#I told her congratulations the rest of the fandom agrees with you

[being-of-rain]

My girlfriend 3 minutes into watching An Unearthly Child for the first time: Oh these teachers are fucking

[laurelsofhighever]

Fandom: Dragon Age: Origins   Characters/pairings: Alistair x Cousland   Chapter: 4/?   Chapter Rating: G Chapter Warnings: None Fic Summary: The story of the Fifth Blight, in a world where Alistair was raised to royalty instead of joining the Grey Wardens.

Read on AO3

--

Spring evenings in Denerim held a certain kind of peace, the streets not yet malodourous with the bake of long summer days, but warmed enough that the last nip of winter in the lilac air lingered as an empty threat, turning the breaths of the city’s denizens into dragonlike puffs of fog. As a young child, Alistair had amused himself with the image, imagining a set of huge wings bursting from his back, and fire burning in his belly hot enough to stave off the cold that always encroached into his narrow pallet above the stables. He didn’t have to worry about that now, sleeping in a four-poster bed in the palace, among more pillows than he could ever hope to use, but he remembered enough that he always brought blankets with him when he snuck into the alienage.

He tried to shake away the melancholy that lurked after him through the narrow gables and cracked wooden tiles. The elves kept their homes as well as they could – certainly better than when he had first stepped foot beyond the main gate almost a decade gone, before the few reforms he had managed to push past Cailan – but it was still a shabby place compared with the rest of the city. Though he would never admit it, the sight churned his stomach with a guilt born of knowing how close he had come to something similar, a life scraped out of a hovel instead of languishing in a palace. He tried not to dwell on it. Whenever he did, his mind would inevitably stray to how he had become a prince in the first place, and from there down a path of what-ifs that left a sour taste in his mouth.

“I’m getting married.”

He blinked and glanced sideways at his companion. Arthea Tabris leaned nonchalant against the chimney stack of her family home, her large green eyes bright in the gloom as she picked at the grit under her nails.

“To who?” he asked, sharper than intended. “Since when?”

She tossed him the same bored look as when he had first met her, at seven, when he had so desperately wanted to have someone like him that he had agreed to steal kitchen scraps for her and her cousins. In all the years since, sneaking away from the Cousland estate or descending from the palace, she had never shown any sign of partiality to anyone he could recall.

She slipped loose the tie in her hair, and as it fell it splashed like a spray of blood. “His name’s Nelaros,” she huffed. “You haven’t met him so you can stop looking so panicked. He’s from the alienage in Highever.”

His heart jolted at the mention of Highever, but he tried hard to school his expression into something more supportive. “Do you love him?”

She rolled her eyes. “No.”

“Like him?”

“Andraste’s knickers, Alistair, I haven’t even met him – won’t for ages yet. I only just found out but I thought you should know, since you’ll be poncing off to Starkhaven.” With another huff, she scratched a bobble of lint from her tunic and flicked it into the alley below. “It’s an arranged match, like your posh toffs do. Gotta keep the bloodlines strong, you know? There are already few enough of us elves left as it is.”

Not wanting to stoke the irritation in his friend’s voice, Alistair breathed out, leaning back against the warmth of the chimney. He glanced at her, at her frown and the sour pull of her mouth, and realised what he was seeing wasn’t rebellion, but resignation. He recognised the look from his mirror, ever since Bryce had told him he would be going to live with his brother. Passed off again.

“What will you do?” he asked.

A shrug. “Go through with it, I guess. I’d run off and find the Dalish, except nobody else has half a head on their shoulders around here, and I’m used to the smell.”

There was a pause, and he realised she was waiting for a reaction.

“Well then…” he ventured. “Congratulations?”

“That’s really all you have to say, isn’t it?”

He frowned, lost by the sudden bite in her tone. “I’m not sure what it is you want me to say.”

“Ugh.” She threw her hands up. “You’re so dense sometimes.”

There was no argument to that. Without meaning to, his mind conjured the icy sunlight of a winter day, the flash of grey eyes retreating down a gravel path.

“And you’re still giddy over that prissy shem bitch.”

“Don’t call her that,” he snapped, breaking out of the thought.

“Why not? You moon after her and she doesn’t care – she rejected you, for fuck’s sake –”

“That’s not what happened.” But the retort rang hollow. Thinking about Rosslyn hurt, thinking about how he had hurt her and driven her away hurt.

Beside him, Thea sighed and folded her arms around her knees, and for the first time her usual mask of indifference slipped into real vulnerability. “I’m right here, and you don’t even see me.”

“I…” He rubbed a hand through his hair. “Oh. Oh. Thea, I –”

“Don’t,” she muttered. “I already know we couldn’t be together, so just… don’t.”

He opened his mouth to try anyway, before deciding against it. With nothing else to say, silence fell between them, and the little light remaining in the sky seeped away. Between one blink and the next, the stars glittered against the black, in constellations he had learned to trace years ago and which would soon be the only familiar thing left as flotsam in the strange tide of his life.

[accidentalslayer]

my grandmother's house wasn't... right.

one night, my friends (about 7 of us all told) and i were all piled in the living room around the tv for a CSI marathon. everything was fine, nobody was thinking about anything creepy really, it was just a somewhat dramatic crime show, right? no biggie.

well, you know how in a dark room, when a tv is on, if it switches scenes the shadows in the room will seem to move or shift for second? it usually isn't a big deal, cause it moves in a rather predictable way. except all of a sudden it wasn't moving like that anymore.

in the corner beheind the tv screen a solid black mass kind of just appeared, and when the scene would change, it wouldn't seem to jump or move at all like the other shadows. and it was dark, like the blackest black i've ever seen, like carlsbad caverns without a lantern black. it was growing, kind of looming over the room.

my friends and i were just kind of frozen, not really aure what we were seeing, not really sure how scared to get, you know? kinda looking at each other and back to this fucking *thing*, just pouring into existence in front of us. that's when two dlbright points of light slid open near the middle of it. eyes.

my friend matt literally shoved my other friend kristen out of the way in his rush for the door, and we all scrambled after just as pale as ghosts. we literally ran 12 blocks to my other friend adrianne's house in dead silence, just like fucking terrified that it might be somewhere around us in the dark streets.

when we got to her house, we all kinda looked around at each other and just started collectively cussing lol. like, fuckin, shit man, what the fuck was the fucking thing?

none of us have ever really figured out what to make of it, cause none of us ever saw it again.

Congratulations on being the very 1st spooky story shared on this blog! I'm happy that you took the time to write it & I'm excited to show everyone else~ First, immediate thoughts on your eerie tale: 🎃 The dark figure was the ghost of Gil Grissom who literally carried the CSI fandom on his back through the desert for 40 days/nights so that other CSI seasons could run. 🤣 Las Vegas was my favorite CSI ever. 🎃 Your friend Matt has "I only have to outrun you if a bear was chasing after us" energy. Poor Kristen didn't stand a chance! Like, I have so many questions. Did Kristen ever pull Matt to the side and like, have a talk with him? Like hey, so. I know you were panicked but are we gonna talk about how you left me stranded to face that dark entity alone? Dick move, Matt.

🎃 Maybe the dark entity also liked CSI?? I'm sure it would agree with me that Gil carried the whole Las Vegas series. 🎃 The fact that you all COLLECTIVELY saw it says something about the entity itself. Or you all as a group. Usually, in my experience, you'll have one or two people who SEE something and the rest are all "Nah, I don't know what you're talking about". I think it's interesting that you all saw the same thing at the same time with no room for anyone to debate it. Thank you so much for sharing your ghost story! <3 And also for choosing to be a mutual of this blog.

[ana-swritings]

Merry December 2022 - Day 20

Day 20 of Merry December

Prompt: Party

Fandom: The Boys

Pairing: Soldier Boy x OFC (Alina)

Words: 978

T.W.: N/A

Summary: A glimpse of happiness.

It was New Year’s Eve and everyone was excited about the party that Vought American had decided to throw. It was also the end of the second year as an established company. But for Alina, it also marked the first anniversary of being with Soldier Boy. They had begun dating a year and a half ago to the day as a publicity stunt and it had been one hell of a rollercoaster.

Alina was finishing getting ready when there was a knock on her door. She knew exactly who it was and when she opened the door, she was greeted by a smiling Soldier Boy. Telling him to come in, she quickly felt Soldier Boy’s arms around her waist, turning her to him, and kissing her deeply. When they broke the kiss, he whispered a “happy anniversary”, followed by an “I love you. She answered and kissed him again.

They broke free from each other’s arms and Alina went to get her purse, the only thing left that she was missing before leaving her house, her hand in his. Driving through town on their way to Vought’s new HQ, they started talking and reminiscing on all the good times they have had since they started dating: the trips upstate for a picnic; the little gifts he would bring her when he would go on missions; when they told his teammates about them, amongst others.

Soon, they were walking into the room where the party was being held. Looking around, they were impressed with Vought’s commitment to throw a memorable party. There was food and drinks being served by impeccable dressed staff, tables and chairs spread around near the walls and decorations all around the room. They could hear music and spotted a couple of musicians in a corner, setting the mood for the party.

Alina saw Black Noir and the rest of his team near one of the tables and, after pointing them out to Soldier Boy, made their way towards them. They greeted the team and stood there for a few minutes, just catching up. Eventually, Soldier Boy asked her if she wanted something to drink and, after she had said yes, left with Crimson Countess and Gunpowder to get their drinks, leaving her with Black Noir, Swatto, Mindstorm and the TNT Twins.

Alina commented on the amazing job Vought did with the party and they spent the next few minutes talking about it, everyone else giving their opinion as well. The conversation flowed between them fairly easily, since they’ve all known each other almost since the beginning.

Meanwhile, Soldier Boy was back at the tables, nerves starting to consume him, something unusual for him. Countess and Gunpowder were trying their best to keep him calm and to help him relax, telling him that everything was going to be okay and that nothing was gonna go wrong. Soldier Boy tried his best to believe his teammates, but he was just too nervous.

Going back to where the group was, carrying their drinks, Soldier Boy handed Alina her drink and wrapped an arm around her waist, kissing the side of her head in the process. He tried to keep up with the conversations that were going on between them, but he just couldn’t focus. He suddenly saw Frederick Vought through the corner of his eye and excused himself.

He approached Vought and after congratulating him on the idea for the party, he asked if he could talk to him. He agreed, seeing that he was slightly nervous, thinking that something might have happened before he got there. Moving to a more secluded corner where Alina couldn’t see them, Soldier Boy told Vought why he was so nervous and he understood, telling him that everything was going to be okay and that he knew for a fact that he was gonna be fine.

After talking to him, he felt a little bit better. Walking back to where everyone was, they joined in on the laughter and spent the rest of the time just talking and laughing. After a while, everyone needed another round so the group moved closer to the bar.

Eventually, it was midnight. The traditional countdown was made and the celebratory toasts began, everyone cheering and wishing a “happy new year” all around. Soldier Boy pulled Alina close and kissed her, telling her that his only wish was to be with her. That’s when he took her hand and led her out of the room and to the closest open balcony.

Once on the balcony, he took her as close to the opening as possible, so they could have the stars just above them, and told her to just stand there, because he had something to tell her. She looked confused, but agreed nonetheless. Soldier Boy told her how much he loved her and how his life wasn’t the same without her in it, even if they started off as a fake couple. He said that he couldn’t imagine living the rest of his life without her and that’s when he dropped down to one knee, pulling a small box from his pocket. Opening it, inside was a simple engagement ring. He got choked up, looking up at her and seeing tears in her eyes and a huge smile on her lips, but he pushed through and asked her.

- “Alina Ward, would you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?”

She could barely speak, but she managed to say yes, before leaning down and kissing him deeply. Soldier Boy stood up and placed the ring on her finger. Pulling her close, he kissed her and felt her kissing him back. When they broke the kiss, they couldn’t help but laugh from happiness. “This is going to be one happy new year, for sure.”, he thought, before pulling her close and kissing her again.

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

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[dauntless-gothamite]

Prove Them Wrong [5/?]

Fandom: Divergent Pairing: Eric Coulter x Fem! Reader Summary: Y/N is a Dauntless transfer from Erudite, and she has a drive, an ambition that sets her apart--it always has, even back in Erudite. She brings her perseverance (and need to prove others wrong) to Dauntless when she transfers, and she uses her mind to make her way through the initiation process. Along the way, she makes friends and enemies, and she finds herself comfortable around the man most people in Dauntless avoid at all costs: Eric Coulter. A/N: I am so glad people are enjoying this so far! I am having a great time writing it, and I am excited about the chapters that are yet to come. I’d love if you let me know what you think of this new chapter, but no pressure, enjoy!!

The next morning, as all the other transfers ran laps, you made your way to the infirmary for physical therapy. When you got there, the doctor who had stitched you up the day before waved at you in greeting. “Hello, Y/N, how is the leg doing?”

“Better than yesterday,” you replied with a small smile. 

“Glad to hear it,” she replied. “You’ll be working with Andre today, he’s one of our physical therapists,” she said and pointed to Andre, who was standing a few feet away and waved. 

“Alright, thanks,” you said and started walking towards Andre. “Nice to meet you,” you said and stuck out your hand.

“Likewise,” Andre said and shook your outstretched hand. “So the program I have designed for you focuses more on keeping your leg muscles engaged without running the risk of tearing your stitches open more than recovery because the injury is serious but ultimately, it is just a deep laceration.” You nodded in understanding, and he led you over to a stationary bike. “For the next half hour, you are going to ride this bike. I want you to work your leg muscles and cardio system, but do not put more strain on your legs than necessary, the last thing I want is to tear those stitches or for your leg to start bleeding. Here is a set of headphones that hook up to the bike’s electronic system; I know riding a stationary bike for half an hour can get boring, so feel free to listen to music while you work. I’ll come get you in half an hour, but you can call me over at any point.”

“Sounds good, thanks,” you said before getting on the bike and connecting the headphones to browse the music selection for a little while before settling on an upbeat song with a strong bass beat. Then you got to pedaling. 

--

You were sweating--not as much as you did during regular training, but you were still getting a good workout in--when the thirty minutes ended. Andre walked over to you and helped you get off the bike, and it took you a second to adjust to the solid ground beneath your feet. “Good job,” Andre said. “It really seemed like you were pushing yourself while still respecting the boundaries set by the injury. That’s smart, if you keep this up, you’ll probably heal quickly. Most dauntless go all out and reinjure themselves, so it takes even longer to heal. But I see you have some brains, a good quality for future dauntless.”

“Thanks,” you beamed at him.

“Y/N,” someone said, waving you over from the entrance of the infirmary. You turned to see Four standing there, and you furrowed your brow; you were supposed to be at physical therapy for another half hour before going back to the training room. 

“What’s going on?” you asked as you walked over to him, Andre right behind you.

“Eric changed the plan, we are working with crossbows today instead of fighting, and since you can participate in this, I came to get you while he explains what's going on to the other initiates,” he explained. “Although, perhaps leaving them alone with him wasn’t the best idea,” he said, half-joking, earning a smile from you. 

“Alright, let’s go then. I’ll see you next time, Andre,” you said to the physical therapist as Four walked with you back to the training room. “So… what’s up,” you said to fill the awkward silence that settled between you and Four as you two walked. He looked at you, amused. 

“Oh, you know. Training initiates.” You laughed at his bluntness. 

“Right,” you chuckled. “So, why did Eric change the plan?” you asked cautiously.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Four shrugged. “Though I suspect it has to do with the fact that he’s particularly… grumpy today, and he probably wants to shoot arrows at someone.”

“Well, that does sound like a very real possibility,” you agreed, and the two of you reached the training room to see Eric walking up and down the line of initiates holding crossbows and aiming at targets, aggressively yanking them into the correct positions, yelling all the while.

“Finally,” he snapped as you picked up a bow and walked to the end of the line, lining yourself up with the target. You closed your eyes to prevent yourself from rolling them at his comment while he continued roughly moving arms and legs of different initiates, sometimes making them wince in shock, surprise at the force, pain, or all three. When he got to Tris, who was right next to you, he looked her up and down, moved her arms, and said “Back straight, initiate! With that posture, you’ll shoot yourself in the foot, assuming you even get the arrow out of the crossbow!” He waited for a second for her to move, but he quickly became frustrated and yelled to Four, “Four, you deal with this one, I’m going to catch Y/N up, since she has finally graced us with her presence,” he said sarcastically. Tris made eye contact with you, and you knew she was wishing you luck, making you smile a bit. 

“Alright,” Eric said, turning to you. Turn sideways, aim down the line, legs shoulder distance apart. Don’t lock the knees, but stand straight. Non-dominant arm straight, other arm pulls the string back once the arrow is notched, pulling with the middle three fingers. Pull the string all the way back to your ear, look down the line, and shoot. Go,” he said, stepping back and watching with crossed arms. You took the stance Eric had described as well as possible, and Eric’s hands landed on your hips, turning them just the slightest bit. Then, as quickly as they had landed there, they were gone. “Same thing as with the punch, initiate. The angle of your hips matters; it’s where your legs and torso connect, so there’s a lot of power there. You can use your core to help your arm pull the string back further, allowing you to aim better and send a more forceful arrow.” You nodded, notching an arrow, pulling back, and looking down the arrow towards the target. Without hesitation, you released, and the arrow landed mere millimeters from the bull’s eye. “Good,” Eric nodded, walking away. 

As you reached for the next arrow, Tris said, “What the hell just happened?”

“What do you mean?” you asked. 

“Eric. He made us run fifty laps, then he changed up the plan and told us all to take an archery stance. Then, he walked up and down the line, pushing and pulling people into the right positions--I think he almost sprained Al’s shoulder! And then, just now, he just… what, turned your hips? No yanking or bending at unnatural angles or anything!”

“It’s probably just because I got injured yesterday and he doesn’t want to reopen the wound,” you shrugged. 

“Maybe,” Tris said with a sigh. “But still, that was… weird.”

“As opposed to the way Four helped you?” you countered, and she blushed. If she thought you hadn’t noticed the way Four had helped her by taking a softer approach than Eric, she was in for a surprise.

“It’s better to try and get into a position you have a hard time with when you exhale,” she defended, knowing you’d heard Four’s suggestion of a quick breathing exercise. 

“I know,” you smirked. 

“Ugh, let’s just get back to shooting,” she said, and you laughed.

“You two, shut up and get shooting,” Eric’s voice called out, quieting your laughter and causing both Tris and yourself to fall silent. You both made eye contact though, took aim, and released your arrows at the same time, each sending a swift arrow into the center of your respective targets, pride for both yourself and your friend rising inside of you.

“Ten more minutes,” Four called out. “After that, you will retrieve your arrows, put your equipment away, and get to lunch. So give it your all!” 

You took a deep breath, and each arrow you shot for the next ten minutes was aimed with extreme precision, resulting in a pretty crowded center of the target when Four called for everyone to stop. It also made the job of retrieving arrows easier since they were all in one area, which you were grateful for as you pulled each one out of the target. 

As you and Tris walked over to the storage cabinets to put your bow and arrows away, Will and Christina jogged over to you guys, having already put their stuff away. “How was physical therapy this morning, Y/N,” Will asked as he came to a stop. 

“It was good,” you replied, “I just rode a stationary bike so I could get a cardio workout and engage my leg muscles as well as my core in a more controlled setting.”

“That makes sense,” he nodded in approval. “I’m glad it went well. The rest of us had to run around here fifty times!”

“So I heard,” you said, still surprised at the number of laps your friends had run that morning. “And this one here,” he put an arm around Christina’s shoulders, “was one of the first people to finish!”

“Congratulations!” you said with a smile to Christina. She had set a goal for herself to improve her cardio, and it would seem she had reached it. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks,” she smiled, blushing slightly at the contact with Will. “So, wanna get out of here and grab some lunch?”

“That sounds great to me,” you nodded, ready to go. 

“Y/N,” Eric said loudly from across the room as he strode towards you and your friends. 

“Yes?”

“Before you go, I want to take a look at your leg; there’s a first-aid kit in here and I want to see if it needs cleaning seeing as you sweat earlier. The last thing I need to deal with is an infection.”

“Alright,” you said and walked over to the bench, your friends following you. You rolled up the leg of your sweatpants, and thankfully, the wound didn’t look too irritated. 

Nodding, Eric said, “It looks good, but make sure to clean it well later. Use soap and water, and halfway through the day or between workouts, I would recommend disinfecting it.”

“Is there anything I can use now? Just to be safe?” He nodded and grabbed the first aid kit from a shelf on the wall, opened it up, and grabbed a hydrogen peroxide wipe. 

“Here,” he said, handing it to you. “There is also some cream here which you’ll be glad to have once you feel the sting of that wipe,” he said, handing you some ointment. 

“Thanks,” you said as you ripped open the hydrogen peroxide wipe and cleaned the wound. 

