#‘holly didn’t get ME a card!’

[gobbluthbutagirl]

favorite lead at my job happened to come into the break room while i had my mask off today and he mentioned he had NEVER seen my whole face before. which is like. i have literally broken down crying in front of this man before and you’re telling me i didn’t take my mask off. Yeah that does sound like me

[wosoamazing]

Mothers Day

blurb | Beneath the Surface

Warnings: none??

Notes: fluff (also Caitlin is in this more) 600 words

This year mothers day fell on an off day, meaning they had decided to sleep in. Caitlin had offered to take you to your extra swim training session this week, which little did your Mum and Leah know was actually next week, you’d actually asked Caitlin to take you shopping that morning and she agreed. You had already planned everything and already had the cards for them both written, and at home.

“This one's for you,” you told Caitlin as you climbed back into the car, handing her a bouquet of flowers that was much smaller than the others.

“What, why, really? You didn’t have too,” Caitlin blurted out.

“Well you’re driving me, and there have been times during the past years you have very much been a mother figure to me, so I thought it was only fair,” you told Caitlin before she leant over the centre console to hug you, a tear slipping from her eyes, “are you crying?”

“No,” you gave her a pointed look, “fine, maybe but don’t tell anyone.”

___

“I come bearing more goods,” Caitlin said as she walked back through the door, holding the four coffees and assortment of baked goods you requested she got whilst you set everything up, knowing even though they were sleeping in Leah and your Mum would wake up soon, they always woke up at the same time on off days, “why are there four coffees though?”

“Caitlin surely you can’t be that obtuse, they’re for you and Katie,” you tell her.

“Yeah okay, that makes more sense now, you know you really are too nice for your own good,” Caitlin told you as she brought you in for a one armed hug, “I love you, thank you, I’ll see you later,”

“Love you too Caity,” you sang out to slightly tease her, having had enough of the sappy aunt to niece love today.

“Oh my god, what is all of this?” Your Mum asked as she walked into the living area, Leah trailing behind her, having seen the array of gifts and food on the table, there were two bouquets of flowers, sitting apart from each other, both surrounded by lots of smaller gifts, both with a card placed in front of them.

“Happy Mother’s Day,” you said as you got up before hugging them both.

They both read their cards first whilst sipping on their coffees, before opening all their gifts. You all had to start getting ready after the gift ceremony though as you were having Lunch with Leah’s family, more specifically her Mum, aunt, and cousin Holly.

-

“I won’t eat any of your bread don’t you worry Le,” you said to her after noticing her look at you whilst you moved your hand to the centre of the table to get the water jug, you knew she was just wondering what you were doing but you couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make fun off her.

“I like this one,” Holly exclaimed before giving you a wink, causing Leah to huff.

“Oh aren’t you a dear,” Leah’s aunt said as you refilled her water as well, noticing it was also empty.

“She is, when she isn’t teasing me,” Leah pouted dramatically, and you subtly stuck your tongue out at her, the restaurant being too fancy to do it properly, “I love her though,” Leah added as she put her arm around your shoulder.

You ended your day sitting on the couch between both of them, their intertwined hands laid behind you resting on the top of the couch back, as you all snacked on junk food watching a romcom.

[thewintersoldierdisaster]

a/n: a little festive mat fic! written fairly quickly and minimally edited, but i wanted to get something out for the holiday! not too much more to say except i hope you guys all have a wonderful holiday and i’ll be quiet for the rest of the year, writing and stockpiling fics lol

word count: 4.8k

tw: a little innuendo, nothing crazy

summary: after spending the day hanging out with the team, you have some news for mat

“The snow was a nice touch,” you grin at Holly Horvat. A light dusting of snow is falling outside, the grass in the Horvats’ backyard already white.

Holly laughs, “oh, you know me. I have a connect to make sure even the weather is perfect for our events.” She pours M&Ms into a few small ramekins that are going to be placed around the kitchen island and dining room table where the kids will be decorating gingerbread houses.

The house is bustling with people and noise and you can’t help but love it. You miss having huge family gatherings, ever since your parents moved off Long Island and down south. The rest of your family is scattered to the winds, so it’s nice to be folded into the big team family get togethers. Joining a group of women who love any excuse to throw a party has been one of the biggest benefits from your relationship with Mat.

Half a dozen kids run past you - you spot the Bailey boys and Brock’s two oldest kids in the group as they blur by - holding jackets and their sneakers. “Mini sticks is getting moved outside,” Noah grins as he breezes past you, swiping a handful of M&Ms from the little bowl.

“Stay warm,” you tease, watching him follow the kids out the back door. A parade of adult men follow him - Wahlly, Casey, Josh, Brock, and finally Mat, who stops to give your waist a little squeeze.

“Kiss for luck?” He asks, puckering his lips at you in a dramatic duck face. You giggle and plant one on him, pulling back before he can slip his tongue past your lips.

Mat leans slightly against you, his face a little flushed already from the twenty minutes of mini sticks that’s been going on in the basement. “What do you need luck for?” You ask, carding your fingers through his hair.

“Jacky’s got a wicked wrister,” Mat grins, referring to Casey’s oldest, “and no idea how to aim. Do you know how many pucks to the head I’ve dodged?”

A snort of laughter makes Mat’s lips turn down in a frown. “Oh, I guess you just don’t care about my health,” he sighs dramatically, pulling away from your side. “It’s fine. I’ll take a slap shot to the head and then you’ll see how much you miss my charming personality.”

“Dramatics,” you murmur affectionately, hooking your fingers in his belt loops. “He’s five and you guys use a Nerf ball. I think you’ll live.”

“Maaaat!” Jack comes barreling through the room and crashes into your fiancé’s legs. “C’mon! Everybody’s outside.” The little boy looks adorable in his puffer coat, a little beanie pulled haphazardly over his blonde hair. He wrinkles his face up at Mat in an impatient frown and you can’t help but egg him on.

“Yeah, Mat,” you prod him in the side, looking innocent, “everyone’s outside already.”

He rolls his eyes at you, but grins down at Jack and swoops him into his arms, making Jack shriek with laughter. You prop your chin in the palm of your hand and watch Mat tickle Jack’s belly while he carries him outside. Jack’s little sneakered feet are kicking in the air, narrowly avoiding Mat’s head.

“He’s really good with the kids,” Kristy Cizikas comments, coming into the kitchen with baby Cole propped on her hip.

You scrunch up your face at Cole to make him laugh, “it’s because he’s a big kid himself, right Coley? Huh? Is Matty a big kid?” You giggle at your own baby talk and warmth blooms in your chest when you’re rewarded with a gummy baby smile. “Ooh, you make cute babies,” you tell Kristy.

She shakes her head affectionately, “I swear, they’re all Casey. It’s like my genes didn’t even try.”

“Hey, in like six months you and Mat can start catching up to the rest of us,” Sydney Martin teases, easily passing Alice to you when you reach out for the one-year-old. Alice immediately grabs a chunk of your hair and you wince, untangling chubby fingers from the strands.

You hum noncommittally as you work. “We’ll see what happens,” you shrug. “Might be nice to just be the two of us for a bit.”

“But don’t you want that all the time?” Syd laughs, gesturing to you now that Alice’s fingers are hooked in your mouth. You pretend to nibble on them, making her shriek with laughter. She finishes helping Holly set out the candy, knowing the rest of the kids will start wandering their way into the kitchen.

“One day, definitely,” you nod, settling Alice more securely on your lap, one arm looped around her stomach. The little girl slaps her palms happily on the countertop and you giggle, resting your chin on her head. “No rush though.”

As you settle at the table with the kids, the other guys trail in and out of the backyard, the noise of mini sticks floating inside.

You get to be in charge of Alice during decorating, sitting in between Syd with Winnie and Ashlee with Luca while the kids decorate their pre-made houses. You squirt a line of frosting onto the roof and Alice uses her little pincer grip to place M&Ms on the line. “Oh, good job,” you tell her in a bright, encouraging voice. She rewards you with a half melted piece of candy smushed against your cheek.

“Mommy,” Winnie’s little voice pipes up, “Ali’s makin’ a mess.”

“So are you, Win,” Sydney laughs, wiping up a smudge of frosting off of Winnie’s sweater. “Everyone is going to make a little bit of a mess and that’s okay.”

From your spot at the island, you can see right out the back door and you watch the mini sticks tournament that’s happening. Kids versus adults and honestly, it looks like the adults are having a rough go of it. Mat’s on the ground, a pile of children fighting him. Whally has Cal’s oldest on his shoulders and you honestly wonder how that ended up happening. Sticks have been discarded and the Nerf pucks are strewn around. You watch Casey pull Jack out of the pile on top of Mat, his little arms and legs kicking. From the ground, Mat jokingly sticks his tongue out at Jack and you shake your head. Of course he has beef with a five-year-old.

Bo and Gunnar join the fun outside and Mat slaps the little boy’s hand in a high-five. Your stomach swoops a little. It’s always such a turn-on when Mat interacts with kids, but it’s a little different now.

Alice pats your hand and grumbles a little. “Whoops, sorry, Al,” you squeeze more frosting onto the house for her to decorate.

“Distracted?” Ashlee asks, pulling Luca’s frosting covered hand away from his hair. She wipes his fingers off with a napkin and gives him a pretzel to stick onto his little house. She pops another pretzel into her own mouth.

You hum. “Just making sure he’s not being totally steamrolled by a pack of kids,” you laugh lightly. While Alice works on the roof of her house, you put a few Starburts in place to act as a little pathway going to the door.

In the backyard, Mat stands up, Mack and Wyatt Bailey hanging from each arm. He shakes them gently and you can see both boys’ heads fall back with wild laughter. Meg looks up from where she’s helping Blake with a pattern of Smarties on her roof. “Honestly, if he wasn’t busy with, you know, his actual job,” she laughs, “I’d hire him as a babysitter. The kids loved when he lived with us.”

The entire kitchen of women laugh when the back door slides open and Mat steps back inside, shaking melted snow from his short hair. He stops and looks up, scanning the room full of laughing women. “What?” He asks, eyebrows drawn together. “I interrupt something? Want me to leave so you ladies can keep talking about me?” He laughs brightly, flashing his teeth.

“You can stay,” you offer generously, tilting your head up as he passes for a kiss. Mat’s hand is freezing when it cups your jaw and you flinch a little. He mumbles a ‘sorry’ against your lips before kissing them. When he pulls away, to a soundtrack of ‘awww’s from the women and a joking ‘get a room’ from Sydney, you continue, “but you have to take orders from toddlers, if you do.”

“Like I’m not already doing that,” he laughs, swiping a thumb over your cheekbone and sucking it into his mouth. “Frosting,” he explains, smirking. Your cheeks flush.

Winnie stands up on her chair and leans into you, poking at your cheek with her fingers. “Red, I wanna be red!” She bounces a little and looks over at Mat who scrunches up his whole face at her and tickles her sides, making her shriek with laughter and flop back into Sydney’s arms.

Sydney laughs and tickles Winnie’s side, “girlfriend, you’re collecting boyfriends around here like they’re Pokémon cards.”

Satisfied by the chaos he caused, Mat backs into the hallway, explaining, “I was sent to get more jackets and gloves and sh-stuff,” he course-corrects before letting the curse slip. “It’s freezing out there.”

He’s gone, rummaging through the massive hall closet, before reappearing wearing his own coat and holding an armful of the other guys’ outerwear.

“Who’s winning?” Holly teases, while you all watch Mat struggle to pull a beanie on without dropping anything. He fails spectacularly and gives up when he realizes that everything’s slowly falling to the floor.

Mat scoffs. “The kids, obviously. They’re unhinged,” he grins widely and you can tell he’s having a blast. There’s a chorus of his name being shouted from outside and Mat scoops up the dropped outerwear before dashing off to rejoin the fun.

Sydney leans in and nudges your side gently. “He’s going to be a great dad,” she whispers, smiling knowingly.

You chew at the inside of your cheek and manage a barely convincing smile. “One day, definitely,” you reply, holding an Oreo for Alice to chew at.

She shoots you a little side eyed look and you studiously ignore her, focusing on telling Reese Cizikas how great her house looks. Things start to get messy - well, messier - after a while and the kids get antsy until they’re turned loose from the table to run off around the house. While you clean up the candy, the guys come back inside with the older kids and you can’t help but laugh at how the three youngest men, including your fiancé, have kids hanging off of them.

“If you kids let go of the guys,” Holly says warmly, “I’ll pass around some hot chocolate.”

It’s a mad scramble for the kids to abandon Mat, Noah, and Oliver - and they actually look mildly offended when the kids just toss their jackets back at them in their dash for hot chocolate. You take some of the gear from Mat and lean up on your toes to kiss his cheek, “don’t look so sad, you can have another play date with your friends soon.”

“Menace,” Mat grins, reaching around to pinch at your ass.

“I’ll text Kristy,” you giggle, continuing the joke, “Jack can come over and beat you at mini sticks again.”

“I’m gonna toss your phone into the ocean,” Mat deadpans.

You lower your voice and lean closer to him to whisper, “how will I send all those pictures you like?”

“You can keep the phone,” Mat replies immediately and you laugh, tugging at the open edges of his jacket. He pulls you close and you wrap one arm around his waist, his body warm even though his hands and face are cold. You bury your face in his chest and stifle a yawn. Mat’s hand is warming your back where he rubs it up and down your spine. “Still feeling gross after that bug?”

“Not gross,” you tilt your head to look up at him, still cuddled against his chest, “just tired. Haven’t been sleeping well.”

“We can head home, if you want,” Mat offers, but you shake your head again. You like it when the whole group is together and you want to keep enjoying the time with your friends.

You pull back slightly from Mat’s arms, his hands still resting on your back. “I just need a little bit of sugar and I’ll be good to go,” you smile at him. His eyes twinkle before he leans down and plants a smacking, dramatic kiss on your lips.

“Good to go?” He teases when he pulls back.

“Not that kind of sugar,” you giggle, delighted by him always.

“You guys are disgustingly cute,” Ashlee says, breaking into the Mat Barzal bubble that you’ve been enveloped in for the last few minutes. You startle a little and some of the other wives laugh.

“Oh god, she forgot we’re even here,” Sydney shakes her head, an exaggerated frown on her lips.

Meg smirks, “thank god we interrupted them before it went too far.”

Your cheeks are warm from the teasing and Mat just turns on the charm, grinning widely at his teammates’ wives. “It’s all part of the Barzal charm,” he wiggles his eyebrows.

“What charm?” Bo chirps, coming into the kitchen with Tulsa on his hip. “All you’re good at is league mandated iPad time.”

“Don’t forget all the time he spends sitting on his ass on the ice,” Noah grins wickedly.

“Tell us,” Casey asks you, “is it part of his charm when he messes up common sayings?”

You giggle, sucking your lips into your mouth when Mat glares down at you.

“You guys suck,” Mat flips them off, immediately apologizing when he realizes some of the kids are still in the room. “Sorry, Holly, Meg.”

They waive off his apologies, sending him into the den with a tray of snacks for the kids. They’re watching a movie, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer if the familiar music is to be believed, and you know half the dads are also in the den, napping on the couches. Mat disappears for a while too and you leave him to the movie, knowing he’s exhausted. You get to hang out with the girls for a few more hours, interspersed with hugs and drawings from Gunnar and Winnie, before the party starts to break up.

Everyone’s gone slowly and then all at once, and you and Mat are walking the three blocks towards your house. He bumps your hip with his as you walk, his fingers laced with yours. “You coming to the game tomorrow?” He asks, getting a sense of what the week ahead will look like.

“Mhm,” you hum, “I’m going to go with Syd, so I’m not sure if I’ll end up staying the whole game. So make sure you do all the good stuff in the first.”

Mat bumps your hip again and you laugh, the sound echoing in the cold air. “I save all my best stuff for you,” he retorts, unlocking the front door and letting you step inside before him. He winks at you, his entire face scrunching up in his terrible attempt.

You scoff at him and flip the switches to turn on the Christmas lights, bathing the whole house in the warm glow of multi-colored string lights. You sigh happily, loving the over the top decorations you’d insisted on and the way the entire house smells like pine and cinnamon from diffusers and candles left open but unlit. Mat crowds your space and kisses the back of your neck.

“Couch time?” He mumbles against your skin.

“Couch time,” you agree, muffling another yawn.

You race to the bedroom, changing out of your clothes as quick as possible to get into comfy sweats and sweatshirts. Mat tosses a pillow at your face to distract you, but you swat it out of the air, nearly getting your foot stuck in the leg of your sweats.

“You like when I’m a weighted blanket,” Mat says, voice muffled by the sweatshirt he’s pulling over his head. “Why are you racing me to be on top?”

You don’t waste time pulling on your sweatshirt in the room and instead dart back out to the hallway and skip down the stairs, flopping onto the couch in just your sweats, completely topless. Mat’s hot on your heels and grumbles when he sees you yanking the fabric over your head. Smugly, you reply, “I don’t wanna be squished today. I want to use you as a body pillow.”

He submits to his fate and flops down onto the couch, oversized enough that the two of you could lay side by side and be comfortable, and opens his arms for you to crawl onto his chest. The both of you love the soft pressure of the other person laying on top of them so you’ve had to come up with a contest over the course of your relationship - first person on the couch gets to be on top. More often than not, you end up sprawled over Mat since it’s an easy way to transition into couch sex.

Now, you’re so tired you definitely will be keeping all of your clothes on. But you hum happily when you settle on top of him, your knees tucked nicely against either side of his hips, straddling his lap. When you curl up against his chest, your lower back stretches pleasantly and you wiggle a little, wrapping your arms around his torso and tucking your head under his chin. Mat’s arms wrap around you, one hand covering the back of your head so his fingertips can stroke against the shell of your ear.

He pulls the decorative blanket off the back of the couch with his other hand and arranges it over your bodies, making sure his feet stick out on the end so he doesn’t overheat. “You good?” He asks, his jaw bumping against the top of your head when he speaks. You nod against him and close your eyes, settling into his warmth. Mat turns on the TV, flipping it to ESPN before letting his hand rest low on the curve of your back, fingers grazing the top of your ass.

Mat’s heart beats steadily under your cheek and his hand is warm where it rests on your head. Couch time is exactly what you needed today. Your eyelids flutter shut every so often and you must fall asleep for a little nap because the next thing you know, it’s darker outside and Mat is running his thumb over your cheekbone.

“Hey,” he whispers and you lift your head to look at him blearily, momentarily confused.

“Hi,” you mumble sleepily, brushing your nose against his chin. “What time’s it?”

“Just after 4:30,” he replies and now the TV’s playing a rerun of The Office. He chuckles at a joke and rubs his fingertips against your scalp in a little massage. “You’ve been out for like forty-five minutes and I would’ve let you sleep, but I’m starving.”

Your heart skips a beat and you’re fully awake now. “Oh, same,” you say casually, rolling off of Mat and tucking yourself against his side. “I actually would love a piece of that gingerbread house that I ordered.”

“Gingerbread house?” Mat raises an eyebrow. “When’d you get that?”

“It was delivered the other day,” you explain. “I wanted something cute for our first engaged Christmas.”

Mat sits up, taking you with him and you wiggle around so you’re sitting cross-legged on the couch, facing him. “I totally forgot to show it to you,” you shrug, proud of yourself for being so normal. “But why don’t you go take a look and bring me back a piece?”

“Yeah, okay,” Mat shrugs, scratching your scalp once before getting up. “Dessert before dinner usually means eating you out, but gingerbread is cool too.”

He says it so casually that you don’t really process what he says until he’s already in the kitchen. You bounce up on your knees to look at him over the back of the couch, yelping his name when it finally sinks in. He’s laughing as he pulls the new box down from where it’s been sitting on top of the fridge. “Took you long enough,” he laughs, popping the top of the white cardboard. “That nap really must’ve taken it out of you.”

You scowl at him but don’t reply, anxiously waiting to see his reaction to the gingerbread house. He pulls it out of the box and his lips quirk up in a little smile. “It’s cute,” he says, looking at the house, professionally decorated. “Way better than the ones the kids made today.”

A laugh works its way out of your mouth as he studies it, taking in the details. “Huh,” he mutters, more to himself than anything else, “three people. Must’ve read your order wrong, Squeaks.”

“Oh?” You breathe. “There were supposed to be me and you…” You trail off.

“Yeah, they’re here,” Mat reads the little names iced onto the gingerbread people. “There’s you and Mat and…” he falters, squinting at the third figure, bringing it closer to his face, “Baby B?”

He looks over at you, forehead creased and eyebrows drawn together over his nose. “Baby B?” He repeats the question and you smile carefully at him, hand sliding across the back of the couch so your fingertips rest on your stomach.

“Baby B,” you confirm shakily. Tears well at your lower lash line and you watch Mat for his reaction.

He blinks at you, eyes darting between your face, your stomach, and the gingerbread figure held in his hand. “Wait? Seriously?” He sounds dazed and you can’t blame him. You were freaked out when you took the test a week and a half ago. It’s been the hardest secret you’ve ever had to keep. “You’re…there’s a baby?” His eyes are wide and his jaw hangs open a little.

You nod. “It’s, um, been hanging out for like six-ish, seven weeks,” you whisper, flattening your hand over your stomach. Mat’s eyes track your movement and he exhales a shaky breath.

Mat breathes your name and crosses the room in a few large strides. He cups your cheeks in his hands and studies your face, wiping at the tears that drip from your eyes. “Hey, c’mon, why’re you crying?” He asks, panic edging his tone.

“I know it’s earlier than we planned,” you shrug, “I’m going to be insanely pregnant at the wedding. We won’t get to be, like, newlyweds at all and the honeymoon’s going to have to change or be cancelled altogether.” You ramble on, all of your stress releasing in run-on sentences. You already love the baby, but getting pregnant before the wedding definitely wasn’t the plan.

Mat chuckles a little and you realize it sounds a little watery, like he’s trying to hold back his own emotion. “We’ll figure it out,” he says gently, squatting down so he’s closer to your eye level. “I’m gonna be a dad?”

“Yeah,” you confirm again. “Are you freaking out? Because I’m freaking out.”

“I’m definitely freaking out,” Mat confirms on a hysterical little laugh. His fingers tremble a little against your cheeks. “But it’s a good thing, right? Like, we’re gonna make the coolest babies.”

You nod. “They’re going to have amazing hair,” you giggle wetly.

Mat leans forward to kiss you softly, tasting the tears on your lips. When he pulls back, he rests his forehead against yours, quietly breathing with you. “That, uh, wasn’t a stomach bug last week, was it?”

“No,” you shake your head against his. “I’ve had some pretty aggressive mid-morning sickness this past week.”

“How the hell did I miss that?” He asks and it’s mostly rhetorical because Mat is not the most observant of men on a good day, let alone during a week and a half period where they’re playing a game every other day.

You lean back and tap at your stomach with your fingers, “baby’s already pretty good about not inconveniencing you. It was bad after you’d already left for practice.”

“I kind of can’t believe our baby’s in there,” Mat says, looking down at your stomach. His hands fall to the back of the couch and his fingers twitch, like he wants to reach out and touch you, but he doesn’t.

“Me either,” you admit. “And I’ve had a week to get used to the idea.”

“Shit, Squeaks,” he shakes his head again, a little smile playing on his lips, “a baby. We’re gonna be in charge of a real baby.”

Your answering laugh is a little hysterical. You’re obviously not the first of your friends to have a baby, but it feels insane that you’re here, especially before the wedding. Your parents are going to be so annoyed. “Good thing we have friends who know what they’re doing,” you murmur, covering Mat’s hands with yours and lacing your fingers together. You look at your joined fingers and your heart lurches in your chest. Quietly, you ask him, “we’re going to be good at this, right?”

“Hell if I know,” Mat admits. You frown at him - that was less than reassuring, but at least he’s honest. He jolts a little, his eyebrows lifting into his hairline, and you cock your head at him in a silent question. “I realized,” he says, a little sheepishly, “that I never said I was happy about this, but I am. I’m excited, scared as shit, but excited.”

“Me too,” you let loose a relieved laugh. You hadn’t realized how much you needed to hear Mat say he was happy about the baby. It’s been a weight on your shoulders ever since that positive pink line appeared on the test. “Um, there is one thing you could do for me right now though.”

Mat perks up and nods, “yeah, whatever you need, babe. You’re going to be so sick of me and how attentive I’ll be.”

You have no doubt about that, but for now - “can you get me a piece of that gingerbread? I’ve been craving it since the stupid thing was delivered yesterday.”

