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fictionalreads · 2 months

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This Was Never Meant to Be What It Feels Like (Part 3)

A/N: Heeeeeeey...How y'all doing?....I know it's been a couple weeks when I said days but a part of this just did not want to be written! Also, this one is a bit of a beast, just over 5,200 words. This is the final part of this lil mini series, I hope y'all enjoy and the conclusion is satisfying for you guys.

Part 1 Part 2

Pairing: Armando Aretas x Original Female Character

Fandom: Bad Boys Movies

Prompt: Mike gets a couple visits, Shay has some news and Armando makes a decision.

Warnings⚠️: Cussing, Mentions of bad parental relationships, uh.... I think that's it for this one.

Mike Lowrey was no stranger to being called into back rooms for an off the books meeting. What was unusual was the CBI agent waiting for him when last time he checked none of the cases he had been part of lately had anything to warrant federal attention. Well, besides the one with his son but he had been cleared almost a full year ago now and Julie had corroborated his story. Nah, this was something new.

“Officer Lowrey, I’m Agent Garrett with the California Bureau of Investigations. Please have a seat.” She was standing at her full height on the other side of the table while gesturing to one of two chairs in the room, the only one near him. He saw straight through her bullshit tactics to make him feel like she was in charge and had the upper hand.

“It’s Detective Lowrey and think I’ll stand. Now why don’t you cut the shit and tell me what the hell you want.” Her jaw tensed and he just barely managed to hold back a smirk. She wouldn’t get what she wanted by using the same perp tricks he had been using when she was still in diapers. You can’t bullshit the bullshitter.

Coming clean, she began, “I’ve been put in charge of running a task force out in LA, similar to your AMMO squad here. Our goal is to find and stop cartel drug from entering the country, maybe stop a few murders while we’re at it.”

So this was about Armando, just more recently than he thought. Damn son of his was definitely payback for the hell he raised when he was younger. If he was back on his shit, he might not be able to help him this time.

“Sounds like a good idea. I wish you luck,” he stated, feigning ignorance as to what this was really about.

“Your son Armando Aretas has many connections on the west coast that could be useful. Figured I could use him to knock down some of my open cases.”

She clearly had found out their connection, but he still wasn’t sure what she wanted from him. “I don’t know if you’ve been watching the news lately, but my son isn’t here in Miami. He’s been on the run for the better part of a year. I don’t know where he is.”

“You’re his father.” Agent Garrett takes the chair on her side of the table. “If anybody could find him, it’d be you. You’d know where to look right?” The flattery, the subtle leading questions to confirm what she believed and the sitting gave her away.

She was desperate.

If he had to guess, those open case files were all big cases that had her boss breathing down her neck. She’d probably been given an ultimatum with her job on the line and now she was desperate to do anything that would get her back on top, including working with a wanted man.

Mike sat. “What are the terms?”

“Terms?”

“What does Armando get in exchange for helping you?”

She looked at him in disbelief. “Terms are you don’t go to prison for aiding and abetting a murderer and he doesn’t get a bullet in his head immediately. Don’t know if you know this but cops aren’t a big hit in prison and I’m betting that’s especially true for you.”

“Don’t fucking insult me, please. Aiding and abetting implies I know where he is and I’m actively helping him. I’ve already told you I don’t know where he is. But like you said I’m your best shot at finding him. I’m also your best chance at not getting your men killed and losing him again. I’m not doing this shit without some assurances on his end. So I’ll ask again. What does he get for helping you?”

She shook her head. “You know when I came up with this whole thing, I did my my research on you. Figured I should know who I was getting into bed with. Everything I read told me you were one hell of a cop, always got your guy and made Miami just that much safer. Are you, this great cop, really going to bat for a murderer like him?”

That was where her approach was faulty. She was trying to appeal to his cop side, but he was a father first. “No, I, a father, am protecting my son.”

“I can offer him protective custody, knock some time off his sentence depending on how fruitful his tips are.” She offered lightly.

Too lightly. This was her throwaway offer, the one she knew was shit but was hoping he’d take anyway. So he called her bluff.

“He won’t come in for that. He had that deal with me already. All the shit that went down last year? The bodies dropped had to be put on someone and he got ‘em since he was a convicted felon, one that was alive and a part of the mess. Not to mention he ran off and became a fugitive. He’s looking at almost double what his sentence was when I arrested him. You’ll have to do better.”

Agent Garrett seemed to be debating with herself. She let out a heavy breath,”I’ve been authorized to grant him a special deal.”

Now they were getting somewhere.

“What kind of deal?”

“The kind that puts my ass on the line.”

Something about this whole interaction was bugging him. “Tell me something. Why are you willing to put your badge on the line for someone you clearly can’t stand?”

“I don’t trust Aretas. But this isn’t about me. Its about making my city safer. His intel could be the key to shutting down major operations. He has connections everywhere, and that’s what I care about. I’m not putting myself on the line for him, I’m doing it for my city.”

“You sure you’re not doing it for your bosses? They up yo ass about getting shit done?”

“I proposed using Aretas. They were against it. Said we were cleaning up just fine but I’m tired of cleaning up after the fact and only getting low level dealers. I want to cut this thing off at the head.”

“At the end of the day that’s my son. I need to know that somebody has his back. Why should I trust that that’s you?”

“Like I said this is my proposal. My bosses made it clear that if he fails I fail. He gives me the wrong intel, he leads us astray, he turns on us, I’m fired. I’m just as invested in his success because I have something to lose too.”

“What’s the offer?”

❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

“Hi, I’m looking for Mike Lowrey?” Shay swallowed down the feeling of nausea, hoping it was just the nerves making her feel this way.

“He’s not in at the moment, but I’m his wife Christine. Is there anything I can do for you?”

Shay hesitates. Could she do anything? Hell she wasn’t sure what this Mike Lowrey could do for her either. She flew all the way to Miami, and for what? Some detective Armando had left the name of in case she needed help? This was a bad idea. She knew he was a cop, and after looking him up a supposedly good one, but how could she trust him when he socialized with a murderer? Ignoring her own dalliances with the man, she could only think about the fact that Detective Mike Lowrey had sworn to arrest people like Armando, not be someone they trusted.

She felt overwhelmed for the millionth time in the past month and a half and was debating just leaving when Christine offered, “why don’t you come in? Mike should be home soon and you can wait inside for him instead of in the heat.”

She wasn’t sure if it was the heat, Christine's sweet voice coupled with the endearing British accent or the way her face screamed warmth, but she found herself saying, “yeah. Yeah okay.”

Christine opened the door wider for her to enter and Shay marveled at the inside of the house as much as she had the outside. This guy was definitely a dirty cop. There was no way he was able to afford this on a detective’s salary. What the hell was she getting herself into?

“Please have a seat,” she gestured towards the couch. It looked like it was more for the aesthetic than actual use but she was pleasantly surprised to find it very comfortable. “Would you like something to drink? I have water and that disgusting stuff my husband calls sweet tea,” Christine joked.

“Water is fine,” she replied with a smile. Shay watched as Christine stepped past a wall into what she assumes was the kitchen. The creeping sensation of nausea hit her once more. Digging in her purse and finding a ginger chew, she didn’t see Christine come back in the room with a bottle of water. Almost instantaneously she felt relief, so maybe it was all psychosomatic. Just her nerves going haywire.

