#after listening to them since meddle about this was just everything to me

[sebin]

getting barricade for chase atlantic last night was probably one of the most insane things to ever happen to me

[janeyseymour]

hi i love ur writings so so much i’m so sorry this idea is rushed but i hope its enough

abbot family is trying to encourage melissa to “get back out there” and meet people after everything she’s been through. she brushes them off constantly until they stage an intervention during lunch and even barb is concerned for her work wife. melissa leaves this lunch with some big feelings because little does everyone know melissa has been seeing someone this whole time. comes home to reader smoking a joint while cooking in the kitchen and reader says something along the lines of “you look like you could use this more than me” and they make a plan together to introduce reader to everyone at a 4th of july bbq

you gonna get what you ask for 🤪 Not edited in the slightest. I got places to be and people to see

Intervention

WC: ~2.35k

It’s been a year and a half since Melissa Schemmenti publicly said no to a marriage proposal. A year and a half since the fiery redhead had gone out with anyone, and she really doesn’t have any plans to start dating again- at least that’s what the Abbott crew thinks.

The truth is, the second grade teacher has been seeing you since the night she went to the casino and bar to blow off some steam after reuniting with Gary to return his things and get her stuff back.

You were at one of the slot machines when the redhead passed by you, laughing.

“What’s so funny, Red?” you asked as you looked up at her.

“You ain’t gonna win no money that way,” the woman stopped in her tracks to tell you. “C’mon. Let me show you how it’s done.”

That night, you stuck by her side as you watched her win thousands of dollars at one table alone, clearing out quite a few men.

It’s late when she finally threw in the towel. She offered to walk you out to you car, and you took her hand in your own.

“So,” you exhaled a small cloud of smoke from the cigarette the two of you were sharing. “What are you gonna do with all that money you just won, pretty lady?”

“Take you out on a date,” Melissa had replied cooly. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven?”

Neither of you looked back.

That was a year and three months ago. While your side of the family knew of your relationship with the teacher (and they absolutely adore her), her crew doesn’t have a single clue of your existence or rather large presence in Melissa’s life- despite the fact that you were now living together and your lives were intertwined.

So whenever anyone at Abbott tells Melissa that they found someone they think she might fancy, she just brushes them off.

“Janine, no offense, but if you think someone is worth dating, I would find them to be-”

“Hey,” Gregory cuts her off.

Melissa just shrugs. “My case in point. Greg, you know I love you like the black son I never had, but you’re boring as hell.”

“Ava, I am not about to go clubbing with you to pick up a man fifteen years my junior,” the redhead rolls her eyes.

“C’mon,” the principal chuckles. “They fun! They’re like energizer bunnies.”

“I barely have the energy to stand and get the remote from the other side of the room,” Melissa retorts as she opens her bottle of iced tea.

“I think you would like him!” Jacob pleads. “He saw your picture and said you were fine.”

“I am fine,” Melissa states, gesturing to her figure. “And I’m just as fine without a partner.”

It’s gotten to the point that even Barbara is concerned about her friend’s adamant denial to get herself back out there. So, the day that Melissa has recess duty, she brings it up to her coworkers.

“Now listen, I am not usually one for meddling in someone else’s love life, but don’t you think it’s concerning that Melissa flat out refuses to even attempt to put herself back out there?” the kindergarten teacher asks to the faculty room.

“Weird as hell,” Ava waltzes in, but having heard the question decides to chime in. “But aye, good for Schemmenti, realizing she don’t need no man in life.”

“I just find it odd…” Barbara taps her chin. “Melissa, while one with a tough exterior, loves love. She’s always wanted someone to spend her time with.”

“Maybe we should stage an intervention,” Jacob suggests. “To really show her that she’s good and healed from the failed proposal and to get back out there.

Gregory looks mildly impressed with that suggestion. “That might work.”

They have no idea that the entire time she’s supposed to be out monitoring the children on the blacktop, she’s smiling down at her phone like an idiot talking to you.

And when she comes home that day, she fully goes through with the things you two had texted about earlier.

The Abbott crew plans an intervention for Melissa- a banner, letters, all of it. When she comes into the staff room, smiling down at a midday text you had sent her, the rest of her colleagues are standing by the couch, looking somber.

“Fuck. Who died?” Melissa’s smile drops immediately.

“No one died, Melissa,” Barbara states.

“But we think a part of you might have,” Janine says dramatically, somberly.

“What the hell are youse talkin’ about?” thee redhead rolls her eyes. 

“Melissa, dear,” Barbara says softly, calmly. She makes her way over to her friend and takes her by the hand to guide her towards the seat they had put in the middle of the room.

One by one, they read the letters that they had all written, expressing their concern for their favorite fiery Italian teacher.

“Melissa,” the kindergarten teacher finishes up. “We all love you dearly, and while we understand that it takes some time to get over the heartache that Gary caused, this is a bit extreme. We are worried.”

“An’ I appreciate the thought and care that you guys put into this,” Melissa tells them with a sigh. “But I promise youse: I’m fine. I don’t need to get back out there.” She almost adds on that it’s because she’s happily seeing someone, and has been since three months after her split from the guy that filled the vending machine.

“Just… know that we’re all here through all of your seasons,” Jacob tells her. “The good, the bad, and the ugly.”

“We do care about you,” Janine says softly, and she offers the redhead a hug. Melissa doesn’t necessarily want to embrace the shorter woman, but she goes into the arms of her colleague.

Gregory just gives her a nod that conveys his love for his coworker, to which she smirks and nods right back in his direction.

“Now, can we eat lunch?” the redhead chuckles.

As the day passes on, Melissa comes to realize just how much her coworkers care for her- their gesture, albeit absolutely ridiculous and dramatic, was heartfelt and full of love. Maybe she should just come clean about the relationship she’s in. Or she could just buy them all some Philly soft pretzels and soda instead to thank them. Yeah… that’s what she’ll do for now before she can talk to you about how the two of you want to go public about your being together.

She orders the pretzels to be delivered to the school before the day is done, and when everyone is reconvening back in the faculty room to grab their lunch bags before heading home, Melissa makes sure she’s the first one down there. She has the box on one of the tables, along with a some cans of soda. Whatever they don’t take, the redhead knows will be eaten and drank at home.

“Oi,” she calls to her friends. “Come get a pretzel and a soda as my thanks for carin’ about me so much.”

They all light up at the sight of the gesture, aside from Gregory.

“I do not like pretzels, or soda, and for that reason I will not take one,” the man says as his friends dive in. “But thank you.”

Melissa rolls her eyes. “I figured you would say that. Which is why I got you a bag of peanuts and a water.”

He looks mildly impressed and takes the offered items gratefully.

Once again, they all voice their love and care for the woman that gave them a salty treat before heading out for the night. Everyone except for Barbara. She waits for Melissa to clean up and gather her things before walking out with the woman.

“That was very sweet of you,” the kindergarten teacher nudges her friend.

Melissa huffs. “Oi. Don’t knock me like that.” She readjusts her grip on the small box of pretzels before sighing. “But it was just a thank you for caring.”

“We care about you a lot more than you know,” Barbara smiles. “And just so you know… you are a Philly eleven, and I do think you should get yourself back out there. I know it can be scary to put your heart back out there, but even if it ends in heartbreak and a few smashed in headlights, I will always be here to help you pick up the pieces.”

“I know, Barb,” the redhead says softly, so out of character. “Thank you.”

“Think about it!” the older woman says as she parts and heads off in the direction of her car.

With a sigh, Melissa unlocks her car and gets everything settled before slumping into the front seat.

Coming home with a treat, she texts you.

Is it you? You reply back.

She chuckles at that. She can practically see the smirk written on your face. You’ll see.

When she pulls in, she can smell you before she sees you. You’re clearing smoking, but she can also smell the delicious dinner that you’re making. 

The redhead makes her way into the house, deep in thought of how much her friends are looking out for her, and attempting to piece together how to approach you about the topic of coming out.

It’s odd. Your girlfriend makes her way into the kitchen and places the box of pretzels down, but she doesn’t make her way over to you the way that she usually does. Instead, she’s looking down at the food, brows furrowed and deep in thought. 

You turn the burner down to ensure that the food won’t burn or bubble over before making your way behind Melissa. You wrap the arm that isn’t holding the joint around her waist before holding it up to her lips and offering her some. Even in your somewhat inebriated state, you know something is up with her.

“You look like you could use this more than me,” you chuckle softly.

She shrugs, but does take a hit before blowing the smoke out.

“Hard day?” you ask her gently. “Need to be taken care of?”

Again, she shrugs. She doesn’t really know what to say. This is so unlike Melissa. Usually, she comes in huffing about the ridiculous antics of her boss, she bounces on her toes when she tells you the sweet things the kids had done or said, and she is more than willing to dish out the tea that was spilled in the staff lounge earlier that day.

“Mel?” you ask softly, taking a cheek in your hand and cupping it gently. You force her to look at you. “What happened today?”

She laughs softly, before full out cackling. This sudden change in mood startles you.

“Mel, babe, you’re scaring me,” you tell her. “What happened?”

She sits down and plucks the joint out of your hand. “The crew planned an intervention for me,” she tells you with a chuckle as you go back over to the stove.

You turn. “Oh?”

She nods, a playful smirk on her face.

“For?” you raise a brow. You turn your attention back to dinner. “Can I guess?”

“Sure, hun,” she laughs as she takes another drag.

  “The aggression that you email the parents with?” No. “The heeled boots hitting the linoleum tile too loudly when you’re pissed?” No. “The arson?” No. “The threats of a bare knuckle fist fight?”

“Jesus,” Melissa laughs. “When you list all of that out, I sound like a terrible person.”

“No,” you say quickly. “I love everything about you!”

“I know you do,” she chuckles. “But no. None of that.”

“Then what?”

“My love life.”

“Your love life?” you turn to look at her incredulously.

“My love life,” the redhead sighs. “They had a banner, they had letters, they had the chair in the middle of the room… everything. And for me. When I don’t even have a problem with my love life.”

“So why did you come in lookin’ all sad?”

“Not sad… just thoughtful. The things they said… it showed me how lucky I am to have coworkers that care for me as deeply as they do. So at the end of the day, I had pretzels for them to show my gratitude. And after, Barbara and I walked out together… and… how would you feel about telling people that we’re together?”

You finish stirring the food and plating it before bringing it over to the table where your girlfriend is sitting. You set the two dishes in front of her before sliding into her lap. You finish off the joint together before smiling.

“I’ve been ready,” you tell her. “I’ve just been waiting for you to be.”

“Yeah?” she asks you as she kisses your temple.

You nod before taking a bite of your dinner. Damn, between the two of you, you should open your own restaurant. “We’ve been together for over a year, living together since six months in, I don’t plan on going anywhere, and I would hope you don’t either. I think it’s time.”

“I think so too,” she says softly. “But with the end of the year comin’ up… we’re all crazy busy.”

“So we can organize something for after the school year?” you suggest. “Maybe a fourth of July barbecue?”

So that’s what the two of you do. Your girlfriend walks into school on the last day and tells her friends that she knows that don’t have anything going on for Fourth of July, and they better be at her house for a barbecue. They all look at her, clearly confused. No one- not even Barb- has been invited over to the house since Melissa and Gary broke up. Nevertheless, they don’t argue and all promise to be there.

They all come in one clump, and the faces that they make when you open the door draped around Melissa are priceless.

“This is my girlfriend, Y/N,” she says proudly. “The reason that I have been declining all of the people you’ve suggested I date, and the reason I have not ‘put myself back out there’. I don’t gotta when I have her.”

[steddiealltheway]

Part Six of Six of Meddling :( I'm so sad. Part One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Ao3 Link.

And I would once again like to dedicate this story to Cass (@henderdads). I hope it's as fluffy as you like <3

Eddie's location shows that he's back at his apartment like Robin had said. Steve isn’t sure why he thought he would be somewhere dramatic like on some random hill overlooking the city – especially since Eddie doesn’t like heights.  

So, Steve makes the quick drive over to his tiny apartment and sits in the parking lot. It’s going to be okay. It’s all going to be okay.  

They’re finally going to talk.  

Steve makes the familiar walk up to Eddie’s place and hesitates outside. There’s the loud sound of Eddie playing his electric guitar on the other side of the door. He sighs when he realizes it’s “Master of Puppets” which is his so called “battle song” whenever he’s about to face something really bad.  

Well, this isn’t good.  

Steve sits in front of the door and waits for the song to play out. He isn’t going to interrupt Eddie mid verse and piss him off any more than he already has.  

Two people end up passing him in the hall and giving him weird looks, but Steve just smiles up at them tightly and waves. He eventually closes his eyes and leans his head back against the door.  

He’s always enjoyed listening to Eddie play, but he’s never listened when he’s been the source of Eddie’s inspiration. He just wishes it was a good type of inspiration.  

As the song comes to an end, Steve tries to prepare himself to stand up and knock before Eddie starts another one. But he lingers when he hears Eddie curse under his breath and unplug his amp. He hears the muffled, “Goddamnit... lying... son of a... bitch. Oh, this is so stupid, this is so stupid. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.”  

And Steve is too busy feeling sorry for himself that he doesn’t register the words are growing louder as the sound of footsteps approach the door. Then, the door opens and Steve falls back against the ground.  

“Steve?” Eddie asks above him.  

Steve groans and grabs his head. He hopes this doesn’t trigger another concussion or migraine.  

“Shit,” Eddie says. He steps over Steve and holds his hand out to help him up. Steve grabs it and lets himself be pulled up and led to the couch. “I’ll be right back,” Eddie promises.  

Next thing he knows, Steve has an ice pack wrapped in a towel placed in his hand. He glances up at Eddie. “I’m fine. I don’t need this.”  

Eddie crosses his arms and looks down at him. “My apartment, my rules. Put the ice pack on your head.”  

Steve feels around for anywhere tender and hisses at one spot he touches a little too hard. It’s not raised or anything, plus he usually has too much adrenaline to feel pain after he’s gotten a concussion, so Steve is pretty sure it’s just a bruise. He puts the ice pack on it anyways, not wanting to argue with Eddie. “Can we talk?” Steve asks.  

Eddie shrugs and sits in the worn leather chair in his living room. “About what?”  

Steve tries not to roll his eyes. “About the fact that everything was going so well today, and we were supposed to talk until you saw that text from Jordan.”  

He watches as Eddie shifts uncomfortably in the chair and starts picking at his nails. He sighs and looks at Steve. “It’s fine. We were just doing a favor for Robin. We don’t have to make a big deal out of it. There was always a deadline for this whole relationship thing, and I just cut it off sooner than planned. But if she needs me there to make Veronica comfortable, then I don’t think she should date her.”  

Steve sighs and puts his head in his hand. He’ll have to touch on the whole Veronica thing later so Eddie doesn’t get sidetracked. He puts the ice pack on Eddie’s wobbly coffee table then rubs his hands up and down his legs nervously and asks, “What if I wanted to make a big deal out of it?”  

“What?”  

Steve runs a hand through his hair, trying to settle his nerves. “What if I wanted to make a big deal out of it because Jordan means nothing to me? I wasn’t lying earlier when I said I wasn’t seeing anyone. I hooked up with her three weeks ago and haven’t talked to her since.”  

Eddie just laughs and shakes his head. “You don’t get it, do you?”  

“What?” Steve asks exasperated because he would really love if Eddie explained things to him.  

But he isn’t prepared for Eddie to look him in the eye with so much hurt as he asks, “Steve, over the past three years since you’ve met me, do you remember me going out with anyone? Mentioning anyone?”  

Steve shakes his head. Honestly, it was just never something Eddie brought up. He just thought he wasn’t comfortable talking about those things.  

“I wasn’t lying tonight,” Eddie says. “Since the moment I met you, I have fallen for you so damn hard, but every single time I’ve thought the timing was finally right and I was about to confess my feelings, you’ve mentioned someone new. It’s been three years, Steve. Why did you never consider me?” Eddie’s voice breaks at the end.  

Steve shakes his head. “I just didn’t let myself think I had a chance with you.”  

“Bullshit,” Eddie says.  

Steve points at him. “Don’t use that word. You know what it means to me.”  

Eddie leans forward in his chair and slowly says, “I do, and that’s why I call bullshit.”  

It hurts hearing it from Eddie, so Steve stands up and starts heading to the door.

He stops in his tracks.

Maybe Eddie’s right. Maybe Steve needs to be honest with himself. He’s always thought of Eddie as a fantasy out of reach, and in the process, he’s set himself up on so many pointless dates that he knew wouldn’t go anywhere. He was honestly self-sabotaging since the moment he met Eddie because...  

He walks back to Eddie and stops in front of his chair. “I was scared, Eddie.”  

Eddie scoffs.  

This only makes Steve upset. He throws out his arms. “In the past three years, when have you ever seen me have a serious relationship?”  

Eddie is silent for a moment, considering before he answers, “Never.”  

“And why do you think that is?”  

Eddie shrugs. “Because you’re not a relationship guy?”  

“Bullshit,” Steve says. “It’s because I was scared of getting hurt again. You remember what I said today at the bar. The whole reason we were supposed to talk.” Eddie looks down. Steve swallows hard and drops to his knees in front of the chair, forcing Eddie to look at him. “I have been scared of you since the moment I laid eyes on you because I knew you could so easily break my heart.”  

Steve hesitantly puts his hands on Eddie’s knees and squeezes. “And I was scared of hurting you, too.” He pauses and adds, “Then, Dustin would kill me.”  

Eddie lightly laughs at that, and Steve’s heart soars. He laughs with him. “You know it’s true! He would kill the both of us if we hurt each other. God, he’s probably already going to kill me.”  

Eddie softly cups Steve’s cheek and says, “I wouldn’t let him do that to you.”  

Steve leans into his hand and turns to press a soft kiss against it. “Today was one of the best days of my life, and I don’t want to spend another second pretending that I would be okay not reliving it every day. So, can we please finally get the timing right, and will you please go out with me?”  

Eddie stares at him hesitantly and sighs with a smile. “Well, I feel obligated now that you’re on your knees practically begging for me to say yes.”  

Steve laughs and shoves his shoulder. “Shut up.”  

Eddie mimes zipping his mouth closed and throwing the key away.  

“Oh my gosh, Eddie, just say yes.”  

Eddie smiles with his lips still closed and gestures to his mouth then shrugs.  

Steve puts his head in his hands and asks, “Are you going to make me humiliate myself by trying to find the key?”  

He gets a tap on his shoulder, and he looks up to find Eddie nodding with an evil smile.  

Steve sighs and stands up. “Why can’t I just have a normal boyfriend?”  

“Can’t call me your boyfriend when I haven’t said yes,” Eddie argues then slams his hand over his mouth.  

Steve just laughs as Eddie’s hand slowly slides down to reveal his big smile. Steve grabs both of his hands and pulls him up into a hug. He holds on tight as Eddie slowly wraps his arms around him.  

“Yes, by the way,” Eddie whispers into his ear.  

Steve pulls back. “Yes?” he asks.  

Eddie nods with a breathtaking smile. “Yes.”  

Steve lets out a sigh of relief before pulling Eddie into a kiss - their first kiss as a real couple.  

They both smile into the kiss, pulling away every so often to laugh and whisper things like, “I can’t believe this is finally happening,” and “I’m your boyfriend,” and “You’re my boyfriend.”  

And yes, all of those comments end up being Eddie as Steve confirms each with another kiss. But they both end up smiling so hard that they have to pull away and rest their heads against each other.  

“Jesus H. Christ,” Eddie says, “How long are we going to have to lie to Veronica about when our relationship started.”  

Oh no.  

Steve sighs and pulls Eddie to the couch. “You might want to sit down for this...”  

He recalls what Robin and Nancy told him, and Eddie ends up nodding and saying, “Yeah, I was wondering how Veronica would feel about Nancy and Robin being so weirdly close. But this makes way more sense.” Steve finds his reaction to be way more tame than his until he asks, “Want to go over there and make them pay?”  

Steve shakes his head with a smile. “I think making them wait in suspense is the best way to torture them.”  

