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marie-swriting · 1 year

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A New Lesson - Robin Buckley

Stranger Things Masterlist

Summary : You move back to Hawkins after several years away from your first best friend and first kiss, Robin Buckley.

Warnings : fluff, mutual pining, some internalised homophobia, maybe some grammatical mistakes as English is not my first language tell me if you see some and if I missed any warnings.

Word count : 3.2k

French version

Song inspiration : Kissing Lessons by Lucy Dacus

You’re out of breath when you quickly knock on the door of your History class. The teacher stops her lesson and invites you to come in. You open the door and smile awkwardly. Without realising it, you take a rapid look at the class, your eyes landing on a face you instantly recognised despite the years : Robin Buckley, your first best friend. Your breath speeds up even if you’re not running anymore. Meanwhile, the teacher keeps looking at you, waiting for your explanation. You look away from Robin, clear your throat and start talking.

“Sorry for being late, I couldn’t find the room.”

“Y/N Y/L/N, right ?” She asks and you nod. “It’s your first day so don’t worry about it. You can sit down, we were just starting the lesson. By the way, could you come talk to me at the end of the class ?” She adds when you’re sitting.

You try to follow the lecture, not wanting to be even more behind than you already are. You just moved back to Hawkins and the school year has started a few months ago meaning you’ll need to work a lot the first weeks at Hawkins High School. Though, you can’t help but think about Robin who is only two seats behind you. Her hair is shorter than before and her clothing style is way different, it’s not her mother’s taste anymore but hers. You think she’s cute, just like when you were younger. You don’t know if you should talk to her after class. After all, you haven’t seen each other since you were seven, she probably didn’t even recognise you. If you were to talk to her, maybe you’d make the situation awkward. No, it’s better if you act as if you don’t know her, except if she came to talk to you. But you’d really love to reconnect with her again. Your thoughts keep running in your head until the bell rings. Everyone packs their things and runs away from the classroom while you walk to your teacher’s desk.

“How was your first day ? Was it difficult to follow the classes ?” She worries and you shrug.

“In some subjects, yes, but the teachers offered their help if I needed it. Besides that, I just really need to find my bearings in this school.” You answer and she smiles.

“You’ll get used to it quickly, our school is not that big. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Well, I’m not holding you back any longer, have a nice week-end Y/N.”

“You, too, miss.”

You leave the room and go to the exit. When you walk through the door, Robin comes to you, nervousness can be read on her face while a big smile takes its place on yours.

“Y/N, hey ! It’s me, Robin Buckley.” She introduces herself and you chuckle lightly.

“I know, I recognised you.”

“Really ? I thought… I mean, I guess you…”

“I’d have forgotten you ?” You ask, shocked and she nods. “Robin, you’re my first best friend, I’d never forget you. But I have to admit, I was afraid you would have.”

“I could never forget you either !” Robin retorts, almost outraged. “I’m so happy to see you’re back, I missed you so much ! When did you come back ?”

“Two weeks ago, but I’ve been helping my parents to move in 'till yesterday.”

“You’re staying here for a while ?”

“For now, we haven’t planned on leaving any time soon.” You inform and her face brightens.

“Really ?”

“Yeah ! So, we can see each other like we used to. We need to plan something, by the way and you also have to show me around in Hawkins ! Some things must have changed in this good old city.” You exclaim, excited.

“Not much, but I’ll be glad to give you a tour.”

“Great. Oh, wait !”, you start before taking a piece of paper and a pen, you quickly write something before talking again, “it’s my phone number, call me and we’ll decide on a date to meet.”

“Sure.”

You’re about to add something when you hear someone honking. You turn your head and see your mom’s car.

“Sorry, I have to go, my mom is waiting for me.”

“Don’t worry, I have to go to work anyway.”

“I’m glad we met again, Robin.”

“So do I.”

You smile at her one last time before running to your mom’s car. Meanwhile, Robin looks at you, paralysed. She can’t believe you’re back. Her brain is fusing as she thinks about what your return means. She doesn’t wait any longer before going to Family Video.

When she arrives at work, Steve doesn’t have time to raise his head that Robin puts her hands on the counter with a serious face.

“We have an emergency, Steve.”

“An emergency ? What emergency ?” He asks, looking around, worried.

“No, a ‘girl’ emergency. Y/N is back.” She states dramatically and Steve frowns.

“I’m supposed to know who she is ?”

“Okay, long story short”, Robin starts and Steve knows she’s not going to do the ‘long story short’, “Y/N was my first best friend. We met in kindergarten. We were very close, we had an almost fusional relationship ! I even think our parents were tired of us always hanging out. Anyway, we were as thick as thieves, you know ? And one day, in second grade, Y/N had this crush on that guy named Justin. Honestly, I still don’t know what she found in him, he was a little bit dumb. He had these stupid remarks sometimes and he wasn’t even funny.”

“Robin, go straight to the point.” Steve cuts her.

“The point is that she had a crush on him and she wanted to admit her feelings but she didn’t know how so she asked for my help and as a good best friend, I accepted. We went to my place and we tried to act the scene, we tried to imagine what she could tell him. At one moment, I was saying what she could do and at another, she showed me what she thought she could do. The more we were starting to invent scenarios, the more confident she got. She was sure she could get Justin. She was so sure she wanted to get ready for the… kiss. We were seven so I told her we could practise. It was just a small peck, I didn’t think too much about it but when she got closer and closer to Justin, I started being overprotective and on top of that, we were starting to drift apart so I was convinced I was losing my best friend, but clearly it was more and…”

“Basically, you had a crush on her ?” Steve asks, trying to make sure he understood the situation.

“She was my first crush ever, but she left for another State when I realised my feelings could be deeper than I thought and we lost contact so I thought it was just some childish feelings, but Steve when I saw her entering my History class… I couldn’t explain it even if I tried. She is so pretty and she didn’t forget about me ! We talked a little, she even gave me her number and Steve, I think I still have feelings for her.” Robin finished with glowing eyes.

“Finally one of us will be in a relationship.” He states with a smile.

“We’re not there yet !”

“You said she gave you her number, I think it’s a good sign.”

“She just wants me to show her the new things around town and wants us to hang out as friends. It doesn’t mean anything !”

“If you don’t try, you can’t never know.” Steve affirms and Robin has her eyes wide open.

“Do you even realise how risky that is ?”

“Please, you have the perfect excuse with your second grade moment to test the water. You just need to bring the topic smoothly.” He suggests as if it was easy.

“You mean the thing I don’t know how to do ?”

“I’m sure you’re being overdramatic. Call her to, at least, plan something then you’ll see.” Steve adds as he takes the phone and puts it in front of Robin.

“I can’t, we’re working.”

“Yeah, because we currently have so many customers.” Steve says ironically while showing the empty place with his hand.

“You know I hate you.” Robin states with a fake smile.

“Don’t forget to thank me when you’ll finally be in a relationship.”

“Dingus.”

Robin takes a deep breath as she takes the piece of paper out of her jeans. She admires the paper before grabbing the phone and composing the number. Internally, she prays for you to not pick up, like that, she’ll be able to call you when she’s at home, away from her best friend’s gaze. Though, you don’t listen to her prayers and pick up the phone after five rings.

“Hey, Y/N, it’s Robin.” She starts, totally nervous.

“Robin ? Hey ! I wasn’t expecting your call now.”

“Sorry, am I bothering you ? I can call back later, it’s okay.”

“No !” You scream, knowing she was about to hang up. “What I meant is that I thought you were at work so I thought you’d call me later or during the week-end.”

“I got some free time so I told myself I could give you a call to see if we could plan something this week-end or maybe on another day next week, if it’s better for you or maybe you'd prefer in two weeks, I mean, tell me what’s best for you, you probably still have so many boxes to unpack anyway.” Robin rambles and Steve looks at her, desperate.

“Robin, this week-end works for me.” You affirm with joy. “Actually, a moment away from these boxes would be the best. We can see each other tomorrow ? And we could have a sleepover at my place, for old time sake.”

“Why not !”

“Perfect, I’ll pick you up tomorrow ? I can take my parents’ car so it’d be easier to hang out.”

“Cool, it works for me. I still don’t have my licence, it’s too expensive.” Robin adds and she curses herself for this useless piece of information.

“That’s for sure.” You laugh. “So, see you tomorrow ?”

“Yes, see you tomorrow, Y/N.”

When you hang up, a big smile can be seen on Robin’s face. Steve can tell Robin does everything to contain her joy and he thinks it’s adorable the way Robin is beside herself because of her feelings for you.

Until the end of her shift at Family Video, Robin can’t stop talking about what you both are going to do the next day. She shares with Steve every scenario. At first, she imagines the cutest moment ever but then she thinks you might violently push her away. When she thinks about the worst, Steve does everything to reassure her. He can’t imagine how complicated it might be for her to have feelings for a girl and to not be able to be open about it like she would want so he encourages her as best as he can, hoping she won’t be stressing too much the next day and accidentally sabotage herself this moment with you.

When you pick Robin up, you guys don’t wait before driving around town, without a destination in mind. Robin tells you the last gossip in town and you listen to her attentively. You both talk about the years you missed. The conversations are easy, it’s as if you’d never lost contact with each other. Having her close to you again brings you so much happiness, you like her company. You knew you missed her, but you would have never imagined it was that much. The more you talk with Robin, the more your old feelings become stronger. Sometimes, you even have to stop yourself before talking, knowing you were about to betray yourself. Robin is in the same situation. She’d like to “taste the water” like Steve recommended, but she doesn’t want to ruin your moment so she avoids talking about your second grade moment.

The evening, you start your sleepover, it’s almost as if you were seven again, the only difference is that you don’t play before talking. When you were younger, you used to play until your parents would turn off the light, at that moment you’d spend the night talking discreetly. At least, that’s what you thought, but your parents admitted later on that they knew you were never sleeping. You actually inform Robin about it and she laughs out loud. You both keep giggling for a few minutes. When you get a grip on yourselves, you look at her with softness and you smile while you’re both laying on your bed.

“It’s been a long time since I had this much fun with someone.” You state and Robin frowns.

“You’re not gonna make me believe our sleepover is better than your school parties with all of your friends.”

“What makes you think I’m invited to big parties with friends ?”

“Y/N, I’m not stupid. You obviously have a lot of friends in your old school.” She retorts matter of factly.

“Actually I don’t. I had, like, two friends with whom I wasn’t very close and a boyfriend with whom I dated only for a month.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Believe it or not but it’s complicated to find a best friend as good as you. Or just a person in general with whom I can have a connection as strong as ours.” You inform and Robin tries to find a secret message in your words.

“What do you mean by ‘just a person in general’, what about your boyfriend ?”

“Like I said, it didn’t last. I broke up with him before leaving.”

“You didn’t want to try a long-distance relationship ?” She asks and you shrug, trying to find the best way to explain the situation.

“It’s not really that. I would have broken up with him even if I hadn’t left because… I don’t know how to say it, but my feelings for him were never really that strong and when I was kissing him, it was… weird.”

Robin’s brain freezes while hearing these words. She asks herself if she needs to analyse with more care what you just said. After all, it looks like your experience is close to hers, but maybe you were simply not in love with that guy but you still love only men. Robin musters up her courage and starts ‘testing the water’.

“Looks like you need a new kissing lesson, then.” She states casually and you don’t answer right away, making her panic. “Sorry, I didn’t want to make the situation weird.”

“You really remember that ?” You ask with an ounce of hope.

“Yeah. I mean because it was about your first crush and your first kiss so it was important for you. I would be a bad best friend if I forgot those kinds of details.” She tries to justify herself, wanting to end the conversation but you want to keep talking about it.

“He might have been my first ‘crush’, but we can’t really say he was my first kiss.”

“You think of me as your first kiss ?” Robin asks, shocked, her heart beating fast.

“Our lips touched, didn’t they ? Maybe just for a second, but they did.” You affirm, nervous.

“Yeah, but it didn’t mean anything. You wanted to be ready for Justin.” She continues, not wanting to get her high hopes. “I still don't know what you found in him, by the way.”

“Me neither.” You laugh softly and she follows you. “Especially after that moment, he wasn’t as interesting anymore.”

“But you still confessed your feelings to him.”

“I was seven, I was confused. It was even worse when I kissed him.” You add and Robin is getting more and more confused.

“I don’t understand, Y/N. You were completely ‘in love’ with him, at least as much as a kid can be. You were glued to him.”

“It was because I was afraid to be close to you again.” You admit and Robin sits on your bed, her cheeks turning red.

“I… I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, I just wanted to help you, I’m sorry.” She apologises, feeling bad and you stand up in panic.

“No, that’s not what I meant ! What I meant is that after this moment I… I was confused about what I was feeling for you. You were my best friend and I… I wanted more. I didn’t understand what was happening to me.” You state but you give up, thinking you’ve worsened the situation. “Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have told you that. I’d understand if…”

“Do you really mean it ?” Robin interrupts you. “You felt something for me ?”

“I… yes and as I’ve already started to dig my grave, I might as well confess I still do feel something for you.” You continue, but she stays silent, making you more uncomfortable. “Robin, say something, please.”

“I can’t believe you feel the same thing for me.” She says softly.

“The same thing ?”

“Y/N, when I saw you in class yesterday, my heart literally skipped a beat.” Robin starts, looking you in the eyes. “You’ve always been important to me. I was beside myself when I realised you were back. If you had seen me talking to Steve, you would’ve thought I was pathetic. I almost told him the whole story of our friendship, I didn’t say anything because he wanted me to go straight to the point.” She informs, talking faster and faster. “Despite the years, you still have power over me, it’s almost scary, but yes, I do have feelings for you, I always have. I was also so confused when you got closer to Justin, I only wanted you to be close to me and I didn’t understand why and now, I’m starting to realise I might be talking too much, but the point is I care about you, Y/N so yes, I feel the same thing for you.”

“Does that mean I can ask for a new lesson ?” You question, feeling confident again and slowly getting closer to her.

“I think I might need one too.”

“Perfect, we’re gonna help each other, then.”

Softly, you put your hand on Robin’s cheek and get closer to her with a small smile while Robin tries to hide her nervousness. Even if she’s been waiting for this moment, she’s afraid you’d think she’s a bad kisser or she doesn’t know where to put her hands on you correctly. She keeps overthinking until you press your lips on hers. At that moment, her anxiety vanishes away. She gets you closer to her by naturally putting her hand on your neck. You let your body act the way it wants and you and Robin keep kissing with tenderness until you’re out of breath. When you break the kiss, you take a deep breath again and get a grip on yourselves before looking at each other with a big smile.

“Much better than our first kiss, but I think I might need another reminder.” You inform and Robin doesn’t wait before kissing you a second time with more passion.

Stranger Things Masterlist

{This is my side blog so I'll be answering comments under the username @marie-sworld}

#marie swriting in english #stranger things x y/n #stranger things x reader #stranger things imagine #stranger things one shot #stranger things #robin buckley fanfic #robin buckley x fem!reader #robin buckley x female reader #robin buckley #robin buckley x y/n #robin buckley x reader #robin buckley x you #robin buckley fluff #Spotify

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naughtyneganjdm · 1 year

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Arcadia - Chapter 13

Summary: After learning about Y/N's pregnancy, both Joel and Negan seem tense about the idea of who the father is. It also draws tension from Negan's son who is upset at the idea of a new baby leading Negan to take him out for a day with dad to only come face-to-face with someone from his past.

Characters: Negan, the reader (OC), Joel, Lucy, Nolan, etc.

Warnings: Swearing, angst, etc.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29577489/chapters/111565753

“This is insane,” Negan looked over the ultrasound machine that they were going to be using. Even though he knew that Arcadia was more advanced than the world that was around them, it still took some getting used to. These were things of the past and Negan was surprised how good the doctors in Arcadia were doing. This still felt like how things were over thirteen years ago before the world started falling to shit. “I really don’t understand how you all pulled this together. When I was with you both all those years ago, I never pictured the two of you being able to pull together a whole community. One that could be ran like this.”

“It took a lot of work,” Joel announced from where he was seated at the other side of the bed where he was holding Y/N’s hand. They had already prepared Y/N to be ready for the ultrasound, the doctor was just gathering things while they waited. Joel’s ass was kicked to say the least. When the children went to school, the three of them had walked together to the medical pavilion for this ultrasound. Joel was insistent on walking himself with the help of his cane which meant it was a long, slow walk, but Negan and Y/N didn’t make a big deal of it. The only thing that Joel kept thinking about was how the hell he was going to make it back up to their home. They lived on a big hill and his body was already drained from the walk there. “All of this wasn’t built overnight Negan. For it to get where it is, I’d say it’s only been about three years where everything has been together like this. It was a lot of building and coming together.”

“And it wasn’t just us that were doing it,” Y/N squeezed her fingers around Joel’s noticing that he was very pale. Outstretching her free hand, she reached out to caress over the side of Joel’s face watching him half-smile before leaning into her touch. “We just did what we could to bring people together. You have to understand we aren’t miracle workers.”

“Yes you are, you’re both just incredibly humble,” Negan rumbled, letting out a wince when he knocked something over. The doctor in the corner shot Negan a glare and he slowly lowered back down into the seat that was at the side of the bed beside Y/N. With angry eyes on him, Negan lifted his hand slightly and gave a cheesy smile wiggling his fingers around. “My bad man.”

“God,” Y/N couldn’t help but laugh hearing Negan snort in response. “You’re still so very much Negan.”

“I’m curious,” Negan shrugged his shoulders reaching for Y/N’s other hand to hold onto it. “You can’t blame a man for being curious.”

“Okay, so I have everything,” the doctor announced making Joel’s head perk up. The doctor gazed between all three of them and he cleared his throat when he moved in beside Joel who adjusted his seat so the doctor had more room. “Now which one is the father?”

“I am,” both Negan and Joel announced at the same time making Y/N gaze between the both of them when the doctor let out an uncomfortable sound.

“We both are,” Negan corrected what he said, making Joel’s jaw flex and when the doctor looked to him, Joel nodded as if in agreement with Negan.

“I forgot the three of you had a thing going on,” the doctor announced showing that he may not be someone that completely agreed with what they had going on, but Y/N truthfully didn’t give a shit about what he thought about things. “Are you trying to determine who the father is by how far along you are in your pregnancy?”

“Doc, let’s not make this complicated, okay?” Joel grumbled under his breath, his eyebrows furrowing when he gazed over the man beside him. “We’re a family. We don’t want to know who the father is.”

“It would be pretty hard to determine who the father was regardless right now,” the doctor informed them, his eyes trying to focus on all three of them that were there. “When the baby is born, we have the capability of checking who the father is if you’re interested…”

“We’re not,” Y/N pushed further making the doctor clear his throat and nod his head. That was something that she wanted to make clear. Knowing who the biological father was would just breed jealousy and that was not something that she wanted to even focus on right now considering how they both responded to the answer of who was the father. “They both agreed that no matter what, they were both the fathers and they weren’t going to care which one was the biological father.”

Y/N saying that was almost like a reminder for the both of them. The way in which they both claimed the baby surprised Y/N since they were both the ones in the past that said if she ever did end up getting pregnant that they wouldn’t care who the father was. Neither guy said anything, Negan just moved closer to the side of the bed and started to stroke over the back of her hand with his fingertips.

“Listen, I know that our relationship isn’t normal, but I’m not asking anyone to accept it. We’re a family and no one has to agree with it, but it is the way it is. We love each other and this is how our life is,” Y/N blurt out making the doctor panic when he reached for the gel that he was going to use. “The three of us loving each other doesn’t change things.”

“Of course not! I’m not making anything negative out of it, I promise you,” the doctor assured her with a simple tip of his head. “I’m used to things being you and Joel, but I’m not conservative, I promise you that. It’s nothing against you Negan, it’s just going to be a while before I get used to this whole thing. You have to understand that people have been avoiding even looking at Y/N a specific way because they are terrified that Joel would rip them apart.”

“I’m not that mean,” Joel huffed, his eyebrows furrowing when the doctor looked to Joel with an amused expression. “What?”

“When it comes to your wife and children, you’re terrifying,” the doctor explained making Y/N laugh when she saw Joel’s face twisting with confusion. “You are potentially the nicest man here. You and Roy are great leaders of this community because you’re good men. But there is not a person here that would fuck with you or your family.”

“Yeah, he is a bit of a badass,” Negan acknowledged with a half laugh seeing the way that Joel gazed over at him.

“We all know what happened when Nolan was taken. You’re a force to be reckoned with,” the doctor smiled squirting some of the gel out over Y/N’s abdomen making her let out a surprised breath. “No one here would be dumb enough to fuck with you.”

“I was a force to be reckoned with,” Joel nodded over toward his cane that was resting against the wall. “Now I’m disabled. I’m as useless as a paperweight.”

“I don’t believe that. If anyone is capable of overcoming this thing, it’s you. I watched you fight harder than any man I’ve ever known. Even before this whole shit show started. In my career, I’ve never seen someone get as injured as you have and live,” the doctor explained gazing Joel over before shaking his head. “I’m not even sure if you’re human. You might be like some kind of super soldier. You should be dead Joel. Twice over and you’re not. So again, you’re a force to be reckoned with. Not even God wants to take you because he knows you’ll kick his ass.”

It was an immediate response, but that comment made both Y/N and Negan laugh, but Joel looked sad when the doctor actually said that to him. It was something that Y/N would have thought would have amused him, but it had the reverse reaction.

