#And kept repeating he wished he met me sooner

[hiraya-sa-dilim]

did i just go on my first ever date?? who knows

[allywthsr]

EPILOGUE | (l.norris)

summary: epilogue of Lan on Raya! What happened the last three years and another big question.

wordcount: 2.1k words

pairing: landonorris x fem!reader

warnings: miscarriage, getting a dog

notes: someone requested this and I thought why not? Give me ideas in my inbox for specific things and maybe it won’t be the last time you hear from these two🫶🏼 it’s short, I’m sorry but I didn’t want to make it too big. comment your thoughts!

part one part two part three

It’s been three years since you met Lando, let’s see what happened.

In the beginning, it was hard for you two to see each other often, with Lando living in Monaco and you in London, you couldn’t just pop over, and with his job as well, Lando travels a lot, and with your job, you had to stay put in one place. So whenever he was in England for the MTC, he came over for a few days to spend with you and whenever you had free time, you would fly over to him or come with him for a race. The whole time you kept in touch via FaceTime or texting, there were weeks when you would see his family more often than you saw him.

Because of the vacation, you created a bond with his family, especially his sisters, and loved catching up with them, they would visit you in London a lot, Lando was always jealous, but you had to remind him, that it was his own decision to move to Monaco.

After a year of a long-distance relationship you decided to move together, temporarily.

Lando moved most of his stuff in your apartment, to see whether you could endure each other or not.

But you did. You could remember one specific evening where it was still fresh with the moving together and Max and Pietra came over. At some point, all of you were hammered and Max decided it was time for Mario Kart. While he and his girlfriend were playing against each other, you were screaming all sorts of advice to Pietra, while Lando hugged you tight to keep you from it. The whole day he had been touchy, squeezing your side and hiding his head behind your back, because he couldn’t stand to see Max driving into the wall for the fifth time. You wished someone had documented this moment, because of how sweet he had been, he was truly like one of these Pinterest boyfriends.

But it all worked out, and the temporary move in became a full move-in.

You two moved into a bigger apartment just half a year later, wanting more space.

That’s also where some negative events happened, just one and a half years into the relationship you got pregnant, it’s not like you planned it, it more or less, just happened.

You had a really bad cold and the doctor gave you medication which apparently messed with your birth control, so when your period didn’t come and you began to puke every morning, you got suspicious. You took a test when Lando was at the MTC, doing a few last tests, before the season started and when it came back positive, you almost fainted. This was not on your bingo card for the year, nor for the next year, after all, you only were in a relationship with Lando for a year and a half, not enough to become pregnant. You took two more tests and when there was no denying that a little human was growing in your stomach, you couldn’t wait for Lando to get home. You tried to call him and say you needed him back sooner but he was in the sim and important meetings where he was forced to switch off his phone.

Once he finally came through the door, you ran and hugged him tight, he had to promise you to not get mad, which he did, and when you told him, you‘ve never seen him react so slowly. At first, he couldn’t believe what you were saying, staring at you in disbelief, and when you repeated it twice he finally hugged you back. Obviously, it wasn’t planned, but he was still over the moon.

In the following weeks, Lando had been the sweetest boyfriend you could imagine, bringing you food, holding your hair and rubbing your back while you puked every morning, cuddling with you and stroking your belly every chance he got. After just one month of discovering your pregnancy, you woke up to really bad stomach cramps, Lando was lying asleep next to you when you saw that the bedsheet beneath you was completely red. You shook Lando awake and he rushed you to the hospital but there was nothing the doctors could’ve done, by the time you got there it was already too late.

The next few weeks have been rough, you barely talked, you barely touched or looked at each other. It was like living with a stranger, saying good morning and goodnight, maybe a nod when he asked you if you wanted to eat something, but other than that, you couldn’t. You felt super guilty for not being able to carry the life inside of you, Lando didn’t know about your thoughts but you had them and they weren’t pretty.

One afternoon Lando basically dragged you in his car and when you arrived, it was a therapist. The sessions had helped you, your mental health, and your relationship, after just one month it was like it never had happened. Not that you forgot about your little baby, but Lando and you talked again, you started to be intimate again, and it felt like it was back to normal. In the backyard of his parents, both of you planted a tree to remind your unborn child, you could see the tree grow like your child should have grown up, but that’s life.

Every day the burden got lighter, until you could fully let go.

The next year and a half was spent with so much love and light. Lando and you started to build a house, it’s something he always wanted to do and so you both got a lot near his parents, where the house was built. You moved in after a year and it was perfect, you were so damn grateful to have Lando by your side, without him you could never have the life you have now. You quit your job and started working at Quadrant, you were behind the scenes and did office stuff, keeping everything organized, that way you could travel with Lando to every race and not be unemployed since you were sure that the boss wouldn’t fire you. After all, you pleasured him nearly every night.

You still went on every Norris family holiday and his family loved you as much as you loved them. You were happy that you had such a good bond with them, whenever Lando was at the MTC and you were bored, you went to his parent's house, enjoying some drinks with Cisca.

All in all, you were the happiest girl in the world, you were sure. He was spoiling you whenever he wanted, buying you things where he would tell you, that he reminded him of you. That Louis Vuitton bag? It was your favorite color and he couldn’t wait to see you wearing it. Bringing you your favorite chocolate from the store, when he only wanted to get gas? He needed to because he knew that your period was due soon. But it was not all materialistic things he spoiled you with.

Kisses on your forehead? All. The. Time.

Needing a hug before every race? Yep.

Making sweet love to you? Every night.

He was addicted to your pussy, he had to be. He worshipped it, taking his time, whenever he went down on you (and it happened all the time).

The topic of kids was still on the table. He wanted to have some after he retired, but when you were pregnant, he was the happiest he‘d ever been. With that in mind, he wanted you to be pregnant soon, you tried to keep his head calm and remind him how hard it could be to become pregnant again after a miscarriage, and how scared you were after the experience. He understood that but still rooted for you to get pregnant.

”You would look so hot with a bump.“

”I can’t wait to talk to my child every day through your belly.“

”Y/N, I want to put a baby in you!“

”I need a mini Y/N and a mini Lando.“

”You‘d be the milf and I’d be the dilf.“

”Imagine them in a race suit and sitting in my car?“

”We could do a quadrant baby merch series!“

The list goes on and on. But he was right, he would be the hottest dilf in history.

Oh and the dog that you both got? Adorable! You got it shortly after you moved into your forever home, it was your favorite breed and you named the little brown dog mocha. He came with you to every race and followed you everywhere, even going to the toilet alone was becoming harder with the puppy needing you. You three went on long walks together through the forest, and when he got older Lando even took him jogging. Mocha wasn’t the happiest about running several miles but when he was with his dad, it didn’t matter. One of the funniest moments was when Lando made a custom LN4 dog bucket hat and sat Mocha in his car, the little dog didn’t know what was happening but he loved the attention he got, the people were taking pictures of him, talking to him and petting him and that was all he needed, but only when both of you were around. Mocha needed both of you, the amount of pictures Lando and you had on your phone of just Mocha and the other cuddling in the evening on the couch or some hotel bed, was insane.

But back to where you are right now, in your backyard. How did you get here? More to that in a second.

The house you both built was perfect, it was modern but homey. The high ceilings were paired with white walls and light wood-colored details, like the Kitchen that had a wood-colored work surface and the living room that had a wood-colored coffee table just like the TV wall. Lando and you loved designing it, taking your time to figure out what you really wanted. You had several guest rooms, that could be turned into kid's rooms, whenever you needed to, Lando built himself a gaming room and you both shared an office. In the basement was a billiard table and other fun things. The backyard was huge, a lot of trees were standing around the property and you loved it, just like Mocha. The little brown dog loved to run around and catch every ball you threw him.

And that was where you were standing right now, the backyard, it was already dark outside but the candles that were lit, made the place glow. You had been cooking dinner when you heard Mocha bark without stopping, in fear that he caught a squirrel again and Lando took it away from him, you made your way to the glass door, but seeing Lando standing surrounded by electric candles, wasn’t something you expected.

”Lando? What is this?“

”Come here, love.“

You stepped closer to where Lando was standing and slowly it dawned on you. While taking your hand, he started to speak.

”Y/N, I’ve known you for more than three years and I must admit, it had been the best years of my life.“

You chuckled.

”We had many ups and downs, but whatever it was, we got through it and it only made us stronger. We‘re already a family with Mocha…“

You looked at the dog that was circling you both, not knowing what was happening.

”…and I can’t wait to grow a bigger family with you. I love you so much, even with your sweatpants and my hoodie, socks that have holes in them, and messy hair. I’ve never seen a much more beautiful woman than you and I‘m so happy I went on Raya that day to get a quick fuck, who would’ve thought that I would find you, my soulmate. I love to play Mario Kart with you at two a.m., and I will braid your hair for the rest of your life, with a face mask in my face that does absolutely nothing, except steal your money. I‘m super thankful for you, for every race you join, how you’re not mad at me for putting a picture of you on the back of my helmet, directly in front of the camera, so everyone can see you while I‘m driving and that way you’re always with me, for every kiss… the list could go on and on, but you know this stuff. I need you in my life, and I will not let you go, so…“

He went down on one knee and now it was more than clear what was happening, with glossy eyes you followed Lando’s movements, as he pulled out a little box and opened it, before taking one of your hands in his‘ again, looking at you with a big smile and the same glossy eyes as you.

”Y/N Y/L/N, will you marry me?“

a/n: tell me your favorite dog breed in the comments

[lancermylove]

Chapter 11 (N.SFW)

➣ Pairing: Demon brothers, Royals, Solomon with fem!Reader. ➣ Warning: N.SFW ➣ Word Count: 2,721 ➣ Chapters [SFW]: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] ➣ Chapters [N.SFW]: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

➣ A/N: Merry Christmas Eve!

———————————————

Diavolo took a moment to reflect on what had transpired and sighed in resignation. The prince had hoped this day wouldn't come, but he knew he should have been more prepared as Lucifer was one of the sharpest demons he had met. As the gentle breeze danced over the crackled flames in the backyard firepit, he sighed heavily and steeled himself for Lucifer's verbal onslaught.

"As you are aware of what I wish to discuss with you, let us not waste any time with unnecessary pleasantries or trivialities," the Avatar of Pride began, folding his arms over his chest as he kept his piercing gaze firmly upon the prince. "For what reason did you not approach me directly? Furthermore, why have you brought (y/n) into this matter?"

"I did not intend to hurt you," Diavolo sighed heavily, not daring to meet his gaze. "I knew you would be devastated once you saw those letters."

"Would I have? I am aware of the difficulties my siblings present. However, their actions stem from their playful nature above all else - not the intention to bring suffering upon others," Lucifer spoke with a serious tone, his focus entirely on Diavolo even though the prince refused to meet his gaze. "You requested my obedience centuries prior in exchange for aiding Lilith and granting us a place in Devildom. I willingly accepted. Why did you not anticipate I would comply on this occasion?"

Diavolo's eyes widened as Lucifer posed the question, and he finally met the first brother's gaze. However, he remained silent, prompting Lucifer to continue. "What you have done behind my back can be seen as an act of betrayal; additionally, you have dragged (y/n) into it, aware that she would agree to assist you and, in turn, protect us. All said and done - I comprehend that your intention was not one of harm. For this reason, I cannot remain resentful."

"You are..." Diavolo's eyes widened, and a bright smile curled on his lips. "You are forgiving me?"

Diavolo suddenly threw his arms around Lucifer, who was taken aback but quickly collected himself. The Avatar of Pride cleared his throat in a manner that suggested he had had enough of the embrace. The prince chuckled and withdrew his arms, but seeing Lucifer's serious expression, Diavolo felt slightly uneasy.

"Henceforth, Diavolo, you are not to repeat this. Do not bring (y/n) into your plans behind my back," Lucifer sternly warned him. For a moment, the prince was surprised to hear his tone, as this was the first time the Avatar of Pride had used his manner of tone against him. Usually, the prince would not have taken kindly to this, but he gave a vigorous nod in this situation as it was his mistake.

"Then," Lucifer sighed in relief as he felt the weight of the suspense finally lift. If Diavolo or you had informed him sooner, he would not have spent the entirety of the vacation anxious about what you concealed from him. Now, he could focus his mind on other matters. "Shall we get inside? The weather is chiller than usual."

"Yes, let us return and rejoin the others," Diavolo smiled brightly. Upon entering the living room, Levi prodded the first brother's arm while Beel poked Lucifer's other arm to mimic the Avatar of Envy. Lucifer raised a brow in response, whereas their antics baffled the Prince of Devildom.

"Are you still possessed?" Levi asked with a chuckle.

"Hey, if you are, can I've your credit card?" Mammon beamed, stretching his hand out in anticipation.

"How about a pact with me?" Solomon said with an unusually charming smile.

"And I will take a hug!" Asmo giggled.

The Avatar of Pride cast a vacant stare at his brothers and scowled with intense disapproval towards them, causing a chilling sensation to penetrate deep into their very souls. The brothers swiftly backed away and put on a façade of innocence, gazing around as if they had not said a word to Lucifer. However, Mammon opted to change the conversation's topic.

"Haha...we're just jokin'. Hey, ya guys wanna see somethin' cool? (Y/n) and I found this cave. There's a place in worth seein'. It looks like a location straight outta a movie."

"That sounds quite exciting! Shall we also explore the woods? We have yet to uncover the hidden wonders within." The prince proposed, excited at the prospect of an adventurous expedition with the others.

Upon reaching a decision, the brothers, Diavolo, and Solomon began to depart. However, Asmo noticed Barbatos was still in the kitchen and asked, "You don't want to join us, Barbatos?"

"I still have to finish preparations for the approaching celebration," Barbatos smiled. "I do hope all of you have a safe excursion."

A while later, you came down from your bedroom and noticed Barbatos in the kitchen, but no one else was in sight. The tranquil and comforting aura was undoubtedly a soothing and welcome change from the previous chaotic and bustling atmosphere. "Good morning, Barbatos. Where is everyone?" You asked, walking to the kitchen.

"Good morning, (y/n). Mammon invited everyone to explore a cave with a wondrous sight. Then the younger master proposed a trek through the woods," the butler replied with a friendly inflection, serving you breakfast.

"Thank you. What about your sous chefs? Where are they?" You chuckled and settled on the high bar chair closest to him. As you took a bite of the fruit tart, your palate experienced explosive delights with each mouthful you took. The pastry base proved deliciously rich with subtle undertones of flavor layered together, while the decadent filling proved wonderfully sweet with various fruity hints that blended together perfectly.

"They absconded," he chuckled, but from the tone of his voice, you inferred that Barbatos had already anticipated this eventuality.

"Then allow me to be your sous chef today!" You giggled. "That's the least I can do in exchange for the delicious meals you make for us. Not to mention, you have been in the kitchen since the day you came here. All of us are enjoying our time while you are stuck in here."

"I gladly accept your proposition," he smiled.

After you finished your balanced breakfast with a side of sugary indulgence, Barbatos placed a freshly baked cake base in front of you. The cake had been cooled and was ready to be decorated. In front of you, he laid out a variety of fruits, decorative items, icings, and various utensils to assist you in decorating. "Would you be so kind as to decorate the cake? Decorate it to your liking."

"Gladly!" You beamed and began to lay down the icing on the cake.

The atmosphere was permeated with a pleasant peace and tranquility for some time. Only the muffled ticking of the clock on the wall, the simmering of Barbatos's cooking, and the subtle crackling of the fire on the burner could be heard. Despite the peace, the bulter preferred speaking to you as he usually didn't get the chance to spend time with you. "How did your conversation with Lucifer fare?" He asked curiously.

"Well, Luci was mad at first," you sighed but didn't stop decorating. "He even said what I did was seen as 'betrayal,' which I wasn't expecting to hear."

Barbatos shifted his gaze to you, his eyebrows raised. He, too, was taken aback by the Avatar of Pride's utilization of such a weighty term to describe your actions. Nonetheless, the butler could not fault Lucifer, considering honesty and trust were critical factors to him. Not noticing his expression or gaze, you continued to smooth the icing on the cake.

"A while ago, I saw Diav and Luci talking in the backyard from the second floor. Initially, Diav seemed sad, but he was smiling by the end. He even threw his arm around Lucifer," you laughed, recollecting the first brother's expression when the prince hugged him. "All's well, that ends well. Thankfully. I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if Lucifer had gotten angry."

Barbatos chuckled, "That is a sight no one desires to witness."

"I wouldn't want to upset you either," you giggled, but it was evident in your voice that you were speaking the truth.

"Why would that be?" Barbatos inquired curiously. However, his expression indicated that he was feigning innocence to entail a response from you.

"You always smile, but most of the time, your smile doesn't reach your eyes. Not to mention, you are a powerful demon with the ability to manipulate timelines, which is scary," you honestly said but didn't dare to meet his gaze.

"You are indeed correct. Our very timeline could perhaps be the result of my tactics and manipulations," he jested, yet the underlying undercurrent of his tone still sent an eerie chill down your spine.

"What do you mean?" You asked, gradually meeting his gaze. Was he actually speaking the truth? The prospect of him using timelines to manipulate the various occurrences to fulfill his or Diavolo's desires was profoundly unsettling to you.

"You interact with the others. You smile and laugh alongside them, yet I remain by myself on each occasion. It is possible that I may have utilized timelines to manipulate situations in order to grant myself time with you," he stated while maintaining his signature smile, which made it quite difficult for you to determine if he was speaking the truth or not. Regardless, his words still surprised you, and you felt guilty.

"I am sorry, Barbatos. I didn't mean to make you feel left out," you gave him a small, apologetic smile. "How about I cook lunch for you as a way to show you I am truly sorry?"

Barbatos was a bit surprised by your offer as no one had cooked for him before - Solomon not included as he dared not consume a meal cooked by the sorcerer. With a smile, he nodded, "I shall wait eagerly."

You spent some time online looking for an appealing yet traditional dish he may like. After a quick search, you discovered a savory recipe that you presumed would be well received by the butler. Without wasting any time, you swiftly began selecting the required ingredients. However, out of the corner of your eyes, you noticed Barbatos intently observing your actions without saying a word.

"Barbatos, please don't watch me," you gave a nervous laugh. "I am already worried about cooking for a world-class chef, and you watching me is making me even more nervous."

Barbatos chuckled and offered a few words of apology before averting his gaze to the half-decorated dessert in front of him. Since the theme of your artistic endeavor was in line with the celebratory holiday season, the butler decided to uphold the same motif and continue decorating.

Once you finished preparing the dish, you embellished and beautified it by making it appear more appealing. After you completed plating, you took a deep breath and placed the dish in front of him. The butler had quickly registered your unease, and he refrained from engaging in any actions or saying any statements that may exacerbate your anxiety even further.

His lips curled into a soft smile when he sampled your cooking. Your jaw nearly dropped as you saw the genuine smile that decorated his handsome visage for the first time. The smile reached his eyes and made them shimmer with vibrant sparkles. The sight was so overwhelming your heart lost its rhythm for a few seconds. Somehow, you felt like you had obtained an unobtainable achievement and were proud of yourself.

In a moment of assurance, you turned around and took a spoonful of your cooking. Just as the butler was about to halt your actions, you placed it in your mouth. Your body reacted in a startlingly negative manner, and every strand of hair stood on end while a shiver ran through your body. You barely managed to push down the food. In your nervousness, you had accidentally added sugar in place of salt and overcooked the dish.

"Barbatos, this is horrible!" You exclaimed and turned around to find him calmly eating your cooking. "W-Wait, how are you eating this without being bothered?"

The butler gave a light-hearted chuckle and made a straightforward remark. "This dish was prepared with love. That alone is sufficient to make it the most delicious meal I have ever savored."

His reply caught you off guard, and your cheeks glowed a vibrant red, which the butler found extraordinarily adorable. Wordlessly, he drew close to you, curling several strands of your hair around his index finger and gently placing his lips against them. Your gaze locked with his, and you were filled with a desire to kiss him, yet your uncertainty as to whether or not the butler would appreciate or tolerate your advances left you hesitant.

Due to his perceptive nature, Barbatos instantly noticed your desire and chose to take the initiative. He leaned in closely and remained locked in a prolonged, intimate gaze with you, deepening the shade of blush. In the next moment, your lips melted into a blissful union. The kiss felt like a culmination of his hidden desire, indicating that he may have been yearning to kiss you for quite a while.

Pulling away from the kiss, you smiled warmly at him. "Barb, you have been cooking nonstop for the past few days. You need to take a break."

The butler immediately accepted the invitation as he desired a small break, yet he had struggled to find the time and opportunity. While you meandered about in the kitchen and followed his directions regarding adding final touches to certain dishes or monitoring the temperature of a dish inside the oven, boredom began to creep in. Nonetheless, you attempted to conceal your boredom from him the best you could.

"(Y/n), would you like to play a game? I would like to make the most of our time together," Barbatos smiled, although you failed to notice the faint traces of mischievousness that adorned his eyes. "The others will not return until the evening, meaning we possess the cabin solely to ourselves." Without inquiring as to the particulars of the game or the rules involved, you readily accepted, ignorant to the fact that this game would be a source of 'torture' for you.

---

"Focus on your task, my dear," Barbatos whispered close to you, his breath lightly brushing your skin and causing shivers to traverse your body. 

You shut your eyes and inhaled deeply in an attempt to force your thoughts to focus solely on stirring the stew. Barbatos wrapped one of his arms tightly around your bare waist while the other hand continued to methodically massage between your folds. The torture did not end there as he slightly moved his hips. The rate at which he moved was excruciatingly slow and drawn out, causing you to crave him even more. Part of you wanted to drop everything and tell him to take you right then and there, but you knew he would refuse. Barbatos was more focused on the game than giving in to your passionate desires.

When you heard "game," you anticipated it would be something along the lines of him providing hints, and you would strive to guess what he was thinking. Contrary to your perception, once you said yes, he kissed you with ferocity and began to remove your clothes. Although he briefly stopped to give you a chance to protest or dissuade him, your curiosity got the better of you. In the following moment, he pressed your body against his, and you suddenly felt his fingers penetrate deeper into your body, his voice softly whispering the rules of the game in your ear. If you moaned or unintentionally shifted your hips, the game would be elongated, which meant prolonging your climax.

As you felt Barbatos bury his length deeper inside, you tightly clamped your mouth shut to quell any sounds that threatened to escape. You yearned for the conclusion of this game to result in Barbatos ravaging you. A salacious vision appeared in your mind that further increased your excitement: you gripping the edge of the kitchen counter while Barbatos firmly grasped your hips and relentlessly slammed inside you, over and over again, in an immensely pleasurable manner.

———————————————

➣ Obey Me Masterlist: [1][2][3] ➣ Main Masterlist

➣ Buy me a Ko-fi?

[atsumwah]

home is with you

featuring : hanemiya kazutora

includes : f! reader, fluff, mentions of tora's past, chifuyu being best boiiiii

notes : HAPPY BIRTHDAY TORA MI LOVE <333 i love this man to pieces and i'll make it everyone's problem as long as im here <333 also this is my piece for @mrskodzuken the home collab which you can find right here ! thank you for letting me participate love !!! i enjoyed writing this sm (and it's also my firsr tokyorev piece here wooooo ) p.s I'll fix everything in the morning gn for now <33

the sight of a messy living room filled with boxes would automatically make someone feel annoyed or irritated that they had to clean it up sooner or later, but for kazutora it brought him comfort. something inside of him fluttered the more he looked around, the more the once empty spaces got filled with more things, the more he realized the reality of having a true home is coming true.

looking back, home was a place he dread coming back to. home was where endless screaming matches between his parents took place, where he would get bruises when he did not satisfy his parents' needs, where he crashes for sleep after getting into fights at school, where four walls kept him safe in times he felt like the world was against him. home was nothing more than a prison, a much worse one than where he's actually been to.

even after moving in with chifuyu after he was released, it was nothing more than a place to crash at night before waking up the next day to go in for work.

home never really had a meaning— until he met you.

you, the clumsy customer who stumbled in one rainy day with your whole body soaked from head to toe. you, the one who came in crying because you lost your cat on the way to the park near the pet shop and couldn't find him in the rain. you, the one he helped with finding your cat only for it to be hiding behind the store this whole time. you, the one who invited him out for lunch after that as a sign of thanks. you, the one he started to grow fond of the more you asked him to hang out. you, someone he was actually scared of falling in love with.

how could he not? he's done so many bad things in life that he never thought he'd actually fall in love with someone, or someone could actually love him back.

so when you came into the shop one day and bluntly told him about your feelings, he froze. this was too good to be true. he was waiting for you to say it was a joke or something— it had to be.

you didn't.

instead, you stood there, patiently expecting an answer from him. part of him wished he was as bold as you to admit to your feelings out loud, not really thinking about the consequences afterwards. but he couldn't not think about it. he's spent ten years thinking about what one action did to most of his teenage years so.

"i'm sorry," he remembers telling you, "i can't."

"can i ask why?"

"you don't want to be in a relationship with me, trust me. it's better this way."

"better for who exactly?" you tilted your head to the side, innocently waiting for another answer.

how was he supposed to say he didn't want his reputation to stick with you too?

"It's better this way," he repeats, turning his back to you, "i gotta go."

and with that he left you, hoping his lack of response would throw you off. for a while, he tried avoiding you or at least minimised your contract. you were a regular at the vet next door and frequent his and chifuyu's pet shop a lot. anyways, the keyword was tried.

"you." chifuyu jabbed him in the chest accusingly. "what did you do?"

"what are you on about?" he asked.

"what's going on between you and y/n?"

his body tensed at the sound of your name only to relax when he remembers it's all his fault to begin with."It's none of your business, fuyu."

"of course it is, you both are my friends and even peke j can sense the awkward tension between you two, " he huffs, "is it because of her confession? is that why you're avoiding her? i thought you liked her too."

"you knew about that?" he whipped his head towards the blackette with wide eyes.

"i told her to go for it." chifuyu crossed his arms, feeling proud about that. "well you wouldn't, so someone had to. she really likes you dude. i thought you did too.

" i do." he admits it out loud for the first time ever, "but she deserves better. she doesn't deserve someone like…me."

"that's what you're worried about?"

both of the men's head turned towards the front entrance where you stood.

