in the neighborhood turned to her.

"Aye? What? I'm off-duty today." Jordan pointed at her housedress and apron.

"It was your... fiend that did this!" Ophelia said pointing down at Jordan. "I've always said it was a menace!"

Jordan was taken aback. "Menace? The lad's asleep. 'E doesn't even like chocobo meat. Pipa pecked that outta 'im months ago!"

"I dunno 'bout that," J'keena, a young Mi'qote man said, "he growled at my husband and our daughter just last week! You can't tame a wild animal like that."

"I already told ye ye shouldn't 'ave dressed the baby like a Marlin fer All Saints' Wake! Ye daft, boy."

The crowd was growing restless and all eyes were pointed on Jordan. Finally Jordan threw up her hands and said,

"All right! Let's go back ta me 'ouse and I'll prove Cuddles is innocent."

Back at her home, Pipa was calling out seeing so many angry people arrive. Jordan took a second to hug the excitable chocobo before going to Cuddles, who was lying placidly.

"First off, look at 'im, he's just relaxing. Bears aren;t much fer trouble long as they're kept well fed." She reached down and pulled up his front paw.

"Y'see he's inno-" Jordan paused as Cuddles's paw was stained reddish brown with somewhat dried blood. "Wha-" Cuddles then stood, and his muzzle was similarly stained.

"I knew it!" J'keena said, "I knew that thing was a menace. I've been on the homeowner's association for almost a year and nothing. But it needs to go, now!"

The crowd yelled an indistinct agreement.

"Now wait just a bleeding second 'ere! There 'as ta be a mistake! Maybe Marjorie Stimpson's bird attacked my Cuddles. Wasn't 'e one of 'em Dravanian breeds? Feisty and prone ta trouble they can be!"

Marjorie yelled out from the crowd, "Banjo was sick with bird flu, you monster!" She started sobbing, "Oh, Banjo... Banjooooo!"

Jordan let out a gulp.

"That's it!" J'keena said, "Get that animal out of here by tomorrow, or we'll be back with the authorities to put it down." The crowd yelled out "Yeah!"

Cuddles let out a growl of annoyance, cause some of the neighbors to panic and run away. The bear, confused, but unconcerned lay back down with a huff.

Jordan was now alone as the rest of the neighbors wandered away. She looked at Cuddles and began talking, concerned. "There's just no way ye did it did ye?" She pet the young bear." Ye coulda asked fer more fish or, 'ells, raided me garden. Ye wouldn't have trudged a quarter malm ta Stimpson's place just fer a snack..." Jordan stroked Cuddles's paws again and felt a patch of fur come off.

Examining it more closely, she realized it was different in texture and color from Cuddles. It was coarser and grey in color.

"Eh, what's this?" Jordan examined the fur. She told Cuddles to get up and the bear wandered into a sunny patch of lawn to sleep. Looking at the stables, Jordan found a few more patches of grey fur that had been hidden by the bear's bulk.

"This ain't right't all," Jordan remarked. The grey color stuck out to her. "Wait a tick," Jordan said aloud, "I think I know where I'd best go ta figger this out." Jordan took off her gardening apron, straightened out her housedress and went for a walk in the neighborhood.

After about half a malm, Jordan approached Elias and Ophelia's house. Jordan began looking about. She spied anything around the gate, walkway and such that could have been a clue, but she noticed nothing. The house itself had a closed off back yard that she couldn't make out from looking.

After a moment, Opehlia opened the door and stormed out of the house.

"Ye best get out of our property ye old spinster! Lollygagging won't 'elp ye n' yer beast."

"I know Cuddles didn;t kill that bird n' I think I know what did."

The woman, if she was surprised, didn;t show it. "I'd like ta see ye prove anythin', ye shrimp."

"Oh I'll prove it, ye right fat hellion!" Jordan yelled as she started walking away.

It was late autum and leaves had been falling from trees. She saw a small pile of leaves out by the yard of their house. Jordan stood there blankly starting at the leaves figuring ouut what to do when she noticed an oddly shaped leaf in the pile. Examining it further she realized it wasn;t a leaf at all but a mangled chocobo feather. In fact there were about half a dozen of those mixed in with the other colored leaves.

"Ah, hah. I knew summat thing was amiss." Jordan smiled. She had to find a way inside the house.

