#also holy shit i just noticed the diesel sign in the first one???

[thatgoddamngingerundercut]

‘Butter’ Jacket Shoot Sketch Day Two - Jimin

[snowdice]

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 34]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. None edited chapters are under the cut.

My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

Just going to be casually researching today since I finally have my head above water when it comes to school! Yay!

Chapter 13

The room stopped shaking after a moment. “Ow,” Pat said. He seemed a bit stunned but was still moving at least. He carefully maneuvered himself into a seating position. “Ouch. Owie.” He reached up to poke his own nose. “Ow!” Janus slapped his hand away when he got there. A bit of blood was already trickling from his nose and there was a small cut over his eye, but it wasn’t bleeding too much.

Janus pushed him so he was leaning slightly forward and produced a pack of time appropriate tissues from his pocket. He pulled one out of the package and offered it to him.

 He took it and pressed it up against his nose to try to stop the bleeding. He seemed mostly alright though Janus imagined he’d have plenty of bruises down the line. The power in the museum flickered and Janus looked up. Now that he was listening, he could hear people panicking in and out of the museum.

“We should probably get off of the stairs,” he suggested.

“Yeah,” Pat agreed. Janus helped him to his feet, and they climbed back up the steps. Janus looked around and found an employees only sign a few feet away. Usually he’d not risk that as it could get him into trouble he didn’t want to be in, but considering the earthquake that had just happened, he could probably play it off as panic.

 He ushered Pat into a small room and found a chair and table. He had Pat sit in the chair and pulled out another one of the tissues to dab at the blood coming from the cut over his eyes. “Here,” he said. “Hold that there. I’m going to go see if there are any bandages about.”

Pat took the tissue with the hand not already holding one to his nose. “Thanks,” he said.

Janus nodded and got to his feet. The lights flickered once again but didn’t stay off for now. He didn’t know how long that would last.

 He couldn’t see anything that might hold bandages in this room, but there was a second door. “I’ll be right back,” he told Pat, exiting through it.

The lights flickered once more as the door closed behind him and he cursed. When they came back up Janus’s eyes immediately fell on a man. They both froze.

“Remus!” Janus hissed the second their eyes met. “What are you doing here?”

Remus blinked at him for a moment. “Hi. Janus,” he said. “I… come to France for… tea sometimes?”

“There isn’t any tea back here.”

“So, there isn’t…” he said. There was a moment of silence. “Uh, so I actually cannot talk to you right now.”

 “What do you mean?” Janus asked. Remus grimaced in a way Janus had never seen from him before. It immediately set off alarm bells in Janus’s head. “Oh my god,” Janus said. “Oh my god. You’re not from the same time as me.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Remus mumbled.

“Holy shit, you’re looping?!”

“It’s… not looping if I wasn’t here the first time.”

“Remus, we spend more than 12 hours a day together most of the time. The only thing worse than this is if I looped back to this time myself.”

“…Yeah. Anyway, I need to leave now.”

“Please do.”

 He turned to go, but then stopped. “Oh, and,” he reached into his pocket and tossed something at Janus. Janus caught it.

It was Band-Aids.

“Oh, shit,” Janus spat at the clear use of foreknowledge. “I hate this. I hate you. I’m going to kill you the next time you see me.”

“Sure, Jan.”

“Go.”

He did, slipping into the next room while Janus took a deep breath and then turned back to the door behind him. He schooled his face before Pat looked up. “I found some Band-Aids.”

Pat nodded and Janus came over to squat next to him.

 Janus opened the box and Pat looked down. His eyes lit up with sudden joy so intense that Janus felt like he’d just gotten a punch to the gut. “Kitty Band-Aids!” he exclaimed. Janus bothered to actually look at the design on the container, only to note the cartoon cats on the front. Pat was almost vibrating off his seat. “Look they’re all so cute!” He grabbed the container from him to inspect the different designs printed on the back with glee even as a bit of blood was still trickling from his nose.

Janus took the box back gently and guided the wad of bloody Kleenexes back to his nose.

 “Which would you like?” Janus asked.

“Oh, they are all so cute,” Pat cooed. “Um, how about that one!” he pointed. “Or that one! Or that one!”

“Pat you only have one cut.”

“But they’re all so cute!” Pat said, tongue tucking into his cheek. He contemplated the box again. “Let’s do the black one,” he finally settled on.

Janus selected one of the Band-Aids with a black cat wrapped around a pink ball of yarn and staring back at them with wide green eyes. The think looked like it had partaken in one two many doses of catnip, but Janus didn’t mention that.

 Instead, he just carefully unstuck the backing from the Band-Aid and motioned for Pat to remove the tissue from his forehead. He smiled at Janus as he drew back.

Janus cleared his throat. “How’s the nose.”

“It’s slowing down,” Pat replied. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Janus replied. They met eyes for a second before Pat looked away back at the box of Band-Aids.

“Oh,” Pat said. “There’s a grey one. I didn’t notice.” He pointed to it. “I should have used that one.”

“Do you like grey cats?” Janus asked.

“I like all kitties,” he said, “but one of my roommates loves grey cats. He had one when he was a kid and thinks of them as good omens. Seeing one always brightens up his day.”

“A friend of mine has a grey cat,” Janus said. “She’s much more tolerable than him.”

Pat laughed a bit. “Don’t be mean,” he said.

“Oh, he deserves it, don’t worry.” Janus considered him for a moment. “Here,” he said, pulling out one of the Band-Aids with the grey cat on it. It did, actually, look a lot like Diesel Fuel.

“But I don’t…”

Janus just shrugged and stuck it on his cheek where there was no wound. Pat giggled and touched it with a finger. Janus stood back up.

“Can I have another tissue?” Pat asked.

“Sure.” Janus handed a tissue over to him and he crumpled up the bloody ones in his hand.

“I think I’m good to keep going,” Pat said, putting the new tissue under his nose. “The nose will stop soon.”

 Pat got out his iPhone and directed him back out of the room. They checked the second floor and didn’t find anything and so went to the third floor. The second they arrived in the room that Pat’s phone was directing them too, Janus knew that it must be right. There was a strange, distorted whirling sound and the entire room was shaking slightly like they were standing next to a railroad track.

“I’m guessing this is it,” Pat said.

Janus nodded and looked over his shoulder at the screen. They both cautiously walked towards where the little dot was on the phone.

 “Is that it?” Pat asked, pointing at a small device on the center column in the room. Janus reached forward to flip the switch on it. The whirling stopped and the room settled. Janus’s time piece vibrated as it came back online. They waited for a few moments. “I assumed… time distortions would be more…”

“They are,” Janus said. “This one is artificial.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a simulation,” Janus said. “It causes similar symptoms to a time distortion, but it’s not actually fracturing time at all.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Pat asked.

“I don’t know,” Janus said. He took the piece of tech of the wall and carefully stored it in his pocket, “but someone’s trying to get our attention.”

 Chapter 14

Janus didn’t feel comfortable leaving France 2027 just yet, still weirded out by the strange turn of events. So, he and Pat ended up sticking around for a couple of hours. They looked through the art museum for a bit, but Janus was having trouble focusing on the pieces, and Pat eventually suggested they get some air. Janus agreed considering the museum would close for the night soon anyway.

They wandered around the downtown for a bit. The people seemed to jump back from the strange weather and earthquake that afternoon rather quickly, and there were plenty still about to blend into.

 Pat was snapping photos every so often like a tourist which Janus shook his head at but allowed because even with the outdated phone it almost made them blend in even more. It also might stop any questions about Pat’s weird way of speaking French. They could just say he was an overeager tourist who watched too many old movies.

“Ooo!” Pat said. “We should get crepes.”

“Why?”

“You can’t go to France and not eat crepes.”

“I assure you, you can,” Janus said dryly.

Pat shot a pout at him and the next thing he knew he was in a small crepe shop.

 For Janus, choosing something was easy. He just ordered the first thing he found on the menu which seemed to be a standard one with ham and eggs. Pat on the other hand seemed to be struggling greatly, and Janus had to gently push him to the side to let some other customers order first.

“What should I get!?” Pat asked. “They all look so good! I could do strawberry preserves or maple syrup or just sugar!”

“Or you could get one that is actually food,” Janus suggested mildly. “I don’t think you need any more sugar judging by how you are acting.”

Pat rolled his eyes. “You sound like Lo.”

 Janus made a note of the name ‘Lo’ even though it surely was a nickname.

“But, since you’re insisting, I’ll get something healthy. I’ll have the strawberry one. That’s a fruit!”

“It comes with a cream cheese filling,” Janus pointed out.

“And it’s fruit!”

Janus shook his head and stepped up to the counter. “One ham and cheese and one strawberry preserve, please,” he said to the cashier as he was not allowing Pat to order in French and accidently say something stupid. He forked over some euros.

“You don’t have to pay for me,” Pat protested when he saw that.

Janus glanced back at him. “I was afraid you’d try to pay in francs,” he said dryly.

 It looked like Pat was about to stick his tongue out at him, remembered that Janus had criticized him for that earlier, and then just scrunched up his face in displeasure as though that was any less childish.

They waited for their crepes to be finished and then went to eat them outside near a water fountain.

“I can pay you back for the crepe,” Pat said after they sat down. “I do actually have euros.”

Janus waved him off. “It wasn’t that expensive.”

Pat hummed. “Well, in that case. I insist on paying for a wish for you.” Janus raised an eyebrow. “In the fountain!” Pat clarified.

 Pat set aside his crepe to dig in his pocket for a couple of coins. “Here!” he said handing one over.

Janus glanced over at the fountain. “No.”

“Oh, come on,” Pat beseeched. “You have to want something. I’ll even throw it in for you, but you have to make a wish first!”

“No.”

“Please!”

Janus sighed. “Fine.” He popped the rest of his crepe in his mouth. “I wish for a crepe,” he said after swallowing.

“You just had a crepe, silly.”

“But I liked it, so I want another one.”

“We can go back and get you another crepe.”

“Ah, but I’m not hungry anymore.”

Pat crossed his arms. “You’re just being difficult on purpose.”

 “Not me,” Janus said putting hand over his heart. “I would never do something like that.”

 Pat glared at him, but then snatched the coin out of his hand. “Fine!” he said. “One crepe wish coming right up.” He hopped up with the two coins and darted over to the water fountain. Janus turned to watch him go but then happened to catch sight of something out of the corner of his eyes.

Pat’s phone.

He didn’t pause in his movement, completing the turn, but as he watched Pat close his eyes, presumably to focus on his own wish, Janus snuck a hand out and grabbed the phone without looking. He slipped it into his own pocket.

 Pat came back over after throwing both coins in the fountain and didn’t even seem to notice that his phone was missing, picking up his crepe to take another bite. Just to make sure, though Janus decided to distract him. “What do you think of your crepe?” Janus asked.

“I like it! It’s sweet, but not too sweet. There was a crepe place across the street from my apartment in college, but they always put a bit too much sugar in the dough, I think. I’d still eat them, but these are much better.”

Janus nodded and kept up the light conversation until Pat was finished.

21088

“Well,” he said then, getting to his feet. “It seems that nothing else is going to happen regarding the time distortion. I should be getting back.”

Pat hummed. “I should too. It’s movie night!”

“I probably should arrest you,” Janus noted.

“In the middle of all of these people?” Pat asked mildly.

“Touché,” Janus said.

Pat gasped and pointed at him. “Pun!” he said. Janus blinked at him. “Because we’re in France! That’s French!”

“…Goodbye Pat,” Janus said, turning to walk away from him.

“Goodbye… wait I still don’t know your name!”

Janus stopped to look back at him for a moment. “Like I said,” he replied. “Elvis.”

“Fine,” Pat said. “Au revoir, mon chéri.”

“You never stop, do you?” Janus asked.

Pat giggled. “Considering I don’t know what you mean, I imagine I’m just getting started.”

Janus actually left then, walking off towards the alley he’d first arrived in. In some ways, the mission had been a bust, but in others it had gone very well.

He felt for the weight of the phone in his pocket before pulling up the display screen on his timepiece to go back to the TPI.

It had gone very well indeed.

 Chapter 15

The first thing Janus had done when he’d returned to the TPI was hand over the timebomb to Khalid who sent it to forensics. Within the hour, forensics got back to them that it was the same timebomb as 2999 and that it had never exploded, but simply been diffused. Which meant, blessings on blessings, everyone got to go home that night.

 Not that Janus went home, no, he ended up falling asleep on his desk somewhere between 3 and 4am, but at least he wasn’t sharing his space with anyone. He’d been trying to hack the cell phone all night to see if it had anything he could use, but he honestly had no idea what he was doing. All it seemed he could do was play some annoying song over and over again about never giving someone up. At around 2am, he’d finally broken and sent off an email, though, he’d continued to try to mess with it after that.

 He got woken up by Lena coming into the office at 7am, and noticed he already had an email response asking when Janus wanted to come in.

“Now?” he sent back.

“…Do you sleep?” was the immediate response. “And yes.”

His wrist buzzed as an appointment in 5 seconds downloaded to his timepiece. He selected the coordinates and landed at Cultural Outreach. The receptionist blinked up at him and then back down at the screen on his desk. “Oh!” he said. “I didn’t see this appointment. I think Professor Eran is in his office.”

He didn’t stand to escort Janus this time, so Janus went ahead and went down the hall to Virgil’s office himself.

 He knocked on the door and while he was waiting for Virgil to open it, the infernal contraption once again started to play the same stupid song.

“I didn’t even touch you!” he spat, getting it out and tapping on the screen.

“Jonas Brothers dude again?” Virgil asked causally upon opening the door.

Janus shoved it at him. “Make it stop.”

Virgil took it and fiddled with it for a few moments before it stopped with the song. “Oh my gosh,” he said scrolling through something on the screen.

“What.”

“What maniac sets a custom alarm for every 30-60 minutes for a week that just plays ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’? Oh, and one ‘It’s Not Unusual’ on Saturday. He’s mixing memes at an alarming rate.”

 “Can you. Just. Make it not happen. Anymore?”

Virgil smirked at him. “Maybe.” He turned around to go back into his office.

“Virgil,” Janus growled following him in.

Virgil just laughed. “What do you want to know about it?” he asked. “Just a fair warning… the song means he… likely was aware someone would steal it.”

“Of course, he was,” Janus groaned.

“But I’m sure we can still get something out of it.” Virgil started tapping at the screen again. “Okay, let’s see. It’s an iPhone 5, and someone jailbroke it.”

“What does that mean?”

“Tampered with it so they could install non-company approved software,” Virgil explained.

“Well I figured that since he was using Google Maps to track time distortions,” Janus grumbled.

 “I think I have something,” Virgil said to himself while digging through his desk. “Ah ha!” He held up some sort of cord. “This will let me hook it up to my integrator.” He slotted the cord into the bottom of the iPhone and then crawled under his desk to fiddle around with some other things. “There we go,” Virgil said popping back up. “It might take a few minutes. Running the program any faster might overheat the phone.”

Janus nodded and sat back to wait. Virgil grabbed the phone and started to play around with it a bit even as it uploaded all of its information to his computer.

“Weird,” Virgil said after a moment.

“What?” Janus asked, sitting up straighter.

“There are exactly two contacts. Fewer than I’d anticipate for a regular phone from the 2010s. More than I would expect from one clearly not being used as a phone.

 Virgil glanced to the side, and it must have finished the download because he unhooked it from the computer. “I have a 21st century phone network adapter,” Virgil said. “It transfers call back to whatever date the phone says. Do you want to try calling one?”

“It’s worth a shot,” Janus replied.

Virgil dug back into his desk for a small device that he plugged into the same port he’d plugged the earlier cord. “Okay, which contact do you want to try first?” he asked. “One has ‘Ro’ with a crown, red heart, and a gold star emoji. The other has “Lo” with a book, blue heart, and Milky Way emoji.”

 “He mentioned a Lo,” Janus said. “So, try him first.”

Virgil nodded. “I’ll put it on speaker.” He pressed some buttons before setting the phone on the desk between them.

The phone rang three times before with a bit of a crackle, it was answered. “Salutations,” a voice said, voice sounding a bit scratchy as though he had only just gotten up.

Virgil motioned with his head for Janus to speak. “Are you ‘Lo’?” he asked.

The man hummed. “To some people.”

Janus… didn’t quite know what to say to that, or even what questions he should ask.

“I’m assuming you’re the man that stole my associate’s phone.”

 “Your associate?” Janus fished.

The man made an amused hum. “I believe you were calling him ‘Pat’ on your last adventure.” Janus could hear something being placed down on the other end of the phone. Before Janus could respond, he heard what sounded like an old keyboard being typed on. “Now,” Lo said. “I have to admit, I am surprised you were willing to oblige me so thoroughly by plugging the phone into your system. Let’s see…”

The screen on Virgil’s lit up bright blue all of a sudden. “…shit,” said Virgil.

“Well,” Lo said, “it seems you were clever enough not to plug it into the TPI system, which is disappointing, but…”

 There was more clicking on the other end. “Hmm, interesting music tastes for the 4000s,” he said.

“I’m an anthropologist,” Virgil spoke up.

