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m1d-45 · 2 years

Text

discretion advised

summary: during the hunt, a handful of people know the truth. the only problem is, they don’t hold any influence, and must help you in their own way.

word count: ~2.6k

-> warnings: blood mention, barely any spoilers save for character names + roles, imposter au things

taglist: @samarill || @thenyxsky || @valeriele3 || @shizunxie || @boba-is-a-soup || @yum1x

< masterlist >

diluc trudged down the path through the whispering woods, kicking aside overgrown bushes. his patrol had proved worth his while, the hilichurls near starfell lake had begun to regroup, and were fashioning shields. they were easy enough to take care of, but the smell of ash clung to his clothes and his arms were rather sore. perhaps he should cut tonight short, he had been doing quite a bit of labor today…

whispers off the side of the path caught his attention and he stopped to listen, turning slightly.

“-grass isn’t edible!”

“is too! teacher had a book about it!”

he stepped and pushed aside the bushes, startling those beyond them.

two figures hunched around a patch of lamp grass, the blue light doing little to help with the dense canopy overhead. two visions shone in the dark, one purple and one red, and he identified them after a moment.

bennett, eyes wide and on scuffed knees, and his friend from the forest, the one lisa was teaching grammar, hunched over in an odd crouch.

“what are you two doing out so late?”

“is lamp grass edible?” razor asked, pointing to the glowing plant, and diluc stared.

“…it’s used in a few recipes, yes, but-“

in an instant he snatched up the plants, ripping up some of their roots in his haste to shove them into his jacket.

“we leave now,” he said simply, standing and pulling bennett up with him. “thank you, master diluc.”

diluc stepped to block their exit. “you didn’t answer my question. bennett, what are you doing out? friend or not, your dads would have your head if they knew you were in the woods after dark.”

“i wasn’t just wandering! i was-…” he stopped suddenly, as if aware whatever he would say would get him into trouble. “we were looking for some stuff.”

“that doesn’t answer my question. anything would be easier to find before dark.”

“we looked with the sun,” razor interrupted, the soft glow from his pocket slightly illuminating his disappointment. “but nothing was found.”

diluc sighed. he couldn’t be mad at them, not really, mot when it was clear they never meant to stay out so late.

“whatever you’re looking for can be found in the morning. for now, come with me back to the city. razor, we’ll stop at a waypoint so you can return to wolvendom, okay?”

the two boys nodded, and he let them cross into the path.

“but don’t do this again, understood? and if you need help, ask.”

they both nodded, and diluc was left to wonder why they needed lamp grass in the first place.

“oh! sir albedo!”

albedo stopped, finishing his sentence on his clipboard before looking up, seeing noelle rushing over to him from the direction of the library.

“lady noelle. are you in need of something?”

she shook her head, metal gloves clicking together as she clasped her hands. idly, albedo noted the many scratches on them, presumably from the same action. “oh not at all, i’m alright, but lisa wanted me to remind you that your copy of ‘common medicinal herbs and their uses’ was due for either renewal or to be turned in soon, and to please not poison yourself again.”

albedo took the small card she handed him, noting the date. “i see. i’ll make note of this, and i’ll be sure to turn it in shortly. thank you, noelle.”

he took a step away but she stopped him with a hand, a flicker of irritation running through him.

“is there something else?”

“well, not from lisa, but i wanted to ask why you were researching this? normally you’re in dragonspine and studying ley lines, not stationed just outside of springvale and renting books on plants…”

he turned fully towards her, tucking away his pen and holding his notes close to his chest. “i am an alchemist, and the study is not fully about ley lines. i admit this is somewhat outside of my usual range of work, but sucrose is currently on medical leave—as i’m certain you already know—and i have no other sources of information aside of field research. this project is not an assignment, merely an interest of mine, and as such it has not made its way onto any formal paperwork. however, i can assure you i am not behind in any of my work.”

“ah- i never meant that you were behind! i was just curious!”

his papers crinkled under his hand. “there is no need to be. good day, miss noelle.”

without another word, he turned on his heel and left, making his way down the stairs and out the front gates of mondstat. taking his clipboard away from his chest, he reread the last portion of his notes to get his bearings, pulling out his pen to finish the report.

‘i’m not certain as to why you’d need these notes, klee, considering the knights are well-equipped to handle injuries, but please do not try to make your own medicine. it’s dangerous near wolvendom on a normal day, and you know what’s been going on lately. please, come see me or the healers for any injuries you may have.

‘remember, the knights are here to help.’

“diona? what are you doing out here?”

fish scattered as boots stomped through the shallow water, glittering scales barely visible through the splash.

“wh- hey! you scared off the fish!” diona shouted, tail lashing behind her. all that time she spent, waiting for the plumpest fish to swim up from the depths of the lake for nothing! now she had to wait even longer!

“fish? what do you need fish for?” draff asked, stopping near her as she sat on a rock, collecting her things. “are you hungry? oh, do you need more scales? i know the traveller helped you last time, but i have pretty quick reflexes too! i could catch you some.”

“as if,” she mumbled, glaring at where he was still standing in the lake. “and it’s fine, i don’t need your help.”

he watched in confusion as she brushed right past him, reaching to pluck snapdragon instead. “diona… you know you shouldn’t be out here, not now. it’s dangerous, and i don’t want you caught up in-“

“i’m fine.” she carefully put the flowers in her bag, pulling out her bow and scanning the waters. all the fish were far too lean, barely anything on their bones, but she might as well get something, right? “just stay still this time.”

before he could say anything—or worse, step forward and scare off the fish again—she nocked an arrow, collecting cryo on the tip. as soon as a fish got within range she let it fly, the cryo forming a spear that stabbed through the gills, pinning it in place. she set down her bow and carefully pulled the fish out, twisting the arrow to kill it before removing the small icicle and throwing it aside. it wasn’t a clean kill, and definitely not worth all the waiting she did, but… it was better than nothing.

“what do you need a fish for? we have plenty back in springvale…”

she ignored him, putting her bag over her shoulders and picked up the fish by the tail. “it’s fine. you better go back soon, you’re due for a patrol.”

her father hesitated, eyes wide and lost.

“diona, is this about last night? i already said i was sorry-“

“and i heard you then. now get out of the lake, your socks are going to get wet!”

he looked down and quickly stepped out of the water, taking off one boot to check that no water had gotten in. by the time he confirmed there wasn’t, she was gone, only a swaying bush to indicate where she had gone.

draff sighed.

razor stayed low to the ground as he ran, one hand on the strap of his bag. the patrols had gotten too close again, he’d heard lisa talk about it, and he couldn’t follow her orders to stay away.

‘it’s dangerous,’ she’d said, distaste apparent in her eyes. ‘and i’d hate for you to get involved in such things. you’re too young.’

‘too young.’ him?

he climbed up a cliff as quick as he could, the scrape of stone against his fingertips familiar, and pushed through the thick bushes at the top. thorns pulled at his jacket, denser than they should be, but he continued anyway, gritting his teeth through the pain.

‘too young.’ too young to read notes stained with droplets of blood, too young to sneak books about medicine into his reading practice, too young to bite through the bitter skin of wolfhooks in accordance with the notes albedo had taken at klee’s prompting.

too young to see knights swarming the place he’d come to know as safe, too young for the stench of blood to reach his nose, stronger than just the small drops beading on his skin.

kaeya was the first one to spot him, quickly excusing himself and walking over, attempting to block the scene even as razor cranes to try and see around him.

“razor! what are you doing here, huh? wasn’t your pack further south?”

in between people, he could see the stone he used to tuck supplies under, the white of a paper just barely sticking out amidst the shadows.

“what happened?”

kaeya sighed. “a patrol ran into somebody that we’ve been looking for for a while.” just say it. “things got.. a bit messy. are you alright, by the way? the bushes around here are incredibly thick…”

his arms barely stung. he kept his eye on the stone tucked between two wolfhook bushes. “i’m fine. here for wolfhooks.” he pointed through the crowd and kaeya looked, turning back with an odd twist to his lip.

“i think you’re better off finding wolfhooks elsewhere, razor. if you go down the path im certain you’ll find more.”

he knew. he shook his head anyway. “need these ones.”

another sigh. why was everybody sighing today? they had nothing to fear for.

“alright, fine. just stick close to me, alright?”

he put a hand on razor’s shoulder and let him through the crown of people, keeping his body between him and the source of the blood-smell. it didn’t matter.

razor crouched purposely close to the bushes, setting his bag right on top of the stone. he reached for the further wolfhooks first, knocking down the ones closer to him, dropping them into his bag on top of the skewers he was meant to leave. he picked up two of the fallen wolfhooks and hid the paper against his palm, pretending to rearrange the berries as he buried the note deep into his bag.

when he stood, kaeya turned with a smile. it was forced. “all done?”

razor nodded, clutching his bag close to his chest with both arms.

“good! now do me a favor and stick close to springvale for a while, okay?”

razor nodded again. “swear.”

hidden against his jacket, two of his fingers crossed.

jean’s chair scraped against the floor as she sat at the head of the meeting table. “so, any news on the hunt?”

heads shook all around the table. a few hands clenched, a few jaws ticked, but nobody spoke up.

jean held back a sigh, reviewing the papers in front of her. “we have to catch them before they leave mondstat… has the only time we’ve seen them been with captain kaeya’s patrol?”

everybody nodded, but kaeya himself didn’t seem satisfied. instead, he stared across the table at klee, who was drawing on a notepad.

“klee?”

she looked up at his voice, and though jean raised an eyebrow, he continued, leaning forward in his chair. “have you spoken to razor recently?”

klee thought about it for a moment, but eventually shook her head. “nope!”

“klee’s been in solitary for the past few days,” jean cut in. “why are you asking about razor?”

kaeya shrugged. “he showed up at the scene and seemed pretty insistent on getting the wolfhooks there-“

“and you let him?”

“look, lisa, it would have been harder to say no. you want me to explain to him what’s going on? you haven’t.”

electricity crackled across lisa’s fingertips. “he should never have been allowed to get close.”

“he popped up out of nowhere, what was i supposed to do? shove him back into the bushes?”

“kaeya.”

the silence that followed was only broken when klee put her pen on the table with a loud clack!, smiling widely at her finished drawing.

jean sighed, directing her attention towards her to try and break the tension. “klee, before you went to solitary-“ her excitement dimmed, her smile slipping to a pout, and jean’s heart hurt a bit “-did you talk to anybody? outside of the knights, of course.”

she thought about it again, carefully putting away her pen and tearing off the sheet of paper with her drawing on it. “nope! klee’s stayed within the walls for the last… month, maybe? i don’t want to get in the way!”

albedo looked up from his notes—did he ever stop working?—with a frown. “then why did you ask me about herbs?”

herbs?

she shrugged. “curious! bennett needed help with a friend of his, so i wanted to ask you because you’re super smart!”

a few of the knights smiled. albedo did not.

“a friend…”

klee picked up her notepad, free hand on the edge of the table. “can i leave?”

jean sighed. “sure, klee. stay out of trouble, okay?”

she nodded with a wide smile, pushing herself away from the table and walking away, leaving her drawing on the table.

jean picked it up, “klee, you left this!”

she paused for a moment, turning, but eventually continued. “you can have it!”

jean’s lip picked up in a small smile as klee reached for the door handle, carefully closing it behind her. she picked up the drawing, turning it right side up.

it was simple, as most children’s drawings were, and though the pen that albedo got her had multiple kinds of ink inside, she was still limited on color. two trees stood on either edge of the page, and three figures stood on grass. one was small, with a red hat and bag, labeled ‘mE!’. another had goggles and a weird circle at its side, named ‘bEnnY!’, and besides him was somebody in what looked like a jacket and with fluffy hair, named ‘razor!’.

it was cute. the z in razor was backwards, and the bushes were little more than some scribbles, but she had clearly put effort into it. there was even some wolfhooks on a bush, with a little label of….

“jean? is something wrong?”

jean slammed the paper on the desk and stood, uncaring of the way her chair skid as she pulled her jacket off the back of it, quickly putting it on.

