#then going back to sleep until 5:30am to wake up and go to work

[malewifespike]

def in a depressive episode everything is boring video games are boring reading is boring socializing is boring all I can do is sleep 15 hours and day and go to work

[keeryhours]

teen pregnancy series - eddie munson part 1

Eddie Munson x female! reader

Main Masterlist

Teen Pregnancy Series Masterlist

Summary:

A broken condom leads to the end of your life as you knew it.

Part 2

Warnings:

Smut (18+), oral (m and f receiving), p in v, fingering, pregnancy, threatened miscarriage, drug use (weed), shitty parents, Al Munson

Word Count: 19.2k

A/N:

I am literally the most impatient person in the world so here’s part 1 early! Part 2 will be out very soon, I’m locked in. Thank you @glassbxttless for my banner and for reading this ❤️

You loved waking up next to Eddie.

The soft rise and fall of his breathing, the wild way his hair would be splayed out across the pillow, his lips parted as he snored lightly, the peaceful look on his handsome face. Sometimes you would just watch him sleep. Other times you would trace his tattoos until he woke with a smile.

“Mornin’, beautiful,” he’d say, his voice still dripping with sleep.

“Good morning yourself,” you’d say back.

This was what it was like most mornings you woke up with Eddie. It wasn’t hard to sneak into his place at night. Your parents went to sleep at 9pm on the dot, all too easy to slip out your window and to your bike. You didn’t even have to sneak into Eddie’s, the front door was fine - Wayne worked nights, and you didn’t think he’d care either way. Wayne loved you.

There was nothing quite like sleeping in Eddie’s arms. It was your safe place. Warm and cozy, like being enveloped in pure love. It was no wonder you’d rather spend the night there than in your cold bed alone with parents who didn’t particularly like you anyway.

It was the alarm that woke you up this day. Fucking school day. The alarm clock blared bright and early at 5:30am - earlier than Eddie would usually get up, but it took you a bit longer to get ready.

You shut the alarm off so as not to wake Eddie up too much and sat up in bed with a big stretch and a yawn. Eddie grabbed onto your arm as you were climbing out of bed.

“Don’t go,” he mumbled, not even moving his face from where it was half buried in his pillow and covered by his disheveled hair.

“I gotta get ready, baby,” you told him. “We have school.”

“Fuck school,” he said, voice muffled.

You laughed. “Babe, we have to go.”

He shuffled closer to you, wrapping his arm around your waist. “I just wanna stay in bed with you all day.”

“I want that too,” you said, and god, you did. “But we can’t.”

Eddie groaned but relented, letting you get up. You slid off the bed, turning for one last look at him. He was sleeping on his belly, arms wrapped around his pillow. His head was turned to the side, but you couldn’t see any of his face for all the hair. The comforter rested just at his hips, and he was naked beneath it. You admired his body, his tattoos, the slightest glimpse of the curve of his ass before the blanket hid it away from your eyes. You have to force yourself to look away.

Naked yourself, you slip on one of Eddie’s shirts and a pair of panties you’d packed for now. You yawned again as you walked out of Eddie’s room and down the hall to the bathroom. Wayne was asleep on the fold out bed in the living room, probably just now passed out from work. You started up the shower, the finicky faucet taking a few minutes to get to the right temperature.

When you were satisfied, you stripped again, sitting a towel on the side of the sink and then climbing into the hot water. You always kept some shower stuff at Eddie’s, god knows you were over at his place enough.

You closed your eyes under the torrent of water. At least the water pressure at the trailer was good. You were just about to start shampooing your hair when you felt a familiar pair of strong arms wrap around your waist, a head on your shoulder, kissing your neck.

You melted back into the embrace, a smile crossing your lips. You could feel him hard behind you, his kisses on your neck turning needier and sloppy, biting down every now and then. He always liked to mark you up.

“Need you,” he grumbled against your skin, fingers tightening on your body as if to prove his point. 

You chuckled breathlessly. “Last night wasn’t enough for you?”

“Never enough,” he growled. “You know I can’t control myself when you’re in my house, taking showers, walking around like this. And all mine.”

You gasped when he spun you around, pressing your back against the shower wall and kissing you deeply, aggressively. You kissed him back just as eagerly, your fingers tangling in his wet hair. He lifted your leg, his tip pressing against your entrance, then- “Fuck. No condom.”

“Like at all?” you asked, furrowing your brows.

“We used our last ones last night. I need to buy more.” He groaned, forehead falling onto your shoulder. “Shit!”

“It’s okay,” you said, trailing a hand up his side. “I can still get you off?”

He leaned back to look at you. “Are you sure? You don’t have to. I feel bad.”

“Don’t feel bad,” you said, looking up at him with wide innocent eyes as you sunk to your knees. “I want to make you feel good.”

“Oh shit,” Eddie whispered, cock twitching as he watched you get on your knees for him. The way you looked up at him from down there was…fuck, he’d never seen anything like it. No porno in the world could ever compare.

His hand slid through your hair as you opened your mouth for him, he tapped his cock on your tongue, rubbing the underside of it there, a low groan spilling unwillingly from his lips.

“We have to be quiet,” he said, “Wayne is right out there.”

“I think you should be telling yourself that, big boy,” you teased. You wrapped your lips around his tip and sucked, and he lurched forward, free hand landing on the shower wall behind you.

He let out a low “Ahhhh”, a mix between a hiss and a moan as you took him further into your mouth. “That’s my girl.”

You moaned around him, deep throating his impressive length properly as he watched you in amazement, his eyes half lidded, lips parted. His hand caressed the side of your head as you pleasured him, like he was so appreciative but didn’t know the words to say, if there were any. Maybe the best thanks he could give you is just to enjoy it now - and bury himself between your thighs until he can’t breathe later. Maybe you’d sit on his face. He fucking loved that.

“Baby, baby,” he moaned in a near whisper, delicious groans spilling from his lips after. “You’re so fuckin’ good at this.”

You hummed around him, making his hips jerk into your mouth. You always knew exactly how to get him going, exactly what made him weak in the knees, what made him fall apart. And oh, was he falling apart above you.

His breathing turned to pants, his slender tattooed chest rising and falling rapidly. His hand tightened in your hair, thighs beginning to shake.

“Gonna cum,” he warned you in a whisper. “Fuck, I’m- don’t stop, I’m so close-“

You didn’t stop. You worked even harder, working for what he was about to give you, showing him how bad you wanted it - needed it. You bobbed your head on his cock quickly, tongue working the underside, and his expression looked pained.

“Fuck,” he panted. “Baby, baby, I-“

He threw his head back with a cry as it hit him, his dick pulsing as he shot his cum into your waiting mouth. He quickly looked back down, watching you take it, watching you swallow every drop of what he was giving you as he moaned, seemingly forgetting all about being quiet.

When you pulled off of him, he was leaning against the shower wall. He looked like a total vision like this, lean naked body against the wall, wet hair hanging down his shoulders, breathing heavily and dripping wet. You had the intense urge to lick every inch of his body.

“Fuckin’ incredible,” he finally said, pulling you to him again and kissing you. He didn’t care that there was still the slightest bit of him still on your tongue. He licked into your mouth anyway, tasting all of you, the mixture of the two of you. “I want to devour you, baby, please.”

“We don’t have time,” you said regrettably. “But later.” A wink.

Eddie smirked at you as you both continued with your shower, washing your hair and washing each other’s bodies. Eddie was hard again by the time the shower was over, but there was no time for more.

You stepped out with a towel around your body and one around your hair. Eddie grabbed one and wrapped it around his waist. God, he looked so hot like this.

“Let me help you,” you said. You grabbed the curl cream you had bought him and put some in your hands, rubbing the product through Eddie’s hair. The poor guy had no idea how to take care of his curls before you met him. His hair was always so frizzy, and one day you were just like - “You know it doesn’t have to be that way, right?”

Eddie closed his eyes and hummed as you did his hair. He had to admit, he absolutely loved when you did this. It was so relaxing. He had never had someone take care of his hair for him. He barely did it himself before you.

When he was taken care of, you did your own hair while Eddie brushed his teeth then shaved. You brushed your own teeth then applied your makeup while he splashed his familiar aftershave on his cheeks.

He pulled on his boxers and you snuck back to his room in your towel. You knew there was nothing to worry about, Wayne slept after work until the afternoon. You searched through your overnight bag, finding the skirt and top you planned to wear today.

Eddie couldn’t handle how put together you looked. His beautiful girl. He couldn’t believe you were his.

He pulled his jeans on with a Hellfire shirt and his denim jacket. “You know you can leave some clothes and stuff over here?”

“I already do,” you giggled, thinking of the multiple bras and underwear sets stuffed in his dresser, the curling iron you kept here, the shower stuff and self care.

“Yeah but…” He shrugged. “You could keep more. Keep a whole wardrobe here, I don’t care. You sleep here more than at your own house anyway.”

“Edward Munson,” you said, lightly slapping his chest with a smile. “Are you trying to get me to move in?”

“Would that be such a bad thing?” he asked, sliding his arms around your waist.

“Baby,” you said, a slight giggle. “We’re still in high school.”

“Yeah, but we’re both adults, technically. I’m almost 20, you’re 18…”

“You still live with your uncle, and I don’t think there’s a world where my parents would allow it, Eddie.”

The mention of your parents soured the mood. Your parents sucked. They were mean, self centered snobs, and they hated Eddie. They never even seemed that crazy about you.

“Fuck your parents,” Eddie said, a sentiment he held often. “You’re a big girl.”

You shook your head, a smile playing at your lips. “Maybe after high school? I don’t want to intrude on Wayne either.”

“Wayne loves you.”

“He already has one freeloader,” you teased.

“Hey!” he said, mock offended. “I’ll have you know my dealing business brings in lots of money.”

The drug dealing was a sore subject. You hated that he did it, but he wasn’t willing to give it up. He made a lot of money from it, enough to help out Wayne and take you on dates and get things he wanted and needed. In his mind, it was a great gig. In your own, you saw visions of Eddie in handcuffs, Hopper carting him off to jail. You said nothing about it.

“We need to get going,” you said instead. “I don’t want to be late.”

Eddie looked at you for a moment. Finally he nodded, snatching his keys off the table. “Alright. Let’s go.”

You walked out to his van with your backpack slung over your shoulder. He opened the door for you like he always did, and you climbed in. The old van took a couple tries to start, but ultimately did.

“Need to get her checked out,” Eddie mumbled. “Could probably do it myself.”

Eddie was great with cars. And he loved them. He was the sole reason this van was still running at all, the amount of work he’d put into it was insane.

It didn’t take long to pull into the parking lot of Hawkins High. It was packed as always. You saw your best friend Robin by Steve Harrington’s car - Steve, who didn’t even go here anymore - and you smiled and waved back at her.

“Go see Robs,” Eddie encouraged as he killed the engine. “I’ve got to catch up with the guys about our campaign tonight.”

Fuck. The campaign.

“Should I get a ride home with Robin and Steve?”

“Maybe?” Eddie said sheepishly. “Or I can run you home before we start.”

“It’s fine,” you said, “I’ll catch a ride with them. You guys have fun. It’s the big one, right?”

“Yep,” Eddie said with pride. “The end of the campaign. These fuckers have no idea what I have in store for them.”

You laughed. “I’m sure it’s a sadistic as ever.”

“Oh, fuck yeah.”

You unbuckled your seatbelt, opening your door. “I’ll see you at lunch?”

“Of course, beautiful.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to your lips, a reminder of all you’d done together since last night and all the things you would do together next time you were alone.

You hopped out and met up with Robin as Eddie sauntered into the building. “Hey, Robs!”

“Hey!” She pulled you into a hug. “Are you ready for Mrs. O’Donnell’s test?”

You groaned. “No. I completely forgot.”

Her eyes widened. “Did you study?”

You blushed. “I was a little busy last night.”

“Busy?” She gave you a look. “Girl.”

“I know! I know.”

“There are more important things in life than fucking your boyfriend!” 

“Well, now that’s debatable.”

Robin groaned, grabbing your arm and pulling you into the school. “You’re hopeless, you know that?” She turned back over her shoulder. “Bye, Steve!”

“Oh, can I get a ride home with you and Steve after school?” you asked. “Eddie has the end of his campaign, it’s going to take forever.”

“Yeah, of course. Steve won’t care. He’s like everybody’s chauffeur.”

—

You were home by yourself that night, snacking on popcorn in your pajamas - classic big t-shirt and short shorts combo. When the phone started to ring, you groaned.

“Hello?” you answered, resting the phone between your ear and shoulder.

“Baby,” the answer came from the other end, and you smiled, all irritation gone.

“Hey,” you said. “How was the campaign?”

“It was great!” he said enthusiastically. “The guys actually beat it. I can’t believe it. It was awesome.”

“I’m glad you had fun.” You popped another piece of popcorn into your mouth. “What’s up?”

Eddie’s voice dropped an octave. “Wayne left for work and I was just thinking about you…”

You smirked. “Yeah? Thinking about what?”

“Baby…” he said again, and you could practically picture him on his back in bed with the phone, shirtless, rubbing his hard bulge through his jeans. You could hear music playing over his speakers in the background. “Come over. Please.”

You felt a throbbing between your legs as you listened to his low, sultry voice, dripping with desire, all for you. Your hot boyfriend, desperate for you. Wanting nothing more than to be inside of you.

“I’ll be there in 15,” you said. You heard a low chuckle from the other end before you hung up, hurrying upstairs to slip some jeans on and grab your bag. You locked up downstairs, made it look like you were asleep in your room and locked it from inside, and slipped out the window.

The night air brushed your hair back as you rode your bike to Forest Hills. You lived in a pretty nice neighborhood, your parents never approved of you spending so much time in a trailer park. It didn’t matter that you were much happier at Eddie’s than at home.

You rode the downhill momentum to Eddie’s trailer, parking it next to the front door. Eddie opened the door for you before you even reached it, a wide grin on his face. He was shirtless, low jeans exposing the V leading down below that you wanted to see more of.

“Hey, baby,” he greeted, stepping back and holding the door wide for you to walk in.

“Hi,” you said. Eddie closed the door behind you. “Wanna go to your room?”

“Not wasting any time, huh, princess?” Eddie asked, sliding up behind you and wrapping his arms around your waist. He kissed slowly up your neck, nipping every now and then. You melted back against him, eyes dropping closed as you moaned.

“Did you get condoms?” you asked.

“I did.” He slid the box from his back pocket, holding it up for you between his pointer and middle finger.

“Large instead of extra large?” you teased, looking at the writing on the package.

Eddie shrugged. “They didn’t have any bigger. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Eddie knew he was big, but he didn’t let it go to his head. Well, most of the time. He led you down the hall to his bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him. He was kissing you like you were the air he needed to breathe, the only thing keeping him grounded to this reality. His hands roamed your body, sending tingles through your skin. Every now and then you’d break from one another, gasping for air for only a moment before your lips found each other again.

You fell back onto his bed as he tossed the condoms onto his bedside table and he kissed up your body from your ankles back to your lips, tongue exploring your mouth with an eagerness. He undid your jeans and pulled them down your legs, savoring every inch of skin he uncovered, even though he’d just fucked you multiple times last night. Enough didn’t exist for him when it came to you.

His hands slid up your top next, kissing your stomach and your tits as he uncovered them. No bra beneath, which had him groaning. His lips wrapped around one of your nipples, tongue swirling around it as he sucked, moaning against your skin.

“Eddie,” you moaned, back arching slightly off the bed. “Fuck.”

He switched to your other nipple, never one to neglect any part of your perfect body. Eddie’s hand slipped beneath your panties, fingers tracing through your soaking folds.

“So wet for me,” he commented, his voice low as he bit down gently on your skin, earning a gasp. “Love how wet you get for me. Desperate, pretty little thing.”

You could have said something about how he was just as desperate for you with how painfully rock hard he was and that you could feel it even through his jeans, but you couldn’t form words with the way he was slipping a finger inside of you, his thumb playing with your clit, rubbing circles. He slipped in a second finger, pumping them in and out while he pressed down harder on your clit.

“Eddie, Eddie,” you moaned, mind deliriously hazy, grinding your pussy down against him.

He kissed down your body, slipping your panties off and then replacing his thumb with his mouth, his tongue flicking your clit before he pushed his two fingers back in, curling them deep, pressing right against that spot he somehow always knew how to find immediately.

“Eddie!” you cried out, grabbing onto one of his pillows and burying your face in it. Eddie chuckled against you, but didn’t relent. He was determined to have you fall completely apart for him, determined to have you cumming all over his tongue and fingers.

You felt like you were floating above the clouds, Eddie’s sinful tongue taking you straight to heaven. He wrapped his free hand around your thigh, burying himself as deep into your cunt as he possibly could. He was starving for you, and he was completely content if this was how he died.

Your body was filled with liquid heat, the coil tightening in your belly. You pulled on his long hair, earning a groan from Eddie, his fingers pumping faster, lips sucking harder on your sensitive clit.

“Gonna cum, Ed,” you moaned, body writhing on the bed, the pleasure almost too much for you. Your words only made Eddie go harder, rutting his hips against the bed for some friction on his throbbing dick.

“Eddie, Eddie, Eddie!” 

You fell apart calling his name over and over again. Half the trailer park had to know what the two of you got up to on a near nightly basis, but at least Wayne wasn’t home. Eddie worked you through your orgasm, moaning as he lapped up everything you gave him, cock twitching at the feeling of you tightening, pulsing around his fingers.

Eddie pulled his fingers out of you, placing one last kiss against your pussy as he moved back to look over your naked body, chest heaving, tits and pussy on full display, skin glistening with a light sheen of sweat. 

“You look beautiful like this,” Eddie said, his own lips and chin wet with the remains of your climax as he smirked down at you. “I can’t wait to get inside you.”

You whimpered at his words as Eddie undid his belt, his eyes locked on yours. He unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, pushing them and his boxers down until his cock sprung free. He shed them from his body, leaving both of you naked.

He kissed all over your body again, sending tingles through your skin. Eddie always liked to take his time with you, liked to savor it. You fucked all the time, but it was never any less sacred to him. You reached between you and grabbed his cock, making him groan. You could feel it throbbing in your hand. He was so needy tonight.

“You ready for me baby?” he asked, reaching for the unopened box of condoms on his table. He ripped open the box, pulling out a foil packet that was smaller than usual.

“Yes,” you whined. “Need you in me.”

Eddie ripped the packet open with his teeth, examining the rubber. He shrugged, starting to roll it onto his cock. He hissed. “Tight fit.”

“You sure it’s gonna be okay…?” you asked, watching Eddie struggle to get the condom over his impressive length.

“Yeah, it’s…I got it,” he grunted, finally getting it all the way on. It technically fit, just not well. “I am not missing out on fucking you tonight.”

“I guess if it works…” You bit the side of your lip, eyeing him.

“Oh, I’m gonna make it work.” He kissed at your neck again, reaching between your bodies to line his tip up at your entrance. He trailed it through your folds, getting himself nice and wet. He pressed against your hole again. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” you breathed, and then drew in a sharp gasp as Eddie pushed his cock inside.

“Oh, baby,” he groaned. “Fuck, you never get any less tight. Shit, babe.”

And he never got any less huge. As many times as you’d had sex at this point, it never got any less intense. It had actually hurt the first time - at least that went away. You hadn’t been a virgin, but damn.

He set a pace rolling his hips into you deep, fucking you slowly and sensually. Making love to you. He couldn’t stop kissing you everywhere, couldn’t control the way you made him feel like he was going to explode with how much he loved you and how good you made him feel.

“My beautiful girl,” he cooed, big hands holding your thighs up against your chest. He had the perfect view of your pussy taking his cock, he could watch every inch of himself sinking into you. He wished he had a camera - he’d love to have this view to look at whenever he wanted.

“Feels so good, Eds,” you moaned, rolling your hips up as much as you could to meet his thrusts at his pace. Your bodies were working together in perfect synchronicity, a beautiful harmony of bodies and passion and love.

“Can I go faster?” he asked, out of breath from his efforts of keeping himself under control. “Can I fuck you?”

“Please,” you cried. “Please.”

Eddie began snapping his hips into you faster, harder. The sounds of your moans and skin meeting filled the small room, drowning out the soft music over the stereo. His headboard banged into the wall with every thrust, chipping the paint.

“Fuckin’ Christ,” he groaned, his head thrown back and eyes closed. You were addicted to watching the way his muscles in his neck and chest flexed, clenched. Like he was holding back.

But god, the feeling of his cock pounding into you mercilessly like this? It was unreal.

He pulled out of you abruptly, but before you could complain about it he was flipping you onto your stomach. He spread your legs slightly and mounted you from behind, slipping back in with ease.

You gasped again at the intrusion, but this angle somehow felt even better. You looked over at the mirror on his dresser, watching as he pounded you from behind, looking down at you like he wanted to devour you whole. You could see his whole body, the way his thighs clenched with every thrust into you, the slightest jiggle of his ass, the way his hands were gripping your ass so tightly it would leave marks.

“Oh, god,” you whined so quiet you didn’t even think he could hear you. 

“Doing so good, baby. That’s it,” he grunted. “Just take it, take me, let me fuck you like you deserve to be fucked.”

You were falling apart. You felt like you were frantically clinging to the edge of a cliff, the precipice of your undoing. “Eddie, I’m gonna cum again.”

He groaned, fucking you faster. “Yeah, that’s it princess. Let yourself go for me. Wanna feel you cum on this cock.”

You grabbed onto the pillow, biting down onto it as you started to see stars, your eyes rolling back as you came for the second time.

“Ah! Ah!” Eddie was gasping and groaning from behind you, the way your pussy was clenching around him was driving him crazy. “Fuck, ‘m close.”

“Please cum for me,” you begged him. “Please. I need it, need to have it.”

Eddie groaned loudly. “Fuck! Yeah, baby, go on and take it. Take the way I’m fucking you. Take this fucking load. Shit!”

He stilled deep inside you, as deep as he could go. He moaned and moaned into your neck, cock pulsing as he came. “Ah! Fuck, fuckfuckfuck-“

You were both gasping for breath, both completely spent. Eddie didn’t want to move from on top of you - he could have fallen asleep right there. You were in such a dreamy post-sex trance, you might have just let him. Let him sleep with his cock in you.

But he had to move. He pulled out of you, rubbing your back as he did. Then, you felt him freeze behind you.

“Oh shit,” he said, clear panic rising in his voice that only set your own anxiety off. “Uh-“ He was nearly

hyperventilating. “Shit shit shit. Shit! Fuck!”

“What??” you asked, turning and sitting up in the bed, equally panicked just from his reaction.

Eddie held up the condom - the ripped, empty condom.

Your blood went ice cold. “Ed-“

“Fuck, what the fuck are we gonna do?” Eddie asked, in pure panic mode. “What if I got you-“

“That hasn’t happened yet,” you said quickly. “Some people have sex for years without getting pregnant, you know? Just because you…finished inside, doesn’t mean I’m necessarily pregnant.”

Eddie wanted to listen to your voice of reason, but it wasn’t helping. He knew the risks of what had happened. He knew how bad his odds were. You were young, healthy. Teenagers. Still in high school. And with his luck…

“Fuck,” he said, sitting on the edge of his bed. He angrily threw the broken condom into the trash can before covering his face with his hands.

“Baby…” you said, your voice small. “Are you mad?”

“Not at you,” he said, turning and taking your hands. “God, never at you. I’m mad I was such an idiot. I never should have used those condoms. I’m a fucking dumbass.”

You looked at him, sympathetic for how hard he was being on himself. “You didn’t know. It’s okay.” You squeezed his hands. “We’re in this together no matter what, right?”

Eddie was quiet for a minute. “What if I just ruined your life? All because I couldn’t hold off for a day.”

You furrowed your eyebrows at him. “What do you mean?”

“If you’re…if I got you…” He looked like he couldn’t even say the word. He turned forward, resting his arms on his legs. “It’s going to ruin your life. You’re so smart, baby, you have so much you can do. My life…well, I’m on my third senior year attempt, so I don’t see college in my future. I’m a drug dealer. I still live with my uncle. I’m going to drag you down.”

“Eddie, that is not true,” you said sternly. “Don’t ever talk bad about yourself like that. You are not dragging me down.”

“Everything I said is a fact,” he said sadly. “You’re…you’re better than me, princess. I would hate myself if I tied you down with a baby right now.”

“Eddie.” You turned his head to look at you. “I don’t feel any of those things. I think you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And if we…well, we’ll face it together if it happens, yeah?”

Eddie considered your words. Finally he nodded slowly. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Eddie, I love you. More than anything.” You kissed his cheek.

“I love you too, baby girl,” he said, moving to kiss you again. His lips lingered against yours, the kiss lasting longer than intended. He pulled back and rested his forehead against yours.

“You’re too good for me, you know that?” he said.

You shook your head. You heard that enough from your parents, you didn’t need him saying it too. “Not true.”

He smiled softly at you, like he didn’t quite believe you. But he didn’t push the matter, taking your hand and kissing each knuckle. “I love you.”

“And we’re in this together,” you said. “We’re in this life together. No matter what.”

A small smile. “No matter what.”

—

Three weeks later, you missed your period.

Every day you checked, looking to see if it had finally come, just late enough to give you the scare of your life and teach you a real lesson. How could we have been so stupid? you’d think, frustrated with yourselves for making an obvious mistake just to fuck each other. We couldn’t stay off each other for one night?

Eddie seemed to have completely forgotten. He didn’t mention it again, didn’t ask about your period (it’s not like he kept track of your cycle anyway), wasn’t stressed at all. You didn’t mention your worry because you didn’t want to bring him into your anxiety spiral with you. 

When your period was a week late, you came clean to Robin outside after school.

“What???” she exclaimed, way louder than you would have liked. You shushed her, putting your hand over her mouth. A few classmates in the parking lot turned to look at you, but quickly lost interest. You removed your hand once she got the idea. “You think you might be pregnant?” she whispered.

“I…yeah, I think so,” you said. You couldn’t meet her eyes.

“How could you- oh my god.” She looked like she was freaking out more than you even were. “How did this happen?”

“A condom that was too small?” you explained sheepishly. “It broke.”

She just looked at you, blinking. “Of all the risks to take-“

“I know,” you said.

“Does Eddie know?” she asked, lowering her voice even further.

“That the condom broke?”

“That you’re late,” she said, giving you a look like now isn’t the time for jokes.

You looked down. “No. I think he forgot all about it.”

“He forgot-“ Robin looked like she was about to explode with the lecture brewing in her brain. “We have to get a test. Find out for sure before you scare the shit out of him.”

A test. Your stomach hurt at the thought.

“Will you go with me?”

“Of course,” she said, holding your hand. “We can get Steve to take us to the pharmacy on the way home. Or to my place.”

“Steve?” you said, looking at her like she was crazy. “You want Steve Harrington to take us to get a pregnancy test?”

“He won’t tell anyone,” she said quickly. “He’s trustworthy. I promise.”

Eddie came walking out of the school then, laughing with Jeff and Grant. He saw you and flashed you a big smile, immediately heading in your direction. You and Robin both looked at him with awkward, halfhearted smiles in return.

“Hey, baby,” he said, throwing an arm around your shoulders. “Ready to go?”

“Um, actually,” you said, “Robin asked if I wanted to go study at her house.”

“Oh,” Eddie said, surprised. Usually you wouldn’t change plans at the last minute. He looked at you with his brows furrowed, but didn’t question you further. “Okay, that’s cool. I’ll call you tonight?”

“Okay.” You forced yourself to give the most convincing smile you could. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to your lips before he twirled his keys around his finger once and nodded at Robin. “See you later, ladies.”

