#also i got to meet my math teacher for the first time in person and it was fantastic

[queertemporality]

finishing my math final today felt like it did the emotional equivalent of the curaga casting animation sequence for me

[primaviva]

PAIRING: gwen stacy x fem!reader

SYNOPSIS: how you met, confessions, and relationship headcanons for your favorite ghost-spider. gwen stacy.

WARNINGS: me rambling about gwen, kissing, some suggestive but no smut ofc, height difference, some angst but mostly fluff, gwen is so fine and pretty and 5’7 that’s not even a warning she’s just sooo?? also not spell checked

— FIRST MEETING YOU

this all started out as a hallway crush.

she saw you in the halls and thought your style was cute but she never got a good luck at your face

you were a new student and was getting the rundown of the building and where your classes were

so when she walks into class the next day and sees you sitting next to her? with a better view of your face?

she folded.

CAN YOU BLAME HER? you’re so beautiful she literally forgets how to put words into proper sentences

gwen can be socially awkward in situations she’s not prepared for but she’s never acted shy talking to others and always acts like such a tough and cool girl… just not around you

she was acting mad dumb i can’t even lie to you

her words always came out and in the wrong order like yo you would have to get a descrambler to translate her whole sentence because she would just get caught so off guard looking into your gorgeous eyes and your cute smile and your- she could go on.

“gwen? earth to gwen? hello-“ peter kept calling to try and get the blondes attention. his annoyance soon turned into a smirk as he realized just what has her full attention. you.

“you know if you actually talked to her you, guys would probably become friends and you wouldn’t have to admire the back of her head every day” he teased which brought gwen right back to reality.

she didn’t really know you yet, but she wanted to. she just got so shy around you it was uncommon. gwen blushed at the sound of peter's teasing words. she knew that he was right - if she just talked to you, she might actually have a chance to get to know you. but every time she tried to muster up the courage to approach you, her nerves got the best of her. she couldn't help but feel self-conscious around someone she admired so much.

as peter continued to make jokes at her, gwen ouldn't help but feel a mix of embarrassment and frustration. she didn't want to be known as the girl who couldn't talk to her crush, but she also didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of you. taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she made a silent vow to try and talk to you the next chance she got. Maybe with a little bit of practice, she could get over her shyness and make a real connection with the person who had captured her attention.

little did gwen know that you thought she was cute herself and wanted to get to know her

even luckier for her that YOU wanted to make the first move

today's class was more boring than ever, but when did you ever have high expectations and the word fun in the same sentence about a math class. you kept noticing gwen looking at you every other moment and decided it was time to “break the ice.”

“hey, i like your eyebrow piercing! it’s really cool…and cute,” you said, smiling warmly at her.

the only thought in gwens mind? SHE SAID SHE LOVES MY PIERCING AND IM COOL ND CUTE WHAT THE FU-

gwen was taken aback by the compliment and also your sudden interest in her, her heart raced as she felt the familiar fuzzy feeling in her chest grow when you looked at her. “o-oh? this? thank you. i got it a while ago,” she replied, feeling her shyness begin to melt away.

“it really fits-” you tried to finish but the teacher yelled at both of you for speaking during her lesson. you both quieted down but glanced at each other and let a snicker out.

“do you even know what’s happening right now?” you asked in a hushed tone.

“no clue, and im pretty sure it’s been a decade or two since she’s last picked up a protractor,” she joked, making you giggle so hard you had to cover your mouth.

gwen thought update? I MADE HER LAUGH I MADE HER LAUGH

best believe she was so proud of herself that day

and she still feels a warmth spread to her cheeks when you slapped her shoulder telling her to stop making the witty comments before you piss yourself or you two get in trouble

— BECOMING FRIENDS AND THE CONFESSION

gwen and you eventually got closer

so close that you guys begun to hangout outside of school with the plus one of peter to ease gwen into it

but those group hangouts turned into solos…and those trips to the mall turned into you hanging out in her room in her bed…

and the tension was thick.

the way you two brushed shoulders, how your hands would touch when you reached for the same thing, looking at each other for longer than needed

you could imagine how painful this was for peter to watch. IMAGINE HOW BAD IT WAS FOR GEORGE TO WATCH

even her dad caught on to the way gwen would look at you when she invited you over to her house for dinner with peter that one time and she was staring at you so hard while you talked to him that he thought his daughter was gonna have hearts come flying out of her eye sockets

in order for gwen to like somebody and want be in a relationship with them, she needs to have a emotional connection with them too

she wants somebody who puts up with her, who understands her, who accepts her, and a shoulder to lean on to.

especially with her living her double life as the heroine of new york?

it definitely caused problems as the two do you got closer and reached the best friend mark

she began flaking on hangouts, not answering calls or texts, acting mad sketchy with her lying which you so easily noticed

but you didn’t force her. you didn’t make her explain when you saw her face drop at your questions.

you understood it was personal and instead just gave her a hug around the neck whispering in her ear that you’ll always be a shoulder to lean on and be there for her

she wrapped her arms around your waist tightly and reciprocated the hug as she buried her head in the crook of your neck as an attempt to try and stop the strong urge to cry…that’s when she knew you were the one.

one of the common things you both bonded over was music and that’s when she found it fit to tell you bout the band she’s in

when she told you about how she was in the mary janes and was their drummer you couldn’t lie and say it didn’t make her 10x cooler in your eyes and attractive

gwen decided it was time to tell you about how she truly felt about you. she has played the drums for years, so when her band got the opportunity to play at a venue, she was thrilled to tell you about it.

she invited you, peter, and her dad to the show. before she even went backstage to prepare she saw a glimpse of you in the front row all dolled up for her and her heart skipped a beat at what she was planning.

the show was spectacular. song after song after song the music was catchy and addicting and you couldn’t help but stare at gwen so in her element. if only you knew the struggle for her to not glimpse up at you and see you dancing and smiling to the songs. when it ended and everybody got the chance to go up to her they all praised her. you went up and hugged her, telling her how amazing she was but before she could reply to you she was called backstage by her band for cleanup. the last thing she saw was you waving at her with a smile.

she wasn’t going to back out if this tho. she was going to to confess to you. you ended up going backstage after seeing the rest of her band leave but noticing she didn’t leave with them.

“i really did mean it when i said you were amazing, gwen. i had no idea you were that talented,” you complimented, making her jump a little at the sudden sound of your voice. she turned around with a flustered look as you just giggled at the reaction you got from her. ‘there goes that feeling again’ she thought as the familiar pounding in her chest started and heat began to rise to her cheeks.

“you doubted me before?” she teased, getting herself back into reality. “nah, not at all.”

you were gonna be the death of her.

“look, i don’t know how to say this but i didn’t just invite you here to watch my show. it’s not like i didn’t want you to come it’s just- ugh..” she signed, glancing up from her fidgeting hands to meet your eyes, you were watching her intently, listening to what she has to say.

“i know we’ve been friends for a while and i don’t want to ruin what we have and i just need to tell you that…that i have a crush on you and i really like you,” she confessed, her voice lacking it’s usual confidence and barley above a whisper.

in her nervousness she ended up blabbing on saying how she understands if you don’t feel the same way and sorry she did this to you and it’s completely ok if you don’t want to talk to her again- meanwhile she can’t hear you saying you like her back.

that’s until you grab her by the hands and forcefully grab her attention. her eyes stare into yours confused at the smile beaming on your face.

“gwen, i like you too.”

gwen was frozen in shock she didn’t even believe her reality even tho it was happening right in front of her

she was literally baffled when she looked down at you and saw how close the two of you were

— DATING GWEN

she didn’t ask you to be her girlfriend right away

she took you on a date to a pizza place because she wanted it to be casual and then after you guys walked around going to corner stores

y’all walked into a radio store that had a bunch of vinyls, cds, literally everything and you saw gwens eyes light up at the sight

she would tell you about certain bands, how they compose their music, etc and even if you knew the band you would still let her tell you because you loved how happy she looked talking about her interests

she def recommended you new songs for your playlist and said she would play them on the drums for you sometime

anything you saw in the stores that you liked gwen would buy for you in an instant

the night would come to an end and she would walk you to your house or even go on the commute home with you if you took the bus

if only gwen checked the weather because none of you came with an umbrella for the torrential raining that was waiting for you both

gwen ended up giving you her jacket because you were cold and she didn’t want you getting sick

as she walked you home after your fate, the rain began pouring down. “here, take my jacket,” gwen said, slipping out of it and putting it around you.

"are you sure?" you asked, knowing damn well you wanted it.

"yeah, i don't want you to get sick and catch pneumonia," gwen joked as you both laughed.

you both continued walking down your block until you reached your place. before you could say your goodbyes, gwen stopped walking and held you by the hand which made you stop as well.

"hey, before you go inside, there's something i really want to ask you," she said, taking a deep breath.

you looked at her curiously, "hm, what is it?"

gwen took a moment before finally blurting out, "can i be your girlfriend- or er..will you be my girlfriend?"

your eyes widened in surprise before a smile spread across your face. "for real? gwen, yes i would love to," you replied.

a big, dumb smile made its way onto gwen's face at your answer. you wanted to make her smile even bigger.

you walked up to her and cupped her cheek, lowering her down to your height so your eyes met. you leaned in, giving gwen a gentle kiss on the cheek as your cold lips met her warm skin.

she was on cloud 9, so much so she didn’t even care that you took her jacket.

you kept that jacket of course

and she LOVES seeing it on you.

— RELATIONSHIP HEADCANONS

gwen is so loyal and loving to you

she’s not the best at affection at first but she gets better at it

her love languages are AND IN THIS ORDER : acts of service, physical affection, words of affirmation

like i said, she isn’t the best at first with affection and don’t even get me started on her fear of initiating kisses…

to compensate for that she shows that she loves you through giving you her jacket when she’s cold, bending down to tie your shoes so you don’t have to, buying you things you want (this includes if you take certain meds like for my pcos people: birth control, iron, etc if she can she will pick it up for you so you can relax at home), and sm more

if you mention a place you wanna go? you both are there INSTANTLY

it’s just part of how good she listens to you

with physical affection it starts off slow with hugs

she may be tense at first even if you guys hugged as friends it’s just so different now for her

but she’ll slowly go from hugging you back, to your waist, and get comfortable enough to put her hands on your hips

she’ll rub circles on your thighs, back, arm and won’t even notice

she’s a big spoon.

she doesn’t mind being the little spoon, especially after a long day when she just wants to throw herself onto you

gwen was tired patrolling the city as spiderwoman. she had been on her feet all day, and all she wanted to do was see you, collapse on your bed, and rest. since you weren’t aware of her secret identity yet, she did a quick stop at her place to change close before she went to see you.

she knocked and you opened the door in an instant as she had texted you beforehand she was coming by and you were waiting impatiently to see your girlfriend. you took gwen up by the hand to your room and laid on the bed asking her about her day as she set her bag down with no reply.

without a second thought, gwen padded over to the bed and climbed on top of you, laying her head on your chest. you giggled and wrapped your legs around gwen’s waist, pulling her closer.

“tired girl had a rough day?” you teased, looking down at her head buried in your chest. "mhmm, you have no idea. i just need to rest for a little bit,” she replied, snuggling closer into you as if you guys weren’t skin to skin already.

you guys sat there for a couple moments enjoying each others company and the warmth you both provided to each other. that was until gwen’s weight became too much for you.

you tapped her back a couple times, "okay, okay, you're crushing me. get off!"

gwen, feeling mischievous, refused to budge. she flexed her muscles and held her ground, playfully messing with you and refusing to move.

"what, you can't handle a little weight? come on, show me what you've got," she challenged, her voice raspy and low from being tired.

“you’re such a menace gwen! if you don’t get your 5’7 goliath self off of me-” you groaned out, pretending to struggle. but it was clear that gwen's muscles were too strong for you. “fine, fine! you win. you’re too strong for me… and heavy,” you admitted in defeat.

"that's right. you better remember that,” she joked, shifting her body to make it less heavy on you. “i will, damn. just come here.”

gwen relented and got off you. an hour after tho.

she also likes words of affirmation because sometimes she has self doubt of if she even deserves to have you or if she treats you right

the last thing she wants is for you to feel neglected or unloved because of her secret duty as spiderwoman

she’s not a fan of super cheesy pet names and plus you both are teens going into young adult so she def ain’t pulling no “honey where’s my super suit” frozone shit on you

she doesn’t like using baby, she thinks it’s cringe

her favorite n most common pet names for you beside calling you your name is babe, my girl, beautiful, gorgeous and anything that doesn’t sound like a middle aged couple

random but she fidgets with your hands like she plays with them when she’s cuddling with you and in deep thought or when she’s just bored

gwen also isn’t too big on pda

in public she’ll hold your hand and give you quick kisses but never will she ever start eating your face at lockers before class im sorry to say this to you

gwen is super protective tho she’ll hold you waist and guide you through a crowd

like she will walk you to class and give you a quick kiss but major pda is just cringe and uncomfortable for her

trust she’s all over you in private, public just isn’t for her

but this girl is the EMBODIMENT of wlw hand placement

you like how calloused and rough her hands feel because it reflects her personality being a drummer and all but also her love for music, the reason for why her hands are so tough

y’all could be cuddling or just sitting next to each other watching tv and all of a sudden her arm is around your shoulder and her hand is laying on your chest inches away from your boobs

or another time she let you sit on her lap and while you’re there she’s rubbing her hands up and down from your waist to your thigh to your knee and back up again where she’ll caress the curves of your waist and all around

HAND PLACEMENT!!!

and trust she will have a firm grip on your hip to hold you down closer

she doesn’t mean it in a sexual way tho she wouldn’t mind it getting suggestive and turning it into a makeout if you love her touch that much

it’s just that she’s a touchy person and loves to have a hand on you just to feel you there

speaking of kisses…gwen loves them

she’s just too shy to initiate.

you just make her nervous like she’s very secure in your guys relationship and is comfortable but you’re just so pretty and she loves you sm she doesn’t want you to hate it-

as you two got closer you saw glimpses of into her life you never would have seen before. but you also saw glimpses of gwen’s other life, which she didn’t want you to see. not just yet.

you and gwen had a date at the park, you just wanted to do something peaceful with her since she seemed bothered with something lately, and whatever it was she avoided telling you in the slightest.

it didn’t help that when she finally showed up she had a black and blue at the side of her lip with bruised knuckles.

you went up and hugged her tightly, her hands running up and down your back as you pulled away and sat her next to you on the bench. “gwen, what the hell? are you ok? where were you?” you questioned.

gwen just scratched the back of her neck anxiously ready to spew out another excuse to you. “my dad needed me to pick up some groceries last minute. but me being stupid trying to rush, i tripped and fell down some stairs haha,” she lied through her teeth. “what’s crazy is that you think im stupid enough to believe that,” you answered, eyes squinted as you stared into her.

as the moments passed in silence, gwen's heart raced with anxiety. she knew that she had messed up by lying to her girlfriend, but she couldn't bring herself to reveal the truth about her secret life just yet. finally, she spoke up, her voice barely above a whisper.

“i’m sorry," gwen said, her eyes still fixed on the ground. "i shouldn't have lied to you, but k just… i’m not ready to share everything with you yet. It's complicated."

you took her hand and squeezed it gently. "i understand that, gwen. i don't expect you to share everything with me right away. but just please, don't lie to me. i just want to be here for you and support you, no matter what. i can wait for you as long as you need me to until you're ready.”

gwen felt a wave of gratitude wash over her. she’s never felt so seen and understood by anyone before. she was so grateful to have you as her girlfriend.

"thank you," she said, her eyes meeting yours for the first time since she arrived at the park.

gwen squeezed your hand back, looking down at your lips and the beautiful smile displayed on them, then back to your eyes.

without a word you both started to lean in. when you both were inches apart and you felt her breath on your lips, she locked eyes with you as you felt the anticipation before closing her own and kissing you passionately. it was soft and sweet, but there was an electricity between them that made gwen's heart race. when you both pulled away, you looked at each other with wide eyes and big smiles.

"wow," gwen said, still feeling a bit breathless. you chuckled softly, "yeah, wow…you have such a way with words.” gwen laughed, feeling a sense of lightness and joy that she had never felt before.

"i can't believe we just did that," she said. "me neither," you replied. "but I'm really glad we did." gwen felt a sense of warmth spread through her chest.

"me too.”

you both sat in silence for a moment, still holding hands. gwen's mind was racing with all sorts of thoughts and emotions, she didn't know how to articulate them all. but what she did know is that she would come clean to you about her double life, just when she’s ready. like you said.

her kisses are gentle and sweet

at the beginning of the relationship they were quick or just pecks on the lip but now? she loves to just hold you in place while deepening a kiss and she doesn’t mind if it gets sloppy she just wants to feel your love every way she can

she’ll kiss all over your body

kisses to your legs, kisses littered on your thighs, kisses down your neck, kisses to your temple, a soft kiss to the forehead, you name it she will press her lips against it and kiss it

she likes to make out…like a lot

it’s not in a way where she wants to do it every time she sees you, she just likes how slow you two can go and revel in each others company and how she can feel her lips on yours and her tongue kissing the inside of your mouth

bonus points if she gets you in her lap or straddling her waist so she can hug you, feel you, push your back forward with her hand to press you closer to her

she can get flustered about it, especially that one time she was so into it that when she pulled away a thin string of saliva kept the two of you connected

but that’s a fic for another time

she’ll lick your bottom lip for entrance and when she feels like messing with you she’ll bite it

and she does love kissing your neck down to your chest and plenty multiple kisses on your chest

i don’t think she would do hickies tho unless by accident but when she does it’s not anywhere visible because she does NOT want her father seeing allat

ANYWAYS she eventually tells you about her secret identity and she really stresses out about it

like she’s crying on the verge of violent sobs and you tell her that you love her for the first time even if it’s as mind baffling as it is

the “i love you” bit doesn’t make it any better considering she’s now an even more emotional wreck

gwen took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to tell her girlfriend the truth about her secret life as the ghost-spider.

she knew it was a risk, but she couldn't keep lying to the person she loved.

"i have to tell you something," gwen said, her voice shaking slightly. "i'm spiderwoman. i fight crime and protect the city. i know it’s hard to believe but it’s true. and it’s who i am."

your eyes widened in surprise, but then she smiled. "i had a feeling there was more to your life than you were letting on," you said. "gwen if you think this is gonna make me run away from you im almost offended. i didn’t even know you were taking this up all on your own and im definitely not letting it stay that way. im here for you, always. gwen i… i love you,"

gwen felt a weight lifted off her shoulders as she saw the acceptance and love in her girlfriend's eyes. "thank you," she said, feeling tears of relief and joy welling up in her eyes.

it was like gwens ghost astral projected into heaven and came back down. she was in disbelief and immediately pulled you into her arms, telling you how much she loved and appreciated you too. the tears threatened to fall. and they did.

you’re relationship after that was just as strong

when she got hurt as spiderwoman, she would visit you through the window for you to patch her up

just in general now that you knew, she would pull up to your place anytime if she wanted to see you

she would shoot you a quick text about it tho…it just may be while she’s already outside

and the text may read “babe open your window pls”

she’ll even come during the middle of the night if she can’t sleep but for this she will actually text you to see if you’re up. she’s not gon break into your home and sneak into your bed she is not miguel on some daddy daycare meets freaky friday type foolery

she loves sleeping with you because you provide her so much comfort and clear her mind

there is nothing that could bring her to sleep faster than her holding you in her strong grasp, hands around your waist, and her head in the crook of your neck while you string your fingers through her hair

she’s just so whipped for you like she may not act like it in front of you but to others it’s very clear that you have her wrapped around your pretty finger

she literally spontaneously combusts when she sees you in her clothes

because of you being the height that you are and gwen basically being a giant compared to you, her clothes tend to be big on you

which she loves

you just look better than her in her own clothes

and DONT think she doesn’t take your clothes too, because she does

sweaters, shirts, pants, SHOES…she’s a thief and she knows it

bonus points if the clothes she take still smell like you and your signature perfume, it makes her blush

sometimes when you two plan a date she stops because she likes to see the thought process behind your outfits and help you with your look if you ask

truly she’s there to admire you

one time she came and your guardian answered saying you were upstairs so she opened the door and you weren’t even fully dressed it was a skirt and your bra on while you were in the mirror deciding between a pink shirt and another

gwen freaked out and slammed the door muttering like eighteen apologizes but you told her it was ok for her to come in but when she did she couldn’t look you in the eye for too long and stared at her feet so she didn’t die of embarrassment

she chose the pink top.

but she loves when you wear her clothes out like not even as pajamas so you can sleep soundly to the smell of gwen

especially if you two are on a date and you wear one of her jackets it just feels like you’re truly hers

and it lets others know too

“hey ladies, mind if i join?” the guy asked, sliding onto the barstool next to you both.

gwen leaned closer to you as you turned to her with an awkward smile, a clear sign of discomfort that she didn’t like one bit.

"actually, we do mind. we were just enjoying some alone time," your girlfriend snapped at the guy.

the airhead didn't seem to catch on, and instead turned his attention to you. "so, what's your name?" he asked, leaning in a little too close for comfort.

gwen felt a twinge of annoyance, but tried to remain polite. "i’m (y/n), and this is my girlfriend," you said, nodding towards her. “yeah im gwen, her girlfriend,” she said in a low, rough tone, her eyes dark with frustration. gwen ightened her grip on her girlfriend's waist, silently daring the guy to make another move.

silence fell at the info drop of you two being together.

then he finally got the hint.

"oh? ohhhhh… didn't realize you two were a couple” he replied blankly, still not leaving.

"yeah well, now you know," gwen said firmly, placing a protective arm around your shoulders. "but we're going to go back to our date now, so if you'll excuse us…”

when gwen is jealous she immediately gives to person glares of death like literally staring daggers into them

her jealousy doesn’t even stem from another person just talking to you like don’t get her wrong, she loves your attention! but she’s not gonna side eye anybody just because they shook your hand in told you good job or if a classmate needed help with something

no, her jealousy comes from when she KNOWS people want you

she can’t blame them you’re literally gorgeous in every way and you guys aren’t a “in your face” type couple but you never deny being together

so when somebody starts trying to flirt with you or make any advances she usually goes quiet because she trusts you know how to take care of yourself and handle a weirdo or two

if she’s there she’ll put a hand on the small of your back or around your waist

she gets involved only when you start showing signs of discomfort at the person talking to you

she won’t stand for it.

she’ll tell them off and if worse comes to worse she WILL fight a mf for you and accept the consequences later

it just all comes from a place of wanting to protect you

you mean so much to her and after everything she’s lost she doesn’t want you to be one of those

that’s why she tries to keep you out of her spiderwoman lifestyle as much as possible because if she found out you got hurt or she put you in danger because you were dating her, gwen could never forgive herself even if you could

overall, gwen is the most loving girlfriend, wants to give you the world, and will try to. you just understand her so well and are so patient, who can blame her for looking at you like you hung the moon and stars? because to her, you did.

A/N: hey so this is my first time posting on tumblr because i noticed the drought under gwen x reader and decided imma feel this shit up so im writing a oneshot next and my requests are open <33 ty for reading i hoped it quenched y’all thirst

© 2023 primaviva

[friendly-neighborhood-boricua]

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Summary: James meets his favorite student's mother for the first time.

Notes: Marauders modern elementary school AU, kindergarten teacher!James Potter x nurse!reader, mom!reader x son!OC (Liam), inspired by this post by @ravishinglavishingluvr

teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james teacher!james te—

specifically james as a kindergarten teacher

(see inspiration post)

(just kindergarten instead of preschool)

(yaknow, for the plot)

Okok lets get started :D:D:D

You’ve got a sweet baby boy of a son (I’m sorry if you don’t!! I also don’t but idk my stepmom is pregnant with a boy and I’m super excited and this mess is what came out so here you go)

And he’s five and in James’ kindergarten class

Baby boy is just the sweetest little thing

James loves him to death

He’s smart and nice and helpful and just an absolute gem

Like seriously tho James goes to the library during his lunch break to hang out with school librarian!Remus and school secretary!Sirius and just can’t shut up about how much he loves your son like James just talks about him the whole lunch period

And Remus and Sirius are like

“That’s great, James 😐"

But James doesn’t care he’s just too excited to have such a bright young boy in his class

And also (because James is nosy af) he’s super curious to see what kind of parents this kid has

So parent-teacher conferences roll around and he’s like “What kind of geniuses are raising this kid?? Let’s see em????”

