#Guys you have no idea what i went through today like it wa fucking crazy i need to share this

[beeduoo]

wonderful

[imonthinice]

The Criminal Psychology Majors, Jason Todd x Fem!Reader Part 7/?

Word Count: 3.5k

Author’s Note: Y/N - Your Name, A/N Any Name (your best friend’s name), (Name) - your ex’s name !genderneutral (Don’t use a DC character! Y/N hasn’t dated any other DC character!) :)

3.5k words, my god. And they’ve still only known each other for 4 days and we’re on part 7. I do not know how to finish this.

Lol, Enjoy!

Warnings: Swearing, Heated moments, There is French in this one, No beta bitch we die like Jason Todd

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (Part 9) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 20)

Falling asleep in Jason’s arms after that escapade the two of them pulled the night before was something magical to say the least. Of course, they only got like 5 hours of sleep before they had to wake up and get out, at risk of Y/N being caught in the building, although the thrill of it excited the both of them deeply, but that’s obvious. They liked breaking the rules already.

Riding back home seemed a lot less like a journey to her this time, she just wanted to spend more time with Jason, but he had work and she didn’t want to hang out at Wayne Enterprises. She’d probably go to the library today, she didn’t know exactly what she’d do today, but she always thought that was the most exciting thing ever. “I don’t know what I’m even going to do tomorrow,” one of her friends asked when she moved to Gotham, ‘How exciting!’ she answered.

That friend said the next day she ran through the streets of Metropolis with her arms outstretched like a kid, and she did it in Y/N’s honor. “I told you!” she said, “How exciting that sometimes you never know what you’re going to do tomorrow!”.

These thoughts swirled in her head as Jason drove her back home when, like clockwork, like it was out of a movie, he said,

“I have no idea what I’m even going to do today.”

She laughed, “I always say ‘How exciting!’ when someone says that to me.”

“Really?”

“One of my friends back home, when I gave her that advice, she then spent the next day running around the city with her arms outstretched in my honor, it was apparently one of the more fun things she’s ever done, so” she paused, “I really mean it. how exciting! The possibilities are endless, are they not?”

“Well, not really, I have work to do,” he frowned.

“So own it. Make the office your bitch. Take charge, take lead.”

“Why not?” he said in agreement.

“Why the fuck not.”

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

Jason walked her to her door, “Won’t you be late?” she asked,

“Dad knows where I am, I don’t think I’ll have my ass handed to me.”

“You never know,” she laughed.

He laughed too and slightly pecked her lips. He wanted more, he was hungry for more out of that kiss, but work and life gets in the way of their relationship, and he really whined when he had to break away, but she laughed at it.

“Slow your roll Tiger, one day,” she mused.

“You say that like you don’t want more.”

“This isn’t about me,” she retorted, “So, shut up, respectfully.”

He laughed and kissed the back of her hand, “You have a thing for doing that, huh?” she joked.

“I literally don’t know how to answer that, I think I’m losing my touch with flirting,” he joked back.

“Okay, okay, you need to get going now.”

“Fine! You want to get rid of me so badly, I get it,” he joked and walked back to the car and she waved him off. She hated that time he left, a lot. She knew it was healthy to take a day’s break if they’ve been on 3 back-to-back dates, but that didn’t mean she liked it.

She opened her door and walked in, thinking A/N was asleep so she wouldn’t be barraged for her hair being a mess, but, boy oh boy, was this girl waiting for her to get home.

“What happened? Why’s your hair a mess? Oh my god, did you have sex?” she asked.

“No, but we kissed, will you take that as information while I shower or do you want all the details now?”

“You can shower, you can shower. I’m not that needy.”

“Yes you are,” Y/N joked and went to go shower.

And like she always did, she opened her phone and looked at the news before answering her friends,

Millionaire’s Son, Jason Todd's Girlfriend’s Name Revealed!

She laughed, cause it wasn’t her name. She didn’t think he was seeing anyone else, and they used her picture, so she knew they just fucked it. She forwarded the article to Jason with the caption ‘ Fuckin’ idiots’ .

She then answered Artemis, who asked Did you two kiss? Dick’s up my ass about it ‘cause he knows we’re friends.

I want to take that out of context so badly. She joked with Artemis.

I knew this man had a terrible name that would come to haunt me, but did ‘ya kiss?

Yeah we did. Get Dick out of your ass, though, that’s weird, you have a boyfriend and he has a girlfriend.

Shut up, you’re not funny.

I’m pretty funny.

You are but I’m not going to admit that, girl.

And one of her old friends had texted her, it was someone who Y/N had seen off and on the past few years, they were polite, but she didn’t exactly want to speak to her ex.

Hey.

(Name)? What do you want?

Saw you in the news with the rich boy, guess we’re over?

We have been over for like 5 months, my guy. 

Bitch.

Okay!

People from her hometown were noticing her in the articles and recognizing her. Some would think this is the coolest thing that someone they loved met a nice boy, the money a bonus, some would give her the reaction her ex did, but she knew she was days, hours, maybe minutes away from her parents finding out about her love affair with Jason.  

She shuddered at the thought, she loved her parents, a lot, but something told her that maybe they wouldn’t did Jason to be like she found him. She also knew she could be overthinking it entirely and they’d like the Criminal Psych Major that she knew all-too-well.

But overthinking was fun, apparently. And she couldn’t stop thinking the worst of so much.

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

When she got changed and just threw on whatever the fuck she saw, she went out to go talk to A/N.

“Hey, nerd. I’m done,” Y/N said.

“Nerd? You’re the one dating the bookworm and  you’re in criminal psychology,” she joked.

“Ha, ha. So, how are things with your lover? Have you secured him yet or are you just doing your own thing still?”

“Still just doing our own thing, don’t really have the time to date while getting my degree and working.”

“I mean, if it works for you I can’t throw judgment.”

“What about Jason? How’re things with you two?”

“You ever seen the Wayne Enterprises Ballroom before?”

“In pictures, why- Don’t tell me he took you there you lucky bitch?!”

“Then I just wont tell you,” she laughed.

“The Ballroom? Oh my god, that’s crazy, he's really pulling out all the stops to make you smile, huh?”

“I would do the same if I had more to offer, but I have barely anything since I bought that place in the dance competition across the country,” she said.

Y/N had bought a place in this competition before she met Jason, and she was heading to it on Saturday, in two days, and she actually had practiced the routine during downtime between her and Jason. She hadn’t exactly told Jason about this, and Jason had asked why she looked strained and like her muscles hurt, but that just never seemed like something you share with your casual partner, to her. She never seemed like her casual competitions were worth anything. A/N had begged to differ since Y/N had met her.

A/N said that Y/N had talent, that she could go somewhere, Y/N saw it as an extra circular that didn’t affect her much. She wasn’t the type of brag, and all her trophies were back home with her parents, anyway.

“Have you told him about your,” insert A/N’s heavy sarcasm, “’Casual’  competitions, yet?”

Idk what the hell happened with that line ya love to see it

“I’ll send him a quick text about it, I guess,” she sighed and sent just a quick, Hey, can’t have a date on Saturday-Sunday, forgot to tell you but I’m going to Cali for a quick dance competition, lol. My bad, shoulda said something.

“Why are you like this, be proud of your accomplishments, dammnit!”

“It’s a casual competition!”

“And you’re talented! I’m this close to just showing him videos of you going at it,” she said, exasperated.

“He already knows, we danced in the Ballroom.”

“Oh my lord,” she laughed, “You’re an enigma, if I had your amount of trophies I wouldn’t be hiding it.”

“Im’ not hiding it! It just kind of never came up.”

And he texted back, Oh damn, are you at least going to kill it? You better, I want to show the live broadcast to my family and brag.

She laughed, “See!”, she exclaimed, showing A/N the texts, “He doesn’t care like you do, nerd.”

A/N laughed, “Sure he doesn’t. Do you want to go to lunch, by the way? I’m bored off of my ass.”

“Sure, why the fuck not.”

“Go get dressed then, and I’ll do the same.”

“Okay okay, meet up in 10?”

“Yes ma’am.”

And off they went.

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

Y/N texted back Jason for a quick minute before getting dressed, Of course I’m going to kill it, my notes aren’t a representation of my dancing skills.

Well, I hope you win something. And text me. But mainly win something.

Of course I’ll text you, Jay. It gets boring at competitions.

You should go to a Wayne Gala then, god damn, those fuckin bastards are the most boring events this side of America.

Well maybe you’ll invite me one day.

I’ll probably have to if you show up on National TV. The press will finally know your name.

I hope I’m not on National TV then. Fuck the press.

Fuck the press indeed.

Since Y/N didn’t feel the need or want to dress up, she didn’t. Quick shirt and jeans and she was out the door. Sometimes she would dress up for lunch dates with her friends, just because she was bored as fuck and dressing up was fun, but she just didn’t want to do it today. Combat boots, jeans and a shirt were enough most days. You don’t have to be a model just because the press knows your face, she thought, you don’t.

“Who’s driving?” A/N asked.

“I can if you want. I don’t mind,” Y/N said as they walked to the beat up car they loved so much. It was nothing compared to the Porsche she had been in the night before, but it was still running, and you don’t fix something that ain’t broke.

“Maybe your boyfriend will buy you a new car,” A/N joked.

“If anything, he’d buy me a new computer, since mine is getting mailed to me and you’re going to love hearing the sounds that bitch makes,” she retorted.

“Is it bad?”

“Terrible. My sister called it a screaming electronic goat once,” she laughed, “I hate that fucking thing. But if it ain’t broke-”

“Don’t fix it, I know.”

“Exactly.”

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

For some reason, they decided in the car to go to McDonald's, because hey, it’s not like Y/N is on a  dance diet or anything. She wasn’t, because she didn’t want to starve herself for the sake of winning a competition. That was even her thought process as she was younger and more vulnerable to her teachers, she always told them she’d never do that. Years later, she still stuck to that mindset.

They got out of the car and like fucking clockwork, the press was in her face.

“You! The girl with no name, Jason Todd’s girlfriend!”

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” she whispered under her breath, “How do they always find me!”

“Tell us about yourself! Are you serious with Jason? How do you feel about his family? How-”

But then she had an idea,

“Quoi? Je parle pas l’Anglais? Qu’est-ce-que vous voulez?” she said, using her bilingual skills to her advantage.

“What? No I mean-”

“Pas de l’Anglais! Désolé mes amis!” and she ran off into the McDonald's with A/N.

“Did you just speak French to get them off your ass, you genius?”

“Spoke very broken French because I wasn’t thinking, but yeah, I did that.”

“I forget you’re multi-talented sometimes, you have a lot hidden under your belt and I try to treat you like a normal person but you’re far from it.”

“I appreciate you for trying, but I think with my new love affair, you aren’t going to get far with those attempts anymore, sorry,” she joked.

Jason texted her, Did you just speak French to avoid the press?

How do you know about that?

We were watching the news during a meeting and they said that you spoke French.

You got to do what you got to do to get by.

That is literally the most genius thing I’ve heard of anyone doing in so long. I think you’ve truly bamboozled them for a while and they might hop off of your back for a while.

You think so? ‘Cause I really hope that’s the case.

My siblings think it’s hilarious, and no one’s leaked that you are just joking with the press, so yeah, they might actually leave you alone.

Let’s fucking go. That is the news of the 21st century.

4 days of knowing each other and you’ve flipped off the press twice, outran them with me once, hid in the Wayne Enterprises Building with me and you’ve spoken French to bamboozle the press. That is impressive.

I feel like the press is going to hate me one day.

Probably. But they also hate most of us most days.

You should probably get back to work.

Yeah, talk to you soon.

She put her phone away and went to stand with A/N, who was waiting for their food.

“Talking to your lover?” she joked.

“When am I not doing that?”

“That’s valid.”

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

Going on a lunch date with A/N made a little bit of the harassment just better. They both bonded over how they hated the press before her love affair with Jason, and how their opinions wouldn’t change much unless, knock on wood, one of them went missing. Y/N told her about all the cases where the press and the internet did so much to solve cases around the world, love or hate the press, they did do a lot for solving crime.

She also told A/N that Jason was related to Dr. Barry Allen and Clark Kent, two people the two of them knew well because of the news and the fact that A/N knew Y/N when she wanted to go into forensics and was reading Dr. Barry Allen’s work.

When her mother texted her.

Y/N? Is that you in the press running around with Jason Todd?

Yeah mum, why?

Are you two in a serious relationship?

No mum.

Then why are the vultures so obsessed with you, says your dad.

‘ Cause you two made a pretty girl and he’s high up in the world, I guess, I don’t know. I don’t really like the press.

I can tell. We’re not mad at you honey, but be careful. And your dad says when you two get serious he needs to take Jason fishing.

He doesn’t speak French, mum.

Dad says he’ll work on his English for you.

Well tell everyone I love them, mum.

She panicked a little bit, her parents were nice when they wanted to be, but they were strict, why wouldn’t they be. So this, while being a welcomed surprise. was still a little panicky.

“Your  parents find out?”

“Yeah, they seem chill with it though.”

“Bing in the press sucks when you’re trying to keep your love life out of your parents' eyes, huh?”

“You could say that again,” she joked.

“Being in the press sucks when you’re-”

“I didn’t mean literally!” they laughed.

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

Back at Wayne Enterprises, Jason was betting bombarded by his colleges, friends and family about Y/N and how she was able to get around the press’ constant harassment without flaw. And also because Bruce had seen the two enter the building at around 12am the night before. So Jason was called into Bruce’s office that day.

“1, I know everyone is bombarding you, so you can hide out here, son, 2, you and Y/N didn’t have sex in your office right?”

“God no, dad. We just hid here because security is tight as fuck and unable to get past.”

“I saw you two kissing on the cams and heading into your office, Jay.”

“Okay, okay, but we didn't have sex and the intentions were there, dad!”

“Uh huh, pretty girl in your, my, car.”

“Dad, stop it,” he joked.

“Well, her little shenanigans with the press are very amusing, have you told her that?”

“I have.”

“She’s basically not afraid to tell them what we all think.”

“That’s what I said, dad.”

“Well, hold onto that one and don’t let her go.”

“Do you regret doing that with Talia?” Jason asked.

“God no, she’s insane. The son I got out of her antics is literally her spitting image, so if I need to be reminded of her I can just go talk to Damien for a couple minutes.”

“Dami’s a lot like you too, don’t act like his personality is just Talia, he acts like his dad in every aspect and you know that.”

“Lord help any woman or man that kid goes on to date, my god,” the two of them laughed. It was the small things with Bruce that made Jason happy to be a Wayne, even if he didn’t share the last name. Jason grew up on the streets and even before that, his mum and dad didn’t have a lot of money, so the amounts of money that Bruce could shower on him was a lot, but he was okay with just working for his money. And Bruce knew that.

He spent a lot of his workday in Bruce’s office, hiding from the rest of the office, and texting Will.

She knows about your kid.

Well, she’s a good kid. I’m glad you’re bragging about her, means I raised her right.

Shut up. I love that little girl and I’ve helped raise her, Will.

You’re used to my new name?

I changed your contact to Will when you changed your name, so I could remember that that’s your name now and not Roy. I’m hoping I remember it in person though. It would be awkward if I forgot my best friend’s name.

It would be funny to look back on, though.

Like how your relationship with Jade is funny now?

Never stick your dick in crazy.

I wish you would have listened to that sometimes, but then I remember Lian is amazing.

I’m a cliché of dumb choices, what can I say Jaybird.

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

In Y/N’s house, she would always play loud and sad music when she had the chance, some people thought her mental state was fucked, which sometimes it was, but most of the time the sad music went harder than the happy tunes you would catch from the other side of the house.

But even if music was blasting the loudest it could ever be, somehow she would still find herself lost in her thoughts, whether it was new dance routines or a story she would scribble down in her dream journal. there was something about those little fits of artistic passion she would experience from time-to-time.

It’s hard to put into words how those moments reminded her of the simplier times before sh was thrust into stardom, but also how they reminded her of Jason, and untouched mind she longed to know further. She knew there was so much more to the boy she had gone on dates with.

She would end up ignoring her phone for most of the rest of that day, just because she wanted peace and quiet, when A/N’s lover came over and she had to turn the music up louder so she wouldn’t be disrupted by the obvious.

I just got off of work, how are you? How’s your day been? Jason had texted Y/N while she ws turning up the music.

Well, I just had to turn up my music because my roommate’s lover is over, but other than that I’ve been enjoying peace and quiet in my room, waiting for something to do.

Is texting me something to do?

Yes.

That’s sweet of you. Work was boring though so I hope you don’t expect a story.

I don’t, don’t worry. You don’t always need a story for something to do.

Well, I’m going home with my brothers and dad, and we’re probably going to play office chair racing because I’m a bad boy.

You’re a bad boy?

Was that not funny?

It was pretty funny, isn’t that dangerous though?

Yeah actually, my brother broke his leg playing it and another time my little sister broke her leg playing it.

It seems fun but like, damn, two people have gotten injured playing that game, y’know.

Well if I die it’ll be a fun story!

[nike-shawn]

Hockey Shawn Part III

A/N: Lol this took forever. Exams really are the worst. Pls, as always, let me know what you thought of this! Feedback is the best motivator. 

Trigger Warning: Talk of Drug Addiction/Usage

Part I

Part II

If you were more confident, you would say you and Shawn are dating. 

You aren’t, not really. He just sleeps over at your place every night, texts you at random times to tell you things that reminded him of you, and brings you your favorite restaurant’s takeout on nights he knows you are working too hard to remember to eat, grading papers and emailing parents. 

This has been going on for too many months. 

One night, while your head rested on his chest, you tapped out the rhythm of his heart on your mattress. It sounded too familiar to be comforting. You knew him better than you knew your roommates. You loved him more than you loved that college boyfriend. You---

“Are you okay?” 

You tensed in his arms. Part of you wondered whether your feelings for him were so deep that they melted through you and into him, like sap trailing down a broken branch and into the grass. It seemed impossible for him to not at least be hinted towards your love for him-- it was so obvious to you. A bit too obvious. 

“Hmm?” you asked, though you both knew you heard him. 

He lightly pinched the skin of your upper arm, playfully scolding you but he asked the question again, this time his lips closer to your ear. “I said, ‘are you okay?’” 

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Shawn laughed lightly. “You fall asleep in two seconds flat on every other night, but it’s been an hour and you’re still awake.” 

You sighed out your exhale. You could’ve told him then. You could’ve said actually, I'm not okay because you don’t love me like I love you and you could’ve gone from there, could’ve made him tell you what he really thinks of you, but instead you told him that “school’s been crazy.” 

He didn't believe it. You could tell by the way he didn’t immediately kiss away the fold between your brows or rub his thumb up and down your shoulder. He just mussed up his hair and swallowed like he was keeping something from leaving his lips. 

Okay, you thought. He doesn't wanna talk about it either, then. 

Since then, although you both act the same way you always have, there’s some kind of unspoken tension between you. When he comes over it seems like he’s biding his time, waiting for you to blurt out what he knows you’re waiting to say. When he hugs you hello, his arms are stiffer. When he kisses you goodbye, his lips are colder. But he still texts you every night with random, seemingly insignificant things that happened that day. You know it’s because he finds some comfort in hearing you interact with these quips of his. You tell him oh, that’s interesting or really, he said that? like you are together. Like you’re dating. Like he loves you.

Shawn’s flying back to New York from Toronto today. Yesterday was the first day in almost three months that he didn’t text you to tell you what he was up to. You checked your phone between each class period, your heart getting lower and lower until it was just about in your stomach. You know why he was there. You knew who he was with. 

And you knew you didn’t stand a chance against her.

After school yesterday, you finished up grading and tugged your winter coat closer around your shivering shoulders as you walked from the school to your car. Your mind refused to let you forget the disappointment that now was associated with Shawn’s pretty face, the betrayal that has now settled deep into your bones. How could he love Maddy? How could he be with her while you’re tidying up the bed you two have shared for months on end? How could he hold her while you’re still shivering in his absence? 

You rest your head on your steering wheel as tears start to fall down your rosy cheeks. Your car is freezing cold but you barely notice, frustrated sobs ripping from your throat. There’s some kind of rabid, angry energy bouncing around in your chest, and your hands itch to grip your phone and dial his number and scream at him until that feeling goes away. 

And why shouldn’t you? Why shouldn’t you scream at him? Does he not deserve it? 

Once you compose yourself, you decide that, no. You won’t call him. You’ll wait for his slow slither back to your apartment. You’ll wait until he pretends like nothing happened. 

Then. Then you’ll confront him.

🍁⚡️🍁⚡️

“What?”

Shawn has pizza sauce at the corner of his mouth. Your eyes narrow in on it. “Nothing,” you say, finally tearing your gaze away. 

Everything he does annoys you. It’s like the knowledge of what he did last week is choking you from the inside out. His hands on her hips, his lips on hers, his clothes in her closet, his clothes on her floor... 

“Seriously,” Shawn says, louder than before. “What’s up?”

You shake your head, fiddling your thumbs. The food in front of you has gone cold. Your appetite is gone. The idea of confronting him sounded a lot easier before he was in front of you, all innocent looking and warm. His hair has gotten longer so it falls in his eyes now when he looks down, and you fight the adoration in your chest as he, annoyed, pushes the stray hair from his face. His eyebrows raise, waiting for you to answer him. 

When you do, he wishes you hadn’t. “You were with Maddy.” You say it not as a question, but as a one-off statement, something not up for debate. 

Shawn finishes up the pizza he was chewing before sliding his empty plate further into the table, leaning back in his chair and folding his hands over his sweatshirt pocket. He takes a deep breath, pushes his hair back again, and answers with a simple “yes.” 

“Why.”

“She asked to see me.”

You bite down hard on your bottom lip to keep yourself from crying angry tears. You can already feel them crawling their way up your throat. “That doesn’t mean you need to see her.” 

Shawn has a tick in his jaw and you wonder if he has the audacity to be mad at you, if he thinks you’re being ridiculous. As if he hasn’t spent all his time with you, hasn’t told you things under bed sheets and under streetlights as the New York chill frosted up his car windows. You let one stray tear fall. The rest you manage to hold back, but the damage is done. You’ve broken the facade. 

At the sight of your sadness, he seems to lighten just a bit. The tick in his jaw is gone and his arms uncross. But still, he says “we’re not dating” like someone would say ‘today is Tuesday’ or ‘the weather is nice’. “I love spending time with you, Y/N, but we’re not dating.” 

“Then what the fuck is this?” you say, your voice rising above its normal volume. “What the fuck are you doing when you spend weeks on end here? What do you tell Maddy you’re doing?” Incredulous, you throw your hands in the air as you exclaim “and I’m crazy?! To think that I had some kind of claim on you?” You wrap your arms around yourself as you suddenly cold and exposed. You’re crying a lot now, and you use the back of your sweatshirt sleeve to wipe at your running nose. “Fuck you Shawn, honestly. You spend your time pretending that you love me for what? For something to do?” 

“No, of course not.”

“Then what? What do I offer you that you can’t get from Maddy?”

Shawn just drops his head as he shakes it, rejecting everything you’re throwing at him. “It’s not like that.” 

At a loss, you drop your face in your palms. Tears slide through your fingers. You say, sadly, “I can’t keep seeing you if you can’t commit anything to me.” 

Shawn stays silent, twisting the ring on his left middle finger around and around. 

Quietly, you say, “get out, please.” When he doesn’t move, you say, louder, “I said, get out.” 

“I don’t think I should leave--”

“Well I think you should’ve left three fucking months ago,” you bite back, poison in each syllable. 

“Stop being so mean: I just wanna talk this through.”

“Then talk!” You yell, throwing your hands to the sides. “Talk! All you’re doing is deflecting! I fucking wish you’d talk to me.” 

Angry again, Shawn stands and you feel your confidence shrinking as he dwarfs you in his height. He takes a few cautious steps forward and you can see that he wants to yell, wants to match your volume, but he doesn’t want to scare you. So, instead, he puts his hands out in the same way you do to a wild animal-- cautious, yet imposing, as he walks closer and closer to you. You’re nose to nose now and you're in a cloud of his cologne. 

His hands come up to your shoulders and you notice that you’re shaking with all the pent up anger and love and whatever the fuck else you’ve been feeling for the past few weeks. He places a careful kiss on your forehead. You let your eyes close as tears slip out from under your eyelashes. 

He handles you like some kind of fine china as he guides you to sit again in the dining chair, him taking the place beside you, his hand gripping your knee lightly. He starts with, “Maddy was my first friend after I got signed.” His thumb rubs over your leggings once before wiping his sweaty palms on his own thighs. “I moved to the city and had no one besides my teammates, but even they weren’t super welcoming. Went to this party and Maddy was there, dancing on a table. She was really drunk and I heard some guys talking about how they could see up her dress so...” he shrugs. “So I helped her down and the rest is history I guess.”

“You started dating?”

Shawn nods. “Yeah. She was a model. She was just getting started, then, but after a year or so she made a good name for herself.”

“And you did too,” you add.

“Yeah, I did alright,” he says, smiling a bit. “But then... um.” He pauses, gathering his thoughts. “I got hurt. I think you said you saw the video. I couldn’t play so I ended up spending a lot of time with Maddy. Stayed at her apartment most of the time, actually. And when you move in with someone, you start to see their... mannerisms, and the way they are when they don’t think anyone is looking.” He leans back in his chair again, faking nonchalance. “I broke up with her and she reacted badly. I think I was the thing keeping her sober, since I was there all the time and she had someone to hang out with besides her friends who all used.”

Things started to click for you, then. “Oh.”

“Yeah. So when we broke up, she went back to hanging out with the wrong group of people. She’s always had addiction problems, to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes. But I had no idea that me living with her was keeping her on the right track.” He clears his throat and you can see his eyes getting red rimmed with tears. “I just want to make it clear that I care for her a lot, but we were never meant to be together. I apologize for keeping this whole situation guarded but it’s... tough. It’s tough for me to talk about.”

“I understand,” you whisper, guilt lacing your words.

“I can see how you’d be angry with me. I really can see it. But I can’t cut Maddy off. I’m afraid that the one time she reaches out and I say no... I don’t know. I just recognize that she’s fragile.”

You nod.

Shawn rubs at his watery eyes. “I care for you, too, though,” he says in quietly. “I just don’t know if I can commit right now.”

You fight the frustration in your chest. Calmly, you ask him, “what is the difference between what we’re doing now and a relationship?”

He’s silent.

You continue. “In my eyes, a relationship is exactly what we are. The label is the only difference.”

“And the publicity.”

“What?”

“The public thinks I’m with Maddy. She likes it that way.”

Your heart sinks. “Okay.”

“It’s not that I don’t care for you—”

“I get it,” you interrupt him.

The two of you sit in silence and it feels like an 80 lb. weight was placed on your shoulders. He moves forward to kiss you and you let him, though your brain is screaming at you to cut him off for good. He doesn’t feel for you the way you do for him. You’re wasting your time. 

But as he jokes around with you and tries to stuff pizza in your mouth and tells you that he’ll be around tomorrow you just can’t shake the feeling that maybe, just maybe, this will work out. 

🍁⚡️🍁⚡️

You get home from work the next day and Shawn is waiting for you outside your apartment complex, car running and headlights on. 

You recognize his car because it’s much too nice to be in your parking lot that’s riddled with pot holes and fading painted lines. The lot is almost always empty, since most city-dwellers choose to take public transportation over their own vehicles. Plus, he’s easy to spot because when he sees you with your coat pulled around your shoulders and your school bag slipping down to the crook of your elbow, he rolls down his window and shouts “Hey, miss? You’re very beautiful and I’d love to take you to dinner.” 

You smile and walk over to the driver’s side, close enough now to see the familiar scar on his cheek. “Hmm,” you tease, “what’s in it for me?”

“A lovely dining experience at the finest restaurant in New York City with the most handsome bachelor on the East Coast.” 

The cold wind whipping your hair around, you give him a quick peck on the lips and walk around to the passenger side door, shoving your bag in the back. His cold palms rest on your cheeks as he pulls you in for a deeper kiss this time, his tongue darting in your mouth for only a second before he pulls away. You ask, “what did you do today” in the normal way that you do, unable to stop the wide smile from crossing your face. 

“Went to a few meetings,” he says casually. “Then I had a doctor’s appointment...” 

The way he trails off makes your ears perk up. “Oh? And what did they say?” You watch as a wide grin takes over his features and your heart leaps for him. “Can you play again?”