“all of you, with me.”

the wolfhooks weren’t wolfhooks. they were eyes.

eyes labeled ‘the creator’.

671 notes · View notes

cdyssey · 2 years

Text

Trust Me, Pt. 1/2

Summary: Melissa had to put someone down as her emergency contact.

CW: Car Accident; Medical Procedures; Hospitalization

A/N: Pt. 1 of my gift for @straperine for the Secret Santa exchange! Michael, ily!! I wrote more in the AO3 A/N, but the gist is that I adore you, and I’m so glad that we’re friends!

AO3 Link | Part Two

“Last time I trusted someone else to shuffle, I lost a kidney.” - Melissa Schemmenti

It’s a perfectly normal Saturday night.

Standing barefoot in her kitchen, listening to an old Sam Cooke vinyl on her grandmother’s still-functioning record player, Barbara hums to herself as she cards her fingers through her recipe box, looking for her poppyseed chicken recipe. Taylor is coming over for dinner tomorrow evening with her new boyfriend—a young gentleman named Marcus, who apparently works on Wall Street.

Barbara hates that.

Just a little.

Thinks she knows the type from the books she’s read and the movies she’s seen.

Tie-wearing, cocaine-snorting, fast-talking hooligans.

Mm.

When she told Gerald of her suspicions during one of their occasional calls a week or so ago, he only laughed and said that she should give the boul a chance. Her ex-husband had caught a glimpse of him once on a FaceTime chat with Taylor and said that he seemed nice enough. A little bit of an egghead, maybe, but that’s only to be expected from a broker. When she told Melissa the exact same thing in the teacher’s lounge the next day—(dissatisfied with that perfectly reasonable answer)—to her chagrin, her best friend only doubled over in laughter too, briefly holding on to her shoulder for support.

“God, Barb,” she shook her head, her green eyes twinkling with amusement, “I do love the way you see the world, hon.”

So, with these humbling reactions in mind, she grudgingly supposes she’s going to give Mr. Marcus Wall Street a singular shot.

He had better not waste it either.

She eventually finds the recipe, props it up against a half-empty bottle of Merlot, and starts rooting around her kitchen to ensure that she has everything. She’ll need to go to the store and grab the chicken, definitely… a box of Ritz Crackers for the crust too… and maybe a few other necessities besides.

More TV dinners to neatly stack in her freezer. (It’s hard to cook for precisely one person.) Another half-pint of milk. (That she won’t be able to drink by herself anyway.) A fresh bottle of wine that she will slowly and methodically desiccate to its dregs throughout two weeks, allowing herself a singular half-glass when the home she has lived in for twenty-one years feels like a total stranger.

(So quiet. It used to never be quiet in the Howard residence. Once filled with the pealing laughter of her two beautiful girls. Once filled with the ambient noise of Gerald flicking on the TV after a long day at work. Once filled with their shared laughter as they gossiped together about some neighbor or another. But this had been well before the disagreements had begun. They never had fights, her and Gerald. Just polite disagreements in slightly raised voices. And she’d go to school the next day, attempting to plaster on a beatific smile that would crumble as soon as Melissa saw her, clocking her on the spot, seeing her. Oh, how naked she was beneath that verdant gaze, so exposed, like the carefully layered outfits that she meticulously put together disguised absolutely nothing. And the younger teacher would rush to her in an instant, dropping everything, and in the embrace of her friend’s arms, Barbara would finally let the mask drop too—if only for a few seconds, a minute at most, her face buried against the crook of that warm neck like it was her own personal Bible.)

As Sam Cooke’s soulful voice continues to warble through her empty kitchen, she harmonizes with him as she makes her grocery list.

And idly pours herself a half-glass of Merlot.

It’s a perfectly normal Saturday night.

After she heats up a bowl of leftover tomato soup for herself, she settles in her favorite recliner in the living room and prepares to watch Jeopardy!, which’ll be on in about ten minutes.

She tries to call Melissa twice to see if she wants to get on the phone and watch it together—as they sometimes do these days—but to no avail. She gets hit by Melissa’s vaguely threatening voicemail twice.

“Melissa.” A slight pause, wary, like her dear friend thinks that even giving her first name might backfire on her. “Schemmenti. If ya need me, you know where to find me. If you’re tryin’ to sell me somethin’, don’t.”

She leaves a message on the second call, just a general no worries if you’re busy.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

And so, Barbara eats dinner in silence too, occasionally calling out the answers to clues. Hamlet. The Grand Canyon. Ghosts. Jennifer Coolidge, though the correct answer is actually Jennifer Hudson, which seems incorrect to Barbara but alright.

She gets tired of doing that by Double Jeopardy, though, and sits the rest of the program in silence, idly stirring the dregs of her soup. The grandfather clock in the corner slowly drags her into seven, the toll echoing solemnly through the darkened room.

Melissa never calls her back.

And it’s fine, of course.

She’s well-aware her friend has a life of her own… but Barbara admittedly likes it—much more than she rationally should—when the two of them share their evenings together, even when it’s just over the phone.

Melissa’s been her saving grace in all of these endless months since the divorce, coming over on so many weekends—and now that school’s out for the summer, much more often than that. They’ve chatted and cut-up and talked about new art projects they want to try with their kids in the fall, shoulders lightly brushing, their curving hips, their thighs. Melissa has unfailingly cooked for her, always lamenting the deplorable state of Barbara’s fridge or else complaining about her depleted spice cabinet.

Perpetually making sure that she has enough to eat.

She made the tomato soup that Barbara is currently picking at, having popped over for dinner just two nights ago with a foot-long baguette, a bunch of vegetables, and assorted spices that she dragged from her own kitchen.

“You gotta know I love you, hon,” Melissa had huffed as she dropped her haul onto the pristine island in Barbara’s kitchen. “I haven’t cooked for someone this much since Joe.”

At first, Barbara had easily smiled at the fact that she was loved by Melissa, warmth radiating through her chest and all the way down to her perfectly manicured fingertips, but then, she had been less pleased by the casual comparison to Melissa’s idiotic ex-husband, blinking in a manner that she hoped wasn’t too revealing.

“Joseph was hardly as good-looking as I am, though, right?” She had asked, trying to play it all off as a joke.

Of course it was a joke to her.

This jealousy that she was pretending to affect.

Melissa only chuckled, though, and lightly swatted her on the ass with a dish towel, which did something unpleasantly delightful to her insides too.

“Damn straight,” she winked, and Barbara hasn’t been able to let go of the moment since. She rubs the emptiness on her ring finger almost subconsciously, as though she can still feel where it had cuffed her.

(The inlaid diamonds had almost been as heavy as her guilt.)

She gets Final Jeopardy right.

Derrida.

It’s a perfectly normal Saturday night.

After taking her makeup off, showering, and slipping into her favorite silky pajama set, she finally crawls into the king-sized bed that she had once shared with Gerald and tries to settle her mind by reading. She and the ladies at her Bible Club have been making their way through a pretty hefty devotional lately—(in-between a little light gossiping about Brother Carlton Sanders’ possible mistress, of course)—and Barbara tries to stay on top of the weekly readings as much as she can with her busy schedule.

But tonight, the words of God are falling on glassy eyes. She can only get through a few pages before she’s distracted, disconcerted, discontent—staring at the empty space next to her, gently biting her tongue between her teeth.

It’s been eleven months since she and Gerald divorced, their thirty-seven year marriage ending as it had so beautifully begun—with a moment of quiet intimacy. They laced their hands together in their attorney’s office and both quietly shed tears at what they were about to do.

She almost changed her mind then, right as her shaking pen was poised above the dotted line with her name neatly printed beneath it.

Almost conceded to everything that would be required of her to not let him go.

Almost gave that crucial piece of herself away.

Here, take it—I can’t do this.

I don’t know how to be alone.

I don’t know how to be without you.

But Gerald, still holding her other hand, squeezed it and silently reminded her it was okay.

They had done everything right in a desperate attempt to preserve their marriage.

They had talked to their dear pastor first, Brother Hank, who told them that God knew the plans He had for them, plans for them to prosper and not be harmed, plans for them to have hope and a future.

“But that doesn’t necessarily mean that your future is together,” he had added kindly, peering between both of them with keen eyes. He had known them for well over twenty years now and had been their friend through most of them.

It was time, he implicitly said without ever saying the words, but neither Barbara nor Gerald had been ready to hear it then, both stubborn to the last.

They had gone to at least five months worth of couple’s counseling after that, Gerald an unstoppable force and Barbara an immovable object on the subject of her husband’s possible transfer. He was an excellent welder, and his company wanted to send him down to New Orleans to work on the cruise ships that docked and departed from the Big Easy. The pay was handsome—far more money than Barbara had ever seen in her entirety of a career as an public school educator—but the emotional toil was steep.

Gerald wanted to move back to Louisiana—where she’d been raised and where they had initially met when he temporarily located there for a job. It clearly made more sense than him traveling back-and-forth between contracts, but Barbara had been adamant about staying in Philadelphia. She was too old to start anew at a different elementary school in a now foreign place. And she didn’t want to leave Abbott, having invested nearly half of her life there, with so much more left to give yet.

Ava surely needed her. Though the once thoroughly incompetent principal had grown leaps and bounds over the past few years of her tenure, she still relied upon Barbara for some help with the budget and other administrative duties.

Her young mentees too—Janine, Jacob, and Gregory—all coming into their own as fine, young teachers, of course… but still, whenever they encountered some hard problem or another, they unfailingly continued to consult Barbara. They called her their work mom and she fondly (if a little exasperatedly) claimed them as her own.

And then there was the problem, the possibility, and the exquisite pain of surely losing Melissa Schemmenti.

Melissa—her dear, sweet Mel—independent and self-sufficient, bold and thoroughly capable and so full of life… probably didn’t need her.

But Barbara did.

Barbara needed her best friend.

She would never admit it aloud—not even to herself, much less to Gerald—but even the mere thought of parting with Melissa fueled an almost ungodly amount of her hesitation. She had been inseparable from the younger woman for nearly as long as she had been teaching at Abbott, then new to Philadelphia, lacking a community and a context beyond her nuclear family and the Baptist church they went to every Sunday.

But then there had been Melissa, whom she had instantly clicked with despite the thousands of differences between them: their ages, their upbringings, their overall demeanors and almost every last habit in-between. But before three months had passed since Mel had become a teacher at the school, the two of them had already claimed the round table closest to the fridge in the teacher’s lounge as their own.

A South Philly native, born and raised, Melissa took her under her wing and made her feel at ease in the city, something that even her husband hadn’t been able to accomplish. She would never forget this initial kindness, even though she has long since striven to repay it.

She would always remember that Melissa had been the first person who made her feel at home.

But there was something about this particular truth that felt like it was unsavory—a confession of sin weighing upon her otherwise stainless soul.

So they argued about thousands of different things.

But never once about Melissa.

She wouldn’t dare probe that tender wound for Gerald to see, somehow finding it much more tenable to let it fester beneath her carefully buttoned shirt and become an abscess, a maw, dark and desolate, devouring her from the inside out.

It gnawed on her that her husband of three decades had to beg her to leave, but she innately knew that her friend of nearly the same amount of time didn’t have to so much as lift a finger to convince her to stay.

What was wrong with her?

How had her kind and loving marriage arrived at this terminal end?

(And what, pray tell, had her relationship with Melissa become in all the intervening years?)

(Friend was starting to feel insufficient, lacking the gravitas to encapsulate the fact that the two women had spent nearly thirty years together, teaching side-by-side in the unchanging hallways of Abbott Elementary. Partner felt closer—maybe comfortable even—but partner was dangerous too, laden with some of the same connotations that encircled the diamond encrusted band on her fourth finger.)

(So friend would have to fit. She would make it fit, damn it. She was Barbara Howard, by God, and if anyone could maneuver a square through a circular hole, it was surely her.)

