#Breakfast time means I gotta look PROPER at the front desk so I have to put my laptop away dgfhjkdf

[hyaciiintho]

🌸｡*ﾟ+. Oh shoot it's almost breakfast time at the hotel. Lemme... squeeze out one more reply. I'm gonna be hopping between reading and writing replies after I get home ♡ Still trying to keep up with everything, but thank you to everyone who's been writing with me and being patient with me whenever I have my moments of quietude!

Been trying to figure out what to do for docs since I've changed my mind and hate the layouts LOL but someday soon I'll get bios up and done (and headcanons... and relationships... and-- sweats)

Anyways, gonna focus on this last reply and then nyoom to the desk before my shift is over! Hope everyone has a lovely day!

[still-a-morosexual-help]

OBEY ME! LESSON 57 DETAILED SUMMARY AND DISCUSSIONS/THEORIES

*I wrote this days after the lesson was first posted and never bothered to go back and edit it so meaning there will be me theorizing about the next lesson as well

*I write a small para for each chapter and I write it immediately after finishing that chapter so there’ll be theorizing about the next chapter too

*I swear more than usual here

*Some of the dialogue is heavily plagiarized and a few is lifted directly from the story, the game is to figure which is which.

*Summaries and Discussions/theories for all the other lessons can be found on this blog under #obey me spoilers or #my theories or #my headcanons

MC wakes up to Belphie and Satan planning on kidnapping them, deciding to wake them up and then arguing about which small prank they should play to wake them up (satan suggests holding their nose till they wake up and Belphie says they’d have to be careful with that method cause it could kill a human). MC decides it’d be best nor to let them go ahead with anyone of this and wakes up screaming to scare them both. They complain about being reverse pranked and say that breakfast is ready. Belphie also gives them the star of diligence for all that happened last lesson. Belphie asks if once MC becomes an actual sorcerer if Solomon will teach them higher level magic. Satan say it’d be a great boost to the anti-lucifer league. Belphie wonders what the final exam would be (and I just realised these two exams will be the final exam holy shit) and satan asks MC if they’re confident, they say ‘after all the BS I’ve been through? FUCK YEAH!’ Satan says it’s good to be motivated but to stay focused, Belphie says past experience shows that MC can stand to lose a little focus and still be okay. There’s a commotion and they realise that it’s probably Beel rampaging cause he got too hungry.

Asmo scolds Beel for his rampage, Beel apologizes and Asmo tells him not to apologize through a mouthful of food cause it seems less sincere. Asmo asks if he even regrets it and Beel ignores him to go reheat the meat pies which pisses asmo off more. Belphie tells him to drop it and that it was partly their fault for taking so long to come back. Asmo then scolds Belphie for being too soft with Beel. Lucifer asks about MC’s star and congratulates them. MC thanks him and questions him being so happy about them nearly being done. He says them becoming a proper sorcerer is important for all the brothers and that personally Lucifer wants them to become more powerful than Solomon so that they can finally shut him up and make him stop pestering Lucifer for a pact. Belphie questions Lucifer more about Solomon and Lucifer complains, also saying that there are plenty of demons willing to forge a pact with him but Asmo says Solomon’s very particular about who he makes pacts with. Asmo says word for word, “It may not seem like it, but he’s got a very cold-blooded side to him. He probably picks his targets purely based on whether they’ll be of use to him.” (I just think it’s really interesting that asmo calls them ‘targets’ though the character relationship diagram did say that Solomon considers others his playthings). Asmo uses Mammon as an example of a demon Solomon wouldn’t want to forge a pact with but Mammon doesn’t respond instant he’s silent and distracted/worried. Asmo pokes at Mammon again asking if he agrees. Mammon distractedly agrees. Asmo’s smile instantly falls, shocked and upset that Mammon isn’t biting back and arguing or saying something mean in return (why is this my brother & I???). Satan says that Levi will also be useless to Solomon. Levi responds the same way as Mammon did which freaks out both Satan and Belphie. MC asks Mammon & Levi what’s wrong. Belphie states how weird they’re being and Asmo also asks what happened, looking particularly upset. Lucifer calls out to the both of them too. But before they get a response Barbatos calls Lucifer asking them all to come to the hotel immediately.

On the way over Satan says Barbatos asking them over this early is strange and asks if he gave Lucifer a reason, Lucifer said Barbatos had promised to explain when they got there. Satan asks if this is wise considering two of them were already acting odd. Lucifer turns to them and says he’s not going to ask what their behaviour’s about rn but when they go back home the two of them have to explain to him what happened. They both give distracted noncommittal hums as answers. Satan says they’re like completely different people rn and Asmo says whatever the reason behind their behaviour it’s probably stupid. Asmo then asks MC about how he should paint his nails next time, MC can say a mature look,  =a feminine look or a simple look. Then he remembers he’s supposed to enrol in a cooking class that makes food to “cleanse the soul” it’ll be hard with new nails. He also worries about whether food that ‘cleanses the soul’ could exorcise him. MC after all the BS they’ve gone through is extremely paranoid and says it sounds sus Asmo says the 7 of them are also pretty suspicious and that given their limited time in the human world he wants to do everything he can. Behind them Levi meows. Asmo says that though the demons are here just on break the angels are gonna be here long term (guys guys guys what if S4’s after the brothers leave and it’s an angel focused season with them bringing in Michael and Raphael and the brothers only show up for small bits??? I’d cry I’ll get Mammon withdrawal). Levi meows again. Asmo says he wants to stay and have fun in the human world for longer too. Levi meows thrice in a row. Asmo finally snaps and yells at Levi. Levi says he just wants to talk to MC for a bit (remembered the girl in college who used to meow at me whenever we passed by each other). Satan says he knows that Levi’s done something bad that’s gonna piss off Lucifer and now he’s trying to drag MC away from the others to find away to fix it. Levi tries to deny it but Satan just congratulates him and says depending on how this turns out they may invite him to the ant-lucifer league. Belphie asks what he did and Levi tries to deny it until Beel stops walking in stunned silence and Belphie asks him what happened. Beel says he just remembered something awful.

Beel wants to go back to get his abandoned meat pies, Mammon breaks outta whatever stupor he was in to say that’s insane and MC suggests heading through the market. Beel loves the idea and hugs MC, with Asmo saying he wants to hug MC too. At the market people stare at them, Lucifer says it’s natural with how big a group they are, Asmo contributes it to his beauty, I say it’s Satan’s ugly ass clothes. Mammon says people oughta pay them if they’re gonna stare, Levi says it’s embarrassing and MC tells him he’s being too self-conscious, Levi replies saying it feels like he’s being made to do an embarrassing public dare. The butcher greets all of them, surprised to see all of them at once, Beel places his order and the butchers asks if they’re friends, family…(members of a cult? Orgy?) MC can look over at either Mammon or Lucifer and get them to answer. Mammon says that  except for MC they’re brothers though he doesn’t like being stuck with them for brothers but what can ya do. Belphie says Mammon’s got that last bit backwards. Lucifer says the same as Mammon’s first part but adds on that the others can be embarrassing. Satan says ‘like you’re not!?’ The butcher looks at this back of idiots who all look roughly the same age and nothing alike and says “ah. I see.” Then says “MC is your friend or…”Asmo laughs and calls the butcher nosy and says he and MC are a couple and that they’re they love of his life (the butcher previously also was introduced to Beel & MC and Mammon & Mc as couples…), Mammon says MC’s his servant (what a dick. I love him so much), Belphie says he thought the story was they hired MC as their babysitter (and that doesn’t sound shady at all) MC can say they’re a.) family This makes Beel & lucifer really happy and they agree. b.) their master, Mammon says MC’s got it wrong and it’s the other way around. Levi says that at least in Mammon’s case they got it right. c.) their babysitter – Satan protests to being called a baby. The Butcher’s like right….I kind of don’t wanna ask for anymore details but it’s nice you’re all so close.

Up in the hotel Beel is on his 37th meat pie much to Asmo’s dismay. Diavolo greets them and apologizes for the time, MC asks ‘what kinda bullfuckery is going on now’. Since last night there’ve been rumours of an evil spirit (aren’t diavolo & Barbatos also technically evil spirits…) Last night a guest had coming running to the front desk, seeming very pale and petrified with fear insisting there was something in the room with them. Though they don’t say a word Mammon gets shocked by this and Levi gets upset. Several staff members had gone to investigate but what they’d seen had left them shaking and unable to speak. They shock was so much that everyone who’d seen it had been admitted to the hospital. Mammon starts nervously laughing, saying it must have been all in their imagination, the way he words it makes it sound like he’s implying evil spirits aren’t real which I find hilarious. Levi, stuttering, backs him up. Satan says they can’t have all imagined it (isn’t this a thing though? Wait lemme google it up. Mass hallucinations or epidemic hysteria. The first two examples are during the middle ages and they both happened to nuns which is odd. The first was a nun who kept biting other nuns and it spread till the nuns were biting each other. The other was a nun who kept meowing and well that spread. Hey you guys need to read the wiki page for the examples of this it’s really fucking interesting). Mammon ignores Satan and tries to leave citing ‘stuff’ he’s gotta do. And Levi suddenly remembers some of his prior commitments as well. Asmo calls them out for being suspicious and Mammon stutters through the whole sentence denying it. Lucifer bans them from leaving which upsets them and Satan realises that they were called to get rid of the spirit. MC (who’s a shit) asks why the demon king’s son can’t take care of it or if it’s safe for demons to exorcise evil spirits. He says he’s got meetings the whole morning and that the spirit is something he can’t keep waiting till later. He says that though to humans they may seem similar, demons and evil spirits are very different beings. He also says the spirit is the kind that’ll be hard even for demons to handle alone. Asmo asks if that means Diavolo knows what it is. He says it’s a bogeyman (Me: *snort*)

The twins are surprised, Diavolo asks MC whether they know what it is. Bogeymen are well known even in the human world, with children fearing they may be hiding in dark corners of their rooms, they don’t have their own form and instead appear as your greatest fear (and isn’t this the thing from harry potter? A boggart right?) Belphie asks how it could have ended up in Corvo and Lucifer turns to the two obvious suspects as they try to inch their way towards the door. Through stutters they try to explain that they weren’t trying to run away. Lucifer’s so pissed at this point his text has stopped appearing in bold and is now appearing in red. Mammon throws Levi under the bus, saying he wouldn’t stop adding all these new upgrades to crowe, levi says it was Mammon doing that using Levi’s account and money. Levi said Mammon wanted to try an effect called “Pandora’s Gacha” which would give you a random effect that you weren’t told about beforehand. When Lucifer yells at them to quiet his text is both bold and red so you know he’s seconds away from murdering them. He makes them explain everything properly from the beginning and there’s a flashback.  They’re both in Levi’s room, realising how badly they fucked up, as black mist starts to swirl around them (they also keep finishing each other’s sentences as they talk about how fucked they are which I thought was cute). Levi says he has no idea what they summoned but that it should definitely not be loose in the human world and Mammon cusses out crowe (which fair? Which did an update to crowe let loose an evil spirit? Maybe cause crowe’s also connected to the devildom but I can’t imagine anyone in the devildom wanting to be surprised with an evil spirit either… and shouldn’t they correct that bug before someone in the human world summons something that only crowe in the devildom is supposed to summon. But I guess Levi’s crowe is a prototype). Crowe actually answers Mammon and starts telling what it is an what it does as the mist starts taking form. Crowe congratulates them on winning a ‘super special rare effect’, Mammon asks how they could congratulate them when this sucks. The mist forms into Lucifer in his demon form resulting in the two of them screaming and panicking, Mammon’s chanting ‘no’ over and over again and Levi shrieks at Crowe to get rid of it and Crowe asks if he wants to transfer the bogeyman to another location. Crowe asks permission to use 1000DP to install an update to do that, which makes Levi hesitate but Mammon agrees. Crowe asks where they would like to send it. Levi starts stuttering saying he doesn’t know and Mammon says anywhere but here. Levi then stutters out hotel corvo. (So I have questions: Does the bogeyman appear as what you fear the most in general or what you fear the most at the time you see it? Like since before it formed a shape they were already freaking out about Lucifer getting pissed at them so in that one moment that’s what they were scared of more than anything else. Also does it transform into your collective fear? Like since Mammon & Levi met it together it transformed into a pissed demon Lucifer cause that’s the one thing they both fear the most but if it met the two of them individually would it transform into something they alone fear the most? I’m asking cause the two of them seem to piss off Lucifer so much, and despite knowing the consequences for their actions this does not stop them from doing more things to piss off Lucifer, and they’ve been doing this for thousands upon thousands of years that it doesn’t make sense that the thing they fear the most would be Lucifer.)

Back in the present mammon happily compliments Levi on his quick thinking of transferring it to Corvo, Levi happily takes the compliment, calling himself a genius and saying he’d seen an ad for corvo right before the whole bogeyman thing appeared and it popped into his head. “How very interesting…” Says Lucifer with a smile on his face and remembering where they are right now Levi gasps. Lucifer quotes back what they just said to each other before transforming into his demon form making the two of them start screaming again. Belphie says the two of them redefine stupid. Barbatos, with a smile, says he’s pleased they found the cause of all this. And Satan remarks that Barbatos seems really pissed. Beel says the way he’s smiling makes it scarier and actually reminds him of Satan (I love the smiling despite being consumed with seething murderous rage thing some of the demons do. We even saw Mammon do it in that one Devilgram where the brothers for once actually managed to piss him off enough to make him transform into his demon form.) Barbatos says he’ll leave the clean up to Lucifer and the others. Lucifer, now back to normal, agrees despite looking upset and saying he’d rather not. Barbatos drags diavolo to his meeting despite Diavolo protesting and saying he doesn’t want to leave as things get interesting and asking if he can reschedule the meetings, Barbatos says Diavolo had promised to be professional and get all his work done if Barbatos let him come and stay in the human world. Diavolo asks MC if they can have a gossip session about everything that’s gonna happen later and they promise to. Diavolo complains again and Barbatos smiles and goes ‘Young Master.’ And Diavolo immediately fold and leaves. Belphie comments on how even Diavolo wouldn’t dare cross Barbatos when he’s pissed. Asmo and Satan say Levi and Mammon should fix this mess. Mammon says as brothers they should stick together. Belphie says he doesn’t get to play the brother card at his convenience. Asmo asks if MC agrees with him. Levi gives them puppy dog eyes and asks if MC will abandon them. If MC says they should all work together Mammon gets all sparkly eyed and says he knew MC would agree and Levi gets all sparkly eyed and says MC’s the best. Belphie says he doesn’t want to be stuck dealing with this. If MC says it’s their fault and they should figure it out Mammon asks them if that doesn’t sound too harsh and Levi says he understands that nobody cares about them. Satan calls them tweedled-dee and tweedled-dum and says they brought it on themselves. Beel asks Lucifer what they’ll do. Lucifer says Mammon & Levi should deal with it, Levi tries to protest but Asmo says they should have known this would happen. They’re interrupted by Simeon and Solomon, with Solomon saying he wants MC to take care of this.

Lucifer asks why they’re here. Solomon says Barbatos told him and that the bogeyman was a perfect opportunity that they can’t let go to waste and that he wants to make it MC’s final exam. MC can say it sounds exciting or crazy, MC’s a lunatic so after they say the first Solomon is pleased and says he’d expect nothing less from his apprentice and that this is gonna be hard but it’ll make it more rewarding. Simeon laughs and says Solomon seems to have rubbed off on MC, he pauses and adds “in a good way”. Solomon smiling says that they’ll have Simeon with them as help. Simeon says he’d only come by to deliver cakes but had gotten kidnapped by Solomon. MC says they could use Simeon’s help, he’s silent for a moment but agrees though he says he doesn’t know how much help he’ll be. The others agree to come along to watch/help MC’s exam. Mammon gets all sparkly at the thought of his ‘sweet little brothers’ coming to help but Belphie says none of them are doing it for him or Levi but for MC instead. Levi says he feels like they really lucked out here. Solomon asks Lucifer if he has any protests. Lucifer looks tired and done but agrees to it all. They end up in a really creepy bloodstained hall bathed in red light. Beel asks Levi not to walk plastered on to him. Levi stutters and says he can’t. Mammon, also thoroughly freaked out, holds on to MC as they walk and says the hallway is really creepy. Asmo scolds him for using this as an excuse to hold MC. Lucifer tells them all to stfu. From the far end of the fall they hear growling until from the shadows something roars and comes charging towards them.  Mammon screams.

[yeojaa]

wait !!!! find her jk with that prompt the other anon sent!!! can u plssss that’s literally something find her jk would actually do🥺🥺🥺🥺

[ read finders keep hers ]

pairing.  jjk x (named) f!reader.  rating.  general.  tags.  idiots in love.  like, that’s all there is to say.  angst central, my dude.  wc.  2.4k.  author note.  i meant to make this short and end with some tender lovemaking but...  i cannot be trusted near a keyboard so you get this word vomit instead.  xoxo!

You love Jeon Jungkook.  Have, you think, since before you knew what the word love meant.

(Maybe since you were children and you’d still stood a chance against him, bursting with pride from a job well done, young enough that your parents’ kind words felt better than anything in the world.  Before he’d turned into the president of the Casanova Club and he’d just been your and your brother’s best friend.  Little Jeon with the unbelievably big eyes, always so curious about everything.

Or maybe since your tenth grade White Day, when he’d bought you your favourite candies and pressed them unceremoniously into your hands, too many to hold so they fall to dirt and tumble around you.  He’d stooped to snatch them all up, shoving them into the pockets of your coat.  “Because we’re best friends or whatever,”  he’d said with this toothy, silly smile.

More likely during university.  That time you’d maybe (read: very) foolishly made out, liquor fueling the tangle of your limbs and how utterly good he felt within them, a nectarine dream in his brand new G Wagon.  You’d thought he’d laugh in your face, mumble something about no, we can’t - which he had - but he’d also taken you home, tucked you in and climbed in beside your inebriated self.

Definitely once you’d started seeing each other, spending more time in his bed than anywhere else.  It’d been nearly impossible to separate head from heart, falling deeper and deeper into the Jungkook-shaped black hole that seemed to eclipse everything else.  You’d fallen head over stupid heels, leaving bits of yourself hidden among his things.  Your lip balm in his trouser pocket, perfume on the collar of his favourite turtleneck, shape of your mouth alongside monogrammed initials. 

You hadn’t meant to.

Love him, that is.  It’d simply happened in between all the laughter, the eye rolls, the smiles.  Threaded between each action and cemented by the thud of your heart, beat into the ground like a drum.)

Sometimes, though, you don’t like him.  Oftentimes, in fact. 

You and Jungkook are as different as can be.  

You’re in business development at a tech firm;  he’s the technically unemployed son of a real estate mogul.  You invest most of your money;  he spends his as if it’ll never run out (which it likely won’t).  You grew up with an older brother;  he’s got two younger sisters.  You drink to celebrate, to wind down;  he drinks to prove a point.  You believe in love - have to, looking at your parents and feeling how you do about him;  he knows it exists but up until recently, had zero interest in it.

You wonder still, seated at the table with your group of friends and their partners, whether that still rings true.  (Deep down, you know it doesn’t. You know he loves you, wants you in a way he’s never wanted anyone else before, but your brain is a fickle thing, playing tricks when it shouldn’t.) 

Would he be happier without you?  Better off without you? 

Your thoughts mock you - just as he does, roguish smile turning his entire expression into sunshine.  Inescapable, all-encompassing, so blinding it’s almost hard to look at.  Trained on the girl he’s chatting up at the bar.  

This is what Jungkook does.  What he’s always done.  You should be used to it, really.  The man’s charm is always turned up to eleven, always in full effect even when he doesn’t mean it to be.  It’s simply part of who he is- young and rich and devastatingly, heartbreakingly handsome. 

Still, you can’t help the emotion that swells somewhere deep in your stomach, jostles the meal you’ve just had and turns your insides into a sea of nausea.  You know when he’s just being friendly and you know when he’s flirting.  It’s a terribly thin line but one you recognise, intimately familiar with the two sides of his personality.  

Right now, he’s flirting.  Doing that thing he does, one arm folded on the counter top, unblemished hand resting somewhere along his hip, silver of his rings acting as a beacon beneath the dim restaurant lights.  His other hand slots itself into the pocket of his coated jeans, tattoos thrown into stark contrast against his skin and the black of the denim.  There’s that smile of his, more a smirk but sunny, radiant, beautiful.  It lights up his entire face, steeping his expression in something warm.  The dimple in his cheek winks with each laugh - you can only imagine the one on the other side does the same, cut deeply into his skin.

Don’t be mad, you tell yourself.  He’s your Jungkook, bad habits and all.  

You love him.  You love him.  You love him.

If he notices your stoicism, he doesn’t comment on it.  Doesn’t ask what’s wrong or if you’re okay or what’s up.  Barely even speaks to you, save to toss his arm around your shoulder and tug you close, practically tug you into his lap while his friends share stories of their week.

It’s your usual Friday night dinner.  Something you’ve done with this ragtag group for as long as you’ve known them.  An excuse to go out and drink and eat some damn good (and often free) food. 

You wish you could enjoy it like you normally do.  Instead, you’re preoccupied by the way a perfume that isn’t yours lingers on his collar - seeps beneath the fabric and marks him up like a possession.  It’s too sweet - cloying sugar apples and coconut - nothing like your usual earthy wisteria and dewy rose.  It stings your nose when you inhale too deeply, nestled into the familiar shape of Jungkook’s frame, settled between the vertebrae you know best.

You hardly notice when he does speak to you, rousing you from thought you can’t quite place any longer.

“Ready to head home?”

The rest of your friends are going about their business, slipping their coats on and exchanging ideas for plans the following morning.  (Saturday brunch is a very popular thing, though it tends to lean late lunch versus true breakfast-brunch.)

You nod and slip from beneath your lover’s arm, plucking your purse up as you rise.  You’re ready to get out of here, ready to scrub away the melancholy that lingers like a thin film across your skin.  

He must have realised sometime between your silence in the car and your lacklustre kisses in the elevator.  You think he must, as he nearly slams the front door of his penthouse shut, kicks off his Chelsea boots and lets them tumble together just off the welcome mat.  (Not the reaction you’d expected, but you’ve learnt to never expect anything from him.  As much as he might be your best friend, Jeon Jungkook plays by his own set of rules.)

He doesn’t wait for you to undo your own shoes, carefully undoing the straps of your Jimmy Choos and setting them where they belong before you follow the sound of his footsteps.

When you find him, he’s stripping off his jacket and tossing it haphazardly across the back of his desk chair, keys and wallet and phone dropped none-too-gently upon wood.  He says nothing even as he crosses to his closet, steps inside and slips off each piece of jewellery:  assorted rings and his Rolex - everything but the bracelet you’d gotten him for graduation.  

His belt goes next, set back within the confines of its velvet lined drawer.  Through the hole goes the button of his jeans, down goes the zipper, and then he’s in nothing but his vaguely sheer dress shirt, boxer-briefs, and silly printed socks (yellow bananas on black fabric, for reasons), looking every inch the adonis he is. 

You still haven’t said a word, carefully hanging your dress in the small space you’ve carved out for yourself.  You don’t really know what to say - how to approach his apparent frustration when you don’t know where it comes from.

Is he upset with you?  Had you, somewhere along the line of your own sadness, done something to upset him?

You’re running through all the scenarios, lost in thought, when his voice breaks the quiet.  Snaps forth and hits its mark - a perfect shot.  “Seriously?”  There’s a fickle quality to his tone, a pettiness that you recognise when he hasn’t gotten his way, when he’s not quite sure what to say but knows he wants to have something.  (It doesn’t come out often with you, but you’re intimately familiar with it still.  His I-want-to-fight voice.)

“Pardon?”  You’re not expecting him so close, close enough to reach you but far enough that you can tell he’s purposely put this distance between you.  It feels strange - further apart than it is.

“You’re not going to say anything?”

You blink.  Once, twice, three times.  When you speak, it’s full of confusion, paired with your brows gathering in a little knot of bewilderment.  “Anything about what?”

“What happened at dinner.”  

He sounds so utterly deadpan, you can’t help but laugh, a sound of disbelief rather than amusement.  

“You mean you flirting with that girl?”  Even saying the words feels awful, makes you want to crawl into bed and forget about it all.

Jungkook, on the other hand, looks like you’ve just handed him the answers to all of life’s questions.  His entire face rearranges, all the pieces matching back up to form a proper puzzle.  There’s a certain smugness to it now, caught in the round of his cheek and how it ticks higher with his grin.  “So you did notice!  I fucking knew it.”

“Of course I did.”  You want to be appalled.  Know you should be.  (But it’s Jungkook and you love him.)  “Kind of hard not to.”  

He’s the devil in disguise, snapping you to him with a flex of his arms, hands curled around your waist.  It’s clear he’s pleased, absolutely tickled pink that you’d fallen for his silly little trick.  “Gotta keep you on your toes,”  he croons, eyes twinkling, mouth wobbling with the strain of keeping his laughter hidden. 

He expects you to agree - maybe roll your eyes and pat his cheek, laughs along with him and give him some sort of shit about how he’s an idiot - and visibly starts when you push yourself away, two palms flat against his chest. 

“Sure.”

One word.  Nothing like he’d imagined.

“Baby?”  You’ve made it two steps - two whole steps, which is two too many to Jungkook - when he’s pulling you back, trapping you against his chest with his arms looped around your shoulders.  “Where you going?”  He’s kissing along your shoulder, trailing warmth everywhere he touches. 

He still smells like that girl’s perfume.

“Can you get off me, please?”  You’re more polite than you normally are, working hard to keep calm when he only tightens his grip.  Of course he thinks you’re kidding, thinks you’re pouting and playing just like he had when you’d returned home.

When you repeat yourself - a little harder, a little quieter - he seems to realise how wrong he’s read the situation.

“Angel—”  You’re swept around, left to stare into the neat white of his shirt as he peers down at you, waits for you to meet his eyes.  You don’t, staunchly focused on the buttons of his Oxford, how they strain over his broad chest.  “Baby.”  Now he’s the one full of reprimand, disapproval colouring the single word that’s normally so sweet.

“What?”  It’s just as bratty as he was earlier but somehow worse, touched blue.

“What’s wrong?”  Jungkook seems genuinely perplexed, concerned and maybe, just a tiny bit frustrated.  He’s not used to you lashing out like this, soft and yet unyielding, hidden behind a door he’s fumbling with the keys to.

“You.”

“—me?”

You’re not one to throw out things you don’t mean, carefully picking and choosing your words.  It’s something you’ve always done - far more responsible than your idiot best friend who’s never had to worry about a thing in his life.  

The line of his mouth dips, pulls into a frown as he studies you and tries to crack open the windows to gain some insight.  It doesn’t work well;  he’s faced with a stone wall.

“Why’re you mad?” 

You want to laugh.  Do, actually, so short and abrupt it’s more of a scoff.  “What’s wrong with me?”  You’d pull away if you could. (Realistically, you could, but you’ve always been too soft for him.)  “You spent almost all of dinner flirting with someone else.”

“Yeah— to make you jealous.”  As if that makes it better.  As if that doesn’t tear a giant hole right in the centre of your chest, launches your poor heart out of the airlock to fend for itself in the emptiness of his expression.  

You don’t know why it feels worse to hear it out loud.  You’d figured as much. 

(Jungkook had done this in the past, though always jokingly.  He’d rarely been invested enough in a girl to go to such lengths but you’d seen it once or twice.  Always the age old adage of wanting what you can’t have.)

You wish you could separate the then from the now.  Remind yourself that he does care, that this is his twisted, stupid way of showing his affection - of keeping you around.  (You know he’s just as vulnerable as you - maybe more, sometimes - but he shows it poorly.  Pushes you away when he tries to pull you in.)

Tears are welling, spilling across your lashes faster than you can yank them back.  Something about being an angry crier.  

“Good job,”  you mean to snap, to make him feel how you do.  (Small - so very, very small.)  Instead, it’s terribly quiet.  A whisper that gets lost to the cotton poplin.  “Now I’m jealous.”  And miserable and insecure.  All things you usually aren’t, that only Jeon Jungkook manages to bring out in you.