“Here we go,” the doctor spoke up before Y/N could talk to Joel. “If you watch the screen, you’re going to see your little one…”

Negan was eager to turn to the screen that was behind him to look at the picture that was slowly being revealed to them, “I’d say you’re at least over four months by the development of the fetus.”

“Sounds right,” Joel acknowledged knowing the timeline of how things played out. His eyes were hooked on the screen as well before he lowered down to press a kiss over the back of Y/N’s hand. Negan was in awe while he stared out at the screen. “Does everything look okay? I mean she has a belly, but it’s not as big as she was when she was pregnant with Nolan and Lucille.”

Hearing Joel refer to Lucy as Lucille took Negan’s breath away. He was so used to them calling her Lucy that sometimes he forgot that they named their daughter after his late wife. It also made his chest hurt because of all that he missed. By the timeline of things in the past he realized that he could have been around for Nolan’s four-month ultrasound, but instead he had done what he did in pushing Y/N away. Joel had been there for both pregnancies and he knew more about things than Negan ever would.

Gazing back at Joel, Negan felt his chest ache. Truthfully? He wanted this baby to be his. It wasn’t anything against Joel because heaven knows he loved the hell out of him, but Joel got to experience what it was like to be a father from the start. Both with Nolan and Lucy. It would have just been nice to know how it felt to be a father fully for the first time. He knew that Nolan was his biologically, but Joel would always be more Nolan’s father than he ever would be. There was a sense of hope inside of him that this baby was his so he could be a father to the fullest this time.

“It looks healthy. It looks how it should,” the doctor explained looking at the screen while he continued the ultrasound. “It’s never a hundred percent, but would you like to know the gender of the baby? I’m fairly confident I can tell what the gender is.”

“I want it to be a surprise,” Y/N blurt out before Negan or Joel could acknowledge the question. Both men gazed at her and she shrugged her shoulders. “We don’t have a lot of good surprises in our life. I want this one to be a surprise. Please.”

“Okay,” Joel didn’t fight what she wanted, his green-hazel eyes gazing over her abdomen. “We want it to be a surprise.”

Swallowing down the lump in his throat, Negan accepted that answer, but there was part of him that desperately wanted to know the gender, “If it’s a girl, we know that it belongs to Joel since he makes little girls.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” the doctor teased Negan who originally had tried to make it sound like a joke, but it didn’t really seem like anyone found it amusing. “Both you and Joel have very strong genes.”

“What does that mean?” Y/N snickered making the doctor shrug his shoulders.

“It means your son looks exactly like him,” the doctor pointed at Negan making him smile brightly and bob his head about, his dimples very obvious with that smile. “Before I met Negan, he looked a lot like Joel, but when Negan came here, there is no doubting that boy belongs to that man. And your daughter took on a lot of Joel’s traits. She has his eye color and the same color hair he had when I met him.”

“Are you calling me old?” Joel grunted making the doctor smirk.

“I’m saying you have gray in your hair now. Both you and Negan have certain looks. Your daughter and your son look like they could belong to either one of you, but it’s the eyes that give it away,” the doctor scoot forward looking between Negan and Joel. “You both have textbook definition hazel eyes and they are both green with brown in them, but Joel’s eyes are a lighter version of green. It would be easy to miss in a quick glance, but Lucille has the bright green hazel eyes and Nolan’s are the darker green.”

“So it’s my turn for the baby to take on more of my features,” Y/N snickered making Joel smirk and nod his head slowly. “I think it’s only fair.”

“There you go,” Negan squeezed her hand again before looking back at the screen. “So she’s about halfway through?”

“Yeah, or a little over,” the doctor answered, finishing up with things. When he was done, he printed out two photos and handed one to both Joel and Negan. “Congratulations to all three of you. You have a healthy fetus that should be here in about four and a half months or sooner.”

“Doc,” Joel cleared his throat, looking to the doctor after gazing over the print for a long moment. “Do you think it’s possible for me to get the feeling back in my leg in that amount of time? Do you think I can be healed?”

“Joel, I think it’s completely possible for you to get the feeling back in your leg, but I’m going to be honest with you…” the doctor began making Y/N’s chest ache when the doctor started his statement like that. “Even if you get the feeling back in your leg, you’re probably going to have a significant limp for the rest of your life. You were really hurt. I do although think if anyone could make the most of what happened to you, it’s you.”

“Oh,” Joel responded, his head lowering and Y/N could see that Joel was disappointed with that answer. That wasn’t the answer that he wanted. “Thanks doc.”

“You got this champ. You’re already doing much better than I think anyone else in your position would be doing,” the doctor reached out to pat Joel on the shoulder making him feign a smirk. Bringing Joel’s hand up, Y/N placed a kiss over it before looking to Negan who was still hooked on the photo that he was given.

“This is incredible,” Negan admitted with a big smile, holding up the photo over toward Joel. “This is our baby.”

“It is,” Joel nodded his head and gave Negan a wink. With a hesitant breath, Joel reached for the towel that the doctor had set on the bed to wipe off the gel that was left over Y/N’s abdomen. Joel stood with a pained sound, before helping Y/N sit up and get ready to leave. Bracing himself on the bed, Joel looked between Negan and Y/N before letting out a disappointed breath. “I’m going to need help getting back. I’m sorry.”

“It’s no worries, I got both of my babies. Well all three,” Negan bounced up from the seat that he was in to finish helping Y/N get up. When they finished things up with the doctor, Negan stood between Joel and Y/N allowing Joel to put his weight on him so he could help Joel walk back to the farm. This walk was longer this time and they both understood Joel could only do what he was capable of. When they got back to the house, Joel excused himself to the office and Negan decided to go to the kitchen with Y/N to help make lunch for everyone. It seemed like something was heavy on Y/N’s mind while they worked together to make their family something to eat. “Y/N? What’s wrong?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she waved her hand about and Negan stopped cutting the food that he was working on to turn to her. Clutching her face in his large hands, Negan caressed over the sides of Y/N’s face before forcing her to look at him with a nudging motion. “I don’t want to upset you.”

“You won’t. Nothing can bring me down from what we’ve seen today,” Negan reached down to pat his pocket where he had put the photo of their baby. “So talk to me. I don’t like seeing the people I love hurt or upset.”

“Come here,” she led him away from the counter and over toward the corner of the kitchen to sit down with her at the table. Negan pulled the chair in closer to her, his hazel eyes hooked on her showing that she had his full attention. “I’m trying to be as positive as possible about this pregnancy Negan, but…”

“But?” there was apprehension in Negan’s features, his head tipping to the side when she took a moment of silence. The sound of her swallowing down hard was heard and he reached for her hands again to give her his support. When she met his stare once more, her eyes were damp. “Sweetheart? What is it?”

“I’m scared. For so many reasons,” she explained with a broken sound feeling Negan’s fingers squeezing around hers. “Both of the pregnancies were hard on me. After the postpartum depression that I experienced after having Nolan, I get worried. I wasn’t a good mom to Nolan for the first two years of his life. I’m prone to having severe depression. I don’t want to lie about that. I’ve had a lot of issues with my mental health. And to be honest with you, I don’t even know if I was a good mom with Lucy. Joel is the better parent. We both know that. We both see it. Those kids love Joel more than anything because he was the parent that delivered on everything. Joel was the best father. Joel was our rock. He’s the reason this family is the way it is, but now…”

“We’re going to help Joel. I’m not giving up on him Y/N. Joel will be here for the children and he will be just as good as a father as he was before. And I’m here too. I’m so excited to be a father. You see how I am with the kids, I won’t abandon you and them. I promise you that. I’m happy that I get to experience what it’s like to have children. I love the hell out of Nolan and Lucy. And I’m going to love this baby just as much. My whole life, all I ever wanted was to be a father. Now I get to experience what it’s like overall,” Negan whispered, his hazel eyes visibly getting emotional himself. “Nolan is the best gift I’ve ever been given. Once I knew about Nolan, I knew there was a reason that I was still alive and here. I never understood what kept me going, but it was that boy. And with Lucy, I love the shit outta that little girl. She’s the best of both you and Joel. I’m the luckiest man in the world. I get to share my love with the two hottest people I’ve ever known and I get to have a family with all of you.”

“I know the both of us have been through so much Negan, but I’m being honest when I tell you that I believe you,” she pulled her right hand from his and reached out to caress in over the side of Negan’s face. “I see that you are happy. I know you mean what you say and I don’t question it. I just, I know how I’ve been during both pregnancies and I know everything I went through. It’s not you I doubt.”

“I understand and your feelings are completely fucking valid,” Negan was attempting to show how supportive he was being for her with what she was going through. “I promise you though, no matter what happens, I’m always going to be here for you. Through everything. The hard times, the good times. Everything. You mean the world to me and I don’t want to miss out on any of this.”

A shuddering breath fell from her throat when Negan reached out to place his large palm in over her abdomen. Closing her eyes, she knew that when she was young and pregnant with Nolan, this was all she ever wanted from Negan. If she could have had this back then, she wondered if she would have turned out as messed up as she did. Then again, that thought truly made her feel bad because she had someone perfect in Joel taking care of her and the baby. It was a messy thought to think about the past and everything that had happened.

“It’s just the world is so unpredictable and it scares me still,” she lowered her hand to press it in over his. The way Negan’s lips parted when her hand touched his made her heart skip a beat. “I told you that if the world wanted me pregnant, well, it was going to happen and here we are.”

“Y/N,” Negan breathed out, his bottom lip quivering when she saw that he was getting emotional the longer that he had his hand over her stomach. “I am so fucking sorry.”

“About what?” she wasn’t sure why he was getting upset, but when his teary eyes met hers, she felt her chest aching at the sight. “What’s wrong?”

“I should have been here for this the first time,” Negan maintained, his voice raspier than normal. With a shake of his head, he felt himself caught up in his words that went with his emotions and just shrugged. “I put you through so much shit and it was because of me that the world was so heavy on you. You loved me so much and I just…I was such an asshole. I should have been there to take care of you when you were pregnant with Nolan. I should have been there when he was born. I should have been the one he called dad. I know that Joel is a great dad, but that was something I should have been there for. I left you hanging and for that, I’m so sorry. I wish I could go back and change the way things were, but…I can’t and knowing that destroys me every fucking day.”

“Well, the world is giving you your second chance here Negan,” she used her free hand to reach out to brush it through his graying hair making Negan let out a whimper when he gazed down at her stomach. “Don’t fuck it up.”

“I won’t,” he promised with a wink, his throat flexing when he slid in closer to her. Raising his hand, he curled his fingers around the back of her neck and brought her to him so he could kiss her passionately hoping to show her the love that he did have for her. “I promise you, I know I’m old, but I’m going to be the best father possible to this baby. I promise I will do everything fucking possible to take care of you, Joel and the kids.”

“I know,” she breathed against his lips tasting his tears against his flesh while she stroked her fingers through his hair. “I love you so much.”

“I know,” Negan gave her a wink seeing the way she rolled her eyes before moving in to kiss him. “That was something I’ve never doubted in my life. I know you have always loved me and I hope you know that I love you so much too. I’ve fucked up a lot, but I will always be here for you. From here on out. I will show up as much as I possibly can.”

“I think you give more than you are even capable of sometimes,” she acknowledged knowing that Negan was trying. “Since Joel has been hurt, you’ve been this family’s rock. I don’t know what we would have done without you Negan. We all need you.”

“And I need all of you,” Negan whispered, pulling back enough to drag his thumb across her bottom lip. “This family is it for me. It’s everything and more.”

“Negan,” she breathed, looking down at her abdomen thinking back to the appointment. “There is going to be a problem with you and Joel when the baby is born.”

“No,” Negan shook his head, a confused sound falling from his lips. “We’re going to be just fine.”

“You’re not. I can see it already. You both insisted that you would be okay with me being pregnant. That you didn’t care who the father was, but you both do. With the way you responded today when the doctor asked who the father was, you both care a lot,” she insisted making a shuddering breath fall from Negan’s throat. Well, she wasn’t wrong there. “You want this baby to be yours and he wants this baby to be his. It’s going to cause tension. I hope the two of you can figure it out before the baby is born. This was another reason that I was scared to get pregnant. I have a son with you and I have a daughter with him. I thought having a third child would just breed jealousy and I know it’s going to. That’s why I thought having another baby was a bad thing.”

“Listen…” Negan heard what she said and took a moment to think about it. “Yeah, I really want this baby to be mine.”

“I know you do,” she whispered, reaching up to place her hand in over the side of his face making him let out an anxious breath. “And you both mean so much to me, but I can’t have a dispute between the two of you over this. I’m with the both of you. I was with the both of you that week. It doesn’t matter who the father is because you are both here.”

“I know, it’s just…” Negan licked at his lips knowing that he would have to tiptoe around the conversation because he didn’t want to sound like a dick. “You know how much I love Joel. I don’t think there is a question about that.”

“Obviously,” she threw her hand up in the air knowing that Joel and Negan were exceedingly close. “We know how close the two of you are. At this point, I think a lot of the people in the town think I’m the third wheel for the two of you.”

“That’s not true,” Negan hushed her, rolling his eyes at the idea. “We’re the three of us and I know that. We all love each other and I like this relationship because it has an incredible amount of advantages. I would never ask either of you to pick me over the other. That’s not what this is.”

“I know that Negan,” she could see that he was getting even more emotional about the whole thing the more he talked about it.

“It’s just, Joel was here for both Nolan and Lucy’s birth. We both know that Joel is more Nolan’s father than I am. There is a bond between him and Nolan that I will never have with Nolan. It doesn’t make me love Nolan any less, but he’s Joel’s boy,” Negan kept his voice down, his eyebrows furrowing and he swallowed down hard. “I just, I want it to be mine because for once, I want to be able to experience what it’s like to be a dad for once. Joel’s had it twice. And I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve this child to be his because he’s a better father than I could ever be, but…”

“It is yours. But this baby is his too,” she moved forward to cup the sides of his face making Negan focus on her. Tipping in, she claimed his lips in a sweet, tender caress that took his breath away. The way she touched his face made him let out a shuddering breath when they parted. “You’re going to know what it's like to be a father from the start whether it is your DNA growing inside of me or not.”

“I’m not going to be any different toward Joel, you or that baby,” Negan assured her, his voice breaking while he spoke up. “But it does matter to me whether I’m the biological father or not. I know I said what I did, but I just want to be a father so bad. You know you’re the mother. I just, I kind of want to know if I’m the father. I know that you don’t want that and I will respect your opinion because I love you. I really do. It will take some time to get over, but I promise you I will. It’s just something that is lingering in the back of my mind right now.”

“Okay,” she knew that she couldn’t fight him on it because it was his own personal feelings. It just made things feel more uncomfortable because she wanted them all to be on equal grounds with things. “I appreciate you even saying that Negan. It means a lot. It shows you have grown a lot as a person and it means so much to me.”

“Of course,” Negan gave a weak smile, reaching out to hook his arm around her shoulders to pull her into a big hug. It was an extended one and he could feel a lump in his throat. It was a big deal to him and he knew that she wouldn’t understand it, but he was just going to have to do his best to get over it. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” she whispered, closing her eyes when Negan turned his head to press a kiss over the side of her face. She just hoped that things would get better from here on out. Everyone was doing their best, but there was still a lot going on that was making this so much harder.

Right now she knew that being pregnant was the wrong time. It wasn’t good to add another stressor onto the family right now, but she didn’t get to decide when she was going to be pregnant or not. It just happened and they were going to have to find a way to make it work.

After they had lunch, Negan had taken the kids out to go play for a while and while part of her wanted to go with them just to witness Negan being a good father, she knew that Joel was heavily on her mind. Seeing Negan being a good father to both Nolan and Lucy helped calm her mind. It made things feel easier because she knew that Negan would be there for her no matter what when it came to this pregnancy, but there was something different with Joel and while he may have feigned being happy, she knew better.

Heading to the office that Joel was in, she saw that Joel was sitting on the couch with his legs stretched out. The picture the doctor had given Joel of the ultrasound was in his hand and he was eyeing it over closely making her let out a nervous breath. The sound made Joel lift his head and he swiftly pushed the photo back into the pocket that was on his button-down shirt.

“Hey you,” she moved into the room after closing the door behind her and Joel gave a small smirk. Taking a seat beside him on the couch, she reached out to brush her fingers over the small of his neck. “What’s going on?”

“Just thinking,” his thick southern drawl responded, his eyes gazing over at her. It was typical Joel. Take the attention off him and not give much of an answer even if he was feeling bad about things. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” she waved her hand about in the air before looking him over. Of course he tried to put the attention on her and not him. That was something he always did. He didn’t find importance in himself. “I’m worried about you though. You’ve been my husband for a very long time and I know when something isn’t right. And don’t try to tell me it’s just about your leg because I know you better than that.”

“Yes ma’am,” Joel stammered with a weak smile, reaching up to brush his fingers through his hair and he let out a long sigh. “I just...I keep thinking about when this baby was made. You know? How many times did you sleep with Negan while I was gone? I know you said that you slept with the both of us…”

“Joel,” she frowned knowing where this was headed and it made her feel bad that both of them had this kind of response to the baby. Joel was desperate for an answer and she lowered her head. “A few times.”

With a nod, Joel simply cleared his throat and nodded, “Joel, I had sex with you first.”

“Yeah, but I know this is Negan’s baby,” Joel surprised her when he said it making her lower her hand from the back of his neck to slide it down in over his shoulder. “You slept with me once. And you slept with him multiple times. It’s more likely to be his.”

“You don’t know that,” she stuck to her guns making Joel shrug his shoulders and clear his throat. “It could belong to either one of you. I was with you first Joel. It’s every much as possible that it is yours,” she declared knowing that Joel was depressed over it. Hearing both Negan and Joel’s reaction to things about who the father was made her uneasy. This wasn’t how she thought things would be because of what they promised her in the past. “I thought you both didn’t care about who the baby belonged to and you both very much do.”

“I’m sorry Y/N,” Joel apologized, a saddened breath falling from his throat when he gazed over at her. With a shrug of his shoulders, Joel leaned further back on the couch and cleared his throat. “I don’t want to upset you because you’re already stressed enough. I promise you I won’t talk about it. Okay?”

“Joel,” she felt bad hearing him say that when she saw his cheeks flush over with red. Well, that was vastly different than her discussion with Negan. “Please talk to me. What’s going on? I’ll be okay. Me worrying about you is worse than whatever you tell me.”

“I just don’t want you to feel bad,” Joel stammered, letting out a shuddering breath when her fingers hooked with his. “It has nothing to do with you, the kids or Negan. I love you all so much, but Y/N…I’m really depressed. I’m not even half the man that I used to be. It really breaks me down to know that I couldn’t protect all of you if I tried.”

“Joel,” she frowned, stroking her fingers through his hair hearing his voice getting emotional, tears in his eyes while he tried to explain things to her. Joel was never like this. He was always the positive one holding her together, so to hear him say that he was depressed really hit her hard. Joel was always her rock and she never saw him falling like this. “You got hurt. You heard the doctor. Most people wouldn’t live through what you did.”

“I wish hearing things like that would make me feel better, but I don’t. I should be out there playing with the kids…and I can’t,” Joel lifted his hand, placing it over the center of his chest. There were tears sliding down his face while his hand shook and Y/N could feel herself getting emotional from his reaction. “I sit here every day because I can’t even make it down the stairs on my own. I’m used to doing things. I’m used to keeping busy and I just sit here…doing nothing. I’m a good father and I feel like being like this has made me a horrible father because I can’t do things for the kids. I can’t pick up Nolan or Lucy without sitting. I can’t give them piggyback rides, I can’t play sports with them because I can’t move Y/N.”

“They don’t care about that stuff Joel,” she tried to assure him, stroking down over the side of his face. “They are just happy to have their dad here. They love you.”

“But do you know how much it breaks my heart to hear them laughing and having fun outside while I’m stuck in here?” Joel cried, the lump in his throat growing while he tried to explain how he was feeling. “I’ve never been someone to just sit back and let the world pass me by and for four months that’s all I’ve been able to do. When this baby comes, how can I be a good father to it if I can’t even move?”

“Being disabled isn’t the end of the world Joel. You’re still a good father, regardless of how your leg is. You still sit down with them and help them with their homework. They still lay with you at night and you hold them in your arms. Even if you can’t take down a horse right now doesn’t mean that they don’t count on you and feel safe with you because they do. They love you, so that’s all that matters. Your leg will get better. You just have to give it time.”

“We don’t know that though,” Joel explained with a heavy sigh. “And with this whole baby thing, I don’t know, it just depresses me knowing that it’s likely not mine. I know it upsets you that it is something that is on my mind, but…”

“It’s on Negan’s mind too and obviously, I don’t understand because I thought you two said it would be okay. I insisted that it wouldn’t be, but you both told me otherwise,” she reminded Joel of the past seeing him reaching up to brush at his tears. Her hand stroked over his shoulder and she took some time to gather her thoughts. “You need to go into this thinking that this baby is yours. No matter who is the biological father. This can’t be something that depresses you, Joel. You already have enough going on in your mind. You need to believe that this baby is one hundred percent yours if you want to even think of getting better.”

“What?” Joel’s face scrunched up and he saw her take in a deep breath while she thought over what she was about to say.

“Negan isn’t wrong. Your family is what gives you strength,” she thought back on what Negan told her when he was going through his physical therapy to help Joel the other day. It took a minute for her to gather her thoughts. “This baby needs you. So you need to believe that they are your child. Stop saying it isn’t. This baby needs you. I need you. Please use that to force yourself to get better.”