“You could retire.” If Gerald had brought this suggestion up once, he had done it a hundred times. “My salary would finally be more than enough to support us, Barb, and you wouldn’t have to work anymore! You could finally have time for all the hobbies you’ve wanted to do!”

Barbara had intimately known that he was just trying to be considerate when he made remarks such as these, but it had simply devastated her, with each occasion, to know that he had thoroughly misunderstood her life’s project. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life pursuing hobbies; she wanted to be in Classroom 1A, teaching the next generation how to read.

Their marital counselor, a kindly lady named Mrs. Russell, emphasized honest communication, encouraging them to voice their wants, needs, and fears to each other—something which they increasingly found they could only do with her in the room, and even then, in front of the counselor and God Himself, Barbara could not be completely vulnerable.

“We’ve raised our daughters here,” she once said, deflecting.

“And our daughters are grown now,” Gerald replied gently—always gentle, her Ger. She loved that about him. Sitting across from him in a hard-backed chair, she had never hated that trait of his more, how it cast the weakness of her protestations in clear and ungainly light.

“But what about your family?” She grasped at straws. “Your stepfather?”

“My brother can finally step up to the plate to help with him, and we can always come back to visit.”

“Taylor’s only an hour or so away from us now.”

“Taylor can fly out to see us anytime she wants to.”

“Gerald,” she had only pleaded at the end, during the last fifteen minutes of their final appointment with the marriage counselor. Their careful budgeting wouldn’t allow them another, not if they wanted to make next month’s mortgage payment on time. “I’m not finished yet.”

Finished.

Barbara Howard used all her words very carefully, and this particular verb was no different. On her desperate tongue, it implied an end, a conclusion, a vital depletion.

She’d be passively destroyed, hollowed out, chipped away piece-by-sordid-piece, weathered with the patina of time until nothing was left but the ruins of herself still standing miraculously tall. She’d be the pillar of salt, perpetually looking back at the homeland she had made for herself as she slowly eroded to the grains.

I’m not finished yet.

And I’d be finished if I went to New Orleans.

If I retired in a city I was unfamiliar with.

A ghost well before my time.

She begged him with her eyes, with the tears that were traitorously starting to leak from them, to read between the lines, to understand the magnitude of what she was still incapable of fully saying.

Gerald digested it quietly, agony straining every weathered line in his face. He stared at the ground and sat like a man carved from stone for what felt like minutes, hours, days—forever in a microscopic moment.

“Me neither, Barb,” he eventually croaked, finally looking up at her, with desolation in the darks of his eyes, and she knew at once that he wasn’t talking about leaving Philadelphia.

His own ghosthood was staying in it.

“I’m not finished either.”

Together, they had arrived at an untenable conclusion.

The only one that remained.

It was time.

They had been married for thirty-seven years, in love for perhaps forty.

Even still.

It was over.

Finished.

It was an amicable split, a no-fault divorce, and the two of them have done everything in their power to remain on good terms with each other since then—not just for their girls’ sakes, but very much for their own. Their one irreconcilable difference has done nothing to change the fact that they still care for each other deeply, that they will always have thirty-seven wonderful years between them, that they will always be family. They chat on the phone at least once a month and send texts even more often than that. She forwards him mail all the way in Louisiana. He sends her pictures of weird birds he sees when he’s out on a job. She usually smiles and responds, LOL.

Barbara most definitely isn’t in love with him anymore—the entire year they had spent fighting and ten months of separation besides has firmly put the nail in that coffin—but admittedly, she does miss him from time-to-time all the same.

The companionship he offered.

The safety.

The peace.

She places her devotional on top of her blanket-covered lap and stares off into the middle distance for what feels like an hour, though when she checks her phone, it’s only been three minutes. Her lockscreen is a selfie of her and Melissa from when they had gone on a road trip together this past spring.

It’d been the younger woman’s unsubtle way of saying, Hon, I’m dragging your mopey ass outta the house if it kills me.

Melissa’s chin is nestled against Barbara’s shoulder in the unsteadily taken picture, the sun glinting off the scarlet vividness of her hair, and Barbara herself is smiling down at her friend, visible affection in her eyes.

Love.

She is smiling even now, at this very minute, always heartened by the reminder that she exists at the same time as Melissa Schemmenti.

Oh, how she adores this woman.

It vaguely bothers her, though, that Melissa hasn’t returned her call or even sent a text to show that she's received it. It’s a bit unusual for her; she’s always been fairly quick about replying to Barbara…

She supposes that she’s just being a little clingy, though.

Mel had mentioned something about going out this weekend after all. She likes to frequent bars occasionally and shoot pool with strangers.

Sometimes, she even takes them home.

Barbara crinkles her nose at the thought, distantly irritated by the image of Melissa swapping spit with some man who always ends up resembling Joseph in her head or trading lipstick with some woman who is devastatingly beautiful.

The women Melissa dates are always devastatingly beautiful.

That crucial fact always makes Barbara feel some type of way. She can deal with the Joseph substitutes—the slobs, the drunkards, the sleazes. After all, using Joseph as the paradigm and the example, she knows they’ll never last.

She cannot say the same of her own gender.

Indeed, she cannot say anything at all about the way that she has to repress an inexplicable urge to compete with Melissa’s inamoratas for her attention.

Even though she knows she maybe shouldn’t, Barbara wings one last text her friend’s way.

Girlfriend, call me back in the morning!

Let’s grab brunch.

Perhaps they can go to Over Easy—that breakfast café up the road from Melissa’s house—and inappropriately sip mimosas at eleven in the morning and share a stack of waffles as they talk about their week. And perhaps, like the last time they did as much, Barbara will have the opportunity to reach over and thumb away the little bit of whipped cream that somehow gets on Melissa’s cherry-red nose…

It'd been so lovely, sharing that domestic intimacy with her.

It doesn't strike her as odd at all that she wants to do it all over again.

It’s a perfectly normal Saturday night.

And then, Barbara’s phone rings precisely six minutes after midnight, startling her upright in that big, empty bed.

Groaning, moaning, fumbling a little in the coagulated darkness, she flicks the latch on her bedside lamp and snatches her phone up from where it had been laying facedown on her devotional.

Her first thought, seeing the unregistered number, is that it’s just another one of those damn robocalls, interrupting what had been a very good sleep, but the area code seems to suggest that it’s local.

She tentatively decides to answer—perhaps solely to chew the midnight caller out—pulling the phone up to her ear.

“Hello?” She asks crossly.

“Hello, yes,” comes a tired voice—gruff but not necessarily unkind. Clinical, practiced even. This person is a professional. “Is this… Barbara Howard?”

He says her name like he’s reading it from a document, and sudden terror carves through her like a knife.

“Yes, this is she,” Barbara grips her phone so tightly that her arthritic wrist starts to ache. “May I ask whom I’m speaking to?”

All of the sleepiness has been sieved from her in an instant, shed like a decaying skin. She palms her stomach, suddenly and completely nauseous.

“My name is Dr. Alex McGill, and I’m in charge of the emergency room at St. Vincent’s tonight,” the voice identifies itself, nearly doing her in right then and there. St. Vincent’s. The hospital about twenty minutes away. She’d given birth to Gina there, and the association immediately makes her think of her girls, even though one is certainly in New York and the other is all the way in California. But then she comes to her senses—remembers that it’s highly likely that she’s still listed on Gerald's medical forms—and that terrifies her just as powerfully. “I’m calling to inform you about—”

“Who is it?” She interrupts sharply, incapable of enduring polite decorum, not now, not when every muscle in her body is clenched with unbearable anxiety.

There is only one type of phone call that this can possibly be.

A short pause.

And in that infinitesimal moment, that tenth of a second before the entirety of her world is irrevocably shaken at its foundation, Barbara suddenly realizes the awful answer before Dr. Alex McGill ever articulates it.

“I’m calling because you’re listed as Melissa Schemmenti’s emergency contact,” he says, so gently, but even still, Barbara lets out a strangled cry that she barely registers as coming from herself. “A driver in a truck rear ended her around eleven this evening and caused her to skid off the road.”

The proclamation is simply ruinous.

And its hypotheticals violently assault her, seizing across her mind’s eye in a whirl of vicious colors.

Melissa in a pool of crimson blood.

Melissa slumped over against the wheel, turning blue.

Melissa, cold, laid out beneath a white sheet.

They force Barbara Howard on her knees, these horrible visions, these phantasmagorias; she feels the cold metal of their possibility against her goosebump knotted skin. She waits for the inevitable pull of the trigger.

Melissa! She wants to yell. She wants to scream. She wants to shake the world with her primal grief and tear it all asunder until someone, anyone, feels an ounce of the horror that is currently rearranging her central nervous system.

Melissa.

Please, God. Not now, not yet—not ever.

“Is she—“ She can’t quite get out, choked and choking.

“She’s still alive,” Dr. McGill quickly assures her, his voice steady where hers is not. “She’s in surgery now with one of St. Vincent’s finest.”

And Barbara, holding the phone against her ear like it’s a lifeline, begins to weep with visceral relief.

She’s alive.

The doctor tries to console her further, she thinks—perhaps even giving her specifics—but she barely registers that he's speaking; her head only has room enough for one recurring refrain.

She's alive.

#work wives #melissa schemmenti #barbara howard #abbott elementary #s: abbott elementary #reginianwrites #straperine

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rodrigo-esc · 3 months

Text

Names & Nudges Who: Rodrigo and Jade ( @jade-escobar ) What: Jade and Rodrigo have a nice talk and get a pleasant surprise!! Where: Rodrigo and Jade's casita When: 6/19/2024; evening.

JADE

Jade was sitting on one of the living room couches, having just finished checking on Pip and Kiwi. She had some unexpected sobbing moments when learning that it wasn't necessarily safe for her to handle her birds while she was pregnant. The most she could do was pass them long treats through the bars of their cage and talk to them from said cage. Miranda seemed to sense her melancholy and hopped onto the couch, nestling next to her thigh. She pressed her face to the side of Jade's growing belly, and then settled like she was preparing for a nice nap.

With a small sigh, Jade turned on the TV but hadn't found anything that was holding her interest. She took out her phone, letting a rerun of *Chopped* serve as background noise while she scrolled through her phone and idly pet Miranda behind her ears. She'd pulled up one of her more frequently visited websites of late and began scrolling where she left off, a small pout unintentionally formed on her bottom lip. Her eyes were on the phone screen though as she slid her thumb up and down the page, momentarily fixed on it more than her surroundings.

RODRIGO

Rodrigo had gone out to get a few things. He wanted to cheer his wife up a bit considering she seemed very upsent upon learning she wouldn't be able to handle their birds while pregnant. He picked up a few muffins and some other goodies that Jade liked along with necessities for the house. Rodrigo was planning on cooking them both dinner tonight. He has already learned so much from Jade and had gotten some recipes from his mother. Once he arrived at their home, he hung his keys on the hooks beside the door and left the mail he picked up there as well. "Hey, honey!" Rodrigo placed the groceries on their table.

He noticed that she still looked a little down so he kicked off his sneakers and then plopped himself right next to her, chuckling when Miranda began to nudge his leg with her head. "Hey....awww. Come here..." He let Miranda climb onto his lap but was referring to Jade and so he wrapped his arm aroud her and brought her close to him. "I got a bunch of goodies and I'm going to make dinner tonight. I was thinking tacos!" He kissed the top of her head. "Aaaannnddd I got two baby name books for us to look at." Hopefully looking at names would help.

JADE

Jade had heard Rodrigo come in and briefly looked up from her phone when he called out to her. "Hey," she called out, not meaning to sound so deflated in that one-word greeting. But she was wearing her disappointment on her face too apparently because of her husband's instant attention to her. Jade leaned into him as much as her rounded belly would allow and set her phone on her thigh so she could wrap her arms around him too. "I'm okay, really," Jade assured even though she *was* comforted by Rodrigo. "Tacos are fine for dinner. Can you make some of tortillas flat for tostadas?" She lowered a hand from around her husband to rest her hand on her bump and looked up to his face as she asked, "Are any of the groceries frozen? Do you need any help putting it away?" She smiled a little and reached for her phone to show him the screen--more specifically, the website she'd been on. "I've been looking at some names online, so it looks like we're thinking the same thing."