“Ah, yes, I can see that,” Lo replied. “Virgil Eran, senior professor at Silver Mountain University, a vetted member of the Cultural Outreach program, and searched the phrase ‘How to eat sushi without making a cultural blunder and making everyone hate you and losing your job because what kind of shit anthropologist doesn’t know how to eat raw fish right’ which you then shortened to ‘How to eat sushi’ and proceeded to search 52 times in the last 48 hours.”

 Virgil went a bit scarlet around the ears. “Dude, did you really have to out me like that?” he hissed at the phone.

“My apologies,” Lo responded. “From my personal experience, don’t dip the rice parts in soy sauce, and don’t add too much wasabi. Overall, most people will be understanding of mistakes, and you will certainly not be fired or ostracized for handling food incorrectly. As long as you are not acting intentionally disrespectful, and I image you will not be considering your clear anxiety over whatever outing you are planning to attend, you will be fine.”

“Okay,” Virgil said. “Good point, but counterpoint, what if you’re wrong and everyone hates me forever?”

 “Is it the lunch meeting today at 11:30am?” Lo asked, “because I can see that a Professor Boris Laden has attended the event multiple years in a row. Considering he is a philosophy instructor, has no Japanese heritage that I can see, and I have found a photo of last year’s event wherein he has placed his chopsticks vertically in his rice, and he has yet to be fired or ostracized, I would postulate that your fears are unfounded.”

“Yeah but… okay, I really don’t have an argument for that one, except maybe I’m a piece of shit and everyone is looking for a reason to hate me.”

“Considering your many impressive accolades in your field, I would argue that ‘a piece of shit’ is not a good descriptor of you. Not to mention the fact that you are often a highly requested member for different committees in your department and outside of it.”

“Oh, but is that because people like me or because I’m an anxious mess and make sure events go off without a hitch?”

“From experience, disorder with people you enjoy the company of is far more tolerable than order with people you do not. Which explains my current living situation and the lack of finished dishes in my sink. Therefore, I would assume the former.”

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“A lot of assumptions,” Virgil commented, but he was smiling slightly.

“Assumptions based on data,” Lo argued back lightly.

“You really came in here, hacked into my computer and smacked my anxiety in the face, huh?”

“Glad to have helped.”

“Y-”

“Are the two of you finished?” Janus interrupted, finally getting sick of the two of them.

“Not nearly,” Lo said. “I have gained access to an entire network of a very large university and will be sorting through the data for a long time.”

“Ugh, right,” Virgil groaned, “and you got access through my integrator.”

“I doubt they’ll be able to trace it back to you if you don’t tell them.”

“Nice try,” Virgil said dryly, “but not likely. I’m telling them about you immediately so they can work to kick you out.”

Lo laughed. “Fair enough, but I’ve already gotten plenty of information at this point. Including the fact that you work with the TPI and scheduled an appointment with an Agent Janus Picani this morning set to start a few minutes before this phone call. So, hello Janus.”

“Bastard,” Janus shot back.

“And goodbye Professor Eran. It was a pleasure.” He hung up.

Virgil sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “This is going to be fun to explain to both of our bosses.”

  Arc II What We Do to Each Other

Chapter 16:

As it would turn out, Janus and Virgil did not get in trouble for hooking up the old phone to Virgil’s integrator, mostly because it wasn’t really a mistake on their part. The phone cleared all virus checks that the tech people both from the university and the TPI ran on it. The phone should have been clean and should not have caused an issue.

In fact, they were still trying to pin down the code on the general university server. They could tell that something was mucking about on the system but what or how was a mystery. This also meant that there was no telling what information had been compromised and considering how many things Silver Mountain had its hands in, that was… a bit worrying.

 Another worrying thing was there was suddenly more activity of late at the TPI. There were more time distortions popping up every day. Usually they would be few and far in between. There had been 3 total recorded the year before, but over 12 in the last week. Some of them were fake like the one Janus had investigated, but some of them were real. It painted a distressing picture and also was a drain on their resources. Khalid was actually looking to advertise positions to hire new recruits which was something she rarely did as she liked to keep appointments to the TPI in house.

 They’d even loosed the number of field agents needed for each mission and Janus and Remus had been splitting up just to get everything done. Today, he and Remus had thankfully only two missions scheduled for the day.

“Are we going together or separate today?” Janus asked Remus.

“Think they’ll burn me at the stake for being a witch if I go alone to either of them?” Remus asked.

“I don’t know. Probably. I think we’re getting a bit late into the 1700s for that in Cuba, but I have no idea about Mesopotamia.”

“Let’s just go together. I did not like almost drowning yesterday because I was the only stranger in town when the weather was going wonky.”

“Surely it isn’t because you opened your mouth. Ever.” Janus said dryly.

“How was I supposed to know he was the local clergyman’s son?”

 Janus rolled his eyes. “On second thought,” he said, pushing a button on his desk to choose Cuba as he next mission, and standing up. “I don’t want you coming with me.” Yet, he did not protest when Remus also signed up for the Cuba mission and he waited for him by the office door before going to talk to Rhi.

Rhi was a bit frazzled when which meant quite a bit as she was usually incredibly put together. Remus didn’t even seem inclined to tease her today.

“Okay,” she said once they’d closed the door behind them. She flipped through some documents on her desk. “Picani and Clockson. Camaguey Cuba 1755. Do you know Cuba?”

 “Uh,” Janus said. “Yeah?”

“Like you’re reading the things, right? I don’t have to babysit you, right? You got it? The Seven Year War was happening, but it won’t affect you much as it hasn’t really hit Cuba. It’s the middle of the Camaguey Carnival. Everyone will be everywhere and there will be chaos so as long as you don’t really fuck up you should be fine. Um…apparent races.” She looked up at them and studied them each for a moment as thought looking at them for the first time despite having known them for years. “It’ll work. Go to costuming.”

“Shouldn’t we…” Janus said, “sign things?”

 “…Yep,” she said, fiddling with her desktop and then sending documents over to their side to sign.

Janus and Remus both did before sending them back.

“Great. Good.” She stood and grabbed some things from behind her. “You can go.” She sat back down as they took their things and Janus noticed a message pop up on her desk. She looked up at Remus looking exhausted. “What?” she asked.

“Just open it,” Remus said.

Rhi tapped it and a photo opened.

“I got her a new mouse toy!” Remus said happily as Rhi looked at the picture of Diesel Fuel attacking a cloth mouse.

“That is… appreciated Agent Clockson,” Rhi said. “Now get out.”

 They did, leaving to get their costumes on and checked. Costuming was just as busy and frazzled as Rhi had been and they actually had to wait for decon because there’d been a mix up with the agents leaving before them. They landed in Cuba without issue. Janus could already hear the festival in full swing outside the small building they’d were in. Remy was standing there with a very not time appropriate mug of coffee.

“Sue me,” Remy said when Janus raised an eyebrow at it. “Please just… get in and out without causing trouble. Seriously. I don’t want to have to deal with that on top of everything else.”

 “We’ll do our best,” Janus assured.

Remy pulled his sunglasses down to look at him. He looked exhausted. “God please do more than your best.”

Janus nodded tightly. “We’ll be in and out,” he said, already glancing at his timepiece. It had been disguised as a golden bracelet which made it a bit harder to actually use, but wrist watches wouldn’t be invented for more than a century, so they’d have to make do. “The time distortion, if that’s what it is, should be in the middle of town. Let’s go.”

He and Remus exited the building onto the packed city street.

 Janus was immediately bombarded with all types of sights, sounds, and smells. There were many colorful articles of clothing and costumes as people went every which way along the street talking to other members of their community, playing instruments, and dancing. There was the sound of people speaking Spanish, still mostly almost pure Castilian Spanish with perhaps a bit of influence from Taino as the Haitian revolution had yet to push the Creole language over to Cuba. People must have been hard at work cooking different dishes for the carnival as many different spices wafted through the air. It was sticky hot considering it was the middle of June in the tropics and Janus was immediately sweating despite the temperature appropriate clothing he’d been outfitted with.

 He glanced around their immediate area, just scoping out the crowds. His eyes were immediately drawn to one person near them.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he said out loud when he saw Pat. Remus looked in the direction Janus was.

Even if Janus didn’t recognize him the moment he laid eyes on him, he probably still would have ended up staring as he was the only person in the area who clearly did not know how to do the dance he was attempting.

Remus snorted and Janus shook his head in secondhand embarrassment. “Well, would you look whose boyfriend’s here,” he said to Janus. Make that firsthand embarrassment. “Has anyone told him the Mambo wasn’t invented until the 1900s and also that’s not how you do it?”

 Chapter 17

Pat stopped dancing the moment he saw Janus approaching him, but he still bobbed cheerfully ( and unrhythmically) to the music. “Hi Janus,” he said pleasantly.

“You just have to rub it in, huh?”

There was a flash of confusion across his face, but then he smiled. “Well, I know where in our relationship you are. How was France?”

“You’re a bastard.”

“You stole the phone,” he laughed.

“You stole the bomb,” Janus countered, “and you wanted me to steal the phone. You booby trapped it.”

“No,” Pat correct, putting a finger up. “We have security on my phone because in high school I once forgot it in the school locker room and long story short, the three of us ended up in a lake. So, then Lo made sure I always had some sort of tracker on it. When I started time traveling, he updated it and when I met you we updated it again in case there was ever an opportunity like that. Lo calls it using our weaknesses to our advantage.”

 “He’s a bastard too,” Janus growled.

Pat just laughed.

“Is someone talking about me?” Remus asked, stepping over to them. Janus rolled his eyes.

“Oh,” Pat said, blinking at Janus’s partner for a moment. “Remus.” He hesitated slightly. “How are you doing?”

“Me?” Remus asked. “Uh, I’m doing good. A little stressed out with work, but fine.”

“Good,” Pat said with just a little too much heartfulness to it.

“What?” Janus asked, eyes narrowed at Pat. “What is that?”

“What is what?” Pat asked. He met Janus’s eyes briefly and it made panic surge up Janus’s spine because the look Pat was sending him wasn’t one that said he was playing dumb. It was a warning.

 Oh, Janus did not like this. That look told Janus Pat had some foreknowledge that he absolutely could not tell Janus about without messing up the timeline spectacularly. This was why this mess the two of them were mixed up in was so bad, but it seemed Janus did not have much of a choice when it came to Pat.

Despite how bad of an idea he knew it was, he still wanted to push, because whatever Pat was hiding could be very, very bad and it had to do with Remus. There were so many reasons Pat could be acting like that around Remus, but the worst ones were definitely the ones on his mind. Death, injury, illness. They were all possible especially in their line of work and especially with how time was being screwed with right now. And Pat knew. He knew exactly what the answer was, and oh did Janus want to push.

Experience knowing what worse things could come out of having foreknowledge made Janus bite his tongue.

 “So, what are you two doing here,” Pat asked, and Janus unhappily let him change the subject.

“Oh, like you don’t know,” Janus replied.

“I don’t know,” Pat said innocently.

“There’s another time distortion,” Janus said, “and while you didn’t know what it was the last time I saw you, I’m pretty sure you do now.”

“Oh, I didn’t know there was a time distortion here. I can help you if you like,” he offered sweetly.

“Oh, yeah, sure. Then why are you here?”

“I wanted to see if I could find the Flying Dutchman,” Pat told him.

“And so you went to Camaguey?”

“Uh huh.”

“One of the farthest places from the ocean in Cuba?”

 “Is it?”

“I don’t trust you.”

Pat just shrugged. “Well, if you don’t want my help finding the time distortion, I’ll just be on my way then.”

“Wait,” he said when Pat went to turn away. Pat paused. Janus turned to Remus. “Remus, do you think he’s bullshitting me so I let him wander off and do whatever the hell he’s doing, or do you think he’s bullshitting me into letting him come with us.”

“Hmm,” Remus said, looking Pat up and down. Janus could immediately tell he wasn’t going to get any helpful answer. “Well, if we’re going with the how much do I get to see his, admittedly very sexy, ass criteria.” Janus pinched the bridge of his nose. “Letting him leave now means instant gratification and a nice full image when he turns away. However, letting him go with us means many more opportunities to get a glimpse, but they’d probably just be glimpses. So, yeah that’s a tough call.”

“You didn’t even bother to give me an actual hidden suggestion with that bullshit,” Janus groaned. He glanced at Pat only to see him hiding his very red face in his hands. Janus blinked. “Oh,” he said. “You got him, Remus.” Janus was surprised. He’d expected a bit more tenacity for someone with Pat’s personality. Of course, Janus was used to Remus, so that perhaps had some effect. Pat made a muffled distressed sound behind his hands and Janus raised an eyebrow. “You really got him.”

Pat flapped one hand around while still using the other to completely hide his face. “It’s just. His face. Saying that. Is weird.”

 Janus could not say that he didn’t feel a slight spark of joy at seeing Pat flustered. After all, Pat’s weapon of choice had often been flirting with Janus in the past. However, he still smacked Remus on the shoulder when it looked like he was about to continue with something likely far more inappropriate. “We are here for a reason,” he reminded. He turned to consider Pat and squinted at him. “You’re coming with us, I’ve decided. I don’t want to let you out of my sights. Don’t,” he said empathically turning to Remus as the man opened his mouth once more.

 Pat had mostly recovered, though his cheeks were just a bit pink still. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll go with you. Where do we start?”

Janus glanced at his timepiece. “It’s not showing up on our trackers yet.”

“It messed with your tracker last time,” Pat pointed out.

“I know,” Janus said. “Which means it could be another fake one or whatever is causing it hasn’t started yet. If things start going wrong, but it still doesn’t show on our radar, it’s almost certainly a fake one, but some of the fake ones haven’t blocked our technology.”

“Here, I can check,” Pat said.

“Please don’t pull out an iPhone,” Janus begged.

 Pat stuck out his tongue at him, and then smiled. He reached for the bracelet on his wrist and twisted it back and forth a few times before pressing his palms together. He glanced around them quickly to make sure no one around them was watching and then peeled apart his palms like he was miming reading a book.

“What the fuck is that, and how do I get one?” Remus asked immediately. It was innocuous, whatever it was. If someone from this time caught a glimpse of the display, they’d likely assume it was a trick of the light, but staring right at it, Janus could tell it was a map of the surrounding areas with a softly glowing blue light marking their current location. Janus could see no screen or origin of a hologram. It looked like the image was drawn onto the man’s palms, but as he watched, the image shifted to zoom out.

 “There doesn’t seem to be anything major yet,” Pat said wiggling his fingers a bit. The display changed slightly to some sort of colorful overlay Janus did not understand. Pat hummed. “Did you two come from that building recently?” he asked nodding at it.

“Yes,” Janus replied. “How do you know?”

“There’s sometimes a slight temperature change when people time travel,” Pat explained. “I can read it on here.” He tilted his head. “There also seems to be a big enough temperature change in a church a few blocks away that could indicate time travel. Want to check it out?”

“We might as well,” Janus agreed.

“And if it’s nothing, we can get drunk on the communion wine!”

“He’s going to get immediately struck by lightning,” Janus said.

 Chapter 18

“If we see anyone,” Janus said as they entered the church. “You keep your mouth shut. Do you understand me? Remus, do you understand me?”

Remus immediately turned to Pat. “You know, I didn’t grow up Catholic,” he said to Pat who looked at him in confusion. “So the first time I ever entered a Catholic church, you can’t blame me for being a little confused about the whole cabinet thing with a wall between them. After all, everyone was singing about glory to god and what not. So I…”

Janus slapped him. “This is why you were almost burned at the stake yesterday.”

 “Excuse you,” Remus said, putting his hand over his heart. “I was almost drowned.”

“You were almost drowned?” Pat asked, his voice seeming legitimately distressed.

Remus shrugged a smile on his face that caused a Pavlovian migraine to start up behind Janus’s eyes. “It’s one of the hazards of the jobs, and really it would have all been worth it if I’d actually gotten to drown in that man’s…”

“We’re in a church!” Janus cut him off switching from Spanish to Swahili in the hopes that no random passersby would be able to understand him in this time and place. “Don’t talk about lewd sex things. Don’t talk about sex at all. It’s a Catholic church!”

 Remus continued to speak in Spanish with no regard for anything. “But not talking about lewd sex things takes away 3/4ths of my personality,” he pouted.

“More like 9/10th,” Janus grumbled, “and the other 1/10th is just normal stupid.”

“Hey, you shouldn’t be mean,” Pat scolded, in fucking English for some reason, “but Remus, honey, you probably shouldn’t be saying things like that right now.”

“No, no, he has a point,” Remus said switching to English.

“He’s my partner, I have the right to call him stupid,” Janus insisted.

“And I love you too!” Remus said in Greek because he was really, truly, stupid.

 Pat looked between the two, but then seemed to accept it, dropping the concerned expression for a slightly amused one. “If you say so.”

“Can I… help you?” A voice asked. All three of them whipped around to see a young boy looking at them and seeming very confused. Which was fair considering that to his ears, they’d just been speaking nonsense.

“We’re here to pray!” Remus claimed, then he turned to wink at Pat and said under his breath in Swahili, “to that ass.” Pat went immediately bright red again, which was doubtlessly Remus’s aim. Janus subtlety stepped on his foot while smiling at the boy.

 “Oh,” the boy said. “Okay.” Thankfully, he didn’t seem interested in questioning the random strangers in front of him further. “I’m going to go back to the celebration now.”

