#<- it's severe today i'm down horrendously

[thefrogdalorian]

Flowers for My Mandalorian

(Valentine's Day Din Djarin Imagines)

It's been a busy few months for you and Din, you want to do something small but significant to show him how much he means to you.

You haven't told him your feelings for him but you suspect he feels the same. You've noticed the way he takes every opportunity to stand close to you. The way his gloved hands linger a beat longer than you would expect a friend's to...

Even though you aren't together, you decide to surprise Din with a bunch of freshly picked flowers for Valentine's Day (or the Star Wars equivalent, the Festival of Love).

You hand Din the flowers, but there is no audible response - save for a deep intake of breath and his hand twitching by his side.

Din tells you that he has never heard of such a celebration before and to you, he seems a little confused at the beautiful bouquet you presented him with.

At first, you panic. You're worried that you somehow offended him. Do Mandalorians not celebrate the Festival of Love? Is it against their Creed?

In reality, Din is relieved that you can't see how much he's blushing furiously beneath his helmet.

The next Festival of Love, the first one you'll celebrate as a couple, you decide to bake him cookies in your cabin on Nevarro while he's out running errands in town.

Except, before he returns and when your back is turned, a certain mischievous child eats all of them.

Fortunately, Din saves the day by surprising you with a bouquet of flowers he picked himself to thank you for your gesture the year before.

After putting Grogu to bed when he crashes from his sugar high, you and Din spend the rest of the evening baking cookies together.

Somehow, despite his clumsiness in the kitchen, you manage to create something edible.

You fall asleep on the couch after an evening spent cuddling together with a full stomach, curled happily into the side of your flour-covered Mandalorian.

[reiderwriter]

hii! could you write smut where spence and reader are bestfriends and one day shes in his car and he snaps and is like “I LOVE YOU” and like they have sex in the car (like with sub spence) and can you include spence getting bj THANKYOUUU

A/N: Car love confessions always remind me of the electric love tiktok "I kissed my best friend" trend that I was OBSESSED with two years ago, and my GOD was this a full-circle moment for me.

Warnings: sub!Spencer, semi-public sex, slight voyeurism, oral sex (m recieving), slight cum play, car sex (bj only), like this was slightly self-indulgent and I had to post it right after I finished writing...

The air outside was cold, but the car had been running for an hour now as you listened to Spencer Reid talk about his day. Whether your cheeks were flushed from the heat coming from the fans or from his subtle attentions, you couldn't discern. 

Spencer, your best friend of nine years, who had been around the country saving lives and facing the most horrendous criminals in the world, was currently sat in the passenger seat of your car excitedly mumbling about Star Trek. 

“I can't believe you decided to watch it, and you did it without me,” he smiled at you, his body angled to face you just ever so slightly. 

He'd started by filling you in on the case he'd just returned from, then moved onto books he'd read recently (a conversation you could absolutely contribute to, being a college librarian yourself, and the source of many of his books). 

And then he'd asked you about your day, and you'd spilled about watching a few episodes of classic Star Trek, and all of his joy and knowledge had bubbled up to his lips without even a thought of pushing it down at all. 

“I've been hounding you for several years, and you decide on a whim to watch it today?” He'd meant for the question to come out with an annoyed tone, but he couldn't hold back the smile passing over his lips as you laughed at him. 

“Spencer, it's a TV show. We can watch it again together. In fact, why don't we do just that? Drive to mine, and we can sit through as many episodes of Star Trek as your heart desires.” 

“I wanted to see your initial reactions, though. I wanted to tell you all the behind the scenes knowledge only true trekkies know about.” 

You laughed loudly at this, especially as you saw the pout on his lips as he mumbled the word “trekkies.” 

“Hey, stop laughing,” he said, but his chest was heaving with a chuckle of his own. And for the life of you, you couldn't. He was sitting there pouting because he wanted to see how much you'd enjoy his favorite TV show, and by god, did he look adorable. 

“I'm sorry, Spence, I-” you tried to cover your mouth, but found your hands were both needed to hold your stomach instead as the laughs that wracked your body veered on painful. 

“Y/N, really!” He said, fully grinning now, pout abandoned. But you didn't stop.

Nothing in the air changed or paused at that second, as his head swooped closer to you, but your body instantly reacted to his closeness. 

It was as if all the hairs on your body stood on end as he tipped up your chin and quickly stole away all the oxygen in your body. 

Before your mind could react, your hands were already tangled in his hair, making sure he couldn't pull away. But you felt him smiling into the kiss, and you knew he wouldn't ever want to pull away now that you'd accepted him. 

With empty lungs, you finally had to separate, and to your surprise, a giggle still flittered from your lips. This time, you did clap a hand over your lips, though. 

“You're laughing still? I just kissed you to shut you up, and you're still laughing.” He said, tucking the few strands of hair behind your ear but still refusing to move too far away. 

“You should've seen your face. You were pouting and adorable and-” 

“I love you.” 

Your heart, that had previously been beating remarkably fast after his kiss (and likely from the fit of laughter preceding it), stopped at his words. 

You'd heard people describing butterflies in their stomach before, but this was more intense. It was more like your heart was a pinball that had just been launched back into the machine and was bouncing around in your ribcage hitting objects and trying desperately not to detach from your chest and jump into his arms. 

“I love you, Y/N.” He smiled, and it was sweet and simple, and even if you were not simple people and life had never been particularly sweet to you, you allowed your happiness to soar as you leaned back in and pressed your lips against his. 

Maybe it was the nine years of waiting (though had you been asked, you'd have been totally oblivious to your quite obvious feelings for the man). Maybe it was again the heat in the car. Maybe it was perhaps the two weeks in which you'd not seen him that led you to venture a step further than you usually would. 

But within seconds of tangling your tongue with his in his mouth, sending him reciprocated confessions with each passing breath, you somehow found the energy to pull yourself up and onto his lap. 

“Y/N, we're in a car-” his protests were weak as you suckled your way down his neck. 

“It's dark outside, and I love you.” His hands gripped possessively on your hips as you continued to shower him in affection. 

“What if someone sees us?” He whimpered as you loosened his tie, discarding it so you could pop his buttons open and trail more kisses across his beautiful collarbone. 

“Then I hope they understand enough to walk away and leave us alone to love each other.” 

You'd managed to get all of his buttons undone and sat squirming in his lap as your fingers brushed across his pert nipples. His head was thrown back to allow you access to the part of his neck that, when you'd run your tongue along it, had him gripping your ass and rubbing your core along the now obvious tent in his pants. 

“Y/N, please….” He panted, and you again returned your lips to his face, brushing over his eyes, his nose, his jaw, and his lips. You were blind and discovering your whole new world through your lips, mapping his features inch by inch. 

His whimpers grew louder, more urgent. He was almost becoming whiny, and that pout from earlier shadowed across his face again, so delightful that you'd immediately wanted to kiss it away from him. 

Dry humping in the passenger seat wasn't going to be enough  you decided, and reluctantly drew away from him quickly. 

“Y/N, what-” He weakly gripped the material of your pants, his quiet protests from earlier forgotten as he begged for your touch to return. 

“Trust me, I love you,” you winked at him again, marvelling in his flush, the hand he wiped across his face to hide his quiet joy. 

You shimmied yourself down so your face was hovering just above his cock, straining through his pants. You slowly undid the buttons and let his cock spring up, wrapping a firm hand around it when it was fully released. 

His hand came down to cover yours, even as the other covered his flushed cheeks and eyes in embarrassment. 

“Spencer, let me see your face. I want you to look at me, please, Spencer.” You cooed at him as you quietly removed your hand from under his, instead moving it to his so you could control his movements. 

You let your breaths hit his cock as you controlled his hand, helping him to slowly jerk off as he gave into the pleasures you were so desperate to gift him. 

“Spencer, please, for me. Show me your fucked out face, I want to see it so bad.” 

With each slow stroke, his body seemed to grow heavier with lust until the hand on his face eventually fell, and you could lock eyes with him once again. 

You smiled brightly at him and, without missing a beat, took him into your mouth. 

The angle was awkward, but you only needed to see that shock and just in his eyes briefly, so you manoeuvred your head into a better position and began fresh. 

You held his hand, holding his cock, and sunk your lips down as far as they'd go, before lifting slowly off. You did it again, and heard the hiss from his lips as he enjoyed the pressure. 

You sped up slightly and felt his discarded hand land on your hair. It wasn't domineering or controlling, but more comforting, as he tugged your hair behind your ear, eventually bundling it up into a gentle pony tail to keep it out of the way of your task. 

“Y/N, I love you so much,” he whimpered and moaned, and you squeezed his hand in response, intensifying the pressure on his cock while also responding to his confession. 

You were going to show him just how deeply you loved him by giving him as much pleasure as you could muster. 

“Pull off, Y/N, please, I'm going to-” He bit his lip, biting off the sentence, almost as if he were afraid of speaking the vulgar words into existence. You could feel his muscles going taut underneath your hands, though, knowing exactly how close he was to losing all control and giving into passion. 

And you certainly weren't pulling away. 

Instead, you pushed your head down once again, going further than you'd managed thus far, nose tickled by his pubic hairs as he shot his load down your throat. 

You gagged, of course you gagged, and he let out a guttural moan, sensitivity apparent in each of his twitches and ragged breaths. 

You made sure to keep as much of him inside your mouth and rose off his cock, looking up at him again through eyes half-lidded with lust. You made sure he was watching as you smiled and swallowed a mouthful of his cum, making sure to lick your lips after and watching his throat bob as he processed the entire scenario. 

You again climbed into his lap, but this time, you just pressed your head to his bare chest, wrapped your arms around his neck, and listened to the thrum of his heart. 

“I love you, Y/N,” he said again. You hummed a response and waited for him to say it  again and again. Hopefully, for the rest of your lives. 

[egoistars]

FUNNY VALENTINE wriothesley

your boyfriend doesn't seem to love you anymore, so what do you do? complain to neuvillette of course!

warnings: kissing, u being dramatic, neuvillette being done with ur shit, u and wriothesley being super gross and in love

you defeatedly slump into a chair in neuvillette's office and sigh for the fifteenth time in the past few minutes. the hydro dragon slides both his hands down his face, much like how he's seen the people of fontaine do when they were in distress.

"(name), if you don't tell me what's wrong i can't help you." in the several hundred years he's lived, neuvillette doesn't think he's spoken those words more than he has now. as he raises a delicate, white teacup to his lips, you burst into tears, violently twisting your head away from him.

"please, don't drink that in front of me," you cry, shoving your face into an overly expensive pillow on his couch. "that duke wriothesley would always drink tea and i cant stand to see it anymore! i will die parched if i have to!"

"if you're implying wriothesley doesn't love you anymore, you are surely mistaken. i'm not too familiar with human emotions, why don't you pay furina a visit? i'm sure she can understand you better."

at the sound of furina's name, you feel your body run cold. the image of your friend laughing until her face flushing crimson red dashes across your mind like an arrow, shooting you in the chest as you bleed out in an impending doom. you love her, truly, but she would never take you seriously in a situation like this.

"hmm, if you don't want to talk to furina, how about i call wriothesley and have you talk to him yourself? he is your partner, he'd be more than happy to talk through this issue with you."

"no! he's the problem! why would i want to talk to the problem? he doesn't love me anymore, neuvillette. he usually kissed my forehead twice before he leaves for work, but today," you pause for a moment, placing a hand on your chest to soothe the agonizing ache of your heart. "he only gave me one."

neuvillette promptly kicks you out.

"now what's this i hear about you crying to the iudex of fontaine about a broken heart?"

normally, the sound of wriothesley's smooth yet slightly mischievous voice would send you sprinting toward him. today however, you were distraught and feeling slightly petty. the only thing that can satisfy your heartbreak was him on his knees, sobbing with a gross trail of snot running down his nose, begging for your forgiveness.

you quickly learn that in the end, wriothesley always wins. with your back faced toward him, he wraps his muscular arms around you in a warm embrace, the fur of his uniform tickling your neck. grumbling unintelligible words, you dejectedly turn to face him but can't hide the thumping of your chest behind narrowed eyes and pouts. wriothesley laughs at you, pressing a kiss on your forehead, one on your left cheek, and one on your rights.

"i'm sorry for forgetting our routine, you petty minx? i ever do something as horrendous as that again, tell me and i'll make it up to you with as many kisses as you want, yeah? if that's not enough, i'll apologize with tears and jump into the primordial sea in your honor."

as the finale of this vomit-inducing opera, he follows the monologue by pressing a loving kiss to your waiting lips, pulling back to rest his forehead against yours.

"yeah you better keep your fucking promise," you threaten. the two of you know you don't intend to be mean by the way you melt into his touch. "i ordered your favorite today so you don't make me regret that."

maybe your boyfriend does love you after all.

[wileys-russo]

Hello! I have an idea for a Mearps fic that's kiiiiinda like some of the ones you've already written but not exactly. Reader has a bad day at work coming home very stressed and not in the mood so Delilah and Mary team up to get/do everything they can to cheer R up. Just fluff fluff fluff but I know you'd make a beautiful story out of it!!

part of the a date to remember universe series a no good horrible very bad day II m.earps

from the very moment you'd opened your eyes this morning, nothing had gone your way.

first there was a blackout overnight causing your alarm clock to short circuit. now normally you'd wake up to your phone alarm as a back up but delilah had snuck in and grabbed it to play games on, and with your wife leaving early for a gym session it left you none the wiser.

so you'd woken up late for your first class of the day, and raced around like a half dressed headless chicken trying to find your phone not even thinking to check in your daughters room.

which is how mary found you when she came home, having expected to be seeing you off for the day as usual with a kiss before fixing some breakfast for delilah. not for you to be running around with bed hair still in your pajamas clearly frazzled, and your daughter nowhere to be seen.

"hey hey hey, whats happened love?" the joke mary intended to make at your appearance died on her tongue as she noticed the genuine panic on your face, dropping her bag by the door and quickly moving to your side.

"my alarm didn't go off because the fucking clocks broken and my backup alarm didn't wake me because i can't find my phone. i don't know what time it is, i don't know if i'm early or late, i can't find a matching pair of socks or-" you started to rant, mary frowning and grabbing your hips.

"its nine forty. your first class today is at nine thirty, so you're going to use my phone and call the studio now, explain whats happened and that you'll be there in time for your class at eleven." your wife spoke firmly but calmly as you could only nod.

"you can take my phone today and i'll look for yours, ignore any calls you get that aren't me. you're going to get properly dressed once you call the studio and i'll make you something quick to eat on the way, and you already packed your food to take with you last night yeah? its in the fridge. you're fine baby, we've got this, now take a breath." mary promised softly as again you nodded and exhaled.

"i love you." your hands fell either side of her face as you leaned up to peck her lips a few times, taking her phone soon as it was offered and disappearing into the ensuite to get ready in record time.

but somehow despite her assurances things only got worse from there.

the coffee mary made spilled all over you as you rushed to grab your belongings and hurry into the studio, a silent scream yelled at the sky which of course was seen by several of your students parents chatting in the parking lot.

face burning red you'd sent them an awkward smile and hurried inside, grateful that you at least worked in an environment where within seconds of picking up on your frantic energy you were handed new pants and shoved into the bathroom to change and take a breather.

finally sorting your head you pushed on and arrived early for your 11am class, where everything seemed to be going well for the first twenty minutes.

only of course with you distracted just momentarily with a message from mary indicating she'd found your phone tucked under delilahs pillow, the brief break in your supervision had a few of the girls messing around and suddenly there was a piercing scream.

with a likely shattered ankle, an ambulance called and a rousing lecture from the parents of the girl it all happened to, your day had gone from bad to horrible.

then walking down the road to grab some food, considering you left in such a rush that you left all of yours in the fridge, you felt something wet hit your neck and suddenly your day had gone from horrible to horrendous.

with a top coated in bird shit you decided to call it a day.

having your classes covered was easy enough, so much so it made you wish you'd just stayed in bed all day and avoided everything all together. even more when you arrived to your car, and rapidly realised thanks to the handy self locking feature mary insisted on having, your keys were...inside the car itself.

"you've gotta be taking the fucking piss." you mumbled, bag dropping to the ground as your forehead thumped against the glass and you exhaled deeply.

but no, the universe wasn't done with you yet.

you heard the rumble and looked up, having noticed earlier that the sky was darkening and shooting your wife a message about taking the washing off before the rain hit.

though you didn't have quite the same luck, eyes widening as the sky opened and you sprinted across the parking lot for cover as the rain began to torrent on down and down from the heavens above.

cursing and grumbling under your breath and soaked to the bone you pulled out your phone, ringing your wife and tapping your foot impatiently, groaning when it rang out without an answer.

you waited five minutes, then ten, and still no callback came from mary.

so giving up you used her phone to call an uber home, having a shared account anyway. gratefully despite the rain he arrived rather quickly and ignoring the judgmental look thrown your way for your dampened state by the driver you slid into the back seat.

he attempted small talk but when all you gave him were singular words or hums he seemed to catch the hint you weren't feeling all that chatty, turning up the radio as you watched manchester go by in a blur, rain splattering angrily against the window.

mumbling a quiet thank you as he pulled up outside your home you grabbed your bag and took a deep breath, opening the door and again legging it from the driveway up to your front steps, near slipping in the process as your heart lurched into your mouth.

of course without keys which were still locked in your car that was at the studio you pressed down on the doorbell, bag slung over your shoulder and arms wrapped tightly around your wet and shivering form.

impatiently ringing the door a second time you finally heard foosteps and the heavy wood swing open, your wife's eyes widening in shock at the state of you.