Mat laughs and stands up to retrieve the cookie, much to your delight. It’s been taunting you for more than twenty-four hours now and you nibble at the gingerbread version of yourself happily. Mat flops down onto the couch next to you and you tuck yourself up against his side. His hand absently runs up and down your arm, his eyes focused in the direction of the TV, but not actually paying attention.

You’re quiet at his side, knowing he needs to process the news. You were lucky in that you were alone when you found out so you could freak out without Mat seeing just how scared you were. Now that it’s been a week of knowing and Mat’s reaction wasn’t a total meltdown, you can relax a little, even start to get excited about having a little summer baby. Mat will get to spend time with you and the baby since you’re due in late August, by your admittedly shaky math.

Subconsciously, Mat’s hand wanders down your side, splaying on your waist, fingers stretching to cover part of your stomach. He rubs his thumb against your ribs and a little huff of disbelief leaves his throat. “Too bad you’re not due before the wedding,” he says, looking down at you with a little smile, “she could’ve been in the wedding, like Gracie at Bearsy’s wedding.”

Your throat clogs with emotion, thinking of your baby being at the wedding, and you bury your face in Mat’s side so he can’t see how tears well up in your eyes again. “You can’t say cute shit like that to me right now,” you mumble, “my hormones are in overdrive.”

Mat pulls you onto his lap so you’re straddling his thighs. He kisses the corner of your mouth and you sigh, resting your arms on his shoulders. “Let me know when I can start saying cute shit,” his grin is shit-eating, “because I just realized that there’s a chance we could put the baby in the Cup this summer.”

“Gotta win it first,” you counter, teasing him. He rolls his eyes and lets his hands drift over your stomach, broad palms covering the expanse of the still flat area.

“Got a new motivation now,” Mat replies and even though he still looks stunned, you can see how excited he’s getting about the baby.

You look down at where his hands cover your stomach and it’s all too easy to picture his hands holding a newborn baby with his eyes and your nose, a little shock of Mat’s dark hair on its head.

You can’t wait.

[scribblesofagoonerr]

— It's so fluffy, I'm gonna die! | Glastonbury Series

here's the second part of this small mini series i have been working so hard to create over the past week, this is one of my favourites so i hope you all enjoy it!

yet again a massive thank you to @alotofpockets and @lvnleah for the ongoing help throughout writing this and putting up with me throwing ideas at them all the time.

pairings: leah williamson x reader!monkey

summary: the first day of the festival, leah let's loose with the alcohol and monkey definitely does take advantage about the fact that leah is drunk and she can get what she wants, more so use her bank card to the extreme without her knowing

you can check out the whole masterlist here: chaos fc masterlist

As the night draws on, you watch Leah get more and more drunk and she definitely did let her hair down.

You definitely do enjoy seeing this side of her though and you can definitely take advantage of it even.

"Le, can I have my bank card? I wanna go get another drink," You have to shout over the volume of the music to get her attention as she clumsily stumbles around until she looks at you in suspicion, "Come on, I'm not going to go wild with it!"

"You better not!" The blonde slurs, pointing her index finger at you, "Be the sensible Monkey that you are!"

You laugh as she digs through her purse and hands you your card. There have been a few things around the festival that of course had caught your eye and Leah had refused to buy you them so why not buy them now?

Straightaway, you immediately make a beeline to the stand that you'd passed earlier that is selling stuffed teddies, "One unicorn please!" You grin before tapping your card and paying for it.

Sliding your bank card into your pocket, you're still beaming a wide smile as you eagerly clutch your giant unicorn, "Best purchase ever!"

Now you just have the task of taking it back to the tent so you can hide it from Leah until morning at least when it'll be too late to take it back.

"Boo!" Holly sneaks up behind you as you start to head in the direction of where you distinctly remember coming from where the tents were set up in camp, "Where are you off?" She questions, curiously.

"U... Uh, nowhere!" You stutter, quickly working to shove the giant stuffed unicorn behind your back because if it's out of sight then it's out of mind.

Holly quirks in her eyebrow in amusement, "Really? Who're you tryin' to fall here-- What's that behind your back?" She wonders, trying to take a closer look.

"What thing?" You try and play it off like you really don't know what she is on about, tightly clutching the unicorn and praying that it doesn't drop on the floor, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I can literally see it poking out behind your back," The older woman states in amusement, "What you got?" She repeats her words.

Biting your lip, you slowly pull the giant unicorn out from behind your back and look at her innocently, "Don't tell Le, please!" You all but plead now.

"Oh, Monkey," Holly finds it hard to stifle her laughter, "Is this you being sensible with your money, huh?" She teases you, ruffling your hair.

You pout at the older women and tightly clutch your unicorn in your hand, "Leah wouldn't buy me one when I asked, so I just did it myself! She's too drunk to even care right as well-- Will you please help me hide it from her?" You ask.

Hesitantly, Holly agrees with this as she nods, "Alright, come on... If she asks, I didn’t have anything to do with this!"

"Deal!" You exclaim a bit louder than necessary, "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" You can't help but quote one of the beloved Minion films you have watched previously.

But there's still nothing better than Shrek, of course.

Nor Marvel.

"Did you seriously just quote despicable me?" Holly can't help but laugh in amusement as the two of you walk back to camp.

"Yes... Yes, I did!" You nod proudly as you make it to the campsite and you suddenly pause in sudden realisation as your eyes widen, "Oh no! I should have gotten Buddy something!"

"We're back at the tent now, it's okay we'll go back and pick one up for her on the way back to the tent later on instead. Maybe a dinosaur?" The older woman suggests kindly, squeezing your shoulder gently.

Grinning in agreement, you carefully place the unicorn inside the tent for safe keeping, "Awesome, or should I say Roar-Some!" You joke with the woman.

"Come on Monkey," The blonde leads you back in the direction of where the festival is, "I can understand why Le calls you a Menace sometimes now." She states in amusement.

"I'm not even that bad, Leah exaggerates sometimes that's all!" You tell her as you shrug your shoulders, "I still gotta take advantage to find more things to buy on my card before she realises!"

"Are you sure about that?" Holly doesn't seem so convinced as you spot a cash machine and have the brainwave to take some money out, "Is this a good idea?" She wonders.

"I see it as," Shrugging your shoulders, you pop your card in the machine and punch in your pin, "Call it compensation right now."

"Compensation, for what?" Holly laughs in amusement.

"Compensation for having to put up with Leah's drunk ass," You remark as your card slots back out and you stuff it in your pockets along with the small wad of cash and continue to walk back to them.

Of course it's not long until you get distracted.

"Oh, stop! I see it, I love it and I want it!" With the tap of your card on the machine, you now proudly own both of them.

"What's with the cowboy hat... And the neon light?" Holly questions amusedly as she shakes her head.

Shrugging your shoulders, you adjust it on your head and start to walk back to the group, "It seemed like a good idea, so I did it cos' that is how you should live your life!"

"That is not a motto you should live by," Holly tells you in disagreement as she laughs, "Come on cowgirl, before they wonder where we've got too."

With a few purchases in hand, you walk back to the group. You are now extremely happy with the cowboy hat you spotted on the way back and a neon green flashing light that you found fascinating and it was just screaming out for you to buy.

"Hi drunky, we're back!" You grin at the blonde and lean up on your tip-toes to hug her from behind, and of course being in the drunken state that she is, she is more than willing to accept the hug.

"Monkey!" Leah exclaims, doing no more than turning around, lifting you off the ground and spinning you around, "Have you been sensible?" She slurs.

Just how much has she drunk while you were gone?

"I'm always sensible," You reply in agreement as you can't help but laugh at her antics.

"No, you are not," Leah slurs as she playfully pokes you on the nose.

"How drunk are you?" You question, not hiding your laughter.

The blonde gasps in shock horror, "I am not drunk! I can... I can tell the time!" She insists, eagerly.

You snicker in amusement, "Sure, you keep on telling yourself that one," Turning to look at Holly for confirmation, "She is so drunk, innit?" You ask her.

"She's just having a good time," Holly laughs at her cousin's current state of drunkenness, "But she will definitely have a sore head in the morning of course."

Leah still continues to cling onto you, "You're my cheeky Monkey! I love you! I do, I love you a lot!" She states, loud and proud.

"I love you too, Le... Even when you're as drunk as you are," You respond as you find her leaning her head on your neck with a bit of height difference.

"I'm serious!" Leah slurs as she continues to rest her head on your shoulder, "You are a pain sometimes but you are a pain that I love so, so much!" She tells you and it makes you smile hearing her say that, because despite how annoying you can get at times, she still loves you.

"I love the way she fills her clothes. She looks just like them girls in vogue. I love the way she plays it cool-- Oh my God. I love this band!" It’s your turn to scream at the top of your voice, pretty much deafening Leah considering you’re sitting on her shoulders and having the absolute time of your life listening to one of your favourite bands.

Is it such a good idea to do that when she’s had a lot of drinks?

Eh, probably not.

What is the worst that can happen?

Right now you feel like a dream come true to be here and it feels a completely surreal experience.

“Best time ever!” You continue to scream and dance to the music, having trust in Leah to not drop you on your head, “I think that she is beautiful…”

“Sing it loud, Monkey!” Leah encourages you loudly, keeping her arms draped around your legs so you’re a bit stable, but right now in the moment you are enjoying yourself too much to care.

“You know this song word for word?” Grace chimes in, looking at you in amusement.

“She’s so lovely, she’s so lovely, she’s so lovely, she’s so lovely, she’s so lovely, she’s so lovely, she’s so lovely!” You still continue to scream the lyrics on repeat, throwing your hands up in the air while having an absolute blast.

“And she continues,” Holly jokes with you.

“She’s pretty, a fitty. She’s got a boyfriend and that’s a pity. She’s flirty turned thirty!” You sing but more like continue to scream the lyrics down the blonde ear.

“What film is this even from?” Holly asks, curiously.

You peer down and gasp at her dramatically, “Angus Thongs and perfect snogging, of course! How… How didn’t you know that?” You question in disbelief, “You’re, like, old enough to know it!”

“I can’t believe you just called me old– She did just call me old, right?” The older woman looks around in disbelief, offended that you literally called her old.

“I did!” You don’t hesitate to quip in agreement, “Let down, complete let down! Anybody that doesn’t know this band or the movie is a fuckin’ let down!”

“Monkey, reign in a bit,” Leah slurs, very much not in the state to even scold you right now with the state that she is in, “Be a nice Monkey!”

“She’s fine, don’t worry about it. She’s having a good time!” Holly waves her off in disagreement as she laughs.

“Yeah, she’s just accepting that she is old,” You remark, sticking your tongue at the older blonde woman.

“Wha… Is she always like this?” Holly questions in disbelief, “I’m just getting constantly insulted here by this kid. I… I didn’t sign up for this!” She jokes.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so. I'm sorry in advance for her like this," Leah slurs her apology, “You have to be nice, Monkey!”

“Nah. Get used to it,” You grin at the older blonde, who still pretends to look offended.

“Monkey,” Leah can’t stifle her laughter, “Be nice, you cheeky monkey!”

You would probably take her more seriously if she wasn’t slurring her speech while trying to lecture you, but right now she is too funny to handle.

“I’m only havin’ fun and winding her up,” You remark without even thinking about it, “I can’t help that’s my personality!”

It’s later in the evening and you’re now standing beside Holly, who is the most sober out of everyone, watching Dua Lipa perform on stage.

Meanwhile Leah is sitting on one of her friends shoulders, having the time of her life, throwing her hands up in the air and jamming to the music.

It’s hard to even know how much she has drunk at this point and you’re definitely surprised that she hasn’t managed to fall down considering how much she’s moving about up there.

Going back to the tent at the end of the night will be a fun experience…

“Woohoo! I like this one!” You shout enthusiastically, bopping your head to the beat of the music.

Holly smiles at your enthusiasm, “How’re you not tired, kid?” She wonders, curiously.

“I’m not old like the rest of you lot,” You remark, sticking your tongue out at her, “What’s your excuse?”

“Wow. You are so cheeky sometimes,” The blonde tells you as she shakes her head in amusement.

“It’s my personality, I can’t help it!” Shrugging your shoulders, you look over to where Leah is indeed having a great time on her friends shoulders still, “Le is still havin’ the time of her life as well!”

Holly glances at her cousin and smiles, “Yeah, she is. It’s nice to see her letting her hair down though. The past several months with her injury have been difficult for her.”

You couldn’t help but nod in agreement, having to watch the blonde suffer with her ACL injury was horrible and you just wanted to help her out in any way that you could do, even if that was to help out taking care of Buddy more. 

You would never turn down spending more time with your favourite little buddy. 

It’s great to finally have her back on the pitch again, even if she’s still bossy about things and all.

"Yeaaaah! Come on, come on, let's get physical!" The blonde that your on about screams the lyrics out loud as another one of her friends films her. 

You can't help but snicker, "You can say she is enjoying herself-- I'm not carrying her back to the tent tonight!"

"I'll handle it, don't worry," Holly tells you.

"Phew!" You exclaim, dramatically.

Leah definitely is letting her hair down tonight, drinking and partying on her friends shoulder and you couldn't really blame her because she is always too stern in your own opinion sometimes.

"Le! Leah!” You shout aloud to get her attention, continuing to poke and prod her just to annoy her, “Leeaaaahhhh!"

"Hi monkey!" The blonde beams a wide smile at you and drunkenly slings her arm around you once she’s gotten off her friends shoulders. 

"You're drunk!" You exclaim in amusement, leaning your body against her as you can start to feel the exhaustion hit.

Also hunger, you could kill for a pizza right now!

"Nope, I am... I am totally fine!" Leah slurs her speech.

"Nuh uh! You are completely drunk!" You disagree with the blonde.

"I think it's time we start heading back to the tent now," Holly suggests, catching onto the way her cousin is struggling to stand up without your support.

"I'm hungry!" You complain to the sober blonde, "Can we get pizza?" She wonders.

Holly laughs and nods in agreement, "We can get you something on the way back to the tent, let's just focus on getting little miss drunk over here back there right now."

"Good luck with that! I don't think she's in any state to even walk-- I already said I'm not carrying her back!" You insist, firmly, to get your point across.

"I got it, it's fine... Come on, Le. We're gonna go back to the tent," Holly tries to pull Leah in the direction of the walk back to the tents.

"Aw, what? No. The night is still young!" Leah protests, shaking her head.

Holly chuckles and shakes her head, "Yeah, but you've had a lot to drink. It's best we call it a night," she turns to the rest of her friends, "We're gonna go back to the tents. See you all in the morning."

"Awh, don't be a buzzkill Hol!" Leah shouts aloud, literally using your own words against her cousin.

"Hey, there my words!" You whine in protest, "We still have to get food!" You remind the older blonde of the two, who is somewhat trying to pull the blonde in the direction of where the tents are set up.

"Ooo, food. Let's get kebabs!" Leah pipes up.

You screw your face up in confusion, "Le, you don't even like kebabs?"

Leah points her finger at you, booping you on the nose once again, "I don't care! I... I need a kebab!"

"Nuh uh, let's get pizza instead!" You protest, you're not a massive kebab’s at all but on the other hand, pizza right now sounds great.

"Nope, a kebab will be better!" Leah continues to insist.

You can't help but groan, "But you don't like them, pizza is so much better!"

"Well right now I want a kebab and you... you have to listen to me because I am older than you, Monkey!" Leah slurs, trying to once again boop you on the nose but misses due to her stumbling around.

"Seriously? That isn't fair!" You exclaim in annoyance, furrowing your eyebrow, "Holly, tell her that ain't fair!" You turn to look at the older woman for help.

Holly let out a laugh and shakes her head, "Relax, kid. I'll get you pizza like you want afterwards."

"Winning!" You shout aloud in excitement as you begrudgingly navigate your way through the crowd, Leah stumbles a bit behind you and you can’t help but giggle as Holly has to keep a firm grip on her to prevent her from falling. 

The smell from the various food stalls waft through the air and your stomach growls in response.

The hot dog you ate previously did not do much to fill you up at all. 

"Can I get two kebabs, please," Holly turns her attention to the man in the food van, before she digs her own bank card out and taps it on the machine to pay. 

Leah leans against the counter with her eyes half closed, “Smells soooo good,” She murmurs. 

A few minutes later, the vendor hands Holly the kebabs and she hands one to the blonde, who takes a bite and her eyes widen, “This tastes amazing!”

“Guarantee you won’t even remember any of this tomorrow,” You state, grinning at Leah, who’s too busy savouring the kebab she’s currently eating.

So much for her being a picky eater, right now.

Of course you took photo evidence to prove to her that she did in fact eat this that you can’t wait to show her when she’s sober.

While watching the two of them happily munch kebabs, your stomach grumbles again, "Alright, can we please get pizza now?" You question. 

"Alright, come on little miss impatient," Holly nods in agreement, walking in the direction where the pizza truck is not too far ahead.

"Yes, race you there!" You took off running before the two of them even have a chance to realise you have bolted as you reach the pizza food stall and your eyes light up in glee, "Hi! Can I have a BBQ chicken pizza, please-- Wait, do you guys serve just slices or is it like a whole pizza?" You wonder.

"Whole pizzas," The man replies to your question.

"Even better then! Yeah, I'll take a BBQ chicken one, please!" You ask the man, taking the advantage of having your card right now as the blonde still hadn't even realised due to her own drunken state of mind, you tap your card on your machine and slot it back in your pocket.

"M... Monkey!" You hear the familiar voice call out your name before you turn around and see the two blondes have eventually caught up to you, "You can't run off like that-- Remember, there's big crowds!" She slurs her words.

"I'd take you a lot more seriously if you weren't stumbling around the way that you are," You remark, grinning at Leah who tries her best to glare at you, "Really, I am so scared of you right now, I'm highly terrified. I am!" It's just too easy to wind her up right now.

"You get your pizza, kid?" Holly laughs, trying to keep a grip on Leah who is stumbling about the place.

"Waiting on it now-- Hey, gimme me cowboy hat back!" You whine in protest, feeling it being swiped off your head, "Le!"

"Nope, it's mine now!" Leah slurs, proud of herself as she puts it on her own head.

"Le!" You grumble in annoyance, "Give it back!" You try to reach for it, standing on your tip toes but she has the advantage over you with her height.

"Monkey, here's your pizza," Holly accepts the pizza of the vendor and thanks them since you were too busy trying to fight for your hat back instead, "Okay, what'd I miss here?"

"Tell her to give me my hat back," You still continue to glare at Leah, "I brought it and she'll just lose it with the state that she is in!"

Leah gasps in shock horror, "You don't know that. I... I love this thing!" She states.

"Yeah, but Le, it's mine so give it back!" You don't care if you're whining and making a scene right now when you want your hat back and the drunken blonde is holding it hostage, "Give it back!" 

"Nope, it's mine!" Leah slurs, continuing to wind you up, "It suits me so much better!" 

Starting to jump up to try and reach it, you scowl at her, "Give it... Give it back!" With one final jump, you manage to knock it off her head and grin in victory, "Ha! It's my hat, you get your own!"

Holly laughs and shakes her head at your usual antics, "Alright, come on. Let's try and get back to the tent in one piece without a fight breaking out," She jokes, directing the way towards the tents.

"She started it!" You point your finger in accusation at the blonde, who is now back to happily munching on her kebab again.

"I know, I know. Come on," Holly murmurs, remaining to keep her grip on Leah, who is more concerned about her kebab rather than where she is going, "Careful, Le. Watch your step."

"I'm so gonna laugh if she falls on her face!" You comment, finding the whole scenario absolutely hilarious and of course you have your phone out to video it.

"Nearly there now," Holly has to virtually pull Leah towards your own tent, "No, Le! That's the wrong tent, don't go in that one!" She shouts, dragging the drunk blonde away from it.

"Oh this is hilarious. Hold on, hold on!" You're quick to react and pull your phone out again, "I'm getting this on video-- Le, you ain't living this one down, at all!" You exclaim, having great joy watching the blonde making a fool of herself.

"Come on, Le," Holly says, the exhaustion sounds clear in her voice as she guides her cousin in the direction of the correct tent, "It's this tent, there we go... You just sit here and uh, you'll be fine. I'll be back with some water-- Just don't move!"

Flopping down inside the tent, you can't help but snicker at the blonde, who seems in her own world as she still continues to munch on the remainders of her kebab, "You are so drunk and this is hilarious to witness right now," You tell her as you start to open the pizza box and tear a slice out to eat, "You're definitely gonna regret this tomorrow... And I can't wait to wind you up about it!" You say with a mouthful of food.

© scribblesofagoonerr

[death-paint]

The Summoning (Spellbound pt.2)

Leon Kennedy x Fem! Witch! Reader

Word Count: 3427

Warnings: Smut, Daddy kink, unprotected p in v sex, thigh riding, clothed sex (kinda?? reader is in lingerie I'm not sure if that counts)

Summary: Leon gets busy during the holidays, having to leave for a mission just before Christmas. You do some holiday decorating while he's gone, and he gets to open his present a little early. ;) If it's a bit confusing, reader celebrates both Yule and Christmas.

I worked on this for about a week and finished it just last night, so I really hope it's still a decent piece of writing lol. I also don't write a bunch of smut so I hope that part is at least okay

Tysm @ghostkennedy for beta reading!! If you're into dark fics, Han's your gal. Go check out their writing!!

I suggest reading part 1 first! But it's not necessary <3

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT. 18+ CONTENT

Edit: I made a playlist for this and part 1! Feel free to listen to it while you're reading!

dividers by @cafekitsune

A few months have passed since your first attempt to teach Leon the ways of your practice. Ever since then, he’s been asking you to make him protection spell jars whenever he has to leave for work, “just in case,” he says. It didn’t take a psychic to know that he was starting to believe it, even if it was just a tiny bit. Tarot card pullings are a part of both your daily routines now, and Leon was well on his way to learning their meanings.

Now, it was late December, and you were once again dancing around the house with incense, the scent of which still made Leon turn up his nose. But that didn’t matter right now. He was out “running errands,” no doubt gift shopping for your and Leon’s mutual friends. Or maybe he was out to pay a bill or two and get groceries, but either way, he was out of the house. Music blaring throughout your home once more, you spun and stomped and shimmied as you put up the Yule decorations. Small holly branches were in a vase on the dining table, a pentacle hidden in a wreath outside the front door, and a large fir tree in the corner of the living room. A few pine branches and pinecones sat atop the bookshelf and your altar in the living room, giving it a fresh scent. Candles were scattered about, almost no corner was without one. A gold one here, a red one over there, the odd green or white ones sprinkled around.

Leon was never much of a decorator, never saw the point of keeping material possessions, especially if he was basically on call for the government 24/7. It made it a little harder to tell what kinds of gifts Leon would appreciate. You only got him cologne and a new pair of gloves for his last birthday, figuring he’d appreciate a more useful present. He seemed happy with it, you caught a whiff of the cologne every time he kissed you; made your head spin. But once you came along and moved in with him, he found himself looking for little trinkets to bring back, most of which ended up displayed on your altar.

So, that’s why holiday decorations are usually up to you. Not that you minded, it was nice to have free reign over how the house looked, even if sometimes you were up at odd hours of the night nearly breaking your back to rearrange things. Literally. Leon had woken up once or twice to that, finding you on the kitchen counter or catching you from when you fell off of the bookshelf.

“You can do all that in the morning, baby,” he yawned, his groggy voice filled with concern as he rubbed his eyes. “And you can ask me to help, you know. Don’t need you breaking bones just to make the living room all pretty, doll.”

You spent hours getting everything to look perfect, saving the tree for when Leon got home. Gotta make it feel like he participated at least a little, right? Mistletoe hung just above the entrance to your home, a nice surprise for when your partner returned home. You sat in the kitchen, decorating a log at the dining table for a while before getting up and taking a break to make some cookies for you and your boyfriend to enjoy. Fun holiday cookies, with a bit of a witchy twist.

You washed your hands and gathered up the ingredients for the average person’s sugar cookies. But you were no average person. From the kitchen cupboard, you pulled a jar filled with dried lavender and a paper bag of rose petals. You stared at them a moment before deciding against the rose petals, putting them back. Do you make a syrup first, or just drop the lavender buds into the dough? Or do you simply wait and press the lavender in just before it goes into the oven? Thinking it over, you decided the best way to get what you wanted out of the cookies was to mix the flower buds into the dough, as it would better hide the texture while still being delightfully floral. So you do just that, sprinkling a little bit of lavender into the bowl and putting the jar back from where it came. You decide on fun little decorations, carefully arranging purple and green colored sugar into the shape of lavender on a few of the cookies before tossing them into the oven along with a few orange slices to dry out.