“And how long do we want to make them wait?”  

Steve shrugs. “A few hours, maybe longer.”  

Eddie smiles. “And what should we do during those hours?”  

Steve presses a kiss against Eddie’s cheek and says, “I have a few ideas.”  

“Me too,” Eddie says as he moves to capture Steve’s lips with his own.  

Steve can’t believe that this could’ve been his life for the past three years, but luckily, they have all the time in the world to make up for lost time.  

But they still should’ve done this way sooner.  

-:-:-:-:-:-

One year later...  

“Come on, Steve. We’re going to be late!” Robin yells.  

Steve stares at his reflection and fixes his hair a few more times before he pulls back to stare at his outfit. He laughs at the yellow sweater that Eddie insisted he had to wear on their one-year anniversary before running off to help Nancy with some emergency.  

He’s not sure why Robin didn’t leave instead of him considering that the two girls now live together, but he doesn’t question it too much. Eddie was ready, and Robin said she wasn’t.  

He’s also not sure why Robin is fussing so much about getting to the bar on time when the four of them could celebrate both their anniversaries at any time of the day.  

“Come on, Steve. We can’t keep Nancy and Eddie waiting for too long or else they’re going to have to keep stalling and insisting that two other people are coming. But what if they don’t believe them? What if they get kicked out for loitering, huh? Then, where are we going to celebrate at? There’s no fair this year, and I think Eddie would die if we made him ride the Ferris wheel again. So, hurry up!”  

Steve stops staring at himself and turns to face Robin who has been pacing in the doorway and frantically texting on her phone for the past five minutes. As far as Steve knows, they’re both going to be right on time and probably early if they leave in the next few minutes, He crosses his arms. “What are you hiding?”  

Robin looks at him with wide eyes, very much giving away that she is hiding something. “Nothing!” she squeals.  

Steve raises his eyebrows.  

Robin stutters a bit then sighs. “Fine, I’m just nervous about the gift I got for Nancy for our anniversary.”  

“I thought you already gave her it?”  

Robin’s eyes flicker to the left. Another giveaway that she’s lying. “It’s another gift.”  

Steve rolls his eyes and walks past her. “I know you’re hiding something from me, but you’re right. We’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon. So, let’s go, Buckley.”  

He keeps pressing it during the car ride over until Robin launches off on a rant about the new lingerie she bought for their anniversary that she doesn’t think Nancy will like and goes into far too much detail about it. So much so that she only finishes her rant once they’ve pulled into the parking of the bar.  

“Steve,” Robin says.  

Steve stops and turns to her.  

She says nothing.  

“What?” he asks.  

Then, he gets concerned as tears fill her eyes and she smiles wider. “Nothing, I’m just so happy.”  

Steve stares in horror and confusion as Robin gets weirdly emotional. “Yeah, okay, let’s get you to Nancy,” Steve says, stepping out of his car and following as Robin practically skips to the bar.  

He stares as she proudly holds the door open. Yeah, things are starting to get weird-  

He stops in the entrance to the bar and stares at the rose petals on the floor. What?  

There’s a guitar strum, and Steve watches as Eddie starts to play on the stage with the horrible acoustics. He recognizes the song from the first night they met, and stops in his place, as mesmerized as he was when he first saw him.  

He plays it the whole way through before he puts his guitar back in his case and comes back to the mic. “Hey, everyone, and especially you Steve.”  

Steve smiles but then startles as he notices there are definitely more people than just him and Eddie in the place. In fact, it’s... everyone he knows. Dustin... the rest of the party... even Eddie’s uncle Wayne is there.  

“A year ago, Steve and I finally got together after I pined after him since the first night we met here in this very bar. Now, the song I just played wasn’t romantic at all, but it’s the song I was playing when I first laid eyes on Steve. And I have never been the same,” Eddie says resting his hands over his heart in a mixture of sincerity and just for the dramatics. “But, a year ago, when we lied to the waiter about our anniversary and scored Robin here some free cake-”  

“Hey!” Robin interjects.  

Everyone laughs, but Steve, Eddie, and Nancy know it’s true.  

“Well, I told the waiter that in one year, I would be back to propose to Steve.”  

Steve’s heart skips a beat as it all connects. He feels tears fill his eyes much like Robin as Eddie gets off the shitty stage and makes his way to Steve. He takes his hands. “Steve, I have loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you. And I can’t imagine a life where you’re not in it forever. And with that being said, I think it’s only fair that I get to be the one that goes down on one knee since you went down on two to ask me out.”  

“Gross,” Dustin says.  

“Not like that!” Eddie yells at him. He mumbles, “Christ, kid is going to ruin the damn moment.”  

Steve can’t help but think that nothing could ever ruin this moment.  

Eddie then pulls a ring box out of his back pocket and gets down on one knee. “Steve, will you marry me?”  

Steve feels a tear slip down his face as he nods and happily laughs out, “Yes.”  

He tugs Eddie up and hugs him tight, as everyone starts cheering and flooding around the two.  

Later, Dustin, Nancy, and Robin start arguing about who is the reason they got together, but the couple is quick to humble Robin and Nancy reminding them that they’re both the reason they almost ruined their relationship forever.  

Nancy apologizes as Robin argues that it still worked out in the end, but Dustin takes it as a victory.  

Eddie just laughs through it all, insisting that it was actually his impeccable guitar skills that got the two of them together, and they would be nowhere without it.  

But Steve knows deep down that no matter what universe they are in, he and Eddie would somehow end up together.

Thank you to my dear tag list and everyone for sticking around for this story and leaving such kind comments <3 I hope you enjoyed

Tag List:

@henderdads @little-gae-shit @dreamingtheimpossibe @leethegay @lazyavenuewhispers @olibxr @thegayestpersonever @heartsforhawke @estrellami-1 @messrs-weasley @evillitteguy @miss-hit @infrogulous @romanticdestruction @liz5100 @evix-syne666 @bebe07011 @corrodedseraphine @meganwinchester @manda-panda-monium @heartdinosblog @ellietheasexylibrarian @newtstabber @irregular-child @turboprops69 @envyadams-vs-me @dude-as-in-i-love-u @slv-333 @jillfriend @goodolefashionedloverboi @steady-delusional-moonlover @scheodingers-muppet @sleepyboosstuff @cyranyx @bestwifehaver @marvel-ous-m @chaosgoblinreblogsthings @vampiregirl1797 @moltenchocolatelavacake

[norrisreads]

Dangerous Woman 2 #CS55

PAIRING: carlos sainz x reader!, non racer carlos sainz jr x reader!

SUMMARY: being arranged married to carlos sainz, will the both of you work the marriage or will the next step be signing the divorce papers

WARNINGS: age gap, arranged married related, no smuts! tensions ofc, will be a 4 part series, inc of smau! angst, fluff (in the future?)

part 1

full masterlist

Carlos definition of a date in his mind was a normal casual dinner date, not a date where the both of you would’ve enjoyed because right now while waiting for both of your food to arrived, there was a thick air of tension surrounding both of you.

“will you explain what is going on or are we supposed to sit here in silence?” you spoke, cutting off his train of thoughts

not far from your table you could notice the presence of the trio that was peeping towards your table, it’s not a secret when they’re out there wearing the exact same thing that you last saw them in.

“i’m aware lando have told you i’ve broken up with her” nodding your head agreeing to the statement

“I’ll appreciate if i could rekindle this situation, slowly”

now, you’re laughing because why now? why rekindle after a year?

“that’s funny sainz, the last thing i’ve heard from you was that you threw away our friendship over, just because you thought this marriage would meddle in to your relationship”

“you would’ve done the same thing, y/n. you don’t understand”

What did he meant that you wouldn’t understand? what about the nights you sobbed to him about how much you’ve loved your ex, but your parents would never approve of him which led the both of you to part ways

“i would’ve done the same thing carlos, but i couldn’t. it’s different for me because i’m not the head of the family, i’m just a woman who has to listen to everything my father says. I loved him, but i couldn’t do it anymore so i truly understand carlos. I’ve never once threw away our friendship but instead you, you’re selfish and you’re unaware of it”

you expected a reply but all he gave you was a slight nod agreeing to whatever you’ve just told him

“let’s just eat, we’re here anyways, and it would be great if those trios of yours join us instead of trying to hide themselves, because it’s not working”

it’s been two weeks since then, there was an improvement in carlos attitude towards you, he would pick you up daily from your shifts, asked you out to dinner and he’s actually treating you like a wife should have been treated, which was odd but it did healed a part of your heart knowingly this is exactly the way you wanted to be treat as a wife.

“you’ve been nothing but glowing these past few days, what’s going on?” you’re currently on face-time with your best-friend, casually keeping up with each other gossips

“it’s carlos, he’s been treating me differently ever since that dinner date” setting up your phone on your table, while you’re removing your left over makeup

“well that’s great isn’t it? you guys are married so, least he could do is start treating you like a wife”

your best friend have always had a grudge towards Carlos, ever-since you’ve told her about both yours and Carlos rough past

“yeah and i guess im still getting used to it, but she’s gonna come back anytime sooner, this isn’t the first and surely would not be the last”

sighing while removing your makeup, from your phone screen you could see your best friend shrugging her shoulders agreeing with whatever you’ve just said to her

“he does that everytime, y/n. it’s all up to your choices love”

just then you heard your front doors open with voices trailing behind, “i think he’s homed, i’ll text you in a while, love you”

with that you ended the call with your best-friend and walked to your living room only to be greeted with carlos and his friends

“is there something going on today?” you were confused, you weren’t aware of the invitation of his friends over to your house

“they were just stopping by for dinner, would you like to join us?”

“It’s alright, your mom came by and brought over some food. I’ll just heat them up for you guys”

with that, carlos left the kitchen to entertain his friends

you weren’t particularly fond of his friends, other than the three who’s always around the both of you, these friends were different

you knew the friend group that he sticks by has been there for him since childhood and they’ve particularly were more fond of her rather than you.

there were many times you’d eavesdrop their conversations and those times were when you’d listen to their bad remarks about your marriage.

you knew who carlos ex girlfriend was, you’ve met her multiple times due to carlos and your family gathering that’s on-going for every year.

you’d be lying if you think she wasn’t beautiful because she is, no one knew but you’d sometimes compare the both of you because clearly she was the better looking.

your train of thoughts left your mind when you felt hands snaking around your waist

“what’s going on with that mind of yours, i’ve been calling for you to join us”

you could smell that strong perfume of his and a tint of sweetness which you for sure know it’s neither his nor yours because the perfumes you wore were always citrusy scents, and that was one sign you should have never choose to ignore

taglist ; @iissza @spngi @sainzluvrr @slut4lando

link to taglist

a/n : thank you for the support & love for dangerous woman 🥹! i’ve received multiple inboxs asking when will i post the next part, so here you go <3!

[sunlightmurdock]

The Parent Trap | 0.1 | Bradley Bradshaw x Ex-Wife!Reader

♡ Prologue | Next Chapter | Masterlist

♡ In which, after a couple of years of listening to Peyton and Parker Bradshaw complain about their parents’ custody agreement, Grandpa Mav’s meddling goes a little bit too far.

♡ warnings: mentions of divorce throughout the fic, flashbacks to arguments and unhappily married people. Idiots who still love each other and don’t know it. (warnings will be added as story progresses).

…

“Alright! They’re here.” Maverick drops the curtain back into place and turns back towards his granddaughters. “Be cool.”

Peyton looks up, scrunches her nose just a fraction — she takes a moment to analyse what this might entail. Maverick sits back against the couch and opens his book up, picking a random page a couple of chapters in, settling into his position. Parker settles in equally easily, she drops down so that she’s sitting cross-crossed and immediately gets to work penciling in answers on her worksheet. Peyton inhales, then almost forgets to exhale, her mind racing as the sound of footsteps on the porch ring out over the top of Maverick’s soft soul album playing.

Finally, she drops down next to her sister and grabs a pencil.

“It’s been forever since I’ve seen Mav,” You muse, breathing out softly as you follow Bradley up onto the porch. It’s been forever since you’ve even been here, you’ve only seen Maverick a handful of times since you divorced Rooster. He was always kind to you. “He might not even recognise me.” You joke.

Rooster almost scoffs. Recognise you? — He hardly ever shuts up about you. It’s a good thing, probably, that his friends and family are so fond of you. It means he picked a good person to share his life with. It just makes things even more difficult now that the two of you have decided to go your own ways.

“He’s not that old.” Rooster settles with instead, keeping things lighthearted as he turns the door handle and opens the front door. He steps in first and holds the door open behind him for you. Taking a few steps forwards, he has a good view into the living room on the left.

The girls are both sitting on the floor, working on some school work together. Peyton’s helping her sister with math. Maverick is reading a fictional romance novel. One of Penny’s. Peyton is way worse than Parker at math. Damn it.

Maverick glances up from his book and even through the suddenly blurred lenses of his reading glasses, he can see the disappointment on Rooster’s face. Busted. But, as far as Rooster knows, this just means that the three of them spent the afternoon having fun and watching TV. Which isn’t entirely incorrect.

“Hi, Mav.” You step around Rooster sheepishly and lift your hand, waving it at him. Rooster looks you up and down, brows scrunching slightly. This is the man who drove you to the hospital when you were in labour and Rooster was an hour away in traffic. The same one who held you whilst you sobbed at the thought of not being a good enough mother and told you it was all going to be okay. The first person that the two of you told you were expecting.

And here you are, acting like he has become a stranger.

There are lots of aspects of divorce that hurt more than Rooster was expecting them to. Those hour long gaps in his Sundays now that he doesn’t have to go and put gas in your car. Getting home from work on a night that the girls are with you and his home being empty.

Now, Rooster doesn’t have much of a family. It was just Mav for a little while, and then Penny and Amelia came along. But, then he had you — and the girls, and you were all a big family. Now, Maverick is someone that you can only awkwardly say hello to. No longer family.

“Hey, honey! How’ve you been?” The book is discarded and Maverick is pushing himself up off of the couch, arms opened and walking towards you. Your body unstiffens, exhaling quickly as you let him envelope you in a hug. It takes everything in you not to rush out a pained ‘oh my god, I thought you hated me’.

Your mind jumbles, searching for the right words as Maverick squeezes you. He’s greyer than the last time you saw him, he still smells like the same cologne he wore when you met him. That means Penny’s still unsuccessful in making him stop buying the same pine scented spray that he wore in the eighties.

“Good! I’m — busy, but I’m good.” You manage out. He pulls back to look at you, catching your arms like you’ll disappear again if he doesn’t ground you right here with him. He looks over your face fondly. Both of you a little bit older, probably none the wiser.

Pete grins and nods his head. “I’m glad, I’m so glad.”

Rooster looks between the two of you, then back at the kids looking up at them curiously. As he glances back to Maverick, he knows that it’s only a matter of time before the old man starts spouting off some crap about how the two of you would probably be happier together.

“Mav, could we have a second alone with the kids? — We still have to get them home before their bedtime and stuff.” Rooster reminds his uncle gentle. Maverick jumps to his senses and pulls back nodding.

“Oh, right. Of course. I’ll — I’m going to go and start making dinner for Penny. I’ll be in the kitchen.” As he turns, his back to the two of you, his eyes on the kids, Maverick gives them an overzealous wink. It’s up to them from here on out. Then, he leaves and heads for the kitchen, shutting the door behind him.

Bradley moves first. He walks calmly into the living room and sits down in front of the two of them. You follow suit. There’s a beat of silence, the four of you looking at each other.

Finally, you’re the first to speak. “First, your dad and I just wanted to say that we’re glad you two can talk to each other, and that you wanted to help out your sister. But you know that this was completely the wrong way to go about it. Right?”

“We know…” Peyton agrees dejectedly, guilt in her tone and her body language as she twirls her pencil between her fingers.

You do your best not to make it a lecture, knowing that they’ll just zone out if you drone on at them too much. They’re still little and long lectures can be draining on their developing minds. You do your best to engage, asking them questions, keeping them involved.

It’s clear that they know what they did was wrong. You’ve got a sneaking feeling that this probably won’t be the last time they do something like it, but for now it’s resolved either way.

They’re going to write an apology to their teachers for switching classes again. You and Rooster had been texting about this all afternoon, you’ve considered making them write an apology to William — but he’s kind of a little asshole and his mother is even worse.

You check your watch and it’s already a little after seven. Their bedtime is eight. Luckily, Mav gave them dinner, so all you have to do is get them home and into bed. Then, you can get started with the mountain of work that you have left to do tonight.

“Alright, go say goodnight to Grandpa Mav, we should get going.”

“Can I drive home with Dad?” Parker asks suddenly. A quick glance towards your ex-husband, clearly tired after the day, relaxed back against the couch. He moved a while ago, complaining that sitting on the floor was hurting his back. You shake your head quickly.

“No, not today. It’s out of his way, and you two need to get to bed soon.”

“I just wanted to talk to him about the stuff with Billy,” She turns those big brown eyes towards Rooster and looks up at him, guilt filled and sorrowful. “I feel bad for not telling you about it. Can we talk?”

You open your mouth to correct her. Rooster, already suckered, sits forwards and nods his head. “Yeah, Peanut. We can talk about it.”

“You don’t have to, I mean, it’s—“

“It’s alright, I can take them back with me and we’ll just meet you at your place.” Rooster decides, running his fingers through his auburn hair and sitting up, readying to stand.

For the millionth time that day, your children catch you off guard. Peyton looks up, scowling, completely serious as she shouts, “No, I want to go with Mom!”

Rooster glances across at you, then back at her. Ultimately, he shrugs — it has been a long day and the twins’ favourite parent switches up routinely, he has learned to just take it in his stride. “Alright, so we’ll take one each. Just me and you, Parks.”

You’re more skeptical of this behavior, and your daughters recognise it immediately. You squint as you look between the two of them, and their sweet little faces. They’re probably up to something, but like their dad, you’re exhausted and don’t have time to investigate.

“Okay. One each.” You agree with a tired shrug, pushing yourself up from the floor. The girls rush off to say their goodbyes to Maverick, Bradley thanks him for watching them, then you’re all bundling out to the cars. You pause at the realization that Rooster has his bronco.

He catches your scowl as you pass him one of the booster seats. “She’ll be fine, I’ll drive slow.”

“I can take her, it’s not a problem.” You shake your head at the thought of her climbing up into that almost fifty year old, mostly metal, box. Rooster has always defended that truck to you, insisting that it’s safe. Still, you had made him buy something safer for when he has the kids. Their booster seats are still in the backseat of the fourth gen dodge Ram on his driveway, he never takes them in this.

“I’m going with Dad.” Parker insists. You both turn, looking up to find her already climbing on the side of the truck, having lifted herself up onto the step, now struggling to get the door open.

“We’ll see you at your place.” Rooster nods. With that, he turns away from you and wraps and arm around Parker’s middle, scooping her off of the side of his truck and opening the door with her under one arm.

You swallow softly and slide into the driver’s side of your car. Before you’ve even turned the key in the ignition, Peyton pipes up from behind you. “Was it weird being at Grandpa Mav’s house? — Did you guys used to be friends?”

“Alright, you buckled in?” Rooster looks up and checks his rear view mirror, finding his daughter’s smiling face looking back at him. He misses seeing those faces every day. She nods calmly and tugs at the seatbelt to prove it. Rooster nods, turning the radio down a little so that he’ll be able to hear her. The soft top cover will help, since the wind won’t be in their ears.

“Did you see that Mommy got her hair cut? — I like it like that, it’s pretty.” Parker comments, dragging her backpack across the seat towards her and starting to rifle through it as Bradley pulls away from the curb. He glances up at her through the mirror, brows scrunching just slightly, lips quirked.

“I thought we were going to talk about this Billy kid.” He reminds her.

“We are,” She shrugs her shoulders and pulls her notebook from the backpack, along with a blue pencil. “I’m just saying, Mommy looked really pretty today, don’t you think?”

