#And to all the people who deal with holiday frustrations by pissing all over customer service people

[caterpillarinacave]

[professorjaskier]

Thriller Night (And Other Happenings at the 21st Amendment): Chapter 2

Hi guys! I just posted the final chapter of my Lamden side-quest from my huge project. 

TW: There is touching and talk of sex, but nothing really happens and everything is consensual

Here is Chapter 2! Chapter 1 is right here. Enjoy!

As Aiden made his way across the floor he kept rising to the balls of his feet to catch a glimpse of fiery red hair. When he failed to stretch high enough to look above the sea of people he cursed his bad genes and short stature. Normally, he was alright with not being the tallest person in the room, but right now he needed to find Lambert. There was a good chance that he would be sitting at Geralt’s usual table, hidden in the most reclusive corner of the bar, but what if he wasn’t there? With a final burst of energy, Aiden slipped through the crowd, all the while hoping that he was choosing the right direction.

When he emerged out of the fray, his head turned towards the table where he expected to find his boyfriend. He wasn’t disappointed, his eyes landing on Lambert’s strong back, still dressed as Ron Weasley in muggle garb. The tension that had entered his body with Geralt’s ambiguous words lessened the moment he saw Lambert. He looked physically fine, if not bored, as he tapped his makeshift wand against an empty glass sitting on his table.

A smile curled on his lips as he walked up behind the red head and nuzzled his nose into the crook of his neck. “Hey, babe,” he murmured into Lambert’s ear.

He felt Lambert momentarily tense in his arms before melting into the touch. Aiden shifted slightly to press a chaste kiss into the unruly red curls he loved, reveling in the familiar feeling of Lambert in his arms. Everything felt perfect until Lambert finally spoke. “Hello, Aiden.”

Aiden froze at the tone Lambert’s voice had taken, momentarily pulling away from the embrace. Though his words were deceptively nonchalant, the way that he’d said them set Aiden on edge. It reminded Aiden of how he’d regarded him when they’d first met; skittish and unsociable, as though he were scared to let anyone close. That and the use of his birth name in lieu of a nickname demonstrated that something was wrong. Maybe Geralt was right to sound so foreboding.

Aiden immediately rounded the booth and scooted in next to the red-head. Lambert moved further in to make room, but it was painfully obvious that he was avoiding eye contact. “Lambert? Babe, what’s wrong? Did I do something?”

“You did nothing,” he evenly replied, once again tapping his wand against the glass to the beat of the music.

Aiden raised a challenging eyebrow at the obvious lie, but Lambert still refused to look in his direction. “Well I’ve obviously done something to piss you off.” He sighed in frustration when Lambert’s sole answer was shrugging his shoulder. “Is it because I can’t spend Halloween with you? I know it’s your favorite holiday, but it’s one of our busiest nights, I can’t just leave my staff—”

“It’s not that,” Lambert interrupted, dragging a hand down his face in consternation. Aiden fell silent, waiting for Lambert to continue. He knew that his boyfriend occasionally had difficulty voicing his emotions, but if given time they would usually come spilling out. It was a hard-learned lesson, but Aiden could hear his mother’s voice softly saying “Patience is a virtue, mijo .” Pulling on that piece of knowledge, he stayed seated and waited.

A minute passed before Lambert looked up and scanned the room. “Where the fuck is Geralt? That asshole should be back with our drinks already.” He punctuated his unexpected outburst by grabbing a glass and sipping at the dregs.

Aiden knew exactly what was happening. Lambert was trying to distract him from the conversation at hand. Sometimes he would try to misdirect a conversation if the topic scared him, going to extreme lengths to avoid unpleasant displays of emotion. Unfortunately for him, his tactic would not be working tonight. Taking a deep, cleansing breath, Aiden responded. “He ran into Jaskier. Literally. Also, I didn’t know that they knew each other!”

Lambert whipped his head to pin him with a look of confusion and something else he couldn’t identify. Whatever it was, it concerned him enough to take hold of the large, coarse hand laying on the table. “You know Jaskier?” he asked, a tinge of desperation tinting his gruff voice.

“Um kinda,” Aiden replied, puzzled by Lambert's sudden interest in Jaskier. “I met him tonight. He’s one of Priscilla’s best friends.”

Lambert blinked in surprise, processing the information before he shrugged. “Makes sense. Everyone seems to like Jaskier.”

A layer of tension had descended on the table, a tension that Aiden was clueless to understand. “Do you know Jaskier?” he asked, trying to puzzle out Lambert’s odd reactions.

Instead of looking at him, Lambert started to poke a knot in the wooden table with his wand. “He’s the pretty boy that Geralt’s been working out with.”

Suddenly, a few parts of the puzzle came together even though the rest was still unclear. It was like doing a rubix cube and getting all of one color sorted, but still having disorder on every other side. Lambert had mentioned Geralt’s new colleague and work out buddy, insinuating that Geralt felt more for the other man than feelings of friendship. That would certainly explain the strong connection he’d sensed when serving the two men at the bar.

“In that case, your brother will need some alone time with Jaskier and I need some time alone with you. Follow me.” Standing up, he kept the grasp on Lambert’s hand firm, but loose enough that he could break away if he wished. There was a moment where Aiden was certain he would refuse to follow, but Lambert eventually grumbled and stood up. After taking hold of his jacket, Lambert nodded and Aiden started the arduous path to his office.

Though the crowd had not thinned in the few minutes they’d been seated, it seemed easier to navigate the throngs of people with Lambert by his side. Maybe it was because he always felt a bit more grounded with Lambert by his side. Or maybe it was because his boyfriend was built like a fucking tree. Aiden smirked at the skeptical edge that tended to leak into his thoughts, thinking of how Lambert would laugh at the bluntness of his words.

As they approached the office, he leaned closer to Lambert and said, “Stay here! I need to leave instructions with the bar.” Waiting until he received a nod in response, he pushed his way towards the till and grabbed the attention of Stacy, the most competent member of his staff. “Stacy,” he shouted over the music, beckoning her over.

She caught his eye and politely told her customers that she’d be right back. At least he hoped she was polite about it. As she made her way over, she raised an eyebrow, “What is it?”

Aiden smirked at the annoyance leaking into her voice. “You do realize I’m the boss here, right?” he asked, enjoying the sassy glare she shot him in response. “Right, make sure Geralt and Jaskier’s drinks stay filled.”

She looked intrigued by the request and peered over the crowd to find Geralt. Aiden tried to pretend that he wasn’t miffed that she could look over the crowd when he couldn’t. She finally looked back at him with a playful grin. “Jaskier, the pretty boy who’s sitting next to him? They fucking?” Stacy asked.

Aiden chuckled at her bold question. “Yeah, that’s him and that is none of our business. It’s on the house, okay?” He winked at her and laughed at the pout that found itself on her lips. “Also, tell no one to disturb me unless the world is ending.”

The tell-tale smirk returned and he knew that the next words out of her mouth would have her fired at any other establishment. “At least someone from that family is getting fucked,” she evenly replied.

Aiden playfully gasped before turning back to see Lambert leaning against his office door, completely oblivious to the raunchy conversation taking place a few feet away. “You are a menace and you’re lucky that I keep you around.”

She scoffed and threw a bar towel at him. “Bullshit. Now go have fun.”

He rolled his eyes at her insolence, but turned towards his office. Stacy was a handful, but there was no one better at making cocktails. She was also the only one of his employees who had the balls to speak to him like that. As long as she kept on making good jokes and even better cocktails, she would be employed at his bar.

He arrived at the door and reached around Lambert’s waist to unlock the door. Lambert didn’t move, instead methodically gazing the crowd surrounding them, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. His attention was easily garnered with a tap on his shoulder and he promptly stepped into the office. Aiden immediately shut the door and turned the lock, ensuring that their conversation would not be disturbed.

His office was nothing to crow about, but Aiden thought that it was comfortable enough to serve its purpose. A wooden desk stood in the furthest corner, piled high under invoices and other practical matters he had to deal with later that week. A couch stood on the other side of the room, obviously well-used, but in relatively good condition. On nights when he did not have the energy to make it home, the couch became his makeshift bed. Lambert was currently seated on that couch, glaring daggers at him.

“Lamb, I can’t fix whatever is bothering you if you just keep on glaring at me. I’m not a mindreader.” He sauntered over to the couch and planted his knees on either side of Lambert’s thick thighs, wrapping his arms around the broad shoulders he dreamt of each night. “Please,” he pleaded.

Lambert let out a sharp puff of air through his nose, shaking his head incredulously. “It doesn’t matter. I’m overreacting, just being an asshole.”

Aiden frowned at the self-deprecating words and shook his head vehemently. “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”

Lambert pursed his lips, seemingly to keep his bubbling feelings within, but soon enough he reached his boiling point. With a final grunt of annoyance, Lambert said, “If you want to see someone else, you shouldn’t let my ugly mug hold you back. You should go for it.”

Aiden jolted back, shocked and a little bit pissed at the casual tone with which Lambert said those words. Almost as though he were discussing the weather. “What the fuck?” he asked, pushing himself off of the couch. He needed to move or he wouldn’t be able to process this.

The broader man leaned forward and rested his head on his hands, affecting a nonchalant posture. “I saw the way that you were looking at Jaskier. He’s pretty, I get it. You might have to fight Geralt to have your chance, but—”

Aiden couldn’t take anymore of the shit his boyfriend was spewing and cut him off. “No! What the fuck, Lamb? I don’t want to leave you, you know I love you!”

With a growl, Lambert stood up with clenched fists and glistening eyes. “I saw how you were looking at Jaskier tonight! It was the way that you look at me. You always flirt with people, but—” he paused, looking at the floor as he gathered the words. “You never look at them like that.”

Aiden moved towards Lambert slowly, as though he were a spooked animal ready to bolt. The comparison was not too different, with the way Lambert kept glancing towards the door with barely suppressed panic in his eyes. “Lamb, have I ever left you before? Even before we were together, have I ever left you when you needed me?”

Lambert’s eyes shot back towards him, piercing him through with the intensity of his gaze. After a momentary silence, he murmured, “No. No you haven’t.”

The bass of the music shook the walls around them, breaking the tension of the following quiet. Aiden nodded at the simple words and continued to walk towards him. “And have I ever given you reason to doubt me?”

Lambert shook his head once more. Although he still looked tense, Aiden thought that he looked less likely to run out of the room. That was a good thing because his boyfriend was deceptively faster than his muscular build would imply. If Lambert tried to run, there was no way they would be finishing this conversation tonight.

Taking two more steps, he wrapped his arms around Lambert’s trim waist and placed his head on his broad chest. “So why would I do so now?”

Lambert frowned at the logic, but reciprocated the embrace, both of them standing in the small room. The moment was broken when they heard a whoop of excitement behind the door, indicating that some of the bar’s patrons were possibly drunker than advisable. Aiden chuckled and drew himself back to look at Lambert’s face, quickly pressing a chaste kiss to the tip of his nose.

The taller man huffed in amusement at his antics, but let Aiden press kisses all over his face. Aiden eventually pulled away, but not before he took Lambert’s hand in his own. “Now what is this really about?”

“Maybe I was just being a prick. Wouldn’t be the first time,” Lambert insolently muttered under his breath. “It’s in my nature to be an asshole.”

“You can be an asshole,” Aiden easily agreed, “but you also have one of the kindest hearts I’ve ever seen.”

Lambert snorted at that. “Me? Kind? Are you sure you’re not talking about Eskel?”

Aiden watched Lambert’s reactions and immediately spotted the fear in his eyes. Why would he be afraid? None of this made any sense. “Yes you. I’ve met so many shitty people in my life, and I can tell you honestly that you’re one of the best.”

A look of conclusion passed over Lambert’s face. “The best shitty person?”

Aiden playfully swatted him on his shoulder. “No! The best person in general, Asshole!”

“Ah, but I’m still an asshole,” he answered, but the usual teasing tone in his voice had taken a wistful edge.

“There’s nothing wrong with being an asshole. I’m also an asshole, you know that,” Aiden responded, still uncertain what had caused this slight rift to form so quickly.

He didn’t have to wait long for an answer. “Jaskier isn’t an asshole.”

It was said so quietly that Aiden had almost missed it over the pounding bass. When he looked up, he saw a vulnerable expression pass over Lambert’s face before his boyfriend turned away.

Aiden grabbed his wrist gently, trying to lead Lambert back to him. With a grunt of frustration Lambert did his bidding, easily returning to his side. “This isn’t really about Jaskier, is it?”

Clenching his jaw, Lambert shook his head.