And then comes the sound of the door shutting.

“Looks like someone was busy today!” Leon calls from the doorway. You sprint over as fast as you can, quickly giving him a series of pecks all over his face. When he playfully raises an eyebrow at you in affectionate confusion, you point up at the ceiling above the door. He chuckles, amused as he sets a few bags on the floor. He then wraps his arms around you, pulling you in for a much slower, more passionate kiss, swaying along to the music coming from your phone hooked up to a speaker in the living room.

“How’d the errand running go?” You ask, curiously trying to peek inside of the bags that lay by Leon’s feet.

“It went just fine,” he replied, moving to block the bags from your sight. “No peeking. We’ll wrap the gifts together in a bit.” He took the bags and put them in a nearby cabinet. He took off his jacket, put it on the coat rack, and kicked his shoes off before making his way to the kitchen to wash his hands.

“Hey, what’s up with the wood on the table?”

“Oh!” You walk into the kitchen after him. “I was in the middle of decorating a Yule log!”

“Looks festive.” He moved the log to sit on top of the cabinet he put the gift bags in. “You really take the whole holiday decorating thing seriously, don’t you?”

“What can I say? I like making the place look pretty!” You smile.

“Every room is a thousand times prettier the second you walk into it,” Leon kisses your forehead.

“Oh, shut up,” you scoff.

“What? It’s true!”

“You’re so fuckin’ cheesy.”

“Shut up, you love it.”

“Yeah, I do.” You sigh, hugging him.

The smell of lavender and citrus permeates the kitchen, and you release yourself from Leon to take the baking tray out of the oven. It lands on the top of the stove with a bit of a clatter, filling the room with its wonderful aroma a bit more strongly now.

“What’s that? Cookies?” Leon asks, sneaking up behind you, reaching out to grab a cookie and wiggling his fingers. You smack his hand away.

“You’re gonna burn yourself.” You warn him, shooting over a glare.

“If it’s something you made, it’s worth it.” Leon reaches around you, grabs a cookie, and immediately recoils, hissing in pain as he shakes his hand, dropping the cookie back onto the tray.

“Told you.” You smirk.

“That you did.” He walks to the sink to run his hand under cold water for a moment. Once he feels the pain has dulled enough, he makes his way back to you, wrapping his arms around you and kissing you on the forehead. “Well…since you’ve done a lot today, how about we order takeout? As a treat.”

“Okay. How’s pizza sound? Or…actually, maybe I want Chinese food…” You go back and forth between the two, thinking of the different reasons for each. Leon chuckles at your indecisiveness.

“We can do both. You’ve earned it, doll.” Even after you’ve lost count of how many times he’s used the pet name, it still makes your face turn beet red.

“You spoil me.”

“That’s my job.”

And so the two of you sat in the newly redecorated living room, sifting through all the different ornaments to decorate the tree as you waited for your food to arrive. Leon of course was in charge of the star, him being the taller one in the house. Dried citrus slices, cinnamon, and other natural decorations hung from the branches, along with several sparkling garlands, glass pixies, and snowflakes. By the time you got to wrapping the colorful lights around the fake evergreen, the doorbell rang, signaling it was about time for a break.

Neither of you bothered to grab plates, agreeing that neither of you wanted to do dishes tonight. Instead, you opted to just use the plastic forks that came with the bag of takeout containers, and ate the pizza straight from the box as you stared up at the television screen, watching whatever Christmas movie happened to be on. At some point, you hopped back off the couch, finishing up the tree and glancing up at the TV every so often.

Now it was Christmas Eve, and some grinch of a bioterrorist had Leon off to work again. Can’t they take the day off too? Take a break from trying to destroy the world and all that when you’re trying to spend time with your boyfriend? Fucking rude. But the fact of the matter was that they don’t give a fuck, and you had to sit at home, waiting, unsure of his safety, as he couldn’t text you while he was out. In your boredom, you had the idea to come up with yet another surprise for him. You grin devilishly, deciding to go shopping for Leon’s present.

After breakfast, you headed out for the nearest department store, browsing the aisles for hours before settling on a cute floral set that was a bit heavier on the greens. You tossed an elf hat into the basket as well as a few other things you thought Leon might like. A few bows tossed in at the last second, and you were on your way back home. As soon as you got inside, you wrapped all your gifts (aside from the lingerie) and placed them underneath the tree. The rest of your day was rather uneventful. You took a nap around two o’clock in the afternoon, had leftovers for dinner, nothing special.

And then came the text.

Of course, you hadn’t been expecting one, especially not from your boyfriend. Not so soon. Guess it either wasn’t that big of a threat, or he had help. Or maybe he was just that good. Or all of the above. Whatever the cause of his early return was didn’t really matter, it just meant you’d be able to see the look on his face sooner than you’d anticipated. Giggling and giddy with excitement, you slipped on the lingerie set, hat, and some festive stockings you had hidden in a drawer somewhere. You stuck one of the ribbons on your chest above your heart, turned on the lights of the tree, and assumed your place underneath it, waiting patiently for Leon’s return.

Quite some time after you first sat, you were halfway to falling asleep when you heard the lock click open, signaling your partner's return. At first, Leon didn't seem to notice, assuming that the lack of light (aside from the tree) meant you were in bed. It was your hair getting caught on a branch that made him look over.

“Oh? Look what we have here…” Leon knelt down to your level after taking off his jacket and shoes, reaching out to touch your face. “A naughty little elf, wrapped up nice and pretty for me.” He moved his hand to rest underneath your chin, his thumb just underneath your bottom lip as he gently tilted your face up to look at him. You felt yourself slip into that hazy headspace the second the words left his mouth, your teeth gently tugging at your lip as your eyes met his. He chuckled upon seeing your expression, untangled your hair from the tree, and threw you over his shoulder to carry you to bed, your hat lying forgotten somewhere on the living room floor. Once he reached your shared bedroom, Leon gently dropped you on top of the mattress, watching as you looked up at him, glassy-eyed and cheeks flushed.

“Aw…pretty baby. Been waiting for me all night, haven’t you?” You nodded, a small whine leaving your lips. “Come on doll, use your words.”

“Yes, Daddy…missed you so much,” you pout, pretty doe eyes meeting his baby blues.

“That’s my girl.” Leon sits on the bed, one knee between your thighs, and one hand under your chin as he leans down to kiss you, the other supporting his weight. Slowly, the hand on your face moves to snake around your back, gently coaxing you to sit up on his leg. You clung to him, breasts pressing into his chest as your lips moved over one another’s hungrily. Leon’s hand wandered lower, giving your ass a squeeze. He quietly laughed as you jumped at the sudden sensation.

“God, you’re fucking beautiful. I don’t even wanna take this off…” Leon slid his thumb underneath the strap of your lacy bralette, letting it slip off and hit your skin with a snap.

“Then don’t,” you breathed. Leon thought it over for a beat, a smile overtaking his features.

“My pretty little angel…you’ve always been such a smart girl.” Shivers run down your spine as Leon pulls you in for another heated kiss.

As you tangled your fingers in his hair, he slid one of his own hands underneath the fabric of your bralette, kneading your soft flesh. Slick pooled in your new lacy panties, and you slowly started to drag your clothed cunt back and forth against the rough texture of Leon’s jeans.

“Aw…gonna make a mess all over my pants, baby?” He coos, both of his hands on your hips now. 

“Mhm!” You nod, continuing to roll your hips, your voice high-pitched and whiny.

“Such a needy little girl.” Leon teased. “Go ahead, baby. Show Daddy how bad you need him.”

You found it hard to keep your head on straight as your hips started to move faster, Leon’s hands helping you get enough pressure on your bundle of nerves. Your arms hung around his neck, a dazed look on your face as you tried desperately to get yourself off. Leon always thought you looked adorable like this–made him that much more eager to bury his cock inside your soaking wet pussy. Seeing your expression, he felt his cock twitch in his pants. You looked so pretty, so desperate. He almost didn’t want to wait anymore–had to remind himself to be patient. Needed to be sure you’d be ready for him.

Your face did little to hide the pleasure you felt, the delicious friction of your clit moving back and forth on the denim nearly too much to bear. You clung to Leon a little tighter, the fire in your lower body dangerously close to spilling over.

“Le- fuck…Leon!” you cried out, voice quivering.

“Go ahead, doll. Be a good girl and cum on my lap, baby.” One of Leon’s hands comes back to your face to wipe away a tear that slipped its way down your cheek, moving to guide your face to kiss him once more. Your hips rolled harder and faster a few more times as you whimpered and moaned into his mouth, your orgasm burning through your body and leaving you shaking as Leon guided your hips to ride it out.

“My sweet angel…you did so well, sweetheart.” He caressed your body after it was over, hands lingering near your ass and soft breasts. “Guess I should give my pretty baby what she’s been waiting for, yeah?” You nodded in response, prompting an expecting look from Leon.

“Yes, please, Daddy! Been waiting so long!” Your face falls into that adorable pout again. God, it made Leon want to fuck you endlessly, so hard you wouldn’t recover for weeks. He pushed you to lie on your back, standing up to undress. Leon did his best to make a show of it, but undressed rather quickly, eager to feel your hot, wet pussy around his cock.

Your breathing picked up again as you watched him, eyes trailing over his hands as they unbuckled his belt with a few satisfying clinks. The sound had you rubbing your thighs together with anticipation. Fuck, you needed him so, so bad.

Leon, sensing your impatience, hurried to kick off the rest of his clothing, rushing back to the bed to kiss you, his body hanging over your own. The heat of his body against yours felt so nice as he reached down between the two of you to feel how wet you were. You were absolutely drenched, and he'd hardly even touched you! He smirked as his fingers delved into your slick, embarrassing wet sounds filling the bedroom.

“Leon…please…” you whined, holding back from fucking yourself on his fingers. “No more teasing…”

“So my little doll can ask for what she wants!” He pulled his hand away from your core, wrapping it around the base of his thick, hard cock. His other hand pushed your panties to the side, and he stared for a moment at your glistening folds before guiding the head of his dick to sit at your entrance. “God, it gets even more beautiful every time I look at it, baby. Love seeing how wet I can make you.” He murmured, burying his length inside of you. The two of you sat in silence for a few seconds, giving you time to adjust to the feeling of him stretching out your tight hole. You rolled your hips up into his, signaling you were ready for him to move.

He set as steady a pace as he could, finding it hard not to just pound into you as soon as he slipped in. He'd missed you while he was out. Wanted–no, needed to feel your skin on his for days. The way you pushed yourself back to him wasn't exactly helping, either. Gradually, he picked up the pace, the head of his length hitting your sweet spot and making your pussy squeeze around him, sucking his cock in deeper.

“Shit…keep squeezing me like that and I won't be able to last much longer, angel.”

“Can't help it, Daddy…feels so good…”

Leon leaned in closer, pushing your legs to your chest in a mating press, his thrusts pushing his cock so deep you damn near felt him in your throat, leaving you breathlessly moaning as he rolled his hips. Your eyes rolled back, tongue lolling out pathetically as Leon’s thumb circled your clit, making you see stars.

“Fuck- daddy! Daddy please!” Your cunt pulsing around his cock was driving him insane, he was so close to the edge, just needed to bring you there with him.

“I know, baby girl, I know,” he purred. “Need you to wait for me, okay? Gotta be a good girl and wait until I say.” You only whimpered and nodded, unsure if you could speak any further.

Leon's thumb kept stroking your throbbing clit, your pussy clenching around his shaft was fucking heaven. His thrusts stuttered, cock twitching inside your walls.

“Cum for me, angel,” he pounded into you harder and faster now, his cock hitting your g-spot nearly perfectly every time it plunged back into your cunt. 

“Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy” was all you could say as your body twitched and writhed, the wet slapping of your bodies together sending you over the edge.

“Fuck, that's it. Yeah, that's my good girl,” Leon grunted, groaning loudly as your pussy milked his cock, making him spurt his hot, thick load deep inside. “So good for me. Love you so much, baby.” He kissed your forehead as he slipped his cock out from your hole, using his fingers to stuff his cum back inside. He steps out of the room for a minute, hurrying back with a couple of water bottles. He helps you sit up, handing you a bottle.

“Thank you, Leon.” You open the water bottle and take a sip.

“Anything for my pretty girl.” Leon smiles, climbing into bed beside you. “You okay?”

“Mhm. Just…” your sentence is interrupted by a big yawn. “Sleepy.”

“I think some cuddles are in order then, yeah?”

“That sounds perfect.” You yawn again, snuggling up to him, and laying your head on his chest. “I love you, Leon.”

“Love you too, baby.” he wraps his arms around you as you both happily drift off to sleep.

[berryhobii]

OMG HI😭😭i love your writing so much like im obsessed you’re so talented!!! i see your request are open and i just wanted to see if you do something where it’s after Yoongi and Y/N get into petty argument and Y/N is like “you know what? whatever” and gives Yoongi the silent treatment however, Yoongi hates being ignored (especially by his girl) so after giving her some space for a few hours and trying to get her to talk to him, he’s had enough oh the silence and decides to take matters into his own hands 🫣 I HOPE THIS MADE SENSE😭😭😭this thought has been running rampant in my mind for a week and i would love to see how you would write this ! there’s no rush, take your time if you don’t feel like it that’s TOTALLY okay i just want you to know that you’re writing is IMMACULATE, chefs mf kiss 🤌🏾 and that’s you are so freaking talented!! thank you for sharing your writing with us🥰🥰💕

Ahhhhhh! I love you so much! Your requests have given me such good ideas! I hope I fulfilled this one well. It turned into kind of brat tamer Yoongi who loves reader to pieces because I love everything about that trope. I really hope you love it bb!🩵🩵🩵

~

“Turn left up here!”

“I know where I’m going!”

“Obviously not! The parking lot will be full by the time we get there.”

Currently, you and your husband were on the way to your favorite store to spend some more of the gift cards you got at your wedding. You received so many and Yoongi made you agree that you’d only use them for important things.

New stuff for Holly counted as important, right? Of course it did.

A few months ago, you two moved to a new neighborhood which meant you didn’t really know where everything was.

As designated passenger princess, it was your responsibility to look hot, control the music and also manage the GPS to get you places but Yoongi wanted to trust his car’s GPS more than you. Ridiculous right?

He sighed. “I know where I’m going, okay? I don’t need your help.”

Your mouth dropped, a scandalized and dramatic gasp passing your glossed lips. How dare he?!

Crossing your arms over your chest, you slumped in the passenger seat. “You know what? Whatever, Yoongi.” You mumbled.

Silence enveloped the car, only the low sound of J.Cole’s melodic voice filling the space.

Yoongi glanced over at you, a smile threatening his lips at your pouty face. Ugh, you were such a spoiled little brat but he loved you so much. He actually took pleasure in riling you up and watching you get all huffy. Everytime he saw that princess personality, it awakened something in him—a need to both smother you with kisses and spank your ass until you were crying.

He reached over to place a large hand on your thigh. “Come on baby. Don’t be upset.”

You ignored him, fully turning your body towards the window. Uh oh, your full super bratty mode was activated.

“Are you really gonna ignore me?” He pondered.

No answer.

“Baby please. I’m sorry.”

Nothing.

He guessed he’d have to roll with this.

When Yoongi pulled into the parking lot of your favorite store, he tried to talk to you again but you were already out of the car.

Unfortunately, whenever you were upset with Yoongi, you got a sudden stroke of independence. He normally opened your door for you so he knew you were really upset when you did it yourself.

You didn’t talk to him the entire time through the store but you almost broke when you passed the pillows.

“Look baby. They have those pillows you were looking at.”

You picked one up before turning to Yoongi, opening your mouth to say, “yeah they…..” but you cut yourself off, remembering your vow of silence. He raised an eyebrow, waiting for you to speak but you held it. Tossing the pillows into the cart, you continued through the store, hands hurting from how hard you gripped the handles.

You couldn’t fight that skip in your heart. He remembered the pillows…..you told him about those weeks ago…..fuck.

You didn’t even notice Yoongi’s sly smirk as he walked behind you. He knew this silent treatment wouldn’t last long and he was honestly kind of amused. He knew you wanted to talk to him but your pride wouldn’t allow you to break first, not until you felt like it. He guessed he’d have to put up with your silent treatment a little longer.

Besides, with you walking ahead of him, he could stare at your perfect ass in those stretch pants all he wanted. His hand itched to grab it but he resisted. He didn’t want to make you more upset…..on purpose.

Yoongi ended up having to practically fight you with the bags, insisting he’ll put them back in the cart and push them to the car. You weren’t happy but you also didn’t argue, huffing and puffing your way back to the car.

Yoongi didn’t unlock the doors until he was finished putting the bags in the trunk which was getting you even more riled up. He knew you wanted to open your own door but doing it for you was just more amusing.

You squinted your eyes at him in frustration, throat burning with the desire to tell him off but you got in the car anyway, still completely silent.

The drive home was silent, as was the short journey up to your apartment. Holly greeted you both at the door, the wiggly dog jumping all over you. You didn’t even try to go through the bags, just heading straight for your bedroom where you could ignore Yoongi better. And of course, Holly followed you, not sparing Yoongi a passing glance.

Traitor, Yoongi thought.

He sighed but left you alone. He knew you weren’t that upset about what he said in the car. You were just being stubborn. He spoiled you too much. He could also be kind of passive(he’s working on it) as well so perhaps this was proving to be a little test for him.

After putting away the few grocery items and leaving the rest of your choices for you to sort through, he flopped down on the couch.

It was quiet.

Too quiet.

He liked his peace and quiet as much as the next person but the noise you brought was different. He had grown used to hearing you singing under your breath or talking to yourself as you thought about dinner or the crash of all of your hair products falling because you had so many and they didn’t fit right in the hallway closet.

You had ingrained yourself into his life—you and your own perfect little storm of gentle chaos.

He missed you. Even though you were in the next room. He missed you.

Standing from the couch, he walked down the hall to the bedroom. He couldn’t hear anything on the other side.

His knuckles rapped gently against the wood before he opened he door. “Baby?”

He found you laid on your back on the bed, phone held over your face as you scrolled through social media. Holly was resting on his dog bed in the corner, little head lifting as Yoongi entered.

“Go.” He motioned to the door. Holly tilted his head in a way that solidified Yoongi’s suspicion that his dog was secretly a human. Human or not, Holly knew better than to stick around.

Yoongi closed the door before focusing his attention back on you.

He approached the bed, leaning a knee on it. You could feel the dip but made no move to acknowledge him.

“Baby please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said. Of course I need you. I love when you tell me where to go but then you get distracted so we miss the turn. Remember we were late to our rehearsal dinner?”

Your lip twitched at the memory. Of course you do. The excitement of your wedding being the next day had you so caught up in your then fiancé that you couldn’t even focus on giving directions. And thanks to Yoongi being equally distracted by how stunning you were, he didn’t even think to make sure you stayed focused enough to give directions. He missed the exit twice before finally getting on track. Nevertheless, it was still a memorable evening with his family and close friends.

And the precursor to the rest of a wonderful life with you.

You still continued to ignore him. You could hear the sincerity in his apology but you wanted to make him sweat just a little bit longer.

But even Yoongi had a breaking point and you were crossing it.

“Baby.”

No answer.

Alright. Breaking point crossed.

~

“Why do you have to make everything so difficult? Ignoring me, “he scoffed with a shake of his head and landing a sharp smack to your ass. “You’re crazy.”

Your head was buried in the blankets, shoulders pressed against the bed and wrists held tightly in Yoongi’s grip.

His hips were slamming into your ass hard enough to hurt, his thick cock stretching your walls to their limit. He was thick enough to give you that slightly searing stretch and long enough to make you feel it all the way to your deepest parts.

“Mm, Yoongi!” You cry out as his strokes became longer, pulling himself all the way out to the tip remained before slamming back inside. He grits his teeth at your walls sucking him in as if they didn’t want him to go. Thank goodness for his stamina. After meeting you, he’s had to learn how restrain himself longer than ever. He never used to cum quick before meeting you. And yes, that was one of the many reasons he pursued you. “F-fuck….you feel so good.”

You arched your back more, lifting your ass so that he could reach even deeper.

“Don’t ignore me again. Do you understand?” He landed another slap on your bouncing ass, loving the recoil.

Your eyes rolled to the back of your head, face feeling hot from your breath that kept blowing back from how your face was pressed into the mattress.

Everything felt too tight, too hot, too sweaty, too good.

“Yes! I’m sorry!” You cried.

Releasing your wrists, he grabbed at your braids, twisting them around his wrist a few times. Waist length were definitely a smart investment.

He pulled you up until you were “balanced” on your hands because let’s face it, those things were numb as hell. His hold on your hair was really the only thing keeping you upright.

“Sorry for what? Apologize properly.”

He wanted you to form full sentences? That was like asking Jada to stop talking about Tupac. Impossible.

Another stroke knocked your speech centers loose, third orgasm since you started bubbling in your lower belly.

Yoongi could feel your walls clenching up, your moans growing louder at each thrust. Oh no you don’t.

He stopped his hips, still buried deep in your cunt. You whined as your orgasm ebbed away, wiggling your hips in an attempt to throw yourself back on his cock but a hand on your hip made you still.

“You’re not cumming until you apologize properly. Now, what aren’t you gonna do again?”

You swallowed, lip quivering and tears welling up. “I…I won’t ignore you again.”

He grinned. “Apology accepted.”

His hips set a punishing pace, your ass ricocheting off his hips. It had you moaning in ecstasy, nearly slipping from his grasp but he wrapped an arm under your breasts to keep you steady.

“Shit, I love this pussy. So. Fucking. Good.” Each word was punctuated with a thrust.

Your hand reached back to claw at his side, the slight sting making him groan and thus pushing him faster.

He yanked your hair until your back was pressed flush against his chest, his hips never slowing down. Almost instantly, you turned your head, seeking his lips as you always did when you were close. His heart fluttered, loving how affectionate you were.

You almost miss his lips from how absolutely feral he was going in your poor cunt. Fortunately, he tilts your head better with his grip on your hair, kissing your wet pout. The tenderness has your heart swooning despite all the chaos. He sucks at your tongue, leaving a light bite on your bottom lip as well.

“Gonna cum, my sweet girl?” He whispers in your ear, nipping at the skin.

You didn’t need to answer him, you’re growing moans enough to confirm. The hand that wasn’t scratching at his skin raises up to bury in his hair, yanking his strands similar to how he was doing you causing him to grunt in delight.

The arm around your body moved down to rub circles into your clit and you swore you saw the upper room. He buried his face in the side of your neck, inhaling your sweaty skin, lips leaving kisses and bites along the side of your throat.

His hips move even faster than before, desperate to carry you to your orgasm before he lost his shit. Pent up from that brief denial and riddled from your previous orgasms, you’re quick to crumble against him. Twisting in his hold, you cry out his name that’s like music to his ears.

“Yoongiiiiiiiiii! Cum in me, baby. Want you so bad….”

Your walls grip him tighter than a vice, his hips stuttering with careless abandon as he gives you exactly what you want. The sensitivity between your thighs burns in the best ways, little gasps coming from you another tiny orgasm washes over you.

“Ugh, fuck.” The last few sluggish ruts of his hips make both of you whine and gasp, his grip on you tightening and then loosening as his body shudders.

Your body falls forward on the mattress, muscles and bones weary and your eyes drooping as exhaustion weighs on them. You feel Yoongi flop down next to you, only the sound of his slightly hurried breaths filling the room.

“Not falling asleep on me, are ya?” He asks after a few seconds. He turns his head to find you are, in fact, beginning to doze off.

“No.” You fib, rolling your achy body over and holding up one arm. “Come kiss me.”

His smile is as sweet as him. He scoots over to bury himself in your warmth. Your arm wraps around him as his head lifts to give you your requested kisses.

“I love you.” You confess against his lips.

He hums. “Love you too. Even though you’re bad at giving directions.”

You roll your eyes but continued to peck at his lips. “Marry your GPS then.”

“I already have.” He hugs you closer. “And I wouldn’t give her up for anything.”

[joannaliceevans-fanficblog]

Evermore: Part. 2

A/N: Hello! I just wanted to thank everyone who has read and commented on the last chapter! That truly means a lot to me.

Warnings: There aren't many warnings, but to have tissues ready. It's been hard to write without crying every sentence.

Before I shut up, I just wanted to thank my lovely besties here. @hollybee8917 ! She made this wonderful mood board and edited this chapter! So thank you, babes!