"babe why didn't you just use your keys?" you rolled your eyes and stepped inside, dropping your sodden bag at your feet. "why are you all wet?' marys frown deepened taking you in as again you remained silent, fighting your way our of your soaked runners.

"and where's the car??" mary eyebrows furrowed further as she glanced over your shoulder to see only her car in the driveway. "one more question mary, i dare you." you grunted, stripping off your saturated hoodie and shoving it into her hands, storming past her and making a beeline for the bedroom.

"mummy! you're home early!" you hated how you did but you winced at the sound of your daughters voice and her little feet racing toward you, head a thumping mess and patience razor thin as you forced a smile and turned, hovering in the doorway of your bedroom.

but sensing your mood mary was quick to snag the squirming four year old into her grip, not missing the way your body sagged slightly in relief.

"mummy just needs a minute of grown up time lilah." you forced another smile and backed into the bedroom, closing the door softly behind you as mary frowned again.

"is mummy okay?" delilah asked her with a frown of her own as mary quickly nodded, setting the girl back down on her feet. "she will be, she just needs some grown up time." mary nodded as your daughters eyebrows furrowed.

"whats that?" "well its when grown ups get to be alone without any kids around." mary smiled poking delilahs nose which scrunched. "sounds boring." "very boring, so go finish your cartoon and i'll come sit with you in a bit. okay?" mary asked hopefully as the four year old hesitated before nodding, racing back off the way she'd come.

knocking softly on the door mary heard a hum and took that as a silent come in, opening the door and stepping inside, a small smile forming at the lump in the middle of the bed.

"alright, baby whats happened?" mary sat on the corner, poking gently at your back as your head popped out, wet clothes abandoned in the bathroom as you weren't bothered to shower, just changing quickly into something dry.

so with a deep sigh that had marys heart aching you recounted the events of your day, your wifes lips not even curling into a slight smile as you feared she might make fun of you, but mary caught right onto how much this had affected you.

"oh my love, im so sorry i didn't answer i stupidly left your phone in the kitchen when i was playing with lilah. do you want a cuddle?" your wife frowned as you nodded, not moving from your position but opening your arms as the taller girl laid down and hugged you tightly, softly kissing the side of your head.

"okay. you're gonna have a lie down and i'm gonna draw you a bath, and keep lilah out of your hair for a bit." mary eventually pulled away, shaking her head when you tried to protest and silencing it with a proper kiss.

"i love you." you mumbled, head hitting the pillow as the goalkeeper smiled and moved a strand of hair behind your ear. "i love you more, i'll be back in a bit babe." and with that she was grabbing your wet clothes and she was gone as your eyes slipped closed, covers pulled back over your head blocking out the world.

"lilah!" mary called out from the bathroom, having tossed your clothes in to wash and starting to run a bath once she'd checked on your daughter, delilah appearing quickly and nearly tackling mary into the bath as she jumped on her back.

"woah! stick to the bathroom speed limit please speedy." your wife chuckled as delilah giggled, clinging onto marys back tightly who grabbed her legs and stood, moving to gently lower her down onto the counter.

"okay. now you and me tiny, we've got a mission to do." mary started as delilah nodded, now locked in with a serious expression which made mary smile.

"mummy has had a no good horrible very bad day, and you and me? we've gotta fix it." mary explained as delilah nodded again. "so step one-" mary held up a finger, grinning as her daughter mirrored her actions.

"-we run her a lovely hot bath." mary gestured behind her where the bath was slowly filling up, the scent of lavender and chamomile filling the room from the oils she'd dropped in. "step two-" mary held up a second finger, delilah doing the same.

"-we clean up the house. play room, living room, your room, my room, kitchen." mary ticked off, delilah sighing at that but nodding. "we can make a game of it, no frowning tiny." mary tickled her stomach as the girl giggled and seemed to perk up.

"step three, we bake mummy some cookies and watch her favorite movie." mary recounted as delilah perked up even more at that, swinging her legs and nodding very eagerly as your wife grinned.

"then step four we get pizza for dinner, give mummy lots of cuddles and kisses, and tell her how much we love her. can you do that?" mary asked as delilah nodded. "yes." she promised.

"very good. can you go start tidying up the play room please? properly! no cutting corners." mary pinched her cheeks as delilah grinned but agreed, lifting her arms up as mary gently placed her down on the ground and she took off.

finishing off the bath and ensuring it was a perfect temperature mary returned to your bedroom, smiling at the sight of you asleep half hanging out of the covers.

"hey, wakey wakey beautiful." your eyes fluttered open at that, blinking tiredly and forcing yourself to sit up as your wife moved your hair out of your face with a soft smile.

"baths ready." mary informed as you nodded still half asleep. "carry me." you mumbled tiredly, a small smile curling into your features as her boisterous laugh filled the room but none the less she stood and did as you asked.

"perfectly hot water, skin care lined up and ready to go for afterwards, speaker and phone for music if you want it and dryer warmed towel. your, my, favourite hoodie, fluffy pants and socks hung up for after, and of course lilahs favourite toys to keep you company." mary hugged you from behind and softly kissed your neck, a small rumble of laughter leaving you at the sight of the small tug boat and duck floating around which your daughter had insisted to mary you needed for it to be a perfect bath.

"mary you're the best." you sighed gratefully, craning your head back and puckering your lips which she quickly pressed her own against them. "only the best for the best." she promised sincerely, letting go as you started to strip off.

"enjoy darling." of course she couldn't resist her hand gently patting your ass with a wink. "you couldn't help yourself could you?" you raised an eyebrow with a knowing smile as your wife only grinned.

"made you smile though didn't it?"

~

mary sang along to the music beating through the kitchen, the final room left to tidy as you were yet to emerge from the bathroom much to her relief, wanting it all done by the time you had.

the cookies were made and in the oven and the mess from the task nearly all gone, delilah sat on her shoulders and very carefully putting things away in the cupboard as mary dried them and handed them to her.

"you're being a superstar helper today tiny, i really appreciate it." mary complimented, handing the girl one last mug which delilah very gently set away in its place, grabbing onto mary as she moved stepping back to close the cupboard doors.

"i like doing nice things for mummy cause she's always doing nice things for me!" delilah chirped as mary squatted and lowered her back down to the floor. "thats very sweet of you lilah." mary smiled, kissing your daughters cheek and accepting the hug which was thrown her way.

"hugging without me?" you smiled at the sight, in a bit more of a bettered mood after a long soak in the bath. "hey! get out of here we're not done yet!" you laughed in surprise as your daughter attempted to push you out of the kitchen.

"mama, get her out." delilah ordered sternly as mary grinned, shrugging at your curious look her way and assisting your four year old to remove you from the kitchen.

"please go wait in the bedroom and we shall fetch you when everything is ready m'lady." mary put on an accent making delilah giggle and you playfully roll your eyes.

but doing as you were asked you waited and doom scrolled on your phone for a further ten or so minutes before you were summoned. "mummy! we're ready now." delilah climbed up onto the bed and wiggled happily before launching at you.

"ready for what hm?" you smiled as the small blonde only smiled and patted your head. "have to come and see." she chirped, kissing your forehead like mary often did and jumping down from the bed.

"lilah careful!" you warned, unable to turn the mum switch off as you followed after her, your words falling on deaf ears as your wife stood in the living room, delilah bouncing happily on the sofa.

"whats all this then?" you smiled softly at the sight in front of you. "surprise!" delilah yelled with a grin. "we cleaned the house, made you cookies and loaded up your favourite movie." mary explained, your heart swelling at her words.

"then later we're gettin pizza and you get lots of cuddle and kisses because we love you!" delilah hopped to the end of the sofa and you hurried forward recognizing what she was about to do, sure enough moments later the four year old surging off the arm rest as you were quick to catch her.

"what have we said about not jumping off things? if you hurt your ankle you can't dance." you warned softly but sternly. "mama lets me!" delilah protested as mary paled, sending you a guilty smile as you sighed but decided that was a conversation for another time.

"well this is all very very lovely, and i love you both very much." your features softened and you pretended not to notice the way your wifes body sighed in relief she'd avoided a telling off for now at least.

"love you more." delilahs small hands fell to your cheeks making your smile widen. "love you most." you countered, honking her nose as she giggled. "oh! wait i want harold to watch with us." you put her down and she raced off to grab her favourite stuffed cow alessia had bought her a few months ago which never left her side.

"you're very sweet but you didn't need to make all this fuss over me babe." you promised as your wife tugged your body into hers, hands on your hips as your arms wound round her neck.

"course i did. i love you and you had a no good horrible very bad day and our vows were to be there for better or for worse. so i did my best to make the worst a little better." mary smiled, softly kissing you a few times as you melted into her, the sounds of footsteps having you both breaking apart.

"so, what are we watching?" you laughed as you sat down on the sofa and delilah clambered on top of you, wriggling around until she was comfortable as mary wedged in beside you, all three of you basically squished onto one cushion despite the endless space.

"love actually!" mary announced, clicking into it on the tv as you let out a loud pelt of laughter. "what?" your wife frowned, clearly a little confused at your reaction as delilah took the opportunity to ram a cookie into her mouth.

"well firstly, i don't know if thats the most appropriate movie for-" you gestured to the four year old happily munching away at a cookie, cheeks puffed out resembling a chipmunk making mary chuckle and shake her head.

"and secondly, mary thats your favorite movie not mine!"

[ellieclaireblack]

sanctuaire | sanctuary

sanctuary | noun your safe and peaceful haven a comforting place of refuge and rest in a noisy, chaotic world

{brother's best friend | fem!reader x james potter} ⪼ word count: 2k ⪼ warnings: mentions of abuse 

part one: back home

story: sanctuaire | sanctuary

playlist

Kreacher was calling for me. Again.

“I'm coming. I’m coming” I made my way down the stairs into the dining room of 12 Grimmauld Place. 

Today was January 4th 1976. Christmas Break was over and we would head back to Hogwarts. We consisted of Regulus and me. Since Sirius ran away during the holiday. An act I still didn’t forgive him for even though I understood why he did it. From the day he’d been sorted into Gryffindor my twin had a hard life. 

Walburga, Orion and Reggie were seated at the table when I joined them. 

“Good morning, father, mother, brother.” I greeted them politely and sat next to Reg. 

“Bonjour mon cher [Good morning my dear]” Papa greeted me in French. Walburga just looked up and nodded at me. Regulus opted for a small smile.

Out of my parents I loved my father, but Walburga was directly spit out from hell. Papa just never said anything against my mother. However she was rarely present anyway. The days she was home were horrendous.

Everyone tended to their meals and silence filled the room. That’s how it was: no talking at the table. I was glad to get back to school today. 

I missed my friends and I missed Sirius - even though I was still mad at him I longed to talk to my twin. He’s always been the person who understood me best. There was a lot unresolved between us. His unannounced departure during a stormy winter night made life at home a lot harder.

Walburga blamed me that the heir of ‘The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black’ vanished and let her anger out on me. A few spells turned into dark curses and several bruises covered my skin. Papa didn’t do anything against her but I know that he sent several house elves to patch me up when she left me in my room in agony.

“Children get ready. We’ll aparate to the station in 15 minutes. Your mother won’t be joining us, so make sure to say your goodbyes.” Papa said, ripping me out of my thoughts.

In my room I stuffed the last few things in a bag. Kreacher would aparate my belongings to 9 ¾. I grabbed my Slytherin robe, the Prefect Badge glinting in the light. My parents had been pleased when I got it, except when Sirius didn’t get one the mood in our house shifted quickly. I can still hear his screams of that day faintly in my head. I shake my head, trying to rid my mind from this particular memory. One last look in the mirror and I headed downstairs again.

Papa and Reggie wait for me already and we smile at each other. The first real smile all day. We each grab an arm that Papa offers us. Everything turns black, my body tightens up and just before I think my airway caught up we are standing on Platform 9 ¾.

“I wish you a good second term, my loves. Make sure to write. I’ll miss you. Bon voyage. [safe journey]” Papa pressed a kiss to both our heads and I couldn’t resist hugging him. Though half of Hogwarts was aware of our presence he hugged me back.

“I’m so sorry for what she did to you and that I couldn’t help you more y/n. Je t’aime. [I love you]” 

“Je t'aime aussi papa. Ne t'inquiète pas, ça va aller. [I love too, Papa. Don’t you worry I’ll be fine.]” All the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes were forced down. As a child I was always expected to keep my feelings inside, so that’s what my siblings and I were exceptional at.

“Watch over one another and make sure Maman doesn’t find out you’re talking to Sirius. Also tell him I’m sorry for how things went down, that I miss and love him. Go now, I’ll see you soon.” 

He disapparated and Reg squeezed my hand. We made our way to the Hogwarts Express and parted ways, both of us in search of our friends.

“y/n/n!” I hear a shout. Turning around I spot my best friend. Florence Clarisse Rosier - older sister of Evan Rosier and my roommate. She’s running towards me and tackles me into a hug. I suppress a wince, when she squeezes against my bruises. “We’ve already secured a compartment, come on.”

With ‘we’ she was talking about Adam Cygnus Travers and Theodore Lewis Nott. The two boys completed our friend group and we were known as the ‘Slytherin Royals’. All four of us descended from families of the Sacred 28 and had quite the reputation.

I greeted the boys with a hug and we talked about our holiday. I swiftly left out the subject of Sirius, but they knew. Walburga officially declared Regulus as the new heir of the House of Black, every Sacred 28 family knew what happened with Sirius. I saw their worried faces and uncertain looks, the eye-contact between them. No one dared to touch the subject.

I was relieved to to go to the Prefect meeting, so I could escape the unease. On my way there I passed a compartment Remus Lupin was currently exiting. Quickly glancing inside I spotted my twin, James and Peter. Sirius and I held eye contact for a split second before I turned my head away. I could see the disappointment in his eyes. My heart clenched. I really missed Sirius, he was my other half. We've never gone so long without talking.

“Oh hey y/n.” Remus greeted me only noticing now that I stood next to him.

“Hey Rem. How was your holiday?” We continued to talk while heading to the front of the train. Remus avoided the subject Sirius and I was thankful for it.

At the meeting we got handed our new patrol rounds. I was paired up with Remus or Lucinda - Lucy - Greengrass, which I was quite content with. Lucy was pretty nice. I wouldn’t call us friends, but conversation between us flew easily.

Later back in our compartment I put my feet in Theo’s lap and he absentmindedly began to massage them, while I read a book. My grades were extremely important to me, even more to my mother. So I wanted to get a head start on this semester's material.

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When we arrived at the Great Hall - everyone was exhausted from the long journey. We were happy when Dumbledore held his speech and the food finally appeared. 

During Dinner I felt several pairs of eyes on me. I knew it was the Marauders. I didn’t meet their eyes. The Great Hall was definitely the wrong place for the conversation me and Sirius had to hold. For now I was still too angry at him to have a level headed talk with him.

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After dinner my friends and I spent the evening on our couch in the common room. We’ve claimed that couch as ours and no one dares to sit on it, except when they’re invited to do so. Our evening was spent talking some more and when all of us got tired we made our way upstairs, wishing the boys a good night.

Unlike the Gryffindors, Slytherins had to share their space only with one other person. The shared space is only a bathroom and a small lounge room. Everyone has their own bedroom. In my case my dorm mate is Flo. She’s been my best friend since day one. With her lively nature, she draws the attention of an entire room to her. She’s the kind of girl who’s friends with everybody. 

In first year she would drag me into her world. I always loved the attention, just like Sirius. It was something we rarely experienced as something positive and at Hogwarts everyone seemed to like us. Naturally. We were somewhat celebrities in the Wizarding world.

Before going to sleep I put a silencing charm around my room. I had always had quite the share of nightmares, Sirius used to call them night terrors, that’s how bad they were. Since he was gone there wasn’t a single night where I wasn’t plagued by a nightmare.

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A scream tore through the dark. My own. My skin was covered in sweat and I suppressed a shiver. 

Only one thing helped me get back to sleep after a nightmare. My brothers. I couldn’t go to Reggie though, he had been through enough during the holiday and it hurt me to see him suffer because of me. So Sirius it was, I knew he wouldn’t question it even though we weren’t talking currently.

As quiet as possible I made my way to the common room. Empty.

I wasn’t really scared that a teacher would catch me in the corridor. Us Slytherins - especially the children of the Sacred 28 - had Professor Slughorn wrapped around our finger, so I wouldn’t even face consequences.

