#unit 28 make up for performance

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 13: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar -🎄Amiga 500 💾🗓️

The Amiga 500 is considered one of Commodore's most important home computers, introduced in 1987; it was important because of how advanced the features were for the time. It was based on a Motorola 68000 CPU running at 7.16 MHz in NTSC versions and at 7.09 MHz for PAL ones, with the main version of 512 KB RAM expandable up to 9 MB. Its OCS provided respectable graphics performance, going up to 736×567 interlaced, with 32 colors out of 4096. The sound system consisted of four 8-bit PCM channels and could give out stereo at as high as 28 kHz. With the keyboard integrated and a compact design, it was ready for home users, while the multitasking operating system, AmigaOS, differentiated it from the rest. At a price the market could afford and featuring multimedia capabilities, this combination contributed to its popularity as it went on to sell about 2.6 million units worldwide.

Making of the Amiga bouncing ball. https://www.generationamiga.com/2020/04/14/amiga-history-the-story-of-the-boing-ball/

Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

[positivexcellence]

Jensen Ackles Gets Us Fired Up for His New Prime Series Countdown

AMAZON'S PRIME VIDEO is in the Jensen Ackles business—and if you've seen his performances on the Prime Video hit The Boys and its spinoff Gen V, you know you'd want this man in your corner too. Not only is he starring in an upcoming The Boys prequel, Vought Rising, but today, Prime Video is announcing Countdown, a 13-episode crime thriller that will premiere worldwide with three episodes on Wednesday, June 25. As part of the exclusive announcement with Men's Health, the streamer also offered up a first look at the series.

Ackles stars as Mark Meachum, an LAPD detective recruited into a secret task force consisting of undercover agents from across various branches of United States law enforcement. They've been assembled to investigate the mysterious case of an officer with the Department of Homeland Security who was murdered in broad daylight without any suspects or leads at the scene. As they hunt for the killer, they begin to unravel a larger and larger plot that could end with not only one dead victim—but millions of them.

The show was created by showrunner and executive producer Derek Haas, who wrote the screenplays for movies like 2 Fast 2 Furious and 3:10 to Yuma, and who brought us the NBC mainstays Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med. So at its helm is a writer who knows high octane thrillers—with a healthy dose of levity to balance things out. "I grew up loving action movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, and Beverly Hills Cop, so those wild character-based, set piece-based action thrillers are always in the back of my mind," Haas says. "I like it when the heroes have a bounce in their step and love their jobs, versus the depressed, I’m-haunted-by-what-I’ve-seen type of characters."

But that doesn't mean Haas doesn't flirt with the dark side of his story either. Viewers, he says, can come for a "crime story with huge stakes, but stay for the drama and the romance and the humor and the twists and all the emotional turns with the characters." But, he adds, "I think they will be surprised by how involved they become with not only our protagonists’ lives, but also the villain’s. When they get to episode 10 of 13, they'll see something they haven’t seen in this genre before. No spoilers!"

Ackles has been acting in TV for almost 28 years, so stunt work, fight prep, and immersing himself in the highly technical aspects of the world his character inhabits is all old hat. But that doesn't mean he's not in the gym prepping as if it's the first time.

"I like to make sure I’m in shape for the long hours and stunt work," Ackles says. "I did do some brush-up on my firearms training; In fact, we went to a training facility in California where Keanu Reeves does his gun training for John Wick." To him, that didn't pose the biggest challenge. Instead, it was getting used the acronym-heavy lingo of law enforcement.

"The police jargon, talking in acronyms, was not something I'm overly used to. We had consultants to help with that," he says. "Most of my questions were about what the acronyms mean and familiarizing myself with the terminology–rather than how to bust down a door."

Ackles describes the series as one with a big, cinematic scope. "The camerawork is mostly handheld which gives the show a lot of energy," he says, "It’s high energy, high stakes, and there’s a lot of momentum that pushes each episode." But he and Haas both point to the chemistry between the characters as the biggest draw.

The show boasts an ensemble that Haas calls "an embarrassment of riches"—one that includes Eric Dane, who immediately became a steady hand and guiding force on set. "We formed a brotherly bond quickly and it was so great to have someone who’s a veteran in series television to connect with," Ackles says. "He was like a North Star for the entire cast." Haas adds: "Eric is a natural, dynamic, thoughtful team leader."

As for Ackles, he's exactly the kind of protagonist Haas has always been drawn to.

"Jensen has that innate natural joy and love for what he does that not only translates perfectly to the character he plays, but elevates everyone around him, myself included," Haas says. "He is genuinely, enormously funny and I would ruin takes by laughing out loud from the monitors 30 feet away. Our sound men Ron and Kevin would gesture at me like Cool it! and I’d just shrug. What am I gonna do?"

If Haas found himself charmed by Ackles, he is far and away not the only one. After his 15-year run on the cult show Supernatural, he's amassed a huge and loyal built-in viewership. What will they find when they tune in?

"There’s plenty of action and adventure but there’s also humor and a lot of heart in the show, especially in the way the characters relate to each other," Ackles says. "Which feels like it aligns with a lot of the things I’ve done before. For example, with Supernatural, yes we were dealing with demons and ghosts, but the heart of the show was the brother’s relationship, that they would die for each other, or for the greater good. I think there’s a similar theme here. These are outcast officers that don’t necessarily find comfort with their unit, they’re renegade mavericks in their departments, and they see themselves within each other. I think the fans will react to that."

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

FORD MUSTANG BOSS 302

BOSS-A-NOVA!

They called it The Boss and for two short years it ruled the muscle car scene in the US, establishing itself as one of the greatest road and race cars of the era. Now, it’s one of the most collectible.

In 1960s US street lingo, if something was ‘boss’ it was cool, tough, the best. And the 1969 Boss 302 Mustang wore its badge with pride. It launched just four and a half years after the first Mustang was revealed to critical acclaim and record sales. Yearly updates to keep Mustang fresh in the face of tough new challengers from General Motors and Chrysler (particularly the Camaro) resulted in the once lean and pretty ’Stang muscling up, both in body shape and under-bonnet brawn, and the 1969-70 Boss models were the zenith of Mustang styling.

Thereafter, Mustangs became increasingly bloated and anaemic as the 1970s fuel crisis and stricter pollution laws cut horsepower and stylists lost their way; the rippling flanks and thrusting nose of the late 60s/early 70s cars gave way to boxy, bland designs. That early look would not be recaptured until 2005, when new Mustangs were given retro styling.

The Boss 302 was launched at the same time as its big-block brother, the Boss 429. Both were positioned as competition specials; Ford wanted to homologate its 302-cuber for Trans-Am and the 429ci monster for NASCAR. In fact, Ford went wild with engines between 1969-70, offering nine V8s – the ‘economy’ 302, 351 Windsor, 351 Cleveland, 390, 428 Cobra Jet, 428 Super Cobra Jet, 429 ‘wedge’, Boss 302 and Boss 429.

For the Boss 302, Ford’s high-compression 302ci small-block V8 was beefed up with four-bolt main bearing caps and redesigned ‘Cleveland’ cylinder heads with bigger inlet and exhaust valves, and ports that allowed the engine to breathe more efficiently.

These ‘semi-hemi’ heads were based on the Ford 427ci racing engine’s combustion chambers, and a balanced forged steel crankshaft and forged steel conrods allowed the engine to handle high rpms for sustained periods. A single 780cfm four-barrel Holley carburettor sat atop a high-rise aluminium inlet manifold, while a dual-point distributor, high-pressure oil pump, windage tray and screw-in welch plugs were further indications of its competition intent.

A rev limiter was fitted, progressively cutting spark from 5800rpm to 6150, but it was easily bypassed and the Boss 302 could reportedly keep making power up to 8000rpm with minor mods. In the muscle car marketing war, Ford claimed a peak horsepower figure of 290bhp at 5800rpm (the same as the Camaro Z/28), but that was extremely conservative.

Two four-speed manual Top Loader transmissions were available: a wide-ratio ’box with Hurst shifter more suited to street and strip use, and a close-ratio unit for racing. Adding to the race or road options list were four diffs: the stock 3.5:1 nine-inch, Traction-Lok 3.5:1 and 3.91:1 and the No-Spin 4.30:1 built by Detroit Automotive. Axles and diff centres were also strengthened to take the loads.

Suspension was also race-inspired with heavy-duty springs, shocks and sway bar up front, and Hotchkiss-style rear suspension with heavy-duty leaf springs, sway bar and staggered shock absorbers. The left-hand shock absorber was bolted behind the axle and the right in front, to reduce axle tramp under acceleration. Amazingly for such a high-performance car, braking was still only discs and drums with power assistance.

Ironically, the Boss 302’s sexy shape was styled by former General Motors designer Larry Shinoda, who is often credited with coming up with the Boss moniker. When asked what he was working on, he replied, "The boss’s car", a reference to new Ford president ‘Bunkie’ Knudson, who was also ex-GM and had recruited Shinoda to Ford.

While the wheelbase remained unchanged at 2740mm, the ’69 Mustang was 96.5mm longer overall to accommodate all the V8s offered, although the big-blocks still had to be shoe-horned under the bonnet. Shinoda’s ’69 Boss 302 was also one of the first production cars to offer an optional front air dam and adjustable rear wing, and his use of high-contrast black panels, rear window SportsSlats, and go-faster stripes made the Boss a real attention-grabber. The ’69 was also the only quad-headlight Mustang, a feature that was dropped for 1970 models.

In 1970, American Hot Rod magazine dubbed the 1970 Boss 302 as "definitely the best handling car Ford has ever built", while the conservative Consumer Guide called it "uncomfortable at any speed over anything but the smoothest surface". Unique Cars resident Mustang maniac, ‘Uncle’ Phil Walker, never read the Consumer Guide review, but even if he had it wouldn’t have stopped him buying the immaculate 1970 Grabber Orange Boss 302 you see here.

Phil already has his beloved 1966 Shelby GT350H, but the Boss 302 really got his Mustang juices percolating. And he wasn’t alone, because the first Boss he saw, some 43 years ago, is still one of Australia’s most iconic race cars: Allan Moffat’s Trans-Am racer. Phil remembers it clearly.

"I saw Moff race it Calder and I was inspired to own one," Phil recalls. "It was the most aggressive-looking car; its stance was something you had to see to believe. It looked like it was doing a million miles per hour when it was parked.

"My Boss was originally a one-owner car and I bought it from a friend of mine in California, Dave, who I also bought my Shelby GT350H from 19 years ago. Dave found it in a barn with a blown engine, but in otherwise pretty good condition.

"The lady who owned it from new didn’t realise it had a high-compression engine and had run it on standard fuel. When it blew up she just parked it.

"Dave did a nut-and-bolt restoration over two years, then put it up on his hoist. He didn’t want to sell it, but I got my way in the end – unfortunately he had the last say on the price (laughs). I didn’t even bother to test drive it; I knew it was a good car. It had 21 (new) miles on the odo when I picked it up and only 54,000 miles in total."

Since then, Phil has only put a couple of hundred miles on the car, but that’s enough for him to have bonded with it.

"I’ve only had the Boss since January and it’s growing on me. It’s different to the Shelby. It’s bigger and very low.

"The engine is incredible. Dave is one of the best engine builders in California and when he rebuilt the 302 he changed the cam spec. US camshaft technology was okay in the 60s and 70s, but if you had a big-cam muscle car they wouldn’t idle and they were terrible for driving in cities.

"A proper Boss engine can rev to 8500rpm all day and for a V8 that’s pretty serious. But they’re not renowned for low-down torque; it starts coming on from 3500rpm. My car still has a solid-lifter cam, but it pulls like a train from 1200rpm in top gear and I can drive it around at 1500rpm in top all day.

"It’s got the four-speed close-ratio Top Loader with the long first gear and with a 3.7:1 rear end it does about 55-60mph (89-97km/h) in first gear. It bloody goes!"

Phil is a fussy bugger and his cars have to look just right, so Russell Stuckey from Stuckey Tyres has ordered him a set of genuine 15 x 8 Minilites from England to replace the standard Magnum 500s.

"I want it to look like the Parnelli Jones race car, and to get the stance I want it’s going to have 275/60s on the rear and 255/60s on the front. At the moment it’s a pretty car that is tough, but I want a tough car that looks tough. And that’s all I’m going to do to it."

After his first real fang in the Boss, Phil felt that his Shelby would be half a lap in front at the end of a 10-lap sprint at Sandown, but now thinks the Boss would be quicker. We might have to put both to the acid test one day. What do you mean "no way", Phil?

It was a nervous Phil who turned up at a Melbourne storage facility in January to pick up his new Boss 302. So nervous, in fact, that he took along Unique Cars art director Ange and a sturdy tow rope – just in case.

The storage people were even more apprehensive – they had been warned about just how anal he is with his cars, as he explains: "The lady there said, ‘You must be pretty fanatical because we’ve been given strict instructions that no one is to touch the car except you’." Fortunately, the car arrived in pristine condition.

"I was pretty excited, I’d been waiting for seven weeks," Phil laughs. "I took the car cover off it, fired it up, and it drove home like a brand new car. It was as good as I thought it would be. I spent the next three hours washing it."

Sounds like our Phil.

PARNELLI AND ME

Three years ago, my mate Dave and I were invited to a Trans-Am dinner at Portland International Raceway where Dave was racing his 1970 Trans-Am Boss 302 and I was crewing for him.

When we were driving there we noticed this black Mercedes following us. When we stopped it did too and this bloke got out and said, "I noticed you guys back at the hotel. You’re going to the Trans-Am dinner aren’t you? I’m lost." It was Parnelli Jones!

I jumped in with him and when we got there I ‘invited’ myself onto Parnelli’s table, which also included Pete Brock – the guy who designed the Shelby Daytona Coupe. There was I, Mr Nobody, with all these US racing heavies, but Parnelli was a real gentleman, not up himself in any way.

The next day they had free lap time at Portland and, when I saw Parnelli there with Ford’s new ‘Parnelli Jones’ Boss 302 tribute Mustang, I asked if there was any chance of a ride and he said jump in. We did 10 laps and the guy hadn’t lost any of his ability; my eyes were getting bigger and bigger coming into the corners.

It was a great experience that I’ll never forget. – PW

IT's MINE...

Moff’s Mustang is probably the most iconic Australian racecar and after seeing it I was inspired to own a Boss Mustang. Then, about 25 years ago, I went to Pebble Beach in Monterey for the first time and saw a 1970 Grabber Orange Boss 302, which was the colour Parnelli Jones raced in Trans-Am. That day I knew I had to own a Boss. It was the car I’d always wanted after my Shelby, which was my lifelong dream car.

My Boss 302 is fully optioned, including the Shaker, extra side mirror, tacho and rear louvres, and it’s got a lot of wow factor. When you drive down the freeway, you get the thumbs-up from all sorts of different people. I think it’s the colour.

It’s closer to show standard than my Shelby. It’s got the paint marks on the tailshaft and all the little concours details, but I’m never going to show it; I’m not into that.

The 1969/70 body shape is still the best. Ford got it right then, but lost the plot after that and it’s reflected in their collectibility today. – PW

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jasmine Mithani at The 19th:

A network working to end female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) in the United States and globally says President Donald Trump’s January 28 executive order attempting to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender youth “wrongly and dangerously” conflates the two.

Opponents of transgender rights have sought for several years to co-opt anti-FGM/C laws to further gender-affirming care bans, mostly in state legislatures. The executive order builds on these efforts by directing the Department of Justice and state authorities to review and prioritize the enforcement of laws banning FGM/C, which are unrelated.  FGM/C is a human rights violation and one of the most extreme forms of gender-based violence. According to the World Health Organization, FGM/C “comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.” It is practiced across many cultures and takes many forms, and is most commonly performed on young girls who are unable to consent. There are no health benefits to FGM/C, and it is more likely to cause medical complications.

In contrast, gender-affirming genital surgeries like phalloplasty or metoidioplasty are medically necessary and done only with the consent of the patient. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the international body that publishes research-backed standards of care, does not recommend genital gender-affirming care surgeries for patients under 18. Extensive documentation from medical professionals is required for any medically necessary gender-affirming care surgery.  It is estimated that in 2012, over half a million girls in the United States had either undergone FGM/C or were at risk based on the country of origin of their parents. Survivor advocates think the number could be much higher now.

FGM/C has been a federal crime since 1996. The law has been revised several times — most recently in 2020, when Trump signed the STOP FGM Act, which prevented defendents from using religious or cultural reasons to avoid prosecution. 

[...] Anti-trans extremists have warped these laws to ban health care for trans people “despite clear medical and ethical distinctions,” said Ash Lazarus Orr, press relations manager at Advocates for Trans Equality. Orr also pointed out that this rhetoric excludes non-consensual surgeries performed on intersex youth. Many bans include a carve-out ensuring “corrective” surgeries remain legal for minors with intersex characteristics. Republican lawmakers in Idaho and Texas introduced bills in 2022 that would remove the word “female” from current legal codes banning FGM/C. Anti-FGM/C advocates helped defeat those bills, but Idaho ended up passing a separate law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth the next year. Excluding the word “female” means these laws no longer prevent FGM/C because they then refer to something else entirely, said Kaitlin Mitchell, policy and advocacy coordinator at the U.S. Network to End FGM/C. Using the laws to restrict gender-affirming care instead of addressing the specific issue they were designed to make it harder for advocates to campaign for more funding or research on this little-known, severe form of gender-based violence.

Donald Trump’s false and transphobia-laden characterizing of gender-affirming care for trans youths as “mutilation” served as the basis for Executive Order 14187, which bans gender-affirming care services for trans youths and adults under 19.

The false characterization of GAC as “mutilation” trivializes the real issue of female genital mutilation.

[rockzone]

Samantha Fish - Paper Doll

Release Date: 25 Apr 2025

*Photo Credit Aries Photography Nola

One of the most electrifying guitarists of her generation, Samantha Fish, has consistently captivated audiences with her unparalleled energy, boldness, emotional depth and unique blend of rock and soul.

Known for her expressive guitar playing and powerhouse performances, Samantha's career hit warp speed in 2023 with the release of her previous album 'Death Wish Blues', which topped the Billboard Blues Chart, and earned her a Grammy nomination.

The Kansas City-bred, New Orleans-based musician releases her new studio album 'Paper Doll' next month. It's her fiercest work to date with each of the songs being delivered with visceral force, soul-soothing empathy, and newfound clarity.

Samantha says, "It’s taken me years to finally find my voice in a studio setting. But with this record, I took everything I had and slammed it right on the table."

The nine songs were recorded in Austin, Texas during a gruelling touring schedule, ultimately capturing the untamed energy of her live performances. It features touring bandmates Ron Johnson (bass), Jamie Douglass (drums), and Mickey Finn (keyboards).

Samantha says, "I’d never made a record on the road like that. Even though it was intense, it felt good to keep up the momentum from the live show. It helped us make an album that’s got a real living, breathing pulse to it."

The theme of unapologetic defiance runs throughout the album, as Samantha explores new depths of vulnerability and self-expression and confronts love, loss, and personal growth.

Samantha Fish - May/June 2025 Wed 28 May - Cheese & Grain - Frome, United Kingdom Thu 29 May - Red Rooster Festival, Thetford, United Kingdom Fri 30 May - Arts Club - Liverpool, United Kingdom Sat 31 May - The Brook - Southampton, United Kingdom Sun 1 Jun - Academy 2 - Oxford, United Kingdom

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New SpaceTime out Friday

SpaceTime 20250620 Series 28 Episode 74

Discovery of a record breaking cosmic structure

Astronomers have imaged a record breaking cosmic structure which has raised new questions about what powers and re-energizes particles in the Universe over time.

A new way to build the red planet Mars

A new study has discovered a surprising way planetary cores may have formed, and the findings could reshape how scientists understand the early evolution of rocky terrestrial worlds like Mars.

Scientists develop new high performance infrared nano antennas

Scientists have developed tiny, gold antennas to help cameras and sensors that “see” heat deliver clearer pictures of thermal infrared radiation for everything from stars and galaxies to people, buildings and items requiring security.

The Science Report

A new study has found that Nanoplastics can disrupt the gut microbes in mammals.

A protein that gives fleas their bounce could be useful in stopping implant infections.

Discovery of a new dinosaur species belonging to a new genus of tyrannosauroid.

Skeptics guide to Ireland's most haunted house.

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through your favourite podcast download provider or from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States.  The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science.  SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research.  The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network.  Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor.  Gary’s always loved science. He was the dorky school kid who spent his weekends at the Australian Museum. Gary studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on a career in journalism and radio broadcasting. His radio career stretches back some 34 years including 26 at the ABC. Gary’s first gigs were spent as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist, and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. He was part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and became one of its first on air presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary was appointed Science Editor and quickly developed the StarStuff Astronomy show, which he wrote, produced, and hosted. The program proved extremely popular, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience -- based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. That compares to the ABC’s overall radio listenership of 5.6 per cent. The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually.  However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage.  Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently.  StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode broadcast in February 2016.  Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times a week (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and it’s available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

[sunlit-ruler]

@enstars-selfship-event

Rating: 18+ for implied/referenced sex, mentions of vices and military trauma.

Genre: Black Comedy, Angst, Character Study

Ship: Snakesling (Ibara Saegusa x Milton Pelage) (Us!)

Notes & Warnings: Future AU (Ibara is 28) and Drunken OOC. I have not read Ouroboros yet, but I know it covers something similar, so I tried to workshop this so it could happen regardless.

What is Snakesling?

Ibara is 28 and Cospro President. Eden has gone solo for profit maximisation. He deals with that by letting loose at his new resort, Limbus Tropicae, and my sona Milton is unfortunately(?) the bartender. Read my yume intro to find out more about my setting!

Summary:

Ibara spent his teenage years eating barely nutritious meal replacements and workouts that could nearly tear his limbs off. Now 28 years old, he can feel the wear and tear in his bones. Stubborn as he may be, he knows no amount of scheming can relieve him from the clutches of age.

After being apart from Eden for so long, it takes just a few daiquiris for doubts about his ability as an idol to resurface.

Milton, his personal bartender and minder, has waited forever for a good night’s rest. Surely, the new outdoor karaoke stage in the resort won’t be an obstacle to that - because who in the fresh hell would perform his unit's entire album, alone, with full stage lighting at three in the morning?

Play while you read!

“Hey, Goose. What’s the difference between an idol and a prostitute?”

The daiquiri pouring through Ibara’s lips went straight back into the cup through his nose. 

The dim lanterns under the attap roof of the bar cast ominous shadows over the hard lines of his face, contorted into the stare of both a starving wolf and a stung horse. Red bloomed on his cheeks, and not just from the alcohol. A better sight, for sure, than that cold, obsequious grin he wore out while sober.

“Woah there, bud. You’re only supposed to drink those with your mouth.” Milton belched with laughter as the idol gasped like a fish, still trying to subtly lap up the streaks of orange liqueur trickling from the glass. Even at the top of the world, the CEO of Cosmic Productions was allergic to a single drop of waste falling from his lips. Mostly worrying, but partly entertaining, and that’s what really mattered.

“Firstly, do not call me that. I do not care how much you like your mass-produced Hollywood military movies, or their characters. ”

Milton frowned. “But… Goose."

“Do not bastardise my name.”

Ibara cleared his throat.

“Anyway. A reasonable question for someone with your level of abject ignorance.” He hissed those last two words, as if to express hate for all matters of incompetence right then and there. “Shall I put things into perspective, Pelage? You escape halfway across the world from your responsibilities to a resort which I own, receive an allowance from my own pocket that keeps you out of that shipping container I found you in -”

“It was rustic and cozy, dude.” Milton stopped wiping his glass for a moment and sighed with nostalgia. 

“It was rust-y. If I had known better, I would have had you vaccinated for tetanus - then neutered like a stray.” Ibara cleared his throat and straightened himself. “You do all of that, and proceed to ask…”

He looked straight ahead into Milton’s soul, voice lowered to a deadly baritone.

“The difference between myself and a common harlot.”

The corners of Milton's lips could not stop curling. 

“...Damn, you were an idol?”

“Oh, fuck you.” The glass bounced onto the table. Management had to order rubber ones just because of this habit of his. “Another will do. Make it quick."

Milton hummed a tune of approval as he took his shaker in hand and began to prepare his guest’s next dose of happiness. 

“Welcome back, Goose. But hear me out on this one, alright. Idol and prostitute - you entertain with your looks, your body and your charm. What’s the difference?”

“There is no art to inducing that sort of lowly pleasure.” Ibara shook his head. “We dedicate our lives and bodies towards more complex, extreme endeavours to convey our own unique creative ideals. The effort we expend on this is beyond your understanding.”

“And who’s anyone to say what’s worth testing your body for? On God, I’ve seen strippers put more thought and expression into their routines than some of your rivals. And every month it’s like another one of them gets caught with his pants down.” The bartender shrugged, then shook the metal cup for emphasis. “The end goal? Pleasure. How to reach it? Selling sex, or actual sex. It’s all the same.”

A low ‘hmph’ sat in Ibara’s throat, followed by a hint of fangs. 

“A sex worker sells their body to test their soul. An idol tests their body to sell their soul.” He drummed his fingers on the glass, faster and faster, until the rattling sent a creeping feeling of dread up Milton’s spine. “Does that suffice, O’ righteous defender of the common people? Do you feel the urge to shelter them in return for their compliments on your out-of-season Armani shirts?”

Turning his head, the bartender caught the sight of his fingers deftly smoothing over the fabric of his collar, a pattern that’s been missing from his wardrobe for a while now. Noticing the mortified curdling of his expression, Ibara shot him a smirk. 

That asshole was leaving his room naked next time.

“You forgot one thing.”

He swiped the glass away and thrust a new one in front of him, landing perfectly in between them. Craving the sweet, fresh temptation of rum-strawberry slurry on his tongue, Ibara embraced the wide brim of the coupe glass with both hands. He took a deep breath, then coughed on the noxious sting of bourbon and an orange peel.

An old-fashioned.

“Both of them don’t make it past thirty.” 

Milton dropped his shaker in the sink and with a cheeky cat-stretch over the table, nudged his shoulder with his wrist. “Good thing you’re more of a producer, so you don’t have to worry about that, right?”

“This isn’t what I ordered.” 

“Oh, you don’t order it. It comes to you, and you just have to acquire the taste.” Flinging his batik overshirt onto his shoulder, Milton shifted his attention to the glasses in the sink at the side of the attap hut. Of all shapes and sizes, they assembled themselves into a crude mockery of a celebrity host’s champagne tower.