Your alarm clock buzzed, and you moaned. You barely gotten any sleep and you didn’t want to get up. But you had to, because today wasn’t just an ordinary day. Today was a big day. Before you could even get up, the door opened and the sounds of tippy taps were heard. You smiled, and the sound of sniffing and then the 80 lbs. Alaskan Malamute/German Shepherd pup jumped onto the bed.

“Alright Sarg!” You said as he gave you wet kisses. You then pushed Sarg off, and he jumped off. It was a chilly, winter morning, so you grabbed your sweater and the moment you placed it on, you smiled. The scent of Bergamot and Vanilla filled your nose.

“In a few more hours, honey.” You said to yourself and wondered what he was up to.

And on cue, your phone rang and you quickly grabbed it and slid the green button.

Hi angel.

You smiled to yourself, “Hello Mr. Levinson, did you sleep well? And I thought you weren’t supposed to call me sir?”

You heard Ari laugh and you let out a giggle. He replied, “I did, surprisingly. And I know, I know. Andy forbade me from calling you. But I can’t go a day without hearing your voice. Even if it’s just for a brief moment.”

And that is true. Ever since you were 16, Ari would have called you. You weren’t dating then, but him being your best friend since you were teens, nothing could sway him from talking to you.

You scratched your head, “Is everything okay, Ari?”

“In all honesty? No. I couldn’t sleep last night.”

“Aww baby, is everything alright?”

“No, because you’re not here.”

A sad sight slipped from your lips, “How do I make everything okay?”

Ari laughed, “Oh angel, it will be in a few hours when you become Mrs. Levinson.”

The sound of that made your heart jump for joy. That is true. You heard Andy in the background, and you laughed.

Well, Mrs. Soon-to-be Levinson, I’ve got to go. But I’ll see you in a few hours. I love you.

You smiled, “Love you too, Mr. Levinson.”

You hung up, and Sarg jumped onto the bed, giving you a bark.

“Alright! I’m going, I’m going!” You said, getting up and heading out.

 **

A few hours later…

You stood in front of the mirror, making sure that everything was in place. Your hair was perfect, makeup was just the way you wanted it. A knock was heard and you turned around to see your college best friend Holly. In her hands was your bouquet of white, dark magenta pink, and baby pink Roses.

“You got something new and borrowed. But something is missing.” Holly said, as she placed your bouquet down and a small box appeared. You had curious eyes as your friend strolled towards you. The box opened, and you gasped.

A diamond pendant.

“I told Ari no expensive gifts!” You say, running your fingertips against the necklace.

“He knew you would have said that,” Holly said and handed you a small card. You placed the box down and opened the card.

I had a feeling that you would say something about the gift. I know we decided not to give expensive gifts, but you deserve it. Hell, you deserve everything in this world. I love you, Mrs. Levinson.

-Ari

You smiled and sighed.

“Let’s put on.” You say. You took the necklace and placed it around your neck.

**

The limo pulled up in front of St. Cecilia Catholic Church. The car came to a complete stop, and you took a deep breath and sighed. Then the door opened, and your best friend Holly came out, then your parents. You handed Holly your bouquet and got yourself out. It’s only been 30 minutes, and your feet are already hurting from the heels that you are wearing. You hated them, but Holly and your mother insisted you wear them. Thank the lord you brought your flats, and you would be changing into them after the ceremony. 

You fidgeted nervously as you stood in front of the double doors. With your dad next to you and your arm linked to his, he looked down at you, “Ready, Squirt?”

You giggled, knowing that was your nickname since you were a kid.

“I am daddy. And dad?” You asked.

“What is it?” He asked. 

You placed your hand on top of his and smiled, “Thank you for everything.” 

Your dad smiled and patted your hand. And with that, the doors opened, and everyone stood up. Your hands started to shake as the music started playing Yiruma’s Moments and you started to walk down the aisle. You shook a little until you looked towards the altar and your beloved Ari was looking back at you. The way he smiled at you made your heart soar. He was looking mighty fine. He wore his Army uniform, with his saber by his side. His thick beard and the way his long fluffy hair brought a smile to your face once more. (You had only a few months with him before he was deployed back to South Carolina for training new recruits) 

When you reached the front, your dad released your hand and placed it into Ari’s. You then stepped forward and faced Ari.

“Hi Angel,” Ari whispered. 

You wiped your tears and smiled, “Hi, Ari Bear.”

**

Wandering around the venue with a glass of wine in your hands, you spoke with guests. As you did, you looked over to the other side of the hall to see your now husband heading towards you. You handed your glass to Holly and by the time you did, Ari was in front you with his hand out. You placed yours into his and he took you to the middle of the dance floor. Ari gave the DJ a nod and a familiar tune came on. You looked up at Ari and he smiled. Your heart skipped a beat, “Is this-“

“Me and You?” 

Ari said, “Yes it is.”

Tears slipped down your cheeks and you placed your head against his chest.

“Everyday I live

Try my best to give

All I have to you

Thank the stars above

That we share this love

Me and You”

“You looked so beautiful walking down the aisle.” Ari whispered into your ear. 

“You knew that I liked your thick beard.” You said, as you still both swayed to the music.

Those are the exact words he has always said to you when he would write you letters, or send you flowers. But hearing him singing them to you made it even more special. You thank the stars that he came into your life. You then looked towards him and reached up to kiss him, “I love you.”

Ari kissed you once more, “I love you more.” 

**

You strolled with Sam by your side as you went towards Ari. Everything around you seemed like a blur, and nothing existed. Your heart was beating and breaking all at the same time by the time you got to his casket. You let go of Sam’s arm and stood for a moment, looking. But the second you placed your hand on top of the flag, everything went south with your emotions. Your tears, your feelings, your love for Ari, it all hit you. You placed your head down onto the coffin and balled your fists tightly. 

“Ari, I’m here now.” You whisper. 

You felt a hand behind you, and you knew that it was Andy.  

“Y/N, they have to retrieve him now,” Andy told you. 

You placed a kiss on top of the flag, and you stepped back, even if it was hurting. You held on to Andy, tears still coming down, and you watched on as your husband was being placed into the Hearst. The moment the door closed, Andy led you back to the car so you could go to the funeral home.

Good evening. I'm Jason Austel from NBC Boston. We start this evening with some upsetting news. A local hero, US Army Captain Ari Levinson from Concord, died today. He was deployed overseas and was in the Humvee when a bomb exploded in the car in front of them. He is survived by his wife and his 5-month-old daughter.

[hannahssimblr]

“What?”

“I said, you tore me out of this photo. I was there too,” I unpin it and hold it out to point to the crooked edge next to Jen where my eleven year old self once stood, tanned and grinning in red swimming shorts, “There, I was there.”

She looks at it, then me, but says nothing. 

“You can still see my shoulder.”

“Yeah.”

“You tore me out of it.”

Again, nothing. 

I let my arm drop, limply holding the photo between two fingers, speechless I just stare at her as though she might explain herself, give me some reason that makes sense, but she doesn’t, she just stands there chewing on her lip. 

I tug my shoulders sharply toward my ears, “Why did you do that? That was a nice day. We went swimming in the sea, I rescued you from a jellyfish, remember? I grabbed a piece of driftwood and flung it out of the water for you.”

“Yeah,”

“And later your mam brought us back to my house and we had a water fight on the lawn and made ice cream and coke floats,” I hold the photo out to her in a last ditch appeal, “It was a great day.”

“Yeah it was nice, we had fun.” She won’t meet my eyes and looks everywhere but at me, like acknowledgement is unbearable.

“What, Michelle? I don’t get it. What did I do that was so horrible?”

She scoffs and turns away. 

“C’mon, just tell me. I’ve had enough of all this bullshit between us, I’m serious. What is it?”

“Oh come on.”

“No, what?” I toss the photo onto her desk and approach her, my hand on her arm makes her flinch as I spin her to look at me, eyes livid, as I insist upon her, “What?” 

“My God, you’re awful,” she hisses, “Why do you need to hear me saying it? Is it an ego thing? Is it because you’re all single and sad again?”

“What are you on about?”

“You already know what this is all about, it just gives you a thrill to bring it up.”

“No! I don’t know!”

“Oh cop on,” She slaps my hand off her, “That stuff with Holly, you just don’t remember? That’s convenient.”

“Holly?”

“Oh my God,” she tries to twist away from me but I stop her, “What did Holly say to you?”

Michelle glares right into my face with a fury that would make a lesser man cower, but I don’t budge. “Tell me!” 

“That you don’t fancy me,” she grinds out, “and that I’m not even pretty.”

I hesitate. 

She tosses her hand at me and hacks out a laugh, “See, you don’t even deny it.”

“Yeah, I was thirteen and stupid, she was jealous and I suppose I was just telling her what she wanted to hear. Shell!” she backs off and I follow, trying to insert myself into her eye line, “I didn’t mean it, she just didn’t get it, the way it wasn’t like that between us, but I don’t know why she told you that.”

“It’s because she knew I fancied you, and she thought it was funny how you didn’t fancy me back.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You didn’t, you fancied Holly.” 

I sigh, “Holly was… everyone expected that of me.”

“What does that even mean?” 

“She liked me, and she was the sort of girl that all the other boys talked about all the time, I felt like I should just go out with her because it’d be the most normal thing to do.”

“Oh my God, that’s ridiculous.”

“Yeah, I know, but I was still a kid and, I don’t know, you, Jen and I had a good thing going, I just didn’t want to risk ruining it.”

“Well obviously you did, by saying I was ugly and throwing your birthday gifts back in my face.”

“I never said you were ugly, and the birthday gifts… she told me I couldn’t have them because they were from you, but I still liked them! Those pens were better than her gift, you know, I didn’t even like the movie she took me to see,” my attempt at a laugh sounds very weird and tight, “It was actually so shit.”

Michelle is unmoved, with her arms crossed over her chest she says, “You read what I said in the card and you still threw it away like it was nothing.”

“No, I didn’t- I skimmed- I barely read it.”

She reels back like I’ve spit in her face, “Is that supposed to be better?”

I don’t answer. 

“‘Dear Jude,’” She recites, “‘Happy thirteenth birthday! I hope you have an amazing day! I just want to say that being your friend is the best! You’re so nice and funny and talented, I’m glad all of the time that you started going to our school because you make our friend group so much better. I hope you like the gel pens, I know you hate drawing with yellow colours because they don’t show up on the page, but I couldn’t exactly take it out of the packet or it would look pretty strange! Maybe you can use them to draw more comics. I look at the one you drew for me with the cowboy cats every day and it still makes me laugh. Is that weird? I hope not. Anyway, I hope you have an amazing birthday because you’re an amazing friend! xxx Michelle.’” She glares at me. The way she positively spat that message at me threw me off a bit, but the essence of it still comes across and makes my stomach sink with shame all of the same. It really was a nice card, and I wish for the millionth time in my seventeen-and-a-half years that I wasn’t such a fucking idiot. 

“I remember the cowboy cat comic,” I mutter, “Do you still have it?”

It seems as though my stupidity is confounding her, “No, I fucked it into the bin. Obviously. I was heartbroken.”

“Heartbroken?” A bit dramatic, surely. 

“Yeah. Holly and her friends bullied me for years, and you just went and abandoned me for them.”

“That’s not fair, I didn’t. You pushed me away, remember? You accused me of choosing them, I never chose them. You chose not to be my friend.” 

“Yeah, I wonder why.”

“Why are you being like this?”

“Like what?”

“So stubborn. You can't let this go.”

“Uh! Yeah! Because it’s humiliating.”

“What is? That you fancied me?”

She brings her hands to her cheeks, burning not with rage, but embarrassment. She takes a shaky breath, “did you know?”

“About you-”

“Yes.”

I chew on my lip. Of course I did. It was written all over her, the way she was so eager to sit next to me in class or in the car, squeezing into the middle seat just so that her leg could rest against mine. How she jumped at the chance to help me out with something before anybody else could, her laugh, a little bit harder and longer than everyone else's when I told a joke, but not addressing it was always easier. Maybe I liked the attention a little bit, enjoyed being admired by a cute girl, or maybe it was easier, less disruptive than admitting my own uncomfortable, friendship-group-ruining feelings. 

“No, I had no idea,” I say. 

Her eyes are fixed upon the carpet between our feet as though by looking so intently at the looped fibres she can transport herself anywhere other than here with me and my interrogations. 

“Hey, look at me.”

“No.”

I sigh, “Look, Michelle, I did think you were pretty. That’s why Holly was so jealous. Our friendship made her insecure, and she hated how much I liked hanging out with you. She could sense that I liked you.”

“Oh, come on, that’s the kind of thing you say to those stupid girls at school so that they’ll let you borrow their homework or something.”

“I really did!”

“You used to throw potato wedges at me outside the deli!”

“Yeah! That’s how you show a girl you fancy her when you’re twelve!”

Her laugh is humourless, “Please.”

“I’m telling you I did,” I take her wrist, with her pulse jumping under my fingers and hold her like that, for reasons I’m not sure of, perhaps just for connection. Close like this I can feel the heat of her body. I am desperate to show her how serious I am. “And if I wasn’t so stupid I might have done something about it.”

“Too late.”

“It’s not.”

I bend and kiss her before she can argue any more. Once, just once, but insistently, and I pull back hard with a smack expecting outrage on her face but I find only surprise, desire, and eyes that flick from my eyes to my mouth and back. I kiss her again, slow this time, deep, sure, as my hands hold her hips close to mine, willing for this kiss to wipe it all away, all of the years of hurt and anguish between us, and she lets me kiss her, and she kisses me back with hands that thread through my hair and lips that part so I can slide my tongue inside her mouth.

My knees knock against hers in our clumsy waltz towards her bed and we come down on it together, my body pressing against hers and my fingers finding the warm skin beneath her t-shirt. I draw back to look at her again, dark eyes and full lips and skin, as is mine, blushed amber with the first rays of dawn that stream through the window. 

“Do you want to stop?” I say, and she shakes her head. 

“No.”

And outside, as the sun creeps up over Clontarf, the branches of the cherry blossom trees hold their leafy arms up in surrender. 

Beginning // Prev // Next

[lonesome-witching]

Call Me

Whenever I have a moment time I try to finish another prompt. And today i succeeded. This one features Nancy is a famous actress and Robin as a successful singer. Enjoy! Warning, I didn't have a chance to proofread this though.

Do you have any prompts yourself? Or do you want to dive into what I wrote before? You can read my previous prompts or send me some new ones.

She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to be anywhere except for the comfort of her own home on the 39th floor of a New York skyscraper. She was truly becoming a recluse. A hermit just as the one on the tarot card the fortune teller had placed on that tiny round table when Nancy had been six. It had been pushed to the back of her mind until her manager had accused her of being just that, a hermit.

He had been right. And so had her mother when she begged her to take her sister to this damned concert. Holly deserved this night out though. She deserved to see her favorite singer live like all these thousands of teenagers. Nancy just wished she didn’t have to take her.

But she wasn’t stupid, she knew why Holly wanted her to go with. Because Nancy could ensure one thing that no one else in her family, no one else in this venue, could. A meeting with the artist. She didn’t want to though.

“Thanks for taking me, Nancy,” Holly said for the third time as they walked to their seats, front row at the right side of the stage, almost pushed into a corner. Maybe Nancy should have tried to get them to the side of the stage where no one could see them, or at least barely anyone.

“Of course, Holly. That’s what big sisters are for.” At least she could fake a smile.

Holly smiled back, brightly. Maybe it was worth it after all. Nancy’s smile turned real. She leaned back in her seat.

“Oh my God, is that Nancy Wheeler?” a girl whispered from behind them. The smile vanished instantly.

“She looks like Nancy Wheeler,” another girl replied.

“Guys, there is no way Nancy Wheeler would be here. I heard she’s locked herself up in her apartment,” a third voice added.

“I don’t know. I read in an article the other day that she might be experimenting now that she and her boyfriend broke up.” The first voice.

“Oh, come on. Nancy Wheeler isn’t into girls.” The third voice.

“I don’t think she’s into girls either but that doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy a concert.” The second voice.

“I think she might be forcing something. Don’t you remember that recent interview where Robin said Nancy is her celebrity crush? This might be her response. Going like, ‘come and get me, Robin.’ I think it could be cute.” First.

“No way.” Second, with a laugh.

“You’re making up fanfiction as we speak, Ashley.” Third.

Holly turned around in her seat. “I heard that Nancy Wheeler is in Europe at the moment filming this extravagant new movie. Italy or something. It must be so exciting to be a movie star.”

Nancy sank further into her seat.

“Really? She’s in Italy?”

“I thought she was the girl next to you.”

“Her?” Holly pointed at Nancy. “Oh, no. She’s my sister, Marjorie.”

Nancy bit her bottom lip before she started laughing. She couldn’t hear what the girls replied as the lights turned low and the girls standing in front of the stage started screaming.

The truth was that Nancy didn’t know who Robin Buckley was. She had heard the name here and there, had heard of the interview the girls had mentioned, but she had never seen her face, or heard any of her songs. So, she was a little surprised when she saw the singer walk onto the stage. No, not walked. She jumped, skipped, and ran a part of the way. She nearly tripped over some wires that were taped to the stage, or maybe just over her own feet. And then she reached the microphone and started singing and Nancy was in awe.

The people around her, including her little sister blurred around her. All she could see was Robin Buckley with her raspy voice singing to her. She could imagine how a movie would portray the scene, how it would be written in a script.

A close up of Nancy shows her eyes glazed over as she watches Robin sing. The muffled sound of thousands of people screaming is overpowered by Robin’s voice.

“Isn’t she great?” Holly shouted over the music. Nancy simply nodded her head. Because she was great. She was absolutely magnificent. Her voice was magical.

When the first song ended, the second one started. Nancy stayed stuck in her trance until Robin addressed the crowd.

“New York, how are we feeling tonight?” she shouted into the microphone.

The crowd went wild, yet none of them answering the question. Nancy just stared in silence.

“Alright, can we turn the lights on? I like to see who I’ll be spending my night with.”

The lights were almost blinding. It felt like there was a spotlight on Nancy, who had the sudden urge to slide under her chair.

“You guys look beautiful tonight,” Robin said, looking from the left side of the venue to the right until her eyes landed on… Nancy. “Oh.” It was a soft little noise. Even through the speakers it was barely audible.

The girls behind Nancy started screaming even louder. Nancy worried she’d get permanent hearing loss because of them.

Robin walked towards Nancy as far as the stage would allow. “Nancy Wheeler?”

“No, that’s Marjorie!” the girls behind Nancy screamed. She wasn’t sure if Robin didn’t hear them or just didn’t believe the obvious lie. But she ignored the comment and saluted in Nancy’s direction before returning to her spot in the center of the stage. The lights dimmed once again as the next song started up.

-

“Do you think we can meet her, Nancy?”

She and Holly were already walking towards the exit. They probably could. It was the perk of being famous, you got to meet other famous people. And it wasn’t that she didn’t want to meet Robin Buckley. She was just scared.

Scared to make the wrong first impression. Scared to come off as weird or freaky or socially awkward. She wasn’t sure she could make a good impression right now.

“Please, Nancy!” Holly pushed.

“Alright, we can try.” Nancy shook her head as she said it.

They turned around walking towards the back of the venue. Maybe they would be turned away. They could be turned away.

-

They weren’t turned away. Nancy didn’t fully realize that until they were dumped in Robin’s personal dressing room. Robin herself was sitting at a vanity table with a notebook in front of her and a pen in her hand. She didn’t look up when the door closed behind Nancy and Holly.

Nancy cleared her throat. She didn’t know what to say. She probably should have. With all the media training and the strangers she met. But she didn’t. She didn’t know at all.

Robin looked up into the mirror in front of her and quickly turned around. “Nancy Wheeler, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I didn’t expect you to show up to my show. If I did, I would have given you better seats for sure, you guys were pushed into a corner. Did you see everything? I never know what the audience sees from all those different angles. Did you enjoy the show? Both of you?”

“It was great! I had such a good time,” Holly said.

“Yeah, she screamed so loud my eardrums are still recovering,” Nancy spoke without thinking.

Robin laughed. “As she should. And what about you? Did you enjoy yourself, Nancy? Can I call you Nancy?”

“Yes, you can call me Nancy. And I did have a good time. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to go out like this.”

Robin smiled at her. She had a beautiful smile. She was beautiful. Even more so up close. Her blue eyes were hypnotizing. Her freckles were distracting.

“Glad to hear it. I have to be honest that when I noticed you in the audience, I got a bit scared. Or maybe not scared, I got nervous. That’s a better word for it. But I also kind of hoped you’d come say hi.” Robin was scratching the back of her neck as she spoke.

“Really? Is it because I’m your celebrity crush?” Nancy asked with a smirk on her face. Somehow it was easy to talk to Robin.

“You heard about that, huh?”

“A little birdie told me.”

“Yeah, the girls sitting behind us. They kept gossiping about Nancy and you,” Holly interjected.

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, I think they wanted the two of you to get together or something.”

“Holly!” Nancy said, feeling like she was losing the upper hand in the conversation, even if she wasn’t sure why she needed it in the first place.

Robin laughed again.

“Can I have an autograph?”

“Yeah, of course.” Robin walked back to the vanity to grab the pen she had dropped.

“So, what were you writing when we came in here?” Nancy asked.

“A new song.”

“I’m looking forward to hearing it.”

“And I’m looking forward to seeing your new movie. In fact, I just read you were in Italy filming.”

“Ain’t that peculiar?”

“It sure is. But I do appreciate you coming all this way just to see little old me.”

“Ask for her number,” Holly whispered.

“What?” Nancy whispered back.

“She’s flirting with you. Ask for her number.”

“She’s not flirting with me.”

“Oh, I was trying to flirt with you,” Robin admitted, handing over the piece of paper to Holly.

“Oh, you were?”

“Kind of. I mean you are my celebrity crush.” Robin smiled shyly. “But it’s fine if you are not interested. I’m already honored to have met you.”

“I am. Interested, I mean. I am interested.” She hadn’t known before. Or maybe she had.

“Oh, great,” Robin replied.

“In fact, she would really like your phone number or an address to send mail to,” Holly said.

“Yeah, of course. I’ll write down the number to my home phone and my address, but it might be easier if you gave me your number so I can call from wherever.”

“Sure.” Nancy rushed toward the vanity. Her hand touched Robin’s as she handed over the pen. “Call me.”

“I sure will. Definitely. As soon as possible.”

[ace-and-ink]

the other day

(i almost called it yesterday)

i wrote a poem after class

called it a warm-up

called it cards

i did everything my professor said i shouldn’t

took advice from my writing professor

who said

“here are a list of writing rules

go break every single one of them”

i’ll take this one slower

because my theatre class got out early

and i got to eat this time

the soda fountain was busted

the cherry coke wasn’t that

we read of those who wrote

with inspiration of art

i’ll never write like

the way orphan made me feel

i hear i song

and i cry

and i steal half their lines

want me to do it again?

i’ll list what i’m listening to

“take it from me

i’m not looking for anybody

i’m sick of car rides

you lied while we lay back to side”

my friend (?????)

[for our audio listeners

if you’re ever out there

there’s a series of question marks

because i don’t know

what i want her to be]

said goodbye to me as she left

and i couldn’t catch her

i had to fix my desk

i sat with a pretty girl today

she reminds me of my old friend

the one i’ve written about before

the one i’ve compared myself to with a dying moth

i wish she’d look at me like she did

she smiled at the end

before fumbling her papers

and i almost relapsed on the spot

i saw a pretty girl in my building

she lives a floor above me

i think about how my elevator sometimes

doesn’t say what floor it was going to

and i always have to double check

i wonder what system it uses

or if it just didn’t want to say it

if it skipped a line on accident

if it just had too much going on at once

i don’t think i can call this a poem

what if i call myself a moth again?

i use dogs too often

my hair looked decent when

i left the bathroom this morning

i saw my reflection when the poem wouldn’t load

and i think i almost lost three years of progress

that girl was from here

in this city i’m familiar yet foreign to

i reread my own poem

and i’ve suddenly never used a metaphor in my life

i talked about rocks

and i wrote about moths

i’ll only be a hit online

- by online i mean i’ll get clicks

from my one online friend -

my roommate always keeps the door open

the same friend from before had her room rekeyed

i don’t know how to make this a poem

my professor would never take this

i keep getting snapchat notifications

of my old teammates from home

celebrating each other’s birthdays

i almost don’t even go home for mine

so should i use a simile?

should i add a metaphor?

i can’t say i agree with holly in that song right now

i can’t drive

but they’ve lied while we laid together

and they’re still going on about getting high

let’s see

what can i say here?

i feel like a fish in a fishbowl

- there’s my vehicle -

i can see everything i want

but i can’t get to any of it

- there’s my tenor -

my writing class made me feel

like i at least have a chance

so far poetry

has made me feel like i’ve been fooling myself

i can’t call this poetry

i can’t say i’m good at all

which isn’t the problem

it’s that i don’t feel like i can be

i’m laying in bed

the brain killer

and now i don’t want to go to geology

which isn’t for another hour

i’ll call this a warm-up

like i do

being the fraud artist i am

saying every piece i don’t like

was a practice sketch

so i don’t have to claim it

hey if i add a period here

can i call this all enjambment?

ah shit nevermind

there it goes

i’ll end it on this

anyway.