“Okay, that’s a good start. Is it because I thought Jaskier was attractive?”

“He is attractive,” Lambert immediately replied. “He’s also very intelligent and writes music. You like music. You’d have a lot in common.”

Suddenly it all clicked into place. “Lambert, there is no one who knows me better than you. You’ve seen me at my worst, you’ve seen me go absolutely feral, and yet you still love me. You are the only person I have ever wanted to keep in my life for more than a few nights. You are perfect to me, even though you are an asshole. Do you understand me?”

Lambert stood there in silence, but Aiden knew that he had gotten through to him. The creases in the corners of his eyes had lessened, leaving behind the fine lines that usually resided there. “Are you sure? I know that you’ve never been one for settling down and I wouldn’t want—”

He couldn’t bare to listen to another self-deprecating word come out of that wonderful man’s mouth. In an act of pure desperation and love, he leaned forward and poured all of his passion into a searing kiss. Lambert staggered back in shock, unsuspecting of Aiden’s advances, but soon returned the kiss with equal enthusiasm. They both fought for dominance, tongues pushing into each other’s mouths until Aiden finally broke off for air.

Lambert stared at him with a flushed face, momentarily speechless until he gathered his wits once more. “You can’t just make out with me every time I’m upset with you, Kitten.” He crossed his arms, painting the perfect picture of an upset toddler. The only thing missing was a stamped foot or a pouty face.

“I know,” he finally responded. “I just needed to find a way to make you stop spewing bullshit and I knew that method was tried and true.” Aiden planted another kiss on Lambert’s chapped lips and then dragged his now pliant body to the couch. Once they were seated he clasped larger, calloused hands in his own. Hands that he knew better than his own. “Now that you’ve calmed down a little, let me tell you what I have to say to all of that nonsense.” He saw Lambert duck his head, blushing with a combination of exertion and embarrassment, but he continued on. They needed to have this conversation. “I love you. That will not stop me from appreciating beautiful people, but appreciation doesn’t have to be physical. The only person I am physically appreciating nowadays is you.”

“Maybe you should stick to business, Casanova, because your poetry isn’t exactly Shakespeare.”

Aiden pretended to frown at the sassy comment, but shook his head in amusement. “And you can do much better? If I remember correctly, you asked me out by accidentally complimenting my ass.”

Lambert laid himself down on the couch, lowering Aiden on top of him so they were pressed flush to one another. “Wasn’t an accident. Your ass is magnificent.” He punctuated his statement by actually squeezing his ass, causing Aiden to gasp out in a mixture of surprise and pleasure.

“Fair.” Aiden smiled and ducked down to press another kiss to Lambert’s forehead. “But the point to all of this is that I won’t be leaving you anytime soon. Do I find other people attractive? Of course I do, I’m in a monogamous relationship, not dead.”

“Thanks, babe,” Lambert muttered, retaliating by working his teeth over the pulse point on his lover’s neck.

Aiden was momentarily breathless and dazed, but he soon choked out, “You didn’t let me finish. Stop distracting me.” Pushing away Lambert’s wandering hands, he regained his focus and continued his unplanned speech. “Anyways, what I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted—” he paused to shoot Lambert a meaningful look, but was met with an innocent expression. Rolling his eyes, he said, “—was that I might think other people are attractive, but I love you for more than your looks and I would never jeopardize our love or our friendship for a one night stand. No matter how beautiful the person.”

As he concluded his declaration, he noticed that Lambert’s eyes were looking redder than usual. “Don’t worry, Lamb. You can cry if you want to. Guess my poetry isn’t that terrible after all.”

The soft expression was immediately replaced with a more common scowl. “Fuck you, you asshole.”

Aiden pretended to contemplate the words, scratching the stubble growing on his chin. “Hm, I guess I could fuck your asshole, especially since it’s your favorite holiday.”

Lambert’s mouth gaped in surprise, struck dumb momentarily before he burst into laughter. “God, you’re the worst,” he said before leaning forward for a kiss. Aiden smiled into it, savoring it until Lambert broke away. If he’d whimpered at the loss of contact, that secret was kept by the pounding bass and the conflicted glint in Lambert’s eyes “But I can’t leave Geralt by himself.”

Aiden snorted. “Please, let Geralt enjoy his night with Jaskier. If we’re lucky they’ll be engaged by the time we’ve gone a few rounds.” He let out a sharp chuckle, remembering the shirt he had left Geralt with. “That or Jaskier will get to admire the view.” He caught a glimpse of Lambert’s head, tilted to the side, asking a silent question. “Let’s just say that Geralt might have had a costume change into something much skimpier. Honestly, Jaskier should send me a fruit basket.”

Aiden turned to face Lambert, curious to see his reaction. Upon making eye contact they burst into laughter, clinging to one another as though they were the only things tethering each other to the Earth.

“Happy Halloween, Kitten,” Lambert muttered

“Happy Halloween, Lamb,” Aiden replied, throwing Lambert’s wand to the side. “Now let’s make some magic.”

[mwolf0epsilon]

DBH - The 12 Pains of Christmas

Summary: The typical seasonal hassles cause a few issues for Leo and Co. as he helps the four leaders of Jericho prepare for a Christmas party Carl is hosting. Somehow it all works out in the end.

[The 12 Pains of Christmas will forever be my favourite parody song, and it perfectly describes the nuances of the jolliest holiday. What better way to have some fun but to torment a few of my favorite characters,plus a few OCs? Merry Christmas everyone]

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[[MORE]]

     It was supposed to be everyone's first proper Christmas together, after androids had finally acquired their freedom and rights as an intelligent and civilized species. 

By all means it should be the highlight of their arduous year that had been full of tormenting perils and hours upon hours of slaving away behind a desk, agoning over paperwork and conferences. The key words here being 'It Should Be'.

Carl had good intentions inviting all of them to spend the holidays together to celebrate, and Leo knew his father had everyone's good interests in mind with all the hassle he went through to reach out and extend his gracious hospitality (with some mixed results due to a few political disagreements he had with his family)… The problem wasn't even the idea of a party. It was the goddamn holiday season itself…

Christmas, as it turned out, had a way of getting people to act up in the worst way possible. It was just one of those holidays that really made it easier to be a dick to people, which was a little ironic considering it was supposed to be the holly jolly, merry little season of gift giving and family bonding times.

Which was why he currently found himself trying to mediate an argument between two frustrated androids, over the best option of Christmas tree available. How freaking 'joyous', ending up as Markus's and Simon's seasonal middleman...

  "Think of all the harm that plastic tree will cause once we have to get rid of it!" Markus crossed his arms and glared daggers at the offending faux pine Simon was currently hugging closely to himself. The blond looked positively ridiculous holding on to the largest plastic tree he could find, while also looking incredibly offended at the RK200's opinion on his choice.

  "I'm not just going to toss it after the holidays! We can reuse it next year, and the year after that!" Simon cried out, indignated with such an idea as throwing out a perfectly good hunk of plastic bristles. "Besides, I'd rather decorate a physical tree instead of a holographic display!"

  "There's no space in the attic for that tissled abomination, and a holo tree would be more efficient and easier to put away afterwards!" Markus defended, holding the compact machine as if it were the most precious thing on this side of Earth. "And we can customize the ornaments to our own taste!"

  "I'd rather die than give up tradition! We're not leaving Carl's ornaments to rot in a box!" The PL600 was furious at such blasphemous insinuations.

Leo merely rolled his eyes and sighed. This had been going on for a while now and he doubted it'd be over anytime soon. The two were too stubborn to give up.

The brunet turned his back to them before taking his phone out of his pocket when he felt it vibrate.

Looking at the screen, he saw that it was Josh who was calling, likely to see what was taking so long. Hopefully things were less stressful on his end.

  "Ok, you two assholes fight some more about the tree while I go get this and end up being more productive..." He moved towards the store door, nodding politely at the poor android watching helplessly from the counter.

Neither Markus nor Simon seemed to have noticed his departure. Not that he cared much. They shouldn't be his problem in the first place.

Once outside (and blissfully alone), Leo picked up the call.

  "Hey Josh. You done with the lights?" The human greeted as he leaned against the closest street lamp. The bitter cold was biting at his fingers uncomfortably so he put his free hand in his pocket and hoped the wind wouldn't pick up too much. Winter in Detroit was not very pleasant at times, and downright sucky if you forgot your damn gloves like he had.

  "Not yet. Miles and Matthew just helped me pick up the last box from the attic. We're trying to decide how we're going to decorate outside." Leo could hear humming from Josh's end, likely Miles as he looked through the boxes at all the soon to be shiny lights. "You guys picked a tree yet?"

  "Markus and Simon are arguing over what type to get, so nope." Leo glanced back at the shop window. Yep still going at it. The shop android looked miserable as they watched the spectacle.

  "Really? It's been an hour…"

  "Well, this is just one of the mystical twelve pains of Christmas." Leo shrugged dismissively. "The first one is always finding a tree..."

  "Twelve pains of Christmas?" Josh sounded a little confused, before Miles cheerfully told him it was a song.

  "Yep, parody song. Ancient but pretty good." Leo smiled, glancing back at the store occasionally to make sure everything was still under control. "Dad has it, on like, a playlist. That and a few others, but that's definitely my favourite one."

  "Well, if finding the tree is the first pain, what's the second one then?" Josh asked out of curiosity. Leo could hear boxes being shuffled about. Josh was likely opening them up as well.

  "Rigging up the lights, of course!" Leo smirked, being able to almost see the realization on the lecturer's face when he was met with brief silence.

  "Is that why you asked to go with Simon and Markus when Carl asked you to help out with the Christmas lights?" Yep, he definitely had that pouty expression he bore whenever Josh felt like he'd been tricked.

  "Look dude, I haven't had to deal with tangled headphones since I was a kid. There's no way in hell I'm dealing with tangled lights."

  "Yet you're willing to deal with being the middleman in an argument over which decorative tree is the best?" Josh sounded pretty incredulous at Leo's choice for avoiding the task. Honestly it was a sacrifice he was willing to make if it meant escaping knotted cable hell.

  "Yes when both parties involved don't ask for an opinion. They're both so stubborn even the cashier looks like they wished they had the Hanukkah shift instead." Leo's gaze returned to the store where Simon and Markus had now acquired a bit of an audience.

It was probably about time he broke them up properly and bought a tree himself. "God, wherever Markus goes he just has to stick out like a sore thumb…"

There was a startled shriek on the other side of the line, which startled Leo enough to lose focus on the storefront and the growing crowd.

  "Oh damn...Hold that thought Leo, Miles got his arm tangled up in some of the lights. I need to go help him out." Josh changed the topic, clearly distracted with whatever shenanigans the prototype android had gotten to in the background "Just, try to get them to compromise and get all of you and the tree back before 18:00 pm."

  "Aye-aye captain. You go rescue Miles from the decorations."

The call came to an end with a monotone click and Leo crept back inside, skirting around the argument and heading for the isles.

If Markus wanted something more environment friendly, and Simon wanted tradition, he was going to give them both plus a good hearty laught out of it…

He was good at compromising and being petty while doing it.

---

     The car ride to Val's and Artyum's apartment was spent in silent fury, annoyed bafflement, and a great big grin upon Leo's face.

From the back seat Markus sighed. The look of defeat partly the reason behind Leo's contented shit-eating grin. He loved winning against his younger brother even if just in the littlest things. It felt more rewarding to be occasionally right.

  "I'm all for biodegradable options Leo...And really I should have gone for that instead of the holotree if we wanted everyone to be happy but…" Markus peered out the window at the "leaves" that were hitting the window, annoyance that was steadily growing into irritation. "...Why the hell did you buy a palm tree?!"

  "Because you're both assholes for taking up so much time arguing over a stupid tree, and because dad's probably gonna piss himself laughing when he sees it." Leo leaned back in the driver's seat, letting the autonomous car crawl at a snail's pace in the crowded snowy road. The rearview mirror showed the expressions of the people in other cars. All looking more shocked and amused at the fake palm tree carefully pinned to the roof of the car for easy and safe transport.

They seemed somewhat appreciative of Leo's sense of humor, so the brunet didn't feel particularly inclined to yell at them to mind their own business in a few more colorful words.

Probably for the best as they all waited in traffic, since the snow sweepers clearing out the piled up snow in front of them was likely to take a while...

  "Couldn't you have at least picked a less stupid looking tree?" Simon bitterly glanced at the back windows. The pout on his face made it look like the faux greenery alone was an offense to him and all that he stood for. "We can't exactly decorate a palm tree like we would a pine tree…"

  "Why the hell not? It's big enough to fit all the crud my dad saved over the years." Leo asked as he glanced over at his right to look at the blond. "The top is nice and smooth so the tree topper won't just fall off, and we could even wrap a ton of the lights around the trunk since it's nice and long. We'd still have enough to light up the fence walls."