“Baby,”  he tries again, crushing you to his chest, jut of his chin resting atop your head.  His hugs had always been your favourite - swallowing you whole, making you feel safe - but it’s too much now, a prison cell rather than your familiar bed.  “I’m sorry.”  He’s kissing again, stamping his affection into the dark of your hair, brushing over and over with the soft of his lips, his rounded adorable nose,  “I thought—”

You know what he thought.  Know where he’d been coming from (a place of immaturity, a gilded golden room with Jeon Jungkook stamped across the door) but it doesn’t make it any better.

Doesn’t make it hurt any less.

[sleepless-in-starbucks]

if love was a snake, it’d have bit you

Ao3

Summary: Remy, Patton, and Drew are dating. This is a fact. Remy, Patton, and Drew refuse to admit they are dating. This is also a fact. Guess it's up to Roman, Virgil, and Emile to force them to acknowledge the truth. Content: Some swearing, kissing (mostly face kisses, but some lip kisses too), nb!Patton + nb!Emile, genderfluid!Remy, oblivious gays, seriously guys, so much obliviousness, the obliviousness might kill you, gods know it killed me, Disneyland cast member AU Pairing: Romantic Mosleepceit Additional notes: So many additional notes           -Big thanks to @emo-disaster for beta-ing for me and confirming the gays in this fic are wayyyyyy too oblivious           -This fic is almost 11k words. it was meant to be around 3k. I’m so sorry.           -Inspired by, but not actually based upon, this disneyland cast member au           -This is probably hella inaccurate to real Disneyland but i don’t care alright           -This fic is a (late) b-day gift for the one-and-only @notveryglittery !!! She’s an incredible person who I’m extremely happy to know, and I’m really hoping she even kinda likes this mess of a fic dsfbcdsjf

~~

    “-and if you’ll just sign here, I can finalize that upgrade for you.”

    The woman smiled at Remy as she accepted the pen he offered her. She looked tired, her entire appearance screaming ‘overworked mom’ even without the literally screaming (playfully, but still screaming) kids behind her. She definitely needed the vacation.

    “I can’t thank you enough for this,” she said gratefully, quickly signing the paper Remy offered her.

    “It’s no problem, ma’am,” Remy said, smiling politely as he took the paper and pen back, hitting a few keys on his computer as he did. “Just happy to make your stay as magical as possible. Here’s your keycard.”

    The stressed mother accepted the keycard from Remy with another smile. “Thank you.” She reiterated the sentiment before convincing her children to give her their hands and heading off for the elevators, her wife following with the luggage. Remy smiled after them, briefly letting the last of the room change form sit unfinished on his screen.

    “You’re going to get yourself fired for that eventually, you know.”

    Remy’s smile only grew at the sound of the all-too-familiar voice. He turned back to his work then, enough of Roman in his peripheral for Remy to tell he was strutting his stuff as a friend of Flynn’s. “Ah, you know they love me too much for that.”

    “More like they don’t look hard enough to catch all your illegal ‘on-the-mouse room upgrades.’” Roman corrected, leaning against the back of the receptionist desk. “Though if they ever do? You’re screwed.”

    “Shush, I’mma be gay and doing crime til Disney falls.” Remy responded cheekily. “And speaking of people who are going to get themselves fired, shouldn’t you be over in the good ol’ Disneyland already?”

    Roman shrugged. “Shift doesn’t start for another half an hour. I’ve got time.”

    “Time for what, exactly?”

    Roman grinned at that. “Gossip, of course!”

    Remy grinned now, too. “Well, if you’re looking for tales, a little birdy’s been keeping me updated on a blossoming relationship between one of the friends of Rapunzel and one of the friends of Snow White-”

    “Oh, not that kind of gossip.” Roman interrupted, waving his hand dismissively. “I’m talking the good gossip- preferably about you and your boos.”

    Remy scoffed, shaking his head as he hit the enter key and finished out the form. “Hard to gossip about those which I do not have, hun.”

    Roman groaned, slumping against the desk and throwing his head back. “Oh, please, Remy, don’t tell me you’re still in denial.”

    “Denial about what?” Remy asked, finally turning his full attention to Roman. “The fact that I’m single?”

    “The fact that you have not one but TWO partners!” Roman answered, dramatically holding up two fingers. “Not only are you being a proper partner HOG you are refusing to admit as such.”

    “Well if you’re just looking for someone to be the soul to your mate, handsome, I think I can hook you up.” Remy said teasingly, briefly lowering his sunglasses to wink at Roman.

    Roman met the wink with a deadpan stare. “You’re a taken man.”

    “Only if you make it so.”

    “You can’t keep pretending your partners don’t exist.”

    “I can if I don’t have any partners.” Remy told him, finally pushing his shades back over his eyes and giving up at his mock attempts to seduce Roman. “Now, of course, I have two very close friends with whom I do many things with, but given I’m not dating either of them, calling them my ‘partners’ seems a little much, don’t you?”

    “I get it, I get it, I have good friends too.” Roman said, as if he were going along with what Remy was saying until he quickly added, “Except I’m not obviously DATING them!”

    “You’re hopeless, princey, truly hopeless.” Remy said in response, smirking as he patted Roman’s cheek. “Ya gotta stop finding romance where it simply ain’t.”

    “The only thing I am finding is the truth behind all the bullsh-”

    “Remy!”

    Both Roman and Remy turned from each other, gazes moving to the entrance, where the voice had originated from. The owner of the voice was hurrying over to them, their blond curls pulled back into a loose ponytail, keeping their hair out of their face and allowing them to smile brightly at both Roman and Remy. They stopped in front of the receptionist's desk, taking a moment to catch their breath and straighten their relatively small red tie.

    “Heya sunshine.” Remy greeted easily, smiling at Patton in a way that was a little too soft to be a proper smirk “May I ask what brings you here in the middle of your shift? You’re gonna get yourself fired.”

    “‘Worth it for a chance to see you.” Patton told him sweetly, giggling just a bit and ignoring Roman’s expression of self-confirmation. “Buuuuuuuut I'm on lunch break. Just came over to ask what you wanted for dinner. I know the plan for tonight was take-out, but I just realized that we have all the ingredients to make lasagna- aside from the noodles, which we can pick up on our way home- so I thought it might be fun to make that tonight instead!”

    “Sounds wonderful to me.” Remy answered. “We’re going to keep it a secret from Dee though, right?”

    “Of course!” Patton agreed. He leaned over to stage whisper to Roman, “It’s his favorite.”

    “Oh, you guys know each other’s favorite dinners, do you?” Roman asked, smiling in a knowing way and wiggling his eyebrows at Patton. Patton tilted their head to the side, clearly confused, while Remy answered casually,

    “Of course! You can only live with someone for so long without picking up on what they like to eat. Dee’s favorite is lasagna. Patton’s favorite dinner- which is coincidentally their favorite breakfast, lunch, and dessert as well- is waffles. And mine, of course, is a nice big cup of espresso-”

    “Don’t lie!” Patton cut him off, smiling as they leaned on the counter and ended up within an inch of Remy. “Your favorite dinner is chicken soup!”

    “Remy hates soup.” Roman said, raising a suspicious eyebrow.

    “Not chicken soup.” Patton confirmed, not looking away from Remy. “That’s his favorite, no matter what he says.”

    “Mmm, nice try, Pat, but that’s not it.” Remy denied. Patton pouted at him then, and almost immediately Remy relented with, “My favorite dinner is your chicken soup. You’re the only one who knows how to make it right, hun.”

    Patton giggled. “I make it just like anyone else would!” they insisted, though their smile brightened even as they spoke.

    Remy’s smile grew as well as he leaned forwards just a bit, pressing his forehead against Patton’s. “Nah, honeypie, you got somethin’ all the other recipes don’t.”

    “And what’s that?” Patton asked.

    “Loooooooove.” Remy answered, grinning broadly, seemingly happy to ignore how cheesy his answer was.

    Patton didn’t mind the cheesiness. “You’re too much,” they said, too playfully to be chastising.

    “Better than being too little.”

    Patton just grinned at that. “I have to go.”

    “Alright, sweetheart.” Remy said, expression seemingly not changing, though a close observer (aka Roman) might have noticed his smile dip just the slightest. “See you at six?”

    “Mhmm!” Patton confirmed with a hum. They pulled away from Remy, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead before they ran off, waving one last goodbye as they reached the doors before disappearing outside. Remy lazily waved his fingers after Patton, watching the doors a moment after Patton was through them before turning back to his computer and his work.

    “Ready to admit you’re definitely dating at least one of your partners?”

    “Nope,” Remy replied without missing a beat. “Though if you really want me to have a partner, you’re single… I’m single…” Remy waggled his eyebrows at Roman.

    Roman ignored his advances. “The chemistry between you and Patton is so strong I’m surprised nothing’s exploded yet.”

    “That was weak.”

    “Shush.” Roman waved his hand dismissively. “I mean, for the love of Apollo, they kissed you goodbye!”

    Remy half-shrugged. “They do that with all their friends.”

    “They didn’t give me a kiss.”

    “They were in a rush.” Remy explained away. “But if you really want a kiss-”

    “-I will get it from my darling friend of Rapunzel,” Roman finished for him, having leaned over to check the time on the bottom of Remy’s screen. “I got so distracted trying to get you to tell me the truth I lost track of time.”

    “What truth?” Remy asked, tone light. “The one about us making a perfect couple?”

    Roman smiled sweetly at him, as though Remy was naive. “Maybe in a universe where you didn’t literally live with your soulmates,” he said, patting Remy’s shoulder before he turned and headed towards the door. He raised his hand over his shoulder without turning back, half-waving at Remy as he added, “Call me when you’re done being in denial!”

    Remy just let out a light huff of amusement, shaking his head and turning back to his work. Roman could say whatever he wanted, but the fact remained: Remy was (un)happily single and most certainly not dating his roommates.

    Yeah, sure, maybe he could’ve mentioned that his ‘best friends’ were also his crushes, but, hey, it wasn’t like that was that important, right?

    ~~

    Patton was staring intently at the floor. Well, more technically, they were staring intently at the mess on the floor and trying to convince themself they were supposed to be cleaning up said mess and not doing anything else with it.

    The bell near the front of the store rang as the door swung open, but Patton ignored it. Plenty of people filtered in and out of the store. They did, however, pay attention when the sound of approaching footsteps got closer than the signs should have allowed.

    “I’m sorry, this aisle is currently closed, if you don’t mind-” Patton started immediately, tone polite as they looked up, fully expecting to find an angry customer who refused to go over one extra aisle for whatever sweet treat they were looking for. They stopped when they saw who it was, polite-but-fake smile being replaced by a genuine one. “Oh, Virgil, hello there!”

    Virgil smiled back, half-waving before he turned his focus to the floor, careful to step around the mix of glass shards and chocolate-covered balls of something as he came up next to Patton. “Busy day?”

    Patton shrugged. “It was fine until someone didn’t put the jar fully back on the shelf. I’m just glad no one got hurt.”

    Virgil nodded. “That’s good,” he agreed. “Waste of some perfectly good candy though.”

    “It is,” Patton bemoaned, looking sadly at the mess. Virgil side-eyed them.

    “Pat, you haven’t been considering eating the fallen candy, have you?”

    “Maybe?” Patton tried, looking at Virgil only to find his expression completely disbelieving. They sighed. “Yes. It just looks so yummy! Even mixed in with all the glass! Because the glass sparkles and makes it kinda magical looking and it couldn’t hurt to have just one-”

    Virgil put a hand on Patton’s shoulder, stopping them from bending down and grabbing one of the candies before they could move an inch. “All the candy here’s magical. Eat some of the candies that aren’t also glassy.”

    “Mhmm,” Patton hummed in sad annoyance. “But it’s such a waste… I can stop it from being waste…”

    “You could, but should you?” Virgil asked.

    Patton groaned. “I shouldn’t,” they said. “But I want to…” They sighed, turning their gaze from the tempting mess to Virgil. “Distract me. Why are you here?”

    “Other than to stop you from making poor dietary choices?” Virgil asked rhetorically before going on, “I’m avoiding Roman.”

    “Avoiding him?” Patton repeated. “I thought you two were getting along. Don’t tell me he started another prank war-”

    “No, he’s just being annoying,” Virgil answered. “He wouldn’t stop bothering me while I worked, because Remy apparently hadn’t been in the mood to entertain his gossip, thereby making me the person stuck listening to it. Guess Kev’ decided letting me walk it off for half an hour was better than me tearing a costume in frustration.”

    Patton nodded as they moved to once more hold their broom, beginning to sweep up the mess as they said, “What was the gossip?”

    Virgil leaned back on the shelf behind him, waving his hand pointlessly. “Oh, same old same old. Just talking about you and your partners, mostly how oblivious Remy is- which, I get it, Remy can be obtuse, but that doesn’t mean I want to hear about it all morning-”

    “What?!” Patton cut him off, voice a higher pitch than they had intended, stopping halfway through a sweep to look at Virgil in disbelief and confusion. “My- what partners?!”

    “...Remy and Drew. Duh,” Virgil said slowly, blinking at Patton as if they were missing something incredibly obvious. “You know. The people you live with. And are clearly dating. Those partners.”

    Patton laughed, a weird hybrid sound of amusement and awkwardness. “I think you’re a little confused there, kiddo. I’m not dating Remy or Dee- they’re just my friends!”

    “Yeah. Friends you’re dating,” Virgil said, raising an eyebrow at Patton. “Don’t tell me you thought I wouldn’t notice. It’s fairly obvious.”

    “I don’t know how it can be obvious if it isn’t true.” Patton responded, going back to sweeping as they looked away from Virgil. “We’re just friends. At least I am, anyways.”

    “What does that mean?”

    Patton briefly looked up from their work to look at Virgil instead. “Aw, shucks, Virge, you’ve seen how Remy and Dee look at each other. If anyone’s dating, it’s them.”

    “And you?” Virgil pressed, prompting Patton to look down again at their work. “I’ve seen how Remy and Drew look at each other, but I’ve also seen how you look at them. They’re pretty similar looks, my dude.”

    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Patton answered, even as their cheeks flushed a light shade of pink. They risked a glance at Virgil, only to find him looking at them disbelieving. “Okay, maybe I love them a little more than just as friends.” Continued disbelief. “A lot more! But that doesn’t mean we’re dating.”

    “And why does them looking sweet at each other make them dating, but you doing the same just makes you just friends?”

    “Because I think I’d know if I was dating them, silly.” Patton responded simply.

    Before Patton could continue, or Virgil could speak up, they were interrupted by the sound of quickly approaching footsteps and the slight crunch of glass as the newcomer misstepped and stepped on the mess. “Well this looks… delightful.”

    “Dee!” Patton said, dropping their broom against the shelf as they carefully (but still hurriedly) stepped around the mess to approach their roommate. He was dressed as a friend of Aladdin’s, wearing baggy pants and a raggedy shirt-vest combo, his small red hat carefully hiding his bun, presenting the illusion of him having short hair. Slight touches of make-up highlighted the scar running from beneath his left eye to the bottom of his jaw, Drew always happy to tell the very dramatic tale of how he got it in a sword fight (when the truth of the matter involved a very long story having to do with toast, ferrets, and the reason why he wasn’t allowed to use the ice machine anymore). “What’re you doing here?”

    “Why, unhappy to see me?” Drew asked sarcastically, though he was smiling at Patton.

    “Never!” Patton responded resolutely. They wobbled a bit as they got closer to Drew, almost stepping on a particularly ugly shard of glass, but Drew reached out and grabbed one of their hands before they could fall, stabilizing them and helping to lead them right up in front of him. Patton giggled at his help, not releasing his hand even once they were done moving. “Just curious. Shouldn’t you be at the wishing well?”

    “Oh, I was,” Drew told them, free hand rising up to tuck a stray curl behind Patton’s ear. “But then I wished to see the loveliest face in the world and found myself here with you.”

    Patton giggled again. “The wishing well must be broken if it didn’t just provide you with a mirror.”

    A touch of pink coloured Drew’s cheeks at Patton’s words, and in the background Virgil turned from watching the two of them to stare blankly at the shelf across from him, as though it was a camera and he was in The Office. 

    “Trust me, angel, it made no error,” he said, despite his minor blush. “But to better answer your question, have you noticed how bright it is outside?”

“Of course I have,” Patton answered. “It must be warm out there.”

“It is warm,” Drew confirmed, sounding as if there was more he wasn’t saying but wanted Patton to pick up on anyways. “Some might even say it’s hot.”

“Just like you?”

Drew’s blush grew. “I think you’re missing the point.”

Patton’s smile turned a shade mischievous. “I’m not. I’m just waiting for you to admit to it.”

“Cruel, sweetpea, cruel.”

“Just admit it already!”

Drew sighed dramatically. “Alright! I fold! I admit that hydration in the face of the harsh sun is important.”

“Andddddd?”

Another sigh. “I admit that I forgot my water bottle, which I likely wouldn’t have done if I had simply used one of your sticky notes.”

“I even doodled a snake on your reminder!” Patton said, lightly hitting Drew’s chest. “It was cute AND helpful.”

“Just like you,” Drew commented, moving his hand from Patton’s hair to cup their cheek as they flushed. “And I’m sorry, dear, I really didn’t think I’d need it.”

“And yet, you’re here,” Patton teased lightly before turning towards Virgil, extending a hand. “Virgil, there should be a water bottle behind you- think you can hand it to me?”

Virgil did as he was asked, glancing behind him and finding that, yes, perched on the shelf was a metal water bottle covered in snake stickers. He grabbed it and turned back towards Patton, passing them the bottle. Patton took it and turned back to Drew, offering it to him.

“Oh, must I take it?” Drew asked, looking reproachfully at the bottle. “You’re so much nicer to hold.”

“Mmm, you need to get back to work before they catch you slacking,” Patton told him. “I’ll still be around to hold later.”

“Is that a promise?” Drew asked, even as he let his hand fall from Patton’s cheek to take his water bottle.

“Even better,” Patton answered, letting go of Drew’s hand so that they could loop their pinkies together instead. They raised their now joined hands so that they were in easy sight of Drew. “It’s a pinky promise.”

Drew smiled. “Good,” he said, bending his pinky a bit to squeeze Patton’s. “I’m holding you to it,” he punned before reluctantly stepping away, letting his and Patton’s pinkies remain linked until he was forced by distance to let go.

“So,” Virgil spoke up, slightly startling Patton, who had been waving at Drew until he walked out of sight. “You’re not dating them, you lied?”

“I didn’t lie!” Patton defended, moving back towards the broom as they spoke, once more careful to avoid the glass as they stepped. “I’m not dating him! Or Remy!”

“Oh, yeah, because calling each other petnames and trading compliments til you’re both blushing and not wanting to let go of each other and looking at each other like you’re the other’s world is really just ‘best friend’ behaviour,” Virgil said, voice thick with sarcasm.

“We’ve lived in the same apartment for months, Virgil, we’re close!” Patton said as they went back to sweeping. “That doesn’t make us partners.”

Virgil let out a breath. “I know, Pat, but you really should see the way you two were looking at each other. It sure as hell wasn’t plain-ol’ friendly.”

“Language.”

“Stop dodging the point.”

Patton stopped their work, turning to look at Virgil as they rested their chin on the broom handle. “I don’t know what point you think I’m dodging, kiddo. Dee- and Remy- are my friends. They’re dating each other, but I’m not dating them. It’s not that hard to understand.”

Virgil didn’t respond to that at first, instead just blinking slowly at Patton a few times. “I’m starting to understand why Roman was in such a mood,” he finally said as he pushed himself away from the shelves. “If Remy’s half as oblivious as you are, I’d be complaining too.”

“Oblivious about what?” Patton asked, confused. “They know who they’re dating and who they’re not.”

Virgil didn’t answer, instead just chuckling and shaking his head. “I should get back before Kevin decides to be less lenient about my wandering time. See you later, pine-on.”

“Bye, Virge!” Patton said cheerily. “And good pun!”

Virgil responded with a half salute behind his head as he wandered off. Patton watched him off as they resumed their sweeping, focusing on their work and not any of the interactions that had just occurred. Say what he would, Virgil was wrong- Patton’s relationship with Drew and Remy was strictly platonic, and they had no plans to mess with what the three of them did have (an amazing friendship) anytime soon.

~~

Drew dropped his bag before he collapsed against the wall, sliding down it halfway as he let out a huff. Though the day had been no longer than any other, the sun had been much more annoying than usual, and he was ready to be home and surrounded by not only air conditioning but also people he could stand. Absentmindedly he rubbed at the remains of make-up on his face, the only part of his costume he was still in since having changed out at the end of his shift.

“Are you suffering from heatstroke, or just bored?”

Drew looked up, finding Emile in front of him, smiling in amusement.

“A bit of both,” Drew answered truthfully. “Forgot my water bottle at home, though Pat had grabbed it for me at least. But neither their shift nor Remy’s is over for at least another fifteen minutes, so…”

“So I’m just someone to distract you until one of your partners can take over?” Emile asked, teasing.

“My partners in crimes, you mean?” Drew said. “Because I’ve told you before, Em, I really shouldn’t be talking about them here- you’re going to ruin our plan to invade ‘Beauty’s palace and get the treasure.”

“And what treasures are you going to find in there?”

“Hopefully, the key to a full hundred years of rest,” Drew told them before adding, “And gold. Mostly going for the gold.”

“Mhmm.” Emile hummed. “Happy to hear you’ve got your future set. Your criminal enterprises sound like they’re going to go over very smoothly. Now, as to your actual partners…”

“Do you think I’m cheating on my current criminal partners?” Drew asked, sounding offended. “With whom, another team? Emile, I thought you knew me better than that.”

“I think we both know I’m referring to your romantic partners.”

“Ah, yes.” Drew crossed his arms and leaned further back against the wall. “You’re referring to my roommates, who somewhere along the line you got confused as also being my romantic partners. They’re not very good at crime, you know.”

Emile grinned. “Not even good at stealing your heart?”

Drew just waved his hand dismissively. “Patton steals the heart of everyone they meet. Remy is not subtle at all when they go for the steal. Neither of them would make it a day in the world of crime.”

“But you admit that they’ve stolen your heart.”

“I admit they steal everybody’s heart.”

“But not like they’ve stolen yourssssss.”

Drew sighed, pulling his water bottle out of his bag and taking a sip of the water while he waited for Emile to stop. “Don’t be like Virgil and Roman, Emile. You’ve been given the precious gift of actually having a brain cell. Don’t waste it.”

“You can say whatever you want, Drew, but that doesn’t change the truth, even if you’d like to pretend it would,” Emile replied calmly, sounding smug. “We’ve all seen the way you three look at each other. You can’t lie your way out of love truer than that of Tiana, Naveen, and Charlotte’s.”

“Don’t have to lie to tell the truth,” Drew responded, returning his water bottle to its place in his bag. Before Emile could rebuke his words, the door that led outside of the first aid station opened, and two people walked in.

“Excuse me,” Emile said politely to Drew before they headed towards the people. After a brief moment of conversation, Emile walked further into the building with one of them while the other came over towards Drew.

Drew smiled when the newcomer was close enough for him to identify. “Hello, darling.”

Remy returned his smile, leaning against the wall and facing Drew. Remy was clearly off-shift, both costume and nametag removed, and was now sporting a sea-green bracelet. “Good evening, charming. Miss me?”

“Constantly,” Drew answered effortlessly. “I assume the same to be true of you?”

“I miss you every second you’re not in my presence more than the moon misses the sun,” Remy answered, maintaining veir composure for a moment before veir expression broke and ve laughed. “Like that one? I heard someone in the lobby tell it to their husband.”

“It is unbearably cheesy,” Drew told ver. “Though I’m sure also very sweet, if you mean it.”

“Good thing I mean it then,” Remy said jokingly. “People suck. I got yelled at twice today. I missed you and your not-yellingness.”

“Is that all you missed about me?” Drew asked, smile turning sly. “Because I know I miss you for more than just your sometimes-not-annoyingness…”

“Oh really?” Remy asked, shifting so that ve was facing Drew even more. “Well, I miss you for your not-yellingness, and for your looks- scar most certainly included, hun, it makes you look roguish- and for your mind, and your charisma, and, of course, your snark.”

    “You flatter me.”

    “Look in a mirror, sugar, you make it easy,” Remy told him. “Now I’m dying to know why you missed me.”

    “Oh, how could I not?” Drew asked rhetorically. “There’s your charm, as sarcastic as it may be, your humor, your refusal to stand down against idiots, and your sense of fashion- though I must confess, I consider it a sin to hide such dazzling eyes.”

    “Compliment my charm when you’re the real charmer ‘round here- I see how it is,” Remy said playfully, smiling.

    Drew returned the smile. “I’m just telling the truth.”

    “Mhmm,” Remy hummed non-committedly, though veir smile didn’t drop. Ve reached forward, brushing some of Drew’s hair behind his ear before moving to run veir fingers through it. Drew leaned his head closer, allowing ver easier access to his hair as ve pulled it over just one of his shoulders. “Your hair’s a mess.”

    “It’s been in a bun all day.” Drew explained, closing his eyes and focusing on the soft and calming feel of Remy brushing through his hair, occasionally scratching at his scalp. “It got tangled.”

    “Too lazy to fix that problem yourself, sweetheart?”

    “I like it better when you do,” Drew admitted.

    Remy chuckled as ve continued, veir attention turning more towards gentle touches against Drew’s skin as ve worked. “I should braid your hair tonight. Might not tangle as quickly that way.”

    “If we do that, we’ll need to stop at the store on the way home,” Drew said. “Our beloved sunbeam will want to put flowers in my hair, and I do not believe we have any at home.”

    “We already needed to stop for some dinner fixin’s anyways,” Remy told him. “We’ll just add ‘flowers prettier than your face’ to the list, though I’m afraid if we go looking for those we’ll never find them.”

    Before Drew could return the compliment, the sound of approaching steps stopped him. He opened his eyes just enough to see that they belonged to Emile, who was smiling broadly and just a touch satisfiedly at them, before he closed his eyes once more.

    “Hey there, babe,” Remy greeted. “How you?”

    “I’m peachy keen!” Emile answered enthusiastically. “Yourself?”

    Drew didn’t need to see Remy’s face to know that ve was smirking. “I’ve got the prettiest man in the world melting into my touch, so I’d say I’m doing pretty swell.”

    “Bold words from the most gorgeous being to ever grace this planet’s surface,” Drew countered, opening his eyes so he could return Remy’s smirk. “And I’m not ‘melting into your touch,’ I’m giving you easier access to the hair you so wish to tame.”

    “Whatever you say, sugar.” Remy responded casually, right before ve ran veir hand through his hair again, stopping halfway through to press veir fingers against the base of his neck, rubbing just the slightest of circles into his skin, which was cheating, because ve knew perfectly well that was one of his weak points. The motion alone had Drew leaning closer towards Remy, letting out a small sigh that morphed into a huff halfway through.

    “That’s cheating,” Drew said, trying to sound accusing but only succeeding in sounding tired and slightly whiny.

    Remy laughed. “Don’t care, darling, not even a little.”

    Drew hissed at ver, only earning himself another laugh.

    “Well you two certainly seem happy,” Emile pointed out, the slightest hint of trickery in their tone.

    “I’d like to think we are, yes,” Remy said.

    “Not that it’s surprising,” Emile continued, failing to sound very innocent. “I’m sure anyone’d be happy spending time with one of their partners.”

    “I’m sure they would,” Remy said neutrally. “Not sure what that has to do with anything right now-”

    “They’re talking about my partners in crime.” Drew interrupted. “I told them earlier about my plan to raid Sleeping Beauty’s class and steal her secrets to a hundred years of sleep.”

    “I see. Well I do hope you plan on sharing those secrets because goodness knows I could do with a good century of napping.”

    “Goodness and me,” Drew agreed, reaching forward and pushing Remy’s sunglasses up a bit, frowning at how dark the bags under veir eyes were. “Why else would I steal the secrets if not for you?”

    “Awwww, you care,” Remy cooed, tone a mix of goodheartedly mocking and sincere. “And what do you mean, ‘goodness and me’? Hun, you are goodness.”

    “You’re sweet, but we both know that’s Pat.”