"you don't know my past." he started, hoping it would be the end of this painful discussion, at least painful for him. "you don't know about the things i've done."

"i don't need to know your past." you say instead. "or at least, not yet. not unless you want me too. look, i don't know the tora you were before. i only know of the tora i know now and i'm pretty sure i want to get to know him more. so will you let me be the judge of that?"

the sincerity in your words swayed him and made him cave, letting you in slowly into his guarded heart.

and that was the start of it all.

the start of him finally opening up to someone that didn't run away or was disgusted by his past actions. the start of being comforted when he was lost, of being loved when he felt unloved all his life. the start of a new beginning and he was happy it was with you.

even now, a year and half in your relationship, you both are taking the next big step of your life : moving in together. looking around the apartment you both bought together held something really special in his heart.

the sounds of footsteps approaching woke him up from his daze. kazutora turned around and smiled when he saw you at the foot of the door.

"i thought i told you i'd be carrying them upstairs." he made his way towards you and took the box you were carrying easily into his arms instead.

"well you were taking so long," you pouted, "and for the record, i can do it. 's'not that hard."

"and i'm proud of you." he kisses your pout away before putting the last of the boxes at the side of the room.

"looks like we got a lot to do, huh?" you said, arms on your hips as you took in the surroundings. "alright, why don't we start with—"

your boyfriend stopped you by grabbing your arm and pulling you close to him. "let's take a break first, hmm?"

kazutora left no room for you to protest when he snakes his arms over your waist to pull your body flush to his. the adorable squeak you let out at the sudden close proximity didn't go unnoticed by the man. honestly, he'd never get tired of anything coming out of you.

"fine but just a short one. we still have a lot to do, you know." you caved within his touch, relaxing in his hold as his body guided you to a soft sway.

"i'm really happy we did this."

"yeah?" you peered up at him, resting your chin on his chest to look up to him more. "me too. i can't wait to see what your actual bedhead looks like. fuyu said it scared the heck out of him when you lived there."

"ugh, snitch much. and it's not that bad. i'll prove it."

you gently ran your hand through his locks, "you seriously need to tell me your secret though. its so soft."

"i'll tell you anything you wanna know, baby." he leans into your touch, feeling relaxed as you gently massaged his scalp.

"and i can't wait to pry every little secret you have now that i get you all to myself for every hour of the day." you pecked his lips one last time before untangling yourself from his hold. "alright c'mon babe, we got a lot to do if we're gonna call this home."

he disagrees. it doesn't matter how the apartment looks or what's filled in it.

he's always at home when he's with you.

[crystalgemgirl]

Danny Phantom dream

I had a dream that I was the daughter of the richest family in Amity Park. My mom was too busy with social events to take care of me, so I was raised by my dad. While my mom was stuck up al looked down her nose at commoners like the Fentons, my dad encouraged me to not judge someone until I get to know them and be polite and kind to everyone, he even had a friendly working relationship with Jack and Maddie Fenton. My mom was OBSESSED with winning this competition (I forgot what it was, I think it had something to do with stuffed animals), but kept losing to Danny (for some reason) and would complain about all the time until i finally told her that I didn't care about it, because I was busy with a project (we were supposed to have a partner, but mine was Dash, so guess who had to do ALL the work) and didn't care what she did. Well, she took this to mean "use dark magic to hurt a 14 year old boy" apparently, because she cast this voodoo spell (I remember it had something to do with controlling floors, for some reason) that was causing Danny hell. I didn't know about it until mom forced me to go to this social event to keep up the appearance of the "loving mother" she very clearly wasn't. I remember I was wearing this long, form fitting white dress with a sleeve that turned into a glove on the left side, but the other side didn't have a sleeve, and I was wearing a matching elbow length glove on the right, Danny was wearing a white tuxedo (he came to blend in so he could stop my mom's madness, I think it was a white event or something) when he saw me (looking like I REALLY didn't want to be there) he ran to catch up with me and grabbed my hand, telling me to wait (he knew me from Lancer's class, but I was always too busy to talk to him) and called me by name. I looked at him confused and asked "Do I know you?" Before he could answer, my mom used the dark magic she got from the spell to tie us both up, telling Danny that he wasn't going to ruin her night. After the typical villain speech where she "thanked me" for giving her the idea (and repeating my words to me, which doesn't make sense, because nowhere in there did I say anything about using magic to bully an innocent teenager), she left us somewhere no one would find us (I think she was doing something tonight that would make her super powerful). I apologized to Danny for my mom's behavior and how she was bullying him and added that I looked beautiful, I returned the compliment in kind, he told me it wasn't my fault, I wished that none of the events that lead to the current events and that the only thing I'd regret was not meeting Danny sooner. Desiree heard me (she may have disliked Danny, but even she wasn't THAT evil) and granted my wish, instead of twisting it up into something awful like she normally would, she actually did it without the consequences. She rewound time back to when Lancer was assigning partners, "persuaded" him to partner me up with Danny, and found the spell that caused all the trouble and destroyed it. Mom wasn't happy to see Danny in the house and made him feel small under her glare, I just rolled my eyes and lead him to my room to work on the project. We didn't get much done that first couple of hours because we spent it getting to know each other, he was sweet and got as excited as a puppy when he saw my space stuff. He told me the reason he never approached me before was because Dash always told him that I was out of his league and I would never like someone like him (the opposite was true) after the project, we started going out (with my dad's approval and him keeping mom busy so we could just be teenagers) and I met Tucker and Sam.

[totowlff]

extra — you can’t shift the tide

➝ after a long day, what toto wants most is to get to his room and rest. but he has one more unfinished business to take care of.

➝ word count: 1,1k

➝ warnings: none

➝ author’s note: double update today, with an extra and a new chapter. by the way, we already have two unpublished chapters ready and they are amazing! enjoy this extra!

JUNE, 2015

Toto rubbed his eyes and checked the clock on his phone. 

It was getting late — probably well past time for him to head back to the hotel for the evening, but it was so easy to get caught up in his work sometimes. But, he needed to force himself to stop — his son, Benedict, was waiting in the garage for him, after he’d asked to stay behind to watch the mechanics working on Lewis’ car after qualifying today. Benedict was probably wanting to go back to the hotel sooner than later.

Toto gathered up his things, turned off the light in his motorhome office, and headed downstairs. He waved goodnight to the cleaning staff that were getting everything ready for tomorrow, and headed out across the paddock to the garages. 

He spotted Benedict in the back of the garage. He was exactly where Toto left him, in a seat behind the mechanic workbay. It looked like he was dozing off a little. He had his head propped up on his hand. His hand kept slipping, allowing his head to dip, which would rouse him briefly, until the cycle would repeat again. 

“He must be tired”, Toto thought, chuckling a little. “Dozing off with all of this noise”.

He crossed the garage, nodding hello to a few of the mechanics, and softly jostled his son’s shoulder a bit. 

Ben jolted with a start, despite Toto’s attempt to wake him gently. He looked up at his father and blinked, momentarily confused. 

— It’s time to go — Toto said — I know it’s been a long day, so let’s go back to the hotel and get some sleep. We have an early day tomorrow.

Ben stretched and yawned before standing up, and followed his dad out of the garage, waving goodbye to the mechanics still busy at work on Lewis’ car. It would be time for curfew soon, anyway, and the cars would be covered with their blankets for the night, not to be touched until the next morning. 

They walked back to Toto’s car in silence.

— Did you have a good day today? I’m sorry that I ended up being so busy and didn’t get to spend very much time with you — Toto said, as they settled in, and Toto started the car. 

— Yeah, I had a really good day — Ben said — Watching the mechanics work was fun, and I liked seeing the cars. I’m glad Elisabeth brought me to see the McLaren MP4/2B. Those old cars are so cool, and they’re so different from the ones now. And it was nice to see Niki again.

Toto couldn’t help but feel a bit of excitement when his son mentioned Elisabeth, unprompted, like he had. He knew that she had been nervous about whether or not his kids liked her. As confident as he was that they did like her, there was still a nugget of doubt at the back of his mind. It was normal to be worried about it, he assured himself. He’d even spoken to his therapist about it, and she assured him that it was expected that he’d feel a bit of apprehension when introducing them to someone new. Elisabeth wasn’t new to them, per se, but her and Toto’s relationship was getting serious — almost “this is your new stepmom” serious. 

His kids meant a lot to him. They were the most important people in the world to him, other than Elisabeth. The kids liking her as his friend from work was a different matter altogether than them liking her as a possible future stepmother. 

Ben and Rosi had met Elisabeth long before they started dating. After the relative disaster of introducing his kids to Aurélie, the woman he dated for about eight months before he and Elisabeth got together, he knew he needed to treat this situation with some delicacy. 

He’d never wished that he could read his son’s mind more than he did now, because he was so curious as to what Ben’s thoughts were on the matter. 

In most cases, he preferred to take the direct approach to resolving problems and asking questions, but it felt a bit different with his kids, at least with something like this, since the direct approach had failed so spectacularly when he’d introduced Aurélie as his girlfriend. He didn’t want to repeat the same mistake twice in such a relatively short span of time.

— So, did you like hanging out with Elisabeth and your sister for the day?

— I did — the boy said — Elisabeth is nice to talk to. She knows a lot about cars, and… I don’t know, I guess it seems like she likes talking to Rosi and me. Like, she asked me about my F1 in Schools project, and most people don’t even know what that is.

Toto relaxed a little. That seemed like an endorsement, a step in the right direction. Toto trusted his son’s judgment. He liked to joke sometimes that Ben was his junior advisor, but at the core of it, he meant it. Ben may have only been fourteen, but his entire childhood was shaped by Toto’s parenting missteps and his divorce from Stephanie, Ben and Rosi’s mother. He’d gone through a lot, but Toto always marveled at how emotionally intelligent his son was because of it. There was never any way to hide his feelings from Benedict.

For that reason, he tried to shield his kids from as many of his personal dramas as possible after the separation and subsequent divorce. He dated a few women, even before Aurélie. He cringed whenever photos of himself with whatever woman he’d been out on a few dates with ended up in business and social magazines in Vienna, but there wasn’t much to be done about that. He never introduced any of the other women he was dating to his kids. Not before Aurélie, and what happened with Aurélie was exactly why.

He took them all out to dinner. They’d gone out to a pizza place in Vienna’s Innere Stadt near Toto’s penthouse called Trattoria Santo Stefano. The kids loved pizza, he thought, and there were lots of lighter options if Aurélie didn’t want the carbs. She was a fashion model, and she had to pay attention to what she ate, and she usually declined most of the restaurants suggested, with the fare being too rich. It hadn’t bothered Toto at first — he liked eating healthy, but he still liked the experience of dining.

Their outing didn't go badly, he thought. However, during dinner, Ben and Rosi were very obviously bored and indifferent to her presence, and Toto struggled to keep conversation flowing between his children and his girlfriend. It wasn’t surprising — she didn’t really make much of an attempt to interact with either of the kids. Toto tried not to fault her for it, because he knew that Aurélie hadn’t been around pre-teens very much and probably just didn’t know what to talk about. But, still, it did bother him that she more or less treated them like wallpaper, and would look startled whenever Ben tried to participate in their conversation. Rosi mostly ignored them and focused on her dinner. 

After that dinner, Toto asked his kids what they thought of his girlfriend directly, eager to get their opinions.

Rosi didn’t have much to say, and said that she wasn’t really paying attention, and that she was a bit bored. 

Ben’s response, however, was more lengthy. 

— I don’t know why she didn’t want to talk to us. I kept trying to respond to her questions, but she kept looking at me funny. I feel like she didn’t really want us there. I don’t know why you like her so much, dad.

It stunned him at the time, and it was why he was a bit cagier about asking now. He’d underestimated how smart and perceptive Ben was, and should have realized then that his relationship with Aurélie was going nowhere, but at the time, he convinced himself that they’d all come along to like each other. 

— It will just take some time, but you’ll see, she’s wonderful — he told them.

Toto realized now that he was just trying to convince himself, more than he was trying to convince his children.

Silence hung in the air in the car between them for a few more minutes, with nothing but the hum of the engine as Toto drove down the Spielbergstrasse. He was keeping his eyes focused on the road, watching for the shine of eyes from the roadside, just in case a deer or some other critter would try to cross. It wasn’t something he ever had to worry about in Vienna. 

— Is Elisabeth going to be there tomorrow? — Ben asked, quietly. 

Toto furrowed his brow at the question. 

— Of course she will be, Benedict. She’s part of the team. Did you not want her to come?

— No! No, that’s not it. I… Can I ask you a question?

— Of course — Toto’s hands gripped the steering wheel tighter as he snuck a quick sidelong glance at his son, but he tried to remain composed. He was probably just as nervous as Ben seemed to be.

— Is Elisabeth your girlfriend?

Toto felt his face blanch and his stomach lurch. 

— Why are you asking? — Toto said. He was trying to keep his voice even.

— Well… You were working in your office one day when Rosi and I were at your place. Your phone was in the living room, and it rang. Rosi went to bring it to you, but the call went to voicemail. We saw that your wallpaper had changed, and we know you don’t know how to change it. And it was a picture of two wine glasses, and I noticed one of the glasses had lipstick on it, so… We figured out that you had a girlfriend.

Toto’s head felt like it had been replaced with a balloon, filled with helium, trying to float away from his neck. Guilty as charged — he definitely didn’t know how to change his phone’s wallpaper. Elisabeth had done it for him because she thought it was cute.

— We’ve noticed some other things, too. Like the furniture being rearranged in your apartment. You haven’t moved your furniture since you first moved in. And the way you talk to Elisabeth… We’ve been around people on the team a lot, and we’ve never seen you talk to anybody else you work with like you talk to her. And that song you were playing on the trip up from Vienna. Rosi and I were sure it was because of her.

Toto sighed. He and Elisabeth had tried so hard to hide it from the kids, because of how things went with Aurélie. Toto didn’t want to bring someone new into their little family so soon, and Elisabeth didn’t feel ready, either. 

And yet, they Ben and Rosi had seen right through it.

— Yes, Benedict. Elisabeth is my girlfriend.

More silence in the car. 

— Are… You upset with me? For not telling you?

Toto could see Ben turn his head.

— No, dad. Rosi and I like her, and both of us want you to be happy. Plus, she’s nice to us, and doesn’t ignore us like the last lady did. And you’ve been a lot happier lately, too.

Something warm bloomed in Toto’s chest. He couldn’t help but smile. 

— I’m glad you like her, Ben. You and your sister are… You’re the most important people in my life, and I wouldn’t want to be with anyone that you two didn’t like.

— Is that why you broke up with the last woman? — Benedict asked.

— Well — Toto started to say, but Ben continued.

— Because… You didn’t seem all that happy when you were with her. Not like you do now, at least. You really like Elisabeth a lot, don’t you?

Toto couldn’t get the smile off his face all of a sudden.

— I love her, Ben.

[yinyunnsworld]

Set Sail to a New World

Character: Tsumugi Aoba

Reader: GN

Words: 914

Genre: Angst(?) to Fluff.

Synopsis: Whenever someone passed, they became a lost soul, waiting for a new life ahead. (Name) met an… odd sailor whom claimed a happier life ahead of them.

No request? No problem, though less interactions makes me feel lonely HAHAHAHHA. Inbox is always opened for anything. Merry (late) christmas and happy new year! Life ahead will surely be better and there will be a lot of things we’all will just discovered!

See you and I wish you all happiness<3

“Will you sail on this ride with me?”

On the vast sea connected to the afterlife, stood a soul, one who claimed the sea to be their territory, met with the ferry. But their eyes were only on the man lifting a smile they’d never seen before in their whole life. And as if that man wasn’t a human, they could see through him—or maybe he could see through them.

Ah, gentle breeze blowing (Name)’s tender face, their eyes jittered from the rocking sea to the man having his hand out—they couldn’t decide for they couldn’t fathom where the ferry would bring them to. Amidst the ferry where people like them—souls of the lost, confused, and terrified, found safety soon as they stepped on board. However, with a condition—to leave the world they’d known their whole life to lead a new one.

“If I step on board, will I ever come back to see my loved ones?”

The question rolled off their tongue, it was as clear as their reluctance in joining hands with the unknown man still patiently waiting for them. Though, the ferry might have to set sail sooner or later. “Your heart is indeed a pure one, even after being screwed by them many times, repaired many times, you still choose to abide—even if you believe there’s no place a world can fit you in.”

(Name) would’ve looked back—to the world of the human realms rolling behind them, however when they did it on this very second, the things they could see were the memories of their past. Reasons to give whether or not they must or did they want to ride on the boat to the paradise for pure lost souls.

Those memories tempted them, not sure if it ever meant to sooth them and get them to ride or for them to reject and run away.

“Time’s ticking. If you’re still hesitant, I’ll leave and come back when you’re ready.”

“But will I ever see them again?”

“Your loved ones?” The man raised his eyebrows, slightly piqued but pitied the form of the young person almost no longer translucent as they once were.

It was true (Name) was screwed, then repaired, on repeat—but they couldn’t fathom of leaving a life they grew once for it surely had become part of them, what made them now to wish for freedom ever so desperately. Even if freedom was offered to them, a budding fear of attachment grew in result they were ever more hesitant than they were when the man first arrived at the lonely sea.

Humans always wanted freedom, to discover what’s ahead of them. However, they’d be hesitant to accept that freedom after the war they had with themselves.

“Yeah, my loved ones.”

“…” the man was silent. He jumped off the boat, chose to stand beside (Name)’s confused self.

The man sighed. “Ah, my apology.” He smiled nervously, drowning in guilt. Within this lonely sea, nothing could get past anyone’s head as the sea they stood was lonely itself. Everyone’s face wouldn’t work, no emotions would be able to be kept hidden. “Sometimes I forget souls have memories of their past and some don't. It can’t be considered lucky as well to have the memories of the past.”

They remained silent and still, like the sea they stood on, no longer rocked its waves. Nothing but pure curiosity stirred in with the warmth of his words downing them together. Anyone would’ve called them dumb, ungrateful for they still had the memories of the past.

They’d preferred to be called dumb, for him to sigh and turn away his back—but that never meant they’d be relieved.

“You know well what they’ve done, though I can’t guarantee I can make you happy, but the world outside might lift a little bit of your frowning lips.”

Huh?

Since when did they frown?

Their fingers traced to their… in fact, frowning lips to bring realization of his words were indeed true. Their lips were heavy, or they were just too tired to lift up both cheeks and add a glimmer to their stoic e/c eyes—they weren’t sure.

Those words he used… they wondered if he used those words to tempt everyone to set sail with him, to wander a new adventure together with him—it for sure, brought nothing less than a swaying temptation to them.

However, they barely knew of the man, not even a name seemed to appear in their head. They couldn’t afford to set sail with a stranger. “What’s your name?”

“Hm? A name? Goodness me, a name is something I left after willing to be an adventurer,” the man claimed—showing just a tiny glint of… something unclear within his face—pity, sadness, longing or anything they weren’t sure of. Even the sea couldn’t depict himself quite well—or they just couldn’t understand him. Even so, they waited patiently as he waited for them as well.

“Tsumgi. Tsumugi Aoba.”

And so, he revealed his name to the curious (Name), still gazing at him rather intently as they’d never seen anyone pass by their ‘territory’. Satisfied with the answer, they hummed in delight—nothing changed faster than the ones with lonely hearts.

With nothing but desperation to seek a reason to smile, and the will to believe in tales the man in front of them spoke, (Name) found themself linking hands with him. The trace of a rather—big hand tightened its grip around their own fingers. “Welcome on board, (Name).”

[smaika]

"I Blame myself"

Will x Reader

Warning: mentions of blood, mental disorder,Trauma

Y/N Abilities: Telekinesis, Teleportion,Mind Control

As you were on the way to the Wil's House's cause you didn't feel save ever since the accident at the mall even though you and eleven both have powers.

Recently you've been having nightmares of the lab, of how they experimented on you and beat you for every mistake you made. But the worst nightmare was about how you created this whole mess. Yes you created the upside down and left a gate open after escaping the Lab with Eleven that's also where you met you're now Best Friend/Child Dustin he and his friends were sceptical about you and Eleven but seeing how you were both sisters they had no choice but to keep you both. Eventually you guys found will, but It took awhile to get the shadow monster out of him after that incident he kinda became a monster Detektor.

Fast Forward to recently The Shadow Monster escaped the upside down all thanks to the Russian and it possessed Billy and made do bad bad things later on it made Billy kidnap you but Eleven protected thinking that you don't have powers any more but that could anything from the truth. Billy ended up winning knocking everyone out , taking Eleven with him instead of you seeing you how you were conscious but had a broken leg because of Billly do you couldn't really do much you slowly started to overthink making everything around you levitate aswell as you. Actually didn't Notice this, with all the thoughts of what could happen to eleven because of you. Before you knew it you passed out.

When you woke up it was in your face

It was in your face.

it was smiling at you.

And Repeated The words.

they forgot about you.

They hate you.

Look at the spot where you last saw Max,Lucas and Mike.

They were gone.

Did they really forget about you... That's when you heard Someone call your name.

(Will's POV)

"Y/N WHERE ARE YOU"i shouted as i looked around for any sign of her but to no avail, that's when I hear slight whimper from a room in the hallway. "Y/N IS THAT YOU" i shout as i walk into the hallway, to see her pushing her body and visibly broken leg trying to leave the room "Will?" She says trying to stand on one leg. l quickly run to her side helping walk to the ambulance waiting outside.

(Reader's POV)

Once i was in the ambulance ready to be taken to the hospital Eleven,Max, Dustin,Mike and Lucas run up to me and apologize for forgetting me inside...

See they forgot you

They forgot me....

They forgot me.....

Those words kept ringing in your head thay kept reminding you that you were forgotten it was right they hated you...you had to become better, you had to become stronger so that you were protecting them.

After arriving in the hospital you just starred at a wall not even saying anything it's not like you could you had to broken your leg and a rib if not two but the worst if them all is that you had to go speech therapy cause them forgetting you and you almost got Eleven killed. Those things scarred you but the fact you were forgotten was the worse kind of pain. You officially gone mute , you didn't even move your lips an inch you were just stuck like that Everyone started to get worried so Joyce got a doctor and she explained everything to them your condition and they looked at her in horror. Will immediately ran into your room and finally saw your eyes slowly losing hope somewhat emotionless. Will knew it was his fault for not remembering sooner that you were in there he started apologizing asking you to just have lil bit of hope left in your eyes.

Fast Forward 2 years later you and Mike where on the way to Wills House but first you actually have to land in California since as for now you both were still on plane there and Mike wasn't making this anymore tolerate able with his ranting of how his gonna spend his Sommer with Eleven, Might be mute but he makes you wish you were deaf...

After landing you saw will and El there it seemed like was holding something in he's hand but you didn't really pay attention to it since you immediately hugged him. after hugging you he immediately went Mike and asked him how he was instead of asking you, you slightly hurt but you didn't mind it. Mike and Eleven hugged and Mike handed eleven the flower he'd been dragging with him all day, As you looked at Will you could see that he was looking a little down so went over to talk to him "are you okay?" You asked after placing a kiss on he's cheeks "yeah I'm fine just that I wanted to give Mike this Painting, but he didn't even notice me?!" You looked at your now angry boyfriend and you felt a little hurt that he did bring you a gift but you still made sure to reassure him Mike didn't Forget him and cared about him.

He's fiasco went on throughout the whole trip that you decided to go home since you were invisible to everyone except Joyce and Murray but they weren't here either so you wrote a letter teleported home to find a Steve ravishing to your stuff wants he found what he needed he turned around to be met with an angry y/n the sight scares him resulting to a girlish scream sounding almost identical to Lucas's. "Steve Harrington why are you going through my draws.."you said in a very uncomfortable calm voice "saving lives" he said in a very sketchy laugh "hand over the phone NOW" he swore he's ears where bleeding "here , im sorry plss just don't shout or scream" said in fear while cleaning ears in attempt to hear clear again.

"so this Vecna dude kill people with extremely depressing backgrounds and you also suspect that he was once an experiment in the lab and he was and he was tattoo the number 001....am i forgetting anything" you say the last part full with sarcasm before looking at Steve with a "am i right?" Look that just makes Steve more annoyed than he already is with you. " No you didn't miss anything." He said sass filling he's voice "but we don't know for a 100% if it's actually him and if yes, we where kinda hoping you to know how to defeat since you where there before El" Lucas said looking at you in hope. You sigh before you talking again "Ones weaknesses lie where one is most at home" say before creating candles out of nothing and closing your eyes.

Ok this is the last update to this thing

Here is my besties acc

Its enjoyable to listen to while reading angst 😌

[vgckwb]

P5R: Rebel Girl (A FeMC Story/P5R Rework) Chapter 120: Crawling Out

Ren and Morgana met up with Makoto, Yusuke, and Jose outside of Leblanc Tuesday morning. “Good morning,” Makoto greeted.

“Good morning,’ Ren replied.

“So, do you wish for Futaba to join us in Leblanc?” Yusuke asked.

“I figured it might be easier to get Futaba to open up if we go to her room,” Makoto explained.

“I getcha,” Morgana said.

“So, off to Sojiro’s then?” Jose asked.

Makoto nodded. “And the sooner, the better.”

“Well then, let’s go,” Ren instructed. The five of them headed over. Once they got there, they knocked on Futaba’s door. “Futaba, it’s us.”

“Hold on,” Futaba said. Some footsteps were heard. “Come in.” They came in to see Futaba wearing a comically large mask. “Welcome.”

Everyone was confused. “Um, maybe we should try getting rid of the mask,” Ren suggested.

“Ueh…” Futaba moaned. “...Only for you.” She took off her mask and set it down.

Ren smiled. “You look great.” Futaba turned away in a huff. Ren laughed nervously.

“So, what’s the big plan for today?” Jose asked.

“Well, I’m thinking that we should just talk about casual topics for now,” Makoto said. “Ease her into the conversation.”

“Seems reasonable,” Morgana said.

“Ahem,” Makoto said. Futaba looked up at her with a blank expression. “Um, did you see the news recently? Another cabinet minister resigned. That’s like the fifth one this year, right?”

“I dunno,” Futaba said. “I don’t really read the news.”

“Oh, I see,” Makoto said, taken aback.

“Hm?” Yusuke pondered. He began looking into a specific part of the room.

Jose nodded. “You’ve got this Makoto!”