“How far along are you?” Shay startled at the question.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.

“It’s okay. What makes you think I’m pregnant?”

“I saw the chew and just assumed.”

She didn’t believe that for a second. “Some assumption based off just a ginger chew. What if I just like them?”

“Honestly the chew was just the cherry on top for my assumption. You hold yourself the same way my sister held herself when she was pregnant for the first time. A bit unsure, scared definitely, but ready for war all the same.”

Well, damn. She didn’t know she gave off that much with just how she stood.

Ignoring how unexpectedly open she felt, she answered Christine’s question from before.“Thirteen weeks.” Suddenly Shay realized how this could look, a random pregnant woman showing up looking for her husband and not telling her what she wants, so she quickly explained. “It’s not your husband’s!”

Christine laughed brightly, “Oh darling the thought never crossed my mind. Mike may have once been that guy, but he’s not anymore. He’s a good man.” Shay kept her doubts to herself.

“Christine? Who’s car is that out front?” The man she assumed to be Mike Lowrey was juggling a duffle bag and struggling to get his keys out of the door, not once looking in their direction.

Smirking like it was a game, Christine replied, “It’s a rental.”

“Why do we need a rental?” He finally looked up, noticing Shay in the room. She could see his guard go right back up.

“Mike, this is Shay. She was hoping to speak with you,” his wife explained to him.

“Do I know you?” He was blunt but not unkind with his words, something she hoped would continue in their conversation.

“Mike!” Christine admonished before turning to Shay with, “Please, excuse Mike. He can bring his interrogation tactics into other parts of his life sometimes.”

“It’s okay. If a random woman showed up saying she needed to speak to me, I’d probably question it too.” She was hoping her understanding would get her some traction and not immediately thrown out when he found out why she was here.

Mike still held caution in his face. “So…?” He left the obvious question unspoken, wondering who she was and why she was here in his home.

Shay paused. She wasn’t sure how to bring it up and didn’t want to say anything in front of his wife in case she truly had no clue her husband was a dirty cop. She may have been desperate enough to find this guy, but she wasn’t going to be the one to ruin this poor woman’s marriage.

Luckily Christine picked up on her reluctance to speak in front of an audience and excused herself. “I’m going to head upstairs for a moment, give you two some time to talk.”

While Shay relaxed, Mike tensed. Once Christine was gone, he questioned her. “Who the hell are you and what do you want?”

“I was told if I ever needed anything, I should find you.”

Mike carefully focused his attention on sitting his duffle near the armchair, going to take a seat himself. He might not be looking directly at her anymore, but she knew all of his attention was on her as he spoke. “Who the fuck told you that? Better yet, why my house? Why not meet me in the station?”

Ignoring the second question, she replied, “Armando Aretas.”

Mike’s head snapped back to her. She was almost concerned for his neck with how fast he moved.

Continuing at his silence she said, “I figured you wouldn’t want to discuss him at work.”

“What about him?”

“He was in LA a few months ago.”

He first whispered to himself, “Dumbass don’t listen.” Then he spoke louder, clearly to her this time, “What does this have to do with you and why you’re here?”

She wasn’t sure where to start. How does one tell a dirty cop working for one’s murderer baby daddy that you need him to tell said baby daddy you were pregnant? “We were…together. I’m pregnant now.” She hoped he would catch on without her spelling it out but he didn’t.

Instead, Mike blinked. “What?” A million unidentifiable emotions ran over his face before he carefully shut it down, facing her with no emotion at all now.

“I am with child, in the family way, carrying a bun in the oven, whatever you want to call it.” There was still no response from him so she continued her rant, “look I’m not asking for him to come back or pay for anything. I’m fully prepared to take care of this kid myself, but not even trying to tell him was weighing on my conscience. So I figured if I found you like he said, you could pass on the message for me. I just need to be able to know I did everything I could to let him know.”

She had prepared for a lot of responses to her plea. Anger on Armando’s behalf, a dismissal, hell even laughter at her audacity, but his next words were ones she somehow missed in her spiral. “I’m not in contact with him.”

Shay tried not to be hurt at his response, not for herself, but for her baby. Okay, well a little bit for herself. She was in love with the man-yes, still- and knowing he truly didn’t leave a way to contact him again crushed the little bit of hope his note had left behind. Why would he send her to Mike if it wasn’t a way to get in touch with him? “So why would he tell me to find you?”

A pause.

“Armando’s my son.”

The statement was so far from what she was expecting to hear that she paused. “Wait so you don’t…you don’t work for him? With him? Whatever.”

Mike laughed loudly, “nah, I don’t work in that world. I stand by the badge.”

“So how did he…?” She trailed off, confused.

“Look our situation is…complicated, but if he sent you in my direction I’m gonna help you in any way I can. I mean, I’d love to get to know you and be in my grandchild’s life if you’ll let me.” His words were reminiscent of the night she had asked Armando about his family. He too had called his relationship with his father complicated.

Despite the unknown of it all, his offer was partly the reason she had found Mike. A family for her child, something she never really had. “Yeah. Yeah I’d like that.” It may not be exactly what she was looking for, but she would take what she could get. At least her baby would have some connection to their father’s side of the family. But she still had a question, one that had no answer now that her assumptions were corrected.

“So if you aren’t dirty, how do you afford living like this?”

Mike let out a laugh louder than the one from before. “I’m a trust fund kid. Never really had to work but all I’ve ever wanted was to be a cop.”

“Sounds like one hell of a trust fund,” she scoffed.

Turning serious he impressed, “One that continues to grow from a few investments made along the way. This kid will have that same freedom. They’ll be able to do whatever they want in life and never have to worry about money.”

That statement alone almost made her cry. She didn’t have much growing up, wondering if she and her mother would even be able to eat everyday. When she had found out she was pregnant, despite making more money than her mother did she found herself worrying her child would have those same experiences.

She may not have Armando, a partner she’d hoped to have, but he had made sure she had everything she needed.

❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Habitual but flexible.

That was Armando’s motto. Habitual in the precautions he took but flexible enough everywhere else to not create patterns. Patterns were how you got caught, and Armando refused to be put in another cage. He always double checked his locks when he left his place, checked his surroundings before leaving and arriving at his place so as not to run into his neighbors. The less people who could identify him the better.

Which is why seeing his door wide open as he turned onto his street was so unsettling.

Normally he would just leave town, dump this alias and start over with another elsewhere, but there were a few things he didn’t want to part with. Upon his first return to Mexico, he had managed to find his mother’s emergency stash and in it was a photo of the two of them before he was forced out of the prison when he turned six. Despite his conflicted feelings on his mother’s choices and the lies she told him, he still loved her and this was all he had left of her.

If she were around she’d chastise his sentimentality.

He also had a letter his father had written him when he left Miami that he kept because even with the complexity of their relationship, he still wished he’d had the opportunity to get to know him. He wished he could have done things differently. That letter may be his only chance to know his father, even a little bit.

The last thing was a photo of Shay. He had taken it one morning before he left on a polaroid camera she had lying around. The sun had been rising and he remembered wishing what they had could be real, that he could stay in bed and wake up with her instead of having to run out and lie all the time. It was the only thing he had left of the only relationship he’d ever have again.