    “I don’t see why it can’t be both of you.”

    “This is getting ridiculous!” 

Drew and Remy turned towards Emile at their outburst, Remy tilting veir head to the side in confusion while Drew asked,

    “What is?”

    Emile waved their hands at the roommates. “You two! You three! This!”

    Remy and Drew glanced at each other before looking back at Emile. “This?” Remy asked.

    “You’re so oblivious it puts the Scooby Gang’s obliviousness to Shaggy’s godhood to shame!” Emile said, thoroughly exasperated.

    “I’m sorry what was that-”

    “I mean, look at you two!” Emile said, gesturing at where Remy’s hand was still running through Drew’s hair. “All you do is compliment each other and worry over each other and know exactly what to do to make the other melt into your touch!”

Drew shrugged. “So? We’re friends.”

“And we’ve lived together for months,” Remy added. “Kinda hard to not pick up stuff about each other.” 

“This moved past friendship weeks ago,” Emile told them, crossing their arms. “You can pretend to be sly, but you aren’t.”

“We’re not pretending anything,” Drew replied, raising an eyebrow. “Are you alright, Em? No offense, you seem a little... agitated over this.”

Emile squinted at them. “You’d be agitated if you were me.”

“Huh. Vaguely ominous,” Remy commented idly, unperturbed by the conversation. “You should really talk to Roman though. He’s been having the same misconceptions about me and my roommates’ relationship. I’m sure you two lovelies can find the truth if you talk it out.”

“We’ve already found the truth,” Emile said confidently.

“If you say so,” Remy responded, reaching into veir pocket as ve spoke, pulling out veir phone and checking the time. “Patton’s shift should be over in a couple of minutes. Wanna go greet them?”

“The only sunshine I always want to see,” Drew answered. “Don’t tell them we’re going to braid my hair just yet, though, alright? I’d prefer to surprise them.”

Remy grinned. “Of course, hun.”

Drew returned the grin before shifting over so that he could pick his bag up, ignoring Remy’s protest at his hair moving out of playing-with range. “You do know that going to Patton requires moving, right?”

“I do, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.”

Drew chuckled as he straightened up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “You can play more with my hair when we get home, starlight, don’t worry. Come on, let’s go get Pat.”

Remy pouted, but ve still lifted veir arm and allowed Drew to slot himself in against veir side as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Remy’s arm wrapped around the top of Drew’s shoulders, holding him close as they headed towards the doors.

“Have a goodnight, Em,” Drew called over his shoulder right before they left, door lightly thudding as it fell shut behind them.

Emile let out a little huff. “Night-night lovebirds,” they said, even though they knew the couple in question couldn’t hear them. They waited a moment after they left before pulling out their phone, flicking to the group chat they, Roman, and Virgil had lovingly nicknamed ‘operation Get These Gays Together’ (originally known as ‘operation if they don’t get together I’m going to shoot them and then myself’ when Virgil named it) and sending a quick but vital text.

Usually, Emile preferred the passive route. They preferred to push people towards the solution, help them subtly, let them figure it out for themselves with only a bit of their help.

But that method was driving Emile (and Roman and Virgil) insane. They had tried the easy, passive way.

It was time to be aggressive.

~~

The first thing Remy registered upon waking up was that they’d really rather not. The little bit of sun that made its way through their half-open eyelids was already too much and they were almost a hundred percent certain they still needed another five hours of sleep to be anything close to well-rested.

Therefore, immediately after opening their eyes, they shut them once more, rolling over and pushing their face into the surface beneath them to try and drown out all possible light. While this did solve the immediate problem of ‘too much light,’ it presented a new one for them to deal with- the fact that something close to him was warm and moving.

The discrepancy between where they remembered falling asleep last night- on the couch, alone- and where they must be now- somewhere big enough for more than one person to be sleeping, and apparently not alone anymore- was enough to convince Remy to open their eyes again. It was easier if only for the fact that the sun was now behind them, illuminating the sight in front of Remy instead of blinding them.

Remy was unsurprised to find the warm moving ‘thing’ was, in fact, their roommates- Drew curled up against Patton’s back, arms wrapped around their chest, one of Patton’s hands resting on top of Drew’s and their other sprawled out across the bed, almost touching Remy.

The sight made Remy smile. They reached out to lay one of their hands over Patton’s outstretched one, gently rubbing circles and nonsense patterns into their palm while they waited for them to wake up. While they would like to figure out how they ended up in bed instead of on the couch, and while they knew all three of them would eventually have to get up for work, they didn’t see the point in rushing anything. If they were already late for work, hurrying now wouldn’t change that, and Remy had decided long ago that there were few things in the world that mattered to them more than seeing both Drew and Patton rested, relaxed, and happy.

Slowly but surely, Patton began to wake up, shifting around in Drew’s grasp for a moment before their eyes fluttered open and they saw Remy. Upon seeing them, Patton smiled a sleepy but fond smile.

“Good morning, sweetie,” Patton greeted them, yawning partway through their sentence. They twisted their hand a bit so that they could hold Remy’s, beginning to rub circles into the back of Remy’s hand. “You look nice.”

Remy found it doubtful that they, in all their sweatpants, ratty t-shirt, and disheveled hair glory, were looking like anything more than a mess, but they were loath to reject any compliment that came from Patton.

“You look just as cute as always,” they returned, smile growing at Patton’s small giggle at their response. “I am, however, a little curious as to why I’m seeing your beauty right now.”

Patton’s brow furrowed in confusion for a moment before smoothing out as they realized what Remy was asking. “You fell asleep on the couch last night, right?”

“Last I recall, yes, and I’m sorry to say I don’t remember coming to… wherever this is.”

“It’s my room,” Patton answered. “I was cold, and I had pinky-promised Dee we could cuddle. We were goin’ to ask you to join, but you fell asleep while we were putting away the lasagna and we decided we didn’t want to risk waking you to move you. You’re such a light sleeper… and Dee said you hadn’t been sleeping as much recently.”

As Patton finished speaking, they reached out to brush a thumb underneath one of Remy’s eyes, as if they could erase the bags that were there.

Remy reached up with their free hand to catch Patton’s, gently pulling it away from their face and intertwining their fingers instead. “Don’t worry about me, sunshine, I’m fine. Just a few more sleepless nights than usual.”

Patton hummed, clearly not satisfied, but they didn’t say anymore on the topic. “I know I didn’t bring you in here,” they said instead, looking forlornly at the space roughly a foot long between them and Remy. “I wouldn’t have brought you in here for cuddles and then not cuddled you,” Patton explained, sounding melancholy.

In an attempt to at least partially console them, Remy scooted closer to Patton, narrowing the gap to only a few inches. They kept themself from moving all the way against them only because they knew exactly what would happen, knew Patton’s arms would wrap around them and hold them close, trapping them in the cuddle pile they’d have no will nor want to escape, and, as nice as it sounded to let reality drift away as they sank back into sleep so close to their two favorite people in the world, Remy knew they couldn’t, knew they had to be at least a little bit responsible and wake up and go to work and do more than just waste the day away holding each other.

Though damn if that wasn’t a tempting thought.

“So does that mean Dee moved me?” Remy asked.

“He must’ve,” Patton answered before frowning. “Though I don’t ever remember him getting up… here, I’ll just ask him.”

Patton turned over slightly, letting go of one of Remy’s hands so that they could gently shake Drew’s shoulder. “Dee? Dee, honey, do you think you could wake up for me? Please?”

In response, Drew half-groaned, half-yawned, and shifted so that his head was pressed into the crook of Patton’s neck, effectively hiding him from both his roommates and the sun. Patton giggled quietly at his action before they titled their head around and pressed a slightly awkward kiss to the top of Drew’s head. “I know you don’t want to, love, but you’ve gotta get up.”

Drew didn’t respond for a moment, but eventually he sighed, lazily lifting his head away from Patton’s shoulder. He returned Patton’s kiss atop their head before shifting his attention to Remy, blinking blearily as he focused on the third person in the bed.

“Mornin’ darling dearest Dee,” Remy greeted. “Sleep well?”

“Mhmm,” Drew hummed noncommittally, but from the way his arms tightened around Patton, holding them closer, Remy could guess he had slept very well curled up with Patton. “What’re you doin’ here?” he slurred, awake enough to realize Remy should still be out on the couch if not awake enough to speak properly.

“We were kinda hoping you could answer that one, hun,” Remy said. “Because I don’t remember coming in here, and Patton doesn’t remember moving me.”

Drew frowned. “I didn’t move you. Wanted you to sleep.”

“So I’ve heard,” Remy commented, now frowning themself. “So. If none of us put me in the bed, and none of us have any sleep walking and/or possession problems we haven’t told the others about…”

“How did you end up here?” Patton finished for them, completing the trifecta of frowns.

The unanswered question finally convinced Remy to sit up, squinting as they looked around the room for some explanation. It did appear to be Patton’s room, from the animal posters hung on every wall to the rainbow they had painted onto the light switch cover with nail polish, so it was unlikely they had all been kidnapped, which Remy was going to consider a good thing. Something did stand out to Remy, however.

“Hey, Pat, you haven’t put any random notes on your door recently, have you?”

Patton shook their head in confusion. “No. Why do you ask?”

Remy didn’t answer them immediately, instead sliding out of the bed and heading towards the door. Tapped to it was a folded note, ‘to the oblivious gays’ scrawled on the front of it. Remy pulled it off the door, unfolding it and quickly scanning the message inside. When they finished, they groaned.

“I’m disowning all of our friends.” Remy said, tossing the note to the side in annoyance as they grabbed the door handle, trying (and failing) to turn it. They groaned again. “Fuck.”

“Language.” Patton said automatically as Drew pushed their glasses onto their face for them, Patton blinking a few times as they stopped needing to squint at everything. “What is it?”

Remy ran a hand through their hair as they moved to the only window in the room, attempting to open it for a moment before deeming it a lost cause. They sighed and turned back towards the bed. “We’ve been locked in.”

This got both Patton and Drew to sit up, both looking more awake as they frowned at them. “What do you mean, we’ve been locked in?”

“Exactly what I said,” Remy replied, leaning back against the wall behind them. “Our most lovely friends have locked us all in a room together and apparently won’t let us out until we ‘confess’ or some bullsh- bullcrap, because this is 2012 and we’re a story on fanfic-dot-net.”

“Confess?” Patton repeated before realization dawned on their face. “Oh. I- Virgil was talking about that yesterday, but I didn’t think he actually- well I didn’t think he really meant anything by it.”

“Same with Emile,” Drew said. “They talk about it so often I just figured it was some sort of joke for them.”

“Roman was talking about it too,” Remy added unhappily. “He pointedly ignored all my advances as well, which was rude. I like to think my distractions are at least worth one returned flirt.”

A moment of silence stretched out between them before Drew sighed and said, “So they did this, huh.”

“That’s why I’m disowning them, yeah,” Remy informed him. “Also on the list of disownments is my cousin, because apparently he’s the one who gave them the key they used to break in here and set this whole mess up.”

“Logan’s not usually the type to go for this sort of thing,” Drew pointed out.

“He isn’t, but I think he’s still annoyed about that one time I stole all his Crofter’s.” Remy said. “Though now he’s indirectly keeping me from my coffee, so who’s the real monster here?”

“At least you’ve got us,” Drew offered.

Remy smiled at that, annoyed expression softening. “Yeah, that I do,” they agreed, pushing off of the wall and padding back over to the bed, joining the semi-circle and leaning against Patton’s side. Drew wrapped an arm around both Patton’s and Remy’s backs as soon as they were settled, holding the three of them together.

“So now what?” Patton asked after a moment of comfortable silence. “Should we call in to work sick?”

“The note said they’d cover it,” Remy answered with a scoff. “No clue how they plan to do that, but they’ve made it into a them-problem.”

“And when are they going to let us out?” Drew followed up. “Because we’re going to have to eat soon.”

“I have a bag of emergency cookies in the closet, if worse comes to worst,” Patton added.

“Of course you do,” Drew said, though he sounded only fond.

“They said they’ll swing by around lunch to free us and, I quote, ‘congratulate us on the proposals,’” Remy laughed. “Roman’s words, if you couldn’t guess.”

Drew chuckled. “And if we try to break out of our makeshift prison?”

“They’ve stolen our phones and tapped them to the door, so if we break it down, we risk breaking our phones.” Remy explained. “Logan also reminded us that glass is sharp and dangerous when broken so we shouldn’t even think about shattering the window.”

“So no breaking out,” Drew summed up. “Guess we really are stuck here ‘til they return.”

“Yep,” Remy agreed. They turned their head so that they could plant a kiss against the side of Patton’s head. “At least I’m stuck with y’all. Better be trapped with angels than free with demons.” Remy smiled when Patton blushed a shade of red that Remy thought just made them look even prettier.

“Well someone’s getting awfully poetic,” Drew quipped, though he was also blushing.

“It’s what happens when I don’t have my coffee,” Remy said offhandedly. “Deal with it.”

“Only if you accept that you yourself are also an angel.”

“Oh, rude, babe, real rude to ‘u-too’ my own compliment back at me.”

“If you want to make this easier on yourself, just accept it, my dear,” Drew advised. “I can wax just as poetic as you can, and will if I think I must.”

Remy sighed, holding out the sound for a moment before they folded. “Fiiiine, I’m an angel.” They leaned around Patton, getting close enough that they could press a kiss to Drew’s forehead. “But you’re still the prettier one.”

Drew gasped dramatically at that, but before he could respond, Patton sighed, sounding fond and vaguely melancholy. Remy pulled back from Drew just enough to look at Patton.

“Aw, our sunshine feeling left out?” Remy asked teasingly, kissing Patton’s forehead as well and wrapping their arms around Patton’s waist. “Don’t worry sweetheart, you’re just as pretty as Dee.”

“Oh, no, it’s not that, I promise!” Patton reassured them with a laugh. “You two are just so cute together, that’s all.”

“We’re all cute together,” Remy said, pressing a quick peck of a kiss to Patton’s chin. “Helps that we’re all cute.”

Patton laughed again. “No, I mean- together-together, you know? You’re a good couple.”

Remy and Drew reacted to that, both glancing at each other in confusion and uncertainty. “Couple as in two people, or…?” Drew asked.

Patton raised an eyebrow, now looking confused themself. “I mean, I guess that too, but I mean- well, I mean romantically.”

Another uncertain glance between the supposed ‘couple.’ Remy laughed awkwardly. “Hate to break it to ya, hun, but I think I’d know if I was dating such a cutie.”

“Same here,” Dee echoed.

“Oh. Oh!” Patton said, blushing red now in embarrassment. “I’m so sorry, you just- the way you act together, I- you’re so comfortable together-”

“We’re all comfortable together,” Drew pointed out, albeit quieter than he had been speaking a moment ago.

“I know, you just- I- oh, I’m so sorry!” Patton repeated, hiding their face in Drew’s shoulder. “I feel so silly,” they added, their voice now muffled.

Remy chuckled, reaching forward to card their fingers through Patton’s hair. They scooted a little closer to them as they scratched at their scalp as well. “Don’t worry about it, honey-love. Everybody makes mistakes.”

“No, it’s not that, I just…” Patton cut themself off before actually getting to their point, shaking their head a bit before they pressed their face even further into Drew’s shoulder.

“Oh, come now, beloved,” Drew coaxed, rolling his shoulders and trying to convince Patton to lift their head. “You don’t have to hide anything from us, much less your beautiful face or heavenly voice.”

“It’s silly,” Patton whined, just loud enough to be understood. Remy laughed gently, brushing their hair to the side so they could kiss the back of their neck.

“That’s okay. We’re not going to make fun of you or anything,” Remy assured them.

Drew leaned over and kissed the top of Patton’s head, pulling back only a little. “What’d you say, love? Can I see those pretty, pretty eyes?”

It took another moment of Remy playing with their hair and Drew sweet talking Patton before they were convinced, slowly lifting their head up just enough so that Drew could see their eyes. Drew smiled at them. “There you go. Isn’t this nicer?”

A little smile slipped onto Patton’s face. “Your eyes are much, much more gorgeous than the fabric of your shirt, yes.”

“I should hope so,” Drew replied, leaning his forehead against Patton’s. “Now, I’m sure both me and our lovely moonbeam are very curious as to what’s got you trying to hide from us.”

“Yeah, sugar, you’re not usually like this,” Remy added, though they didn’t sound worried, just sweet. “What’s got you feeling so silly and shy?”

Patton rested their cheek on Drew’s shoulder, looking between their roommates. “Promise you won’t hate me?”

“We could never,” Drew and Remy said at the same time.

Patton nodded, took a breath, squirmed a little in place, and finally said, “Y’know how I’ve never really said that you guys are together, even if I had no reason not to say it?”

“Uh… yes?” Remy answered, sounding slightly baffled by the question.

“Yeah, well… there was a reason for that.”

“...Okay?” Drew said, tone matching Remy’s.

“It’s because I didn’t really want to accept the fact that you two were together.”

Twin silence from Drew and Remy. Patton let out a little sigh, sounding more amused than annoyed.

“I didn’t like acknowledging the fact that you were both taken,” A pause to give their roommates a chance to finish for them; when neither of them spoke, Patton continued, “because I didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that you were both taken but neither of you were taken with me.”

Another pause, another stretch of silence as Drew and Remy each processed Patton’s words, the confessor themself once more hiding against Drew’s shoulder. Then- dawning understanding.

“Oh,” Remy said first, looking at Drew with wide eyes. “Oh. Patton, I-”

“It’s really okay if neither of you feel the same, really, I don’t even expect you too, we’re friends, and that’s what we’ve always said we were and always been, and that doesn’t need to change I just-” Patton laughed, slightly breathless as they tried to fit everything they wanted to say in only the space of a few seconds, “I just feel silly that I never even bothered to tell you guys because I thought you were dating, that’s all.”

It was quiet as Drew and Remy processed that, Drew looking at the bed as he thought while Remy looked off at the wall, clearly lost in their thoughts. It only took a moment for them to sort them, however.

“Hey, Patton?” Remy said, getting Patton to lift their head once more from Drew’s shoulder and look at them, Patton’s expression a mix of pained and hopeful. Remy reached forwards, cupping one of Patton’s cheeks with one of their hands, smiling a little stupidly as they did so. “Wanna hear a silly little secret of my own?”

Patton's eyes widened, suggesting that they knew exactly what the secret was, but they still said, in a quiet, almost awed voice, “What?”

Remy giggled, just a little, reaching out with their other hand as well and holding Patton’s face in both their hands as they answered, “I have a crush on both my roommates too,” they said in a mock-whisper, as if they were at a sleepover and they were all twelve. “I never told them because I thought they weren’t interested in me like that, but recently I’m starting to think I might be wro-”

Remy’s confession was cut off by Patton letting out a little squeal of excitement, pushing themself forward so that they could wrap their arms around Remy’s midsection, knocking them over and ending up with them both sprawled across the bed. Remy had just barely recovered from the action when Patton started peppering kisses across their face, going over their forehead and both their cheeks before they ended with a kiss on their lips, one that was brief but still sweet and loving and warm and undeniably Patton.

“You jerk.” Patton said, though there wasn’t a hint of heat in their tone as they laughed. “Why didn’t you tell me this three months ago?!”

“I had this whole friendship thing going on that I didn’t want to ruin!” Remy defended with a laugh of their own. “Though, if I had known that’d be your reaction, I’d have gone off and ruined our friendship long ago, sweetness.”

Patton’s smile broke into a grin and they kissed the tip of Remy’s nose, eliciting a quick but joyful giggle from them. “You’re forgiven for your slowness in telling me for how utterly perfect you are.”

“Why thank you, angel,” Remy said, pushing themself up just enough to give Patton a fast nose kiss as well. “But don’t you think we’re missing something- or, better put, someone- from this ‘perfect’?”

Patton’s eyes widened at the reminder. “Oh my gosh, you’re right!” they said before turning around to look at Drew. He was still sitting in the same spot he had been. It was clear he had been watching Patton and Remy, but upon them turning their attention to him, he seemed to suddenly find the entire rest of the room much more interesting to look at.

“Dee?” Patton said, forcing the aforementioned to turn his attention back to them or risk being rude to one of the people he was currently locked in a room with.

“Yes?” Drew asked, trying to sound aloof and neutral. He failed horribly, however, his voice coming out as something closer to mock-formal.

“Me and Remy have both made our confessions… do you have one of your own?” Patton asked, once more sounding hesitant.

When Drew didn’t respond instantly, Remy rushed to add, “It’s completely alright if you don’t, of course. No pressure whatsoever, we can still be friends, it’s just- well, not to sound like the people who locked us up in here in the first place, but I kinda feel like that’s not really what we should be.”

“I-” Drew started before cutting himself off, looking down as he fiddled with the hem of his shirt. “I do love you guys, really; I mean, who couldn’t after living with you for so long, you’re too incredible not to love, but… I don’t know how I love you.”

“...Care to elaborate?” Remy pushed after a minute stretched in silence.

Drew shifted in place. “I guess… we’ve spent our entire friendship doing everything a couple might do- spending time together, learning each other’s favorite things, getting stupidly domestic, literally sleeping together, cuddling, sharing little kisses, and I just… don’t know if I love you romantically or not.”

“Alright,” Patton said slowly, nodding their head before frowning. “I’m… not sure how to figure that out.”

“Me neither,” Remy admitted. “There must be something romantic we haven’t done with you, right?

Drew shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ve covered all of the bases, as far as I can tell. No wonder everyone thought we were dating…”

“Not all of them,” Patton said, pulling Drew out of his barely started musings. They smiled at him, softly and sweetly and just a bit shyly. “Dee?”

“...Yes?”

“Do you want to kiss us?”

“Kiss you- I already have kissed you, what do you…” Drew cut himself off as he realized what Patton meant, his cheeks quickly turning a crimson red.

Remy chuckled as they sat up, Patton shifting a bit to their side so that they could properly sit up. “Hate to put words in your mouth, sweetheart, but I’mma guess that means yes?”

“I… yeah, yeah it does,” Drew conceded, chuckling a little awkwardly. “That sounded awfully charming.”

“Everything you say is charming when you’re a charmer,” Patton responded, and Drew’s cheeks turned a shade darker as the awkwardness in his expression relaxed into something more akin to soft adoration.

Patton patted the bed directly in front of them and Remy. “Come over here, lovely.”

Drew did so willingly, pulling himself over so that he was once more part of the group. Patton smiled tenderly at him as he settled himself before reaching out and gently taking his face in their hands.

“Stop me if you need to, okay?” Patton said. Drew half-laughed, half-scoffed.

“I doubt I’ll want you to stop, much less need you to,” he told them, and Patton smiled wider at him before leaning in, their careful and loving hold on Drew’s face holding him still until their lips were connected.

The kiss was longer than Patton and Remy’s had been, more planned, but it was still just as welcoming and comfortable, as if this wasn’t their first kiss but instead their hundredth; somehow both oddly familiar and excitingly new.

Without even realizing it, Drew found himself leaning it, placing his hands on Patton’s waist to hold steady as he did so, more than happy to drown in the kiss as much as he could.

Patton pulled away when he was reaching the edge of breathlessness, smiling brightly at Drew even as they moved back, still holding his face. “How was that?”

“I love you,” Drew said as an answer, letting out a laugh in the form of a huff as he went on, “Oh, god be damned, Patton, I love you.”

“Language,” Patton chided lightly, though they both knew it meant nothing.

“Hey now,” Remy spoke up, drawing Drew and Patton’s attention. They were pouting, though amusement flashed in their eyes. “I’m feeling a little forgotten over here.”

“Forget you?” Drew asked, normally suave tone now simply breathless and incredulous. “I could never.”

“Then prove it,” Remy demanded, reaching out and making grabby hands at Drew despite the fact that he was barely two feet from them. Drew didn’t mind it, however, simply laughing at the display of affection. He gently took Patton’s hands off his cheeks, kissing the back of both of them (to the delight of Patton) before releasing them and closing the small gap between him and Remy.

“There you are,” Remy said, as if Drew had been hiding somewhere far off and not simply kissing their partner (their partner, not just his partner but Remy’s too) instead of Remy. “Do I get kisses now?”

Drew laughed. “Yes,” he said, not bothering to drag the moment out as he reached forwards, cupping one of Remy’s cheeks in his hand and pulling them closer. “You get kisses now.”

He kept to his promise as he kissed Remy, not holding it out for one long kiss like he and Patton had done but instead kissing them over and over and over again, quick little kisses that lasted seconds but still meant worlds to the both of them, that were still caring and inviting and loving even if they were brief. It worked better that way, Drew decided, especially when Remy evidently grew bored of just kissing his lips and moved on to covering the rest of his face with kisses instead.

“I’m starting to think I really am a jerk for not confessing anything sooner,” Remy said when they had, apparently, deemed Drew’s face properly kissed, now pulled back so that they could look Drew in the eyes as they grinned lopsidedly. “I’ve been severely neglecting giving you- and Patton- all the kisses you two deserve.”

“Not that that ever stopped you when we were friends,” Patton pointed out, leaning against Remy’s side and reaching out to hold one of Drew’s hands as well.

“That’s because even then I knew I was making a mistake,” Remy said, happily taking advantage of the fact that Patton was once more close to them to kiss their forehead.

“I just can’t believe the people who locked us up had it right,” Drew said, squeezing Patton’s hand as the hand he had been using to cup Remy’s cheek moved to hold one of Remy’s hands. “We really have been horribly oblivious, huh?”

Remy laughed. “I’d say that’s pretty accurate, yeah,” they agreed before smiling mischievously. “We’re not going to let them know that though, right?”

“Oh, goodness, of course not,” Drew responded. “Otherwise they might start thinking locking people up will always work, or, even worse, they might get an ego boost.”

“I think Roman will explode if that happens- his ego’s already big enough as is,” Patton added. Drew’s and Remy’s attention immediately turned to them, both looking shocked, to which Patton defended, “What? I can be petty towards our friends too!”

Drew chuckled as he quickly kissed Patton’s cheek. “That you can, dearheart, that you can.”

“It’s not like you’re wrong either,” Remy pointed out. “Really, letting Roman know this planned work might kill him. We’re just going to have to pretend it didn’t, for his sake.”

Patton and Drew both nodded as solemnly as they could given the circumstances. “I vote that we tell them this experience has really brought us closer together in our friendship instead,” Drew offered. “That way we can still be horribly obnoxious-” Drew paused to peck quick kisses to each of his partners’ noses to prove his point before continuing “-and also keep Roman and his ego safe.”

“A perfect plan,” Patton agreed. “Though… what do we do if they catch us calling each other partners?”

“We tell them how we decided we really felt like ‘friends’ no longer properly described how close our friendship was, so we decided to start using partners,” Remy answered immediately with a grin. “Really, we can turn anything into just another extent of our ‘friendship’ is we try hard enough. The real question is for how long do we do that? When do we give them their satisfaction?”

Drew hummed in thought for a moment before he said, a wicked smile racing his face as he spoke, “I’d say we’ll have to wait them out at least until we get married. We can tell them it’s for tax benefits.”

“We’re going to get married?!” Patton exclaimed, eyes shining at the thought.

“Well, I mean-” Drew floundered for a moment, clearly having gotten so caught up in how to best taunt their friends that he hadn’t even considered the implications of what he had said “-we’ve only just got together, but- if this lasts and we don’t regret anything, well-”

“We’re going to get married!” Patton repeated, this time with no question in their tone, tugging Drew closer to themself and pulling Remy closer as well so that they were all squished against each other. “We’re going to get married and we’re going to move out and find a better apartment with one huge bed- oh, or we could get a house with one big bed, and we’re going to adopt a dog- no, two dogs- no, ten dogs!- and-”

Drew gently stopped Patton’s rant by kissing them until they were breathless, resting his forehead against theirs when he finished. “And we’ll drive our friends absolutely insane with what a lovely life we’ll be living,” he added softly.

Remy moved to press their forehead against both of their partners’. “And we’ll be in love forever,” they added, which was an extraordinarily cheesy thing to say, but in the moment, it also felt like the right thing to say.

In fact, pressed against the two most important people in the world to them, still feeling giddy at everything that had happened in the span of barely fifteen minutes, Remy felt as if, for the first time in a long time, absolutely everything was just as it should be.