You watched him get in his van and leave before you and Robin met Steve at his car.

“About time,” he said to Robin. “I’ve been waiting here forever.”

“We have an emergency,” Robin said immediately once everyone was in the car, you in the back seat.

Steve froze. “What kind of emergency?”

“A pregnancy emergency.”

Steve looked at Robin like she had grown a second head. “Robin, you’re a lesbian.”

“Not me, dingus!” Robin said, slapping him lightly on the arm. “Her!”

“Oh,” he said. He turned around and looked at you, then his eyes went wide. “With Eddie?”

You blushed, unsure what to say, but Robin smacked him on the arm again. “Don’t be rude!”

“Ow,” he mumbled. He started the car and pulled out of the Hawkins High parking lot. “So, you want me to…?”

“Take us to the pharmacy to get a test,” Robin said.

Steve nodded. It was obvious he felt extremely awkward. “Okay. Got it.”

He drove the three of you to the pharmacy, where he waited in the car while you and Robin went inside. You felt embarrassed, like every person in the store could look at you and tell what you were there for.

“I think they’re back here,” Robin mumbled, looking through the aisles. Sure enough, you found the pregnancy tests in the back with the condoms and tampons.

“Um…I guess just this one?” she said, picking up a box that said Clearblue. “Results in 30 minutes.”

30 minutes to find out if your life would be changed forever, you thought. You followed Robin to the checkout counter, where an older lady was working. You and Robin gave your best we are absolutely not dealing with the epidemic of teen pregnancy right now looks - trying to be as nonchalant as possible. The lady looked at you strangely, but said nothing at all.

Back in the car with Steve, you felt like you could breathe again.

“Got the goods?” he asked, starting the car.

“Yes,” Robin announced proudly. “It was relatively painless.”

“For you,” you mumbled.

Steve drove back to Robin’s with nothing but the sound of the radio playing. The atmosphere was heavy, or maybe you were just imagining that with how scared you were, how much you were dreading what was to come.

When Steve pulled up outside of Robin’s house, he looked at the two of you awkwardly. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“See you in the morning,” Robin said. She climbed out and you followed suit, walking up to the house with the pharmacy bag clutched in Robin’s fist. Steve called out “Good luck!” through the window.

Her parents weren’t home, which you were grateful for. You didn’t want to have to explain anything, like what you’d bought, or, later, why you were having a mental breakdown.

Robin took the test out of the bag, you looking at the box over her shoulder. She opened it and pulled out a piece of paper. The two of you read the instructions in silence.

“So, it looks like you just, uh, collect the sample, then put it in these little pots, and if it’s blue, you’re pregnant.”

You nodded. “Seems simple enough.”

“I think we got it.” Robin handed the box to you. “Good luck, girl.”

“Thanks.” You gave her a look before you took the stuff out of the box. You went in the bathroom, and took the test.

Once it was in progress, you and Robin sat on her bed. “30 minutes,” you reminded her.

Silence.

“Are you nervous?” Robin asked. “No, sorry, that was a stupid question. Are you scared out of your mind?”

“Yes,” you answered easily. “Fucking terrified.”

Robin took a deep breath, as if she was the one who’s life was on the line. “It’s gonna be okay. I promise. Either way, you’re a smart girl. You’re gonna figure this out.”

You weren’t so sure. If you were so smart, why were you sitting here in this situation right now? You’d think you would have known better than to use that fucking condom. “Eddie is going to lose it.”

“If it’s positive,” Robin said. “This could be nothing. Just a lesson learned.”

That’s what you hoped, but you weren’t sure you’d be so lucky. After an excruciating wait, the timer went off on Robin’s watch. She turned it off, then looked at you. “The moment of truth.”

You took a deep breath. You were pretty sure you were about to throw up all over Robin’s beige carpet. You walked into the bathroom, acting like you were in a haunted house and someone was about to jump from around the corner and scare the shit out of you.

You reached the sink. You looked at yourself in the mirror before you allowed yourself to look down. You looked scared. You just knew Eddie knew something was up, if you looked like this you weren’t hiding shit. You thought this might be the last time you saw yourself this way, as just a teenage girl with a normal life.

You looked down.

Blue.

Your heart stopped in your chest. Hot tears sprung to your eyes, and you didn’t know what to do - that was the first thought in your head. I don’t know what to do.

“Are you okay?” Robin asked from outside the room. “Do you want me to come in there?”

You stepped out, hands shaking where you were playing with your ring. Robin looked at you with worry written all over her features. “What’s the verdict?”

“You’re going to be an auntie,” you said. As soon as the words were out of your mouth, the walls caved in. You couldn’t breathe. You felt like the walls were pressing in all around you, trapping you, stealing your oxygen.

“Oh, jeez,” Robin said, rushing over to you. “Hey, it’s okay. Just breathe. Just breathe with me.” She started taking long, slow breaths, trying to guide you, but you weren’t hearing any of it. You couldn’t hear her over the sound of your own heartbeat in your ears, your heart racing, knees going weak as you collapsed onto the floor.

“Shit!” Robin dropped to her knees next to you, pushing your hair out of your face, lightly tapping your cheek. “Hey, look. Listen. I need you to breathe with me, okay? I need you to breathe. Jesus, you’re seriously having a panic attack.”

All you could think of was Eddie, of the future. Would Eddie leave you? He said you were in this together if the worst happened, but what if he hadn’t meant that? What if he only meant it when it wasn’t really happening? People never really know what they’re going to do in a situation until it happens to them. He was young. He wanted to be a rockstar.

You were sobbing, the kind of ugly sobs where you were gasping for air, desperate to draw something into your lungs but finding nothing. You didn’t think you’d ever cried so hard in your life. Not even when Jason Carver broke your heart in 7th grade.

Robin muttered your name. “You’re scaring me. Please calm down, babe, it’s…you’re going to be okay.”

You did your best to breathe along with her, and eventually you were drawing in shaking breaths, laying on her chest and soaking her shirt with your tears. She just stroked your hair, patiently letting you calm down. When the numbness kicked in, the tears stopped and you merely sniffled, wiping at your eyes.

“Do you want me to call Eddie to come take you home?” she asked softly.

You nodded. “Can you?” you croaked, your voice hoarse.

“Of course. Do you know his number by heart?”

You nodded. You dialed the number for her and she held the phone to her ear. It rang a couple times, and you wondered if he might not answer and what you’d do then. But finally you heard the timbre of his voice through the phone.

“Hey, Eddie,” Robin said. “Can- yes, she’s here. She’s- she’s fine. Yes she’s fine. Just feeling a little sick. Can you come bring her home? Yeah. Okay. Bye.” Robin hung up the phone and turned to you with a reassuring smile. “He’s on his way.”

Eddie, who drove like a maniac on a normal day, arrived at Robin’s minutes later. You went downstairs, and Robin stopped you right before you got to the front door.

“You’re going to be okay,” she said, pulling you into a hug.

“Should I…am I supposed to tell him now?” you asked, your voice weak.

“Maybe you should,” she said. “Just get it over with. Rip the bandaid off.”

You nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

“You got this,” she said. “I promise.”

You left the house, walking down to the street where Eddie’s van was idling. You could hear his music playing from outside. You opened the passenger door and climbed in.

“Jesus,” Eddie said when he saw you, eyes still swollen and red, looking like hell. He quickly turned the music down. “Shit, baby, what happened?”

You let out another big breath. How were you supposed to do this? Just say it? Rock his world like that with just two words? Two little words to change his life forever. And he didn’t even know it. He had no idea what was coming to him.

“You can start driving,” you told him instead of explaining anything at all.

He looked at you with worry. His eyebrows were furrowed, eyes soft. “Baby. What’s going on?”

You fought the tears back. You were not going to cry again. One slipped out and you wiped it away.

“Are you crying?” he asked. “Babe, you’re scaring me. Please tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’ll talk while you drive,” you said.

He just looked at you. “Okay. Mine or yours?”

“I have to go home. My mom is cooking lasagna.” You dreaded seeing your parents, especially tonight. You weren’t telling them now, that was for sure. They were going to lose their minds.

“Okay.” He pulled away from the curb, beginning the short drive to your house. “Now talk.”

You twisted your ring around your finger - your main nervous habit. Eddie clocked it immediately.

“Is it bad?”

Was it? Yes. And no. It was both, you supposed. You didn’t really know how to answer that question right now.

“I took a test.”

Eddie looked over at you, confused. “A test? What kind of test? Not your SAT? That wasn’t supposed to be until next month.”

Something about the fact that he remembered when your SAT test was taking place warmed your heart. Sure you had talked about it, how nervous you were and how much work you were putting into studying for it, but you never thought he’d remember the actual date. Those worries felt miles away now, trivial.

“No.”

“Then what kind of test?” he asked. “Did you get a bad grade? Because baby, it’s really not the end of the world, you’re so smart-“

“Do you remember the broken condom?”

Silence. Complete, heavy silence, like a blanket over you both.

“Yes,” he finally said.

Deep breath. “Eddie-“

“Are you pregnant?” You could see his knuckles turning white around the steering wheel. His arms were shaking slightly.

“Me and Robin got a test. We took it and…it was positive.”

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie muttered. “You’re sure?”

“I think so.”

Eddie had reached your house. He killed the engine in the driveway behind your parents’ cars. The reminder of your parents sent the nausea rolling through your stomach again. He didn’t look at you. He chewed on his thumb nail as he looked out the window.

Minutes went by without a word spoken. It scared you. What was he thinking? Was he going to leave you?

“Can you say something?” you asked when you couldn’t take it anymore. “Please.”

He looked at you. His eyes were swimming with a million thoughts. You wanted to reach inside his mind and see what was happening.

“So…you’re pregnant,” he said, a mixture between a statement and a question.

“Yes. At least, that’s what the test said.”

“Is there a possibility that you’re not?” he asked, the hope in his voice making your chest ache.

“The test said it was 99% accurate.”

His eyes closed. He blew out a big breath, then rubbed his hands over his face. He looked like he was trying to erase the nightmare. You didn’t really blame him, but there was no running.

He didn’t say anything for a while. He was looking down, like he was completely lost in his thoughts. “So you’re pregnant,” he said again.

Your turn to pause. “Yes. I guess so.”

“I thought…” He cleared his throat. “I thought we were in the clear. You didn’t say anything for weeks-“

“My period was late, but I didn’t want to scare you,” you mumbled.

“You should have told me,” he said. He still wasn’t looking at you, and that was starting to scare you.

“I’m sorry,” you said. “I was just…I was scared. I didn’t want you to be scared, too.”

It was silent. The seconds ticked on like hours as you waited for him to respond, to say anything. Every second that passed increased your anxiety, increased the fear that you’d end up doing this alone. Eddie was going to leave you.

Eddie was spiraling. How could this happen? Well, he knew the answer to that. But what shitty luck, right? What did this mean? It meant everything. It meant his earth was turning on its axis, time was changing, he would be changing. What does our future look like? Eddie didn’t have any fucking money. He had a little from his dealing, but - fuck, he couldn’t be a drug dealer and a dad. But he’d have to do something. He’d have to start bringing in money immediately. Paying for your appointments, for the baby supplies. Then paying to survive, bills and food and a whole human baby who would need diapers and wipes and all kinds of stuff. What will this do to our relationship? What if you broke up? What if he became a single dad, seeing his kid every other weekend, paying child support, forever having to watch you with another man? And most of all - what if he wasn’t cut out to be a dad? He didn’t exactly have the best example growing up.

“Eddie, when it happened, we said we’d do it together, right?” you reminded him. “Don’t do this. Don’t get upset and push me away. Not now.”

Eddie didn’t say anything. He still wouldn’t look at you. “I think I just…need to process this.”

“What do you mean?” you asked, worried. Your stomach felt like it was in knots, your chest tight again. You didn’t know what you’d do if Eddie left you. Your parents would probably be kicking you out, and you’d be homeless. Homeless and a single mom.

“I just need to think about things, okay?” he said. “I…need to be alone. To think.”

You looked at him. You willed him to turn and look at you, to tell you everything was going to be okay, that he still loved you and was going to be here for you. But he didn’t do or say any of those things. Your heart sunk to your toes.

“Okay, Eddie,” you finally said. You waited to see if he’d say anything else, but he didn’t. No goodbye, no I love you as you got out of the van and walked to your front door. You heard him driving away as you opened the door and walked inside.

The smell of the lasagna was overpowering as you walked in, and with your sensitive pregnancy sense of smell, you almost threw up on your mom’s fancy carpet.

“It’s about time you got home,” your mom said as you walked into the kitchen. She was setting the table, your dad already seated. “We were just about to eat without you.”

“Sorry,” you mumbled, dropping your bag by the wall and taking your usual seat. 

“Don’t do that,” your dad snapped.

“Do what?” You were genuinely confused, but you really weren’t in the mood to deal with your parents any more than you had to tonight.

“Mumble,” he said. “It’s rude.”

“Sorry,” you said again, clearer this time.

“You weren’t with that loser boyfriend of yours, were you?” your dad asked with a snort. Your mom smiled lightly to herself - you knew she agreed.

“Eddie is not a loser,” you said, knowing it was a mistake.

“Don’t get an attitude with me,” he said. “The boy is a mess. He’s dumb as rocks, repeating his senior year for the third time. He’s always in trouble with the police. I think the boy does drugs. He’s dragging you down, and you refuse to see that.”

You were seething, thinking about stabbing your fork right in his stupid smug face. “That’s not true.”

“Honey, it is,” your mom said. “You could do so much better. I really think you should-“

“Mom, I’m not breaking up with Eddie,” you said, looking down as you poked at your food. Although, you thought to yourself, he might just do it for me anyway.

“You don’t talk to your mother like that,” your dad said, beginning to raise his voice. You could feel a headache coming on. Actually - you could feel more than that. Nausea rose in your stomach quickly and you jumped up from the table, nearly knocking your chair over in the process, and ran to the downstairs bathroom. You fell to your knees and emptied your stomach, trying to hold your hair back and not make a mess.

When you were finally done, you cleaned up and walked back to the kitchen. “I don’t feel good,” you said. “I’m going to go lay down. Thank you for dinner.”

You turned and left, hearing your dad yell from behind you.

“You better not be pregnant!”

—

After he dropped you off, Eddie drove around for a while. He wasn’t going anywhere specific, didn’t have anywhere he wanted to be. He just needed to think.

He thought about every scenario, every possibility. The good, which made his chest feel warm, made him want to turn the car around and apologize and tell you he can’t wait to do this with you - and the bad, which stopped him. He ended up back at his trailer, Wayne already gone for the night.

He didn’t know what to do. This was life shattering. He didn’t want to ruin your life any more than he wanted to ruin his own. He knew it was a long shot, but he wanted to be successful with his music one day. He was going to be letting the whole band down.

Eddie picked up the phone. He just held it for a while, debating. Wondering if he really wanted to do this. He dialed the number he had memorized.

The recording asked him for the inmate number - he had that memorized, too. He punched it in, waiting. After a number of rings, the phone was picked up.

“Hello?” the gruff voice came from the other end of the line.

“Dad,” Eddie said, his voice broken.

“Well, I’ll be,” Al Munson said, a laugh in his voice. “If it isn’t my boy. What brings you to call your dear old dad tonight?” 

Eddie sighed. “I just…something’s happened. I didn’t know who to go to.”

“Oh yeah?” Al sounded amused, like this was entertaining to him. “And what’s that?”

Eddie let out another deep breath. “I got my girlfriend pregnant.”

It was silent for a minute. Then, Al laughed. “Well damn, boy.”

Eddie felt sick to his stomach. This wasn’t going how he hoped. He didn’t know what he had been hoping for, but it wasn’t this. He regretted picking up the phone. “Yeah.”

“Well, isn’t that just fuckin’ great!” Al said. “I’m gonna be a granddaddy. Well, Ed, while you were stickin’ your dick in anything that moves, I’m over here working hard, day and night, for nothin’. You better be grateful for what you have, boy, and get that girl an abortion. This is going to ruin both of y’all’s lives. Put an end to it now while you can.”

That little rant was the last thing Eddie had expected to hear from his father. He felt like his head was spinning, his chest tightening. “Dad, I- I’m not gonna ask her to get an abortion.”

“Why the hell not?” Al laughed. “Believe me, son, you’re gonna regret this. You’re gonna regret throwing your life away. You got that little band, don’t you? Don’t you want to try to make it big?”

It sounded mocking when he said it, but it was true for Eddie. He did have those dreams, as childish and far fetched as they may be. And he knew you wanted to go to a good college, wanted to make something of yourself.

“She’s my priority,” Eddie said. “If she wants this baby, I’ll have this baby with her.”

“Son, you’re a fool,” Al said.

Eddie clenched his fist. He had the sudden urge to punch a wall. “I love her.”

Al laughed, hard. “Like I said. A fool.”

Eddie hung up the phone, slamming it down onto the receiver. He was seething, taking deep breaths, his hands shaking where they were still clenched tightly. The phone call with his dad had only served to make him even more upset, now angry, at his dad, at himself, at the situation.

He didn’t know why he had called his dad in the first place. His dad had never been dad of the year. He hadn’t even seen him in person for 7 years, not since he went to prison. And before then, before Wayne, he was neglectful. Eddie cringed as he remembered Wayne shaving his head the day he moved in, his curls in mats.

His dad had never been a father. The only things he ever taught him were how to hotwire a car, how to be a good liar, how to steal without getting caught, how to deal without getting caught. His dad knew all about dealing - more than weed.

He remembered his mother. The little pieces he still had of her, at least. It made his chest feel warm, thinking of how she had loved him, how caring and kind she had been. He had no idea how she ever ended up with Al Munson. She was an angel.

Eddie knew you would be just as good of a mother as his own mom had been. He knew you’d be the best mother ever. He didn’t worry for a second about how his kid would turn out when it came to you.

But what about him? He already passed on his genes, isn’t that enough damage? Maybe he should take himself out of the equation. Run. Get away from this kid before he has the chance to fuck them up. Because surely that’s what will happen - he’ll damage them beyond repair, make them into as big of a fuckup as he is.

But no. He can’t just abandon you like that. As much as he knows this kid would be better off without him, he knew you wouldn’t. He couldn’t leave you to raise a child alone. Especially not with your shitty parents - god, how would they react to this? Not well, that was for damn sure. You wouldn’t have their support and he knew it.

There was really only one thing for him to do.

—

You cried your eyes out that night. Your pillow was soaked with tears, your eyes still red and puffy from earlier, now worse. You wondered if you could get by with missing school - your parents had heard you getting sick. But what if they made you go to the doctor? Fuck.

You woke up the next morning with your face practically stuck to your pillow. You wiped the dried tears away. You went into your bathroom, looking at yourself in the mirror - you looked like hell. Your lower lip trembled, and you just knew it was going to start up again, but you were able to hold it back.

You splashed cold water on your face, helping to soothe your flushed skin. Then you turned the shower on, undressing and stepping into the hot water. It relaxed you immediately, the water beating down on your shoulders and easing the ache in your bones. You didn’t know sadness could make you so physically miserable. Or maybe it was the pregnancy. Maybe both.

When you were done with your shower, you dried yourself off, then started on your hair and makeup. You dressed like you felt, in a pair of jeans and a hoodie. Your parents had already left for work. You bounded downstairs, nausea still plaguing you.

You grabbed a granola bar from the pantry and forced yourself to eat it. You weren’t even sure how you were getting to school - was Eddie coming? Should you call Robin and Steve?

You were just considering picking up the phone when you heard a car horn honking from out front. You peered through the kitchen window, seeing Eddie’s van.

Your stomach clenched in knots. Was he here to break up with you? To tell you he wasn’t going to do this?

You grabbed your bag and walked out of the house, locking the front door behind you. You stuffed your hands in your hoodie pockets as you walked to the van. He reached across the seats and opened the door for you when you reached it.

You looked at him cautiously as you climbed in. You were trying to read his face, to prepare yourself for what was to come. He was unreadable, though. That was rare for Eddie - usually you could read him like a book.

He started the car and pulled out of your driveway. It was a few miserable, tense minutes before he finally said something.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know I scared you last night. I just needed to think.” He reached over and took your hand in his right one, driving only with his left. “I promise I’m not going anywhere. You’re not going to do this alone.”

Tears brewed in your eyes, but this time they weren’t necessarily sad ones. “I was scared.”

“I know, baby,” he said. “I’m so sorry.” A pause. “I’m scared, too.”

“Where did you go?” you asked.

“I just drove around,” he answered honestly. “Went home and, uh…called my old man.”

Your eyes went wide. “How did that go?”

Eddie scoffed. “As well as you’d imagine.”

You softened. “Eddie, I’m so sorry.”

He waved you off, like the conversation wasn’t still eating him up inside. “It just…made me realize that I never want to be like my dad. I never want to make my kid feel the way he makes me feel.”

“You would never, Eddie,” you said softly. “You’re nothing like your dad.”

He shook his head. “I’m not so sure. I feel like a chip off the ol’ block.”

“You’re nothing like your dad,” you said again, firmer this time. There wasn’t a single thing you saw in common between Eddie and Al Munson. You’d never had the displeasure of meeting him, but you had heard plenty.

Eddie gave you a sad smile before turning back to the road. “Well, it means a lot that you think so.”

“I know so.”

It was quiet for a minute. A less tense quiet than it had been minutes ago. “I just…I’m sorry for running out on you like that,” Eddie said. “We’re partners, right? Always will be. In everything. Especially this.”

His words made you feel better. You had longed for him to come back and do this, to tell you he didn’t mean to act that way and that he loved you and this baby. That wasn’t exactly how it happened, but it was close enough.

“I love you,” Eddie continued. “I would never abandon you, I fucking swear that.”

You squeezed his hand. “I love you too, Eds.”

Another minute of quiet. The gears were turning in Eddie’s head, his mind still spinning even as he drove the familiar path to school on autopilot. “But we need to talk about it.”

“About what?”

“The baby,” he said, the first time either of you were saying the words. “We need to talk about what we’re gonna do. And how we’re gonna do it.”

“Can we go to your place after school?” you asked, playing with the strings on your hoodie.

“Sure, baby.” He squeezed your hand, a silent promise that everything was going to be okay.

When Robin saw you in the parking lot, she sped over to Eddie’s van, throwing her arms around you in a hug as you stepped out. “How are you feeling? Are you okay? You look like hell.”

“Thanks,” you said sarcastically. “I’m okay.”

“You sure?”

“No.” You mustered up a smile. “But you don’t have to worry about me. Seriously.”

“Um, you had a full on panic attack on my bedroom floor yesterday after getting life shattering news. Of course I’m worried about you.”

You were grateful to have a friend that was so supportive and caring, but you couldn’t handle the attention right now. You already felt like you were drowning in worries. “I promise I’m okay, Robs.”

She looked at you skeptically, but accepted it. “Okay. If you say so. But tell me if you’re not, okay? I’m here with you. Always.”

You felt bad for pushing her away. Robin cared about you more than most people in your life. The least you could do was let her.

The school day passed uneventfully. Part of you had been worried that the news was written on your forehead and everyone would know. You just knew someone would be able to tell, then the whole school would know and you’d be even more of a pariah than you were for being The Freak’s girlfriend.

You were still relieved to climb into Eddie’s van at the end of the day. You always felt safe with him - being alone with Eddie was like coming home. He drove the two of you back to the trailer. Wayne was still home when you arrived.

“Hey, darlin’,” he greeted you when the two of you walked inside. He was dressed for work at the plant, drinking a cup of coffee with his lunchbox sitting on the counter next to him.

“Hey, Wayne,” you said with a genuine smile.

“Oh, hey, Eddie. How was your day? It was fine, thanks. How was yours?” Eddie said, pretending to be upset at being ignored.

“How was that math test?” Wayne asked him with a raised eyebrow.

Eddie paled. “We’re going to my room. See ya, Wayne!” He quickly ushered you into his bedroom while you laughed.

“How was the math test?” you spun and asked him once you were alone in his room.

“God, I don’t even want to think about it,” Eddie muttered. “I already know I failed.”

Your chest ached. “I told you I’d study with you.”

“Yeah, well…” Eddie said, “I had a lot on my mind today anyway.”

You knew the feeling. You’d barely been able to pay attention in class today. You knew this discussion was coming, and you didn’t know how it was going to go.

Eddie flopped back on his bed, and you took a seat next to him. He rubbed your back gently.

“You wanted to talk?” you reminded him, the nerves creeping up on you. What if this wasn’t a good talk?

“I just…” Eddie sighed. “How are we going to do this?”

You didn’t know. You hadn’t really had the chance to think that far ahead. “I don’t know.”

“Yeah…exactly.” Eddie ran a hand through his hair, tangled from how much he’d been messing with it today. “Are you sure you don’t want to…?”

“To what?” you asked. “Get an abortion?”

“Yeah.”

You thought. “I just don’t think I can, Eddie.”

Eddie continued rubbing your back. “I understand, baby. It’s okay. It was just an option.”

Not that there was anything wrong with getting an abortion - it just didn’t feel right for you. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m not upset.” If Eddie was being honest with himself, he wished you would get the abortion. He felt that was the best choice for you both, the easiest choice. The idea of the two of you keeping this baby scared him shitless. But he’d never make you do something you didn’t want to do with your own body.

“So…” Eddie began awkwardly. “How will we make money? To support us and the baby?”

“I don’t know,” you said quietly.

“Okay. Where will we live?”

“I don’t know.”

“Baby.” Eddie stopped rubbing your back, looking at you seriously. “We really have to figure this shit out.”

“I don’t know!” you exclaimed, throwing your arms up. “I really don’t. I don’t know what the fuck we’re going to do. I really wanted to graduate. I wanted to go to college.”

It was quiet. “Baby, I don’t think you’re gonna be able to go to college.”

Your chest ached. You could feel your future slipping from your grasp, the future you’d been building your entire life. The one you’d put so much effort into bringing to fruition in your high school years. It was falling away before your eyes.

“I…I’m gonna drop out,” Eddie said.

“What??” your head snapped in his direction. “Eddie, no.”

“Baby, I…” he scoffed, “I had my chances. If one of us has to drop out to start working so we can save up, it has to be me.”

Tears welled in your eyes. You felt like you’d done so much crying lately. “You’ve been working so hard this year. You’re so close.”

“It has to happen, princess,” he said gently, pushing your hair out of your face. “I have to take care of my family now.”

You squeezed your eyes shut, the couple of tears escaping, sliding down your cheeks. You felt horrible. You felt like you were ruining Eddie’s life. “Where are you gonna work?”

“I don’t know. Whatever I can get. Melvald’s, maybe. Restaurant. Anything.”

“Is stuff like that going to take care of all three of us, though?” you asked, the worry eating at you.

“It’s better than nothing, baby. I can keep looking. I just need to start saving money now.”

“Can I still finish school?”

“If you feel up to it,” Eddie said. “But, yeah. I don’t want to make you drop out, too. Maybe you could even go to college in a few years, when the baby is older.”

You smiled at that. “You think?”

“Maybe,” he smiled back. He laid on his back, hands crossed behind his head on his pillow. He looked lost in thought. “I think you should stay home with the baby until they’re older.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. People scare me. I want to know they’re safe.”

You felt the same. There was nowhere safer for your baby than with you, right? Not that you knew all that much about taking care of babies right now. It’s not like you had any siblings or even little cousins. “I agree.”

“Good.”

You laid down on the bed next to Eddie, curling up into his side. He wrapped his arm around you, holding you close. “How are we gonna tell Wayne and your parents?” he asked.

You let out a long breath. “That’s going to go over horribly with my parents.”