Shawn nods and you just about jump out of your seat, wrapping your arms around his neck as his arms meet behind your back, your body leaning over the center console. You can see people walking by your parked car and you know you should be worried about them looking in, but you can’t care about any of that right now. You can feel Shawn’s smile against your shoulder and you can’t remember the last time you’ve felt such joy for someone else’s successes. “They said my hip has healed a lot more than they thought it ever would, so I can maybe get back to practicing in the next few months.” 

“Wow, that’s so fantastic, Shawn, really.” 

“Thank you, baby.” 

“I’m so happy for you.”

“Thank you, thank you,” he says again. “I thought I’d pick you up for a celebration dinner.”

You kiss him on the cheek and pull away for him to put the car in reverse, turning on to the bustling New York streets. “Where are we going?” you ask. Your mind is racing through all the nicest places, places he surely would fit in like the true celebrity he is. A feeling of dread washes over you as you look down at your outfit. “Oh my god, I need to change. I’m still wearing my work clothes.” 

Without missing a beat, Shawn says “oh, don’t worry. I was thinking we could just pick something up.”

You swallow back your disappointment. Of course he can’t take you out in public. You’re stupid for thinking otherwise. You dig your fingernails into your pants to keep yourself from showing any signs of let-down. “Okay, yep. Sounds good.”

He looks over to you like he knows something is wrong, but he doesn’t say anything. 

The two of you chat for a bit about where you want to go. He talks about his meetings of the day and how he felt like his life was getting back to normal, like old times. 

He speaks and you stare at his ruby red lips as they form each word, and you’re trying your hardest to pay attention, but all you can do is wonder where exactly you fit in his new world. 

Deep down, you know you’re on borrowed time, because his new world doesn’t have any room to spare. 

[dhwty-writes]

Surprise the Child Surprise

It's my birthday and I can't celebrate because of Covid. So, I decided to treat myself (and you guys) to some self-indulgent birthday fluff. The last scene is a bit emotional but besides that nothing bad happens, no angst, no drama, just 4,6k words of happiness. Enjoy! 

Summary: Jaskier and Geralt almost forget Ciri's eighteenth birthday and Jaskier just won't have that. He plans on celebrating it as it should be. Everything goes horribly wrong - until it doesn't. 

Read on AO3

Jaskier woke with a start, cold sweat pooling at the base of his spine with the dreadful feeling that he had forgotten something.

Now, that wasn't unusual, not really; he forgot things all the time. Only this time his mind cleared with the horrible certainty that it was something important.

He sat up, heaving in the mild spring air while he took stock of his surroundings, desperately searching for whatever he had misplaced. It wasn't his bag, that was beneath his head, and it wasn't his lute either, that was tied to Roach's saddle – which meant that he hadn't forgotten his witcher either (not that that happened often, but, to his shame, it had been an occurrence in the past). They hadn't forgotten Ciri either, she was sleeping peacefully on the other side of the fi- ‘wait a fucking minute.’

"Geralt!" he hissed quietly. The witcher grunted in his sleep and blindly groped around to pull his lover close. Jaskier jabbed him sharply in the ribs. "Geralt!"

"What?" he snapped and opened his eyes, alert for any danger. "What the fuck, Jaskier?" he growled when he noticed that they were the only ones around. "It's the middle of the night."

"I know!" Jaskier whisper-shouted. "Be quiet or you'll wake Ciri!"

He groaned and flopped back down. "Don't I deserve the same courtesy?"

"Shh!" he made again. "It's about Ciri!"

"What's about Ciri?"

"It's almost Belleteyn," he informed him solemnly

"So?"

"So, your child surprise is about to turn eighteen years old."

"Shit happens," Geralt grunted and turned to his side. "Lie down and go the fuck to sleep, Jaskier."

"What do you mean, shit happens?" he gasped, doing a very poor job of keeping his voice down. "We have to do something about it!"

He sighed exasperatedly and rubbed at his temples. "We can't stop a birthday, bard. Now get back here, so I can sleep."

"I don't want to stop it, idiot!" he hissed. "I want to celebrate it."

"Jaskier!"

"What?"

"Not now!"

"Right," he mumbled dissatisfied and moved to lie down beside him in his outstretched arms. He sighed content when Geralt wrapped himself around him, and even threw one leg over his hips to keep him in place.

And while Jaskier's body settled down, his eyes drooping tiredly, his mind wasn't quite able to shut down. There were a lot of austerities on the Path, Jaskier knew. His foot started tapping nervously. In the past twenty-eight years he had learned to live with the blisters on his feet and the reappearing holes in his clothes as well as the occasional dry spells, both in a literal and a figurative sense. But not celebrating Cirilla coming of age? That surely went too f-

"Jaskier," Geralt groaned.

"Yes, my dear?" His foot stopped twitching as he focused on the rumbling in the chest behind him.

Geralt nuzzled his neck gently. "You're thinking too loud."

"Right, I'll just stop doing that!" He rolled his eyes. "Great idea, Geralt, why didn't I think of it myself?"

He groaned wordlessly and tightened his grip on him. "Please," he whispered, "mercy. Anything to let me go back to sleep..."

Jaskier sighed. "Just keep holding onto me?" That usually helped him ground himself. He knew that Geralt was right. It was no use driving himself crazy now. He only hoped that his tireless mind that knew no rest would come to the same conclusion soon.

In the end, he must have fallen asleep, for Jaskier woke the next morning with a terribly foul mood that usually came with not enough rest. Ciri was joking around with him, completely unsuspecting of anything and Geralt didn't stop shooting him reproachful glances that he translated as ‘told you so’.

They broke camp a bit slower than normally but soon they were back on the Path again. Ciri galloped off on her mare a few times while Jaskier and Geralt enjoyed a more leisurely pace, Jaskier using her absence to continue conspiring with a hushed voice: "Geralt," he hissed and leaned over to him.

Geralt rolled his eyes and pushed at his shoulder. "You're going to fall off," he chided.

"Pfff, fiddlesticks!" he scoffed. Still, he sat upright in Pegasus' saddle again. "We need a present," he determined. "A good one."

The witcher shook his head disbelievingly. "I still don't know what all that fuss is about."

"She's coming of age, Geralt!" He threw his arms open wide, tugging sharply on the reins in the process and Pegasus snorted in annoyance. "This is a special day!"

"What are you two talking about?" This time Jaskier truly almost fell off.

"Ciri!" he exclaimed while trying to regain his composure. "Melitele's tits, you scared the living daylights out of me!"

She snickered mischievously. "Twenty-eight years on the Path, Jaskier, and still that jumpy. By the looks of it I'll soon be the one protecting you!"

"Well, that only speaks of your prowess with that sword of yours," he answered light-heartedly. "But I assure you, I won't be in need of your defence in the near future."

Geralt snorted. "You couldn't handle anything more dangerous than a very determined squirrel."

Jaskier gasped in mock offence and swatted at him while Ciri laughed. "How dare you?" he bristled. "I could handle a very determined rabbit at least! Besides, I trust that you will burden yourself with the duty to rescue me from any further possibly lethal situations. Just as you did in the past."

Geralt hummed quietly but it was a soft hum, the kind that always managed to set butterflies loose in Jaskier’s stomach. ‘After all these years,’ he thought happily, ‘I am still the luckiest man on the continent.’ And how could he not, with his quiet witcher by his side, who showed his love daily in a thousand ways that never required words.

"So, what were you talking about?" Ciri asked curiously and brought him back to the present.

"You don't want to know," Geralt grumbled the same moment that Jaskier winked exaggeratedly and said: "Oh, nothing, dear."

She wrinkled her nose. "Gross," she declared and spurred off again.

As soon as she was gone, Jaskier shot Geralt a pointed look that said as much as 'Do you understand why I wanted to talk about this at night now?' and the witcher sighed.

"Fine," he conceded. "But no dramatics."

Jaskier gasped and clutched his chest dramatically. "I would never!" A wide grin spread on his face. Secretly, he had been making plans for months. He already knew what gift he would present her with, he knew what cake he would order in a bakery. He even knew a nice quiet clearing with a lake in the area where he had once deflowered a fair maiden but now it would be perfect for the birthday celebration of the Lion Cub of Cintra – who he really should stop calling Cub, now that she was a woman grown, come to think of it. With the xenovox he even could invite the rest of their little family.

“Jaskier…,” Geralt growled as warning but it only made him grin wider. He was sure that everything would go just perfectly. 

~*~

"This is horrible!" Jaskier croaked and sniffled.

"Come on, Jaskier," Geralt said softly, "it's not that bad."

He coughed violently and clung to his lover. "I'm sick, Geralt," he lamented in a whisper, the loudest sound he could manage, "I'm sick and can't sing. This is a catastrophe as terrible as there ever wa-" The rest of his tirade was drowned out in another fit of coughing.

"Shhh," the witcher made and rubbed his back soothingly. "Don't overexert yourself. And stop talking, you're only making it worse."

"You sound entirely too pleased with my miserable condition."

"I assure you; I am not. I prefer your singing to your whining. I mean it, though. Stop talking."

He rolled his eyes and shot him a look that said as much as 'as if that's ever gonna happen'. Judging from Geralt's snort the witcher found his own joke hilarious, too. "You're horrible!" He swatted at him. "I am lying on my deathbed and-"

"I assure you; you are not."

"-you are still treating me badly. I don't even know why I put up with you!"

Geralt smirked. "I've been asking myself the same thing for the past three decades..."

Jaskier let out a strangled shout and punched him weakly in the chest. The witcher only laughed and responded with a kiss. 'I guess it does have advantages to have a lover who can't get sick,' Jaskier mused.

"You're cute," Ciri said fondly as she stepped through a portal onto the clearing.

"Ciri!" Jaskier exclai- well, tried to exclaim and whispered instead. "Oh, I am so sorry that I am in this wretched state today of all days," he said and tried to scramble to his feet only to be promptly pulled down by Geralt again. "Stop that, you donkey arse, I'm trying to wish your daughter a happy birthday."

"The sentiment is very much appreciated," Ciri told him and squatted down beside him, "but I am not the incapacitated one." She smiled softly and held out a vial. "Got you medicine. Drink up, Jaskier."

He scowled angrily which undoubtedly resulted in a ridiculous pout, but didn't try to resist too much when Geralt uncorked the vial and held to his lips. He did complain, though; it was one of his greatest strengths after all. "That tastes like piss," he lamented.

Ciri laughed and arched an eyebrow. "And you know what that tastes like because...?"

He winced. "That's a story for when Uncle Lambert gets you drunk the first time this winter."

Geralt's grip on him tightened. "No, he won't."

"Sure," Jaskier drawled and winked at Ciri who grinned excitedly. 'Just you wait,' he mouthed and made grabby hands towards her. "Can I give you your annual birthday hug at least?"

"That you can!" She wriggled closer and batted Geralt's hands away. "Scoot, you can have him again, later. Right now, it's my turn for the best hug on the Continent."

Pride welled up inside him when he heard that as if he had just won the Oxenfurt bardic tournament. And even though he was not willing to admit it there was a tiny tear in the corner of his eye when he pulled her close. "Happy birthday, Ciri," he whispered, the tears stealing his voice as much as his ailment. "I'm so, so very proud of you, cub."

"Thank you, Jaskier," she answered, her voice just as heavy as hers.

It felt nice and Jaskier allowed himself to sink into that feeling until- "Who are you and what are you doing to my daughter?" the sharp voice behind him startled him and he tried to scramble away.

"Yennefer, what the fuck?" he croaked hoarsely.

The sorceress just laughed and even Geralt snorted amused. "Gets you every time. What is that, a knee-jerk reaction, or-!"

"Oh, ha ha, very funny," he rolled his eyes only to be pulled into another hug.

"Oh, shoo!" Ciri said and held on tighter. "I'm not done here yet and I'm the birthday girl. Besides, I'm his as much as I'm yours."

'Huh,' Jaskier thought as he closed his arms around her again. ‘Whatever she means with that.’

To his even bigger surprise, Yennefer agreed: "Yeah, we did a pretty damn good job raising that little rascal." There was a tiny pause. “All three of us did.”

Geralt hummed and closed his arms around him again. 'Oh,' Jaskier thought as he realised what they were saying and there was no stopping the tears now. He had never thought himself as part of Ciri’s chosen-few of educators doubling as parental figures. ‘And yet,’ he thought, ‘here we are.’ “Are you serious about that?” he whispered quietly enough that he hoped Yennefer didn’t hear.

“Sure am,” Ciri answered and squeezed him tightly.

"Are you crying, bard?" Yennefer mocked, but there was no true edge to her voice. "That's pathetic."

He sniffled and raised his middle finger in response. The sorceress laughed and Ciri slowly let go. She got up and walked over to her to receive her birthday wishes, too. Jaskier used the time to get comfortable in Geralt's lap again.

The witcher had already congratulated her early this morning when Jaskier had still been certain to meet death on the damp forest floor somewhere in Kovir of all places. After ten pathetic minutes of his whining, Ciri had taken pity on him and opened a portal to go get medicine somewhere. He hadn't asked where but knowing her mother — or rather any of her parents — there was no way there wasn’t some level of illegality involved.

"So, I guess we're staying here for today?" Ciri asked, turning towards them again.

"That was the plan anyways," Geralt mumbled.

"The plan?" Ciri asked disbelievingly. "You had a plan?"

"Now come on, Cub, that would hardly be the first t- yeah, shutting up," Jaskier mumbled as he saw the three pointed glares directed at him.

"Please," Ciri mocked, "you don't do plans. None of you."

"That's untrue," Yennefer chimed in, "we do, in fact, do plans.”

Jaskier added: “Alas, they’re always deferred by fate.”

“They’re shitty from the start,” Geralt concluded.

They all shared a hearty laugh which ended in another coughing fit from Jaskier. Geralt fell silent as once and glared at him angrily. "If you don't stop talking now," he growled, "I'll gag you."

Ciri and Yennefer gagged in unison. "Gross," Ciri declared. Ridiculously, he was relieved to see that. 'Come on, Jaskier, she's not a completely different person just because of one stupid day,' he reminded himself. But when Geralt squeezed his hand, he knew that he was not alone with his thoughts.

"So," their daughter asked as she sat down against a log, "what was the plan?" She looked at them expectantly.

Geralt 'hmmed' and made no apparent attempt to start talking. Jaskier rolled his eyes but determined to elude a smelly rag shoved into his mouth – he had no doubts that the witcher would go through with his threat – he kept his mouth shut and began jabbing him in the ribs with his finger instead while he gazed at him pleadingly. "No," the witcher said sharply but began talking at least: "Jaskier wrote a song for you. Wanted to serenade you. Pity he can't do that now."

Yennefer snorted. At least Ciri smiled sympathetically. "I'm looking forward to hearing it. Once you can hold a note again."

Jaskier hit Geralt sharply in the ribs with his elbow and made grabby hands.

"Will you be able to keep from singing, if I hand you your lute?" the witcher asked doubtfully.

He nodded eagerly and Yennefer shook her head, laughing loudly. "Liar."

Geralt patted Jaskier's head but made no attempt to fetch him his lute. Defiantly Jaskier crossed his arms. Not that anyone of the present people cared for it.

"There's also cake," Geralt continued. "Jaskier insisted."

"Where?" Ciri arched an eyebrow. "With the horses?"

"Hmm."

"Ah. I think you mean to say there was cake." She pointed her thumb at where Roach was happily munching out of- the black saddlebag the cake was stored in.

"No!" Jaskier croaked and jumped to his feet. "Bad horse!"

But before he could dash over to her, Geralt caught him by the scruff and pulled him back down. "Bad bard," he growled. Yennefer and Ciri didn't even try to hide their laughter.

"This is the worst birthday I've ever planned," Jaskier moaned woefully. That alone sent the two women into another fit of laughter and once Geralt clamped his hand over his bard’s mouth and they resumed their discussion with wide gestures (Jaskier) and pointed glares (Geralt) they were positively howling with laughter.

"So," Ciri said, once she had recovered. "You wanted to stay here for a whole day doing what? Listening to one song and eating a cake?"

"Of course not! Who do you take us for, Ciri?" Yennefer asked. "I wouldn't dream of punishing you with one of the bard's mediocre songs as your only present."

He showed her his middle finger. Again.

She smiled brightly and continued: “There’s a banquet table waiting for you behind another portal. With proper cake.”

He held up his second middle finger, too, for good measure. At least until Geralt pressed his hands down again.

"Show her," he told Yennefer and Jaskier sat up a bit more. Geralt had refused to provide him with so much as a hint for whatever he had planned for Ciri's birthday, but judging from his secretiveness it had to be huge.

"Are you sure?" the sorceress inquired. "It was your idea, after all."

The witcher just shrugged, and then Yennefer shrugged, too, and handed Ciri a velvet pouch. "Happy birthday, ugly one," she told her with a soft smile.

The girl looked at them questioningly before opening the little bag. She turned it upside down and Jaskier leaned forward to get a better look. They gasped in unison when the silver chain slid out. "Where did you get that?" she asked disbelievingly as she traced the wolf's head on the medallion with her thumb.

"Found it years ago," Geralt said simply as if he hadn't just gifted her an incredibly rare artefact of his school. "Was waiting for the right moment. Gave it to Yen for safekeeping. Thanks."

"Well...," the sorceress said, "I might have... modified it."

"Yen...," Geralt said reproachfully but she only raised her hands in innocence.

"Don't worry! None of the original qualities are lost. I know this stuff. After all, I've done it before." She tapped the amulet around her throat. "Remember Ellander, Ciri?"

She nodded, her eyes still on the medallion. "I couldn't look away from it."

Yennefer smiled. "This is just the same."

She raised her eyes. "Geralt..."

Jaskier felt him shake his head behind him. "It's nothing. You're a witcher, aren't you? Trained in Kaer Morhen like the rest of us. You're meant to have one."

Without any sort of warning, Ciri flung himself at Geralt, trapping Jaskier awkwardly in the midst of their hug. "Thank you," she said over and over again, "thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."

Jaskier uncomfortably cleared his throat. "Umm- D'you want me to?"

"Shut up, Jaskier," they said simultaneously. Ciri let go with one arm to point at Yen. "And you! Stop pretending and join the hug!"

"Now that's no way to talk with your mother-" Ciri and Jaskier groaned and rolled their eyes. "Fine," she decreed. "Just don't think too much of it." But then, to Jaskier’s astonishment, she came over and hugged them, too. 

Ciri sighed happily. "This is the best birthday I could have wished for," she confessed. "And the best family, too." And, in the end, that was all that mattered.

Yennefer stayed for the rest of the day but when they all woke up on the next morning, she had already said goodbye to Ciri and vanished without a trace. Geralt insisted on waiting for another day but Jaskier wanted to hear none of that. He was feeling well enough, he claimed, and they could resume their travels.

~*~

It took a week for his voice to fully return and another for him to find a quiet moment to finally give Ciri her present. Geralt had gone off to- do something, he was sure and he approached Ciri nervously.

"Hey," Jaskier said softly and sat down next to her, gently nudging her with his shoulder, "watcha thinking about?"

"Hmm," she made stoking the fire until sparks danced up into the night. "Just... stuff."

He nodded. "I imagine," he agreed but made no attempt to press her further. She wasn't like Geralt in that aspect. He knew she'd open up eventually.

After a while she asked: "Do you think we'll ever know peace?"

"The continent? I'm sure of it."

"No," she shook her head. "We. You, me, Geralt. Yennefer and Triss. Lambert and Eskel. All of our little family, I mean. Do you think we'll ever have a place to call home? Where we won’t have to fear?"

Jaskier laughed at that. "Who knows? There's nothing certain in life, little cub, you should know that. There might come a day when you and Geralt sheathe your swords. A day when the last portal closes behind Yennefer. Or there might not be. There's something that won't change, though, and that's a promise."

"And what's that?"

"Wherever you go, my songs won't be far behind. You'll never be alone on your Path. And that's a little bit like home, too, isn't it?

Ciri smiled. "I guess it is."

"Now, I believe I promised you a song, didn't I? Would you like to hear it?"

"Yes, Jaskier, I very much would."

"Great!" He shot up and wheeled around, lunging for his lute. He slung the lute strap over his shoulders and bowed with a flourish that made Ciri laugh. "Ladies, gentlemen and noble steeds," he announced, "I present to you my newest creation: The Ballad of the Lion Pup." He hesitated for one moment. "Just- this is for your ears only, Ciri. I mean every word of it, but no living soul must ever hear it. Do you understand?"

“I know.” She nodded solemnly and tipped her head back to gaze at the stars. "Just sing it already, Jaskier."

"Right..." he said and gingerly plucked the first few notes of the song. Then, he began to sing:

 In a time of dark and blood and war

There was a princess fair.

And though she knew the woes of life

She did never despair.

 When the White Sun rose above our heads

And the Lioness did fall

The Lion Cub then quickly fled

To escape from Nilfgaard's thrall.

 For years she ran, for years she searched

For a wolf as white as snow.

And when they met, their fates entwined,

It was the end of all their woes.

 Up north inside the White Wolf's den,

The Lion Cub did grow.

Amidst the stone and winds and ice,

New life and love did rise.

 And though she had arrived a Cub,

She never left as that.

The Cub did turn into a Pup,

Part of the White Wolf's pack.

 The White Wolf was the first to love,

His destined Child Surprise.

And so, the Wolf both strong and rough,

Held the young girl when she cried.

 The wise Grey Wolf taught what he knew,

As he'd done for all his life.

So, in the Den life grew anew,

The pack again did thrive.

 The Strong Wolf and the Small One, too,

Loved their Pup just as much.

For after years of grief, they knew,

The glory of a laugh.

Then there joined into the fray,

A lonely Griffin in his nest

At night they loved to sing and play

Whatever they loved best.

 In sorcery she was well trained,

For witches she knew two.

And so, the Pup a sister gained

And then a mother, too.

 Do trust that this whole song is true,

For I was there, as well.

And I loved her 'til the end of time,

So, believe the tale I tell.

 In a time when our whole world burned

There was a princess fair.

But she was loved and loved in turn

So, she did never despair.

 The last notes drifted off into the night and Ciri looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "Thank you," she whispered.

There was a quiet harrumph from the edge of the trees and Jaskier spun around. "Geralt!" he exclaimed happily, taking in the fond expression on his face. "Did you listen?"

"I did," he confessed quietly opening his arms for the bard. He quickly set his lute down and hurried over to him.

Ciri got up with an exaggerated sigh and roll of her eyes. "Ughh," she said and grabbed her bedroll, "I'll set up camp elsewhere."

"Don't go too far!" Jaskier called after her.

"Don't be too loud," she replied, obviously doing her best to sound annoyed and failing miserably. "I fucking hate it when you're loud."

Jaskier snickered quietly and turned to loop his arms around Geralt's neck. "Just like her father," he whispered against his lips, "feigning annoyance to mask her softness."

"Hmm," Geralt made and kissed him. "I'm doing a better job, though."

"No, you're not. And I love you for it." He pecked him on the mouth.

"I also seem to recall another father of hers who's horribly dramatic. And whines three days about splinters up his arse after sitting on a log I told him not to sit down to."

"That's not fair." Jaskier wrinkled his nose. "You see, you don't have all the facts."

"Which are?" the witcher asked and pulled him closer.

"That I happen to be endowed with a rather shapely arse," he replied grinning cheekily, "which you aren't allowed to touch if there's so much as a sliver of wood in it."

"Hmm," Geralt made contemplatively and lowered his hands to grasp his backside firmly. "I'm not convinced. Might need to get a better look at it."

Jaskier laughed loudly and dove in for a kiss. "That you shall have," he promised and tugged him towards their bedrolls.

When they laid side by side afterwards, as naked as the day they were born with tangled limbs and mingled breaths, Jaskier sighed contently. "So," he said, pillowing his head on Geralt's chest, "some review? Three words or less."

"Shapely arse indeed," he mumbled, his voice heavy from exhaustion and bliss.

He slapped him lightly. "Not that, you idiot witcher. The song. Did you like it?"

"Hm." Geralt buried his face in Jaskier's hair. "Loved it. Love all your songs."

"Really? Because I seem to remember some comment about my singing and its resemblance to a fillingless pie."

He groaned. "Fuck, Jaskier, that was years ago."

He snickered. "Always love to tease you about it."

"I'm aware." After a short pause he added: "Can I ask you something?"

"Always, darling."

"In your song... It's not like the songs you sing about me. It's not about... her deeds."

"No," he agreed, "it isn't."

"Why"

"Because the people needed reminding that you were their protector all along. With Ciri they need reminding that she is more than just their protector. As does she herself." He propped himself up on one elbow and gently stroked Geralt's hair. "In a century or five or ten, stories of her will fade. They won't remember the colour of her hair, or her favourite food or that she fell in love with that lovely girl three months ago." Geralt shot him a bewildered look and he sighed. "Though I can hardly hold it against them if her own father didn't know."

Geralt scowled. Tired as he was, it was the most adorable effigy of a pout. "I still don't understand."

"They will always remember her heroics," he explained patiently. "That's not what's important, though. The important thing is that she's loved and loves in return. And that she never forgets it."

"Hmm," he hummed and frowned even harder. "I love you."

Jaskier blinked stunned for one moment. 'Oh Geralt,' he thought as soon as it hit him, 'you only needed to ask.' In his mind there were a thousand odes to Geralt's love already, a myriad of songs that had never been sung, never out loud, at least. Not even when it had been only him had he dared to do that, but now- "And I love you, too," Jaskier sighed contently and snuggled closer. He kissed him on the cheek. A promise, a sacred oath between them, understood without ever saying the words. 'I'll sing of your love, too.'

His mind was already drifting off to sleep when he heard Geralt whisper: "There's peace in your arms for me. There's a home in your songs. With you, there’s nothing I fear."

With a content smile on his lips, Jaskier slept. Peacefully.

[queenismyprimejive]

Something about Sideburns (70s! Roger Taylor - Fem! Reader)

Synopsis: Roger is insecure about his sideburns. Reader shows him that his sideburns are nothing to be insecure about.

W/C: 2,782

Warnings: Just some fluffy smut. Nothing quite as over the top as my last one. *wink*

A/N: I got this idea from Tumblr. Someone mentioned they wanted a smutty fic about Roger’s sideburns, but I can’t for the life of me remember who’s Tumblr that was. If you were the one that sort of put the idea out there on Tumblr I’d be happy enough to tag you in this.

Quiet Sunday mornings were more an exception than a regular occurrence these days. Certainly, now the band had been getting more recognition, you were seeing Roger less and less as he and the rest of the band were spending every valuable minute made available for them at the recording studio. Today however was different, as you relished the thought of having Roger all to yourself.

You woke up relatively early, currency of a few sun rays poking through the curtain. As you opened one eye to see the alarm clock reading just 9:18 am, you groaned inwardly and wrapped the covers tightly against your body and pressed your face against the pillow. As you were trying to get some sleep you heard the vague streaming of some water and the soft humming from Roger. Although he loved sleeping in as often as he could, as soon as he woke up he would have to get out of bed, or he would go crazy. He simply couldn’t sit still. Hopefully he stayed in the shower long enough for you to go back to sleep. However, that hope was short-lived when you heard the stream of water slowly coming to a stop and you heard footsteps nearing closer to the bedroom.

You heard Roger chuckle softly. “Still in bed love? Come on, it is going to be a beautiful day today.”

“That beautiful day today can wait”, you mumbled against your pillow as you tugged the covers over your head so only the top of it was visible.

“If you won’t get out of bed than you won’t get any coffee love”, Roger replied jokingly.

You opened one eye to see Roger standing at the edge of the bed, towel wrapped around his waist with his hair still wet from the shower. Droplets of water were still dripping from his wet strands of hair down his chest and at that moment you wondered how that man was able to look so effortlessly beautiful at this time in the morning.

“You’re staring love”, Roger remarked as he disappeared into the closet to find something clean and suitable to wear for the day.

“I’m your girlfriend Rog, I’m allowed to do that”, you retorted as you made an attempt to get up. So far you weren’t succeeding.

Roger returned from the closet some minutes later, fully dressed in a t-shirt and jeans this time.

“Will you get up now love?”, Roger questioned, tapping his feet quasi-impatiently, yet a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

You let out a soft groan as you stretched your limbs to full capacity and threw the covers from your body.

“Only because I won’t let you burn down the kitchen sweetheart”, you answered mockingly as you scouted the floor for something decent to wear for breakfast.

“Ouch love that hurt”, he grinned, “And besides, I can cook just fine.”