As a Prefect I knew all the Passwords of the different houses so getting inside the Gryffindor common room was dead easy. The common room was empty as well and I tiptoed up the stairs.

The door to the boys’ dorm slightly creaked slightly when I opened it. "Sirius, Sirius!" I whisper yelled into the dark and quiet room. But no response from my twin-brother. A sigh escaped me and I was just about to go back to my dorm when I heard a whisper.

"y/n, is that you? Are you alright?" It was James. "Yeah, no I-I'm fine." Obviously my best friend sensed the lie and ushered me to come over to him. I sat down on his bed and before I could protest he pulled me next to him.

The moonlight that shone in the room made it possible for me to see his features. That meant he could also see my face and the shed tears on my cheeks. 

"What's wrong y/n/n?" "I’m fine. It was nothing, just a nightmare, it's fine. I’m fine. I just wanted to talk to Sirius."

"Sounds like you’re fine. Hey, you don't have to lie to me. I know how bad your night terrors are and it's rare you seek Pads' help in the middle of the night. So it must've been really bad."

I mumbled "okay you're right" in response. James put his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. Feeling his body heat seep into me I felt like I could finally breathe again and let out a shaky breath. James put a silencing spell around the bed so we wouldn't wake the others.

"What's going on? Why are you avoiding us? Did something happen?"

Tears were threatening to spill again. "It's my mother. J she's never been this bad or this angry. They told us it would have consequences if I spent time with you guys."

"Oh y/n, you should've gone with Sirius when he came to me, I was really worried about you the whole holiday. I didn't hear a word from you."

“I just couldn’t leave Reggie alone. Also I don't want to leave Papa, would be so lonely without us. Besides, Sirius didn’t even tell me he was leaving. One morning he was gone and I had to face Walburgas anger. I get why he left. Still we’re his siblings for Merlin's sake. He could've at least said something.”

Now I was really crying. James wrapped his arms even tighter around me. "I’m so sorry. I didn't know it was that bad or I would've gotten you out of there myself. You and Pads definitely need to talk tomorrow."

We talked for a little while, when I noticed James started to get really tired. His eyes fell shut every other second and he was trying hard to keep awake.

"Mind if I stay the night Jamie?" "Of course not, sleep tight, love." "Good night James." I whispered but didn’t get an answer. James had already fallen asleep and in the comfort of his arms I was finally able to go to sleep too.

author's note: so first chapter of my new story. thanks for reading this far! i'm not 100% sure how to feel about this for now. there's definitely going to be more james later, but i needed this as an entry point for the story so you have some background information. also i just wanted to put out there that english isn't my first language. i proof read the chapter, but if you spot any mistake don't fret to tell me i love you guys and wish you a gread day/afternoon/night where ever you are ♡︎

[whiskeyswifty]

Hello, we're not mutuals, but I've been a long-time follower of yours, and I've always associated you with New York. So today, when my job told me they're sending me on a mission there next month, I immediately thought of you haha. This is my very first time visiting. I am staying over a week, but I'll be working weekdays up until like 5 PM. If you have time, could you please recommend me some must do/see things in your opinion? Thank you 💕

this is so incredibly sweet and lovely!! taylor swift move over I'M NEW YORK CITY NOW BITCH!! kiddingggggg but i'm still so warmed by you saying that. I'd be happy to be your unofficial tour guide of sorts, and i'll give you a mix of places that you should definitely see since you haven't been before and some fun offbeat places that might not be first on tourism lists but i particularly love. You can peruse the list and pick and choose as you wish! No pressure to do anything of course and i won't be offended if things don't seem interesting to you. Also this is in no particular order, just how they popped into my brain haha.

Grand Central Station - one of my absolute favorite places in the city. It's a architectural marvel from a bygone era (literally we don't build them like this anymore) and is actually as stunning as in pictures! The teal vaulted ceiling painted and lit up with constellations from the night sky, the original chandeliers, the Tennessee marble floors. It's also a fully working transit hub so you'll get to feel the hustle and bustle of the city. Lots to eat here too if you want a bite, like the famed Oyster bar or something quick from the food hall in the basement, which isn't much to write home about but convenient and hardly ever crowded. There's also a bar off the side of the station that used to be the office of a very wealthy financier, called The Campbell. One of the most stunning bars and lounges in the city and if you time it right, you can enjoy a drink or a bite to eat without a huge crowd!

2. The Met (aka The Metropolitan Museum of Art) - my personal favorite museum in the entire world, although i am biased and used to live a few blocks from the steps so it might just be the museum i've been to the most lol. However, it's phenomenal in it's range of pieces and in how immersive the curators try to make each exhibit. Instead of putting objects in cases, they try to display them in the context with which they were used! The Arms and Armor hall is my FAVORITE with several suits of armor on horseback parading down the middle of the whole exhibit, and flags hanging from the balconies that each represent one of the knights of the round table!! i mean how COOL is that!! Also, a must see is the temple of dendur, obviously. moved so Egypt could build a dam in the area it resided, they gave it as a gift to Kennedy for the millions he allocated to help Egypt preserve their monuments. it was accepted on behalf of his wife Jackie, who then was instrumental in *ahem* suggesting quite forcefully to the presidential successor LBJ that it be put indoors and not outdoors (obviously). go to the Met who agreed to pay for an entire addition just for it. It just so happens that the addition they built to house the temple has floor to ceiling windows that look up into the very apartment on 5th Ave that Jackie was living in at the time. Whether you find that a burst of sentimentality for her late husband or hubristic, that's up to you, it's probably a bit of both, but i love that story as it gives the temple a fun bit of context. Another highlight is the furniture collection, which sounds boring but to display them the met recreated entire ROOMS from the eras the furniture is from, including a full transplant of the living room of one of Frank Llyod Wright's most famous homes!! and you can walk IN IT. (i could go on for days, as could you wandering this museum and all of it's fantastic collections)

3. Time's Square - which is loud and dirty and crowded and horrendous BUT is still pretty magical, especially if you've never been. My advice, go late at night if you can for smaller crowds and it just looks so damn cool all lit up, even I can't deny.

4. The West Village - broad i know, but i'm a huge advocate for walking around residential areas when you visit a city. something my mom taught us as kids and it's a great way to get a feel for how people actually live and not just the Disneyland areas. also it provides a bit of a sensory and energy break on your trip as most residential areas are mellow. This is one of the more lively areas, but you'll find yourself wandering around stunning colonial town homes and adorable shops. It's a bit grimy and crowded with NYU kids in some parts, even on weeknights, but i think it adds to the charm of it. It's a lived in neighborhood! Washington Square park is a fun little central area to people watch, but honestly sitting at a cafe table anywhere is really fun just to see people walk by, ranging from 80 year old hippies who have lived there for their entire lives to 18 year old kids who look like the coolest people i've ever seen in my life. Also, you'll always find a swiftie taking a photo under the cornelia st. sign, so if you want a little piece of swiftie new york, that's an easy one to get. (there's a section that is particularly grubby and awful that is a series of blocks below west 4th under Washington square park and above Houston st, bordered on the east and west by Broadway and 6th ave respectively. It's not horrible, but it's super crowded and the less charming chunk of the area for sure. however feel free to venture down there for some trendy food and interesting shops if you're feeling up for it! a fun little store that's cool to peruse is called Chess Forum where they host chess tournaments but also sell incredibly intricate themed chess sets! don't go out of your way, but if you're around, pop in and check it out for five or so minutes)

5. Statue of Liberty (including the ferry itself) - something that should be overrated but really isn't! It's genuinely cool, even to me who's lived here for so long and to my friends who are lifelong new yorkers. It's such a monument in the truest sense of the word and honestly, bigger than you expect. It's not that you think it's going to be small, just the mere fact of seeing something you've only seen in photos, your brain will just be shocked at how big it is. No need to go up in it, imo, but do what you want! I think the last ferries leave around 5 each day so if you can make it out of work a biiiiiit early one day, and you're nearby, you can catch it! Not a must do of course, but if you find the time, it's one of those few things in life i have found that is worth it. Also, the ferry to and from there is a bonus sightseeing element as you get GREAT views of the tip of manhattan! makes for some gorgeous photos and one of the lesser known tips is manhattan as seen by a boat is one of the best views you'll get. If you can't make it to the official ferry tour, here is a pro tip: take the Staten Island Ferry. i KNOW that sounds weird, but the route to Staten Island is pretty much the same as the Statue of Liberty tour route. You won't stop at the island to get off and see the statue, BUT you'll get very close to it! Why the Staten Island Ferry? Well it runs all hours of the day and night and it's FREEEEEE. You can just hop back on the returning ferry and get double the views! You can board the ferry in Manhattan at the tippy tip on the bottom right at Whitehall terminal. The second best view of Manhattan is......

6. Brooklyn Bridge - another great monument that is open to you 24 hours a day if you cannot get out of work early enough. Another architectural marvel (which i'm super into so apologies if you don't care about buildings lol) but also a true monument! You can walk across it at any time of day and be sure to turn around half way for a spectacular view of manhattan. my advice to you, as corny as it is, do NOT turn around until you get halfway at least. the contrast of walking away from the city and turning around and seeing it up close like that is really a delight. I always make people i go with do that and they hate me until they turn around and then they're begrudgingly happy they listened. Also, truly any time of day is great, but if you happen to do it at dusk on a lovely spring day, oooooo boy it's glorious. I have dozens of stories about the bridge, as it's one of my favorite stories in the entire history of the world (again biased sorry but it's SUCH A GOOD STORY) but two anecdotes i'll tell you. 1. the man who was supposed to build the bridge was the son of the man who designed it, and he had everything ready to go but got sick and bedridden shortly after starting. So, his wife, who had been studying engineering alongside him this entire time, was taught by her husband specifically about bridge engineering as he was bedridden for ten years. Over the course of that time, she eventually took over as Chief Engineer on site and technically is the person who oversaw and instructed the construction of the bridge, her husband never really setting foot on the project site. Her name is Emily Roebling and for her work, they awarded her the privilege of being the first person to cross the bridge on opening day, leading the parade. Also, there is a street named after her on the Brooklyn side near the bridge. 2. It was the largest suspension bridge ever built at that time and people were freaked out by it, thinking it would fall. To prove to the public how sturdy it was, Emily enlisted the help of the circus star P.T. Barnum (yes that Barnum) who brought 21 elephants, including his star Jumbo, to cross the bridge!

7. Broadway rush tickets - since you sound like you're traveling alone, or at least with a small group, broadway rush tickets will be very easy for you to get! You can look up the process online, there are lots of resources. It's the only way to see something cheap these days, and even then it might not be so cheap. I'm not a huge broadway person so I can't say what is particularly good or bad, but currently Stereophonic is a hot new show that seems really interesting! It's more dramatic and play-esque than your typical dazzling brassy musical, so if you're into that, check it out!

8. Top of the Rock - most people will send you to the empire state building to see skyscraper level views. and that's good too, but here's the thing, you're IN the empire state building.... so you can't SEE it. people don't think of this and walk away from their new york visit with no photos of the damn thing because they stood on it instead. Also, it's a fenced in balcony for.... obvious reasons and much more limited in scope. Top of the Rock is not only in the very cool rockafeller center, which is fun to walk around and admire, but you can see the empire state building while up there! Also, it has northern AND southern views, all at the same time on the roof deck, with glass walls. So you get no obstructions! It's also situated a bit further north so you get a fantastic view of central park sprawling north. It's open until midnight, so after work you can get some dazzling sunset views or glittering cityscape night views.

Some food recs:

Pizza: the most controversial of all, and sooooooo particular to each person's taste. Most pizza places on Best Of lists are great, you can't go wrong. Word of advice to you though: L'Industrie is great, but the lines are insane and it's not THAT worth it. However, if you want a typical "slice" then look no further than these two:

Joe's - the most accessible since it's all over the city, but is honestly the perfect slice imo. Which means there's not much to it in terms of frills, but that's what tourists seem to not understand. it's just a damn good slice. Crust perfect, crispy and not droopy, sauce to cheese ratio is perfect, sauce has a bit of flavor but not too much. I go for the cheese cuz i'm basic but the pep is great too! Don't get anything else. Carmine's is the original shop but any of the locations are great.

Scarrs - this is my ACTUAL favorite slice, however there's only one location and it's pretty out of the way. It's on the LES, which is a fun place to wander if you don't mind a bit of grit and grime. Again, super simple, but my man mills his OWN FLOUR so he can get the right ratio. as far as i know, nobody else in new york is doing that. Dough is also fermented, so it has the perfect amount of crisp, tang, and saltiness. Also, Scarr is afro-latino which is rare in the pizza world, but a welcome wakeup call to all the italian goombahs slinging mediocre pies. As always, get the plain cheese, but the hotboi is so fucking good, don't miss it. and get the honey on top!!

Bagels: Honestly, anywhere you go will have great bagels. I've gone into the shittiest looking dump and gotten a bagel better than outside the tristate area. (Yes the water is what makes it great, it's been proven and it makes the pizza great too).

Personally, my favorite is Tompkins Square Bagels as i lived next to it for many many years. Bagel purists shut upppppp i don't wanna hear it!! They churn out bagels pretty frequently so you're likely to get a hot one! DONT get it toasted, especially if its a fresh bagel. It'll be perfect on it's own, but do what you must to enjoy it. You MUST however get an everything bagel, scallion cream cheese is optional but it's highly recommended. If they have it, the french toast bagel is wild and kind of sacrilegious, but soooooo fucking good if it's warm. get plain or if you wanna develop diabetes, birthday cream cheese if they got it.

Russ & Daughters - an absolute knockout place, both the storefront/bagel shop and the restaurant. It's incredibly stylized to evoke old school LES bagel counters of yore, but the quality is unmatched. There is usually a line, so i don't really emphasize this as a MUST GO place, as new yorkers don't wait in lines lol. But weekdays you might fare better! If you're a lox person, this is the place to get your bagel and lox. (i'm not, which is blasphemous to my jewish family, but i won't turn down one from Russ and Daughters).

Gonna list my other favs here just so you have some in other neighborhood: Baz Bagels (LES), Murray's Bagels (WV), Apollo Bagels (EV), H&H (UES), Orwashers (UES & UWS), Tal Bagels (various locations).

Other Food spots that i like that are pretty classic new york food!

Daily Provisions - get the BEC (bacon, egg, & cheese) to feel like a real new yorker. it's one of the more gourmet versions, but my god it's a good one. also, go early as you can to snag a cruller. one of the BEST doughnuts in the city.

Magnolia Bakery - GO ONLY FOR THE PUDDING. the cupcakes are mid as hell, you can feel the sugar granules in the frosting, not great. Their signature banana pudding is fantastic though, and if the seasonal one sounds good to you, grab that too! they offer very small sizes so you can try both, or a big tub if you want.

Veselka - another spot i kind of am biased about because i lived near it, but it's a CLASSIC new york haunt that doesn't exist anymore for the most part elsewhere. It's a Ukrainian diner from 50s, and has typical diner food and service, but the pierogis are the star here. Any kind, go nuts. Open 24/7 and always filled with NYU kids, but still retains that city-that-never-sleeps charm somehow.

Pastrami Queen - for.... a pastrami on rye sandwich lol if that wasn't clear. Most people will send you to Katz, which is fine! It's not what it used to be, but it is a very cool experience. The pastrami is still good, and the matzoball soup is good. Knish's are a little greasy for my taste though. Best pastrami though imo is at Pastrami Queen. one on UES and one on UWS (plus a location in the new moynihan train hall) so it's not super easy to get to, but i highly rec it.

Parm - now this is my biggest cheat rec. new yorkers will read this and go, pfffft who cares about Parm? Well, i'll tell you why. You might have heard of the famed rigatoni alla vodka from carbone, which is good! but not worth the hassle of going to carbone. You CAN get it at Parm though, which is much easier to get into, cheaper, and more relaxed. They have several locations and the rest of the menu is really solid! Meatballs are great, garlic bread is fantastic, and the italian sandwich is wonderful. They've always had the rigatoni on the menu for those that knew, but only recently has the secret got out and so they changed the name to say "carbone rigatoni alla vodka." Don't go out of your way, but for a trendy new york dish you can brag about, that's a little tip from me to you.

Peter Pan Donuts and Pastry shop - LITERALLY MY FAVORITE PLACE EVER ok it is just a 50's style donut counter, and yes it is in greenpoint which makes it almost impossible to get to. HOWEVER if you manage to make it out there, you're in for a treat. Any doughnut you get is fantastic, and the pretty green interior and counters are so delightful to sit and enjoy as you get frosting/powdered sugar all over yourself. i try not to hype this place up cuz i don't want it to be even more popular than it is with locals, but for you anon i'll let you have it.

Xi'an Famous Food - a great hand-pulled and hand ripped noodle chain that is somehow still pretty authentic despite it's many locations. Great lunch spot for while you work, which most of these recs aren't lol. If the menu is overwhelming, i rec N1 and N2, or N9 if you don't love spice.