You hissed as it stung, and Eric sounded further when he said, “Told you,” since he was putting the kit back. You grunted in acknowledgement, and after wiping the area down, you put some of the ointment on, which was a much nicer way of keeping the area clean. Then, you rolled down your pant leg, stood, and made to toss the ointment back to Eric, but before you could, he said “Keep it.”

“Thanks,” you said, surprised as you pocketed it. Eric simply nodded. 

“Now get out of here,” he said, “go eat lunch.” And with that, you were swept out of the training room by your friends. 

--

“So, we missed you at dinner last night,” Christina said as you and your friends sat down at a table in the dining hall. “Although I totally get that you had other things to worry about. You did get to eat though, right? We wanted to save you some food, but it was pasta night, and everyone had to fight just to get their fair share.”

“That’s sweet of you guys,” you said. “Four tried to do the same thing, but he was too late. “Luckily, Eric had a backup plan.” 

“Oh my god, did you eat dinner with Eric?” Tris whisper-yelled, making eye contact with Christina, whose jaw was hanging open. 

“Yeah, last night was a lot. I waited in his apartment while he got me some sweatpants, which are really comfy, and then he got back and made ‘low-carb enchiladas’ for dinner.”

“Of course they’d be low-carb, Will said, rolling his eyes.”

“Were they good?” Christina asked.

“They were so good,” you nodded. 

“How was the company?” Tris asked.

“Honestly it was fine. I think that the fact that we didn’t talk because we were both tired prevented an argument from breaking out.”

“That’s good,” Christina said. “I’m glad he wasn’t completely horrible to you after you’d just gotten hurt. Although, I have to ask, why wasn’t he completely horrible to you today? I didn’t think he’d have that long of a ‘grace period’ after injuries.”

“He probably didn’t want to reopen the wound,” you said, repeating what you’d said to Tris earlier. “Why are you guys so interested in him?”

“Because he is the scariest person here, and he just gave you some ointment for your leg, which is the exact opposite of what it seems like he would do!” Will said. 

“You do have a point,” you admitted. “Look, I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter. Besides, we still have to talk about the way Four keeps eyeing Tris,” you said, smirking evilly as you turned the attention away from yourself, launching a new line of questioning, this time aimed at your friend.

Tag List: @shykoolaid, @taina-eny​, @parabatai-winchester​, @marvel-ousnesss​, @kid-from-new-zealand​, @polychr0matic​

[cyhyr]

Whumptober Day 3 - Poisoned Words, Part 1

Fandom: Naruto

Rating: PG

Pairing: Iruka/Kakashi

WC: ~1000

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Additional Tags: bad friends, accidental whumper(s), angst, emotional whump, talk of cheating, slander, hearsay, thoughts of breaking up

A/N: This is the first part of a short story within the Whumptober Event. I'm not sure yet if this story will be posted in order, but when I get around to uploading everything whumptober to AO3 I'll make sure it's in reading order 👍

That said, this will not be a nice fic. While this part is relatively tame, the overarching story will cover at least 2 separate suicide attempts, serious depression, more bad friends, and the barest glimpse of a hopeful (but not exactly happy) ending.

Tagging for Whumptober: @sweetysamaa, @atereal, @kelkage

~

Iruka pushes the door open to the small cafe at which he’s meeting his friends today, and smiles when he hears Kotetsu call his name from a table in the far corner. He waves to the waitress and heads back, sliding into the booth beside Anko, across from Kotetsu.

“We already ordered for you,” Izumo says, sitting across the table from Anko. “Swiss cheese omelet and black coffee.”

Iruka’s smile brightens further. “Thanks, guys. You all know me a little too well, huh?”

“Not as well as we could,” Anko says, leering at him and glancing down at his lap. Iruka shifts uncomfortably, and Anko laughs. “Kidding, kidding. I’m not gonna get on Hatake’s territory!”

He sighs. “Anko, can we do one brunch without bringing up—”

“Man, I still can’t believe you snagged him,” Kotetsu groans. Izumo elbows him in the side and he gasps, “Hey! I’m just saying!”

Iruka feels a slight headache throbbing in his eye. He really doesn’t want to get into this today—he and Kakashi had a wonderful morning before he left for his mission, and he had received a letter from Naruto just last night updating him on his training with Jiraiya. He came to brunch in a good mood. And yet it seems, like every week, he’ll be going home early, and in a sour mood.

“Guys…” he says, trying to warn them off the topic.

Anko nudges their shoulders together. “Who’d have thought, right? Our plain, average Iruka-kun snagged the infamous Copy-Nin.” She winks at him. “If I hadn’t caught you two with your tongues down each other’s throats, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

“I’m just surprised that you managed to get him to agree to an exclusive relationship,” Izumo muses.

Iruka tries to interject, to come to Kakashi’s defense. “Kakashi isn’t like—”

“I heard he used to have at least five partners at a time before he settled down with you,” Kotetsu leans in and stage-whispers to the table. Then, he leans back and crosses his arms. “I also heard he was mostly into girls. If I knew he was into guys, too, I’d have hopped on that so fast.”

“Guys!” Iruka hisses, “We’re in a cafe, not a bar. Can we leave the talk about Kakashi’s supposed love life before me to a different venue?!”

It’s not to be. Izumo elbows Kotetsu in the side and frowns at him, but instead of chastising him for saying what he did at all, he chooses to admonish him for only a part of what was said. “Really? You would have been part of Hatake’s harem?”

Anko laughs. “Kotetsu, it’s a miracle that Iruka caught Hatake’s eye; you would never be even a blip in his awareness.”

He knows Anko is joking. But it doesn’t matter; hearing it said hurts all the same. The waitress comes by with their coffee and everyone pauses their ribbing while they drink. Iruka thanks her as she leaves, but she just sniffs and nods, barely acknowledging him. He sips at his coffee. It’s not bitter enough today.

“I tried, once,” Izumo says over the rim of his cup. “To ask Hatake out. He said he didn’t date, and that even if he did he wouldn’t be with a chūnin. Guess you’re something special, huh?”

Iruka feels his heart drop into his stomach, and keeps his face turned down to the tabletop for the rest of the meal. Their conversation leaves the topic of his relationship, but the day’s damage has been done. A meal with his friends should set a more positive tone for the rest of the week, and yet… and yet, Iruka is poking at his omelet with no appetite and takes only a few more quiet sips of his coffee before it goes cold.

The waitress comes by and offers to refill his cup. He asks for the check instead.

“Aww, Iruka, you got the tab last week, too!” Kotetsu frowns. “Lemme pay, okay?”

Iruka holds up a hand and smiles weakly. “It’s fine, really. I don’t mind.”

Anko snorts next to him. “Yeah, he doesn’t mind cuz Hatake’s got him listed as his next of kin and now our little Iruka’s all grown up and getting that sweet, sweet access to the Hatake Clan funds.”

Both Kotetsu and Izumo drop their jaws and stare at Iruka, while Iruka himself flushes a bright red. While what Anko said was technically true, she couldn’t have been more tonally wrong.

“You’re Hatake’s sugar baby?!” Izumo hisses.

The waitress hasn’t come back with the check yet. Iruka opens his wallet and drops enough for brunch on the table, and then leaves before he starts yelling—or worse, crying. He doesn’t turn back when the others whine for him to come back, that they were just joking, that they didn’t mean it. He walks out into the dusty commons of Konoha and ducks his head down against the sharp gust of wind that shrieks down the street.

Kakashi is out of the village for the next few days. Iruka doesn’t want to go home to an empty apartment. Instead, he shoves his hands in his pockets and wanders off in a random direction. He doesn’t want their words to get to him, but they’re… they’re his friends, and they wouldn’t lie to him.

So when they talked last week about how low Kakashi clearly stooped to pick up Iruka—

And the week before that when Izumo asked if Kakashi needed another lover because surely Iruka couldn’t satisfy the infamous Copy-nin—

And the week before that, when Iruka first told them that he and Kakashi had been together for over six months and steady, and instead of congratulations he had been met with disbelief and humor—

Well. What else is he supposed to think? He doesn’t want to believe all these things his friends say about him, but if he’s really so bad for Kakashi, then maybe…

Maybe they just shouldn’t be together anymore.

[outivv]

KSDJKSVB- okay so,,,The Boys are out eating with their crush after a hard commission, and they're eating their respective meals. Then she offers them a bite of her meal and extends her fork/spoon towards them. But when they lean in to take a bite, she just kisses them out of nowhere, then just goes back to eating, and leaves them a blushing mess. Also, don't stress over stupid ship wars, it's really pointless, so don't let it get you down! And lemme hug you, you adorable child, accept my love.

Synopsis: tall boys have dinner with y/n after they get back from a commission and y/n kisses them out if nowhere.

Warnings: none

Game/ fandom: genshin impact

Pronouns for reader: I tried to make it clear that y/n goes by she/her in this one (cause I’m assuming that’s what you wanted based off of your request?) but I typically don’t mention pronouns.

Characters: zhongli, childe, kaeya, Diluc, and dainsleif (tall boys gang)

A/n: hello again! Thank you for requesting! I know not to worry about shipping wars, and I’m pretty neutral on them myself, but it’s still nice to have that reminder not to worry too much about them :). And I’ll only except that hug if I get to give you a virtual one back >:). Lol I hope you enjoy, and have a beautiful day, and take care if yourself! Drink some water and eat something if you haven’t yet! ❤️

Zhongli:

I think the moment zhongli knew you were back from your commission he’d invite you to one of (if not the) most fanciest place in liyue. To congratulate you on your safe return.

He’d want to hear everything about your adventure, and he’d listen intently the whole time. Zhongli may like hearing the sound of his own voice at times, but he’s truly a great listener deep down.

When your food comes you offer him a bite, to which he happily agrees. Though when you swiftly move your chopsticks out of the way and kiss him he’s taken aback. Happy. But surprised.

He never thought you’d be so bold. He’d just stare at you in awe with his mouth slightly agape. When you look at the flushed god in front of you, you merely chuckle and talk about how you bravely fought abyss mages of all kinds.

‘How can she just ignore that?’ He’ll think over and over again until he forgets about the food informs of him. He’ll be in shock for the rest of the night, though on the outside he’ll keep his composure and continue as if nothing happened just like you are. He feels like talking about it any make you feel uncomfortable and he doesn’t want to push you :(. Please bring it up sometime throughout the night or else he’ll be kinda disappointed.

Childe:

“Comrade! Welcome back, I heard that you fought well on your mission! You’ll join me for a victory dinner right?” Childe will say running after you in the hallways of the fatui headquarters. (Yes y/n is a fatui agent. No I don’t take criticism.) who are you to deny the harbinger of his request?

You walk into a very, very, very nice restaurant in snezhnaya. ‘Dang harbinger paychecks don’t disappoint.’ You think as childe acts like this restaurant is nothing.

Childe will ask you many many questions about what happened, listening very intently, and even responding a few times to show you just how engaged he was in the conversation.

When your food arrives it looks amazing, sure it’s just normal snezhnaya cuisine, but this is on another level. Childe asks for a bite of your food to which you agree, though you got a sudden idea.

You offer your fork towards the redhead but move it away at the last second, and leaned in to kiss him.

Needless to say all he says shaking his head is, “well... wasn’t expecting that.” His face turns a bright shade of red all the way up to his ears as he try’s to stuff his face full of food so he won’t have to respond to any questions you may have about his current flustered state.

It takes a lot to get the infamous childe, to be flustered and actively trying not to speak, so honestly kudos to you.

Kaeya:

“Ah welcome back honorary knight, good to see you’ve returned in one piece.” Kaeya will say greeting you at the gates of mondstadt. “Why don’t I treat you for being so responsible hm?”

He’ll bring you to good hunter for a meal, and catching you up on everything that’s happened in mondstadt.

When your food comes he’ll teasingly ask for a bite of your food, so when you agree to give him some he’s kinda surprised. I mean he’s not going to say no... but still it’s kinda a shock that you said yes.

He’ll lean in to take a bite but once again moving your fork away last second kissing him, he’s surprised at first but leans into the kiss, and cupping your cheek in his hand.

Once you finally break away you’re the one that’s breathless. Kaeya is flustered, yes, but still had to make you breathless at least once. If you got to surprise him he has to surprise you at least once.

Diluc:

“Ah I see you’re back, how about a drink? On the house.” Diluc will say when you walk into angels share. He heard you went on an important mission to some ruins in stormbearers point.

As he makes you a drink he’ll talk about how he could’ve helped you out if you needed it. Though you simply say that he had his own work to do and that you did just fine without him.

When he’s done making your drink you offer him a sip, while he’s tasted his own creations before, he didn’t think it could hurt to try it now. He leans in to try some when you move it out of the way and kiss him.

His face trunks to one of shock and he tries to cover his face with his hand to hide his embarrassment. He truly didn’t think you’d do that, not that he’s upset, but a weird side of him wishes he would’ve made the first move.

When you start talking about your commission like nothing happened he’ll just look at you with a look that says “really? Are you kidding me-“ because he wanted to say something about it but now it seems taht he’s lost his chance.

Dainsleif:

He wanted desperately to go on your mission with you but you told him that he couldn’t and to stay in mondstadt waiting for him. He oddly likes staring in once place for a while, so he didn’t complain... much.

“Welcome back traveler. I can make you some of your favorite food to celebrate your return if you’d like?” He’d ask once you walk into your home which he’s been staying in while you were gone. Food made by Dainsleif?! How were you going to refuse!

You’ll talk about your mission as he makes the food, and he’ll talk about some of his own adventures from all over teyvat.

I don’t think that Dainsleif eats too much, he’s just typically not hungry, and when he is it’s typically just for something small like a sandwich, so he takes up on the opportunity to try some of his own cooking.

Guiding the fork to his mouth you lean in quickly to kiss him. Shocked he doesn’t pull away, and when you pull away he stares at you in Shock, cheeks becoming dusted pink from his embarrassment.

He tries to muster up enough courage to say something, but when you go back to taking about your mission he quickly shuts up. He’ll make sure to talk about it later though, he’s big one to ignore something like that.

[krreader]

aurora.

pairing: kim taehyung x reader ; jeon jeongguk x reader ; jeon jeongguk x iu fandom: bts ; solo artists (iu) warnings: language genre: angst ; fluff word count: 6k+

summary: dawn comes after the darkness, and with it the promise that what has been torn by the sea is not lost. - lisa wingate

a/n: you read that right. 6k. this escalated so hard. but anyways, let me say the biggest fucking thank you to my lovely friend @belovedcherry​ who actually commissioned this and was kind enough to let me post it. I am beyond grateful for you, seriously. I truly hope this is everything you wanted and more and thank you again for being such an amazing person. I love you, boo ♥

“What are you doing? It's too early,” you turned around when Jeongguk opened the curtains, the sunlight hurting your eyes this early in the morning, so you tried to squeeze them together tighter.

He started chuckling and jumped back into bed, wrapping an arm around your middle and pulling you against his naked chest, “It's 11 AM, (Y/N).”

“Too early,” you whined, but started giggling when he began to kiss your shoulder, then neck. His hand rested on your hip, but slowly traveled up until he could hold your hand.

His thumb brushed over the back of it, then over the diamond ring that he put on your finger only last night. Then, you finally opened your eyes, smiling at the memory of the simple, yet beautiful proposal over dinner. The most wonderful things he had said last night, about you, your future..

“I still can't believe it,” you whispered.

“Believe it. Believe that you're going to be the lucky Mrs. Jeon (Y/N) soon,” he chuckled into the nape of your neck and pulled you yet again closer, breathing in the scent of your shampoo.

“I really am the luckiest woman alive.”

It was a memory that used to give you joy, of course. How couldn’t it? A proposal was supposed to bring happy memories with it. 

But it seemed as if everything went downhill from there on. Thinking back on it, that was the last good memory that you had of your time together.. of him. And if you could.. you’d gladly erase it from your mind, just so you’d finally stop your heart from hurting so much and the tears from flooding.

But how could you have possibly known? After four years, you obviously had trusted him blindly and believed everything he told you. Every promise and every 'I love you' was a genuine one, you didn’t even question it once.

So how could a person that promised you the world, throw you away like garbage in less than five seconds, when you were ready to give up everything for them? How could the person that promised you their name replace you so easily and give it to someone else only five months after your broken engagement?

Like it meant nothing.. like you meant nothing.

“I don't.. I don't understand,” everything was.. fine. Everything was perfect, this made no sense, why was he saying these things? Why was he suddenly talking about IU again when he hadn’t mentioned her name in years?

Was this because.. she broke up with her boyfriend?

“I'm truly sorry, (Y/N).”

“You're.. sorry?” you got up from the couch, your eyebrows furrowed, “You're telling me you're sorry? Sorry for what? Sorry that you want to throw away everything you and I built for the last years for the chance of being with someone else? You're replacing me for the slight possible of being with.. someone else?”

Being broken up with was a horrible feeling in itself. But the reason for it being that he wanted to replace you.. now that was something that would leave you scarred forever.

Jeongguk tried to look at you, but he failed miserably.

He felt mad at himself and so utterly ashamed, but it's what his heart wanted.. it's what it always wanted. So he couldn't pass up the chance of finally being with her now that he got it.

“She already approached me, (Y/N).”

“So you already cheated on me,” it wasn't a question. It was a statement.

“No!” he quickly yelled out, “No, we didn't, we only.. we agreed to meet.”

“You fucking asshole,” you let out a humorless laugh, your head shaking, “You fucking asshole,” you repeated, but this time you screamed at him, pulling the engagement ring off your finger and throwing it at him.

“I'm sorry,” he repeated, his voice barely audible.

Jeongguk and you used to be so happy that even the thought of you eventually breaking up with each other was not something you could have ever seen happening. He was your soulmate, your best friend, your ride or die. He was the one who was always there even when he was far away, the one who you saw as the father of your children.. well.. that one turned out to be kind of true.. but only kind of.

“Miss?” you jumped a little when the lady working at the airport stood in front of you with an unsure smile, but quickly put on a smile as well to show her that you were ready to listen now that she already ripped you out of your thoughts, “I'm really sorry, but there's no seat left in the front row, all passengers that sit there paid extra already.”

“Ah, I see.. thank you for trying anyways.”

The only reason why you wanted that seat was that you would have liked to stretch out your legs a little more. Ever since your pregnancy began you were having trouble with your legs swelling, something completely normal, but on such a long flight you would have appreciated it if you have had the chance to stretch a little bit.

Your hands rested on your belly, a sigh escaping your lips, “I hope you'll be more comfortable than mommy, little bean.”

This wasn't the life you had wanted for your child.

You had wanted your child to have a happy family once it was born, a happy father and mother who were more than excited to finally be able to hold him or her in their arms. But what would they get instead? A scared and lonely shell of a person who was struggling mentally and financially..

But no matter the financial problems that you had, you couldn't stay in Seoul.

Not with their pictures being plastered everywhere you went. Not with the ‘Congratulations on your marriage!’ slogans in every subway station.

“Flight L730 to Sydney is now ready to depart. We ask our passengers sitting in first class, as well as our gold star members and senators to..-” the lady started to announce. Most people had been lining up for a while already, so you decided that you'd get up and get in line as well, especially because it wasn’t as easy for you anymore to just get up and walk somewhere, despite you only being five months pregnant now.

You were minding your own business, when two girls in front of you started talking about a subject that you really had enough of hearing about.

“Did you see their wedding picture? IU looks breathtaking, don't you think?”

Your jaw began to clench, your eyes slowly looking up and seeing the picture that one was showing the other through the gap of their shoulders.

“I'm so happy for them. He's tried so long, I'm glad he finally got his happy ending with the woman he loves.”

They didn't know.

They couldn't know.

You weren't even allowed to be angry at them, because they were oblivious to what had been going on behind closed doors. No one had known about you. Four years he had kept you a secret. Fuck, even Bangtan didn't know you existed for the first two and a half years. And even after that you rarely saw them. Jeongguk never told you the reason as to why he didn't like you being around them, but you had been alright with it. You weren't dating him for his group, after all.

Still.. you often wondered what people would think of Jeongguk if they knew the truth.

If they knew how he had handled the entire situation.. especially in regards to the baby.

“(Y/N).. you need to stop calling me,” he let out a heavy sigh, his fingers massaging his temples.

“You need to listen to me,” you let out a sob, the pregnancy test between your fingers shaking due to your trembling hand.

This just made everything ten times worse.

A broken heart was one thing, but a baby.. fuck. This complicated matters.

“No, I don't,” Jeongguk looked to the sleeping IU to his right, then pushed the covers away and walked into the living room so he wouldn't wake her up, “I've apologized enough, I can't do much else than that. You need to accept it, as hard as that might be. I truly am sorry.”

“Jeongguk, I..-”

“No. We're done,” he said a bit more sternly now, “Goodbye, (Y/N).”

You had sent him countless of messages afterwards in which you told him about the baby, but the messages were never opened or read. After a while and after a few more calls that never went through, you realized that he probably blocked your number.

