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hesbuckcompton-baby · 2 months

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I'm Your Man - Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal x OFC - Chapter 8

AO3

Summary: After an encounter at Coombe House leaves Frankie and Rosie's relationship fragile, they seek to repair it when she is given leave for Christmas

Warnings: Language

Word Count: 6.5k (BUCKLE UP FOLKS)

Tags: @mads-weasley @xxluckystrike @curaheehee @footprintsinthesxnd @dcyllom @storysimp @latibvles @love-studying58

The sun disappeared as soon as it had come, and as the weeks rolled steadily into December the men at Thorpe Abbotts learned the truth of the great English winter. At sunrise, the grass lay encrusted with frost, but by midday the ice was washed away by downpours, leaving the fields a muddy marshland. Every day was dreary, cold, and damp, and Rosie was beginning to feel mocked by it, the outside world mirroring the misery he felt within.

Frankie was avoiding him. She wouldn't admit to it, but she hadn't spoken to him alone in weeks. Sure, she would sit with the Riveters in the pub or come to see them before a mission, but since their trip to Coombe House, he couldn't get her alone. Whenever he thought the chance had arisen, some pressing matter would suddenly arise that she had to attend to, and she was gone as soon as she'd arrived.

He missed her. He missed her so badly that it hurt - he missed her face being the first he saw after every mission, missed being able to tell her everything, missed making her laugh. Rosie didn't care that she hadn't kissed him anymore. He just wanted her back.

"Tell me what happened again," George demanded, perched on the edge of her bed, watching Frankie as she brushed the stubborn knots out of her hair.

Frankie sighed. "I have told you a million times already."

"I know. I'm just still trying to fathom how you could be such a fucking idiot!" She cried, grabbing one of her pillows and throwing it across the room, colliding with Frankie with a soft thump.

"Oi!" Frankie exclaimed, lobbing it right back, a shriek escaping George as it smacked her in the face.

"He's so obviously in love with you - has been for months - I just don't get it. Coombe House was the perfect opportunity. Bit of a snog and a shag, yunno."

"Jesus Christ," She muttered, shaking her head. "You're the one who warned me against getting too attached. I'm just... starting to think you were right."

George's smile dropped, and she swore she felt her stomach lurch. "Oh, Frankie, no-"

"What? Am I seriously supposed to just go for it knowing what will happen if he doesn't come back?"

Frankie hadn't uttered a word of this to her, but it was clear it had been plaguing her for some time. "I'm not supposed to be a cautionary tale, I'm supposed to be your friend. Which means I want you to be happy - find it where you can, don't just avoid it because of what happened to me."

Her entire face furrowed with her frown. "I'm just... I'm in too deep already. And I'm scared, George."

"Oh, c'mere," George sighed, rising to stand as she gestured for Frankie to come closer. Enveloping her in an embrace, her nostrils inhaled the always-lingering scent of engine oil. "I don't regret Curt. I miss him like hell and sometimes it feels really really shit. But I wouldn't trade the time I had with him to make it hurt less - if anything it's more special to me now. Don't hold back because you're scared it'll hurt later, because if anything does go wrong you'll regret it more than anything."

Frankie frowned, chin burrowed into the crook of George's neck. "You think so?"

"I know it."

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The pub was packed as always, the sea of faces ever-changing with the constant stream of replacements. It didn't matter that it was just as busy as it had always been, the place felt half-empty with so many familiar faces missing. Rosie's Riveters were always guaranteed a table, their reputation as the 100th's finest flyers preceding them - boys would actually give up their chairs when Rosie came in, and he could never dissuade them, no matter how much he cringed at the attention.

Half-empty pint glasses littered the table, conversation and laughter flowing freely among the team, but Rosie couldn't help but let his gaze wander. She was usually here - usually posted at the same spot at the bar with George, hogging the space in front of the beer taps so they could always get the bartender's attention whenever they needed another round. But when he looked up now, their spot was taken by a pair of replacements who scarcely looked old enough to fly.

"Rosie agrees, dontcha?" Bailey's voice came, and it was as if he'd been forcefully dragged back to reality.

"Hm?"

"Brooklyn's better than Queens, ain't it?"

"Oh. Definitely," He nodded, attempting to be as subtle as he could as he continued to scan the room.

Suddenly, the piano in the corner started up, thumping out a raucous tune. He'd only seen it used once or twice the entire time he'd been at Thorpe Abbotts, but the nearing advent of Christmas seemed to be putting the Brits in much higher spirits. A crowd of RAF and WAAF staff had formed around the piano player, drinks in hand as they began to perform a sequence of rowdy old drinking songs, more yelling than they were singing.

The words were foreign to American ears, but the English seemed to know them all by heart, belting out sordid tales of prostitutes and the like in a jolly, musical fashion. The pilots seemed roused by the scene, and Bailey began to clap along to the beat in encouragement, grinning as he watched the crowd. There was a sense of joy in the air, enough even to make Rosie crack a smile, elbow resting on the back of his chair as he listened.

And then he saw her.

Frankie was leant against the lid of the piano, pint in hand, belting out the words with the rest of them, grinning as she sang. She was wearing her proper WAAF uniform, her hair curled tight beneath her chin, lips painted a deep red. He never saw her in dress uniform, and for a moment he was taken aback by how well it suited her. Before Rosie had formed any sort of plan for what he was doing, he had risen to his feet, and was crossing the room towards her, weaving his way through the crowd.

A hand seized his arm. George was certainly strong when she wanted to be, and she wanted to be now, dragging him sideways away from the group, gnawing at her bottom lip, her teeth coming away with lipstick stains.

"It's my fault," She stated firmly, speaking loudly to be heard over the music.

Rosie's brow furrowed in confusion. "George, what're you talking about?"

"It's my fault Frankie won't talk to you - I only just figured it out, I'm sorry."

His shoulders squared, a frown forming. "What do you mean it's your fault, what did you do?"

"I... I told her that I haven't been speaking to the pilots since Curtis Biddick died - you don't know him, but he was... kinda my boyfriend."

"Oh, George, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, it sucks. But I think she took it to heart, and now she's scared to get too close to you in case something happens."

"... She told you that?"

"Not explicitly, but I'm not an idiot. And I know her very well."

Rosie nodded hurriedly as he considered this, passing his weight from one foot to the other as he debated approaching Frankie. Sucking in a deep breath, he nodded determinedly. "George," He held her by the shoulders, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. "Thank you."

"Don't ever do that again."

"I am sorry," He nodded, hands held up in surrender as he backed away, turning on his heel to make a beeline towards Frankie. George watched him go, brow raised at the sudden spring in his step.

"Weird bloke," She muttered.

They were halfway through a frankly awful rendition of Three Jolly Rogues when Frankie heard someone calling her name. Her gaze travelled across the crowd, words trailing off as she noticed Rosie at the edge of the group, unable to penetrate the mass of people as he craned to catch her eye. Eyes widening for a moment, she instantly felt her heart begin to beat faster as she chugged the remainder of her beer, abandoning her empty glass atop the piano as she tried to shove her way through to him.

"Frankie!" "Rosie!"

They spoke simultaneously, words to rambled and quick to make out, especially over the din of the pub. "Let's - let's go outside, yeah?" Frankie called over the music, and he nodded in agreement. His hand on her back came as a reflex, an instinct as they moved towards the door. She didn't step away.

Stepping out into the night air was like running head-first into a wall of ice, the sudden cold almost making Frankie gasp, her breath erupting in a visible cloud in front of her face. The sheer number of bodies inside the pub kept it permanently warm, so much so that it was easy to forget they were in the thick of December. Sucking in a breath, she rubbed at her arms to generate some warmth, her uniform jacket offering little in the way of insulation.

Rosie opened his mouth to speak, but she got there first. "I'm sorry. I've been treating you like shit and you don't deserve it, I was just being a fucking coward and-"

"Hey - no, no, no, you're ok. George told me what was going on and I get it. I get it, ok?"

Her expression was contorted in something like fear. "You do?"

"Of course," A smile flickered across his face. Of course he did. "I have no idea how hard it must be for you to wait for us all to come back, knowing what can happen up there. But... I don't wanna sound selfish Frankie but I can't stand the thought of dying without us being friends. You make coming back worth it and I- ... I miss you."

Frankie was silent for a long moment, and Rosie braced himself for whatever she was going to say.

"Come to my house for Christmas," She said. His mind had been racing trying to predict her response. He had not expected that.

"... What?"

"I got a forty-eight-hour pass for Christmas, I'm going over to my Dad's house. You can't spend it with your family, and we've got plenty of room... Well. You'd probably have to sleep on the floor but-"

She trailed off as she realised he was laughing, her brow furrowing as Rosie chuckled, nodding continuously. "Yeah," He beamed.

"Yeah?" The corner of her lips curled upwards in that wonky smile he so adored.

"Yeah, I'll come," Rosie grinned, taking a step forward and enveloping her in a hug, arms wrapped tight around her shoulders and she instinctively reached around to hug him back, her head resting against his chest.

"That would've been really awkward if you'd said no," Frankie said, her voice muffled against his jacket. Rosie laughed again, and she felt the vibrations through his chest.

"I was never gonna say no."

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They took a train on Christmas Eve, each carriage so packed with servicemen and women on leave and families visiting each other for the holiday that they were forced to stand, shuffling awkwardly out of the way whenever someone had to squeeze past. The pair had nothing to do except for a single pack of cards, although it soon became evident that the lack of space forced them to stand so close that they could always see each other's hand, and every game rapidly became pointless.

"So George isn't coming? Or Ken?" Rosie asked, fiddling with his watch as they plodded steadily onwards through the countryside, plumes of smoke from the coal engine partly obscuring the view of the trees and fields outside.

"George's family lives down in Dover - though you'd never guess it from her accent," Frankie chuckled. "She's got a pass too, so she's gone down this morning. Ken got invited for dinner by the parents of those lads he's always looking after - he'll be over there tomorrow."

He nodded along as she spoke. It had been almost an hour since anyone had tried to shuffle past them, so they'd taken to sitting on the floor, legs outstretched as far as they could go across the dirty old carpet. "Say, how'd you and George meet anyway? I never asked."

"We were both working at RAF Docking from about the middle of '41. There were a lot more WAAF there than at Abbotts, so we didn't bunk together, but we just sort of stuck, I s'pose. She only came here because of me - I got asked to come 'cause of your manpower shortage, but she reapplied so she could come too. Good thing too, I'd have been fucked without her. I think we got a bit co-dependent," She smiled to herself as she spoke, and he couldn't help but mirror it.

There was not a single sign or announcement to indicate where they were on their journey along the way. Frankie had told him it was a part of the government's anti-invasion measures, so that any would-be invaders would be unable to find their way, but really it just made him paranoid that they had missed their stop. Nevertheless, the moment they pulled into their station, she was up on her feet, a sudden air of excitement about her as she scrambled to gather their belongings. Rosie followed her out onto the platform, trying not to cough at the puffs of coal smoke that filled the station.

"Not far now," She assured him, a suitcase full of clothes in one hand, a satchel of presents in the other. It was a surprisingly sunny afternoon, although the biting cold would have suggested otherwise, and he trailed after her as they descended the high street, Rosie's head turning this way and that to take in his unfamiliar surroundings.

Frankie breezed through the place with practised familiarity, letting out a huff as she realised she'd almost lost him to the Shakespeare memorial as they passed. He had become entirely distracted by it, peering closely at the engravings that lined the base of the statue.

"Oi! Don't go all tourist on me, flyboy - I won't be late for dinner," She teased, and Rosie held up his hands in surrender, scurrying to catch up.

He could tell they were close when her shoulders drooped, excitement replaced by a comfortable calm. They reached a row of short, terraced houses, set back slightly from the main road, the thin strip of shared lawn still wet from the morning's blanket of frost. Frankie had begun grinning as she approached the house on the far end of the row, a spring of holly tied to the knocker with a messy knot of string. She shot him a smile, knocking firmly upon the wood, before spying an elderly woman a few doors down, struggling under the weight of her shopping bags as she fumbled with her door keys.

"Let me help with that, Mrs Higgins!" Frankie called, leaving Rosie alone on the doorstep as she hurried to help the old woman, gently prying the bags from her grip.

"My, Frances, haven't you grown!" Mrs Higgins declared, beaming up at her, made tiny by her stooped shoulders.

"Not since I was twelve, dear," She assured her, helping her in through the door as she carried the shopping behind her. Rosie smiled, watching on with his hands in his pockets, and he wondered how he could feel nostalgic in a place he'd never seen before.

Suddenly the door to Frankie's house swung open, and he found himself faced with a red-faced man, peering down at him with a frown. "Can I help you?"

"Dad, that's just Rosie! Let 'im in!" Frankie cried from down the street, hurriedly exiting Mrs Higgins' house as she scurried to catch up.

Mr Bevan was a huge man in every sense of the word - so tall and wide that he practically filled the entire doorway, and it almost seemed a miracle that he and his daughter were even related. But the moment he heard Frankie's voice, his face lit up with such love Rosie wasn't sure he'd ever seen anything like it, unleashing a hearty, belly laugh as she ran into his arms, practically throwing herself at the man.

"Rosie? Who's Rosie?" Another voice rang from inside - a girl's voice, high-pitched and certainly familiar. "I thought you were bringing the pilot!"

"Rosie is the pilot!" Frankie called down the hall, chuckling as she broke free of her father's embrace. She ushered Rosie inside, piling her bags at the bottom of the narrow staircase. As he entered, a girl was peering suspiciously at him from the kitchen doorway. She couldn't have been older than thirteen, a crop of golden hair flowing from her scalp, and at her hip cowered another child, a little girl of about three of four, hair so blonde it was almost white.

"But Rosie's a girl's name!" The older girl protested.

He chuckled. "Well, in fairness, my real name's Robert."

"Alice, be nice," Frankie scolded gently, lifting up the smaller child with one arm as Alice's cheeks bloomed a bright red. He realised she must have been Jill, recalling her name from the phone call all those weeks ago at Coombe House.

The Bevans' house was inescapably narrow, the five of them struggling to pass each other as bags were brought in and Frankie's father bustled through to the kitchen to put the kettle on. But as she sidled into the living room, she let out a gasp, a grin creasing her cheeks.