“But what if I can’t?” Joel questioned, tears still sliding down his face. Joel pointed to his leg that was stretched out. He was barefooted and had on a pair of sweatpants. “If I don’t get better, I let you down. I let the baby down.”

“Listen to me,” she reached for his face to cup it firmly in her hands. Stroking over the sides of his face with her thumbs, she could see the sadness in his green-hazel eyes. “You have never in my entire time of knowing you, let me down. You are the strongest man I know. You are everything to me and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. You never gave up on me. Never. And you should have. You should have taken Nolan and you should have left, but you never once gave on me. So I will never give up on you, do you understand that? I don’t care what’s happened. I don’t care what you had to do in order to get back here. You are the foundation of this family. We all need you. I will never be let down by you. I am so proud of the man you are. Do you understand that?”

“Yes ma’am,” Joel muttered with a nod of his head letting out a shuddering breath. Leaning forward she pressed a kiss over his forehead before wrapping him up in her arms. Stroking her fingers through his hair, she let out a surprised breath when he lowered his head down and caressed the side of his face against her abdomen making a breath catch in her throat. The motion was so entirely sweet and when she felt Joel’s fingers stretching out against her stomach to caress over it, she knew that Joel was finally taking that time to connect with the idea of the baby growing inside of her. “I promise I’ll try.”

“That’s all we need of you. Is to try,” she whispered, allowing him to cuddle carefully in next to her abdomen and she stroked her fingers over his shoulders. “We all need you, Joel. We always have and we always will.”

----

Laying stretched out in the big bed that Negan shared with both Y/N and Joel, Negan took in a long breath while he flipped to the next page of the story that he was reading. Today Joel and Y/N had a meeting with the town early and Negan had stayed home to be with the children. While they were still sleeping, he took the quiet time to read a book. He had been so busy lately that he hadn’t really taken the time to himself to be able to relax and just read a book which had become one of his favorite things to do during his time in Alexandria. Adjusting the thick, black framed glasses over his face Negan heard the sound of the bedroom door being pushed open and it made him look up from the book.

“Hey buddy!” Negan smiled brightly when he saw Nolan standing at the door, holding onto the doorknob as if waiting for permission to come in. Closing up the book and setting it aside, Negan pat the bed next to him. With a hesitant smile, Nolan entered the bedroom and closed the door behind him. A groan followed by a laugh escaped Negan’s throat when Nolan took a running dive to jump onto the bed beside him. Nolan’s giggles continued when Negan pulled Nolan into his arms and started tickling at his sides.

“I give! I give!” Nolan laughed out loud, his face turning a bright shade of red in the midst of all his giggling. The sound of Nolan’s laughter was enough to bring a happy smile to Negan’s face. That kind of laughter was contagious and it was something that made everything feel worth it. “Dad!”

“What?” Negan continued to tickle Nolan for a moment more letting up with a chuckle himself. Pressing a kiss over the top of Nolan’s head, Negan knew that he had never truly felt happiness like this before. Being with his son brought out the purest amount of joy and happiness he had ever felt in his life. “What’s up little man?”

“What? I can’t just want to spend time with my dad?” Nolan lifted his head, his hazel eyes locking with his father’s making Negan smirk.

“You are usually attached at my hip when you’re awake,” Negan brushed his fingers through Nolan’s hair, messing it up a bit. He found amusement in the fact that Nolan asked Negan to give him the same haircut, but he thought it was pretty cute. “You have a point there.”

“I just want to spend time with you,” Nolan acknowledged with a sigh, resting his head in over the center of Negan’s chest. It seemed like Nolan was trying to listen to the beating of his heart and it made Negan smile. “You can’t blame a kid for that.”

“Nope, I certainly can’t,” Negan agreed while brushing his fingers through Nolan’s hair, enjoying just having his son laying with him. “I love you so much, you know that?”

“How much?” Nolan lifted his head making a grin tug at Negan’s features.

“More than there are stars in the sky,” Negan winked making Nolan smirk before reaching up to grab the glasses that were over Negan’s face. When Nolan put them on, he let out a surprised breath and laughed. “I’m a bit blind when it comes to reading.”

“No kidding,” Nolan’s laughter filled the air when he reached for the book that Negan was reading to look at the type on it. “How do I look with the glasses? Do I look like you?”

“You know you look like me,” Negan responded with a wink, “we just need you to grow out the facial hair and then you are going to look just like me.”

“Well, minus the gray,” Nolan snapped making Negan let out an offended breath before starting to tickle at his son’s sides. It made Nolan drop the book and the glasses fell from his face while he tried to push at Negan’s hands. “I can’t help that you’re old!”

“Old?” Negan found amusement in his son’s sharp attitude knowing that Joel and Y/N always made it clear that Nolan had some of that witty, smartass personality that made it obvious he belonged to Negan. “You are something else.”

“I’m yours,” Nolan pointed out, reaching for the glasses that had fallen from his face to put them carefully back on Negan’s face. There was a silence that fell between them when Nolan cuddled in beside Negan to be held by Negan. It seemed like there was something heavy on Nolan’s mind, when he went to say something, but then stopped before bobbing his head about. “Hey dad, am I gay?”

“What?” Negan blurt out, surprised to hear that come from his son’s mouth. “Where…why…why are you asking me that?”

“Well, since you’ve been here…sometimes the older kids and adults give me a hard time. They say some mean things about you and my other dad,” Nolan admitted making Negan scoff out loud. There was no doubt that there would be people here that would have a problem with the kind of relationship that he had with Joel, but he didn’t think they would bother his twelve-year-old son. “Recently, this one kid who is a real jerk keeps calling me a…I don’t want to say it. But he says I’m gay because you and dad are gay. And it made me think, I don’t really have a crush on anyone so maybe I am. Lots of people talk about having crushes, but I don’t.”

“First of all, you need to let one of us know when you’re being bullied. Especially by the adults because I will knock them on their ass,” Negan grunted making Nolan laugh at his response and Negan shook his head slowly. Yes, his son found amusement in that statement, but he meant it. He wasn’t afraid of knocking someone on their ass for giving a child a hard time. “Second of all, me and your dad aren’t gay. Your dad and I like men and women. Which means we’re bisexual. Not gay. But me and your dad being that way doesn’t mean you are going to be like us. You’re twelve years old Nolan. You’re way too young to be thinking about this kind of stuff. As you get older, you’ll know how you feel. Some people like men. Some people like women. Some people like both. And there are those that really don’t like either. And there is nothing wrong with any of those things.”

“So it’s normal not to have a crush on anyone?” Nolan pushed making Negan immediately nod his head. “I don’t have girls or boys that I like in that way, but I just…I don’t know. The idea of kissing someone grosses me out. But with them making fun of me, it made me start thinking…”

“You need to let what they say just roll right off you kiddo. They are trying to get a rise out of you. You just need to ignore them. They are so miserable with their own lives that they want to take the attention off of them. No matter what, no matter how you feel when you grow up, you’re perfect just the way you are and I will always be proud of you,” Negan assured his son with a wrinkle of his nose. “It’s been thirteen years since the end of the world and somehow homophobia still exists in the world. It’s un-fucking-believable.”

“What does that mean?” Nolan watched Negan’s face twist with discomfort.

“It means that people hate someone for being attracted to the same gender,” Negan explained further to his son feeling the lump in his throat growing. Deep down he felt like Nolan was too young for this whole thing, so it pissed him off that he had to go into this discussion. “A lot of people get angry about the idea of two men or two women together. And the relationship that your other dad and your mother have with me is one that people won’t begin to understand. It would have been something that would have never been allowed before the world became what it is. Your mom would have to be married to one of us. And if people found out about the other one, they would be very judgmental about it. If I was to marry your dad in the past, it would enrage a whole lot of people.”

“But why? I don’t understand that. Don’t they want someone to be happy?” Nolan inquired, his young features confused. “I know my other dad talked to me about this in the past, but I never understood it. If someone is happy and they love someone, isn’t that enough?”

“It should be, but some people just like being miserable and they want the rest of the world to be that way too,” Negan answered his son with a disappointed breath. “If there is one thing I want you to be while you grow is kind Nolan. There isn’t enough of that in the world. Don’t judge someone by their size, who they love, their looks…”

“I know that. I don’t. I would never do that. Dad taught me that early on. Always be kind to someone until they give you a reason not to be,” Nolan repeated what Joel had told him a long time ago. “I know the way they are acting toward me is wrong, I just…I don’t know. I was curious. I just don’t like girls that way. And I don’t like boys that way either.”

“And there is nothing wrong with that. You’re still a baby. I don’t want you to even think about that stuff any time soon,” Negan let out a disgusted exhale making Nolan giggle that he was so upset with the idea of it. “You’re just my little dude.”

“Lucy already has a crush on a boy,” Nolan informed Negan with a firm nod of his head making Negan’s nose wrinkle. “Yeah! She does and he’s two years older too.”

“Well, I’m going to have to have a discussion with your other dad because we need to deal with that,” Negan asserted making Nolan’s laughter return and it made Negan smirk. “She shouldn’t be crushing on anyone until she’s at least twenty.”

“Dad, how did you know that you were attracted to other guys?” Nolan questioned making Negan take in a long shallow breath. “How old were you?”

“I just realized that I found beauty in pretty much everyone. Women, men…I thought they were good looking. I realized that when I was maybe fifteen, but I started too young myself too,” Negan informed his son with a long sigh. “I went through a phase where my father wasn’t very accepting of me liking other men. So I let him bully me into being a certain way.”

“You would never do that to me,” Nolan replied making Negan immediately nod his head, biting down on his bottom lip. “What was wrong with your dad? Why did he bully you into being a certain way?”

“My dad loved me as much as he could buddy, he just…he came from a day in age where men liking other men was very frowned upon. Your grandfather found me…cuddling with another boy from my baseball team when I was sixteen,” Negan explained in the purest of ways possible knowing that it was a bit more than that, but he didn’t want to push things with Nolan since he was still so young. “He got really mad at me. Called me a lot of names and was upset. He wouldn’t talk to me for days and when he finally calmed down, he apologized, but asked me to push those feelings aside because he wasn’t proud of me. So…I did. I know I’ve told you about Lucille, she was my high school sweetheart. We stayed together and ended up getting married. Your other dad is the first time I finally opened myself to loving another man since my dad tried to force me away from having those feelings. I was such a jerk to Joel and he still showed me nothing, but kindness. Even when he should have hated me, he was helping me. He just wanted me to be the best version of myself.”

“Your dad should have been proud of you no matter what,” Nolan exclaimed making Negan weakly smile before nodding his head.

“My dad used to tell me all the time when he was trying to explain things to me…Negan, your life…it’s not your own once you have kids. It’s never the same,” Negan recalled his father’s voice in his head finding himself lost in a moment while he sat with Nolan. “And he was right. The moment I found out that you were here, everything changed for me. I just think my dad didn’t understand what he was saying. Because to me, that means being there for your kid when they need you. It means supporting them. Telling them that you love them every day. Just showing up and being a good dad.”

“You are,” Nolan reached for Negan’s hand and gave it a small squeeze realizing that Negan may be a bit sad about talking about his father. “Can I be honest with you about something?”

“Always,” Negan tried to push aside his thoughts about his past seeing the way that Nolan frowned and sighed. “What is it?”

“I know we’re supposed to be happy about mom being pregnant, but I’m actually…I’m not sure I am,” Nolan admitted, his young features twisting with confusion. “You haven’t been here that long. I’m only just getting to start this bond with you and with the baby coming around I’m scared that you will be too excited about the baby to spend time with me.”

“Hey,” Negan spoke up seeing that Nolan was genuinely upset about the idea of it. “No, that would…that would never happen Nolan. We’re just making room for the baby, right? My love for you will not change and I will want to spend as much time with you as possible. The baby just means we’re going to have more love in our hearts to give, right? I’m gonna need you with me all the time anyways because I’m going to need your help.”

“Do you promise?” Nolan whispered, his eyebrows furrowing when Negan pulled himself up into a seated position. Wrapping Nolan up in his arms, Negan squeezed him tightly and pressed a kiss over the top of his head.

“I promise. You are the best thing I’ve ever done in my whole life buddy. Look at you,” Negan reached out to squeeze at his son’s jaw seeing the smile that expanded over his features. “You know what? How about when your other dad and your mom get back, you and I can go fishing. Just the two of us. Would you like that? We can have a fish feast if we catch anything.”

“I’d like that!” Nolan agreed with Negan, laying back down on the bed with Negan. While they waited, Negan read some of the book that he was reading out loud to Nolan. By the time that Joel and Y/N got back, Joel was nervous at the idea of Negan taking Nolan out after everything that went down with The Empty. But Negan had promised that he would only go on the route that they had taken to go to their small cabin by the water. Negan had brought a handgun and rifle with him just in case, but he felt comfortable enough to go with Nolan. While they were by the water setting up, Nolan had kept asking Negan random questions about his past and Negan was trying to be as honest as possible. “So when did you meet mom for the first time?”

With a coughing sound, Negan looked back over his shoulder at Nolan and saw the way his son’s face twisted, “You avoid that question all the time. Why?”

“Uhm,” Negan swallowed down hard, his eyebrows bouncing up. “Your mother’s parents had her kind of young. They were twenty when they had her. I was really good friends with your grandparents. Particularly your grandfather. We had been good friends most of our lives.”

“I know that there is a big age difference with both you and dad when it comes to mom. Mom is thirty-two and you’re…what?” Nolan pushed for an answer while he got his fishing pole ready making Negan’s face flush over.

“I’m fifty-two,” Negan was honest with his son, giving him a tip of his head.

“Okay, you and my other dad are a year apart. So why does it make you so nervous every time?” Nolan giggled making Negan groan out before tossing his line out.

“Well, your other dad met your mother when she was eighteen,” Negan tipped his head about hating to be open with his son, but one day Nolan was going to learn things anyways and it made sense to be honest with him now. “They didn’t get together until she was nineteen. He was her professor, so they tried to keep things…normal between the two of them.”

“I know how they met,” Nolan reminded Negan watching his father’s face flush over more. “Dad?”

“I’m not going to lie Nolan, it creeps me out and I want to forget it,” Negan explained making Nolan snort. “I like to pretend that I met your mother when she was eighteen.”

“So you were around when she was a baby, huh?” Nolan almost teased Negan making Negan groan out loudly. “Yeah, you’re right, that’s pretty creepy, but you were her father’s best friend so I guess that makes sense.”

“Yes, thank you for confirming that, Nolan. I feel disgusting when thinking about it, but your mother and I didn’t start having a relationship until she was close to nineteen,” Negan pushed further making Nolan shake his head before going back to get his fishing pole ready. “Your other dad and I have a significant age gap with your mother. That’s another thing that people would look down on. Your mother just likes…older men.”

“No kidding,” Nolan snorted still adding a sense of sarcasm to the way he was talking before Nolan rolled his eyes. “What about dad? When did you meet dad for the first time?”

“I was a jerk to your dad the first time I met him. I thought he was trying to steal your mom from me so I gave him a lot of attitude,” Negan explained to Nolan seeing the amusement that Nolan got from hearing that. “The more time I spent with your dad though, the more I liked him. Actually your dad and I were spending a lot of time together hanging out without your mom.”

“What was it about dad that made you fall in love with him?” Nolan muttered letting out an excited breath when he caught something. Negan worked to help Nolan catch the fish to put in the bucket before casting out the line again.

“Your dad had the biggest heart of anyone I ever knew. He never put himself first. He wanted to see those that he loved happy and it was incredible to see. Your father is one of the most selfless people I’ve ever known,” Negan thought back on when he had started to fall in love with Joel back in the day. “Like my father, Joel’s father would have been very upset with him for getting with another man. Joel was from Texas and his father was very…”

“Homophobic?” Nolan used the word that Negan had taught him earlier making Negan nod. “Well I’m glad you and dad found each other because you would be able to prove both of your fathers wrong. That two men being together is okay because love is love.”

“You’re right,” Negan winked at Nolan letting out a long sigh. “I’ve been lucky enough to be in love with three people in my life. Not many people get to experience that. I’d do anything for your mother and your father. They mean everything to me. You all do.”

“You mean everything to us,” Nolan insisted with a weak smile before they continued to fish. They had caught quite a few and Negan thought it would be enough for them to take back.

Negan asked Nolan to go grab something while Negan finished up. Negan was knelt down packing a few things up when he heard the sound of branches crunching behind him, “Did you grab it buddy?”

Holding out his hand behind him, Negan waited noticing that Nolan wasn’t handing anything to him and he looked over his shoulder. A nervous breath fell from his throat when he realized that the barrel of a shotgun was in his face. Standing up, Negan let out a shuddering breath when he met the stare of the familiar green eyes before him, “Shit.”

Surveying the area around him, Negan didn’t see Nolan anywhere and he felt a rush of panic flood his body, “Hey Maggie.”

“I’ve been looking for you,” Maggie whispered keeping the barrel of the shot gun pointed at Negan’s face. “You’ve been missing for a long time. When they came to the house and saw that you were gone, I knew that you were trouble.”

“Maggie…” Negan held his hands up in the air finding himself less worried about the shotgun pointed at his face compared to the fear he had of where Nolan was.

“Shut up!” she demanded making Negan’s jaw clench and he swallowed down hard. “There’s been a group a few of us have dealt with on the road. They call themselves The Empty. Interesting how I find you not too far from the areas that they attacked our people.”

“The Empty?” Negan repeated feeling a lump growing inside of his throat as he lowered his hands down. “I’m not part of The Empty Maggie. I left that small home you guys left me in to starve in order to find some food. I was lonely and I…I found someone else. A group. People I knew before the apocalypse started Maggie. I’m an Arcadian.”

“A what?” her southern drawl surrounded him when Negan tried looking beyond her for Nolan, but she moved forward to shove the barrel of her gun into the center of his chest making him grunt.

“I’m living in a place called Arcadia. It’s not too far from here. If you give me a chance, I can take you there. I just have to find my…” a grunt fell from his throat when he felt Maggie hitting him in the face with the gun making him fall to ground. “I’m not one of them!”

“I don’t care,” she screamed back at him making Negan hiss out when he looked up at her with anger in his hazel eyes. “We never settled things between us.”

“I left so you and your boy could be happy at Alexandria. I thought it was settled long ago,” Negan reasoned with Maggie, a hiss falling from his throat. “I don’t want to keep bothering you anymore Maggie. I made a mistake. A big one. One that you will never forgive me for and you never should. What I did was wrong and it was awful, but I’m a different person now.”

“No you aren’t. You are always going to be the manipulative asshole that you’ve always been,” her finger etched over the trigger making Negan growl out angrily. “Knowing that you are still so close just living out here doing who knows what makes me uncomfortable. You don’t deserve it.”

A clicking sound filled the air making Maggie tense up immediately when Negan saw Nolan stepping out from behind one of the trees with the rifle that he had brought in his arms. Maggie gazed over to see Nolan holding the rifle at her and Negan felt an immediate amount of panic flooding his body, “Nolan! No!”

“Leave my dad alone,” Nolan demanded with an angered breath making Negan attempt to go to his son, but Maggie made sure to show that she was willing to pull the trigger more now than ever. “Put your shotgun down or I swear I will shoot you.”

#Jeffrey Dean Morgan #Negan #The Walking Dead #negan x reader #negan fanfiction #twd fanfiction

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scribbles97 · 6 months

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Left Behind - Chapter 52

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 Chapter 48 / Chapter 49 / Chapter 50 / Chapter 51

As the door slipped closed behind Scott he smiled to his mother as she bid farewell to doctor Hampton. Tia was right, a quiet word to the doctor and he’d be allowed back to sit with her for as long as he wanted.

As far as he was concerned he was never leaving her side again.

A large hand on his shoulder pulled him back, spinning him so he was looking at her parents.

“Was it your idea to keep the fact that you two are dating from us?” Dean growled.

Scott gaped, the thought that her parents didn’t know hadn’t even crossed his mind. In actual fact, he wasn’t even sure that the pair of them had shifted from friends to something else. Tia was hardly in a fit state for that kind of conversation, even if he was desperate to question her proclamation of love.

“I--” He started, stumbling as he glanced to the door of Tia’s room, “We’re not--”

Haley scoffed dramatically as she shook her head, a bark of laughter escaping as she jabbed a finger at him, “Don’t you dare pretend you’re not. We all saw what you were just like with her.”

Scott could feel the eyes around the space being drawn on them, the nurses at the station distracted from their datapads and other visitors hesitating outside of doors.

Ever his saving grace, Mom stepped in, her hand light on his shoulder as she spoke quietly, “I don’t think this is quite the place for such a conversation.”

“Oh don’t think we haven’t forgotten Lucille,” Dean turned on her, “How you left our daughter to die .”

“Mister Anwar,” Mom sighed softly, “Whilst Jennifer’s death was an unfortunate tragedy, the enquiry found that International Rescue acted in the best interests of the majority.”

It was clearly a well rehearsed line, something she had said before and more than once.

“Damn the majority.” Dean snapped, “Our daughter died!”

“Mister Anwar,” Hampton stepped over to them, “You are disturbing our other patients and their visitors. If you continue I will have no choice but to have you escorted from the building.”

“Doctor Hampton, I wish to speak to Doctor Griffiths,” Haley demanded, “We need to know the details of Tia’s injury.”

Scott knew the Doctor would shake his head before she had finished her request.

“I’m afraid even if you could get hold of Doctor Griffiths, patient confidentiality would prevent her from disclosing any details without Tia’s explicit permission.”

“We’re her parents .” Haley protested.