“Your Mom always looks pretty. Just like you, Peanut.” At first glance, it’s a nice thing to say. But, it’s what he always says. With the two of them sharing so many of your features, he’d never dream of saying anything bad about the way you look. Not that he has anything bad to say anyway. Still, Parker is looking for something a little better than that.

She stares at him, squinting for a moment, then persists. “Yeah. But don’t you think she looks especially pretty now?”

Rooster glances up again, lips quirking more, brows scrunching in amused confusion at the serious expression on her face. “Yeah, I guess. — What’s this about?”

“I’m just asking. Don’t you think about Mom when you aren’t with her?” Parker frowns, folding her arms over her chest. Rooster pulls to a stop at a red light and looks back at his daughter, baffled. He always knew that getting a divorce was going to bring up some questions from the kids, he just wasn’t expecting this level of interrogation today.

He gives a small shrug. “Yeah, I think about you guys all the time. Y’know, how you’re doing, if you’re safe—“

“No, not us. Mommy.” Parker interrupts. Rooster glances back again, finding her staring back at him with her pencil resting on the page, her expression impatient. He pulls away from the now green light and shifts in his seat, completely confused.

“Um… yeah, I guess I think about her when we aren’t together. Parks, where’s all this coming from?” He frowns.

“Nowhere. So, anyway… Billy.” She tosses the notebook to the side and rests her hands in her lap.

Peyton twirls a curl around her finger, bopping her head to the lyrics of a song from the noughties. “I just think it’s cool that Daddy gets to fly planes. Did you think it was cool when you met him?”

When you met Rooster, you were still a bartender, working part time in a local boutique. You worked for Penny back then. You were somewhat young, especially impressionable — and he was perfect. Tanned skin, sunglasses and sea-salt tangled curls, asking you how your weekend was going every week.

Listening to your stories, asking you out, telling you about his adventures. It was all so quick in the beginning and yes, he was so cool.

“He was alright.” You answer back, glancing up into the rear view mirror with a soft smile toying at your lips. Peyton grins, she knows what that means.

She’s heard this story a million times and yet she asks again, “What was your first date like?”

Things with Rooster had never been exactly traditional. You’d already slept with him a couple of times before he finally murmured into your skin that he wanted to take you out for real, that he needed to know more about you.

But, that aspect obviously remains between just you and Rooster. You tell your kids about the date by the beach, him trying to impress you with somewhat of a picnic. Pushing him over in the water, him carrying you back to the car when you cut your foot on a rock by the shore.

He was so attentive in the beginning.

By the time you’re pulling onto the driveway, you check the rear view mirror and Peyton’s got her head leaned against the car door, lips parted, dead asleep. You smile softly, shaking your head as you unbuckle yourself and let yourself out.

Rooster pulls up as you close the door behind you. He turns off the ignition and hops down from the truck, standing under the glow of a streetlight.

“Parker’s asleep, I’ll carry her in.” He calls to you, already walking around to grab her door. You shake your head fondly as you turn back towards your car.

“Peyton too.” You chuckle.

Rooster unbuckles his daughter and lifts her into one of his arms, grabbing her backpack from the backseat with the other. He tucks her in against his side, her head lulling onto his shoulder, not stirring from her sleep in the slightest.

You groan as you hoist Peyton up onto your hip, struggling to balance her and shut the car door at the same time. It tugs at your heart strings as you realise out loud, “They’re going to be too big for us to do this soon.”

Rooster chuckles and steps around you to shut the car door for you. He makes it look so easy. “No, they’re going to be too big for you to do this soon. I’ve got a couple more years.”

You hug her closer to you, struggling to keep her tight against you, wondering when she got so big as you fumble for your keys in the tight back pocket of your shorts.

“I’ve got it.” Nudging your wrist out of the way, Rooster dips his hand into your back pocket and takes the keys. It’s a quick interaction, probably not him trying to cop a feel — it’s too fleeting for that, but it leaves you stunned nonetheless. He works the door open and glances back to check that you’re coming, still balancing your daughter with ease as he sets the keys on the end table inside.

Realising quickly that you must look like an idiot just standing there and staring at him, your feet carry you forwards and you kick the door shut behind you. He carries Parker up the stairs ahead of you. It hasn’t been that long since he lived here, it looks kind of different — the pictures on the stairway wall are different, but not unfamiliar.

He rounds the corner and pushes the door to their room open. Now, this is different. White walls dotted with little painted blue flowers, big-girl beds. Long gone is the nursery and toddler furniture that the two of you had filled this room with. It makes sense, their room at his place isn’t that different from this one, but still, he wonders why you didn’t ask him to help.

He sets Parker down on the bed closest to the door, slipping her shoes off of her feet and dropping them down to the floor beside her bedside table. The room would be bigger if they had bunk beds, but after last summer’s top bunk fight, you had forever abandoned that idea.

“I’ll go switch the car seats back over, if you wanna get them ready for bed.” Rooster says gently as you walk past him to set Peyton down in her own bed. You lift your head and nod gratefully at him across the dark room. Leaning forwards, you flick the switch for Peyton’s nightlight, it’s soft white glow illuminating the room enough for you to see the smile on his face.

“Thanks. Could you come back in afterwards? — I wanted to talk to you about something.” You’re busy unlacing Peyton’s tennis shoe and so you don’t notice the elated smile that’s on her face as she feigns unconsciousness. Rooster nods calmly.

“Sure. I’ll wait downstairs.”

Getting them both into their pyjamas, tucking them safely under their covers and slipping their respective stuffed animals in with them, kissing them both goodnight, it’s all part of the usual routine. Rooster’s leaning against the kitchen counter when you return back downstairs, arms folded over his chest as he frowns at the sink.

Slowly, you come to a stop a little bit away from him, unsure of how to say what comes next. You inhale, fiddling with your hands in front of you. He isn’t even looking at you, it’s like he knows already.

“Does it always drip like that?” He asks, pushing himself up and crossing the room to inspect the faucet. Your lips part, brows furrowing slightly. You hadn’t even noticed. He cranes his neck to get a better look. “You should’ve said, I can fix it this weekend or something, if you’re around.”

“Um… I actually wanted to see if you were free this weekend.” You explain calmly. Parker’s mouth gapes open as she and her sister huddle together at the bottom of the stairs, trying to listen to the soft conversation happening a room away. Rooster glances at you over his shoulder, just as taken back by the idea as his kids are. “There’s someone that I want you to meet.”

Rooster turns around to face you, leaning back against the counter and resting his hands on the wooden countertop. “Me? — Who would you want - Oh. You’re seeing someone?”

Realisation covers his face; it’s neither a good or bad reaction, and after years of knowing him as intimately as you do - did - you wish you could tell. You try to act as natural as he does about it.

“Well, I’ve been on a few dates with someone,” You explain gently. It’s a sensitive topic, telling your ex that you’re trying to move on. You’re not naive, you know that Rooster has hooked up with people since the divorce, you have too. But it’s different now, it’s bigger. “I really like him, and I’m thinking of introducing him to the girls. But I want you to meet him first.”

Parker slaps a hand over her sister’s mouth to contain the gasp, both of them ducking behind the railing by the stairs, like they won’t be seen through the gaps. They exchange looks, a thousand thoughts at once, plans being drawn up internally already.

It’s quiet in the kitchen, bar the sound of the faucet dripping behind him. His eyes, a dark hickory, search over your features. It’s unclear exactly what answer he’s searching for in your expression, but it doesn’t take him long to find it.

“Alright,” He nods his head. He signed those divorce papers just like you did. He was there for the custody hearing, the division of assets, explaining it to the kids. Rooster’s been present and aware of what this divorce means every step of the way. It’s been two years of pretty much radio silence. Neither one of you have exactly hidden the little flings you’ve had in the meantime, but you’ve kept that from the kids and you haven’t made a point of telling each other either.

Rooster’s trusted your judgment for as long as he has known you. If you think you’ve found someone worth introducing to the kids, then he should be happy. It wouldn’t be fair to hold you back.

He gives another curt nod, “That’s… it’s great. Congratulations.”

Your racing heart settles just slightly at his approval. Its pace slows but the pounding remains the same as you slowly raise your eyebrows at him. “So, this weekend?”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m free.” He agrees, nodding his head slowly. He taps his fingers on the countertops and glances around the home that the two of you had bought together just under a decade ago, silently wondering if your new boyfriend has been over.

It’s nothing to be upset about, the divorce was for the best, you both agreed that there shouldn’t be any hard feelings about it — these things happen. But, still.

“So, what’s he like?”

Your tongue darts out to wet your lips as you shift on your feet. “Um… well, he’s a carpenter, and he owns a DIY place down the street from my store. His name’s Chris, he’s about our age. He’s nice, I think you two would get along.”

Not a convict, not too old or too young for you, owns his own business. Rooster can’t find much to complain about. Peyton’s brows furrow as she waits for her dad to fix this, to tell you to stop seeing that guy and be with him instead. Rooster’s face softens as he nods his head again.

“He sounds great,” He decides finally, his voice gentle as he takes a step towards you and opens his arms. “I’m really happy for you.”

You exhale deeply, relieved as he wraps you in a loose hug, every fibre of the interaction platonic. Just as quickly as you’re tucked in his strong, warm arms, he lets you go again.

“Text me a time and a place, the three of us can do something this weekend,” Rooster brushes some loose curls back off of his forehead and squeezes your arm as he steps past. Parker sighs, leaning her head back, crushed. He’s doing it all wrong. “And… um, thanks for keeping me in the loop about all this. I really appreciate it.”

Your lips quirk up into a soft smile as you nod at him. His footsteps grow closer, reminding the girls that they’re supposed to be in bed. It’s a quiet scramble, trying not to trip over each other as they race back to their bedroom.

…

@fadingbelieverexpert @jessirosebud @cowboybarbie @pinkpantheris @thedroneranger @a-serene-place-to-be @xoxabs88xox @unordinare

[6ix9inewiturmom]

Broken Melodies (part 2)- Christopher Sturniolo

Summary: go read part one if you haven’t.. does Chris and Y/N meddle their broken relationship? Does he just forget about it?

Warnings: none that I know of

A/N: honestly I wasn’t gonna make this a part 2 but I had fun writing this!

Weeks passed, and Y/N found herself listening to Chris’ song every night. It became her lifeline, a bridge between the past and the future. Each time she pressed play, she felt his presence, a bittersweet reminder of their love and the battles they both faced.

Determined to heal, Y/N decided to channel her pain into her art. She took out her canvases and paints, and this time, each stroke felt purposeful, imbued with the emotions Chris’ song had stirred within her. She painted scenes from their happier times: a sunset walk on the beach, their laughter-filled dinners, the quiet moments when they simply held each other. The apartment slowly transformed from a graveyard of memories to a gallery of love and longing.

One evening, as Y/N was putting the finishing touches on a painting of Chris with his guitar, she heard her phone buzz. It was an email from an unknown sender, with the subject line: "A Chance to Reconnect." Curiosity piqued, she opened it.

"Dear Y/N,

I hope this message finds you well. My name is Olivia, and I'm Chris’ manager. He's been in a difficult place since your separation, but he's been trying to find his way back. Your forgiveness meant the world to him, and it's given him the strength to seek help. He wanted me to reach out to you because he has something important to share.

Chris will be performing an intimate concert next Saturday at the Blue Note. It's a small venue, and he specifically requested it to be personal and meaningful. He wants you to be there. If you're willing, please come. It would mean everything to him.

Best,

Olivia"

Y/N's heart pounded as she read the email. She wasn't sure if she was ready to face Chris, but she knew she had to try. She replied, accepting the invitation, and spent the next few days preparing herself emotionally.

The night of the concert arrived, and Y/N found herself standing outside the Blue Note, her heart racing. She took a deep breath and stepped inside. The venue was cozy, filled with a warm, intimate atmosphere. She spotted Olivia, who guided her to a reserved seat in the front row.

The lights dimmed, and the murmurs of the crowd hushed as Chris took the stage. He looked different, more grounded, yet his eyes still held that familiar depth of emotion. He spotted Y/N in the audience, and a flicker of relief passed over his face.

"Good evening, everyone," Chris began, his voice steady but tinged with vulnerability. "Tonight's set is a little different. These songs are a reflection of my journey, and there's someone very special here who inspired them. Y/N, this is for you."

He strummed his guitar, and the first notes of a new song filled the room. This one was different from the last—it was a song of hope and healing, of finding oneself amidst the chaos. As Chris sang, Y/N felt tears streaming down her face, but this time, they were tears of hope.

After the concert, Olivia escorted Y/N backstage. Christopher stood there, his eyes searching hers. "Y/N," he said softly, "thank you for coming. I know I hurt you, and I can never take that back. But I'm working on myself, and I want to be better—for you, for us."

Y/N stepped closer, her heart pounding. "I can see that, Chris. Your music... it helped me understand. I'm healing too, and I want to move forward, with or without you. But I do hope we can find our way back to each other."

Chris nodded, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. "One broken melody at a time?"

Y/N smiled, reaching out to take his hand. "One broken melody at a time."

In that moment, amidst the echoes of his haunting songs and the promise of new beginnings, Y/N and Chris found a spark of hope, ready to face whatever came next together.

A/N pt 2: AHH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READINGGGG!!! I hope you guys enjoyed it and I hope you guys have a great night/morning/evening!! I love you as always

XOXO,

Gabs 💋

[beebotea]

hey, are you listening — part 15

pairing : college au!xiao x f!reader . summary : in which uni students decipher vague tweets and emotions... + ie: second-year students y/n and xiao are forced to work through their term project (and feelings) as their friends attempt to meddle with their love lives ‘for the greater good’ . cw : swearing, slut-shaming, suggestive, reader she/her pronouns .

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15. working

act 1, scene 1

With an hour left before the end of class, Professor Lisa announced that she planned for the remaining tome to be used on the group project work. As there were only a few days left until the first submission checkpoint, it would be wise for all students to coordinate with their partners accordingly.

Y/N watched as her classmates started to shift around to find their partners. Her own friends leaving soon after, but not without checking in on their suspiciously quiet friend.

“Y/N?” Yanfei spoke up from beside her.

“Hmm?”

“Everything alright? You seem a bit down?”

“Yeah… just thinking i guess. I don’t really wanna talk about it right now but Lumine is free to tell you guys whatever. I don’t mind. I just don’t wanna talk about it all over again… Maybe aftewards.”

“No worries. We can talk anytime you need.” Yanfei gave you a gentle smile before leaving to look for her project partner Aether, waving to Heizou as she passed.

Y/N felt a hand on her head, ruffling her hair and she looked up to see HuTao grinning down at her. “You’ll be okay.” The brunette encouragingly patted her friend on the back (although it was more like a shove) before following suit to find her own partner.

Not long after, she heard the chair beside her being pulled out.

“Can I sit here?”

Y/N met eyes with Xiao, who waited patiently for her response despite feeling all kinds of emotions on the inside.

“Go ahead. We’re project partners after all.” There were so many things to be said, but so few words came to her mind as he took his spot beside her.

Moments passed and no further words were exchanged. It was as if the air was denser, harder to breathe in and harder to communicate through.

“So… are you feeling alright.” Xiao finally said, deciding to break the silence between them.

“Mhm.” Y/N responded.

“Are you sure? You seem… different.”

“Yes, I’m sure.” She gave him a curt smile. “I’ve just been… stressed so you don’t need to worry about me.”

It was hard for her to read the expression on his face. A little hesitant and a lot concerned, perhaps.

“Don’t push yourself too hard. It’s not good for your health.”

“Yeah I guess it would be pretty bad if I got sick since we’re working together on this project, huh.”

“Whether you’re my partner or not I’d prefer that you’re always happy and healthy.”

“I’ll be okay. Let’s just start working alright? We’ve already finished the first draft so I guess we could use this time to peer review each other’s work.”

“Alright.”

—

act 2, scene 1

—

act 2, scene 2

Scaramouche looked up from his phone to glare at the boy wearing teal braids in front of him.

“The fuck you mean you nominate me?” He whispered loud enough for the other band members around them to hear.

“Well you’re probably the most acquainted to both of them out of the five of us. And you don’t have shit to do in this class either!” Venti argued.

“Fine.” Scaramouche said as he roughly pulled his Venti’s beanie down to his eyes, before treading off to find a seat near Y/N and Xiao.

“I think we can probably get the submission draft done by tonight if we keep working on it.” Y/N said, looking up from her screen as she reached the half-way point of Xiao’s part of the report.

“Yeah, probably. I’m down to push through and get it all over with tonight.” Xiao agreed, thinking it would be the best decision as it would lessen the workload on Y/N's shoulders.

“You guys don’t have any plans tonight?”

“I don’t think so.” He felt as if he was missing something...

“I thought you guys had band practices Tuesday evenings.”

Oh right. That's what he forgot. “Oh shit." He said, mentally facepalming. "We do…”

"It's alright then, Xiao, no biggie." Y/N reassured him that it would be alright for them to finish the day after until she was cut off by a familiar voice.

"Or, you can just come to band practice with us and work before and after we practice." As if appearing like the Cheshire cat, Xiao's indigo-haired cousin spoke up from the seat directly behind the partners.

"Scara?"

"Oh so you've finally noticed. Venti's here too." He smiled at her.

"Are you guys stupid? This is a 9am class! Why are you even here?"

"Tch. It's always why Scara but never how's Scara, huh." Scaramouche rolled his eyes at her for unknowingly sounding too similar to Aether. "But like I said. Come with us to band. We won't mind an audience. Right Xiao?"

"Yeah. I'll walk you home after too." His cousin agreed. "It's better that we finish this submission sooner rather than later for you. It'll take some stress off of your shoulders, Y/N."

Despite her constant inner turmoil, Xiao never failed to make her heart skip a beat and almost forget all of her worries. He always remained attentive and caring, making her feel safe and special regardless of what was happening around them.

"Pfft-stress? From what? Colouring in your business analysis charts with crayon?" Scaramouche cackled from behind her. "You're in business... what could be so stressful about your course load? I've seen Childe submit a picture of a marketing poster he made out of Crayola marker and get an 85%. It wasn't even scanned to be submitted as a PDF. Straight up PNG to the submission folder."

"Lay off it, Kuni. They're in different programs." Xiao rolled his eyes at his cousin.

"Yeah! Shut up, nerd. Don't you have problem sets to finish or something?" Y/N stuck her tongue out at the Inazuman in retaliation.

"Whatever. So you coming to practice or what?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll go."

—

a/n: verrryy overdue bc i have this course called collaborative exercise where we need to p much complete an arch project in like four days (i.e. i wake up at 6:30 am to get to uni at 9am and i get home at 7pm allll week). i think next chapter will also be p reading intensive too so theres ya heads up :DDD hopefully i can get the chapter out in time but if not, my apologies. hope you enjoyed <33

—

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@ashhh-14 @sanghyuksgasolinestationscream @yuminako @bananasquash​ @scaramoo​  @lovely028​ ​@apinu @yukii-1 @ttalgi @yelleloww​ @bobaducky​ @sukunasrealgf​ @yukiesora​ @kissingkzuha @neigesprincess @aether-darling​​ @shinsukeee

—

[somethingvicked]

True love of mine part 10.

An Eddie Munson story

Stranger Things AU (no Upside-Down)

warnings: female reader, angst, mentions of sex, weed and death of minor character, fluff.

Chapter 9.

Now

Y/N

You were lying in Eddie’s arms, both of you damp with sweat, the comforter kicked down to your waists.

You two hadn’t spoken since he rolled off of you, only the sounds of him stroking your skin was heard in his bedroom.

You could feel his spent running out of you and down your thighs and made an effort to sit up but he held you back.

“But… I’ll ruin the sheets,” you told him and he shook his head.

“Don’t care. I can’t let you go when I finally got you in my arms again, even if it’s just for a moment.”

You smiled at that, lying down and letting him hold you again. You ran your fingers over his tattoos and he played with your hair.

“It’s shorter,” he commented and you nodded.

“Yes. When you… after you left… I cut it off and kept it short. It just hurt every time I saw it and remembered how you used to love playing with it…”

Eddie had tensed up when you brought that up and you could feel your own muscles go taut from the stress of bringing it up.