They were looking forward to getting used to that feeling.

[whatdidimissjm]

Hamlaf Week Day 7 - Music

At first I wanted to write a sad story, but I´m not in the mood for tears so I asked @gagakumadraws for fluffy ideas and she came up with that, so thank her for it (Dw the sad fic will come too sometime)

--

It´s finals month, which means Alex only leaves his room to go to the library, to meetings with his tutors or to buy more coffee. Laf is sure he hasn´t had a proper night´s sleep in days, probably even weeks and slowly he is getting worried about his boyfriend. They hadn´t had a date in over a month, seeing as Laf doesn´t count sitting in a library and quietly studying next to each other as a date, other than Alex, apparently. Laf had known how Alex gets during finals month way before they were dating, seeing as they had been friends long before university. Still, it kind of hurts that Alex is basically ignoring him, only texting him if he needs him to test him on the subject he had just finished. Laf knows that Alex isn´t doing that on purpose and that it doesn´t mean that he doesn´t care about him anymore, but that doesn´t make it okay.

He is now on his way to Alexander´s dorm room with takeaway from their favourite restaurant. It´s the night before Alex´ first exam and Laf has a feeling that his boyfriend had planned to study the whole day and night, without once stopping to eat something. After he has taken the lift to the fifth floor, he knocks on Alexander´s door, waiting a bit before he knocks again. He hears shuffling from inside and a moment later he is met with his boyfriend, who stares up at him with big and tired eyes. The rings under his eyes look almost ridiculous and Laf would laugh, wouldn´t he be so worried about Alex.

“Did I text you to come over?”, Alex asks, frowning at him. “I don´t think I did. Did I?”

“No, but I´m sure you haven´t eaten anything today and I wanted to see my boyfriend, so we´re having a dinner date, mon petit.”, Laf explains, pushing Alex into the room and closing the door behind him.

“I had breakfast!”, Alex defends himself, but Laf just shakes his head.

“Coffee does not count as breakfast and don´t tell me you had something else, because I know you and you never have breakfast.”

Alex lets himself fall onto his bed, that I covered in papers and books, a pout on his face.

“Fine, then I didn´t have breakfast, but I don´t have time for dinner, because I have to study. Tomorrow-“

“I know that you have your first exam tomorrow, but you don´t want to pass out during it, non?”

Alex crosses his arms in front of his chest, dropping his gaze to the floor.

“I would not do that.”

“Bien sûr, mon petit. You don´t believe that yourself. Move over We´re having dinner.”

Alex still grumbles a bit, but in the end, he gathers his papers and books and moves them to the desk, where even more schoolwork is covering everything. Laf hands Alex the box with the takeaway and after regarding it sceptically for a moment, he opens it and his stomach lets out a loud rumble, which makes him blush.

“Maybe I´m hungry after all.”, Alex mumbles, and Laf nudges him with his elbow.

“Believe your amazing boyfriend.”

Alex laughs and leans over to press a kiss to Lafayette´s cheek.

“Thank you. I really missed you.”

“I missed you too, mon petit. Really looking forward to when the finals are over.”

“Me too.”

They eat in silence for a bit, until Laf turns on some music, so that it isn´t as quiet in the room. Once they are both finished with their food, Alex slumps against his shoulder, letting out a soft sigh.

“You should go again. I still have a lot to study.”

Laf hums, shaking his head.

“No. I know that you already know everything there is to know for tomorrow. You should relax a bit and sleep.”

Alex sighs again, cuddling closer to his boyfriend.

“I can´t. The exam-“

“You will get the best grade anyway. But not if you are too tired to even hold a pen to write.”

Alex mumbles something that Laf doesn´t understand, so he asks Alex to repeat himself.

“I said I can´t sleep now. My mind is still too worked up.”

Laf nods, thinking for a moment, before he pulls Alex up, who looks at him with a confused expression.

“What are you doing?”, he asks.

Instead of an answer, Laf turns the music up a bit, wrapping his arms around Alexander´s waist.

“What are you doing?”, Alex asks again, but puts his arms around Laf´s neck, nonetheless.

“Dancing.”, Laf answers, as if that´s the most logical thing.

Alex laughs softly and shakes his head.

“And you think that will relax my mind?”

Laf hums and places a kiss first to Alexander´s forehead and to his lips.

“One can always try, don´t you think?”

Alex nods, a soft smile on his lips and pulls Laf down to kiss him again.

“You are doing a good job, though.”, Alex mumbles, and Laf smiles down at him, before kissing him again.

Neither of them notices the song changing, too wrapped up in one another to care about anything else. They stay like this for what feels like a tiny eternity, gently swaying around the room, before Alex breaks the kiss and yawns.

“Ready to go to sleep?”, Laf asks, brushing the hair out of Alexander´s face.

Alex hums and lets himself fall against Laf´s chest, yawning again.

“Will you stay?”, he asks quietly.

Laf guides them carefully to the bed, pulling Alex down with him.

“Of course, always.”, he says, placing a kiss onto Alexander´s head.

“I still gotta brush my teeth.”, Alex mumbles, but he makes no move to get up again.

“You can do that tomorrow.”, Laf says, which shifting them around, so that they both fit into the tiny dorm bed.

“Disgusting.”, Alex mumbles, but snuggles closer to Laf, letting out a content sigh, when he finds a position that is comfortable for him.

Laf just laughs quietly and turns off the music.

“Good night, mon petit.”, he whispers, but Alexander is already asleep.

[derryhawkins]

I Love Him, Your Honor

summary: During college, Richie works part time at a law office for the sole reason it pays well, and he honestly thinks it’s utter hell. But then he meets another part time employee who works down in the file room and, well, maybe the law office isn’t completely hellish. words: 4.5k a/n: i honestly don’t even know why i’m posting this but hey i made an ao3 account finally and you can read this on there if you want! richie’s part time job is purely based off of mine; i got this idea yesterday when leaving and just ran with it, and thus this chapter was born. idk when the next chapter will be up but pls give this love 

chapter one: you need a job

“Look, Rich,” Ben Hanscom starts as they exit their shared physics course, sidestepping a few other college students who were being slow. He calls back a genuine sorry after accidentally shoving one of them before turning back to his friend, the curly haired boy just barely passing him in height. “You need a job. You’re nearly twenty! Bev says they need help over there, like, so bad. They had to fire someone, and two others quit and they’re leaving in a week.”

Richie Tozier looks at Ben incredulously. The dark haired college student knew full and well of Beverly Marsh; the short little redhead is one of his best friends and Ben’s fiancée. Richie likes to give himself credit for their relationship, because according to him, he set them up back in freshman year of high school. Six years later and they’re engaged, and Bev has a full time job after finishing college within two years, and Ben’s on his way to (hopefully) be an architect. Of course, that’s not how it went. Richie and Beverly met Ben in a crappy, run down elevator that worked from time to time at their school. Ben had been running late, the other two were ditching. They got stuck for five hours in that crappy elevator. Richie just likes to say he planned it. But, of course, that’s not what this current situation is about. (And the school banned anyone from using the elevator there on out).

“Bev works at a law office, Ben!” Richie yells, throwing his hands in the air as if to make a point. “All they do is sit at desks in front of computers.”

Ben rolls his eyes. “Like sitting at home on your phone or in front of the TV aren’t the same thing as sitting in front of a computer.”

Richie ignores the sarcasm. “I don’t need a job.”

“You quit your other one last month. We’re in college, man! It’s like, I dunno, death not having a job. You need to eat food!”

“I can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner here because I’m in a dorm, and on the weekends when I’m home the ‘rents cook. I’m fine!”

It’s silent as Ben gives Richie a look while they continue to walk down the steps of the building, mixing in with other students who are either leaving or heading to class. Thankfully for Richie, he only has physics today; the only down side is that it’s an 8am course, and it had been the only one available when he signed up for classes. He has Ben, though, so it isn’t all too terrible. And it’s his only 8am. Half of the others are hybrids – he only has to show up for the midterm and final, and turn in work online – and the others are either afternoon or night classes. He has it pretty easy this semester.

So, yes, he can easily get a job, and he has been thinking of getting one, but now both Ben and Beverly are pestering him about it and suddenly he doesn’t want to get one. Richie scratched at his jaw as he thought of his previous job – the stereotypical college job at McDonald’s. He’s worked there since junior year of high school, and it wasn’t that it was bad. It had been decent, at most. He liked the money, liked the food he got to bring home and to his friends, and liked the cute girls and guys who walked in. He just quit because it got too ‘going through the motions’. Richie knows a law office isn’t going to be much better.

If he gets a job, he wants to at least like it.

The January wind nips at them as they step outside, both guys’ faces scrunching up in various forms of oh shit it’s cold. Ben fixes the scarf around his neck to cover his nose and wraps his arms around himself. Meanwhile, Richie just hunches his shoulders, clenching his teeth together. In just a t-shirt, a thin zip-up jacket that’s not zipped up, and ripped skinny jeans, he wasn’t dressed properly for the winter months; Ben, on the other hand, who’s decked out in a scarf, a thick winter jacket, comfortable jeans and gloves, is dressed properly.

Richie can hear his parents’ voices now reprimanding him for not wearing the proper clothes, and soon enough her could hear his other best friend, Stan Uris, with them.

“Just… At least think about the job, okay?” Ben speaks as they get to the sidewalk by the road, lowering the scarf so his friend can hear him better. They both stop walking and face one another. “And wear decent winter clothes, man, you’re gonna catch another cold.”

He waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever,” he says. “You’re starting to sound like Stan the Man, Mistah Handsome.”

The corners of Ben’s lips turn up. “You’re genuinely getting better at those voices, Rich.”

Richie feigned offense. One hand moves to his chest as if his heart were hurt. “You say that as if I haven’t always been amazin’,” he says, voicing sounding like it could be southern but neither of them were too sure.

“Well…”

A gasp. “Ben!”

They both start to laugh then but it dies down soon after. Ben unwraps his scarf and tosses it to Richie, who catches it with ease, and then starts to leave. “Gotta blast, Rich.”

Richie smiles. “Ah, yes, get home to the Missus!” He puts the scarf on. It’s not much at all, but it still helps.

“No, I got another class and then I’m taking the almost Missus lunch.”

“Tell Bev she sucks for me!”

“Why?”

“She ate my last bag of hot Cheetos when she stopped by yesterday.”

Ben laughs. “Alright, yeah. Will do!”

And just like that, Richie is alone. It honestly isn’t often he and Ben get to spend time together. Hell, even his time with his two best friends isn’t much. They all have school or work or both, and it’s just hard not spending as much time together as they used to. Which was where Wednesday night game nights came in. Weekends, they all went their separate ways to their parents. So, they did the next best thing: Wednesdays. At the thought of their game nights, Richie pulls out his phone as he hurriedly walks to his dorm and opens the group chat, sending a quick game suggestion.

+++

Music plays softly from the laptop at the foot of the bed, a generous amount of papers and a text book between Richie and it. He doesn’t particularly like studying – who does? – mostly because he’s never had to properly study before, but physics isn’t exactly on the easy side of things, and he doesn’t want to fail; his mom claims he probably doesn’t even need to study too much given as he understands math easily, and Richie thinks that’s the exact opposite of what a parent should be saying to their child who’s trying to successfully get through college. But, hey, they’re relationship isn’t on the rocks anymore – a shit load of teen angst on his part, a small drinking problem on her part, too engrossed into his job on Wentworth’s part, and being batshit annoying on his little sister’s part – so the legal adult doesn’t mind not being told to study, either.

The Tozier family is back to being good and mostly healthy, and as happy as they were when Richie had been a little kid. Only now, Tori is the one with teen angst and Richie’s doing his best to be a decent big brother by helping out with it.

A shrill ring cuts off the music and pulls him away from his thoughts, flinching at the sudden change in sound before reaching over and muting his laptop. He pauses the music and answers the call on his phone before pressing speaker. A smile forms at looking at the caller I.D.

“I was just thinking about you, T-Rex!” Richie exclaims and he goes back to copying down a problem from a work sheet the professor handed out in class.

“Oh, the amazing Richard thought about me,” she sarcastically says. “What ever will my fangirl heart do?”

“I predict that you will sob once the call is over and scream at your equally fangirly friends about how I graced your ears with my wonderful voice.”

“More like made them bleed.”

“You wound me!”

“Good!”

“First Ben, now you – my poor old heart can’t take it!”

“Then perish.”

He snorts out a laugh.

“But, hey, I’m calling for a reason, dickhead. Stop whatever you’re doing and listen to the best little sister in the world,” Tori tells him.

Richie sighs and drops the pencil dramatically. It hit the notebook with a soft thud but it’s loud enough for Tori to hear over the phone. “Why, do tell, young maiden,” he says, using a Voice.

“Mom’s sick with a bad cold.”

He blinks. “…Okay?”

“Dad’s gonna still be at work until five-.”

“Whoa, hold on, wait a damn minute!” Richie sits up and pulls his computer close to look at the time as he realizes what’s happening. More accurately, what the girl was getting at. “Victoria!” Richie had been so caught up in doing the math problems and messing with the sixteen year old demon he calls a sister to even take notice of the time until then. It’s not even time for her to be out of school – hell, it was barely 11:30. “T-Rex, how scandalous of you! Skipping school.” He pauses. “Fuck, you’re me.”

“I mean…we are related.” A beat of silence. “But I’m not skipping. I got suspended. Mom’s too sick to answer the phone, and Dad’s too busy at work. I convinced them to let me call you.”

Richie sighs. “It’s two weeks into the semester, T-Rex.” He leans an elbow on his knee and put his forehead in the palm of his hand.

Getting suspended isn’t exactly a new thing for either Tozier children. Richie got detention countless of times for various reasons, earning him a few times of suspension, and Tori just has a habit of mouthing off adults – similar to her big brother – but also has one of fighting – not so similar to her big brother.

“I don’t know what you want me to do, kid.”

“Pick me up,” she replies with a duh tone.

“My truck’s still in the shop, dingbat.”

“Well, I don’t exactly have a car, either, douchebag.”

Richie is quiet for a split second. “Okay. Look. I’ll try to get one of my friends to drive me over there. Stay in the office, and just walk home if I’m not there by twelve-thirty.”

Tori grumbles. “Fine.”

Richie makes a face at her sour attitude, about to say something – “Ah, teen angst, what a marvelous thing it is” – when she hangs up before he can ever utter another word. He gasped at the device and sent her a bunch of middle finger emojis before dialing his three friends one by one. Ben didn’t answer. It stopped ringing halfway through the third ring and not a minute later, Ben’s text of “still in class” lit up his phone once again. He then calls Beverly, who he knows won’t answer but did it anyway for the sake of annoying her. To his surprise, she answers; only to greet him with a short, “No,” before hanging up on him.

“Stanny Boy, you better pick up,” Richie mutters as he crawled off of the dorm bed, finding his shoes.

“This better be good, Trashmouth,” is Stan’s form of greeting not even two seconds later.

Richie grins, pleased at least one of his friends is letting him explain. “Not good in the long run but it’s for a good enough reason, Bird Brain,” he says. “Where are you?”

“…What did you do?”

He rolls his eyes. “Not me. Our ferocious T-Rex.”

“She’s your sister.”

“She’s adopted you as her ‘better big brother’. This is what you get for befriending me when we were four and she was one, and staying best friends with me our entire lives. If you need to feel better, know that I did call Mister and Missus first because I know you enjoy your lazy Mondays.”

Stan hums. “It doesn’t.” Then Richie hears shuffling on the other end, and his hopes rise high. “But I’m on my way to pick you up. You can explain everything then.”

“You’re the best, Stanley, might as well marry you right now! Let’s go elope – take a road trip to Vegas!”

“I’ll castrate you.”

“Kinky.”

“Oh, my god.”

“See ya when you get her, my love.”

“Yuck, don’t ever call me that again. Bye.”

+++

A year and a half later, Richie never once thought he would be entering his old high school ever again – excluding the reunions he knows Beverly will drag them all to, none of the boys exactly having a choice in the matter – let alone the office of said school. Yet here he stands, all of the memories flooding back to him; both good and bad ones. He wasn’t exactly popular in school. More of the annoying class clown everyone hates but secretly finds funny. At least, at first. Everything eventually changed in sophomore year.

Richie makes a face and turns to Stan. No one was at the front desk, so they were being forced to wait to collect the youngest Tozier from the principal’s office.

“I should’ve let her rot here.”

Stan rolls his eyes. “You’re too good of a brother for that,” he says. “The principal hated you and she’s most likely getting secondhand hate from the douchebag himself.”

Richie’s eyes widen behind his glasses at the realization. He hadn’t exactly left the high school on good terms with anyone, minus his three good friends and the math teacher for the freshman, and maybe the woman who usually sits at the desk in the front office. “Fuck,” he whispers. Then louder, “What if she’s getting bullied?”

Stan gives a look that said he was crazy. “She just got suspended for fighting. I’m sure she can take care of herself, man.” He pauses, worries his bottom lip, and sighs. “But now I’m worrying about that too. So, thanks for that.”

Only a few seconds of silence goes by before Richie speaks again. “You think people still talk?”

“Nah. Everyone who was here then has graduated. Unless, one or two got held back.”

“The teachers are gossip royalty here.”

“I doubt they gossip about former students to current students, especially when one of them is your baby sister.”

“Our baby sister.”

“Just because I helped you babysit all throughout middle school doesn’t mean I’m her brother, too. We’ve been over this!”

“Try telling her that; the kid adores you! Always has.”

“Which is weird. Besides, back to the point, it's twenty-nineteen now. People who shit on someone for liking the same gender should just become extinct cavemen.” The words cause Richie to let out a laugh.

“Well, look who it is,” the lady who sits at the front desk finally appeared. Both young adults smile at seeing her, genuinely pleased. Miss Mims was one of the few adults at the school Richie and his friends liked; Hell, they still like her. In a year and a half, the woman hadn’t changed much. Long dirty blonde hair had been cut to her shoulder, and her dark eyes seem happier. Her usual blouse and nice pants are the same, and she’s still just under five feet. “Uris and Tozier, what a pleasant surprise.” Miss Mims smiles at them.

“Hi, Sara!”

“Hey, Miss Mims.”

She chuckles and holds up her left hand. “It’s Mrs. Delaney now, kids.”

Stan grins and leans forward to check out the rings on her finger. “Congratulations! When did it happen?”

Richie leans forward too, and nearly knocks Stan over, mouth in a big toothy grin. “Give us the deets, Sara! Who’s the lucky fella? Or gal, y’know. Bet they’re good in bed, huh, Staniel?”

“Rich,” Stan warns, almost in a reminding tone.

He blinked. Then, “Oh! Right, forget those questions Sar- Uh, Mrs. Delaney! My kid sister is stuck in the principal’s office, I’m sure you’ve heard why. Suspension. Fighting. The shticks.”

Mrs. Delaney snorts. “You Toziers are something else. But yeah, I’ll go get her. Where are you parents?”

“Sick and working. I’ve got the rest of the day free, so I volunteered myself to do the dirty so Went wouldn’t have to leave.” He purposefully didn’t say anything about not telling their parents, or even planning on it. At least, he knows Tori isn’t going to tell. And he’s not going to throw her under the bus no matter how funny it’ll be.

Stan rolls his eyes. “His truck isn’t working so I got dragged along.”

“You love me, Staniel.”

“Debatable.”

“I’ll go get her. Shouldn’t be long at all.”

And it isn't.

Within five minutes, the baby of the family is stepping out while Mrs. Delaney goes to her chair behind her desk, marking the girl as being picked up by a family member. The sight of Victoria, to put it simply, surprises both college students greatly. There's a cut on her bottom lip, and the intricate fishtail braid she had done that morning after straightening her usually wild curls is gone. All her knuckles are scabbed over and bruised, and there's a tear at the knee of her jeans, showing a pale bandaid instead of her pale skin. Richie quickly stuffs his hands into his jacket pockets as his brows lower in concern but mostly anger, lips pulling into a thin line. She's gotten in fights before but never has she gotten so beat up. Stan, still beside Richie, is barely hiding his shock. The stares from the two quickly make Tori uncomfortable and she shifts on her feet, tennis shoes squeaking against the polished tile. It's clear she's in a worse mood Richie originally thought. He just believed she punched someone, yelled a few choice words, and then got sent to the office. Rather, it had been a full fledged fight with two fists and blood, and he can tell Tori isn't happy. Not even angry right now. Just...sad, almost.

"You should see the other guy," she tries to joke, but it falls flat quickly.

"It was a boy?!" Richie shrieks, finally blowing his top. He can handle, for the time being, his sister fighting another girl; he can't handle a boy hitting her physically. He turns to Mrs. Delaney accusingly, the newly married woman jumping at the sudden movement. "You let a boy hit my baby sister?"

"Rich, whoa, calm down," Stan quickly moves and sends an apologetic look to the woman. "It's not her fault, man."

Tori messes with the ends of her brown hair. "I... I'll explain later. Can we just please leave?"

He shakes his best friend off of him, and Richie huffs. "Fine, okay. Whatever." He pauses. "Uh, sorry, Mrs. Delaney."

The woman just gave a smile that tells them that she forgave the outburts. Then, the three of them walk out of the school and to Stanley's car. The ride is silent almost the entire time. Stan got a phone call from his boss at a café he works at, which shifts their ending destination to Stan's work place rather than the university seeing as he needs to get to work pronto, and a spare uniform is in his trunk. Twenty minutes later, the Uris is ushering the Toziers out of his car. Richie doesn't make a move to talk about the fight. Tori doesn't make a move to explain. It's clear she doesn't want to, not yet, and even though Richie desperately wants to know what happened, he can't just force it out of her. She shuts down completely; he's learned that the hard way.

"Hey," Stan speaks up as he gets the uniform out of the trunk. "Sorry I can't take you the rest of the way."

Richie shrugs, looking around. His eyes then land on a familiar beige and dark brown building, and in the front parking lot he takes notice of a familiar black car. He checks the time on his phone, and then starts off, telling his little sister to stay by Stan's car, ignoring their calls of questions as he races across the busy street. He nearly get hit a few times and flips off anyone who honks at him, but he eventually made it to the other side. He jogs to the building and walks in, smiling widely at the receptionist up front.

"Hey, has a blond guy about my height come in by any chance?" He asks the woman who can't be much older than thirty, leaning on the counter, slightly out of breath.

She looks at him as she hangs up a call she just ended. "Yeah." Her brows pull together. "He went back that way, why?"

He doesn't answer. Instead, he spins on his heel and goes in the direction the lady pointed in. It's not long at all until he hears the familiar laughter of Ben mixed with Beverly's. "My, if it isn't two my favorite people in the whole world!" Richie exclaims as he enters the office.

Ben yelps in surprise but quickly relaxes. "Jesus, Richie..."

Beverly grins and lunges at Richie, pulling him into a tight hug. "Hi! Have you made up your mind already?" She pulls back a split second later to look at him, hopeful.

"Uh." Richie holds up a finger. "No."

"Rich-."

"I need Mr. Handsome here to drive me and Tori back to the university," he interrupts her, and clasps a hand on Ben's shoulder. "And then I need to borrow his car to take her home so our parents don't find out she got suspended."

"She what?!" The two shout in unison. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that they were heard throughout the building.

"Long story," he mumbled, trying not to show how upset he was.

Beverly's blue eyes narrow the slightest bit. She knows something's up; she always does, somehow. Like a sixth-sense for when her friends are upset. Maybe it's because she's a year older than them all. "Ben's not driving you unless you agree to work here," Beverly says quickly. "Period."

"Oh, c'mon, Bev-," Richie tries. He looks to Ben for help, but the guy looks away as if he's admiring the awful pale green color on the wall.

The twenty year old shook her head, strands of red hair falling in her. She brushes them away with ease. "No. You need a job, Rich, you know that. And Maggie and Went would be agreeing with us." She motions between herself and Ben.

Richie makes a face.

"The pay's good," Beverly says quietly after a few seconds.

The look goes away. "...How good?" Not a minute later, Beverly grabs a check she has yet to put in her account and handed it to him. Brown eyes widen from behind the frames of his glasses. He let out a low whistle. "Damn..."

"They're lawyers, Richie, it's not exactly gonna be a bad pay. It's not McDonald's. And you'll most likely work part time, meaning you'll get to pick your hours. They're lenient. Just show up, do your job, respect them and everyone else, and they'll be happy."

Richie stares, thinking it over, and hands the check back to Beverly. She takes it quickly and puts it back in her purse, both her and Ben waiting for Richie's answer. He crosses his arms and looks between his two friends. Good pay. Lenient. Pick your own hours. A sigh leaves his lips and he lets his head fall backwards. He does need a job. He can't live on ramen forever, and he certainly can't live off of the box of Cosmic Brownies hidden in his closet away from his dorm mate. "Alright," he finally says, sounding defeated.

Beverly grins like a madman and squeals. "Perfect! Kim!" She dashes out of the office and grabs Richie to make him tag along. They pass by the lobby in a flash, and Richie barely has time to smile at the receptionist cheekily. They continue down the hall, passing cubicles that are mostly empty and a few offices that have people in them, and don't stop until the very end. She's then dragging him into a slightly bigger, nice office with shelves for books and a bigger desk with two chairs. A woman in her forties at at the desk, typing on her phone. She has brown hair that went to her shoulders and blue eyes peer up at them both as they stand behind the chairs. She looks nice, Richie has to admit, but there was also something about her that demanded respect and oozed authority. "Kim, this is Richie Tozier, my friend I told you about."

Richie smiles, and decides to be a decent human. "Hi, it's nice to meet you," he says, sticking a hand out for her to shake. If he could stay the way he is with his friends, he most definitely would. But Kim actually scares him a bit, and he doesn't want to get on her bad side just yet.

Kim smiles back and shakes his hand after standing. "You too, Richie. Beverly's told us a lot about you," she tells him, chuckling. "I guess she's told you about how we're low on employees?"

He chuckles. "Yea- yes, ma'am."

"He's decided to work here, as long as you and Thomas and Peter are okay with it," Beverly explains.

She scoffs and then lets out a loud laugh. "Of course we're fine with it! Work has been piling up for everyone already, and its only going to get worse when those two officially leave. We need all the hands we can get."

"I'd have to work part time," Richie tells the woman. "I'm in college."

"Completely okay," Kim says pairing her words with a smile.

"And I don't have my truck right now, its in the shop, so I don't know when I can start."

"Oh! Tomorrow! We can carpool, it'll be your sophomore year all over again - minus, y'know, the thing," Beverly says. Her hand waves in the air and she half rolls her eyes, and Richie snorts. The thing... It certainly was a 'thing', alright.

"Bev-."

"Fine, I'll make Ben drive you."

"Dude, he has barely any free time, don't do that to him... Okay, we can carpool until I get my truck back."

"Yes!"

Kim chuckles at the two, softly shaking her head. She looks at Richie then. "Welcome aboard, Richie. Come in when you can tomorrow, and then we'll figure out set hours. Sounds good?"

Richie nods. "Yes, ma'am. I'll probably be here around ten."

"Perfect."

Finally, after that and after stealing Bev's hot Cheetos Ben had brought her - he wasn't a total ass, he left the sandwich and drink - he left with Ben, the blond taking him over to where Stan works; where Tori is still patiently waiting. The girl climbs in without a second thought and thankfully Ben doesn't mention her disheveled appearance. As they leave, they wave bye to Stan. Well, they wave by to the café and grill, hoping in some weird way Stan might be able to see them.

[artificialqueens]

drawing new lines, chapter two (branjie) - holtzmanns

(read on ao3) | (tumblr: plastiquetiaras) | (word count: 3514)

AN: Thank you SO so much for the lovely response to the first chapter. I’m so glad you guys are enjoying it so far as much as I am. This story is so, so fun to write and such a lovely refresher from the angst trains I usually end up on while writing. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well! Writ, as usual, is the most wonderful beta.

Vanessa is already bouncing in the Starbucks line before even getting her sweet, sweet hit of caffeine. But she’s two days into this fake dating business, and the real finesse is about to start.

“Hi, welcome to Starbucks, what would you like?”

“Can I have a grande blonde roast, two creams, two sugars…and a grande dark roast, black with room for milk?”