And then nurse!reader rolls up to the 7:30 PM meeting, still in her hospital scrubs and profusely apologizing for being like three minutes late

And James is like

What.

Not at ALLLLLL what he was expecting

(not that he’s complaining, you’re fucking adorable and a great break from all the stuffy parents he’s had to deal with all day)

So you and him sit down and talk about your son’s work at school

And James just gushes about him to you practically the whole time

Like legit James fell for him before he even met you

Meanwhile you’re like

1) damn i didn’t know my kid’s teacher was so pretty

(Not like that’s important ofc because you have priorities and your son always comes first.)

And 2) but like can my son read?? Can he do math?? Are you teaching him science sir????

And James is like “yeah but he’s NICE and KIND and EMPATHETIC

“DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO GET FIVE YEAR OLDS TO SAY THEY’RE SORRY

“AND HE JUST DOES IT”

And you’re like

“……yeah…… bc that’s an important part of learning to be a good person … ofc I showed him how to be kind?? Like what????”

And James

(poor baby’s bar is on the floor from all the Karens who’s kids he teaches)

He’s just so enamored about how you’re just like naturally kind and caring??

And you imparted that onto your kid????

Your conference time is the last one on James’ schedule, and he absolutely irritates the fuck out of Remus and Sirius as he drives them back to their flat

Like he can’t shut up about you

And your kid

Like he just loves your son

And has a little puppy-love crush on you

Remus pretends to be annoyed and Sirius teases him

But when James drops them off they’re already planning your wedding

(Remus: “You know, we haven’t actually even met her …” Sirius: “So? Have you ever seen James this smitten??? It’ll happen, love. Trust the process.”

[ageofbajabule]

Dawn of Love | Chapter 1

Josh Kiszka x F! Reader

Word Count: 4.9k

Warnings: Fluff, Anxiety talk?, (i don’t think i’m truly missing anything. if i am please let me aware!)

Series Masterpost

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Author’s Note: (18+ themes further on in the series) This series is going to be my baby, my pride and joy. I’ve been putting so much time and thought into this, and I truly do hope you all enjoy it and what I have planned. Please understand no themes relating to 18+ will take place until Josh and Reader are of consenting legal age in the series. Other than that, I do hope you enjoy this series.

October 2013

You had moved around different school districts thanks to your father being in the military… But this move was the final one. He had retired from the Air Force and decided to move to a small town. Known by the name Frankenmuth. It was a Bavarian town, everyone knew everyone and everyone was friendly.

Fitting in wasn’t typically hard, but being a new student in school also put you in the spotlight. You never really made the time to make actual friends considering the situation you grew up in being a military family. So this time around, you had to make the effort to find friends. All day you had the boring classes of general studies. But the class you couldn’t wait for was poetry - something about poetry just spoke to you, it always gave you the feeling of a welcoming home.

It wasn’t always just poetry that caught your eye, film and theatre also held a special place in your heart.

Something about the way Shakespeare wrote always called out to you - specifically Macbeth.

The bell rang indicating your Math class had finally ended. And your last class of the day was Poetry. Making your way there, you had entered the classroom. It was a smaller class, giving it an elective course. There was about 9 other people, you sat near the front of the classroom. The first bell had rang, the teacher waited for any last minute students. And sure enough a boy with shoulder length wavy hair cane sprinting in.

“Sorry! I got stuck in a little traffic jam there in the hallway.” The brunette boy laughed,

“Mr.Kiszka… This isn’t anything new. You need to do better on being on time.”

Mr.Zawalski motioned for him to join the class. He ended up sitting at the desk beside you.

“Last week we finished up our readings from Emily Dickinson, we will be starting with Edgar Allen Poe today. I’m sure most of you are well aware of his work, he had a very different approach than most poets.” Mr.Zawalski spoke as he started parading around the classroom. Everything about Poe, he wasn’t typically your style, but you had grown to like his work.

“He’s kind of a bore… I wish he was a bit more enthusiastic when teaching.”

The brunette boy had leaned over to whisper to you, chuckling as he saw you jump at the sound of his voice, making you giggle softly.

“He has a very monotone voice… Makes me want to fall asleep.” You shifted your body so more of you turned to face the stranger beside you.

“I’m sorry. Let me introduce myself, I’m Joshua Kiszka. But you can call me Josh. What’s your name?”

“I’m Y/F/N Y/L/N, but you can call me Y/N.” You smiled at him softly.

“Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. Are you new here?” Then you heard Mr.Zawalski clear his throat, “Mr.Kiszka this isn’t time for mingling. Would you care to enlighten the classroom on what Poe’s poems were inspired by?”

Josh’s cheeks turned a shade of pink, then turned towards the teacher. “His own childhood trauma. At least that’s what most researchers have gathered.”

Seeming to be satisfied with Josh’s answer, Mr. Zawalski nodded and proceeded to carry on with his lecture - leading you and Josh to giggle quietly.

Before the end of class, Mr.Zawalski had announced there would be a project. And you had to pair up with somebody. Being you had been a new student and the only person you really clicked with was Josh, it was obvious who your partner would be.

“Well I guess we’ll be partners then?” He turned towards you,

“If you’re okay with that?” You smiled softly.

“Of course. Here is my number so we can start working on it.” He smiled taking your phone to type his credentials in, you sent him a text right away for him to save your information. “I’m free whenever. Except for this Wednesday night, I have theater tryouts.”

“I’ll be there too!” You smiled at him.

He chuckled softly, your smile turned wider. “Oh really? That’s great.”

You felt a blush creep onto your face.

“So what part are you trying for?” The bell then interrupted your conversation, “Guess you’ll have to find out at tryouts.” He smirked, getting up.

“That is a whole two days away!” You groaned getting up from your desk.

“I’ll tell you what, come over tonight so we can start working on this project. And maybe I’ll run a few lines to give you a hint at what part.” He cocked an eyebrow.

“Fine. You better stick to your word.” You giggled softly, walking towards your locker.

“You can come over around 5, join my family and I for dinner. My mom always makes enough to practically feed the neighborhood.” Josh spoke as he followed behind you, smiling from ear to ear as he spoke.

“Sure, as long as she doesn’t mind.” He shook his head, “She’ll be thrilled.” He smiled, then he was being pulled by a brunette guy who looked similar to him. But his hair was like a Justin Bieber style cut.

“Josh, we’re gonna be late for band practice.”

“Jeez, Jake I would’ve been right out!” Josh shouted, you looked between the two of them confused. “Sorry Y/N. This is my brother Jake.”

He smiled at you, “Twin brother actually.” Jake chimed in,

“But I’m older by 5 minutes!”

“Will you ever live that down?”

You giggled softly at them bickering. “It was great to meet you, but I don’t want to keep y’all from band practice. I didn’t know you were in the school band.” You smiled softly.

“No. Not a band for school, we have an actual band. We’re just getting started still…” Jake shook his head as he scratched the back of his neck nervously.

“Oh. I’m sorry… Well, have fun, and I’ll see you later.” You flashed a smile before leaving the two of them to go on with their business.

➳

You had luckily gotten your license recently before moving to Michigan and asked to use your mom’s car to drive over to Josh’s house to work on your project tonight.

The drive wasn’t too far from where you lived, in fact you only live a couple blocks from each other. You could’ve probably walked. When arriving you parked on the street out front of their house, making way to the front door. You knocked softly, hearing some yelling behind the door - a girl who looked close in age to you answered the door.

“Hi, I’m Y/N. Is Josh here? I’m here to work on a school project with him.” You spoke offering a small smile.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Veronica but I go by Ronnie. I’m his younger and only sister, he is actually finishing up practice with the guys. You can come in.” She motioned for you to come in.

“If you want, we can go out to the garage. That’s where they practice.”

You smiled, “Sure, why not.”

Ronnie nodded and took you out with her to the garage. As you walked in the guys were in the midst of a song, Josh was singing, Jake was playing guitar and there were two other boys. One looked similar to Jake, assuming it was another sibling of theirs. He was playing bass, and the other was playing drums. Ronnie and you had sat on the couch in front of them.

They sounded really good, for being so young. Josh had finally noticed you as a blush crept on his cheeks, he averted towards Jake as they finished up the song, and concluded their practice.

“That was better than the last run. We’ll resume back to this tomorrow.” Jake directed to them, “Sam, we got to tune that better. And Danny, we’ll have to try and rig the snare.”

They all nodded, making way to head into the house.

“I didn’t expect you to come out here.” Josh had chuckled softly.

“Ronnie asked if I wanted to. And figured why not.” You smiled softly, “So how many of you are there?” You whispered to him - in hopes that his siblings wouldn’t hear.

“There are four of us. Jake and I are the oldest, Ronnie is the middle and Sam is the youngest. And Danny, he's Sam’s best friend. But we consider him a brother, he’s been around for so long.” He smiled, a dimple peeking out.

“Dinner is probably ready, we should head in before my mother starts calling.” He chuckled softly, you followed behind him into the house. He led you to the dining room, it was big enough for everyone that was present. Once you stepped foot in, all eyes were on the two of you.

“Mom and Dad this is Y/N. She is new to our school, and my partner for our class project. But also a new friend.” He smiled at you.

“Oh it’s nice to meet you dear! It’s always great to meet one of Josh’s friends.” She beamed with excitement, “Please sit anywhere you’d like. I made grilled cheese and a family recipe of tomato soup.”

She motioned for you to sit. Josh pulled a chair out for you, that was next to Jake, and you sat down as Josh sat in the seat next to you.

➳

Everyone had eaten, and once your bellies were full to content. You and Josh had decided to head to his and Jake’s shared room to work on the project. Both sides were different from one another, Josh having anything film related where Jake had music related posters.

“Jake and I are forced to share a room, while Ronnie and Sam get the luxury of having their own rooms.” He chuckled softly motioning for you to sit on his bed as he sat on a chair from his desk.

“It’s okay, my sister and I were forced to share a room when we lived in Oregon.” You giggled softly remembering the tiny two bedroom house your parents had gotten when your father was stationed on a mission again.

“Oregon? How did you end up all the way here?” Josh chuckled softly.

“My dad was in the military. We moved around quite a lot.” You responded nonchalantly.

“Oh wow. So you’re settled here in Frankenmuth, Michigan?”

“It's a cute town.” You giggled softly.

“We’re really known for Christmas. Whole town goes overboard with all of it, really. But it is nice. I do enjoy Christmas here.” He rubbed his hands together.

“So where are you originally from?” He questioned you.

“Florida.” You said flatly.

Honestly, you didn’t miss it - especially given the fact you had lived close to Orlando for quite some time, you hated the tourists all year round for the 9 years you lived there.

“Sunshine state… Hm. I think I’ll nickname you Sunshine. How does that sound?” He chuckled softly, a blush crept on your face.

“Sure…”

“Now, what role are you trying for Mr.Kiszka?” You impersonated Mr.Kiwalski’s voice. Earning a chuckle from Josh he shook his towards you.

“Don’t laugh.” He chuckled, “But I’m going for Wonka.”

You smiled at him softly, “I think you’ll fit perfectly…you have the characteristics for it.” You giggled softly.

“And how about you?”

“Veruka.” You giggled, sitting up straight.

“Well I guess we’ll just wait and see.”

December 2013

Ever since that poetry class, you and Josh had been inseparable. You finished your project earning an easy A on it. And then got the roles you had both wanted for the Willy Wonka play. Josh had been working on a film script for the last couple weeks, having you help assist him with it.

“You know you are quite the genius Sunshine.” Josh smiled at you, you smiled back. “I’m just doing what I can! I told you I’ll help film, and help with costumes as well.”

You finished writing in your journal with all of the plans for Josh’s film that was coming up early next month.

“Do you think it’s silly?” He scratched the back of his head.

“No, not at all. I think it’s going to be brilliant. You have a very creative mind Josh. You need to stop doubting yourself.” You replied, shaking your head to give more reinforcement to your words.

“It’s just I care a lot about film, and this band stuff with Jake sometimes can be a lot…” He sighed, sitting on the edge of his bed.

“Josh… Jake has told you that he would help in any way.” You sat next to him.

“Yeah, but this is his dream… He’s always wanted to be a rockstar. And I want that for him. Me, I'm just a silly old film guy.” He chuckled as you nudged him softly.

“Aaand he would want the same for you. Don’t beat yourself up. This film is going to be amazing. Now come on, we have a Christmas party to attend.” You stood up, putting your hand out for him to join.

Once he took your hand in his, it felt like electricity had gone through you. During the short time you’ve known Josh. You’ve grown to like him more than just a friend…

He stood up from his bed, dropping your hand from his slowly.

“Yeah, you’re right. Thanks Y/N…” He smiled softly.

“Of course Josh, that’s what friends are for.” You smiled mentally slapping yourself. You wish you could tell him how you felt. But you also didn’t want to freak him out.

The two of you made way to the basement where the party was being held, Jake smiled and walked over to you giving you a tight hug. With how close you got to Josh, you got close to his twin as well.

“About time you two showed up. Was starting to think you were sucking face.”

Josh gave him a glare as his cheeks turned to a crimson. You blushed, staring at your feet. “No, we were just working on the last touches of the film Jacob.”

“Sorry…” He gave Josh an apologetic look, they had some sort of twin telepathy way of communicating. You just went with the flow of it all. Josh ventured off to some other film friends that you would eventually join.

“Hey I really didn’t mean to embarrass you guys…” Jake had spoken to you quietly.

“It’s okay Jake, really…” You fiddled with your hands.

“No, no it's not… Has Josh said anything to you lately?” You gave him a questioning look.

“Said what?” You grabbed a can of pop.

“Forget it…” Jake went to turn, you grabbed his arm.

“Jacob.”

“You can’t say anything.” Jake mumbled as he turned to face you.

You gave him a look, “Cross my heart and hope to die.” You giggled doing the little promise. He pulled you aside.

“Josh really likes you… But he’s just too afraid to admit it.” He said quietly to you, only audible for you to understand. You felt butterflies in your stomach.

“R-really…” You looked up at him.

“Yeah. Why do you think he’s been up your ass so much lately.” He chuckled softly, “But you didn’t hear this from me.” He gave you a stern look.

“Jake, I won’t say a word. Besides… He hasn’t even made a move…” You looked over at Josh watching him talk with your other friends.

“Give it time… He doesn’t really know how to go about these things. He might need a little push, but. He’ll do it.” He patted your back softly.

“Thanks Jake…” You smiled and walked over to your friends and talked about the plans for the new year.

January 2014

“Josh, how the hell did you book a hotel room for the weekend for this film? Don’t we have to be at least 21 to book?” You shot a glare as you settled your bags into the room.

“Sunny, you underestimate my skills… Have I taught you nothing.” He sighs, acting like he’s been hurt. “Okay. Maybe I did, but just a tiny bit.”

You giggled softly setting up your equipment - while Jake came into the room with the rest of their friends.

“Okay, so I totally did not cause a scene in the lobby…” He said nervously.

“Jacob, I swear if we get kicked out of this damn hotel before we even shoot anything. I’m kicking your ass.”

“Some idiot tried fucking with our equipment, what else was I suppose to do.” He defended himself, causing the two of them to bicker.

“Alright! It just better not result in anything bad…”

The remainder of the evening you had set the room up for the liking of how you were filming this short film that Josh had in mind. Jake was one of the main roles, along with their friend Grace. Filming was going great, you had everything pretty much under control so Josh could focus on filming and getting the right angles while you adjusted lighting, make up and props.

After a couple hours of shooting Josh figured it was time to call it a night. You had helped clean up the room while Jake and Grace had finished up their last shots, and proceeded to help clean as well. Josh had already started editing the clips from tonight, and said that we would pick it back up tomorrow.

The twins ended up sharing a bed, while you and Grace had shared the other. It's not like you and Josh haven’t slept by one another before. You had passed out on the pull out sofa bed in their basement a few times when you’d stay over late working on a project. But Jake didn’t want to make Grace uncomfortable.

➳

The next day filming had picked up, but Jake was in a mood as he was tired of filming the same scene for the past hour.

“Well Jacob if you’d actually put effort into it. We wouldn’t have to keep shooting this take!” Josh threw his hands up in frustration.

“How about we take a lunch break!” You suggested taking your headphones off.

“Yeah, that’s a great idea.” Jake huffed grabbing his things, “You want to hit that Sub shop Grace?”

She nodded in agreement following Jake, leaving you and Josh to yourselves. Josh had put some things away grabbing a microwave.

“Joshua, what are you doing with the damn microwave?” You crossed your arms staring at him.

“I want to make stir fry. And I’m not trying to burn the room down, so to the hallway we go!” He made his way to the door, but he could open it considering his hands were full. So you opened the door, following behind him with your camera and other supplies.

Deciding to sprint to be in front of him, you took a picture of him with the microwave. “You’re something else Kiszka.” You giggled, getting to the end of the hallway. He plugged the microwave into the outlet, preparing the meal he had planned.

“Is this even going to be any good?” You gave him a concerning look.

“You have to live on the edge, a little mama.” He chuckled, mixing it together and placing it into the microwave, turning it on and setting it to whatever time and power he had it set as.

“Sir, what are you doing?” One of the maids had questioned him.

“Just making a five star meal. Care for some?” He smiled.

“You can’t do that out here. Why is it even out of the room?” She had questioned him, with her arms crossed.

“What do you mean? It was already out here.” He played a great character.

“Sir, I can assure you that is the room microwave you need to put it back in its rightful place. Or I will have to report you to the hotel staff.” She huffed watching him.

“It’s almost done cooking. It’ll be out of the way shortly.” Josh replied, smirking.

“I suggest you take it back now.” She then started to walk away to clean a room. Josh sat there letting it continue to cook.

“Josh, she seemed pretty serious.” You looked at him with worry.

“Sunshine, you need to liven it up!” He chuckled softly, as the microwave went off he unplugged it and walked back to the room with it.

“You Kiszka’s sure have a way…” You giggled softly, sitting on the bed.

“I can’t tell if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.” He chuckled softly sitting beside you with his plate, taking a bite he spit it out quickly. “Oh that is mortifying.” He made a gagging face.

“Not so bright Joshy…” You giggled softly.

“Come on, let’s go get some real stir fry.” You patted his back, he nodded, throwing out his creation.

➳

The two of you found a local Japanese restaurant not too far from the hotel. Taking in on dining there, you let Jake and Grace know where the two of you went in case they came back earlier than you two.

“So, the Valentine’s dance is coming up.” Josh had said nervously.

“Yeah, have you asked any special girl?” You smiled softly, taking a sip of your water.

“No, not yet…” He put his head down, like he was ashamed.

“It’s okay Josh, you don’t have to show up with a date. You can just go with friends.” You smiled softly at him.

“Uh actually. Y/N, I was wondering if maybe you would be my date for the Valentine’s dance.” He looked up at you nervously with flushed cheeks.

“You want me to be your date?” You smiled as your cheeks became a tinted pink.

He nodded, smiling softly, “Yeah. I’d really like it if you would?”

“Yeah, I’ll be your date…” You trailed off with a smile, giving him a small reassuring nod.

He smiled, chuckling softly, “I thought I was gonna walk out of here like a sore loser if you said no.”

“I would never say no to you Josh…”

February 2014

It was Friday, school was a complete drag the past week. They had a spirit week in honor of the Valentine’s dance tonight. Ever since Josh had asked you to be his date, the two of you had been inseparable. You had been working on the last touches of the short film you worked on together. It was nearing completion but Josh decided that the two of you should take this week off from editing, since the dance was taking up a majority of the time.

You had joined the student council prior to Christmas break, and helped the council decorate and plan the dance. It was senior year after all, you had to make some memories while living the last of your childhood. Josh knew how much it meant to you to partake in this, since you were never able to do much like this before.

You had been getting ready at home, finishing the last touches of your hair and makeup. You kept your makeup rather simple, not doing too much of a glam look, and your hair had some loose curls.

You went to your closet pulling your dress off from the hanger, it was an indigo dress that rested against your knees and had some slight rhinestone embellishments on the edges of the dress. You slipped it on looking at yourself in the mirror, content with your look you put your heels on and grabbed your small satchel heading downstairs.

Josh was at the bottom of the stairs waiting for you with your parents and sister.

“You look absolutely stunning.” Your mom beamed.

“You look amazing, sweetie.” Your dad chimed in, agreeing with your mother.

Your sister smiled, clapping her hands together. She opted on staying home instead of going to the dance tonight. She was in the same grade as Sam and Danny and you have tried multiple times to get her to hang out with them.

“You look beautiful, Sunshine.” Josh came in front of you holding a beautiful white rose assortment corsage, with a boutineer to go with it.

You smiled softly in response.

“You look dashing.”

Your mom smiled coming over to aid the two of you with putting his boutineer on. Then Josh slipped your corsage onto your wrist.

“Okay! In front of the fireplace, we have to get pictures of you two.” Your mom beamed, as your father ushered you into the living room. Josh and yourself stood in front of the fireplace, as he placed his hand on the small of your back you felt butterflies in your stomach placing your arm around his back. You both posed and smiled for the millions of pictures your mother insisted on taking. Then took a couple with your parents.

“Guys it's not even prom, it's just a regular dance!” You giggled softly after taking enough pictures.

“Yes you’re right dear, but it’s your senior year!” Your mom beamed at you.

“We should really get going, otherwise we’ll be late…” You looked at the time.

“Wouldn’t be the first time I’m late to a function!” Josh chuckled softly, you giggled in agreement.

“Yeah, but I think for once you should be on time.” You smirked and started to head to the door with him.

Before leaving your father gave Josh a whole spiel on his rules and when to have you home by. Typical dad move, but he just wanted to be in good hands.

“Dad, he’s a good guy. Besides I think Mrs.Kiszka would be on him if he didn’t abide by your rules.” You giggled softly as Josh nodded.

“Yeah, my mom would have my butt canned.”

The two of you then left your house, he opened the passenger side to his car letting you get in before he closed it getting to his side. Once you buckle your seatbelt he had gotten into the car buckling himself in the driving over.

After arriving, Josh had parked next to Jake’s car. Jake had gotten out and let his date out of the passenger side. He had asked Valerie to be his date, she was more than thrilled when he had asked her. Valerie was this sweet junior who was a part of the cheerleading squad and Jake was absolutely crushing on her.

“You guys look amazing!” You smiled at them, hugging Jake and then Val.

“You guys look great too!” Jake beamed.

“Well we should head in, it’s freezing out here.” Josh had motioned for everyone to make their way, as he kept his hand on the small of your back.

Once you entered the high school gymnasium there was a photo station off to the left, then a table for water and punch.

“Do you want some punch?” Josh looked over at you.

“Yeah, I’d like some.” You smiled.

“Grab a table and I’ll meet you there.” He wandered off to the refreshment table as you made way to a small table in the corner. Jake and Val had already ventured to the dance floor, making the most of their night.

Josh had returned with two cups of punch, setting yours down in front of you on the table, he smiled softly at you.

“My lady.” He chuckled softly, sliding into the chair beside you.

“Well thank you kind sir.” You giggled softly, taking a sip of the punch.

“You guys did really well with planning all of this.” He smiled, taking a sip of his punch.

“Thank you, I was nervous they weren’t going to like my ideas…” You slouched a bit - suddenly feeling a wave of nervousness hit you.

“Are you kidding! Sunny you are brilliant. Who wouldn’t like your ideas?” He smiled softly at you, you returned a smile as your cheeks flushed.

After conversing for a bit, the two of you decided to hit the dance floor joining Jake and Val. You guys had danced the night away, laughing and acting like complete idiots. But it’s all you ever wanted at this moment.

The DJ then turned things slow for a remainder of the evening starting off with All of Me by John Legend. Josh had you pulled you close to him, wrapping his arms around your waist and you wrapped your arms around his neck. Smiling softly at him, you giggled to yourself softly.

“What is it, Sunshine?” He chuckled softly, catching your giggle.

“Nothing…” You blushed, placing your head on his chest listening to his heartbeat as the two of you swayed.