Janus smiled at him. “Have fun,” he said. He waited for the boy to leave through the front door before slapping Remus on the back of the head.

“Ow!” he whined sounding far too pained for how hard Janus had actually hit him.

Janus rolled his eyes. “Let’s just start investigating,” he said.

“Sure, sure, you never let me have any fun,” Remus said, pulling up his wrist and spinning the golden bracelets on his arm. “Hmm…” he said.

 “What?” asked Pat.

“Either I put on the wrong jewelry this morning… or my timepiece isn’t working.”

“Well, then I’m guessing we’re in the right place,” Janus said. He turned to Pat. “Your stuff still working?”

Pat brought up whatever device was on his hands. “Yeah,” he said, “and it looks like something is just starting.” Just as he said it, there was a violent crash of thunder.

“Well,” Janus said. “We should probably find the source and soon. Which way?”

Patton glanced around himself and then motioned with his wrist. Suddenly there was a 3D display of the church in front of them.

 Janus could see immediately where the problem had to originate. There was a swirling mass of some sort of energy centered at the top of the bell tower of the church. As he watched, he saw the picture of the church glitch out a bit. He had a bad feeling about that.

“Is there something wrong with your display?” he asked, or more hoped.

Pat shook his head slowly. “I don’t think so…” The room seemed to shift suddenly underneath their feet. It felt a bit like time travel, but also wrong. The picture on the display flickered harder, part of the building fracturing and dissolving before appearing back in place. The room settled after a moment, but Janus’s stomach did not.

 “Whatever is going on,” Janus said, “We need to stop it right now.”

Pat nodded. “The quickest way up would be that way,” Pat said pointing. The display closed as he did.

“Then, let’s go,” Janus said.

The world was eerily calm as they all started off in the direction Patton had pointed out. In fact, it was almost too quiet.

“Where’s the nearest window?” Janus asked when they came out on the second floor.

Pat glanced at his hand. “There should be a couple a few feet that way.” Janus nodded and left them standing there. When he glanced out of the first window he came to, it appeared to be night. Yet, when he walked to the next window, he saw daylight.

26606

“Time is fracturing,” Janus informed them. “We need to be careful.” This time distortion was much more intense than any of the other ones the agency had been tracking down over the last few months. It had also come on much faster. Usually there was some time between when the time distortion began and it started having extreme effects on the environment. He was suddenly very glad that he and Remus had not split up today. He was even glad for Pat’s company, no matter how aggravating he may be sometimes. Not to mention, he was glad for the man’s technology that seemed to circumvent whatever was blocking Janus and Remus’s timepieces.

He backed away from the windows and returned to the others.

“Whatever you do,” Janus said. “Don’t let anyone be in a room alone.”

“I know what time fractures are this time,” Pat promised.

“It was as much for the idiot as it was for you,” Janus said.

“You accidently bring a bubonic plague infested rat to 900BC one time and you never live it down.”

“I’d say I should put a leash on you, but you’d twist it into something disgusting.”

“Probably,” Remus agreed.

“Where next?” Janus asked, ignoring him.

“That way,” Pat said.

They walked together to the door he’d indicated. “Please don’t be bullshit,” Janus prayed. He opened the door and immediately got bowled over by a stream of salt water.

[vagrantblvrd]

ramwood with werewolves?

Oh my God, yesssss.

So, like.

Ryan on a long roadtrip - moving somewhere or business trip kind of thing, and his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere.

Single-lane highway cutting through a forest/national park kind of deal up in the mountains.

No phone reception to speak of and no choice but to walk however many miles to the gas station he passed a sign for a mile back.

Thing is?

There’s something in the forest, right? He first noticed it when there was a construction detour that took him where he is, glanced over and saw something in the woods keeping pace with his car.

And, like.

He’s going at least tend, fifteen miles over the speed limit in a bid to make up for time lost on this detour.

Whatever is out there veers into the woods when the highway curves, and he’s like.

Well.

Maybe he imagined it?

Sunny day and trick of the eye/play of shadows and he’s been driving for hours at that point, so.

Yes?

But half an hour later there’s a rock outcropping ahead of him overlooking the highway and something up there that’s gone by the time he drew even with it.

Too far away to make it out, and there are trees casting shadows and all that but he swears there was something there.

A few more instances where he knows (he thinks?) he saw something out there before the sun went down and he was driving down that single-lane highway in the dark.

Before his car died on him and he had to get out and check things using his (mostly) useless cell phone as a makeshift flashlight to see if he could fix it.

Which, or course he couldn’t.

So then the Walk of Doom, and he swears he’s seen horror movies that start like this?

Keeps hearing things, seeing things, as he walks along.

Owls and foxes and other things?

But also whatever he saw (thought he saw) earlier.

Big.

Fast.

Stalking him?

Hairs on the back of his neck raising and Bad Feeling and seriously, seriously, super not fun?

Eventually (somehow) he gets to the gas station without being horribly murdered in the dark.

Discovers it’s attached to a little truckstop kind of diner, open 24 hours, and wouldn’t you know it?

Geoff’s there.

(Not that Ryan knows him at that point, but shhhh.)

Geoff’s there, and so is Jack and the two of them are bickering about something or other at the counter, and look up in surprise when Ryan walks in.

Get decent business during the day, but not so much this late at night. Long haul truckers and the like every so often, people on roadtrips pushing themselves kind of thing.

Also, idiots like Ryan, but whatever.

Jack dips back into the kitchen while Geoff is like, all country charm (or Geoff’s idea of country charm) on Ryan.

Makes all the right noises when Ryan tells him about his car breaking down and wouldn’t you know it, the gas station/garage has its very own tow truck?

Turns out Jack runs the diner and Geoff runs the gas station/garage and they’ve been in business together for years.

Because of course.

Jack comes back out with thermoses of coffee for the both of them because Ryan’s not their first poor bastard with a broken down car on the side of the road in the middle of the night and all.

“Really?”

“Uh, yeah. Come to think of it, that does sound weird, right?”

(Only you know, not, but shhhh, Plot Reasons.)

So Geoff and Ryan drive back to his car where Geoff putters about trying to see if he can get it started again - he can’t - and they tow truck the fuck out of it for the drive back to the gas station/garage.

Ryan plays flashlight handler throughout, stands next to Geoff when he pokes at the car engine and whatnot and they chitchat in between Geoff trying different fixes for Ryan’s car.

Get engine grease and oil on hands and smeared on faces when wiping sweat out of eyes and the whatnot and look, okay, look, shit happens. (Also I’m weak for this stuff, give me a break.)

Nothing can be down without replacement parts and the whatnot, because of course.

Anyway!

Just when they’re about to get back in the tow truck for the drive back Ryan hears something in the woods around them again, whips around with the flashlight trying to get a good look at it and such.

Shushes Geoff when he’s trying to pinpoint where the noises are coming from and all that, but to no avail.

Geoff suggests it’s a deer or something, maybe even a bear because why not, and c’mon, Ryan, Jack’s probably got their food ready. (Because you know. Food and hungry idiots and just. Yes.)

Ryan’s like “...Alright” and off they go!

But of course as soon as Geoff starts up the tow truck there’s a fuckin’ wolf howl right fucking there.

Ryan’s like !!! because of course he is, and idk, wolves aren’t supposed to be in the area at all???

Geoff is just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  because the tow truck’s engine is just so loud, you know? Big ol’ diesel or whatever, and rumblerumblerumble what was that, Ryan???

Get back to the gas station/garage/diner/truck stop and go over estimates and such - gonna take a few days for said parts to get there, but conveniently there’s also a motel there?

More like a couple of cabins, because nearby lake and honestly, the weird plot convenience things are everywhere but, uh.

Yeah.

Geoff cuts Ryan sweet deal on a cabin until he can get Ryan’s car fixed and Ryan’s like, God, yes, whatever, because he’s exhausted at that point.

Takes whatever Jack cooked up to go and crashes in his cabin. Food shoved in his facehole and dead asleep in under an hour. Barely even registers the wolf howls and the whatnot.

And then!

Next day and Ryan’s like shit because his schedule is way ruined and just.

Yes.

Everything seems pretty normal, just your typical middle of nowhere America and all that?

Songbirds and all that nonsense all over the place as Ryan heads to the diner for breakfast and all that.

Jack’s not there, because night shift, but in his place is Jeremy, because of course.

Chatting to this scrawny asshole in Gavin, back from a trip or whatever and stopping for coffee a bite to eat before heading on to the next town over where he lives/works/whatever.

Ryan’s like awkward mcawkward, especially with the way Jeremy’s attention snaps to him like whoah?

All weirdly intense and stuff for a moment before he dials it back, puts on the cheerful face and greets Ryan. Gavin joining in because new face???

And then small talk as Ryan eats breakfast, says goodbye because he forgot to grab something out of his car the night before and all that.

Feels like he’s being watched (Jeremy and Gavin???) as he walks across the parking lot.

Geoff’s not in at the garage, also because night shift, but wouldn’t you know it? Michael is. (Look, I know.)

ANYWAY.

Michael watches him the whole time, shrugs when Ryan tells him he forgot this thing in his car and waves him over to where it’s parked and so on.

Ryan grabs the thing, thanks Michael and all and scurries back off to the cabin.

And just kind of fucks around for the day, makes phone calls and whatever to explain he’ll be late and so sorry and so on.

Takes a nap because still tired from pushing so hard on the roadtrip, and wakes up just before night falls. (Some would call it dusssssk.)

Hungry, so diner?

Finds Geoff and Jack and friendly small talk while they eat and the whatnot, and Ryan nearly dies when he takes a big sip of (diet coke, because of course) and the fucking wolves start up right fucking there.

Or, like.

Somewhere in the woods nearby, but yeah.

Howling up a storm and Ryan slowly turns to look at Geoff who clearly hears it too?

But is like, wow, this food is just so darn good! Also! Must concentrate on chewing it the recommended amount so as not to choke and die! :DDDDDD

But he can’t keep it up forever and he just sighs, looks over at Ryan and is like.

So.

Spins a story about wolves moving down from the national park just north of there a few years ago and all that.

Got some rangers studying them and their movements and it sounds pretty legit?

But no, okay, no.

Geoff is all eyes darting towards Jack to see if he’s still telling a believable story and this weirdly nervous laugh and something is clearly going on?

But Ryan’s like.

Okay! :D and all.

Just goes along with it (only not so much) and finishes his dinner and turns in early - man he’s just working off that sleep debt, you know? - and then Scooby Doos some shit or whatever.

Flashlight and pack from his car and off into the woods he goes following the howls and whatnot and it’s not long before he’s in deep.

A mile into the woods at least, gas station/garage/diner/whatever the hell else far behind him and just.

Dark, dark woods. Eerie as hell and those damn howls.

Goes chasing after them, and if gets him in trouble because of course it does.

Fricking wild boar or something, and he’s just like.

Shit.

Reaches for his bag and wouldn’t you know it?

Has all these interesting things in there like wooden stakes and bottles and vials of holy water, silver bullets and other such things.

A gun, too.

Pretty little thing, but it’s not something that would do much to stop an angry wild boar in its tracks, you know?

More for silver bullets and the like and he really should have brought something with more stopping power along but - like an idiot - he didn’t think he’d need it.

After something that wasn’t a fan of silver instead, and a little tunnel-vision of him, wasn’t it?

Anyway, anyway, just as he thinks getting murderized by a wild boar is going to be part of his obituatry (assuming anyone found him) the wolves show up.

Only...obviously not normal wolves, you know?

Big motherfuckers, huge, and they chase off the wild boar.

Well, most of them do.

Because there’s a whole pack - four? Five? - and most of them take off after the mountain lion, but one of them stays behind.

Lankier than the others, fur that looks black in this light and blue, blue eyes on Ryan and just.

“Uh, hey,” because clearly not a normal wolf in the way Ryan’s not just a normal guy.

The fact it and its buddies didn’t just let the mountain lion have a go at him or come at him themselves says a lot.

(Things like probably not a problem he needs to deal with, which is always nice, but also? What now???)

Because these kind of wolves (Were) are usually not all that ofnd of people like him. (Hunters.)

The wolf huffs, and Ryan swears it rolls its eyes at him before turning and walking off a little ways. Stops to look back to see if he’s following, and makes this annoyed noise because he wasn’t, but uh.

Then he does, and the wolf huffs again before it starts walking.

Ryan is super confused/awkward as hell, but not like he has anything better to do, and follows along.

The wolf slows down until they’re even and then it’s this lovely little moonlit stroll back to the gas station/garage/diner/whatever.

Ryan starts...rambling.

Some random topic that gets little sideways looks from the wolf, occasional grumbles or huffs and so on.

And Ryan, okay.

Weirdly enjoying the walk - they hear the others howling or barking in the distance, but pretty obvious they’re out shenanigating and in no danger and all that - and all too soon they’re back at the gas station/garage/diner/whatever.

Awkward little moment where Ryan looks down at the wolf that’s absolutely laughing at him before it ambles back into the woods and Ryan’s like, well, fuck.

Hunter of some renown or whatever, but not all fantatic about it.

Got a call from a friend next town over about weird shit that’s been happening and maybe if he’s not too busy he could swing by, and then the untimely car troubles and these asshole werewolves.

Probably not them? But he’s got a few days to kill until his car’s fixed so why not do some checking around.

And he does.

Chit-chats with Geoff and Jack and the others when he gets a chance.

Definitely something totes suspicious with them but nothing that pings his Bad Feeling meter, so he figures they’re not a problem he has to deal with.

A few days later the parts for his car come in and he watches Geoff and Michael fix his car up real good -

Maybe pays special attention to Geoff during it, you know? Guy’s under his car on the little rolly thingy (words no work now) and when they get it up on the lift he’s there too.

Maybe some shirt riding up action and it’s not like Ryan’s a saint, you know? Also Michael totally catches him checking Geoff out and Ryan has the choice of spontaneously combusting from embarrassment? OR he could just look Michael dead in the eye and do that eybrow raise thing he does like hey, buddy, he’s not dead, okay?

Michael snorting because jfc, this idiot, but also kind of...impressed isn’t the right word but you get it, right?

ANYWAY.

Ryan’s car gets fixed and he heads out to see that friend of his, who, it should be noted, is of course fricking Lindsay.

She runs a little vet clinic in this adorable little touristy kind of town or some animal rescue. (Both, definitely both.)

Weird shit still happening and oh, thank goodness you made it, Ryan!!1!

Ryan is like ??? because wow,what a reception, and also -

“You forgot to mention the werewolf pack.”

Because could have been a problem?

(Lot of Hunters would have killed them, no questions asked because they’ve all got their stories and this long-running history with werewolves and just. Not a good idea to forget to mention that kind of shit, you know?)

Lindsay’s like ??? until she realizes and is just :O because, fuck.

Asks Ryan if he killed them - please say no, they’re just idiots, omg Ryan, please say no!!!

Ryan is kind of tempted to let her sweat it for a little bit longer, but no, because cruel? And also she will absolutely get revenge on him if he freaks her out for shits and giggles.

Tells her the idiot werewolves are fine, no trouble with them and that they even helped him out and just.

Yeah.

Anyway, since he can’t go investigating the weird shit until nighttime (Plot Reasons) she puts him to work as an extra pair of hands at the clinic/rescue.

He meets one of the volunteers - Fiona, and definitely not human, but he’s not sure what she is? - and these assholes in Trevor and Alfredo stop by at some point.

Complete assholes, but Lindsay clearly likes them and he honestly can’t tell if they’re human or just weird as fuck and stops trying because it hurts his brain.

He’s staying at Lindsay’s - nice ranch-style house that goes along with the clinic/rescue - and takes a nape before nightfall and his Investigation.

Goes out - this time he brings something a little bit heavy-duty than that handgun of his for those silver bullets, just in case.

Checks out the area Lindsay told him about and finds tracks and the whatnot.

Claw marks on tree trunks and in freaking stone - boulders and cave walls and fucking fuck, what the hell did Lindsay get him in to out here?

Like.

Nothing he can’t handle, but still. He was on vacation before all this.

Hunting is serious business and all? But it hardly pays the bills, and he does It or whatever else gives him a flexible schedule and opportunity to work from home and not have to explain horrendous wounds/injuries his second job gives him every so often.

ANYWAY.

Nothing conclusive the first couple of nights? But the third, fourth, one and Something is watching him.

Something that gets his Bad Feeling meter screeching at him and then something’s slamming into him and for God’s sake, why is it always like this?

And then pain, because those fucking claws and thank God he’s got something in the way of body armor under his clothes (CONVENIENT) and those claws slice through it, sure, but his insides stay where they’re supposed to so A++++ for that.

Some tussling and wrasslin’ and all that until he manages to stab it with a knife - silver to it, because it’s one of those multi-purpose things, but it doesn’t slow it down too much.

Makes it angry as hell and Ryan fumbling for the shotgun that he lost when it hit him and some shots fired.

Angry shriek, glowy red eyes and Ryan about to get disemboweled low whoah, but then these wolf howls and then actual wolves (were) and talk about last minute save by the cavalry, you know?

Whole damn pack and not at all happy with this fucker in their territory and lots of growling and snarling. A few pained yelps and wolves (were) being tossed about before running back into the fray and just.

A lot of shit going on, you know?