So he weighed his options. Either he went in and fought whoever was there, grabbed his things and hopefully made it out in time to not get caught, or he left now and hoped whoever it was left without calling for backup so he could get his things before leaving town. He either risked his freedom or he risked losing the only items that reminded him of his humanity forever.

He pulled his gun and carefully made his way into the apartment he’d called home for a couple weeks.

“Don’t shoot, it’s just me.”

Armando relaxed, but kept his gun in his hand. “What are you doing here Detective?” His tone was snippy, as though his father speaking to him was a bother. He knew that wasn’t true, but it was like he couldn’t help the animosity that came out when he spoke to his father. No matter how much he’d love to try with the man, he’d just get so angry about it all that it came out confrontational.

“What? A man can’t see his son?” Mike didn’t rise to the obvious bait of his tone, instead trying to lighten the mood with a tease.

Armando simply raised an eyebrow at the deflection. “Not when that man is a decorated detective and his son is a fugitive,” he coldly stated. He needed to know what Mike wanted so he could get on with his life. Who knows how many eyes are on the man, he was risking Armando’s freedom, not that he seemed to care. Irritated at the lack of concern for him, he accused, “you risked the badge once just to let me go, you won’t risk it again, not even for me. It means too much to you.” I don’t mean enough to you went unsaid but not unheard.

“Armando I’d risk everything for you.” The fight left Mike, and he sighed, finding a seat on the edge of the bed. “You’re my son and I know I’m not the best at showing it, but that shit means something to me. Our relationship means something to me. I didn’t have the best relationship with my father so I told myself I wouldn’t have kids cause I didn’t want to repeat the cycle. But then I found out about you. And despite the fact that circumstances made it so it isn’t easy, I still don’t want the cycle to be repeated. I love you man. I’ll do whatever you need me to, to prove that to you. Including walking away if you say no to my proposal.”

There it was. The real reason he was here now, he needed something like always. Armando put his gun away in exasperation. He was so tired of just being used that he couldn’t help but get a jab in. “Whatever man. This don’t mean shit to you. It’s all transactional for you, I’m good enough to help you get what you want and that’s why you come around. So what is it this time?”

“Is that what you think? That I don’t care about you?” What the hell else was he supposed to think?

“If you did, you would have come to see me in prison without needing my help on a case.” He argued before quietly following up with, “I would have been enough of a reason to visit.” He hated when this stupid hurt boy routine flared up. He looked weak, like una puta.

Mike stood and stepped close to Armando. Refusing to back down, Armando met his stare head on, ignoring the way his throat was getting tight and tears were pooling in his eyes. “Armando I never needed you on those cases. I knew that if I could get intel from you and put you down on paper, it would help you out. I was trying to help.” He blinked and a single tear made its way down his face. It was too much now and he had to look away.

Mike placed a hand on his shoulder, continuing, “I love you. Nothing is more real than that. If I had known you would take my help as me using you, I never would’ve asked for your help.”

Facing his father once more, Armando spoke lowly, “Si lo hubieras sabido, ¿te habría importado?” He didn’t explain what he meant, knowing his father understood what he was asking.

“Nada me hubiera importado más.” Mike asserted.

He nodded, finally having an answer to the question that had been burning inside him. He focused on the reason Mike was in front of him, not the emotions his answer stirred in him. “What’s the proposal?” He asked much more calmly this time around.

“LAPD is starting up a team like AMMO. They were hoping to recruit you to be a part of it, use your knowledge to help stop cartel drugs from entering the states.”

“And go back in a cage? No I’m good.” He shook his head, a clear no coming from him.

“You wouldn’t be arrested again, you’d be put up in an apartment. Free to walk the city after an initial probationary period of just work and home. After that, there would be twenty-four hour surveillance, random drug tests and check-ins. Eventually you would become a private citizen.”

It sounded like a trap. “If I don’t give them what they want I get arrested right?”

“Yeah, but I have all the faith you’ll be great at it. Plus I made sure it was as ironclad for you as possible.”

“Why would I agree to this? Sounds like a lot could go wrong and land me back in prison. If that happens I’m never getting out again.”

“You aren’t the killer your mother made you into. You only did any of it because she fueled you with rage and ideas of revenge before she pointed you at a target. If you were really a killer, you would’ve killed me anyway. You live by a code, and only do what’s necessary. No more, no less.”

Sometimes when he was feeling really low he’d think about what his life would have been like if he’d had a normal life. Would he have chosen violence anyway? He’d like to think he’d hav e chosen to protect. Maybe be a firefighter or an EMT cause he was still an adrenaline junkie, but maybe he wouldn’t have to hurt anybody. If his father was saying the same thing he thought, then maybe he could believe it to be true. Before he could think on it, his father spoke once more, shifting his whole world.

“Besides, Shay’s pregnant. We not giving another generation of Lowrey these bullshit daddy issues.”

❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Six Months Later

“Marcus we ain’t got time for that shit.”

“I just asked the man a question!”

“No, you used the question as a cover to try and buy some damn skittles.”

“Oh so now you the skittle police? I thought we worked narcotics?”

“Yo ass ain’t supposed to have that shit and you know it. Don’t try to make it out like I’m the one that’s going overboard.”

“Aye Mike what would they call the skittle department? The rainbow division? Don’t worry everybody! Mike Lowry is working the rainbow!”

“That’s homophobic.”

“It’s the slogan! What else would it be called Mike?”

“Why the fuck are you here?”

“Man fuck you-“

“Your presence really wasn’t needed-“

“I’m just trying to be a good friend-“

“This is a moment for my family-“

“And now I’m not family to you?!”

“You called my family fucked up remember?”

“Yo son was tryna kill us and his mama was gonna let us burn in a fire!”

“Are you pendejos done?”

“Mike! That mean assholes right?”

“Yeah he just called us assholes. But Imma let it slide cause he got to be high on that new father shit to call me an asshole.”

“Nah I just think he don’t respect you. That’s what you get for not raising him. My boys would never.”

“Marcus!”

Shay knew this could devolve again if she didn’t get their attention. “Guys! Do you want to meet her?”

The men focused their attention on the baby Shay was holding against her chest. Marcus visibly melted at the sight, Mike simply softening his shoulders with a small smile.

Armando joined Shay, leaning on the bed using a finger to trace down their daughter’s arm. When he spoke, he kept his eyes on his daughter. “This is Amada Rose Lowrey.”

“Lowrey?”Mike coughed.

Armando shrugged. “I wasn’t actually an Aretas, I was supposed to be a Lowrey. Figured she and I could claim our real family name.”

Mike nodded. “That’s cool man. Real cool,” he choked out.

“Awe Mike,” Marcus cried.

“Mm-mm Marcus. Stop it right now.”

“But Mike he’s taking your last name!”

Ignoring his bumbling partner, Mike walks over to Shay, giving her a kiss on the forehead. “How you doing Mama?”

“Extremely sore, but happy.”

“Well you did good, she’s beautiful.”

“You wanna hold her?”

Knowing his father’s aversion to holding babies, he goads hims, “Yeah Papa, wanna hold her?”

Surprising them all, he said, “You know what? I will.”