“Your heart is beating rather fast Josh…”

You giggled and turned to look up at him, he then moved his one hand to caress your face.

“Y/N…”

You looked at his face, he licked his lips nervously.

“Yeah Josh…”

He studied your face, before zoning in closer he then pressed his soft plush lips against yours.

‘Cause I give you all of me

And you give me all of you’

You were taken by surprise, but immediately kissed him back softly letting your lips move in sync. Soaking in this moment together. After a moment the two of you pulled away, smiling while giggling at each other.

“God, I’ve wanted to do that for so long…” He shook his head, sighing softly.

“I think you should do it again.” You smiled brightly at him - he then captured your lips once more with his, giving a few little pecks before detaching his lips from yours.

“Y/N… I. Well, what I’m trying to ask.”

“Yes, Josh. I’ll be your girlfriend.” You giggled softly, rubbing his arm to soothe his nerves.

.

.

.

.

to be continued

Taglist -

@lyndszee @laneygvf @sacredthefran @starcatcherry @fkfearandliveyourlegend @hi-hi-hello11 @gretnavannfleet @themoreyou-love @gvfmuse @meetingthestardust @myleftsock

[madwomansapologist]

Hello gorgeous !

Could you write an soulmate au ( seeing colour )with billy and stu but the reader is from our time line and we meet them and the gang , and when when they are alone we just confess we know everything and them nsfw happens ?

Bonus if we have a ghostface tatto on our inner tigh 🖤

you look like you've seen a ghost | Billy Loomis and Stu Macher

Masterlist | Rules | Taglist | Library | Part 2 | AO3

synopsis: it was just a normal school day until you saw your favorite movie brought to life. You may not know how that was possible, but you do know everything that is happening. And, damn, you shouldn’t think that it will be a great experience but it is better than lying to yourself, right?

warnings: this is about two slashers so... blood, disrespect towards others lifes and a lovely, bloody and kinky make out session. a little bit of knife play, but just a little. and some swearwords, i made the reader a little bit offensive. actually: if you are reading about a slasher you should know that those warnings would be like that so....

note: thanks for your request my love! I take some time cuz I was sick and it was also my first time writing for slashers, hope I did well :) also: IF BAD WHY HOT???

It was a weird dream. No. Not a dream: it was a really weird nightmare. The moment you wake up the memories we’re already vanishing, but that ferrous taste didn’t leave your mouth even after breakfast. The thing was that the dream had something more than just black and white. Everyone just see those two color until they meet their soulmates, so you are not exactly sure if you are just confused or with you really saw it.

You saw blood on your dream and it wasn’t black.

Even tho you we’re focused on trying to remember your dream, the real life called and you need it to respond. School. An essential part of everyone’s life, but somehow everyone would create and excuse to stay at home. You weren’t in the mood to go to school and spend hours listening to boring monologues about your teacher’s divorce, but you had no choice. 

Armed with headphones, you walked to school. At the school street you could see your friends, they tend to stay in front of school until everyone arrives, but it seens like the whole school had just decided to stay outside the building.

Before you could say anything, Stacy put her hands on your shoulder. “Guess who just died.” You blinked, surprised by the way she said it. “I don’t know who died but I know that a guessing game is not a great way to share the news.”

James hugged Stacy from behind, laughing at your response. “Darling, that was kinda creepy.” Stacy rolled her eyes. “Shut up”, she said. “Casey Becker was murdered last night. Murdered.”

“Wow” you said. “I am so sorry for her and her family. But, well, I don’t want to be rude, but who is Casey Becker?”

“What?” Stacy murmured. “You know her. We have science and math class with her. The blonde girl. Well, you don’t see color yet, so... the one with fringe, we watched Halloween with her and her boyfriend on the cinema. Do you at least remember Steven Orth?”

You shake your head, walking towards the building. “I really don’t remember her. Probably I am just a little bit confused.” You don’t remember Casey Becker, or Steven Orth, or watching a movie with them. You do remember hearing that name before, but not the girl. Embarrassed, you chose to lie. “I’m just having a horrible migraine, I almost can’t think straight.”

“Okay”, Stacy said, not really believing anything you told her but also not really sure if you we’re lying. On the school hallways, already on a new subject with James, Stacy stopped talking in the middle of the setence and pointed to a locker. “They are already making a memorial.”

Roses, bouquets, notes with heartbreaking messages decorated what before was Casey Becker’s locker. It was so kind and affectionate that even without knowing the girl who just died, you got sad. But when a person moved and you saw a picture of Casey Becker, sadness was nothing to you.

“She is Drew Barrymore.”

“What?” James asked. “Who?”

“She is Drew Barrymore”, you repeated. “50 First Dates, Charlie’s Angels, Santa Clarita Diet. Its a joke?” And then you remembered where you heard the name. “Its Scream’s birthday? Well, you guys get really creative. I almost believed.”

Stacy touched your forehead. “Dear, what the hell are you talking about? Who is Drew Barrymore? Did you take medication for your migraine?”

“You are really into the character”, you responded. “Fine, I want to be the helpless victim.” Stacy and James shared a look. “Are you fine?”, James said. “Do you feel dizzy?” 

The alarm sounded.

“I have english class now” you waived to them. “See ya later.”

When you disappeared around the corner, James turned to Stacy. “It is a normal part of girls... you know, special moment of the month?”

“No, James” Stacy rolled her eyes. “Act crazy is not a normal part of menstruation.” She finished the way to her class alone. “And I am the creepy one.”

As you already thought, the teacher was using class time to talk about his divorce. Not a single lesson. And he still surprised that his ex-wife didn’t want to be with him, that men simply can't shut up.

Drawing something on your desk, what you shouldn't but you we're so bored that you almost didn't realize what you we're doing, your mind flew a little bit. Thinking about how weird it was that everyone knew about Scream's birthday except for you, Ghostface was one of your drawings.

Distracted, you dropped a pen. When you bend to grab it, another hand touch it. You look up, your mouth already moving to thank with the person, but no sound could be heard. You we're almost drooling yourself because, damn, that was Sidney Prescott.

It was like the movie came out of your and decided to go to school. It was her. The hair, the smile, the cheeks. Sidney Prescott was sitting beside you.

"Are you okay?" Even her voice was the same. She look like Sidney more than Nave itself.

"Thanks" that was all you could say. After grabbing the pen, you glance at your hands and count how many fingers you have. Ten. Not a dream. Ten fingers means that you are wake up. "You really look like Nave Campbell."

She smiled at you. Sidney Fucking Prescott smiled at you. "I don't know her, it was a praise or a offense?"

"A praise", you sit straight, tyding up your hair. "She is a actress. Did you ever watched Scream?"

She shaked her head. "Never ever heard about a movie with that name. Do you recomend it?"

Okay, that must be a really awesome coincidence. No way that she is Sidney. It is just a girl that looks like her. Things like that happen everytime. You even know a girl famous for looking like Selena Gomez. Just a coincidence.

"It is a movie for people who loves movies. Do you like horror? If you do, then you gonna love it."

"I do" she looked at the teacher, just making sure that he was still talking about how his ex-wife take his dog. "Whats your name? I don't remember seeing you."

You said your name to her. "I need it to change my class schedules, probably we didn't have a class together before. Whats your name?"

"Oh, I didn't even knew that it was possible. It is really nice to meet you, my name is Sidney Prescott. Whats your next class? Mine is history."

Okay. Just a coincidence. A really weird coincidence. Maybe she is just playing around. She is a copy of Nave, she probably just heard people saying this her whole life and decided to joke about it a little. Just a coincidence.

Things still kinda weird. Talking with her, you just remind something Stacy told you. She said that you, her, Casey and Steven had watched Halloween together on the cinema. What is weird because you never watched Halloween on a cinema. You watched it home, on a streaming service. And you also remember that Drew was on Alien so no one need to act like she didn't exist to make a joke about her appearing on Scream. And also, how could you leave your phone at home?

"And then he said: If you don't know anything, you probably just need to study more. I mean, hello, I would know if you did use your class to talk about english."

Moving to next class, that you both have together, silence didn't had space to exist.

"He is so strange. Why does he thinks that we would know something about a divorce? Just go to a therapist", she laught at your commentary. "Or to a lawyer. I am pretty sure that taking someone's dog is not a legal thing to do."

Sidney and you sit, the teacher was talking to a student about notes. "Would you like to do something after school?", you asked.

"That would be really nice", Sidney touched your arm. "What about watching a movie? My house will be empty, we could make popcorn and grab some junk food."

"That would be perfect."

"You can choose the movie while I make our lunch" Sidney said, walking around her kitchen and thinking about what you both could eat first. "You're welcome, feel free to choose whatever you like."

"Do you feel like watching what type of movie?" You scream to her at the living room, opening the shelf with all her movies. A breeze made shivers go up on your spine. Its a cold house. "Can you borrow me a sweatshirt?"

"Of course" Sidney reply. "My room is upstairs. Open the second drawer."

You opened her room and found everything, to the furnitures to the clothes, absolutely the same way as the movie. The phone ring downstairs. She really loves to use her looks to make fun of people. What would happen next? Ghostface gonna try to kill her?

You opened the second drawer and took one of her sweatshirts. They smeel like roses. You felt so warm now, a house surrounded by trees can be really cold. Walking around her bedroom, you breath in and let the calm enter you body.

Then you heard a scream.

"Sidney?"

And a crash!

"Sidney! Are you okay?"

The noise didn't stop. Things we're being break. You heard slaps, angry screams, something heavy beating against the floor.

A baseball bat was standing beside the bedroom door. You didn't even think twice, you grab it and run down stairs. And you saw something that you couldn't explain. Something that you we're trying not to see. Something that should be impossible.

You saw Ghostface choking Sidney Prescott.

Exactly like the first scene we're they fight on the first movie. Exactly like Scream, from 1996, we're Billy Loomis and Stu Macher we're trying to kill Sidney Prescott.

It was... It was real.

No. 

Absolutely no fucking way this could be real. 

 It is just a bad dream.

You beat his back with the bat, releasing Sidney's from the killer. You pushed her, making her rise while trying to breath again, and beat Ghostface one more time.

"Are you fine?" Sidney didn't asnwer, but you both couldn't stay there. She grabbed you hand and push you upstairs, running to her room. "We need to get out of this house."

"Oh, I assure you need to" Ghostface screamed, getting up on the first floor.

Sidney locked her door and you both put furnitures in front of it. The door shake with him using his whole body to open. He was screaming and cursing, but Sidney was way smart to stand up without doing anything to protect herself.

"We can use the window", she said, already opening it.

You looked down, seeing that a fall like that would end up with some broke bones. "Better then die, right?" You we're not so sure, but when she agree with you it was like a little confidence bost. "And if we thrown your matttress?"

Sidney dropped everything that was on her bed and you both guide it to the open window. It was difficult, but it fell on the right place. Without even thinking, you helped her. It was just a dream, after all.

Standing on the window's jamb, she was scared to jump. "That is the only way", you told her.

And then, that horrible sound made of offenses, pushes and beats stopped. Ghostface was running towards you both, trying to grab Sidney to finally kill her, and you did the only thing you could.

You pushed her.

"You fucking cunt!"

It happen so fast. In a second you we're almost following Sidney out of the house, the next your hair was grabbed and you we're thrown on the floor. Your head burned and, with closed eyes, you felt him above you. Something cold, something sharp, touched the bottom of your neck.

It is just a dream. Just a weird dream.

"Open your eyes" Ghostface laughed. "Not so brave now, uh?" He pressed the knife, not cutting your skin but scaring you so bad that you stopped breathing. "I said open your eyes!"

Wishing you could wake up now, you did open your eyes. Ghostface mask was right above your face, his eyes on the same line as yours, and it was impossible to not look direct up on them.

And you saw red.

Part of your view still black and white, but a lot start burning. The red blood on his hands. The orange wallpaper, the yellow lighting. Everything was warm and soft and amazing. Everything was beautiful.

And then you realized what that means.

"You" he said. Not an offense, not an order, not a question. Just a word. Ghostface, you are not so sure if it was Billy or Stu, slipped the cold knife around the skin of you neck. "You", he said, again, and you we're not able to understand if that means something good or bad. The knife got down, he slipped it until the tip was pressing against your belly. You couldn’t breath. His other hand hold your face and it almost felt carefull. One finger slide against your lips. "You look like you seen a ghost."

And Sidney hit him with the same baseball bat you used to save her.

"You fucker!" Sidney screamed.

You don't even remember rising up from the floor. Or going down stairs and getting out of her house. You don't remember when the cops came or when they took you to the police station. You don't remember when you're parents took you home. You don't remember washing yourself or changing your clothes.

All you could thing about was how the words seens so beautiful. And how the image of a ghost didn't leave your vision.

Part of you thought that you would wake up and everything would be normal again. But the moment you enter the living room and heard the news, noticing how that voice sounds exactly like Monica Geller's voice, you understood that everything that happened to you was real.

You don't know how, but you are into a movie. Your favorite movie on the whole world. And without even noticing, you put yourself on a killer's aim. Of course you couldn't be in a romcom. No, it has to be a slasher. What a lucky girl.

Your parents we're so worried about everything. They didn't let you go to school, what was something that you didn't mind at all, and they look like they we're suffering from a heart attack. You stayed at home, beside them all the time. You felt so bad for them that you almost forgot about the colors you are seeing.

Almost.

At night, a cop called your parents. You didn't listen to what he said, but your parents said that it was important: the killer was arrested. They drove to understand how everything would work now, if they will need to do something and how the judgment would work. And, yes, they leave you at home. Alone. At night.

Something didn't feel right, the movie didn't work that way, but the movie didn't have you. So you stayed. Alone. At night.

A movie was playing on TV, but no one would dare to say that you we're watching. Laying on the couch, all you could do was to think about everything that happened.

Even tho you are so worried about, well, being on a different dimension or whatever that happened for you to be on a fucking movie, that part of you was muted by the part that just wanted to look at everything and see colors.

It is so great to watch the lighting. How it shine and burn and how the yellow seens to fly around it. Or to look at the mirror and see the color of your hair. See your eyes. Your skin. Your nails. Everything is so colorfull and delicate that you almost cryed.

Watching your nails, the natural rose tonality, you didn't heard when the door of your bedroom, on the second room, opened. Almost sleeping, you didn't even notice the crack of the degraus. So distracted, you didn’t realize that you we’re being followed when you entered your kitchen to eat something.

That's the problem of seeing so many great things: your ears stop working.

You opened the refrigerator, but there was nothing great there. You closed it and opened again. Nothing change. You grabbed and apple, the most sweet thing you could found, and turned to get back to the couch.

The moment you passed the door that separated the kitchen from the living room, a hand pulled you and make your back crash into the wall. You hold your breath, at the same time you could feel your whole body shaking. Another time, you felt the cold tip of a knife against your throat. It was more rude, more playfull, like the person behind the mask enjoyed to see your throat being pressed.

"Hello, princess", Ghostface said to you. His other hand was against the wall, at the same line as your head, and you could felt his body bending over you. "My turn to see those beautiful eyes."

You we're scared like hell, but you know that if you found your soulmate you wouldn't kill them. You only wished they think the same way. So, slowly, you look at him.

And what you saw was cold. The blue of your TV screen. The shapes of the tile. The green walls. Your shorts. It felt like you we're drowning. Warm and cold became one. No more a world made of just black and white.

And that made you more confident.

“Whats stopping you, Billy? Are you scared?”, you mocked him. “Or this is you, Stu? I tought you would be more creative then just throwning me against a wall with a knife against my throat. Not my first time and I am not impressed.”

Ghostface seens to freeze. He lower his heigh, making his face stay right in front of you. You could heard him breathing. "I prepared to you a set of jokes! All you needed to do was wait. How could you do this to me?" He take his mask off, releasing Stu’s face from the fabric. “Don't be so rude, dear, that gonna break my heart.”

“I hope it hurts you as much as you rocking my head againd the wall did to me.”

“It was supossed to be a surprise” Stu explained. "I was trying to create a good first impression."

"Didn't work, Shagy."

"Shagy?"

“You gonna understand it in a few years”, you swallowed, the knife was touching you again. “Where is he?”

"Seens like I made a good first impression, Shagy. You should learn something from me" Billy came out of a dark corner. He was wearing another Ghostface fantasy, but without the mask. "Hello, doll."

"I tought that I was a cunt" you remind him of last night. "Gonna try to cut me and give up like a fucking pussy again?"

"You should wash your tongue with soap."

"And you should try to stab yourself. I promise that it would be really fun." You smiled. "At least for me."

"Damn, she is..." Stu stopped talking. He look at you like you we're a secret combination he was trying to memorize. "Perfect."

"I told you", Billy come closer. Stu had his hand at your right side, Billy did the same at the left one. You we're like a noisy prey: say whatever you wanted, you still a prey. "And she knows how to defend herself too. My back still hurts, doll. You shouldn't be so mean to me."

"Drop the knife and I can think about being nice", you demand.

Without hesitation, Stu responded: "Explain how you know our names."

You thought about it. Not so sure, you choose to be honest. "This is a movie."

"What?"

"This is a famous movie on my reality. Don't know how I end up here." They would never believe on you. "You both are trying to kill Sidney because of an affair her mom had with your dad. Casey died after saying that Jason was the killer on Friday 13th, but it was his mom. She almost survived, almost. Honestly, you should try therapy. You would save money, time and lives."

Stu and Billy looked at one another. They know that it was impossible to someone to know all of that. "It is a great movie?" Stu asked.

"It is. I am kinda of a fan. I even have a tatoo." You said, sure that it would make them interest enough to forget about the knife. And you knew that you we’re right when you saw Billy's eyes shining. "Show me."

“No!” Stu shouted. “Show me.”

“I will show for you both.” You said, looking at Stu. “If you drop the knife. Now.”

"As you wish", and Stu did it. It almost fell on your feet, and it might be your a optimism talking, but you think that he new that it wouldn't hurt you.

You pulled up the fabric of your skirt and show them the tatoo on your left inner thigh. It was a little Ghostface with a bloody knife. How ironic.

Billy came closer and touch your skin. His fingers slipped across the tatoo, touching more than only the painted skin. “So” Billy said with a smirk, mocking you. "Are you a fan?"

"Don’t flatter yourself.”

Billy’s hand hold your thigh, his fingers cherish your skin but it didn’t change how possessive the act felt. He wasn't just touching your thigh, he was holding you. “It seens like you are the one flattering me. You know our names, our faces, our stories. You even have us on your body. And don’t forget the fact that the universe itself decided that we should be together.”

“You talk a lot” Stu complement, his mouth against your ear. “But you didn’t scream. Or run. Or fight back. Does that dirty mouth of yours just bark?” Stu touched your face, his nails scratching your cheeks, and you didn’t deviated. “All you had to do is say no. Say you don't want it. Say you don't want us.”

But you couldn’t.

Billy pushed Stu aside and hold your waist. “I saw her first.” He pulled you closer, almost pulling you off the floor, and your chest joined his. “Did a cat got you tongue?"

You tried, but you couldn't respond him. You just closed your eyes.

When his lips we’re almost touching yours, Stu grabbed him by his clothes and took you on his arms. “Not my fault if you are slow.”

Stu hold your face, and he was faster than Billy. His lips meet yours, his tongue explore your mouth, his hands slide by your body. Stu leaned over you, so your only option was to cling to him.

Bewitched, being separated from Stu thanks to their inherent competitiveness between then both was disappointing.

"My turn."

Billy was more agressive. He didn't leaned over you, he pulled you close. Holding your thighs, Billy lifted you off the ground and made your legs cling to his waist. Billy laid you down on the couch, fitting between your legs, and the kiss that took your breath away ended so that he focoused on your neck.

"My parents," you said, trying to recover your sanity. "They could see us."

"They won't." Billy licked your neck. "We planned everything, doll. It was supossed to be a surprise, but thinking about that skirt you choose to wear tonight I think that your we're waiting for us."

Billy was squeezing whatever part of your body that he could.

"You will not exclude me." Stu said. His voice was weak, Stu was enjoying that little show of yours.

You sit on the couch, and Stu sit beside you. He kissed your face, your neck, your shoulder. His hands grabbed your thighs, your waist, your chest. Stu was whorshiping you.

And while he explore the your upper body, Billy knelt between your kness. He took off your underwear with his teeth, nibbling the soft skin of your thigh and licking where the tatoo was.

Billy's was having fun doing you. His tongue was dancing into your legs. You grabbed his hair, moaning direct into Stu's lips.

"Fuck." Stu groaned. "How can you be so perfect?"

You put your hand inside his pants, grabbing his cock and jerking it off. The little moans he let escape from his mouth made you felt even hotter. "You can thank me later."

Kissing your mouth, Stu took off your blouse. Licking everything he could, he smirked. "I will."

Billy sucked you with so much pleasure that you started to ride his face. You could feel his nose rubbing against your clit and you knew his face must be soaked, but it didn't seem to bother him. "I want to feel you."

When Stu touch your clit, rubbing that sensitive spot, added to Billy's tongue, you couldn't do nothing but to cum loudly.

Still shaking, you kissed Billy's wet face while making Stu cum in your hand. With a smile, you got up and walked towards the stairs. "I will wait in my room."

They got up immediately.

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[writergracethepanda]

Advice I Have As A Recent High School Graduate

I graduated from high school last week (it still doesn't feel real agh!), so here's some advice I have for my younger moots <3:

Get Involved- I was at my school starting from grade 8 (we were grades 8-12 until a couple of years ago), and I didn't really feel apart of the community until a few years ago, until I really started to get involved with Latin Club and the Creative Writing department outside of class, and Reading bowl. (we are a very student run school). I got to meet a lot of amazing people, build so many memories, and even build connections for my future as a classics major.

Ask for help when and before you need it- I cannot stress this enough. I cold have saved myself a lot of energy and anxiety if I'd asked my teachers for help on assignments and such sooner. I also literally saved my own life by asking for help in my junior year. If I'd not told my parents how badly I was doing and not gone to the hospital, I would 100% not be here to type this out. This is also me saying I'm here for you guys if you need someone who's gone through this stuff to talk about this with.

The first time doing something is always the hardest- I'm reminding myself of this as I enter college. Talk to that person you think is cool, and that you want to be friends with. Sign up for that club. Raise your hand, even if you're not completely sure about the answer.

Don't take APUSH unless you love love love history- I love history, and I loved my apush class. It was, however, one of the reasons I had to leave school for a few months.

Remember who you are- You are going to be a completely different person coming out of high school than you were when you started. Embrace growth, but never let others change you into something you're not. You are amazing.

I'm here both academically and as a friend if you need advice- except for math ive already forgotten everything.

Let me know if you guys want any other specific advice. :)

Grace

[artzzyb00-27]

Fire-fam kids Teenage Adventures: Influences

The way I pulled and Evan Buckley and did an ungodly amount of research to find out if Christophers age here was still somewhat reasonable. I pulled out my calculator! Trigger warning: shootings

It had been a month and a few weeks after his first day of high school. Specifically at Theodore Roosevelt High. Sure Eddie had been more than a little worried, but Chris was confident he would be fine. Don't get it twisted, at first, he wanted to go to school with Denny and Harry. But after thinking it over, he decided it would be better to make connections on his own.

Buck was more than happy to let him try his own thing as long as he was being safe. After the painful slow burn, Eddie and Buck tied the knot and have been married for two years now. It was nothing but heaven. Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't scared his little boy was going off to high school.

"I declare you, officially a teenager. Welcome to angst and acne forever!" Harry had said that when Christopher's fourteenth birthday came up. Harry was already sixteen by now so he knew a thing or two. Denny, who was now fifteen, had recorded the interaction to show his girlfriend and Christopher's secret friend. Not really a secret but Eddie and Buck didn't know about him yet so it technically was a secret. There was a reason Christopher pushed so hard to go specifically to Theodore Roosevelt.

Manuel "Manny" Salvador Gutiérrez. Mouthful of a name to say at once. It's why he preferred going by Manny Gutiérrez. Harry and Denny met him when Chris invited them to the mall saying he wanted them to meet someone. Manny was the type of guy to be tough and stoic. To be known as the troubled kid who looked like could throw a mean punch(he could) and not get hit at all.