You realized though that sooner or later you two should talk about everything. You didn’t know if Wayne had told Eddie that you knew, but you needed to talk to him anyway.

“Eds?”

“Hmm?”

“We do need to talk about it,” you told him softly and he closed his eyes, his face looking pained but he nodded.

 “I’ll start. Wayne… he came to see me the other day. He’s the one that gave me the ticket to your concert.”

Eddie’s eyes widened and he shook his head. That wasn’t what he had expected you to bring up when you said that you needed to talk. The little reprieve from the hard memories, even if it was just a second, made him smile. “That old man… always has to meddle. But… I’m glad he did.”

“But… he also told me some other stuff. Why you left all those years ago,” you carefully continued and you heard Eddie inhale sharply.

“… he told you?” he whispered, so quietly that you could barely hear him.

“Yes.”

Eddie was quiet, but you could feel that his skin underneath your fingertips had gone ice cold and that the tenseness of his muscles had turned into tremblings. You wrapped your arms around him.

“I killed her,” he whispered, his face suddenly wet with tears. “I didn’t mean to, but I killed her.”

“No!” you exclaimed. “It was an accident, Eddie. A horrible accident that never should have happened, but an accident nonetheless. If she hadn’t gotten the pills from you she would have tried somewhere else. And… don’t forget she overdosed and mixed them with other pills. Had she taken the recommended dosage she would probably still be alive. I’m not saying it was her fault, but it wasn’t yours either!”

Eddie still trembled and cried, but you could feel he was listening to you.

“I don’t understand… if you knew… why did you show up tonight, follow me home? I was going to tell you, I was but… then I got so caught up in seeing you again and then… don’t you get it? I would have led you on if Wayne didn’t tell you! I’m a pig.”

“Eddie… I don’t think you are a pig. I wanted this as much as you did. My goal tonight was talking everything out with you, but I got caught up in the moment too. We still love each other and we haven’t had the chance to show that to each other for eleven years. It needed to happen.”

“So you mean, if I had slept with you and then dropped the bomb half an hour later, you wouldn’t have felt disgusted?”

You sighed. “Not disgusted, no. Shocked, maybe. And incredible sad, both for your sake and Chrissy’s. But I wouldn’t have felt taken advantage of. I don’t know if that makes me insane, but… Eddie, I don’t think any different about you! I’m just… so sad for your sake, that you had to go through that alone. I wish I could’ve been there for you but… I know why you felt you had to protect me. Protect us. I can’t even imagine how you feel about what happened, but… you did your time. Isn’t that what the society should really be about. You pay your dues and then… you should be given another chance?”

Eddie couldn’t help but snort at that. “In theory perhaps, but we both know that in ninetynine cases out of hundred it doesn’t turn out like that.”

“It did for you,” you pointed out. “You have made your own success after this. And… Wayne told me that you have stayed away from drugs and alcohol completely?”

Eddie nodded. “Yes. There were so many times after I came out of prison that I was tempted to take a joint, take a pill, drink myself stupid, just to forget… but after what happened to Chrissy I swore I would never go near any drugs again, neither to sell them or take them myself. And… even though I wanted to forget it all I also wanted to remember it. Maybe to… torment myself, I don’t know. But the main reason was that it happened around the same time I had you; if I forgot that… then I would forget you too.”

You felt tears run down your face. “Oh, Eddie,” you whispered, hugging him harder.

“My first album was about drugs, but not to honor them, more like to spread awareness. I made one song in honor of Chrissy on that one. But I felt bad about that too.”

“Why?” you wondered, stroking his cheek.

“Because it was in honor of her and not you. And that felt wrong as well, because she died. You were alive, but… you are my true love, the only one I ever loved. Yet I didn’t dare write about you in a way people would understand, or you would understand if you heard the songs. I…”

You ran your fingers through his hair, leaning in to kiss his nose. “I actually never listened to many of your songs. It hurt too much. But… when Wayne had told me everything last night I looked online and listened to the songs of your first record. It all made sense.”

It had. You remembered the name of the songs clearly.

That was the record where Eddie had made a remake of Metallica’s Master of Puppets, which had earned him his title in the music business. Metallica themselves had even said the song belonged to Eddie, even though they had written it.

The rest of the songs followed the same theme, all of them having some kind of connection to drugs.

Crack of the whip

Mother’s little helpers

Thy will be done (You had understand that that was in honor of Chrissy and her nickname as being the ‘queen of Hawkins high’)

Soaring on the dragon’s wings

Toasting with demons

Dark (Mary) Jane

Dead men tell no tales

Break the habit

“I know what Jason told you,” you said, returning to the conversation at hand, wanting him to know you understood his actions back then. “But that was a long time ago. He wont hurt us now, would he?”

Eddie shook his head. “He may still hold a grudge agianst me, but he’s a loser who peaked in high school. I’m not the defenseless freak I was back then. I can protect us both now. For the last years, my biggest fear in reaching out to you has been that you… you would see me as a killer. Then… then I heard through the grapewine that you had met someone else and I figured… you had moved on and it was time to let you go. It was only when I got your letter I understood that you couldn’t move on. Just like I couldn’t.”

“I didn’t,” you agreed, shaking your head. “Brent was… he was a good man but he never made me feel like you did. I still thought about you for at least thirty seconds every day and I realized that wasn’t right to him. That’s when I decided to write that letter to you.”

“I’m glad you did. I’m just… I’m sorry that I hurt you so badly. And everyone else. But I was terrified that Jason would come after you. Anyone of you. He had more power as a teenager than he does now, now that his old man is dead.”

You nodded. “I understand. It doesn’t mean I’m still not upset about it. I wish… I wish you could’ve just talked to me. But I also understand that you felt the need to protect more people than me – Wayne, for example. He needed that job, he barely made ends met even with it.”

Eddie pulled you close, kissing your forehead.

“That was why I started to sell drugs in the first place, you remember?”

Of course you did.

Then

Hawkins, 1984

Eddie

Eddie was concerned. He had turned eighteen a few weeks back, but he had also understood that he would have to repeat his senior year, because his grades hadn’t been good enough to graduate. In a way he was almost glad about that – it meant he would spend the next year with Y/N and they would graduate together.

He had another problem though; it was clear Wayne was struggling with bills. At first he didn’t understand but then it hit him. The child support. The one his dad was paying – or more accurately, his lawyer, since his dad was in prison – had dried up because now he was legally an adult.

Eddie had tried to find a part time job for a long time, wanting to help Wayne in any way he could. But no one wanted to hire the town freak.

That’s why in desperation he visited his dad’s old pal, Reefer Rick, and wondered if he needed another hand with his side business.

He felt ashamed of himself, even before he made the suggestion. Eddie had never wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps, but he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Wayne had done so much for him already – and technically he had no obligation to support Eddie after he had turned eighteen. Especially since Eddie wouldn’t graduate high school this year and at least have a diploma to show for it when he looked for jobs.

No, he needed to pull his own weight, and who knows – perhaps it would even give him enough money to help Wayne, pay him back for everything he had done for him?

Rick was symphatetic. “I could need another seller. Nothing hard core, I take care of that myself. Just weed. The occasional prescription pill. Maybe K . Ketamine,” he clarified when he saw Eddie’s confused glance.

“You buy it from me, half price. Sell it on your own terms to your customers, keep the difference.”

Eddie nodded. He had no choice.  

“Okay,” he said. “Would… would it be okay if I pay for this batch later?”

Rick smiled again. “This one’s on me, kid. I know how hard it is when you can’t pay your bills. Why do you think I am where I am?”

Eddie couldn’t help but snort. “Seems you’ve gotten it pretty good from where I stand.”

Rick had a nice house, a boathouse connected to the house, filled with fishing gear and even a boat. Didn’t seem like he was struggling.

Rick barked a laugh. “And I am how old, son? I’ve been in this business for years. The pay off will come, just not immediately.”

“Well… if I’m lucky I won’t need to continue this until I’m your age,” Eddie say, accepting the bag with the pot as he got up.

“Keep telling yourself that,” Rick told him with a shake of his head. “That’s what I did. But sooner or later, this becomes your glue.”

“Glue?”

“Yes. Like the glue from tape you can’t scratch off. There will always be something you need, some bill that can’t wait, some favor your owe… and the drug trade will never disappoint. Because there is always the poor bastards that needs the wares, just like we need the money.”

Never, Eddie thought as he left Rick’s house. Yes, he would do it for now. Until he and Y/N graduated and they could leave this dump of a town that had been stuck in time since the 1950s.

He was just worried about how Y/N would react to him starting to sell drugs.

Eddie hadn’t need to worry though. No, Y/N wasn’t thrilled that he was going to sell drugs but she also knew that life wasn’t the rainbow fairy tale it was made out to be. Sometimes you just needed to do what you could to survive.

“As long as it isn’t any hard drugs, those that can kill people easily and get them addicted from the first batch,” she begged him and he agreed.

And he had kept that promise. But as he was to find out two years later, circumstances could be more powerful than promises.

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[shadowbriar]

Regulus Black, Remus Lupin - The Star to Your Moon

Pairing : Regulus Black x (she/her) Reader x Remus Lupin Word Count : 1.3k Warning : An epilogue of a series I'm trying to craft. Synopsis : As their ship begins to sink, she wonders if she could love the moon as much as she loves the star. Notes : Post no 7 for my Year Anniversary Celebration. If you'd like to be tagged for the next chapters, please fill the form here! If you like this story and would like to support me, please visit my kofi page and perhaps get me a coffee?☕ Taglist: @jsjcue @coffeehurricanes @ell0ra-br3kk3r @kaz-mf-brekker @sofiacblair @when-you-cant-think-of-anything @ineedmentalhelp123

The wind was blowing gently, making the grass and flowers around them dance softly to nature’s ballad. The sun was kind today. Its warmth showering them without burning their irises when they look up to the sky. Birds sing along as they fly, becoming the background singers for their beautiful setting. This picnic was perfect.

Regulus has his head resting on her lap. His eyes were closed, darkness getting lighter whenever the sunlight hits his closed eyelids but it was nothing of displeasure. He listens to the quietness and bustling sound of his surroundings attentively. He missed such serenity.

“You’ve been more quiet lately,” She notes, her fingers playing with the curls of his hair “A sickle for your thought?”

Regulus let out a soft sigh. His eyes were still closed, trying to hold on to the moment as long as he could. He loves the serene atmosphere that she always brought him. How he could hear all the noise dampen whenever he sees her or how the world seems to be at pause whenever their skin touches. Regulus prays that he could find a spell or incantation to stop time altogether. Especially since a certain threat is looming around, menacing to rob him of such luxury.

“You know you can talk to me about anything.” She continues gently.

“I know,” He replies, eyes fluttering to see her “But sometimes I only want to listen to you. Not just your words, but your laughter, your breathing, everything. I want to record it all in my head.”

She smiles, leaning to kiss his forehead, “What a sappy little man you are, Regulus Black.”

“Only for you.”

Indeed, only for her.

Nothing could have prepared him when the universe let his eyes catch her years ago at Kings Cross Station. He had always thought himself undeserving of love, too distant and fractured to ever be touched by such kindness, yet he was proven wrong the moment she greets him. He knew that he was bound for life with her. That he’s willingly given up his heart to her palms, not caring if she would take it and hold it gently or stomp it to the ground. All he knew was that he was hers from day one.

“I learned something over the break.” Regulus says excitedly as he sits up, picking the little daisies around them and meddling with it.

“What are you doing?” She asks with an amused laughter, resting her chin to his shoulder.

She watches him with a grin. His fingers were busy folding and twisting the stem of the small flowers, still in complete silence. His brows were furrowed, complete determination to finish the task he’s trying to do at the moment. After a few minutes a small ring of flowers was made. His proud smile decorated his face as he brought it up for her to see.

“May I?” He asks.

She nods, giving him her right hand.

Regulus slipped the ring on her ring finger. It was slightly too big but the happy smile on her face overthrew every insecurity he had about the crooked ring. He looks back to her finger, kissing the back of her hand as if he's trying to seal something.

“I now pronounce you, Husband and Wife,” She jokes “You may kiss the Bride.”

He chuckles, placing his right hand to cup her cheeks, his left still holding her hand, “You’re silly.”

“Only for you.” She returned his words “Now are you going to kiss the Bride, or—,”

Her words we cut as he leans in. They both were smiling in between each peck. Silent ‘I love you’s’ exchanged from the tender gesture. Their heart was filled with love, head blissful in ecstasy, completely unaware of the darkness brewing around them.

—-

The first day back to Hogwarts has been brilliant so far. Ending the day with her prefect duty, she recalls the delightful moment spent with her lover earlier. The pieces of flowers she tucked on his hair, the flower ring he gave that now sits on her bedside table, the memory of his loving gaze, everything was so perfect.

It would be an understatement to say that she loves him. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do, nothing she wouldn’t sacrifice whenever Regulus is in the equation. He is her anchor, her star, her everything. There would be no her if there was no Regulus.

Her walk was coming to a halt as she noticed the commotion happening a few metres in front of her. It was dark, the limited light her wand gave did not do much to help her assess the matter happening but she recognises the man standing closest to her. His back was facing her, acting as if he was on guard to watch whatever mischief his friends were doing.

“Lupin,” She calls, amused.

She could hear the faint ruckus happening behind the pillar a few metres behind him. She could recognise whose voice one of them belongs to. It’s not practically hard to decipher who’s responsible behind such tumult when it comes to Lupin.

“Hello, there.” Remus greets as he turns to face her, suppressing his stunned expression with a smile “Nice patrol so far?”

“You could say that,” She replies. Her hands are now folded to her chest, still smiling. She turns to the suspicious pillar, calling them out “I know you’re there, Sirius. Supposed Potter and Pettigrew are with you too, hm?”

Silence.

“Come on, you can come out.” She says again “Don’t make me go there and hex you three.”

Sirius walks out the pillar sheepishly. He opens his arm wide, looking as if he was delighted to see her, “Darling, hello! What a pleasant surprise!”

James and Peter follow behind him. The two of them waved and smiled at her awkwardly.

She averts her gaze back to Remus, her brows raised, “You’re not really condoning them for their mischief now, are you Lupin? That wouldn’t be a good look for a prefect, would it?”

“Oh no, I wasn’t.” Remus denies, shoving his arms into his pockets “I don’t even know these kids. Never seen them my entire life.”

She bites down a smile. The gentle gaze Remus has was hypnotising. That kind smile and soft tone he offered were making her feel safe. They haven’t truly been friends. The most interaction they’ve done would be passing by each other during their night watches, just like the situation unravelling at the moment, minus the three rascals behind him, of course.

“Give us some lenient, would you, Love?” Sirius begs “This would be the first and last encounter of us, I promise.”

She squints her eyes, pretending to take her time to make a decision. She knew for certain that this wouldn’t be the last time she would catch them red handed. Giving them a pass now would only make her one of their future accomplice but she was in a good mood today. One pass shouldn’t hurt.

“One time,” She says firmly, her finger pointing at Sirius before turning back to Remus “And you’ll continue my patrol for the rest of the castle, Lupin.”

“Deal,” Remus grins, offering his hand “And please, call me Remus.”

She takes his hand, smiling at his kind gesture.

With one last warning look at Sirius, she turns her heel and walks away. The light of her wand was getting fainter with each step she took and Remus knew he shouldn’t have had his eyes glued on her for too long, but there was just something about her he couldn’t shake off. The way her eyes sparkle and how she seems to be collected at all times. Calm and firm but still kind and understanding at the same time. Something Remus always admires in someone.

At least, that’s the excuse he’s giving to himself.

[loving-and-dreaming]

here we go again r.l

What happens when you sleep with three different guys, and end up with a daughter right after. Not knowing who the father is, you raise your daughter on your own. Teaching her magic at your own pace. But Albus Dumbledor and Minerva Mcgonagall cannot help but meddle in their three favorite students' lives, James, Sirius and Remus. HOGWARTS MEETS MAMMA MIA <3

Remus lupin x reader

word count: 7.9k

Sitting in front of three men who all somehow know each other, with your daughter in the next room is not how you thought you would be spending your Monday. But here we are, all thanks to that doofus Albus Dumbledor (who even though you went to school in the states, everyone knows) who couldn’t keep his nose out of your business and respect your decision. You must have hit your head, that is the only explanation. There is no way the universe, even with Dumbledore's meddling, could be this cruel. Let’s go back to the beginning to see how on earth we ended up here…

May 15th 1980

“This is it. WE MADE IT!!” you scream in Lilys ear on your way to the great hall. “We are finally free, we can use our magic outside of school without getting in trouble! We can finally go explore the world, we can go explore muggle towns! I am so excited, I cannot wait to travel and see the world.”

“Calm down girl, we have to actually get out of the school before we start making any grand plans of exploration. I don't even know if my mom will let me explore. What about you Mary? What are your plans?” Lily looked from you to Mary. Mary just shrugged, she was clearly not ready to leave school or leave her best friends, you and Lily. You all were known as the three musketeers during school. If you saw one of you, the others were sure to not be far behind. Mary is not the only one that is scared for the next steps, you all were. This school has been a part of your lives since you were 11! Leaving it is going to be hard.

Making your way in, you notice all the people who were graduating with you. These are people that you spent the last 7 years with. Yet, the only people you’re truly going to miss is Lily, Mary and you cannot forget your favorite teacher, Maria Gonzaolaz. Mrs. Gonzaolaz has been there through everything. All of your summers and breaks were spent at school, because your mom was too busy to let you come home. She was basically your second mom. So when you walked down to your seat late, as always and saw her give you. The mother stared at you and gave her a wink and a little smile. Taking your seats in the great hall and listening to the speeches is not what is considered a good time, but looking at the clock you have 2 minutes til you are free forever. The 2 minutes stretch on and on until you finally hear the words, “and most of all we wish you a fantastic life and hope you all use your magic to better the world. Thank you for your time at our school and have a wonderful life!” All of a sudden all students jumped up from their seats and went to hug their friends and their families. The only thing you could think of doing is something that was a spur of the moment decision. “Mrs. Gonzoalas!” you run up to her, grab her arms and spin her around in circles. Now she is not a teacher that would willingly do this, so everyone is shocked and quiet. But you don't stop there! You give her a big kiss right on the cheek! This makes a few gasps go around the room, surely she would take away your diploma, and not let you graduate after that display. She is a very serious teacher. But all everyone saw was her sending a small smile your way as you grab Lily and Mary’s hands and pull them away to the safety of the courtyard.

That night you all are sitting on the balcony(perks of being the Hall Manger, well perks of Lily being the hall manger and you mooching the benefits off her), you, Lilly and Mary talk about your next steps. Mary is thinking of going to school to be a healer! She seems very excited and Lily has already taken up her passion of writing. But while they are talking about their after school plans you simply look up at the stars. You don't realize they asked you a question til mary kicks your leg, “what about you, Y/N? What are you going to do? Have you broken the news to your mom of your plans or have those changed?”

“That is a very good question. I still want to travel, but mom gave me an ultimatum. I either go to college and get her help and money or take my money from my trust fund from my grandma and travel. But if I choose to travel, she told me I cannot go back home, and I no longer have a family…” The gravity of the situation had not kicked in until you told the girls. Not knowing what to do you simply look back up into the stars hoping and praying for some kind of answer. The next thing you know Mary and Lily come to lay on either side of you, grabbing ahold of your hands. Your mind is made up. Even if you lose your mom you know you will never lose the girls. You have everything you need here. So in June when all graduating students must leave it looks like your adventure will start.

Telling your mom was hard, you simply wrote to her and she wrote back to enjoy your life but don’t ever bother coming home. You didn’t mention this to Mary or Lily so when they are packing you sit on the window bench and you see the woods you, Mary, and Lily used to get into trouble in. You see the streets where you used to go on walks to clear your head. Is leaving the right thing? When or if you ever come back Mary and Lily will most likely be married with kids. Settling down sounds nice, but never experiencing anything new, always the same old is not for you. You are not a coward, you are strong and you understand this is a once in a lifetime chance and you have to take it, how wrong can it go?