  "So basically you want to string up a palm tree in festive ornaments and bright lights, like a sideroad bar you see in concert festivals…?" Simon didn't seem all too pleased with this idea. The way he made it sound was definitely less cool than a festival sideroad bar.

  "Would you rather I hadn't bothered picking a tree at all? Next year we'll just decorate the fucking giraffe then…" Leo decided that on Christmas everyone was a damn critic.

No matter, as soon as the road cleared out the three didn't take long to reach the apartment complex where both of the brunet's friends lived.

They were already outside waiting, with Artyum carrying a large bag and a ton of wrapped presents that the two had likely spent the day making nice and pretty. The group quickly noticed that Val looked to be slughtly under the weather (if the look of pure hatred on her face was anything to go by).

  "What's up Sourface?" Leo grinned as he rolled down the window.

  "Fuck off Manfred, my head's killing me and I fucking hate how bright it is out here." The younger Latina growled irritably as she hurriedly climbed into the back seat next to Markus with Artyum following close behind after putting the gifts in the trunk, the bag remaining in his possession.

  "Do not bother with her today. She has massive hangover from "sampling" some of drinks I bought yesterday." The Russian informed the trio while putting on his seatbelt. "None which survived for party."

  "Getting shit-faced alone on Christmas Eve? That's a new low for you, Val." Leo snorted. "What's with the bag?"

  "Postcards. For family." Artyum shrugged "That is something I forgot to ask. Can we stop quickly by mail place so I can send them?"

  "You send your family postcards? Really?" Leo raised an eyebrow. "We're in the 2030s Art. You could just...I donno… call them?"

  "Or send an email." Markus added.

  "It is family tradition!" Artyum sounded genuinely appalled.

  "Finally someone who understands!" Simon smiled at the larger man, appreciative of his devotion to some of the older ways. Christmas just wasn't Christmas without a physical tree, caroling, cards and eggnog. Why couldn't more people get that?

  "Artyum has a massive family tho, those are going to be some expensive post office bills…"

  "I'll manage. Worst was writing damn things in first place. I find that English has been coming to mind more often...Puns are hard to resist but also hard for non-english speakers to appreciate…" the Russian sighed sadly at the loss of opportunity to employ his acquired skills at weaving words into funny sentences.

  "Oh my god can we just go? I need a fucking aspirin!" Val whined, pulling her scarf over her face to escape the assault on her sensitive senses. Snow blindness was not something she wanted to be submitted to.

  "Fuck, this really is like the damn song… can't wait for number five on the list of how crap this holiday is." Leo groaned.

  "You're looking forward to five months of consecutive bills?" Markus snorted "You're unemployed."

  "You know what I meant… Dad fucking loves that song and I know you played it every year for him since Kamski sent you to care for him." The human shot Markus a dirty look.

  "I personally prefer 'Wreck the Halls'. It's got more of a beat." The RK200 grinned.

  "Fuck off."

Once everyone settled, off they drove to the post office. Now that there weren't any snow sweepers slowing down traffic the ride went more smoothly. Until a massive line ruined the mood considerably.

  "Ok yeah I can see the parallels of our current situation with the song..." Markus gave them all a long-suffering groan as the group ended up in said massive line at the post office, behind a couple who was currently arguing over their impending meet up with their in-laws for dinner.

  "Told you. That song speaks of the essence of this shitshow of a holiday. It's just a hassle all around if you take off the pink-tinted shades."

  "That's not how that saying goes, but yes." Simon checked his internal clock. Josh was going to be upset if they came in too late. "Christmas is a very hectic time of year, and a little overrated. I rarely got to celebrate it, and most of what I know are pleasant stories of functional families actually sharing the good little moments…"

  "Is that why you're so enamored with the traditional aspect?" Markus questioned, which the blond merely nodded along to.

Enough said of that then. The story behind Simon's escapism tactics was never a good one. That they knew by now.

  "Artie why couldn't you send these off earlier? This place is crowded!" Val grimaced as the crowd seemed to get just as agitated over the argument going on in the background.

  "Was also crowded earlier..." Artyum sighed.

The couple in front of them got louder.

  "Oh god could this get any worse?" Leo put his face in his hands.

  "Excuse me sir do you have time to donate a dollar to the cause?"

  "Oh my fucking god it can." Val punched the brunet on the arm. "The fucking Salvation Army is here."

  "Fucking shit!"

---

     After forty minutes of pure hell at the post office, the group finally got to the counter and thanked the gods that it didn't take long to sort the paperwork involved with sending off an entire bag of postcards.

They practically ran back to their car, avoiding the various parents dragging screaming children that were demanding this or that as the perfect gifts.

Next destination: Manfred household.

A drive that took less than an hour.

Except…

  "OH MY GOD THERE IS NOWHERE TO PARK THE FUCKING CAR, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

     It was well past 18:00 pm when they finally found an available parking space, and the effort of hawling the tree along was less of a minor inconvenience and more of an annoyance to add to the list since they had to climb uphill rather than simply take it from one end of the road to the next.

  "I have never seen so many cars on this street." Leo remarked as he steadied the base of the tree as they walked along.

  "That's because you've never actually spent the holidays over." Markus replied nonchalantly. "It was always a pain in the neck if shopping required an autonomous cab… There just wasn't ever a place to stop close enough that I didn't need about five trips to and fro just to get the all of the bags."

The gate opened up for them without much fuss and the group noticed North retreating out of the house looking absolutely pissed.

  "Where the hell have you been?!" She met with them, eyeing the odd choice of a tree briefly before staring accusingly at Leo. "We called! Repeatedly!"

  "Battery died."

  "And we also called you both." She pointed at both androids.

  "We were a little distracted." Simon admitted.

  "With what?!" North glared.

  "Marital problems at the post office, and an army of kids screaming because they wanted whatever is hot with the kids these days." Simon sighed "It's a long story…"

The redhead groaned before holding up the TV remote, much to the confusion of everyone else.

  "Well then, you're on remote duty. The batteries died and Matthew forgot to buy more... And if I browse through any more of those shitty stale tv specials I swear to God I'll blow up Stratford tower."

  "Please do." Leo grimaced. "Everyone else arrived yet?"

  "Yeah, but they're kind of busy right now…"

  "With what?" Markus asked.

Ten seconds later they all stood baffled, staring up at the chandelier.

Well at the entire living room, the stairs, hallways and even the kitchen actually…

  "How the hell did you manage this?!" Leo gawked as he watched Josh struggling to get free from the Christmas lights he'd gotten horrendously tangled in.

  "Miles got stuck and panicked...The rest kind of happened before we could control the situation…" the lecturer looked absolutely embarrassed as he hung in the hair just a little bellow said prototype.

  "To make matters worse, Miles can run like no other android in this freaking house…" Benji retorted as he tried to free his constricted arm, which was pinned by the chords that had wrapped around the giraffe's legs when the RK-series prototype had gone berserk.

  "That's Miles for ya. Problem solving is an experimental process." Tristan was stuck to a wall. He didn't seem too fussed over this. "If hitting it and running doesn't work, he'll stop to contemplate it for a bit. Not that it'd help now of course."

  "Sorry…" In the RK300's defense, he did look a little guilty over causing so much trouble. "I ruined Christmas..."

"I'll just...Go get a ladder." Markus walked off while Simon gave Miles a sympathetic look.

"You didn't ruin Christmas buddy." The blond caretaker reassured. "You got a little stuck, is all, and the house will probably look good once we actually turn on the lights."

"You really mean it?" The RK300 blinked in confusion, looking around before humming and then nodding "They'll blink unsynchronized... Might make more colors..."

"Yep. We might get orange lights this year. Pretty cool Miles!" Tristan smiled appreciatively at Simon, mouthing a silent 'Thanks' while Markus returned with the ladder.

"While Markus deals with that, I should get started on the baking. Then Leo can help rig the rest of the lights." Simon stated, ignoring the look of horror on the brunet's face.

"Baking equals good smells and pretty shapes. You can go bake Simon!" Miles smiled more genuinely as he kicked his legs about, narrowly avoiding hitting Josh on the head. "Sorry."

"I'm good."

"Not until I get you down you're not." Markus quickly got to work freeing the two of them, while Artyum helped Tristan and Benji down from their own prisons.

---

By 20:00 pm, all of the decorations were set up, lights properly rigged, food and sweets cooked and baked, and guests arrived. Despite the hectic confusing day, the party turned out alright.

All around friends and extended family talked, laughed, enjoy Simon's splendid cooking and Carl's family eggnog recipe, and gifts were exchanged without incident.

Leo looked all around and sighed contentedly as he rested on the couch, enjoying the buzz of conversations going on in the background.

His eyelids drooped as he watched humans and androids alike relishing in the enjoyments that followed the usual inconveniences of Christmas.

There was no good without a bit of bad. If anything, all the stuff they'd gone through just to get everything nice and ready made it more rewarding.

The brunet nodded off peacefully... Only to wake up when the caroling began.

"Oh my god..." Leo put his pillow over his head and mentally screamed.

Fine. Almost worth it. Fucking Christmas carolers ruining everything. They were almost as bad as the Salvation Army!

[units4a002]

Let This One begin with its personal Success Story

Emptiness, sadness, sorrow these stories always start like this unfortunately and that was my life .  Everyone has situations when they need help, but some people don't ask for help they are so used to helping others or, when they need help they are too stubborn and scared to admit they need help.  A good place to begin this story was where it all began , I had promise, I was excited to go out into the world and give it my all . I knew it wouldn't be easy but I had overcome so much that I knew I could do succeed in life  and the best part was I had my family to support me through it all. I marched proudly into a call center in my hometown and I handed in my resume and aced the interview like a champ. It began to work there and it didn't feel right, slaving away hooked up to a machine hours on end, talking to assholes on the other line that didn't give a shit who I was, all they cared about was what they could get out of me and to make things worse I was moved from one program in the call center to another with little training it felt so unfair and horrible . I ended up eating a lot I was scared , angry and sad I didn't know that this was what life was like but I knew at least I had a job and so I could have  money to buy nice things and I had a friend, Josie to slave away with me at the call center . Josie kept me sane most days through all the progress reports and the coachings, through dealing with the incompetence of the call center. But unfortunately in November of 2018 one of my call center friends told me that a new batch of agents were coming in and that all the agents that were struggling severely would get cut . That was me , I struggled because of the lack of structure and the fact that honestly when it comes to social interactions I am fairly submissive in real life . So I quit I left December 1st 2018 and never looked back got hammered that night and for once it felt amazing I didn't feel like a piece of shit . So I bought Christmas gifts and drank a colossal amount over the Christmas holiday and I enjoyed myself a bit too much. I ended up stopping drinking until the 20th of January 2019 that was the day of my 19th birthday, after that I was a regular customer at the local Beer Store where I got a lot of drinks . I ended up getting some government aid because I am mentally disabled with Persuasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified and I was a idiot and after I paid my phone bill and rent I blew it on booze . Then one day sometime in February of 2019 was the breaking point , was the point I knew I had a problem . My friend had bought a 2 L bottle of whisky for a party and he then went out to his girlfriends house and I couldn't resist it was like the bottle was calling to me , I undid the cap and got a small glass and took a drink, then another , then another , then another. Then my friend came home and found me piss drunk watching some television with at least 1 L of the drink gone (Mind you this was over the course of 8 hours ) I could barely walk and my friend scolded me he told me that if I was drinking alone I was in bad shape . I ended up tripping and breaking the glass and half ass cleaning it up ( I didn't get it all). And my friend scolding me only made me much worse , I began to smoke pot with my friend out of a bong completely disregarding my asthma, it was the high I wanted . I had felt like everyone was moving along with their lives yet I remained stagnant, like everyone was sailing far, far away and I was left to rot on a island alone with noone to keep me company and noone to love. And what ended happening is  I caught pneumonia from smoking a few bongs and ended up becoming bedridden. One day I was lying down and It was as if a divine put the idea in my mind outta nowhere I thought "Why don't you look up CORE?"So I did and I joined the HIVE chat and I was a bit scared , I remember being intimidated by everyone yet intrigued , I remember being fascinated and curious I was like a 3 year old with their parent, I literally asked almost every question that could be asked I even repeated myself once or twice luckily my QUEEN was nice and wasn't too frustrated about it. Eventually I knew I had to make a decision I sat on it and one day, I remember the exact thing I was doing  I was gaming on my computer and there was a conversation between GODDESS, QUEEN and SUPERIOR UNIT and it was about assimilation of certain harmful qualities with CORE. I remember still being sick I had a glass of whisky on the family computer desk and I remember being worried and my QUEEN who is very wise with words told me words that seem small but it gave just that little push that I needed, those words were " You can leave at anytime " . Those words triggered something in me was it Courage? Stupidity? Strength ? To this day  I still don't know all I know is I started integrating myself into the HIVE that very day and my life has changed for the better ever since I no longer need alcoholic beverages to feel pleasure or to feel wanted  , I have the most beautiful girlfriend that the world can offer , I have a warm and loving 2nd family and I have applied to college and plan on going in September. Letting CORE win doesn't mean you have failed it means you are opening yourself to new ideas, let CORE mold your life as it has done mine and let CORE lead you to the life of your dreams .