RODRIGO

Rodrigo hoped she was okay and massaged Jade's hair for a bit. "It's okay to be disappointed though. Just remember, it's not a permanent thing." He cuddled up next to her and gently placed a hand on her growing belly. Rodrigo leaned in to kiss here there and smiled. "Hi, littles. It's your daddy. I just got mommy some yummy treats so you're both going to be so excited." He nodded at Jade's question about the tostadas. "Anything my wife wants. I'll be sure to make a few for you." He looked over to the groceries and the one insulated bag. "I do have a few perishable things. Don't worry about that. I'll take care of it and you yell out what names have been popping at you." Rodrigo kissed her cheek a few times before standing up to jog toward the table to grab the insulated bag. "Okay, give it to me straight..." He grinned and walked toward the fridge to put away some veggies, fruits, milk and other perishable items he had purchased.

JADE

"You're right and I'm trying to make sure I remember that. It's an adjustment, even if it's only temporary," Jade said, rubbing the side of her bump. She watched Rodrigo talk to their babies and smiled. Rodrigo talking to the babies from inside her belly was one of her favorite things while being pregnant. And when he agreed to tostadas, she ran a set of fingers through his hair and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "Thank you, honey. Let me know if I can do anything to help, okay?" She had been napping on and off when trips to the bathroom weren't a necessity and was feeling a desire to be productive. When he asked about names, Jade turned her phone to herself and said, "Well, I still really love Ciel and Felix. Those are still my top choices." She scrolled a little on her screen, "I also like Mateo, Miles, and Nico for a boy. And for a girl? Renata, Marilyn and Zora." Sticking her phone in her pocket, Jade picked up Miranda to hold her while scooting off of the couch and getting to her feet. She cradled the young cat and gently rubber her head and back. "And I'd still love to include your mom as a namesake for a girl. Have you thought about names that you love?" Carefully, she set Miranda to the floor and lightly waddled to the sink to wash her hands. "Did you get a chance to look through the book before you bought it?"

RODRIGO

"That's it! I think if you keep repeating that, you'll be okay, honey. As hard as it is." He smiled when she rubbed his hair. He affectionally tapped her belly and whispered a few things to the twins before sitting up again. "Of course. But right now, you're going to be a big help by telling me the names that have caught your interest." He chuckled and once in front of the fridge, he began to put things away. He washed the fruit before transferring them to their protective tupperwares and then put away any frozen items he had gotten like pregnancy pops to help Jade with her nausea and some ice cream. He had also purchased two frozen pizzas for lazy days when they both wanted to veg out. He listened to the names as he did this, a smile forming on his face that never left. "Well, I really like all of those choices. It's funny because I had my heart set on Felix too! Look at US twinning." He looked over his shoulder to blos her a kiss and then smiled when he saw Jade waddling to him. "Yeah, so as soon my eyes zeroed in on Felix, it was on the top of my list too. And I like Ciel. That's pretty and different. It's like Cielo. The other names you mentioned are nice. I've always liked Miles too. Renata is very pretty. I like Theodore too and Aurelia too!"

JADE

Jade lightly rolled her eyes at how she could be helpful and said, "Well thank you for putting all of the groceries away, honey. I promise I can be more helpful than that though. I'm feeling pretty good today. I could chop tomatoes or shred the lettuce or something." As she finished sharing the names she liked the most, she smiled at him saying that he was fond of Felix as well. "Does this mean we have a first name for our baby boy?" She washed her hands while listening to her husband and then took a seat on one of the bar stools near the kitchen. "Their meanings are similar. Ciel is French for 'Heaven'. And it just sounds so beautiful and less common than Heaven or Nevaeh. And Felix means 'happy' or 'lucky'. Both have really nice meanings and I can't stop going back to them for names." She watched Rodrigo and glanced at some of the groceries he'd put away, all theile listening to them. Theodore and Aurelia are nice. Aurelia is pretty, and you don't hear Theodore that often anymore." Idly rubbing her rounded stomach, she asked, "Were you wanting to do middle names? Or namesakes?"

RODRIGO

Rodrigo grinned, looking over to Jade as she rolled her eyes and then pressed a kiss against her forehead. "okay, let's get some veggies cut up, chop chop, Escobar!" He teased as he pulled their cutting board from one of the drawers and passed it to his wife. "I think we do! Felix is perfect! Ahh, I love it, honey." Rodrigo smiled as Jade explained the name Ciel and it's meaning. "I do love that. Ciel sounds so pretty and original. It fits our babies!" He nodded at the comment about Theodore. "You're right and I love the name Theo for short but I keep returning to Felix too," Rodrigo smirked at the middle name question. "You're not Mexican if you don't have a million names so yes to the middle names. "Maybe we can honor some important people in our life? Orrrr use one of the names we were considering. Wait, we just decided on two names, babe!" He beamed and turned to face Jade. "This is amazing! Felix and Ciel!"

JADE

When Rodrigo agreed tonher helping out, she smiled sincerely and picked out a knife to use. "You must be referring to yourself witj that hasty talk, *Escobar*," she teased right back. It made her even happier to hear that her husband really liked the two names. Jade chuckled at Rodrigo's middle names comment. "Don't forget, beloved, you're talking to someone who recently dropped one of her *three* middle names." She set the knife with the cutting board and decided to start with the lettuce, rinsing it off in the sink first. His idea of honoring important people in their lives had her thinking but she smiled while tearing off a paper towel to dry the lettuce leaves a bit. She grinned while sitting on the stool again. "Really? Thise are the names you want to give our babies too?" She was a bit giddy thinking about it, knowing that it could have taken them much longer to decide on what to name their children. Smiling still, she began rolling the lettuce leaves and thought aloud as she began chopping. "What do you think about honoring your mother? Ciel Emiliana? And we could go with Felix Theodore, maybe? Or include Theodore as a second middle name?" Outside of her siblings and Frankie, there wasn't anyone whom she knew before Rodrigo whom she would want to make a namesake to their children. "Ciel Emiliana Aurelia Escobar?" she posed, expertly chopping the last of the lettuce.

RODRIGO

Rodrigo laughed at Jade's teasing and then nodded at her response about the middle names. "Oh Lord, how can I forget?" He chuckled some more and pulled out the steak from the fridge along with the radishes, onions, and limes. He enjoyed cooking with Jade now that he's gotten into it. He was thankful for her and his mom who had taught him a lot over the last couple of months. He was able to fend for himself but being able to cook some cuisines made him happy. He'd be able to help his wife when she needed to rest both pre- and postpartum. "Yes! I love the names and I think it fits us and our future kids. I love the meanings of the names. They're perfect." Rodrigo began chopping up the radishes and smiled at the mention of honoring his mother. He listened intently, chopping away and when Jade said Ciel's future full name out loud, he paused. His smile was wide as ever. "That sounds beautiful. Felix Theordore sounds like he's going to be the best gentleman. Sounds like a Bridgerton character honestly. I love it. And Ciel Emiliana Aurelia Escobar? Are you kidding me? Our kids will be royalty. As they should be." He pointed at Jade with the knife and grinner. "I think we've got ourselves baby names!"

JADE

"I'm sure you'll end up saying all of them to me sometime when I'm in trouble with you, huh?" Jade teased. She watched Rodrigo take out various ingredients and smiled proudly at him and his culinary prowess. Her smile lingered and even brightened from him loving the names for their babies. "You like them both? You don't think that Felix should have a second middle name like his sister, do you?" She wasn't sure if Fletcher would be a namesake that Rodrigo would want, or if his own name would be one he would want. "He could be Felix Theodore Fletcher, or Felix Theodore Rodrigo Escobar?" She mulled them both over in her mind while waiting to hear her husband's thoughts. And after she finished chopping the lettuces into shredded strips, she got off of the stool to get a bowl for it and then move on to the tomatoes. "I do love Ciel's name, completely. And I would love Felix's if he had one middle name or two."

RODRIGO

"You know me too well." He chuckled as he looked for their frying pan to sit to the side. Rodrigo put some seasonings on the side and reached for the Adobo and Sazon. He listened to his wife and began to season the steak. "I do like them both. Rodrigo mused over Jade's question for a bit and the more he thought about it, the more it made sense to give Felix another middle name like Ciel. When Fletcher's name was mentioned it made Rodrigo smile as he imagined the look on his best friend's face when finds out he named his first son after him. Felix Theodore Fletcher does sound very strong, right?" He smiled even wider as he poured some olive oil onto the pan. "Fletcher is going to freak out...Felix...do you hear that mijo? What do you think about that?" He let the steak simmer for a bit before washing his hands thoroughly and turning around to face Jade. "I love their names, honey."

JADE

"I hope so, beloved husband," Jade smiled. She'd then given a second middle name possibility for their son and mused a couple of ideas aloud, even adding a third, "Would it feel unoriginal to make Emiliano a contender? Felix Theodore Emiliano Escobar?" She was adding the last bits of lettuce to the bowl and walked over to the sink to rinse the cutting board off while listening to her husband. "Felix Theodore Fletcher Escobar does sound strong." Standing at the counter for a while as she lined up the tomatoes, she chuckled at herself and gave him a guilty smile, "I'm sorry I'm being so indecisive. It's just... it's our babies' *names*." Her cheeks were warm as she said, "Okay! Felix Theodore Fletcher Escobar." She smiled, lowering a hand to her belly as Rodrigo spoke to their son. "How long do you think we can keep their full names a surpr--" Jade cut herself off abruptly and went still. She wasn't sure if she imagined it or if, for the first time, she was feeling kicks on the outside and not just movement from within. "Rodrigo, come here!" she whispered for no sensible reason, setting the knife down and stepping back from the counter. "Let me see your hand," she said, not wanting to move her one hand from the spot where she was feeling one of the babies moving around until she could replace it with Rodrigo's.

RODRIGO

Rodrigo was all smiles as he listened to Jade’s suggestions for names. There was a peace about her that he couldn’t quite convey into words. After everything his wife’s has been through, to see her this happy and full of love made Rodrigo feel like at that moment, there was no better feeling. It was like he wished he could stop time to properly take it all in. “Don’t apologize for that. It’s a big deal …” he watched her with love in his gaze and when she began to pose the next question, Rodrigo already knew his answer but Jade had stopped mid-question. “Hey, are you alright?” He immediately pushed himself off the counter and walked to his wife. At her request, Rodrigo gave her his hand and then placed it over hers. Arching a brow, he positioned himself so that he replaced Jade’s hand and then with his free hand, he held on to the other side of Jade’s belly. He was looking down at first but the moment he felt the little flutter against Jade’s stomach, Rodrigo gasped and looked up at her with a giant smile. “Is that? Is that them??” His voice practically cracked before he let a soft chuckle fall from his lips. “Oh my God…”

JADE

"It is, but.." She chuckled again, "I guess I'm just so used to being more decisive than this." It was one of the conditioned behaviors of hers, but talking about their son's name had her tossing a few ideas her husband's way. Still, she had felt an abundance of happiness while talking about names with Rodrigo and helping him with dinner. Her question about sharing the names was interrupted by the persistent nudges low on her rounded bump. She was surprised to feel it from the outside, and immediately eager for Rodrigo to feel it too. Nodding quickly to assure him she was alright, she let his hand replace hers and she grinned at his reaction. "Yes! I don't know if it's a hand or a foot...or if it's Felix or Ciel but it's definitely one of them." She laughed a little, looking up to Rodrigo’s face. "Maybe they're celebrating them having names now."