The next day Mary and Lily take you to the airport! You don’t even know what your first stop is, you are just going to go and see what calls out to you. Looking at the board, France is really calling your name. You pay for your ticket and give the girls a big hug. You all did the teary goodbyes last night after the wine so today was all fun. They walked you as far as they could and then waved and wished you luck all the way until they couldn’t see you anymore.

The plane ride was okay, honestly you wish you could have slept but you were too excited to sleep! You have no plans and for the first time in your life, you feel free. Once the plane lands and you get off instead of looking for a place to stay, you decide to walk around a little bit. I mean it’s Paris, who wouldn’t go see the Eiffel Tower. After walking around for a good hour, you thought it best to find a place to stay for the night. The best part about this trip as you have no idea how long you’re staying anywhere but it’s still good to have a bed to sleep in. You arrive at this cathedral looking hotel. It's tall and looks like it’s been there for ages but has the most beautiful interior walking up to the desk. You notice no one’s there. You ring the bell a couple times but still nothing. You’re not a criminal, but you do need a place to stay so you go behind the desk to get a key and you’re gonna leave some cash. In the middle of you picking a key a man about your age comes stumbling down the stairs in his towel. You see his long black hair tied in a low bun at the nape of his neck and his tattoos covering his chest. He starts trying to speak French, which clearly he doesn’t know how to speak, and you’re trying not to laugh at him. He looks like he’s finished stumbling through something so you play with him a little bit and say “can you repeat that?”

He comes down the steps and stops in front of you on the other side of the desk. “I don’t work here, sorry.” You say with a shrug of your shoulders.

He looks at you like you’ve grown another head, “ Wait you don’t work here, should I call the police?” He picks up the phone about to call the police when you put your hand over his and put the phone back on the hook.

“ I prefer if you didn’t…” you don’t know how and honestly if you ask him he doesn’t know why, but he agrees to not call the police. Instead, he reaches behind you and grabs his room key and grabs the one right next to his room as well.

“ if you want to wait, I was about to go explore if you want to come with me?” he has a flirty tone, but still kind of shy and you think what’s the harm in saying yes, you’re here for an adventure anyways.

“ absolutely let me put some money down and put my suitcase and stuff down and we can go!” About 10 minutes later you’ve finished putting your suitcase in the room and touching up your make up a little bit because he is a cutie and go back downstairs to wait for him. However, he’s already there waiting for you when you come down. He’s wearing skinny jeans, a band T-shirt, and a leather jacket. His black hair is no longer in the low bun but sitting messily on top of his head. And if you do say so yourself, he looks beautiful. Without asking him what his plans were you grab his hand and pull him outside.

“ So I never got your name towel boy…”

“It’s Sirius Black, what is yours hotel impersonator”

“Mine is y/n, and I was never pretending to be anyone, you simply assumed I was someone! Anyways, by your awful French I can tell you are not from here, so what are you doing here?”

“ fulfilling my destiny. My dad owns the hotel that we were in and wants me to run it. It’s not really what I wanna do but my dad’s not one you typically say no to so here I am. What about you? What are you doing in France?”

“ Well while you have your destiny, I’m trying to figure my destiny out and for some reason I have a feeling it’s in Greece” through this conversation, y’all have walked all around this beautiful, huge fountain, you both are kind of hungry, so you grab his hand and pull him in the direction of a restaurant. The waiters are dressed as soldiers from Napoleon times, and the restaurant itself is designed to look like it's from an era, but the food smells delicious so the two of you sit down and continue a conversation over some good food. “ There's this island on the far side of Greece that says if you pass it, you’ll fall off the end of the Earth. I don’t know why, but it’s my destiny to go there or at least part of my destiny. I still don’t know my true Destiny but I’m hoping I’ll find it when I get there.”

“ Wow, that’s beautiful. And it sounds extremely fun, but not exactly for me even though running the hotel isn’t exactly what I want to do. I know I would never want to live on a small island. I'm a big city guy myself. Part of the reason I said yes to run in the hotels is because it’s in Paris and what a beautiful city Paris is. On another note why don’t we talk about what’s going to happen between you and me tonight”

“ whoa Sirius that’s a bit bold there don’t you think”

��� Well I’ve been thinking about it since I ran into you and I can’t think of any reasons not to. Let’s look at the pros and cons. I’m only seeing pros here. What about you?”

“ I mean your lovely guy and you’re very handsome but we just met tonight”

“ yeah but when you talk about not knowing your destiny, you already know mine. And my Destiny is with you tonight.” All the sudden, he pushes back his chair so fast, the chair actually falls over, he gets on his knees in front of you and pretends like his heart is pounding out of his chest. “ I couldn’t escape my destiny even if I wanted to surrender, just like Napoleon did to my love for you. How could you ever refuse because I feel like we win when we lose!” You are a laughing mess . You pull him up by his ear, and just start to dance a little crazy to the music that’s playing in the background.

“ Okay Sirius, why not after dinner we can go have some fun!”

Although you had fun with Sirius, you knew Paris  wasn’t where you were meant to be. So you left him a note and some cash for the hotel room and quickly snuck out. You went back to your room and packed as fast as you could, you could’ve sworn you saw that the ferry schedule had ten minutes until it left. You don’t think you’ve ever run that fast in your entire life. Getting to the dock was easy, getting on the actual fairy was the hard part. Because the fairy was going to another country you had to go through customs. And the guy at customs was heckling you over how your hair grew out. Eventually he let you pass and you were running with everything in your hand. Some of your stuff is even falling out of your suitcase. Yet, the fairy still left without you. “ Wait, it’s not too late to turn around. My destiny is on that island!” All of a sudden you feel a top on your shoulder and turn around to see the handsomest dorkiest guy you can imagine. He had curly brown hair on top of his head, the cutest roundest glasses and an outfit that screamed rich sailor guy.

“ If I follow you around long enough, I’ll eventually have a whole new wardrobe,” you look to see what he’s talking about to see him, holding a good amount of your clothes and holding your bikini top up to his chest.

“ I don’t really think that's your style but you’re welcome to try it on.” he laughs and jumps on the boat right next to the dock. “ don’t worry, the next fairy wall will come tomorrow.”

The boat he’s on seems nice enough to be able to make it to the island you want to go to. Normally, you wouldn’t ask him if he could take you, but you swear something in the Island is calling to you and you’re gonna find out what it is. So in the softest and nicest telling you can manage, you simply ask him “ well what if I didn’t have to wait until tomorrow what if there is this boy-“

“ That's tall with glasses and handsome, who has 3 days until his sailing tournament?”

“ what if there’s this boy that is reasonably attractive with his boat, all to himself?”

“ oh, this boat isn’t actually mine. I was just trying to impress you.” Shoulders, dropping, and eyes to the sky. You take a deep breath and try to figure out your next moves. “ I’m just kidding, the boat is mine. Hop on. I’m James.” Laughing with relief and disbelief. You hop on the boat and hope for the best. He talks you through everything that he’s doing while he’s preparing the boat to set sail. When you’re out far enough, he leads you inside the boat where you’ll be staying. “ There's two beds, my lady. But as you can see, one of them is completely full, so it looks like we’ll be sharing.” The bed is simply full with a bunch of pools, Floaties you roll your eyes at him.

“ How convenient.” You say over your shoulder as you head back up the stairs. Unfortunately he wasn’t done talking yet.

“ You have one of those smiles that makes the rest of the world smile too. Luckily, the trip isn’t long enough so when you leave my boat, my fragile heart won’t be shattered.” he says, clutching his heart. Try not to laugh when you grab on the pole and swing around.

“ OK OK I get it now you’re one of them.”

“ one of who?”

“ one of those boys that falls in love so easily in the evening, just to fall out of it just as quickly in the morning. As you’re leaving you tell her it’s not her it’s you. You’re in too much pain for her to handle.” He is about to reply when you both hear a call for help. Looking around you see a man on a small boat and get closer.

“Please help me, my engine died and I have to get to my beautiful love! She’s waiting on the mainland for me. I have to get to her before her family marries her off to some rich old guy! Please please find it in your heart to help, I love her with all my heart and don’t want to be without her!”

One look at James and the both of you say at the same time “ of course we will help!” Reuniting him with his bride was beautiful. You pulled up to the mainland and he jumped on the boat right away screaming for his love. Unfortunately, it’s clear he didn’t know how to swim so you and James translated for him screaming to his bride that was about to get in the car on the way to the wedding about how much he loves her and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Next thing, the two of you notice is the girl in a wedding dress, jumping into the ocean swimming to her love. The both of you are so high on love you decide to go ahead and share the bed and share some love while you're at it.

It took a total of three days to get to the island, James drops you off at the dock worrying about you. “ Are you sure you’re gonna be OK? Do you need anything? I’ll be back here in three weeks after the tournament. Be careful. I swear there’s a storm coming.”

“ James stop, I'll be fine. It's wonderful here, just look at the green hills, the water, the rocks, and the history of the place. And what do you mean there’s a storm coming it’s clear skies it's a wonderful day!” After this you start to walk into the island. Turning around you give James one last look and blow him a goodbye kiss, and then you turn around and start your next adventure.

Wandering the island was fun, there was so much history here. In your adventures you stumbled upon this beautiful hotel. It was a little rundown, but you can see the future that it holds. The rain came out of nowhere. Turns out James was right and it’s a bad storm drenching you from head to toe. There’s a thudding sound coming from the other side of the building, carefully you make your way in to go see what it was. It turns out it was a horse tied to a string. It must have gotten spooked because of the storm. It was up on its hind legs. Overall it looked frightening not for you, but for the horse. Clearly the horse was in distress and you were on your way to help them. All of a sudden they kick the support beam, and the roof comes crashing in separating you from them. You did the only thing you can think of, you ran to go find some help. Running along the path, your shoes getting stuck in the mud said mud also getting kicked up onto your legs. Your hair is slicked down your back. You finally stumble upon someone driving a moped. You’re frantically asking for help. “ please please I need help. He’s so frightened and scared and I can’t get to him.”

“ Who is scared? What can I do to help you? hop on and tell me where to go?” Not even knowing your name, and not even knowing his name you go to help the horse. Between the two of you, the stranger talking to him and you getting a hold of the reins the horse finally calms down. You don’t feel like leaving him so you plan to stay in the barn-like structure with the horse all night. “ Do you need me to stay, I don't mind, I'm Remus, what's your name?”

“I’m y/n and if you’re sure you don’t mind I’m sure me and shadow that’s what I’m gonna name him wouldn’t mind the company. The storm doesn’t look like it’s gonna slow down anytime soon.” The two of you stay up talking and make sure Shadow is feeling better. Eventually you both fall asleep against shadow seeing as shadow ends up laying down with you. Waking up, you thought the stranger would be gone and it would be just you and shadow. However, you were pleasantly surprised when Remus was still there. “ Good morning Remus, I'm going to explore the town today. Can I invite you along to get you? I think I owe you breakfast?” you grab his hand and pull him out to his moped and let him lead the way.

Remus decides to show you around some of the shops before you decide to pick a place for breakfast. The both of you sit down and talk about anything and everything you learn about how he’s running away from his life back on the mainland and he learns that you were running towards your life with no idea of where it’s going. He says he has a week left, but he doesn’t seem excited to go back. After lunch, he takes you to walk around the island. Not sure how it’s possible but you’re already feeling like he could be it for you. So you tell him “ Remus I just want you to know that you’re gonna have to take it easy with me and take it slow. Let’s just let what happens happen and go from there okay?” This time he leads you back to his little shack and you spend the night together. In your head you were really thinking this is the most guys that you’ve slept with in this short of time. It hasn't even been a week yet you slept with three different guys? But you swear there’s something different about Remus and the way he looks at you, you know he feels it too.

In the morning he wakes you up and packs a picnic. He leads you to a boat and you both get on. You decide the time is now or never to tell him how you’re feeling. “ Remus I’m going to be honest with you and you might think I’m insanely crazy but I wasn’t kidding last night when I said I want to stay here forever. This is my home. This island is my destiny and I’m pretty sure you’re a part of that. I know you have your real life to get back to you in a week but maybe you do something crazy and you stay here.” he looks at you with something in his eyes that you can’t explain, but laughs

“I don’t think you’re crazy but I also don’t think it’s that easy.”

“ I’ll take that answer for now” you spend the entire day laughing and playing around on the small small island off the main island. Returning to his shack you both fall into bed together again.

In the morning, you wake up feeling open hearted, and as light as a butterfly. You know it’s only been a week but you can’t help it, your heart is open and ready to fall for Remus as soon as you let it. Deciding to go pick some oranges for breakfast  you grab a sack and walk around the back to the orange tree(of course since no one was around you used your magic to get them. But no one needs to know that). When you come back, your open heart is about to get broken again, but you don’t know that. You get the orange and start looking for a knife to cut it with you open up one of his drawers. Instead of a knife you find a journal with a picture sticking out. In hindsight you should have been more focused on the fact that the picture was a moving one(stuff you know muggles don’t have) but instead all you can focus on is the breaking of your heart. They say that a picture is worth 1000 words and you’ve never understood that until now. You pick up his journal and take a closer look at the picture to see Remus, and a girl, what catches your eye the most is the engagement ring on her hand. You’ve seen enough you grab your bag, your journal, put your shoes on and run back to the rundown hotel. He does have the decency to chase you, but for the first time you don’t wanna listen to anything Remus has to say. But you entertain his pleas for you to listen. “ I’ll listen when you answer three questions. Are you engaged to that beautiful woman in the picture?”

“Yes.”

“ Did you tell me that you were engaged?”

“ no.”

“ did you seriously think I would be OK with it?”

“Y/n please just listen”

“ I’ve done enough listening leave now”

He storms out as you storm up the stairs. When he left you explored a bit more and found a little spot outside where you can cry. Well, it’s only been a week but like you said you felt an incredible connection with him and now your hearts shattered. When you look up from the ground, you see him boarding a boat. The both of you hold eye contact until he’s too far away for you to see anymore. And with him your heart goes too.

The water is splashing on the dock while you wait for Lily and mary. You wrote to them to come out and visit. You had some important news. Unfortunately the important news is you are pregnant. All that is going through your head is how you will be doing this all on your own AND you have no idea who the father is. It could be Sirius, James or Remus. However you have no way to contact any of them, so it looks like it will be just you. They get off the boat and run to give you the biggest hug. In reality it has been less than a month, but these girls you spent your entire life with and not seeing them for even a day was too much. Seeing them again just brings back so many memories, not to mention the feelings of magic. You have been immersed in the muggle world and have hardly used your magic at all. The last memory of your magic is that fateful day when your heart got broken. “Lily! Mary! Oh how much I have missed you. Let's go to the cafe I told you about. I have so much to tell you.”

“Where is the future professor you were telling us about, the handsome one named remus?? We are dying to meet him!”

“So um… turns out he was engaged. To another woman. And she was beautiful…” Lily grabs you and hugs you, all of a sudden you feel Mary's arms around you as well.

“We are so sorry sweetheart, well let us go check out the cafe and see what kind of wine this place has.” All three of you walk to the cafe, the older lady who runs the cafe being the sweet lady. She has already started to prepare your glass of wine. When you decline it Lily takes it no question but the older lady gives you a look. “So now that we are sitting down, please darling tell us everything that happened with professor boy!”

“I was cheated by him, so I did what I do best, made up my mind that it was going to end. Lily, Mary i dont think i will ever learn… He sets a fire within my soul. With just one look from him I can hear bells ringing, I forget everything but him. And now it is all gone. And that is not even the worst thing… I think I might be pregnant… and I have no clue who the father is.” This is the first time you have ever seen lily go speechless and may spit out wine.

“What do you mean” they both say at the same time… So for the rest of the evening you go and tell them about everything that has happened. They try to get you to leave and you were almost considering it, until Sophia, the older cafe owner, butts in the conversation.

“You know y/n you don't have to leave. That old hotel you are staying in, who do you think owns it? I do. Me. And you can stay there rent free if you fix it up. You'll have a roof over your head for you and your child.”

“Why would you do that Mrs. Sophia, you don't know me??”

“I judge a person's heart by how they treat animals, and that night in the storm you saved, hector my horse.”

“Oh… I named him Shadow, but Hector fits him more. I would love nothing more than to stay. Thank you so much Mrs. Sophia, I will not let you down!” running out of the cafe with lily and mary still trying to convince you to go back with them you run all the way to your new home. It's going to be a lot of work, you know this. But looking at the building you can envision your future here. You and your child's future.

August 1991

That brings you to where you are now… Sitting in front of three guys you believe you would never see again. You are not an angel by any means, but you are currently damning Albus to hell for doing this. If he would have just accepted the fact that you are not sending your daughter to Hogwarts and left you be, you would be fine. Secretly teaching her magic behind closed doors. You cannot get out of your head until Remus stands up.

“Well clearly something is going on. So Y/N would you please explain why we are all here?”

“Whoa you have no right to demand anything from me, you two timing cheaters! I need you all to leave, Now.” Storming out of the room you go to the room in which your daughter is blissfully unaware of what is going on and use magic to call Lily and Mary and get them here ASAP. Thankfully your private bedroom has a fireplace so they can floo powder over here now. Both of them rush to you yet you rush to the bathroom. You try to explain what is happening and going on but your words are muffled because you are currently hiding from your daughter. However with Lily and Mary fussing over you and you hiding from her she was able to sneak out and explore with her wand. You have been teaching her Lumos and that is why currently she is dancing through the hallways with her wand alight from one end. Luckily she doesn't get far but she does go where you were hoping she would never go, in the same room as her three possible dads.

She is at that age where she knows she is different from her peers. Her friends have dads and she doesn’t. She is open minded and she is open mouthed. So she takes it upon herself to ask every man/boy she sees if they are her father. That’s made for some very interesting shopping trips. So what does her brain tell her to do when she sees three guys her moms age sitting in a room? “Are one of you my dad?” This makes them all chuckle.

“We are not sure, sweetheart. Why don't you go ask your mom.” James didn't mean to sound so scared, but he has never been asked a question like that. Once she is gone he pulls out the letter he got form dumbledore and reads it aloud while the other two boys follow along on their letters. “Dear James, It is imperative to the future of the wizarding community you fly to the island listed below and change y/n’s mind. Again this is imperative to everyone's future. Signed Albus and Minerva.” They all got the same letter, the only thing that was different was their names. None of them knew what was going on, but any chance to see y/n again was one they were going to take. But the question was on all of their minds, how did the others know y/n? They never mentioned anything about her. James is the first to speak, “so, clearly we all know y/n, but how? I mean I know how I know her, but what about you two?”

Sirius never lost his attitude or his long hair, “I spent one day with her in France when I was first taking over the French hotel for dad, it was the summer of 1980.”

“Whoa no way. I spent three days with a y/n when taking her to this island… she needed a boat and it was right before my sailing tournament that summer… So you are saying we slept with the same girl in the same summer? What about you remus? How do you know her? She seemed pissed at you?” James basically yells.

“I don't want to talk about it. I'm not sure what is going on. But clearly she doesn't want me here. So I think I am going to leave.” Remus says dejectedly. He truly doesn't want to leave, what you don't know is after he left, he came back looking for you. But he couldn't find you. He turns to leave to see a very angry looking red head girl.

“Hello you three doofuses. I am Lily, y/n best friend. Now can you explain what on earth you are doing here, before you make me use an unforgivable curse?”

James goes as red as her hair and holds his hands up. “Whoa we got these letters and came because it seemed important!” He shoves the letter in her direction while trying to smirk at her. It was not working. She was too involved in who was breaking her best friend's heart and who sent her niece away upset because he was not nice to her. She snatched it out of his hand, pointed to the couch where all three men sat and turned to walk back out. Mary sits with y/d/n while lily is in the bathroom with you cleaning your tears and telling you everything is going to be okay.