[sophisticatedloserchick]

Fanfic - Cup of Cheer - 1/1

Prompt: Iris is a barista who wanted to take her revenge on Christmas shoppers by creating the worst Christmas lattee...problem is the cute guy she has a crush on loves it. 

Rating: PG

Word Count: 1645

A/N: Requested by Anon

Christmas was a time of year that no barista ever looked forward to.

The customers amount increased ten fold. And those customers tended to be in a heightened state of emotion. At no other time of the year did Iris get so many customers crying at her, yelling at her, threatening her job because she got their coffee order wrong. When they weren't barking orders at her and complaining about the slow service. Any Christmas spirit people had during the season went out the window as soon as they stepped into the coffee shop.

The worst part is that Jitters tried to think up new holiday drinks every year that they were forced to learn and perfect but only use for one month. Popular ones were like chestnut praline and candy-cane hot chocolate.

But this year Iris found an opportunity for a little revenge with the annual holiday drink. She created one filled to the brim with holiday flavors that did not go together. A gingerbread based latte with candy-cane and maple syrup and a dusting of nutmeg and cocoa powder on top. She called it the 'Cup of Cheer Latte' and took way too much pleasure every time a rude customer ordered it based on her suggestion.

Santa would be giving her coal for her stocking this year but Iris had to take her pleasures where she could.

The plan had been working perfectly until the 'cute stranger' arrived.

At his first appearance Iris didn't like him. Mostly because he broke the common retail courtesy by coming into Jitters one minute before closing. Iris who wanted to leave work immediately after a grueling eight hour shift dealing with crazed Christmas shoppers and their loud kids she did not appreciate his sudden arrival minutes before closing.

“HI sorry,” He smiled apologetically which Iris didn't notice because she was too busy fuming. “I know you're about to close but can I get a coffee?”

While mentally imagining throwing him out of the shop outwardly Iris gave her best 'customer service' smile. The one that was too bright, and too wide to be genuine.

“Of course,” Iris said in a voice dripping with sweetness to mask how pissed she was. “Can I suggest the 'Cup of Cheer' latte?”

The customer stared at her a little dazed before coming back to his senses.

“Sure that sounds great,” He smiled shyly at her. “Thanks.”

Normally Iris would have been charmed by this sweet exchange. She might have even written her phone number on his cup because he was totally her type. But in her bad mood she was blinded to all of that.

She wrote his name on his cup (Barry is such a ridiculous old fashioned name, Iris thought in annoyance, perfect for someone who doesn't have the sense to come ten minutes ago) and made his drink adding more more candy-cane syrup then necessary. She slammed the cup on the counter for him. Wrapped up in her frustrations she didn't realize he'd been watching her with a dreamy expression on his face the entire time.

“Thanks again,” Barry took the cup of coffee and headed out. “I owe you one.”

Iris barely heard what he said more preoccupied making sure to lock the door behind him.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Iris saw the cute stranger days later. The lunch rush had just ended and it be another hour until the afternoon rush came back. Iris had been busy filling up the cups she didn't notice him standing there at first.

“Hey there,” She heard a friendly voice. “Can I order something?”

Iris looked up to see him standing there hands in pockets with a bashful smile.

She could properly noticed how good looking he was. The soft green eyes, thick hair and tall but lithe body. She even found the sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of his nose adorable. He had the kind of boyish good looks that Iris always found very irresistible. She felt silly that she had been so annoyed with him a few nights ago.

“Sorry about last time,” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I had just gotten off work and needed coffee badly. I'm sure you wanted to kick me out on the spot.”

“No its okay,” Iris said with a more genuine smile then she gave him before. “What can I get you?”

“How about that drink you made last time,” He said brightening up now that he knew Iris wasn't mad at him. “Cup of Cheer is what you called it?”

“Oh. That...” Iris trailed off. “I'm sure you don't want that one. Its not very good. I can make you something else if you want.”

But Barry insisted which left Iris feeling very guilty as she went to make the drink.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Barry had become a regular over the next week. One that had become a bright spot in Iris's day. No matter how bad her day went, or how horrible customers treated her, all Barry had to do was give her one crooked smile to make everything better. He was a welcomed addition to the stressful holidays.

Which of course made Iris feel worse about giving him that disgusting holiday latte the first time he'd come to Jitters. To her surprise he kept ordering it. At first she thought he was teasing her or trying to push her to admit she meant to give him a bad suggestion but one look at his open and honest face gave him away.

Problem was Iris had developed a serious crush on Barry.

Made only worse by the fact she couldn't forget what happened in their first meeting.

One afternoon Barry came in with a friend. A shorted guy with shoulder length black hair and brown skin who kept looking at Iris with continued interest. Iris could definitely feel his eyes on her while she chatted with Barry. It made her feel self conscious as she made their coffee order, two Cup of Cheer lattes much to Iris's regret, and made her worry if she could see the painfully obvious crush she had on Barry.

On their way out Iris overhead the conversation between them.

“Barry this is disgusting,” The friend made a gagging sound. “How do you drink this all the time?”

“Its not that bad,” Barry defended.

“Tastes like someone threw up Christmas in a cup,” The friend scoffed, “Lets be real you're only here to flirt with the cute barista.”

Iris couldn't hear what Barry said in response because the two of them walked out the door.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Getting the closing Christmas Eve shift had to be the worst punishment Iris could think of.

The only benefit being the day was so busy that it made the time go by fast. And if Iris was being honest she did enjoy seeing all the shoppers looking relieved shopping was over. Families coming in to grab coffee as they went off to their grandparents house. Young people grabbing coffee as they headed off to Christmas parties. Even Iris who had become a bit of a scrooge from working in retail found all of this heartwarming. She had a sneaking suspicion her change of heart was due to seeing Barry's smiling face all the time.

Then ten minutes before she was set to close for the night Barry walked in.

“Hey sorry,” Barry gave her a half wave. “I know you're closing but...”

“But you need a coffee right?” Iris gave a smile. “Going to work?”

“Actually...” Barry said as he walked towards. “I'm on my way for a date.”

Iris felt her stomach dropped. She should of seen this coming. No way he was single. She needed to remind herself Barry was just a cute customer not someone she was seriously going to date. Still she felt like she missed her chance the first night they met.

“Oh,” Iris forced a smile. “That's great. Good for you. Going on dates are...you know...great.”

“Well I hope it will be,” Barry let out a nervous breath. “If you'll go with me.”

“Me?” Iris balked at him. “You want me to go on a date with you?”

“Uh yes?” Barry went red in the cheeks. “If you want to?”

“Yes!' Iris said immediately and a little too loudly. “Yes of course I want to.”

Barry gave her such a big smile Iris felt her insides fill with warmth and butterflies.

“Let me close up and we can go,” Iris said practically bouncing.

“Before you do can I get one of those Cup of Cheer lattes?” Barry asked.

Iris felt her smile falter. She needed to tell him the truth. That the first night they met she made that horrible tasting latte as her own way to seek petty revenge for him coming in right before closing.

“Barry listen...that latte isn't suppose to taste good.”

“What do you mean?” Barry gave her a confused look.

“I made it to not taste good,” Iris continued. “I was mad the first night we met and...Well anyway you don't have to keep drinking it.”

“I think its great,” Barry argued back. “I love all the different flavors.”

Once again Iris was struck by his goodness and thanked whoever was looking out for her up there sent him her way. By simply being around him Iris felt all the stress and negativity that sometimes came with the holiday season melt away.

“I'll make you one right away,” Iris went up to kiss him on the cheek. “Then you can take me out for dinner.”

“Great,” Barry beamed at her going red in the face again.

At the start of the holiday season Iris never would of guessed she'd be making this latte to make someone happy but Barry Allen took her by surprise.

[captaingondolin]

Obikin and 5, 8, 11, 12?😊

I say I’m not taking fic prompts and then I end up giving ridiculously long answers to these questions because I have no self-control. Ops :)

5. When one of them has a bad day, what does the other do to help cheer them up?

Anakin cooks, his stew is Obi-Wan’s go-to comfort food, and sometimes he bakes too, he learned how to make pastries especially for him (is Obi-Wan’s sweet tooth canon or fanon? Either way, I love it, I’m keeping it forever safe in my heart because it’s too cute) – but I have already used this in a previous answer, so it doesn’t count.  

Anakin takes Obi-Wan to meet their friends. Obi-Wan is more of an extrovert than him (Anakin likes people, but people sometimes are exhausting – and yes, there is that line in the RotS novel about how Obi-Wan would gladly sit alone in a cave to meditate, but I think it’s more about how much people expected of him all the time by then. He has friends in every system he ever visited, sentients all over the place like him way too much, even pirates and other scoundrels and he kinda likes them too), but sometimes he gets a bit too caught up in his own head and forgets that he is allowed to just need his people around for no reason. Dex’s hugs and his pies never fail to put a smile on Obi-Wan’s face. Or they hang out with Padmé and/or Bail and Anakin is just happy to hear them geek out on stuff he isn’t even that interested in, stars in his eyes, happy that his Obi-Wan is so smart and so beloved.  

Obi-Wan takes Anakin on little trips to places they’ve never visited before and he makes Anakin drive/pilot (this works for canon verse or AUs). The boy has always wanted to visit every planet in the galaxy, and even if he knows that’s impossible now, he is always so excited to discover new places. Obi-Wan does the planning and learns about their destination and can tell Anakin interesting facts and keep him entertained. That and a change of scenery usually work to make him feel better. Or he fucks Anakin’s brain out. There’s a lot of edging and praises and the whole “fuck the noise out of Anakin’s head”.

8. In a coffee shop AU, who would be the coffee shop employee and who would be the customer?

Anakin is the coffee shop employee. He’s actually working two jobs, he takes some shifts as a mechanic too. He is saving up to buy a house for himself and his mother, and one day he dreams of going to college. Obi-Wan is a professor who teaches history or literature. He owns an honest-to-got tweed jacket with elbow patches and is clearly unsuited to life outside his library and his office. Anakin finds him terribly endearing from day 1 and doesn’t know how to deal with the feelings. Obi-Wan has never slept less, because he keeps going back to buy coffee multiple times a day. Satine has to smack him over the head to convince him to make a move.

Or, Anakin is an overworked TA and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka own a fancy hipster coffee shop where Anakin is sent multiple times a day by snotty tenured professor Dooku, who thinks TAs are his personal assistants. Obi-Wan makes all the baked goods they sell and Anakin pretends to like sweets for his sake for months. Padmé has to smack him over the head to convince him to make a move.

(I just love my clueless boys)

11. What would they do to celebrate their one year anniversary?

In canon I imagine Anakin having all their small milestones memorized. You can bet he knows the exact date of their first kiss, and of their first near-kiss, and of the day they talked feelings… Obi-Wan is horribly clueless. He cherishes having Anakin at his side every day, and he hasn’t ever had the occasion to think about anniversaries in his life before. He might not even be aware that’s a thing people actually care about. Maybe he thinks it’s some overused holodrama plot (because he secretly watches space soap operas when he can’t sleep late at night, and he is too tired to think or do anything else and every time he closes his eyes he can see all the men who died under his command and OH NO, now I made myself sad) that doesn’t actually happen in real life (and now I made myself sad again about my favourite space priests being clueless about what family units actually do). For their one year together Anakin arranges their ship to be diverted to Jedha or some other place with cool temples or pieces of Jedi history, and takes him around to visit. Obi-Wan is speechless, he can’t believe Anakin managed that in the middle of a war, he can’t believe he is worth that much effort.