Vanessa’s own coffee needs to be chock-full of sugar in order for her to be able to drink it, but Brooke? Vanessa’s not quite sure what she likes, but a dark roast with cream and sugar brought on the side seems like a safe option.

Silky and A’keria look at her with questions on their faces as they wait for their drinks to finish, A’keria already munching on her breakfast sandwich.

“Why you ordering two?” Silky’s looking at her with narrowed eyes, and it’s all Vanessa can do to not yell in excitement as she tries to keep herself blasé.

“Oh, no reason. Thought I’d drop by Brooke’s office, that’s all. We going on a date tonight.” She holds her fingers out in front of her, inspects her cuticles, as if it’s an everyday statement, a normal occurrence to go out with the office building’s most eligible bachelorette.

Which it completely isn’t, by the way that A’keria slams her breakfast sandwich down on the counter.

“You’re what?” Silky’s yell makes other customers around them turn around, stare, and Vanessa doesn’t even care, because the looks on Silky and A’keria’s faces are enough to keep her laughing for days.

“Goddamn, Vanj. You really got that blonde skyscraper to agree to go on a date with you?” A’keria looks mildly impressed. “To be honest, I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“I told y’all, I’m a catch.” Sure, Vanessa’s voice is a bit haughty for someone who is absolutely not going on a proper date with Brooke, rather a fake one, but regardless. She’s gonna milk it.

“I’m surprised someone sees it.” A’keria shares a look with Silky, who is shaking her head in disbelief. “Even more surprised that it’s her.”

“No one can resist the Vanjie charm.” With that, Vanessa picks up both drinks, winking at her friends before heading to the elevators. “Deuces!”

Brooke is mildly amused when Vanessa swings by her office, placing the coffee in her empty hand. “How’d you know I like my coffee black?”

Vanessa raises an eyebrow at her. “You look like the kind of person who thinks that putting sugar and cream in coffee ruins the taste or something.”

“It does actually, it-” Brooke pauses when she sees Vanessa snickering. “Hmph, never mind.”

“You enjoy your boring coffee, and imma enjoy this sugary goodness.” Vanessa’s own drink smells like caffeinated heaven, and so what if she takes a big sniff of the cup? No one’s judging her.

Okay, maybe Brooke is, from the way a single eyebrow of hers is raised, but Vanessa also doesn’t care.

“You are absolutely going to have a sugar crash in an hour or two from that.” Brooke points at her cup as she takes another swig.

“Bold of you to assume my body hasn’t built up an immunity to sugar because of how much of it I have on the daily.”

“You’re ridiculous.” But Brooke laughs as she’s saying it, a real laugh, by the way her eyes are crinkling at the edges.

“Count on it.” Vanessa plops into Brooke’s fancy desk chair, her office a stark contrast from Vanessa’s cubicle. “Damn, this is comfy. D’you have to buy this shit? Or did they just give it to you?”

“Amazon, actually. I have a bad back.” Brooke leans against her own desk, facing Vanessa. Her legs look like they go on forever in her heeled boots, though Vanessa is absolutely not focusing on them, no ma’am.

“Send me the link, would you? I wanna pimp out my boring cubicle.”

Brooke snorts. “Now that’s a trashy reality show I would watch.”

“Speaking of which, we got our first fake date tonight.” Vanessa crosses one leg over the other in the office chair, leans back against it. “I’m thinking shitty TV show marathon.”

Brooke raises an eyebrow. “You wanna Netflix and chill on the first date?”

“What? We’re not actually-” Vanessa sputters on her words, because Brooke’s looking at her with a note of amusement in her eyes. “Damn, you making me sound like I got a one track mind, mama.”

“I mean, it’s our first date, isn’t it? You gotta take me somewhere classy first, treat me real nice.” Brooke is fully enjoying the conversation at Vanessa’s expense, leaning forward as she winks at her. “If you wanna keep a lady around you have to make her feel like a queen, y’know.”

“Goddamn, not even real dating and we got demands here.” But it doesn’t deter Vanessa in the least - in fact, if Brooke wants to enjoy this scam that they’re pulling off, Vanessa’s gonna make sure she does by planning the best damn date ever.

Vanessa discovers that she has incredible difficulty planning the ‘best damn date ever,’ even when it’s fake.

“Y’all, where do I take her? I ain’t planned shit! Just told her to dress up real nice, now she expecting something special and my dumbass was so excited for the date that I forgot to plan. Shit!”

To an outsider, it looks like Vanessa’s officially lost her marbles, talking to herself. While she certainly does feel that way, she’s got her good Judys on the open FaceTime screen, ready to help her in times of crisis such as these.

Vanessa’s rifling through her closet, pulling out dress after dress because none of them will work, not in the least. They’re too short or too nun-like or too thotty - she needs the perfect amount of classy, and it’s nowhere to be found.

“Vanj. Vanj. That fancy restaurant uptown?”

Silky’s suggestion is nice, sure, but absolutely no help. “That place has been booked up for months, Silk. Ain’t no way we gonna get a reservation for tonight.”

“Take her to a movie or some shit, then balance it with a mediocre restaurant. They’ll cancel each other out.” A’keria’s suggestion is smart, sensible, but-

“But that’s so boring, that’s what everyone does on every first date to ever exist. I wanna wow her.”

Vanessa’s not even sure why it matters so much to her - the date is not even a real date, for crying out loud. But part of her still wants to impress Brooke, make her enjoy herself, because she’s still taking time out of her own evening to spend with Vanessa after all, real or not.

“I ain’t got nothing left for you.” Silky shrugs, grabbing another handful of popcorn that she’s popped specifically to watch Vanessa’s dramatics. “You on your own. It’s now or never.”

Vanessa looks out the window of her apartment, sees the glittering lights and sky scrapers that feel so far away and-

“Shit y’all, I’ve got it!”

“Planetarium, huh?”

Brooke’s impressed - Vanessa can tell these types of things. It makes her more excited than she wants to admit.

“Ah y’know, nice chill first date material.” As if Vanessa hasn’t already tried to pat herself on the back for coming up with it. “Anyone tell you that you look killer, by the way?”

Brooke does, in a black knee length dress that makes Vanessa’s eyes constantly trail to her-

She can control herself. She’s not a teenage boy. Or is trying not to be.

Brooke gives her an appreciative once over in response, one that makes Vanessa squirm under her gaze even though she knows that there’s nothing behind it, that it’s platonic. Because there’s something about having Brooke’s full attention that still feels like a bit too much, like it’s taking her breath away.

“Where do you want to sit?” Brooke’s looking at her with an eyebrow raised, as if she’s already asked the question more than once, as if the first time had flown over Vanessa’s head. If it has, Vanessa’s unaware of it.

But she’s not going to make it a habit. Brooke’s just a person - a smoking hot one, sure, but still just a person. Someone who’s helping her win a bet against A’keria and Silky, and so Vanessa owes it to both of them to make sure they have fun in the process.

So, she’s gonna make sure Brooke has the best fake first date in her damn life.

“Let’s go to the back. My neck’s gonna cramp up if we take the front.” Vanessa takes a step up the stairs, but not before interlocking fingers with Brooke - after all, if she’s gonna play the part, she’s gonna fully go for it.

Brooke shrugs, but doesn’t pull her hand back. Instead, she tightens their grip. “Works for me. Lead the way.”

The theatre darkens as they take their seats, and the announcer’s voice is hard to focus on, it is, when the ceiling above them is lit up with stars and galaxies not unlike those that would sparkle in Vanessa’s dreams when she was six and had wanted to be an astronaut. The twinkles that seem so in reach, so close by, not like the huge bundles of fire that they actually are, the ones that burn should anyone get too close.

It’s mesmerizing.

Vanessa feels the resurfacing of the niche outer space facts from her childhood, from the secondhand kid’s encyclopedias that her mom had gotten for her at garage sales. The ones that Vanessa would pour over, trying to absorb everything she could, back when her biggest problems in life could be solved by thumbing through the pages.

“Did you know that any these stars coulda burned out ages ago and we wouldn’t know, ‘cause of how fucking far away they are? They’re hundreds of light years away so when we see them burn out, it’s actually happened centuries back. But we only find out now.” Vanessa whispers the words because the narrator is still droning on and she doesn’t want to disrupt anyone else.

But it’s cool.

Brooke looks over for a second, unspoken questions on her face that Vanessa can’t quite decipher. “How’d you know so much about space?”

Brooke’s voice is a whisper too, not wanting to disturb the presentation either, and it strikes Vanessa how much the reflection of the stars in Brooke’s eyes is really making them shine.

“Astronaut was my backup career after HR.” The statement has the intended outcome of making Brooke laugh, and it feels better than Vanessa wants to admit. “You ain’t had obsessions as a kid?”

Brooke pauses, really thinks. “Mine was the Titanic, when I was eight. Not the movie, but the actual sinking of the ship itself. I was fascinated by it.”

Vanessa wrinkles her nose. “The ship? Why?”

“I dunno,” Brooke shrugs, “think it was the way it contradicted itself. Supposed to be the unsinkable ship, branded as such. Treated as such. Yet it went down on the first voyage.”

“That’s what happens when you get overcocky. Can’t mouth off too much.” Vanessa tries to hold back a laugh when Brooke looks over at her, the scandalized furrow of her brow fitting perfectly from the way her mouth has slightly fallen open. “Am I wrong, though?”

Brooke lets out a huff. “No. But still.”

But Brooke’s face can’t hold its serious expression for long, though, something Vanessa is delighted to see. Vanessa grins when Brooke leans back in her seat, tugs on the bracelet on her wrist. “Tell me more outer space facts, space girl.”

“What kinda nickname is that?”

Brooke grins. “One that somehow fits you.”

Instagram story posted by @bhytes. Location: @griffithobservatory. Tagged: @vanessavanjie. Description: A boomerang of Vanessa spinning in a circle, her skirt twirling around her, under a backdrop of stars.

“So, there we were in Target, my abuela completely having lost control of the motorized scooter, about to crash into the display of paper towels, my mom running after her and screaming, a buncha other customers watching with their mouths open, and me and my aunt laughing so hard that we’re about to fall over.” Vanessa’s eyes are lit up as she sets the scene, and Brooke doesn’t think she’s ever laughed so much in her life.

“Stop, stop. I’m gonna pee.” Brooke has to wipe a tear from her eye, trying desperately to hold back the giggles that are threatening to bubble up again whenever she so much as makes eye contact with Vanessa.

“So then she crashes, right? But then one of the wheels is still going so she starts spinning. Spinning. Meanwhile my mom’s tryna turn off the dang thing, and you know what starts playing in the background?” Vanessa takes a bite of her pasta, and Brooke wants to take a sip of her own drink, she really does, but she’s afraid of doing a spit take at this point.

“Oh, god. What?”

Vanessa giggles before she can get the words out. “‘You Spin Me Round’ by Dead or Alive. You know, ‘you spin me right round baby, right round like a record player…’”

“Shut up.” Brooke has to clap a hand over her mouth because the other diners at the restaurant are looking over at the two of them, but she can’t help it, can’t help the laughter because Vanessa is hysterical.

“I ain’t playing, it really did! Me and my aunt were absolutely hollering and no help whatsoever to my abuela. Some random pimply sixteen year old that worked there had to come and turn her scooter off.”

“She wasn’t hurt, was she?” Brooke pauses, realizing that the story could have more serious consequences on the way. She doesn’t want to be disrespectful towards Vanessa’s grandma, she really doesn’t-

But Vanessa waves her hand. “Nah, she was fine. In fact, when they got her up again, she started grumbling on about how the fastest setting on the scooter was still too slow. Adrenaline junkie.”

Brooke tries to picture what Vanessa’s grandma would look like, speeding a little too fast on her scooter. “Somehow, she sounds like you when you’ll be older.”

Vanessa snorts. “I can’t even argue that. We basically the same.”

“You’re ridiculous, and I love it.” Brooke rests her chin on her hands as she glances across the table over towards Vanessa, still shoveling down her pasta. “God, why haven’t we ever talked before?”

“Maybe ‘cause we’re in completely different departments?” Vanessa raises an eyebrow, her lips curling up. “And tell me you’d still give me the time of day if I hadn’t barged into your office one day and roped you into this little scheme of mine.”

“Hey, I would have!” Brooke’s indignant, because she so would. She’s not that closed off. “I think.”

She thinks.

“So me striking up conversation in the Starbucks line about my wheelie-loving abuela would have gone over well?” Vanessa lets out a laugh, and Brooke can’t help it either, at the mental image of Vanessa tapping her shoulder to do so.

“To be fair, that’s not a scenario that’s ever really crossed my mind before. Do you often bother people about your grandma?”

Vanessa doesn’t miss a beat. “Only the ones who get as delighted about it as you do.” She leans back in her seat, putting her fork down. “That being said? I’m glad we talking now, ‘cause you’re more fun than you seem.”

Brooke scoffs. “I’m plenty fun, thank you very much.”

“Oh yeah? What’s your last Venmo transaction?”

Brooke wrinkles her nose. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Venmo transactions tell a shit ton about a person. Now c’mon, open up that shiny phone.” Vanessa’s fingertips tap on the table, and Brooke lets out a huff, but does so.

Hopefully it’s something cool. Fun. Exciting. Not something boring like-

“A cat tree? Your last transaction was for a cat tree?” Vanessa’s trying not to laugh, Brooke can tell, and she has to hold back a groan.

”It was a really cool cat tree! It had multiple levels and all these little hiding spots that Henry and Apollo will love and-” Brooke cuts herself off, dropping her head in her hands. “Ugh. Cat trees can be fun.”

Vanessa reaches out to pat Brooke’s shoulder, her eyes still sparkling. “I believe you, mama.”

“No you don’t.” Brooke’s voice comes out muffled, and sure, she’s acting like a ten year old, but she can’t help it.

“I sure don’t. So guess for our next fake date you gonna introduce me to those pussycats of yours, hmm? We gonna be spending some time together.” Vanessa pauses, her lips pursed together as to keep herself from cracking up. “Not your actual pussy, remember, we fake dating, not real dating, jesus-”

“Oh, shut up.” Brooke reaches out to shove Vanessa’s shoulder, her hand nearly landing on the table when Vanessa dodges it. “Just for that, no meeting the cats for you.”

“Mean.” Vanessa sticks her tongue out at her and Brooke snorts.

But now that Vanessa’s said it, she’s coming around to the idea. It would be kinda nice to hang out more with Vanessa, even if the purpose is to post things on social media to fool her friends into thinking that they’re dating. Because it would be fun - her and Vanessa clearly get along great, and, well-

Having another friend wouldn’t be so bad.

“Tell you what. You can come over and meet the cats, but I pick the show we watch.”

Vanessa grins at her suggestion. “Tryna Netflix and chill me already?”

Brooke rolls her eyes. “You’re relentless.”

“And yet, you enjoy it.” Vanessa wiggles her eyebrows as she takes a sip of her drink. “Fancy that.”

It’s true. Vanessa is hysterical, fun to talk to. Sure, a little ridiculous at times, but it’s what Brooke needs - someone to balance her out a little.

“Honestly? Somehow, I kinda do.”

“You went on a date.”

“Yep.”

“You, Brooke Lynn Hytes, went on a date.”

“You bet.”

“You went on a date?”

“Is that really so hard to believe, Nina?”

Nina takes a big sip of her wine, as if she needs it to get through the conversation. Brooke can’t blame her for it.

“I’ve known you for seven years and not once have you been on a date.” Nina’s pointing a finger at her, and she shrugs.

“What’s wrong with being picky?”

“It’s not being picky if you absolutely refuse everyone. Except, it seems, for this new girl.” Nina’s already leaning forward, resting her head on her hands with a grin on her face. “So, you need to tell me absolutely everything about her because this is the best day of my entire life.”

Brooke raises an eyebrow. “More than the day when Ben proposed to you?”

Nina pauses. “Well, maybe. Actually, I think those two would be on the same level.” She shrugs when she sees Brooke’s skeptical expression. “C’mon, this literally never happens. It’s exciting. Now tell me about her.”

“She’s in HR, we struck up a conversation and she asked me out on a date and I said yes?” So what if Brooke’s explanation ends in a question?

“You said yes.”

“Yeah? How else would we have gone on a date?”

“But you never say yes.” Nina’s brow is furrowed as if she’s trying to solve the world’s biggest math problem, and it almost makes Brooke laugh.

“I did this time.” Brooke shrugs, taking a sip of her wine to avoid eye contact with Nina.

“But why? Why this time?”

Brooke pauses, because she can’t give Nina the real answer. That they’re doing this for shits and giggles and so that Brooke won’t have to deal with people trying to set her up.

So, she goes another route.

“I dunno. She’s funny, I like her. She made me laugh more in that first conversation with her than I’ve laughed with anyone else. So, maybe I just want a bit more laughter in my life.”

It’s true, when Brooke thinks about it. Fake dating or not, Vanessa is fun. Someone who is genuinely delightful, genuinely fun to spend time with. Their date hadn’t even been a real one but it’s probably the best one Brooke’s had, maybe ever, solely because of how much she’d enjoyed herself. How much fun Vanessa is to be around.

Brooke’s going to try and stay her friend, once they’re done this nonsense. To still hang out with Vanessa and be her friend ( are they friends?) because she’s someone that doesn’t drain or tire Brooke out, despite her exuberance.

Nina’s eating it up, from the way that her eyes are wide, how her lips are forming a soft pout. “That’s so fucking cute, you absolute sap.”

“That wasn’t sappy in the least and you know it.”

Nina waves a hand. “Whatever. From you, it’s practically a declaration of love. Anyway, can’t wait to be your maid of honour at the wedding.”

“Don’t you start.”

[xladyxfatex]

Little Dove (Chapter Four)

~~I want to give a huge thank you to @theworldofotps for all her helping putting this together and getting it posted. You Rock hun~~

The alarms on both their phones blared, as the two grumbled and got up. Early mornings never were her thing. Nicole made her way to the kitchen, started a pot of coffee and put her music on. She knew Norman had a habit of hitting the snooze button so she thought she'd at least get coffee going. Looking in the fridge she found the leftover steak, and thought of a breakfast.

Steak, eggs, hashbrowns and coffee. Yup sounds good to me. She deftly cut and diced the potatoes, onions and bell peppers, oiled up the fry pan and put everything in with some salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika. The potatoes would take the longest so she didn't want to start the eggs just yet. Once the coffee finished, she began to set the table, then turned back to make the over easy eggs. Once everything was cooked and the steak warmed, she went to wake Norman. God 5am is far too early.

Gently brushing the hair from his face and planting a soft kiss, Nicole began to whisper in his ear. "Time to wake love, breakfast if ready. Plus we need to get to set in the next 90 minutes." Norman only replied with a grunt and by pulling the covers up over his head. Nicole knew there was only one way to get him outta bed if the sweet approach failed. Standing from the bed she yanked the blankets off him and the pounced on top of him.  Springing up from his sleep Norman was very unhappy, well til he saw it was Nicole sitting on him. A giggle left her lips and she smiled innocently.

"Morning! Breakfast is ready and getting cold, come on up up with you." She giggled once more then placed a loving kiss on his lips as she removed herself from his body. Once he got to the table was flooded by the breakfast she had made, then again he always excited by her cooking.  They happily ate and talked about little random things including what was happening for the day. Things were going well, but then again they couldn't avoid the subject forever. 

"Nicole?" He wanted to do this right, he wasn't sure how to, it had been so long since he had a true relationship with actual depth.

"Yes hun?" Nicole was slightly nervous, she knew last night was bound to come up I mean come on how couldn't it.

"I want to ask you something…." Norman had trailed off, that made alone made Nicole's heart sink. "...but not now. I want to take you out tomorrow night." When he looked into her beautiful eyes he could just how scared she was, and her inner debate on what to do. "I swear it's nothing bad. Please go out with me tomorrow night?" 

She swallowed past the lump in her throat, and threw on her best fake smile. 

"Of course, tomorrow night it is. What's the dress code? Prim and proper, laid back casual, something in between?" Her only hope was whatever this was it wasn't prim and proper god did she hate formal dresses and heels.

"Laid back casual, I don't think heels and dresses are a good fit for where I plan to take you." He winked, got up and put his dishes in the sink. "I gotta get back to my room and change before we leave for set. Are we going together?" The sound of hope rang clear in each word spoken. Nicole fiddled with her fingers looking down. 

"Umm…..yeah I guess we can ride together." She wasn't her normal bubbly self and Norman knew it was because her mind had gone to the worst case scenario as to what he need to ask her. He pulled her hands part and brought her close to him, wrapping his arms around her tiny frame. 

"I swear Nicole, my beautiful Little Dove, you have nothing to fear. Please don't be scared?" He rubbed her back while whispering in her ear and he could feel her relax. She didn't respond with words just a head nod. Kissing her forehead he pulled back. "Alright I really need to go change. See you 30?" 

"Yessir!" She saluted him and giggled, God did he love that giggle.

Walking back to his room, he started to wonder if what he wanted to ask her was rushing things. That was til he looked back at their history together. 

They'd been together since the age 5, he was getting picked on when this small girl with dark hair ran over and shoved the taller boy down. 

"HEY!" A small voice yelled. "Its NOT nice to pick on people! Leave him alone or I'll pick on you Tony!" The boy Tony just huffed and walked away. The small girl spun around and offered her hand. "Hi I'm Nicole! What's your name?" The boy just blinked at the girl before taking her hand and being pulled to his feet. "Norman" Nicole looked over Norman and saw he had scraped his elbow when Tony had pushed him down. "Stupid Tony, you got hurt because of him, come with me I'll help you get that cleaned up." She offered a blinding smile and Norman couldn't help but smile back.

From that point on, the two were always together, thick as thieves. That was up until high school started 

"Look Nicole we've known each other forever, I've made great friends 'cause of you, but I just we can't be friends anymore!" It broke Norman's heart to do this but the only way to get the girl he wanted was for him to get rid of his best friend. The one who had stood beside him through everything, who helped in, who believed in his dreams of becoming an actor. The worst part was Mandy said it had to do this in front of everyone on at lunch. He watched the confusion and hurt in her eyes and cross her face, that was til she looked behind him and saw Mandy snickering, it all clicked and made sense. Whipping the tears from her eyes she looked Norman dead in the eyes and screamed with so much venom,

"FINE!  Throw away the last 11 years of friendship. I just hope that BITCH is worth it!" Nicole skipped the rest of her classes that day. Something she never did and Norman and confrontation had become the talk of the school. He heard the whispers "how could he do that to her? Nicole is nothing but sweet and kind. Hell does everything not only for him but practically anybody", "what an asshole I hope he knows Mandy's just gonna throw him aside the way he did Nicole. She never liked Nicole that's why she had him do that." And so an so forth. 

He got home that day only to be yelled at by his mother about how broken Nicole was, but 16 years old Norman didn't really care. Nicole's father had come to the school the following day and picked up a quarters worth of school work and got teachers and a few students to agree to come to the house and help Nicole with what she'd be missing. Guilt slowly consumed Norman, was this his fault that she was staying outta school? Mandy just kept laughing. Suddenly his attraction to the girl wasn't there anymore. He felt sick being around her and he wanted was his best friend back.

He tried to visit, tried to apologize and fix things. But he didn't know how to. Living nextdoor to each he would see her outside in her backyard sometimes and tried to talk to her but it was no use she blatantly ignored him. What made matters worse was that fact that not even 2 days after "officially" making Mandy his girlfriend she had cheated him with Quinn. One of the girls Charlotte who was helping Nicole with school work and giving her class notes, was sitting on the deck with Nicole when she told her about Quinn and Mandy.

".....but Mandy's Norman's girlfriend, she got rid of me why would she do that to him?" Nicole's voice was soft and sad. She missed her friend even though she loved him she'd never tell him, she wasn't anything more then a friend. Charlotte shook her head.

"Dunno huh, Mandy's always been a bitch, but…." She trailed off looking at the house next door the same one Nicole was looking at. "...but I know he probably really needs a friend right now." She gave Nicole a soft smile and hug before leaving.

Later that night Nicole went over to Norman's house with  Chinese take out, sodas, and bad horror movies. It wasn't a fix all to what had happened but right now he needed someone and she'd fill that spot.  When Norman's answered the door the woman nearly broke down in tears seeing Nicole there she had missed her so much. 

"Deary what are you doing here?" She asked kissing the small girl on the cheek, a greeting she had sorely missed.

"I heard a rumor that that son of yours might need a pick me up." Nicole's voice cracked slightly it was hard for her to be here, to be the one to pick him up and piece him together after the way he humiliated her in front of the school.  His mother knew what happened Nicole had told her father whom then told her, but the fact that she was there for her son right now, it meant maybe things could be okay again.

"He's up in his room, go on." Mrs. Reedus nodded her head in the direction Nicole knew all too well. She stopped in the kitchen to grab forks and went on her way to his room. She didn't bother knocking when she got there, she just opened the door. What she saw broke her heart. Norman sitting there crying, god did Nicole hate Mandy so much right now.

Nicole had no idea the tears weren't because of Mandy but because of what he had done to her his best friend. Nicole places the bags on his desk and dropped to her knees in front of him she held him in her arms and rubbed his back saying sweet things in his ear and telling him everything would be okay,  that that bitch clearly wasn't the one for him.

It took Norman a few moments to actually realize he wasn't dreaming, that Nicole was there, was, holding him, and was indeed telling him everything would be alright. He wrapped his arms around he tiny frame, he'd never tell her those tears he was crying were over her. That night they sat on the floor eating and watching bad horror movies, talking and trying to repair the damage caused.

Years later when he had audition for a movie that would film in Boston, Nicole wasn't exactly around she had been attending college down in that area and had begun dating a guy by the name Colin. Though Nicole had admitted during many phone calls that she didn't really like Colin she just didn't want to hurt him. When the audition was over he was asked to stay around till the end of the week the director Duffy had really liked him and was likely that he'd get the part. Not being able to afford a hotel that long and only knowing one person in the area he drove to Nicole's apartment.

Having just gotten in from classes Nicole was beyond exhausted, when she saw the email from Norman about being in the area she felt her heart beat quicken, knowing full well he had a key to her place. (Her father, herself and Norman all had keys for various reasons.) She decided she'd better go shower. Getting in and out was easy she then grabbed a pair of baggy sweatpants and a tank top. When she got to the living room and was tackled to the ground a squeak left her lips followed by a grunt. Opening her eyes when hearing laughter she groaned.

"Damnit Norman! You scared me!" She playfully hit his arm. Knocking was heard at the door and they looked each other both shrugging. Norman got off of Nicole much to his own dismay and she got off the floor. Norman yelled in an Irish accent which made Nicole rise an eyebrow, oh she was gonna need an explanation on that one. Opening the door Norman was busy laughing at his best friend's expression to notice the man at the door.

"Oh Colin! Hi come in?" Nicole suddenly felt unsure Colin had expressed concern when it came to Norman and Nicole's friendship. 

"Who the fuck is this?" Colin was not in a good mood and if he looked he known it was Norman, Nicole not only had shown him pictures but there were pictures on the walls. Norman being protective of Nicole decided he was gonna slip into character of Murphy Mcmanus accent and all, which confused poor Nicole even more.

"Aye I'm Murphy! Good friend of the young lass over der." He stuck his hand out which Colin only stared at. Nicole had never in her life met a person named Murphy and now this oh this was gonna cause shit.

About 25 minutes into an argument with Colin while "Murphy" tried interjecting lead to the break up of Nicole and Colin. Nicole wasn't exactly sad it was over, she was more upset that they'd been dating for almost a year and his whole reason for ending things was she was cheating on him with Murphy.  Norman pulled Nicole close and stroked her hair whispering comforting things in her ear. 

Confused she asked "who the fuckin hell is Murphy and why does he have an Irish accent?" Norman fell over laughing his best friend had just been broken up with but that's what was on her mind? God she was amazing. After he stopped laughing he told her about the movie and the role he was up for. Told her how the director liked him and wanted him to stick around. She had always believed in him and his dream and offered her place for as long as he needed.

[your-nms-preferences]

(in case tumblr ate it again) wakatoshikun finding cute little notes and tiny snacks and gifts from reader addressed to him on his desk and shoe locker and everywhere he goes and getting really flustered?