You have been in your room with your daughter all day. Too afraid to go out, so thankfully Lily knows everything about running the hotel and was able to step in for you. However the need for food is too much so you leave the sanctuary your room provides. It’s dinner time, they should be gone just like you asked. Mary, Lily, you and y/d/n go down to the restaurant attached to the hotel. Your good mood is about to be shattered. Looking up from y/d/n you see all three boys sitting there laughing and joking with each other. Confused, you march right up to them, “What part of leave now do you not understand??”

“We are not leaving until you tell us what is going on.”

“Honestly none of it is your business. My family and I have been fine on our own and I don’t need you three coming in here and ruining everything. Any other questions or can I please go and enjoy dinner with my family?” They knew something was going on, but they didn't know what… Why does Dumbledore need them here? How does he even know about y/n. Clearly y/d/n has magic, but do you? With more questions than answers they just simply eat dinner and catch up. Once dinner was finished Remus reflected on everything James is a writer in the muggle world and wizard world, and Sirius is now CEO of his dads company. They all have their lives in and out of magic. But something they do know is your daughter has magic and this hotel was restored with magic. They can feel the magic running through the walls. But that begs the question as to who has the magic? You or someone else. What is the possibility of someone else having the magic then you having a magic daughter. The more he thinks about it the more certain they are that you have magic.

The next day y/d/n was exploring the island, you know it’s not dangerous and everyone here loves you and your daughter. So you know it’s safe for her to wander around. She goes down to the dock to watch the fish. What she sees however is a MASSIVE boat(well massive to her) and starts to look at it! She then notices James and shyly walks up to him. He smiles at her, a lot less nervous than the first time he spoke with her. Seeing as she is an extension of you he treats her like family. They go swimming together and he lets her explore the boat while explaining what each part does.

Eventually she left James but she was not done. Her next stop was the little shop by the beach where they make yummy drinks for her. When she gets there she notices another one of the weird guys from the hotel. This is the one with black long hair. She climbs on the stool next to him and waves at the girl working at the shop and smiles when she sees her begin to make her favorite drink. Without thinking she grabs the guys hair and whispers pretty. He normally doesn’t let people touch his hair, but when she is looking at him with the puppy dog eyes that look just like yours he can’t help it. That’s how they spend time until dinner. Doing each others hair, she learns his name is Sirius but calls him Siri. For a boy he is really good at doing hair, she thinks. When the clock hits 5:30pm she knew she had to rush home so you didn’t lose your mind.

However when she got back to the hotel, she didn’t just go right inside. She went to her favorite place, the garden with the little bench she reads at. When she got there she realized someone was already there. One of those three guys was also here! What an adventure she had today. The first day that three random people were here on her island she got to meet all of them. She does what she does best and goes up to him and asks him what he is reading. Now Remus is the smartest one. He had a feeling once he got the letter from Dumbledore that he had a kid and that’s what the whole thing was about. Remus wanted to step up and be the father he couldn’t be. He showed her his wand and was sneakily asking questions like, “does mom have a wand? Who teaches you?” Once she answered his suspensions were right. You did have magic. And you are the one that has been teaching her. During their little hangout he taught her how to plant and grow a tree! However she had to go because she heard you calling for her and telling her dinner was ready. With one more hug to Remus she runs off to find a you.

At dinner she tells you all about her adventures with James, Sirius, and Remus. As any good mother would do, you scold her for playing with strangers, she knows who she can and cannot hang out with. However what catches your ear is when she said she was growing trees with Remus. Now like any sane person would you immediately think of planting seeds, but then she shows you the orange she picked from the tree they grew together. If you were a muggle you might have brushed it off as a child's imagination. But you know magic when you see it. This means that at least Remus has magic, now that you are thinking about it you remember the picture of him and his fiance moving much like a picture from the wizarding world. After dinner you plan to track him down and confront him.

y/d/n is in her room with aunt mary and lily having a girls night while you are in search of answers. Not knowing where he was or what he was doing you think back. First you check the stables where you spent your first night together, he wasn't there. Then you try his old shack, which is run down and falling apart, he was not there. Your last hope was the little part of the beach where the entire week he was here yall would spend time together at. Making your way down there you can see him from afar. You take a moment to prepare yourself. In all honesty you never stopped loving him. Even though it was a week, that week was the only time you felt alive until your daughter was born. Shaking your head to rid yourself of those thoughts you make your way down to get some answers.

Being a bit dramatic the first thing you do is pull out your wand and aim it at him. While he puts his hands up he does not look frightened. But the fact that he put his hands up and didn't laugh at you means your thoughts were true. He must be a wizard. Never one to beat around the bush you ask, “are you a wizard?” he just nods and shrugs his shoulders. “How come you never told me??”

“Well to be fair you never told me either.” he says while pointing to your wand, “plus if you weren't a wizard imagine how crazy I would have sounded.”

“That's true but still.” you give him a look and start laughing with him like old times before your heart was broken. All of a sudden you stop and get serious, “why are you here remus? And not just in this spot but on the island?”

“I put it together and I figured it out. The only question is who huh? Who is the dad? Me, James, or Sirius?”

“I don't know nor do I care. y/d/n and I have been fine all our lives and we will continue to be fine. How come you are not back on the midland with your family. I am sure that the beautiful woman you call a wife did not appreciate you dropping everything to come here.”

Remus thought it was now or never to tell you the full truth. “y/n you don't know this, but I came back. I came back for you. But they told me you already left and moved on. So I did the only rational thing. I went back. Got married. Was teaching at a muggle college. But we soon found out that my heart was not in the marriage. My heart belonged to a different girl. The marriage was a lie neither of us wanted to live anymore. So I have been alone for a good while and I went back to muggle school to become a teacher for high school students. I have nothing. I know you can't forgive me but I would love nothing more than to stay here with you. I can teach y/d/n magic and normal school stuff. I can help you with the hotel. Please just don't make me leave. I brought everything I own hoping you would at least let me stay.” He takes a deep breath and looks at you with eyes that rival your daughters in the puppy dog look.

That conversation between the two of you went well into the morning. You talked about anything and everything, what you have been doing in those 11 years apart from what to do with y/d/n and her dad. How he would love to step in as her dad, but also gets it if you don't want that. And talking about what to do with the other two guys.

In the morning you both made your way back to the hotel and saw James and Sirius in the cafe for breakfast. Looking at each other you think it's now or never. Together hand in hand you make your way over to them. Sitting down and explaining the situation went a lot smoother because you had Remus. It has been less than a week since he has been here back in your life but already you feel the effects he has on you. James and Sirius are shocked but spoke in all honesty they are not ready to be full time fathers. So while Remus took over the father figure they took up the roles of uncles.

Years later Albus Dumbelore got a letter for him and Minerva. He noticed the sender and immediately ripped it open. What he found inside made him smile and call Minerva into his office. Together they read: we are pleased to invite you to the wedding of y/n y/l/n and Remus Lupin. Below in what can only be your handwriting they read: without your meddling we would not be here. So of course you have an invite to the wedding. We hope to see you there.

Thank you so much to @whoahoney and @maddipoof y’all are the best and I cannot thank you enough for all the encouragement and support(lord knows I need it)

A/n please be kind im still working at getting better 💕

[spicywarl0ck]

Hi Spicy!!! How about some Pavelyan or Pavellan today (or any other pair that inspires you!): “I told you, you would eventually start begging.” -from Smutty prompts

Happy Friday, and thank you so much for the prompt! This took me two fridays to finish, because I got carried away with it. I had so much fun writing this for @dadrunkwriting, so thank you x3 Pairing: Dorian Pavus/mLavellan Rating: E Length: 2129

The rush of air felt cold against his flushed cheeks.

He heard the soft splashing of the nearby well, the sound comforting in contrast with the noise inside. Just a moment for himself was all he needed, a moment of calmness after dealing with too many politicians and murder plots.

Revassan took a deep breath, inhaling the soft scents of the exotic flowers around him. 

“Ah, and there I wondered where the hero of the evening went. I figured I’d find you here.” Dorian’s voice made him smile on the spot. It had been hard to find even a minute for themselves with everything going on. They’d only been able to squeeze in one tiny dance on the balcony.

“You always seem to sense where to find me,” Revassan smirked at the mage. “I’d almost say you keep a magical tracker on me.”

“Maybe I do.” He watched the eyes of the Altus glinting slightly, his lips stretching into a mischievous smirk. “We Tevinter mages are rather good at keeping track of our elves.” Dorian joked. “Wouldn’t want them to run away and develop free will, right?” he teased. 

“Ah, I knew there was a catch.” The elf chuckled, observing as Dorian's expression softened. “I take it you came to fetch me then?” 

“Actually, I wanted to steal a moment with you.” Dorian presented him with the bottle of wine he’d held behind his back. “What could be nicer than a picnic in Celene’s gardens right?” 

“And also her wine, I assume?” 

“Of course.” The mage gestured him toward the stone frame of the well. He would never get dirt onto his outfit. “But to soothe your conscience, I asked very politely,” Dorian added swiftly.

“Aren’t you always?” Revassan chuckled as he graciously sat next to the Tevinter mage. “I’m impressed.”

“As you should be.” By the creators, he loved this cocky man. He’s tried to withstand his charms at first but fell for him sooner than expected. Now, he was caught in his trap, unable to let go of the magnificent man that Dorian Pavus was.

“I see you’re very humble tonight.” Revassan teased, watching as Dorian conjured two drinking cups up before he filled them with the sweet red liquid.

“Of course I am.” Dorian’s mustache moved with his smile. “I am the humblest man you’ll ever meet,” he added, only his eyes betraying his words and calling his tease out. By now, Revassan was more than capable of reading this man.

It took him a while to see the vulnerability of Dorian, but he’d taken a deep understanding after meeting his father in Redcliffe.

“Thank you for sneaking the wine out.” Revassan’s smile was genuine. “I needed it,” he added. The past evening had been a lot, and he hadn’t been sure how to deal with political situations. His people didn’t really meddle in things like that, the conclave being the only exception he witnessed. 

If he was honest, it was surprising that they listened to a Dalish elf. 

“I know.” Dorian’s voice sounded soft when he spoke. “You’re not ballroom material,” he added, the tease evident in his voice. “For me, it’s like coming home.” His gaze drifted away for a heartbeat, the corners of his lips dropping slightly.

“Do you miss it?” 

“Home? Of course. Tevinter might have his flaws, but it’s still my home. Don’t you miss your Clan?” he replied, taking a thoughtful sip of wine as he let it dance on his palate. “Hm, I have to say not bad, but nothing could beat a Tevinter Redwine.”

“I miss them.” A sad smile danced on Revassan’s lips. “I miss them ever since I left. Funny, isn’t it?” he chuckled.

“I always wanted to leave, but now that I am so far away from them, I can’t help but want to go back.” It wasn’t as if he could or would, to begin with. There had been nothing more he wanted but to go back when he woke up in the dungeon in Haven. But he knew there was no turning back now.

He’d come too far for that. 

Also, there was Dorian. He wasn’t sure if his father would approve of a Tevinter Altus, meaning he’d need to make a choice sooner or later. For now, though, he didn’t want to choose.

“We always miss the things we can’t have. Or so they say.” The mage’s face turned firm, his eyes studying him intensely.

“I told myself I won’t compromise myself anymore.” He set the cup aside before his hand stretched to touch Revassan’s cheek. The elf felt the cold metal of Dorian’s rings pressing against his skin, the touch soothing against his wine-heated cheeks.

“Neither should you.”

Revassan couldn’t say who initiated it, maybe both of them, but he didn’t care much about the hows and who’s as he melted contently into the kiss. Dorian always knew what he needed, the sweet taste of Orlesian wine lingering on his lips.

He got lost in the touch, slightly shuddering against the mage’s palm cupping his cheek. 

It was easy to forget everything around them as he closed his eyes, just enjoying the moment and closeness of the other man against him as neither wanted to withdraw.

“Getting a little excited?” Dorian chuckled against his lips as he felt him shiver

He didn’t even give him a chance to answer until his tongue brushed against his lips, gently asking for entrance before slipping in. This bastard knew all too well what he did to him. Revassan melted in his arms as his whimpers were muffled by the invading tongue exploring his mouth.

An unbearable heat began to claim his body, yet he also shivered as he felt the chilly breeze.

All he felt was the body pressing against him and the tongue moving inside his mouth. A hand pressed against his lower back, drawing him closer while the mage ravaged every corner of his mouth, leaving him wanting more.

“Dorian~” his voice got muffled against his devouring lips, and he wasn’t sure if he had spoken or just uttered the altus’s name in his head. It didn’t really matter.

“You’re shivering.” The smug reply indicated that Dorian heard him after all. “Oh, but you’re also so aroused right now. I can feel it,” he added, luring a groan out of the elf’s lips as their pelvises touched.

“So are you.” Revassan teased before a rushed breath escaped him when Dorian pushed him further against one of the walls surrounding the gardens.

“I am always excited for you, Amatus,” he whispered against his ear, his tongue darting over the pointed tips and making him moan hoarsely. Revassan tried to hold back, but he couldn’t betray the want in his voice.

Creators, he wanted this man, and he wanted him now.

“We can’t.” The elf tried to protest still, fighting a battle against his wine and lust-filled brain. He wanted to do nothing more but to be ravaged by the tevinter mage, no matter the place or the time. 

“I can tell you don’t mean what you say.” Dorian chuckled, his lips still too close to his sensitive ears. 

He dragged his tongue all over the tip, causing Revassan’s fingers to curl into his tunic tightly. A strangled moan escaped him as he tilted his head to the side, giving the impossible man more access to his ear and neck.

“I guess I have to make you beg for it then. We both know you will.” 

It was both a threat and a promise. Dorian always managed to bring him to that point, and Revassan was sure the Altus would manage this time, too. No matter if they were in the Empress's gardens or not.

A part of him needed to admit that the thought excited him a bit.

“What if someone sees us?” The elf asked, even though the chance added to the thrill. He knew the corner that Dorian was dark enough that no one would see for real, but just the implication of it would serve the nobles enough topics to gossip about.

“Are you truly caring about that?” Dorian’s voice was husky, but Revassan knew he only needed to say the word, and he’d stop.

“I leave that to you to find out.” Revassan teased him, only to moan as quietly as he could when he felt Dorian’s teeth scrapping against the sensitive skin of his ears.

One hand slowly snaked towards his crotch, brushing against his bulge innocently enough to play it off accidentally. But he knew it wasn’t. He couldn’t help but press against the hand, secretly yearning for more as the mage’s lips and teeth drove him insane in such a short amount of time.

“Dorian…~” he whimpered as the Altus kissed his way to his earlobe, only to continue at his neck. 

His hips couldn’t help but move against the hand cupping his erection, but he was too proud to beg. He wouldn’t give in to Dorian’s demands that quickly, but he also couldn’t help the dizziness rushing through him. It probably was the mixture of the blood flow and the wine. 

“I love it when you moan my name like this, Amatus.” The cocky mage whispered against his heated skin.

His lips left marks where they touched him as his hand slowly vanished within the elf’s trousers. They were so close to the goal as they stretched over the smooth skin above his hard cock, the touch so very teasing as Revassan wanted nothing more but to be touched.

But Dorian wouldn’t give him what he wanted. Not just like that.

“You’re such a… a prick.” Revassan stuttered out, his brain unable to focus on anything but the heat and the throbbing pulse of his cock.

“I am, but admit it, You love me for it.” Dorian chuckled against his neck, leaving another mark behind after sucking the sensitive skin. Revassan felt every tooth dragging over his skin and the soft sensation of the mage’s lips as it pressed right against him.

But Dorian was right. He loved this man more than anyone else.

“Dorian…” a moan broke past the elf’s lips again, his hips grinding wantonly against the hand touching anything but his throbbing cock. “Pl… Please.” he gave in and fought his pride, not caring if anyone would see them.

All that he wanted was Dorian.

“I told you. You would eventually start begging.” The altus chuckled just as his hand traveled lover to wrap around Revassan’s cock. “It’s alright,” he added in a soothing voice as the elf moaned underneath his touch, his fingers curling firmly into his clothes. 

“I take care of you,” Dorian promised softly, his hand never ceasing its pumping motion as it dragged up and down on the pulsing shaft. 

It drove him insane. Both the sensation and the knowledge of being jerked off in the Empresse’s gardens were too much. He didn’t know what to think since all his thoughts became a heated blur, his hips thrusting into his lover’s hands on their own. 

It didn’t matter anymore where they were or what they did. All that mattered was that Revassan was here and the heat rushing through him, wanting more. And what he wanted right now was to find release within his lover’s hands.

“I’m close.” he moaned, his forest green eyes hooded and foggy when he tried to make eye contact.

“Then come for me, Amatus,” Dorian answered, his voice hoarse since he couldn’t hide his own desire. “Come,” he added in a whisper, his lips gently sucking at the tip of Revassan’s pointed ear as his hand kept a firm grip on his cock.

He didn’t budge when the elf found his release within his hand, hips stuttering as he made a small mess.

For a moment, he felt shaky. Only the body of his lover could keep Revassan from falling onto the ground as his heart rate went up. He almost felt like he was bursting, and everything around him was a blur.

But he felt Dorian’s warmth and strength as it held him, the mage’s aftershave so prominent in his nostrils.

Revassan could’ve fallen asleep but forced himself to regain a clear head. No one was around them, just the two of them sharing a heated embrace as the elf slowly came to his senses.

“What about you?” he asked hoarsely as one of his hands softly brushed questionably against Dorian’s bulge. 

“How about we join the party for now, and you repay me after we retire to our quarters?” The altus whispered against his ear, cleaning his hand with a handy spell and giving Revassan a moment to make himself decent again.

“You think anyone can lend us any silk shawls?” 

[infini-tree]

episodic - part 2

< prev | next >

Summary: Captain stumbles in the dark, the boys are hasty, and Krupp looms over the narrative.

As that one quote goes: it's the villains who act; heroes react. Or maybe it's the heroes who act, with the villains hindering their every action? Either way, there are pranks to pull.

A/N: the series was meant to be comprised of oneshots, the fact that there’s a new chapter to an existing one is just as surprising to me.

what changed my mind? i could not think of a good title for this next bit, so i decided to append it to this fic. to be honest it works out perfectly, as this is the direct result of the first part anyway. to those that thought that the first part was a clean conclusion to the whole thing re: the boys and captain: i'm only partially sorry (and besides, it did end with them saying they were going to meddle further, so...), in reality it was the start of a larger thread!

i haven't decided how many chapters this chunk of story will be, but for the time being i will hopefully write chronologically in relation to this part of the timeline (as far as the fic series half of this au is concerned). so for now i won't jump around the timeline for assorted written oneshots. for now.

——————————–

By the time Captain Underpants reached the man in his head’s house, the fuzzy feeling in his chest had fizzled out. The issue is done. A resolution was reached. They’ve all said their nice words, and it’s fine now. 

The house was silent, save for the TV that he had left on. The living room was still littered in what remained of the prankovation (trademark). He paid no heed to the grown up talk on air as his own words from earlier kept rattling around his head.

I miss what it was like before all this. I know you do, too.

He circled his way around the table before plopping on the chair. The light from the TV practically bleached out the scattered notes on the table, leaving the other man’s words impossible to read. Right now, he really didn’t want to read them. With everything that’s happened, he had almost forgotten that he had just been talking about how annoyed he was at the prank earlier.

He’d have to reply, eventually, but at this moment, he feels…

He feels.

He doubled over and clutched the cassette recorder against his chest. It reminded him of the moment he had recorded– what his sidekicks listened to – and his body seized up even further. He was fine earlier, so why was he acting like this? He had even thought, for a moment, that it was a latent effect from a monster. 

Captain knew it wasn’t. A part of him wished it was, like how he wished things were before.

He glanced back to the cassette in his hands. It was too dark to see through the plastic door that showed the cassette tape, but he knew it was equal on both ends of the spooling parts of it, paused right after that moment. A moment he didn’t want to share like that.

But they were his sidekicks. He supposed that they had the right to know, so it was fine. It was fine.

Captain’s hands shook in the dark. From the edge of his vision, he saw the light that lit up the chair and the living room change. Pale blue, to darkness, to red from a commercial.