It was a sparsely furnished place, but in all honesty there probably wasn't room for anything else. A thin pine tree was propped up in the corner, strings of tinsel and chipped old baubles hanging from its branches, and newspaper chains hung from the curtain rails.

"Oh, isn't this just wonderful," Frankie remarked as Jill wrapped her chubby arms around her neck in a sideways hug. She turned her head, nodding at Rosie, prompting him to say something.

"Oh! Yeah. Very nice, it's just like back home," He nodded in agreement, slightly tense under the eyes of strangers, even if they were both little girls.

"Rosie, d'you want a cuppa?" Mr Bevan's voice boomed from the next room. For a moment he panicked, staring at Frankie with wide eyes like a deer caught in headlights.

"Tea. Do you want tea?" She whispered, putting Jill down on the sofa.

"Oh, uh - Yes! Thank you, Mr Bevan!"

"Oh, bloody hell, it's Allen, son," He shook his head, carrying in a teapot on a tray to place on the small table in the middle of the room.

"Even the boys at the garage call you Allen, eh Dad?" Frankie pointed out, pouring a cup of tea and straining the leaves before passing it to Rosie.

"Reason I hired 'em," He agreed, lowering himself into one of the armchairs with a heavy grunt. Rosie accepted the tea with a smile, and had just brought the cup to his lips when Allen leant down and unstrapped his foot, pulling it off and propping it against the wall. He almost choked. Alice let out a snort that sounded remarkably like Frankie's.

"Christ, sorry lad," He laughed, red face turning even redder. "Probably should've warned you about that."

Rosie forced out an awkward chuckle, nodding along. Jill was sat beside him on the sofa, staring up at him with wide eyes, mouth hanging slightly agape. He smiled down at her, noticing Frankie as she smirked at the whole scene.

Their dinner was a meagre feast of beans on toast, and Rosie suspected they were saving everything else for Christmas Day, saving it up to put on a true banquet. He and Frankie had been relegated to the living room to sleep, and she took the sofa whilst he lay on a pile of cushions and blankets on the floor. It wasn't a house built to serve any more than three - after all, it had only ever intended to house Frankie and her parents.

He was staring up at the picture frames that lined the wall as she came in - messy childhood drawings on aged paper, a laboured scrawl captioning each one with things like 'Me and Daddy' and 'My House'. Frankie had been putting the girls to bed, and padded across the carpet with a sigh, the sofa springs creaking as she collapsed backwards onto them.

"Did you draw those?" He asked, pointing up at the wall.

She groaned, covering her face with her hands. "God, they're so awful, I keep telling him to take them down."

"No! They're great! I think it's really nice."

Frankie stared down at him for a moment. He'd changed into his pyjamas already, lying straight across the living room floor, blanket tucked under his arms. She began to giggle, cheeks flushed from the cool draft that filled the room.

"What?" He asked.

"It's only nine. You look like you've had mummy come and tuck you in for bed," She teased, unable to look at him without collapsing into giggles again.

"I'm tired!" He protested, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Yeah, yeah. So am I, to be fair. And - fair warning - Jill will be in here at five in the morning tomorrow to open her presents. She's so excited, I don't think she'll sleep a wink."

Frankie lay back along the sofa, feet propped up against the armrest as she draped a blanket over herself before reaching out to turn off the lamp. "They're sweet kids," Rosie spoke into the darkness.

"Alice is cagey around new people - just tell her a good flying story tomorrow and she'll love you. I think Jill loves you already. She doesn't talk much, but she'll want you to play with her toys, so you'd better do it," She instructed him, and he let out a chuckle.

"Alright. I promise."

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Rosie was awoken by the thunderous sound of little footsteps barrelling down the stairs, a shriek escaping Jill as she streaked into the room, making a beeline for the sofa as she hurled herself on top of Frankie. She let out an agonised groan at the sudden weight, retaliating as she tickled under Jill's arms, eliciting a series of squeals from the girl.

He groaned, grabbing one of the cushions and pressing it tight over his head to dull the sudden noise. He heard Frankie laugh, and felt her warm breath against his ear as she bent down to whisper "Told you so."

It was a half hour before the rest of the family made an appearance, time which Frankie spent desperately trying to prevent Jill from tearing open her presents, insisting she had to wait for her sister.

"Just one? Please? Please!" She whined, feet dangling off the edge of one of the kitchen chairs. Rosie wandered in and the girl went suddenly quiet, nervously pursing her lips.

"Hey Jill, why don't you show Rosie your cars, yeah?" Frankie said, pausing mid-sentence to let out a yawn as she put the kettle on the boil. The child's brow furrowed, considering this, and when she looked up at him she spoke with the seriousness of a businessman conducting an important negotiation.

"Rosie, will you play cars with me?"

"Absolutely I will," He nodded, rubbing tiredly at his eyes. Jill grinned, pushing herself down from the chair as she scurried back into the living room. Rosie shot Frankie a glance, brow arched in confusion. "How does she have so much energy?"

"She's a kid," She shrugged. "I think they're all like that."

The cars were rusted and chipped, paint peeling off to expose the tarnished metal beneath, and Rosie couldn't help but suspect they must have been Frankie's years ago. He could picture her as a girl, playing with tiny tin cars on the floor of a garage somewhere whilst her father worked away fixing the real thing. The idea made him smile.

Jill made little whooshing engine sounds as she wheeled the cars around on the rug, occasionally ramming one into the table leg as she mimicked a crash - there was a groove in the wood from years of games such as this. Rosie found he did not know how to play with a child as small and as quiet as Jill, but he lined the toy racing cars up in a nice, neat row for her, quickly discovering the girl much preferred to destroy that work than admire it.

"This one's yours," She declared, holding out a chubby hand to present him with a tiny metal biplane, half of its propeller long since broken off.

"Why thank you," He grinned, accepting it gladly. They had been playing for a long time before Rosie realised he too had begun to mimic the sound of engines, lips pressed together as he tried to replicate the hum of his B-17.

Allan and Alice appeared after a while, and once the girls had opened their Christmas presents it was all hands on deck to prepare for their midday feast. The children were placed in charge of the bread stuffing, a charge they appeared to take incredibly seriously, and Rosie was presented with a pile of carrots and potatoes to peel. He sat at the table, dutifully toiling away, the kitchen gradually growing hotter and hotter as the chicken they'd bought from one of the neighbours slowly roasted in the oven.

The creak of a chair beside him caught his attention, and Rosie looked up as Frankie sat down, sliding a glass of sherry towards him. "Frankie, it's ten in the morning," He pointed out.

"If you're not at least halfway drunk by lunchtime, you're not doing Christmas right," Frankie shrugged. He noticed her father had already finished a glass. Taking a sip of her drink, she reached across the table, seizing one of the unpeeled potatoes from his pile, using a knife to whittle away at the skin. "You're very slow at this," She pointed out.

"Sorry, I'm not a practised potato peeler, dear."

She chuckled. "Guess we'll just have to train you up... Merry Christmas, Rosie."

He tore his gaze from his work, nicking the skin of his finger slightly with the blade, although he couldn't make himself mind. "Merry Christmas."

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A myriad of wonderful smells had filled the kitchen by the time they sat down to eat, his chair perched on a corner of the small table between Frankie and Jill. The girls had created little paper crowns for the occasion, crafted out of scraps of wallpaper and decorated with old buttons. Rosie's sat far too small atop his head, but he fought to keep it balanced on his scalp, replacing it every time it fell off. It was a simple banquet, but after the work they had put into creating it, he could've sworn it was the best food he'd ever eaten.

"This much like your Christmases in the States, Rosie?" Allen asked.

Rosie nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, yeah. Good food and good company, that's what it's for, ain't it?"

"I'd offer to let you call your family, but we don't have a phone," Frankie admitted, reaching across him to take Jill's plate so that she could cut up her chicken for her.

"It's no trouble, really. This is all wonderful," He nodded again, and Alice snorted as his paper crown slipped off of his head, tumbling to the floor.

Frankie shot the girl a look, brow arched in warning. He suddenly remembered what she had told him the night before. "Say, I haven't told you any of my flying stories yet, have I?" It was as if Alice were a dog, the way her ears pricked, intrigue suddenly lacing her expression.

"No. You haven't."

"Please do!" Jill added, and her older sister nodded in agreement.

Rosie began to recount some of his most interesting missions - the narrow misses, the daring manoeuvres - every detail embellished for dramatic effect to such an extent that he was at times bordering on fabrication, and he could tell from Frankie's smirk that she knew not everything he was saying was strictly true. She was smiling at her father across the table, the two of them enjoying the utterly transfixed expressions plastered across the children's faces, so enthralled that they almost forgot to eat.

Any scepticism Alice had shown before was long gone, staring wide-eyed across the table at him, her cheeks blooming red as if she'd come face to face with her lifelong hero. Either that or she was developing a crush. Frankie was beginning to suspect the latter. When dinner was finished, the girl approached her as she was filling the sink with water to wash up, leaning over to whisper in her ear.

"Frankie - Is Rosie your boyfriend?"

"What? ...No, honey, I don't think so."

Alice's brow furrowed, a look of absolute horror painting her face. "What do you mean you 'don't think so'?"

Frankie chuckled. "You'll get it when you're older."

She rolled her eyes, golden curls bouncing as she gathered the dirty dishes, stacking them in an orderly pile beside the sink. Bing Crosby came over the radio on the windowsill in front of her, the faint drawl of the King's Christmas speech coming from the main radio in the living room. Her dad had taken off his false leg again, revelling in every moment he didn't have to wear the thing, and Frankie was elbow-deep in soapy water by the time Rosie reappeared.

"Where'd you go?" She asked, looking up as he came in through the back door, paper crown still balanced atop his head.

"Getting rid of leftovers - the neighbour took the chicken scraps for her dogs."

"Ah," She nodded, suppressing a smile as he sidled next to her, seizing the dishcloth and beginning to dry the plates and cups she had finished scrubbing.

"... Yunno. Alice thinks you're my boyfriend."

Rosie nodded, laughing softly. "I think Jill thinks we're married."

"Oh she loooves you," Frankie teased, knocking against him with her hip. "She'll be wanting you to put her to bed later."

She wasn't wrong. The adults sat around the living room that night, the children long since sent to bed. Empty glasses covered the coffee table as they held their hands of cards close to their chests, finally able to have a proper game - albeit a slightly addled one. The room itself smelled of sherry, and their cheeks were all flushed pink, laughing as they played, the radio still turned on in the corner, although nothing came from it but static.

They were having such a good time that they didn't hear the little patter of footsteps trailing down the staircase - didn't look up until she was stood in the doorway, a ragged old teddy clutched in her hands. Jill's voice came out meek and exhausted. "I can't sleep."

"Well, I'm not surprised, my lamb," Frankie's dad spoke warmly. "You ate a whole month's sweet ration today."

She rubbed tiredly at her eyes, and Frankie pushed herself up off the sofa. "Alright, let's go, eh?"

"I want Rosie to do it," Jill insisted, sleepy brown eyes looking back at him. "Please?"

Frankie glanced over at him, shrugging as if to say 'I don't see why not'. "Sure thing," Rosie nodded, grunting slightly as he hopped up from his seat. Jill grinned, clutching at the cuff of his sleeve with a tiny hand as they headed up the stairs together.

Returning to her seat, Frankie grinned, watching them go until they were out of sight. It was quiet for a long moment, and she reached over to turn off the radio. Her father cleared his throat slightly. "You never mentioned - how long have you been with yer fella then?"

She had been halfway through a last sip of sherry, and choked suddenly on it, almost spitting it back out. "Who, Rosie? No, dad, we're just-"

"Oh, bloody hell, petal," He shook his head, and she wondered how he could make a term of endearment sound so frustrated. "I'm not blind as well as legless."

"You've still got one leg Dad-"

"Don't gimme that. That lad's in love with you, else he wouldn't have crossed the bloody country on Christmas Eve to come eat old carrots with you. And you! Christ alive, you look at him like you used to look at Danny-boy from down the street when you were goin' out with him. Except worse."

Frankie let out a long, agonised groan, slumping so far back against the sofa cushions it was as if she were hoping to melt into the furniture. "Dad!" She exclaimed. "... He's American."

He snorted. "Bloody hell, didn't think I raised you to be a snob."

"No! Not like that! I just... he lives in America. I can't leave you, Dad."

"Oh, piss off, yes you can. You think I'll grow this feckin' leg back overnight through the grace of your presence, love? If I let you waste your life sittin' around here, then I've failed as a Dad. I've failed your mum, n'all."

"Don't say that," She shook her head, tears forming and clouding her vision.

"No. I mean it. If that lad is gonna make you happy you go with him, dammit. Gettin' to raise you has been the best thing that ever happened to me, but you're your own woman now, Frank. And I've got a couple more little-un's to deal with. Can't have you hanging around, there's not bloody room anymore."

Frankie laughed, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. Her dad made to stand, groaning as he put weight on his false leg, and she jumped to her feet to help him, but he raised a hand to her, and she had no choice but to back away.

"I love you, petal," He beamed down at her, pressing a firm kiss to her forehead. "And now I'm going to bed. Too much bloody sherry." She squeezed his hand, stepping out of the way so he could hobble past, grunting slightly as he hauled himself up the stairs.

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By the time Rosie returned, Frankie was lying on the floor atop the pile of cushions and blankets he had used as a bed the night before, staring at the pictures on the wall.

"You're in my bed," He pointed out.

"I got the sofa last night - your turn."

"No - no. It's your house, you take the couch."

"Look, Rosie, we are going back tomorrow and I'll not return you to the boys with a bad back. Make me look like a bad host n'all."

He let out a sigh. "Fine," It was dark in the living room, and she couldn't wholly tell what he was doing until she felt the blanket lift up, and he burrowed beneath it beside her.

"... What are you doing."

"Compromise," Rosie shrugged, their shoulders pressed together. "... Who's Danny?"

"Oh my God!" Frankie exclaimed, covering her face with her hands, voice strained in embarrassment. "How much of that did you hear?!"

"Just a little. I was waiting for Jill to brush her teeth. So?"

She sighed, arms dropping to her sides in defeat. "He was my boyfriend for a bit when I was seventeen. It wasn't a big deal, but Dad loved him so he brings it up all the time."