Whatever the hell is out there with them gets some good hits in and then goes running off to wherever.

Ryan’s not doing great (still alive, though), and the same goes for the wolves.

Ryan’s like.

“Well, shit,” because one of the wolves is limping, another has this bloody wound along its ribs and just - they’re all a mess.

Make their way back to the clinic/rescue and wake Lindsay and Fiona up - neither of them are thrilled with Ryan or the wolves, but not like anyone would be.

They get patched up Heavily Judged and then it’s Ryan telling Lindsay about their super exciting brush(es) with death out there.

A few ideas on what it could be - wendigo, it’s totes a wendigo - and all that and just.

Yeah.

Ryan and the wolves get kicked out of the exam/surgery room of the clinic/rescue because all fixed now, time for sleeps.

Ryan is just like, huh, as the three smaller wolves form a puppy pile in Lindsay’s living room. One of the bigger wolves curls up nearby and keeps an eye on them and the last one -

Dark fur that looks almost black in this light and blue, blue eyes on Ryan is just.

Watching him, at least until Lindsay goes over and looks down at it, hands on her hips and “Something to say, Geoffrey?”

Because of course it’s Geoff, and he sighs. Looks over at Ryan who is just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ because he knows better than to cross Lindsay. (He still does it, but he’s gotten better at hiding it/running for his damn life before she finds out.)

Heads off to the guest room he’s using while Lindsay interrogates Geoff. Doesn’t know what he’s thinking when there’s the sound of a werwolf shifting and Geoff’s voice all “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I may be an idiot, but how dare you call me stupid,” like an absolute idiot and laughter in his voice and just.

Yeah.

Anyway!

Some stuff about Geoff and the others smelling a wendigo prowling the borders of their territory and going looking for it - whole reason Ryan saw them that first day - and so on.

Ryan showing up making things all complicated because no way to know if he’s going to be trouble for them and various shenanigans up to them saving him from the wild boar and just.

That thing where they team up to deal with the thing that almost killed them? (Kill it if it comes to that, but yeah.)

Planning and plotting, maybe a touch of scheming and also a lot of awkward flirting and feelings between Ryan and Geoff and everyone knowing about it?

Because werewolves and also Lindsay being Lindsay? Fiona being Fiona and who the hell knows with Trevor and Alfredo, also that Matt guy that’s just like. There?

Seriously.

Ryan has no fucking idea where he came from, but nobody seems to care and just. Not important to know what that’s all about.

Anyway.

Thing where they use squishy human Ryan as bait (no one’s a fan of the idea but it’s the best one they have) and then shit goes wrong.

Ryan almost dies, but thankfully he’s got a pack of werewolves on his side and the wendigo’s the one who dies.

And then Ryan healing up and such while the werewolves loiter about.

Or, like.

Geoff, really, since Jack has to deal with the diner and Michael takes care of the gas station/garage and Gavin goes with them, and then.

Uh.

Awkward flirting while Linday is freaking dying at how dumb they are? (Fiona is ignoring them because no, just no. She’s got enough pining idiots in her life, what with Gavin and Jeremy and Michael being the most clueless fucks to ever live.)

Eventually Lindsay has enough of their bullshit and is like. “OH MY GOD,” and tells them they either need to figure their shit out or get their pining asses out of her house and then kicks them out anyway.

To, like.

Feed the rescue animals and the whatnot? But also akwardly talk about feelings and all that and then, you know.

Smooches in front of the birds of prey  habitat/house/whatever Lindsay’s got going on for them.

Which he does, because while he is super happy with smooching Geoff and all that they did just meet.

Might be a good idea  to see if they like one another while not involved in potentially deadly situations and all that.

So the whole long distance relationship for a while? Phone calls and video calls and virtual dates. Well, one, before they break down lauging at how ridiculous it kind of is?

Ryan taking a few days for himself and heading back to the gas station/garage/diner/whatever for a few days and actual dates. (Plus smooches and fade to black scenes because woo-hoo, in the SIMs vernacular.)

And then!

Geoff being :(((((((((((((((((((((( because things are great between him and Ryan?

But werewolf and he loves his pack, assholes that they are, but he misses Ryan because he smells real nice and he’s got that soothing/beloved heartbeat and all this other stuff that would super creepy in a different context because what the fuck, but because werewolf it’s just really sweet.

ANYWAY.

Ryan’s like, “Hmmm,” like he hasn’t been talking to Lindsay - and Jack - about getting a place out there.

Because the whole thing of him being in IT for a day job and working from home, and wouldn’t you know it there’s a nice little house/cabin-thing out by the gas station/garage/diner/whatever.

Other side of the lake where Jack and the Lads have cabins/whatevers and cozy and shit and enough room for two, if Geoff feels like moving in???

Takes Geoff on a little walk around the lake while he’s there for weekend or something, stroll right on up to that house/cabin-thing and mentions something about what a great view of the lake it must have in the morning?

Geoff’s like, hmm, yeah, because sure why not? Kind of sad because Ryan’s supposed to leave in the morning and it’s getting harder and harder to say goodbye when he leaves?

And then Ryan’s going up the steps, wiping dust/whatever off the windows to look inside and Geoff’s like.

“Uh, maybe don’t do that?” because wow, no?

The owners are never around  have been trying to sell it for years, but still, you know?

Ryan looking back at him all ??? because why not?

Geoff a little annoyed as Ryan just keeps on being obllvious about what a bad idea all that poking around the house/cabin thing is until Ryan’s like >:DDDDDD and pulls out a key to unlock the front door and walks on in.

Geoff being !!! before following him, still confused as he follows Ryan around inside until he realizes he can smell Ryan.

Like.

All over the place inside, scent a few days old and he’s like “What the f - “ as he checks the place out.

Realizes all the cardboard boxes around the rooms aren’t dusty at all, have Ryan’s scent and handwriting all over them.

Turns to see Ryan standing there trying to look like a smug bastard?

But he smells nervous, and he’s projecting awkward as hell and just.

“Ryan?”

Ryan and a nervous laugh and telling Geoff that the rent on his place is way overpriced and he doesn’t like his neighbors all that much. (Mutual kind of thing, but no need for Geoff to know about that.)

Babbles on for a bit before he gets to the part about Lindsay and Jack helping him look for a place out here. Ryan packing up his life and dropping it all off here a few days ago.

Figured things with Geoff were going well enough he was ready to do something about it.

And if things don’t work out, it’s not like he can’t just move somewhere else afterwards, you know? Just getting by where he was living and potential for something good here with Geoff and the others if he took a risk, and  -

“Geoff?”

Geoff just staring at Ryan like Ryan doesn’t fucking know - good? bad?? indifferent??? - and then he’s being tackled, the two of them hitting the floor hard because idiots, but, you know.

Geoff laughing and smooching him - and also calling him an idiot and an asshole and -

“Wow, Geoff, wow,” because hurtful words and Ryan’s delicate heart and Geoff just.

Shaking his head and this fond look and Ryan’s laughter trailing off as he looks at Geoff.

Old asshole, sure, but he’d got some good traits in there too. (Everyone says so.)

“Asshole,” Geoff says, and there’s this...his voice doesn’t break, he’s not a fucking adolescent, but there’s a lot of emotion in there, and then there’s some smooching to keep Ryan from making fun of him, which Ryan was kind of angling for anyway, so it’s all good.

[sweatersexual]

Hearts Keep Racing

Starting a new relationship right now can't be a good idea. But then, Ed always did have the worst timing.

Written for @edweenweek Day 5: AU

It really wasn't much of a coincidence that Winry should run into one of her clients in the Ouroboros Clinic's waiting room. It was one of the best used providers in their network, after all. And it was nice to see Ed again.

Winry had long since lost contact with her grade-school pal, only to reconnect when she’d fitted him with a new prosthetic about a year ago. They'd friended each other on Facebook since then and commented on each other's posts a few times, though Ed wasn't on Facebook all that much. Still, he was just as bold and brainy as Winry had remembered him.

Winry waved him over as he walked into the waiting room. Ed waved back with a casted right arm. Winry was sure the story behind that cast would be entertaining.

“Hey Winry,” he greeted her, with a glance to Winry's baby bump. “Wow, I guess congratulations are in order?”

At six months pregnant, Winry was starting to get tired of that being the first thing people brought up. Still, she tried to be gracious about it. “Thanks, Ed.”

“Is it weird if I touch your belly?” Ed asked as he took the seat next to her. “I mean, if it's okay with you . . .”

“Yeah, here.” She took his uncasted hand and laid it just above her belly button. “It's sweet of you to ask. Most people just grab me.”

“Ugh, people are jerks.” And then, as the baby kicked, “Wow, there's really a baby in there!”

Winry laughed. “You don't say?”

“Sorry, I'm not trying to be a complete dweeb. I just think the whole pregnancy-new-life thing is really cool. Like, there's a whole other person inside you. That you made. It's fucking incredible.”

“Aw.” Winry hadn't been expecting this behavior from Ed of all people. It was refreshing to see such a brash personality gush over the miracle of life. “You’re terrible at convincing me you're not a dweeb.”

Ed rolled his eyes. “Whatever. You got any names for this tiny fucking miracle?”

“I'm still mulling over my options.”

“You should call it something kickass, like Puma or Diesel.”

“Oh god. Promise me you'll never have children, Ed.”

“Never say never.”

“So what's with the cast?” asked Winry.

“Oh yeah. Would you believe I broke my wrist fighting a dragon?”

“What?”

“Yeah, you know those Chinese costumes with like ten people inside it? I thought my brother was hiding in there.”

“So you tried to beat up the whole dragon?”

“Nah, I tried to tackle what I thought were his legs. Which was really kind of stupid, but my impulse control sucks sometimes. So I tripped up the dragon and one of the guys fell on my arm. As far as wrist-breaking stories go, there are definitely more embarrassing ones.”

“I guess so.”

“I'd ask you to sign my cast, but I came here to get it off, so I guess there's not much point.”

It didn't look like there was any room left on the cast to sign it, covered as it was with red and black signatures, doodles, and even a few chemical equations. “Eh,” said Winry. “I already signed your leg anyway.”

“True, true,” Ed said with a laugh.

Winry's doctor was ready to see her before Ed's was to see him. When her checkup was finished, she briefly took a seat to check her email. She had just finished writing a reply to Garfiel when Ed sat next to her.

"Yech," he said. "I hate how gross your skin feels after a cast comes off." He rubbed his right arm.

"Don't pick at it," said Winry. "You'll irritate the skin."

"I'm not. I'm just trying to relax these muscles. It's so stiff."

"Your doctor showed you wrist exercises to build up your strength, right?"

"Yeah. They hurt, though."

She shrugged. "They'll hurt less the more you do them."

He snorted. "You know, for a healthcare provider, you're pretty indifferent to my pain."

"What do I get for kissing every little boo boo?" Winry asked with a smirk. She and Ed both knew that he only liked to whine about the little things. If he were really hurt, he'd pretend he was completely fine. "You're not my client right now."

"You're such a mercenary," Ed grumbled. "So how'd the checkup go?"

"Good," said Winry. "We're both healthy and hitting all the milestones. Doctor Briggs just prescribed me some folic acid."

"Nice," Ed said. "Hey, you wanna get lunch or something? I've got some time to kill before Al comes to pick me up. Doctor Knox says I'm still not good to drive for a few more days."

"You haven't been allowed to drive?" asked Winry. "You must be hating that." He was such an independent person, it had to be driving him crazy.

"You have no idea," Ed groaned. "Public transportation sucks and Al won't let me bend the rules. He hid my car keys!"

Winry laughed. "Sounds like Al."

They ended up going to the Applebee's around the corner. Winry had been eating there more since she got pregnant than she had in her entire life. She'd been craving ribs and Applebee's had a good deal on them.

"Doesn't baby daddy know how to work a grill?" asked Ed. "That's the best way to eat ribs."

Winry shook her head. "Baby daddy's not in the picture."

"Oh. Sorry. That sucks."

She shrugged. "It is what it is."

"I don't need to knock some sense into him, do I?"

"What? No! He's not around because I don't want him to be. I don't need him, and I don't need you to stick your nose where it doesn't belong."

Ed raised his palms apologetically. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to - I know you can take care of yourself, Winry. I guess I'm just projecting. You know, since my dad walked out on me."

Winry didn't know the entire situation with Ed's father, but Ed had complained about him so many times over the years that Winry could read between the lines. "Yeah, okay," she said. "Thanks for apologizing."

"Of course. I know I can shoot off my mouth sometimes. That's why I hang around people who call me out on my shit."

And then, because Winry's mind was still on the subject, and it was nice to have another listening ear, she kept talking about her baby's father. "His name's Russell. The dad. We were never serious. When I got pregnant, I figured I was in a good enough place, financially, to keep it. And I always wanted to be a mom. But I didn't want Russell to be a permanent part of my life. He probably would've stepped up if I'd told him about the baby, but I just didn't want to coparent with him. So I broke up with him. He doesn't know about the baby, and I want to keep it that way."

Ed nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

But she could tell he was holding something back. "Whatever it is you're thinking, you should say it."

"You probably don't want to hear it."

"Ed, come on."

"Fine. I'm not saying you have to do things my way, but . . . if it were me, I'd at least want him to know he had a kid."

"I get why you'd say that," said Winry. "I just think it's more trouble than it's worth."

"I guess. Hey, you want to see this picture of Al at Pet Barn?"

Winry welcomed the subject change, and the rest of their lunch passed with little incident. Ed had tried to cut his food himself, only to wince as the muscles in his right hand spasmed. She teased him as she took his knife and fork. "Guess I better get used to doing this now," she said.

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, you don't have to make the pieces that tiny. I'm not gonna choke."

It had been nice to catch up with her old friend. They'd only kept in touch peripherally since he'd become her client, and it was nice to confirm that he was still the rough-and-tumble personality she remembered. She also couldn't deny that puberty had been kind to Edward Elric. She tried not to think about that too much, though. Her second trimester was a horrible time to start a new relationship, let alone with a client.

However, they were in touch much more than peripherally now. Ed had started messaging her regularly. He liked taunting her with pictures of well-cooked ribs. She teased him back with reminders that he couldn't drive, and she quickly found more material once he was allowed behind the wheel again.

They'd been messaging for about a week and a half when Ed invited her over for dinner at his place. Winry said yes because she knew Al would be there, so it wouldn't be a date exactly, and anyway she couldn't say no to free ribs. So she knocked on Ed's door that evening with a fresh-baked apple pie in hand.

He opened the door wearing a bright red apron with his hair up in a messy bun. Winry couldn't tell if he was seriously rocking the barbecue chef look or she was just hormonal, but damn did he look good.

"Hey!" he greeted her brightly. "Um, Al had to bail. His girlfriend surprised him with concert tickets."

Double damn. This was starting to turn into an actual date. No, she couldn't read into it more than there was. They were just doing this as friends. He probably didn't find pregnant women attractive anyway. She tried to forget how much he gushed over how cool he thought pregnancy was.

Ed invited her out to the patio, where the grill was. "You should probably keep your distance though," he told her. "I don't think the fumes are good for the baby."

"It's sweet of you to worry," said Winry. She noticed how well he handled the spatula and tongs and said, "Your wrist's looking a lot better."

"Thanks," said Ed. "It still gets sore easy, but at least I can use it." He shut the grill. "Sorry, these are taking longer to cook than I thought. How hungry are you?"

Pretty hungry. Pregnancy had a way of kicking a girl's appetite into gear. "Why don't we switch it up and do dessert first?" Winry suggested, holding up her apple pie.

"You don't have to tell me twice," Ed approved. "That thing smells amazing."

They didn't even bother with plates, just split the pie down the middle and ate right out of the tin. Ed groaned when he took the first bite.

"Holy shit, Winry, that's fantastic. Why didn't you tell me you could bake like this?"

"I'm a woman of many talents," said Winry.

"I'm pretty sure pie isn't allowed to taste this good. Did you make a deal with the devil or something?"

"The only devil I've seen lately is you." The remark was out of her mouth before she could think.

His grin widened. "You think I'm the devil? You haven't even seen my naughty side yet."

Shit, shit, they were totally flirting! She had to deescalate the situation. "I don't think it gets much naughtier than the pillbug incident back in third grade."

Ed laughed. "I totally forgot about that! And you put those bugs down my shirt, too!"

"You looked like you were having a seizure," Winry said, chortling.

Their conversation after that was more friendly than flirtatious. By the time the pie had been reduced to mere crumbs, the meat was finally ready. Ed had always had a large appetite and Winry was not ashamed to match him. They both had room for a couple racks of ribs along with potato salad and coleslaw. When they were done, Winry insisted on helping with the dishes. After a few protests, Ed finally relented.

So far, doing that chore together had been the quietest part of the evening. That is, until Ed cried out and dropped the pie tin back in the sink. "Hand cramp," he explained.

"Lemme see." Winry took his hand and started massaging it. She felt along his wrist for strained muscle and rubbed it too. After a moment she started feeling Ed's eyes on her.

She looked up to see him standing closer than he had before, his flushed face closer to hers than it had ever been. Winry's heart picked up, and so did the baby's kicking. But she didn't notice that so much as she noticed his eyes on her mouth.