And that was that.

Because you didn't have any other way of contacting him.

He had moved out of your shared apartment after the break-up and you didn't know where he lived now. You also didn't have phone numbers of any of his band members.. you had no way to tell him that he'd be a father soon.

But now, after five months and the wedding picture that you saw on the phone of this girl, you once again realized that even if he knew, he probably wouldn't even care..

..because it wouldn't be her baby.

Just like you didn’t matter anymore, because you weren’t her. 

“Flight L730 to Sydney is now ready to board for all passengers. Please take out your passport and flight ticket for us to scan and we hope you enjoy your trip.”

Your hand once again rested on your belly, your thumb gently brushing over it.

This was it.. you'd finally leave that part of your life behind that once brought you so much happiness but had left you with a shattered heart.

It was for the best.. maybe you'd even find your happy ending there.. someday.

                                                  three years later

“I love Sydney,” Jimin sighed happily, leaning back in his seat and enjoying the sun shining into his face.

“You say that about every country we tour in,” Taehyung chuckled and wiped his mouth with a napkin, “But I agree.. it's beautiful. Especially the architecture.”

“If you end up talking about architecture again for an hour straight, I'm going to leave,” Jimin warned, but with a smile.

“I mean, come on, how could I not? It's such a beautiful mixture of old and new architecture, forming something so unique and special that..- hey! Come on!”

But Jimin stayed true to his word and actually got up, “No, I'm sorry, I can't listen to another one hour ramble about some architect that’s already been dead for years, I already did that in New York and London. You pay, I'll be back at the hotel.”

Taehyung let out a disappointed sigh. He should have simply asked Namjoon hyung to go to lunch with him. At least he would have listened.

“Uh, sorry? Pay?” he asked when a waitress passed by, then quickly looked down to pull out his wallet from his pockets.

“I hope the food tasted good?”

“Ah, very good!” and when he turned around to look at you with his boxy smile, both you and him instantly froze.

You recognized each other within a second, despite you not having seen each other in years, and even then, only briefly.

He knew who you were and you obviously knew who he was, not just because of the fact that his face was plastered all over town because of their upcoming concert, but also because of your history. Your history, that you successfully managed to forget about.. or at least.. that's what you wanted to believe.

“You..- (Y/N)? What the hell are you doing here?” he instantly switched back to speaking Korean, his smile reappearing on his face. He even got up and hugged you tightly, despite you and him never having been that close to each other.

But maybe he was just happy to see a familiar face in a foreign country.

You just stood there stiff as a tree, feeling very uncomfortable all of a sudden.

“Man, it's so nice to see you again! It's been.. what? Three years? How have you been? What's new?”

You couldn't have this conversation.

Not here and not now, because you couldn’t predict your emotions.

You hadn’t talked about what had happened to anyone ever since you left and you didn’t want to do that now after you successfully locked that part away and threw away the key.

“Do you want to pay with cash or card?”

Taehyung was taken aback, but the surprise of meeting you so suddenly made him completely forget about the reason why you left in the first place.

Maybe seeing him didn't bring back the best of memories.

“Card, please.”

He took that moment that you walked away to get the machine for his card to gather his thoughts and really think about what he'd say next. He didn't want to overstep any boundaries, or more than he already had.

And so when you were back and inserted the card, he said, “I never got to say that I was sorry about everything that happened between you and Jeongguk, but..-”

“Don't,” you whispered, your eyes firmly on the machine.

“What?”

“Don't pity me,” you handed him the machine, “I don't want pity.”

He gulped down hard. He hadn't said one good thing to you, apparently. And he felt bad about that. So he quickly typed in his PIN, but before he handed you back the machine, he said: “When are you done here? Do you.. want to go grab a coffee? Talk about.. something? Not.. him. Just catch up?”

“I don't think that's a good idea.”

“Please, (Y/N). You live here now, right? So maybe.. you could show me around a bit? I only have today off, so I'd love to see some secret spots that only the locals know about,” he grinned.

“I'm not your tourist guide,” you said bitterly and handed him the receipt, already wanting to leave again.

“I know you're not,” he got up and wrapped his hand around your wrist, quickly letting it go again when he saw the way you looked at his hand, “I want to know how you are. I truly do.”

It was the sincerity in his eyes that made you actually think about it. A part of you told you not to fall for it, that he was just like Jeongguk and that you'd get nothing good out of having an actual conversation with him, even if you'd never see each other again after today. But you had always liked Taehyung those very few times that you saw him. He always treated you well, respected you and took good care of you when you were out together for dinner.

So because of old time's sake, you said: “I get off in two hours. So 5PM sharp,” and with that you turned around and walked back into the restaurant, leaving a smiling Taehyung behind.

“Hyung!” Jeongguk ran after Taehyung when he wanted to get into the elevator, “I've been looking for you! Do you want to go out? Do something?”

Should he tell him? Probably not.. not even for his sake, because Taehyung knew that he didn't care, but for your sake. You probably wouldn't want him to know that you were here.

“I already have plans, sorry.”

“Huh? With whom?”

“See you tonight for dinner!” Taehyung pressed the button and watched Jeongguk's eyebrows draw together in confusion when the elevator doors closed.

He was a little early when he arrived back at the restaurant, so he just stood outside and watched you work for a while.

You were still pretty.. he always thought you were beautiful, but the Australian sun illuminating your skin and smile.. it suit you. Taehyung could never quite understand Jeongguk on why he rather wanted IU than you. If anyone were to ask his opinion on the matter, he immediately would have chosen you to be prettier than her. But maybe that’s just personal preference..

“You should just ask her out, mate,” a guy nudged his side, making Taehyung jump a little.

“Sorry?”

“(Y/N). She's single. Actually, would do her good to have someone by her side,” he only understood half of what he was saying, especially because of the accent, but this guy seemed to know you. When he walked into the restaurant he realized that he must be your co-worker since the two of you started talking casually.

It was only when you approached Taehyung after you got off that you confirmed it, “My co-worker thinks you have a crush on me.”

“I just.. I wasn't.. I was just..-”

“Relax,” you chuckled, “I told him you're an old friend,” you shouldered your bag, “What did he tell you?”

“Honestly? I don't know. The accent was a bit.. much.”

“Yeah,” that made you laugh as you two started to walk away from the restaurant together, “It takes a little time to get used to it. But people are nice here, you know?”

“So you're happy?”

You didn't answer right away, really thought about your words, “I'm.. okay. It's easier here than it was in Seoul. And it's getting better every day, you know?”

Taehyung nodded, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants, “I thought about you a lot, actually. About whether or not you were doing okay. Some of us thought about contacting you, but we didn't know how.. and.. well, we didn't know whether or not we should get involved.”

“I'm glad you didn't,” you admitted, “I needed space and.. time. I needed to be alone to really cut that part of me off, as hard as that sounds.”

“No, I understand,” he nodded, “Still.. it can’t have been easy, moving here all on your own..”

“I wasn't alone.. not really.”

“Oh? Then you..-?”

Taehyung must have thought about a man, a boyfriend maybe. A past one, since that co-worker mentioned you were now single.

But that's.. not really what you have had in mind.

Before Taehyung even knew it, you had led him to a child care center. Only a few children were out playing at this time, since it was already rather late.

He was confused for a moment, thought you might just wanted to pass by, but.. you walked in.

And he followed.

“MOMMY!” a little girl, not older than three, ran into your arms with her black pigtails, you picking her up and spinning her around.

“Ah, I missed you so much,” you showered her face with kisses, loving the giggling sounds she made, “Did you have fun today?”

“Yeeeeah! We made a lot of drawings! I’ll show you!”

“Okay,” you gently put her back down with a smile, “Then hurry, get your bag and paintings. I'll wait here for you.”

She ran back inside, past the child care worker who waved at you to greet you.

For a moment you had completely forgotten that Taehyung was even there, only when he spoke did you remember, “Oh my god..”

“I told you not to pity me.”

“I'm.. not, I'm just..- does he know?! He never said anything?! Oh my god, he knew and didn’t say anything? Or did you never tell him? I don’t..-” his eyes were wide, plainly speaking what he was thinking. Which.. didn’t make much sense.

“I tried telling him, but he blocked my number. He was.. too busy,” you shrugged, “I don't care anymore, Taehyung. I made a promise to myself when I gave birth to her that I won't let him ruin my life any more than he already had. I got two jobs to provide for my girl, I got us an apartment that is big enough for the both of us and I'm doing the best I can to give her everything she needs and wants. I don't need him anymore and I will never need him again.”

He was.. glad to hear that, really. He was actually even a little proud that you got your shit together like this, but it still pained him that Jeongguk would do this to you. To him, it almost felt like he was a little bit responsible, even though that was bullshit.

Taehyung couldn’t have changed any of this, Jeongguk was his own person and you knew that. 

So you didn’t hold a grudge against him or any of the other members. This wasn’t their fault.

When your daughter ran back out she finally saw Taehyung for the first time. He thought she may be shy, but not at all. She actually extended her hand to him, “I'm Zoe.”

“Zoe, my friend Taehyung is Korean.. can you introduce yourself in Korean?”

Her eyes widened, even beamed a little and Taehyung couldn't help but grin and kneel down when the little girl bowed and introduced herself in Korean.

“Wow! You speak Korean?”

“Mommy taught me!”

“Your mommy is a very smart woman.”

“The smartest,” the little girl giggled and leaned against your leg.

“Oh wow.. did you paint these?” Taehyung pointed at her pictures and your little girl instantly showed him with a proud smile, “These are.. amazing!”

“Mommy he likes them! Did you hear? He likes them!”

“I heard,” you grinned and picked her up, brushing down the skirt of her dress, “Let's go home, though. You need to eat something and so does mommy.”

Taehyung didn't move when you walked up ahead, he didn't think you'd want him to come, but..-

“Hey.. you coming or what?” you smiled at him and even Zoe waved him over, “Come on, Taehyungie!”

"We need to talk about honorifics, I think,” he chuckled.

Taehyung remembered the old apartment you used to live at with Jeongguk. It had been luxurious and big, too big for two people actually.

Your apartment now was a lot more cozier.

It was a one bedroom apartment, small, but still nice. It felt.. like home. Like what he always wanted to experience when he was a teenager and thought about moving in with his girlfriend eventually.

“Look,” Zoe struggled to climb up on the couch, her tongue sticking out in concentration, but once she sat next to Taehyung, she proudly showed him all her favorite paintings that she made, “This is mommy and this is me.”

“Wow.. your mommy looks so beautiful here. And you look so cute!”

“My mommy is the beautifulest person on the planet,” she proudly said.

Taehyung raised his head and watched you make dinner in the kitchen. You had put up your hair, but some strands kept falling into your face. He watched with a smile as you pushed them back again and again, letting out more than one annoyed sigh because of it.

“She really is,” he whispered.

Zoe might only be three years old, but kids were a lot smarter than adults gave them credit for.

She looked the same direction that he looked at, then looked back at him, “Do you like my mommy?”

“Huh? Oh, I..- well, your mommy is an old friend, you know?”

She was quiet for a moment, then she asked, “Are you.. my daddy?”

Oh god.., “I'm.. uhm.. just a friend, sweetheart.”

“Oh..-” her shoulder slumped in disappointment, then she pulled out a paper from the very bottom and showed him. It was of her, you and a man.. but the man didn't have a face, “I don't have a daddy, you know? All of my friends do.. but I don't.”

It broke his heart.

It absolutely shattered it, actually.

And he wanted to punch the living shit out of Jeongguk and that had never been an emotion he felt before.

“But you have your mommy.. and she loves you so much,” Taehyung tried to console her.

“I know,” she nodded, slowly beginning to smile again, “I love her most.”

“Okay,” you walked into the living room and put two plates down in front of Taehyung and Zoe, “I'm sorry, love, I didn't have time to go grocery shopping today. I hope this is okay..”

“PASTA!” she screamed in excitement and sat down on the floor, “Thank you, mommy!”

You gently brushed through her hair, then handed Taehyung a fork, “I know, not what you're used to, but I hope you like it nevertheless.”

“It's perfect,” you stared at each other for a moment, you being the first to break the eye contact when your daughter started to tell you about her day.

But you still caught yourself staring at him more than once throughout the dinner.

Maybe it was the way he talked to Zoe that made you feel this way, the way that Zoe looked at him.. or maybe it was just that you've been so lonely for so long that it was nice to finally have someone like him here again. Someone from your past? Someone that you once liked and got along with? Or just.. anyone older than your daughter?

Maybe.. maybe it was the fact that it was him.

And you knew that was stupid. 

Because what the fuck did you think was going to happen?

He was still a BTS member, he was currently on world tour and he'd leave in what.. two days again? Getting attached was a stupid thing to do and you were not stupid.

Not anymore.

“You need help?” Taehyung peaked his head into the kitchen after dinner to see if you needed help with the dishes.

“I'm good, thank you,” you smiled at him from over your shoulder.

“Mommy, can you read me my bedtime story?”

Zoe squeezed past Taehyung to stand in the kitchen, already in her pajamas. 

“Can you give me ten more minutes?”

“I.. can do it. If you.. want to and if that's okay with you?” Taehyung looked at you to await your approval, but it seemed like Zoe decided before you could.

“YES!” she jumped up and down and pulled him with her into your bedroom.

It seemed like you shared your bedroom with your daughter. There was only one bed here, so he assumed you and her slept in one bed.

And he was correct.

She tried her hardest to climb up onto the bed like she had tried with the couch earlier, but she had no chance with the bed, it was simply too high for her.

Taehyung grinned and gently lifted her up, then sat down next to her, “This is my side,” she proudly said as she got under the covers, “Mommy sleeps there.”

“That's so cool!”

“Mommy says that once we have enough money to move, I get my own bedroom!” she squealed in excitement.

And once again, Taehyung's heart started to hurt.

Jeongguk had so much money.. and you were here sharing a bed with your daughter because you could barely afford this apartment. How was this fair?

News flash. It wasn’t.

None of this was.

And that was Jeongguk’s fault right from the start. But it was only now that he realized just how much of his fault it all was.

Nevertheless, he didn't want to show his emotions to the little girl.

Instead, he read her the bedtime story that she wanted to hear, doing his best to deliver it in a way that children would find entertaining.

Only that.. she really didn't care about the story. At least not when he was much more interesting.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course, love,” he closed the book but kept his finger in it, in case she wanted to hear more of the story later on.

“Do you know who my daddy is?”

Oh god.. what should he do? Lie to her? 

Yes. Absolutely. You had your reasons for not telling her about Jeongguk, he would not be the one to tell her about him if you hadn't so far.

“I don't.”

And once again, her shoulder slumped.

“I think about him sometimes.. maybe he hates me, so that's why he left mommy..”

“No,” Taehyung immediately shook his head, “Don't think like this. You are a wonderful girl. You're beautiful, you're smart and,” he picked up one of her paintings from the night stand, “So talented. Whoever your dad is, wherever he is, he’s an idiot for not seeing that.”

She giggled, “You said a bad word.”

“Don't tell your mommy, okay? I’m scared she won’t like me anymore if she finds out.”

“I promise,” she giggled, then quickly pushed the covers away and cuddled against his chest, closing her eyes for a moment, “I hope you visit us more often. I really like you..”

Taehyung slowly wrapped his arms around the little girl, but he didn't say anything. Because he didn't want to make her a promise that he couldn't keep.

It took five more minutes for him to come out of the bedroom, smiling at you when he saw you leaning against the wall opposite of the bedroom.

“She's a cute girl,” he whispered.

“Yeah.. I got really lucky.”

Taehyung completely forgot that he had dinner plans with the rest of the boys and his managers tonight. He hadn't checked his phone for hours and wasn't planning on doing it now as you and him sat in front of the couch with glasses of wine in your hands.

“I don't ever really bring men over.. so this is all new for her.”

“What.. no sexual adventures?”

“I know this might be hard to believe, but it’s not exactly easy to do that when you have a toddler sleeping in the same bed as you,” you both chuckled.

It was quiet for a moment, you staring into your glass, when he asked: “She seems to be thinking about her father a lot.”

“It's hard for her to understand why everyone else has one and only she doesn't,” you took a sip from your wine, “But I can't bring myself to tell her the truth. Not now. She wouldn't understand anyways. So I just don't tell her at all.”

Taehyung didn't say anything.

And you noticed that.

“You disapprove.”

“It's not my place to have an opinion on this, (Y/N). This is your child and your child only.”

You liked that. That he didn't acknowledge Jeongguk's role in this, because that's what it was to you now. He was only the one who made her, but he had no place in her life.

Still.. you thought about him every now and then.

And it's been three years.

You were over it.

“How is he?”

“No, I'm not talking about him,” he shook his head.

“I'm okay, Taehyung.”

“I don't care. He doesn't deserve for you to even so much as think about him.”

“He's still your best friend, just because of what happened between him and me doesn't mean that you have to hate him too.”

“I didn't hate him. Not before. But..-” Taehyung gulped down hard, “If I have had the chance to have a girl as beautiful as Zoe as my daughter.. I'd be the happiest man alive, (Y/N). And he..-”

“He doesn’t know and I stopped blaming him a long time ago. I realized that I’m a much happier person if I don’t focus on what went wrong in my life and just appreciate what went right. I used to hate him, but at the same time, I am so grateful that he gave me Zoe. She’s everything to me.”

“Still, I'm sorry for what he did to you. And there is no way that I can.. undo what he's done.. but maybe I could.. I don't know.. come by every once in a while?”

“Sydney isn't Busan, Taehyung. You can't just get in the car and be there in two hours.”

“BigHit is giving us more breaks nowadays and.. we're thinking about a hiatus anyways. Nothing is set in stone, but we all need a break. Maybe one year, maybe two, maybe more, maybe forever,” he then realized what he just told you and his eyes quickly widened, “But.. don't tell anyone about that. That's actually top secret and I shouldn't have told you about it.”

You chuckled and nodded, “I won't tell. Promise.”

“So.. what do you say? Would you like that?”

Your smile slowly faded, then you shook your head a little as your eyes fell onto the picture of you and Zoe together, “I trusted Jeongguk with my entire being and he broke me for having done that. I can't be this naive again. Not when I have Zoe. I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about, I understand you. But I’m going to prove it to you.. that I’m not him,” he made a promise to himself that night. Jeongguk might have abandoned you, but he wouldn't. He had let you go so easily back then, but he couldn't again, not after all this.

You didn't say anything. You just continued drinking your wine with him in silence.

Nothing happened this night.

You just talked about his life, about your life, catching up like old friends. And it really felt like that's what you were, despite you not having talked a lot back in the day.

Taehyung completely forgot the time and boy, everyone was so mad at him for coming back so late. They thought something might have happened.

And that was true.

Something did happen.

He had made a decision and a promise on where he'd be five years from now.

And he kept that promise.

                                                 five years later

A hiatus that already lasted almost two years, but they needed that time.

Bangtan was drained and they all needed a break.

However, they all went their separate ways, all doing things they were passionate about. But not with each other.

Jeongguk, who had just signed his divorce papers after his marriage with IU had slowly but surely been falling apart for the last three years, was incredibly lost. Normally, he'd just spend time with his hyungs and they'd pick him up again like they always did, but with the way they were all scattered around the globe, that wasn't so easy anymore.

He ended up taking a flight to Sydney.

Him and Taehyung weren't as close as they once were and he never found out the reason for why that was, but he could really use the one that he once called his actual brother.

Maybe this would even bring them closer together again.

Taehyung had once told them the address he'd be staying at while he'd be in Sydney for emergencies, so that's where he was going now.

A.. surprise visit.

Only that when he got out of the car, he didn't see Taehyung, but someone he had only recently been starting to think about a lot again.

And what a surprise it was indeed.. but for him.

“Why are you so bad at admitting it?” you laughed happily as you got out of the car, Jeongguk staring at the girl, not older than eight, who looked.. exactly.. like him, “I know you like him.”

“Mom, stop it,” the girl giggled, “I don't like him, boys are disgusting.”

“You're such a bad liar.”

The girl sprinted into the apartment building, while you walked to the trunk of the car to get the groceries out.

He just stood there in shock, watched you unpack everything, not being able to move or say anything.

But it was as if you knew.

Knew, that someone was staring and watching you.

You stopped moving momentarily, then you turned around and looked around until your eyes fell on him. The man you hadn't thought about in five years. Because you really had no reason to anymore.

He didn't look good. He looked like he hadn't slept in ages and the man you once thought to be a god now looked so mortal and human.

He reminded you of you when you first came here, actually.

Both of you stared at each other for a very long time, before he was the first to approach you.

“You're.. here..?”

“I think the better question would be why are you?” your voice was so strong compared to his.

“I.. well, Taehyung.. hyung, he gave me..-”

“Mom, can you hurry..-” Zoe stopped when she saw you talk to a man, “Oh.. sorry.”

And you could tell that he knew instantly.