He chuckled, nodding. "You were right, by the way. I do like your dad."

"Told you."

Neither of them said anything for a long time, the room plunged into silence save for the sound of them breathing. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out his features, her head lolling to the side as she stared at him.

"Actually, I lied," He confessed. Her brow furrowed in confusion, watching as Rosie rolled onto his side to face her. "I heard everything."

Frankie did the same, the pair facing each other properly. "You sneaky shit," She teased, and he let out a huff of laughter.

She heard him take a deep breath before he spoke again. "Was he right?"

"About what?"

In the dim light, she could see his brow furrow. "You know what."

Rosie's hand moved to cup Frankie's cheek, but before he could make a move she had closed the gap, and he felt the warmth of her lips press against his, sucking in a sharp breath through his nose. The blankets rustled as she pressed herself against him, wrapping an arm around the back of his neck as he lifted his head up off the pillow, moving to hover over her, their lips never parting.

After a moment, she pulled away, and they both took a second to catch their breath. "Jill's probably gonna get up again in a minute. She's a nightmare to put to bed, I swear."

"Understood," Rosie nodded firmly like a man on a mission, peppering kisses from her cheek down to the crook of her neck as she squirmed, trying not to laugh as she planted a palm flat on his forehead, prying him away.

He sighed, and a bubble of laughter escaped her throat. "I'm serious! We will scar that child for life."

"Alright," Rosie huffed, lying back down beside her. He raised his hand to her face once more, her skin sticky with sweat as he pushed her hair out of the way, getting a proper look at her as best he could in the dark.

"Did I ever tell you how beautiful you are?"

Frankie hummed. "No. Don't think so."

"You are beautiful," He mused, winding a strand of her hair around his finger. "Even in the dark - even when you smell terrible and I say I don't care. Which I don't, by the way."

She snorted with laughter, briefly pressing her lips to his once more. "Well, I also don't mind when you smell like shit."

"Aw, that's sweet."

A small voice came from the doorway, and for a second both of their hearts stopped, hurling themselves away from each other as they tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. "I still can't sleep," Jill protested, frown audible in her voice. Rosie felt the urge to laugh at the accuracy of Frankie's prediction, and she clamped a hand over his mouth to muffle the sound.

"That's ok sweetie, I'm coming," She called. The blankets rustled as she moved to stand, pressing her forehead against his just long enough to whisper.

"I told you so."

#masters of the air #masters of the air oc #masters of the air fic #rosie rosenthal #rosie rosenthal x oc #mota oc #mota fic #oc: frankie #frankie x rosie #oc: george #fic | i'm your man #i need to take a NAP after writing this one

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unmotivatedwrit3r · 5 months

Text

One in Eleven Million (ch. 8)

damian wayne x reader x jon kent

(A/N): So about that getting chapter out quicker thing...I blame tech week

Series masterlist can be found here.

warnings: a little bit of cursing, mild anxiety, airports

wc: ~1500

Soon apparently meant thirty minutes. The plane’s landing gear hit the tarmac hard. The few shrieks were outweighed by the many sighs of relief, you own included. Jon yanked the window open, squinting. The view of the tarmac went from blurred to clear in the morning sunlight as the plane slowed.

“Tt, finally. Though Philadelphia would not have been my first choice as a welcome back to the East Coast.” Damian pulled his gaze from the window, bending down to resecure the closures on his backpack. Jon’s eyes stayed glued to the window.

“Are all plane landings this rough?”

“Yeah, usually,” you replied. “But it means we’re on the ground, so I don’t mind.”

“Welcome to Philadelphia, ladies and gentlemen. The local time is 9:32 am and the temperature is 47 degrees Fahrenheit. Apologizes for the early landing but glad we all made it safe and sound. Remember to stop at the help desk if you do need to get your luggage routed to baggage claim or if you would like to take a voucher and find another method of transportation to Gotham. Thank you all for your patience and cooperation and thank you for flying with us.”

“If I ever see the inside of a plane again, it will be too soon,” Jon whined. You turned to see him drop his head on Damian’s shoulder.

“Flying commercial is both unpleasant and inefficient, I concur.” Damian squinted at the standstill line forming at the front of the plane. You stayed carefully silent. The two future trips you had in your calendar burned in the back of your mind.

“But hey,” Jon sat up. “At least we met you!”

You chuckled, maneuvering up and out of your seat into the line of departing passengers before swinging your backpack over your shoulder.

“Yeah,” A bittersweet wave of emotion gripped your heart. “It would have sucked so much more without you guys.”

The deplaning of the flight was the worst you’d ever been a part of. Between panic and desire to leave, everyone was sloppy and on a short fuse. You nearly got whacked in the head with a carry-on bag trying to stand up. You did get elbowed trying to move forwards in the line.

There was no Damian and Jon right behind you this time when you turned around after finally making your way into the airport. The spike of disappointment that drove through your chest caught you off guard. I knew this was going to happen, you reminded yourself. It didn’t make the ache in your chest go away.

“Hi,” you greeted the help desk employee. “I’d like to get my bag routed to baggage claim.” The required materials—your boarding pass, baggage tag receipt, and driver’s license—weren’t hard to produce. In just a few minutes, you were given a new receipt and an instruction to check screens for the baggage claim. The guaranteed “voucher” was to be later emailed, added to your airline account. You stepped off to the side, shoving the new receipt in your pocket. They’re tall, you figured. You’d see them if they were still there. Multiple scans of the crowd later, you didn’t see Damian’s waves nor Jon’s signature glasses. The spike of disappointment morphed into a vice around your chest even as you shoved it down. Your phone, now off airplane mode, buzzed in your pocket. You spun on your heel and headed towards baggage claim. The train you needed to take back home wasn’t going to book itself.

Despite your unfamiliarity with the airport, it was simple enough to follow the signs towards the baggage claim area. You stopped at a restroom on your way there to avoid having to maneuver through one with a full suitcase in tow. The screen was empty of flights from your airline when you arrived, and your phone was blank of any email updates. Instead, you rerouted to the Amtrak app. The train with the lowest fare that also gave you enough buffer time to get your bags and catch the local train from the airport to the station was 2 hours away. The number of your bank balance flashed in your mind.

“Thirty-eight for the train and eight to get to the airport,” you muttered aloud. “Yes I am so willing to spend fifty bucks to finally just be home.” The inevitable expense of a taxi or rideshare back to your home poked at the back of your mind. You ignored it. The voucher would cover the difference later on and that would have to be enough.

A notification banner popped up on the top of your phone screen. The text notification was from the airline, declaring baggage claim three. Sure enough, the screen on the wall said the same thing. Baggage claim number three was farther down. You moved quickly, shoving through other passengers to stand in closer to it. Standing nearby was someone you had a murky recollection of from the boarding line.

All that was left now was to wait.

Damian bit back a growl as a large man shoved him back into Jon and forced his way farther up the line.

“That’s not getting him anywhere,” Jon muttered. He was half-hoping his powers would spontaneously come back and help them out. “What’s the point?” Damian shook his head.

“If people made sense, Jon, we’d be out of work.” Jon rolled his eyes.

“You’re hilarious.”

Damian chuckled lowly, pulling his carry-on bag from the overhead storage, then Jon’s.

“Damn it.”

A jolt of panic sliced through Jon. His head snapped towards Damian, eyes wide. Jon winced, massaging the back of his neck. That hurt.

“What?”

“We lost them.” He nodded towards the front of the plane. You were gone.

“Shit.”

As much as he wanted to get off the plane, Jon wouldn’t have pushed through the other passengers even with powers at full strength. Especially with powers at full strength. He followed the movement of the crowd as they exited the gate, coming to a stop just beside a stand selling Philadelphia hoodies and t-shirts. Jon eyed them with a not small amount of disdain. He’d pass.

“So we’re not taking another plane-” Damian began.

“Oh fuck no,” Jon interrupted.

“Why do you think I started with ‘we’re not’?”

“Right,” Jon could feel his cheeks heating. “I knew that.”

“Hnn. So could it be worthwhile to call someone now? It’s past 9:30, your family should be up. Of mine, Alfred at the very least will be awake at this hour.”

“What’s the other option?”

“We take another method of public transport to Gotham and have Alfred pick us up there.”

Jon thought about it for a moment. Then he thought of you. His hearing was past the point of awful fluctuation, but not good enough to hear across a crowded airport. And he didn’t know your heartbeat. It was a weird thought. Jon thought about it again. That was a weird thought too. But it had been a long time since he’d gotten to know someone without being able to hear their heartbeat.

“Do we know what they’re doing? I don’t think we even talked about it. But I don’t want to leave them alone after all this.” He paused. “That’s not weird, right?”

Damian shook his head.

“No, I agree. Which means your family is out. And waiting for Alfred to drive all the way here and then asking them to get into a car with a complete stranger for two hours is also less than ideal.”

“So public transport it is.” Jon concluded. “Wait, how do we even know they aren’t taking another plane?” Damian smirked.

“They don’t call us the world's greatest detectives for nothing.”

Jon narrowed his eyes at Damian. “You guessed.”

“I formed a hunch based on multiple deductions,” Damian retorted, arms crossed.

“So you guessed.”

“Deduction and guesswork are two different things.”

“Uh huh,” Jon smiled and started heading to the help desk. “Keep telling yourself that.”

The help desk employee guaranteed Damian that the vouchers would be emailed and attached to his airline account. Based on the look on his face, Damian couldn’t care less about them. Jon wanted to hurry up and find you too. But he also didn’t want to be booked into the nearest flight to Gotham. Until he got his powers back in full, Jon wasn’t doing any flying whatsoever, much less flying that involved any sort of metal contraptions.

“Which baggage claim is for this flight?” Damian asked before he stepped away. The airline employee checked her screen.

“Three, but I don’t believe bags have started arriving yet.”

Damian nodded and headed quickly towards the signs leading towards the baggage claim area.

“Thanks!” Jon threw out as he followed, sneakers squealing against the linoleum floor as he hurried to catch up.

#damian wayne x reader x jonathan kent #damian wayne x reader x jon kent #damian wayne imagine #damian wayne #damian wayne x gender neutral reader #damian wayne x reader #jon kent x reader #jonathan kent #jonathan kent imagine #emerson writes sometimes #one in eleven million

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raes-writing-space · 1 month

Text

Childhood Friend!Reader x DogDay (Finding DogDay Hung Up)

Warnings: Mentions of gore and blood, abuse including manipulation, depression, death, cursing, DogDay does NOT get saved in the end, heavy bittersweet/angst warning, etc.

Viewer discretion is advised!

Summary/Notes: (Y/N) was one of the orphans at Playtime Co, reader is said to have been VERY smart and observant child, and found out about the Bigger Bodies Initiative at a very young age (around 8). This happened to affect their relationships with the other orphans, including an orphan name Samson "Sam" who was their best friend, who would later be turned into DogDay. Feeling guilt, they go back to the Playtime Co. after escaping "The Hour of Joy", and hoping to save those left, they find DogDay and imagine what life would have been like if things were different.

Word Count: Roughly 2,250 words? I use Obsidian as my writing doc.

Romantic or Platonic?: Could be read as platonic or romantic, but it may seem like it leans more towards romantic.

A/N: This is heavily based off an OC of mine and an AU I have for Poppy Playtime, but I really wanted to share some DogDay content since I've been scouring the tag for weeks now and need more content. If you'd like me to post my notes about the different AU's I have, let me know!

Since this is a writing from my OC, it originally has she/her and feminine descriptors/titles, however I did my best to change them to try and make it more gender neutral, if you happen to see anything I've missed please let me know!

(Y/N) was lead into a prison that seemed underneath the Playhouse, a place they didn't know about from their time at Playcare. They had assumed that was possibly where CatNap had to have been held, when he wasn't interacting with the children. They hated how isolating it already felt, despite the "childish" nature, nothing about a prison was childish. (Y/N) didn't even know what they were looking for at this point, just another way out - away from all these poor starving toys trying to eat them alive. That was when they saw the scene, it took them a moment to really process it all. DogDay, Sam, their first childhood friend they ever had. The friend that was picked for the Bigger Bodies Initiative when Harley Sawyer found out about (Y/N)'s knowledge about the project. That was a guilt they never could find themselves to forgive themselves for. They knew that truly, it was the adults that betrayed them both, but how could they simply still leave him here after all this time? DogDay was hung up by the arms, belts and straps tied to pieces of the cell. Even worse, his legs were missing, only a tightened belt around his waist was keeping his organs from falling out of his body. How long had he been like this? Had those toys been eating him alive as a last resort?

"Sammy?" (Y/N)'s voice called out, in the moment they sounded so small, just like a child again.

As if it was instinct at hearing the nickname, his head seemed to pick up, silent for a moment, as if processing if this was in fact real or not.

"Angel?" He questioned, voice box even sounding ragged.

Even the voice box has aged… (Y/N) knew that they were never really supposed to sound like themselves after the procedure, but things were so different now. Before (Y/N) could linger on it for too long, his voice brought them back to the harsh reality they were both in.

"There's nothing left to save… not here… A million pairs of eyes are on you now. Watching, waiting, hungry. They want nothing more than to crawl-" "Shh… Sam, shh… I know… I know… Let's not think about it for now…" (Y/N) moved closer to him, resting a gentle hand on his cheek for a moment, before a shaky hand goes to wrap around his torso, as another hand goes to undo the straps on one arm. "What-What are you- Angel, listen to me, please, you need to get out of this place, you need to live. You and Poppy can fix this. End this madness, the torment, please, just leave me." He started rambling quickly, especially as he could feel one arm become free. "I…" (Y/N)'s voice became shaky, as he immediately noticed the tears well in her eyes, "I know… I know I'll have to… just… Just let me have this moment… Please, I'm just tired and want to sit for a moment and talk to an old friend…"

There was a silence for a moment, a small grunt when they had done their best to keep him supported as they released the other straps, as the two of them slid down the wall of the cell for a moment. There was no way for him to be truly comfortable, but they tried for him anyway. The two sat side by side for a moment, before (Y/N) closed their eyes and leaned their head against his shoulder. DogDay must have been hung up for a long time, almost unaware that he could move his arms again. He seemed to then move his arm a little, before rotating his hand to be palm up. (Y/N), in their paranoid state since arriving, had noticed the small movements immediately, before they put their hand in his. Maybe it was the effects of the poppy gas finally getting the best of them, even after how hard they had been trying to fight it. Maybe they really were just tired, tired of running, of fighting for their life, of seeing their friends suffering, of all of it.

