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antiherocorner · 3 years

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Huh... Alright, I'm doing... I think I'm doing it...

This is my very first fanfic ever... I'm still learning... This is a part 1 thing... I'm currently in the middle of a university exam period, so I couldn't finish the whole story yet, but I will as soon as I can, but I don't want to wait anymore... My English is okay-ish... It's not my native language, so there maybe some grammatical mistakes, I hope it's still readable... I tried my best... Just bear with me, I'll try to learn and improve... I'm very nervous...

Facts about the story: there is no age mentioning, Reader is around 25-26, I made Daniel younger in my head, 34-36 (single, no wife, no kids, let's respect the real Brühl family), Reader is female, I am Hungarian as well (possible Hungarian language in the future), I'm studying Russian (possible Russian language in the future), and I just started learning German, I used translater (sorry if I messed it up but, I really tried, please tell me if it's horrible), and one more thing... I have never met Daniel, nor I went to Berlin (yet, I really want to, and planning)... All of this are imagination, dreaming, and a little searching...

Warnings: none?... i think?... Apart from the horrible language uses and horrible jokes... Maybe swearing.

(Bad) Summary: a Hungarian girl goes to Berlin with a Russian friend of hers, as tourists. They always wanted to visit the city (not because Reader has a crush on the one and only Daniel Brühl, and wants to go to his tapas bar...of course). When the Reader goes back alone to the bar, Daniel is there too... The big meeting, adventures, fun, love, shitty romcom vibes ahead... (i hope the story is better than the summary...)

And now, after this awkward rambling, I present to you:

-----------------------------------

With Love from Berlin

Part 1

You couldn’t believe it. Finally, after months of preparation, you and your best friend were finally here, in the heart of Germany, Berlin. It was very different from what you were used to. Coming from a small city from Hungary, this was way bigger than your imagination. All kinds of people from different cultures merged into one. Museums, cafes, bars, restaurants, you didn’t even know where to begin. You took a deep breath in your hotel room. Your friend insisted on getting different rooms, in case she or you find someone to have a good time, if you know what I mean. Well, rather your friend, than you. You wanted to come here after many years, and you were finally here, so you want to experience as much of this city as you possibly could, you’re not gonna waste your time on a random (or more, glancing at your friend) man.

You arrived at the hotel around 1.00pm, so you decided to go get some lunch somewhere close. You were a little bit tired of the long hours on the train. Just around a corner from where you were staying there was a tapas bar. Bar Raval. Your friend wasn’t really into movies that much, or actors in particular, but you knew that place, although you have never been there. You didn’t think about yourself as a “fangirl”, but you really admired the work of Daniel Brühl. You knew there was little to no chance that you could get even a tiny glance of him, but in over all: you would be happy just to say that you were in his bar. Your friend liked Spanish cuisine, so it didn’t take much to convince her to eat there.

A Hungarian and a Russian woman walked into a Spanish restaurant in Germany, Berlin. Sounded comical. The place looked very friendly and funky. There were some people, not really a crowd. You decided to sit in the corner, with your back to the wall, so you can observe your surroundings. Your friend sits down opposite you. A waiter comes up to you:

- Willkommen! Was möchten Sie gerne? - he asked, looking between the two of you.

- Oh, sorry, we don’t really speak German. - you said with quite a thick Hungarian accent, because you got nervous due the potential language barrier.

- I see, It’s okay. We usually have all kinds of tourist here, so you’re good. What can I get for you two? - he asked with a welcoming smile.

You weren’t sure what you wanted to eat, you weren’t familiar with Spanish food at all, so you just trusted your friend to order something. She ordered something with pasta, and another thing with pasta. You had no idea what she just said. And some juice. She smiled at the waiter who scribbled down your order, and of he went. You looked around while you were waiting.

- It’s nice isn’t it?

- Yeah, it is. Quite bohemian. I would have guessed you would want to go to a traditional German restaurant. Why are we here? - smiled your friend knowingly.

- Well… You know…

- Is this the place of your man?

- What?! Shut up… - blushing - I just like his movies, that’s all… Anyway, I just liked the pictures of this place…

- ...and him…

- ...AND I wanted to check it out myself, ok?

- Ok-Ok...

You smiled at each other. You were best friends for years now, you could communicate without much of words. The waiter arrived with your plates. The food was good. In fact, more than good. In general, you prefer other cuisines, but you really liked this Spanish place. In Berlin. Odd, in the best way. After the lunch you went back to the hotel. Your friend wanted to go to a small club in the evening, so you decided to just chill throughout the afternoon.

The traveling took the better of you, as you didn’t just not feel fresh after your nap, but you actually felt like shit. Your friend on the other hand really wanted to get going. So you assured her and yourself that it’s fine if you didn’t go to a club. She was a strong woman, and the club which she picked was just a couple of blocks away, so she decided, after she made sure that it is truly okay, to leave you behind in your room. You have never been a party-animal anyway, and you really just wanted to plan for tomorrow. There were so many things you wanted to watch in the city. After a few hours of planning and searching, you eventually fall asleep on the couch.

In the morning, luckily, you felt much better, more of yourself than in the previous afternoon. You took a shower, get dressed (purple converse, dark skinny jeans, blue tank-top and a blue/black checked shirt...nothing can go wrong dressing like this, you thought), grabbed your camo, ex-military little gym bag, locked your room’s door, and went to knock on your friend’s door. It took a few minutes, some groans, and other small noises, when she finally flung the door open. The sight was hideous.

- The hell happened to you? - you really tried not to laugh.

- Laugh, as you like… I had a good time. Drank more vodka that I could handle though…

- Are you alone or…?

- I am… Calm down, I didn’t get lied… Although I tried… But I didn’t!!! - she said quickly after she saw the frown on your face. - But I feel very shitty… My hangover is killing me, I didn’t give out anything yet… But I might throw up at any minute now…

- How can I help you? Stay with you? Bring you something from that little shop we saw yesterday?

- Some water would be nice… But I don’t want you to see me like this… And I will be fine, i’m just gonna rest today… You can go on on your sightseeing trip.

- Are you sure? I’m gladly staying with you…

- No, no! You wanted to come so badly, I don’t want to take a day away from you. I will be alright.

- You promise?

- I do. Please, just go. - she smiled at you.

- Alright. I’ll go grab you some water, and… I don’t know, go for a walk or something. Get breakfast.

- For the mentioning of food, your friend’s face went green and particularly jumped into her bathroom.

- I’m coming back in a minute or two! - you shouted after her, than closed her hotel room’s door.

You went down to get some water, some bread and some crackers which would be easy on her stomach, yet she still would be able to eat something throughout the day. You knocked on her door, which opened just slightly, an arm came out to take the bag from your hand, a small, weak “Спасибо” and just like that the door was closed again. You giggled to her door before you headed down to the street.

You honestly didn’t really want to explore many things without her, so you tried to keep your excitement low. You decided to go back to that bar where you ate your lunch yesterday. You liked it a lot, and it wasn’t a new place to discover, which meant that your friend wasn’t missing out on anything. You went to the bar. It was still early morning, not many people were there. A few old people, some of them are couples. The younger generation (yours) was probably still sleeping. Besides, the place was more like a lunch/dinner kind of place anyway. The waiter looked up and recognised you.

- Good morning! Alone this time?

- Good morning to you too! Yes, my friend had a wild party last night, and she is standing at the gates of Hell right now.

- That sounds bad. - he laughed.

- It is, she looked scary… - that made him chuckle.

- So what can i do for you today?

- I would like just a cappuccino, please.

- Alright, just sit down, I’m on it.

- Thank you!

You sat down at the exact place where you did yesterday, next to the window, with your back to the wall. You put down your bag, and looked around. With less people, the place looked cozier. You really did like it a lot. Eventually, your cappucino arrived. You thanked it, and tasted it. It was delicious. You were one of those people who liked to read next to a fresh coffee, and you always had a book around you. You took it out from your handy-dandy bag and started reading it, holding it a little up in your hands, leaned back on your chair. You were reading one of your favourite books (Pushkin - Anyegin), while sipping a good morning cappuccino, in a nice place. You just relaxed to the small sounds of the bar and sounds of the city, which infiltrated through the door and windows.

- Eine interessante Wahl von Buch am Morgen. Interessanter als eine Zeitung, das ist sicher...

No. Just...no. You were hallucinating. You felt like everything was frozen around you. From out of 2.8 millions of people (roughly), you would recognize this voice. His voice. You physically could not look up.

- Omm.. I’m sorry, I didn’t understand what you just said… - you said with the weakest voice and in the thickest accent ever, in your whole damn life. You hoped that if you make this man say another thing you fall back to reality.

- Oh, my bad - he giggled - I just said that it is an interesting choice of read in the morning, it sure is more interesting than a newspaper.

Shit, this was the reality.

You dared to look up, and your eyes met the most chocolaty eyes ever on this whole planet, but at least in the whole of Berlin. The owner of those eyes was leaning on the chair opposite you.

- Hello. I’m the owner of this Bar, I’m Daniel. - he offered his hand to you.

- Hi, I kno...i mean I’m (Y/N), I’m the costumer…? - you finished with a questioning voice and all you wanted was for the ground to open, swallow you, and with that wipe you out of this universe. You shook his hand, without looking at him directly. His hands were warm and secure. After he released you, you closed your eyes, already feeling the burning sensation in your face. You heard a deep chuckle.

- Yeah, I guessed that. You’re not from Germany and you aren't British either, aren’t you?

You opened your (Y/E/C) eyes only to meet his curious ones.

- No, I’m not. I’m just a tourist here, I’m from Hungary.

- Oh, I’ve been there. It’s a lovely country. Would you mind if I sit down? - gesturing to the empty chair opposite from you.

- Yes… I mean no… - you took a deep breath - If you would like to you can sit with me. - This is just going great...

You earned another deep chuckle from the man in front of you, while he sat down.

- So… What are you doing here alone, in Berlin?

- I’m not alone.

- Oh… Anniversary? - for a moment you thought you saw something in his eyes. Sadness?

- Not that either. I don’t have anyone to celebrate such things. I came here with my friend, but she got wasted last night, and probably at the moment she is agonizing in her bathroom above the toilet.

- Hm… that’s not nice. - curiosity was coming back to his face.

The two of you stayed in silence. It wasn’t really uncomfortable, you were just terribly shy, and couldn’t stop blushing. You even tried to hide some of your face by leaning on one of your palms, and sipping your coffee.

This is aweful. Daniel f*ing Brühl is sitting opposite me, and I can’t even look at him. He must be thinking I’m one of those fangirls who just can’t keep it together before their idols. Which is true, but he shouldn’t have to know that…

But he wasn’t thinking that. Quite the opposite actually. You were so out of place in his bar, he had to approach you. There was something in you which made him intrigued. While you were trying to hide, which he found a little bit cute and entertaining, he tried to study you as well. There was something in you. He felt like he wanted to know your story.

- So what’s the plan for today?

...........

#daniel bruhl #daniel bruhl x reader #daniel brühl #fanfic #actor x reader #actor x y/n #daniel bruhl x you #baron zemo x reader #baron zemo

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ayamari-no-goshi · 3 years

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Verboten 15 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary: AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things

Parings: Danny/Sam

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances

Chapter 15

It took almost twenty minutes for Danny’s mom to finish her tirade against the police. Watching her flip out on the officers was almost therapeutic, and by the time she was done, he was more amused then terrified. It made the actual interview much easier.

The police were initially skeptical, especially since his dad took the lead on explaining what happened. His childish excitement at getting to chase something made it sound like some made up fantasy, but that changed when Vlad gave his account. With his reputation, they were forced to take it seriously.

The older of the two officers, O’Brian, took the statements as his partner, Kiziah, reviewed the scene for any clues or evidence of how the creature got in the house. Other police offers were on the way to do a proper investigation.

“You’re the one that reported that murder… That was just, I guess it’s two days ago now,” O’Brian mentioned as he glanced at Danny, who nodded. “We chalked up the weirdness of your original statement due to shock, but if you’re telling me this thing is the same perp, I have no idea what we have on our hands.”

“I… I don’t really know if it was the same thing or not, but it looked like it.”

The officer frowned as his partner returned. “No obvious sign of a break in,” Kiziah stated, “but I don’t want to touch anything without an evidence kit. There’s definitely a weird substance in the living room and near the front door that will need analyzed.”

“You didn’t hear anything?” O’Brian looked back towards Danny and his parents.

“To be honest, our family tends to be heavy sleepers,” his mother explained as she gave him a sheepish grin. “Jack can sleep through almost anything, and I tend to wear earplugs.”

“And I am of the opposite,” Vlad stated as he made himself a cup of tea. “However, it wasn’t until I heard Daniel sprint up the stairs and bang on his parents’ door that I awoke.”

“Sorry about that.” Danny winced at he glanced at the man. Vlad didn’t seem as creepy as he had the previous day, but something still seemed off about him.

The man gave him a dismissive wave. “No worries, my dear boy. I believe your actions were more than understandable given the circumstances.”

“Err… I guess you want me to say if I heard anything?” Danny shook his head as the officers stared at him. “I didn’t. It… it was just a feeling, you know? Like when you get a sudden chill.” That statement was true enough. He figured it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to state the more paranormal aspect of it. “I thought I was just being paranoid until I looked down the stairs and that… that thing stared back at me.”

An awkward silence fell as O’Brian took some more notes. It was only broken when Kiziah received some sort of notification and moved to let the investigation team in. They quickly went to work examining the scene and looking for anything out of the ordinary. While they worked, an older man with a scar down the right side of his face took O’Brian and Kiziah aside and spoke with them. Once they finished, the older officer approached Danny and his family.

“I’m Lieutenant Metzger, and I’ve recently been put in charge of the investigation of the recent murders in the city. You’ve probably heard the rumors this is a serial case. Well, that’s true.” A muscle moved in the man’s cheek as he seemed to debate with himself over how much he could tell them. “Due to some of the details, we were under the impression these were ritualistic in nature and called in the FBI for some help.” He sighed before asking, “Is it okay if I sit?”

“Sure,” Danny’s mother shared a confused look with her husband before she asked the officer if he needed some coffee.

When he agreed, he waited until there was a cup in front of him to continue. “Look, I don’t want this being leaked. We don’t need people thinking the police force is wasting money on chasing fairy tales.” Once the Fenton family agreed, he continued, “You aren’t the first one to report something not quite human around the time of the incidences. Due to shock and figuring it was some sort of disguise, we originally disregarded that. However,” he glanced around before he leaned in, “one of my own officers gave a report earlier this week of glancing something inhuman. It actually attacked his patrol car before it vanished. On top of that, I don’t think whatever that thing spilled on your carpet has any sort of mundane explanation behind it.” He sighed and rubbed his eyes, “Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, I’m going to be frank with you. I would like to contract you for some sort of weapon for this thing. From previous experiences, I’m fully aware your… experiments don’t tend to do harm to people, so if… by the off chance, this isn’t something normal, we’ll have a way to stop it.”

Danny’s father immediately lit up in excitement. After rambling some idea, he ran down to the lab to act upon it before anyone could stop him.

“Don’t mind him,” his mother fondly chuckled. “Jack is very enthusiastic about our work.”

“I… uh… take that you’re willing to help us?”

“Oh, absolutely. If this thing is what we think it might possibly be, we were going to do that anyways. But I do need to ask you something. You mentioned you thought the attacks were ritual in nature. I’m not really sure how to ask this, but for those poor people, was there a part of the body missing?”

Metzger’s shoulders tensed at her question as his eyes narrowed. “How did you know about that?”

“Wait… wait, you’re telling me… that thing… what it was holding in its hand…” Danny couldn’t say it. The memory of the blood dripping from that thing’s hand temporarily overwhelmed him. He must have swayed as his mother gently put a hand on his shoulder.

“You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. If you decide to go help your father, I think he’d gladly welcome the help.”

Danny shook his head at the suggestion. He needed to stay put. It just felt safer with her and the officers around. She must have somehow understood as she gave his shoulder a motherly squeeze.

“You didn’t answer my question.” An irritated edge crept into Metzger’s voice.

His mother calmly turned back to him and returned his gaze. “I didn’t until just now. After Danny relayed his story, it struck a chord with me, and I did some digging. There is folklore in different parts of the US which tells of creatures who steal the life of humans and often a part of the body. If… if that’s what’s happening, then we’re in trouble.”

“What do you think this thing is doing?”

“Nothing good. Throughout history, humankind has offered up blood and other bodily sacrifices to gods, spirits, monsters, and everything in between. While usually the Aztecs come to mind, you can find evidence of this around the world. It’s believed those sacrifices would either strengthen or appease whichever entity was the focus.”

“Maddie, are you suggesting this thing is doing something similar?”

She nodded. “I… We aren’t sure if this thing is trying to strengthen itself or if it’s taking its gains to something else.”

A different memory surfaced in Danny’s mind. “That… when we were being rescued… the… the person that helped us get back… he said the A-listers got targeted for their blood,” he stammered before he could stop himself.

Everyone in the room stared at him. He and his friends really hadn’t talked about Frostbite. They mentioned to the police they thought someone helped them, but purposely left it vague. With how disoriented they were when they were found, the police were under the impression the trauma obscured some of their memories. Well, the cat was out of the bag.

Matzger stared at him. “Are you telling me what happened to your classmates may be related to… to this thing?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? Like I told my mom before you came, the person who grabbed me and my friends isn’t the same… whatever that thing is. But, I don’t know what Dash and them encountered after we got separated.”

“Hmm… what about the person who helped you?”

Danny shook his head. “Not the same person. He called himself Frostbite, and…” How could he even explain Frostbite? He was a ghostly yeti with an ice arm for God’s sake! “I didn’t think he was real,” he eventually stated as he glanced down at his hands. “He was so friendly and helpful. He was so much different than that thing.”

“Honey, you never really talked about this Frostbite person before.” His mother tried to reach out for his hand, but he pulled away.

“I… I thought he was a dream or hallucination or something for a while.” He hoped he sounded sincere. It was somewhat true after all. The fantastical nature of what happen still didn’t seem real to him, but he knew better. “I think he had helpers… there were other voices besides his.”

“That would line up with some of the evidence we have from your case,” Matzger stated as he rubbed his chin. “The injuries of you and your two friends were vastly different than the others who went missing which suggested multiple perpetrators. One of the other boys did mention that he thought they were rescued by a small group of people. I will have to take a closer look at the injuries of your classmates to determine whether or not they match up with our current victims. That should give us an idea if it’s the same thing or something different.”

“Sir,” officer Kiziah interrupted, “we’ve finished our initial sweep. We did have some trouble trying to keep Mr. Fenton out of the way in the basement area, but he’s promised to stay at the one table while we work. He’s apparently drafting some blueprints. Forensics is here and are working on collecting evidence. They’re hoping to talk to you.”

He sighed. “Thank you, Kiziah. Can you explain to them their options during our investigation progress?” After flashing them an apologetic smile which seemed out of place with his features, he told them he would be in touch and excused himself.

After shaking his head at his superior, Kiziah stated while the family could stay in the house during the investigation process, it had the possibility of accidentally contaminating evidence. He recommended for them to stay at a local hotel for a time.

Although his mother seemed hesitant to leave the house, she eventually agreed to head to a hotel after Vlad made a show of being concerned for the family’s safety. It took a bit of time to get his dad to leave the basement, but by the time seven am hit, Danny found himself in the best hotel in Amity Park, per Vlad’s firm recommendations.

After sending his friends a few texts to let them know what happened, that he was fine, and where he was, he told them he’d call them after he got some sleep. Although he wasn’t exactly happy he shared the room with Vlad, the pristine bed ended up being far more important to him than any worries.

…..

Several hours later, Danny woke up to one hundred and three texts, fifty-four missed calls, and eleven voicemails. Sam and Tucker had only one voicemail and call apiece and only a handful of texts. The rest were from his sister. Groaning, he sent Sam and Tucker messages to let them know he’d call them after he contacted his sister.

He really didn’t want to talk to Jazz at the moment. When she was scared, she became spastic, and a spastic Jazz was the last thing he wanted to deal with at the moment. Okay, the third to last think he wanted to deal with. The creepy thing and Plasmius took the top two places.

After taking several minutes to do everything other than call his sister, he finally buckled down and called her. As predicted, she spastically demanded to know if he was okay while berating him for not contacting her sooner. He just let her talk while making the occasional ‘uh huh’, ‘sorry,’ and ‘yeah.’ From experience, he knew it was better to let her get it out of her system.

He put Jazz on speaker while he attempted to find the hotel’s TV remote. Vlad didn’t seem to be in the room which really didn’t bother him. The man didn’t need to listen to Jazz flipping out after all. Eventually, he found the remote next to a message from Vlad stating he and his parents went to discuss something with the police and would be back with food.

“Danny, are you even listening to me?” Jazz demanded. He must have been quiet for too long.

“Uh? Yeah, I just happened to find a note Vlad left. You were saying something about how it was irresponsible for Dad to go running after the thing?”

“Wait, are you telling me you were left alone after everything that happened?”

“Jazz, I’m seventeen. I think I’m perfectly fine being alone for a few hours.”

“You were kidnapped by a crazy man and then were attacked in your own home! Do you really think it’s safe for you to be alone right now?” With that, she flew into a different tirade.