Shay handed her daughter over to Mike, making sure he supported her head correctly.

Armando joined Shay on the bed and wrapped her in his arms now that she wasn’t holding the baby. He simply watched his father holding and whispering to his baby girl with fond eyes, knowing his daughter would know nothing but love and presence from the man. They would have a real relationship right from the start. He and Mike themselves had been working on things, talking through the lies and anger and getting to a better place.

“How’s work? They give you any time off?” Marcus asked him.

In the end there hadn’t been a choice. He was going to be present in his child’s life, no matter what and sneaking into LA would just get riskier every time he did it. If he didn’t get caught just trying to get to his family, he would’ve gotten caught because if how much he would’ve been there to see them. And he’d be damned if he was raising his child from behind bars so he took Agent Garrett up on her offer.

He turned to face his uncle, replying, “Good, we wrapped a case a day before Shay went into labor. I’ll have about a couple weeks at home with the girls before I’m expected back.”

It had somewhat surprised him how seriously Marcus had taken to being his uncle. The man was supportive of his new role with the LAPD and called almost as often as his father did, checking in and making sure he was being safe. Seeing him at the hospital now wasn’t a shock at all.

“I’m just glad they gave him any time at all,” Shay interrupted. As his employment with the LAPD wasn’t under normal circumstances, he wasn’t sure if they’d grant him time at home with his girls. Agent Garrett had stuck her neck out for him once again and gotten him twelve days exactly.

Armando leaned down and kissed her, forever grateful for the woman who stood by his side despite his past. She had lost a couple friends when they found out who he was, the ones that stayed had definitely judged her and never truly came around to him as a person. She never wavered though, taking it all with grace and holding his hand as they planed for their future. He couldn’t wait to ask her to marry him.

Amada let out a cry, disrupting his internal debate on the pros and cons of asking her right that moment. He knew it probably meant she was hungry again, so he shifted his hold on Shay so she could get the b baby again and feed her.

“I think that’s a cry for mommy,” Mike chimed as he passed the baby back.

“Yeah Mike you ain’t got the right equipment,” Marcus tossed out.

Mike turned to Marcus incredulously. “Now why would you say some dumb shit like that?”

“You don’t!”

Armando turned his attention from the bickering men, whispering to his little family, “Here they go.”

Honestly, though? He wouldn’t trade his family for nothing.

A/N: Don't forget to leave a comment or reblog/like! What did we think? I have a few other ideas in mind for Armando but I'm not sure how they'll play out, so I'm CAUTIOUSLY open to prompt from you guys for drabbles. Please keep in mind that I can't do smut.😅

Translations:

Una Puta - A bitch

Si lo hubieras sabido, ¿te habría importado? - If you had known, would you have cared?

Nada me hubiera importado más. -Nothing would have mattered to me more.

Pendejos - Assholes

Taglist:

@yeahnohoneybye @bootlegroach @omg-mymelaninisbeautiful

#armando aretas #Armando x ofc #Armando aretas x ofc #mike lowrey #marcus burnett #original female character #christine lowrey #fan fiction #minors dni #Jacob scipio #bad boys ride or die #bad boys for life

131 notes · View notes

kozumesphone · 4 months

Note

hi hi hi can i please get a percy jackson x daughter of aphrodite reader?? basically she’s all about the love part of Aphrodite and she’s talking about it constantly and he’s her friend and kinda realises like oh wait i’m in love w her

does that make sense?? also can i get a moodboard w it?? <33

thank you and ily!

masterlist

💌┊₊˚⊹꒷ BROOKLYN BABY .ᐟ

⤷ percy jackson x daughter of aphrodite!reader ‧₊˚ ⋅

ᝰ. 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦 . . . percy jackson and the heroes of olympus

ᝰ. 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬 . . . y/n constantly yaps about the idea of love to her best friend, percy, and he realises he has feelings for her. (annie’s y/n’s close friend too! i’m too nice to make her an angry b </3) also!! y/n has brown eyes solely bc brown eyes are pretty asf and not talked about enough <3 + ft. best friends to lovers, minor gods dissing (like one time), y/n reading the cruel prince (not directly mentioned), percy having an ‘uh oh, i’m in love’ moment, and a book bouquet. p.s. moodboard at the end!

ᝰ. 𝐤𝐞𝐲 . . . y/n: your name | y/l/n: your last name | n/n: nickname

ᝰ. 𝐰𝐜 . . . 1.4k

ᝰ. 𝐚/𝐧 . . . hdkwjdkw 1/8 asks complete lmao. this req was so cute!! I love reading the ‘moment of realisation’ dialogues in books, but it was especially fun to write it for the first time. it was a little weird to write only bc i’m a cabin 3 kid irl but it’s okay 😭 for the sake of a fluffy fic, I powered through, guys <3

2 years ago . . .

✮⋆˙ y/n’s pov

“some kid killed a minotaur!” a hermes cabin demigod yelled from near the dining pavilion. glancing up from our glasses of soda, annabeth and I turned towards the voice. “he’s a new one!”

we looked at each other, wondering which god couldn’t keep it in their pants again.

suddenly, a few apollo kids ran out from the infirmary towards the arch near thalia’s tree.

“the new kid’s probably clumsy,” annabeth said.

“he killed a minotaur,” I shot back.

“hey, you can be dumb and strong at the same time.”

“uh huh. whose child do you think he is? I bet it’s one of the big three.” I said.

“no way, they have a pact, remember-”

“do you really think they actually follow that, annie?” I snickered at her.

in a while, an unconscious boy about their age was carried into the infirmary. I only caught sight of his black hair, and dishevelled and bloody look. I decided to visit him the next day to check up on his condition.

the rest of the day was spent reading in my cabin, while my sisters tried new makeup products on our brother, which was quite funny, really.

throughout the next week, I left the warmth of my bed to visit the new kid—percy jackson—in the infirmary. he had begun to regain consciousness.

“who are you?” he asked, sharply inhaling a breath.

“oh, hey,” I smiled at him. “i’m y/n y/l/n. daughter of aphrodite.”

“right. daughter of aphrodite. a goddess,” he repeated slowly.

I realised that no one had explained about camp half-blood to him yet, and took that job upon myself after calling out for will and letting him know that his patient was awake.

“so, there’s gods and goddesses. and monsters. and everything in the greek myths you were taught? they’re all real. at camp half-blood, we’re all demigods—the children of a god or goddess and a mortal.” I continued to explain to him how the demigod world worked, remembering to talk about the mist, the gods, the cabins, and everything else.

I expected him to not believe me, and call me names (like the other new campers) for lying, but he took it like a champ. he nodded at me, sitting up properly, and asked for something so his arm would stop paining. I immediately got will to help him.

the next week, when I was out by the beach, reading my romance novel about a mortal girl and a faerie prince falling in love after being enemies, I heard sand shifting around behind me.

“who-” I turned around.

“hey, y/n, right?” percy asked, walking closer.

“ah, you remember,” I said, a smile growing on my face.

“well, yeah. you’re really just the only person who has spoken to me normally… and not like I was some intimidating and scary… thing,” he said, running his hands through his already dishevelled hair.

“come, sit down.” I patted the sand beside me. he took his place there, sitting down with his legs criss-crossed.