“You are way over your quota today.”

“Which I set”, came a grumble from behind. 

“And I regulate. Need me to walk you back to your room?”

No response. 

Worried (and somewhat relieved for his liver) that he’d finally passed out, Milton swerved back to Ibara’s favourite seat at the edge of the table. But there was only the lone orange peel, dipping its toes into a grave of brown, watery disappointment.

Ibara stumbled around, above and between the candles leading up to the hotel residence. The wisps of flame at his feet flickered with amusement before being snuffed with a kick from his sand-covered Oxfords. 

Today and tomorrow blurred around him. His only audience in five, going on six years, and it was going to be a Black Ocean.

“10 years.” followed the breathy pop of his chapped lips from a hip-flask on the inside of his blazer. One night together after another had led Milton to offer to send his clothes to Laundry on his behalf, and made the mistake of not smoothing the hair-thin seams on the pocket lining caused by his fingernails. But there were just so many things about him that the preening parrot and his big beak couldn’t pry into. “For 10 years of my life I make Eden fucking perfect - ”

Another stray candle pulverised beneath his boot.

"And that's what I am to him!?"

He’d seen it coming from lightyears away that his self-sabotage would lead him down this path, wrestling every ounce of wealth and power from the feet of those who tried to take it away from him. That would fill every hole that, by sending him to that camp, they had bore into him even before it was born.

But it was lightyears away. So ensnared he was by that distant twinkle of righteous satisfaction, from a life of not needing to use or be used by anyone except himself, that he didn’t stop to consider how he’d live without anyone needing him.

“'m just a pretty face and a body, huh?” He grumbled, kicking over another candle - on purpose this time. It rolled and splashed into the artificial lake nearby. “You spoiled little brat, that’s not the only reason yoi last long as I do in this shitty - ”

The sandstone beneath his foot shifted under his weight. He lurched forward and was punished with an electric jolt to the base of his spine. 

“Goddamnit!”

There was a pop, like Christmas Crackers at his waist (not that he had the sufficient levels of nostalgia to have used those outside of garish office parties, their horrific artillery-like sound notwithstanding). 

He gritted his teeth through the ringing in his ears. Nagisa, Hiyori and Jun’s absences since their breathtaking overseas debut as Eden were loud enough of a reminder, but he supposed the fickle god that made him related to an idol dynasty had its own mysterious ways. 

His foot slipped, landing him on the stone. A parched water lily leaned out, and with petals that oddly matched his hair, seemed to stroke his head. Instinct compelled him to throw a fit at the landscaper’s laziness, but surrounded by the mocking dance of half-snuffed candle flames, he reprimanded himself for the lack of perspective. 

Idols were a galaxy of dying stars. In their early 20s, they’ve already exploded as supernovas on their finest stage. The audience continues to bask in that light for a good five, ten years, without noticing that last glint of purpose petering out. He’s been burning away with every crinkle of a Caloriemate wrapper, every last rep he’s missed from a strange muscle ache the strictest routines could never alleviate.

Good thing you’re more of a producer, so you don’t have to worry about that, right?

Fucking bastard.

He marched through the slimy water dripping onto his ruffled bangs away from the french doors of the reception, straight into the dark. Whatever that stepped out of line in his life could, and would be whipped into shape, including the creaky protests of his joints. 

They brought him far enough through the undergrowth of the nearby reserve and towards the other shore for something to smack him at full force in the waist. Ibara wasn’t as worried for his manhood (his… ‘lifestyle choices’ and contract didn’t have much practical use for it anyway) as for why the hell it had been built so close to the tide. 

He scrambled onto it like a cat desperately trying to avoid a bath by the incoming waves. Looming over him was a tower of scaffolding and light fixtures. Speakers lined the steps down to the sand, which he had only just noticed. 

“...Oho.”

Ibara smirked. That old upgrade he’d commissioned looked much better in person.

The parrot was just going to have to try and put him to bed.

With the crisp new linen hugging his sore body, his fluffy sunset-coloured mask finally over his eyes, the haze of sleep washed over Milton faster than a bottle of fine scotch.

“FALLING DOWN!~”

A flash of light, like he’s turned his phone screen on in the pitch darkness.

“FEELING UP!~”

The mask flew off his head and he scrambled to the window. He flung the blackout curtains open and was drowned in Magenta.

“YOU WANT IT!~”

“Damn you, Saegusa, it’s not even pride month yet!” The viper’s minder threw on a spare shirt and squeezed into his flip flops with so much force the friction could’ve burned down the whole building. 

nido to mo-do-re-na-i!

“二度と戻れない!”

The rest of the staff had popped their own heads out of their little mouseholes for dorms. In hushed whispers, they dismissed it as another one of their boss’s neuroses, exchanged noise-cancelling earplugs and went back to sleep. The whole resort was closed for the week for inspection, after all; putting up with him was their job.

“Seriously, guys?” Milton was left alone in the hallway, gesturing wildly to the closed doors, while the shockwaves of the bass turned the floor into the deck of a cruise ship in a storm. “Like, I know he comes by every so often, but it’s not like we’re married, y’know?”

They were completely synchronised too. Was it because it happened so often, or did they just exchange a wordless ‘not it’ so he’d have to wrangle him?

He flung the hotel doors open and was greeted with a hurricane of light and thunder towards the horizon - yet the skies were completely clear. From the glittering purple eye of the storm sprang forth a spectacle of multicoloured lasers that he wished could taunt a fighter jet into firing missiles at them both.

Milton raced towards it without hesitation. Flip flops were not good shock absorbers, and he could feel each step in every bone in his body. He knew he was close when he could no longer hear his own screaming – partly in the most raw frustration he’s ever felt, partly to keep himself awake – over the synths burning through his precious night. 

“FALLING DOWN!~”

He broke through the jungle clearing -

“YEAH I SURE HOPE YOU DO, YOU ASSHOLE!”

And emerged on the other shore.

What he thought this whole time was an audio recording, meticulously parsed and edited in a studio setting, was Ibara Saegusa in the flesh. One fluid sway of his hips after another, he dominated the otherwise empty platform. Sweat glistened down the patches of skin where his shirt had become untucked, drawing the dazed parrot’s attention to the glint of sinister delight in his smile. 

The annoyance welling in his gut petered out to… confusion. Intrigue, even. Each thrust of the idol’s lower body brought a chuckle, seeming rather out of place for the flurry of sophisticated and complex breakdances, but the way he commanded his own body left him drinking the sight. Whatever he was feeling now, he was sure a protagonist in a particularly bad Wattpad bad boy story somewhere could sympathise. 

“Miltoooon!” The 28-year old fought through his own stupor into his next set of thrust-swerve-thrusts. “How kind of you to join me at my inaugural solo concert!”

“What the hell are you doing, man!? Turn it off!” Milton shouted over the pounding music. 

“And a question, if I may, for some mandatory audience engagement -” Both the vibrato of his voice and body swayed from side to side. Ibara survived a brief slip of his foot unscathed and even slipped into an improvised breakdance. “Can a whore do this, you son of a bitch!?”

“I said, turn it off!”

Ibara raised an eyebrow, and while still dancing, stretched his hand towards the nearby iPad controlling the sound - then jerked it away to flip Milton the bird. 

There went the bad boy magic. 

Milton seized the opportunity to pounce on a nearby mic, which had been left connected to the audio system during their very first test run.

“I mean, when you’re doing that with your hips, kind of defeats the purpose of what you’re trying to say.” He deadpanned. “Okay, look. I get it.  We’re all very impressed. I don’t know how you did all of this yourself. But it’s like, 3:30, so please stop before you get hurt -”

“No, Milton. You don’t.’

He planted his foot into the ground. No more coy glances. His limbs stopped their pretentious fluttering, freezing solid into squared shoulders.

“You think I spent my childhood digging mass graves in Kosovo so I’d be quirky enough to sell tickets to parasocial women?” Colder than the whites of his knuckles was the fury on his face, that magazine-cover complexion wrought with something Milton couldn’t recognise. “You think I do it all for the money, the sex, the attention?”

The extra mic fell from Milton’s wrist to his side. When he knew what it was, a sharp pang in his chest forced him to look down at the sand at his feet. There were many things about Ibara that eluded him, but for the first time, something didn’t seem so alien after all.

“No, look at me.”

A quiver in his voice. The rheuminess in his eyes, coating them like glass.

The electronic beat was overtaken by Milton’s own heart.

“Being an idol is leverage. It’s release. Because I wasted 18 years of my life making myself a tool for everyone’s dirty jobs, before realising I could be more than what I was born to do.” Ibara’s wounded voice reverberated across the island. "I don’t care if you think it’s pathetic that I thrust my hips onstage for a living. Or that it’s pointless for me to act like I can do it forever. It’s the only thing in my shitty life that has ever made me feel like a person!”

With no time to waste, Milton leaned into his mic. There had to be something, anything he could say.

He was never really that good at figuring where the lines were unless it was just to cross them. With the way things turned out back home - his track record was the very thing that sent him in that shipping container in the first place. But there was nowhere else he could go - and nowhere he would rather be. He had to try. 

Static grazed his lips. 

He was stopped by the cracked gurgle of Ibara’s throat, amplified by the speaker.

“And for a while - for a really long fucking while.” Ibara shook his head, wiping his eyes with his wrist. “I thought that thing was you.”

The speakers screeched, then fell silent. The Eden member began to storm off the stage, rubbing his back and grumbling to himself. 

“What am I even doing? Ah, that hurts… ”

Milton rushed up the stage.

“You’re my number one oh-shee!”

A high-pitched whine shattered the eardrums of Milton, Ibara and probably everyone within a ten-kilometer radius. 

“Too close, too close!” The idol covered his ears, looking to be both in pain from the sound and the pronunciation. He rolled his eyes and hissed. “Hold it further from your face - ”

“I wasn’t trying to -”

Another screech.

“Still too close!” Ibara groaned, having to catch himself against the scaffolding this time.

“...Better?”

Milton assumed that was a yes, judging by how Ibara continued to walk away on the platform. It didn’t matter. He was going to put on an even more spectacular performance for this whole island, whether they liked it or not.

Whether Ibara liked it or not.

“I didn’t ask you that because I wanted to make fun of you.” Milton insisted. “I mean, of course there’s the banter, but what I really meant was - are you happy spending your whole life pleasing others!?”

Ibara’s foot didn’t touch the next step, just barely hovering over it. 

“I don’t just read the papers to find stuff to embarrass you with.” Milton furrowed his eyebrows. “I’ve seen what happens to other idols. They do the things you do and go out like a light. I just - I hate seeing you push yourself over the edge.”

“...You’re treating me like a child.”

Milton sighed and unplugged the mic.

“I guess I got so used to managing this place that I’m even trying to manage you, now.”  He walked towards Ibara and sat at the precipice of the stairs, right at Ibara’s feet. “I don’t know, I just… I love that you keep me on my toes, and I thought telling you straight up would just stop making things fun. It was an awful way to go about it. I’m sorry.”

The nest of red curls atop his head greeted the playful embrace of manicured fingers, the cool steel touch of their multitude of rings.

“You do have bad taste. But I suppose that’s one of the things that make us well-suited for each other - that being, our ill-suitedness to everyone else.”

Ibara sat down next to him.

“...Hey, Goose.”

“Mm?” Ibara mindlessly twirled his index finger around Milton’s bangs, gaze affixed to the ships passing in the night.

“If you weren’t a descendant of that Godfather of yours, would you still want to be an idol?”

His gentle whispers back held the cracks of sobriety. “I tend to find it… inefficient to focus on hypotheticals rather than the present. But a place like this defies time, slowing it down for me to realise - what I knew as inefficiency, I unmasked to reveal avoidance.”

Ibara brought a kiss to Milton’s temple. A rare display; for someone whose stage language (and bedroom language) mastered the art of innuendo, these chaste little gestures were nothing short of blasphemous in a public setting. As the tide did to his feet, he bit his tongue and let the warmth wash over him.

“Rest assured, if I were reborn into a world where I was free to choose this profession… I could have used someone like you as my producer.”

“Why be reborn? We can do it now.”

Ibara’s head tilted with surprise. 

“...I beg your pardon?”

“I just have to decide what you sing, right?” Milton grinned. Still confused, Ibara went limp like a ragdoll as he grabbed his shoulders and shook him from side to side. “Well, as your producer, I’ve decided that you can sing whatever you want.”

“My, ahem… outburst notwithstanding,” Protesting, Ibara desperately tried to mask his childlike intrigue. “Don’t you have to work in one hour?”

“Well I could think of someone who could make that one day instead. For all of us.”

The owner of the resort took one of the longest breaths he had ever taken in his life.

“Very well.” He nodded. “On one condition: you must sing with me on this very stage.”

“You got a deal. So what are we singing?”

Ibara took his hands away from Milton’s head and clasped them together, cackling.

“If I recall,  there were quite a few songs in my youth that Shuetsu Academy would never let me sing…”

Drenched in warm hues, the acrid mist from the Java Sea greeted the rolling waves, which caressed the silent graves of sea creatures across the empty shore. Birds of paradise began their whooping chorus in their nests to announce the arrival of the rising sun. 

Here, at Limbus Tropicae – the edge of the tropics, a peaceful suspension of daily life between the equally dangerous arctic ‘paradise’ and deserts of ‘hell’ — the stillness of nature created a different world to behold. 

“BUT SHE WEARS SHORT SKIRTS, I WEAR T-SHIRTS ~”

…Or at least, that was what some intern wrote on the branding kit.

“SHE’S CHEER CAPTAIN AND I’M ON THE BLEACHERS!~”

The birds scattered. Fluorescent lights cut through the smoke, revealing the stage in all its glory. But there was neither the entrancing vocals or complex manoeuvres of the idols of ES, nor a lovestruck audience to receive them.

“DREAMIN’ BOUT THE DAY WHEN YOU WAKE UP AND FIND THAT WHAT YOU’RE - LOOKIN’ FOR -”

Ibara croaked, lying flat on the floorboards like a dead fish. He swatted at a can that had toppled and rolled near his shoulders: cheap beer he’d ordered in from the nearby convenience store, the sixth one this time. 

He poked Milton’s cheek with the mic.

“...Has been here…” Milton choked back a snore and hiccuped. “ the whole time…” 

“Oho. Is that the extent of your stamina, ‘Producer’? The setlist for Eden’s final live show was thirty, if I recall.”

“Dude, we went through your whole Spotify, can you cut me some slack?” The parrot shook himself awake, groaning as he sat up. “And out of all the songs your school banned, you chose this one? Don’t know about you, but I would’ve loved growing up thinking Swifties didn’t exist.”

“It wasn’t so much of an affair related to the quality of her music, fans or even moral character.” Ibara shrugged, then grimaced. “Even today, Eden, myself and some of our fans could be identified with that sort of… profile. It wouldn’t have made sense on that basis.”

“So what was it?”

“To prepare us for an industry that permitted limited contact with the opposite sex, all love songs by female artists were banned.”

Milton scoffed and started tidying Ibara’s shirt. The inconveniences of timezones led his board meetings to happen while they shared the same bed, and before he knew it, this habit became hard to kick. 

“And how did that turn out?”

As he finished the top one, Ibara’s palm ghosted his own.

“What do you think, Pelage? That we are a happy coincidence? I’m afraid not: you have Ms. …Ms?”

“ - Yeah, still not married.”

“Good for him, whoever that is.” Ibara huffed, then continued. “But I digress: you have Ms. Swift to thank for our… arrangement. Because without those thrice-divorced temptresses that define the face of romance pop-rock, came the throes of BL CDs - some of them more explicit than others.” 

“Wait.”

“I did not own any myself.” Ibara was quick to snap. “Whatever I did was research material for Eden.”

“I mean, I don’t care. I know you’re lying.” Milton lay back down, then spread out his arms and started to make a snow angel from all the cans around him. “So you said that music was banned… but who banned it? Hey, weren’t you like the Supreme Leader of Shuetsu at the time -”

“I have a meeting in five minutes.”

Ibara picked up his own pile of cans and buried Milton in them, then sped deep into the forest.

And we've made it to the end of the fic! I'm Mod Serpent. I can't thank you enough for being interested in my yumeship, even if you just scrolled down here to see if it was really that long, haha. If you're reading this, Rumi, thank you for reblogging and taking the time to organise such an event for us all!

"Goose" is a Top Gun character. It has less to do with the character's background and film genre than Milton saying "SaeGUSa" out loud and going, "heeeey..."

Why Taylor Swift, you might ask? Well ES! is set in 2015, so any songs he would've listened to and influenced Eden would have come out a couple years before then. I just thought Taytay would be hilarious because it's so jarring compared to Ibara's self-imposed image, yet the, ahem... 'toxicity' element is there in the lyrics.

Being a future AU, Snakesling is not your standard coming of age enstars setting, and I like to imagine what problems/personal growth Ibara will face when he has to undertake adult responsibilities. I wrote my heart out in the confrontation scene - it was very emotional for me, having to empathise with his abuse and a long search for an identity not defined by his trauma.

I'm going to write lots more to unpack this. I love my dumbass snake. Stay tuned!

[invitetoislam92]

Eid ul Adha isn’t just a day of celebration. It’s a day of sacrifice, submission, and spiritual strength.

Here’s a breakdown of what to do on Eid al-Adha AND the ITS massive rewards:-

What is Eid al-Adha?

Date: 10th of Dhul Hijjah

Commemorates: Prophet Ibrahim (A.S.)’s willingness to sacrifice his son for Allah — and Allah replaced it with a ram.

Also marks: The end of Hajj for the pilgrims.

---->>

✅ Things To Do On Eid al-Adha:-

1. Perform Ghusl (Full Body Purification)

> Start clean. Body clean, mind sharp, soul ready.

📖 Hadith (Ibn Majah 1315)

> "The Messenger of Allah used to take a bath on the day of Eid al-Fitr and the day of Eid al-Adha."

✅ Benefit: Boosts mental clarity, alertness, and enhances feelings of spiritual renewal.

2. Wear Your Best Clothes (Modestly)

> Look sharp. This is a blessed celebration, not a lazy day.

📖 Hadith (Tirmidhi 530)

> “The Prophet ﷺ used to wear his best clothes on the two Eids.”

✅ Psychological Benefit: Looking good improves confidence, mood, and creates a sense of occasion. You feel powerful — you act powerful.

3. Avoid Eating Before Eid Prayer (Sunnah)

> Fast from food till after prayer — reminds you of obedience.

📖 Hadith (Tirmidhi 542)

> “The Prophet ﷺ would not eat on the day of Eid al-Adha until he returned and ate from his sacrifice.”

4. Attend Eid Salah and Khutbah

> This is non-negotiable. Massive reward for showing up united in worship.

📖 Hadith (Bukhari 976, Muslim 889)

> “The Prophet ﷺ went out and offered a two rak‘ah Eid prayer and did not pray anything before or after it.”

5. Recite Takbeer (From Fajr of 9th till Asr of 13th Dhul Hijjah)

“Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, La ilaha illa Allah, wa Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar wa lillahil-hamd”

Let your voice echo the greatness of Allah.

📖 Surah Al-Hajj 22:37

> “...that you may magnify Allah for having guided you.”

6. Offer Qurbani (Animal Sacrifice)

> This is the core of Eid al-Adha. Sacrifice is a symbol of devotion — not a ritual.

📖 Surah Al-Kawthar 108:2

> “So pray to your Lord and sacrifice.”

📖 Hadith (Tirmidhi 1493)

> “There is nothing dearer to Allah during the days of Udhiyah than the sacrificing of animals...”

> Blood doesn’t reach Allah — your taqwa does. (Surah Al-Hajj 22:37)

✅ Massive Reward: Each hair of the animal = a reward. (Tirmidhi 1493)

7. Distribute the Meat

> 1/3 for yourself, 1/3 for family/friends, 1/3 for the poor.

📖 Surah Al-Hajj 22:28

> “…then eat from them and feed the poor and the needy.”

✅ Spiritual Value: Charity purifies wealth.

8. Make Du’a for Acceptance & Gratitude

> Eid is not just fun — it’s a reminder that Allah accepts sincere effort.

📖 Surah Ibrahim 14:7

> “If you are grateful, I will surely increase you…”

9. Visit Family, Greet with Salaam, Spread Joy

> Strengthen ties — it's a Sunnah and a social investment.

📖 Hadith (Muslim 2554)

> “He who severs the ties of kinship will not enter Paradise.”

10. Avoid Sin, Arrogance, and Waste

> Don’t turn a sacred day into a show-off fest. Stay humble. Stay clean.

📖 Surah Luqman 31:18

> “Do not turn your face away from people in arrogance, nor walk proudly on the earth.”

Eid al-Adha isn’t about flexing clothes and BBQ selfies. It’s about:

Obeying Allah like Prophet Ibrahim (Peace be upon him)

Giving like a leader

Celebrating like a believer

Wake up early, show up for Eid prayer, give your Qurbani, spread joy — and walk like a servant of the Most High.

#eid #eiduladha #eid #arafah #Muslim #Islam #reminders #peace #eidmubarak #EidAlAdha #EidAlAdha2025 #islam #islamic #muslim #alquran #quran #Allah #peace #happiness #fyp #explore #reminders

[lgcmanager]

SIDE EVENT 021 ( CHUSEOK & LGC FAMILY CONCERT 2K24 )

a reminder on side-events; they are non-mandatory occasional events that your muse can choose to participate in or not.

while missing an event might mean missing out on points, be aware that choosing to take part in it could have positive or negative consequences for your muse. there is also no telling which part of the event will have consequences either since they will be tailored to make it difficult to guess what could impact your muse. while the final consequences are decided at the same time as the event is created, we will only reveal them the sunday after the deadline if there are any. so choose wisely: are you willing to make a gamble with your muse?

( important note: EVERY MUSE in the company will take part in the event canon wise, whether or not a mun writes for it. )

sometime around EARLY AUGUST, all of the parties involved ( IDOLS, ACTORS, MODELS, and TRAINEES ) gather together to their assigned locations by their managers and coaches as they begin to disclose all of the details pertaining to LGC FAMILY CONCERT 2K24.

GENERAL DETAILS

this year the concert will be held on SEPTEMBER 27 and 28 at the SEOUL OLYMPIC STADIUM. the emcees will be BLAZING’s MAY ( PARK HAEMI ), DBSD’s SIWOO, and HARU’S MINWOO.

CHUSEOK ( DEBUTED ARTISTS )

for all of the DEBUTED ARTISTS ( including BLAZING5, DBSD, NKND, and HARU ) on SEPTEMBER 14 they will be invited to a grand dinner party to celebrate CHUSEOK. it is mandatory for all of them to attend and during this time, the managers will be present so it is expected to be on their best behavior ( and a great chance to catch up with some of the artists they may have not seen in a while ).

CHUSEOK ( EVERYONE )

as a future reminder, everyone will be celebrating chuseok from SEPTEMBER 16-18 so they will be given a short break to spend time with their loved ones and relax ( exception will be KIM JINSEO, who will be attending MILAN FASHION WEEK on SEPTEMBER 17 ). everyone will be returning back to the company and training on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19.

TRAINEES ( STAGES )

as briefly mentioned in TRAINEE MISSION 018, all of the trainees would have started vlogging their day in the life as a trainee videos and in the next few weeks, those videos would be edited and compiled to create multiple videos that will be shown on LGC’s youtube channel and throughout LGC FAMILY CONCERT 2K24 as a chance for new and old fans to get to know the trainees even more!

on AUGUST 18, the trainees will be told that they will learn and/or practice the following songs:

AWKWARD SILENCE – FUTURE DREAMS S2 ( SENIOR MALE TRAINEES; FROM NOSTALGIA S2 )

DOLPHIN – OH MY GIRL ( SENIOR FEMALE TRAINEES; FROM NOSTALGIA S2 )

SIESTA – CRYSTALLIS ( SENIOR FEMALE TRAINEES WITH CRYSTALLIS )

BE MINE – HARU ( SENIOR MALE TRAINEES )

PRETTY U – SEVENTEEN ( JUNIOR MALE TRAINEES; FROM NOSTALGIA S2 )

HOW YOU LIKE THAT – FABULA ( JUNIOR FEMALE TRAINEES )

THUNDEROUS – TYPE ZERO ( JUNIOR MALE TRAINEES WITH TYPE ZERO )

POWER UP – RED VELVET ( JUNIOR FEMALE TRAINEES; FROM NOSTALGIA S2 )

I GOT A BOY & SO HOT REMIX – BLAZING ( EVERYONE IN DAY 1 / ENCORE STAGE )

SHINE & AJU NICE REMIX – DBSD ( EVERYONE IN DAY 2 / ENCORE STAGE )

( important note: for the NOSTALGIA S2 songs, ic wise those were selected as some of the most viewed performances from the season [ aside from week 7/agito week ]. )

ooc wise, since some of the trainees can come and go, there will be no lyrics distributions for this. do note that regardless of skill set, all of them will be required to dance to the song assigned to them ( and ic wise, the coaches would have assigned the parts after asking all of them [ minus the encore ones ] to audition by singing a snippet of each of the songs ).

CO-ED SUBUNIT DETAILS

as mentioned in the V&A MISSION and CRYSTALLIS MISSION, ic wise the idols chosen were notified beforehand about the song and who they will be working with. but ooc, the idols selected for the unit were CRYSTALLIS’ ASTRID & YOUNGWON, HARU’S HANKYUNG & JOSHUA, and V&A’S JEON HARU & SEN. they will be performing and releasing ‘LIES ALL LOVE’ on the day of the concert ( SEPTEMBER 27 ). line distributions can be found HERE.

SPECIAL STAGE ( NOVA )

on day 2, NOVA will be performing their own version of NKND's "girls, love boys, love girls", which will be called "GIRLS LOVE BOYS"! you can find the line distributions for this over HERE.   