Knowing it would be a while, he decided the TV would be a preferable alternative to his upset sister. He turned it on only to have it immediately turn off. Thinking he accidentally doubled clicked the button, he tried again only to have the same result. Thinking the remote was damaged, he moved to try the button on the machine. Only, it turned on by itself. It and the lights began to dim and flicker, and his breath began to mist.

Glancing around, he watched as a girl emerged from the wall. At first, it seemed she didn’t notice him as she moved towards the opposite wall, but she stopped midway and faced him. She looked human but her entire body seemed insubstantial and almost wispy. Her skin, if it could be called that, was an unearthly white while her blue hair flickered like a flame.

She smirked at him while moving a little closer. “You shouldn’t be here, Baby Pop.” Her sultry and musical voice seemed far away, almost as if it was being broadcasted over an old radio. “Don’t know what you’re doing on this side of the veil, but you shouldn’t stay here.”

“What… what are you talking about? Who are you?” he stammered while vaguely registering Jazz asking him what was wrong.

“I like to slip to this side for some fun, but I might stick around a little longer this time. It’s already chaotic here, and a little more might do me some good. Besides, it seems I need to make a few people remember I still exist.” After appraising him, she gave another smile and headed back towards the wall. “You might want to get out while you can, Baby Pop. Things might get a little hot, and you new guys often aren’t strong enough to deal with the heat.”

“Hey, wait!” He tried to get her to stop, but she just vanished back into the wall. Unsure what to do, he stood in the center of the room dumbfounded until he realized his phone was still on speaker and his sister was calling for him.

“Hey, Jazz, I’m going to have to call you back,” he stated as he moved towards the door. “Something really weird just happened.” He hung up on her as he ran into the hallway looking for some evidence of the ghost.

He barely made it to the elevators when the fire alarm sounded. Not wanting to stick around, he quickly found the stairs and made his way to the lobby as the rest of the guests started to follow suit. By the time he reached the third floor, he began to smell smoke. There had to be a fire. Is that what that ghost meant? Did she somehow set it?

He really hoped that wasn’t the case. He really only needed on potentially supernatural thing causing problems in his life at a time.

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punksarahreese · 3 years

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I haven't had another episode, except last night was touch and go + Mr Crockett

Episode | Crockett Marcel

Excerpt from a psych!AU I’ll never write; Crockett is an inpatient in the psych ward and he has therapy with his favourite Psychiatrist

Prompt: “I haven’t had another episode, except last night was touch and go.”

Word count: 1797

CW: Psych ward, talks of depressive episodes, brief mention of dermatillomania, schizoaffective disorder, child death

***

“Mr. Marcel?” the voice at his door made Crockett groan, recognizing the voice as the nurse who always disturbed him at ridiculous hours. He wanted to have a talk with whoever decided pill time would be at six in the morning, how was he supposed to “heal” if they never let him get any sleep?

“Maggie, can’t you let me sleep for another hour,” he rolled over and sighed when she shook her head. Medication and vitals were a morning routine, every day before the sun even thought about rising completely. Routine was good, they told him, a routine would help with figuring out what was reality and what was his mind playing tricks. He didn’t think so, nothing would stop the fact that he saw his daughter clear as day despite the 5th anniversary of her death steadily approaching.

“Up and at ‘em, mister,” the nurse mused as she marched over with his tray and the cart carrying the monitors. He obliged because he had no choice but to do so, even though he hated the way the pills made him feel. Antipsychotics were something Crockett hated, ever since his diagnosis back when he was just twenty-one. They made him feel incorrect, as if he was floating through life with blinders on. He knew they were supposed to help, to show him what was really there, but he couldn’t help but think it made him more miserable.

“You have one-on-one therapy today,” she reminded him as she watched Crockett take his pills and then checked under his tongue to ensure he wasn’t hiding them. He had tried that a couple times and sometimes it worked on the younger nurses, but not Maggie. She knew all, especially these kinds of tricks, and Crockett wasn’t about to risk mandatory IV medications for another month just for one day without the drugs.

“Oh lovely,” he muttered, “Not that Charles guy again, right? He’s insufferable.”

Maggie laughed, “Oh please, Daniel is just fine.”

“Insufferable,” he restated with an eye-roll, still complying when she held out the pulse oximeter to clip it to his fingertip. Maggie just hummed, watching the machine for a moment before speaking.

“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that. If it makes it any better, though, you’ll be seeing Doctor Reese today.”

That brought a smile to his face, though it was one that never quite reached his eyes. Maggie wasn’t sure if she had ever seen a genuine smile from Crockett, certainly not since Harper’s death and the worsening of his illness. Still, if one thing made his days more bearable it was sessions with Doctor Reese, who Crockett had started to consider more of a friend than a physician by that point.

“Our Sarah,” he hummed as she took the device off his hand, “She’s lovely.”

“She is,” the nurse agreed, “Now go get ready for the day, Crockett. You’ll be expected in the dining hall by 7:00 and I certainly won't have you slumming around in your pyjamas all day; you know the drill.”

***

By noon, Crockett was ready to go back to bed. Breakfast had been as dull as always, with his friend Ava in solitary for the next two days he didn’t have many people to speak to. Well, Natalie liked to talk to him but, if he was being honest, she could be a little much. She was just excited, Maggie insisted, but she tried to get Crockett to talk about his hallucinations far too often for him to be comfortable.

Jimmy sat with him that day, though. He didn’t talk much, or ever really, but he was decent company. They played cards together sometimes and always partnered for the team-building exercises in group therapy. Crockett didn’t press for verbal communication and Jimmy never judged him for his episodes; it was a friendship built on silent respect and they were both pleased with that arrangement. Still, Crockett often preferred to be alone, and that day was no different, so he retreated to his bedroom the second they allowed him to.

When nurse April arrived at his door with her tablet in hand, Crockett had been staring blankly at the TV. It wasn’t on, never was, but he watched it as if the most riveting program was playing. He wasn’t focusing on a delusion, though, and he promised April that when she asked if he was okay. The meds got rid of most of his visual symptoms, though the auditory ones were still a frequent occurrence with or without the drugs. He just liked to look at the TV, letting his mind wander to a time where he could actually enjoy television. It had been about five years by then, the last movie he remembered watching being the Princess and the Frog. Harper had loved that movie and talked excitedly of visiting New Orleans to see where her papa and Princess Tiana were both from. She never got there, unfortunately; the cancer taking her before her dad had the time to buy plane tickets.

“Come now, Crockett. Sarah is waiting in the conference room for you.”

He let the nurse lead him down the hall, silent because his head was still miles away. He was alert and lucid, that wasn’t the problem. Today it wasn’t delusions that plagued Crockett, instead it was the memories that had started to hurt him the most. Sarah would ask about that, especially once she saw the semi-lunar marks along the inside of his wrists, turning to scratches that curled up towards his biceps. Maggie hadn’t seen them because of his long sleeve shirt that morning but Sarah would check, she always did. It’s not as though Crockett did it on purpose, but when he couldn’t sleep at night and his skin was crawling all he could do was dig his nails in and pray for it to stop. The bugs weren’t there, Sarah always said they weren’t real, but his skin felt wrong and nothing would stop it. He had to scratch, he would tell her; it was the only way to make it stop.

“Crockett,” she greeted him cheerfully the second he stepped into the room, “Have a seat.”

“Hello, Sarah,” he replied as kindly as he could, though he was a bit distracted. His mood had been pretty low all morning, which was probably evident in his posture and demeanour.

“How have you been doing?

Crockett just shrugged, occupying himself with studying Sarah’s name badge. She had gotten a new one, the piece of plastic now boasting “psychiatry fellow”. She had been his secondary therapist since she was just in her second year of residency, so it was nice to see her climbing the ranks. It was well deserved, of course; Sarah had been the one constant in his most recent stay that kept Crockett relatively sane.

“Crockett?”

“Fine, I guess,” he muttered, “I haven’t had another episode… except last night was touch and go.”

“How so?” She was always so patient, not pushing too much, but she did need answers. If he was still having episodes on his antipsychotics, they may need to adjust the dosage again. He hoped she wouldn’t, though, because he hated the constant brain fog that came along with high dosing.

“A low, again.” he was fidgeting with his sleeve, not able to make eye contact at that point. His depression was a topic he never liked to discuss, since it was an aspect of his disorder he hadn’t been aware of until after Harper. Before it was just schizophrenia, a diagnosis that came about after a paranoia episode landed him in handcuffs in the security office at his university. However, when he hit a major low after Harper’s leukaemia was found, his primary psychiatrist noted that his diagnosis may be more than they expected. Schizoaffective disorder with the depression variant, he was told, and that was probably a factor in why he didn’t respond to the medications in the beginning.

“I see,” Sarah typed something onto his chart before looking up at him with gentle eyes, “Do you want to share how you felt?”

“I miss her,” he admitted softly, “It’s hard.”

“I know, I’m genuinely sorry, Crockett. Harper must have been so loved, I’m sure she misses you.”

“The meds…” Crockett huffed, “I can’t see her anymore.”

“Crockett, she’s not there,” Sarah’s words were gentle but still firm, as if he needed a reminder that his only daughter was dead before she even got to live a proper life. That reality was something that never left his mind, a nagging feeling that haunted him every single day. Meds or not, it was hard, but without seeing Harper daily, Crockett began to feel like he would forget her.

“Sarah, I need to see her.”

“I can’t do that, you know how unsafe it can be to take you off such a high dosage. I know you are upset but we can talk through this, okay?”

“No!” he was getting frustrated, even though he hated to yell at Sarah. She didn’t understand how important this was. He didn’t care if she was dead and she claimed the delusions weren’t real, he just wanted his daughter back. Even if it wasn’t the proper reality, maybe Crockett didn’t want to live in one without Harper. He told Sarah that much, upset that she would claim that she isn’t there anymore. She is always there; sitting on his bed and playing with her stuffed bunny, singing songs from those Disney shows she adored so much. Crockett saw her, held her close when the bad feelings returned and he felt like he was drowning. His baby would never leave him, she couldn't; Harper was all he had left.

“Hey,” Sarah spoke quickly when she recognized his agitation, “I’m sorry. Tell Harper I didn’t mean any harm, next time she’s around, okay? Can we start over, please?”

He frowned, knowing what she was doing, but nodded all the same. He didn’t want to fight with Sarah, she was one of the only staff members around here that he properly trusted. She didn’t want to upset him and she didn’t want to take his daughter away, it was just hard to recognize that sometimes. She wanted to help, to understand his mind, and maybe it was time for Crockett to let someone in again. It had been far too long.

“Start from the beginning,” she prompted as he slowly relaxed again, “How long ago did this low start?”

#q #I wrote this in record time after having a whole mental break down today <3 #can you tell I’m not okay #goodbye friends i am gone #crockett marcel #harper marcel #sarah reese #maggie lockwood #april sexton #asks #anon #userglow #fractured reality #psych!au #my aus #cj add this to your fic masterpost

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msjr0119 · 4 years

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Sneak Peek Saturday

So because I’m usually very late doing these things, I thought I’d do a premature ‘Sneak Peek Sunday’ - it’s Sunday now somewhere in the world 😂

Tags- just tagging everyone, then if you wish tomorrow to do a SSS feel free.

@pedudley @kacie-0156 @annekebbphotography @burnsoslow @kingliam2019 @kimmiedoo5 @texaskitten30 @ladyangel70 @bascmve01 @i-bloody-love-drake-walker @nikkis1983 @walker7519 @lodberg @cmestrella @hopefulmoonobject @axwalker @rafasgirl23415 @yukinagato2012 @cordonianroyalty @rainbowsinthestorm @queenjilian @jared2612 @desireepow-1986 @twinkle-320 @bebepac @drakewalkerisreal @choices97 @sanchita012 @princessleac1 @indiacater @furiousherringoperatortoad @custaroonie @ravenpuff02

****

One shot

So the other day, @loveellamae actually made me late for work. Not purposely. I just easily get distracted- especially with the YouTube videos she sent me. It’s a video about pandas by Ozzy Man Reviews, if you haven’t watched it yet- you need to! But maybe go to the toilet prior right, Ella? 😂 Anyway I said, the pandas reminded me of Maxwell and the commentator reminded me of some things that Drake would say. So I decided to do a one shot on it.

Ramsford, 16.30 Saturday.

Oh look, it’s a Lord in his own private pool. I’m pretty jealous to be honest, but I have Jack keeping me company. We don’t get to live in this amount of luxury for free- us commoners. Look at him just splashing around, as if he’s some kid. He’s probably expecting for some Sheila’s to come around in the next hour before the infamous Beaumont Bash begins. He’s probably thinking about having pre drinks in there with them. Attempting to flirt with them all, but he’s a disaster waiting to happen. As am I probably. If it was Liam or Leo in that pool, they’d have all the women fighting to share with the Prince’s. It’s a good thing that Maxwell has confidence. Usually he would say “hello ladieeeees” - cringe. Oh wait a sec, he’s stuck on his back. Holy shit he’s drowning. Ah well. Fuck him.

“Drake. Drake. Oi, Buddy! Drake. Turn the bubbles off. I’m going under. Quit screwing around. Save me!” Maxwell was usually the overdramatic type of person, so Drake didn’t rush to rescue him. Instead he poured himself another whiskey, sat down- and decided to record Maxwell. Not feeling the slight bit of guilt, he found it highly amusing. Besides, there was a chance that he could become rich if he was to send the evidence to You’ve Been Framed. Shaking his head after these thoughts, he wouldn’t actually do that. But it was good evidence for any potential future revenge.

Just fucking roll over you moron. This is hilarious. To say he had a private education, there really is no brain functioning in there.

“Oh no, wait I can roll over. I’m rolling. I’m fine. I’m good. Phew. I need a bloody nap after that.”

And that ladies and gentlemen is Lord Maxwell Percival Beaumont- what an absolute dipshit.

*****

The American Adventure

Book: The Royal Romance (A/U for parts of the series)

Quotes: Some quotes are from the film “The Best of Me”

Pairings: Drake x Riley

Warnings: Swearing, smut 🍋

****

“I told you that I couldn’t wait” Drake smiled softly towards her, before gulping. Knowing that she had waited for him to finish his swim. “Well?” Joining her on the edge of the jetty, he cupped her cheek- as his lips touched her, the kiss was slow. Tender. Standing up, he led her off of the jetty- and towards the edge of the lake. Laying down, he hovered over her- unable to remove the smile from his face. She was the most beautiful woman that he had laid eyes on. To him anyway.

“Are you sure about this?” Drake asked hesitantly. Tugging at his hair, she had never been more sure about anything. If she didn’t do this now with him, she may regret it for the rest of her life. Drake knew that they both craved for each other in secret- it was their first time for the two of them. It would be special.

“I’m sure, just kiss me....nobody is around.” Pulling his face, towards hers- they remained staring into each other’s eyes adorably. Knowing exactly what each other were thinking. They would both be heartbroken once this state of euphoria had ended. It is a summer fling. Unless somehow they could work a long distance relationship out. As their tongues intertwined, it was a matter of seconds before Drake took the plunge and slowly entered her. “Oh my god, Drake...” Gently he began thrusting in and out, making sure to not hurt her. Making sure that she was enjoying it as much as he was.

“I love you, Ri.” After only four weeks of knowing each other, he regretted saying those three words prematurely - assuming it was too early. But he knew and he had to inform her some way of how much he cared for her before they returned to Cordonia.

“I love you, too.”

“Ri, helllooo... is somebody in there?” Daniel asked concerned as he knocked his friend out of her trance by waving his hand in front of her face.

“Erm, yeah sorry. Has Carlos sorted the rota out for the week after next? He knows or should know that I need this week off because of.....”

“I know, don’t worry. We’ve sorted it between us all. You’ll have to let me know how the will reading goes tomorrow, babe.” Riley just nodded, it still hadn’t sunk in that she had lost another person in her life so tragically. Daniel ran into the back room, and provided her with a copy of the rota for the next few weeks.

“What’s up with you? You know you can talk to me about anything...”

��I’m going crazy. I think it’s due to the lack of sleep...” Pausing, she knew everything was in the past but she couldn’t help but think about all the what if’s. “You remember ten years ago at camp... you remember Drake, right?”

“Yes, Liam and Maxwell too. And the two snobby bitches who went through hell. How can I forget it? It was one of the best summer camps ever. Why do you ask?”

“As I said, I think I’m going crazy. As I arrived, I’m pretty sure I saw Drake. But it’s just my imagination....”

“Hold that thought, Natalie is ringing...” Helping herself to a drink, she knew that she shouldn’t- but she now knew her limits.

“For fuck sake. She’s running late again... Ri, could you just serve that bachelor party over there for me? I know that you’re not due to work but it would really help me if you could...”

“Sure, why not.” I would rather be here than stuck at home.

- - - -

“Hello gentlemen. I’ll be taking care of you for a short while this evening.”

“Waitress, steaks for the table. Fillet mignon, medium rare and prepared with a bearnaise sauce if that’s not too much to ask.”

“The closest thing we have to filet mignon is the deluxe burger.”

“Dare I ask for the wine list?” What a wanker, Jesus. It’s a dive bar. Just be nice and polite, Riley. Take their order then Natalie will hopefully be here to suffer with them.

“We’ll be fine with a bottle of whiskey and five deluxe burgers. Thank you.” The other man interrupted. Smiling towards the more polite man, she recognised those eyes. It’s just coincidence, she believed. Blue eyes are just blue eyes. They are all the same. “My names, Leo. This is Tariq. What is yours?”

“Five burgers? There’s only two of you?” Greedy bastards.

“Oh, our three friends are outside- reminiscing about the last time that they was here in the Big Apple. I think it was about ten or eleven years ago.”

“I see... I’ll put your order in. My names Riley by the way...” Leo offered her a warm smile, whilst Tariq grimaced at the surrounding- this place was well below his standard. Turning around, she was relieved when she saw Natalie bound through the back entrance.

“Riley, I’m so sorry. The traffic is a nightmare...”

“Riley?” Facing back towards the table, she believed that she was hallucinating at first. I’m not crazy. They are here. Why?

“Riley, damn. You’re still hot! You haven’t changed one bit.” Maxwell squeezed her so tight that she could barely breath.

“Lady Riley... it’s good to see you...” Liam laughed as he referred her to this. The common mistake he made all of those years ago- the prince charm was naturally installed into his mind, even when attempting to conceal his true identity. Kissing her on the cheek, he moved to the side so Drake was in full view of her.

“Riley...” Drake mouthed, unable to say her name mainly due to the shock about seeing her unexpectedly. Making a step forward, she panicked in that moment- not wanting to be close to him, not needing any excuse to jump back into his arms as she did all those years ago. Placing the pad into Natalie’s hand, she twiddled with the rings on her finger. Now, she was beyond nervous.

“I’m sorry, I have to go. Great to see you all, enjoy your vacation.”

“Anyone care to inform me about what the fuck is happening here?” Leo demanded, as the three of them watched her head towards the door- all wearing the same expression.

#sneak peek #choices trr #theroyalromance #trr fanfic #riley brooks #drake walker #maxwell beaumont #liam rys #leo rys #drake x riley #trr daniel #tw swearing #tw smut

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psychospeak-blog · 6 years

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Won’t Go Slowly // 47

One // Two // Three // Four // Five // Six // Seven // Eight // Nine // Ten // Eleven // Twelve // Thyirteen // Fourteen // Fifteen // Sixteen // Seventeen // Eighteen // Nineteen// Twenty // Twenty One // Twenty Two // Twenty Three // Twenty Four// Twenty Five // Twenty Six // Twenty Seven // Twenty Eight // Twenty Nine // Thirty // Thirty One // Thirty Two // Thirty Three // Thirty Four// Thirty Five // Thirty Six // Thirty Seven // Thirty Eight // Thirty Nine // Forty // Forty One // Forty Two // Forty Three // Forty Four // Forty Five // Forty Six

A/N: He is finally here! Warning: Super emotional birth. I cried. I sobbed. And this is a long ass chapter.

It hurt.

It hurt, like, a lot.

And, yes, somehow, you were only 3-4 cm dilated, so you were tasked with walking the halls of the hospital, with your I.V. pole, trying not to flash anyone with a slip of your hospital gown.

It was awkward, too, because you would be in the middle of a conversation, and had to stop because you were having a contraction and, really, the only thing you could do was shut your eyes and try to breathe.

People kept offering to hold your hand, too, but you didn't see how that would help.

"Sorry, you guys," you said, starting to walk again. Except, you were really waddling this time. And now like when Tyler told you you were waddling, but because the baby had dropped so low, you almost felt like he was going to fall out. Which would, really, help make things easier.

"You're in labour," Nicole pointed out, "Don't apologize for being in labour."

"I know, I just--" you started, but you didn't really know how to finish it. Because you felt excited and frazzled, and anxious, not quite know what to think or do. But also, really, really struck with the idea that he would be here by this time tomorrow.

You couldn't wait.

"Does it help, walking around?" Danielle asked.

"It helps, not being on my back," you said, rubbing your hand along it. "I think I have butt labour, too."

"Butt labour?" Your mom asked.

"Yeah, is that a thing?"

"I mean, I've never had it, but it could be," she said, making a face like she could sympathize with the pain. "He's probably just moving down, sweetie, he's getting closer each time."

You tried to nod, rubbing your back, thankful when you rounded the corner back to the room. If you were being honest, though, it was mostly because you had left your phone in the room as to stop yourself from checking it every two minutes.