Ed leaned in first, and Winry closed the gap. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a kiss like this, soft yet unyielding. Ed's left hand wrapped around her back, drawing circles down her spine. Winry traced her own hand up Ed's right arm and clutched his bicep. When the kiss finished, it took Winry a minute to remember that this was not how she had wanted this dinner to turn out.

Intellectually, anyway. Physically, it was clear her libido had other priorities.

Winry shook her head. She said, "Ed, this is crazy."

Ed's fingers drummed on her back. "Is it?" he asked.

"Yes, Ed, I'm about to have a baby."

"I noticed," he said, his left hand tracing around her waist and resting on her belly.

"Ed!"

"Come on, Winry, babies are awesome. I want to get to know the baby too."

Winry supposed that was a good way to put it. It was far too early for Ed to even consider being a father to the baby. On the other hand, impending motherhood was Winry's main focus and anyone she dated would need to be on board with that. Ed had accepted that he'd be spending time with both her and the baby. But still . . . "You're my client."

"What was it you said? When you didn't care about my pain? I'm not your client right now?"

He wasn't wrong. It had been a year since she'd treated him, so it wasn't an offense she could lose her license over. Still, they were cutting it close.

"If we do this," she said, "and your leg breaks in the next year, you wouldn't be able to go to me. You'd have to go to someone else."

"You said it would last me three years, right? Don't you trust your own work?"

He was such a smart alleck. She wanted to smack him. His smirk was obnoxious and alluring at the same time. She wanted to make out with him. He had such a tender look in his eyes. She wanted to hold him tight and never let go.

Winry said, "You're going to be the death of me, Edward Elric."

Ed said, "Yeah, I get that a lot." Then he kissed her again. This one was more fervid than before. Hands wandered down backsides and lips caressed the most sensitive spots of their faces and necks. Winry was pressed close enough to Ed that she was sure he could feel the baby kicking too.

"I think the dishes just need to soak for awhile," Winry murmured in Ed's ear.

"Hell yeah," he agreed. Then he picked Winry up and carried her to the couch, where they could sink into the supportive cushions and feel as close to each other as they possibly could.

They stayed on the couch for a very long time.

[maikeymonroe]

Who: Maika and Hero ( @itshero-ft) What: Date for the Fame Date Auction When: May 7th Notes: NSFW at some point lol

HERO: The whole date auction thing was an interesting concept. But when he noticed the one that has caught his attention he couldn’t help but get involved. It was for a good cause right? It also didn’t hurt that if he got the chance he would be able to spend some more time with her. Flying from London was an interesting experience especially since he was bringing his dog Diesel along for this adventure. When he made it to where she was he had his mind set on what he wanted to do and had to make sure it was perfect. Hours passed by as he set up everything he needed on the beach and it was time to pick her up. Hero took one last glance at his work making sure it would all stay where it was while he was gone and would be the same when he returned. It wasn’t long before he was standing outside her place with diesel waiting in the car. Now that he was here he did his best not to overthink everything. So with that he knocked on the door and waited for an answer.

MAIKA: Signing up for the date auction had been pretty nerve-wracking. She hadn’t thought that someone she knew would win. Especially not someone who she’d already been spending time with. When he said he had an idea for a date, and that it would be in California, she was excited. He hadn’t wanted to tell her much, but she at least had enough information to know what to wear. Maika had gotten ready in a pair of ripped jeans and a crop top, wanting to keep it casual. At the knock on the door her dog, Thelma, immediately ran towards it. “Hey,” she warned. “Don’t get crazy.” Maika was laughing as she opened the door. “Hey, you,” she greeted. “Long time no see.”

HERO: Hero found himself shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he heard movement on the other side of the door. The moment he saw her though he couldn’t help the smile that formed “well hey” he said with a small laugh “I’m gonna beat you to it yeah yeah couldn’t stay away” he said waving his hand a bit since he figured she would have some sort of tease about this.

MAIKA: “I knew you wouldn’t be able to,” she replied with a chuckle. The dog immediately had gone up to sniff Hero, trying to decide if he was good or not. “Let me just grab my girl’s leash and a jacket, then I’ll be all set!” Maika turned back inside so she could run and grab the few things she needed.

HERO: Hero rolled his eyes as he couldn’t help but just laugh. When the dog came up to him he put his hand out at first so she could sniff it before bending down a bit so he could properly give her attention “alright, make it quick otherwise we’ll just leave without you” he teased.

MAIKA: Maika smiled when he easily went to greet Thelma. “Yeah, okay,” she replied as she rolled her eyes. “Don’t really think you could have your date without the woman of the hour,” she teased. As she came back out to him, she quickly bent to attach Thelma’s leash before standing back up. “Let’s see what crazy shit you have planned.”

HERO: Hero couldn’t help the laugh that came from him “thought I told you it was really all about this girl here” he replied easily giving Thelma a couple of ear scratches. When she came back he stood up straight “it’s not that crazy” or at least that’s what he thought. Without another word he took a step back so they could go to the car.

MAIKA: “Yeah, well. You didn’t bid on Thelma. No matter how much she wishes it was.” Maika smiled down at her dog who was happily wagging her tail. She chuckled when he immediately claimed the date wasn’t crazy. When he moved to the car, she followed along with Thelma at her heels. “Holy shit,” she exclaimed when she got close enough to the car. “Did you bring Diesel?! Is this a double date right now?”

HERO: “I suppose that is a fair point” Hero replied as he looked down at the dog which was definitely a lot cuter in person then in the picture that he was shown. When they approached the car Diesel jumped up from his where he was laying with his tail wagging. “Of course I brought him” he said opening the car door motioning for him to stay though he was excited “when I told him where I was going he was a little jealous so he had to come along” he explained with a shrug of the shoulders.

MAIKA: Maika loved that it was now a dog date too. “You knew I only agreed to this date to get closer to him,” she joked. Thelma immediately got excited, jumping into the car to sniff around the new dog. “Him and I are actually in love. We didn’t want you to find out this way.” Maika moved to get into the car before turning to greet Diesel. “Hey, Bud! Was this date all your idea?! Is he just taking credit?!”

HERO: When it came to planning this date he wanted to make sure that it included things that she liked like her dog. For a moment he faked a shock look “You didn’t even know he was coming” he pointed out in return. Hero closed the door to the car so the dogs could get comfortable. Once they were settled he climbed into the drivers seat rolling his eyes “don’t listen to her buddy” he said shaking his head as he started the car.

MAIKA: “Maybe I just hoped you’d bring him,” she replied with a shrug. The dogs were happy to have a friend. Maika playfully and gently hit his arm. “He knows he can trust me,” she told him with a chuckle. Diesel and Thelma both settled down in the back seat, heads sticking out a shared window.

HERO: “Uh huh sure whatever you say” he teased with a roll of the eyes. Every now and then he would glance to make sure that the dogs were in fact getting along with each other. Though his attention was taken off of them when she hit his arm “hey” he started off saying “he doesn’t know anything yet” he said in return. Hero turned his attention to taking them to their destination.

MAIKA: Maika chuckled and shook her head at him. “He’s gonna love me. Don’t be jealous,” she teased. She reached out to gently run her fingers through his hair. “Did you reunite with your crazy group of friends?”

HERO: Hero rolled his eyes as he focused on the road ahead of him “we will just have to wait and see about that” he said in return. He glanced at her for a moment “a couple of them” he answered “what have you been up to?” He asked.

MAIKA: “Are you saying he won’t,” she questioned with an eyebrow raised. Maika wasn’t sure if he purposely left more details out about his friends or if there just wasn’t anything to say. “A lot of relaxing. Catching up with friends who live nearby.”

HERO: “I’m not saying it won’t just that we will see how it goes” he said with a shrug of the shoulders though he knew Diesel would like her. Hero realized he probably should of expanded on what he had said “it was nothing too crazy just wondering where I may have disappeared to” he explained easily. “That sounds nice especially after being away working”

MAIKA: She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at him. “Yeah, yeah.” The dogs both stuck their heads towards the front of the car so Maika went to pet them both. “See, I knew it would happen,” she pointed out playfully. “They missed you.” She kissed Thelma’s head. “It was. Spent a lot of time napping with this one.”

HERO: Hero couldn’t help the small laugh that came from him. He took one hand to pat diesel who was close to his shoulder. “I wouldn’t say that just curious” he replied in return since he wasn’t about to say that she was right. He glanced back at Thelma briefly before looking at her “I’m sure she’s been loving all the time with you home”

MAIKA: "I'm sure they did. Whether they directly said that to you or not," she told him. The dogs were happy to be going on a little adventure with their humans. "We've been inseparable again," she commented with a smile. "I'm not staying in the country for my next movie, but I'll probably bring her with me."

HERO: “It really doesn’t matter what I say” he said in return with a shake of the head. It was nice to have the dogs along with them for this adventure. “Oh really? I bet you are both excited about that” he commented as they got closer to the beach.

MAIKA: "We are," she replied with a smile. "It'll be nice to have her with me." While she did try to get close to her castmates and spend time with them, it was inevitable to have to spend some time alone. That was always easier with her dog. "So are you gonna tell me what we're doing?"

HERO: “What are you working on next?” He asked genuinely curious as to what she had coming up. Hero was quiet for a moment as he tried to focus on getting to the exact spot where he had everything set up “you’ll see when we get there”

MAIKA: "It's called God is a Bullet. I'm pretty much going to get kidnapped by a cult," she told him with a chuckle. "Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays my father and I'm pretty sure I'll be freaking out that it's Jaime Lannister for a solid week." Maika figured he wouldn't actually give anything away. "Can you at least say if we're close?"

HERO: “God is a bullet” he repeated more to himself so he could remember the name then to her. “Well that sounds rather interesting” he started off saying  “also he’s a pretty cool guy to work with so it should be a good time” he said with a small smile. The small smile started to spread when he noticed that they were in fact almost where they were going “we are close just five minutes I believe” he said taking a guess at the time.

MAIKA: When he repeated the name, she smiled. "It could always change in post, but that's what they're calling it now." Maika wasn't sure if he meant that he'd worked with him or just in general. "Have you guys worked together before?" Hearing him mention they were almost there got her excited. She was incredibly curious about his little date plan. "Well, time to step on it then," she joked.

HERO: He nodded a bit at what she was saying “of course, just going to keep the name in mind” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. Hero glanced at her for a moment “I worked with him on one of the last movies I did. Though part of it didn’t exactly make it” he explained. He rolled his eyes “hasn’t anyone ever told you that patience is key?” He teased as the beach started to come into view.

MAIKA: "That's awesome! I'm gonna need to watch it now," she replied with a smile. "I hate when that happens. Was it a scene you really liked?" It was always disappointing when you felt like you really connected with a certain moment and then it was cut from the finale edit. "Patience is boring," she joked. Maika immediately noticed the beach, making her smile.

HERO: There was a part of him that wanted to argue but at the same time he knew that would most likely work against him “I mean you could if you really wanted to” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. “I thought it was pretty good but ya know it happens” while it was disappointing he could see why it was done. Hero couldn’t help the smile when he noticed hers “It may be boring but sometimes it’s worth the wait” he said in return.

MAIKA: “Of course I do! What kind of friend am I if I don’t support your shit?” She nodded along with that. “It happens way too often,” she replied with a chuckle. Maika shook her head at him. “It better be,” she teased. “If it’s a boring date, I’m out.”

HERO: “I suppose you have a point there” he said in slight agreement. He nodded along with what she had said “that’s so true and it sucks sometimes” he said shaking his head at the thought. Hero was quiet for a moment as he pulled into the spot, no pressure was all he thought to himself “we are here” he finally said turning the car off.

MAIKA: Maika reached over to gently run her fingers through his hair. “I hope they didn’t cut too much of what you liked!” When he parked the car, she immediately looked around with excitement. There was something set up a little further down the beach, but she couldn’t quite figure it out yet. “I’m excited,” she told him as she moved to get out of the car.

HERO: Hero couldn’t help the small smile “at the end of the day that’s just how the job goes” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. When they were parked he turned so he could put a leash on diesel before getting out of the car. If anything he hoped that she would like what he came up with and that it wasn’t boring. “If you can grab the dogs I have a couple things in the trunk” he said as he climbed out of the car.

MAIKA: “It does. You’re right,” she agreed. “We just have to hope that the directors have a good plan.” Maika looked over at him when he spoke up again. “Of course,” she replied as she went to open the door. “Come on, guys,” she encouraged excitedly. She grabbed both leashes as the dogs jumped out of the car. “Double date time!”

HERO: Instead of saying anything else about it he simply nodded in agreement. There was nothing they could do about it so no point in going on about it. Hero smiled to himself as he watched the two dogs jump out of the car before moving around to the trunk so he could grab the food and drinks that he had packed away for them. “I think that’s it. If you want to start following the path to the sand you can” he said as he came up beside her and nodded in the direction he was talking about.

MAIKA: Maika was genuinely excited to see what this was all about now. It seemed like he’d put a lot of thought into it. “Do you need anymore help,” she asked him. When he mentioned following the path, she started in that direction. Though before she stepped onto the sand, she quickly slipped her shoes off. “This is so cool.”

HERO: Hero couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous now that they were actually here. All he wanted was to make sure everything was perfect so she would have a good time. “I’m good” he replied easily since everything else was already set up. He followed close behind her slipping his shoes off as well “you said you liked the beach so” his voice trailed off with a shrug of the shoulders.

MAIKA: Since he didn’t seem to need her to take anything but the dogs, she continued on. Maika smiled when he mentioned her liking the beach. “So you really do listen,” she teased. It was her happy place. As they got closer to the actual date spot, her eyes grew wide. “What did you do,” she asked with excitement. “This is so cute! What the fuck!”

HERO: Hero rolled his eyes since he knew that was coming “ha.ha. Yes I do actually listen to the stuff you say” he said in return. When they actual got to the date spot he could feel his heart pounding a bit trying to figure out her reaction “I figured we could watch a movie on the beach” he said though that was obvious and he mentally kicked himself for that. He moved towards the seating so he could place the basket of food down.

MAIKA: “Thank you for listening,” she added with a genuine smile. Maika could tell that he was a little nervous by the way he was a little on the quiet side and stating the obvious. “That sounds perfect to me,” she told him. “I hope you packed some good ass snacks.” She wanted to keep it light so that he’d relax. Maika moved to get comfortable, legs stretched out in front of her.

HERO: Hero couldn’t help but be a bit more on the nervous side. “I have it all set up and we can watch whatever you want” he said before opening the basket that he brought with all the snacks “I honestly took a guess with the snacks and if they suck I can get different ones” he explained hoping there was at least something that she liked before taking a seat himself.

MAIKA: “Oh, God. You’re gonna make me choose the movie?!” There were so many amazing movies that she’d want to watch. “I’m pretty open to eating anything. Don’t worry about it.” Thelma was excitedly sniffing around, trying to figure out what was going on. Maika relaxed back a bit. “What are your thoughts on horror?”

HERO: “You don’t have to choose but I figured since you don’t want to be bored” he explained with a shrug of the shoulders. Diesel was rolling in the sand since it was essentially a new experience. “I’m into horror are we talking the old stuff or the new stuff?”

MAIKA: Maika chuckled at him saying she’d be bored. She smiled at the way Diesel was exploring and rolling while Thelma moved to lay down by Maika’s feet. You could definitely tell which one went to the beach often. “Both? I mean, the old stuff’s classic, but I definitely can’t diss the new stuff.”

HERO: Hero just shook his head a bit instead of saying anything. It was obvious that having a life in London was a bit different for diesel. “That’s fair” he started off saying “since we have plenty of time we could go for a classic and newer if you want” he suggested to make it slightly easier to choose what they are going to watch.

MAIKA: “You think our date’s gonna last long enough for two movies,” she asked playfully. Maika tried to think of which movie she’d want to start off with. They’d need to go with a classic. “Okay. The Shining or Psycho? Which do you prefer?”

HERO: He was quiet for a brief moment before speaking up “I mean maybe” he replied with a shrug of the shoulders. Hero shook the thoughts from his mind as she made some movie suggestions “both good choices but I think I would go for the shining”

MAIKA: “I’m messing with you. We’ve spent literally days together. I feel like a couple hours makes sense.” Maika leaned over to pet Thelma a bit. “Then The Shining it is,” she replied with a smile.

HERO: “I wasn’t sure if you had something else to do” he said in return. When a decision was made on the movie he got up so he could get it started. As the movie started up he moved to sit back down calling diesel to join them.

MAIKA: “You’re my plans for the day,” she told him with a smile. Maika moved to get comfortable once he joined her again, sitting closer to him now. The dogs both got comfortable in the sand together. “I love how he was so excited to be here,” she commented about Diesel.

HERO: “Good to know” he said in return with a hint of a smirk. Hero carefully shifted so he could put his arm around her and make himself comfortable. He glanced over at where the dogs were laying together calmly. “we don’t get to go to the beach too often” he replied easily.

MAIKA: After they’d spent so much time together, it made sense for her to be comfortable around him. If this had been an actual first date, she definitely wouldn’t be as close as she was. “I figured,” she replied with a light chuckle. “This one’s been going to the beach since she was a puppy so she’s probably sick of me taking her by now.”