His words rattled in his head, both what was recorded and what was said. The letters snare the other ones like they were static clung together– at the same time I don't.  

His mind felt like it was racing, but the only thing on the tracks was grawlixes ensnared in agitrons. He could feel it make a one-way trip to his chest, where it sat heavily.

After what felt like an eternity of being curled up, the feeling managed to fade, Captain quietly peeled himself off the seat. He turned on the light.

“Well–” He floundered for a moment, trying to recall where they left off. It felt like years since he spoke to him. Play it cool. “I think the prankovation, trademark, is an improvement.”

He dipped a few fingers in a nearby glass and flicked the drops in his face. 

Snap. He let the uncomfortable tenseness in his limbs wash over him before it dissipated.

What were you doing for an hour?!

“I was…” He looked back down at the cassette player. “Looking for the cassette. It, uh, got misplaced in the shuffle.”

Splash, snap. The fact he couldn’t feel much from the man felt worse than feeling a dissipating sweep of emotion. At least then, he could try and guess where this was going– as terrible as it felt. 

Awfully convenient timing, the note remarked vaguely.

Captain could practically feel the accusation curdling under the ink. He knew his voice would have too much ache in it to rebuke the statement. He cannot lie. 

In a smaller voice: “My sidekicks found it.”

The ache twisted. He nearly spilled the cup he was using as he put his hand in it and wiped his face. 

Snap. 

The twisting feeling mingled with the prickling hot emotion of the man in his head.

Those brats know?

“They’re not brats!” he defended. “They’re… they’re just looking out for me.”

Splash, snap. No prickling hot this time, just something he could only describe as slimy.

Behind your back? Sounds about right.

“I– I trust them,” he said out loud, though he made no effort to record it. His voice was too shaky for that– he repeated the words until they came out smoother and only then did he record.

Splash, snap. I mean, you didn’t know you weren’t real until now. Who knows what else they���re hiding.

Captain shook his head. This shouldn’t be affecting him this badly– any hero worth their salt knows how villains will do anything to get a rise out of you for any sort of footing. This was no different. He knew this was no different.

Captain grounded his teeth until he swore he heard it crack under the pressure. 

“Even– even if they were hiding something, I still trust them.” A pause. “That was just a hiccup, and minor conflicts are bound to happen. They’ll do the right thing in the end, usually.”

The Waistband Warrior listened through the recording again. The response felt foolproof!

Splash. Snap.

He was hit by the caramel onion emotion again. Sweet and good feeling at first until you got into the acidic onion-y part. It was the exact same feeling that lingered in his chest when the man in his head told him he wasn’t real.

They’ll do the right thing in the end “usually”? the note said. Honestly, you should keep better track of your little “sidekicks” and what they do– ten year olds don’t exactly have the best judgment.

In smaller print in brackets: (eg. Stealing that cassette. You know that counts as breaking and entering, right?)

Something hot flared in his gut seeing the last statement. “They are not thieves!”  

Captain immediately clamped his mouth shut with a hand. He gave a quick glance to the recorder, relieved that he hadn’t pressed the record button yet. 

He brought himself to stand on solid ground. Made his way to close the suddenly too loud TV. Was this how he ran the school? Is this how he thought of the children? His sidekicks?

He swallowed. Forced the heat in his gut to cool. Pressed record. Paused.

“We are a team.”

Splash, snap.

Are you, the note retorted. Because from my end, it looks like you're their personal idiot that’s part of a months long gag. One that may be going stale.

Captain elected not to give a response to that. Saying nothing was not a lie. Plus, the man in his head was ruthless, combed at every dip and rise in his voice and managed to figure him out. If his sidekicks had anything else to hide, then there had to be a good reason.

There had to be.

Captain looked at the sticky note one more time and placed it on the far end of the table. He needed… alone time. Or at least, alone time without seeing all those little notes.

He decided to follow his gut feeling, and his gut led him to the Closet At The End Of The Hallway, cassette player in hand. As he opened the door, his sights were set on a box in the lower shelf. With a quick press to the cassette door, he pulled the tape out, placed it in a box of other tapes he used, and pulled out a fresh– and most importantly, empty– one. 

The lights from the living room didn’t quite reach his little corner of the hallway, leaving him half-shadowed. He was still expecting something to pop out of a dark corner, or for the flowers on the wallpaper to twist to vines. But, the more he was out here, the house felt less lonely. 

Alone, maybe. But in the same way he was alone– with another presence looming around him.

(Or, within him, he guessed?)

Haunted, then? No, that word rattled in his brain like a rock you wanted out of a shoe. Apparently, that sort of thing was pretty uncomfortable.

Captain scratched at his chest with a frown, trying to will the ache to lessen. He sighed. Rocks.

He thought back to the papers scattered across the living room. To the confused looks on his sidekicks’ face. To the scattered remnants of the man’s backstory he could find in this closet. These moments were not fights, but there was a strange weight to these quiet and small moments he never had a chance to parse before. It wasn’t like his usual fare, but it wasn’t not, in some ways.

He’s still trying to untangle this specific subplot.

Captain finally placed the cassette in the player. The Man In His Head would not notice the change. The action wouldn’t matter much to anyone except him. 

Maybe that was the point. 

He made his way back to the living room. Nothing changed from when he left, and yet he was still… expectant.

Captain had contemplated staying for longer– how could he not, with the amount of plot threads he needed to untangle? But the time that stretched out before him was much more daunting than any villain, and he wouldn’t know where to start.

He thought back to the Man In His Head. If he was out, the other was not. Being out meant there was one less evil in the world. But he was a superhero, not a jailer with a key. It wasn’t his nature.

He splashed water on his face.

Snap.

Cuts from one scene to the next was a familiar thing to him. Much more than the endless stretches of time he was allotted in the house. So when one blink later he was somewhere that wasn’t in that lonely house, Captain sat up quickly. He was already getting out of the man’s clothes to get into something more heroic.

“Sidekicks?” 

George gave him a look. “Uh, Captain Underpants–”

“How’re you feeling?” Harold added.

In record time, he was out of the clothes the man in his head insisted on and had grabbed a picnic blanket-cape conveniently on the ground. 

“Well, I don’t feel like I was smashed to the ground, so… pretty good! Now where’s that monst– ack!”

Four hands grabbed at his cape before he could properly fly up. The momentum left him upside-down. 

From his point of view, Harold’s mouth curled up– that is to say it curled down, if he were right side up. “There’s no monster.”

“There’s always a monster.”

Now both of them were right side up-grimacing. 

Captain tilted his head, his entire body flipping right-side up at the motion, and amended with, “Or, uh, at least a conflict.”

“In that case…”

“Krupp’s cracked down on a lot of the school rules,” George explained. “And I figure that this would be a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.”

Captain gulped, trying to will away the words exchanged in the previous scene. “M– metaphorically, right?”

“It’s for all of us!” Harold picked up where the other left off. “Even you, after what Krupp must’ve put you through.”

“Now–” George waved a hand. “We were thinking that we could do a rehash of the prankovation, but–”

“We thought he might expect that! So then I thought you could help us out in the ideas department, like you did with the whole Brain Farts issue. Whaddya say?”

Captain stopped hovering. He could feel the stuck rock feeling again, rolling around in his chest.

“Listen, we get it– I know the last time you helped, it was… well, never mind about that,” Harold winced. “Nothing like that’s going to happen this time, we promise. And you won’t get caught. Plus, you’re the only one who can help us.”

“Promise?” Captain echoed, testing out the word like one would test the weight of a projectile before throwing it. 

“Yeah, for sure.” George said quickly, like throwing a hot potato before moving on. He looked up from what he was doing and handed him a plastic bag of supplies. “Think of this as… Free The Children, Part Two.” 

Captain gave a look inside. He wasn’t sure how the supplies connected to each other– he was never a planning sort of guy.

“Ah, to make school fun again, right?” 

“Yeah!”

His shoulders untensed. That was a good thing, he reassured himself. “Well, when you put it like that– what do you need me to do?”

——————————–

But before I tell you the rest of this story, I have to tell you this one.

Sunlight skirted off the remaining leaves around Treehouse Comix Inc. The wind was quickly snapping them up and off towards other autumn-y pastures. They had to bust out some of the blankets they kept up there, but eventually their parents were going to start telling them they’re not allowed up as George’s dad fortified it for winter

The key word was eventually. There were more pressing matters at stake than getting a little cold.

Harold frowned at the page he was working on. The content was fine, but something about the way he was drawing it was frustrating him and he didn’t know why. He set it aside next to the other pages. 

“Ugh,” he let himself splay on the ground dejectedly, face planting into the wood floor.

“Is that an ugh for Krupp suddenly going crazy mode with his rules or an ugh for the Cass-Incident?” George asked, leafing through his notebook and crossing out some of the more half-baked ideas.

“Uuugh,” Harold ugh’ed, which roughly translated to both.

He made his own noise of agreement as he crossed out another idea.

In one corner: the entire fourth grade had been blindsided by the sudden announcement of a whole gauntlet of assessments. Essays in English class, timed tests in math, horrible running tests in gym, but the real kicker was what was in store for science– a fair with mandatory participation. Even the weekend Invention Convention didn’t have that!

In the other: the Cassette Incident (Cass-Incedent, for short). It didn’t weigh in their minds so much as it squatted in the corner of it. It was just one of those things that was looming like a principal-and-or-superhero-shaped elephant in the room.

Harold slammed a fist down to the floor and pushed the sketchbook away. Instead of walking over, he just rolled beside the beanbag the other boy was sitting on. 

“This is too much.”

“I know.” He set his own notepad to the side. “It took a long time to figure out how to make comics at the same speed we did before we were in separate classes, now I’m not even sure we can keep up the same release schedule with everything else now.”

A pause. “Do you think this has to do with the Cass-Incident? The timing is too convenient.”

“What else could it be? It’s mostly affecting our grade.” Then, in a frustrated grumble he added: “Everything lately feels like it leads back to them.” 

Harold said a soft hm, before picking up the recently abandoned sketchbook. Turning to a new page, he started to draw.

“What did he mean by that he didn’t want it to change?” he asked. The doodle was Captain Underpants standing around with the same confused hurt they saw on his face as he found out that they found out. “Like you said, Krupp’s been nothing but mean to him.”

George thought for a moment. “Maybe he’s afraid of things getting worse if they did change. And, well–” He gestured vaguely.

“The sudden rules right after we found out.” Harold stared at the page intently. He started placing more lines; a panel around the Captain doodle, lighter lines radiating behind him. Shadows at his feet. “Poor Captain Underpants. At least he doesn’t have to deal with school.”

“Small victory that is.”

Harold continued scratching out more shadows. “What are we going to do?”

George put a hand to his chin. If he was right about the rule changes connecting to the Cass-Incident– and let's be real, he had a high chance of it on account of Krupp being predictable– then they had to deal with it and the source in one fell swoop. An inkling of a plan was forming in the back of his mind. 

And they could mesh it into the as-of-now half-baked idea they had shortly after said Cass-Incident. 

He stood up and made his way over to the Treehouse compartment where they kept stuff for their pranks. He began pulling everything out and dumped it on the ground.

“We’re going to need supplies. I don’t think the stuff we got is enough.”

The other boy sat up and dusted himself off. Confusion gave way to a determined look; he didn’t need to hear the plan– he knew this was going to be good. “What do we need?”

[chumpovodir]

ooooh, juicy million dollar question from a friend who's not familiar with castlevania, but knows enough about hector and alucard from my ramblings:

(with more ramblings ahead)

okay but if they were both opposed to dracula at pretty much the same time, wouldn't it have been easier for them to team up against him?

very inchresting scenario to imagine, although i think it goes without saying even with them teamed up, they wouldn't have been able to take drac down. possible idea for an AU where they tried, failed, escaped, and now have to come up with a Plan B? there's a castlevania buddy cop movie for the ages lmao.

of course there is also so much to unpack and theorize about why they didn't as well - i can't imagine alucard would've been too thrilled with one of the two guys who were helping trample all over his mother's wishes, and probably wanted nothing to do with him at that point

then there's just the issue of timing i think - it's pretty close, but hector's morality crisis is strongly implied to have been instigated once things passed a metaphorical threshold. so even if they ended up on the same side eventually, alucard probably already left long before hector ever made the decision to defect.

but eh, the exact timing is kind of murky on that one (both prequel mangas suggest alucard is already gone by then, but don't really give us a clear timeline on how much time has passed since lisa's death / hector realizing his heart's not in it anymore)

in my head i like to think alucard tried really, really hard at first to put a stop to his father's plans that didn't amount to facing and killing him (he just lost his mother, i don't think he would've had the heart to decide on straight away killing his only living parent, and that seems to hold water judging by how broken up he is at the end of CV3) and so it makes sense to me that he might've instead gone and tried to talk some sense into the only person who 1) has a direct say in the war and 2) is known to be favored, and held in high esteem by drac - someone he might actually listen to

i would kill to see that conversation happen. now, i know what you're thinking - "chump, isn't a scenario where alucard tries to talk hector out of going forward with the war a little bit too similar to n!carmilla tricking n!hector into a betrayal?"

and you'd be right, but see i'm not actually opposed to the idea of someone else giving voice to hector's doubts on principle. my issue with netflixvania is that betrayal ended up not even meaning anything since everything went sideways once the trio started meddling BUT ANYWAY

yeah in that scenario i could see alucard floating the idea of teaming up to stop drac together if it comes to that, and hector's reluctance as he grapples with his morality eventually forcing alucard to leave without him, to keep things canon-compliant. then hector realizes he's truly alone after missing his one opportunity, hardens his resolve to not be used as a pawn any longer and makes his own escape

[littlelasagne]

Hello beautiful human!! BMO is my favorite fic ever! Everything about the story is just perfect. Could you please share a little snippet of the next chapter? <3

Hi friend!

I'm so happy you've enjoyed the fic so far :) I'll be honest, I've been so busy at my new job and moving and everything, that I've barely had time this past month to work on BMO. The next chapter is nearly ready to go though, it's a heavy one about family so I keep umming and ahhing over it.

Thanks so much for the ask and continued interest! I feel a bit out of the loop with the fandom these days so it's nice to know you're there! Here's a chunk from the beginning of chap 31.

Squeezing a healthy dollop of suncream onto her hand, Hange began to smother it over her face.

“I wish you were here,” she said. “Everyone’s really sad, but we’re all happy to be together at the same time. It’s bittersweet in a way that Nani brought us all together in her death. Eurgh, it’s so hot though, I’m sweating all the time. I stink. You’d hate me right now. Oh yeah, I’d been in the house ten minutes and two aunties asked about my marriage prospects. I say aunties, I don’t even know who they are. Mum’s second-cousin, twice removed, three times married, carried over. Then, oh god, Mum explained to me that she told them about Zeke ages ago but she didn’t bother letting them know we split up so... that was fun explaining why we weren’t married yet. I didn’t really explain. I said I was putting my career first. Which is not exactly a lie either. I hate these stupid family games.”

Levi always considered it a blessing to not have nosy family poking their way into his life. If he had to pick between Erwin’s overprotective mother or Hange’s overcritical one, he would choose neither. But actually, as he listened to the hearty bustle beyond the door, he was struck by an odd longing. The thought of cousins to gossip with and meddling aunties to avoid seemed fun. At least they cared, right? He wondered if Uncle Kenny wanted to know his state of affairs. Judging by the constant barrage of emails from Cave, he did.

“Don’t forget your neck,” Levi said. Hange squeezed out more suncream, lifted her chin and rubbed the thick cream all over her willowy neck.

“It’s awkward, I haven’t really mentioned you yet because, y’know... it’s like I said, they’ll start asking all these questions and I’m not bothered about answering any of them yet. You understand, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“Maybe next time I’m here it’ll be different… Anyway, Levi... I really miss you.”

She’d been gone for just over forty-eight hours. Forty-eight hours since she had grieved all over him. Forty-eight hours since she was here in his bed, her leg wrapped around his and her lips all over his neck. He couldn’t wait to do that again. He imagined she was there with him now. Levi rolled over to face the window and see the night sky.

“It’s only been two days,” he said. Nineteen days to go.

“So? I’m allowed to miss you even if it’s only been ten seconds!” she pouted. “But thank you. For making me come here. As annoying as everyone is, we’re all connected to Nani and everyone’s set aside their feelings. We’re family after all.”

Family.

“That’s great, Hange.”

“I’ll pay you back as soon as I can, I promise.”

“It’s ok, Hange.”

She puckered her lips and brought them to phone camera. Levi’s screen turned black for a moment. She giggled. “Wish I could kiss you in real life.”

He wished it too. “Go. Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t cry too much.”

“Bye, Levi, sleep well. I’ll text you as soon as I can. I miss you.”

I love you, I love you, I love you.

“Bye, Four Eyes.” He hung up and flopped over in his bed, his eyes on the stars, feeling lonesome, languid, and just a little lacklustre.

[writing-good-vibes]

loving you is like loving the dead (or fucking the dead)

y'all are going to hate me for this one 😈 corey has a sick little fantasy he wants to play out with michael.

big, big, big WARNING this time readers, for corey x michael, smut, age gap relationship (though it's not brought up), psuedo-necrophilia (no one is actually dead), autonecrophilia (again, no one is dead), ice baths, slightly unsafe kink practices (because corey has no idea what he's doing), heavy mentions of suicide and past suicidal ideation. dead dove; do not eat.

divider by @/firefly-graphics.

“I wanna try something,” Corey says, keeping his eyes on the outdated TV set at the foot of the motel bed while it crackles with static; a fierce wind outside meddling with the reception.

They’d been on the road for a few days, sleeping in the truck on the side of the road when they had to, and never for long. Lucky for them, there was only one attendant at the last gas station they stopped at, and it wasn’t difficult to clear out the till. Corey found he could be rather persuasive these days, particularly with Michael’s fear-inducing presence close by. Even without the mask – or, perhaps, especially without the mask, Michael was a cutting figure. The kind of man people trip over themselves to avoid. Either way, they had enough cash for a night in a motel, maybe even two if they found somewhere cheap enough.

Michael, doesn’t say anything, but his head tilts minutely in Corey’s direction from where he had been focused on the staticky TV screen, showing his apparent attention.

“Like…” Corey thinks of how to word it in a way Michael will understand. “Like play-pretend.”

Once again, no response, but he knows Michael is listening. He leans up on his elbows from where he was reclined beside the older man. “Play-pretend where you’re the killer, and I get to be the corpse.”

Corey had thought a lot about being dead. After the accident, they’d put him on anti-anxiety meds. His psychiatrist said he wasn’t coping. There’s talk of adding antidepressants to his prescription, but when he doesn’t talk much in his sessions, they’re worried it’ll do more harm than good. He overhears his psychiatrist telling Momma to keep an eye on him. Six months later and momma had got sick of all this psychology talk – “You’re fine, Corey. These doctors, they don’t know what they’re talking about, trying to dose you up with God-knows-what and putting silly ideas in your head. It’s hurting you, Corey. Now, listen to your mother, I know what’s best for you.” – and stopped paying for his refills.

He'd stopped taking them anyway, leaving the half-full orange pill bottle to gather dust at the back of the bathroom cabinet. They’d never helped his nerves, even when things were at their worst. Besides the therapy appointments, he didn’t leave the house for months. Not with the way people stared at him, the way they shouted at him across parking lots and while he waited in line with Momma at the grocery store. She warded most of them off, but it didn’t change anything. The acquittal had stopped him going to jail, but he was already damned.

The first time he went back to the Allen house was on Halloween. The surviving Allens had abandoned it after the trial; Corey wasn’t sure where they’d moved to, but he somehow knew they were still in Haddonfield. It had been a whole year since Jeremy had died and nothing had changed, Corey’s blood pumped through his veins so harshly he could hear it in his ears, just like he had that night. The house is empty, stripped of everything bar the piano in the front room and some clothes hangers in the closets. Corey checked every room, he didn’t know what for, until he got to the attic. That was the first time he tried.