INTERVIEW & GAME PANELS

for both days, all of the ACTORS and MODELS will be a part of the panels where fans and attendees can ask questions from their favorite celebrities! based on everyone in LGC AGENCY’s notoriety, they will be grouped as follows:

SOLO ( DAY 1 )

HAN JISOO

KIM JINYOUNG

LIM SANGHYUN

GROUP ( DAY 1 )

AHN YEIN, CHO MINKYU, HAN HYUNHEE, JO EUNWOO, KIM CHERRY, MOON JIAH, PARK SUJIN, ZHENG LEO

SOLO ( DAY 2 )

BAEK SEONA

KIM JINSEO

SHIN JIEUN

YANG AERI

GROUP ( DAY 2 )

BAE SOJIN, HAN ROWON, HAN SEUNGHYUN, LEE HYUNSOO, MOON JINO, NAM GYURI, YOO HAEMIN

( important note: people who had at least 500 NOTORIETY OR MORE since the beginning of AUGUST were given a solo interview panel and anyone with LESS THAN 500 NOTORIETY would be placed in the group panel. )

for the SOLO panels, each actor/model will be asked a series of questions ( within a 1 hour minute time frame ) by the fans regarding their recent gigs throughout 2024 ( eg. “any memorable instances filming a cf/drama/movie”, “what can we expect in the latter half of 2024” )  and about themselves ( hobbies, interests, etc. ) by the end of the panel, the actor/model will be given a chance to randomly pick 3 lucky winners and they will be given a chance to have their photo taken and signed by the artist!

as for the GROUP panels, it will be similar to the SOLO interviews but with a gaming component included. the GROUP will first see a big bingo board, where each square is either a general question asked by one of the fans ( eg. “show us your best aegyo”, “what is your favorite gig you’ve done in the past year?” ) OR a mini-game ( eg. “play rock, paper, scissors against the host. whoever loses gets hit with the toy hammer. if they do not win 3 individual rounds of the game, they cannot get the square”, “reenact a famous scene and if one of the fans can guess correctly what movie/drama it came from, you can claim the spot” ). for the mini-games, in order for the GROUP to claim that spot, they will need to win the game. if they lose the game, the spot will not be available. if the group gets a “BINGO” by the end of the panel, they will get a chance to give 3 lucky fans a small gift set signed by the actors/models from that group.

because there are multiple interview panels, some of them will be going on at the same time and any DEBUTED ARTISTS who aren’t a part of a panel during that time or have any bit of free time CANNOT visit other people’s panels.

V&A ANNIVERSARY FAN EVENT

per request by various ETERVAL communities, LEGACY has added a mini fan event for V&A to attend to. while their anniversary is on SEPTEMBER 27 ( same day that they will be performing ), the event will be on SEPTEMBER 28 before the concert. during the first portion of the event, there will be a V&A trivia game between 7 lucky super ETERVALs ( one for each round/member ) and the 7 V&A members. the questions will be quite group specific, testing both teams’ ability to recall as much information as they know about V&A ( eg. “what month, day, and year was [insert song] released?”, “when was the fandom name revealed?”, “what is the title of the third song in [insert album]?” etc ). then in the latter half, the ETERVALs will be split into smaller groups and have a hi-touch moment with their favorite member. each member should have an equal number of fans lined up for them.

near the end of the event, the V&A managers will take several group photos with V&A and all of the ETERVALs who attended and it will be posted on their social media as a way to thank them for attending the event.

OFFICIAL GROUP NAME REVEAL ( NKND )

on SEPTEMBER 28, it will be revealed publicly that the trainees in the “new kids new dreams” project will be officially be called MZSD ( and for the observant people, the group name has been hinted since 2022 as mentioned in this article )!

LGC FAM CON 2K24 SET LIST

for all of the other information regarding family con 2k24 ( collab stages & set list ), please click over HERE!

WRITING REQUIREMENTS

CHUSEOK: write a 250+ word solo/headcanon post or a 4 replies (minimum 8 lines; 2 posts per mun) thread with someone else about the time spent during chuseok for +5 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE !

LGC FAMCON 2K24: write a 300+ word solo or a 4 replies (minimum 8 lines; 2 posts per mun) thread with someone who is participating on the same day as your muse about anything related to the family concert 2k24 for +5 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE and +8 NOTORIETY !

you have until OCTOBER 5, 2024 11:59 EDT to meet requirements and claim your points. threads can be continued beyond the deadlines but points won’t be collected after that. the official tag for this event is lgc:familycon2k24.

in order to validate your skill points and collect your notoriety points, please submit the following form on the points blog before OCTOBER 5, 2024 11:59 EDT:

MUSE NAME ∙ LGC FAMILY CONCERT 2K24 - CHUSEOK: +5 ( skill points distribution ) [ LINK ] - LGC FAMCON 2K24: +5 ( skill points distribution ) + 8 notoriety [ LINK ]

[haveyouseenthisg1rl]

k-profile / career / stats

pinterest / playlist / plots and connections

hey all! it’s rio, your friendly neighbourhood birb (28, any/ask) i know this intro is long overdue, so sorry i have been in claims limbo for a while orz anyway, i’m here with my baby gorl lim jisoo/rina of nymth. feel free to react if you’d like to plot. i have discord, too, if you prefer to brainstorm over there just add me. my user’s /peaceminuzone. below the cut you’ll find extensive info about her:

cha/lim jisoo:

born cha jisoo to a blue collar worker, chae jihoon and a seamstress, min eunha, as the pair’s only child. although jihoon’s educational background left much to be desired, he was smart and had many dreams for his family. eunha was a loving wife, she has always been patient with him, but all good things must come to an end.

tw: mention of substance abuse (alcohol)

jisoo was merely 12 when her parents divorced. initially, her father gained custody over her; however, that changed after he lost his job due to an outburst against his boss following a denial on his promotion. gradually, his father turned into alcohol and became a former shell of what he once was. by that time, her mother was already seeing a well-off man. upon learning about her father’s predicament, she swiftly sought to reclaim custody. when her father left, her heart was shattered. it felt as though she had lost everything, even her father’s last name was taken away from her, which jisoo despised her mother for. all that’s left for her was the last gift he gave her: a music box.

ever since she can remember, music has been an integral part of her life. from singing along to her favorite idol’s songs as a child to performing in school musicals and talent shows. her father was always supportive, her mother not so much. but it didn’t put a stop to her dreams, often cutting classes just to get to auditions and eventually dropping out when she got in ninety9 creative as a trainee; much to her mother’s dismay.

her mother has drove a wedge on their relationship completely. jisoo’s decision was not made overnight. at 16, she chose to live in the dorms with her fellow trainees, guided by what she believed her father would advise in her situation. several months later, she was considered to be one of the top trainees. the management saw great potential in her, they wanted her to be in marionette. but alas, it was too much weight on her shoulders. the last evaluation came about and she choked mid-performance, while the other member who was pitted against her has shown her best performance yet. as much as they would have loved to wait, the debut was on the horizon and preparations must start soon. there was only one slot left so they had to make a quick decision.

normally, a person who experienced such would just tuck their tail between their legs and leave. jisoo showed her unrelenting passion and it greatly impressed everyone, including kevin yoon himself. he couldn’t just let her go, so he eventually included her in his plans to debut a new girl group. five years later, she debuted as selene’s rina, representing the color eden green.

selene/nymth rina:

the group’s introduction was quite innovative. showcasing the members’ abilities as soloists, as well as through units. her solo debut was up and she was reminded of her failed performance years prior. she realized she had come this far and she couldn’t just give it all up. thankfully, it exceeded all the expectations. debuting with the girls couldn’t have made her any happier. these girls weren’t just members to her; they’re a family. at the beginning of her idol career, people often debated on whether or not she was better suited for marionette or for selene/nymth, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

tw: mention of eating disorder, substance abuse (nicotine)

selene struggled gaining the same love from their domestic fanbase early on in their career. it didn’t help that when midas labels took over, sudden concept change happened, hiatuses between each comeback became longer, and instead of focusing on domestic promotions to attract new fans to the group, midas labels decided the group should focus on touring. as a result of the lack of domestic promotions, their popularity in korea weakened. jisoo, in particular, was discontented with this direction, believing that the group deserved greater recognition for their relentless efforts. this frustration contributed to her developing an eating disorder and a dependence on nicotine.

jisoo is no doubt an all-rounder, but she was more recognized for her voice than anything. it came as no surprise for her to always be asked to lend her voice for osts, albeit only for webdramas. she also frequented musical variety shows, where her performances have often gone viral on the internet. recently she has rekindled her passion for stage musicals, landing her first breakout role as seo haena in the musical “midnight sun” in late 2023. while not as frequent as her other endeavours, she also graced magazine pages and modelled for beauty brands, capitalizing on her striking visuals.

nothing could have prepared jisoo to the news of her fellow members’ decision of leaving the group entirely. it triggered her fears of being abandoned, she clung to them desperately; but she could only do so much. the renewed interest on their group at the verge of disbandment rumors changed the higher-up’s minds, so plans for a rebrand was then arranged. it wasn’t until she got to watch the tribute videos their fans have made that made her felt reassured—she was never going to be alone in this new journey.

as preparation was going on, they all started to resume activities. jisoo had a chance to do solo gigs once more, while it was never a priority it was always welcomed. she found it not too restraining to their particular image, and she had more freedom to branch out into other things. soon thereafter, they redebuted with the new branding, reuniting on stage at last.

on and off screen personality:

as the oldest member, jisoo naturally took on the caretaker role. she would dote on the members, treating them like sisters she never had. her instinct has been to maintain a strong facade, often keeping her feelings to herself. however, lately she has started to show more of her vulnerabilities.

on-screen, jisoo may not always have the opportunity to showcase her charm, but when she does, she ensures it leaves a lasting impression. her playful, energetic personality shines through, earning her the reputation of being the group’s moodmaker among fans and peers alike. her fan service is also worth noting, she doesn’t shy away from showing their supporters how much she appreciates them.

as a friend, she’s loyal and supportive. a reliable one in general, your go-to for sound advice, honest but non-judgemental. one would mistake for her as a social butterfly, truth is she doesn’t have many friends outside her group as she prefers to keep her circle small. in a romantic relationship, jisoo can be assertive, spontaneous, and passionate. however lately she hasn’t put much effort in dating and would settle with casual flings. she often uses her career as an excuse. when in reality, it’s just her being aware of the fact that she gets attached with someone too quickly, her past experiences has taught her that it doesn't usually end well.

[shiraishi--kanade]

;; i wanna hear about some of your 30+ proseka ocs!! if you wanna talk about them 👀

I'm hesitant, because I barely have any accurate artwork of them (and what I do have isn't drawn by me, actually), but it would be kind of hypocritical and silly for me to shy away from the question after that post, so...

In total I have about 30 proseka ocs and they keep on multiplying, but here's my focus for the time being.

[ yeah, I don't have a fancy logo or anything like this. I'm not at all a visual artist, unfortunately ]

Kawaakari Orchestra, or KWKO for stort, is a unit of 6 classical musicians that participate in chamber music/classical music competition on a national level in Japan; however, there's a twist - the competition is specifically designed to modernize and revolutionise the approach to how classical music is presented to the general public, so there's a lot of non-traditional elements both during performances and in between them.

In short, this is not what they signed up for (with some of the members even being picked up somewhat involuntarily), and the competition is fierce and nobody is having fun on the journey to victory - but also self-exploration, healing and mending their relationship with their lives and each other.

More info under the cut!

Their sekai is Conservatory Sekai, which is similar to Leo/need's school set up but instead of empty classrooms there are empty lecture halls and practice rooms; one main practice room which is very spacious and open and several smaller, more private ones. All the Virtual Singers are the same as in canon and all play the same instruments the cast does.

There are also two new schools for all OCs to attend because I wanted more creative freedom over that!

Meeting the sillies!

[surname - name. Keep in mind that picrew designs can be inaccurate to various degrees. All follow proseka wiki template!]

Unit leader/2nd Violin: Saitsu Maki

Gender: Female

Birthday: June 1st (♊)

School: Miyaji Girls Academy (1-A)

Committee: Library

Club: Undecided

Part-time job: None

Hobbies: Travelling, Meeting new People, Reading

Speciality: Photographic memory; English

Favourite food: Soba noodles

Least favourite food: Anything spicy

Dislikes: Insects

1st Violin: Kozaki Karin

Gender: Female

Birthday: August 4th (♌)

School: Miyaji Girls Academy (1-A)

Committee: Class Representative

Club: Go

Part-time job: Bookshop

Hobbies: Strategy games

Speciality: Time management

Favourite food: Shiitake fried rice

Least favourite food: Eggs

Dislikes: Idleness

Piano: Shimizu Kairi

Gender: Male

Birthday: March 11 (♓)

School: Hakkei High School (1-C)

Committee: Disciplinary

Club: Chamber Music

Part-time job: None

Hobbies: Collecting Stationery, Journaling

Speciality: Aesthetic Notetaking

Favourite food: White tayaki

Least favourite food: Prawns

Dislikes: Crowded places

Cello: Ekuro Suzuka

Gender: Female

Birthday: November 21 (♏)

School: Miyaji Girls Academy (1-B)

Committee: Health

Club: Photography

Part-time job: Freelance photographer

Hobbies: Arts & Crafts; Baking

Speciality: First Aid & Nursing

Favourite food: Panna cotta, Blueberry sauce

Least favourite food: Salads

Dislikes: Hospitals

[sorry for the very bad quality for the next two ones, I can't afford making a neka.cc account right now. Maybe Someday!]

Viola: Kaedehara Akari

Gender: Female

Birthday: September 30 (♎)

School: Hakkei High School (2-D)

Committee: Greening

Club: Gardening

Part-time job: None

Hobbies: Going on morning walks, Tending to her potted plants

Speciality: Flower language

Favourite food: Pizza

Least favourite food: Tomatoes

Dislikes: Viola

Flute: Fujisaki Reishi

Gender: Male

Birthday: December 28 (♑)

School: Hakkei High School (2-A)