“Like the fried eggs you attempted to make and then completely burned them, which is still an achievement of it’s own, but I beg to differ love”, you winked at him and playfully slapped his ass as you went ahead of him towards the kitchen. 

You started frying up some eggs and toasted some bread as Roger attempted to get the coffee machine started. You liked mornings like this. No obligations, not somewhere you needed to be, no people you needed to see, just you and Roger together, in the comfort of your own home.

You heard the coffee machine simmer and almost immediately after that you felt Roger’s arms circle your waist, his head resting in the crook of your neck.

“Smells good love” he murmured as he peppered soft kisses against your neck.

“Well thank god”, you replied, “took me ages to get that burnt smell out of the apartment”.

“I wasn’t talking about the food love”, he responded as he buried his face in your hair, “But yeah the food smells good too”.

You blushed furiously at his statement. How, after almost a year of being together he could still make you feel like that was beyond your comprehension.

“Let’s go somewhere today”, Roger suggested as you focussed on not burning the scrambled eggs you were so carefully trying to prepare for the both of you.

“What do you have in mind Rog?”

“I don’t know love”, he shrugged, “go to the park maybe, raid some second-hand clothing stores, anything would do, as long as I’m with you”.

You smiled as he squeezed you a little tighter against him and pressed a kiss against your bare shoulder.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Later that day, after some extensive shopping and walking around town, Roger and you found yourselves huddled up on the couch, you positioned in between his legs, your book perched on your lap while Roger absentmindedly played with your hair.

“Babe?”

“Hmmm”, you hummed as you tried to continue reading but you read the same sentence over and over again as you were distracted by Roger’s hands weaving through your hair.

“Do you think I should shave off my sideburns?”

That caught your attention. You looked up at him but as soon as your eyes crossed his he averted his gaze. You then shifted from your previous position so that you were sitting in his lap.

“Rog wat are you saying?”, you questioned. But he didn’t reply. Instead he looked down towards where you were sitting in his lap, where he mindlessly played with the hem of your shirt.

“Rog?”, you asked again, this time placing your hand on his cheek causing him to look you in the eyes. “What’s wrong?”.

He swallowed. “It’s nothing really. Just some banter between me and the guys. First it was about who had the most ridiculous taste in fashion. Then we talked about who had the most ridiculous hair. Well I guess that was me”, he chuckled. Yet his smile didn’t reach his eyes. As a matter of fact, upon taking a closer look, I saw his eyes were brimmed with tears.

Your heart sank when you saw the devastated look in his eyes. Roger was confident about almost anything, but he too had his insecurities, and even if it was just playful banter, it could hit home hard. As it did right now.

“Rog listen to me.”, you started. “I don’t know anyone with better hair than you. And that even includes Bri. I’m sure they didn’t mean anything by it and didn’t know it would bother you this much. I’m positive that if you tell them it bothered you they would understand. Babe, even I am jealous of your hair, don’t change anything about it, that includes the sideburns. I love you, please don’t change”, you pleaded.

When you crossed eyes with him again you saw a few tears had made their way down his cheeks, and his bottom lip was still slightly trembling, yet he sported one of his signature smiles again.

You played with the soft strands of hair in the nape of his neck as you placed a soft kiss on his lips. He smiled softly against your lips before nibbling on your bottom lip with his teeth, silently asking permission to deepen the kiss, to which you happily complied.

As you slightly shifted your hips against this, you felt his evident arousal pressing against your thigh.

“Sorry”, he mumbled, as he allowed some distance again between your lips and his, “We should…”, he started but you silenced him by placing a finger against his lips.

“Let me take care of you today baby, ok?”, you whispered as you slid a hand down his chest. He nodded silently.

“Close your eyes”, you whispered again before closing the distance between you and him by pressing a kiss to his lips again. You then moved your lips to his right cheek, to place a soft kiss on the patch of hair there, before doing the same to his left cheek.

You then travelled lower to that one spot on his neck that was sure to drive him crazy. You licked and nibbled on the soft skin there before sucking on the slightly sensitive skin there, which elicited a few gasps from him.

“Fuck…”, he moaned softly as you continued the attack on his neck, creating a beautiful purple spot there for everyone to see later.

You continued your path downwards and placed kissed on the centre of his chest whilst you slowly unbuttoned his shirt.

“Babe…, don’t tease”, he groaned.

You looked up at him and saw him gazing back at you with hazy eyes adorned with thick, beautiful lashes.

“Remember Rog, I’m taking care of you tonight, all comes in good time”.

You got off from his lap and kneeled down on the ground before him, in between his legs.

“Baby, what are you doing?”.

You just looked up at him and smiled but said nothing as you slowly unbuckled his belt and pulled down his jeans and boxers just enough to be able to reach for his member.

It was already half hard when you took him in your hand. It felt warm to the touch. He groaned as you started to make slow movements up and down his member, never actually speeding up, never quite giving him the satisfaction that he needs, just enough to keep him on the edge.

You’re so beautiful like this Roggie”, you smiled as you gazed up at him. And he was surely a sight to behold. Darkened blue orbs gazing down at you behind wispy, black eyelashes. Dusty pink lips, slightly parted, letting out soft pants with every movement of yours up and down his cock. His chest was visibly coated with a light sheen of sweat. And his cock, already rock hard and steadily oozing precum from the tip.

“Love…please”, he moaned as he bucked his hips, trying to get more friction from your hand. But you wouldn’t let him have it, at least not yet.

“What is it Rog, what do you need?”, you questioned casually, although you already knew what the answer was.

“Please…. I need….”, he panted, but his words were cut off by a moan as you only slightly increased the movements on his cock.

“Your mouth…., fuck baby I need that pretty mouth of yours on my cock”.

“Now that wasn’t so hard now was it?”, you noted before licking a stripe from the underside of his cock all the way to the top while gathering the precum that was threatening to slide down.

Roger hissed as you took just the tip of his cock in your mouth and swirled your tongue around it, getting to taste the musky saltiness latched to his skin that was all him, all Roger.

Roger’s hand wound itself into your hair, slowly pushing himself more into your mouth. You had never actually tried to take him all the way, as you were scared of gagging and not being able to breath, but you promised that you were going to take care of him, so you were willing to take a chance.

You relaxed your throat and tried to breath through your nose as you engulfed more of his cock. You placed your hands on his thighs for extra leverage as you took the final inches of him in your mouth, your nose brushing the few strands of blonde pubic hair nestled at the base of his cock.

“Fuck… look at you baby”, he groaned as you looked up at him, trying to smile as much as was possible from having your mouth stretched around his cock.

You then slowly let him slip out of your mouth, coughing slightly at the raw feeling in your throat before taking him back in. You felt your eyes water slightly as your jaw started to ache from being stretched this wide and you couldn’t contain the drool anymore that was slowly dripping down your chin. How you had never tried this before was beyond you.

You sensed by the tension in Roger’s thighs that he was close, very close, but you wanted him to hold off a bit longer than that.

“Baby I’m close”, he moaned, as he bucked his hips slightly up into your mouth. “Almost…. g’na cum”.

As soon as you heard him say that you slipped your mouth from his cock, swallowing a couple of times to get rid of the rawness in your throat.

“Baby, I was so close…”, he whined as you gazed up at him and was met with fire blazing blue orbs staring back at you.

“I promised to take care of you tonight Roger”, you started as you got up from your position on the floor. “And to take care of you I will”, you said as you slowly let your panties drop to the floor.

You repositioned yourself back on his lap and he wasted no time to grab your hips and pull you flush against him, your now bare core brushing against his still rock-hard member.

“I’m going to make love to you Roger”, you said softly while you slid your hand down his chest, “are you going to let me do that?”

As you locked eyes with him he gave you a slow nod of approval, to which you took his cock in your hand and positioned him at your entrance, before slowly sliding down on him.

You buried your head in his neck and moaned softly at the feeling of him fully sheathed inside of you. You stayed still for a while, just relishing the fact of being this close to him again, only Roger was apparently growing impatient, and ground your hips against his just to get that tiny bit of friction you both were craving.

You set a slow pace, grounding in circular motions on his cock. He tried to control the pace by grabbing your hips and make you go faster, but you were having none of it.

“Baby please…faster”, he moaned against your lips before capturing your lips in an open-mouthed kiss, teeth clashing against each other as he slid his tongue deep into your mouth.

‘Can’t…’m tired”, you whined as you tried to move up and down on his cock, but your legs were close to giving out.

To that he flipped you over so that you were laying on your back. He pinned your hands above your head as he started slamming himself deep inside of you. Roger sucked harshly on the spot just below your ear, just as you had done to him earlier, and you felt yourself rapidly edging closer to your orgasm.

“Fuck Rog I’m close”, you moaned and by the faltering movements of his trusts, so was he”.

“Me to baby”, he groaned as he slid a hand between your bodies and furiously started to rub your clit.

“Rog… I’m cumming!”, you cried as you felt your orgasm wash over you and after a few more upwards thrusts of your hips, you fell back against the couch.

With your walls clenching around him, it didn’t take long for Roger to get his release as well. A few more thrusts followed before pushing in deep, releasing his cum inside you with a loud groan.

He too laid still for a moments, panting harshly into your neck before prepping himself up on his elbows. You smiled up at him lovingly and brought your hand towards his cheek to graze the soft patch of hair that was the cause of your current love-making session.

“I think I get it now”, Roger spoke softly as he pressed a soft kiss against your lips.

“How’s that?”

“There’s no getting rid of these sideburns anytime soon”.

End Notes: So, this thing took ages. I don’t know how I can write two pieces in one week and then nothing for almost three weeks. I am deeply sorry. When there is no motivation to write nothing simply comes out. Therefore, I feel this is not one of my best pieces. However, I’m glad to have finished it and I hope you all like it.  

[spooky-scary-imagines]

Hi :) would you write one where ChopTop met the reader the the radio station along with Strech*idk if i spelled it right* but the reader dressed similar to him and was in a band herself makeing ChopTop love struck and just his stuttering getting worst and forgeting what to say witch the reader finds cute maybe it would get slightly nsfw to to the ebd but you can pick its ok if its just fluff :3 *sorry if its to long*

((Sorry this took so long! Gotta love my boy Chop-Top and this prompt not only gave me an excuse to rewatch his intro scene but it also seems super fun! It is a challenge to figure out dialogue for him tho because he’s so bizarre in all the best ways. This one didn’t end up being too romantic but I’ve been thinking about maybe writing a continuation for this just cause there’s so much more I can do with it. So let me know if any of y’all are interested! Tagging: @i-cant-get-with-it

Chop Top meets hippie s/o @ the radio station:

It’s been a pretty rough week at the station. Your good friend Vanita had gotten a terrible call-in the other day. Initially she thought it was a prank, as the men had been obnoxious all day, but even she couldn’t ignore the terrible screaming and shill grating of metal on metal. Not when she saw that article in the paper that seemed to match the call-in. She had told you about the plan she devised with some old sheriff, about playing the tape over the radio. To you it seemed like a bad idea and a great way to put a giant target on her back, but she was insistent that she had to do it and make a difference. Despite your worries, you couldn’t just leave her alone, so you decided to stay with her after that night’s broadcast.

Tonight had done nothing to ease your concerns, angry callers had been cursing out the station and since Stretch first aired the tape. L.G. seemed to be the most upset by it, talking about how much trouble Vanita was going to get into, though anyone with eyes could tell how soft he was on her. Sadly, it didn’t seem like the feelings were returned quite the same way. At least not yet, you thought, as you watched her turn down his offer to grab some coffee with him. Guess you two were sticking around for this “Lefty” guy.

Shortly after L.G. left, you heard the phone ring. You went to reach for it, but Stretch got there first. “Hello?…Hello?…Lefty?” You could guess from her side of the conversation that she was being met with silence. You raised an eyebrow and she looked at you, equally confused. The mysterious caller hung up. “What the hell was that all about?” you asked.

“No clue,” Stretch shrugged, “We get some weird callers sometimes, but-.” As if on a cue, you two heard a small slam from the other side of the station. Vanita’s eyes flicked to you. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Stretch had been gone for a suspicious amount of time, when you decided you needed to go after her. You stood in the doorway of the hall leading to the lobby. From there, you could hear Stretch and a strange male voice, talking manically. “Hi, I know what you’re thinking. This is weird. Hope I can handle it.“ You peered out into the lobby, there you saw Vanita nervously backed against her desk, across from her was an odd man. He appeared to be in his 30s, dressed in patched and campy hippie clothes, the odd look topped off with a shappy mop of black hair and lavender Lennon specs. Though a somewhat tacky outfit, it reminded you of the way you and your bandmates dressed, especially when hanging out around at festivals. He started getting up and moving towards Stretch, and you walked out from the doorframe. Both sets of eyes looking your direction.

“Uhhh, hey man…what’s up?” you asked, awkwardly trying to redirect him. He turned to you, and looked you up and down, face unreadable.

“Wh-Who  the hell’re you? I thought it was j-just the DJ?”

“Well it isn’t space cadet! Who the hell are you?”

“I-I-I’m just a fan,” he turned back to Stretch, “Me and my little brother, Bubba, we listen to this show e-every night.” He turned back to you with a sick grin, “Music…is my life.”

You smiled at that, “Oh? I dig it. I’m in a band myself.”

His eyes went wide at that, and the barely contained manic energy in him seemed to ramp up, “O-Oh yeah? Wh-What’re you like? Something h-h-heavy? Like-like Iron Butterfly!”

You chuckled. Despite him being kind of a freaky-deaky dork, you had to admit the spaz was kind of endearing and a little cute. “Kinda. We’re more like Vanilla Fudge or Quicksilver Messenger Service than anything.”

“Far-Out! So-”

“I hate to interrupt,” Stretch cut in, “But the station is closed for the night.”

The man turned back to her, a strange glint in his eye and a sick grin that made you shudder. “Well, y’see, I wa-wanted to phone in my request but, but I al-al-always get too nervous, y’know?” He paused for a reaction before continuing, “But, well, since I’m here. In-In flesh-and-blood…I figured I could just give you my request now right!

Stretch looked to you for help and you just lifted your hands in a shrug-like gesture. “Uh, sure, sure. You can tell me your request and then you need to leave.”

The man chuckled, and started heating up the coat hanger he was holding with an old rainbow lighter. “Al-Alright…How about Cold Stone Fever from uh, Humble Pie! Or uh…” he picked at his scalp, ”In Da Vidda da Gadda babey. Heh heh yeah…” he turned to you, “Real, uh, heavy stuff, y’know.” You hid a laugh behind your hand, at his goofy smile and the fact that he got both song titles wrong.

Then that menace was back in his eyes, “Or…how about s-something like that, uh, Lefty r-request record you played today? How’d it go again?” You and Stretch’s eyes went wide as the man screamed and growled in mimicry of the terrible sounds of the attack. You looked at each other in mutual fear at this man standing between you and the exit. “Wh-What was that anyway? R-Rambo III soundtrack?” he chuckled at his own joke. “Could you play it again? Or, uh, m-maybe you co-could get me a copy!” He grinned, “You could both sign it. To-To-To a far out fan!”

He seemed to respond better to you so you spoke up, “We, uh, actually don’t have a copy. Sorry sir. But we could, er,  play your other requests.”

Something dark passed over his face that you couldn’t quite place. He looked to the side in the records vault. “Hey, uh, is this where you keep the golden oldies? And mayb-” The rest of the sentence was cut off when the lights suddenly flipped on, revealing a horrifying giant wielding what looked like a chainsaw. You and Vanita screamed, she ran off towards the back rooms while you ducked out of the way into the far corner of the room behind and hid on the far side of the sofa. You heard the man from earlier hollering in pain and wailing at the giant to “Get the girl!” You saw the giant run after Vanita through the door, and you peered out from your hiding place. You watched the man from before scream and clutch at his head. “He dented my plate! My brain is burning! Nam flashback! Nam flashback! Leatherface, you bitch, I’ll…Oh just look what you did to my Sonny Bono wig. Oh, God damn it!”

You listened to the man’s cries of pain and rage from your hiding place as you resisted the urge to help him. Judging from what you could make out from his rant, he was clearly with the man trying to kill Stretch. Oh god…Vanita…what have you gotten yourself into? He eventually managed to get to his feet and began to go through the records vault, muttering something about dogs hunting. You covered your ears and tried to block out the terrible sounds coming from behind the door leading to the recording area.

You heard a door open from the other side of the room. “Hey! What the shit?” L.G was back! Maybe he could get the police and everything would be okay.

“Lick my plate you dog dick!” the hippie yelled, flipping L.G. the bird. It would have been funny if the whole situation wasn’t so terrifying.

“What the fuck you think you’re doing in here, you crazy-looking little son of a bitch? Get out of here!” You wanted to scream at L.G. to run out of here and get help, that these guys were totally buggin and super dangerous. But you stayed quiet for fear of revealing your position. This turned out to be a lethal decision as the man lunged at L.G. brandishing a hammer. “Time for incoming mail!” he shrieked, slamming into hammer into L.G.’s skull, “Ho Chi Minh!” Over and over you heard the sickening thuds through your covered ears. You squeezed your eyes shut but you couldn’t pretend it just wasn’t happening. Hell, the same thing was probably happening to Stretch right now .

You didn’t even realize you were crying until you felt the warmth of the tears sliding down your face, but someone else did. You open your eyes to see the killer’s leering face less than a foot from your own, “H-H-Hey there, rock’n’roll b-bunny! T-th-th-thought I lost ya t-there.”

“Please, don’t kill me,” you sobbed, “I’m, like, really sorry for whatever’s making you upset.”

This seemed to make the man nervous, and he started picking twitchily at the edge of a metal plate embedded in his skull. “I-I…I ain’t g-gonna, er, kill you. J-Just…” he looked around the room frantically, as if trying to find a solution to his problem. He spied the hammer over by L.G.’s corpse and his face broke into a grin. He scrambled to grab it, whipped back around, and started getting closer to you, arms out ahead of him as if you were a spooked animal. And I guess in a way you were. “N-Now do-don’t move or-or nothing. It It ain’t gonna h-hurt.”

Your soft sobs turned into bawling, “NoNoNo Oh God PleasePleasePleasePlease Don’t do this Please don’t do this!”

You noticed some emotion flash across his face that you couldn’t figure out. “A-one and a-two and a-three!” and the hammer fell down on your skull. You collapsed, yet you kept fading in and out of consciousness. You heard footsteps coming through the door to the studio and what sounded like the two men having a one sided conversation. “Did you get her, Bubba? Did you get that bitch? She was my fave…but-but she knew! And now…nobody knows!…L-look what you did to my plate, you bitch!…Y-You got her? Di-Did you get her good?…Slap me five!

You heard footsteps coming closer but you couldn’t see what was happening as you felt yourself getting dragged over to a damp section of floor. “I got some too. Bonus bodies! Look at that beef,” you vaguely felt a slap against your thigh, but it was as if you were made of cotton. “Help me get it out of here!,” said the hippie as you felt yourself be hoisted onto the larger man’s shoulders.

 You were tossed in what seemed like the back of a truck, though you were so dizzy it was hard to tell. Finally you succumbed to your head injury and passed out. The giant, Bubba, left to sit shotgun and only Chop-top stayed by, standing over you with a dopey look on his face. “Don’t wo-worry baby, we’ll b-be home soon,” he gave you a sloppy peck on the cheek and ran back around to the driver’s side. “Alright Bubba! Let’s blow this pop stand!” he yelled, and sped off back to where the rest of the family was waiting.

[theyrealllegends]

Careful (Roger Taylor x Reader)

Chapter Summary: First, your parents come to visit you unexpectedly. Then, suddenly Queen is being signed and you meet Jim “Miami” Beach who offers you an internship. In the middle of all the craziness, you’re still moving in with Rog and Fred, giving you some time to spend with them - and especially with Roger in the last night in your old apartment.

Author’s Note: Miami owns my heart. I love that guy and I’m so glad he agreed to be their manager later. This one is a long one, i don’t know what happened tbh and there’s a lot going on, i know, but I tried to include some fluffly Rog and Tiff scenes, too. Hope you enjoy it!

Words: ~3.6k

Warning: at one point, Rog is high and eventually gets sick, some language i guess

Chapter 6

Previous Parts

Your parents came to visit you without letting you know. That was a problem for various reasons: a part of your room was already in boxes and even though your mom was happy for you, your dad clenched his jaw while noting that he didn’t get the chance to approve your new flat. Also, they arrived at around ten in the morning and you had found them in front of a locked door when you had returned from your run, having to leave them in the kitchen alone while you took a shower - which above all wasn’t completely dirty but also nowhere as clean as you would’ve liked it to be. And lastly, Roger went out and had yet to return. It hurt you that he started to go out for drinks again, even though there was nothing that would’ve given you the power to tell him not to, or even gave you the right to be jealous really. Also, he had the kindness and the manners not to bring girls to your place again, so you could still get yourself to believe he was only getting wasted with his boys, crashing at their places, or wherever. 

When you joined your parents, dressed and looking somewhat decent your mom had made tea and cleaned the entire room, already. 

“Mom!”, you whined. “You shouldn’t have! That’s definitely my job in my flat!”

“I don’t think you got it dirty in the first place”, your dad said and you forced yourself to shrug it off. 

“Roger and I clean it every week and that would’ve been today.” That wasn’t entirely a lie, you just weren’t really telling them that most times, you ended up cleaning the flat. 

“He sounded like a good person on the phone”, your dad continued and your blood turned cold. You knew the tune in his voice and it was one you really didn’t like: he was testing you. 

“He’s great. Becoming a biologist and one of his friends is an astro-physician.” Brian would laugh if you told him that actually managed to impress your dad, you were sure. 

“He could’ve opened the door, at least”, your dad mumbled after the surprise faded from his face. 

“I don’t know if he’s home, he’s a busy guy”, you kept acting innocent. That worked for the next forty-five minutes that you spend sweating - one because your dad kept quizzing you about everything he could think of: your exams, if you had applied for internships, when you were supposed to get your degree and your new flat, your running; second because you were scared Roger would come home and you’d have to explain his state to your parents. However, hearing him enter the apartment relieved you because you could use him as an excuse to get away from your dad’s investigating gaze for a second. “I’m gonna warn Roger that you are here”, you excused yourself before rushing out of the kitchen, making sure to close the door behind you. 

“Oh, hey, Tiff”, Roger said from his room’s door. He looked back at you and the relieve you’d felt left you that second. You shoved him in his room and closed his door as well. 

“My parents are here and you’re high!”

“No, I’m not, you’re just blurry”, he said, grinning to himself before your words must’ve gotten to the clear part of his thoughts because his back straitened. 

“Your parents?”

“Yes”, you grumbled and crossed your arms in front of your chest. 

“Shit”, Roger mumbled, before running his hands through his hair and blinking at you from his incredibly red eyes. “Okay, will they buy it if you tell them I was at the gym? I’d have at least an excuse to take a shower then.”

“That’s-“ you said, realising that was a way better idea than anything you could’ve come up with really. “I guess, they will.”

“Good”, he nodded, stumbling to his extremely stuffed chest of drawers. None of them were completely closed because fabric kept looking out of all of them and on top there was a lot of tangled jewellery and random bits and bops. Roger even fought to get one of the drawers open and you approached him slowly.

“What are you looking for?”

“Eye-drops”, he mumbled. “You want me to call Brian? He’s good at impressing parents.”

“I told my dad you knew someone becoming an astro-physician, already.”

“Don’t tell him, that motherfucker’s gonna get off like crazy”, or whatever he said, you didn’t really understand his furious ramble while he searched under some boxers, ended up with some condoms in his hands that made him raise an eyebrow before he threw them on his bed and finally turned to you, eyedrops in hand. “I got this, Tiffy, I promise I won’t embarrass you”, he said and you were surprised that he even cared - and that he sounded honest. You were about to nod as Roger’s face turned pale. “Hang on and do yourself a favour, don’t look at me”, he tried to warn you while furiously looking around. 

“No you’re not!”, you wanted to stop him but Roger was already at his window, leaning out and - “Oh my god, Roger!”, you mumbled, torn apart between feeling sorry and worried while also annoyed. 

“Fuck, Tiff, ‘M sorry, I don’t know what I’m doing these days."

“I can tell, Rog. Just take that shower and then join us if you want.”

He looked amazing, to your surprise, when he did. His hair was a little wet, still but yours had been too so you didn’t judge. He wore black Jeans and apart from the fact that they were extremely tight-fitting they were perfectly fine and normal. He had paired them with a grey shirt and one of his jackets - the less outrageous one, though. It was dark-green suede with silver buttons and you smiled because you liked it. 

“Nice to meet you, sir, I’m Roger Taylor”, he introduced himself to your dad before smiling at your mom. “Ma’am.”

-

“Bloody hell”, Roger said as your parents finally left. They had taken you for lunch, giving him a break from them but they asked him to join your conversation again, when it was tea-time. “I thought your dad would tore me into pieces.”

“Why would he?”

“I don’t know, I sometimes get a bit maniacal, thinking everyone knows I’m stoned and shit”, he mumbled, rubbing his neck in embarrassment. 

“They didn’t suspect that, Rog, otherwise my dad would’ve said something. I mean, I knew you were and I didn’t even notice it myself anymore.”

“I’m glad then, I was giving my best to act normal.”

“You didn’t act like you at all but you acted like my dad wanted you, too.”

“What do you mean?” Of course he had to ask and of course you blushed.

“Don’t get me wrong, I really like how you are but today, you didn’t swear and you didn’t roll your eyes or picked a fight or teased, or anything and that’s what he likes - someone quiet that doesn’t get me into trouble.”

“I’d never”, he said immediately. “Not on purpose, at least”, he then had to add, making you giggle. 

“Thank you for not calling the cops on me.”

“I thought about it”, you teased him. “But my dad was enough of a punishment, I guess.”

“Those are your words, Tiffy”, Roger laughed. “Should we go to the store and get some white wine? To celebrate I made it through this day alive?”

*-*-*-*-*-*

Freddie had invited you to his birthday and Roger took you, Brian and Deaky to his parents’ house. It wasn’t completely out of generosity but Roger had strolled through every second hand shop there must’ve been in London until eventually he’d found a used but still strong-going TV that wouldn’t rip a whole in your wallets - since you directly agreed to join in on the present that would also benefit your new living room. And of course Freddie hugged you until there wasn’t a steady blood stream to your legs anymore, before he kissed your cheeks. “You two are the best!”, he told you and Roger before hugging him, even though Roger didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as Freddie did. He introduced you to his parents and his sister who was younger than you and looked proud to even be around you and the guys. Mary’s parents where their as well and soon, the table was in wild discussions about Freddie’s childhood photos which he obviously didn’t enjoy. To a point where he started singing “Happy Birthday” to himself, calling him “Mister Mercury” what made you smile before you noticed that it left his dad upset. However, that argument didn’t last long, either, since it was interrupted by the phone ringing. Freddie’s sister picked it up, only to turn to him, wide eyed. 

“They’re requesting Mister Mercury to talk to them because they want to sign Queen under their label.” Not to mention that it freaked the guys out like crazy but Roger still caught you off guard by kissing your cheek in joy. 

*-*-*-*-*-*

They even took you to sign their contracts with John Reid even though you tried to talk yourself out of it like crazy. 

“I told you they’d provide you with lawyers”, you mumbled to Roger before shaking the hand of Jim Beach. 

“That’s my lawyer Tiffany”, Freddie said, making you blush. 

“I’ll be one day but you can literally be sued for saying that right now”, you told him, making Jim laugh. 

“You’ll be a great lawyer, young lady, I can feel that.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I want you to call him Miami”, Freddie told you and your eyes widened. 

“You can’t - “

“Jim Beach, that’s freaking boring.”

“He doesn’t mean to offend you”, you quickly told Jim.

“I’m fine, Ms Abberforth, don’t worry.”

“Now, if we’re ready for your signatures?”, John got the boys’ attention again. They all nodded calmly even though you could tell how excited they still were. John was pale as a wall, Brian kept tugging on his white sleeves and Roger was fumbling with his belt-buckle nonstop. 

“You know, I’m always looking for interns”, Jim told you after handing them the necessary paperwork. “And since you’re friends with the band already, I think we’d both profit from working together.”

“I’d love to, Sir, thank you!”, you replied, smiling luckily. 

“Please”, he said, patting your shoulder grinning. “Call me Miami.”