“As Tia is over the legal age, no information can be disclosed without her consent.” Hampton persisted, “Now I really must ask you to leave, you are distressing a number of our patients.”

He turned to Lucy, nodding slightly, “Another of the patients from the disaster is asking for you, if you wouldn't mind?”

Scott followed his mother and the Doctor, glancing back warily as Tia’s parents turned in the opposite direction.

“Actually, Howie,” His mother cut into his thoughts as she touched the doctor’s arm, “Do you mind if--”

The doctor smiled as he opened a door to an office, “Lucy, darling, it was simply a comment to get you away from the pair of them and save my nurses the hassle of calling security.”

He glanced to Scott with a nod, “Miss Anwar was asking after you whilst we were prepping her for surgery, feel free to visit her once she has rested a little.”

Scott smiled and nodded, scratching the back of his head as he let out a sigh, “Thanks doc.”

The man excused himself, closing the door as he went. Scott took a breath, sinking into the desk chair as he rubbed at his face with his hands.

Her parents hated him, and he doubted there was an awful lot he could do to change that. It was clear from the exchange that a grudge was still held for what had happened so many years ago, before Scott had even been part of the organisation.

“I’m sorry,” Mom sighed as she stood by the window, “I should have warned you about that.”

Shaking his head he looked up to her, “I knew, she told me this morning.”

Blue lights from the darkness beyond the window highlighted the room and Tia’s words from the night before rang in his ears. Yet there was no interest in going and finding whatever disaster the ambulance had been called to.

So much had happened in a single day. He wasn’t sure where to start.

“It’s not going to be a smooth ride.” Mom murmured, turning back to look at him.

He nodded, “We’ll deal with her parents, don’t worry Mom.”

“Scott,” She shook her head, “even if Tia regains function of her legs, she can’t go back into her old role. The damage to her spine was too great.”

“But--”

Tia’s job was her life. It was what had dragged her back into having a life after years of aimless nothing. She had admitted later in the night that she didn’t know what she would have become if Kyrano hadn't come across her.

“She’ll still have the full support of the company.” Mom assured him, “I know it’s not of much consolation for someone who loves their job as Tia does, but you know I won’t see her struggle.”

Scott shook his head, “I don’t know what she’ll do Mom, she needed that job for her mental state.”

Her hand was light on his shoulder, “Kyrano is looking into a new role, something less physical.”

Scott cursed as he sunk back in the chair, “It won’t be the same for her.”

“I know.”

His stomach twisted at the thought of being forced out of his role, told he could no longer fly Thunderbird One or take part in rescues. Like Tia, his job was his life, and the thought of it being ripped away made him feel physically sick.

“What do we tell her?” He murmured, knowing there was only really one answer.

She stroked his hair as she sighed, “The truth Scotty. We tell her the facts and then we support her in any way we can.”

Mom had done this before, Scott had to remind himself. Tia wasn’t the first operative to be injured. There was a protocol, a safety net to ensure that nobody fell out of the system and everyone got exactly what they needed.

He’d just never seen it put into action before.

“Can you-” He coughed himself, running a hand through his hair as he blew out a heavy breath, “Will you come with me, to tell her I mean?”

“No,” Mom murmured, squeezing his shoulder, “ I’ll tell her. Trust me, it’s better coming from a third party.”

It was a relief to let her take the responsibility for him, but part of him still felt like he was cheating. Like it was partly his fault she had gotten hurt and he should be the one to step up when she needed him.

“You’ve just got to be there for her kiddo.” She told him, “And hope everything else falls into place.”

It had only been an hour that he had been gone, but even before he stepped into the room Tia was awake. She smiled softly as the door closed behind him.

“Hey,”

He smiled as he took the chair next to her, “How are you feeling?”

“Still fuzzy.” She murmured, eyes watching him as he took her good hand, “Couldn’t sleep though.”

His thumb smoothed across the skin on the back of her hand as he frowned, “Why?”

With a snort she rolled her eyes, “Too much in my head… Mom was right, this is gonna change my life. I can’t be a bodyguard anymore if my back is screwed.”

Scott swallowed. Mom had gone back to the apartment, she had said it would be better to let things lie for the night and talk to Tia in the morning. He wondered if she had considered that maybe Tia would have already thought about the eventuality of not being able to work.

“We’ll find you another role.” He stated, squeezing her hand to emphasise his point.

She smiled again with a slight shake of her head as she looked towards the door, “I figured.”

Scott frowned, something about her statement was slightly off.

Before he could ask though she had taken a breath and was looking back to him.

“I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have said what I did, it was just a spur of the moment thing where--”

“Tia!” He snapped, cutting her off. He wasn’t sure where her rush of words had come from, what she thought she had said. It was obvious there was something missing though, as her eyes landed back on him, wide and wet with tears.

“I heard you tell Mom and Dad that we weren’t dating.” She stated with a sniff, “And--”

His heart lurched in his chest.

“No.” He sighed, cutting her off again as he ducked his head, “God Tee, no. I don’t--”

Taking a breath he looked back to her, brushing the first tear from her cheek as he shook his head.

“I only said we weren’t dating because I wasn’t sure if you remembered what you’d said. It’s not that I don’t want to date you.”

Tia sniffed again, wiping at her eyes as she shook her head, “Stupid drugs. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”

He couldn’t help but smirk as he tilted his head, “You want to try again?”

She smiled back with a sigh, her thumb brushing over his as she watched their hands, “I shouldn’t have said what I did down there.” She told him, voice steadier, “I--”

He waited as her voice caught, kept his thumb smoothing over hers calmingly as she took a wobbly breath and blinked back against the wave of emotion.

“I shouldn’t have put you on the spot like that. Not when we didn’t know what was going to happen next.”

Scott shook his head, squeezing her hand slightly.

“I’m sorry too. I wish I’d said it when I found you, or last night, or…” He trailed off with a shrug, “I’m an idiot for not realising sooner.”

Bringing her hand to his lips again, he sighed, “I love you Tia, and I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner.”

She smiled as he pressed her hand to his lips, “I’ll forgive you on the basis that I know how little you get out.”

The comment was more like her, witty and quick and full of snark. A sign of a head that was clearing and escaping from the cloud of drugs.

“Stop it.” She murmured, the look she was giving him making it clear his thoughts were clear to read on his face, “The nurse will give me painkillers when I’m due. It’s fine.”

Scott rolled his eyes with a grin, “Oh sweetheart, with the blue eyes and roguish smile comes the worrying. You can’t choose which parts of the package you get.”

Her face lit up as she laughed, assuring Scott that - even scraped and bruised, and recovering from major surgery- she would be okay.

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds 2015 #scott tracy #OC #romance #lucille tracy #Left Behind AU #Left Behind Part 5 #scribbles writes

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books-and-catears · 3 years

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Hey, Hey, Hey! It’s been a minute but I didn’t wanna spam ya with requests while you have life stuff to deal with ☺️

This is similar to my Savage!MC ask but the brothers reacting to MC snapping at them and defending Mammon before calling the brothers out whenever they go too hard on him. Let’s be real, Mammon just acts on his sin and gets punished but when Lucifer’s a prick and threatens MC; crickets.

When Beel eats everything and damn near causes everyone to starve as well as threw a tantrum and nearly injured MC over custard;everyone turns a blind eye.

Levi guilt trips and whine over the smallest things but says the worst insults to Mammon and tried to kill MC over TSL.

Asmo acts like he’s above everyone and prefers to tend to his looks than help others (such as during the castle tour) but he gets no scolding.

Belphie routinely harasses Luci with Satan (who loses his temper) AND they all either threatened/killed MC but should Mammon do anything, he’s the worst. Even though Mammon:

- Never threatened MC

- Does shit for his brothers when asked (he may joke of needing a grimm but he’s an Avatar of greed and still gets the job done)

- Is very loyal to them

- And is a good brother to take falls for them. He knows how to sacrifice for them and the slightest inconvenience gets him thrown under the bus

These guys ain’t shit and I wouldn’t wanna be around them until they learn how to treat him better and equally work on their flaws rather than rip on Mammon, who’s a whole ass victim despite being the second strongest brother who takes it because he genuinely loves his brothers yet gets shit on by them so much.

Ooh this savage MC has nothing but heart eyes for Mammon and it's adorable. Right this one is going to be angsty and it's going to sting. I'm doing this in a short story instead of a headcannon cause it just seems right that way. Hope that's okay?

It was just another one of those days Mammon tried to steal his brothers stuff and sell it again. Another day of being upside down and being laughed at. Normally he wouldn't care - it was the usual routine. But something seemed off this time.

"Mammon.. are you okay?" You approach him. He was rubbing his shoulders and arms as if to comfort the pain. He looked more tired and pained than usual.

"Ah I'm alright MC. Just the same old ya know?" He laughed. It sounded hollow yet it pierced your heart.

Enough. Enough of this. You weren't going to stand by and watch this happen again.

"You should rest." You place an arm on his shoulder and take him to his room. Making sure he's asleep, you leave. You have some problematic demons to deal with it.

"Ah MC? What brings you here? You seem rather disturbed." He asks as you storm into his study, fuming with anger.

"You tell me, you sadistic peacock." You had lost all sense of self-preservation and normalcy. Just echoing the rage in your brain.

"Excuse me?" Lucifer said, half-amused, half-shocked.

"Either you stop treating Mammon this way or I will make your life hell." You grit your teeth.

"I already have my brothers doing that what more will you do MC? Besides Mammon had it coming. He went stealing Levi's and Asmo's things again." Lucifer said nonchalantly.

"What do expect from the Avatar of Greed? He's just acting how he's cursed to. Just like the rest of you, nicompoops. Stop listening through the door and come inside." You said loudly.

The other brothers were still in the corridor nearby overhearing the whole thing. You could hear them gasp loudly at your boldness and scutter inside one by one.

"Now let me elaborate, so you rotten cucumbers understand me clearly." You cleared your throat.

Leviathan

"This little snake in tried to kill me because I may have known a little bit more about his favourite anime than him. Where's his punishment?" You point at Levi.

"MC I'm sorry...I couldn't help it was too new to me." Levi started. "But Mammon keeps stealing my things how is that fair-"

"And you keep throwing us into new kinds of disasters with your game hoarding problem."

"If you're still mad about the TSL incident I swear I take it all back-"

"Shut up snake, we know the reason. You're the Avatar of Envy. Getting jealous is your whole point. So you didn't get punished. Moving on..." Your finger now points to Satan. "This wild cat."

Satan

"He also threatened me cause I didn't want to make a pact with him. And when he actually flies off his handle, he wrecks his room and half the house down."

Satan seemed like he wanted to say something but he scowled and looked away.

"However I won't be too hard on him, cause he tries to keep his thing in check. And the whole reason he even has Wrath is because of Lucifer. So I get your hate towards Lucifer, but Mammon doesn't deserve any of it."

"MC you know I can't tolerate stupidity-" He grumbled.

"Oh must be hard looking in the mirror then, with all your failed pranks. And speaking of mirrors, this over- perfumed mannequin." You turn to Asmo.

Asmodeus

"How have I possibly hurt anyone MC? You know I stand for Love too right?" Asmo said, batting his pretty little eyes.

"For someone who stands for LOVE, if you can even call it that," You make a disgusted face, "You surely love making a mockery out of your elder brother and revel in his misery, you over- perfumed potato."

"But I never cause problems do I? Why must I be punished just for standing by?"

"Your high and mighty sense of worth is an illusion you live in. You dress up pretty and act social to validate yourself, trying to conceal the ugliness within. Truly you are nothing but Lust. Also you're the reason we almost got eaten by a giant snake." You shake your head. "Now speaking of eating..."

Beelzebub

"This giant food vaccum." You point to Beel. "He tried to eat me over a custard. Like excuse me? There's still plenty of food outside? And let's not forget that week we all had to eat cup ramen for a week cause he finished the whole pantry."

Beel softly muttered and apology and looked down.

"He even ate the walls and pillars once! Surely those renovations cost way more than however much Mammon steals? Where's his punishment?!"

"MC enough. He's sorry already." Beel's twin spoke up. You glared at him and smiled. "Don't worry I saved the best for last."

Belphegor

"This lazy murderous cow." You walk up to him slowly. "Not only does everyone have to your chores - you love causing chaos."

Belphie laughed, "That I do. But that's only with Lucifer. What else did I do?"

"Oh you want me to go there? I surely will." You say with a sting in your eye. "In your plan to avenge your sister, you killed what was left of her in the first timeline. And your brothers just stood by and watched. Where's your penance, you murder hornet?"

Belphie's eyes grew wide. Everyone looked shocked and uncomfortable. You never brought this up before now.

"But why bother asking you about it. I should be asking the ultimate punisher of this family." You turn to Lucifer.

Lucifer

"Ah! If it isn't Diavolo's pet dog! How is your master today? Does he treat you the way you treat Mammon? Is that why you come here to take your revenge on your little brother instead? Tell me Lucifer does Diavolo punish you then?"

"MC, I understand you maybe upset but you are crossing a line here." Lucifer stood up with a gutteral growl.

"Sit doggie. I didn't ask for you yet." You commanded. Lucifer sat back down as with great force. He stared at you flummoxed.

"Did you forget about the pacts already, you pompous goat? You have threatened and tried to kill me more than anyone else in this family so congratulations! I will use my pacts way more generously now." You mock bowed in gratitude.

"You might win in a fight against him but let me tell you this..." You stared back at the others.

"Mammon is the second strongest in this family. If he wanted to - if he REALLY wanted to, all of you would be turned to dust. He is stronger than all of you - but he hides it. He supresses his powers and his anger because he loves you too much. How could he ever hurt his little brothers?" You felt tears in your eyes at this point.

"AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY HIM? He's only acting on his sin! Just like the rest of you! Why must he be singled out and mocked at? I won't allow it. Never again."

"If you hurt Mammon again, I swear you will have to face me. And before you think you have a chance against me, do remember the pacts you all happily made with me I will not hesitate to use them against you dysfunctional lot-"

"MC... Stop." You felt Mammon hug you from behind.

"Mammon? I thought you were asleep." You say looking back at him. His tears were misty but his smile more full.

"And I thought I was supposed to protect ya, human! And you're out here protecting me..." Mammon trailed off and held you closer.

"We can protect each other."

#obey me mammon #obey me headcanons #obey me imagine #obey me satan #obey me game #obey me levi #obey me belphie #obey me beel #obey me asmo #obey me lucifer #obey me angst #obey me mammon x reader #obey me mammon x mc

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catintheruemorgue · 3 years

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annoying things they do

summary: small things these guys do that just grinds your gears a bit.

characters: oda, dazai, kunikida, twain, akutagawa, atsushi, mori, poe, ranpo, fittzgerald, steinbeck, chuuya, yosano, gin, kouyou, higuchi, alcott and lucy

these are all based off things i do or have inconvenienced my life lmfao i’ll probs do a part two with everyone i missed this just got wayyy to long lol next im posting being friends with double black

Oda:

If you're wearing shorts and have bruises he will poke them when you're resting your legs on him. He’s silent about it too and if you yell at him he pretends to act like he doesn't know what you're talking about.

Will smack your sunburn but this one is actually an accident. He just wanted to pat you on the back because you're amazing.

Will space out when you talk too long, sometimes certain objects are just so… mesmerizing

Dazai:

Loves to jumpscare you the only exception is if it was a trigger. In that case he will just call your name and whip something at you for you to catch at random.

When you're driving he likes to reach over and honk your horn. It's almost caused so many roadside fistfights.

If he sees a dog in public he will bark and growl at it.

Kunikida:

Won’t let you on the bed without socks on. You could be sick as a dog and he’ll still enforce this rule.

Cleaning is hard because he has a hard time throwing things away. You'll spend extra time as he holds two identical pens, trying to decide which one he wants to keep. He’s learned to plan certain days in his schedule for cleaning now.

Won't let you turn up the music in the car and will keep it at a level that's so low it's annoying.

Twain:

Walks around the house shirtless but then complains about how cold it is.

Blasts his music so loud when he wakes up in the morning and it's always early 2000’s hits. It's not rare for you to have Pocketful of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield stuck in your head by 9 am.

Always has to climb something, this stems from his adventurous side. It's not really that annoying but when you’re in a crowded area and he runs off to go climb the tall statue, screaming at you to take a photo… Yes it is. Especially when children try and follow him and you're stuck receiving glares from the parents.

Akutagawa:

Will not let you throw any food products out. He tells you it's a perfectly good meal (even if it's not) and that he will eat it tomorrow. It’s sad because you know this stems from childhood but it’s still annoying.

Reuses the same gross, musty ziplock baggies. You keep buying new ones but he doesn't get it lol.

Will tell you if your breath smells, hair is messy, outfit is ugly. He does not see an issue with this and it's nice knowing someone has your back but he doesn't have to be so rude about it..

Atsushi:

If he drinks he's one of those drinkers who will not let you take it from him. Keeps an iron grip on the cup. He finishes it no matter how drunk and always throws up. Thankfully he rarely drinks.

He stops to help everyone, literally even if they just look like they need help. You've been late to so many things.

Will eat anything. Once you made steak and somehow forgot about it. It was hard as a brick yet he still almost broke his teeth eating it. You think you saw some tears as he told you it was delicious.

Mori:

Listens to people's conversations in public and isn't afraid to comment, loudly, about it. You know it's loud because they either stop talking or try and confront you guys.

Comes up to stops fast and brakes so hard you feel like he does it on purpose.

Sometimes if he and Elise get into a “disagreement” he’ll try and rope you in to take his side and you always do, knowing it would probably give him more satisfaction if you chose to side with her.

Poe:

Asks for constructive criticism but will then argue with you about why you're wrong.

Always humming a song he heard Twain singing and then it gets stuck in your head too.

Will deny stupid things like why your favorite mug is in the trash or why he just let out rather loud scream in the bathroom. You know he's lying because he looks away and makes sure his bangs are covering his eyes.

Ranpo:

Will call you out on any lie even if you don't mean to lie you just forgot about some of the details.

Don't take him grocery shopping if you have a set amount you want to spend. He won't even sneak, he will just say he wants something and throw it in the cart.

Such a backseat driver even though he can't drive.

Fitzgerald:

Likes to act like he's still in his twenties and will somehow get the two of you invited to college parties where he will attempt to do a kegger in front of everyone. You end up being the one to hold him up and he always ends with a, “LETS FUCKING GO!”

Likes to ask for the senior discount even though he's not that old, he just likes to hear the women validate that he's not old.

It’s scary how he used to buy without looking and now will scream if the price on a price tag is too high.

Steinbeck:

Always looking at the grass for wheat to chew on. It's so cheesy when you walk into the city and he's got it sticking out of his mouth.

He gets weirdly intimate with nature and you feel like you're third wheeling.

Has the mentality that he has to provide for you because he is the man. He gets so shocked when he finds out you still want to work.

Chuuya:

Has a hard time making decisions you could ask him what he wants for dinner and his mind will just break.

Gets way too pissed at movies and will actually get up and walk away. Once you were kicked out of the theater because he wouldn't stop yelling at the screen. Another time he walked out you waited a whole ten minutes before you realized he wasn't coming back.

Sometimes activates his ability at night and it's so scary waking up to him floating halfway across the room.

WOMAN TIME!!!!!!!!!!

Yosano:

Will glare at you so intensely if you say something she disagrees with.

Always tries to rope you into drinking with her even if you’ve said no the past ten nights.

Will describe wounds or injuries in such detail and just won’t stop, almost like she’s trying to fuck with you, but she’s not.

Gin:

Claims to be nothing like her big brother but then will go on to make the same facial expressions and do some of the same mannerisms as him.

Will spend hours trying things on just to put it all back, leave the store and change her mind when you’re almost home. Then she’ll have you run back with her to buy it all.

Is used to sneaking around so scares you a lot. Also on the topic of being silent sometimes she just won’t respond, thinking you can just read her vibes / mind.

Kouyou:

Will judge what you eat, especially fast food but will try and steal a fry in private when you're not looking.

Will say things like, “Well that's just the way the world works.” If someone tries to share their baggage with her. You understand she’s had a pretty rough life but it's caused you to almost spit out your drink multiple times.

At functions forgets about you for about an hour while she mingles with everyone else, you could tap on her shoulder and she'll dismiss you like you're a subordinate. Until you clear your throat again you'll see the slight blush as she apologizes.

Higuchi:

She has no sense of privacy. If she hears a crash or loud noise she will bust down the door. It’s sweet but not when the noises are usually from you knocking all the shampoo bottles down again.

Horrible road rage actually puts you on edge to be in the car with her. She doesn't even have to be driving.

Likes to act like she's a professional at everything and people usually believe it because of her suit. It's so nerve wracking when she giggles when they walk away with false information.

Alcott:

Will agree to everything you suggest but you can only tell when she doesn’t want to do it when you’re currently doing it.

Yet she’s not afraid to grumble about how annoying it is when someone bumps into you and doesn’t apologize. It’s sweet but you’re left dealing with the situation if the person is aggressive enough to say something.

Always corrects your spelling or if you say something like “I could care less.”

Lucy:

Will fish for compliments in a very obvious way like, “Wow. Wish someone would call me pretty..” and then just stare right at you.

Kicks you so violently in her sleep but won't let go of you so you cant get away.

Constantly stealing from restaurants. You're banned from a couple restaurants because she got caught trying to steal a cup or salt shaker.