"CatNap will be coming for the both of us if he knew you released me… Angel, please… you have to go…" DogDay attempted again. "No… I'm sure he knows… And I'm sure he knows the power he already holds… Before the Hour of Joy… CatNap helped me speak with the Prototype. The Prototype was trying to plan something with me, and I was just… too far gone in my sadness to listen… The Prototype had even warned me about the event and how I should escape from it all…" (Y/N) trailed off, and DogDay seemed to turn to them, almost as if in shock that they had known this whole time, alongside the rest of the monstrous toys. "CatNap knows that I'm just trying to find answers, I don't know if Poppy is right, or if the Prototype is right, but I at least want to come to that decision on my own… So, CatNap knows… as you said, there's a million eyes watching… so, just let them watch, and listen… for now…" (Y/N) spoke again, as they rubbed their thumb against the palm of his hand, it was always much too big compared to theirs.

"We were best friends before you were chosen for the Bigger Bodies…" "I always knew there was something special about you…" DogDay tried to sound lighthearted, attempting to find the peace they were yearning for. "Theo… CatNap… knew the Prototype before his procedure too… He tried to help Theo escape, but then something happened, and the Prototype risked capture to save him… That's why he treats the Prototype like a God, for him, that is his savior." (Y/N) attempted to explain, hopefully giving him some more clarity, despite it not meaning much now in these final moments. "I like to think… before your procedure, maybe our friendship was on your mind… Maybe that's selfish of me, but as much as it hurt to see you become DogDay, when I heard how happy you were to see me… How you called me Angel and thought I was special… It gave me some peace of mind that you weren't angry with me, for not being able to say goodbye…" (Y/N) trailed off.

"You weren't there?" DogDay seemed to question, as if trying to recollect a memory that felt so distant to him that it almost never existed in the first place. "No… the fucker, Harley Sawyer, the doctor who created the Bigger Bodies Initiative, told me I would be spending the day with him… Purposely made me anxious, and kept me past curfew so I wouldn't get to say goodbye or see you go… Before he told me that you were chosen for testing, but that of course, the orphans at Playcare would be excited to hear you were being adopted… He wanted to break me down, so that I wouldn't somehow speak about the initiative, and… it worked…" (Y/N) answered. "He saw in my files that I once told a counselor that DogDay was my favorite toy and character, because so many people thought I was a sunny leader, like him…" Tears started to well up again, as they could hear him let out a deep disappointing sigh.

"And then they conditioned me to cheer up any kid who looked sad, knowing that out of all the kids, you would be the worst." DogDay pieced together, as (Y/N) simply nodded. "I was used as your reminder… Those sick… Why did you not push me away? You could have-" "No… I never could do that… Yes, you were a reminder of one of the worst days of my life… but Sam you gave me so many days that I consider the best days of my life… I would never trade those days in for anything…" (Y/N) looked at him, tears streaming down their face, as his gentle and slow hand attempted to wipe the tears away. "I only wish I could have given you more days like that… God, after I left… I started to imagine this… alternate world where everything was different… That we really were just kids at an orphanage who would be able to grow together, and maybe get adopted by kind loving families, and hope that we'd find and see each other again, and that… somehow we did, we always did…" "I imagine what life would have been like for us… If we would have told each other about our first crushes, or would get too embarrassed because maybe the truth was that we had crushes on each other… A typical stupid teenaged life, where we'd make mistakes, and learn, and be awkward, and fall in love or out of love, and things would just be easy…" "That we could just be kids or teens or adults just laying in a patch of grass and enjoying the real life sun against our skin… and that even despite all our real world problems, we'd know that it'll all be okay in the end because we had each other…" (Y/N) couldn't help but ramble on about this idealistic dream they'd had for so long, a motivating factor to keep going just one more day… Caught in a world that they knew would never exist, but made them feel genuine happiness as if it did.

"That's sounds like a wonderful world to be in…" DogDay couldn't help but finding himself imagining it, a sweeter dream than the nightmare he's lived in for so long. "I've lost myself in that reality far more than I'd like to admit… I've gone down so many routes, but refused to think about anything that wasn't a happy ending of some kind." "What was the happy ending you imagined the most?" DogDay questioned them genuinely, his body slumping a bit more, finally finding some semblance of peace. "We'd grow old together… It didn't matter how, if we were married, or had kids of our own, or were just best friends until the very end… But I imagined us having a picnic on top of this, gorgeous hill… That our old bones would have taken a while to climb, but we'd leave early, to watch the sun rise… And talk about life until we watched the sun set…" "I would thank you for… helping me understand what any semblance of love would feel like despite no adult ever showing us or teaching us how to love someone… I would thank you for being the closest thing I ever had to a family, for always being there for me just when I needed it… just like right now… I would make sure you knew just how much you meant to me, what you meant to my life, and in the end… all I would want is to make sure that I made you feel just as loved and appreciated as you've made me feel…" "You have. You always have." DogDay is quick to respond, never wanting them to doubt once for a second that he didn't appreciate his time with her too.

(Y/N) then started to shuffle themselves up, tears never ceasing as they knew this would be goodbye, there wouldn't be a way to save him, and there wouldn't be an easy way to bring him along, not when things could be more difficult from here… They knew they needed to leave him with something to dream about, on the happiest note they could really give him, and hope that he would forgive her for having to leave him once again. "Then I would kiss your forehead…" (Y/N) trailed off, getting on their knees and leaning forward to give a long and lingering kiss on his forehead, just as they had said, "And a big hug, that I wouldn't ever want to let go from, but knew I'd have to…" arms wrapped around his bloodied "fur" that had become his body, as they felt his arms wrap around them in return, also not wanting to let go, knowing this would be the last time he ever saw his Angel again. "And I'd tell you to close your eyes…" DogDay listened, closing his eyes as best as he could, knowing there would only be hungry monsters awaiting him once they left. "And let the sun feel warm on your skin…" He started to imagine it, so deeply and vividly that he could almost convince himself that he did feel a warmth… and maybe he did in some way… "And finally, thank you for spending your life with me… I wouldn't say goodbye, I couldn't… Because I know that one day, maybe in a different life, or an afterlife, that we'd meet again, like we always do… So instead I would just say… I love you, good night, and sweet dreams, I'll see you later Sammy."

"I'll see you later, my Angel… Thank you… I love you too…" DogDay trailed off, sighing as he let himself get lost in his imagination and not in the sound of their footsteps retreating from him.

(Y/N) suddenly found another pathway, they assume CatNap must have opened it for them at some point. They attempted to wipe their tears and breathe deeply, despite the circumstances, as they let themselves get lost in the fantasy again themself, ignoring the quieted groans of what they assumed must be the final outcome of DogDay's fate. They hated having to leave, they hated knowing as much as they did, but as much as they could linger on the negative, and let it drown them again…

Instead, they decided to take a note from DogDay, the symbol of optimism for his friends, and chose to only think about the good, even if they're just distant memories.

#DogDay x Reader #DogDay x Y/N #Poppy Playtime #Poppy Playtime DogDay #DogDay

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tomsparkyr · 1 year

Text

𝐊𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐓 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐇𝐄

*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ

summary: a visual on how you and mason went from childhood bestfriends to lovers, shown through instagram

masterlist

mason mount x footballer!reader

mason mount x fem!reader

warnings: nothing really, fluff???

social media one-shot

don’t steal any of my work please, thank you!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📍cobham training ground

liked by y/n y/l/n, declanrice and others

masonmount guess who i just met😁

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y/n y/l/n WHAT

y/n y/l/n THE ONE DAY I’M NOT THERE TF

⤿ masonmount couldn’t relate🫣

declanrice 😳😳

this comment was liked by masonmount!

username1 who else is stalking masons profile rn

⤿ username2 me🙋‍♀️

username3 it’s so cute seeing how mase and y/n interacted back then

⤿ username4 fr they were so in love😫😫

📍that winning feeling

liked by masonmount, declanrice and others

y/n y/l/n we love a supportive best friend💔

tagged: masonmount

view all comments?

masonmount i’ll support you when you’re not licking my face

⤿ y/n y/l/n if you didn’t wanna be friends you could have just said☹️

⤿ username1 nah i love their dynamic still to this day

declanrice you two are cute👀

⤿ masonmount if you don’t shut it

username2 they’re so young🥺

📍it’s coming home

liked by masonmount, benchilwell and others

y/n y/l/n sing it for us mase

tagged: masonmount

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masonmount FOOTBALL’S COMING HOME

benchilwell now i’m the one stalking your page

⤿ y/n y/l/n CHILLY MAN

⤿ benchilwell how did y’all not know you were in love

⤿ masonmount it was a work in progress ok

username1 mason looks so young here

username2 supported england here, plays for england now wow

📍top of the league

liked by marcusrashford, bukayosaka and others

masonmount the goalscorer + the assist = leading the league💪

tagged: y/n y/l/n

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username1 they look SO GOOD TOGETHER TF

this comment was liked by masonmount!

y/n y/l/n no# 18 + no# 19

⤿ masonmount my best girl🥰

bukayosaka CHILLY’S RIGHT YOU TWO WERE SO IN LOVE

⤿ y/n y/l/n SHUT UP MAN

⤿ masonmount OKAY WE GET IT WE’RE IN LOVE SHOCKER

marcusrashford how cutie patoties

username2 why are all the england squad commenting on it 8 years later😭

📍england squad alert

liked by y/n y/l/n, kalvinphillips and others

masonmount looking onto the knockout stage, not anything else🙃

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username1 IS THAT Y/N??????

⤿ masonmount a gentleman never tells🤫

declanrice mase really said 😍

bukayosaka KALVIN😂😂😂 @kalvinphillips

⤿ kalvinphillips the moment i realised that i would win the bet🤑🤑

⤿ lukeshaw NOOOO

y/n y/l/n 🙃🙃

⤿ username2 WHAT DOES THIS MEAN:£:£):&/

📍birthday boy

liked by masonmount, jackgrealish and millions of others

y/n y/l/n happy birthday to the love of my life! words can’t express how much i love you and how i’m so glad i didn’t hold that grudge against you when we were 5 when you booted that football into my face. my other half, the number 19 to my 18, my bestest friend. happy 24th and cheers to keeping it cliche around here!

tagged: masonmount

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username1 OH MY FUDKSI GOD

benchilwell about time!😅

declanrice took you 14 years mate!

this comment was liked by y/n y/l/n!

username2 happy birthday mason!🥳

masonmount i love you💙

⤿ y/n y/l/n i love you more mase, happy birthday love xx💙

kalvinphillips hand over the money now boys

⤿ harrymaguire damn it

⤿ bukayosaka ffs

⤿ callumwilson you guys couldn’t have announced it a day later, i could have bagged some tenners man

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hate this but okay

#footballer imagine #mason mount x reader #mason mount fanfic #mason mount #mason mount smut #mason mount masterlist #mason mount blurb #mason mount x you #mason mount angst #mason mount fluff #mason mount x footballer!reader #mason mount imagine #chelsea

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thatdeadaquarius · 1 year

Note

About language brainrot. Imagine writer creator reader who finally learns how to write in Teyvat's weird symbols and they want to publish their book. They decided to do it anonymously to avoid the "aaaaaah our creator wrote the holy scripture" sort of situation. Except it didn't work. The reader's style is too different from the rest of the world, so even if they tried to simulate the flowery speech it wasn't effective.

Another thing. Reader who decided to read some local books to practice their reading. They asked for something simple and similar to their speech. But the only books merely similar to it are 2000 and more years old. It's funny how the older text is the more you can understand it. On this note. If reader write something i feel like it would be hard to understand for Teyvat's people.

Imagine a reader who is autistic or has any other NDs imparing their communication skills. They practically trained themselves to say sertain phrases in sertain situation. But it doesn't work in Teyvat. And everything just stacks at each other. Difference in speech, being a God (so people react weirdly to you), bad communication skills, not understanding nonverbal cues and so on. There's gonna be a lot of misunderstanding. I imagine how followers would walk on the eggshells not to upset and angry their God and reader who does the same not to say something people will get wrong. Again.

Reader who regained all their memories of creating Teyvat, they're super powerful and stuff. But they still struggle with the modern language. Because all the memories are like millions years old.

✨️NEXYLAZA UR SO FUCKING SMART AND CREATIVE✨️ UR BRAIN>>>>>> EVERYTHING

GIF Akashi (black hair) is all the people who read the Sagau/Isekai Genshin tag and Bokuto (silver) is STILL ME RANTING ABOUT LANGUAGE IN TEYVAT LMAO

They cant escape me, sorry people who just wanted to read SAGAU normal things, im filling up the tag💀

I HAD OTHER ASKS BEFORE THIS ONE AND AS I GOT THRU EM I WAS "OMMGGGG WE'RE GETTIN CLOSER TO NEXY'SSSS ASSSKKKK EEEEEEE"

YOU ARE A GODDAMN GENIUS

DHALALWKDHDHS

ME ABOUT THIS ASK:

(^ lol biblically accurate deadaquarius)

I DONT EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGINNNN

BRAINROTTING OVER UR ENTIRE ASK!!

♡

Also, its getting kinda old now, so here is the blunt language v. Teyvat's flowery language post for reference! :)

Hhhhhhhhhhh

IF U WRITE STUFF

AND UR IN WORDY TEYVAT LAND

AINT NO WAY,👏

U COULD EVEN, 👏👏

GET CLOSE👏👏👏

TO THESE BITCHES SPEECH👏👏👏👏

◇

Like,, imagine right now if i told you to write me 4 pages of an essay in entirely early 18th century vernacular.

(For reference: when the story Pride & Prejudice takes place)

... like??

Bitch aint no way u can do that and actually show that to a historian or an actual living person from that time period

and them actually say "wow! An excellently worded 18th century essay!"

💀.