Committee: Beauticarion

Club: None

Part-time job: None

Hobbies: Composing music, Shopping

Speciality: Music theory; Calligraphy

Favourite food: French fries, Instant noodles

Least favourite food: Pickled foods

Dislikes: Criticism

picrews/neka cc used: 1-2, 3, 4, 5, 6

~~~

Some very important infographics to understand the dynamics of the group (4koma cutouts courtesy of @the-one-that-weeps):

They have a lot stuff going on, and so far I've planned a series for the that goes over from the main story up to their World Link event; but a lot of this is still Subject To Change and WIP, of course. So this is all I'm going to say so far in order to keep things interesting if I do happen to write about them at some point.

Hope you all like them, even if they're surface level, they mean the world to me. If you have proseka fan oc, this is the cue for you to talk about them as well. Let's re-populate the tag. Cringe culture is dead. Fan Units is where it's at.

[black-arcana]

EPICA's SIMONE SIMONS Says Making Of 'Aspiral' Album 'Didn't Feel Difficult'

In a new interview with with Paltrocast host Darren Paltrowitz, EPICA vocalist Simone Simons was asked if it was a "difficult" process making the band's upcoming album, album, "Aspiral". She responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It didn't feel difficult. It was definitely more intense because we had scheduled more writing camps where we would get together to spin off each other's brains or spawn ideas back and forth, also together with our producer. And I think compared to how we did it back in the day, let's say before [2021's] 'Omega', we were often writing, recording while still being on the road. And that, I think, is more difficult. And we learned from that mistake by making more time, clearing our schedule to really focus on the writing and recording of the album, to stay in the flow and to keep a better balance. We toured a lot in our whole career, but for us it's also important that we get to put the right amount of energy and focus into creating new music because that definitely has the priority. Without music, we cannot tour. Of course, we have a lot of albums now, but still it's a new way how we roll nowadays."

To celebrate the "Aspiral" release, EPICA will play three exclusive shows in the United States in early May: in New York City, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Tickets and VIP upgrades will go on sale this Friday, February 28 at 10 a.m. local time.

The "Aspiral" LP title is derived from the eponymous bronze sculpture made by Polish sculptor and painter Stanisław Szukalski back in 1965 and stands for renewal and inspiration — key words that define EPICA in 2025. In Szukalski's work every detail is a piece of art in its own right, and there's always more to the story than you initially think. The band saw this as the perfect analogy for the creation of this ninth album: each song stands on its own with a distinctive vibe and meaning, while together they enforce each other into a monumental effort.

The album, featuring stunning cover artwork by Hedi Xandt (RAMMSTEIN, GHOST, PARKWAY DRIVE),is now available for pre-order. The special editions even include the Blu-ray and audio recordings of the full monumental "Symphonic Synergy" performance in Amsterdam that the band recorded in 2024 with an orchestra and choir.

Recorded once again at Sandlane Studios and expertly mixed and produced by Joost Van Den Broek, "Aspiral" boasts 11 new tracks:

01. Cross The Divide 02. Arcana 03. Darkness Dies In Light - A New Age Dawns Part VII 04. Obsidian Heart 05. Fight to Survive - The Overview Effect 06. Metanoia - A New Age Dawns Part VIII 07. T.I.M.E. 08. Apparition 09. Eye Of The Storm 10. The Grand Saga Of Existence - A New Age Dawns Part IX 11. Aspiral

The band's music video for the uptempo anthem "Cross The Divide", directed by Kunststoff, can be seen below.

In a recent interview with Mexico's Euphonico, Simons stated about the inspiration for the LP's first single, "Arcana", she said: "Well, it was kind of a lot of things coming together. Rob [Van Der Loo, EPICA bassist] and I are, besides colleagues, we're also really good friends. And he had a deck of tarot cards with him. And I thought, 'Just for the fun of it, let's do a session. Let me draw some cards and then you explain to me what they mean.' And it was a very enlightening experience, I guess. The song, the music was also written by Rob. And then I came up with the idea, like, 'What if I write a song that's kind of inspired by the meaning of the tarot cards and the session that I had with him and what I think it meant for me at that time in my life and where I am now?' So, yeah, it's a very — how do you say? — soul-searching kind of topic, and that's something EPICA has been writing about for quite a while, but so far we haven't touched on the tarot subject. So I thought this could be a cool topic to integrate in the new album, which is all about reinventing yourself, like a rebirth, renewing yourself. So it kind of a cool thing to draw inspiration from."

Elaborating on the writing and recording process for EPICA's upcoming album, Simone said: "I think 'Arcana' was one of the songs that came together quite quickly. We had many writing camp sessions in Holland. We rented a house where we were meeting a couple times for, like, a week in a row, and we were all just sitting together. And Rob had also kind of a clear view of what he wanted vocal-wise, and then he just let me do my thing. And it went very naturally to write the lyrics.

"The vocal recordings [for the new EPICA album] took place in the summertime, which is a good time to do so because autumn [and] winter is a time when everybody gets sick," she explained. "So, for me, it's great if I'm in the summer in the studio, so I'm in a good shape or not running a risk of getting a cold and that it affects the voice, because I did have to record albums back in the day where I did get sick. And luckily you can't hear it. I know which songs are the ones. But it was a very smooth process. We worked together with the same producer, Joost Van Den Broek, who became a little bit like the seventh EPICA bandmember. And it's great working with him. Yeah, we were diving into all the little details and we were really concentrated on making the songs as a band together.

"I think people that don't know EPICA, they don't know that we don't live in the same village," Simone added. "We live, actually, in four different countries. So for us to get together and really work on the songs is tricky. And we started doing that already for 'Omega', and we really liked that, to clear our touring schedule, because we tour a lot and to really be there together and not everybody at home in their home studios. You get a total different result if everybody's there in the same room; you feed off each other's creativity, and that's very beneficiary for the songs."

Asked if there is a main songwriter in EPICA or if everybody contributes to the songwriting process, Simone said: "Everybody gets to write songs. And some songs, I think the guys did write demo songs on their own, because we all have our home studios, and when we were together in the writing camp, then we were sparring off ideas and sending each other the files, and then everybody was working on a random song at the same time. There was a funny moment where, I think, Coen [Janssen, EPICA keyboardist], Ariën [Van Weesenbeek, EPICA drummer], Rob and I were sitting in the living room area, but kind of far apart from each other, and Coen was working on a song and he thought he had his headphones plugged in, but it was running out of the speakers. And then we said, 'Oh, cool. That sounds great. Which song are you working on?' And he was, like, 'Oh shit, you guys could hear what I was working on.' So it was everybody in different rooms. Isaac [Delahaye, EPICA guitarist] was in the attic playing the guitar, and I had to wait until very late before I could go sleep 'cause he went on writing music, recording guitars until almost one o'clock in the morning. But it was a really lovely experience. And everybody gets to write songs and everybody gets to work on those songs. So, we all put our little own salsa on the songs. [Laughs]"

"Arcana" marked EPICA's first new release since "Omega" and the collaboration EP "The Alchemy Project".

The single is now available on all streaming platforms. It also includes "The Ghost In Me (Danse Macabre)", EPICA's recently released collaboration with Europe's second-most visited theme park, Netherlands's magical De Efteling, and their much-anticipated new attraction, Danse Macabre.

The previously released music video for "Arcana", directed by Remko Tielemans, can be seen below.

In a recent interview with Spain's Mariskal Rock, Simone stated about EPICA's upcoming album: "I'm so happy with the songs, I'm so proud how everything turned out and it's gonna be another amazing EPICA album. We added a couple of new elements, but also went back to the roots, the old EPICA. And yeah, I just can't wait for people to hear this.

"I loved 'Omega' and we toured so much with 'Omega' and had wonderful experiences, but then when you reach the end of a touring cycle, you start to get itchy and feel, 'Okay, now it's time to do the new album. Can we do it as good or maybe even better than the last album?' That's always the thing we strive for, ways to renew ourselves a little bit. And we feel a very strong spiritual connection also that it's our ninth album. So there's gonna be themes around the symbolic meaning of nine, the number nine."

Elaborating on the musical direction of EPICA's next album, Simone said: "The songs are heavy. There's a beautiful ballad, a very cinematic song, very uptempo, very doomy, melancholic and amazing, amazing power riffs. It's the most epic EPICA, I think, so far. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I'm feeling it. I'm very happy with it. I'm proud of it."

[kumokumiko]

*muttering, pinning up pictures and labels and red string on a corkboard labelled 'ANIS'* so like, obviously now that Rapi's backstory and character arc are more or less solved, everybody seems to be going ham on theories for Anis and Neon, because it's only right for all of our Counters girls to be treated equally, so. this is me collecting my thoughts about Anis, to get them out of my head and stare at them (and maybe laugh later, once reveals happen), using everything I know up to chapter 28 + events...

so, Anis has some kind of idol or performer background, and hints are all over the place:

- the post-credit scene for Footstep, Walk, Run features Anis thinking Rapi wants an autograph, she mentions being famous "even after retirement"

- Bond Story with Anis, she mentions doing promotional work before quickly changing the subject

- Mustang takes our first meeting in Chapter 4 as an opportunity to invite Anis to "come back", which she declines

now, LOTS of people are leaning into the theory that Anis is Pretty, because she just came up in FWR, this may have merit, who knows. I think it's DEFINITELY true that her former idol group is Twinkle Tristar, which is the group she mentions in her bond story that went defunct before some members branched off into the jewelry industry, because it would make sense that she wants to discretely keep tabs on her former co-stars. my support for this is merely that after Rapi messages the Commander in secret under the handle 'Pira' (lol) in Chapter 27, Anis finds out somehow, and then does the same, and the handle she adopts is 'Twinkle'.

so, if Mustang wants her back to reform Twinkle Tristar, or at least get former members back together for some other endeavor, would that mean it's a Nikke idol group? that seems obvious, but idk, something doesn't feel right. I just don't get the impression that Anis was a Nikke when she was an idol. her anecdote in chapter 16, about not thinking much about Nikkes or their rights, just feels like it would be her mindset when she was an idol, and so in that case, her being thrust out of the spotlight by becoming a Nikke might fit her feeling of it being a karmic punishment. Still, it's also possible that Pretty *was* tied up in this too, maybe as another Nikke who was part of the unit. MAYBE it was an experimental Nikke-human hybrid idol group, which was ended when Pretty was assassinated by the Nikkephobe at her last concert, and Anis, left with nowhere to go after the group collapsed, found herself shunted into a Nikke body under some tragic circumstance, leading to the cynical and hopeless outlook we find her in at the start of the story.

now, about Anis specifically...she's got wisecracks, she's cynical, she's often suspicious of others, she's got some pretty bad executive disfunction around cleaning (per Liter's bond story)...all of which feel like learned behavior and cope/depression that grew out of a steady downward spiral from the moment she became a Nikke. part of why I'm so intrigued by her is these little glimpses you get of the hope she used to have, small wistful comments about wishing things were better or concern she shows for the Commander when he makes some casual heroic declaration that she knows is the kind of thing that will earn him enemies, or make his life harder, but that she still respects all the same.

...I can't claim to know what the writers are cooking here, but if I'm even half-right on any of the speculation I've thrown at the wall here, I will be very excited-screamy when the reveal comes.

I love all the Counters girls, and while Rapi may be the Canonical Commander Wife, and Neon may be My Best Friend and the Most Underrated Counters Member whom I will ride or die for, Anis...she stole my heart. I need her backstory event / msq chapter so badly

[chcrryade]

  ⠀ര ( ˶°ㅁ°)⠀UNWRAP...⠀LEMON ON ICE! ⠀28042024⠀❘❙❚❙

As mentioned, all came to light in early 2024, revealing what all the rumoured tension had been about inside the company walls. Former BONSOIR leader (and known to still be quite an influential figure inside the company despite not being active anymore) Kil Jiyeol was cutting his contract and leaving his JAGUAR days behind—to apparently start a company of his own, although that had again come from word of mouth rather than any sort of official statement from neither the man himself nor any of his closer associates. Alongside this announcement, it came to light that his fellow former BONSOIR members Mai and Hyeonmin had left a long while prior—as early as June 2020, barely a month after BONSOIR’s disbandment notice. This obviously left the public and company in a sort of state of disarray, no one quite sure what was going to happen with CHERRYADE as a result. Month after month crawled by, and the people were starting to worry that this was a ‘SWEET (SOUR)’ situation. Until mid April arrived, and teasers for the mini album ‘LEMON ON ICE’ officially began to be put out, and everyone collectively breathed a sigh of relief. They weren’t over just yet. Released on the 28th that same month, ‘LEMON ON ICE’ was, in three words, the car era. Every group has one, don’t lie. To sum it up relatively quickly, CHERRYADE’s most recent comeback was—as always—a neon-light-filled, argument-littered, and accessory-heavy affair, this time with added revving engines and multiple car innuendos.

⠀ᝪ  .ᐟ⠀⠀▬ ▬ ▬⠀⠀the  stats

RELEASED⠀28 / 04 / 2024

PROMOTIONAL PERIOD⠀3 WEEKS

UNITS SOLD⠀1M

WINS⠀3

⠀ᝪ  .ᐟ⠀⠀▬ ▬ ▬⠀⠀the  tracks

CAN’T BREATHE⠀WRITTEN 잘렌 & 도연 PROD. 대진

MAKE ME⠀WRITTEN 재희 & 고고 PROD. 주순

NONSTOP⠀LEAD⠀WRITTEN 하선 & 대진 PROD. 주순

WINNER⠀PROMOTED B-SIDE⠀WRITTEN 해일 PROD. 주순

LIMIT⠀WRITTEN 宜君 & 잘렌 PROD. 대진

FlipSide⠀⸻⠀the  following  overviews  have  been  outsourced  from  various  netizens.  general  consensus:  ★★★★☆

ഒ⠀from  user  cherryhee⠀30042024

For our five-track-run, ‘Can’t Breathe’ is up first, with lyrics written by Jalen and Doyeon comparing the object of their affections to a ray of light: ‘shine on me again, it’s amazing, your prism.’ Second of all is ‘Make Me,’ in which they speak of wanting to ‘run, run, run and run more,’ written by duo Jaehee and Gogo. Not quite the suggestive anthem people thought it was going to end up as from their first impressions of the title. ‘Nonstop’—what I expect to be the most performed—written in part by Hasun, compares the members themselves to super cars. Second to last ‘Winner’ (another I think will be performed during this promotional period), with lyrics by Haeil, asserts that ‘I'm [the group] back, everyone pays attention.’ Finally we have the Jalen and Yijun-penned (although it’s not a track sung in mandarin this time) ‘Limit,’ filled to the brim with cold hard confidence: ‘this is the main character, that's our role.’ It’s cars, it’s cool conviction, and it’s undeniably CHERRYADE—the only thing missing is the sex track.

ഒ⠀from  user  mingohwi⠀20052024

The ups came in the form of their happiness similar to how the mood had been back in the ‘SWEET (SOUR)’ era, where all of them were just glad they hadn’t been tossed aside. They filmed more vlogs, showed more behinds, and were very online generally. Extra content was fun (including a racing game night slash sleepover at a house they’d cobbled together to rent for a couple nights, a go-karting session, and a sort of surreal makeshift Fast & Furious movie roleplay scenario they were clearly making up as they went along, where they all made up different personas for themselves and went down all sorts of different action and drama-filled plotlines), and they all seemed to be getting along just fine; Jaehee and Yijun having apparently buried the hatchet once again for this era and playing civil with one another. They were just having fun, plain and simple as that.

Fans were also given more insight into the creative process behind the mini album (recording, practising, etc) and a few core staff members made some recurring appearances—the main production team, their choreographer, and their stylist. The members of staff were all similar in age to the members themselves (on Doyeon and Jalen’s end, anyway) and so the close bond they were shown to have was one that most enjoyed being privy to. It sort of created an illusion of viewers being closer to them—like they were being let into a secret, or something.

On the flip side, this also seemed to be a bit of a party era for the boys, which some fans didn’t seem to enjoy as much as all the videos showcasing how much the members were. It was club after club, blurry photos of shots in hands and far-too-serious dance-offs in the middle of the floor to whatever mindless EDM song the DJ was blasting in the background. Someone even said Jalen took over the DJ booth one night, but since nothing’s been provided to back up the story you can take that one with a grain of salt. Things were also a little tense considering Jiyeol’s departure, especially considering how Jalen was known to be close to him and that he’d shared a group with both Yijun and Jaehee for a while, and Yijun addressed the situation on a live by simply saying that he was ‘glad he [Jiyeol] was finally gone.’ Which of course didn’t go down well with fans of the man, so he got into a little bit of hot water for that one.

ഒ⠀from  user  hasunshine⠀21052024

As for the styling, outfits were all in the racing-adjacent region (although some performances ditched the jackets and more recognised uniforms for racers and stepped into more of a streetwear direction to fit in with the street side of the concept) and sometimes were described as such an assault on the senses colour and pattern-wise that it was a little hard to watch their performances. Some fans then came to the defence that if you turned your head and squinted, they actually looked great. Or just defaulted to the ‘the fans that get it, get it’ approach. I personally liked them, because the feeling of being attacked visually is something I think is quite fun. Accessories included overly large chains, painted flames on most outfits, too many rings in too many different colours and sizes to fit on any one of their fingers, (at times) ridiculous headwear—I mean, why did Hasun have a tanghulu headband on for one show? Nobody I’ve asked can give me the answer—and, somewhat reminiscent of the ‘SWEET (SOUR)’ era, a lot of neon, although this time it was in the form of body paint and hair dye that made them look like glow sticks when the lights were low.

All in all, ‘LEMON ON ICE’ proved to be just as eventful as all that came before it. The group never seem to have a moment where there’s nothing going on, even if it’s as small as a nonsensical (but unnecessarily heated) argument over what they’d bring with them onto a desert island. Witnessing all of it as it came was as fun as I’ve come to always expect them to be. It falls somewhere in the middle of my favourite eras on the whole. Just behind ‘DOUBLE DIP,’ maybe.

(¬_¬) ⠀at  a  glance  ⠀𝄂𝄂𝄀𝄁𝄃𝄂𝄂𝄃⠀  lemononice.jpg ⠀(  OO3  )

[foxes-that-run]

Taylor Swift interview: 'A relationship? No one’s going to sign up for this'

“No one’s going to sign up for this and everything that goes with it. Like, “Hi, nice to meet you, want a date? Do you love camera flashes? I hope you do!” I don’t know what’s going to happen if I’m ever content in a relationship – no idea how that’s going to work,’ she continues, still smiling. ‘I don’t even know if that’s possible with the life I have.”

In an exclusive interview, the Shake It Off star talks to The Telegraph about sex, the Swifties and her friendship with Ed Sheeran.

'I had a bit of a reputation for having a lot of boy-bashing songs. Which is a really sexist way of saying heartbreak songs. ' Photo: Paola Kudacki/Trunk Archive

By Mark Sutherland GMT 28 Feb 2015 (x)

Taylor Swift is not only the biggest pop star on the planet, but also the biggest worrier. Right now she is worrying about this interview – her first major sit-down chat of the year. She has just come from a production meeting for her forth­coming world tour, fretting about the set list, sight lines and how to get her piano to the right part of the stage at the right time. Before that, when she woke up, she was immediately gripped with anxiety about something she said last night (even though it was only using the word ‘interjection’ when she meant ‘injection’). ‘I worry about everything all the time,’ she says with a grin. ‘We could do our entire interview me telling you how many things I’ve worried about since breakfast. “The Neuroses of Taylor Swift” is probably going to be the article headline.’

Most pop stars of Swift’s stature pay other people to worry about these things. And while the buzz of activity as we arrive at the well-appointed Beverly Hills house being used by Team Swift for their production meeting indicates that she has no shortage of people looking out for her, she remains hands-on with every aspect of her career.

But then the one thing she doesn’t need to worry about is how that career is going. It is Grammys weekend when we meet, and although Swift is attending rather than performing, she is still going to be the centre of attention.

There are plenty of reasons. She is the only artist ever to sell more than a million first-week US copies of three separate albums – Speak Now in 2010, Red in 2012, and 1989, released in October, which racked up the biggest first-week American sales since 2002 and went to number one around the world, including the UK, where it was the best-selling album by an international artist last year. Its lead single, Shake It Off, was an iTunes number one in 64 countries. She is the first artist since the Beatles to spend six or more weeks at number one in the United States with three consecutive albums (at the time of writing, 1989 is into its 11th week at the top).

Her cultural weight – 52.8 million Twitter followers, 22.1 million on Instagram and 74.4 million likes on Facebook – means that she can break acts with a single tweet, and she regularly shines that spotlight on new artists she enjoys. Her removal of her back catalogue from Spotify resulted in the music-streaming company’s CEO, Daniel Ek, justifying its entire business model. ‘I didn’t think it was going to be international news or affect a public offering,’ she claims. ‘If I have an opinion on something, I act accordingly – and I believe music is valuable.’

She ponders whether she’ll be the last person ever to sell this many records. ‘There were so many doomsday theories about the music industry,’ she says. ‘For the last two albums I’d sold one million copies in a week, and I knew people were waiting to see me not hit that number and then diagnose the music industry as dying or dead. Which is a lot of pressure to put on one artist and one album.’

Does she think future artists will sell records like this again? ‘It’s possible,’ she says. ‘We all have to step up and make albums that are good, top to bottom, if selling albums is still important. It is to me, but a lot of artists have already given up on that. I have friends who just think it’s not attainable, which I feel is a very defeatist way to look at life.’

And defeatism is not the Swift way. Her infectious can-do attitude is evident from the moment she greets me brightly at the door, wearing an elegant dress, with her hair swept back. Despite knowing her height (5ft 10in), I find her taller than I expected and slimmer, too. Swift has ordered in coffee, apologising for the lack of tea (‘You’re British! I should’ve known!’) and peppers conversation with first-name references to her famous friends.

Single after a string of high-profile relationships with men such as Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Lautner, she has recruited a ‘squad’ of high-achieving close girlfriends, and spends what little downtime she gets baking with the supermodel Karlie Kloss, strolling around New York with the Girls actress and writer Lena Dunham or, as her recent Instagram posts indicate, whale-watching in Hawaii with the indie band Haim. ‘The thing about my girlfriends right now is that none of them needs me for anything other than friendship,’ she says. ‘I love the fact that they are all passionate about their jobs, whatever their jobs are. A lot of celebrity-type people have this group of people around them where their friends’ main priority is them, and they feel comfortable with that dynamic. I don’t feel comfortable with that dynamic.’

Taylor Alison Swift was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, on December 13 1989 (13 is her lucky number). She spent her early years on a Christmas-tree farm run as a side business by her parents. Her father, Scott, is a wealth management adviser with Merrill Lynch; her mother, Andrea, worked at a mutual fund before becoming a full-time mother to Taylor and her younger brother, Austin. While at school in Pennsylvania Taylor often appeared in musical productions, local fairs and talent shows; and her love of country music was sparked by Shania Twain, perhaps the last country superstar to cross over to the pop charts as successfully as Swift.

The Swifts moved to Nashville, the home of country music, when their daughter was 15. Taylor and her mother had four years earlier hawked a demo CD around Nashville’s Music Row, going door-to-door in search of a break. Shortly after the family was uprooted, that break arrived. Swift became the youngest songwriter ever to be signed to Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and a year later a record deal followed with the fledgling label Big Machine, which released her eponymous debut album in 2006. Crucially, she became one of the first country artists to use the internet to market herself, expanding her reach beyond the genre’s traditional heartlands to recruit an army of teenage girl fans.

By the time of her second album, Fearless, in 2008, Swift was already shifting away from country (its lead single, Love Story, became her first hit in the UK, where she was marketed as a pop artist). Fearless made her the youngest ever winner of the album of the year Grammy (in 2010) and the first country star to win an MTV video award (best female video for You Belong with Me in 2009). Her acceptance speech was interrupted by the rapper Kanye West, who stormed the stage incensed that Beyoncé hadn’t won. Swift was devastated, but the incident catapulted her to mainstream attention. Barack Obama was moved to call West a ‘jackass’.

Her subsequent albums Speak Now and Red were progressively a little less country, a little more pop, but she has remained popular in Nashville. In 2013 she became the second ever winner of the Country Music Association’s Pinnacle Award, its highest honour. The previous winner, Garth Brooks, was in his mid-40s when he won – Swift was 23.

Taylor with Jay Z, Kanye West, and KIm Kardashian at the Grammy Awards last month. PHOTO: Getty

The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles has an entire floor dedicated to her story. There, footage of her singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star as a toddler, belting out the national anthem at sports events as a child and improvising a song about traffic for a country radio station as a teenager reveal that she has undoubtedly always been talented, if not prodigiously so. ‘I’m really lucky I got 10 years of practice in before we reached this point,’ she says. ‘I’ve climbed a lot of flights of stairs, rather than got a speed elevator. [Nowadays] an artist is just shot out of a cannon into the stratosphere.’

Before the release of 1989 Swift moved to New York. She cut her trademark long, blond hair and embraced feminism, although not, she says, as ‘some strategy – being a feminist is just part of my life’. She started going out drinking more, gradually easing away from the prim image that defined her teenage years, although she stresses, ‘My point is not to be sexy, my point is not to turn masses of people on.’ And she made a determined attempt to cause a ‘change in the narrative’ that had portrayed her as some sort of serial-dating bunny-boiler (an idea her song Blank Space skewers deliciously, by writing from the perspective of that character). ‘There was a bit of a reputation for having a lot of boy-bashing songs,’ she says, referring to the likes of I Knew You Were Trouble and Should’ve Said No. ‘Which is a sexist way of saying heartbreak songs. To trivialise someone who’s heartbroken is really cruel. But people have to simplify things,’ she says. ‘Everybody’s got busy lives, they don’t have time to form a complex opinion of me and my music. I’m in a different place in my life, where love isn’t really a priority. I haven’t dated anyone in years so there’s less chatter about the serial dater thing. I’m just really excited at an awards show when they don’t make some weird joke about my dating life.’

With Harry Styles in New York, December 2012. PHOTO: Getty

The other night she was photographed out with the Irish singer-songwriter Andrew Hozier-Byrne and some other friends, and she became anxious about what the gossip sites would say the next day. ‘I just got so freaked out that people were going to say I was dating him,’ she says. ‘I started thinking, “I can’t let this ruin my friendships with dudes.” I didn’t let it ruin my friendship with Ed [Sheeran] – they always said we were dating and we never were. But sometimes I get really scared.’

There was a time when Swift would refuse to use the internet for fear of what she might see (‘It’s very difficult to know people have the wrong impression of you and you can’t do anything to correct it’), but now she spends a lot of time online, interacting with the Swifties, her hardcore fans. ‘Not in a way that’s like, having sycophantic worshippers,’ she stresses. ‘My fans make fun of me – it’s really cool. They have all these Gifs of me making an idiot of myself or tripping and falling on stage. They bring humour back into it for me. I get too serious sometimes – you can probably tell – and they bring me back to like, “OK, I’m not really doing anything that difficult. I just need to calm down.” ’

 Performing on The Voice, 2014. PHOTO: Getty

Based on what she learns from ‘lurking’ on their social-media profiles, Swift has made fans post-break-up playlists, paid off their student loans and sent gifts for Christmas and Valentine’s Day, accompanied by handwritten notes. You would assume she has people to do this for her, but she insists she does it all herself (‘I don’t take it to FedEx, but I pack the box and tape it – I have so much bubble wrap in my house!’).

‘I love them,’ she says of her fans. ‘They are cool and smart and hilarious and focused on the right things. I want to make the most of this cultural relevance or success or whatever you want to call it, because it’s not going to last. I have to be as good a person [as I can] while my name matters to them. Because it’s not always going to matter to kids who are 15 and really struggling with who they want to be or [because] their friends were brutal to them at school that day. That’s actual turmoil. I have to do everything I can to make their day better while I still can. [Sending presents] is fun for me. If I go a week without sending something, I start to feel sad. I’m getting to know them on a person-by-person basis. When I pick people to send packages to, I go on their social-media sites for the last six months and figure out what they like or what they are going through. Do they like photography? I’ll get them a 1980s Polaroid camera. Do they like vintage stuff? I’ll go to an antiques place and get them 1920s earrings. Do they work out a lot? I’ll get them workout stuff. When you actually get to know them on a person-by-person basis, you realise what you’re doing is special and sacred and it matters.’

 With her mother at the Grammy Awards, 2010. PHOTO: Getty

It is impossible to imagine other pop stars spending time doing all this. Can she really be this nice all the time? ‘No, because that’s annoying, too,’ she says, laughing. ‘And it’s not real if someone appears to never have any issues with anyone. I have my friends, I have enemies. I have bad days when I don’t want to go to a photo shoot, but I’m not going to show up four hours late, I’m going to be there on time. I’m not nice all the time but I try not to be carelessly rude to people who don’t deserve it.

‘When I’m with my friends, we don’t say glowing things about everybody,’ she says, grinning conspiratorially. ‘We’re not sitting around going [adopts Stepford Wives-esque voice and posture], “You know who’s really special and wonderful?” That’s not what we talk about – we’re normal girlfriends.’