Sorry for taking so long to respond, and thank you for sending this in! I’ve been wanting to write for Wakatoshi for a while now, and I finally have a chance to do it!

The letter flew out of this locker as soon as he had wrenched it open. Twirling through the air, gracefully descending to the ground. After a few seconds of it dancing in front of him, it made a soft landing. Just on top of his shoe, sliding off of it and onto the panelled floors below. 

Wakatoshi, after a few moment’s hesitation, picked up the piece of paper. Looking upon it curiously, focusing on the heart sticker that was used to seal it shut. Was this supposed to be a love letter? Probably not, he doubted anyone would be able to like the most feared student on Ikemen Academy’s campus. Then, if not that, then what the hell was it supposed to be?

He worked his fingernail under the flap, tearing it open. There sat a sticky note that was much too small to fill up the entirety of the space inside. Now he knew it wasn’t a letter which talked about someone’s undying love for him. Even though he knew it wasn’t going to be one, he still had some lingering disappointment inside. 

He gingerly took it out, and began to read it. The handwriting looked rushed, barely even legible, as if the writer had to hurry while making this. But, he still somehow managed to read it, no matter how terrible the font was. 

‘Are you sure you aren’t lost? Because this school is far away from heaven ;)’

He wanted to stop reading then and there. But, for the sake of satisfying his curiousity, he continued reading. 

‘Sorry for that. Anyways, you haven’t met me, but I just think you’re pretty neat! I don’t get why so many people try to beat you up. I hope the rest of your day goes great, and you get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow, there’ll be a special surprise on your desk from me! Hopefully, none of your classmates steal it before you get to it. So make sure to get there fast! 

- From, a special someone’

That was where the letter ended, leaving him to wonder about who this special someone was. Was it one of his classmates, or an underclassman he had never noticed before? But, the words in the letter were just so unbelievably sweet. Unlike the empty threats he received from punks who picked fights with him, reprimands he received for his behaviour, nor the forced kindness when someone, who was so obviously scared of him, talked to him. 

He remembered the ‘surprise’ they had mentioned in the letter, and anticipation bubbled up inside of him. He began to look forward to the next day, and he just couldn’t wait for the hours to pass. But, maybe this was a prank, a trick to bring his hopes up. God, he hoped that wasn’t it.

But, when the morning came, and he was the first to enter the classroom. He saw something, sitting in the center of his desk. Just waiting for him to go and pick it up. So, he bolted over to it as if his life depended on it, and swept it into his hand. Where another sticky note was placed on top of the gift. 

‘Good morning! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I don’t really ever see you grabbing a bite in the morning. I know this isn’t the best thing ever, but it was all I had time for! I’ll grab you something better next time, I promise!

- From, a special someone’

Peeling back the note, he saw that it was just a simple pack of melon bread. And he could feel his heart warm up, and he had the sudden overwhelming urge to protect the sender of the letter with his very life. But, internally, there was a lingering doubt that there would ever be a next time. This was just a one time thing, where someone had pitied him so much that they had to give him something nice before they took it away from him. 

Then it happened again. And again. And again. And again. And again. 

After a while of being showered in gifts, snacks, and sticky notes filled with the sweetest words he had ever read, he realized that this wouldn’t stop. How could someone be this kind? To go out of their way to buy some food at the convenience store for him, taking time out of their day to write such delightful letters, even buying full on gifts for him. Bandages decorated with cartoon characters- they even managed to get ahold of the limited edition Pyo-kun ones- and even mini stuffed animals. 

All of this, and he didn’t even know their name. He’d probably never seen their face, unless they were someone he knew, and they were just that damn good at hiding their identity. Maybe it was someone who never stood out to him in the crowds at school. He was just dying to know who it was, so he could thank them repeatedly for all they did for him. 

That’s why he took things into his own hands, and trespassed into his classroom to pull an all-nighter. Which, believe it or not, wasn’t the worst thing he had done within the three years he had attended the academy. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be scared off when they entered the classroom and saw him looking like a hot mess from a horror movie. 

The hours of the night drifted by, with him struggling to stay awake with every passing second. It was like there was lead inside his skull and it was pulling him down, tempting him to just flop on the floor, and fall asleep. But, if he did that, then the point of coming here in the first place would be defeated. 

Just when he was on the verge of slipping into unconciousness, yawn after yawn escaping his mouth, he heard the door to the class slide open. He turned his head to the side, scrambling up from the floor, and trying to face the intruder properly. With a sheet of drowsiness slipping over his mind, he was barely able to hold himself up. But he managed, his eyes focusing on the person frozen in front of him.

And he saw you, gazing at him in shock with your mouth agape. In your hands was a full bento box, the meal you had planned for him on that day. While you stared at him with an expression of utmost shock. 

Sleepily, he began to speak. “So, uhm.. You’re the one that’s behind all this.” His words were quiet, just barely above a whisper, and they were slowed. What else would you expect from someone who was running on just a few hours of sleep? After a moment’s silence on your end, he hoped that he wasn’t scaring you. Was he glaring at you, something about the way he looked? He really didn’t want to make the person who had been spoiling him run away. 

You shifted your position, straightening yourself out. “Yep, that’s me!” You affirmed with a bright smile and a nod. “Sorry for hiding from you for so long, I kind of chickened out. I wanted to meet you, I really did! But I just couldn’t find enough courage to..” 

You trailed off, looking to the side to avoid his gaze. He would have considered himself blessed if he got to meet you sooner, but thank heavens he got to do it now. Boy, you were even cuter than how you made yourself seem in the notes. 

“A-Anyways! You’re here now, and I’m here too! So I guess I should give you the proper greeting you’ve been waiting for all this time.” You laughed awkwardly, scratching your cheek. Before holding out you hand for him to shake. “Hi! My name is {Y/N} {L/N}! The stranger, well not so much of a stranger anymore, who was sending you all these things all this time! Nice to finally meet you, Wakatoshi-senpai!” 

A blush ran across his face, and he prayed that you wouldn’t be able to see it in the dark. He took your hand, a shaky smile creeping up onto his face. He held onto it a bit longer than expected, but let go once he saw how long he had been holding your hand for. He cleared his throat, scratching the back of his head. How did you talk to the person who had been pampering you with presents for months now? It was a hard question to answer. 

“Ah- Um!” He spluttered out, trying to start some kind of conversation. “W-Well, ya give me no choice. How can I repay you? Can I buy you something, t-take you out somewhere? Or should I pull the same shtick as you and give you notes n’gifts in return? I r-really don’t know what to say, nobody’s really done this kind of thing for me before so..” 

You hummed in reply, shaking your head at his suggestions. “Silly, you don’t have to give me anything in return! I just felt like it! And, you deserve a break from all the fights you get into. Unlike the punches people throw at you, it doesn’t hurt to receive something nice, and it doesn’t hurt me to give them to you!”

He choked on nothing, just too flustered by your words. He swore that this was all a dream, he probably just fell asleep, and you were just someone his mind thought up of. Just to make sure, he pinched his wrist. Biting his lip when he actually felt pain from it. That confirmed this was reality. It just felt like a dream. 

“N-No, there’s gotta be somethin’ I can do for ya! I can’t just walk away from this and ignore all you’ve done!” He protested. 

You blinked at his offer, tapping your index finger to your chin. “Why don’t we share this bento box I made! I mean, there’s only one pair of chopsticks, but..” You twirled the wooden utensils in your hand. 

“That’s it? I don’t mind doin’t that.” He said, sitting down in one of the desks backwards, his chest leaning against the back of the chair. “Come on, let’s eat before class starts. Sensei will lose his mind if he sees us.”

With that, you practically skipped over to the desk, sitting directly across from him. Opening the box and feeding him the first bite, beaming all the while Wakatoshi tried to avert his gaze. Attempting to hide his obvious blush from you. 

Kyouya sensei wasn’t all too mad when he caught you two in his classroom, fast asleep, and together in your own little world.

[coffee-obsessed-writer]

Can’t Say No

Rosa Diaz x Fem!Reader

A/N: From anon request:  Rosa x !fem reader in which Rosa is acting off, and R excepting her to break up with them, is caught off guard when she proposes the her in front of the 99, where the pair work.

Hope you like it, anonny!

Words: 3417

Warnings: None really

B99 Tags: @kazosa  // @docharleythegeekqueen  // @taking-out-the-trash-fam // @53v3nn4t10n4rmy  // @sorenmarie87  // @lefthologramdeer  // @courtneychicken // @bisexualdolphinthings // @through-thesilver-lining // @idontfuckingknowgurl // @vickyfarley

“So, what are your plans for when Gina gets back?” Amy asked, pulling up a chair beside your desk. “I mean, she’s going to be back in a week! I can’t believe it. Her maternity leave went by so fast.”

You snorted a laugh but kept your eyes on the paperwork in front of you. “I honestly have no idea. Seriously though, how did she pull off getting eighteen months’ worth of maternity leave?”

Amy shrugged. “She’s Gina. It's really all I can come up with. It’ll be weird around here without you though.”

You nodded in agreement and added the papers to the casefile beside you. “I’m sure gonna miss this place. Especially all of you.”

The job was only temporary, you’d known that from the beginning. Now that it was coming to an end, you felt sad and not just because you’d miss working at the Nine Nine. Mostly, it was because of Rosa.

It took a while, but after a few months, Detective Diaz began to warm up to you. Eventually, engaging you in conversation every day. A few times, you caught her subtly staring at you while at her desk or hovering around the vending machines in the break room. At first, it was intimidating. You’d been warned about her surly and somewhat combative nature even having witnessed it on more than one occasion.

It wasn’t until that first night out with the squad at Shaw’s that you realized there was much more to the cagy detective. She had a few shots and her normally tight-lipped persona opened up. After watching her for a while that night, you couldn’t help but fall a little bit in love. She was playing darts with Jake and from across the bar, you could hear her laugh cut through the Friday night crowd.

Sitting up on your stool, you glanced her way and she just happened to be looking yours. This pang of flutters erupted in your chest and when she started walking your way, you couldn’t take your eyes off her. She stood next to you but struck up a conversation with Amy. You listened nonchalantly, trying not to be too affected by her general presence, but could feel yourself failing miserably.

Amy was called away, which left you and Rosa alone at the bar and more than a little tipsy. You didn’t know what to say and hoped that she would either start the conversation or walk away.

“So,” she started, turning towards you, and resting her one elbow on the bar, her hip hitched out and kicked one boot over the other. She cocked her head and allowed her dark eyes to wander before bringing them back to yours, “you play darts?”

“Not really. A few times here and there, but I’m not very good.”

“C’mon. I’ll teach you.”

She didn’t wait for you to accept the invitation. Rosa grabbed your arm and led you to the now vacant dart board.

“Stand here,” she said and positioned you behind a worn piece of tape on the floor and went to gather the darts. She turned and strutted back to you, the sway of her hips making your heart beat slightly faster.

Rosa stood behind you and handed you a dart. She fixed your grip on it and then positioned your arm up in proper throwing stance. Her head was flush against yours, her lips near your ear. She pulled your wrist backward, letting her hands linger before releasing you and accidentally brushing against the side of your breast.

“Now, aim at the bullseye and throw,” she rasped and expelled a gentle breath of warm air against your neck, sending a river of goosebumps to race down your body.

You did as commanded, hurling the dart at the board and squealing with delight with it hit right outside the bullseye. Rosa leaned back against the pillar beside you and crossed her arms over her chest. A lustful smirk played on her lips when you turned and grabbed more darts off the table. She watched as you threw them, each hitting the board somewhere, purring with satisfaction.

“I may be reading this wrong,” she said with the rise of one eyebrow, “but, do you wanna get out of here? Go… somewhere else.”

“Yes,” you answered quickly, then chuckled nervously. “I mean, yeah, sure. Where do you wanna go?”

Rosa shrugged. “Let’s get some food, sober up a bit, take a ride on my bike. See what happens…”

That night of drinking and darts turned into breakfast the next morning, and your first kiss later that day. The next night you and Rosa went out again, and within a week you were inseparable, both at work and at home.

  “Y/N?” Amy questioned, waving her hand in front of your face. “You still with me?”

Snapping out of the daydream of your beginning with Rosa, you refocused on Detective Santiago. “Sorry, what?”

“I just asked if you wanted to get some lunch?”

“Oh, no. Thanks though. I’m gonna wait for Rosa to get back.”

“Oh, um… she was back and left again. Said she had lunch plans,” Amy replied, her nose wrinkling when she realized you hadn’t known that. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew.”

Rosa hadn’t mentioned any lunch plans; or plans of any kind, at all. Unless she was working a case, you always had lunch together. “I guess she forgot to mention it.” But had she? There were little things over the last couple days that had felt weird. Rosa was quieter than usual, and two nights in the past week she went back to her place instead of staying at yours. She didn’t invite you to stay over, either. Now, this?

“Jake and I are going to grab some pizza if you want to come,” she offered with a shrug of consolation.

“That’s alright. I really should just stay in and get this stuff filed.”

Amy offered a sympathetic smile and went to find Jake. You watched, feeling a little sad, as she and Jake got on the elevator hand in hand. It made you miss Rosa and wonder where she was.

Grabbing your cell, you hit speed dial and waited for Rosa to answer. After ringing several times, it went to voicemail. You didn’t bother leaving a message because you knew she most likely wouldn’t check.

 The lunch hour came and went, and there was no return call from Rosa. Jake and Amy returned from their outing and immediately got called out on a potential case. The other uniforms and detectives came and went, but no sign of Rosa.

Captain Holt gave you a few errands to run throughout the building, and as you were returning to your floor, you thought you caught sight of her as the elevator doors were about to close. She caught you seeing her but quickly turned before you could even gesture a wave. By the time you reached your destination, there was evidence she’d been at her desk, but she was nowhere in sight.

Another hour went by, and you tried to call her again. This time it didn’t even ring, went right to voice mail. Something was wrong, and all the signs you had been seeing up until this moment, the ones you were trying to blow off became glaringly obvious: Rosa wanted to break up.

A wave of sadness broke over you. As calmly as possible you got up from the desk and casually made your way out the door to the roof. You closed your eyes and lifted your face up to the warm breeze that was blowing through Brooklyn on that summer’s day. You thought back to a few weeks before, right before Fourth of July...

  It was hot. Rosa had been working nonstop as if the current heat wave was driving everyone in the city insane. She had given you a key to her apartment, told you to meet her there. When you got in, the air conditioning wasn’t working and the air was stagnant and oppressive. You knew she would want to cool off and relax over the holiday weekend but going to the beach would only be exhausting. Too many people trying to cool off in a space that was meant for maybe only half the number there.

It was the first bit of time off Rosa had in months and you wanted it to be both relaxing for her, and special for the two of you. Checking the clock, you realized you had about two hours to put something together to surprise her with, and by the time she arrived home, all the pieces were in place.

Rosa hulked into the apartment, tossing her helmet on the table, along with her key, and falling face first onto the couch with a long groan.

“It’s too hoooot,” she whined and pushed herself off the couch. “Why is it hot in here?”

“Because AC is broke. You gotta call your super,” you said walking into the living room from the kitchen. “How was work, babe?”

Rosa groaned again and rolled her eyes. She looked at you and saw the smile you wore. “What did you do?” she queried, ignoring your own question.

“What do you mean?” you asked, feigning innocence.

“You’re up to something. I know it. Whenever you smile like that—”

“You pay attention to my types of smiles?”

Rosa got off the couch and moved towards you. “I pay attention to everything.”

“Do you?” you asked with a seductive rise of your brow, “Okay detective, what do you make of this?” You handed her your cell phone with the information from the reservation still on the screen.

Rosa read it and looked at you with an expression of genuine surprise. “We’re going to the mountains? To this house? When?”

“Today. Now, actually. We can be there in two hours if you like. There’s a private beach on the lake, huge kitchen, oh and even a little home movie theater inside. Deposit isn’t refundable but—”

“We’re going. Right now,” she said right before planting an excited kiss on your lips. “Just let me pack.”

“Already done, babe.”

You nodded towards the overnight backpack on the table. “I figured you’d wanna take your bike, so I packed light.”

Rosa swallowed thickly and sighed. “I love you.”

Her words hit you hard, and you tried to not have an extreme reaction. She could just be saying it in response to the trip you’d planned last minute, or because you knew she’d wanna take the bike. You didn’t think she really meant that she was in love with you, so you simply smiled and turned to grab your own bag.

“Y/N,” she said, gently touching your shoulder, and guiding you back close into her. Her gaze upon you was soft and wistful while her fingers glided effortlessly along your bare shoulder and up your neck. “I mean it. I love you. I didn’t expect too. Like, at all. Yet, here we are. I don’t expect you to say it back--”

“I’m in love with you, Rosa.” Your heart was pounding in your chest, just like it did that night you played darts. Your hands were shaking, as was the rest of you, but you’d said it, finally. You were in love with her, and she was in love with you. 

“Good.”

She tangled her hand in your hair and pushed your mouth into hers. Her kiss was soft and warm and laced with that extra edge of desire that comes after a confession of love. You could feel yourself wanting to give in, but you knew that would have to wait until you reached the cabin.

Pulling away, you heard a growl of frustrating rumble from her chest. “Come on, plenty of time for that when we get there.”

  The slam of the door to the roof brought you back to the present. Furiously swiping at your eyes to clear the tears, you smoothed out your clothes and turned to see who was there.

“Y/N?” Charles asked, cell phone hoovering at his ear. “Are you alright?” He pocketed the device and joined you near the ledge. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” you said and smiled wanly. “Just thinking. Have you, by any chance seen Rosa?”

“Earlier today. Said she had something to take care of, but when I asked about it she clamed up and took off.”

You sighed and nodded in understanding. “She’s avoiding me.”

“No, no way,” Charles replied adamantly shaking his head. “Rosa… she’s not. She’s just busy. You know how she is—”

“Charles, I appreciate what you’re doing, but I’m not stupid. She’s been avoiding me all day. Even over the last week. She’s super secretive, won’t return my calls most of the time. She’s not wanted to see each other outside of work much, either. Things were going so well, I just don’t know what happened.”

Charles’ expression was pained, but he did his best to comfort you when he saw the fresh set of tears forming in your eyes.

“Y/N, you don’t know that. I know Rosa. She wouldn’t just—” he stopped himself, knowing that she would just break off a relationship without notice. “I’ve seen how she looks at you. Girl, I know that look well. It’s how I used to look at Rosa.”

You chuckled, knowing that his words came from a genuine attempt to comfort you. “I don’t want to lose her, Charles. I really do love her. But with this job ending soon and Gina coming back, maybe she just wants to cut ties. She’s bored with me, or maybe, I’m just not the one she wants long term.”

A buzzing came from deep within your pocket, causing you and Boyle both to jump. You pulled it from your pocket and saw there was a text from Rosa. All it said was: ‘Come to the briefing room, we need to talk.’

A lump of despair settled in your gut and you suddenly just wanted to run. If she couldn’t find you, she couldn’t break up with you. As childish as it sounded, it was all you could think of.

“She wants to talk,” you managed to get out, though low and broken. “Now, here… in the briefing room. How could she—here?! Of all places…”

Charles was shaking his head, grimacing with disappointment. “I love that woman, but sometimes Ro-Ro doesn’t know what she’s doing. Come on, I’ll go with you.”

“No, Charles. I have to face this on my own.”

 When you walked back into the bullpen, the entire floor was empty. No detectives, no uniformed officers going about their business. Holt’s office was dark, his door closed, and there was no one sitting in lock up.

You passed a curious look to Charles, who just shrugged and looked just as dumbfounded as you did. The door to the briefing room was closed and the shades were drawn, but you could see light coming from under the crack in the door. Just before you turned the handle and entered, you gave Charles one more look and he offered you his most sympathetic smile.

“I’ll be right here if you need me.”

“Thank you, Charles. You’re a good friend.”

Once you worked up the nerve to open the door, you were immediately stopped in your tracks by everything in front of you.

Rosa was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by a dozen flashlights; some stood up straight on the tables shining up, some hung from the ceiling shining down. Your favorite flowers were scattered throughout the room, along with your favorite song playing softly on the PA system from above. Jake, Amy, Sargent Jeffords and Captain Holt were standing behind her, along with half a dozen of the uniforms; all smiling like idiots, except Holt of course who was completely unreadable. 

“Sorry I missed your calls before,” Rosa said calmly. She took a few steps towards you and gave into the sly smile that wanted to peek out. “I was a little busy.”

“I can see that,” you said breathlessly. “What is this?”

From behind you, you could hear Charles excitedly stammering, but unable to form any real words. Jake quickly skirted by you and Rosa from the back of the room and escorted Boyle towards the back with everyone else.

“What the—Is she propo—”

“Charles! Shhhhhh!” Amy reprimanded as Jake pulled him in with a pat on the upper arm.

Rosa gave a warning glance over her shoulder and Charles quieted down quickly but watched in a state of euphoria.

She turned back to you, her face softened. “Well, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but I’m not really good at this stuff. So, I got these dorks back here to help me out.”

“How come I didn’t know? Why wasn’t this dork invited to help? I love this kind of stuff!” Charles whined but one further look from Rosa made him withdraw again.

Rosa reached into her pocket and when her hand emerged, she held up a platinum banded ring with a large opal in the center. Surrounding the opal, were tiny diamond chips that sparkled in the reflection of the flashlights.

You inhaled sharply as she bent down on one knee, holding up the ring with one hand and taking your hand with the other.

“Figured, if I’m only going to do this once in my life, I want it to be special. These people, they’re my family. I know them. I trust them. I wanted them to be here for this, so they know how much you really mean to me and that I want you to be my family, too. So, I wanted to know if maybe you wanted to get married, or something?”

Rosa was nervous but hid it well to everyone but you. Her hand that was holding the ring was shaking ever-so-slightly, and in some way, made you feel a little less nervous. For Rosa to do this so publicly, her love for you must run deeper than you thought. You knelt down in front of her so you were eye level.

“I never wanted anything more in my life,” you whispered, caressing her face with your free hand.

She sighed with relief and kissed you, forgetting the audience in the rear of the room despite their cheers of excitement and congratulations. Carefully slipping the ring on your finger, she stood up and brought you with her.

“Good. I was worried you’d say no. Then I’d have to move and change my identity again,” she mused, eliciting looks of curiosity to run through her colleagues. “It would be a nightmare.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want that,” you teased and wrapped your arms around her neck. “You scared the crap out of me, just for the record.”

“How?”

“I thought you were breaking up with me. The way you’ve been this week, and avoiding me today…”

“I’m sorry. I just wanted this to be perfect.”

“Awww,” Amy mewed, her hands clasped over her heart as she rested her head on Jake’s shoulder.

“Guys, this is amazing! I am over the moon for you! But Rosa, why didn’t you ask me to help?!” Charles asked, looking between Rosa and the rest of the squad.

“Because, no offense Boyle, but you can’t always keep a secret,” Amy answered for Rosa, but Rosa nodded in agreement.

You laughed, but then looked at Amy in surprise. “You knew this whole time? Even this afternoon when I was worried about her avoiding me?”

“Sorry,” she said with an apologetic shrug. “I was sworn to secrecy. No way I’m gonna spill Rosa’s secrets.”

“Smart,” Rosa replied and then turned back to you. “So, you sure about this? Ready for a lifetime with me and these guys, here?”

You glanced over your shoulder and watched them debating Boyle’s ability to keep a secret and smiled. “Yes, I am ready for a lifetime with you… all of you.”

Rosa smirked and twisted a finger in your hair. You kissed her softly and relished in the sweet taste of her lip balm. The chatter behind you began to grow, your moment of romance fading quickly as the squad continued prattling on amongst themselves.

“Wanna get outta here?” she asked quietly, entwining her fingers into yours.

“Yes, very much so. My place or yours?”

“Better idea,” she said and smiled as she held up her phone and showed you the reservation confirmation for the same cabin you had earlier in the summer.

“Holt gave us a few days off. Wanna go?”

You smiled wide and felt an urge to kiss her again. Knowing that the next kiss would be the one that led down a very primal path, you decided to hold that one until you reached the cabin.

“Hell yeah. Let’s ride, baby.”

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Twenty-Eight: Floating ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Ōnoki, Uchiha Itachi ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: Like Magic ] [ AO3 Link ]

“C’mon Uchiha, or we’re going to be late!”

Groaning, the little first year pulls his pillow up over his head. It’s his first official day of classes...and he’d rather do anything else. Especially sleep. His new roommates had spent half the night staying up and talking. Comparing bloodlines, homes, hopes for their schooling...when all Sasuke wanted to do was get some rest.

So, consequently, he’s exhausted.

“You’ll miss breakfast!” another voice calls up after him. “And you’ll get nothing else until lunch!”

“All right, all right!” Grumbling to himself, he frees his legs from his sheets and dresses, throwing his robes atop his clothes and fetching the books and supplies he’d laid out the night before. Something the This Morning Sasuke can appreciate...he’ll have to make that a habit.

Making his way out of the dormitory and into the Slytherin common room, he rubs at his face as dark eyes glance to the large glass panes that provide a view into the lake. A few fish mill about before scattering as a mermaid streaks past, armed with a crude spear. Said eyes go wide, staring.

“Last warning, Uchiha!”

“Coming!”

The hall is packed, many of his fellow Slytherins’ plates already piled high with all manner of morning goodies. Settling on eggs, toast, and sausage, Sasuke does his best to eat quickly without looking like he’s in a rush. After all, he has a family line to represent.

“I thought you weren’t going to make it.”

Jolting with a mouthful of food, he sees his older brother - a sixth year - making his way back toward the mouth of the hall already. There’s a fond glint in Itachi’s eyes as he ruffles his sibling’s hair. “Do try not to oversleep again - forming a good rising habit early will make it all the easier.”

Swallowing with a bit of struggle, Sasuke tries to reply, but Itachi’s already taken his leave. Students of several houses go to meet him, his popularity even defying the ever-notorious rivalries between the four founders’ students.

The little brother’s shoulders wilt. As much as he adores Itachi...there’s times he can’t help but resent him a bit for how perfect he seems in every way. Just once, he wish he’d slip up...maybe then Sasuke wouldn’t feel so bad.

Still, he can’t afford to tarry, and he shovels the rest of his food in his mouth before hiking up his bag and taking out a map of the school. His first class is Charms...a double with first years of Hufflepuff. It’s not exactly a class he’s looking forward to. Potions is more his style, or maybe Transfiguration. But Charms? It seems like something too...simple. Too plain. Hardly befitting of someone from the infamous Uchiha line.

Making it before the bell, he’s still one of the last to arrive, looking around for a seat. While most rows seem rather divided between the house, a few students intermingle...and that leaves mostly random seats. And practically all that are left are beside a Hufflepuff…

Not wanting to get scolded for being up after the bell, he slides into the nearest seat: the right-hand side front row, at the very end, beside a young girl of pale eyes and dark hair. The yellow accent to her robe betrays her as Hufflepuff. She gives him a nervous look, gaze flickering to the green of his own attire.

Before he can say anything, Sasuke’s cut off by a short, elderly man ascending several stacks of books to look down at them from his podium. He boasts a rather large nose, complete with several age spots, and deep-set wrinkles. Nevertheless, eagle-sharp eyes look down at them all.

“Good morning, class. I am Professor Ōnoki, your Charms instructor. In this class, we will use practical methods to practice giving objects new, and at times...unusual properties. I will warn you: this particular class has much room for error, and thus extraneous noise, and movements. Best to keep your wits about you! Now...to begin, please turn to page ten of your books. Today, we will start with the levitation spell!”

Taking out his tome with a sigh, Sasuke flicks to the correct page, glancing at the illustrated motions of the spell. It begins with a swish, and then a flick. Whatever that means.

“Wingardium...levi...osa?”

He glances over as his neighbor murmurs the incantation aloud. Wisely, she keeps her wand atop the table, not wanting to give it an accidental try before she’s ready.

“Now, as you can see in the diagram, you simply give your wand a swish, and a flick - along with the proper words, ‘wingardium leviosa’. Do mind the enunciation, now: ‘win-GAR-dium levi-O-sa!” The professor does just that, wand gesturing to a feather at his front. With a little jolt, it lifts from the podium and hovers a foot in the air. “Do keep in mind not to get too carried away. But I doubt many of you will succeed in our first tries. But, we’ll give it a shot.”