*-*-*-*-*-*

After that, time went by in what felt like the blink of an eye. You were on holiday from your classes maybe but you didn’t manage to join your parents in their little house at the Côte d’Azur anyway. It made your dad proud though, because what occupied your time was your work for Miami. He’d taken you to curt already, gave you old files to go through that were truly interesting and he even let you go through client’s requests to compare your ideas with his own. The best times though were when he took you to the studio to see the boys perform when he had a reason to - even though you were sure sometimes he was just as excited to hear them as you. 

“We’ll have to meet with Karen at three but you can have lunch before”, he told you, before holding the studio’s door open for you. You almost jumped as you were greeted by all your friends screaming LIAR on top of their lungs, hearing Jim chuckle behind you. 

The new studio was even more impressive than the old one they were recording in but this one almost let you smell all the fame it had given people like the Beatles or Elton John - whose music you really grew to like. When your eyes fell on Roger, it wiped every other thought from your brain. Your surrounding was gone, you just saw him, deeply into his playing and the singing he had to do, his hair stuck to his head in sweat and his chest was only halfway covered by his completely unbuttoned white shirt. It took you a second to catch your breath before you moved over to the black couch you usually sat on when Jim just came here to enjoy hearing them play. 

“Can you get them out of there for a second?”, he asked the sound engineer like he didn’t want only that today. “I have a surprise for them.”

“What is it?”, you asked immediately, getting up again and looking at him wide eyed in shock that he didn’t tell you. 

“I didn’t want your interests conflicted between them and this. I only found out last night myself and I didn’t want to risk to wake you up.”

“Jim, you know you can literally always call me.”

“And risk having a sleep deprived drummer? I wouldn’t want that”, Roger teased you from the recording booth’s door before walking over and quickly kissing your cheek. “You’re looking fab, babe”, he whispered into you ear, making you laugh a little. You were looking far more formal than him, in a dark grey blazer, matching skirt and black heels. 

“You too, rockstar.”

“Miami, dear”, Freddie interrupted. “What is it?”

“John send Tiff and I-“

“I have no idea what’s going on”, you whispered to Roger, his hand on the small of your back and his hot breath stroking over your neck from time to time. 

“- to invite you guys for dinner tonight since he’d like to discuss the details of your first tour.” He lifted his hands to underline his excitement but he was met with silence. 

“We’re going on tour”, Freddie was the first one to whisper and Roger was the first one to move again, literally jumping on his friends. 

“We’re going on tour you bitches!” He turned to you as soon as they’d let him go, picking you up and spinning you around. “We’re going on tour Tiffy, what the fuck?!”

“I’m so proud of you!”, you told him, beaming and with a heartbeat of probably 400. And then, right then and there, in the middle of the studio with all your friends - and your boss - watching, his lips were on yours. It was a two, maybe three seconds long kiss but it didn’t fail to make your knees turn to jelly but you caught Deaky staring at you in surprise while Freddie was literally squeaking. 

“Someone wants to be our flower boy”, Roger told you grinning, his arm still wrapped around your waist and one of your hands on his chest. 

“I got nothing to argue that right now”, you said, feeling his chuckle vibrate under his skin. 

“Happens to the best of us”, Jim said making you giggle. 

*-*-*-*-*-*

The next thing you knew was your move. You were incredibly tired and almost fell asleep in your clothes when you came home from work Friday night. You’d still have to wake up at nine to bring all your boxes to the new place since it would be the first of the month. Your furniture had been picked up already last night, giving you enough time to deep clean your old flat and supposed to be delivered to the new flat in a few hours and so you only slept on the mattress you had left - which was one, forcing you and Roger to sleep together - and later you could only change into the last set of fresh clothes you’d kept unboxed. 

He got home after you, as always since the band’s contract and he just fell on the improvised bed next to you. The both of you hadn’t been home much so it was kind of weird that you finally had some time together - and to sleep in the same bed, actually - while being tired to the bone. 

“Hi babe”, he’d said after a moment and you cuddled into him tightly because the empty room felt cold. 

“Hey Rockstar”, you mumbled into his skin and you felt goosebumps spreading on his chest. The heater still worked that day but would be turned off by midnight which you weren’t ready for. Your fingers moved into Roger’s hair without you making the conscious decision you felt like but he still moaned and moved close to you, his fingers playing with the end of your pj-shirt. You felt heat built up inside of you and suddenly all you wanted was to kiss him. The thought started innocent but the urge it made you feel made your breath shaky and your heartbeat quicken: you wanted Roger. However, this was one of the things that didn’t change - maybe being surrounded by the people in Miami’s office and Roger’s friends becoming your friends too had made you blush less and talk a little more, be a little more confident. But you still wouldn’t want to make the first move with Roger since you didn’t know if he felt the same. The only thing you knew was that he was what other people would consider their best friend for you and that you wanted everything but to scare him off. While you still thought about feeling his lips on yours Roger was fighting his very own battle, suddenly very aware of his super tight fitting leather pants and how close you still were to him, how long he hadn’t had the time to properly release the pressure of desire filling up his whole body. He moved his fingers upwards, only a few centimetres under your shirt feeling your soft, warm skin on his and it made you let out a sweet little noice he wished he’d never forget. Your fingers moved over his skin as well, creeping under the fabric of his shirt on his shoulder where he’d sometimes also put his hand without any obvious reason but it seemed to be a soft spot on him. Feeling your touch there made him want to clear his throat or just already move on top of you to kiss the living hell out of you. Roger knew that your boundaries were shifting a little, he loved seeing you get a bit more open with everyone including himself but he knew he’d still overstep a border if he continued touching you like that. 

-

Your alarm wasn’t packed yet and it woke you up at nine, turning Roger into a grumpy mess. You started making tea and roasted some bagels before you quickly got ready and then tiptoed to where Roger was still sleeping, kneeling down next to his mattress to softly run your fingers through his hair before he woke up. 

“What’s up, Tiffy?”, he mumbled, leaning into your touch.  

“We have to start moving the boxes before the furniture arrives and we have to turn in the keys to this place”, you replied whispering at his grumble before he forced himself to sit up to hug you. You laughed a little before you pulled the two of you up to have the breakfast waiting for you in the kitchen. After that, you moved the last boxes that were still in the apartment into Roger’s car. On the first trip, you also picked up your news keys that made you beam in excitement which didn’t even fade as you had to do three more trips, going up to the second floor, carrying boxes down to the car and then up again. 

Until you were done and sat in your new apartment in the middle of what felt like a thousand boxes. Freddie came back from getting Roger, Mary, you and himself some Chinese takeout and surprised the three of you with two bottles of champagne. 

“On this glorious place”, he said, raising his cup - it was fun to see really, you and Freddie drinking out of cups, Roger had a jar while Mary was the only one that had a real glass while you all sat on the floor but none of you could’ve cared less. Freddie had been playing Elton John records since he found his record player in one of the boxes and you decided that he should keep them playing until the last one of you surrendered with unpacking that day. Your room was still a gigantic mess, you wardrobe and bed still being a selection of wood. It still wasn’t as bad as you’d feared but you didn’t really know how to build them again. So you spend some time putting your stuff back on your desk the way you needed it but then you had to go to ask Roger for help who was surrounded by his clothes, trying the impossible to squeeze most of them on the one rack he’d already built up. His drawers were still in the state of your wardrobe but at least he had his bed set up and you knew he was able to work with his cordless screwdriver. However for a moment you got caught up staring at him, only in dark-grey sweats and no shirt, humming Elton John while putting his colourful jackets back on their hangers. 

“Rooooog”, you said in the sweetest voice you could master. He turned to you, smiling and wiping his hair out of his face. 

“What is it, babe?”

“Can you help me rebuilt my wardrobe and my bed?”

“Sure. But right now, can we call it a day and you’re crashing here?”, he suggested, coming over to spin you around on your shoulders to start massaging them. 

“Hmm”, you let out, leaning into his chest. “I can if you don’t mind.”

“Of course I do that’s why I’ve done it so many times before”, he replied sarcastically, making you giggle. 

“And would you lent me a shirt? I didn’t find my PJs yet.”

“Always, love.”

Tags:

@discodeakyy @crazyweirdocalledfriday @blondecarfucker

[talkthattae]

Levels to Eternity: Chapter Eight

Genre: Horror, Romance, Vampires

Warnings: cursing, mentions of blood, violence

Summary: Your whole life your parents protected you from the dangerous world of vampire’s but one day your boyfriend kidnaps you and you wake up in an abandoned building with a thirst for blood. You are now exposed to the new world of levels, blood, new friendships, new romance, and new danger. You start out as a level 1 vampire but will you protect the ones you love and become the next level 4?

Word Count: 1455

prev/next

You woke up the next morning in the arms of Jimin. You looked up to see him already looking at you. He started blushing.

“How long have you been awake for weirdo?” you asked.

“Only a few minutes” he said with a goofy smile.

He gave you a quick kiss on your forehead before he got out of bed.

“Hobi is starting all of our training today. I’ll meet you downstairs” he said as he walked out of the room to let you change. 

The higher level vampire you became the more you felt this is truly what you were meant to do but that didn’t mean you weren’t terrified. The fact that the people you now cared for so deeply could be put, would be put in danger because of you drove you crazy. You had to get rid of Namjoon so you could finally protect the ones you love. You went downstair and trained with all the guys. Fighting became a second nature to you. You were never a violent person before you became a vampire but when you did get turned, it felt like this other person was unlocked and fighting just beame natural.

Later that night you were in your room relaxing when someone knocked on your door.

“Hey, Jimin, Yoongi, Hoseok, Jungkook and I are gonna go out. Definitely not gonna go anything we shouldn’t do.” Taehyung said as he opened and then tried to close your door very fast.

You flew up before Tae could get it closed.

“Spill it” you said amused by Taehyung’s horrible way of trying to hide what they were doing.

He started to laugh nervously, “Uhh we might be going back to Namjoon’s club to get leveled up?” he said almost as if he was asking a question.

“No, you guys are not doing that. How fucking stupid can you guys be? Jungkook literally died! And you are all just gonna step foot back there and kill some vamps then leave? You really think they are gonna let you guys go this time?” you asked.

“We need to be as powerful as we can when we go to kill Namjoon. We will be fine. We are big boys and we won’t split up like last time. Plus Jungkook gave us all these knives he made that are supposed to kill vampires.” he said as he held up a knife identical you the one Jungkook gave you.

“The second things start to go wrong your ass better call me okay?” you threatened.

“I promise” Taehyung said with a smile. “It wouldn’t even take my mind reading power to know what you’re thinking. Stop worrying. We will be fine.”

“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Get out before i change my mind” you said as you rolled your eyes.

Taehyung just laughed as he closed the door.

The boys arrived at the club. Of course they were going to have fun before they attacked but they still all felt nervous.

“Okay so you know how they only thing i can’t see in the future is my death?” Jimin asked everyone.

“Jimin, if you don’t shut up. Nobody is dying.” Hoseok replied.

“Even if anyone does die. Y/N will help me bring you back.” Yoongi added.

“Are we sure that wasn’t just a one time thing?” Taehyung asked.

“I wouldn’t doubt her. Especially when something she cares about is in danger. She more powerful than any of us combined.” Jimin defended.

“Oh yeah I’m sure Jimin knows all about that.” Taehyung teased as he hit Jimin’s arm.

“Okay okay. Let’s not go there please?” Jungkook asked as he stared a Jimin.

Taehyung looked back and forth between Jimin and Jungkook obviously forgetting the history.

“Okay well anyway, nobody is splitting up. Stay together.” Hoseok said as they all got out of the car and walked into the club.

They walked up to the bar and ordered a few drinks then found a booth off in the corner to hang out in. None of the vampires really paid attention to them this time. Namjoon must have made sure all his vampires knew what you looked like. After about an hour of getting comfortable they thought now would be a good time to attack.

“We shouldn’t draw a lot of attention to ourselves. Let's do this as quietly as possible” Yoongi said.

“Wait, there are vip rooms in the back we could attack. I mean i was one of Namjoon’s vampires. I know a lot of their hangout spots.” Jungkook said.

“Good idea. We can just go into the rooms. Kill some level 3’s. Then walk out of here like nothing ever happened.” Hoseok replied.

Jungkook led them to the back and they entered the first vip room. Taehyung and Yoongi were the first to find level 3’s to kill. Jungkook and Jimin left the vip room the rest of the boys were in and entered the next, looking for the next kill. The boys would soon follow after so their rule of not separating technically wasn’t broken. Right?

“Hello boys, I didn’t even have to go looking for you. You came right to me. How ironic.” Namjoon said.

“Shit” Jungkook murmured.

Two vampires closed the door behind them and then stood in front of it to guard it.

“I’m not going to kill you. Well not just yet. I want Y/N dead. She beginning to become a real problem for me. I’m honestly surprised she's made is this far. She does have a small pinch of potential. Too bad i have to snap her neck.” Namjoon said.

“You won’t get that far” Jimin said as he lunged his body towards Namjoon and wrapped his hands around his neck.

“Jimin no! Y/N is the only one that can kill him. If you kill him she will never be the level 4, stop!” Jungkook shouted.

Namjoon laughed as Jimin slowly lowered his grasp and took a few step back.

“You must be the new lover boy.” Namjoon said as he raised an eyebrow towards the vampires guarding the door.

“You’re coming with us” Namjoon said as the two vampires grabbed Jimin and took him out of the room leaving Jungkook and Namjoon alone.

“I could kill you but that bitch would just bring you back like the last time huh?” Namjoon remarked.

“She’s not a bitch!” Jungkook shouted.

“Easy, I could change my mind about killing you. You did betray me afterall. I’m shocked your still loyal to Y/N after all the things she’s done. She doesn’t even love you anymore and you are still by her side. Your pathetic.” Namjoon said as he started walking towards the door to exit. “Tell Y/N I said hello and that I’ll be looking forward to seeing her” he said as he closed the door behind him.

Jungkook ran out of the room to find the other boys, all of which had bright blue eyes signaling that they had become level 3’s.

“Namjoon just took Jimin. We need to leave now!” Jungkook yelled in panic as he reached the boys.

You were sitting in the living room watching tv with jin waiting for the boys to either call you or to come home. Jin had the worst taste in tv shows. You would pretty much rather sit and stare at a wall then to watch the cheesy shit he did but all the other boys left you an Jin was the only one to hang out with.

“How did you become a vampire?” you asked Jin randomly.

Jin sighed and paused the show. “I was born a vampire.” he answered.

“Vampire’s can be born?” you asked.

“Yeah, just because we are dead doesn’t mean our “things” don’t work.” he said as he used air quotations.

“Well okay then” you said.

With that Jin pressed play and continued watching his cheesy romcom. The next thing you knew the front door flew open and all the boys except one ran through the door breathing heavily.

“Namjoon has Jimin” Yoongi shouted frantically as he ran into the room.

You didn’t even bother congratulating him on his new pair of stunning blue eyes. You just stood up and headed for the front door.

“Wa-wait where are you going?” Taehyung asked.

“I’m going to kill Namjoon.” you replied as you ran out the front door.

The boys all stared at each other before they soon followed after you.

[avaruussade]

Did the Hero of Kazakhstan kidnap the Russian Fairy’s heart after all?

written for @otayuriwriterscollective olympics week

sun feb 11: interviews/media coverage OR celebration/party

T-rated, 2.8K words

huge thanks to @bekasstar​ for being my second pair of eyes (and letting me use not only her real twitter handle but the sideblog url as well AND discussing this idea with me and just existing in general ♡)

Read on AO3

“Beka, look, you need to see this.” Otabek leaves his suitcase open on the floor and sits next to Yuri who’s lying on his stomach on the hotel bed. (He has been there the whole time Otabek has tried to unpack his suitcase and settle down in the room, his own suitcase abandoned near the door - Yuri said he would go and check his own room later even though they both know he isn’t going to spend too much time there.) Otabek leans in and reads over Yuri’s shoulder a Twitter thread the Russian skater has open on his phone.

Yuri’s Angels @yurisangels_official・20 min Yuri was seen hugging Otabek Altin of Kazakhstan outside their hotel today. Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) arrived to Pyeongchang yesterday evening, Team Kazakhstan early today. welcome to the madness @datyurifanboy・19 min @yurisangels_official such a shame Yuri can’t properly represent his country tho… but also @vilmahenriika look at this shit always sleepy @vilmahenriika・18 min @datyurifanboy @yurisangels_official holy fuck my Otayuri Senses™ are tingling it was like 5am in Korea when Otabek got there?? Maybe in next olympics Yuri’s gonna represent Kazakhstan ;)) jkjk Yuri’s Angels @yurisangels_official・16 min @datyurifanboy @vilmahenriika I heard they hugged for a really long time outside the hotel, and then went inside together. And that Yuri was looking happy af. Also we haven’t seen Yuri in Team Kazakhstan jacket… yet. always sleepy @vilmahenriika・15 min @yurisangels_official i’d die if that happened also @smilejongdw you need to see this!! Chel @smilejongdw・14 min @vilmahenriika @yurisangels_official HOLY FUCK Yuri’s Angels @yurisangels_official・14 min @smilejongdw @vilmahenriika There’s a week to go before the games start, we have our fingers crossed for Instagram updates! And reports from people who might see them around & in practice! WA @figureskating-guy・12 min @yurisangels_official @vilmahenriika @smilejongdw You guys need to chill. I mean, Yuri and Otabek are friends. They haven’t seen each other since the GPF. Ofc they’re happy. always sleepy @vilmahenriika・10 min @figureskating-guy let a girl have her fun lmao “Are you pissed you can’t represent Russia?” Yuri stares at Otabek for a couple of silent seconds, and then rolls his eyes. “Is that really the first thing that came to your mind after reading all that?” “I’m just curious,” Otabek shrugs, but he knows Yuri has noticed the hint of a smile trying to tug his lips upwards. “I’m pissed those doping assholes have the guts to call themselves athletes”, Yuri says, frowning in disgust. Then his face settles in something more serious. “All I care about is skating, really.” For some time it had looked like Yuri wouldn’t even be able to compete in Olympics despite getting silver in the Grand Prix final and winning Nationals less than two months before. When Yuri had gotten the permission to skate under OAR, he had called Otabek and cried tears of relief. After all, it’s their first Olympics, and going there together had been their dream. “So your fans looking for evidence of us dating isn’t something you care about?” Otabek is smirking now, but his smile falters when he sees the excited glint in Yuri’s eyes. “I want to talk about that.” “Yura, I told you - after Olympics.” The two of them had jumped from the friendship stage to something entirely different during Yuri’s exhibition skate in the Grand Prix final held in Barcelona, just three days after their reunion. (Otabek prefers to call it a meeting instead of a reunion because Yuri didn’t even remember him back then, but Yuri tells him reunion sounds better.) On most days they had been best friends, but then there had been moments when neither of them could say were they friends or something more. They openly cheered for each other during competitions despite being each other’s biggest rivals. When they met in and outside of competitions - skating, walking around in different cities, or having sleepovers at the other boy’s house during off-season - there had been long looks and lingering touches. Looks and touches the media and their fanbases had started to notice after a while, as well. After reading the third online article (titled Did the Hero of Kazakhstan kidnap the Russian Fairy’s heart after all?) scrutinizing every little detail in how long they had hugged after a medal ceremony, Otabek had grown tired of all the conspiracy theories: he had brought the topic up with Yuri in Skype. He didn’t expect their conversation to end with Yuri confessing he had feelings for Otabek; feelings Otabek shared. It’s been a year since that Skype conversation, and they had agreed on being just best friends in the public eye. If Otabek is being honest, he isn’t surprised Yuri wants everyone to know already - he’s impatient, has always been. “Don’t you think this would be a perfect opportunity to let the world know?” Yuri asks, sitting up. He puts his hands on Otabek’s shoulders, a happy grin on his face. “I think we should wait until the games are over. I don’t want it to affect the results.” “As if it would.” “You never know,” Otabek says with a shrug, and Yuri sighs in defeat. He picks his phone up, the Twitter thread still open on the screen. “Also I love reading the theories your fans come up with.” “Your fans contribute in them, too.” “What if,” Otabek says, holding his hands up in defence when Yuri’s eyes start to sparkle again, trying to keep the blond’s hopes from shooting too high up. “What if we just had fun now, and thought about this when the games are over.” *** The days before the opening ceremony are busy for both of them: they’re training on and off ice while trying to get used to the time difference and learning to navigate in the huge Olympic village. Their coaches are trying their best to keep them healthy and in good condition before the games start: they aren’t allowed on the ice too much, and staying up late to have a stroll around the city is strictly prohibited as well. Otabek wants the competition to start already, while Yuri can’t wait for everything to be over. “Let’s take a pic!” Yuri demands when they leave the hotel on the night of the opening ceremony. They are both dressed up in their respective uniforms: Yuri in grey and white, Otabek in the colors of Kazakhstan. He doesn’t feel comfortable in the bright colors, especially next to Yuri’s more neutral attire. It takes a moment before they find a spot with lighting good enough for Yuri’s standards. Yuri switches to the front camera of his phone and raises the device up, gesturing Otabek to come closer so they both fit in the frame. Otabek laughs and wraps an arm around Yuri’s waist, showing a thumbs up to the camera with his other hand. As always, Yuri snaps dozen pictures just in case (he’s really serious about his Instagram feed - a thing Otabek has never really understood, but he respects his boyfriend’s devotion). Otabek grows tired of posing after five shots, and in the last one he’s stealing a glance of a happily laughing Yuri, a soft smile and a gentle blush on his face. “I’m gonna upload this one, too,” Yuri says when he sees the last picture on his camera roll. “No, you are not.” “Yeah, I am. You look good in it.” “I look like I’m in love, Yuri.” “Exactly.” * Yuri’s Angels @yurisangels_official・4 min Yuri updated his Instagram! “yuri-plisetsky: Ready for the opening ceremony! With @otabek-altin” [2 pictures attached] OLYMPICS HYPE @itsviktorwithak・3 min @yurisangels_official okay but does Otabek have an arm around Yuri’s waist?? Yuri’s Angels @yurisangels_official・3 min @itsviktorwithak It seems so, yes! C; OLYMPICS HYPE @itsviktorwithak・2 min @yurisangels_official holy fuck OLYMPICS HYPE @itsviktorwithak・2 min @yurisangels_official ppl are going crazy in the comments omg Beka’s quad salchow @otabeks_devil・2 min @itsviktorwithak @yurisangels_official Well, the way Otabek looks at Yuri in that 2nd pic… my gf looks at me like that go team japan!! @loveonice・1 min @otabeks_devil @itsviktorwithak @yurisangels_official I wonder when’s the wedding lolol *** Neither of them takes part in the Team events, so after the opening ceremony is over, they have a week before they can hit the ice for real. They try to kill time in different ways: they go watch the Team events held in Gangneung Ice Arena, have a jog around the Olympic village when the sun sets behind the tall hotel buildings, and skate as much as their coaches let them. Otabek cherishes the mornings during that week. He often wakes up before Yuri and pulls him closer to his chest, listening to their hearts sharing a rhythm. It’s quiet and peaceful, something the two of them haven’t been given a chance to enjoy. Otabek knows that when their turns to skate in front of the judges come, Yuri wants to sleep in his own bed. He says it keeps him focused, and Otabek understands (but he’s still happy they will get their results after only two days on the ice, and that no matter what happens they will be sharing a bed again when they’re done with the free skating). So on the morning of the short program Otabek wakes up alone, his head hurting from lack of sleep. He’s feeling slightly disoriented, and scrolling through his Twitter mentions and Instagram comments doesn’t make his mood any better. People are cheering him on and sending messages of good luck, but all Otabek wants is to see Yuri. He still isn’t an asshole though: he likes some comments and tweets, and then types a short message thanking everyone for the support before getting out of bed. Both of them are scheduled to skate in the last group: Otabek starting the group, Yuri getting his turn right after him. It’s an honor to be part of the very last group, but it also means they have a lot of time in their hands after the first group finally gets on the ice. “Nervous?” Yuri asks when he sits next to Otabek in the warm-up area. He has already changed in his short program costume, an OAR jersey over it. Otabek shoots him a small smile, brushing his fingertips quickly against the back of Yuri’s hand when no one can see. “Not anymore,” he says, truthfully. He takes one earphone out and turns the volume of his music down. “You?” “A little. I couldn’t really sleep last night.” “Me neither.” Yuri sighs and rests his head on Otabek’s shoulder, closing his eyes. His long lashes create fans over his cheeks, dark with mascara. “Can I sleep in your bed tonight?” “Are you sure? Free’s tomorrow.” “I’m sure,” Yuri whispers, raising his head to give a shy smile to Otabek. It takes all of Otabek’s willpower not to pull Yuri into a kiss, but the camera crew walking around shooting material to show in live coverages during ice maintenance stops him; so he just nods, and Yuri understands. * Yuri’s Angels @yurisangels_official・2 min Yuri’s getting ready for his short program in the warm-up area! He can be seen in the background with Otabek Altin during Phichit Chulanont’s interview. [1 picture attached] Need me a man like Beka @otabekskitten・2 min @yurisangels_official is yuri’s head… on beka’s shoulder… Yuri’s Angels @yurisangels_official・1 min @otabekskitten Yes!!! And then he raises his head and smiles, looking like an angel!! Need me a man like Beka @otabekskitten・1 min @yurisangels_official i’m not sure should i be screaming or crying Bless Chris @giacomettisbutt・1 min @otabekskitten @yurisangels_official WHY NOT BOTH *** Both of them are again in the last starting group for the free skate, but this time neither of them are tired or nervous. Yuri is third to last to skate, just before Otabek - their point difference is 0.08, and Otabek has already accepted the fact that Yuri will snatch silver from him. He isn’t angry about it. Otabek gets the front seat for Yuri’s free program, standing on the side of the rink. He barely hears the announcer over the deafening boom of cheers when Yuri makes his way to the center of the ice, his face serious. “Yuri! Davai!” Otabek yells over the commotion, loud enough for Yuri to raise his eyes and give him a thumbs up. When Yuri settles in his starting pose and lowers his gaze, there’s a small smile on his lips. Yuri’s skating is beautiful to watch, as always: most of his jumps are in the second part of his program, and the choreographic sequence he starts with is delicate, setting an eerie mood in the whole arena. Not many other skaters in men singles share his flexibility - his Biellmann position is deep, and his spins are fast. He jumps with both of his arms raised, and even though one of his landings ends up a little shaky, he finishes with a flawless program. A happy smile spreads on his face when the music stops, and he bows to the cheering audience shining brighter than the rhinestones in his black costume. Otabek watches how Yuri picks up a huge tiger plushie from the ice on his way out and accepts Yakov’s warm hug. Otabek’s own chest is almost bursting with pride when he takes his blade guards off and hands them to his own coach, giving him a confident nod. He’s about to step on the ice when there’s a weight against him, thin arms wrapped around his shoulders. “Davai, Beka,” Yuri whispers in his ear before letting go, Yakov’s cursing making him hurry to the Kiss & Cry. * Yuri’s Biellmann @otayuri3113・4 min DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT talk otayuri to me @yurabeka・4 min @otayuri3113 YURI JUST?? HUGGED OTABEK AND SAID SOMETHING TO HIM?? Yuri’s Biellmann @otayuri3113・3 min @yurabeka EXACTLY??? And Yakov looked so pissed oh my god I love Yuri talk otayuri to me @yurabeka・3 min @otayuri3113 And I know this one Kazakh skater who probably shares your feelings omfg Yuri’s Angels @yurisangels_official・2 min Yuri’s scores for his Free are 222.18, and he’s currently in the first place! Two skaters to go: Kazakhstan’s Otabek Altin and Canada’s Jean-Jacques Leroy. *** Yuri’s unusual way of wishing Otabek good luck makes the headlines, but he doesn’t seem to mind as long as the articles remember to mention they are also the silver and bronze medalists. Otabek wants to lecture Yuri and remind him he promised to wait until the games are over before announcing his undying love for Otabek. But Otabek just can’t get angry at Yuri. That’s what he tells Mila when she asks him about it. They’re sitting in the audience of the ice arena, a day after men’s free program, halfway through short dance. It’s time for ice maintenance, people in the audience scrolling on their phones or huddling closer to each other to stay warm. The big screens over the ice are showing Korean adverts between recaps of yesterday’s free program. “You should, he could have ruined your concentration! There are already people saying he was trying to sabotage your skate.” “I would never try to do that,” Yuri defends himself from his seat on Otabek’s other side. “I dunno, you were behind Otabek after short…” “Yeah, 0.08 points.” “I’m just telling you what I’ve read,” Mila shrugs, getting an eye roll from her rinkmate. “Did I ruin your concentration yesterday?” Yuri turns to ask Otabek, challenge in his eyes. “You didn’t, but I’m not encouraging you to do that again.” “Yeah, only because you’re afraid I might give you a boner before you go-” “Yura, they have us on the screen.” Yuri looks up at the screens hanging on the ceiling and finds out Otabek wasn’t saying that just to get him distracted. People in the arena around them are already clapping, congratulating them both for their medals. Yuri blinks, taken aback by the attention he’s suddenly receiving, and Otabek placing his cool hands on each side of his face and kissing him doesn’t really help. Yuri kisses back without thinking, a slow smile spreading on his lips when he hears Mila gasping somewhere on Otabek’s right. “I thought-,” Yuri mumbles when they break the kiss, a violent blush climbing on his face as the members of the audience whistle and scream. “I thought you said after the games.” “Well, aren’t we technically done with them already?” * Yuri’s Angels @yurisangels_official・5 min Yuri just tweeted and confirmed that the kiss seen during Ice Dance break wasn’t staged!! “@yuri-plisetsky: when your boyfriend kisses you in front of way too many people smh I’ve fallen for a total loser.” Yuri’s Angels @yurisangels_official・4 min Congratulations, @yuri-plisetsky and @otabek-altin!! Chel @smilejongdw・2 min @yurisangels_official i can now die happy always sleepy @vilmahenriika・2 min @yurisangels_official @smilejongdw TT<3

i don’t know what athletes really do during olympics when they aren’t competing and i’m fully aware the skaters probably aren’t allowed to interact with each other between their skates like that but let’s call this artistic freedom.

buy me a coffee?