Maybe it was the age or the fact that she looked just like him. Probably the latter.

“Hi,” he managed to say in a high-pitched voice.

“Uh, hey,” she furrowed her eyebrows, “Should.. I get.. dad?”

“Dad?” Jeongguk looked at you in confusion.

“It's fine, love. Just wait upstairs. I'll be right there.”

She left, even though she seemed unsure of whether or not she should leave you alone with this guy. He seemed.. weird.

“Dad?” he repeated, “She..-”

“I tried telling you, Jeongguk. I called, I texted, I did everything I could. But you were too busy chasing after your happy ending that, from the looks of it, didn't work out in the end.”

“Who is dad?!” he asked once again.

“That's none of your business. It's not you, that's all that matters.”

“But I am! I am her father! You just said it, she’s my kid!”

You let out a laugh, “No. You really aren't. You might have been the sperm donor, but that’s all you are.”

You wanted to walk past him, but he quickly grabbed your arm, “(Y/N), wait..-”

“No, I know what you're going to say. You're going to apologize to me and you're going to tell me that you made the biggest mistake of your life. You're going to tell me that IU wasn't the one for you after all and you're going to ask me to forgive you, maybe even for the sake of my daughter. Is that about right?” when he didn't answer, you knew you were on the right track, “So let me tell you right upfront, Jeon Jeongguk. The times of me crying over what could have been are over. Because for the first time in over five years, I am finally happy. Completely and utterly happy. And I'm not like you. I'm not going to throw away my happiness like you did.”

He slowly but surely let go of your arm, his shoulders slumping.

“You were wrong back then, you know? It wasn't me who could have been lucky to have you,” you smiled at him, “It could have been you who would have been lucky to have me. But that's your loss.. not mine.”

He came here for Taehyung, but he didn't even think about his hyung after this encounter.

All he could think about was regret.. his body was full of nothing but regret.

You, on the other hand, got into the elevator with a proud smile and entered your apartment with an even happier smile as you saw your son waddling towards you. 

Completely naked.

“Hey, hey, hey, why are you running around with no pants again?”

The little boy giggled and hid behind you and a moment later, Taehyung slid into the hallway with his socks.

“Oh! Hey! You got him!”

“Did he run away again when you wanted to change his diapers?”

“I swear it's not my fault,” he laughed, quickly kissed your cheek and then picked up his son, “Come on now, I know changing diapers isn't your favorite, I don't like it either, buddy, especially after the last time you peed in my face, but it has to be done.”

You walked into the kitchen with a grin to put away the groceries when your daughter joined you.

“Who was that guy, mom?” she sounded worried, but you still smiled at her.

“Just.. someone from my past.”

Maybe she knew. If she did, she didn't say anything. 

Life changed as much for you as it did for her. 

She wasn’t the three year old anymore who was yearning for a father, because she had one now. And even if she knew that Taehyung wasn’t her biological father, it didn’t matter to her. He raised her. He loved her. He cared for her.

She hugged you from behind like the angel that she was and held you tight, whispering, “I love you, mommy,” into your back.

Your life used to be so broken that you felt like it would never be okay again.

But as you could hear your son scream from happiness and your husband making airplane sounds and as you turned around to properly hug your daughter, you once again realized that you’ve finally passed the stage of darkness.

“I love you too, Zoe Kim.”

[divinefireangel]

The Way You Love

SF9 Youngbin x F! Reader Imagine.

He's so precious I WANNA PROTEC

Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction. If this piece of fan fiction is offensive to any celebrity, fandom or culture please let me know so I can take it down. Also note that this is my version of a character or celeb, which will vary from person to person.

Author's Note: Got the idea at literally 3am. And I cried a lil while writing this. I do recommend reading this when you have a bad day. Because I have to say it is cute.

Copyright: Please note that this is my work and if you want to publish this on any other platform, take my permission before doing so. Taking an author's work and posting it somewhere else without any intimation is just disrespectful. I readily welcome suggestions and criticisms. That being said, Happy reading! 🤍

Warnings: All ages and written with she/her pronouns but everyone can read it. (nothing specified with respect to anatomy, appearance, etc of reader). Nothing really. Just pure fluff. Slowburn and crappy ending because I went blank 😂💀

Summary/Pre-Requisite: Youngbin and Y/N are in a well established relationship. But it isn't enough.

1.6k words

Youngbin smiled at the small box in his hand. He can't believe he is actually going to do this. How can something as little as this be the source of so much joy, he didn't know. Maybe it was her. Or the fact that it was for her, from him. An eternal promise to love her till his last day, last hour, last minute and final breath. Well there is still much time to worry about that now though.

Loving Y/N is definitely the best decision he took without having to take it. Loving her, was as easy as breathing the fresh morning air. Listening to her talk was his favourite sound in the entire universe. Watching her dance goofily is his ideal view, other than when she's paying attention to something. Her face looks so cute when she's concentrating, he almost feels like he can cry over her adorableness.

Watching her from across the room, her movements, the way she smiles and makes everyone around her laugh with her silly jokes only adds to one of the many reasons why he loves her. She is the brightest light in his life, illuminating his existence with unfiltered joy and eternal love and affection.

He loves it when she snuggles up to him, wrapping her small arms around his torso and asks him what he's doing with her honey sweet voice, never fails to make his heart melt and burst with adoration. He loves it when she sleepily moves closer to him, like a pair of magnets, because she feels cold and knows that she can always rely on him to keep her warm.

He loves it when she bonds with his members and treat them and scold them like they are her children. Although he loves it more when she becomes a source of reassurance not only to him but also to his little brothers. He loves it when she helps them with anything, no matter how small the help may be. Since he is treated like the Dad of the group, Y/N automatically became the Mom and he couldn't wish for someone more perfect then her for that role.

He loves her understanding nature, her positive spirit, her overly motivating presence, her genuine compliments and concern. He loves the way she looks at him, like he's the only man in a room full of people. Her eyes reflecting the same twinkles of his eyes, with just as much love when he looks at her.

He loves when she slightly shuts her eyes when he moves her hair out of her face. He loves it when her small frame hugs him so tight he can barely stand still. He loves it when she plays with his hair when he takes a nap on her chest. He loves how her hand fits into his perfectly, like pieces of a puzzle.

If there was one thing he could do again, it would be to go back in time and fall in love with her all over again for the first time. Everyday, she gives him something new to love about her. Whether it be her shy smile, her blushy flustered face or the way she gets excited when she sees something cute, the way she coos his puppy to sleep, the way she always makes him feel better on a bad day and so many more things that may seem insignificant to her, but are never to him, makes him fall for her harder and deeper in love than he ever thought possible.

"Hyung! HYUNG!!! "

Snapping back to reality, Youngbin sees a wide eyes Chani looking at him with a questioning expression.

"What? "

"Were you daydreaming about Noona again? Why are you so distracted today? "

"It's nothing Chani-ya. She just makes me happy. That's all. Did you tell the camera crew that I need them this evening? "

"Yes I did Hyung. That's what I was telling you as you were zoned out. I don't even want to imagine what it's going to be like when you get married. We probably won't get anything done at all since you will be distracted all the time. " Chani said in a factual manner.

"Okay that's a bit excessive. And you haven't found someone whom you love as much right now. You will understand better when you do. Till then I can't really explain this." The older said smiling lighty as she took over his thoughts again. Rolling his eyes, Chani patted his leader and left wordlessly.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

"This is nice. The air isn't as humid as I thought it would be. " Y/N said as she walked next to her lover, fingers intertwined, arms swaying back and forth as they moved forward. Stopping still he twirled her around till she faced the railing covering the boundary of the lake. Giggling she wrapped his arms around her so he could hug her, keep her warm, even though she wasn't as cold yet.

Resting his chin on her head, he sighed heavily, feeling content with his beloved in his embrace. Oh how he could stay like this forever and never leave. Hmm. She's right. The air is just perfect. Like her. And it is definitely the perfect weather, to take the next step most relationships do.

Looking up at the sky, the stars shine bright, twinkling and shimmering beautifully. Taking this as a positive sign from the universe, Youngbin hugged Y/N tighter, knowing that it's now or,well later but now is nice. Turning her head to her lover, Y/N stands on her tippy toes to kiss him.

Breathing out the two lovebirds stared up at the star filled night sky. The soft wind getting stronger with time, but not too strong to have any effect yet. Just a light breeze that can be felt. Like the love that's surrounding them, keeping them warm from the exterior and from within.

"Oh! Did you see that! That star is shining the brightest." Youngbin said pointing at a distant star.

" Which one? " Y/N stepped forward by one step, trying to see the star he pointed out.

" That one? " She asked again, this time she was the one pointing.

" No. The one standing in front of me right now. "

Drawing her hand back to her body, her heart thumping strongly in her chest. Now, what had happened when they hugged is that Y/N had felt a small poke on the side of her thigh, where Youngbin's jacket was over on her. So being the smart young lady she is, Y/N knew. She knew what was happening. And it wasn't just feeling the poke, she's been feeling like this for some days now. And she knows that he has too.

Slowly turning around, Y/N was faced with her lover, who was down on one knee, holding a small box with the cutest ring she had ever seen. To say that Y/N.exe had stopped working was an understatement. She stood there, as though she was frozen. Looking up at her, Youngbin breathed heavily and started.

" When I met you for the first time, I never thought that you will love someone like me. So I was happy to settle being just your friend. But we both started liking each other at the same time. I asked you out and you agreed to date me. I never thought that you would actually date me for a long time because I've, well I was thinking that you deserve better. But you told me and made me belive different. And I am really really grateful that you did. And as time progressed, we both grew to love each other so much. You know all of this already, but saying this out loud, makes me sure that I want more. You, have helped me grow into a better person, over the time that we have dated. You, motivate me and drive me to do better, because even if no one did, you knew my limit and my capabilities. You, make me the happiest I've ever been. So will you please make me a little bit more happier by becoming my fiancee and the happiest, in the near future, when you become my wife? Will you marry me? "

Y/N stares at him, while breathing through her mouth. The only sound that's heard is the soft wind.

" Yes. "

Y/N gets down on her knees, in front of her lover, sweet tears of shock and joy streaming down her face.

" Yes. I will marry you Kim Youngbin. "

" Hyung!!! Congratulations!!!!!! "

Breaking his face into a grin, Youngbin removes the lovely and intricately detailed ring and puts it on Y/N's finger delicately. Kissing her left knuckle, Youngbin realises he is crying as well. Sobbing out loud Y/N throws her arms around him, making him tumble backwards a little. Laughing a little, Youngbin slowly wraps his arms around her, caressing the back of her head as he looked up at the sky, trying to stop the tears from falling down his cheek.

Hugging each other tight for what seemed like forever, they move away from each other's embrace upon hearing clapping sounds and cheers from the young men and their team who have now approached them.

Standing up Y/N couldn't help but hide her face in her lover's chest. Kissing her forehead, Youngbin thanked everyone.

" Let's all celebrate! Dinner is on us. " Youngbin stated looking you. Smiling you nodded you head in agreement as everyone around you cheered and wiped their tears away.

It all felt like a dream. But it wasn't. It was reality. A reality that she was so thankful to have. Smiling till their cheeks hurt, Youngbin and Y/N not couldn't wait till they were married and called as Husband and Wife.

[lesbianlotties]

five times Deena and Sam met in secret (and one time they didn’t) - Final Chapter

Chapters: 6/6 Fandom: Fear Street Trilogy (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Fraser/Deena Johnson Characters: Deena Johnson, Samantha "Sam" Fraser (Fear Street) Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Canon, High School, Cheerleaders, Band, Teenagers, Teen Romance, First Meetings, First Love, First Kiss, Fluff and Humor, Fluff, Happy Ending, Light Angst Words: 14470

Secrets.

Deena and Sam met by accident. They fell in love in secret.

But how long can they last together like that?

Chapter 6: no more secrets:

There were dreams. Afterward. When everything was over. Almost every night, all the survivors of the latest, and hopefully last, Shadyside tragedy, were plagued by dreams. Very often, the dreams were nightmares. Deena can’t wake Sam up after drowning her. Josh waits for Deena at the mall and his sister never returns. Sam kills her girlfriend, again and again. Simon takes Ruby Lane’s razorblade and kills himself. Kate’s stab wound doesn’t heal, something worse comes for her. Ziggy refuses to help and her sister haunts her decisions. Martin arrives at the mall in the morning and finds his new friends all dead. 

Nightmares. All of them. Terrible and cruel nightmares, but only dreams after all. It’s not easy to live with it, with all the trauma that this experience left them, but at least they get to live. It isn’t a comfortable title to carry, being a survivor. But, all things considered, they are all pretty fucking happy to be still alive.

However, it wasn’t just nightmares. 

After killing Nick Goode and ending the curse, everyone went back home so exhausted that nobody had any dreams at all. But, on the second night, Deena was blessed by dreams that were far from being nightmares. Sarah Fier’s reward to her, she guessed. And those dreams, those gifts from the girl that wasn’t a witch and put her entire story in Deena’s hand, they were as common as the nightmares, thankfully. Those dreams were blissful, sweet, comfortable, and just confusing enough. In those dreams, Deena was back in Sarah Fier’s story, sharing a simple meal with her brother, running through a field with her dog, dancing with her friends, sometimes doing nothing but staring at the love of her life, Hannah Miller. Or was that Sam’s face? When Deena woke up, it was never clear who was who. But the feeling of peace and safety and love remained, and often lasted throughout the day.

One night in particular, Deena was having the sweetest dream. It must have been summer, the woods were alive and the sun was a clear blue color, the breeze was gentle and the soft red moss under her feet made her feel like she was running on top of clouds. There was nobody chasing her, no dangers, no threats. Only Hannah Miller, holding her hand, running beside her, smiling the entire time and calling her name… 

Sarah.

Sarah…

“Deena!”

“What?!” Deena gasped, suddenly awake. Maybe her dreams weren’t always so bad, but the instinct to fight something evil at all times was sort of always there.

“Well, good morning,” Sam chuckled. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Deena sighed and fell back on her pillows. She covered her face with her hands and worked on slowing down her racing heart. “I’m okay, just…” she rubbed her eyes, and finally the image in front of her registered. “Sam? What are you doing here? What time is it?”

Sam’s grin only widened. She was sitting in Deena’s bed, dressed in some of her best clothes and looking a little too happy if such a thing was possible. “I was done a little early, so I decided to come help you get ready,” she said, “Wouldn’t want you to be late to your own graduation.”

“Right,” Deena smirked at her. She didn’t make any move to get up from her bed though, even less so considering now she had the perfect company.

Sam sent an unimpressed look her way and offered her a hand. “Come on, hurry up! Your dad’s making breakfast.”

“Wait, what?” Deena blurted out. That last sentence still sounded so wrong to her, even if it was true that she and Josh were seeing more and more of their father lately. “Hold on a minute,” Deena frowned at her girlfriend, “How did you get here? Did your…”

“My mom drove me,” Sam smiled, knowing exactly what was going through Deena’s mind.

The two girls couldn’t help but laugh at how absurd a little bit of happiness and normalcy felt after everything they had gone through. “This is messed up,” Deena chuckled.

“I know,” Sam agreed. “Don’t overthink it. Just… go get dressed so we can, you know, graduate.”

“I could… I guess I could do that,” Deena said slowly. She sat up in bed and moved closer to Sam. “Or… you know, we could do something else…” Deena whispered. She brushed Sam’s blonde hair off her shoulder and then simply rested her hand there. She didn’t miss the way Sam’s lips parted slightly, and the way those pretty blue eyes glanced at her lips.

“Deena…” Sam whispered her name in what probably was supposed to be a warning tone. But just as their lips brushed, she seemed to remember herself and she pulled back quickly. “Nope. No, no, no. I said I was going to help so you wouldn’t be late!”

“Come on!” Deena laughed and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend. “We can be late together,” she added. She noticed Sam rolling her eyes at her, but she also knew exactly how to look and talk to her to get exactly what she wanted. “Just one kiss,” Deena whispered.

Inevitably, Sam leaned in. Perhaps she knew right from the start that this was a losing battle. Perhaps it had been her plan all along that both of them would arrive late to their graduation.

--

The two girls sat in the back of the car, while Deena’s father and brother were in the front. When they arrived at the school Deena’s father walked away quickly to find their seats, but Josh waited a moment longer beside the two girls.

“Hey, so, uh, congratulations, I guess,” he told them.

“Thanks, Josh,” Sam smiled brightly at him, delighted to receive one of his shy smiles in return.

Deena lightly hit his shoulder. “Just make sure to hurry up and get out of here soon too.”

Although her younger brother chuckled at her joke, Josh suddenly looked a little nervous too. “So, you guys… I mean, you don’t plan to, um, leave right away, do you?”

It was safe to say both girls were taken aback by his question. Deena exchanged a discreet look with her girlfriend and slowly replied. “No… We don’t have any concrete plans yet, I guess.” She paused, and studied the way Josh nodded, satisfied but still visibly uncomfortable. After being reassured by Sam’s hand in hers, Deena smiled and opted for lightening the mood. “What?” she asked him, “Are you saying you’ll miss me?”

“What? No!” Josh scoffed. The outraged look on his face nearly made Sam laugh affectionately at how similar the Johnson siblings could be. “Maybe I’d miss Sam a little, at least she can cook.”

“Hey! Shut up!” Deena shoved him with just a little more force this time. The three of them were laughing though. Sam actually threw her head back laughing.

“I’m just saying,” Josh raised his hands in defense, “There might be more evil stuff to fight in Shadyside, so…”

“Oh, that’d be so cool,” Sam said. Her blue eyes somehow managed to perfectly combine terror and curiosity.

“Hey, no, stop it, both of you,” Deena frowned, holding back her smile. “No more supernatural shit for any of us, okay? Josh go get your seat, we’ll be there in a minute.” She affectionately pushed her younger brother away, her heart warmed by the things he didn’t say out loud but she managed to hear loud and clear from his heart.

Afterward, Deena and Sam hesitated for one more moment outside the car.

“Are you ready?” Deena asked her girlfriend.

Sam replied with a perfect smile. For a second, she looked down, then she took Deena’s hand in hers, intertwining their fingers. “I’m ready,” she said at last.

Deena felt almost bashful as the two of them entered the school grounds hand in hand. There were frowns here and there, whispers in almost every corner, some surprised faces, and even the occasional smile. She’d dreamt of this moment pretty much since she first met Sam. Still, she reassured the blonde girl about a hundred times that they didn’t have to be public about their relationship at all. The only thing that mattered is that the two of them were together again. Seeing Sam fight against her possession using just the strength of her love for her, well, that helped Deena pretty much get over all her insecurities over their relationship. Still, Sam had made the choice to move in with her father, return to Shadyside, graduate in the old high school, return to the place she belonged to, and to the people she belonged with. However, seeing Sam walk the busy hallways with her head held high and her proud smile unwavering, Deena realized that this wasn’t just about her, or them as a couple, it was also about Sam. Sam coming to terms with every part of herself, being proud of herself and her heart, because it was her love one of the reasons that saved her life, Deena’s life, and maybe the entire town. 

Their cinematic moment of pride and bliss was abruptly interrupted by a head of messy blonde hair appearing between them and a pair of arms falling around them.

“My girls!” Simon exclaimed, hugging them tightly. “You’re late, ladies! I missed you!”

Deena shrugged his arm off her, but Simon only took that as an opportunity to wrap his arms around Sam’s waist and lift her up in a strong hug as he grunted happily.

“Hi!” Sam laughed openly and ruffled his already wild hair as he gently sent her back down on the floor. Neither of them could’ve looked happier if they tried.

“Now, Deena…” Simon smirked and extended his arms while his friend took a careful step back.

“Simon, don’t you fucking dare,” Deena warned him, “I’ll kick in the balls, I swear…”

While the two friends handled that sweet combination of an embrace and a fight, Kate showed up beside Sam.

“Looks like Shadyside’s hottest couple finally decided to join us,” she smirked, sharing a hug with Sam. “I’m not even going to ask why you guys are late. Because at least Sam looks gorgeous, and Deena… you’re here.” She playfully raised her eyebrows.

“Nice,” Deena rolled her eyes. She was fixing her clothes and in between lightly pushing Simon away from her, as he continued to laugh.

“You guys almost missed my valedictorian speech!” Kate complained. 

“Yeah, and it’s going to be awesome,” Simon jumped in, “I’ll put on my witch costume one last time and perform a musical number in the middle of it.”

His words were cut short when Kate tugged on the neck of his shirt to pull him down so she could look him in the eyes and say, “I would literally kill you on stage.” But it was undeniable that both of them were smiling the entire time. The four of them started walking together, with a brief pause for Kate to check on Sam’s makeup and the girls to convince Simon to tie his shoes for once.