HERO: Having her close like he did helped ease some of his nerves. This wasn’t their first time hanging out but it was a bit different at the same time. “I think he likes it” he said with a small laugh. “She looks like she rather enjoys it but used to it”

MAIKA: “All the cool dogs like the beach,” she commented playfully. Maika smiled down at her own dog. “She loves it. She’s pretty much me in dog form.” She then settled back again. “Are you gonna hog all of the snacks or are you gonna pass me some?”

HERO: “You hear that bud she thinks you’re cool” he said to diesel with a laugh. Hero looked down at her dog for a moment before nodding a bit “isn’t that a thing people say? Your dog is usually like the dog form of you” he tried to think of the saying. “oh right” he started off saying shifting slightly so he could grab the snacks and brig them to in between them “sorry” he added with a small sigh.(edited)

MAIKA: Maika chuckled at the way he told his dog about her thinking she was cool. “Yeah, they do. Though it’s usually more of people saying you and your dog end up looking alike.” She grabbed a bag of popcorn and happily started to eat. “You’re just sorry you got caught keeping the snacks to yourself,” she joked.

HERO: Hero raised a brow slightly “is that really what people say?” He questioned looking at the dogs for a moment “that’s rather strange” he commented. He rolled his eyes at her teasing “of course that wasn’t it” he said shaking his head a bit “it simply slipped my mind”

MAIKA: "Yeah," she replied with a laugh. "It's a thing, I guess. Subconsciously people end up looking like their dogs. Do Thelma and I look alike?" Maika held the bag of popcorn out to offer him some. "This is called sharing," she teased.

HERO: Hero took a moment to look between her and Thelma almost like he was genuinely thinking about that question “I mean you both are cute so I would say yeah” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. He rolled his eyes “look who has jokes” he said shaking his head a bit before grabbing a single piece of popcorn.

MAIKA: Maika smiled at that. “We’re both cute? That’s what you’re going with?” She shook her head at him when he only took one piece of popcorn. “Not hungry,” she questioned, eyebrow raised a bit.

HERO: Hero raised a brow slightly confused by the question “yes?” He started off saying “how else would you look alike?” He questioned. “I have more so you can have that” he said motioning to the other snacks.

MAIKA: "I don't know really. I guess it makes sense," she replied. Maika didn't really know what she'd expected him to say. "I don't need to eat the entire bag! We can each have some of everything."

HERO: “Most people wouldn’t want to be compared to a dog in the first place so I think cute would be the best descriptor” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. “Okay okay” he said in return as he grabbed a bit more of the popcorn before opening one of the chocolate boxes.

MAIKA: "What if they're one of those weird people super obsessed with their dog? They might like it," she pointed out. Maika reached out to grab chocolate from him. "Oooh. Mine!"

HERO: “I would have several questions if someone genuinely took looking like a dog as a compliment” he said shaking his head a bit. “Hey” he started off saying when the chocolate was taken “what happened to sharing” he teased.

MAIKA: Maika couldn't help but laugh at that. "I'm just picturing a little old lady with a wrinkly dog. They'd be a great pair." She offered him a cheesy grin. "Sharing doesn't count when you have chocolate. All's fair in chocolate and war."

HERO: Hero couldn’t help the small laugh that came from him “great I didn’t need that picture in my head” he said shaking his head a bit “she’d either love it or smack you with a bag” he commented at the thought of the little old lady. “I don’t believe I have heard that before so it must not be true” he teased in return.

MAIKA: "She'd probably love it! Maybe she'll be me in the future," she joked. "Just me and my little doggo. Looking like twins." Maika shook her head at him. "Just because you haven't heard it doesn't mean it isn't true! You just have to trust me."

HERO: “So you are saying that you are going to be wrinkly old lady in the future” he replied with a hint of a smirk “I could see you being the one that likes the compliment” he added. Hero raised a brow slightly “oh is that all? Just trust you”

MAIKA: "Probably. I've been in the sun too much. I'm doomed," she replied playfully. "My dog's gonna be cute as hell, so it'll be like the person's calling me cute as hell too." Maika nodded with a smile. "It's easy, right? I'm a very trustworthy person."

HERO: “Good to know” he teased making a slight face. Instead of saying anything else on the dog topic he just shook his head a bit at the thought. Hero rolled his eyes “I wouldn’t exactly say easy” he said in return “says you” he added with a smirk.

MAIKA: "I would totally say easy! Have I ever let you down?" She shook her head at him before settling down again, moving to rest her head on his shoulder.

HERO: “Of course you would since you are talking about yourself” he pointed out shaking his head a bit. Hero carefully put his arm around her so he could keep her close to his side.

MAIKA: Maika rolled her eyes. "Answer my question though! Have I ever let you down?" She didn't mind cuddling to watch the movie, having already experienced a lot more with him.

HERO: Hero raised a brow slightly since there was one answer on his mind and another that was going to come out of his mouth “no” he replied simply before picking at some more popcorn

MAIKA: She tilted her head at the way he seemed to think about the question. "You sure about that," she asked as she looked at him.

HERO: He raised a brow slightly as he noticed the way she was looking at him “I just mean as of now yeah that’s my answer” he said with a shrug

MAIKA: "As of now? So you're waiting for me to let you down?" She found that a little strange, but she knew he lived in his head a lot.

HERO: A small sigh came from him since of course he would say the wrong thing “that’s not what I meant” he said as he tried to figure out how to dig himself out of this one “just going to stick to the answer of no you haven’t”

MAIKA: "It could be what you meant. I like it if you're honest with me," she replied with a shrug. "Though I do want to say that I don't have any plans to let you down."

HERO: “It’s honestly not what I meant” he started off saying as he used his free hand to run his free hand through his hair “I’m just saying from what I know” he said before just shaking his head  “I’ll just stop there”

MAIKA: Maika didn't want to make him stress out over it, so she offered him a smile. "It's okay. We're good," she told him. "We're getting to my favorite part!"

HERO: Hero couldn’t help but feel like he dug himself a hole that he genuinely didn’t intend. He was quiet for a moment just looking at her before nodding “okay” he replied. “Oh yeah?” He said turning his attention to the movie.

MAIKA: "Mhm!" Older horror movies were what inspired her to become an actress in the first place. "Just the way Kubrick was so passionate about getting it right, having them do just this scene for a week, is crazy."

HERO: Hero was quiet as he genuinely listened to what she was saying. He couldn’t help the small smile as she seemed so interested in what she was talking about. “It’s the passionate ones that are the best” he commented.

MAIKA: "Definitely," she agreed easily. "And you can tell. I mean, sure, the graphics and stuff aren't where they are today, but if he had given up on the blood looking real, it'd be so much worse."

HERO: “Oh yeah definitely” he said in agreement “there are so many movies out there where you can just tell that they didn’t put as much effort into certain things like the little details of making things look real”

MAIKA: "Some movies are just so bad," she replied with a laugh. "The terrible ones end up being decent just for entertainment, but the ones that were close to trying but just didn't... Those are the real messes."

HERO: “Some really are and you can always tell which ones are just plain bad” he replied shaking his head a bit “some bad ones end up being good with how bad it actually is. Like if you are going to make a movie and put money into it you should try your best”

MAIKA: "What's the worst movie you've ever seen," she asked. "Some people just aren't meant to make movies, I guess. Though maybe it's cool that they tried."

HERO: “The worst movie” he repeated more to himself as he genuinely thought about the question “one that comes to mind is Jaws the revenge” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. “That’s true but when they don’t realize it’s not the path they should be on it doesn’t end up too well”

MAIKA: "You know, I've never seen any of the Jaws movies," she replied. "Glad to know I'm not missing much." Maika chuckled a bit. "There needs to be someone who can just go around and tell certain people to give up."

HERO: “I’m slightly disappointed that you haven’t seen any of them” he said shaking his head a bit “if you do watch them the first three are the ones to watch” Hero smiled a bit “yeah there probably should be though saying that I don’t want someone coming to tell me that”

MAIKA: “In my defense, from a very young age my mom told me not to, and I just... never did.” Maika figured at this point, she probably wouldn’t watch them. “You don’t need someone to tell you to give up,” she told him. “You’re good to stick around.”

HERO: “I suppose you have a fair point” he replied with a shrug of the shoulders “the first one just goes with the point of if your passionate about making something good you can despite things failing” he added. “We’ll see bout that” he said with a small laugh as he turned to pick at the snacks a bit more.

MAIKA: “All other horror movies were fair game, but Jaws was strictly off limits. Which I definitely appreciate now that I’m older. She didn’t want me to be terrified of the water when I spent so much time in it.” Maika playfully rolled her eyes at him. “I’m sure your fans agree with me.”

HERO: “That makes sense since it may have taken away from enjoying all this” he said briefly motioning to the beach around them. “Watching any of those shark movies is the worst idea before going to the beach” he said shaking his head at the thought. Instead of saying anything else about it he simply shrugged “do you need a drink?” He questioned as he popped a few more sweets in his mouth.

MAIKA: “Exactly. My mom knew what she was doing,” she replied with a smile. “I probably wouldn’t be such a beach girl if I’d seen it. So I’m good living my Jaws-free life.” Maika turned to look at him at his question. “I’m assuming you brought water, so that’d be great.”

HERO: “Mums are just too smart even if you don’t realize it at the time” he said with a small smile in return. Hero shifted so he could grab a water from the cooler that he brought with him “to be honest I wasn’t sure what you’d want so there’s multiple options” he said as he moved back so he could give it to her.

MAIKA: "They are," she easily agreed. "And while I may be biased, I will say mine's the best." Maika took the water and quickly had a sip. "Thank you." She put it down before settling back again. "What were my other options," she asked.

HERO: “I would say you are totally biased in that” he replied with a small smile. Hero debated how he was going to answer for a moment “to be fair i wanted to make sure there was something you like so there’s various sodas and other stuff” he said with a shrug.

MAIKA: Maika chuckled a bit as she shrugged her shoulders. "That's really sweet. I get it. Imagine if I was one of those people that just hated water and it was all you brought or something."

HERO: Hero relaxed a bit hearing her laugh “exactly or if you were one of those people that hated sodas or any fizzy drinks and that was the only option”

MAIKA: "Oh my God, yes! If you just packed a shit ton of sparkling water. I would've judged you so hard," she joked. "I'm not that picky though so whatever would work for me."

HERO: Hero couldn’t help the laugh that came from him “I will be sure to keep that in mind. Sparkling water would result in some judgement” he said “just wanted to be sure there were options” he added with a shrug.May 14, 2021

MAIKA: “Sparkling water is just angry water,” she told him. “It’s so pointless.” She didn’t actually have any kind of animosity towards it, but she figured she’d push now. “That’s very sweet of you.”

HERO: He raised a brow slightly at what she was saying “I don’t think I have ever heard someone call it angry water before” he said with a small laugh since it actually did make a bit of sense “I try” he said easily with a shrug of the shoulders.

MAIKA: "But you have to admit that you understand what I mean," she said with a laugh. "The fizziness makes it seem angry." Maika took another sip of water before resting against him again. "You already know what I think."

HERO: “I do get where you are coming from” he said in agreement with a small smile. Hero glanced at her for a moment as she rested against him “maybe I do” he said easily in response as he ate a bit more of the snacks to keep him from saying too much.

MAIKA: She had a confident smile on her face when he agreed with her. Since it was a movie date, she didn't mind little bits of silence here and there while they watched. "You better," she replied playfully.

HERO: There was just something about her smile that just made him genuinely smile. There was a reason why he picked a movie date so there could be less of a chance of saying the wrong thing. “Maybe I don’t” he said in return playfully with a small smirk.

MAIKA: "Don't even try messing with me right now," she jokingly warned. "I'll have no problem telling you how you need to hype yourself up more and all that."

HERO: “I’m not messing with you I’m just saying” he said in return shaking his head a bit at the thought. The last thing he was going to do was have her do any of that while he was trying to make this a nice time for her and have it about her.

MAIKA: Maika playfully rolled her eyes. “Well, you should know by now!” She knew he wasn’t a big fan of talking about himself, so she did what she could do comfort him. While she watched the movie, she grabbed his hand to play with it a bit.

HERO: Instead of saying anything else really about the subject he just made a “yeah, yeah” comment before his attention moved to the movie that was playing. When she played with his hand a bit he didn’t even really think about it when he brought her hand to him so he could kiss the back of it.

MAIKA: A soft smile appeared on her face when he kissed her hand. Instead of saying anything about it, she just intertwined their fingers. After a few minutes, she spoke up again. “Did we ever decide on what the second movie’s gonna be or were we waiting for this one to be done?”

HERO: Hero couldn’t help the small smile as he gently held her hand his attention returning to the movie for a moment. “I don’t think we did” he replied with a small laugh “I think we were seeing after this one or if you only wanted to watch one movie”

MAIKA: “I’d go for a whole movie marathon,” she commented with a chuckle. “Though I don’t know how long you wanna stay here. The sun’s gonna set soon and then we’ll be watching horror movies, in the dark, in a very public place. Perfect for serial killers.”

HERO: The small smile only spread a bit at what she was saying. “I’m open to staying here for as long as you want” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. None of what she said even crossed his mind since all he thought about was spending some time with her. “We can either stay and keep with the horror movies or we can stay and switch up the movies or we can go whenever you want”

MAIKA: “Hey, I’d stay for a horror movie marathon in the dark, but I just wasn’t sure how you felt about it,” she replied. “We can watch another and then take it from there.” Maika figured they’d either be down for another or looking to go find more than just snacks by that point.

HERO: “Like I said I’m good with staying” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. “Just going to have to choose what’s next” he added. They might as well take it one movie at a time and see where it goes from there. He glanced at the dogs briefly who were sleeping in the sand at this point.

MAIKA: Maika smiled at that. A lot of people would’ve chosen to take the horror movies inside. “You choose the next one,” she requested. “It’s only fair that we take turns.” She didn’t have too strong of opinions on movies. She’d watch more things.

HERO: Horror movies didn’t really bother him so he would do whatever made her comfortable. “True” he started off saying before thinking about the options “they first ones that come to mind is either saw or the boy” he suggested since she gave him two options as well.

MAIKA: “Both good choices,” she playfully praised. “I love the Saw series though, so let’s go with that one!” Watching horror movies on the beach was pretty much her description of a perfect date. It also showed her that he had been listening to her whenever she mentioned the things she loved.

HERO: Hero couldn’t help but roll his eyes at her comment “saw it is then” he said when the decision was made. When it came to planning this whole date thing he wanted to make sure he wanted to be sure included the things she has mentioned liking.

MAIKA: Maika was happy that they seemed to agree when it came to the movies. It made things easier. She turned to look over at him with a smile. “What other snacks are you hoarding over there,” she asked.

HERO: Hero was honestly open to watching any and all movies so he didn’t mind at all. This was about making sure she had a good time. “Well considering you stole the chocolate maybe I’ll keep the rest” he teased.

MAIKA: She rolled her eyes at him. “You don’t stand between a girl and her chocolate! It’ll never end well,” she told him. “Share with meeee.”

HERO: “Says who” he replied teasingly with a hint of a smirk. If there was anything he knew it was that “what’s the magic word?” He questioned trying to keep more of a serious expression.

MAIKA: “Says me,” she replied with a smile. Maika thought about it for a second. Sure, the magic word could be the obvious. Or it could be something he just made up. Wanting a good chance, she leaned in to kiss his cheek and then whisper by his ear. “Please?”

HERO: “Oh and that is meant to be law or something?”  He replied shaking his head a bit. Hero raised a brow slightly as he wondered what she would possibly say since honestly he never really knew with her. Fuck.  “I suppose that will do” he said before shifting to give over the other snacks he had brought.

MAIKA: “Totally. Didn’t you know that I’m the new President,” she jokingly asked. When he gave in to her, she had a cheesy grin on her face. “Thank you,” she playfully sang as she dug through to see what she wanted. She pulled out a bag of chips and quickly popped one into her mouth.

HERO: “Well considering I don’t keep up with the whole president thing I wouldn’t know” he jokingly replied. He honestly couldn’t help giving in to her in this moment. “Yeah yeah” he muttered in response as he picked one of the sweets for himself.

MAIKA: “Fuck, that’s true,” she replied as she laughed. “Well, now you’re here in my country where I run everything.” Maika playfully pulled the snacks closer. “Excuse me. These are mine, Sir.”

HERO: “Forget about the whole British thing?” he teased using a more British accent then what he has. Hero rolled his eyes “haven’t you ever heard that sharing is caring”

MAIKA: Maika rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah, I totally forgot you were British. It’s not like you have an accent or anything,” she replied sarcastically. “Sharing is only caring if you earn it,” she teased.

HERO: Hero couldn’t help the laugh “well you did assume I’d follow the whole president thing” he teased in return. “Maybe I should just talk like this” he added losing the accent. He rolled his eyes “I would like to think I have earned it”

MAIKA: “In my defense, a lot of people follow at least a tiny bit of news from other countries,” she pointed out. “I know all about the good ole Queen!” Maika playfully pushed his shoulder. “Your accent makes you ten times hotter.” She simply shrugged her shoulders. “You earned it with the first couple of snacks. You need to keep earning it.”