Always wearing worn-down Vans with slightly baggy jeans, sometimes ripped jeans, an oversized shirt with a jacket over. Or sometimes a graphic tee that color matched with his Vans and leather jacket.  He dyed hair at the ends, piercings(eyebrow and nose), and small tattoos because his mom let him.

Underneath that though, kid was a total dork. Once he warms up to you he's a complete softy. Like a big furry black dog. Looks intimidating, but is dopey at the sight of his favorite person. And that person was Chris. They had met in Junior High in math class, which was Manny's best subject. The teacher recommended extra credit to tutor Chris and since then they've been best friends.

"Wonder what's taking so long?" Eddie hummed in response at Chimney behind him. After learning they had a 24-hour shift, Hen, Chim, Buck, and Eddie had decided to carpool in the black minivan so it would be less gas on everyone. Noticing the time they got out, Buck texted Carla ahead to not worry about Chris because they would be able to pick him up.

"Not sure, he's usually out by now. The final bell rang like 20 minutes ago."

Looking around, he couldn't spot his kid. He'd begun taking on a different style of dressing recently. Drifting slightly away from bright colors but keeping his nerdy side. His hair was also slightly different. He had shaved sides that weren't vibrant but still shined. Wore more Converse than  Eddie had in his whole life.

Hen looked out through her window, which was closer to the school gates, and saw Chris walking out but without his backpack smiling.

"I see him at the gate but he doesn't have his bag." Buck and Eddie turned to look and were surprised that Hen was telling the truth. Chris had this thing with bags,  that if he didn't have it on him during school hours, he wasn't functional. That's when they saw a 5,6, light-skinned boy with purple-tipped hair in curls in a messy mullet, running up to their son with a backpack on his body and holding Christopher's bag for him on the other.

Eddie's eyes bulged, he barely even got to touch the bag, including Buck. He wondered how Christopher allowed the boy to hold his bag as carelessly as he was. As the two teenagers looked around, Christopher saw the minivan, smiled, and waved. The boy next to him doing the same. Buck, Chim, and Hen waved back smiling.

Not Eddie, he was still in shock and protective dad mode. As the boys walked over Eddie inspected the kid closer. He got a weird feeling and immediately disapproved. Then again he didn't know him so judgment was base level.

"Never would've thought Christopher hung out with punk rock kids," Chim commented making Hen snort and Buck smile while glancing at the back seat diagonal from him. Hen moved back through the open middle and sat in the very back seat. As the door opened, Eddie adjusted himself in the driver's seat so he could look at the pair better.

"Hey everybody!" Christopher said cheerfully.

"Hey!" Was the synchronized greeting. When nothing came out of Eddie except a soft smile, Chris raised an eyebrow but chose to ignore it for now. Turning to his friend while reaching for his bag Christopher spoke.

"Thanks again Manny, I'll text you when I get home." The blonde said whilst putting his bag on the floor of the van. Raising his hand waiting for Manny to do the same.

"Más te vale menso." He replied in Spanish while dapping up Chris. Walking away after Chris closed the car doors, he put on his headphones and walked off down the street.

"Who was that?" Christopher gained a weird expression, not because of the question in general, but because of the tone his dad used. Is he angry at Manny?

"My friend. Why?" Laughter came from the other three "adults" in the vehicle while Eddie started the van giving Christopher more confusion than before. After dropping off the other two firefighters at their respective homes, the family of three headed home. Once inside, Eddie wanted to start asking Chris about Manny but the person of interest interrupted with a phone call. Unintentionally.

"Hey, big man! How's the homework Garcia gave us? N-no! Oh, come on! Another Delta math-, I swear he secretly hates us-,..." The sound of conversation drifted away as Christopher dashed into his room for privacy. A small laugh pulled Eddie from his thoughts.

Turning around to glare at the man who he loved oh so much, but would very much beat up for making fun of him.

"What?"

"Yeesh, spicy Díaz, my favorite. Wish  I could have you to myself early." Buck sauntered over whilst pulling his lover in by the waist. Getting a petty pout from the shorter one.

"Siguele, aver como te va. Don't act like you're not worried either." Eddie sassed as he placed a soft kiss on Buck's lips, the latter happily reciprocating. Pulling away, smiling Buck sighed.

"Nah, especially cause I already knew." He informed his husband, who's eyes widened in shock. "I walk into Chris' room to put some clothes away and saw the Discord call open,... and their messages." Buck looks down somewhat shamefully.

If Eddie was immature, he would ask what the messages had said. However, today was not the day, he needed to know Buck's opinion. (He'll press him for details later when they go to bed) Smiling with jaw agape, he couldn't help but chuckle at his pale lover with blue eyes.

"So you're telling me that, you were judging me, for being too snoopy of my son.." burying his face against Eddie's shoulder to save embarrassment, "And you-!"

Laughing slightly cut him off, to be fair, he was laughing too.

"YoOU decided to SCROLL through our little boy's messages?? You?! The 'laid back' parent?!"

Cackling at this point Eddie was smiling uncontrollably whilst watching Buck wallow in shame.

"You guys okay?" Chris said smiling at how affectionate they were being peeking his head out of his door. The pair turned to look at their son. Damn, he'd gotten tall over the time he'd entered high school.

"Yeah, we're good bud. We're just laughing at something." Buck assured the blonde boy.

"Okay, hey is it okay if I go over to Manny's tomorrow after school? It's his birthday and we wanted to spend time together," Despite the emotional manipulation tactic(taught to him by Buck no doubt) Eddie caved and agreed to let him go, reluctantly, as long as he texted when they went anywhere different location-wise.

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

So be it the next morning Christopher was gone for school earlier than Eddie and Buck were up for their 10-hour shift, and he got suspicious. The last time that happened Christopher made pancakes and burned Eddies. On purpose. Called it revenge for when he was a kid who couldn't fend for himself. He got noogied for a good bit after that one.

Looking at his phone after brushing his teeth, he saw a message from Chris. Saying he left early with some friends because they were stopping by the store near the school. They were grabbing snacks to eat in class because their teacher didn't care as long as they multi-tasked(they wouldn't), and finished their online notes(they won't).

Looking over his shoulder, Buck smiled in awe. He looked so proud of his son that it made Eddie's heart melt.

"He's growing up now huh?" Eddie nodded but stayed silent. Raising a brow in concern, Buck turned the shorter firefighter to face him and gently lifted his face with his index finger. Poor Papa Eddie, had small tears forming in his eyes. "Awh, Eddie, mi amor. It's okay."

If you think Buck didn't hold Eddie for a solid 3 minutes whilst rocking slowly from right to left? You're wrong. He even moved his hands against the man's face and kissed his forehead. Pulling back into the hug, Eddie nuzzled his head in Bucks' muscular figure.

"Don't forget he still needs us." Eddie knew that, but the thought of Christopher one day leaving to be on his own was terrifying.

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

And need them he did. How did it go so wrong so fast? At first, it started like a normal workday. Mess with Chim and Ravi, gossip with Hen, work out with Lena, answer calls, and help Bobby make dinner. Stuff that was unexpectedly expected. That is till 1:30 when a call from a school. Saying that there was an active shooter in their walls.

"It's at Roosevelt," Bobby said without wanting to go into detail. Everyone in the back seat froze and gazed upon Eddie and Buck who quickly interlocked hands to try and pace their breathing to focus. "Think you can handle it?" Immediate nods from the pair answered. The others smiled solemnly.

Once arriving at the school they noticed police officers everywhere around the school, thank god, and students across the street on the far side of the park. They caught sight of Officer Morales, a good friend of Athena's, talking to the Principal.

Athena went up to them once seeing their arrival.

"Whoever it is, it's a student. The cameras Reid hacked showed no footage of anyone sneaking in on school grounds. I need you guys to go in and find some kids that are still in the building-" A loud series of gunshots were heard. People near but far enough away from the danger could be heard crying, yelling, or swearing. Reluctantly Athena looked to Eddie. "Christopher is in there still. Along with four others. We need to hurry. My group will flank left, you go right, I want this child caught."

Without wasting another second, and no time to fully think about what she said, the team applied bullet bulletproof vest underneath their jackets and broke a window to get in through the science labs. Walking around as silently as possible they tried finding the shooter without giving them a hint of an idea that they were inside. 

Granted, shattered glass in an empty room isn't the quietest. Walking around Eddie's heart was beating quicker than ever. Of all things, why a shooter at his son's school? Then Eddie thought back to what Christopher had asked him yesterday. Poor Manny must think today's the worst birthday ever.

Hearing a crack, they froze. Getting ready to duck into cover in the classrooms or run across the hallway. The sound of running gets nearer, with a shadow then rounding the corner to face them. Manny.

The sigh of relief from the kid was the opposite of what the firefighters felt. The boy was covered in blood and his hair was more messy and gross from sweat. Bobby prayed that it was someone else's blood in an attempt to trick the shoot. Manny scanned each of them till running up to Buck and Eddie.

"I know where Chris is! Come on!" He whispered. Looking at the other firefighters he gave them information on where the shooter was. "She's on the top floor, I drove her away from where Chris was and looped around. She thinks I'm still up there."

So it was a girl. Snapping out of it Bobby radioed Athena and told her to meet upstairs to corner the shooter and catch her.

"Her?" Athena's surprised voice could be heard.

"She's the daughter of a gun shop owner. She must've been pissed enough about Monday morning to pull this," Monday? "Careful, it's not a pretty sight in room S-16." This poor kid. Following Manny down the hall he came from, they made it to the Library and headed to the back.

Digging through the ripped wallpaper, he opened up a hidden room. Inside Christopher was having a panic attack, holding a pair of long scissors. Once seeing Manny he dropped them and lunged into the taller kid's arms.

"Manny! Dads!" The boy said hugging his parents whilst his friend watched. Taking a good look at him, Christopher wasn't injured. Smudged blood from hugging Manny in the relief of seeing his friend alive.

"We gotta get them outta here," Buck said before shots were fired upstairs.

"Go, I need to find Angie. She's still in the upper bathroom. I saw her text." Manny told Christopher, almost forgetting the adults were still there. Seriously?

"No time, come on!" Eddie yelled and went to pick up Chris. But Manny was two steps ahead and grabbed his arm running away. Groaning Eddie and Buck ran after the pair. Eddie was cursing in his head, what the hell is wrong with him!? Putting them in jeopardy like this.

Seeing them stop abruptly, Manny pushed his arm against one of the fire escape doors. It looked like one of the other students propped it open to let others out in case they were still inside. When Eddie and Buck reached them, Eddie walked through the door and tried, key word tried, to drag them towards the truck.

"No, I need to get to Angie! She's still in there!" Manny yelled out trying to rip out of Buck's hold.

"Manny! She's gonna be okay, I know you don't trust law enforcement but these are good ones. They're my family," Chris calmed(reprimanded??) his friend and led him towards the truck. Once they got to the truck, Hen ran over to inspect the injuries on Manny while Eddie checked Christopher to double-check if he was injured or not. A thump broke the inspection though. Looking up, Eddie saw Manny lying down in the truck with Hen panicked.

"Manny!" Chris yelled, leaning over his friend trying to wake him up.

"Oh my god-, Eddie I need gauze for pressure, he was shot in the stomach!" Scanning the boy, he noticed the splotch of blood on his white shirt over the torso was getting darker. Also spreading and staining the vehicle along with the boy's jacket. A brief sight at the jacket let Eddie read out a name on a patch on his right arm. U.S. Navy Airforce it read.

"Shit! Buck! Grab Chris!"

"No! Buck let me go! Manny!" Chris yelled trying to break free from his pop's arms. Looking back at the scene the kid was barely breathing but needed serious medical attention quickly.

"We need to get him to the hospital. Now!" Nodding her head, Hen and Eddie transferred him to one of the ambulances and rode off to the hospital nearby. 

"Stay with us kid, just a little longer!" Manny was looking around the ambulance looking at Eddie trying to respond to him. "No, no, no, don't talk, focus on breathing. I need you to stay with me! We're almost there!"

Looking out the window of the ambulance, Eddie's heart broke more. The sight of leaving Christopher behind in Buck's arms, still trying to break free and run after the ambulance. Eddie didn't doubt tears were streaming down his son's face.

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

Later after arriving at the hospital and dropping the kid off, Eddie asked the nurses, whom he knew personally from all of his and his husband's escapades, to give him updates on Manny. She agreed relieved after inspecting the file quickly and said she'd let him know anything that happened.

After an hour of searching and a shot police officer, they were able to catch the girl responsible. Apparently, on Monday morning one of the teachers shamed her for her behavior. Saying it was her attitude wouldn't get her far in life especially because she didn't have a mom. the teacher didn't apologize and the people who she asked for help didn't do anything about it. That doesn't excuse the shooting and the lives it cost. The teacher she tried to get wasn't even hurt after the fact.

Parents were crying whilst firefighters and police officers consoled them. Returning to the scene for any additional tasks, Eddie scanned the area looking for his team. After catching sight of Buck and Chimney, he and Hen ran up to them.

"Where's Christopher?"

"Carla took him home, Bobby let me call her to make sure he was away from here," Buck said from behind him. Looking around slightly Eddie saw Ravi sitting on the curb with his head in his hands. "Ravi was up with some of the officers and Bobby trying to get the shooter. She aimed her gun at Ravi and a kid hiding in the corner jumped in front of him. It went right through his skull. Held him in his arms and took his parents into the building to mourn." Eddie grabbed Bucks' hand and walked up to Ravi.

This poor guy couldn't catch a break. Looking up, Ravi revealed his bloodshot eyes and pale face.

"It wasn't your fault," Buck said leaning on one knee with his partner copying. Putting an arm on the shoulder for comfort. Shaking his head, Ravi bit his lip to stop more tears.

"I'm sorry Buck, but right now I can't believe that. I don't think I ever will either."

After that Bobby told them all to go home and spend time with themselves and their families. Once opening the door to their house, Eddie and Buck were tackled into a hug by their son and then a softer one from Carla. After she left, Eddie gave Christopher an update on Manny. He was stable but wouldn't leave the hospital for a few days.

"Do you know his parent's phone number? I don't know if they followed to the hospital after getting a phone call." Chris gained a pained expression and rubbed his eyes, pushing his glass up in the process, before responding.

"They aren't home, they're in Miami. They're truckers, so they're never really around." Eddie took a glance at Buck who was looking down at the table saddened even more. "They're good people, just not around a lot. He was mainly with his uncle till last year. I can't say more than that, it's personal and should come from Manny."

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

The next morning school was canceled for the next two weeks. Along with encouragement for parents to seek therapy for their kids. Chris already had one, but Manny had become a concern now in Eddie's mind. Birthday at the same time as shooting and almost dying was not a good combo.

"When Madison pulled out her gun she was in the English room. Me and Manny were walking down the hall from turning in papers when we heard the gunshots. We thought something loud hit the floor till she came out, saw us, and shot. I froze, but Manny reacted and shielded himself in front of me. Grabbed my hand and booked it downstairs. I was able to pull the fire alarm in time whilst someone else called the cops. Angie was the one that wasn't in the room so she dialed 9-1-1." By the end of retelling the incident, Chris was sobbing in his father's arms, trying to speak but couldn't.

After a small breakfast, they all headed to the hospital and saw the multitude of parents in the waiting room. Some with tears, others with anger on their face. Some blank.

"Why are we here?" 

"This is where we brought Manny, figured you'd want to see him. Plus he deserves a good party for his birthday. Sixteen's a big one." Chris brightened up at the idea but went back to somber at the idea of Manny connected to tubes keeping him alive.

"Hey there, you visiting that kid you brought in yesterday?" the same nurse from the other day asked. Smiling Eddie nodded, holding up a bag with a cake inside. They stopped at the store quickly to buy a mini one. Eddie hoped he loved carrot cake. It was the only one they had.

"If that's okay. Don't wanna overwhelm him after yesterday." Buck coaxed, probably trying to subtly tell Chris they might not let him in due to not being on the emergency list.

"Yeah, honestly better you three than no one at all." That brought frowns to Eddie and Buck. His parents weren't home yet then. Going up the elevators and walking the halls down, they got to the room. Taking a deep breath Chris opened the door and saw Manny awake looking at something on his phone. Looking up he visibly relaxed yet still looked worried. Meanwhile, Chris was just happy to see his friend alive running over to hug him.

Buck had his arm over Eddie's shoulder and leaned his head on the latter. This kid wasn't so bad. And he deserved so much better than what the universe handed him this week.

[collecting-stories]

Two-Headed Calf - Eddie Munson

Summary: You and Eddie are soulmates, but neither of you knows how to tell the other.

A/N: I got the idea for this when I was writing my Steve Harrington AU drabble. I love love this poem and I was thinking of Eddie and it made me think of this poem and I had to write this. Also I am EXTREMELY nervous because this is my first Eddie fic so handle me with kid gloves. My feelings are fragile.

Stranger Things Masterlist

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

Tomorrow when the farm boys find this 

freak of nature, they will wrap his body 

in newspaper and carry him to the museum. 

-February 1982- 

Some people waited decades to meet their soulmates. You had waited a mere six hours, if even that. You’d woken up on the morning of your 16th birthday to a warmth on your arm, the kind that made you rush to the bathroom and look in the mirror.

And there it was, your soulmate tattoo, exactly at the time you had been born, sixteen years prior. A two headed calf with a moon and stars that looked oddly soft and gentle for being a tattoo. You recognized the meaning because it was your favorite poem and the thought alone made your entire heart feel like it was swelling. Maybe it was silly and wistful but you thought the whole notion was romantic and you’d read what felt like thousands of accounts of people finding their soulmates. So you knew, when you saw the tattoo, that it was something different, something you’d only heard about happenings handful of times, something extremely rare, that whoever your soulmate was, you had the same tattoo.  

It was common knowledge that each person’s tattoo was unique, a symbol that was meant to encapsulate something important about their soulmate. But when a tattoo said as much about you as it did about the person you were bound to, that was something deeper. Whatever was more binding than a soulmate, as if you’d been truly cut from the same cloth.  

When you saw the two-headed calf you were excited, bewildered, nervous, happy. It was a rush of emotions coursing through you that didn’t fade away until you were in first period math, sitting in the same seat that you always did, staring at the chalkboard in the front of the room as other students filed in. Getting your tattoo didn’t mean that you were going to find your soulmate right away.  

Your mom had never even met hers. Your dad had, ten years into their marriage, and now he lived in Denver, Colorado with a new wife and family. Your aunt and uncle finally met five years after college. You didn’t know anyone who had met their soulmate right away but then Eddie Munson came in, looking tired and maybe a little burnout for eight in the morning on a Wednesday. He dropped into the seat next to you, like he did every day of the week, and you noticed (for the first time maybe) a familiar tattoo peeking out from the sleeve of his shirt.  

Eddie Munson had turned 16 three days before you. You knew because you were the only February birthdays in Mrs. Prescott’s third grade class and your mom had brought in double the cupcakes on your birthday and Eddie had handed them out with you. When you’d walked down to the office and specials classrooms he’d gone with you and the two of you had giggled about getting to skip math that day.  

“Did you get the invitation to my birthday party?” You had asked as you made your way back through the halls. Music was next and you didn’t want to miss it, even if your teacher was weird. “I’m gonna have a bowling party.”  

“My uncle’s not sure if he works that day.” Eddie had gotten it, the crisp white envelope sitting in his backpack at the end of the school day. Mrs. Prescott had been teaching cursive since January and you had written out Eddie’s name in neat, looping letters. It was the first birthday he’d been invited to that school year.  

“My mom could pick you up.” You suggested, pausing in the hallway. “Oh! We could have two cakes!”  

“Two cakes?” Eddie looked completely bewildered by the suggestion, “what for?” 

“Me and you.” You bumped your hip against his and smiled when icing from his cupcake smeared on his nose, “we can have a joint birthday!” 

There was an extra cupcake in your locker right now, waiting for you to work up the nerve that you’d sworn you would every February since sixth grade and give it to Eddie during lunch. He subconsciously pushed up the ¾ sleeve and itched his arm over the tattoo, giving you a better look at what you knew was there…a soul mark to match your own.  

“Did you get it?” Your best friend dropped into the seat in front of you and turned to look at you eagerly. Lizzie’d gotten hers at the beginning of January, the first of your friends to get a soul mark. She’d gotten a bumblebee on her wrist, much smaller and more delicate than yours. More immediately noticeable as well, though you weren’t sure you really wanted yours to be on display. Eddie wasn’t paying attention, or if he was he did a good job of looking disinterested.  

“Yeah, I’ll show you after class.” You promised.  

You weren’t entirely sure that you’d spoken to Eddie since third grade. You always wanted to talk to him, thought about it after the talent show in middle school when Corroded Coffin preformed a Black Sabbath song you’d never heard of. Your mom was on the PTL that year and went to bat for Eddie (after you’d insisted that he was your friend)  with the other moms who thought the music was satanic and disgusting. It wasn’t a stretch to say you had a crush on him. It wasn’t like you were popular by any means, if anything you were skating just below the surface, invisible to most people and happy with that status. Eddie liked the attention, you thought sometimes, he liked everybody looking at him, even if it was because he was a social pariah.  

But Eddie was...Eddie and you just weren’t sure you stacked up. You didn’t have a cool taste in music, you didn’t dress edgy, you’d never played Dungeons & Dragons (though you knew how, in case the moment ever presented itself and you had the chance to talk to Eddie again). You weren’t interesting enough for him, you’d decided that long before you knew he was your soulmate, when it was still just a meaningless crush that you harbored.  

“Where is it?” Lizzie was still pressing for a sneak peek but there was no way you were going to pull your sleeve up and show her when your soulmate in question was sitting right beside you.  

“I’ll show you after class,” you repeated, stealing a glance at Eddie as he rubbed at his arm again. You could feel the slight tingling across the inside of your elbow and forearm, as if goosebumps had erupted across your skin. As hard as it was to concentrate on math, you tried desperately to ignore the feeling on your arm, too afraid to itch your freshly visible tattoo for fear that Eddie might notice.  

After class felt like it would never happen, your knee bobbing nervously under the desk as the minutes ticked on. You weren’t sure how long you had zoned out for but one minute you were listening to the teacher talking over linear equations and the next you were envisioning what it might be like if Eddie knew that you were sitting there beside him with the same tattoo.  

Would he kiss you? You were pretty sure you’d give just about anything to kiss him. You’d spent plenty of time thinking about the soft fullness of his lips and how pretty he looked when he smiled and how much you wanted to run your fingers through his hair and sit on his lap and make out with him until you were short of breath.  

“You okay?” 

You turned to the side, looking at Eddie like a deer caught in headlights. The bell for the end of class had rung and you had jumped practically out of your seat when the sound jostled you out of your daydream. Eddie was looking at you with all the concern in the world while Lizzie tapped your desk with her knuckles. 

“Lets go,” either she hadn’t seen your jump scare moment or she was so used to you fazing out in class that she wasn’t bothered in the slightest, more so, she was eager to see this tattoo and wouldn’t stop bugging you until you showed her.  

“Uh, yeah, okay,” you still felt dazed as you stood up, Eddie standing up at the same time, retrieving your backpack off the floor and holding it out for you. “Thanks, I’m okay.” You promised, taking the bag, your fingers brushing against his.  

A soft jolt, like the after effect of an electric shock, ran up your arm. A warm sensation surged through you and you pulled your hand back quickly, avoiding eye contact as you heard Eddie call your name. If you turned around and looked at him you were liable to tell him your secret, that he was your soulmate.  

You couldn’t though. You couldn’t do that to him. People like Eddie moved to New York City and played gigs at CBGB’s and had gorgeous groupies hanging all over them. They didn’t stay in Hawkins, saddled to some starry-eyed kid who shared a birthday month and a tattoo with them.  

Lizzie pulled you down the hallway and into the bathroom, pushing the stall doors open to make sure no one else was in there with you. While she made a final inspection you dropped your bag to the floor and pushed off your jacket so you could take your shirt off for her to see the tattoo.  

The two headed calf looked back at you from the dingy mirror on the wall, half obscured by Lizzie’s head as she inspected the tattoo. “Weird.” She mused, “I don’t get it.” 

“Who knows, it’s just a cow.” As much as you loved Lizzie and as close as you were, there were things you’d never share with her. Like favorite poems about conjoined cows.  