Then there was the final ceremony. Kate’s speech was a success, Simon wasn’t completely joking about making one last appearance as the school’s mascot, and Sam was sitting right beside Deena the entire time. Deena, halfway through, realized she couldn’t stop smiling. It felt strange, and upon realizing it, she tried to fight against it, on instinct. But quickly realized there was no reason to fight it. Wherever she looked there was a good reason to smile. Her girlfriend was sitting beside her, sending lovely looks her way every couple of minutes. Her best friends were close by, alive and on their well-earned roads to a better life. Somewhere behind them was Josh, just like his sister, trying and failing to suppress a smile at the joyful occasion. Her father appeared to be sober for a day at least, and Sam’s father was there, awkwardly supportive if only to be better than his ex-wife, it all counted. Deena had affectionately rolled her eyes when Josh informed her that even Martin and Ziggy had made it to the ceremony as spectators, not wanting to miss a chance to celebrate a win for Shadyside, and their young friends. Even the rest of her school, her peers, people that were merely acquaintances, Deena found herself happy for them too. The curse was over. These people were safe from possessed killers. They were free to improve their lives and their town and be free. So, Deena didn’t care if some people were surprised to see that peaceful smile glued on her face the entire day. She had countless reasons to be happy, and she planned to cherish every single one of them. 

When it was all over, the crowd exploded in cheers. It was official. They were Shadyside graduates. They were free. They could go anywhere, be anyone, do anything they wanted to. Some people would run away from the town as soon as possible, and some of them would stay and put in the work to change the town. Some others were content to take their time to figure out what would come next. Taking life slowly and living their days one at a time was something especially valuable to kids that only narrowly avoided death just a few months ago. 

While their peers cheered and celebrated around them, Deena and Sam threw their arms around each other and held on tightly. Even under the thunderous noise of the crowd, Deena distinctly heard Sam’s sweet voice whisper against her ear, “Can I kiss you?”

Deena tightened her arms around her girlfriend for a moment before happily chuckling out, “Of course!”

A moment later, Sam’s lips were on her. 

It was perfect. It was joyful. It was everything they had been waiting for. They were right there in the middle of the crowd, and neither of them could’ve cared less. The rest of the world didn’t matter, it didn’t even exist. Deena felt invincible, but she also felt unburdened from the weight she’d grown accustomed to always carrying on her shoulders. She felt love. Sam sighed into the kiss, tasting freedom, love, and the relief of letting go of a lifetime of holding back, now it was time for her to get to enjoy her life, and she knew she had earned it. 

They were only forced to pull away when they heard an amused, “Get a room!” Kate was standing beside them, profusely rolling her eyes.

“Ready for tonight?” Simon proceeded to slap Deena’s back and earn a roll of her eyes.

“Full moon, witchy, drugs of the land, bonfire party, you know?” Kate added with a wicked smile.

Deena thought that she was almost getting tired of fondly rolling her eyes at her friends, but she didn’t mind it that much. “We’ll be there,” she said, taking Sam’s hand.

--

There were several graduation parties going around in Shadyside and Sunnyvale. A bonfire in the middle of the woods, close to a rock engraved with the words “Sarah Fier the first Shadysider,” wasn’t exactly the most popular spot, but that made it even better. In a town of outsiders, these were the worst, meaning the best, of them. The greatest thing about Shadyside was that even the strangest of their kids came from unexpected corners and fit in together surprisingly well. The perfect example was the group formed by the valedictorian and cheerleader captain, the school’s mascot and Grab n’ Bag employee of the month, Shadyside’s moodiest teenager and possible Sarah Fier’s reincarnation, and the previously possessed and recovering Sunnyvaler. In some ways, they couldn’t be more different from each other. But, if they had been best friends before, now they were something even stronger. It was the reward for fighting a three hundred years old curse together and making it out alive. They were free to dance, laugh, sing, and be as happy as possible, surrounded by friends all around a bonfire.

Deena took her time, as she promised herself, to appreciate the glory of celebrating among friends. However, after an entire day of Sam passionately proving time and time again that she was beyond ready to openly embrace who they really were, Deena was craving a moment of privacy with her girlfriend. There was no doubt that half of Shadyside at least was now aware of their relationship. It was a small town after all. Deena would be lying if she said she was a hundred percent comfortable with it, something she once confessed to Sam. But after practically facing the devil and coming out winners, there was little they were afraid of, especially as long as they were together.

So, when enough dancing and laughing with their friends was done, Deena took Sam’s hand in hers and led her away from the group as discreetly as possible. The music followed them, as well as the light from the bonfire that, in addition to the full moon shining above them, lit a path for them. It was almost a dance, moving around the woods together. Holding on to each other’s hands until it was only their fingertips brushing, rounding a tree, and coming back together in an embrace. They were all giddy laughs, secret touches, and wide smiles.

Eventually, Deena rested her back against a familiar rock. She was out of breath, and her smile was taking over her face. Sam had been following her closely behind. When she was just one step away from Deena, she stumbled a little, and Deena had to reach out to hold her so she wouldn’t fall facedown on the red moss covering the ground under their feet.

“Are you okay?” Deena asked, equal parts concerned and amused.

“Yeah, sorry,” Sam replied. She blew a strand of hair off her face and straightened her posture. When she looked at Deena though, she burst out laughing, and hid her face in the crook of Deena’s neck. 

Deena was happy to hold her girlfriend, but she tried to pull away enough to look at Sam’s face. “Sam…” she said, “Sam, did you take any of the shit Kate sells?”

“What?!” Sam exclaimed, just loud and high-pitched enough to expose herself. “No!” she insisted. She pulled back from Deena and attempted a serious expression while pushing her hair behind her ear. A second later she was back into a fit of giggles.

“Oh my God,” Deena looked away, biting her lip to keep herself from smiling too big. She was feeling a little dazed too.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Sam shook her head and took a deep breath. When she received an incredulous look from her girlfriend, she insisted, “Really!” She lightly pushed Deena’s shoulder. But all she earned was Deena’s hand on her waist pulling her closer. Not that she was complaining. 

Sam placed her hands on Deena’s cheeks, and pulled her in for a kiss. She got easily distracted, and moved to place kisses along Deena’s jaw and down her neck. Deena’s curls tickled her face and the feeling once again made her laugh softly.

“Well, I’m glad you’re having fun there,” Deena teased her.

Sam was nearly resting all her weight against Deena. But she was trying to compose herself enough for a conversation. She pulled back and this time looked just a little more serious as she asked, “Are you happy?”

The question took Deena by surprise. The earnest quality of Sam’s blue eyes let her know it was a real question, and her girlfriend expected an answer. “I am, yes,” Deena nodded, “Happier than I thought possible, really.”

“Hm, good,” Sam mumbled, leaning in closer to brush her nose against Deena. “Me too.” Then they simply rested their forehead together, basking in the blissful moment together. After a short while, Sam spoke up again. “I’m sorry.”

“What?” Deena opened her eyes, confused.

Sam leaned back to stare at her. She licked her lips nervously and explained. “I’ve just been thinking… I realized I never apologized,” she said, “You know, for everything.” It was slightly unclear what everything meant anymore. Deena had a feeling that stabbing her while possessed and their breakup were the two prominent things on Sam’s mind.

“Hey, you have nothing to apologize for,” Deena replied softly. She moved a hand to Sam’s face, and caressed her cheek with the pad of her thumb. She waited until Sam smiled at her again to add, “And, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry too. For the other half of ‘everything’, you know?” Having to kill Sam even if it was to save her life and still, their breakup, were the main things on Deena’s mind. 

As if they could read each other’s thoughts, they understood at once. Just as they forgave each other instantly. They didn’t necessarily forget, because if this experience taught them anything, it was the value and wisdom and peace that’s found in the past. But there was nothing they could use against each other. The only thing left after their extraordinary experience was gratitude and a love big enough to fill centuries.

“I love you,” Sam said, staring deeply into perfect brown eyes.

“I love you too,” Deena replied with that easy smile of hers, waiting for the moment Sam would pull her face in for a kiss.

Afterward, all they had to worry about was coming up for air in between their kisses. Their hands were leisurely exploring each other’s bodies, and their kisses were reverent and unhurried, as they focused on nothing but enjoying each other’s company and love.

At one point, they thought they heard a rustle of leaves from somewhere behind them. Sam pulled back from the kiss with a small frown on her face, “Did you hear-”

“No, I didn’t,” Deena quickly replied with a chuckle. Then she dove back into a kiss, stealing Sam’s sweet laugh right off her lips. There was no reason to worry. It could be the actual Devil, it could be Sarah Fier and Hannah Miller themselves, it could be just the summer breeze. Nothing would break them apart ever again.

[littlemissinvisible101]

From Replacement to the Original pt.1

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: Gen

Fandom: Batman - All Media Types

Relationships: Tim Drake & Selina Kyle, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne

Characters: Tim Drake, Janet Drake, Selina Kyle, Original Male Character(s)

Additional Tags: Tim Drake-centric, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake Gets a Hug, Good Parent Selina Kyle, Somewhat good parent Janet Drake, Bruce Wayne is Tim Drake's Biological Parent, Selina Kyle is Tim Drake's Biological Parent, Selina Kyle is Catwoman, Past Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Child Neglect, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Tim Drake Has Issues, Tim Drake Was Robin, Protective Selina Kyle, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe

Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne had just woken up on his once-a-month mandatory rest day when he saw that the Drake Family Lawyer contacted him about a contingency letter left by his mother. Apparently, word of mouth travelled fast that he had come back from his supposed soul-searching trip around his parent’s favorite dig sites.

Mr. Fletcher had asked him when he was free to come get the letter his mother had left for him. Tim had wanted to get out of Gotham as soon as he could so he set up an appointment for that afternoon.

Tim had whipped together a quick breakfast and taken his antibiotics before he spent the rest of the morning finalizing his 2 weeks’ notice since Bruce had been able get back into Wayne Enterprises for the week. It had just been a little over a month since Tim had brought Bruce home from the Time Stream and while Tim had expected things to change, he had hoped it would be for the better.

Bruce hadn’t even blinked at the sight of Damian wearing the Robin suit. Hell, he had congratulated Dick for the way he had managed to keep Gotham and everything in line. Bruce had even found the time to fix up his relationship with Jason before he talked to Tim.

He didn’t even bother to thank Tim for saving his life and for taking over his family business. Instead, they talked business and acted as if nothing was wrong in front of the WE employees. If it wasn’t in business suits, then it was in the other suits when he called in Red Robin to help with a case. Tim hasn’t stepped foot inside the Manor in months.

If this was Bruce’s way of saying he didn’t need Tim anymore, he got the message loud and clear. After all, he was just the replacement, right? The pretender who forced his way into their lives and refused to go peacefully so he had to be kicked out. Well, here he was, bowing out silently out of their lives.

Tim had planned meticulously for how he would be able to leave without them noticing. In a week, he would submit his 2 weeks’ notice to Lucius Fox before heading on business trip to Japan to finalize a deal. He would be spending the next week there before heading to Austria for another week for another business deal. After, he would simply go wherever he wanted to go.

He preprogrammed a message to be sent to each of the Bats, as a farewell of sorts because even if they didn’t think of him as family, he still loved them as if they were his family. He had even prepared a message for the Titans in case they would ever need him again. They were the only ones Tim trusted enough to keep in contact with. Everyone else, even Alfred would have to be left behind.

Tim viciously pushed these thoughts to the side as he decided to enjoy a quick lunch before he made his way to talk to Mr. Fletcher. As he mindlessly prepped ingredients for a simple salad (because his immunity was shot so he needed all the help he could get), he wondered what would be in the letter.

His mother was not the touchy-feely type. She wouldn’t put something about them loving him. Most likely, it would be business instructions to ensure that Drake Industries would still be the empire that it had been under his mom’s command. Unfortunately for his mom, his dad had been the one to wreck the empire.

Tim had thought about reviving Drake Industries but had ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it. The amount of time that went into running a business wasn’t conducive to being a teenage vigilante and Tim wanted to be free to pursue the things he wanted in life. He had more than enough money to live off on and he had invested his money wisely so it had been turning a profit since he had left Gotham the first time.

Even if he continued his vigilantism, he had more than enough money to support himself. He didn’t need their help anymore, just like they don’t need him anymore. As he started cooking his breakfast, he marveled at how he had gotten to this point of independence from the Bats.

Ever since he came back with Bruce in tow, the rest of the Bats didn’t even bother to contact him unless it was for patrol or for a case. Oracle only kept in contact for business. Dick basically ignored their issues and tried to pretend they didn’t exist. Damian liked to act as if he didn’t exist. Jason was, oddly enough, the only one he could stand even if they did only work together for cases. Cass was still in Hong Kong.

If he was being honest with himself, Tim desperately missed being home at the Manor but after everything happened, it was clear that the Manor was no longer his home. Home used to be with the Bats and occasionally, with the Titans. Now, Tim would have to find a new home for himself, hopefully away from Gotham and the Bats.

Tim ate his salad mindlessly while he let his mind wander on his active cases. He would need to tie up his loose ends before he left without the bats taking notice. He popped his next dose of antibiotics into his mouth after and finally decided that he’s wasted enough time to start getting ready for the appointment.

After a quick shower and change of clothes, Timothy Drake-Wayne was ready and presentable to the public again. Tim debated bringing his motorcycle but the address of the office was only a couple of blocks from his apartment and he could use the walk to clear his head and get some fresh air.

As he left his penthouse, Tim’s mind debated again about what his mother could have possibly written about. His inheritance had already been secured since he was born so it couldn’t be that. The business had already sunken and drowned under the guidance of his father. It didn’t make any sense for Janet Drake to write a contingency letter and yet, here it was.

Tim didn’t know why but every step felt like it was weighed down with lead and his stomach dropped as he got closer and closer. By the time he was at the office, Tim’s mind was buzzing about theories as to what could have been so important for him to know that his mother, famed Iron Dragon of Gotham wrote a letter just in case she died.

Mr. Fletcher must have been eagerly awaiting him by the looks of it since Tim had scarcely knocked on the office doors before it was opened. It’s been a while since Tim had seen Mr. Fletcher given that he had retired before the Drakes passed.

“Timothy, you’re early!”

“Mother taught me that it was better to be early than to waste other’s time. It’s nice to see you again, Mr. Fletcher.”

“That does sound like something Janet would preach. I wished we’d met again under more ideal circumstances but you’ve grown into a fine young man. Your parents would be proud.”

“Thank you. Your email mentioned a letter from Mother?”

“Ah yes! As you know, ever since my son took over my position at the firm, I had relinquished all of my active duties to him but this was more of a request made by your mother to me as a confidant and friend. Jacob, my son had been cleaning out my office a few days ago when he found the envelope. He contacted me immediately about it and I remembered what it was about. I made the trip out here because I had to give it to you before I forgot again. I owe your mother that much.”

“What do you mean, Mr. Fletcher?”

“I think it’s best for you to read it, Timothy. I already know what it contains but I’m here to answer any of your additional questions.”

This suddenly seemed like a much bigger deal than Tim originally thought it would be, especially since Mr. Fletcher had left his retirement in Metropolis to give this to him in person. With bated breath, Tim opened the sealed envelope and began to read.

~~~

Dearest Timothy,

If you are reading this, then there are two possible options. Either I have passed on before your 18th birthday or I was too much of a coward to talk to you about this in person and I gave you this letter instead. As I write this, your father is asleep, holding you after a nightmare from today’s ordeal at the circus. I have tried to sleep but my mind will not be quieted about the possibility of that happening to us before I could tell you the truth so I decided to make this contingency letter just in case. By the time

you’re reading this, you will have grown into an intelligent young man who I know is capable of so much more than Jack and I could have ever dreamed of, partially because you are more than Jack and I could ever produce.

Timothy, you are not our biological son. I had gotten pregnant but the child I had borne was stillborn. Jackson Timothy Drake hadn’t been able to take his first breath before it was taken away. Luckily for me, your father was out of town on business and I rushed to Gotham General against my earlier wishes and they had stuck me in a room with another woman who had given birth to a beautiful and healthy baby boy, you.

You were both born on the same day, in the same room, with different fates. Your mother was a young woman from the seedier side of Gotham and your father was out of the picture, or so she said. She was planning to give you up for adoption anyway and so I made the only impulsive decision I have ever made since marrying Jack and I told her to give you to me. I told her I would give you the life of luxury you deserved and that you would never want for anything if she gave you to me. She agreed on one condition: I tell you the truth about your parentage on your 18th birthday so that she could have the opportunity to get to know you too.  

She didn’t even let me pay for her hospital bills because she didn’t want to be indebt to me even though I was forever indebted to her for giving me you. I had John rush over to Gotham General and make a contract for both of us because I could not allow Jack and the rest of Gotham High Society to find out about this. The only ones who knew about you being adopted were me, John, your mother and the medical staff who helped us. Since Gotham General was severely underfunded prior to my intervention, it was easy to get them to change the records to make Timothy Jackson Drake be born and for Jackson Timothy Drake to disappear. I had gotten the staff involved to sign NDAs and to make sure that none of this got out.

As I write this, I have seen you grow into this absolutely marvelous and intelligent child, talented in ways I could have never expected. It is bittersweet for me because as I see you grow, I cannot help but think of what my biological son could have been had he survived. Would he be as smart and as capable as you? Would he be different compared to you? Would I have taken you in had he survived? I have never regretted my decision to adopt you but I could not stand to watch you grow when I know my biological son never will. I know I will most likely grow to be distant from you and I already regret it but I cannot stop myself from seeing my dead son in you.

However, I can already tell you will be stronger than I ever could be. You take to your lessons like a duck to water and you see a magic in the world that I could never see. I want you to know that even if you are not mine biologically, I still love you even if I cannot show it. I love you even if you cannot feel it. I love you but I also love the son that I lost and I cannot help but mourn for him while I watch you grow. Your father does not know so his love is genuine and pure for you.

I want you to know this, Timothy. I took you in on an impulsive decision but I have never regretted it. Sure, I wish with all of my heart and mind that my son had survived but I was able to have you and you more than made up for it. I know that this does not excuse my future actions, my possible neglect of you but I hope you understand why I cannot bear to be close to you. I love you even if I do not show it. I love you even if you cannot see it. I love you and I hope you can forgive me for not telling you sooner.

Love,

Mother

~~~

Of all of the possibilities Tim had considered, this was not one of them. This explained so much but also left so many questions but the only thought passing through his head was the fact that, even at birth, he was a replacement.

“I assume you have questions?”

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, to be honest. You’ve known the entire time?”

“Yes. I was the one who made the contract for your mother and she swore me to secrecy.”

“So, let me get this straight. I was just a replacement for her son who died?”

“No! Of course not. Timothy, I know it must not have seemed like it but your mother and father truly did love you as if you were their own. Your mother has some leftover problems from her childhood that negatively impacted her ability to show her love even if she does. She would have never bothered to put in the effort otherwise.”

“I’m trying to believe that but my recollection of Mother is not that different from the Iron Dragon of Gotham.”

“That’s because she fought to give you the best education and care possible which she knew was not her own. That’s why she constantly changed your nannies and tutors because as soon as she felt they inadequate for you, she was searching for the next best thing for you. Janet didn’t really care in the normal ways, Timothy. I know it’s hard to see but she really did love you and take care of you in her own way.”

“I just. I never expected this.”

“I knew this day would come but I was honestly hoping your mother would be here to explain her side of the story before she told you who your birth mother was.”

“Do-do you know who my birth mother is?”

“It’s not written in the letter?” Mr. Fletcher seemed genuinely surprised at this.

“No. Mother didn’t include her name, just a vague description of her. Can you tell me who my mother is?”

“I guess by the time Janet wrote it, she had forgotten the name. I think I have the contract hidden here. Let me look for it.”

What followed was the tensest five minutes of Tim’s life. He didn’t even know if his biological mother was still alive but he wanted to find out. After all, his birth mother had wanted to reconnect when he was older. Maybe, she wanted to have him in her life, just like Mo-Janet had apparently wanted him in her life.

Maybe, she would be there with welcoming arms. Maybe, she was one of the many civilian casualties of their nighttime escapades. Maybe, she had gotten lost in the seedier side of Gotham and she had never been able to make it out. There were so many maybes that Tim wanted to figure out what was true and what wasn’t.

“Aha! Here it is. According to this, your birth mother is Selina Kyle.”

Holy shit. His mother was fucking Catwoman.

[lapis-arts]

The Knife of Amphibia

Chapter 2: Prison Escape

Summary: Months had passed since Anne's arrest. After putting up with mistreatment and retaining her innocence, she finally thinks about breaking out of prison... Little did she know, someone is willing to help her out.

Fandom: Amphibia

Features: Assassin AU, Aged Up Anne and Plantars

Warnings: Violence, blood, interrogation

Word Count: 1,807 Words

--

Anne woke up in her dingy cell that morning. Her body had ached all over from sleeping in the prison’s horrible conditions for the last few months.