But just whom they might be talking about in that way, Swift is not prepared to share. The gossip sites’ one-time fascination with her love life may have been temporarily frustrated, but it threatens to be replaced by interest in her apparent feud with Katy Perry, the rumoured subject of a track on 1989, Bad Blood. ‘I’m not giving them anything to write about,’ she says, smiling steelily. ‘I’m not walking up the street with boys, I’m not stumbling out of clubs drunk. But I’m never going to talk about her in my interview. It’s not going to happen.’

 Taylor with Karlie Kloss at a Victoria Secrets show in London last December. PHOTO: Getty

Instead, Swift is concentrating on trying, in her words, ‘to create a beautiful life’. That life would appear to have no room in it for a significant other right now. She likes to ‘play the tape of her life forward’ when she’s making decisions. But ask her what the tape looks like if you fast-forward five years and she seems less certain. ‘I’ll be 30,’ she gasps. ‘I’ll probably still be single, let’s be honest. No one’s going to sign up for this and everything that goes with it. Like, “Hi, nice to meet you, want a date? Do you love camera flashes? I hope you do!” I don’t know what’s going to happen if I’m ever content in a relationship – no idea how that’s going to work,’ she continues, still smiling. ‘I don’t even know if that’s possible with the life I have.

‘“In five years’ time she’ll be so afraid of everything, she doesn’t leave her house,”’ she says, laughing self-mockingly. ‘“She’s just surrounded by cats. So many cats, they’ve divided themselves up into armies and she wanders around lint-rolling the couch that no one’s going to sit on because she’s afraid to have people over…”’

Singing at a baseball game in 2009. PHOTO: Getty

Swift is not even sure she’ll have made another album by the time 2020 rolls around. ‘I’m not going to put out an album until I’ve made one that’s better than this one and that’s going to be really hard,’ she says. And how might her music evolve if she does find love? ‘If that does happen, I think I could find complexity in happiness,’ she says. ‘I don’t think anything’s ever simple. Just because you’re happy in a relationship doesn’t mean that there aren’t moments of confusion or frustration or loneliness or sadness. Hopefully, if I ever find some sort of meaningful relationship, I’ll be able to still find inspiration, just through the everyday ups and downs.’

For now, though, her life is mapped out indefinitely. As we start to leave she runs through her schedule for the rest of the day: watch the fan reaction videos to her latest batch of gift-giving, work out, go to a dress-fitting, more meetings, then a pre-Grammy party. Tomorrow she will attend the actual Grammys with her best friend from high school, Abigail Anderson, a charity worker. (Despite three nominations – record of the year, song of the year, and best pop solo performance, all for Shake It Off – she won’t add to her four Grammys, but will still look as if she’s having more fun than anyone else.) She has a Brit Awards performance to plan and a new single (Style) to release. The 1989 World Tour kicks off in May, including a date at the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park in June.

‘I used to think it was important to find a boyfriend,’ she says before politely taking her leave. ‘But I don’t feel that it is now. I just want to have as much fun and as many adventures as possible.’ And for once, you suspect, she really doesn’t need to worry.

1989 is out now on Big Machine. The 1989 World Tour comes to Britain in June

[whoismissriley]

Adore You - Fanfic.

SUMMARY: The life of the Captain of Task Force 1-4-1 has always been a mystery. Even for his closest friends and teammates. He alone carries the loneliness in the middle of the night and the stormy memories of the past that make him sink into a sea of Scotch Whisky. However, there is a small light that appears from time to time around him. A girl, of course, who makes him feel like she’s in her twenties when she’s around, she’s light and smiling and full of life. She is one of the best Sergeants in the unit and the best in hand-to-hand combat. John is secretive, even with what she makes him feel. But she doesn’t give up, to get his attention, again and again… and again. And in the midst of all his darkness, let her love him… and make him stop feeling

Warnings: This story is rated +18 Has explicit violence, obscenity, do not read if you do not agree with this. AGE DIFFERENCE, the protagonist will have a significant age difference with John (28/39). HISTORY, will not follow the course of the game nor its history in it.

This is my first time translating something, so sorry for the mistakes.

«"What’s a grumpy captain?" she smiled giving him a push with the shoulder.

"I’m not… grumpy" he looked at her seriously "maybe just a little" she laughed softly and he couldn’t help but do it, she was so… cute.»

Chapter 1

THE LOUD SOUND OF THE HELICOPTERS was for Leah almost the same as an orgasmic sensation. Perhaps the same sensation he felt when he brandished a knife into the flesh of his enemy and saw their lost eyes as his short life ended.

Her companions called her Angel of Death. Because she was as beautiful as she was dangerous.

At first, in her first years of service after Laswell had inducted her into the private SAS group commanded by Task Force Captain John Price, she did not like the nickname. Not when Soap said it just as John Price was hovering nearby. She didn't like that he saw her as a violent or too brutal woman.

But he ended up getting used to it.

The first years working with them were intense. Getting used to being a companion of men seemed like a difficult task to perform, but both her espionage ability and her perfect hand-to-hand combat were abilities that Laswell believed were necessary to integrate into Price's group.

Soap was tactical and brute, brute force for the most part. Ghost was skilled in long-range shooting, including melee weapons. He could throw a knife meters away from an enemy and stick it right in the middle of their damn pupil.

Leah had learned from him in all that time and managed to add to her list one good thing that she did the most and Ghost Riley was proud of his student.

Gaz, it was brutal and dirty. His hands were not very meticulous on missions, he always left too obvious traces, but he was fast and more agile than Ghost and Soap.

Leah saw how the group worked, Soap and Ghost always moved together, Gaz and Captain Price too. Gaz moved forward and the Captain cleared.

She always worked around them, always adapting to their needs. If she had to change places with one of them, Leah had no problems, she had learned to know them so well that she imitated their movements so as not to break the pattern.

But she had never, ever had to work with the Captain and it pained her to admit that she felt a little disappointed by that.

While her companions had opened up to her over time, telling her about their private lives, the Captain's to her was a tortuous mystery. As if they were at the foot of a huge mountain trying to climb and slipping again and again while he is there, at the top. Looking at them and laughing at them in case anyone managed to find out something about him.

Leah had heard Soap say that the only one who really knew Price was Laswell, because they had worked together for a long time in the past.

And Leah had obviously always been interested in the Captain. Always trying to remain feminine enough when she was around him to attract his attention, although sometimes she forgot it on the battlefield. She didn't think about it until she was under the shower and the thoughts of everything that had happened shook her.

Then she realized and understood that someone as unattainable as him was never going to set his eyes on her.

Of course, they were "friends", they talked from time to time and when there were only opportunities, they shared a cigarette in silence.

Leah made jokes and she loved how he laughed, stiffly, pursing his lips under his beard as he looked at her.

It was as if for a moment only she existed for him.

But, as nice as he was, he was distant.

"Good morning" Soap rubs his eyes when he sees her, stretching over his head, a group of recently arrived female soldiers trotted past in front, whispering and laughing in their direction "Good ladies…" he greeted solemnly, trying to flirt with them "Hey Leah, if it's your turn to train those in that group today, could you say a good word about me to the one with black hair?" Leah followed her gaze, there were many with black hair.

"Specific, Soap"

"The one with black eyes, the one who stares at him" Leah is almost scared when she feels Ghost appear out of nowhere, but she continues looking for the girl until she finds her, the group of women stops and she is the only one who is looking towards where they are, staring at Soap with a tender smile.

"I invited her for a drink last night," Soap shrugged his shoulders, "she's pretty cute."

"Pretty cute?" Ghost growled "you were drooling, Johnny."

Soap laughed and Leah shook her head.

"Where is Gaz?" Leah asked, looking around.

"In the office with Price," Soap said.

The captain always left his office at ten in the morning to shout orders, it was always the four of them, to run the place, if not to train new recruits or take charge of training or meetings that he hated attending. It was to be replaced when she had to go into town and have meetings at the CIA building where she herself had left.

And that morning was not far from reality.

Leah looked at the watch in her hand and tried to maintain a relaxed posture, paying attention to what Soap was telling Ghost about the position of the weapons or how he had shot the other day in training, but her eyes went to the man He came out after Garrick, in his military suit and hat, some leaves in his hands while he rubbed his face with his hands.

His walk was slow and light, it was as if he moved around without having to look where he was stepping because he knew the entire place by heart. He was also tall, six foot nine, a little shorter than Ghost but intimidating enough for her, who was five foot six, dammit. He was a flea in the midst of so many big men.

“Hey” Gaz joined the group, greeting everyone, Leah was feeling calm that morning. He had decided of his own free will to try to pretend that he had no feelings for the Captain, he had been trying to do it for years, but this day he really wanted to pretend that they were just friends.

“What's up for today Cap?” Soap wanted to know.

“Ghost and Gaz” Price said looking at the sheets  “I need you out, I need you to go to Manchester and meet with Laswell, he will give you a location, go and extract. Do you understand?”

“Copied” Ghost murmured.

“Soap, I need you at shooting training with Group A and Leah” Price gently looked up, blinking with a neutral expression “I need you to train the new group of women who just arrived, make them sweat and suffer, yes? You're good at that” Price winked at her and she turned red but couldn't help it. John Price smiled when he saw her and sighed, looking at the others “well, let's move.”

Ghost and Gaz walked away immediately, Soap walked away with Price behind them as they talked about something, she stood still for a moment thinking about their moves, her mind creating the perfect tactics and training for the new ones as her eyes followed his back. John Price's width and big shoulders.

His mind wandered to how strong his arms would be or whether his chest would be as hard as the wall behind his back. Her mouth went dry and she didn't notice Soap coming to her again with a sly smile.

He wrapped his arm around her neck and shook her hair with his hands.

“Hey!” Leah pushed him away laughing and Soap too “What's wrong with you, idiot?”.

“You turned all red, huh?”.

“What are you talking about?”

Soap grabbed her shoulder and stared at her.

“When are you going to tell him you're in love, Leah?” She opened her eyes wider than normal and pushed him away with a single punch to the chest.

"Idiot” he rolled his eyes, "go to work, lazy man."

Soap chuckled.

"Remember to be good to the black-haired girl," she murmured as she walked away, but Leah furrowed her eyebrows at the woman beyond, oh no.

I wasn't going to be very good to her.

John Price was sitting in the chair in front of his desk, his legs spread lengthwise on the table as he crossed his arms over his chest. I needed a few minutes of silence, of rest. Maybe a little Whiskey.

But he woke up to a couple of sounds coming from outside the office, which made him lower his feet from the desk and look out through the glass walls. He could see a group of female soldiers running from one side to the other without rest. John chuckled and stood up with his hands behind his back to look closer out the window.

Leah screamed demandingly, demanding them over and over again that she wouldn't stop. Damn, the woman had a loud voice that was even sweet when she screamed, the expression on her face was enigmatic as she gave orders and saw how she enjoyed making her subordinates suffer.

His chest swelled when he saw her, he felt a pride that he often felt with her. But it was just pride, wasn't it? Her eyebrows slowly furrowed as she watched a random soldier approach her and talk close to her ear, though the expression on Leah's face didn't change as she shook her head, John's hands going hard on her back and without realizing it. He was gritting his teeth and feeling strangely jealous.

It was idiotic.

He turned around and approached his desk, opened the first drawer and took out his bottle of Scotch Whiskey, poured some into the glass tumbler he had on the table and drank it down.

His eyes traveling to the window as he watched Leah shout and give orders.

(...)

When the night comes, Leah is exhausted, Soap invited her to have a drink at the bar with the rest of the team, which she denied, saying that she was too tired to go out in the cold of the night even though she knew that a strong drink was going to warm her body.

One of her friends of the same rank as Sergeant, Darcy, had approached to encourage her to go with the group, but Leah also refused, promising to go out on Friday with the group of girls.

He dragged his feet towards the training field to collect the things he had left on the bench before going to his room when he saw John Price with his feet outside the training field, on the cold, dry ground, looking around at the dark night. Smoke billowed from between his lips as he took a long drag on his cigar.

She swallowed slowly and with great difficulty.

The image of John Price looking out into the dark blue night of the base, smoking a cigar, was disconcerting and beautiful. And for that reason and more, Leah didn't think as she glided up to him, carrying her things in one hand, and approached his side.

“What are you doing here alone, my captain?” she joked, but she turned red. Had she really said to my captain? shit.

John turned to see her with the cigar in his lips.

“Oh, I'm... I don't know, killing time?” He shrugged his shoulders, moving awkwardly on his feet.

"Sure," Leah smiled.

“And you?” John stared at her, for a moment at her lips and then at her eyes as if his thoughts had evaporated.

“Same thing, I think” Leah sighed looking at the dark starless sky, then turned to him and noticed that John's hat was tilted, she raised her hand adjusting it while he stared at her “it was... crooked” she swallowed slowly, being aware of how he was looking at her, but she couldn't stop herself from acting stupid with him.

"Thank you," he murmured hoarsely, expelling the smoke to the other side as he looked at her and noticed her cheeks turning red.

“You are welcome”.

"I guess it looks better now," Price licked his lips unconsciously and that small gesture made Leah's head explode.

"I'm glad," she smiled looking into his eyes, the knot in her belly twisted making her feel dizzy because of the way he was looking at her, it wasn't usual. It was unusual for him to see her like that “Aren't you going to go with the boys to the bar?”.

"Yes, in a while," he replied without taking his eyes off her, "I'm waiting for Gaz. The boy is in love, apparently.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes” Price smoked his cigar again “Aren't you going?”.

Leah swallowed slowly and shook her head firmly.

“I'm exhausted. I need my bed”.

“Hmmm…” Price murmured, nodding “that sounds good”.

Leah felt like everything was spinning around her, she was so hot and the truth is that it was so cold that she didn't understand it. He looked into John Price's greenish eyes one last time and smiled, patting the Captain's arm without crossing the line of allowable trust.

"Have a good night, Captain," he said, turning around.

"Yes, you too... Leah," he whispered hoarsely. His British voice echoing in Leah's mind and ravaging her body.

Her steps felt heavy as she walked away from him, as if the strings of her heart that had been tied to him without permission were pulling tightly. He closed his eyes, pulling them out, but they were cooked tightly.

Several minutes later she was lying on her bed trying to read a book, before that relaxed her and she could clear her mind, but at that moment she couldn't. No matter how much she read and read, her mind went to John and the way he had looked at her.

In the morning, Leah was feeling energetic. He knew he had a lot of work to do because Gaz had sent him a message to tell him that they had to go meet with Laswell to receive information about a mission and study some plans for possible field research, so he showered, dressed in his military uniform and hurried out of his room. Gaz was sending messages to her phone to hurry up, so she walked down the hallway typing with her fingers on the screen, totally distracted and not looking ahead.

John Price came grunting softly down the hall, his eyebrows furrowed as he shook his head and rubbed his forehead. Neither of them saw each other when they collided. John had a coffee in his hands and managed to push it away from her before it spilled on any of them, but Leah collided with his hard chest and almost fell backwards if he hadn't been agile enough to grab her arm and hold her. instead.

Leah's brown eyes met John's in a span of a second in which her mind had no thought other than "Oh shit" which made her slow to react.

“Captain! I'm sorry, I'm sorry…” Leah bent down to pick up her phone that had fallen to the floor at the moment when her hands landed on John's chest, who was wearing the military suit, the green sweatshirt with the half-zip opened, revealing the gray t-shirt underneath.

"It's okay, nothing's wrong," John released her arm, looking at her intently. "Are you okay?" .

“Oh yeah. Now yes," the girl joked as she put the phone in her pants pocket and smiled mischievously. John raised his eyebrows but smiled back, unable to help it. Leah realized that even though he had smiled at her flirting, he seemed angry for some reason and tilted her head “Are you angry about something?”.

“Angry?” John straightened up, softening his expression and stretched his sweatshirt down distractedly “I'm not... I'm angry. Why would I be angry?” he took a sip of coffee, looking at her.

"You look... like you came grumpy," he laughed slowly.

“I always seem grumpy, don't I?” Although John laughed, Leah could still hear the hard tone in his voice and sighed heavily, trying to find the way he made her feel worried.

“Well yes, you're right” she smiled back as they looked into each other's eyes. John sighed a little calmer. What was wrong? Leah had never seen him interact with her like that, like... Did it make him nervous? No, it had to be his imagination.

"I'm usually always in a bad mood." John made a gesture with his hands, grunting to himself with his eyebrows furrowed, and Leah smiled because the gesture was quite cute for someone like him.

John wasn't wearing a hat so he could see his short blonde hair and since he rarely saw it he thought it was quite adorable.

"Captain," she sighed calmly, as she spoke with him every day, as friends, as co-workers, as a sergeant who trusted her boss, "you know that if you want to talk about anything, you can have a cup of coffee with me” she stretched out a hand towards John, removing a couple of invisible lint on his clothes while looking deliberately into his eyes. That was impromptu flirting! She wanted to hit herself “I'm a good listener”.

“And you think a hot cup of coffee will solve my problems?” John mocked ironically, playing with her as he changed his position, crossing his arms over his chest after leaving the coffee on the firebox to the side, he looked at her with one eyebrow over the other waiting for her response.

Leah chuckled as if flirting was a normal thing between them. But it was the first time I became aware of it, apparently because I was so fucking nervous.

“Then with what?” He looked into her eyes-.

“Hmm, with… with a lot of milk… and sugar” John laughed slowly, tilting his head, and Leah, although she turned red, laughed anyway. Fuck, fuck, fuck What was going on? “I don't know Leah, I'm just kidding you. It just so happens that you made me vent a little”.

“Well” she shrugged her shoulders, taking a couple of steps back “I like it when you joke with me, because you look less grumpy, you know?”.

John chuckled again.

“Yeah?” she nodded “And why is that?”

"Sometimes you're funnier than grumpy, I just don't think you've realized." Leah tilted her head thoughtfully, although she was nervous talking to him was so natural... The ropes pulling from her heart towards him made her see his lips a little. little, the way those green eyes looked into hers made the blood rush to her head.

“Oh yeah?” John released his arms and approached with his head bowed slightly towards her “Do you like my jokes?”.

"Maybe," he pouted, feigning disinterest, looking at him as if there was no one around him, as if cadets weren't passing here and there. The magic was as if he were making her float in the air as if with one movement he could reach John Price's lips with the tips of his fingers. Magic that broke when Gaz began desperately calling her on the phone — shit, shit — she said, stepping back “I have to go, I have to go to the CIA with Gaz”.

“Ah, Laswell told me. Good luck with that” John sighed regretfully and turned away.

“See you!” She began to run quickly down the hallway and John stood watching her figure disappear.

"Old fool," he said to himself, shaking his head, continuing on his way, forgetting the coffee on the firebox.

His mind was filled with full lips and brown eyes the entire rest of the day and, also, the lonely night.

Chapter 2.

A FEW DAYS LATER, Leah had been kept busy gathering information with Gaz about some missiles they needed to find, if they found the location soon, they would be planning a ground mission before the first snow of December fell, which in theory was, well.

He had kept minimal contact with John since the day of their hallway collision. Enough to make flirtatious jokes of three or four sentences before going their separate ways.

That specific day, neither she nor the group had much to do. It was Friday and almost the entire base was relaxing for the weekend, some were returning home and those who stayed were hanging around the base doing anything from training to playing poker in the dining room.

“Hey, Leah” Soap finished his breakfast while Ghost typed on his phone without taking his eyes off the screen. She was still on her phone, texting her mom that she probably wasn't going to be there for Christmas. Not if they collected the information necessary to execute the mission.

“Hmm?”.

“Let's bet something” Gaz approached them with his tray in hand and sat next to Leah watching her frown as she responded to the message “Yes?”.

“Hmmm” Leah sighed and turned off the cell phone screen, annoyed with her mother and left the phone on the table to look at Soap”.

"Soap wants to be humiliated," Ghost muttered, typing on his phone.

“And who the hell are you talking to by the way?” Soap leaned in to look but Ghost pushed him away with one hand covering his entire face”.

"With your mom," Ghost answered, making Leah and Gaz laugh.

“How funny” Soap closed his eyes and turned to Leah “as he said, let's bet” he looked at her with that evil expression that Soap had when he was behaving like a kid.

“You want to bet... With me?”. She rested her elbows on the table and her chin on her hand.

“At the shooting range, if I hit the doll in the middle of the forehead with the Scar-H you will ask the captain for a date” Gaz almost spit out his coffee and Ghost looked away from the phone, becoming interested in the conversation.

“If not?”.

“And if you don't” Ghost imitated his position on the table, “I'll let you embarrass me in the middle of the training field”.

Leah raised an eyebrow and looked at Gaz who nodded encouragingly. But she looked at Soap again.

“Why would I want a date with Price?”.

"You and I know why," Soap murmured.

"No, no," he denied, "not that. Let's bet something else, do you want?”.

Ghost put the phone away and looked at them expectantly. Gaz leaned forward to hear clearly.

“If you win I make Holly come and leave you breakfast every day” she raised an eyebrow”.

“Is her name Holly?” Soap snorted excitedly “But how would you make it...?”

“I have my tricks” she shrugged her shoulders “but if I win, you will clean the team uniform for a month”.

"A month is too short a time," Ghost murmured.

"Yes, make it a year," Gaz encouraged.

Soap scowled at them.

"Okay, okay... one year," he downplayed, "I'll win anyway."

Leah looked at Ghost and smiled, she could imagine her friend smiling under the balaclava.

“So it's a bet?” Soap stretched out his hand.

Leah thought about it for a few moments, but they always bet idiotic things anyway. Now that he wanted to bet on something that involved John it was a dirty game to expose her, but she wasn't going to let him do it. He was his friend and he loved him, but sometimes he didn't know how to stay silent.

(...)

John was breathing deeply against his office desk. His hand covered almost his entire forehead as he rubbed it, trying to lessen the headache when Gaz came in, opening the door as if they were chasing him.

“What's happening?” he asked, alarmed.

"Leah, Soap, shooting range sir, now," John raised his eyebrows and chuckled, dragging his chair back to stand up.

“When is the day that Soap gives up?” he snorted, following Gaz calmly “he will never be able to beat him. What are they shooting with this time?” John tried not to sound so interested, but Gaz was as close a friend to Leah as he was to John, he knew them and he didn't have to ask to know that there was a genuine attraction between them.

"With a Scar-H," he exclaimed, pushing the door towards the gym and the shooting range that opened up around them both.

The first thing John saw was a bunch of female and male soldiers huddled on the edge of the firing range trying to get a good view. He made his way without difficulty since upon seeing him the soldiers automatically moved aside and he took a position right in front, crossing his arms over his chest.

She had her gear on, her gun in her hands, shooting straight at the target. Ghost walked up to John and Price's side.

“How many do you have?” John asked Ghost.

"Six out of three," he said as if he were laughing.

"Damn," John scoffed, "Does Soap have a fetish for being humiliated?" .

The three of them laughed.

"I think so," Ghost also crossed his arms and the three watched Soap shoot, nowhere near the target.

Murmurs of mockery and others of laughter were heard. John was holding back his laughter, because his eyes fixed on Leah in the distance. She turned to load the gun and her brown eyes met his, but she looked away in concentration and John felt his chest tighten.

He breathed as if he had been in the water for an eternity and had come to the surface.

Leah beat Soap by far and John smiled in satisfaction, she never let her down on those things. It was amazing how she was able to concentrate and be strict.

As everyone dispersed she approached her group, Soap shook his head in resignation.

"A year then," he murmured, looking at her.

“A year, but forget it. Not my clothes. Only the boys'” She left her equipment on the table, took off her vest and disassembled the Scar, leaving it on the table running her fingers over it as if she were caressing it. John's eyes fixed on her.

"Good job, Leah," he said and clearing his throat, he looked at Soap. "You disappoint me, Soap. Don't you get bored of losing to a woman like her?" 

"Hope is the last thing you lose, Captain," Soap murmured and looked at Leah who was taking off her gloves and talking about tactical things with Ghost.

"Yes," John murmured thoughtfully, following Soap's gaze at Leah. Did Soap like the girl? Or were they just friends? He crossed his arms trying to appear oblivious to that feeling in his heart.

"Will you join us at the bar, sir?"  Gaz made him come out of the trance by squeezing his shoulder, he looked at him distracted.

“Ah yeah sure”.

“Hey, Angel of Death” Gaz yelled at Leah “Are you coming with us to the bar?”.

"I don't think so, I mean... I'll go, but I promised my friends to go with them." Leah shook her hands, looking at John out of the corner of her eye.

“Are you going to introduce us to your friends someday Leah?” Soap murmured, playing with a knife.

“Can you stop thinking with your cock once in your life Johnny?” Ghost growled at him and then the masked man looked at Leah “Your friend the sergeant?”.

"Yep, my friend the other sergeant," she laughed, "I'll give her your regards, Simon."

Ghost stayed silent and Soap started bothering him.

"See you around," she glided away after looking at John and smiling sideways.

He looked at her butt for the first time with different eyes.

He had known her for a few years, she was charming since he saw her. But he always saw her in a professional manner because she always looked quite professional. John didn't know what had changed but an animal instinct was flowing through him. One I haven't felt in a long, long time.

“Come on, Cap?” Gaz patted his chest and looked at him with a mocking smile, John followed him with furrowed eyebrows.

"What a look that is on your face, boy," he barely asked, as he took out a cigar and lit it in his lips as he walked out of the base.

“Not even one. I haven't even looked at it”.

"Hmm," he growled silently, drawing the cigarette smoke into his old lungs and then throwing it out. "You and Leah are very close, right?"

“We are friends, sir. She's like my little sister," he shrugged his shoulders.

“So do you know if he's dating anyone?” Gaz looked at him as they left the parking lot, the bar was two blocks from the base so they basically left there and did it on foot.

"He's not dating anyone, as far as I know," he smiled at him. "Why, sir? If I can ask”.

John denied.

"Curiosity," he murmured, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder, "tell me boy, how are things going with your girl?" .

Gaz smiled widely.

"Excellent sir, I will see you tomorrow."

"I'm happy Gaz, I'm happy for you."

Gaz smiled and John continued walking beside him, Leah's voice lingering in his head.

(...)

A song by The Cranberries was playing on the jukebox as Leah was laughing with her friends about what one of them had heard from a soldier the other day. His beer bottle was between his fingers as he listened to one of them attentively, but the truth was that his eyes darted from time to time to the men sitting beyond the door.

Ghost, Soap, Gaz and John were sitting at a small table, mostly listening to Soap's stories half drunk because he was almost screaming laughing.

But Leia saw John from time to time, sitting in the chair with one arm on his stomach and the other on the table, holding a glass of Scotch Whiskey.

John looked at her for a moment and just for a moment she smiled at him in greeting. However, a short time later John was already on his sixth glass of Whiskey. But he wasn't like Soap, he didn't catch fire with water and even if he drank a whole bottle of Whiskey alone, he knew how to maintain his sanity unless he didn't want it himself.

Years of experience. And he knew it.

“Is everything okay Cap?” Gaz squeezed his shoulder, drawing his slightly distracted attention to Leah, her dark jeans, her leather jacket, that black scarf around her neck, and her hair that sometimes looked half red loose on her shoulders gives her such a different look. to see her inside the military suit.

“I was just...thinking” John raised his glass of Whiskey to his lips, his eyes lingering on Leah going to places he preferred not to go.

Leah looked back at them again, noticing John's lost, wistful gaze somewhere on the floor as he drank his Whiskey.

"We're leaving," Darcy shook her arm. "Are you coming with us?" Leah looked at her friend and then at the boys' table, it was the fourth time that Soap called her by extending his hands, this time it was Gaz who joined him and Leah couldn't help but laugh as she turned to her friend.

“Do not go. I'll stay with the boys for a while” her friend smiled and said goodbye to her.

Once she was alone, Leah slid over to the table where they were, Gaz pulled out a chair for her with a double intent right next to John Price.

“Angel, Angel” Soap babbles “two against three, two against three” she turned her attention to her drunk friend and furrowed her eyebrows without realizing that John was looking at her with almost childlike amazement. Almost as if there was nothing else in the world I should be doing at that very moment.

“What thing?”.

“Beer or tequila” Gaz dropped his glass of tequila on the table looking at her dramatically and she laughed.

“I prefer beer, tequila gives me problems” he leaned against the back of the chair and crossed his arms, laughing while Gaz grabbed Soap by the arm with an exaggerated I TOLD YOU SO, SON OF A BITCH. And he sat down again.

John had that shocked expression that he couldn't get rid of, but it was that very thing that didn't let him say anything. Maybe because he was too drunk to say any coherent words or just because he was lost in thought, remembering the first time she arrived, those years ago, where he himself had gotten angry at Laswell for sending him a spy and she was the one who left him. with his mouth open. He had trusted her enough to include her in the 1-4-1 forever. And he never thought of including a woman in that.

She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen and he knew it not just because he was a little drunk. He always knew it, he just felt too ridiculous to admit it.

As she talked and laughed with the boys Leah looked at Price with a smile. He cleared his throat and leaned close to her ear without any intention of making it seem sexual to ask her if she wanted another beer and that he invited her. Leah nodded, feigning concentration on the story of Ghost, the one who talked a lot more when he drank too much.