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thefanficmonster · 3 years

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Chaos Magnet

Corpse Husband x Reader (Female)

Warnings: None :)

Genre: FLUFF, HUMOR, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: When Y/N get invited onto a stream with the gang by Jack (Sean) she’s not sure what to expect but it’s safe to say that such chaos is not something she could’ve ever imagined.

Requested by Anon. Hi hun! Thank you so much for your lovely request, it really had me laughing and still had me be awe-struck by the adorableness of the idea. Sorry it’s been such a long time since you put in the request but I still hope you come across the fic and read it! Love, Vy ❤

“Alright people, silence in the call for a moment!“ Jack calls out when the lobby’s counter has finally reached up to nine, leaving room for one more person who is yet to join, but apparently he doesn’t care much that he’ll probably have to repeat himself when the tenth person enters the call and lobby.

“Jack, you should know by now, the day there’s silence in this call is when some supernatural force murders all ten of our mics. It just won’t happen, deal with it.“ Charlie, who was having an ‘intense’ discussion with Toast up until Jack’s interruption, says sarcastically, chuckling ever so slightly, enough for it to be contagious and make me crack a smile as well.

“There won’t be silence, I’ll be talking. If only the rest of you would LET ME.“ Jack replies just as sarcastically, getting Charlie to let out an actual fit of laughter. When his chuckling subsides along with the rest of the chatter in the call, Jack finally gets to have the speech he mentioned, “Right, ok so here’s the deal folks: today we have a guest addition to the stream, curtesy of mine because I’m obsessed with her channel. As you might or might not have noticed, there’s one person missing from the lobby but she’s gonna be joining us any minute now. As I said, I’m a huge fan so you better not embarrass me or I swear I’m gonna kill you first when I get to be an impostor.”

I don’t know what the others are thinking - probably something similar as what I’m thinking though: Noted, embarrass Jack to the best of your ability. Trust me, getting him flustered in front of his YouTube idol is well worth the death in Among Us he’s threatening us with.

“Also keep in mind that she’s of a different kind, not of our breed if you will - she’s an ASMR YouTuber. Not those who eat in the mic just because they think it’d be pleasant for people to hear.“ Jack goes on to explain, the way he’s described this girl’s craft is quite intriguing, especially when you consider how confidently Jack expressed his distaste with ASMR in the past. He’s always claimed not to be a fan but here we are, I guess people really do change.

“Thank you for making it seem like I do more than just cut up soaps, Jack. I really appreciate it but don’t bump the bar up that high, people will be disappointed when they actually visit my channel.“ An unfamiliar voice appears in the call out of nowhere. Though, unfamiliar is not the adjective I should focus on when describing this girl’s voice. I’ll list a few more but even they won’t do it justice: pleasant, awing, mesmerizing, unbelievable, out-of-this-world...I really could keep going.

“Oh come on, Y/N, you don’t just cut up soap. You turn them into bath bombs too!“ Jack laughs, earning him a playful scoff from the newcomer. “Oh yeah, almost forgot - Everyone, this is Y/N, our ASMR artist.“

“Please, some ‘artist’ I am. The people in my comment section would disagree with that description.“ She giggles after kindly responding to each and every greeting the gang sends her way, myself included. “The word I’ve seen people use most when describing my channel is ‘cringey’ so....yeah.“ She laughs, a genuine laugh instead of the bitter one I was expecting to follow such words.

“That seems to be the cool kids’ favorite word, don’t dwell too much on it.“ Rae tells her reassuringly, “What’s important is what word would you use to describe your channel?“

Y/N hums, sounding as though she’s fallen in thought but that’s only one brief moment before she answers. Or begins to, at least, “Well, if I were to describe my channel with one word it’d be....BEEFY!”

That one out-of-context word, screamed out by such an angelic voice has me breaking down with overwhelming laughter collapsing all my ability to hold back.

“Out of all the words, you’d choose beefy?“ I somehow manage to ask between fits of laughter that render me breathless.

“She’s a vegetarian, I think, I don’t know why she’d choose that word.“ Jack too is laughing his butt off but has a significantly better grip on it, “Y/N, care to explain your peculiar choice?“

There’s a lot of shuffling and random noise on Y/N’s end before her reply finally comes, accompanied by a weak meow, “Sorry guys, that was a classic cat of Mr. Beef Stronganoff seeking attention by being chaotic.” She says through laughter, her words followed by another meow which was a lot more clear, seemingly closer to the mic, “He took down my mic, and he seems like he wants to do it again....BEEFY NO!”

For some reason, even with that explanation in mind, I can’t keep myself from laughing. Come to think of it, I think the explanation only makes it funnier.

“Ugh, darn it! I saved my mic but he ran across my keyboard and turned my webcam off how do I turn it back on?“ Her voice dies down for a few secs before it reemerges from her end, “Ok nevermind I got it. Now I can answer...what was the question again?“

Recovering from his laughing fit, Jack manages to repeat the question, “What word would you use to describe your channel?”

“Oh that! Right, ok. Um, I’d call it aesthetically pleasing and BEEFY NOT THE ROUTER CABLE YOU DUMMIE!“

She’s insane. Or her cat’s insane. I can’t tell. Maybe both. Either way, I can’t help but feel like I’ve found a soulmate in this literal stranger. It’s safe to say us chaos magnets like her and I, we don’t only attract chaos, but also chaotic individuals. I’m so glad she magnetized me to herself. Or was it the other way around? We may never know - mystery is in the nature of us chaos magnets, you know.

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animezing-fandoms · 3 years

Text

The Gift She Wants

Masterlist

Warnings: None this is just pure fluff.

Relationships: Nalu

Summary: Natsu attempts to write Lucy a love letter for her birthday.

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Lucy’s never really enjoyed her birthday. It used to be fun when her mom was still around. But after her death, her birthday had always been ignored by her father. But that all changed once she joined Fairy Tail. Every morning on July 1st she’d walk into the guild to find a huge party set up for her. It was a sweet gesture even though the guild hall usually wound up trashed by the end of the day because of all the drinking and fighting that ensued.

But that wasn’t the only thing that was the same every year. The presents that Lucy got from her friends were all the same. Gray would make her a little ice sculpture of a star that would melt after a day but she never had the heart to tell him. Gajeel did something similar with jewelry but it was made out of iron and really big and bulky so they were all too heavy to wear for long. Similarly, Erza would give her a sword or some other weapon that was too heavy for Lucy to lift. Juvia would offer her baked goods she made herself but for awhile Lucy was always cautious to eat them, knowing how jealous Juvia was about her friendship with Gray. Thankfully that wasn’t a problem anymore, and now her gift was one she was looking forward to along with the book from Levy and perfume from Mira that she got every year. There was only one gift she truly dreaded and that was from Natsu.

Every year she hoped that he would give her something different, only to be proven wrong when he whisks her away on some dangerous job that leaves her exhausted, dirty, and bruised. The only good part about it was that she got to spend time with him, and have a little fun when she wasn’t fearing for her life. And as the years went on, she hoped that perhaps him taking her on these jobs alone meant that he would talk to her about things. Things that she knew he probably never thought about but that deep down, she dares to hope that he does.

So she thought she knew what to expect during her birthday party this year when he approached her, holding something behind his back. She took a deep breath, ready to see what job flyer he’d present her with only to find a book with a pink bow wrapped around it instead.

“What’s this?” Lucy asks, surprised and cautiously optimistic. “Is it part of a job or-”

“No it’s not a job. It’s just a journal.” Natsu says. “I couldn’t figure out what to get you for your birthday this year so I asked Gildarts for advice and he told me I should get you something that you’ve been wanting to get or something you’d like so I thought I’d get you both!”

Lucy was confused and touched at the same time. She was also relieved that for once she wouldn’t have to worry about getting hurt on her birthday! And it was a really sweet and thoughtful gift! She likes to write so he got her a journal...He really thought about it to get her something she’d enjoy! Is he starting to change?

“Thank you so much Natsu!” Lucy exclaims, beaming with happiness as she holds the gift to her heart. “I love it!”

She had no idea just how much she’d love it later.

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After the party, she brought all the gifts she was able to carry back to her apartment with her and immediately unwrapped the bow on the journal to open it.

To her surprise, there was already writing in it. Natsu’s writing.

Her heart sunk. The last time he had written her something was a note telling her he was leaving for a year with Happy. And then the guild disbanded and she was all alone. He wasn’t leaving her again was he?

With her heart pounding, she scanned the page, reading the words and bracing herself for heartbreak. But instead she found the opposite.

Dear Lucy,

I hate writing and I’ve never written something like this before so I don’t know how good it’s gonna be but this is something I know you want to hear so I’m gonna try my best for you like I always do. I’m not good with words. Most of the things I say to you make you upset with me so I try to show how I feel about you with my actions instead of my words. And while I think that’s given you enough of an idea to know that I care about you, I don’t think you get how much I really do. So I guess I’ve got to be more clear and I figured since you love writing this is the best way to do it.

You’re amazing. You’re so powerful, beautiful, and kind and you shine brighter than any star or dragon’s fire. I have no idea why you still hang around an idiot like me who doesn’t know how to treat you right but I hope the reason is because you feel the same way about me that I do about you. I’ve never had feelings like this before, so I’m sorry if I’ve frustrated you but I just don’t know anything about love aside from how I feel about you. Gramps and Gildarts used to lecture me on how great relationships are and how they hoped I’d fall in love and get married and have kids someday but I never wanted that because there wasn’t anyone I wanted to do that stuff with until you came into my life.

It took me awhile to figure it out but now everything they told me about makes sense. I want to be with you Lucy, as more than just a friend. I know I don’t deserve you but I’m working hard to make you happy because that’s what you deserve. And I can tell that not knowing that has made you unhappy. So I’ve got to just be straight to the point and say it. I love you Lucy Heartfilia. I think that’s what you want to hear, so that’s what I’m giving you for your birthday.

~Natsu

Lucy’s tears of joy were dripping onto the page so she quickly closes the book to keep her tears from washing away those sweet words.

This was better than she could have ever imagined. And all she wanted was to run to Natsu and start this new chapter in their relationship together. Thankfully, knowing him, she didn’t have to go far.

With tears dripping down her cheeks, she pulls back the curtain to her bedroom to find the man she loves and his blue cat in her room. She’d never been so happy to have them break into her apartment.

“Lucy did you like the-Aw damnit, you’re crying!” Natsu exclaims, looking hurt and disappointed with himself. “I messed up again!”

“What did you expect, you took relationship advice from Gildarts!” Happy chastises. “That guy can’t hold onto a woman, what does he know-”

“No you didn’t!” Lucy reassures him. “Natsu it was perfect! I love it! I love you too!” She exclaims.

Before Natsu has a chance to process what she said, Lucy dashes across the room, tossing the journal onto her bed before throwing her arms around his neck as he catches her in his before she kisses him.

Happy’s jaw drops and Natsu’s eyes go wide for a moment, surprised by her affection before he returns the kiss, closes his eyes and moves his hands along her back to hold her closer to him as he relishes in this new feeling.

She brings her hands up to his face to run her thumbs along his cheekbones while his hands settle on her hips as they gently pull apart.

A blush forms on Lucy’s face as she realizes what exactly she’s done and is immediately embarrassed by how forward she was being.

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry that probably came out of nowhere and I should have asked first-” Lucy rambles before Natsu’s chuckle pulls her gaze back to his face and when he sees the warm look in his eyes and the smirk on his lips, she instantly relaxes.

“It’s fine Lucy. I was hoping you’d kiss me. I just hope it was a good kiss, considering I’ve never done that before...” Natsu admits shyly.

“It’s okay. I’ve never kissed anyone before either.” Lucy tells him. “This is new for me too. We’ll figure it out together, just like we do for everything else.”

She rests her head on his chest and Natsu holds her close and rests his cheek on top of her head.

“Well you know a lot more about this stuff than I do. So you’ll have a lot to teach me.” Natsu admits and Lucy laughs.

“Well you gave me a very thoughtful gift, so clearly you’ve already got some idea of what to do.” Lucy says.

“You just mean so much to me.” Natsu says. “I’ve never felt this way before for anyone else and I doubt I ever will. You deserve someone who can make you happy and give you everything you want.”

“Well if everything you wrote in that letter is true, then I have no doubt that person is you.” Lucy says. “I just want one more thing.”

“What is it?” Natsu asks, pulling back to look at her. “Whatever it is I’ll give it to you.”

“Just tell me you love me. I know you wrote it but I want to hear you say it.” Lucy requests.

Natsu smiles, more than happy to fulfill that wish.

“I love you Lucy.” Natsu says and fresh tears spring from Lucy’s eyes as a result.

“I love you too Natsu.” She says before kissing him again.

The sounds of Happy sniffling pull them out of the moment.

“What’s wrong little buddy? Are you crying because you’re happy for us?” Natsu asks.

“I’m so happy for both of you!” Happy sniffles. “But I can’t believe that someone as dense as you managed to get a girlfriend before me!” He wails and the new couple laughs.

Yep. Definitely the best birthday ever. And now Lucy couldn’t wait to see what Natsu would do for her next year.

#nalu #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #fairy tail #nalu fanfiction

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farfarawaygirl · 2 years

Note

I question sometimes now if Chenford is even friends with everything going on. The fandom believes they are, but I keep circling back to Tim vetoing Lucy’s escape room idea. Friends would do things outside of work. With where the they are now, I think they wouldn’t want to hang out with each other. Ergo, they aren’t friends.

Hell, I question sometimes if Tim even cares about Lucy anymore. That makes me very sad that I’m questioning that 😭 😭. She cares for him. Does he still care for her still? I don’t know.

I think that the writers have vastly underestimated how smart their audience is, and because of that, what they (maybe? it is soooo messy) think are jokes, really come of as retconning character traits we all love (at worst), and as 'growth' (with no explanation about how we got there).

If we look back, we can see explicit times that Lucy and Tim were confirmed as friends - times they even joked about it, as well as time spent together off work. We have paintball, and Nevin's, and the black op's exchange. We know they used to do this. Even him staying by her bedside, with her favourite food, is more than Rookie/TO.

This season we have nothing that even hints at that (apart from the time Lucy slept at Tim's house - which now, with what has happened, seems like a fever dream). Even if they had Tim or Lucy mention "oh, we took Cujo for a hike," it would feel out of place.

We have lost the feeling of friendship.

This brings to questions if we as an audience assumed it, or if there were markers of a friendship, even for the larger cast as a whole.

There have definitely been hints - how Nolan was so familiar with Wes, how Jessica was easily incorporated, the way that all of the characters would get together to celebrate Nolan's birthday, or even the celebration of Jackson and Tim's commendation. So, we didn't read anything that was hinted at, which means now, when there are no hints, the conclusion should be that the friendship of all the character, not just Chenford, are gone.

When I am feeling generous, which is not a lot lately, I can attribute that to grief, and the way Jackson/Titus left. But as we get closer to the midway point of the season, I have to assume that this is just the direction of the writers.

Let's be clear, what I see happening on screen is not character growth for Tim. When character growth happens at the expense of the characters around you, it is not growth, it is uneven writing. I do wonder what/if anything is ending up on the cutting room floor.

Let's leave Ashley out of the equation because I don't even count her when I look at the things that are not adding up for this season. Ashley is a plot device - we all seem to be in agreement on that - but is she a trope or is she a cliche?

For your last point, I agree, Lucy still cares for Tim. But apart from Tim worrying about her reputation as his Aide, what evidence do we have of Tim caring for her?

I still watch the show, I still love the characters that I first grew to know, and I still want the direction to lead towards Chenford. But, I don’t want to just blindly think that any specific character is above critical thought. You can love a character, and still want them to be better. Think of Veronica Mars, or Mr. Darcy, or s1/2 Tim Bradford.

And I really want to highlight this: None of what any single person thinks/says/sees in the firm and immovable fact. We are all interpreting the show as it unfolds. I am a big believer in critical thinking, as I am sure you know, and critical thinking included being able to hear other peoples thoughts and arguments without attacking them.

I like that you, sweet anon, are questioning the story in front of you! It shows that you are involved - which, isn't that the whole point of art?

#Emma shouts into the void #chenford #the rookie #be critical of the media you consume #tim bradford #Lucy chen

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bqstqnbruin · 3 years

Text

Always be my plus one - part 2

Ok I know that I should use a different gif for each part but I'm not going to. But here's part 2! It's longer than the first part so have fun.

People to thank who are amazing and I owe my whole life to even though I'm probably forgetting someone because I'm the worst: @zinka8 (I CAN FINALLY TAG YOU) @hockeywocs @calgarycanuck @chara-hugs @justjosty anyone who sent in an anon and again I'm forgetting someone so if you helped me with this and I forgot, yell at me.

But here we go! This is about 9k words, and, fun fact, this is also my 5,000th post on this blog, so that's exciting!

Hope you like it!

Read part 1 here!

Series masterlist --------------------------------

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

New Year’s Eve is the last day of the Georgian calendar year, marked with celebrations that last well into the next day. Huge parties take place around the world, one of the most notable being the ball dropping in Times Square in New York City, marking the new year for the eastern coast of the United States, televised with Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve hosted by Ryan Seacrest. This special each year includes a packed Times Square, performances, interviews, and general excitement to put whatever happened in the past year behind them. Likewise, in Canada, the CBC has hosted a similar countdown special since 2017, including live music and coverage of festivities in each of the provinces and timezones the country spans.

New Year’s Day is the first day of the Georgian calendar year, again marked with celebrations. In the United States, various parades take place, including the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, or the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In addition, various sporting events take place as well, including the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, the Outback Bowl in Tampa Bay, Florida, the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California, and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana, all post-season college football games, and the National Hockey League's outdoor game, the Winter Classic, typical showcasing a major regional rivalry. The day typically includes people already failing at keeping up with their New Year’s resolutions, whatever it was they promised to do every day of the year (such as working out, flossing, getting more sleep) already not going well.

=============

December 27, 2021

Lucy had insisted Anne go with her to the mall to go shopping when she found out that she was going to a New Year’s Eve party with Tyson’s teammates. Once her older sister found out that Anne’s ‘mystery man’ was a professional hockey player, she went practically bat shit trying to figure out more information about the two of them since Anne had yet to tell her anything.

If only she knew there was nothing to tell.

“Come on, what about this?” Lucy asks, holding up a dress. Anne wasn't sure that it would go past her butt, not to mention the open back and the plunging neckline. Lucy had to know that Anne would never, on any occasion, wear a dress like that. It would look good on Lucy, and Lucy would be comfortable in it, but not Anne.

“No,” Anne tells her, continuing to look through the rack for anything that had more fabric to it than what Lucy was offering her. There was nothing wrong with the dresses, really, and Lucy was normally pretty good about picking things out that Anne would actually like, but something about this being a dress for what sort of was, sort of wasn’t a date with a guy she spilled her coffee all over was making her more nervous than she needed to me.

“But it’s for your man. On New Year’s Eve. It doesn’t hurt to look a little sexy,” Lucy begs, making sure to add a little shoulder shimmy at the word ‘sexy’ for emphasis.

‘He’s not my man,’ Anne wanted to say. But she wasn’t about to spill that secret before Lucy even met him. It would be easier to just tell them they broke up by Valentine’s Day. “Tyson wouldn’t want me to wear anything that would make me uncomfortable,” she lets out instead.

Lucy sighs, pulling out dress after dress to show to Anne. “Ok, how about this: what color do you want to wear and how long do you want it to be?” Anne shrugs, not having thought about it in the slightest. “Well what’s Tyson wearing? Are you matching with him?”

“I don’t think so?”

“Annie!” Lucy practically screams the nickname her family decided they were going to call her, a few of the other store patrons turning to glare at Lucy’s outburst. “How do you not know what your boyfriend is wearing to a Colorado Avalanche New Year’s Eve party?”

'Not my boyfriend' she thought. “I don’t dress him. Do you know what Jason is going to wear for every party?”

Rolling her eyes, she holds up another dress that Anne turns down. “Well, since I’ve known my man since we were in diapers, I know his style, and therefore, know what he could potentially wear before I tell him what he’s going to wear.”

Anne lets out a sigh, wandering away from her sister while she continues to go through what seemed to be endless rows of dresses. Part of Anne wished she was like her sister: lucky enough to find a man that she would love forever when she was young, never having to worry about anything. The other part of Anne wished her family wasn’t so annoying about her finding a man, wishing that Sebby didn’t steal her phone and see Tyson’s name, and that their mom hadn’t come down and jumped to conclusions before she had a chance to defend herself.

“Hey,” Lucy comes up to Anne, “Why don’t we grab some food and then try a different store.” Anne nods, Lucy linking her arm in her sisters before taking her out of the store. “Have you met any of Tyson’s teammates before? I mean, you have to mean a lot to him if he’s bringing around the guys he spends the most time with.”

“He’s told me a little bit about all of them, but I haven’t met them yet.”

“You know this is big, then, right?” Lucy says, finding a line at the food court for them to order from.

Even if Lucy hadn’t picked a place that Anne wasn’t too fond of, her words made Anne lose her appetite. As far as she knew, Anne’s family thought they were dating, which they weren’t, while Tyson’s teammates thought they were friends, which they were. That’s what they had agreed to. They just needed to make it to New Year’s Day and then this would all be over.

Lucy keeps talking, rattling off information about Tyson’s teammates that Anne was sure she had found on their Wikipedia pages, Lucy’s ‘top of her class,’ ‘photographic memory’ coming out while Anne stayed silent.

“Look, Anne,” Lucy says once she gets the food she ordered for both of them, “if he likes you enough to bring you around his teammates, that’s a good thing. Think of it like Jason asking me to go to his soccer games when we were freshmen. He wants you to be at something important for him.”