“I know.” He thought for a minute. “I…have no idea how Wayne’s going to react. He’s probably going to be disappointed in me. Which feels pretty bad.”

You didn’t know what to say to that, because he was probably right. And you couldn’t even blame Wayne. You guys had fucked up. And now your lives were forever changed.

“The guys are going to freak,” he said with a sigh.

You hadn’t even thought of the band, or the Hellfire club. How would they react? They were counting on Eddie to help make the band’s dream a reality. Eddie was the guitarist, the lead singer. How was he supposed to do that with a baby?

“I’m sorry your life is ruined,” you muttered, the guilt weighing on your chest.

“It’s not, baby,” he said. “And neither is yours.”

—

You had known about the baby for a couple of days. You were dressing for school, wearing a pair of jeans and a band shirt with a sweater. Eddie was driving you to school like he did every day.

You practically ran down the steps to meet him outside when you heard him pull up, but your mom stopped you right before you got out the front door.

“You need to stop hanging out with that boy,” she said, looking you in the eyes in a way that made you uncomfortable.

“Mom, no,” you said. “I’m not breaking up with Eddie.”

“You need to think about your future,” she said. “That boy is going to ruin your future. Whether you end up pregnant, or on drugs, or living on the streets. You’re going to be 22 years old with three kids and that boy in prison just like his father.”

You weren’t sure if you were about to cry or scream in her face. “You know nothing about Eddie.”

“I know enough.”

You pushed past her, walking to Eddie’s van with your fists clenched. You climbed in, slamming the door.

“Woah, baby mama, what’s wrong?” he asked, beginning to drive away.

“Just my mom,” you muttered. 

“Being herself, I assume,” Eddie said with clear distaste.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t listen to her,” he said. “You know she’s full of shit.”

But her words lingered in your head anyway, plaguing you the way only she could. What if Eddie did get in trouble for dealing and go to jail? It wasn’t impossible. And you were pregnant. God, you were going to have to tell her so, too.

You were distracted all through the school day, but tried your best to focus in class. You were standing up from your desk in english when Tina stopped you, her nose scrunched up like something was disgusting.

“Think you got your period,” she said, snarky as always.

You froze. “W-what?” you asked, looking at her.

“Your period?” she said. “Seems kinda heavy. Might want to go to the nurse’s office.”

She walked off, but you paid no mind to her. You looked down at your seat - and saw it covered in blood. You gasped, covering your mouth in horror - the tears started and you felt your heart shatter in your chest. No. No no no no no no.

You tied your hoodie around your waist and ran out of the room straight to Eddie’s locker, where you nearly crashed into him.

“Woah, babe, what’s going on?” he asked, steadying you by the shoulders. His eyes were swimming with concern.

“We have to go to the ER,” you cried. “Now.”

“Jesus- what’s going on?” Eddie asked.

You leaned in close. “Eddie, I- I think I’m having a miscarriage.”

His eyes went wide. “No. You’re not.”

“We have to go,” you said, taking his hand and walking off. You were acutely aware of the blood all over the back of your jeans, how you were probably still bleeding. What if you were losing the baby right now?

You felt on the verge of hyperventilating. Eddie ran to the van, opening the door for you and laying a towel down in the seat. “Shit, baby,” he cursed as he helped you climb in and saw the blood. His voice cracked, like he was about to start crying, too.

He drove you to the ER as fast as he could without getting pulled over. He had weed in his pocket, and in the back - he didn’t need that. He pulled up to the ER in record time, finding a spot and nearly carrying you into the hospital.

“I think my girlfriend might be having a miscarriage,” he blurted out to the receptionist, who looked up at him like he was stupid.

“What’s your name?” she asked you.

You gave her your name and info.

“How far along are you?”

“I…don’t know,” you admitted. “We just found out.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re pregnant and this isn’t just your period?”

Eddie wished that were true. What a relief that would be, he thought. But if there really was a baby in there - he didn’t want to take any chances. He wasn’t going to lose it.

“Yes, I’m sure,” you said, getting irritated with this lady.

They brought you back to get your vitals, finding your blood pressure high. “Probably from the stress,” the nurse said, but they brought you straight back anyway, having you change into a gown.

A tech came in shortly after. “I need to take you for an ultrasound,” she said, much more kindly than the woman at the front desk.

“Can he come with me?” you asked, holding onto Eddie’s hand tightly.

“I’m afraid not,” she said, looking like she genuinely felt bad. “But we’ll only be gone for a few minutes.”

You followed her down the hall and to a room with an ultrasound machine. “Lay on the table with your legs up there, and scoot all the way down.”

You froze. “I thought ultrasounds were on your stomach?”

“Not this early,” she said apologetically. “It’s just a little uncomfortable, but it won’t hurt.”

You laid on the table, feeling incredibly exposed. She began the ultrasound, the screen turned away from you. She kept pressing buttons and writing things down.

“Is everything okay?” you asked, your stomach aching from anxiety. “Can I see?”

“I can’t show you or tell you anything,” she said, “we have to wait for the doctor. I’m sorry.”

You laid there, staring at the ceiling. You pretended you were anywhere else, doing anything else. You imagined you were at Eddie’s, laying on his bed while he played you a new song on his guitar. “I wrote this one for you, baby,” he’d always say.

She finished up and you were glad to put your legs back together. You followed her back to the room, where Eddie was waiting, bouncing his leg nervously. When you walked in he stood up, rushing over to you. He grabbed your arms. “Is the baby okay?”

“I don’t know yet,” you said. “She couldn’t tell me anything. We have to wait for the doctor.”

“That’s fuckin’ stupid,” Eddie said. “Why couldn’t she just say ‘yes, everything’s okay? You can stop worrying about the fate of your child’?”

Your child. Eddie caring about the fate of your baby so much made you feel a little better. You just hoped it wasn’t about to be ripped away from you like this.

You got back in the bed and the two of you waited nervously. It was maybe 30 miserable minutes later that the doctor walked in, introducing himself.

“How’s the baby?” Eddie asked as soon as the doctor stopped talking.

He pulled out some images, holding them out to show you. Eddie leaned over your shoulder to look at them. You couldn’t exactly make any sense of them - it was just a black and white image of some blobs.

“This right here,” the doctor said, pointing to one of the blobs. “Is called a subchorionic hematoma. It’s a collection of blood in your uterus. Most resolve themselves and are nothing to worry about, although the bleeding can be scary.”

Can be? You were just now breathing like normal again.

“So everything’s okay?” Eddie asked, wanting to get to the point as soon as possible.

“Yes, everything’s okay,” the doctor said, and you and Eddie collectively let out a breath. “The babies are perfectly fine.”

You felt relieved. Everything was okay. You turned to Eddie, but found him white as a ghost, staring wide eyed at the doctor.

“Did you say babies?”

You froze. Did he? You slowly turned to the doctor.

“Yes. You’re about 7 weeks along with twins.”

The ground fell out from under your feet. Your head spun, your blood felt like ice -

Eddie hit the ground.

—

Eddie woke a minute later, having been propped up in a chair by your bed. The nurses checked him over, but they knew he was fine. The doctor let you know you could leave, and you and Eddie were left alone.

“Fuckin’ - twins,” he breathed. “Two babies. Jesus.”

You couldn’t believe it either. If you had been scared before, now you were twice as scared. How were you going to afford two babies? How were you going to take care of two babies alone?

Eddie walked back out to the van with his hand protectively on your lower back, staying close. He helped you get in and closed the door for you.

“I don’t want to go home,” you admitted. “I just want to go to your place.”

Eddie smiled softly at you. “My house is your home, sweetheart. But yeah, of course.”

You leaned your head against the seat and watched out the window the whole drive to Eddie’s. You had been in the ER for so long, the sun was just starting to set. You felt relief that the baby - the babies - were okay. You were relieved you were going home with Eddie. Things were going to be okay.

Eddie pulled up in front of the trailer. Wayne was home - he was off tonight. You knew he wouldn’t question you. “Wait,” Eddie said, and he jumped out of the van and ran around to your side. He opened the door and basically lifted you down.

“I’m not made of porcelain,” you laughed as he sat you on the ground gently.

“To me, you are,” he said.

He led you to the front door, letting you go in first. Wayne was in his chair with a beer, watching TV. He looked up at the two of you when you came in.

“Hey, Wayne,” you greeted him.

“Hey, darlin’. Ed.” Wayne took a sip of his beer, looking at you both with an unreadable expression. Wayne was very closed off, it was impossible to tell what that man was thinking. “Can you two sit down for a minute? I’d like to talk to ya.”

That was strange. You looked at Eddie, who only shrugged back at you. The bleeding had stopped and you’d had the chance to clean up, so you sat down on the couch, Eddie next to you in between you and Wayne.

Wayne turned the TV off. Silence descended over the room, heavy and suffocating.

“Ed,” Wayne said, “your daddy gave me a call.”

Eddie froze. Oh fuck. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Wayne took a sip from his beer. “He told me somethin’ you, uh…told him?”

You looked at Eddie, confused as to where this was going. Eddie was sweating, all of a sudden it was way too hot for his jacket. He took it off, tossing it onto the floor.

“You wanna tell me somethin’, Ed?”

Eddie signed. He rubbed his hands over his face, like he was trying to wake up from a bad dream. But he didn’t say anything, and the way he was refusing to answer Wayne was scaring you.

Getting nowhere with Eddie, Wayne turned to you. “Honey, are you pregnant?”

Oh. Eddie had told his dad about the baby - babies, you corrected yourself again. Not that he had known that then. You looked at Eddie, who still looked panicked, but you couldn’t lie to Wayne. “Yes.”

Wayne looked between the two of you sadly. “Oh, kids,” he said, like he could see your fate laid out before you, and it wasn’t a good one.

“It’s twins,” Eddie contributed, looking at his uncle sheepishly. “Just found that out tonight.”

“Twins?” Wayne said, genuinely surprised. “Goddamn, son.” You almost laughed.

“Are you mad?” Eddie asked, scared not of what Wayne would do, but what he would think of him.

“Mad?” Wayne asked. “No. I’m just…worried. What are you gonna do?”

You and Eddie exchanged a look. “I’m going to drop out and get a job to save up some money,” Eddie said.

Wayne’s face fell. “Oh, Ed.”

“I know,” Eddie said. “But I have to. Right? I have to.”

Wayne didn’t say anything, because Eddie was right. There was no way around it that he could think of. He couldn’t afford to support Eddie, you, and a baby - two babies, which everyone kept forgetting and re-remembering. As much as he wanted to help, he didn’t make enough at the plant.

“What you have to do is stop that mess with the drugs,” Wayne said, pointing at Eddie. “Don’t think I don’t know.”

Eddie flushed. “Yeah, I know.”

“You cannot be gettin’ into trouble doin’ that stuff. Not now. I turned a blind eye to it for too long.”

Eddie nodded.

“Okay.” Wayne slapped his knees. “Well. You think you two have got this?”

You and Eddie looked at each other. Did you have it? You’d have to. “I think we’ll be okay,” Eddie said.

“Do your parents know?” Wayne asked you.

“No,” you answered. “We’ve only known for about a week. I’m not exactly excited to tell them.”

“I don’t blame you, sweetheart,” Wayne said. He knew how your parents were. They had met before, they looked down on him and Eddie for their social status, for their income, for living in a trailer park, amongst other things. “But you’ll have to tell them eventually.”

“I know.”

“We’ve got your back,” Eddie said. “If they wanna be assholes about it…”

“Which they will.”

“Yeah.” Eddie pulled you close. “It’s going to be okay.”

Conversation over, you followed Eddie back to his bedroom. He quickly cleaned up his rolling tray, papers, and baggie of weed that were laying on his bed. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I just…smoked a little last night. I’m done now, though.”

You didn’t say anything, watching as he put his stuff away. He sat on the bed and held his arms out for you. You went to him, letting him wrap his arms around you. He laid his head on your stomach.

“I’m so happy you’re okay. All three of you,” he said. “I was so scared.”

“Me too,” you agreed. Eddie laid his forehead on your belly, his thumbs rubbing circles over it. He lifted your shirt up and pressed a kiss to the smooth skin, his lips lingering there. Your heart thudded in your chest at the display of love and affection.

“I love you both,” he said to your belly. “I’m your daddy, and I’m going to take such good care of you. I won’t let anything bad happen to you or your mama.”

Your stomach flipped, and you were pretty sure you’d never felt so in love with Eddie than you did in that moment. 

He pulled you down to lay next to him on the bed, cuddled together, legs tangled. His hand rested on your belly, rubbing soft, slow circles until you drifted off to sleep in his arms.

—

The hospital set you up with your first OBGYN appointment. It was a week after the ER visit, and you’d been a nervous wreck. You hadn’t been bleeding any more, but what if you still lost the babies? You were looking forward to going just to hear that everything was okay.

You and Eddie left school early, heading to the doctor just after 5th period. Eddie stood awkwardly with his hands in his pockets as you checked in at reception. You found two seats together and sat as you filled out the clipboard of questions.

It asked all kinds of things. The standard doctor’s office questions about you, some awkward questions about your sexual history, and even questions about Eddie - ‘the father’.

“‘How many sexual partners have you had?’” you asked him, reading off the question.

Eddie blushed. “What?”

“It’s asking!”

“About me?”

“Yeah!”

He blushed deeper. “You know the answer to that question.”

You did. You just liked teasing him. “Remind me?”

Eddie gave you a look. “You know you were my first.”

“Oh yeah,” you smiled. Eddie nudged your shoulder playfully.

“Asshole.”

You turned in the clipboard when you were done, going back to your seat and waiting to be called. It wasn’t long before a nurse came for you, and you stood.

“Do you, uh, want me to go?” Eddie asked. He was jittery, bouncing his leg like he often did when he was nervous.

“Can you?” You didn’t know why you were nervous to ask him, you knew he would in a heartbeat.

“Yeah, of course.” He stood and followed you, trailing behind as the nurse led you to the back. She recorded your height and weight, blood pressure and temperature. You were taken to a small room with an exam table in the middle and two visitor chairs by the wall. Photos of babies decorated the walls. Eddie looked all around, seeming uncomfortable.

The nurse asked you even more questions. Some typical, some that made you blush. She asked Eddie a bunch of questions about his and his family’s health history. She left, and you and Eddie were alone.

“I didn’t realize they’d need so much information from me,” he said. “I thought this was all you.”

“You are the dad, right?” you teased, laying back on the exam table.

“Well, yeah,” he said. “I better be.”

“They’re half you. Of course you matter.”

Eddie hadn’t thought of it that way. The babies were half him. And half you. There was something beautiful about how you’d come together to make something so precious as these two little babies. He placed a hand on your stomach - you had developed the smallest little baby bump - and rubbed it, smiling up at your face. He gave you a little wink.

The tech came in with the ultrasound machine. “How are you guys today?” she asked, setting up the machine. She put the gel on your stomach.

“Nervous,” you admitted. Eddie squeezed your hand.

“Don’t be,” she said. “This is supposed to be the fun part.”

She flipped on the machine and placed the wand on your belly. The image appeared on your screen, and you saw your two little blobs wiggling around in there.

“Congratulations on the twins!” she said. “There’s baby A,” she measured the smaller blob, “and there’s baby B.” The bigger blob was next to the smaller one, like they were cuddled together. Almost like it was protecting the other one.

Tears welled in your eyes at the sight of them - your first real glimpse of your babies. You glanced at Eddie, who was covering his mouth with his hand, staring at the screen with so much love in his eyes.

“And we can’t know if they’re boys or girls yet?” Eddie asked.

“Not yet,” she said. “You’ll find out at the 20 week scan.”

“How many weeks is she now?” he asked.

The tech took some more measurements. “She’s measuring about 8 weeks right now.”

Eddie blew out a rush of air. 8 weeks seemed so early and so long at the same time. “And how many weeks are there in a pregnancy?” he asked, knowing he sounded like an idiot.

“There are 40,” she explained. “But twins often come early, around 35 weeks.”

Eddie paled at that. How was the pregnancy almost a quarter over already?? Nothing was ready. Nothing at all. He still didn’t even have a job, and these babies were coming so soon?

You both watched the screen for the remainder of the ultrasound. She printed you a strip of photos to keep, which you held close to your chest - you would cherish these. Eddie took one to keep in his wallet. 

When she left, you cleaned the gel off your stomach. Eddie helped you wipe it up with paper towels.

“That was cool, huh?” you asked, smiling at Eddie as you pulled your shirt back down.

“Very,” he agreed, smiling back at you. “I can’t believe there’s really two in there.” He poked your belly.

“Me either.” You laid back. “Does that mean I’m gonna get like…extra huge?”

“Probably,” Eddie teased. “Beautiful no matter what, though.”

The doctor came in next, introducing herself and congratulating you both. She told you it seemed that the subchorionic hematoma had taken care of itself, so she felt it was nothing to worry about. She went over the do’s and don’ts of pregnancy, told you to start taking a prenatal vitamin, and instructed you to come back in a month.

With your ultrasound photos and appointment card in your hand, you and Eddie left the office. He helped you up into the passenger seat before getting in on his own side. “What do you want to do now, baby?” he asked you.

“I think we should go to the pharmacy for those vitamins,” you said. Your mind was entirely on the babies, wanting them to be as healthy as possible, especially after the miscarriage scare.

“You got it.” He started the van and drove in that direction, his music playing from the speakers.

You went in together when you reached the pharmacy. Eddie walked with his hand on your lower back, as if you might faint without him. You reached the correct section and found the bottles that said prenatal vitamins - you picked up one of the bottles, checking the price.

“Jesus. Why are these so expensive?”

Eddie looked over your shoulder, seeing the $30 price tag. “Shit. I don’t know, baby. But I don’t have enough for that on me.”

“Me either.” You sat the bottle back on the counter. “I guess it’ll be fine until we can afford it.”

Eddie was quiet. He felt like he was failing you and his babies. “I could sell-“

“No, Eddie,” you snapped. You did not want him selling drugs again. “We’ll figure it out. You started applying for jobs, right?”

Eddie was quiet for a moment. “Yeah. Of course I have.”

“Then you should have something soon,” you said, “and we’ll get it then.”

Eddie felt like shit walking out of the pharmacy with you empty handed. He felt like the biggest failure, just as bad of a dad as his own. He had spent some of the last of what he had on some weed - he knew it was wrong and that you had both agreed, but he was so stressed, he needed something. He felt horrible about it now, though.

He drove you back to your house. When he shut off the engine in your driveway behind your parents’ fancy cars, he looked over at you. “Are you sure you want to go in there? You know you can spend the night with me any time.”

“I know,” you said softly, almost like you regretted it immediately. “I’ll be okay. They’ll notice something’s up if I don’t come home at all. I’ll call you tonight.”

“Okay, baby.” Eddie leaned over and pressed a kiss to your lips. “If you need anything, you know where to find me.”

“I know,” you mustered up a smile as he pulled away from your lips. You didn’t really want to leave Eddie, but you at least had to stay until they went to bed. They weren’t completely stupid.

Eddie watched you climb out of the van and walk to your front door. He watched until you were safely inside - only then did he allow himself to start his engine and pull away.

You could tell something was off the second you walked into the house. Your dad sat in his chair looking smug, while your mom paced nervously. Your dad looked pleased to see you when you walked in.

“What’s going on?” you asked cautiously. You weren’t sure if you were prepared for the answer.

“What’s going on,” your dad said, “is that little boyfriend of yours is finally going to get what’s coming to him.”

Your blood froze. “What do you mean?”

“I had a talk with Officer Callahan,” he said. “And he agrees that Eddie needs to be taught a lesson. They have proof he’s been dealing.”

You felt sick to your stomach, like you were two seconds away from getting sick on the floor. “Dad, no. Eddie quit, he doesn’t do anything like that anymore. He’s a good guy, please.”

Your dad looked almost pleased with himself, like he was happy to see you so distraught. “He should have made better choices. Maybe this will set him on the right path.”

“Dad, come on. Don’t do this.”

“You need to grow up. You both need to grow up. You need to find someone who actually deserves you. Someone better.”

You felt like screaming. You felt like throwing something at your father’s face.

“It’s for the best,” your mom finally spoke up. “It will scare him straight, at least.”

Was this your fault? Were you ruining Eddie’s life just by being in it? Your parents were being ridiculous, but that doesn’t mean the police department would see it that way. You couldn’t stand the idea of Eddie getting in serious trouble, especially not with babies on the way.

You ran upstairs, picking up the phone on your bedside table. You dialed Eddie’s number, hoping he’d had the chance to get back home by now.

“Hello?” he answered, sounding confused.

“Baby,” you said. “My dad did something really fucking stupid.”

Quiet. Then, “What?”

“He said the police are after you for dealing,” you cried. “He said you’re going to get in trouble.”

“Shit,” Eddie hissed. “Your dad’s a real piece of work, huh?”

“I’m scared,” you admitted. “Really scared.”

“I know, sweetheart,” he said. He was always so calming to you, even over the phone where you couldn’t see his face or soak in the warmth of his arms. “But it’s going to be okay. I haven’t even been dealing lately. They’ve got nothing on me.”

“Are you sure?” you sniffled.

“I’m sure. Your dad’s just trying to scare us. He’s just a dick.”

You laughed, wiping at the tears on your face. “Yeah. He is.”

“Believe me, baby. We’re going to be okay.” You knew if Eddie were here he’d be brushing your hair behind your ear, pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead. You wished he was.

“Okay.” You trusted Eddie wholeheartedly, and if he said there was nothing to worry about, you were going to try to listen to him.

“I need you to get some rest, okay baby?” he said. “For yourself and for those little babies.”

“Okay,” you agreed. “I love you, Eds.”

“I love you too, babe.”

—

Eddie’s last day of school was nearing. He had put in his request to drop out, and had been putting in job applications all over. He was stressed, that was clear, and you felt bad, like it was all your fault.

The Hellfire Club didn’t know it was their last typical Hellfire meeting. Eddie walked in and the guys all looked up from where they’d been sitting, going over their characters.

“Well, boys, I have some news,” Eddie said, kicking one foot up onto his throne and leaning on his knee. This got everyone’s attention, and they leaned in closer, hanging on to Eddie’s every word.

“What’s going on?” Gareth asked. They could tell Eddie looked serious, and that scared them.

He held his hands out. “Well, it seems, that I…am going to be a father?”

The guys all just stared at him. “You’re what?” Jeff asked. “No fucking way.”

“No no no no no,” Gareth said, shaking his head like he was trying to clear the thoughts from it. “You’re not- huh???”

Eddie gave a halfhearted shrug. “I knocked up my girlfriend.”

“You’re not being serious,” Dustin said.

“There’s no way he’s being serious,” Mike added. “He’s full of shit.”

Eddie reached into his pocket, pulling out his wallet. He pulled the ultrasound photo out between his pointer and middle finger, holding it up. Gareth snatched it from his grasp, the guys looking over his shoulder.

Sure enough, it had your name written at the top. But that didn’t mean it was real. “Bullshit,” Gareth said. “This isn’t a baby. And there’s two little blobs. Nice try.”

“And that’s where we come to the second part of my news,” Eddie said. “It’s twins.”

The room froze. Everyone was looking up at their DM with horror and shock. “You’re being serious?” Grant asked.

“Dead serious,” Eddie said. “Those are my little beans in there.”

Everyone looked back down at the ultrasound, trying to make sense of it, of everything. They couldn’t wrap their minds around Eddie - their Eddie - being a father. It seemed absurd.

“So…” Dustin began, knowing there was more to the story.

“So…” Eddie contributed. “I’m dropping out. Have to get a job to take care of the babies.”

That sent a silence over the group. “You’re what?” Jeff asked.

“I have to,” Eddie said. “It’s the only way I can take care of my family, man.”

“Eddie, you’ve worked so hard to graduate. You’re just going to drop out your third senior year so close to graduation?” Jeff was hurting for his friend, being one of the only Hellfire Club members to be around for so long and see the work Eddie had put in. No one wanted to see Eddie fail at his goals.

“I have to,” Eddie repeated, dejected.

“And, wait-“ Gareth said. “What about the band, man? What about our dreams with Corroded Coffin?”

Eddie’s heart sunk. “I…I mean I can try to still be in the band, but-“

“But your family’s going to come first now.” Gareth snorted, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you’d do this to us.”

“I didn’t get her pregnant on purpose, man,” Eddie said, getting frustrated with his best friend. “Shit happens.”

“‘Shit happens’? Really Eddie?” Gareth was getting more upset by the second, standing to face Eddie. “That’s what you have to say for yourself?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” Eddie retorted. “My family is none of your business.”

“Your family, oh right,” Gareth scoffed. “I thought we were your family! I knew something was going to happen the second you started dating that girl-“

“Don’t talk about her,” Eddie said, his voice low, a warning.

Gareth was taken aback. “Jesus, Eddie. You really have changed.”

Eddie shook his head. “What, just because I love my girlfriend? Is it not metal enough for you to have a family with my girlfriend? Grow up, man.”

The guys were all speechless. This was not the Eddie they thought they knew. The Eddie who treated D&D and Corroded Coffin as the most important things in the world - his first babies. Now he was throwing them away in favor of you and the real ones.

“I understand why you feel the need to do this,” Dustin said, careful so as not to set Eddie off again, “but can’t we still have Hellfire Club meetings outside of school?”

Eddie thought for a minute. “You guys want to take it outside just so you can keep playing with me?”

“Hell yeah,” Mike said. “You’re the best damn DM we could dream of.”

Eddie cracked a smile at that. “Where could we have it?”

“My house?” Mike offered. “We have a whole basement we can use.”

Eddie nodded. “Okay. This could work. I might be a little busy, though. Being a dad and all.”

The guys laughed and congratulated Eddie - except for Gareth, who was still pissed off. Eddie didn’t miss the lack of support from his best friend. “Come on, man. Don’t be like this.”

“Be like what, Eddie?” Gareth questioned, standing. “Upset that you’re ruining the chances of the band ever making it? Upset that you’re just giving up on school and dropping out on your third attempt that you were definitely going to succeed this time? How can you just throw your life away?”

“Gareth, I don’t have a choice,” Eddie said, trying to get it through the drummer’s head. “These babies are coming. Nothing’s going to change that.”

Gareth didn’t calm. He gritted his teeth, looking Eddie in the eyes. “You’ve changed, man.”

“Yeah, you have to when you become a dad!” Eddie said, waving his hands around for emphasis. “Come on, Gare. You’re my best friend. You don’t want to be Uncle Gare to two extremely cute kids?”

Gareth dared to crack the tiniest smile. “Stop.”

“Just think about how cute they’re gonna be,” Eddie continued. “Little metalhead babies.”

Gareth was softening. He didn’t like the changes this promised, he didn’t want Eddie to grow up so fast, but he had to admit to himself the image of Eddie as a dad made him feel a little proud of his friend. “You gonna have them listening to Metallica in the womb?”

Eddie laughed. “Damn right.”

“Do you really have to drop out, though?” Jeff asked, still concerned. “What’s that going to do to you, dude? You’ve worked so hard.”

“I’m fine.” Eddie looked around. It was clear he was trying not to be affected, to look like he didn’t care. He clearly cared a lot. “It’s just what needs to be done. So I’m doing what I have to do.”

Everyone was quiet. No one had a better idea, but they didn’t want to see Eddie throw away his hard work, either. 

“Okay, man,” Grant said. “Do what you have to do.”

“And congratulations,” Dustin added. “On being a dad and all.”

Eddie smiled a little. “Thanks, dude.”

“Yeah, man, congratulations,” Mike said.

Grant and Jeff congratulated him too, but Gareth still seemed upset. In agreement that the Hellfire Club would continue outside of school, everyone felt a little better, but their final campaign in the drama room was bittersweet.