“With two heads. Figures you’d get some weirdo as your soulmate.”  

“You don’t know that,” you sounded more offended than someone who’d just gotten their soul mark that morning and had little to no way of knowing who it belonged to.  

Lizzie didn’t seem to notice though, “I thought it’d be something cool.”  

You rolled your eyes. Who was she to comment on the ‘coolness’ of your tattoo? A bumblebee was hardly ‘cool’. It was just a bumblebee. There wasn’t even any originality in it. You shrugged your shoulders before you could say anything you regretted and grabbed your backpack. Lizzie had cut into your time to grab books and you really didn’t want to be late to class. Nor did you want to continue any conversation with her that would include making fun of the tattoo you were so fond of.  

- 

The bell for lunch sent your stomach back into a spiral. You’d gone through Spanish and Science without Eddie being physically beside you, though he’d taken up plenty of space in your mind. It was in the middle of biology that you decided you were going to finally, actually, go through with the plan that you came up with every year on your birthday. You were going to get the confetti cake cupcake from your locker and you were going to broach the Hellfire table and you were going to give him the cupcake. It was a little late for his birthday but you didn’t think he’d care either way.  

But now you were staring at the tupperware container with the cupcake in it and feeling self conscious about giving it to him. What if he thought it was stupid? What if he made fun of you? That one seemed unlikely. You’d known him since kindergarten technically and you’d never known him to be mean.  

Deep breath in, you reminded yourself, you could do this. Even if he didn’t know it yet, you were technically destined to be together, in all the universe no one would ever love you as much or understand you as deeply as Eddie Munson, so surely he’d accept a cupcake. Even if he didn’t know yet, he had felt the same jolt as you. You knew he did because when you looked back into the math class he was staring at his hand like it’d caught fire.  

“Happy birthday,” you announced, stopping beside his seat and holding the Tupperware out to him. He was in the middle of a heated music debate with one of the other guys you recognized from the talent show. Eddie’s head whipped around so fast you half expected it to turn all the way like an owl. It was his turn to look like a deer in headlights, spooked and confused all at once.  

“What?” His mouth was slightly agape as he stared up at you, eyes practically sparkling as he put two and two together. “A present? For me?” The boyish wit and charm returned in full force like a sucker punch to your heart as he placed his hands over yours and pulled the Tupperware toward him, “why, I am just beside myself,” his voice was high-pitched, his accent a caricature of a southern belle. Still, that familiar gleam in his eye couldn’t be missed as he opened the lid and looked down into the container, a cupcake (the top a little mashed in) with rainbow jimmies.  

“My mom made them for my birthday,” you explained, “I figured, since it was just your birthday too...” As you spoke you crossed your arms in front of yourself, tucking your hand against your forearm and itching at the tattoo as inconspicuously as possible.  

The playfulness that had been in Eddie’s eyes a moment ago flickered away, another emotion, something like surprise mixed with happiness, took its place. The boy you’d known to always have something to say, said nothing. He just stared at the cupcake, almost transfixed, tongue darting out to wet his lips.  

“It’s confetti...well it’s vanilla but you know, with jimmies baked in.” You further explained, unsure what to do with an Eddie that wasn’t loud and goofy and theatrical.  

Finally Eddie looked back up at you, “thank you, I uh...thank you.” 

“Yeah, hope you like it. I uh,” you looked back toward your usual table, Lizzie already sitting down with her lunch, “I have to go eat.” 

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” 

You turned around and walked back to your table as quickly as possible, trying to breath in and out to stop the warm throbbing in your side. You’d read once that ignoring the tattoo, if you were near the person that was your soulmate, could lead to eventual pain in the area of your soul mark. You almost wondered if it was starting already. A quick glance back to the table and Eddie was eating the cupcake, some icing smudged in the corner of his mouth. When he put the tupperware down for a second and itched at his arm you thought for a split second about walking right back over and kissing him and seeing what would happen.  

But then Lizzie called your name and you were pulled back into reality. 

-

-June 1983-

It was the end of the school year when Eddie found his soulmate. The two-headed calf tattoo on the inside of his forearm and elbow was one he’d spent hours staring at since it first showed up in February. He’d read the poem for the first time in seventh grade, leaning over the back of your chair in the library with his head on your shoulder and his cheek pressed against yours.  

He remembered the afternoon perfectly, as if he had a television in his brain and he was watching a rerun of an episode of his life. Or at least the highlight reel.  

You were waiting for your mom (who was always nice but also always late) working on your english homework, when Eddie came in. He’d been on the run from the same basketball playing future sociopaths that still tormented him now, at the end of junior year. The library doors looked like the gateway heaven, or at least that’s what he told you later on when he recounted what had brought him into your personal space (literally, you were convinced that Eddie lacked spacial awareness along with a few other things that probably should have made him less endearing).  

But the library doors, like a gateway to heaven glowing at the top of the ramp to the second floor. He booked it, his old converse squeaking in protest, and entered the room with a flourish only Eddie Munson could harness.  

“Holy shit!” He’d been laid up against the door trying to catch his breath when he saw you. It wasn’t the first time he had talked to you since third grade but every time left butterflies in the pit of his stomach. He pushed off the wooden door, heading straight for your chair. He pressed his hands down on the back rung and crouched down, leaning over you and placing his chin on your shoulder.  

You’d seen him come in, heard him call your name when he saw you, so you didn’t jump when you felt him practically draping himself over you. By seventh grade you were more than used to Eddie and his antics.  

“What’re you doing?”  

“Homework.” You replied, not turning your head for fear that you’d be in a predicament that you both wanted to be in and wanted to avoid. You imagined all those trashy romance novels you smuggled from your mom’s room; the main characters catching each other off guard so one could kiss the other.  

Eddie groaned, stumbling away from you as if you’d shoved him, practically tripping over the table as he threw himself into the chair beside you. His elbow collided with the tabletop and he rested his head against his palm, “boring!” He exclaimed, drawing out the word.  

“It’s not boring Eddie,” you insisted as he took the poetry book from you. The English assignment had been fairly cut and dry, discussing the meaning of a favorite poem.  

“What poem is this?” He asked, reading the one that you highlighted. There were notes in the margins, you annotated what you could and Eddie got that stupid little grin on his face as he read your handwriting. It had gotten smaller since third grade, neater too.  

“The two-headed calf.”  

On your sixteenth birthday Eddie had sat beside you in class, hopefully when Lizzie mentioned the tattoo but you wouldn’t say anything about it. He wanted to demand that you show him, wherever it was, because he’d been thinking of you for the last three days and he desperately wanted to know if it was you. It had to be you, didn’t it? But did you even remember?  

It was June and it was hotter than usual and Lizzie, who lived a few trailers away from his humble abode, had invited you over to sun bath. (“I need to be tan for summer.” She had insisted) You had walked passed his place and he was outside smoking and you stopped.  

Eddie knew it wasn’t unusual that you did, you’d always been nice to him. You’d always been nice to everyone but that didn’t stop the thudding in his heart every time you looked his way, it was like winning the lottery when he hadn’t even entered. Normal people didn’t get so lucky.  

“Hey, Eddie.” You say his name like you’re always happy to see him and for the briefest second Eddie imagines that it’s him you’re coming to see and not Lizzie. That you’d sit on the stoop with him, kiss his cheek so gently it’d turn up to his ears, and maybe finish the joint he’s smoking. You’d listen to him talk about D&D and when you talked about the books you liked he’d understand every word.  

“Ah,” he smiled, “tell me fair maiden, what brings you to this hobbit hole?”  

“Aren’t hobbit holes meant to be clean?” You teased, kicking an empty can of beer that had fallen out of the trash cans on the edge of Eddie’s sorry excuse of a lawn.  

He felt his heart swell at the comment and suddenly he wished he could usher you inside and spend the whole rest of the afternoon talking about Tolkien with you. “You know your hobbits then.” 

You opened the tote bag hanging off your shoulder and pulled the slightly worn copy of The Hobbit up far enough that Eddie could see it, pressing your lips together as if you were fighting off a smile but smiling anyway. “I was uh,” you dropped the book back into your bag and nervously shifted your weight as you stood there a few feet from him, wondering if he would think you were stupid if you told him, “I was thinking about you the other day.”  

Eddie tried to keep whatever composure he was still clinging too, “well, I can’t blame you, there’s a lot to think about.”  

You laughed and nodded as if you agreed with him, “I was wondering how many times you’ve read the hobbit and trying to decide if I was anywhere near as close.”  

“At least ten,” he admitted, “I’ve lost count.”  

You didn’t mention that you imagined him sitting there with you in your room, the two of you reading together. That you thought about how he’s jump up on the bed and perform every song that Tolkien had penned, shouting out the goblin song so loud he no doubt disturbed all the neighbors. “I have the movie…I mean, when I’m done rereading I’m gonna watch the movie again. We should-“ 

“Oh my god!” Lizzie shouted, “of course you’re over here!”  

Eddie perked up at the comment, his mind racing at what she could’ve meant. Of course, the words replayed in his mind, you’re over here. When he looked up at you, you were looking at Lizzie and for the first time he realized he could see your soul mark, the grayish-black drawing etched on your skin on full display for him as you stood there apologizing for stopping to talk, it was the same as his and he realized then that he’d been holding a hand over his arm this whole time. The dull ache in his arm felt warm, like a soft fire had spread from his fingers all the way up his shoulder and down to his heart.  

He should’ve told you right then, as you turned back to him and adjusted the strap of your bag. He should’ve grabbed you and told you that you were his soulmate and wasn’t that perfect because he was so in love with you anyway, but he just smiled awkwardly as you apologized for Lizzie.  

“I was saying,” you were saying something and Eddie had to force himself to pay attention to anything other than the itch, “we should watch the hobbit together. You could come over and we could have pizza and stuff. Are you still reigning champion of Oreo stacks?”  

Eddie was pretty sure he was going to explode. Or that lightening was going to come down from the sky and strike him where he stood. “No one’s taken the crown yet.” He replied.  

Lizzie called your name again, having walked away and suddenly realized you weren’t beside her. You bit your bottom lip, looking apologetic and incredibly beautiful all at once. Blow off Lizzie and her dumb obsession with being tan, Eddie wanted to say, come inside and we’ll watch the hobbit now. He would watch whatever you wanted, name it and he’d get it.  

“I’ll see you later Eddie,” you waved, his name like honey dripping from your lips. When you reached Lizzie she said something, looking back over her shoulder at him and he heard you giggle. It had his cheeks flushing to his ears and he quickly swatted at them, as if he could tamper down the feeling in his chest.  

You’d been so close, just feet from him, just lingering there and he could see your tattoo. He knew, he’d known since the morning the two headed calf appeared on his arm that it was you. There was no one else it could be and how convenient because he’d been in love with you since you made him a cookies and cream birthday cake in third grade and made everyone at your party include him when they sang ‘Happy Birthday’. He swallowed the lump in his throat, thinking about it. If he told you, that you were his soulmate, that out of everyone in the entire universe you’d been saddled with Eddie ‘the freak’ Munson, would you be pissed? Would be fake nice about it? Tell him that was good and you didn’t mind while you just about died inside at the news? No, you couldn’t know. He wouldn’t tell you.  

-

-December 1984-

You took another deep breath as you stood outside the door of Eddie Munson’s trailer. You hadn’t seen him since graduation in June but you’d spent more time with him on your mind than not. New York had never been your first choice for college but when you’d been accepted to NYU it was like all you could think about was some parallel world where you and Eddie graduated and moved to a shitty loft and he played gigs in the city with his band and you blew off classes to sleep in with him.  

But you were alone in New York and Eddie was repeating senior year at Hawkins and you thought about him every day and collected a million stories that you hoped would impress him. And right now, two weeks before Christmas, you were standing outside his trailer because you had gained enough perspective to decide that (if you could get your brain to cooperate long enough) you were going to tell Eddie that you were his soulmate.  

You still weren’t cool enough for him but he’d have to get used to that bit cause not seeing him every day made you feel like you were going to go insane.  

He’d called out that he was coming five minutes ago when you first knocked on the door and it’d been followed with a series of loud curses and what sounded like furniture falling over. You thought about knocking again when the door swung open, cheap wood slamming against the wall of the trail and Eddie was staring at you looking very much like he’d just woken up. 

“Hey, sorry I didn’t like...call first or something. I uh, I wasn’t sure if you’d want to but I brought snacks and I figured we never watched The Hobbit like we said we would.” You rattled off your reason for being at his house as quickly as possible as he started at you with wide eyes. You weren’t even sure he remembered that conversation.  

“Come in,” He unlatched the screen door and pushed it open, letting you in passed him. He looked a little bewildered by your presence but didn’t question it. Afterall, who was he to argue when you willing were choosing to spend time with him.  

Eddie’s tattoo was on full display in his short sleeve Black Sabbath shirt and you knew that when you took your jacket off, he would see yours too. But you had come over here with a plan and you were (somewhat) determined to see it through. You set down your tote bag on the coffee table, taking out the package of oreos, two jiffypops, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.  

“Sorry to like, force you to hang out with me.” You apologized, turning back to look at Eddie as his hand dropped to his arm so he could itch at the tattoo.  

A deep frown, something more akin to a comical pout, crossed Eddie’s face as he shook his head. “You could probably force me to do anything.” He said and then his eyes went wide, “I mean...uh, it’s fine. No problem.” 

“I was thinking about you-” 

“You were?” 

“I uh...yeah,” you nodded, “I didn’t say anything before graduation but...” You felt like you were moving in slow motion, like maybe you should’ve played some kind of music you were taking so long to unzip your jacket. Eddie was still looking confused, licking his lips nervously and rubbing at his cheek as your coat came off. “Ta-da!” you held your arm out awkwardly so he could see the matching tattoo on your arm.  

A slow smile spread across his face, cheeks turning red up to his ears as he stared down at the tattoo and then, suddenly, he jumped. You stumbled backward a little, startled. Eddie grabbed your arm though it was gentle, “I knew it!” He exclaimed, “I fucking knew it! I said to myself, Eddie, it’s gotta be them. The minute I saw it I knew.” 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” 

“Why didn’t I say anything? Why didn’t you say anything?” He replied.  

You bit down on your bottom lip to stop from smiling at him, “I kinda thought you’d be disappointed...” you admitted. “I mean, you’re really fucking cool-” 

He pressed his free hand to his heart, “ugh, flattery. The way to my heart.” 

“I’m being serious Eddie. I knew it was you and I wanted to tell you so many times I just...I chickened out, I don’t know. I mean, I...tattoo or not, I love you. I really really love you and I went all the way to New York and the whole time I was there I just kept thinking, I wish Eddie was here. I wish we could share this. And I should’ve said something sooner I just...I thought you wouldn’t want to find out that it was me.” You replied.  

“Are you kidding?” He asked, “like seriously, are you joking right now?” Eddie felt like he was being forced through a round of mental gymnastics, trying to decipher how anyone at all, let alone you, could think that he was the catch, all while figuring out what exactly it meant that you were so nervous. It wasn’t bad, he had already determined that there was nothing about this situation (the being soulmates, that was) that you seemed disappointed or upset about. “God!” He let go of you finally as he spun away, hands going to his hair as if he was trying to pull it out. “Oh my god! It’s just...I’ve just...god!” 

“You said that.” You pointed out, tucking your arms in to cross infront of you. The moment you did, Eddie was back to grabbing your arm, his touch warm, the way it had been the morning of your sixteenth birthday. It almost felt like you had some kind of weight holding you down.  

“Can I just...can I kiss you?” He asked, desperation evident in his voice. His heart was beating erratically, or at least he felt like it had to be. He was sure that his brain wasn’t processing any of this and half expected to wake up in some dream-state where Wayne told him that he was still that loser who hasn’t graduated.  

The kiss was...every moment of anticipation since the day of your bowling party in third grade. It was every smile that you gave him in the hallway, the time in fifth grade when you stuck your tongue out at him after the teacher told you to be quiet in line, the day he found you in the library in seventh grade. It was cupcakes in lockers on birthdays and that anonymous Valentine's card that he was sure was just a malicious joke but that he kept in his nightstand just in case it was real. It was the time in sixth grade when you told him his taste in music was cool. It was every wave in the hallway or the lunch room, it was a hall pass to the bathroom just so he could see you in art class as he passed by.  

The kiss felt like warmth spreading throughout your entire body. The kind of warmth that consumed you after you’d bundled up for a cold winter morning walk to school only to have Eddie slow his van to a halt and offer you a ride. The kind of warmth that settled on your cheeks when he told you he liked the poetry you read or that he’d used his allowance money to buy that book by Laura Gilpin. It was the kind of warmth you got from alcohol when your dormmate took you to CBGB’s for the first time and you pretended all night that it was Corroded Coffin on the stage.  

His held your face in his hands, fingers calloused from the guitar brushing against your jaw and neck. You wanted to pull him closer but you weren’t sure that was physically possible. He was pressed against you already and your hands were twisting wrinkles into his Black Sabbath shirt. You’d never kissed anyone before and you weren’t entirely sure you were doing a great job but he wasn’t complaining.  

When you finally felt yourself running out of air, you pulled away. It felt like a chore to detach yourself, even for a moment. “How’d you know?” You asked, Eddie’s comment from earlier popping into your head. He said he had known and he said it with such assuredness you hardly doubted him.  

“It’s your favorite poem,” he replied, “how could I not know?” 

-

But tonight he is alive and in the north 

Field with his mother. It is a perfect 

Summer evening: the moon rising over 

The orchard, the wind in the grass. And  

As he stares into the sky, there are  

Twice as many stars as usual.  

-

Taglist: @teelagurl558 @truewdw1 @kenzi-woycehoski @bookfrog242 @milkiane

[wheresmymilliondollarman]

reader x xander Hawthorne please 🥺

xander hawthorne x fem!reader

hcs about meeting & dating xander hawthorne

a/n: HI IM BACK! & tysm for the request!! xander is so underrated 👎 thats my bae fr🫶 currently working on other stuff but wanted to do this request bc i immediately had ideas for this!! i still don't completely get how school worked in the books, so if there's any wrong info please bare w me. if this wasn't what you had in mind feel free to send a specific request! again, this is kinda fic like but still calling it hcs.

word count: 7.3k

warnings: long backstory again, mentions of death, sexual themes. (pls lmk if you see anything else that should be labeled as a warning)

you’ve always lived on the middle side class of things. you were, thankfully, never poor, but also never rich enough where you could afford the more luxurious things in life.

your mother owned a small bakery 3 blocks away from your home, while your father worked for an electrician company. both jobs were stable enough to provide for necessities and both your parents enjoyed their occupations.

your parents always told you to never worry about money, but it still made you reluctant to ask them for things you wanted in fear they couldn't afford it. which is why you always tried to fix your problems yourself.

if you ever needed money, you would work for your mother at her bakery in exchange. while it was still your mom giving you the money, it made you feel better that you earned the cash. 

you later found yourself working at the bakery even without needing money. you liked working with your mom, and it was fun to learn how to make different types of sweets. 

at school, you were always a studious person. you worked hard to get a's and never anything below. you wanted to make your parents proud and feel as if their hard work toward the family wasn't for nothing. 

you knew it would be practically impossible for your family to afford your college career without going into debt. so you always looked at scholarships and what they looked for in students, so you tried to make yourself appear well-rounded. 

you joined student council, mathletes (although math wasn't your forte),library club, chess club,art club, film club, yearbook, culinary club, asl club, and a few others over the years. to say your schedule after school was always booked was a major understatement.

although your favorite was always the art club. you never even knew you had an artistic side until you joined. you explored it more with your membership and soon became quite good. 

during your freshman year you took your first art class. you were excited to learn under a professional for the first time. 

after a few lessons, your first major assignment was realism project; draw somebody in your everyday life. 

you were both excited and a bit nervous. you had drawn people before, but never someone you knew, and you wanted to make a great first impression on your teacher. 

you ended up choosing your mother as your muse; your father could never stay still enough to be drawn. it took a lot of long nights when your mother wasn't working to finish your drawing. you could've just taken a photo of her and drawn that, but you pushed for the extra mile of drawing her from real life.

you were satisfied when you finished, and your parents were in awe by your work - telling you over and over how talented you were and your teacher would surely be impressed. still, you were anxious about turning it in the next day in class. 

your assignment was a big hit with your teacher, you got a perfect A+. she commented on your beautiful handiwork, noting that your drew from real life. she also advised how you should consider switching to an advanced class since it was obvious you were already beyond a beginner course. 

you wanted to decline at first, being intimidated by the thought of being in a class with others who were just as good or better than you - but your gut instinct told you it was the right choice to make. 

it proved to be right because by the spring you were already one of the best in your art class. you expanded into all types of art: abstract, realism, expressionism, digital, etc. your favorite and most notable works tended to be the realistic ones of people, place, and objects. art had become a part of your life in the best way. 

you entered a numerous amount of competitions and always come back on top; it got to the paint your shelfs had all been filled to the brim. you parents of course were elated with your success and were never prouder. 

you soon were able to make some money with your art skills as well. you got commissioned for mainly portraits of family and friends, mostly to give as gifts or to have in their household. it made you feel proud someone out there had a piece of your art and that people loved your work enough to want you to paint their family. 

the biggest commission you've ever taken was a 40x30 portrait of an older man. the request was anonymous, so you weren't sure who the man was or if the request was for himself or another person. 

the project took a few weeks due to your work load and having to paint such fine details on a huge canvas. you were happy with the outcome and were astonished to find out the anonymous buyer had given you 10k for your work. it was way over your normal pay grade.

your success didn't end there. in the summer before your sophomore year, you received a fancy envelope in the mail. it was addressed to you and sent from heights country day school. 

at first, you were confused as to why they would send you anything. everyone in texas knew of heights country day, it was one of the best private schools in the state. almost all parents want their kids to be a student there, but the tuition was awfully expensive, so if you weren't rich you were most likely not getting in. 

you didn't wait to tell your parents before your ripped open the envelop in anticipation. you unfolded the letter inside and skimmed over the introductions.

you were shocked to find out you were being awarded a full paid scholarship to attend heights country day school for the rest of highschool. 

your first thought was to assume it was a prank, or a scammer trying to get your info. but you examined the letter further; the seal of the school and the dean signature did look quite authentic. then you noticed the number listed on the bottom of the page. 

you figured you should just call and check for confirmation. you told yourself the worst case scenario would be they laugh at your face and tell you the letter isn't real. 

you definitely did not want to inform your parents until you made the call, that way if it wasn't real, their hopes wouldn't be crushed and they would never even know about it. 

it took an hour of pacing in your room to finally work up the courage to make the call. you kept tour expectations low to avoid disappointment. 

the secretary of the school was quick to pick up after two rings, and you briefly explained the letter you received. you held your breath for a second until she told you to "please hold for a moment." 

when she returned she informed you you were being transferred to the dean's phone. your nerves were through the roof at this point. you wanted to believe it was a good sign the dean wanted to talk to you, but maybe he wanted to tell you himself the letter was unfortunately a phony and they do not give scholarships to art students.

the dean finally picked up the call and you both exchanged greetings. from there he explained how the letter was, in fact, very real.

the school had seen a work of yours and dug deeper into your portfolio and academic career. they were very impressed with your achievement, especially given your age. the board was all unanimous in agreeing to offer you the scholarship because of your artistic talents and would love for you to become a part of their school. 

the rest of the call was a blur to you. when the call ended you stood stunned in your room for a minute. you had to pinch yourself to remind yourself this was real and happening. 

once you snapped out of it, you were jumping up and down in joy. you truly were elated to possibly be a student at one of the top private schools in texas or even the country. 

you wasted no more time informing your parents when they arrived home. they also thought you were just pulling their leg, but after you told them you had confirmation - you swear their jaws hit the floor. 

your parents were just as excited for you. your mother took the liberty of baking all your favorites in celebration, even lemon scones, which were your favorite.

before you knew it, summer was over, and it was time to get back into school. you spent the rest of your break prepping to attend heights - gathering books, supplies, and a uniform (which was mostly paid by the school). 

this was your first time wearing a uniform, and you were a bit delighted to wear it. it was a burgundy blazer with a navy crest embossed, with the school motto in latin, a white dress shirt, and a pleated plaid skirt. 