“what are you reading?” he asked.

I explained to him the plot, setting, characters, and everything about the book I was reading for the next few hours.

we sat there till dusk, watching the sun set into pretty hues of pink, purple, and orange.

“it’s so pretty, isn’t it?” I asked.

✮⋆˙ percy’s pov

“yeah, it is.” I replied to her, eyes fixed on her side profile.

wow. she’s so beautiful.

timeskip: present

“perce!” y/n called loudly, running towards me.

“heyyyy! n/n, you’re back! how was the quest? did you get hurt or anything?” I asked, hugging her, and then moving back to scan her for injuries.

“i’m fine, perce, all good. I got will to check me out and he cleared me,” she said, grinning. her face was swiped with dirt and grime, but she still looked like she was an ethereal princess who walked out of one of her books. “what? have I got a lot of dirt on my face?”

“nah, you’re cool. ‘s pretty.” I said, and she laughed—my favourite sound in the entire world. “and anyway, you need to change out of these clothes and meet me outside your cabin. I have something for you.”

“what is it?”

“that’s a surprise-”

“I hate surprises.”

“you’ll like this one,” I winked at her, as she laughed again.

timeskip

✮⋆˙ y/n’s pov

I changed into casual loose sweatpants and a shirt since it was summer.

ah, summer. one of most romantic seasons ever. the breeze whipping around a girl’s hair, as a boy runs towards her with flowers. the sunlight falling onto their faces as they share a kiss. watching the sun set in pretty shades everyday with each other. that was summer.

everything about it reminded me of percy. watching sunsets, seeing the sunlight fall on his face after he gets out of the water. the flowers, now dry, that he gifted me for every special occasion.

it was hard to admit that I liked him more than I would like any friend. i’d never picked up any hints from him, that might’ve signalled that he liked me, no matter how many of my siblings told me he did.

all friends hold hands, right? and all good friends wish each other a good morning and good night everyday. what was so special? the flowers?

“hey, n/n!” percy’s voice dragged me out of my thoughts. he was dressed in loose shorts and a hawaii button up, and my gods, he looked so gorgeous.

“perce! at least tell me where we’re going now,” I groaned.

“nuh-uh. a surprise is a surprise.” he brought out a blindfold and handed it to me. I raised my eyebrow at him. “put it on. i’ll take you there.”

“I swear to gods, if this turns out to be a prank-”

“shh, it won’t. now put it on,” he promised.

I walked closer to him and put on the blindfold, and he turned me around a few times to make sure I wouldn’t figure out where we’re going. I scoffed at his childish actions.

as he was standing behind me, I felt his warmth on my back. he took my arms at my side and urged me to walk ahead.

he manoeuvred me in different directions and finally stopped after a while.

“you ready, princess?” he asked. the nickname did something to cause butterflies in my stomach.

“yeah,” I whispered.

he took off the blindfold, and it was too bright for a second. I shielded my eyes and groaned, before letting them adjust to the harsh sunlight.

I looked around and saw a huge, fluffy blanket laid down on the grass of the fields. a basket with food was set in one corner and a bouquet in the centre.

specifically, a book bouquet.

“PERCY, HOW DID YO-”

“surprise,” he grinned, as I turned around and hugged him. he’d always given me gifts when I returned from quests, but this was, by far, the best.

“how’d you know all my favourites?” I asked, looking at the 10 romance novels on the blanket.

“oh, annie helped,” he said enthusiastically. “should we sit down and start eating? you can tell me all about the people in your books, and why you like romance books especially, yeah?”

smiling, we sat down on the blankets, and ate away with no care in the world.

✮⋆˙ percy’s pov

as she talked about her books for the next few hours, I could only think about how beautiful her brown eyes were, especially when the sunlight hit them at the correct angle. how soft her lips looked as her mouth moved at a faster pace than her thoughts. how perfect her cheeks were, smiling wide. how amazing she was. how smart and beautiful she was.

when did my feelings of friendship turn into love, for her?

as she continued to speak of the love between her favourite characters, I noticed her longing for a similar love. I could give that to her, couldn’t I?

wait. what? what am I even thinking? y/n’s my best friend.

“love is everywhere, in every gesture, every glance. it’s the thread that binds us together, connecting hearts across time and space,” she said.

and at that moment, I knew I was done for.

I was hopelessly in love with my best friend.

percy jackson x daughter of aphrodite — the love like in her books <3

taglist — @nuncscioquidsitamor-14 @mqstermindswift @puffoz @skeelly @urmomabby @sunnitheapollokid @jgracie @canonfeminine @cinemaconrad @totokyo @urbanflorals @aezuria @thetunnelunderoceanboulevard @cherigall @percabethluvr @pjoverseluvr @maybxlle @mershellscape @riordanness @starlitszn @metyouattherighttime @a-beautiful-fool @sequinsnstars @ssparksflyy @fayvpor @iheartgirlzn

kozumesphone © 2024 | don’t repost my works onto other platforms, or edit and post them even on tumblr, without asking me first • don’t steal my works, steal my heart instead • reblogs and comments are more than appreciated !

#skye's cafe ~ ⋆.˚#⭑𓂃 skye’s riordanverse !#skye.jpg🧸—#𝜗𝜚 skye's asks #percy jackson the man that you are #ngl every pjo and hoo bf is so book bouquet coded #I love percy sm tho #such. A. CUTIE.#percy jackson x reader #percy jackson x y/n #daughter of aphrodite #pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo fanfic #oneshot #pjo one shot #percy jackson one shot

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ponett · 9 months

Text

Bobby's 2023 Media Wrap-Up

So! Like I said before, this past year I kept a running list of everything I watched, every game I finished, every new album I listened to, etc., and wrote one-paragraph blurbs with my thoughts on every single one. Please enjoy this journey through everything I liked, or didn't like, in 2023, with my favorites of the year listed at the bottom.

(Yes! This is long!!)

Some notes:

I mainly only included things I finished. Exceptions are marked with an asterisk.

I included some YouTube stuff as "TV shows" - mostly particularly long, high effort video essays and documentaries.

I was a bit less adventurous than I'd like to have been this year. Part of this was just that I felt like I was constantly playing catch-up with Big Releases I felt obligated to check out, and part of this was just executive dysfunction from burnout. Wait until you see how long it took me to beat Mario Wonder lmao

Yes, I need to read more books. I don't read a lot of books these days. I need to get back to Discworld.

COLOR KEY

Video Games • TV / Web Video • Movies • Comics • Music

January

1/15: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (MSQ) - Very slow at times, the Primal shit is generally extremely lame to me outside of the boss fights themselves, but god if the quality of life improvements over WoW, the JRPG energy, and the fact that it Actually Has A Story carry it pretty hard.

1/18: Sonic the Hedgehog: Scrapnik Island miniseries - One of the most creative and compelling uses of the Sonic IP… ever? Fantastic little self-contained arc about the struggles of Eggman’s abandoned creations that gracefully weaves between heartfelt optimism and moody horror with some of the best art ever seen in a Sonic comic.

1/18: Mega Man X4 - Glad I finally actually beat this after never even beating any of the Mavericks as a kid! I can see why it’s a lot of peoples’ favorites. The gameplay has very little of that X series bloat and is just fun, especially after getting X’s armor upgrades. (But the story really is a long series of missed opportunities.)