Sasuke scoffs under his breath. Oh really? Well, he’ll just have to prove the old man wrong! Taking up his wand with pursed, stubborn lips, Sasuke looks to his tawny feather. Pointing the tip at his subject, he swishes, flicks, and “Wingardium leviosa!”

...it doesn’t so much as twitch.

Staring incredulously, he takes a breath, hitching up his sleeves and exhaling curtly. “Wingardium...leviosa!”

Nothing.

All around him, echoes of the same spell are spoken again and again. And almost nowhere does he see movement. A few manage to send theirs flying, but...only off and down to the floor. So...maybe he doesn’t feel quite so bad.

Beside him, the girl is still studying the diagram, miming the motions over and over, without the spell. Sasuke has to admit, her movements are pretty fluid. Watching her out of the corner of his eyes, he sees her pause, take a breath, and then give it a try.

“Wingardium leviosa…!”

The feather wibbles...wobbles...and then shakily begins to hover a few inches, swaying this way and that as though on a breeze. She stares in rabid concentration, tip of her wand shaking slightly.

“Well well, now - it seems miss Hyūga’s made some progress!”

Eyes turn to her, and she quickly loses her hold, feather fluttering back to the desk.

“Excellent! Keep trying, everyone - even just a bit of movement is a sign you’re on the right track!”

Expression tinged a bit jealous, Sasuke battles himself before asking, “How...how did you do that?”

She startles, not expecting him to speak to her. “Um... I just - just did, really. You have to be really careful about...a-about how you aim, and...how you hold your hand when you move it…? At least, I think so. I’m...not sure.”

Be careful, huh? Well...he can give that a try.

“Here...f-follow how I do it.” Lifting her wand, the Hyūga goes through the motions, over and over in a loop. “See how, um...how they all fit together?”

Watching, Sasuke slowly eases into following, until they’re both moving in tandem. Giving it one last go, he then aims his wand, speaking the spell and holding steady.

The feather twitches, jerking a bit before leaping unexpectedly. “Whoa!” Trying to aim at it again, Sasuke accidentally sends it even higher!

“Ah, another success!” Ōnoki praises. “Just remember, it matches your movements! Too quick, or too sudden, and you’ll lose it!”

Trying to rein the thing in, Sasuke stares in dismay as it only starts floating closer to the vaulted ceiling of the classroom.

“Here, let me help!” Aiming her own wand, the Hufflepuff manages to snare it in her own spell. Between the pair of them, they wrangle it back down to the desk with a flutter.

Dark eyes meet pale, there’s a pause...and then they both break out into giggles. “It went so high!” she enthuses, clearly excited.

“How’d you grab it so easy? I could barely keep up with it!”

“I don’t know! I guess...maybe I’m just good at it…” Her tone tapers off, as though not sure she believes herself.

“Well, you gotta be, if you did that first try, huh?” Sour mood lifted, Sasuke smiles at her. “So...what’s your name?”

“Hinata. Hinata Hyūga.”

“I’m Sasuke. Uchiha.”

“N-nice to meet you! Should...should we try again?”

“Sure!”

Oof, another late night - had some irl shenanigans keep me from writing far longer than I wanted tonight, but done is done!      Another HP crossover, but this time with them a little younger, and a little cuter x3 I think Hinata would excel in things like Charms and Herbology, while Sasuke's more into Potions and Transfiguration. But at least Hinata seems happy to help him get the hang of their first Charms spell!      Aaand that'll do it for tonight! Thanks for reading n_n

[trevorcollumns]

A Good Sleep

Pairing: Trevor C x Reader

Genre: Fluff

Word count: 1800+

Warnings: swearing, a joke about a car crash

A/N: my first attempt at writing in 3 years, do me a favour and please let me know how I did lmao

—————

Seven goddamn thirty.

You click the B team office closed, arm the lock, and open Twitter as you shoulder open the door to the main office.

“Hey, I’m off now. I’ll pick up those SD cards in the morning - Trevor?”

You don’t see him at first, across the room at his desk, slumped over with his head cradled in his crossed arms. He hadn’t been one hundred percent today, but you didn’t realise it was this bad. The soft snores you hear tell you otherwise. You drop your bag on the couch and tread carefully through the trash pile at the back of the room. “Trev?”

He stirs and mumbles what might be a “what’s up,” but remains facedown in his keyboard.

“Come on, you’re going home right now.” You reach to place your hand on his back, but your stomach flip-flops at the thought, so you settle for the back of his chair. Swaying it lightly, you reach for his mouse to save his work and shut down the computer.

Trevor rouses to swat at your hand clumsily, “S’fine, Y/N, I just- I gotta finish this.” He sits upright and stretches, and you have to bite back a smile at the face he pulls. However, when he slumps backwards into his chair and rubs at his face, you frown at the bags under his eyes. Looking up at you, he gives you a dopey smile, “Is it that bad?”

You open your mouth to kindly object, but Trevor laughs at bit, and you do too. “Yeah, it’s that bad,” you admit. You know you have that stupid kind-of-fond, kind-of-pitiful smirk going on, but you let it stay there. “These emails will be here tomorrow, and you need sleep. So do I. Go home so I can sleep in peace.”

“Ah, well, I wouldn’t want to keep you up at night,” Trevor teases as he stands up.

Heat creeps up your neck and cheeks - oh please, like you don’t already . He yawns and stretches again, and you have to turn away your face as your blush deepens. You’re searching for something to say when he drops his stretch and claps his hands on his thighs.

“Fuck,” he sighs, his shouldered slumped and eyes trained unfocused on the floor.

You smirk again, “Fuck?”

“Yeah,” he smiles at you sheepishly as he collects his stuff from his desk, “Thanks for checking in. I would have been here all night.”

“I’m sure. And it’s no worry.” You regard him as he rubs at his face again, “Are you alright to get home?”

Trevor jingles the keys hooked on one of his fingers.

You laugh. “No. No, you cannot drive like this. Not in this weather.”

“I’ll be fine, I’ll just-”

“Nope. You’re ten minutes from mine. If something happened to you, I’d never sleep again.” You make your way back to the other side of the office, grab your bag from the couch and hold the door for him. “Let’s go.”

You watch him process your words for a beat, then pocket his keys and follow you to the door. “Yes, ma’am.”

The walk to your car is comfortably quiet, albeit the slight drag of Trevor’s feet and the little yawns he tries to stifle. You steal glances at him, disguised as concern as he lags behind you a little through the corridors of Stage 2. You’re unable to help yourself - Trevor is stunning twenty four hours a day seven days a week, but you’ve never seen him so sleepy. His mussed hair and heavy lidded eyes have you blushing for no good reason, and pushing away some persistent thoughts.

Outside, it’s well past dark and freezing, and you both pick up the pace as you dig your keys out of your bag. Your car isn’t far, and Trevor laughs as he moves a plate with the crumbs of this morning’s breakfast from the passenger seat before he climbs in. “Relatable,” he grins at you.

“Gotta do what I gotta do to be on time. Can’t let the boss down.” You flash him a teasing smile, turn on the heating, put your car in gear, and head for the gates.

As you do, Trevor scoffs. “Impossible.” He fiddles with your stereo, and your playlist from this morning quietly fills the silence. “Good stuff,” he murmurs and sinks into his seat, head back and eyes closed to the street lights now passing overhead.

“Big weekend, then?” you query.

He turns his face towards you, eyebrows raised in question. “Hmm?”

“It’s Monday and you’re dead to the world, Trev.”

“Oh,” he laughs, “I, uh, guess I got a little too invested in Hell’s Kitchen reruns last night.”

You look at him incredulously. “One half of me wants to say fair play, the other half wants to say you’re an idiot.”

“Fair play.”

You laugh, a good proper laugh, and Trevor does too, and you feel good - light, and giddy. The laughter is passing when you feel his gaze on you. Still giggling, you tear your eyes from the road to find him watching you with another dopey smile. “What?”

Trevor starts a little, like you’ve interrupted a thought. A beat goes by, and his smile returns. “You’re the prettiest Uber driver I’ve ever had.” He looks pleased with himself for the joke.

Your grin falters for a split second while you internalise the remark. “Mm, good one,” your grin returns, but your knuckles are white where you grip the steering wheel.

“No, really. I, uh, I mean it.” This time when you look at him, his smile is gentle and ernest.

“Oh.” You’re taken aback, and the shade of red you’re sure you’re turning is mortifying, but you glance back at him nonetheless, “Thanks, Trev.”

“Any time.” Trevor says confidently. When you look at him again, he’s staring out the passenger window. It could be the brake lights from the car in front of you, but his cheeks seem to glow just as red your own.

You let him dooze the rest of the way.

With your quiet music and Trevor’s low breathing, you find yourself on autopilot, reliving his words and chewing your lip until swells. Are you overthinking it? Could it really be that simple? Your crush on Trevor had been with you so long it had become more a casual avocation than the pining it had been. Sometimes you thought you’d worked past it - for the better. He’s your boss now, after all.

And now, this. Fuck.

You’re surprised when you find yourself pulling onto Trevor’s street. You shake his shoulder gently, “Where’re we at?”

He rubs the sleep from his face, answering you through a yawn, “Uh, it’s right up here on the left.”

You pull up outside his place, familiar from the time or two you’d visited for game nights. You leave the engine running.

“Well, goddamn, were you right about me not driving home, huh?” Trevor unbuckles himself and gathers his things in his lap. He’s smiling at you, cheeky again.

You hum in mock contemplation. “I’d say you would have been a goner around about the North Loop.”

“Hey now, I would have gotten further than that.”

“Dead meat either way. You were out like a light.” You’re smug, and you can’t help it, “Good thing I’m a good person.”

He opens his door, “You’re an amazing person, actually.” And he’s out on the street and coming around the back of your car before you can get a word in. You’ve barely closed the shocked little ‘o’ on your lips when he’s tapping your window. Cheeks still pink, you wind it down for him.

“An actual saint,” he continues, “I owe you one. Thank you so much, Y/N.”

“My pleasure. The pictures I may have snapped on the way make it all worth it,” you tease. “Very cute.”

He cringes, “Yikes. Did I drool?”

“Just a little.” You grin and lean towards him, against your door.

“How charming of me.” He runs his hand through his hair, a habit you could never look away from. His tired eyes catch the warmth of the streetlight, and his cheeks are flushed from the cold. His breath clouded by the frost about his head make you think of a halo - you smile at him softly.

“What?” His smile is nervous.

You almost don’t say it. Instead, you steel yourself, swallow what feels like your heart in your throat, and say brightly, “You’re the prettiest passenger I’ve ever had.”

Trevor’s surprise melts to something softer as he looks at the ground, then back to you, “You’re a dork.” It’s that dopey smile again.

You give an exaggerated shrug, “Yeah, but I’m right, so…”

He laughs. He’s shivering now, even in his coat, and it’s well past eight thirty. You’re about to say goodnight when he speaks.

“Do you want to get lunch together tomorrow?”

“I, uh - like, lunch lunch?”

“Like a date, yeah, if you want.”

Your heart’s in your throat again, beating ten million miles an hour, but somehow you manage to get “I’d love to,” around it.

Trevor laughs with what sounds like a little touch of relief, “That’s that, then.”

“Sure is,” you smile, thankful that you at least sound like you’re not losing your mind. “Hey, go get some sleep. You need it bad”

“Yeah, sleep sounds good.” He runs his hand through his hair once more before shoving it back in his pocket and stepping back onto the curb, “Have a good night, Y/N.”

“Back at you!”

You watch him turn and make his way across his front yard. He gets halfway before he stops and turns back, shaking his head.

“You alright?” you call.

“I forgot something.”

You look over your shoulder at your passenger seat, which is empty. “Trev, I think you’ve -”

You turn to lean out your window to him again, but Trevor’s already there, taking your face in his hands and kissing you squarely on the lips. In the moment it takes you to process what’s happening, you feel him start to pull away. Before he can, you wrap your hand around the back of his neck, and place the other on his shoulder, anchoring him right where you need him. You feel his smile against your own and every part of you is humming. You deepen the kiss, until you feel his tongue swipe gently at your bottom lip, and you want to, you so badly want to open your mouth to Trevor, but now’s not the time, so you don’t. You pull yourself away to look up at him. “Was that it?”

He’s breathless and flushed and starry-eyed, a mirror image of yourself. “Yeah,” he murmurs, “That was it.” He strokes your cheek before he takes his hands from your face, and you do the same. For moment, all either of you can do is stare at each other, short of breath and beaming. Trevor takes a step back onto the curb, but his gaze doesn’t leave your face, your dopey smile. “Night, Y/N.”

“Have a good sleep, Trev.”

[septic-dr-schneep]

MP Fanfiction - A Day of Remembrance

Summary:  Five years ago today, the Author was born. These days, the Host has learned not to expect a proper celebration, but that tingle of hope in his chest simply refuses to be suppressed...

Sometimes the Host wasn’t sure why he bothered to count this as the day he was born. It was the Author’s birthday, not the Host’s. The Host wasn’t born. He was manifested out of the Author’s power in a moment of desperation; he was a completely different man. Unfortunately, his inner Author didn’t seem to understand that. As soon as he woke, he felt that instinctive stir of emotion that told him today was special, something to be celebrated. He did his best to stifle it, since it would only lead to disappointment, but it kept perking up as he slipped out of bed and shrugged on his coat.

It was an ordinary day, he decided, and that was absolutely fi—

As he placed his hand on the doorframe, the Host stiffened, ducking his head against the approaching vision. His Foresight was kinder than usual, softer, spilling over him like warm water, and that made the pictures clearer and cleaner for him to make out. He opened his mouth to narrate, but the words caught in his throat as soon as he realized what he was Seeing:

Dr. Iplier was rushing back and forth from the cabinets in his lab to Bim, waiting at the door with open arms to receive the packs of balloons.

“How many packages did you buy, doc?”

“…Fifteen. You think that’s too much?”

“Of course not! You can never have enough balloons!”

 Wilford was eagerly leaning over Bing’s shoulder, urging, “Put more glitter, would ya? It’s not colorful enough! It’s gotta be blinding!”

“You think he’ll actually get to see it, dude?” Bing questioned even as he acquiesced and reached for the jar of glitter, dumping the glittering green onto the front of the card.

“Wilford knows what’s best,” the older Ego chuckled knowingly. “I’ll make sure it gets into the right hands, don’t you worry!”

 Smoke and frosting. “Oh, gee, I think I burnt the cake…” Silver Shepherd agonized as he waved the smoke away from the oven.

“You kiddin’, Shepherd? We had a perfectly good store-bought one over here!” Ed exclaimed as he threw open the refrigerator to show off the evidence. “I got seventy-five percent off on it an’ everything and you try makin’ one of your own? Those mitts of yours aren’t made for baking!”

“W-Well, my cupcakes turned out okay,” Shepherd replied sheepishly. “I’ll just…start frosting those, I guess!”

As the vision faded, the Host exhaled softly, the tingle of excitement kindling into a flame of gratitude. For the first time in a long, long time, he didn’t bother to stop it as he took half a step back, smoothing down his coat and running a hand through his hair to look a little more presentable.

Of course his friends had thought of him! He should never have doubted them; as of late, they’d gotten much better about celebrating birthdays and anniversaries of their video appearances. Why should his be any different? Bittersweet relief and hope welled warmly in his chest and despite himself, he giggled.

There wasn’t any reason to let them know that his Foresight had given them away; he’d be sure to act surprised on their behalf. Schooling his features into their natural grim pose and wiping a stray trickle of blood off on the back of his hand, he slipped out into the hall, hoping to go unnoticed. Perhaps, if he was careful, he would be able to avoid them until his Foresight let him know it was time for him to be summoned and surprised. That plan wasn’t meant to be, however; as soon as he heard the Host’s footsteps, Wilford spun away from Bing and fairly launched himself at him.

“Well, if it isn’t the late sleeper!” he crowed, nearly taking him off his feet as he tackled him around the shoulders.

“The Host bids good morning to Wilford,” he replied patiently, unable to resist the smile tugging at his face. Naturally Wilford couldn’t contain himself; whenever there was a party, he tended to let his anticipation spill over the entire day, bounce madly off the walls at the celebration itself, and then crash hard at the end of the night. “He wonders if he might have his morning coffee before—”

“Ahh, forget coffee, we’re havin’ cake for breakfast!” Wilford cut him off gleefully, pushing him toward the dining room table. “And you’re just in time to pitch in and sign this card; I managed to finagle almost everyone else into signin’ it and Bing just forged the rest, but seein’ as we don’t know what your chicken scratch looks like, you gotta do it yourself. Just try not to get it bloody! Yandere already did. You put more glitter over that, right, Bing?”

Just like that, the Host’s smile faltered and the flame of gratitude lost a bit of its oxygen. That request didn’t make as much sense. He had planned on “overlooking” Bing and the card he was making, not signing it. Why would he sign it if it was for him? Unless…

Warning bells rang quietly in the back of his mind as he let the mental images return for a split second, double-checking. There was no question that they were preparing for a party and it couldn’t be for anyone else; no one shared a birthday with him. It was too early to have a Valentine’s Day party, even by Wilford’s standards. That would likely come in a couple of days.

What had he missed?

Glancing between them in confusion and unease, the Host tuned out Bing and Wilford as they shot back and forth about the glitter, trying to process what Wilford was asking him to do, and as soon as there was a lull in their banter, he interjected cautiously, “Th-The Host would like to know who he’s addressing the card to.” That was the best way to get an honest answer—perhaps a little too honest, if the way Bing scoffed was any indication.

“Well, c’mon, it’s only all over the internet, bro!” he exclaimed, half-rising from his chair and swiping a search engine screen into the air. “Right there under ‘Famous February Birthdays’, see? Wait…Oh, I guess you can’t see that, sorry. But my buddy Chase called me up and let me know that tomorrow is his creator Jack’s birthday! He’s gonna be busy tomorrow, so we’re having an early party for him! It’s gonna be totally lit!”

Within the first five minutes of leaving his room, he had already let himself hope…

Why hadn’t he Foreseen this? His visions had never been selective before, had they? Had his own feelings dictated what he Saw and how he interpreted it? They were never meant to do that. How could he have let them cloud his judgment? Stupid, foolish, ignorant…

Stomach twisting into painful knots, he fairly collapsed into the chair Wilford pushed him toward, taking the pen Bing tossed at him and, after several seconds of hesitation, pressing it hard against the paper. He could feel the excess glitter catching underneath the pen nub and he tightened his grip against it, dragging it heavily along its course.

It was nothing. It was fine.

“Uhh…you better not tear that paper, bro; it took all morning,” Bing pointed out.

As soon as the last dark t in “The Host” was crossed, he rose, knocking his chair over and not bothering to pick it back up as he brushed past Wilford, muttering acidly, “The Host will be in his room and would like to request that he not be disturbed. It’s the best gift he could receive from them today.”

He wanted to bite his tongue as soon as he made that last remark—even more so when Wilford only responded with a puzzled, “What’s that s’posed to mean?”

“The Host won’t be going to the party; he has many other ways to occupy his time. He wants Wilford to convey his best wishes to Jack.”

Slamming his door as an end note to those venomous words didn’t feel as good as the Host hoped it would; as soon as it was securely locked, he slumped against it, pressing his lips tightly together.

He shouldn’t be a victim about this. He should return to them and tell them the truth, tell them that they had overlooked his birthday and that he was disappointed, but then they would feel bad for being unprepared. They would celebrate him out of guilt and pity; knowing them, he would become a hasty add-on to Jack’s party that no one wanted. Not even he wanted that. They shouldn’t go to the trouble…but even while they laughed and joked and celebrated someone else, their knowledge that it was his birthday too would have been enough for him.

When was the last time they had celebrated it? Not since he was the Author, at least. That realization let a bitter noise escape his throat—a laugh or a sob, he didn’t know. It was no wonder they’d forgotten. The Author was no more. If anything, this should be a day of mourning him.

That was what it would be then. Even if it was forgotten by the others, he would have a day of remembrance. He remembered the Author waking up to the sweet smell of cake and smiling into his pillow before he even sat up because he knew that the others were waiting for him. He remembered the light, the sounds, the food melting in his mouth, the proud voices praising him, fondly calling him their Author, and the hands playfully ruffling his hair and patting his back. He remembered how loved the Author had felt, for the first time since he was born.

He held onto that memory now as he drifted away from the door toward his desk chair, sinking into it and putting his head in his hands. Breathing deeply, he let his Hindsight replay it on a loop, occasionally hovering over the better parts, rememorizing their details. Every time he tried to imagine a scenario with the Host in the picture, however, the memory blurred and his head started to ache.

It wasn’t meant to be for him. For him, it was an ordinary day, and if the blood flowed a little faster after this thought, no one else was there to notice.

The Host wasn’t sure how long he sat there, reminiscing on the better times, but by the time he was jostled out of his thoughts, his cheeks were wet, his throat was dry and his stomach was achingly raw. He never had gone back out for coffee and food, he realized distantly as he straightened in his chair, spinning it around when he heard a few quiet taps at the door.  

He was unaffected, the Host reminded himself fiercely. He would ask if the party for Jack was enjoyable and he would make sure his voice was steady and sure when he did so.

When his flash of Sight came, he realized that the visitor wasn’t at all who he’d expected it to be, so the question never made it out. The Host took half a step back, his fingers tightening on the edge of the door as he leaned a little more of his weight against it. The King of the Squirrels fidgeted, gnawing on his peanut buttery lower lip and not quite looking the Host in the face.

“…Hello,” he ventured, bobbing a brief bow before glancing over his shoulder. “You aren’t busy, are you?”

“Whether or not the Host is busy depends on what the King needs,” he answered warily.

“I don’t need anything, thank you. I wanted—well, I don’t know if anyone else remembered, but it’s your birthday. I expect you already know that,” the King assured him, a touch of shyness coloring his voice. “Or maybe you forgot too, since you haven’t come out of your room all day. I never got the chance to give you my gifts.”

The Host barely had a chance to react before the King had squared his shoulders and was brushing aside his cloak’s folds to push a well-sized rectangular box and a large, lumpy, lopsided package into his hands. The Host fumbled with them slightly, holding them tightly against his chest as he glanced between them and their giver.

“How…or w-why…did the King remember?” he stammered gingerly.

“It wasn’t hard,” the King brushed it off simply, though the Host sensed he was doing his best to hide the sadness in his words as he continued. “The Author was my best friend and I gave him a good deal of gifts when I celebrated his birthday. You…hm. You may not be him anymore, but you deserve the same. So I wish you a kingly birthday, Host.” That said, he swept another bow, deeper and more graceful, before spinning on his heel and striding down the hall, no doubt toward the backdoor.

The Host stayed where he was for several seconds, processing what had just happened, and then he lowered his head over the box and the package, huffing lightly in disbelief. He barely registered the trip back to his chair, more focused on choosing which gift to open first. Eventually he opted for the lumpy bundle, twirling the ribbon around his fingers a few times before tugging it loose.

Into his lap spilled a thick scarf, made of real fur, if his Sight wasn’t deceiving him. That did leave him to wonder where the fur had come from; it wasn’t from the squirrels, surely! It didn’t matter; the scarf was astonishingly soft as he picked it up, automatically narrating his appreciation for it to the empty room. He couldn’t resist lightly nuzzling his cheek against it before wrapping it loosely around his neck and turning his attention to the box.

From the sound of it, the box was filled with sheaves of paper, he noted in puzzlement. As soon as his fingers brushed the top sheet, however, Hindsight struck in full force. The King and the Author. The King and his “scribe”, bent over their latest story, bickering over the edits to be made. Hands with dramatic gestures, rubbing tense shoulders, offering food after hours of work, dragging him outside into the fresh air.

“Bring your bat, Author, and I’ll pitch for you! We’ll get your blood pumping and your brain bursting with ideas again in no time!”

“Heh. What would I do without you?”

So many stories. So many characters poured onto the pages by the Author and given life through the King’s reading. He read late into the night—their fairytales. What was a King without a fairytale? What was a tale without an Author?

Surprised laughter. Needed warmth. Unlikely friendship. Unexpected care.

The Host took a shuddering breath as his Sight faded, returning him to his room and letting the nostalgia fade into a lump in the back of his throat. Swallowing around it, he returned the lid to the box and slid it to the edge of his desk. It would stay there until he was prepared to look through the memories again. It was a beautiful gift.

“I see I wasn’t the only one thinking of you today.”

Any hope that the lump in his throat would ease was promptly quelled by that voice. Again the Host spun his chair around, rising before it had even stopped its motion.

“I don’t suppose this has been a particularly happy birthday for you,” Dark mused aloud, his tone bordering dangerously on the anger he’d worked meticulously to suppress. “Seeing as only one of the others remembered it.”

Inhaling deeply, the Host took a step closer; he could feel Dark’s aura stirring, tickling his exposed skin as it twitched in agitation. He knew the anger was on his behalf, but he offered a slight smile against it.

“Thanks to the King’s gifts and Dark’s timely arrival, the Host holds out some hope that his birthday evening will be better than the day itself.”

Though he wasn’t using his Sight at the moment, he could hear Dark forcing a smile in return as he hummed in agreement. After a beat of silence, Dark cleared his throat, drawing closer and wrapping his arms snugly around the Host’s shoulders for a long series of seconds. Taken aback by the hug but unprotesting, the Host leaned into the contact until Dark was the first to withdraw. As soon as he did, the Host perked up, pulling his new scarf in closer around his neck against the unexpected chill of the evening air as he Looked around.

“Oh…Dark has taken them to their favorite walking route,” he realized with a wry laugh, shaking his head.

“I thought it was appropriate. We do come here most often when the others are otherwise occupied, and since they’re more than happy gallivanting around with the Septic Egos…”

“Dark ought to warn the Host next time before transporting him somewhere,” the Host pointed out, doing his best not to let on how grateful he was for the consideration—for any of this. “If he’d pulled away prematurely, he could have ended up in two places at once and that would be distinctly unpleasant.”

“As if you had any intention of pulling away,” Dark shot back just as easily, sliding an arm through his and pulling him into an easy stroll. “Now allow me to take you wherever you’d like to go for dinner. I suspect you haven’t eaten.”

How had he—? The Host stopped himself mid-question, ducking his head to hide a grin. Of course his friend had thought of it. He should never have doubted him.

[insomniac-arrest]

Kissing the Pacific

story based off of @rasec-wizzlbang ‘s post here

summary: Josh is kind of still in school and mostly trying to make it as a nothing beach bum in Honolulu, he thought his first love was the waves and the second costco free samples- then he’s challenged to a fight at sundown during surf competition season

It doesn’t end how he expects.

tl:dr- an Australian and Californian surfer fall in love

The sun was going down next to a rising bonfire and down on the choppy surf, the water blazed against the paradise view and Josh can only put his hands up loosely.

“Look, man, I have like 68 cents in change and like, I totally don’t know how to convert that,” Josh reached for his empty pockets and realized they were just swim shorts with holes in them, “sorry dude.” The other surfer had sun speckled skin and a good couple inches on him, he squared his shoulders, “I said, pound-town.” He emphasized with his fists up, “not pounds. Square up derro.”

Josh threaded his fingers through his hair and pushed his bangs back, “okay, cool cool, fighting. I thought you wanted money.” Lucas, the guy who came in third at the tournament yesterday was widening his stance and Josh was looking past the palm trees to the little series of houses lighting up one by one.

“Oi, come on, eyes forward, I’m about to take the piss out of you.” He pushed on his shoulder roughly and Josh’s mouth fell open. “We’ll do it fair.”

“I’m sure,” He raised his hands higher, “but we could like get an interventionist or like, I think I could find a stick to talk with? I didn’t even medal today soooo I don’t see…the issue?” He rubbed the back of his neck and more hair fell out of his pony tail.

“Don’t give me that yank, I heard loud and clear you were aiming for a lick, well I’m here.” His nostrils flared and Josh raised his eyebrows.

“Who said I want to lick what?”

Lucas leaned back a little, “they said you thought I was an arse with a bad taste in guys. Said you wanted to square up.”