By no means the first time he’d thought about it, though. No, he’d been thinking about it. He’d spent a disturbing amount of time thinking about it. But as he climbed over the railing, looking between his sneakers at the long drop and sudden stop, he really thinks he could do it. He thinks about it for a long time, but his fingers never loosen their grip on the banister and his feet stay planted between the spindles.

It happens more often than Corey knows is normal. He goes to the Allen house and climbs over the third-floor railing and looks down. He wonders how many times it’ll take until one day he just lets go. Not that it matters, he thinks. Falling would just be the final nail in the coffin; he feels as good as dead already. A cold, empty body in a cold, empty house.

When he gets home afterwards, he always uses the back door. He has every creaky floorboard memorised, and he’s almost silent as he passes Momma and Ronald’s room. She never even notices he’s missing; he knows she doesn’t because if she did there’d be bars on his windows and a new lock on the back door before he even woke up in the morning.

That all seems so long ago. These days, he’s never felt more alive. The longing he once had has been replaced with a sick curiosity to have just a taste of what he had wanted so badly back then.

Corey shivers as soon as he steps into the tub, full to the brim with cold water and ice that he had to run out to the icebox for.

Michael watches from the bathroom doorway, arms relaxed by his sides, as though Corey trying to freeze himself into a corpse is nothing out of the ordinary.

The shower curtain isn’t pulled over, and displaced water and chunks of ice spill over the side of the bath, splashing and skidding across the cracked tile floor when Corey lowers himself into the makeshift ice bath, wincing when his balls tighten as he submerges himself. Corey sinks down further, up to his shoulders and a shocked gasp leaves him, making it sound like he’s been winded. His muscles start to spasm as his body tries to maintain its own heat.

There’s a cup of ice sweating away on the counter next to the sink. Corey tips some into his mouth and rolls it around with his tongue, pressing another ice cube to his lips until it hurts, then keeps it there longer still.

He doesn’t think it’ll work but he props a leg up on the edge of the tub and shoves an ice cube up himself. He’s already slick with Vaseline, having prepped himself in bed while Michael sat and watched Jeopardy. Now the ice surrounding him was nothing compared to how cold his fucking insides suddenly felt. Corey cringes, his hips bucking as he clenches around the uncomfortable intrusion. He crunches on the ice in his mouth to distract himself. “Have to wait for it to melt inside,” he grits out through clenched teeth.

Michal watches with that faint sort of fascination he has for most things which he does not personally understand, yet are intriguing enough for him to consider.

While they wait, Corey grips the rim of the bath, fingers sore with cold-cramp. How did he get here? Jumping from the top storey. Overdosing on his meds. Slitting his wrists with Laurie’s knife. Hanging himself by the belt he’d stopped wearing. No, no. Those days are long gone. Now he’d just use Michael. “How did you kill me?” Corey asks.

Michael is silent. His head dips slightly, like he’s looking the younger man up and down. He approaches, crossing the small room in two strides, before crouching next to the tub. Reaching out, his good hand circles Corey’s throat, finger and thumb pressing ominously on either side of Corey’s windpipe. Strangulation, Michael is saying. Corey should have guessed.

Corey closes his eyes, and when he opens them again, the hand on his throat is gone and Michael has retreated back to the doorway.

It’s impossible to keep track of time like this. Hours could have passed and Corey wouldn’t be able to tell. Corey’s teeth are chattering hard and when he chances a peek at the clock, he manages to let out a shaky breath. Times up. With quaking arms, he lifts himself out of the water. Dripping onto the already-wet tile. As he stands there shivering, he glances over at Michael, still stood watch stoically.

Without a word, which is no surprise, Michael keeps an arm’s length away from him and hands him one of the scratchy motel towels. Corey pats himself dry, not wanting to heat up too quickly when they haven’t even started yet. Catching sight of himself in the vanity mirror shocks him more than he thought it would. He’s pale, sickly pale, and there’s a blue hue on his lips. Every inch of him is devoid of life.

Michael’s playing ‘killer’, isn’t he, so the mask stays on this time. He closes the gap between the two of them, blackened eye holes bore into Corey. Michael's come closer to killing Corey than this, but Corey never had the chance to really play the role of ‘corpse’ then.

There’s a voice in the back of Corey’s head that says they should probably talk about this before they go any further, but before he can indulge or deny that voice, Michael wraps his hands arounds his waist and heft him into a fireman’s lift.

Oh fuck. Michael’s weathered and scarred skin feels white hot against Corey’s, his heart pounds and he doesn’t know if it’s because he wants this so fucking bad or because his body temperature has dropped so much his heartrate is working overtime. Like a ragdoll, Corey doesn’t react when Michael tosses him onto the bed, or when he spreads his legs obscenely wide.

Thick fingers dip into the Vaseline and then into Corey, almost burning hot, replacing what might have been washed away in the bath. Corey breaths shallowly, past the point of shivering now that a dense numbness has settled in his limbs.

It’s more difficult than Corey expects, pretending to be dead. He wants so badly to whimper, to moan when Michael pushes his unreasonably big cock into him. To rock his hips up to meet Michael’s. To press his blueing lips to the rotten latex of the mask. But he forces himself to be still, to make himself go limp. Michael has always been able to manhandle him, but he feels so much more vulnerable when he can’t resist. Or assist, is more like it, he thinks.

He’s used to the stretch by now, but the intensity remains each and every time. Very rarely does Corey wish Michael spoke, but right now he desperately wants to know if his insides feel as deathly cold as his outsides. If Michael’s cock is really that searing of if he’s just forgotten what warm flesh feels like.

Corey tries to suppress a moan, but the sound still rumbles in his throat and slips from his slackened mouth. Michael’s hand comes up, clamps over Corey’s cold lips and squeezes just the right side of too tight. He holds the pressure for a moment before letting go – Be quiet, you’re supposed to be dead, the gesture warns.

Corey does as he’s told. It comes as a surprise when he feels himself get hard, he’d thought he couldn’t with how cold he is, his blood vessels must have closed off, right? Freezing right down to the bone it feels like. Although corpses can stay hard, if that’s how they died, Corey thinks.

As he stares at the ceiling and lets his eyes lose focus even more, Corey’s mind wanders back to the sewer. Thinks about the day he woke up, dazed and scared, and how Michael could have killed him. Could have squeezed the life out of him and fucked him while he was still warm. Or saved him for later when he’d be cold, just like he is now, only better.

He wishes he could see what he looked like from the outside. Wants to know how depraved and disgusting they look as Michael ploughs his prone form, ice cold to the touch and unable to stop himself being defiled. His limbs really do feel stiff from the cold, and he really doesn’t think he could stop Michael even if he wanted to. That mindless bliss he feels when he can just lie there and take it is heightened by the thought of him being like this forever, his skin getting colder and his eyes clouding grey with death and Michael’s cock rocking him into an endless sleep –

Abruptly, Michael pulls out and Corey wonders what’s happening, wonders if Michael’s suddenly decided he’s not into it, before he’s flipped over. His arm is trapped at an uncomfortable angle beneath him, but he doesn’t readjust, just waits until Michael forces himself back in, half-pulling Corey back onto his cock. The rough material of Michael’s coveralls – because he is the killer, right now, not the man – chafes Corey’s freezing thighs.

Corey’s twisted arm brushes against his own cock with each thrust. It takes everything in him not to react, not to move his arm just a little so he can grasp himself with an icy hand. He resists the temptation, after all, he’s dead, isn’t he? Mind long gone and nothing useful left of him except a cold, tight hole.

Being dead feels so mind numbingly good. So, so much better than he ever imagined. Even at his worst, even when he cried himself to sleep every night. He’s so fucking glad he waited – no, that’s a lie – he’s so fucking glad he never had the guts to do it. Because if he’d offed himself back then, his body would have gone to waste.

Getting bored, or maybe Corey just makes such a pretty corpse that he should be face up, Michael flips him back over, and Corey’s gaze briefly refocus on the ceiling once again, his mouth open and wanting. The thrusts get harsher, Michael is ruthless as the best of times, and Corey certainly isn’t going to break the moment to complain. He chokes back a moan, his leg twitching involuntarily when Michael’s hips smash against his in a final moment of primal desire.

Corey comes untouched, as soon he feels the explosion of heat inside him from Michael’s own release. If anything can bring him back to life, it’s Michael.

He blinks slowly; a long, slow breath rattles his chest.

“If you fucked me like that afterwards, I really would let you kill me,” Corey says, from the cocoon of blankets he’s swaddled himself in.

The friction and exertion from their fucking had warmed him up a little by the end, but then he’d started shivering again and realised he should probably do something about it.

Michael is sat beside him on the bed, leaning against the headboard, when he turns to face Corey properly. The mask sits between them.

Whether you let me or not, I’ll do it one day, Michael is saying. And Corey knows it.

[myfairstarlight]

Changing Tides

AO3 Link.

Rating: G

Pairings: Susato Mikotoba/Haori Murasame (Rei Membami). Side Kazuma Asogi/Ryunosuke Naruhodo

Written for Susahao Week 2022. Day 4: Future/Growth

Word count: 2k

-ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ-

Susato was ecstatic when they received the letter — Kazuma was coming back to visit and considering the time it takes for a letter to arrive from Great Britain, it was only a matter of days before he would touch soil on Japanese ground.

Haori takes things in stride on her part. Of course, working every day with Professor Mikotoba and seeing Susato just as often ever since her return, she finds herself equally excited — she has not seen Kazuma in two and a half years now. Her friendship with him is not the deepest, he is the brother of her best friend who she didn’t really have a reason to get to know better, but she still missed him, mostly because everyone else around her did and she has always been more of a follower than a leader.

She does not join them when they leave to wait for Kazuma at the dock — that is a family matter after all — but she does get invited for dinner, and she is not sure why.

Especially when Professor Mikotoba tells her Kazuma insisted that he wanted her there.

So here she is now, bringing her empty plate to the kitchen sink as she listens to the joyful and happy chatter filling the Mikotoba household like she has not seen in a long while. Ryunosuke Naruhodo is here too, unsurprisingly, and Haori hasn’t seen him leave Kazuma’s side all afternoon, she thinks.

“It feels like old times again, isn’t it?” Susato muses softly next to her. “Oh, how I have missed this!”

Haori smiles at her enthusiasm. It is true it is a sight that was much more familiar so long ago now, back before everything got complicated and everyone got separated by oceans… or a meddling detective, from what she understood.

“Has he mentioned how long he is staying?” she asks.

Susato frowns as if she just made a ludicrous comment. “I assumed he would be staying permanently. It has been a year, after all, he has no other reason to stay over there, does he?”

Haori bites her lower lip. She has not told her friend, but Kazuma had written to her too, this past year. She was quite surprised every time Professor Mikotoba handed her a new letter every other month with her name on the yellowing paper. Reading the letters, she could not shake the feeling that the man had found his place, in London, and was far happier there than he ever was in Japan. She wrote her thoughts back to him, once, and he had simply replied “Are you certain you study to become a doctor? That was quite an acute deduction.”

Except Susato usually is far more observant and level-headed than she could ever hope to be so she is surprised her friend has not picked up on her brother’s happiness through his written words, or perhaps she is momentarily blindsided by the joy of having her brother back after so long, or perhaps even she is purposely ignoring the possibility altogether before rationality catches up to her.

Haori is aware Susato tends to pretend everything is fine even when she struggles internally.

“Anyhow, I think he mentioned he wanted to talk to you as well, once Naruhodo-san lets him go for a minute,” Susato says.

“Oh?”

Susato nods. “I did not know… you wrote to each other?”

Haori blushes. “Ah, I did not think it necessary to mention. He only asked me how you and Naruhodo-san were faring, surely knowing you two would lie to not make him worry.”

“That would make sense. I should have done the same and written to Mr Sholmes! No, Iris rather.” Even so, Susato still looks upset. “Has he talked to you about settling down with someone, or something of the sort?”

“Um, no, I do not think so?” Haori replies. “Why?”

“It is that look in his eyes. He had the same one after declaring he would become a lawyer like his father. It is like he has found a new purpose in life. Surely the next logical step would be to find someone to settle down with?”

“Has he ever been interested in romance, though?” Haori wonders. In the years she has known the two siblings, neither of them seemed particularly into the pleasantries of romance like her.

“… It has been too long, perhaps he is now.”

There is an underlining of sadness in this admission and Haori instinctively reaches forward to hold Susato’s hand in reassurance.

“He holds you dear to his heart, I am sure he would tell you first if he were planning on courting someone. He would want your approval, after all.”

Susato smiles, squeezing her hand once. “You are probably right.”

Little did she know, her deductions were completely false anyway.

-ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ-

Kazuma asks to speak with her a little later and Haori tries not to let Susato’s suspicions get to her head as she is led towards the garden.

She fails, because as soon as they are alone, she blurts out, “I am not interested in anyone courting me, in fact, I already like someone!”

The man before her frowns in confusion and slight amusement. “Good for you?”

Haori blushes furiously, hiding behind her sleeves. “Oh dear, you were not…?”

Kazuma laughs, but it is not mocking, in fact, it sounds nervous, as if the thought itself is uncomfortable to him. “I have no idea where you, Susato or Professor Mikotoba all got the idea I intended to court someone…” he chuckles weakly. “Although I wish I could bring them news as happy as that.”

She sobers up then, understanding the seriousness of the conversation if Kazuma’s stiff posture is anything to go by. He sighs, crossing his arms as he looks around the garden for a few silent seconds. Haori doesn’t try to push him to talk, crossing her hands behind her back as she waits and lets the gentle breeze of the autumn night caress her skin.

“I… am settling in Great Britain. I have not told the Mikotoba’s yet,” Kazuma confesses eventually.

It is probably supposed to be some life-altering news but Haori is hardly surprised after all the letters and the time it took for the man to visit. Perhaps that is why he is telling her, for practice, it is, after all, easier to tell a distant acquaintance than your direct family, even so, she asks, “Why tell me first?”

Kazuma gives her a look, one of those infuriatingly piercing and intimidating one of his as if she just said something stupid, but Haori does not falter, to her own surprise.

“Because I have a request to ask of you. I most likely know how Susato will react. She always wants to help others and take care of them, I am aware that is why she chose the path of a judicial assistant, to be by my side and later Ryunosuke’s. I know she is capable, more than I can ever hope to be, truly, she is a force to be reckoned with but… I do wish she would let others take care of her as well. I cannot do that while oceans away, so that is where you fit into the picture.”

“You… you want me to take care of her?” she asks softly, feeling her cheeks burn again.

Kazuma nods.

“But Naruhodo-san…?”

Kazuma laughs. “Between him and Susato, who is the responsible one, do you think?”

She makes a face. “Alright, you have a point.”

“See? Although I will need to find a way to tell him too…”

Haori picks up some longing in his voice and her heart aches just a little for Ryunosuke. She does not know the man that well either, having only met him once he and Susato came back from Britain, but she could pick up the man’s feelings for his partner oversea easily. The look in his eyes whenever he talks about Kazuma, she recognised it easily as she is all too familiar with that feeling as well and would often encounter it in her own mirror when Susato was on the other side of the world and she would ramble on and on about how she missed her in the intimacy of her bathroom.

“He would follow you in a heartbeat again,” she ends up saying.

Something glints in Kazuma’s eyes at her words. Hope, perhaps, before it dims and he shakes his head. Oh you poor soul, Haori thinks faintly. “And I do not want him to, I have caused him enough grief. Japan needs him, just as I have found my place in Great Britain, although I am saddened I will not be able to see in person what an even greater defence attorney he’ll become.”

Her heart aches once again. It is sound logic, yet the sentimental romantic in her is disappointed that Kazuma is giving up on their “what could have been” so easily.

Although she is aware he must have pondered over this decision for months so it must not have been that easy, even if she cannot comprehend it.

“So do I have your words, then?” Kazuma prompts. “About Susato.”

“Oh!” Right, she did not actually reply to his request, did she? “Of course, I will look after her. I owe her my life and more than that, she is dear to my heart, I would have done so even if you had not asked.”

Kazuma smiles warmly. “I know, but I suppose I wanted the reassurance nonetheless. Thank you, Haori.”

He bows with a grateful smile, and Haori reciprocates, however when he starts walking away, Haori impulsively stops him by grabbing his arm.

“Wait, Kazuma.” He waits, lifting an eyebrow. “Do you love Naruhodo-san?” Kazuma’s face remains impassive as if he expected her to spell it out in the open.

“You truly have a very perceptive mind, Haori,” he replies, which might as well mean yes. “I had thought a year would have been enough for the feelings to fade but I underestimated them.”

“You should tell him,” she encourages then, having no idea why she is so invested, “even if you settle in Great Britain, you should not leave with any regret behind.”

Kazuma’s demeanour softens. Gently, he pries Haori’s hand away before he chuckles and rests a hand on her head. Haori blinks — she has seen him do that to Susato before, especially when Susato was rambling, the action would always halt her thoughts and bring her to silence.

And it seems it’s working on Haori too because her mind blanks.

“Thank you again, Haori,” Kazuma declares, “however may I redirect your advice back to you? If I were to confess, perhaps you should tell her too?”

“I…”

He ruffles her hair and she yelps, scrambling to get away. Kazuma laughs once again. “Ever since you and Susato became friends, you’ve always brought out the best in her. When she decided to defend you and risk everything… when I heard about it, I could not be prouder. It is not my place to say if she harbours similar feelings for you, but know you are already part of this family. Entering a romantic relationship with her would just be a formality.”

A smile blooms on her lips although some sadness still remains in her heart. It seems she has acquired an older brother right here, and yet he will soon hop on a boat and leave again, what a pity.

“Thank you, Kazuma.”

And with that, they part.

-ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ-

As soon as she walks back into the living room, Susato grabs her arm and drags her to her room instead. Haori only has time to blink before the door slides shut behind her and her friend is looking at her with an intense fire in her eyes.

“Haori.”

“Susato.”

Silence.

Susato clears her throat, in an awkward way Haori had never seen on her face before. “So… did he…?”

“Did he what?”

“… Ask if he could court you?”

The world comes to a halt and Haori almost forgets to breathe. She can feel her whole face turn red and she haphazardly tries to hide it behind her hands. “What?! What gave you such an idea?!” Never mind that she also assumed that earlier and in front of the man himself, so…

Susato flushes as well. “Well, I don’t know, he walked in looking really proud and then I find you all smiling and flustered! You used to be infatuated with him as well, one might assume!”

That was one time and she mistook Kazuma for Susato because the man had forgotten to cut his hair… “I have never— Oh, bother.”

Her friend looks dumbfounded, clearly bothered that her deductions were wrong. Was she hoping…? “So what did he talk to you about?”

“Ah… that I cannot tell,” Haori says with an apologetic smile. “He simply needed some advice and reassurance. Nothing to worry about, however!” she quickly adds when she sees Susato’s face fall.

“I apologise… I suppose I have jumped to conclusions. What would be better than my best friend and brother together? So I can be sure neither of you will find someone else and leave… oh how horrible I sound.”

Haori smiles, this time more fondly, as she walks up to Susato and gathers her in her arms. Susato stiffens for a split second before melting into the embrace.

“It is alright to be scared of what the future has for us, especially with how much our lives have changed just these past two years,” she whispers, feeling Susato’s hands grip the back of her kimono. “But I can assure you that nothing can ever pull me away from you, Susato Mikotoba.” I adore and admire you too much to ever let go.

Susato chuckles, her breath hitting Haori’s neck, making the latter shudder. “A part of me is relieved, I have to admit,” the other girl replies softly. “You definitely deserve better than my silly brother as your partner in life.”

Haori laughs, in what she hopes appears to be genuine joy rather than nervousness. “I already have you as my partner in life, do I not?” she says, cursing the fact she cannot see Susato’s face.

“Of course you have,” Susato says, well oblivious to Haori’s deeper meaning behind her words. “I am glad to have you.”

Haori holds back a wistful sigh. “And so do I.”

She knows she promised Kazuma she would take a leap of faith and confess, but she never said when. Now truly is not the right moment anyhow.

But someday. In the meantime, she will continue looking over Susato the way she deserves to be.

-ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ-