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sprinkler-ashes · 8 months

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gold rush // aaron hotchner x reader

aaron hotchner x fem!reader

description: in which aaron hotchner hates social media – unless it’s yours. inspired by gold rush by taylor swift.

words: 2.2k

warnings: hotch is down bad, curse words, a bit of pining and jealousy

a/n: i love the idea of the bau being active on social media + hotch having no idea what any online terms mean lmao anyways i just really like this little fic. happy reading!!

i don’t like slow motion, double vision in rose blush

i don't like that falling feels like flying ‘til the bone crush

everybody wants you

but i don’t like a gold rush

Aaron Hotchner is not a fan of social media.

Maybe it’s because of his job. He knows that posting too much information online could sometimes lead to bad situations because there are always people lurking – it’s impossible to know who, exactly, is watching online. Or maybe it’s because he simply didn’t grow up with it. It didn’t really matter – he just knows he does not like using it.

Penelope had shown him quite a bit of Twitter after several BAU cases started trending while the cases were actively going on, even somehow agreeing to let her set him up an account. Aaron didn’t really want an account, but it was almost impossible to say no to Penelope Garcia who Aaron genuinely liked a lot.

Facebook was another one that he had. He didn’t even have a profile picture and only harbored a small amount of friends – entirely family. The site was strictly used to keep up with Jessica since she was an avid Facebook user. If he couldn’t get a hold of her through her phone, he would send her a message on Facebook’s messaging platform, Messenger. She typically responded that way.

The last social media account Aaron had was a new one. Or, well, new-ish. It had just been created a little over a month ago. He didn’t want the account, but Penelope wasn’t the one who asked him to get an account that time.

It was you. And saying no to you was even harder than saying no to Penelope.

A group photo was taken at Rossi’s last month during a get-together after finishing a case. Penelope went straight to Instagram to post it, tagging everyone except Aaron who wasn’t shy to say he didn’t have an account. He was the only one – even Rossi had made an account.

“You’re not on Instagram?” You’d asked Aaron only moments after that.

He shook his head. “I don’t really use social media.”

You frowned like you were in deep thought before turning to him again with a smile. “We should change that.”

All it took was a good minute, maybe even less than that, and one of your signature smiles to convince him to let you help him create an Instagram profile.

He accumulated a small amount of followers since then, which he had to approve, of course, as Aaron made sure his account was set to private – mainly family, some friends, and the team. However, that was as far as it went. He was still figuring out the app, but completely forgot about his new account due to his busy life.

Except for now.

It’s a slow Friday at work – mainly just a day spent catching up on paperwork – and Aaron never really complains on days like this. Yes, it’s usually boring, but having a day without a case means he actually gets to see his son at the end of the day, so it’s a win for him.

But a slow day creates boredom, especially when he’s actually ahead on paperwork. Aaron can’t recall the last time he was this bored at work – probably because he usually has something to do – but when his eyes ghost over the time on his expensive watch, he has to resist letting out a sigh of agitation because, somehow, there are still four more hours left in the workday.

Aaron puts the pen he’s holding down and moves the file he’s in the process of reviewing. He grabs his phone from one of the drawers in his desk and turns it on. The lock screen, which is his favorite photo of Jack, lights up before he enters his passcode.

He does errand-like things at first, including responding to a couple of texts, checking his personal email, and even spending a minute, or five, on Twitter, not that he would ever admit that to Penelope.

Eyeing the colorful app with a white outline of a camera, he hesitantly opens Instagram, still not really used to it considering it’s been over a month since the last time he was on it. He waits a second for it to load up until a photo appears on his feed from JJ, who posted a picture of Henry and Will before she left for work.

jj_jareau: My two favorite guys <3

Aaron knows that the symbol on the end of her caption is supposed to represent a heart because you often send the same symbol in the BAU group chat. He’s not sure why you never use actual emoticons – he’s never asked you – but he associates the symbol with you.

Not that he’s associating hearts with you specifically. Or overanalyzing all your texts in the group chat. Of course not, it’s just because you use it often. That’s all.

When Aaron tries to scroll, he accidentally presses on your username that was showing up in the preview of the comments, sending him straight to your own Instagram page.

He’s about to click the back arrow above your profile picture that he’s assuming will take him back to his feed, but Aaron can’t stop himself from glancing over your profile. Your page is filled with photos from moments in your life that go back years.

Looking up from his phone, he can see you from his chair as the blinds in his office are currently open. You’re chatting with Spencer who’s sitting across from you, a smile on your face as you continuously glance from him and back over to your computer screen where you’re typing, making sure Spencer knows you’re still listening to whatever bizarre fact he’s probably ranting about.

Aaron looks back down to his phone. He’s never been on your page, nor have your posts ever shown up on his feed during the rare times he’s actively gone on the app. It almost feels too personal – like he’s not supposed to see the side of you he doesn’t work with.

He carefully presses on the last post you made. It’s a post from only one day ago, but you’re not in any of the seven photos you’ve posted, which makes him frown with a tinge of disappointment.

Your caption reads, September photo dump, with a couple emoticons.

Wondering what the hell a photo dump is, Aaron looks through the set of pictures again. Everything is random. They range from a sunset to a picture of a meal you must’ve eaten at some point during the month of September, which just passed, and even one of Emily’s cat.

He scrolls down to the next post from three days ago. This time, you’ve only posted one picture and luckily for him, you’re actually in it.

You’re sitting at a dinner table, head resting gently on your hand with a sweet smile while your other hand is gently holding a glass of what – Aaron brings the phone closer to his face without knowing he can actually just zoom in – appears to be champagne.

It only takes him a few seconds after admiring how you look in the photo to wonder about who’s on the other side of it.

Aaron doesn’t know who took the photo and is getting to see you smile like that, but he does know that he wishes it was him because you’re just so damn pretty.

The man is pretty sure he would quite literally melt down to the ground if you looked at him like that.

He’s attempting to push these thoughts to the back of his head as he prepares to scroll to the next post. Aaron is well aware of the fact he shouldn’t be thinking about you in any way that isn’t strictly platonic. He is your boss and even aside from that, the two of you are not only co-workers, but friends.

Friends, he reminds himself. That’s all.

But as he scrolls to the next post, every thought of friendship leaves his body.

It’s a photo taken with the flash on from exactly a week ago, last Friday night, of you, Emily, JJ, and Penelope in what appears to be a club that Aaron can’t say recognizes. You’re standing on the end, your arm snaked around Emily’s waist with your body turned towards the camera while mid-laugh.

The black dress you’re wearing hugs every inch of your body perfectly – you’re showing more skin in the photo than Aaron has ever seen out of you. He’s seen you dressed up before – even seen you in person at clubs himself – but nothing like this before. Ever.

Much needed girls’ night out, your caption says.

Aaron’s not even sure he’s still breathing when he swipes to the second, and last, picture in the post.

This time, it’s only you. You’re still in the same dress, looking at the camera with a sultry smile. You’re not in the club this time. Aaron can’t tell where you are, but that doesn’t really matter because you’re looking straight at the camera with one of the most attractive looks he’s ever seen – it almost feels like you’re looking directly at him.

prentiss_emily: Baddest bitch in the bureau

yourusername: @ emily_prentiss Only behind you ofc

Though he knows she means it in an endearing way, Aaron doesn’t want to call you a bitch, but Emily’s comment on your post technically isn’t a lie. Unfortunately, he also can't seem to figure out what "ofc" means.

A part of him feels guilty. He knows he can’t have you, yet he’s going through your Instagram right now imagining a thousand what-if scenarios, a tinge of jealousy running through his veins at the idea of you ever looking at anyone the way you’re looking at the camera in your photos.

Aaron spends so much time trying to convince himself he doesn’t feel the way he does for you because there are so many reasons why he shouldn’t have the feelings he does. He can’t think of a scenario where you can be his nor can he think of a world in which you feel the same.

So, after he looks at this photo for another couple of seconds, he’s finally going to close out the app and forget about the way you look in that dress.

He can’t get the chance to do that because the door to his office is opening abruptly, startling him to the point where he drops his phone onto his desk.

“Shit,” he curses under his breath, hands fumbling to lock his phone so your Instagram will go away.

There you are, mouth open to say something until you notice him fumbling with his phone.

A sheepish look appears on your face. “Sorry, I forgot to knock.”

“It’s fine,” he says, hoping his voice is even and doesn’t scream: Hello, I just looked through your Instagram. “What do you need?” He lays his phone down – it’s finally locked – and looks up at you, trying to appear like he was actually doing something.

“Oh, I don’t need anything. Reid and I are going to try that new place that just opened up down the street for lunch. I was wondering if you wanted me to grab you something.”

“Do you have a menu?” He asks.

“Yeah, give me a second. I’ll text it to you,” you tell him.

You’re pulling your phone out of the pocket of your pants and if Aaron had been paying attention and not pretending like he was working, he would’ve seen the way you glanced up at him, back to your phone, then back to him, a giddy smile on your face.

You do as you told him you would and send him the menu. “Take your time looking over it. Just text me what you want within the next fifteen minutes.”

“Thanks. I’ll look over it in a minute.”

Aaron really does go back to work this time, his hands moving to pick up the file he moved earlier. He hears the door open and assumes you’re on your way out of the door, but you don’t leave yet.

“Oh! Before I go,” you say, your body out the door and your hand lingering on the outside knob of his office door. He looks up at you, pen in hand. “Thanks for the like on Instagram.”

Aaron thinks his heart has stopped upon hearing those words. Before he can even say anything, you shut the door, and you’re making your way back to where Spencer is still sitting.

He swallows hard, closes the file, and sets it away once again. His fingers frantically type in his passcode, and Instagram immediately pops up, still open from when he tried to turn his phone off.

To Aaron’s horror, he sees the Instagram heart that’s used to like photos filled with red and seemingly glaring at him. It was too late to unlike it now. You’d obviously already gotten the notification.

Meanwhile, as Aaron is mentally panicking, you’re whipping out your phone again to send another text. This time to Emily who is currently in a meeting.

I will never doubt you again – Operation post-a-thirst-trap worked!

#aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner x you #aaron hotchner x y/n #aaron hotchner one shot #aaron hotchner fanfiction #hotch x reader #hotch x y/n

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corrodedseraphine · 4 months

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timezone | #3 and I don't give a shit about the contracts that I signed

pairing: eddie munson x fem!reader, chrissy cunningham x robin buckley

chapter summary: Eddie decides to get you back no matter what. You, on the other hand, are looking for an escape.

the story is also avaliable on ao3

previous chapter | masterlist | eddie munson masterlist | general masterlist

After a sleepless night, Eddie was already out of bed at dawn and determined to head straight for a meeting with the manager to settle an issue that should have been finished long ago.

Unfortunately, it ended in a brawl. The manager didn't even want to hear about ending the pretended relationship with Chrissy. As one of the most popular and beloved couples in show business, they had a certain amount of responsibility, including various contacts and collaborations that generously enriched the label's bank account. Money, however, was the last thing Eddie could think about. The only thing that mattered to him was you. No matter what the price, he had to do everything he could to try to clarify the situation and win you back.

"We need to end this bullshit!" he shouted getting up from the table.

"It's not an option, we are just preparing another collaboration with an advertising campaign for Valentine's Day."

"Valentine's Day is six months away!"

"Such things must be decided in advance." The man watched with a poker-faced expression as the young guitarist boiled over. "I won't let you risk all your contracts because of some girl," he said.

"She is not just SOME girl." he growled through his teeth.

"Then why did you leave her? Why did you get into a relationship with Chrissy if she's not just SOME girl?"

Taken aback, Eddie didn't know what to answer. He loved you more than anything, but he knew that from a third party's perspective this situation looked very different.

"I don't give a shit about the contracts that I signed," he slammed his fist on the table, recalling the words of the song that was flying in his head on loop. "I am cutting the bullshit, now."

"If you do that, you'll destroy everything we've worked for all these years. Ask yourself if it's worth it."

"It's worth a lot more." Fury clouded his eyes when he heard the way he was talking about you.

"If you even try in any way to affect a change in your relationship with Chrissy, you have no business coming back here. You'll be over."

"Fuck you."

Eddie was used to people's stares when he walked on the street, he usually didn't care, but today it seemed too suspicious and intense. Every now and then, looking around him, he came to a newsstand. What he saw there made his blood rush. On the front pages of the papers was a picture of you from the beach, with a big, eye-expanding EDDIE MUNSON'S SECRET LOVER.

Without a second thought, he threw bills on the counter to the salesman and collected all the copies with him only to throw them in the trash, cursing under his breath. The unexpected flash had acted on him like a flea on a bull, and the fact that he recognized the paparazzi who took the photo completely made him lose control. Throwing himself at the man, he felt fury. When his rings met the face of the person who was the reason that the world would now view and hate you for the breakup of the beloved Hollywood couple. He was snapped out of his angry trance by the sight of blood on his hands and the police dragging him away from the paparazzi. He didn't even defend himself when the handcuffs were placed on his wrists.

After three hours in jail, Jeff showed up at the station to pay bail and take Eddie home.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" he asked as they closed the door behind them.

"What do you want me to say since you know everything?" asked Eddie sarcastically as he walked into the living room, where the rest of the guys, Chrissy and Robin were.

"What the hell dude?" asked Gareth, Eddie that due to his old reputation in Hawkins, he always tried to avoid all kinds of fights and unpleasant situations. He was shocked by his friend's behavior. "What has gotten into you?!"

Eddie wordlessly dodged everyone and headed to the kitchen to pull frozen vegetables from the freezer onto his sore hand.

"uh, I- I might have an idea." said Robin uncertainly, reaching for his backpack and pulling out a newspaper.

"Fuck." said Gareth seeing the cover.

"Yeah, fuck." replied Munson groggily. "Anyone else have any pointless questions?" silence was enough of an answer. When he returned to the living room he stood in front of everyone gathered and took a deep breath. "I'm leaving the band."

"What?!"

"You heard me. I have no other choice."

"But- why?!"

Still full of negative emotions, he recounted the meeting with the manager and explained that nothing would be able to change his decision. The priority for him was to fight for love, but he didn't want to drag others along with him because the consequences could be painful. Just because he was ready to walk off the stage didn't mean his friends were too, and he didn't want his consequences to be theirs too. However, he didn't expect them to have a different opinion on the matter.

"Dude, do you really think we'll let you go?" asked Jeff crossing his arms over his chest.

"You are insane." added Simon.

"Screw Pete and his label, if you leave, we're leaving with you!"

"You guys are popular enough that you should have no problem finding a new label." Robin said.

"Guys, for real I don't expect you-"

"Shut up and start thinking about how to get y/n back." interjected Gareth. Eddie didn't even try to hide his emotion. The gentle smile on his face showed the shadow of hope that had awakened in him despite the awful start to the day.

"I have an idea." Chrissy said. "But it's very risky and…public."

"I'll do anything." he replied without thinking.

Walking out of the house you didn't expect to be the most recognizable person on the street, the gaze of other people burned holes in your body from all sides however what completely knocked you out of rhythm were groups of girls shouting insults in your direction. Your anxiety was getting stronger and stronger. You fixed your eyes on the sidewalk and headed as fast as you could to Steve's bar, where you promised to help out as a waitress, since crowd today was exceptionally heavy.

"Here you are! I thought you wouldn't come! How are you feeling?" Layla ran up to you from the entrance.

"Fine, but some strange things are happening…" you reply confused.

"Oh my God, you don't know." your friend replied while covering her mouth.

"Don't know what?"

"y/n! How are you holding up? It's all fucked up!"

"Steve she doesn't know…"

"Oh."

"Can someone explain?" you asked impatiently. What the hell was going on?

"Come with me." the girl grabbed your hand and dragged you to the back room, where she handed you a newspaper.

Bitch.

Slut.

Whore.

Suddenly all the terms you heard about yourself made a lot more sense to you. The pressure in your heart that you had felt since the kiss tightened even more. However, you could not allow yourself a moment of weakness. You knew that if you broke down now, you wouldn't get back together for a very long time.

Seeing the worried expressions on your friends' faces, you blinked a few times to chase the tears away and grunted. You had to be strong.

"I'll go get ready for work." you said quietly.

"You don't have to-" began Layla, but you didn't let her finish by disappearing out the door.

Completely focusing your attention on remembering orders you successfully managed to push invasive thoughts aside. More and more people were gathering in the premises, and you couldn't help feeling that some of them had come here just to see you.

Everyone wanted to see with their own eyes what Eddie Munson's mistress looked like. Everyone wanted to see if the person on the cover was better than Chrissy, if the person responsible for the cheating was at least worth it. Most people said no. Some didn't even try to hide their comments. Your head was bursting with comparisons to the model and loud whispers that brought your biggest insecurities to light.

Of course you were no match for Chrissy. Never once in your life did it even cross your mind to compare yourself to her in any positive sense. In the negative for that too often. Again you felt like a teenager with ruined self-esteem. Unfortunately, however, this time all the voices in your head got out and materialized. After a long time of hearing that you were insufficiently attractive and Eddie had lost his mind cheating on Chrissy with a mere waitress, you were relieved to see that it was time for a break.

Carrying the last order to your table, you didn't notice how three girls with fury in their eyes burst into the local. Before you had time to react in any way, one of them grabbed the glass that was on the tray and poured its contents right in your face.

"Slut." she said with a strange satisfaction.

The next events flashed through your head barely registered. Steve threw them out of the place, Layla quickly led you to the bathroom to help you dry off. All the while she was saying something to you, and you were nodding without even fully knowing what. Her voice was distant and all the ambient sounds were drowned out by your heartbeat. Later, you accepted Steve's offer to drive you home without protest. You couldn't stand another walk full of eyes filled with curiosity or hatred.

Steve, having his set of keys to your apartment, went inside first. Closing the door behind him, still somewhat stunned, you heard only his surprised and raised voice.

"What the fuck, Robin?!"

"Jesus, Steve!" she exclaimed.

Following their voices, you entered the living room where a sight that you were definitely not prepared for awaited you. The sight, however, was something that brought you back down to earth. Robin with disheveled hair, puffy lips, glossy eyes and an unbuttoned shirt was looking at you like a deer caught in the headlights. Right next to her stood Chrissy in exactly the same condition. Chrissy.

Beautiful, charming, sweet, lovely Chrissy.

The favorite of the whole country, and maybe even the world, Chrissy.

The Chrissy who, according to Eddie, you never had to be jealous of.

Chrissy, who was allegedly madly in love with him, was now standing with a guilty expression on her face waiting for your outburst.

Could this situation get any more complicated?

Without giving you time to explain, you went straight to your room and pulled out a bag from under your bed, into which you started throwing your clothes. You didn't know where you would go, however, what was certain was that you wouldn't stay in this apartment for a while longer.

Ignoring all requests for a chance to clarify the situation, you left a panicked Robin and Chrissy with a confused Steve alone. It's been a long time since you felt as lost as you do now. Not thinking much, you went straight. to the bus station, and there you chose the only direction you knew.

Sitting opposite the mirror, Eddie noticed Chrissy's pale and nervous face in the reflection. He knew the expression perfectly well.

"What's wrong?" he asked before she could say anything. The blonde swallowed nervously and began to recount the situation that had occurred in the apartment.

"She saw what?!"

"Eddie, please-"

"Couldn't you keep your hands to yourself for a while?!"

"We didn't know she'd come back early! She was supposed to help Steve!

"What did she say?" He asked with a sigh.

"Nothing…she left the apartment without a word."

"Oh my fucking god," he sighed and hid his face in his hands.

"Are you guys ready?" A man entered the room and asked. "We'll start in two minutes."

taglist: @i-me-mine @greatpizzascissorstaco @alanamarie @hiscrimsonangel @micheledawn1975

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boldlyvoid · 1 year

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Midnight Runner

18+ Steve Harrington x Eddie Munson

Summary: Steve meets a stranger in the woods and falls in love with him, all while he can't stand Dustin's new buddy, Eddie.

Warnings: Cruising, Homophobia, Robin and Steve have PTSD, anonymous sex, public sex, blowjobs, coming out, violence, borrowed parts of canon but make it fruity, playful flirting, idiots in love, Gareth and Robin are the smartest BFFs our main characters could as for

word count: 9.6k

Fic Masterlist

After the horrors of uncovering a secret Russian base under the mall they worked at, it was pretty hard for Steve and Robin to sleep separately.

Their first after everything, Robin spent at Steve’s house, telling her parents when she got back to her own home that she had been with a friend the last few days and not to worry. They, of course, thought she was lying to sleep with a boy. If only they knew the truth. Either way, they didn’t like that she disappeared for a few days and so she was given a stricter curfew for the rest of summer. She couldn’t have boys (Steve and Dustin) in her room after 9 pm, her parents were in bed by 10:30 and so she should have the lights out by then too.

For a while, Robin would call him at night to make sure he was still breathing and okay in his room on the other side of Hawkins… There was something about not knowing where the other was that now led each of them to feel massive amounts of anxiety. Not being with him for hours and then him coming back unconscious and barely alive, bruised and bloody— fucked her up a lot more than she cared to admit. He ended up driving to her house most nights, sneaking in through the window around midnight, he’d lay with her until she fell asleep. Some nights he sneaks back out before the sun came up; before her mom got any wind of a boy being in her room all night… and he never parked his car on their street, he parked in Dustin's driveway (with Claudia’s approval) and they only lived one street over, so he could easily walk the rest of the way to Robin.

Tonight, however, she can’t sleep at all so he’s not going anywhere.

The two of them are laying on her floor with their legs perched up on her mattress, staring at the dimly lit glow-in-the-dark stars she stuck on her ceiling… she says they’ve been up there since she was in grade 3, its a mystery how they’re still stuck. Side by side, pinkies interlocked so they’re touching but not too much, they talk about anything and everything just to keep her mind off the memories that won’t fade, unlike the bruises that went away long ago.

Schools going to start up soon, people are already talking about their “friendship” due to his “reputation” and Robin has no idea how to handle her thoughts about the attention. On one hand, it’s kinda handy that people think Steve is her boyfriend, they won’t hit on her or ask her out now (as if anyone did before anyway…) Steve would be a good beard but at the same time, he craves love and affection and fake dating isn’t something he’s into. It wouldn’t benefit him in the slightest.

She also craves love and affection but a different kind than what she could get from Steve… She also never wants to get beat up ever again. Somehow the two collided. Love is pain and all that shit. The worst thing she can think of right now is finding a girl she really likes, letting her walls down, letting her in and then she freaks. She tells everyone. The homophobes corner her and kick her ass and leave her there to think about her actions.

Steve doesn’t think it’ll be that bad for her.

“You don’t know what it’s like, Steve, I’ve tried so hard for so long to just fly under the radar… if no one knew who I was then no one would have any questions or suspicions… and now they’re talking about me all the time.”

“But they’re talking 'cause they think you’re doing straight stuff with me, isn’t that a good thing?” He asks, completely genuinely, “right?”

The mere thought of going anything with a boy was enough to make her want to die, hearing Steve say that made her almost turn inside out and combust like a star gone supernova. “Ew, first of all. And no. it’s not a good thing. I don’t want them talking about me at all. And once you start dating again then they’re going to talk even more about how can we be friends and not secretly getting together? Boys and girls can't be friends, especially not when you’ve slept with every girl in Hawkins and then that’s going to evolve to every girl you’re with thinking you’re cheating on them with me and eventually you’re going to find a girl you really love and she’ll be jealous and you’ll have to tell her the truth and then she’ll tell her friend and that friend with tell someone else and then the whole town will know the reason Robin Buckley never fucked Steve Harrington is because she’s a raging lesbian and I’m going to get the shit kicked out of me all over again.”

“Okay that is so much to unpack but I want to start with the fact you think I’d ever be with someone who thought of you like that?” He can’t believe she’d be worried over something so outlandish. “Robs, I would never let that happen to you?”

“I know that but it doesn’t stop me from worrying about it,” she explains, her voice so soft and weak, defeated. “Do you know like any gay history? Especially here in Indiana?”

He shakes his head, “no… I just know it’s not illegal anymore, my dad threw a fit in front of the TV when sodomy wasn’t illegal anymore and then I asked what it was and got in trouble.”

“Every time I learn more about your dad I want to hit him with my car,” Robin reiterates, she’s said it a few times now that they’ve laid their hearts out to dry in front of the other.

“You don’t even have a licence,” he reminds her with a smile.

“Or a car,” she manages to smile right back. “But seriously, that’s fucked up… the sodomy laws weren’t lifted until like a decade ago and they were literally only keeping it a law so they could keep killing gay people with it. They were getting locked up in jail while the straight guys were doing anal before marriage and getting away with it, no problem… like what?!”

“I never got that either,” Steve admits, having thought about it more than he’d tell her. “Like sodomy is a sin to them but they also consider it a loophole so they can have sex before marriage?”

“It’s literally a book of fiction,” Robin shakes her head in disbelief. “I can’t live my life because the government officials in this state believe that it’s the end all be all of rules.”

“You can, you just can’t get caught,” Steve proposes. “like… and don’t ask how I know this, but there’s a cruising spot in the woods, near skull rock, I’m sure there’s a lesbian version of that somewhere in Hawkins?”

She sits up with wide eyes, and she turns to him cautiously, “Steve… how do you know what cruising is?”

He sits up in a hurry too, scared and embarrassed. “Uh,” he turns bright red, he doesn’t want to say a single thing because the story is way too long to get into. “I just do?”

Her shoulders drop and she looks at him inquisitively, yet gentle, “you can tell me?”

“I went on a run at the wrong time,” he whispers, his breathing changes and his heart races in his chest… it’s like he was running all over again. “I saw something I wasn’t supposed to… and then— then I went back.”

Her jaw drops as she realizes what he means by he went back. He’s been cruising. Steve Harrington got his dick sucked in the woods by another man and he was telling her in her bedroom at 3 in the morning. It didn’t feel real. A lot of her life didn’t feel real anymore, but the panic on his face sure looked real to him. She didn’t know what to say, her mouth just hangs open while she stares. “So you… you—”

“Sucked a stranger's cock? Yeah.” He admits, instantly covering his face with his hands. He pulls his knees up to his chest and tries to turn himself into a ball.

“Holy shit…” it just slips out. It sounds more judgey than she means it to, but it was a lot to process all at once. He wasn’t on the receiving end like most questioning jocks would be on their first try… no, he did a lot more than a question. He clearly found an answer.

“Steve,” she reaches out and places her hand on his shoulder, “I can’t believe I just dropped my gayness on you like that cause like how do you respond to someone telling you they’re gay just like blah there it is— there’s my truth?”

He laughs a bit and looks at her again, still holding his knees tight to his chest, “now you get why my reaction was so delayed… I was okay with it, duh, but I also realized I wasn’t alone anymore.”

“So now there’s 3 gays, minimum, in Hawkins,” Robin teases, “that’s enough to start a club.”

“I don’t know who he was… it was really dark but his hair was longer than mine when I felt it and he was a really good kisser,” Steve explains with a solemn smile. “I’ve gone back but never seen him again…”

“You’re gone back multiple times? Steve?” She looks genuinely concerned, “you know that’s not safe, right? They could be straight guys wanting out there to hurt you, they’re not all gay. It’s happened before, gay guys have been shot in cruising spots all over the country.”

“I know,” he sighs, “I just run through to see if he’s in our spot and then I go right back to the trail.”

“There are a lot of long-haired guys in Hawkins…” Robin thinks aloud and scoffs, “that should be easy to find.”

“I’ve been looking, trust me,” Steve assures her. “It’s been a few months though, so he could have different hair now… hell, he might now even be here anymore or he could be 30 with kids and that’s… yikes.”

“Yikes indeed,” she shivers at the thought. “That’s also why cruising isn’t smart.”

“I guess I just got lucky with my first guy being nice,” he shrugs. “I hate how much I miss him sometimes… but I’m really glad I get to tell you stuff like this now.”

“Me too,” she smiles, reaching out to see if he wants a hug and he takes it.

He wraps his arms around her and rests his chin on her shoulder, “maybe we can move somewhere gayer when you graduate?”

She laughs, “what, like New York or San Fransisco?”

“Sure,” he pulls away with a smile. “So, yeah actually, I do kinda get it. But I just have it a bit easier cause I still like girls too… I just suck at getting anyone to like me.”

“How’d you come to that conclusion?” She asks out of genuine curiosity.

He shrugs again, “I knew for sure I liked girls 'cause I mean, girls?

“Yeah,” Robin can’t help but agree. “They’re the best creation on earth.”

“Amen,” Steve teases. “But… I don’t know how to explain it? I’ve just always looked at men and thought they’re handsome in the same way I think girls are pretty? My heart races and I want to be held by them and kiss them and shit, it’s so weird to explain.”

“It makes sense though,” Robin assures him it’s completely normal. “See, I’ve never looked at a boy and felt that, but it’s how I realized I like girls. They make me nervous and giddy… I want to kiss a girl so bad.”

“You will one day…” Steve doesn’t know what else to say, because everything else seems like a brag. He’s been kissing girls since he was 12, he took it for granted while it’s her dream to kiss a girl.

“What’s it like?”

“It’s always different… like Patty Dun sucked, quite literally, it was like making out with a leech. Nancy, on the other hand, she was my favourite because I loved her, but I also really liked kissing Kimmy Peters, but my guy in the woods is the best kisser,” Steve just lets it all out. He’s never had someone ask him about this, and he’s never gotten to gossip about his experiences. “He had soft lips, the bottom one was plumper, he didn’t have a beard but you could feel the stubble and his nose was round and poked my cheek… and he was handsy. He held me so tight like he was afraid to let me go but it was nice? I felt wanted?”

She hums along, “interesting… what made him so much better than Nancy Wheeler if you loved her so much?”

“He was more assertive,” Steve admits with a blush spreading up his neck and over his cheeks. Even his ears burn red. “Girls just want me to do it all, but I liked him being in charge. I liked being manhandled.”

“Damn,” Robin can’t help but chuckle, “I didn’t think I’d ever want to talk to you about your sex life but it’s surprisingly less gross when you’re talking to me about other dudes.”

“Was I making you jealous before? At work?” He asks, thinking nothing of it until now. It must’ve hurt to see him do something she’s basically forbidden from. “Seeing me get to openly flirt with them all probably sucked, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” she waves it off. “At first it sucked, yeah, ‘cause I thought you were just that whore Steve who fucks anyone who walks but you’re not him at all anymore.”

“Gee thanks,” he takes offence at first. “Is that what people think of me?”

She shakes her head, “no, I think it’s normal for all the girls to want to go out with a nice, handsome guy and you just never found the right one to settle down with so you’ve hit up a lot of girls… but you’re not a user. You’re a sweet guy, I’m sure they have wonderful times with you.”

“Thank you,” he takes the compliment genuinely. “I always want them to have a good time even if I know it’s not going to work out.”

“Why doesn’t it ever work out?”

“Ask the tough ones why don’t you?” He laughs, not even knowing where to start.

She laughs too, “Sorry, you don’t have to answer that, I’m just wondering why you don’t ever have second dates with them? None of them have stood out to you? Really?”

“They’re not him…”

“You’re really caught up on this guy?” she can’t believe it. “We’ve gotta find him… what else do you remember?”

“All of it.”

The moon shines through the branches, and there’s barely any cloud cover. The air is crisp and cold, the kind of cold you can taste with each breath. The leaves from last fall still crunch under his feet, it hides how hard he’s breathing as he runs to the same spot he saw the two men before. There’s no one around so he stops running, he stands against a pretty big tree and he waits. He says he’s going to give himself 20 minutes and if no one shows up, if nothing happens, then he’s going to just finish his run.

The sound of a branch snapping makes his eyes shoot in the direction it came from. Being in the woods at night was one thing, being in Hawkins, where he knew monsters were real was another… knowing that men are some of the worst monsters of all was the scariest part, however. His heart almost beats out of his chest when the figure shows up in front of him.

“Hey,” the man's voice is deep but calm. “You out here for… you know?”

“Y-yeah,” he says but he’s frozen. He doesn’t make a move, he waits for the other man to invade his space.

Steve can’t make out any of his features as the shadow of the tree falls on him. He tenses when the man's arm raises and his hand comes close to his face but he’s soft. He reaches out to cup his face but he ends up brushing Steve’s hair behind his ear. His thumb caresses his cheek lightly, causing him to lean into the man's touch.

Steve reaches out then too, he gently holds the other man's waist and pulls him one step closer so that their groins are touching. He’s close enough now that Steve can notice smells like cigarettes and freshly applied, cheap cologne but it’s still nice. Steve leans in to get another sniff, tricking the man into thinking Steve was going in for a kiss.

He kisses Steve gently, anyway, almost missing his mouth in the dark but they correct it quite easily. His lips are soft, his nose bumps into Steve’s cheek with each kiss, his hand moves to the nape of Steve’s neck and his tongue swipes his lower lip. He has a chain attached to his belt that Steve can feel, and when his hands go back to cup the man's ass and pull him forward, he notices the chain is attached to the wallet in his back pocket.

He pushes Steve back against the tree more, kissing down his neck and sucking on his sweaty, exposed skin. Steve uses his knee to push between the stranger's legs, taking the man's ass in his hands and tugging him forward, causing the man's growing bulge to grind against his own thigh. He’s afraid to moan, afraid to give away who he is with the sound of his voice— but it feels so fucking good that he whimpers.

He fucking whimpers.

The man smirks against him, his teeth grazing Steve’s skin. His laugh is so deep, then so is his voice, “you like how my cock feels against your thigh?”

He nods but he knows it’s hard to see, so he takes a leap of faith and speaks.“I—I do.”

The man takes Steve’s hands off his ass and redirects them to his bulge, “you can touch me…”

“Okay,” he melts into his touch, his hands are warm over his own, the print of his cock is ever hotter in his jeans.

He’s never touched another man's cock before, he’s always wanted to, and this guy's cock feels fucking huge. It’s glorious. He slowly reaches for the man’s belt, “can I?”

“Yeah,” he’s all breathy and desperate, growing even more excited as Steve gets his belt open and pops the buttons on his jeans. Steve snakes his hand inside the man's jeans and palms him over his boxers for a moment then he finally pushes the band of his boxers down and takes his cock in his hand.

He’s so close to him that when they both look down to see Steve’s hand on his cock, their foreheads rest together.

The man brings his hand up to cup Steve’s cheek again and brings him into another kiss, pressing him back against the tree once more as Steve starts to jerk him off. Slowly at first, using his thumb to gather up his precum and smear it down his length, adding glide instead of friction. The man didn’t seem to mind either way, moaning against his mouth and biting his lip with a groan every so often… Steve felt like he could cum in his pants, completely untouched, just from getting to experience this finally.

He’s so proud of himself, so excited to be here with another man and making him feel good. He wants to go even further. He breaks the kiss, using his free hand to tug the man back by his hair, “can I suck your cock?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” he practically laughs, just as excited himself.

Steve kisses him one last time, fully taking it in because he expects it to be the last one. Once this guy cums down his throat he isn’t going to want to kiss him again, he was probably going to haul ass out of the woods and never look back with his newfound post-nut clarity. Steve holds him by his hips once more, kissing him hard enough that their lips smack when he pulls away. He slips down to the ground, using the tree to keep himself steady, he caresses the man's thighs on the way and he swoons slightly over how thick they are.

The man uses one hand to push Steve’s hair back and then he grips the locks loosely, his other hand rests against the tree trunk, bracing himself. Steve is stroking his cock again, so close to his face this time, he presses soft kisses to the shaft, reenacting every blowjob he’s gotten in the past. He’s soft, he fondles his balls and drags his tongue along the pulsating vein on the underside of his perfect cock. He’s uncut and thick and Steve’s mouth is watering by the time he takes him between his lips. He relaxes his jaw, he avoids his teeth, he uses his tongue around the head… all things he’s asked girls to do for him in the past.

The man above him grips his hair tighter and groans, “sweet christ… you’re good at this, baby.”

Steve hums around him, so content already but the praise… fuck, was the praise ever good? He gains more confidence, sucking this man's cock like his life depends on it. Wet and sloppy, he gets drool all over his chin but he doesn’t give a fuck. He takes him deeper, letting the man fuck his throat, breathing through his nose with his eyes shut, he gags slightly but it’s bearable, he likes it… the other man really likes it, too, if his moans are any inclination.

“‘M so close,” the man warns through bated breath, like it’s taking everything in him to hold back, either for permission to finish or to give Steve enough time to pull back if he didn’t want a mouth full of cum in a few seconds.

Steve grips his hip tighter, holding him in place without letting up, he wants this. He wants it more than he could ever describe. He’s dreamed about a moment like this for years. Oh, this was the best night of his fucking life.

He knows what to expect, he’s well aware of the acquired taste you have to have to enjoy someone finishing in your mouth… he feels the man's balls tighten and his cock twitch and his hips jolt just as it happens. The man moans something deep, gripping the tree and his hair for dear life while he cums deep down Steve’s throat.

Steve savours it and makes it last as long as possible before the man is pulling back. His spit connects them, his jaw hurts a bit and he’s still rock fucking hard in his track pants but he’s content. Thats what he wanted.

The man helps him up to his feet and much to Steve’s surprise kisses him again. Tongue and everything while his hands work their way down Steve’s chest towards his bulge. Steve knows it won’t take long, just a few strokes and he’s going to cum in this guy's hand and it’s going to be embarrassing so he pushes him back, “you don’t have to…”

But his tone sounds more like he doesn’t want him to, so the man back up, “okay… uh, I, erm,” he turns to look all around, he adjusts himself inside of his boxers once more and buttons his jeans back up. “Thanks,” he says and then he’s off.

Just like Steve expected.

Robin hears a slightly less graphic retelling of the events, staring at him with shock and awe and oddly enough, she never jumped in to ask questions. She let him get it all out and then goes to speak but she doesn’t know what to say. She just smiles, “Dude?”

“I know,” Steve whines, rubbing his face while he shakes his head. “I panicked and sent him on his way and I’ve thought about him every day since.”

“When was this, again?”

“April, right after my birthday,” he explains. “It’s a long story but essentially I was friends with Tommy H, you know him, right?” Robin nods along, moving in a bit closer when she sees the real fear on his face. “We were like… I don’t know, it was just really sexually charged between us, even when we basically broke up and stopped being friends. And then there was Billy… right after I broke up with Nancy he was all over me, in my space, trying to start shit with me… and he was friends with Tommy when I was with Nancy so I think Tommy told him I’m a bit queer and if he wasn’t a piece of shit to the kids, especially Lucas and max, then maybe I’d flatter him but… I didn’t and now he’s dead, so I couldn’t just hit him up and I wasn’t going to drive out to a gay club, alone, for my 18th birthday… so cruising was my only option.”

“Holy shit dude, I’m sorry,” Robin can’t believe it either. “That’s probably so odd to know something could’ve happened there between you if he was a different person…”

“He wouldn’t have been Flayed if he was a different person, though,” Steve sighs. “But it’s whatever, I guess. Not to sound like an asshole but after being that racist and violent, he had it coming to him.”

“True… but are you sure it wasn’t Billy in the woods back then?” She can’t help but wonder, “it just makes sense, you know?”

“Billy is taller than me, this guy wasn’t,” Steve explains. “And billy wears earrings, I remember when I pushed my guy's hair back his ears felt little and cute he definitely never had earrings… and my guy in the woods was sweet and gentile with me, I don’t think Billy had a gentile bone in his body.”

“Hm,” Robin bites her lip while she thinks. She has a feeling she knows who it is but she also doesn’t want to get his hopes up. “No earrings, nice butt with a chain wallet, good kisser so he probably has plump lips, definitely a big nose… we need a sketch artist.”

Steve laughs, “maybe Nancy knows one from work…”

“Can I ask what happened there?” She doesn’t know how much more he wants to share tonight, and if he isn’t ready, thats fine.

He sighs, deep from within and annoyed slightly, but not at Robin, “I think she fell in love with Jonathan when they were hunting the Demogorgon and looking for Will… they bonded and then the Lab people made us promise to go back to normal and act like nothing happened so we got back together and— and I thought we were fine but she was pretending… she resented me a bit because Barb died in my backyard while we were messing around in my room and we should’ve been there to protect her. She’ll never forgive me for the Barb situation.”

“Barb died in your backyard?” Robin gasps, holding her hand over her mouth in shock. “Oh my god…”

He nods, “like most predators, it was attracted to the smell of blood and she cut her finger shotgunning a beer that we pressured her into doing… and then we left her out there all alone.”

“I was friends with Barb too, you know?” Robin shares, “not like best friends like her and Nancy but we were friends… I miss her, too, sometimes— sorry, sorry I didn’t mean to derail the conversation and make it sad we were talking about your gay awakening.”

Steve laughs, “it’s fine, really, it’s okay. I don’t even know what else to say? Like even if I find him, I’m not going to ask if he was the guy in the woods… cause if he wasn’t then he’s going to tell everyone I was sucking dick in the woods.”

“Do you think he already knows it was you?” Robin asks as if that would make the search easier.

He shrugs again, “no… maybe? I don’t know, honestly.”

“How would you feel if he did know?”

He stares off for a moment, thinking about it with sad eyes, “if he did, don’t you think he’d talk to me about it?”

“He might be just as scared as you,” Robin reminds him. “He could be figuring himself out too…”

“Yeah,” he sighs again and sits up straighter. “I’m not figuring myself out though, I know… I know I’m bi.”

Robin opens her arms, allowing him to move in for a hug if he wants one, and he takes it. He holds her close, actually feeling happy about his announcement and having someone else know his biggest secret. “Thank you for trusting me, I would’ve never come out without you,” Steve whispers, holding her tighter.

“I think it was the truth serum, but I’m also glad I told you,” she teases but holds him back just as tight.

— 6 months later —

Steve and Robin get another job together at Family Video and it’s actually the perfect place to scope out other possible gays in the area.

She gives Steve a look when every long hair fella comes in and Steve still aimlessly flirts with all the girls that come in. He’s been dating again, but he still thinks about the mystery guy every now and then. The dates are fun but none of them really stand out. He’s not really interested in second dates and he’s not even having sex after the dates either. He’s just trying to occupy his time so that he doesn’t go insane thinking about Him.

Robin was right, girls have accused him of being in love with her and just using them until she gives in to him, and even Robin's mother has started to ask if there’s anything going on between them. She doesn’t believe her when she says they’re just friends, especially not after she walked in on them all cuddled up in the same bed one night.

It was starting to get really hard to assure everyone that they were just friends without Robin feeling like she had to come out.

She wants to sometime soon but not now. Right now she’s planning on coming out after graduation after she has a college lined up and her scholarships come through… she’ll come out when she no longer needs the support from the people who might hate her if they know she’s gay.

Currently, it’s 2 nights after Christmas and they’re both at work, bored as hell, having not seen a customer in over an hour. The dweebs were coming by later, and Dustin said something about their new dungeon master dropping them off at the arcade after their D&D session. That meant Steve was responsible for driving Dustin the rest of the way home after work while Mike and Lucas would get a ride from Mrs. Wheeler sometime before closing.

Steve’s heard a lot about this new dungeon master guy, how he’s super cool and sooo metal and Dustin thinks he’s just the coolest thing since sliced bread. It makes Steve only slightly jealous like his little brother has a new favourite sibling and they’re both fighting for Dustin's time. He knows the guy in question is Eddie Munson, the metalhead freak who also sells drugs behind the school and drives that god-awful, loud and stinky van all over town. Other than that, Steve never paid much attention to the guy when he was in high school and didn’t plan on spending much time with him now, even if Dustin begged him to.

Speak of the devil, Dustin comes bursting through the doors of Family video with a big smile on his face and his entourage following swiftly behind him. Eddie included. “You’re looking at the only people to ever walk into Graz’zt’s lair and live!”

“Cool,” Steve pretends to a) know that that is, and b) care. “Did you little shits eat while you were out or am I supposed to fork over a 20 for you to get arcade pizza next door?”

“My mom’s got us covered,” Mike pulls some cash from his pocket, “we’re waiting on them to make more.”

“As long as you don’t get grease on the carpet again, you can eat in here,” Robin says from the back corner where she’s putting away some returns. “and save me a slice!”

“We will,” Dustin assures, leaning against the counter and smirking at Steve, “any progress there?”

“How many fucking times do I need to tell you Robin and I are best friends?” He finally snaps.

“Woah,” Eddie, who’s been lingering behind the teenagers this whole time, leans against the counter now too. “Is that any way to talk to a child?”

“One that won’t take no for an answer? Yes,” Steve spits back at him. “And as if you know the right way to talk to children, anyway, I’m surprised they’re not all hooked on crack and sacrificing goats to the devil or some shit with all the time they spend with you.”

“Oh, Harrington, you think I’m big and scary and mean, don’t you?” He pouts at Steve and talks in a baby voice.

“Fuck off, Munson,” he doesn’t have time for this today… not when Eddie’s smile is nice and he licks his lips while looking Steve up and down, making his spine shiver. He’s cute. It’s not fair.

“He totally thinks I’m scary,” he shoves Dustin with a smirk. “But I’m not… I’m just making sure the ducklings get back to mother goose in one piece,” he says while walking towards the door, “remember the sacrifice next week is bring your own goat, Stevie, you’re more than welcome to join us.”

Right then and there, Steve decides, Fuck it. Eddie literally asked for this. “And what happens if I bring a pig instead?”

“Can’t wait to find out,” Eddie shoots him a wink and heads out the door, leaving with a little chime that rings in Steve’s ear long after he’s gone.

“Why can’t you be nice to my friends?” Dustin pleads, “seriously, if you just spent 10 minutes with him you’d probably really like him.

In what way? Steve thinks to himself. “Whatever, I’m not in the business of making friends, I’m trying to make money and make sure nothing else tries to kill everyone.”

“Winter makes you so sad, join a gym or something?” Dustin reads him like a book. “Ask your doctor for some vitamin D, you’re acting like a bitch again.”

It was a different D he needed.

At first, he’s offended but then he agrees. Without school, he doesn’t have any sports to play and with the snow, it’s not really safe for him to go running on the roads. He’s been cooped up in his empty house all break and it’s starting to affect the way he’s treating people.

“Sorry,” Steve gives in quickly. “You’re probably right, I’m sorry.”

“You want pepperoni or deluxe?” Dustin changes the topic with a smile, making sure that he knows it’s fine. They were brothers, this is what brothers do. They butt heads and then they get over it.

“Pepperoni,” he says, it’s a no-brainer. He was picky, he wasn’t going to eat vegetables on pizza for fun. “I’ll give Munson a shot if you promise me he isn’t a pineapple-on-pizza guy…”

“Oh, man… His order is pineapple jalapeño and black olives,” Dustin grimaces, “it’s his main flaw.”

“Ew, get out of here, I can’t believe you thought we’d be friends,” Steve pretends to be more disgusted than he actually is, making Dustin laugh as he shoos him out the door.

The rest of the boys follow, headed next door to get their pizzas. Robin pops up beside him behind the counter, “what if it’s him?” She whispers. “What if Eddies the guy from the woods…”

“No way,” Steve doesn’t want to think about that. “He’s too weird, I would’ve known… the guy in the woods was sexy and had a deeper voice, it’s not him.”

“I’m just saying… long hair, chain wallet, and definitely fruity,” Robin lists the things Steve recalled about his mystery man.

“How do you know that?”

“His hanky,” she recalls, looking at him like it’s a simple answer. “Seriously? How can you know about cruising and not the hanky code?”

“I know about cruising because of my dad…” Steve admits. “He said some guy from work got caught by his wife fucking some dude in the woods and I was like ew why would you do that in a public place? So he explained it in a pretty homophobic way making it seem like gay people were predators.”

“Again, I’d love to hit him, just ping,” she pretends to hold a steering wheel and swerve before she mimes someone flying to the tune of a whistle and splatting on the concrete.

Steve laughs, “okay, okay, get back to it, what’s the hanky code?”

“So during the gold rush in San Fransisco, there weren’t a lot of women for square dancing and shit at the local bars so men who wore blue bandanas took the male part and men in the red bandanas took the girl part in the dance,” Robin explains, “it eventually developed into a way for gay people to advertise what they were into, and in 1964 a dude named Bob Damron chronicled what all the different bandanas meant based on the bars he’s gone to and released it in a book 6 years ago.”

“So what does Eddie’s mean?” His eyes light right up at the prospect of him being gay, cause he’s cute as hell…

She holds her hands out to remember her lefts and rights, “it was a black one in his left pocket so that means he’s into sadomasochism and he’s a top.”

Steve thinks about it for a sec and then shrugs, “sounds fun…”

“Ew?” Robin can’t believe he said that. “I don’t need to know what sounds appealing to you… but would you really bottom?” She lets her morbid curiosity win.

“Yeah, I think so,” he shrugs, he doesn’t see why not. “God wouldn’t’ve put my g-spot in my ass if—

“AH! SHUT UP!” Robin plugs her ears and shouts. “I’m so fucking sorry I asked oh my god, never say that again.”

“Fine,” he keeps laughing at her reaction, but he respects her boundaries. She had no interest in his sex life, like a real sister wouldn’t.

Sure enough, the kids come back with pizza and eat it in the video store with a movie on the mounted TV to keep them busy. Mrs. Wheeler comes by around 9:30, just half an hour before closing and takes Mike and Lucas home.

They close up, he drives Dustin home first and drops Robin off second. She’s just about to get out when she notices he’s not taking his seatbelt off to come in with her, “you’re not coming in?”

He shakes his head, “no, I kinda want to be alone.”

She looks him up and down, trying to find a way to believe that, “just… be safe? Call me in the morning?”

Of course, she read right through him. He wanted to go back out to the woods, he wanted to sit there by their tree and see if the same guy would come all the way back, even in the middle of winter. He just sighs and nods, “I will… thank you.”

He waits in the driveway while she walks up to her front door, he doesn’t leave until she’s safely inside. Even then, it’s hard for him to drive off now that she knows what he’s about to do. But he does drive away, he drives home and changes into something more comfortable for running and then he takes off down the street on foot.

The wind is cold on his face, his hands get a bit chilly and his legs tingle as the blood circulates. He hasn’t run in a while so he has to take a few walking breaks, however, he does find a comfortable pace just as he reaches the woods. He finds the snowmobile trail and uses it to run on, not wanting to step into 2 feet of snow the whole way there. Much to his surprise, when he does have to turn off the trail to get to the spot, there are already footprints in the snow that he can step in so snow doesn’t get in his socks.

They lead right to the tree as well, so he leans against the trunk and looks around. It’s a lot brighter this time with how much snow has fallen out here, the moon reflects off the white surface and makes the whole forest shine in a magnificent blue. The forest is so quiet, it’s barely midnight, and anyone could still be out… it looks like someone has been here a few times, however. There are cigarette butts littered in the snow everywhere, too many for just one visit. It gives him hope. Hope that the same man from before would show up for a late-night smoke and he’d get to see him again.

What he didn’t know is that the mystery man had just left, not 5 minutes ago, heading out in the opposite direction.

…

Eddie tossed himself down in his bed with a sigh, getting under the covers with his coat still on because he was cold as fuck now. He gives himself 5 minutes to wallow in self-pity before he gets back up and strips out of his day clothes to get more comfortable. He steals one of Wayne's sweaters with his company logo on it and turns on the kettle to make some hot chocolate. Coffee at this time would be bad and he already hated going to bed on time.

While in the kitchen, he picks up the phone and calls Gareth’s number, the one that connects to the phone in his garage. “Hey,” Gareth answers after just a few rings. “Back already?”

“He wasn’t there, I think I went too early,” Eddie sighs, rubbing his face while he holds the phone with his shoulder.

“Or maybe you were right about him being a one-time jock,” Gareth suggests, having heard the story multiple times as Eddie reminisced on the best sex of his life.

“One-time jocks don’t suck dick like that,” Eddie reminds him. “Most of them go to get sucked and then run, he’s the first guy who didn’t want anything in return… like being on the receiving end was gayer to him than giving head to him or some shit?”

“It’s almost been a year dude, you need to move on,” Gareth complains, “I can't believe it was that dark you have no idea who he was and no one in town reminds you of him. Like was he even real? Or are you just talking yourself out of all the options we’ve related to The Midnight Runner?”

“It’s not Harrington!” Eddie doesn’t want to believe that. “I mean it, sure, he had nice hair and he smelled really good and his lips tasted like strawberry chapstick—

“Which Dustin let slip the other day that Steve does indeed wear,” Gareth reminds him. “He’s best friends with Buckley, dude, gays stick together, she’s gotta know if he is or not… maybe if you came out to her she would tell Steve and then he’d—

“He’d what? Kick my ass?” Eddie cuts him off. “Thats a stupid idea.”

“Oh, come on!! It’s gotta be Steve, all the clues are right there! I bet if I look out my window in a few minutes I’ll see him running. He’s always fucking running!”

“What if I don’t want it to be Steve?” Eddie snaps back.

“Then you’re in love with a ghost,” Gareth replies faster than expected. Like he had it ready and prepared. “Chances are, the guy you met in the woods is Steve and probably the realest version of Steve… maybe he’s so hostile towards you because he knows it was you too and he’s afraid you’ll out him or some shit? Rich gay guys are a lot more complex than us, we don’t have dads who will cut us off if they find out we’re fucking dudes in our free time. He does…”

Eddie sighs because he’s right and he hates to admit it. He has no idea what it must be like for Steve, if he were gay, not saying he is… Eddie fights with his own mind, wanting to give in and crush on him openly but it’s terrifying. Cause if he’s not the guy from the woods and Eddie makes the wrong move he’s going to get punched or worse… he could cuss him out.

Steve was mean when he wanted to be. Everyone in this godforsaken town knew not to fuck with Steve Harrington because while his right hook is strong, he could rip anyone apart with words without even blinking an eye. He can make anyone feel small, useless, and dumb— it was hot to watch, don’t get him wrong, but Eddie never wanted to be on the receiving end of Steve Harrington’s wrath.

“Oh and would you look at that,” Gareth says, tearing him out of his thoughts. “Steve Harrington is jogging towards his house wearing grey sweatpants and a big hoodie… and he looks yummy.”

“Hey,” Eddie gets jealous easily, surprising even himself. “you don’t have to be a dick about it.”

“I’m just tired of seeing you pine over some guy you made up in your head, you’ve glamorized this man from the woods and now it’s like no one is good enough for you?” Gareth reiterates, caring deeply about Eddie and his feelings.

He sighs, “I know… I’m just tired of being alone.”

“Join the club, oh wait, we’re already in one,” Gareth teases. “You still coming over for practice tomorrow?”

“Obviously,” Eddie manages to smile again, they move right into talking about music and hopes for the band, taking eddies mind off of how lonely he felt for a little bit.

— March ’86 —

For the first time in a long time, Dustin and Max are hanging out together…

It’s 10am on a Saturday, the video store has just opened and Steve’s head is pounding from the hangover he’s got. The afterparty post-championship game, win or lose, was always a rager, just this time, they won. And Steve wasn’t on the team… Lucas was. He’s also lucky enough to sleep in right now while his friends bug the piss out of Steve.

Dustin flings himself over the counter instead of walking around like a civilized person, knocking all Steve’s tapes to the ground and immediately logging onto the computer with Steve’s login which he somehow has memorized.

“What are you doing man?” Steve cries out, everything suddenly too loud and there are so many people in his space.

“Setting up base of operations,” Dustin explains, Max somehow beside him now.

“Base of operations?” Robin repeats while picking up the fallen tapes.

“Stop, get off of that,” Steve tries to pry him off the computer.

“No, I need it,” Dustin pushes back.

"Need it for what?”

“Eddie’s friend's phone numbers!”

“Oooh Eddie, your new best friend Eddie who you think is so much cooler than me because he plays your nerdy game—

“EDD— yes. Wait, I never said that?” Dustin softens, sensing how much that hurts his feelings.

Only Robin is too fed up to transition to a serious topic. “Seriously guys, maybe on a Monday you could play around in here like toddlers but it’s Saturday!! It’s our busiest day!”

“Alright look, Robin, I totally empathize, but this cannot! Wait! Until Monday,” Dustin emphasizes, it’s genuinely an emergency in his eyes.

“What, ‘cause calling all Eddies friends is an emergency?” Steve can’t believe what he’s hearing.

“CORRECT!” Dustin finally snaps, using a tone that would get Steve smacked upside the head if he used it in front of his parents.

“Uh, you want me to strangle him or do you wanna do that?” Steve asks Robin, turning away and breathing through the urge to punch him.

“We could take turns?” Robin suggests with a giddy smile.

“Could you just fill them in while I do this?” Dustin finally asks Max, who looks paler than normal. Like she just saw a ghost… or worse.

“Fill us in on What?” Robin asks, scared to know the answer.

She explains it to them carefully, and long story short, something was back in Hawkins and Eddie was the only one who could tell them about it.

—

It takes most of the shift, but they eventually find a pretty good lead on where Eddie could be.

Rick Lipton

2221 Holland Road

They can’t leave work until the next shift starts at 5pm, Sam and Dennis should be showing up, however, it turns to 5:15 and no one is there to replace them… so Steve and Robin lock the doors and they leave. It’s not their problem if they’re not on the clock.

The drive up to Lovers Lake isn’t a long one, it’s the trailing up and down Holland Road for the correct house number that takes the longest. No one wants to have their mailboxes repaired or repainted, so it’s hard to find 2221 as the sun goes down.

Eventually, they find it.

All the light are off, it looks like no one has been home in ages and Dustin won’t stop making a scene as he smacks on the windows and screams for Rick. “Dude, seriously, the last thing we need is for a neighbour to call in a noise complaint while we’re looking for a murder suspect…”

“Stop calling him that!” Dustin finally snaps and shoves him. “He’s my friend. One of my best friends. Help him, it’s not hard to be nice.”

“Fine,” Steve sighs, “let’s check the boat house…”

It’s dark and dingy and smells like the lake and gasoline mixed together. Steve immediately turns off his flashlight and grabs an oar for self-defence because no matter what Dustin says, you never really know a guy. He could be in the middle of a drug induces psychosis and could’ve really killed Chrissy for all they know…

He starts to poke around in the tarp-covered boat with said oar, alerting Dustin once more. “What are you doing?” His voice goes up several pitches, even while in a whisper now.

“He might be in here…”

“So take the tarp off!!

“If you’re so brave, you take the tarp off,” Steve deflects, stabbing the tarp a few more times for good measure.

Max and Robin say something about someone being there, Dustin chirps in: “Don’t worry, Steve will get him with his oar.”

“Ahh, I know you think you’re being funny, Henderson, but considering the fact that everyone in this room has nearly died about a hundred times, personally,” he rants all while stabbing the fucking tarp on the boat and then he picks up his voice. “I don’t fine it funny in the slight—

Suddenly Eddie stands up from under the tarp, gets out from the boat and onto the decking and grabs Steve by the shirt with something sharp against his chest. Steve screams, “wait, wait, wait!!” But it doesn’t help. Eddie slams him up against the wall and holds a broken beer bottle to his throat.

Everyone in the room suddenly screams different things to try and calm him down until Dustin finally screams stop loud enough to break his panicked trance. “Eddie, Eddie, it’s me, it’s Dustin… this is Steve. He is not going to hurt you.”

Eddie looks back and forth between Steve and Dustin, registering that they are in fact who they say they are while he’s still on his highest alert. He’s breathing heavily, and his pressure changes with the bottle as he listens to Dustin talk, calming down only slightly before he holds it to Steve’s throat again.

“Right Steve?” Dustin makes him talk too.

Steve nods, so panicked but also slightly turned on.

You see this is all too familiar for him. Eddie smells like cigarettes and the remnants of cheap cologne. His hair hangs forward as he leans into Steve’s space, they’re the same height, he can look right into the black of his eyes and he knows.

It’s him.

Robin was right.

It was Eddie in the woods that night and he didn’t believe it until right now.

“Right, yeah,” Steve whispers, terrified for more than one reason. He doesn’t want to die, and god forbid he leaves hit Eddie backs up and Steve’s bricked up.

“Steve, why don’t you drop the oar,” Dustin reminds him that he’s holding it.

He drops it quickly and as he does so, Eddie panics at the slight sound and movement, tightening his grip and pushing the jagged edge of the bottle into Steve’s skin.

“He’s cool!” Dustin shouts, drawing Eddie’s attention back to himself.

“I’m cool man, I’m cool,” Steve pleads, whispering, holding his hands up in surrender and staring into Eddie’s eyes carefully. He displays a look of fear and promise and a gentleness that breaks Eddie.

“What are you doing here?” He asks, eyes still fixated on Steve.

“We were looking for you,” Dustin explains.

“We’re here to help,” Robin adds, clutching a flashlight for dear life as she worries for her platonic other half.

“Eddie…” Dustin hesitantly makes his way closer. “These are my friends. You know Robin, from band! This is my friend Max, the one who never wants to play dnd?? Eddie… we’re on your side. I swear on my mother! Right, guys??”

“Right, yeah,” max agrees.

“On Dustin’s mother,” Robin adds.

“Yep, Dustin’s— Dustin's mother,” Steve says for good measure.

Eddie stares at Steve with his jaw so clenched that it looked painful. He was terrified, but inevitably, he gives in. Showing one last display of strength, he pushes Steve into the wall a bit more for good measure and then retreats and Steve fucking moans. He could chop it up to finally getting airflow again, but it’s actually the being manhandled part that made him moan.

And now he’s embarrassed.

He stumbles to the floor while Eddie moves to the corner and leans against the wall, defeated, tired, lost… everyone in the room has felt the exact same way over the last few years. Steve hurries over to Robin, letting Dustin take care of explaining everything to Eddie. He clutches his neck and looks at Robin with wide eyes, talking to her with them.

And she gets it, she looks back with a look that says, ‘holy fuck are you okay?’

And he gives her a look that says, ‘if you only knew…’ he turns around, finding something to sit on and bends essentially in half while holding his neck, he makes it look like it hurts but really he’s bent like that to hide the erection that he can’t control. That was so, so, unfortunately hot.

Through tears and shouting, they get Eddie's side of the story and assure him it’s not crazy. This whole town was fucked up and almost anything was possible.

They tell him all that and then they leave him there. Albeit with a radio so he can contact them and the promise that they’d figure everything out to clear his name… but it didn’t feel like enough.

Steve worried for him the whole drive home. He dropped Dustin off first, Max was going to spend the night on his couch to stay safe and Robin was coming back to Steve’s house with him.

As soon as the car is kidless, he blurts out, “Eddie’s the guy from the woods.”

“I figured,” she turns to him in her seat.

“He smelled the same… he’s the guy,” he’s so sure. “I want to go back.”

“Not smart, there shouldn’t be a car parked outside Rick's house while he’s in jail,” Robin repeats what Dustin had said earlier when he convinced Steve to take them home. Eddie would be fine alone, he had been all day before they got there.

“But I need to talk to him,” Steve complains.

“You can talk to him later when we’ve figured out what we’re dealing with,” Robin rationalizes. “We need to get Nancy and contact Eleven and the Byers… do you think Hop told the other cops or?”

“I doubt it…”

“Right,” Robin slumps back against her seat. “I can’t believe this is happening again.”

“I know,” Steve agrees, shaking his head with disbelief. “There’s nothing even here to open another portal so like what the fuck?”

“Well, if something could just show up cause it smelled blood and take Barb then there must be other ways for monsters to get here, too?” Robin shrugs, she has no idea how it all worked. Neither did Steve, really.

“Yeah, we need Nancy and Joyce,” Steve sighs. “I’ll call them when we get home.”

“Okay,” Robin smiles a bit and then reaches out for his hand where it rests on the gearshift. She gives his hand a little squeeze and doesn’t move away after. “It’s all going to be fine. It has to be.”

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lovelyladyabsinthewrites · 10 months

Text

From the Ashes Pt.4

Pairing(s): Rhaegar Targaryen x Lannister!Reader

Warnings: talks of pregnancy loss

Words: 2350

Summary: A stubborn horse tips Jaime over his breaking point.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 3.5 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 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Part 29 Part 30 Part 31 Part 32 Part 33 Part 34

Book Two of Heir of Ash and Fire

Book One of Heir of Ash and Fire

“I know I would be a little scared riding a dragon.” You muse while looking up at the sky. Weary from the day’s travel, you had decided to ride atop of the horse that your brother had lovingly named Bastard due to his nature of smacking you in the face with his tail and just being an over all pain in the ass. Even if his name served true, you were still a lady and refused to call him that. You gave him the nickname Bassy. Close enough to Bastard but this way you didn’t have to say it out loud. He was the most stubborn horse you had ever encountered and made it seem like such an inconvenience to be carrying your luggage. Jaime had won him in a fight though, beggars couldn’t be choosers. It would’ve been a complete miracle if you and your brother had happened to get a palfrey like the ones you had as a child. No, nothing as extravagant could be found in your wanderings. Dumpy Bassy had to do.

“Of course. You’d be on a flying beast that breathes fire. What’s not to be scared about that?” Your older brother chuckles, one hand holding onto Bassy’s reins as he lead the horse down the road. His eyes were searching ahead for the city the two of you had been traveling days for. Volon Therys was what your goal was. The last stop before you were finally in Volantis. Surviving off of dried meat and bread was starting to get tiring and made you even more thirsty. “You could fall off whenever the dragon grew tired of you on its back. That’s what happened to Joffrey Velaryon. Took flight upon his mother’s dragon Syrax and fell to his death because the she-dragon tipped him off her back.”

What a death that would be. The very thought made you shiver. To fall to one’s death, destroying all your bones after having such a taste of power.

Jaime glances at you. “As history has told us, having a dragon isn’t a wonderful as the Targaryens made it out to be. True, they’re the ultimate weapon in a war, but a dragon can never be fully tamed. That’s why I would never want a dragon.”

“That’s understandable but just imagine, Jaime. Being up in the air and just being able to go wherever you wanted.” You hold out your arms as if they were wings and close your eyes “Just like this.”

“I prefer the ground. That’s where the fighting is.”

“You can take control of the ground. I’ll take control of the sky.” You laugh, coming to an agreement. “I’m not much of a fighter anyway.”

Begging to differ, Jaime tells you “You’re getting there. We just have to keep practicing and you’ll be a woman in armor in no time.”

While along the coast of Essos had been populated by beautiful trees and agreeable weather, heading more inland you and Jaime were met with somewhat of a tropical warmth that made your skin feel tacky. The Disputed Lands of Essos had been fought over for centuries by those of Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh and you could tell why. Not only was it beautiful but it probably yielded quite a bit of fertile land to be used. Since you left Myr though you had not run into anyone else on your trail, despite this land being riddled with bandits and ruffians alike that were desperate for any amount of coin.

Rifling through your saddlebag, you go to look at the map again. Your journey in Essos had made you cartographer, something you had no need of learning back in Westeros. There were a lot of things you had picked up in Essos that wouldn’t have served you much in King’s Landing. Swordsmanship, cartography, even being slight of hand when you and your brother were desperate for food and low on coin. The latter skill you weren’t very proud of but Jaime had told you that desperate times call for desperate measures. Jaime knew best in these situations so you always did tend to listen and obey, for it meant life and death.

There was a slight uncomfortable struggle though as Bassy decided to be. . . well, a bastard. He flicked his ears in annoyance as he felt you move around on him, even though it was just the slightest bit. Bassy brayed, pulling his head this way and that in an attempt to get the reins out of Jaime’s grip.

Your brother curses and stops walking, standing his ground as he dealt with the meddlesome beast. “Calm down, Bastard.”

Oddly, Bassy always seemed to understand when Jaime called him that negative name. There were certain moments where you swore that Bassy had the intelligence of a human. Bassy let out a louder noise of persistence as he now tried desperately to get away from Jaime.

In an effort to stay atop of him, you let go of the map, not bothering to see where it flew, and clung onto Bassy’s neck. “Be nicer to him!”

With an exasperated grimace, Jaime dug his heels into the dirt and tried again to get the horse to stop thrashing. “He’s an animal (y/n). He doesn’t understand what I’m saying.”

“Oh I think he does!” You were quick to shut up though when Bassy whipped his neck back, your jaw snapping painfully shut. You could’ve sworn that a few of your teeth may have cracked from the action. At least you didn’t bite off the tip of your tongue.

“Stupid beast!” Jaime hisses. Possessing the strength that he had, it was no match against a horse that weighed 70 stone. Getting onto his hind legs, Bassy was able to rip the reins out of Jaime’s hands; causing your brother to fall backward.

In a hasty attempt, you reach for the swinging reins; barely catching them before you fell off.

Bassy started bucking, thrashing his body this way and that as your heart hammered away. Never had any of your palfreys acted in such a vicious manner. You clung with every muscle in your body. Clung for dear life.

In the middle of the panic you caught the sight of Jaime brandishing his sword.

“No!” You screamed at him. Finally losing your grip, Bassy succeeded in bucking you off. There you went flying for a moment in the air before Jaime threw aside his sword to catch you. The two of you collided into the ground, the air being knocked out of your body.

Bassy seemed to glare at you and your brother, beating his hoof against the ground. Worry that he might charge at you entered your mind. Instead he simply took off with what meager belongings you had.

Jaime slammed his fist against the ground. “Fucking animal!”

You rolled off of your brother, choosing to lay on the ground, panting and trying to get your heart to stop loudly pounding. Your hands shook terribly. That could have gone a lot worse. You thanked your lucky stars that at least Bassy didn’t kick you or trample you and your brother.

“Are you okay?”

Opening your eyes, you look up at Jaime. His blonde hair had grown a lot since his days in the Kingsguard. It looked wild, especially after the fight he had just had with Bassy.

“I’m fine. . . Where did the map go? I let go of it before that whole thing started to I could try and stay atop.”

Jaime’s head snapped off to the side and then the opposite direction, squinting his eyes in the hope that he would be able to find the sheet of parchment. By the way his jaw clenched you knew the map to be lost. You close your eyes again and listen to Jaime’s string of curses. At least the last time you had checked it, it looked like you were almost close to Volon Therys.

“Calm yourself Jaime. Come lay down with me.”

“I can’t relax now. We don’t have the map, we don’t have food, AND we don’t have water!” He growls not at you but the situation that you are now in. Running a hand over his forehead, Jaime sighs. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. That fucking horse. . . I knew that guy ripped me off. And here I thought I had won a free horse.”

“We wouldn’t have needed him for much longer. We traveled so far without a horse before, we can do it again. Besides, Volon Therys shouldn’t be too far away.” You try and cheer him up. “We can hunt whatever game is out here and we can find more water. We’re near the coast after all. There’s bound to be more rivers and lakes. All is not lost. Just made a little bit more complicated.”

“Complicated is the last thing we need.” Relenting, Jaime finally plops down beside you. “We were so close. I wish that stupid horse would’ve just given us a little bit longer. Just until we made it to the outskirts of the city. He was such a bastard.”

You giggle a little bit and slowly sit up. Dirt and dust was starting to settle down on you from the fall. “Till the very end.” Exhaling a sigh, you get up to your feet slowly. “Well, we won’t do ourselves any favors by just laying down here all down.”

Jaime’s hands cover his eyes from the sun as he makes no intention on getting up. “We don’t have a map. How will we know where we’re going?”

Holding out your hand to him, you give him your best smile. “Have faith, brother. The Crone will guide the way.”

After a second of wallowing in his own self pity, Jaime grabs your hand and you help lift him up. “Oh great, we’re going to be relying on an invisible old woman.”

Playfully you swat at his arm making him grin. “If our septa and mother had heard you say that they would surely have pulled your ear.”

“Mother wouldn’t have meant it. I bet you she would’ve pulled my ear while grinning. She’d probably say ‘Tsk, tsk, my Jaime is a heathen’ all while smiling. You know what smile I’m talking about.”

You nod, remembering sweetly of your mother. “The one that always reached her eyes making them light up.”

“Yes, that one. You know, you have her smile. That smile.” He says while beginning to walk forward. Voice far off as if his mind was bringing him back to the days spent in Casterly Rock when Joanna was still alive. “You remind me so much of her sometimes. You took after her more than Cersei ever did.”

Falling alongside him, you muse “I think she took more after father.”

He chuckles. “Hah, yes. It’s a good thing she was born a woman. Otherwise I believe she would very well be ruling Westeros with an iron fist.”

“Heavens forbid.” You gasp and put a hand to your heart.

That made him laugh louder before he grew quiet in contemplation. “You would have made a good queen, (y/n). I’m sorry that that opportunity was ripped away from you.”

Pausing for a moment you reflect on your own feelings. Rhaegar always said the same thing. And so did Thalina. “I will be queen one day. Once we get to Volantis and do whatever it was that Thalina wanted us to do, I plan on returning to Westeros. I want to return to Rhaegar and resume being his wife. I don’t care about really queen. I just want to be with Rhaegar.”

“You think we’ll return to Westeros?”

“Of course. I don’t want to live out my days here.” You stand your ground while walking a bit faster, feeling the heat in your cheeks rise. “Rhaegar probably thinks I’m dead.”

Annoyance in his voice, Jaime stops walking. “Why are you so determined to return to him? Have you forgotten-”

“I haven’t forgotten anything.” You snapped at your brother unconsciously. When you see his stunned expression you reel yourself back with a big inhale. “I’m sorry. But you shouldn’t be so quick to cling to the past. Rhaegar apologized. He promised he would never hurt me again.”

“And then he up and left you when you were dying.” Jaime refused to let it go as his own face grew hot.

“I’m sure he had his reasons! Why are you so quick to hate him?” You couldn’t keep the glare out of your eyes.

“Why are you so loyal to him?” He countered with a growl. “That urchin has done nothing for you! Nothing that would garner loyalty from you!”

That was it. You stopped walking and turned full force to your brother. “He got me out of the hell that was Casterly Rock! He showed me that I was worth something, Jaime! All of my life I had been treated. . . treated like I was nothing. By father, by Cersei. . . even by you. And for the longest time I believed it. I believed that I would never grow up to be anything worthwhile. That because I wasn’t like Cersei I would never find someone who would love and adore me. Ever since I met Rhaegar my life has changed so much. For the better. He gave me confidence. That confidence is all my own now. He taught me that there is strength in my kindness unlike father who thought it was a weakness. I’m not going to sit by idly while you bad mouth him.”

Jaime stood there with wide eyes, staring at you. Slowly he held his hands up. “Okay. . . Okay. . . I’m sorry (y/n). Please don’t cry. . .”

Fiercely you use your sleeve to wipe at your eyes. Indeed there were tears staining the fabric of your sleeve. “I love him. . .”

“I know.”

“We were going to have a baby. . .”

“I know.” Slowly, Jaime drew you against his chest until he was smothering your sobs.

#reader insert #reader insert fanfiction #game of thrones #game of thrones fanfiction #game of thrones fanfic #Game of Thrones fandom #A Song of Ice and Fire #a song of ice and fire fanfiction #a song of ice and fire fanfic #A Song of Ice and Fire fandom #ASoIaF #asoiaf fandom #asoiaf fanfiction #asoiaf fanfic #asoiaf fic

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littlesoka7567 · 1 year

Text

Who Taught Omega That?!

Summary: I love all the head canons about Omega learning bad words from her brothers, so here's a short little Drabble!

Notes: I'm attempting to do homework and it is literally so boring I hate it so much so here's this instead. Idk what this is.

WC: 2653

Omega has learned a lot in her time in squad 99. Her brothers have taught her almost everything she knows.

Tech taught her all about the Muarder and how to fly her. Wrecker taught her how to fight for herself and her brothers. Hunter taught her what it means to be a soldier, and how to follow orders-and when not to. Echo taught her how to explain her strategic abilities, and how to turn them into plans. She’s learned how to shoot her bow, and Crosshair taught her how to aim it better.

She’s learned what it means to have a family.

One thing her brothers hadn’t meant to teach her, however, was one thing she gleefully holds onto and holds close to her chest. Until the moment she can innocently look at one of them and repeat her secret knowledge to cause the most amount of chaos.

Echo was the first one to teach her a bad word.

The oldest clone used to be an ARC trooper, after all. Every other word out of an ARC trooper's mouth was foul, foul enough to turn a jedi’s ears red with embarrassment. Ah, how Echo and Fives used to love torturing their own jedi, general Skywalker, with their back-and-forth conversations.

However, after joining his new squad–squad 99–he tamed it down. Although his new squad are commandos, they don’t seem to have the same affinity to cursing as the ARC troopers do. They’ll let one slip every once in a while, usually without meaning to and followed by an embarrassed apology to Echo; it doesn’t happen very often, though.

He had even more reason to not cuss when they got a child on board. Echo had, surprisingly, taken to her immediately. He simply was overwhelmed with the need to protect her, keep her innocence at least somewhat intact in a way he and his brothers never got.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s good at it.

To be fair to Echo, he had been under the assumption that Omega was sound asleep in her makeshift room.

But Omega was sneaky when she wanted to be, and knew how to be quiet.

Echo had been piloting the ship while Tech took his turn to sleep, and he thought the rest of the ship was asleep as well.

He had hardly been paying attention to the ship at all, actually; he was reading a reg manual for the umpteenth time. It was one of the only things left that brought Echo a sense of calm, and feel normal again. He’s been reading these manuals since…well, since even before he graduated.

However, it’s never a good idea to pilot distractedly.

A loud beeping startles Echo (and Omega, but Echo doesn’t know she’s there). He gasps, looking at what’s making the noise. “Shh!” he aims at it, flipping off the noise. He reads which alert was going off, and his eyes widen. “Oh, fuck,” he whispers, turning on manual piloting and carefully taking them out of hyperspace. He lets it go smooth enough the ship doesn’t jostle; he doesn’t want to wake anyone up.

He groans to himself as the ship almost collides with an asteroid due to his need to go slow. He quickly swerves out of its way, and expertly manuevers around the rest of them without jerking the ship too much, “Fuck, fuck!” he gasps, having to turn the ship almost on its side to avoid a particularly large one.

He sighs in relief as the ship clears the asteroid field, and he settles back into the hyperspace lane. He rubs at his eyebrows with shaky hands, putting them back in hyperspace and reengaging autopilot. “Oh, thank the force,” he mumbles to himself.

He turns around so he can check he didn’t wake anyone, and freezes when Omega is staring at him with wide eyes. “Oh… H-hi Omega,” he says. “Did I wake you?”

“What does fuck mean?” she asks, big round eyes staring directly into his soul. Her head is cocked slightly to the side, and she’s holding Lula to her chest.

Echo winces, looking over her shoulder as if Hunter will be standing there demonically with red eyes and a snarl. He doesn’t, thankfully. “Uh…”

Omega blinks slowly, holding Lula tighter. “Does it have to do with flying?” she encourages.

Echo internally groans. “N-no. It’s a…well, it’s a bad word. I shouldn’t have said it, and neither should you.” He knows how smart she is; if he lets her know he’s scared of Hunter finding out, Hunter will find out within the rotation.

“Bad…word? There are bad words?” She loosens her grip on Lula, curiosity taking over.

Echo nods, standing up and walking over to her. He kneels down so he’s face to face with her. “Yeah. Bad words are just words you aren’t really supposed to say, because they’re rude.”

Omega nods, seeming to understand. “But what does it mean? The bad word you said?”

Echo winces, opening his mouth to answer and closing it several times as he thinks of an answer. “Well, what I was saying was that…I was…well…” Echo clears his throat, scratching the back of his head with his scomp hand. “Well, I was um…something undesirable happened, so I was expressing that I didn’t want that to happen.”

“Oh,” Omega says, nodding. She rubs at her eye with a sleepy hand, and her face breaks out into a yawn. “That makes sense.”

Echo nods, sighing in relief. He kisses her forehead and stands up, gently pushing her so she’d walk back towards her room. “Come on, let’s get you back to bed.”

The next time she learned a bad word was, unsurprisingly, from Tech.

Tech tends to get lost in his own head, not paying too much attention to his surroundings when he isn’t on a mission.

It’s one of those times when Tech is walking around the ship with his face buried in his datapad.

“Tech?” Omega asks, kicking her feet as she sits in one of the chairs in the cockpit.

“Hmm?” Tech asks, not looking up.

“When are you going to teach me how to fly?” she asks, pout on her lips.

“When you finish your memorizations,” Tech answers, voice monotone. He turns back around to start walking towards her again.

Omega whines. “But Tech, Hera said flying is more than just knowing what the buttons do! She says it’s about a feeling.”

Tech rolls his eyes, getting his screen closer to his face as he walks towards her. “Hera is not a real pilot. On the other hand, I have passed every single flying exam I have taken.” He passes the threshold into the cockpit, heading towards the control panels.

Omega whines again. “Tech!” she complains.

Tech turns around again, starting to pace back towards the hull of the ship. “The faster you memorize everything I have instructed you to memorize, the faster you will be allowed to fly.”

Omega huffs and crosses her arms over her chest, watching him with a scowl on her face. “But it’s so boring!”

Tech shakes his head fondly, turning back around and pacing towards her again. “It is very important to-shit!” Tech gasps in pain as his toe stubs the entryway to the cockpit.

Omega’s eyes go wide, and she curls her knees to her chest. “What does shit mean?”

Tech sighs in annoyance, rubbing at his toe. “It literally means a waste product created by most animals; however, within the context I said the word, it is an exclamation which indicates annoyance or, in my case, pain.”

“Oh,” Omega says. “Is it rude to say that word? Like a bad word?”

Tech hesitates, and then he mentally says shit once more. “Yes, actually. It is rude. Don’t say it in front of the others, they will not approve.”

Omega grins sneakily at him as he buries his face in his datapad again. “Maybe you should…let me fly. Just a little bit. So I forget about the word shit.”

Tech scrunches his nose, taking in a deep, annoyed breath. “I’m more concerned with who taught you about blackmail than I am about the rude word.”

Omega pouts again, resting her chin on her knees. “Hunter!” She calls, eyes twinkling.

Tech narrows his eyes, glaring at her. “Fine,” he says quickly, placing his datapad down. “Do not tell Hunter.”

“Don’t tell Hunter what?” Hunter asks, entering the cockpit.

Tech sighs again, rubbing at his forehead above his goggles. “I’m going to let Omega fly for a few minutes. I’ll take off and land, and it will only be a brief time, but…I think she’s ready.”

Hunter raises a brow. “Oh. That wasn’t difficult to convince you,” he says, with a small chuckle. “Have fun,” he says, winking at Omega. “I’ll take Echo and Wrecker to Cid’s.”

Wrecker and Crosshair were the next ones to teach her a bad word, and it was just after they got Crosshair back.

She really shouldn’t have been listening. She knew it was a private conversation between Crosshair and Wrecker. But everything has been so tense since the sniper came back to her little family, and all she wants to do is help.

“Wrecker, just leave me alone,” Crosshair groans, and there’s shifting behind the door.

“No!” Wrecker yells, and Omega can practically see the way he crosses his arms. “You have to talk to me, you can’t keep pushing me away.”

“Why not?” Crosshair drawls, and there’s a few steps as one of them paces.

“Because you’re my brother, and I missed you!” Wrecker says loudly. His voice breaks just a bit, and Omega just wants to run in and hug him.

Crosshair scoffs, and she hears something rattling in a container. “No you didn’t. I shot you, Wrecker, how could you-”

“Stop being a dick for no reason!” Wrecker says, and there’s a shove. “I don’t care that you shot me, it wasn’t you and it only hurt a little bit.”

Omega almost opens the door, but Crosshair snarls angrily. “Bitch!” he yells back, and there’s more shoving.

Wrecker laughs, and Omega is almost certain the larger clone shoves Crosshair into a wall. “You missed me too! Admit it!” Wrecker yells.

There’s more shuffling, and then Crosshair huffs in what can almost be called a laugh. “Get off me, Wrecker, you’re gonna squish me.”

Omega stifles her own giggle and opens the door, looking in. Just as he thought, Wrecker is holding Crosshair hostage in a bear hug. “Can I have a hug too?”

Wrecker looks over and laughs, accidentally swinging Crosshair with him. “Sure! Always room for you, kid!”

Crosshair looks uncomfortable for a beat, but then Wrecker is opening one of his arms and Omega jumps into the hug, one arm around Wrecker’s shoulder and the other around Crosshair’s. “I thought you were fighting,” she admits.

“We were,” Crosshair huffs, but slowly his arm comes up to help support her back. It’s as close to a hug as she’s gotten from him yet. “This is fighting.”

Wrecker’s booming laugh shakes Omega, but she can’t help but giggle back to him. “No, Crosshair, this is making up.”

Crosshair doesn’t argue any further, which is really a win in Wrecker’s opinion. They stay there, silence comfortable, for several long moments. Then Crosshair starts to squirm, so Omega leans back and smiles innocently at them. “Wrecker, what’s a dick?”

Crosshair chokes on his spit, and Wrecker lets the man go before gently putting Omega down. “Um…why are you…I uh…”

“You told Crosshair not to be a dick. Is it a bad thing?”

Crosshair makes another choking sound, and this time Omega is almost certain he’s hiding a laugh. Omega widens her eyes and tries to make herself look more innocent, so she doesn’t give her plan away.

“Well…uh…you see,” Wrecker starts, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s kind of a bad word, so you aren’t s’poussa say it.”

“Then…why did you say it?” Omega cocks her head to the side.

“Uh…because I was frustrated, and I wanted Crosshair to stop being so stubborn,” Wrecker says. He stutters over his words, and Omega nods along. “It means…when someone is being mean, they’re being that word.”

“Oh, okay,” Omega says. She waits for Crosshair to be lulled into a false sense of security, before turning her wide eyes on him. “What’s a bitch?”

Crosshair’s smirk is wiped off his face, and it’s Wrecker’s turn to watch his brother flounder. “Don’t say that word either,” he quickly gets out, looking over her shoulder at the open door. “It’s also a bad word.”

“What does it mean?” Omega stares at him, blinking slowly.

Crosshair shifts uncomfortably, and Wrecker starts to giggle behind his hands. “It means…a not nice person. Someone who did something rude. Wrecker shoved me, so I called him that. I shouldn’t have, though,” Crosshair adds the last part quickly.

Omega nods, pretending to ponder it. “Okay,” she says. “Can we hug again?” She fights back a smile as her distraction works, and Crosshair is just too eager to get her to move on from the conversation.

They almost thought they had gotten away with it. It had been several weeks, and Omega hadn’t said any bad words in front of Hunter even once.

They should have known it was too good to be true.

Hunter was arguing with Omega about staying behind for this mission; it wasn’t a complicated mission, but Hunter just wanted to get it over with quickly. “No, Omega, you’re staying here with Echo, Cross, and Wrecker. Me and Tech won’t take even an entire rotation, you won’t even notice we’re gone. That’s final,” his voice is gentle but firm, something he’s gotten good at in the last few months.

Omega stamps her foot, fists clenched at her side. “Stop being a dick!” she yells.

Hunter freezes, his eyes going wide. “Where did you- I- what did you-you-don’t say that w-” He doesn’t look over his shoulder, but he can feel Wrecker tensing up and start to fidget nervously.

“You’re being a bitch!” Omega cuts him off, and her arms cross over her chest. Crosshair, who was standing behind Omega winces, and Hunter swears he heard the toothpick crack in his mouth.

Hunter stutters, kneeling down to her level and looking into her eyes. “Those are bad words, Omega, you can’t say them. Okay?”

“Shit,” Omega snarls, her nose scrunching up.

Tech sticks his nose more firmly into the datapad, which he had lowered after hearing her first outbursts.

“Stop-Omega, stop!” Hunter stands up again, glaring at his brothers. “Who taught Omega that?!” he asks, voice deep with anger and a conscious effort to keep himself from yelling.

All four of his brothers are refusing to look at him, in one way or another. Echo is staring at Omega in horror, Wrecker is whistling and twiddling his thumbs and looking straight up at the ceiling, Crosshair is staring straight at the ground as he tries to fight back laughter, and Tech’s flaming face is buried in his datapad.

“Well?” Hunter hisses, looking between each of them. “Who kriffing taught Omega bad words?” he asks.

It’s silent for several long seconds, his brothers slowly looking up at him in unison and staring with wide eyes. Crosshair wasn’t even aware Hunter knew that word.

Hunter pinches the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. “This isn’t over,” he promises them. “Let’s go, Tech. Omega-go to the room upstairs.”

Omega groans in defiance but stomps up the stairs, making Cid yell out at them to cool it. “Fuck!” She yells over her shoulder and slams the door.

Hunter turns on his brothers so fast they almost miss it, nostrils flared and eyes wide with anger. “Which one of you taught Omega that word?!”

“You just taught her kriffing!” Wrecker says loudly, trying to deflect the blame.

Hunter’s eye twitches, and Wrecker gulps.

#the bad batch #hunter the bad batch #omega bad batch #clone trooper wrecker #clone trooper tech #clone trooper crosshair #my writing

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acidh2otoby · 1 year

Text

Agent Kennedy, Part 4

Leon Kennedy x Male!Reader

Takes place at the unseen beginning of Chris' second chapter in re6

Part 3 > Agent Kennedy, Part 3

It had been a couple weeks since the first date, Leon's stopped by your office the same amount. He memorized when your break is so he stops by when you're completely available. If you work late, he'll come and bring you dinner and sit with you when you would eat.

You guys hadn't been able to plan or go on a second date since Leon had a mission and you were working your ass off. A case in Europe popped up that looked abnormal and had some virus in the area, but it wasn't one you've seen before.

You brought it to Chris and Piers' attention for a mission but decided to wait a little longer since no dangerous reports had come out yet. You also informed Leon while he was on his mission and asked if that's where he was. Thankfully, he wasn't.

Leon called you after his mission and said that militaries around the world were starting to get worried about Europe's situation. You told Chris, and now the mission was official. Chris asked you to come with since this seemed like a serious case, and it made you really nervous.

When you got home, you packed up some stuff and set out some things for the morning before you decided to call Leon. Your thumb hovered over the call button as you tried to figure out what to say, your heart racing.

You pressed the button and held the phone up to your ear and waited. He didn't answer. You sighed when you got his voicemail and waited until it would record your message.

"Hey Leon, it's (Y/N). The BSAA is going to investigate the situation in Europe and I was asked to go with them. If I don't make it back, I'm sorry. Don't beat yourself up over it." You pulled the phone away and pressed the hang up button.

While you were talking, you felt a knot form in your throat that caused your voice to become shaky. Once you were alone, you sat and cried. You had been on a few missions but they were normally not that bad. Even from the start. But this one had a weird feeling to it.

You didn't know if the weird feeling was because of how dangerous it sounded or if it was because you had more to live for than just a few friends.

You finally calmed down and decided to head to bed. You were gonna try to take a shower but figured it'd be best to do it in the morning before your flight.

Leon's alarm woke him up, he had the day off and slept in a little late. He thought about what he could do today and one of his immediately thoughts was to hang out with you, whether you were at work or not.

That was until he checked his phone and saw that you had called him when he was asleep. Leon mentally cursed himself before checking the voicemail.

"Hey Leon, it's (Y/N). The BSAA is going to investigate the situation in Europe and I was asked to go with them. If I don't make it back, I'm sorry. Don't beat yourself up over it."

Leon felt his heart practically stop. You were gone and would be leaving to go somewhere dangerous, you were probably already there or was currently flying there. The only thing he could do is wait until he gets word on your status.

You had fallen asleep on the flight, your flight was with Chris and Piers since you three were considered the higher-ups of the team. Piers woke you up when the plane landed, he helped you with your things and filled you in on what the plan was.

Your fear grew more when Piers told you that you'd end up in the heat of the battle a lot since the mission needed to be on a constant move from locations. Piers was about to give you a handgun before Chris stopped him and handed you the only weapon you knew how to use; a bow and arrow.

You took archery as a kid and teenager and was one of the best in your town, and you lived in a pretty big town. The only problem was, you hadn't picked up a bow in years due to collage and adulthood getting in the way of your hobbies.

"If you run out of arrows, we have more." Chris said, patting your shoulder a little.

Chris walked away, Piers glanced between you and Chris before he approached the Captain, most likely to voice his concern. Once you were alone enough, you started practicing how to hold the bow and aim with the arrow. You never released it but it was almost like a muscle memory.

The only thing you would have trouble with is if you hand to fight anyone with your hands, because you were not that good at physical fighting. Chris had taught you, especially after you joined the BSAA, you were just hoping muscle memory would work with that too.

On the ride to the location, Chris gave you a knife and gave you tips on what you can do if someone or something grabs you. You were nervous beyond belief, you were surprised you hadn't started hiccuping yet.

Piers noticed this. He was sitting next to you and decided to place his hand on yours until the vehicle reached the location. The little gesture made you feel better, but you were still nervous. You were just hoping you could get out of this alive and spend an entire day or two with Leon.

#gay #leon kennedy x reader #male reader #chris redfield #piers nivans #resident evil

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27emailsicantsend · 1 year

Text

Chapter Four: Nighttime Adventures

December

I guess high school never ends. You sure got a lot to say, when you're talkin' on my name. You sure got a lot to say, but did you tell them everything? Oh, and when you dance with the devil, the devil's gonna dance with you. Oh, and when you play with fire, the flame's gonna burn you, too. Starting rumors, it's nothing new, yeah... She said, he said, she said.

-”SHE SAID HE SAID SHE SAID”, Joshua Bassett

Red was laying on his bed, throwing a hacky sack up and down lazily. Ricky ushered him home after getting shakes with the other theater kids. After giving Gina a quick kiss on the cheek (met with many teasing noises from the theater crowd), he told Big Red they needed to hang out. Ricky knew if he would have framed it as a “want”, Red wouldn’t have agreed.

So, when the two finally got back to his place, Ricky sat on the large chair in Red’s basement and demanded Red to tell him what happened. Red wasn’t hard to get to talk. He flopped backwards on his bed and came clean about what was making him so woeful at the restaurant.

“We broke up. For good this time,” Big Red lamented.

“How... how soon did this happen?” Ricky was hoping Red wouldn’t say what he was worried about him saying... Ricky was wrong.

“Right before Gina’s performance”. Really? Ricky thought. Ricky recognized how painful that must have been; Red watching Ricky make this large romantic gesture right after Red had just broken up with his girlfriend. The same girlfriend that he promised he wanted to be with for good over the summer.

“I- I- am so sorry, Red. I don’t-” Ricky stuttered.

“Know what to say,” Big Red finished Ricky’s sentence. “It’s ok, I figured you wouldn’t. I just appreciate you being here”.

Ricky knew Big Red wasn’t saying anything vindictive, but somehow he still took Red’s sentiment a little negatively.

Figured I wouldn’t know what he had to say? Ricky wondered. Why do I struggle so badly with words? They’re just words.

“H-How did it happen?” Ricky was desperately wishing he could just be there for Red, but Red’s comment made his struggle to help more apparent. It was like his brain was full of a deep fog and helpful words were floating around, but every time his hands grasped for one, the words dissolved.

“Ashlyn,” Red sighed, holding the hacky sack this time instead of letting it fly. “She said she wanted to figure things out with me, with Maddox, and partially with herself. She said she couldn’t explore her feelings honestly in a committed relationship”. Red sat up, still looking glum as he gave the hacky sack tiny squishes with his thumb and forefinger. “I appreciate her being truthful, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t sting”.

Ricky sat on the bed next to Red, putting an arm around his shoulder. “You’ll find someone,” Ricky said before pausing. He remembered something that might be helpful for Red to hear, “all in due time”.

Red met Ricky with a “thanks” and then asked to play some video games. It was apparent Red was done talking which made Ricky relieved. He wanted to help Red where he could, but he knew he could distract Red easier than talk it out. Ricky knew that just being there with Red was what really mattered to him. Ricky grabbed a controller and tossed it to Red; both boys playing Halo for the rest of the night.

The next week was a weird, wonderful, scary, exhilarating, disaster. As much as Ricky knew Gina and him being public would cause a lot of tension, he wasn’t prepared for how much attention. People they didn’t know were acting like they had been best friends for years, he had tripled the amount of followers and comments on his social media and Gina had about quadrupled hers, they had to lock the entire school down for filming so paparazzi wouldn’t show up and take photos (this still happened with the original cast filming there, but it got worse when Ricky and Gina became publicly official), Ricky was receiving random “hate” notes in his locker, and neither Gina or he could walk around in public anymore without someone feeling the need to comment on their relationship. Ricky was right, Gina did receive a lot of comments about her being a “cheater”, but he also received comments about being a “homewrecker”. Ricky and Gina loved being able to hold hands and kiss freely around their friends, as well as date publicly, but their fantasies continually broke as the public crowd would often invade them.

Ricky knew he needed a break. His life had felt nonstop since the beginning of the year and he was about to collapse under the pressure. Zac insisted they walk around the halls and sing “Scream” together to help Ricky sort out his stress, but Ricky just thanked him and said he had other plans. He was going back to Chicago to see his mom.

Ricky invited Gina to come, but Gina also recognized that with the overbearingness of Dani, her tight schedule, trying to see Ricky when she could; she had rarely been around her mom, something she looked forward to so much since Ms. Porter had moved back. Gina figured this was a good opportunity to spend some time with her mom. So Ricky found himself on a solo flight to Chicago.

When Ricky finally landed, Lynn welcomed him with open arms. He told her how bad he felt about the last time he saw her... spending so much time wallowing over Nini and ditching her; he wanted to make it up to Lynn. So they spent Friday night and all day Saturday exploring the city like Lynn had originally planned last year. The pair took a lot of photos, ate way too much pizza, and Lynn even bought Ricky several new clothing items. Surprisingly, Ricky only got noticed a couple of times in public, and neither of the notices were met with hostility. They were compliments on Gina and Ricky as a couple, as well as asking if he knew if there would be another documentary again soon.

The entire experience felt surreal. Ricky hadn’t felt this at peace in months. It was like he had forgotten to breathe and now he was getting all of the fresh air the world had to offer, savoring every last bit of it.

When Lynn and Ricky got back to her apartment, they set down all of their shopping bags on the floor and headed toward the living room to watch a Christmas movie. They sat on opposite ends of the couch before Lynn flicked on the TV and began to scroll through different streaming channels. As she was scrolling, she nonchalantly asked Ricky, “so, what are your Christmas plans for Gina?”

Ricky felt all of that fresh air leave, suddenly unable to breath again from panic. Gina. Christmas. He had gotten so wrapped up in the insanity of November that he completely forgot about getting her a Christmas gift. Ricky remained quiet. As per usual, he didn’t know what to say.

“You didn’t get her one?” Lynn answered her own question.

Ricky looked into his lap and began to play with his fingers. He knew he needed to get her something, but his mind was coming up blank.

“Ricky? Why not?” Lynn didn’t ask this accusatorily, but more concerned.

“I-I don’t know. I wanted to get her a guitar because it’s something we’ve been doing together, but dad said no,” Ricky said, still fiddling with his hands.

“I think your dad was right on that one. Guitars are-”

“-Expensive, I know,” Ricky intercepted Lynn’s thought, feeling half-irritated. “And don’t ask me to get her a pick either. I’m not going down that road again”.

Lynn sighed and hit her thighs with her hands. “Ok,” she said as she shuffled her way over to Ricky’s side of the couch, placing an arm around him. “Then let’s get her something wonderful”.

“Like what? I tried asking my buddy, Jet, but he was absolutely no help. He just went off on some tangent about ‘love languages’,” Ricky gestured in frustration.

“Maybe Jet was right?” Lynn shrugged. “Do you know what Gina’s is?”

“I think it’s gift giving? At least, that’s what Jet and I deduced last time we talked”.

“And why is that?”

“Because,” Ricky blushed, thinking about his conversation with Gina after the documentary promo. His mom didn’t need to know every detail Gina said about the hat. “She knitted me a hat... and she got very excited when I gave her chocolates,” Ricky said the last part quickly. He knew Lynn would embarrass him over the hat if he spent too much time talking about it.

“A hat?! She made you a hat?! That is the sweetest thing ever, Ricky! Do you still have it? Can I see it?” Lynn gushed. Too late.

“No, mom. You can’t,” Ricky concluded followed by Lynn pursing her lips. “Let’s just think about what I could give her. Luckily, because it’s gift giving, as long as she gets a gift she’ll be happy, right?”

“Not necessarily,” Lynn rubbed her hand on his arm in a comforting way. She could tell Ricky felt frustrated. “Sometimes,” she pulled one of her hand-knitted blankets across both of their laps, “it’s about the meaning behind the gift. I really think the guitar could have been a good idea because of what it meant to you both. But you know your father couldn’t afford that”.

“Sometimes it feels like we can barely afford a box of cereal,” Ricky replied sarcastically. “I would get a job, mom, but everything Miss Jenn has us doing is keeping me so busy-”

“Ricky, hey, it’s ok” Lynn said calmly as she pulled his chin up with her hand, smiling sweetly at him. “I know you’re busy. I just mean, maybe we need to think a little outside of the box. What is something that is really important to Gina?”

Lynn moved her hand and Ricky looked down at the blanket, now fumbling with it instead of his hands.

Ricky responded, “Well... she likes dancing, singing, learning things on YouTu-” That’s it, Ricky thought. It was like Ricky was struck by the most brilliant idea he’d ever had. He knew exactly what to get Gina.

“What?” Lynn asked confused.

Oh, right, I’ve got to say it out loud, Ricky remembered.

“She knitted me that hat, mom! You know how to knit. Do you think you could help me make her something?”

“Well,” Lynn laughed, “we only have one day left together, so I probably couldn’t help you finish it. I could, however, teach you so you can finish it on your own time”.

Lynn and Ricky began to toss ideas around what to make Gina. They thought about also making her a hat, or maybe a cute ornament, or even a keychain, but Ricky wanted it to be something Gina could wear, so Lynn and he collectively decided on a scarf. She hurried to where she keeps her knitting supplies and let Ricky pick out the yarn. He chose the same colors Gina made the hat: maroon and burnt orange. Then, Lynn and he spent the rest of the night and the next day in scarf making lessons. Luckily, Lynn was letting Ricky take any supplies he needed home with him, so he felt like he could finish the scarf in time.

Ricky continued to work on the scarf on the plane, when he got home, and later on that night. Just as Ricky was finishing up his portion of the scarf for the night, he received a call. He looked at the ID, a picture of Gina making an adorable pouty face in a mirror.

“Hey cutie!” He answered, so excited to finally hear from Gina after not talking all weekend.

“Do you have a minute to talk?” Gina sounded worried.

“Of course? What’s going on?” Ricky put the scarf down instinctively, a sense of protectiveness starting to course through him.

“It’s Dani,” Gina said apprehensively.

Gina began to explain that Dani was making Gina’s life even worse. All week she had been making fun of her in the halls, making threats that she was going to destroy everything Gina owned, and try to get her kicked off of the dance team. Gina explained feeling so helpless in the situation, which only illuminated Ricky’s protective side. He was furious at Dani.

“Are you kidding me?? That’s not ok, Gina! No one should ever talk to you like that, regardless of the circumstances. I’m going to go find her right now and tell her to back off-” Ricky fumed.

Gina jumped in quickly to stop him, “-Wait! Ricky, don’t. It’s not worth it... I’m calling you because there is more. I think she’s making fake social media accounts to cause more trouble. I’ve already had three news sources asking to talk about my ‘lingering feelings’ for EJ and why I would ever choose someone like you. They said they got videos of me saying I was still head-over-heels for EJ and just want him. And I never, ever said that. Please Ricky, you have to believe me,” Gina begged.

Ricky did believe Gina. He didn’t believe that snake.

“How do you know it’s her for sure?” Ricky pressed, making sure they had the right suspect.

“Because one of them actually sent me a video and it was me during dance. I was talking to another girl about how I still had lingering feelings for you at camp and was wondering why I ever chose EJ. I think she cut the video and manipulated it to make it sound like I was talking about you both in reverse. I’m so sorry... I didn’t know this would happen...” Gina trailed off.

“Gi, you don’t have to apologize to me. I believe you,” Ricky reassured her. “Let’s keep living our lives the best we can for now until we can come up with a plan to get her to stop. Have you gotten something to eat? Any sleep? What do you need?”

“No, I’m exhausted. The problem is, I am so on edge over all of this, it’s making it hard to sleep. Ricky, I just want to be with you,” Gina requested.

“Be right over”. Ricky said, hanging up his phone and throwing on his coat. He was pretty sure he heard Gina say, “wait, what?” before he hung up, but he wasn’t going to let her talk him out of helping her. And Ricky knew she would try. He didn’t want her to feel bad for needing him.

Ricky walked up to Gina’s two-story house. It was white and plain, blending in with the surrounding homes. The porch light was on, reflecting some snow covered rocks below the main windows. Ricky grabbed a handful of them, wiping the cold moisture off of them onto his coat. He then went to the side of the house and unlatched the fence, making his way to the backyard where a balcony stood boldly above him. The balcony was connected to her room, another balcony on the opposite side of the house connected to Mrs. Porter’s room. He saw Gina’s light on and then her figure pacing around the room.

He took a rock in his hand and threw it at the window. It met the glass with a loud, “thump!”. Gina looked over but shook her head and continued to pace. Ricky threw two more rocks, thump, thump. He saw Gina walk over to a chair near the door and grab her coat laying on it. She walked onto the balcony, looking like a cozy winter dream in her coat and pajamas.

“Ricky? You’re going to wake the neighbors! What are you doing he-” she whispered loudly at him, now having approached the banister.

“I came to help you fall asleep!” Ricky’s volume matching hers.

Gina smiled as she rolled her eyes. He knew she wouldn’t be mad. He took her eyeroll as the signal to make his way up to her balcony. There was a large tree next to where she was standing, the perfect distance for him to get to her. So Ricky scaled up the tree, hopping over the edge once he reached her.

“You know I have stairs?” Gina said sarcastically, looking a little like Ricky with her raised eyebrow.

“Didn’t want to wake the neighbors,” Ricky said with a wink before making a cocky walk into her room.

Gina’s room was bigger than the average, but not filled tight. Ricky was sure this wasn’t just because of the size of the room, but also the little amount of items Gina had from moving so often. He looked happily around the room at her bed, filled with old stuffed animals, flattened pillows, and Rina, the monkey. He noted a chair in the corner, a large moon shape holding a fuzzy blanket. He saw some clothes piled around a laundry basket, the basket sitting right beneath a corkboard. On that corkboard was her ribbon from last Thanksgiving pinned to it. Ricky gave the ribbon an acknowledging half-smile.

Gina walked up to Ricky, wrapping her arms around his waist. He met her back with a tight hug around her upper arms as he rested his head on hers.

“So, how are you going to help me sleep?” she muffled into his chest. Ricky gave her a peck on the forehead, before giving her another tight squeeze.

“Just get into bed, you’ll see,” Ricky prompted.

Gina threw off her coat and excitedly ran to her bed, jumping on it before getting under the covers and propping herself up on one arm. Her smile was full of innocence and kindness; Ricky couldn’t shake how horrific Dani had been to someone as incredible as Gina. Ricky handed her Rina and then pulled the chair up next to her bed from the corner of the room.

“Do you have a favorite story?” Ricky asked.

“The Chronicles of Narnia,” Gina replied, eyeing her bookshelf. “But you can’t read that all to me in one night, Ricky”.

Ricky got up and examined the bookshelf, grabbing The Chronicles of Narnia off the second shelf. “Good thing you need sleep every night,” Ricky lovingly joked, sitting down in a chair. He saw Gina’s cheeks start to flush.

With a proud look on his face, Ricky opened up to page one and began reading. Gina snuggled in, hanging onto every word until eventually she fell asleep. After Ricky was sure she was sound asleep, he walked over to her and kissed her head- giving her a gentle whisper good night. He followed this by turning off her lamp and making his way quietly out the same way he came in.

***************************************************

The next two weeks leading up to play felt like a whirlwind for Ricky. Every day more and more tabloids began to reach out to Ricky and Gina, trying to discover more ways to publicize errors in their relationship. Ricky and Gina both knew it was Dani in disguise, but she seemed invincible. It seemed like every time they shut one of her accounts down, two more popped up in it’s place. Luckily, the only time they had to see Dani was at rehearsal for High School Musical 3, because dance was on pause until January. And Ricky thanked his lucky stars “Martha” didn’t have much of a role in the play, so time with Dani was limited.

Ricky also found himself trying to make ends meet with other aspects in his life too. He was trying to knit his scarf for Gina, be available for High School Musical 4 scenes, rehearse on his own time, and see Gina. Another lucky star he was grateful for was The Chronicles of Narnia, because he had an excuse to see Gina each night. Every night for those two weeks started the same: he would finish up a small section of the scarf, scale the tree outside of Gina’s house, and then read her to sleep.

After one particularly long day, a few days before the play, Ricky was putting on his pajamas after finishing another section of the scarf. He was planning on going over to Gina’s soon, but he received a knock at the door.

“Gina?” he said, puzzled to see her standing at his doorway. It was 10 at night, her pajamas were on and her hair was up in a curly, messy bun. She looked adorable with her nose being slightly pink from the cold.

“Hey,” she said, giving him a soft smile.

“Hey! Come in, it’s cold out,” Ricky said, gesturing quickly at her to get in the house. “I thought I was coming over to your house?”

“I know that’s the plan, but plans changed,” Gina said eagerly. Ricky could sense she was up to something and he was right. “Get your coat on, I’m taking you somewhere”.

Ricky laughed saying, “your wish is my command”. He took his coat off the rack, zipping it up when he heard his car keys jingle. Gina was shoving the keys in her coat pocket with a scheming grin.

“Hey now, where are you going with those, young lady?” Ricky teased.

“You’ll see,” Gina said slyly.

The pair walked outside before Ricky felt a little sense of panic. Gina had never driven his car before. She has her license, but this was his car. Red gave it to him when he got a new car, since Ricky drove it around so much. Red would kill him if it got wrecked.

“...are you sure you can drive my car?” Ricky hesitated.

“It’s an automatic, Ricky,” Gina countered, her voice dry.

“Right,” Ricky resolved.

Once he saw Gina get into the driver’s seat, he felt his worry ease up. Someone that pretty couldn’t be bad at driving, right? Ricky thought to himself.

Wrong. Gina sped fast down the road, not taking care for speed bumps, ran at least one stop sign, and she forgot to turn her lights on until about five minutes in when Ricky reminded her. But even Ricky surprised himself when he realized he wasn’t mad or scared- he was exhilarated. Driving fast, not being sure if they would hit ice, defying every rule society had made for cars, the adventure felt wild and new. He liked not caring what others thought and just enjoying the moment with Gina by his side. It was an enlightening, thrilling, rush that he didn’t want to slow down.

But, alas, the couple made it to their destination, which meant the joyride had to slow down temporarily. Ricky looked at their surroundings of where Gina had pulled up. He saw trees, dirt, and no other sign of living. They were outside a forest. Ricky started to get heavy Déjà vu from the Woman in the Woods.

“Uh... Gi? What are we doing out here, exactly?” He said, slowly unbuckling his seatbelt. Gina was already outside her car door.

“Afraid of adventure, Ricky Bowen? Are you a chicken?” Gina mocked outside the car, now standing in front of the passenger side.

“In your dreams,” Ricky said as he got out. He rushed over to Gina, aggressively tickling her waist. Gina giggled and squealed under Ricky. Once she was able to worm her way out of his grasp, she grabbed Ricky’s slightly sweaty hand (she didn’t say anything) and led him into the woods with a “c’mon!”

Gina found a path that was actually meant for night hiking. It had lights leading the entire way up, with signs in neon colors that made it easy to navigate. It was cold, but surprisingly not so cold Ricky couldn’t handle it. Or maybe the adrenaline was keeping him warm- he wasn’t sure.

Ricky and Gina headed up the trail together.

Most of the bushes and flowers were stick like, the last leaves hanging on. The trees folded around the couple, enveloping them like a heavy shadow. They heard an owl hooting in the distance, as well as the branches and spots of snow crunching under their feet. The two of them didn’t say much for awhile, as they walked together peacefully in silence. Being hand in hand with Gina made this adventure surprisingly easy for Ricky. His fear seemed to wash away each moment he was with her.

“Maybe this is what our characters felt like,” Gina remarked, finally cracking the silence.

“What do you mean?” Ricky could feel his brain scanning for any connection to the woods, cold, and Gabriella and Troy.

“Kristoff and Anna? When they went hiking in the woods it was cold. I wonder if this is what they felt like, Gina pondered.

Duh, thought Ricky.

“Isn’t it funny we get to be leads again?” Ricky smiled to himself.

“Ricky, you’re the lead every year,” Gina said, her tone dry once again.

“I just mean with you, Gi. It’s so nice getting to be leads with you again. It’s making my senior year worth it...” Ricky couldn’t bare to finish his thought. He’d been trying to bring up that he might not stay close to home for college. He’d been thinking about the adventures being outside of Salt Lake might bring, knowing he had never really explored outside of his own home until summer camp. Ricky still wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, but every time he got close to talking to Gina about it, it was like his mouth was sewn shut. He just couldn’t get himself to speak... about any of it.

“...I’m glad,” Gina had waited a second before speaking, but when she did she stopped to look at Ricky, not releasing his hand.

“I’m a little worried about ‘Can I Have This Dance’, though”, Ricky said, thinking about how uncoordinated the practice attempts had been. Every time they practiced, either Ricky had two left feet again, Dani would try to intervene on Gina’s choreography (Gina got to choreograph this number), or Miss Jenn would stop rehearsal just as Ricky was starting to feel like he got the dance down.

“Maybe we should practice it one more time?”

“Out here?” Ricky said, his eyebrow once again positioning itself high on his forehead.

“Yeah, out here. No one else has been around since we started up this trail...” Gina noted, letting go of Ricky’s hand. She took her phone out of her coat pocket and set it on the ground nearby. She tapped it a few times before the music to “Can I Have This Dance” started to play. She stood back up, holding out her hand as she sang:

Take my hand, take a breath

Pull me close, and take one step

Ricky took a deep breath as he decided to trust Gina. The two began to dance along to the song, but Ricky couldn’t seem to trust himself. He began to fumble his footsteps, as Gina kept steady through the first verse. He stayed concentrated on his toes, watching his every move diligently.

When Ricky and Gina finally sang the line “wherever we go next”, Ricky took a major over step and almost messed up the entire dance. He had been paying so much attention to his feet, that they seemed to stop listening to him completely.

Gina took Ricky’s chin and lifted it up to her face. “Ricky, trust me,” she quietly urged him before the chorus. Maybe he hadn’t been trusting her. He tried again.

They continued to dance, with Ricky now refocused only on Gina’s eyes. He was able to gather his thoughts more clearly which helped him to finally grasp the movement of the dance. It was like he had been seeing the steps the whole time, but now he was finally using them.

Ricky was able to take the lead by the time Troy took the lead in the second verse. Around the end of the verse, Ricky saw a fleck of snow hit Gina’s cheek. He moved it away with his thumb and softly said, “snow” before the next bridge started.

The two danced and swayed around the forest, improvising moves around the trees and stumps in their pajamas and winter coats. It was like everything from the dance had finally clicked and they were moving together in harmony now. Every lift, spin, and turn were performed with grace; the dance elegantly twisting through the woods. The entire moment felt beautiful and simple, a metaphor for Ricky and Gina.

About the time the dance was ending, the snow began to fall heavier and heavier. It wasn’t rain. It was better. Richer, more vibrant, and more spectacular. The snow came down in large flakes, covering the bushes and trees quietly and quickly. Ricky placed his hand on Gina’s face, softly running his thumb back and forth across her cheekbone. He couldn’t think of a prettier sight as he watched the snow fall into her hair and down her face. Light snow dusted her eyelashes and nose, falling every time she blinked her large brown eyes. Ricky leaned in, his lips finding rhythm with Gina’s. It was soft, exhilarating, and wonderful as he felt completely connected to Gina. It felt like he had melted into one with Gina, thinking her same thoughts, feeling her same heartbeat, and letting gravity do the rest. In this moment, Ricky forgot about the rest of the world. Gina was what was right with his life and he never wanted to forget it.

********************************************

The night of High School Musical 3: Senior Year had finally arrived. Maddox and Ashlyn were helping each other get ready, Carlos was freaking out because he lost Chad’s basketball, Seb was trying help Miss Jenn calm down before the show, and Jet was combing out Kourtney’s hair.

Of course, Jet and Kourtney waited until the worst possible minute (as usual) to announce that they were now going to tell the world they were dating (”if Ricky can humiliate himself in front of the whole world, then I guess I can share my relationship with my favorite human” Jet said, standing protectively next to Kourtney). They shared their news right when Natalie gave the “ten minutes to opening” call.

Jet and Kourtney were a sweet couple to Ricky, but Jet was definitely a male-wife. If Kourtney asked him to jump he would say, “how high, what building, and do I need to bring anyone?” It seemed ridiculous to him that anyone could literally drop their entire life for their partner with a single bat of their eyes.

“Ricky?” Gina called him from backstage. She was on one side adjusting her microphone while he was on the other, running lines with Emmy.

“Yes, dear?” Ricky said, running over immediately to Gina.

“Will you go get my dance shoes? They’re in the dance room. I left them there after our dress rehearsal the other night. I know we only have a few minutes until we start and you and I are on stage fir-”

“-Absolutely. On it.” Ricky interjected, running out of the stage with no hesitation. He bolted his way toward the dance room, which sat at the end of the hallway from the theater. As he approached the room, slowing down his sprint to a walk, he began to hear a familiar voice.

“I know, Gina is so annoying. I’m hoping what we sent those tabloids will get rid of her for good,” the voice said coolly.

Ricky walked up quietly to the door, edging his way, so Dani hopefully wouldn’t hear him.

“Well, I don’t care that the play is almost here. I want her finished,” Dani hissed. Ricky thought about how she really was a snake. “She is taking up too much space on my stage! She literally got Gabriella, a part I had been working on for so long. I hope this article hits her where it hurts... yes, of course I made it up! You really think she would have done half of that stuff? Please. I just want her gone”.

Ricky wished he had been recording. This was firm evidence that Dani was the one who had been sending in those fake articles. Dani sounded like a villain, voicing the next steps to her evil plan. Ricky decided that if she was going to be the villain, then he was going to be Gina’s hero- serving Dani some justice.

He considered jumping in and catching Dani in the act, but Ricky realized that catching her would only be his word against hers. He checked his watch. He had about 2 more minutes until theater prayer circle. Dani walked out of the room, not noticing Ricky still pressed against the door.

Ricky skipped into the room, searching quickly for Gina’s shoes, realizing he didn’t ask her where they were. He thought that maybe in the process he might be able to find some incriminating evidence against Dani as well. Ricky saw some lockers stacked on the other side of the room, all without locks. He began to open the top doors until he got to the third one where he located Gina’s shoes.

As Ricky went to close the door, his eye picked up on a polaroid of Gina and him holding Rina, next to another polaroid of the entire cast. Ricky realized no one at school knew they were together during Gina’s time rehearsing for dance, but she still risked it anyway with photos like this. Ricky couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

Ricky quickly grabbed the shoes and raced out of the room, only to bump hard into someone- nearly knocking the breath out of him.

“Zac??” Ricky said, puzzled. While the school had been... decent about being around a celebrity constantly, the play was open to the public. He thought for sure Zac of all people wouldn’t be there. He was genuinely surprised to not see a bunch of fans gathered around Zac in the hall.

“Little Zac!! What are you doing here?” Zac asked excitedly.

“Uh... It-It’s opening night? I’m playing Troy? Your character?.... Remember?” Ricky wondered how Zac functioned sometimes.

“I knew that, Little Zac,” Ricky took back his last thought. “I just meant outside of the dance room. Isn’t the show starting in like, five minutes?”

“Right. Got to go!” Ricky started to run again.

“Hey, Little Zac!” Zac called out behind him.

Ricky didn’t have time for this.

“Yes?” Ricky said, slightly annoyed because he needed to go.

“Good luck out there. I’ve been really impressed by you. I couldn’t think of anyone else I would want to play Troy. I came to see you,” Zac revealed.

Ricky froze. A twinge of guilt hit as he thought about how he treated or thought about Zac. He didn’t realize Zac thought so highly of him. The whole moment caught him off guard.

Ricky turned around and gave Zac a quick “thanks,” before picking up his pace and running back to the theater. He rounded the corner to the backstage, nearly taking his arm off as he grabbed the door frame to swing him in.

“Told you guys he’d come back!” Gina exclaimed, before smiling softly at Ricky. “He always does”.

Miss Jenn ushered everyone into the prayer circle. Ricky handed Gina her shoes to which she neatly tucked under her right arm, and then used her left hand to lace her fingers with Ricky. Ricky used his free hand to grab Red’s on the other side.

Ricky turned his face to meet Red’s for a second, they both smiled at each other understandingly. Red seemed in slightly better spirits tonight. Ricky just hoped it would stay that way.

The show went even better than Ricky thought. There was a massive crowd due to fans of the documentary and the new movie coming out, so much so that many people had to be turned away because there wasn’t enough room in the auditorium. Ricky and Gina perfectly captured “Can I Have this Dance”, Ricky’s acoustic version of Right Here, Right Now made Gina cry on stage, and each person performed their character as though the part was made for them. Miss Jenn felt bad about turning people away for the show, so she told the theater crew she was adding an additional show during intermission. Dani also surprisingly kept to herself the entire night- probably because she was so worried about her own performance she didn’t have time to harass Gina. Overall, Ricky was very happy about how the show went.

After the show was over, Ricky went to talk to his dad and get the red roses that he had been holding onto to give to Gina. Ricky grabbed the flowers and thanked his dad with a hug, making his way to the green room where Gina would likely be reapplying her makeup.

Ricky’s intuition was right- Gina was sitting at a vanity, applying some lip gloss to her wide grin. She looked sophisticated, happy, and proud... the warm feeling Ricky had felt with her before was returning again. He just felt so good seeing her happy.

“Hey you,” Ricky said, wrapping his arms around Gina’s shoulders. She placed her hand on his, before Ricky reached his head around and gave Gina a kiss.

“Hi, Ricky Bowen... or should I say Troy?” Gina flirted back. She patted the roses. “What are these for?”

“My Gabriella,” Ricky said as he handed her the roses. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her.

“Thank you, Ricky,” Gina said with a satisfied head tilt, inhaling the scent of flowers in the plastic bag. She set them down on the vanity and began to reapply her lip gloss again. “Where to next?”

Just as Gina asked, Ricky heard a voice in the hallway. No- make that two voices? His head perked up as he sat in silence, trying to investigate where they were coming from. Gina could see that he was distracted by what was happening in the hallway. She leaned her head in a little to listen to the conversation was well.

“I’m sorry, Dani. We’ve been filming for nearly two months now, there’s not really a part we can give you,” Zac said, slightly irritated.

“But I worked so hard for this! You saw me up there, right?” Dani whimpered.

“What’s done is done. I’m sorry,” Zac settled.

Ricky gave Gina a suspicious look as he said, “I think the hallway?”

Ricky grabbed Gina’s hand before they ran out to where Zac and Dani stood. Zac looked frustrated and Dani seemed distraught. Ricky wondered how long Dani had been begging him for a part in the movie. Something felt like this hadn’t been the first time.

“Hey guys!!” Zac perked up before hugging Ricky and Gina. “Great job- both of you- I am so beyond impressed. I couldn’t think of a better Troy and Gabriella”.

“Thanks,” Ricky and Gina said simultaneously.

Vanessa Hudgens walked up behind Zac, a slight smirk on her face. Ricky had no idea she had been at the play this whole time. He saw her a few times on set, but he spent so much time trying to get away from Zac that he never really talked to Vanessa. He was touched they both came out to see Gina and him reprise their roles.

“Did you ask her yet?” Vanessa prompted Zac, nudging his arm with her hand.

“Ask me what?” Dani must have concluded that the question was about her.

“Not you,” Vanessa said- the tone coming off more aggressive than Ricky expected. “Her,” she nodded her head to Gina.

“Me? What about me?” Gina seemed puzzled.

“Well, you know how we have that one last dance number for the movie? The one where we are thinking we’ll need two choreographers because it has so many parts?” Zac asked Gina.

“Yes. Have you guys found another choreographer yet?” Gina asked, still clueless. Ricky knew where Zac was going with this though and he felt like he was going to burst from the seams; he was so excited.

“We want you to be the co-choreographer,” Zac said with a massive grin.

“Me?” Gina’s eyes widened as her face lost some color. She shook her head, as though it would snap her out of the fantasy. “Me?” She repeated.

“Yes! Will you do it? Please?” Vanessa pleaded.

“Are you kidding me?!” Dani exclaimed furiously. Ricky could see the red filling her face. “I have been begging for a month now to have a part in this and you give it to her? She’s not even the captain of the dance team! I am! The youngest one to date!”

“The youngest one to date because you blackmailed Gina for the part?” Zac asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Wha-What are you talking a-about?” Dani stuttered.

“You see,” Zac began, pacing around Dani, Gina, and Ricky. “I overheard Ricky and Gina talking about you when they were carrying in waters to the dance room one day. They thought they were alone, but I had just finished practicing a dance for one of our numbers, needed to use the bathroom, and was making my way back to the dance room. I didn’t go in, figuring it was none of my business, but Gina seemed upset so I made it my business. After hearing their conversation, I started to put pieces together and had a little chat with the dance teacher. She said she chose Gina for dance captain, but then for some ‘strange reason’, Gina gave it up and decided to take backstage? That seemed odd. Then I realized the entire conversation between Ricky and Gina was about you Dani. And you want to know what? Blackmail sucks and so do you”.

Ricky thought Zac would stop then because he took a dramatic pause, but Zac continued to talk and pace.

“But then, I thought, why not give you the benefit of the doubt? Maybe they were making it up or maybe I was overthinking the entire thing. Until I literally heard you confess what you’ve been doing in the dance room before this show.

“So, not only did you mistreat Gina for months and cause her to be overly exhausted at our movie rehearsals, but you also mistreated Ricky”.

Zac took one more pause and then gave Dani the same eyebrow raise Ricky does and said, “And didn’t you know Ricky’s nickname?”

Ricky could see the sheer panic in Dani’s eyes as she replied, “No”.

Zac’s face turned callous. “It’s ‘Little Zac’, meaning I have a responsibility to him and his name. You’re done, Dani”.

And with that, Dani stormed off down the hall.

Ricky had felt so annoyed with Zac for so long, that he was surprised how appreciative he felt for Zac. Maybe he wasn’t such a nuisance, after all.

Vanessa beamed with pride at Zac’s monologue. She turned to Gina and asked again, “so, will you co-choreograph for us? Please?”

“Absolutely,” Gina said with massive grin on her face. Vanessa squealed and gave her a hug before the two started talking nonstop about the details of choreographing the dance.

While the two girls chattered, Ricky walked up to Zac and gave him a sheepish “thanks”.

“No problem, Little Zac,” Zac said with a wink and arm tap.

“So...” Ricky lowered his voice so only he and Zac could hear. “How long have you been rehearsing that?”

Zac looked a little embarrassed but was willing to admit, “since after I overheard Dani in the dance room”.

“Did you at least watch the show?” Ricky asked, not surprised if Zac hadn’t.

“Of course I did! It’s called ‘Intermission’. I needed something to do while I waited,” Zac laughed. Ricky couldn’t stay mad at him, no matter how annoying he got sometimes. Zac felt kind of like an older brother. Ricky couldn’t help but laugh back.

Later that day, the theater crew for the play (excluding Dani, who understandably wouldn’t be there, and Miss Jenn, who was with Mike on their own date), went to the same Denny’s they had earlier to get some after-show milkshakes. A few people stopped the cast to get pictures and say hi, but the nothing that overshadowed their night out.

Ricky couldn’t help but think about last December, when he chose Nini over Gina. He felt a wave of regret for the past year and everything he and Gina had been through. So many times it felt like they would never be together, whether because of his choosing or hers. It was like the universe tried to throw every wrench it could into their relationship. But now, here he was, his arm around Gina Porter, clinking milkshake glasses with his best friends. His dad was in a good relationship, he had a chosen family, and somehow Zac Efron wanted to be his best friend? Ricky reminisced, feeling proud of last December’s show and how much it changed his life. He almost didn’t do that first show, but because of Gina, his life was entirely different in the best possible way.

Ricky watched his friends, happily relishing in the moment. He watched as Jet fed Kourtney a bite of his milkshake, Red talked excitedly to Ashlyn and Maddox (who Ricky felt like were going to date any time now), Seb fixed Carlos’ hair, and Emmy and Natalie were playing a game with the salt packets. Ricky kissed the top of Gina’s head.

“What was that for?” she asked, snuggling her head into his chest.

“I just can’t believe this is my life. I’m so happy”. And he really, truly meant it.

******************************************************

The next week, Christmas had finally rolled around. Ricky spent Christmas Eve with his dad and Miss Jenn playing games, watching movies, and eating more food than he cared to admit. On Christmas Day, Ricky went to Gina’s house. Unfortunately, Ms. Porter got called into work that day, so Gina was going to spend Christmas Day alone if he didn’t. Mike had Miss Jenn at his house, so Ricky didn’t feel too bad leaving his dad for the day.

Ricky gave Gina’s front door a few taps. She opened up the door gleefully. She was flaunting a matching t-shirt and shorts set of Christmas pajamas with gingerbread men dotting them. Her fuzzy slippers accented her slight bedhead (pulled back with a red hairband) nicely. Ricky couldn’t stop staring at how beautiful she looked.

Gina interrupted his daydream with, “so you chose the front door this time?”

“Neighbors don’t care during the day time,” Ricky sassed.

The two had made quite a bit of progress into the Chronicles of Narnia. Ricky was still sneaking over every night to read to Gina, so they were over halfway through with the book. Last night Ricky went over to read to her, but decided not to stay long since it was Christmas Eve and he assumed Gina wanted to be with Ms. Porter. Ricky was thrilled to be back with Gina again, finally seeing the Christmas pajamas she had been bragging about the night before.

Ricky and Gina spent the next few hours baking gluten-free Christmas cookies, watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (with Jim Carrey), and making paper snowflakes with kind messages to give their friends. Later on, while they were icing the cookies, they were listening to Christmas music. The song “Winter Dreams,” by Kelly Clarkson came on.

Ricky held his hand out for Gina, “Can I have this dance?”

Gina gave Ricky a dimpled half-smile as she placed her hand in his. Ricky spun her into his arms and then reversed her out, before readjusting her so that they were slow dancing in the kitchen. Ricky placed his hands around her waist, pulling Gina in close and then flopping her arms around his neck. She gently laid her head down on his shoulder as she played with her fingers in his hair. The two swayed back and forth like this for the majority of the song.

Once the song hit the second chorus, Ricky felt like he wanted to tell Gina how he felt about her. How warm she made him feel and how perfect and right every moment with her was. How every time she walked in a room, the room seemed to be showered with light and how she made even the dimmest ray of sun feel like it could brighten the entire Earth. How she made his darkest days feel like his brightest. How she had this ability to entrance him back to her over and over again.

“Gina, I-,” Ricky started to speak.

Gina lifted her head back to look at Ricky and pressed her lips softly on his. The room suddenly became quick sand, making him fall faster and faster within. He couldn’t steady himself from the rush he felt from her kiss. One touch from her was enough to make him lose focus.

“Yeah?” She asked as her face parted from his.

Ricky stared into her large, dreamy eyes. It was like they were swallowing him in. He couldn’t find the words to say. Again. He could only wonder what his inability to speak meant.

“I- I want to give you your Christmas present,” Ricky changed the subject. Gina seemed like she might have been expecting more, but she smiled as she nodded her head in agreement.

The two walked over to the fireplace, sitting down in front of it. Ricky handed her a misshapen package of Christmas paper and too much tape. Gina opened it excitedly to see a crooked scarf that matched the same hat Gina made him, which Ricky was now getting out and putting on his head.

“We match, see?” Ricky joked. Gina’s eyes began to water as she held the lump of scarf half-hazard in her arms. “I love it, Ricky Bowen. It’s perfect”.

Gina placed the scarf around her neck before she said, “I’ll be right back with yours”. Ricky gave her an “ok” in agreement as he waited patiently downstairs, batting the tassels on his hat like a cat.

Gina came back down the stairs about five minutes later, Ricky’s guitar in hand and a small blue package wrapped with a neat white bow.

“What’s this?” Ricky asked, equally excited and puzzled at what Gina could be up to.

“Well, remember all of the times I’ve been coming over and learning guitar? I wasn’t just learning for fun. You seem to understand people best through song... so I wrote you one,” Gina replied with a shrug.

Ricky’s heart played a disappearing act as he waited to hear her sing. Gina adjusted the guitar on her lap and began to strum a few chords. Gina then said, “This song is called ‘Never Let Go’” before she began to sing in a soft, melodic tone:

I’m wrapped in your arms,

tonight I hold tight, never letting go.

A feeling I can’t fight,

a soldier losing sight, it’s beginning to show.

I wished upon stars,

birthday candles left me scars, until I met you, oh.

You’re where I begin,

My favorite win, my stage at the show

So give me your hand,

I’ll take every chance, to never let go.

Ricky’s head felt empty, words felt useless- there was no matching what he just made for her. He found his heart again when he felt it in his stomach right as Gina exclaimed, “oh! And one more thing!”

Gina handed Ricky the small blue package. He studied it as his hand slowly pulled the ribbon off the box. Inside were two small silver rings, with leaves and branches engraved around the entire band. They seemed to loop infinitely. They seemed a bit... small? For his fingers.

“Gina, they’re great... but I don’t know if they’ll fit...?” Ricky hesitated as he stared at them.

“Ricky, read what’s written on the inside,” Gina nudged him with her head.

He picked up the small metal band and looked closer at the writing etched inside.

Pinky Promise

Gina, now on her knees, reached over to grab Ricky’s hand and gently slid the ring on his pinky. Then she grabbed the other one and slid it on hers.

“They’re promise rings. That we pinky promise to always come back to each other. I got the idea after the fair,” Gina explained.

Ricky studied the ring on his finger, now feeling like he was the one with tears. He rolled the ring around his finger again and again, admiring how beautiful such a small silver band could be. Simple, but beautiful.

“Is that ok?” Gina asked, probably trying to gauge Ricky’s expression.

They’re perfect. “They’re perfect,” Ricky echoed his thought out loud.

Ricky reached across the guitar and wrapping paper and gave Gina a long kiss in front of the fireplace. Sometimes it seemed like Gina knew him better than he knew himself. Gina was his serendipity.

#OCAP #Of Converse and Pavement #rina #rina week 2022 #hsmtmts #high school musical the musical the series #hsm #high school musical #ricky bowen #gina porter #ricky x gina

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