Your heart sunk, a little but, when you saw nothing, so you sent him a text to say he could call you when he had a chance. You knee he had a game tonight, and that he'd be busy, but you thought maybe he'd be able to call you as he was eating, or maybe before you took a nap.

Hell, he called you from the rink when you were at your baby shower.

Or he called his sister, actually, but still.

You wondered if maybe it was too hard for him to talk to you and not be able to be there. Even though he hadn't seemed bothered when you called him, you could hear in his voice that it was hurting him to not be able to do anything to help you. And you knew, too, when you thought that you'd gone into labour, he seemed nervous getting everything together and then he seemed on edge the whole time you were being checked.

If he was worried about bothering you, you hoped your text might put that thought to rest, because you just wanted to hear from him. Again.

You smiled, looking at that picture that he sent you of the dogs once more, and then you sat on the birthing ball, bouncing a little and rocking back and forth, eating the Jell-O you were brought, which made you throw up after only a couple bites, seeming w99w9ay, way too sweet.

Then you went into the shower, trying to let the warm water soothe your back, which helped a little. But, mostly, you found yourself on your knees, laying forward over the ball, rocking yourself back and forth and your breathed through your contractions, blocking everything else out of your mind.

Your mom was settling a cool washcloth on the back of your neck, and you were resting your head on the ball, letting your eyes shut for just a moment, and then you heard Danielle say, "hey, you made it," followed by a very familiar voice saying "yeah, I did," and you blinked open your eyes as you turned to towards the sound of the voice, seeing Tyler standing there, in jeans and a zip-up hoodie, his hat turned backwards, cheeks flushed red like he'd been running, but he looked casual with a bag slung over his shoulder, just standing there in the doorway.

"What are you..." you asked, shaking your head as if that would somehow make sure you weren't just hallucinating him. "What are you doing here?"

"Pretty sure I'm here for the same reason you are," he smiled.

"How did you get here?"

"I took one of those big metal things that fly through the sky," he said, scrunching his eyes up at you and shaking his head, "It's pretty fast, for travel, these days. You took one not long ago, remember?"

"Yeah, but," you said, blinking again "you were just in Dallas. You texted me."

"That was, like, six hours ago, Y/N," Danielle said.

"It was?" You asked wearily, looking at the other women in the room. "You guys should go get something to eat."

And then you turned your attention back to Tyler, who had taken a couple steps inside the room now. "But you..." you started, and he was looking at you in anticipation of what you were going to say. "But you have..."

"I have what?"

"Hang on," you said, holding up your finger as if you'd just be a minute, turning your head forward and resting your upper body on the ball, as the pain gripped you once again, letting out a groan.

"Good, deep breaths," your mom reminded you and you tried to put your energy on that, sensing the movement around you, and then next thing you knew Tyler was kneeling next to you on the floor, his hand rubbing up and down your back in an attempt to be soothing.

"She might not want to be touched when she's having a contraction," Danielle said, because it was true, you didn't really like it but, somehow, it wasn't really as bothersome when it was Tyler's hand.

"Oh," you heard Tyler saw softly, and his hand moved off of you, hovering above you, but he made no attempt to back away from you, and you felt him watching you, until the pain backed off, and you were able to look at him, his eyes already glassy looking like he was going to cry, which was bad, because if he cried then you were going to cry. And you didn't really need anything else to make you cry today.

"Are you okay?" Tyler asked in a soft voice, and suddenly it felt like you were the only two people in the room.

"Yeah," you answered. "I was so mad at you."

"You were mad at me?"

"Yes, I told you to call me and you didn't."

Tyler frowned, reaching for his pocket. "I didn't see, I was just trying to get here in time. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm not mad now. I didn't know you were coming, I just wanted to talk to you," you said, your voice breaking a little now as you tried not to cry.

"Well, you can talk to me now, babe, I'm here," he said, looking down at you, and suddenly it felt like you were the only two people in the room.

"You didn't know he was coming?" Nicole asked, from behind you and you turned to look at her, "Why didn't you say something? We would have told you."

"Because I thought he was busy, he has a game tonight," you said, and then looked back at Tyler, "you're supposed to have a game tonight."

"Yeah, well, funny thing about hockey is there's lots of games in a season," he said, "this kind of happens only once."

You smiled back at him, and the bright fluorescent light reflected in his eyes and the movement in the hallway not seeming so loud and annoying as it did before. "I'm really glad you came," you said softly, lifting your head towards him, your eyes on his lips, and Tyler laughed, bending down and kissing you on the forehead, and then you remembered that you weren't alone.

"I'm glad I got here before he did," Tyler responded.

"It's really okay that you're here?" you asked again, "I know it's not the playoffs, but..."

"Yes, it's fine," Tyler said again, "The team's flying out here tomorrow, and I'll already be here for the game the next night. He'll probably be here by then, right?"

"Yeah, I'm ---what did they say last time? 5?" you asked, looking at your mom.

"5 to 6 centimetres, they said," she responded.

"What does that mean?" Tyler asked you.

"At 10 centimetres, I can push."

"Oh, okay," Tyler said, and then got up, quickly hugging everyone else in the room. "How's it been going?"

"She's been doing really well," you heard your mom say after Tyler had commented on her 'grandma squad' shirt.

"Tyler," you said, again from the floor.

"Yeah, babe? What do you need?" He asked, walking back down over to you and crouching down beside you.

"They made me have an I.V.," you said, lifting your hand up to show him where it was capped.

"Yeah, that's okay," he said gently, resting your hand back down. "Don't look at it."

"And I threw up. And Dr. Stevens, she got brought this giant needle thing," you said, moving your hands several feet apart, "and she stuck it up my vagina to break my water." The last few words broke out in a bit of a sob.

"She what?" Tyler said, like he couldn't actually believe that, "A real needle?"

You nodded solemnly.

"It was not a real needle," Nicole cut in, "It was, like, a big stick. It looked like a knitting needle."

"Nicole, how would you like it if someone did that to you?" Tyler said, wrapping his arms around your back. "I'm so sorry, babe, I won't let her do that to you again."

You relaxed, smiling and feeling slightly happier now, not just because he was there, but because he was agreeing with you about how much this sucked and complaining with you, rather than just telling you how great you were doing. Which was awesome, too, but you needed the balance.

"You guys should go get food," you said, looking behind you, and then back at Tyler, "Did you eat? You should eat."

"She's hungry," Danielle laughed.

"No. I mean, I am, but I think that you guys should go eat, it's going to be awhile."

You went to stand up, Tyler's hand kind of awkwardly going to your hip, like he watched to help you but didn't know if he should touch you.

"You're gonna have another one," your mom said, and you froze right as it hit you, letting your eyes fall shut. Tyler's hand stayed on your hip, and you turned towards him, your hand going on his shoulder, letting him support some of your weight, swaying a little back and forth.

"You alright?" Tyler asked, when you lifted your head up after it passed, his hand moving slowly up and down your back.

"Yeah, sorry," you said, your hand drifting down and then up through your hair as you made your way back to bed. "Could one of you please get my headband from my bag, and help me fix my hair before you go?"

You hated your hair being in your face when you were running or working out and, apparently the same thing was true when you were in labour. Danielle went into your bag, grabbing it, as Tyler moved around you, his hand going to the back of your ponytail, pulling your elastic free, his fingers combing through your hair.

"I meant one of them," you said, laughing, "you have to stay with me, you already ate."

"Fine, I won't make your hair nice," he said, ruffling the gown on your arm, and then he placed a couple of kisses on your temple. "I'm just gonna go to the washroom, okay? I'll be right back."

"Okay," you said, your mom pulling your hair back while you got Danielle to also pass you some chapstick and tinted moisturizer, to which your sister gave you a very pointed look, her eyes darting to where Tyler had gone, as if trying to make a point that you were trying to get pretty for him, as if you really cared how you looked right now when, really, your skin just felt dry.

You were having another contraction when Tyler came back, and you noticed him off in the corner as you rolled onto your side, breathing through it, Danielle getting you your wet cloth again.

"Okay?" Tyler asked, yet again from the foot of your bed as you lifted your head up to look at him. He'd taken off his hoodie, and he was still wearing a black t-shirt like he'd been before, only you noticed that there was a hockey player on it with his arms in the air, the saying "He shoots, he scores," written above it, and "All Hail the Baby Maker" written in giant letters beneath.

You immediately started laughing so hard you couldn't breathe. "Where did you get that?" You asked in between laughs.

"Do you like it?" He asked, laughing as he put his hands on his hips as if to show it off. "The aunt squad got it for me."

You were howling with laughter now, tears starting to run down your face. "That's the best thing I've ever seen in my whole life," you laughed, "Oh my god, you're gonna make me pee my pants."

"Not again," Tyler sighed. "They've got diapers here, right?"

"Tyler!"

"Wait, what happened?"

"She peed herself and she told me her water broke and I had to take her to the hospital."

"Tyler!" You said again, wishing you had something to throw at him, but you were laying on the pillows, and it would be too much work to get up, so you just settled for swatting your arm in his general direction, as he giggled and backed away, crossing his arms as if to protect himself.

"Wait, you told me you thought your water broke?" Danielle said.

"I did!"

"And then I had to clean it off the floor," he said, making a face.

"I did not ask you to!" You said, and he laughed. "You're never going to let me forget it, are you?"

"Nope," he grinned at you. "It was scary, driving you. This is how I'm getting back at you."

"That's what I said!" Nicole said. And now both Tyler and your sister were talking about how traumatic it was to drive with a woman on the passenger seat being in labour. Even though you pointed out that you were not in labour when Tyler was driving you.

"Can you guys please leave before I have another contraction? I want you to get back before he gets here."

Mainly, you just wanted Tyler and your sister to stop ganging up on you. Luckily, after Tyler had asked if there was anything he needed to know about what to do and your mom had delivered a fresh cup of ice chips with clear instructions to make sure all three of them had their phone volume turned up all the way, they left.

Tyler smiled at you, grabbing his bag and pulling a chair closer to your bed. "I bought you something."

"Wha..?" You asked, followed by, "oh my god, it hurts."

Tyler stood up, half crouching and half bending over the bars of the bed, his forehead practically pressed to yours, and you reached your hand out towards him until he took it, and you held onto it until it passed, opening up your eyes again when it passed and he ran his fingers soothingly over the hair in front of your headband, and then placing a kiss to your forehead. "Is it better?"

You nodded, and Tyler ran his finger right above your eyebrows. "Why are you still frowning then?"

"My tailbone's just really sore. It's okay."

"I'm kind of not okay with it, but.."

"It means I get to meet him though, it's okay."

Tyler smiled weakly at you, and then held up his finger, moving down towards your belly. "Can you please be nice to your mom? She's really nice, and she's been carrying you around for like nine month, so.. "

You laughed as he put his ear to your belly.

"He says he's sorry, he's not trying to hurt you but he doesn't have a choice," Tyler said, "Also, he's really cute, and he really wants to cuddle with you."

You smiled, as Tyler made his way back up towards the head of the bed. "Close your eyes," he said.

"What?"

"Just do it," Tyler said, grinning at you and unzipping his bag, so you did. "Now, open your mouth."

"I am not opening my mouth with my eyes closed!" you said, opening one eye and Tyler laughed, pulling something behind his back.

"Just do it, I think it'll help make you feel better," he said, "well, probably not, but it might make you happy for about five seconds."

You heard him fumbling with a wrapper on something. "Tyler, I'm not supposed to have food."

"You can have one, I asked a nurse. She just said you have to suck it, not bite it," Tyler giggled, and you rolled your eyes as much as you could with your eyes closed, opening your mouth and you felt him place something on your tongue, getting a hint of the sourness immediately, and your open your eyes, them going wide immediately, as you sucked on the candy.

"Is this...?"

"Yeah," Tyler smiled, holding up the bag of lemonade Sour Patch Kids. "Do you still like them?"

"Yes, they gave me jell-o but it was really gross. And I packed some of those ones that you sent me in my bag, but I kept eating them so they were all gone, like a week ago," you said, and Tyler laughed.

"Well, you can only have a few now, but you can have the whole bag after you push him out," Tyler said, "You should probably, actually have real food after, but if you want I can just pour this whole bag into your mouth while you hold him."

"No, because you'd probably take a picture of me," you said, and then you regretted it instantly, because then he was getting his phone out. "Tyler..."

"What? You look cute," he said.

"I look cute?" you asked.

"Mmmm...you look like a warrior mama."

"A warrior mama?" you asked, even though you were kind of smiling at that.

"Mhmm," he agreed, coming down to the end of your bed, giving your feet a little rub. "Your socks are kind of ugly though."

You wiggled your feet in your fuzzy striped socks. "But they're comfy."

Tyler started taking pictures of you and you moaned out, rolling back over to your side, gripping the bar on the bed, as he kept taking pictures. "Don't," you whined, moaning out, and shutting your eyes, and now he came up around you, his fingers running over your forehead, and then he pressed his forehead against yours.

"Sorry, I thought you were faking it," he said.

"No, I wasn't faking it! Why would I fake it?"

"Because I thought you didn't want your picture taken!" he said, and then sighed, leaning awkwardly to rest his head on the pillow, "Sorry, I'm really bad at this."

"You're not bad at it, Tyler," you said, smiling softly.

"No?"

You shook your head. "You make me feel better, just you being here," you said, smiling, "And you brought me my favourite candy. My favourite candy which I didn't know was my favourite until you got it for me when I came to visit you."

Tyler smiled against you. "Can I take a picture with you, please?" he asked, snuggling his head against you and extending his phone overhead, and you nodded, letting him take a couple, including one that made sure to get both his shirt and your bump in, and then he turned his face towards you, smiling softly, a deep, gentle look in his eyes, and you watched as his gaze darted towards the door and then back again, kissing you softly, for a split second, and then you heard the snap of his phone taking another picture.

You pursed your lips, your mouth feeling immediately dry, and you shifted your hips on the bed. "Can you pass me the ice chips, please?"

"Mhmm.." Tyler said, reaching the spoon into the cup on the table next to him, his hand cupped under the spoon as he brought it to your mouth, and you opened it, crunching on the little pieces of ice.

"I meant you could just give me the whole thing," you said, once you had swallowed, even though you were already opening your mouth for more, and Tyler laughed, giving you more. "Mmmm...it's so good."

"Is it?" Tyler asked, picking up more on the spoon and spooning it into his own mouth.

"No...don't steal my ice."

"I'll get you more," he laughed, "I brought you something else, too."

"You brought me something else?"

"Yep," Tyler said, digging through his bag again, "Well, Cash wanted me to give it to you."

You frowned, wondering if he was going to do this thing again, where he wanted to do something for you and then explained it as being the dogs' ideas, but you laughed as he pulled out a stuffed duck that was clearly a dog toy, setting it on the pillow next to you.

"He thought you might want to hold it, or you could like, bite it I guess, if you wanted to, tear it apart. I'm not really sure if he's expecting it back or not, you'll have to take that up with him."

"Did he give me this because I gave him my shirt?"

"Umm...sure," Tyler said, scratching the back on his neck. "But that was my shirt."

"It smells like him," you said, pressing your nose against the toy and inhaling.

"That's...a little weird?"

"I like it, it's comforting," you said, pulling the toy against you.

"Well, they couldn't be here, so..." Tyler started and then clicked his tongue, moving towards you. "Oh, babe, don't cry. I would have brought them, but they don't allow dogs in hospitals. It's a stupid rule, I know."

"I know," you sniffed, running your hand up and down the toy.

"'K, don't cry," he said, his arm curving around your head as he wiped at your cheeks.

"I'm just going to be crying a lot today, okay? And I really wish they were here, I want to pet them."

"I know, babe," Tyler said sympathetically. "You can pet me, if you want?"

You laughed through your tears. "No," you said, "can we please watch videos of them on your phone, though?"

"Sure, whatever you want, babe," Tyler smiled. And so you did, making Tyler back the videos up of them playing or swimming in the pool after you'd had a contraction and, whenever you did, he'd get even closer to you rather than moving away.

"How's it going?" Your nurse, Linda, asked as she came back in.

You just kind of turned over onto your back to look at her, a little groan coming out of your mouth, and you caught her looking at Tyler.

"Oh, this is my.." you started, not entirely sure how to describe who he was, "my friend. Tyler."

"I'm just gonna grab you a visitor tag, Tyler,'" she said. And you looked over at him, realizing he didn't have one like your mother, sister, and Danielle had. And if he managed to get himself thrown out of the hospital, you'd be pissed.

"Oh, sorry, no one told me."

"That's alright," she said, going back into the hallway to grab one and then coming back to hand it to him, where he stuck it to his shirt.

"Are you staying, or just visiting?" She asked.

"Ummm..I think I'm staying?" Tyler said, and then looked at you, "you want me to stay, right?"

"She just means if you're here to support me in labour, not that you can't leave," you laughed. "You can add him to the board."

"What board?" Tyler asked, and you nodded towards the whiteboard, which said you were having a baby boy, and your name under the the parent section, along with the people who would be with you and their relationship to you.

"It's just so everyone knows who you are," Linda said.

"Oh, yeah, you can add me to the board then," Tyler said, his hand moving over your forehead again.

"Are you feeling any pressure?" Linda asked, as she added Tyler to the board, and you opened your mouth to say, no, but Tyler interrupted you.

"Yeah, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed doing," he said, and you snorted as the nurse turned back around. "Oh, you meant her...sorry."

You shook your head, your body starting to tense as you felt another contraction, Tyler pressing his forehead back against yours, his hand coming to run over yours.

"Y/N, I'm gonna check you really quick after this contraction," Linda said, and you nodded, hearing the sound of the baby's heart rate get louder as she turned the sound on the monitor up.

"Ohhhhh...." you moaned out.

"Contractions are really nice and strong, and he's tolerating them well," you heard her say, which was a relief, but didn't help the pain that was gripping you. The nurse went down to the foot of the bed, putting gloves on as she went, and then moving the sheet, keeping her eyes on the monitor so she could see when it stopped.

"Really fast, please," you said, bending your knees and spreading open your legs.

"Okay, take nice deep breaths, just relax."

You tensed up, because it hurt just being on your back, reaching your hand out for Tyler's while keeping your gaze locked on the ceiling, and finally he grabbed it as you tried to concentrate on bleeding.

"7," she declared, snapping her gloves off, and you wanted to groan out loud. "How's the pain?"

"Bad," you gritted out, "my back."

"Do you want to get up?"

"I don't...maybe," you said, taking both her and her and Tyler's hand, keeping his hand until you sat down on the ball.

"Is that better?" She asked kindly.

"Kind of, not really," you said, "I'm okay."

She gave you a sympathetic smile, before she left, and you exhaled a little bit.

"Have you not been wearing underwear this whole time?" Tyler whispered.

"Tyler!" you whispered back harshly.

"I'm just saying, a lot of people are going to see your vagina today," he said, and then he started snickering.

"I don't care," you said, scowling and then getting up off the ball, and going back to your hands and knees, resting forward on the ball. "I want my mom."

"You want me to call her to come back?" Tyler asked, and you shook your head, jumping a little when his hand went to your back, and then you unexpectedly started crying.

"Hey, she's gonna be back really soon," he said, "I can just call them, k?"

"No," you cried, "I'm only seven. I thought it was going to be at least eight."

"Seven is almost eight," Tyler said.

"Nooooo..." you cried again. "It's gonna get worse and it hurts. My back feels like it's going to break open!"

"The doctor," Tyler said, "maybe the doctor can give you medicine."

You shook your head adamentally, "No, I don't want anything," you said, choking a little on your cries.

"Baby, baby, you gotta breathe," Tyler said bending down next to you and rubbing his hand over your back in circles, and you found yourself trying to match your breath to the pattern of his hand, shutting your eyes and letting the ball support you, even as the next contraction took hold.

"Sorry," you said drowsily, looking over at Tyler who now had his head rested on the ball next to you, his eyes looking concerned all his attention on you. "I'm nervous."

"It's okay to be nervous," he said, his hand moving across your back.

"Are you okay?" You asked.

"Am I okay?" He laughed, "Yeah..."

"You're not feeling dizzy? Like you're gonna pass out?"

"No, sweetheart, I'm fine," Tyler said, "you sure you don't want drugs though?"

"No," I don't.

"Why?"

"Because I'd have to get an epidural and they'd have to put a giant needle in my back."

"So you'd rather have pain than a needle?" He laughed in disbelief.

"And you can't walk around and I want to be able to feel my body."

"You want to feel pain?"

"No, I want to be able to feel when I'm pushing," you said, and Tyler made a face, "This feels like the right thing for me, and him."

"Yeah, I know, I know, I just don't like seeing you in so much pain," he said, and then sniffed, and you looked up at him, about to say he didn't have to watch. "Nope, I'm not leaving, sorry."

You laughed even smiling a little when your next contraction started, and Tyler pushed his lips against your forehead, followed by resting his cheek there, hand sweeping up and down your back.

As soon as it passed, your free hand wrapped around your back, trying to pull your hospital gown open where it was tied.

"What are you doing?" Tyler asked with a laugh.

"My bra, I want it off, it's too tight," you said. The only reason you'd put your sports bra on in the first place was to go in the shower, and you didn't foresee yourself wanting to go back in.

"Okay, okay," Tyler said, and you felt his hands go to the back, undoing the ties, "Oh, I know this one..."

"Tyler, please just take it off," you said, and you heard him laugh, and then felt him jump up.