— warm-up: tenor

[justagalwhowrites]

Holly Jolly - Ch. 2: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

You and Joel get the girls together for a playdate. A continuation of Holly Jolly, a modern no-outbreak TLOU fic found on Tumblr here.

Pairing: Joel Miller x Female Reader

Warnings: None really!

Length: 4.1k

AO3 | Main Master List | First Chapter | Next Chapter

Sarah, it seemed, had become president of the Sharon fan club. 

She talked about her the whole ride home. She talked about her as Joel got Sarah ready for school the next morning. She talked about her all through dinner. 

“Hey Dad,” she said as he read her a story and tucked her into bed. “Can I play with Sharon tomorrow maybe?” 

Joel sighed. 

“Wouldn’t you rather go play with Mackenzie?” He asked. “Or maybe we can watch a movie, just you and me?” 

“But I like Sharon,” she said, whining a little. “Please?” 

He sighed again. 

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “But you have to go to sleep, OK?” 

“OK!” She said quickly, snapping her eyes shut. Joel laughed a little. She opened one eye ever so slightly to make sure Joel was watching and closed it again. 

“Alright, Kiddo,” he laughed again. “Sleep tight.” 

“I’m trying to, Daddy, but you keep talking,” she scrunched her nose. 

“Sorry,” he smiled and kissed her forehead before turning out her lamp. “Goodnight, Baby Girl.” 

“Night, Dad!” 

He closed the door quietly behind him and went to the living room, all but collapsing on the couch and pinching the bridge of his nose. 

Joel really didn’t want to text you. He wasn’t exactly eager to talk to you just after meeting you let alone after you saw his card get declined and decided to take pity on him to buy the fucking picture. And then he was a bit of a dick about it. Something else he wasn’t exactly proud of. 

But he didn’t want to disappoint Sarah more. So he gritted his teeth, found your text from yesterday, and typed out a message. 

Hey, it’s Joel, Sarah’s dad. She’s been talking about Sharon non-stop, would you like to try to get them together this weekend? 

He almost hoped you didn’t respond. If you didn’t, it wouldn’t be Joel’s fault that Sarah didn’t get to see Sharon again. She’d be disappointed but she’d understand and Joel could feel like he’d done his job as her dad. 

But you responded almost immediately. Because of course you did. 

Hey Joel! Sharon’s been talking about Sarah a ton, too! Does tomorrow work? There’s a playground at our apartment complex and I can make lunch. 

Joel gritted his teeth. Were you trying to feed them because you didn’t think he could feed his kid? Or were you just being nice? He sighed. Sarah liked Sharon. He had to at least try to be nice.

Sounds great. What time?

Again, an almost instant reply. 

Noon OK? 

You added your address. 

Sure. See you then. 

Sarah was damn near giddy when he told her the plan the next morning. He’d never seen her run to brush her teeth quite that fast and she immediately went to her toy box to start trying to find things she wanted to bring over. 

“You can pick three things,” Joel said. “And it has to be stuff you want to share, OK?” 

She nodded seriously. Joel put her curls into springy pigtails and let her pick her clothes for the day - Sarah carefully selecting pink pants and a purple shirt with a lot of glitter before insisting on adding the ponytail holders with the pink, plastic balls to her hair. 

Joel stopped at the HEB on the way to your place and picked up some juice boxes and some cookies so he wasn’t showing up empty handed. The check and finally cleared so he pulled out cash to give you, too. There was a bright green wreath on your door and a doormat with a snowman and Joel tried to not cringe as he knocked. 

You answered quickly, smiling like you had been before but not completely covered in Christmas shit this time, at least. 

“Hi,” you said. “It’s good…” 

Sharon careened around the corner and almost fell into Sarah, eyes wide and excited. 

“You’re here!” She said, giddy, before grabbing Sarah’s hand. “Come on, I want to show you this sticker…” 

The two girls tore into the apartment and you laughed a little before stepping to the side and holding your arm out, welcoming Joel in. 

“Come on in!” You laughed a little. “Lunch is almost done. I decided to do something pretty basic, I hope that’s OK…” 

“Sure it’s great,” Joel said, holding out the juice boxes and cookies like an offering. “Thought we could contribute.” 

“Thank you,” you took them and headed inside, Joel trailing behind you. 

“Also, here,” he held out the money. “For the picture.” 

“Oh,” you looked at the cash for a second and then back up at him. “Really, don’t worry about it. Lord knows people have helped me out enough over the years. Just pick up the tab for someone next year or something.” 

He wanted to fight you on it but you were already headed to the kitchen, putting the juice boxes in the fridge. 

While you weren’t covered in Christmas stuff, your house sure as shit was. Paper chains hung from every doorway he could see, a Christmas tree in the corner twinkling with a small pile of gifts below it, a collection of wooden snowmen on your coffee table. It definitely made the four foot tree that was older than Sarah with nothing below it seem lacking. He tried not to resent that, too. 

You pulled something out of the oven as Joel hovered awkwardly in the entry to your small kitchen. 

“Oh, you can have a seat if you want,” you nodded to the breakfast bar. “We’ll give them a few minutes to check out the new stickers. Sharon’s school holiday party was yesterday and the kids all got goodie bags and she traded like everything in hers for as many stickers as she could get her little hands on. I don’t know what the obsession is…” 

“Thanks for havin’ us over,” Joel said, watching as you cut up the bread you’d just pulled out of the oven and he realized that you’d made little sandwiches. “I appreciate it, especially since I wasn’t exactly the friendliest the other day.” 

You looked up at him from the pan and he realized he could see your cleavage down the v-neck of your impossibly soft looking sweater, a sweater that looked like it was made to play off the color of your hair and skin and eyes. 

“Oh, it’s fine,” you waved him off and went for the fridge. “I’m sure you just had a long day. Why else would you be in line to see Santa at 8:30 on a Thursday night?” 

Joel laughed a little. You weren’t wrong.

“Yeah,” he said. “Fair enough. Still. You were being nice and I should’ve been nice back.” 

You shrugged and pulled some cut up vegetables and fruit out of the fridge and put them on the counter. 

“The holidays are hard,” you said. “Really, it’s OK.” 

“Don’t look like they’re hard for you,” he said, looking around. 

Your eyes looked a little wide. 

“Really?” You asked. “Oh, thank God. This is the first Christmas I’ve had a kid in my house, I keep worrying I’m not doing it right…” 

“Looks like you’re doin’ good to me,” Joel said. 

“Thank you,” you said. “Really, that means a lot.” 

Joel looked at a picture on a nearby wall, you with Sharon and a woman who looked a little like you. 

“Is that Sharon’s mom?” He asked, nodding at the photo. You leaned over the breakfast bar to see where he was looking and he resisted the uncomfortable urge to get a better look below your sweater. 

“Yeah,” you nodded with a sigh. “My sister. She was a single mom and she died in February.”

“Shit,” Joel said. “I’m sorry, that’s… that’s hard.” 

“It really is,” you said, eyes a little wide. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Sharon. That kid is my whole world. But I was only ever supposed to be the cool aunt who took her to Europe when she turned 16 and went with her for her first tattoo because her mom would hate it and she wanted support. I’m not supposed to be a mom.” 

“Is it just you?” Joel asked on impulse before he realized that he was prying into the life of a virtual stranger. “Sorry, you don’t have to answer…” 

“It’s fine,” you waved him off. “And yeah, just me. Before wild child in there I wasn’t really interested in much tying me down so I haven’t had a real boyfriend or anything in years. Our parents died a few years ago and we didn’t have any other siblings so it’s just me and Sharon. She’s a great kid, though. So much like her mom, it’s all so worth it. I just hope I’m doing right by her, you know? 

“Her mom would go all out at Christmas,” you continued. “Like that house looked like Buddy the Elf went to town on it every year. Meanwhile, I had like three ornaments I’d gotten as gifts before this year. I always went to her place for the holidays, it seemed silly to decorate mine.” 

“Looks like you’ve got it down already,” Joel said. “Just bought a house a few months ago, haven’t had the chance to really decorate anything yet. I just keep hoping she doesn’t really notice.” 

“Seems like you’re the kind of dad who spends a lot of time with her,” you said. “That’s the important part.” 

You called the girls over for lunch and you and Joel just watched as the two of the chattered about Frozen between bites of carrot sticks and sandwich. 

At one point you made eye contact with Joel when Sharon talked about trading for all the stickers yesterday at school and Joel had to fight not to laugh when he realized that he actually liked you. When he wasn’t in a shit mood and having his card declined by the mall Santa, you were just a kind person who, for some reason, wanted to be kind to him. Even after he’d been rude to you. He hadn’t thought you’d be his kind of person but he liked you.

“So ladies,” you said as plates were cleaned and leftovers put in the fridge. “Playground?” 

Sarah’s face lit up and the two of you got the girls into their jackets before walking over to the park, the kids immediately running for the slide, giggling manically. You sat on a bench and Joel joined you, the two of you silently watching them play for a moment before you glanced over at him. 

“So,” you said. “When you’re not shepherding a five-year-old girl through the mall Santa line, what do you do?” 

“I’m a contractor,” Joel said. “Mostly small to mid-sized jobs, just wrapped up one and I’ve got something small to run through the holidays before the next bigger one starts… You?” 

“I’m a teacher,” you said. “Physics, at the high school down the road.”

Joel smiled a little. 

“I went to that school.” 

“Really?” Your face lit up. “It’s a small world!”

“Or I just never made it far from where I finished school,” Joel said, looking back at the girls. “You like it there?” 

“I guess,” you shrugged. “I’m still getting the hang of it. I never planned to be a teacher, I was an architect before but I needed something that would work better for Sharon schedule wise so I got my teaching certification.” 

Joel frowned. 

“That’s a hell of a sacrifice.” 

You shrugged again. 

“She’s worth it. Besides, the kids are really fun. I have juniors and seniors and they’re so dramatic at that age, it’s like every little thing is the end of the world, and they care so passionately about things. It’s like living as an extra in a soap opera. That’s actually why I was dressed so crazy on Thursday, we had our holiday parties for the a-block classes but one of my kids was having some issues so I just stayed late and the next thing I knew I was late getting Sharon from daycare and everything was a mess… Anyway…” 

“You’re doin’ a good job,” Joel said, watching you, and you looked at him. Actually looked at him. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah,” he said. “Trust me. Been doin’ this on my own since Sarah was four months old. You’re doin’ a good job.” 

The girls played for almost two hours before they wore themselves out and you all walked back to your apartment. 

“So, I hope I’m not overstepping by asking but… where are you at with Christmas shopping?” You asked. Joel just blinked at you for a moment but you kept going. “I’m only asking because there’s a thing some of the other teachers do where we take turns watching each other’s kids so we can run errands or go Christmas shopping and I’m dropping Sharon off tomorrow afternoon. They’re cool if I add another kid to the mix so if you need to get out for a few hours and cross some things off the to do list…” 

You looked worried and Joel, for a moment, wondered just how much of an asshole he’d been to you that you thought doing him a favor would piss him off. 

“That would be great, actually,” he said. “You’re sure they don’t mind?” 

“Not at all,” you smiled. “I’ve covered for some of the others a few times when stuff comes up with their other kids like sports tournaments and things, it’s really no problem. Besides, something tells me that Sarah’s a good kid. Don’t think she’s going to give them much trouble. If you text me your address, I can pick you up around 10 tomorrow morning? Drop the kids?” 

“Uh… sure,” Joel said, surprised that he was actually looking forward to it. “Thanks.” 

When he tucked Sarah in that night, he told her that she was going to see Sharon again the next day. She was giddy, kicking her little feet under her blankets. 

“I really like her, Daddy,” she smiled, that gap in her teeth one of the cutest damn things Joel had ever seen. “And her aunt is really nice.” 

“Yeah,” Joel said, tucking the blankets around her. “Yeah, she is.” 

***

“But can we ask them over to make cookies?” Sharon asked as you French braided her hair. 

“Maybe,” you said. “But it’s the holidays, girlie pop, they might already have plans. It would be very rude to try to monopolize their time.” 

“But I really like Sarah!” She said. “And she said they only do the cut out cookies and I told her about the peanut butter ones I made with you and mom last year and…” 

You still got a little choked up at the thought of your sister. You didn’t know it was going to be her last Christmas at the time but, in hindsight, it was like part of her had known she was going to be gone a few months later. 

It had been a picture perfect Christmas, filled with movie marathons and cookie baking and a Christmas light drive with a thermos of hot cocoa and extra marshmallows. You’d loved every second of it, loved that it felt like the three of you against the world. 

And now it was just you and Sharon and you were trying desperately to fill the massive shoes your sister had left behind while not replacing her. 

“We can make the peanut butter ones again,” you said, swallowing the tears that tightened in your throat. “And it will still be fun if it’s just you and me and not you and me and Joel and Sarah. Right?” 

“Yeah,” she sighed dramatically. 

“I know,” you tied off her braid and kissed the crown of her head. “I’m such a let down.” 

You made a face at her in the mirror and she giggled. 

“Come on,” you said, giving her shoulders a squeeze. “Let’s go get our new friends.” 

You tried to not be nervous about spending at least part of the day with Joel without the girls. You were pretty sure he didn’t like you much. You’d been positive about that at the mall. You knew you tended to come on a little strong and you’d been so flustered when you’d met him that you were sure it was worse than usual. You hadn’t expected him to actually reach out and you certainly weren’t going to text him unless Sharon was particularly eager to see Sarah and you felt like you had to. 

And then he texted you. 

Yesterday had gone better, at least. He was kinder than he’d been before and you’d enjoyed talking with him while the kids played. He was clearly such a dedicated father. Sarah fell off the play structure at one point with a small shriek and he jumped to his feet with a look of sheer panic on his face. But he stayed by the bench, giving her a second to get herself up before Dad rushed in. She did just that, brushing wood chips off her knees before immediately climbing the ladder to the slide again. 

It wasn’t something you were used to seeing from men. Sharon’s father hadn’t been anything like that. He’d stuck around for a few months after he’d proposed to your sister when he knocked her up. But by the time the baby shower rolled around, you could tell he was getting cold feet. Sharon wasn’t even a day old yet when he pulled you aside at the hospital and asked you to tell your sister to leave him off the birth certificate. You didn’t even get a chance to respond before he turned and left and that was the last time you’d seen him. 

Joel, clearly, had done the opposite. 

When you rang the door bell at the small house with peeling paint on the trim, it took almost a minute for Joel to answer the door. 

“Sorry,” he said quickly. “Come in, we’re havin’ a bit of a morning… Sarah didn’t sleep great so she didn’t want to eat breakfast and now we’re behind and…” 

“It’s fine,” you smiled. “We’ve got time.” 

You nudged Sharon in ahead of you and followed behind Joel, his dark curls wet. You sat down in the living room and peered around. There was a small artificial tree in the corner that looked a little threadbare and stockings held by push pins by the fireplace. A chunk of drywall had been cut out near the back door and there were some tools in slightly organized disarray on the floor nearby. 

“What’s that?” Sharon frowned, looking at the exposed pipe. 

“That is the current project,” Joel said, guiding Sarah into the room. “Some stuff in the house doesn’t work quite right…” 

“Hi Sharon!” Sarah waved frantically and Sharon’s face lit up. 

“Hi Sarah!” She waved back. “Sarah, I brought my favorite Barbie! The one with the red hair, it’s in the car!” 

“Cool!” Sarah said. “I asked Santa for a Barbie Dream House for Christmas! When I get it, you’ll have to bring your dolls over and they can be friends, too!” 

You caught a glimpse of Joel’s face at the mention of Barbie Dream House, almost like a wince. 

“You promised to sit still if you got to sit in the living room while I did your hair,” Joel said. “Sooner we do that, sooner you can go see that Barbie, let’s go.” 

Sarah sighed dramatically and flopped on the loveseat. Joel stood behind her and quickly gathered her hair into several small buns while Sarah did her best to hold still while talking animatedly to Sharon. 

It didn’t take long and soon, the four of you were piling in your SUV, Joel putting Sarah’s carseat in the back alongside Sharon’s. 

“I really appreciate this,” he said after you dropped the girls off and headed to the Target in town with the biggest toy selection. “I had no damn clue when I was going to try to get any Christmas shopping done…”

“Tell me about it,” you said. “If it wasn’t for this whole kid watching exchange, I was going to have to take a day off work. I’ve never had to try to do this before, it’s her first Christmas without her mom and I really can’t mess it up, you know?” 

“Can I ask what happened?” Joel asked after a moment. 

“Car accident,” you said. “On her way to get Sharon from daycare in February. Thank God she wasn’t in the car, too, or they’d both be gone…” 

“Jesus,” Joel said. “I’m sorry, that’s… that’s hard. Seems like you’re handling it well, though. Sharon seems to adore ya.” 

You shrugged. 

“I think I’m still just the cool aunt in a lot of ways,” you said. “Part of me thinks she still expects her mom to come back eventually. I don’t know. This isn’t how life was supposed to go for either of us.” 

Joel just nods slowly. 

“I get that. S’not what I expected for mine, either. It’s all worth it for Sarah but if you’d asked me what I was gonna be doing at 27 years old, shopping for a fuckin’ Barbie Dream House wouldn’t be it. Oh shit… crap, sorry. I try not to swear in front of Sarah or people I don’t really know, I don’t…” 

You laughed a little. 

“Don’t worry about it, I’m a big girl. Think I can handle a little adult language.” 

You parked at Target and the two of you headed inside, each grabbing a cart. 

“Did you want to split up or…” Joel asked. 

“Well, if you wouldn’t mind me tagging along?” You asked, a little sheepish. “This is the first Christmas and her birthday was just before her mom died, I’ve never done a big gift day with her. I could use some help. If you’re up for it, I don’t want to impose, it’s totally fine if you just don’t want…” 

“It’s fine,” Joel smiled just a little. “At this point, know a lot more about little girls’ toys than I have any right to. May as well put it to use.” 

The two of you started in the girls’ clothes section before heading on to the toys. Joel went straight for the Barbie aisle and he stopped in front of the Dream House, just staring at the box. You picked a Barbie for Sharon and stood next to him. 

“That thing is huge,” you said after a moment, glancing his way. “No way there’s room for it in my place. No one has room for something that big…” 

You chewed the inside of your cheek a bit, hoping that giving Joel some kind of out wasn’t too awkward. 

He didn’t take it, though. 

“It’s just outta my price range this year,” he sighed. “Keep tryin’ to do the math and I want to get it for her. I want to get everything for her. But shit, I’ve got maybe that much for all of Christmas. Can’t spend that on one toy.” 

You saw him tense his jaw for a moment when you had a thought. 

“What if you made her one?” You asked, looking up at him. He took his eyes off the box for the first time in more than a minute to frown at you. 

“Make a Barbie Dream House,” he said, skeptical. 

“Yeah,” you shrugged. “I mean, it wouldn’t look just like that but… I’m an architect. Or I was. You’re a contractor. I bet, between the two of us, we could come up with something that would cost like $50 in materials. I’ll design it for you and then you can build it and…” 

“You’d do that?” He asked, brows raised. “Just plan out a toy for my kid?” 

“Sure,” you shrugged and smiled. “I mean… it’s Christmas. Besides, it’ll give me a chance to practice at drawing up plans again. I could use the excuse, I miss it.” 

Joel looked at you for a moment and you thought - not for the first time - that he was one of the most beautiful people you’d ever seen. You’d thought it when you first saw him in line for Santa, you’d thought it when he’d showed up at your door the day before, you’d even thought it as you watched him style is daughter’s hair earlier that day. 

You looked at the box for something else to focus on. 

“We can do that,” you said. “Piece of cake.”

Next Chapter

[kitthepurplepotato]

New to the story? Start here! -> PART 1

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Chapter 4 - “Dynadick” and the case of the heartbroken Chargebolt.

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Warnings: Swear words, Bakugou being an asshole as always.

Summary: Bakugou does not appreciate flirting. Bakugou is also not fond of listening to the heartbroken Denki’s nonsense.

Special thank you to @sozainturpal for the lovely message, it made me so happy I “accidentally” wrote a full chapter after reading it 💜

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This absolute shithead.

Screaming nonsense in the middle of the morning, ruining your precious coffee time.

And did he just call you a… dingbat? Who the actual fuck uses that word anyway?

What is a dingbat?! Is it a bat that… dings?

What is “dinging”?

Can a bat ding?

Holly shit, you definitely haven’t had enough coffee for this conversation. You are also a foreigner. You have no idea how offended you should be right now.

To be fair, we are talking about Dynamight here. This word sounds like a praise from his filthy mouth.

“So, this is the updated database.” You sigh into the silence and sit down by your laptop. Your place is in the far corner of Bakugou’s office, almost opposite his own fancy-pants desk.

As you concentrate on signing in, you can feel Bakugo’s breath on your neck. Can he not bring his bloody chair over and sit down next to you?!

“While in different circumstances I would be more than happy to have you so close to my face, I find your closeness quite unpleasant and slightly inappropriate right now, boss.”

Well… you shouldn’t have said that.

“What the fuck is your problem?!” Says the now tomato red faced explosive hero, clearly not having as much fun as you are right now. Fuck the coffee, making Bakugou uncomfortable is your new favorite part of your morning routine. “Do you have a crush on me or something?!”

“I mean, you actually look quite handsome when you like, shut up. But as that never happens, the answer is no, I do not have a crush on you, I’m afraid.”

For your surprise, he does not lash out on you. Instead, he rolls his eyes and squats next to you to give you some personal space. What have you done? Is Bakugo broken again? Will he play the fake dead card and hide from his embarrassment as he did the last time? Is this how he copes with things?

Where did you leave your coffee?!

“Yeah, I heard that line before.” He sighs and waits for you to start your demonstration, but fuck that, you are really curious right now.

Is he… self conscious about this? Is Bakugo actually capable of human feelings? Did you just tear open a barely mended wound from the past?

You might be the second biggest asshole after Katsuki, but even you can feel ashamed of your own words sometimes.

“Who… said that to you?”

And now you are stuttering. Great.

“Someone in High School. I haven’t shut up ever since.” Grins the blonde and you can’t help but roll your eyes. He was faking it. Of course he was. You were about to say sorry yet here he is, grinning like a wild animal, all calm and collected, like he wasn’t about to die of embarrassment 30 seconds ago. He won this fight and he got you good.

“You are such a dick.”

“Yep, that’s me. Get used to it.”

Haha. Dynadick.

Jesus, where is your coffee again?

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“Haha. Dynadick.”

Loud laughter fills the room as Mr. Katsuki rolls on floor, hyperventilating.

The menace might be a pain in the ass, but her red face when she realized she said this out loud was worth waking up for.

“I didn’t mean to say this out loud, goddamit.” The menace squeaks and oh boy, Mr. Katsuki is having the time of his life.

The loud commotion made Kirishima appear in the door as well, and Katsuki can’t get over the pure dread on the Menace’s face so he decides to push it until there’s nothing left but pure mortification.

“She called me Dynadick, Eiji. Dynadick.” Whines the hero on the floor with tears in his eyes. Kirishima is puzzled, he clearly has no idea if he should laugh with his best friend or try his best to save his poor new colleague from her misery; she clearly spoke out loud again, just how she did on her interview.

Is there a way to do both? He kinda wants to laugh.

“I can’t be close to her face because it’s inappropriate but she can call me, her boss, Dynadick. She’s such a hypocrite.”

“IT WAS A FUCKING ACCIDENT, GODDAMMIT!”Stands up the Menace (what was her real name again? Mr. Katsuki has no idea and he definitely does not care enough to ask) and slams her tiny arms on the top of the desk. As the desk slowly shakes and breaks in half, she points at the laptop in the middle of the rumble on the floor. Well, at least the laptop will not need replacing. That can’t be said about the poor table. Rest in peace, brother. What a way to go. “GO AND CHECK THE DATABASE ALONE YOU MISERABLE FUCK, I’M GOING TO A PUB!”

“It’s 7:30, darling. AM.”

Oh, poor Kirishima.

“No shit, Sherlock!” Barks back the Menace and leaves the building, leaving poor Kirishima with a mentally unstable Bakugou who’s still laughing on the floor like a maniac.

“Can you guys at least try to not break something every day? Our budget might be big, but we will eventually run out of money.”

“It was so fucking worth it.” Cries the blonde, with no remorse in his trembling voice.

This will be a long day. Kirishima hopes Y/N will be back by the afternoon so he can make sure she’s fine and not resigning on her second day.

Bakugo has the same hopes, but for different reasons; he’s already plotting his next mischief, and a drunk Menace sounds like the perfect target to get his daily entertainment.

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Later that day…

The whole office jumps in unison when the main door slams shut after you. You definitely owe Kirishima an apology and you certainly hope you still have a job and you won’t be asked to leave - you did run away without a warning and you did go to a pub; in broad daylight, in the middle of your shift. On a positive note tho, you already sobered up.

“Y/N! Are you okay? Do you want to talk?”

Of course he is all over you the moment you walk in. Of course HE feels bad while the main culprit is happily sitting in his office, probably drinking YOUR chai tea latte. Nevermind.

“I’m sorry. I’m really really sorry, boss. I just needed a breather. I’m fine. I’m back. I won’t cause any more trouble… well… today.” You blush and look away to the other direction. You might have hundreds of quirks under your sleeve, but somehow, non of them could cure your inability to lie.

Kirishima only snickers on your response and gives you a tiny hug. He’s so precious, goddamit!

“I appreciate your honestly and please, don’t worry about it. It will get easier as the time goes. I’m just happy you are still here and willing to take the responsibility for your actions.” With a tap on your shoulders he lets you make your way to your office.

You can hear chatter coming from the other side of the door. Is someone… crying? Well, it’s definitely not Dynamight as you can hear him grumbling aggressively in the background, clearly not happy about the sudden outburst of this man. Who’s stupid enough to go to Dynamight with his problems? This guy definitely has a death wish or he is an absolute idiot.

As you open the door to take a little look, you see a blondish-yellow haired guy in a leather jacket.

Oh.

He is indeed an absolute idiot, but in a really nice way.

You heard all about him from your bestie.

“Are you listening, BakuBro?! She dumped me! Again! How many times do I need to have my heart broken? What have I done to deserve this?” Cries the man, ignoring your now obvious presence in the room.

“First of all, I would dump you 100 times too if I would be forced to live with your annoying ass. Second of all, why the fuck do I need to listen to your nonsense? Don’t you have friends?!” Shouts the blonde, making the other blonde cry even more.

“You are my friend…”

Okay, you can’t listen to this shit anymore.

“Well, I’m sorry for eavesdropping on you two, but… Mr. Dynamight, you are an absolute asshole. This man is clearly depressed and heartbroken, can you at least listen to him?! He might be here because he has no one else to go to, did you think about that?! Don’t kick someone who’s already on the floor!” There is an almost silent “oh fuck off” coming Bakugou but you respectfully ignore it and you sit down next to the crying man on the sofa. “My name is Y/N darling, I’m the asshole’s new assistant. Please, don’t listen to him. You are always welcome in this office in the time of need. I can listen to you. What happened?” This is clearly a cry for help, bless his little broken heart. This poor yellow haired man just makes you want to protect him and talk to him about the magical powers of a silver shampoo.

Because this guy needs it.

So much.

Soooo so much.

Okay, that’s not important now.

“Hi, I’m Kaminari Denki.” Sniffles the guy. “I got dumped by my girlfriend Jirou for the twentieth time. I did nothing. Is my existence such a bother to everyone?”

“Yes, it is, now leave.” Comments the asshole of the century, and nope, you can’t do this anymore.

“If you say a single fucking word while I talk to this man, I’ll hang your virgin balls on the nearest lamp post and I’ll blow them up so well, not even the best cleaning brigade in Japan can get rid of them.” You give Bakugou a threatening look and start focusing on the now shaking man on the sofa.

“You are a lovely human being. You might be a bit louder than most, you might annoy some people, but you have all the rights to exist. You just need to find the right people to be with. Also, sometimes people don’t appreciate what they have until they loose it, so what I would do if I were you, I would go home, tell my girl that I’m okay with her decision and I would leave for a few days or weeks to give her some space. Trust me, if she loves you, she will come back to you. If not, there will be someone better who will appreciate you as you are. Don’t underestimate yourself, just because you are different. If Dynamight can exist, so can you.”

Needless to say, you managed to break this man with your words, but that’s fine. Sometimes, you need to completely fall apart to be able to put yourself together in the right way.

As this man you just met smears all his saliva and other disgusting bodily fluids all over your shirt, you sigh into the void. Your life is an absolute joke but if this little conversation did something to help another person, then you don’t mind it that much. At least you made a new friend today, a quite useful one at that. He might come in handy when your phone is out of fuel.

“That last part was unnecessary.” Scoffs your boss, but he can’t deny that even he was a bit moved by your kind words.

“I had to prove my point somehow.” You smile cheekily and stroke Kaminari’s hair to entertain yourself for the time being. “Well, this is definitely enough drama for one day, let’s bury the hatchet for today, Mr. Bakugou. I also told Kirishima I won’t cause any more problems today.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, weirdo.” Bakugou rolls his eyes but he indeed stays quiet for the rest of the day.

You might just be a bit sensitive after all this love drama, but you swear you can feel the change in the air around you two.

Will it stay this way? Probably not; but you can’t help but think back on your words from the morning; Bakugou is indeed quite handsome when he shuts the hell up.

-> Next Chapter!

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Anyone remembers who said that line to Bakugo in high school? :P

Wow, this chapter is a bit different than usual, but I really wanted to give the story a bit of a push. And don’t worry; you guys still hate each other, we are really far from the end game! :D

Also, no pigeons in this chapter. I’m heartbroken.

Have a lovely weekend, guys 💜

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Taglist:

(feel free to ask me to add you if you like this story btw 💜)

@ibkg @chuugarettes @lilmaimai @nonomesupposedto @sozainturpal

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[sorryjustafangirl]

make it to christmas

a/n: in the absolute middle of exams, winter, homesickness, and holiday stress, i was well overdue for some (resolved) angst me thinks. this is also based off one of my fav christmas (sad but upbeat) songs of the same name by canadian icon alessia cara. i really hope you enjoy!

word count: 2.7k+

pairing: quinn hughes x gn!reader

warnings: swearing, kinda rude parents, mentions of Christmas, sad quinn a little, i can't think of anything else?

disclaimer: this is a piece of fiction so don't come for me about real life stuff. also i didn't make the gif, @gabelandeskog did (and it looks amazing!)

Quinn gets distant with you when the team is on losing streaks. When the team was on losing streaks in the winter? It would get worse. 

After three years with him, you’d noticed that this time of year makes your boyfriend get in his head a little. His frowns were a little deeper, the light rarely reached his eyes even around you. He always said it was the lack of snow Vancouver got that messed with his winter routine. When he told you that, you made him promise that he’d tell you when he was feeling particularly sad. 

He was good at keeping that promise. During the winter months when the sun set too early and the sky was grey for days on end, he’d be quiet for a day or so before confiding in you under the comfort of the covers. If things got bad, the two of you would watch reruns of Friends until he fell asleep to your heartbeat and the claps of the theme song. You’d always savoured the winter because there were so many of those moments you’d get to spend together.

But this year, it felt different.

The whispers in the dark never came and he never gave the pleading eyes to watch a show. He’d open his phone again and again, the blue light reflecting onto his face but a smile never came. You’d try to pry a little — he never did respond well to it — but you knew this wasn’t your Quinn, winter or not. 

The breaking point came when he stopped saying ‘I love you’. He never failed to say it or even send a text with it before one of his games, and he especially never forgot on road trips. But now? You couldn’t remember the last time you were able to slip into bed beside him, and say a ‘love you’ without the ache in your chest of knowing you won’t get anything more than silence in response. 

“Do you still want to come home with me for Christmas Eve?” you asked one night, when you saw the date in your calendar. 

“If you want me to, yeah sure,” he mumbled, barely looking up from his phone. You couldn’t even fake a smile at his response, just settled into bed. He may have been beside you but he might as well be a thousand miles away. 

On Christmas Eve, the two of you had dressed silently. It wasn’t like a no words communication, it was no communication, a stark contrast to other occasions when music had been playing and Quinn had been asking your opinion on which tie matched your clothes the best. Now, you waited by the door, the car keys in your hand until he came out of your bedroom, took them, and silently moved out the door. You locked the door on your own, your boyfriend twenty steps ahead of you. You sighed. 

“Just make it to Christmas,” you whispered to yourself. 

The car ride was silent and you just couldn’t take it anymore. 

“I got Milo and Coolie some cute toys I thought they’d like. They’re wrapped under the tree for when you see Brock next,” you offered. He just grunted in response and you sighed a little. 

“Did Petey say what he was doing for the holiday break?” You asked, turning slightly to see his face better but the frown never left his face.

“No.”

“Oh, Holly sent us their family Christmas card, they all look so nice. Did you see them?”

“No.”

You took a pause. “Did you want to see?”

“No.” 

You pursed your lips, sighed a little, and sunk further into the seat, looking out the window so he didn’t see how his behaviour was affecting you. 

When he pulled into your parents driveway, you could see all the bright yellow lights and your family already sitting in the living room with smiles on their faces. Usually, a sight like this would make you excited to bolt out of the car and be in the warm familiar house. This time, it only filled you with dread, having to pretend your relationship was okay, and you sighed for the last time. 

“That’s the third time you’ve sighed like that,” He said, unbuckling his seatbelt. Oh so now he was attentive? Sure. “What’s up?”

“It’s nothing, let’s go.”

“It’s not nothing, what’s the matter?”

“Q, can we not do this right now? My family is waiting on us and I don’t want either of us to be grumpy. Let’s just try to make it to Christmas please,” you grumbled. He just grunted and got out of the car, his door slamming behind him. You took a deep breath before exiting the car yourself. At least he’d been bothered to wait for you before walking up to your parents’ house. 

But when your dad opened the door, it was like a switch was flipped. Your boyfriend smiled, shook your dad’s hand, and passed the gift (that you were a little confused on where it came from since you hadn’t bought it — and you did the holiday shopping for the both of you) to your mom. 

He sat on the couch with his arm draped around your shoulders. He brought you a drink in your favourite mug without asking. He held your hand and caressed the back of your hand when your dad brought up a work project that frustrated you. There would be times when you were talking to your sister and his arm would rest on your thigh and you’d forget about everything that happened before and just relish in his love. But as soon as it moved, the cold seeped in and you were reminded that this was not the regular anymore – this was a one-off and only a matter of time before it wasn’t there at all.  

“Y/n, honey, could you help me in the kitchen really quick?” You mum asked.

“Yeah, sure. Be right back, Q.” You started to get up from your place on the couch but Quinn leaned over, quickly giving you a peck on the cheek. 

“Hurry back babe.” He winked, throwing you a little off-guard. This was like the Quinn you knew, but where has he been the past four months? You walked into the kitchen, ready to help your mom but she was ready with questions.

“Is everything okay sweetheart?” Fuck fuck fuck. You tried to give her your best confused face instead of the panic in your mind that she saw right through your facade. 

“Yeah, why do you say that?” 

“You just look a little down,” she said, rubbing your arm lightly. “Even with that boy so nice to you, you just don’t look super happy. And it’s Christmas! Is everything going okay with him? He’s not too busy with work, is he?”

“No, Mom, he’s fine,” you lied. “We’re fine, thank you for checking.” 

“Well, if you say so sweetheart. There’s no shame in breaking it off with this hockey boy so you can have something where you’re happier.” 

You swallowed a lump in your throat. “I’m going to be right back.”

“Don’t go anywhere! I’m making hot chocolate with marshmallows before the board game,” she called after you, seemingly aware that she sent you into a tailspin. 

“I’ll just be a minute, you can get started without me.” You were already halfway down the hallway by the time you said it, your focus on nothing but getting out of the room. 

You walked out the back deck, taking in the night sky and silence. You took deep breaths. It just didn’t make sense. How could he just think that nothing is wrong in front of your family? Act so carefree so easily? You were struggling to even smile at his gestures, wondering what got into him to act like his old self and your mom noticed. She noticed and basically told you to break up with him, so nonchalantly, like she’d never taken your relationship seriously. 

“Hey. Here.” His voice interrupts your racing mind and you turn around to face him. In his hands is the hoodie he keeps in the car in case you get cold, outstretched to you. You suddenly are aware of the goosebumps all over your arms and how you could see your breath. You take it and pull it over your head as Quinn walks closer to be beside you. 

“What’s wrong?”

You scoff. “What's wrong?”

“Yeah, you never miss out on a hot chocolate, especially not with the marshmallows. What’s wrong?” He didn’t seem to have caught onto the slight edge in your voice, and you dropped the attitude. 

“If I’m honest, it’s us,” you huffed. 

“Us?” You could see the furrow in his eyebrows even if you weren’t looking at him. “We’re fine, aren’t we?”

“For the past two hours when we’ve been in front of my family, sure. But even my mom noticed I’m not really happy. In two hours, my mom saw what you couldn’t in months! Q, it’s been weeks since we’ve been really fine. Weeks. We are not fine! There’s all this distance between us, even when you’re sleeping right beside me! When was the last time we went out on a date? When’s the last time you even had time for a date? Time for me? We haven’t talked about anything other than hockey and my job for what feels like months!“

He goes to open his mouth but you cut him off. “And I know, I know, it’s winter, this is how you get. But it’s not. Quinn, I’ve been around enough to know what it’s like in the winter but this is something else. You give me one word answers, you’re shutting me out. I can’t even remember the last time you said you loved me. It’s fucking different and I’m so so close to saying fuck it and throwing the towel in!” 

“Then why didn't you? Why did you invite me here?”

“Because it’s Christmas! Because I’m an idiot! Because I’m not ready to give up on you! Because I keep thinking that this is just a bump in the road and one day, we’ll feel like us again, just like we did in there! Because if you didn’t come, my dad would give me such a look of pity at the empty chair beside me and my mom would tell my sister “I told you so” when she has evidence you’re too busy for me. And on Christmas? I…I didn’t think I’d be able to handle it. Break up with me on Boxing Day, but can we please just make it through Christmas?”

“Wait, break up? Who said anything about a break up?”

“Isn’t that what you’ve been wanting to do? Why else have you been so distant these past few months, so engrossed in your phone?” You said, crossing your arms across yourself and looking down at your feet. 

“I’ve been trying to propose.”

You stared at him blankly. “To me?”

“No, to Brock. Yes, of course to you.”

Your mouth hung open in shock. “You’re joking.”

“I wouldn’t joke about this.”

“I’m not following,” you said, genuinely confused. Where was this coming from?

“This isn’t how I wanted to tell you all this, but you remember that night out on the lake in July? When we went out and watched the sunset and you told me you could do this for the rest of your life?” You nodded.

“That’s when I knew I wanted to marry you. So I started looking at rings, asking some of the married guys for advice, that sort of stuff. But when I went to my mom to ask for her help picking out a ring, she…she just seemed surprised that I didn’t know what you wanted. I went through your jewelry box and everything but I still couldn’t figure it out. So I started to think that maybe I didn’t know you as well as I needed to before we got married.” He looked down at his feet as he started shuffling them side to side. 

“And then when I asked your parents about marriage, your dad didn’t look very impressed with me. Like they said fine, but they didn’t seem over the moon that I was going to be the one asking. That’s why I acted so different in there. I…I didn’t want your parents to think they made a mistake by telling me yes. I guess that all of that just made me feel really insecure about me and this lifestyle that threatens to move us across the country in one second! I was insecure in our relationship, convincing myself that you and your family wanted no part in being part of the league, part of the drama, the chaos. Believe me, you’re the last person I ever want to hurt and I was just too much in my own head to see how it was hurting you, and baby, please, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I-“ he cut himself off. “I can’t believe I let myself get so caught that you don’t remember I love you. Because I do. I love you a lot. A whole fucking lot, I can’t even explain it. I want to marry you, please, I don’t want to break up.” He made eye contact with you then, his brown orbs void of anything but sorrow. 

You felt your own eyes welling up but you had to get it all off your chest before consoling him. “Why didn’t you just talk to me about this?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t want you to tell me our parents were right. I thought if I kept it to myself, you wouldn’t notice how I might not be enough for you.” 

The tears that had welled in your own eyes started to fall and there were no words coming to mind that could do your feelings justice. Instead, you wrapped your arms around his neck fiercely. His arms wrapped around your waist with as much ferocity and one of your hands held the back of his head. 

“Not enough for me? You are everything,” you whispered into his ear. 

“Don’t quote The Office to me.” His voice was muffled by your shoulder but you could hear the slight smile in it. 

“Q, I don’t care what my parents said. I don’t care that you don’t know what ring I would want – I don’t even know what kind of ring I’d want! I don’t care about any of that; I care about you. I love you. And you are enough. You are all that matters to me.” 

He pulled away from you, slowly, to see your face but his body stayed as close to you as possible. 

“I don’t know what I did to deserve someone as good as you.” Your face softened. One of your hands moved to cup his cheek and he leaned into your touch. 

“It doesn’t matter. You have me. But the next time you feel like this you have to talk to me, okay? I was absolutely miserable when you wouldn’t communicate with me and I thought you didn’t…”

“Believe me, I’m never again going to let you believe, even for a second, that I don’t love you with every fiber in my body. I’ll talk with you next time,” he promised, pressing a long kiss to your temple and pulling him towards you again. “Now, you’re freezing and look desperately in need of a hot chocolate, so let’s get you inside.” 

As the two of you walked back towards your parents place, hand in hand, you turned to look at him. 

“Oh, and by the way, my answer is yes,” you said.

“Answer to what?”

“When you ask me to marry you. My answer is yes and it will always be yes.” His face softened and he slowly turned you to face him. His fingers, although cold, cupped your face and he brought you in for a slow kiss, dragging it out for as long as he could. 

“I love you,” He said breathlessly, a sliver of light reaching his eyes again. “I love you so much.” 

You gave him another quick peck, before leaning into his chest for a hug. 

“I love you too, Q.”

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[bcdrawsandwrites]

[ID: The first image Psychonauts fanfic banner on a black-to-gray gradient background. On the left in white text it says “Prompt #6: Organ Theft” On the right is a bright green animated figment of a brain in a glass case. The top of the glass case is labeled "PREZ" and the base is labeled "NO TOUCH." The figment is based on one of the images from the Milla's Adventures! memory vault.

The second image is a Bad Things Happen Bingo card. Various prompts are marked with a half-brain (prompt requested but not filled) or full-brain (prompt requested and finished) symbol, while the “Organ Theft” prompt specifically is marked with a full brain symbol. /end ID]

FINALLY WE'RE BACK!! This one took me WAY too long, but here's the next fic in my @badthingshappenbingo challenge!

I am currently NO LONGER OPEN FOR REQUESTS. I have enough to work on to get a bingo! I MAY decide to reopen prompts later if I want to keep going after finishing these fics, but for now, requests are closed!

This request is for @of-science-and-stars! Sorry this took so long, and hope you enjoy! Thanks to @jaywings and @pinkygrocket for beta-reading!

Prompt: Organ Theft Characters: Sasha Nein, Milla Vodello, Ford Cruller Warnings: None

---~~~---

The doors leading into Sasha's lab slid open, and he trudged through them, making his way to his office, then all but collapsed down onto his couch. Automatically, he TK'd a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it with pyrokinesis, and he tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling. He took a slow drag, sighing through his nose and watching the smoke spiral toward the ceiling.

He truly enjoyed his work. But there were some days that made him wish he had a different job—one that didn’t leave mental and emotional burdens weighing heavily on his shoulders.

Soon the first cigarette was smoked down to the filter. Into the ashtray it went, and it was swiftly replaced with another.

It was days like this that made him wish that he had never taken Ford up on his offer to join the Psychonauts when he had run into him so long ago. Of course, deep down he knew it was the best decision he'd ever made, and that mental exhaustion was causing his emotions to behave irrationally, but right now, that knowledge did nothing to change how he felt. As the events of the past several hours played out again in his mind, he sank lower into his couch. Truly this was one of the worst days of his career.

It could not possibly get worse.

If Hollis would no longer allow him to wear what he chose, then—

Shoehorn, Dustpan, this is Grease Jar.

Sasha jolted upright, scrambling to TK-grab his dropped cigarette before it burned the couch.

Got an important mission that's slipped through the cracks. U.S. government's deemed it too unimportant, but the entirety of Country's future is on the line if we don't do something.

Rubbing his forehead, Sasha wondered if Ford had misspoke. Before he could comment, Milla chimed in:

Of course, Grease Jar. Shoehorn and I would be happy to help. What's the trouble?

President's been captured.

What? That had to be wrong—how could that have slipped through the cracks? Are you sure?

Do I ever contact you when I'm not? You gonna help or what?

Well, he couldn't argue with that. ...Yes, he replied. We're ready.

Great. I'm getting things set up on my end. Paperwork will be handled as usual. Gimme a minute and I'll get you ready for transport.

Very well. Just... warn us this time, please. You recall how last time went.

You were fine, son. I know how to use the heimlich, and I can do it again if I need to.

He could feel Milla's gentle laugh, and he couldn't be too upset.

For a few moments he sat in his office, putting out his cigarette and straightening his jacket. Ford didn't like to waste time, so he'd likely be here any minute. Sighing, he stood up to stretch—

—and just as he realized one critical error he'd made, someone abruptly appeared next to him, grabbed his shoulder, and with a yank, he was out of his office.

—-

Sasha stumbled in the sudden dim light. The beeps and chirps from the nearby consoles weren't unfamiliar to him, but the use of teleportation was always jarring.

With a rush of green psychic energy, Ford and Milla appeared next to him. Nodding in satisfaction, Ford clapped both of them on the back. "Good to see you two out here to visit an old coot again."

"You know you're much more than that to us, Agent Cruller," Milla said with a smile.

"Pshaw." Ford waved a hand. "I didn't bring you here to get all sappy on me, anyway." He glanced over at Sasha, then blinked, one of his bushy brows raising. "Didn't take you out here for a vacation, either."

Milla followed his gaze, then covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. Meanwhile, Sasha looked away, shuffling his feet in his very comfortable pair of socks and sandals.

Shaking his head, Ford strode over to a console and tapped in a few keys, bringing up holographic images around the platform they stood upon. The first depicted a map of the globe, which zoomed in on a teeny tiny island. "So this here is Country."

"Which country?" Sasha asked, frowning at the image.

"It's not a country, it's a territory," Ford snapped, eyeing Sasha over his shoulder.

Milla exchanged a glance with Sasha before raising a finger. "You did just say it was a country—"

"No, I said it was Country. Keep up!" Frowning, Ford brought up a second map, which was zoomed a bit further out. "Country is a small island territory off the coast of Nation."

Sasha could feel regret creeping up his spine the second he opened his mouth. "Which nation—"

"The nation of—” He broke off into a sputter. “It's not a nation, it's a republic! Didn't you young'ns ever go to school?!"

Clasping her hands, Milla nodded. "Of course, Agent Cruller. What's going on there?"

Ford relaxed a little before bringing up another image—this one appearing to be a short, squat man with mint-green skin. "President's been found in danger."

"...The President?" Sasha asked, wilting.

"Yea—I mean, no!" Ford snapped, his body trembling in agitation. "His name's President—goes by Prez—and he's the Prime Minister of Country. He's been captured by terrorists and is being held captive in the Company Building."

Once again Sasha nearly opened his mouth, but Milla shook her head, and he held himself back. "So we'll head to this office building and—"

"It's not an office—it's a—a—" Ford broke off into sputtering once again, but this time shot a glare at the holograms around him. "Who names these things?!"

Milla laughed, and Ford rolled his eyes. "Laugh all you want, but I'd like to see you keep this stuff straight!"

Sighing, he brought up the layout of the fortress on the holograms. "Prez is being held somewhere in these walls. Now you'd think it'd be at the top of this tower here—" he pointed at a tower on the leftmost side of the building "—like some princess in a fairy tale, but the intelligence I've gathered shows he's most likely located somewhere around here." He indicated a number of smaller rooms in the middle of the building, then paused, indicating the tower again. "Or, if we're unlucky, he might be held there, where they apparently keep the gators."

The ridge of one of Sasha's lenses raised as he exchanged a glance with Milla. "Alligators?"