it screamed, "i go to a really expensive private school."

it was nerve-wracking that you were now going to school with some of the richest and elite children in america. you'd hope it wouldn't be obvious where your social class stood, or if it was, they wouldn't think of you any less for it.

you did your best to stray from stereotypical assumptions, but then again you've never interacted with people of a such higher social class - you really had no idea what to expect. 

nonetheless, you wanted to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, so you held your head up high when the first day came around. 

the school in no way looked like a regular public school, it shared way more similar qualities with college campuses. it was beautifully constructed, and you had a feeling the inside was even more stunning.

your parents dropped you off in front of the twin archways of the school, wishing you a good first day, and they were only a call away if you needed anything. you responded with your goodbyes and now stood on the pavement of heights day.

a part of you was glad your parents left so soon; you loved them to death, but their older modeled car stood out amongst the other deluxe cars parked and driving into school grounds. the last thing you wanted on your first day was to stick out like a sore thumb.

you took a deep breath before you took your strides through the front door.

you were happy to see no one gave you obvious looks and stares when you walked through, like those of a movie. everyone seemed preoccupied with their own things. you were silently thankful for that.

you made your way to the office on your own; luckily it was very near the front entrance with a big sign that said 'office of registrar'. making it very easy for you to find it without having to awkwardly ask another peer.

you walked to a desk of who you assumed was a secretary and gave her your name and stated your business. she instantly recognized your name and made a swift move to hand you your schedule.

the secretary informed you about the school's modular scheduling, which means they operate on a six-day cycle, and classes meet anywhere from three to five times a cycle. you were free to fit in lunch where you saw fit. you honestly didn't quite grasp it, but you figured you'd just learn along the way.

she also let you know another student had been assigned to show you around school. that's how you ended up meeting rebecca laughlin.

rebecca was a shy and a bit nervous girl, but seemed sweet nonetheless. you briefly got to know her as she showed you the different rooms; the archive room, the reflector (basically the cafeteria you realized), gym, the art center etc.

she was in the same grade as you, and had a twin sister named emily also in the school. from the small mention of her sister you sensed it was likely a sore subject. you took over from there talking a bit about yourself and your interests.

rebecca mentioned she was also new this year, having moved to texas just recently with her family but frequently visiting before that. she was able to go on a private tour with her sister over the summer, which is why she knew the place quite well already.

you two chatted a bit more until the tour ended. the last stop was the art center, and you were more than thrilled to go inside and check it out. rebecca was about to enter along with you before she saw her twin sister and people who you assume were her friends , a boy and a girl.

you turned around to glance at them and saw they were waving her over. you could tell rebecca was hesitant to just leave you for them, but you reassured her she provided an excellent tour. she reluctantly went off toward her friends, not before giving you her number and letting you know if you had any questions you could reach her.

you took a peak back at where rebecca and her friends were walking away. they all look straight out of a teen vogue catalog. emily was identical to rebecca, same red hair, eyes, and face. you could tell emily was more confident than rebecca however. there was another girl, dark eyes and even darker brown wavy hair - she was so beautiful it felt unreal. and lastly with them was a boy, he was quite tall, dark-skinned with light honey brown eyes, and a head full of curly hair. he was handsome and easily fit in with the rest of the model-looking girls.

you must've looked a second too long because he turned his head in your direction and you both made eye contact.

you quickly snapped your head away,not waiting for his reaction, and made your way to the arts center. you cursed yourself for being caught looking a bit, and now you were slightly embarrassed.

when you reached the arts center, you were amazed. it was a big building with different rooms, it was decorated as if was a museum, marble floors and pillars, archways, etc. and everything about it was engaging.

you took the time to explore the whole place; you found several different art rooms you assumed were open to students, different supply closest, classrooms for teaching, and even a few soundproof rooms. at some point you ran into a few teachers and got to know them and what they taught. you had a few of them in your schedule, so it was great to know where their classes were.

before you knew it, it was time for your first class and then eventually to your last of the day. for lunch you had opted to eat what you brought from home in the archive because you didn't feel like going through the anxiety of finding somewhere alone to sit in the refectory.

it ended up being ironic because you made a friend in there who was also eating lunch. you were sitting alone at small table when a blonde haired girl with her lunch approached you.

her name was mia, and you both instantly clicked. mia had noticed you eating at the table alone and thought she'd introduce herself since she hadn't since you on campus before. she was also a sophomore, seventeen, and she was part of height country day dance team.

she has almost always eaten in the archive since her freshman year; she enjoyed the quiet and privacy since few students ever ate or hung out there too long - you both had that in common.

after that great first meeting, the two of you became best friends. you would occasionally have a class or two with her depending on the schedule, but you both always made time to see each other throughout the day and eat lunch in the archive room.

she later on introduced you to a few of her other friends, that were now your friends as well. they were all pretty wealthy, but it didn't change the fact they were all genuine and friendly people. the fear of making friends at your new school was gone by the end of your first week.

that's set up the rest of your fantastic first year at heights country day school.

you fit in immediately with the art center and other art peers. you all carried the same passions, and it was very fun to learn from others. of course, you all intimidated to be around people so advanced and mostly rich, but it only pushed you to work even harder.

your teachers were all so great. they were also tough critiques, being professionals and all, but you took any critique you got with stride- making you a better artist.

your non-art-related classes were more difficult and work-loaded than you were use to, but you were quick to catch up with the rest of the class.

a few kids at school were stuck up and pretentious, but mostly the students weren't too far off from normal teenagers. and like high school there were cliques and popular people. you never bothered yourself with any of that, yet you always heard three reoccurring last names - hawthorne, laughlin, and calligaris.

you knew laughlin meant rebecca and emily, and it didn't take you long to figure out the other last names must belong to the other two people she was with during your first day. it made sense to you they were well-known, just their looks alone made you feel like they're superior to you.

you could've asked mia or literally paid attention to gossip around you if you wanted to know the first names of the boy & girl with the laughlins, but it honestly slipped your mind. frankly, you were too occupied with navigating your new school life to really care too much about it.

the most shocking event to happen that year was the dead of emily laughlin.

you weren't close friends with rebecca - you two did have a few chats and texts here and there; she once or twice joined mia and you in the archive. but you still felt horrible her sister died and felt the need to reach out.

you gave her your condolences when you saw her back at school, and let her know you were there for anything. she thanked you, but you could tell she needed space to grieve.

you still felt the need to do something, so you came up with the idea to make her a portrait and gifted it to her wrapped. you didn't see her reaction to it (she opened it when she got home), but she let you know she deeply appreciated it.

after that the rest of your year was quick to come and go. and before you knew it, it was summer again.

your summer stayed uneventful, but fun. you worked almost full-time with your mom in her bakery and spent time with your friends.

one afternoon, you were working the counter and you saw a familiar face walk in - a certain handsome, honey-eyed, curly-haired guy.

you greeted him as you normally did customers and asked for his order. he replied, asking for blueberry scones.

you nodded and went to get the scones from your display. that's when he spoke up again, commenting on how he'd seen you from school.

you were taken aback he’d remembered you but you nodded agreeing and replied you were new sophomore year.

"what happens to be your name, baker girl?"

"y/n. and what happens to be yours, new customer?"

he gave a dramatic offended look, hand over his heart - "you mean your telling me you don't know the name of the most dashing man at heights country day school?"

you shrugged, "i suppose not."

"when then i ought to fix that, the name is xander, milady," bowing down to give a kiss on the dorsal side of your hand.

oh he was charming alright. 

to hide your blushing face you busied yourself with packing his scones into a paper bag and rang him up to the register. 

"very serious question...how do you feel about blueberry scones?"

"they're good, but i think the lemon ones are better." 

you've never seen someone look so taken aback as xander did in that moment. he looked as if he'd just got the news his favorite boy band broke up. 

"are you alright-"

"what do you mean you prefer the lemon ones!"

xander then went into a tagent on blueberry scones stomp the lemon ones any day, and only psychos favored the lemons. you countered his claims, defending your favorite treat. you both were going back and forth until a bell rang throughout the bakery, signaling a customer has entered. 

"i suppose that's my sign to take my leave, but trust this debate is not over."

you rolled your eyes playfully, but you fought back a smile at the implication you two would speak again. 

he handed his black card to pay, and you tried not to look astonished at his casual display of the card. as you were swiping his card, he pulled a scone out of his brown bag and laid it on the counter in front of you. 

"here, it's my treat. this is the start of my fool-proof plan to convince you blueberry scones are far more superior." 

you tried to decline or offer him a refund for that scone, but ever the gentleman, he wouldn't allow it. he was out the door before you could protest anymore. leaving with a, "until we meet again," and a wink. 

you hated yourself for liking his annoying handsome beautiful smirk. 

as he requested, you did eat the scone. you admit blueberry is delicious, but nothing compared to the citrus of your lemon ones. plus, you found a new motivation to keep favoring them. 

that was the first of xander's many visits to the bakery that summer. always the same order, and always leaving one for you to eat. he really was on a mission to change your mind. 

sometimes out of spite you'd slip in a lemon scone into his bag to rile him up when he opened it. it always resulted in xander coming back the next day throwing a dramatic hissy fit. you kinda found it cute. 

you two continued your light banter about scones, but ventured into different topics such as school, hobbies, and exploding robots (his favorite topic). even as you worked behind the counter aiding customers, he was there talking your ear off. not that you minded at all, it was nice to have someone other than your mom to talk to. 

you found out xander was very smart; he builds replicas of star wars droids and was a three-time world champion at building machines. you'd never known someone with such intellect. whenever you brought it up, however, he'd brush it off saying it's a family thing and his brothers are much wiser. 

you briefly got a synopsis of his family, and it was quite intriguing. he had four half-brother; nash, grayson, and jameson - all sharing the same mother, but none of the boys' fathers seemed to be in the picture. all of them were basically raised by their grandfather, tobias hawthorne, who was obsessed with riddles and games. he sounded like an interesting man to say the least. 

you opened up to him a bit about your family and getting a scholarship into the school. which now looked not as impressive talking to a genius yet, xander was amazed at this, asking to see some of your work. 

you were suddenly self-conscious about your art. you thought a rich guy like himself probably had seen hundreds of artworks better than yours and done by people younger than your age. 

so, you lied and said you didn't have any pictures, and that you'll show him another time. you're gonna stall that as much as possible.

you guys later exchanged numbers, now being able to communicate outside your bakery hours during the week.

xander favorite thing was to spam you with pictures of himself eating blueberry scones, and you swore you were gonna block him everytime.

summer went by in a flash, and the school went back into session; you were entering your junior year. 

xander and you continued to hang out all the time, even more than you did with your own friends. he was always the one to find you around school, no matter the schedule you had that day.

he loved to sneak up on you and jump scare you, making your heart leap out your chest everytime. you would hit his arm in retaliation everytime and swore you were gonna unfriend him if he didn’t stop. you never actually did though.

xander made sure to pull you out your comfort zone. he sometimes dragged you (sometimes physically) to the refectory to go and eat with him. occasionally, his friends would join as well. rebecca was easy to talk to since you already knew her, and thea was…. complicated, but she had her good parts once she warmed up to you. 

you then demanded xander eat lunch with you and mia to compensate for eating at the refectory every now and then.

he obliged, but you told him it was better if he didn’t after he got kicked out the archive for talking loudly. he swore the archive keeper had it out for him.

he continued the ritual of giving you a blueberry muffin made by the chefs of his home. sometimes you'd bring your own lemon scone and give it to him, negotiating that you'll eat your scone if he eats his.

he'd always agree, but eat it begrudgingly. you swore he was warming up to the scone.

you two took your hangouts to after school. if you worked, it'd be at the bakery and if not, you'd go to the park and just walk.

you invited him over to your house one day after school, xander excitedly accepted. you were a bit nervous he'd think poorly of your home since you were sure he lived in a glorious mansion.

you introduced him to both of your parents, and they greeted him kindly, but your mom embarrassingly asked if he was your boyfriend.

you were quick to make a joke to cover your pink cheeks, "mom, we'd never work out we have complete different tastes in scones."

xander cut in, "well, you know what they say, opposites do attract."

was he flirting with you, or were you reading into it? and why did you like it.

xander ended up really enjoying your house; he even once said he found it more peaceful than his own. so, you guys now frequently hung out at your house after school to talk, banter, study, and or even help each other with projects.

even though you tried to avoid it, xander ending up seeing your art.

it was unintentional; you were seated at a table in an art space working on a sketch, of whatever came to mind, with your earphones in. you didn't hear xander walk in and call your name.

you noticed his presence when he swiped your drawing book. you quickly took out your earphones and tried to reach for it back, but he'd already seen your drawing. and to make matters worse it was a sketch of him.

you were mortified, but he just looked at it in admiration.

he asked if you made it, and you shyly said you had.

"can't believe you were trying to hide your talent from me. now, as an apology ur going to let me keep this."

you immediately said no, and went to take it out of his hand. but xander was quicker and took the page from the journal and held it above his head, out of reach.

after a lot of jumping to reach it, which was required because he's very tall, you gave up and let him have it. xander was pleased with that, and has carried it everywhere in his wallet since then.

he now always pestered you about your art, wanting to see it or wanting you to make a piece for him. you had to admit, you found it flattering.

to make it fair, you wanted to see him in action working on something. he was delighted to show you his robots, and some of his process making them.

you were amazed at his talent, but he could be careless at times.

for instance, you two were in the lab room and you were watching him working on a new formula to fuel his robots. he turned on bunsen burner and before you knew it, it exploded.

he ended up with a missing eyebrow, and you were laughing hysterically. you still have pictures of him without it much to xander's dismay.

you knew you'd grown a crush on the charismatic guy, but you were too scared to admit it.

you weren't sure if he felt the same way, and a part of you felt silly for even thinking he would.

you confided in mia about it, and she was convinced xander was head over heels for you. but you still weren't quite sure, and you didn't want to damage a really good friendship.

in middle of october, xander's grandfather, tobias hawthorne passed away.

he wasn't at school that day, but you assumed he was out sick or doing something important. it wasn't until you heard the news from peers talking about it did you put it together.

you immediately sent him a text sending your condolences and asked if he needed anything.

you didn't hear from him for the rest of the week, which worried you - but you knew, like rebecca, people tend to want their space when loved ones pass.

it was a friday night, you were studying for an upcoming test in your world history class on monday, when you hear a sound from your window.

you ignored it at first thinking it was a wondering animal or just trees against each other. but then you heard it repeatedly, and you realized it was sounding more like a tap against the glass.

you carefully slid your curtains from the window and took a peak outside. you then came face to face with the boy you hadn't seen all week.

it took you a moment to register it was him, you yelped at the first sight of someone outside. but then he started motioning for you to open the window and then you noticed it was xander hawthorne.

you unlatched the lock on your window and slide it open enough he could fit through. but it didn't stop him from tripping on your window still and falling onto the ground with a 'thud'.

"shh! my parents might've heard that!"

"wow, instead of helping a poor fallen man up, you scold him. what ever happened to warm hospitality?"

you ignored him and held your hand out to help him up. once he was stood up, you waited for him to explain why he was here.

he went on to say he didn't have a specific reason, he just needed to get out of his mansion home. "the first place i thought of to go was here, with you."

you swore your heart leaped when he said that. you were praying to whoever was listening that your face wasn't a tomato. how do you even respond to such a heartfelt statement?

luckily, you didn't need to respond to that because he was quick to follow up his words.

"actually, you seem to be the first person i think about every day. no matter what i'm doing, I'll start to think of what'd you be saying if you were there. anytime i see the sunset, my thought shifts to what it look like if you painted it. hell, i've even found myself eating, yes eating, lemons scones because they bring me reminiscence of you."

xander crept closer as his words flowed out. and you were frozen to your spot. heart pounding louder as he took another step closer to you - leaving less than a foot of space between the two of you.

unsure of how to react you said the first thing that came to mind.

"well, uh, maybe you should think about inflation that usually keeps my mind busy." idiot. why do you open your big mouth.

xander gives you a grin, obviously amused at your nervous rambling like the little jerk he is. he was so close to you, you were embarrassed at the possibility he could he your heart pounding.

he moves his right hand to the side of your face, brushing his thumb over your cheek - eyes never leaving yours. you didn't have the strength to look away or even move, as if he was a vampire who compelled you to stay still.

"i've never known someone to get red so easily as you."

you then realized how much of your face was burning, and then after that statement it heated up even further. stupid nervous system.

"i didn't think your face could get a deeper scarlet than it was a moment ago," he laughs, "it's quite adorable honestly."

oh, god. this guy had your heart fluttering at after calling you adorable.

"i wonder how red you'll get when i kiss you."

you did not have a moment to process what xander utter because at the next second his collided his lips upon yours.

nothing prepared you for how exhilarating kissing him felt. your knees gave out a little, and xander was quick to keep you steady. you weren't even ashamed, stuck in a trance by the kiss. it was as if a scene from a jane austen novel had come to life.

boy, was he a good kisser. it was unfair really, how perfect he could he at anything he wants.

when the two of you pulled away, he was the first to speak up.

"you're about as red as crayon right now."

that was enough to bring you back to reality and shove him.

immediately after that night, the two of you began dating.

at first you thought it was unsaid that the both of you were now dating, but you should've known better than to believe xander hawthorne would take the subtle way.

the following monday you were in the refectory waiting on xander, who'd ask you to meet him there. however, you hadn't seen him yet, so you just sat down at an open table.

suddenly, you hear some sort of a mechanical noises coming from behind you. you turned you heard toward it and nothing could have prepared you to see a life sized R2-D2 robot gliding straight towards you - holding flowers in its utility arm.

what the hell was in your breakfast that morning?

when it made it way in front of you, you were completely stunned. you could feel the gazes of people in the room also witnessing this. the robot look scarily realistic to the ones in the star wars movies, xander really was a genius.

the robot extended another arm to reveal a small envelope. you took it in your own hand, along with the flowers.

WILL YOU BE MY GIRLFRIEND?

a. yes

b. a

c. kiss me

you rolled your eyes at his antics, maybe genius was an overstatement. then you noticed some scribble at the bottom.

p.s. NUTR NUAORD

at first sight of the words - you thought you were having a stroke, but then you figured out you had to unscrambled it to reveal the words 'TURN AROUND'.

of course, xander was always one for puzzles.

you follow the directions of the note and saw the man himself standing before you with a basket full of both lemon and blueberry scones.

"a tough choice, i know. personally, option c is the most appealing."

you wanted to smack the smugness of out him, but instead you opted to answer with letter c.

dating xander was chaotic to say the least, but you wouldn't have it any other way.

you two were never allowed to go on ordinary dates, xander always made sure they were memorable.

for your first date he took you to an escape room, but reserved the whole thing just for the two of you. xander was obviously a pro at the game, but you were quick to figure things out as well. the two of you got the quickest escape time.

at the end of it, he gifted you gold chained necklace with an 'x' and a golden key. you wore it all the time after.

another time you were taken to a amusement park, also reserved for the two of you. you clung on to xander on the scariest rides, much to his enjoyment. it wasn't until the end you saw how there had been pictures taken of you both while on the rides - your expression being fear on almost all of them while your arm was tight grabbing xander's. of course his face was just his charming giant grin of excitement.

he made sure to keep them all and put it as had lock screen despite how much you told him not to.

xander was now way more lenient about the lemon scone thing, and you can proudly say he even enjoys them now. nonetheless, the tradition at lunch is still on-going.

the most nerve wracking part of your relationship was meeting his family.

you learned just how rich xander and his family are. you knew he came from a lot of money, but you were never informed he was related to a billionaire. you couldn't comprehend how having that much money was possible, but xander, of course, acted nonchalant about the whole thing. rich people.

his brothers were all pleasant to meet. nash was the nicest, similar to his brother, he was a charmer with a country accent. grayson was more closed off, and didn't say a lot, but greeted you nicely. jameson, was a wild card, he was a bit drunk, but everyone collectively chose to remain obvious to it. he was also very flirty with you, but you knew it was mainly to annoy xander.

apparently it worked because the following day jameson was found with green hair.

you were introduced to his aunt and mother. his aunt was also pleasant, keeping greeting formal. his mother was.... interesting... the interaction was small, but based on some remarks and backhanded compliments; she looked down on your lower status. xander was quick to defend you and apologize after.

you later were asked to open the front door with a jumble of keys that all looked the same. you assumed this was suppose to be a test of some sort, but you weren't a mastermind at puzzles games like the other hawthornes.

instead, you found a big rock near the front entrance and smashed it against the door locks until they broke.

the brothers looked all bewildered at your action. xander was the first to burst out laughing, come around you to wrap and arm on your shoulder and kiss your forehead.

"that's my girl. who needs logic when you have big rocks."

xander was your biggest supporter in everything. he loved every piece of art you made, and never let you scrap or throw any of it anyway. anything you ever drew or painted him, he would keep it framed and hung in a section of his room dedicated to your work.

he shows up to every art show you have, bragging to people around how his amazing girlfriend painted the work. you always blush in embarrassment, but it never failed to make you happy.

you showed the same support for his activities as well. you cheered him on at my robotic competitions and you were his assistant in helping with small tasks during his building and experiments.

xander made robots were mainly made for doing simple things in overly complicated ways. he also occasionally gifted you robots for small annoying tasks you would offhandedly mention to him.

for instance, xander was walking you to your next class, carrying your backpack as he always insisted it was his job to do. you joked about how you wished he was always around to carry your stuff so your arms wouldn't be so tired.

a few weeks later he gave you a small robot designed to carrying items such as a backup and books. he even gave it wheels so it could follow you around the school like a puppy.

with xanders extroverted personality, it shouldn't surprised you he is not opposed to any PDA. which thea always gags to in the background if she's there to witness it.

he always has his arm around you, preferably your waist, or interlocks your hands together. he loves to gives you random kisses on the forehead or cheek. xander's favorite thing is to surprise you with a kiss on the lips in public, just so he can see you blush.

your first time with xander was very romantic and he made sure it would be. there were candles all over his bedroom and rose petals scattered on the ground. 

although xander was known for being a bit cocky, he was just as nervous as you that night, wanting to make everything special just for you. 

once he made sure you were comfortable - it was like a switch flipped - his cocky persona was back ten fold. 

let’s just say the next day you couldn’t feel your legs, nor could you hide the multiple purple marks left on you. 

of course, ever the gentlemen he was - he made you breakfast in bed the next morning. 

you were even more shocked to find out that was his first time. why is he miraculously good at everything?  

you hung out a lot more at the hawthorne mansion, xander showed you different passages around it. the house was so huge it felt like you've only ever seen 50% of it.

you grew closer to the other hawthorne brothers, taking part in family game night. you after a game of their version of chutes and ladders, you were quick to turn down some offers to play a game.

you also became good friends with avery grambs, you had first met her at the will reading, xander inviting you for moral support. you related to how out of place her and her sister felt around highly rich people.

the events of the will were shocking, but you were happy to find out she'd be sticking around. her moving into the mansion made it easier to hang out with her. you helped her adjust to heights country day and became close.

you and xander both helped avery with what you could in solving the clues his grandather left behind for avery and the hawthornes. although, you kept quiet about the fact xander knew a lot more than he was telling.

however, xander was reluctant to let you join them on anymore research after almost getting shot at when you went along with avery and jameson.

you’d never seen him so mad at his brother, cursing him up and down for putting you in that situation.

xander was insistent for you to stay behind from then on, but you relented and kept tagging along with the others on their little scavenger hunts. xander realized he couldn’t stop you, so he forbid you from going on any clue hunts without him by your side.

it was cute how protective he was, but a little annoying too.

one day you were walking around the mansion with xander looking for jameson, who had wondered off to who knew where. you came across an unfamiliar office. you had asked xander who it belonged to and he informed you it was his grandfathers, now technically avery's.

the two of you entered the office space, you figured xander was curious if anything had changed since his grandfather's passing or if he had maybe left another clue behind.

you were looking around until you eyes came across something behind his desk - a large portrait of who you assumed was tobias hawthorne. upon further inspection, you came to realize another thing.

you painted this portrait.

"holy shit."

even beyond the grave tobias hawthorne keeps on spurring surprises.