Looking at the area, Jordan noted the house abutted something of a cliff-face. While she could climb up the top of the cliff with only a bit of toruble, jumping down to the backyard would probably break more than a few bones. The house, however sported a rather ostentatious weather vane shaped like a rooster that was quite tall. Jordan did a bit of field calculation and started climbing the cliff.

At the top of the cliff, Jordan attempted to look down at t he backyard of the house. She could make out some sort of commotion, but Jordan cursed not having her spyglass on her person. She looked at the Weathervane. It wasn't as sturdy up close as she guessed as it swayed in the wind, creaking. .

"Well this'd be one of the dumber ways I could get meself killed and, after a silent three-count, she jumped.

Jordan grabbed onto the weathervane successfully, but then started to lean as the vane lost its structural intregrity. She quickly let go and dropped to the roof with a thud. Jordan seethed in pain trying not to make a sound. I'm gonna feel this in the morrow, Jordan thought.

Now though she stood up and had a closer view. She heard growling noises and Elias's voice.

"What're we gonna do... Oh Twelve 'elp me..."

Jordan quietly walked over to the edge of the roof. Sure enough, a young grey wolf, its mouth, paws and much of it's fur mottled with rust colored blood was growling in a cage. Elias, bottle of wine in his had, sat in a chair moaning. Jordan jumped down, causing the wolf to start barking and howling Elias dropped his bottle n' said, "Oh Keeper!"

"Ah, I *knew* there's was aught amiss 'ere! 'Twas yer animal that did it!"

Elias, still shocked seeing Jordan seemingly appear was stunned. From inside Ophela came out the back shiocked but angry.

"Oh, how dare ye! This is invasion of our property. I won't stand for this. I'll get the Yellowjackets!"

"Aye. Let's get them." She pointed at the caged wolf. "N' what d'ye think they're gonna care 'bout more?"

Ophelia pursed her lips and gave Jordan a mean face before running to the cage and opening it.

"Wait Ophelia! Don't, he'll kill again!"

"I knew this mutt was trouble from the start, Eli! But 't won't be our problem anymore!" Before Jordan could react, Ophelia opened the cage and the wolf bounded out, jumping over the fence which kept the backyard closed.

"Are ye mad woman!?" Jordan yelled.

"I'm gonna call the Yellowjackets. And I'll make sure you get yer due!"

Jordan shook her head, "Yer crazy. No wonder 'es drinkin'"

Jordan ran out of the property. She saw the wolf was heading back to th main row of houses.

Shite! Shite! Jordan thought as she ran as fast as she could. By the time she made it. She saw the wolf growl at surprised neighbors who tried to run off.

Grabbing at her shoe, Jordan pulled out her cheese knife and toss it at the wolf, grazing its shoulder.

"Shite! Ey Wolf! Over 'ere ye bastard!" Jordan yelled. The wolf's attention was caught and it pounced. Jordan tried to grab it, but she was slightly winded from the sprint and it fell on her.

Growling it opened its maw and Jordan braced for the injury. However she heard another roar and Cuddles leapt onto the wolf from the side.

Jordan sat up as the Yellowjackets came.

That night, after a round of apologies, Cuddles got extra fatty fish for dinner.

#FFxivWrite2017

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bloonstuff · 7 years

Text

chapter one: did someone make waffles? [ft yousef, mikael, mutta, adam] chapter two: netflix and chill [ft adam, elias, mutta]

chapter three: the meaning of pride [ft mikael, yousef, mutta, adam, elias, even, isak, sana, noora]

Mikael tipped his head up towards the sky, a smile spreading on his lips as the rays heated his cheeks. If Allah was homophobic, there was no way he'd have given them this weather for the parade. His first Pride parade.

Just then, Yousef came up behind him and curled his arms around Mikael's shoulders, laying a gentle kiss on the soft skin just above the collar of his purple t-shirt. “There you are, I thought we'd lost you. This crowd is thick.”

Mikael turned his head, returning a kiss to Yousef's cheek. “Yeah, sorry. I got distracted.”

“It's okay but we have to find a good spot to see the parade,” Yousef replied, slipping his hand down Mikael's arm to thread their fingers together. “Lets go find the oth-”

As Yousef turned to lead Mikael towards where he'd left Adam, Elias and Mutasim, he came to an abrupt stop when he walked into the lanky, blonde form of Even. Even Bech Næsheim. Yousef's hand tightened on Mikael's just a fraction. An involuntary motion that he knew Mikael felt by the way in which he glanced at him for a split second before turning a beaming smile in Even's direction. Yousef felt his cheeks heat and he forced a smile that he wasn't confident met his eyes.

Even's hair was perfectly coiffed as ever and he wore jeans and a white t-shirt, with a hoody tied around his slim hips. On his cheek he had painted a rainbow and in one hand he held a Pride flag and in the other he held the hand of a blonde boy. Yousef's eyes travelled up the length of the boys arm and found a youthful face, blonde hair curling around the edges of a maroon snapback. He wore light brown trousers and a t-shirt with a print on it. His own jacket was slung over the arm of his free hand. Something Yousef's eyes had snagged on was the freckle just above the guy's thin lips, a freckle that reminded him of one he often kissed. One he'd almost lost.

From the baby face to the freckle, Even obviously had a type. That thought almost had Yousef tightening his hand on Mikael's all the more, so he all but physically shook that thought from his head. That chapter was done with now, they were happy. Even seemed happy too. It was petty to hold on to those negative feelings, that fear. But there it was all the same, like a pin lodged in his heart. A reminder of what could have been. The piece of him that could have been missing.

As Mikael conversed and exchanged pleasantries with Even and his boyfriend, Yousef's eyes found Mikael and he swallowed passed the dry lump in his throat.

Yousef was brought out of his dark thoughts when a warm hand slid into his free one and he saw Adam pull up on the other side of Mikael. He turned and saw Mutasim beaming a smile in his direction and felt the weight of Elias' arm as he leaned into the gap between Mikael and Yousef's shoulders, draping his arms around both of them.

“I wondered what was taking you both so long. The parade is probably going to start soon and we lost our space to come find you,” Elias said, his hand patting Yousef's chest where it rested against it. Mikael turned his head and nuzzled his face into the crook of Elias' elbow.

“Sorry, we were just catching up with Even. This is his boyfriend, Isak,” Mikael spoke up, throwing a smile in the blonde headed boys direction. “Even is going to be in the parade, so I don't think we have to worry about missing it. I'm sure it won't start without him.”

Damn. Yousef must have really blacked out during that whole conversation because he had no recollection of the fact Even was to take part in the parade.

Elias took his arm from around Mikael's shoulder and extended it between his boyfriends. Isak reached out and shook his hand. “Hi, I'm Elias.”

Isak nodded, a polite smile on his lips.

“It's good to see you, man. How have you been?” Elias addressed Even then, his own smile playing on his lips as he laid his arm around Mikael's shoulders again.

“I've been pretty good, thanks. We just moved in together, so that's cool. Nice to be out of the parent's place. You guys definitely had the right idea,” Even replied, a broad grin on his full lips as he looked to his boyfriend standing beside him. He had that dreamy look in his eye that he used to look at Mikael with and Elias took comfort in that. It was nice to see he had moved on, that he was happy. He deserved that.

Mutasim rested his cheek against Yousef's shoulder and smiled. “Yeah, we really did. Family are great and all but there's nothing quite like living with the loves of your life, or uh... love of your life.” Why Mutasim felt compelled to amend the end of his sentence, it was anybody's guess but it garnered a chuckle from Even.

Yousef kissed the top of Mutasim's head and smiled. He was such a romantic.

“Uh, are you guys dressed in the colours of the Pride flag?” Even said a second later, his brows raised as if it had only just occurred to him.

Sure enough, they were. Mikael in purple, Yousef in blue, Elias in green, Adam in orange and Mutasim in red.

Yousef, who was yet to speak, gave a light shrug of his shoulders as a smile warmed his features. Surrounded by his boyfriends, he felt so much more at ease. That pin prick in his chest a little less sharp. “We figured it being our first Pride and all, we'd put in the extra effort.”

“Wait, did you forget yellow?” Isak asked, amusement on his young features.

“Nah,” Yousef shook his head.

“Yeah, my sister is around here somewhere. We let her have first dibs on the colours if she came along with us,” Elias replied, a fond smile on his lips as he talked of his sister. “She's with some of her friends though, so I'm not sure there was much point.”

“She's probably gone to scope out that girl from school,” Adam piped up, chuckling to himself. “I think she mentioned asking her to come along.”

“Ooh, is Sana finally crushing on someone?” Even asked, running his hand through his hair, his flag now hanging from his pocket.

Isak perked up at the name but he didn't say anything.

Even checked his watch, his brows shooting up at whatever time he saw there. “Okay, we need to jet. I should have met up with everybody already,” he said, turning to Isak. “Are you heading back to the guys? Text Jonas and see where he is. I don't like leaving you in this crowd alone.”

At that, Isak rolled his eyes as he raised their joined hands and kissed the back of Even's. “I've been in crowds before. I'm a big boy, you don't have to worry.”

Even tugged him into a hug, wrapping his arms around his neck and pressed a kiss to Isak's lips. “Yeah, okay. I think my float is somewhere around the middle of the parade. I mean, I'm not saying you should definitely get photos of me but...”

Isak laughed and nudged Even's nose with his own. “I'll get photos, don't worry. Go on!”

The guys almost thought the two had forgotten they were there, so wrapped up in his boyfriend, until Even addressed them all with a smile. “It was great seeing you guys, maybe we can do something soon?”

They all glanced at each other before making a non-committal series of grunts and nods. They didn't want to be rude but they needed to discuss it. They didn't agree to things without discussing them. Communication was key if you were going to make things work between five people and they'd learned exactly how important it was because of this very man himself.

Something passed over Even's features just before he departed with Isak. Yousef released tension that he didn't even realise he'd been holding. He pushed his face into Mutasim's hair, his head still rested against Yousef's shoulder, and gave a sigh.

Sensing his mood, Mutasim moved in front of Yousef and wrapped him up in a hug. Yousef finally let go of Mikael's hand and wrapped his arms around Mutasim. He felt the press of Mutasim's lips against his ear as he whispered. “It's okay. He's okay. You're okay.” Yousef's hands clutched at the back of Mutasim's red hoody as he turned his head into Mutasim's neck, soaking up his calming warmth. Mutasim was like a balm to the soul. He was vital.

Yousef felt a hand cup his exposed cheek and he turned his head to find Mikael looking at him knowingly. A mixture of understanding and hurt written across his features, his beautiful features. Yousef hated the fact Even and what had happened still had this impact on him, hated the fact his reaction to it hurt Mikael. What was worse was the fact it wasn't like he was the only one that had gone through it. They all had. But for some reason he was the only one that couldn't get the fuck over it. The only one that was visibility shaken by a chance meeting with the guy.

Yousef leaned in and pressed a kiss to Mikael's lips. “I'm sorry,” he whispered and pulling him into the hug with Mutasim. Adam and Elias decided to get in on the action too and the five of them ended up in a group hug, the sea of Pride goers moving around them.

“Ew, get a room,” came a voice from amongst the crowd. The guys stiffened for a split second before the smiling face of Noora came into view, Sana beside her in her yellow hijab. She didn't wear bright colours often but gosh when she did, she was really a sight to behold.

The boys moved out of the hug and smiled at the girls. “The parade is about to start, aren't you getting a spot to watch from? It's a bit hectic,” Elias asked.

Sana shrugged in response. “We figured we would come find you guys, thought maybe you'd already have a spot... but apparently you're just standing around hugging each other,” Sana said, quirking a slender brow at her brother and his boyfriends.

“Funny. Nah, we saw Even. Had a bit of a catch up with him,” Elias said, a small good natured sneer at his sister. The way in which Sana's eyes flitted to Yousef for a split second told Yousef that even she knew he hadn't let things go. He glanced away.

Noora went to say something but Sana gripped her forearm and she bit back whatever she'd been about to say. “Ah, how is he?” Sana said, letting go of Noora's arm as Noora looked between her friend and the guys.

“Seems good. He's in the parade, so give him a wave if you see him,” Elias replied, and Sana nodded.

“Shall we go find somewhere to stand?” Mikael said, taking Elias' hand and tugging it a little to get his attention. “I don't want to miss it because we stood around talking.”

Elias rolled his eyes but his smile was as good natured as ever as he addressed his boy. “Dude, we came to find you... you were the one we almost lost and you were the one chatting to Even first. If we miss it it's because of you.” He put extra emphasis on the word 'you' throughout his point.

A frown knit Mikael's brows together and Adam wrapped him in a hug from behind. “I mean he has a point.”

“Well, I'm sorry I stopped to enjoy the lovely weather Allah blessed us with,” came Mikael's gruff response. He wasn't really upset but he could play up to it when he wanted to, use those baby boy looks to lay the guilt on thick. “I didn't realise you guys would walk on without me.”

Mutasim laughed and reached out a hand, ruffling the soft brown strands of Mikael's hair. “Those big puppy dog eyes aren't working today, dude.”

“Nope,” Adam agreed, pressing a playful kiss to Mikael's cheek.

“Come on guys, I'm going to get a cavity if I watch you any longer,” Sana said, the corner of her full lips tilted up into a smirk.

“You're just jealous because you haven't got things locked down with that girl from school yet,” Yousef winked and his teasing grin grew as he noted the pink hue rising to Sana's cheeks. Noora raised a questioning brow at Noora but she waved a hand as if batting away the unspoken question.

Elias nudged Yousef with his hip and rested his hand on Sana's shoulder, giving it a sympathetic squeeze. “Okay, okay. Let's go,” he said as he turned her towards the direction of the parade route. Elias kept his hands on Sana's shoulders as they made their way through the crowds, Noora and his boyfriends following close behind.

Twenty minutes or so later the gang had made their way through the dense crowd and found a spot to watch the parade from. In the near distance they could hear the thrum of music and the beat of drums, telling them they'd just made it in time. Yousef stood behind Mikael, his arms wrapped around him. Adam stood between Elias and Mutasim, an arm around each of them, both of the boys tucked in at his side.

It didn't take long for the parade to reach them, three drag queens leading the way in a top down pink convertible as they waved at the people lining the parade route with one hand and waved rainbow flags in the other. Mikael reached back and tugged the bandanna from Yousef's head and waved it in return as Yousef laughed.

Behind the car came different floats, as well as people dancing and marching in front and behind them. They waved flags and banners, all bright colours and different slogans. There was people of all different ages, from the very old to the infant. There was trans people and cis people, people of different race and religion, abled people and disabled people. Even dogs walked with rainbow coats. There was such creativity in every float and the different outfits and costumes people wore. Every single facet of the parade screamed creativity and freedom. The complete and utter freedom to be who and whatever you wanted to be or who you always were, surrounded by those who understand the importance of it all.

Each and every one of the boys felt their hearts swell as they watched the parade. While they'd always felt a sense of belonging with each other, the whole atmosphere surrounding them just brought it to a whole new level and they held each other just that little bit closer. Comfortable in the fact nobody here would bat an eyelid.

When the next float caught Mikael's eye, his face lit up and he turned his head, flashing a beaming smile at Yousef as his hand came up to grip his forearm. “Look!” he exclaimed excitedly as his free hand motioned to the float. “A float for queer Muslims!”

And sure enough there was a float reading LGBTQ+ Muslim Pride and on it there was a mixture of men, women and those in between, some in traditional dress and some not. Some of them wore hijabs and some did not. One person more a niqab with a rainbow tutu around her waist.

Elias reached out and gripped Sana's shoulder, nodding towards one of the women that wore a pan flag hijab and a grin rose to Sana's painted lips. “Maybe you can get one of those for next year,” Elias said with his own smile.

“Remind me why it took us so long to come to one of these?” Sana said in reply.

As the float passed, Mikael looked up at Yousef again. “Maybe next year I can get involved in that float. It looks super fun.”

Yousef smiled, leaning in to kiss Mikael's cheek. His boyish good looks were adorable when he was excited about something. But then again, when were they not? “Yeah, it does,” Yousef said in reply. “Maybe the rest of the guys can get involved too.”

Mikael frowned for a moment. “Hrm, I don't like the idea of you being left out...”

Yousef shrugged with a simple lift of a shoulder. “I don't mind. I'll cheer you guys on and take photos. Somebody needs to take photos.”

Mikael smiled at that as he turned back to the parade, and Yousef hugged him close as he settled back against him. Yes, he'd love to see his guys up there enjoying themselves. A real coming together of their faith and their sexuality. It hadn't always been easy for them to reconcile the two. No way would Yousef want him and his lack of faith to stop them from having that, especially Mikael who seemed so excited about it already.

“Guys, look. It's Even,” Adam said, nodding towards yet another colourful float. Dancing on it was the tall blonde with a placard that read 'I'm not crazy, I'm bipolar' in the pan flag colours, a smile beaming across his face. There were various other signs on the float that read things such as 'It's good to talk' and 'The closet is a dark place'. The float seemed to be a celebration of those within the community that live with mental health issues and also a bringing together of them. A reminder that nobody is alone but sometimes the closet can fool you into thinking you are.

Yousef glanced from Even to his boys and he was struck once again by just how lucky he was to have them. His heart so full of love for them it might burst, as clichéd as it sounded. And in that moment, as he watched the face's of the boys he loved light up as they watched the parade, he felt like he truly understood the meaning of Pride.

#poly balloon squad #balloon squad #skam #bloodoesfics

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