—

Eddie got a job as a dishwasher at Benny’s. He hated it.

He had dropped out and was now working full time, doing something he absolutely hated - and he realized just how much dropping out affected him. He was depressed. He lost his sense of worth, feeling like the biggest failure imaginable. Took my senior year three times and still never graduated, he’d think to himself as he washed dishes until his hands were red and raw. Now look at me.

You didn’t get to see Eddie as often anymore. News was out at school - everyone knew Eddie dropped out because you were pregnant. At least you didn’t have to hide the belly anymore - you could dress normally at school. It was at home that you had to be careful.

You hadn’t heard anything else about Eddie getting in trouble, so you hoped your dad had just been bluffing. You never put it past him, though.

“Hi, pretty girl,” Eddie greeted you at the door as you reached it. He had just gotten off work and it was obvious, his eyes red and tired. He pulled you into his slender chest, his long arms wrapped around your body. You buried your face in his shirt.

“Missed you,” you mumbled into his chest.

“I missed you too,” he said, and he meant it. He missed you all day while he was at work. He thought of you and the babies constantly - do it for them.

You didn’t get to see Eddie as often anymore. He usually worked late, and by the time he was getting home you were going to bed. This was the first night you’d gotten to spend with him all week.

“They’ve grown,” he said as you stepped back, placing his hand on your belly.

“Yeah,” you chuckled. “Word’s out at school. I don’t know how much longer I can keep it from my parents at this rate.”

Eddie frowned. He knew it would be bad when they found out. “You look cute,” he said, changing the subject.

“Thanks,” you blushed. “I don’t feel cute.”

“Being pregnant with my kids is a good look on you,” he smirked. “Maybe I’ll have to give you another one-“

“One pregnancy at a time, babe,” you laughed.

“Come on,” Eddie said, “I’m exhausted. I just want to hold you in bed.”

You weren’t arguing. He led you by the hand back to his bedroom - quickly cleaning up something on his bed and shoving it into the closet. You gave him a strange look, but didn’t push it.

He pulled his shirt over his head and laid down on the bed. You joined him, cuddled up against his chest. His fingers played absentmindedly with your hair while you laid together. Eddie turned, catching you looking at him. He smiled and pressed his lips to yours.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he muttered against your lips.

“Missed you more,” you teased back, but his kisses were quickly taking your breath away. You were breathing heavily, his tongue pressing into your mouth and exploring it eagerly.

His hand slipped under your shirt, brushing over the bump before reaching your tits. He palmed them over your bra, moaning into the kiss. You moaned lightly, hips involuntarily grinding against his, feeling him already hard beneath his jeans.

He slipped your shirt over your head and unhooked your bra, kissing all over the exposed skin, his tongue flicking at your nipples. They were more sensitive now and had you arching your back into him, his hands sliding along your back as he sucked on your tits.

“Fuck,” he breathed. “It’s been so long. I need you.”

“I need you too,” you agreed, your panties already soaked at the mere thought of having Eddie inside you again.

“Are you sure it’s okay?” he asked, kissing back up to your neck. “I need you bad. But I don’t want to hurt them.”

“You’re not going to hurt them,” you promised him. “They’re safe in there.”

Eddie grinned. “Does this mean I get to fuck you raw now?”

You blushed, the idea sending heat straight to your throbbing core. “I guess so.”

Eddie groaned, diving back in to bite at your neck as his hand expertly undid your jeans. He pushed them down as much as he could before his hand was beneath your panties, tracing through your soaking folds.

“So ready for me,” he mumbled. “You want this just as bad, don’t you?”

“Mmhmm,” you moaned, writhing in your need to be touched.

“Looking a little desperate, baby,” he teased. “Do you need me?”

“Need you so bad,” you moaned. You had no shame, you were desperate for Eddie to fuck you and you wanted him to know.

Eddie groaned from low in his throat. He slipped a finger inside you, pumping it slowly. You gasped at the sudden feeling, then you were grinding your hips down, wanting more.

“Needy little pussy,” he whispered in your ear. “Look at how desperate she is to take me.”

You whined. Your mind was going hazy, you weren’t thinking straight. With Eddie’s finger pumping into you, his calloused thumb rubbing at your clit, and his mouth kissing and nipping at your neck, you were in another world.

“Need it now,” Eddie said, then he was sitting up, pushing his own jeans and boxers down and pulling your clothes the rest of the way off. His hard cock sprung free against his stomach, ruddy tip leaking.

Eddie lined his cock up with your entrance, pushing just the tip inside. He moaned, loud - his first time feeling you raw and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to last more than two seconds. He couldn’t look at you like this - it was going to make him bust immediately. He buried his face into your neck instead, rolling his hips to push his cock in the rest of the way.

You whimpered, holding onto him tightly. Everything was so much more sensitive now, you felt as if you could feel every ridge and vein of Eddie’s cock, heightening the pleasure. His hips snapped into yours quickly, as if he’d lost control and needed more and more of you.

His old bed squeaked as he fucked you, his groans muffled into your neck. You gasped, tangling your fingers in his long curls, pulling slightly. That made him shudder, tightening his grip on your thigh, a choked moan coming from his lips.

“Baby, baby, baby,” he moaned, kissing from your neck to your shoulder and all over your chest. “You’re so beautiful. Feel so good. Your pussy is so perfect.”

You whined. “Feels good, Ed.”

“Yeah?” he panted, speeding up his pace just a little. “You like that?”

“Mmhmm,” you moaned, eyes falling closed.

“Tell me,” he breathed. “Tell me what you like.”

“I love when you fuck me like this,” you whined. “I love your cock.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” You opened your eyes to see him staring intently down at you, eyes locked on your face, his cheeks tinged pink with the exertion and his impending orgasm. “It’s so big. Fucks me so good.”

Eddie groaned, his head dropping forward. His curls tickled your breasts, moving with his thrusts. “I’m so close,” he choked out. “Need you to cum for me.”

You were close, too. Especially when he reached down and rubbed against your clit, making you gasp. Everything was so sensitive, his touch sending electricity through your veins.

“Fuck,” he hissed. “I can feel you- holy shit- you’re so tight around me-“

Eddie tried his best to hold back, but the feeling of your pussy clenching around him as you came sent him over the edge. He let out a strangled gasp that turned into a loud moan as his orgasm hit him abruptly, cumming deep into you for the first time - on purpose, at least. He rutted into you with shallow thrusts as he shot his load into you, body trembling from the intensity.

After he pulled out, he flopped onto the bed next to you, his chest heaving with his breaths. You eyed the posters covering his walls, his guitar - his sweetheart - hanging across from you. It was all so Eddie. God, you loved him.

“That was insane,” he laughed, turning on his side and throwing his arm across your waist. “I needed that, baby.”

You kissed his nose, then his lips. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” His hand rubbed over your belly, a goofy grin on his face. “All three of you.”

You fell asleep in Eddie’s arms, cuddled closely to his chest. You slept peacefully, feeling safe and loved.

Eddie had a different experience. He couldn’t sleep, mind racing with thoughts of his life and future. He stared up at his ceiling, a sinking feeling in his chest. He was so disappointed in himself. This was supposed to be his year. He was supposed to graduate, make something of himself. Instead, here he was, a high school dropout washing dishes with soon to be two children to support.

He was a loser, just like he’d feared. Just like his dad. He had done everything in his power to keep from this fate, but it was all for nothing.

Mostly, he felt guilty for the babies. What kind of dad could he be if he could barely take care of himself? He made so little at Benny’s - it was better than nothing, but not by much. How the hell could he pay for the things two babies would need? And what about you?

He knew you deserved better. All three of you deserved better.

The only thing that got him through was the weed. He had promised you he would stop, but he was smoking more. It was a daily thing now, every second he had that he could get high, he’d take it. He was so miserable with his life, he needed the release.

You would be furious. Eddie knew that. He knew he shouldn’t still be smoking, he shouldn’t be wasting the little money he had on weed. He had even been calling out on days he got too high - which happened decently often. He knew his behavior was only solidifying his status as a total fucking deadbeat loser, but he couldn’t help it.

He had to have something to keep him going. He was so fucking depressed he didn’t know what to do with himself. If the weed helped, so be it.

Eddie crept out of the bed, careful not to disturb you. He opened his closet as quietly as possible and pulled out his stash box. He had a joint already rolled, which he plucked from the box and stuck behind his ear as he grabbed his lighter from the dresser and walked outside.

Taking a seat on the front steps, he removed the joint from his ear and brought it to his lips, sparking it up. He took a deep drag, the pungent smoke creeping down into his lungs. He held it, then released, the smoke billowing out from his lips in big clouds.

The warmth took over his body quickly. He felt lighter, happier. Every drag of the joint made those negative thoughts float farther away. He wasn’t thinking about his shitty job, or the fact he was going to be a father, or that he had dropped out of school and pissed off all his friends. There were no worries.

For that moment, everything was fine.

part 2 very soon

tag list

@missjadesfics @robinbuckleywife @fandom-princess-forevermore @ali-r3n @playboysweetie @losingmygrasponreality @samslvrgirl @ratsematary @cheesesandwichsanto @rainybloo28 @angxlg0dz @mopeymopeymouse @strangerthing93 @bellalillyrose @awkward00noodle @xplrnowornever @thestrals-and-firewiskey @badasspizzalover @parodsal000 @charmed-asylum @kyber4crystal @jeangeniex @jojojomamawrld @fearlessreid @wh1sp @queen-honeybee-stories @batbabyeddie @4everdweeb @meetmeatyourworst @liliglasermunsonquinn

if you signed up for the tag list and aren’t here it’s because it wouldn’t let me tag you :(

[yailtsv]

Can you please do a fox where Blakey is hurt or sick and Paige and azzi take care of her

Sick - p.b & a.f

💌 Syn: P & A take care of Blakely while she is sick

»»— warnings: poly! sickness, puke, hospitals, i.v, ect..

»»— notes: the internets the one that told me the fever thing and i know the internet lies so idk if that’s all true 🤷‍♀️ i also got carried away writing this but i gave up on proofreading lmao

»»— word count: 3.3k

»»— pair: pazzi x gf!oc || Blakely Doe

azzi and paige both woke up to the bed being cold, which never happens as blakely is always asleep in the middle of the bed between both of them.

so as you can assume they were both equally confused and even more so when they realized it was only 5:30am, when practice wasn’t until 8am and it was a saturday so the three of them didn’t have any classes today.

not to mention - blakely is NOT a morning person! she’ll sleep until 3pm if she doesn’t have anything going on that day

so blakely not being in bed and between them where she’s supposed to be was both confusing and concerning for the two girls

“where’s rosie?” paige rasps out to azzi with her morning voice while sitting up slowly on her elbows, using the nickname her and azzi have called blakely since they met “i don’t know” azzi says confused looking around the room for any sign of blakely

“here, you lay back down, i’m gonna go find her. “ azzi says already getting up starting to walk around the bed and to the door “are you sure? i can help look” paige rasps, slowly waking up more “i got it” azzi says looking back at paige “ok, if you need me, call for me. i’ll still be awake.” paige says laying back down on the bed

azzi nods to what paige said and then walks out of paige’s dorm bedroom and down to the living room / kitchen area thinking maybe blakely just wanted a late snack…nope

azzi looked everywhere for her in the small dorm and didn’t find her girlfriend anywhere - looked everywhere except for the bathroom, which honestly should’ve been the first place she looked

azzi makes her way to the bathroom seeing the door is shut but there is no light on, making her confused even more, rightfully so - blakely’s scared of the dark

azzi knockes on the door and gets no answer back making her slowly open the door and reach her hand in to turn on the light - only to see blakely sitting on the floor in front of the toilet with her head resting on the toilet seat looking to be asleep, azzi immediately runs over to blake while yelling for paige not caring about jana and allie still being asleep

“PAIGE! COME HERE!” azzi yells while pulling blakely off of the toilet and letting b rest against her legs, while azzi holds blake there making sure she won’t fall forward and hit her head on the toilet. paige comes running in and sees blake unconscious being held up by azzis legs and azzi of course, with her few day old straightened hair tangled up with puke all in her hair and all on her

“what happened?! is she ok?” paige stresses walking closer to her two girlfriends and kneeling down next to blake “i don’t know i just found her with her head resting on the toilet seat and unconscious” azzi says starting to stress but trying to keep it underwraps

“baby hey, blakely” paige says tapping blakely’s face a few times trying to get her to wake up - which didn’t work because blakely could sleep through anything including earthquakes and tornadoes

paige and azzi both try to wake blakely up and after a few stressful minutes eventually succeeded “hi baby, can you tell us what happened?” paige asks while holding blakely’s cheek - slowly rubbing her thumb over blakely’s cheek bone

blakely doesn’t answer and instead just closes her eyes and leans her face more into paige’s hand and her body more into azzi’s touch - finding their touch comforting

“mama hey, let’s get you in the bath and then we can go to bed alright?” azzi says leaning down some to make her be closer to blakely

blakely just groans in response not wanting to move at all knowing her stomach pain is gonna come back right when she moves

paige just stands up and turns the water on for the bath and azzi starts helping blakely get her clothes off, both ignoring her groans of protest and just continuing with what they were doing

“alright a warm bath with bubbles and a bath bomb is ready for you” paige says coming back over to blakely and azzi - helping azzi into lifting blakely up gently as to not upset her stomach

paige helped blake get her pants off while azzi held her up, and then azzi helped blake get into the tub and sit down.

“i’m gonna go get her some clothes” azzi mumbles to paige watching blakely immediately put her head on the side of the tub, paige nods signaling that she heard azzi and squats down by the tub, running her hand over blakely’s back “hi baby, i’m gonna wash your hair ok? i’m gonna need you to sit up for me, just for a little bit then you can lay your head back down alright?” paige says in a low tone, knowing that when blakely’s sick she always ends up getting super bad migraines, she doesn’t know if blake has a headache right now or not as blakely’s gone non verbal, so she’s just treating it like she does have a headache just in case.

blakely still doesn’t say anything, she just slowly lifts her head up, allowing paige to wash her hair.

while paige was washing blake’s hair, azzi came back in and set a pile of clothes and a towel on the sink, she then also squated down beside paige and started rubbing blakely’s back

“how are you feeling now baby?” azzi asks lowly but getting no answer in return “mama hey” paige says pausing her scrubbing and trying to make eye contact with blake - blake eventually turning her head slowly

“how are you feeling now?” paige re asks azzi’s question, with blakely only shaking her head side to side as her answer.

“do you think you can keep down medicine?” azzi asks still rubbing blakely’s back - once again blakely just shook her head side to side as a way of saying no

“is there anything you need or want?” paige asks as she’s now rinsing the shampoo out of blakely’s hair

blakely still doesn’t talk and just shakes her head again, paige and azzi look at each other for a minute concerned as blakely has never acted like this while she’s sick - she normally just is clingy and wants attention 24/7, making them realize she’s a lot sicker then she normally gets every once in awhile.

paige and azzi help get blakely clean, dried, and dressed before azzi has blake sit on the toilet so she can braid her hair, and get it out of the way in case blakely throws up again

while azzi was doing that, paige went back to the room and started up the tv, putting it on descendants - one of blakely’s favorite movies, and grabbed 2 small trash cans putting it on either side of the bed, knowing blakely’s still gonna want to be in the middle close to both of them

“alright there we go rosie” paige can hear azzi say from the bathroom down the hall, making her set down the water bottle she had just grabbed onto the night stand, and walk towards the bathroom

“you guys done?” paige asks as she sees blakely shakily walk forward “she’s gonna brush her teeth and then we’re done” azzi says trailing behind blakely in case she loses balance

paige nods in response “i’m gonna go make some coffee, figured we’re gonna be up for a little bit” she finishes while standing up from leaning against the door frame

azzi nods showing that she heard paige but kept her attention on blake. paige then walked to the kitchen making enough coffee for her and azzi, + jana and allie if they wanted any

paige could hear azzi helping blakely back into her bedroom and was trying to hurry with the coffee - just wanting to be with both her girlfriends and be able to comfort her sick girlfriend, so while the coffee was brewing she started preparing the mugs, putting sugar, creamer, all that stuff in and then pouring the coffee and stirring it together, once the coffee was done.

she grabbed those two mugs and carefully walked to her room, seeing azzi and blakely in their normal spots, with b’s head resting on azzi’s chest both watching tiktok off of azzi’s phone

paige just walked to the bed carefully giving azzi her coffee, before getting on the bed and under the covers - moving her free arm to lay behind blakely signaling to both of them to move closer to her - which they both do obviously

once they were all comfortable, azzi pressed play on the movie, blakely letting the sound of her comfort movie lull her to sleep.

sleep didn’t last long. she was able to get an hour & 30 minutes before she woke up gagging, paige immediately sat up from talking to azzi and grabbed the trash can putting it under blakely’s mouth just in time.

azzi rubs blake’s back while paige is whispering soft nothings to blakely - wanting to comfort her as paige knows blakely hates getting sick especially in front of people including her two girlfriends that she’s known for years

“you done?” paige asks after a few minutes of blakely just catching her breath, blakely takes a minute to decide and then nods her head slowly - making paige set the trash can back on the floor and grab the water from earlier, opening it, and handing it to blakely

while she was taking a drink, azzi decided to go get the thermometer and see just how sick blakely is,

“we have to get her fever down now or take her to the hospital. it’s way to high.” azzi says after looking at the thermometer once it beeped

“how high?” paige asks already standing up to try to help “101.2 if it gets to 103 or higher she’s definitely going to the hospital - if we’re not already there. i don’t care if we get in trouble for missing practice.”

“no, no hospital” blakely groans out trying to lay back down but can’t get comfortable. paige and azzi both moved closer and started trying to help blake get more comfortable

once they were done azzi sat at the edge of her side of the bed, putting her hand on top of blakely’s “we won’t take you yet, but if your fever doesn’t go down or it gets higher, we’re gonna have to. you already have a 101 fever baby. we will both be with you, i promise. you won’t be alone ok?” azzi tries to soothingly say as she knows blakely is also petrified of hospitals

blakely doesn’t respond to her and just turns to look at paige, using her doe eyes on her knowing those are paige’s weakness “i’m sorry mama, she’s right. you’re really sick baby”

blakely just huffs and tries to turn over onto her stomach so she doesn’t have to look at them - she struggles for a little bit and paige and azzi obviously voice their opinions but, blakely eventually succeeds in rolling over all by herself

“rosie-“ azzi starts but gets cut off “no” blakely responds back, already knowing what she’s gonna say and not wanting to hear those said words. paige and azzi both make eye contact behind blakely’s back and start lip reading each other - trying to figure what to do

“alright baby, if you don’t want to end up having to go to the hospital then we need to get your fever down by a lot, so cold wet rags and ice packs or a ice bath?” paige says putting her hands on her hips - looking at her stubborn sick girlfriend “neither” blakely grumbles into the pillow

“alright i’ll get the necessities for the hospital” paige said starting to walk out of the bedroom “no hospitals!” blakely yells into the pillow “ok then cold wet rags and ice packs or a ice bath?” paige sasses back

blakely groans into the pillow which ends up in a coughing fit making azzi who’s still sitting in the same spot, start patting her back to try to help her

once she was done coughing paige walked back to the bed laying down in her spot and looking at blakely “rosie look at me” paige says putting her hand on blakely’s back and gently rubbing her lower back while azzi’s still rubbing her upper back

blakely didn’t respond in any way making paige sigh “baby”

“mama, cmon” paige says but ends up more of demanding it, blakely slowly turns her head to look at paige and immediately made eye contact with her piercing blue eyes

“we just want to help you, you know that. we wouldn’t suggest the hospital if we didn’t feel like it was necessary. your fever is at 101.2 right now ok? if we can bring it down and keep it down then we don’t have to go to the hospital but if your fever gets to 103 and up we have to go, it’s not up for discussion.” paige starts and she can see blakely about to complain and starts talking again before blakely has the chance “you know we wouldn’t leave you alone there, i know you do. we’ll be right by your side the whole time ok?” paige says in a soft voice trying to get blakely to understand how serious her fever is.

blakely doesn’t respond for a minute, just looking at paige while thinking of a decision while azzi and paige both keep rubbing her back, blakely eventually nods her head “i’ll go if needed” she grumbles out “thank you baby.” paige says leaning in and kissing the top of blakely’s head “do you want to take a ice bath or..?” azzi now asks making blakely groan into the pillow again as she didn’t learn her lesson last time

after blakely’s done with her second coughing fit paige and azzi both manually roll blakely over, so that she can actually breath and so she can’t groan into the pillow anymore

paige and azzi both just stare at blake - wanting an answer, making blakely sigh and look between both of them “rags and ice packs i guess”

paige stands up from the bed saying that she’ll be back and walks out of the bedroom going to the kitchen to get ice packs, while paige is doing that azzi gets up to get cold wet rags

it’s now been almost two hours since azzi took blakely’s temperature and that whole argument. after paige and azzi put wet rags and ice packs all over blakely’s body all three of them ended up watching more movies until they all fell asleep - 2 of them fell asleep on accident and neither of them called geno telling him what’s happening

azzi woke up before the other two and was confused before she looked at the bed and saw her two girlfriends asleep on the bed - realizing that her and paige accidentally fell asleep which was fine until she also remembered the said fact that they didn’t call geno, making her scramble to grab her phone seeing multiple missed calls and unread texts from everyone on the team

azzi quickly sent a message to geno and cd explaining everything - which is what reminded her to check blakely’s temperature

104.3

“paige! paige get up” azzi says while shaking paige making her wake up startled “what? what happened” she groaned out “blakely’s fever is to 104.3, we need to get her to a hospital now” azzi says with urgency making paige sit up and look at blake realizing how pale she looks

both paige and azzi put there crocs on and wake blakely up - that was a mistake

right when they successfully woke blake up she immediately started gagging making azzi rush to put a trash can under her mouth, paige was rubbing her back as a way to comfort blakely but it wasn’t working and blakely couldn’t stop puking

after a few minutes of non stop puking and then dry heaves,blakely was finally able to get a break and during that break azzi put blakeys slides on her and grabbed the clean trash can for the car ride to the hospital

paige carefully picked up blakely knowing that blake would be walking slow to the car and then end up puking again before they made it to the car, so she was going to carry her

blakely lays her head on paige’s shoulder while paige follows behind azzi as she’s the one opening the doors for paige to get through with blake. once they reach paige’s car paige sets blakely in the backseat with azzi sitting back there with her - holding the trash can in front on blakely while paige gets into the drivers seat and takes them to the hospital

once they made it to the hospital they were checked in and seen pretty fast, now blakely’s laying in the hospital bed with an i.v in her hand asleep while paige and azzi sit in the chairs by the hospital bed, each holding one of her hands and watching whatever shows on their hospital rooms tv

the doctor put her on some medicine but still wanted to monitor her over night so they were all going to stay the night at the hospital, paige planned on getting food and going home to get clothes and necessities once blakely woke up so she could also have a say in lunch so they were just waiting on blakely, which after a few more minutes eventually started to slowly wake up

“hey rosie” azzi said with a low voice being the first to notice her waking up, making paige look to her side to also see blakely waking up “good morning mama” paige says even though it’s the late afternoon now, blakely just groans in response - the light in the hospital room blinding her and making her headache worse

azzi seems to understand what’s wrong and gets up to turn the light off, “better?” she asks sitting down in her seat making blakely nod “how are you feeling?” paige asks rubbing her thumb over blakes knuckles “like crap” blakely rasps out before going into another coughing fit

azzi pats blakely’s back while paige holds a bucket under blake’s mouth just in case - eventually she stops coughing and the two of them continue to talk to blakely, mentioning getting stuff from home and food

it’s now the next day, blakely has been released from the hospital with instructions to rest and to take her prescribed medication and she should be good in the next 3-4 days - which paige and azzi where going to make sure blakely listened and did everything she was supposed to do

they had just gotten back to paige’s dorm and azzi was helping blakely up to paige’s room while paige was carrying their shared overnight bag, food to eat now, and a few bags of snacks and soft foods for the next few days

jana and allie were out at practice for today so it was just the three of them for right now. while azzi was helping blakely get comfortable on the bed paige was once again turning the tv onto a disney movie - this time being lemonade mouth

once the movie was on she sat down on her spot of the bed and passed the food around.

after around 25 minutes they eventually found themselves in a cuddling pile with blakely in the middle and paige and azzi hugging onto her, rubbing her stomach, playing with the ends of her hair, or gently kissing blakely’s forehead while whispering soft praises of love to her, with eventually all three of them falling asleep in each others arms

that’s how jana and allie found them 2 hours later

🏷️ @melpthatsme @rebecca-woso @ldapper @authentic-girl03

[clancycatears]

JUST A LITTLE LONGER (Gaz x GN!Reader)

gaz masterlist

kyle has two alarms. one at 5:25AM, and another at 5:30AM. he uses that time just to be with you, before the world can demand any of his attention.

cw: MDNI (18+), cuddling, pet names, mild domestic!gaz, established relationship, hope this is enough fluff.

a/n: inspired by a reddit story i saw on instagram. that got deleted!!! i'm so upset. but i hope at least one of y'all know which post i'm talking about. anyways this is not a want, it's a need.

; <1k words.

Kyle has to wake up at 5:30AM almost every day for work.

The alarm blares through the room just five minutes before, disturbing the silence and causing you to stir just a tad. Right before you can fully wake, the sound is suppressed as quickly as it came.

You're bleary with sleep, on the brink of floating back into unconsciousness as you feel a pair of familiar toned arms wrap back around your midriff.

"Mornin', beautiful," murmurs Kyle, his voice still raspy with sleep. The mattress shifts as he scoots an inch closer, his chest pressing into your back as his body fit snugly against yours.

You all but hum in acknowledgement, shifting your body to better accommodate his embrace.

He nuzzles his face into the nape of your neck, leaving the whisper of a kiss just under your hairline. One of his hands traced circles absentmindedly over your stomach, a soothing touch that tugged you back towards drowsiness.

You wake just a flicker as his hand slid under the hem of your shirt, his warm palm resting over your stomach as his fingers sprawled over your bare skin. You sigh with contentment, melting further into his touch.

The minutes linger, though to you they felt like hours. The steady thump of his heartbeat against your back lulls you further and further, pulling you closer to your waiting dreams. The world outside of his arms is merely a blur—an afterthought. Here, there is only his warm embrace, the soft touch of his lips, and the gentle caress of his fingertips.

To Kyle, every minute sustains him. Cuddling your frame is what fuels him every day. His work was draining, killing him bit by bit until he can return home and hold you close once again.

You are his pillar. You are what fills his tank. You are what gives him energy to go through his day every single morning.

All too soon, the second alarm is quick to ring—louder, insistent. Kyle groans, the sound a rough scrape to his throat. His arms squeeze around your waist, his lips pressing a final kiss to your temple as he reluctantly let go of you.

As quick as the first alarm, the second is silenced.

You let out a soft exhale as he shifts, propping himself up on his elbow. Blinking up at him through your hazy, half-awake gaze, your vision clears just enough to see his hand reaching for you, gently tucking a stray lock of hair behind your ear.

"Go back t’sleep, sweet thing," he murmurs, his voice heavy with reluctance. You groan softly, turning onto your side and letting your eyes drift closed again. "Love you," he whispers, and you can practically hear the smile in his voice.

The bed shifts as he gets up, his footsteps barely a sound as he moves around the room. "Love you too…" you murmur, curling your arms around the pillow and tucking your hands underneath as you sink back into the comfort of the sheets.