◇

So tying into that whole, "the only simple texts are like literal cunnieform clay tablets or sm shit"

Your writing to them just sounds like if a scribe just copied off what one of those tablets said just onto paper HAHA

And like, if u try and dress it up, it just ends up sounding like its from a slightly later time period

Like if ur casual writing sounds like 1 million years ago, u being flowery sounds like 8-7 thousand years ago u cant win LMAO

◇

Omg ur trying to go to that-

wait whats it called,,fuck i dont know Sumeru good enough yet

The.. HOUSE OF DAENA GOT IT

Yeah so ur thinking "Oh what better way to learn a dialect?/vernacular than reading books by them!"

And u basically snatch Alhaitham at the soonest possible chance to take you there

(Bc when i went in, it was just random lore books everywhere so)

Needless to say you have no clue how this place is organized, so u convince him to direct you to books u can easily read first

Like as close to your speech as possible!! U tell him :)

...lol

It literally takes like 3 hours to get something readable LMAO

Bc when the poor feeble scribe initially brought you smth he thought was pretty old and close to ur speech, like just first thought,

... It sounded like it was from the middle of the 18th century to you lol

So, with a "hmm" and a squint at the dusty book you'd already given up on

Alhaitham slowly went around the library making a stack of books, dropped them off in front of you... not a single sentence.

...then he made a stack of scrolls...

..nope..

...a stack of stone tablets...

.....getting closer?? it was really weird seeing Shakespearean language carved into stone....

...and then, with a conversation to a second library secretary deeper in the library, past a caged area of shelves to protect them...

...he escorts you behind the restricted section towards the back filled with glass display cases.

(Several of which contain the most ancient looking sets of artifacts you've ever seen)

...Finally, u arrive at a long glass case of several clay tablets.

Half of which sound like they're from the 1910s-20s, and the other, even older half, sounding straight out of the 2000s..

....

......

...Good god.

(Good..you??)

These crazy speaking bastard-previously-video-game-characters were right.

...

You are suddenly, viscerally hit with the image of Zhongli's idle, "Osmanthus wine tastes the same as I remember, but where are those who share the memory?" 💀

◇

Alhaitham side eyes you,, (he looks,, very interested, yet also kinda concerned??? HIM, CONCERNED????!!!)

"Ahem, the texts before thy Greatest Lord art the eldest- well, perhaps, more appropriately, the eldest and most intact, pieces of written language known to our humankind."

...

....aYOO MAN 😭😭

...Ur just staring at these half cracked, baked clay tablet thingys, full of slang from like 2003-

Alhaitham coughs.

"Uh, thanks. ...Sorry about all the.. trouble with this..."

BRO HOW OLD DOES HE THINK U ARE NOW-

"This task assigned to mine own person was of no trouble to my mind or spirit, Greatest Lord, fret not about it any longer."

And with a sort of shell-shocked atmosphere surrounding both of you, Alhaitham walks off to check out some other restricted books, hovering nearby yet also trying to give u space LOL

Top 10 cursed images: Seeing "Chillax, bro, dude, and weeb" carved into ancient clay tablets that look like they would be part of the Egyptian exhibit back in ur world 💀

◇

You eventually just kind of end up writing a couple pages after studying the writings, going younger and younger (nothing has ever made u feel more powerful...yet also more old..)

You stretch, just as Alhaitham finally has made his own little stack of creaky old books

He seems very curious to read what u wrote, peaking a glance over the top of his book every so often (lol nerd, cute nerd... but NERDDD)

You just offer the academic lunatic what he wants 🙄

"Haha, wanna take a look? Some drafts are... closer than others..."

The scribe immediately puts his book down, not even saving his page,

"I would be honored, Greatest Lord."

Is he excited?? 💀 omfg

U very slowly hand ur most recent practice pages over, he curls his hand under his chin "hmm" ing

...Alhaitham shakes his head

"My..deepest apologizes My Creator, but this still seems, at the earliest, from when papyrus was invented, and not yet even into scrolls..."

OK BUT ALHAITHAM WOULD GENUINELY GIVE NO FUCKS ABT CRITIQING YOU, HE MAY BE MORE POLITE ABT IT BUT EVEN IF U DID MAKE THE WORLD HES GOING FOR IT

KAVEH HAS A HEART ATTACK BC HIS ROOMMATE GOT ONTO GOD LMAO

U let ur head plop on ur pile of papers, srry babe youll never be as fancy as Mr. Darcy 😕

And as ur resting there, contemplating just walking out and finding smth to eat instead- same

Alhaitham picks up another draft.

Except it's your first attempt.

As in, you didn't even try, first attempt.

You just made some bullet point notes or some Bs, in ur regular. modern. language.

Alhaitham knocks his chair over standing up so fast-

(HE GETS SHUSHED BY THE RESTRICTED LIBRARIAN LOL, also another person unafraid to scold God lol)

...he says its a perfect example of the oldest records they've found of writing on the continent, most of which they haven't even translated yet

He asks u to teach him how to read this/speak like this lol

♧

(^^^not my best work but hope yall got smth outta it💀)

I WAS LITERALLY GONNA MAKE A WHOLE POST ON THE NEURODIVERGENT EXPERIENCE OF BEING A GOD IN TEYVAT

ESPECIALLY OF THE LANGUAGE BARRIER VARIETY!!!

THERES JUST

ACK

aCK HDHAKD

SO MUCH

TO SAY

!!!

AHHHHH

OK BUT LIKE

IF WE ACTUALLY TOOK THIS TO THE EXTREME IM IMPLYING IT WOULD BE

LIKE TEYVAT SPEAKS SEVERAL DECADES BEHIND U- MAYBE EVEN ACTUALLY

CLOSE TO PRIDE AND PREJUDICE TIMES SPEECH

THEY WOULD LITERALLY BARELY COMPHREHEND YOU

IMAGINE TRYING TO TALK TO MR. DARCY 😭

THATS LITERALLY ALL OF TEYVAT

JUST

???¿¿?????!!! <- THEM ALL THE TIME

ESP IF UR NEURODIVERGENT

I THINK IT WOULD BE EVEN MORE PROOF FOR THEM TO THINK UR GOD

BC UR BEHAVIOR WOULD BE "OFF" TO THEIR NEUROTYPICAL ASSES,

YOUR FACIAL EXPRESSIONS,

LIKE UR MASKING MAYBE BUT

U CANT KEEP THAT SHIT UP ALL THE TIME-

ESP IN CRAZY ISEKAI CIRCUMSTANCES

AND LIKE-

(ok ill tone it down before i also get shushed)

U used to be a player!!

Which would maybe mean u got rlly comfy playing Genshin all the time!

...like i know im kinda stimming when im gaming (and my natural stim is rocking so yeah no way they wouldnt notice that 💀)

So, since u may be still yknow unconsciously wanting to be comfy (esp around ur mains/team/favs)

U probably have stimmed a little around them, which, not that neurotypicals dont stim, but like

They would notice after awhile

And esp people like Alhaitham, Zhongli, Ningguang, Xiao, Ei, Aether/Lumine, Kaeya, Diluc, Kazuha, Heizou, Shenhe, Kokomi, Sara, Albedo, Dainsleif- !! GASP- !! <- my bbygirl omg i forgot abt u before now im so sorry </3

(once again i have not checked a character list, forgive my sins my readers)

^^^ Are like pretty focused on you/observant, so they'd eventually pick up on it first probably

...

....which allsssooo means they're like, collecting all ur neurodivergent thingys lol to compile as EVIDENCE AGAINST YOU AS TO WHY THEY KNOW UR THE CREATOR LMAO

◇

Honestly the biggest factor against u is definitely social interaction,, srry love :/

(if it helps, its bc i know itd be my downfall too thats why thats there ^ 😔)

Mostly bc i have this idea/theory? obervation? that when I especially met Adepti for the first time

Esp ones that werent as close to human society for as long as some others (like think Xiao vs. Ganyu)

And for literally every other non-human people we've met so far in Genshin-

They kinda- they kinda, radiate neurodivergent energy??

Like, they're not adherring to social norms, and not in like a bad way,

But its still rlly obvious (i mean also its probably exaggerated for us as an audience) that theyre not human pretty quickly

coughzhonglicough

COUGHVENTICOUGH-

oh geez wow excuse me, cold weather must be gettin to me- ahem hem-

Anyway, like what Nexy said in the ask,

...

...Yall are all just tiptoing around each other 😭😭

Bc these ppl arent from Earth countries,

All their behavior is weird to you 😭

U dont know how to mask with them yet 😭😭

THE UNBELIEVABLE AMOUNT OF MISCOMMUNICATION THAT HAPPENS ALREADY WHEN UR NEUROSPICY VS. NEUROBLAND PPL

IS LIKE, ALMOST WORSE??

Bc they cant even understand ur phrasing bc its so simple 😭😭😭

◇

Tldr: "Being Neurodivergent means ur a god, confirmed." - says all of Teyvat's denizens

◇

NEXYLAZA.

MY BELOVED.

I AM IN LOVE WITH UR BRAIN.

IF I COULD GIVE IT A HUG I WOULD🫂✨️👏👏👏👏

BC I WAS ALREADY LIKE IN THE BACK OF MY MIND LIKE-

*rubs my little rat gremlin hands together*

"hmHmHMMMM BuT wHaT iF mAYbE yOU reMeMbeREd cReATinG TeyVAT, hmHMHMMMMM"

AND FOR VERBALIZING IT WITHIN BLUNT LANGUAGE AU- !!!!!!!

(one of my favs, if u cant tell)

I would (platonically) kiss you right now dude.

Instead I give this:

♡ ily

And also, I AM GOING TO MAKE A WHOLE POST ABOUT THIS-

MAYBE EVEN A FANFIC, OR ONE SHOT AHDHAKFHSKLAAL-

UNTIL NEXT TIME MY BELOVED PARTNER IN CRIME <333

PSPSPSPSsppspspspssss Last Time! CLOSES TOMORROW @1pm CST: VOTE on my 100+ followers celebration POLL :)

Tell me what u wanna see me write about! PSPSPSPSpspspspssss

(U can vote even if ur new! :] )

THANK YOU FOR SUBMITTING THIS ASK

THIS IS A TREASURE OF MINE NOW

GONNA HIDE IT IN MY LITTLE CAVE OF SCREENSHOTTED SAGAU POSTS <333 hehehehehehehehehehe

THIS IS LIKE PT2 TO MY ORIGINAL LANGUAGE POST AHHHHH

NEXY BIG BRAIN ILYSM <3

Cheers,

🌒🌧🌊Aquarius♒️🌌🌘

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza lol ur own ask im a menace sorry

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jake-g-lockley · 2 years

Text

I’m Cold... (Poe Dameron x gn!reader)

Masterlist | Spotify Playlist

Warnings: None, fluff. (Edit: alcohol, i forgot the alcohol warning AHAHAHA)

Word Count: 1.3k words.

Summary: Commander Dameron is cold, drunk, and silly.

Gif from @userpoe

A/N: I woke up cold yesterday so I wrote this cuz why not. Let me know if someone has done something similar HAHAHAHAH

Tagging: @ahookedheroespureheart

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

You woke up to someone bashing your door and instantly, you grab your blaster and point it to the door, clutching your blanket and bantha stuffie close.

“Y/N, wake upppp…!” a loud voice groaned from the other side.

You scowl at the voice, anger bubbling in the pit of your stomach as you glance at the clock beside you.

2 am.

You had a 9 am meeting with General Organa today and you only managed to go to sleep at about 12 am. You knew he was doing this on purpose.

“Commander Dameron, why are you trying to break my door down?” you say putting your blaster down but not moving from the comfort of your bed.

The second you met the leader of the Black Squadron, you decided to declare that he was your enemy and he seemed to do the same. Yes, sure, the both of you were fighting for the same cause, but a million stormtroopers could not come close to the disdain you had for your commander. The both of you stubbornly drove Finn, Rose, Rey, General Organa and the rest of the resistance up and over the wall with your constant bickering, arguing and competition.

“Open up, pleaseee. Your commander commands you to let him in.” he giggled and you hear him slump against the door.

Great, he’s drunk.

“Dameron, please go back to your room, I have an early meeting, I need to get back to bed.” you say, still not opening the door.

Suddenly, you hear the familiar whirls and beeps from the pilot’s droid and your eyes widen as you hear him keying the passcode into the keypad with BB-8’s instructions. Two seconds later, the door whooshes open, light flooding in and you see the familiar outline of your commander, your eyes barely adjusting in time to catch BB-8 rolling away at high speed.

“BB, I SWEAR, I'M GOING TO TAKE YOU APART WITH A SLEDGEHAMMER AND SELL YOU AS SCRAPS!” you yell from your bed at the runaway ball of metal.

The pilot slumps inside and smacks the keypad behind him and the door whooshes close, sending the room back into darkness

“What could you possibly want that could not wait till more civilized hours, Commander?” you ask, hatred dripping like venom from your words.

“I’m cold.” he simply says.

“You decided to wake me up at 2 am, because you are cold?” you growl through gritted teeth.

“Mhmm.” he smiles, that big toothy grin that would charm anyone into absolution and invites himself to sit on your bunk bed, next to your legs and starts taking off his boots.

You throw the bantha at his head and he catches it with accurate precision, his reflexes still sharp, despite being drunk. He sets the bantha aside and continues to take off his boots.

“Y/N.”

“What, Dameron?” You say, slowly leaning up on your forearms and shifting away from him.

“I’m cold.” He repeats, looking at you with his big dopey, soft eyes.

“Yea, you already said that, I can’t do anything to help you with that.” You huff, trying to ignore the little twang in your heart that sounded when you briefly met said dopey eyes.

You scan his face, taking in the pink tint lightly covering his cheeks and nose, his one day old stubble, the gorgeous curve of his jaw, his soft pillowy lips.

Your hand itches to tuck the little stray curl that had popped away from his mass of black hair. And then you find yourself staring again at his beautiful brown orbs. You often find yourself getting woozy over those eyes, especially when no one is looking.

Ugh, why does he have to be such a pretty boy?

“Pretty boy?” Poe smirked, scooching closer to you.

Whoops.

“I-i didn’t say that, I meant, pretty b-bossy.” You quickly stutter but Poe smiles and without a warning he laid his soft head of hair down onto your stomach and stared up at you, legs still planted awkwardly onto the floor outside of the bed. You tensed, surprised at the sudden contact but eventually relaxed.