John stood up like a rock and went to get Leah's beer and sat next to her, accidentally brushing his knee against hers. He handed her the beer and she received it, brushing her fingers as she took it.

Unintentionally.

A few minutes later, Leah's stomach hurt from laughing and she probably would have stayed longer if she hadn't seen the time.

"Well, it was fun but I have to go now." Leah took her bottle and drank the last of it. John watched her distractedly as he wiped his lips with the back of his hand and licked his own lips as if he were the one licking her. She looked at him “good night”.

He looked away at the bottom of his empty whiskey glass and shook his head as if out of inertia.

“Good night”.

Leah swallowed hard, it was hard for her to smile but she did it anyway, getting up and grabbing her jacket to go out into the cold. It was still August, but it was honestly very cold.

John watched her leave, his eyes following the shape of her body, the sound of her footsteps as she walked away, feeling as if an enormous weight was looming on his shoulders. He got up to the bar and ordered another drink.

Although Gaz's steps were slow due to the alcohol, he managed to crawl towards the bar and lean on it looking at the Captain.

“That?” John asked with a frown as he swirled the ice in the now refilled whiskey glass.

"I didn't say anything," Gaz took off his Jockey and shook his short hair.

"But you want to do it."

“And I can?”.

"Son of a bitch," John laughed, taking a sip of Whiskey, Gaz rested his forearms on the bar and asked for another Whiskey to accompany John, "say it."

“Are you seriously going to stay here watching her leave instead of going after her?”.

John sighed heavily as he turned to Gaz, weighing his thoughts, tasting the Whiskey on his tongue. He looked over his shoulder at the bar door, she should be arriving at the base then.

"Yes," and he took another sip, licking his lips, "seriously." Gaz shook his head and smiled as he drank with him in silence.

(...)

In her room, Leah tried to fall asleep. Thanks to the alcohol it became easier, but she kept feeling that her body was tingling in the areas where John Price had accidentally touched her at the bar. A movement of the knees, an elbow, the fingers when giving him the beer. The warm, lost look, full of nostalgia.

I couldn't help but feel a lump in my throat. She also didn't have to be a fortune teller to know, after several years working at his side, that the man was broken in some way. And that perhaps it was no longer time to be a spectator in his eyes, Leah took a breath before closing her eyes, promising herself to start giving John signs about her feelings. About how much she wants to... take care of him.

Chapter 3

-And now! — Leah raised her hand and the recruits ran away in a hurry. She looked at the stopwatch and when it reached one minute she raised her hand — Stop! Mason, Willis, Levson and Collen, you can go! The rest of us run for half an hour! —.

Between frustrated sighs, those who did not win began to run making their last effort.

—No mercy Bravo-7? — Darcy, her friend nudged her, appearing at her side —.

Leah rolled her eyes.

-Do not call me that way -.

"Isn't that what he calls you?" — Darcy surreptitiously moved his head towards Price's office that could be seen from where they were. Leah could see him waving his hands while talking on the phone, apparently a little irritated.

In the last few days I had not seen him or spoken to him. In the mornings she trained her group and in the afternoon she had meetings with Gaz and Laswell about the missiles.

Ghost and Soap had gone to Mexico to help Alejandro with some drug dealing stuff, so they weren't there.

"It was a joke and unfortunately it stayed that way." Leah shrugged her shoulders, watching the recruits run.

"Well, they say that you're strict just like him and if you don't believe it, ask your girls."

—I'm not strict. I just… want to do things right —.

"I know," Darcy patted him on the cheek, "and you're doing it right."

She says goodbye to her friend and follows her with her gaze, gradually focusing on John a little further away. He stands with his hands in his pants pockets looking at her. He raises a hand to greet her and Leah does the same, feeling so awkward that she He stops breathing and looks away, frowning.

Shit.

The rest of the day is dedicated to routine things, meetings with Gaz, gathering information. Calls with Laswell, etc. By nightfall, Leah decides to go for a run around the training field, when no one is around. So she puts on her headphones and starts running in a hurry, a song playing as she runs around the court without stopping. Barely looking around, she doesn't notice that John is standing outside his office, which is right in the corner of the court, leaning against the wall, allowing himself to light a cigarette as he looks at her.

About an hour in, Leah stops panting, hands on her knees, body bent over. John runs his eyes over her body, clad in those exercise leggings, sweat running down her white skin as he finishes his second cigarette. She turns around and is scared when she sees him.

"Shit," he exclaims, taking off his headphones, "since when have you been there?" —he laughs, approaching with labored breathing—.

"Just a few minutes ago," he lies thoughtfully, "You keep running when you get stressed, huh?" —.

Oh, he knew it.

Every time Leah ran around the court it was because something was making her self-conscious, but saying it out loud made him feel betrayed in some way, like he had missed that there were many things about her that he knew and liked.

"Yes," she answers, raising an eyebrow, wondering how he knows that, but she smiles. She grabs the water bottle from her bag and drinks a little — And you can't sleep? —.

—The more tired I am, the less I want to sleep—he shrugs his shoulders, blowing the cigarette smoke away and throwing the butt on the floor when he steps on it, he steps aside to let her pass through the doors and continues walking beside her— Is Laswell stressing you out? —.

—She's stressed, Shepherd is a pain in the ass, that's all—Leah snorts—She hasn't told you? —.

—About the missiles? Yes, but we can't do anything until they give us permission, fucking bureaucrats — John denies as he walks with his hands in his pants pockets —.

—At least we have enough information, we know where they may be. You just have to wait.

—While we wait, horrible things can happen —.

—I know—Leah looks ahead, the hallway of the rooms divides in two, John's room is on the opposite side from hers—Gaz and I are working on it, tomorrow I have to go to Laswell, I'll let you know. of the preview in the afternoon. Is it okay? —.

—Yes—John nods, trying to feel his cigarette awkwardly between his pockets—yes.

"Good night, John."

"Good night, Leah," she smiled slowly and turned to head to her room.

Another night sleeping with my heart in my hand.

(…)

The next morning John Price remains engrossed in briefings with Gaz. The day passes slowly and boringly, as they discuss what their course of action would be if Laswell gave them the upper hand.

He has a cigar in his mouth while his feet are up on his desk and Gaz looks things up on the computer in front of him.

—Hey Gaz—He murmurs, fuming to the side—I don't think I've ever asked you this, but have you always worked with Leah before I recruited you and took you out of the CIA?

—Yes sir, we joined the same platoon, then she met Laswell and started working for her until Laswell sent her to work with us —.

—But she still works for Laswell, right? —.

-I think so? — Gaz looks away from the computer to look at the Captain's thoughtful expression as he smokes his cigar lying on the chair — Why? —.

-Curiosity -.

He clears his throat slightly, it's not like he suspects her of being a spy. John knew from the moment Laswell sent her with them years ago that she was someone who could be trusted. She tried everything there was to try in Urzikistan, she almost stayed with Farrah and Alex and she knew it from the moment the two women met and instantly liked each other.

As if he had her on his own radar, John sees a faint shadow moving across his vision past Gaz. His eyes move quickly to find Leah walking across the meeting room to the door of his office. She smiles as she texts something on her phone and there's something about that smile and those eyes that makes John feel his blood rush to his feet.

Before he can think, John is on his feet walking towards the meeting room. Gaz sees him smiling but doesn't say anything and lets him go.

—Hey—John opens the door from his office to the meeting room and the girl looks up from the phone—good night—she smiles.

—John—she turns off the phone and puts it in the back pocket of her black pants, takes out the folder under her arm and extends it—good night—she laughs—I have this for you—.

—Mmm, more damn paperwork? — he takes the cigar out of his mouth as the door closes behind him and puts it out in the ashtray on the conference table. He looks at her and looks slightly distracted, John observes her figure surreptitiously, his eyes a little tired. But he feels like a slow burn… a feeling he can't stop feeling… a consciousness growing inside him.

—Information about Paris—.

John looks at the folder and raises his eyebrows.

—Paris huh? Gaz told me -.

—Yes, we weren't sure. Now — she looks over John's shoulder and sees Gaz working on the computer in John's office on the other side — Working so late? —.

“Working hard,” he whispers, his voice a little hoarse. She doesn't know what to say suddenly, the words feel like they're on a page, she feels that somehow her back is sweating as if she were burning and he was too close to her. Leah approaches his side, touching her body to his side, she moves the pages of the report pointing things out and talking, but he is looking at her like a fool without listening to her or understanding her.

"Read it," she whispers, closing the folder next to her but it stays there, "and tell me how it is." She sighs, her arm brushing against John's, barely touching each other for just a second.

But it's enough to set John on fire.

"Mmm, I'll do it," he murmurs and she pulls away with a gentle smile.

—If everything goes well… Tomorrow we will probably have permission to go investigate — she sighs, looking into his opaque blue eyes, which shine unusually for her that night. John moves a hand and puts it on the girl's back as he looks at her.

“You did well,” he nods slowly, as if he were closely controlling his movements.

Leah blushes as she looks into his eyes, her throat tightens and suddenly it's cold in the room, her hands feel cold and her body feels shaky. Move back by inertia.

—I have to… go — he points back — you… you tell Gaz, yes?

John can't even move, he watches her leave. His eyes on her figure as he disappears through the other door and down the hallway. His body feels empty, suddenly. Trying to find something to touch. He swallows hard and looks at the folder in his other hand but it's just forgotten paper in his hands. His mind is filled with it and he can't… breathe for several seconds. A subtle but dangerous attraction fills him completely, a flame fluttering in his chest.

Gaz's touch through the door window snaps him out of his trance and he turns to him.

-All good? — but there is mischief in the boy's look and John… just laughs, shaking his head. He opens the door and hands her the folder.

"Looks like she's doing all the work for us kid," he murmurs, shuffling his steps back to his desk.

In the middle of the night later, John is sitting at the desk in his room, his glass of whiskey half empty on the table. His shirt is open revealing his chest. He drinks a little while staring at the laptop screen and looking at Leah's report on the side. His expression is calm but the veins in his neck seem to pulse against his skin. His fingers slide over the keyboard as he sighs.

He exhales as he drinks another bit of Whiskey. The alcohol begins to take its toll on him at that time of night but his expression remains neutral. His eyes dart from the screen to Lea's report almost with a longing that makes him feel anxious. He drinks a little more and a little more and rubs his forehead with his fingertips as he exhales again.

He sinks into the seat with a sigh, memories filling him, tormenting him again. He fills his glass immersed in bitterness. His breathing is long and slow as he drinks. He hears the ice crack as it melts and his eyes go to the window. The world looks so still, as if it were a painting. He scratches between his eyebrows and leaves the glass on the table, his phone vibrates next to the laptop with messages. Several are from Laswell and Gaz, even from Soap with some shitty jokes that I could probably read later.

But his heart stops when he looks at Leah C.'s Name on his screen.

"Did you read the reports?"

His breath stays in his throat, he takes the glass of Whiskey and drinks in silence while grunting under his breath.

"In my room in ten minutes," he responds, taking another drink.

He knows he's lost, that the alcohol has already taken all of him at that moment, but he can't stop.

Chapter 4

His breath catches in his throat as he shuffles down the hallway. Do the footsteps sound louder? Is she being too loud? A soldier quickly passes by on the right and salutes her as usual. Leah is not breathing and presses her back to the wall with her head too. Eyes closed as he tries to calm down. When he opens them he looks around, the long hallway stretches to the end and keeps turning but Captain John Price's room is just four doors down from where he is.

Fuck, fuck.

Take another breath.

It's just work, damn it.

Another breath and he moves his feet again, one in front of the other as if he had more than 30 pounds on each thigh. This feels worse than running uphill on a rainy night while trying to save yourself. The thought makes her smile as she reaches the door with the name "Captain Price" in gold letters.

She knocks on the wood of the door twice. He's not breathing but he's there, risking everything. Never, in all the years has she been there, standing at John Price's door waiting for him to open or… whatever.

-It's open! Happens! — The scream sounds like the ones he makes when he yells at new cadets or like a boisterous laugh while talking about something with Gaz.

Leah frowns and turns the doorknob, opening it slowly.

The room is dark except for the laptop screen on the small desk at the foot of the bed.

"Come in, come in," she hears him say. Leah takes a while to adjust her eyes to the darkness and seeing him, there, sunk in the seat in front of the desk. His figure is drawn as a shadow by the light in front of his face on the screen.

She moves forward after closing the door and approaches the edge of the table, trying to maintain a professional expression. But the fight is terrible within his heart. Because she has rarely seen John in a deplorable state like the one she sees him in now, which makes her feel like hugging him, sitting on his lap and holding him until his tense body relaxes and she puts her hands on his back, surrendering. to the need to love affection.

“Sit down,” he murmurs. Her eyes are on the screen and in her hands a glass of Whiskey that Leah smells, it's Scotch. But she doesn't stay looking at the glass but at the image of him, leaning against the back of the chair, with his shirt open and his chest exposed.

Even through the light of the screen that seems to illuminate nothing, Leah can see some scars on his enormous pecs and some beautiful ones in the middle that disappear as they go down.

He follows his sane instincts as much as he can and grabs a chair he sees out of the corner of his eye dragging it next to the desk next to John.

She looks at her report next to John's laptop and then looks back into his eyes, finding John's blue eyes on her.

—So—she clears her throat in a useless attempt to calm down and tries her best not to lower her eyes from John's and see his hard… and broad chest—You read the report.

—I read it, very useful — John takes a sip of Whiskey while looking at her — but I assume you knew that… — John swallows as he removes the glass from his lips and licks them as if he didn't want to waste a single drop of the Whiskey. He almost wants to smile at the sight of Leah's cheeks so red with the blood on her face, as if she were writhing under the weight of his gaze, fighting for something inside.

—Assume what? —She rests one arm on the table taking the report, just to have something to do while he looks at her like that—.

—Do you want me to say it? — Leah looks at him and he tilts his head as he continues to look at her, his eyes fluttering over her in a back-and-forth that makes her feel dizzy.

Leah snorts.

—Okay, that's wrong. Which is strange for a woman who worked at the CIA during her first years of service, right? I should know more how… Damn, I'm good at shooting from a distance, I hit the target and I can take down Ghost who is stronger than me but… — she scratches her forehead, pressing her fingers between her eyebrows — I hate making reports, I think Which is why I was so happy to be here when Laswell sent me.

"I don't…" John looks a little bewildered and watches her take the glass from him and take a sip while looking into his eyes.

"I didn't want to disappoint you," Leah swallows, feeling the bitter taste on her tongue and in her throat. The way he wrinkles his forehead and nose makes John want to cuddle him.

"You don't disappoint me," he murmurs, smiling. However, his expression hardens as soon as he clears his throat. He feels a small voice in the back of his head, the words soft and quiet, a whisper of air like a warning. He lets out a breath and drinks some Whiskey again, taking the glass from Leah, looking at her computer screen. “You did well,” he murmurs. “We just can't do much with all this information if we can't act.” John says. He rubs his forehead with his fingertips — damn bureaucrats, sons of bitches —.

Leah smiles, resting her cheek in the palm of her hand.

"I'm sorry, as much as Laswell loves me, I can't make her twist her arm for this," he sighs, "we have to wait."

John looks at her.

“Mmm,” he grunts, rolling his eyes back to the screen.

—Well then, is that why you called me or why did you accept the conversation? — She leans a little over the table trying to meet his gaze — Has the curmudgeon decided to talk about what's bothering him? —.

John looks at her with a tense jaw.

"There's a storm brewing, Leah," he growls, breathing heavily through his nose. His eyes fluttering between yours and your lips. He leans toward her and Leah screams as John slides his chair closer to him. His expression is dark, but as if tenderness is struggling to get through. His eyes roam over Leah's lips, her loose blonde hair over her shoulders, her neck. He takes another whiff of Whiskey as he looks at her.

"You're grumpier when you drink," Leah murmurs without thinking, his small action of pulling her closer in the chair has gotten her on edge, she no longer has time to think about what is right or wrong. She just wants him to kiss her and she knows she's going to let him do it.

—And you like that? — John leaves the glass on the table while not taking his blue eyes off Leah's brown ones. The light from the computer screen captures Leah's silhouette against the wall and his. He looks at her hungrily even in the middle of his drunkenness and can see her cheeks getting redder and redder.

"No," she murmurs, looking at John's lips as she swallows slowly, takes a deep breath and willpower to look at the computer screen again. "What are you working on?" —he breathes deeply, feeling John's breath on his neck. He's not completely inclined but the heat of his body burns her in leaps and bounds as he keeps his eyes on the screen.

—Laswell sent me some things, information. The same thing you did -.

-But better -.

—No, not better —he murmurs —Shepherd sent information too. Did you read the memo? —.

—Mmm — Leah reads the screen — pure shit —.

John laughs in a low, hoarse voice.

"Yes, pure shit," he murmurs, looking at her profile, he can almost feel her trying to stay still in her seat, her hands itching to put it on his wide, meaty, soft thighs. Her mouth is dry and she is not ashamed of the way he is looking at her, desire burning in every pore of her skin.

—Is that why you're in a bad mood? —she asks, this time turning her face to find John Price's closer than normal—.

—Maybe—he feels the heat of her breath, the heat of her body enough to drive him crazy.

-Because? — It's like a random question, as if it were just to say something in the middle of the tortuous silence between the two of them —.

"You said it, it's bullshit." John snorts through his nose and leans back against the back of the chair, his arm going behind Lea's back, she sees his hand out of the corner of her eye. He doesn't touch it but it is there, leaning on the back of his chair.

Leah frowns at the screen and leans forward. His hair falls on his chest at the movement and he clicks on several pages, John sees his legs crossed in those dark jeans, his elbow on his legs, his chin on the palm of his hand as he clicks and looks at the screen.

Suddenly Leah looks at him and her gaze makes him feel a little dizzy.

—It's bullshit—he shrugs his shoulders—I'm crossing my fingers that Laswell gives us the go-ahead tomorrow.

—You want some action, don't you? — he chuckles — the emotion, mmm…

-You do not? —she raises an eyebrow in his direction—you've been stuck among piles of shitty papers for months.

—Maybe—his mouth is dry, his body on fire from the heat of Leah's body. It's burning because of him. His thoughts lead him to see her lips again, imagining what it would be like to touch her, every part of her sweet body. He feels his breath catch in his throat when he looks into her eyes again. His breath warm and trembling as he barely breathes.

Lea smiles but doesn't know what else to say, it's as if the words float in the air and she can't grab them to make them sound through her lips. John puts the glass of whiskey on the table and lets his hand fall to her legs, to Leah's legs, without touching. He just slides them until he grabs her thin fingers.

—You have such pretty lips… — he smiles ironically — Don't you feel like kissing me? — His teeth shine white and his voice is a hum of breaths that come in short bursts. His eyes are locked on her lips, locked on her eyes that remind him of the chocolates he always sees when passing by the cafeteria at London Central Station, mmm yes, maybe he'll buy some for her another day. "Like you say?" that saying…?

"He who doesn't risk doesn't cross the river," she whispers breathlessly, focused on John's fingers playing with hers, her body burning for him.

—Exactly—John smiles slyly and leans forward, taking a risk. Her hand closes around Leah's fingers and she closes her eyes.

Feel the heat of his lips, the distance no longer exists. Relief floods his soul, as if Leah's lips were a balm that makes him feel missed. Her hand slides up her arm until it reaches her shoulder, soft, tender caresses as Leah's lips move over hers, sweet, soft, slow.

He moves his lips over hers again and again, slowly. His hand goes up to touch her hair, caressing it as if it were porcelain. His fingers between the blonde strands of her hair and he holds her there. Her breath warms her lips as she feels Leah's hands on the hard muscles of her arms as if she's afraid to touch further.

She is the first to part their lips and he doesn't stop her. John lets his hand fall from her hair and her arms as he listens to the wild beating of her heart, her short breathing as he looks into her eyes.

Leah looks at him for a few seconds before standing up calmly, her fingers touching her lips as she looks at him, fixated on him as he steps back and John doesn't stop her from leaving. He sees her go towards the door and disappear after closing it.

John stays in the chair, his eyes filled with a desire and a feeling that swirls in his burning chest, his hand hitting his ribcage and rubbing as if it can calm what he feels inside. He reaches forward for the glass of Whiskey and sips as he tries to cool his head for a moment, but he still feels Leah's lips on his, he can almost taste her.

Damn all this time he was ignoring those sweet lips…

Chapter 5:

—Yes, yes — Leah had the phone pressed to her ear with her arm while she finished adjusting her military boots on the bed — Thanks Kate, I'll go tell them right now —.

He hangs up and finishes tying his boots, grabs his dark green jacket and quickly puts it on to go out. He rushes to John's office but when he arrives he only sees Gaz sitting in the chair half asleep.

—And John? —he asks holding the door open. Gaz scratches his eyes, looking at her sleepily.

"I thought you were going to know," he shrugged his shoulders mockingly and she just looked at him witheringly. "I wasn't with you?" —.

—No—he sighs—Ghost and Soap? —.

"They just arrived, they're coming here."

Leah nods and heads back the way she came, shuffling across the floor toward John's room, knocking twice before checking to see if the handle is open. She swallows slowly as she remembers what had happened last night, the way he looked at her, his lips. His touch… His body shudders but he still opens the door slowly and peeks out carefully.

John comes out of the bathroom adjusting the watch on his wrist. He is wearing his military suit and his hat is resting on the bed. When he sees her, his eyebrows rise slightly.

—Leah—.

—Sorry, I knocked but…

-Do not worry It's OK. Come in—he circles the bed and walks over to her slowly, Leah shrinks as his large body approaches her as the sensations of the previous night overwhelm her—Is everything okay? —.

Don't you remember that I kissed you?

-If everything is fine. Very well indeed - she takes a breath trying to keep her eyes on John's - Laswell called, everything is ready to go to Paris, it's a forest far from the city, a warehouse that may be guarded by Hadid's men, but … —.

John's eyes stay on her, on her body and the way he tries to control her. She can feel her pulse beating faster and her mouth slowly drying out.

-Yeah? —.

"I need you to handle this John," she clears her throat, "and give the order to leave."

—Sure—his eyes land on hers and she can feel the heat of his gaze. He steps close to her and touches her hand, gripping her fingers just like he did the night before, caressing her fingers as if he's afraid they'll break. She can feel her body turning on little by little. "You're doing it well," she murmurs, getting closer, her other hand rests on Leah's waist while she looks at her from above. "This thing about… organizing things."

—John… —she is blushing, but fighting with herself—.

—Hmm? — John runs his hand up her arm, his fingers on her neck moving up to her chin. She narrows her eyes as she feels the touch of his calloused hands on her face.

—Everything is ready, Gaz must be preparing the Helicopter, we have to… go —.

—And aren't we going to talk about the kiss you gave me last night? —His voice is hoarse and his breath warms his lips. Her brown eyes look at him with adoration.

John's fingers brush his cheek.

—John…

He looks down at her lips and kisses her slowly. His hand holds his face with no intention of wanting to end it. Leah's heart beats hard against her chest, she hesitates as if she were going to back away but John puts his arm around her, holding her against his body and kisses her for a long time, savoring her as if he were holding back the desire to devour her. He feels his body burn as he brushes his teeth with his tongue asking her to go further.

Leah moans against his mouth as her hands grip the fabric of his military clothing, crumpling the fabric as if the life depended on it.

For a moment she lets him intensify the kiss and her thoughts become clouded as their tongues dance with each other, she feels it and knows she needs it. However, he pulls away, gasping for air. His hands are spread over his chest pushing back slightly.

—Mmm—John looks at Leah's lips slightly swollen from his kisses, his fingers caress her lower lip slowly, his arm around her is hard and he has no intention of letting her go. His eyes move to yours, his breathing is labored, his lips parted.

He wants her again.

He turns her in a single movement, carefully placing her against the wall, leans down, brushing his lips with hers but doesn't get closer.

“We have to go,” Leah gasps. “…

"Mmm…" he grunts as she feels through the palm of her hands how his hard chest rises and falls.

With a lot of willpower, John lets her go. Releasing little by little with a lot of pain. He watches her regain her composure while he still doesn't want to deal with his emotions.

"Okay," Leah clears her throat and heads toward the door, but looks at him before opening it.

"We'll talk about this later," John tells her with a neutral expression, approaching her.

—Yes—Leah opens the door before he grabs it again and as she walks in front of him she smiles like a fool.

As John walks behind her, his hungry eyes admire her figure. Her curves, the way she falls into those tight jeans. He shakes his head, running his hand over his face. Leah is one of the few women in there who doesn't wear a lot of military clothing, maybe because she's not quite a soldier, because she's also CIA. But John loves seeing her in those half-tight jeans.

The only thing he thinks about when he goes after her is to hold her against a wall again and kiss her. But he swallows and takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

Upon arriving at the hangar, they meet Gaz, Ghost and Soap and Alejandro.

The latter looks at Leah with surprise and John notices how Leah opens her eyes as if she had seen a ghost.

"Leah?" — Alejandro passes by Ghost and approaches with a smile —.

-Alexander! — Leah runs towards him hugging him by the neck. John stands still next to Gaz watching the scene with his jaw clenched — What…? — Leah hangs on his neck — How…? —.

—Ah, the boys mentioned that they needed help so — Alejandro shrugged his shoulders as she looked him in the face — Not annoying, right, Cap? — Alejandro tilted his head to look at Price —.

—Of course not — Stoick responds — I suppose you're aware — John Price looks away from them and Leah gets off Alejandro's neck without realizing that John is jealous, of course, because he hides it very well while giving him his back and puts on his military equipment in one go.

—Of course, of course — Ghost approaches Alejandro and Soap and they prepare everything to get on the helicopter. Leah, smiling, approaches the table to take her outfit and put it on, however it takes a little work for her to find the bodices to adjust it on her hips.

John turns and watches her struggle against the straps and approaches silently. He grabs her hips and puts his arms around her as she freezes, with one tug he adjusts the straps and she's almost out of breath.

—Is it like this or is it too tight, Miss Carlsen? —he whispers hoarsely, leaning towards her ear—.

"Very… tight," she murmurs and hears him growl, a low, rough growl that vibrates in his throat as she loosens the straps a little. Leah takes a breath, turning to him with a frown. “What's wrong?” —.

John looks at her without saying anything, takes his weapons and puts on his hat almost without blinking. He quietly turns to the helicopter while everyone is there.

When she gets to the helicopter, Gaz helps her get on and Leah slides inside, sitting next to the window next to Alejandro. He leans towards her, almost shouting over the noise of the rotors and propellers.

—I'm glad to see you little one! —she exclaims, John hears through the headphones and stares at them as he sits in front of her. Leah looks at Alejandro with a smile.

-Me too! — She smiles and her gaze goes forward, John is squeezed by the window in front of her, Gaz and Soap are at her side.

He stares at her like he's making fun of something.

-Moved? —she sees him raise an eyebrow—.

"Very much." His face tenses under the weight of his gaze, as if they were playing tag.

The helicopter rises, the base is just a point in the middle of nowhere from above. Leah looks back at him, John has his head against the back wall, eyes closed and hands on his legs.

Leah shivers helplessly and looks out the window, biting her lip as if that will help calm her mind or her thoughts that move and stir around her.

At other times he would be the type to just keep his mind focused on working on what should really matter, but right now he's trying hard not to grab Alejandro and pull him away from Leah to take his place, put his hand on her. her thigh and growl in Alejandro's direction so he knows she is his.

The thought makes him laugh at how ridiculous it looks and he opens his eyes, seeing her as a hard hit to his balls. She looks out the window down, her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail as she holds the gun firmly in her hands.

Let his eyes caress your body surreptitiously and your mind be filled with fantasies. How did he let everything spill out of nowhere? The way he felt about her was like she had exploded through the door.

The trip lasts a long time and although John fights not to fall asleep, he does. When he wakes up he sees Leah leaning against Alejandro's shoulder, sleeping. He opens his lips as if to shout at her but his voice gets stuck in his throat and Gaz nudges him.

"We're getting there," he looks at him half-disoriented and nods, swallowing slowly as he holds his gun in his hands and breathes deeply before looking out the window.

Stay focused and alert is your biggest motto. Your feelings and emotions cannot cloud your good judgment. So avoid looking at her the rest of the way.

When the Helicopter lands, Leah wonders how they'll make the convictions now. Since the group is used to working among themselves without Alejandro, what she sensed could unbalance the movements she was used to having with them.

Once downstairs, John already had everything planned.

Gaz and Alejandro would go straight to the warehouse and infiltrate inside until they reached the agreed point. Ghost and Soap would stay up high to keep watch around.

John stared at her and then at his companions.

—Leah and I will go to the forest downstream, go around the perimeter and we will meet at the shed — everyone nodded — be alert and focused —.

"Yes, sir," they murmured in unison and Leah saw her friends run towards where John indicated, she also saw John calmly puff the smoke from his cigar and his blue eyes looked at her through the darkness of the forest.