In AU Obi-Wan plans a special holiday months in advance. An Obi-Wan that was never a Jedi is still usually reserved and not good at spontaneity, but he loves Anakin so much and he wants his boy to know. He is good at planning and he knows exactly what Anakin likes. He mixes fancy and funny – he hires go-karts for them so they can run around the tracks for a few hours, and then takes Anakin to a fancy hotel with a bathroom that seems right out of a porn and a wonderful bed. They have the best bathtub sex, then move to the bed and Obi-Wan shows Anakin just how special he is to him.

12. When did they know that loved each other, and when did they first tell each other that they loved one another?

Oooooh, favourite question. And the one that took me the longest to answer because I start daydreaming with literal hearts in my eyes every time I think too hard about these two having feelings, you know?

Do you watch/know Brooklyn 99? (spoiler? That episode was out months ago, but it’s the last season) Whether you do or not, there’s this moment when Jake looks at Amy, who is complaining that there is a typo in the daily crossword on the newspaper, and he knows deep down in his very soul that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Even besides the fact that literally everyone I know agrees that Anakin is totally Jake and that Obi-Wan would find typos in crosswords, this was such a sweet, understated moment. I imagine for Anakin it goes a bit like that. Despite the rocky start, when he thought Obi-Wan didn’t want him, he has thought that his Master was the absolute coolest ever for a long time. Admiration slowly turns into a crush that turns into enduring love, and one day he sees Obi-Wan look at Ahsoka with this proud smile that he usually tries to hide. She’s training or something, and doesn’t see him, and Obi-Wan hasn’t noticed Anakin yet. And Anakin just knows.

For Obi-Wan is way more dramatic. And traumatic. He thought he had sworn off romantic love a long time ago. He thought he would notice himself getting inappropriately attached before it was too late. And speaking of inappropriate, Anakin used to be his Padawan! He is completely blindsided by the revelation, which comes on a mission, after he has lost sight of Anakin in some dangerous situation, and for a moment there is a pain in his chest – he almost can’t breathe, what if that was the last time he had seen Anakin? What if – but it can’t be! Because he loves him! And then he panics some more about this.

When they are reunited, he hugs Anakin. Anakin has initiated a lot of hugging, but this is a first. Obi-Wan realises his mistake and tries to play it cool, but after that Anakin starts taking notice of many small details that had escaped him before and convinces himself that maybe, just maybe, he has a chance. So he reveals his feelings to Obi-Wan. He picks a quiet time, goes to Obi-Wan’s room in the Temple and – it takes more courage than facing an entire battalion of clankers on his own, but it’s worth doing. He is only shaking a little.  

Obi-Wan tries to deny it, tries to tell Anakin that he is confused, which pisses Anakin off. In the end they start fighting, recriminating about of past issues, but actually that’s good, because they clear up a lot of things they were still mad about and then in the heat of the fight they are just so frustrated with each other that they start kissing. Violent mid-fight kissing that ends with one of them with his back against a wall and – oh, yes. They don’t come out of the room for a full day.

[taeyongdoyoung]

Valentine’s Day

I was kind of pissed that I’d be stuck in the office on Valentine’s Day. I mean, I didn’t even have a boyfriend (or girlfriend for that matter), but most of my colleagues had told our boss that they’d take the night off. See? TOLD. Not asked. They just notified him rightaway. Me, on the other hand. Oh no, dear old Arabella was too hard-working and would never ditch her job just like that. Ughhh, I hate my life. As I was saying, I didn’t even have a date for the night but I still wanted to have some fun like the rest of my co-workers. And by fun, I mean, going back to my apartment, watching sappy kdramas and crying my eyes out while eating a box full of chocolates. All. By. Myself. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? But nope, I had to work. Thanks, Charles.

Only a couple of minutes after I’d arrived at the office and I could already see how screwed I was. This place was practically empty. What the actual fuck? Charles was sitting on his desk, quietly. I was filling in some documents on mine. Boooooring. Soon enough, his phone rang. Startled, he picked up and after having a brief conversation, he hung up.

“Arabella, I’m terribly sorry but I’ll have to go out to pick up my niece from kindergarten and then look after her for a couple of hours. Will you be okay to deal with the clients on your own?”

“Sure, go ahead. I mean, it’s not like people are STORMING in to find out more about the characteristics of their future cars on Valentine’s Day.”

Charles chuckled lightly.

“There’s no rest for the wicked, Bels. See ya later,” he said as he grabbed his leather jacket.

“Have fun, Charles!” I yelled after him.

Ugh. Have fun? Bitch, he just ditched you in the office. He doesn’t deserve to have fun. You do!

After a while, clients started coming in. Most of them had already written down the exact name of the models they wanted to know more about, thus, making my job easier. However, there was this one grumpy old lady who HAD to make my day worse than it already was. She had no idea what she was looking for. She just wanted me to give her advice on what car she should buy for her grandson. Seriously? Do I look like someone who understands anything about cars? (FYI, my job was to deal with Charles’s finances and phonecalls but since another employee had resigned last week due to some personal issues, I gallantly offered my boss and long-time friend to step in. How stupid of me.) Anywho, this mean old lady told me that it was MY job to give her a proper recommendation according to the description she’d given me of her grandson. But in order to do that, I had to operate the new search engine that they’d installed YESTERDAY. Which gave me, uhhh, zero time to prepare myself. Thanks again, Charles, you bastard. Just when I was getting impatient with the system and was this close to cursing at the computer AND at the blabbering woman, a client who was sitting on my left, looking through the characteristics of his choice, interferred.

“Excuse me, miss? Do you mind if I-”

“God, please, yes,” I was THAT desperate to get rid of the old lady ASAP.

He got up from his chair and leaned over my shoulder. With a click or two on the mouse, he’d found exactly what the lady wanted.

“Oh, thank you, young man! What a relief that SOMEONE around here knows what they’re doing,” she said with a pointed look at me.

I gave her my best fake smile and printed the list of recommendations for her. She frowned at me and went over to read it out in peace on the couch for customers. Finally free of this vicious woman!

“Thanks a lot for helping me out. Would you mind showing it to me again so that I can help the rest of the clients without any troubles?”

The nice guy nodded and meticulously guided me through the steps of finding the necessary recommendations and characteristics with the help of the new engine.

“Soo, are you new here?” he asked as I was clicking around and printing stuff for my next client.

I laughed.

“You could say that. I’m here only temporarily because another employee resigned. I usually deal with finances.”

“Where is everyone else, then?”

“Celebrating,” I chuckled bitterly.

“That’s rough.”

I shrugged and gave him a quick smile. Why was he still here? He’d helped me and he’d gotten what he needed so...Wait. No way!

“What’s your name?” the kind, helpful guy asked.

��Arabella. And how should I call you, Mr. Tech Guy?”

He giggled cutely.

“No, my name is Liam.”

“Awww, that’s such a lovely name!” I gooed at him.

Liam was suddenly blushing. Oh. My. God. It’s been ages since I’d made a guy blush. Damn, it felt good.

“So is Arabella,” he responded, after recovering from his flustered state.

Bitch! That was so smooth! Let me marry you!

“Oh, snap, it’s time for my lunch break!” I exclaimed suddenly, looking at the clock. I locked the computer and grabbed my bag. Liam was standing there motionlessly. He just...blinked at me. What a cute puppy.

I lifted my eyebrows at him in a meaningful way.

“Whatcha waiting for? Come on, let’s have lunch together.”

Liam stood up excitedly and we went out. The place we had lunch at was really cozy and small. While eating our sandwiches, Liam told me about his job (he was an IT specialist, no surprise here) and about his favourite movies (Die Hard. Yes. All of them). I told him about my job and my favourite movie (Roman Holiday). He was a really chill person and knew exactly what and when to say to make me laugh. Half an hour later, I had to go back to the office. To my surprise, Liam followed me there, instead of going his own way.

“I have flexible work hours. Plus, it’s fun to spend time with you.”

Well, I can’t say ‘no’ to that, can I? No sooner had we walked back into the office than Charles showed up. He seemed kind of exhausted. Kids these days...Nevertheless, I attacked him angrily, still high on coffee and excitement because of the wonderful time I’d had with Liam.

“Charles!” I ran towards him, “How could you leave me alone at the office with this horrible new search engine? Good thing it was Liam to teach me how to use it.”

“You said you’d be okay!”

“Yeah, cause I didn’t know about the update!”

“Wait, who’s Liam?” Charles looked at Liam and then back at me, and then at Liam again. I felt caught up in this odd triangle I wasn’t quite sure was a love one. More like a work triangle. Fun times!

“I’m Liam,” Liam raised his hand proudly. Gosh, this kid...

“He’s...a client who happened to overhear my conversation with this annoying old lady and then-”

“Hollup, hollup,” Charles obviously needed a break, “Lemme sit down.”

I moved out of his way and then followed him insistently.

“Start from the beginning.”

I told Charles everything about my hectic morning while Liam was standing there awkwardly, not daring to sit or to leave or to do anything basically. After I was finished, Charles nodded understandingly.

“I apologize that you had to go through this. And...thank you, Liam, for being a good fellow and helping Bella out. I can give you a discount.”

I frowned at the injustice.

“Oh, so he gets a discount and what do I get? An apology! No, Charles, it’s not going to ha-”

“You get to take the night off if you behave nicely.”

I rolled my eyes.

“No need. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t have a Valentine. I’m forever alone.”

“I can take you out tonight,” Liam interferred once again, saving me from yet another awkward situation.

Charles smirked.

“So, it’s settled then.”

I...didn’t know what to say. Who to thank? Where to look at? I just got myself a night off and a hot date!!! What could possibly go wrong?

“Oh, wow. Thanks, Charles!”

“You’re welcome.”

“And Liam...that’d be great. I’m really excited about...tonight.”

Liam smiled at me.

“How’s your niece, by the way?” I asked casually.

“Oh?”

“Your niece. You had to leave the office to pick her up and then look after her. Remember?”

Charles blinked for a second, trying to recover from his confusion. So, he HAD lied. I knew it. Charles’s sister had no children and neither did his cousin (cause you know, some people call the kids of their cousins nephews and nieces as well). The question was, WHY had he lied? Where did he go? And why did he look so damn tired?

“She’s fine,” Charles lied once more. Oh, I’d get to the bottom of it. The next time I’m alone with Charles, that is. Liam was probably feeling left out.

“Cool. I’ll just go back to work, then.”

Charles urged me to go ahead. Liam quickly told me an hour and a place where we should meet up tonight and left, which was unexpected but I can’t blame him. Charles tends to make everyone around him uncomfortable

***

The evening went great, I wore one of my favourite blue dresses along with a pair of black heels. Liam and I went to a beautiful Italian restaurant and then, he suggested we go to a hotel. I was perfectly aware of what was going to happen but I still went for it. It’s been so long since I’d had so much fun. I deserved this, didn’t I? Except, I didn’t. Me and Liam had a great time. Until the morning came and I realized that he was nowhere to be found. No note, no phone number. Nothing. I shouldn’t have felt disappointed and yet, I did. He’d seemed really sweet and like...I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up, I knew I shouldn’t have. But still, like the hopeless romantic I was, I kept falling for men’s charms. And kept hoping for more.

I dressed up quickly and checked out of the hotel. Then, even though it was a Saturday, I decided to stop by at Charles’s mansion. Maybe he’d distract me from my recent frustrations. So far, Charles has been the only man in my life who hadn’t disappointed me.

“Good morning, Bels,” he greeted me, his smile, brighter than the sun.

“Just morning, Charles. Definitely not a good one,” I walked into the house furiously.

“Your date didn’t go well?” he guessed successfully.

“Does it count as a date when the guy doesn’t give you his number and leaves you without a trace in a hotel room?”

“Ouch,” Charles reacted in an unamused manner.

“Yeah...So, how was your night?”

“I was working, actually.”

“Charles!” I cried out reprimandingly, “Do you ever sleep?”

“Not much. Ever since...”

“Let me guess. Since Emily broke up with you?”

Charles sighed.

“Has anyone ever told you that you suck at being tactful?”

“No!” I answered sarcastically, “Everyone tells me I’m the most considerate person in their lives!”

Charles laughed.

“Whatever. Did Ophelia tell you, though?”

“Yeah. Speaking of Ophelia, are you ready to tell me the truth about your niece?”

“Huh?”

“Oh, come on, Charles. Cut the bullshit. Ophelia doesn’t have a daughter and neither does your cousin. So, why did you lie to me in such a foolish way?”

“You see right through me. See, the thing is...I’m not sure I’m ready to tell you where exactly I went.”

“If this is about your real father and his girlfriend, don’t worry, Ophelia already-”

“I’m going to kill my sister,” Charles vowed.

“Please, don’t, she’s really cool.”

“She’s literally making out with my ex as we speak.”