RODRIGO

“I know but it’s cute and endearing and I love how excited you are and how much you’re glowing. You’re already the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. You just keep getting more beautiful.” He wasn’t over exaggerating. Rodrigo had instantly felt gravitated towards Jade and it only had grown over time. Seeing her like this, carrying their children, ignited something else in him. Rodrigo was on the brink of tears as he felt the nudges become stronger. “Oh my God!” He couldn’t believe it. They were told they’d feel kicks soon but to actually experience them was a whole other level of amazing. “Maybe that’s Felix’s way of responding to liking his name. You guys… hiiii it’s your daddy. The annoying voice you hear everyday because we all know mommy’s voice is top tier.” Rodrigo smiled at his wife and pressed a kiss against her lips. When he felt yet another kick, his eyes widened like a child in a toy store and he felt his tears fall as he laughed from the excitement. “Oh I love you guys so much. The three of you.” Rodrigo smiled. “You guys having a party in there or something?”

JADE

Jade blushed under Rodrigo's compliments and observations of her. "I've been saying it a lot lately, but I'm so happy. I'm happily married to the best man in the universe, and we have healthy babies growing and getting more and more ready to meet us with each day." Jade had never known love like this or any degree of what love had been expressed to her before Rodrigo. He was her friend, her lover, her advocate, her partner and her husband. And now, he was going to be the father to the two little ones growing inside of her. How could she *not* be radiant when she had someone so amazing by her side? Even as he was feeling the kicks and taking in the moment, she was feeling new waves of love for him wash over her. She tilted her chin up to meet his lips and smiled at him again, and then looked down as Rodrigo spoke to the twins. Shaking her head, she chimed in, "That's not true. We love to hear Daddy's voice, don't we?" Shd rested her hands along the back of her hips until she felt some movement higher up on her bump. Placing one hand there, it felt as though the other baby was stretching from the slow push under her palm. "I think one of them woke the other one up." She grinned and guided Rodrigo's free hand to the second spot on her bump so that he could catch the less active but still obvious pushes from within her womb. And with his hands occupied, Jade reached up to wipe his eyes. "We love you too, honey. Always, always, always."

RODRIGO

"I can tell..." He couldn't help but feel touched by his wife's words. Even if he'd heard the same ones before, it was always nice hearing how happy she was to marry him and think he was the best man in the universe. It gave him a purpose, it gave him something to live up to. He always wanted to be the best man for her. And now they had so much to live for, so much to feel happy about, and to see Jade feeling all of those positive feelings made him even happier. It only continued to solidify the fact that they belonged together and Rodrigo knew that the moment she walked into his life. Somehow, he knew that Jade would be his future wife. "Ehhh..." He grinned and then his eyes widened some more as Jade explained that there was more movement. " He followed her hand to the second spot and he grinned along with Jade. "I can't believe it. Are you guys telling us you love your names? I bet that's what it is." He smiled at Jade's gesture of wiping his eyes and still keeping his hands on her belly, he pressed another kiss against her lips. "Thank you for keeping them healthy and happy in there and for all that you do. You're already an incredible mommy."

JADE

Jade was thoroughly jubilant, beaming at Rodrigo. Even when his gave an "Ehhh" reply about her and their children loving his voice, she was still smiling as she lovingly swatted his arm. "It’s true!" she insisted. And while Rodrigo had his hands positioned to feel both babies kicking, she wiped his eyes and then rested her hands along the back of her hips, eyes looking up at her husband's face. "So, we're decided then? Ciel Emiliana Aurelia and Felix Theodore... Fletcher or Emiliano?" She met his lips when he bent to kiss hers, and then she was back to smiling again. "Thank *you* for all of your help with our babies being happy and healthy." She'd traded her runs and jogs for brisk walks, managed to eat more than she normally would during the day while still keeping things healthy (except when cravings took over), rested when she was truly tired, took it easy when her nausea got the better of her, and overall was listening to her body more. Not only was Jade touched by Rodrigo's gratitude but being called 'mommy' very nearly had her tear up a little. "I love you," she told Rodrigo, gazing up into his eyes.

RODRIGO

He chuckled at the swat on his arm. "That's three since the wedding! Keeping count." He grinned teasingly and then kissed Jade again. "We're decided. The babies have said the final word. And..Fletcher. I have a feeling he's going to be a menace just like his uncle anyway." Rodrigo didn't know that but he figured if Felix would grow up to be anything like his brother, he'd be lucky as hell. "I'm doing the bare minimum my love. You're doing all the work and I'm so proud of you. But you are so welcome." He couldn't believe everything that had happened over the last couple of minutes. Rodrigo then gasped softly, remembering the steak and laughing. "This is why you're the chef." he skipped back to the stove and flipped the meat over. "Well done is better anyway for you." he chuckled and waited for the other side to cook before he could cut it up for their tacos and Jade's tostadas. "Felix and Ciel are going to be so loved. I'm going to make sure they know how wanted they are. I promise."

JADE

"And how many before then?" She asked teasingly. She returned Rodrigo's kisses and listened as he finalized their babies' names. His comments about Fletcher made her smile all over again. But she shook her head, "I'm still grateful no matter how little you think you're doing. She couldn't imagine doing it all alone and knew Rodrigo would never put her in that position. But she watched him hurry back to the steak and pulled a face, "Well done is..." She knew he was right so she trailed off but it didn't stop her from showing her displeasure on her face for a moment, returning to the tomatoes to dice. But talking about their babies with names, identities made her grimace dissolve into another smile. "I know you will, honey. We both will make sure they never go a day in their lives without knowing how much we love them, and that they have more family who love them than they'll know what to do with." She picked up the ends of the tomatoes and threw them on the food waste bin, and then took out another bowl for what she had diced up. "Is there anything else I can help with?"

RODRIGO

"Who knows!" He chuckled, teasing his wife because he enjoyed when she played with him like this. "He'll probably go and have another kid just so he can name it after me." Rodrigo smirked at the thought. "Thank you, my love. You deserve it all more and all the good things coming your way." Rodrigo grinned when Jade commented on the steak. "I know, I know. After the babies I'll make sure to give you all the steak." He watched the steak and then used tongs to pull it onto a plate to cut up into strips for their meal. He continued smiling as he listened to his wife agreeing with everything she was saying. "Hmm, Can you cut up some limes?" He added the cut up radishes and onions to the counter and then moves to heat up the tortillas, mindful to keep a couple on longer to make tostadas for Jade. "We should be ready to eat in a couple of minutes! Did you want something else? I can make some rice if you want?"

JADE

Jade giggled at her husband's response and then some more at what he said Fletcher might do. She loved the relationship between Rodrigo and Fletcher, knowing it was truly special. And she blushed from her husband's continued kind acknowledgements to her. Her thoughts on well done steak weren't lost on him, clearly but she chuckled, "You don't have to do that. It's not like I eat steak all the time. But I *would* be very happy to have sushi for my first post-pregnancy meal." While he cut the steak for them, Jade went to get the limes and rinsed them off before settling herself in front of the cutting board again. She eyed the radishes and onions and asked, "Can you sautée the radishes a bit for me, honey? I read online that raw radish isn't good for the babies." Between the books and online articles, there had been an overwhelming amount of information out there, but whether conscious or not, she ended up a little hyperfocused on the content around foods. She quartered the limes into wedges and then moved to get a small bowl to put them in, setting them next to the bowls she'd set the lettuce and tomatoes in, and then took the cutting board and knife to the sink for rinsing off. "Hmm... no, thank you. Rice sounds tempting but you don't have to make some if you're going to make it for me. I know I'll fill up on it."

After putting the items in the dishwasher and dampening the dish cloth to wipe down the unoccupied counter space, she rinsed the cloth, wrang it out and returned it folded and draped between the 2 halves of the sink. "Okay," she blew out with a slightly sheepish smile and touched her husband's shoulder affectionately passing. "Since one of both of our children decided to settle down right on my bladder, I'm going to use the bathroom and then go sit down."

RODRIGO

"I will absolutely remember that. I'll make sure I order it and everything, get you a little platter of all your faves." He smirked and he knew that Jade knew he wasn't lying about that. Rodrigo would be ready with a platter of sushi for his wife once she's settled after giving birth. It's the least he could do for going through it all. He nodded at her request to sautee the onions and grabbed a small frying pan to do so. "You got it." Once they were flipped over and cooked, he had everything in separate bowls and plates. He figured it would be easier to for them to pick and choose their toppings. Rodrigo enjoyed an onions and radishes with lime taco just as much as a fully loaded. "Um, excuse me? Your husband is a genius. I got some quick rice too. It's really good. I've got cilantro lime and plain white. Which one? it'll be done in like 10 minutes top." He then placed the plates and bowls in front of Jade and kissed her temple.

He chuckled at Jade's words and kissed her quickly again as she waddled toward the bathroom. "Okay, honey! When you return, your tostadas will be ready, nice and crispy." He flipped the now hardened tortilla and waited until his wife returned."

JADE

"Thank you," she said, already looking forward to it even though she still had plenty of time before she could enjoy sushi. She watched Rodrigo sautee the onions and opened her mouth to say something but closed it, deciding not to worry about the radishes since everything was being kept in separate containers. It would also make for easy cleanup later, which she was happy about. She raised both brows at him only to settle her features and smile at him, "You, my love, are brilliant. Cilantro lime then, please? And thank you." She kissed his shoulder after he kissed her temple, already looking forward to the flavorful rice.

"Thank you, we'll be back soon." She made her way to the downstairs half-bath and after using the toilet, washing her hands and pumping some lotion in her hands, she walked back out, rubbing it into her hands and a bit on her wrists too. "My skin has been so dry lately." She walked over to the kitchen again and said, "It smells great in here by the way. Should I fix my plate or go sit down?" she asked, reaching to take a couple of dinner plates out of the cabinet for the two of them.

RODRIGO

Rodrigo smiled at the gratitude. He would be sure to do anything and everything so that Jade could have a smooth pregnancy and delivery. He wanted to spoil her as much as possible post pregnancy too. "Cilantro lime it is." He smiled as Jade went off to the bathroom, remembering to also sautee the radishes. He added a couple to the now clean pan and cooked them for his wife.

When she was back, everything was ready. "Oh yeah? Is that because of the pregnancy? do you need me to pick up some CeraVe? And thank you! Like I said before, I've had an incredible mentor AKA beautiful wife. " He shook his head. "I'll bring everything over and we can make our tacos and tostadas." What do you want to drink?" Rodrigo started to bring the sides to the table as well as the newly cooked rice. He made sure he got everything they needed and took a seat. "Provecho." It was the Spanish version of Bon Appetit. "Enjoy! You too Ciel and Felix."

JADE

"I think so. But no, no. There's lotion in all of the bathrooms, and my toiletry bag, and my purses. And I have some Vaseline in my toiletry bag and our bathroom. I just..." She bit her lip a little and admitted, "I might need help with my feet soon." It was getting harder to put on socks and shoes as her belly continued to expand. She had already switched fully to wearing crocks at work and wore house slippers with a grip on the soles whenever she wasn't barefoot at home. Rodrigo's compliment to her cooking skills and teaching had her smiling all over again. "You're a natural in the kitchen. Look at all this delicious food that you prepared for us!" Hearing his suggestion, Jade nodded, "That sounds like a great idea. And do we still have some Gatorade?" She set their plates down and then took a seat across from her husband. "*Gracias mi amor*," she replied, smiling and going for the rice first. Hearing the twins' names from Rodrigo some more just made her smile all over again. "Tell us how your day was," she requested, setting the serving spoon back into the rice and then picking up two of the crispy tostadas to prepare for herself.

RODRIGO

"Of course! I'll help with your feet and anything else you need. You don't have to ever worry about any of that, okay?" Rodrigo flashed Jade a smile as he finished bringing all the bowls and plates. He stopped at her compliment and kissed the top of her head. "Thank you! Gatorade. Got it." Rodrigo reached for two glasses, filled them with ice in case Jade wanted her Gatorade cold, and brought their beverages. He opted for a root beer he had in the fridge. He placed them on the table and then sat beside his wife. "De nada, querida." He grinned at her Spanish and reached for some steak pieces to build his taco. "Today wasn't so bad. I can't believe how quickly time is going. I'll probably be working two weeks of Summer camp to make some extra money and then take the rest of the summer off into my paternity leave. The babies coming at the tail end of summer couldn't be more perfect. I'll end up missing the first quarter or at least most of it but that's not bad. The school wants me to start working with the sub so that they know how to pick right up. How about your day?" Rodrigo felt satisfied with his bulky taco and took a generous bite.