“Thanks,” Makoto said. She regained her energy. “So, isn’t this heatwave crazy?”

“I, uh, don’t really go outside…” Futaba lamented.

“Oh…” Makoto said, again surprised.

“What else do you have?” Jose asked.

“Uhhhhhhhhh,” Makoto responded, unsure of herself.

Ren noticed what Yusuke was up to. “Yusuke? What are you up to?”

Everyone else looked at Yusuke. He presented what he was doing, which was rearranging Futaba’s Featherman action figures. “I found these figures amusing. You can rearrange the heads and bodies as you please.”

Everyone was a little confused, except for Futaba, who was horrified. “My…MY BABIES!”

“Babies?” Yusuke repeated in shock.

“How could you do that Inari?!” Futaba yelled.

“Inari?” Yusuke said again.

“Like the god! With the fox! And your outfit!” Futaba said.

“Oh,” Yusuke said. “I guess I can see that.”

“I like it,” Jose said.

“I’d still prefer to be called ‘Fox’ on missions,” Yusuke said. “But ‘Inari’ isn’t so bad.”

Ren turned to Makoto and whispered “Maybe having Yusuke over might have worked in our favor.” Makoto pouted slightly and gave Ren a stink eye.

Futaba quickly put her figures back together as they were before. She turned to Yusuke and fiercely said “THESE are my Featherman figures! They’re so versatile so-as you can make them do practically any pose from the show.”

“I see,” Yusuke said. “It’s almost like you can recreate any scene you’d like.”

“I know, right?” Futaba said, turning on a dime. “It’s so cool!”

Morgana chuckled. “You know, despite your teasing, I think you may be right.”

Makoto recomposed herself. “I agree. It seems like she’s willing to chew your ear off so long as she’s interested in the subject.”

“Forgive me,” Yusuke said. “I thought I’d recognize them, but I had a little bit of trouble.”

“What do ya mean?” Futaba asked.

“Well, for most of my life, I lived with Madarame,” Yusuke explained. “So I didn’t get much of a chance to watch Featherman.”

“I see,” Futaba said.

“However, I am familiar with a spin-off manga called ‘Featherman Q’.”

“You…you’ve read Featherman Q?!” Futaba asked in disbelief.

Yusuke nodded. “It was among Madarame’s collection.”

“I’ve never met anyone else who’s read Featherman Q before!” Futaba said.

“It was very excellent,” Yusuke remarked. “I wish I could have kept them.”

“Wha?! Why didn’t you?!” Futaba asked, almost incensed.

“Well…they did belong to Madarame…” Yusuke answered. “Plus, I had a lot of other things on my mind. I mean, as someone who was brought into this whole Phantom Thieves thing as well, I assume you’d understand.”

Futaba hung her head. “I guess.”

“Um,” Jose interjected. “Do you think I’d like this Featherman thing?”

Futaba turned to Jose. “Of course! I mean, everyone loves Featherman. The only people who don’t are monsters.”

Jose smiled. “Alright. So, um, where should I start.”

“Well…” Futaba said. “I mean, I started from the beginning… But that might not be helpful. Maybe just the beginning of this season.”

Jose nodded. “Alright. I’ll check it out.”

“Maybe you can help me as well,” Ren said. Futaba turned to her. “Between getting arrested, moving to Tokyo, and being tasked to save the world, I’ve fallen behind on some of the anime I was planning to watch. Would you mind helping me curate that list?”

Futaba nodded. “Sure thing.” She turned to Makoto. ���Well, how about you? You want some recommendations?”

Makoto was surprised, but sighed. “I guess I have been trying to relax more. Do you have anything in mind, Futaba-cahn?”

Futaba observed Makoto. “Hmmmmm. I’m not getting a good read. For some reason, my instincts are telling me horror…”

“NO!” Makoto shrieked. “N-Not horror…”

“Eh heh heh,” Futaba giggled. “That’s why. Hmmm. What was the last thing you watched?”

Makoto was a little puzzled. “Watched or re-watched?”

Futaba was now puzzled. “You’ve re-watched something?”

“Well,” Makoto began, “...I always watch the Buchimaru-kun marathon on its anniversary.”

Futaba was surprised. “Huh. Didn’t expect that. But that gives me all sorts of ideas.”

“Hopefully nothing that’s supossed to be like Buchimaru-kun,” Makoto said. “Nothing can replace that…”

“I getcha,” Futaba said. “Believe me, we all have that one show or manga or whatever. But it wouldn’t hurt to broaden your horizons.”

Makoto relaxed a little. “I guess that’s true. I mean, after all, we came here to do that for you. I suppose it would be rude if we didn’t return the favor.”

“What other shows would you recommend for me?” Jose asked. “I mean, I’ve only been here for a few months now.”

“Hmm, good question,” Futaba said. She turned to Morgana. “Do you want some recs too, kitty?”

Morgana pouted at the word ‘kitty’. Still, he held firm. “I’ll just be watching whatever Ren watches. I’m sure you’ll pick some good stuff for us”

“K,” Futaba said. They spent the rest of the afternoon discussing these sorts of things, and Futaba gave out a lot of recommendations. Ren could tell that she was really happy about it.

Later, Ren got a message from Mishima.

Mishima: Sorry I’m late, but WOW!

Mishima: You guys did it!

Ren: Thanks.

Mishima: Of course, I never lost faith in you.

Mishima: Do you want to meet me down at the diner? I wanna go over a few things with you.

Ren: Sounds good.

Ren put her phone away and headed to the diner.

Once she arrived, Mishima spotted her and waved her over. “Hey!” Ren smiled, walked over, and sat down. “I just gotta say it again. Way to go on beating Medjed.”

“Thanks,” Ren responded. “It wasn’t the easiest thing, but we managed.”

“So, how’d ya do it?” Mishima asked.

Ren was a bit thrown off by this question. Futaba was dealing with enough as is. Adding Mishima into the mix would probably not help. “Uhhhhh, seret.”

“Oh. Well, that's cool,” Mishima said, hiding a little bit of pain. “Well, now that that’s all settled, I think I have your next target lined up.”

“Oh?” Ren said, surprised.

Mishima nodded. “Check this out. This famous actor is blackmailing this really popular idol into being in a relationship with him.”

Ren raised her eyebrow. “Ummmmm, is he?”

“Totally,” Mishima said. “Her fanbase is fuming about this.”

“Riiiight,” Ren said. “So, while I would like to believe ‘her fanbase’, I think we might have to look into this further ourselves, you know.”

Mishima was a little caught off guard. He nodded and said “I getcha. But, out of curiosity, are you interested in what the public has to say?”

“Well, we do take requests on your site…” Ren answered.

“Right,” Mishima chuckled. “What I mean is, I also have a new idea for the site.”

Ren grew interested. “Go on.”

“Well, I was thinking: I should make a poll!” Mishima said, excitedly. “You know, to let people vote on your next big target.”

“Well,  it’s not that that wouldn’t be helpful to some extent,” Ren explained, “but a lot of the people we’ve targeted are people who hide in the shadows.”

“Right, right,” Mishima said. “But, I mean, it’s not like it would hurt.”

“I guess not,” Ren said. “We could take that into consideration.”

“Yes,” Mishima cheered.

“Well well well,” a voice said.

Mishima and Ren looked over to see a group of three boys their age. “Oh. Hey Akiyama-kun,” Mishima said, almost trying to hide himself.

“I haven’t seen you in forever,” Akiyama said. “Did you drop out of school?”

“No. We just go to different high schools,” Mishima answered.

“Oh that’s right,” Akiyama said. “I thought we went to the same school since you stand out the same whether you’re present or not.”

“Good one,” one of Akiyama's friends said.

Akiyama noticed Ren. “Oh? What do we have here? Did nothing-Mishima somehow get a girlfriend?”

“How much you think he’s paying her?” one of his friends asked.

“You really think Mishima has that kind of money?” the other one asked back.

“She’s not my girlfriend!” Mishima said firmly.

“Heh, figures,” Akiyama said. “No way someone as boring as you could get someone as cute as her.”

“Stop it!” Mishima demanded.

“I’m just paying the lady a compliment,” Akiyama said.

“She’s going out with someone else,” Mishima explained. “And you don’t want to get on their bad side. Also, if I recall correctly, you’re going out with someone too, right Akiyama-kun?”

Akiyama gave Mishima a stern look. He grabbed Mishima by the collar. “You’re lucky you have your little friend here.” He shoved Mishima back into his seat. “Let’s go.”

“Ooo, Mishima has fangs now,” one of Akiyama’s friends said.

“Yeah. Did you get upset because he threatened to tell your girlfriend you were flirting with someone else?” the other one asked.

“SHUT IT!” Akiyama snapped. “Or do you want to be the next Mishima?”

“No sir,” the other guy said. Akiyama nodded. He turned around, and walked out. The other two followed.

Mishima sighed. “Sorry.”

Ren smiled. “It’s fine.”

Mishima sighed again. “I like to think that I have changed. But… Akiyama and I went to the same middle school. And meeting up again just now, it feels like I reverted back to my old self.”

“Well, that may not entirely be true,” Ren said. “I mean, you defended my honor quite well.”

Mishima smiled. “I guess…” He frowned again. “I didn’t really stand up for myself though.”

“Well, we all have our moments of self-doubt,” Ren said.

“Not you, I bet,” Mishima said.

“Are you kidding?” Ren replied. “I don’t think anyone has doubted me as much as I have.”

“Really?” Mishima said.

Ren nodded. “Really really.”

Mishima smiled. “Well… I guess if even you struggle with it… I might not be in bad company. Although I’ve got some catching up to do”

Ren chuckled. “Well, I have to say, you're not all that far behind.”

Mishima giggled. He settled down. “Thanks. You know, despite what you saw there, Akiyama isn’t all bad.”

“Oh?”

“I mentioned his girlfriend, right?” Mishima continued. “Word is, they’ve been really close since they were little. He’s really sweet with her.”

“Well, that’s nice, I guess,” Ren said. “He could stand to be nicer to you.”

“I know, I know,” Mishima said. “But for now, I’ll take your kindness.”

Moon-Yuuki Mishima: Rank 6

“Well, I should be heading out soon,” Mishima said. He started getting up. “Oh yeah.” He got out his phone and sent a message. “I just sent you the information on that actor. Also, keep thinking about that poll idea.”

“Right,” Ren replied. “Like I said, it couldn’t hurt. Bye.”

“Bye!” Mihima said. He left the diner. Ren grabbed a little more food and then left as well.

On her way back, she shot a quick message to Futaba.

Ren: Hey Futaba?

Ren: This is probably nothing, but someone told me that this actor was blackmailing an idol into being in a relationship with him.

Ren: Do you think you can check quick to see if that’s true? Futaba: Sure!

Ren: Thanks.

Ren headed back to Leblanc for the night.

[chai-ssi-latte]

london boy 💞

Henry Cavill

About: You’ve been talking to Henry for months. You decided to take a vacation in London to meet him in person soon, and dating news ensues.

Masterlist | Prompt List | Masterlist (Taylor Swift Songfics)

Send a tip here :) | Donations/Tips are not required but is very much appreciated :> It will help me support myself in uni and my studies :)

Gif not mine :)

You hoped that there wouldn’t be paparazzi waiting for your arrival at the airport. Well, paparazzi in London seems to be more chill and have always kept their distance with you unlike when you’re in New York and any part of the United States, really. Not like anyone would know you’d be here anyway. Still, the media has their ways to get information. You’re just wishing for the best on your visit in the capital of England.

 Thankfully, you had left the airport without breaking a sweat. Your assistant has hired wonderful people. The driver that she hired was one of the nicest people you have ever met. He had asked about your flight and how you’re feeling. He even told short stories about his family which automatically brighten up your day. When he dropped you off on a rental house, you made sure to give him the biggest tip you could. People like him deserved it, especially when they’re doing their job at their best.

“This is too much, Ma’am.” He had tried to give back some change but you shrugged it off.

“You just made my day. You can use it to buy the barbie doll that your daughter has been wanting for ages.” You said. He smiled and repeated his gratitude before driving away. “What a great dad.” You muttered under your breath. Letting out a big sigh, you made your way towards the door.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

You have unpacked all of your clothes and necessities. The only thing you need to do is to fill up your fridge for the next three weeks. You were tying up your boots when your phone dinged with a notification. You catch a glimpse of your phone screen before it turned back to black. 

Henry 

“Oh shit.” Your cursed, forgetting the fact that you told Henry you’ll be arriving today in London. 

Henry I’m here in London, too. Wanna meet up?

What? Your eyes widened. Henry told you two days ago that he’ll be home three days after your arrival. You nervously bit on your lip, not sure what to reply to him. You didn’t plan on meeting up with him yet. Your confidence over texts and phone calls is not as high in person. And the fact that you’ve been overly attracted to him for the past weeks of talking to the one and only Henry Cavill, may or may not cause your untimely death.

I just arrived. Not fully settled yet. I’m out to get groceries :) Rain check? You replied, hoping to have the meet-up rescheduled.

Henry I can come with you. I don’t mind, I’ll wait for you there? 

You hesitated for a bit, “Fuck it.” You mumbled. Sooner or later, you’ll have to meet him in person, anyway. Sure. See you in Whole Foods Market :)

Henry stalled. Should he really be hitting up a woman through her social media account? Does she even use this account herself? There were a lot of what-if’s in his brain. He doesn’t mind if her manager or assistant saw the message but he surely will be happier if she saw it herself.

Hey there Y/N. This is Henry. We met last week at a dive bar, remember? 

To say that Henry was infatuated by you was an understanding. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of you the whole night. You’ve had a few conversation with him but you’re also too occupied with your friends to have you by himself. He didn’t get the chance to ask for your number. All he remember was you getting dragged by one of your friends on the dance floor. By the time he had finished his talk with his friend, you were gone.

Now here he is, trying to reach out to you through instagram. Finally, Henry clicked the send button and all he needs to do now is wait, hoping that you’ll remember him and send a message back.

Henry almost jumped up from the couch when a notification popped up on his phone while he scroll through the movies in Netflix. His heart beating rapidly through his chest when he saw your name right next to the instagram logo.

Good afternoon Mr. Cavill, This is Claire, Miss Y/N’s assistant. She had surrendered her social media to us for her monthly phone flush (deleting unwanted messages and blocking trolls). We’ll be returning her socials next week. I’ll make sure to tell her about your message. Have a great day.

Henry’s smile dropped, throwing the phone on the couch. “Yeah, right.” He thought. He instantly knew his message won’t reach you. Being in the industry for a while, he knows that that just how it works in Hollywood. 

You and Henry dropped off your groceries at your temporary house. He helped you with the unloading and arranging everything on the cupboards and fridge. Currently, you’re both in the car on the way to Camden Market. It would be your first time being there and you’re excited. Henry Cavill as your tour guide? You couldn’t ask for more.

After filling your tummies with street food, Henry asked you to take a walk on Camden Beach. You didn’t even know there’s a beach in London. People have looked at you and Henry, most probably recognizing two celebrities strolling around Camden. No one dared to go near though, no one even asked for a picture. But you’re sure as hell that after you both leave this place, there would still be photos that would fly around the internet.

You and Henry sat mindlessly on the sand, far away from the crowd of people. The sun is starting to set, adding hints of pink and orange in the sky. The breeze has always been cold, you almost laugh at the thought of Henry saying the ‘sun don’t sun here’

“Hope you’re enjoying your first day, so far.” Henry said, snapping you out of your bubble.

Smiling, you looked at him, “I mean, I have you as my company.” You even send a wink his way.

He laughed wholeheartedly, “I must say, I did enjoy grocery shopping with you too.”

You both enjoyed a moment of silence, watching the sky fade into gray. The flash of the camera had you and Henry looking on where it came from. Rolling your eyes, you see a boy running away. 

“Wow, I can’t wait to see what’s going on on the internet, right now.” You scoffed. Henry stood, holding out his hand for you to take. You thanked him as you rise and wipe the sand that clung on your sun dress.

“To be fair, I’m sure people have been taking pictures in secret. That boy was just really bad at taking one.” Henry took your hand again and held it tightly. “I wanted to spend the night with you at the pub but I know you need a rest.”

You agreed, already feeling the soreness on your foot as well as the slump on your shoulders. “We can do that the other time.” And so Henry drove you home.

When the car stopped, Henry jumped out of his seat to round next to the passenger seat. He opened the door with a sly smile. “I had to open it for you, queen.”

You pursed your lips, trying to hide the teenage smile creeping in. He walked you to the front door, chuckling when you struggled to put in the key. “I can’t believe you just watch me grapple with the door knob.”

“It’s cute, and you didn’t ask for my help.”

“So... this is me,” You trailed. “I really enjoyed spending time with you Henry. I’m looking forward to our next one.”

“Hmm...” He replied, looking at your eyes and down at your lips. Your breath hitched when he did. “I, uh, yeah.” Henry stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck. You can see a faint flush on his cheeks and ears.

Biting your lip, you tiptoed and catch his lips in yours. It was a short yet tender kiss but you can still taste the sweetness in your mouth. 

“Have a great evening.” You said as you pulled away.

“Have a great evening and rest well.” Henry turned his back to walk away and you watch his retreating figure. This man... Don’t you just love them English?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tea just taste so much better in England and you’re unsure why. You have been scrolling through instagram search feed seeing various photos of you and Henry yesterday. There was a photo of you and him in front of a food truck, Henry’s hand on your back. You didn’t even realize he has his hand on your back the whole time. Maybe you just got comfortable on his presence that you don’t mind him being like that. 

The more you scroll the more you find unexpectedly cute photos of you two together. Like the one where you both staring at a distance, sitting on the sand, and the one where you walk hand in hand towards the car with Henry opening the door for you as you get in.

A message bubble popped up with Henry’s name. You smiled, clicking on his name. He had sent you an article. Giggling, you opened it with confidence, ready to read people’s assumptions.

Who is Henry Cavill’s new girlfriend? Take a look at their sweet moments yesterday in Camden 

Y/N I’m rating the title 2/10

Henry Rating it 0/10 ‘cause who still doesn’t know your name?

Y/N Have you seen the pictures? Not upset or anything?

Henry It happens. I’m not that upset if I’m being honest.

Y/N  Good ‘cause I saved some cute photos of us :P

Henry Send me some too. Also, are you free tonight? I want you to meet some of my best buds.

Y/N  Sure :) Where are we going?

Henry Somewhere in Brixton. I knew a good place. I’m picking you up early to have you by myself for a bit.

Y/N Why don’t you come over now? We can watch a movie or two ;)

Henry Why not.

[ahockeywrites]

Versace on the Floor

Summary: Y/N and Josh have the final dance of their wedding reception

Word Count: idk I’m on mobile Warnings: minors dni, explicit fem! reader, smut, unprotected sex (wrap it up!!), swearing, mentions of children and having children A/N: anything in italics is a flashback. Please tell me if I need more warnings! Please reblog if you enjoy!

The extra weight of the silver band on your ring finger still felt foreign. It was the same feeling as when you initially said yes, a new feeling that you couldn't wait to get used to. You quickly glanced over to the table where some of your extended family were, one of your uncles send a wink over in your direction, indicating that he knew something was about to happen that you didn't know about.

Both you and Josh had picked a song out to have a 'first dance' to, it wasn't overly traditional but you made sure that the other didn't know what the song was. Still being a child at heart, you had chosen the Macarena because it was the song that was playing when you first met Josh.

It was a cold Monday night in Montreal. It was uncommon to see you in a bar on a work night but your best friend had just received a promotion. The French you spoke may not have been perfect, but it was enough to order a round of shots for the small group of you that had moved to Quebec together after high school.

A pair of broad shoulders pushed against you, trying to fit into a space that was way too small for a man of a muscular build like his. Gently, you tapped on his arm and shouted over the obnoxiously loud music letting him know that your drinks were almost ready. He looked down at you and rolled his eyes. "That wasn't at you," he quickly apologised, stumbling over his words.

One of your eyebrows raised, not trusting him fully. "It's just Gally always plays this on repeat when we win, so I heard it a lot tonight," he kept trying to convince you that he didn't intend to roll his eyes at you. You took a brief moment to take in the song playing, but it didn't take you long to realise when you noticed the entire dance floor of people doing the Macarena.

"So the Macarena is the celebration song?" you questioned, slightly unsure as to why you were engaging in a conversation with a stranger. This wasn't common for you, but this handsome man had an aura that you wanted to stay within.

"Yeah," he breathed out, signalling the bartender over, "we had a big game against the Jets that secured playoffs." Playoffs? What did this guy do for a living, you thought to yourself.

You pulled out a $20 bill and was about to hand it over to the server but the mysterious man stopped you, "add it to my tab Dave," he shouted across to the man at the register. "I'm Josh, and you?"

"I'm Y/N," you replied with a smile.

All you knew about Josh's choice was that it was going to be the last song that played before everyone went back to the hotel. All you could think about was the man sitting to your right. His bow tie had been lost about 5 minutes into the party, along with the top two buttons of his shirt. It wasn't like you were complaining, you had just married the love of your life.

A small hand tugged at the bottom of your dress and you noticed Josh's niece Penelope. All that was needed to bring her to your lap was a small amount of force. Josh quickly noticed the loss of warmth on his thigh but he found that warmth once more. It had moved into his chest as he saw you talking to the small girl, resting on your legs.

It was like nothing else mattered in the world, except you and Penelope. He didn't care if anyone caught him staring at you, in fact, he hoped that the photographer was catching these memories that were unfolding directly in front of him.

He couldn't wait for the days where you met him after a road trip with a baby in your arms, but the pair of you had agreed to get married first and think about children later. But god, he wished it could happen sooner rather than later. Never before you were ready though, you were the person he put before everything.

"Uncle Josh," Penelope said, climbing over your dress to sit on one of Josh's thighs. "Doesn't auntie Y/N look like a princess!" She exclaimed, running her fingertips over the lace on the skirt of the white dress you were wearing.

"She does, doesn't she Pen," Josh replied enthusiastically. "Maybe, I should take her for a dance like princesses deserve?" Penelope nodded frantically before hopping off his thigh and running back to her mother.

Josh leaned over slightly before brushing a strand of hair behind your ear. "Pen's right baby," he said as his breath fanned over your ear. "You do look like a princess. My princess." His simple words were enough to send a shiver down your spine. They had an exact meaning that the guests at the reception really did not want to see.

The static noise that came through the speakers startled you and brought you out of the trance you had fallen into. "Could I please invite Mr and Mrs Anderson to the dance floor for the song the groom has chosen to end the night with," the DJ spoke.

Josh pushed himself up and out of his chair before helping you out of yours. "I hope you like the song," he whispered in your ear once you had made it to the middle of the dance floor. "It describes what I'm gonna do to this dress tonight."

A silent gasp left your mouth, as both of his hands found their way to your waist, yours automatically wrapped around his neck allowing him to pull you flush to him. The initial piano note and soft tones of Bruno Mars filled the ballroom as you looked up into your husband's eyes once more.

Let's take our time tonight, girl Above us all the stars are watchin' There's no place I'd rather be in this world Your eyes are where I'm lost in Underneath the chandelier We're dancin' all alone There's no reason to hide What we're feelin' inside Right now

The chandelier hanging in the centre of the ballroom fanned light across the dancefloor and the only thing that you could hear was the clicking of Josh's dress shoes on the hardwood floor. The song had just become background music as you took in the sight of Josh looking at you with all the love in his eyes.

Josh's right hand came up from your waist to brush a stray strand of hair that had slipped out of the intricate updo. The hairspray could only withstand so much dancing even if it was meant to keep it in place for 24 hours.

"I can't wait to wake up next to you tomorrow morning, and every other morning after that," he whispered, dipping his head so he could press a gentle kiss below your ear. It was a simple gesture, but you felt a spark flow through your body once again.

"Except on road trips," you joked, to which Josh replied with a roll of his eyes.

"Even on our wedding day," he jokingly sighed, "you can't let me have this one thing."

His left hand ventured very close to the swell of your ass, maybe slightly too close for a family-friendly wedding. It wasn't like you could scold him in front of everyone so you just sighed softly but loud enough so he could hear you.

"Mrs Anderson, I hope you liked my song choice," Josh started as the song came to an end. "But I would like to partake in the activities he mentioned."

A quiet giggle slipped out from between your lips and you nodded in agreement.

"The happy couple, Mr & Mrs Anderson," the DJ said as he started putting music on to encourage people to leave.

"Brace yourself, baby," Josh quickly whispered, before putting one of his arms under your knees and the other under your arms, lifting you up bridal style. The attendees roared with laughter and cheers as Josh weaved his way through the tables and out of the ballroom doors.

So, baby, let's just turn down the lights and close the door Ooh, I love that dress, but you won't need it anymore No, you won't need it no more Let's just kiss 'til we're naked, baby

Josh refused to put you down until you reached the elevator to take you up to the penthouse suite. His lips were preoccupied with kissing the exposed skin on your collarbones, even pushing the material down slightly to find more skin to kiss. The slightly trimmed beard that Josh was sporting was causing a little irritation on your upper chest but it was such a good feeling and you leant your head into Josh's neck which simply gave him more encouragement and didn't stop. In fact, he pushed the bodice down almost fully exposing your breasts but you were able to stop him from getting overly handsy waiting to head up.

A soft ding alerted the pair of you to the arrival of the elevator and Josh walked into it with you still in his arms, pressing the button without even batting an eye. There was a mirror at the back of the elevator and you brought one of your hands up to run your fingers through Josh's hair. "I love you, baby," you whispered, pressing a few soft kisses to the underside of his jaw. He looked up to see you snuggled up to him, in a beautiful white dress, and he thought that he could have died right there with how beautiful you looked.

"I love you so much Mrs Anderson," he whispered back, leaning down to capture your lips in a sweet kiss.

"Penthouse suite," the automated voice echoed through the small room and Josh turned the two of you around to exit into the small corridor connecting the elevator and the suite. Josh shuffled you around in his arms as he walked towards the door and pulled out the keycard from one of his pockets.

"Here we go Mrs Anderson," Josh said, stepping into the room. "Our first night together," he giggled before sending a wink in your direction. All you could do was roll your eyes at him before reminding him about the activities that had happened the night before when you two weren't even meant to see each other. Let alone having a quickie in the club bathroom, but no one needed to know that.

He softly placed you back down onto the carpet, letting your heels sink into the plush material, even with the shoes you had on.

"You know," Josh started as he pushed some of your hair over your shoulder, looking directly at you in the mirror. "You didn't just have me staring at you all night, but every single person who was in that ballroom was looking at how beautiful you are. I couldn't be more lucky."

You spun around in his arms to look into his eyes, "I think everyone was actually looking at your hockey butt," you giggled, taking a quick peek at his ass in the fitted dress pants.

"Baby girl," Josh said softly, "I don't even need to see your ass to know it is 100 times better than mine looks on its best day." At that, both his hands migrated to rest on the swell of your ass, giving one cheek a gentle squeeze.

His fingers found the way to the end of the satin ribbon that was holding together the corset of the dress. "May I?" Josh asked gently. You nodded, slightly nervously which he immediately noticed. "Hey pretty girl," he whispered, "look at me."

You obeyed, lifting your head up to meet his gaze which was filled with nothing but love. "Nothing has changed between us, except a new piece of jewellery each and you having to remember your new last name." You couldn't help but chuckle at that. "I'm still that awkward guy who wouldn't stop talking about the Macarena being the party song in the dressing room. And I'm all yours."

"I'm all yours too baby," you replied, rising onto your toes to press a kiss to his lips. It was a slow but passionate kiss and you slowly introduced your tongue into the mix and Josh was quick to respond by adding his. Nothing else mattered except the pair of you and the loving embrace that you shared.

Versace on the floor Ooh, take it off for me, for me, for me, for me now, girl

I'll unzip the back and watch it fall While I kiss your neck and shoulders No, don't be afraid to show it all I'll be right here ready to hold you Girl, you know you're perfect from Your head down to your heels Don't be confused by my smile 'Cause I ain't ever been more for real, for real

"Josh," you moaned into his mouth, not even bothering to hide your arousal.

"Yeah baby," he groaned back, tangling his fingers into your hair.

"I need you," you said, moving your hand to lightly brush his clothed bulge.

"Tell me what you want me to do." This was something Josh did often, allowing you to set the pace for an evening of pleasure.

"First," you started, moving your hands to try and take off his suit jacket. "I want you to take this off." He hummed into your mouth, reaching to take off his cufflinks and start undoing his bow tie. "Then, I want you to undress me."

You paused and looked up at your half-dressed husband, "I want you to make love to me."

"That, I can fucking do," Josh growled, almost ripping his dress shirt as he pulled it off, exposing his toned chest. "Turn around princess, let me take this off you," he said, pulling gently at the satin tie once again.

You felt comfort in his chest as he pulled you in and kissed up your neck, making his presence know by leaving a few marks. Josh wouldn't call himself possessive, but god he loved seeing the boys faces when you forgot to cover them as you entered a bar together.

A few sharp tugs of the bow that graced your lower back was enough to undo it but he still had to unlace it. "Wait," you stopped Josh before he could continue. "I need the hanger for it; it cost me too much to just leave it on the floor." Josh smiled at you as you walked over to the wardrobe to find the dress bag you had your maid of honour place in there earlier.

You placed the bag on the bed and walked back over to stand in front of Josh, "you can continue," you smiled at him. His fingers were nimble, but he took his time to slowly undo the satin, watching as you tried to hide your feelings for the man behind you.

"Now what?" he asked cheekily, holding the tie in his hands, "this would look good around your wrists I think."

"You can rail me later," you compromised, "make love to me now."

"Your wish is my command princess," he said before sponging kisses along your neck. With the strength you could muster, which was nothing compared to Josh's, you were able to push him onto the bed before pushing down the dress, almost fully exposing yourself to him.

"Fuck me," he groaned, taking you in fully. A blue lace bodysuit adorned your body with garters that attached to a set of sheer tights and Josh couldn't help but reach down to rub himself over his dress pants. "Fuck baby girl, come here," he said, patting his lap.

You couldn't help but tease him some more and turned around to pick up the dress, ensuring that he got a perfect view of your ass. You wiggled your rear slightly and received a loud moan in return.

The coat hanger was slightly out of your reach, so you rose up on to your toes to get ahold of it. When you were resting back on your feet, the sound of a zipper and someone undressing themselves was all you could hear.

Suddenly, Josh’s large frame engulfed your smaller one and he took the hanger out of your hands. “Please,” he whispered, “Mrs Anderson, please.” You could hear the strain in his voice, he had been waiting since he saw you at the alter.

As you spun in his arms, you rose up on your toes once again to say, “kiss me then,” and he didn’t need telling twice. Immediately, his lips met yours in a passionate kiss, not dissimilar to the one earlier in the day, however this one had vastly different intentions.

Josh tapped on the backs of your thighs, which you had previously discussed as a request for you to jump into his arms, and you obeyed. You hands tangled their way into his now disheveled hair, occasionally tugging on the strands to illicit a groan from your husband.

As he walked back to find the end of the bed, Josh slipped his tongue into your mouth. The kisses quickly turned more needy when he sat down on the end of the bed. With only your underwear separating your clit and his thigh, you knew that getting some friction would be relatively easy, so you began to roll your hips.

Your groans were caught by Josh’s mouth and he could tell you were getting close. He raised his thigh slightly to help you and he watched as you threw your head back in pleasure. It was a light spank to your ass that tipped you over the edge and you came on his thigh with a loud moan.

“Lay down for me baby, time to return a favour,” you moaned into his mouth as once again he grabbed a handful of your ass. You rose onto your knees and shuffled down the bed to free Josh’s hardened length from his boxers. It only took a few pumps of it to make him moan your name loudly, which you smiled at, before leaning over and gently pressing a kiss to his tip. You wrapped your lips around the tip, swirling your tongue in the exact area where he always bucked up into your mouth.

Whatever your hair looked like at the start of the day, it looked completely different as you had your lips wrapped around your husbands thick cock. Parts of it were still pinned up and other parts had escaped and were perfect for Josh to tug on as your mouth worked magic.

Purposefully, you lifted your hips up so Josh could get a perfect view of your ass as you continued to work his shaft. You bobbed your head slowly, building up his pleasure slowly rather than repeating what happened the night before.

You sent Josh a quick text, letting him know you were heading to the bathroom of the club that the maid of honour and best man had hired out for the night before the wedding. There was a divide which was meant to keep you and Josh apart, but you could hear his voice over the music and the heat kept building up between your legs.

Josh 💕: wait for me baby, I’ll be a second

“Hey, I’m just gonna head to the bathroom, order me another sex on the beach?” You asked your maid of honour who nodded before asking if anyone else needed drinks.

You made your way through the maze of corridors before finding the bathroom that you had suggested to Josh and knocked on the door to make sure it was unoccupied. The handle was loose so you opened the door, then immediately locked it behind you so no one could accidentally walk in.

Rules for quickies in the club were always the same: find an empty stall, lock the door, the other partner will knock three times, wait a moment, then knock three more times. The first set of three knocks made you almost jump off the edge of the sink that you were resting on, but you waited for the second set. They followed quickly and you opened the door, allowing Josh to slip into the small room.

“Fuck,” Josh groaned, running a hand through his hair. “You don’t know how hard I’ve been seeing you prancing around in this tiny dress and the fact that I can’t do anything about it was killing me.” You reached up to wrap your arms around his neck and brought him into a deep kiss.

“And you don’t know how wet I’ve been seeing you shirtless half the night,” you moaned into his mouth.

“Oh princess,” Josh said slipping his fingers under the dress you were wearing, quickly noticing that you had no underwear on. He took his index finger and swiped it through your folds, collecting some of your wetness on his fingertip. “Maybe I should do something about that.”

“Whatever you do, be quick,” you groaned, slightly impatiently because of horny you were.

“Whatever princess wants, princes gets,” Josh said before forcefully thrusting two fingers into you.

You were snapped back to reality by Josh’s cock forcefully hitting the back of your throat. He could tell that you were enjoying yourself by the way your eyes rolled back in your head, but he thought that was from just his actions. But you had slid two fingers under your bodysuit to find your clit. The fingers drew tiny circles on the sensitive area and you eventually found a rhythm you could keep up as Josh continued to thrust up into your mouth.

The thrusts were purposeful and Josh had fallen into a trance with a hand raking through your hair. It was only when you felt your spare hand came up to rub his balls that he snapped out of it. You looked up at him with wide eyes, asking for him to release himself in your mouth with just a look, and he happily obliged two thrusts later.

You swallowed all his release and Josh lifted you up to sit your back on the headboard. He slowly pulled down your bodysuit and threw them across to the other side of the room. “You won’t be needing this anytime soon,” he said with a giggle.

The plush comforter of the bed was enough for you to get engulfed under, but before you could get too comfortable, Josh hiked your legs up over his shoulders and began feasting on your pussy like a starved man. His licks were frantic, but he knew which spots to pay more attention to and before you knew it, he was bringing you to your second high of the night.

“Baby, I know you wanna just tease me all night, but you’ve got the whole honeymoon for that,” you complained, just needing the feeling of Josh inside you.

“So what do you want me to do?” He playfully questioned back as he stroked his now hard cock again.

“Fuck me?” Your puppy dog eyes always worked on Josh before he was your husband, and they worked just as well now you were married.

“Your wish is my command,” he said before sliding into you. He stayed buried in you for a few moments, allowing you to adjust to his size before sliding the pair of you down the bed.

Your eyes met and Josh leant down to kiss you as he started thrusting deeply. The kisses became passionate once more and one of his hands snaked between your bodies to find your swollen clit.

“Baby, you can take one more for me, yeah?” He asked, never wanting to go out of your comfort zone. You nodded frantically and Josh sped his movements up.

His head was telling him that he was close, and he knew that he could only cum inside you then make you orgasm not the other way around. So he continued at his hard pace whilst watching your body react to what he was doing to you.

You could feel that he was about you climax, and encouraged him before he painted your walls white with his cum. The pressure of his orgasm on you was enough to speed up the approach to your climax and it only took a few small circle on your clit for you to cum on his now softened cock.

“Fuck,” Josh groaned, reaching up to wipe some sweat from his brow. “I can’t wait to spend every night with you in exactly the same way Mrs Anderson.”

And neither could you.

[fangirl-creates]

The Most Unlikely Thing

A Stolitz Wedding One-Shot

Inspired by this lovely art by @sator-the-wanderer on Instagram (Link at the end)

(Note: This is my first time writing with Helluva Boss Characters—I was worried they wouldn’t be in character, but I hope you enjoy!!)

Most would say a night like this would never happen. That it was one of the many outlandish and downright ridiculous thoughts that appeared within the mind of anyone who knew them. If you said it outloud, you’d get a quick laugh out of the person you told, then the subject would be changed in an instant-as if it was never said at all.

Moxxie had that thought once. Right around 2AM he woke up from an uneventful dreamscape, and processed the thought with every ounce of his intellect. Even after that, it still made no sense. He turned to Millie’s side, taking a deep breath before he spoke.

“Millie? Are you awake?”

His wife stirred for a moment, a small yawn before she responded. “Yeah, Moxx?” She mumbled.

“I...had a weird thought..” He sat up, running his hand through his snow-white hair, soon scratching the top of his head.

“What was it?” She sat up a little, both curious and worried about what he might be thinking.

“Well-” He paused for a moment, giving the room a good look around before he continued. If a certain someone was here, listening, he wouldn’t hear the end of it. “It’s about Blitz and uh...Prince Stolas.”

Millie’s golden eyes widened as her tail started swishing like a curious cat. Any worry she had was gone, now she wanted to know all the details surrounding this. “Well?? Don’t keep me in suspense!” She smiled eagerly, shaking him by the arm a little.

“So like...and this is just a hypothetical..” He chuckled, smiling nervously for a quick second. “I just wondered for a second...well..” At this moment their eyes were locked, Moxxie’s face now torn between smiling or frowning. He had no idea what to feel. “Do you think they could ever...end up like us?”

Millie tilted her head, raising a brow. “Ya mean like...married ‘n stuff?”

Moxxie nodded a few times. “Yeah, Yeah! Do you...do you think-?”

She put a hand on her chin. “Well...I don’t think it isn’t possible. I mean...I’m pretty sure...excluding their little agreement...maybe they do like each other..”

“Do they though?” He started to lay down again, now staring at the ceiling. “I mean clearly Stolas likes him to the point where he won’t stop gushing over him. But...Blitz?”

“Who knows, hon. Blitz hardly talks about how he really feels. Maybe he does. And maybe one day they will…” The last thing didn’t sound so sure.

Moxxie turned his head. “But?”

“All relationships are complex, Moxx. And those two? Hell, it could take them years before they even think about something like that. But then again…”

“What?”

“Sometimes the thing you least expect might happen sooner than you think.”

Moxxie blinked a couple times, squinting a bit. “Sooo...you do or you don’t think they could-” He was interrupted by Millie giving him a kiss on the lips. She turned the light off next, shifting back into her sleeping position.

“Goodnight, Moxxie.”

Moxxie sighed, slowly closing his eyes as sleep began to cloud his mind again.

He still couldn’t believe he actually thought that. Although it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, it still surprised him no less. But despite how much he just wanted to forget it, it made him think about what Millie said.

It was true Blitz was starting to show a small glimmer of affection towards the Goetian Prince, especially since the rescue from a few nights ago. The concern and sudden display of power through a demonic transformation was enough to make Blitz gawk at the sight of it. And the way Stolas gently cupped his face asking if he was alright afterwards made everyone else in the room stare, Blitz feeling slightly embarrassed by the whole situation.

Yet it still made him think that maybe...just maybe something like that could happen. But that wasn’t up to him. Whatever they decided would leave this idea, this thought, completely within the hands of faith itself.

And with that, Moxxie fell asleep.

———————

Three years ago, it was never spoken of outside of that one night. And neither of the two had ever acted upon such a decision until much much time had passed. But now the stars were in their favor.

The sky was a dark, beautiful crimson that had mixed with a captivating wine purple. The stars were scattered, dusting the sky and turning it into a dazzling display of twilight.

They had kept it small, the only ones being present were close friends and family—which was basically four people. But it didn’t matter how many people were there, or where they did it. All that mattered was that it happened—which had ended up on the roof of I.M.P’s office building.

The vows had been short, with a few important bits here and there; Moxxie having to be both the one to wed them and the best man to the boss himself. He wasn’t sure he had the exact authority to do so, but both explained it was better than having someone else they didn’t know. Because once this got out, they’d have a whole other thing to deal with. But that was a future problem they would solve when it became relevant to them.

Blitz was given a stepstool so he could reach Stolas without having to stand on the tips of his toes. He didn’t want the stepstool, saying that he’d look like a complete joke. But if Stolas had to lift him up for this part, he would be unable to think clearly from the embarrassment.

Stolas didn’t seem to care how many people were present, or where they decided to host the reception. There was only one thing that mattered in this moment, and the smile of genuine compassion refused to leave his face the entire night. Blitz looking up with him while trying to contain himself only seemed to make him smile more. He was adorable.

Both eagerly waited for Moxxie to finish up, Blitz trying to keep himself from falling off the stool by how much he was moving. Of course he stood perfectly still once he heard the last few words out of Moxxie’s mouth.

“You may now kiss—”

Blitz practically jumped into Stolas’ embrace, quickly locking lips with him as the two slowly started to get lost in intimacy.

The four clapped while giving the newly weds smiles of congratulations. But those quickly faded away when they noticed the two weren’t paying attention anymore. The passionate kissing lasted for almost two minutes before Loona had to break them away from each other.

“Hey, lovebirds. Maybe wait till none of us can see you.” She rolled her eyes, putting Blitz down after basically pulling him off of Stolas.

Blitz put a hand on his head, taking a look around. “Oh shit, I forgot we were doing this.”

Stolas bent over with a light chuckle, booping Blitz’s nose. “-and aren’t you so glad we did, Blitzy~?”

The Imp pushed his face away as he blushed a bit more. “Yeah yeah just…don’t make it a bigger deal than it already is..”

“Looks like someone’s trying to pretend he can’t be romantic for once.” Moxxie smirked, making Blitz turn around in retaliation. His face was now a different form of red.

“Well you know what, Moxxie?! You—!” Then he stopped, biting his lip as he put his accusing finger away. “You…did..a good job…tonight..” He mumbled under his breath.

Moxxie kept smirking, raising a hand to where his ear would be. “Oh, what was that? Could you repeat what you said a little louder?”

Blitz shifted uncomfortably, hoping this was the last time. None of this was like him. And in front of his entire friend circle too!

“You…didagoodjobtonight..” He said it louder as per Moxxie’s request, just a bit faster than normal. Now everyone heard him…however-

“Maybe a little louder…and slower?” He leaned in closer.

“Goddammit, Moxxie! I already held back insulting you just let me have this!” He snapped a little, making everyone else just laugh in response. Moxxie put a hand on his shoulder, his smile genuine.

“Thanks, Blitz.”

———————

The rest of the wedding had lasted a couple hours. Since the group was so small, dancing and talking underneath Hell’s strangely unnatural starlight felt more meaningful.

Eventually, M&M had to leave. But they wished the two best of luck, the wedding present they got the only thing left of them from tonight. Octavia and Loona decided to head inside the office to give their dads space. Now that they were legally sisters, hanging out would feel more genuine. Like you had someone else there looking out for you. Loona now was able to shout anything about being her big sister to anyone who tried to mess with them.

Up on the roof, Blitz and Stolas were laying down on what used to be the tablecloth to the buffet, staring at the stars. Blitz had taken advantage of using Stolas’ chest as a fluffy pillow. It was so comforting, like he could just lay there forever and never get up. But then…something did make him get up. He sat and hugged his knees close, his expression somewhat distraught. His eyes turned briefly to the owl demon, feeling strange.

“Stolas?” He finally broke the silence.

Stolas had already taken note of Blitz sitting up. But he quickly sat up when next he saw his partner’s face.

“What’s the matter, Blitzy? Are you feeling alright?” His questions were genuine, making Blitz feel worse.

“Is this…is this what you want? Do you really want…me?” Something in his voice cracked and that made Stolas’ heart feel a strike of pain.

“Of course I do! Tell me, what brought this on?” He held Blitz’s chin in his hand gently so their eyes met once more.

“It’s…It’s just how we started out. And everything after that…I don’t know why it took me so fucking long to actually admit that I…” He paused. “…felt this way.”

“And?”

“And…I didn’t think that you would actually..! You…You said yes.” His eyes started to water. “Why the hell did you say yes?!”

Stolas pulled him in close, caressing his back. “Because I love you, Blitzy…And you being there all those times, even when I didn’t truly feel this way—it still meant something to me. And I know it meant something to you.”

Blitz let out a crying sound, something he would never do. At least, not in public. He didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he just felt so vulnerable now…and he hated it. Stolas quickly responded to this by cupping his face and lifting it up so they were at eye level again.

The Imp’s lip was quivering and his eyes were bloodshot enough to almost blend in with his eye color. The tears were staining his cheeks, big droopy ones making him look like an absolute wreck. He looked even more embarrassed now than he did before.

Stolas wiped some of the tears away with one of his hands, a comforting smile. “Oh, Blitzy…do you think we’d really be here if I didn’t feel this way?”

He sniffed, trying to contain himself before he responded. “No..None of this would be…” He took a deep breath. “I guess I’m so used to pushing people away I never thought you’d actually stick around.”

Stolas gave him another kiss, shorter than before, but something about this one felt even more emotional than the last. Something about this one made Blitz want nothing more than to be with him. No matter what his fears were telling him.

“I love you, Blitzy…” It was the third or fourth time he had said it tonight, but this time it felt deeper.

“I love you too, Stolas…” He returned the kiss, both landing back down on the floor.

It was at that moment they refused to let this feeling leave them. For even though the memory of this magical night would fly by, they would never ever forget it.

End.

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[lancermylove]

Chapter 11 (SFW)

➣ Pairing: Demon brothers, Royals, Solomon with fem!Reader. ➣ Warning: None ➣ Word Count: 2,314 ➣ Chapters [SFW]: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] ➣ Chapters [N.SFW]: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

➣ A/N: Merry Christmas Eve!

———————————————

Diavolo took a moment to reflect on what had transpired and sighed in resignation. The prince had hoped this day wouldn't come, but he knew he should have been more prepared as Lucifer was one of the sharpest demons he had met. As the gentle breeze danced over the crackled flames in the backyard firepit, he sighed heavily and steeled himself for Lucifer's verbal onslaught.

"As you are aware of what I wish to discuss with you, let us not waste any time with unnecessary pleasantries or trivialities," the Avatar of Pride began, folding his arms over his chest as he kept his piercing gaze firmly upon the prince. "For what reason did you not approach me directly? Furthermore, why have you brought (y/n) into this matter?"

"I did not intend to hurt you," Diavolo sighed heavily, not daring to meet his gaze. "I knew you would be devastated once you saw those letters."

"Would I have? I am aware of the difficulties my siblings present. However, their actions stem from their playful nature above all else - not the intention to bring suffering upon others," Lucifer spoke with a serious tone, his focus entirely on Diavolo even though the prince refused to meet his gaze. "You requested my obedience centuries prior in exchange for aiding Lilith and granting us a place in Devildom. I willingly accepted. Why did you not anticipate I would comply on this occasion?"

Diavolo's eyes widened as Lucifer posed the question, and he finally met the first brother's gaze. However, he remained silent, prompting Lucifer to continue. "What you have done behind my back can be seen as an act of betrayal; additionally, you have dragged (y/n) into it, aware that she would agree to assist you and, in turn, protect us. All said and done - I comprehend that your intention was not one of harm. For this reason, I cannot remain resentful."

"You are..." Diavolo's eyes widened, and a bright smile curled on his lips. "You are forgiving me?"

Diavolo suddenly threw his arms around Lucifer, who was taken aback but quickly collected himself. The Avatar of Pride cleared his throat in a manner that suggested he had had enough of the embrace. The prince chuckled and withdrew his arms, but seeing Lucifer's serious expression, Diavolo felt slightly uneasy.

"Henceforth, Diavolo, you are not to repeat this. Do not bring (y/n) into your plans behind my back," Lucifer sternly warned him. For a moment, the prince was surprised to hear his tone, as this was the first time the Avatar of Pride had used his manner of tone against him. Usually, the prince would not have taken kindly to this, but he gave a vigorous nod in this situation as it was his mistake.

"Then," Lucifer sighed in relief as he felt the weight of the suspense finally lift. If Diavolo or you had informed him sooner, he would not have spent the entirety of the vacation anxious about what you concealed from him. Now, he could focus his mind on other matters. "Shall we get inside? The weather is chiller than usual."

"Yes, let us return and rejoin the others," Diavolo smiled brightly. Upon entering the living room, Levi prodded the first brother's arm while Beel poked Lucifer's other arm to mimic the Avatar of Envy. Lucifer raised a brow in response, whereas their antics baffled the Prince of Devildom.

"Are you still possessed?" Levi asked with a chuckle.

"Hey, if you are, can I've your credit card?" Mammon beamed, stretching his hand out in anticipation.

"How about a pact with me?" Solomon said with an unusually charming smile.

"And I will take a hug!" Asmo giggled.

The Avatar of Pride cast a vacant stare at his brothers and scowled with intense disapproval towards them, causing a chilling sensation to penetrate deep into their very souls. The brothers swiftly backed away and put on a façade of innocence, gazing around as if they had not said a word to Lucifer. However, Mammon opted to change the conversation's topic.

"Haha...we're just jokin'. Hey, ya guys wanna see somethin' cool? (Y/n) and I found this cave. There's a place in worth seein'. It looks like a location straight outta a movie."

"That sounds quite exciting! Shall we also explore the woods? We have yet to uncover the hidden wonders within." The prince proposed, excited at the prospect of an adventurous expedition with the others.

Upon reaching a decision, the brothers, Diavolo, and Solomon began to depart. However, Asmo noticed Barbatos was still in the kitchen and asked, "You don't want to join us, Barbatos?"

"I still have to finish preparations for the approaching celebration," Barbatos smiled. "I do hope all of you have a safe excursion."

A while later, you came down from your bedroom and noticed Barbatos in the kitchen, but no one else was in sight. The tranquil and comforting aura was undoubtedly a soothing and welcome change from the previous chaotic and bustling atmosphere. "Good morning, Barbatos. Where is everyone?" You asked, walking to the kitchen.

"Good morning, (y/n). Mammon invited everyone to explore a cave with a wondrous sight. Then the younger master proposed a trek through the woods," the butler replied with a friendly inflection, serving you breakfast.

"Thank you. What about your sous chefs? Where are they?" You chuckled and settled on the high bar chair closest to him. As you took a bite of the fruit tart, your palate experienced explosive delights with each mouthful you took. The pastry base proved deliciously rich with subtle undertones of flavor layered together, while the decadent filling proved wonderfully sweet with various fruity hints that blended together perfectly.

"They absconded," he chuckled, but from the tone of his voice, you inferred that Barbatos had already anticipated this eventuality.

"Then allow me to be your sous chef today!" You giggled. "That's the least I can do in exchange for the delicious meals you make for us. Not to mention, you have been in the kitchen since the day you came here. All of us are enjoying our time while you are stuck in here."

"I gladly accept your proposition," he smiled.

After you finished your balanced breakfast with a side of sugary indulgence, Barbatos placed a freshly baked cake base in front of you. The cake had been cooled and was ready to be decorated. In front of you, he laid out a variety of fruits, decorative items, icings, and various utensils to assist you in decorating. "Would you be so kind as to decorate the cake? Decorate it to your liking."

"Gladly!" You beamed and began to lay down the icing on the cake.

The atmosphere was permeated with a pleasant peace and tranquility for some time. Only the muffled ticking of the clock on the wall, the simmering of Barbatos's cooking, and the subtle crackling of the fire on the burner could be heard. Despite the peace, the bulter preferred speaking to you as he usually didn't get the chance to spend time with you. "How did your conversation with Lucifer fare?" He asked curiously.

"Well, Luci was mad at first," you sighed but didn't stop decorating. "He even said what I did was seen as 'betrayal,' which I wasn't expecting to hear."

Barbatos shifted his gaze to you, his eyebrows raised. He, too, was taken aback by the Avatar of Pride's utilization of such a weighty term to describe your actions. Nonetheless, the butler could not fault Lucifer, considering honesty and trust were critical factors to him. Not noticing his expression or gaze, you continued to smooth the icing on the cake.