“I’m not worried about that,” Anne shrugs, “I’m worried about bringing him into the belly of the beast the next afternoon.”

“Why, because you’ll be hungover and Ma and Dad haven’t seen you that way yet?” Lucy asks, smiling with her fork between her teeth.

Throwing her head back and groaning, Anne starts, “No. Ideally, we’ll still be drunk and calling you or Matthew to come to pick us up. Remember what Mom was like when I introduced you all to Andy?”

“Well, yeah, it was hate at first sight. And she was right to feel that way, obviously. If you think Tyson is the ‘one,’ then you’ll be fine.”

Anne chokes on the fries she was picking at when Lucy says that. “The ‘one’? Please. I wouldn’t know if he was the ‘one’ at this point. Right now, he’s my ‘plus one' at best.”

Lucy shrugs, a sly smile on her face as the two of them continue to eat in silence.

The two of them venture to another store, Anne not having high hopes in finding a dress, knowing that she was going to have to resort to wearing something old that probably wouldn’t be very ‘New Year’s Eve’ themed, or borrow something from Lucy, who, albeit having great style, definitely didn’t have anything that she would want to wear. Maybe she could call Stephanie or her cousin Lauren and see if they could pity her enough to let her borrow something.

Lucy went to the dress rack, Anne just wandered around the store. At this point, she didn’t even care if she found a dress; a long shirt would be just fine. She was nowhere near her sister or the dresses, but she saw something out of place, a skirt and sleeves peeking out in the middle of pant legs. She picked up the dress, solid black, which would probably fit her like a glove, off the shoulder. A black choker, which she had, and a nice pair of heels would make the dress perfect. And it was even on sale. Someone had probably put it there in order to hide it, but Anne didn’t know that for a fact, so could she really feel bad about wearing it?

She practically ran through the store to find her sister, grabbing her by the arm to the dressing room despite the stack of dresses on Lucy’s arm that were probably going to end up back on the rack or in Lucy’s own closet.

Anne looked at herself in the mirror, excited for the first time for Tyson to see her on New Year’s Eve wearing something like that. The two had been talking nonstop, but Anne had made it clear they were friends and that she wasn’t looking for anything. If something came along, she would know it, and honestly, she didn’t know it with Tyson.

But picturing him seeing her in the dress gave her a glimmer of hope that it was Tyson, even if he wasn’t the ‘one’ like Lucy had been badgering her about earlier.

“Hey, Annie, come on!” Lucy snaps Anne out of her fantasy, banging on the door to show her, “Jason texted me that he and the girls are going to be home in an hour with dinner so you can’t take all day.”

“You really think putting on this dress is going to take an hour?” Anne huffs, opening the door from the dressing room stall.

“Well, it depends on how many dresses you try,” Lucy starts, cutting herself off when she sees her sister in the dress. “Oh, Anne.”

“You like it?” she asks, feeling the heat rush to her cheeks. It was a simple dress, knit and insignificant. She had no idea why she was so excited about it.

“I do,” Lucy says, coming up behind Anne and resting her chin on her sister’s shoulder as the two of them admire Anne in the mirror. “And you know who else is going to love it? Tyson.”

Anne took in a deep breath, Lucy rubbing her back between her shoulders before she let her get changed back into her clothes. ‘Tyson was going to love it.’ Anne hoped so.

=============

December 31, 2021

Tyson said he was going to be at Anne’s place at 9:15 to pick her up and drop off stuff at her place to stay over. Since they were going to be together all night, it was easier if Tyson stayed with Anne after the party before needing to drive to Anne’s uncle’s house the next afternoon.

But it was 9:30, and Anne was sitting on her couch, waiting for the boy who was supposed to fake being her boyfriend tomorrow to show up to take her to a party with a bunch of people who had no idea who she was or that this scenario was going to be happening the next day.

How did Anne end up like this? What if he didn’t show up? Why did she let her mom and siblings take over the conversation about her life and let them believe that Tyson was her boyfriend? And why did he agree to it?

Anne gets snapped out of her downward spiral of thoughts by her phone ringing, Tyson calling to hopefully tell her that he was waiting to be let in. “You said you were going to be here at 9:15,” she answers, not letting Tyson say anything.

“Well, traffic,” he explains, “It’s New Year’s Eve and I didn’t want to speed, either, and end up getting pulled over for that. Can you come let me in? It’s cold.”

Anne gets up from her couch, venturing downstairs in the slippers she was keeping on until the last minute. The heels Lucy had let her borrow weren’t uncomfortable, but she wasn’t about to wear them around her apartment building if she didn’t have to. She spots Tyson sitting on the couches in the lobby, going up to him. He was looking down at his phone, but seeing him made her heart race. He had on a white button-down with the top two buttons undone, a black jacket, and black pants on. She goes up to him, resting her hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

Tyson looks up, unable to find the words when he sees Anne. He stands up, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. Anne sees this and lets out a small laugh. “Are you ok?” she asks, her nerves of seeing him dissipate while he acts like this.

“You’re,” he starts, letting out a breath as he looks her up and down. He shakes his head, a lazy smile on his face. “You’re beautiful.”

Anne laughs, grabbing his bag for him and leading him back upstairs to her apartment. “You’re not too bad yourself.”

“You know,” Tyson starts when the two of them get to her door, “pretending to be your boyfriend really isn’t going to be that difficult.”

“Yeah,” Anne scoffs, putting down Tyson’s bag with a thud by the couch, “and if you keep flirting with me like you mean it, then they’ll really believe you.” Anne’s back was turned to Tyson, so she didn’t see the look on his face, him biting his lip at her words that she thought he was just pretending. “You’re staying over for a night, what the hell could you have brought with you?” she asks him.

Tyson clears his throat, still not over Anne’s little dig about him pretending to flirt with her. He’s been flirting with her since they met, has she really not noticed? “Uh, you didn’t tell me how formal or casual this is at your uncle’s so I just packed a few options.”

“Huh, I never pegged you for a fashionista,” Anne teases, putting on her shoes and coat as Tyson orders the Uber to take them to the venue.

“Apparently you’re never going to peg me at all,” Tyson mumbles, not loud enough for Anne to hear.

“Sorry?”

“Uh, the Uber will be here in a few minutes so we should get downstairs,” he tries to save himself.

“But,” Anne says, locking her door and following Tyson back down to the lobby, “You can pretty much wear anything to Uncle Vince’s house as long as it isn’t a Juventus shirt.”

“Juventus?”

“That’s Napoli’s biggest rival. It would be like me wearing, I don’t know,” Anne says as they both get into the car that had pulled up, “a Red Wings or a Wild shirt to something for you guys.”

Tyson can’t help but smile, even though he knows it’s probably meaningless. Anne had made it clear that the two of them were just friends. But what if, “you like hockey?”

Anne shrugs, looking out the window as they drove into the city. “I don’t hate it, but I couldn’t tell you much about it. I’m more of a basketball girl, honestly.” Tyson scoffs, Anne turning to him. She had a smile on her face, trying to hide the slight insult she felt by the noise he made. “What?”

“Hockey is clearly better.”

“You’re just biased.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong,” he teases her, reaching over and nudging her arm. His hand lingers on her arm for a little bit, not really thinking about Anne’s noticeable settling into his touch. “Um,” he clears his throat, taking his arm back and praying that it was dark enough that Anne couldn’t see the red on his face, “What are your teams?”

“Men’s are the Nuggets, of course, women are the Seattle Storm, and college I go for UConn.”

“Did you go there?”

Anne shakes her head, Tyson admiring the way her hair framed her face, thankful that she was looking out the window instead of at him. “Nope, I went to CU Denver. My dad’s other brother, Johnny, went to UConn, and when I was born, that was around the start of the women’s dynasty that they have. When my dad was away on trips and mom was working, he and Aunt Lisa would watch the four of us and always have the UConn games on. I fell in love with Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Maya Moore, Stephanie Dolson. I grew up wanting to play basketball and be like them, so I played basketball.”

“Did you in college?”

“No,” Anne laughs, looking at the building they were pulling up to. “I played until high school, and was definitely not good enough to play in college. I still love it, though.”

Tyson smiles at her, getting out of the car and rushing to the other side to help her out, linking his arm in hers to escort her in. “I love that,” he whispers to her, walking in and thankful that he had Anne on his arm that night.

The guys weren’t necessarily on his case about finding someone the way it seemed like Anne’s parents were, but that didn’t stop the chirping about him never having a girlfriend for as long as he was on the team. They knew she was his friend, but, hey, it was better than nothing.

Anne had no idea where Tyson took her, not recognizing the building they had walked into, but she was speechless at the sight of the grand ballroom, the lighting just dim enough that she couldn’t help but feel at peace, the noise from Tyson’s teammates and their families taking that away and leaving her overwhelmed. Tyson had slipped away to hang up their coats and grab drinks, leaving Anne to fend for herself for the time being.

She knew they weren’t late by any means but based on the sobriety, or lack thereof, that everyone was displaying, an outsider would think that Tyson and Anne had shown up hours late, everyone seemingly on at least their third drink of the night, if not more. Anne worked her way to the side of the room, giving herself a good view of the bar where Tyson was, hoping that he could find her after he was done chatting with whoever it was that had his attention.

“You look almost too comfortable for someone just watching everyone on the side. Who are you here with?” someone interrupts her thoughts. She snaps her attention to the mystery man standing next to her, leaning against the wall and looking out at the crowd as they danced and sang, drank and had fun. He was the same height as Tyson, just about, probably not that much younger but the rosiness on his cheeks made him look years younger than both her and Tyson.

“I’m here with Tyson,” she tells him, waving to the guy who was supposed to be by her side that night.

“You’re the girl who spilled her coffee on him when we went to the hospital for the charity event,” Rosy Boy laughs.

Anne scoffs, “I wish that wasn’t my legacy, but here we are.”

The two of them stand and watch everyone, laughing as some of the kids pretend to chase around the adults, one of them catching someone by the leg as the man pretended to fall down. “That’s our captain, Gabe,” Rosy Boy tells her, “being chased by Naylah, Nazem’s daughter.”

“So, Gabe, Nazem, Tyson,” Anne says, pointing at the only three men of the Avalanche that she knew, “You?”

“Cale Makar.”

“Anne DeFormicola.”

Cale smiles at her, turning his body so he was facing her directly. “A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” Anne could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks, thankful that her hair was down to cover the red that she knew had appeared on her ears. “Uh, are you and Tyson together?” Cale asks, his voice shaking as he prayed he didn’t make the mistake of flirting with one of his teammate’s girls.

“No,” Anne tells him, “We’re just friends.”

Cale lets out a sigh of relief. “Good, I, uh,” he stammers, Anne’s confused look making him nervous despite the smile that was on her face, “I mean, good, good for me. You? Us? I don’t know what I’m saying.”

The two of them laugh together, Anne seeing Tyson out of the corner of her eye. He didn’t look particularly thrilled as he watched her and Cale talking, the distance between them shrinking as the conversation proceeded.

Before she knew it, Tyson was by her side, a glass of wine in hand for her that he practically thrust in her hand. “So, how’s Cale treating you?” Tyson asks, not hiding the discontent he felt seeing Anne and Cale so obviously flirting.

Anne watches Tyson down his drink, a little too fast for her liking, especially considering Cale was obviously uncomfortable by what his teammate was doing in that moment. “Very well, we were having a good conversation.” Anne sips her wine, Cale mumbling something and slipping away. “What was that about?”

“I want you to be careful?” Tyson says as if it were obvious, even though he was lying. He didn’t want to have to see Anne flirting with his teammate all night.

“Of who, Cale? Didn’t you tell me he was the human equivalent of a puppy?” Tyson rolls his eyes, looking over to the bar and already wishing he had more to drink before having this conversation. “What’s the worst he’s going to do? Bite my ankles? Bark when he wants to go play outside?”

“Ok, you’re being mean.”

“And you’re being ridiculous.” Anne studies his face, the way he bit his lip as he tried to find his words. “You remind me of Sebby.”

“Your little brother?” Tyson asks, not really wanting to be compared to him.

“He’s really protective of me. We’re all protective of each other, but he’s especially protective of me. You’re probably the same way with Kacey, right?”

Tyson swallows hard, nodding. “Yeah.” He wasn’t even just friend-zoned: he was sibling-zoned.

“You just don’t want me to get hurt,” Anne reasons, already finishing her wine. It’s not like it was that much in the glass. “I think if anyone was going to hurt me, it wouldn’t be Cale.”

The two of them stand there, watching Tyson’s teammates dancing as the music changed to something more upbeat. On the nearest table, Tyson put down his and Anne’s empty glasses, extending his hand out to Anne in a bid to lead her to the dance floor. Anne hesitates, not really too fond of dancing, but then Tyson smiled at her, raising his eyebrows, and for whatever reason, she felt like she had to go with him.

His hand found the small of her back, holding her close enough that they could still talk over the blaring from the music, his other hand in hers as he tried to get her to move to the rhythm of the song. It’s not that Anne was uncoordinated, but she just wasn’t that great with dancing. “I would have thought you were better at this,” Tyson teases her, looking down at their feet as Anne steps on for what he thought was the fourth time.

“I will gladly go back to my place against the wall and watch you make a fool out of yourself by yourself instead,” she jokes, rolling her eyes as Tyson spins her around.

He pulls her in closer than before, the music changing to a slower song. “I don’t think you want to do that,” Tyson tells her, his forehead pressed against hers. He could kiss her right now if she let him. This was technically their second date, if they considered the coffee place their first. And Tyson did. He didn’t know why he wanted this girl in front of him so badly so fast, but there was just something about her that he had to be with her.

Before Anne could say anything, she feels someone tapping on her shoulder. Pulling away from Tyson, she sees Cale standing there, his hands in his pockets, looking down at his feet. His entire face was red, clearly nervous, as he started, “Uh, sorry, but I was wondering if I could dance with Anne?”

Anne smiles at him, looking over at Tyson to signal that she wanted to. Cale was adorable, and something about him left Anne unable to say no to him. Tyson gives a sad smile, releasing Anne from his grasp. “I’m going to go get another drink,” he says, leaving his date and teammate alone to be closer than they were before. He couldn’t be with a girl that didn’t want to be with him, he thought, downing the drink he got probably too fast. At least tomorrow he could pretend that the two of them were together, pretending that he was hers and she was his.

But for now, he had to watch Anne smiling and staring at Cale, his teammate holding her so close that Tyson wanted nothing more than to be Cale.

Tyson had his back against the bar, watching Cale and Anne dance and have fun when JT came up to him. “Didn’t you bring a date?” JT was the only one Tyson had told about the fake dating plan between him and Anne.

“Yep.”

“She in the bathroom?”

“She’s dancing with Cale,” Tyson says, raising what he thinks was his third drink in their direction. He was praying that they couldn’t get any closer than they were now, but the way Anne was smiling, he knew that was what she wanted.

JT looks between Anne and Cale together and Tyson’s near angry expression as he took another sip of his drink. “Oh, I get it,” JT realizes, Tyson side-eyeing his friend. “You like her, and now you’re seeing her with Cale and you’re jealous.”

Tyson could feel himself start to panic. He did like her, but he wasn’t about to let everyone know that. “No,” he lies, JT scoffing at him. He hated that he knew him so well. “Maybe.”

“Well, then why aren’t you the one dancing with her?” JT asks, Tyson watching Anne throw her head back laughing, Cale burying his head in her shoulder, a smile just as big as hers on his face.

“She wanted to dance with him. What was I going to do, say ‘no?’

“Yes.”

“No,” he rebuts, signaling the bartender for yet another drink. “At least I can pretend to date her around her family,” he shrugs.

“Yeah, until she pretends to dump you because she’s really dating Cale.”

“Maybe in the new year you should try to be more helpful instead of whatever you are now,” Tyson snaps. “Sorry,” he mumbles into the fresh drink he was bringing to his lips, planning on downing it as fast as he got it. If he had to watch Anne dancing with Cale, he might as well be drunk so he can’t remember it in the morning.

“It’s almost midnight,” Cale whispers to Anne.

“Yeah,” she smirks, having a feeling she knew where this was going, especially judging by the way his grip tightened around her waist.

“Uh,” he clears his throat, getting nervous about what he wanted to ask her. “Who are you kissing at midnight?"

Anne can’t help but smile, his innocence endearing to her. Tyson and JT were still watching the two of them dance even though Anne and Cale were too focused on each other to notice. “I think it depends on your answer,” she flirts.

“I was kind of hoping it would be you,” he tells her.

Anne laughs, “Yeah, I got that,” she tells him, running her hand through his hair at the nape of his neck, sending a chill down his spine. “I was hoping it would be you, too,” she tells him, closing her eyes with their foreheads pressed against each other. She almost wished she had spilled her coffee on Cale instead of Tyson, not needing to pretend to date him tomorrow and instead just date Cale and date him for real. It might have been the alcohol or the night that was making her feel this way, but Cale was not a hard guy to like.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” Tyson mumbles, not wanting to see Anne and Cale anymore, setting his drink down and leaving the room before JT could protest.

Soon after, everyone began their countdown to midnight, chanting while Anne and Cale stayed silent.

Anne knew Cale wanted to kiss her before the countdown was over. He was hovering against her lips as soon as someone yelled ‘ten!’ She didn’t know what it was about him, but she was ready to kiss him, not waiting for everyone to get past ‘five’ before she connected with him for a second, already wanting more as soon as they started.

Cale pulled away fast, smiling, moving his hands from her waist to cup her face, kissing her as soon as everyone around them was screaming ‘Happy New Year!’ When they finally pulled away, Cale’s entire face was red, and Anne knew that there was some color on her cheeks, too. Kissing Cale was something else, but something was missing. She just couldn’t put her finger on it.

=============

January 1, 2022

Anne and Cale danced a little longer, some of the guys and their families starting to leave.

“I think I have to go find Tyson,” Anne tells Cale, realizing she hadn’t seen the boy she came with for the better part of an hour.

“Uh, wait,” Cale says as Anne starts to pull away, Anne stopping as Cale smiles at her. He puts on her jaw, tilting her head up to kiss her again. “Can I see you again?”

Anne smiles, biting her lip. “I’d like that. But I really have to find Tyson.”

The two of them start walking around, trying to locate their lost boy. “Are you coming back with us?”

“Us?”

“Tys and I live in the same building,” Cale explains, part of him wanting to ask Anne to go home with him.

Before he can, Anne starts, “No, Tyson is staying at my place tonight. We have something tomorrow. Today,” she corrects herself.

“Oh, ok. Well, then, can I get your number?”

“When we find Tyson because he has the ticket for our coats and my phone is in my coat,” she explains, regretting giving everything to Tyson.

“Anne!” they hear someone yell, turning around to see Tyson stumbling over despite JT trying to help him up. Anne hadn’t told him not to get very drunk out of caution for having to deal with her family in a few hours, but now she was regretting forgetting.

“How much did he drink?” Anne panics, slinging Tyson's free arm around her shoulder.

“When I got to him he was already on four and I think he had at least three more while I was with him. I couldn’t tell you what he had on his own,” JT explains, the four of them getting their stuff and trying to get out while Tyson could barely walk.

Tyson mumbles something, trying to lean his head against Anne’s shoulder while they walked, despite the three-inch height difference that would have been bigger had Anne not been wearing heels. JT asks him to repeat it while he orders and Uber to get Tyson and Anne home. “Anne’s so pretty,” Tyson says, practically screaming it in Anne’s ear.

“Thank you, Tyson,” she says, trying to be as sweet as she could despite her anger she felt for him getting this drunk.

Tyson keeps babbling incoherently, none of them wanting to try to figure out what he was saying while they were waiting in their Ubers.

“Hey, Anne, hand me your phone,” JT asks, trying to reach out to her with his free hand while also making sure Tyson didn’t fall over or fall on Anne. She does as he asks, Cale standing there wondering why he didn’t just do that in the first place. “Text me when you two get back to your place and let me know how he is before you leave for your Uncle’s.”

“Yeah, of course,” Anne says, not even thinking about how he would have known where the two of you were going later.

Before Cale can ask for Anne’s phone, the Uber for her and Tyson pulls up. “Are you sure you’re good to get him back?” Cale asks her while JT gets Tyson in the car safely.

Anne nods, putting her hand on Cale’s bicep to reassure him. “Yeah, he should sober up enough to walk with just me during the drive back. Thank you, though,” she says, giving him a quick kiss before climbing into the car.

“I wish it was me,” Tyson slurs, his head on Anne’s shoulder as the Uber pulls away.

“What’s that, Tyson?” Anne asks.

“I wish it was me that was kissing you.”

Anne looks at him, his eyes closed as he fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. “When?”

“At midnight. I wanted to kiss you at midnight. I just hope you didn’t kiss Cale. That would make me sad,” he says, letting out a yawn.

Before Anne could say anything to respond, Tyson was asleep, leaving her alone with her thoughts, and the Uber driver probably hoping they remembered this to tell their friends in the morning. Why would he have wanted to kiss her? They were just friends. They had both made it very clear that everything they were doing was just out of friendship because they both needed someone to be there for the other and just pretend they were something they were not.

This wasn’t going to be like one of those ‘fake dating’ tropes that Anne had read in books when she was a teenager or in rom coms. Those weren’t real life. That didn’t happen.

Anne gets Tyson up to her apartment, surprised that she was able to drag him out of the Uber and balance him long enough that he didn’t fall over and take her with him to the ground. She practically threw him onto her bed, getting him in position so no matter what happened he would be fine. He was asleep almost immediately, a soft snore coming from his lips.

Anne pulls out her phone to text JT that his teammate was asleep, getting herself ready to go sleep on the couch.

The next morning, Anne woke up to Tyson sitting at her kitchen table, already having helped himself to a cup of coffee. “You look like you’re feeling great,” Anne commented, Tyson clearly hungover from the night before.

“Why did I wake up in your bed and not your couch?” Tyson asked.

Anne shrugs, fixing herself a cup of coffee to join him. “You’re my guest and the couch isn’t the most comfortable thing to fall asleep on if you aren’t used to it.”

“You are?”

“I’ve fallen asleep plenty of times while I was reading on that couch,” Anne tells him, wishing she had something to offer him to eat. “Uh, when we get to my uncle’s house, there’s going to be a ton of food so if we didn’t eat now, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.”

Tyson nods, looking down at his coffee. He wished that he didn’t have to pretend to be Anne’s boyfriend. He already wanted to be more, but Cale was already closer to that in one night than Tyson was in how many weeks. “What do I need to know about your family before I meet them?”

Anne starts rambling about her family: her grandparents moved back to New York which was where they grew up so she hasn’t seen them in a while because they’re too old to make the trip out here and she hasn’t had time to make the trip to see them. They were going to her Uncle Vince’s house, her dad’s older brother. He has three kids, Michael, Emily, and Spencer, all of them dating someone. Then there’s Uncle Johnny, her dad’s younger brother, who has two kids, Lauren and Landon, and three grandkids from Lauren: Christopher, Lydia, and Henry.

Tyson didn’t even know if he was going to remember everything she was saying; from the food that Johnny brings just for Landon because of allergies, or the food that was designated as ‘the kid's food’ which was absolutely off-limits unless you were under the age of five years old. The Sam Adams’ beer is only meant for Aunt Lisa and Aunt Laura unless they offer it to you, but the wine is a free for all because it’s guaranteed that everyone of age brought their own bottle anyway, including Anne.

“Wait, but I don’t have a bottle,” Tyson asks, both of them getting up to get ready.

Anne smiles at him, going into one of her cabinets. “You want white or red?” she asks, holding up two bottles. “Because, as you know, I’m partial to red.”

Tyson laughs, taking the bottle of white wine from her, not even sure if he should be drinking anything given the night before. He was just lucky he somehow didn't feel worse despite how much he had. “I knew you were my kind of girl.”

They stand there for a second, neither of them sure how to react or what to do. “We should go get ready,” Anne says, bringing the bottles over to where she kept her keys so she wouldn’t forget them.

She retreats to her room, leaving Tyson to get ready out in the open of the rest of her apartment. That wasn’t a moment they just had in her kitchen, she tells herself. She puts on a pair of jeans, trying to find a shirt suitable enough for her mom to not nag her about, finally settling on a sweater that she was almost sure was Lucy’s that she stole a few months ago.

“Hey, Anne,” she hears Tyson calling her. “Someone’s calling you.”

An unknown number flashed on her screen in Tyson's hand, her forgetting she left the phone by the couch. Normally an unsaved contact was something that she wouldn’t answer, but the Calgary area code, for no reason whatsoever, told her that she had to answer it. “Hello?”

“Anne? It’s Cale. Sorry, I got your number from JT.”

Anne smiles, looking at Tyson who could hear his teammate's voice just loud enough that it made him upset. Tyson’s words from the night before rang through Anne’s mind as she finally answered him back, “Hey, no, it’s fine. What’s up?” Anne goes back into her room to finish getting ready, putting Cale on speaker as she does.

“I just wanted to check on you. And Tyson, I mean, that you were ok with him last night.”

Anne laughs at his nerves, the same ones that came through when they were first talking last night that she was thankful had faded as time went on. “Yeah, we’re fine. We’re getting ready to head out, though.”

“Any idea what time you would be done? I was wondering if you wanted to grab dinner tonight?”

She could hear his voice shaking, wishing that she could say yes. “I can’t tonight, but maybe another time?”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” he says, both of them saying goodbye as Anne grabs what she needs to head out.

“You ready?” she asks Tyson. He looked good, a simple black button-down he had paired with jeans. Why did he have to look good? Tyson nods, grabbing the wine while Anne grabbed her keys.

The two of them drive in silence, her phone plugged into her car with Cale and JT’s contacts popping up on the screen on her center console as they were texting her. “I’m glad you got along with some of the guys last night,” Tyson tells her, finally breaking the silence between them.

“Yeah, me too. Especially since someone seemed to enjoy the bar more than anything else,” she teases.

“Hey, the bartender was attractive, and giving free drinks, what was I supposed to do?”

Anne laughs, knowing that wasn’t the real reason he was there the entire night. She didn’t know what that reason was, but it wasn’t because of the looks of the person giving Tyson drinks. “What do you remember from last night?”

Tyson hesitates, really not sure what to answer. “I remember the drinks and you were dancing with Cale at some point.”

“You remember none of the Uber drive back?”

He almost did. He knew he had fallen on Anne’s shoulder, but he didn’t remember getting into the car with her. He wasn’t even sure that Anne was the one that got him in the car. “Not really, no.”

“Ok,” Anne says, partially thankful for that. She wasn’t sure she would want to relive the part of the night, nor did she think Tyson would either.

She pulls up to her uncle’s house, already seeing Lucy’s car and her cousin Spencer's sitting in the driveway. “Ready to enter the belly of the beast?” she asks him, patting his thigh as a sign of encouragement.

Tyson looks out to the house, seeing someone standing in the doorway waiting for them to get out of the car. “We’ve gotta start acting like a couple, now, don’t we?” he says, leaning closer to her across the center console.

Anne rolls her eyes, knowing that he wanted a kiss or something, anything to show Aunt Laura that Tyson was actually her boyfriend. She does kiss him, sweet and slow. Tyson was sure if they weren’t being watched, he would have gone for more, but knowing he couldn’t was killing him. He had to make the most of the time he had with Anne’s family.

When Anne pulled away, she reached up to Tysons face, grazing her thumb along his beard as his hand connected with hers. She didn’t know why, but she kissed him again, their foreheads pressed together as they sat there in her car. It was different kissing him compared to Cale. A good different, and like last night, she couldn't put her finger on why. She almost forgot where they were, startled by Aunt Laura knocking on her window.

Anne’s face had to be bright red, embarrassed that her aunt saw whatever moment, real or fake or whatever that was, while sitting in the driveway of her house. She greets her aunt as she gets out of the car, handing her the two bottles of wine.

“You must be Tyson!” she says, more excited than Anne thought she would be. “Teresa’s told us so much about you, come in, come in,” she gestures. Anne was sure that she would have dragged him in by the collar of his shirt if she didn’t have the wine in her hands already.

Tyson looks at Anne, confused. “I have no idea what my mom could have said to her,” Anne says. Tyson shrugs, grabbing Anne’s hand as she leads him into the house.

Lucy comes running up as soon as Anne steps through the door, a baby that couldn’t be more than a year old in her arms. “Hey there, Hazel,” Anne coos, taking her goddaughter from her sister. Hazel reaches out, grabbing Anne’s hair as Anne winces at the slight pain from the baby’s pull. “This is Tyson.”

“Hi, pretty girl,” Tyson says, Hazel reaching out, squirming to get away from Anne and into Tyson’s arms. “Is it ok if I hold her?” he asks Lucy, waiting for her to nod before Anne passes her off to him.

Lucy pulls her sister aside, a silly grin on her face. “He’s perfect,” she gushes, “Look at him!” Tyson was bouncing Hazel up and down, Hazel shrieking with glee with him.

“He’s not perfect,” Anne says, “but he might be close.” The sisters laugh, Lucy hugging Anne from behind while they continue to watch Anne’s ‘boyfriend’ interact with Lucy’s youngest daughter. Anne wasn’t even sure if she was really pretending as the rest of her family came into her uncle’s house.

Teresa was practically attached to Tyson the entire time, as were Skylar and Harper once Tyson started playing with them. Literally, Tyson was walking around Uncle Vince’s house with Skylar and Harper clinging to each of his legs. Tyson was the center of attention, Anne wishing that it wasn’t because everyone was just finally excited that Anne found a man.

“What do you think of him?” Anne asks Sebby, the two of them watching Tyson and Matthew talking as if there was no one else was in the room. She had heard ‘touchdown’ and ‘linebacker’ come up in conversation, meaning Matthew was going on a rant about the Broncos, something that he did way too often.

Sebby looks him up and down, pursing his lips while he thought about it. “I’m not sure I trust him.”

“Oh, come on,” Anne whines.

“He’s an athlete. And a professional one, at that,” Sebby throws his hands up in defense. Growing up, Sebby was the only one who didn’t really like sports, feeling they were a waste of time when he could be doing something like reading or studying. Sports were only relevant when his siblings were involved, otherwise, he hated them.

“Give him a chance. Please?” Anne begs, not even sure if it were necessary. “He’s not Andy.”

Sebby narrows his eyes at his sister, jumping slightly as Tyson and Matthew start laughing. “Why didn’t you mention him before Christmas?”

“If you remember, I didn’t mention him at Christmas, you did,” Anne scolds him, trying to figure out what story to tell her brother. “And, it was still new. I didn’t want to say anything if it wasn’t going to be something.”

“Is it?”

“Maybe. I think so,” Anne lies. At least, she thought she was lying.

Tyson comes over to Anne while she was talking with Sebby about his upcoming semester, his last one before he graduated from college and hopefully entered law school. He wraps his arms around her, kissing her cheek before resting his chin on her shoulder. “You think I could steal her for a second?” he asks.

Sebby narrows his eyes, Tyson a little thrown off by her brother’s reaction. “Sure.”

Tyson brings Anne into another room, praying that no one would walk in on them. “We didn’t talk about anything we could say to your family about how we met,” he brings up.

“I was planning on deferring that to you since I normally can’t get a word in otherwise,” she admits, even though she hadn’t thought about it before.

“That’s not fair,” Tyson says, looking over Anne’s shoulder to see someone in her family looking at the two of them. “Your family is watching.”

Anne follows Tyson’s gaze, turning and waving at Landon and Lauren. She reaches up and puts her hand on Tyson’s cheek, Tyson taking it with his own and kissing the palm of her hand. “When you see how I get pushed aside at dinner, you’ll understand why it’s fair.”

The two of them continue talking about how they were going to go on with the rest of the day, Anne telling Tyson she was fine with everything he had done so far and really didn’t care if he kept doing it. Anne, not wanting to tell Tyson, liked what he was doing. It felt right for some reason. Was Tyson right that it should have been the two of them kissing at midnight and not her and Cale?

Tyson’s drunken confession from the night before was still ringing in her mind when everyone got called to sit down for dinner. Tyson was still, unsurprisingly, the center of attention. His hand was on Anne’s thigh for most of dinner, Lucy’s eyes never leaving as Anne rested her’s in his. The usual rounds of conversation started, asking Lucy about her medical practice, Jason about Andersen’s, his restaurant that bore his family’s name, Matthew and Steph about work at United, Sebby about how he was feeling going into this last semester of college.

Then the conversation was supposed to turn to Anne, normally swamped with questions about Anne’s lack of love life. Instead, of course, the conversation turned to Tyson.

“How did you two meet?” Teresa asks, giving a smug look to her daughter, “Anne hasn’t told us anything about you.”

Tyson hesitates, figuring Anne wouldn’t want her family knowing they met when she spilled her coffee on him. “I was out with some of my teammates after practice one day,” he starts, hoping that whatever was about to come out of his mouth was good enough. “We were at a coffee shop, and I saw Anne there grabbing something before her shift at the hospital. I saw her smile at the barista when she thanked him for taking her order and,” he looks at her, taking Anne and putting it on the table for her family to see. “Something about that smile of hers I just knew I had to talk to her. I needed her in my life and I’m happy she’s in it.”

He kisses the side of her head, whispering, “we have to remember that story now,” against her skin. When he pulls away, Anne smiles at him, signaling that she would. There was no way she could forget that honestly. Why was pretending to like him so easy?

The conversation stays on him for a little longer, Anne never being asked anything. Finally, Emily stands up with Jimmy, saying they had an announcement. “We’re engaged!” she squeals, holding up her left hand with the ring that she either just put on, or no one noticed as the family congratulated her. Jimmy had proposed at midnight, down on one knee right as whoever they were with said ‘Happy New Year!’

“Another wedding!” Teresa yells, Tony rolling his eyes next to her. He didn’t hate weddings, he hated his wife’s need to spend an extravagant amount of money on a new dress and presents for the couple every time. “And then maybe we’ll have one for Anne in the next year, too, oh Tony we’ll get to plan another wedding.”

“Mom!” Anne scolds, Tyson’s face getting bright red. “That ringing in your ears is not wedding bells.”

The rest of the dinner goes on fine, Anne and her siblings off in one of the rooms while their spouses and Tyson were nowhere to be found.

“I think Tyson’s scared of me,” Lucy says, examining her nails.

“He might just be intimidated by you, Signoria Perfezione,” Anne teases her with the nickname Lucy got when she was little, her need for order prevalent from a young age.

“Yeah, he said that Anne told him how smart you were and he didn’t want to feel stupid around you,” Matthew points out.

“Well, shouldn’t he be intimidated by Anne?” Sebby asks.

“I know you’re trying to compliment me, but your tone says otherwise,” Anne says. “Why don’t you like him?”

The three of them look at their youngest siblings. “There’s something off,” he starts, Anne feeling her heart start to race. “He’s like borderline pretending to be with you.”

“Come on, man, you’re paranoid,” Matthew scoffs, Lucy agreeing.

“I mean,” Sebby explains, “He looks at Anne like he wants to be with her, not like he actually is with her.”

“You’re just over analyzing. We’re together. Probably more together than you and Collins are,” Anne fires back, part of her hating that she was lying to her siblings, the other part of her wondering how much of it was a lie.

Sebby shrugs, “Well yeah, because we broke up.” Anne’s jaw drops, Matthew raises his eyebrows in shock, Lucy the only one to scream and actually make a verbal acknowledgment of what he just said. “Yeah, the other night. She finally blew up over the whole, ‘I don’t want to move to Boston or California,’ thing and said if I wasn’t willing to move to be with her then I wasn’t good enough for her.”

“Oh, I don’t like that,” Anne says.

"Why didn't you tell us," Lucy asks.

"I see how they act about Anne never being with someone," he says, Anne glaring at him. "I'll just find someone in law school and not say anything unless they ask. Plus, I don’t want to be that far away from you guys. Why would I stay with someone who wants me to do that?” he admits.

“Aw, you do like us!” Lucy teases him, her and Matthew tackling him in a hug while Sebby yells for them to get off, yelling louder when Anne joins in.

“Hey, um,” Tyson interrupts, “Sorry, you’re having a moment.”

“No, no, what’s up?” Anne breaks off, going over to him.

“Your aunt said dessert is out,” he tells them, or, rather, tells Anne with her siblings in earshot.

“See, you’re delusional,” Lucy tells Sebby as they walk past Anne and Tyson into the next room.

Tyson looks at her confused, waiting for an explanation. “I think Sebby’s catching on to us pretending,” she shrugs, really not that worried. She and Tyson could talk later about how long this would go on, and if anyone in the family were to find out that it was fake, Sebby would be the one to keep it quiet.

She goes into the next room, leaving Tyson there by himself. “Yeah, pretending,” he says to himself.

#tyson jost #tyson jost imagine #tyson jost fic #tyson jost oc fic #colorado avalanche #colorado avalanche imagine #colorado avalanche fic #avalanche #avalanche imagine #avalanche imagines #nhl #nhl imagines #hockey #hockey fics #hockey imagines #nhl fics #tyson and anne

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sylvies-chen · 3 years

Note

Chenford + prompt 45 :)

45. “Please don’t shut me out.”

You know those situations where you make someone completely furious and heartbroken over something but you have no idea why or how?

Yeah, this is not one of those situations.

Lucy and Tim aren’t speaking and Lucy knows exactly why.

He’d told her he wanted to give them a shot and she just stood there, crying, and… rejected him.

It’s not that she doesn’t feel the same way he does. She told him so. It’s just that they’re at two very different points in their career. Publicly dating would put a big target on her back saying “I, Lucy Chen, did not earn my spot here”. She doesn’t want to get branded like that yet, you know? Whatever feelings she has for Tim— ones she’d been surprised to hear were actually reciprocated— can’t ever be acted on.

So now they’re here: colleagues, forced into being nothing more and dreading every minute of it.

It’s an impossible situation they’re in, they both know that. She told him how she felt and what she thought was right, but it doesn’t make it any harder. He has every right to be mad. Hell, she’s mad too— just not at him. Never him. She’s mad at the system, at the stupid rules, at their circumstance. But Tim? Tim’s mad at her. Lucy can see it in the way he avoids her eye, tenses his jaw when she’s around, is always just a little snippy with her.

She’s exiting roll call on shift that morning when Tim bumps into her. It’s nothing dramatic or painful but his hands stabilize her and catch her from falling and they’re dangerously close. For two people who aren’t speaking to each other, it’s more than awkward.

She stares at him, wide-eyed and slightly flustered. People are all around them, flooding out the glass doors less than six feet away from them. It’s a professional environment and a simple mistake. With anyone else, she’d just flash a polite smile, apologize, and move on. But it’s Tim, so she can’t.

She can’t smile and have it seem genuine, she can’t apologize without pouring her heart out and apologizing for a hell of a lot more than bumping into him. And she certainly can’t move on. Not from Tim.

“Officer Chen,” Tim greets her gruffly, nodding as his hands move back to his sides. He backs up, clearing his throat. He still won’t look her in the eye. It’s killing her.

“Sorry,” she manages to squeak, blinking at him. There’s no one left in the briefing room now and really, they should be getting to work, but they’re frozen.

“It’s fine.” He says it like he doesn’t mean it in the slightest. Then, as soon as it the moment started, it ends. Tim sours his face, leaves the room.

“Right,” she sighs quietly to herself, rubbing at her temples. “Because nothing around here can go smoothly.”

He starts to storm off. To where, she doesn’t know, but follows him anyway. Because screw Tim. He knows she cares about him, he knows they can’t be together because she doesn’t want it affecting her career. And he’s letting it affect her career anyway.

When she follows him, he moves into the break room. It’s empty, fortunately, so when he turns around after reaching the coffee machine, she crosses her arms and is able to face him. “Tim.”

“Can I help you with something, Officer Chen?”

“Don’t do that,” she sighs. She really can’t handle the bitterness today. It may be what he needs right now but dammit, she just misses him.

“Do what? Call you by your official title?” He shrugs, waiting for an answer. He’s putting on that same tough guy act he had when she first met him. Only now, she can see through it. The scowl, the tense jaw, the crossed arms that match hers. It doesn’t hide the pain in his eyes. She can see it as clear as day and wonders if maybe, he sees the same pain in her eyes too. God knows she feels it.

“You know what I mean,” Lucy huffs.

“Well I can’t call you Boot, because I’m not your T.O. anymore,” he explains dryly. “And I can’t call you Lucy. So what else would you have me call you.”

“Lucy,” she tells him firmly; pleadingly. “I want you to call me Lucy. I want you to tease me again and I want you to pick me up lunch because you already know my order and I want you to stop being mad at me and for things to go back to normal.”

“They can’t, you know that,” he tells to her through gritted teeth. “And why the hell are you so eager to get past this? If you want to move on then fine, be my guest. But don’t expect me to be happy about this situation.”

“What, and you think I am? This is killing me, Tim!” Her voice feels raw and hoarse when she admits that. She hadn’t quite expected that to come out— least of all at work. “I don’t want things to be like this but they have to be. You know it, I know it.”

He stares at her, looking almost wounded from her words. The breakroom air feels thick and all the sounds whirring around them feel distant.

A moment passes by and he still doesn’t say anything, so she talks again. “Can you at least talk to me about it? I want to do something to try and fix this and I just—” Lucy sighs and stops mid-sentence, closing her eyes for a brief second. “Please don’t shut me out. I can’t accept the idea that just because we can’t be together right now it means we can’t still be in each other’s lives.”

Tim’s shoulders tense up, the wounded and heartbroken look still in his eye. “I don’t know if I can do all of that yet,” he admits. “Tim Bradford isn’t big on talking, you know that already though I guess.”

“I do,” she nods. Lucy can’t help but feel disappointed; defeated. She wishes things were different but at least she tried, right?

Maybe she’ll never be able to have anything with Tim Bradford. Maybe this is the universes way of punishing her for being too chickenshit to act on her feelings for him. Maybe, she’s screwed up so bad that he’ll never be able to look her in the eye again.

That’s what she thinks when he walks past her, keeping a lengthy distance as he heads out of the common room. But he turns around when he’s at the doorframe and when she turns around, he’s leaning on the doorframe.

“I’ll see you around, Lucy.” He gives her a short nod as he turns, actually leaving this time. It leaves Lucy with a smile on her face. It’s the first time she’s smiled since their gut wrenching conversation a werk ago, she thinks.

These feelings between them are more than complicated. It’s something they might never be able to act on, and it’s overpowering their hearts to a painful degree. That’s what caused all this tension between them in the first place: the heartbreak of it all.

But he called her Lucy. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

#fanfic prompts #abby writes #chenford #this is my (lame) attempt at angst idk if i like this one yet but voila! a fic!#tim bradford #lucy chen #tim x lucy #lucy x tim

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bloodybigwardrobe · 3 years

Text

Jack Hends enjoys driving cabs in the grand scheme of things. Sure, he has had his fair share of awful experiences, but the sheer amount of fascinating people he’s met and continues to meet always makes up for it.