[darkfire1220]

Viridescent Chapter Seven: Encounter

Summary: As a child, Izuku decided it would be better if he were Quirkless than to have a power that scared everyone. Now a teenager and looking to enter U.A, he finds himself as the protege of All Might and a student of the best heroes in the nation- but there’s no running from a part of you, and he’s learning the hard way that you have to accept all of yourself to be a real hero.

Having finished their homework for the night, Izuku and Katsuki were hanging out at Katsuki's home and spending the last hour or so before Izuku had to go home playing games on a PlayStation 2. They were currently playing Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock, trying to win on "Through the Fire and Flames" set to moderate difficulty. Neither of them had ever beaten this song on hard mode, god-tier that it was.

"Goddammit," Katsuki swore as he missed a note. He recovered quickly, but this song was utterly unforgiving if you really got off-track.

Izuku was biting his lip, trying to focus. The four and a half minutes or so they spent on this song brought with it as much intensity as one of their training sessions at U.A. They barely took a moment to breathe.

When it was all said and done, the two teens flopped onto the couch behind them with near-simultaneous groans. Izuku set his guitar aside while Katsuki just chucked his onto the floor.

"I'm over this fucking thing for the night," he growled, shaking his left hand to work the sore muscles out.

"I second that," Izuku leaned his head on the back of the couch with a sigh. It always felt good to beat "Through the Fire and Flames", but good god it took a lot out of you, especially after a hard day at high school.

"I'm going home," he decided after glancing at the clock. He only had like ten minutes before he had to leave anyways and he was getting tired.

Katsuki grunted. "Whatever. See ya."

"Yup," Izuku replied, walking to the kitchen table to grab his backpack. Katsuki's mother was there, sipping on a cup of coffee while she scrolled through something on her phone.

She looked up as he came by to pick up his stuff. "Going home?"

"Yes, ma'am. Thanks for having me over."

"Need a ride?"

"It's okay. I want to burn off some more energy before I get home."

"Suit yourself," she shrugged. "Night, Izuku."

"Goodnight, Bakumom."

Yes, he called her that. Only Katsuki thought it was weird. No, he did not care.

Izuku left the Bakugo's house and made straight for his own family's apartment. It was only like a ten minute walk, but it gave him time to reflect on stuff.

The last two days had been crazy at school. The majority of the class had continued the robot-battling exercises that started yesterday during today's lesson as well. Ochako and Fumikage had joined him and All Might for a training session to get their Quirks checked out for control issues. All Might had confirmed that Ochako's issue with her Quirk causing her nausea was due to her needing more practice with it. She would just have to build herself up until she could either suppress the nausea or hold it off for a longer amount of time.

Fumikage was something else. Cementoss had created a "dark isolation room" with his Quirk for All Might to see what was going on with the teen's control problem, so Izuku hadn't actually seen what happened inside, but whatever it was made the building tremor multiple times. That went on for about thirty seconds until what seemed like an artillery shell impact stopped the prior tremors cold. When Cementoss retracted the room of concrete, Fumikage was nearly unconscious and All Might had a nasty looking bruise forming on his arm. The Pro Hero didn't look all that exerted, though he seemed rather impressed by what he'd seen.

Dark Shadow became timid once he was exposed to light, but Izuku could've sworn he heard the shadowy creature mutter something like "I didn't get to show off" after the event. What the hell even had happened in there?

All Might had told Fumikage, once he recovered from whatever he'd endured within the dark room, that he would need lessons to control his Quirk like Izuku did, but he was okay to perform in daytime operations with the rest of class. That didn't seem to surprise Fumikage, although he seemed more than a little stunned by what had gone down in the dark room. When Izuku and Ochako asked him later, all he said was this:

"He stopped Dark Shadow with one shot," Fumikage muttered in a sort of awed daze.

Izuku didn't use his full body flare during the sessions with Ochako and Fumikage. He managed to get the flames going on his hands and feet, but there was no way in hell he was going to go for the full-on flare with them around. He was still trying to get comfortable using it with All Might, and he trusted the Pro more than pretty much anyone.

Regulating One for All was getting better. Izuku hadn't broken any bones during these training sessions, but he didn't quite feel like he was fully adapted to the low power setting yet. The few times he tried targeting a non-human object, like a cement target made by Cementoss, he could feel his power fluctuate and it took a while to get it back under control. All Might had told him that targeting a person and a non-living object would be different from a mental standpoint, but he hadn't thought it would be this hard.

Practice, practice, practice. That was all he could do for now, until he got used to the low power setting.

Izuku was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't watch where he was going and startled when a small shape ran into him. He nearly stumbled, but kept his footing, eyes going wide when the child who ran into him fell back with a gasp.

"I-I'm sorry!" He yelped, kneeling immediately to check if they were okay. "Did I hurt you?"

The child- a little girl- stared up at him with wide, red eyes, her face covered in sweat while she panted for breath. She couldn't have been older than six or seven, with long, choppy white hair and a small horn on the right side of her forehead. She was wearing a short-sleeve dress with no footwear, but what really caught Izuku off-guard were the bandages covering her arms and legs.

She initially cringed away from him, but froze when he lay his hand gently on her shoulder. Her wide eyes were uncertain as she opened her mouth to answer him.

"Eri, there you are! Jeez, stop running, will ya?"

Izuku looked up from the child expecting to see a parent, so he was stunned when he found himself looking at a tall, muscular man in a black suit, wearing a dark red, beak-shaped mask over his face. He couldn't see the man's face at all, so the only way he was able to tell the individual was male was by his voice and body.

The man's hand clenched a little, as though he were irritated and trying to stop himself from making a fist. "Who're you? Actually never mind, I don't care. Sorry if my daughter bumped into you, but we gotta get going now. Come on, Eri!"

"O-oh! It was my fault she fell! I'm sorry!" Izuku started to help her stand up. "Here, let me…"

Eri said something under her breath that he couldn't catch. "Say again?"

One of her little hands clenched the fabric of his shirt and Izuku was suddenly aware that she was shaking. Her voice was hoarse and he could hear the tremor in every word she spoke.

"He's not my daddy."

The raw terror in her voice sent a chill up his spine, but Izuku forced down any visible reactions he might have had. If the man- no, kidnapper- figured out that Izuku knew what was going on, there was no telling what he would do. Worst case scenario, he would go on the attack. His mind started to race, running calculations and scenarios through every cell his brain had to spare.

Contact the police? No, too slow to respond given the situation. It wasn't like he could talk to them, either. They might assume his call was a prank or something. Not worth the risk.

Pick up Eri and run? Too risky. He didn't know if this guy was armed or what his Quirk was. He needed more data to make that plan work.

Fight the villain? Even riskier. In addition to the formerly mentioned unknown factors, Izuku had no idea if this guy would care about damaging the houses around them. He didn't want to get innocent people involved in this and it would put Eri in further danger. He also didn't have a hero license yet, so a head-on attack would be illegal. He could only fight back in self-defense.

Try to get in touch with one of his emergency contacts and stall for time? Chancy at best, given that he didn't know where exactly his contacts were and he would have to stall for time. The odds were it would take several minutes at the very least, but it was the best option he had at the moment. That would be his starting point.

There was no other choice. He'd have to pick the situation apart as it went on and adapt from there.

"Were you guys playing t-tag or something?" Izuku asked the villain, trying to keep his voice normal. He made a show of looking around and behind the guy. "Is someone else chasing you?"

It was just luck on Izuku's part that the villain reflexively followed his gaze to look over his shoulder. "Nah, it's just us. But she ran a bit too far away from the motel we're staying at."

"Gotcha," Izuku slowly helped Eri up onto her feet, letting her remain close to him. The way she was attached to his torso would make it harder for the villain to spot his left arm hiding behind him, taking his phone out of his back pocket and dialing the second emergency contact on his phone right after his mother. "H-hey, I think she got hurt f-falling earlier. We should take her to a d-doctor to see if she's okay."

The man cocked his head back towards Izuku and Eri. "No need, my boss is a doctor. He'll fix her up."

Eri whimpered and squeezed Izuku's shirt tighter. She knew the doctor, Izuku realized, and he probably wasn't a good person. The way she reacted made him suspicious that this wasn't just a kidnapping- it might be a retrieval. The villain seemed familiar with Eri and she knew the doctor he was talking about. He wondered if that was why she was covered in bandages.

They'd hurt her and she'd tried to escape. Now one of them had caught up to her and Izuku had no intention of letting them take her back. He mentally added in the possibility that there were other villains around looking for her. The guy mentioned a boss, so he probably wasn't the only crony around here.

"Eri, c'mon we gotta go," the villain ordered.

Izuku looked up at the man, trying to make eye contact, but it was impossible with his mask. "I-I think she's a little spooked. How about I walk back to the motel with you guys? To make up for me causing her to fall."

"No," Izuku could hear the edge to his voice this time. The villain was getting impatient. "Boss doesn't like strangers popping up outta nowhere. Eri, get over here, now."

She stilled for a moment and then let Izuku go, spinning around to go to the man. It caught him so off-guard that she would actually move towards the kidnapper that Izuku acted without thinking and pulled her back to him, holding her protectively. Eri gasped, looking at Izuku with horrified eyes.

He froze, staring at the villain.

The villain went utterly silent for several seconds. His head cocked to the side a little. "Hey…you were just a little annoying a moment ago, but now you're getting on my nerves…"

He'd fucked up. Oh, he'd fucked up bad.

The man's hand clenched again and Izuku saw a spark of flame rush along his fingers. "I'm only going to ask you this once since you were so polite earlier. Give her back to me and I'll forget about you."

A flame Quirk. The villain had a flame Quirk. Izuku ran that information through his calculations. His chances of successfully fighting off the villain or retreating from him with Eri had just greatly increased. He just had to stall for as long as possible.

Izuku felt the rush of blood through his veins, the same as it had when he tried to save Katsuki and Ochako before. "I don't feel comfortable just letting her leave with you. I'd rather we go to the hospital."

"Wrong answer," the villain snarled. He held up both arms, letting flame blaze over his limbs until they were both burning up to his shoulder. "Boss ain't gonna like this, but he'll like it less if I don't bring Eri back!"

Izuku got a shock when the villain launched a fireball straight at them, regardless of Eri being in the way. He barely had time to get both arms around her and jump away before the flames rushed over the street.

"What are you doing?!" He gasped, shocked by the villain's total disregard for the girl. "You could've killed her!"

"Like I care!" The villain gathered up some of his flames in his right hand and threw another fireball, which Izuku dodged again. "Even if I fuck her up, the boss can just fix her again!"

So the villain didn't give a damn whether he hit Eri or not. That shifted the odds out of Izuku's favor somewhat, but he could still work with this. The guy was chucking fireballs all over the street. Izuku could take advantage of this.

He landed with Eri still in his arms and faced an oncoming fireball head-on. One of his hands whipped up, becoming enveloped in emerald flame and drew the outside source of fire to him. Izuku's flames consumed the villain's and transmuted them in a matter of second, giving him more fire to work with.

The villain appeared to be dumbfounded for a moment. Izuku took the chance to stuff his phone back in his pocket, but it was only a split-second later that the villain lost his cool completely.

"What the hell's up with that!? I'm gonna roast you!"

He started throwing fireballs with even greater speed. They were smaller than before, but it wouldn't be possible to dodge them all. That was fine with him.

Izuku used the flames he'd already converted and directed them to form a shield between him and the villain. Each fireball that struck the wall of emerald was greedily devoured and converted into Izuku's flames, giving him an ever-growing barrier to protect himself and Eri with.

Eri had her face buried in his shoulder, crying hysterically in fear. Izuku spared a moment to try and calm her. "It's okay! I'll protect you!"

"Will you just die already?!"

Izuku's face whipped up, spotting the villain as he jumped high in the air. The man put both arms together to form a fireball the size of a small car and then hurled it at them. Izuku immediately directed his flames to intercept the massive conflagration and render it harmless.

This guy really isn't holding back! How long until he ends up hitting a house?!

He suddenly saw a blur of motion to his right and his eyes widened in shock. The villain had landed while he'd been busy with the fireball and flanked them with surprising speed. He whipped out a knife from the inside of his suit and stabbed at Izuku. The teen desperately tried to shoot his flames at the villain, but he'd spotted the attack too late.

I won't make it!

"Die!"

The word was definitely one a villain would use given the situation, so it surprised Izuku even more when an explosion blew the masked criminal away from them. He yelped as a mess of spiky blonde hair landed in the spot the villain had been in just a moment before, scowling and looking exceptionally annoyed. "K-Katsuki!"

"Hey! Don't start a street fight without me, Deku!" Katsuki snapped at him. He was wearing a pair of dark basketball shorts and a black tank-top. "And pick your timing better! I'm tired, you asshat!"

"I'm sorry," Izuku answered quickly, directing his attention back to the villain. The man shook himself, recovering from the explosion quickly.

Katsuki sneered at the beaked criminal. "Who's the rooster?"

"He's a kidnapper," Izuku replied, tightening his grip around Eri, who was still buried in his shoulder. "And he's after this girl. I think she got away from him and now he's trying to get her back to his boss."

"That so?" Katsuki cracked his knuckles, a maniacal grin forming on his face. "Then the sentence is death."

"I already called for backup," Izuku told him quietly. "We just have to stall. His Quirk lets him throw fireballs, but he's also got that knife. We should keep our distance and fight defensively. I can negate his fire if you can keep him away. Also, I don't know if he's got friends around here. We gotta watch our backs."

"Jeez, how fast did you come up with that, you nerd? Works for me, though," the blonde teen let a few small explosions pop off in his palms to warm himself up. "Let's kill his ass!"

The villain was fully raging now and charged them with both arms aflame. "I'm gonna turn the two of you into a pile of ashes!"

Izuku thrust his hand towards the charging villain, directing a stream of green fire at him. The villain dodged to the side and rushed in close. He was a lot faster than he looked.

Katsuki was there in an instant, both hands held out towards the villain's face as the man closed in. "Stun Grenade!"

A burst of light and sound erupted towards the villain, setting off a bunch of car alarms and making the man howl in pain. So his mask didn't filter bright light and noise that well. Izuku seized the opportunity to channel the stream of fire after the villain, but the man's reflexes were fast enough that he avoided them and backed off.

"You little fuckers are pissing me off so much!" The villain screamed, lifting both hands up again. Izuku blanched as the man created a fireball that was way beyond any other before it. In a matter of seconds, it was nearly the size of a house.

If that went off, it wouldn't be just them in the line of fire anymore. Izuku stood up in a flash. He had to flare up completely if he was going to stop the attack. He gripped Eri tightly and opened his mouth, about to tell Katsuki to take her so he could make full use of his Quirk, but it was at that moment his backup arrived.

"NEW HAMPSHIRE…SMASH!"

Faster than they could blink, an object not unlike a meteor slammed into the villain from behind, pulverizing him into the ground and blowing the huge fireball into cinders. The impact created a crater in the street and nearly made Izuku trip, though he yelped and stumbled from the shock of it.

Izuku and Katsuki stared at the cloud of debris as it settled and a large, muscular shadow stood up within it. The first thing they saw was a shock of blonde hair and a huge grin. "It's alright now, boys! For I am here!"

"All Might!?" Katsuki gaped in disbelief. "How the hell- why are you here?!"

"I was doing some work nearby and spotted a couple of fireballs flying around," All Might laughed, hands on his hips. His foot was keeping the now unconscious villain pinned to the ground. "What are the odds you would be here? Sheesh, it seems like every time I see you two outside of school, you're fighting some villain. Slow it down some for this old man, will you?"

His eyes glinted at Izuku and the boy quietly sighed in relief. All Might had gotten his emergency call and come running. He'd given Izuku that number solely for emergencies, telling him under no circumstances was he to call it otherwise.

"You're fine to shut your flames down, young Izuku," All Might told him, glancing down at the villain. "He's in no shape to fight anymore."

"R-right," Izuku stammered, willing the emerald flames still flowing around them to dissipate and die out. The second they were gone, he smiled at All Might. "Thanks for saving us."

"Of course! But if I might be so curious," the Symbol of Peace lifted the villain up by the collar with one hand and studied his now-broken mask. "Why did you need saving in the first place?"

Izuku told everything he knew to All Might, all the while holding Eri close to him. She was staring at All Might with even wider eyes than before, as though she couldn't believe the villain had been crushed so easily.

All Might scratched his chin. "I see…in that case, let's first get this little one to a hospital to make sure she's not hurt and to ensure you two are alright. After that, I'll get you boys home, but expect an interview with the police investigators tomorrow or the day after. They'll need your testimony to charge this guy."

Katsuki shoved his hands into his pockets. He looked irritated again. "Ugh, I didn't even get to kill this guy."

All Might sweat-dropped, looking to Izuku for some sort of explanation to that statement. The teen laughed nervously. "He's mad that he didn't get to beat the guy up."

"Ah. It's fortunate you didn't, though. The fact that you could have been injured aside, neither of you are officially qualified for hero work yet," All Might said.

"I know that," Katsuki huffed. "It's still annoying, though."

"I understand. Come now, let's get you all to the hospital. And you should probably call your parents on the way to tell them you're alright."

All Might called up a friend of his from the police and got them all transferred to the hospital in less than an hour while another escort took the villain to a prison. Once they got to the hospital, Izuku and Katsuki made it through the doctor's examinations in record time. Neither of them had been hurt in the fight, so they were deemed fine after just fifteen minutes.

But Eri was a completely different matter.

She absolutely refused to let go of Izuku and as soon as one of the doctors picked up a needle to take a small blood sample, she started sobbing until they put it away. The poor girl was utterly traumatized and it took Izuku's reassurances and the better part of two hours for them to get even simple things like her weight, height, and blood pressure.

When Izuku finally convinced her to let him remove her bandages, his face went pale. Dotting her arm along the inside of her elbow were a number of scars that looked an awful lot like insertion wounds from a needle. Someone had been either injecting something into her or taking something out for a long time.

After seeing them, the doctors decided that extending the amount of time she was exposed to the environment in the hospital would only stress her further and be a negative influence on her health. They did a quick check for infections, then gave Izuku a few alcohol wipes to clean any open wounds (Eri would not let them touch her) and some fresh bandages.

Izuku walked Eri to the hospital lobby, where All Might was waiting along with Izuku's mother, Inko. Katsuki had already been taken home by his parents.

Inko rushed towards her son and swept him up into a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay! I know you said you were alright, but I was so worried!"

Izuku hugged her back with his right arm- Eri was still clinging to his left. "I'm sorry I scared you."

"I know," she sighed, letting him go and sniffling. Inko wiped away her tears with a handkerchief and looked at the frightened child holding onto Izuku. "And who is this?"

"This is Eri," Izuku replied, offering the girl a small smile. "Eri, this is my mom, Inko."

"H-hi," the girl managed a small squeak, but remained attached to Izuku's side.

Inko smiled at the child gently. "Hello, Eri. I'm happy to meet you."

All Might finished talking to the doctor in charge of Eri's examination, nodding as the man turned and left to tend to his other patients. The Symbol of Peace looked from Eri to Izuku. "Well, she's clear to leave. They don't think it's wise to keep her here since it stresses her out so badly."

"But where do we take her?" Izuku asked with a frown. "I mean…we don't even know who her parents are."

"It's a problem," All Might admitted. "But if your mother agrees to it, I was thinking she could spend a night at your home. She's obviously more comfortable with you than anyone else right now. I can take her to U.A if we need to, but I think it's best if she's with someone she trusts for tonight. She's been through a lot."

Izuku looked at his mother. "Mom?"

"I don't mind," Inko replied, smiling again. "Of course she can spend the night."

All Might nodded. "Bring her up to U.A tomorrow and we'll figure out where to go from there. More than likely, the police will find a foster home to take custody of her for a short while until her parents can be located."

"Okay," Izuku knelt down so he was eye-level with Eri and smiled at her. "Does that sound good, Eri? We'll have a sleepover tonight at my house."

Eri didn't have even the foggiest idea of what a sleepover was, but she didn't really care as long as she got to stay with this boy. She had never felt safe with another person in her entire life. His hands were so gentle and kind and just…protective. The feeling was completely alien to her, but she never wanted it to go away. So she gave him a shy smile and dipped her head. "Okay."

Fortunately, there was still a supermarket open with just ten minutes left before closing time, so after Inko picked up Izuku and Eri from the hospital, she drove them out there to find some clothes for the girl. The white dress she wore was dirty from her running through the streets and small burn marks after the battle. Seeing as it was more or less ruined and she didn't have any other clothes, Inko decided that she needed to buy some more for the little girl.

The hurried inside to grab some pajamas and a few simple outfits for Eri and got out in record time. Once that was out of the way, Inko took them straight back to the apartment.

"I'll get a bath going for Eri," Inko told them as she removed her shoes by the door and set her purse down on the counter. "Izuku, would you mind heating up dinner? It's in a container in the fridge."

"I will," he replied. Eri was still holding his hand, looking around the apartment with her large, red eyes. Izuku looked down at her. "Are you hungry?"

Eri nodded shyly at him. "A-a little…"

Her tummy rumbled loudly, causing the girl to squeak and blush. She looked away from Izuku out of embarrassment, but he only smiled gently. "Me too. C'mon, let's get something to eat."

"Okay."

Inko had made pork cutlets and rice for dinner, which Izuku extracted from the fridge and moved to a plate so it could be heated up in the microwave. As it warmed up, the delicious scent of the meal started to fill the room and Izuku realized with amusement that Eri was staring at the microwave with her adorable button nose twitching while she drooled from the smell.

As soon as it was warmed up, he divided their dinner evenly onto two plates and got Eri situated in a chair beside him at the table. The girl's eyes started to sparkle as she gaped openly at the delicious food laying before her, but she glanced at Izuku nervously, as though she wasn't sure if it was okay for her to have it.

Izuku took his chopsticks and picked up one of the pork cutlets on his plate, then blew on it for a moment to cool it before he bit into it. Eri was still watching him, so he smiled while chewing and nodded.

She tried using the chopsticks as well, but it became clear after a few tries that she had no idea what she was doing. Eri pouted and glared at the utensils in frustration until Izuku helped her out, showing her how to hold them and pick up her food. When she finally took a bite of the pork cutlet, her eyes sparkled even more and she almost forgot to chew in her haste to eat the delicious meal.

"Is it good?" Izuku asked.

"Mmhmm!" She hummed back, her mouth stuffed full of food.

They ate in relative silence until Inko came back into the kitchen. "Eri, the bath is ready. Let's get you cleaned up, okay?"

Eri swallowed and looked at Izuku nervously, waiting until he smiled at her reassuringly before she answered Inko. "Okay…"

She tugged on Izuku's sleeve as she got out of her chair and it took him a moment to realize that she wanted him to come along. He glanced at his mother, who nodded silently, smiling somewhat in amusement. "Alright, I'll come too."

They got Eri into the bathroom where Inko had her take off her dirty white dress and underwear before helping the girl get into the tub of warm water. Izuku was a little flustered by the whole experience- he didn't know a lot about children and he knew even less about bathing them, so Inko took the lead. She got Eri cleaned up with body wash while Izuku poured some shampoo into the girl's hair and gently worked the soap through the messy white locks. Eri was halfway leaning out of the tub throughout it all so that she could hold onto Izuku's shirt sleeve, only letting go when Inko had to clean her arms and hands, and then she immediately reattached herself to the teenager.

Inko could already see that Eri had become very dependent on Izuku. Anyone else getting this attached so quickly would probably not be a good thing, but kids were different. She knew from experience how impressionable children were and how easily they could form attachments. If Eri really had had no positive relationships in her life so far, it was no surprise to Inko why she had latched onto Izuku with such fervor. He had been the first person to show her kindness, the first to protect her, and the one who saved her from those terrible people.

In Eri's mind, Izuku was literally the only safe place in the world. It didn't matter if she knew nothing about him because she had realized that he would not hurt her. To a child like her, whose world growing up had probably been hostile at best, that was more than enough of a reason to stay close to him.

As soon as Eri had been cleaned up, Inko helped dry her off with a towel and then got Eri changed into some fresh pajamas while Izuku took a quick shower (after Izuku assured Eri he would be back as fast as he could). Because Inko was so used to buying clothing like this for Izuku when he was Eri's age, they were All Might-themed pajama pants and a sweater to keep the girl warm. As soon as she was changed, Inko took a brush and carefully worked it through the girl's hair.

Izuku walked out of the bathroom in shorts and a white t-shirt just as Inko nodded, happy with the image of Eri looking full, clean, and sleepy in her new pajamas. "Okay, now you two get your teeth brushed and then get to bed. Izuku, there should be a spare toothbrush for Eri in the cabinet next to the sink."

"I'll get it," he promised, letting Eri take his hand again. She yawned, eyes drooping from sleepiness.

As soon as their teeth were brushed, Eri held her arms up towards Izuku in the universal gesture all children made when they wanted to be picked up. Izuku did so after a short pause to figure out how to do it right and got the little girl bundled up safely in his arms. Eri wrapped her small arms around his neck and clutched at his shirt, her eyes barely open.

Izuku got them to his room lifted the covers so that he could lay Eri down, but she whimpered after a moment. "I-it's dark…"

"Would a little light make it better?" He asked. She nodded jerkily and he made a mental note that she didn't like dark places. "Okay, one moment. I'm sure I've still got it here somewhere…"

Still carrying Eri, Izuku walked to his bed stand and opened the drawer. He rummaged through it for a minute before pulling out an All Might-themed nightlight he'd had as a child when he was also scared of the dark. "Here we go."

He plugged it in and All Might's teeth glowed white, not blindingly so, but enough to keep the room from being really dark. Izuku looked at Eri. "Is that better?"

She nodded, relaxing somewhat. Izuku got them into his bed and situated Eri so she was lying next to him, but that proved to be pointless because she crawled over and buried herself into his shirt as much as she could, tucking her legs up into his stomach. He couldn't help but smile at her and used his hand to brush aside some of her white hair behind the small horn on her forehead. Then he got his arms wrapped around the girl and curled his body around her, shielding her from the world as best he could. "Goodnight, Eri."

She managed some mumbled, incoherent reply, but Izuku knew she was more or less asleep now, so he just closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Class 1A was already in their seats for homeroom and Mr. Aizawa had just walked in, but as they got themselves ready for the day, they came to the realization that one of their classmates was missing.

"Izuku's not here?" Momo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That's odd…" Tenya scratched his chin. "He's not the type to be late. Is he sick?"

Eijirou glanced at Katsuki. "Hey man, did Izuku text you or anything to say what was up?"

Katsuki scowled. "What am I, his mom? I don't know what's taking the nerd, either."

In the back of his mind, he was actually wondering just where in the hell Izuku had ended up. No one had told him anything about it since last night, but was it possible there had been more villain trouble involving the girl he and Izuku had saved? Ugh, the thought already had his fingers twitching. He was gonna be fidgety and in a bad mood until he got some answers.