You sigh, letting the warmth he left behind wrap around you, pulling you back into slumber. A faint trace of his touch lingers, even after he's gone.

© clancycatears 2025. do not copy, steal, translate, or feed my works to ai.

[dodger432101]

Uneasy Introduction - Lux Imperator/Mr Ring-A-Ding x Reader Part 6

[Phew. This part did not want to be written. Between fighting the cold I got and some form of writer's block this has taken longer than I wanted. But I have persevered and am feeling bettter! Hopefully the rest of this little story will flow better. Anyway, enjoy!]

Saturday. 5:30am. Your nerves wake you up early, blinking groggily at the dim lights of the projector room. Weird, they're usually brighter. Lux must've messed with them. But that's not a problem right now. For the first time in 5 days, someone other than you, Mr Pye and the God of Light was going to be in Palazzo. You really hope he doesn't upset Lux, there were already 15 trapped souls in the building. As curious as you were as to how they ended up in film, you didn't actually want to see a 16th get added to the film strip. Even if you hated him. 

You try to sit up but a weight on your chest keeps you down. No, it's not the guilt of wanting to see your co-worker die to your God lover. It is your God lover himself. Lux is curled up on top of you, deep asleep, a triplet of Zs floating animatedly above his head. In the quiet of the room you can hear his breathing. Is he going “honk shoo” in his sleep? He is. He's mumbling “honk shoo” under his breath. Is he actually asleep or just pretending? 

Deciding to test this, you gently cradle the small God as you shuffle to the edge of the mattress. Once you're there, you carefully roll to your side, slowly depositing Lux onto the bed while you slide off. Seems he's really asleep, he didn't even stirr from the movement. Now out of bed, you use the gained space to stretch your limbs. 

Your co-worker wouldn't be here until 8, 8:30 if he was still the late runner he was before. Seeing as he was still a terrible flirt you wouldn't be surprised if his lateness hadn't changed either. You're already up, though, you might as well start getting ready. 

You'd slept in a T-shirt and shorts you'd bought on your trip out. Luckily, your work clothes were still in here. Lux had put them to the side, neatly folded. You take a glance behind you at the sleeping God before you undress. Even though he's seen just about every inch of skin on you, you still feel that need for privacy while you change. Out of your sleepwear, you start with your bottom half. Underwear and pants on. You sit on the nearby chair to put your socks and shoes on, no point flamingo-ing it and potentially going over. Lux would laugh at you, you just know it. Top half next. You're just clipping a bra on when you hear a wolf whistle behind your back. 

Lux has awoken. He's sat up just enough to watch you, his head resting on one hand. His eyes are half lidded, a tired but naughty expression on his face. “Well, well. It's a damn good morning for me.” His voice is deeper, scratchy from sleep. Gosh, that really shouldn't warm you up as much as it does. You giggle as he yawns, little legs stretching. “Don't stop on my account, angel.” The God of Light tiredly winks at you, eyebrows wiggling as he smirks. 

“Lux. I'm getting dressed, you silly cartoon.” As you turn to pick up your work shirt you hear a dramatic whine behind you. 

“No patty-cake before work, sunshine? I could do with the energy boost.” His voice is even deeper, seemingly trying to tempt you over. You roll your eyes endearingly before you pull your shirt on, keeping your head turned to watch his reaction. Lux deflates, eyes big and sparkly as he tries his puppy eyes on you. Deciding to be nice, you stand and turn to face your God while you button up the shirt. He stares right at your chest while whistling again and panting like a dog, tongue out and all, making you laugh at the extremely cartoonish display. Once it's buttoned up fully, Lux looks up to your eyes. He has a loving gaze in his. “Golly gee, pretty lady. I'm definitely gonna have you on this bed tonight. Right after that other little cleaner leaves, I'll have you screaming loud enough for him to hear as he walks home.” 

Well, it's good to know he can still make you blush. You walk over to the smug little toon, picking him up and slinging his small body over your shoulder before you make your way to the kitchen to get breakfast, a giggling wriggling Lux in your arms. While you cook, Lux reads the pamphlet on Miami you'd gotten him yesterday, sitting on the counter near you. At times he points at the paper and asks about certain things or places, listening intently to your response before nodding and sticking his pig nose back into the pamphlet. It seems he knows the concepts of things but no real knowledge of them or what they look like. Maybe that's why he was unaware of sex; he knew the basics of what was required for reproduction but had no idea of the process that brought them together. Just about everything around him must be new to him. 

You end up just making pancakes and frying the remaining eggs of that packet. Adding some fruit onto the plate perks it up a bit, at least. Lux couldn't care less, immediately shoving half a pancake into his mouth. You eat your eggs first just to get them out of the way before you go for the nicer stuff. Halfway through your meal, the sound of someone entering the building in a rush echoes quietly. Your God doesn't even get the chance to tell you who it is before Mr Pye rushes in, quite out of breath. “Sir? What's wrong?” You go over to him straight away, concerned for your boss.

“Nobody's going to come in today or tomorrow. Why didn't we think about this before? Oh, why did I say it was today’s problem? Now it's today and he's going to be suspicious about everything.” Shit. Of course, you’re the most recent -and only- person to come in since Lux appeared and 15 people went missing. “Damn it, does he not know about the missing people?! Surely people have been talking about it by now, it's been 6 days! What do we tell him if he asks? What if he sees..” Reginald takes a few deep breaths, a hand on his forehead. Seems your boss has been stressing about this since he woke up. Though what could you tell him? There was the excuse of maintenance being needed on the machines, something could’ve broken. That’s not too suspicious, right? Mr Pye had more knowledge on them than you or your coworker, he could easily make something up that required the picture house to be shut both days. Your biggest concern was still Lux. How would you ever explain the living cartoon in the building? And that’s leaving out the fact he’s a God. 

“Gosh you humans do worry a lot! It’ll be fine! Come on sunshine, finish this plate before I do. I’m sure Mr Reginald Pye will figure out some way to trick this coworker of yours.” Speak of the devil. Lux is now holding your plate, a piece of fruit in his free hand. The pamphlet he was reading is.. Nowhere to be seen. Actually, when had he picked it up in the first place? You’d left it on the table, and Lux had never gotten up. The movement of a plate being shaken at you snaps you out of your thoughts. “Angel. It’ll be ok. I promised not to trap him, heck, if he gets annoying I’ll just chase him off! It’s surprising how scared humans get of this little toon body!” The carefree giggle of the God of Light calms your nerves. Right, what was there to worry about when you literally had a God on your side? While you finish off your breakfast, Mr Pye goes to find something that could be “broken” to explain the lack of visitors today. You take the plate off Lux, petting between his antennae before you go to put it in the sink. It’s only 6 now. There was plenty of time to prepare. 

By 6:30, Mr Pye has set up one of the projectors to appear as if it is malfunctioning. He tries to explain it to you and Lux but as you both give him blank stares he sighs. Simply put, playing a film through this was a fire hazard. That made a bit of sense to you, you knew just how easily these film strips would go up in flames from your time working in Palazzo alone. Mr Pye had been strict about matches and smoking for this reason, firing more than a few rule breaking employees. Though you knew he himself smoked, the smell and the state of his fingers gave it away. “Well, if you don’t understand the technicalities my dear, your dull-as-bricks coworker won’t in a hundred years..” You snort at your boss’ dig at his own employee. He wasn’t wrong, though. That poor guy had to be shown, step by step, how to use the popcorn machines. After the 5th attempt failed, it’s safe to say Mr Pye offered the cleaning role to him for everyone’s safety. Speaking of popcorn, Lux has a bag of it in his hands. That look on his face is awfully mischievous..

“This cleaner guy’s gonna need something to clean up!” The little God runs off into a different theatre before you can grab him, laughing away as you chase him up the steps and around the rows of seats. There’s probably more of a mess being made than if you weren’t running after Lux, but you’re locked onto your target now and there’s no way you’re giving up. Eventually the toon trips on the steps, an array of slapstick sound effects playing as he bounces down to the bottom, landing face first. The popcorn from his bag has successfully been spread around the room. When Lux doesn’t move for about 10 seconds you -more carefully than he did- get down the stairs to check on him. 

Just as you kneel down and put a hand on his shoulder to roll him onto his side, the God of Light jumps up onto you and knocks you down. He growls playfully as he straddles your middle, your hands locked together as you wrestle. His toon strength wins in the end and he pins you down, chuckling along with you as you still try to push him off, to no avail. You finally give in, breathing heavy, hands pinned besides your head as you stare up at Lux. The playfulness is gone, he’s looking at you with the same expression as when you were done getting dressed earlier. He slides up so he’s hovering just below your chest before he leans down, his head right above yours. His eyes flick down to your lips, smirking as he looks back to your eyes, an eyebrow raised. You try to lean up to close the gap but Lux keeps you pinned. The God above you chuckles before leaning down the rest of the way for you, meeting your lips in a soft kiss. He lets go of one hand to cup the back of your neck, running his fingers through the hair he can reach. The feeling of him tugging gently at the roots makes you hum, raising your free hand to give him a taste of his own medicine. His reaction is stronger, a full moan opening his mouth and allowing your tongue entrance. Lux shivers as you lick at the walls of his mouth, the hand on your neck moving to the floor to stabilise himself. He frees your other hand to pull the hair on the back of your head just enough to have it on the floor. Before you can react Lux breaks the kiss and sits up hastily, nearly ripping off his coat and vest. He throws them to the side and leans back down to kiss you again, one hand on the side of your neck while the other runs through your hair. As you lift your hands to undo his bowtie and start unbuttoning his shirt, you feel him chuckle against your lips. Your God breaks the kiss to mouth at your neck, his teeth scraping lightly over your skin. “Atta girl, sunshine. You know just what I want.” 

You’re halfway down his shirt when the sound of a door opening and closing makes the both of you jump. No, no way. He can’t be here that early. He’s always late! Lux growls against your neck quietly, though it’s far different from the sound he made at you during your wrestling. It’s deeper in his throat, the growl of a frustrated God that was interrupted during his time with his angel. He quickly dips down to your neck, teeth pinching at a bit of skin near the front, sucking at it with enough force to make you whine. “Lux, we don't have time now.” With a grumble the God lets you go. Once he's gotten himself off of you he gives you a hand up before going to retrieve the clothes he threw to the side. 

As he redresses Lux turns to you and winks. “Guess we gotta play our roles for now angel. Don't worry, I'll behave.” He tips his hat to you before scampering on up to the projector room. Hopefully he just stays out of sight. That would leave something for you and Mr Pye to not have to come up with an excuse for. You fix up your clothes and hair before you head off to greet your co-worker (as much as you didn't want to). 

Thankfully Mr Pye had intercepted him before he found you, you're able to sneak past them and grab your cleaning equipment. You're not so lucky on the way back, only your quick reflexes stopping you from colliding with the man you've been trying to avoid. “Oh! Good morning pretty dolly! Give those here, let me do the sweepin’.” Your co-worker puffs his chest up before he takes your pan and broom, walking off into a random theatre. Well. That's nice, less work for you. While he does your job, you go to see if Mr Pye needs help with anything.

You're back on film strip dusting duty. When you give your boss an unamused look, he just smiles. “Would you rather be out there with your best buddy?” Your huff gets you a chuckle and a pat on the back. “I am sorry, my dear. I'd have a talk with him if I had any grounds to. Shame he keeps his flirting for when he's alone with you.” To be fair, your words on their own weren't enough to get him into trouble. Sadly you were a woman in the 50s. Besides, he still had that air of malice to him that jump started your heart rate around him. Maybe it'd be best to not give him a reason to be angry. You're interrupted from your thinking as Mr Pye begins whistling, his back facing you as he stands by the “broken” projector. He's doing a pretty bad impression of examining it, seems that acting wasn't one of your boss’ specialties. 

The both of you turn quickly to the sound of your co-worker dashing in. “I'm sorry sir but- well you see.. gosh I don't know what's happening.” You immediately tense, fearing he'd seen Lux. “Something, someone.. keeps throwing stuff at me. I've checked every room, I can't find anyone but I swear.. popcorn, chocolates, heck an empty cardboard box came flying at me one time!” He's paler than when he came in, breathing heavily. As much as you want to laugh, it's clear the God of Light’s pranks are really freaking him out. Mr Pye looks between you and the other man. 

“I see.. well, we haven't heard anyone from in here.” You shake your head in agreement. “Let's all go have a look. If there is someone in the picture house it'll be better to be together.” The three of you go to the theatre where the popcorn attacks had happened. Of course nothing is thrown now there's more people in the room. As you pretend to search the rows of seats, the echoes of.. tap dancing? Jump around the room, making your co-worker look around wildly. 

“Nevermind your broken projector Mr Pye, this place is haunted!” He's now holding the broom to his body like it'll protect him, eyes scanning the room. You share a look with your boss. He's trying his best not to laugh. That doesn't help you, you have to put a hand to your mouth and turn away. While your co-worker is looking at the curtains over the screen, you spy movement in the projector room before a wrapped up piece of chocolate comes flying out to hit the scared man on the back of his head. He lets out a quick high pitched yelp at the contact and whips around. “See, see?! Haunted! Something’s set on tormenting me! Well, I'm not about to let it win.” Before either you or your boss can stop him, he runs up towards the projector room. As he rounds the corner to get to the door, Lux hops over the gap the projector light shines through into the theatre, posing and winking to you before dashing out of the room with his signature giggle. 

Mr Pye gestures with his thumb after the fleeing God. “You might as well join him. Keeps you away from the “haunted” guy.” As he leaves the room, you go after Lux, leaving your co-worker by himself in the theatre. He looks out of the projector room to watch you, his eyes lighting up as he sees you go a different way from Mr Pye. You were alone, or so he thought. 

You find Lux in your personal theatre, still giggling away to himself. “‘It’s haunted, it's haunted!’” His voice goes multiple octaves higher to mock your co-worker, making the both of you laugh. “Oh, this is so much fun toots! I can't wait for tomorrow, I gotta think of some more pranks to pull on this rascal!” At the sound of said rascal you quickly shoo Lux to hide somewhere, watching the little God jump behind a row of seats before you turn to -as you dreadfully thought- your co-worker. 

“Hey, whatcha doing in here by yourself dolly? Ain't you worried about this.. ghost?” ..Dolly? He called you dolly too? Lux peeks over the seat, glaring daggers at the man. Who does he think he is, sweet talking his angel? 

“Oh! I, uh, heard laughing in here. Thought maybe.. there were kids playing some pranks on you.” You can't help but back up as he approaches you. His steps get longer so he can get to you quicker, a sickening little smirk on his face. Though once he's close enough that smile quickly drops. 

He looks down at your throat, right where Lux had been sucking on the skin earlier. “Who.. who did that to you?” Confused, you run a hand over where he's looking. You don't feel anything, so you furrow your eyebrows at him. 

“Who did what?” 

“That.. mark on your neck. Looks like a hickey. Who did it?” Your face scrunches up at his accusatory tone. It felt like your dad was lecturing you. Or.. a jealous boyfriend. Yuck. 

Covering up the mark with your hand, you glare at him. Unaware of the increasingly angry God doing the same thing not far away. “It's none of your business who did it. I'm not yours.” You feel eyes on you at that. A smile flickers on Lux’s face. That's right, you're his. Not that man's. 

Your coworker isn't as happy about that. He huffs, turning his head to look out into the hallway before closing in on you again. You're stopped by an annoying wall, sliding along it towards the stage as the man keeps following after you. “Then whose are you, hm? I know you haven't been out, haven't seen you in town until yesterday. Who have you been with? Who could you possibly have been with?” 

“How the hell do you know where I've been? You fucking creep, have you been stalking me?!” You're against another wall, your coworker's back to Lux. As the man doesn't answer and only walks towards you, a deep, dark growl erupts from the seats. He whips around towards the sound, freezing at the sight before him. 

Lux crawls over the seats towards the both of you, eyes glowing gold as he stares right at your co-worker. He's not even bothering with the Mr Ring-A-Ding disguise. Just a pure angry God. “Ya think it's funny, scaring a girl while she's alone, huh?” When Lux steps up onto the stage you finally realise. He's taller. The once under 3ft cartoon is now at 4ft easily as he approaches the man who's pissed him off. “Well mister, perhaps you need a bit more scarin’. Tossin’ popcorn at your head wasn't enough, evidently.” Lux has him walking away from you, backing up the now shaking man towards the entrance to the theatre. 

“I.. I'm coming back. Tomorrow. I'll get you out of here.” Your co-worker points to you. “Get you away from this.. thing.” Before either you or Lux can react, he seems to decide he'll do it today and pushes Lux into the theatre’s seats to get to you, grabbing your wrist and dragging you. As much as you try to pull your wrist free, even bashing his hand with your unoccupied one you can't seem to shake his grip. Your God gives chase after recovering, growling all the way as he struggles to get used to his taller form, at times on all fours to try and catch up. The lights flicker brighter and dimmer as you run past them, looking desperately for anything to get this mad man off of you. You're nearing the entrance to the building, sunlight beaming in through the glass. Lux slides to a stop at the sight of it, panic rising to his face. He can't get to you. As a last effort, strips of film fly past him to reach for you. Your co-worker drags you in front of him and pushes you out the door, out of the film’s reach. The little God has to watch helplessly as you're pulled away from Palazzo, a hand still reaching out like you'll materialise next to him if he tries hard enough. He stands there until you're out of sight, his body shaking with an array of emotions before he crumples to the floor.

Your co-worker drags you all the way to your house. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!” As he stops in front of your door, you get the opportunity to punch him right in the nose with your free hand. God you'd wanted to do that for so long. As he's busy whimpering in pain and clutching his -hopefully- broken nose, you're free to fish around your pockets for your house key. Thankfully you'd put it in these pockets or you'd somehow have to get back to Palazzo with this guy on your tail. There was the option of going to your coworker's house but at the moment you'd rather sleep outside on the street than be with him. 

He looks up at the sound of you opening your door. “Gosh, I'm sorry for saving you from that.. thing! Did you not hear it growling? It could've killed us!” The man tries to walk into your house but you quickly kick him in the stomach, keeping him outside. 

“At what point did I ask to be saved?! I think you'll find that ‘thing’ was growling because you're a fucking weirdo! How did you know I hadn't been out? You been checking my house, keeping an eye out for me while you're in town? Don't answer, I don't care at this point. Just know, if I see you again, I will take you back to that picture house and personally fucking feed you to that ‘thing’!” At that, you slam the door in his face and quickly lock it. With a heavy sigh you walk further into your house, checking the clock as you make your way to the kitchen. God, it was only 1. You take a quick peek out the window. He's still there. He's going to camp outside your house, isn't he? Another sigh leaves your body as you make your way upstairs. It might not even be the evening but today has worn you out. As you settle on your bed, your thoughts turn to Lux. Hopefully he's doing alright with your absence.

Lux is, in fact, doing anything but alright. He's moved from the entrance of Palazzo, now hiding in your projector room as he thinks of a way to get you back from that pest. Mr Pye was an option, though older. Not as fast, probably wouldn't keep up if the man dragged you away again. Maybe.. if he can just find something to lure that guy back, he could trap him in here. Make him pay. His frantic brainstorming is interrupted by Mr Pye gently knocking on the door. “Um, Lux, sir.. where’s our cleaner?” His question is met with an otherworldly growl. 

“Gone, Mr Reginald Pye, she's fucking gone! That.. that maniac dragged her out of the building!” Lux runs a hand over his antennae, trying his hardest not to take out his anger on the old caretaker. What was happening to you? Is he hurting you? Did he kidnap you? The God of Light clutches his head, still not used to all this worrying. 

Mr Pye is silent for a minute, before he reaches into his pocket. “I think that man will be back soon enough. I doubt he'd want to be without this.” Lux looks up at that. In the human's hand is a small black box. The toon looks unimpressed until Mr Pye opens it. Inside is a ring. Lux knew what it meant, he'd seen similar kinds in the films he'd watched. 

That man wanted to marry you. 

Your co-worker digs through every pocket he has on his work clothes, searching desperately. Shit, it must've fallen out as he ran out the building with you. Damn it, he'd saved up for more than a year for that thing! That was his one chance to get you to be his. Yeah, you'd turned down the rest of his advancements but what girl could resist a ring? There was always the chance it had been lost after he'd gotten out the building, he thinks, as he walks back the way he'd run with you while he checks the ground. Besides, that.. creature wasn't actually that scary. He was taller than it, in your coworker's mind that meant he could beat it. It's not long before he ends up back at Palazzo, no sign of the box. Guess it did fall out while he was in there. With a shrug, he opens the door and walks back in. As he checks the floor, he misses the sound of the lock clicking into place. Sealing him in. Sealing his fate.

[I'm sure he's fine. Don't worry about him, you'll go back to check on him next time! By the way.. you guys ever thought of using the film strips as bondage? I am >;)]

[osxmui]

‘ life can be cruel , if you’re not a dreamer . ’

summary : you start your first day at the cafe, and learn of a certain bandaged barista, unknowingly kidnap his cat, but it was somewhat worth it when he and another barista come over to the cafe the next day searching for his ‘beloved’ cat and thinks that one of your friends stole it as revenge.

AUTHORS NOTE : hai !! first chapter is done, and i had so much fun writing this. unfortunately, i did struggle at some parts, like the rent thing and had no idea what to do for the plot😭 so, let’s all just act like its a good excuse and its just for the plot !! and characters might be ooc, and unfortunately for everyone, i highkey dgaf and this is for fun so if u come in my ask box to say “omg this is so ooc!!” YES I KNOW GET OUT OF MY ASKS I KNOW anyway if u do wanna be tagged in future updates, just lmk i will gladly tag you :3

GENERAL WARNINGS : reader is afab / fem, she/her pronouns will be used when needed. cussing (obviously), sometimes i will specify outfits but you can just imagine your outfit any other time lol , college stuff, substance abuse mention in other chapters, self harm mentions at times (dazai), dazais siblings r elise and yumeno, and oda, mori his dad.. the slowest slow burn of all of the slow burns, rare sex jokes because i can not resist, and just typical dazai behavior .. also, it has been awhile since i have written like this, so i might be bad at first so. um. ignore that.. + some time skips so we can get to the good part :) tried to speed this chapter up so we can get to the better part of the fic ! anyway, have fun reading!

you had set a routine for yourself once you left the comfort of your home for college; sleep, wake up at 5am to get ready, go to class at 6:30am, study after class, go to more classes, go back to your shared apartment around 4:30pm, relax a bit until 10:45, sleep, and repeat. you were not planning on changing that at all, until your landlord decided to up your rent, and you were forced to work with your friend, chuuya, who was working at a local cafe. originally, he had been paying the rent, and you paid the bills with money your parents gave to you as a little startup, and you could not pay rent with the money, and did bills until now.

you had felt bad for him once the rent raised, especially since the rent was now almost 1,950?? you possibly couldn’t let him pay by himself! so, you got a job at the cafe he worked at with your friend group.

and, you seriously regretted that after seeing how chaotic it was..

⌢ time : 4:30 pm . ⌣

you and chuuya were walking to the cafe after class. the heels of both of your shoes clicked against the pavement of the sidewalk, the sound of your voices quietly echoed through the air of the already loudness of the campus, other students chatting away and the sound of the occasional laugh registered in your mind.

“you’ll be fine, the cafe is a really nice place. you’ll do great, i’m sure.” chuuyas voice suddenly came through, breaking the momentarily silence you two shared for a bit.

you never really worked in a cafe. a fast food place? sure. but a cafe was new, but you knew everything since your mother owned a cafe, and you sometimes came over and watched her work. but this was new, you are ACTUALLY working at one, and doing all the things you saw your mother do.

“i know i’ll do fine, it’s just new, y’know?” you reply to him, but you were grateful for his assurances either way. a small hum left him after you spoke, and you could feel him offer you a small look. “just don’t stress about it, yeah? if you need anything, i can help you.”

after alot of talking, you two had started walking out of campus grounds and walked down the sidewalk towards the cafe, and you could see the little building in the distance after a few minutes of walking.

⌢ time : 5:39 pm . ⌣

luckily, there weren’t any customers since apparently, customers rarely came in at this time unless it was game day for the college, and then the cafe was packed since it did have a tv where they could watch the game.

but that wasn’t all that important, you were just glad that you didn’t need to deal with ‘bitchy’ customers. chuuyas words, not yours.

you were in the middle of putting on your apron as your friends spoke, their voices overlapping the faint sound of music playing from the speakers.

“god, i hate those people. they constantly try to one-up us with their deals and purposefully got a bigger tv for game day. you know, one of those days, i’ll break that tv in front of them..” chuuya grumbled, his narrowed eyes focused on the cafe that was actually across the road. if it was not obvious that he hated the cafe across the street, then the look in his eyes was definitely an obvious sign.

“oh, calm down. it’s not like they do it on purpose.” higuchi spoke, rolling her eyes at his complaint while she wrote on some of the paper cups, something their cafe made them do to show that it was a welcoming spot or whatever the manger said. “oh, they definitely do it on purpose. have you seen how smug they looked when they got that tv? what bitches.” tachihara spoke up, standing next to chuuya as they both glared at the cafe across the street.

“aren’t you all being dramatic? it surely can’t be that bad.” you eventually spoke after getting your apron on and went to help higuchi, who gave a grateful look and continued. “she’s right, it’s not that bad, you’re all being dramatic.” higuchi agreed.

chuuya and tachihara glared at you and higuchi in sync, the two boys clearly judging you both. “you two have no idea what those idiots are like. even in class, they’re so bitchy. i am unfortunately cursed and have a class with the freaky bandaged one.” chuuya sighed, looking back at the cafe across the street.

you sighed, shaking your head at your best friends words. “you say that like it’s a bad thing, he might be nicer than you think.” you reply, trying to be optimistic since chuuya did have the habit of being a little dramatic with his opinions of people. “chuuyas right, the bandaged one or whatever his name is, is weird. dude looks like a mummy of sorts.” tachihara had spoken up, also looking back at the cafe.

chuuya immediately scowled once he saw some of the workers from the cafe across the street walking up to their own cafe, a few of them in a group as they started opening up their cafe.

you looked up and watched, examining the small group of people who seemed to go at the same college. there was a blonde man, a woman with dark hair that had her hair in a messy bob of sorts, a younger guy who looked to be a first year with white hair, one with brown hair and glasses, and another guy with brown hair that had bandages around him.

“what are their names?” you whisper to higuchi, not wanting to interrupt chuuya and tachiharas glaring. “hm? oh, the blonde is kunikida, the woman is yosano, the one with white hair is atsushi, the one with brown hair and glasses is ranpo, and the bandaged one that chuuya hates is dazai.” the blonde woman whispered back, to which you nodded in response.

“they seem nice, why is that they’re hated?” you ask again. you were confused, the group seemed genuinely nice, so you had no idea why most of your friends seemed to hate the cafe. “oh, chuuya got into a fight with dazai a few weeks ago and their cafe and ours seemed to have a war of sorts ever since.” she had whispered back, shrugging as she continued to write on cups.

ah, you had heard about that. chuuya had come back in the evening one night, and said he got into a fight with some ‘idiot from class that looks like hes cosplaying a mummy.’ .. you didn’t know why you didn’t realize that until now, but it made sense since chuuya had an obvious grudge.