Morgansterns Ice Cream - also something you can't really go wrong with all of the Best Of lists. but this one is my absolute fav. Their traditional flavors are all exceptionally creamy and delicious, but they always have wild flavors on deck! You can't sample them, so getting a scoop is a commitment, but for fun, pick a wild one that you think you'd like and dive in. They're great at balancing flavors and making it actually delicious, not just shocking instagram fodder, so you might surprise yourself!

Los Tacos No. 1 - another trendy place that is actually worth the hype. There might be lines here as well but they move quickly, and there are many locations! A great lunch spot to grab some quick tacos, and one of the first in the city to bring al pastor to the masses. If you're mexican or come from the southwest, you might be underwhelmed or skip it altogether. but for new york, this is a shockingly fantastic mainstream taco place, and more authentic than you'd get most places.

Other than those big things, my recommendation to anyone visiting is to wander! Everything below the 80s is pretty safe, despite what you hear. The financial district shuts down daily after about 6/7 pm so avoid that for evenings mainly because it's boring. If you see something in a store, pop in! Also this list is particularly New York Staples, but it's one of the most racially and ethnically diverse places in the world. Seriously. any kind of food you want, it's here, and it's made by someone from that exact country/community. A quick google and you'll probably find whatever you're looking for.

I hope you have an amazing trip and no pressure to do anything you don't want to, honestly! Pick the things that interest you and go with your gut. It's a bottomless city and there's no definitive list of things that make it a New York Trip. Locals will tell you one thing and ex-pats will tell you another and transplants will tell you something completely different. It has something for everyone, but not everything is for everyone, is what I like to tell people. The city is YOUR playground, so do whatever you want! Just make sure to tip your drivers and servers generously and ALWAYS walk at a steady pace and on the right side of the sidewalk. ❤️

[mistresslrigtar]

Chapter Thirteen: Dawn (written for @zelinktines24 day 13 prompt)

Read below or HERE

When Zelda's lips meet Link’s, it feels like the sun bursting on the horizon, and soothing warmth spreads through his body. His arms wrap around her waist, pulling her closer. They kiss with a fervor that sends a shiver down his spine, and hiis knees tremble with the weight of his desire. Deepening the kiss, time seems to stand still as he loses himself in the intoxicating taste and touch of her. 

Zelda is pliant in his arms, pressing herself against him, tangling her fingers in his thick hair. Link feels like he’s been starving for this moment, and now that it’s happening, he doesn’t want it to end. After so much time apart, kissing her feels like the first time–foreign, new, and exciting. However, he can’t keep his mind from wondering if this is the best thing for them. Resuming the physical aspect of their relationship could complicate things. They still have unresolved issues, and have only begun to open up to one another again, building back the trust that’s been lost. 

As much as he wants to stay lost in her embrace, Link, reluctantly breaks the kiss, but keeps Zelda close, pressing his forward against hers. “I missed you so much.”

“I know. So did I.” Zelda’s voice is breathless, her fingers caressing the back of his head. “All I did was talk about you when we weren’t busy trying to defeat Ganondorf.”

At the mention of Ganon’s name, Link’s heart feels like it’s trying to claw its way out of his chest. Zelda stills her fingers in his hair when his shoulders tense and his arms stiffen about her. He releases her waist and takes a step back, feeling the magic of the moment dissipating. 

“I don’t know why I mentioned him,” Zelda whispers, dropping her hands to her sides.

Link takes several steadying breaths, trying to still his racing heart. He knows Zelda didn’t mean to bring up the man who’d been the root cause of all their misery and pain since the very beginning. Even though after Link smashed Ganondorf’s secret stone with the Master Sword and watched him implode in the atmosphere over Hyrule, how can they be certain he’s truly gone? They thought it was over when they sealed away the Calamity, but that had turned out to only be a temporary measure, while something even more horrendous still slumbered beneath the castle. Link realizes he has much more healing to do than he thought, and he isn’t certain his fear will ever be fully laid to rest. 

He looks at Zelda to find her face has crumpled, a deep worry line forming between beautiful green eyes reflecting a sudden sadness Link knows he’s put there. He reaches out a hand to gently cup her cheek. “It’s okay. I just need more time.”

“We both do.” Zelda closes her eyes, and places her hand over his, pressing her face into his palm. “I’ve caused you so much pain. I’m so sorry.”

Link knows they need to take it slow, and she may decide she can’t love him anymore, but he can’t let her think for a moment longer that he cares for her less now than he did before.  Pulling her into a tight embrace, he buries his face in her hair. “Love means never having to say you’re sorry, Zelda.”

I'm sorry! I promised fluff today, and this ended on angst (I forgot😅). Tomorrow, for sure, for V-day - fluff. Kilton makes an appearance!

Many thanks to @floraunderground for looking this over!!

[nohoperadio]

The date for my annual performance review at work has been set for one month from today. The review day itself is not a big source of stress, it's the management's opinion that I'm good at my job, it's a mildly awkward thing to go through but it's very unlikely to "go badly" on the day.

However!

I gotta fill out the paperwork first, which consists of seven pages, each page representing one of the abstract work virtues ("teamwork", "initiative", "customer service" etc), and for each of these I have to write 3+ concrete examples of things I did over the past year that exemplify that virtue, followed by a description of how each thing I did impacted the business, followed by explaining what lesson I took from each thing.

This is a chore that combines several things I hate hate hate and am bad bad bad at:

homework (the paperwork doesn't have to be done at home, you can schedule work time to do it and this is considered fine, but this doesn't work for me at all for reasons we'll get to in a bit), I'm not even good at structuring my free time when the only things I'm trying to fit into my schedule are nice things I enjoy doing, let alone this

bullshitting, the whole thing is premised on an abstract dreamt-up-by-HR model of how people's jobs work that bears so little relation to reality that it's basically impossible to complete the form without a lot of bullshitting. You have to take utterly mundane and routine moments from your job that don't mean anything and write them up in a way that emphasizes how brilliant and special and passionate you are; also because they ask for an absurdly large amount of examples, you find you spend a lot of time and mental effort figuring out how to reword stuff you've already written elsewhere in such a way that it's not too obvious you're repeating yourself. I am extremely averse to bullshitting to an extent that I fully acknowledge is irrational and unhealthy but I don't seem to be able to do much about it: at uni I would occasionally miss deadlines because I couldn't figure out what my actual opinions were about the thing the essay was about, and I couldn't bring myself to just write an essay endorsing a conclusion I wasn't sure about. I hope that doesn't come across as even slightly a boast, there is no virtue there, it's an extremely fucking stupid attitude to have, I knew that at the time but I couldn't seem to change it. And I'm still kind of like that unfortunately, I can write bullshit but it feels horrendous and takes a ton of will power and progress will be comically slow.

expressing positive sentiments about myself, this one's self-explanatory I think

The result of these points is that I find writing these things so emotionally draining that it often takes like literal hours of psyching myself up/calming myself down just to find the right state of mind where I can even get started, and then often that leads to like, two or three bullet points worth of progress and then I'm exhausted. If this sounds dumb to you, well, yeah. That's why I can't realistically do it during work time, what am I gonna do request a whole day's worth of time and then produce like 30 words by the end of it? I'm not doing that. On top of these setbacks resulting from my unfortunate personality, there's also the fact that my particular role is quite different from most people's in the company but I still have to fill out the same standard form as everyone else, e.g. I rarely deal directly with customers so I have to really reach to argue that stuff I'm doing counts as "customer service", there's a lot of that kind of thing.

I'm not sure if I'm really conveying what I find horrible about this very well, but basically it's: 1] a lot of work, which 2] relies on skills I am extremely weak on and 3] aggravates my weird neuroses in various ways, and all the while 4] the whole thing is manifestly pointless and dumb. That's a recipe for aaaaaaaaaaaaa. If this year goes like the previous two years, I'll spend the weeks leading up to it feeling guilty and panicky for a significant portion of every day and doing that thing where I procrastinate the productive task constantly while not being able to really enjoy the things I'm using as procrastination either; I'll make ludicrously small amounts of progress on a handful of good days, but ultimately somehow force my way through most of it all in one go just before the deadline.

Maybe it won't be like that this time. My general being-a-person competence has been improving year on year for the past several, maybe this is the year I only moderately suck at this type of task. I shall let that sentiment have the last word here, not because it's especially plausible but because it feels virtuous to do so.

(I feel like it would be unjust to write this post and fail to say: I like my job. A lot! It's nothing very glamorous, I work in a bookshop and get paid marginally more than minimum wage, but: I find the work satisfying, I virtually never have the "ugh I can't wait till I can go home" feeling, and there's a small number of people there who I like very much and who like me in return. All three of those are things I literally could not conceive of being true of any job before I started here; when I said above that my being-a-person competence has improved the past few years, my job is a huge part of that. I have more positive feelings towards my work than a lot of people ever get to experience and I feel lucky for that. But this one particular aspect of it which comes once a year always kind of ruins my life for the better part of a month and I really wish it didn't exist.)

[liusaidh-writing]

I'm so sorry, but I gotta vent. I have no one to talk to since hubs is unreachable at the moment...

I took the kids to get some pizza at a family friendly pizza place for lunch today and of course they got up and 'played' a little when they were done (they were making up some silly game with the small toys they brought with them). I made them stay in a small area, and there was only one other table near us - several tables down and across the aisle. It was two old ladies. The rest of the place was empty. So, these ladies got up to leave before I could get my bill and one old bitch got into my six year old daughters face and said: "You're not the only one here. There are people trying to eat." (It was them. Only them.)

(I will admit my four year old had raised his voice a bit and I shushed him every time and made them both stay right next to our table. They didn't wander or run or anything like that.)

I was so damn shocked that I just stared at her.

Now I'm just here seething, hoping the old shithead gets hit by a car or something. And even MORE and at myself for not having said anything. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

And it happened the other day, too.

Went to a restaurant at the beach the other day and some old lady literally knocked my six yr old over trying to beat her to the restroom. Again, all I could do was stare in shock because what the FUCK.

I guess I am just so naive to think that people are actually not that hateful/rude?! It's just beyond me to act like that at all, and I'm always caught off guard. And I just simply don't think on my feet quickly enough to even think of a response. I hate myself for it, and I feel so incapable as a parent at times like these. 🤦‍♀️

ANYWAY..

I'm done ranting.

But I still hope that old lady today dies a most horrendous death.

Are you an old bitch who would be rude to an innocent child in a restaurant? If you are, I don't like you and I hope you choke.

[m0ssybricks]

Proposal and Promises

Word Count: 1838

Life could not have become better for Corey Cunnigham. He had finally left the town that caused him so much suffering. Your relationship has been incredibly healing to him and yourself.

The two of you have been a couple for over three years by now and both of you are so happy together. Growing together, exploring each other emotionally, intellectually, and physically. Being able to show each other the love you both deserve. Showering with all sorts of affection. Everyday you both grew closer together.

Lately Corey has been acting somewhat jittery, not completely anxious or excited but more in an anticipatory manner. You chalked it up to problems at work and took a mental note to talk to him about it.

During your lunch break at work your usual scrolling through your phone while eating lunch (today was a strawberry salad and a chocolate milk you stole from Corey) was interrupted by the notification of Corey texting you

sweet boy <3 : Hi love, are you having a good day? Did Jessi steal your lunch again ? I wanted to ask if we could go out tonight to this nice restaurant I've been wanting to try out. It recently opened and looks good.

sweet boy <3 : We could give it a try. I looked at the menu and everything looked good. I'm thinking we could walk around the city after.

You smiled at the sweet message your boy sent you

Me: absolutely that sounds wonderful love. I get out around 4 so schedule reservations about 6 ?

sweet boy <3 : Sounds perfect love, i miss you

Me: Miss you too baby see you tonight

The day seemed to move at a snail's pace as you kept anxiously looking at the clock waiting until you finished your shift so you could just go home and be with your sweet boyfriend. As soon as the wooden electronic clock on your desk flashed 4:00 p.m. you bolted out, nearly knocking a Dollar Tree pen cup over. Swiftly grabbing the black coat from your door hook and locking your office door.

“Why are you in such a rush today? '' Your coworker Jessie asked, her voice was rich with suspicion and humor.

“Going out with Corey at 6!” You called out.

Driving through Chicago's rush hour traffic has never been easy but today it seemed crappier. Despite staying in a stalemate for over half an hour the traffic wouldn't even budge so the first

place for half an hour. 4:56 . Checking the time won't make it go faster. You kept reminding yourself. The second traffic started moving, you exited and took the streets praying for a lack of red lights. The universe worked in your favor and you made it to yours and Corey’s shared apartment. The soft glow of the string light on your balcony shone bright as the sun came down and the sky turned into an orange hue.

Rapidly you climbed up the iron stairs to enter the apartment via the balcony because you needed a quicker way in aka avoiding conversations with neighbors. Finally, after making it up three flights of stairs, you unlock the sliding glass door, careful not to knock over the several plants and Corey’s red bicycle.

When you got inside Corey was in the kitchen, his work clothes still on

“Hey” he said pressing a kiss on your cheek

“Hi hon”

“I just got here a second ago traffic is horrible”

“I know right! I had to take the streets which weren't too bad but the freeway was horrendous!”

“Okay I've got to shower, I smell awful, we were out on a construction site all day” Smiling at Corey's comment you were overwhelmed with a sense of pride in your boyfriend. He had finally become a civil engineer and was in a job he loved.

“Alright baby go do that I'm showering too I smell awful”

He planted a small, chaste kiss on your head and went into one bathroom while you went into the other

While Corey and you were showering the both of you kept anticipating the evening and what you would wear. Corey knew that he would be loved even if he was wearing a potato sack but he wanted to look extra nice today. He felt very indecisive on what to wear- a problem he normally did not face but tonight felt stressed in doing so.

“Hey” a voice interrupted his thoughts. His sweet partner

“Do you need help picking something out?”

Their voice was so soft and caring Corey felt tears almost well into his eyes.

“Uhm yeah I actually do.”

“How about your brown coat, white button up, black slacks, and the navy tie.

He nodded and swallowed thickly. His lover pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“I'm going to get dressed okay?” You said

A few minutes passed and you both trotted to the living room revealing your outfits to each other.

“Shit you look beautiful…” Corey mustered out looking very flustered. Some things never change. He was flustered when he first met you and you will always make him soft.

“You look perfect.” That's all you could get out. He looked handsome, radiant, beautiful. Perfect.

Corey broke the silence. “Hey we should get going, we don't want to be late.”

Huffing out a laugh you replied “Yeah lets get going baby.” The entire car trip Corey had one hand on your left thigh, your hand over his. By the time the two of you arrived it was 6:03 and were immediately seated. The restaurant was beautiful, it looked like it came straight out of a European resort. The walls were beige and had a gold trim, the floor was checkered pattern, and the tables had ivory table cloths and maroon chairs. For the rest of the time at the restaurant the both of you talked about the smallest things, Mr. Logan's new cats making a home on your balcony, old memories, shared funny stories from your day, caught up on work disscusions, the sci fi movie you watched last night, and an upcoming vacation to Canada. The entire time Corey was smiling bigger than he had before. Whenever he smiled his hazel eyes would crinkle.

“Alright that was one of the greatest meals I have ever had” Corey told you as he finished up his food.

“Absolutely we have to go again, everything about this night is so perfect.”

At that comment Corey sweetly and nervously smiled and fiddled with the ring box in his pocket. The two of you have had several discussions about spending your lives together, how you two would work out together, your values and beliefs, what your experiences with families are, etc. But Corey is quite timid and passive and you never thought that you two would actually get married.

The waiter came to place the bill at your table as soon as she placed it down, in typical Corey fashion he rapidly pulled out his wallet.

“Hey I’ll pay! You invited me out!”

“Of course I did you are the best partner, now let me pay so we could get out and walk around before it gets too late”

“Core that's so sweet but-”

Your speech was interpreted by Corey handing his card to the waitress and tossing you a little mint that came with the check. He gave you a toothy grin opening his mouth which revealed the small, green candy.

“I'm covering tips.”

“Okay that will be our deal from now. I pay you cover tip”

“Deal”

As the two of you were packing up you couldn't help but notice Coreys fingers jittering -something he does when he is nervous but you were confused as to why that is.

“Now come on, let's go.”

Chicago nights were beautiful. The city lights and moonlight reflected upon the Chicago River and the night life was somewhat minimal. A street musician playing jazz could be heard in the distance. The two of you lovers walked hand in hand chit chatting softly about how nice the night was and how much you both love each other. All of a sudden Corey stopped walking, letting go of your hand.

“What's the matter babe?”

“ I want to tell you something.” Corey replied, anxiety wavered his voice. He grabbed your hands, you felt his slightly calloused palms rub against your own. You saw tears well up in his eyes

“I have never, ever been happier with a person and in life than right now and every moment I am with you. You saved me. I never thought I would be alive today but when you came into my life I made the choice to live. I felt like a monster, an outcast ever since the accident. I got used to the feeling of being unloved until you came into my life.”

At this point tears were freely falling down his face.

“Honey, you are so incredibly beautiful. I remember our first meeting at the gas station. How you helped defend me, comfort me at the clinic and it wasn't a one time thing. You have always been so caring with me and everyone you encounter. You have a zest for life and are beautiful inside and out. We have grown so much together in all ways: emotionally, intellectually, and socially. I never envisioned leaving that town and going to college, becoming an engineer, making an apartment our home, loving someone, and being at peace. I feel so happy and safe with you and all I want to do is to make sure you feel the same way. I wanna live my life with you. Kiss you, sit on the balcony watching the sunset, read comics, share chocolate milk, vacation with you, cuddle and watch movies every Friday. These past three years have been the highlight of my life.” His voice wavered from the tears.

“Angel, I always tell you are that you are the best person everyday and the reason for that is because you are my person.”

By now you were crying, allowing the tears to fall freely since both hands were holding your boyfriends’.

Corey got down on one knee, pulling a ring box out which revealed a gold band with a small diamond. Your heart just about exploded out of excitement and admiration.

“Would you marry me?” Corey asked, passion dripping from his voice. The world fell quiet.

“Yes” you answered quietly, still in shock.

“Yes?”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes” nodding rapidly

Corey placed the ring on your finger and bolted up to hug you. Tears spilled on each other's jackets-but nobody cared, you two were going to spend the rest of your lives together and that is the only thing that mattered at that moment.

Later that night when you two were in bed, legs and arms tangled. Corey was running his fingers on the small of you back. He looked at you, his hazel eyes illuminated by the blurred glow of the string lights hung on your window, filled with love.

“Thank you.” Those two words came out as a breathy whisper.

“For what?”

“For being you, for accepting my proposal, for everything. You are the most beautiful, intelligent, kindest person I have ever met and I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with you.”

[noooooooop-e]

~My Songbird~

~Chapter 3~

Lucy Gray woke up in a cold sweat, her chest heaving as she grasped at her heart.  She sighed after a couple minutes of hyperventilating.  She looked around at all the tributes around her, a frown worn on her face.

She moved her knees to her chest and hugged them, sadly looking down at the ground.  Today was the day they had to show themselves off to earn donations.  She knew it would be difficult to perform, she was too worried about Ana's wellbeing after the explosion, and nervous for the horrendous games she will have to partake in tomorrow. 

Tears formed in her eyes, as she tried to shake away her anxiety.  'You better be okay', she thought to herself, hoping Ana was doing alright.

Back at The Academy, Ana was recovering from her injuries.  She was resting in the infirmary, staring down at her hands.  Lucy had finished her song and she raked in thousands of donations, and she was proud of her, however she still felt uncomfortable.  She didn't want tomorrow to come, she didn't want to watch the tributes kill one another, she didn't want anything to happen to Lucy.

She let out a sad sigh, her eyebrows knitting together as Lucky Flickerman cracked another one of his lame jokes.  She was angry, and she didn't understand how everyone could be so unbothered.  District or not, they were still people.

She closed her eyes, hoping that her worries will disappear along with the night.

The clock struck midnight, and Ana had made her way to the capitol zoo.  She was surprised when Lucy Gray herself shot up and sprinted over to her, her eyes filled with tears.  "You're okay!", she cried.  "I was so worried."

Ana gave her a sympathetic smile.  "I'm okay", she whispered, resting her forehead against Lucy's.   She used her handkerchief to wipe away the girl's tears, which Lucy let her.

"I.. went to the ruins of the arena tonight.  There is a huge hole in the ground.  I want you to go and hide there the moment the games begin okay?  it's your best bet at avoiding the chaos that is bound to break out.  And i also brought you this", she handed Lucy a makeup kit containing rat poison.  "please, use this if necessary.  I want you to win, I don't care about the reward.  I want you to be okay." Ana rushed out.

"I'll try, I promise", Lucy whispered against her forehead.  Her eyes lingered down to Ana's lips, before meeting her gaze again.

Hesitantly, both girls leaned in, soft lips meeting chapped.  They stayed like this for half a minute before releasing with a small gasp.

Ana cupped Lucy's cheeks, affectionately caressing her face.  "I'll wait for you, no matter what, no matter how long it takes.  I promise.". Their lips connected one last time,  before Ana took her leave.

The very next day, Ana found herself back in uniform.  She sat in her chair, uneasily staring at the screen.  She wasn't prepared for what she was about to witness.  She knew she wouldn't be.  It didn't matter the outcome, really.  She'd be traumatized either way, and so would the victor.

She whispered to herself, 'Run.  Get to the pit', as the count down began.

The game was filled with suspense and emotion.  The audience connected with the tributes in different levels, as each of their true colors had been revealed throughout the games.

Coral, a ruthless leader who will stop at nothing to win.  Mizzen, a follower, who wants to do all he can to win, and finds solace in his relationship with Coral.  Like a big sister.  Lamina, a severely underestimated girl who had a heart of gold.  She earned thousands of donations when she performed a mercy kill, to end Marcus's suffering.  Marcus, who was the only one to escape after the bombings.  Marcus, who was then caught and beaten and left for dead.  And Reaper, the one who gathered everyone's bodies and covered them with The Academy flag.  The one who gave them a civil burial.

Many lives had been taken in the span of just over twentyfour hours.  Ana found it particularly hard to watch the deaths of Lamina and Dill.  Lamina, who was killed with a nuclear level of brutality after she had done so much to protect herself.  Dill who accidentally drank the poisoned water that Lucy had intended for Coral to drink. 

Lucy's heart broke when the girl took a sip of the water, unable to do anything about it.  All she could do was watch with a stifled sob as Reaper screamed at the sight of the poor girl's lifeless body.

Each and every tribute had their own personal story, a story that drew everyone in.

Then there was Lucy.  The one who could put on a performance at any given moment.  The one who gained the hearts of the majority of the capitol.  Ana wasn't the only one rooting for her to win.

To everyone's surprise except for Ana's, an air craft began to hover over the arena.  She knew the contains of the capsule that was being lowered into the building.  She was thankful she was able to sneak the handkerchief in before it was too late

Her eyes widened at the sight of the little girl from district 8.  Wovey.  "Is it over?" She cried.  "Can we go home now?"

Lucy Gray immediately got an uneasy feeling as the girl approached the container.  "Wovey! No!", she screamed in vain.  The container shattered, revealing all the aggressive snakes that had been locked inside the whole time.  They made their way throughout the arena, claiming the lives of all the remaining tributes.

Reaper closed his eyes, letting them take him.  He wanted to die along side Dill, and the innocent children around him.

Coral, with her eyes widened in horror, discarded her trident.  She pleaded with Lucy to help her, to save her. 

"I can't of killed them all for nothing", she cried.

Lucy looked at her helplessly.  She knew that even if she took her hand, she'd still die.  She watched with tears in her eyes as Coral took her last breath.

Her breath hitched as all the snakes wrapped around her body, head tilting as she realized they weren't attacking.

She looked down at Coral with a broken heart before she began to sing, her voice shaking.  

You've headed for heaven

The sweet old hereafter

And I've got one foot in the door

But before I can fly up

I've loose ends to tie up

Right here, in the old therebefore

I'll be along

Ana glared at the game maker.  "Dr. Gaul! She won!" She yelled.  "Let her out!"

Lucy continued to sing, glaring at the camera with red, teary eyes.

When i've finished my song

When i've shut down the band

Ana started to scream at her.  "It's over now! Let her out!"  She continued to plead.

Festus tilted his head in confusion.  "What the hell? Why aren't they attacking her?"

Ana, playing dumb, replied, "It must be her singing!  It's calming them.  She won!  Stop keeping her inside!"

When I played out my hand

Paid all my debts

Have no regrets

Right here in the old

Therebefore

"Come on! Let her out!"  A stranger yelled, starting a riot.  Everyone stood out of their seats, demanding for Lucy Gray to be released.

Lucy Gray's voice strengthened, as she stood up with her unsteady legs.

I'll catch you up

When I've emptied my cup

When I've worn-out my friends

When I've burned out both ends

When I've cried all my tears

When I've conquered my fears

Right here, in the old there-before

When nothing is left anymore

And I'll bring the news

When I've danced off my shoes

When my body's closed down

When my boat's run aground

When I've tallied the score

And I'm flat on the floor

Right here, in the old there-before

When nothing is left anymore

When I'm pure like a dove

When I've learned how to love

Right here, in the old there-before

When nothing is left anymore.

Ana glared at Dr. Gaul with the hate of a thousand suns.  The woman swallowed her pride before turning to the peacekeepers.  "Let her out".

The room broke into cheers as Ana was surrounded by her peers.  She cried in relief, and was greeted by Tigris.  "You did it!", she yelled.  They embraced, tightly, as Ana let out happy sobs into her neck.

Ana was then escorted to a private sector of the building, being greeted by Casca Highbottom himself.

"Well well well, I didn't think you had it in you", he teased.  Ana knew instantly that she was caught. 

"You know, I recognized the little makeup kit your mother used to add some color to her face.  And the handkerchief betrayed you with your very initials."

Ana swallowed uncomfortably.  "What's going to happen to Lucy".  Casca looked at her, his expression softening slightly. 

"She's been sent home.  You however won't get that luxury today.  You'll be sent to a random district, and begin training as a peacekeeper.  Only then will you be welcomed back to the capitol."

Ana pondered for a moment.  She realized that this was her chance to reunite with Lucy.  She tried to pretend that this punishment affected her negatively, though she wasn't very good at hiding it as a slight smile broke through her faux frown.

'I'll find you, my songbird', she thought to herself.

A/N:Yeah so I actually had written out the whole duration of the games and explained every scene in detail, talking about every death and Lucy's experience.... Then I accidentally deleted it all🥰 Anyways I cried for like half an hour after that then half-assed it when i redid it.  So if it looks rushed out that is why.  I hope it was okay though

[roboticchibitan]

I'm easing back into tumblr by posting and checking notifications but not scrolling my dash. You know how sometimes when you're in a traumatic situation you're fine and you're fine and your fine and then you get out of the traumatic situation you freak out and break down? Well sudden relief from severe chronic pain is like that too, apparently. But I have dyed my hair (blue! For the first time! Never done blue before!) to take back control and agency over my life and I am doing better.

The thing is now that I'm not in horrendous amounts of pain constantly, I'm realizing all these other problems I have to take care of and it is very overwhelming. But! One thing at a time. I'll be fine. I just need to not see the latest drama/discourse/political news for a bit longer.

Also holy shit besides the mental breakdown thing it is SO much easier to do literally everything. I've made so many phone calls in the last two weeks it's insane. I stood at the table for like an hour today making a pattern from an existing piece of clothing and I'm definitely very sore but I literally could not do that a month ago. Like. Everything is easier. Sleeping. Preparing food. Eating the food. Literally everything.

So if you have chronic pain, I understand the urge to feel bitter that someone else got relief when you haven't, but rather than feeling bitter, which hurts and is unpleasant, take this post as a reason to be gentle with yourself, because literally everything is harder with chronic pain and it IS traumatic. You don't have to try your hardest to deserve rest. You deserve rest because literally everything is harder for you. Have some compassion for yourself. You deserve it.

[electrasev5nwrites]

Ninja Daily: Vapors 3

The Fox and the Hound

Point of view: Hound

Naruto was crying, great hiccupping sobs shaking his tiny shoulders. Hound cringed a little and skittered backwards. For the first time he found himself falling back on one of Minato-sensei's mannerisms—he fluttered his hands uncertainly, not knowing what to do with them.

He wanted- he wanted the crying to stop, both because the noise was horrendous and because there was no need for Naruto to be sad.

'He's six,' Kakashi thought incredulously. 'Why would such a little thing upset him so? When I was six…'

Granted, when he was six, he was already a shinobi and had fought for his life. Perhaps the comparison was invalid. Still… He didn't know quite what to do about a child breaking down into tears over being snubbed by a prospective friend's parent.

It had been more than unfair. Naruto had been happily chasing a brunette girl with trailing pigtails across the playground when the girl's mother had snapped to attention, noticed her child's playmate, and barked out that they were going home. Naruto had watched the confused exodus with a blank expression that told Hound and any other discerning observers that the boy understood he had just been deemed an unsuitable playmate. And why not? It wasn't the first time.

The blond had turned and headed home without another word, clumsily unlocking the door to the apartment he shared with his sister using the key hanging around his neck. He had then proceeded to crawl onto the couch and bawl his eyes out.

Hound caught himself wishing that Aiko hadn't chosen today to haunt the library, so that she could comfort her twin. She seemed to be the comparatively logical one, reserved and quiet. Had he only seen her in public he would have thought she was a stone-faced little girl, but she was considerably different around Naruto. Fond and –indulgent, perhaps?

He licked the inside of his lips, feeling vaguely guilty for being such a sub-par human being that he would rely on the parenting expertise of a six year old girl.

But what else could he do? Hound couldn't do a thing himself, even if he were allowed to show himself to Naruto. He didn't have the social skills. The only children he'd ever dealt with were… were…

Hound backed out of the apartment without alerting the child that he had ever been there and rushed through a familiar series of handsigns in the hallway. A moment later, Pakkun, the proud new father of a litter of five puppies, blinked up at him.

His request was wordless and nearly instantaneous, a combination of handsigns and pleading body language.

Severely unimpressed, the pug raised one ear and tilted his head. "Not now, pup," Pakkun said lowly. "I'd call Bisuke, if I were you. He's good with puppies, and he won't accidentally shout out if someone pulls his tail or pets his fur the wrong way."

"Right," Kakashi said quietly, acknowledging the logic there. "Thank you, Pakkun."

The pug nodded, hesitating. After a moment, he sighed. "I wouldn't mind playing with them when I'm not so busy," he admitted balefully. "I do love puppies."

Hound shook his head. "I think this is a one-time deal."

With that, he released the summoning and called upon the right dog. Forty seconds later, Naruto's head shot up at the sound of scratching against the door. He sniffled, giving it a suspicious stare. After a few moments of continued scratching and quiet whines, the boy hauled himself up and answered the door.

Bisuke bowled him over with gentle enthusiasm, licking the salt off his face and nuzzling. Naruto gave a surprised giggle.

Hound nearly smiled under his cold mask as the boys rolled around on the floor and wrestled. There, he'd problem-solved without a six-year old's help.

And this was supposed to be the relaxing mission, a break from real ANBU work. Ha. Protection detail was far more stressful than anything he did outside the village, in some ways. He was good at hurting people. Keeping them safe was a personal weakness.

When the older twin came home, Bisuke's ears pricked to attention. Hound silently dismissed ANBU Crow. The boy nodded and left. There was no need for two watchers now that the twins were in the same place.

"Tadaima," Aiko called, shucking her shoes messily. When she received no answer the girl padded around the couch—and her posture instantly relaxed at the sight of Naruto sleeping peacefully, using a vicious nin-dog as a pillow. She bit her lower lip in thought for a moment before cautiously approaching the hound. At the gracious nod Bisuke gave her (like a queen acknowledging a subject, Hound noted in irritation) the little girl dropped to her knees and all but fell over herself to scratch behind the dog's ears and rub at his back.

Oddly, Hound was disappointed with the twin he'd thought was more perceptive. She should be more suspicious than that of a large animal wearing a vest in her home.

Well, they were just children, even if he deluded himself into thinking that there was something strangely knowing about the way she looked at his ninken before she grinned at the dog. They couldn't be expected to connect all the dots.

Aiko didn't much like taijutsu practice at the Academy when it was finally started in earnest- by which she meant supervised spars using the katas they had been taught. Iruka-sensei and his assistant Mizuki-sensei did a passable job of making sure that no one got hurt while learning to kill. There was a thrill in realizing that her body was so much better than she thought it was, that she could bend back to put her palms on the ground and then lift her feet up without doing more than shaking if she really worked at it. It was an enormous relief to start feeling less like she was trapped in a sub-par body and more like she was capable and strong. Those aspects were really enjoyable, even though her sparring partner sucked. Hyuuga Neji was a little monster, and he beat her with embarrassing ease every time they fought.

Once she managed to pull her attention away from her own problems, Aiko discovered that Naruto had his own issues with taijutsu practice. Finding out that Iruka's growing discomfort and confusion about how to relate to Naruto meant that he got less attention than he should was displeasing. To be fair to the Chuunin teachers, everything that they told the twins was correct, and they wouldn't let either of them move on in the material before it had been mastered. So it was clear that no one was trying to allow unprepared genin to graduate and get themselves killed.

It was still insidiously harmful that Naruto was almost always the last one picked, and his sessions were often cut off by the bell for the next activity. The consistently shaved times in conjunction with Naruto's less mature body (now seven years old to their peers' nine) was a formidable handicap.

'He has plenty of time to work out the kinks in his taijutsu,' Aiko reminded herself as they trudged home, reaching out to take Naruto's grubby fingers into hers. He tolerated the touch absently, kicking and glaring at a rock that seemed generally inoffensive to her. 'In the anime, he gets held back twice. The Hokage must know better than to let a ten year old graduate. In a way, he did us a favor by giving us extra time to learn.'

Trying to look on the bright side didn't always help, but it didn't hurt to hope that not everyone was either incompetent or malicious. Still, Aiko privately thought that she would do a much better job with the really important village administration efforts if she were the one in charge. Like keeping the jinchuuriki safe and stable, for example.

She was thankful that Naruto was a social, fluttering personality. Right now it caused him hurt because their peers had either been warned off of them or didn't want to play with the babies of the class, but at least it meant that he didn't constantly cling to her. Aiko loved Naruto dearly, and would gladly bash Mizuki's head in with a brick to defend his honor if she thought she could get away with it. That didn't mean she never got tired of spending time with him. She liked being with Naruto, but it felt like she was one of those tacky pez dispensers: Naruto took a little bit out of her every time they interacted. That was fine, that was what she was there for—but eventually she was empty and in need of time away from him to refill.

It felt like she was his mother, not his sister. They had been moved out of the orphanage and into an apartment with an attentive landlady and a cook who came by once a day when they had been entered into the Academy, but the rest of the parenting was all up to Aiko to teach or Naruto to figure out on his own. She could handle a lot of it—homework, making sure he was properly fed and dressed—but there were areas in which she just couldn't help. How could she possibly teach a little boy to relate to other people? Aiko couldn't relate to adults because they condescended to her, and she couldn't relate to children her apparent age because they had nothing in common intellectually.

He was doing something right, because he'd gone and made friends with a pretty teenager whose father plied Naruto with ramen when he came to visit.

"Are you coming?"

Naruto practically hovered at the apartment door the moment it turned six—the time that Ayame-san started her shift at the ramen stand.

"Sure, sure," Aiko sighed agreeably, gathering up Naruto's homework into a backpack. Now, where had she left her library text about the cultural history of the northern regions of Fire Country…

Her otouto scowled helplessly, but took the bag she foisted on him in silent agreement to complete his assignments while his friend was preoccupied with customers. She didn't bother restraining the laugh at his morose expression.

"Cheer up," Aiko taunted, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head slightly. "It won't take that long to finish your work, and then Ayame-san will know you're as smart as you are cute."

Naruto flushed a deeply amusing shade of vibrant pink. "Nee-chan!" he squawked indignantly, hugging his bag to his tummy. "Ayame-chan is really old! And I'm not cute, so there." The little stomp he gave was startlingly unconvincing.

Unwillingly, Aiko's face twisted into a pout and her eyes softened.

Her brother flinched, knowing what that expression meant. "Aikoooo," he whined, backing up cautiously. "Don't look at me like that."

"Too late!" She leapt at him, bringing him down to the floor in a tumble of warm skin and giggles and little boy legs kicking futilely. "You're sooo cute," Aiko crooned, scrunching up her nose.

His replying, "Am not!" was cut off by the loud shriek of surprise he gave when Aiko hauled herself up enough to start planting kisses on his forehead and cheeks.

She didn't really even know what she was saying—it was just a babble of baby talk along the lines of, 'who's the cutest? You are! You are!' in-between artificially noisy "muah" sound effects as she peppered his face.

"Nee-channn," Naruto wailed when he finally gave up, legs stilling. "You're embarrassing. We're at home alone and you're still embarrassing."

"I have to get my kicks somewhere," Aiko said practically, ruffling his hair one last time. "Now get up, you look a mess and you have a hot date with Ayame-san."

He just made a high-pitched whine and stomped away, ears flushed a hot red.

The twins' fifth year in the Academy was remarkable for a few reasons. They had been taking classes with the age group Aiko recognized as the bulk of the rookie 12 for two years. Aiko found eight year olds slightly less contemptibly dull than six year olds, but not by enough to spend her free time with them.

Naruto, on the other hand, had formed a lazy sort of camaraderie with Nara Shikamaru and Inuzuka Kiba. It wasn't good for his attendance record or his grades, but it was good for his mood. They began skipping classes on a weekly basis, sneaking in before the final bell smelling of ramen or barbeque.

Aiko highly doubted that the other two were fooling the clan members that came to walk them home from classes, but she didn't much care either. She had considered trying to straighten Naruto out into a conscientious student, but had been halted by a bout of apathy. Why? What was the point? He got very little out of the structured classes. She wouldn't be surprised if he was dyslexic—he could read, but he complained that it gave him headaches and that the squiggles wouldn't stay still.

Those complaints seemed to generally be dismissed as an attempt to squirrel out of book work by Mizuki and several of the specialized teachers. Iruka-sensei had given lectures to that effect for a while until he seemed to clue in. Their primary teacher had tried, to give him credit. He had taken Naruto to a medical appointment with a medic-nin, and then to a specialized civilian sector optometrist when the first testing didn't reveal any abnormalities.

It was a pity that neither specialist could figure out what was wrong, but at least Iruka-sensei believed Naruto that something was genuinely affecting his ability to participate in classroom learning. Aiko considered speaking up—but how? It wasn't like she knew anything about how dyslexia worked, or even if that was a medical problem that modern medicine was aware of.

It was stupid to waste time mapping out complicated math problems to figure out projectile trajectory or how much blood was lost per second for different wounds. No one was going to do that math in the field. Practice and experience were what mattered. Naruto would flourish there.

' At least Iruka-sensei warmed up to Naruto.'

Aiko tried not to smile the first time that he showed up at their apartment with bags of takeout, clearly worried that Naruto was surviving on ramen and optimism. Iruka-sensei was mildly flabbergasted to see that the one-bedroom that the twins shared was in fact well-stocked and relatively clean.

To be fair, the fund that was provided for them to live off of was less than impressive and would have been hard to stretch enough. But there were clearly adults interested in the twins' welfare, even if they didn't want to meet them. The Hokage was certain to keep a careful eye on the state of the twins' equipment and get them new clothing at the changes of season, and two different parties left care packages.

It wasn't hard to piece together that the food that mysteriously made its way to the doorstep or kitchen table was from different people. The things that ended up on their kitchen table were always homemade and prettily wrapped, and the woman (Aiko was sure it was a woman, there was a faint trace of perfume that was so familiar) that left it had a habit of doing their dishes. In contrast, every so often, a disheveled and confused jumble of odds and ends that all but screamed 'bachelor' was left on their doorstop with toothmarks on the battered basket it was delivered in.

Iruka coughed, shifting his feet in the genkan and not bothering to disguise his examination of their living space. "It's nice?" he tried.

It wasn't particularly nice. The twins all but lived in a shoebox, as far as Aiko was concerned. It was hellishly small for someone who liked to pace. But that seemed to be a trait shared by Konoha's architecture and not a snub against the twins themselves.

"Food!" Naruto shot out of the bathroom, banging into the wall as he went. He cheerfully flung himself at Iruka without care for the fact that his bare feet inadvertently kicked the bag the man was holding.

"Oof-" Iruka choked, attempting to wrap his arms around the boy, and failing because Naruto had already slipped away and shoved his head inside the plastic bag.

"You would think he never got fed," Aiko remarked blandly, unimpressed by Naruto's enthusiasm. There was no point in getting worked up about it. She had learned the hard way that there was no changing the fact that he had ten times the energy and enthusiasm that she did. Naruto didn't harm anything or mean to be rude.

"I was starting to wonder," Iruka said doubtfully as Naruto absconded to the kitchen with the meal and began pulling open drawers and flinging serving spoons and chopsticks onto the table.

Any response she might have made was cut off by sudden angry sirens. Iruka tensed and all but shot to the door, securing it with a series of handsigns that Aiko couldn't see, much less list off.

"What's going on, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto half-demanded, excitement warring with discomfort from the godawful noise. He had clapped his hands to his head at the same time Aiko did.

"Lockdown," Iruka said grimly, pacing through the apartment. "Everyone under Jounin is confined to the closest safe location. What windows do you have?" He sealed the window in their bedroom with the same handsigns, and the three had a tense dinner. The audible alerts cycled through several pitches and patterns while Iruka maintained a forced calm. The last one seemed to be some sort of all-clear, because the tenseness in Iruka's shoulders fled and he unsealed the door and windows so that the twins didn't hurt themselves by getting too close to them.

"I need to go see if I can help," Iruka explained at the door, ruffling Naruto's hair. The blond scowled at him. The teacher's eyes softened, and he bent to give Naruto a hug. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. The danger is passed. I will see you two in the morning, right?" Iruka made an awkward, aborted motion towards Aiko as if only realizing that he might hurt one child's feelings by paying more attention to the other. He stopped at her expression, and only gave a wave.

"Have a good night, sensei," Aiko said absently as she closed the door.

They were never told what had happened, per se. But the Academy was noticeably depleted in its supply of dark-haired little boys and girls the next morning. Only one of them came back. When that finally happened, Sasuke was grim-faced and a far cry from the cheerful little boy he had been a week before. He decimated his usual training partners Kiba and Hinata in every match with enough viciousness that Aiko was rather glad she'd started official taijutsu training a year before and been paired with Neji, even if he wiped the floor with her and sent her to the hospital the first time they fought.

The homemade care packages stopped coming. Aiko tried very hard not to think about what that meant, but she had dreams of silky black hair and her 'aunt' from the orphanage for weeks.

Aiko started to feel like she had less and less free time for Naruto as their sixth school year slipped by. It had been a long time since her disastrous first match with Neji and the painful, equally bad matches that followed it.

Out of sheer self-preservation and not genuine desire to improve, Aiko had begun to haunt the Academy training grounds and work on her own for hours every day. Practicing alone wasn't optimal, but it was better than nothing. (Although she desperately wished that one of the other students in their cohort would undergo a sudden increase in abilities that got them reassigned as Neji's partner. Wasn't Lee supposed to be good at taijutsu?)

She was finally starting to get to a point where she could nearly compete with Neji. It might have partly been that she'd hit a growth spurt—she was almost ten to his eleven, and had a good two inches on him. That made it harder for him to keep her at distance. She had to remind herself that it wasn't an advantage she could count on—she'd be smaller than practically any other opponent out of the Academy. He was still stronger than she was, but Aiko had managed to improve both her speed and her blocks to the point where he almost never landed a hit on her.

Of course, she couldn't get a hit on him either, which led to painfully long and boring spars until Iruka-sensei inevitably called the match in Neji's favor.

'At least I only get bruises on my forearms and fists now', she consoled herself one morning after the initial spar of the day, running her cool-down laps around the short track. It was a visible improvement on the mottled look she used to sport daily. Naruto sped by, closely followed by—was that Ino? She looked pretty pissed about something.

From his position a few feet in front of her, Sasuke stiffened, then deliberately pushed his pace so that the more enthusiastic students didn't lap him. Aiko felt her eye twitch in exasperation. "A cool-down isn't a competition, 'ttebane!" she shouted, knowing damn well he didn't hear her.

What she heard in response was a quiet huffing behind her. Aiko blinked and drifted to one side, twisting her head to see who was coming up behind her. "Oh hi, Hinata-chan." She flashed a toothy grin.

God, that kid was cute. Her classmates almost looked like people at this age instead of dolls, which made it easier to talk to them.

Hinata's porcelain pale skin flushed a little, and she drew her arms closer to her body. She didn't slow down or avert her eyes, however. "Ah, hello, Aiko-san." She visibly hesitated. "You did well in your spar today," Hinata added meekly.

"Thank you, that's very nice of you to say. I saw part of yours too. Your foot work is really good," she praised. 'Hinata was always lacking in confidence, right?' "Is Sakura-san a nice partner to have?"

Hinata nodded, looking more comfortable when she wasn't the topic. "Haruno-san is getting better every day. I am glad to work with her."

Aiko bit her lower lip, considering a sudden thought. "Hey, Hinata-chan? Would you like to practice with me after class today?"

It could help her a lot to be able to practice against someone with training like Neji's…

The other girl blinked rapidly, clearly surprised. "Ah..." Hinata looked down. "I'm expected at home," she mumbled.

"That's fine!" Awkwardly, Aiko tried to give her a smile. It didn't seem to do what she intended- Hinato looked embarrassed and uncomfortable, not soothed.

'Well, I tried. Is it me she doesn't want anything to do with, or is she really just too busy?'

She decided she didn't want to know. Her gut was telling her that Hinata would have suggested another time if she hadn't just been looking for an excuse not to spend time with her.

' She probably doesn't want to help me against her cousin.'

The conversation died off, but after that Aiko started to notice just how much Hinata watched her when she sparred with Neji. Now that she knew to look, it was easy to see that Hinata's attention often wandered. When it did, she pushed Sakura harder—almost as if she thought she was the one fighting Neji. Aiko didn't say anything. Naruto was her only supplementary sparring partner. At least he was enthusiastic and good-natured, if not as technically skilled as Neji.

October came and went- she and Naruto spent their birthday alone at home, despite the minor festival going on outside.

She never actually beat Neji, but she was getting to a point where the blows that landed on his forearms (he was scary good at blocking) actually seemed to do something more than glance off. She could tell because his expression would tighten and he'd do his level best to beat the absolute crap out of her after she hit him. Naruto finally noticed her growth spurt, and was righteously furious that he didn't have one to match. He determinedly ate vegetables for a full week before quitting when he saw no improvement.

One Friday, she was idly rewriting the Lord of the Rings (in decidedly more pedestrian language, because she was certainly not a linguist or real author and had probably forgotten tons of stuff and made up almost as much) while pretending to take notes when Iruka announced he would be handing out the information sheets for potential graduates. When she got one, Aiko snorted and tried to hand it back. "Ano, sensei, there's been a mistake." He didn't take it.

"No, there hasn't," he said calmly. "You will be graduating this semester." He leaned in closely and gave her a stern expression. "All your teachers know you will be ready to graduate. Don't fail intentionally to stay with your brother. You're ready to move on, and he isn't. You won't do either of you any favors by flunking the year." Then he moved on to the next row, leaving her almost completely stunned.

'They tricked me when they put me against Neji,' she registered far too late. 'They tricked me into working harder than I should to get held back without realizing it.'

To be fair, it had never occurred to her that she would have to make sure she was held back. Sure, she was almost at the end of a standard term, but since she and Naruto had started so early, she'd really thought they would graduate with their age mates…

She looked up and it finally registered that Naruto was staring at her, as were several other students. Overall, the exchange seemed to have gone unnoticed. Instead of looking at it, Aiko shuffled the paper under her notebook and bent down again, trying to look engrossed.

It had honestly never occurred to her that she would be separated from Naruto. They entered the Academy the same year, after all. And he would graduate with his age group.. in… the… manga.

If it wouldn't have looked strange, she would have taken that opportunity to bang her head against the desk. 'Stupid, stupid! What happens to Naruto in the manga means nothing about you!'

Naruto gave her weak congratulations that night and fled to sleep on the couch. Aiko stayed up late, too busy thinking to fall asleep. Maybe she should take the opportunity- did she even have a choice, anyway? If she intentionally held herself back… well, she became one of Konoha's military resources when she entered the Academy, and the Hokage was her legal guardian.

So no. She didn't have a choice. If she tried to fail, she would just get reported for sabotaging military resources (a proviso usually used to force alcoholics to slow down or get sneakier).

With that in mind, she dutifully practiced the E-ranked jutsu the Academy had taught in the last month. Aside from the three she'd known about –Kawarimi, Henge, and the Clone- she'd also managed to master the finger-spark jutsu (used for burning paper evidence or lighting cigarettes) and managed to manifest one chakra string of an inch's length that could grab light objects.

She'd wondered why the manga had never shown these, but then the answer seemed obvious.

Sakura was competent but wouldn't have pushed for extra non-book work, Sasuke had better fire jutsu and used wires for that purpose, and Naruto… well, he'd barely mastered the three essentials (or a close approximation of them, anyway). Over the next week, she mercilessly drilled herself until she could replicate clothes down to the direction of a weave and switch with objects she couldn't even see.

Just as predicted, she easily breezed through the graduation exam- she led a team of first-years through a new obstacle course, dispelled a genjutsu, showed off her basic three jutsu in a low-pressure environment, and completed a three minute spar against Mizuki while Iruka took notes. When she landed a real hit, she was absolutely shocked by what a genius Neji must be. She took the opportunity to land several painful hits on Mizuki, but was eventually taken down into a panting mess. She was satisfied, though- she got extra points for thinking to use kawarimi in a mock combat session. It was a little unsporting, but 'unsportsmanlike' was practically a compliment to ninja. The kunai, shuriken, and paper tests weren't really even worth speaking about… they were embarrassingly easy.

She received her headband, one on the standard blue fabric.

Aiko found something vaguely disturbing about a ten year old in the standard military color. That night, she painstakingly scrubbed it with sand to dull the shine and pulled the stitches keeping it on the band. She cut up the bodice of a yellow dress that didn't fit anymore to make a new headband and secured it, playing with angles to find out how she wanted to wear it.

It felt strange on her forehead and she looked silly with it hanging around her neck. She liked it as a belt and a headband, so when she left the next morning she was wearing it around her waist and a jerry-rigged headband to match.

'I feel vaguely like batman,' she thought, checking herself out in the bathroom mirror. There was something strangely satisfying about her new look. She'd slipped into slim-fitting black pants that reached just below her knees and a short-sleeved tunic in the same color that reached halfway down her thighs.

She tugged at her leaf insignia. 'This is a pretty poor utility belt, though.' She momentarily amused herself by imaging pulling a gigantic batarang out of it… then she realized that with the use of seals that could be done. She could make her forehead protector into a small arsenal. The thought amused her. Then she took off the headband and ran her fingers through her hair, frowning at the length.

Her hair never failed to garner odd looks and some comments from her peers- despite what looked like a plausible (if a bit rare) color to her, strawberry blonde hair apparently wasn't a thing here. It wasn't very long—it only reached a few inches past her collarbones. 'Still… I don't look like a real shinobi. I look like a little girl playing dress up.' That in mind, she carefully but inexpertly hacked at it with a kunai, letting hairs pile up in the sink. She cut it as short as Naruto's in the back, with bangs that fell just above her eyes, but left herself chin-length locks on either side of her face… Mostly because she didn't want to look like a boy. She turned around, experimentally tossing her hair. It looked like a very messy version of Hinata's hair at age twelve, she thought.

'Or Minato's,' she realized. Aiko frowned. 'That might be a little bit of a faux-pas… Well. Too late now.' She smiled at her reflection and pulled her headband back on. As she walked past her blue sandals sitting by the front door, she grimaced a little. 'I need to get some black sandals. I'm making a mental note- tonight, after I meet my team.' The thought sent exciting shivers up her spine. Aiko preoccupied herself in the kitchen. She was going to have her own team, like a real ninja. By the time Naruto had stumbled into the bathroom for the morning (and yelled something incoherent and vaguely accusatory about the mess in the sink) she had breakfast and was finishing arranging two bento.

"Whoa! Your hair!" Naruto wailed, skidding into the kitchen. "It was so pretty, Aiko-chaaaaan! What'd you do that for?"

Aiko turned to give him an amused look, pouring herself some hottea. She set it down on the table and walked off to the fridge. "Pretty, yes, but it wasn't practical. I'm a ninja now and I should look like one."

"There are ninjas with long hair," he argued. "I've seen them." She shut the fridge and slid the orange juice across the table to him. He took it sullenly and grabbed for his empty glass with his other hand.

"Yeah, but they're better ninja than I am." She pulled out her seat. "Having long hair is a sign of status, kind of. It's a declaration that you're good enough as a ninja to compensate for the disadvantages of possibly obscured vision and a hand-hold for enemies in close combat. I'm a fresh genin; I'm nowhere near that good. Besides…" She touched her new spikes. "I like it like this."

"I wish you weren't leaving," he said suddenly.

Aiko frowned, feeling uncomfortable. "I'm not really leaving, you know," she pointed out. "I still live with you. I'm not going to be leaving the village for a long time. My first missions will all be in the village. While you're in school, I'm going to be doing lame stuff like weeding gardens and painting fences." She made a fence.

Naruto flailed, spilling some juice. He caught the cup before it actually tipped, and looked back up at her. "What?! Why would you do that?"

"That's what D-rank missions are like," she said, amused by his ignorance. He really was cute when he overreacted like that. "Since I'm graduating young, they're not going to want me out of the village for a long time. I'm a little jealous of you, in a way. You'll probably spend a lot less time on D-ranks than I will."

He pointed and laughed at her for a while. She huffed and stood, brushing non-existent crumbs off her shirt. "Don't be a brat, Naruto. Hey, you need to get dressed."

He gave her a vaguely superior look. "Aiko, it's Saturday. I don't have class. Have fun at school!" he snickered. She stuck her tongue out at him and jammed her feet into her sandals.

"Hey, toss me my bento. Thanks." She shut the door behind her and set off for the Academy at an easy run. At one point she had to stop and stare at a person who just had to be Maito Gai. Granted, he was wearing completely normal ninja attire, and his hair didn't seem to be slicked down, so she might not have picked him out of a crowd if he'd been walking down the street. She could tell because he was walking on his hands and balancing a cactus on his feet, tongue sticking out a little with concentration. She waved weakly, feeling a little shell-shocked. He transferred the potted plant to one foot and waved at her with the other leg. He seemed to be concentrating too much to actually speak, so she let it be and backed away slowly.

The classroom she was to wait in was nearly full, and she recognized almost no one in it. Most of the kids here were from the other classrooms. Some of them gave her strange looks, but no one called her out. Aiko took a seat at the back of the classroom (she liked having a wall to her back and waited.

Iruka came in with Mizuki at his side and a scroll. She barely listened to his spiel (something about adulthood and responsibility) and only perked up once he began to read off teams. Team by team left the room… and she suddenly realized that it didn't look like the kids in the classroom ended up as a dividend of three. Alarmed, she began to count to be sure. 3-6-9-12-…13… There were thirteen students in the room…. Shit, she'd thrown off the count by graduating on time. Then there were seven students… Which turned to four, and then it was just her and Iruka-sensei was rolling up the scroll.

"Um… Sensei?" she said dumbly. Mizuki gave a quiet snicker, but didn't comment. Iruka looked vaguely sympathetic when he avoided her gaze and stuttered that her sensei should be by to get her soon, wait here please.

Then they left and she was alone… with a sinking feeling.

"Oh hell, I'm going to be waiting here a while, aren't I?"

[justaredheadf1fan]

The Final Lap

The saddest day so far came.

Today's Seb's last race. I hope it's not his last ever, but for now it's his last. I truly hope both Fernando and Lewis are right and he'll come back sooner rather than later.

I've seen the Driver's Parade for once and several videos for Seb in the program prior to the race in DAZN Spain and the whole Guard of Honor for Seb and I can't. I can't process this. It's too much. Seb and Daniel taking pictures of each other while the other was talking in the interviews 🥹

They took the Class of '22 picture today and all drivers applauding Seb was too beautiful, honestly. Then the Guard of Honor. He deserves it all.

Even Kimi posted to say goodbye to Seb. THE ICEMAN. He truly loves him and I'm here for it.

Now it's time for the start. Alonso, I'm trusting you with Seb's wellbeing. I'M SERIOUS, FERNANDO, YOU GOTTA PROTECT HIM AT ALL COSTS.

LEWIS!!!!???? What a start, he goes flying off track due to Carlos closing the door. So tense, Jesus Christ. So, they don't investigate Carlos but they do investigate Lewis. Fantastic. The crybaby gets his way while Lewis says absolutely nothing about him being pushed off track flying around to stay on the race, but on we go.

YES LEWIS!!!!! THAT'S HOW IT'S DONE. No complaints, and yet he just keeps his head down and gets the job done. Carlos, learn a little maybe.

SEB AND ESTIE BESTIE FIGHTING WHILE ALONSO KEEPS HIS BACK PROTECTED, I'M HERE FOR THIS.

What is going on with Lewis? George just flies by and that's it. I'm speechless right now. So he's losing power, maybe those jumps off track damaged the car. For fuck's sake, NOT TODAY.

Esteban giving Seb space so that they don't touch is amazing. I love to see this respect for him. Now Vettel fighting Checo and Vettel takes the cake! I know it won't last much but everything to fuck up with Checo.

And Russell is gonna get penalized after that unsafe release after that horrendous pit stop. What the fuck Mercedes?

Lewis' stop is pretty good but he says that he thinks the floor is broken. I'm so done with this race. I don't want it to be over because of what it means but I need it to be over to stop suffering, if you know what I mean.

George given the 5-second penalty, he'll serve it once he stops again. And now Seb stops and drops to P19, this is so sad, I hope he regains positions the way he knows how. What the fuck Aston Martin.

And Alonso retires. Probably a Power Unit thing, because they were trying to keep it at all costs since it was their last without penalizing maybe? But it's a shame since he won't be able to donut his way with Lewis and Seb...

Sharl is flying right now and Checo complaining about Cuntstappen. Living la vida Loki right now.

We need to burn the W13 to the ground ASAP. We need someone to cause a Safety Car? Yes, we do. Who's volunteering? Latifi, it's your last race, you should celebrate it by stomping the wall with your car, just a little bit without any harm coming to you, of course. Just to get the SC.

AND HE DID IT!!! JESUS, I BARELY FINISHED WRITING THAT WHEN HE COLLIDED WITH MICK. My poor Mick, I didn't want to get you involved 😩 We don't get a SC but a slightly Yellow Flagged moment there.

So, the Latifi thing was a no-go, so we just need a double RedBull DNF. Universe, work your magic, it's time. you owe it to all of us.

Shit, 5-second penalty for Mick. I do't really know where he went wrong, because I don't see it that clearly.

Please, Mercedes, don't leave Lewis hanging again with the pit stops. Not today. Not in Abu Dhabi.

RedBulls you need to stop on track, both of you, so that we get a SC. Like NOW.

Checo passing Lewis BUT LEWIS COMES BACK. COME ON LEWIS, YOU CAN FUCK UP WITH CHECO. AAAAAND SHIT.

Is that Costappen being a good teammate? Or trying to look like it. FFS.

LANCE STROLL WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? AND MERCEDES WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOT STOPPING LEWIS?????

I can't take this, it's unbearable. Charles please bring it home, we need you to fuck up RedBull even if it's just a little.

Mercedes I hate you so fucking much for doing this to Lewis all over again. Wasn't it enough last year? Hasn't it been enough through the whole season? DO BETTER, FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

Lewis losing the car. Another one not being able to do donuts with Seb? This is fucking ridiculous. Honestly. I hate you so fucking much, Mercedes/W13.

Poor Seb, 2 of his besties out and not being able to do donuts with him. I hope at least Mick does. Seb gets P10, last point of his career for now. Amazing race, amazing career, better person. I don't care about anything else. so sad to say goodbye to Seb. So sad Fernando and Lewis weren't there with him doing those donuts.

My heart is broken, right now. I was growing up when Seb came into Formula 1. I was very young, but in the end so was he. I grew up watching him win. I just wish I'd appreciate it more at the time, but mostly I wish I'd appreciate him more at that time. I can't picture Formula 1 without Sebastian Vettel.

I'm crying too with Daniel's and Mick's farewells, even with Lando's message to Daniel on the radio made me cry. This is so unfair, losing these 3 altogether. My emotional support idiots on wheels. Seb at least got Driver of the Day too, so that's something positive at least, right?

I got hooked again to Formula 1 after watching DTS with the additional commentary session with Marina every episode to get myself into the atmosphere again after I watched the last 3 races of last season (plus Brazil afterwards). And I got hooked because of Daniel mainly. I already knew who he was but at the time I didn't really pay attention to him being a newbie and all. But I never knew that that personality of his would be the reason I needed to jump back in. I can't imagine Formula 1 without him either. He's been my emotional support idiot this whole season.

And what can I say about Mick. At first I didn't even realize last season that the son of the very Michael Schumacher had gotten himself into this circus. The last memory I had related to Mick was his dad's accident, because I knew he was with him that day. But after watching the first DTS 3 seasons and diving into the loop of F1, I started digging and finding whatever info I could find on all the new drivers I didn't know and I came across him. This kid with Michael's features and I couldn't believe it. I loved Michael Schumacher with my whole heart despite of my family being complete assholes about it and I definitely feel the same about Mick, I don't care how many mistakes he's made or how much he's struggled. I trust that he's not done, he'll be back and he'll be biting everyone in their asses.

I don't know if I'll be able to post anything at all before I go on my trip to the USA on Thursday, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to post after I get back. I'd like to write a few things about this season before the 2023 season starts, but I'll have to find my will to do so after this devastating last race.

I'd like to thank all the people reading me on here, especially the ones that do it every week. It's nice to see you there after each post. So thank you all, truly.

For now, peace out and see you soon.

[queenharumiura]

🎂+ "Did you even notice me or am I just a replacement for Juudaime?" ((you already know who this is from))

Today is the day I celebrate Haru because of her shorthand (86) and I'll answer any questions. [x] ||Time's up! No longer accepting!|| I do know this is to take place in the future, so I'm taking some creative liberties as I don't exactly know how things lead up to them being a thing, so bear with me.

“Huh. Fuck.” What was the saying, tongue in cheek? It would be better for her to keep her silence and storm off in a fit of anger, but she was told to be honest and to not hold back, hm? She looks down at the piece of paper giving her directions for the day. All she knew was that she was going to have a strong word with a certain mun later for this horrendous idea of hers. When can a Haru ever have peace? “So this is how we’re ending things tonight with the questions? Okay.”

She honestly thought that she was safe and free, and yet everything snowballed at night, and look at this now. She’s ending things off with a bang, hm?

“You know, I expected something more out of you than this, Gokudera.” A derisive snort, “You waited until now to ask because I have to be honest and you didn’t trust me otherwise, is that it?” A relationship had to be built on top of trust, and she was being made to feel that he didn’t trust her. That deep down he felt that she still had a flame for Tsuna.

He didn’t believe that she loved him, and for someone who wore her heart on her sleeve, he’d effectively taken her love and slapped her in the face with it, thinking that he was just a replacement. This entire situation left a bad taste in her mouth both figuratively and literally. She could taste the blood from her biting so hard on her lower lip in anger.

Her line of vision kept shifting on different spots on the ceiling as she was trying to calm herself to not just launch into a slew of explicatives. Deep breath in and deep breath out, keep the tears at bay. Staring at the ceiling in an attempt to keep her composure for long enough to not break down into tears as she’s forced to address this.

There were a few things to note about Haru and her speech patterns. When she stopped referring to herself in third person, she was being very serious, and the moment she ever utters a curse word, you know you messed up, royally.

“I sure am curious though. Is this something you came up with yourself, or is it because you hear things other say about me and now you doubt me?” Don’t worry, regardless of the answer she’s still mad at you. You still went and fucked up. Mun-san really had a lot to make up for, that’s for sure.

She takes a deep breath in, holds it for a few seconds before she exhales, trying to release a lot of her frustrations with it. She managed to center herself with that one. “When I gave upon Tsuna-san all that time ago after exhausting everything I could try, that was the end of things. I had a clean break with my feelings. I did all that I could to have him see my way, but it didn’t work. I did try to hide it and I don’t know how well I did at that, but I was a mess sometimes because of it all.” She hated the fact that she was being made to admit to anything and everything.

“Did you think I didn’t know who he was pining for? Sure, I’m a stupid woman as you say, but I won’t have anyone come here and tell me that I was in the wrong for trying. The stupidest thing you can do is NOT try and lament that it never happened. I did my best to appeal to Tsuna-san. I did everything I could to try something… ANYTHING, but nothing came of it. What came out of it? Me understanding that it wasn’t going to work out. After that, all I needed to do was sever my feelings and move on.”

She says it as if it was an easy thing to do, but it wasn’t. She needed time to come to terms with the futile efforts and to understand that this was going to be viewed as a waste of time to everyone else.

“I don’t regret all that I did then, as I learned a lot from him. I developed some skill sets that I’m proud of to this day. Everyone else may think that my time spent pinning for him was a waste of time, but I see it as my journey of going through my first love and seeing it to the end. Some people can get stuck and get hung up on it forever, but I’m not like that. When I stopped loving him, that was the end of it. It was time for the next stage of my life, whatever that was.”

If she had to regret anything, it was the amount of emotional baggage that followed her after the fallout of her feelings for Tsuna. “I know that others pitied me for my futile efforts… and I know I probably looked stupid to a lot of them (if not all of them). I pretended to not see it, even if it was coming from those I cared about.” It was one thing to be pitied by random people, but to be pitied by your friends and family? It was the absolute worst. They were seeing her at her lowest, but she kept a smile on her face, pretending to not see it. Haru thought that it would hurt more if she let them know that she saw the looks.

It would be worse to acknowledge it and have them be more discreet about it.

“Ahh… fuck” she ruffles her fingers through her bangs, “there was a time where I really thought I’d be okay with being a shadow woman if only it meant he’d notice me when he thought to look down.” A scoff. “It’s stupid, how low I was at that time. Just how badly I was willing to degrade myself to relegating myself to being a shadow.” She really hated that part of her. It disgusted her every time she recalls that.

She shouldn’t have ever thought that way or spoken that way, even if at one point it may have been a joke. That’s the thing with jokes, they can feel real once you say them enough. She’s irritated on all accounts now as she’s reeling over the real question at hand and the memories relating to the question. “Do you just want me to stay hung up on the past? You just won’t let me get past it to heal and feel better about myself, will you?” She’s biting back with her own words. “Does it make you feel better to kick me down when I’ve already done that enough? Was my self-confidence and self-love tanking not enough? You have to kick me down too? Is there a point to this? Is it a game to see who can break me worse?”

What was that about holding back tears? Well, she tried.

“You know, I always wanted to have an average life by getting married to someone who loved me and start a family one day—but I can’t have that. By some twist of fate, I am affiliated with the mafia. I can’t just love a civilian and expect them to follow me into the Mafia. That then involves their family too by extension. I don’t have other options available to me. I lied to myself telling myself that it’d be okay if I was alone moving forwards. It’s too late for me to go back to being a regular civilian. I gave up on one of my dreams to stay with you all.”

That is to say that she treasured the bonds she made with everyone more than her dream of having a happily married life with some normal guy. She would’ve been plenty happy with that. Not to be a narcissist, but she would make a great wife! She’s wasting her potential here, you know?

Damn it, she couldn’t stop the tears from flooding down her face NO THANKS TO SOMEONE. She stopped as she was hectically rubbing at her cheeks, trying to wipe away the tears. Well, the show must go on, right? You wanted the full truth, after all. She won’t have anyone accusing her of wasting time by stalling.

“I already had the reputation of being the silly woman who pined after Tsuna-san for so long. That moniker will never leave me for as long as I live, I’m sure. People are going to talk and make whatever they will about my interpersonal relationships with others. They’re going to suspect that I still hold a torch for Tsuna-san, or that I’m secretly hoping for Kyoko-chan to reject him or what have you.” It was so tough on her to think that’s how people may perceive her character.

She spent the majority of her life being a regular civilian girl. She wasn’t some conniving person who lusted after power. She wasn’t someone who was willing to do any underhanded means to get what she wanted either. She was just an innocent girl who wholeheartedly loved the wrong person.

“I didn’t want to fall for anyone else associated with the Vongola. I knew that people would talk, assume that I was using them as a replacement. I didn’t want to be the reason for any of you to be looked down on. I… I’m not worth your reputations being sullied because of me.” Haru walks over to a chair and brings her knees to her chest, hiding her crying face in her knees. “I trusted that you’d believe me.” We see where that got her.

“I was fine with anyone viewing me as the worst if only my lover trusted me. That alone would be worth it. Maybe I could prove myself in the eyes of others if they saw just how much I loved you but I can’t even convince YOU that you’re the only one that I have in my heart?”

What was the point then? What is a relationship without trust at a bare minimum?

This is incredibly heartbreaking.

“You deserve someone who makes you feel confident in the fact you’re the only one for them, and I deserve someone who doesn’t doubt me even when I gave them everything that I had to offer. If with all the love I had to give you, you still had an ounce of doubt in me, I can’t stay here. I don’t deserve this.” She may have trampled her self-worth when she was pining over Tsuna, but she made a promise to herself to not do that again.

“If you truly think that you’re just a replacement for me, consider today the last time you can call me your girlfriend. I’m NOT tolerating this bullshit. Not from you.”

It’s past midnight and that’s the last of the questions she was accepting for the night, so she storms out the questioning room to cry for the rest of the night.

[ironmanfridgemagnet]

Sitting On The Shelf - Marcus White x Reader

Part 25.b - Valentine’s Day Dinner

SOTS Masterlist

"And then he ran back up to Garrett, paused the music and then restarted his song so he could redo the flash mob now that Lisa was there."

Marcus threw his head back in laughter, his eyes crinkled shut as a loud, boisterous laugh slipped past his lips. Your legs were thrown across his lap, one of Marcus's hands holding onto the one furthest from him, his grip tightening as he laughed at the story of what he'd missed earlier on today. His other hand held onto one of the cartons of Chinese takeout that you'd picked up on your way back to the apartment, his fork lazily stabbed into a piece of chicken and left in the tub.

"Why didn't he just wait till he knew she was there?" Marcus's hand needed against the exposed skin of your calf, your own held your tub of noodles and twirled your fork into them, a mouthful of food a hairs length away from your lips.

"I don't know. I don't know why he'd try and propose like that anyway." Blowing onto the food, you took it into your mouth, chewing down the meal before speaking again. "I mean a flash mob? Really?"

"Are they that bad?" You raised an eyebrow at Marcus, looking at him over the brim of your takeout tub, a look of panic crossing his face. "No, no! Like, I knew they were bad, but I didn't think they were horrendous." Marcus's hand lifted from your leg, returning to his fork and shovelling a mouthful of orange chicken between his lips.

"Honestly." You prodded into your noodles, swirling them around your fork then pulling it from the box, stabbing it into a piece of Marcus's chicken before popping it into your mouth. "I think that would be material for saying 'no.'

"And what would be material for you to say yes?"

"Woah, Woah!" You chocked on the food you'd stolen from Marcus's box, placing your own on the small coffee table in front of you as you tried to stop yourself from spluttering everywhere. "Take me out to dinner first."

"Have I not already?" Marcus leant forward, placing his now empty food carton next to your own, his hands settling on the leg furthest from him, running them up and down the exposed skin. God, did you love pj shorts. "Several times now I think."

"Once."

"Surly it's been more then once?"

"Nuh-uh. Only once before now. To Bobby's." You thought of Sunnyside diner more often then you'd ever admit: the food, the company, the stars. It had all been so perfect. And Bobby was more then a gentleman, the older diner owner had been sweet to you on every occasion you'd gone there.

"Well, I'll have to take you out again sometime, take you on another proper date." It was like he could read your thoughts.

"Our third one?" You teased, reaching out to take one of Marcus's hands into your own, playing with his long, thick fingers and fair hairs that covered his arms.

"Our fourth one. I'm claiming New Years as a date." You didn't have to look up to feel the smile that was radiating from Marcus's face; it was contagious too, a mirror imagine of his face appearing on your own. "What? Meeting the Mom, the sister. If anything that's like a 4 date equivalent. So really it would be our 7th date."

"Oh, so we're just counting everything as a date now, huh?" You asked, though the question was harmless, it provoked a warmth onto Marcus's cheeks, his hands you'd been playing with stopping your motions. He held your fingers in his hand, running his thumb along your knuckles as the blush in his cheeks rose.

"Well, any time I spend with you is worthy of the date title."

Marcus hesitantly met your eyes, his smile as dazzling as ever, especially under the low light of your tv buzzing in the background. Night was falling, each second spent together another second closer to total darkness beyond the window ledge. The dregs of winter blew in through the latched open window, blowing at the wispy and white sheet of fabric that acted as a curtain, the cold night air getting warmer with every day closer to spring time.

"Oh! I got you - well, us, really - something."

"I actually got you something too." Marcus leaned over the edge of the couch, reaching down and filing through the pile of his things that he'd let fall to the floor as he got comfortable on your couch earlier in the night, finally grabbing onto something and pulling it up and tucking it behind his back.

"Really?"

"I call him..." Marcus pulled the item out from behind him, two hand firmly grasping the soft tufts of beige fluff between his fingers: a sweet, little teddy bear, a red, lace bow tied around its neck and adorable button eyes. "Mr Bear Bearington the third."

"Oh my god." Grabbing out for the small teddy, you gently placed your hands above Marcus's larger ones, holding his as you looked up at him, waiting for him to nod before you took the bear into your own hands.

"It's not much, but I saw it and thought you'd like it." Marcus looked as shy as you'd ever seen him, crashing into the hard arm of the couch in, if you didn't know him better, what felt like an attempt to get away from you. Create space in the tension that was thick between the two of you.

"Marcus, sweetie, are you kidding? I love him." You smushed the soft fur of Mr Bear Bearington III against your cheek, looking over your new sons' shoulder at Marcus, he looked on at you and the bear in adoration, unbeknownst to the fact you could see the loving look that covered his face.

Placing the cuddly toy into Marcus's lap, you stood from your seat on the sofa, walking across the short length of the room to your kitchen counter, where three, large, heart shaped boxes sat. "I stole three of the big boxes that Amy was meant to throw out. Why would anyone say no to free chocolate? Especially the fancy little ones they put in this shit."

Picking up the boxes, you balanced the stack against your hip, curving around the edge of the couch to sit directly beside Marcus. Smushing into his side, you curled into his warmth, his arm wrapping around your shoulders, over the back of the low couch cushions, his hand hanging above your collar bone.

Grabbing Mr Bear Bearington III you tucked him between the two of you, your son cuddled between his two new parents, and you swung your legs into Marcus's now empty lap. Placing a red heart into your lap, and another on your knees for Marcus to reach into, you tossed the third one onto the floor in front of the two of you.

Opening the big, heart-shaped boxes, you tucked into the fancy Valentine's Day chocolate, some romcom playing in the background as you bit into the chocolates, trying the different flavours and rating them, swapping the ones you didn't quite like with ones Marcus didn't quite like so you'd both be happy; a pile of blue-dyed molasses rid of into the empty takeout boxes on the coffee table.

"Ew, Coconut."

"I got praline, want to switch?"  You forcibly swallowed down the chunk you had already bitten into, lifting the rest of the coconut-filled chocolate to Marcus's lips, then wrapping around the sweetness and chewing into it. He offered the praline out to you, something much more to your tastes, and you took it gratefully, swallowing it down in one bite.

Marcus looked at you, his eyes meeting yours, then looking past you, his eyes settling on something behind you, a wicked grin curling onto his face. "Wait, what is that?"

Turning and following his eye-line, your eyes met the coat hanger that stood tall on the hinge side of the door, the key table on the left. Your eyes raked over the scene before you, wondering what could be causing the wicked grin that rested on his face: then your eyes landed on the beige bomber jacket that had been in your possession for a long while. "You can have it back. I didn't mean to keep it for so long. I just... kind of... forgot."

A beat of silence had worry building in the tips of your toes all the way up to the top of your head. "I'm only joking with you." A relieved huff of air, and a cheerful smile made its way onto your face, a warmth filling your cheeks as Marcus spoke again. "It looks better on you anyway."

"I mean, I don't think it would hurt if you took it back for a little while." You pushed your self off of the couch, though reluctant to leave Marcus's warm hold behind, and towards the coat rack, pulling the oversized jacket off of the rack and pressing it close to your chest. Holding it with both hands, you tucked your head down into the soft material, it smelling more of you now then it ever had of Marcus. "It's starting to smell a little too much like me. That's not why I kept it, y'know."

Walking back across to the couch, you pushed away the discarded and empty chocolate box away from where you were sat, and sank down next to Marcus. Holding the jacket out to him, he graciously took it, toying with the fabric between his fingers.

"Well, I can't see any harm in that." Thankfully, Marcus still had the exact same supplies he'd used last time, keeping them, and using them, unsaved you ever happened upon any of his clothes. "I should probably get going now, though. It's getting dark out."

The bedroom door wasn't far away from where you were sat, in fact, it was facing you; cracked open and beckoning and waiting for you to ask such a simple question.

"You don't have to go, y'know."

"Are you sure?" Marcus was immediately unsure. He didn't want you to feel like you had to let him stay over, the dark of night threatening and the warmth of your apartment welcoming. Honestly, if he'd never said anything, he would've talked the night away with you, hoping the pair of you would fall asleep on the couch, wrapped in each other. "Well, I mean, if you've got the spare pillows. I don't really need any blankets, my mom says I'm like a human radiator."

"No, Marcus..." Reaching out for his hand, you shifted slightly closer to him, playing with his fingers as you avoided his eyes. "I meant you could sleep here, like, in my bed... With me."

Marcus sat silent before you, entirely unmoving - you weren't even sure if he was breathing. However, his face flushed red and his eyes gripped onto yours, always meeting them I matter how much you tried to look away. "Only if you want! I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything... especially after the whole harassment thing at work today."

"I though the video said what starts in the break room, shouldn't end in the bedroom?" You couldn't tell if he was teasing you or chastising you, any kind of indication lost on you amidst your worry. "It's a good thing we first technically met outside the store, huh."

Marcus no longer cared he was meant to be starting his shift at 10am tomorrow morning, and he no longer cared that he'd be showing up to work in yesterdays clothes (though if he was being honest it wouldn't be the first time), or that he'd have to come up with some half-assed reason as to why he was wearing the same clothes as the day before.

He was being welcomed into your home yet again, though this time in such a more personal manner and he wasn't sure if he could handle it. His heart felt like it was going to beat outside of his chest, his face felt like it was on fire and the tips of his ears were red hot. How you had this effect on him, he didn't know.

Solidifying the grip of his hand in yours, you pulled him from the comfort of the couch, clicking the tv off as you rushed around the living room in an attempt to clean up the space a little. Less mess in the morning would have tomorrows you thankful.

Pulling him to the bedroom door, you flickered off all of the lights, a dumbfounded Marcus standing outside the door with no effort to go inside. With a gentle push, he was through the threshold of the room, the soft glow of a bedside lamp illuminating the entirety of the your bedroom. It was perfectly you, much like the rest of your apartment, that had only gotten more and more decorated since he'd come over at New Years.

The walls were deep shade of sage green, though the paint was mostly hidden by framed photos of anything and everything; magazine covers, posters of your favourite movies, album covers, scrawls of artwork signed by Emma in the bottom right hand corner and photos of you and your friends and family.

A few in particular stuck out to him, like, the one of Jonah dancing with you in that wedding dress; it was funny, looking back now, to think he'd gotten so worked up over the picture that sat in a brass frame, when all that mattered about the picture was the wide smile on the both of your faces. Next was another one of you and Jonah, in very similar, navy blue pantsuits and Amy sandwiched between you, the three of you stood like Charlies angles - backs pressed together and finger guns pressed to your chests. He supposed, eyes raking over the captured scene, it was from the strike, the smiles on your faces filled with hope not yet crushed. Further along was a low shot of him and you, you curled into his chest a blanket tucked tightly around your shoulders as he looked up at the tv screen out of camera. A few scattered family photos of you, Amy, Adam and Emma - as well as some of you and Garrett - filled the space between the first and the final picture frame; another of you and him. You were tucked into his strong hold, pressed to his chest, laughter completely consuming you as you were oblivious to the loving look he sent you, head thrown back, his pirate hat thrown messily against your head, practically falling off.

That was his favourite.

Against the wall furthest from the door was your bed, soft white, floral sheets covering it as well as a mountain of throw pillows and hand-made throw blankets. A wicker stool acted as a makeshift nightstand, the sole light of the room surrounded by half-empty mugs and spilt nail polish. Two windows helped to separate the room, one completely covered over by a white lace-type fabric, the other wide open, it's makeshift curtain blown away by the gentle night breeze. A set of wicker doors led into what he imagined was a closet, the door slightly ajar having a navy blue jumper spilling out of it.

You walked into the depth of the room without hesitation, stripping off the jumper you had been in and allowing it to fall to the floor, leaving you in just a shirt and a pair of pj shorts. You pulled the open window, closer to shut, clicking it onto the latch to keep it from fully closing then pushed past Marcus, closing the bedroom door shut and making your way over to your bed. Throwing yourself haphazardly onto it, you looked up at Marcus who stood still about half a foot away from your door, dumbfounded.

"C'mon, pretty boy." You cooed, patting the space beside you on the bed, you rolling to lay flat against it and clicking off your lamp. "Nothing to be sacred about. And it's not too late to go home if you've changed your mind."

Marcus immediately pulled his grey shirt over his head at the thought of leaving - and the reassurance that everything was fine - allowing it to fall to the floor next to your jumper. Next he striped of his jeans, leaving him in just his boxers as he looked back up at you, curling into himself at the vulnerability of it all. "Is this okay?"

"If it's okay for you, yeah. I've got some T-shirts you'd probably fit into if you'd want one."

Marcus shook his head at that, nervously approaching the bed and laying down next to you. Palpable tension had formed between the two of you, suffocating in the close quarters of your moonlit bedroom as you both lay flat on your backs staring at the ceiling.

Not moving your head, you looked across at the brunette, shuffling deeper into the unmade covers in hopes of finding more warmth in them. Amidst the silence of the bedroom, you whispered. "Happy Valentine's Day, Marcus."

"Happy Valentine's Day, Y/n."

A few moments of tense silence filled the room before you let out a fed up sigh, reaching out for Marcus's far arm, across his bare chest, and pulling it over you. Turning with it, you pulled him onto his side, allowing him to adjust to the new position before you cuddled back against his firm chest. Skin pressed to skin.

Marcus was starstruck at the move, staring down at your figure in awe before allowing himself to really settle down. Shuffling in the bedsheets, he pulled the duvet tighter over the two of you, encasing you in his big arms and pulling you even more against his chest. His face smushed against the top of your head, nose brushing against your hair and breathing in your shampoo.

The two of you were asleep in no time, for you, it was the fastest you'd fallen asleep since moving in to the apartment. The dead silence was exhausting, and kept you up to the early hours of the morning. However, with Marcus pressed against your back, you could feel the breathes he took. In and out, in and out, in and out. And you could hear them too, the gentle snooze lulling you to sleep in the knowledge that you were safe, and secure, in his hold.

A happy Valentine's Day it was indeed.

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☆*: .｡. Tag List .｡.:*☆ @write-from-the-heart @despicablylara @whatafreakingloser @flowercrowns-goodvibes @millieb-3199 @lolawassad @catarina-trouxa @falsegodofmischief @thepurplebutterflythings @littleboysmile @sibsteria @quinn-7007 @aashy723 @maeisonline @lizziel1410

Want to be added to the taglist? send an ask to let me know <3

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Hope you guys enjoyed this longer-then-usual sub-part!!! I did 😏😏😏😏😏

I'm always a sucker for writing off-script Marcus/reader content.

New part out on Wednesday where everything is beginning to kick off.😏😏

See you then!! And, as always, have a lovely week!! <3333