—Do you hear me? — John murmured through the headphones to the others, everyone responded affirmatively and John nodded to himself — Okay — he took a breath while holding his gun and when he turned he found Leah looking around — stay close — he whispered, trying to take the role that he used to take, being Captain, being Chief. But when he saw her slide towards him his heart tightened in his chest as if he wanted to put her under his arms and not let anyone touch her - stay alert -.

"Yes, sir," she said. At John's surprised expression Leah shrugged her shoulders - sorry, habit -.

—It's okay, it's as it should be — He takes a deep breath, fighting with himself —.

Leah looks at him strangely, a bitter feeling filling her nervous system. She shakes her head to clear her thoughts and follows him through the forest. It's not long until they see the structure, she crouches next to a tree, turns on the night vision to look around and then the sniper.

“Two guards outside, four inside,” he murmurs to John.

He nods.

Price: Bravo five, here bravo six, do you copy me? Gaz: Copied, we're in. Price: Good.

John looks at Leah and she nods, a tactical gesture she has committed to memory.

"Cut off the heads," John murmurs and she adjusts the franc in her hands, adjusts the sights and fires. The two men fall dead to the ground. John puts a hand on his arm - good job - they both nod and move towards the building -.

John shoots the light poles, turning them off, moving through the darkness they sneak into the building. It doesn't take long for them to meet up with Gaz and Alejandro. The four of them are against a wall waiting for the next move. But things don't look very good, there are more enemies than they thought there were.

"There are at least thirty," Gaz mutters, looking over the edge, "not counting the trucks outside."

—We will make it—John reloads his silencer weapon—the objective is in the subway cell—he slides his fingers across the screen of his phone looking at the graphics—Gaz and Alejandro, stay here. Leah—a nod indicates the order and the woman nods firmly, sliding with him down the narrow hallway toward the door—.

John gestures to her to be alert and watch when she sees someone out of the corner of her eye, John pushes her against the wall trying to stay still. Her eyes watch him closely, her breaths coming in gasps.

When the shadow passes, Leah moves a little away from John and his grip, he opens the subway door and kills two guards who appear on the other side. Leah slides over another enemy, her knife digging into the hard flesh and bones of the man's head as it falls to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

John looks at her as if he were seeing something amazing and a smile crosses his lips.

Concentrating again, they go down the stairs and enter the underground. John and Leah take down more enemies as they make their way to the cells, opening them one by one.

Leah kicks the penultimate one, a bandaged man is sitting on the bed. His hands are bloody and he is barefoot.

She whistles at John and he approaches to look at him, they don't have to say anything to know who is the target. A worker who has information, who has worked with Graves.

At that moment, something similar to a bomb explodes not far away, John and Leah fall to the ground with debris falling around them. He falls on her with the need to protect her. They try to communicate with the rest of the team but for some reason the radios don't work.

While they are trying to leave, they meet Gaz who tells them that she has broken up with Alejandro and that she doesn't know where he is because the radios don't work. He also tells them that he found the missiles they are building.

—Take him out of here, take him alive — John puts his hands on Gaz's shoulders — look for the others, and get out of here now —.

Gaz nods hesitantly, but grabs the bandaged man and forces him to walk away from them.

John turns to Leah who is looking for the door where the missiles are. He rushes to her grabbing her elbow pulling her towards him.

"We have to get out of here," he says urgently, but Leah denies.

—We can't go and leave this here John —she looks around, piles of empty barrels but in the background, almost in the darkness, blue containers appear before her eyes —.

"We have to go," he repeats, but she lets go and denies.

—You go, make sure the equipment is okay. I… I'll see how I destroy them.

She moves forward and John frowns at her, processing her attitude and what she apparently wants to do. He shakes his head groggily and approaches her again.

"It's too risky, Leah," he follows her as she kicks the barrels, throws folders in search of information.

—We can't go away and leave this like this.

—We have the objective, we must go.

"Go away," she continues searching until she stops in front of the containers.

John runs a hand over his face.

—You are disobeying orders from your superior —.

—Since when are you such a dictator? — She turns to him putting her hands on his belt, John opens his eyes thinking something else and when she removes one of the tools that John uses to open locks he rolls his eyes —.

—It's an order, if you don't obey you will be punished Leah —.

—Well, I don't care—she puts the tool in the lock and kicks it, the container door opens wide and they both stare at what's inside, two missiles. One finished and another… almost half built. Leah sighs, looking at him.

—Don't say anything—He shakes his head, looking around when he feels Leah take off her backpack and dig inside—Really? —.

"It's the only way," she responds, pulling out bombs.

—They are not under control Leah, you put them on and we will have twenty seconds to get out of here. And do you have any idea how long it will take us to get out of here? —.

"Well, I guess we're going to have to take a chance."

John snorts.

"The hell with you, woman," although he denies, he knows it's the only solution, so he helps her place the bombs quickly. When they place the last one, they look into each other's eyes. "I have to admit your audacity."

She laughs but doesn't say anything.

John activates the bombs, grabs her hand and starts running with her pulling.

They can't make it to the stairs when the bombs explode. Smoke and debris fill the place and Leah falls to the side, she is sure she has hurt her head somewhere but she doesn't think about it as she tries to look for John in the fog of smoke and dirt. He stands against the wall, trying to breathe but even the air is toxic, his ears are slightly blocked and he hears the gunshots as if they were echoes. His vision doesn't clear at all and he tries to concentrate on coming to his senses.

John's large shadow crosses her gaze, grabbing her by the shoulders, he shelters her behind his back while she sees him shoot, she hears him shout something, but she can't hear him. John pushes the escape doors and they go outside, the gunshots getting louder as Leah hears again.

—You have to run now! — he shouts at her, grabbing her hand — Come on, come on — she shakes her head, they go into the darkness of the forest, running along the paths, running, running, running, until the building, the fire and the shots are just a far point in his sight —Don't stop! - he shouts, pulling her -.

The cold hits her face, but the heat from the adrenaline of running keeps her warm.

They run, until the sounds of gunshots are just echoes.

Leah stops bracing her hands against her knees, panting. John is still in front of her, his blue eyes looking at her in the darkness.

"They'll be fine," he whispers with a broken voice. "They'll be fine."

Leah swallows, looking over her shoulder, cursing under her breath. Yes, she knows her friends will be okay. Has to follow.

—Leah—she feels John's fingers hovering around her arm—come on, we have to continue.

It was very cold. John knew that at that time of year in Paris, it snowed.

He had to find shelter soon.

Chapter 6

Leah doesn't know how far she has walked, but she can't feel her legs as she continues to do so, trying to keep up with John, wondering if he isn't tired, although she can see that he is evidently panting as the minutes pass much more than before.

She tries to concentrate, her hands holding her gun as she follows him silently. It is evident that they have separated from the group and that she feels disoriented, and if it weren't for the fact that John is ahead of her, she would be curling up on the floor and letting herself die. Cold dead.

The damn radios don't work and they're in the middle of a fucking forest in a country they've never been to before. The lack of signal has caused John to almost break the emergency radios they had in their backpack. And to make it worse, the cold has gotten rough. The snow started falling a long time ago and every step is a pain in her bones that makes her shudder.

And yet, as she follows him she is thinking about John's kiss. The one she hasn't been able to stop thinking about since that night and now that they were stranded in the middle of nowhere, she wondered if he was going to continue with that Capitan attitude all the time or was he going to come hug her to warm her and kiss her.

"There's a river to the south," John murmurs, walking with his eyes straight ahead. "There should be some cover or…" He turns over his shoulder to look at Leah and when he sees her, he stops dead. His expression reflects concern mixed with softness.

—Yes—Leah responds, watching as her feet begin to leave marks due to the snow that is accumulating, a gust of vision envelops them and Leah has to hug herself with her eyes closed to tolerate the cold that she tolerates less and less, so In fact, he's shivering and despite the gloves his fingers and toes feel colder than a penguin's—or maybe finding shelter or something, whatever.

John stops causing Leah to crash into his chest and stumble back but he grabs her arm. His brow is slightly furrowed, his blue eyes boring into hers, his voice barely above a whisper.

—Come here—John pulls her towards his body. He hugs her and rubs her arms and back trying to give her some kind of warmth. Leah closes her eyes against the comfort and sensation.

"Although I like this a lot, I think we should move on."

The touch between the two is electric, intimate. John's hands run up and down his back. His fingers caressing her, as if that does any good or is just a lame excuse to have her close. Leah looks up at him. His gaze is penetrating on her.

—You need heat. "You can trust me for that," he whispers, pulling her closer to him.

Leah leans on his chest, for a few seconds it seems like she stops shaking. Her arms are ridiculously big and strong and protect her from the cold.

"I see that," he murmurs, "but we have to…" as soon as he moves away he begins to tremble. "Keep moving forward, come on." Leah pats John's chest, moving ahead of him.

John takes a deep breath and watches her walk like she's made of jelly, trying hard not to keep shaking.

—Are you avoiding me or something? —he asks, matching his pace.

—Avoiding you? John, I'm freezing to death.

He growls under his breath.

—How do you come to a place like this with a jacket as thin as that? —he looks at her—Where is your head lately? —.

"You don't want to know." John looks at her and chuckles. However, when Leah returns the flirtatious look, she staggers and John grabs her again.

"One step at a time," he warns her gently.

They walk several more kilometers, Leah no longer feels the cold on her face or her hands. He looks up past the tree trunks and steep hills and sees a small cabin in the middle of several trees. He grabs John by the arm, patting him almost on the verge of screaming, and points him in the direction of the cabin.

“Caba-cabaña,” she shivered, her arms clinging to herself. John puts his arm around her, pressing her against him, and rubs her arms.

"Fuck me," he says, laughing, "come on, let's go."

John pushes the old door open with one hand while making sure to get Leah inside to protect her from the wind.

"Stay here, I'll take a look at the outside."

Leah nods as she rubs her arms and her chin trembles, her teeth chattering. Look around. There is a large bed in the corner, a kitchen that probably doesn't work, another door that could lead to the bathroom, an old couch, and a table with two chairs by the window near the front door. It is small and probably long abandoned.

John enters, closing the door tightly, he locks it so that it does not open and he takes off his backpack and all the things that could get in his way. The first thing he does is take off his military equipment and then the jacket he is wearing underneath, he quickly puts it over his shoulders. Leah's shoulders and rubs her arms.

"You'll be fine," he encourages, looking into her eyes, both of them looking at a small fireplace on the side.

—We can't light it, if they see the smoke they could see us, if the boys aren't looking for us… — John caresses her back —.

—Shhh, I know. They will find us without smoke, I know — John has her against his chest and looks at the bed — Why don't you go to bed? Come - he approaches the bed and sits her on the edge, looks at some furniture near the wall, opens it and finds blankets -.

"Someone definitely lives here," Leah manages to say quickly before shivering again.

—We'll leave her a note when we leave or we'll become her friend by hook or by crook if she comes back—John winks and puts several blankets over her—that's it… you'll be fine.

"F-fuck John, I'm… I'm sorry," he's still shaking and rubbing his hands over his face, blowing breath between them as if that would help. John takes her hands. Small hands between huge hands. He rubs them against his while looking at her.

—I'm made for this, it's not fair to you — he laughs as if he were mocking, rubbing his hands against Leah's while he watches her smile from the side — You're like icicles.

She laughs looking down, the feeling of his large hands rubbing hers is so comforting. They are so warm…

"Take a breath," he whispers, "that's it."

His voice and warm hands calm her a little like rain after a storm. John leans down and places a tender kiss on her forehead.

"Rest," he whispers, caressing her back with one hand while still supporting her with the other.

“Hold me,” she says, as if she desperately needs to get her hands under John's clothes to feel his body heat.

John doesn't even doubt it. He throws himself on the bed and pulls her up while Leah puts her head between his chest and his arm. John caresses her arms as he wraps her in the blankets.

"It's okay," he whispers, "now rest a little. Are you warm now?" —.

Leah now doesn't know if she's shivering because of the cold or because of the naturalness with which John flirts. She wonders if he's conscious about the way he talks to her, like he wants to make her cringe all the damn time.

"Aha," he manages to say.

John hums quietly, a soft sound falling from his lips as his hand caresses her arms. His big, strong hands move with a gentle touch and she wants him to touch her under the covers, to give her warmth, body heat. But try to handle the situation without losing your mind because of what you are feeling. Besides the cold.

"I'm sorry for being so cold," she murmurs with her cheek against John's chest.

"You're freezing, there's no need to apologize."

Leah's hand resting on John's hard stomach is caught by John's free hand. He intertwines their fingers in a way to continue warming her up. Rub the backs of your fingers up and down.

"Mmm," Leah whispers, narrowing her eyes, her skin tingles in the areas he's touching her, her body getting incredibly hot.

"That's it," says John, "you're hot now."

Outside the wind whips against the house as if it were going to blow it down, the snow falls like there is no tomorrow, and the whistle of the wind that gets between the old wood of the house makes Leah shrink into John's lap.

—Tell me a story, whatever, I hate storms…

He smiles, his voice soft.

—Once upon a time there was a little girl… and she was cold. Like you. But she had a big, strong man. He put his arms around her and promised her that everything was going to be okay—John looks down at her and meets her brown eyes. His blue eyes studying her gaze in the darkness - and he believed him -.

"Ha, ha… that's funny," she laughs and snuggles further into his lap. Her little hands feeling the hard skin of her clothes. Will her skin be as warm as her hands? Suddenly the image of him in the darkness of his room at the base, with his chest exposed, makes his throat go dry.

John sighs, pulling her close to him, his arm wrapping around her even tighter and she hides her head under his chin as John's hand moves up to her neck, playing with the strands of her hair.

"I'll keep you warm, Leah." Just close your eyes. Everything will be fine. I promise -.

Leah relaxes, her body warming up, her legs intertwined with John's, his hand safe against her abdomen over her clothes, his strong arms protecting her. The sound of the wind and the blizzard is suddenly just a whisper as her eyes close and close until she falls asleep.

(…)

He opens his eyes with a wave of panic. There is no one next to him and there is silence and light. The first thing he does is sit down on the bed suddenly, evaluating its entire contour with his eyes.

He stops to look at the man hunched against the table, growling under his breath.

—John? —The Captain looks at her but concentrates again. Leah takes a while to realize it but when she does she notices that she is fighting with the radios.

John lets out a frustrated huff. He stops for a moment and his eyes linger on her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, rubbing her arms, tucked into that too-big-for-her jacket of his that makes him smile.

-Did you sleep well? —.

"Yes," she murmurs, looking out the window. Outside everything is white and there is no seeing. Even the sun seems to be hot. Although he still trembles a little, it's actually due to the lack of John's body heat and he frowns as he looks at him again. "You didn't sleep at all, right?" —.

"Someone had to be alert and had to try to fix these shitty radios that…" John stops, looking at Leah with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."

—I work surrounded by men, I listen to all kinds of things. A swear word doesn't scare me — she smiles warmly and John does so for a moment. However, go back to watching the radios — you should get some sleep now. You can't go without sleep.

—No, no… I need to fix this. Just warm up, I'm fine.

Leah rolls her eyes.

“Grumpy bear,” he mutters under his breath, looking out the window. She thinks he didn't hear her, but John slowly turns his face to Leah.

“Damn, I heard that,” he huffs in the most annoying but loving way possible. His blue eyes are on her and as much as he wants to continue fighting with the radios, he knows she's right. So she slowly gets up and sits next to Leah on the edge of the bed.

"I didn't say anything," Leah turns to look at him with feigned innocence.

—Yes, yes you did — He smiles as he rubs his hands along your arms — Are you still cold? —.

"Just a little bit," Leah shrugs her shoulders as John hugs her, giving her a kiss on the back of her head.

"Keep resting, we're going to be here for a long time." John huffs, sliding his arm away from Leah and stands up, but when he does, Leah's hand closes around his arm.

"Stay," she murmurs, looking at him almost with a shyness that makes him feel overwhelmed. He looks at her fingers on his arm and his breath catches in his throat, he sits up taking a deep breath, putting an arm around Leah's back again, pulling her closer to him.

His chest is warm and musky beneath the layers of clothing he's wearing. He slides onto the bed again, his large body stretching across it as he waits for her to do the same. Leah doesn't think about it for a second and crawls towards him, getting into his arms.

The contact instantly warms Leah and as he holds her her breathing becomes heavy.

When both are comfortable. John closes his eyes trying to sleep. Having Leah's body pressed against him is a challenge, especially not touching her as his thoughts are leading him to do. He is a trained and calculating man after all.

But with her he just wants to be John. Just John.

—You're so warm. "Like a stove," she says with her eyes closed, unconsciously turning, her face against his strong arm while John moves on her back to hug her and snuggle behind her.

-Yeah? — John laughs slowly, a hoarse laugh that leaves havoc on Leah's neck as their bodies fit together like two pieces of a puzzle —.

"Mmm yes, I could stay like this forever," he says with his eyes closed.

—Yes—John looks at the wall, feeling his ears get hot. She rubs Leah's arms as a distraction, but that makes it worse. The fire that burns in his chest for her is enormous.

-It is very cold -.

"Calm down," he says with a sigh, "You know?" Don't tell the others but… you're my favorite.

Leah turns her gaze slightly to look at him.

-Yeah? — he smiles, but immediately freezes when he feels John's air on his neck —.

—You are by far my favorite, Sergeant. For a country mile — John's voice is a thick, hoarse whisper as if he's holding breath. His eyes look at Leah's neck as if his fangs were coming out.

She swallows slowly knowing what she is doing and what she wants. She desperately needs him so she turns around again hugging him face to face, closes her eyes and brings her cheek closer to John's, sliding it over his beard.

"You're so warm," she whispers, feeling John's hands slide slowly along her waist.

John closes his eyes feeling her touch, his nose gets into Leah's hair inhaling her shampoo smell, she always smells of citrus and he loves it and now that he has her there in his arms, rubbing against him like a kitten looking for affection John feels like he's about to lose his mind.

—Leah…

—John… — Leah's hands slide over his broad shoulders over the thermal shirt, then she touches his neck, even feeling the veins in it. The pores of your skin. Leah isn't even breathing.

"Leah I…"

"Kiss me please," he begs, his voice like a moan coming from his throat, if he could kneel to ask for it, Jesus, he would do it "please…"

The corner of John's mouth twitches upward. His large hand covers Leah's entire back and his strong arms wrap around her carefully. He can feel her breath hitting his skin. He wants to kiss her, with every fiber of her skin, and his heart races in his chest as he presses his forehead against Leah's. Blue eyes staring at her almost breathless.

Then Leah kisses him. At first glance it looks like a clumsy, almost childish kiss, but when John puts his hand in her hair, moving it to intensify the kiss. A quiet sound escapes his throat, pleasure but also something that makes John's heart tremble with every soft movement of Leah's lips against his.

He smiles against her lips and combs her hair with his fingers, a tender, breathless caress.

—Damn Leah…

—John…

He laughs against her lips pressing them again. His hands run over Leah's body as if asking her permission while she grips her fingers into the fabric of his T-shirt and her tongue shyly slides into his mouth.

"Damn…" John murmurs.

His right hand slides over her waist caressing her waist. Slowly going down her thigh, leading her to place her leg over his and higher over his hips.

—John I…

"About that night Leah," he murmurs against his lips, which run down his chin toward his neck, his beard tickling Leah as he holds her hips with one hand.

-What about that? We kissed John… and I… you…

-Me what? — John steps away for just a moment to look at her with one eyebrow over the other —.

—I like you, I like you a lot—she looks at his lips, his blue eyes looking into hers—.

—Mmmm—John leans into his neck again, this time nibbling a little, as if he were tasting his flesh. Leah moans as John's hands slide over the fabric of her jeans, caressing her thighs and hips until they slip under her blouse, touching her skin — you're so soft.

"John…" She moves restlessly under his large body, her hands move along his back and soon get under his shirt. His skin is hard, hot.

"Leah, let me show you how much I like you," he says in a growl as he licks the entire length of her neck to her ear, making sure he hears her very well. "Yes?" Be a good girl and let me show you.

"Yes, yes," she opens her mouth as she feels John's fingers press against her hips, almost panting. John takes her face in one hand and kisses her passionately. His tongue thrusting into her mouth, exploring. Moaning.

For a moment there is nothing else but the two of them, rubbing, kissing. Moving their tongues fervently over each other's. She feels John's hardness hitting her which makes her moan.

—God, you're so sensitive… I never imagined that… — he slides his mouth down, licking her neck — that you were so sensitive Leah — his mouth lowers, his tongue licks her collarbone, he nibbles desperately as he touches her down — .

Her throat gets dry from thinking when she is wet. Which makes him pull away and get on his knees between her legs. Leah opens her eyes disoriented and her heart stops when John pulls his shirt over his head.

His hard, wide body looms before her. Beautiful dark and light ones in the middle of his pecs… those marked muscles. Those strong arms. It makes your throat dry.

John leans over her again, biting Leah's bottom lip and she drops her hands to his shoulders touching his skin. Several scars cross his skin in various places and he finds it so fucking sexy that he can't stop touching it.

—Are you going to be good to me? —.

"Yes," he murmurs, watching John go down his neck, kissing his chest over his clothes, lifting his blouse to kiss his belly that contracts when he feels his beard. "John…" his cheeks turn red just by feeling him go down and An unexpected scream leaves her throat when John pulls her pants and panties down at the same time — John…

"Shh…" he whispers, shaking his head. He takes off her boots and socks quickly, the same with the rest of the clothes, Leah closes her legs embarrassed but John separates them, burying his fingers in her thighs — Jesus Christ Leah — looks at her, licking her lips — Jesus Christ — she says as if to him. same…

—John… p-please…

John sees her cover her mouth and as he leans towards her legs, imagining her taste, he removes his hand from her mouth.

—No doll, you're going to scream. I want to hear you scream, yeah? — Judgment leaves Leah's body and her eyes roll into her head as the captain's tongue slides along her vagina while he moans with pleasure —.

Chapter 7

“John, n-no,” she sighs, her throat closing, her body tensing as he slides his arms under her thighs to hold her close and still.

—Mmm… —she hears him moan, while she squirms. Captain Price's tongue slides between Leah's folds with expertise, determination and boldness.

Jesus, no one would think you had that language, Captain. Leah thinks as she grits her teeth trying to control herself.

In her short 28 years not a man had touched her that way. Definitely not like him and he hadn't had many lovers in his life so to speak. She was always very strict about it, no sex before the first date. But with John I was open-legged without an appointment or anything on the agenda.

Her eyes roll into her head as he sticks his tongue in and his fingers move slowly around her clit. Teasing her, having fun with her. But John's own moans are starting to drive her crazy.

"Oh John, p-please," she whispers, her voice is barely a whisper and every time she covers her mouth to scream, The Captain yanks it away and nibbles at it, scolding her.

Leah felt herself unraveling, her heart beating like crazy with every lick, breath, or bite. John Price's huge hands rise from time to time upwards, touching the edge of her breasts.

"Mmm…" he moans again.

Heat begins to build up in your belly and your hips begin to move involuntarily.

In less than five minutes Leah finds herself moaning and whimpering while he is buried between her thighs. His body trembles, collapsing as the desire warms his belly and expands around him.

"That's it," he murmurs with a touch of calm and passion that shines in his eyes when they look at her. John smiles as he looks up at her and pulls away just a little, leaning his body over her. His hand softly hovering over her neck and rising to her lips, putting his fingers in Leah's mouth - Doll… - he grunts as he takes out his fingers and moves closer, kissing her mouth as if he were eating her alive, she moans against him. mouth. Feminine and sensual moans, as sweet or sweeter than what he imagined Leah could make, lost, he lowers his hand and fucks her slowly with the same fingers - Fuck… - he murmurs - you're so ready for me. Tell me how ready you are — she murmurs with her lips on Leah's neck — are you ready for me? —.

"Y-yes," she gasps, her body hunching over him, her moans incoherent, her hands on John's shoulders.

-Say it -.

"I'm ready, ready for you John," she says barely in a whisper, John's growl coming out of her throat like a growl that gets lost in her mouth.

It doesn't take him long to get rid of the rest of his clothes off the bed, while Leah's head is spinning from the orgasm she just had with John's tongue, she is dragged by his legs to the edge of the bed and makes a loud noise. I scream in surprise. He kisses her slowly, passing his tongue over her lips. A tender, romantic kiss that turns into a passionate one as he sticks his tongue into her mouth, moaning on her tongue as he rubs his huge, thick erection over Leah's wet folds.

“J-John,” she moans, her nails digging into his shoulders, slowly but enough for John to moan with a smile.

He pulls away, spreading Leah's legs with his hands, making sure she's spread wide open for him. She takes his erection and slides it through her folds, torturing her clit as Leah nearly cries.

"I don't have condoms," he moans almost breathlessly.

-I inject -.

"Still…" John bites his lip, the thick tip of his penis pressing at Leah's entrance making her whimper.

He looks into her eyes from above and what they want is implicit, of course. If it's for both of their approval, Leah doesn't mind if he cums inside, but she wouldn't mind if he did it outside either. For John, however, it is a topic that causes a stir. It makes him nervous but the mere idea of ​​seeing her full of him anywhere on her body makes his brain scramble.

"P-please," she moans and John narrows his eyes, taking his member, sinking into her with his eyes closed.

"Jesus… God… you're so… you're so…" The words are lost in his mouth, dying when he leans down, grabbing one of her legs to wrap it around his hips and kisses her. Mmm… Are you okay? — he asks in a whisper, Leah nods, biting her tongue — Can… can you do more?

"Yes, just… just do it," she slides her nails down his back and John's skin ripples with her touch, pushing deeper into her until she takes him completely. "You're so…" she murmurs into his neck, inhaling. the smell of her hair — so good…

And then the eternal sway begins, the rough, soft hands on her body, grabbing her breasts while she rocks as if there were no tomorrow. A string of curses spill from Leah's lips as he pushes against her, biting her skin, kissing, licking. The moans are muffled by the sound of their fur.

There, alone in the middle of the morning, surrounded by snow and trees. The birds fly out of their tops at Leah's moans, John's growls take her to ecstasy, make her lose her sanity.

Leah's legs tighten around his hips, feeling her tighten around him makes him slam hard into her.

"Oh Leah," John's voice is low as he squeezes her between his hands, while his mouth runs over her neck, her collarbone, while his tongue swirls around her nipples.

Leah kisses him, her hands gripping his hard, strong back. The way John moves against her makes her lose her mind. She moans loudly in his ear, digging her nails into him. The movements become strong, wild and are joined by grunts and meaningless words.

—John…

—You're so pretty… — he moans in her ear — so soft Leah…

—John… —.

She twitches and John feels her, making her wince.

—Mmm—He hits harder, satisfied with having found his point, that point that every time he presses Leah's eyes fly over her head.

—Mmm John! -.to…

"Say it," he pushes hard, concisely.

—John! —.

John bites her neck and his tongue licks the mark, Leah moans, her legs shaking and her body arching. His nails slide down John's back and dig into his ass.

-Hmm…

—Oh John… John…

"Mmmm I like my name on your lips doll," he whispers, biting her lower lip, "that's it, that's it…"

Leah moans louder and louder and the orgasm rocks her again, warming her and making her shiver. John wraps his arms around her as he pushes against her, their bodies pinking as he gets harder and harder.

—Mmm… — he kisses her with a passion that she has never felt before, everything has been much more than she has even imagined — Leah…

She looks up at him and John stands up, holding her legs as he pulls out of her, John's hand wrapping around his hard member as he masturbates until his moans make Leah want to come just listening to him.

Then the hot, white thing falls on her belly and she looks into his eyes while he does it, she licks her lips watching it, watching it cum all over her hot, panting body.

—Oh God… — John murmurs looking at her body full of her — honey… you look… — he squints his eyes still moaning —.

The corners of Leah's mouth turn upward. He's sweating, he's sweating and it must be at least two degrees below zero. He gasps, trying to catch his breath, and closes his eyes for a second, listening to John Price's breathing. She opens them when she feels that he is on top of her cleaning her body, she looks at him almost adoringly.

The image of a man like him bending over her cleaning the remains of his semen on her belly and thighs with such dedication is worthy of a photograph. Even her short hair looks messy as she runs her fingers through it after finishing and tosses the piece of cloth off the bed before crawling back to her and kissing her arms all the way to her neck.

-Are you OK? — He wraps his arms around her and turns her, pressing Leah's back to his chest, and she begins to suspect that this might be her favorite position for curling up in bed. Which makes her smile - She raises her hands - she does and he covers them both with the sheets and blankets - that's it -.

—I'm fine. Are you? —she adjusts to him. John's body is still warm on his back and his arms wrap around him better than a blanket.

—Mmm—he buries his face between her neck and her hair—I am.