Ford scratched the back of his scalp as he glanced off to the side. "Or maybe it was crocodiles? Same difference. Anyway." Shaking his head, he pulled up another image that showed an aerial view of the building and its surrounding grounds. "Now, the authorities are camped out outside, and they’ve been notified that you’re coming. Hostage situations are delicate and all that, but if you can get Prez outside, they can take it from there."

"I assume these terrorists have a psychic on their side?" Sasha asked, examining the map. "Otherwise we would not have been called upon."

"Now that we're not sure," Ford admitted. "But one thing we do know is that they may have access to sneezing powder, which is going to complicate things. They may have some brains switched up."

"Ach, of course."

"We can handle it, Agent Cruller," Milla said, giving Sasha a nod.

"Good," Ford replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple photos as well as printed sheets of paper, which he handed to Sasha and Milla.

"Here's some pictures of our target, and some questions you'll need to ask him to verify his identity, in case they tried a switcheroo. Study 'em and burn 'em. I got the coordinates logged in the Pelican, as well as your disguises for the mission. I'll stay down here for now so you can reach me, and I'll give you more mission details along the way. Now git!"

With that, he waved his hands toward them in a shoo-ing motion.

"Tchau!" Milla said with a short wave.

"We'll be in contact," Sasha added, and the two of them headed for the tree stump exit. From there, the transport system brought them to the hangar. To his dismay, he found a bird's nest had been built atop one of the wings of the Pelican. "Ach... How do they keep getting in here?"

While Milla gently TK'd the nest off to the side, Sasha glanced around. While well-disguised on the outside, the hangar was above-ground, which led to... problems like this. At least the bears and cougars couldn't get in.

Milla gave him a playful psi-poke, and he shook his head. Right, they had bigger things to worry about right now. Arguably.

Once they had both levitated into the Pelican, a psychic message from Ford reached them: Once you're onboard, you should find your outfits on the front seats.

Nodding to each other, they approached their respective seats to find Milla's had one of her custom Psychonauts outfits folded neatly there, complete with the rarely-used hood. It also had a set of large, circular earrings on top, each of them transparent while giving off opalescent reflections. Sasha, meanwhile, found a fancy blue suit with a pin on the breast reading "Logan Smith - AquaSpark Amusement Parks.” Accompanying the outfit was a small briefcase with the fake company’s logo: a blue lightning bolt with a splash of water directly beneath it.

There were, however, no matching shoes for the outfit.

Sasha curled up inside himself.

So, Dustpan, you'll be handling the sneaky stuff. Those earrings there are one of Egg Carton's inventions—supposed to give you more invisibility time.

Milla smiled, turning over the earrings in her hand. Oh, that's wonderful! So stylish, too.

Yeah, yeah, he's all about style. Now, Shoehorn, you'll be the distraction. You'll be Logan Smith, CEO of AquaSpark Water Parks. For some reason these terrorists are just nuts about water parks, so they'll be happy to see you there.

Wonderful, Sasha thought, looking over the outfit. They sound reasonable.

"I'm sure you'll do great, darling!" Milla said with a smile.

Sasha almost raised a hand to protest, only to stop himself, and placed a hand on his temple to speak to Ford. Ford, there seems to be something missing from my outfit.

Eh?

The shoes.

Didn't give Milla shoes either. Figured you'd both come dressed for work.

He almost argued that he was dressed for work, but bit back the comment; a man's life was in danger, and there was no time to worry about shoes. Tapping the button to open the hangar door and flipping a number of switches, he sent a message to both Milla and Ford. Very well. Starting up the jet.

Good, Ford replied. Course is already set, so you should be there in about two hours.

We will notify you upon arrival.

As the jet took off, they braced themselves, and waited until the plane leveled before relaxing. Sasha turned to Milla. "We may as well familiarize ourselves with our target while we wait."

“Good idea!” Milla replied, TKing out the papers Ford had given her.

Sasha, meanwhile, TK'd out the photo he was given of Prez. Looking it over, he found himself staring into the face of a man who looked well-meaning, if somewhat baffled. Recalling the glimpse he'd gotten of the picture Ford had shown earlier, he wondered if that was the man's perpetual expression. Or perhaps he was just not photogenic.

After studying it for a while, he switched to the document. Said document detailed basic facts about the man—his birth date, his partner's name, the date of their anniversary, the names of all seven of his Samoyeds, and various other factoids that could be useful to know, ranging from basic to obscure. Fortunately, Sasha was used to memorizing this sort of thing—it was standard procedure for when a brain swap was suspected.

After he studied the notes for some time, another copy of the document entered his vision, and he didn't have to look to know that Milla was TKing it to him. Without a word he TK'd it off to his other side, gave her a moment to look away, and lit it on fire with pyrokinesis, doing the same with his own paper shortly afterward. "Aside from the odd names, this should be a fairly standard mission."

Milla nodded. "It will be over soon enough, and then we can throw a party!" She gave him a grin. "Perhaps that would cheer you up?"

Sasha stiffened. "Ah... I had hoped that wasn't obvious."

"It's all right, darling." She reached over to pat him on the shoulder gently. "Now let's get ready. It looks like we'll be arriving soon!"

Milla retreated into the bathroom, and stepped out in her Psychonaut outfit, without the hood—understandable, as it would not be comfortable to wear for an extended period. As his partner settled herself in her seat again, Sasha took a moment to step back to change into his own outfit. The suit tugged at his shoulders, but otherwise he found himself able to move around in it well enough. He kept his Psychonauts badge, however, slipping it into his pocket in case he needed to identify himself. But as he stepped back out, he frowned down at his feet.

"Oh, are you worried about your footwear?" Milla asked. He gave a start to find her looking back at him with an amused smile. "I'm sure you'll find a way to roll with it, darling."

"Hopefully," Sasha remarked, taking a moment to straighten his tie.

By this point, the jet was slowing down as it approached the Island of Country. Milla carefully tied her hair back into a bun and pulled her hood over her head. Her earrings poked out from the hood, looking obvious against the dark outfit, but half a second later she turned herself invisible.

"So far, so good," Sasha remarked, nodding approvingly in the direction where Milla had been standing. However, he felt her presence just behind him, and turned to see her smiling at him beneath her hood.

"I'm glad you think so," she said, a teasing glint in her eyes.

He gave a huff of amusement. "Even if Otto's new accessories don't work as advertised—which I'm sure they will—your stealth is unmatched."

"Naturally." Milla gave a soft laugh.

Looking down at the briefcase he’d been given, Sasha picked it up with his hand, and frowned. Well, this wouldn’t be enjoyable.

When the jet landed, the two drew their attention to a holographic screen near the cockpit. It displayed a map of the island, indicating where the jet had landed and where their target was.

"All right, listen up, cuz this recording's about to delete itself once it's done," Ford's voice crackled out of the speaker. "You've landed here, west of the target." The blip on the map indicating the jet flashed. "The authorities are gathered outside the building, and they've been made aware of your arrival. Dustpan, you're gonna sneak in through the side entrance here." The map zoomed in on the building, highlighting something on the western side. "The code to enter is 5002. Meanwhile, Shoehorn, you're gonna enter through the front, and make a show of pushing yourself through the cops. That'll get these guys' attention, and I'll leave you to figure out where to take it from there."

Sasha nodded grimly. Playing things by ear was not his favorite way to do things, but he could handle it when he had to.

"Remember, the fate of Country is on your shoulders, so don't screw this up. Grease Jar, out!" The screen switched off, and a dull bleep indicated that the message had been deleted.

Exchanging glances, Sasha and Milla gave each other a nod before exiting the Pelican, levitating onto the ground outside. With a wave of his hand, Sasha activated the jet's cloaking mechanism to hide it from view, and took note of his surroundings to remember where it was. They'd landed in a clearing in the middle of a forest, where enormous trees surrounded them. The air was thick and humid and alive with the buzzing of mosquitoes, and the sky was overcast. There was nothing really noteworthy here, but luckily, the building was a straight shot east of where they'd landed.

Also a straight shot east was a puddle of muck that Sasha had just stepped into.

His skin began to crawl, and he was certain about half a dozen regrets had spawned in his mental world.

"Watch your step, darling," Milla said, hovering gracefully over the ground.

Grimacing, Sasha levitated a few inches upward, telekinetically keeping hold of his sandal so it didn't slip off his foot and get devoured by the mud. He joined Milla in floating over the ground, but rather than the natural-looking hover Milla performed, he moved parallel to the ground as though standing upon an invisible moving walkway. As they traversed over the mud, he realized that this was more than just a patch of soggy ground—this was an outright swamp. He wished Ford had mentioned this.

Granted, it wasn't relevant to the mission, but it was relevant to his outfit.

Fortunately it wasn't long before they caught sight of a massive structure just beyond the swamp. It was a centuries-old fortress featuring a number of towers, giving the brief illusion that they had somehow stepped back in time. The illusion was shattered by the sight of modern police cars sitting outside, with various officers milling about idly.

Turning to Milla, Sasha gave a nod, and she faded from sight.

Let me know what's happening once you're inside, Milla said. I'll start scouting.

I'll try to draw their attention, Sasha replied, though he couldn't help but wish their roles were reversed.

Approaching the police, he TK'd his Psychonaut badge out of his pocket and flashed it at the police chief. It took a moment for the man to notice, but when he did, he did a double-take. "Hey, you're not supposed to be here," he spoke in a deliberate, dull tone.

As Sasha TK'd the badge away, the other cops looked at the chief, then at Sasha, before continuing the charade with little to no conviction. "Hey, get out of here. This is a police investigation!"

Sasha winced, but made his way toward the fortress nonetheless. "No," he said, also with volume, but hopefully more convincing than the police. "Let me through! I must speak with the men here!"

"Stay back. We have weapons." Several of the officers lifted batons (with a couple more enthusiastically raising guns).

Mentally Sasha prepared a psi-shield should the officers decide to attempt to be too convincing of the act they were putting on of keeping him out. "No!" he cried, raising his voice more with a rapid glance at the entrance to the fortress. "It is of dire importance that I speak to these people!"

To his relief, their plan seemed to be working—a few men wearing ski-masks were now staring at them from the other side of the iron gate that blocked the entrance. They looked at each other, then at him, and seemed to take notice of the logo on his briefcase. They gave a jump and their movements seemed to be growing more excited.

Unbelievable, Sasha thought. Shaking his head, he realized the officers were starting to close in on him (but not too much of course), and he redoubled his efforts to reach the fortress. "Let me through!"

There was a rusty screeching noise as the iron gate that blocked the entrance was raised. While a few officers turned to look at the gate, they looked away again, remembering the plan. With the police pretending to be preoccupied with Sasha, they “failed” to notice one of the men sneaking in their direction. Sasha continued to push his way toward the gate when the man suddenly rushed forward, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him into the fortress. The officers gave a half-hearted shout, a few of them pursuing before stopping at the closing gate.

"Bout time one of you guys heard about us!" the masked man said as he hauled Sasha through the courtyard. "Now we can finally be makin' some progress here!"

"I-indeed," Sasha stammered, wishing that this man would let go. His sandals were slapping noisily against the stone path and mud was flaking off of his pant leg. He noticed that the courtyard was filled with, of all things, inflatable water slides (many of which were deflated), but before he could comment on these, the man led him into the main building.

More people, these ones not wearing masks, hurried up to them, their brows furrowed in consternation. "Who's this bozo?" one woman demanded.

The man at Sasha's side yanked off his mask, and his expression was that of a child right before a birthday party. "He's with a water park!" he exclaimed, gesturing dramatically at Sasha.

Straightening his back and rolling his shoulder, Sasha nodded. "That's right. Logan Smith, Aqua Spark Amusement Parks."

The others' faces lit up. "Finally!" the woman cried.

"May I speak to...?" Sasha balked, realizing he'd never been given the name of their leader.

"Oh, yeah! Sure! Georg is this way." With a bounce to their steps, the people led Sasha further down the hall. Said hall seemed to be littered with trash, but on closer inspection, the mess consisted of small pool toys.

Something struck him, and he sent a telepathic message to Milla. I've entered the fortress. It was strangely easy.

To his shock, Milla's mental voice was slightly heightened in distress. That's great, darling, but I'm busy at the moment!

Sasha's heart jumped. Are you all right?

I can handle this. Try to find President!

Understood. Sasha frowned—in spite of Milla's insistence, he couldn't help but worry that they'd fallen for a trap. This group couldn't be that simple, could they?

As though reading his mind—can they? Sasha wondered in alarm—one of the men turned to Sasha with a raised eyebrow. "I've never heard of Aqua Spark."

Thinking quickly, Sasha replied, "We're a startup company looking for a place to build our first park. We believe that Country here is an untapped market."

To his relief, the man looked at his fellows with a wide grin. "That's what I've been saying!"

They continued to lead him further down the hall until they reached a doorway guarded by two women. They seemed cautious at first, but Sasha's companions hurried up to them to explain the situation, and they eagerly stepped away, ushering them into the room.

Stepping inside, Sasha found himself in a wide room that was probably once used for war meetings, which now had a banged-up desk shoved in one corner, misaligned with the wall, and a large aquarium in another corner, bearing a few cracks that were patched with duct tape. Said aquarium was devoid of fish, but a woman in a dark suit was bent over it, tossing in diving sticks with mild interest. One sank to the floor of the tank with a shower of bubbles and turned on its side, and the woman gave a cry of disgust, yanking it out of the tank and turning it over until she spotted a number of punctures in it. Hissing a curse, she turned to hurl the stick across the room, and Sasha had to stop himself from reflexively grabbing it with TK to avoid being hit.

Spotting Sasha, the woman paused. "Who are you?"

The first man who'd spoken to Sasha stepped forward. "This man is Logan Smith! He's with a water park!"

Rather than being ecstatic like her henchman, however, the woman frowned, looking Sasha up and down, studying him. Her gaze stopped at his feet, and Sasha stiffened, sweat trickling down the back of his neck. This was bad, this was going to end very badly, he should have told Ford to give him a moment to change his shoes before—

"Well, Mr. Smith..." she began, looking up into his glasses, as he gazed frantically around the windowless room for some sort of escape route. "It seems you share our enthusiasm for water parks! You've even brought your flip-flops!"

The tension in his shoulders eased slightly. "I—yes, of course." He gave a tight nod. "Hearing of your enthusiasm, we knew this would be the perfect place to launch our first theme park."

"That's great news!" the woman cried, throwing an arm around his shoulders. "We were hoping someone like you might show up!"

Please do not.

Realizing her forwardness, she backed off. "But where are my manners—my name is Georgette, but everyone here just calls me Georg." She held out her hand, and Sasha shook it uneasily. "It's great to have you here, Mr. Smith. Have a seat."

Before he could ask where she expected him to sit, one of the henchmen used a pump to inflate a chair, which was then propped up in front of the table. He stared at the chair for a long moment, almost debating remaining standing, before remembering he had a disguise to maintain. He lowered himself into the seat, which squeaked noisily against him. Likewise, Georg took a seat on the other side of the table, sitting on an equally squeaky inflatable chair.

"So!" she began, leaning forward. "Let's hear about your company. I'm all ears."

It took half a moment for Sasha to spin a quick story. "Right. Aqua Spark is a startup water park company in America. We're employing people who have experience building for other parks—Eight Flags, Oak Fair, Queen's Island..."

Georg nodded, her eyes and grin growing wide.

"Of course, there's a great deal of parks there, so we wanted to... make a splash—" Sasha repressed a shudder "—by building our first park here." He jabbed his finger just over the desk for emphasis. "We believe Country is an untapped market, and the perfect spot for a water park."

"Excellent!" Georg cried, clapping her hands together. "We've thought the same thing and have been campaigning for this for years now, but the government won't budge! But with our bargaining chip and with the backing of an amusement park company, there's no way they can turn us down again!"

One of the phrases made Sasha's ears perk. "Bargaining chip?"

"Oh yes, of course." She leaned forward, tilting her head. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, I assume."

"I believe so." Sasha mulled this over in his mind. "Though, I will say, it would look poorly on the company if we worked with you, and it turned out he were harmed."

"Oh! Goodness, no, we wouldn't do that!" Her smile went a bit too wide, her teeth biting down on her lower lip. "He's perfectly safe!" As she spoke, she gave a pointed glance at one of her lackeys, who hurried out the door. She rose to her feet. "But we'll get to that later! First, I wanted to show you some of our own ideas for the park we wanted—"

"Ah, yes," Sasha said, standing and taking a quick glance at the door. "First I'd like to make a quick trip to the restroom."

Georg sighed. "All right. Geoff, please show him the way, and then we can get right back to it."

"Sure thing! This way." The lackey, Geoff, waved him over to the door and began to lead him down the hall. As they walked, Geoff started to ramble. "So what kind of stuff are you planning?"

Sasha was only partially paying attention, scanning to look for the lackey who had left earlier. "We have a number of attraction concepts we're considering," he mumbled. He could definitely hear footsteps up ahead, and he hoped it was the woman who had been sent out. She must have gone to check on President.

"Like what? Oh, I really hope there's gonna be water slides—"

"Yes, of course. We’re planning a... ah... looping slide."

Geoff whirled on him. Sasha froze up, nearly expecting the man to attack, but instead he bore a huge grin.

"Like the one in Adventure Park?!"

Sasha relaxed. "Yes, but, uh... improved."

"Ooooooh man!" The lackey turned around again, continuing to lead him down the hall before stopping at one of the doors. "Here you are, Mr. Smith!"

"Thank you." Hastily, Sasha stepped inside, balking when he realized that the bathroom consisted only of a few reeking outhouses that had been dragged into the room. Steeling himself, he stepped into one, holding his breath, but did not quite close the door. Instead, he put a hand to his temple. Dustpan, this is Shoehorn. I have a lead on where President is.

Milla's mental voice sounded exhausted. That's great, darling.

Are you all right?

For now. Let me know when you find him, and I'll meet with you.

Understood.

Nodding, Sasha activated his invisibility and exited the outhouse, quietly shutting the door behind him. Relieved to be out of that germ-infested place, he crept out of the room, but froze when he realized his sandals were slapping against the stone floor. He was almost certain he had been caught, but he glanced at Geoff, who leaned against the wall. "Oh man..." the lackey was still muttering as Sasha shook his head.

He hated what he was about to do, but he could not levitate while invisible, nor could he risk compromising the mission any further. Reaching down, he slipped his sandals off his feet and held them in his free hand so his socks were now touching the ground, and continued creeping down the hall.

Sure enough, he spotted the woman who had been sent out of the room earlier. She was looking into each room frantically, as though she wasn't sure which room the captive would be in, which struck Sasha as odd. Frowning, he kept a short distance behind her, and at one point she opened one door only to close it with a yelp and lock it, hurrying ahead even more urgently. Sasha made a mental note to check that out later, if he had time—they would notice his absence eventually.

Finally, she turned a corner before reaching the last room in the hall. She opened the door with a key, and looked relieved. Sasha hurried behind her to find a man matching President's description blindfolded, gagged, and bound to a chair in a very, very cluttered room, full of old pool toys and several unlabeled tubs.

Noticing that the woman was about to shut the door, Sasha quickly CV'd into the man, only to bounce back immediately. His face went pale.

Dustpan, he said, exhaustion dragging at his mind, we've got an egg missing from the carton.

Oh dear.

That was putting it mildly. Still, Sasha steeled himself and made a mental map of where he was, projecting it to Milla. Dealing with a debrained target would be difficult, and he'd need all the help he could get.

For a moment he considered following the lackey who had locked the door so he could grab her keys, but his invisibility was already starting to wear off. Instead, he waited for her to turn the corner and psi-blasted the lock, catching it with TK before it could hit the floor. Now that he didn't have to hide it, he transferred his suitcase and sandals to TK as well.

Carefully opening the door, Sasha poked his head in. "President?" he whispered.

"TV...?" came the dreaded, muffled reply.

Sighing, Sasha squeezed into the cramped room and shut the door behind him. Though he knew he wouldn't be understood, he went on, "My name is Sasha Nein. I'm here to help you." With a few quick tugs of telekinesis, he undid the ropes that bound the man to the chair. Another few tugs and the blindfold and gag fell to the floor.

President stared at him seriously. "Puppy."

"Yes, we'll return you to your spouse and dogs as soon as we've found your brain." Sasha regarded the man for a moment—he was somehow more serious-looking than when he had a brain. Otto would have had a field day. "But where to find your brain?"

President continued to stare at him, then pointed a finger in his face. "Prime Minister."

"No, that's you," Sasha said, TKing the man's hand away. "Now, where—"

The doorknob rattled.

Sasha went invisible, ducking behind President's chair. If they'd been caught, then hopefully whoever opened the door to find this scene would assume that the ropes had fallen off of President on their own. Regardless, Sasha prepared for things to go south, placing a hand to his temple.

The door opened slowly, and Sasha tensed.

And then it shut, and before Sasha could wonder what happened, Milla came into view.

"Thank goodness," he breathed, ridding himself of his invisibility again. "It's good to see you again." But when he studied her closer, he frowned; Milla's outfit was roughed up, a few tears visible on the legs. It was rare to see her in such a state. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine, darling," Milla said, pulling down her hood partway. "I finally managed to get past those terrible alligators."

"Alligators?" he asked, eyebrows raised, then he shuddered when he remembered what Ford had said earlier. "It seems that bit of intelligence was accurate."

"Yes, they're everywhere." Milla moved some strands of hair out of her face, tucking them behind her ears. "But that's not important right now. Poor President!"

President looked her in the eye. "Dog treats."

"Yes, and we have little time to waste. They'll discover my absence soon."

"But how are we to find his brain? Where could they have put it?" Milla looking out over the mess of tubs of toys. "They don't seem very organized, and they let those awful alligators chew on everything!"

A thought struck Sasha as he recalled the information Ford had given them. "...The tower."

Milla nodded grimly. "Where they keep the alligators... Though it seems now they let those brutes roam everywhere."

Something’s not quite adding up… Sasha shook his head. "Regardless, we've no time to waste. Let's take him with us and get to the tower as soon as possible." He looked down at President and helped him up from the chair. "Time to leave, sir."

"TV. Puppies. Kibble!" the man said with increasing enthusiasm. "Dog treats!" And with no further warning he grabbed one of Sasha's sandals, which he had still been TKing off to the side, and began chewing on it.

Sasha winced back. "Aaaaach...!"

Milla placed a hand on his shoulder. "It will keep him quiet. Now let's go!" Putting up her hood again, she turned to open the door. "Hopefully we haven't been caught y—"

And the hiss of an alligator greeted them, the reptile opening its jaws wide as it sat in front of the door.

"Too late," Sasha grunted. He placed a hand to his temple and fired a psi-blast at the monster, knocking it back into the wall. "Come on!"

"Puppy!" President mumbled around the sandal in his mouth, reaching out toward the incapacitated alligator as Sasha plucked him up with TK.

Milla activated her invisibility, and Sasha led her down the hall, mentally mapping out the place. The tower they were headed for was on the western side of the building opposite of where they were, so they would have to be fast. Since their cover had already been blown, Sasha went into full-blown levitation, blasting down the hall.

As they passed one door—the door the lackey had checked and locked earlier—it began to rattle before bursting open off its hinges, and several more alligators scrambled out after them. "Doggies!" President mumbled in delight, while Sasha moved even faster.

Turning a corner, he spotted Geoff, still standing outside the bathroom. The lackey looked up at him in surprise. "Woah! Mr. Smith? What's going on? Isn't that Prez?"

Is he not aware? Regardless, Sasha did not answer, blasting past him. Before Geoff had time to question him again, the alligators turned the corner, and he let out a scream, bolting away.

They're afraid of their own guard dogs? Milla asked.

It seems so, but now's not the time to question it.

They continued through the building, any lackeys they discovered fleeing the second they saw the alligators giving chase, with some of the gators even pursuing them. Sasha was nearly relieved until another alligator burst out of a door ahead of him, its snout bearing a scorch mark, much like the one he'd psi-blasted earlier.

"What—how?!" Sasha cried.

As if on cue, several more gators suddenly appeared just ahead—literally, spawning out of mid-air.

That was it—they were teleporting. Perhaps that was why the people here didn't seem to be in control of them—the gators were as much of a problem to the criminals as they were to them.

Looking over the swarm of hissing alligators, Sasha frowned. We cannot teleport, but we can levitate! Get ready.

Ready when you are, darling!

The alligators continued to hiss before one of them charged, the others following suit.

NOW!

Sasha and the still-invisible Milla leaped into the air, levitating over the alligators. A few raised their heads and snapped at them, but they managed to clear the swarm, landing on the other side and resuming their charge through the fortress. Several of the gators hissed, giving chase, but a few more were distracted by the lackeys that stepped out of their rooms to panic.