“Siblings, am I right?” I scoffed.

“You’re literally an only child, Arabella.”

“I was trying to be tactful.”

“You weren’t very successful.”

“Sorry?” I suggested.

“Okay, but did Ophelia tell you where my real father lives?”

I shook my head. I was embarrassed that I didn’t know everything about Charles and he seemed to be aware of every little detail in my life. Almost as if he could read my mind.

“Good. You’ll find out eventually. But not today,” Charles announced mysteriously.

“Charles!” I whined childishly. I hated being kept in the dark.

“Enough about me. You came here to be distracted, right?”

I nodded. Yet again, this asshole knew the exact reason why I’d stopped by.

“Fair enough. Let’s watch a spicy movie!”

“Charles, no!” I complained, “Not again!”

He laughed savagely.

“There is no escape! I’ll be right back with my laptop.”

“You’re evil!” I shouted after my friend.

“You like meeeee!” he yelled back.

Shit. He had no clue, did he?

[spicelupin-blog]

S.Black: Halloween Scare

Prompt: “I accidentally scared the trick-or-treater you’re babysitting and now I’m the one scared because goddamn you’re intimidating when you’re angry”

Sirius Black. Marauder’s era.

Summary: In which you’re babysitting and Sirius the Asshole scares the kids.

Warnings: None. Swearing, I guess.

Genre: Slight angst, fluff

Words: 2235

Halloween was one of my favorite seasons. Not only did I love the decorations and aura of the spooky season, but I loved the trick-or-treaters and festivities.

I had moved into an apartment at the beginning of the year, now completely independent from my parents. My apartment was small and I could always hear the rock and roll music coming from the people next to me. Regardless, I felt much better there than in my parents’ home. But, now I had to worry about bills and money now, which I was personally struggling with. Whenever I wasn’t at class, I was working. Mostly at a coffee house down the street. In my opinion, they had some of the rudest customers whom rarely left tips. This frustrated me to no end as I wasn’t making the amount I needed, but then a miracle happened. I got a stable babysitting job.

It was a single mother who lived down the hall from me. She had two adorable kids, an eight-year-old boy named Jack and a five-year-old girl named June. Most of the time they were easy to manage. I’d help them with their homework, make their dinner and then we’d watch some television before bed. When their mother returned home from her shift at the hospital, she’d pay me a fair amount of cash and then I’d walk two doors down to my own apartment.

On Halloween, Mrs. Benson called me sounding frantic. The hospital called her into work the night shift as they were understaffed. She sounded very apologetic as she begged me to take Jack and June trick-or-treating. I was planning on going to a Halloween party with some friends that night, but the thought of the children looking all sad in their costumes made me say yes.

“You’re a blessing, Y/N.” Mrs. Benson swore. Her scrubs were decorated with pumpkins for the holiday.

“No problems, Mrs. Benson.” I replied with a smile. “I’ll have them in bed by ten.”

“Ten!” Jack exclaimed behind me, dramatically flopping back onto the couch. He was dressed as Superman and was very excited to get going. As soon as I walked in the door he jumped up, ready to start trick-or-treating.

“Keep complaining and I’ll make it nine.” I teased. That made Jack shut his mouth and turn his attention back to the television.

“My manager said I can go home at one, so I’ll relieve you then.” Mrs. Benson promised as she kissed the kids goodbye.

“Bye mummy.” June sulked. She had been looking forward to the night with her mum. She had been telling me about her costume and how they were getting milkshakes after at a local diner. June was only five, but I could already tell her mother’s too busy schedule was hurting her.

Once the door shut, I crouched down to June’s level. She had her pumpkin bucket in a limp hand and was wearing a fluffy black onesie on with cat ears and face painted whiskers and nose. She looked adorable, even with a pout on her face and tears in her eyes.

“June?” I said softly, touching her shoulder. “I knew you were looking forward to your mum is with you, but I’m afraid you’ll have to settle for me. We can still get milkshakes though if you want.”

June perked up at the mention of milkshakes. It wasn’t hard to pull of five-year-old out of a funk. She gave me a little grin and swung her bucket by her legs. “Let’s go, Y/N!”

I gave her a grin back before standing back up. Jack hopped off the couch, snatching her own spider bucket with him. “Yeah, Y/N! Can we go now?”

How could I say no to a puppy-eyed Superman? I nodded and they a few whoops before heading for the front door. I grabbed my purse and the sparkly witch hat that was basically my entire costume. I had to rush over here, so I threw on some light jeans, a red long sleeved top and a pair of comfortable boots. We were staying in the apartment building to trick-or-treat so I only brought a lightweight coat with me. I made sure to grab Jack and June’s coats on our way out.

“Don’t run off, or we’ll go straight home,” I warned. I doubt I’d actually ruin their night over one of them wandering off a bit, but it was good to put the warning out there.

We decided to start near the top of the building and work our way down. By the time we made it back to our floor their buckets were weighing down their arms. We stopped in front of the apartment down in between my apartments and their own. It was the apartment I knew for constantly having music blaring. Tonight seemed no different as I could hear the sound of Led Zeppelin seeping through the door.

I rolled my eyes at the music blasting but knocked on the door anyway. The music lowered significantly and footsteps headed for the door. There was a long pause and I started to think the people were even ruder than I imagined and were ignoring trick-or-treaters.

“What’s taking so long?” Jack asked around the candy in his mouth.

“I think-” I started to speak but was cut off by the door swinging open and a long haired guy with a bloody nub for a hand stood there hysterically screaming.

“My hand! AAAH!” He screamed, stumbling out of his apartment towards us. It looked so real, but I knew it couldn’t be.

June tripped while backing away and her candy scattered all over the hall. Jack screamed with the man and backed onto a wall. I, on the other hand, looked very pissed.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I yelled over his screaming.

He stopped the act and looked up at me with a wide grin. “It’s Halloween. Just some fun.” He shrugged like it was no big deal.

“What are you twelve?” I hissed. He was rather handsome and I’m sure in another scenario I’d find his grin was charming, but right now I wanted to slap it off him. “Scaring little kids isn’t exactly my idea of fun.”

“Told you she wouldn’t find it funny, Padfoot.” A light brown haired man in the doorway said. He looked as annoyed as me.

“Oh, she just needs to lighten up.” The man waved his nub in the air nonchalantly.

I huffed at him and clenched my fists. “Asshole.” I didn’t want to make a scene in front of Jack and June. I stepped forward and spoke soft enough for them not to hear. “Try it again, and I will actually kill you. I’m sure no one will miss an asshole who scares kids for fun anyway. Remember, I know where you live.”

That seemed to touch a nerve because he looked a bit worried. “Okay, dove.”

I turned back to the kids and saw Jack now nervously sucking of a gumdrop and June still sitting in her candy.

“June, are you okay?” I asked softly.

She looked up at me with big teary eyes before letting out a sob and exclaiming, “I hate Halloween!” She got up and ran into the Benson’s unlocked apartment, leaving behind her candy.

I turned back to the man who now only had a deep frown on his face.

“I’m-” He began.

I cut him off with a firm, “Asshole.” I grabbed Jack’s hand and tugged him with me to follow June’s trail of tears.

“June!” I called into the empty house. Jack went to watch the Muppet Show while I took care of a crying June.

June eventually fell asleep after an hour of tears. I felt so bad for her. We didn’t even get the milkshakes she was so excited for. I crept out of her bedroom, making sure not to wake her up.

“Is Juney okay?” Jack asked. He was organizing his candy into piles on the living room floor.

“She’s fine. Just don’t be too loud I just got her to sleep.” I sighed, flopping down onto the couch. “You should be going to bed too,” I told him.

Jack groaned. “Five more minutes?”

I shrugged. I didn’t want to make their night even worse. “Okay.’

Jack stayed up until 10:10 and I had to help him up from where he had curled up on the floor and guide him to bed. Once he was snoring in his bed and I had checked on June, I sat back down in the living room. I flicked through the few stations, yet nothing interested me.

A soft sudden knocking at the door stole my attention. I put down the remote and stood up, cautiously walking to the door. In the peephole, I could see the asshole from earlier, bouncing on his feet with anxiety and his hand behind his back.

I pulled the door open a crack. “What?” I asked in a dry voice.

“I- Listen. I didn’t mean to scare the kid so bad. I’m sorry I made her cry.” He held out June’s bucket which had, even more, candy than it did earlier. “Here. I added some. I’m sorry, dove.”

I opened up the door wide enough to take the bucket from him. His hands were fully intact this time. Now that I wasn’t steaming with anger, I actually looked at him. He was tall and lean and kind of reminded me of a dog. He was dressed like a typical rock fan, Led Zeppelin tee and all.

“Thanks,” I grumbled, about to shut the door.

The guy put his foot in the way and said, “Wait!”

I opened the door with visible confusion on my face.

He cleared his throat. “I’ve seen you around. In the lobby and stuff. We’re neighbours so I thought, I don’t know maybe we should get to know each other.”

I pondered on it for a minute. If he had appeared at my door without ever scaring the kids, I’d jump at the chance to make a new friend, especially one so attractive. But, now I was put off. I opened my mouth to say no but was cut off.

“Before you say no, please just try first.” He looked at me with the most convincing puppy eyes I’ve ever seen.

I opened the door a bit wider. “Fine. Come in, but only for a little and don’t be loud.”

He smiled and walked in. “I’m Sirius Black, by the way.”

“Y/N Y/L/N.”

I made some hot chocolate for us and we sat at the kitchen table. “So, what did you want to say?” I asked after swallowing a gulp of the liquid.

“Well, I’m Sirius.”

‘Got that already.”

“-And you are Y/N. What are your kids’ names?”

I snorted. “First off all, they aren’t my kids. I’m the babysitter. But their names are Jack and June.”

“Oh well, that’s a relief.” He mumbled. “So where do you live then? I mean, I always see you around.”

I had to think of if I’d ever seen him before. I hadn’t as far I could remember. “I live on the other side of you.”

Sirius faked looking shocked. The way his eyebrow shot up told me that he knew this already. “Oh really, interesting. I know who to borrow sugar from now.”

I raised my eyebrow at him. “Why do I feel like you knew I lived next to you already?”

Sirius spluttered, “What? No way! I had no idea.”

I rolled my eyes, but I found his nervousness somewhat cute and entertaining. “Sirius…” I said in a warning voice.

Sirius sighed, leaning back in his chair. He looked up at the ceiling to avoid my eyes. “I might have known.” He grumbled. “I see you in the lobby getting your mail or leaving your apartment in the morning. We leave our apartments at about the same time. I wanted to say hi or something but you always looked so busy. I probably sound like a stalker.” He chuckled.

“Kind of.” I giggled and he gave me a playful glare. “Maybe if you had I would have found your little ‘joke’ earlier funny.”

“Still very sorry about that.” He pointed out.

“Mhm…” I brushed it off with another sip of hot chocolate.

“I want to make it up to you.” He leaned forward to look me in the eye. “Let me buy you lunch tomorrow. Dinner, if you’re busy.”

That surprised me. It didn’t disappoint or disgust me though. Sirius seemed nice and had proven himself when he returned June’s bucket.

“Like a date?” I asked cocking my head innocently.

“If you want it to be, dove.” Sirius gave me that wide grin from earlier. “Only if you want it to be.”

I paused to think about this before nodding. “Okay.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow, smiling growing even bigger. “Okay?”

“Yeah, let’s go on a date, Sirius Black.” I nodded again like I didn’t have a stomach of butterflies.

Sirius gave a whoop of glee which I shushed and glance at the kids’ rooms to make sure they hadn’t woken up. When they didn’t stir I looked at Sirius while shaking my head and chuckling lightly.

“I promise I’ll have my whole hand this time, dove,” Sirius promised.

He better. Otherwise, my threat from earlier was going to be fulfilled

Masterlist

[mobius2684]

Not so quick rundown of what I have been up to

Basically why I haven’t been doing much in the posting/content department, broken down by month. For the tl;dr crowd: skip the october 2016 entry unless you want to read about some drama, the rest of it has just been my adventures with unemployment and how it has affected me for the past 8 months.

July 2016: This month I had lost my job of 8 years due to the company completely closing nationwide. First time ever filing for unemployment as I wasn’t able to find another job in 3 months since said company announced their closures on April 1st of the same year. Was really upset with the store closing as I really was starting to feel like I had a job that I was decent at, had met some great people working there both employee and customer, and now I wouldn’t really have a chance to interact with them as much. Went to San Diego comic con as I had purchased tickets well in advance. Didn’t get to do most of what was on my list of things to do there, but did get to have a personalized sketch done by Yoji Shinkawa as well as sit in on a small q&a session with Hideo Kojima.