“What are you doing, Poe?” You whisper, letting autopilot take over as you run your hand through his soft curls.

He sighs, pressing the side of his face further into your tummy, his eyes fluttering shut. You swore your heart was begging to tear itself out of your chest cavity with how hard it was pounding and you were pretty sure Poe could hear it too.

“Can you cuddle me, please, Y/N?” He whispers back, opening his eyes slightly to meet yours again.

Without thinking twice, you find yourself nodding fervently as he moves his head off your tummy and lays down properly beside you. You immediately bring his head close to your chest, as he pulls himself closer to you, entangling his legs with yours, arms snaking around your body. You slowly cover the both of you with your little blanket.

He nuzzles close and you find yourself relaxing, the unknown creature inside you taming with the soft whooshes of his breath on your skin. You breathe his scent in, leather mixed with masculine aftershave plus the familiar smell of Jet Juice on his breath.

“Can you play with my hair again, please?” He whispers after a while, and again you instantly oblige, not understanding what is making you feel this way.

But you didn’t feel robotic. No. This felt natural and normal. The same way the arguments and bickering felt normal with him. Maybe you were doing this because you hoped he wouldn’t remember a thing tomorrow. Maybe you were doing this just because you longed to do this for so long.

“I’m in love with you.” he whispers, and the words reverberated through your chest and coated your heart like sweet glazed honey making it grind to a halt.

“You’re drunk, Commander.” you teased, once you regain your sense of consciousness.

“I know you love me too.” he says and you didn’t dare deny it.

You knew he was the other reason you got out of bed every day. You fought with him because you cared about his safety and hated his recklessness. You wanted to kiss him every time a mission went right. You cried yourself to sleep silently when he took too long to return from the secret missions that the General sent him to. You never wanted to admit your feelings for him and you were glad that this man was stupidly observant enough to do it for you.

Instead, you bent forward and gave him a soft lingering kiss on his forehead, hands still slowly playing with his curls and he sighs, hugging you tighter.

“Sleep, pretty boy, we have all the time in the world to talk.” You whisper and immediately you feel his breathing slow as his grip on you relaxes.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

You woke up to the sound of a camera flashing loudly and you groaned, pulling Poe’s shifting body back closer to you, wrapping your legs around him to keep him from escaping.

“RISE AND SHINE, LOVEBIRDS, WE HAVE BETS TO COLLECT.” Finn, Rose and Rey say in unison as you slowly peak over Poe’s head at them, hiding your heated cheeks. BB-8 was happily rolling around in one spot and beeping in glee.

“What the hell do you mean by bets?” Poe groaned and turned to look at them.

“Oh please, the whole Resistance has been waiting for this.” Rose squeals, waving the polaroid at your face.

“Even the General had placed her bets. Oh, we’re gonna be so rich.” Rey says, slapping Poe’s back, making him wince.

You facepalm and Poe swings his leg which catches Finn’s shin, making him yelp.

“Should we tell them that nothing particularly spicy happened?” you whispered, lifting Poe’s face to look up at you.

“Let them have their fun.” Poe asks, giving you a boyish smirk. “Ready to face the shame of today?”

“Ready when you are, Commander.” You smirk back.

#poe dameron x gn!reader #poe dameron fic #poe dameron fanfiction #poe dameron angst #poe dameron fluff #poe dameron #poe dameron x you #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron smut #oscar issac #oscar isaac #fluff #moon knight #steven grant #marc spector #jake lockley #moon knight fluff

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bellaireland1981 · 8 months

Text

Starting Over | 11

Summary: You come home to work to find your husband of three years in bed with your supposed best friend. It’s the wake up call you finally needed to take your two year old daughter and get the hell out of Texas. With nowhere to go you head to your big brother in San Diego. The Dagger squad takes you under their wings, and shows you what having a family means. You get a fresh start… will you find your happily ever after?

Characters: Jake “hangman” Seresin x Sister! Reader, Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw x Seresin! Reader (Eventually), Hangman x Phoenix , Adorable OC Gracie! The Dagger squad

Word Count: 7201

Warnings: Angst, fighting, cheating husband, emotional abuse, eventual fluff, SMUT, Sweet uncle Jake, Adorable Rooster with a toddler… if I miss any please let me know. MINORS DNI

A/N: I don’t own the characters or storyline for Top Gun Maverick. All OC’s are mine. I DO NOT GIVE PERMISSION FOR ANYONE TO COPY OR REPOST MY WORK TO ANY OTHER PLATFORM! DON’T STEAL! Reblogs, likes and comments ALWAYS welcomed. THANK YOU @waywardodysseys and @beyondthesefourwalls as always for reading over my work and helping me flush out ideas!!

Taglist is open! If I missed anyone who asked to be tagged, please fill out this GOOGLE FORM to be added. It’s getting to hard to keep track of asks.

CH 1 CH 2 CH 3 Ch 4 Ch 5 Ch 6 Ch 7 Ch 8 Ch 9 CH 10

Friday night the squad all descended upon Penny and Mav’s house for dinner and to start to decorate for Gracie’s party. The bounce castle was delivered and of course the overgrown children needed to test it out. Thankfully it didn't result in any injuries. You knew a few of the kids from Gracie’s daycare would be at that party, apart from that it would mostly just be adults at the party. You knew Gracie didn’t care as long as she had her people there.

Nat, Penny and you were busy inflating balloons to create the balloon arch that Nat had insisted on from the party store, while Bradley and Jake kept Gracie busy in the bounce house out back.

“Nat, remind me not to listen to you when it comes to decoration ideas again.” You complained after tying off what felt like the millionth tiny balloon. “My fingers are going to be numb for the rest of my life.”

“But it’s so PRETTY!” She insisted, “It’ll be worth it! You’ll see!”

“Maybe next time we just order the damn arch and have someone ELSE build it?” Penny suggested.

What felt like hours later, but was really only about 45 minutes, all of the balloons were inflated and just needed to be assembled into the arch. Once it was all put together, you called the guys in to hang it up.

Once finished, it looked like the entrance to a castle, and you had to admit, it looked amazing.

“Ok, I admit it…. It’s badass.” You said, “Good call, Nat.”

“SEE?” She exclaimed, “I TOLD YOU!”

“You doubted my girl, Tulip?” Jake asked, coming over to stand with you all as you admired the arch.

“Not doubted so much as hated having to inflate and tie the millions of balloons required to create this arch.” You defended.

“It’s beautiful, Sweets.” Jake said, wrapping his arm around Phoenix, “It’s just what our Princess G needs.”

“Thanks, Babe.” She smiled, leaning back to kiss him, “Anything for that girl. But Y/N is right, those balloons were a pain in the ass.”

“Mommy! Papa Mav gave me WINGS!” Gracie said running into the house, “Now I fwy wif Daddy and Unco Jakey!”

“Uh oh.” You said, smiling, “I’m not sure the Navy is ready for that just yet Gracie Girl.”

“You wanna fly with us, Princess?” Bradley asked, scooping her up into his arms. “Daddy and Uncle Jakey can take you flying anytime you want to.”

“YES PWEASE!” She exclaimed, “Mommy! I go fwy wif my daddy and Unco Jakey now!”

“I don’t know if they can take you right this very minute, Sweet girl, but I’m sure they’ll have you in a plane as soon as they possibly can.” You laughed, “And I have no doubt that Papa Mav will help them make that happen.”

“Absolutely!” Mav said, beaming proudly. “We can get her in the skies this weekend!”

“All I ask is that we wait until she’s at least in kindergarten before anyone takes my baby supersonic.” You requested, rolling your eyes. You had zero doubts that if it were at all possible one of them would figure out a way to sneak her into one of the Super Hornets.

“That seems like a reasonable request.” Penny laughed, “And sadly, one that you had to actually spell out with these three.”

“That’s what I figured.” You said, laughing. “Covering all the bases here.”

“I’ll supervise.” Phoenix offered.

“Something tells me you’d be just as bad as them in that situation.” You laughed.

“Maybe.” She shrugged, winking.

“We’ll save the Super Hornets and crazy pilot stuff until she’s at least in Kindergarten.” Bradley promised, “For now, we can take her up in something a little safer. I have no doubt she’ll take to the skies though.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” You sighed, “I won’t be able to keep any of your feet planted on solid ground afterwards.”

“Don’t worry, Sweetheart,” Bradley said, kissing your forehead, “We’ll always fly right back to you.”

“You better.” You replied, tipping your head back to smile at him, claiming a kiss in the process.

“Alright, decorations are officially complete.” Penny said, “Let’s eat some dinner. A certain little Princess needs extra sleep to be ready for her big day tomorrow!”

Mav and Penny had ordered lots of pizza for the squad that night so that nobody was cooking on top of having to decorate and set up for the party.

Once everyone had plates piled with pizza and drinks of choice they made their way to the back yard, settling into the chairs already set up for the party.

“Daddy, I sit wif you.” Gracie said, climbing into Bradley’s lap.

“Absolutely you can sit with me, my sweet Princess.” He replied, beaming at her.

“I’ve officially been replaced.” Jake pouted, sitting down next to them and placing his plate on the table. “I’m washed up fish guts in yesterday’s newspaper.”

“Wow.” You laughed, rolling your eyes. “Dramatic much?”

“Stop pouting, Hangy.” Bradley teased, “Gracie, you still love Uncle Jakey, right?”

“Yup!” She agreed with a mouth full of pizza, “I wuv you Unco Jakey!”

“See? You big baby, she still loves you.” Phoenix said, sitting next to Jake, “Not let Rooster enjoy the fact that he now has a Daddy’s girl and stop being a brat.” She leaned in to kiss Jake’s cheek, before winking at Bradley and digging into her own pizza.

“I love you too, Princess G.” Jake said, smiling at his niece, then looked at Phoenix, “Are you staying at the house tonight?”

“Most of my stuff is already packed in boxes so I planned on just spending most nights there now.” She replied.

“Good.” Jake said, leaning over to drop a kiss on her temple, “I like it better when you’re there.”

“Me too.” She said, smiling softly at him. “We have to leave early tomorrow to have time to stop to get the last part of Gracie’s present.”

“You both spoil her too much!” You groaned

“No such thing.” Jake said, “It’s not possible to spoil our Princess G.”

“You’re impossible.” You laughed, knowing you would never win this argument.

“Daddy, how many more sleeps til Mommy and me live wif you?” Gracie asked Bradley.

“One more week, Baby Girl.” He replied, “This time next week, we will be moving you and Mommy into our house. That’s 7 sleeps.”

“Too many sleeps.” She pouted, giving him her best sad puppy eyes. “This many sleeps?” She held up 3 fingers.

“Already a negotiator.” Mav laughed, “You all are in trouble.”

“And the puppy eyes…” Coyote added, “Who can resist those? I’d be giving that baby anything she wants!”

“Gracie, we have to wait until next weekend because it’s a lot of work and hard to move.” You tried to reason with her, “We have to wait for another weekend when Mommy and Daddy don’t work. We wanted this weekend to be just for your birthday.”

“But I wanna live wif Daddy.” She said, laying her head on Bradley’s shoulder.

“Between all of us, we could get you moved over there in no time” Coyote offered, “It’s not like it’s an entire house of stuff, and you’ve fed us so often it would be the least we could do. That way our cutie pie Princess gets to live with her Daddy way sooner than 7 sleeps. No weekend needed.”

“That’s a good plan. I’m free whenever you need help.” Bob said.

“I can watch Gracie here to make it easier too if that helps.” Amelia offered.

“What do you say, Sweetheart?” Bradley asked, smiling at you, “Feel like moving in sooner?”

“If everyone is absolutely sure they want to help, I’ll happily accept.” You smiled.

“Ok, Baby Girl” Bradley said, “Tomorrow, we’ll have your party, then on Sunday we will pack and if everyone is available Monday after work… we will move you and Mommy in with me. So that’s 3 sleeps!”

“YAY!” She exclaimed, “I wuv you, Daddy!”

“I love you too.” He replied, smiling, “Jump down and give hugs to all your uncles and aunt too. They’re the ones that are making this happen!”

Gracie jumped down and made her way around to everyone giving them hugs and kisses.

“While we’ve got all the muscle, can we knock out two moves?” You asked, “We’ll order dinner for everyone that night and next Friday night we’ll have everyone over and I’ll cook. Just figured we could orchestrate a two for one deal…get Nat moved in while we move out?”

“I can wait until the weekend, it’s ok!” Phoenix insisted, not wanting to make more work for people.

“It’s absolutely no problem!” Bob said, “We can split the squad…divide and conquer!”

“No sweat, it’ll be easy.” Coyote said, smiling, “We’ve got you!”

“Guys, it’s really ok…” Phoenix said.

“Nope, it’s a done deal.” Fanboy said, “We’re moving Y/N and Gracie to Rooster’s and Phoenix to Hangman’s. Next topic… Gracie, I hear there’s a Disneyland trip in the future… I think that needs to happen soon, don’t you?”

“YES!” She agreed, “You come too?”

“Of course, I’ll come!” He said, “I think we should get everyone to come, just like when we went to the zoo, that would be fun! Maybe this time we can get Papa Mav and Penny to come?”

“Now, wait…” Mav started to stay.

“PAPA MAV!” Gracie exclaimed, running over to him, “You go to Disney wif me and Mommy and Daddy and Unco Jakey and Aunty Nix and EVERYBODY?”

“Now, how can you say ‘no’ to that?” Penny asked, laughing, “He would love to go with you, Sweet Girl.”

“I guess you’re going to Disneyland, Mav.” Bradley laughed.

“Dagger trip to Disneyland!” Jake said, “I’m just glad we’ll have a lot more supervision than just the two of us now. More hands on deck is always better.”

“More supervision is always the answer when you two are involved.” Phoenix agreed.

“I can’t even argue with that.” Jake shrugged, flashing her a smile.

“Nope. That’s accurate.” Bradley agreed.

“I’d say the whole squad needs adult supervision, but honestly, they put Pete in charge of them…”, Penny laughed, “So, not really sure what the Navy was thinking there.”

“Mav’s in charge of us, but Simpson is tasked with supervising him.” Phoenix reasoned, “I think they assume that it’ll balance out.”