"Regardless, let's get class started," Aizawa muttered, looking as tired as ever. "It looks like everyone's here except for Izuku-"

"S-sorry I'm late!"

The door flew open and everyone looked towards it, finding their class President standing there as they expected, but they weren't expecting the small child attached to his left hand peeking out from behind him. Eri was wearing an All Might-themed hoodie over a pale yellow dress, long white socks, and a pair of yellow sandals.

Aizawa just stared at Izuku, who was smiling nervously, and the even more nervous-looking girl who was locked onto him for a moment before he glanced back at the schedule for the day. "Moving on…"

"THAT'S IT?!" Half the class exclaimed in disbelief.

"Hold up, we're just gonna skim over the fact that Izuku brought a kid to school?" Denki demanded.

"She's cute, but why is she here?" Tsuyu asked.

Izuku scratched the back of his head. "W-well, um…"

"I AM HERE TO EXPLAIN!"

Izuku and Eri both yelped and jumped in perfect sync as All Might popped up behind them, waving his hand at the rest of the class. They had met with him upon arriving at school, but they had thought he was still speaking with Inko in his office.

Aizawa looked mildly annoyed. "All Might, don't barge in so early in the morning."

"Sorry, Aizawa!" The Symbol of Peace apologized. "I'll make this short and sweet!"

The class waited for him to give them an explanation for the current situation. "Ahem…for reasons, Eri here will be with Izuku for a little bit! Get along, everyone!" He gave them a thumbs up and his trademark wide grin.

Rikido was less than satisfied with that answer. "That's too short and it's not sweet at all!"

"Coming from the sugar man, that's harsh," Hanta muttered. "Seriously though, that's all you're telling us?"

"Sorry, but I can't tell you much right now," All Might apologized. "For the time being, I just need you all to cooperate with Izuku so Eri feels comfortable, okay? Thank you!"

The Pro took off then, (probably running back to his office so he could deflate and save energy on his time limit) leaving the class in an awkward silence. Izuku smiled with an equal amount of awkwardness. "Th-that's how it is! Um, so this is Eri. Eri, these are my friends! They're nice, just a little noisy sometimes."

Eri peeked out from behind Izuku again and gave the class a nearly-silent greeting. "H-hi…"

"Oh my glob, she's adorable!" Mina squealed, almost jumping out of her seat. "Can I hug her?!"

Aizawa sighed. "Stay in your seat, Mina. Izuku, go grab an extra chair from the back for Eri. The rest of you listen up, will you? Time is limited. Be more rational."

So while Izuku led Eri to the back of the room to get an extra chair, Aizawa looked over his papers for the day. "Today we're going to be taking a break from the combat training we've been doing the last couple of days. Being a hero isn't just about fighting villains, you know. An even bigger part of it is rescuing people. That's going to be the scenario we'll tackle today- rescue training."

"You'll be supervised by a team of three including myself, All Might, and one other Pro teaching here. When you come to the hero course later in the day, you can change into your costumes if you want, but it's not completely necessary this time. Some of your costumes probably aren't designed for these kinds of tasks yet, after all. Since the training area is fairly far away, we'll get there by bus. Do me a favor and hurry there when it's time."

Aizawa grabbed his sleeping bag after that. "That's all for homeroom. You'd best prepare yourselves for the trial ahead, kids."

As soon as they got the all-clear, Katsuki spun around in his desk to look at Izuku and Eri, who probably couldn't be sitting any closer to him if the seats were fused together. "Explain."

"She ended up staying with mom and I after what happened," Izuku replied, keeping his voice low so the other students wouldn't hear, even as some of them got up to come over. "All Might wants me to keep quiet about it, but she just feels safe with me, I guess."

Katsuki glanced at Eri, who looked back at him nervously, and shrugged. "Fair enough."

"That reminds me, how did you find us last night?" Izuku asked him. "It was too far away for you to hear anything from home, wasn't it?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot with all the craziness last night," Katsuki grabbed his bag and stuffed his arm into it for a few moments, rummaging around before he yanked out an All Might-themed wallet. "You left this on the table, moron. Mom made me run after you to give it back."

"Sorry," Izuku took it back gratefully and pocketed it. "But thanks for showing up."

"You're buying me extra-spicy chicken wings after school."

"Yep."

That was all they could say before half the class surrounded them, some eager, some curious to get a look at Eri. The girl cringed away from them and completely abandoned her chair to crawl into Izuku's lap and hide there, burying her face in his neck.

Katsuki saw that and barked at their classmates. "Do you scrubs have nothing else to do?! Back off or I'll kill you!"

Izuku wrapped his arms around Eri and smiled apologetically at his classmates. "Sorry, she's pretty shy. Can you guys give us a bit of space?"

"Oh, okay," Ochako, who was at the front of the group, backed up with the others so Izuku and Eri weren't boxed in and then crouched, sitting on her heels. She could see that the little girl was really nervous, so she offered her a bright smile. "Eri, right? Hi, Eri! I'm Ochako!"

Izuku gently rubbed Eri's back, reassuring her that everything was okay. "It's alright, Eri. They won't hurt you."

Eri shifted just enough so that she could peer at them with one eye and tried to return the greeting. "H-hello…"

Suddenly, her eyes fixed on a dark, beaked shape- Izuku's classmate, Fumikage. Eri stared at the falcon-headed boy for a grand total of three seconds before she sucked in her breath and paled in terror.

[wineanddinosaur]

VinePair Podcast: Will Small Drinks Brands Survive the Covid-19 Crisis?

As the Covid-19 crisis and the associated lockdowns, quarantines, and stay-at-home orders persist, our drinking habits and purchasing opportunities are shifting. These changes are creating winners and losers in the beverage alcohol business. While sales for many of the best-known drinks brands are steady or even rising, smaller craft products can no longer rely on bars, restaurants, and taprooms to serve as access points for the consumer.

And so, small beer, wine, and spirits producers and their supporters are left wondering: What can be done to keep these vital and beloved brands alive? Can we save them with savvy purchasing, or is broader governmental action required? VinePair CEO Adam Teeter, Chief Content Officer and Editor in Chief Erica Duecy, and VinePair Podcast Co-host Zach Geballe discuss these questions in this week’s episode.

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on Spotify.

Listen online or check out our conversation here:

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York I’m Adam Teeter.

Erica: From Connecticut, I’m Erica Duecy.

Zach: And in Seattle, WA I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair podcast. And guys, we are now in week five, which is crazy, almost at the end of week five. Some people were saying there’s like a light at the end of the tunnel. You know? I’m starting to hear certain dates that people are putting out there. Germany is gonna start opening up their country again next week, which is insane to think about. How are you guys holding up in your sheltering in place this week?

E: I’m actually having a pretty good week.

A: Good!

E: I have to say, I’ve gone through waves. Last week was a pretty terrible week, it was just not a great mental health week. I felt like it was pretty challenging, it was just all sort of down news. But I feel like there, you know, and I’ve talked with a lot of people on the podcast and some upcoming episodes that will be coming out and I do think that, I’m hearing a lot about innovation and ideas and silver linings and I think that, you know, I’m hoping that in the next couple of weeks we can start to have some ideas around you know turning the corner on this and some good news. But that’s to say that, you know, it’s up sometimes, down sometimes, so hanging in there.

Z: Yeah, I think that’s about as apt a description as I’m able to come up with. I would say, you know the other thing for me that’s been true over the last I don’t know maybe it’s been the last week or so is I’ve been really struck by how used to this new way of living I’ve become. In that, you know the first couple of weeks it was just like oh my God I miss all these things that I used to be able to do. I miss seeing friends and family. I miss going out to restaurants. I….you know, all these various things. And now it’s very funny, you know we just…I was just talking to my wife about, you know, this sort of like, OK, what do we do first, when like we can go do something out of the house? And it was so…such an alien thought at this point that I was like, I don’t even know what, like I guess go to a park with our kid and like see friends who have a kid and? It was just…it’s become so….you know, in this little over a month for me, it’s become this sort of thing that I’m just so…I feel so used to at this point that it’s like, it’s very weird. And I’m a very extroverted person normally and I like to go out and do stuff and it was just so strange to kind of start to think about, you know if that light at the end of the tunnel that you had mentioned is coming along like….what is that, what am I even gonna do? And I’m not sure. Like I might just stay in my house a little longer just ’cause I don’t know what else to do.

A: Oh God, well, I don’t know. It’s funny, last week I was good, this week I’m like more, just like not as good? Definitely it’s starting to weigh on me more. It was weird, like yesterday the park near my apartment was a lot less full. And like it’s never been so full that I’ve been nervous about being…like taking a walk through it with Naomi but like it was like oddly less full at the time when it usually is….like it used to be like the last few weeks people would be out there from 5:30 to like 7. So like everyone would shut off their Zooms, close their computers and like decided to go outside for like an hour and a half or so. And like this week it seemed like less and less people were in the park and the weather is still…it’s a little cooler but still nice. And we were trying to figure out like why? And we’re like….and Naomi was like, I think it’s just people are starting to be hit by this like whole weight of….the….you know we don’t….it’s been so long, you know? And maybe they’re just like fuck it, I’m just staying inside. And so that’s kind of hit me this week and I was like God I gotta get out of this. Like all I really want, like it’s really weird, the one thing I’ve been craving more than anything else – this is gonna make Cat very happy, is a draft beer.

E: Mmm.

Z: Ahh.

A: Like I can make good cocktails at home, I have a pretty good selection of wine, but like I really….I don’t have a draft system! I just wanna go to a bar and get a really good beer on draft. That’s all…you know what I mean? There’s just something about that that I’m like that’s something that I miss. And I didn’t do it like all the time before this, but like when I did it it was always great and now I’m just like… that’s all I can think about. Like all I can think about.

Z: A thing I miss is being able to tell someone else, yes I would like this. To be able to turn my attention from whatever that thing is and then to have it show up in front of me, you know two to five minutes later. And it’s like, I am the by and large the bartender in the house, the sommelier in the house and when and where appropriate I guess the person who opens the beers in the house and so it’s like…not that I mind. But it is this weird thing that I miss of like, “yeah, I’ll have a Manhattan” and instead of saying “I’ll have a Manhattan” and then going and making a Manhattan, I used to be able to say “I’ll have a Manhattan” and then a Manhattan would just magically appear in front of me.

E: Exactly.

Z: And I do miss that. I miss that sort of like….I guess if that’s my….if that’s the thing I miss I supposed I am fortunate in all of this.

E: Yeah.

A: I think you are, yeah. It is funny though, ’cause have you guys used delivery yet? I don’t know why but like we haven’t. We’ve really been cooking everything and the friends of mine who have used delivery have said at least it’s like that one like respite, just like, oh, like one night someone make the food that wasn’t me. You know? Or like did the cocktails. But we haven’t done it, have you guys?

E: Oh yeah, I’ve had….I’ve done pizza a couple of times, I mean now we’re out in Connecticut and there’s not that much delivery. So we’ve done pizza and we’ve done a barbecue night, a barbecue delivery and that I swear barbecue never tasted so good.

A: That sounds amazing.

E: Yeah, all I want is someone….I mean and I’ve got two kids too, so I’m you know cooking and my husband’s cooking, everyone is cooking all the time and the amount of dishes, shocking! Full time eaters in a house, never realized there were so many dishes.

Z: Oh yeah, I used…I’ve been running the dishwasher daily which is really, really weird for me, I’m sort of anti-dishwasher from a dispositional standpoint but it’s gotten to the point, just with two adults and a not-quite-two-year-old in the house we’re going….we’re running a load almost every day and it is wild. I haven’t done any delivery like you Adam, I’ve just sort of been like I’m gonna cook everything but it has been creeping up in the mind for both my wife and I because there are a few things, like barbecue for example that I don’t make at home, not having a smoker or whatever. So there are a few things that we’ve been craving that haven’t been able to have yet and so I think we’re probably gonna go down that road probably in the next few days frankly.

A: So….I think we’re gonna have to do it too. I mean like I don’t know what else I’m gonna do. Like at some point I’m just gonna have to get some delivery ’cause I’m getting sick of cooking dinner every night. So our, you know, subject for today’s podcast is you know, one of the groups of people that we have talked about a little bit but we haven’t focused on fully in the entire podcast since the coronavirus so probably the last five weeks and that’s the smaller producers, right? So we would call them in beer like the small craft producers, the small craft distillers, the small wine producers, and I know as we mentioned before there are a lot of the times people that are getting hit harder because a lot of their, you know, their focus has been on premise for so long. It’s…. building a brand on premise, you know seems to be a little bit easier, it’s a better spend of your dollars, right? You can get a few cases in and then it gets moved for you. You know some brands would disagree with that and say that they went off-premise and now were thinking that that was the great strategy but for the majority of like smaller brands most wind up on on-premise before focusing on off-premise. So a lot of them are hurting very badly right now. Whether that’s because kegs aren’t being purchased obviously, you know their wines aren’t being taken in and or their, you know, their spirits aren’t being used in cocktails. So we want to talk a little bit about like why….you know how we can support those brands right now. And also sort of the nature of like what could be coming next for them. Like what’s the outlook look like for a lot of these smaller brands. Zach? I know you have thoughts.

Z: I do have thoughts, yeah. So, I think this is a really fascinating question and in interviewing a few people for the Covid-19 conversation series that we’ve been doing and just talking to other people throughout the industry, I think you’re already seeing a bit of divergence between those three categories, between beer, wine, and spirits. The wine people I’ve talked to are I would say a little less concerned in general, in part because you know wine by its nature is not a particularly perishable item and while some of them are definitely concerned about cash flow and that’s obviously a real consideration, there are enough that I have spoken to who feel like, you know if worse-case scenario means that they’re stripping down their sort of staffing, you know they’re not obviously having tasting rooms open, which means that they’ve laid off or furloughed or sort of reassigned people who might be working in tasting rooms, they are probably not working, interfacing with distributors very much but they might be doing more direct-to-consumer sales, which is obviously the most profitable outlet for them. They might be doing more delivery or online ordering in general. And most of them I’ve spoken to say, well, you know, for the most part besides maybe things like rosé, which is really seasonal and very kind of needs to be consumed relatively young in most cases, their product can hold and they might in 3, 6, 9 months be O.K. sort of unloading that product they might be O.K. And if it means that they take lower margins at that point that might be O.K. for them. Beer, though, I mean beer is to me the place where we’re seeing the most issue right away.

A: Yeah.

Z: If you’re not a brand that has a strong packaging portfolio, so you’re not canning and bottling and you’re just a small craft brewery that’s relying on, you know, tap room sales or, you know, brewpub or, you know, restaurant sales you are probably already basically close to the end, unfortunately. Or you’re having to pivot really quickly. And just…you’re right, Adam. You mentioned when we were talking earlier, you know no one has an at-home draft system so it’s not even like, even if you really love a brewery, you know your capacity to really take in much of their inventory is just so limited and you can’t, you know, how many cans and bottles are you gonna buy? A lot of beer is not super long lived in terms of its shelf life, and it’s just that beer is kind of I think the most precarious, and that’s my read on it at least. I think spirits are probably closer to wine, in terms of their shelf life. But they’re also the thing that in a lot of states are much harder, you know, even still, for people to get their hands on and frankly people drink a lot more wine and beer than they do hard alcohol.

A: Yeah.

Z: It’s just, you know, most people are not going to drink a cocktail or two every single day. Some will, you know, we might. But a lot of people just won’t do that.

A: I think a lot of people are at this point.

E: Yeah.

Z: Well, maybe so.

A: But yeah….

E: I….you know, I think that actually craft distillers, you know, I’ve talked to some people and one of the episodes I have coming up is with Brian Rosen from BevStrat and that’s a company that represents a lot of small distilleries and they kind of work as a sales and marketing arm to get them placed in restaurants, retail, etc. And one of the points that he made I think is really true, which is: small distillers, you know these independent guys they are lacking the kind of financing they need to get through months of lost revenue. So, a lot of these places, you know, they’re relying on the public tastings and tours, they are expecting that they’re going to have restaurant sales and that’s a huge part of their business. And with all of that closed and liquor stores being their really only outlet at this point, that they are not able to probably a lot of them bridge this gap of many potential months of lost wages, of lost income, and a lot of them also are pivoting to help make hand sanitizer and so forth. So, it’s a huge amount of business disruption I think across the three tiers, but I think distillers will also be pretty hard hit.

A: Yeah, I think the biggest issue for a lot of them, the distillers and craft beer especially as Zach was saying is that for them too, first of all most people haven’t gotten the PPP that was supposed to come. Right? So, the money as of….as we’re recording today on April 16th has run out so we’ll wait and see if congress is able to re-up that funding. But you know what a lot of them have said to me is like all that’s doing is allowing them for two and a half months to hire people back, to do who knows what? It’s just to put people back on their payroll, but it’s not covering or helping them cover all the losses that they’re making or all the lost, you know, sales of products, food, etc. if they had a restaurant. And then if they don’t open for the next two and a half months, they’re basically back to square one which is zero revenue again and trying to figure out what the hell they do. And its…its crazy, right? So the big question becomes like, how are these people going to survive and what does the path forward look like? Because I think for a lot of these places it’s dire, because for some of these smaller producers especially on the beer and distilling side, because like you said they’re basically half…a lot of them are half-restaurants, half-tap rooms, half-small brands, right? Because a lot of times the law allows for that, and so right now they’re not able to get a lot of their products out there. I would say one of the best ways, hopefully, is for us to really lobby Congress. Right? I think like we need to basically start contacting our congressional leaders and say you need to do more to support these industries. Right? Like these are vital industries to the communities, especially in terms of the breweries, right? Like we talk about them a lot as being local gatherings for families and friends, etc. They’ve kind of become places where it’s acceptable to bring young kids at some points during the day and you can get together with people and like they need help and the only real way I can see that is through law. And so I think a lot of that is gonna have to start happening really soon is like we need to start calling our elected officials and saying, “what are you doing to help?”

Z: Yeah, and I think one of the big points to emphasize here is you know, we’ve talked a lot about, in the past on the podcast you know kind of how people are still drinking, people are still obviously having wine and beer and spirits at home. But one of the big things that’s changed, and I know we’ve talked about this and it’s as Erica mentioned it’s in upcoming episodes of Covid-19 Conversations, is a lot of that drinking has really shifted to some of the most well-known brands. I mean those were always obviously the dominant brands in the marketplace but it’s even more extreme now than it used to be, in part because as I mentioned before some of these smaller producers just have no real way to get their product in front of even consumers who want it. But a lot of it too is just so many of us are….what we do and access is so circumscribed by what the grocery store near us happens to carry or what the delivery service in our area happens to stock and we have so much less agency than we’re used to. And that’s why I think Adam’s advice on talking to your congressional representation in your state, government as appropriate is really good advice. Because unfortunately this is one of the few times that I can really think of, maybe the only time I can think of where you can’t do what I often encourage people to do in these situations otherwise, which is sort of vote with your dollars. Because a lot of the products that I might want to support, I really can’t or if I can its extremely difficult.

A: Yep.

Z: Or I have to really seek it out and I wish I could say to people, “Oh, there’s an obvious solution.” I mean, I definitely know that some smaller producers in the Seattle are looking at finding ways to kind of partner together to sell product when and where possible. They’re trying to get, you know, aligned with some of the restaurants that are still doing delivery and are offering beverage delivery as well. They’re working to get in front of local grocery store chains that are smaller. But again, think about this, right? One of the sort of advantages of being a buyer as I was for years is you taste with your representatives. You know you taste with people from distributors, from individual producers. That’s not something you do very…you can’t really do anymore, right? Like it’s not safe to be in close proximity to these people. Yes, maybe you can get a sample bottle and that’s a thing although that’s also an expense for the producer, although maybe one they’re willing to take on, but it really does encourage and has encouraged the sort of mindset of we’re not gonna make any changes to our inventory. We might re-order ’cause we’re selling through things, but we’re not gonna bring in new product, we’re not gonna change our product mix-up, we’re just gonna kinda keep doing the same things we’ve been doing to get by. And that’s fine on one level, but it really does disadvantage producers who don’t have a massive distribution chain that’s, you know, nationwide.

E: Definitely. I mean I think one of the best things that we, you know, Zach I know that it is like an additional step or two but I do think it is worthwhile, to go on social media if there’s a brand you like. You can look on their social media channels, like right now I just opened up my feed a couple of minutes ago and there’s a post from Privateer rum and Maggie Campbell who’s the distiller there, you know she’s doing “Ask me anythings,” she is doing all sorts of face-to-face kind of interactions. Whether they’re Facebook lives or what have you and I find that this moment distillers, winemakers and brewers are more available and more in front of their customers than ever before. One of the episodes we have coming up on the Covid-19 podcast is with Dan Petroski, who is a wine maker at Larkmead and Massican and Massican is a small winery that he owns. He said, you know, for the first time in his…with his newsletter he gave out his cellphone and people have been texting him and calling him and just talking with him. And while he did it out of, you know, really a sense of wanting to connect with his consumers, at the same time that has led to conversions and that has led to people literally calling him to seek out where they can find his wines and how they can buy them. So I do think it is a very useful piece of advice to check your social media feeds, any brands that you’ve had before that you like and that you want to support, they are more than willing to hop on the phone with you or to direct message you and tell you where you can find their product. Because there really is no good way that….I mean, I’ve researched, we’re doing an article on it, we are trying to research what are the best ways to support your local businesses and the best way we’ve found so far is to reach out to them directly.

A: Totally. I mean I really….it really seems to be the only way and it’s the way….even if there are other ways, it’s the way that they receive the most benefit, right? ‘Cause no one else is taking a cut, no one else is really involved at the middle man, you know, it’s just getting to them and saying like how can we help if we can? And then its supporting legislation down the road that helps people survive this. ‘Cause I think the biggest thing we need to really think about is there’s help now but there’s also help that has to come at the end, right? And so, once this is over and we’ve re-opened, what programs are we providing for people? ‘Cause like there’s a lot of breweries I love. There’s a lot of like, you know, wineries I love. I can’t buy them all once this over. You know? Like I can run and do everything at the same time, which is why, you know, I am fearful that a lot of people that do not deserve to go out of business will go out of business, just because like there’s just not gonna be enough people that are gonna come…go to every place they love right when this this is over. And so, you know, getting on your phone and calling your congressperson and calling your senator is really, really important.

E: Yeah.

A: Yeah. And it’s also the only way that you can, as Adam is saying, save this entire industry as opposed to a select few particular brands that you happen to care about, you know? I think it’s important….you know, I think look, there’s a reality that we have to face here, which is that there’s going to be, there already has been and there will be attrition that comes out of this, you know? Any incredibly traumatic, stressful period of time whether it’s a…just a purely financial crisis, a health crisis, or both is going to just inevitably cause some businesses, some producers that we dearly love to go out of business because it’s just there’s no two ways around it.

E: Yeah.

Z: But for trying to keep, you know, the previous….pre-Covid sort of landscape that I think we all really appreciated in this country, you know a really diverse set of producers of beer, wine and spirits, the likes of which we’d never seen in this country prior, we have to…yeah, it has to be a community but also a sort of national effort to keep those things alive. And it’s not just with this industry, obviously there’s lots of other industries where this is true. But obviously this is ours and the one we feel passionate about. And Adam is right, you know, buying a bottle of wine, a bottle of gin or, you know, a six-pack of beer from a local producer is one, important and maybe slightly more rewarding immediately way to support them. But it is really true, you know, taking that time to reach out to your congressional leadership, to encourage people that you know, your friends and family to do the same. You know, that’s the only way that there’s going to be programs in place to keep these industries alive not just during this crisis but as Adam mentioned afterwards because there’s gonna be a lot of you know, essentially….there’s gonna be a lot, it’s gonna be a long time before these industries really get back to full strength.

A: And I want to be clear here, like I’m not talking about just, you know, people might be listening and they might be like “Oh, Adam’s sitting here and he’s talking about like handouts,” that’s not all that I’m talking about. I’m talking about the loosening of laws as well to allow people to continue to do the things that they’re doing now, right? So, we talked about this last week but I’m talking about us lobbying our lawmakers to say: hey, let’s allow cocktail delivery to continue until people get back on their feet. Or for the foreseeable future, or maybe forever, right? Let’s allow for a lot of these restaurants to also sell their bottles to go, right? So like if I come into the restaurant, I have a great bottle of wine that night, why can’t I buy that bottle of wine to-go at a 25% reduction in price or something from the list? Why can’t I do that?

E: Yeah.

A: And then I can take it home and enjoy it down the road. Like this will allow people to bring in more revenue now. Like those are the things that we need to be talking about.

E: Yes.

A: So that these businesses can find other revenue streams in the short term in order to, you know, make more money right when they open. And if we don’t do that, if we just say, O.K., everyone has to go back to business as usual prior to Covid-19, it’s gonna be really hard and we’re gonna lose more businesses than we should.

E: Yeah, and I don’t think we can go back to business until there’s a vaccine, like we can’t…I don’t think there’s a real tangible path forward for a lot of businesses. I mean imagine how far you’ll have to be spaced-out to really meet those social distancing guidelines. A lot of businesses will not be able to accommodate that. So its…I think yeah, I absolutely agree that the congressional and the governmental responses are going to be key to this. But I think that, you know, even with that there will be a big culling of a lot of businesses that we, you know, love and support.

A: Totally. Well guys, hopefully the moral of the story here is: talk to your elected officials. ‘Cause it’s gonna be the best way…I know we talked about this a few months ago when it came to the tariffs and it’s time now again. If you listened to us then and contacted your elected officials, thank you. Please contact them now. The hospitality industry as a whole, whether its craft producers like we’ve talked about a little bit today or just, you know, restaurants and bars in general is one of the largest employers of people in the United States. So, you know, it’s really important that we support this industry so that everyone can get back to work. So please, please, please call them and tell them to support the industry, it would be….it’s vitally important.

E: Yep.

Z: 100% right.

A: So, thank you guys so much for listening as always and Zach and Erica, I’ll talk to you next week.

Z: Sounds good.

E: Hang in there!

A: Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. And now for the credits:

VinePair is produced and hosted Zach Geballe, Erica Duecy, and me: Adam Teeter. Our engineer is Nick Patri and Keith Beavers. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder Josh Malin and the rest of the VinePair team for their support. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you again right here next week.

The article VinePair Podcast: Will Small Drinks Brands Survive the Covid-19 Crisis? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/vinepair-podcast-small-brands-covid-19-crisis/

[johnboothus]

VinePair Podcast: Will Small Drinks Brands Survive the Covid-19 Crisis?

As the Covid-19 crisis and the associated lockdowns, quarantines, and stay-at-home orders persist, our drinking habits and purchasing opportunities are shifting. These changes are creating winners and losers in the beverage alcohol business. While sales for many of the best-known drinks brands are steady or even rising, smaller craft products can no longer rely on bars, restaurants, and taprooms to serve as access points for the consumer.

And so, small beer, wine, and spirits producers and their supporters are left wondering: What can be done to keep these vital and beloved brands alive? Can we save them with savvy purchasing, or is broader governmental action required? VinePair CEO Adam Teeter, Chief Content Officer and Editor in Chief Erica Duecy, and VinePair Podcast Co-host Zach Geballe discuss these questions in this week’s episode.

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on Spotify.

Listen online or check out our conversation here:

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York I’m Adam Teeter.

Erica: From Connecticut, I’m Erica Duecy.

Zach: And in Seattle, WA I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair podcast. And guys, we are now in week five, which is crazy, almost at the end of week five. Some people were saying there’s like a light at the end of the tunnel. You know? I’m starting to hear certain dates that people are putting out there. Germany is gonna start opening up their country again next week, which is insane to think about. How are you guys holding up in your sheltering in place this week?

E: I’m actually having a pretty good week.

A: Good!

E: I have to say, I’ve gone through waves. Last week was a pretty terrible week, it was just not a great mental health week. I felt like it was pretty challenging, it was just all sort of down news. But I feel like there, you know, and I’ve talked with a lot of people on the podcast and some upcoming episodes that will be coming out and I do think that, I’m hearing a lot about innovation and ideas and silver linings and I think that, you know, I’m hoping that in the next couple of weeks we can start to have some ideas around you know turning the corner on this and some good news. But that’s to say that, you know, it’s up sometimes, down sometimes, so hanging in there.