February

2/2: Donks - Felix Colgrave continues to be an exceptional artist. The sound design on this is fantastic and really sells this short as something unique. Had to go back and watch his older stuff again after this.

2/4: Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (3.0 - 3.3 MSQ) - I get it now. I get why people say this is just a proper mainline Final Fantasy game built into the framework of an MMO. That shit ruled. Not even walking back the drama in Ul’Dah from the end of ARR can sour me on it because the main storyline was so strong.

2/8: Disneyland's Forgotten Sci-Fi Rock Band - Live From the Space Stage - A nice and honest tribute to a group of artists who could have easily been forgotten. In hindsight this feels like a precursor to Kevin’s Disney Channel jingle video, a tribute to the unsung artists pouring their hearts into “lesser” art for a megacorporation, art that was designed to be transient but sticks with people nonetheless.

2/9: Metroid Prime Remastered* - Not gonna finish because I just played through the Wii version in 2021, but still. Very, very pretty remaster.

2/16: Theatrhythm Final Bar Line - It’s more Theatrhythm. What more could I want

2/17: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean (anime) - Probably the best part of the anime so far (assuming they continue on to SBR). A near perfect mix of the more structured plot of part 5 with the goofiness of parts 3 and 4 that crescendos into a fantastic, bombastic, emotional, bittersweet ending. The use of footage from the original opening and the new ending set to Roundabout in the finale were perfect, and made me intensely nostalgic for the early days of my JoJo fandom between seasons 1 and 2 of the anime.

2/22: Aggretsuko Season 5 - I don’t really know what to make of this one. Once you get past the agonizing initial arc all about Haida where Retsuko has to be his overbearing mommy GF who flips out and starts spying on him when she’s left on read and chides him when he misbehaves, it feels like an improvement over the previous seasons. But I don’t know how much of that is due to the extremely low bar set by season 4. And then the ending is extremely rushed and anticlimactic. They got legally married and the only acknowledgement was a shot of them signing the paperwork in a montage partway through the final episode?????????

2/24: Double Fine PsychOdyssey - God, what a journey the making of this game was. I already loved 2 Player’s past efforts at documenting Double Fine’s process, but this takes it to a whole new level. This feels culturally significant. The depth and honesty with which they depict not just the nitty gritty of making a game, but also the inherent struggles of working on a collaborative creative work for years at a time, is astounding. Not to mention that they were there to capture the shift from office life to remote work as COVID hit. So much of this would have been nightmarishly stressful to watch if I didn’t already know how successful the game was, but that’s just because they really didn’t sugarcoat it. And yet even after all that, it leaves me feeling optimistic about video games as an art form in a way that the constant headlines about cynical live service games don’t. There are still people out there pouring their hearts into making real art, and this is their story. Everyone who plays video games should watch this.

2/25: Cracker Island (Gorillaz) - New Gorillaz albums feel like less of an event these days, but after Humanz it feels like they’re just more chill with the project and their ambitions with it. Every couple years we get some more laid back jams from Damon along with some fun new collabs. Hard to complain. Favorite track: New Gold

2/25: Pool Kids (Pool Kids) - I discovered this band because Derek knows them and was excited when they got a song added to Fortnite through the Bandcamp collab. Always down to find more cool indie rock bands I can vibe with. The mix of dreamy vocals and energetic riffs on some of the tracks here almost fill the Crying-shaped hole in my heart. Almost… Favorite track: Conscious Uncoupling

2/25: Insane in the Rain (insaneintherainmusic) - I thought it was really funny timing when Carlos announced that his first original project would be a jazz fusion album inspired by acts like T-Square and Casiopea right as I was getting into those two specific bands. The final product does not disappoint. Favorite track: Insane in the Rain

2/26: Get Up Sequences Part Two (The Go! Team) - I’ve never been one to believe that a band’s sound has to remain exactly the same forever, but it really does hit you hard that the first two tracks here sound like classic The Go! Team. Their more recent cleaner sound is still here too, though, for a nice mix of old and new. Favorite track: Divebomb

2/28: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (Season 1) - Oh my god. Oh my god. I got distracted around the time I was finishing SLARPG, but finally catching up now, wow. My assumption that the seemingly lighter tone of the series compared to the prologue was there to lull us into a false sense of security before twisting the knife when war finally breaks out was spot on. This is peak Gundam.

March

3/4: Pizza Tower - One of the best platformers I’ve played in a long time. It transcends its blatant Wario Land inspirations with the sheer speed at which Peppino can move and the way things like the level design, his wall running, and even the hidden ability to do a second lap around the level reward getting into a flow state where you’re just constantly moving. This is the type of game that wants to turn you into a speedrunner. My only real complaint is a few iffy enemy designs that I wish would get patched.

3/6: Bloons TD 6 * - I bought this before bed one night on a nostalgic whim and then the next morning woke up and saw the Steam receipt email on my phone in one of the most “what did I do last night” moments of my life. I like when the monkeys pop the balloons.

3/7: The Book of Boba Fett - I put off finishing this show for a very long time but finally caved upon the release of The Mandalorian season 3. This show spends four episodes failing to make me give a shit about Boba Fett trying to be “the daimyo” and drive the drug trade off of Tatooine, then just gives up and becomes season 2.5 of Mando, which in turn feels like it undercuts the main series. It fails as both its own story and as a spinoff. I know that finishing this after Andor did it no favors, but WHOOF.

3/12: Obi-Wan Kenobi - Some interesting ideas in the first half hinting at a more introspective show, but it’s mostly swept aside in the back half so it can become a generic Star Wars adventure remixing things from A New Hope and Rebels (and apparently Jedi: Fallen Order). Action scenes have zero stakes because you know nothing can happen to any of the returning characters and none of the new ones are particularly interesting. Why there’s a second climax hinging on a Luke Skywalker death fakeout eludes me. Obi-Wan throwing the rocks at Vader is one of the funniest things in Star Wars history. But it was still better than Book of Boba Fett, I guess.

3/19: The King of Braves GaoGaiGar - Wow, cool robot indeed… GaoGaiGar isn’t going to blow anyone away with its writing, but sometimes you just need a really fun monster of the week mecha show with great action and lovably goofy characters. This is a show where like 20% of every episode consists of recycled transformation, combination, and signature attack sequences and I ate it up every time because they look fucking cool as hell. I don’t care. I’d watch Final Fusion another 49 times.

3/21: The Last of Us (HBO) * - Watched the first two episodes out of curiosity, but I’m not sure if I’ll continue because I don’t give a shit about The Last of Us. It’s definitely a well done adaptation, though, even if I know it’s inevitably going to devolve into miserable torture porn with questionable politics if they adapt Part II faithfully. The ending of episode 2 also lines up perfectly with where I stopped in the game in 2013 lmao

3/27: The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse (Folding Ideas) - Another banger from Dan Olson. This time the premise inherently gives him more time to just show off a bunch of stupid ugly bullshit made by crypto guys, which is fun. My main complaint was that I wished he would’ve brought up Second Life more as a point of comparison (a thing I basically always want out of discussion of “the metaverse”), but he at least did touch on it in the last section.