“I think they knew exactly what they were doing when they put all of you together.” You said, “You all fit perfectly. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses but they all compliment each other…if that makes sense. I wasn’t here in the beginning and from what I’ve heard it may not have been as well oiled as it is now, but I’d bet even then, even if it wasn’t as smooth you all worked well together.”

“You’re absolutely correct, Y/N.” Mav said, “Even at their worst, when they couldn’t see past their own noses, they complimented one another in their skills. The higher ups definitely knew what they were doing assembling this group, and were smart enough to keep them together.”

“Aww, Mav.” Jake said, “You really DO love us!”

“Of course he does, he’s adopted us all, hasn’t he?” Payback teased, “He now has 6 kids.”

“I don’t recall signing any papers or taking responsibility for any of you.” Mav laughed, “Well, except for Bradley… I signed up for that one.”

“Sorry guys, guess I’m the only one that’s been adopted.” Bradley laughed. You were glad he’d been able to rebuild his relationship with his godfather. You knew the history and that it was still a work in progress, but that they were working hard towards the bond they’d once had.

“Since Rooster is with my sister that makes him my family so that means you have to adopt me now by default.” Jake reasoned to Mav.

“You know, his logic does sort of make sense.” Bradley agreed, looking at Mav.

“If Rooster and Hangman agree on something it MUST be true.” Bob added.

“If Bob backs it, then it’s 100% fact.” Phoenix said.

“Looks like you’ve got yourself at least 2 adoptees, might as well make it 6.” Penny laughed.

“Since you are I are together now, Honey, that makes them yours too.” Mav smirked.

“Penny’s been mothering us since we got to North Island, Mav.” Fanboy said, “She adopted us willingly.”

“Can’t help it, you all were a hopeless lot. You needed mothering.” Penny replied, winking at him.

“So it’s official, we’ve been adopted.” Jake said, “Next order of business, when’s our Disney trip?”

“Barring any surprise missions or pop up training exercises we can probably schedule it for next weekend since we won’t be needing it to move anyone now. We can book a few hotel rooms or look at renting out a house for the weekend.”

“What do you think, Sweetheart?” Bradley asked, looking at you, “Family trip to Disney next weekend?”

“If everyone is free, I know a certain Princess would love to spend the weekend at Disneyland.” You agreed.

“We’re in.” Jake said, looking at Phoenix to confirm, she smiled nodding back at him.

“I’m definitely in!” Fanboy said, “Not missing this for the world.”

“I’m free and it sounds fun.” Bob said.

“I’m game. I might see if my sister wants to meet us there with her kids too.” Payback said.

“That would be perfect.” You replied, “More kids for Gracie to interact with.”

“Then it’s set, Dagger family trip to Disney next weekend.” Penny said, “I’ll get Kenny to cover the bar and call in some of my extra standbys.”

“Here that, Princess G?” Jake said, lifting Gracie into his lap, “We’re going to Disneyland next weekend!”

“DISNEY?” She exclaimed, “YES!”

“Our favorite Princess needs to meet the rest of the Princesses.” Phoenix said, “You’ll still be our favorite though.”

“Absolutely” Bradley agreed, “None of those Princesses are better than our sweet Princess.”

“Alright, time to get this princess home to bed so she’s rested for her big party tomorrow.” You said, “We’ll plan on being here early to help get all the food and everything set up, Penny.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sweetie.” She assured you, “We’ve got it handled. Just enjoy the morning with your little girl. No rushing around.”

“Thank you again for letting us crash your backyard.” You said.

“We were more than happy to have the party here.” Penny said, “No thanks needed.”

After saying goodnight and giving hugs, you and Bradley made your way to the Bronco, getting Gracie secured in her car seat. By the time you arrived home, she was already asleep, having worn herself out bouncing in the bounce castle. Bradley carried her into her room and tucked her into bed after carefully pulling her shoes off. You decided letting her sleep in her clothes one night wouldn’t hurt anything.

Jake and Phoenix arrived home shortly after. You and Bradley were wrapping some of Gracie’s presents when they came in.

“And we’re the ones that spoil her?” Jake asked, taking in the array of presents being wrapped.

“Ok so, we may have gone overboard.” You acknowledged, “But in my defense, this is her first real birthday party… the first year we’ve got people making a big fuss over her.”

“I understand.” Jake said, coming over and pulling you into a hug, “And it’s not like we ever had steller birthdays, so I get you wanting to make them amazing for Gracie.”

“I do.” You replied, “I want her to have everything we didn’t.”

“Just promise me you’ll remember that tomorrow…” Jake said, pulling away and flashing you his dimpled grin. “I’m just making sure she has the kinda birthdays we never had.”

“Jacob Seresin, what did you do?” You asked, knowing now he was definitely up to something.

“It’s a surprise.” He said, “But Gracie is going to LOVE it and that is all that matters.”

“Nat… you had ONE job.” You groaned, shaking your head, “You were supposed to keep him reigned in…”

“Yeah… about that.” She laughed, “Problem is… there was nobody to reign ME in?”

“I need to remember to send Admiral Simpson the biggest package of cookies and treats with an “I’m sorry” and “Thank you” card for dealing with all of you.” You said, shaking your head, “Seriously, the man has earned a bonus…or an early retirement… surely some fancy medal…”

“I love you, Tulip.” Jake said, cheekily, “You know you love me too. I’m your favorite big brother!”

“I do love you, you idiot.” You laughed, “You’re my ONLY big brother.”

“I just want to point out that I had nothing to do with this surprise.” Bradley said, smirking, “So, I’m not in the doghouse over this one. Sorry, Jake. Other surprises, I will fully admit to having a hand in.”

“What other surprises?” You asked, suddenly nervous.

“Look at the time, it’s getting really late.” Bradley said, changing the subject, “We should really get to bed. We promised Gracie chocolate chip pancakes for her birthday breakfast, she’ll be up early for those.”

“Definitely, it's gonna be an early start tomorrow.” Jake agreed, “We’ll be here for her birthday breakfast, but then have to go take care of the rest of her present, so we’ll meet you at Penny and Mav’s after to help with the rest of the setup.”

“OK, I’m just going to roll with it.” You decided, sighing. “I trust that whatever this surprise is will be something she’ll love and will be absolutely Uncle Jake coded, meaning chaotic.”

“There’s the spirit!” Phoenix laughed, “You’re not wrong either.”

“Alright then, I’ll see you both in the morning.” You laughed, “I love you both. Goodnight.”

“Love you too.” Jake smiled, kissing your head and hugging you. “Goodnight.”

***

The next morning Gracie was up with the sun, excited for her birthday. Before you even had a chance to wake up or think about starting her pancakes, she was bursting into your room and climbing on your bed with you and Bradley.

“Mommy! Daddy!” She exclaimed, “It’s my BIRFDAY!” I’m FREE!!”

“Are you sure?” Bradley groaned, pulling her down in between the two of you, “I dunno if the sun is even awake yet, Princess.”

“It is, Daddy!” She promised, “WAKE UP!”

“Happy Birthday, my sweet Gracie Girl.” You said, opening your eyes and pulling her to you into a hug. “I love you baby girl.”

“I wuv you too Mommy!” She said, snuggling into the hug for a moment before flipping around to Bradley.

“Daddy!” She yelled, making sure he was indeed awake.

“I’m awake, Princess.” He laughed, “Happy Birthday, Baby Girl. Come give me BIG BIG hugs.”

She launched herself across into his arms, immediately snuggling into his embrace.

“I love you, Gracie.” He told her, “I’m so lucky I get to be your Daddy and spend your birthdays with you now.”

“I wuv you too, Daddy.” She replied, “You’re my best Daddy!”

“You’re my best Princess!” He replied, kissing her head and launching a tickle attack.

A while later and after some caffeine, you’re plating chocolate chip pancakes for the birthday girl, as Bradley is getting milk poured into her sippy cup.

“Happy BIRTHDAY Princess G!” Jake exclaimed, coming into the kitchen and swooping her up from her chair to hug her. “I love you!”

“I wuv you too, Unco Jakey!” She said, hugging him back. “You eat pancakes wif me?”

“Absolutely!” He replied, “They’re my favorite.”

“I get to hug the birthday princess first!” Phoenix said, taking her from Jake. “Happy Birthday, Gracie Girl!”

“I wuv you Aunty Nix!” Gracie said, hugging her tightly.

“I love you too!” She replied, “I can’t wait to celebrate with you today!”

“You jump wif me in the bouncy castle?” Gracie asked her

“Of course I will!” She promised, “Uncle Jakey and I will happily jump with you!”

“Have a seat, I made enough to feed half of the Pacific Fleet” You said, setting a platter of pancakes on the table.

Once everyone was full and breakfast was cleared, Jake and Phoenix headed out on their secret mission for Gracie’s surprise and you and Bradley started to get Gracie ready for the party.

“I’m going to jump in the shower quick, can you get her dressed in a play outfit?” You asked, “We’ll take her Princess dress for her to change into at the party.”

“Sure can.” Bradley said, “Come on, Princess, let’s go get you ready while Mommy showers.”

After a quick shower, pulling your hair up to keep it dry, you pull on a pair of shorts and the tshirt you’d ordered for the party that said “Mommy of the Birthday Princess”. You’d ordered one for Bradley that said “Daddy of the Birthday Princess” to wear as well. You took your hair down and ran a brush through before deciding to pull it into a loose braid to keep most of it off your face.

“Alright, we’ve one birthday Princess dressed, but we both decided it would be in everyone’s best interests to let Mommy tackle the hair.” Bradley said, coming into your room carrying Gracie piggy back style.

“I think I’m up to the challenge.” You said, smiling at the pair, “I set your t-shirt out for you.. It’s not a Hawaiian shirt, but figured you’d make an exception just this once.”

“I don’t ONLY wear Hawaiian shirts.” He pointed out, chuckling. He carefully let Gracie slide off his back onto your bed, then turned to look at the shirt, his face lighting up as he read it. “I absolutely love it, Sweetheart.”

“Good.” You said, kissing him, “Go get ready, I’ll do Gracie’s hair, then we can head over to help Mav and Penny.”

“I love you.” He said, stealing another kiss before picking up his t-shirt. “Thank you for letting me be her Daddy.”

“I love you too,” You replied, “Thank you for loving her and for wanting to BE her Daddy.”

*****

When you arrived at Penny and Mav’s they were already hard at working getting food prepared and set up on platters.

“There’s the birthday Princess!” Penny said when Amelia led the three of you to the kitchen. “Happy Birthday! Are you excited for your party?”

“Yes!” Gracie exclaimed, squirming to be let down from Bradley’s arms. He obliged, setting her down so she could run to Penny and give her hugs.

“Where’s my hugs, Little Chick?” Mav asked, crouching down and opening his arms up. Gracie immediately launched herself into his arms.

“Little Chick, huh?” You asked, smiling at the pair.

“Figured it was appropriate.” Mav winked, “We used to call Bradley Baby Goose… so Little Chick seemed to fit this cutie.”

“Baby Goose?” You gushed, looking at Bradley, who sighed and chuckled, shaking his head at his godfather. “That is the most adorable thing EVER!”

“Thanks, Mav.” Bradley groaned

“Speaking of adorable,” Penny said, “I love your shirts!”

“Thanks!” You said, smiling, “I found them online and couldn’t resist.”

“Do you think we can get shirts made for the Disney trip next weekend?” Bradley asked, “Or is it too late?”

“I think we can probably make it happen.” You replied, smiling at him. “Maybe we can get them made for the whole squad?”

“I can guarantee you that every one of them would wear one.” Mav said. “Myself included.”

“Count me in.” Penny agreed.

“Me too!” Amelia said, “Gracie, do you want to go play for a little bit while the adults set everything up?”

“Yes pwease!” Gracie said, “Mommy, Daddy, I go pway?”

“Go ahead, Baby Girl.” Bradley said, “Just make sure you listen to Amelia, OK?”

“OK!” She replied, running off with Amelia.

“I wish I had that child’s abundance of energy.” Mav laughed

“Or her resilience.” You said, thinking about everything she’d been through already in her three years of life and despite it all she was still the most loving, free spirited, and trusting child you’d ever met.

“I dunno, Sweetheart,” Bradley said, “I think she learned resilience from her Momma. She’s a strong little little girl because she’s had you to learn from… and she loves with her whole heart, just like her Mommy.”

“He’s right, Y/N.” Penny agreed. “Her resilience and strength is a direct reflection of you. You’ve done an amazing job, Sweetie… no matter what, never doubt that.”

“Y’all are gonna make me cry before this party!” You said, tears threatening to spill over. Bradley pulled you into his arms, tucking your head into the space between his neck and shoulder. You breathed him in, recentering yourself and pushing back the emotions. Once you were calmed again, you lifted your head enough to kiss his cheek, “Ok, let’s get our daughter’s birthday party ready for her.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” He smiled, kissing your forehead before releasing you.

A few hours later Amelia found you all sitting outside having gotten all of the food prepped. All that was left was for the meat to go on the grill when it was time for the party.

“Gracie fell asleep while we were watching Beauty and the Beast.” She said, sitting down next to Bradley. The two had really bonded recently. You could tell Amelia looked up to him, and saw him almost as a big brother figure. “She’s on the couch and I put pillows on the floor next to her in case she rolls off.”

“Thanks, Ames.” Bradley said, smiling affectionately at her. “She loves spending time with you, you’re really good with her.”

“She’s adorable.” Amelia replied, “I’m guessing a little sibling isn’t in the cards for me, so it’s fun to get to play with Gracie and have her around.”

“Definitely a no on the siblings, Sweetheart.” Penny confirmed, “That ship has sailed.”

“How would you feel about having a niece?” you asked, “Being an aunt could be just as fun as being a big sister.”

“Really?” She asked, her eyes lighting up and a smile spreading across her face.

“I think you’d make a fantastic aunt.” You confirmed, then nodded at Bradley, “And since this one is in the only sibling club too, I think he needs to be adopted. Feel like taking on a big brother?”

“It does seem kinda cool to have a big brother.” She acknowledged, “I guess I can adopt this one. He’s kinda cool?”

“Just KINDA cool?” Bradley gasped, “Gracie thinks I’m SUPER cool.”

“I wouldn’t go THAT far…” Amelia laughed, “But… I think you’d be a really awesome big brother.”