Z: Yeah, I think that’s about as apt a description as I’m able to come up with. I would say, you know the other thing for me that’s been true over the last I don’t know maybe it’s been the last week or so is I’ve been really struck by how used to this new way of living I’ve become. In that, you know the first couple of weeks it was just like oh my God I miss all these things that I used to be able to do. I miss seeing friends and family. I miss going out to restaurants. I….you know, all these various things. And now it’s very funny, you know we just…I was just talking to my wife about, you know, this sort of like, OK, what do we do first, when like we can go do something out of the house? And it was so…such an alien thought at this point that I was like, I don’t even know what, like I guess go to a park with our kid and like see friends who have a kid and? It was just…it’s become so….you know, in this little over a month for me, it’s become this sort of thing that I’m just so…I feel so used to at this point that it’s like, it’s very weird. And I’m a very extroverted person normally and I like to go out and do stuff and it was just so strange to kind of start to think about, you know if that light at the end of the tunnel that you had mentioned is coming along like….what is that, what am I even gonna do? And I’m not sure. Like I might just stay in my house a little longer just ’cause I don’t know what else to do.

A: Oh God, well, I don’t know. It’s funny, last week I was good, this week I’m like more, just like not as good? Definitely it’s starting to weigh on me more. It was weird, like yesterday the park near my apartment was a lot less full. And like it’s never been so full that I’ve been nervous about being…like taking a walk through it with Naomi but like it was like oddly less full at the time when it usually is….like it used to be like the last few weeks people would be out there from 5:30 to like 7. So like everyone would shut off their Zooms, close their computers and like decided to go outside for like an hour and a half or so. And like this week it seemed like less and less people were in the park and the weather is still…it’s a little cooler but still nice. And we were trying to figure out like why? And we’re like….and Naomi was like, I think it’s just people are starting to be hit by this like whole weight of….the….you know we don’t….it’s been so long, you know? And maybe they’re just like fuck it, I’m just staying inside. And so that’s kind of hit me this week and I was like God I gotta get out of this. Like all I really want, like it’s really weird, the one thing I’ve been craving more than anything else – this is gonna make Cat very happy, is a draft beer.

E: Mmm.

Z: Ahh.

A: Like I can make good cocktails at home, I have a pretty good selection of wine, but like I really….I don’t have a draft system! I just wanna go to a bar and get a really good beer on draft. That’s all…you know what I mean? There’s just something about that that I’m like that’s something that I miss. And I didn’t do it like all the time before this, but like when I did it it was always great and now I’m just like… that’s all I can think about. Like all I can think about.

Z: A thing I miss is being able to tell someone else, yes I would like this. To be able to turn my attention from whatever that thing is and then to have it show up in front of me, you know two to five minutes later. And it’s like, I am the by and large the bartender in the house, the sommelier in the house and when and where appropriate I guess the person who opens the beers in the house and so it’s like…not that I mind. But it is this weird thing that I miss of like, “yeah, I’ll have a Manhattan” and instead of saying “I’ll have a Manhattan” and then going and making a Manhattan, I used to be able to say “I’ll have a Manhattan” and then a Manhattan would just magically appear in front of me.

E: Exactly.

Z: And I do miss that. I miss that sort of like….I guess if that’s my….if that’s the thing I miss I supposed I am fortunate in all of this.

E: Yeah.

A: I think you are, yeah. It is funny though, ’cause have you guys used delivery yet? I don’t know why but like we haven’t. We’ve really been cooking everything and the friends of mine who have used delivery have said at least it’s like that one like respite, just like, oh, like one night someone make the food that wasn’t me. You know? Or like did the cocktails. But we haven’t done it, have you guys?

E: Oh yeah, I’ve had….I’ve done pizza a couple of times, I mean now we’re out in Connecticut and there’s not that much delivery. So we’ve done pizza and we’ve done a barbecue night, a barbecue delivery and that I swear barbecue never tasted so good.

A: That sounds amazing.

E: Yeah, all I want is someone….I mean and I’ve got two kids too, so I’m you know cooking and my husband’s cooking, everyone is cooking all the time and the amount of dishes, shocking! Full time eaters in a house, never realized there were so many dishes.

Z: Oh yeah, I used…I’ve been running the dishwasher daily which is really, really weird for me, I’m sort of anti-dishwasher from a dispositional standpoint but it’s gotten to the point, just with two adults and a not-quite-two-year-old in the house we’re going….we’re running a load almost every day and it is wild. I haven’t done any delivery like you Adam, I’ve just sort of been like I’m gonna cook everything but it has been creeping up in the mind for both my wife and I because there are a few things, like barbecue for example that I don’t make at home, not having a smoker or whatever. So there are a few things that we’ve been craving that haven’t been able to have yet and so I think we’re probably gonna go down that road probably in the next few days frankly.

A: So….I think we’re gonna have to do it too. I mean like I don’t know what else I’m gonna do. Like at some point I’m just gonna have to get some delivery ’cause I’m getting sick of cooking dinner every night. So our, you know, subject for today’s podcast is you know, one of the groups of people that we have talked about a little bit but we haven’t focused on fully in the entire podcast since the coronavirus so probably the last five weeks and that’s the smaller producers, right? So we would call them in beer like the small craft producers, the small craft distillers, the small wine producers, and I know as we mentioned before there are a lot of the times people that are getting hit harder because a lot of their, you know, their focus has been on premise for so long. It’s…. building a brand on premise, you know seems to be a little bit easier, it’s a better spend of your dollars, right? You can get a few cases in and then it gets moved for you. You know some brands would disagree with that and say that they went off-premise and now were thinking that that was the great strategy but for the majority of like smaller brands most wind up on on-premise before focusing on off-premise. So a lot of them are hurting very badly right now. Whether that’s because kegs aren’t being purchased obviously, you know their wines aren’t being taken in and or their, you know, their spirits aren’t being used in cocktails. So we want to talk a little bit about like why….you know how we can support those brands right now. And also sort of the nature of like what could be coming next for them. Like what’s the outlook look like for a lot of these smaller brands. Zach? I know you have thoughts.

Z: I do have thoughts, yeah. So, I think this is a really fascinating question and in interviewing a few people for the Covid-19 conversation series that we’ve been doing and just talking to other people throughout the industry, I think you’re already seeing a bit of divergence between those three categories, between beer, wine, and spirits. The wine people I’ve talked to are I would say a little less concerned in general, in part because you know wine by its nature is not a particularly perishable item and while some of them are definitely concerned about cash flow and that’s obviously a real consideration, there are enough that I have spoken to who feel like, you know if worse-case scenario means that they’re stripping down their sort of staffing, you know they’re not obviously having tasting rooms open, which means that they’ve laid off or furloughed or sort of reassigned people who might be working in tasting rooms, they are probably not working, interfacing with distributors very much but they might be doing more direct-to-consumer sales, which is obviously the most profitable outlet for them. They might be doing more delivery or online ordering in general. And most of them I’ve spoken to say, well, you know, for the most part besides maybe things like rosé, which is really seasonal and very kind of needs to be consumed relatively young in most cases, their product can hold and they might in 3, 6, 9 months be O.K. sort of unloading that product they might be O.K. And if it means that they take lower margins at that point that might be O.K. for them. Beer, though, I mean beer is to me the place where we’re seeing the most issue right away.

A: Yeah.

Z: If you’re not a brand that has a strong packaging portfolio, so you’re not canning and bottling and you’re just a small craft brewery that’s relying on, you know, tap room sales or, you know, brewpub or, you know, restaurant sales you are probably already basically close to the end, unfortunately. Or you’re having to pivot really quickly. And just…you’re right, Adam. You mentioned when we were talking earlier, you know no one has an at-home draft system so it’s not even like, even if you really love a brewery, you know your capacity to really take in much of their inventory is just so limited and you can’t, you know, how many cans and bottles are you gonna buy? A lot of beer is not super long lived in terms of its shelf life, and it’s just that beer is kind of I think the most precarious, and that’s my read on it at least. I think spirits are probably closer to wine, in terms of their shelf life. But they’re also the thing that in a lot of states are much harder, you know, even still, for people to get their hands on and frankly people drink a lot more wine and beer than they do hard alcohol.

A: Yeah.

Z: It’s just, you know, most people are not going to drink a cocktail or two every single day. Some will, you know, we might. But a lot of people just won’t do that.

A: I think a lot of people are at this point.

E: Yeah.

Z: Well, maybe so.

A: But yeah….

E: I….you know, I think that actually craft distillers, you know, I’ve talked to some people and one of the episodes I have coming up is with Brian Rosen from BevStrat and that’s a company that represents a lot of small distilleries and they kind of work as a sales and marketing arm to get them placed in restaurants, retail, etc. And one of the points that he made I think is really true, which is: small distillers, you know these independent guys they are lacking the kind of financing they need to get through months of lost revenue. So, a lot of these places, you know, they’re relying on the public tastings and tours, they are expecting that they’re going to have restaurant sales and that’s a huge part of their business. And with all of that closed and liquor stores being their really only outlet at this point, that they are not able to probably a lot of them bridge this gap of many potential months of lost wages, of lost income, and a lot of them also are pivoting to help make hand sanitizer and so forth. So, it’s a huge amount of business disruption I think across the three tiers, but I think distillers will also be pretty hard hit.

A: Yeah, I think the biggest issue for a lot of them, the distillers and craft beer especially as Zach was saying is that for them too, first of all most people haven’t gotten the PPP that was supposed to come. Right? So, the money as of….as we’re recording today on April 16th has run out so we’ll wait and see if congress is able to re-up that funding. But you know what a lot of them have said to me is like all that’s doing is allowing them for two and a half months to hire people back, to do who knows what? It’s just to put people back on their payroll, but it’s not covering or helping them cover all the losses that they’re making or all the lost, you know, sales of products, food, etc. if they had a restaurant. And then if they don’t open for the next two and a half months, they’re basically back to square one which is zero revenue again and trying to figure out what the hell they do. And its…its crazy, right? So the big question becomes like, how are these people going to survive and what does the path forward look like? Because I think for a lot of these places it’s dire, because for some of these smaller producers especially on the beer and distilling side, because like you said they’re basically half…a lot of them are half-restaurants, half-tap rooms, half-small brands, right? Because a lot of times the law allows for that, and so right now they’re not able to get a lot of their products out there. I would say one of the best ways, hopefully, is for us to really lobby Congress. Right? I think like we need to basically start contacting our congressional leaders and say you need to do more to support these industries. Right? Like these are vital industries to the communities, especially in terms of the breweries, right? Like we talk about them a lot as being local gatherings for families and friends, etc. They’ve kind of become places where it’s acceptable to bring young kids at some points during the day and you can get together with people and like they need help and the only real way I can see that is through law. And so I think a lot of that is gonna have to start happening really soon is like we need to start calling our elected officials and saying, “what are you doing to help?”

Z: Yeah, and I think one of the big points to emphasize here is you know, we’ve talked a lot about, in the past on the podcast you know kind of how people are still drinking, people are still obviously having wine and beer and spirits at home. But one of the big things that’s changed, and I know we’ve talked about this and it’s as Erica mentioned it’s in upcoming episodes of Covid-19 Conversations, is a lot of that drinking has really shifted to some of the most well-known brands. I mean those were always obviously the dominant brands in the marketplace but it’s even more extreme now than it used to be, in part because as I mentioned before some of these smaller producers just have no real way to get their product in front of even consumers who want it. But a lot of it too is just so many of us are….what we do and access is so circumscribed by what the grocery store near us happens to carry or what the delivery service in our area happens to stock and we have so much less agency than we’re used to. And that’s why I think Adam’s advice on talking to your congressional representation in your state, government as appropriate is really good advice. Because unfortunately this is one of the few times that I can really think of, maybe the only time I can think of where you can’t do what I often encourage people to do in these situations otherwise, which is sort of vote with your dollars. Because a lot of the products that I might want to support, I really can’t or if I can its extremely difficult.

A: Yep.

Z: Or I have to really seek it out and I wish I could say to people, “Oh, there’s an obvious solution.” I mean, I definitely know that some smaller producers in the Seattle are looking at finding ways to kind of partner together to sell product when and where possible. They’re trying to get, you know, aligned with some of the restaurants that are still doing delivery and are offering beverage delivery as well. They’re working to get in front of local grocery store chains that are smaller. But again, think about this, right? One of the sort of advantages of being a buyer as I was for years is you taste with your representatives. You know you taste with people from distributors, from individual producers. That’s not something you do very…you can’t really do anymore, right? Like it’s not safe to be in close proximity to these people. Yes, maybe you can get a sample bottle and that’s a thing although that’s also an expense for the producer, although maybe one they’re willing to take on, but it really does encourage and has encouraged the sort of mindset of we’re not gonna make any changes to our inventory. We might re-order ’cause we’re selling through things, but we’re not gonna bring in new product, we’re not gonna change our product mix-up, we’re just gonna kinda keep doing the same things we’ve been doing to get by. And that’s fine on one level, but it really does disadvantage producers who don’t have a massive distribution chain that’s, you know, nationwide.

E: Definitely. I mean I think one of the best things that we, you know, Zach I know that it is like an additional step or two but I do think it is worthwhile, to go on social media if there’s a brand you like. You can look on their social media channels, like right now I just opened up my feed a couple of minutes ago and there’s a post from Privateer rum and Maggie Campbell who’s the distiller there, you know she’s doing “Ask me anythings,” she is doing all sorts of face-to-face kind of interactions. Whether they’re Facebook lives or what have you and I find that this moment distillers, winemakers and brewers are more available and more in front of their customers than ever before. One of the episodes we have coming up on the Covid-19 podcast is with Dan Petroski, who is a wine maker at Larkmead and Massican and Massican is a small winery that he owns. He said, you know, for the first time in his…with his newsletter he gave out his cellphone and people have been texting him and calling him and just talking with him. And while he did it out of, you know, really a sense of wanting to connect with his consumers, at the same time that has led to conversions and that has led to people literally calling him to seek out where they can find his wines and how they can buy them. So I do think it is a very useful piece of advice to check your social media feeds, any brands that you’ve had before that you like and that you want to support, they are more than willing to hop on the phone with you or to direct message you and tell you where you can find their product. Because there really is no good way that….I mean, I’ve researched, we’re doing an article on it, we are trying to research what are the best ways to support your local businesses and the best way we’ve found so far is to reach out to them directly.

A: Totally. I mean I really….it really seems to be the only way and it’s the way….even if there are other ways, it’s the way that they receive the most benefit, right? ‘Cause no one else is taking a cut, no one else is really involved at the middle man, you know, it’s just getting to them and saying like how can we help if we can? And then its supporting legislation down the road that helps people survive this. ‘Cause I think the biggest thing we need to really think about is there’s help now but there’s also help that has to come at the end, right? And so, once this is over and we’ve re-opened, what programs are we providing for people? ‘Cause like there’s a lot of breweries I love. There’s a lot of like, you know, wineries I love. I can’t buy them all once this over. You know? Like I can run and do everything at the same time, which is why, you know, I am fearful that a lot of people that do not deserve to go out of business will go out of business, just because like there’s just not gonna be enough people that are gonna come…go to every place they love right when this this is over. And so, you know, getting on your phone and calling your congressperson and calling your senator is really, really important.

E: Yeah.

A: Yeah. And it’s also the only way that you can, as Adam is saying, save this entire industry as opposed to a select few particular brands that you happen to care about, you know? I think it’s important….you know, I think look, there’s a reality that we have to face here, which is that there’s going to be, there already has been and there will be attrition that comes out of this, you know? Any incredibly traumatic, stressful period of time whether it’s a…just a purely financial crisis, a health crisis, or both is going to just inevitably cause some businesses, some producers that we dearly love to go out of business because it’s just there’s no two ways around it.

E: Yeah.

Z: But for trying to keep, you know, the previous….pre-Covid sort of landscape that I think we all really appreciated in this country, you know a really diverse set of producers of beer, wine and spirits, the likes of which we’d never seen in this country prior, we have to…yeah, it has to be a community but also a sort of national effort to keep those things alive. And it’s not just with this industry, obviously there’s lots of other industries where this is true. But obviously this is ours and the one we feel passionate about. And Adam is right, you know, buying a bottle of wine, a bottle of gin or, you know, a six-pack of beer from a local producer is one, important and maybe slightly more rewarding immediately way to support them. But it is really true, you know, taking that time to reach out to your congressional leadership, to encourage people that you know, your friends and family to do the same. You know, that’s the only way that there’s going to be programs in place to keep these industries alive not just during this crisis but as Adam mentioned afterwards because there’s gonna be a lot of you know, essentially….there’s gonna be a lot, it’s gonna be a long time before these industries really get back to full strength.

A: And I want to be clear here, like I’m not talking about just, you know, people might be listening and they might be like “Oh, Adam’s sitting here and he’s talking about like handouts,” that’s not all that I’m talking about. I’m talking about the loosening of laws as well to allow people to continue to do the things that they’re doing now, right? So, we talked about this last week but I’m talking about us lobbying our lawmakers to say: hey, let’s allow cocktail delivery to continue until people get back on their feet. Or for the foreseeable future, or maybe forever, right? Let’s allow for a lot of these restaurants to also sell their bottles to go, right? So like if I come into the restaurant, I have a great bottle of wine that night, why can’t I buy that bottle of wine to-go at a 25% reduction in price or something from the list? Why can’t I do that?

E: Yeah.

A: And then I can take it home and enjoy it down the road. Like this will allow people to bring in more revenue now. Like those are the things that we need to be talking about.

E: Yes.

A: So that these businesses can find other revenue streams in the short term in order to, you know, make more money right when they open. And if we don’t do that, if we just say, O.K., everyone has to go back to business as usual prior to Covid-19, it’s gonna be really hard and we’re gonna lose more businesses than we should.

E: Yeah, and I don’t think we can go back to business until there’s a vaccine, like we can’t…I don’t think there’s a real tangible path forward for a lot of businesses. I mean imagine how far you’ll have to be spaced-out to really meet those social distancing guidelines. A lot of businesses will not be able to accommodate that. So its…I think yeah, I absolutely agree that the congressional and the governmental responses are going to be key to this. But I think that, you know, even with that there will be a big culling of a lot of businesses that we, you know, love and support.

A: Totally. Well guys, hopefully the moral of the story here is: talk to your elected officials. ‘Cause it’s gonna be the best way…I know we talked about this a few months ago when it came to the tariffs and it’s time now again. If you listened to us then and contacted your elected officials, thank you. Please contact them now. The hospitality industry as a whole, whether its craft producers like we’ve talked about a little bit today or just, you know, restaurants and bars in general is one of the largest employers of people in the United States. So, you know, it’s really important that we support this industry so that everyone can get back to work. So please, please, please call them and tell them to support the industry, it would be….it’s vitally important.

E: Yep.

Z: 100% right.

A: So, thank you guys so much for listening as always and Zach and Erica, I’ll talk to you next week.

Z: Sounds good.

E: Hang in there!

A: Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. And now for the credits:

VinePair is produced and hosted Zach Geballe, Erica Duecy, and me: Adam Teeter. Our engineer is Nick Patri and Keith Beavers. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder Josh Malin and the rest of the VinePair team for their support. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you again right here next week.

The article VinePair Podcast: Will Small Drinks Brands Survive the Covid-19 Crisis? appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/vinepair-podcast-small-brands-covid-19-crisis/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-will-small-drinks-brands-survive-the-covid-19-crisis

[isaiahrippinus]

VinePair Podcast: Will Small Drinks Brands Survive the Covid-19 Crisis?

As the Covid-19 crisis and the associated lockdowns, quarantines, and stay-at-home orders persist, our drinking habits and purchasing opportunities are shifting. These changes are creating winners and losers in the beverage alcohol business. While sales for many of the best-known drinks brands are steady or even rising, smaller craft products can no longer rely on bars, restaurants, and taprooms to serve as access points for the consumer.

And so, small beer, wine, and spirits producers and their supporters are left wondering: What can be done to keep these vital and beloved brands alive? Can we save them with savvy purchasing, or is broader governmental action required? VinePair CEO Adam Teeter, Chief Content Officer and Editor in Chief Erica Duecy, and VinePair Podcast Co-host Zach Geballe discuss these questions in this week’s episode.

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on Spotify.

Listen online or check out our conversation here:

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York I’m Adam Teeter.

Erica: From Connecticut, I’m Erica Duecy.

Zach: And in Seattle, WA I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair podcast. And guys, we are now in week five, which is crazy, almost at the end of week five. Some people were saying there’s like a light at the end of the tunnel. You know? I’m starting to hear certain dates that people are putting out there. Germany is gonna start opening up their country again next week, which is insane to think about. How are you guys holding up in your sheltering in place this week?

E: I’m actually having a pretty good week.

A: Good!

E: I have to say, I’ve gone through waves. Last week was a pretty terrible week, it was just not a great mental health week. I felt like it was pretty challenging, it was just all sort of down news. But I feel like there, you know, and I’ve talked with a lot of people on the podcast and some upcoming episodes that will be coming out and I do think that, I’m hearing a lot about innovation and ideas and silver linings and I think that, you know, I’m hoping that in the next couple of weeks we can start to have some ideas around you know turning the corner on this and some good news. But that’s to say that, you know, it’s up sometimes, down sometimes, so hanging in there.

Z: Yeah, I think that’s about as apt a description as I’m able to come up with. I would say, you know the other thing for me that’s been true over the last I don’t know maybe it’s been the last week or so is I’ve been really struck by how used to this new way of living I’ve become. In that, you know the first couple of weeks it was just like oh my God I miss all these things that I used to be able to do. I miss seeing friends and family. I miss going out to restaurants. I….you know, all these various things. And now it’s very funny, you know we just…I was just talking to my wife about, you know, this sort of like, OK, what do we do first, when like we can go do something out of the house? And it was so…such an alien thought at this point that I was like, I don’t even know what, like I guess go to a park with our kid and like see friends who have a kid and? It was just…it’s become so….you know, in this little over a month for me, it’s become this sort of thing that I’m just so…I feel so used to at this point that it’s like, it’s very weird. And I’m a very extroverted person normally and I like to go out and do stuff and it was just so strange to kind of start to think about, you know if that light at the end of the tunnel that you had mentioned is coming along like….what is that, what am I even gonna do? And I’m not sure. Like I might just stay in my house a little longer just ’cause I don’t know what else to do.

A: Oh God, well, I don’t know. It’s funny, last week I was good, this week I’m like more, just like not as good? Definitely it’s starting to weigh on me more. It was weird, like yesterday the park near my apartment was a lot less full. And like it’s never been so full that I’ve been nervous about being…like taking a walk through it with Naomi but like it was like oddly less full at the time when it usually is….like it used to be like the last few weeks people would be out there from 5:30 to like 7. So like everyone would shut off their Zooms, close their computers and like decided to go outside for like an hour and a half or so. And like this week it seemed like less and less people were in the park and the weather is still…it’s a little cooler but still nice. And we were trying to figure out like why? And we’re like….and Naomi was like, I think it’s just people are starting to be hit by this like whole weight of….the….you know we don’t….it’s been so long, you know? And maybe they’re just like fuck it, I’m just staying inside. And so that’s kind of hit me this week and I was like God I gotta get out of this. Like all I really want, like it’s really weird, the one thing I’ve been craving more than anything else – this is gonna make Cat very happy, is a draft beer.

E: Mmm.

Z: Ahh.

A: Like I can make good cocktails at home, I have a pretty good selection of wine, but like I really….I don’t have a draft system! I just wanna go to a bar and get a really good beer on draft. That’s all…you know what I mean? There’s just something about that that I’m like that’s something that I miss. And I didn’t do it like all the time before this, but like when I did it it was always great and now I’m just like… that’s all I can think about. Like all I can think about.

Z: A thing I miss is being able to tell someone else, yes I would like this. To be able to turn my attention from whatever that thing is and then to have it show up in front of me, you know two to five minutes later. And it’s like, I am the by and large the bartender in the house, the sommelier in the house and when and where appropriate I guess the person who opens the beers in the house and so it’s like…not that I mind. But it is this weird thing that I miss of like, “yeah, I’ll have a Manhattan” and instead of saying “I’ll have a Manhattan” and then going and making a Manhattan, I used to be able to say “I’ll have a Manhattan” and then a Manhattan would just magically appear in front of me.

E: Exactly.

Z: And I do miss that. I miss that sort of like….I guess if that’s my….if that’s the thing I miss I supposed I am fortunate in all of this.

E: Yeah.

A: I think you are, yeah. It is funny though, ’cause have you guys used delivery yet? I don’t know why but like we haven’t. We’ve really been cooking everything and the friends of mine who have used delivery have said at least it’s like that one like respite, just like, oh, like one night someone make the food that wasn’t me. You know? Or like did the cocktails. But we haven’t done it, have you guys?

E: Oh yeah, I’ve had….I’ve done pizza a couple of times, I mean now we’re out in Connecticut and there’s not that much delivery. So we’ve done pizza and we’ve done a barbecue night, a barbecue delivery and that I swear barbecue never tasted so good.

A: That sounds amazing.

E: Yeah, all I want is someone….I mean and I’ve got two kids too, so I’m you know cooking and my husband’s cooking, everyone is cooking all the time and the amount of dishes, shocking! Full time eaters in a house, never realized there were so many dishes.

Z: Oh yeah, I used…I’ve been running the dishwasher daily which is really, really weird for me, I’m sort of anti-dishwasher from a dispositional standpoint but it’s gotten to the point, just with two adults and a not-quite-two-year-old in the house we’re going….we’re running a load almost every day and it is wild. I haven’t done any delivery like you Adam, I’ve just sort of been like I’m gonna cook everything but it has been creeping up in the mind for both my wife and I because there are a few things, like barbecue for example that I don’t make at home, not having a smoker or whatever. So there are a few things that we’ve been craving that haven’t been able to have yet and so I think we’re probably gonna go down that road probably in the next few days frankly.

A: So….I think we’re gonna have to do it too. I mean like I don’t know what else I’m gonna do. Like at some point I’m just gonna have to get some delivery ’cause I’m getting sick of cooking dinner every night. So our, you know, subject for today’s podcast is you know, one of the groups of people that we have talked about a little bit but we haven’t focused on fully in the entire podcast since the coronavirus so probably the last five weeks and that’s the smaller producers, right? So we would call them in beer like the small craft producers, the small craft distillers, the small wine producers, and I know as we mentioned before there are a lot of the times people that are getting hit harder because a lot of their, you know, their focus has been on premise for so long. It’s…. building a brand on premise, you know seems to be a little bit easier, it’s a better spend of your dollars, right? You can get a few cases in and then it gets moved for you. You know some brands would disagree with that and say that they went off-premise and now were thinking that that was the great strategy but for the majority of like smaller brands most wind up on on-premise before focusing on off-premise. So a lot of them are hurting very badly right now. Whether that’s because kegs aren’t being purchased obviously, you know their wines aren’t being taken in and or their, you know, their spirits aren’t being used in cocktails. So we want to talk a little bit about like why….you know how we can support those brands right now. And also sort of the nature of like what could be coming next for them. Like what’s the outlook look like for a lot of these smaller brands. Zach? I know you have thoughts.

Z: I do have thoughts, yeah. So, I think this is a really fascinating question and in interviewing a few people for the Covid-19 conversation series that we’ve been doing and just talking to other people throughout the industry, I think you’re already seeing a bit of divergence between those three categories, between beer, wine, and spirits. The wine people I’ve talked to are I would say a little less concerned in general, in part because you know wine by its nature is not a particularly perishable item and while some of them are definitely concerned about cash flow and that’s obviously a real consideration, there are enough that I have spoken to who feel like, you know if worse-case scenario means that they’re stripping down their sort of staffing, you know they’re not obviously having tasting rooms open, which means that they’ve laid off or furloughed or sort of reassigned people who might be working in tasting rooms, they are probably not working, interfacing with distributors very much but they might be doing more direct-to-consumer sales, which is obviously the most profitable outlet for them. They might be doing more delivery or online ordering in general. And most of them I’ve spoken to say, well, you know, for the most part besides maybe things like rosé, which is really seasonal and very kind of needs to be consumed relatively young in most cases, their product can hold and they might in 3, 6, 9 months be O.K. sort of unloading that product they might be O.K. And if it means that they take lower margins at that point that might be O.K. for them. Beer, though, I mean beer is to me the place where we’re seeing the most issue right away.

A: Yeah.