3/31: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog - I can’t believe after years of begging for the supporting cast to get more and better material in a Sonic game I got my wish in the form of a freeware murder mystery VN released for April Fools. This kicked ass.

April

4/7: Berserk - Completed Miura’s run and caught up on the chapters that have been released posthumously. It’s hard to say anything that hasn’t been said about Berserk, universally agreed upon as one of the greats of manga and fantasy fiction as a whole. What begins in its first few volumes as a nihilistic and edgy action comic built to facilitate as much sex and gore as possible quickly evolves into something deeply human and vulnerable and beautiful, both figuratively and in terms of its lavish art. The world sucks and is immeasurably cruel, and you will see that cruelty illustrated in graphic, sickening detail repeatedly throughout the series. (Perhaps a little too often throughout the Golden Age, where it feels like Miura never misses an opportunity to threaten Casca with sexual assault mid-battle.) But the point isn’t to wallow in that misery. It’s the story of a victim of horrific abuse learning to slowly open up to others, having those people he cares about torn away from him in the worst night of his life, hardening himself into a cold killing machine, and then slowly learning to open back up again, even if it means leaving himself vulnerable to more hurt. Anyone who says that the series peaked with the eclipse and went downhill in the “Guts’ JRPG Party” era is missing the point. Guts needed to find new people in his life to care about, to begin to find happiness again. Because no matter what unspeakable things Guts has gone through, it’s still possible for him to heal and to be loved. It takes time, but eventually you stop and realize that life has moved on.

4/8: Dedede’s Drum Dash Deluxe - Skipped it upon release because I didn’t particularly care for the minigame in Triple Deluxe, and I didn’t miss much. It’s fine as a little distraction, but not as a standalone rhythm game with only seven songs. If you don’t bother with the hard modes or chase after high scores this game is 15 minutes long. Oh how I yearn for Kirby to get the Theatrhythm treatment.

4/10: The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar FINAL - Eh… It was okay. Lots of cool robot fights, but said fights are stitched together with a mediocre plot that tries too hard to be more “mature” than its unabashedly schlocky kids’ show predecessor. Not crazy about the ending, either, which tries to be a bittersweet farewell closing off the series once and for all while also teasing that maybe there’ll be ANOTHER sequel after the OVA series they literally called “FINAL.” Ah well.

4/11: The Owl House - Sad to see this one go, but it’s hard to imagine them doing a better finale than this, even if they had gotten the six seasons they deserved. I’m not as obsessed with The Owl House as I probably would’ve been had it come out when I was, like, 20, but it’s a really fantastic show for all the reasons people always say. Great characters, great world, great story. I love that this starry-eyed fantasy story about a teenager finding love and a place where she belongs is also set on the rotting corpse of a titan with Hieronymous Bosch-inspired scenery and freaky monsters everywhere. What a great mix. If anything, I just wish I would’ve watched the first season as it aired so I could’ve had more time with it.

4/29: Mega Man Battle Network 3: Blue Version - FINALLY beat this via the new collection, 20 years after playing it as my first Mega Man game. (Technically my first was White, not Blue, but whatever.) There are more annoyances than I remember - lots of really really bad forced backtracking sections where you have to revisit every previous part of the internet, low chip drop rates, some really aggravating bosses like BubbleMan and KingMan, etc. But it’s still a great time overall. It’s Battle Network. In the back half the story gets surprisingly emotional, too. I was always under the assumption that the Hub stuff never came back up much in the story after 1, so I was pleasantly surprised with how relevant it was to the emotional arc of 3.

4/30: Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun * - Yeah I’m not playing through the whole thing lmao. I just wanted to play the first couple hours for nostalgia’s sake, and as a baseline for how much better the rest are. Even before getting deep in the game and having to deal with all the shit gated between doing two new game+ playthroughs, it’s immediately obvious how much of a downgrade this one is. Tons of glaring errors and typos all over the script, blander music, a way more boring aesthetic for the internet, and a premise that mostly just recycles the tournament idea from 3.

May

5/14: The Venture Bros. - Glad I finally sat down and watched all of this with Anthony after having seen one (1) episode as a teenager and a bunch of random clips in the years since. Great show. Some jokes in the early seasons haven’t aged gracefully, but what the show grows into over time... man. Hank and Dean go from being the butt of the joke to being characters you actually sympathize with - while still also being funny little goofballs. And the journey Henchman 21 goes on throughout the show. Man. Amazing that a comedy like this could run for 20 years and maintain its level of quality. Can’t wait for the movie.

5/18: Future Me Hates Me (The Beths) - Okay yeah I’m now just discovering bands through Fortnite lmao. I can’t complain really, they pick some really great indie artists for the in-game radio stations. Anyway: It’s very easy to win me over with a combination of energetic power pop, catchy guitar riffs, and earnest lyrics like this. One of those albums where three or four tracks in I know I have to buy it. Favorite track: Not Running

5/18: Jump Rope Gazers (The Beths) - Ditto. Favorite track: Dying to Believe

5/18: Expert In A Dying Field (The Beths) - Another good album. (I’m listening to these in release order.) I’ve been a bit slower to warm up to this one, initially thinking it was a little too mellow overall, but it might be my favorite after a few listens. Some real high highs. Interestingly, the lead singer’s New Zealand accent is also coming out more in her singing? Favorite track: Your Side (or maybe Head in the Clouds)

5/19: The Super Mario Bros. Movie - As a Mario fan, I think I enjoyed it? As a movie, less so? It was decent, in spite of feeling like they came up with a list of fun action setpieces first and then wrote the absolute bare minimum possible for the story scenes tying it all together. Full thoughts here. (This is the first movie I’ve seen this year, huh? I really don’t watch a lot of movies.)

5/23: Don't Know What You're In Until You're Out (Gladie) - I feel like I don’t like Gladie as much as I should. Their style of noisy indie rock is very much in my wheelhouse, and I do enjoy listening to them, but I dunno. Maybe it’s that the particular style of vocals makes it more monotonous to me. A good album nonetheless, if not 100% my thing. Favorite track: Nothing

5/24: City Slicker (Ginger Root) - Yes I am still making my way through Bandcamp artists I heard on Fortnite don’t @ me. Any excuse to get me to listen to some cool city pop-inspired funk like this is a good excuse. Favorite track: Loretta

5/24: Rikki (Ginger Root) - Favorite track: Why Try

5/25: Spotlight People (Ginger Root) - Favorite track: The Classic

5/29: Succession - A good dramedy series that increasingly focuses more on the drama than the comedy as it progresses, but it’s hard to complain about that since the drama is so compellingly produced. I enjoyed it. That being said, I kind of rankle at the claims that it’s The Greatest TV Show Of All Time. It’s great, don’t get me wrong. Amazing performances all around. But the show LOVES to spin its wheels, to repeat itself, and to let most of its interesting dramatic developments fizzle out before anything really comes of them, almost as if the show is constantly getting bored with its own ideas. To some extent this is intentional - Logan Roy is the untouchable billionaire, his kids fail at everything (but will nonetheless remain billionaires), and in the long run none of them really give a shit about anything other than their own status. But it’s not like things tend to visibly impact anyone else, either, be they supporting characters or the world at large. Even the Big Scary Election, where the Roy siblings are directly responsible for plunging the nation into chaos, ultimately has zero impact on the finale a mere two episodes later. Certain Other Things do have an impact in the last season, though, allowing things to meaningfully change for the cast and for the show to sit with the ensuing drama, which has stopped me from souring on Succession more. There was finally a payoff for something. But it does still kind of feel like a show that goes in circles until it’s ready to call it quits, even if those circles did contain a lot of great acting and music along the way.