[wayfaringhoax]

Good For You

Joel Miller x Teacher! Female Reader 🍎

This work features no outbreak! Joel Miller.

Genre: fluff, first dates, new relationships, friends/acquaintances to lovers, no outbreak au.

Word count: 2.7k

Summary: Joel's daughter Sarah is one of your students. So when he asks you out on a date, you already know the answer, right?

Warnings: (18+ MDNI) Swearing, descriptions of kissing/making out and sensual touching, relationship anxieties/worries, discussions of loneliness, alcohol, references to sex, corny teacher jokes, implied age gap and controversial relationships (reader is Sarah's teacher).

A/N: Tried to imagine what it would be like if Joel dated a teacher. This gets heavier and more emotional towards the end. Hope you enjoy, let me know if you do!

This’ll be the first time you see him when you’re not on school grounds.

Well, you should say the first time you meet up, as you’d seen plenty of him around town.

You weren’t entirely sure whether he was aware of those times though, so you didn’t plan on bringing them up tonight in case he should consider your little crush creepy.

You wouldn’t blame him if he did, though, as you often gazed upon him for far too long to be considered respectable. Your daydreams consisted of the broad expanse of his shoulders, the way his tan skin stretched over the muscles in his upper arms; like some kind of divine creation, and the assured tilt of his head as he pleasantly greeted the cashier. Could anyone blame you for looking?

You had only stepped out for some more milk. 

Downright mortified at how you’d practically drooled over the man from the cereal aisle, you were still reeling from the last time you saw Joel Miller.

You needed 5-10 business days to recover whenever you encountered the man in question.

Now, though, you needed to focus on the task at hand: getting ready.

When you’d initially agreed to a date, having been somewhat caught off-guard by the way he called your name in that honeyed Southern drawl of his, you’d perhaps accepted too soon.

This was Sarah Miller’s father and you were her English teacher. You’d never taught Maths but you were sure that this equation wouldn’t produce a good result.

The anxiety had been slowly creeping up on you all day, leading you to doubt whether you should’ve agreed to a date in the first place. But after reminiscing on how he’d worn you down with his sweet advances, you figured he was worthy of at least a try.

After all, the man had been persistent in his efforts to chase you.

There’d been those innocent gifts you received from him every once in a while. Gifts such as the Pearl Jam CD, Lightning Bolt, he’d had Sarah pass on to you. This came after she’d told him how you’d come into school on Fundraising Day wearing your Eagles t-shirt, and how she’d thought you were just so cool. He’d scribbled a message on the insert, suggesting you 'Try this out. Track 12 is a winner.'

There were also the good-natured recommendations, such as the one time he’d come to collect his daughter from an after-school study session and casually mentioned how he’d seen a bookstore you might like in a neighbouring town.

Whilst working a job nearby, he’d made a quick run to the local music store before he noticed the endearing shopfront next door. Ivy garlands and crocheted daisies trailed down from above, whilst little origami birds rested delicately beside the book displays, giving the window a unique kind of charm. Offhandedly, Joel threw it out there that the store might be something you’d be interested in, as it had embodied that 'whole bohemian thing you’ve got going on.'

Not to mention, Joel had also tried to compliment you - or at least that’s what you thought he was doing - when he’d run into you at school. 

“Not sure how you do it darlin’. Dealing with other people’s kids all day long. Got my hands full with just the one. Must take a certain type of person to do your job…hell, I couldn’t. No matter how much you paid me.”

Though his words weren’t refined, you understood what he’d been trying to say; his smile implying nothing but kindness and sincere appreciation.

It had become all too easy to succumb to his appeal, but the rational part of your brain urged you to consider his intentions. 

The man appeared to be emotionally unavailable. 

You had enough experience to recognise that his easy-going nature was part of a front, concealing something darker beneath the surface. Years of being a single parent had worn the softer side of him down. He’d become hardened by the need to provide and protect for another. 

Sarah was his purpose, everyone knew that.

You’d presumed he’d had to make countless sacrifices as a father, and although she’s a teenager now, you somehow got the impression that Joel still regularly denied himself the things he wanted.

The things he could want, should he let himself indulge in those thoughts for long enough.

Was he just lonely?

Flirting with you to win favour for Sarah?

Despite the doubts lingering in the back of your mind, the last time you saw Joel had been the final nail in the coffin. With those big brown eyes that made you never want to look at anything else ever again, he had weakened your defenses as he made his move. 

“I was just thinkin…well, we already see each other around quite a bit, and Sarah loves you, and she’s been pushing me to ask you out for quite some time now. I mean…you must know I’ve been sweet on you for a while now, yeah? C’mon, just one date, alright? See how things are between us…no pressure. I’m sure she’ll get off our backs after that.”

He’d turned on the charm in that sweet, rough-around-the-edges kinda way when he asked you out. Knowingly using your particular fondness for his daughter against you.

Despite this, he’d also appeared antsy, seemingly impatient to get it over with. If you were going to reject him, he’d rather it be done swiftly. 

You’d been eager to put him at ease, so you had agreed to a date.

And now? You wondered whether you’d jumped in too soon.

⟡

However, you simply didn’t have the time to fret about it as around an hour later, your phone buzzed atop your plush bed covers.

Humming along to the radio, you retrieved it and glanced at the message illuminating the lock screen.

On my way. Be there in 5.

The gentle buzz of nerves sitting in your gut grew stronger, slightly, as you fumbled for your purse, jacket and keys - almost forgetting your peach pink gloss, before you headed downstairs to wait.

It wasn’t much longer before the headlights on his truck signaled his arrival, yet he’d sent a text just for good measure.

Outside. Weather’s not great - bring a jacket. Wouldn’t want you getting cold, sweetheart.

You chuckled to yourself, grateful for his chivalry despite having already selected an outfit to suit the evening breeze, before heading out the door.

⟡

The place he’d taken you to was modest. It served craft beer and had all the paraphernalia of a typical sports bar adorning its walls. Some of its patrons were gearing up for the weekend, as was the custom on a Friday night in Austin, but this place was known as a pit stop. People often retreated before peak time hit. 

Thankfully, this atmosphere allowed a comfortable conversation to flow between the two of you, as you both began to unwind with a much-needed beer. Talking to Joel felt easy, and his confidence reassured you, causing the tension between your shoulders to soon dissipate. 

His touch put you at ease too, as a soft yet firm grip on your thigh had you leaning further into him as he told you all about a dilemma he’d faced on a job the week before. Whilst he shared how he’d mixed up the parts when ordering supplies, you couldn’t help but gulp every time he leaned in close to your ear, close enough that you felt his warm breath fan across your neck. 

Being in close proximity to this man felt addictive.

You’d listen to him ramble on about power drills and cement all night long if it meant you’d get to feel his touch: the strong contours of his body pressed against yours, his brown eyes lingering at your collarbone every now and again.

Whilst letting his eyes roam, he noticed how your skin, looking so soft and delicate, reflected your tender disposition. 

When you’d become particularly engrossed in talking about your students - and when he thought you wouldn’t notice - he’d moved the arm that was resting along the back of the booth down to your shoulder, subtly drawing you closer into his embrace. 

Emboldened, Joel sat up that little bit taller when he realised you’d welcomed his advance, and it wasn’t long before you found yourself up against his truck.

Joel had suggested you go ‘someplace more private, just so he could hear you better’, and you were grateful for the way the trees hid you from view as Joel’s hands explored your curves as though he was trying to commit every inch of your body to memory. 

Touch-starved, the rough pads of his fingers hungrily pressed into your lower back, adding just the right amount of pressure to drive you crazy. Meanwhile, your hands fisted his navy t-shirt with the same ardour.

He took his time, though, kissing you leisurely, like you two had all the time in the world. 

Until he stopped - mid-kiss - to grin against your lips, mumbling “I don’t remember any of my teachers being this hot. Might’ve shown up more if they had been.” 

You couldn’t help but grin in return at his boldness, before stepping back to admire how your touch had left him perfectly ruined.

With his eyes partially closed, hair a pretty mess and cheeks flushed scarlet, Joel appeared drunk on the pleasure you were giving him.

Honestly, you weren’t faring well either. 

You’d just begun to breathe normally again when that teasing smirk of his grew wider, tilting your chin up to meet his gaze. 

“So…darlin'. What grade would you give me for that then, huh?”

All you could do in response to his quip was bury your face in the crook of his arm, hoping your features wouldn’t betray your amusement. 

⟡

As the evening began to wind down, you found yourself on Joel’s leather couch. 

He’d even whipped out a blanket, being the Southern gentleman he was, so the two of you could curl up together.

He had your back against his front and his arms locked around your shoulders. Seemingly, the urge to protect had already kicked in, as Joel held your body tight against his.

You’d both had quite a brutal week at work and therefore, found great pleasure in resting together.

Yet, somewhere in the haze of the exhaustion, you got a sense that things had shifted between you and Joel.

Carefully, his fingers traced a pattern across the skin of your neck, just above your sternum. He followed the same trajectory each time, never pausing his ministrations to linger on a spot for a second too long, before repeating the action with the same precision.

Working alongside kids with a range of complex needs meant that you could tune into certain behavioural patterns, and whilst you admit that you could’ve easily misjudged the situation, Joel’s level of focus suggested to you that he was trying to regulate his emotions.

You longed to reach out; try to communicate that you were safe, he was safe here with you when his voice cut through your concern, imploring, “Does it bother you? You know, me having a kid?”

Heart aching for this man and his vulnerability, you reassured him. 

“Joel. I wouldn’t be here right now if it did.”

“Been a long time since I’ve dated. Not sure if it’s even something I should be getting in to. Hell, Sarah’s too young and I’m - shit - I’m getting too old to even know how to keep it together when I’ve got a pretty lady on my couch.”

You spoke with gentle conviction when you told him, “There’s no pressure.” 

You paused to run your fingers along his bicep. Trailing your nails across his skin, you applied light pressure, hoping it would ground him in your presence before you continued your reassurance.

“Oh…Joel.”, you sighed.

“There’s no expectation for you to do anything you don’t want to, babe.”

“That right, huh?”, came his response.

Sensing there was more to come, you gripped his arm a little tighter and awaited his next admission.

“Sarah’s mom…she-” 

Wary of revealing too much too soon, Joel stopped himself mid-sentence, before carrying on.

“Since then, I…I haven’t really tried with anyone else. Too fucking suspicious of everyone. Can never bring myself to trust so I don’t end up sticking around for long.”

“I’m not really sure what I’m doing, sweetheart. Put off asking you out for so long cause I thought it’d be too hard. Sarah’s the one who kicked my ass into gear, so you’ve got her to thank for tonight.”

You let out a gentle chuckle at his revelation, before letting him know that, “It doesn’t need to be hard. Dating, I mean.”

Your words had begun to relax Joel, as he divulged, “Well tonight’s felt real easy with you. Haven’t felt this relaxed on a date in a long time.”

A smile graced your expression as you felt a sense of peace overcome you following his affirmation. 

“I’m glad, Joel. I’m feeling pretty relaxed right now myself.”, you jested in good faith.

The two of you lay together - for a while - in a comfortable silence. 

And in this gentle lull, you both settled deeper into this newfound vulnerability, subduing the rush of adrenaline you’d experienced earlier on out in the parking lot.

Having heard what Joel had to say, you too ached to get some things off your chest.

“You know I’m crazy for saying yes to you, right? I’m Sarah’s teacher. I’m crossing a boundary here.”

At your acknowledgement of the role you already play in his daughter’s life, Joel straightened up behind you. 

“I know, darlin’. If I were a better man, I would’ve left it alone. Should’ve done that anyway, never wanted to make you uncomfortable. That…that ain’t fair on you.”

“Hey”, you affirmed softly.

“I knew what I was doing accepting a date with a parent, that was my choice.”

He breathed out a sigh of approval, taking a moment to admire your conviction as it made you all the more attractive to him. 

Joel didn’t have time to waste on women who weren’t willing to accept him as he was. If they wanted to get involved with him, they’d need to compromise. After all, he was a single parent and his daughter was his priority. 

Of course, you knew this and planned on voicing it.

“Sarah’s the priority here, and that’s something we can agree on as a parent and as an educator. I wouldn’t want that to change, Joel. All I know is I enjoy your company, and well, I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly what I want right now. Can’t we just take things one step at a time?”

At once, you felt Joel relax at your words. 

You sensed him tilting his head back, as though he was mentally preparing himself for what he planned to say next.

“Sarah’s always been my priority. Always will be. But I’m only human.”

He took a pause, composing his next words with care.

“The loneliness. It fucking hurts when it comes around.”

“Part of me understands I gotta have something for myself, eventually. I-I just don’t know if I should. If it’s the right thing.”

You needed a moment to process his admission before responding, as arguably, the way he’d been willing to share such an intimate fear with you had you feeling weak. 

Joel was tough.

Yet he wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable with you.

Sure, you both had reservations, but having laid all your cards out on the table, the two of you were content with the way the night had played out.

Then came a whisper, barely cutting through the quiet of the night.

“I could be good for you, Joel.” 

Some part of you believed that by saying these words aloud, you were manifesting them to be true. 

You were hopeful. Hopeful that something good would come of this. Hopeful that this calm, easy-going energy between the two of you would continue to grow.

Joel, too, could sense it.

Something deep down in his gut told him that, perhaps, he didn’t have to be alone. 

You felt good.

And right now, he needed good.

“Yeah.”, he sighed with a satisfied smile on his lips. 

“You could be, darlin’.”

Thanks for reading!

[finnwrld]

- devil's advocate -

pairing: eddie munson x reader (no prns)

word count: 3.9k

content: spoiler free, sex but no smut (i'm struggling to commit to smut), tutor troupe, swearing, smoking, drinking, my rusty writing and horrible attempt to write from the r-r-r-readers perspective 🤢 also tw the reader is good at math

summary: after hooking up with eddie munson 3 seperate times in a month and never talking about it, you somehow get stuck tutoring him.

a/n: im alive i promise. are any of my followers alive? no. but i am.

Hooking up with Eddie Munson was a one time thing. 

Ok, maybe, a two time thing.

Well, if you were being honest with yourself, it was a three time thing. Three times in one month.  

It was supposed to happen once. 

Never once did you anticipate ever speaking to Eddie ever again after walking up to him at Vicki Carmicheal’s party. When he stepped closer, his alcohol-tainted breath fanning on you, you guessed he thought the same. You didn’t even think you would remember the night when you closed the gap.

—

“Eddie Munson, stay after class.” 

Thankful that you weren't in Eddie’s shoes, you gathered your stuff to leave school for the day with the rest of the class. 

“Oh,” your teacher’s eyes left his laptop to scan over the room, “And Y/n L/n.” 

—

At the bonfire, when your blurred vision picked up the brown curls of Eddie Munson, you attempted to ignore heat that surged across your body. You blamed it on the alcohol. You blamed the way his chest wavered as he locked his eyes with you on the alcohol. Alcohol is what guided your hands under his shirt and what pushed his body flush to yours. You would blame a lot of what you did that night on the alcohol.

—

A tense silence stuffed the classroom as you, Eddie, and your teacher sat awkwardly across from each other. Eddie was intensely avoiding eye contact and you tried to keep your leg from bouncing as you all waited for somebody to speak.

“Mr. Munson,” your teacher started, “You, my boy, have the lowest grade out of any student of Hawkens High enrolled in Algebra 2.” He let his statement linger in the air, allowing the both of you to absorb his words, then, he continued.

“But, since I really do believe in you, I’ve taken it upon myself to get you a tutor until your grade has improved.” 

You could practically see Eddie's face curl up in anguish. 

“Am I not allowed to pick my own?”

Your teacher shook his head slowly, “No. I have picked out the perfect candidate.” 

—

When you heard Eddie Munson was coming to Hagan’s new years party, you couldn’t deny the flutter of excitement that had danced around your chest. His being tainted your head as you got ready, your eyes trained to how he would see you. A flash of him interrupted every blink. His voice whispered in your ear. Ghosts of touch lingered on your skin. 

When you finally got to the party, your eyes dodged every other person there, since they were desperately darting around. Music pumped through your veins as you grabbed a cup of whatever was in the punch bowl, eyes still scanning the room. Downing it as fast as you could, you let the buzz of the booze wash over you and resumed your search. A glimpse of leather, a black and white baseball tee, a flash of red. Finally, he was in frame. 

Your breath caught as his eyes slowly moved over your form, shyly meeting your own. Multi-colored lights glided across his body, his white shirt so shear the ink of his tattoos could be seen through it. Music drowned out your heartbeat. You could feel the blush that crawled up your cheeks, Eddie's own color reflected back. Carefully, you let one foot float in front of the other and walked over to Eddie. Alcohol already fusing with your body, you let your hand casually hook around his belt loop. Using your new connection, you guided him out of the house, a smirk pulling on the corner of Eddie’s lip as he let you lead.  

“Not even gonna say hi first,” he scoffed, hands raised. 

“We can talk when I’m high,” you countered, sitting down behind Mr. Hagan’s shed, and desperately attempting to cover up your flustered expression from the adrenalin. 

Eddie dawned a faux-concerned expression. “I think this drug problem is getting really serious.” 

“Shut up Munson.” 

His smirk reformed as he pulled out that stupid rusty box, and rummaged through it until he found a pre and a lighter. After straightening it out a bit, he gently placed the joint between his teeth. Each satisfying swipe of the lighter dragged your eyes down to his lips. The flame that danced over the sides of the joint lured your gaze to stray from Eddie’s deep eyes to focus on his mouth as he exhaled a puff of smoke, letting some stream into his nose.

After a couple more hits, he held the joint out to you between two fingers, glazed eyes watching the stars. You gratefully accepted it, attempting to clear your mind of the vision of the moonlight cascading down his face, sculpting each dip and grove. You breathed deep when your lips were sealed around the filter, letting the smoke fill your lungs. Each hit brought you back to him. Back to how close you were seated, how his leg felt against yours, how he'd begun to slide his hand closer to you.

His hand lingered above your exposed thigh, just grazing it with the skin of his palm. Chills swept down your legs as the cool metal of his rings brushed across your skin, and you could feel the curve of his satisfied smile at your reaction as he leaned into your shoulder. His hand carefully curled around your leg, slowly gliding its way up. 

“What are you doing Eddie,” you whispered. 

He replied lowly, so close you could feel each syllable against your skin as they left his lips, “Whatever you want me to.” 

—

The sound of yours and Eddie's shoes against the deserted linoleum of the school hallways was unnerving. Binders and spiral notebooks dug into your skin as you gripped them, hands white knuckled and clammy. You could just barely feel the denim of his jacket brush against your arm, and you half wished he would move further away as you walked. 

You had to tutor Eddie fucking Munson. Your teacher hadn’t spared either of you a moment before sending you off to the library, giving you just enough time to overthink the next hour. 

It wasn’t easy being near Eddie. You two had never interacted outside of sex, and it was difficult to interact normally, acting as if nothing had happened. But what were you supposed to say? How do you approach a conversation about that? Not even just that though, how do you approach any conversation with somebody you’ve never even spoken to outside of sex? You’ve never even had a conversation with him sober. Was he even going to listen to you teach? Would his whole view and respect for you be skewed? And how on earth were you supposed to talk to him when such a striking mix of weed and cologne permanently emanated from him. Your brain probably wouldn’t even work well enough to teach him math. 

He seemed fine. That familiar stupid smirk hung on his face as he held the library door open for you with a flourish.

The thank you said in return probably counted more as mouthing than speaking. 

Acutely aware of his intense gaze on you, you awkwardly led him to one of the old chipped tables in the corner of the library, far away from any remaining students. Your chair creaked as you pulled it out, breaking the silence you and Eddie had been drowned in since you left class. You finally unclamped your hands from around your notebooks and began to lay them out on the table busily while Eddie fished around in his pocket for something. 

Turns out it was a singular dull pencil without an eraser. 

“Alright,” you said uncertainly, sitting down and trying to organize your brain, “Um… where do you want to start?” 

“You’re the teacher here, where should we start?” 

Of course he was gonna make this difficult. 

“Ok. Fine.” You shuffled your papers around, not really for any reason, just to bide yourself some time. “Do you have any questions about today’s lesson?” 

His face instantly slipped into a deep troubled pondering expression. One that was much too dramatic for Eddie to be serious. “What did we learn?” 

“Matrices and transition graphs,” you almost deadpanned.

Gears began to visibly turn in his head, and he muttered, “Matrices and transition graphs… ahh…”

“You have no clue what those are, do you?” 

“Not one.” 

You sighed, not even shocked, not even angry. It was honestly sort of tough to conceal your smile. 

“I'm going to be your tutor for a while, aren't I." 

He shot you a grin, “Only if I have it my way.” 

—

Tutoring Eddie Munson was alright. 

That’s what you told to anybody who asked.

In reality, tutoring Eddie Munson was much more than alright. 

You had never really ever been around somebody like him. He exuded a disconcerting aire of cocky but comforting, cool but offbeat. At every moment when you thought that he would finally upset you, he would wheel in the exact opposite direction, driving your emotions through a startlingly enjoyable route. 

Shockingly, he was pretty easy to talk to. Never once did your past encounters get brought up, which you were endlessly grateful for, and he treated you just like any of his friends, with respect and kindness, which could not be said for some of your other past hookups. He said hi to you in the halls and smiled at you from across classes, he learned your favorite music and what food you hated, he made an effort to know you. Tutoring him barely felt like work. Most of the time that you spent teaching him math was overlaid with chatting mindlessly and giggling as he tried to secretly count on his fingers. Sometimes you could waste whole tutoring sessions listening to some grand dramatic story he told as he bounded around your table, morphing into different characters and voices, putting on a full one-man show before you. 

He was also, completely and utterly, gorgeous. 

The way his hair draped delicately over his shoulder, how his necklaces dangled from his skin as he leaned over the table, when he would tilt his head to the side as he listened, the glimpses of his tattoos. Every word you spoke and every syllable you uttered had his undivided attention as you talked, big brown eyes gazing at you, taking in every feature. 

On cloud-free days, the sun would beam down through the tall library windows onto the dark oak of the table you had both claimed and would reflect off of the silver of his rings. They would glint distractingly as Eddie wrote, catching your eye at every shift. It happened so often you had now memorized his usual jewelry selections. A great ugly boar rested on his middle finger, accompanied by one skull ring on either side. On his other hand, an ornate ring with patterns that curled up the side and cradled a deep blue stone in the center.

He knew you were staring at his hands, but you didn’t care.

His unflinching reaction towards your gaze gave you just enough of a push to one day ask, “Could I… try on one of your rings?” 

His eyebrows raised in shock, “You want to wear my jewelry? This is quite out of character…”  He flashed a toothy grin at you from across the table, “I love it.”

“Thanks for reminding me how much you love the real me,” you deadpanned, ignoring the excitement that was bubbling up your chest. 

“Forever and always,” another shining grin, “Now…” he said dramatically, face suddenly darkening, “Which one will you choose… your whole reputation depends on this one decision.” He waved his hands around with a flourish. “Will you still have your student’s respect after this? Will anybody ever talk to you again? We will see..” His hands stilled in front of you, and he held them out to give you a clear view of each band.

You put one hand up to your chin, miming contemplating the choice, and let your other hand drop down to his own, taking one finger and guiding it across his knuckles. His chest completely stilled.

“Hmmm…”

Your finger came to a halt over the intricate ring with the blue jewel. Eddie’s smile reformed and he faintly exhaled as your finger lost contact with his skin. 

“Good choice,” he said, not looking up at you. His eyes were trained at his own hand, slowly twisting the band off of his ring finger. They continued to avoid yours as, to your surprise, he didn’t give you the ring after he had freed it from his own finger. 

He took your right hand in his, his skin gently curving around your own, and brought his thumb beneath your ring finger, lifting it above the others. Your chest began to heat up at the delicacy with which he delivered this, and you urgently tried to blot out the earlier instances when Eddie had held you with the same touch. It felt like he was barely grazing your skin, and yet you could feel, with a searing intensity, each joint of each of his fingers shifting under your flesh, curling and stilling around you. 

Chills shot up your spine as the cool metal of the chosen ring finally met your skin, and at last, Eddie raised his eyes to meet your own. They remained riveted on yours as his fingers guided the band down your finger and, though the ring was fully fastened, his fingers remained resting against your skin. He let them stray up, delicately brushing against you as he cradled your hand.