JADE

"Thank you," Jade told him. She knew Rodrigo would help her if asked or needed it but Jade was still adjusting along the way with the pregnancy and needing help with simple or everyday tasks that she normally had no problem with. But she had absolute gratitude to her husband. While she finished making the tostadas for herself, she thanked Rodrigo for the Gatorade and ice, and listened to him share about his day. "Oh is it a summer day camp at the school or another location?" she wondered while also liking the sound of his plan. "Can you believe Leo, Henry and the twins will be eighth graders? They're sure to miss you in the classroom at the start of the year if they still have you for a teacher. Do you know whomyour students will be yet?" She spooned some rice from her plate and ate it while thinking about how her day had gone. Once her mouth was clear, she answered him. "Mine was good! With things getting set up in our new shop space, it's still a bit challenging to fulfill orders from the old space at the same time. Melissa has been managing a lot there while I've been overseeing things at our new location."

RODRIGO

"Mm..." He wiped his mouth and nodded. "Yep, we're doing summer camp on site but they're going to offer some sleepaway options too as they did in the Spring. So that'll be nice to have the choice." Rodrigo would be able to get some extra pay out of that which would be helpful for all the upcoming life events he and Jade had. "And nope. Don't get me started. I met Leo so young and no he's going to be in 8th grade. The twins have been amazing in middle school and Henry too. They're such a cute group of friends. The good thing is if their parents enroll them in our high school after they graduate next year, the campus is across from ours so I'll still see them and Winter can keep an eye on them all. I'll still be their English teacher so I'll see them after paternity leave is up. Also, the headmistress wants to talk to me about taking up that Dean position. It's great money and I'll still get to teach and help the kids as well." He smiled. "I got a look at my roster for my 1st and 3rd period class and most of the same, some new kids. Enrollment ends in the summer so I'm sure it'll multiply." Rodrigo then took another bite of his taco, smiling as he watched Jade build her tostada. It was nice watching her eat. He nodded as she spoke and glanced over at her. "Do you need help with anything? I'd be happy to help."

JADE

Jade continued to eat the rice as she listened to Rodrigo. She always liked hearing him talk about his career and his students. The way he talked about them and showed how much he cared for them had been a big sign for Jade that he would make a great father someday. As she set her spoon down and broke off a piece of her tortilla to munch on, she asked him, "Do you want to take the dean position? I know you love to teach, but it sounds like she sees this opportunity as being fitting for you." She ate a little more and took her Gatorade to open, pouring some in the glass of ice. "It also sounds like you're more interested in it now. Is that true?" She smiled a bit, hearing that he would have a lot of the same kids to teach for the upcoming school year, and after a few sips of her drink, she told him, "I hope you don't get any kids who are too challenging. You're well-liked but I know there are some kids who like to push buttons just for the sake of testing boundaries, or getting attention they don't get at home." She had seen it herself back when she was in school, and doubted that much had changed in that regard now. When talking about her own day and Rodrigo asking to help, she hummed a little around the bite of steak in her mouth and then swallowed before answering. "I think we're okay right now but I would like some help with my office when the time comes, which should be in the next week. For right now, I just have the computer and printer set up so that orders and contracts can still be handled. But now that I have a more permanent and official office, I'd like to customize it some more."

RODRIGO

He nodded as he finished off the last of his second taco. "I do. It's a great opportunity. I'll be able to do more outreach to the kids and still get the chance to teach. And the salary is pretty good which would be great for our family." He smiled as he began building another taco. "Yeah, me too. I've had a couple here and there that were not easy but ended up being great kids. A lot of these children are just looking for attention and someone to speak to. They don't get a lot of that at home. Sadly, we don't get too many involved parents since they're all busy with work or their lives. It bothers me a lot. Maybe I can help with parent engagement if I take up the dean position. *when* I take up the dean position." He grinned at the thought. " What do you think? Should I do it?" He nodded as he listened. "Hey, I'd be glad to help but also, you should consider hiring an intern. Maybe a teenager who wants something to do over the summer and want the office experience. It would be a great opportunity for the right kid!" He remembered how taking up the groundskeeping assistant's job had helped him in high school. "Something to consider! And with customization, what are some ideas you have so far?"

JADE

Jade continued to listen and slowly eat her food as she did so. When he echoed what she'd said about some students looking for attention that they didn't get at home, she just nodded and broke off another piece of crispy tortilla. She'd tried that once and never did it again, due to the repercussions that came her way after her mother had been notified and they were back home. And when he asked her what her thoughts were, Jade smiled a little. "I think you already know that I wholeheartedly support you. If you remained a full time teacher, you would still be amazing, but I believe that you could do some great things in a new capacity as a dean. Parent and family engagement is a perfect example of that." Jade then sipped some more Gatorade and took a break from eating and casually rubbed a hand across her rounded stomach. "An intern might not be a bad idea. Or maybe just a summer hire to help on and off while everything is still in transition. My office alone wouldn't be all that labor-intensive--not enough to hire more help. But having someone to help Melissa with boxing and labeling equipment in the old location and unpacking at our new location would be great. And promoting the grand re-opening around town would be great once we're ready for it..." Her mind was turning over other potential tasks while she went to pick up another spoonful of rice to eat. "Thank you for this idea. But for my office, I want to keep the color light and simple. There's a filing cabinet that I need to finish putting together and installed, a desk and two guest chairs that I ordered need to be assembled, and I'd like to make it inviting for any consultations."

RODRIGO

He finished off his third taco, deciding to take a small break and leaned back into his chair. Rodrigo smiled at Jade’s words, glad that she was supportive of him taking on a new role at the school. There were so many benefits that made it a no brainer and having his wife on board made the decision that much easier. “I’ll let you know how my meeting with the headmistress goes. Dean Escobar does have a nice ring to it. Now I just have to make sure that whoever subs for me for September is good for the class.” He was sure they would be but Rodrigo had a tendency of being protective when it came to his classmates. He was glad that Jade liked the idea of an intern. “At whatever capacity an intern can help, it would be good to have that set up for everyone’s benefit. You, Melissa, etc. and it’ll be one less thing to worry about. You’re welcome, honey.” Rodrigo kissed Jade’s temple and then gathered some rice on his bowl as he continued listening to Jade. “That all sounds nice and I can help you set those things up once they’ve all arrived so don’t worry about that. Are you full, my love?”

JADE

Jade was slowly eating the toppings/fillings of her tostadas with her spoon and breaking off pieces of the tortilla in between. She smiled at Rodrigo saying 'Dean Escobar' aloud and said, "They'll have to give you a name plate for your desk, or your office door." She knew Rodrigo worked hard and was passionate about his work, which was what made her happy--seeing him happy from merely talking about his career. "You know, I haven't heard you talk about your book in a while. How is it coming along?" She finished the bit of rice that she'd originally put on her plate and then drank some more Gatorade. "I've no doubt that whoever substitutes your classes will be very prepared thanks to you." She smiled and broke off another bit of tortilla, making it her last bit of dinner while listening to her husband. "You're right. It wasn't something I'd considered before since it's just been my team and me. But the added help and providing someone with early work experience really does sound like a great idea. And I always appreciate your help, honey." Her eyes shut while he kissed her temple and when he asked her if she was full, Jade placed a hand across her bump and said, "I think so. It was a really nice dinner, thank you." She looked at her mostly finished plate while thinking about how earlier in her pregnancy, she couldn't always eat much even when she wanted to eat something. But as time went on, her appetite returned and was increasing, even with the occasional bouts of nausea or heartburn. As she scooted her chair back and made to stand, she said, "I'm just going to finish my Gatorade, but I'll get some containers to store the leftovers in." She didn't want Rodrigo to feel rushed and figured she could help out with getting the container and loading the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Jade found smaller containers for the lettuce, tomatoes and radishes, and a slightly bigger one for the rice, steak and onions to go into. She then began loading the dishwasher.

RODRIGO

He sat up with his chest slightly puffed and a smile on his face. "A name plate? Like a gold one? Oh, that's fancy." The thought made him smiled even more. The question about his book did make him sigh a bit. "It's...met some sort of dead end," He admitted and frowned a bit. "I mean, it's not that I'm putting it off completely but I'm missing something. Can't figure out what it is yet. I'll revisit soon, I promise." Rodrigo had to fit it into his schedule. The book meant a lot to him and to his mother. And it would be something nice to have for his children and wife. He smiled when she mentioned the help it would be to have an intern. He looked over his shoulder as Jade stood to get some leftovers into containers and he finished off his last taco. "Do you want to watch a movie tonight? Or catch up on a show maybe?" He was glad it was the weekend and they'd both get some downtime with one another. "Maybe Felix and Ciel will give us a few more hellos before bed." He was hopeful, standing up with his plate and whatever was left over on the table so he could help Jade clean the kitchen. He the placed his hands on her shoulders and dropped a kiss on her left one. "Your turn to pick something to watch."

JADE

"Yes, like a gold one with your name and title engraved on it. If they don't give you one, I would certainly like to." Jade was smiling until she saw Rodrigo frown, which in turn made her own face fall. She reached across the table to lovingly hold his wrist. "You don't have to promise that to me. I'm sorry to hear that it's at a halt right now. When you figure out what's missing, I know that you'll have something great to keep you going." When she got up from the table, she kissed the side of his head in passing. "Hmm, a movie sounds nice. I could watch a good historical drama or a biopic." She smiled at Rodrigo again at the mention of their babies kicking around enough for him to feel some more. "I bet they will, especially after their daddy made us such a great dinner tonight." She rinsed off the dishes that were used for cooking and loaded them one-by-one into the dishwasher. His kiss to her shoulder warmer her from the inside. "Hmmm, how about *Belle*? It's a historical drama and a biopic? And has a bit of a love story included."

RODRIGO

“That sounds amazing and you’re the best wife for even thinking about doing that for me.” Rodrigo looked down at Jade holding his wrist and placed one of his hands over hers. Her support meant the world to him. “Thanks, honey. I know the block will lift at some point.” He smiled at her kiss as he helped clean up. Hearing that the twins may give Jade a little nudge again made him incredibly overjoyed. Rodrigo wiped down the counters all the while listening to Jade and nodded as she spoke. “That sounds like a great choice. I love a good historical drama.” After he cleaned the table, he moved to their living room to prep the firestick and search for the movie. “Don’t worry about anything else ,my love. Come and sit. “ Miranda circled his ankles and he chuckled before picking her up into her arms. “Want to watch a movie with mom and dad?”

JADE

"Well, I love you and I think you should be recognized for your accomplishments--small and big." Jade was happy that Rodrigo wasn't giving up on his book altogether and had faith in him completing it someday. She finished loading the dishes from prep and then went to the table to put the leftovers in containers and add the bowls and plates to the dishwasher too. After putting the leftovers in the fridge and picking up her Gatorade, she guiltily admitted, "I couldn't help it. I didn't want to leave everything out or for you to put away when you cooked for us." She joined him in the living room, holding the plastic bottle in one hand and her bump in another as she eased herself beside Rodrigo and Miranda. Letting out a content sigh from being off her feet, she leaned in to rest against Rodrigo's shoulder. "Have you seen this before?" Jade asked and then casually reached for Rodrigo's hand to place at the front of her bump where one of the babies was stretching a limb against the area.

RODRIGO

Rodrigo was the luckiest man in the world and he knew it to be true. Having the chance to be married to the loveliest, most nurturing and supportive woman made him so happy. "Thank you, my love. And I feel the same way about you." The way they held each other up in their professional life was important to him. He wanted to support her in her business and her future plans and was proud of how much she has already accomplished especially now without Jeanette getting in the way. He smiled at her admission and shook his head. "Well, thank you for that." He was happy to have his wife join his side and he placed his arm around her shoulder when she rested against his. "I haven't actually so don't spoil it!" He teased and grinned when Jade placed his hand over her belly. "There they are again...incredible." Rodrigo kept his hand there, a giant smile appearing on his face. He looked over to Jade. "This has been one of the best days." He then looked down at her bump. "You guys better let mommy sleep tonight and not party all night." He chuckled softly. "streeetchhh!" Rodrigo was so incredibly happy.

JADE

"You've always been wonderful at supporting me. It's one of the reasons why I fell in love with you in the first place." Whether it was her job, her turmoil with her family--her parents in particular--her eating disorder and relationship with food, her conditioned tendencies around perfection and organization, or any small day-to-day decisions, Rodrigo was always supporting her. She could count on 1 hand the number of people who were in her corner to that degree, and that included her husband. Settled on the couch, she smiled and chuckled, "I won't spoil it, I promise! But I'm excited to see what you end up thinking of it." She glanced up at her husband's face and grinned when he did. "There they are," she echoed and then glanced back down at his hand on her stomach. "I'm trying to keep a journal of my pregnancy. I've definitely got to write about tonight in it." She then softly giggled, "I have a feeling that they're going to be pretty rebellious towards you already. Theyre bound to have several late night parties in there until they're here." She craned her neck and tilted her chin to kiss Rodrigo's jaw, and then she situated herself to watch the movie once he got it started. "I love you," she happily sighed.

RODRIGO

"I love the idea of a journal. Will I be able to take a look someday?" Rodrigo kept his wife close and started the movie for them to enjoy. "I can't believe these two are already plotting against me. Curfew is midnight, kids. That's as far as I go. Don't turn me into a pushover." He smiled at Jade's kiss and then leaned in quickly to kiss her belly before leaving more kisses against her cheek. "I love you more. shhh can't argue with me, the movie is starting." He smirked, rubbing Jade's shoulder as he focused on the movie. In the back of his head, all Rodrigo could really think about was how they had figured out their twin's names and he had felt them move for the first time. Rodrigo loved his life with Jade and now, with the addition of their two children, he couldn't have asked for anything better.

#( paras. )#para: names and nudges #jadrigo

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lazypanartist · 2 years

Note

Happy Yule from me, here is a Christmas present to you, my friend! I hope the holidays are wonderful for you and you get plenty of time to rest and have fun this season. Normally I bake things for people during the season, but since I obvs cant for you, I've included a recipe I use when I'm low energy but want something nice.

(Note: I use a holiday in this called Candle Nights. Candle Nights is a winter celebratory holiday meant for everyone of all denominations.)

Enjoy the story, it's called "Make The Yuletide Gay".

- 📝 Nonnie

---

"-and normally I would totally bring just like, some chips or order us all pizzas, but this year Mikey wants to do something different, and like, wants us all to make something. Like, MAKE make it. Which I guess works for everyone else but like…"

"You hate cooking." You stated bluntly. "Probably because you hate how tedious it is sometimes and lack patience because you prefer instant gratification. Which is utterly fair, it takes a lot of effort and time to cook sometimes."

You stirred your peppermint mocha with a homemade vanilla biscotti while Leonardo pointedly sipped his sugar cookie latte, not looking at you. The two of you sat in your small dining room, the coffees picked by you when he claimed to be having an emergency and needed your help.

You think he would make up every excuse in the world to come visit you, honestly, but you didn't need them. He was welcome any time. Even though he could just portal chop his way in, you always left the window unlocked for him.

"Okay, so, maybe. Yeah. Anyways, I was like, sure, y'know? But then Mikey I guess remembered that I have a shakey history with cooking and he was like 'Oh uh you're fine to just help clean or something.'," Leo crossed his arms while ranting.

"-...Which like Ow but fair but then Fivehead had to go and say he didn't want food poisoning like when we held Candle Nights like 3 years ago from my cooking, which like??? It's been three years, get over it?" He rolled his eyes, fiddling with and idly braiding his mask tails like hair. "Still, I was like 'what no I am SO gonna make something shut up' and Don said it would be inedible and all this is to say please please PLEASE help me make something for the dinner I want to prove I can cook."

He was actively now on his knees begging you, hands grabbing your pant leg as he gave the biggest puppy dog eyes he could.

"But you objectively hate it." You pointed out calmly. "Come on, don't dirty your knees like that, get up.

Leonardo whined and stuffed a biscotti in his mouth, flopping backwards against your armchair while throwing his hands in the air. "I KNOW!! I mean, I'm getting better, but fruit salad and scrambled eggs on toast won't cut it."

"I like your scrambled eggs. Especially now that you learned how seasoning works. You make them spicy without just drowning them in Louisiana hot sauce." You took a long sip of your coffee.

"I just..! I dunno. I gotta show them I can do this!! Besides, I kinda…really want to make something, y'know? Not just to make Dee 'Eateth Thy Words' but…I don't know…"

"It would be nice to have them appreciate something you made for them to enjoy?" Plucking up a cookie, you snacked while listening.

"Yes!!" the terrapin snapped his fingers and pointed at you. "Nailed it!! Jupiter Jim's got nothing on your brains, babycakes!!"

That made you roll your eyes before you nibbled on the pastry in hand. "So, why come to me?"

The slider sat up more, giving you a look before motioning to your cookies that you had laid out for the talk. Thumbprint with homemade orange marmalade.

"I don't just call you babycakes because you have some nice buns."

"Fair, fair," you shrugged, "I suppose I could teach you, but…"

"But..?"

Your eyes trailed over to your kitchen, pondering. "What course are you doing?" You hope it wasn't the main dish. You don't have any whole chickens or, like, a pot roast. Or the time to get it, prepare and cook one.

"Wellll…Mikey wanted appetizers, Donatello is working on greens, Raph has sides, Pops has the main course, and April demanded to do her pumpkin carrot ginger soup. So I got left with dessert. Mikey was gonna do it too but I sorta…strong armed him to at least get that."

You thought quietly for a moment before getting up. "You listen to my instructions, and follow them well, okay? When are you holding it?"

"...in like three hours…"

You turned and narrowed your eyes. "Grab an apron and wash your hands with hot water up to your elbows. We're making a Cheater Cherry Chocolate Cake."

Your boyfriend saluted you before scurrying to do just that.

–

"Okay, so, what all do we need? Flour, cocoa…sugar…ugh, it's gonna suck measuring all this…"

You huffed and scooted the red eared slider out of your way and closed the cabinet he was staring into with disdain. "Yeah. Which is why we won't."

The terrapin watched you walk over to the pantry and open it, rooting in the storage before a few things were tossed his way, making him juggle the objects and set them on the counter before looking at what he caught.

"Wait…Box mix? No, Angelo will taste it-"

"Oh, no he won't," you grumbled, "no one ever really does, and they tend to prefer it, taste wise. Besides, that is the exact base used in the nicest bakeries of New York. They all do it, it's dumb to think it's inferior. It's a nice three dollar box mix compared to the 20-ish dollars worth of groceries you won't use regularly. And anyways," you shrugged, "this takes the tedium out of it all. I'm gonna teach you how to make a cake you won't feel is a hassle, then you can make it whenever."

The ninja's eyes widened a bit, staring at you full of wonder and warmth. "I love you."

"You don't get one back until you have this cake in the oven." You snapped your fingers twice and pointed to the box. "Go on, get the mix and pour it in the bowl. I'll grab what we need from the fridge. I'll instruct and get stuff but I'm not touching the cake so you can make it all by yourself for bragging rights."

Quickly he did as asked before looking at the back. "Follow along with the box, right? I need oil, water-"

"Mh? Oh no. Fuck that." You walked over with milk, butter and eggs. "Equal amounts of melted butter to oil. The sticks are pre-marked, so since that says a third cup of oil, do butter and pop it in the microwave for like, 10 second intervals until it's liquid gold."

Leo snorted and did as you said, pulling out the melted butter not long after and setting it aside, waiting for your instructions.

"Nice. Don't pour it in yet, it has to be done a certain way. Now, instead of a cup of water we use milk, and then whatever number of eggs are said on the box, we add one more. Set 'em aside and put the cold stuffs back. I'll grab our secret ingredient."

You meandered over to a cupboard over your coffee maker and began to rifle through.

"What is it? Tomato soup or something?"

"Eh, no. Not for this. You can, but sometimes the soups are seasoned so you gotta watch out for it and it's easier to use pureed tomatoes or just straight up juice. In any matter, no. It'll add more steps and then it's something you might not have anyway. Besides, there's a whole curdling issue and we don't want to mess with it and it's barely a secret if it's everywhere on TikTok. But!-" you leaned back, "I have an easier one for you."

The turtle watched as you grabbed two containers and walked over, setting one in front of him. "...Espresso powder?"

"Yup. One tablespoon and it kicks up the chocolate flavor like nuts. But, y'know, it's hella expensive and hard to get sometimes."

Your boyfriend winced and nodded.

"Wanna know what's infinitely cheaper, easier to get, and you have at the lair?"

"What?"

You set a small jar of instant coffee powder on top of the espresso. "It works just the same. One tablespoon, and it's basically just as good. Go ahead and toss that into the drys and mix."

After that, you greased the pan and checked to make sure the oven was preheated, "to whatever temp the box says," you instructed. Then you put the bowl in your stand mixer, watching as Leonardo first added the butter, waited a moment, then slowly poured the milk in thirds. Finally, he added each egg one at a time and let it run for twenty seconds before stopping.

"That's kinda…soupy."

"Yeah, you gotta trust the process. Mixing it more makes it more dense. Activates the glutens." You set two cans of cherry pie mix on the counter. "Now, dump those right in the pan. Mine is bigger, but it basically is just however much will cover the bottom of your baking pan. I just know that mine takes two."

After the filling coated the bottom and the cans scraped for excess goo, Leo poured in the mix and then threw it in the oven, setting the timer and looking to you for more instructions.

You shrugged. "Yeah that's it. If it were a tomato cake I'd start us on a frosting, but we don't need it with that because of the cherries. If you wanna make it pretty though, we can use powdered sugar on top once it's cooled. You can even make shapes with paper and make designs or patterns, but it's not necessary. Just let it bake until you can put a toothpick in and no batter sticks."

The ninja nodded and studied the oven for a moment, before his eyes widened.

"Holy shit. I just made a cake."

You snorted. "Yeah. Easy, right?"

"I. Geez. I don't feel annoyed or like my brain is melting."

"Good. That tells me it's not got so many steps that it drives you up a wall."

The mutant slowly smiled and cupped your cheeks, nuzzling your nose a bit in a cute way. "YOU… are the best date mate ever. Have I told you that?"

"No, but you can continue to do so while we dance to whatever that song is you've been looping this week and wait on this cake."

Your nose scrunched as he tugged you down into a quick kiss, muttering "It's Yellow Hearts by Ant Sanders" against your lips before pressing play on his phone and pulling you into a breezy, swirling dance.

–

"Thanks again baby."

You leaned against the counter, drying the mixing bowl and putting it up and away.

"Honestly it's no problem. I'll teach you how to make marmalade next time." You gave a small smile as Leo pecked you on the cheek goodbye, katanas already making a portal back to the lair. "Remember not to mess with it too much 'til dessert time. It should be cooled by then."

"Gotcha. You sure you…don't wanna come? I know April would be happy to see another human and Raph probably would like to talk to you about your little kaiju plushies."

You shook your head. "My grans are supposed to be back soon from their visit with my cousins soon. Should be like, in another hour. We'll probably get pasta somewhere knowing them. Now, go on, you still have to get all dressed up nice."

"Can I borrow one of your cool fancy looking shirts?"

"No. The last time you borrowed a shirt I got it back with a big rip down the side."

"Please? Pretty pretty please from the most incredible datemate ever??"

"...fine."

Leon fistpumped. "Awesome, I already stole one while you were doing the dishes. Alright, well, you're welcome whenever. Just say the word and your brave hero will come to your rescue~"

You hummed at his preening. "Oh, thank you. My brave champion."

Your pet name made the terrapin flush and fiddle with his fingers a bit before giving a final, shy peck goodbye and leaving through the mystic gateway. You waved him off the whole time, and when he was gone, you sighed, a soft smile tugging at your lips. You began removing your apron, hanging it up before adjusting your poet blouse and heading to the living room to wait.

Your grandparents had gone on a vacation to visit your aunt and cousins in another country, and had been gone now for two weeks. You hadn't heard from them today, but, they were bad with tech and it wasn't surprising. Idly you yawned and turned on youtube, putting some toy refurbishment video on as background noise for the very quiet apartment.

One video became two, which became three, and then five. It was now very dark out, and you were still alone. Though, you WERE still texting Leon.

<Champ: Still nothing? Really?>

<Champ: NO. We're about to start. The dishes never got done because it basically got forgotten so it's been delayed and we're all getting a bit hangry.>

Your phone began buzzing and you jolted, answering quickly. You were greeted by the voice of your grandfather, and after exhanging pleasantries, he got down to brass tacks.

"A…blizzard?"

Yes, apparently there were poor weather adviseries all over the place, and your grandma and grandpa were stuck for the next few days. Thankfully, they hadn't flown out yet so they could stay with your aunt, but…

"Yeah. No, I understand. I love you too, be safe."

You hung up with a sigh. Your phone buzzed and you glanced to see Leo had sent you a picture of the whole family. You smiled.

<Champ: Any news? You went silent for a while.>

You quietly began mulling over options before deciding to be honest and telling the mutant what happened.

<Champ: Oh shell.>

<Champ: Do you want me to come get you? Pops says you're always welcome and it's a lot of food. Raph made roasted garlic potatoes!>

<Champ: You shouldn't be alone on Candle Nights and I'd love to have you over.>

You smiled slightly.

<Champ: Oh please>

You heard the telltale Vworp of a portal opening nearby and looked up, shocked to see Leo leaning through it and waving you over.

"It's no trouble, not when it's you. Now, come on. Don doesn't believe you didn't even touch the batter of the cake, Raph's getting you a drink and Mikey is putting together a plate for you. You GOTTA try the soup, I think this is April's best work yet."

Godd, I LOVE this! Domestic fluff always has me giggling, lmao. The recipe is great! And so is the tomato soup warning, lol.

Happy holidays to you as well, Nonnie! And to everyone else who reads this ^-^

#kana's chats #rise leo x reader #rise leo #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #📝 anon

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bisexualbumblebee-writes · 2 years

Text

Devoted- Bofur x OC

Bofur x Gemma

Description: While the dwarves are at Bag End to recruit Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit tells Gemma something that maybe he shouldn’t have.

Word Count: 1.9k

It had been a very exciting (if not odd) day for all the current occupants in Bilbo Baggins’ house on Bag End, but no one felt this way more than Mr. Baggins himself. Gemma could swear to her grave that she’d never seen anyone quite as stressed as him when the Company was cleaning up after dinner, which confused her because she thought the song was lovely. The tension evident in his expression and demeanor didn’t leave after everyone had settled down for idle chatter.

Gemma, who now sat between Bofur and Dori, was watching the small hobbit pace the doorway, deep in thought when an idea struck her. What better way to make someone feel better than cookies? It always worked in the Blue Mountains. She gently squeezed her husband’s hand as a sign that she wanted him to let go, which he did with a curious glance. She pressed a kiss to his cheek for reassurance then stood, making her way over to the hobbit.

“Excuse me, Mr. Baggins?” She called softly, effectively catching his attention.

“Yes Mrs. Rankin?”

“Would you mind if I baked some cookies for everyone to enjoy?” Her question caught the others’ attention and they were all quick to face her.

“You’re going to make cookies?” Fili asked eagerly.

“Chocolate chip?” Kili added, charing his brother’s excitement. In an instant everyone began to talk excitedly over each other, very visibly overwhelming Bilbo.

“That’s enough everyone, it’s up to Mr. Baggins to decide. It is his kitchen and supplied after all,” she called softly but firmly before facing Bilbo. “Don’t feel pressured, I was just trying to settle everyone down.” Bilbo stared off in thought for a moment before finally sighing then gesturing to the kitchen.

“Go ahead, you lot have already taken everything else from my pantry,” he answered, sounding defeated. Gemma elected to ignore his tone as the others cheered, and she patted his shoulder comfortingly before making her way to the kitchen. While she did that, the hobbit took a seat at the end of the table as Bofur began speaking.

“Don’t worry,” he started, clapping Bilbo on the back. “Gemma’s cookies are the best. And she always cleans as she goes, your kitchen will look spotless by the time she’s done. She’s always been like that, very efficient.” Several groans were heard around the table.

“Not another brag about your wife, Bofur,” groaned Kili. “We’ve been hearing it since before you were married.” Bofur made a sound of offense, which made several others laugh, before beginning to retort.

Gemma, meanwhile, couldn’t help but smile at her husband’s words as she began gathering ingredients and setting out to work. She began humming a tune that entered her head as she mentally went over the recipe in her head. At some point Bombur offered his services, being the official cook for the Company. That ended with her sending him away after he tried one too many times to eat the raw cookie dough while she was placing them on the pan. While they baked, she bided her time by cleaning the kitchen and washing the dishes that she had used as well as any other ones the Company missed while they were cleaning.

By the time the cookies were out of the oven, the others had migrated to the living room and were sitting either on couches, chairs or even just the floor, all talking idly. Bifur, who had been putting more wood into the fireplace, was the first to notice her. He was quick to point at her and call something along the lines of her name in Khuzdul, which got everyone else’ attention. They were quick to stand and crowd her excitedly.

“Enough!” She yelled, which made them quiet down instantly once again. After shooting them a pointed look, she walked over to Bilbo, who still sat in his comfortable looking armchair and held the plate out to him.

“Mr. Baggins will get the first one since he so graciously offered his kitchen and food to us. And I will hear no complaints Fili and Kili.” She directed a sharp look at the Durin brothers, who already had their mouths open to say that it wasn’t fair. They closed their mouths then grumbled under their breaths as she faced Bilbo once more.

“Go on, take one,” she encouraged softly. The hobbit regarded the plate cautiously, then her, before finally taking one. Everyone watched as he took a bite, then his eyes widened.

“Holy- these are amazing, Mrs. Rankin,” he said, his voice filled with nothing but genuine shock and glee. A smile instantly appeared on the girl’s face and she set the plate on the coffee table.

“Eat up,” she called, taking a cookie and moving out of the way just before the others cheered and flocked to the table. “There’s only enough for two a person so only get two. Hey- Bombur! I see you sneaking that third cookie, back off!” She sighed then shook her head at her brother-in-law, then watched as Bofur plopped down beside Bilbo, once again clapping the poor hobbit on the back.

“See? What’d I tell you? Gemma’s just the best,” he gushed. “And I can bet my hat that your kitchen is probably clean as well. She’s always been like that, so graceful and clean. You’d probably mistake her for an elf if it weren’t for her height,” he laughed, which made Gemma roll her eyes. Within seconds the plate was cleared so she picked it up, heading back to the kitchen once again. After it had been washed and dried, she walked back into the living room, where Bofur still sounded like he was talking about her.

“-She could probably do anything she sets out to do,” he continued before pursing his lips in thought. “Except maybe for woodwork, she never quite got the hang of that. That’s why she’s the painter and I’m the carver back at our old toy shop. Everything she does is elegant and amazing. As a matter of fact she could probably make death look easy.” That’s when Gemma decided it was time for her to cut in, so she walked over and pressed a hand to her husband’s shoulder.

“Alright amrâlimê (my love), I believe that’s enough. Mr. Baggins probably isn’t interested in your ramblings about me,” she spoke, taking a seat beside him.

“Actually,” the hobbit spoke up, catching both their attention. “I don’t really mind. I find it incredibly endearing that he still views you like that even after years of marriage.” Gemma’s brows furrowed, and she shared a confused glance with Bofur.

“Of course, why wouldn’t he?” She questioned curiously. Bilbo looked surprised by her question, and he cleared his throat.

“Well, it may be different for dwarves, but you just don’t see that around the Shire anymore,” he explained, further confusing the couple.

“Why not?” Bofur asked.

“Hobbits don’t often believe that they have soulmates, or as you call them, ‘Ones.’ They just fall in love at random,” he clarified. “But, sometimes after being married for so long some people just get tired of their spouse or they fall out of love. Of course divorce is uncommon around these parts, but the unhappiness is still there. It rarely comes back.” While Bofur looked horrified by his explanation, Gemma looked terrified. Was that possible? Would Bofur fall out of love with her one day? Upon noticing the girl’s scared expression, the hobbit laughed nervously.

“Of course, that’s just hobbits. I’m sure dwarves are different,” he added, attempting to lighten the mood. It didn’t really work, but Gemma appreciated the effort so she laughed weakly.

“Right. Um, I’m going to go get myself a drink,” she muttered, standing up and walking away before either man could respond.

The night ended quickly enough. Bilbo rejected joining Thorin’s Company, much to the disappointment of the others. Thorin was quick to attempt at cheering them up before they had to search for an inn to stay at for the night. Thankfully there was one that was relatively cheap considering how many people would be staying there. Naturally, Bofur and Gemma were paired together, and after saying goodnight to the others they finally went to their room. Now that there wasn’t any more excitement, Gemma’s mind was free to return back to her conversation with Bilbo earlier and the same two questions kept appearing. Was that possible? Would Bofur fall out of love with her one day? Bofur, who seemed to have a sensor that knew when his wife was upset, turned to face her worriedly.

“Gemma, ibinê (my gem), what’s wrong,” he asked softly. The girl was now staring out the window on the far wall of her room, right in the direction of Bag End. For a moment she considered lying, but Bofur could always see through that. Then she considered not answering, but she knew her husband would keep prodding at her until he got an answer (that was one thing he would never budge on). Finally, she decided that her best option was to just say what was on her mind. A small sigh left her lips and she faced him with her arms crossed.

“Are you going to fall out of love with me?” She asked, sounding as if she was almost scared of the answer. Her question took Bofur aback, and he stared at her in shock.

“What?” Gemma hesitated, then ran her fingers through her hair anxiously.

“Would you ever fall out of love with me? Or get tired of me?” Her repetition seemed to bring the dwarf back to his senses and his gaze softened.

“Ibinê (my gem), is this because of what Mr. Baggins said earlier?” The girl’s hesitation was all the answer he needed. A small smile appeared on his face as he walked over to her.

“Gemma, how could I ever do that?” He questioned, taking her hands in his. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me! I thank Mahal everyday that you said yes to marrying me, I’m thankful for you even allowing me into your life amrâlimê (my love)! I couldn’t get tired of you for all the treasure in the world, and I can only hope that you feel the same way.”

“I do,” she responded immediately. “I love you with all my heart and more. I could never fall out of love with you.” A bright smile appeared on Bofur’s face.

“Then what’s the problem?” He questioned jovially, which made her giggle.

“Nothing, I guess I just over-thought his words,” she responded, sounding much more at ease now as she pulled him into a hug. Bofur immediately reciprocated it and kissed the top of her head.

“Amralizi, ibinê (I love you, my gem),” he muttered against her head.

“Amralizu (I love you) Bofur,” she responded, voice muffled by his coat. His chest rumbled as he chuckled and he pulled away to press a kiss to her nose.

“Come on, we’ve got a busy day ahead of us tomorrow. I don’t think Thorin would appreciate it if we’re slacking tomorrow because of lack of sleep.”

“Very well,” she answered with a giggle, allowing him to lead her to bed. He pulled back the covers then covered her up when she laid down. Afterwards he blew out all the candles in the room then laid beside her, pulling her into his arms. As they began to drift off to sleep, Gemma couldn’t help but feel silly about her previous worries. Of course they wouldn’t fall out of love, they were too devoted to each other.

#the hobbit #the hobbit imagine #bofur #bofur imagine #bofur x oc

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