⌢ time : 8:27 pm . ⌣

you and chuuya were now walking home after work, it had been a nice day, the cafe wasn’t that busy, and it was a good first day. now, you were walking home.

but, you stumbled upon a pretty, somewhat fluffy black cat, who seemed to be freezing in the low temperatures of the night. you were immediately going to help it as chuuya followed.

you looked back at chuuya as you sat on the pavement of the sidewalk, then at the cat and quickly took your jacket off. “what are you doing?” chuuya quickly asked as you slowly approached the cat, smiling at how the cat was snuggling up to your hand. “i’m not letting a cat freeze up in the cold. i would feel horrible if i left this poor thing in the cold.” you reply to him, slowly getting the cat to come closer.

the cat was the sweetest thing ever, you could hear small purrs come from it as you gently pet it, but you quickly wrapped it in your jacket and slowly picked it up, smiling at how it easily allowed it. the cat was obviously accustomed to humans, and trusted them easily, so it was pretty easy to pick it up.

“come on, we’re going to the store first and buying it some food until we figure out what to do with it.” you suddenly announced, already walking in the direction of the local store. chuuya sighed, already knowing he couldn’t stop you when you were determined and simply followed. “you’re insane. what are we going to do with a cat we found on the street? we can’t keep it!” he spoke, crossing his arms as he walked next to you.

“well, we’re not keeping it forever, dumbass! just until we figure out what to do with it or some missing pet poster pops up.” you remark back, a small huffy sigh left you as you continued your walk, and eventually made it to the store.

the two of you walked into the store, both of you offering polite smiles to the workers who greeted you both. you and chuuya walked to the pet aisle, and went to the shelf of cat food as you held the purring cat in your arms.

“do we get it wet food or?” chuuya whispered to you, you shrugged and just decided to go with wet food and dry food. you were sure wet food was the answer, but you wanted to be safe and not buy something the cat wouldn’t eat. “get both, just in case, y’know?”

chuuya hummed in response, grabbing a small can of wet food and a small bag of dry food before you two walked to the shelf checkout area. you watched how he scanned the items and put them into a plastic bag, and then decided to spare him of trying to find his card and offered to pay (more like forced..). “grab my card from my bag, it’s in the second pocket.” you spoke to him, smiling at the sigh he gave and went to your crossbody bag.

he went through the pockets, looking for the card in the pocket you said it would be in, and after a few moments, he eventually found it and grabbed it, and went to pay. and after a few seconds, he returned the card and closed your bag, then went to grab the plastic bag with the cat food.

after a few minutes, you two were now walking home with the cat and the cat food. you ignored the cold air biting at your hands, and you were suddenly grateful that you were wearing a warm, long sleeved shirt since you definitely didn’t want to get sick from this. but the cat definitely seemed warm.. lucky.

“what are we going to do with the cat when we go to work?” you suddenly ask chuuya, remembering that you actually had to work tomorrow and you didn’t necessarily trust a cat you picked up from the street to be alone in your house. “we can give it to koyou? she’s not busy and can watch the cat while we work.” he suggested with a shrug, knowing that his older sister, koyou, could probably help.

you nodded in agreement, knowing koyou could be trusted rather than all of your other friends. “yeah, we can go to koyous house before class, and after work, we can pick up the cat.” you agree.

⌢ time : 6:15 am . ⌣

you and chuuya were currently walking down the hallway of a familiar apartment building, walking to a door that had the number ‘629’ , the same apartment that chuuyas older sister lived in. as you held the cat with one arm, your free hand went to the door, giving a few knocks.

after a few moments, you and chuuya could hear the door lock unlocking, and the door opened to show a woman with redish hair, and was still wearing her home clothes. “oh, hello. did you two need something?” she spoke up softly, giving a polite smile, and a curious look.

you both immediately smiled back at the woman before you. “hey, koyou. we’re wondering if you can watch this cat for the day, and we’ll pick it up after work?” you ask her, seeing how she immediately nodded in agreement and you handed the cat over. “sure, i can watch it for the day. just get to all of your classes, yes?”

you mentally sighed in relief, mostly because you weren’t really expecting her to be that nice, and she seemed to be in a good mood. “thank you, koyou.” chuuya spoke before you, giving his sister a grateful smile before she nodded and closed the door with the cat in her hold.

well, at least you got that out of the way..

⌢ time : 5:08 pm . ⌣

you and all of your friends were at work, you and chuuya had arrived first, then tachihara, then higuchi. all of your other friends were busy with night classes, so they worked the morning shift, while you and the others worked the late afternoon to night shift.

anyways. you and chuuya were in the back, simply talking while chuuya got a smoke break, but then, you two heard yelling from the front. you immediately went inside while chuuya shortly followed after taking a big hit of his cigarette before putting it out, and quickly followed after you.

the moment you walked in, you were witnessing the weirdest scene ever. dazai and yosano were at the counter, talking to tachihara.

“i already told you, i didn’t see your stupid cat nor did i take it!” tachihara yelled back at dazai, who was looking at tachihara as if he killed his whole family. “bullshit, i know one of you took it as revenge!” dazai replied quickly, clearly unhappy and was certain one of you took it.

you and chuuya walked up to the counter, and chuuya crossed his arms as he interrupted. “what’s wrong now, dazai? why the hell are you yelling at my coworkers?” chuuya spoke, glaring at dazai, who focused his attention to you and chuuya as yosano sighed quietly and just watched.

“i know one of you took my cat, there’s nobody else who would steal it but you and your idiotic friends.” he easily replied to chuuya. the brunette took out a paper and waved it in chuuyas face, showing a missing poster of a fluffy, black cat. the same black cat you saved from the cold so it didn’t freeze to death.

well, fuck. you didn’t really mean to steal this guys cat, and the cat didn’t have a collar, so you just sort of assumed it was a stray.

you and chuuya immediately shared a look, before chuuya gave a cocky smile, and before you could speak and admit you had the cat, chuuya cut in and looked back at dazai. “nah, didn’t see your stupid cat anywhere. but i did see another cafe down the road take in a cat that sort of looks like that inside.” chuuya lied through his teeth, shrugging as if it was nothing.

dazai narrowed his eyes, shoving the paper back in his pocket, keeping eye contact the whole time. “osamu, if they said they didn’t take the cat, then they didn’t. no need to be this protective over it.” yosano suddenly spoke, then dazai sighed and softened, realizing he was being dramatic, but he couldn’t help it. the cat was the only thing making him survive the hell that was college.

“fine, if you say that you don’t have it, then you don’t. but if i find out that you or any of your friends stole it and you’re lying to my face, i will—” he spoke, but you quickly cut him off, and decided to just go with chuuyas lie since you two were way too deep into this now. “is it really necessary to threaten? how about this; if we ever see the cat, then we can come find it and give it to you, personally.” you had cut in with a polite smile, noticing how he looked at you, his mood changing immediately as he saw an opportunity to be playful with someone.

dazai smiled, suddenly perking up and becoming all nice. “is that so? personally? how sweet.” he replied with a hint of playfulness. chuuya immediately looked at dazai with a narrowed gaze, wondering how the fuck dazais mood changed.

you, tachihara and chuuya were both confused on how dazais mood quickly changed, how it was like he changed in a blink of an eye. first, he was all stressed and frustrated, then, he was suddenly cheerful and playful? what the fuck?

“yes, personally. now, if you and your friend don’t mind, we actually want to work.” chuuya scoffed, rolling his eyes, and dazai looked back at chuuya, seemingly calmed down and shrugged. “fine, then. enjoy your 4 customers.” he said with a mocking grin, then turned around, grabbed yosano and dragged her out the cafe.

tachihara watched the two leave the cafe in disdain, before the bell atop the door rang, signaling the door being opened and closed. “god, what a fucking mood swing that was.. jesus, that guy needs to get checked out and put on some pills.” tachihara mumbled, before going back to setting the coffee machine up.

chuuya was happily smiling once dazai and yosano left, clearly glad that dazai was finally out the shop. that was something he was grateful for. “we are not giving him back that cat until the end of the month, i must drag out his misery.” chuuya whispered to you with a happy sounding sigh, finally finding something to hold over dazai.

you sighed quietly, realizing that you couldn’t do anything since you just lied to that guys face about his cat, and was now holding the thing hostage. “we are so fucked.” you mumbled quietly under your breath.

you had no idea how you will keep your mouth shut about it, but it was too late now to go back..

small authors note : sneaking in my hc of dazai having very, very sudden mood swings hehe.. Though, i do apologize for how rushed this chapter was! just trying to get to the good part quicker ^_^ + reblogs, likes and comments are appreciated <3

[matthewswifeee]

Snowstorm

In which you and Matt are waiting at the airport all day long in order to make it homme before Christmas. . . .

"Tell me what you want to eat and I will go get it (Y/n)" Matt says after asking me countless times what I wanted for breakfast as we're waiting for our flight. "I don't know" I say snapping at him and turning a few heads around us. "Don't start with the attitude" he says quietly but stern. "I don't have an attitude" I say turning away from him in my chair. "Baby" Matt says trying to turn my attention back toward him, but I just ignore his efforts.

"Flight 543B to Boston Massachusetts scheduled for 5:30am will be experiencing a delay until 9:00am" We hear them announce earning a groan from both Matt and I.

Matt and I are flying back home to Boston two days before Christmas, which means it won't be easy with all of this snow. Sure we anticipated this but it still was annoying. "I should've just cancelled my stupid meeting and we'd already be home" I say irritated at the fact that this was all my fault. We were supposed to fly back home a week ago, but I had last minute meeting to wrap up before I could go and Matt decided to stay with me instead of flying back when Nick and Chris did so that I wouldn't be alone.

"It's ok we'll get there" Matt says wrapping his arm around my waist. Matt texted his family as I did the same to let them know about our delay. "Do you want me to go get you something" Matt asks and I shake my head. We've been at the airport since 3am and I am beyond tired.

"Flight 543B to Boston Massachusetts scheduled for 9:00am will be experiencing another delay until 11:40am" They announce again that our flight is be delayed. "Fuck" I say furious as I roll my eyes and put my head in my lap.

I hear Matt's phone ringing and then immediately hear Chris on the other side. "We got delayed again" Matt tells his brother. "Till what time" Chris asks. "Almost noon" Matt says rubbing his eyes, tired. "Well the snow isn't supposed to let up until sometime tomorrow morning so you'll probably be waiting awhile" Chris informs us making me lose it. Tears start streaming down my face like someone opened the flood gates and I just can't stop.

"Chris I'll call you back" Matt says before hanging up the phone and turning his attention toward me. "Baby it's ok" Matt says rubbing my back. "No it's not... we're literally never going to make it home in time and it's all my fault" I say sobbing. "Look at me" he says tilting my chin up to look him in the eyes "It's not your fault, you can't control the weather... we'll make it home before Christmas" he says pulling me into a hug and I just cry.

"Attention, all flights scheduled for departure to the state of New York, the state of New Hampshire, the state of Maine, the state of Connecticut, the state of Vermont, and the state of Massachusetts are all canceled due to weather" the women announces over the speaker making me want to just completely break down.

"You're fucking kidding" I say loudly, we're now stuck in Washington unless we can find a flight home in the next three day. "We can go check right now to see if they have anything for the next available flights" Matt says putting his backpack on and standing. We make our way to service desk and they tell us that there is no availability until tomorrow night at 11pm. We buy the tickets and then go find another seat in the airport. "We need somewhere to sleep because we cant stay here" Matt says looking exhausted, so I pull out my phone and look for somewhere for us to sleep tonight.

We ended up ubering to a nearby hotel finally finding a little relief from this crazy day. "This has been the worst fucking day ever" I say laying next to Matt in the bed. "I know baby I know... hopefully everything will work out tomorrow" Matt says pulling me close to him.

The next morning we wake up and I see a text from Nick saying that the snow has finally stopped, thank god. We are both laying in bed when I get a notification from Delta airline, I press on it praying that it wasn't going to say that our flight was delayed or cancelled once again. "We gotta go now" I say jumping out of bed. "What" Matt says obviously confused being that we don't have to be at the airport until 9pm. "They have two spots on the next flight our, we have to be at the airport in 40 minutes" I say frantically making Matt jump up as we rush ourselves back to the airport.

"Now boarding flight 234A to Boston Massachusetts" the lady announces putting a smile on both mine and Matt's faces. "We're gonna make it" I say sitting in the airplane seat next to Matt with a smile. "I told you" he says.

We get off the plane and Matt's mom picks us up from the airport. "Hey kids" she excitedly says hugging us both. "So glad you two finally made it" she says hugging Matt again before we get into the car. "Nothing like Christmas back home" Matt says smiling as he looks out the window at all the snow.

[hockeyforbabes]

Come back to bed

Connor is always trying to sneak off to practice and Amber is tired of it.

Masterlist

^^^ That's Amber's cat Ginger

I was woken up by the feeling of my phone vibrating under my pillow. Groggy from sleep I'm confused for a moment before I remember I set an alarm last night but left it on vibrate so I wouldn’t wake Amber. Doing my best not to move her I grab my phone and turn off the Alarm.

Looking down she is laying on my chest with her arms around me. She looks so peaceful and happy while she sleeps I’m tempted to just wrap myself back around her. Since we started dating a few months ago we spend almost every night together that I'm in town. I've grown used to having her sleep next to me but I don't appreciate it any less.

Unfortunately, I have practice and I need to get up so I can't lay with her any longer. Slowly and carefully I manage to peel her off of me and slide out of bed before making my way to the bathroom.

It’s 5:30AM and I don’t need to be at the rink until 9AM but I want to get extra practice in. I've always trained intensely but after my jaw injury in January, I've felt like I'm behind everyone and I need to catch up. I know if Amber hears me up she will try to stop me so I’m sneaking around.

After brushing my teeth and hair and getting dressed I tiptoe to the kitchen. I manage to make my coffee and grab a breakfast bar before I head to put my shoes on. As I’m grabbing my keys, I see Ginger at my feet and I freeze knowing that means Amber is awake...

“Connor Bedard what the fuck are you doing?” She says quietly but sternly, her voice is still laced with sleep. She is just in my shirt which swallows her, accentuating that she just got up to yell at me. Standing there with her arms crossed and a frustrated look I can tell I’m in trouble.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to wake up but I really need to get to the arena.”

“No you don’t,” she says blocking the door, “you don’t have to be there until 9AM and it’s 5:30”

“I want to get a little extra ice time,” I shrug trying to reason with her.

“Connor this is your fourth day in a row going in early for extra ice time. If I didn't know you better I would think it's just an excuse because you are having an affair,”

I can tell her voice is laced with sarcasm but the accusation catches me off guard, "What the fuck that's insane!"

"Is it really? You get home late and leave early in the morning. Do you have a wife and kids you are running home to after telling them you were on the night shift," She says. I can tell she is joking but she gets her point across that I have been gone a lot.

I move towards her and put my hands on her waist, "Amber I am not having an affair, I am nineteen years old when would I have gotten married and had kids.

"Ok then talk to me, if you aren't at practice or weight training with the team you are doing them on your own. You are home for 8 hours a day and you sleep for 6. I understand you work hard but this is a whole new level. You haven't been this bad since when we first met."

"I just need all the ice time I can get right now, I missed too much because of my jaw and I'm falling behind," I admit.

"That's not even remotely true and even if you did need extra practice you also need to rest."

"Rest doesn't make me a better player."

“Actually it does because your body needs it and so does your mind. If you over tire them you’ll be a worse player.” She counters my argument.

“Come on this is cute but I need to go, please let me out,” I say

“Connor Bedard if you walk out this door instead of coming back to bed and holding your girlfriend you aren’t getting laid for a very long time.” She threatens

I contemplate my choices because 1. I know she isn’t kidding and 2. I know I need to rest I just have a hard time making that decision for myself.

"I know you love and you are killing yourself right now, please just slow down," she says softer.

Reluctantly I sigh “ok fine I’m coming back to bed. But I’m leaving at 8AM”

She smiles when I give in, “deal”

Moving from her position blocking me from the door she wraps her arms around me and looks up at me, “is it really that bad to have to hold your girlfriend for two more hours” she jokes

Wrapping my arms around her I kiss the top of her head, “No not at all, you know I just have a hard time taking a break. Especially right now when I’m coming back from so much time off with the jaw injury.”

“I understand love, you know I just want what’s best for you.” She says with her head on my chest rubbing her hands on my back soothingly.

“Thank you for looking out for me when I don’t always look out for myself. I love you,” I whisper into her hair.

She pulls back and smiles, “I love you too, now let’s go to bed”

Taking her hand I follow her back into the bedroom. She crawls back into bed while I take off my shoes and shirt then slip in behind her.

Laying there with my arms around her I remain awake for a few minutes. She notices I’m still awake and begins softly playing with my hair. Thinking back on when we met last July I smile a little. She's been my best friend and my rock since I got here and I don't think I would survive without her.

Listening to the sound of her breathing and enjoying her hands in my hair I'm back asleep before I know it

Author's note <3

Here is my first little blurb for this AU. I wanted to give everyone a little taste of Connor and Amber's relationship before I start writing more. Per usual feel free to send in as many requests as you want!

[housethemd]

Good Morning

(Married House/Wilson, kid fic, takes place in the same universe as “Expect the Unexpected.”)

Wilson’s alarm goes off at 5:00am. Groaning, he rolls over to shut it off. He yawns, and runs a hand down his face. They stayed up far too late last night, but with three children age six and under the only time they get to themselves is after the kids are sound asleep.

Last night grown up time lasted until after midnight. Past Wilson hadn’t cared about the late hour as he made love to his husband, and while present Wilson is very tired he can’t quite bring himself to say last night was a bad idea. Gone are the days where they did whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, so it’s always wonderful when they take the opportunity to connect.

He rolls over a presses a kiss to the thinning hair on the top of his sleeping husbands head. House doesn’t stir, and Wilson finally finds the willpower to pull himself out of their warm bed. The hardwood is cold beneath his feet as he shuffles over to the other side of the bed to grab the baby monitor off House’s bedside table.

Over the years they’ve worked out an arrangement that seems to work for them most of the time. House handles the kids during the night - feedings, diaper changes, requests for glasses of water or giving comfort after bad dreams. House is usually up multiple times a night anyway because of his leg and he insists that getting up and moving helps. It was his idea for him to manage the kids at night.

Wilson handles the kids after 5am until their nanny comes at 8:00am. He has always been a morning person, so it’s much easier for him to manage the kids in the early morning while House has a couple hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Making his way into the kitchen he follows the smell of coffee. One of the best investments they ever made was a coffee pot with a timer, so now Wilson has freshly brewed coffee as soon as he wakes up every morning. Placing the baby monitor on the counter he pours himself a cup and takes a big sip, basking in the temporary silence.

Elijah, their nine month old, will be up soon. He is usually up around 5:30am, so Wilson wakes up at 5am to have a few minutes of quiet before the games begin. Shortly after Eli, Leah will wake up and trying to keep a three and half year old quiet so her other father can sleep is a monumental task every morning. Six year old Evan, love his heart, will usually sleep until someone wakes him up. Wilson will go in around 6:30am, or if House gets up around then and sees Evan’s door still closed he’ll go in and wake him.

Wilson looks around the house, the house they bought last year after the confirmation that they’d soon be a family of five. It took a lot of hunting to find a home that would suit their needs. They not only needed space for their family, but anyplace with stairs was an immediate no given House’s disability. In the end they’d found their five bedroom bungalow on the edge of downtown Princeton and now Wilson couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

The clock on the stove reads 5:21 when a cry comes from over the baby monitor, pulling Wilson from his reverie. He makes his way into Eli’s room, turning on the lamp on the dresser by the door when he enters. The cries stop when the baby sees his daddy, replaced by babbling.

“Dadadada!” He squeals happily from his spot sitting up in the crib.

“Hey Buddy.” Wilson coos to his son as he picks him up.

He presses a kiss to his son’s forehead, who grins up at him. His eyes are big and brown, identical to Wilson’s own. He still doesn’t have much for hair, but what he has is fine and brown.

A quick diaper change and it’s back out the kitchen for breakfast. His highchair is on top of a plastic mat that is supposed to be used for painting, but Eli has recently started feeding himself with a small spoon which is excellent for his motor development, less excellent for the cleanliness of the kitchen floor.

Today’s breakfast is oatmeal and mashed banana. The baby chews a teething toy from the freezer as Wilson prepares his breakfast. He babbles intermittently, which results in Wilson babbling back.

Eli is only half way through eating and spilling his breakfast down his bib, the tray, and onto the floor when Leah appears in the kitchen. She is slow to wake up, and always has the most adorable grumpy face in the mornings. She’s wrapped her purple baby blanket around her like a cape, and just stares at her father like he can read her mind. Something he swears she learned from House.

“Good morning Sweetheart.” He says softly.

“Want peanut butter toast.” She demands. Something Wilson also swears she learned from House.

“How do we ask nicely?” He responds gently.

“Want peanut butter toast, please.” She tries again.

He’ll take it.

By 6:30 the dishes from breakfast round one are in the sink, and he’s got Eli dressed and playing in his excersaucer in the living room. He manges to work through the daily outfit drama when dressing Leah (who knew a three and a half year old could be so picky about their clothes) before he hears the sound of Evan’s bedroom door opening.

He sticks his head out from Leah’s room to catch him on his way by while Leah fights with her socks.

“Good morning, I’ll be out in a sec to make something for you for breakfast.” He smiles at his oldest.

“Okay Daddy.” He says with a stretch and a yawn.

A shrill screech sounds from behind him, and Wilson turns rapidly only to see Leah throwing her socks across the room.

“Hey hey, if you are having trouble with something you can ask for help. There is no need to throw things or yell.” Wilson says softly but sternly.

He’d dreaded the terrible two’s when Leah had turned that age, because Evan had been a struggle at that age. However Leah had been more or less a pleasant two year old. He’d thought that meant they were in for relatively smooth sailing but then he’d learned a new term - threenager.

He loves his little girl more than words could say, just as he loves all his kids but mornings are hard with her right now. There is usually at least one tantrum and he has to try and calm her down before she wakes House while still teaching better ways of dealing with big feelings.

The sound of a cane hitting the floor in the hall mean he’s been unsuccessful this morning.

“The socks didn’t feel right.” Leah informs him, looking up with her big brown eyes.

“Okay, well next time how about you let me know right away, and Daddy will get you different socks.” He says, reaching into her sock drawer to pull out a different pair.

He thought he’d selected her current favorite socks, but apparently her favourite had changed. Once the new socks are approved and on her feet Wilson presses a kiss to her head.

“How about you go play in the living room? I’m going to go get Evan his breakfast, okay?”

Leah nods, and grabbing a couple toys from her room heads to living room with Wilson not far behind.

When he makes in to the kitchen House is leaning on the counter with Evan sitting on the countertop next to him. They are both eating pop-tarts.

“Hi Daddy. Papa let me have one of this pop-tarts!” The boy enthused.

“Did he now?” Wilson replies, eyeing his husband.

“Thought I’d give you hand and feed our oldest” House says, taking a large bite out of the corner of his pop tart.

Wilson can’t help but smile. They try not to feed the kids overly surgery breakfasts, on school days at least, but he can’t bring himself to be frustrated. In fact he wishes he had the camera close by. Watching House and his 6 year old doppelgänger smile and laugh over pop tarts is so blissfully domestic and mundane that it melts Wilson’s heart.

Wilson approaches to press kisses to both their foreheads.

“Run and get dressed when you’ve finished eating, okay?” He directs his son.

“And you, give me a bite of your pop tart.” He says to his husband, stepping close to wrap his arms around his middle.

“I’m sorry, this is my pop tart.” House says innocently, holding the sweet monstrosity as far away from Wilson as he can.

“Hmm yes and we are married. That means anything that’s yours is legally half mine, and I want my portion.” Wilson cajoled, reaching to try and snatch the treat from House’s hand.

There is a brief scuffle that ends in Wilson managing to snap a corner off the pop tart and triumphantly popping it into his mouth. House glares at him while he eats it, but once he’s finished House gives him that crooked smile and Wilson can’t help but lean in and press a firm kiss to his lips.

“You guys are weird.”

Evan, who is still seated on the counter after finishing his breakfast, eyes them warily. He wasn’t quite to the age where he was grossed out by his parents affection, but he had started commenting on their more unusual antics.

“Proudly! I hope someday you find a man and/or woman to be this weird with. Now, go get dressed before Wendy gets here.” House directs, moving around Wilson to lift Evan off the counter and safely back down to the floor.

“You know I can jump down, right?” Evan says when House has him under the armpits.

“Yes, I know. But it’s a little to early in the morning to give Daddy a heart attack, okay?” House says, ruffling Evan’s dark curls.

Evan laughed, “Okay Papa.” And scurries off to his bedroom.

“Man and/or woman?” Wilson questions.

“Yeah well, you never know what the kid might grow up to be into. Wouldn’t want to be heteronormative.” House jokes.

Wilson can’t help but laugh.

“Now, where were we?” House purrs.

House leans against the counter and grabs Wilson by his belt loops, pulling him to stand in the space between his legs. Wilson happily lets himself be guided and meets House’s lips with a deeper kiss this time. Wilson was about to introduce his tongue to the equation when a loud noise came from the living room, immediately followed by the piercing cry their nine month old.

Both Wilson and House were in the living room in a second. Leah stood with wooden blocks surrounding her feet, looking slightly guilty, and Elijah was in his excersaucer bawling his head off.

With a glance to one another, they made the silent decision to divide and conquer. Wilson went to Eli, scooping him up and bouncing him while making a litany of soothing sounds.

House went to Leah, pushing blocks out of the way so he could sit on the floor at her level.

“Sorry Papa. I wanted to build a really really really big tower but I knocked it over. I didn’t mean to make Eli cry.” She said, batting her eyelashes in a way Wilson knows House is weak for. Their little girl truly has him wrapped around her finger.

“I know you didn’t mean to, but mornings are for quiet play, right?” House says, attempting to be stern.

“My tower was quiet.” She said.

“Yes, right up until it fell over. That’s why we don’t make big towers in the morning, right? Because they usually fall down. You are lucky none of the blocks hit Eli, but you scared him pretty bad.” House gestured to where Eli was still whimpering in Wilson’s arms.

“I made the tower far enough away so even if it fell it wouldn’t hit him.” She informs House. God, was she ever House’s daughter.

“I’m glad you thought of that, but there is still a rule against big towers in the morning, right?” House says, shooting her a serious look.

“Right. I’m sorry.” She says, looking appropriately contrite.

Wilson smiles at the scene before him. It’s not that he enjoys his daughter getting scolded, but that House does it so gently. When he and House got married he thought he couldn’t possibly love him anymore than he did in that moment. But parenting with House, while at times difficult as parenting always is, has ultimately made him love his husband even more.

Eli had calmed down now, and while House helped Leah pick up all the blocks and put them away Wilson glanced at his watch. 7:45am.

“Shit, House, we are leaving in 15 minutes. Leah, sweetie, you’ll have to pick up your blocks yourself. Papa needs to get ready for work.” Wilson says, and shoos House out of the living room and down the hall to their bedroom.

Wilson manages to hold the baby and help Leah pick up the blocks because it is truly a lot of blocks. How he didn’t notice what she was doing when he went to the kitchen was beyond him.

He puts Eli in his swing and turns it on. Soon he’s going to be to big for it, Wilson laments. He puts on the TV, Blues Clues playing and gets Leah settled on the couch just in time for there to be a knock on the door before it opens and Wendy, their nanny, walks in.

“Hello Wilson-House’s!” She greets, and Leah runs over to her, as does Evan who has reappeared from his room dressed for school.

Wilson leaves her to greet the children and goes in search of his husband. He finds House in the bedroom dressed in faded jeans and a black Motley Cru t-shirt. He’s pulling a navy blue button up over it, his usual work outfit.

“About ready to go?” Wilson asked.

They are driving in together this morning, as this evening is Evan’s parent-teacher night. They make a point to attend these things together, they are already a unique family and they want to show they are every bit as happy and functional as any other.