"Umm...do one of you guys want to help her take her bra off? Her top. Her bra top," Tyler said, "she wants it off, she was asking for you Liz."

Your mom helped you get your bra off and your hospital gown back on, Danielle helping to make sure all the wires were out of the way, and then you asked them to help you to the bathroom, catching Tyler grinning in the corner of the room as you walked by. "What?" You asked.

"Nothing," he said, his hands held behind behind his back, and you followed his gaze to the whiteboard, where you saw that he had written "best" along with an arrow pointing in front of where it said friend in brackets behind his name.

"Tyler!" You whispered yelled, and he just grinned, adjusting his hat as you went into the bathroom.

You came out, going back to your position on the ball, because that seemed to be the most comfortable, your mom bringing you another spoon of ice chips, and you moaned out again through the pain.

"Oh my god, Mom," you groaned out.

"I know, I know," she said.

"Blow out," Danielle coached.

"Tyler," you called out, not knowing where he was, but that he had to be somewhere in the room.

"Yeah, baby, what do you need?"

"Can you please, please do that thing you did to my back in your bed" You asked sucking in a breath, "at your house, in Dallas?"

"You mean when I rubbed your back?" He laughed, and you shook your head "no" holding up your fist in the air and then felt him move in behind you, pressing his fist into you low back.

"Harder," you asked, "Please?"

He obliged, his face coming down next to yours. "Is it helping?

"Yeah," you said, your voice reverberating, and you felt Tyler's hands move away for a moment as your mom placed a cool washcloth on the back of your neck.

"No, you stay there, Tyler," she said, and you let out a sound of relief when he started applying counterpressure again.

When the next contraction came over you, he let up, just rubbing his hands in circles over your back and you felt hands rubbing up and down your arms too. You found yourself biting your cheek, though, feeling like you needed something to hold, so when the next contraction passed, you grit out. "Can someone get me my duck, please?"

"Your what?" You heard Nicole ask.

"It's on the bed," Tyler laughed, "it's the dog's."

"Cash's" you said, taking it from your sister and grasping the poor thing's neck. A few more tears leaked out as you continued to labour, partly because of the pain, and partly because it felt really emotional, in a way you hadn't expected, to be surrounded by your friends and family. You could have barely even imagined this at this time last year, and, yet, it had all come full circle.

You got to a point where you couldn't even talk anymore, using what little time you had between contractions to try and rest, and gear up for the next one, letting everyone wipe your brow and rub your back and feed you ice chips, because you were helpless to do anything but survive the pain.

"Mom, mom," you cried out, pulling away from the pressure on your back.

"You're doing so good," she said, her hand coming to your shoulders, and you shook your head.

"No," you got out, "I can't."

"Yes, you can."

"It hurts," you said, "you could do it, I can't do it."

"Yes, you can, you're doing it."

"I don't get a break anymore," you said, the contractions practically on top of each other now. "I need a break."

"He's coming down, he's almost here."

"No!" You said, a little shocked at how loud you were being. "I can't push now. I can't....ah!....I can't do it like you can."

You were breathing hard, letting out grunts and cries and little screams, completely lost in the pain.

"Baby," you heard Tyler say sympathetically and it made you cry, and you rested your head down, knowing you would be sobbing if you had the energy to.

"Please...ah! Please hold my hand."

"Me?" He asked, and you nodded, dropping the duck which had become sweaty in your hand and you felt him take it, crying even more. You started shaking, like you had the shivers, your hand bouncing around in Tyler's steady one.

"Here," you heard someone say, you couldn't really tell who anymore, a sheet or blanket being laid over you.

"Hey, can you guys go get her some more ice chips, please?" Tyler asked, and you heard your mom say something to him in a hushed voice, followed by footsteps moving away from you. "Nicole? Can you help them too, please?"

"You don't need three people to get ice chips."

"Nicole," Tyler gritted out.

"Oh," she said, "okay, yeah, we'll go grab some coffee."

You heard her footsteps disappear from the room too, Tyler's free hand rubbing up and down your back. "Baby..." he said again.

"I'm so tired, Tyler, I didn't sleep last night, and--" you had no idea what time it was, but it had been dark out for awhile, so it had to be night again.

"I know, I know you're tired."

"I can't do it anymore. You have to make it stop. Please!"

"He's almost here, you're gonna be able to hold him so soon," Tyler said, huddled around you. "Can you hear his heartbeat?"

"Ah!"

"Can you hear his heartbeat?" Tyler repeated, "it's like some weird dubstep."

"Ty, Tyler!"

"It's gonna sound different, really soon, when he's not in you anymore," he continued. "You're gonna be able to put your hand on his little chest, and feel his heart beating."

"Mmmm uh huh," you said, gasping out a breath in the seconds you had between contractions. "Do you think he has hair?"

Tyler laughed under his breath, and you opened your eyes to see his face, wetness pooling out from his eyes, and he pressed his forehead against the crown of your head, blinking, your tears joining together. "I don't know, honey, maybe. We both have lots of hair."

"Mm..." you said, and then "ohhhhhhh......."

"That's good," Tyler said, rubbing your back. "You're so strong."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah, you're so much stronger than me, I could never do this, only you can."

"Not....done," you said, "no energy to push. And I have to!"

"That's the part you're gonna be best at though."

"No!"

"Yeah, the finish line will be right there, and there'll be something you can do to help him get here, you won't just have to....lay there, or like, whatever you call the labour equivalent of doggy style."

"Don't have the energy."

"Baby, baby, look at me, please," Tyler said, and you forced yourself to do so. "Remember when we started this, and we both said, that we were 100% in in me helping you have a baby."

"Yeah..."

"And you're still in 100%, I know," he said, "so you're just gonna keep going. You did it this whole time. And I know you're tired, but you're going to give it 100% of all you have left, okay?"

"Okay."

"Can you tell me?"

"100%," you repeated, "I'm giving it 100%."

"Good, then you're gonna meet your baby."

"Soon?"

"Yeah, baby, really soon," he answered, and the shaking picked up again.

"Will you stay with me, please?" You asked, your voice shaking.

"Yeah, I'm not going anywhere."

"100%?" You asked, looking over just in time to see Tyler smile.

"Yeah, 100%."

"Okay, I can do it," you said, and then you heard the nurse come in to check you, hearing Tyler ask her if she could check you as you were.

"There's a little tiny lip of cervix there, Y/N, but you can start trying to push when you have a contraction of you want, and we'll see if we can get that out of the way."

"Here?" You asked, followed by "ahhh, there's so much pressure."

"Yeah, you can push," she said, so you tried and, in a weird way, it felt almost releiving to push, even though the nurse's hand was literally all up inside you, Tyler by your head, his hand moving over your forehead.

You went like that, for a few contractions, until you heard her tell you that it was gone.

"My mom, my sister, Danielle," you said.

"Yeah, we're right here," you heard, hearing a voice from behind you, and you relaxed a little.

"Do you want to have him here or in the bed?"

"In the bed, in the bed," you said, feeling arms help you up, and then into the bed.

"You're gonna have a baby," your mom grinned, kissing the top of your head, your sister and Danielle behind her, who was already crying. You pushed, for awhile, on your side, facing them, while Tyler was behind you, rubbing your back.

"You're doing beautiful, really good," Linda said, and then suddenly there was a flurry of activity in the room, and Dr. Stevens was getting gowned up, and you were being given instructions to move onto your back, and grasp your legs.

"Everybody's here," Dr. Stevens said, smiling, and you saw her look at Tyler's shirt and try very, very hard not to laugh. "So many people here for his birthday, he's so lucky."

"What day is it?"

"It's April 6th, just after 2AM. He'll be here by 3, I bet."

"Okay," you said," "okay." After that, you were overwhelmed with the encouragement, and the counting to 10, instructions to take deep breaths of air and hold it, curving your body around itself.

"Tuck your chin to your chest, babe," Tyler said, repeating what the nurses had said so many times, his hand near yours on your leg, while your Mom had the other one.

"Ahhhh!"

"Relax your face, Y/N, put everything into pushing him out."

"Just like that," you heard Dr. Stevens say, "he's got hair."

"It's brown," Tyler said, and you opened your eyes to see him ducking around the leg he was holding, glancing at what was happening between your legs. "It's brown hair, right?"

"Yeah, he's got lots of hair."

And you felt so close, so you grunted and pushed harder. "Go, go, go, go, go."

You sighed, head flopping back against the pillow.

"Really big one on this next contraction."

You took a deep breath, tucking your chin and pushing. "Ahhh! It's pulling, it's pulling."

"Keep going."

"Tyler, can you pull her leg open a bit, help open up her pelvis?"

You felt him your leg a little bit more towards him,and sensed him turning his head towards you. "Am I hurting you? You okay?"

Like him tugging a little on your leg was anything worse than the head trying to make it it's way out of the birth canal.

"You're not going to dislocate her hip, Tyler, it's helping. Help her out."

You started to yell as you felt that pulling again and then you remembered to suck in a breath and bear down, yelling a little at the end.

"His head's almost out, one more big push."

You pushed again,feeling pulling and pushed past that, feeling a little bit of movement.

"Good job, good job, wait one second, " you heard, feeling movement between your legs. "Okay, big push."

You groaned as you did, trying to keep your face relaxed, but it broke when you felt relief and, then, a second later, all that you could hear was the sound of your baby crying.

You had never started crying so fast in your life, it was instant, like you knew to cry even before he did. Even quicker than when you first found out you were pregnant.

"Oh my god, oh my god," you said, as he was placed on your chest,and your arms went around him, feeling hands running up and down your arms, and you felt Tyler's lips on your temple. "I'm your mom."

They were cleaning him off, and you couldn't really see him, but you could feel him and hear him, and it was enough.

"He's beautiful."

"Is he okay?" You asked, looking at the nurses who were wiping him off.

"Yeah, he's great." And you looked up behind you, a smile on your face, at Tyler, who was wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand, and then you looked over the other side, where everyone was crying, too.

"You did so good," your mom said, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

It was amazing, was all you could think, holding him to you as he cried, and he had a hat put on him, blankets being wrapped around him. "You're okay, you're okay," you said.

"Did you want to cut the cord yourself, Y/N?"

"Ummm.." you said, having not really considered it, "no. You can do it," you said, keeping eye on your baby, the other seeking out Tyler. "If you want, you don't have to."

"I mean...you want me to?" He asked, moving closer to where the scissors were being held.

"Sure, you put him in there, you can..help get him out."

"Or unattached, " someone added, and you nodded.

Because you had gotten him out.

You watched, as Tyler got the instructions, cutting the cord just as he as told, although he had to try twice because, apparently, it was tougher than expected.

And, when he was done, you pulled your son even closer to you, enjoying the feeling of having nothing on between you anymore.

Finally.

And,just like that, nothing else mattered.

#wont go slowly #Tyler Seguin #tyler seguin imagine #nhl fanfiction #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #Hockey Fanfiction #hockey imagines #hockey imagine #pregnancy #tw pregnancy

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danadumaurier · 5 years

Text

*This is a Continuum pseudo AU written for @Dana-cz - all scenes fit within the film to a point then diverge. @dana-cz indicated that she likes the idea that Jack and Sam married during the time Sam was at Area 51 in season 9, so this story assumes that is the case. Merry, merry and holly, jolly.*

———-

“Go.” With a struggling breath he was gone. She couldn’t believe it. Her mind couldn’t process what was happening. Training kicked in and she turned to see Ba’al vanish, as so many others in the room had moments before. The threat gone, she turned back to Jack. He was too still. Was this really? Was this really happening? This couldn’t be happening. Time slowed as she took in his quiet features. She needed him to open his eyes. To smile and crack a joke about the wound, or his track record for escaping just this situation, Ba’al being asshole. Something.

Cameron grabbed her pack and forced her back into action as they raced to the gate and safety. She was surviving on her training and her fear for her friends. Everything else she forced down.

Then they gated into cold darkness, and her mind slipped back to Jack. He was gone, and she was numb. Numb with shock, disbelief. Her mind played the moments over. She’d just watched him die. He was gone. She swallowed ragged breaths, then Cam needed her, and she was forced back to their reality, to her training, yet again.

———-

“Wait!” She stumbled at the voice and turned to Cam. Did he hear Jack too? Was she hallucinating? Had she actually passed out and dreamed him back to her? Cam responded to the mirage. Maybe she wasn’t dreaming. She pulled at the scarf over her face so she could communicate better. It was really Jack, she could have kissed him, but years of pretending kept her in check.

———-

Jack squinted his eyes at the woman before him. What the hell was Samantha Carter doing, standing in front of him, in the god damned arctic? The woman was supposed to be dead for Christ’s sake. She’d perked up when he admitted he recognized her, but then looked shocked when he’d cracked the line about her being a dead astronaut. Something was not right about these two. He should have heard of Mitchell, if he really was a Colonel.

She was prettier than on tv though. Despite the sun and wind burn. “Training exercises on the ice, sir.” He mumbled under his breath. “It’ll be like Christmas, sir.” He shook his head and led them to the sub.

———-

It wasn’t really Jack. This man hadn’t been softened around the edges by Daniel’s compassion. He’d never learned to trust her despite not fully understanding the science behind her reasoned ramblings. This Jack was still bent to the rules and the reality of a steady, normal, earth bound military life. Her Jack would have made her go back and explain the bit about alternate timelines instead of calling them freaks. She sighed. They’d been sent to a base and were separated into private quarters. She had nothing to do but sit and contemplate their situation. Her situation. The looming unimaginable reality of being Jack’s widow in a timeline where she didn’t belong.

———-

They’d been questioning the trio for hours. He’d observed the Daniel guy for a while on the monitors, hoping to catch him out for that crack about Charlie. Currently he was observing ‘Colonel’ Carter. The troubling thing was, they had their stories straight. He watched as the woman sighed in frustration as she tried to explain again that she wasn’t an astronaut, but yes, she was Samantha Carter. She ran her hands through her hair and stared at the table. “I’d like to talk to Jack O’Neill.”

The woman questioning her stopped her scribbling. “That’s not possible ma’am.”

He glanced at his watch. He could stay for a couple of more hours, but then he had orders to begin his delayed training exercises. He tossed the headphones on the table and headed to the improvised interrogation room. He tapped on the door and entered. He’d watched her grimace when that Daniel guy had mentioned Charlie. He wanted to know how she knew about his son. Why and how she’d anticipated his negative reaction to that tactic to gain trust.

“Major. Colonel?” He nodded to the two women, but focused on Samantha Carter. She looked shocked that he would use the honorific.

“Sir.”

“I understand you wanted to talk to me. I have to leave soon. Talk.” He pulled up a chair and sat at the end of the table, between the two women.

Sam weighed her options. He’d completely dismissed them earlier, but something had changed. She decided to start with science.

“Sir, scientists theorize that there are an infinite number of dimensions each of them containing a different possible version of reality.”

“O-Kay.”

“The theory is that there are an infinite number of alternate realities, some of them very different and some of them almost identical. These realities diverge at every choice we make like, forks in the road.”

“So?”

“In my reality, I joined the airforce instead of pursuing a career at NASA, and we’ve worked together, known each other for over ten years. We’ve also encountered multiple alternate universes, traveled to hundreds of planets, and even gone back in time.” She paused and sheepishly added, “Accidentally.” His face remained stoic and hard throughout her ramble, so far removed from her Jack that defeat started to sink into her bones. He wouldn’t believe her.

“Assuming I believed you, how does one encounter an alternate universe and travel through time?”

“In my timeline, the US Air Force is in possession of an ancient artifact, called a Stargate,that enables the creation of stable wormholes, through which teams of airmen explore the universe. In these explorations we’ve found other artifacts that allow for travel between realities, and discovered that if one traveled through a wormhole while there was a solar flare it was possible to travel through time. Once we ended up in 1969, sir.” Jack has begun to pace the room, but didn’t ask anything further so she continued.

“We’ve made quiet a few enemies in the universe. Beings that would enslave humans, called the go’uald. One of these go’auld learned about the possibility of time travel using solar flares, and went back in time to hide the Stargate so the US wouldn’t find it. After he changed the timeline, the next time we tried to use the gate to come home, we ended up here. Back on earth, but an earth with a timeline that didn’t include the US Airforce using the Stargate, a timeline where I joined NASA apparently, and you and I never met.” She didn’t have the courage to outline their real relationship.

“Ba’al has something planned, sir. He will take over the earth and enslave humanity if given the chance. They have powerful weapons, like nothing the US military has ever seen. In my timeline, we had made powerful alien allies that were much more compassionate and technologically advanced than the go’auld. Without their help...” exhausted she let the sentence hang.

“Okay, so you’re saying we should be on high alert for little green men.” Sam couldn’t stop her smile, finally something resembling a joke.

“Actually, Ba’al looks quite human. The go’auld live inside human hosts. They are parasites that claim bodies and suppress the human from communicating and even controling their bodies.”

Jack sighed. “Parasites like ticks that are sentient enough to attack worlds? Really Colonel?”

Sam just stared back at him refusing to allow even a glimmer of hesitation to show in her features. She knew the truth. He had to accept it.

When she didn’t respond, he continued to watch her. Even exhausted and clearly unstable there was something in her strength and resolution that impressed him. She had the bearing of a Colonel, despite her apparent exhaustion and the sadness that pooled just behind her blue eyes.

“I have to go.” And with that he was gone, and the questions began again.

———-

It had been a month. She’d settled into her new house, but hadn’t decorated or really bothered to make it home. She had the essentials, but nothing special. She’d bought rather utilitarian clothing, again nothing special. She couldn’t afford to be recognized as the dead astronaut. After the first two weeks of stares, she’d dyed her hair dark brown, but she was having a hard time adjusting to the new look. She’d been making notes and trying to plan a way to fix the timeline and had some Orlin inspired thoughts. If she could build a mini-gate similar to the one he had made in her old basement, they could at least contact the Asguard. She was still trying to figure out how to reach Cam and Daniel. That might be harder. As it was she was working to gain the trust of some local teenage hoodlums to help her order materials without raising her handler’s suspicions. As she was going over her list of supplies for the third time that morning, the doorbell rang.

She wasn’t expecting a delivery, but she hurried to the front of the house more out of habit than curiosity. She opened the door and stood shocked. “Jack?”

He stood, one brow raised at the familiarity, and took in her casual dress and the dark hair. “Colonel.”

“Um. Come in, Sir.”

Jack walked in and glanced about the sparse apartment. Noting the bare walls and absence of Knick knacks or art. “I like what you’ve done with the space.”

That earned him a chuckle. “I’ll grab you a drink.” She returned with his favorite brand of beer.

“Ah, thanks Carter.” They settled in the living room, and she nervously picked at the label on her own bottle of Diet Coke.

“What did you need, Sir? Can I help you with something?”

“Your friend, Daniel was it, mentioned something about my son, when we first met. It made you flinch if I recall.”

“Yes, Sir. He.” She paused and squirmed just slightly in her seat. “Charlie. In my timeline, Charlie died before we ever met. He’d found your gun at home and accidentally shot himself.”

“So if we fix the timeline, ‘save the world,’ my son is dead?”

She had the good sense to be flustered by that eventuality. “Yes, Sir.”

He looked at her, a grim set to his mouth.

“They found your Stargate Carter. Tested it. The Joint Chiefs now believe you.” She sighed and closed her eyes in relief. When she opened them back up he was gone, a second later she heard the front door click shut.

TBC...part 2 will be a New Years surprise.

#stargate sg1 #sg1 secret santa #@dana-cz #dana-cz #sam x jack #this didnt turn out as fluffy as id wanted but here you go.#sg1secretsanta

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goodnightkisseu · 6 years

Text

Kim Jaehwan - Spring Trip

Genre: Fluff

“When We Met” Series: [Minhyun][Jihoon][Jaehwan][Guanlin][Daehwi] [Jinyoung][Jisung][Woojin][Seongwu][Sungwoon][Daniel]

Note: Hi everyone! I’m back with another series and this time, it’s a particularly special one because it’s a series that will be counting down to Wanna One’s 1st Anniversary! I’m calling it “When We Met” because it’ll be a series of scenarios, using Wanna One’s individual debut teasers as starting points for how you meet!

This is also a series in collaboration with @nothingwithoutwannaone! She will be writing her own versions of how you meet and I will link them in each post ^^

Today we have Jaehwan’s version! This one was actually a lot of fun for me, tho tbh, I’ve just been enjoying this series as a whole. It’s been a lot of fun to watch these teasers again ^^

nothingwithoutwannaone‘s version —> [x]

- goodnightkisseu’s admin <3

If you were going to be honest, you were actually enjoying your time at university. Of course, you had settled into a bit of a rhythm now that you were in your last year, but the experience wasn’t a bad one. Sure, there were things that were less than ideal. Sometimes you would end up swamped with assignments or you would have to stay late on campus, maybe pull a couple of all-nighters. You had definitely had your share of rowdy neighbors as well, but, overall, these things aside, university had been great. You were learning a lot and you had met some amazing people, that you could see becoming longtime friends.

That being said, this last quarter, however… had been complete and utter hell.

You had a hard time planning your classes to all fall in a consecutive block of time, which forced you to arrive to campus early, and leave campus late. This strange spread in your classes also led you to having a couple hours here and there to study. Though, this was great in theory, you were actually having a hard time because you found that you couldn’t focus your mind on one topic very well before you had to switch gears to your next course. You also were part of an unfortunate few who had all of their midterms shoved into a 48 hour period, meaning that you were up for many, many nights trying to prep for all of them. Honestly, everything in the universe just aligned in the worst way possible. No amount of coffee or cake was really helping you survive it.