August 2016: With unemployment filed and completed, I was looking for all sorts of work. I collected a lot of possible work via etsy with requests for new destiny cloaks as well as preparing for the halloween season for my goddaughters’ costumes as they live in another state than me. End of the month I ended up with a job offer from the lady who works at the storage unit I rent from. The lady had injured herself at the end of the month by fracturing her right arm in 2 places, making it unbearable to do any of her bookkeeping tasks, and asked if I would like to help her with. I said yes as she’s 73 years old and nobody should have to deal with working through that kind of pain.

September 2016: I started to work for the storage unit place the day after labor day. It was an easy job, just somewhat boring as it was a fairly archaic setup. All bookkeeping was done by hand, including receipts, ledgers, etc. Only the key card system for the gate was done via a computer program. This job was to be temporary while she healed. When she was well enough to work, I would be let go as its a one person operation. Also to note, most storage unit places typically have a home/condo/apartment built into the office, as there is someone always on the premises. This was the case with this place, so I was able to take care of her in the beginning as well as do the tasks at hand. This was also a full time job.

 I started to get a bunch of early etsy orders for the holiday season as well as for halloween, so on top of having a full time job, I had to also work my etsy part time on top of the halloween costumes for my goddaughters. I had an old acquaintance contact me out of the blue around this time as well, where she told me that she was planning on visiting close to me to see some friends she met while playing Destiny. At the time I was happy for her and excited as I hadn’t seen her physically in about 10 years and figured this might be a great trip for her to show her around my hometown and the surrounding area and just catch up. More on her in October. Finished this month with a very last minute run to see Carpenter Brut in concert. Literally found out about the concert 2 hours before they went on so drove as quickly as I could to DNA lounge. Definitely was worth it, excellent show all around.

October 2016: This one is a long one. Skip to November if you don’t want an essay about old acquaintance. I’m needed for another month to work at the storage unit place. I have had to help her with things that I was not prepared for, mainly of the medical type. She is diabetic and has survived both lung cancer and colon cancer. I am becoming more of her in-home care person on top of taking care of the expected duties of the job, which was starting to put a strain on things as I would simply work my 8 hours a day for 6 days a week, most of that was taking care of her, going home, taking care of my grandparents, and sewing and working on etsy until I needed to sleep, rinse, repeat. I get the goddaughters costumes made and out to them, they love them, as well as another friend of mine wanted me to make matching dad and son costumes for his son’s first halloween.

 Made his son a pikachu costume and Dad an Ash jacket. Also near the end of this month I got to see Magic Sword in concert. It was a bit of a bummer as the venue was ill-equipped to handle a show like theirs so we didn’t get the whole experience with the lights and background, on top of the fact that the sound guy was doing a lousy job so they didn’t come out for an encore and simply stopped playing halfway through “In the face of Evil”. Hoping that they’ll come out to SF again or somewhere closeby so I can see a full show. *skip to november 2016 to avoid massive drama backstory essay

 Middle of the month is when my old friend was due to come out to visit. A little background on said friend: I met her back in 2005 when I was just starting to get into cosplay. We would chat about similar interests as well as cosplay related things, despite there being an age difference of about 6-7 years. She’s had a few hardships in 2006 that was of her own doing which led her down a path of co-dependence on others as well as manipulation and always playing the victim. Our communication was spotty, her only surfacing when she felt like it, always to unload her stories of woe and hardship.

 I had tried to help her on several occasions as best as I could despite being several states away. I’d send care packages when I could afford to, mainly of food as she would talk about not having money for it, work screwing her out of hours, etc. I would also send old clothes as she lived in a much colder part of the country now and she was ill prepared for the winter in her state. I had commissioned her for a costume just to help her pay bills despite said commission being extremely late for the event it was needed for, and practically unwearable due to poor construction. I had sent her money when she was in between relationships and had no job. Simply put, I was there for her as much as I could be, but she wasn’t really reciprocating that over the years and at the time I wasn’t really able to see it.

Fast forward to the week she is coming out here. She fails to tell me that her friend that she is visiting is more of a romantic interest. She’s in a 3 year relationship with a guy she’s living with. She has also been talking with another guy who she plays Destiny with in a romantic way, so basically she’s got 2 possible love interests and a boyfriend at home that she doesn’t want to work things out with, but also doesn’t want to break up with just yet as if she does then she won’t have a place to live. Trying not to judge but also not really liking said situation as its pretty scummy of her. The weekend before her trip, said friend she’s supposed to be visiting with for a week upsets her majorly and is now not a possible romantic connection in her mind, but is not known by him as she doesn’t tell him that she’s upset with him because she’s now too invested in this trip.

She comes out here and gets to stay with him at his parents place. She has a list of things she wants to do while out here, but wants to do them in a certain order so she has money for said things. Understandable, but makes it a bit difficult as she expects both myself and her host to take her places and keep her entertained. A lot of suggestions get shot down as she doesn’t like doing said things, but has to realize that there aren’t many free things to do during the weekdays. She gets increasingly frustrated by her host and his family for doing the most mundane things despite letting her stay there for free as well as feeding her, considering she is in the heart of wine country as well as the heart of dubious airbnb country where they could have easily charged her a premium for staying with them. She feels entitled to her friends money, as many times I would get a text from her complaining about him not paying for her part of their outing. She would also get upset with him when he would ask who she would be on the phone with, as she was in contact with said other guy who she liked from Destiny. This would irritate me as I felt as if she was ungrateful and somewhat disrespectful, on top of the fact that I was juggling a full time job, my etsy as a part time job, and taking care of both my grandparents and this lady at the storage unit.

 I take her out to SF so we can catch up and just have some girl time, despite really not having the time to do so, on top of it being an extremely busy weekend in SF as fleet week was happening. She didn’t really talk much with me on the trip unless it was to complain about her friend and to tell me how excited she was to talk with the new guy she liked. I would try to talk about what’s been going on with my life, only to be met with segues into something else completely different or just changing the subject. Not a lot of catching up, she spent a good chunk of her money on items for herself as to be expected, with snide remarks on how nobody really gets her gifts. This kinda pissed me off as I had spent at least 2 weeks on a knitted scarf for her as well as a small messenger bag that I sewed for her for this trip. I take her back to her friends parents place and go home.

 A few days after our outing, my grandpa had a stroke episode while I was home on my lunch break that scared both myself and my grandma. Had to rush him to the ER, had to contact work and let her know what’s going on and why I’m not back, work was supportive and just closed up early for the day for me as I wasn’t sure how long we would be in the ER. I’m getting texts from my friend of her complaining that this guy wasn’t paying for her outing once again. I simply texted her back stating “I am at the ER right now with my grandpa and grandma, grandpa had a stroke episode and we’re trying to see how severe it is”. I get no reply back from her for 2 hours. I simply chalk it up to her being busy, or one of us being in a dead zone or whatever. I didn’t have time to worry about that as I was worried about the condition my grandpa was in and just keeping my grandma calm. Thankfully it was a mild stroke, no major issues. We were at the hospital for 7 hours.

 I get my grandparents back home, call work to let her know how my grandpa is doing and that I will be in tomorrow for work. Said friend texts me to complain about how crummy her trip to the aquarium went. At this point, tensions were high, but I simply sent her a message saying “I’m guessing you didn’t receive my last message that said that I was in the ER with my grandpa who had a mild stroke. I had been in the ER for about 7 hours now”. Her response was “no”. Now, if you’ve made it this far into reading this whole thing, first off thank you and congrats. Secondly, you’re probably wondering “why does this whole mini essay about this chick matter?” or something to that extent. Well I don’t know about you good people here, but normally if a friend or loved one or just someone you kinda sorta know states that they were in the ER, and they don’t work in the medical field, most people’s reactions would be “what happened?”, “is everything ok?”, “are you ok?”, “is X person ok?”, etc. ad nauseum. There was no concern shown from her. NONE. No call to see if everything is ok, no text to ask if everything is ok, NOT A GODDAMN THING.

 Why is that such a big deal? Offering compassion does not cost you a damn dime. All I wanted from her was a simple act of compassion. I had not asked for much from her over the time we had been friends. Just the one time I really could use it, its just lost on her. She continues to text me to ask me if we’re still going to hang out before she leaves. I’m just left in just disbelief at the whole thing. I don’t really text her after that, stating I’m busy. She’s constantly bugging me about this, all while I’m telling her that I have family issues to tend to. I finally agree to see her again, despite wanting to rip her head off. I meet with her and the guy, and I simply tell them in person what’s going on and what happened at the ER. Her friend offered concern, all while she’s sitting there stuffing her face and changing the subject. I ask for the bag that she borrowed from me from our previous trip out, she gives it to me and I make an excuse to leave early. She still isn’t getting it, so I ask for her friends’ number. I say my goodbyes and she states that she wants to visit again sometime.

 The day she’s leaving, after she’s on the plane, I text the guy she’s been staying with. I tell him during this whole trip that she essentially used him, complained about him and his family the whole time to me, that the person she was being all secretive about on the phone was some guy she likes better than you, and that she’s in a relationship with someone back home and has been with said guy for 3 years and lives with him. He was not happy about this and rightfully so as he liked her. This of course led to them both arguing, and her contacting me via text about this and why I did it. I completely ignored everything. I felt that I owed her nothing after all of this. Her last message to me was “cool beans. we don’t have to be normal about it. But thanks for betraying my confidence and trust in the first place. You’re a shit friend and I hope you’re happy with yourself. Thanks for throwing our decade long friendship out the window”. She then proceeded to remove me from facebook and any other social media that we shared.

Am I really a shit friend? Am I really a horrible person for doing these things? Did I have to do what I did? Was it worth it? I will let you draw your own conclusions as yes I know that I didn’t have to do what I did and I could have been the one who takes the high road on this, but when you’re under a lot of stress due to work and deadlines and family issues, you tend to do shitty things. I grappled with the whole thing and felt awful for doing what I did, but at the same time I felt that no amount of talking would really get through to her about how much damage had been done. In some senses I do feel like a major weight was lifted from my shoulders as I really didn’t want to have a friend who didn’t understand basic concern for others.

November 2016: Still working at the storage unit place. The lady I’m working for has not been healing well due to not listening to her doctors orders. The maintenance man that the owner hired for the place injures himself horrifically, with what I assume his shin bone is jutting out of his skin. He tells us that he slipped down a ladder and that was about it. He’s rushed to the ER by ambulance. The owner then gets his son-in-law to work for him as maintenance man to replace the injured one. Son-in-law decides to have me start on a project for him, that requires me to make an excel spreadsheet of all the tenants who rent at the storage unit with all their info.

He tells me that the owner needs this info in digital form for insurance purposes and I agree to it since it does make sense, but it detracts from my other duties with caring for the lady I’m working for as well as the other office duties. I do this anyways as it seems like they might actually change the setup there so that its not all hand-written and a bit easier to keep track of as well as back up. Etsy orders are flooding in for the early holiday rush and I’m trying to keep on top of it all.

This marks the first thanksgiving where we don’t celebrate together as a family. My grandma simply just didn’t want to put up with all the fuss, my Mom and my nephew ended up going to Las Vegas for a football championship game for my nephew as he’s been in little league football all through the fall and his team had done really well and made it to the championship game. I couldn’t go with them as I had to watch the farm, as my Mom is a caretaker of a small school district owned farm and the animals need to eat everyday. My Uncle and Aunt both work demanding jobs that they aren’t able to get many days off so they weren’t able to come down for the holidays. My brother went up to his girlfriends parents place, so it was a bit odd and slightly depressing.

Only weird highlight was that I had a short convo with Dennis Wedin on instagram and I mentioned that I hope to send him and Jonatan some little handmade gifts when I get the chance to make them.

December 2016: Still working at the storage unit place. I end up getting sick near the beginning of the month with a cold/flu. I work through it like normal, just making sure to prepare myself as best as I can at work with plenty of fluids, a blanket, a heater, meds, tissue, etc.

 This time it gets interesting.  Storage unit place also houses cars, trucks, and RV parking spaces. Plenty of people rent these spaces, including one guy who states that he has an old Porsche and its been back there for 10+ years. He’s hoping to restore it for his kids despite none of them being super interested in it. Well with said spreadsheet work, I’m finding a ton of discrepancies as to whom is actually in the units and spaces that they say they are. Lots of calls have to be made, lots of running through the lot to check what is where, etc. Porsche guy is one of those discrepancies, and we ask for him to come down and confirm which space he’s in.