Lady Olivia was nowhere to be found to hear her out, having to replace the king's duty to restore order in the city, lest it burned down completely. She had told General Yunan what happened word for word since day one, but it all fell upon deaf ears. All Yunan wanted was for Anne to confess to the murder and she might get life in prison. She wasn't going to, though. She knew what happened, her story stayed consistent throughout the months, so she stood her ground and retained her innocence.

It had felt like today was the final day of her life as guards came to her cell and dragged her to the torture chambers once more, strapped down into the chair for the torturer to do as Yunan ordered. The tall and hulking toad burned Anne repeatedly with a red-hot iron rod, the human crying out in pain, the general trying once again to force a confession. A few burns later, Yunan finally stepped in.

"Ok, ok, that's enough!" She said, motioning for the torturer to leave them alone. Anne growled as the woman got closer and spat in her direction.

"I already told you everything that happened... Why won't you listen to me!?" She hissed. Yunan just gave her a grin as she walked up to Anne and placed a hand on her chin to make her look up at her. "Oh, you foolish human.. It was part of the plan all along." Yunan said, about to reveal her hand to Anne.

"Wh-what?... What are you talking about?" Anne asked, clearly confused by what Yunan was telling her.

"Andrias was bound to be murdered before you and Marcy arrived earlier than noticed.. You just showed up at the wrong place at the right time. Now, I get to hit three flies with one stone." She chuckled, Anne staring wide eyed at the general in disbelief.

"You're insane..." Anne said, her brows furrowed in anger as she tried to struggle through the straps, the thick leather leaving rope burns on her skin the more she struggled to break free to beat up Yunan senseless.

"It's far too late to put up a fight, Anne. The whole kingdom believes you killed Andrias in cold blood and poor Olivia has no time to listen to your pleas. I'm in charge of your fate now.." Yunan smirked, grabbing the iron rod the torturer left in the burning fire, poking at Anne with it to get an official fake confession for the last time.

"Don't make this harder than it already is.." she threatened, burning Anne every time she refused to agree to the confession, the human stifling her cries of pain the best she could, not giving Yunan the satisfaction of hearing her pains.

After enough torment, Yunan knew the human wasn't going to give in. By that account, refusing to admit to the murder, Yunan had sentenced Anne to death by guillotine.

Anne was to be thrown back in her cell and await execution for the next few days, her body completely sore and covered in fresh and painful burns. She can't take on this abuse anymore. Anne had to get the hell out of there. She was clearly innocent based on the evidence, but a conspiracy damned it all...

Something didn't add up.. Why would Yunan kill off Andrias? Did she have something to do with the plague, or does she just want to rule Amphibia for all the glory and power? No matter what the newt's motives were, Anne needed to get out or her head will be rolling from the chopping block this weekend no matter what. For now, all she wanted to do was rest and slumped into a corner of her cell to sleep the afternoon away.

---

Later that evening, Anne woke up from the sound of a guard rattling the bars of her cell, signifying that it's dinner time already.

"You should eat up, Anne. This meal is from a friend." Is all the guard said, leaving rather quickly. A friend, was it? The human made her way over to the food tray, seeing a bowl of soup as usual, but it was actually warm and fresh this time. As she pulled the bowl away, she noticed a folded piece of paper in tact. She nearly tossed meal aside and quickly opened it, a small key falling out on her lap, yet revealed a handwritten note directed to her, and she couldn't be more relieved to recognize it was Lady Olivia's handwriting in particular.

"Hello Anne. I apologize for my absence, but I know for a fact you are innocent. I've pestered Yunan to extend your trial, but she's too over her head for reasoning and I have no time on my hands to continue doing so. Take this key, escape your cell and take refuge into the sewers."

Anne wasted no time at that point. She looked out the bars of her cell to check for no guards doing rounds, and slipped the key into the cell lock and got out. To her convenience, it seems like the guard who gave her the note left a sword on top of one of their tables, Anne gladly took it and fled the area. The human stuck close to the walls, peeking over the corners to make sure no guards were in sight. In some parts of the prison, Anne had to stick to the pipes and vents near the ceiling to avoid the guards scattered across a room. Never had she been more grateful to endure Marcy's stealth training, as it came quite in handy until she reached the exit point.

Just outside of the entrance gate was the river that surrounded the prison. If she could find a way out, she could easily dive and swim to the sewer entrance on the other side. Unfortunately, in order to do that, she had to get through the guards. Anne evaded the guards doing rounds, sticking to the shadows and hiding behind storage containers. She managed to slip through a broken window the entry office hadn't fixed yet, seeing a newt guard yawning while he was writing something down. Anne couldn't take any chances and neutralized him, putting him in a chokehold until he passed out.

"Sorry.." she muttered under her breath, quickly traversing to the next room, taking down whoever was there. Next to the window was a control panel, a lever off to the side labeled "Gate."

Bingo, her one way ticket out of here.

She quickly pulled the lever and waited for the gate to open, slipping out through the back door. All the guards turned their attention towards the gate, puzzled as to why it was opening. Once the moment was right, Anne sprinted as fast as she could towards the exit, shoving guards aside as they got in her way.

"Sound the alarm!!" A guard yelled, a couple of officers running towards the nearest alarm, hastily ringing the series of bells.

"Shit!" Anne growled as she heard the alarms ring out, pushing herself even faster towards the ledge. Near the edge of barbed wire fence were the watch towers by the lifted bridge, the prison guards hearing the alarms and spotted Anne down below. The guards grabbed their crossbows and shot at her, Anne pulled out her sword in response, slashing a few bolts out of the way, save for one that nicked her right on the shoulder, drawing blood. Anne hissed from the sharp pain, but ignored it once she reached the ledge, and finally jumped off.

She dove down a few yards into the water, quickly swimming away. She made her way to the sewer gates just across, swiftly opening and shutting them close as she entered, finding a loose pipe and shoved the metal in between the handles of the gate, making sure no one would enter for a good moment.

Once the adrenaline rush ended, Anne took off deeper into the sewers and stopped as she was met with a locked gate. She took a step back to rest for a moment, collecting her thoughts before continuing on, processing that she actually broke out of prison.

"Oh my fucking frog.. I actually made it out.." she panted, sliding down the wall onto the floor to take a breather. After regaining herself, Anne turned to the locked gate again, trying to figure out a way around it. Off to the side of the wall, was another handwritten note, seemingly from Olivia again.

"Anne, if you made it, then congratulations! Beyond the sewers should be your exit, and familiar friendly faces should see to you after you leave through the storm drain. Good Luck"

Anne looked up the gate and saw a little crawl space, climbing up and crawled through to get to the other side. She soon heard footsteps and officer commands echo through the sewers, knowing it was the Royal Guard trying to find her. The human stuck towards hiding again, trying to avoid much conflict as she could this time around. Anne even had to endure swimming through the sewer water under bridges just avoid detection, thankfully leaving unscathed.

--

After exiting the sewers out of a storm drain, Anne finally reached above ground where she saw a familiar looking family wagon, seeing three young looking frogs keeping watch. It wasn't until she saw that unmistakable aviator hat on one of the pink frogs that she realized who it was.

The said frog with the hat turned towards the drain to see the human climbing out of it, his eyes widened in disbelief as he realized who it was and quickly hopped over to her.

"Anne! You're ok!" He said, jumping into Anne's arms and hugged her.

"Sprig! Hey buddy!" She hugged him back, embracing the moment for a bit before she placed him down as the other frogs came to see her. "Hey Polly, hey Ivy. Damn, it's been a long time." Anne said. While the sentiment was nice, they all understood they didn't have time to waste.

"We gotta get you to Wartwood! It wasn't easy for us to get past the barricade." Ivy explained, Polly brushing off the situation. "Oh please! Those guys are nothing. We can take them on if they're trouble." That statement hinting the young frogs certainly weren't going down without a fight.i

After that, the frogs quickly got Anne into the fwagon, making sure there were various hiding placing for Anne just in case someone inspected them. Sprig took the driving seat and grabbed Ol' Bessie's reigns and finally took off to make the journey to Wartwood.

[procrastinatorimagines]

I Want Us Part 3

Fandom: SVU / One Chicago

Series: I Want Us

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5 // Part 6 // Part 7 // Part 8 // Part 9 // Part 10 (Final)

Pairing: Carisi x Reader

Warning/s: kidnapping, guns/shooting

Word Count: 2,602

Summary:  When a child abduction case crosses state lines in New York, Intelligence flies out to meet the Special Victims Unit and track down the missing boy. With the clock ticking, both units decide to mix up partners in order to combine their knowledge of the case with knowledge of New York City, pairing Intelligence’s newest member Y/N with Detective Carisi. After a successful stakeout the pair finds themselves on the tail of the suspect, determined to bring him to justice and bring the boy back home.

Tags: @the-baby-bookworm​ // @inlovewith3​ //

Action came sooner than you were expecting, both you and Carisi silently agreeing that the gun shots that sounded from inside the building constituted absolutely necessary as burst from the car, gun out your holster in seconds as you peered around the fence.

A man was running out of the building, Ronny you assumed by the child he was forcefully dragging along under his left arm. Even in the available light, it was clear both were unharmed, the metalic glint of an object in Ronny’s right hand causing you to make the fair assumption that he’d fired the shots you heard.

There was no way to sneak up on him, but soon you lost all need to as he paused by the car he’d arrived in, hesitating before frantically looking around and taking off down the road and into the night.

“We can’t lose him,” you said forcefully, both of you making your way quickly to the entrance of the bar just as another car rolled up. Halstead and Rollins jumping out.

“We’ve got Ronny and Logan, there are at least two men inside, potentially injured,” Carisi told the others, you and Halstead sharing a nod as you followed Carisi down the street, hearing the others disappear into the building followed shortly by a request for two ambulances to their location over the radio.

You followed just behind Carisi, hands gripping your gun as you made your way down the street, footsteps echoing in the silent night. Ronny had heard, glancing back at you before picking up his pace, but if your footsteps could be heard down the road, Logan’s cries and shouts were unmissable. He disappeared around a corner and you lowered your gun slightly in one hand, sprinting with Carisi, the sound of Logan’s despair all the motivation you needed to not slow down for a second.

Not only had this man abducted his own child, he’d just shot two men in front of him. You didn’t understand how anyone could do that, and you never wanted to.

As you reached the corner Carisi signaled for you to hold back, checking the coast was clear before you took off running again, Ronny still on the move. He was getting slower though, you realised, and you weren’t surprised given the uncooperative child under his arm.

He peeled off down and ally as you continued to give chase, seemingly trying to lose you both with his various twists and turns. It wouldn’t work though, you had him now and he wasn’t getting away.

Stopping again to check the coast it was your turn to peer around the edge of a wall, your head barely going an inch before you jumped back, brick breaking off where your head had just been.

“Dead end,” Carisi whispered to you, apparently knowing where you were. Ronny was trapped, which may have been worse you realised with a sinking feeling. He was already a desperate man, and desperate men often thought they had nothing left to lose.

“Ronny!” You called down the ally, your voice bouncing off the stones as Logan’s sobs quietened. “Ronny there’s nowhere else to go, just put the gun down and let us take you in, it’s over, no one else has to get hurt.” You tried to sound demanding but it came out as more of a plea.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he said back, though it sounded like he was talking more to himself than you, “he’s my son, mine! He should be with me, it’s what I deserve-”

Your blood was boiling, knowing full well that all that man deserved was a jail cell. Still, you could tell he was unravelling, and that wasn’t good for anyone, least of all Logan. With a ‘trust me’ look to Carisi you holstered your gun, taking a breath as you stepped out into the opening of the ally, in full view of Ronny and his gun.

Carisi’s eyes went wide in protest and he reached out to pull you back but you shook your head at him. Looking down to Ronny and Logan, you were staring down the barrel of a gun, hands raised as Ronny stood frozen, not expecting you to be so stupid probably. You got that a lot.

“Hey Ronny, hey Logan, my name’s Y/N, I’m a detective with the Chicago police department,” you told them, keeping your hands where he could see them at all times. Out of the corner of your eye you saw Carisi with his finger on the trigger, ready to jump in if this got out of hand.

“Don’t come any closer!” Ronny waved the gun in his hand at you.

“I won’t,” you told him, “okay, I just want to talk okay? See if we can figure this out huh, so how about you tell me what happened?” Make him think you understand him, sympathise with him, make him think your on his side and let his guard down, de-escalate the situation.

“He’s my son, but she wouldn’t let me have him, wouldn’t even let me see him when I was inside, and when I got out... a restraining order?! What gave her the right? No... no no no, so I took him, I took what was mine and I came here, O’Connell promised- he promised!” Ronny ranted as you tried to keep your features neutral as images of the beat down he’d done to his ex wife flashed through your head.

“He lied to you, broke that promise,” you prodded, trying to sound indignant on his behalf so he’d open up more.

“Yes! Said there was too much publicity, he wouldn’t risk getting us out the country, I mean the selfishness- I did what I had to do,” He told you, gun lowering slightly as he poured out some of his frustration.

You inched yourself forward a step, then another, noticing Carisi practically stop breathing from where he stood, completely alert and ready to step in.

“And he shouldn’t have done that, okay, I get it, you’re the victim here alright, so why don’t you put the gun down and we can talk about that huh,” you tried, “it’s clear you love your son okay? Look at him Ronny, look at how scared he is.”

Ronny glanced down at his boy as you took the chance to take another couple of small steps. He was shaking and pale, snot and tears covering his face as his bottom lip shook uncontrollably.

“No!” Ronny snapped, gun back up at you as Logan shrunk back in fear, “you’re scaring him, this is all you!”

You level your breathing and straightened up, “I’m not the one holding a gun Ronny,” you said with a scary calm, watching the realisation dawn on Ronny as he looked from the gun in hand, to his son, who was staring at the weapon with trepidation.

“I...” he floundered. Was he a monster? Yes, but every monster had a weakness.

“Give me the gun Ronny,” you told him as he glanced from it to you, not really registering how much closer to him you had been in the beginning.

“You’ll take me back to jail, I can’t go back to jail,” he muttered, but the gun looked suddenly very heavy in his outstretched hand as he weighed the decision in his mind.

You were very close to him now, so close that what happened next was too quick for Carisi to react to. Logan took that moment to bolt, his father’s grip on him slacking enough for him to break free as he ran past you to try and get away. You didn’t blame him for a second, if you were his age you would have done the same thing, you’d even been anticipating it.

So when Ronny’s focus snapped back, rage filling his eyes again as he now viewed you as someone else trying to keep him from his son, grip tightening back on his gun again with a new found purpose as he began to take aim, you were ready.

Carisi barely had time to step out from around the corner, gun raised but unable to take a clear shot as a small boy collided with him, hiding behind his legs as his father let out a cry of anger.

Ronny was fast, but you were faster, catching his wrist and twisting it around so you ended up behind him, his arm behind his back as you aimed a kick to the back of one of his knees, knocking him to the ground. Ronny tried to twist but you was it coming, shoving him forward so he lost balance and sprawled onto his front on the floor. You kicked the gun across the floor and out of his reach, planting your knee on his back as he struggled, grappling with his wrists as you cuffed him.

“Ronny Parker, you’re under arrest for kidnapping and attempted murder,” you told him, looking up and grinning at a relieved Carisi just as the glorious sound of sirens could be heard approaching from down the street.

Carisi put a comforting hand on Logan’s head as he continued to hug the man’s knees, shaking his head at your actions as you hauled the protesting Ronny to his feet.

Logan looked away as his father was brought past him, struggling to get away from you as you held him fast.

“That was... reckless,” Carisi commented, earning a smug wink from you as you passed Ronny off to a couple of uniforms that had arrived on the scene, the rest of Intelligence and SVU in tow.

“It’s her middle name,” you heard Antonio say, turning to see him approaching with Voight and Benson, who carefully coaxed Logan away from Carisi’s legs.

“Well Logan’s safe and Ronny’s going back to jail for a long time, good job guys,” Benson congratulated you both.

“Honestly Cap? All her,” Carisi told her, gesturing with his head in your direction as Antonio clapped you on the back. You put your hands in your pockets, accepting the praise as you tried to cover up the fact that your hands were shaking.

“Good job detective, you ever consider a change of scenery you let me know,” Benson told you.

“You trying to poach my detectives?” Voight asked and Benson chuckled, saying something to a uniform before Logan was escorted back to a vehicle. He seemed a little reluctant, but at the mention of his mom he couldn’t have moved quicker if he’d tried.

You smiled as you watched Logan wander off, back to his family and his home. You wanted to go with him, but you knew you’d have a lot of paperwork to do before the night was actually over, and it was already past 3 am.

“Hey,” Carisi appeared beside you as he removed his vest, “want a ride back to the station?”

You took a breath of the not so cool night air, sweaty from the heat and the chase, in desperate need of some food and a shower, then sleep. But you weren’t finished just yet, so you gave an appreciative nod to Carisi and let Voight know that you were going to make your statement and write up your report.

He let you go and soon you were making your way down the street with Carisi, back to your car near the bar, which was currently swarming with police and forensics. Carisi greeted a few of them in passing and before you knew it you were driving back to the district.

“Your gut was right afterall,” Carisi noted. You’d found Logan, he was safe, and Ronny wasn’t going to ever be able to hurt him again. It had been a long night, but you’d done good, so you allowed yourself a moment of satisfaction.

“Hell of a night, but yeah I guess so,” you replied, staring off out of the window as the buildings and lights passed by. New York was something else, and you wished you’d gotten a chance to see more of it under better circumstances, and during the day, but it had certainly been memorable.

Your hands weren’t shaking quite so much anymore, but jumping in front of a man with a loaded gun had certainly rattled you more than you’d let on. It had been reckless, more so than usual, but your need to protect Logan and get Ronny behind bars had overridden that bit of sense. It had paid off this time, but you really did have to be more careful, or so Antonio kept telling you.

You turned back from the window when you noticed Carisi throw you a couple of glances as he drove. “You know, there’s a pizza place not too far from here, they’re not gourmet, but they are open this time of night.”

Before you could answer, your stomach growled, earning a laugh from Carisi as he changed course, discussing the best toppings as he did.

Soon, you were both back at his desk at the district, a couple of others had came and went, offering pats on the back for a job well done, but you and Carisi found yourself talking even further into the night until both the paperwork and pizza were done, feeling very satisfied.

“I’ll be the first to admit this isn’t the truest representation of the best New York pizza,” Carisi laughed, throwing on his jacket as you both got up to leave.

It was going on half 4 in the morning, and any food and drink you had after dark hit differently, especially after a long case on a nearly empty stomach. “You won’t hear me complaining,” you replied.

God, you needed a shower, you thought as you put your jacket over your arm, knowing that it would just feel way too uncomfortable and hot to put it on. Voight had booked you all into some cheap motels for the night, but the picture Vanessa had sent you earlier on was making you dread the experience. Carisi had visibly cringed when he’d seen it.

“I know I should probably head to sleep when I get home, but I’m still a little too wired,” Carisi said as you made your way towards the exit.

“I know what you mean,” you told him, eyes and mind still wide awake after the events of the night.

“What, not looking forward to getting back to your five star accommodation?” He teased and you rolled your eyes.

“God don’t remind me,” you complained, earning a laugh at your expense, “but it’s either that or sleep on the street... though the street might actually be more appealing.”

A odd kind of silence filled the elevator then, neither of you seeming to know what to say next before the doors dinged open and you wandered out back into the night, or well, more like very early morning.

“You could... stay somewhere else?” Carisi offered, half awkwardly half suggestively. Was he, suggesting what you thought he was?

Your heart skipped a beat, taking in Carisi as he stood before you, a look on his face that definitely told you he was unsure of whether he should have said that or not. You were still wired, and you’d had half a mind to do a quick workout back at the motel to let off some more steam to try and take a grimey shower and sleep, but that was before you now had another option...

“Lead the way,” you answered, smiling as he did too, your night in New York continuing to surprise you in the best possible ways...

[nervousladytraveler]

🥰👀🥰

end of year WIP meme!

send me a 👀 and i’ll post a snippet of art/writing that i never got around to finishing this year (r.i.p)

Thanks @juicybeatles for the ask.

This bit is another modern Poldark AU. I won’t say anything else about it other than it is wholly unfinished and takes place around Christmas. If the Poldark fandom is still alive on tumblr in December 2021, I’ll post the rest (promises, promises...).

Happy New Year Everyone!

---

A Rose in December

They’d been talking for hours.

And in that time the pub had transformed itself more than once. Eerily quiet in the late afternoon, when they’d been the sole patrons in the place, then a round five o’clock someone began playing some crooning Frank Sinatra. That lasted until the after-work horde filed in, then Old Blue Eyes morphed to overly cheerful Christmas music with far too many bells. Now it was loud and crowded and would grow even more so as the night wore on. Everyone seemed to have a heightened celebratory edge as they moved closer to the holiday and a few days off.

Ross noticed she hadn’t raised her voice to be heard over the raucous. Perhaps that was deliberate? He had to lean closer to hear her.