“Uh,” Josh looked at his broad chest and scuffed his feet in the sand, “I guess we could fight if you want, but no ankle shots, I gotta ride on these bad boys.” Lucas raised both eyebrows and put his fists down, “you really didn’t call my sister a slag?” Josh frowned, “I don’t think I even know what that is.” Lucas let out a full-bellied laugh and slapped him on the back, “I see, Debby is a fuckin’ liar, you don’t seem like the fighting type then.” Josh was feeling slight whiplash, but it wasn’t as bad as when he took the Route 27 home at rush hour so that was fair, “oh damn, no way. Do you know how many fights I can afford? I can’t even afford normal beef right now.” Lucas gave another delighted laugh.

“You aren’t bad yank.” “Yank?” He snorts, “I’m from California.”

He smiles back at him, “Let me buy you a drink, no hard feelings.” Josh lifts his chin, “Righteous.”

Lucas pushed him by the shoulders to the nearest bar, “you see those 10 footers today?” “That is why I come down here, oh man.” He passes some girls in grass skirts and a series of five open-roof jeeps. Lucas pats him roughly on the back again, “come out with me tomorrow morning.” Josh shifted from foot to foot, “right on. Sun rises at 6 here, we can get out before then.” They enter the open-air pub, “if you can get up tomorrow at 6 after you drink with me mate, then I’ll buy you rounds for the whole week.” Josh turned around with a lopsided grin, “don’t think I’m not going to keep up guy. Sons of Cali go hard too.” Lucas just gave him a sideways look, “oh ho ho, well I guess we’ll see.” He taps on the wood of the bar surface.

“Yeah,” he tied his hair back properly again, “I rushed with beta phi.” Lucas shook his head, “I’ll pay you five bucks when you regret this.” He rolled his eyes and Lucas bought him his first locally brewed Hawaiian lager, it was like Freshman rush but he couldn’t look at the dude’s face too much. He didn’t like being blinded much and couldn’t do much but take another drink from the guy. He laughs about something he doesn’t remember until it hurts and sips down more rounds than he could properly count.

“To the waves,” Josh cheers at his tenth drink and having Lucas hold him up.

“To gangly pacifist sons of Cali,” Lucas winks down, “and not puking on my shoes.”

Josh shook his head, “to us then man.” They push back another, he’d run with the best of them.

——–

Josh thinks his hangover has a hangover.

He barely remembers the walk over as he staggers through the empty streets to Lucas’s hotel at the crack of dawn. Maybe he couldn’t feel his teeth and had twelve mysterious bruises, but some things like spite and proving a point came first. A painful first.

He stumbles to the motel front desk and asks for Lucas Lee three times with varying degrees of success. She manages to ring the room, but the place seemed to be empty.

The other surfer comes down a second later with two coffees and the look of someone who had showered and maintained a proper amount of stubble from the day before. Josh just groans.

“What’s shaking gorgeous.”

“A lot of Advil,” he tries to chuckle.

“I’ll be honest, didn’t think I’d see you today mate.” He hands him the other coffee, “knew you were a true surfer.” Josh just rubs at his eyes, “you bet your down under ass I am.” He sways in place, “you owe me another round tonight that means.” Lucas cajole’s him toward the door, “how ‘bout a round of waters this time. And get some food in you.” He agrees fully. Josh isn’t entirely sure how they make it to the beach, but Lucas tells him stories about his roommate doing keg stands and his head clears up a little bit. The surf is like a beautiful quilted cup of blue when they arrive, a mesh of fading and arriving colors, Josh almost cries when he sees it.

Then he lies down in the sand and presses his palms to his eye sockets, “Ugh.” Lucas snickers at him and they let another group of surfers go on ahead of them.

Josh briefly squints open his eyes, Lucas was already shirtless and in a pair of professional wet shorts. “Go on,” Josh waves weakly, “I’m a dead man crawling. I think I owe you five bucks or something.” Lucas nudges him, “nah, deal was I owe you five bucks for regret and being cocky.” He sits down next to him, “cute cocky, no worries.” “Gross cocky now.” He taps him with his foot, “I’ll take you on the water when you feel a little better.” He makes him drink water and tells him about the coral reefs in Sydney, the undertow and eels he caught, the bleaching of the flora and the second year of his enviro major.

Josh briefly talks about his finance classes before making a gagging motion and Lucas laughs with the sun.

The waves are calm that day, shallow and easy, Lucas just lets him straddle his board and push off into the deep sea. They just float for the day, talking and leaning back on the one long board.

He drags his feet through the water and lets the spray wash his face, they float.

———

“So, it was drinks for the week, right?” Josh says the next day with his shades on and better cologne on then ‘the morning after rank,’ “‘cause I wasn’t kidding about that 68 cents thing dude.” Lucas leans back on the wall of the breakfast nook they met at, “how are you even surviving here? Honolulu isn’t known for being cheap.” Josh had been floating around Honolulu for a month now.

Josh taps the side of his nose, “Let’s just say I play a mean street guitar.”

Lucas leans forward and chuckles, “of course you do.” “Hey man, I totally do!” He shows him his almost-just-as-good air guitar moves.

“No, I mean, I’d like to see that.” Lucas was smiling a 100-watt environmentally friendly solar panel powered smile and Josh has to look at his feet and scratch his hand.

“K, right, cool.” He runs to get his guitar.

He unironically plays Wonderwall and gets a couple extra bucks from the corner store lesbian couple when he plays All You Need is Love followed by I Want to Hold Your Hand. He may or may not look Lucas in the eye when he hesitantly glances up.

He gets another dollar.

He’d done more embarrassing things for less money, but the Beatles were coming through for him again.

———-

It was a fast two weeks, a week of impromptu challenges and soccer games, of beach sand castles and hanging out until dawn.

It was a quick two weeks.

Lucas was apparently leaving on the 25th, Josh had a pretty poor sense of time and a second tournament to finish up. He finally medals that day, but he wasn’t really here for the gold, he was here to go with the flow and maybe catch a ten footer.

And now maybe something else.

Josh shouldn’t feel like he was getting his first wipe out on a beautiful day, with his stomach twisting and a sense of bruising on the inside like a soft peach, it was pretty uncool.

He would take out another joint and try to quiet the humming but his dealer had cut him off until he agreed to play halo with him like he promised (“you’re spending all your time with that Aussie flake”).

Maybe he’d switch to vaping.

The 25th crept up like a bad dream and Josh actually remembered to plug his phone in the night before so he could text as much as possible the next day. He was doing one more ‘Sunshine Hawaii’ friendly competition and then Lucas had his own tournament. Josh runs down half the island it feels like to get there.

“Lame, lame, lame,” he stubs his toe on the way and skids past five and a half flustered looking tourists as he sprints toward Waimea beach.

He makes it in time to see Lucas do you a bottom turn and a spectacular roundhouse cutback, the water under his board parting in a clean blitz as he hit the lip of the wave. “Woo!”

Josh ran down the beach and gave him a thumbs up before he even finishes the foam climb and eases back down.

“Damn Lucas, damn!” He bounces on his heels and wishes for once his best shirt wasn’t a faded coca cola tee. He bounces again, Lucas was coming in.

There is a scratching of pens at a table nearby and Josh isn’t even looking, he never really did anyway.

Lucas waves both hands as he paddles back in, “Pretty good, right?” He mouths.

“Fuckin’ sweet!” He shouts and doesn’t care at the crowd flashing him bent looks.

Lucas came in at the next tide and Josh expected him to go give a play-nice smile to the judges, he makes a beeline toward him instead.

“Man, I am totally going to miss you when you go dude,” Josh cups his mouth and yells, “I want to see that like ten more times.”

Lucas was fast walking, “don’t remind me I’m leaving.” He calls back loudly.

“Nah, you’re leaving man,” he says with a slight dip in his stomach, “but like, on a high note, can’t believe-” “Not yet,” Lucas grabs Josh’s shoulders, “you run all the way here from Waimea?”

He just pulls his hair back and grins, “yeah.”

“Good Lord,” He blinks, “is that a ‘kiss me now’ gesture or should I just think guys from Cali are crazy.”

“Yeah.”

Lucas leans forward tentatively and Josh upswings into a solid kiss, crowd be damned and sexuality be wavy at best.

It tastes like salt and feels like a gliding through the barrel on a board, which is exactly how he wanted all his kisses to taste and every high to feel like. It melts like a sunset and dawns in his belly like a sweet starburst, the whole world is slow and he didn’t want to be anywhere else.

He could live in that moment and not time zones or countries ever again.

They come up with a visiting schedule and download the Avocado couples app.

[emmalinechayefsky]

St. Patrick’s Day

Summary:  Basically just the Winchesters and their Angels celebrating Saint Patrick's Day. 

Genre:  Fluffy with a hint of angst.

Warnings: There’s like two seconds of angst and sexual themes.

Word Count: 979

Read on AO3

Read on Wattpad (Part 1) (Part 2)

A/N: So this was orginially posted on Wattpad as two different parts but I decided to combine them. This was written forever ago for St Patrick’s Day and I was really proud of it but not so much anymore. All of my fics can be found on my wattpad @Emmaline_Chayefsky, here. Enjoy.

“Hey Sammy," Dean called to his moose of a brother, "We should celebrate today."

Sam sighed, looking down at his bland breakfast. "Why should we celebrate today? Last time I checked, Thursday was not a day to be celebrated."

Dean grinned wildly, "It's St. P's Day Sammy! And there's an Irish bar not too far from here. We should go!" Sam groaned, "Dean, we are not going to a bar just because it's St. Patrick's Day. And since when do you ever want to celebrate an actual holiday?"

Dean ignored Sam's question and instead tried to bribe him. "What if we invite Gabrieeeell?" Dean asked in a sing-song voice.

At the mention of Gabriel's name, the archangel popped into the room, sitting right on Sam's lap.

"You called?" Gabriel said with a smirk, snapping his fingers, causing a lollipop to appear between his lips.

Sam, seeing the position Gabriel was in and feeling the tightening in his pants, quickly picked Gabriel up and sat him on the floor next to the desk.

Dean smirked and asked Gabriel if he wanted to come to the Irish bar with him and Sam. "I'd love to come along, Dean-o. But if you invite me, you gotta invite my baby bro too," Gabriel replied, smirking at the blush that arose on Dean's face.

"Fine," Dean grumbled, "Dear Castiel, I pray for you to get your feathery-" Dean stopped when he heard the familiar flapping of wings.

"Hello Dean," Castiel said, his blue eyes locked on Dean, completely ignoring the other two beings in the room.

Dean looked up and smiled brightly. "Heya Cas. I was wondering if you wanted to come with us to an Irish bar a few towns over. We're celebrating St. Patrick's Day there," Dean explained.

Cas tilted his head slightly. Confused, he asked, "What is St. Patrick's Day? What does it have to do with Irish bars?"

Dean sighed and explained the traditions to Cas. "St. Patrick's day celebrates the death of Saint Patrick, a saint of Ireland. We also wear green today so people don't pinch us. If you don't wear green, you can be pinched." Dean demonstrated this by pinching Sam's arm, which quickly earned a possessive growl from Gabe.

"Oh, touchy-touchy aren't we Gabe?" Dean asked with a smirk. Sam glared at both his brother and Gabriel. "I'm not your property Gabe," Sam snapped, finally done with the archangel's tricks, "We're not dating, nor are we doing anything that would make someone think otherwise."

Upon hearing these words, the smirk fell off of Gabriel's face and it turned apologetic and sorrowful. He ran after Sam, who was leaving to get in the car.

"Well then," Dean said awkwardly to Cas, "We should give them time alone. In the mean time, you need to change your clothes." This caused Castiel to look down at his usual attire in confusion and possessiveness. "What's wrong with my trench coat?" He asked grumpily.

"It's not green. I don't want you to get pinched like Sammy." Dean said, blushing after he realized how that sounded. Thankfully, Cas didn't notice. Instead, he just snapped his fingers, changing the usual tan colored trench coat to an emerald green one. "Better?" He asked Dean.

"Better," Dean confirmed, admiring Castiel. A few awkward moments passed before Dean got up and headed in the direction of the door. "Come on, Cas! We gotta leave now!" He called to Castiel, who was following behind Dean slowly.

Once everyone was settled into the Impala, Sam and Dean in the front two seats as per usual, they headed off, on their way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

~

Dean pulled into the bar's parking lot, glancing at the sign and snorted at the very creative (*sarcasm*) name. The old, beaten down sign read: Patty's Irish Bar.

The two hunters, both paired with their proper Angel, hopped out of the car and walked into the bar. Almost immediately, both Sam and Castiel covered their ears due to the loud noise.

"Come on, Sammy, don't be such a spoilsport!" Dean shouted over the people's laughs and conversations, "I'm gonna go get a drink. Cas, you're comin' with me." Dean grabbed Castiel by the wrist and dragged him to the bar.

"What would you two handsome boys like tonight?" The blonde female bartender asked them, leaning over slightly to give them a good view of her breasts.

Cas' eyes widened and he looked nervously at Dean, not knowing how to react. "Two beers please," Dean said sharply to-he glanced down at her name tag-Molly. Castiel looked gratefully at Dean for handling the awkward situation.

When Molly came back with their beers, Dean chugged his and quickly asked for another one, practically inhaling that one as well.

Castiel on the other hand, sipped slowly at his, glancing over to where Sam and Gabriel had finally pulled their heads out of their butts and were now making out passionately in the corner. Cas nudged Dean, grinning and pointing at the pair. The hunter sighed and reached into his pocket, giving Castiel, who was still grinning smugly, a wad of money. "Fine," Dean grumbled, "I just thought it would take them a bit longer. I guess I was wrong."

There was a moment of awkward tension between the pair as they both stared into each other's brightly colored eyes, forest green clashing with ocean blue. Then, Dean took a deep breath and gently put his hand of Castiel's stubble-covered cheek.

"Is this okay?" He asked the Angel in a whisper. Castiel stared into his forest green eyes for a moment longer before crushing their mouths together.

Soon after, they were forced to separate, foreheads leaning against each other and both of them gasping for air.

Then Castiel smiled and said, "I've been wanting to do that for a long time," before molding their mouths together again.

[sayadesrina]

Chapter 1 - It Never Has A Meaning, It Does

(If Chloe was a designer, and Beca still on music label production)

Brooklyn, New York

*** 'Where are some manners went through nowadays ?' Chloe packed her bag and looking for her assistant, that already gone 3 hours long just for lunch! She just want to step out through her door’s room, when the one that she looked for already stood up in front of the door and ready to knock. “Seriously Riles? It’s already 4! What are you ate? Bunch of rocks?”, Chloe step forward through Riley, and stop near by the desk that full of anything that she’s always considered as garbage. “..and please can somebody throw away these whole shits from this desk?” “Noted boss”, Riley following Chloe that has appointment for meeting up their new client. It takes 2 hours long to ride on their destination, they should go since 2 PM just because Riley, she took a deep breath for waited her assistant back from her ‘Gone with the wind that already been her habit, for lifetime’. Chloe take driver seat, although it’s not her own car that they always used to company needs. The company owned it. She let Riley to take seat beside her, the passenger one. “Where have you been Riles? I’m just wondering..” “Something urgent happened, okay? Can you just chill out?”, her sighed does sounds like she’s sick of any Chloe’s pep talk about her. “..and can you just told me about that? Maybe I can help you out” Riley have no word that come out from her mouth. “I’m sorry if I way to hard on you, but you must to know, that manner will always make you grow up.”

***

The Apartment

“Hey ginger! How’s it going?” was first voice that Chloe hear when she’s unlock her apartment’s door. She throw herself into the couch ready to nap, “Chloe Beale save the day again, yay!” she’s rolled her eyes. “Wait…what?!” “It’s Riley, Becs. She’s always freak me out! How’s she can get promoted if she’s always acted like a dumb”, Chloe grab her pillow to cover her face. “Did you mean, dumb and dumber”, she pointed her finger to Chloe’s face. “What do you mean?!” “Yeah, you’re the dumber one, you knew that she’s unreliable, but you still kept her tho.” Beca giggling while make something on her cup. “If her mother not forced my mother that made my mother finally forced me, to brought her into the company.” “You need to relax Chlo, here” She handed a cup of coffee to Chloe. “…and now, you have to make your smart brain to think harder, you have to train her.” She raised her eyebrow. The whole expressions that Beca got from her, tells Beca every big question in Chloe’s mind. “Yasss, you’ve got all the talents that every designer want to have…and now you have to give your nephew at least one of them. So, she can be useful for you, got it ?” “You’re the genius one Becs!” Chloe drained her cup and ready to build her ideas into reality.

***

Residual Heat Studio

Beca open her door’s room and find a guy that very familiar to her, that she hasn’t seen for long time. “Jesse? What are you doing here?” Her shouted make Jesse startled. “Ohh…Hi Beca!” The door’s room opened again, “Hey Beca, Sorry I’m forgot to tell you that you have a visitor…” Her voice getting slower. Stacie feel the awkwardness inside the room, she’s turn around quickly and leave them together. Beca raised her eyebrow, “So, you haven’t answered my question.” “Ah, yes. So, I came back here from New York, finally got my proper job, thank God! I owned these theatrical things, and I need to find some creative roles to fill it…” Jesse’s explanation make her forehead’s frown, still talkative, she’s think. “…I’m already looked for long time, and I got none. Besides…” “Ah, please don’t say that..” “…I’m really missed you Beca!” one simple sentence that made Beca’s smirk. *sigh “So, what do you want, dude?” Beca fix her table that make it even worse, because actually she’s way to word ‘neat’, and Chloe always took the role. Jesse step slightly to Beca, shown his delightful smile that always being remembered by her. “Can you help me to fulfill my dream?” “Ugh, gross! Stay away from me Jess, at least 3 metres away...” That make Jesse step backward on her. “…and why I have to help you with that?” “Because, we’re lover!” “..ex-lover, you mean by that?” Beca’s smirk again and again. “haha you’re so funny, we didn’t broke up baby.” “What? Are you insane? You broke me up last year, because you have to go to New York with your bitch-girlfriend and…” Beca’s lower her notes. “…really, did we have to talk about it again?” she’s grumbled, and step forward to door. “Please, Jess just leave. I’m happy here without you anymore.” “But, Beca…” Beca open the door, and look at Stacie, “Stace, call the security to escort this dude into the front door, please ?” “Oh..sure!” “But, Bec…Beca…wait up..” and Jesse’s voice dissapeared with the door’s slammed. dung! New message!

From : Fat Amy Message : Hey Babes! Don’t forget to attend our party tonight, don’t even dare to late! Those guys are ready for us! See y’all!!

“Ah…nice!”

***

In The Club

“Hello…bitchesss!!” Amy run and suddenly hug the whole gangs tightly. “Ugh..stop it Ames, I can’t breathe!” Beca grumbled. “I missed you guys!” No one more excited than Amy tonight. “Uhm..please Ames, we lived together with Chloe, remember that?” “Not you Brunette!” Lily bring some bottles and glasses to their table, to get drunk intentionally. It’s already 3 hours since they talked about anything in their life. Aubrey and Emily dancing and singing wilder than anyone else tonight. Stacie was too busy to flirt with some guys on the other table. Beca look around, and get something not usual that she didn’t recognized earlier. “Where’s Chloe?” “Yeah, where’s our party starter?!” Aubrey already got drunk, and hold two bottles in her both hands. Everyone shook their heads, because no one know where’s Chloe now, or what was she doing now. “Beca! I heard, Jesse stopped by your studio this evening, is that right?” Flo got excited. “Ugh…Stace!” Beca rolled her eyes. “Wait..what? Jesse?? That dumb guy??” Amy almost choked because of that. “Why you always called him by dumb Ames?” Beca got curious. “Yeah, he want to hooked up with you Grumpy…” Amy talk loudly while pointing her finger to Beca’s nose. “…and now, he want to hook up with you again.” add Aubrey, while laughing out loud. “Ugh…you’re so drunk guys.”

***

The Apartment

Beca walk out from her bedroom with half-conscious through the kitchen. “Morning, Becs!” Chloe put smile on her face brightly, while she cooked breakfast for Beca and Amy. She looks so tired, there's black circle under her eyes. Beca got startled, she’s like saw a ghost in front of her. “Wow..Chlo, where have you been last night?” Beca grab her cup and fill it with water. “You have no idea Becs.” and leave Beca with her big question mark in mind. “What do you mean by that? Seriously, I didn’t get that.” Beca raised her eyebrows. “Nah, it doesn’t matter babes”, Chloe split the dish on 2 plates, it’s fried rice with scramble eggs above it. “Now, eat your breakfast, and I’ll get myself suit up” “…But, Chlo!”, Chloe already going into her room, when Beca started to grumbled to her. Amy stepped outside her room, and when she sees plate that full of fried rice..”Wow breakfast! I’ll crush it quickly. Thanks Chloe, you’re the best!” Beca shook her head while chew her meal quickly. “what happened with her?” “Me? I’m just empty my plate Beca, what’s so wrong about that?” “Not you Ames, it’s Chloe.” Amy stop chewing, and look around through Chloe’s door, “Nothing’s weird I guess, don’t worry Beca, maybe she’s just need to breathe.” ‘Yeah, I guess so’ Beca look at Chloe’s door at a glance, and hoping that everything’s gonna be alright.

***

Pixar Motion Pictures

“Hey, Sister. Can I come in?” Chloe nodded her head, “Since when you kind a being nice to me?” Chloe sees her nephew’s gesture, that not usual. “What can I do for you Riles?” “Aw, straight to the point. You prefer being like that, right ?” Riley grab her chair in front of Chloe. “Proceed.” Chloe’s right hand still busy with her stylus pen on the drawing tablet. “You knew that guy, right? That seated beside you yesterday, the blue shirt one, with black collar, chocolate chino, and…” “…yes, I knew him. It’s Dave.” Chloe place her stylus on the table, and stare at her, just like ‘now, what do you want Riles’ “Ah, yes yes him, Dave. Can you introduce me to him?” Riley looks so excited about that, it’s like there are millions stars in her eyes right now, with no doubt at all. “What? Why I have to do that for you?” Just like Chloe’s presumption earlier. “I like him, a lot!” Riley yelled at her, while get up from her chair. Chloe shook her head fervently. “Just get out of here Riles.” Riley didn’t get what Chloe said. about that, she’s get mad. “What’s so wrong about that, Chloe? Did you like him either, huh?” “You’re too much. I won’t hear anymore Riles, just back to your tasks, it’s waiting for you.” Chloe step to her door, open it and ask her to get out. “Okay, I don’t need your help tho!” She’s get really mad, she step outside while slam the door, right in front of Chloe’s face. ‘inhale…exhale…’ the one thing that only Chloe can do right now. dung! New message!

From : Beca Mitchell Message : Hey babes! Do you mind to walk in several blocks from your office? Starbucks 4 PM, sharp!These whole co-worker shits bother me a lot. See you soon!

***

Starbucks

“1 double-shots ice americano, and 1 ice caramel machiato, please” Chloe look around inside Starbucks to find her brunette, and gotcha! The black all-in-dress on the corner. “Hey, Becs! How’s it going?” Chloe grab her chair, right in front of Beca, and smiles brightly like she always did. Beca always wondering, how Chloe always put her smiles on, in any conditions. She’s always want to being like that, but she’s too honest to express her feelings everytime. “Wait..is finally Universal hired you to produce some musics for them?” “Nah, you gotta be kidding me.” Chloe can’t figure it out what happened to her best friend right now. “It’s about Jesse, Chlo.” was one and only answer that never been in Chloe’s mind. “Wait…what? I didn’t get that Becs.” “Yesterday, Jesse came up to my studio…” “…to finally hook up with you again? After these whole times? Hell No!” protest Chloe, some dissapointment draw on her face. “Please Chlo, don’t cut it out my words…” Beca throw some tissues to her. “…he looked for some creative roles, for his theatrical things that he owned now.” “Wow..wow..stop right there, so Jesse has his own theaters ?” Chloe gasped. “..yeah, well he said so. But, I’m not sure enough.” The barista called Chloe’s name, she grab her orders as fast as she can. “I said no, of course, and I asked security to escorted him got out from the studio.” “..wow, that’s my girl yeah!” in second Chloe feel proud of Beca’s gutt. “thank babes!...” Beca drink her caramel machiato, and now left in by half. “…but, now the disaster came up.” Chloe’s expression tells everything that she’s so curious about that. “Jesse came to my boss, and gave his proposal…” Chloe’s jaw dropped. “…and is he agree?” “…in a flash.” “Wow…that was so amazing!” Chloe almost chocked with her own americano. “Chlo!—“ Beca smack her, and make her laughing out loud. “—Stop it! It’s not funny at all, you know. It sucks!” “Chill out Becs. As long as you never get hook up again with Jesse, all is well” “But…how ?” Beca start to imagine that she start her day to meet Jesse everyday as a partner. “Working with ex’s never get it right you know, but well, just take it for granted.” Chloe hold her breath. “You can stop it, when you reach your limits” And again, Chloe always has something to say that make anyone around her, feel comfortably safe from their bad day. 

***

The Apartment

Amy step inside the apartment while handed 2 big bags donuts, and stop it when she sees Chloe was already on her dress, her black dress that stopped on knee and brown boots on her both feet. “Where are you going Chloe? Didn’t you see me, brought these whole donuts for us?” Said Amy, she seems dissapointed. “Hey, what’s going on?” Beca step inside either, and shut the door behind her. “Uhm..sorry guys, I have to attend this company celebration party.” Chloe check out her make-up once more before she finally going out with her car, and made Beca gave assumption that ‘you seems won’t to be attend.’ Yes, you’re right Becs, deep down inside, I won’t. *** Company Celebration’s Party “Good night Ladies and Gentleman! Happy 55th Anniversary to Pixar Motion Pictures!—“ said the MC’s that already owned the stage from the start. Every eyes in this ballroom looked at him. “—And welcome to Moose Production House, to being our partner for this project, cheers!” Riley arrived to the ballroom, and first person that she look up for is Dave, her deadly crush, as she always said, and gotcha! She found Dave, her steps was very confident to coming up for Dave. “Hey, Dave!” She’s interupting Dave with his friends. “Oh..Hi Riley!—” Dave look around Riley, and he didn’t see the girl that he’s already waited for. “—where’s Chloe?” “Who’s Chloe, Dave?” one of Dave’s friends curious about that, because Dave always mention that name everytime they hang out. “Yeah, you always mentioned her!” Dave just giggling everytime his friends so curious about that. Meanwhile, Riley that stand beside him, listen to it carefully. “Ah..Chloe? Is she your ex Dave?” One of Dave’s friends scratch his chin smoothly while remembering few years ago. “Ah..yes, I’m pretty sure that, this girl was your ex, when you went to Art School, right Dave?” “Bull’s eye, dude!” Riley dropped her jaw, get in shock literally, she’s almost drop her pouch. Few minutes later, a girl with black dress, red wave-hair head, mind her step through many people inside the ballroom, bright smile on her face, and stop by them. Everyone greet her with wide smile, including Dave, that already waited for her attending. “Hey, Chloe!” 2 words that made his friends tease Dave again. “So Dave, this is Chloe, right?” Chloe nodded her head. “Hi, I’m Ben!” “Don’t make fun of it Benjamin, I knew you” Chloe hugged Ben warmly, and confusing the rest of them. “Ben was my college’s friend guys” “What? So, you pretending to didn’t know her, Ben?” Asked Dave, still didn’t believe that. “I didn’t Dave at first, until she came out from her car, and step inside the ballroom—” Ben explained everything that they have to know. “—and what? Is Dave your ex, Chloe? How come? This jerk—“ *SLAP SOUND* Neither Chloe, or Dave and the rest of them got shock for what happened, and every couple eyes in this ballroom turn away to them. “Why did you do that Riley?” Dave grab her hand roughly. Both Riley and Chloe didn’t expected that she can did that, and after that Riley just ran away outside the ballroom. Chloe got speechless. “Are you okay, Chloe?” asked Ben softly. “Yeah, I’m okay.” trying to put her smile on her face, although still got shock, not because her cheek’s hurt, it’s because she felt being humiliated with her own nephew. ***