Finally, Sasha came upon what he was looking for—a stairwell. With a motion to Milla, he hovered into it, ascending the narrow, spiraling stairs while the gators scrambled up after them. Milla and Sasha had the advantage here, and managed to reach the top before the gators could.

The room shouldn't be far from here, Sasha said, glancing to his side. He was somewhat surprised to find Milla visible again, but even with the equipment she had, it wasn't easy to stay invisible for an extended period, especially not when using other powers. Meanwhile, the alligators were nearing the top of the stairs, the one at the lead opening its mouth wide. With a well-aimed psi-blast, it was sent tumbling backward, knocking into the other reptiles and sending them all crashing down the spiral stairs.

That may or may not buy us some time, depending on if they decide to teleport again. Now to find...

This way! Milla cried, charging forward with a burst of levitation. Sasha followed, and they soon found themselves approaching another door, this one sealed with a giant padlock. One psi-blast later, the lock was smoldering on the ground, and they opened the door.

They found themselves in a circular room with a large circular grate raised up in the center. Sasha and Milla exchanged glances before grabbing it with telekinesis and heaving it up and off to the side.

As Sasha finally set President down, he leaned over the hole and opened his mouth. "Teeeveeeee!" he called, his voice echoing as the sandal he'd been holding in his mouth dropped down, down, down.

"No—!" Sasha cried, but before he could react, there was a splash, followed by the snapping of alligator jaws. He heaved a long, deep sigh, looking down. "More alligators."

There were two alligators swimming in the water far below, and in the midst of them was a small pedestal, upon which sat a glass covering. The pedestal had a large "NO TOUCH" sign attached, while the covering was labeled "PREZ."

And sitting within the glass was a human brain.

"There it is," Sasha and Milla found themselves saying together, and Sasha looked up. "I'll get it."

"No, you watch President," Milla said with a wink. "Leave this to the levitation expert."

"Fair enough."

With that, Milla raised herself up off the floor and down into the shaft, nearly upside-down as she reached out toward the glass jar. The alligators hissed up at her, swimming in circles beneath her like aquatic vultures, but she paid them no mind.

"Squeaky toy," President said, frowning down at his own brain as Milla TK'd the glass away.

"Stay put..." Sasha said, holding a hand in front of President as he watched Milla. She was raising the brain upward, drawing it closer to her hands.

At once there was a flash of psychic energy, and one of the alligators from below was up in the air in the middle of the shaft, snapping at Milla as it fell down toward her. She let out a startled cry, backing up against the wall of the shaft as the alligator teleported again, this time falling closer.

"Milla!" Sasha cried. His fear and fury took the form of raw psychic energy, blasting forward into the alligator. It slammed against the wall, skidding back down into the water. Before either of them had time to celebrate, the second alligator teleported higher up in the shaft, jaws focused on President's brain.

In a sudden stab of frustration, Sasha took his remaining sandal that he'd been TKing off to his side, and chucked it into the alligator's mouth. The reptile's jaws snapped shut, and it began to wheeze and choke as it plummeted back down into the water. Eventually, it spat up the mangled sandal and swam down into the water with an indignant flip of its tail, its slightly-scorched companion following suit.

With a sigh of relief, Milla levitated the rest of the way up the shaft, landing next to Sasha. "Thank you, darling."

"Thank me later," Sasha said, already opening up his briefcase and pulling out a funnel. He turned to face President. "Stay still, sir."

President was still frowning at his own brain. "Chew toy," he said with a look of disgust.

Sighing, Sasha took the brain from Milla and TK'd the funnel over to President's ear. "Hold him still, please."

Milla held the President with TK as Sasha forced the brain into the wider end of the funnel, shoving it inward until it slipped into the Prime Minister's empty head.

President staggered back as Sasha removed the funnel, the man's eyes rolling and blinking several times before coming into focus. "Wh... where am I?" he stammered, looking at Sasha and Milla in bewilderment. "Where are my dogs?!" He looked all around the room, his movements becoming more and more frantic. "Spot? Daisy? LEONARD?!"

Sasha grit his teeth, looking out the door to make sure they weren't going to get jumped on, while Milla bent down, shushing the man. "It's all right, Prime Minister President. You've been kidnapped and debrained, and we've just recovered your brain."

"Is... is that true?" Prez asked, rubbing his head. "That would explain my headache... Also, just Prez is fine."

"There's no time for questions. We're bound to be discovered at any moment, and we need to get out of here." Looking up and down the hallway, Sasha noted that any windows he could see were barred. "Milla, where was the entrance you came in from?"

"Not that way," she said. "It was crawling with alligators!"

Prez chuckled, and Sasha frowned. "Noted. We'll have to go back through the main entrance. Hurry!"

With that, the three charged back toward the stairs they'd ascended. The stairwell was empty, but to save time, Sasha grabbed Prez with TK once again as he and Milla levitated down the stairs.

"Woah!" Prez cried, eyes wide. "You're some a' them psychics!"

"Indeed, and it seems the alligators here are, too," Sasha replied, and Prez's brows knit in confusion. Once Sasha touched down on the floor, he took off in a burst of levitation down the hall, which was deserted. "We're nearly there. We just need to make it outside!"

The courtyard was in sight. Sasha and Milla both put on a burst of speed, feeling a great relief that their mission was nearing its end.

And with several puffs of green psychic energy, a dozen hissing alligators filled the courtyard, surrounding them.

"Not this again!" the three of them said simultaneously, and Sasha and Milla briefly gave Prez a look of confusion.

"I'll need all concentration on my psychic powers," Sasha said, dropping in his levitation to the ground in a psychic attack pose and setting Prez down. "Stay between me and Milla!"

As the alligators pressed in closer, Sasha and Milla both fired blue and pink psi-blasts respectively at the reptiles. While he could hear one be struck by Milla's attack, the one he'd fired at disappeared again. Whipping his head around, he searched for the missing gator, only to realize a shadow was falling over him. With a cry, he staggered out of the way, only for his feet to slip against the slick grass and send him crashing down on his back. The alligator landed in front of him, hissing, and more were closing in behind him and to the sides.

Before he could do anything else, however, there was a deafening chorus of barking from somewhere behind him. All the alligators looked up, and began to scramble away as a pack of enormous white dogs came charging into the courtyard. They howled and snarled as they chased the reptiles away from Sasha and the others, until the gators gave up, disappearing as quickly as they'd appeared.

"Daisy!" Prez cried, holding out his arms. "Spot! Leonard! Barkley!"

Any other names he called were drowned out by the sound of elated barking and whining as he was surrounded by the pack of dogs, who all jumped over each other at the chance to lick his face.

Milla pulled her hood back, wiping at her brow. "That was a close one..." With an invisible psychic hand, she helped Sasha to his feet. He dusted himself off, for all the good it would do.

"Indeed," he said, looking back toward the entrance. "I presume these aren't K-9 units..."

"Nah, those are probably on gator duty," Prez said, squeezing his way out from the swarm of samoyeds. "C'mon, let's get out of here!"

With that, the group stepped out of the fortress, the dogs cheerfully surrounding them. Milla couldn't resist the urge to pet one of them, and it leaned into her touch, tongue lolling.

Outside, the police seemed preoccupied with handcuffing a number of criminals, including Georg and Geoff. The former looked furious, while Geoff looked out toward Sasha with his lower lip wobbling. "N... no looping water slide?" he whimpered, eyes shining with tears.

"I'm afraid not," Sasha said, replacing his name tag with his Psychonaut badge. "This place seems ill-suited for water parks regardless."

"How did you capture them all?" Milla asked, looking toward the chief officer. "How could you have known we'd already rescued the Prime Minister and his brain?"

"We didn't," the officer said with a shrug. "These guys came runnin' out 'cause of the gators."

Prez let out a hearty laugh. "That's a real shocker!"

"Prez!" Another person came bolting through the crowd—someone Sasha identified as the man's spouse. They threw their arms around him in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're all right! We were so worried about you, and I couldn't leave the dogs..."

"I'm fine! Thanks to the dogs, actually. And these guys too, of course." He waved a hand at Sasha and Milla.

Something had been nagging at the back of Sasha's head, and he hovered over to Prez, frowning. "Please excuse me for interrupting this moment, but I must ask." He waited for Prez to step away from his spouse and face him before continuing: "You seem to have a very serious problem with psychic alligators here. Why have you not called upon the Psychonauts for help with this?"

Prez, his spouse, and several of the police officers turned to give him bewildered looks. "Yeaaah, you mentioned that before," the Prime Minister said, crossing his arms. "How do you know they're psychic, though?"

Sasha balked. Had Prez been blind to what had just happened moments ago? "They can teleport, sir."

The man's face broke into a smile. "Yeah, and fish can swim! What's your point?"

Sasha glanced back at Milla, who was laughing. "Alligators don't normally have that ability."

Prez began laughing again, but stopped when Sasha did not join in. "Wait, you're serious?"

"Indeed," Sasha replied, suddenly feeling even more tired than he had before. "We can arrange to send a zoolepathy expert here to begin work on this issue, if you like."

"Uh. Yeah!" Prez blinked. "Yeah, that'd be great! Honestly, they're sorta the reason we couldn't build a water park here in the first place."

"WHAT?!" Georg cried some distance away, as a police carted her off with the rest of her lackeys.

Meanwhile, the police chief nodded. "If that's true, we'll send for one of you again."

As Sasha rubbed his temples, Milla stepped forward. "As for us, it looks like our work here is done."

"Right!" Prez rushed up to Milla and shook her hand before repeating the gesture with Sasha. "Thanks for your help!"

"And with that, we must be on our way." Finally, Sasha began hovering away from the crowd, back toward where they'd parked and cloaked the jet. Milla followed suit, waving to Prez and the others as they went their separate ways.

Once out of view of the crowd, they both dipped slightly in their respective hovers. Milla gave Sasha a tired smile, and he returned it.

"This has been quite the day," he admitted.

"Yes, but at least it's over now, darling."

Soon they were back onboard the Pelican and en-route back to Whispering Rock. While Milla stepped back toward the restroom, Sasha tapped a few buttons on the console and leaned back in his chair.

"This is Grease Jar," Ford's voice crackled over the radio. "What's the word?"

"The criminal group has been apprehended and Prez's brain and body rescued."

"Excellent work!"

"That said, it seems the Psychonauts are not yet done aiding Country. They seem to have an infestation of psychic—"

"ALLIGATOR!" Milla cried from the back.

"Pretty sure there's supposed to be an 's' at the end for the plural..." Ford grumbled, but Sasha was barely listening, rushing to the back to find Milla backing away from the bathroom in horror.

An enormous alligator stood over the toilet, where a large clutch of rubbery eggs sat within.

It was going to be a very, very long flight.

[tinyinvadr]

Next chapter’s here!

Psychoborrower 2

Chapter 5

We were finally allowed back into the High Roller’s Lounge. Hollis barely acknowledged us as Raz tried to apologize. She was too preoccupied with gambling.

Then, suddenly, the tentacles I saw before burst into the room, ripping the walls apart until it was unrecognizable. The Mental Connection that Raz made floated before us as a pair of huge eyes, belonging to the Lady Luctopus herself.

She was a fusion between Raz’s Mental Connection and Bad Ideas, and took on the appearance of both the casino’s mascot and Hollis.

The room had become a blackjack table, complete with massive cards and chips. As for the interns, they had been transformed into joker cards, and Lucky was holding them hostage.

Raz and I tried PSI-Blasting her, but she was virtually indestructible. Nothing seemed to be working as she kept throwing cards and spitting explosive Bad Ideas at us. We were able to dodge her attacks, but we could only do that for so long.

From her place on my shoulder, Lori tapped on the side of my face.

“Psst, Flint! I have an idea!”

“Whatcha got?”

“You see how she has covers over her suction cups? I bet those are her weak spots! And, with a little explosives…”

She used her Telekinesis to grab a Bad Idea and throw it at her tentacle, forcing her to drop Adam and Lizzie.

The two of them were able to escape using their smelling salts, and Lucky was temporarily stunned from the explosion. Raz took that opportunity to blast his way up into her head and work on forcing her connection apart.

We continued on with this strategy to save the rest of the interns, and finally, the inciting connection was destroyed. Lucky let out one last dying scream as she vanished from Hollis’ mind. However, even after she was gone, there was still damage to be undone. It looked like it would take a while to turn the casino back into a normal hospital.

The blackjack table also disappeared, sending us free-falling until we landed outside the building. There we met Hollis, who had just come back to her senses.

“What is all this? This is all wrong! And what are you kids doing in here?”

She noticed Lori perched on my shoulder, and quickly picked her up, protectively holding her close.

“Oh, Lori, I told you not to come in here. You know it’s not safe. Are you alright? Did anything happen?”

“I’m okay. Raz and Flint took care of everything. I even helped defeat the Lady Luctopus!”

Lori paused for a second, then took on a more serious tone.

“Hey, Mom? I know how you always say that you don’t wanna force me to do Psychonaut stuff, but… I think I want to now. Getting to see these guys in action was amazing, and I feel like there’s so much more I could learn! Do you think there’s room for me in the intern program?”

Hollis sighed, giving a slight smile.

“I’ll see what I can do. We’ll talk more about this later.”

She pulled out her smelling salts and gave them to Lori so she could return to the physical world, leaving just the three of us.

As soon as Lori was gone, Hollis’ expression changed. She was furious.

“Would either of you care to explain what happened here?”

At that, Raz told her everything. He made sure to make it clear to her that I wasn’t involved in the process of altering her mind, and that I was only there to help fix it.

I stood by, feeling the dread build up. Of course, Raz needed to come clean about this. But at the same time, I didn’t want him to get kicked out of the Psychonauts. He was the whole reason I got as far as I did in the first place.

Clearly he felt horrible about what he did. He wanted a second chance, and he absolutely deserved one.

To my relief, Hollis felt the same.

She told us the story of how she made a similar mistake back when she worked at the hospital. The key difference was that she wasn’t able to reset the Mental Connection, and she had to call in the Psychonauts.

Even though she almost caused irreparable damage to her old boss, Truman saw potential in her, and gave her a second chance working for the Psychonauts instead. She learned to apply her powers the correct way, and came to understand what they’re truly meant for.

It’s a common misconception that the Psychonauts fix broken minds. But peoples’ problems can’t and shouldn’t be fixed by force. Our powers allow us to help and guide people on the path to healing. To show them how to face their inner demons, and fight alongside them.

With that in mind, we returned to the physical world. Hollis took control back over the mission, instructing Sasha and Milla so they could deactivate the PSI detectors and find the hotel room that the key we found on Nick Johnsmith belonged to.

Once we had our location, the North Tower penthouse, Raz and I were ready to investigate.

There wasn’t a direct path from our hotel room, so Gisu made a rail system to help us get there faster. Then, Morris gave us further assistance with some psychic trampolines.

We reached a locked hatch that led into the building, which Norma burned open with her Pyrokinesis. Unfortunately, by that point, the security system was back online. It didn’t take long for us to get cornered by drones. Luckily, Adam stepped in and took them out with his psychic yo-yo.

He knocked us out the window so we could avoid another drone, sending us sliding down the side of the building. Lizzie took over, making an icy ramp for us with her Cryokinesis. From there, Sam made her… contribution.

She summoned a whale at the end of the ramp, positioned directly so Raz and I would land in its blowhole. We were then shot out, landing directly on the penthouse balcony.

When we got to the hotel room, the first thing that hit us was a smell. A really, really bad smell. The source appeared to be several cans of caviar littered around the room. They looked like they’d been left out for a long time, and had since gone rotten.

The room was completely trashed. Stacks of dirty dishes were piled up all over the suite, trash cans were tipped over, and there were flies everywhere. Nick, or whoever was staying in this room, was not taking care of it.

One thing that stood out to me was a smashed, rusted birdcage in the corner of the room. The Lady Luctopus didn’t allow pets, so it was strange to see a cage in the room. Judging by its condition, the poor bird likely wasn’t treated well. I could only hope it was out flying free somewhere.

Hidden behind an octopus poster on the wall was a dark back room. All over the wall were newspaper clippings connected by red strings. The common theme? Maligula and the destruction of Grulovia.

One of them highlighted the alarming fact that Maligula’s body had been stolen from its grave. Hollis assured us that there wasn’t anything the culprit could do without her brain functioning, but the fact that someone was crazy enough to rob her grave was disturbing in and of itself.

On the desk beside the conspiracy board was a stack of books, all about necromancy. We took the whole stack, though there probably wasn’t anything useful in them. Sasha said it himself: necromancy is impossible.

Just as we were about to leave, Raz noticed a piece of paper taped to the wall. It was a picture of Lili, with a list of pros and cons about possibly recruiting her to turn against the Psychonauts. He took it off the wall and stuck it in his bag, and we headed back to regroup with the others.

“There’s nothing to worry about. Lili would never turn on her dad.”

Raz nodded. “I know, but I can’t let anyone else see this. She’s been through enough. I don’t want her to get interrogated over this. I’ll just ask her about it when we get back to HQ.”

Once everyone was back at the hotel room, we all boarded the jet and went straight back to the Motherlobe. During the flight, Sasha and Milla sifted through all of the books Raz and I found, but there was no indication of a suspect whatsoever.

The only lead we had to go off of was Nick, but that still didn’t add up. We found his brainless body stuffed in a cardboard box. There was no way he could’ve done it.

When we arrived at the Motherlobe, Hollis quickly escorted the other interns back to her classroom for debriefing. I didn’t join them, though, because Sasha asked to speak with me in his lab.

He placed me on his shoulder and was silent for the entire walk back to his lab. I could tell right away that this was about Hollis. He knew something happened to her during the mission, and she brushed him off when he tried to ask about it. I tried to keep my cool. He was reasonably upset, especially after being stuck in that vent all day.

We sat down at his desk, and after a moment, he finally spoke.

“What happened to Agent Forsythe today?”

I didn’t answer right away. I wasn’t about to lie to him, but I also felt guilty telling him about Raz when he wasn’t there to speak for himself. Sasha picked up on this immediately.

“The truth, Flint.”

I sighed. I didn’t like doing this, but Sasha deserved to know the truth.

“Raz made a Mental Connection to change her mind about letting us go on the casino mission. I tried to stop him, but Agent Forsythe forgave him, and he feels terrible about it. If the other interns hadn’t pressured him, he never would’ve-”

“Stop that.”

“Huh?”

“Flint… I know you care about your friend, but it’s not your responsibility to cover for him and clean up his messes. You should have told us what happened immediately. He almost caused irreparable damage to Hollis’ mind. Someone could have gotten hurt, or worse.”

He was right. I never should have kept this from him.

“I’m sorry…”

“I’m going to talk to Razputin about this in private. Ultimately, Hollis is the one with the authority to decide what his limitations are from now on. From the looks of it, it seems she’s going to let this slide as long as he doesn’t do it again. Personally, I think more restrictions are in order, at the very least.”

I nodded. It was only reasonable to have more restrictions in place after an incident like that. Raz was extremely lucky Hollis was willing to give him a second chance. Still, there was something I had to know.

“You don’t… hate Raz after this, do you?”

Sasha sighed. “No. I’m just very disappointed. But I recognize that this is a unique situation. He’s only ten years old. There’s still room for him to learn and grow from this, just as there is room for him to be led astray. The two of you are unlike anything the Psychonauts have ever encountered. The uncertainty of your futures is admittedly concerning. I just want you to know that the path you choose is ultimately up to you, and it doesn’t have to be the same as what Raz wants. This is your opportunity to figure out what being a Psychonaut means to you, Flint.”

What being a Psychonaut means to me… That was something I thought I already knew. I wanted to prove I could do it. That a borrower had a place in the PSI community. But it turned out that wasn’t something I needed to prove at all.

I was happy about that, I really was, but it was no longer my driving force. I got what I wanted, so what was next? Where was I supposed to go from there?

Sasha knew exactly what was on my mind. Makes sense, with him being psychic.

“Why don’t you take a break? Get yourself acclimated to the Motherlobe, talk to the other agents and interns, see if they need help with anything. It’s important to build a foundation with the community here. The more we understand each other, the better equipped we are to collaborate on future missions. I know this is still fairly new to you, but I believe you’ll benefit from this. The bond you have with Raz is something special, but there’s always room for more.”

With that in mind, I headed into the tunnels and returned to the lobby. By that point, Hollis had finished her debriefing, and I saw a few of the interns hanging around.

I wasn’t about to go talk to Norma, so I opted to go see Adam.

We talked for a bit about everything that happened. He expressed that he regretted standing by and allowing the prank on Raz to happen, as well as pushing him to make the Mental Connection. It wasn’t my place to forgive him, but I could tell he meant it, and I respected that.

Things have been hard for him ever since Truman was kidnapped. With his mentor out of commission the past few days, he’d been left without much to do. He explained that he was working on a report about all of the events that Truman missed so he could fill him in once he recovered from the Psilirium poisoning, though it was also in part to distract himself from how stressed he was deep down.

Being the oldest of the interns, Adam was viewed by the others as a leader of sorts. He was calm, collected, and the best person to go to for advice. But at the end of the day, he was still a teenager just like the rest of them.

“Hey, I get it. I used to put up a front all the time back at camp.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask! What exactly happened back there with you and Raz? Did you really get to work with THE Ford Cruller?”

I was about to tell him when I heard an enraged scream followed by the smell of something burning. Lili.

“I’ll get back to you later. I should probably go talk to her before she breaks something else.”

I approached her, cautiously, waiting for her to calm down a little on her own before addressing her directly.

“Um… hey, Lili. Everything okay?”

“No. Raz just accused me of working with the mole!”

Oh God. I had a feeling that wouldn’t go well.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it like-”

“Of course. Why should I expect you to do anything other than take his side?”

Ouch. She wasn’t wrong, but still. Ouch.

“Okay, how about this… Raz screwed up. Again. He does that a lot.”

“You’ve got that right.”

“But… it’s never coming from a bad place. He told me himself that he wanted you and only you to see that piece of evidence because he didn’t want the whole organization interrogating you. We know you would never turn against your dad, but there’s someone in the Psychonauts right now who did. I can’t speak for how Raz handled telling you, but at the end of the day, I know he just wants to keep you safe. After all, he loves yo…”

Mid-sentence I realized he might not be comfortable with me saying that to her, so I tried to cover it up.

“Yo-yos! Yep! That guy sure loves yo-yos!”

“I’m going through it right now so I’m just gonna pretend that last part made sense.”

“Thank you.”

Before things could get any more awkward, we were interrupted by the receptionist over the loudspeaker.

“Flint Loveseat… wait, is that right? Oh, that’s unfortunate. Uh, I mean… Flint Loveseat, please report to the reception area! You have visitors!”

“I have WHAT??”

Lili chuckled. “Need a lift? Or moral support?”

“Both please.”

She picked me up and brought me outside, where we were met with Mrs. Love. AKA, one of my family’s human hosts.

Even more surprising, though, was the person she held in her hand.

“Mom?!”

[toastys]

Just woke up from a dream where members of Radio TV Solutions were playing a kind of magic-the-gathering type card game except they were using a blind style, it was set up like Guess Who or something idk I don’t play card games. Anyway the main thing was that they were playing the game AS a character. They could only make moves that would match their character personalities. And the characters could be anything. Wayne at one point was playing as Mr Fresh while Scorpy was playing as a bottle of dish soap. It was held in real life so that meant that Scorpy would occasionally spray Wayne with a bottle filled with water if he got too confident while Wayne was making angry cat noises Extremely loudly whenever his opponents did or said literally anything. And don’t get me started on the cards. The cards were all homemade and batshit. I distinctly remember someone at one point played ‘well-done steak drowned in mayonnaise’. Another notable deck was entirely pokemon, but all of them had been declared dead and instead the power of the card was based on how elaborate their funeral (as pictured in the card) was. Holly Hollowtone’s deck was made up entirely of specific truck and car models that she would swap out based on ‘personality’ from its outwards appearance. She would roleplay her cards like it was a game of Pogs, where she would throw one of her cards as hard as possible at someone else’s in an attempt to destroy their setup or knock it off the table, which was treated as a valid strategy. Another rule was that certain cards meant certain penalties for the user, like to hold something spicy in their mouth for a minute or to make the next five turns while standing on pieces of Lego. It ended in a dual where two players built towers out of their cards that ended looking exactly the same but it took SO LONG they were streaming just doing that for literally half a day straight or something and they didn’t want to destroy them so they called it a stalemate. I don’t remember which players.