The raw air chilled your skin when he drew away. 

You’re grateful he didn't say anything when you left that session with the ring still fixed around your finger, because you don’t think you could’ve gone through that again anytime soon. 

That night, you slept thinking of Eddie’s touch.

—

The issue with Eddie was, despite your best efforts, he would never leave your thoughts. Every sense was occupied non stop by his smell, his voice, his gaze. Intoxicatingly, you overdosed on every part of him, eventually giving up on blocking his presence and allowing him to consume each and every thought you produced.

He seemed to know that even after you left him, he remained a permanent fixture in your mind. It was written in his smug smile and his playful jabs, the knowing. 

His presence was so constant that it must’ve been on purpose. 

Each little thing. Him using your pencil casually during school, knowing you could see. Never mentioning the ring that still lay on your finger, allowing you the chance to keep it. The glances down your being as you passed, catching him staring across the class, touches that lasted far too long. He wanted you to be thinking of him.

There were nights when you, under the golden light of your desk lamp, would open your notebook to doodles dotted around the edges of your paper, snuck in while you were focused on something else. The pages of anything you brought to tutoring were lined with cartoonish devils and creatures with many legs and sharp teeth that lined their roaring mouths that Eddie had thought up. Vines curled around the lining of the page, and a little mix-matched group of elvis and wizards dashed across the top margin. In the very bottom corner, tucked between a crude drawing of a smiling clown and an ornate sword, was a drawing he seemed to have put a bit more time into. 

The more you examined it, the stronger that recognizable heat radiated across your chest. It was a bust's profile, with the head tilted slightly down and brows furrowed in concentration, pen carefully structuring the swooping bridge of a nose and curvature of lips. 

It wasn't flawless, but there was no mistaking that it was you.

That night, you slept thinking of Eddie’s thoughts. 

—

Eddie’s math grades had actually begun to improve, and in class you watched with pride as he started to listen to your teacher, sometimes even taking notes. He would show you his math tests with a huge smile, genuinely excited to see how you would react at his new shiny high score. 

Mid-way through April, he sauntered into the library, horribly concealing the giddy expression that was forming on his face and a hand behind his back. 

You inquired, your face beginning to reflect his smile, "Something terrible happen to you, Ed?"

“Oh it’s nothing,” he said, drifting around the table as if he was wandering through a lush garden, “just… this!” and the hand that had been hidden behind his back whipped out to reveal a paper with a great red “93%” scrawled on it. 

“Eddie!” you sprung out of your chair and ran over to where he was to snatch the paper out of his hand. “This is fucking g-” 

But before you could finish your sentence, he flung his arms around you and drew you into a hug. “I’m a genius now, thanks to you,” he whispered into your ear, as you brought your arms up to loop around his back. 

“You don't even need me anymore,” you whispered back, trying to fight the urge to bury your head into the crook of his neck. 

Eddie pulled away abruptly, looking at you as if you had just slid a knife into his chest. “Don’t you try and get rid of me.” His face was inches from yours, hands dropping to rest against your hips instead of fully pulling away. You let your head tilt to the side gently.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” 

He shook his head with a faux-anxious aire, “I’m gonna have to start failing my tests again so that you can’t escape, aren’t I?” 

You could barely even focus on what he was saying because of how vividly you were aware of how his hands rested against your jeans, how you could smell the weed in his hair and the leather of his jacket, how he hadn’t broken eye contact since he pulled from the hug. 

His smile had finally returned to his face, he had gone off on some tangent and was animatedly talking, clearly still giddy from his test score. That smile had become a very important part in your life as of late. They weren’t rare or extreme, but they were somehow better every time. 

That night, you slept thinking of Eddie’s being. 

—

Liking Eddie Munson was hard. 

Eddie Munson sticks to what he knows. Eddie Munson gets bored easily. Eddie Munson won’t ask you out. 

You knew he was going to Steve Harington’s birthday party. You didn’t know how he even managed to get invited but you knew he was going. And he knew that you were going too. 

But when you got to Steve’s house, he was nowhere to be found. You had spent the first 30 minutes, walking around and making brief conversation with people as you half-searched for Eddie. As you made your way around the house, still unable to find him, you began asking people off-handedly if they had seen the freak (under the pretext of giving him his math homework back). The few answers that you received that weren’t weird looks got you nowhere, and eventually you found yourself finally just aimlessly roaming through the upper floors of the Harringtons' house. 

It was useless. The top level was completely empty, save for a rather awkward encounter with Nancy and Steve as they were leaving his bedroom, and you knew it was time to leave. At the very least, you needed some fresh air if you weren't going to entirely go, so you returned to the first floor and into the foyer.

You flung the front door open with a huff and your eyes landed on a figure that was standing on the porch of the house across the street. Cigarette haze clouded around him, catching the moonlight in its smoke and giving him an almost dreamlike glow as he let his head hang back. Despite yourself, you let his name fall from your lips, shouting across the empty street, “Eddie?” 

He casually swung himself around to face you, eyes foggily making their way to meet your own, lighting up as they cleared. A smile had begun to spread across his face and he lifted up his hand to beckon you to him. Slowly, you floated across the abandoned road and up the few stairs to the neighbors porch, leaning over the balcony railing and basking in the cool spring night that you both found yourself in. Eddie gently leaned his back against it, taking a drag from his half finished cigarette as he did so. 

“Do you wanna go on a walk with me?” 

You didn’t try to hide the grin that tugged at your lips. “Where to?” 

“Just around,” he said with a shrug and a smile, and he set off, one hand deep in his pocket and smoke billowing from his lips. Following behind him, you quickly caught up and paced beside Eddie, melting into the mix of collonge and cigarettes that exuded from him. 

The faint murmur of music could still be heard coming from the street, pumping adrenaline and impulse through your bones as if it was the cold itself. You, again, could feel the leather of Eddie's jacket brushing against your bare arm, static branching from the skin. Lonely street lamp’s glow glinted on the shining leather and in the brown of his averted eyes. 

Eddie broke the silence first, eyes trained at the stars.

“I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately.” He let out some smoke with a puff. 

It took you a while to recover enough words to form a sentence in reply and, thankful for Eddie's avoidance of eye contact, you let yourself breath before giving an answer. 

“What… about me?” You tried to come off as nonchalant but you could tell he could hear the tenseness dripping off your voice. 

“About” and it was his turn to waver now, sucking in an uneven breath that you could only just hear, “your… whole being.”

He pushed his head into his hands and let out a laugh. An actual, honest, almost desperate, laugh. “Every waking moment I’ve ever spent with you,” he continued, “Every word you’ve ever spoken, every time you’ve ever looked in my direction.” With each word he spoke he seemed to be in less and less control of what he was saying, more and more frenzied.

You hadn’t moved. You stood stagnant, in the middle of the empty street, streetlights spotlighting you and him, blacking out the rest of the world into dark expanse, and stared at Eddie Munson as he said words you couldn’t dream of and looked at you like he never had before. 

As Eddie stood just inches before you, a lock of hair caught between his teeth, looking at you for a response with worry etched deep in his features. You knew what you wanted to say, and when you breathed in and readied to reply, you just hoped it would come out how you wanted it to. 

“Eddie,” you reached out and took his hand, “Would you go on a date with me?” 

The worry that had felt so ingrained in his face dropped at all at once, and he gazed at you, lips slightly parted and eyes wide. 

“Did you mean that?” he whispered, so softly it was barely audible.

You let your forehead meet his, “Of course.”

When he spoke again his voice came out almost strained, as if he was trying to stay calm, "Then yes, yes, yes-" and, finally, he closed the gap between your lips, cupping your face and pressing against you like it was the last thing he would ever do.

And in that glorious moment it became very clear to you, hooking up with Eddie Munson was definitely not a one time thing.

[brandogenius]

I DONT THINK YOU UNDERSTAND THIS AU IS ALL I THINK ABT

munagenius being protective of littlest munagenius makes my soul cry istg just like pushing reader behind one of them in a crowd or if paparazzi is getting to close like they don’t play or ready to back them up at all times even if reader isn’t around, don’t even let some guy fo approach them

also the katie x ya big sibling/little sibling moment means everything to me as the oldest who didn’t have have that😭

ANYWAYs was crying over the math thing like ya didn’t even ask for help but they’ve got all of muna/boygenius/munagenius surrounding them like “i’ve got it guys🙄” their like “THE ANSWER IS 18!!” and ya is like “ik i knew before y’all tried to help i’ve been trying tell yall” “why did you let us go on that long ???” “i wanted to see how long it would take y’all to finally figure out second grade math”

ya meeting up with a younger celeb and their talking in genz terms and munagenius is LOST

just talking to them about you’re highschool experience and they are so into it like “what do mean you were drunk at house party your like 4 yrs old 🤨” “y’all didn’t go too parties????” or like old partners like they’ve got personal beef with some kids now bc what do mean they use to bully you

“i graduate this month” “from college?” “no highschool” “…dear god i’m old”

them reaching you things like naomi helping you learn the keys, katie teaching you how to do your makeup, lucy taking you to museums or helping you read poetry, julien helping you learn coping mechanisms/guitar/painting, phoebe helping you set up your in-ears (I LOVE THIS IDEA), jo helping you learn bass(i’m not a musical person idk really what they play

Also all their partners also being readers friends and getting attached so ya has a literal ARMY

munagenius finding readers yearbook= FEILD DAY

i have to stop or i’ll never quit😭

I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT THIS REALLY

LITTLEST MUNAGENIUS AHAJDJD THATS READERS NAME NOW “guys!! look it’s munagenius and little munagenius in the same room!!”

as an only child (sad ik) these sibling dynamics makes me so happy im like SOBS just insert myself into here and have munagenius teaching ME how to do makeup yes pls

ya can be a bit of a prankster. they like being in the company of munagenius (say they are an only child too so having jo and naomi helping them with their homework is unusual for them but they like it) just the feeling of having their little tour family all around the table working together and including ya makes them wanna cry in a positive way like “damn- i have people who actually care enough to help with my hw and studies )

imagine busting out the yearbook but to show muna now the boys being like “WE SEEN IT FIRST HA”

they have beef with your maths and history teacher. don’t ask why they just do “RICKY WHEN I SEE YOU RICKEU WHEN I SEE YOU SWINGING ARMS”

i love the trope of phoebe helping with readers in ears so much like it’s their first time and phoebes like helping them and it’s just scary at first but she helps ya with the wires etc!’

OH ABSOLUTELY!! meeting their partners (muna & the boys) and they just come in contact with you for 5 minutes and then they are like “i would fight anyone for you kid”

ya is just adopting all the adults left and right at this point

NAH LISTEN THIS IS MY URGE TO CONTINUE I LIVE FOR THESE

[landslided]

What are your headcanons for Laura Lawrence 👀

GREAT QUESTION, ANON!!! i have many!

blanket statement of these are my personal headcanons which are obviously not gospel truth and don't need to be agreed with, these are just what i believe/enjoy writing about for laura lawrence.

TW: alcoholism, abortion, cancer.

i think laura was a teen mom; i think she had johnny around seventeen with a guy who was just passing by and her parents threw her out.

she didn't graduate and she got her GED. she was very very good at math and kind of wanted to become a teacher before she got pregnant.

i think she had a kind of holistic, surfer girl, live-with-the-waves vibe and she and johnny went to the beach A LOT when he was a kid because it was free to just walk around and swim.

she had lots of little jobs before meeting sid. johnny's best memory is when she was working at an ice cream parlor. she had a whole baby blue uniform and the owner was really nice.

when she met sid, he promised her that she'd be able to go back to school, maybe even go to university when they got married. quite quickly she found out he was lying.

she developed an alcohol problem four years after her marriage to sid.

around the fifth year into her marriage with sid, she found out she was pregnant and got an abortion in secret. a few months later she told sid she had to go visit an old relative in atlanta and that she'd be back soon, instead, she went to san franciqco and got a hysterectomy.

her full name is laura jean lawrence, i know the show wants me to think her maiden name was brown and that lawrence is the name of some mysterious guy but i refuse <3 johnny has his mother's name because i said so.

she was a huge rock n roll fan, all of johnny's tapes were her's first.

she was very isolated in the hills: she didn't relate to anyone in the country club and she had the bad reputation of being a gold digger. she lost track of johnny's life around that time because of the alcohol and she was never really able to pick it back up afterwards.

she went to johnny's first-ever tournament but after seeing him bleed on the mat, she settled by giving him some money for milkshakes with his friends afterwards and ironing his gi herself.

her only friend was sid's maid, an older woman named georgia who was the only person in the world who knew that laura had to get her stomach pumped three times.

the cobras all called her laura and not mrs weinberg. she liked dutch the most even though he was the most troublesome.

johnny didn't tell her about what happened in the parking lot with kreese up until sid saw the paper stalking about the accident and told her. she cried for a full day, locked in her room. the next day, she went by the cobra kai dojo at night, aware that it had already closed, and threw a brick through the window.

she sporadically sent johnny money after he moved out until she got sick and sid started making the checks.

she got liver cancer when she was 52, it all went very very fast.

she wasn't the best mom in the world; johnny made her a saint in his mind after her death but she was short-tempered and prideful. she was also loving and funny and creative, she had good sides and bad sides, like every living being.

i like to think robby looks like her a lot.

[therk900]

☀️January TC Challenge (Day 1-31)☀️

1. Do you think your TC will teach you next year? M is teaching me this year and i'm so exited for it! I also still have A this year!

2. If you had to move to another city, how would you tell your TC? Would you confess to them?  Maybe in person so i could see how they reacted and i would maybe confess them!

3. Have you ever written a letter to your TC? If no, would you ever do that and what would be in it? If yes, what did you write?  Yes. I made one for S mid 2022. I wrote how I was so thankful for him.

4. Are you attracted to your TC in a more emotional or sexual way? Or both? Both if i'm being completely honest

5. How did you meet your TC? Do you remember your first conversation?  B and S both taught me when they first joined, and I sadly don’t remember our first conversation since we had so many and it was so long ago. I think with A, it was just mainly about getting to know each other, and i got to know him because my old maths teacher used to teach him. I met A around the same time as S! I met M at the start of last year since he was my teacher for a small bit of a subject i took! Our first conversation was him praising me and my answers

6. If it were to happen, how do you imagine the perfect kiss going down with your TC? If by chance you have kissed your TC, how did it happen? For S and M, I imagine it being the last day of school and they give me a goodbye kiss! With B, maybe a reunion kiss or something like that. With A, maybe a quick goodbye kiss!

7. Have you ever had an argument with your TC?  No. I would have nothing to argue about with them

8. Do you see your TC outside of school?  I wish I did. Hopefully i get to see B maybe, especially because he left

9. Do you have a memory you are particularly fond of with your TC? Any cute stories? When B was still at my school, B and I would have chats about random things and ask about my hobby of drawing! He also used to check up on me during school assemblies! Once when i was staying back after school, i was on a call with my dad, and i saw S walking towards me. I finished up the call with my dad so fast (my dad and i were done anyway) and talked with S until he got to his car. I helped him remove some things off his car before saying goodbye! This happened recently before it was the school holidays, but when i was in M's class, i was working on my own since i didn't really know anybody in that class. M saw this and decided to work with me! He was really sweet throughout it and technically gave me all the answers With A, we were working on something that my teacher gave me, and it had a question about a sports team that he followed. The question involved his team losing, so A decided to cross out his team's name and put a different team's name instead. A and i were laughing about it for a while.

10. If your TC is still married, would you (still) want a relationship with them? it all depends, really in my opinion

11. Do you have a photo with your TC? If yes, how did you get it?  Yes. I have one with B. I got it because the photo is in the school yearbook.

12. Do you think anyone you haven't told about your TC knows you're crushing on them? Most likely. It is obvious 

13. When is your last class with your TC? Will you see them over summer break?  My last class with S was in 2021 and with B, it was term 3 last year. I won’t see them over the holidays sadly. with M, it was at the end of last year. I will defiantly see A over the holidays!

14. Have you ever mentioned the tcc/teacher crushes to your TC? NO WAY. I would move schools after that. Even to the other side of the world!

15. Do you think one of your classmates has a crush on your TC? I don’t know tbh

16. Do you get jealous when you see your TC with other students? Not really

17. If you and your TC had a long distance relationship, do you think it would work out? Yes...

18. What's your TC's degree? Do you like what they studied? S: Science and a language B: English  M: Science i like those subjects

19. Have you ever cried about your TC? If so, why? No

20. Have you ever cried in front of your TC? If yes, why? I have cried in front of B once, I have forgotten the reason why. S saw me just after I finished crying and it was embarrassing. 

21. Do you know about your TC'S family? If yes, what do you know? I know of M’s daughter. (He introduced me to her once which was cute)

22. Would you consider them a dog person or a cat person? I would consider them all cat people. But maybe M would be a dog person

23. How would you tell your TC about your feelings? (If you had to) Letter most likely so it can be anonymous 

24. Do you know how your TC dresses outside of work? In casual shit, I guess

25. What are they like when they are upset? I’ve never seen any of them upset. When B was getting annoyed, he would just be like “come on guys” and everyone would just shut up

26. Where do you sit in relation to their desk/spot/lecturing position? With B, i used to sit at the front, near where he was sitting. With S and M, usually at the back, so I can admire them. Since A and I have private sessions, I technically sit right next to him

27. Do they know another language?  S knows Italian. i think A may know a tiny bit of greek

28. What do you have in common with your TC? B and I both had pets at one point and A and i went to the same School (he left a couple years before i joined)

29. Have you texted/messaged your TC? I’ve messaged A multiple times! I’ve only emailed the others

30. What is the most frequent TC daydream you play in your head? Me cuddling with them

31. If you could only say one more sentence to your TC before graduation, what would it be?  "I will miss you a fuck ton"

[clunelover]

Parent teacher conferences:

We were supposed to have an interpreter for our meeting with E’s teacher (he’s Colombian and does speak English but not super well and heavily accented - like the words all flow together and he repeats himself so it can be hard to pick out exactly what he’s saying). But the interpreter got her times wrong and only showed up for the last 5 mins and just kind of rehashed and clarified the stuff we’d already talked about.

It was surprisingly or I suppose not so surprisingly hard to talk to him about pronouns! Even though I had come equipped with some stuff written down (like in Spanish, E would like to be “elle” instead of “ella” or “el.” And not señora). He claimed to understand, and said “I don’t want to…misgender, yes?” So he “got” it, but then just kept using she/her the whole time he was talking to us (even though I have explained xie/xer to him over email and again just now in person). His larger point though is that since Spanish is so gendered, and a lot of these kids are still just learning Spanish, he doesn’t want to introduce confusion (and then there’s the added layer of the confusion that can arise when he speaks English). Then when the translator arrived, she was translating what the teacher said about E as “he” so…yeah I don’t know. It’s hard.

On the way out we ran into parents of an NB friend in the same class (who uses they/them) and we quickly told them about the translator thing and the pronouns thing, and I said something like “maybe the pronouns conversation would have been better if the translator was there for that part” and the dad said “yeah…we have had a couple pronoun conversations with him already.” Which was…well, I was going to say it’s nice to know he gets other pronouns wrong too, like it’s not just the unusual xie/xer that’s throwing things off, but…idk, IS that nice to know? Heh

Anyway - overall, E is a great student doing awesome in reading and math, helpful to other kids, and the teacher said that while he was at first concerned about how many “breaks” xie needs, now he sees that xie does get xer work done so it’s okay (of course then we did also fill him in on the ADHD diagnosis - THERE’S A MEDICAL BASIS TO THOSE BREAKS!)

C’s teacher said he’s way ahead in math which we knew (we got him a second/third grade math workbook that he uses during independent math time) but also that he’s ahead in reading skills which always just surprises me since he’s behind where E was at that age (not that I’m pitting my kids against each other! I just had this box checked off in my head that xie learned to read in 4K, he didn’t, he must be “behind”). But she says he’s close to reading all the way! She also said he needs a lot of help with emotional regulation and has big reactions to small things, esp when he has to stop doing something he likes and move on to the next activity. Poor guy. I told her that he didn’t have persistent enough symptoms to get diagnosed with autism but that I think he probably has it, and she said “yeah I see some signs.” BUT! Then! She offered to see if he could get some in school support, talk to the school mental health team, etc - which I didn’t even know our school had, and/or I thought it was something you had to compel them to do rather than something they’d offer, just due to having so few resources. So, that was neat!

Idk today I’m feeling overall optimistic - like, yeah, both our kids are neurodiverse, but they’re getting help already, and teachers understand more than they seemed to when I was a kid (esp about the need to move and that it’s not just bad/disruptive when someone can’t sit still), and they’re very smart, and they still have friends, and it will all work out.

[lucifers-golden-bitch-apparently]

So the first thing you gotta know is

We didnt like this woman, i wouldnt say hate but there was no lost love between my graduating year and the principal

Firstly she was a late replacement because our old principal had died (RIP Sammy) and they grabbed the first person they thought would be suitable (news flash...she was not)

She had spent probably most of her teaching career around kids in their single digits and had little to no experience dealing with teenagers and especially highschoolers. Why these people thought to put her in charge of a highschool idk.

Almost as sooooonnn as she started being in charge of the school she had alienated herself against the entire student population and about half of the teaching staff (according to one of my old teachers who i still talk to, shes not only tanked the status of the school but is now also universally hated by all the senor staff)

But anyways back to the main plot, one of the reasons we disliked her is because of how she handled the previous years graduation, no prom fundraisers no special events no nothing so they had a barebones graduation season

The other thing is that she treated the entire student body as if we were incompetent, since she was used to having control over children she didnt know how to deal with young adults so she just going as usual....as you can imagine we didnt like any of that

Being talked down to, not letting us do any of the activities we were due as seniors and basically running the school like a low grade military

One of the most insane things she did was in regards to our clubs. Since i went to an all girls school we obv didnt have any boys attending. Because of that they had to find other ways to socialise us so we had interschool clubs with our brother school. Every friday we'd trade off the location of where the meetings were held. The general consensus for many years was "the boys are welcome to come in on friday and come and go as they please after school because we trust everyone to act civilized" and that system worked for all of those years with no issues

Within 2 WEEKS of her being there she decided this cannot stand and had every single boy who came into the school signing their name, sign in and sign out times and hovered like a vampire bat over our proceedings. And if they left the school, they wouldnt be allowed back in till next week. Again, as you can imagine not a single one of us were pleased.

Add to that all the little annoyances....yeah

But i digress

We didnt have fights often at my school but the ones we did have were Intense, usually ending in hospital visits or anger management appointments. The consensus was dont try to break up the fights, it will end badly. She was told this multiple times. Keep that in mind

That 2 girls who ended up fighting that day had been put in anger management Multiple times because they were fighty mfs. I dont remember why they were fighting that day, could have been literally anything. But they were going at it and as my school tends to do, we were all watching. About 2 minutes into the fight the teacher i still talk to tried to talk them down from the sidelines, she got a punch to the face, sent a punch back and then went downstairs because that wasnt her business.

Our esteemed principal came out of the office like a bat out of hell and ran up the stairs through the mess of students to break up the fight. What ended up happening is that she took several blows to pretty much everywhere while screaming at the girls to stop.

While that fuckery was happening our maths teacher, who is a 6'4 brick shithouse of a man, came out of the office, took one look at the second floor, threw his trash into the bin and went right back into the office. (Because as i said no one liked her much and she was very much warned)

After about 30 more seconds of screaming idk what happened, they probably got fed up with her, and from about 100 meters away we saw her go up and over the railing and flatten the students who were trying to come up the stairs

You would think that would be enough to end the fight (and her willpower) but nope. The fight continued and she put herself right back into it. About that time i decided to go do something else because i didnt want to be a witness. By thr time i came back everyone had gone about they business, the girls were probably getting their parents and the police called on them etc etc

As far as i know principal was fine, the girls got suspended and also more anger management and i believe she sent them to get cadet training (i heard she tried to have them expelled but idk how true that was)

There was one other incident that happened with her later that year but i dont remember the full thing.

(My god this turned into a saga sorryyyyy but yh thats the story XD)

HUH.