And yet, you did. Sure, in the final weeks you were probably the most irritable and sleep deprived person around, but you made it through. Seeing yours and another friend’s struggle throughout the quarter, your friends decided to plan a trip once finals were over. They all suggested that your group take some time away from campus, away from the stress of your final days in university. You were a bit hesitant at first to really relax during your break because you felt like you put a lot of things off in order to do well in your courses. You thought you didn’t need a break, or rather than you couldn’t afford at the moment, but then Chungha, being both the voice of reason and a fun-seeker, convinced you to do it. So you were going to do it. A break couldn’t hurt, right?

Once you were on board with the whole thing, they told you about the plan. There was a cute little beach house that they were thinking of renting. It had direct access to the beach and was also in walking distance of the local town and restaurants. It was the perfect getaway spot. Of course, such a prime location wasn’t cheap, and being broke college students, it was not something that only a handful of you could afford. Realizing this, a couple of people suggested pulling along some extra friends that they also thought could enjoy a week away from the campus. It had the potential to be a bit awkward, but it wouldn’t hurt to meet some new people either.

So with a bit more planning, the twelve of you were all set to go. Everyone had received the list of things that they would be bringing with, as long as who they would be driving or receiving a ride from. Being one of the few that lived further out, you were automatically nominated to drive, which was fine. You picked up the non-alcoholic beverages that had been assigned to you before you threw all of your things into the car and headed over to your friend, Hyojin’s. Thing was, even though you were a prompt person, Hyojin was not. You sat in Hyojin’s room for a good twenty minutes while she tried to pack her suitcase full of things she thought would ‘impress the guys.’ Eventually you guys left and were able to pick up your next friend, which went far smoother, given how long Hyojin took. Still, by the time you got to your last friend, you were already about an hour late and you were now tasked with getting the four of you there in a timely manner, even if it seemed damn near impossible in the bad traffic.

By some miracle – maybe the universe had some pity on you after putting you through hell – your group was only about an hour and a half late, which was better than your original estimate. Granted, everyone else was already there and settled in. When they heard your car pulling in though, many of them came out to help you unload the car. You worked with Chungha to unpack all of the drinks into the refrigerator as she asked you what took so long, to which you only gestured at Hyojin, who was busily chatting up some of the guys.

“That’s what you get for living near her. I told you to call her early…” Chungha pointed out, practically singing her words as you rolled your eyes.

“I did though,” you said in an exasperated tone as you handed the last of the cans to Chungha. “But you know Hyojin. She just does what she wants…”

“That’s also true,” she said with a giggle before closing the refrigerator door. “So, I don’t think that we have any group plans today. I know that there was talks of starting up a movie here, and some of the others are just kind of doing their own thing in town. We’re planning for the beach and barbeque tomorrow, so maybe just take your stuff upstairs and see what you want to do from there?”

You gave your close friend a nod as she patted your head, like she always did, before you picked up your bag and made your further into the home. Honestly, though you wanted to be social and hang out with everyone, after the ordeal that was driving here, you were kind of done for the day. Maybe the exhaustion from exam week hadn’t quite passed yet, because you were still feeling rather low energy. Maybe you would just hang out in the room for a bit and see how you felt after that? Yeah, that sounded like a good plan.

With that you continued on your way, still kind of lost in your own thoughts. Even so, you could have sworn that you heard the sound of a guitar, the sound of someone singing. Well that was odd. Were you still a bit sleep deprived? Who could be singing, and why would they be by the stairs of all places? You had to have been imagining things.

So, thinking that it was all in your head, you quickly shook it, and headed at a quick pace up the stairs. Maybe you were moving at too fast of a clip as you rounded the corner because before you knew it, you had come face to face with a pair of very wide brown eyes. They stared back at you as your tired brain tried to process exactly what was going on. When it registered to you that you had inevitably invaded this person’s bubble, you quickly took a step back and bowed deeply.

“I’m so sorry! I really should have watched where I was going!” you said quickly, embarrassed by yourself. . Really? You thought you were hallucinating that? Oh dear lord you needed sleep.

“Not your fault,” he said with a sheepish smile. You didn’t notice, maybe because you were so flustered, but he had kind of been staring at you, as if he were in awe by your presence. He wasn’t usually this odd, but coming face to face with you so suddenly, it really shook his heart. “I probably deserve it for playing on the stairs like this. Thing is, it’s the only area where there aren’t people right now…”

You nodded in understanding. With so many people in the house, it would be difficult to find some privacy. You figured that’s what he was looking for. “I get that. A lot of them are hanging out in the living room. Probably not the optimal place for practicing. Outside is an option, but it’s pretty hot out today too. I don’t blame you for hanging out here…”

His smile grew, excited that you had come to the same conclusion he had. It was like you really understood him without even knowing who he was. “I’m Jaehwan by the way,” he said, introducing himself.

“Oh! You’re Daniel’s friend!” you exclaimed with a small smile. Daniel had been the unlucky one that shared this quarter of hell with you. He had mentioned that he had a friend that played guitar. He said that he had an amazing voice too, and it was a shame that he wasn’t considering music for a career. When it was decided that you would all be going on this trip, Daniel told you he would be inviting this friend along since he thought that the two of you would get along. Who would have thought that you would meet like this?

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Jaehwan asked, his eyes widening again.

“Daniel had mentioned your name before. He told me that he had a friend that was a musician,” you said happily before introducing yourself to him. “By the way, where is Daniel?”

“Asleep. As soon as he got here, he just kind of passed out. I don’t really know the others as well, so I’ve just been kind of hanging back, hoping he’d wake up soon. But Daniel…” Jaehwan trailed off, and you gave a knowing smile.

“Sleeps like a log and doesn’t wake up unless you do something like roll him off the bed?” you suggested, earning a slow nod, and a bit of a look from Jaehwan. It took you a minute to process why he was giving you that look, but when you realized how your words sounded, you quickly shook your head. “Daniel and I aren’t like that. We’re just friends,” you said quickly, waving your hands in front of you. “Daniel just fell asleep on my bed once when we were studying, and I literally had to push him off to get him to go home…”

Jaehwan couldn’t explain it, but for some reason, he felt a sense of relief when you admitted that you and Daniel were nothing more than friends. Was it… because… he found you attractive too? Honestly, Daniel had told him about you, in very vague terms, but he didn’t believe his friend at first. Now that he saw you though… you just kind of turned him into a bumbling mess. That was when something dawned on him. “Ah! So you’re the reason he came home with that nasty bruise on his side that one time!”

It was time for you to give a sheepish smile. “I didn’t know that he had so many things in his bag… I didn’t think he’d fall on anything so hard…”

Jaehwan couldn’t help but smile. You were just so cute. “Well, between you and me… I think you were in the right to push him off,” he whispered, making you giggle. The sound made his heart skip a beat as the two of you sat on the stairs and continued to talk…

========

“I can totally teach you how to play!” Jaehwan said enthusiastically. The two of you were now seated on a sofa, your backs leaning against each of the arms. You had moved your conversation away from the stairs when people started to use them more, and were now seated in a little area, just above the stairs. Those that weren’t in their rooms resting for the night were downstairs playing a drunken game of truth or dare. You and Jaehwan decided to skip the festivities for the night, wanting to be sober enough for the beach in the morning.

“Would you really?!” you asked, a bit excited at the thought. You had been telling Jaehwan about how you had always wanted to learn guitar, but your parents didn’t think that it was an instrument that would suit you, having you learn violin instead. And, truth be told, learning from Jaehwan would have been great. He was knowledgeable, and in the short amount of time that the two of you had spent together you had grown really comfortable with him. He was a bit silly, and overall a lot of fun. You didn’t even feel tired anymore. And maybe… maybe there was more than that too, but it was too early to say.

“Of course I would. I’d definitely make time to teach you how to play,” he reassured you as he started to strum away on his guitar, an idea seemingly popping into his head. “How about I play something for you now? Would you enjoy something like that?” he asked eagerly, as he looked over at you, trying to read your features in moonlight that had come dancing through the window.

You couldn’t help but give him a bit of a look. “Kim Jaehwan, are you trying to serenade me?” you asked, teasing him a bit.

He chuckled, but this time it didn’t seem as shy as before. He was filled with confidence now, confidence that you didn’t know existed in him. “Maybe I am. I guess you’ll just have to find out,” he said cryptically, and before you could get another word in edgewise, he had already begun to play his song for you…

#wanna one #kim jaehwan #wanna one imagines #wanna one scenarios #kpop scenarios #whenwemetseries

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sanctimoniousscrawlings · 5 years

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Prompt #1 : Lull of the Forest

Greenvale is quaint. At least that’s what the townsfolk say. Personally, I’ve never been fond of life here. Half the people here are ignorant and bigoted. They’re nosy and self-serving. Nine times out of ten I’ve found that the thick veneer of kindness and good ol’ fashioned neighborliness is born of duplicity, and to be quite honest it’s exhausting.

I’ve been saving money to leave since I turned sixteen and got my first job in the town’s only book store- a tiny thing, barely larger than my room back in my apartment. I’ve been thinking of moving to a big city- it may be too crowded for my taste but I’ve found that it has the opposite vibe to small towns. People start out assholish and then turn out to be kind. It’s a pleasant surprise.

Here I am ten years later with only half the cash I would need to get my own place somewhere I’d actually like to be. I’m scrolling through real estate sites and beginning to reconsider the whole roommate thing, much as I revile the thought of having to live with random strangers when my phone pings. It’s my best friend, Demeter.

D: omg Riley did you hear Me: oyg did I hear what? Me: and are you sure I can’t convince you to come with me D: Dylan is gone and certainly not, you know I can’t stand urban environments Me: pls tell me he absconded from the woods with his tail between his legs and the only thing he left behind was a trail of urine Me: I really don’t want him living next door to me again D: ... D: i heard the fairy house is a pretty grizzly scene Me: wow Me: guess i won’t have to live next door to him after all. neat. D: i know he was an asshole but do you need to be so blase about it? Me: only as much as he needed to chase me with a MIG torch Me: look, i know you aren’t supposed to speak ill of the dead (but honestly he shouldn’t have been such a dick) and I wouldn’t wish death on anyone- but I definitely don’t have to care that he’s gone Me: besides, he probably pissed off whatever’s in those woods. haven’t you noticed that when the people who live in that house are super cool, the hidden folk just play (mostly) harmless pranks- and they have never ever attacked children D: no, they just kill the parents and steal the kids Me: the bad parents. We both know the Bonners were abusing their kids. And pretty heavily. How many times did you call cps on them? D: ...monthly. But that doesn’t make it right. Those kids are probably scarred for life- and scared. Me: maybe. I think I might try buying the place tbh- I don’t even have half the money for a place in any of the cities I wanted to move to but I have more than enough for that place. It’ll be a dent in my funds, but I think it will be worth it. D: what Me: hear me out: I’m a misanthropist. They are clearly also not fond of people. Maybe we’ll get along. Plus, I can keep the deed to this place to protect the forest from the idiots in town moving in. D: First of all that’s a stupid idea. Second of all, you’re too kind to be a misanthropist. You’re just a curmudgeon. A philanthropic curmudgeon. Me: what Me: that doesn’t even make sense D: you’re grumpy af but I’ve never seen you do anything to cause even the people you hate the most harm. Hell, how often did you help Dylan with his homework or share your food with the delinquents who couldn’t afford lunch when we were in school. D: the whole “I hate humankind blah blah blah destroy all humans” thing is just a front because you always had this complex about helping everyone and it kept backfiring. And then after Ashe... Me: sorry, Demi, gotta go. I’ve got paperwork to fill out. D: DON’T YOU DARE MOVE INTO THAT HOUSE I S2G RILEY ANDREW FERGUSON

I know she cares but I really can’t deal with this right now. I’ve got a house to buy.

For the next two weeks, I avoid Demeter. I love her but she’s overbearing sometimes and I’m not gonna let her talk me out of this. All the paperwork is taken care of and fortunately, my lease was ending at the end of the month so this should prove to be a smooth transition. All my packing is complete and I get to move into my new place in another few days. My shift ended at the bookstore so I head back to the apartment only to find a grey slip of a man waiting for me. “Riley Ferguson, there you are. Your presence is required at the law office of Paz & Squalor. If you have some time to accompany me there, I urge you to.” His voice was strained and gravelly. “It concerns the property in the woods.” “Sure thing. Let’s go.” I wonder if there’s a hitch in the bureaucratic workings and if there is I’m damn well gonna sort it out.

An hour later and I’m in Ms. Paz’s office. She peers across the desk at me with a grave look on her face and I can see that she’s mulling something over. The look of concern in her eyes is disconcerting. She starts abruptly, clearly having decided to get on with whatever I’m here for. “I’m sorry for your loss, Mr. Ferguson.” “Loss?” “Dylan Daniels. You are Riley Andrew Ferguson, correct?” I nod, but the confusion on my face doesn’t assuage her concerns. “He left the house to you in his will. And everything in it.” She opens a dwarer of her desk and pulls out an envelope, clutching it to his chest. “He also left you this.” She extends the envelope across the desk. “Sorry it took so long to get this to you. The police only found his will a few days ago- everyone was unaware he even had one until then. I just need you to sign some things.” She pushes a stack of papers and a nice pen across the desk. I’m too stuned to respond. “Riley.” She pauses and reaches a hand across the desk to squeeze mine. “I know this must be very hard for you. Take all the time you need.” The next few hours are a blur. I find myself at my desk, clutching the sealed envelope. There’s no way this isn’t some sort of prank. He probably has the entire town in on it- they have always distrusted me here. People gossip about what sort of mental issues I may or may have. “He has the autism,” is the most favored line I hear from the elderly ladies at the old rumor mill. I am a hundred percent sure they don’t even know what autism is- and to be honest that gets to me far more than them actually suggesting I’m on the spectrum. There are worse rumors of course. I have schizophrenia and murdered my own family in a hallucination. Or I’m a sociopath and did it in cold blood. Of course, it doesn’t matter that I was asleep in the back room at work at the time- trying to avoid going home. My boss is a little scenile and his word isn’t good enough to assuage the good people of Greenvale. They’d probably accuse me of doing Dylan in, too, if it weren’t for his proximity to the woods. Deep breath. I open the envelope. There’s a letter inside. When I pull it out, another piece of paper drifts down to the floor. It’s stained with graphite- the pencil must have been smeared. I reach down to pick it up and freeze before I can. I recognize my own writing on the small paper. What the actual hell? I pick it up and read it, wracked with anxiety. It’s a poem. It’s a poem I wrote in eighth grade. A flashback takes me back to when I wrote it. My first real crush on a guy. It was a boy I had P.E. with every year of middle school. I had just started dating a girl I rode the bus home with when I realized that I liked this guy and the poem quite bluntly reflected the turbulent emotions I was feeling at the time. I had a firm grasp on metaphors but even now subtly and nuance elude me when I experience emotion- which happens far more often than I would prefer. More importantly, why would he have this? How did he even- I’m hit with another memory. I wrote that the day that little demon stabbed me in the hand with a pencil. I still have the black mark under my skin. Bastard gave me my first tattoo. He must have taken it from my binder when I was in the nurse’s office. Okay. But why would he keep this? It was fuel he could have used to burn me before I came out my senior year. I remember the letter. With some trepidation, I begin to read it.

Riley,

I was really hoping to tell you this in person. Frankly, I’ve been trying to for years but you evaded me at every turn. You can’t evade me at this one, though. My death ensured that- that is unless you’re not reading this and I misjudged your caliber on the whole fairy house thing. I don’t know, I figure you’d thrive there for some reason. I think Walt Whitman said something about the strongest tree in the forest is the one that sprouts against all odds.

My eye twitches at the butchering of the quote and that he confused Walt Disney with Walt Whitman, but I carry on.

Anyways, sorry not sorry for rambling. I like you. No, that’s putting it mildly. I think I’ve been in love with your weirdness since we first sat together in that class. I had hoped you wrote this poem about me but was too afraid to ever ask you about it. I know it’s no consolation for the animosity I displayed toward you, but I was just so terrified. Your presence left me unsettled and we got stuck together so much after that. So I reciprocated and instilled the fear in you that you put in me. It was wrong and I really am so sorry. Now you know how I feel, though. I bet the creatures of the forest got me. If I’m right, you owe me a kiss when next we meet, wherever that may be.

Love, Dylan Daniels. P.S. And I mean love. P.P.S. I know I got the quote entirely wrong. I bet you did that thing where your eye twitches when you can’t correct someone cuz you’re frustrated. That will be another kiss. P.P.P.S. No dictionaries were harmed in the writing of this letter. P.P.P.P.S. Well, I might have lit one on fire after.

I feel disgusted after reading the letter. He was an asshole and a creep. A knock at the door startles me into yelping. I catch my breath to answer it and Demeter pushes her way in. “Sit. We’re talking.” I do as she says; I’m still reeling from everything I just found out and Demeter is the last person anyone should ever piss off. She may be a kindly teacher and a great friend but not even the gods can save someone incurring her wrath. “You got the house, didn’t you.” It clearly wasn’t a question but I nod quietly anyways. She sighs. “Well, if anyone from this town could thrive there it would be one of us, but still. What were you thinking?” I stare into the nether. “I don’t know anymore. I don’t even want the house now,” I murmur. “It’s tainted. He even ruined the fairy house for me.” “What do you mean? You knew he had lived there when you made the ridiculous plan to swoop in on it.” I silently proffer the letter and poem without looking at her. She lets out an incredulous whistle. “Well... He tried to put his heart in the right place. I think. Ooh, girl, this boy was a mess.” She pauses, squinting at the letter. “Wait. Did he leave you the house? Holy hell.” Demeter stayed the night. I woke up the next morning to a note on my bedroom door: I’ve reconsidered the roommate thing. Be back soon, packing my stuff. If they didn’t already, the townsfolk were about to think Demeter insane, too.

Days later and we were moved into the house, though I was still uneasy. He left a lot behind- including some nearly new furniture. Probably for the best given how spartan Demeter and I both lived. I brought a desk and computer while she brought house plants and a bed. The house was old and quirky and had an air to it that we both adored. The rear garden was pressed right up against the old forest; with the fence having rotten away long since the tenants before Dylan had lived there, a new one was half built in its place- and wildflowers had overtaken most of the space. All except for one tree that sat in the center of our new yard, between the forest and the house. The entire rear half of the house had large beautiful windows that faced the forest, as well as a massive section of glass doors that opened up to the rear garden, almost like an entertainment area, thanks to the simple stone porch. “Oh, I am so fixing this up.” Demeter sounded giddy, standing in the decrepit garden. “We’ve totally got this.” “I hope so.” I can’t shake the uneasy feeling I’ve had all weekend. “I’m heading in to set up some of my supplies.” I leave Demeter to her own devices and get to work in the back room with the enormous glass doors. After a few minutes, it feels as though the very air is weighing on me. I open the doors wide, not paying any mind to the dangers of the forest. Let them come, they’d probably make better company than 99% of the good townsfolk of Greenvale. The invigorating scent of the forest fills the room and I’m suddenly in the mood for oil pastels.

It’s been a week now and I still feel trapped whenever I’m in the house. I feel as though I’m being watched any time I’m on the property. The eyes from the forest seem more curious than anything- it’s inside that I feel I’m in danger. After going on an unnecessary shopping trip for the umpteenth time since moving in, I decide to be productive and prepare a basket of food for those that dwell in the forest. Fruits, nuts, pepitas, and even some actual food I cooked up. I set the basket out back, near the treeline, and go back to the room I claimed for my studio. When next I look outside, the basket is empty and moved closer to the house. I hope they enjoyed it.

I get home earlier than Demeter and begin to make a habit of leaving food out for my new neighbors- including a dish of milk on my window sill. Each day, the basket is returned closer and closer to the house. I begin finding gifts of seeds, flowers, and odd trinkets in the returned basket. Demeter joyously nurtures the seeds into all manner of strange and exotic plants. One day, when the house is feeling particularly stifling, I decide to go to the forest edge to get away from it. I find a cozy spot beneath a tree and start writing. I hear the basket being moved but I’m too in the flow to pay any attention- that is until I notice a curious fox looming over my notebook. I don’t want to spook it so I continue writing. Eventually, the fox lays its head on my wrist, watching the pencil soar across the pages. I suppress the urge to make a high pitched noise in joy at this blessing. My trips to the forest edge became more frequent- as did the fox’s joining me. I started bringing treats for my new friend who cozied up to me as I worked. One day, when Demeter was out later for student conferences, I went out to the back porch- still outside but sheltered from the storm that had rolled in. I mistakenly drifted off to sleep to the sound of rain- and far more easily than I could have fallen asleep inside the house. I awakened to find myself wrapped in a fine silk cloak lined with the softest fur I have ever felt in my life- and I pet a lot of cats. I also note that I am now inside and the doors are shut. It’s already morning, as well. Demeter is in the kitchen, making herself a quick breakfast before she heads off to work. “I’m glad to see you made it home safely. Did you bring me inside?” “What? No, you were asleep on the floor when I got home last night. I feel like it’s the first time you’ve slept since we got here.” I grunt noncommittally and leave the room. Later on, I return the cloak, folded in the basket with yet another assortment of tasty goodies. This time I'm reading rather than working on one of my projects. The fox returns once more and- to my joy- curls up in my lap. I stroke his soft fur while I read and eventually I can hear the soft contented snoring of my vulpine buddy. I'm so comfortable that for the second day in a row I make the mistake of falling asleep outside. This time, as the beams of morning sunlight drift through my eyelids, I’m in my room. The luxurious cloak is covering me once more and the fox is curled up next to my head. The Prompt Next

#part 1 #I've been at this for almost six hours and need to stop #writing prompt #Lull of the Forest #the prompt is the post before this one

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sweetnestor · 6 years

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this is not a dream #1 | no, something seems wrong

the real reason ethan was taken under the teamiplier wing | teamiplier/ego au

WARNINGS: suicide, murder, blood, self harm, drug abuse, alcoholism, sex addiction

AN: hey hi hello does anyone remember the one fic i posted in october, previously known as ‘entirely bonkers?’ yeah, well i rewrote it and now it’s this!! ive taken much more time with this fic and given it the attention it deserves, so pretty much all the chapters may be dramatically different from the original version. each chapter title is a line from a different song, which will be listed in the tags.

i have to warn you, this fic is very dark and very graphic. read at your own risk. but also enjoy!!