"A while ago, I saw Diav and Luci talking in the backyard from the second floor. Initially, Diav seemed sad, but he was smiling by the end. He even threw his arm around Lucifer," you laughed, recollecting the first brother's expression when the prince hugged him. "All's well, that ends well. Thankfully. I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if Lucifer had gotten angry."

Barbatos chuckled, "That is a sight no one desires to witness."

"I wouldn't want to upset you either," you giggled, but it was evident in your voice that you were speaking the truth.

"Why would that be?" Barbatos inquired curiously. However, his expression indicated that he was feigning innocence to entail a response from you.

"You always smile, but most of the time, your smile doesn't reach your eyes. Not to mention, you are a powerful demon with the ability to manipulate timelines, which is scary," you honestly said but didn't dare to meet his gaze.

"You are indeed correct. Our very timeline could perhaps be the result of my tactics and manipulations," he jested, yet the underlying undercurrent of his tone still sent an eerie chill down your spine.

"What do you mean?" You asked, gradually meeting his gaze. Was he actually speaking the truth? The prospect of him using timelines to manipulate the various occurrences to fulfill his or Diavolo's desires was profoundly unsettling to you.

"You interact with the others. You smile and laugh alongside them, yet I remain by myself on each occasion. It is possible that I may have utilized timelines to manipulate situations in order to grant myself time with you," he stated while maintaining his signature smile, which made it quite difficult for you to determine if he was speaking the truth or not. Regardless, his words still surprised you, and you felt guilty.

"I am sorry, Barbatos. I didn't mean to make you feel left out," you gave him a small, apologetic smile. "How about I cook lunch for you as a way to show you I am truly sorry?"

Barbatos was a bit surprised by your offer as no one had cooked for him before - Solomon not included as he dared not consume a meal cooked by the sorcerer. With a smile, he nodded, "I shall wait eagerly."

You spent some time online looking for an appealing yet traditional dish he may like. After a quick search, you discovered a savory recipe that you presumed would be well received by the butler. Without wasting any time, you swiftly began selecting the required ingredients. However, out of the corner of your eyes, you noticed Barbatos intently observing your actions without saying a word.

"Barbatos, please don't watch me," you gave a nervous laugh. "I am already worried about cooking for a world-class chef, and you watching me is making me even more nervous."

Barbatos chuckled and offered a few words of apology before averting his gaze to the half-decorated dessert in front of him. Since the theme of your artistic endeavor was in line with the celebratory holiday season, the butler decided to uphold the same motif and continue decorating.

Once you finished preparing the dish, you embellished and beautified it by making it appear more appealing. After you completed plating, you took a deep breath and placed the dish in front of him. The butler had quickly registered your unease, and he refrained from engaging in any actions or saying any statements that may exacerbate your anxiety even further.

His lips curled into a soft smile when he sampled your cooking. Your jaw nearly dropped as you saw the genuine smile that decorated his handsome visage for the first time. The smile reached his eyes and made them shimmer with vibrant sparkles. The sight was so overwhelming your heart lost its rhythm for a few seconds. Somehow, you felt like you had obtained an unobtainable achievement and were proud of yourself.

In a moment of assurance, you turned around and took a spoonful of your cooking. Just as the butler was about to halt your actions, you placed it in your mouth. Your body reacted in a startlingly negative manner, and every strand of hair stood on end while a shiver ran through your body. You barely managed to push down the food. In your nervousness, you had accidentally added sugar in place of salt and overcooked the dish.

"Barbatos, this is horrible!" You exclaimed and turned around to find him calmly eating your cooking. "W-Wait, how are you eating this without being bothered?"

The butler gave a light-hearted chuckle and made a straightforward remark. "This dish was prepared with love. That alone is sufficient to make it the most delicious meal I have ever savored."

Platonic:

You were overcome with the sudden urge to throw an abundance of adorable replies to the demon's remarks; instead, you embraced the butler, encompassing him with the heat of your body. Barbatos was quite surprised by the sudden yet spontaneous gesture but nevertheless felt a rush of happiness.

"I didn't know you were such a softie, Barbatos!" You teased him.

He politely returned your hug as a deep chuckle resonated through his throat. "I sincerely appreciate the embrace and the meal, but we have yet to complete the remaining dishes for tomorrow. So, shall we get back our preparations?"

Romantic:

His reply caught you off guard, and your cheeks glowed a vibrant red, which the butler found extraordinarily adorable. Wordlessly, he drew close to you, curling several strands of your hair around his index finger and gently placing his lips against them. Your gaze locked with his, and you were filled with a desire to kiss him, yet your uncertainty as to whether or not the butler would appreciate or tolerate your advances left you hesitant.

Due to his perceptive nature, Barbatos instantly noticed your desire and chose to take the initiative. He leaned in closely and remained locked in a prolonged, intimate gaze with you, deepening the shade of blush. In the next moment, your lips melted into a blissful union. The kiss felt like a culmination of his hidden desire, indicating that he may have been yearning to kiss you for quite a while.

———————————————

➣ Obey Me Masterlist: [1][2][3] ➣ Main Masterlist

➣ Buy me a Ko-fi?

[atlabeth]

everything happens for a reason part 11 - zuko x fem!reader

Memories, where'd you go?

part 10 | masterlist | part 12

a/n: alternative name for this fic: y/n gets a crush on every pretty girl she meets. yue, katara, and now suki. she can't help it (and she questions why they're all connected to sokka in some way lmaoo)

anyways, this is kind of filler but it establishes some more with relationships and finallyyy gets us into ba sing se at the end. i know it's a lil annoying because there's a lot of episode-to-text writing, but i promise it'll get more freeform as it goes on

also i know that i just posted something yesterday but i have literally zero patience. like i cant hold chapters i have to post them as soon as i write them loll

wc: 5.3k

warning(s): some feels over zuko as per usual, but overall a pretty tame chapter

chapter title comes from memories by panic! at the disco!

Zuko could barely sleep anymore.

He didn’t know when his life became so complicated, but he wasn’t a fan of it.

Back when it was just him, his crew, and the open sea — it was simple. He had a job, a straightforward mission. Find the Avatar, capture him, return home to the Fire Nation and regain his honor.

Now, the waters were more muddied than ever. Now on the run from the Fire Nation just like the boy he was chasing, all he really felt nowadays was anger.

Angry at the world for setting him on this path, angry at the Avatar for refusing to see what was necessary, his sister and her friends for turning against him, angry at the waterbender for making things so damn hard.

He didn’t want to hurt her. A part of him wished that she had never come back into his life, if it meant he wouldn’t have to constantly be fighting against her. He hated himself for the thought, but maybe it would have been easier for her to remain a memory of a lover than his active enemy.

Late at night, when he was reaching fruitlessly for sleep that would never come, he saw her face. The carefree energy from their childhood morphed into the shock and disappointment from both the North and their fight with Azula, and…

It made him wonder what in Agni had happened to them.

He—

He didn’t know. The way he felt about her, it was different than anything he had experienced before. Zuko didn’t know what it was, but he understood that it was special. And now… it felt like he had just thrown it all away.

Zuko couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened with her in that town — what he had done to her.

He had burned her to try and get to the Avatar, and he hadn’t even allowed a glance back at the damage he had done. He had heard her cry out in pain, pain he had caused, and he didn’t even look back.

What had happened to them? What had happened to him?

He kept telling himself that the mission was the only thing that mattered. And it was, wasn’t it? Capture the Avatar, regain his honor, get his old life back and finally be enough for his father. He didn’t have time for friends, or for these feelings he had, or— or for anything but capturing the Avatar. Because the Avatar was the key to everything, to his honor, and that was all that mattered.

But now…

Now, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He didn’t know what was right, or what was wrong, or what path was the one he had to take.

Zuko just wished things could be like they used to be.

~~~~~~~~~~

She didn’t really know when everything had become a mess again.

It all started out fine, like it usually did. Toph had become fully integrated into the group, any past squabbles put to rest in the name of a stronger friendship emerging between all five of them. Katara continued to work on Aang’s waterbending (oftentimes Y/N joining them in their sessions) while Toph slowly but steadily beat earthbending into him — literally.

They had all been working hard for so long that, by decree of Aang, it was ‘vacation time’. They would all get to pick out places they wanted to spend as a break, and after it was over they would get back to work.

Aang had chosen some sort of field with musical groundhogs, and Y/N had opted to revisit an Earth Kingdom village that she had passed through on her journey to the North. Sokka had complained the whole time about how they were ‘wasting valuable planning time’, but had finally conceded after the promise of ‘all the planning his heart could desire’ from Katara after their mini-vacations were over.

Y/N was actually feeling somewhat relaxed for once, but she had forgotten the golden rule — never let your guard down. Everytime she let her guard down, something bad happened without fail. So it shouldn’t have been any surprise with what happened in the desert.

Because after one trip to the Misty Palms Oasis and a journey into the desert with a professor to a long lost library, Appa had been taken by desert raiders.

It was… less than favourable. During their escape from the library, Professor Zei had insisted on staying behind, and now the five of them were stuck in the middle of the desert with no way out and zero guidance. Add some brewing tensions between Aang and Toph because of her being there when Appa was taken, and they had a recipe for a huge disaster.

And a disaster they had. Multiple disasters, actually.

There was only so much she and Katara could do to hold the group together, but by some miracle, they made it out of the desert with only one Avatar State mishap.

(And an incident with cactus juice, but… she didn’t really want to talk about that.)

....at least they had the information about the Eclipse. That was about the only thing keeping her together at the moment.

They had to get the information to the Earth King so they could formulate an attack with his warriors, but without Appa, they had to resort to more traditional methods of travel. Add in one passport problem, and that was how Y/N found herself braving the Serpent’s Pass alongside a refugee family with a baby on the way.

It was… intimidating, to say the least. Despite being surrounded by her element, Y/N didn’t feel any safer from the challenge that faced them. She took a deep breath, trying to tamp down on her fear the way her mother had taught her, as she followed the group, but her thoughts were soon interrupted.

“Hey.” She turned to see who the voice belonged to and was greeted by the girl that had teased Sokka early — Suki, if she remembered correctly. “I haven’t seen you around; are you with the Avatar or that family?”

“I’m with Aang,” Y/N explained. “I’m from the North, and they offered me a spot with them after they helped us defend our tribe against the Fire Nation. I’ve been with them ever since.” Suki nodded as they settled into a comfortable stride.

“That’s cool. Are you a waterbender?”

She gestured to her waterskin and smiled. “Yeah. I’ve been training with Aang and Katara ever since I left.” Y/N then turned her gaze back to Suki, raising an inquisitive brow. “Your makeup — what’s it for? I heard you talking about the Kyoshi Warriors back there; is that some kind of thing with Avatar Kyoshi?”

Suki grinned, her every expression heightened by the sharp reds and blacks above her eyes. “We’re a group of all-female warriors that use the teachings of Avatar Kyoshi and her partner Rangi to defend our home and the place she founded, Kyoshi Island. I’m the leader of our village section.”

“Wow,” she murmured, her eyes falling to the ground for a moment before finding their way back up to the warrior. “That’s really cool. You’re really cool.”

She laughed and shrugged. “Thanks. I’ve been training as a warrior for almost my whole life, so it just comes naturally. I like being able to protect people, and there’s no better way to pay back my home for all it’s done for me like protecting the whole village.”

“Wow,” she repeated with a small laugh of her own. “That’s really brave. I gotta say, I’m kinda jealous — I would love to see what would happen if Master Pakku met you all. Katara literally had to beat the sexism out of him in order to train to be a master.”

Suki chuckled. “Sounds like what I had to do with Sokka. Guess it’s a thing with Water Tribe guys, huh?”

At the mention of Sokka, she internally laughed. There had to be some kind of connection between the two of them, the way their interests kept aligning. “Sokka… he’s had it hard. I can’t blame him that much for any kind of attitude he had before he met you. Pakku, on the other hand? He had to have had something better to do than fight teenage girls.”

“You would think so, right?” Suki agreed. “And Sokka… I know. He’s got a heart of gold underneath all that, he just needed a little push to get it out.” As Y/N glanced over at the girl, noticing a slight pink tint under the white makeup, she gasped.

“La’s fins, are you two a thing?” she exclaimed with a grin.

Suki flushed even harder as she suddenly became very interested in the ocean around her, but she couldn’t help the smile on her lips. “No! I mean— yes— but… but—” she stopped to gather her thoughts before making eye contact again with a sheepish smile. “We’re not… really a thing, but… I do like him a lot. I didn’t really think I was going to see him again after they left the island, so this is really nice.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” Y/N asked. “I can already tell that he cares about you — have you seen how careful he’s being with you?”

“Well—” Whatever kind of excuse Suki would’ve made up was interrupted by a rock falling out just under Than, one of the refugees they were with, saved in the nick of time with Toph’s earthbending.

“I’m okay!” he reassured, but no sooner had the words left his mouth before the Fire Nation ship in the distance started firing.

“They’ve spotted us!” Sokka yelled. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

Aang flicked his glider open and deflected the blast, and Katara grabbed Y/N’s hand as they all began to run. Another blast rocked the mountain, causing several boulders to fall just above Suki. Y/N didn’t even have time to shout out a warning before Sokka tackled her out of the way, but it was ultimately more of Toph’s quick earthbending that saved him.

“Suki, are you okay?” Sokka brushed dust and pebbles off of her uniform as he examined her, and once he was satisfied he grabbed her hand and helped her up. “You have to be more careful! Come on!”

As the two of them caught up to Y/N and Katara, she gave Suki a knowing look. The warrior only blushed once again and glanced away.

After hours of navigating the pass, they were only about halfway through. Sokka made the executive decision to set up camp for the night to give everyone time to rest, and then they would get up at the crack of dawn to finish their trip. It only took a few minutes for Y/N to get a fire going, and soon everyone had settled in with their sleeping bags. Sokka got up from his spot as Suki wandered closer to the edge, and Katara nudged Y/N with her shoulder.

“Hey. How are your hands doing?”

“They’re fine,” she answered with a small smile, flipping her hands over as proof. Where there were once red burn scars on her palms only tiny white marks remained — one benefit to healing via waterbending was that most injuries were able to fade away completely after enough sessions. Her burns weren’t very serious and she was able to heal them almost immediately, so both her and Katara were sure that the marks would be completely gone soon.

The mental scars wouldn’t fade as easily.

“That’s good. And you’re taking care of them, right? Like, you’re not beating up people while we’re not looking?”

Y/N grinned. “No. I think I’ll leave that to Toph.”

Katara chuckled and nodded, turning her hands over in a final examination before nodding. “Good,” she repeated. The silence between them, although comfortable, stretched out for a little too long before she spoke again, this time much quieter. “He did this to you.”

“Katara…”

“I know,” she said. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this from me, or really at all, but… I’m worried about you. Zuko isn’t good for you. Every time we’ve run into him, he’s hurt you. And you deserve so much more than that.”

“You don’t understand,” she countered. “You don’t know Zuko like I do. You weren’t there when I was. I know you think I’m insane for still believing in him, but I— I can’t let go of him, Katara. I know the Zuko I love is still in there somewhere, and I have to try and find it. For me and for him.”

Katara’s eyes were full of nothing but sympathy as she sighed — it was obvious she didn’t believe her words, but in true fashion she was still trying her best to be supportive.

“Okay. I don’t understand it, but… I don’t think I can change your mind.” Y/N chuckled sadly and nodded, Katara’s piercing gaze meeting her own once more. “It’s just… Why are you playing with fire when you know you’re going to get burned?”

And for once, Y/N didn’t have an answer for her friend.

~~~~~~~~~

The night went by quickly, which Y/N was thankful for. It meant that the nightmares didn’t last as long.

After a quick headcount to make sure no one had fallen off the pass overnight and an even quicker gathering of their things, they set off to finish their journey.

It went just as well as she had expected — a giant serpent, the namesake of the pass, had attacked them while crossing through an underwater section. Thankfully, she was able to aid Katara and Aang in defeating it with waterbending with no casualties

But in the wake of one disaster there was always another, and before Y/N knew it a baby had been born. She was mostly there for moral support — Katara had it all handled, and Y/N didn’t expect anything less.

But finally, they had made it across the pass, and they were so close to Ba Sing Se that she could almost smell the city air. Sadly, though, that meant it was time for them to part ways — Aang to find Appa, and Suki back to her warriors. After some sad but hopeful goodbyes with Aang, it was time to bid farewell to Suki.

“Are you sure you can’t travel a little longer with us?” Y/N questioned, apparently not above pleading to try and get the girl to stay. “You’re— you’re amazing, and we’d really love to have you with us.”

“I can’t even imagine what travelling with the Avatar would be like,” she smiled, causing Y/N to get her hopes up for just a moment before they fell back down. “But I can’t stay. I have to get back to the Kyoshi Warriors.”

Y/N sighed, her gaze falling slightly downcast. “I get that. I just really wish you could stay. Or that I could meet your warriors. You seriously don’t know how cool you are, Suki.”

“Well, if you’re ever in town on Kyoshi Island, find us. I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out and do you one better than just meeting them all,” she said with a grin. “I think it’d be pretty cool to have the first waterbending Kyoshi Warrior.”

Y/N was unable to prevent the heat rushing to her cheeks as she smiled shyly, once again averting eye contact. “That would be amazing. I’ll have to find my way back there after the war.”

Suki bumped shoulders with her, causing a startled laugh to spill from her lips. “We’d love to have you.”

“Wait, why does it sound like you’re saying goodbye to her?” Sokka questioned as he walked up to the two of them. Y/N winked at Suki and gestured at him with her head, walking off before Suki could protest to find Katara.

The conversation the two girls were sharing was an extremely thinly veiled excuse to eavesdrop on the lovebirds, and when they kissed Y/N actually had to hold back a scream.

Sokka deserved this. She knew how much he beat himself up over every little thing that went wrong, and it was about time he got to relax even for a moment. She only hoped that Suki would be in their corner of the world sooner rather than later.

What could she say? She was already fantasizing about life as a Kyoshi Warrior.

~~~~~~~~~

Although they had parted ways, they soon found themselves reunited with Aang to stop yet another Fire Nation threat.

“For the love of Kuruk,” Y/N murmured as she stared into the distance, her eyes wide at the sight of a large mechanical drill. “That was Ty Lee who just took down all those soldiers. And if she’s here, Mai and Azula are with her too. Guys, It’s one thing to stop this drill, it’s another thing to take those three down with it.”

“The question is, how do we do it?” Aang questioned.

“Why can nothing ever be easy?” Sokka lamented. His gaze remained trained on the drill for a moment before he realized theirs were on him. “Why are you all looking at me?”

“You’re the idea guy,” Aang said.

“Wait, so I’m the only one who can ever come up with a plan?” he protested. “That’s a lot of pressure!”

“And also the complaining guy,” Katara muttered, drawing a chuckle out from Y/N.

“Now that part I don’t mind,” Sokka admitted.

“Well, Sokka— you were a huge help in the North, and you figured out a way to defeat the Fire Nation during that eclipse at the library! Plus, there’s all that stuff that Katara told me you did before I joined.” She patted him on the back. “If anyone can figure out how to take that thing down, it’s you.”

He shrugged nonchalantly, his ego only slightly bolstered. “...okay. I think I can do it.”

“That’s the spirit!” she said with a smile.

Unfortunately, that smile faded as a young guard came running up to the wall. “Excuse me, Avatar and friends — I’ve heard that you’ve dealt with that… that pink girl down there before.” They nodded and he continued. “It would do us a great deal of help if you could come down and look at our injured soldiers, then.”

Y/N and Katara nodded in unison and started to follow the guard, the remaining three trailing after them. They ended up inside the wall, in what looked like an infirmary of sorts with all the cots and soldiers lying around, and the two waterbenders exchanged looks.

“You know what to do?” Katara asked.

Y/N hummed in acknowledgment, and they both knelt down next to separate cots. “This definitely looks like Ty Lee’s work,” she murmured as she bent water up from the pot and molded it over the man’s arm.

“What’s wrong with him?” the general questioned. “He doesn’t look injured.”

“His chi is blocked,” Katara explained. “Who did this to you?”

“Two girls ambushed us,” the soldier said, moving his arm as he regained feeling. “One of them hit me with a bunch of quick jabs and suddenly I couldn't earthbend anymore and I could barely move. Then she cartwheeled away.”

Katara sighed as she bent the water back into the pot. “You were right, Y/N. That was Ty Lee — she doesn’t look dangerous, but she knows the human body and its weak point. It’s like she takes you down from the inside.”

As if struck by lightning, Sokka lit up. “Oh, oh, oh! What you just said — that’s how we’re going to take down the drill; the same way Ty Lee took down all those earthbenders!”

“By hitting its pressure points!” Toph exclaimed with a grin.

The breakthrough brought a steely determination to Aang’s features as he looked out into the distance. “We’ll take it down from the inside.”

~~~~~~~~~

Like everything they did, it seemed so simple on paper. But now that she was actually inside the drill, it felt a lot more nerve wracking. Toph opted to stay outside where she could see and try to slow down the drill with the earth at her disposal, which left the four of them to somehow take it down from the inside.

Sokka led them through a hallway with a myriad of valves and pipes as he thought out loud. “I need a plan of this machine — some schematics that show what the inside looks like. Then we can find its weak points.”

“Where are we gonna get something like that?” Aang asked.

Sokka thought for a moment before he took his machete out and hacked a valve off a pipe. Y/N instinctively took a step back and shielded her face from the hot steam. “What are you doing?” she cried. “Someone’s gonna hear us!”

“That’s the point!” he exclaimed. “A machine this big needs engineers to run it, and when something breaks—”

“Someone will come down to fix it!” Katara finished with a smile at Aang, a sentiment the boy returned happily.

It was surprisingly easy to take down the engineer once he arrived — with a little bit of frozen mist on Katara’s end, they had the plans they needed. Sokka’s expertise combined with the blueprints got them to the beginning of the outer shell.

“Wow,” Sokka muttered. “It looks a lot thicker than it does in the plans. We’re gonna have to work pretty hard to cut through that.”

Katara crossed her arms. “What’s this ‘we’ stuff? The three of us are gonna have to do all the work.”

“Look, I’m the plan guy!” Sokka explained with a gesture to himself. “You three are the ‘cut up stuff with waterbending’ guys. Together, we’re Team Avatar!”

Katara and Aang looked wholly unamused while Y/N chuckled. “Team Avatar. I like it.”

“Thank you,” he smiled. “At least someone appreciates my genius.”

“Tui’s gills, why do you have to keep boosting his ego?” Katara complained. “Let’s just get this done before it gets worse.”

The three of them got in position — Katara and Aang on opposite sides so they could pass the stream of water between them, and Y/N making the point of the triangle to work on the other side on her own. They were hoping it would be more efficient being able to cut through both sides at the same time, but it was proving to be much more difficult than they had imagined — halfway through the three of them were already exhausted.

By some feat of strength they were able to completely cut through the brace, but their hard work didn’t pay off in quite the way they had imagined — when the beam only shifted a few inches she groaned.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” she breathed as she wiped sweat off of her forehead.

“At this rate,” Katara paused to inhale deeply, “we won’t do enough damage before the drill reaches the wall.”

“I don’t know how many more of those I have in me,” Aang said sadly.

A large creak suddenly rang throughout the large chamber, and they all looked up for the source.

“Did you hear that?” Sokka asked, already backing up to make an exit. “We took it down! We gotta get out of here, fast!”

Just as they reached the door on the other side, a crackle followed by the sound of a man’s voice dashed their hopes. “Congratulations, crew. The drill has made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se. Start the countdown to victory!”

A collective silence hung in the air between them, the threat now even more imminent as their situation sunk in. Mai and Ty Lee had proven effective in taking down any Earth Kingdom threat posed at them, and despite Toph’s skill they knew she couldn’t take down something like this on their own.

They either had to figure out a way to destroy this drill, or the Fire Nation was going to make it into the city.

Sokka ran back over to the brace and pushed against it, putting all his strength into the feat but to no avail. “Come…. on! Move!”

Katara started pacing around in a small circle, crossing her arms again as she tried to think of something. “This is bad. This is really bad.”

“Sokka, that’s not going to work!” Y/N didn’t mean to snap, but the grinding of metal on metal combined with her nervousness got to her. She sighed and ran her hand over her face. “I— I’m sorry. But it’s still not going to work.”

He groaned as he leaned against the brace. “We’re putting everything we have into busting these things, but it’s taking too long!”

Suddenly, Aang jumped up from the ground with stars in his eyes. “Maybe we don’t need to cut all the way through! Toph — she’s been teaching me that you shouldn’t put a hundred percent of your energy in any one strike. Sokka, get in a fighting stance.”

Sokka complied and as Aang talked through his points, he demonstrated it on Sokka. “You've got to be quick and accurate. Hit a series of points and break your opponent's stance. And when he's reeling back, you deliver the final blow. His own weight becomes his downfall, literally.”

As Sokka fell over from the attack, Katara lit up. “So we just need to weaken the braces instead of cutting all the way through—”

“—then I can go to the top of this thing and deliver the final blow!” Aang finished.

Y/N helped Sokka up from the ground, his spirits not dampened at all. “Then boom! This whole thing goes down!”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Y/N asked, flexing her fingers to refresh them for all the bending she was going to have to do. “Aang, Katara and I can handle the braces. Focus on getting up to the top before anyone sees you.”

He nodded and they all met each other with determined eyes. “Everyone inside that wall, the whole world — they’re all counting on us.”

“Here, take this. You need this more than I do. ” Katara took her waterskin off and handed it to Aang. “Good luck. And be careful.”

Y/N noticed a slight blush on her cheeks and she had to hold back her smile. That was definitely something she was going to tease her friend about later — when they weren’t trying to stop the Fire Nation from breaking into Ba Sing Se.

“I will,” he assured. Aang slung the strap of the waterskin around his shoulder and took off, and Y/N and Katara got to work breaking through the rest of the braces.

With the knowledge that they only had to cut through half of each column and the revitalization that came from having a plan, their work went by much quicker. Just when they finished the final brace, it all went wrong.

“Good work, Team Avatar!” Sokka cheered. “Now we— Y/N, duck!”