HERO: “Fair point” he started off saying “I’ve seen stuff about it but didn’t pay attention enough” he added with a shrug of the shoulders. “To be fair everyone knows about the Queen” he said shaking his head a bit. Hero laughed a bit “oh so that’s what I have going for me” he said before rolling his eyes “I would think that I have already done so”

MAIKA: “I don’t blame you. Our country’s a mess,” she replied with a chuckle. “As they should. She’s a legend and a half.” Maika pretended to be judging him. “I hate to break it to you, but your accent is pretty much your saving grace,” she joked. “That’s just not how it works, babes.”

HERO: “No comment” he replied with a small laugh “I mean she definitely is something alright” he added with a shrug of the shoulders. Hero raised a brow slightly “well shit I knew it. I might as well quit now while I’m ahead” he said with a fake sigh. “Mm I don’t think so”May 19, 2021

MAIKA: “We’re getting better though. Thankfully.” Maika chuckled at that. “I wanna meet her. I’m not regal enough, but still.” It’d be pretty cool to meet the Queen. “Just make sure you never lose the accent and you’ll be golden!” She opened a random package of cookies and held one out to him. “You can have one.”

HERO: Instead of saying anything about it he simply nodded at what she was saying. “I’m not going to lie it would be cool to meet the Queen but I’m not regal either” he said in return. Hero rolled his eyes “I’ll try not to” he said before shaking his head “oh great I get a cookie” he said as he took it from her.

MAIKA: “Maybe we should crash some royal event,” she suggested. “The Queen would end up loving us so much that we’d get away with it.” Maika chuckled and then held up another one, putting it by his mouth. “Here. You can have two! I’m so generous.”

HERO: “I wouldn’t mind crashing some royal event” he said briefly thinking about it “might get kicked out but the story would at least be worth it” he added with a small laugh. Hero raised a brow slightly “oh two? You must really care” he teased eating the cookie.

MAIKA: Maika smiled at the thought of them crashing, and then getting kicked out, of a party. "We'd have such a kickass story," she agreed. She looked over at him with a cheesy grin. "You wanted more than two? Someone's a little greedy."

HERO: It would be a rather interesting time just trying to crash an event and for some reason he knew she’d be someone he would try it with. “We would” he said in agreement. Hero rolled his eyes “this coming from the one with all the snacks”

MAIKA: “I’m sorry, was this not a date for me,” she asked playfully. Eventually, she dropped the joke and put the basket back down in between them. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

HERO: “Fair point” he said in return. If he were to be completely honest he didn’t care about the whole snack thing. “You know I keep hearing that” he said with a small hint of a smirk.

MAIKA: "You keep hearing it because it's true." She gently rested her forearm on his shoulder as she ran her fingers through his hair. "Thanks for doing this."

HERO: “Seems to be a trend” he said with a small laugh. Hero just looked at her for a moment debating what he was going to say so it wouldn’t be too cheesy or anything she could tease him too much about “just figured you could have a good time”

MAIKA: “Don’t play it off so much,” she insisted. “You put thought into it and actually did something I love. It means a lot.” Maika moved so she could kiss him softly.May 20, 2021

HERO: “I’m not” he started off saying since really at the end all he cared about was making sure she had a good time and was happy. There was so many other things he could’ve said but he wasn’t going to push anything “all for you” he murmured softly before kissing her gently.

MAIKA: Maika couldn’t help but melt at his comment. Even though she knew it had been for the charity auction, the fact that he put so much into it for her was really sweet. “You’re killing me,” she told him with a little chuckle. “You can’t keep doing super cute, nice things for me.”

HERO: If he were to be honest it really had nothing to do with the whole auction thing more as a chance to spend time with her.  Hero’s brows furrowed slightly at her words as his eyes searched hers for a moment as he tried to read the situation “why not?” He questioned.

MAIKA: Her expression was soft as she looked at him. “Because then I’m gonna be into you and it’ll just be a whole thing.” She waved a hand as if to play it off before looking away and back at the screen. Maika moved to take a few sips of her water to stop herself from babbling.

HERO: He was quiet for a moment as he took in her words but the way she waved to play it off felt like a hard kick. “Who says that’d be a bad thing” he spoke keeping his voice softer then earlier before shifting slightly so he was looking at the screen unsure if he would want to see her reaction.

MAIKA: “For starters, you deserve someone a little bit softer,” she told him. “I tend to stay away from feelings because I’m genuinely terrified of being left. Which I know is stupid, but I can’t help it. So then I get super into someone and eventually I end up sabotaging it.” Maika figured honesty was her best bet so he understood that she was pretty much afraid of herself and what she could do to him.

HERO: Hero fell silent as he took in everything that he was being told. While he appreciated the honesty he tried to find the right words to say that would properly express what he was thinking. “For starters maybe that’s not what I want” he started off saying “if there is anything that should be known by now is I’m clearly not going anywhere. I’m still not seeing what’s wrong with the whole into someone thing for however long it would last” he said with a shrug as he looked at her briefly. He could understand where she was coming from but at the same time didn’t care about what may happen.

MAIKA: “Because then you break someone’s heart and your own in the process,” she replied. She never planned to leave or break up with someone, but she always ended up feeling like she was in fight or flight mode once things got super serious. “Maybe I’m just being super cocky. For all I know, you’re not even thinking the same thing I am and I’m here talking about a potential crazy future.”

HERO: “That’s the part of life though isn’t it? Get your heart broken a time or two or more.” He replied easily. While heartbreak didn’t ever seem like a planned thing sometimes that’s just how it was. It wasn’t something anyone wanted but still happens. “For once you aren’t being super cocky” he replied with a bit of a more teasing tone as he gently nudged her.

MAIKA: Maika took a deep breath and shrugged her shoulders. He was right. It was inevitable sometimes. “It just sucks,” she replied simply. When he teased her, she couldn’t help but smile. “Not even a tiny bit cocky?” She looked at him with a little smirk on her face. “It’s my number one personality trait.”

HERO: “It does but you never really know what may happen” he replied with a shrug of the shoulders. Seeing her smile again helped him relax a bit “I would have to agree it is one of your traits but in this moment right now I would have to say you are not even a tiny bit cocky” he said since it was genuinely something that was on his mind.

MAIKA: She sighed at that. “I like being in control,” she commented. Maika settled down and rested her head against him, keeping her face straight. “Tell me what you’re thinking then,” she requested. “Make me feel a little less insane.”

HERO: “Everyone likes to be in control which makes the whole thing scary as hell” he said in return. Which was probably why he hasn’t been in a relationship. “I can tell you that you are not insane..maybe a little for actually having me round” he said trying to keep it light “I would be lying if I said I haven’t thought about a potential future but like I believe I have said before I won’t push anything”

MAIKA: “I don’t know how you’re so calm about it.” Maybe his lack of relationships helped in him not being all too worried about it. She rolled her eyes at what he said. “I like having you around. You do shit like this!” Maika gently took his hand in her own. “You might have to push just like a tiiiiny bit. Or else we’ll just be in a weird limbo forever.”

HERO: “To be completely honest that’s just what’s showing on the outside” he replied honestly since on the inside he was the farthest from calm. He couldn’t help the small laugh “well if you think about it there could be more shit like this” he said as he turned his attention to their hands “you were the one that told me not to and go with the flow” he said in return.

MAIKA: She nodded at that. “Now that makes sense! Here I was thinking you were some kind of zen genius,” she joked. “Hmmm good sell so far. What else you got? Do you come with the snacks?” Maika looked at him as she rolled her eyes. “You gotta lead the flow a little bit!”

HERO: “Oh definitely not a zen genius it just doesn’t show as much since it’s all in here” he said using his free hand to tap his head. “I can’t tell you everything otherwise there would be no surprises but I do come with snacks and adventures” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. Hero sighed to himself “I just don’t want to accidentally push to much though” the last thing he wanted was to push and end up having it go the wrong way.

MAIKA: “I like snacks and adventures,” she replied. “Our next adventure’s gonna be Mexico if you decide to visit me on set again.” Maika understood what he meant. “You won’t,” she assured him. “And if you do, I’ll tell you you’re insane and to take a few steps back,” she teased.

HERO: “I figured those two would be the best descriptors” he replied. Since he has known her it has been an interesting adventure. “Oh you heading to Mexico next? I don’t think I have ever been” he said with a small smile at the thought of visiting. Hero simply nodded at what she was saying “I just don’t want to fuck any of it up since I do like you”

MAIKA: “I’m gonna make you a world traveler,” she replied playfully. “You’ll get to soak up the sun and chill on a beach a lot. It’s beautiful.” Those few words had her closing her eyes to take a deep breath. “You’re not gonna fuck anything up, I promise. You know that I just want you to always be honest with me.”

HERO: “Just going to add that to the list claims you’ve made” he teased. “It sounds nice. I’m sure I could make it work” from what he knew he didn’t have too much going on but even if he did he would make sure to get there at some point to see her. “That’s something you can’t promise though” he pointed out “also all I’ve been is honest probably way more then I’ve ever really been”

MAIKA: “That one I’m doing great on,” she argued. “You’ve been to three different places for me and there’s a fourth coming up!” Their jobs had a decent amount of travel involved. “I can promise to stay calm and tell you if something seems like it’s too much.”

HERO: “That one you are doing well on” he said in agreement. If someone were to tell him he would be traveling like this to spend time with a girl he wouldn’t believe it and yet here he was. “You want me to be honest that’s all I want in return”

MAIKA: Maika put on a cheesy expression of pride as she looked up at him. “You’re welcome,” she teased. Hearing him bring up the honesty thing made her sigh. “I am! I told you all about my really fun commitment issues.”

HERO: Hero couldn’t help the laugh that came from him “also I should add to the list of things I would provide is a pretty stinking cute dog” he said motioning to where the dogs were “and I got that accent” he added as more of a tease. “I know I’m just saying as things keep going I just want you to always be honest. Think that’s fair if that’s what you want from me”

MAIKA: “He is pretty adorable,” she agreed. “Thelma will like having a buddy. Though I know he’ll have to go back home and not get to be on every trip.” Maika smiled at that. “The accent! It kills me.” She gently rubbed her thumb against the back of his hand. “I will be. But I’m gonna need you to open up a little more and let me into your head.”

HERO: “He really is isn’t he” he said with a small smile “I will be sure to bring him along whenever I can” he added. Hero laughed a bit “it’s the only thing I really got going for me” he said as he lifted their hands so he could kiss hers. “What else do you want me to open up about?” He questioned genuinely curious “also it’s not sunshine and rainbows up there”

MAIKA: She appreciated that they’d be able to have little doggie dates when they could. It was tough having their homes being so far from each other. “I can think of a few more things, but I can’t let it get to your head so I need to pretend it’s only that.” She smiled as he kissed her hand. “Nothing specific. I just don’t want you to hide away in your head. When things come up, even if it’s negative, I want you to tell me. I’m not afraid of what’s in there, you know.”

HERO: It was nice being able to have their dogs with them. The only downside was the distance though traveling didn’t seem to stop him. “Awe come on I promise I won’t let it go to my head I think it’s only fair since my job is to give you the compliments” he said in return. Hero couldn’t help the small sigh that came from him “I can’t make any promises that I won’t do that since it would take time to change that instinct to hide away. You say that now but what’s in here has pushed others away” the dark and the doubt that was in his head that he hid behind an act was something he would work on but it wouldn’t change in a day.

MAIKA: “Hmmm maybe later,” she replied with a casual shrug of her shoulders. When he mentioned not being able to change quickly, she moved so that they could be face to face. “Hey, no. I get it. I just mean that I would like for you to trust me. I’m not gonna judge you or laugh at you.” She gently played with his hair. “I’m not others. I’ve been in my head and I’ve had some really shitty low points. What will scare me away is complete silence. What won’t is you slowly letting me in.”

HERO: “No no you are just saying that so there wouldn’t be a later” he said in return as he put on a fake pout in response. Having her face him now made putting his thoughts together that much harder “this coming from the girl that seems to love to tease” he said trying to keep it light at first before signing “I may be completely insane for saying this but I feel like I do trust you even if it hasn’t been a long time” he said, being around her he felt like he could be more of himself and not what other people may expect him to be “like I said I can’t make any promises that it will happen quick since it would take some time to change” his mind has built up this safe place and having it come down wasn’t going to be a quick and or an easy process.

MAIKA: Maika shook her head at him. “There’s always a later.” As he spoke, she simply listened and continued to play with his hair. “I’m glad you do,” she replied easily. “I trust you. I mean, I let you tie me up when for all I knew, you could’ve done it and then left me there.” She wanted to keep things light since she knew it was hard for him. “I’m not asking you to change who you are or anything. Just asking you to let me in. You know, move over in that dark head and let me come in too.”

HERO: Hero made a slight face “which then you would say later and again and again until there isn’t one” he pointed out in return. Hero couldn’t help the small smile “I really could’ve just left you there and taken everything” he said in return. “I don’t mean completely change just work away from that first instinct of hiding away in my head and keeping to myself” he tried explaining himself “that’s the thing I will have to work on this dark head of mine to make room for you to even be let in first”

MAIKA: “There will be a real later,” she insisted. “You could’ve! But you didn’t and I appreciate that. Built up that trust.” Her expression was gentle while she tried to understand what he was trying to say. “Okay,” she replied easily. “Maybe it’ll come to you, you know? You say you’re kinda at a point of trusting me and you’ve been pretty honest so far. I’ve had to pull it out of you sometimes, but that’s okay. I can do that until it starts feeling more natural for you to just tell me.”

HERO: “Uh huh sure” he said with a slightly dramatic sigh to play up the act he was going with. Hero watched her as his eyes searched hers hoping that he was making some sort of sense since he has never really talked about what goes on inside of his head to anyone. “Maybe it will in time. I just don’t want whatever may pop up in my head to go and ruin shit” he said his eyes drifting away from hers for a moment. The things that he had going on inside of his head was his own baggage and the last thing he wanted to do was put it on her especially when they seemed to be having a good time now and possibly in the future.

MAIKA: When he looked away, she slowly slid her hand down to his cheek. “Look at me,” she requested softly. “Nothing you say is gonna ruin anything unless you suddenly decide to tell me I’m the worst person in the world. Then I’d probably tell you to go fuck yourself.” She offered him a little smile. “If it’s all your own shit, then go for it. Tell me everything. When you want to. The whole point of giving in to whatever feelings you may have is so that you can have someone to spill all of your shit to and someone to lean on. Most of the time, getting it off of your chest helps more than you think it will.”

HERO: When she requested the he look at her he couldn’t help but give to her request though he didn’t exactly meet her eye at first “I don’t think I would say those words and actually mean them” he said honestly they only way he would say anything like that is either in a teasing or playful way. “I just mean ruin everything like we are here supposed to be having a good time watching movies and yet here we are” he tried explaining, he wanted this date to be a good time for her and not talking about himself or his own issues “that’s the thing I’ve never really had that someone to spill things to. The only one that knows most of the shit is diesel who could care less about anything he is told”

MAIKA: “You didn’t ruin this date, Hero. You were the one to make it amazing in the first place. We can talk about shitty things in the middle of the good and not have it be taken over. I promise.” Maika didn’t mind that they’d taken a bit of a turn into his insecurities. “Ah, so you’re telling me I just need to get him to spill it all,” she teased. “I have treats at home. He’ll be giving in to me in no time!”

HERO: Instead of saying too much else on the subject he simply nodded at what she was saying. While she may claim that she didn’t mind this turn he definitely did. Hero’s attention briefly turned to where his dog “if he could talk he would probably sell all my secrets for a treat”

MAIKA: Maika smiled at that and reached down to pet both dogs. “She would too. She’s food motivated.” She moved to pull his arm around her so she could cuddle in closer, watching the movie for a bit again.

HERO: Hero smiled a bit at the thought of their dogs spilling all the secrets “so much for being mans best friend” he commented shaking his head a bit. When she put his arm around her he took it as the opportunity to bring her even closer.

MAIKA: “Guess that’s why they can’t talk,” she replied with a laugh. Maika let herself relax again, figuring she’d take after him and keep cool on the outside while slightly freaking on the inside. Things would work out the way they were supposed to.

HERO: “Maybe that’s why” he said with a slight hum to his words almost thinking about it. Hero found himself relaxing when he could feel her relaxing against him. There were way too many things going on inside his head but he wasn’t going to put them out there all at once especially if he is expected to just go with the flow of things.

MAIKA: Maika focused on watching the movie for a while, content to stay quiet as they simply relaxed together. As the second movie got a little closer to the end, she looked over at him. “What do you feel like doing?”May 21, 2021

HERO: Hero took a moment before taking his attention off of the movie to look at her “well if you are hungry for more then just snacks we can get something to eat either go somewhere or see if something would come here, we could watch another movie or walk on the beach. Whatever you want to do” he said with a small smile.

MAIKA: “We could pick something up and bring it back to my place so that the dogs can run around,” she offered. “They’ve been pretty well-behaved so far and deserve to go home for a treat.”

HERO: “That sounds pretty good to me” he started off saying as he glanced over at where the dogs were before looking back at her “what do you feel like eating?” He asked so he could figure out where they would get the food from.

MAIKA: Maika shrugged her shoulders as she sat up to gather their things. “I don’t know. Kinda feeling like pasta,” she replied. “What about you? Since you’re not in California all that often, is there anything you wanna get while you’re here?”

HERO: Hero took a moment before getting up “pasta it is then” he stated simply since if that’s what she wanted that’s what they will have. “Since I’m not in California a lot that’s also why I asked since I don’t really know what to even suggest” he admitted as he started to gather things up.