Z: If you’re not a brand that has a strong packaging portfolio, so you’re not canning and bottling and you’re just a small craft brewery that’s relying on, you know, tap room sales or, you know, brewpub or, you know, restaurant sales you are probably already basically close to the end, unfortunately. Or you’re having to pivot really quickly. And just…you’re right, Adam. You mentioned when we were talking earlier, you know no one has an at-home draft system so it’s not even like, even if you really love a brewery, you know your capacity to really take in much of their inventory is just so limited and you can’t, you know, how many cans and bottles are you gonna buy? A lot of beer is not super long lived in terms of its shelf life, and it’s just that beer is kind of I think the most precarious, and that’s my read on it at least. I think spirits are probably closer to wine, in terms of their shelf life. But they’re also the thing that in a lot of states are much harder, you know, even still, for people to get their hands on and frankly people drink a lot more wine and beer than they do hard alcohol.

A: Yeah.

Z: It’s just, you know, most people are not going to drink a cocktail or two every single day. Some will, you know, we might. But a lot of people just won’t do that.

A: I think a lot of people are at this point.

E: Yeah.

Z: Well, maybe so.

A: But yeah….

E: I….you know, I think that actually craft distillers, you know, I’ve talked to some people and one of the episodes I have coming up is with Brian Rosen from BevStrat and that’s a company that represents a lot of small distilleries and they kind of work as a sales and marketing arm to get them placed in restaurants, retail, etc. And one of the points that he made I think is really true, which is: small distillers, you know these independent guys they are lacking the kind of financing they need to get through months of lost revenue. So, a lot of these places, you know, they’re relying on the public tastings and tours, they are expecting that they’re going to have restaurant sales and that’s a huge part of their business. And with all of that closed and liquor stores being their really only outlet at this point, that they are not able to probably a lot of them bridge this gap of many potential months of lost wages, of lost income, and a lot of them also are pivoting to help make hand sanitizer and so forth. So, it’s a huge amount of business disruption I think across the three tiers, but I think distillers will also be pretty hard hit.

A: Yeah, I think the biggest issue for a lot of them, the distillers and craft beer especially as Zach was saying is that for them too, first of all most people haven’t gotten the PPP that was supposed to come. Right? So, the money as of….as we’re recording today on April 16th has run out so we’ll wait and see if congress is able to re-up that funding. But you know what a lot of them have said to me is like all that’s doing is allowing them for two and a half months to hire people back, to do who knows what? It’s just to put people back on their payroll, but it’s not covering or helping them cover all the losses that they’re making or all the lost, you know, sales of products, food, etc. if they had a restaurant. And then if they don’t open for the next two and a half months, they’re basically back to square one which is zero revenue again and trying to figure out what the hell they do. And its…its crazy, right? So the big question becomes like, how are these people going to survive and what does the path forward look like? Because I think for a lot of these places it’s dire, because for some of these smaller producers especially on the beer and distilling side, because like you said they’re basically half…a lot of them are half-restaurants, half-tap rooms, half-small brands, right? Because a lot of times the law allows for that, and so right now they’re not able to get a lot of their products out there. I would say one of the best ways, hopefully, is for us to really lobby Congress. Right? I think like we need to basically start contacting our congressional leaders and say you need to do more to support these industries. Right? Like these are vital industries to the communities, especially in terms of the breweries, right? Like we talk about them a lot as being local gatherings for families and friends, etc. They’ve kind of become places where it’s acceptable to bring young kids at some points during the day and you can get together with people and like they need help and the only real way I can see that is through law. And so I think a lot of that is gonna have to start happening really soon is like we need to start calling our elected officials and saying, “what are you doing to help?”

Z: Yeah, and I think one of the big points to emphasize here is you know, we’ve talked a lot about, in the past on the podcast you know kind of how people are still drinking, people are still obviously having wine and beer and spirits at home. But one of the big things that’s changed, and I know we’ve talked about this and it’s as Erica mentioned it’s in upcoming episodes of Covid-19 Conversations, is a lot of that drinking has really shifted to some of the most well-known brands. I mean those were always obviously the dominant brands in the marketplace but it’s even more extreme now than it used to be, in part because as I mentioned before some of these smaller producers just have no real way to get their product in front of even consumers who want it. But a lot of it too is just so many of us are….what we do and access is so circumscribed by what the grocery store near us happens to carry or what the delivery service in our area happens to stock and we have so much less agency than we’re used to. And that’s why I think Adam’s advice on talking to your congressional representation in your state, government as appropriate is really good advice. Because unfortunately this is one of the few times that I can really think of, maybe the only time I can think of where you can’t do what I often encourage people to do in these situations otherwise, which is sort of vote with your dollars. Because a lot of the products that I might want to support, I really can’t or if I can its extremely difficult.

A: Yep.

Z: Or I have to really seek it out and I wish I could say to people, “Oh, there’s an obvious solution.” I mean, I definitely know that some smaller producers in the Seattle are looking at finding ways to kind of partner together to sell product when and where possible. They’re trying to get, you know, aligned with some of the restaurants that are still doing delivery and are offering beverage delivery as well. They’re working to get in front of local grocery store chains that are smaller. But again, think about this, right? One of the sort of advantages of being a buyer as I was for years is you taste with your representatives. You know you taste with people from distributors, from individual producers. That’s not something you do very…you can’t really do anymore, right? Like it’s not safe to be in close proximity to these people. Yes, maybe you can get a sample bottle and that’s a thing although that’s also an expense for the producer, although maybe one they’re willing to take on, but it really does encourage and has encouraged the sort of mindset of we’re not gonna make any changes to our inventory. We might re-order ’cause we’re selling through things, but we’re not gonna bring in new product, we’re not gonna change our product mix-up, we’re just gonna kinda keep doing the same things we’ve been doing to get by. And that’s fine on one level, but it really does disadvantage producers who don’t have a massive distribution chain that’s, you know, nationwide.

E: Definitely. I mean I think one of the best things that we, you know, Zach I know that it is like an additional step or two but I do think it is worthwhile, to go on social media if there’s a brand you like. You can look on their social media channels, like right now I just opened up my feed a couple of minutes ago and there’s a post from Privateer rum and Maggie Campbell who’s the distiller there, you know she’s doing “Ask me anythings,” she is doing all sorts of face-to-face kind of interactions. Whether they’re Facebook lives or what have you and I find that this moment distillers, winemakers and brewers are more available and more in front of their customers than ever before. One of the episodes we have coming up on the Covid-19 podcast is with Dan Petroski, who is a wine maker at Larkmead and Massican and Massican is a small winery that he owns. He said, you know, for the first time in his…with his newsletter he gave out his cellphone and people have been texting him and calling him and just talking with him. And while he did it out of, you know, really a sense of wanting to connect with his consumers, at the same time that has led to conversions and that has led to people literally calling him to seek out where they can find his wines and how they can buy them. So I do think it is a very useful piece of advice to check your social media feeds, any brands that you’ve had before that you like and that you want to support, they are more than willing to hop on the phone with you or to direct message you and tell you where you can find their product. Because there really is no good way that….I mean, I’ve researched, we’re doing an article on it, we are trying to research what are the best ways to support your local businesses and the best way we’ve found so far is to reach out to them directly.

A: Totally. I mean I really….it really seems to be the only way and it’s the way….even if there are other ways, it’s the way that they receive the most benefit, right? ‘Cause no one else is taking a cut, no one else is really involved at the middle man, you know, it’s just getting to them and saying like how can we help if we can? And then its supporting legislation down the road that helps people survive this. ‘Cause I think the biggest thing we need to really think about is there’s help now but there’s also help that has to come at the end, right? And so, once this is over and we’ve re-opened, what programs are we providing for people? ‘Cause like there’s a lot of breweries I love. There’s a lot of like, you know, wineries I love. I can’t buy them all once this over. You know? Like I can run and do everything at the same time, which is why, you know, I am fearful that a lot of people that do not deserve to go out of business will go out of business, just because like there’s just not gonna be enough people that are gonna come…go to every place they love right when this this is over. And so, you know, getting on your phone and calling your congressperson and calling your senator is really, really important.

E: Yeah.

A: Yeah. And it’s also the only way that you can, as Adam is saying, save this entire industry as opposed to a select few particular brands that you happen to care about, you know? I think it’s important….you know, I think look, there’s a reality that we have to face here, which is that there’s going to be, there already has been and there will be attrition that comes out of this, you know? Any incredibly traumatic, stressful period of time whether it’s a…just a purely financial crisis, a health crisis, or both is going to just inevitably cause some businesses, some producers that we dearly love to go out of business because it’s just there’s no two ways around it.

E: Yeah.

Z: But for trying to keep, you know, the previous….pre-Covid sort of landscape that I think we all really appreciated in this country, you know a really diverse set of producers of beer, wine and spirits, the likes of which we’d never seen in this country prior, we have to…yeah, it has to be a community but also a sort of national effort to keep those things alive. And it’s not just with this industry, obviously there’s lots of other industries where this is true. But obviously this is ours and the one we feel passionate about. And Adam is right, you know, buying a bottle of wine, a bottle of gin or, you know, a six-pack of beer from a local producer is one, important and maybe slightly more rewarding immediately way to support them. But it is really true, you know, taking that time to reach out to your congressional leadership, to encourage people that you know, your friends and family to do the same. You know, that’s the only way that there’s going to be programs in place to keep these industries alive not just during this crisis but as Adam mentioned afterwards because there’s gonna be a lot of you know, essentially….there’s gonna be a lot, it’s gonna be a long time before these industries really get back to full strength.

A: And I want to be clear here, like I’m not talking about just, you know, people might be listening and they might be like “Oh, Adam’s sitting here and he’s talking about like handouts,” that’s not all that I’m talking about. I’m talking about the loosening of laws as well to allow people to continue to do the things that they’re doing now, right? So, we talked about this last week but I’m talking about us lobbying our lawmakers to say: hey, let’s allow cocktail delivery to continue until people get back on their feet. Or for the foreseeable future, or maybe forever, right? Let’s allow for a lot of these restaurants to also sell their bottles to go, right? So like if I come into the restaurant, I have a great bottle of wine that night, why can’t I buy that bottle of wine to-go at a 25% reduction in price or something from the list? Why can’t I do that?

E: Yeah.

A: And then I can take it home and enjoy it down the road. Like this will allow people to bring in more revenue now. Like those are the things that we need to be talking about.

E: Yes.

A: So that these businesses can find other revenue streams in the short term in order to, you know, make more money right when they open. And if we don’t do that, if we just say, O.K., everyone has to go back to business as usual prior to Covid-19, it’s gonna be really hard and we’re gonna lose more businesses than we should.

E: Yeah, and I don’t think we can go back to business until there’s a vaccine, like we can’t…I don’t think there’s a real tangible path forward for a lot of businesses. I mean imagine how far you’ll have to be spaced-out to really meet those social distancing guidelines. A lot of businesses will not be able to accommodate that. So its…I think yeah, I absolutely agree that the congressional and the governmental responses are going to be key to this. But I think that, you know, even with that there will be a big culling of a lot of businesses that we, you know, love and support.

A: Totally. Well guys, hopefully the moral of the story here is: talk to your elected officials. ‘Cause it’s gonna be the best way…I know we talked about this a few months ago when it came to the tariffs and it’s time now again. If you listened to us then and contacted your elected officials, thank you. Please contact them now. The hospitality industry as a whole, whether its craft producers like we’ve talked about a little bit today or just, you know, restaurants and bars in general is one of the largest employers of people in the United States. So, you know, it’s really important that we support this industry so that everyone can get back to work. So please, please, please call them and tell them to support the industry, it would be….it’s vitally important.

E: Yep.

Z: 100% right.

A: So, thank you guys so much for listening as always and Zach and Erica, I’ll talk to you next week.

Z: Sounds good.

E: Hang in there!

A: Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. And now for the credits:

VinePair is produced and hosted Zach Geballe, Erica Duecy, and me: Adam Teeter. Our engineer is Nick Patri and Keith Beavers. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder Josh Malin and the rest of the VinePair team for their support. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you again right here next week.

The article VinePair Podcast: Will Small Drinks Brands Survive the Covid-19 Crisis? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/vinepair-podcast-small-brands-covid-19-crisis/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/616018081886748672

[electricdazemag]

Hello, I’m Sorry: Interview

by Tasha Bielaga

The sadboy party rock genre you’ve been missing is finally found, thank god. Seattle based indie pop/trash band Hello, I’m Sorry has been stirring up the Washington DIY scene for a little over 2 years. Songs like Good’s Not Great feature that panning of guitar lines between speakers, you know, the one’s that make your brain feel like it’s spinning when you listen to it with headphones. Vocalist Seth Little, drummer Paul Rhoads, and bassist Cam Richardson all live in Bellingham, WA, where their daily antics are filled with schoolwork and pestering their guitarist Alexander Henness, who lives south of Seattle, to come work on music. The band’s fuzz pop feels reminiscent of warm summer nights full of friends and basement gigs. It’s the embodiment of what goes on in most youth’s heads, set to a tune you can dance, or mosh, to. We talk about saying goodbye to Seth’s beloved 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee, the best cassettes printed to date, and their janky mic set ups, the epitome of DIY.

Electric Daze: How do you balance making music, working, and going to school?

Paul: School is the only reason I live in Bellingham actually, I’m from California. As much as I would love to just do music 100%, I’m paying a lot of money in tuition and I know what I’m studying, so a lot of my life is based around school. I always make time for music on the weekends though.

Seth: Music is the funnest thing for me, it’s what I enjoy doing the most. But, I am paying a lot of money to be here and should probably be putting more work into school. Whenever I have down time I always try to write something or be productive with my music.

Alex: I think it’s definitely worth it to find a good balance between everything. Since I drive up here all the time to play shows and hang with these guys, music is the most important thing that I want to spend my time doing when I’m not working.

ED: What was the first DIY house show you played that really pushed you to get into this scene?

Seth: We played the Karate Church in Bellingham with Roar Shack back in February of last year! It’s this church that, I don’t want to say renovated because it just looks like half of it got torn down on one side, but you know. There’s this basement part that has a dirt floor. That was definitely the first show where I was like “this is tight, this is such a cool DIY scene”

ED: You guys have obviously played a lot of different shows, from bars to house to dirt floor basements. What makes you want to keep pursuing the house show scene vs. a different approach?

It’s sweatier, they’re more fun! I’m a huge fan of the DIY scene. All the music we’ve recorded has been on laptops, and the DIY part just seems like people are always there more for the music. It’s a lot more intimate.

Are there any songs you particularly like to play live?

Bodies, Sleep by the Phone, Little Plan. People go wild to those. We played a house show with the band Cruise, and it got really crazy really fast. Somebody spilled FOUR LOKO on Alexander’s pedal board, SO sticky man. And then I was worried for the foundation of the house, I felt like I had to be a dad about it you know like “Yo! Let’s be safe out there!” and then give a thumbs up and play the next song.

You do so much releasing on cassettes, which is super tight! I saw there was a mini zine that came with one of them, what was the inspiration for that?

Our good friend Mimi Jaffe actually did those! She also did the cover art for Consolation Party, she’s one of my favorite artists in Bellingham. She did a page for each song and I printed them for the cassettes.

How was working on the Z-Tapes cassette compilation? How’d you get in on that and why’d you pick that song to cover?

Filip from Z-Tapes hit me up and originally wanted to put out some of our tapes, but he had a lot back ordered. I ended up putting ours out ourselves. Anyway, he asked if we wanted to cover a theme song to be included on this cover compilation, and I thought that was tight so we did. I originally wanted to do (Theme from) The Monkees, but it was taken. So I really dug deep and found this mini 70’s tv series that used a Sex Pistol’s cover of Eddie Cochran’s Somethin’ Else, and I thought ehh that technically works, so we covered it!

What’s your favorite cassette that you own?

Alex: There’s this rapper on Stone Throw Records named Koreatown Oddity, and he made a mixtape that’s him rapping from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air's perspective with these really late 90’s beats on it. It’s a 1/100 copy.

Seth: I’m really into The Replacements, but I’m not huge on the album “Don’t Tell A Soul”, but that album has a song titled “Asking Me Lies” that is Paul Westerberg’s attempt at a pop song and it’s SO awful and amazing at the same time, especially on cassette, so that’s my favorite right now.

Paul: When I was a little kid I had a cassette of The Lovin’ Spoonful that I used to listen to in the car, that’s probably my favorite.

ED: You guys did a west coast tour back in August. How do you feel the cities music scenes vary?

Well LA was hands down the best city we played it. They were very receptive to new music that they probably hadn’t heard before. We ended up meeting with mutual friends in most cities, which made the whole tour very cohesive, and not vary a lot surprisingly.

ED: Do you have a wild story from your tour?

OH! We bought a new car! This tour was very very DIY, we didn’t even rent a van. We had Paul’s 2009 Scion xB Box Car, that he just loves, and Seth’s 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. On the way back up it was so cramped in the jeep, the engine light was flashing, and the gauges would go all the way up and then all the way back down, and we’re just thinking something’s wrong, something is terribly wrong. So we pulled over on the side off the road in Weed, California, and Seth found a dealership that would trade straight across. We get a 1999 Volvo cross country, and that car, was the worst car, in the entire world. It had a coolant leak, so we pulled over every 45 min from northern CA to Seattle, WA, to pour coolant in. At one point one of the covers for the headlights just flew straight off while we driving, and there was a huge semi truck that had exploded, so the drive just took forever.  We got into bed at 7am the next day.

ED: You guys have accomplished so many cool things in 2016, like playing with Together Pangea, playing EMP Sound Off, and more recently you played with TV Girl. What goals do you hope to accomplish this year?

Playing with bands that we really like is always a goal of ours. We also really want to play a festival this year. We’d love to do, you know, like, Coachella, hahaha. Touring again and more shows! We have to figure out how our summer’s going to look individually and then work around that.

ED: Good’s Not Great has 20,000 views on YouTube, and 107.7 has been spinning it lately, which is so cool. Were you expecting that song to kinda be your single and the one people listed to the most?

Seth: Honestly, no. When I recorded it, I recorded all the instrumentals and I was super hyped on it. Then I recorded the vocals and it just sounded fucking awful, I was like this song is the worst thing I’ve ever made in my entire life. I remember going “holy fuck, these vocals suck, I forgot that I can’t sing” and I was super depressed for like two days. And then I went in and redid the vocals and went “alright these are better, this song is passable now”.

ED: Do you have a specific writing process? I know you do a lot of half done demos, what’s the process for that like?

Seth: Yeah! I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a total tool, but recording for me is part of my writing process. I normally have a half baked idea and I go in, record it and work with it. I send a lot of small ideas to the rest of the guys and they’ll give me feedback on whether I should continue it or not, and that’s what drives my song writing.

ED: Do you do most of the song writing yourself then?

Seth: Yeah, I do almost all of the writing and recording. We always rework the song live though, and sometimes they end up having a completely different energy which I’m a huge fan of. What I’m trying to new with the new album is make demos and then play them and work through them as a band, and then re-record them to match what we do as a band.

ED: What’s your mic set up like? I know small bands always have the coolest (shittiest) mics.

Seth: The jankiest for sure! I have two mics that I use for recording, one’s a Sennheiser condenser mic, and I think the other is an Audio Technica that I use for vocals and drums, sometimes everything. Sometimes when we practice, I take a 1950’s ribbon mic and run it through a solid state 80’s fender amp with chorus on it for a while, because I didn’t have an amp that could take the xlr input. That was probably the jankiest situation.

Paul: Sometimes when I’d use a vocal mic, we’d string it over the rafters in the basement because we didn’t have another mic stand. So it would just kinda dangle in front of my face.

ED: How do you guys feel about music videos? Any plans to do some soon?

We’re doing a live recording of our set today with Bellingham Sound Check actually! That’ll be nice to have a video of how our songs sound live vs. what Seth records. As far as our own music videos, we’d like to do one for Good’s Not Great. We like to sit around and talk about what would be a cool video for each song.

ED: Is anyone a different kind of artist? Obviously you’re all musicians but is anyone acquainted with other forms of art?

Seth: I am definitely NOT.

Alex: I play soccer, and I think Soccer’s an art.

Paul: Well I’m in a jazz band! Which is still music, but a different kind.

Cam: I have a friend who lives in Texas who asks me for beats that he can rap over. So I send him some terrible beats to rap over.

ED: Would you ever make beats for Hello, I’m Sorry, maybe less lofi more terrible rap? If you had to cover a rap song, what would it be?

I feel like we could rap. We could cover Gangsta Gangsta, or definitely Rap Snitch Knishes. Maybe Mathematics by Mos Def but it would be hard. We could take a stab at it though! We’ll make a bad demo and follow up.

photo by Emma Hatwell

Connect with Hello, I’m Sorry on Instagram at @hello.imsorry and on Facebook here.

You can listen to their music on bandcamp at helloimsorry.bancamp.com and on Spotify here.

The cassette with the mini zine can be found here, and the ZTapes compilation here!

This is the first installment of features on Seattle based bands. Check back here soon to read the rest!

Check out Tasha’s work for the magazine here. 

[mayardsale]

We met at his restaurant's opening night. We went out a year later. We were married a year after that. We fought the entire time. His food was his real passion and that became a problem. I tried everything in my arsenal to get him to see to my needs, but I simply ran out of tricks. Had I known we weren't sexually compatible in the beginning, I probably would have ran. I'm no nymphomaniac, but I can become very irritable if I don't get my itch scratched regularly. Now, my 'regularly' is just once a week. I never had a boyfriend that grimaced at that request. That is, unless he wanted more. That first year, the restaurant was our life. The food was amazing, but the business was a monster. From getting fresh ingredients from Peru to keeping the celebrity guest list balanced, it was a 25 hour a day job. He had no time to sleep and I was just learning why I needed two forks for dinner. We were always short with each other, but always as partners. He admitted that he never had a better cheerleader, teammate, or coach - and they were now all the same person. We'd be on the edge of a relationship eruption until about every three months - about the time the new menus were completed - when we'd do the deed. Prior to that, our passing connections might be a morning handjob in the shower or a quickie after he got home at 2AM. Those were always instigated by me, hoping it would lead to more. But right after the new menus were complete, he'd take the next day off and we'd end up scaring the neighbors. His dick has a girth that needs practice to handle, so once every 90 days didn't give me much preparation. When he'd fuck me from behind I would get so loud he'd have to stuff my face into the pillow. It was amazing. Every 90 days. At first the restaurant was an easy excuse and I was blessed to have such a wonderful partner. My pussy and I would remain somewhat satisfied with the post-menu episode, my box of toys, and my variable speed massage showerhead. Occasionally I'd throw myself onto him and get my rocks off, but he wouldn't cum, no matter how much I tried. At first I thought I was doing something wrong. Then I simply got what I needed and that was that. After awhile, that began to make me feel worse - like taking someone to a movie hoping they'll like it with you, even though they've seen it a dozen times already. The guilt of selfishness sours the moment. After a year of the physical and mental denial, the questions in my head began to pop up. "Was he cheating on me?" "Is he gay?" "Am I not attractive?" "Had he been molested as a child?" We had a very open and continuous dialogue about our lack of sex, but it was his sister who kept me from being stupid. "Everyone in our family had the same questions because every girlfriend had the same problem you're having. They all solved it the same way: they cheated on him," she explained at lunch. "He just doesn't have the same sex drive as most men. We assumed that if you were happy with him, then you must have a similar sex drive?" she questioned with hope, not wanting to see her brother's heart crushed. So I lied to her. And a little to myself. I thought I could power through. I was wrong. Worst year of my life. I was a constant bitch. The only positive that came from my uncared pussy was my law firm's client list. Opposing attorneys and judges were afraid of me. My partners were too. I was prepared to end it all after he opened the third restaurant. I waited up for him at the end of the first week and demanded that he fuck me against the island in the kitchen or I was leaving him. I was butt naked and dead serious. He simply sat down next to me on a bar stool and said, "I have another option." He pulled out his phone and sent an address to a website for escorts to my phone. "I checked out the reviews and the ladies sound satisfied. I could fuck you now, but you'll want more soon enough. I only want you to be as happy as I am every time I think of us. It kills me to know that you can't have everything you want when I have it all. I'm good with it if you are too," he finished, as I looked at the website on my phone. He kissed me on the forehead and headed upstairs. Then and there I looked at the website - naked and in shock - as he went to bed. The website was as vague as it was simple. If you didn't know any better, they could have been selling time shares in the Carribean. Between the lines, however, were companionship and dick. I joined him in bed two hours later, still naked and in shock. He was wide awake. "I can't do it on my own," I started. "You don't have to be involved, but I have to be able to talk to you about it. I can't have a separate life from my best friend. I can't do that." "I think I can handle that," he agreed. For a month I shopped for my first escort. I exchanged notes only to be more frustrated than I was before. All of the escorts seemed sweet, but not my type. "Please fuck somebody already," was my husband's advice. "You don't have to marry him." He was just as anxious to see if this would work as I was, though he appeared more relaxed about it. So I responded to the first letter in my inbox and scheduled an appointment. The hotel I chose was nondescript in every way. I was there to get dick, not have an affair. Clean and relatively close to work was all I needed in my hotel and my escort. When I got to the room, he was already in the shower. His suit, shirt, and tie were neatly laid out and his shoes were under the desk. "Very humid day today," he shouted from the shower after he heard the door shut. "Out in a minute." His French accent was a surprise, but everything else was exactly as his bio explained - 6'2", 190, 8". Entering the room with no towel was rude and exactly what I needed. "Good afternoon," he greeted me as his freshly manicured dick swung heavy. "How would you like begin?" **** That evening I stayed awake until well after the restaurant closed. That afternoon, I texted my husband to let him know I'd safely returned to work after my lunch date, but that was the end of our communication. I wanted to talk about the episode in person. "Sorry I'm late," he said as he came into our room. "Crazy night." "Crazy day," I responded wearing the biggest smile I'd worn in months. He paused. Then smiled, knowing I was eager to share my day with him. "Please tell me about this afternoon's workout and don't leave out a single detail. I've honestly been conflicted about the idea of you fucking someone else until seeing your face right now. I didn't know if I'd be jealous or heartbroken. I'm not really either because I haven't seen you this happy in a long fucking time," he said as though he was proud of me. Proud of us. "Well, I honestly didn't know what to expect," I started. "He asked me what I wanted and I told him, I guess. I wasn't comfortable looking him in the face, so I let him fuck me from behind." I paused and waited to see my husband's response. Would he be jealous, confused, turned on? "And?" he questioned with an interest similar to how my day at work was or what I bought at the grocery store. "I let him caress my back while I leaned against the couch until my pussy began to moisten," I started over. "He took off my blouse and skirt, but left my heels and underwear on. I could feel him kneel behind me as he shifted my thong to the side enough to slide his tongue along my asshole and his index finger into my pussy. "Looking down between my legs I could see him stroking his dick until it was rock hard," I continued as my husband began to undress. "At some point I heard the condom wrapper tear and I knew he would be inside me. I leaned further over the couch, glancing back just to see the condom wrapped dick approach my pussy. He entered me slowly with one hand on my back and the other hand hand on my thigh. We rocked slowly at first until all of his dick was comfortably inside me. "He rubbed my back and thrusted with care for a minute or so, but I needed more. I began to fuck his dick as fast my hips would allow and I came as fast as I could," I said, never losing eye contact. "And?" he questioned, knowing I typically need more. "I gathered myself, spun around, ripped off the condom, took another condom from the couch, put it on his dick, leaned back over the couch and told him 'Next hole, please' without taking a breath," I said. "He repeated the last act, only this time in my asshole and I paid him with a nice tip." "Okay," my husband replied, now in his standard shorts and t-shirt. "Next appointment?" "Two weeks. Not sure if I should stay with the same guy or keep it fresh," I answered as though I were scheduling a manicure. "This is all very new to me." "As long as you're happy, I'm happy," he said with a genuine sense of joy as though the problem of a lifetime had been solved and the love of his life had been recaptured. "Get some sleep. You've earned it." We turned off the lights and held each other as though we'd just had sex. And I realized that this was what I needed more than the sex. Our tension had eaten us alive and we needed this release. It wasn't the lack of sex, it was our inability to understand each other's feelings around sex. I know it wasn't about the sex. Because I never fucked that French escort or the countless other guys I had to invent to fulfill our new pact. I took one look at that escort's dick and realized that I really needed the trust from my husband that my pussy was an equal player in our relationship. That's what eased my tension. I knew that the moment my escort stepped out of the bathroom. I needed the confirmation and my husband needed to know that I will always be satisfied in our relationship. That's why I keep making up new escorts, though the activity remains identical. That way I don't have to remember all of the lies. All I really needed that day was his full trust. Actually, that and the new double-penetration, wireless vibrator I test drove the minute I got home from work. That French accent was hot!