She didn’t question Sokka as she immediately dropped to the ground, something she was immensely thankful for as a blast of blue fire seared past her. Her eyes snapped up to the source of the attack and narrowed in recognition.

“Of course they’re here,” she growled as she pulled herself back up. “We gotta go, now!”

Katara and Sokka nodded and they all started running. Bringing up the rear, Y/N was able to hear Azula’s words right before they split off into an intersection:

“Follow them! I’m going to find the Avatar.”

Sure enough, when she allowed a glance back, Mai and Ty Lee were closing in on them. She flicked open the cap of her waterskin and bent some out, managing to freeze it at just the right moment to block the incoming daggers from Mai. Still running, she melted it quickly and let it fall to the ground before freezing it again, creating some ice on the ground that would hopefully give them a few more seconds of leeway.

“That should give us some time!” she yelled as they turned a corner, finally turning her attention back to the path in front of them. “Any idea how we’re gonna get out of this thing?”

“Maybe!” Sokka yelled back, slowing to a stop as they came to a dead end, a large hatch the only thing at their disposal. He started tugging on the wheel in an attempt to open it, and when Y/N joined in they were able to wrench it open.

“Slurry pipeline?” Katara frowned as she read the sign on the wall and looked at Sokka. “What does that mean?”

“It’s rock and water mixed together,” he explained as they looked into the rushing liquid underneath the hatch. “It means it’s our way out!”

Katara nodded and climbed in, Sokka following close after. The sound of metal footsteps got closer and closer, and Y/N ducked inside just as Mai’s knives clanked against the hatch. Never before had she been so happy to be floating in a stream of slurry.

The rest of their mission went by surprisingly easy — at least, on their end. All it took was some waterbending — earthbending, when Toph joined them — and encouragement from Sokka (though unappreciated by Katara). Whatever magic Aang was working at the top of the drill had done its job, because soon enough the drill had collapsed in on itself.

And now, they had reunited on the top of the wall overlooking the sunset. After the chaos that had been their day, it was nice to just relax for even a moment. And there was no better way to do so than with her friends.

“I just want to say, good effort out there, Team Avatar!” Sokka exclaimed as he threw an arm around Y/N’s shoulder.

“Enough with the ‘Team Avatar’ stuff,” Katara said dryly. “No matter how many times you say it, it’s not going to catch on.”

“I like it, Sokka,” Y/N smiled. “I’ve liked it this whole time.”

“You always appreciate my genius, Y/N,” he mused. “That’s why I appreciate you.” She laughed and leaned her head against his shoulder as he continued to list off names.

“How about… the Boomeraang squad! Eh? See, it’s good because it’s boomerang, and it has Aang in it—”

“Yeah Sokka,” Toph interrupted. “We got it.”

Aang grinned and scratched his head. “I kinda like that one.”

“The Aang Gang. Ooh, the Fearsome Fivesome!”

“You’re crazy,” Toph muttered as she walked away.

“Wait, Sokka—” Y/N pulled away from him and held up her pointer finger. “Aang Gang — what if we combine it, so it’s just the Gaang? But still with Aang’s name?”

And at that moment, Sokka looked more proud than ever. “Oh, you— you are a genius.”

“Oh, spirits,” Katara groaned. “Why do you insist on encouraging him?”

“You’re just jealous of our name-making abilities,” Sokka said haughtily.

She rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “You two are completely ridiculous, you know that? Let’s just get into the city before the trains stop running.”

Y/N and Sokka winked at each other as they all started walking, unable to keep the smile off of her face. She always thought it was amazing — they went through insane things every day, but at the end of it all she was always able to smile because of them. And as her gaze drifted towards the city in the distance, she hoped it would hold true.

She had no idea what Ba Sing Se had in store for her.

-

shit is gonna happen next chapter so i hope you all are READY bc im not

perm tags: @dv0412 @siriuslyslyslytherin @maruchan77

atla tags: @marianne1806 @brown-eyed-thang @akiris

ehfar tags: @chandies-sideblog @zacatecanaaaa @anzanity @randomthingssss @escapingthoughtsandsecrets @shanksfav @shephard17895 @ilovespideyyy @carisi-sonny @selfship-mishaps @i-belong-in-fandoms @ilistentotayswifttocope @i-make-questionable-choices @3leni

[thefanficmonster]

All The Colors

Corpse Husband x Reader (Gender Neutral)

Warnings: Colorblindness, Swearing

Genre: Fluff, Romance, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: The colors are not always seen but rather felt. Just like Y/N feels the colors through their best friend and boyfriend Corpse. That’s how they realize that what they can’t see is the most beautiful and genuine feeling in the world. The feeling of knowing something and someone so deeply.

Requested by my dear friend Lulu, who you might have known as greenieofshield. Unfortunately she’ll never get to read this fic and I’ll never forgive myself for not putting it out sooner but I’ll also never forgive the universe for being so cruel as to take her away so early. She was one of the best people I’ve ever met, always so full of optimism, always there to brighten up my day and make me smile. Always so strong and brave, never falling victim to the hate she received despite not being deserving of it. The world lost an angel the day she died and I as well as so many other people will forever miss her.

Love you and miss you with my whole soul and hear, Lulu. Hope they’re treating you right in heaven ❤

For what it’s worth, Y/N has never asked people to describe the colors to them. In their eyes that seemed like the equivalent of poorly patching up a wound: they could hear thousands upon thousands of descriptions of each color and still wouldn’t be able to imagine it. The descriptions would only make that worse to them. So to avoid feeling even more like they’re missing out they never asked.

However, that doesn’t mean they haven’t developed their own way to ‘visualize’ and imagine colors throughout the years. They’ve tried loads of different methods, few of which stuck around and not for long either. That is exactly why they frequently used to tell their friends: “You can’t paint me a rainbow with black and white and shades of grey and expect me not to feel like I’m missing out on something. Paint me the gloomy sky on a rainy day and only then we’ll be even cause you’re seeing the same greys I am.”

Little did they know how drastically their logic was about to change in the following years.

Speaking of said following years - they met Corpse who became one of their best friends in practically no time. And within just a few months of that friendship’s blossoming, a romance sparked. A romance their friends would jokingly refer to as ‘romance of a lifetime’. Maybe it was said jokingly but Lord knows they weren’t wrong in saying so because the two were completely head over heels for one another -s till are to this day - and never shied away from showing it.

Y/N and Corpse met through Rae who Y/N was staying with while on a little vacation to Los Angeles. To be even more specific here, the two met through a game of Among Us, the game responsible for many wonderful friendships since its release.

“Guys, guys, guys.“ Y/N said after sparking up a bickering session for falsely accusing ‘blue‘ of faking a task in Navigation during the final round for the day, “Here’s a little rule of thumb for whenever we play together again: don’t trust me if I accuse a color instead of a name.“ It’s safe to say that statement rose a few eyebrows in the Discord call, the confusion serving as amusement to them before they explained themself, “Oh, why that is? Hm, I don’t know, maybe cause I’m colorblind.”

Rae who was in on the scheme the whole time and was struggling to hold in her laughter finally snapped while the rest of the players were left processing the information that had been dropped on them.

“But you practically kicked our ass every single round?!“ Corpse said, amazement and confusion in his tone.

“Expect the unexpected from this schemer, take it from someone who’s known them for a decade now.“ Rae said, winking at her friend from across the room. Not failing to notice the blush on their cheeks while doing so though.

“Corpse, are you calling me a good liar?“ They poked a stick at him teasingly, desperately avoiding Rae’s gaze which widened the second she realized why her friend was so flustered by Corpse’s remark.

“Practically a con artist.“ He replied to them with a laugh, earning one from them in return.

And so they practically conned him into falling in love with them with their quick wit, sarcasm and cuteness. If someone is to ask Corpse if he expected to fall for Y/N, he’d probably say yes.

“They were like a magnet the moment they entered the lobby and started talking.“ He said once on a live stream in response to a question he received in the chat regarding Y/N, “It wasn’t hard at all, falling for them. What took me a while was realizing it. While I was referring to them as ‘best friend’ all my friends were rolling their eyes and going ‘Sure, bud.’ Just took me a bit to realize why.”

Luckily, it didn’t take him too long to grasp what his heart was actually screaming at him. Good thing they came to terms with it so soon too, otherwise they would’ve driven their friends insane.

Anyway, enough about what happened and what could’ve happened under one circumstance or another, what matters is the ‘here and now’ of their relationship. And trust me when I say it has never been better and it keeps getting better every day.

The beauty of what those two have is in the tiny every day things that they do for each other, the good morning texts even though the other person in probably just in the kitchen making breakfast while the other cannot find it in them to get out of bed; or it’s laced within the calls between them when neither of them are home or at least one of them is out and about, busy with a task they’ve probably been putting off for far too long. Don’t get me wrong though, the romantic gestures aren’t rare either. Random gifts are exchanged by them on regular intervals but one consistent and super romantic gesture that repeats a few times every year (of the two years they’ve been dating) is Corpse giving Y/N a bouquet of flowers.

A detail Y/N couldn’t help but take notice of was the fact that the bouquet was always made up of the same flowers with only small changes to the arrangement of them and maybe some tiny ones added too. Unfortunately, they aren’t artificial so they couldn’t have kept them thought they wish they could’ve. That being said, it goes without saying that those flowers mean the world to Y/N, the gesture actually - they know flowers are a common gift to give but anything they receive from Corpse is so special and makes them feel like the only person who’s ever received such a gift.

And so they got curious, they had to ask. They had to ask the question they never thought they’d actively ask considering their view of the topic. But they still did.

“Hey Corpse.“ Y/N spoke up out of the blue, breaking the silence that had fallen over them while they watched the movie they were only partially interested in given how exhausted they both were from devoting themselves to their respective tasks and responsibilities throughout the last few days.

Corpse hummed in response, the arm wrapped around their waist doing a little motion as if encouraging them to continue, his gaze immediately traveling down to his partner.

“What color are the flowers?“ They asked, gazing at the bouquet - a gift they had received from him for their birthday a few days prior - in the vase on the dining table.

They waited a few seconds but when they didn’t hear nor feel any sort of response from him they couldn’t help but look up at him. Upon doing so, they saw his small smile as his eyes too remained on the bouquet. “They’re black and white.“ He replied eventually, “Black roses and white daffodils.“ His gaze wandered away from the vase and down to meet theirs, “I don’t want you to think I’m seeing them in their ‘full beauty’ while you only see them in black and white. You are seeing them in their full beauty and not missing out on anything. They are absolutely beautiful black and white as they are.“

As a response to his answer, Y/N couldn’t suppress the growing smile on their face no matter how hard they tried. So they didn’t try at all, they let the smile lighten up their face before speaking up: “You’re a wonder, Corpse.” They said, pushing themself as upright as they could to be able to kiss his cheek. “However, you’re wrong.” They say when they pull away, smirking up at his confused expression, “My world was black and white until you came into it. You’re all the colors, Corpse. Your love’s red, joy’s yellow, sadness blue, chaos green. Love red. You’re all the colors and out of all the people that have tried to describe to me how they look, you have managed to do that just perfectly without even trying.”

Little did they know that’s exactly what he thinks of them - their world is black and white because all the colors live within them. Because they are all the colors.

And maybe they both are, seeing as how they came into each other’s lives exactly like the rainbow after the pouring rain.

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[milenadaniels]

Actually, Truly, 14k - Buck/Eddie, Helena POV, post-s4 (AO3)

Isabel calls to tell them Eddie's been shot on a Thursday afternoon and by lunch on Friday Helena and Ramon are landing at LAX. When they land, they learn Eddie's already home recovering and has been for two weeks.

----

Or, Helena (and Ramon) tries to find a way back into Eddie's life and doesn't know what to make of finding Buck around every corner she turns.

Isabel calls on a Thursday afternoon and by lunch on Friday Helena and Ramon are landing at LAX. Their son’s been shot, again, in the line of duty. But this time, instead of being thousands of miles away and out of reach, he’s just a short plane ride away.

Isabel insists they come to her house before going to the hospital but she doesn’t blame COVID protocols for keeping them away from the hospital, so they spend the car ride over imagining the worst.

A complication with surgery.

Permanent damage.

A coma.

The news they receive is that Eddie’s fine, and he’s been home and recuperating for two weeks already.

Helena retreats to the living room while Ramon and his mother fight in the kitchen. They’re yelling in Spanish and for once she wishes she’d never learned.

“Escúchame, Ramon,” Isabel tries to interrupt. Listen to me.

The yelling continues because Ramon doesn’t listen. It’s not his strong suit. Nor is it Helena’s.

Helena paces the length of the living room and holds her phone in her hands, thumb over Eddie’s name in FaceTime, not pressing down.

Eddie’s been home for two weeks.

Isabel hadn’t told them for two weeks.

But Eddie hadn’t either.

They hadn’t seen him in person in nearly two years, and he hadn’t called them since their last fight over a month ago.

Still, Eddie was shot in the streets by a sniper and he didn’t call them.

Mom, listen...

The last time they spoke, it was a phone call, not a video chat, maybe because at that point just the sight of each others’ faces was enough to set them all off. In that phone call, Eddie spoke of a friend whose family was somehow worse off than their own, but who, miraculously, were finally making the effort to fix the broken ties between them in therapy.

“Mom, listen… I spent a long time being angry with Shannon instead of trying to reach out to her and now Christopher is never going to have her in his life again. I don’t want that with you,” Eddie said, his voice brusque but calm, measured. “I don’t want to grin and bear it when you call or when we visit. I want to be glad to pick up the phone, I want to be excited to see you all at Christmas, I want you to be part of our lives. But I can’t do that without you meeting me halfway.” He was resolute, but he was pleading too. “I don’t want to spend the next ten years of our lives like this.”

But the idea of therapy was anathema to the Diaz family and it took only Ramon’s dismissive scoff to reinforce her own distaste of the idea. They called Eddie back to say they had no intention of paying a stranger to tell them everything was their fault and he was blameless.

They didn’t get another call after that.

“— my son!” Ramon yells at Isabel in the kitchen.

“Because, mijo, when you come here, you don’t see your son! You don’t see him living here, growing, Christopher thriving! You don’t see how when you come up here you bring sadness and misery when you should bring joy and comfort.” The words are too close to what Eddie said for them not to have spoken about it together. “By the time I knew he was hurt, he was already out of surgery and doing well. If he wasn’t, I would have called immediately.”

“Oh bueno, so you’ll tell me my son is dying but not that he’s okay?”

“Ramon! Escúchame.” It’s not often that Helena gets to bear witness to the steel in Isabel’s voice, the one she passed down to both her kids. It’s in fine form today. “He was doing well, and had all the help he needed. As soon as things stabilized, I called you. Keep acting like a fool and see if I call you at all next time.”

“If you call? Are you —”

Mom, listen…

“Ramon!” Helena snaps, surprising them all.

“Ramon,” she repeats, more calmly this time. “Listen to her.”

The shock on Isabel’s face almost makes her smile, but her heart is too heavy to commit to it.

“Helena, two weeks she —”

“Our son was shot, and he didn’t tell us.” Helena says, her voice trembling. “Our son was shot, he could have died, and the last thing we would have told him is we weren’t willing to fight for him and Christopher. Weren’t willing to — what? — put our egos aside? Our pride? For one fucking minute to listen to him. To listen to what he needed.”

Ramon’s eyes widen and he hangs his head with a sigh.

Helena faces Isabel, her phone tucked in her palm against her stomach.

“What can we do? We’re listening.”

——————-

Ramon walks it off and Helena helps Isabel in the kitchen in exchange for a promise they’ll go over to Eddie’s for supper. She’s been making care packages for Eddie and Christopher since the shooting, and she’s working on a pasta sauce while Helena starts on her famous banana brown sugar bread — Eddie’s favourite.

“How is he, really?” she asks once her dish is tucked into the oven.

“As well as can be expected,” Isabel replies, throwing spices into the pot with an ease Helena never grew into. “He was tired for the first few days, but now it’s like a broken arm. Uncomfortable but not so painful.”

“How long is it supposed to take to heal?”

Isabel casts a suspicious eye her way as if she can anticipate the date of Helena’s return flight adjusting already, but answers, “they say 6 to 8 weeks. It’s for the bone to heal, mostly, in his back. The rest should be sooner.”

Helena broke her wrist years ago, when the kids were nearly teenagers, and it was three months of hell trying to manage a household one handed while Ramon spent most of that time travelling across Texas.

Who’s helping him? Is Carla back in the picture? Is she working overtime? How can he afford that on sick leave? Is Pepa or one of the cousins going over? Is his girlfriend there? Who’s helping with Christopher? How is he managing?

The questions — all genuine and well-meaning, all a shade too accusatory — are on her tongue, pressed to the back of her teeth to keep from escaping. She’s entitled to answers, even if she doesn’t like them. She knows she has the right to at least know how her son is caring for himself and her grandson while he’s injured. If he’d told them when it happened Helena could have been here in a heartbeat to help, but no, Eddie’s just as stubborn as they are, just as prideful. He’d rather suffer alone than accept their help. Fine. But she’s still his mother, and Christopher’s grandmother. She raised them both. She has a right to—

Mom, listen…

Helena takes a deep breath in, anchors herself in the mixed scents of the rich sauce and the sweet bread cooking, and breathes out. Isabel sends her another look but says nothing.

————-

Helena cries when she sees Eddie, and cries a bit harder when she sees the apprehension in his eyes. Her baby boy looks a bit pale, but he’s standing on his own two feet and answering the door himself.

“Oh, sweetheart,” she murmurs, wrapping him gently into her arms, mindful not to press into the sling or his back.

“Hi, mom,” he says quietly, like he’s trying to gentle the stiffness in his voice.

She releases him, but not before pressing three kisses into his temple, always three. One for each of her kids.

Ramon steps into the space she leaves when she continues into the house and from the corner of her eye, she sees him cup the back of Eddie’s head and take a good look at him. For Ramon, it’s the equivalent of collapsing to the floor in tears.

Helena quickly toes off her boots and makes room at the entrance for the others behind her, which also puts her first in line to catch a sight that nearly knocks her down.

“Who is this young man I see?” she cries, throwing her hands wide to gesture at her grandson. “Last I saw you, you were just a little tyke. Now look at you, you must have grown three feet!”

Christopher giggles and Helena smiles in return as she folds him into her arms, but it’s forced. She’s not lying — he’s grown so much more than she expected. She hasn’t seen him in person since Eddie’s graduation and while video chats are priceless, they didn’t capture this growth spurt.

She can’t believe she let this happen. That she went from spending most of everyday with this little boy and now she’s missed out on two years of his life. Can’t believe Eddie kept him fro—

Mom, listen...

Supper goes well enough. Eddie never truly shakes loose the tension in his shoulders; he trades many looks with Isabel, seemingly spooked by his parents’ behaviour. He talks a lot more than he usually does, probably out of nervousness. But overall, they let Christopher take the reigns; they’re all more comfortable with that. It’s been too long since they’ve last spoken and Christopher is full of stories about his school and his friends.

“Buck says we can go to the Griffin soon. It was closed because of COVID. But before, I went with my class and they made a comet right in front of us!”

Buck. It’s the third time his name has been dropped at the table since they sat down.

She first met him, briefly, at Eddie’s graduation, but didn’t really register him as someone in her son’s life until Eddie and his crew stopped off in El Paso for dinner on their way home from fighting Texas wildfires. Buck had been cropping up in Christopher’s and Eddie’s stories for months by then and she was curious to properly meet him in person. He had seemed...young, she remembers.

“The Griffith Observatory,” Eddie corrects fondly. With Christopher, at least, it’s impossible for him not to soften.

Eddie’s only eaten half the pasta on his plate but Isabel seems satisfied. Helena bites down on the impulse to encourage him to eat more. To remind him he needs his strength to heal quickly for his little boy. She does lift the basket of garlic bread in his direction, because she can’t help herself. He eyes the basket warily as though he expects her to do more, but when she doesn’t, he shakes his head with a small smile of thanks.

“Yeah,” Christopher agrees, “it was cool but we didn’t get to stay long enough to see everything. And if we go later, Buck says we can see real meteors in the sky.”

Fourth mention.

“Christopher is on an astronomy kick,” Eddie adds redundantly.

“Wait, I gotta show you —” Christopher is sliding out of his seat before anyone can stop him and racing down the hall to his bedroom.

“Oh, honey —” Helena grips the arms of her chair out of reflex to jump up and help him — he doesn’t have his crutches, he’s only using the wall for support and he’s wearing socks — but Eddie looks over when her chair creaks.

He can’t really expect her to just sit here while Christopher—

Mom, listen…

They can hear Christopher make it to his bedroom without injury, so Helena slowly settles back in her chair and Ramon clears his throat. “He seems...okay. More okay than I would have expected.”

Eddie keeps his eyes on his father for a beat too long, assessing the comment for any hidden messages.

“He’s a resilient kid. Buck stayed here with him while I was in the hospital, so his routine wouldn’t get messed up. I think that helped a lot.”

Fifth ment— wait.

“Buck stayed with him?” The words — the tone — are out of her mouth before Helena can stop them.

On the shortlist of people she expected to hear stayed with her grandson to watch him and care for him, alone, while his father was in the hospital — Isabel, Pepa, Carla, or even Ana — Buck’s isn’t a name she expected to hear. A coworker — an unrelated man with no children of his own, over Christopher’s family? Over Christopher’s own aide? Over a schoolteacher?

Eddie’s jaw squares up and he sits up in his chair. Like light gray rain clouds suddenly turning dark, weighty with an incoming storm, a heavy tension builds in the air between them.

“Look!” Christopher exclaims as he rounds the corner, nearly throwing a thin, blue hardcover book on the table. Eddie catches it before it can slam into Christopher’s leftover pasta and sets it down on the table for him. “It shows all the things we can see in the sky over the whole year!”

Christopher climbs back into his chair and opens the book up to a random page, describing everything he seems to have nearly memorized already. By the time he reaches the upcoming meteor shower, the tension at the table has dissipated enough for Helena to excuse herself to the bathroom and not have it come off like a passive aggressive storm-off.

She washes her hands with soap pumped out of a fish-shaped dispenser that wasn’t here the last time she visited and trains her eyes on the basket of gauze, scissors and tape tucked away on the shelf above the toilet. That wasn’t there last time either.

Her baby boy was shot by a sniper. In LA.

A bullet tore through the body she created and almost took her son from her forever.

Mom, listen...

But only after she’d almost pushed him so far away he might never come back.

The tears well up again and she sniffs through them, blinking up at the ceiling until she’s back under control.

As she pivots to turn the light off, she spies a purple toothbrush resting on the ledge just above the sink. The other two toothbrushes are electric — one adult-, one child-sized — and stand on the counter.

—————-

Helena and Ramon meet the infamous Ana by accident.

When they leave Eddie’s house on Friday, Helena sends a text message to say what she couldn’t manage to say to his face — that they’re here for him, in whatever capacity he needs, that they’ll take their cues from him, even if that means giving him some space.

To that, she receives a, Thank you.

When she asks for the contact information of the therapist he had scoped out for them, she gets a phone call.

“Not to look a gift horse in the mouth,” her son says, “but are you just doing this because I got shot?”

“Honestly? Yeah,” she laughs mirthlessly. “I’m sorry to say it took our baby boy nearly dying to get our heads out of our ass.”

Eddie huffs a laugh on his end. “Well, I’ll take that silver lining.”

After that, Eddie invites them to a restaurant for brunch on Sunday, but when they reach his doorstep, they find it already occupied by a woman who’s just rung the doorbell, holding a casserole dish in her hands.

When the door opens, Eddie takes in the three of them, his eyes wide and apprehensive.

“Ana, I wasn’t expecting you,” he says, his eyes darting over her shoulder to his parents. He’s smiling, though there’s a clear strain in the corners of his eyes and mouth. They’ve been critical about Shannon for so long — and with good reason, nothing will change Helena’s mind on that — no doubt he’s expecting them to hate this new woman on sight.

“You’re Ana!” Helena exclaims with a wide smile, imbuing her voice with as much welcome as she’s capable. “Hi! It’s so good to finally meet you!”

When Eddie releases the breath he was holding, she knows she was on the mark. Ramon follows her lead and invites Ana to brunch with them on the spot and won’t hear her protests about intruding.

Eddie, of course, doesn’t protest at all but invites them in so Ana can store the casserole in the fridge — it takes both Ana and Helena’s organizational skills to find a spot for it among Isabel’s and Eddie’s tupperwares already invading all available space — and he can finish getting ready. He was already dressed in a nice polo and jeans but when he comes back from his bedroom it’s in a smart button-down he must have struggled with out of sheer stubbornness. Both his parents and his girlfriend are in the house and still he didn’t ask for help.

Eddie and Christopher decide to hop into Ana’s car and Helena asks loudly for directions to keep Ramon from insisting they should all ride together.

“So how long have you kids been seeing each other now?” Ramon asks when they’ve been seated at the restaurant.

“Nearly 7 months now, I think, isn’t it?” Ana replies, looking at Eddie with a dazzling smile — she truly is gorgeous. Eddie was still talking to them when he started dating her so they know she’s a schoolteacher turned vice principal but to meet her in person blows all their other expectations out of the water. She’s lively and sweet, patient and understanding, Latina — a big plus in Ramon’s books ironically. Eddie picked well this time.

Eddie hesitates a moment and nods. “Yeah, that sounds right.”

Every now and again, he squirms in his chair, like he can’t quite settle in and Helena wonders when his last painkiller was taken. But when he catches her face, she smoothes her worry out into a cheeky smile that says I like this one. He smiles back and there’s nothing she can pinpoint exactly but something about it makes her uneasy.

Eddie’s too quiet as they wait for their food, his face pinched, and just when Helena’s about to break, Ana does her the favour of asking gently, “Are you feeling okay? Do you need to take anything for your arm?”

But Eddie shrugs off her concern. “No, thank you. Next one isn’t until noon.” He taps his phone twice and she smiles.

“Sorry, I forgot. He’s got them all on timers with a special ringtone. He’s so organized,” she tells Helena and Ramon with a sunny smile, rubbing her hand down his good arm. “I have one multivitamin and I forget to take it half the time.”

“Buck set it up,” Eddie defers, and Helena schools her face not to react; even at brunch Buck is with them in spirit.