“Yeah, ready.” House grabs one of his sport coats off the back of the door and picks up his cane from where it was leaning on the wall.

They walk out to the living room where Wendy has Evan and Leah on either side of her on the couch, and Eli is still happily batting at the toys attached to his swing.

They say goodbye to each kid individually, each getting a hug and a kiss and an “I love you, have a good day.” Wilson is endlessly thankful that they can do this without tears for the moment. Nothing prepared him for the heartbreak of having to leave his crying child while he went to work, and he knows House felt the same. He knows they are in for another period of it. There is a good chance when Eli gets to be a toddler he’ll go through a phase of not wanting Daddy and Papa to leave, but they’ll get through it just like they did with Evan and Leah.

They make it to Wilson’s Volvo. They both just breathe for a minute, taking in the silence. Wilson turns to House, placing his hand on House’s thigh.

“Good morning.” He says, for the first time yet this morning.

“Good morning to you too.” House laughs.

[constellationguy]

That Radio Show

Summary: In the absence of the radio demon listeners of hell find a new broadcast to enjoy.

Chapter three

Chapter one: The New Voice On the Air

Every child dreams to be famous when they grow up, you were no different. When you were younger you wanted nothing more than to have your voice heard from all corners of the globe, to be heard on every radio station, to have your voice ring in the ears of millions of people. You took countless vocal lessons as a kid to prepare you for audition after audition, however very little came from it. Until in high school, you landed a job with your local radio station and fell in love with the art form. You worked almost full time despite school work piling up, the high of being live on air was worth barely passing a class or two. You did school work while music played on air when you weren’t speaking, it was the best job in the world in your book and you wouldn’t trade it for anything. Eventually you took over the station after you graduated, working from 5:30am to 6:00 in the afternoon on most days, but night shifts always had the best callers and the warmest ambiance. You pored your heart and soul into your work until you died in a freak hunting accident in 2017.

When you arrived in hell you had dear like qualities, “I guess getting shot like game turned you into game in the after life” you thought looking at your new doe like features. Being new to hell was such an uncomfortable feeling, however you tried to get yourself in your feet as soon as possible. You spent about half a year working in a tailor shop getting yourself a house and a phone. Once you got enough money you finally got yourself an office and radio equipment to start broadcasting within the month. To advertise the radio station you made a hellstagram account just simply named “That Radio Show”. Your bio stated “That Radio Show will be making its debut on station 66.62 fm on the air in 2 weeks time at 5:30am on XX,XX, 2017! Be sure to tune in and maybe give us a call while on the air to chat at (666)-xxx-xxxx or send us mail to read on the air at xxxxx PO Box. Can’t wait to be on the air!”. You made posts advertising your debut, and asking your followers about ideas what to name your new radio show, and of course song suggestions. To your surprise your account went viral and got millions of followers in just a few days, your dms and comments filled with suggestions and surprisingly sweet comments with very little backlash. So when you debuted at 5:30am you had thousands of listeners tune in. Just as 5:30am graced hells residents, a sweet piano piece started to echo through the streets of hell. You lowered the volume just slightly hoping it would give just enough ambiance to your broadcast before speaking.

“Good morning residents of hell.” you said cautious of the volume of your voice.

“It is currently 5:30am in Pentagram City and for many it is time to start the day. As some of you may know this is the debut broadcast of That Radio Show!” You said excitedly.

“So please be sure to check out That Radio Show on hellstagram to send in song suggestions. As this is my first day on the air I hope my dear listeners can treat me with some grace” you hummed.

“Well, I’ll let those of you who got woken up by me go back to sleep and those waking up in peace for a bit, here is “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire” by The Ink Spots”.

You then muted yourself before fading the piano music and changing it to the song. You let out a breath you didn’t know you held and smiled into your microphone. You spent about two hours introducing the next song in the broadcast order before you got your first call.

“That was “Let’s Do It” by Ella Fitzgerald. Such a sweet song this early in the morning don’t you think? Well-“ you were caught off guard by the phone ringing.

“It seems we have our first caller,” you answered the phone.

“Hello dear you’re on the air!”

“Oh darling!” a southern voice called through the phone.

“Your voice is just velvet to the ears of all of us in Cannibale Town, we are loving you down here darling! Keep up the tunes and let that voice shine.”

“Aw thank you dear,” you cooed into the microphone, “Such high praises on debut day, but nonetheless it is well appreciated.” Listeners could hear the smile in your voice and boy did it pull heart strings.

“Well of course darling, can’t let a beautiful voice go un-complemented, you have a good day now.” The lady said into the phone. “You too, Miss.” You exhaled, chuckling a bit, a smile evident in your tone.

“How sweet that was, ha, well it is currently 8:00am in Pentagram City and the weather is perfect for a morning walk. I hope you can take that opportunity and start your morning off right. This is “Je Te Leaisserai Des Mots” by Patrick Watson, hope you enjoy.” Once you muted yourself you practically squealed in joy with the blatant success of the radio show. Your hellstagram was full of comments praising your voice and pick if songs. The overwhelming support uncommon in hell was shocking and such a surprise, a welcome one though. You got a few more calls throughout the day, only one of them being rude and chastising radio for being an out of date media and flirting with you brazenly on the air.

“Oh that’s no way to speak to a lady, let alone live on air,” you cooed feigning innocence. You sent a devastatingly loud electroshock through the line and your callers line went dead as he fell to the floor.

“Oh dear it seems he hung up,” you chuckled “well- no matter, just remember dear listeners don’t be brazen and you won’t get shocked,” you said with edge in your voice. “Well, this is “Viola Sonata: 1. Largo” composed by Andrei Volkonsky.” You said giving out a light satisfying sigh. As the song closed your voice again rang in the heads of your listeners, “Well doesn’t that piece just tear at your terrible heart strings, such an erre sounding piece. How about something a bit lighter, this is “Bella Belle” by the Electric Swing Circus, hopefully a good dance will shake off any lingering weariness and tension, tune in and dance along, here’s Bella Belle”.

The rest of your day was rather uneventful.

“Well dear listeners, it is 6pm and my time on air is sadly up, don’t worry though. If you stay tuned into this station you’ll still hear music that I lined up to play until I get back tomorrow at 5:30am. Have a lovely evening sinners, I hope you all can tune in tomorrow.” You finally muted yourself for the last time today and leaded back into your chair sighing satisfied. You missed this feeling when you died. Well, no longer would you miss this feeling, you thought as you grab your things and left your office. Just as you locked up the owner of the building spawned behind you.

“SHIT-“ you yelled jumping and dropping your things.

“Such a jumpy thing you are,” the man teased to your annoyance. “You made a rise out of hell today toots, all the old souls have been craving a new voice to cling to after that old shit up and disappeared.” This man was just trying to get a rise out of you at this point but you indulged him, wouldn’t want to get kicked out of your office, he owned the building after all.

“Cut to the chase, what do you want,” you said shortly electricity dripping off your tongue.

“Oh I thought deer were jumpy and scarred things, never thought one would bite back so violently.” He said, voice full of tease and annoyance.

“Unless you are here to tell me about the this “old shit” of a senior I apparently have I would like to leave,” you said pushed through him going down the stair well.

“No need to be a bitch toots,” he called after you. You let it go for now, a little insults in exchange for a bit of information was a fair trade in your opinion.

After fixing yourself a meal you looked up your supposed senior, from what you could tell that “old shit” the building owner was talking about was the Radio Demon. He disappeared this year, a terrifying demon just up and left the public eye. From what you found online he was an overlord and a powerful one at that. He used is radio show is display his power, so this is what you were needed to live up to. Odd.

Chapter two: In the Eyes of the Public

With the radio demon’s disappearance there is less competition, you thought, though that’s a big role to fill for the public. No matter, you thought, you’ll learn to manage, he’ll be back soon… probably….

Everyday your influence on hell’s population grew, listening to your opinions and snide comments, hells older population absolutely fell in love with you. The younger population wasn’t to fond of radio as you were but, to each their own, as long as they keep their complaints between each other and not on your broadcast. As the months past the public grew fonder of you in the radio demons absence, you worry for his return but as months turn into years you worried less and less about him coming after you.

Well into your first year broadcasting you made a slip up that you somehow ended up in your favor.

“Good evening my dear listeners, it is currently 3:30pm in Pentagram City and this lovely winter has graced our dear city and lulled us into a somber mood. I can’t deny that I am not feeling it too so todays music is definitely in the feels today, here is “I’ll Never Smile Again” by Tommy Dorsey” you lowered a dial and muted yourself before sitting back and singing along to the music. Little did you know you turned down the songs volume and muted the piano you had playing in the background, not yourself. So as you listened to the light music and sang along to the sad tune all of hell could hear your voice. Many of your regular listeners simply enjoyed the show while newer listeners decided to record the song and it spread like wildfire, to your embarrassment.

You tried gloss over your mistake however hell seemed to love this little mishap and blew it way out of proportion. Soon enough your dear listeners began calling you “the princess of radio”. As much as you didn’t like the name at first, terrified for when the radio demon came back, it stuck and there was nothing you could do about it.

[twin-disaster-tutel-brainrot]

Been thinking about the turtles' sleeping habits and such for a fic. This was meant to be a short one but I ended up having too many ideas so enjoy.

Raph:

Likes to sleep with his door open to be able to hear everything around the lair.

Somehow both a light and a heavy sleeper at the same time. Will wake up from the quietest suspicious sound, will be up on his legs in a second when his brothers come to him at 3AM because of a nightmare, but also won't budge when they literally jump on him to try to wake him up for breakfast.

Sleeps with a single quilt he and Mikey made together, with no pillow and with a LOT of teddy bears.

Belly sleeper.

Will use his teddy bears as a pillow when needed.

Will use his brothers as pillows during turtle piles as well.

Snores.

Used to sleepwalk a lot as a kid, happens way less often as a teen but could still happen once in a while.

And he has a sleepwalking stink of course.

Sometimes talks in his sleep too.

Has a very consistent sleeping schedule and wakes up pretty early without an alarm clock, but only on weekdays.

On weekends it's almost impossible to wake him up before 11 and definitely not before 9.

Takes him a while to get out of bed after he wakes up, and he's pretty slow during the morning, only really waking up after breakfast.

He also likes reading comics or play some idle game on his phone before going to sleep.

Donnie:

Sleeps with his door closed and locked.

Prefers to have white noise on.

Prefers sleeping with a weighted blanket.

Uses a either a gel pillow or a memory foam pillow. (Those ones that hold their shape that are good for back sleepers) - I actually went back to "The Purple Jackets" episode and it does look like he's using a gel/memory foam pillow.

I was gonna say he's a back sleeper and then I saw the scene in "The Purple Jackets" again and he changed his sleeping position like three times there, so I'm gonna say he falls asleep on his back and rolls around a lot during sleep.

While he likes the white noise and weighted blanket he doesn't actually need them to sleep. If he closes his eyes while sitting/lying down he's gonna fall asleep after 5 minutes max.

He also falls asleep if he just touches a bed for long enough.

And it also takes him exactly 5 minutes to get ready for bed. So 10 minutes from when he walks into his room until he's completely asleep.

Likes sleeping in small confined spaces. (Wrapping him in a blanket like a baby counts as a small space. The space under his desk is also a small space. The space under the sofa is too. And space between his brothers during a turtle pile.)

He has strict rules about his sleeping schedule. He wakes up at either 7:40 or 9:10 every day. He will stop working and go to sleep at either 1:30am or 3:00am. If he misses both he'll just work through the night and go to sleep the night after that.

He misses both marks quite often.

The only way to make him break those rules is with a turtle pile.

One thing he cannot tolerate though is scratchy beddings. He will not fall asleep if something scratchy is touching him.

I feel like he doesn't like ignoring his notifications so he always makes sure he didn't left anything unread before going to bed, and he makes sure to do that during the 5 minutes it takes for him to get ready. But sometimes someone sends him something dumb that makes him angry enough to drop everything and start a stupid online argument that lasts all night. So sometimes he just stays standing in the middle of his room without moving for hours instead of going to sleep, or he'll end up sitting in his chair with his phone. If he chooses to sit on his bed tho he ends up falling asleep almost immediately.

Leo:

Insomniac™

Sleeps with his door open a crack, enough for light and some sounds to get in but not enough to make him feel vulnerable.

But he also gets sleep paralysis once in a while and having your door be open just a crack is like perfect nightmare fuel so when that happens and his sleep paralysis demon peeps in he probably goes to sleep in Mikey's room for like a week.

Also definitely just have nightmares in general almost every night. He's used to it by this point. He does wake up from them like three times a night tho.

^ Definitely not projecting.

Has a nightlight. Cannot sleep without it.

And a digital alarm clock with glowing numbers that's always facing the bed so he'll know how long he slept for.

It takes him like half an hour to fall asleep on a good day and three hours on a bad day. Usually spends that time scrolling his phone until he can't possibly keep his eyes open for a second longer.

Uses like 5 blankets - a quilt over his legs, a fuzzy throw blanket around his shoulder, two more summer blankets and finally a comforter over everything. Or maybe swap one of the summer blankets for a weighted blanket, I haven't decided yet.

If he does use a weighted blanket though then he can't sleep without it.

He likes sleeping completely covered up from head to toe. Uses one of the summer blankets to cover his head to not get completely overheated, and to be able to see his nightlight and hear the noises from outside his room.

Uses three pillows - gel/memory foam pillow, understuffed normal pillow and an overstaffed normal pillow. The overstuffed one is to lean on when he's sitting scrolling on his phone, the other two are for sleeping on.

Has a small decorative pillow he got from April that he hugs to sleep every night.

Other than scrolling on his phone for the few hours before he falls asleep he actually makes an effort to only sit on his bed when it's nighttime.

He also always has a fan on for the noise and the airflow, but it's never directly facing him or it'll wake him up.

On really bad nights he can't fall asleep he gets up and makes himself something hot to drink (yes this is also inspired by "The Purple Jackets" episode how did you know?)

And then he'll go bother Donnie.

He loves sitting in Donnie's lab while Donnie is working. He either watches him working quietly, or he whines like a little bitch until Donnie gives up and talks to him, and then they spend all night talking about the most random stuff.

He likes reading comics before bed too, or fanfiction/fancomics on his phone. He'll read the most garbage incomplete fic that was witten in half an hour at 3am and posted 5 years ago, unironically enjoy it, and screenshot his favourite lines and send to Donnie.

I also think he sleeps in fetal position, but wakes up in the most absurd positions.

Mikey:

Prefers sleeping with his door closed, but doesn't actually mind if it's open.

Can sleep anywhere, anytime. Will fall asleep in the most awkward positions and awkward places.

Sometimes sleeps inside his shell, especially if it's somewhere with too much light.

Can lucid dream. Might be something he can do by mixing his lucid dreams with his mystic powers? Didn't think this through yet.

Sleeps with a huge thick comforter during winter and a super thin throw blanket during summer, just switches between them one day during fall/spring.

And he also has a blanket Raph knitted him that he always sleeps with. Like they all have blankets Raph knitted them but he's the only one who consistently sleeps with his every night. Hugs it more than covers himself with it.

Has a million different pillows and always burrows himself between them when he sleeps, in a different position every time of course.

Has a pretty healthy sleeping schedule, he gets tired at a reasonable hour and goes to sleep, sleeps for 5-6 sleeping cycles per night.

Goes to sleep early and wakes up early. He and Raph are the first to wake up, but he's the first to get up and get ready usually.

Really energetic during the morning. He's the only one of them who's like this, and Leo is the only one who can really keep up with him before breakfast.

He also has a lot of plushies on his bed but he sleeps with them less.

Will always sleep hugging one of Raph's arms during turtle piles.

I went a bit overboard with the headcanons whoops. This was supposed to be like 3-4 ideas for each one of the guys and mainly focus on like, the door and the blankets, and I ended up adding way too many things~

[jayishere3269]

have I shared my teos datie drabble here? no? uh oh

He Has Fallen In Love; He Knows It’s

Enough

The sun was starting to rise when his shift ended. There was a soft mist covering the town as he waved goodbye to Matteo and got in his car to go back home.

He used to enjoy working the night shifts. He would ignore the allure of sleep and keep busy in the day and go to work at night, talking about nothing and everything with Matteo.

That was his life. Was he happy with it? No, but it kept the nightmares at bay most of the time. He’d stay up until he couldn’t stop from collapsing in bed and passing out until he was woken up by his nightmares.

But it was different now, he pondered as he pulled in the parking spot. He didn’t want that life anymore.

Not when he had Katie.

He wanted to spend time with her. He didn’t want to be sleeping during the day and leaving her alone at night to go work.

It was close to 5:30am when he quietly opened the door and took off his shoes, listening to the radio softly playing in her- their room. It was their room now. He lived here with her.

He wasn’t used to it. His old place had looked more like an ikea showroom than a home. Hers was colourful and warm and lived in, little pieces of her scattered on every available surface.

He hung up his jacket and took a quick stop to brush his teeth; he didn’t bother taking his pills. He didn’t feel the paranoia or anxiety, so he knew he would have a restful sleep.

He had to smile when he saw her, asleep on her side with the blankets tangled around her waist. He slips off his shirt and carefully crawls on the bed, laying down beside her and staring at her.

She was beautiful. She was relaxed in her sleep, the stress and the furrow between her brows smoothed out. Her hair was a mess and he reached out to gently tuck the longer strands behind her ear to see her better.

He cursed softly when she took in a sharper inhale, her eyelids fluttering. Katie was half awake, taking a moment to register it was Dave and she smiled sleepily. “Hi.”

“Hey. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.” He whispered back, pulling his hand away from her. “Go back to sleep, it’s really early.”

She nods and closes her eyes again, reaching out to tugging him lightly. He gets the message and scoots over, pulling her in against his chest and tucking his face against her hair.

She smelled like lavender. She always did, and that was the only thing that could pull him from his nightmares and remind him that he was okay. That this wasn’t a hallucination or a dream.

He could feel the deep, even breaths puffed against his chest and he knew she had fallen back asleep. It made him feel happy to know that she felt safe to fall asleep with him.

Lord knows what he did at night. Katie never told him and it made him feel guilty, but she didn’t let him spiral around her.

Sometimes he thought she was too forgiving. He didn’t deserve her. He didn’t deserve someone who had this much patience and loved him this much.

He didn’t deserve it.

But he needed her. He needed her like she was water, like she was life itself. She made him feel safe. Being with her kept the nightmares away. He loved her and for some reason, she loved him back.

[upsteadwriteramateur]

Hey all. My take on a post 10.03 story. I'm not a writer, at all. I'm just a person trying something new.

5th October 2022 was definitely the worst day of the year for Hailey. She’d been left alone by her husband Jay who needed to find himself again and took a contract job with the Army in order to do that. Aside from a phone call on the 6th when he arrived at base in Bolivia, Hailey hadn’t heard from him for a month.

On 6th November 2022, Hailey walked out of Med with the most life changing news since she married Jay. She was pregnant. 5 weeks. She’d conceived in the two weeks following Anna’s death. Not having Voight around for 2 weeks had enabled Jay and Hailey to just breathe and a more relaxed partnership at work resulted in a more relaxed husband and wife at home. She managed to drive herself home by not thinking about the baby but as soon as she got to their apartment door, she could feel a panic attack coming. She grabbed her phone and called Jay. The phone rang and rang for 12 rings before she heard his voicemail.

“Jay…” Hailey sighed. “Call me back.”

Hailey sent three voicemails that echoed the first. She needed to speak to him and she needed to speak to him as soon as possible.

Jay had gone radio silent not just on her but Will too.

At the start of December, Hailey told Will he was going to be an Uncle. He’d been trying to get her to meet up for a whiskey or a beer for the longest time. And she kept declining. After a while, she started to feel really bad as she knew she was his only family now (and he was hers).

23rd December 2023 was the last time Hailey could send Jay a voicemail message. In the message, she had cried and talked about how she missed him and needed him and was dreading Christmas Day without him.

When Will had called him on the same day, he said that the inbox was now full so he couldn't leave his message.

On 25th December, when Jay still hadn’t returned any calls, Hailey had had enough. She knew that soldiers would be having their own celebration for Christmas but she needed someone to talk to Jay. She called his Sergeant, Major Baxter. She was furious and frustrated. She knew Jay wasn’t dead or injured because she would have got the call so she knew he was ignoring her. But he couldn’t ignore her anymore. She sternly left her message for him with Major Baxter.

"Major Baxter, my name is Hailey Upton. I’m… Jay Halstead is my husband. He’s a squad leader. He arrived on base on October 6th and I haven’t been able to get in contact with him nor has his brother. Jay told me to only use your number in the most extreme circumstances… so here goes. Would you please let Jay know he needs to call me before the new year otherwise I am getting a divorce citing abandonment. In fact, no. You know what…. Could you tell Jay that his wife, his pregnant wife, wants him to call her as soon as possible and if she doesn’t hear from him by New Years Eve, she’ll be filing for divorce. I am officially 12 weeks pregnant today. It’s the time when I can start telling friends and co-workers that I am pregnant and Jay doesn’t know yet. If he still cares about me and his family then I hope you can get this message to him. Anyway, sorry for this message Major, especially on this day of all days, but I’m losing all hope… and my mind."

Jay calls the next morning at 8am (9am Bolivia time).

"Hailey."

"Hmm?" she responds while she wakes. She doesn't need to be at work until 9:30am, so had been having a longer sleep.

"Is it true?"

"Is what true?" she says fully awake now.

"You’re pregnant." he says quietly.

"Yeah…"

"Wha-"

"12 weeks… well 12 weeks and a day now."

"What?"

"Jay…" Hailey sighs.

"This has happened out of nowhere."

Yeah no shit. I found out when I was 5 weeks. I’ve been trying to tell you for 7 weeks, Jay. Where the hell have you been?

"Busy on this mission." he says like it was the most obvious answer.

"So busy that you don’t call me? So busy that you don’t check your voicemail. Will and I can’t even leave you messages anymore."

"Hailey, this is the army." Jay patronises her.

"Okay Jay. It’s the army. But this isn’t 1945 anymore. You have a phone for a reason."

"I know that."

"Look." she takes a breath. "I want to know when you’re coming home."

"I don’t know yet." he lies. He absolutely does know but has been considering extended his contract so that dates subject to change.

"You can either tell me when you’re coming home or I file for divorce and raise our baby on my own. Your choice."

"Hailey."

"Your choice, Jay. Maybe you don’t want to come home to me but you are gonna have a kid here in June. Do you want anything to do with them?"

"Hailey. Let me think. You tell me your pregnant and then threaten me with divorce. Also… don’t fucking say that I don’t wanna come home to you. I’m here for me and you. You know that."

"Seems like it’s been just for you. I haven’t benefitted from your being there one bit." She says bitterly.

"Jesus. Hailey please. Let’s just start this conversation over okay? It’s the first time we’ve spoken in like 2 months and something really special is happening to you, to us. Let’s just calm down for a minute… I fucking love you, Hailey. Don’t ever doubt that. I’m not being the best at showing you but God I love you and miss you more than I thought."

"It’s been really hard to think that, Jay. I was wrecking my mind wondering what I had done wrong. Thinking maybe you did take this job to get away from me."

"Never. I’ve just been really busy trying to adjust to all of this. A lot changed in 15 years. I haven’t spoken to Will either."

"I know. He told me."

"I’m gonna do better."

Both are silent for a few moments.

"Do me a favour?" Hailey speaks up.

"Anything."

"Don’t listen to my voicemails. Just delete them."

"Okay if that’s what you want."

"It is."

"Okay… So we’re having a baby, huh?"

"We are."

"It’s too early to know if it’s a boy or girl, right?"

"Yeah… usually it’s around 18 weeks but Will said it’s been known to happen as early as 16 weeks but I’m not booked in for my next scan until I hit 18 weeks so we have 6 weeks until we can potentially find out."

“Will knows?”

“He’s known for 4 weeks.”

"Okay… have you thought about whether you want it to be a girl or boy?" Jay wonders.

"Mmm, I’ve had dreams of both actually. Obviously I want a happy, healthy baby but I don’t know for sure which way I’m leaning."

"Remember that case we had a few weeks before Anna died. The guy called Daniel, his parents were killed when he was like 3 or 4?"

"Yeah I remember." Hailey thinks back to the adorable toddler whose police interviews they had to watch over and over.

"I didn’t say anything to you at the time but after watching his interview, I had a dream we had kids."

"You did?" Hailey is surprised, he never mentioned that to her the morning after.

"Mhmm, we had a mini you and a mini me."

"Awww…"

"Was kind of sad when I woke up."

"I would be too… I’m sorry about earlier."

"Me too, baby. I’m gonna do better returning calls to you and Will. I promise."

"Thank you. I have to go. I need to get ready for work."

"Alright. Stay safe. Love you."

"Stay safe, Jay. I love you too."

"Speak soon."

Jay and Hailey get to talk over the phone once a week and that was a treat for Hailey. She couldn’t complain considering how the first few weeks of Jay’s mission had gone.

When she is 30 weeks, they start discussing names. Hailey had decided on not getting the gender scan until her final pregnancy scan so she and Jay started brainstorming names for girls and boys.

Hailey had mentioned wanting a Greek name for her baby’s first name but she also has always loved the name Luna which had Latin origins. Jay told her to make a list of all the girl names; it’s okay that not all were Greek. Even if they didn’t name them something Greek, Hailey would always be there to teach them about their mother’s culture. In the one hour phone call. They come up with six names. Jay suggests going Irish for the middle name.

“I think we have our baby’s potential names, Jay.”

“Read them all out to me again.”

“Luna Maeve, Anastasia Grace, Maia Riley, Theodore Logan, Xander Liam and Lucas Patrick.”

“You think Will will realise Liam is for him?”

“Of course he will.” Hailey chuckles before stifling a yawn.

“That’s the third yawn you’ve tried to hide, baby. Go to sleep. It’s okay.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Hails, you need sleep and the baby needs sleep. Come on.”

“But we still have 15 minutes.”

“Take me with you to wash your face and brush your teeth and I’ll stay on the call right up until the 59th minute and 59th second regardless of whether you go to sleep.”

Hailey washes her face and brushes her teeth before double checking the locks of the front door.

“Babe?” She says getting tucked under the duvet.

“Hmm?”

“Tell me something you’ve never told me before but make it like a story.” She says yawning again while propping up her phone on Jay’s pillows and ten turning out the light.

“Okay.”

“So as you know, your husband is a Mama’s Boy and proud of it. When I was starting at school, I had some really serious nerves and anxieties about it. My mom had been the one person who I was with every single day since I was born and I was being told that she wouldn’t be allowed to sit with me in school and my little brain just couldn’t comprehend it. She spent the summer before I started, trying to introduce me to reading, introduce me to other kids at the park, you know build up some social skills and some self esteem. She even asked Will to tell me how great school is but he was 5; he wasn’t interested in helping me out. So the night before my first day comes around and I’m restless and clinging to my mom all day. Dad had tried to get her to be more firm with me but she refused. I slept in their bad that night much to my dad’s annoyance. My mom put me in my favourite tshirt and gave me a brand new cap. And before she took me to school with Will. She took her wedding ring from her finger and asked me to look after it so I could give it to her after school. She put it in this tiny pocket of my shorts which fastened up. And she said she trusted me to keep it safe and she would ask for it back as soon as she picked me up from school. I um… managed three hours at school before having a little breakdown but they let me have lunch earlier than usual and I was all good. The ring didn’t completely work but I love that she did that. Whenever she would tell her friends what she did, they’d just be baffled by it. She was really trusting and thoughtful. She didn’t give me her ring again but school got easier because I knew she’d always be there to take me to school and pick her up…I miss her a lot.”