He knows the young woman waving enthusiastically at him will be an interesting sort before she so much as opens the cab door. Her hair is windswept, a wreath of twigs sits askew on her head, and her clothes bear grass stains. Jack can hear his mother call this a most unbecoming display for a woman. Jack stops next to her. She gives him a bright smile and greets him with a joyful voice that dislodges something in his chest. Suddenly, Jack feels like he is back in his childhood home, being chased across the garden by his older sister, with the smell of lunch in the air. He blinks, wondering where the dull grey colours of the city afternoon went. Somehow, everything looks brighter.

The woman climbs into the backseat with grace, which Jack did not expect given her dishevelled appearance. Hugging a small suitcase to her chest, she gives him the address of a courthouse across the river. Jack can’t for the life of him place her accent.

As he pulls back into traffic, the woman introduces herself as Lucy. She chats about her journey here, how she doesn’t quite suit the city life and asks him if he could drive her to other places after the courthouse. “I’m just picking my brother up there, I do hope that’s alright with you.” She doesn’t fidget, but her obvious excitement bleeds over from the back, and Jack can’t help but feel excited with her.

The drive passes in a flash, and soon Jack stops. Lucy is out of the car with lightning speed, bouncing up to a young man in a sharp suit - Lucy’s brother, he supposes. Jack watches them hug with a smile, Lucy’s infectious joy tasting like his aunt’s berry crumble. Lucy and her brother climb into his cab.

The young man introduces himself with a voice quite different from Lucy’s cheerful one. “I’m Edmund,” he says quietly, but Jack has no trouble understanding him. He holds himself like a man who knows just the amount of power he has. Jack has driven around plenty of important and powerful people and many more who pretended to be those things. Looking at Edmund, he has no doubt that he belongs to the first category.

The next stop is a university. As they drive, Jack can’t help but take constant glances at his passengers in the back. Edmund’s presence is nowhere near as bright as whatever Lucy caused when she climbed into Jack’s cab, but something makes Jack’s shoulders straighten, and his grip relaxes around the wheel. Though it’s not gotten colder by any means, each glimpse of Edmund makes Jack think about evenings by the fireplace. Taken back to nights of watching his cousins yell at each other across a black-and-white board, Jack finds himself speaking.

“You don’t happen to be a chess player, do you, lad?”

Jack catches a small smile in the rearview mirror. “I am, sir.” And the three of them start talking, Lucy very eagerly praising her brother’s chess skill while Edmund starts asking Jack about himself. Yes, Jack thinks to himself, he can imagine sitting in a firelit living room with a warm, spiced drink and playing chess opposite this kid. Not that Jack is a good player.

The evening sun turns everything around them a warm, golden colour as they pull up to the university building. Both siblings climb out, and soon enough, a tall, blond-haired man is walking up to them with long strides. Jack watches with fascination as Lucy gets folded up in a hug and spun around. As soon as her feet are back on solid ground, the man reaches out to tousle Edmund’s hair with an affectionate grin.

The man turns out to be their eldest brother, named Peter. He takes the time to firmly shake Jack’s hand as he sits down in the passenger seat. Jack catches himself wondering how Peter fits into the cab at all, even though he has driven around men much broader than him. There is just something that makes Peter seem like he takes up more space, and Jack feels incredibly small - though he doesn’t mind it at all, somehow.

Peter’s voice is warm in a similar way to Lucy’s, but deep in a way that makes Jack think he can feel it resonate in his own bones. He spends the drive turned around towards the back, asking Lucy questions and laughing without restraint. Jack’s heart leaps into his throat when, for a moment, he thinks he sees his late father out of the corner of his eye where Peter ought to be. A memory of watching a sunrise from atop the cliffs with his father occupies him for the next while.

It’s a longer drive to the next destination, which ends up as a small house with an office sign above the door. The three siblings quieten down as Jack parks, and Peter leans into the back to squeeze Edmund and Lucy’s shoulders. The gesture makes Jack’s chest tighten painfully, feeling a phantom hand on his own shoulder.

“Come on,” Edmund says, and the three siblings get out of the cab. Lucy pauses to give a fleeting smile and “We’ll be right back” to Jack. He barely suppresses the need to follow these three extraordinary people and watches once again.

Peter rings the bell. After a while, a beautiful woman with long, dark hair steps into the dusk. The last sliver of orange sunset cuts across her face. Her mouth opens in apparent surprise, her eyes wide. The three siblings look much smaller than they did in his cab. Jack can just see the hesitance on Lucy’s face before suddenly, the woman surges forward and tugs her into a crushing hug. Peter and Edmund waste no time in wrapping their arms around the two women. And for a while, they don’t move.

The thought that he should look away, that this is a private moment, occurs to Jack just as the four of them pull away from each other. Quiet words are exchanged, then the woman turns back around and rushes back into the house, leaving the door open. Jack sees Peter wipe at his eyes. Edmund knocks his elbow into Lucy’s side, and she laughs giddily.

The woman returns with a coat on, and Jack marvels at how elegant she looks as she pulls the door shut behind her. She holds herself in a way that makes Jack feel like he really should not be looking directly at her. The group of four walks back to his cab and Jack hastily clears his throat, suddenly nervous.

The woman is introduced by Lucy as Susan, their sister. She smiles at Jack, and he doesn’t quite know what he feels. Susan’s eyes are kind. She sits in the crowded back of his cab like it’s a royal carriage. Jack fumbles with his words, but a gentle calm spreads through him as Susan tells him to take them to a nearby cemetery.

Jack busies himself with turning the car around. Soon they are back in the evening traffic, and his four passengers are talking among themselves. Jack takes note of how Lucy is no longer spilling over with her joy, having seemingly settled into a quieter sort of happiness. Edmund is leaning over Lucy to talk to Susan with a mischievous smile on his face. Peter smiles at Jack and gives a soft apology.

“Oh, none of that,” Jack says, and he knows he is smiling broadly, “You’ve been nothing but wonderful.” Susan laughs, and Jack knows he can smell his grandmother’s lavender tea, brought out at an outside dinner back when all his family lived in one place.

When they reach the cemetery, Jack is paid and tipped handsomely. Peter shakes his hand again, Lucy comes rushing to his window with a small yellow flower, Edmund nods with a knowing smile, and Susan thanks him for the ride. As he watches the four of them disappear through the old gate, Lucy’s flower in his hand, Jack realises something.

He places the flower on his dashboard and pulls away. He has driven around many fascinating humans and will drive many more. But he’s pretty sure the four siblings will remain the most intriguing of the lot, given that they were not human.

Their presence lingers. Jack doesn’t mind at all.

#narnia #chronicles of narnia #lucy pevensie #edmund pevensie #peter pevensie #susan pevensie #the chronicles of narnia #tcon #narnia fic #mywriting #this is my 1000th post!!! wooo #celebratory longer writing for you all #strange pevensies #theyre not really eerie in this one but theyre definitely magic and not human

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creativeashproductions · 3 years

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A Distant Dream I // Luke Patterson

Summary: In 1994 seventeen year old Luke Patterson had once again tried to ask out the girl that held his heart. With the belief he would see the younger Mercer girl the next morning he decides wait to confess his feelings. Only to have soft music bewitched the reader into an antique wardrobe with lots of history.

Warnings: Swearing, strict parents, missing persons, cops, violence, death, and angst

Words: 3k

A/N: Finished one series, starts a new one then gets hit with a dream of a crossover with Narnia and JATP. My brain needs to stop.

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Masterlist

Patterson Home, 1994

The teen’s hands laced up her boots with her mind stuck on the successful dinner with the boy situated on the couch. His eyes lost in daydreams of the girl he had shared a sweet goodbye with, seeing her at school felt like it would be years. Luke Patterson was slowly building up to ask out the girl of his dreams.

You glanced over at the messy-haired brunette you had known for years through your older brother Alex. A year separated you from Luke and Alex, but it didn't matter to the bond you had with them.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Reggie’s picking us up.” You waved at the seventeen-year-old teenager cupping his cheek in one hand.

Unable to stay seated Luke rushed to tug you into an abrupt hug before just as quickly letting you go. Cheeks dusted pink Luke’s lips parted to form the words that could make one of his dreams come true.

"Would you…" Luke trailed off, feeling the confidence falter at the hopeful look in your pretty eyes, "Tell Alex that he still has that movie?"

The hope in your chest fluttered before it shuddered once more as Luke retreated from asking his question. With a nod, your fingers opened the door to walk down the streets to own home.

With one last wave Luke watched as you disappeared behind the trees in his front yard with the promise he’d ask her out tomorrow.

That chance wouldn’t happen.

That hopeful night in 1994 was the last night Y/N Mercer was seen. The night that it all started to fall apart in Sunset Curve’s lives.

The sword was thrust in the air as victorious cheers sounded over the hillside filled with the war's casualties. Chest heaving from the fight she had won against one of the Boggles in the White Witch's army. Your eyes scoured the battlefield for your friends you had made in the short time you had been in Narnia.

Across a great distance, you found Peter already beaming across at you as the adrenaline of winning overtook you. The happiness wavered when you saw the prone body of Edmund in the grass.

“No!” You shouted racing in the armour to the three remaining Pevensie children gathering around the youngest male sibling. The breath leaving Edmund’s body in the presence of his siblings he had made up with.

Let’s go back a few weeks to when your most significant issue had been the feelings for Luke Patterson. To when your decisions didn't include making battle plans with your new friends and avenging the death of Aslan; the talking lion.

Moments after leaving Luke’s place.

There was something about the night that soothed you from the disappointment in your body as being let down. Alex had been telling you for so long that Luke had feelings for you, but every-time you believed him it didn’t happen.

Once more, you had left the Patterson home with knowing if Luke liked you or not. Continuing to walk, you halted at hearing something. Soft music so unlike what you heard blasting from Alex's room or the gigs you attended to support the band. It was reminiscent of the music box that used to put you to sleep as a child.

"Hello?" You asked, shifting the beanie that slid on down your forehead a little. Your eyes peering around the silent streets.

The music grew louder as it entranced you into following the sound to a dilapidated building situated near older stores. So taken by the music you didn’t question why the door to the store was unlocked nor how a golden light shined from one of the antique wooden furniture.

“Come along.” A voice whispered from inside the imposing wardrobe.

Your fingers shook as you slowly pulled the door open with a creak that blasted around the darkroom. The first thing you noticed was the old fur coats hanging in the small wardrobe. The door closed behind you with a click, the golden glow dying as any suggestion she had been in the store disappeared.

The breath caught in your throat as the temperature dropped and somehow you found snow inside and trees. The crunch of snow beneath your boots surprising you but not as much as your hands pushed the branches away. Vision no longer obstructed you discovered a new world of winter and sunlight.

Standing not too far away you found four bodies of varying height staring around in wonder just as you had. The group turned on their heels at the sound of your boots crunching the snow.

The tallest of the group had honey blonde hair neatly cut and styled off his pale forehead revealing a startling pair of blue eyes. He was at least six feet tall as your estimation. His own widened at the sight of you before you took in the three other people with him—an older brunette girl standing over a younger brunette female. Set a small distance away was a young teenage boy appearing standoffish.

“I don’t suppose that is another one of your friends, Lucy?" The teen asked glancing down at the youngest of the quartet.

"No, but Peter maybe she's friends with Mr. Tumnus!" The little girl exclaimed already making her way to you when the other girl stopped her.

The next thing you noticed was their odd choice in clothing, the older boy Peter wore a light grey button-down with his dark slacks held up by suspenders. Not a single piece of clothing you recognized on people in your life.

“Lucy, she’s a stranger in a strange place.”

“This is Narnia.” Lucy stressed pouting, “Susan, it’s not polite.”

Susan's hand loosened at the reminder of manners, but with that, Susan pushed her little sister behind her. Peter stepped in front of his family to walk over to you.

"Hello, are you from around here?" Peter asked, coming closer, "I'm Peter Pevensie. This is my younger sisters Lucy and Susan. The boy over there is my little brother Edmund.”

The scowl on Edmund’s face twister further, “I’m not your little brother! I’m thirteen. Lucy’s the baby!”

“Edmund!” Susan admonished with a furrowed brow before stepping up with Peter, "What is this place?"

"Look, lady. I was walking home from my friend's place and heard this music. It's a little foggy, but I followed into an antique store." You spoke glancing at the winter wonderland that made you question if you had taken drugs.

“You’re American!” Lucy gasped rushing closer, “Why did you come to England? It’s it safer from the war in America?”

You stepped back in confusion, “I’m Y/N. War? In England? When did that happen?”

All four of the Pevensie’s stumbled back in shock at hearing that someone of your age being unaware. Susan finally took the time to take in your appearance a stark contrast to the modest, loose red and green tartan knee-length skirt. Instead, you wore a mid-thigh red plaid skirt over sheer black tights, but the most scandalous part of your outfit for Susan was your high neck black top that revealed your midriff.

“Are you daft?” Edmund questioned, stepping closer, his dark eyes pinning his angst on you, "We got evacuated from London because of it!”

Your eyebrows raised in response to the very posh accent berating you even as he was shoved back by Peter.

“You really haven’t heard about it?” Susan asked, confusing you further, but slowly it came together in your mind.

As a Mercer, you had expectations placed upon your shoulders to keep your family’s reputation in place. One of the expectations was academic excellence for your parents to boast about among their friends. To get them off your back, you studied hard with Alex in order to get away with the way you dressed and Alex being in a rock band.

Your eyes scanned the individuals' outfits before you while calculating the years London, England, was evacuated by war. A faint memory of sitting in your history class sparked on the action to evacuate mostly children. Operation Pied Piper. World War II.

"Can we go to Mr. Tumnus?" Lucy inquired, bringing her older siblings' attention to her shivering in the cool air.

“But we can’t go hiking in the snow dressed like this! Let alone Y/N in her clothing.” Susan protested also rubbing her cold arms. Peter simply strode back into the wardrobe, grabbing an armful of the coats still hanging in there.

“No, but I’m sure the professor won’t mind us using these.” Peter spoke, handing out a coat first to his siblings before turning to face you with a smile, "Would like you to join us?"

Your eyes turned to the tree hiding the door of the wardrobe to the place you knew. To return to the Mercer household where it felt stifling under the watchful eye of your parents. To a house that judged you for your dreams that went further than your parents' plans. To a boy that threatened to cradle your heart or shattered it to pieces with only a few words.

"I'd love to join you." You spoke sealing your fate by grasping a coat, but Peter stepped around to help you put it on.

The feel of his hands pushing the collar further rose a dust pink blush on your cheeks at the care he displayed. His blue gaze held firmly with yours before he shook it off with a throat cleared.

“Anyway Susan, if you think about it logically, we’re not even taking them out of the wardrobe.” Peter finished shoving the very last coat to Edmund to draw out the young boy’s discomfort.

"But that's a girl's coat!" Edmund whined offended at the fur pushed into his torso. His offended feeling rising at Peter's confirmation that he knew that too.

A cheeky smile expanded at the interaction that reminded you of Christmas mornings with Alex on who got to open the first gift. The sibling fighting that was never really as vicious as they felt like at the moment.

“To Mr. Tumnus’!” Lucy exclaimed skipping ahead of the group with Edmund trailing behind.

The Mercer home, 1994

Luke woke up with a feeling that last night had been his last chance to admit his feelings for his best friend’s sister. It felt like something had drastically changed from the previous smile he saw from you before you turned that corner. He made himself a promise he wouldn't break to shout his love from the rooftops just for you.

He couldn't wait for Reggie to pick him up, so he quickly grabbed his backpack to race out the front door. His plate barely in the sink before he was racing down the streets to Alex and your place. The grin of excitement faltered at the sight of a police car parked at the Mercer house's curb.

Mrs. Mercer sobbing in her husband's neck as a forlorn man, held his hat in his hands as he continued speaking. Luke's world lost colour for a split second before he found the blonde drummer collapsed on his knees, clutching his hair in his hands.

Then the colour leeched from Luke’s life as the once thought impossible happened.

"Alex, what's going on?"

“You!" Mrs. Mercer shouted, hearing the voice of the teenager that had taken something from the woman, "What did you do to her!”

Luke stumbled back at the heated glare from the mess of a woman so unlike the posh made-up woman. Alex was quick to push by his parents to stand shakily next to his best friend with splotchy red skin and swollen eyes.

"Luke didn't do anything! I saw her on the way home when I went to dropped that movie off at Luke's place." Alex smoothly lied to his parents saving Luke the exhaustion of a police station, and it would be the one lie that would go to their graves with them.

“My baby.” Mrs. Mercer screamed hands digging into the perfectly mowed green grass uncaring of the stains on her once immaculate elegant pearl satin slacks.

Turning robotic Alex ushered Luke down the street to the Wilson home they had turned into the band centre. Luke followed like a puppy into the open garage where Alex promptly collapsed into a fit of sobs and heavy breathing.

"She's gone." Alex cried, leaning into the sudden body hugging him with soft whispers in his ear, "Luke, Y/N didn't come home last night. None of her friends have seen her. My little sister’s missing!”

And just like that the world no longer made sense to the seventeen-year-old guitarist. The next year dragged by with running away from home. When Luke wasn’t writing music or sleeping in the studio, he was on the streets.

Clutching his favourite picture of you as he walked the streets asking if anyone had seen you while avoiding his own missing person’s poster.

Cair Paravel, Narnia

The sun rose over the land you had come to love and protect for as long as you could remember. Sometimes you hoped you’d see Aslan in the distance, but he had been gone ever since the coronation. The feeling of missing him shifted to something, no someone else you missed. It felt like a dream, and when the dream started to become clear, a hand brushed against your hip.

"Hello, darling," Peter spoke brushing a kiss on your cheek before his silky hair shifted on your skin to rest atop your own head.

A soft smile overcoming your features as his ring clinked against your own and you turned in your private chambers to stare up at him. Your hand brushing the stubble that had grown. Your eyes taking in his tanned skin from riding in the sun. For a second you swore his blue eyes flickered to hazel green.

Sometimes when you slept, you dreamt of a time where everything was different from what you knew here. Of a time when your heart fluttered for a man with hazel green eyes and a curtain of messy dark brunette hair.

“Are you alright?” Peter questioned leaning back to scan your features. It wasn't often, but he was sure you wandered off in mind.

“I’m feeling perfect.” You replied turning to wrap your arms around his shoulders, “I’m standing the arms of my King-“

“You looked beautiful tonight.” For a second, your personal bed-chamber melted away into a large room with poorly made decorations and lines on the floor of different colours. Instead of standing in Peter's arms, you found yourself moving to the music in another's arms. The same faceless person in your dreams.

"Maybe it's time we give Narnia an heir." With Peter's words, the world returned to the way it had left a bitter taste in your mouth, "What do you think of the name Luke?"

The name choked you with emotion.

Alex jogged into his sister's room, huddled over her white desk reciting information of her exam the next morning. His blue eyes lit up as he hurried to your side.

"What do you want, Alex?" You sighed turning to look at your brother with disinterest only wanting to ace this test. That way, your parents could rub in in their friends face on beating Sarah with the highest grade.

“I joined the band.” Alex beamed bringing your attention fully on him in surprise, “I’m tired of pretending to like classical music and wearing a suit that chokes me. I’m tired of having to play dress up in fancy clothes when what I want is that big pink sweater from that thrift shop. I’m tired of looking like they think a Mercer should look like. I wanna look like Alex, like myself.”

Your lips turned up at the passion ignited in Alex at the mention of three friends that had quickly become family. In welcoming Alex, they had welcomed you into the group as well. Luke being the closest friend you had that didn't care what you wore or what you said.

"You should come. You've never stayed to listen to them rehearse. Luke would love it if you came." Alex teased poking your side in the pale pink silk blouse and white knee-length skirt.

You were tired of pretending as well. You wanted to be the girl wearing a band shirt and ripped jeans. You want to wear what you wanted instead of what your parents expected. Instead of voicing a reply, you moved to the walk-in closet of designer clothing. At the very back hidden from sight was your chosen attire. In seconds you changed into one of Alex’s old band shirts tied in the back for a cropped shirt and your favourite pants.

A swipe of rebellious red lipstick to finish the look you followed Alex to his room with the large tree. You had no clue if the feeling of butterflies was from rebelling against your parents or seeing the teenage boy slowly stealing your heart.

“Not Luke.” You whispered to the man you had matured from an angsty sixteen-year-old to a twenty-five-year-old.

“Lucy may think we named him after her.” Peter joked retreating as the door to the chambers was knocked on, “I believe we owe Edmund a birthday feast.”

“I’d rather not live another year of his complaining.” You moaned lifting the skirt of your long midnight blue dress to exit the room. All thoughts of a former life disappearing like smoke once more.

King Peter and Queen Y/N took their time to the dining hall where the rest of their family was patiently waiting. Susan and Lucy sharing a smile at the topic that had been flooding the kingdom since the royal wedding two years ago. Narnia was wondering when High King Peter and his Queen would proudly show off their firstborn.

"About time. I thought we'd enter another hundred years before you two came." Edmund spoke from his chair, but instead of the same tone as the boy that first entered Narnia, it was teasing.

"Shove off and eat your cake." Peter laughed, keeping his hand encased in yours. All of them at ease with the only worry on the conflict that threatened the royals from the Ettinsmoor nation.

Part Two

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