~October 2016

This was good news. Great news. The best news. This was going to change everything. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. Maybe that’s why Ethan couldn’t stop crying, losing it, unhinging for the thousandth time.

It had been on and off for the last few weeks, the tears. He didn’t know why, but it felt like every little thing made him burst. Not only did Ethan cry, but he also yelled and screamed. Most of all, he would break whatever was in sight. He’ll throw things, punch, kick… He’ll go out in the middle of the night and take a bat to an unsuspecting mailbox. He was usually aware when he did these things, meaning it wasn’t technically a blind rage that sent him into these episodes. He’s gone through several mugs, a few controllers, and he even had to buy a new camera one time. All because of these tears and weird destructive urges he couldn’t control.

He wanted to throw his phone just after this call. It was a good call, though. It was life changing. But he had to force himself to calmly set the device down on his desk and move away from it. Ethan got to his feet, sniffling and sobbing, and then he tore off some of the foam padding on the wall. Did it matter? No, he was moving at the end of the month. He could destroy a few more things.

Foam pads were strewn across the floor by the time he was done. But Ethan still felt… destructive. No, worse. He knew what he wanted to do. He just had the slightest worry that it would actually work this time. But he had to do it.

Blood was pounding in his ears as he pulled on his sweater and beanie. Before he knew it, he was in the car, driving to the location he had been to plenty of times before. He parked some distance away and walked the rest of the way.

In all honesty, he had no idea what led him to this the first time. It was like this feeling in chest and gut, like an impulse. Once it fell into his head, he had to do it immediately. There was no going back. Crying was one of those things he felt like he had to do. This, however… this was a lot darker.

A few cars passed as Ethan approached the bridge. None of them stopped. None of them ever did. He couldn’t help but appreciate that. He didn’t know what would happen if this got back to his family. He had quite a bit to lose, but he still boosted himself up on the railing. This was really stupid, he thought to himself as he looked down at the drop he’d seen many times before.

“Something’s wrong,” he spoke to himself before leaping off.

The cold, bitter air hitting his face was the most painful part, as strange as that was to admit. But what if it actually worked this time? He didn’t even say goodbye to his dad as he left the house. He’d never get to experience that job in Los Angeles. He’d never interact with his online community again. Would this be the one to do it?

“Nope,” Ethan mumbled once he was face down on the ground. Dirt was in his mouth, and his face was numb from the cold. He sat up and coughed, both relieved and disturbed that he didn’t die. Again.

Ethan sat back and brought his knees to his chest, shivering. Was it going to be like this once he moves? Would he be able to control it?

“He can’t help us, he’s a kid!” roared the booming voice of Darkiplier. It echoed around the spacious, black room, enough to make any mortal’s blood run cold.

“We need all the help we can get,” replied the soft and frighteningly serene voice of Peevils, who was sat on top of the desk across the room. “Besides, the younger they are, the more powerful they can be.”

Her pitch black eyes gazed down at the stoic mortal sat in the armchair. He was sat up straight, on the edge of his seat. His usual brown eyes had rolled back into his skull and his mouth was gaping open. Dark was was “stood” by the body, his suit clad form flickering with distortion. He was always in black and white, but a blue and red aura was always around him. The biggest thing that fascinated Peevils was that this man, her supposed lover, was impossible to touch. Well that, and she could hear him in her mind and he could speak to her personally, even when their mortals were present.

Peevils, on the other hand, was from a whole other galaxy. She couldn’t quite remember how she got to Earth, much less how she got in contact with her mortal. All she knew was that her mortal was very willing and complicit. Peevils had cool powers too, but she seldom used them on this planet. Her aura often mixed with the mortal’s, making it a weird greyish yellow.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have let your mortal make that decision,” spoke Stoneface in his deep, intimidating voice. No one knew where he came from, or what his true powers were, aside from killing people after intimate affairs. He had much paler skin compared to his mortal, and his eyes were greyer than concrete, while his aura was black. You couldn’t look into his eyes without feeling paralyzed to the spot.

Everything surrounding the trio was dark and dim. The atmosphere was that of another realm. No human would be able to stand with them for very long. No human, except one.

“The mortal needed him for his own desires, not ours,” Dark growled. “And he was coping at the time, so I couldn’t intervene. But… I felt something. It was like a whisper.”

“So we just wait til the boy arrives,” Peevils concluded. “I feel it won’t be a waste.”

“You feel a lot of things,” Stoneface said back.

Her face fell. She stared ahead wordlessly, and imagined what she wanted to happen, and then it was real.

Stoneface immediately started gasping for air, his relaxed composure turning into nothing but pain and panic. His body began to rise up from the couch and it contorted into unnatural folds.

“Mercy! Mercy!” he strained out just before his bones could snap.

Peevils lifted, a ghost of a smile on her face.

Then, the room lightened up. The walls went back to white as the door to the office opened, and the trio were back in the human world, thanks to the one human they all knew.

Kathryn walked in, carrying a brown paper bag. A tall, dark haired, skimpy dressed woman followed behind her, looking curiously around the room. Peevils quickly looked down, knowing her eyes were prone to cause panic, and Dark was nowhere to be seen. The human led the other human over to Stoneface, whose eyes suddenly went back to a humanistic hazel.

“Hi, I’m Tyler,” he greeted, and the woman smiled in returned. He offered his arm. “If you’ll follow me…” And the two were off into another room.

Then, Kathryn turned towards Peevils, but instead was met face to face with Dark, who did not look happy.

“We were having a meeting!” he snapped, trying to look threatening.

She rolled her eyes and moved her arm forward, making the image fade away. After that, she reached into the paper bag and pulled out a plastic ziplock bag that was contained with white powder. Kathryn waved it in the direction of Peevils.

The blonde’s eyes flickered once. Kathryn had her attention now, so she slowly bent down towards the coffee table, opened up the bag and poured out some of the contents onto the glass surface. In the blink of an eye, the alien was sat on the floor in front of the table, using an old business card to make her series of lines. She hunched over the table as she snorted to her heart’s content, and when she looked up, her eyes were not black, but brown and humanlike.

“Alright, Amy’s back,” Kathryn said in affirmation. Then she turned to her boss.

He still had that horrifying expression on his face, but at least the body wasn’t moved. The last thing Kathryn wanted to do today was to pry Dark and his mortal away from something illegal or fatal… not that he could die, anyway.

“Don’t you dare…” the hallucination spoke, appearing behind the armchair.

She didn’t even hesitate to straight up bitch slap the body across the face. The last aura was finally gone, and the body had, for lack of a better phrase, come back to life. He swore in pain and held his cheek.

“Mark?”

“Yeah, what the fuck?”

Kathryn nodded once and pulled the last item from the paper bag. A bottle of Jack Daniel’s. She shoved it into Mark’s hand and then crumpled up the bag, tossing it in the bin.

Mark just sat there for a moment, still coming back to himself. He felt that internal twitch, though, so he twisted the cap off the glass bottle and took a swig. Then he moved to the floor, next to his girlfriend, who was now baked like a fucking cake. Just another day in the office.

Now, Kathryn was able to get back to her actual work. She sat at one of the computers, but then paused as she thought of the newcomer they were expecting. Poor kid had no idea what he was walking into.

~November 2016

The team noticed something about their newest member. It wasn’t what was on the inside, no. Not the reason why they brought him over here.

Ethan was happy. Giddy. Very doe eyed. Upon arriving to the office on the first day, he thanked Mark many times for the opportunity. He was just… not what you would expect from someone like him. He almost seemed normal.

See, when you’re like Mark, Amy, and Tyler, you get this feeling, an instinct, even. They could sense each other’s demons, even when they were dormant. Amy and Tyler feel Darkiplier’s jitters when their Mark got rubbed the wrong way. That was probably because Peevils and Stoneface were so connected to Dark, and by extension, their mortals. They could all sense each other inside and out. In their logical, human eyes, the feeling of the three demons scheming in the background was seen as “impending doom.” The only human able to see past that was Kathryn, and none of them knew why.

But Ethan? He seemed like any ordinary human, and that was just weird. There was almost no impending doom vibes coming from him as the days went on. This wasn’t what they had been expecting.

“So…” Mark prompted one day, “how’ve you been? Y’know… since the move?”

“Fine,” Ethan mindlessly responded. He was on the computer, doing exactly what he was hired for.

The other four exchanged looks. Apart from Kathryn, they were experiencing withdrawals from their… coping. The plan was to get the other guys to meet Ethan’s other guy… just to see what would happen. The latter was proving to be difficult, given that there was no instinct or any indication that his bodily occupant wanted to come out, or that it was even there. Did that guy even have a name?

“You’re f-fine?” Amy repeated irritably, her voice shaking. “Y-You dropped everything, moved all the way here, and you’re just fine?”

Now Ethan caught onto the tension. He turned in his chair, only to feel deeply intimidated by the staring. Something was off, and it wasn’t just the stupid crying fit growing in his chest and throat.

“I’m just glad I’m here,” he said, but it didn’t feel like the right answer.

“What’s wrong with you?” Tyler blurted out.

“What?”

“Jesus fucking christ,” Kathryn sighed in annoyance as she buried her face in her hands.

“God, I’m sorry,” Tyler quickly said. “I didn’t mean that, fuck. I’m an asshole, I’m sorry.”

Mark could feel it, though. A cold chill went down his spine, telling him that he was right to bring Ethan in. He felt a tightness in his throat, this feeling of dread sitting heavy on his shoulders. He hadn’t felt this with the other two, this had to be Ethan.

“You don’t miss what you left behind?” Mark asked as he got up from the couch, putting on a hard face. “I mean… you sacrificed your whole life for this, didn’t you?”

The dread only grew. Ethan shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“Yeah, but I made that decision,” he timidly replied.

“Like the grown up you think you are?” Amy mocked.

It was there, right there. The four nearly gasped as Ethan’s eyes flickered to black once. But the boy quickly shook himself and stood up.

“I’ll be right back.”

The surge of emotions lifted as soon as he left the room. But then, the walls went black, and the three auras appeared. Meanwhile, Kathryn let out another annoyed groan.

Mark’s body froze where he stood, and his head fell back as Dark made his appearance. Tyler’s body paled, eyes turning grey. Amy appeared sat on top of the coffee table with her legs crossed, eyes black and empty.

“Hey doesn’t even know what he is!” Dark shouted, his image flickering angrily around the room.

“Of course not, he’s a kid,” Peevils shot back coolly. “And you’re not the one who asked him to come here. Why are you concerned now?”

Dark appeared in front of her, his face inches from hers. “I felt it! There is something there, but the boy isn’t letting him through! He’s powerful, and I am powerful. That’s why I could feel him!”

“Don’t make me slap your mortal,” Peevils threatened as she waved her hand through him.

“So what do we do?” Stoneface asked, getting the couple back on track. “Do we let the mortals handle it?”

“Provoking him did help a little bit,” Peevils pointed out.

“Yes,” Dark agreed. “They have to push him past his limits. Whatever it takes. If they have to destroy whatever humanity he has left in him, then so be it. He has to be disturbed, humiliated. Anything to get to what’s truly lying within.”

“So you guys are going to go silent, then?” Kathryn asked.

“It’s the only option,” Peevils confirmed.

That prompted the human to quickly flee the office. She had to make a big order.

Ethan managed to find a corner store down the road. The blind rage he went through caused him to break more things, and his knuckles were bleeding yet again. He also debated jumping off one of the high buildings, but this city was far too busy for anyone to not notice. Instead, he found another solution. He was sure his ‘friends/colleagues’ wouldn’t miss him for a few more minutes. Or at all.

Tear tracks were on his face as he went through the aisles. Look at him, a grown 20 year old, unable to control his crying. How did he get like this? He was never this emotional about anything! Sure, the group had ganged up on him, but things like that weren’t likely to make him burst into tears.

He calmed down some more when he found rubbing alcohol and bandages. However, there was only one box left of the latter, and it was pink and flowery. Reluctantly, he took the box and went into the next aisle. There were painkillers, vitamins, and sleep aids. For a second, a flash of lacing his friends’ drinks with pills went through his mind. It was short, but vivid. One by one, passing out around him.

He chuckled and kept walking. “Yeah right…” Then, he stopped in his tracks, went back and grabbed the biggest bottle of sleeping pills he could find.

After paying for his items (and getting some weird looks from the cashier), Ethan settled for sitting under the awning outside the store. He didn’t feel like going back to the office just yet, despite the fact that it was already getting dark. As he tended to his hand injury, he tried to forget all that he damaged. Several cars parked on the side of the road now had cracked windshields, and a few more mailboxes were wrecked. He could only hope that there weren’t any witnesses. He had only been in LA for about a week, he couldn’t get arrested now.

“Hey darlin’,” greeted a sickly sweet female voice.

He turned to find a red headed woman perching down next to him. She was wearing a rather revealing top under a fur coat along with a really short skirt. It rode up as she crouched down, making Ethan lose his words for a moment.

“H-Hi,” he replied, keeping his eyes on his injured hand.

“Did you get into a fight, honey?” the woman asked.

“Something like that…”

“Strong man, aren’t ya?”

“I wouldn’t say that. I’m putting on Hello Kitty bandaids.”

The woman giggled and moved closer to him. “Strong and cute.”

There was a feeling. Pinning her to the ground, a hand around her neck as the back of her head hitting the concrete. Slamming her head into the ground until she bled to death. Watching her green eyes lose their panic and fade into nothingness. Is it bad that it was nice to think about?

“Marsha!” called a familiar voice.

It was Kathryn. She approached the pair, her hood up and her hands in the pocket. Ethan was relieved to see her.

The redhead got to her feet. “You’re not here to send me to that friend of yours again, are you?”

“Why, do you have other plans?” she asked in return.

“Yes! I found a new friend!” Marsha pointed down at the boy with Hello Kitty bandaids.

Kathryn glanced down at him. “Yeah, not him. Can’t afford to have Tyler beat his ass right now.”

That was both confusing and not reassuring at all. Could Ethan down the whole bottle of pills without either woman noticing?

“Well, I’m not going. I’ll ask Sydney. She knows where to find you guys,” Marsha said in conclusion.

“Awesome. Ethan, get up.”

He didn’t need telling twice. Kathryn gestured for him to follow, and they walked back towards the office together.

“What’d you do?” she asked, nodding towards his hand.

“Don’t ask,” he said with a sigh. Not like he could properly explain it, anyway.

Luckily, she didn’t press the topic. When they approached the building, she stopped in her tracks and pulled a brown paper bag from under her sweater.

“I won’t ask questions,” she told Ethan. “But neither will you.”

____

next.

#blankgameplays #darkiplier #ethan nestor x reader #teamiplier fanfic #stoneface tyler #kathryn the editor #i literally do not know what tags to use omg #sweetheart writes #tinad #anyway this is a thousand times darker than the original version hahahahahahah #im excited #song: nightmare by set it off

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Fear Of Rain Was ‘Eye-Opening’ Experience For Star Madison Iseman

https://ift.tt/3pr05fQ

In Fear of Rain, Madison Iseman (Annabelle Comes Home) plays Rain Burroughs, a young woman attempting to lead a stable life while she struggles with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Despite her best efforts, and that of her loving parents (Katherine Heigl and Harry Connick Jr.), Rain is often not sure what is real and what is a hallucination — including Caleb (Israel Broussard), a fellow at school who takes an interest in her even as she wonders whether he’s real.

But when Rain becomes convinced that the seemingly normal teacher living next door (Eugenie Bondurant) is hiding a terrible secret in her attic, Rain goes against her parents’ advice and decides to prove she’s right, enlisting Caleb to help her even if she’s not even sure she can trust her own senses.

Written and directed by Castille Landon (Albion: The Enchanted Stallion), Fear of Rain is not just a psychological thriller following in the tradition of both films like Rear Window and The Sixth Sense, but a compassionate look at the nature of mental illness and how it can affect one’s perceptions.

That is what Iseman found the most compelling about taking the part, as she tells Den of Geek in our video interview.

“There was a lot of research that came into it and just a lot of getting ready for it, just to carry on such a load of a character,” explains the actress, who’s also starred in the last two Jumanji movies. “I sort of just fell in love with Rain’s heart from the beginning, when I first read the script, her strength and her courage, and just how she perseveres through no one really believing her. I just felt really connected with her, and was jumping at the opportunity to get to play her.”

Broussard — best known to audiences for his work in the two Happy Death Day movies — explains the angle he took with the character of Caleb.

“I really liked how endearing Caleb was and I liked how he was willing to support Rain throughout all this — and at the same time, keep who he was,” he says. “As far as preparing, I just had to go over my lines and talk, not as fast as I could, but he’s kind of an intellectual character so I wanted to tap into that a little bit. So I rehearsed everything on my own just to make sure that everything was flowing smoothly out of my mouth, as far as my lines.”

Iseman says that one of the biggest surprises for her in making the film was realizing just how little she knew about the nature of schizophrenia — an illness that is often confused with dissociative personality disorder (maintaining multiple separate personalities) but in reality is quite different.

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“The whole entire experience was completely eye-opening as far as how little I knew before this project, which was interesting,” says Iseman. “So the entire thing has just been a complete learning experience. For me, I watched so many videos and just anything I could get my hands on, but my Bible throughout everything was a memoir by Elyn Saks called The Center Cannot Hold. Which for me, I think was the greatest outlet, just because it explained her experience, being a woman with schizophrenia, from a young child up into adulthood.”

She continues, “It was hard to find resources from young women, children specifically, and really what that looks like, so I carried that book with me on set. And Castille was the one who actually… I think everything was sort of inspired by Elyn Saks in a whole. So that was my Bible just through and through this entire experience.”

Although the character of Rain deals with great obstacles in her everyday life and tragic events in her past that she’s still coming to terms with, Iseman says she wasn’t necessarily looking for a darker role than what she’s done so far in her career.

“I really just love amazing stories,” she explains. “I remember I read it for the first time and it just completely moved me. I knew I really wanted to be a part of it. I didn’t know if I could do it — it was such an incredible opportunity. But I think I surprised myself and it was a very accepting challenge to take on.”

One test that the cast, director and crew of Fear of Rain did not have to deal with during the making of the movie was the COVID-19 pandemic. The movie was shot in late 2019, months before the coronavirus swept the world and shut down film and TV production for the better part of a year.

Israel Broussard says that seeing the movie now — a window into a time not too long ago when we didn’t have masks and social distancing to deal with — is a strange experience.

“Honestly, I’ve thought about that quite a bit,” he admits. “Not necessarily watching it and not seeing the masks, but more so, how would this have worked had we been in the middle of the pandemic? But I don’t know, I think it’s interesting, and I think it is nice to see people’s faces and get a break from all the masks. So hopefully it’s something that’s refreshing for everybody.”

He adds, “It’s definitely changed the industry as a whole in the past year. I mean, even now we’re doing this on Zoom and it takes some adjusting. It takes some getting used to, but I’m happy that we’re still able to tackle all these challenges.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", mediaId: "c1c5d7b5-eed5-459c-b60c-0dccd2d70595" }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Fear of Rain is out now in theaters, on digital, on demand and on Blu-ray/DVD.

The post Fear Of Rain Was ‘Eye-Opening’ Experience For Star Madison Iseman appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3jO6dxE

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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sassycassie-s-series · 7 years

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Enchanted Castle 4

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): Vine/YouTube/Thomas Sanders

Rating: PG

Notes: (Masterlist) Having recently watched TS’s Pride vid, I feel a little awkward posting this. In my defense, I heard he was bi. I wasn’t meaning any disrespect. Sorry. I’m just going to finish posting the chapters because I already finished it. And since that’s a rarity, I’m just going to finish this. Sorry.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3

^^^^^

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“I thought I told you to come down to dinner!” Thomas’ voice roared through the door.

“I'm not hungry!” I called back, actually telling the truth. Despite the fact that I hadn’t eaten since early that morning, I'd lost all appetite from adrenaline and fear. I'd probably be famished by the morning, but at the moment, I was fine.

“It would give me great pleasure… if you would join me for dinner,” Thomas ground out. There was a brief pause. “Please,” he added reluctantly.

I was surprised at the attempt at manners and raised one eyebrow, impressed but I clenched my jaw and felt my defiance rear its head. “No thank you,” I retorted sharply, whipping my head around and going back towards the window. Madame Garderobe—the wardrobe—had fallen asleep after attempting to dress me for dinner in a courtier gown from ten years ago and it went awry. I ended up looking like fluff of fabric. But since she was asleep, I'd unraveled the yards and yards of ribbons and fabric to make a rope long enough to descend the side of the castle. I bunched it up and shoved it under the valence around the bottom of the four-poster bed in case Thomas came in.

But he just roared something I couldn’t quite understand and stormed off.

I wasn’t going to escape tonight anyway. It was too dark and too dangerous.

Once a door slammed at the end of the corridor—making the walls of the bedroom rattle—I sat down on the edge of the bed and ran my hands through my hair.

The rumble from the slam woke up Madame Garderobe. She didn’t seem to notice that the gown she’d flung on me was missing. “What’s going on? Shouldn’t you be at dinner with the master?” she asked. I blinked.

“I already told you I wasn’t going.”

“Oh come on, dear! He’s really not that bad once you get to know him!”

I shrugged. “Not interested, thanks,” I remarked. “I'm going to go look around.” I got off the edge of the bed and strolled out of my room.

I made my way to the ground floor to the entrance hall facing the front door, there was a ballroom off to my right—it was on the left when I'd entered earlier so I guess that made sense. I'd had a long night and was a little turned around. So I went off to the left—my left, not the left of the front door—instead.

Somehow I ended up in the kitchen.

“Ah! Mademoiselle!” the mantel clock from before exclaimed from where he was tottering around the tiled floor. “So nice to make your acquaintance! I'm Daniel Cogsworth, head of the household—” He was cut off by metal sliding on tile and something cold taking my hand where I moved to shake the clock’s. The candelabra from before was standing there, bent over my hand and kissing it with metal lips. “This is Phillip Lumiere,” Daniel Cogsworth finished, looking disgruntled.

“Enchanted to meet you, mademoiselle!” Phillip Lumiere complimented.

“Thank you,” I offered. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

“Ooooh! What have we here?” a new voice with a different accent inquired. A beautifully ornate feather duster swooped into my line of sight. She was rich dark brown wood with silky black feathers and chocolate diamonds for eyes. The shaft and the handle were carved with intricately detailed patterns. Mrs. Potts came in after her.

“Hello there. I'm Star,” I greeted.

“I am Lyric,” the duster introduced with what could almost be counted as a curtsey.

Phillip Lumiere looked flirtatious as he scooped the handle of the feather duster into his arms. “Yes you are,” he remarked, moving in for a kiss.

“Oh no!” Lyric chastised. “I've been burned by you before, Phil!” Calling the candelabra by a nickname made me giggle behind my hand. “And I will not have you ruining my handle!” I felt my heart ache. This was pure, true love between the two of them.

Phillip Lumiere snuck a kiss anyway—on what could have been counted as her cheek.

The clock made a retching noise.

“Is there anything we can do to make you more comfortable?” Monsieur Cogsworth asked.

“Not really. Maybe just a glass of water before I head to sleep,” I remarked.

Phillip Lumiere looked astounded. “No, no, mademoiselle!” he protested. “You must have some dinner!”

I shook my head and opened my mouth to protest, but I didn’t have to.

Apparently Daniel Cogsworth was in agreement with me. “No. No. You heard what the master said: if she doesn’t eat with him, she doesn’t eat at all!”

“Oh nonsense,” Mrs. Potts put in. “I'm not about to let the poor child go hungry.”

Phillip Lumiere led me out of the kitchen and into the adjoining dining room, Lyric joining him.

“Okay, but keep it down. If the master finds out, it will be our necks!” Daniel Cogsworth hissed.

“Of course!” Phillip Lumiere replied. “But, what is dinner without a little…” I barely caught his wink. “Music?”

“Music?!” Daniel Cogsworth demanded as the door swung back and knocked him off his feet.

I moved to go help him. “No, no. He’s fine,” Phillip Lumiere insisted, tugging on the hem of my skirt. “Come, come!” I followed him to the head of a long dining table. The room wasn’t as extravagant as the rest of the castle, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t beautiful. And it was. The table was mahogany and the chairs were cushioned. There wasn’t as much gold-leafing as I'd seen in the rest of the castle, but the chandeliers still glimmered in the moonlight.

I couldn’t help but smile as a chair pushed itself in behind me, pushing me down so I was sitting in it. I yelped and then laughed. This was incredible. Impossible as it was, the sense of magic was amazing. I'd always quietly believed in magic—but more in an imagination sense. Never particularly in a real sense.

But I'd just watched a candelabra steal a kiss from a feather duster.

Either I was hallucinating or magic existed in a very real sense.

I favored the latter.

“Bonjour, mademoiselle,” Phillip Lumiere greeted. “It is with deepest pride—and greatest pleasure!—that we welcome you tonight. And now, we invite you to relax, let us pull up a chair as the dining room proudly presents: your dinner!”

And he began to sing. My mouth dropped.

All the living objects joined in—talking about how they missed having people to serve and it had been years since they had guests. And, really, it must have been. How else would they have the time to rehearse such a grand performance? No one could come up with something like this off the top of their head. It was too well put together.

It was also amazing.

While they performed, I had a small meal. They kept bringing out more and more food, but it was impossible for me to eat all of it, but sampling as much as I could was definitely enough to fill my stomach for the night—especially since I still wasn’t particularly hungry.

After their musical number, Mrs. Potts and Lyric escorted me to my room and sent me to bed.

Madame Garderobe had indeed laid out a nightdress for me—before, evidently, going back to sleep herself. It was dusty-gold satin with embroidery around the hem and short sleeves made of soft white lace. The washroom door was open and water was still steaming in a bath tub. I raised my eyebrows in surprise before gratefully pulling off my blue dress and getting in the water. It was comfortable and warm.

After scrubbing off the sweat and grime of the day—from riding Napoleon to spending some time in a tower cell—I wrapped my hair up in a soft white towel and put on the nightdress.

It was so comfortable. I'd never felt anything like it. The longer I wore my clothes, the softer they got—like how a repeatedly-crumpled parchment got softer—but this was nothing like that. The nightgown felt like I was wrapped in liquid sunlight.

I brushed my teeth with the little toothbrush before pulling my hair out of the towel and brushing it out with the hairbrush. I braided my hair down my back and tied it with a little silk ribbon the same color as the nightgown that had been resting on the bedspread.

Someone had come in while I was gone and dusted everything off. The writing desk and vanity were shiny, the quilt was more vibrantly-colored than I thought, and the gold-leafing glimmered. I checked under the bed to make sure my makeshift rope was still there. A smile lifted on my face when I saw no one had touched it.

Wow. I couldn’t get over it. The palace was so incredibly ornate and detailed. It was beautiful—like something out of one of Papa’s paintings.

But I was exhausted. The day had been long and difficult in all sorts of ways.

I climbed into the bed and felt relaxed instantly. The mattress was like lying on air. It was so comfortable. The bed was wider than mine at home, so I spread out my limbs a little bit, indulgently, before rolling onto my side. I could enjoy this bed for one night.

Not thinking too hard about the rope or escaping, I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

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automatismoateo · 6 years

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I got kicked out of a homeless shelter for not attending their church service. UPDATED via /r/atheism

Submitted June 05, 2018 at 12:03AM by Sora33o (Via reddit https://ift.tt/2JuMOSu) I got kicked out of a homeless shelter for not attending their church service. UPDATED

This was about 4 years ago, I had recently been evicted from the house I was living in as the woman went crazy. I had been homeless for about a week and I was tired, hungry, and broke. Luckily I still had my car so I learned how to sleep in the front seat. It was early October so the nights were freezing cold, I spent many a night shivering in my seat as my car wasn't well insulated.

One day I went to the local community center and asked the coordinator where the local homeless shelters were. He told me the closest one was about 30 minutes away, in Pensacola. I drove there and went inside to get something to eat. After I ate, me and a couple of other newcomers went to the office to register as occupants of the homeless shelter. I quickly became friends with another homeless man who was a year younger than me. After we registered we were told to attend the last few minutes of the chapel service. After chapel we got ready for bed.

The next day me and my new friend Daniel decided to drive around Pensacola and look for jobs. When we got back it was already night. One of my coworkers who was also homeless asked if she could borrow my car to sleep in. I agreed and told her to stay in the parking lot across the street so I could find her if need be. After showering I took my medicine, (Seroquel 300mg), and layed down to go to sleep. For those of you who don't know Seroquel is a powerful sleep aid used for anti-psychosis. I had been suffering from severe mental illness and this medication was the only thing that helped. 20mg of Seroquel will knock you out in about 30 minutes, but my doctor had been prescribing me 300mg. That's enough to cause you to hallucinate if you don't get to sleep right away.

As soon as I layed down the chaplain in charge of the homeless shelter came over, nudged me and told me I had to go to chapel. I politely told him that I don't believe in that religion and to please leave me alone because I just took my medicine and needed to sleep. He told me I signed the form, (which we had to sign to be allowed on the property), saying I would attend the chapel services. I told him he couldn't force me to attend any religious services as that would go against the first amendment. He said he could do whatever he wanted because this was a private institution. I tried to tell him I couldn't go because I just took my medicine but he just shut me down and said I have two choices. I could either go to chapel or I could get out. I decided to leave and just go to sleep in my car. I got up out of the bed, took my things and walked out the door. While I was packing the chaplain left and was talking to the worker behind the counter about what had just happened. As I was leaving he looked at me, smiled and said, "Have a nice night", in a very sarcastic tone.

Before I left I asked my friend Daniel if he would like to go with me. He said he'd rather go with me than stay there alone so we left together. We headed towards the parking lot with the intention of sleeping in my car for the night, but we couldn't find my car anywhere. We looked all over the parking lot and couldn't find a trace of my car anywhere. I tried calling my coworker but she never picked up. While we were walking up and down the parking lot looking for my car, a policeman pulled up and started asking us questions. He didn't believe us when we told him we were homeless and looking for my car. After shining his flashlight in our faces and calling us derogatory names, he resumed his patrol of the parking lot.

We decided to walk to my coworkers friend's house, as she usually stays there. The house was a good 5 or 6 miles away so we started walking. She wasn't at the house so we decided to walk to the apartment where her son lives. The apartment was another 3 miles from the house so yet again we started walking. She wasn't at the apartment complex either, so we decided to walk to the local park and sleep. We were only there for about an hour before a couple of people came towards us and asked us what we were doing. We were scared that they would call the police on us so we left and started walking the streets. I started to feel really sick for some reason, (probably because of the cold and a mixture of stress and my medicine), so I had trouble walking. We were looking for a bathroom so I could throw up and we happened across a local strip club. I went in and asked the guy if I could use his restroom, and he said I couldn't because I was under 21. He asked if I was ok and if I needed an ambulance. I knew I couldn't afford an ambulance trip so I just left and told Daniel what happened. A few minutes later we actually saw an ambulance drive past us and stop at the strip club, I guess I must've looked pretty bad. I threw up on the sidewalk and we continued walking. We were exhausted and I was sick so we knew we had to find a place to sleep, and fast.

We came across a bridge that crossed some train tracks, and we decided to walk down the hill and see if it was suitable. The bridge was built so that underneath you had to climb up a cement hill to reach the top. When we reached the top we found square indents just large enough for a person to crawl into. I slept in one and Daniel slept in the other. I used my backpack as a pillow and poor Daniel had to use his hands. We fell asleep quickly, but after a few hours I was woken up by a passing train. I looked over at Daniel and from what I saw he wasn't breathing. I had more clothes on than him and he wasn't woken up by the train so my first thought was that he must have died. A few seconds later I fell back to sleep and had a terrible nightmare. Luckily Daniel woke me up and asked if I was feeling better. It was still dark out but I could see that he was ok. I told him that I thought that he died and he laughed and said he thought that I had died.

We both slid down the cement hill and walked back towards the parking lot. We looked for my car again in that parking lot, and the parking lot on the other side of the building, but still there was still no sign of my car anywhere. We walked to the local waffle house as it was the only place open and I sat down and went to sleep in one of the booths. The effects of Seroquel linger for quite a bit so I was still tired, also the train didn't help me sleep either. When I woke up Daniel had a huge smile on his face. He told me that he explained our situation to the employees and they gave him free food. He said he tried to wake me up but I was too tired to move. After a few minutes we left and walked to the Whataburger that was close to the parking lot so we could charge our phones while watching for my coworker.

Every half hour or so we would walk out to the parking lot and scan the area for my car. We did this for about 8 hours. The Whataburger employees were getting quite frustrated with us because we couldn't buy anything, but luckily my coworker showed up before they called anyone on us. When she finally showed up we both got in the car and I drove to the parking lot and we talked. I asked her why wasn't she in the parking lot like she said she would be, she insisted she was. I decided to just let it go because eventually I did get my car back, but to this day I still have no idea where she went. I also looked at my gas gauge and it was almost empty, even though I filled up the night before. I asked her why she didn't answer any of my calls, and she said she never got them. I checked my phone records and it said I called her over 100 times. Not only that but I remember some of the calls went straight to voicemail and it was her voice recording.

We spent the rest of the day applying for jobs around Pensacola. After I dropped her off at her friends house, I drove Daniel behind a building into a vacant lot and we went to sleep. I was homeless for about another 3 weeks but at least I had Daniel. He was there for moral support and to also pass the time with conversation while we looked for jobs. Our funds were limited so we had to really budget our expenses. Luckily Little Caesars has their $5 large pizza, so that was a lifesaver. Most of my money went towards gas for my car.

We went all the way from Pensacola to Fort Walton Beach looking for jobs. After we ran out of money, I told Daniel we had to go our separate ways. I told him that since he left the homeless shelter on his own accord, if he were to ask them, they would probably let him back in. I dropped him off at the entrance, and I haven't seen him since. I called him about a week later and he told me that they only let him stay for 3 days. They had a program where you could stay as long as you want if you had a job, but you had to give a certain percentage of what you made to the shelter. Daniel told them he was looking for a job, but they said he actually had to be employed to stay there. After I dropped Daniel off I drove without stopping back to Georgia to live with my parents. I found a job as a security guard and I am still employed today. My goal is to never be homeless again.

So what do you think? Was I wrong in not going to the chapel service? Should I have just went even though my medicine would have caused me to hallucinate?

DISCLAIMER: I actually had 2 jobs as a security guard the entire time I was homeless. The problem was the companies I worked for weren't very reputable so finding work was a nightmare. It was also winter in Florida so you have to realize that there weren't many places in need of security. Personally I think the chaplain was a complete hypocrite. Would Jesus have done the same thing in that situation? Do you think my first amendment rights were violated? What would you have done in this situation? Do you think it's fair that the homeless shelter only helps people who are actively employed or follow their religious beliefs? What if the tables were turned? What if I refused to let a homeless Christian stay in my shelter because he didn't attend a science seminar every night? Please leave your comments below.

Tl;Dr Christian pastor kicks me out of homeless shelter because I refused to attend his church service.

EDIT: The name of the homeless shelter is the Waterfront Rescue Mission in Pensacola Florida.

REASON WHY I UPDATED: 2 years ago Daniel died of a drug overdose and his girlfriend deleted his Facebook account. When I dropped Daniel off at the homeless shelter I had every intention of seeing him again, and we talked all the time even though I was back in Georgia with my parents. Daniel was a devout Christian, but the pastor didn't even let him stay there long enough to get his life together. I would give anything to have Daniel back in my life, but I can't change the past. He will however always remain my best friend, and if there is a Heaven I hope one day I will see him again. Now I am currently unemployed, broke, and in no better of a situation than I was then. My illness is crippling and the depression only makes it worse.

Thank you for reading!

ORIGINAL POST : https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/49ram1/i_got_kicked_out_of_a_homeless_shelter_for_not/

#reddit

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generalalpha · 7 years

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//your birthday wasn’t three weeks ago what are you talking about

The wasteland was nothing but dry heat today, had been for the past few days, as the swell of springtime weather bled swiftly into summer. Not quite there yet for the scorching heat that had kept York inside whenever possible before the war, but… getting there. He wasn’t looking forward to the stifling summer heat in this place - winter had been odd enough - and frankly, he could only view the weather with disdain. It was nothing but another sign that this place was real, that the wasteland wasn’t some elaborate hallucination or dream, and that York had crawled out of an empty vault into hell.

At the very least, these kind of thoughts no longer left him with dread winding around his spine. He wasn’t in denial so hard that he refused to acknowledge his past. Signs of growth or whatever.

The past week, as the temperature climbed, York had been dragging Daniel with him along to various outposts and settlements because goddamned Preston could never leave him alone. Listening to the man and following up on attacks or kidnappings or the ‘Hey, General, could you do us a favor and kill those ghouls and raiders nearby?’ -

It was something to do. Better than focusing on the threatening presence of a giant fucking airship or avoiding this Railroad business or going back to the Institute and dealing with petty spoiled scientists and his dying nephew. It was too much to deal with sometimes. All the time, actually.

So he found himself and Daniel a much quieter place to lay low for a bit. One of the many houses out past the Boston city limits that was still standing. Not too dirty inside, well enough off the beaten track that raiders and scavengers were a rarity.

Of course he wasn’t about to let Daniel into the place before he had some kind of security.

Which, really, was foolish seeing as Daniel himself knew better how to wire traps into floors and layer hidden defenses and - and do smart shit. York’s idea of defense was creating missile turrets that stared down menacingly at anyone who approached. He had lined the Castle entrance with the beasts and would have put up twice as many here if Daniel hadn’t told him it was a stupid idea.

That had been ages - weeks - ago. The stop here now was because York had tired of settlers calling him a title he never wanted. Needed some alone time.

There was a fire pit filled with blackened and burned out embers to his left, Dogmeat sitting beside that. The loyal dog hadn’t even paused before following York and Daniel out of the Castle when they left. York sat on the back steps of the house, looking at Dogmeat as he chewed slowly, eating a couple pills from the box in his hands. Hard to miss the dog’s flickering gaze from York’s hands to his mouth. “You don’t want these,” York said to the animal. “Not good for a dog.”

Dogmeat licked his lips anyway, tail thumping in the dirt.

York tossed another pill in his mouth and pointed with the box toward the workshop. It was really nothing but a shed they had cleaned up to find shelves and a really old, broken workbench in. Hadn’t taken too long to fix it. “Go bother Daniel,” York said, waving his arm in the direction of the building. “Maybe he’s got scraps for you.”

Dogmeat didn’t move.

With a huff, York shoved the tin of pills back into one pocket and stood. “Alright, fine,” he said to the dog. “I’ll go with you.” He didn’t even have to say a thing before Dogmeat followed. A glance back showed him Dogmeat’s eyes staring at him, tail wagging lazily behind him. Turning away again, York said, loudly, “Still not getting anything.”

He spotted Daniel before he even made it to the shed. The heavy wooden door was open, light on inside, and Daniel was hunched over that sad little workbench. It was easy to hate the wasteland and the bullshit York constantly had to wade through, but Daniel kind of made it better. Just enough so that there were times York enjoyed this place.

The dog helped to, but … Daniel was amazing. Fantastic. All his sarcastic quips and attitude. How he still wanted to talk before shooting, even in this world. The amount of times York let him talk before punching someone (who rightfully deserved it) was higher than it should be.

At the doorway to the workshop, York leaned against the wall, taking the time to just look at Daniel. The heat had him in short sleeves and pants, tight enough to hug his hips but loose enough to, sadly, not give York a good look at the curve of his ass. As York watched him, Daniel reached for something further on the workbench. HIs shirt rode up slightly, just enough for York’s eyes to settle on a strip of pale flesh.

And then Dogmeat was trotting past him, barking to get Daniel’s attention. Daniel dropped what he was holding, turning around and kneeling to greet Dogmeat. He glanced up to catch York’s eye as he scratched Dogmeat behind his ears. “Hey,” he said. “Thought you were hunting.”

Right. Hunting. York had really meant to find them something to eat - a stag preferably - but after finding an old campsite not far from the house, York had called it quits. He had found jerky, some bandages, and half a tin of berry mentats. And he had helped himself to those liberally. He shrugged at Daniel, not moving from the wall. “Ah, didn’t find much. Not unless you want old jerky.”

Daniel huffed a quiet laugh. “No. Not really.” He gave Dogmeat one last pat and turned back to the bench. “Don’t we need more food, though?”

“You can go hunting tomorrow,” York said. “I’ll stick around and play with things in here.”

Daniel shot York a look over his shoulder, one of those annoyed glances that York always found endearing. “I’m working,” he said.

“Same thing.”

Judging by the way Daniel rolled his eyes and turned away, he didn’t agree. He said, “You gonna stand in the door or did you need something?”

York was running his eyes over Daniel’s body again. He paused to glance at Dogmeat, sitting calmly by Daniel’s feet. Technically, he had already done what he came over here for: gotten Dogmeat to bother Daniel instead of him. But now that he stood there -

Daniel threw another glance over his shoulder. “York. What’d you want?”

The words were out of his mouth before he could think about it. “I was thinking about how your skin looks.” He paused, assessed the raise of Daniel’s eyebrows, and added, “Specifically when you’re flushed and sweating. It’s a good look on you.”

“Right…” Daniel gestured at the workbench with one hand, eyes still on York. “Pretty sure I know what that means, but, like I said, I’m working here.”

York smiled. Daniel turned back to the table. After a couple seconds, York pushed off the doorframe, walking over to where Daniel stood. Out the corner of his eye, he saw Daniel freeze in the act of picking up a handgun. York pressed his chest against Daniel’s chest in time to feel the other man sigh. He set his hands on Daniel’s arms, right below his elbows.

“Seriously.” Daniel shook York’s hands off, but didn’t bother turning his head. So York pressed tighter against him, sliding his arms around his boyfriend’s waist. “York. Busy.”

“It can wait.”

“You can wait. I wanna finish this.”

York didn’t respond. He eased one hand underneath Daniel’s shirt, feeling the sharp breath the other man took as he did. Felt the skin beneath his hand. York laughed under his breath, leaning down to press his lips to Daniel’s neck. The instant his lips brushed the skin, Daniel twisted in his arms, reaching for York’s arms and pushing him back.

“Okay,” Daniel said. His hands were on York’s biceps, a light frown on his face. “Stop right there. I told you, I’m busy.”

York shrugged. He took a step back, raising his hands in defeat. “Alright, Danny.” His smile widened at the irritation that flashed in Daniel’s eyes at the nickname. “You do your work. Must be really important, huh?”

Once York’s hands left him, Daniel let his arms fall back to his sides. “Yeah, it is,” he said. “I’m sure you’ve got something to do too, so - “

“I’d rather do you.”

The look on Daniel’s face was entirely unimpressed. “Just gonna throw subtlety out the window,” he muttered.

York was grinning now. He stuck his hands in pockets, rocking on his heels. “Honesty not doin’ it either? Damn.”

Daniel shook his head, turning back to the workbench. Not quick enough to hide the smile that was creeping over his face. “Don’t bother me,” he said. “Go do something else.”

For the moment, York was satisfied to have at least distracted Daniel for a moment. He wasn’t too pleased by the idea of leaving, however, not just yet. So as Daniel insisted on working, York swept his eyes over the small shed, eyeing several places he could sit and wait. There was an old chair in the corner that looked as if it had once belonged in a dining room - a gun sat in it currently, partially taken apart and left there the day before by York himself. He had meant to finish that. There was also a couch - half of it taken up by both of their packs, a small table with its own chair, and the workbench Daniel was currently working at.

Really, there could be no better way to irritate Daniel than to literally sit in front of him.

If York hadn’t been so set on getting Daniel to sleep with him, he might have gone for that. As it was, he took a seat on one end of the couch, leaning against the arm and propping his head up in one hand. The shades he wore blocked the glare of the sunlight that streamed in through the door and made it nice and easy to just watch as Daniel worked.

Mainly, York stared blatantly at Daniel’s ass and wished those pants were a touch more snug.

Once, a smattering of nails drew his attention to Dogmeat stretching out on the wooden floor. And then it was right back to Daniel, just in time to see Daniel staring back at him. York said, “Yes, Daniel?”

“You’re just gonna sit there?” Daniel asked. “Really?”

York nodded. “Views rather nice.” At that, Daniel tried and failed to stifle a laugh, turning his back on York once more. And York sat in silence for all of another minute before leaning forward and speaking again. “Y’know, view’d be much nicer if you weren’t wearing clothes.”

“Then working on a gun would be a bit more dangerous,” Daniel replied.

“Who says you’d be working on a gun?”

“Me. Shut up now.”

York listened. For about five seconds. “What if I sucked your cock while you worked?”

He could see how Daniel faltered for a split second. “What - No, York!”

“You’re turning down a blowjob?” York stood again, making his way back to Daniel. He set his hands on Daniel’s hips, slipping his fingers past the waistband of his pants. “And I was being so generous,” he said. “What exactly are you doing?”

“Now you’re interested?” Daniel sounded annoyed, but he wasn’t doing much else other than holding his revolver in one hand. The other was laid flat on the workbench. “I’m going to add a barrel extension, so -”

York hummed in agreement, low in his throat, and eased his fingers deeper into Daniel’s pants. “Sounds fascinating,” he said. “Better than scopes on pistols at least.”

“Nothing wrong with a scope on a pistol,” Daniel said. He twisted around just enough to frown up at York.

“Scopes belong on rifles,” York said. He slid one hand from Daniel’s pants to coast under his shirt, fingers splayed across Daniel’s stomach. “You know, I can teach you how to snipe.” He felt the breath Daniel took, watched as Daniel looked away from him. York pushed on Daniel’s stomach, smiling to himself when the other man leaned back into him. “Or, if you don’t wanna snipe, I can help you mod these damn pistols of yours.”

Daniel huffed a quiet laugh. “I can mod my own guns. It’d be easier if you weren’t all over me when I work.”

“Can’t help it,” York said. He pressed himself right against Daniel as he spoke. “There’s just something about you.”

“You’re persistent today.”

“I want to fuck you,” York said. “I saw you standing here and started thinking about how you look when I’m inside you.” In his arms, Daniel stayed silent, hands still frozen and holding tightly to the gun. “Thought of you, panting and flushed and wanting… God, and the noises you make. Never thought I’d like having someone be so loud.” York paused, canting his hips forward just enough to brush his hardening cock against Daniel’s ass. He leaned down now, to speak into the other man’s ear. “I could fuck you right here, hard enough to make you scream. Wouldn’t you like that?”

Daniel was tense. Before he spoke, he took a deep breath - and York coasted his hand up to the other man’s chest, digging his nails in lightly. The hand still easing down Daniel’s pants paused, rubbing circles over his hip. “Fuckin’ hell,” Daniel hissed. He raised his voice to a normal level with his next words: “Can’t I finish this first? Y’know, working? Important?”

York pressed a kiss by Daniel’s jaw. “Doesn’t look like you’re working anymore.”

He wasn’t. Daniel still held onto the gun and his modification, but he had yet to move again. He pressed back against York, let York rock his hips forward slowly to grind against him. And, slowly, Daniel leaned his head back to rest against York, letting the taller man plant soft kisses at his neck.

Daniel breathed out, “You’re the worst.”

York responded by biting at his jawline - light, but enough to make Daniel jerk just a bit. Against his skin, York said, “I could bend you over this workbench.”

“The place where I’m working,” Daniel said. Despite what he kept saying, when York nudged at his legs, he parted them - not a lot, but enough for York to grin against his neck. “You are not fucking me on the workbench.”

York hummed, a low noise of acknowledgement. He was still rubbing soft circles into Daniel’s skin and stopped to slide his hand down further, to palm over Daniel’s crotch. Over Daniel’s underwear, York felt the semi-hard length of his cock and bit his boyfriends’ neck again. “Doesn’t seem like you’re too keen on working,” he said, tracing over Daniel’s length with two fingers.

Daniel gave a sharp intake of breath. He bucked forward against York’s hand. “Well,” he said, “i was working, but then this jackass had to bother me.”

“Sounds like you’re real torn up about it,” York said, amused. He was tempted to push Daniel’s pants down, free his cock and grasp it, stroke it until Daniel was pleading for more. Before he could, Daniel twisted in his arms, letting go of what he still held and reaching for York instead. One hand held onto the wrist of the hand down his pants, the other landed on York’s face as Daniel caught his lips in a kiss.

York grinned when Daniel pulled away, watching his boyfriend with a smug look in his eyes - one that Daniel couldn’t see, thanks for the shades still covering his eyes.

Daniel said, “You’re a dick,” and York pressed another kiss to his mouth. “Seriously, York. A fuckin’ dick.”

“You like my dick,” York said. There was a haze of desire starting to cloud Daniel’s eyes and it was fascinating to look at.

The unamused look on Daniel’s face did little to dull that clouded gaze. “Really?”

York shrugged. “You expect me to have something else to say when you’re looking at me like that?” He slid his hands from Daniel only to grasp the other man at the hips and turn him so that they faced one another. “You’re lucky I haven’t started stripping you yet.” Like this, with Daniel facing him, York was free to drag his eyes down the other’s body, taking in the flush on his cheeks and how his pants hung low on one hip - courtesy of York - and, of course, the growing erection pressing against his jeans.

He said, “God, you’re amazing,” and slid forward, forcing Daniel to spread his legs, and settled between them. His hands left Daniel, gripping the bench behind them as he leaned forward to kiss Daniel again.

Daniel pushed him back with a hand to his chest, ignoring the frown crossing York’s face. “If we’re doing this, you’re not wearing those shades.”

“What’s wrong with my shades?”

“You aren’t fucking me with shades on.”

York huffed a laugh. “Take ‘em off, then.” He’d do it himself if he was willing to take his eyes off the other for even a minute.

When Daniel pulled the shades off, he paused in the middle of folding them up. “Are you… high?”

York blinked. “What, you gotta problem with that too?”

A smile was tugging at the corner of Daniel’s lips. He shook his head slightly, turning just to place the shades on the workbench. “Explains why you’re so chatty about how you want to fuck me,” he said.

York smiled, pushing closer to the other man and only stopped when his hips pressed against Daniel’s. He felt Daniel’s cock pressing against him as they kissed again, deeper and full of the heat that kept coursing through his veins. Daniel’s hands were on him - gripping his shirt tightly, holding the back of his neck - and York grasped at him as well. Held tightly to Daniel’s hips. He ground into Daniel, and the answering groan went straight to his groin.

It was a shame he couldn’t just make out with Daniel without having to break for air. As he pulled back, York stared down at Daniel, eyes dropping to his swollen, parted lips.

Daniel said, “Lube…?”

York sighed, reluctant to draw away. “Right. Yeah.” He kissed Daniel again, short and chaste, and then turned. “It’s in my ...my bag.”

Lying on the floor just behind the two of them was Dogmeat. York had forgotten about the dog, and while he stood there, Dogmeat looked back at him and wagged his tail. He had no care in the world. Damn dog.

Daniel’s hand was on his back. “York?” he said. “What are you doin’?”

“Dogmeat’s watching us,” York said without taking his eyes off the dog.

Daniel sighed. “So send him away.”

“It’s totally weird that he’d watch us fuck, isn’t it?”

Daniel slapped him on the back. “Send him out.”

York blinked at the sharp contact. “Right. Dogmeat.” He raised his voice, used the commanding tone he did with random Minutemen soldiers, the same one he had used with lower ranking soldiers in his army days. Dogmeat looked at him attentively. York stretched one arm out, pointed out the shed door. “Go.”

Dogmeat stood, then tilted his head. Looked from the shed door back to York.

“Go,” York repeated. “Guard.”

At that, Dogmeat left, claws clicking against the wooden floor, disappearing out the door.

York threw a glance at Daniel over his shoulder, grinned at him - and got another one of those unimpressed looks in return - and then went to retrieve the lube from his bag. Not that it was anything like the lube he remembered, something created by wastelanders who understood the need for the stuff. But, hey. Lube was lube. Even if it had taken him awhile to get used to the idea of using something crafted by creepy wanderers in an atomic wasteland.

Everything in this place had taken time to get used to.

He went back to Daniel with the small container of lube, and wasted no time in claiming another kiss. He set the lube on the workbench while he leaned in, then took hold of Daniel’s jaw with one hand, sliding the other behind to curl into his hair. Daniel kissed him back with fervor, opening his mouth at York’s insistence, For a few moments, that’s all there was - hands grasping at the other, fiery kisses, teeth dragging over lips. York dropped his hands to Daniel’s belt one of the times they separated - still so close they shared the same air, so close he felt Daniel’s breath on his skin.

He popped Daniel’s pants loose, sliding them down the other man’s hips before Daniel grasped his wrists. “Not on the workbench,” he said.

York knew that. He also knew that it’d be easier to get the prep done here than where he was going to fuck Daniel. He kissed Daniel’s forehead instead of saying that. “I know what you said.” He pushed his hands down further and Daniel’s grip was loose enough to let him. Another couple seconds, and Daniel was helping to shrug his pants to the floor. York nudged them aside, waited until Daniel had kicked his shoes off, and then took Daniel by the hips, and lifted him onto the bench.

“Y’know this is the opposite of what I said,” Daniel protested. He moved back when York pressed against his hips despite his words.

“Trust me,” York said. “This’ll be easier in the long run.”

“How?”

“Just take off the boxers, will you?”

Daniel gave him a look, one that was meant to be unimpressed and annoyed but didn’t quite make it there. Too much lust in his eyes.

York slid his fingers under the band of the underwear, pulling impatiently. “Promise you won’t get a splinter in your ass.”

At that, Daniel snorted, a ghost of a smile lifting his lips. He raised his hips then and let York pull the clothing away.

York kissed him again, just because he could. As he reached for the lube, Daniel said, “And why are you still clothed?”

“Kinda hard to fuck you if you’re wearing pants,” York said, applying lube to his fingers. His eyes were trailing over Daniel’s bare hips.

Daniel looked as if he was going to speak again, so York pressed his slick fingers against the man’s hole, caressing the skin there. He watched as Daniel tensed before leaning back, supporting himself on his elbows. He smirked. “Don’t get smug,” Daniel said. “You haven’t even done anything.”

York took one of Daniel’s thighs in his free hand. He said, “I’m going to make you scream,” while easing one finger into the other’s hole. He raked his eyes over Daniel’s face, rubbing circles into his thigh with his thumb. Daniel held his gaze as York pressed his finger further inside.

“You can go faster,” Daniel said.

“Yeah?” York put the tip of a second finger at Daniel’s entrance, putting pressure there while he pumped the first one in and out. “You’re still demanding. Don’t you want to enjoy this, Daniel?”

Daniel huffed a breath. “Sure, but you interrupted my work.”

York pushed the second finger in, watching as Daniel’s eyes slid off him. “For a good reason.” He was rapidly losing interest in talking, burning desire stampeding through his veins. He set to working Daniel open, watching raptly as his boyfriend tensed beneath his hands before relaxing again. York’s cock throbbed in his jeans and he eased a third finger in. Soon, Daniel leaned his head back, exhaling a shaky breath; York followed him, leaning down to bite at the nape of his neck.

It drew a strangled groan from Daniel’s throat - and that, in turn, drove a lance of heat straight to York’s cock. He kissed the bite mark, licked over it soothingly, and bit down again higher up on Daniel’s neck. By now, Daniel was pushing against his fingers, seeking more. A hand latched onto York’s arm, tight, nails digging into the fabric of his shirt. “C’mon,” Daniel said. His voice was light, breathy - full of lust. York loved it. “York - “

He spoke against Daniel’s neck: “You want my cock that badly?” Alright. So maybe he wasn’t tired of talking just yet. “Want me inside you, filling you, fucking you?”

Daniel’s answer was just another groan, though this one sounded like a curse swallowed in his throat.

York angled his fingers, searching for the right spot inside his boyfriend that would make him moan. “Use your words, Daniel,” he said, lifting his head to stare down the other man.

“Fuck you, you son of a - “ He cut off with a barely contained moan, York smirking at him. He pressed against that same spot, watching as Daniel’s keened. He groaned another curse word but York didn’t hear him, too busy watching as his cock twitched. “You started this,” Daniel choked out. “Fuck me already.”

Couldn’t argue with that kind of eagerness. York slid his fingers from Daniel, moving forward to capture another kiss. His still slick fingers spread over Daniel’s hip and he pulled, moving backward and dragging Daniel off the workbench. Refused to end the kiss, though; that, he deepened. They were still kissing - messy, open-mouthed - when York backed Daniel to the wall by the workbench. He pulled away from Daniel with one last bite to his lower lip, dragging his hands from the others’ hips.

Daniel watched him as he picked up the lube again. “The wall?” he asked, panting. “I mean, we have a couch in here but sure, why not the wall.”

York undid his belt while he answered: “This’ll be better.” He dropped the belt next to Daniel’s pants before returning, lube in one hand. Daniel’s eyes were on his hands as York unzipped his pants - and then Daniel reached forward knocking his hands away. Daniel pushed his pants down, boxers with them, to free York’s erection. He watched as Daniel’s swallowed, and as one hand curled around his shaft, York pressed a kiss to Daniel’s mouth.

Daniel was stroking his cock, rough hand against the flesh, and the combined pain and pleasing friction had York groaning into the kiss. They separated and he said, “Use lube if you’re gonna do that,” and a moment later, Daniel’s hand was back on him, cool and slick and all too wonderful.

He didn’t even stop the motion when he said, “I want you inside me,” in this low, husky voice that had York kissing him again, hard and desperate. He pulled away from Daniel’s hand, grasping the other man’s hips tightly.

They didn’t part until Daniel had his arms around York’s neck, until York was hoisting Daniel up against the wall. He shifted his hands from Daniel’s hips to his thighs, digging in tightly as Daniel hooked one leg loosely around him. They had done this before, after adrenaline from a firefight left them both yearning for release of tension; Daniel waited until York reached between them with one hand, grasping his aching cock and teasing at Daniel’s entrance.

This close, York could feel Daniel’s breath when he spoke. “Do it. I want you now.”

He listened, shifting forward until he was nearly chest-to-chest with Daniel, easing the head of his cock inside. While Daniel adjusted to the stretch, York hauled his other leg up; he rubbing soothing circles into Daniel’s thighs, laying soft kisses across his face until Daniel placed one on his lips. “Good?”

Daniel’s legs tightened around his waist. “Yeah.”

York moved, pushing into Daniel slowly. Shallow thrusts so Daniel would adjust as they went, so he wouldn’t cause too much pain. It took self-control not to slam into Daniel, fuck him as hard as he could against this wall - not yet, not until his boyfriend was ready for it. He felt Daniel’s hands gripping his shoulders, one sliding to the base of his neck - felt the tightness around his cock as he pushed further and further inside.

And Daniel was panting, groaning when York thrust into him in a way he liked. His eyes were unfocused as he let the pleasure take him over. York darted his gaze over his face - the flush on his cheeks, spreading down his neck, his parted lips - and revelled in every noise that came from Daniel’s throat.

Daniel’s moaned when York sped up, arching his back and trying to push his hips down to meet York’s thrusts. He cursed under his breath, hands slipping down York’s arms, nails scratching over cloth of the shirt, over the skin of his biceps. York leaned down, biting into Daniel’s neck again, listening to the moans and panting breaths so close to his ear as he fucked Daniel harder. He closed his eyes to focus on the sounds, releasing Daniel’s neck to release hot breaths against his skin.

He felt his pants falling the faster he rammed into Daniel, until they hung around his hips, exposing half his ass to the dry air.

There was a moment where Daniel keened - arched his back again, released the loudest moan York had heard so far - and York aimed there again. Even though the haze of desire, he wanted to hear that again, see Daniel unravel as he gave punishing thrusts into the exact right spot inside him. It’d be easy in this position, he was sure - but the muscles in his arms were beginning to ache from holding the other man up.

York stopped with one hard, deep thrust. He lifted his head from Daniel, pulling away just enough to let air pass between them. And then he paused, struck by the look of Daniel and how beautifully desperate he was looking.

Daniel was frowning, wiggling his hips to try and achieve friction. “What the fuck are you - ?”

“Arms hurt,” York panted. “Changing positions.” He looked from Daniel to the workbench and then moved the other man, setting him on the edge of it. One arm let go of Daniel, sweeping behind him and knocking anything in arms reach off the bench, sending it clattering to the ground. And then he was kissing Daniel again, running his hands from the other man’s hips underneath his shirt, over his stomach and sides. He eased Daniel onto his back, waited until he felt a hand crawling over his own back, and then resumed the same pace.

The new angle meant had to find that spot again, aiming his thrusts until Daniel let out another deep, long moan. He had one hand on Daniel’s hip, holding on tight enough to leave bruises; Daniel’s legs were hooked once more around his waist, heels pressing against his lower back, holding him tight and urging him to fuck harder. York had his other hand planted on the workbench by Daniel’s head, sliding minutely against the wood surface with each hard thrust. He was bent over Daniel, sucking dark marks over his neck, shoving his shirt up to leave more on his chest.

The sound of skin against skin was an undercurrent to York’s own ragged breaths and Daniel’s increasingly loud noises. The slight creaking of the workbench mingled with it all. There was another clatter as something fell from the other end, another noise neither of them heard.

Daniel had slid a hand between them, stroking himself. He choked out, “Fuck - York - “ in between moans and breathless praises.

York pulled back instantly, moving both hands to Daniel’s hips once more. He lifted, pulling Daniel back towards him to give a better angle and watched as Daniel reached his end. There was always something mesmerizing about Daniel at this moment, when his climax hit at York’s hands and he shook and trembled. His legs were even tighter around York’s waist - and that along had York’s pace turning erratic. The feeling of Daniel tightening and convulsing around his cock, that glorious heat becoming even more so, it sent shivers down his spine and that familiar heat coiling to burst in his gut.

Not too long after Daniel, York came as well, releasing inside Daniel as his hips stuttered to a stop. He let go of Daniel’s hips, the other’s legs still hooked around him- loose now, barely holding on at all - and relaxed above his boyfriend.

Daniel was carding a hand through York’s mohawk, pulling lightly at his hair. “Said not to fuck me on the workbench,” he said, quiet. His breathing had even somewhat in contrast to York’s hard panting. “Forget how to listen?”

Instead of giving into the bait, York stared down at Daniel and said, “I ever tell you how goddamn amazing you are?” He grinned at the laugh it got, kissing Daniel softly. “ ‘Cause you are goddamn amazing. Greatest fuckin’ thing in this world.”

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