MAIKA: “That’s true,” she replied. “Though there are sometimes certain places people like to go when they visit since they can’t get it elsewhere.” It was common for her to ask her guests what they wanted instead of what she did. “What can I do to help? I assume we need to take all of this down,” she commented with a little chuckle.

HERO: “Well since this is all for you you get to decide” he said simply with a shrug of the shoulders. Hero took a step back for a moment as he looked everything over for a moment as he tried to figure out his plan “all I need you to do is keep watch of the dogs” he said as he moved quick to take everything down.

MAIKA: Maika smiled at that. It was sweet that he was still letting it be her call even though they were really moving into date part two. “I can do that,” she replied easily as she grabbed the dog leashes and encouraged them away from where he was taking things down.

HERO: Hero found himself briefly watching her with the dogs and he couldn’t help the smile on his face. He shook the thoughts off as he did his best to take everything down and packed away as quick as he possibly could so she wouldn’t be waiting long. “I think we are about ready to go” he finally spoke up when he was placing the last item in the car.

MAIKA: While they waited, she found a spot to let the dogs use the bathroom so that they didn’t feel trapped in the car. As she headed back over, she was surprised at how quickly everything was put away. “Look at you. You’re a pro,” she said playfully. Maika opened the back door for the dogs and waited as they both jumped in.

HERO: “Wouldn’t want to keep you waiting” he replied easily before climbing into the car. He took a moment to look back at the dogs before looking over at her “so you said pasta where would you like it from?” He asked curiously since he for one wasn’t sure if the options and two wanted to make sure that he would get it from a place that she actually liked.

MAIKA: “What a gentleman,” she teased. Maika got situated in the car and then looked over at him. “There’s a good pizza place by me that sells pasta and other stuff. So just head back that way and then I’ll let you know when to turn.” She was used to being the one driving instead of needing to navigate for someone.

HERO: “Oh I try” he replied rolling his eyes. Hero nodded at what she was saying as he started the car. “Sounds good” was all he said before he started to drive away from the beach and back to her place where he originally picked her up.

MAIKA: Maika made sure to pay attention so that she wouldn’t end up telling him at the last second. “Okay, at the next light, make a left,” she finally told him. “And then it’ll be down a bit and on our right.” The dogs had chosen to stick their heads out of the same window, happy as can be.

HERO: Hero nodded at what she was saying “alright” he murmured with a slight hum to his word. Once he was able to figure out the place she was talking about he found a place to park the car. “What do you want?” He questioned so he could go in and get the food for them since it would be easier since they had the dogs with them.

MAIKA: “Pasta primavera, pleaaase,” she replied as she looked at him with a cheesy smile. Maika looked back at the dogs. “You two are stuck with me,” she joked as she reached out to pet them both.

HERO: “As you wish” he replied easily with a small smile. Hero looked back at the dogs for a moment “I’m sure they would rather that” he said in return before climbing out of the car so he could go and get the food for them.

MAIKA: Maika chuckled. “Diesel is definitely mad at you for not bringing him along,” she joked. Once he left, she relaxed back against the seat of the car to wait for him. The dogs were a little confused at first, but they quickly relaxed again.

HERO: Instead of saying anything he simply rolled his eyes since he knew he would be just fine staying with her. Hero made his way inside and ordered the food for the both of them figuring that he had plenty of drinks already packed away in the car. It wasn’t too long before he was making his way back to the car.

MAIKA: Both dogs got excited as they noticed him coming back to the car. “Do you want me to wag my tail too,” she joked when he was close enough. Maika grabbed the food from him so that he could get into the car without dropping anything.

HERO: “I mean you wouldn’t see me complaining if you were to shake your butt” he replied easily in return with a hint of a smirk. Hero climbed back into the car making sure to greet both dogs again before starting the car “anything else you need?”

MAIKA: “When I get out of the car, I got you,” she replied playfully. Maika held the food on her lap. “Nah. I’m just ready to eat.” She looked at him with a little smile. “Let’s head back to my place.”

HERO: “Can’t wait” he replied with a smirk. Hero nodded at what she had said “you got it” he said as he started to head back to her place so they could eat something.

MAIKA: Maika chuckled as she shook her head at him. “What’d you get,” she asked out of curiosity. They weren’t too far from her house, and she’d find out soon, but she still thought to ask.

HERO: Hero couldn’t help the smile that was on his face. He glanced at her briefly when he heard her question “I went with some pizza” he answered with a shrug of the shoulders.

MAIKA: "Someone's trying to experience a threesome again," she joked in response. She lived really close to where they'd grabbed dinner, so she knew they'd be home quickly.

HERO: He couldn’t help the laugh that came from him “I honestly didn’t even think of that” he started off saying shaking his head a bit at the thought “it just smelled good when I walked in” he added. Although he wasn’t too familiar with the area he could tell they were close.

MAIKA: "So quickly you forget all of our inside jokes and moments," she teased, acting as if she was offended. "I get that. Sometimes you don't know what you want until you're there." Thelma started getting excited as they started down Maika's block.

HERO: “Hey now I didn’t completely forget it’s more my stomach took over my thoughts” he replied making a slight face. Hearing the dog get excited just added to the thought of how he was going the right way. When they arrived he parked the car.

MAIKA: Maika chuckled at his response. Once he parked, she moved to get out of the car and let the dogs out. "Come on, friends!" Thelma immediately got out and ran up to the door, but Diesel was a bit slower as he sniffed and checked everything out.

HERO: Hero watched as the dogs jumped out of the car as he climbed out himself. He found himself drifting more to Diesels side since he was unfamiliar with the place as well and he couldn’t help but be curious.

MAIKA: She headed up to the door to quickly unlock it and let everyone in. “Make yourself at home,” she said as she headed for the living room. She figured they could eat on the couch. Maika quickly went to let Thelma out into the backyard, knowing the dog would want to let off some steam. “Diesel,” she called excitedly. “Come on, buddy. You get to go run around!”

HERO: Hero simply nodded at what she was saying as he stepped inside. When she called for Diesel to go outside he could tell that he was looking at him so he gave him a look in return that it was okay to go outside “Go ahead bud” he said to him and with that the dog darted out the door to catch up with Thelma.

MAIKA: Maika smiled as the other dog waited for permission before running out the door. “I usually leave it open a crack so she can push herself back in,” she explained as she walked away from the door to go sit down. “I know it’s not the smartest plan in the world, but I haven’t been murdered so far so, hey, it’s working.”

HERO: Hero watched as Diesel wandered around the backyard taking in the new smells. “Sounds good” he started off saying briefly lingering by the door before following to go sit down “that’s an interesting way to go by” he said shaking his head a bit.

MAIKA: “Sometimes I go out with her or I shut the door all the way, and then she just scratches on it. I guess it just depends.” Maika took the food out of the bag, setting it down in front of them. “Do you want anything to drink?”

HERO: “That makes sense I’m just saying you are basing it off of not being murdered yet” he replied with a shrug of the shoulders. Hero shook his head “I’m good, still got the drinks from the beach”

MAIKA: “Oh,” she replied with a chuckle. “I mean, with the door open, anyone could end up coming in, you know? So it’s a good plan for now since no one has.” Maika nodded before moving to dig into her pasta.

HERO: “I just find it interesting is all” was all he said about the subject. Hero took a moment as he made himself comfortable and dug into eating his pizza.

MAIKA: Maika looked over at him every so often. “How long are you gonna be in California for,” she asked him. They hadn’t really talked about logistics aside from their date.

HERO: Hero raised a brow slightly at her question yet waited until he was finished with what he was eating before even attempting to answer “I don’t know” he answered honestly. He didn’t have too much on his schedule so he wasn’t in a rush to go anywhere.

MAIKA: “Ah, big plans,” she teased, looking at him with a little smile. ��Where are you staying? I can tell you some fun things to do nearby.” Maika noticed her dog coming inside, followed by Diesel, so she got up to quickly close the door all the way.

HERO: “Just going with the flow” he replied matching her teasing tone. Hero was quiet for a moment as he tried to think of the name of the place he was staying “I couldn’t tell you the name but it’s a hotel not too far that allows dogs” he said nodding at diesel since he happened to walk in at the right time that he was talking about him.

MAIKA: "I feel like I've made a go with the flow monster," she joked. Maika chuckled as he failed to remember the name. "That's so helpful. Now I know where to find you!" There were a decent amount of hotels in the area, but she wasn't sure which were or weren't dog-friendly since she hadn't stayed in them.

HERO: “I think you have” he joked in response. Hero simply shrugged his shoulders at that “hey I just went with the first option I could find excuse me if I was too busy thinking about other things to actually take down the name” he said shaking his head a bit. His mind was a little preoccupied with other things instead of taking down details such as that in his mind.

MAIKA: A little smirk played on her lips at his comment of thinking about other things. "Were you thinking of meee," she teased, reaching out to poke his leg with her foot. "You were just so excited to see me again that you weren't thinking about the important things."

HERO: He rolled his eyes at her teasing “I may have been thinking about you” he replied easily before pushing her foot away from his leg. “I was going over everything so this whole thing wouldn’t be the lamest or boring thing you have ever been on” he said deciding to be honest instead of making any jokes about what he could of possibly been thinking about.

MAIKA: "We watched horror movies on the beach," she exclaimed. "There is nothing lame or boring about that. Those are my two favorite things!" Maika finished eating and covered her food up again before settling back. "It took everything in me not to drop to my knees right there," she joked.

HERO: “You were the one that wanted to be sure it wasn’t boring” he pointed out. That was why he wanted to be sure that they did some of her favorite things. Hero raised a brow slightly “well if I only knew that before” he teased with a smirk.

MAIKA: "I knew it wouldn't be. I mean, we were able to not be bored together just chilling all day in a hotel room so I figured we'd be fine," she replied with a chuckle. Maika shrugged her shoulders. "Next time you say or do something cute, it's over for me."

HERO: “You do have a point there” he replied in agreement. While they were able to just hang out in a hotel he couldn’t help the nerves to make everything as good as he could. Hero just looked at her for a moment “I’ll keep that in mind” he said with a small smirk.

MAIKA: She found it sweet that he had put so much thought into their date. A lot of people wouldn't go above and beyond. "I also don't know why you thought you even needed to get a hotel," she pointed out. "You know I'd let you stay here."

HERO: While he wanted to make sure everything was right at the same time he made sure to keep it kind of as they have been. “That’s because I wasn’t sure about that” he admitted with a shrug of the shoulders since he figured he’d rather be safe then assume anything.

MAIKA: "You could've asked me," she pointed out. "And even if you wouldn't want to stay in my room, I have a guest room. Plus I have dog stuff." Maika felt bad whenever people she knew were in the area and paying for a hotel. "It's up to you."

HERO: Hero simply nodded at what she was saying “I could’ve” he replied in agreement. Although the didn’t know then at least he knew now.”if you are sure about us staying I’m sure diesel would love it” he didn’t mind either way he just didn’t want to push his stay.

MAIKA: Maika smiled over at the two dogs, curled up together on the floor. "I'm positive," she insisted. "It'll be nice for Thelm to have a friend for a few days. She's usually only stuck with me."

HERO: Hero looked over at the dogs who were already comfortable being around each other. “Looks like we are staying here bud” he said to the dog who started to wiggle a bit like he knew what he had said. “A few days huh” he repeated with a slightly teasing tone

MAIKA: She chuckled as she saw Diesel getting excited. "Do you wanna stay with us," she asked him excitedly. She turned back to look over at Hero. "Did you wanna stay longer than that? Or were you only staying a night?"

HERO: The little shake that diesel was doing only got that much more excited when she asked him if he wanted to stay. “That’s not what I meant just wasn’t expecting that” he said with a shrug of the shoulders “however long you’d have us” he added since he wouldn’t want to over stay.

MAIKA: "You can stay a while. I'm only here for a couple weeks though," she told him. "Then I'm heading off to film again." Maika moved so that she was next to him on the couch. "What's up, roomie," she teased.

HERO: “I won’t annoy you for that long promise” he said in return. Hero rolled his eyes at the teasing “ha.ha very funny” he said gently nudging her in response.

MAIKA: "Hey, you could stay that long as long as you make yourself useful," she teased. Maika offered him a cheesy smile. "Are you saying you don't love me calling you roomie?!"

HERO: “And how would I make myself useful?” He questioned in return slightly curious by that but also going along with the teasing. Hero just gave her a slight look at first “I mean depends on the actual context”

MAIKA: "I think you'd be able to figure it out," she continued with a little smirk. "What else would the context be? You'd be my guest for a bit. Fake roomie, if you will."

HERO: “I’m sure I could but you know a small hint wouldn’t hurt” he replied easily now genuinely curious as to what she could be thinking about. “There’s various contexts that it could be put in” he said with a shrug.

MAIKA: "It may or may not be something you'll need to use your tongue for," she told him. "I don't know what other context it could be. You're gonna need to explain a bit."

HERO: “Oh really” he said briefly licking over his lips at the thoughts that came to mind. “Never mind” he said waving off the whole context thing since it didn’t really matter.

MAIKA: "I'm just sayin." Maika smiled as she settled down on the couch, stretching out a bit. "That's not fair! But fine, don't tell me." She playfully shook her head at him.

HERO: “I’m sure something could be arranged” he said with a small smirk. Hero raised a brow slightly “I’m not even completely sure what I was going on about myself” since he figured he may have started to overthink it so he might as well let it go.

MAIKA: She licked her lips as she looked at him. "Good to know." She couldn't help but chuckle a bit at him saying he wasn't sure what he meant. "I'll let it slide then," she joked.

HERO: He watched her for a moment as he couldn’t help the thoughts that came to mind. Hero made a slight face at her comment “oh how sweet of you” he said shaking his head a bit.

MAIKA: "What can I say? I'm super generous," she replied with a smile. "You gonna entertain me now on part two of our date?"

HERO: Instead of saying anything else about it he simply rolled his eyes in response. Part two. He didn’t think this far ahead. “Whatcha want a song and dance” he teased in response to cover how he was genuinely thinking about how to keep it going.

MAIKA: "I would love that," she told him as she laughed. "Please sing and dance for me. Bonus points if it's a striptease because that would be crazy entertaining."

HERO: Hero just shook his head since of course she would go along with it “ha ha very funny” he started off saying before adding “this is supposed to be a good date and I don’t think making your ears bleed would be good”

MAIKA: Maika pouted when he turned down that form of entertainment. "I highly doubt my ears would bleed... But you could always just stick to the dance." She playfully poked him a few times.

HERO: “Not the pout” he said gently trying to push it back. “Oh trust me if there is anything you may want to know about me is that I’m not a singer nor dancer” he said gently nudging her in return.

MAIKA: When he pushed her pout back, she immediately stuck it out again. "Well, you're no fun," she joked. Maika moved to relax again, laying down on the couch now. "You wanna watch another movie?"

HERO: “I’m simply saving you from something you will never want to see nor hear” he said in return. The last thing he wanted to do was embarrass himself for even trying. “A movie sounds good”

MAIKA: "I highly doubt that," she replied. "You don't give yourself enough credit." Maika reached over to grab the remote before settling back again. "Any requests?"

HERO: “You have to trust me on that one” he said in return. Hero thought for a moment before shrugging his shoulders “we could either stick with the horror theme or pick something else”

MAIKA: "Now I really wanna see you dance. I'll get it out of you someday." Maika navigated to Netflix, figuring they'd find something there. "Tell me if you see something interesting."

HERO: “Good luck with that” he replied easily with a hint of a smirk. Hero watched as she went through Netflix trying to see if anything caught his eye. “If you see something just put it on”

MAIKA: She playfully rolled her eyes. “I won’t need it!” Maika had started looking through the horror section before she turned to look at him. “There’s this one movie... It’s got a really hot guy in it.”

HERO: “What makes you think that?” He questioned slightly curious. Hero raised a brow slightly when she turned to look at him “what’s the movie?” He questioned trying to think of what she may be talking about.

MAIKA: “You’ll see,” she replied simply. Maika chuckled when he genuinely asked. “Oh, you’re too cute to fuck with. I was talking about yours.” She looked over at him with a smile. “I was teasing.”

HERO: “Now that’s not fair” he commented making a slight face. Hero looked from her to the tv for a moment before looking back at her “oh” he started off saying “I mean if that’s what you want” he said with a shrug.

MAIKA: “It’s totally fair,” she jokingly argued. “We won’t really watch it. I know how you feel about watching yourself. I just wanted to see what you’d say.” Maika figured she’d tease him about it.

HERO: “It’s totally not” he said playfully arguing in return. While watching himself wasn’t on the list of things he likes to do he would if she actually wanted to. “Well with the movies you were looking at I thought you actually meant a movie” he started off saying “also it’s a you day so it’s whatever you want”

MAIKA: “Oh, so now it’s a full me day,” she asked playfully. “Does this mean I get to choose everything we do?” Maika had a little smirk on her face as she looked at him. “I can get used to that.”

HERO: “Considering that it’s already getting late I mean why not” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. They already did what he had planned so he would go along with whatever else she wanted to do. Hero just looked at her for a moment as he wondered what she could possibly be thinking about.

to be continued because there’s so much to edit...