“You know I hate the dark spicy shite breweries put out for winter. Pumpkin and clove and cinnamon--it’s disgusting. I don't want to drink my pudding and if I want mulled wine, I’ll make mulled wine,” she tried to make a disgusted face but couldn’t help laughing at her own joke. Her teeth gleamed white and her lips were inviting but it was her eyes--her bright and smiling eyes--that he found so compelling.

Ross laughed too. He noticed they were coming easier now and from deeper in his gut. With each chuckle out, a deep breath was drawn in. A new breath. He remembered this feeling. But he didn’t shy away from the familiarity. Instead he wanted to move further into it. That feeling of coming home and knowing you can open all the doors--to any room.

---

Ross woke to a blinding morning light coming in through the east-facing window behind him. It was a cold, relentless light--the kind usually found in January, reflecting off the vast expanses of frozen snow. December sunlight was supposed to be softer, more muted. But maybe it was the last night’s drink that was making his eyes so sensitive now.

He sat up and tried turning a stiff neck then stretched his arms above him. He laughed--he hadn’t had aches like these in some time.

He knew he’d be alone--that wasn’t a surprise--but he was struck by how comfortable he felt in her room after only a few hours.

Someone once told him that beds shouldn't be placed against a window--it was bad feng shui, she’d said--but it worked well in this space. There was no headboard only the long white curtains that mingled with the white bed clothes. A tall bookcase--also white--stretched nearly to the ceiling and was stuffed with all manner of books. Some smaller ones were stacked sideways, two deep on the shelf, to make room for as many as possible; piles of overflow books stood on either side. A stuffed armchair that delicately walked the line between antique and rubbish was covered with clothes. It wasn’t untidy, just lived in, inhabited by a body whose mind was perhaps occupied by other things.

On the mirror at the dresser someone had stuck a note.

Someone.

He pulled on his trousers and managed to shuffle the few feet without stumbling or finding himself unstable. That was a good sign.

“Ross--Despite your *best* efforts to keep me busy all night, I somehow managed to get up on time! I think it must be a Christmas miracle. I don’t dare wake you--I think you earned your sleep ;) I have to get to work but if the invitation is still good--and not just a drunken impulse--then I’ll come by your place tonight when my shift ends. Ring me if plans change. Last night was lovely.”

He laughed. It wasn't the drink that had inspired him to invite her over to spend Christmas with him but he had been intoxicated all the same--by her. After hours in her company, in her bed, and so close to her skin. He considered climbing back under the covers so he might find her scent lingering on a pillow.

Yes, inviting her to Christmas had been impulsive. But so was spending the night with her. Technically he’d only just met her that day.

Ross had no regrets. And he was heartened by the tone of her note. It meant he’d be seeing her again soon.

He looked around at the other items on the dresser.  A cosmetic case, crammed full of brushes and eye palettes. A hairbrush with long red hairs sticking out of the bristles. An empty eyeglass case--did she wear glasses? Apparently so. A few photographs of herself when she was younger were tucked in the mirror frame. The other people in them must have remained important to her these many years later.

He suddenly felt he was prying and turned away at once. He grabbed up his shirt and went in search of the toilet.

---

“Morning,” a deep voice said without turning from the stove.

“Um, yes, good morning.” Ross tried not to mumble but realised his mouth was dry. He also thought he could taste her on his lips; he tried not to panic at the memory of such pleasure.

“Coffee?” the young man asked then placed a mug on the table in front of an empty chair without waiting for Ross’s response.

“Thank you,” Ross said and after a moment’s pause took a seat. It would  definitely be rude to take the coffee and go back to bed.

“I’m frying eggs. Can I make you one too?” Was this man familiar with the routine of entertaining her abandoned guests the morning after?

“Yes, please. I’m Ross Poldark. You live here?” It sounded warmer and more conversational in his head.

“I know you, Ross. We met years ago but I suppose you don’t remember. I’m Sam.” Now Ross saw the resemblance in the eyes, the smile. He also saw the gold cross around the young man’s neck.

Good god, that’s right, he remembered now. She’d said she shared a flat with her brother but didn’t mention it was the religious one. He took a gulp of coffee hoping Sam hadn’t heard what went on behind the bedroom door just hours before.

“Melz said she was going to your place tonight for Christmas,” Sam said as he went back to cracking eggs with expert efficiency.

Melz--a family nickname but not one he’d ever used with her.

“Yes, I’m happy Demelza agreed to come. You should join us.” Another impulsive invitation. And this time it was followed with regret.

“Thank you but no,” Sam said. “We’ve mission work. It’s an important night for us.”

Of course take advantage of the sad and down trodden on the loneliest day of the year in your conversion efforts. That seems fair. He was glad Sam’s back was turned again so he wouldn’t see the undisguised disgust on Ross’s face.

“Last year we fed over 300! In one night,” Sam continued.

Shame spread through Ross’s gut. At least Sam was doing something to help those in need.  Who was Ross to be so judgmental?

“Congratulations,” he mumbled. Was that the proper response? He suddenly was feeling less and less certain of himself, of his place, of what he thought he knew about her, and what he now saw he didn’t. “Does Demelza help you...in your work?” he asked tentatively.

“No, she’s too busy and it’s...not really her thing,” Sam laughed then grew serious again.

Ross wished Demelza was there to shepherd him through this conversation. She seemed to know how to frame things so the world made sense. He wasn’t sure what to say to her brother now and grew desperate to push away images from last night that flashed across his memory.

Her face, her body was so lovely as she leaned over him in her moonlit bed. Her voice soft and low yet rich as she purred his name: Ross, Ross.

“Sister works hard, long hours. She deserves to enjoy herself now and then,” Sam slipped an egg onto a plate for Ross, then fumbled to find a clean fork. “It’s nice to see her happy again.”

[mrsamaroevans]

Tightrope

Fandom: Mayans M.C.

Pairing: Miguel Galindo x Reader.

Request: No. Please, bear with me… I’m not ignoring your requests, I’m just writing as I feel inspired.

Words: 4,643. (This is the longest thing I have ever wrote, I’m really proud of it, but I don’t think someone is gonna read it :c)

Warnings: A swear word maybe.

A/N: English is not my first language, so, sorry if there are grammar mistakes or if the redaction is poor. *Gif mine* There’s no need to say I got inspired with The Greatest Showman’s song “Tightrope”. I freaking love it! PT. 2 HERE

|| MY MASTERLIST ||

|| PROMPTS LISTS TO REQUESTS ||

“Hand in my hand and we promised to never let go”

Some people may say you were too young to know about love, at least, that was what everyone used to tell you. Starting for your parents, then your older siblings, your uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, family friends… everyone used to tell you that you were crazy for thinking your high school boyfriend was the one for you. And you got so tired that you just stopped listening.

Oh, but when Miguel put a ring in your hand… that was it for your family and even some of your friends disappeared as soon as you told them. They all agreed on something: twenty-two was a stupid age to get married.

But, how could it be a stupid decision when Miguel was always there for you when even sometimes your own family wasn’t? How could you be crazy to get married to the man who had loved you since you were sixteen? The man who cheered you up in your good moments and even more in the worst.

You looked at your family’s relationships; you had never seen your parents kissing or even hugging each other, you had never listened an “I love you” from any of them to the other one and even your mother had said in a few occasions that she didn’t love your father anymore, she was only with him for mere habit.

“Nothing good comes with marriage… nothing” one of your aunts told you when she saw the pretty ring Miguel gave you. But she was married. Did that mean that she didn’t feel anything for her husband anymore? Did that mean she didn’t considerate her children as something good?

Your sister was divorcing after only three years of marriage, your brother broke up his engagement and got back together with his girlfriend —or fiancée, you didn’t know what they were anymore and, actually, no one really knew— maybe ten times by then. One of your oldest cousins was going for his third marriage, other one had a baby and the father left two months after her daughter was born.

With all the history of failed and turbulent relationships in your family, most people wouldn’t want to get married, they wouldn’t even believe in love. But you did. You believed in Miguel, you believed in your relationship.

Your family didn’t want to know anything about the wedding, you were still living with your parents, but it was like you weren’t. Your mother ignored you most of the time, she only talked to you if it was extremely necessary. You never saw your brother, it came a moment when you only used to go to sleep ‘cause the rest of the day you were planning the wedding with Dita, Miguel and your only friend who stayed with you.

And the day came. After months of planning your wedding, you walked down the aisle with your father at your side; he was the only one who wanted to be at the event. He was the only one in your family who didn’t push you aside. Did he like your decision? No, he didn’t, but he loved you and he wanted to be at your side in one of the most special days of your life.

You looked at Miguel waiting for you. His eyes never left yours and when he took your hand, you knew you weren’t making a mistake.

“You look so gorgeous, I’m so lucky to be at your side” He had whispered before the priest started the ceremony. Miguel intertwined his fingers with yours and he didn’t let go of your hand for the rest of the ceremony.

And you hoped for him to never do it.

“You pulled me in and together we're lost in a dream”

“We’re so proud of you, hijo,” Dita said, squeezing Miguel’s hand as some tears were gathering in her eyes. Your husband smiled, radiating happiness and pride for working so hard the past weeks.

“You also should be proud of (y/n)” Miguel looked at you and smiled when you frowned “These past weeks were hard but she was amazing… she was there all the way and she didn’t scream at me not even once”

“Shut up” You chuckled, palming his arm.

Your in-laws were in town to celebrate Miguel’s first development deal. The four of you were having dinner at a restaurant and your husband’s parents looked as happy and proud as him.

Miguel’s parents didn’t want him to get involved with the cartel, and the fact that he just started his career on the other side of the border meant that he was further away from the business his father started once.

So they felt relief.

“But, seriously… we have more news” Miguel added, sitting straight and taking your hand. You didn’t know anything about that other news, so you looked at him waiting for whenever he had to say.

“¡Oh, por Dios! You’re having a baby?” Dita cried in excitement, her hands on her mouth, and the tears almost rolled out of her eyes.

“No,” you said, quickly “No, we’re not” A little laugh came out of your mouth and you couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty after seeing her reaction.

“Querida, they’ve been married for six months, let them enjoy marriage life as a couple,” José said, smiling and chuckling when his wife also laughed “But a grandkid would be great” He added, making you and Miguel laugh “So, what is that other news?”

“Yes, I also want to know” You frowned but kept your smile at your husband.

“Well… your agent called while you were showering” Miguel started and your heart stopped for a second at hearing him mention your literature agent “Random House wants your book”

Dita gasped in awe and excitement and you felt José’s hand palming your shoulder as a way to congratulate you. Miguel laughed at you ‘cause after a minute you were still shocked, so, his laugh made you go back to reality.

“Are you kidding me?” You asked and Miguel chuckled again “Miguel if you’re joking… I swear to god—”

“I’m not” he shook his head no and squeezed your hand twice “You have to sign the contract tomorrow”

Your hands went to cover your face, you were so excited that you felt about to cry and didn’t want your in-laws to see. They chuckled while Miguel’s arm landed on your shoulders to kiss your temple.

“It shouldn’t be a surprise, love, your book is so good,” Miguel said, pulling your hands out of your face and smiling at you “(Y/n) Galindo, bestselling author, I can see it”

“So I risk it all just to be with you”

Later that day, you went to Loco’s Festival to keep celebrating. There was something about fairs and the smell of cotton candy that kept you happy all the time you were in the place. It reminded you that day when Miguel asked you to be his girlfriend in a fair in Hermosillo.

It all started at a fair and you loved going back to that day.

Miguel held your hand as you were walking through the place, he was trying to convince you to get into the hunting house but all that came from your mouth was a massive “no”

“C’mon! I’ll hold your hand the whole time and everything” Miguel said but you shook your head no again “Amor…”

“I said no, Miguel” You looked at him, smirking “You know how much I hate when someone scares me”

“But nothing’s gonna happen” he insisted “I’m gonna be with you”

“No” you repeated, laughing with him.

But soon, your smile disappeared from your face when you saw the one who was your best friend. She was too far away from Hermosillo, but she looked happy.

You couldn’t help but think about everything you left behind when you got married to Miguel. The last time you had seen your family was the day before your wedding, they didn’t want to know about you once you took Miguel’s name, not even your father had called you in all that time.

You heard your brother’s girlfriend got pregnant and they finally got married. By now, their baby should have been born already and you wouldn’t get to know your niece or nephew.

You missed your mom, you wanted to tell her about your book and wanted to share that moment with her like you always planned, but you made a decision a year ago, and you knew what the consequences would be.

“You’re okay?” Miguel asked once he saw the person you had your eyes on.

You looked down at your intertwined fingers and saw the silver band around his finger. You didn’t regret it.

“I am,” You said, nodding. Miguel half-smiled and leaned to kiss your lips.

“Let’s go find my mother”

“Mountains and valleys, and all that will come in between; desert and ocean”

You looked at your mother-in-law through the picture window of the living room; she was in the garden. She was looking at the flowers, maybe talking to them like she used to do. She was dressed in black, just like your husband, just like you.

Once the funeral ended, you went back to your in-laws’ house. Miguel didn’t want to leave his mother, at least not yet, and you also didn't. Dita hasn’t said too much since they told her José had been killed, not even had cried that much, and you were worried about her.

But Miguel… you didn’t know what to do or what to say to him. You had never seen him like that and that was why you didn’t know what to do. Of course José’s murder had hurt you, it hurt you even more than you imagine could possibly do, after all, he played the father role with you since the day you got married to his son.

You knew that because of the life he was living, anything could happen. Your father-in-law had a lot of enemies, but you thought you’d had more time with him; He dreamed of the day when you and Miguel finally announced that you would make them grandparents, and now he would never get to have the chance to meet your kids.

You looked up at hearing footsteps near you. Miguel walked to the armchair you were in and sat at your side “She had said something?” He asked you, looking at his mother.

“Nothing” you shook your head no and he sighed “She’s going to be fine, Miguel, we’re going to be with her as much as she needs it”

Miguel nodded, holding your hand that you placed in his thigh as soon as he sat with you. You looked at his tired eyes, he didn’t sleep last night, actually, he hadn’t slept properly since his father died.

His eyes were lost at some point in the coffee table. It was unbelievable how things could change within days. Ten days before, you were in Hawaii celebrating your third wedding anniversary, and now you were praying to see the happiness that his eyes held those five days again.

“I want to talk to you about something,” he told you, but you already knew that for the look in his eyes “I’ll take my father’s place… in the cartel”

Your heart stopped. “No” you shook your head no and interrupted him when he was about to talk again “You can’t be serious… after what happened to him? There’s no way…”

“Amor—”

“No, Miguel!” You said, letting his hand go “You have your own business in Santo Padre, you don’t have to do this…”

“I talked to Devante—”

“The only thing Devante wants is to keep his job—”

“We’re talking about my father’s legacy—”

“You are your father’s legacy!” You told him, trying to make him understand. You didn’t want to lose him the same way Dita lost José “Your father didn’t want you to follow his steps; he sent you to Cornell, he helped us to start our lives in Santo Padre and it was all ‘cause he wanted you out of it”

Miguel knew you were right, but he couldn’t let all that his father achieved disappear just like that. So, he sighed and didn’t look at you.

He had decided it, he wasn’t asking for permission, not even for your opinion.

You sighed and stood up to go to your room. You needed time to think.

“Some people won't sail the sea 'cause they're safer on land to follow what's written, but I'd follow you to the great unknown”

Later in the night, you were on your side of the guest’s bed. You were dressed in your pajamas, under the covers, and trying to read a book. But, the truth was that you kept thinking about what Miguel told you.

Even though he had never mentioned something about the desire to follow his father’s steps, something inside you knew he would eventually do it. These past years, Miguel started to be closer to his father, so, you knew it was just a matter of time for it to happened.

The door was opened and Miguel walked in. You looked at him for a second and looked back to the page you read at least thirty times trying to get the words in your head.

Miguel walked through the room to grab his pajamas that consisted of only a pair of pants ‘cause he never wore the shirt no matter how many pajamas you buy for him. You didn’t need to look at him to know he was putting the jacket of his suit in a hanger alongside with his black tie.

“Can we talk?” Miguel asked you when he sat beside you.

You put the book in the nightstand and turned to him “There’s nothing to talk,” You said, shrugging, and for a moment he felt fear at those words, but when you took his hand, that fear vanished away “Do you remember what happened three years ago?”

Miguel smiled, looking at the silver ring in his hand “The best day of my life”

You got closer to him and kissed his cheek. Your chin rested on his shoulder for a few minutes before you said: “I don’t want to lose you”

“You won’t,” Miguel said, moving to cup your cheek “We’re gonna be fine. I promise” he took your hand and kissed the back of it “I love you”

“I love you too”

“We're walking the tightrope, never sure, never know how far we could fall”

As if your lives weren’t hard enough, Lincoln Potter came into your way just to put more tension and distance between you and Miguel. The first weeks after the DEA raid were fine, you were trying to recover from what happened with Los Olvidados and your son’s kidnapping, and once you were going back to your normal routine, Potter began to require more of Miguel's time and adding that he was working now with the MC and Los Olvidados, he barely had time to spend with his family.

In the beginning, it was hard for you to not have him near you like you used to, but as soon as you started working in your fifth book and helping your husband with his proposal for the agricultural expansion, you didn’t have time to notice his absence.

These days, in particular, had been a complete mess. Two days ago, Random House wanted a preview of your work before noon and as the perfectionist you were, you woke up at 5 AM and went to your office to edit what you had by then. Miguel left the house at seven after he reminded you that the architect was coming to start with the plan of reconstruction of your previous house. Cristobal woke up with a fever just after Miguel left and after giving him some medicine, he didn’t want to be with his babysitter or anyone who wasn’t his mother, so you had to work on your text with your son in your lap.

At 3 PM the architect passed by to show and explain to you the plans of the reconstruction and it took you an hour to attend him. You made an appointment with Cristobal’s pediatrician at 5 PM and you stayed with your son the rest of the day waiting for the other symptoms of the cold to come.

That night Cristobal woke up maybe four times. Miguel didn’t even notice it because as soon as his head touched the pillow, he fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the next morning when he asked you to take his mother to the doctor.

“Mexico?” You asked, after drinking a sip of your coffee. He nodded.

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” He said, and with those two words, he canceled the dinner you and he were supposed to be having that night “I’ll make it up to you” you heard for the millionth time in the past six months.

“It’s okay” you nodded nonchalantly, grabbing your cup of coffee and your notebook. You needed to work now that Cristobal was sleeping.

“I changed your meeting with Martin at four ‘cause Dr. Kamen’s appointment is at six,” He said before you could leave the kitchen. You bite your tongue before you could say something.

“Thank you,” You said and finally headed to your office.

That hour you spent out of the house, made you feel a bit better, but on your way back home you started to feel how exhausted you were. The only thing you wanted to do was sleeping for a whole week, but once you heard Cristobal’s crying, your mom mode got on and you had to push your tiredness aside.

That night, again, he woke up four times and when you put him back to his crib for the last time, it was 7 AM already. You had a meeting with your agent at nine so there was no reason to try to go back to sleep.

Miguel went out of the house in a hurry and didn’t even have the time to say goodbye to you or tell you when he was coming back. You tried to ignore it, but when you realized you’ve been living that way for the past six months, it wasn’t that easy.

You understood. You always did. Anytime he had to work long hours before, you never said anything, but that time was different. You felt Miguel getting further and further away, and you didn’t like the feeling.

And then, you knew Adelita was pregnant. You didn’t want to think about it, but after the long hours Miguel got to spend with Los Olvidados, you couldn’t help it. And it was killing you, ‘cause you wanted to trust your husband, but, after six months of that awkward distance… maybe he wasn’t the same anymore.

“Hey” you heard on your back.

You were in Cristobal’s bedroom and when you looked back, you saw Miguel at the door, looking at you.

“Is everything fine?” He asked, walking a few steps to you.

You nodded and put the baby monitor in the pocket of your robe “Yes, he’s getting better” you said, looking back at your son who you just laid in his crib for the second time in the night.

“Better?” Miguel looked at his son and then at you.

“He has a cold,” you told him “He’s having hard days… and nights”

“Why I didn’t know?” Miguel asked you but he soon had the answer with just looking at your eyes.

“You haven’t been around the past days… I meant, months” You shrugged and turned off the lamp.

Miguel looked at his son in the dark, feeling guilty for not knowing about his state. He didn’t even hear your footsteps on your way to the door, ‘cause his eyes were lost in your son’s face.

“Don’t touch him,” you said when he was about to caress his head. Miguel looked back at you and for the light of the corridor, you saw how hurt he was at those words “It took me two hours to make him go back to sleep… you should sleep, Miguel. We all need it” and you walked out of the room, holding back your tears.

“We're walking the tightrope, never sure, will you catch me if I should fall?”