“So you’ve always been sweet because your mom was sweet too.”

“I guess.”

“I’m so glad she was your mom. Wish I could have met her and wish she was still here she could meet our little one.”

“I think about that all the time, baby.” Jay responds pouting a little.

“Do you ever think I’m selfish for keeping my family out of my life?”

“No way. You and I had very different upbringings. Don’t feel bad for the decisions you’ve made. I support you. You know I always do.”

A timer beeps.

“One more minute, baby.”

“Do you have a busy day tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

“A dangerous day?”

“No, no. Just a busy day here on base.”

“Okay good.”

“Make sure you call Will if you need help with anything okay?”

“I’ll be okay.”

“Hailey.”

“Fine. I’ll call him if I need anything.”

“Good. I love you.”

“I love you babe. We both do.”

“I can’t wait to meet her.” Jay whispers. He says her as deep down he feels like Hailey is carrying their daughter.

“Same. Love you.”

“Goodnight Hails.” And that’s when the call ends.

8th June 2023 was the earliest day Jay could get home. And just so happened to be the day, Hailey went into labour. By the time he reached Gaffney, Will had supported Hailey during her delivery and she had welcomed the newest Halstead. Hailey is sleeping as the baby rests in the nursery. Will spots Jay coming towards the room and steps out. They greet each other with a hug.

“She okay?” Jay asks pulling away.

“She was amazing. She needs this sleep. Come with me?”

“Where we going?”

“To my locker so we can get you a change of clothes. Then I’ll take you to meet your daughter.”

Jay sighs happily and smiles as he and Will walk to the ED. Will passes him some jogging bottoms and a Henley as well as some body wipes and a mouth rinse.

When he is refreshed, Will takes him to the nursery. They look through the window and Jay spots his surname. He looks at the baby resting in the crib it is attached to.

“Can we go in?” Jay asks Will.

“Yeah we can. But we can also ask the nurses if we can take her back to Hailey.”

“Okay yeah let’s do that.”

Jay kneels down at her crib. “Look at my gorgeous girl.” He whispers gently caressing her cheek. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be here to see you as soon as Mama brought you into the world.”

Nurse Kimber allows Will and Jay to take the crib out of the nursery.

Jay can’t help but stare at his daughter as he and Will wheel her crib along the corridors to Hailey’s room.

“Take you shirt off.” Will whispers. “Some skin to skin contact will be really good. Let her smell you and feel your heart beat against her cheek.”

“Kay.” Jay responds as Will sets the breaks on the crib.

Jay takes the Henley off and places it on the end of the bed. Will coaches him through how to pick her up and how to hold her. Will takes some photos and a video for Jay and Hailey (and himself). Jay spends some time with the baby in his arms. He eventually feels stable enough to hold her in one arm so reaches out to hold onto Hailey’s hand as she sleeps. Will leaves Jay and the baby alone so he can get ready for work.

Twenty minutes after holding his daughter for the first time, Hailey stirs. Jay smiles as he watches her become more alert.

“You came.”

“Of course. I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”

Hailey shook her head. “You’re here now..” Hailey pulls her hand from Jay’s and places it on the back of his neck.

“How you feeling? Will said you were amazing.”

“Mmm I think that’s an exaggeration. We owe your brother many dinners by the way.”

“We do. I’m glad he could be here when I couldn’t. But again, how are you feeling?”

“Tired and happy.”

Jay smiles at her before looking down at the baby.

“How has she been?” Hailey asks.

“An angel. Hasn’t fussed one bit at all.”

“Awww. Do you mind if I take her?”

“Not at all, babe.” Jay says.

They transfer the baby onto Hailey and she tucks her against her cradling her in her left arm.

“Hi.” Hailey says gazing up at Jay.

“Hi.” He leans down and they share their first kiss since 5th October 2022.

“I missed you.” She murmurs as they pull away.

“Mm missed you way more. As soon as I found out you were pregnant, time went by so slowly - felt like a punishment being away from you both.” Jay tells her walking to the foot of her bed to get the Henley back on.

“Aww.” She’s not got much to say due to fatigue and knowing missing them and feeling like time was going so slowly was all on him. He still had some making up to do.

“Is this Daddy?” A voice interrupts them.

“Yep, here I am.” Jay turns and sees one of the charge nurses.

“We’ve been waiting for you.” She says looking at him up and down, silently judging the father who turned up after the hard work was all done.

“We can sign all the documents now.” Hailey says.

“Yes we can. I just wanna check you out first, hun.” She rubs Hailey’s forearm.

“Okay.”

The nurse does all of her checks of Hailey and the baby before leaving to go and get the documents.

“Are you sure you’re okay with her name? I had to give them her name within an hour of her birth.” She’s ready for Jay to say he preferred Anastasia Grace, he’d mentioned previously how cute the nickname ‘Stassie’ would be, but he doesn’t.

“Of course. I loved all the names you suggested.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.” Jay leans down to kiss Hailey. “Now what do I need to sign?"

Jay signs all the necessary documents and their daughter is officially named Luna Maeve Halstead.

Jay leans down to kiss Hailey once the nurse leaves with their papers.

“Hey Luna. Hi sweetie.” Hailey coos brushing her cheek after Jay pulls away. The brunette baby opening her eyes at the sound.

——-

P.s. I did send out an anonymous ask to four accounts last week asking them to choose between Luna Maeve and Anastasia Grace. At time of writing, I got one response back and as much as I love Anastasia Grace (like Jay and @jareaulamontagnes (thank you)), I love Luna Maeve just a tad bit more 🥰 she’s their little Lulu!

P.s.s I know the dates of things might not add up and my tenses are messed up - sorry…

[sallytwo]

my schedule today

wake up 4am drive my friend to the airport

get back and go to work until the afternoon

4pm get on the ship to stand an EIGHT HOUR bridge watch

get off at midnight immediately drive to a DIFFERENT airport that’s like an hour away

sleep on the airport floor until 3:30am when i’m allowed to check my bags

board my flight at 5:30am

BEAST MONSTER THINGGG 💪💪💪

[aching-tummies]

RP Starter: Manufactured Ache

It's about 5:45AM on the first of two days off. My little tummy woke me with a deep, hungry growl. Right…I did skip dinner the night before in favour of getting some much-needed sleep. I've been stressed to the nines lately, waking up at 4AM or 5AM on days off to deal with timezone nonsense as I make calls to head-office stuff across the country for various things, mostly banking-related.

Normally, I get up around 8AM for work, but my tummy doesn't handle food/digesting stuff well until closer to 10AM so I usually hold off on breakfast until then to avoid a painful tummy ache (the kind that literally makes my toes curl). On days off, I often hold off on putting anything but water in my tummy until closer to 1PM or 2PM, even if I am hungry.

I've been sitting up in bed, languidly rubbing my tummy since 5:30AM as it's been clenching uncomfortably, letting out loud growls thanks to the mouthful of cold water I gulped down to chase away a case of cotton-mouth. I can feel another growl building beneath my palm. My stomach is clenching, seemingly consolidating it all for a big gurgle. As it comes, you stir to my right in bed, having heard this second growl. You slide a hand onto my belly before you even open your eyes, feeling the tense muscles under my skin.

"Hmmm? Morning, babe." I murmur, still stroking my belly as the aftershocks of the gurgle reverberate around my gut. I give a small belch, the little bit of air that got displaced with the gulp of water coming up and out with the pressure of both of our hands on my tummy. "It's not even 6--go back to sleep. It's too early to be up on a day off." I mutter tiredly as I shuffle back to lying down. I was only up to indulge in the sensations caused by that gulp of water. I wasn't expecting my guts to be active so early in the morning.

Your eyes snap open at my statement and you sit bolt-upright in bed, eyes wide and tell-tale grin on your face. Day off? Time's a-wastin'!

You've had this idea in your head for a while now, having seen and tended to my stressy tummy aches for weeks on end. Today marks the first true day off after over a month and a half of stressing out over responsibilities for me. The first in a long, long, long period of stress-induced upset tummy aches. It didn't help that I contracted a bit of the flu for a couple of days at the start of this stressful period. My schedule during those days was brutal: tossing my cookies from 3AM-6AM, trying to soothe my sickly tummy from 6AM-8AM, working an 8-10 hour shift at any of my three jobs, getting home after 9PM and immediately falling asleep--at the dinner table, at the entrance trying to remove my shoes, etc.--only to rinse and repeat.

The stressful period was out of our control. The effects of the flu was out of our control. While you certainly enjoyed tending to what was there, a part of your brain has been wondering about intentionally causing a tummy ache and how a manufactured ache would compare to all of the ones that have simply developed due to circumstances. Right now, we're dawning on the first of back-to-back days off. Our schedules have lined up for the first time in forever and we are almost 6 hours down of a potential 48 for fun and indulgence. You pat at my tummy, a wide grin blooming on your face as you think of all the possibilities.

Well then, what are you going to do first?

[blackgirlwrites125]

𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝟷, 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟸

𝐇𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐦

Word Count: 4054

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒔𝒚𝒎𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑻𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒊𝒌𝒐𝒗𝒔𝒌𝒚'𝒔 𝑵𝒖𝒕𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒎𝒚 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒔 𝑰 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓.

Goodness, that startled me. I rub my eyes as a means to wake myself up for the day. I wonder what time it is. I grab my phone on my nightstand and look at the time. 4:30am, it reads. Why do I even choose to wake up this early? Nevertheless, it's time to get up. Today marks another day of crunching numbers and my annoying coworker Noah trying to suck up to me. Why do I even entertain him and his nonsense? I feel as if God sent him just to test my patience.

I get out of bed and stretch my arms out. This song is way too energetic for an early morning. I have to change this song.

"Alexa", I whisper, "next song please."

"Ok." The music stops for a moment, then it starts up again.

I Can't Get Started, Bunny Berigan. Great music from the 30s, especially if you're a twenty-four-year-old hopeless romantic who wants to find love in his life but can't. Just the thing I need in the morning, spectacular. Maybe if God put her back in my life, things might get a little bit better. But until then, I have to stay patient.

After making my bed, I walk into the bathroom. As I stare at my complexion in the mirror, a sea of memories start to flood my brain. Memories of he, memories of she, memories of me. What happened all those years ago still messes with my head. It's like these thoughts won't go away. My best friend, turned into my worst enemy. I've let go and forgiven him, but it still hurts. I hate having to live with this trauma. The nightmares, the sleepless nights, the cutting. It sucks. But throughout the years. this very question has remained in my head. Why? Why did he decide to betray me and leave me with all this pain and turmoil? The answer never occurred to me. I can feel my hands shaking and my breath getting heavy. I immediately turn on the faucet and splash water on my face. No more dwelling on the past, gotta focus on the present.

"Lord, thank you for waking me up this morning. I pray that this day goes well and my coworker Noah doesn't get on my nerves. In Jesus name, Amen."

I walk into the kitchen where I'm being greeted by my cat, Lola. She rubs her head on my ankle and purrs.

"Hey Lola." This little bundle of joy is my emotional support animal, believe it or not. A black and white cat who likes to sleep, eat, and break things. I don't bring everywhere I go anymore, since I've been getting better. Plus, she doesn't really like people. I don't either. Despite being adorable and sweet, Lola can be a pain in my neck sometimes. Especially when she was a kitten. As much as I love her, she's horrible. I grab her and pick her up. "Ready to eat?"

She meows in response. I set her down by her food and water bowl. I open the refrigerator and grab Lola's food and pour it into her food bowl.

"Alexa, what's on my to-do list for today?"

"You have four things on your to-do list. Create budget for supply material, attend volunteer meeting, buy groceries, send email to Maya Bradshaw. Have a lovely Wednesday."

Dang it, I have to go to that volunteer meeting. Why would Gomez just put this out there without giving us any prior knowledge. Her actions really don't make sense, but neither does she.

I check the time on my watch. 5:00am. I gotta workout, get in the Word, then eat and get dressed. I got time.

Despite the effects of global warming, winter still has a way of making everyone miserable. Especially in New York. There is a crap-ton of snow, it's super cold, and you're got a bunch of white chunks covering your driveway. For me, driving in the snow is alright, but it can be aggravating. Whenever it's raining or snowing, there always happens to be traffic. This happened to me in New Orleans too. I pray that there is no traffic on my way to work.

As I step out of my house, the icy breath of winter blows in my face. Goodness gracious, it's cold. I carefully step onto the pavement and walk to my car without slipping. It's so icy out here, even my car has frost on it. Thank goodness I'm prepared for winter. Hopefully the inside of my cay isn't cold. I unlock my car and get into the driver's seat.

Dang it's cold. Ice cold.

After a long thirty-minute drive, I finally arrive at my workplace. I walk into the building with my backpack and computer bag. I check the time on my watch, 8:28am. Getting here two minutes earlier than planned. What a record.

I'm walking to the elevators and press the upward arrow button. As I wait for an available elevator, a familiar face walks beside me. She's absolutely stunning, gorgeous even. Yet has a familiar face that I can't remember. Her beautiful brown skin glistens in the sunlight and she has two gold-colored streaks in her hair. She's wearing a necklace, a red heart stone with gold chains. I definitely remember giving that to somebody. It was my gift to Kay when I asked her out on that date. Considering this is just a random girl, the necklace is probably just a replica. I shouldn't think too much of it.

DING! An elevator door opens. She walks in, then I walk in behind her. The doors slide together and close.

"What floor?" I ask the lady.

"Six", she answers. "What about you?"

"Seven." I press the buttons and the elevator starts moving.

Silence starts to fill the room. Maybe I should say something.

"You work in accounting?" The unknown lady asks me.

I nod. "Yes. You're in marketing, I'm guessing?"

She chuckles. "You guessed correctly."

A silence fills the room.

"You know", she says, "it's always good to see your own kind here once in a while."

I nod. "Not wrong about that. I'm Hakeem Jackson, by the way."

"Ma'Kayla Wilson."

Oh my goodness. I knew I was right. It is her! I mean, she probably doesn't remember me. But there's no way she could possibly not remember me, we've been through so much together. Since we were in middle school. I can't believe it's actually her. Wow, I've gotta-

DING! The elevator reaches my stop and the doors slide out to open.

"It was nice meeting you, Hakeem."

"It was nice meeting you as well." I walk out of the elevator and make my way to my cubicle.

No words can explain how happy I am. She's grown, and she still looks good. But I'm also upset. She doesn't remember who I am. Or she does but didn't show it. But there's no way Ma'Kayla couldn't remember who I am. We were best friends, ever since middle school. But that doesn't matter right now. After three years of loneliness, God pulled some strings and answered my prayers. I'm thankful that she's here, most importantly she's safe.

"Thank you Jesus", I whisper to myself, "thank you so much."

I sit down at my desk and log into my computer when all of a sudden I hear someone yell my name.

"Good morning Hakeem!" He calls out in a sing-song voice.

Normally I would be annoyed by Noah's voice, but right now, nothing could make me upset.

12:00pm, lunch time. An hour and a half for everyone to eat their stale packed lunches and gossip with their coworkers about the latest topics on the news. An hour and a half for the people to wait until the end of the day where they can go home and watch the newest episode of reality television shows. While everyone gets to do that, I have to go to the volunteer meeting for the Christmas gala. So that means I'm going to spend a third my lunch in that meeting, since it's only thirty minutes.

"Hakeem! My man!" Noah greets me in an annoying tone.

Even when I avoid him, Noah always finds a way to aggravate me. "Hello, Noah."

"Where are you headed?" He asks me.

I sigh. "I'm going to the volunteer meeting for the gala. How about yourself?"

"I'm headed that way myself! I didn't know you had offered to volunteer."

I walk towards the elevator, and he does so as well. I press the upward arrow button and an elevator's door open. We both walk into the elevator and Noah presses a button with the number "6" on it. The elevator heads down to the sixth floor and then stops. Then the doors open.

As the doors slide open, the fresh scent of French vanilla bursts in my face. The marketing floor appears about the same as ours, but this place looks livelier. It has more joy and happiness. I bet the employees here are just as nice and kind. I'm already starting to like this floor.

We step out of the elevator. I scope the area. This place looks pretty nice. I wish the accounting department looked like this.

"Where do you think the meeting is?" Noah asks me.

I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know, but it should be around here somewhere."

Noah and I continue to walk and look around in confusion until someone walks up to me.

"Hey, are you guys lost?"

I turn around. It's a blonde lady. "Yes, there's supposed to be a meeting here-"

"Oh yeah! You must be here for the volunteer meeting! We've been waiting for you guys. Follow me, please!"

Noah and I follow behind the blonde lady.

After a short two-minute walk, we arrive in front of a room. A grey room with a big circular table. There, another woman sits near the door. The same woman from the elevator. The same woman from my past. I still can't wrap my head around this. She's here.

"Welcome", Ma'Kayla greets us. "Please, take a seat."

I walk in and take a seat next to her. "Hi."

Ma'Kayla smiles. "Hi." She waves at me.

An odd quietness enters the room. Should I say something? Maybe.

Noah clears his throat. "Is Gomez coming to the meeting?"

"Yeah, she should be here in a minute." Ma'Kayla answers. "But in the meantime, why don't we all introduce ourselves?"

Sounds like a good idea.

"I'll start", the blonde lady says, "I'm Kylie Marshal and I work in the marketing department."

"Nice to meet you, Kylie. I'm Noah Blackwell, and this is my coworker Hakeem Jackson." He puts his hand on my shoulder.

I jolt and immediately shrug his hand off of my shoulder. I've always hated people touching me, especially when people put their hand on my shoulder. It reminds me of way too many painful memories.

"As my coworker stated before, I am Hakeem Jackson. We both work in the accounting department."

"And my name is Ma'Kayla Wilson. I am the chief director of marketing. I'm glad that we are well acquainted with each other."

My hands start to tremble and I feel a ball of sweat roll down my face. I still can't comprehend the fact that Ma'Kayla Wilson, my best friend, is here and safe. The Lord really answered my prayers. My childhood best friend and my crush just so happens to work for the same company that I also work for. The one who has been there for everything. For the past three years, I thought I lost her. But now, by the grace of God, I've found her again.

"Hakeem?"

I snap out of my thoughts. I was so in my head that I didn't hear my name.

Ma'Kayla asks me, "Are you alright?"

I nod vigorously. Despite what I said, I'm in fact, not alright. How could I notice before? The two blonde streaks in her hair, the cross-shaped earrings, and that necklace.

"Oh! That just reminded me. Hakeem, I heard from a coworker that you're from New Orleans." Kylie states.

I nod. "Yep, born and raised."

"Ma'Kayla is also from New Orleans."

I already know that. But I'm not going to tell her that. "Um, that's good to know. What part of the city are you from?"

"Lower nine."

"I'm from Gentilly, Spain street."

"My mom grew up there! Her side of the family grew up over there."

Does she even remember who I am? "That's nice."

Noah chimes in, "I didn't know you're were from New Orleans! You don't really have an accent, so I just figured you were from Connecticut or Jersey."

If I'm from a certain place, specifically New Orleans, nine times out of ten I'm going to have an accent. I mean, this should be plain common sense. I swear, this guy lacks the mental capacity to understand social cues and general information.

I turn around and tell him, "I only speak like that when I'm upset and aggravated."

Kind of like how I'm aggravated right now.

The door opens, and here comes Margarita Gomez.

"Hello everyone." She says in a stern tone.

"Hello." We all announce in unison.

"As you all know this is your first volunteer meeting for the gala. Your objectives for today are to find a color scheme for the flier and find a venue to hold the event. I want this done by next week's meeting. Once you're done, have someone email me the details. Everybody got that?"

"Yes ma'am."

She walks out of the meeting room and slams the door.

"I wonder what she's mad about", Ma'Kayla says.

"Yeah", Noah continues, "so, what are you guys thinking about for the flier?"

Everyone pauses for a moment to think.

"I believe we should go with the basic red and white. That should go well for the gala theme." Noah states.

"Sure", Kylie chimes in, "but, like you said, it's basic. We need something that sticks out. Something that has life to it."

"True. How about we add green and a gold shimmer?" Ma'Kayla adds. "It would look nice and bring elegance."

"Hmm, I like that idea." Kylie agrees.

I mean, that sounds like a good idea. "It'll make the flier more interesting to look at. More 'appealing to the eye.'"

"I agree, Hakeem."

"But", Noah says, "we don't want to add too much to the flier. People might see we do too much. Plus, less is more!"

I really hope this man is not being serious right now. Why did he say that?

Kylie clears her throat. "Noah, with all due respect, you work with numbers. You figure out how much stuff is going to cost and how much profit this company is going to make. As an employee of the marketing department, it's best to add more that have the basics."

Goodness, she didn't have to beat him that badly.

"Although Kylie's words can be harsh, I agree with her. Adding more can be a good thing."

"I guess." Noah shrugs.

"Alright, so we all agree with Ma'Kayla's idea?" I ask.

Everybody nods in agreement, and now it's time to move on to the next idea. "Alright, now it's time to think about a place to hold the event."

Ma'Kayla asks, "Where do you think we should have it, Hakeem?"

"I don't know, I'm not really good at this type of thing."

"Oh, it's fine! I'm not either." She chuckles. "But I-"

"I was thinking we could host the event at the La Croix hotel." Noah interrupts.

A moment of silence occurs.

"Why the hotel", Kylie asks him. "It's pretty expensive."

"The place has a very historical significance and the place looks really nice. It's well-known for hosting events, plus it has really good reviews."

I take a moment to think. "It's good that it's well-known, but we have to take into account the cost."

"I agree. Plus, I've heard that their ballroom isn't that big and the service is pretty bad."

That's also something to think about. If people from other companies decide to come and they find the service, they might not want to work with us. I know for sure that Gomez wouldn't like that.

"But, I believe it's better at the La Croix. It's possible to come up with the money."

"Noah", Ma'Kayla counters, "we're talking about at least $20,000. And that's just to rent the place. We're a pretty large company, but we can't come up with that much money on the spot."

"Sure, but there's no other place to host this event. I mean, if you guys have a better suggestion-"

"The main lobby."

Everyone stares at me in confusion. Now, I'm kind of getting nervous. I shouldn't have said anything.

"You know, you have a point Hakeem."

Thanks for backing me up here, Ma'Kayla.

"It's free of charge, and it's pretty big. I mean, have y'all seen how many people were in there on Monday? It can fit at least 2000 people in there."

The women nod in agreement. This is a pretty good idea. Now the accounting department doesn't have to spend late nights crunching numbers and trying to come up with money to rent the place.

"Alright, this is a bunch of baloney!" Noah exclaims.

Sir, excuse me? "Noah, are you good?"

"No, Hakeem, I'm 'not good'. Throughout this half-hour long meeting, I have put out nothing but great ideas, but all you guys have done was refute them and dumped them in the garbage. I've had enough."

Alright, this man has lost his mind. "Noah take a seat."

"No! I've been ignored here. Why aren't you taking my side?"

I whisper, "Because you're acting ridiculous in front of these women and you're embarrassing yourself. So stop."

"No, I'm not gonna stop! I've been ignored this whole time and nobody even payed any attention to my ideas."

"Hey", Ma'Kayla interferes, "how about we just calm down-"

"Well how about you just shut up, Ma'Kayla!"

Alright, this is enough. I put my hand on his shoulders and push him down in his seat.

I whisper to him, "I already done told you to chill out, now you're just being rude. And the next time you ever decide to yell at these ladies again you're going to pray that I never worked here, you got that?"

He nods.

I turn to the ladies. "I'm sorry for my colleague's behavior. I promise it won't happen again. I'll email Gomez the details."

"Oh, you don't have to-"

"But I insist."

"Alright. Kylie and I will start working on the flier, we'll have it done by next Monday."

"Sounds like a plan."

A loud silence enters the room. Finally, this meeting is over. Now that this is done, I have about an hour to eat and take a break from this mess. This man's attitude is going to make me punch him.

'Don't'. A voice tells me in my head. 'Don't fight fire with fire'.

Right now, I'm in the break room. After the whole incident in the meeting, Noah and I made it back to the accounting department and I went to the break room to calm down. I don't know where Noah went, nor do I care.

I feel weird about how I handled that situation. I feel as if I shouldn't have handled it that way. But still, Noah was absolutely embarrassing himself and me. I just have this guilt over my head. The meeting wasn't supposed to end up like this. We were just supposed to get through the objectives and go back to lunch. It wasn't supposed to end like this.

"Lord, how do I deal with this? I didn't handle that situation right."

I take a sip of my coffee. What do I do? I mean, I can't just forget about it. But as much as I despise Noah, I can't really hate him. He's my coworker, so I can't really do much about it.

As I'm pondering these thoughts, I hear a knock at the door. It's Noah.

"We need to talk", he states.

I wonder what this is about. "About what?"

"About the meeting. You were quiet the whole time. Plus, you kept taking their side. I kept putting good ideas out there but nobody paid any attention to them."

I nod. "Mhm."

"And what you said to me, like what was your deal?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what was your deal? You kept defending those girls as if you liked them or something."

"Well, for one, I don't even know them. So how would I like them. Two, you were acting ridiculous and raising your voice. Also, you shouldn't have been talking to those women like that, you shouldn't be talking to anybody like that for that matter."

"I was not acting ridiculous; I was trying to get my point across!"

"You can get your point across without yelling."

I really don't have time for pointless arguing. I don't want to do this.

"But still-"

"Noah, I really don't want to go back and forth with you. I'm going back to my cubicle."

I stand up and try to walk out of the door, but Noah gets in the middle of the doorway.

"We're not done talking yet."

I take a deep breath. What is he doing? "Noah, what are you doing?"

"We weren't done talking, so I'm not letting you leave until we are."

"Noah, I hope you know we gotta get back to work. So please, get out of the way."

Noah shakes his head. "Work can wait."

Is he using his brain right now? "Noah, I'm serious. Let me go, I have work to do."

"But we're not done yet, why would you leave in the middle of a conversation! Like come on."

"Hey, what's going on over here?" Someone asks.

A few of our coworkers are standing in front of the break room. They all look at me and Noah with heavy concern.

Noah storms off to heaven knows where. Hope I don't get to see him any time soon. I walk back to my cubicle to get back to work. Today has been very eventful, I wonder why.

I pull into the driveway of my house and turn off the engine to my car. Deep breath, in and out. I need to reflect about my day. Things were hectic today. I saw Ma'Kayla again, Noah made a fool of himself during that meeting, and Noah tried to keep me in the break room against my will. I can't even comprehend the events that happened today, nor why they happened. Maybe if I'd said something in that meeting, Noah wouldn't have been on me about not taking his side. Since we work in the same department I should've taken his side. But at the same time, he was acting like a child in that meeting. Yelling and screaming as if he was a kid. Despite him being a pain in my neck, I still care for him and I hope he can get over this. I gotta stop thinking about this, it's making my brain hurt.

I exit my car and go to the door of my house. As I open the door, Lola greets me at the door.

"Hi Lola." I put my work bags down and pick her up. She purrs in my arms and I shut the door behind me.

As I walk toward the kitchen, I wonder about what I should eat tonight. That fish has been sitting in the fridge for two days now. I should eat that.

I put Lola down and open the refrigerator. She rubs her head on my ankle. I think she might be hungry.

I grab the fish out of the fridge and my phone buzzes in my pocket. I wonder who it is.

I pull it out and look at the message.

Hakeem, it's been a while since our last encounter. I hope you remember me, because I definitely remember you. How's life been since I took it from you?

My hands begin to tremble, and my breathing quickens.

“How did he find me?”

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check my blog for more stuff!

Copyright © Imari Dupree. All Rights Reserved.