There is a slight silence between the two of them, dozing and taking in what they just did. They only listen to the sound of nature outside and their breathing that little by little begins to return to a normal rhythm.

—John? — Leah strokes John's arm under her head —.

-Hmm? —.

The words get stuck in her throat and John feels her tense in his arms. So he opens his eyes, caressing her skin with his fingers.

-Is that I…

—You're worried, aren't you? What are you going to do now that you've slept with old Captain Price?

Leah turns in his arms to face him, although the first thing she sees is his hard chest and her small fingers shyly trace his scars, although her gaze on John's blue eyes is determined.

"You're not old," he furrows his eyebrows.

—Leah—he caresses her face with the back of his hand—don't worry about it. Is it something you regret? — she shakes her head — then nothing happens. Is it something you don't want anyone to know? —.

—Do you want anyone to know? —.

—I don't care—he shrugs his shoulders—maybe we can keep it between us for a while but eventually they're going to find out, you know? —John's fingers slide into Leah's blonde hair—.

—And that doesn't bother you? —.

—Do others know? —.

-Yeah -.

"It's going to bother me when they stare at you blatantly in my presence and I have to grit my teeth and have to remind you who you belong to," he says so sweetly that Leah laughs but sees honesty in his eyes and that makes her purse her lips. "It doesn't bother me." Let them know that you are mine. Because you're mine — John pauses with his hand around her cheeks — Because you're mine, aren't you? —.

"I love being yours," she smiles, "I've wanted to be for a while." John raises an eyebrow and his throat resonates loudly as he sees her red cheeks.

"I may have an idea, Leah." You gave me very suggestive looks, what do you want me to tell you - she opens her mouth to say something, but John grabs her cheeks, opening her mouth - you have always seemed too dangerous to me to look at for too long. I knew you would be one of those women who you look in the eyes and you are lost.

-That? —she almost laughs—And have you met many of those women? —he says with some suspicion—.

—Many, but not one like you—Leah rolls her eyes and John laughs, drawing her face closer to him by her cheek—it's a joke, Leah I just want to flirt with you. I have not met women like you, I like you, I like you a lot.

She looks at his lips and closes the distance by kissing him and pressing her naked body to him. John grunts, he's a little tired but when she tangles her legs against his and her nails tear the skin of his back, he knows that tiredness is overrated.

(…)

Somewhere in Paris a group of men organizes to find their captain.

Gaz is communicating with Laswell after the asset is taken away for questioning, talking to Laswell to send out the search teams while Soap spins the knife in the air with his elbow on one leg and his chin on his palm.

—Maybe they're fucking behind a tree or…

"For God's sake, Johnny," Ghost throws a rock at him, but Alejandro, who is trying to read the map Gaz gave him, looks at Soap with one eyebrow over the other.

—Fucking? —.

Soap looks at him.

—It's a joke, a man and a woman like Leah lost in the middle of nowhere — he shrugs his shoulders — I don't know, think about it. You don't have to think about it much really.

—Plus they both have a lot of chemistry—Ghost also shrugs his shoulders while Alejandro furrows his eyebrows at his comments. Gaz approaches after talking to Laswell on the radio — What did he say? —.

—The search team is on the way, but they're going to take too long. It's been one night already, they could be dead.

—How little faith Gaz — Soap puts away the knife and takes the map from Alejandro — if they fled upriver they could have followed the short path — Gaz leans down to look —.

—But if they went for the other one? —.

—Then we split up, it's already stopped snowing and it's not going to do it again — Ghost murmurs — Soap and I are going down the path to the river, you and Alejandro go the other way. If they don't find anything at this point, we communicate and we meet here at dusk.

"Solid," Soap nods, adjusting his weapon.

The four shake hands, grab their weapons, backpacks and equipment and prepare to search.

(…)

—Okay then, favorite music? — Leah is lying next to John, their legs intertwined, they have dressed because of the cold but you still remain lying together under the sheets —.

—The one from the eighties, in particular… anyone — John has one hand supporting his head while he looks at her from the side —.

"Say one, come on."

—Well… Any Rupert Holmes.

Leah tilts her head.

—And who… is it?

—You don't know who…? Damn Leah, I'm going to have to teach you about music.

-Sing a song -.

John starts laughing.

-No -.

-Oh, come on. Aren't English men daring? Sings -.

—No—he growls—Tell me your favorite song, if you sing it I'll sing it. Let me guess, you grew up in the 2000s, Britney Spears? —.

Leah laughs.

—Everyone likes Britney —.

—Not if it makes you want to shave, honey —John reaches into his backpack and takes out the last of their food, the last can of disgusting vegetables. Leah wrinkles her nose.

"I'd rather die of hunger," he pushes him away with his hand.

"Don't be stubborn, it's an order," he grunts and opens the can. "Come on, just a little."

Leah eats a little then John, both suppressing the urge to vomit. But they laugh about the situation minutes later. When they see that the sun is setting Leah looks at the broken radios.

-And if…?

—We are not going to go anywhere, if they look for us they will find us here. My boys are smart, they will find us.

Leah huffs and snuggles into his chest with her eyes half lidded.

—Now tell me, sweet or salty? —John asks him—.

—Sweet — she shudders — Oh my God, lemon pie, coffee with two sugar, raspberry cake, oh shit… I need to eat that. Donuts filled with strawberry jam.

"Disgusting," he wrinkles his nose and Leah looks at him.

—You hate sugar — John raises his eyebrows in surprise — I've been working with you for years, bringing you coffee to the office or sitting next to you in meetings or lunches.

—You were taking your notes, Hmm? - he caresses her face - I can see it…

—Mmm—she leans over him and kisses him.

—Mmm—his arms surround her and he turns to stand on top of her—I like it.

(…)

They have been walking in the dark forest for several hours, Alejandro is energetic, just what Gaz needs to not stop his pace searching and searching incessantly. However, Alejandro cannot get the doubt out of his chest.

"Hey Garrick," she says as he walks ahead pointing his gun and flashlight in the dark.

-That? —.

"Do Price and Leah have something?" —.

Gaz turns to look at him with furrowed eyebrows.

-Because?

—Soap and Ghost kept insinuating things and… —.

-You like her? —.

"We have been friends for a long time."

—I know, he told me about you — Gaz looks a little suspicious — he really appreciates you.

—Ya, I know — Alejandro looks ahead and sees a cabin hidden between trees and snow —.

The question is not answered and Gaz is grateful that he doesn't ask again and hopes that whatever they are doing if they are there, that they aren't fucking. Although inside he would be laughing if something like that were to happen.

(…)

John is enthralled kissing Leah's neck, nibbling on it while his hands caress her breasts under her clothes and rubs against her slowly. Caresses, a tender game to kill time while you continue asking each other questions.

—Do you remember that? —Price nibbles on his neck—.

—From when Gaz fell from the helicopter? —John pulls away to look her in the eyes—.

"You should be more specific, honey," he says with a smile.

"Well, the time he fell out of the helicopter in Russia, when we were chasing the arms dealer."

—Ah, yes — John laughs as he continues nibbling and licking — yes.

They both laugh until they hear noise outside.

The two of them, like the trained soldiers that they are, move away from each other as quickly as they can and grab their weapons. Leah slides towards the door since she is barefoot without making a sound and John grabbing his gun wins on the other side. The footsteps are heard getting closer, John raises two fingers towards Leah which indicates that there are two people coming.

He puts a finger to his lips, his weapons in position.

The door opens and in the darkness a man points his gun everywhere, John jumps around the young man by the neck.

"I want there," John says, Leah points at the other but he grabs her without realizing who she is.

"Captain," Gaz raises his hands in defense and John immediately releases him.

"Just look," he laughs.

—Gaz! — Leah grabs his arm and hugs him —.

-Are you OK? — he asks, laughing — I see you more than fine — he raises an eyebrow at the captain who is sitting putting on his boots with a harsh laugh that breaks all schemes —.

"Alejandro," she hugs him.

"I'm glad to see you well Leah," he hugs her tightly. "You're not cold at all," he murmurs, taking her hands.

John walks over and drops the palm of his hand on Alejandro's shoulder.

"I took care of keeping her warm, Colonel Vargas," he winks as he picks up his backpack and looks at Leah, "get your things together, come on."

Leah turns red as a tomato and promises to get revenge for it later. John can't handle Alejandro's face and laughs in his face, with no intention of being mocking. Alejandro chuckles, trying to think it's just a joke, but his eyes follow John Price until he walks out the door with Gaz.

—Are you okay Ale? — Leah grabs his arm when he sees her ready to leave —.

"Yes," he says, looking at her curiously.

Gaz calls to them from outside and they leave, but when she closes the door behind her, John turns to her holding out a paper.

—I forgot this, for the owner of the cabin — Leah laughs and opens the paper.

"Of two crazy lovers who like him very much, Merci"

-What does it say? — Alejandro wants to know, but Leah doubles down —.

"Nothing important," she responds, laughing and going into the cabin again, when Alejandro comes out and Gaz is waiting for them ahead and John looks at her with his hands on his equipment on his chest. "What?" —.

"Nothing," he shrugs his shoulders with a smile that is barely visible.

Leah shakes her head and sets off, following Gaz and Alejandro, who contact Laswell to tell them that they are safe and returning to base in London.

Chapter 8

Leah and Captain Price have been seeing each other for about two weeks.

The vast majority of the time the man sneaks into Leah's room at night or they just go out for a drink like two good friends when the group wants to go out and have fun.

This morning, however, Leah gets up knowing that she will see little of John unless it is to pay him a short visit in his office.

"I won't do anything because I'll be at the base, I have work to do with the new ones, Kate."

—Someday you have to celebrate your twenty-ninth — Laswell sighs on the other line —.

—Anyway, do I have to be in your office tomorrow? To organize my times -.

—Yes, I need you to come and talk about something that has me worried, yes? —.

—As a friend or as a boss? — Leah crosses the hallway to the cafeteria to make a coffee, in the distance she sees Gaz waving a hand for her to come closer and she waves back to tell him to wait —.

"Like both," Laswell puts on his serious tone of voice and Leah snorts, she hopes it's not what she thinks because she and John have been quite careful not to let anyone see them.

In the morning Gaz and Soap went to sing happy birthday at their door, laughing while Ghost was there but not singing and with his eyes rolling and shaking his head while saying that they were ridiculous.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then."

Leah hangs up on the call, puts the phone in the back pocket of her dark pants, and walks over to her friends who are waiting for her at the table.

-Surprise! — Gaz jumps from her seat and Soap reaches out to a piece of cake on the table with a candle — it's little, but with the heart — Leah laughs and pats Gaz's shoulder —.

—They didn't have to do it — Leah hugs Gaz — but thank you —.

Gaz and Soap exchange glances.

—Why don't you come to the bar tonight? We got drunk in your honor — Leah sits down, putting her coffee on the table, turning it thoughtfully — Come on! It will be like every year.

And it was true. Every year on her birthday she went to the bar with them. Only once did her birthday fall on her days off and she was alone in her apartment sinking into a bottle of wine. John would always go with them for a while, have a couple of drinks and leave.

This time Leah thought her birthday was going to be different. But John hadn't even said good morning to her and he didn't come to her room the night before. They didn't always have clear sex, but cuddling next to him was enough.

So she sighs, trying to deal with the silly feeling of feeling… a little ignored on the day she intended to be regaled by her secret lover.

-Yes, sure -.

Gaz and Soap high-fived and Ghost said something about drunks and Leah was deep in thought for a long time.

Gaz enters John Price's office around afternoon, as the sun is about to set. The boy is wearing dark military clothing, the ones they usually wear when there are no battles to fight.

The captain is engrossed in papers and eyes in front of the computer.

"Gaz," he murmurs without looking at him.

—Sir, let's go to the bar. Are you coming? —.

-To the bar? Why would they go to the bar one day in the middle of the week? Don't they have to train or make it more productive? —.

"Just for today, sir… you know, to celebrate Leah's birthday."

John leaves the papers in his hands. His eyes stop blinking and he looks at Gaz carefully.

—Ah—.

-He forgot? — Gaz raises an eyebrow. He is the only one, even though neither Leah nor John have told him anything, who knows about their secret relationship. Maybe Laswell, once John slipped past his lips and called her, honey without realizing it, and Kate's eyebrow rose curiously at the sight of Leah's red cheeks.

"Of course not," he continues working trying to hide it. How could he forget something so important?

—So you're going? —.

-Yes Yes. I'll catch up with them - he waves his hand for Gaz to leave and when Gaz leaves John grabs his cell phone almost desperately and calls -.

Kate Laswell responds to the third ring.

"No questions, just answer," John speaks with a calm voice.

—Anything you want to tell me? —.

—I said without questions—John clears his throat—Leah's favorite flowers—.

John hears Kate snort and then Kate's wife's voice is clearly heard.

-The daisies! —Allie exclaims.

—Shh Allie! — Laswell scolds her but then Allie takes the phone from his wife —.

—Hello John, nice to greet you. Are you dating our beloved Leah? — John almost got stuck — you don't have to answer, it's quite obvious you're happier than usual and less grumpy, that's progress since you already know… —.

—I need a place that sends flowers here to the base now — he cuts her off, clearing his throat — Can you help me with that? —.

-Yeah! Oh, I know him. They will be delivered directly to your room at the base. Do you want them to include a note too? Oh God how romantic! — John massages his forehead and hears a busy sound on the other side, Laswell picks up the phone again —.

"Watch what you do, John."

—Thanks for the information, give my regards to Allie, as pleasant as always —.

-I'm watching you -.

—Bye Allie —.

Even though John furrows his eyebrows somewhat irritably, he's chuckling. He leaves the phone on the table and pats his forehead. How could he forget something so important? He couldn't forgive himself.

He finishes the paperwork he is organizing and leaves his office to his room to take a shower and change and goes to the nearest book store outside the base. That literally takes up most of the rest of the day.

Around ten o'clock, he sees a man arrive with a huge bouquet of daisy flowers and John hides behind the wall in panic. Close your eyes tightly.

It was just a twig Allie!

She watches him walk down the hall to Leah's room. He hides between the door and the wall watching as she opens the door and receives the gigantic bouquet of daisies.

John hits his forehead against the wall several times, cursing under his breath.

Then he sighs.

Although it's been too much he hopes Leah doesn't get angry or it seems like it's too much because it is…too much.

Fuck.

He shuffles into his office and picks up the gift-wrapped book on the table, jotting down a note and quickly writing something down. And he tips his hat to the reflection in his office windows. He adjusts his dark jacket and runs his fingers through his hair.

He sighs nervously, many feelings swirling inside him. Doubts about whether you're doing the right thing leave you when your phone vibrates with a message.

Leah C. Whatever, I'll be with the boys at the bar.

He looks at the message with a raised eyebrow. Maybe what Allie wrote on the flower bouquet card. Enough so that Leah wouldn't say thank you to him or something.

Shit.

He deserved the disdain.

John I left something for you in my office, stop by before you go to the bar.

Nothing else.

John puts the phone in his jacket pocket and steps out of the original taking one last look at the wrapped book and note. He walks out of the base and leans against the wall, pulling out a cigar. The night is starry for November, light your cigar and wait.

(…)

Arrange the flowers on the desk. He laughs as he cuts small cuttings to fit inside a glass bottle on top of the clothing cabinet near the bedroom window.

That's too many daisies. But it's the most romantic, dullest thing anyone has ever done for her in her life, ever, ever, and she doesn't know where to hide the goofy smile on her face.

He takes the card in his hands again, giggling.

"Because you are the most beautiful woman in the whole world, adorable, charming, sensitive and tender and all those things, happy birthday sweetheart. Atte: JP"

You didn't have to be a fortune teller to know it was Allie, she was the only one who called him sweetheart. And knowing that John had asked Allie, Kate's wife, for help was something that still had her numb. Because then it meant that he had told Laswell and now he understood why he wanted to see her in his office tomorrow.

Anyway, he decides to leave that for later and looks at himself in the mirror on the wall before leaving. She's wearing that baggy red dress with white circles, black stockings underneath, and a leather jacket on top. A red scarf around her neck and her blonde hair down. Even though it's winter it's not that cold anyway.

Silence drifts down the halls and you knock on the door to John's office, opening it carefully and being surprised to not see him there.

However, his desk lamp illuminates a picture object in the middle of the table. He gets close enough to lean over the table and see a small note folded in two with his name written in that messy but at the same time perfect handwriting that characterized John's.

She takes the note:

Happy birthday, Leah. I hope you like it. Price.

It was kind of bland, but it was Price. And that made her smile nervously as she put the note in her jacket pocket and took the package to unwrap it. Her mouth opened and she smiled as she revealed a book "Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë". He began to look through it and realized that it was an old edition, one of the first editions.

It couldn't be.

She took the book and went outside, when she came out into the open air outside the base she heard John's voice not far from her.

"Love blinds but you have to see how much you brighten the eyes," John murmured, blowing the smoke from his cigarette to the side when Leah looked at him. She smiled and approached John slowly — you look beautiful Leah, but walking like that is dangerous. You could get sick.

—It's okay—she shrugged her shoulders, looking at him—Why are you here? I thought I was going to see you at the bar.

-I was waiting for you -.

-Yeah? —.

John nods and throws the cigarette butt on the floor, stepping on it with the sole of his shoe. He looks around, making sure no one sees him, and puts his arm around Leah, pulling her close. Before she speaks John has his lips on Leah's, moving them slowly as she wraps her arms around his neck. Their tongues intertwine, they dance with each other.

"God, how I've missed you," he murmurs, kissing her slowly while breathing heavily.

"You've been in that office all day," she caresses his neck, behind his ears, "and last night you didn't go to sleep with me."

—I've had a lot to do, I'm sorry—John lowers his face into Leah's neck, kissing and licking as he moans hoarsely—but right now I need you so much—his hands on her back went down and lightly squeezed Leah's butt— this pretty dress Mmm — she nibbles on her neck — Can I fuck you with it? —.

An involuntary moan escapes Leah and she closes her mouth, opening her eyes, looking around.

—Mmm y-yes —.

"Yes," he grunts with relief, "but then," John moves away from her a little agitated, "now we're going to go somewhere."

-To the bar?

John shakes his head taking Leah's book in his hands.

"No, not to the bar."

—But the boys…

—They're not going to miss us — Leah takes her book, holding it to her chest — Did you like the flowers? —.

—How did you know I liked daisies? —he says with a mischievous smile as John shrugs his shoulders—.

"Look, I'm not going to lie to you, Allie helped me," he sighs, looking into her eyes a little scared, "I thought your birthday was next week, you can hate me if you want but I forgot." I'm not going to justify myself with work, it would be childish and I'm not.

—It's okay—he laughs—I understand John, nothing happens. Anyone can forget it.

—It won't happen again—he takes her hands—at least I remembered that you said that you always wanted to have a first edition of that book.

-You see? And I loved it — she kisses his cheeks — thank you.

—I'm going to make it up to you—he grabs her hand—Come—.

John drags her through the snow towards the parking lots, the front passenger of his truck helps her get in and starts the engine.

For a moment Leah looks at him not knowing what to say until she no longer wants to bite her lip.

—If you talked to Allie to…

"They know it, both of them." He looks at her out of the corner of his eye as he drives and Leah raises her eyebrows.

"Damn, that's why he wants to see me then," he tucks his hair behind his ears while looking out the window.

-Cup of tea? —.

—He wants me to go to the CIA tomorrow—they both look at each other—Did you tell him? —.

John shakes his head.

—I went to lunch with them last Saturday when you stayed at the base training the new ones and they read me like every day — he sighs, frowning — I guess I was too obvious or Allie is a witch —.

—I saw Allie on Saturday, I accompanied her shopping—they both look at each other again—.

John bursts out laughing as he moves the steering wheel with his hands. Leah bites her lips nervously.

—Well, it's okay — John put a hand on her legs — Do you want this to end? Are you worried that…? —.

"No," she almost screams, looking at him, "I don't want this to end," John Ma looks askance, trying to keep his eyes on the road, "I'm not worried about anything, I'll face it," he whispers.

—Leah…

-You are afraid? Do you want to finish it? —.

He shakes his head, tightening his fingers around her thigh.

"I don't want to," he whispers, "I don't want to be alone."

—You never will be, John—she keeps her gaze on him while he does it in a back-and-forth—.

He squeezes her thigh with his fingers and smiles slyly.

Several minutes later John parks the car on a street in London. He gets down to help Leah out and adjusts her jacket, pulling her to him for a kiss.

"You're very unsheltered," he murmurs against her lips. "Come here," he surrounds her waist with one of his hands, pressing her against him.

-Where you take me? —.

—You are a Yankee who spends most of her time at a base in London and who almost never goes out to the city to sightsee.

"But it's going to snow any minute," she looks up at him.

"That doesn't matter, doll, as long as you're with me nothing will happen to you." A hoarse laugh comes from her arms as she kisses the back of her head.

—And where are you taking me? —.

—The other day you told me that you had never been on the London Eye — he looks at her — now, you are on it — they turn down a street that stretches in front of them, surrounded by trees and Christmas lights and in the background the enormous and beautiful London Eye spinning so slowly with its lights and colors in the middle of the night.

"How cute he is," Leah squeals, raising her eyebrows.

—This time of year it's prettier, with the Christmas lights and all that —.

—Can we get on? - she asks excitedly -.

—Yes Leah, we can get on — John smiles and Leah grabs his hand and pulls him towards the London Eye.

(…)

—Look at the tower—Leah is pressed against the glass of the capsule while they rotate very slowly inside the Ferris Wheel—.

"That's Big Ben," John murmurs as if he were saying it to a little girl, he looks at her, resting his arm against the glass at his side and his other hand on Leah's back. "Seriously, Leah, how many years have you been here?" living in London and haven't gone out for a tour? —.

—Almost ten years—she looks out the window—I reached twenty here—.

"Yes, I remember," she looks at him, raising an eyebrow.

-Do you remember? —.

He reaches up to her back, brushing her hair away from her neck as he watches her curls fall down her back.

"No one could forget the beating that a rookie gave to Soap," he laughs.

"Yes," she laughs at the memory.

"But then you left with Laswell and didn't return after several years,"

—I liked working with her. But I love being on the base, the missions, the adrenaline — she leans on his shoulder — being with you.

—Mmm — he hugs her closer to him — yes, me too. It's been a long time since I… I didn't feel so well accompanied, you know?

-With me? You feel good with me? —she looks at him and John slides his lips over hers—.

"I love being with you," he whispers, "I don't feel alone Leah," John caresses her hair with one hand, slides his lips over hers, "I wish you would never leave me, you make this old man want to come back to life."

—John…

—You are so young and sweet… delicate and powerful that I feel like this is going to end in the blink of an eye and that I can't stop you. Because you're young and you should be sharing your time with someone your age and…

—I don't want anyone else—she furrows her eyebrows, making sure John looks her in the eyes—I'm not going anywhere. And if I'm going to separate from you it will be only while I wait for you to return to me after some mission or vice versa.

John's eyes are full of sorrow and anguish, fears that he is not able to let out. Because he's afraid that she really wants to leave.

Leah kisses him and smiles against his lips.

—Wait a minute, I have something else for you—John takes a small box out of his jacket pocket and puts it in Leah's small hands—open it.

Leah opens it with a goofy smile and then looks at it.

"John…" John takes the necklace from the box and unbuttons it.

“Turn around,” she does, brushing her hair to the side. John runs his hands over her shoulders, surrounding her neck with the thin chain of the necklace and adjusts it, he leans down to kiss the skin of her neck while she lets out a moan and turns around, touching the necklace with her fingers.

Margarita shines silver between her fingers as she looks at him with adoration.

"It's beautiful John."

He pulls her into his arms again.

"Happy birthday Leah," he whispers against her lips.

She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him passionately as they spin on the Ferris Wheel.

(…)

—Shhh… — Leah murmurs as John kisses her against the wall outside her room — wait… — John hugs her from behind, his fingers eagerly shoved under her dress, tugging at her dark stockings — John…

-Hmm… -.

The task of opening the key is difficult when the big, tough man is carelessly handling it. But he finally manages to open the door. However, she can't get in when John grabs her hand and pushes her against the wall, grabbing one of her legs to put it around him while rubbing against her hips.

He kisses her with passion and hunger. All he has done from a certain point in his life is overcome any feelings he has, burying them deep inside. But with her he can't, with her he can't hide and he knows that he won't be able to continue doing it any longer.

He pulls away for a moment to look at her lips, lets his hands move to her neck and brings her to his mouth again. He wraps his arms around her pressing her against the wall and kisses her with desperate hunger.

His hands slide down her back and he buries his hands in her butt, pressing her against him while rubbing against her hips.

"I want you Leah," he murmurs against her ear, leaving a trail of saliva from his kisses along her neck. "She searches his face, responding forcefully, moaning against her mouth." You keep moaning like this, I'm going to cum in my pants, doll. " he growls, nibbling on her neck.

Leah's laughter fills the room as John picks her up and lays her on the bed with him on top of her, kissing her as he moves down her neck and caresses her breasts over her dress.

"Girl in red," she moans, lowering her mouth down her belly, "pretty white polka dots," she moans as she continues to go down and John lifts the dress from her hips to her belly, kissing her exposed skin, "let's get rid of this, okay?" — pulls her panties and stockings down her legs while still kissing the flesh. He takes off her boots and slides between her thighs again.

—J-John… — Leah clings to the sheets when John buries himself between her thighs, tasting her, moaning against her vaginal lips while he licks, bites and kisses her —.

Sensual sounds escape Leah's lips as he kisses her between her legs, rubbing his thick fingers around her clit as Leah loses control of herself.

—Mmmm honey — she moans while she feels that he is about to cum just from giving her pleasure — Fuck Leah — Leah trembles, her hand stops on John's head while her hips move against his mouth — mmm yes honey, you know delicious, shit.

Leah screams, a sensual scream that fills the room. John feels the taste of his orgasm in his mouth and moans as if he can't take it anymore. And as Leah tries to snap out of her trance she sits up, John's hips in front of her eyes as she pushes him off the bed.

—Leah W-what? —his voice dies in his throat when he sees her unbuckle his belt—.

Since they've been dating Leah has only had one thing on her mind. She has never had a cock in her mouth and having John's or imagining it has made her wet several times a day or night just thinking about it.

John trembles as she drops his pants and pulls down his underwear releasing his thick, long penis as she massages it in her small hands.

—L-Leah… — John's voice falters when he sees her open her mouth and closes her eyes, leaning her head against her back — Damn… —.

Leah licks him from the tip to the end as if he were ice cream, she has never done it with anyone before but her instinct and desire leads her to moan against his skin and veins.

"You have to tell me if I'm doing it right," he murmurs, kissing the tip of his penis while one of his hands goes up and down it.

—Y-you don't have to… you have to…

—I want to do it John —she opens her lips putting the tip in her mouth—I don't know if I can do it all but you have to practice…

John laughs as if his nerves betrayed him. And Leah licks it, taking it as much as she can into her mouth and the sensation makes her moan.

—Mmm Leah…

—Mmm… —he helps himself with one hand while he covers the rest with his mouth, licks and sucks with his eyes half closed over and over again—.

—M-doll… — John slides a hand under his chin, caressing his cheeks without looking — fuck… fuck… —.

-I do it well? — Leah murmurs quickly putting it back in her mouth, John moans and looks down at her, those huge eyes looking at him with his cock in her mouth makes him lose his mind. So he lifts her up carefully, kissing her desperately - But…

—You'll do it another day, hell I want to fuck you now Leah — he turns her against her back and pushes her slowly against the bed, she puts her hands and knees against the bedspread and John leans down kissing her neck — Can I fuck you in the doll dress ? Tell me yes, I'm begging you - he nibbles on his ear -.

"Please John."

John moans in response, pulling away slightly so he can kiss her back and nibble on her ass before fitting his cock between her folds and pushing into her slowly until he opens up just enough for him to hear her moan loudly.

—Are you okay, honey? —he murmurs, caressing her legs. She nods her face against the quilt, but John lifts her against his back. He takes off his shirt — you're so beautiful Leah — he moves his hips back and forth, his body panting, his chest purring for her — always so tight…

—Oh John…

The beats of his heart match, equalize as he kisses her neck and pushes against her in sensual movements.

—Mmmm—he moans loud and hoarse as he bites her ear and neck, leaving slight marks on her white skin. Her body moving against him in a constant rhythm.

John Price takes his time taking her, feeling her breasts in his hands as he grinds her against him, but feeling this animal instinct when he pushes her down, lifting her ass as her dress sways in front of him.

He rolls the fabric between his fingers and tugs at it as he pushes against her hips, moaning and softly exclaiming almost obscene words that mix with Leah's moans. He pulls away to turn her around, he needs to see her pretty face while he fucks her and grabs her, her hips and kisses her, sweat runs down his body and Leah's gestures make him lose his sanity. She drags her nails down John's back making his skin ripple and he groans.

They are a mass of sweat and skin and the dress is lying somewhere in the room as they move against each other.

Several minutes later John is spread out on the bed with one arm across his chest. Eyes glued to the ceiling, open as he tries to find his own breath. Leah is with her head on his chest, making movements with her fingers on John's chest.

"Happy birthday," he says barely in a whisper. His voice exhausted but still full of humor. The girl laughs and hugs him tighter.

Their eyelids become heavy and little by little they both fall completely asleep. The room is dark, the light from the street spotlights far beyond is all illuminated through the dark windows.

It starts to snow… and their breaths meet in the room, arms wrapped around warm bodies clinging to each other, like two pieces of a puzzle.