Ramon either takes no issue with the mention or doesn’t register it. He takes the opportunity to share how his new pharmacy pre-packages his heart and arthritis medications into AM and PM slots and Ana listens attentively. Eddie’s fingertip taps absently against the phone case until their food arrives.

Christopher ordered a waffle, and with Eddie indisposed, Helena is already moving to help him when Ana beats her to the punch again. Helena tucks a smile away as Ana leans over and starts cutting the waffle up into smaller pieces.

“He can do that,” Eddie says when he notices Christopher sitting back in his chair, realizing only when Ana startles that his tone is sharp. His voice is softer when he follows up with, “Right, buddy?”

“Yeah,” Chris agrees, picking up his own cutlery with enthusiasm despite his hands being nearly too small for them.

Eddie throws an apologetic grin Ana’s way and brunch continues peacefully, though the stiff line of Eddie’s shoulder never does quite soften.

Mom, listen…

————-

Their first therapy session takes place in Isabel’s kitchen at Eddie’s request. Isabel thinks it’s so he has the option of leaving when he needs to (in other words, when he gets fed up and runs) but Helena hasn’t missed how Eddie has been careful to keep them away from his home since the first day they saw him.

They’ve seen Eddie and Chris numerous times in the week and change they’ve been in LA — more than they’ve seen them since they left El Paso — but always outside of the house. Sometimes they pick Chris up from school, sometimes Eddie and Chris come to Isabel’s for supper, sometimes they go out to restaurants or other outings, but they haven’t been invited back to his home again. She wanted to believe it was because he was hiding the news that Ana had moved in but that’s been shot out of the water both by her ringing the doorbell and an errant comment at the end of brunch about how she hadn’t seen him since the welcome home party.

So it’s out of pettiness, then. Stubbornness. Out of pig-headed inability to accept that he needs help and willingness to believe that they’re making an effort to meet him on his own terms.

She tries not to let it rankle her, tries to find some of that resolute commitment to letting things be and not push. But the next thing she knows, she’s yelling about it to a stranger at Isabel’s island counter.

To be fair, the session with Dr. Jamieson wasn’t going great to begin with. It’s awkward as hell, the three of them balancing on stools, squished in next to each other to try to fit into the screen, but also trying to keep the laptop close enough to still hear her and not have to shout. It’s happening while Chris is at school so they don’t have to worry about keeping him distracted but they can’t exactly ask Isabel to go wait in the LA sun for an hour so she doesn’t overhear, so it’s basically a given that she’s the fourth person on this virtual couch from the next room over.

And beyond that, Helena has kept her mouth shut for over a week which is frankly more time than anyone would have bet on, including herself, and given the opportunity to express herself freely...well…

“You want space? We’ve given you nothing but space since we got here. How much more can we give you, Eddie? You’re hundreds of miles away from us already. Forgive us for feeling the need to check in on our only son who almost died last week,” she yells, her hand nearly colliding with her coffee mug as she gestures.

“Last week?” Ramon echoes with a bark of dark laughter.

“Oh, no, that’s right,” Helena picks up. “I’m sorry! Not a week ago! Nearly a month ago! Because apparently we don’t warrant even a text when our only son almost dies, but that’s not enough space?”

Eddie rakes his fingers aggressively through his hair, his lips pursed.

“We have to move to Mexico,” Ramon continues blithely. “Is that enough space? No, better yet! Sweden! Your family still lives out there, no? We can live on their farm. Completely different timezone, we won’t even be reachable.”

“Yeah,” Eddie bites back, a sour grin blooming on his face, “that’s what I want. I ask you to give me some breathing room — to respect me, my life — and you translate that into living in a fucking commune in Sweden. And you wonder why we’re in therapy. I can’t talk to you, you don’t listen!”

Mom, lis—

“Listen to what, Eddie?” Helena yells, getting out of her seat to pace. “Listen to the months of silence you’ve sent our way? Because we either get on board and blindly cheer on every mess you get yourself into or we don’t get to know you anymore? Don’t get to know our grandson?”

“I never kept him from you — you have our number, the phone didn’t ring. That’s not on me.”

“Because you would have picked up?” Ramon exclaims, pushing away from the island to better look back at their son. “Easy to claim when it’s after the fact in front of the doctor.”

“So now I’m a liar! You raised a liar?”

“I think we’ve gotten off-track,” Dr. Jamieson’s tinny voice interjects from the laptop.

In the bottom right hand corner of the screen, only Eddie remains in the frame.

————

Firehouse 118 was a lively crowd at Eddie’s graduation but it’s nothing compared to the party thrown at the Grant-Nash house in honour of a new probationary firefighter.

Dr. Jamieson pointed out the self-fulfilling prophecy that Eddie protecting himself from criticism and pressure by withholding details about his life in LA was leading to his parents’ growing insecurity over not knowing anything about their son and feeling the need to intervene more and more.

The solution? Let them in on his life and trust that they could hold themselves in check.

For that, even Ramon was in agreement that maybe therapy wasn’t a load of shit after all.

So here they find themselves welcomed into this beautiful and loud home nearly three weeks into their stay in LA. They were allowed to pick Eddie and Chris up so they arrive together but Christopher peels off immediately to find kids his own age.

It’s impossible not to feel the warmth of family radiating from every inch of the home so when Eddie’s shoulders seem to loosen a little as they walk in, Helena can’t find it in herself to begrudge him.

“Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” a woman around Helena’s age drawls, crowding into Eddie’s space for a delicate hug he doesn’t hesitate to return. “Though I could have done without seeing another one of these for a few hundred more years,” she says, gesturing to the sling. “How much longer?”

“Another month if everything checks out,” Eddie says, releasing a sigh.

“It better,” she warns with a twinkle in her eye that says if she learns he’s been aggravating his injury there will be hell to pay.

The woman, they find out, is Athena Grant-Nash, wife of the 118’s captain and consummate host. While Eddie splits off “for a minute”, she leads them to the main area for drinks and introductions before leaving them to mingle. Captain Nash — Bobby — meets them with appetizers and introduces them to the Lees, the de-facto parental figures of the young man who just joined the team.

From the spot she claims at the edge of the dining room, Helena keeps an eye trained on Eddie outside. She feels an itch under her skin knowing it’s been nearly twenty minutes and Eddie hasn’t checked on Christopher, but she knows she shouldn’t go herself. Eddie can do everything on his own, right? He can look after his own kid at a party.

She can, however, go to the washroom and take a peek at what Christopher’s up to while she’s wandering, and that’s exactly what she intends to do.

But for now, she watches as Eddie criss-crosses through the crowds of the patio, prompting a localized burst of cheers at each stop as he reunites himself with teammates he hasn’t seen since the shooting. She recognizes the woman who was on the trip to Texas but the rest conjure only the vaguest memories of Eddie’s graduation and the occasional picture on Instagram — before he stopped posting that is. Just one more way they’ve been iced out.

But he seems happy, almost carefree in a way she realizes she hasn’t seen with her own eyes in...longer than this trip, actually.

Probably years, if she’s honest.

And it occurs to her, slowly, creepingly, that her son is outside, smiling freely and easily, surrounded by people he’s made his new family, while Helena stands inside watching his life through a glass window in a stranger’s house.

Mom, listen…

She swallows past the lump in her throat and sighs. Ramon’s arm comes around her waist and without looking at him, she knows he’s had a similar revelation.

Their next therapy session is in a few days, and they’re not going to fuck it up again.

There’s a late arrival to the party, one of the only people in Eddie’s life she can recognize — Buck. He’s as tall as she remembered but he looks a shade less young now maybe. He greets everyone with a hug or kiss on the cheek as he moves through the party, and bestows a cheer and an enthusiastic hug on Albert, the guest of honour.

When he moves on to the patio and approaches Eddie’s circle, however, the cheerful, long-awaited reunion of best friends she expects doesn’t happen. They catch each other’s eyes for a few beats and share a welcoming smile, then the conversation resumes as if nothing of consequence has happened. Buck doesn’t even linger long, heading back into the house after a few minutes.

When the cake starts being doled out, Eddie returns to meet them at the table and accepts the plate Helena offers him. Helena is scouting the yard for a chair he can sit on to eat when Buck reappears.

“He couldn’t be pulled away?” Eddie asks in surprise.

“Nope,” Buck replies with a grin before turning to them. “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz. Good to see you again!” Before they can return more than a smile, Buck continues, “he’s cheating at Unicorn Temple with Harry. Not even cake can pull him away.”

Eddie rolls his eyes and smiles. “My son is not a cheater.” To them, he says, “Buck thinks that whenever he’s losing at a video game, it’s because his opponent is cheating.”

“Not always! Just when they are,” he replies with exaggerated emphasis before scooping a piece of cake onto a plate. “I’m gonna go hide this in the fridge for him for later before it’s all gone.”

Eddie ducks his head and smiles down at his plate, and the questions are building up behind Helena’s teeth again.

Christopher’s been playing video games all this time? Is it an age-appropriate game? Why is Buck checking on your son? Why is Buck saving him cake when nobody asked him to? Why—

But Eddie looks up with an uncertain expression and says, “there’s a table out there if you guys want to join me.”

So Helena stows her questions and says, “that’d be great.”

They eat the overly-sweet cake in peaceful silence until Ramon casts an eye around and says, “you must be glad about the new firefighter. You won’t be the baby on the team anymore.”

Eddie snorts. “I’m 33 and my kid is nearly a teenager — and that’s totally not freaking me out at all,” he adds wryly. “Besides, I was never the baby of the team. Buck is younger than me and forever a kid at heart so I was never in any danger of it.”

“Oh god, don’t remind me that Christopher’s growing up,” Helena only half-jokes. “I can still barely believe he’s old enough to hold his own head up.”

Eddie huffs a laugh and Helena banks it as a win.

“Do any of your coworkers have teenagers?” Ramon asks. “Might have some words of wisdom to share.” Since you won’t ask us, is unspoken and politely ignored by all.

“Athena’s daughter May is just leaving the teen years now, but after her, Christopher’s the oldest. Harry, Athena’s son is 9 and Denny, Hen and Karen’s son just turned 8. It’s great for play dates but not for getting advice on what’s coming up unfortunately.”

“Karen,” Ramon echoes.

Eddie’s fork pauses on its way to scoop some excess icing off his cake and his back straightens.

“Hen’s wife,” he says curtly, daring.

Helena wants to roll her eyes at the posturing. It’s 2021, who cares who anybody loves. She knows Ramon doesn’t, not really, not anymore. It’s a 50-year-long reflex to make a comment, one they’ve been working, if only to have some semblance of a civil conversation with Sophia while she works through a degree in women and gender studies.

But she knows that excuse isn’t going to fly with Eddie.

It hasn’t flown since Eddie was 20 years old and realizing he’d lost a good friend to his father’s caustic words. And Helena can’t ever go back and examine the hurt in Eddie’s expression with fresh eyes. Shemanages to forget about it most of the time until something happens to dig it out of the cold, hard ground and shove it in her arms.

Mom, listen...

But she’s come to LA because she wants to be in her son’s life, in her grandson’s life and she can’t be a coward now.

“They’re a gorgeous couple,” she says, almost too loudly in her enthusiasm. “Are they thinking of having more kids?”

Eddie turns his assessing eyes to her and is mollified by her effort. “Yeah, they’re foster parents now. They’ve fostered three kids so far.”

“That’s great,” she says sincerely. Then, accidentally on purpose and only in part to bring Ramon back to a safe topic, she asks, “Does Ana want a large family?”

Eddie sees through her attempt, but nods. “Yeah, she loves kids.”

Helena doesn’t miss Ramon’s approving nod, or the dark look that passes over Eddie’s eyes when he catches it.

“Was Ana not able to come tonight?” Ramon asks.

“I didn’t ask her,” he answers, his voice a shade too casual. “This is more of a team thing.” As if they hadn’t just been discussing the other families all around them.

“That Ana—” Ramon begins but is interrupted by the arrival of Christopher with a hint of blue icing on his nose and Buck following behind him with two paper plates filled with cake.

Christopher sits backwards on the picnic table bench and uses his arms to lift his legs over while Eddie watches but doesn’t offer to help, and when Christopher is set, Buck places one of the plates in front of him with a plastic fork stuck in the top like a flag.

“Buck was finally able to pull you away, mijo?” Eddie asks as Christopher digs in.

“No, May took her room back so we can’t play on her tv anymore. Harry’s gonna ask his mom if we can play in her room.”

“Yeah...” Buck draws out, sharing a dubious expression with Eddie over Christopher’s head, “I wouldn’t hold out for that, bud.”

“Maybe you can teach the others how to play Scrabble!” Eddie suggests.

Christopher’s nose wrinkles, “Scrabble is boring.”

“Hey!” Buck protests and takes a forkful of Christopher’s cake in retaliation, which prompts Christopher to yell and attack Buck’s cake back, taking much more than a forkful.

The commotion draws attention to their table and Helena’s gearing up to tell Christopher to settle down when she catches Eddie’s eyes on her, waiting.

Helena looks back out to the backyard to say, People are staring.

Eddie looks back impassively as if to say, Let them.

Mom, listen...

Helena swallows her impatience, her anxiety, her embarrassment.

“Hey,” Buck calls, his mouth half full of icing, “did you take your 6?”

Eddie hesitates and that’s enough for Buck to swallow and look put out, already turning and lifting a leg out of the confines of the picnic table.

“Did you turn off your alarm again?”

“I didn’t turn it off the first time, I don’t know what happened.”

“What happened is it woke you up at 6am and you turned it off because sleepy Eddie makes bad life choices.”

Eddie rolls his eyes. “You don’t have —”

“Right pocket?” Buck interjects, already walking away.

“Yeah,” Eddie sighs.

Christopher looks at him and shakes his head with exaggerated disappointment.

“Don’t you start,” Eddie warns, scooping a fingertip of icing and dabbing it on his son’s nose too quickly for him to duck.

Christopher shrieks and reaches for his cake fingers-first.

“Oh no, no,” Eddie laughs, catching Christopher’s fingers with one hand. “Truce, truce.”

Christopher doesn’t look interested in a truce and Eddie’s other arm is in a sling, so Ramon quickly pulls the cake out of Christopher’s reach, and then Buck’s abandoned piece and Helena does the same with Eddie’s.

“Not fair!” Christopher cries, still reaching.

“Your dad’s hurt, mijo, you can’t attack him with icing while he’s healing,” Ramon says reasonably. “Wait till he’s all better.”

“He’s fine!” Christopher declares with the confidence of a trauma surgeon as he tries to climb up on the bench.

Eddie’s not in a position to pull him back down and Helena doesn’t know how far they can take their non-interference but she’s not about to let her grandson hop over a table to fall into three plates of cake. She’s half-decided she’s going to pick up the cake and walk it back inside when Buck returns, depositing a glass of water on the table and a small white pill into Eddie’s palm before swooping in and tickling Christopher’s sides.

He shrieks loudly, gaining looks from all around the backyard, but it gets his butt back down on the bench and Buck sits back down next to him, boxing him in between himself and Eddie.

“What happened to our cake? How’d it get all the way over there?” The plates are very easily within Buck’s reach; it’s a question for Christopher’s benefit.

“Dad got me like you did!” Christopher cries indignantly, pointing to his nose. “I’m getting him back!”

“Oh man,” Buck nods seriously before his finger darts forward, swipes the icing from his nose and brings it to his mouth. “Mmm, this is better than the one I got you with. You sure you don’t just wanna eat it?”

Christopher looks unconvinced.

“How about this?” Buck ducks down to whisper loudly. “You call a truce with your dad, and then I’ll steal all his icing and we’ll eat it.”

The icing on Eddie’s cake is mostly piled in a corner of his paper plate. He’s never been able to stomach the pure sugary sweetness of store bought icing.

“Okay,” Christopher nods back, reaching out again for his plate but without making grabby hands.

Ramon assesses him for a moment before taking the chance to push the plates back within reach.

“Hey, Eddie,” Buck calls deliberately. “You should take your medication now.”

“Thanks, Buck,” Eddie replies with a smile that conveys an eyeroll. “I’ll do that now.”

While Eddie pops the pill and takes a very long drink of water, Buck “sneakily” pulls his plate towards them and scoops all the piled icing onto his own plate before pushing the cake back to Eddie’s side of the table.

Christopher laughs and pushes Eddie’s plate an extra few inches away out of spite.

Eddie plays the disappointed victim passably well with a half-hearted gasp and a shake of his head. “You little thieves.”

As promised, Buck doles out some of Eddie’s icing to Christopher who immediately protests at the amount left on Buck’s plate.

“Hey, when you’re a big guy like me, you get more icing. Keep eating your proteins and you’ll get there in no time.”

Christopher accepts that easily enough. “I’m gonna be tall like dad.”

Buck scoffs, “Aim higher, kid. Literally.”

“I am barely two inches shorter than you,” Eddie laments, not for the first time, it sounds like.

“It’s practically three. Are you really going to lie in front of your parents?”

Wouldn’t be the first time, is on Helena’s tongue because it’s been hours since she could speak her mind, but she holds it in.

“How was the trip from Texas?” Buck asks them suddenly, bringing them back into the fold of a scene they'd never left but somehow stopped being a part of. “Flights have new restrictions on them now, don’t they?”

Mom, listen...

When the party is winding down and they walk outside to the driveway, Eddie surprises them by offering them both a hug.

“Thank you for coming,” he says sincerely, though Helena hears the underlying “and behaving” and can’t help but bristle.

“Thank you for inviting us, mijo,” Ramon says; his turn to save Helena from herself.

And when Eddie lets them know he and Chris will be getting their ride back from Buck, Ramon takes Helena’s hand and they smile almost sincerely as they say their goodnights.

—————-

The next week happens to be Isabel’s 80th birthday and Helena and Ramon keep themselves busy by helping to throw a party that will reunite every vaccinated member of the family in the area (they’re not about to take a chance on Isabel’s health).

Things have been getting better with Eddie. They had a second therapy session, again at Isabel’s island counter, where they lasted a good 25 minutes before devolving into yelling. The next day, Eddie asked Ramon for a ride to physical therapy, and easily accepted his father’s offer of lunch after the appointment.

Then, when Helena asked if she could pick up some groceries for him and Christopher, she was refused — in no small part, she thinks, because he still won’t let them in his house — but instead of going off on him, she channeled that anger and resentment into nearly buying out Costco for Isabel’s party. It felt like progress Dr. Jamieson would be proud of.

That’s why, despite the party officially kicking off around 11am, they’re just past supper time and all tables and counters are still nearly buckling under the weight of the food. They’ll have to send everyone home with leftovers if the flow of people stops. Isabel’s front door has been a turnstile since this morning and Helena knows from experience it’ll likely stay that way until the late hours of the night. Most recently, Helena’s daughters made their appearance, and it’s not at all the reason Helena is back in the kitchen.

Despite coming from opposite ends with different travel distances, Adriana and Sophia arrived within a half hour of each other, a move Helena saw through instantly. The idea that her children coordinated to arrive together instead of risking the possibility of facing their parents alone sets a fire raging in her heart, and she realizes suddenly that she isn’t prepared to be hypervigilant of her every word with all three of her kids here now to push her buttons.

So, she retreats to the kitchen.

She doesn’t expect one of them to follow her in.

“I heard you guys were doing therapy,” Adriana volleys as she approaches.

Helena cracks open the tray of chocolate chip cookies and starts plating them, her face angled down so any kneejerk expression of distaste isn’t as visible. “Apparently, that’s what the cool kids do nowadays.”

“It is,” Adriana agrees, the bangles on her wrists clinking on the countertop as she reaches for the box of oatmeal cookies to plate. She’s a year into her Master’s in communication. What she intends to do with that is a mystery to them. So much of their kids’ lives are a mystery now. Helena closes the lid of the cookie tray hard and relishes in the snap of the plastic groove into the tongue.

“Paying a stranger to tell us when and how to talk to each other is cool,” she bites. It’s not posed as a question, just a bitter acknowledgement.

Adriana is quiet and Helena starts plating mini quiches onto the cookie platter just to stay occupied while her daughter walks away. Sophia is a yeller, she stands her ground and gives as good as she gets. Adriana, however, is a runner, just like Eddie.

But Adriana doesn’t leave in a huff. She turns to the counter and grabs a second platter, moving the mini quiches onto that one.

“It’s cool that you’re open to trying,” she says. “I think that, in any family where there’s love, there’s going to be hurt. And the longer we stay stuck in that hurt, the harder it becomes to talk about it without causing more. We get stuck in patterns that we can’t break out of, and people on the outside can be the best ones to point out those patterns and help you break out of them to get to what you actually, truly want to say.”

Helena knows what she actually, truly wants to say. That’s not the problem. The problem is that none of her kids want to hear it.

“I see a therapist,” Adriana continues. Helena stills and looks at her daughter, calmly arranging the mini quiches into concentric circles. “Since my last year of undergrad. When things got really hard and I couldn’t understand why. They helped me. A lot. Helped me figure out what was wrong and how to get myself through it.”

“You didn’t tell us,” Helena says, her voice thick.

“I know,” her daughter replies simply. “I didn’t know how. I’m telling you now because what I actually, truly want to say is that I’m proud of you and dad for doing this. And maybe if you don’t hate it...maybe we could try a session later too.”

There’s an offer in her daughter’s words, an open hand reaching out. But in that hand, Helena sees her failures as a parent, the judgement of the world for failing her kids, and she doesn’t want to reach her own hand out.

Mom, listen…

Helena looks at her eldest daughter, almost a stranger to her, with an entire life Helena is only starting to realize she has no part in. It hurts — it always hurts when the kids pull away but to realize she didn’t even know the extent of it...she wants to hurt back.

Mom, listen…

But she’s trying so hard to break those patterns Adriana speaks of. So instead, Helena thinks of the therapist’s advice leading them into a piece of Eddie’s life they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten to see and swallows past the indignation in her throat to reach down and find the words she actually, truly wants to say.

“You say when, and I’ll be there.”

———-

The sun is setting when Helena finally agrees to get off her feet and just enjoy the party outside while the cousins take over the serving and cleaning. There are four generations of Diazes gathered around but for the first time ever, most of the cousins are young adults, not teenagers, and it’s nice to be able to pass on the hosting responsibilities to them for a bit.

The sky is clear, the sunset resplendent from Isabel’s backyard, and the conversation is flowing easily. It’s a beautiful evening, warm with a gentle breeze cool enough to let her lean back against Ramon in his lounge chair, one of his arms wrapped loosely around her hip.

For the first time since getting Isabel’s text, Helena feels something like peace wash over her and she almost feels bad for the thrum of vindication in her stomach when she spots Eddie slumped comfortably in an armchair, his legs propped up on another chair.

He’s at home here.

Yes, he was at ease at his captain’s house but this is family, this is where he can really sink into the love and comfort and rest. With his aunts and uncles, cousins and sisters around to take care of him. And Christopher, who spent the afternoon running around and chomping down on all the sugar he could get his hands on, slumped against him, nearly asleep. This is family.

She knows he could find that peace back in El Paso, they both could. Eddie had friends there, and his parents, who knew his son better than he did for most of his life. And there are fires in El Paso same as there are in LA, but less smog, less general insanity.

But Eddie’s a lot like his parents, too much like them maybe, and once he’s decided on a course of action he can’t be swayed. So Helena has made peace with it. Rather, she’s made peace with pretending to be okay with it while she waits for him to come to the realization that he should move back.

And in the meantime, if they can mend this thorniness between them, then maybe she and Ramon can make more of these impromptu trips. Maybe even convince Eddie to come home for Christmas this year. At the very least, go back to regular video chats.

But all that ruminating feels far away right now. She’s moving gently with the rise and fall of Ramon’s chest, and she’s so close to slipping away to the feeling of contentment when a new arrival makes her open eyes she didn’t realize she’d closed.

“Feliz cumpleanos,” she hears someone say in half-decent Spanish from the front door on the other side of the side yard fence.

She doesn’t recognize the voice as yet another cousin or uncle, but Eddie shakes Christopher’s shoulder gently, and says, “hey, guess who’s here.”

It takes a moment, but the words penetrate Christopher’s sleepiness. His eyes pop open and he shimmies out of Eddie’s lap and into his crutches to power walk over to the gate just in time for it to open, admitting Isabel, holding a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and a sheepish looking Buck behind her.

“Buck!” Christopher yells.

Buck’s smile widens and he immediately opens his arms. “Hey, superman!”

Buck crouches down and Christopher throws his arms around his neck, crutches and all. When it’s time to break apart, Christopher’s still hanging on and Helena feels a stab of dark vindication at what’s about to happen, and the look Ramon sends her way tells her she’s not alone. Because Christopher is now officially in the double digits, and while he’s always been an independent kid, becoming 10 years old was a big deal for him and his perceived level of maturity, and apparently the year he decided no one was allowed to carry him anymore.

And now Christopher’s tired and in the grip of a powerful sugar crash. He’s not going to suffer any indignities, and Helena knows she should feel bad about not trying to stop Buck. About just watching this play out to see him be rejected. But she wasn’t expecting to see him here, in this safe haven of Isabel’s backyard, in this space for family and loved ones, and it rankles her. It feels like everywhere she turns in LA, she finds him there. And his being here is just another nail in the coffin of Eddie stubbornly refusing to let his parents back into his home. That he would call his friend to this party just to avoid letting them give him a ride…

So she’s a little bitter, a little resentful of the persistent, low-key rejection. Sue her. Eddie has made it clear he doesn’t want them interfering anyway so this is on him.

“Christopher,” Eddie calls, a warning to not make a scene.

Buck looks over Christopher’s shoulder and smiles. “He’s fine,” he says.

Then he’s heaving Christopher’s body up into his arms and onto his hip and Christopher…

...Christopher slumps down over Buck’s shoulder like a baby koala. No sound of protest leaves his lips. His face, if it shows any displeasure, is hidden behind Buck’s neck.

And when Eddie gets up, it’s not to intercede, it’s only to grab the errant crutches before they hit something, and to pull his own armless chair out for Buck to sit on because apparently Buck is staying, and apparently Christopher is staying with him.

“He’s a bit old to be carried around, no?” Ramon says with a bite, because he can’t help himself.

Eddie, who’s been watching his son fondly, barely bats an eye. “He gets cuddly when he’s tired, and Buck’s nearly the only one left who’s big enough to carry him.”