“It just so happens,” Bradley said standing up and pulling her with him into a hug, “I think you’d be a really awesome little sister.” Amelia wrapped her arms around him, hugging him back. And just like that, the tears that had threatened to spill earlier were back.

“What did we miss?” Jake asked, coming around the corner of the house with Phoenix by his side.

“Bradley just got himself adopted by Amelia as a big brother.” Penny said, wiping her own tears from her eyes. Glancing up you see Mav’s eyes suspiciously wet and red as he watches the two hug.

“What took you so…” You trailed off, your eyes falling on the pony that was being led to the backyard behind Jake and Phoenix. “JACOB! WE SAID NO PONIES!”

“Ok, but in my defense, I never actually AGREED to that.” He said, flashing a bright smile, his dimple popping, “And Mav signed off on it. Besides, It’s a UNICORN, Tulip, not a pony.”

Looking back you noticed that there was indeed a unicorn horn attached to the pony’s head, making said pony a unicorn.

“So, you can’t get mad, because we absolutely followed the no pony rule.” Phoenix pointed out.

“You all need full time adult supervision.” You laughed, looking at Bradley, “Were you in on this?”

“Absolutely not.” He promised, “I’m innocent…although, I kinda wish I’d thought of it. Gracie is going to LOVE it.”

“I surrender.” You laughed, “I’m clearly outnumbered.”

“There’s the spirit!” Jake cheered. “Mav, where should we have them set up the pen and Unicorn?”

“We can make space next to the castle bounce house.” He replied, getting up and heading over to the bounce house with Jake and another handler leading the pony/unicorn.

***

By the time the squad started to arrive, Gracie was awake from her nap, changed into Princess dress and already in the bounce house with Jake and Phoenix.

“Where’s our birthday Princess?” Coyote asked, leading the group to the backyard.

“Last I checked she was giving Jake and Nat a run for their money in the bounce house.” You replied, “They would probably welcome someone to tag out with them.”

“Mission accepted!” He said, “Fanboy, let’s go bounce!”

“Can the bounce castle handle that?” Amelia asked, looking at the castle doubtfully. “That’s a lot of crazy in one confined space.”

Bradley and Payback almost fell on the ground laughing. Bob and Mav just agreed with Amelia. You and Penny shook your heads laughing, and decided to go grab drinks for everyone.

Several of Gracie’s friends from daycare and their families arrived a little later. Mav started the grill up, getting the food going to feed the masses. Kids were running around between pony “unicorn” rides and bouncing in the castle, while the adults supervised, played yard games, or sat together and talked.

“Looks like the perfect party for a princess.” Lauren said, walking towards where you and Bradley were currently standing watching Gracie ride the pony. “And it appears the live animals did in fact win out.”

“Lauren!” I’m so glad you could make it!” You beamed, “The unicorn pony is all Jake. He requires adult supervision at all times, I’ve learned.”

“There are worse things.” She laughed, “I wouldn’t miss this for the world. I love getting to see the happy beginnings…and I know this is the start to a beautiful family.”

“Thank you again for all that you did for them.” Bradley said, “This is all possible because of everything you did to help. Gracie is living her best life right now.”

“I’d say she’s living her best life because she’s got two amazing parents and a very large extended family that loves her unconditionally.” Lauren countered, smiling at Gracie as she passed around on the pony.

“She’s definitely got a large family.” You agreed, looking around at everyone that showed up. “I never dared to even dream this could be our life.”

“It’s only going to get better from here, Sweetheart.” Bradley said, leaning over to kiss your head.

“TIME TO EAT!” Jake yelled, drawing everyone’s attention towards where you had all the food set up.

“We better get in there before there’s nothing left.” You said laughing, “Trust me, this lot can eat, so you’ll wanna get it while you can.”

“Come on Princess.” Bradley said, lifting Gracie off the pony, “Time to eat my sweet baby girl.”

“Daddy, you see me wide?” She beamed, proud of herself.

“I sure did!” He replied, “You did so good! We might need to find you some riding lessons when you get a little bigger.”

“And so it begins.” You laughed, “I think this was Jake’s ulterior motive… making her fall in love with horses.”

“Horses and planes…”Bradley said, laughing, “It tracks.”

You got Gracie a plate and set her with her friends to eat while Bradley got plates for the two of you and set them at the table the rest of the squad had settled at.

“Looks like Gracie loves the Unicorn.” Jake said, looking pleased with himself.

“She does in fact love the PONY.” You laughed, rolling your eyes, “Your evil plan seems to have worked.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Tulip.” He said, feigning innocence. “I simply realized that every princess party needs a unicorn.”

“Uh huh… had nothing to do with getting your niece hooked on horses?” You asked, not buying it for a minute.

“That is just an added bonus!” He beamed. “She’s a natural in the saddle too! Did you see her?”

“Your Cowboy is showing.” Phoenix teased, winking at him, “It’s cute, I’m not complaining… just stating a fact.”

“I can show you my cowboy hat when we get home.” He offered, smirking back at her. “You can even try it on.”

“Eww, nope! No, stop!” You whined, “Jakey! NOT ok!”

“It’s just a hat?” Phoenix replied, not understanding your response.

“There’s a rule about wearing a cowboy’s hat, Sweets.” Jake said cheekily, “If you…”

“Jacob, there are small children present.” You reminded him, leveling him with your ‘mom’ look. “You can tell her all about it later.”

“Now I’m really intrigued.” Phoenix said, looking at Jake. He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “IS THAT FOR REAL?”

You laughed at her reaction, nodding your head to confirm.

“Care to share, Sweetheart?” Bradley asked, “Now I’m curious.”

“Depends…” You reply, “Do you happen to own a cowboy hat?”

“I could be persuaded to buy one.” He replied, “I’m guessing by your earlier reaction to Jake’s comment that it would be worth my while.”

“Bradshaw,” Jake said, glaring playfully across the table, “That’s my baby sister you’re talking to.”

“And?” Bradley tossed back, smirking at him.

“Just reminding you.” Jake replied, “I don’t need to be party to all your conversations. There are little ears here.”

“On that note,” You said, changing the subject, “I”m going to go check on the kiddos then get the cake from the kitchen.”

“I’ll come help.” Bradley offered.

After making sure that Gracie was OK at the table with the other kids, you and Bradley made your way into the house to get her birthday cake ready along with the candles.

“So…the hat rule?” Bradley asked, standing behind you and wrapping his arms around you as you put the candles into the cake.

“The rule is if you wear a cowboy’s hat, you ride that cowboy.” You smirked, glancing back at Bradley.

“I may definitely need to invest in a cowboy hat then.” Bradley said, dipping his head to kiss your neck. “Or we can change the rule… you can wear one of my uniform caps and ride the aviator.”

“I think I like the sound of that flyboy.” You replied, turning in his arms, wrapping your own around his neck and pulling him down to kiss him. When you pulled away you added, “But for now, we need to bring this cake out to our daughter and keep her party moving.”

“Yes Ma’am.” He replied, smiling, “I can’t wait to watch her open all of her presents!”

“I have a feeling we may need to add a room onto the house to hold all of her toys.” You laughed.

“We can make that happen.” Bradley said, picking up the cake from the counter.

After a wild rendition of “happy birthday” was sung, you moved to the food table to start serving cake and ice cream with Penny’s help dishing it all up and Bradley helping to pass out the dessert. Once kids were once more sugared up and had energy, they returned to the bounce house and pony rides for a while before you attempted to round everyone up to open gifts.

You were correct in assuming you’d need to add on to the house to hold all of her gifts. Her new extended family had definitely gone overboard. Mav and Penny had alone had practically cleaned out the Disney Store. She’d have lots of new Princess decor for her new bedroom. Bob got her a new princess themed tea party set which she immediately made him promise to play with her with. Payback and Fanboy went together and got her a princess bike with training wheels, complete with a princess helmet.

“This one is from Aunt Nix and me, Princess G.” Jake said, handing her a brightly wrapped box.

She tore the paper off and opened the box pulling out a small flight suit. It was customized with a Dagger patch on one side and her name Gracie “Princess” Seresin on the other. Inside the box was also a child size pair of aviator sunglasses.

“I match you and Daddy!” Gracie beamed happily, “And Aunty Nix!”

“You sure do, Princess G.” Jake said, “And all your other uncles, and Papa Mav too.”

“I fwy wif you now?” She asked, batting her eyelashes at her uncle.

“Soon, I promise!” He said, “Very very soon!”

“That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” You smiled at Jake. “And very restrained from you….”

“Oh that’s not all.” He laughed, pulling out another giant gift bag, and handing it to his niece. You just shook your head. “Come on now, Tulip, you know me better than that.”

Gracie pulled the paper from the bag and lifted out a pony playset and a little cowgirl hat with a princess tiara attached to it. She loved it, wanting to wear it immediately. Thankfully you’d put her hair into lower ponytails today so the hat fit over them.

You and Bradley got her a couple of new toys and outfits, not wanting to go completely overboard.

“There’s one more here for you, Baby Girl.” Bradley said, handing her a small wrapped box. You looked at him questioningly, not recognizing the box. He smiled, shrugging. “It’s my first birthday with her as her Daddy… it had to be special.” You leaned over and kissed his cheek, whispering “I love you” in his ear.

She tore off the paper on the little box opening it up carefully, her eyes lit up and she smiled widely at Bradley.

“Daddy! It’s pwetty!” She exclaimed. Nestled inside the box on a satin backing was a tiny necklace with two small charm pendants. One was a small princess crown and the other an f-18. Where he’d managed to find that was beyond you.

“Bradley, it’s perfect.” You whispered, tears springing to your eyes.

Jake leaned over, his own eyes suspiciously wet, to help Gracie take the necklace from the box and to put it on her. Looking closer at the necklace he said, “Princess G, it’s even more special.. It says ‘Daddy’s Girl.” on the crown!”

At that, you lost the battle and the tears freely fell from your eyes. Bradley wiped his own eyes, smiling as Jake put the necklace on Gracie.

“I wuv you, Daddy!” Gracie said, coming over and throwing her arms around Bradley as he picked her up, holding her tightly to him.

“I love you too, my sweet Baby Girl.” He told her.

“So, would now be a good time to tell you that Bradley and I definitely went ahead and ordered that Castle playset for y’all’s backyard?” Jake asked, wiping tears from his eyes as he tried to add some humor back to the situation.

“You know what?” You said, wiping your own eyes, laughing through the emotions, “I’m not even shocked.”

After the party wound down, the squad stayed behind to help with clean up. Payback and Fanboy offered to take the bounce house back to the rental place once it was deflated. Gracie got a few more rides on the pony before the handler had to load her back onto the trailer. Jake handed you their business card, saying they also offered riding lessons.

You all loaded Gracie’s gifts into Jake’s truck as there was more room in there than the Bronco. You let Gracie keep a few things out she wanted to play with the next day while you all tackled the packing, and you would take the rest straight to Bradley’s house to avoid having to move it twice.

“Hey, what time are you thinking of starting packing in the morning? Do you think it’ll take all day?” Mav asked, as you and Bradley were loading the last of her gifts.

“Definitely not all day.” You said, “It’s mostly clothes and toys, not a whole house.”

“How would you feel about bringing Gracie out to the hangar tomorrow morning and taking her up for her first flight?” Mav suggested.

“You wanna take Gracie flying tomorrow morning?” Bradley asked, smiling.

“I was thinking more along the lines of her Dad and Uncle taking her up in the air.” He clarified. “She’s small enough, she can be strapped into the backseat with someone… probably safer that way anyway.”

“You’ll let us fly your plane?” Jake asked, clearly shocked.

“You are both highly skilled pilots.” Mav laughed, “Of course I trust you to fly my plane.”

“What do you think, Sweetheart?” Bradley asked, “Can we take her flying?”

“Just promise me no crazy pilot stuff and to return her safely back to the ground.” You said, “So maybe Jake should be the backseater tomorrow.”

“Hey!” He protested, “I take GREAT offense to that.”

“I don’t doubt your skills, Jakey.” You laughed, “I doubt your restraint in not turning my daughter into a dare devil at 3 years old. I don’t know that my Mommy heart can handle that. Can we agree to wait until she’s older to turn her into a daredevil?”

“Fine.” He agreed, “Rooster, for tomorrow only, I’ll be your backseater.”

“I’m sure Bob and Fanboy can give you some tips if you need them.” Bradley teased, “Thanks, Mav. This really means a lot.”

“No thanks needed.” He replied, “Taking you up flying when you were little is probably one of the best memories I have of your childhood.”

“So you’re saying I should be ready for my daughter to follow in her uncle and Daddy’s footsteps to become a Naval Aviator?” You asked.

“Hell yeah!” Phoenix said, bring Gracie over to the group. “She’d be fierce.”

“I don’t know that the Navy would survive that.” Mav laughed. “It’s barely surviving all of you.”

“Fair.” Phoenix laughed. “This one is fading fast. I think all the bouncing and riding tired her out and the sugar is leaving her system.”

“Let’s get her home to bed.” You said, “She’s going to have another exciting day tomorrow, apparently.”

“You and Nix take the Bronco with Gracie and get her tucked in,” Bradley said, “Jake and I will run all this to the house in his truck then head that way.”

“Wow, that’s huge… Rooster’s letting someone else drive his Bronco.” Jake chuckled, “Didn’t think we’d see the day.”

“She’s trusting me to be a father to Gracie.” He replied, shrugging, “Nothing can compare that, man.”

“Fair point.” Jake said, “Let’s get this haul to your house and get back to our girls.”

After saying goodbye to Penny, Mav and Amelia and making plans to meet the next morning, Bradley loaded Gracie into her car seat. Phoenix got into the passenger seat buckling in, Jake going around to her side leaning in to steal a kiss.

Bradley walked you to the driver’s side, pulling you into his arms, your own winding around his neck.

“Drive carefully, Sweetheart.” He said. “My whole world is with you… and not the Bronco… you know that right?”

“I know, Baby.” You said, smiling, pulling him down to kiss him. “I love you, Bradley.”

“I love you too, Y/N.” He said, resting his forehead against yours, “See you soon.”

A/N: Sorry the update took so long! I promise, I've got more time now so updates should be coming quicker! :)

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