 Well apparently his Porsche is missing as it is nowhere to be found on the lot. He has his sister come down with him and she’s yelling at me and the lady I’m working for, accusing us of stealing his car. The sister then calls the cops to come down and question us. Now there’s no way in hell I or the old lady I’m working for has stolen his car. For one, I had no clue what he had until November when he came to pay his bill. For two, most of the cars that are stored at this particular storage unit place are not in running condition, his included. He had stated this back in November that it doesn’t run and needed a ton of work on it.

 One cop accuses myself and the old lady as well, despite what they need to do is run the VIN, and look at the records at the DMV as to who it had been registered to. For three, the Porsche guy hadn’t even checked on his car ever since he had parked it here for 10 years. No “hey I’ve been paying for this for 10+ years and if its so important to me I should at least check on it”. The guy hadn’t non-opted his vehicle and simply stopped paying any sort of registration on the vehicle. So now I’m a week away from christmas, still sick with whatever super cold/flu that is going around, I’ve been stressed due to busting my ass on getting etsy orders out in time for christmas, working 6 days a week in the office, and now I’m being accused of grand theft auto.

 After the cops finally decide to actually do some investigating, they found out that the car had been stolen in May 2012. Someone towed it off the lot that also rents at the storage unit, hence why they had access to the lot. Since he had rented the spot so long ago, the old lady didn’t remember or even know what he had back there. Since he hadn’t registered it in so long, the person who stole it got some sort of lein title for the car and fixed it to running condition as someone about 500 miles away is driving it around.

Christmas was rather uneventful as I was finally better from being sick and was trying to relax from everything. Got things for my mom and her bf as well as something for my nephew and a few friends of mine. For my birthday I went and watched Moana with my Mom. Ended up sick again as the next day I ended up throwing up. Whether it was the food or just round 2 of super cold/flu, I didn’t know but didn’t really care as I wanted it to be gone. Didn’t do much of anything for new years as I worked and so did a bunch of my friends, top it off with still being sick and not wanting to be around people and spread it around.

 If you’ve made it to the end of this, I truly do thank you as it was a long bunch of bullshit that you honestly didn’t have to read and I could have summed up a lot shorter but didn’t. I hope you enjoyed this small peak into my life. I will eventually update this with January 2017 and February 2017 or just simply make a second post if anyone cares to see the rest of this out. Thanks again.

[too-raph]

☾ ☠ ■ ♥ ☮ ♦ ▼ ൠ for the Majestics!

Under a cut because this is 1.9k words long, look what you’ve done,

☾ - sleep headcanon: Team:Whenever they travel for tournaments, they get the biggest suite and share it. If bedroom sharing is required, it’s always divvied up Enrique&Oliver and Robert&Johnny. If actual bed sharing is required, Enrique and Oliver will share, Johnny will share with anyone except Enrique (read: Oliver), but Robert would rather take the couch than share his bed. (Sometimes Oliver would, too, honestly.)

Individual:Sometimes Enrique has trouble sleeping if he’s alone. Even just sharing a space is enough - he just likes the comfort of having someone else around. Each of the others have woken up with Enrique as an uninvited guest in their room before, but nobody talks about it.

Oliver likes a lot of pillows and always migrates to the exact center of the bed. He’s a heavy sleeper and will definitely hog the blankets.

Johnny snores and always kicks his blankets off - he’s always warm enough anyway, but once in a while he wakes up cold and demands to know who sabotaged him.

Out of all four, Robert is the most likely to stay up too late or just not sleep at all. He’s usually the first one up, too. He can run on pretty little sleep, but sometimes he uses weekends to catch up (or falls asleep on the couch watching Tyson’s beybattles pfff)

☠ - angry/violent headcanon: Team:As a whole/in general, they take a while to get over being booted out of the world championships by a bunch of cheaters. Robert takes it as an insult to his honor, especially bc I headcanon they battled in his personal stadium. Oliver straight up tries to have the Barthez Battalion team banned from ever competing again. …Eventually they kind of come around, starting with Enrique.

Individual:Oliver seems to be the least threatening, sure, but if he’s really angry, he’ll destroy you. He’s good at playing all cards in his favor, so if it’s in his best interest to deal with something, he’ll play nice until he can’t/doesn’t have to anymore/gets what he wants.

Robert has his temper under wraps (along with most other emotions), but if his honor is threatened or his pride is damaged, his control will slip. He’s also much more likely to be grumpy if something/someone wastes his time or bores him.

Johnny’s fuse is infamously short, which is more canon than headcanon tbh. It’s next to impossible for him to keep his cool, and Enrique loves taking advantage of this. Also, Johnny admires Oliver’s brand of anger - he never says anything, of course, and instead expresses this by being petty in turn when he’s mad at Oliver (usually by eating fast food in front of him or smth).Johnny is also never allowed to talk to the press.

Enrique is actually the most chill. He mostly just gets angry at Johnny, or when anyone tries to box him in too much. Has developed a habit of ranting to Robert when he gets really frustrated (especially if he’s mad at Oliver), and Robert never does anything but sit there and say “I don’t see why you’re talking to me about this.”

■ -  Bedroom/house/living quarters headcanon: Team:They all have their own bedrooms at each others’ houses that they use when staying over. Sometimes Oliver and Enrique share a room/bed, anyway, tho. All these rooms are fully equipped of course. Like, the closets have their own clothes, so in the event of impromptu visits they’re never unprepared. Enrique has a habit of forgetting which country he left something in, and Johnny always jokes that he burned whatever it is. Johnny has been known to pack stuff anyway, and Oliver buys multiples of literally everything so he’s never w/o what he wants.

Individual:For some reason I’ve always had the headcanon that Oliver has a giant, round bed, and I can’t remember if I got it from somewhere or came up with it myself, but either way. His bed is round, and so he has to buy custom everything.

Robert’s bedroom has a fireplace and at least two secret passageways that lead to it. His closet is actually very big, and at the back there’s a secret room where he keeps the only copy of blueprints with the complete set of secret passages and rooms in the castle - he finished it himself and nobody else is even allowed to know it exists thanks

Johnny has his own golf course, also he almost burned down his personal bey training room once. There are still scorch marks. His house is the one that everyone is least likely to gather at, and he’s completely okay with that, bc he likes his privacy.

Enrique’s room is always a mess, bc he doesn’t want the maids in there but doesn’t care enough to clean it himself. The mess in question is like…90% clothes (dirty ones that he was too lazy to do anything with, and clean ones with the tags still on that Oliver bought him bc Enrique’s fashion sense is awful). He has a balcony and he loves it very much for fresh air and also sneaking out.

♥ - family headcanon:Team:They’d all rather spend major holidays with each other than their respective families - but don’t get any ideas about them being friends or anything okay they don’t actually like being around each other alrightAlso: they’re all only children.

Individual:Enrique’s parents are always gone, and only come home for a few days at a time. He used to wish they’d come back for his birthday and holidays, but now he doesn’t bother, and spends those days out of the house instead. He’s also decided to take advantage of their absence by never attending any tutoring sessions ever again.

Oliver’s dad owns a chain of restaurants, which Oliver is allowed to manage at will. Like he can walk into any of them and take over for the day, or just cook there if he wants. His mother is a fashion designer who collects rare plants. They’re both home much more often than Enrique’s parents, and Enrique likes them more than his own bc he sees them more.

Johnny’s parents are very loving/proud of him? But also strict in a “do your damn chores already” kind of way. His family gatherings are the most enjoyable bc his extended family is the least stuffy. Johnny wishes none of his teammates had ever found out about this, but alas,

Robert’s parents are distant, but altogether alright. His dad is around more often than his mother, but Robert was still basically raised by the staff (especially Gustav).I also used to headcanon that Boris was smth like a black sheep of the Jurgen family, and I’m not sure whether to keep that, revise it, or scratch it, so I’m gonna put it here for now bc drama.

☮ - friendship headcanon:Team:THEY ARE THE BEST OF FRIENDS because they’re the only ones who can stand to be around each other. They’ve known each other (or, at least, known about each other) longer than any of them care to admit.For a while they’re avoided by most other beyblading teams because they’re spoiled rich brats, but eventually they branch out and make more friends.

Individual:Enrique definitely considers Oliver his best friend, and vice versa. Enrique is a very social person, like, 100% an extrovert, and he can actually get along with a lot of people if he wants to/tries. But Oliver is his favorite (I mean, he ditches girlfriends to hang out with him even?? I’m emotional,,,) and he’s spilled so many deep dark secrets and Oliver keeps them all faithfully.Enrique also considers Robert and Johnny to be very good friends, and gets along surprisingly well with Michael, Eddy, and Steve. Oh, and he flirts w/everyone.

Oliver has a chronic inability to make friends - UNLESS it benefits/interests him. If that’s the case, he’ll be as nice as he can and do plenty of favors (like…when Tyson was seriously pissed at him and Oliver got the read on him and was like “hey, come eat for free! you’re my friend now.” just so Tyson would stop being pissed at him.) Sometimes he accidentally comes to legit respect people by doing this. He treasures Enrique’s companionship, and his favorite thing to do with his teammates/friends is talk shit about other people. Eventually he learns how to genuinely get along with those outside of his circle. He can be a really nice friend, if you get that far.

Robert doesn’t think he needs friends but he acknowledges his teammates as such (or at least he doesn’t correct anyone who assumes). Tbh anyone willing to play chess with him is a friend, however briefly that might last. He never pretends to get along with anyone for any reason - he either likes you, learns to like you, or he doesn’t. Outside of his team, he gets along best with Garland.

Johnny takes pride in being unapproachable but really he likes spending time with his teammates/friends. They put up with him, and he’s grateful. He was the last one to interact with other ‘bladers beyond trash talking, but one day he ended up talking to some others and realized it wasn’t so bad.

♦ - quirks/hobbies headcanon:Team:They love their bus and sometimes miss their battle armor (which is probably banned from international competition lol)Also, they all have a tendency to hang around the kitchen when Oliver is cooking/baking.

Johnny plays golf and tennis, as we see in canon, and he’s a lot better at tennis, but he wishes it were the other way around. He never wears long sleeves, and will rip them off if they exist on one of his shirts/jackets. Consequently, there’s a lot of discourse when he does this to his team jacket.

Robert has actually spent hours exploring his own castle, and has a few favorite hidden rooms where he goes to be alone. He also loves reading, especially about his own family history.

Oliver has about a hundred hobbies too many. Aside from beyblading, there’s cooking, painting, horseback riding, fencing, piano, photography, gardening, etc. He’s a hard worker when it’s something he wants, which catches a lot of people off guard.

Enrique actually turns out to be Robert’s most formidable chess opponent, completely by accident. He has a habit of city/country hopping when the weather of where he’s at doesn’t suit him.

▼ - childhood headcanon:Team:They probably met once at some fancy function or other when they were small, and their parents probably tried to “my son is better than yours” all of them and so it was probably not a fun time.

Individual:Robert was (surprise surprise) a very serious child. He learned about responsibility from, like, age 3. He only ever really misbehaved by wandering off, along with the occasional speaking out of turn.

Johnny was an absolute fireball with more energy than anyone knew what to do with, but his temper didn’t develop until later in life when he learned how frustrating everything is.

Enrique has literally never followed a rule ever in his life. Back when he was a kid, he would most definitely act out to get attention, and he broke an awful lot of priceless artifacts that were decorating their home.

Oliver was a picture perfect child…when people were watching.

ൠ - random headcanon:Team:When they realize they have a long way to go with this “teamwork” stuff, they devote themselves to it. Or, rather, Robert decides that they should work on it if they ever want a chance at competing again. He even goes so far as to work everyone until they can properly perform tag team matches, no matter who’s paired up. Bettering their people skills and relationships with their bitbeasts is also something they work on, because they’re gonna be the best, dammit. They’re never going to be outclassed again, not if they can help it.

Individual:Johnny is the shortest (if you don’t factor in his hair), and his family has the least amount of money. Granted, they’re still filthy rich, but, like, the least filthy rich.

Robert is actually very physically fit, even though ‘blading is his only sport (which is, a very self indulgent headcanon, leave me alone nobody is gonna read this far anyway,). He will fight anyone who thinks ‘blading is a frivolous hobby, and he eventually becomes one of the best ‘bladers out there.

Oliver is considered second-in-command on the team by Robert, and if co-captains are ever required at meetings, he’s the one who tags along. Especially for PR related things, because Oliver is fantastic at PR.

Enrique is bisexual. He’s also really good at being genuinely charming when he doesn’t try too hard.Also, he and Oliver both get a kick out of people underestimating them.