“Ah, that’s why you spend so much time developing these,” Pepa says with a sly smile as she pinches at Buck’s bicep. The same familiar pinch she gave her own grandkids’ cheeks.

“Gracias a Dios,” Isabel adds meaningfully.

“That was adrenaline,” Eddie dismisses with a teasing grin.

“That was 100 squats and 50 pushups a day,” Buck returns blithely. “...and maybe a little adrenaline.”

“What’s this?” Ramon asks before she can.

Instead of prompting more teasing, the mood falls slightly and everyone looks to each other.

Finally, Eddie sighs. “When I got shot, Buck army crawled under a ladder truck to get me out and lifted me into the truck to get to the hospital.”

It strikes Helena suddenly, shamefully, that in the shock of finding out they’d missed the event itself, the hospital stay, and two entire weeks of healing, that they’d never circled back around for details on what actually went down the day it happened.

She never thought to wonder how he got off that street. How he got to the hospital. Who might have saved his life.

And she wishes she were a better person then. Wishes that learning Buck saved her son’s life overpowered her irritation at having him sitting here in Isabel’s backyard like he belonged here when Helena herself barely felt like she did herself. It does help, though.

“They released the street footage of the shooting,” Pepa continues quietly. “It’s on YouTube. Before I even knew it happened, Marguerita from church just sent me a link saying ‘they said it’s a Diaz, do you know him?’ and I saw.”

The idea of her son’s shooting being passed around like a cat video makes Helena sick, but Pepa lamenting how she hadn’t known when she learned about it in a matter of hours and sat on it for weeks…

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Pepa says decisively. “But they have an angle where you can see our Buck here go and get Eddie, pick him up like he doesn’t weigh a thing and get him into the truck to get to the hospital. Probably why he’s alive today. So gracias a Dios for those squats.”

Eddie and Buck are both looking away, both looking safely at Christopher while the table digests the news.

“If you were looking for a story of something really dumb, I can point you in the direction of another video of Buck,” Eddie says, his tone jovial but his eyes strained.

“You need to let that go,” Buck says in a definite whine.

“Do I?” Eddie asks. “Abuela did you see the video of the firefighter who went up the crane all alone?”

“Dios mío, Buck,” Pepa laments.

“Did you send it to me?” Abuela asks her, pulling out her phone and her glasses to check.

“No, mamá, it was an idiot firefighter but I didn’t realize it was the one we knew.”

“In the middle of an all-out declaration of war on firefighters,” Eddie begins, quietly for Christopher’s sake, but impassioned, sitting up in his chair, “this idiota and his squat count climbed up a crane ladder, completely exposed and defenseless—”

Buck looks pained. “I was wearing a bulletproof vest and a helmet. And that’s the job sometimes—”

“The paramedics’ job, actually, which you aren’t. So, no, that wasn’t the job.” Eddie’s tone edges into something darker without his meaning to. He takes a drink of his lemonade looking for all the world like he wished it was a beer. “And you know that or I wouldn’t have found out about it from Chim a month after the fact.”

Helena clenches her jaw tight and squeezes Ramon’s hand even tighter so neither of them can say, So you have a problem being left in the dark too?

“Buck,” Isabel sighs with disappointment.

Buck winces. “It was before— ” He cuts himself off, his wide eyes darting towards Helena and Ramon of all people.

“Hmm,” Isabel answers noncommittally, as if to end the conversation.

Just then, Sophia brings out a platter of bite-sized desserts, making the rounds of the whole circle for people to pick at before leaving it on the table. The opportunity to move on is there. That doesn’t mean they’re interested in taking it.

“Before what?” Ramon asks, his tone is forcibly casual.

The silence that greets Ramon’s question is heavy. Guilty. When Helena casts her eyes around, she’s greeted by stiff shoulders and a mix of apprehension shared between her son, her mother- and sister-in-law, and Buck.

Mom, listen...

“Before what?” Helena repeats, her voice uncompromising.

———-

The fight they have in Isabel’s guest bedroom is a Hall of Famer. It’s a screaming match, no doubt about it. The doors from the bedroom to the yard are all closed but there’s no question every member of the family — and Buck — can hear every word.

“Do you really hate us that much?” Helena demands. She’s crying but she doesn’t know if it’s heartbreak or fury, she just wishes it’d stop so she could lean into her anger. “Genuinely, honestly, Eddie.”

“I don’t hate you,” he protests, keeping his own voice down, making it seem like they’re irrational for their anger.

“Bullshit,” she spits.

“You must!” Ramon adds. “You hate us so much that you have to hate your sisters too? Your cousins? You would rather leave your only son to a stranger, some gringo coworker, than with family? That’s how much you hate us? Hate our name?”

“Our name?” Eddie shoots back incredulously. “What are you talking about, our name? We’re not royalty, papi, and Chris’ name would never change.”

“You would leave him to your coworker,” Helena stresses, disgust dripping from her tongue.

“To my best friend,” Eddie retorts, “who Christopher adores, if you haven’t noticed. And who adores Christopher right back.”

“That’s not normal, mijo,” Ramon warns.

“Jesus christ,” Eddie seethes. “Please do not star—”

“What kind of single adult man bonds with another man’s child like that?”

“You’re describing a tío, you understand that right? What, you think it’s weird that Pepa loves me like her own? You think Sophia should stay away from Chris too?”

“That’s family,” Helena argues.

“And they’re women!”

“Ramon, shut up,” Helena snaps.

“Buck is our family, and he’s a man, and he’s got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. If anything happened to me, Christopher would be taken care of like if I was still here.”

“Buck, the one who nearly got him killed in the tsunami? That’s the same guy right?” Ramon throws out, his eyes a little wild as he paces.

“The one who saved his life in that tsunami, despite being injured and then some. And the one who’s saved my life more times than I can count, including from being gunned down on the street. We’d both probably be dead if not f— ”

“Isn’t he the one who’s family is worse off than ours?” Helena recalls. “So he has no family, no support, no girlfriend even! So a worse position than you’re in now. That’s what you want to leave him with.”

“He doesn’t need a girlfriend to raise Christopher right, I don’t! And he has a great sister, he has the 118, he has Carla, and he has our family. You think Abuela and Pepa would shut the door on him? He’d be here every Sunday, with Christopher, just like I am.”

“And what does your girlfriend think of this?” Ramon presses. “The vice principal, she thinks this is normal?”

“Ana doesn’t have anything to do with this,” Eddie says, frowning.

Helena balks. “You think the woman you’ve been seeing seriously for nearly a year has nothing to do with long-term decisions about your son? You think maybe she wouldn’t want the option of taking Christopher in if something happened to you?”

“That’s not happening, he’s going to Buck and that’s final.”

“What’s going on with you and this gringo?” Ramon asks suspiciously. “Are you even going out with Ana or was that another lie?”

“Ramon, don’t go there,” Helena sighs, her heart clenching. That’s all they need in this clusterfuck, that layer of pain.

“No, let’s go there because you know what?” Eddie asks darkly. “There is no one on this planet I trust with my son more than Buck and yeah, if we need to lay it all out there, that includes the two of you. I know you love Christopher, just like I know Shannon loved him, but that’s not always going to be enough. Buck isn’t going to fill my son’s head with ideas about the wrong kind of way to love someone. He’s not going to tell him he’s not good enough for his family to love him or support him. Buck’s going to make sure Christopher grows up to follow his heart and find whatever makes him happiest in the world, no matter what that looks like.”

“How could you think—”

“What if he grows up to be gay?” Eddie asks pointedly, staring his father down. “You’re telling me you’re going to be the one to help him pick out a suit to go to prom with his boyfriend?”

Ramon purses his lips but tries, “it’s a different world now,” as if he hadn’t just tried to make crass insinuations just to hurt his son.

“Okay,” Eddie says, not believing him for a moment, “what if he’s trans? Tells you at 15 that he’s a girl and he wants to transition. You’re going to get him on hormone therapy?”

“Eddie that’s not—”

“What if he’s 20 and he tells you he got a girl pregnant by accident and he doesn’t know her enough to love her, and he’s not ready to be a father let alone a husband?”

Helena tries to speak but her throat is suddenly too tight for words to get out.

“You gonna tell him he’s not a man if he doesn’t marry her anyway?”

Ramon says nothing.

“Christopher is going to Buck, and that’s final.”

——————-

Helena and Ramon don’t show up for the third therapy session.

Their plane tickets were only for three weeks, originally, and as the days run out, they don’t talk about extensions.

———-

Helena is sitting out in Isabel’s backyard, trying to conjure up that feeling of serenity she got to bask in for all of two minutes the night of the birthday party.

It’s not working.

They’re going back to El Paso tomorrow, leaving their relationship with Eddie in worse straits than when they arrived.

There’s always been a tension between them and Eddie, but there’s also always been love and respect, and that love and respect formed a polite barrier around the things they couldn’t talk about. It kept their relationship safe. Kept them from getting too close to real honesty where things hurt in ways that couldn’t be walked back.

It feels now like that barrier has fallen. That Eddie’s finally reached the limit of what he could hold back and now there’s nothing to help them pretend everything is okay. Nothing to help Helena believe this is all something that could blow over.

That’s to say nothing of Christopher, who’s never felt as far away as he does now, even while they linger in the same city, only a couple dozen blocks away.

Helena scrolls listlessly through her phone’s camera roll for the last few weeks. There are pictures of Christopher mostly, but Eddie and the rest of the family are there too. It hurts to notice how Eddie is markedly happier in the shots where he’s looking away from the camera. Away from her.

Mom, listen…

Helena opens up Instagram and lets herself forget for a moment that anything is wrong. On Instagram, there is only joy and fun. And Buck.

Eddie hasn’t posted anything to his account in months but starting from the end and working backwards, Buck features heavily. He’s in at least a third of the pictures, usually with Christopher. One of the posts includes a short video that she watches. It’s of the day they unveiled the adapted skateboard, and it nourishes her soul. There’s no sadness here, or tension, only pure radiating happiness and excitement. It’s magical.

And it’s meaningful.

Mom, listen…

Helena is out of her chair and pocketing Isabel’s car keys before she can talk herself out of it. The drive to Eddie’s house is made with a carefully blank mind. She knows if she lets herself think about what she’s going to say, she’s going to spiral and get to a place where all this fear and sadness turn dark and ugly, and she can’t afford to risk it.

Finally, she’s knocking gently on a front door she’s only seen three times in the weeks she’s been here.

Buck answers the door.

————-

The house is quiet when Helena steps in.

She doesn’t bother taking her shoes off this time, she’s not sure how long she’ll be allowed to stay. But she notices that the space where her shoes would have gone is taken up by a pair of large boots she imagines fit perfectly on Buck’s feet.

Buck disappears into the living room and she follows quietly after him. The lights are off but the muted tv glows brightly enough for her to see Eddie reclined on his back on the couch, sleeping, and Buck sitting down on the edge of the coffee table to shake his arm.

Eddie’s always been a light sleeper, especially after the army and Christopher. He doesn’t wake easily now.

He’s wearing the sling, but it’s the only indication that anything is amiss with him. There’s no sign of pain or worry on his face, no tension in his shoulders. He’s practically melted into the recesses of the couch. He’s a picture of comfort. And why shouldn’t he be? He’s in his home, away from family, from expectations, and judgements. Just him and Christopher. And Buck.

Eddie finally takes a deep breath that shows his body is coming around but his eyes stay closed. Buck is murmuring something but she only catches, “ — mom — here.”

Then, at last, Eddie’s eyelids part, and the deep laxness of his body disappears almost in the blink of an eye.

“What?” he croaks, already trying to sit up.

Buck’s hands are already moving to support his back.

“ — says she wants to apologize.”

Eddie scoffs and sits upright, feet firmly planted on the floor as he blinks himself awake.

“Mom?”

“I’m here,” she says, stepping closer into the light of the tv.

Buck catches Eddie’s eye and they have an entire conversation in five silent seconds that ends with Buck nodding and getting up from the table, watching Helena warily as she approaches further.

“Watch your eyes,” Buck says quietly to Eddie before flipping the wall switch and illuminating the room. He lingers for a moment, clearly undecided about leaving, before saying, “I’ll be in the kitchen.”

Finally, Helena is alone with her son in his home. The quiet is almost peaceful, she doesn’t want to break it. Eddie does instead.

“Buck said you wanted to apologize, so I’m assuming he misheard,” Eddie says wryly.

There are pillow creases on the side of his face and Helena can’t remember the last time she saw him look so disheveled, so at home. It makes her heart ache for the days when she’d have to force him out of bed at noon on weekends, drive him to wrestling practice early in the morning, watch over him as he slept sometimes, just to make sure he was okay.

“Shockingly, no,” she smiles sadly.

Eddie blinks up at her for a moment before shifting down on the couch, leaving her some room to sit. She takes the invitation, but once she’s sitting down with Eddie’s full attention on her, she realizes not preparing what she wanted to say might have been a mistake. She has no idea where to begin. What scab to pick at that won’t cause more bleeding.

Then she remembers Adriana’s words.

What is it, under all the posturing, all the hurt feelings, all the history and baggage...what is it she actually, truly wants to say?

“I’m sorry I missed therapy.”

Eddie huffs a surprised laugh. “Of all the things…”

“I know, I know,” she rolls her eyes. “But I am. I…” She forces herself to slow down and consider her words. “I realize that therapy was an olive branch for you. One we took way too late and I’m...I’m just so fucking grateful we were able to take it at all, in the end.”

The tears are coming and there’s nothing she can do to stop them. They gather in the corner of her eyes and she tries to blink them away but has to settle for wiping away the ones that fall anyway.

“You were right,” she says. “You said — and your sister said, and the therapist said — that there’s a lot of hurt, and it’s become too hard to...to connect with each other because of it. And therapy is probably the only bridge through that. So even though I was pissed at you, I should have showed up.”

She hazards a look up at Eddie to find his brown eyes wide and cautiously wondering.

“Therapy is what’s going to help us and the only way to fail at it is to not show up.” It’s what the therapist had said in their first session. It had sounded like an easy thing to do then. “And that’s not okay. I’m not going to do that again.”

Eddie nods and looks away. His fingernails are flicking nervously against each other — a habit he picked up from her. “Is dad on the same page as you?”

Helena takes a deep breath, and blows out, “No, your dad is looking for a match to light the page on fire.”

Eddie rolls his eyes but there’s heavy hurt behind the indifference.

“I hid all of them,” Helena offers, “and left Abuela with the fire extinguisher.”

That gets a small smile.

“I really expected you to be more pissed about it than him,” Eddie says, he reclines against the arm of the sofa but no part of him looks comfortable with this conversation.

“Oh, I am—” The rage swells up in her. The outrage and indignation. But again, Adriana’s voice comes to her. “I...am...really, truly hurt, Eddie. I feel...I feel like you told me I’m not good enough to love Christopher how he needs.”

Eddie’s face collapses with disbelief. “You mean the way you’ve been making me feel since he was born? Are you kidding me?”

“What?”

“Since the moment Shannon got pregnant, you’ve both been hammering it in on us that we’d never be enough, we’d never be good enough for him. Why do you think I joined the army? Why do you think Shannon ran?”

The accusation makes her breathless, it makes that familiar rage bubble up closer to the surface. “Shannon made her own choices, you’re not going to pin that on us. And so did you.”

“No, I can’t pin that on you. She did choose to leave,” he concedes, his voice hardening. “But you spent five years telling her over and over that nothing she ever did was good enough, and when I got back you did the same to me! ‘Don’t drag him down with you.’ Does that ring any bells?”

“I spent five years helping her, being a second parent to Christopher when she was in over her head. She needed help. She wasn’t cut out—”

“No, she wasn’t,” Eddie agrees. “Neither of us were. We were stupid fucking kids who barely knew each other. She was supposed to get back on a plane to California when the semester was done and instead we got married in the backyard because you told us that’s what we had to do.”

“Jesus Christ, Eddie. You want to blame me for Christopher being born? For raising him in a family with two parents?”

“You’re not listening,” Eddie spits.

“I’m listening to you say over and over how I ruined your life because I didn’t let Shannon get an abortion. And that’s somehow the reason to keep us out of Christopher’s life now?”

“No, you’re not—” Eddie closes his eyes and clenches his jaw. “I love Christopher with everything I am. If I had the chance to go back and do everything differently, I wouldn’t. I would never. Being his father is the most important thing I’ve ever done.”

“Then what are you saying?”

“I’m saying, I was a kid in over my head and my parents didn’t know what was best for me. Didn’t know how to help me. And I figured that out on my own, I grew up and became the man I am now on my own.” She wants to argue but he’s on a roll. “And that’s fine, no parent is perfect. I know I’m going to make mistakes and I hope to god Christopher can forgive me, so I need to forgive you yours. But I need you to see me, now. I need you to look at me and realize I’m not that kid you put in a suit in the backyard. I’m not the kid that signed up to get shot at instead of facing his life. I’m not that kid anymore, mom. I’m not.”

“I see that, Eddie.”

“No, you don’t. Because if you did, you wouldn’t constantly be telling me I need to move back to El Paso to take proper care of Christopher. You’d see that our lives are here now. I have a job I love and pays what we need. Christopher loves his school, his friends. He’s a popular, genius kid. He’s happy. I’m happy. And we’re doing good. But you don’t see that. You see that dumbass, scared kid making his next mistakes. And I’m sorry but I’m not going to let you drag me back into that spiral. If you need to be the parent to that kid, I can’t be the kid you’re parenting. I’ve grown up, mom.”

“So,” Helena clears her throat, hoping the waver in it will clear too. “That’s what the guardianship is? We...lost sight of you growing up. We didn’t give you what you needed. So you’re punishing us?”

Eddie sighs as if she didn’t understand.

“No, you know what? No, I’m sorry,” she switches tracks, her voice hard, “how are we supposed to see this new person you’ve become, Eddie? You left El Paso, left us behind, you won’t come home for holidays, you even stopped posting on Instagram, and when we come here to see you’re alive you won’t even let us into your home. So how? How are we supposed to see this magical transformation when you won’t let us in?”

Eddie watches her for a moment, weighing his words. “You show up for therapy.”

And that takes the wind out of her sails.

That’s what she came here for.

To apologize.

Not keep yelling.

Mom, listen…

Helena takes two deep breaths and crooks a smile. “Yeah.”

“You yell a lot.”

Christopher’s voice startles them both, pulling a short grunt of pain from Eddie as his shoulder jerks back. Christopher is leaning against the wall into the living room, wearing the disgruntled pout of someone who was woken up for no good reason.

“Christopher…” Eddie begins, trying to leverage himself off the couch.

Helena pushes him back down, and turns to Christopher, opening her arms.

“I do,” Helena admits softly, as Christopher comes over and leans into her side. “I do yell a lot. I’m...trying to yell less.”

“Dad never yells.”

Eddie smiles tiredly.

“Hmm,” Helena agrees, “I think there’s a lot of things I need to learn from your daddy.”

Christopher nods, his eyes drooping. “He’s the best,” he says, snuggling into her shoulder. She’s getting on a plane tomorrow so she takes the opportunity to relish in this hug, and press a long kiss on his curls.

“Ah, I thought I heard an escape artist on the prowl,” Buck says as he turns the corner.

“We woke him up,” Eddie says redundantly. “We’ll keep it quiet now, buddy.”

“K,” Christopher mumbles.

“Okay, buddy, let’s get you back to bed” Buck says quietly as he leans over to carefully scoop him into his arms. Christopher’s arms loop around his neck like he’s done it a million times, and his head falls to Buck’s shoulder.

“Buck’s the best too,” Christopher mumbles.

Buck’s ducks his face away.

“That’s what I hear,” Helena allows in a tone she hopes is gracious.

As they leave, they can hear Christopher say, “they stole your bed.”

Buck responds but it’s too quiet for them to follow the rest of the conversation.

Eddie ducks his head and sighs.

“That’s why you were keeping us away?” Helena asks, her voice more gentle than she thought she could muster at this point. “Because Buck’s crashing on your couch?”

Now that she’s looking, she spots the folded duvet stacked on the chair in the corner, the pillows tucked neatly below. It only makes her more aware that she found Eddie sleeping soundly on the very same couch.

“I didn’t — I didn’t want questions. I didn’t want dad’s look, the same look he has every time Buck comes up. The same look—” Eddie sighs harshly. “I didn’t feel like fielding questions. He was here for Christopher when I was in the hospital and when I came home… He helps. A lot.”

Helena nods pensively, and surprises herself by finding a kernel of gratitude towards Buck burgeoning in her chest.

“So, speaking of fucking up as parents,” she begins with a crooked smile that fades by the end of the phrase. She doesn’t know how to finish that sentence so she starts a new one. “The...hurt that piles up, that makes it hard to talk through...does some of it come from Matty?”

She can see an instinct flare up in her son to shake his head and dismiss the topic, but he doesn’t let it take hold. It’s time to face this.

“It didn’t help,” he admits.

Eddie and Matty met in sixth grade and became best friends almost instantly. They spent weekends in sleepovers, fought off other classmates to be each others’ group project partners, and spent every summer going to the same camps. Matty was an honorary Diaz before they even hit their teens.

Five years later, Matty came out to his family, and then to theirs. His parents took it well, Eddie’s parents didn’t.

The sleepovers stopped, the summer camps stopped, and if Ramon could have sent Eddie to another class he would have.

The day he came out to them was the last day he stepped foot in the Diaz home, a natural consequence of Ramon having run him out with caustic, angry words.

“We…” Helena licks her lips and looks away to gather her thoughts. “There’s a lot of reasons we reacted the way we did. Ignorance, more than anything. It really was a different world back then. But...the world has kept turning, things have kept changing and we can’t pretend to be ignorant anymore.” She looks Eddie in the eye to say, “we were wrong. We were wrong to chase him away. And if the day comes that Christopher is gay or trans or any of the other words we haven’t learned yet, we’re going to love him just as much as we do now.”

Eddie keeps her gaze for a moment before nodding. “I’m glad to hear it.” The way his shoulders gather near his ears says he doesn’t believe her though he’s trying.

Because when Eddie and Matty stood shoulder to shoulder to tell Ramon and Helena the news, Matty wasn’t the only one crushed. And they know, somewhere deep down, that their reaction was as extreme as it was because they were never fully sure if the hurt in Eddie’s eyes was on behalf of his best friend, or if they exploded before more news could be told.

And it still scares Helena to this day, to this very moment sitting on her son’s couch. It’s why they welcomed Shannon at first, the first girl Eddie really brought home, even though they didn’t approve of her overall.

But she knows now that there’s nothing anymore, not her pride, not her ignorance, that will stop her from trying to bridge the gap between them. So she continues deliberately, “and if this new, grown up version of you comes with any of those words, we’re not going to love you any less either.”

His eyes widen and for a moment she’s looking at her 17 year old son in the living room, eyes wide as Matty runs out of the house. She wishes this moment could replace that one, stamp out that mistake forever. But it can’t, so she has to make this one count even more.

“I’ll still be here, and I’m listening. I...I see you,” she says. “You and Christopher. I see you settled in so well here, even now with your injury.”

Eddie remains quiet, but apprehension creeps across his face and his eyes dart behind her where Buck and Christopher disappeared.

“I see the boots at the entrance,” she continues, her voice pitched low, “the extra toothbrush you forgot to hide away. The tupperwares full of food Isabel and Ana didn’t make. But more than anything, I see Buck. Everywhere.” A smile creeps up her lips. “The only place I didn’t see him was at brunch with Ana and call me crazy but I feel like you would have preferred he was there too.”

Eddie’s lip is being chewed to within an inch of its life, and his eyes are trained on the couch cushion.

“Hey,” she taps his knee. “You...grew up to be a good man, and a good father.” The words are so many years too late but she’s grateful to see them land as Eddie’s eyes begin to shimmer. “And you deserve everything you want for Christopher. Happiness, whatever that looks like.”

Eddie swallows thickly and clears his throat. “And dad?”

“Dad...has his head too far up his own ass to see or hear anything,” Helena admits. “But he’s due for a colonoscopy soon so I’ll work on it.”

Eddie chokes on a laugh that catches him off-guard and suddenly they’re both laughing, quietly so they don’t wake Christopher up again.

When they recover, Eddie invites her to the kitchen for a drink, where Buck is packing Christopher’s lunch for school tomorrow.

When she leaves, her stomach is in knots she imagines won’t smooth out for a few weeks yet, but a weight’s been lifted off her chest and her heart is full in a way it hasn’t been in years.

When she lands in El Paso, her phone pings with a message from Eddie: Hope you had a good flight. Free Friday for a call?

———-

When Friday comes, after catching up with Christopher, Eddie tells them he broke it off with Ana.

Helena digs her nails into Ramon’s knee instinctively, but she prepared him well and despite his continued reservations, all he says is, “That’s too bad, mijo.”

———-

Two months of virtual therapy and video chats later, Eddie tells them he’s bisexual. They react the way they should have all those years ago, and Helena tries to be grateful they got to have this moment at all instead of mourn for the years Eddie lost because of them.

There’s no mention of Buck, but Eddie’s eyes flit fondly over the laptop screen every once in a while at Christopher and someone else off-screen.

The call takes place at 8am LA time, and the sling has been gone for nearly three weeks.

———

At Christmas, Eddie and Christopher are waiting for them with smiles on their faces at LAX’s baggage claim. When they get home, Buck is there opening the door and helping them with their luggage.

Isabel isn’t there to mediate but supper that evening goes smoothly. The tension that lurks is anticipatory on all sides, a feeling of this being too good to last. But by dessert, everyone is sitting back in their chairs and smiling. And when Buck rounds the table to start the clean up, he places a hand on Eddie’s shoulder, his thumb brushing the back of Eddie’s neck, and Helena watches as the last bit of strain melts out of his body.

The basket of gauze is nowhere to be found in the bathroom, nor is the purple toothbrush. Instead, there’s a third electric toothbrush standing in line with the rest.

Helena’s been keeping an eye out for opportunities to follow Adriana’s advice. To find the words she actually, truly means, and say them before she runs out of time. So before turning in, she takes Eddie aside and tells him, “I’m really happy you found your home here in LA. I’m really proud of the family you’ve made.”

And when she closes her arms around him, she can feel him fold into her like he used to as a kid, no polite distance or anxiety. Just comfort.