Two months after, nothing had changed not even after he promised it would. You had been arguing for the smallest of things, sometimes it was like you didn’t stand each other’s company. Now, even the intimate moments were not present in your life and if you felt Miguel away from you before, now it was worse.

You talked to Nestor multiple times, and even though he assured you Miguel still was head over heels for you, you couldn’t believe it. Not when you looked back at the past eight months and saw a pattern.

That’s when you understood your parents. You remember how much you hated whenever they argued in front of you, you remember fighting with them whenever something like that happened, but now you understood it. Maybe they started like you and Miguel did, maybe when they were younger everything was different. But people change, feelings too and you couldn’t do anything to avoid it.

You just needed to face the truth just like your mother did it. Miguel didn’t love you anymore? He was with you for mere habit? ‘Cause the only thing you could be sure about, were your own feelings.

And that was what hurt you the most; you still loved him.

“You’re busy?” Miguel asked you, walking in your office.

You looked away from your computer and at him “What do you need?” You asked and he smiled, walking a few steps towards your desk. That gorgeous smile just proved to you once again that your feelings for him had not changed.

“I just wanted to tell you that I made a reservation at your favorite, we have to be there at seven,” he said. He seemed so happy for finally having the time to go out for dinner.

But you looked at the time in the corner of your laptop’s screen and then, to the text you were working on “Uh, sorry, Miguel, but I don’t think I can” you said, shaking your head no “I’m really busy” you added.

Miguel smiled again and sit in the corner of your desk “Can’t you leave work for tomorrow?” he grabbed your chin to make you look up at him.

“I don’t know, could you?” You asked and his smile faded away. You tried to ignore what that action made you feel.

He had canceled hundreds of dinners in the past eight months ‘cause he was “busy”. You could cancel one and it shouldn’t be a problem, the thing was, that you knew he wouldn’t think the same.

Miguel scoffed and stood from the desk, and again, you tried to ignore the cold you felt when he stopped touching you. If you think about it, maybe that was the most intimate moment you both had in the last two months.

“Okay, I’ll cancel it,” He said, making his way to the door.

“Thank you… also, you need to call Dr. Kamen to make the appointment with your mother for next week” you told him, so he turned around to see you.

“Next week?” He asked, frowning “I thought you were going with her”

You shook your head “I’ll be in New York, so won’t be able to”

“What?” Miguel said, taking a step forward “When were you gonna tell me?”

“They told me three weeks ago and this is the first time you have time since then,” you said, looking back at your computer.

Miguel sighed. Maybe you didn’t want him to get mad but that was something you just did, and it was about to get worse “Okay, I’ll ask Maria to stay over to watch Cristobal”

“You don’t need to” Miguel frowned again “He’s coming with me”

“You’ll be busy—”

“That’s why Lucy accepted to come with me to help me” you interrupted and at seeing how angry he was with you, you stood up from your chair “Why does it bother you? You’re never here anyway”

“Are you going with that again?” He asked, scoffing. You didn’t answer, you wanted to know what he had to tell you “I’m working to give you and Cristobal the life you have”

“Excuse me but that’s not true” You stopped him, walking around the desk to be closer to him “Don’t come at me saying you’re the only provider in this house ‘cause I had never asked you for a fucking dollar. All my stuff, all Cristobal’s stuff I bought it with my own money… we bought this house together, did you forget it?”

He knew you were right. Your books were selling too well and you had been making a lot of money because of them since you were twenty-three, but, the fact that you were right, only pissed him off even more.

“I’m away ‘cause the DEA has my fucking ass!”

“And who was the one that wanted to sell drugs? It wasn’t me!” You snapped, raising your voice.

You have never said something like that to him, not even when Los Olvidados kidnapped your son. That was why he was taken aback and couldn’t answer anything.

“Ten years ago, I promised to be with you through it all and I’ve kept my promise, you cannot say otherwise. But you? You said nothing was gonna change, you promised me we were not going to be like my parents and here we are”

Miguel chuckled “We’re not like your parents…”

“No? You’re never here and there’s no difference at all when you are…” your eyes were holding tears and when you said that, his eyes started to get cloudy as well “When was the last time you told me you love me?” You asked, but he didn’t make an effort to answer “Tell me ‘cause I don’t remember!” You raised your voice again, your voice was breaking and you were hoping for him to tell you he loves you now.

But he didn’t.

“You can’t tell me that nothing has changed, Miguel, ‘cause we both know it has” You wiped a tear from your cheek and that broke Miguel’s heart.

“Does that mean—?” He babbled.

“No” You interrupted him “I still love you like the first day, but the question here is… do you still love me?”

“Don’t ask that…” he shook his head and cupped your cheeks “You know it” Miguel said.

“Do I?” You asked, taking his hands off from your face “You spend more time with her than with me”

“What?” He squeezed your hands, not wanting to let them go.

“Adelita… all this time you’ve been spending with her—”

“Them, Los Olvidados” he corrected “And Alvarez is always with me…” he said, shaking his head multiple times ‘cause he wanted to take that thought out of your head “It’s only work, nothing had happened” He assured you.

“You know who the father is?” You asked, completely ignoring what he said before, but regretting it right away “You know what? It doesn’t matter” you released from his grip, and he quickly cupped your cheeks again.

“No, no, no… listen to me” Miguel insisted but you shrugged.

“Miguel… I’m going to New York tomorrow” you said and that was when he stopped trying “I don’t want my son growing with parents who don’t love each other like I did... I come back in two weeks, I hope that is enough time for you to think about everything”

“Well, it's all an adventure that comes with a breathtaking view, walking the tightrope with you”

|| MY MASTERLIST || PART 2 HERE ||

|| PROMPTS LISTS TO REQUESTS ||

[angrylizardjacket]

heard your name in every love song {Ben Hardy} 2

2. well that was many years ago, how would you see me now I've grown up (given up my video games)

Summary: When you’re fifteen, and your former babysitter’s on TV in one of the UK’s most successful soap operas, and is still decidedly hot, all you can remember is the advice he’d given you, and how he’d let you win when playing videogames.

A/N: 2780 words. ben’s not in this one persay, but we gotta set up y/n as this badass actress, ya know? y/n’s mother is mentioned but that’s it in terms of family. also i dub thee a theater kid. congratulations.

the mutant brotherhood: @daisy-lu​ @hervoidparadise​ @nedmjpeter​ @ultrunning​ @d-r-e-a-m-catchme​ @clementimee​ @that-fandom-sucks-tho​ @cjand10​ @rest-is-detail​ @baileymae​ @rosesvioletshardy​ @onceuponadetectivedemigod​ @hazelstyles94​ @bitchylittleredhead​ @bihemian-rhapsody​ @sweatyexpertgardenpanda​ @whereeverythingisbetter​ @dedxbed​ @xxencagedxx​ @glittrixvibe​ @a-girl-with-stress​ @sunflower-ben​ @pxroxide-prinxcesss​ @mrsmazzello​ @cubedtriangle​ @haileymorelikestupid​ @misscharlottelee​ @nevilles-insinuations​ @jovialcreatorkidtoad​ @brianmaysclog​ @sambuckywarrior​ @hey-yo-bedussey​ @bubblyanis​ @lifesciencesbois​ @elektraofcrete​ @diosanaz​ @bbdoyouloveme @kirstansworld​ @okilover02​ @cardboardbenmazzello​ @dreashappyworld​ @juliarose21​ @simonedk​ @greycuby​ @emmasunshiine​ @dinotje​ @qtrogerina​ @spiketacus​ @nympha-door-a​ @local-troubled-writer​ @emphatic-af​ @wh0a-thisisheavy​ @lustgardn​ @banginashton​ 

--

When you’re fifteen, you have your first kiss on stage with a boy named Andrew; he’s a year older than you, has been in more shows than you, and has a boyfriend, Jamie, though they both seem entirely endeared by you. You buy each other flowers on opening night, after becoming fast friends in rehearsals. 

It’s your first lead role on stage, though you’ve been in a few commercials in past year, and had callbacks for a bit part in two different TV shows that ended up going to someone else. Since expressing interest in pursuing acting as a career, your parents had been nothing but supportive, their only stipulation that you still need to finish high school. So between school and auditions and rehearsals, you don’t have much time for crushes; sure there’s a boy in the ensemble, who you’re pretty sure is named Ashton, with fluffy blonde hair, and eyes that look green at the right angle, but he also lives off of Monster energy drink. He may be pretty, but he’s got the personality of a damp rock.

But he’s not your first kiss, Andrew is.

“You know Ashton’s got three braincells in total, right?” Andrew’s laying on the floor of your dressing room, makeup done, costume half on, watching in the mirror as you apply your foundation, “what do you see in him?”

“Him-” you started, but Andrew groaned loudly.

“Himbos need to respect women, Y/N, Ashton is not a himbo,” though at his exasperation, you can’t help but be amused.

“He’s pretty,” is all you can manage in your own defence, wearing a sheepish little smile, and Andrew wrinkles his nose. His phone goes off and he checks the message.

“Jamie’s almost here,” he told you with a slight smile, and you two share a fond smile. Jamie comes baring iced drinks and you both praise him as your lord and saviour. 

“Do you think Ashton’s cute?” Andrew asks as he’s eating the whipped cream from the top of his iced coffee.

“Is this a test?” Jamie replies, wearing the slightest frown, but Andrew shakes his head.

“Y/N thinks he’s cute, even though he’s always three beats behind -”

“Whether or not he can dance doesn’t effect how he looks!” You argued, and Andrew raised his nose in the air defiantly.

“It does to me,” but then he’s grinning, turning to gaze to Jamie, who’s deliberating and swirling his peach iced tea with a faintly fond smile.

“The blonde one playing the jock?” 

“That’s him,” Andrew confirms, and Jamie hums.

“He looks like acid wash jeans.”

A confused silence follows.

“What does that mean?” You frown, but as Andrew considers it, he comes to agree, “okay, but do you think he’s cute?”

“He’s perfectly conventionally attractive,” Jamie finally settles on, “but not my type.” And he gives Andrew a coy smile, knocking their shoulders together, they’re painfully endearing, but Jamie’s brought up a thought that you hadn’t wanted to consider. 

When had your type become pretty, blonde boys?

Your answer comes less than three days later, on closing night, your mother’s watching TV before she drives you to the theatre. It’s Eastenders, a soap opera you know from your mother’s fanaticism with it, aware only of it’s longevity and it’s sometimes outlandish moments.

“Y/N, come in here a moment,” you mother calls, “they’ve recast Peter.”

“You know I don’t know who that is,” you tell her with gentle exasperation, but obligingly join her in the living room.

“What was the name of your old babysitter?” You mother’s squinting at the screen, watching a pretty blonde boy you think you recognise talking to a girl who you’re pretty sure is one of the leads.

“Maddy?”

“No, the boy who helped out when Maddy wasn’t available,” and you follow your mother’s gaze to the television, heart beating in your throat as you realise why she’s asking.

“Ben -?” You say, as if you haven’t committed his name to your memory.

“Ben!” She announces with a clap, getting to her feet with enthusiasm, “doesn’t the new Peter look remarkably like him?” She asked, getting as close to the TV as possible, looking a little eerie in it’s glow.

“I think that is him,” you say, throat going dry, and your mother goes quiet.

“No,” she says softly with a frown, “you think so? Really?” And you’re already pulling out your phone and checking IMDB.

“Ben Hardy,” you confirmed with a nod, trying not to let it show how much this information had left you shaken. 

“But -” your mother turns to you, “he’s Keith and Ange’s kid; Hardy? That’s not...?” 

“I dunno, mum, maybe he changed his name, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same person.”

“He was always such a lovely kid,” she mused, “you used to love spending time with him,” she sighed wistfully, and you contemplate how long it would take you to just walk to the theater, which you’d much prefer to having to listen to your mother waxing poetic about how successful your first crush had become. But you decide it’s not worth it, and thankfully she doesn’t mention it much in the car. 

“Andy I’m in distress,” you bemoan your costar the moment you step into hair and makeup that night. Andrew struggles not to smile as the makeup assistant is applying his contour. 

“What’s wrong?” He asks after she steps back, and you spin in your chair to face him while the head of the makeup team was collecting everything she’d need for your look.

“I know why I like Ashton,” you admitted, and Andrew raised an eyebrow in silent question. The makeup assistant paused, giving a playful ‘ooh’ to the announcement. As the leads, the pair of you had been called early to make sure you were all ready for the show before the rush of ensemble members were getting into hair and makeup, so you were the only two cast members around, and felt safe discussing this so openly. The crew were old enough to know not to gossip with the cast.

“So it turns out my type is just this one dude who used to babysit me back when I was like, twelve,” you grumble, and turn back to face the mirror at the makeup artist’s insistence.

“And what made you realize this?” Andrew prompted diligently.

“Because I saw him on TV,” you sighed, closing your eyes as your makeup routine began. But there was silence all around, and someone cleared their throat awkwardly.

“Like on the news?” The makeup assistant asked tentatively.

“No, like on Eastenders,” you sighed; they weren’t quite sure if you were joking or not, “he went to my high school, graduated like two years ago.”

“Seriously?!” Andrew marveled, and you confirmed with a heavy sigh, “so why are you distressed?”

“Because I was perfectly happy forgetting about my stupid, twelve-year-old crush on him, but now he’s on my mum’s favourite soap,” and you groaned in defeat, “which I’m now probably going to get invested in; it’s like a celebrity crush but worse.” You paused, “Andy, he let me win at videogames and gave me acting advice; I still think about him sometimes.”

“Yeah,” Andrew agreed, “I don’t usually know my celebrity crushes personally,” it was clear he was both trying to be supportive, and trying not to laugh at the absurdity of it all. 

“It’s going to kill me,” you said with an air of resignation. 

“What’s his name?”

“Ben Hardy,” there was a pause after your words, and the telltale noise of typing on a phone, and then Andrew made a noise of approval.

“He’s mad fit.”

“I know,” you agreed with a whine, to which your costar snorted a laugh.

“You’ll be okay, I promise,” he assured, and clicked his phone off, settling back in his chair as his hat for the show was brought over and pinned in place, “and I can see why you fancy Ashton now.”

“Ashton doesn’t hold a candle to Ben- damn you Eastenders!” You moaned, playing up your distress for the amusement of the others in the room, which you appreciated, but it’s all you said on the topic for the night, though it barely leaves your mind when you’re not on stage.

At the afterparty, you learn that Ashton kisses with too much tongue, and tastes like grape vape, but he compliments your performance in the show and in the moment, that’s all you really care about. It’s a thoroughly underwhelming experience all in all, but it also manages to feel something like a cathartic release.

You come to a realization, several days later, that you’d never thought you’d have; it’s incredibly difficult to watch Eastenders online, legally or illegally it doesn’t matter, because the legal site costs money which you don’t want to spend, and no-one’s put up the entire series illegally. You can find episodes here and there, but they are one-offs from anywhere between 2005 and now, and no-one’s got the newest episodes anyways.

There’s barely an Eastenders fandom online, a thought you’d never imagine having before now, and so you just end up watching it nightly with you mother, when you can. Except as life gets busier and you’re rehearsing for plays and musicals and eventually, shows, and eventually you’re studying for your GSCEs, and you don’t have time for a soap opera you’re only partially invested in.

You get your big break in the Summer before your A-levels when you score a part in Snowpiercer, so you spend several weeks in Prague, and you’re sharing scenes with Captain Fucking America Chris Evans, and Jamie Bell, and Octavia Spencer –

Oh, you realize faintly as you’re getting your makeup done for the day, I’m becoming someone.

You’re at a critical juncture in your life, in your career, one you’re afraid you haven’t earned your way to, especially not so fast. You have two options; step on the breaks and let someone else get the roles and the life you want, or you can commit to the bit, to the life and reputation you’re building for yourself.

Fall back or follow through.

Snowpiercer earns you the title of One to Watch, and by late 2014, you’re halfway through your final school year, you’ve studios asking you to audition left and right.       In the brief Winter break between terms, you’re called in to audition for a project for Sony, but they couldn’t tell you which. You knew it was a superhero movie, but that’s all.

A month later, only a few days into 2015, you wake up to three missed calls from your agent, thousands of Twitter notifications, approximately twenty texts from your friends. Downstairs, your mother was making breakfast and humming along to the radio, which she only did when she was in a fantastic mood.

It takes all your self control to not look at social media, and instead call your agent back.

He’s got two words for you.

“X-Men Apocalypse.”

You scream.

Next, of course, comes Twitter, which is a mix of supportive and unsurprisingly derisive. Your casting is polarizing, mainly because you haven’t been in a lot of films, and a majority of your work had been in theater; you look the part, but people are skeptical of your talent.

Speaking of the part, you’ll be playing Cassidy Temple, also known as Riot Control, who it turns out is a villain. Not the main villain, they’ve got Oscar Isaac playing Apocalypse himself, and holy shit, you’re going to be working with Oscar Isaac, but apparently you’re the second of the Horsemen to be announced.

Riot Control was a villain from an arc of the same name back in the late 90s, though she’d appeared earlier in Apocalypse’s first comic arc under the name Crowd Control, most notable for being the original Pestilence Horseman, who had a relationship with Archangel, the then-Horseman of Death. After Apocalypse’s death, she retained the power he’d imbued her with, and went on to be the first mutant to fuse with a symbiote, Riot, which is how she’d earned the name Riot Control, and ended up killing Havok; it took the whole X-Men team to take her down, and only then thanks to Jean Grey.

You’d never considered yourself playing a villain, but you couldn’t help but be a little thrilled at the prospect. Looking at images of Cassidy, you can’t help but be a little shocked as to how much she looked like you, right down to the shape of her eyes; the resemblance was uncanny.

At least ten of the twenty texts you’d received from your friends were from Jamie and Andrew, cheering for you and already planning a party. A few friends from school were asking if the announcement was really about you, followed by a ton of excited emojis, and Merissa had left the sweetest voice message, telling you how proud she was of you.

This was big. This was talking with your mother about dropping out of school right before your A-levels, this was talking with Sony about hiring a tutor so you could finish your schooling on-set, this was updating your passport and visa and realizing you’re not just a little kid, playing pretend on stage anymore.

Over the next few days, you’re in meetings with your agent and executives from Sony and Marvel, signing contracts, and attending the kind of blow out party Jamie and Andrew had planned.

“Don’t forget us when you’re all famous,” Jamie, a little tipsy and sentimental, clings to you in the early hours of the morning during the party as it’s winding down, and you’re both half-watching X-Men Origins: Wolverine in the living room of his and Andrew’s little flat.

“I won’t,” you assure him, hugging him tightly back, “I promise.” And he makes a hum of contentment, before announcing that the movie was stupid. It was, but you kind of liked it.

“Jam, don’t hog her!” Merissa announced from the door, and Jamie stuck his tongue out at her; it was a small blessing that your friends from your varying friend groups had managed to get along so well. Merissa crowded you from the other side, squeezing beside you on the sofa and leaning against you, her nose against your cheek.

“I’m gonna miss you guys,” you say into the warm silence of the early hours, and Merissa kisses your cheek in an unspoken ‘we’re gonna miss you too’.

“Nah,” Jamie mused, “you’ll be off partying with your cool famous costar friends –“

“You gotta tell me what it’s like to hang out with Sansa Stark!” Merissa enthused, and your heart leapt into your throat.

“What?”

“Yeah,” Jamie said, as if it were common knowledge, “they announced Sophie Turner was going to be playing a young Phoenix right around the time they announced you,” he paused, frowning, “did you not –“

“I read it, but I never… I didn’t put two and two together.” You admitted, and the news has you reeling.

A few moments later, Andrew comes in from the kitchen to remind Jamie that he has work in the morning, and Jamie tells him that he’ll only go to bed if Andrew takes his place hugging you until the movie’s over. Andrew’s smile widens.

“I think I can manage that,” he agrees, and Jamie stands with a yawn, giving Andrew a kiss before instructing him to not let go. You settle in between Andrew and Merissa, and once the movie’s over, Merissa’s asleep on your shoulder, and Andrew murmurs that he can drive you home if you want. The sun’s almost coming up.

“Can you put on Days of Future Past again?” You ask quietly, sheepish and hopeful in equal measure, and Andrew agrees, and gets you a glass of water, and a blanket. When prompted, Merissa wakes enough so that she can shift on the surprisingly spacious sofa, happy enough to cuddle against you when Andrew tucks the blanket around you both.

“Can’t wait until I’m putting on your DVD –“

“I gave you a copy of Snowpiercer,” you told him, and his expression goes soft.

“True,” he agrees, “but I’ve got a good feeling about this next one,” and you think you know what he means. This is big.

“You’re gonna do great, Y/N, you always do.”

Just over a month later, after your contract had been finalized and you were sent the most up-to-date version of the script, you awoke again to a ton of Twitter notifications, and a single text from Andrew.

The text simply read [👀👀👀] and had a link to a Variety article entitled ‘Ben Hardy joins the cast of Apocalypse’.