5/29: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts - I’d watched the first 12 episodes when they originally released, but I guess the Netflix binge release and the fact that all three “seasons” came out in one year led to me waiting until it finished… and then I just never got around to finishing it. Glad I fixed that! Really fun and stylish cartoon with an art style reminiscent of Teen Titans, a hip hop-filled soundtrack, dynamic fight scenes, and a colorful post-apocalyptic world filled with mutant (mostly anthropomorphic) animals. I’ll admit that at times I do kinda roll my eyes at Kipo’s unshakeable belief that everyone can be friends in a way that I don’t necessarily with similar shows like Steven Universe, and not every joke lands, but I dunno. It’s a kids’ show. That’s to be expected. It doesn’t detract from the overall package for me.

June

6/1: Craig of the Creek (Season 4) - It’s been years and I’m still processing the fact that kids can turn on Cartoon Network and hear Jeff Rosenstock. Anyway! Craig continues to be one of the best cartoons on TV, consistently funny and creative and way more engaging than a show about a bunch of kids LARPing in the woods has any right to be. This season turned into One Piece with the gang effectively hunting down the Poneglyphs in search of a legendary treasure. The kids think it’ll be magic. It isn't. An increasing number of cartoon logic gags aside, this show is firmly set in the real world. Does that make it any less interesting? Hell no. Season 3 turned a game of capture the flag into an all-out five episode war between the heroes and villains, filled with dramatic turnabouts and a climactic guest appearance from Del the Funky Homosapien. I’m sure however they wrap things up in the (sadly shortened) final season, it’ll be great. (Also? I would watch a whole show based on that “what if” episode that jumped forward to everyone’s 20s.)

6/6: Barry - Holy shit, what a show. I ended up binging it in less than a week in a cycle of “okay, just one more episode.” The way this show is able to swing between tones and genres while still feeling like a cohesive whole is truly masterful. It’s a layered character drama, a tragic crime thriller, a farcical comedy, an understated action series, a surrealist morality play, and a scathing satire of Hollywood, all in one. Even within the criminal underworld subplots the show ranges in tone from Breaking Bad to Paddington 2. And it works! While the show naturally gets bleaker over time as it confronts the repercussions of Barry’s murders, it never completely loses sight of its comedic roots. My favorite episode was easily season 2’s “ronny/lily,” a mostly self-contained episode that somehow manages to keep throwing the perfect curveballs to escalate its dark comedy.

6/12: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition) - Y’all heard of this movie? Pretty good, it turns out. (I’d seen the theatrical cut before, but this was my first time watching the extended edition. I’ve also only seen parts of the other two movies, so it’s time I finally watch all the extended cuts. The Gollum game pushed me to this.)

6/13: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Extended Edition) - give it to us RAW and WRIGGLING

6/17: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Extended Edition) - I’m not crying YOU’RE crying

6/22: Clone High (Season 2) - While the first episode being about “cancel culture” (or, more accurately, a teenager from 2003 being transported to 2023 and putting his foot in his mouth a lot) put a lot of people off, I ended up enjoying the new season of Clone High. The new clones grew on me as the season went on and their roles in the web of teen romance melodrama crystalized, and it made me laugh a lot, and Cleo/Frida is galaxy brained. Also they played one of my favorite Antarctigo Vespucci songs like a minute into the first episode. I don’t think I could really ask for much more.

6/28: The Mandalorian (Season 3) - I'd been watching this weekly but put off the last episode for no real reason. Responses to this season have been all over the place, but my blistering hot take is… it was fine. Is it as good as the first season? Probably not. But Mando no longer needs to carry the whole franchise on its shoulders and set the bar for how good the live action Disney Star Wars shows can be, because Andor exists, and it’s never gonna top Andor. The Mandalorian is free to just be a pulpy space adventure show where Giancarlo Esposito plays a scenery-chewing cartoon villain and a little puppet does wire stunts. These are things Andor cannot and should not do, but that’s Star Wars, baby. It’s delightful. I could watch Grogu get underhand tossed like a sack of flour all day.

July

7/2: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (Season 2) - LOVE WINS. (More nuanced take from way later: It definitely feels like a lot of the more messy political conflicts in this show got swept aside by the big final battle where some more easily resolved family conflicts take center stage. I’m not sure the ending is the most satisfying. But also this show only got half the episode count that damn near every other Gundam show ever made got, so that might be a factor here. Idk. Still one of my favorite Gundams.)

7/4: Final Fantasy XVI (watched Anthony play) - I had to write my longest Medium article ever about this one because I was so frustrated

7/10: Home Movies - “Things I like that I’ve never seen in full” has certainly been a recurring theme this year. Home Movies remains an all-time classic of animated comedy that went out on a high note before things got stale or the characters became parodies of themselves. While it’s mostly known for its funny improvised banter, throughout the last season you can really see the arc where Brendon no longer enjoys making movies, yet he feels obligated to keep using them to escape from the real world. In that light, the ending where the nature of their dysfunctional makeshift family is cemented, Brendon’s camera suddenly breaks, and life moves on really does feel like the perfect note to end on. Truly one of the best to ever do it.

7/15: The Legend of Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom - Wow. Just… wow. I had serious doubts about TotK in the months leading up to release due to how close Nintendo was playing their cards to their chest. I didn’t want this to be a Saints Row IV, where the game is fun enough but the recycled map makes it feel like a rehash. Instead, I found a game that made me look at BotW’s map in a whole new light, brimming with so many more things to do and people to meet. Add on a better, more versatile set of tools, more varied dungeons and bosses, and a story that I felt was told somewhat better and we’ve got a real contender for my new favorite Zelda game. It was hard to tear myself away, but as this list shows, it’s been basically the only game I’ve played since it came out.

7/16: Sonic Prime (Season 2) - I liked the parts with Shadow and Chaos Sonic, but I’ve come to the sad conclusion that most of this show is just mediocre. More thoughts here.

7/18: We ♥ Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie - “I’m a dog, but I love Katamari Damacy.” Truer words have never been spoken.

7/19: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - Pretty good! It didn’t blow me away, but after how bad the Bay movies got I’m just thankful to have a decently cohesive Transformers movie where the human story is okay and I like the bots (although half of them needed more screen time), even if it is just another Hollywood blockbuster about two sides fighting over a macguffin that devolves into a big CGI battle against an army of nameless monsters in the third act. This is basically a mid-tier MCU movie but with Transformers, which won’t do much for most people, but again: the bar was underground.

7/22: The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart - God DAMN. A phenomenal ending for the series. While I would have loved to see a full final season to get some more one-off episodes in there, this doesn’t feel creatively compromised in any way–either due to the time constraints, or due to a desire to make it more marketable as a movie. It really does feel like they just took their outlines for the canceled final season and gently massaged them into the shape of an 84-minute movie, and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s completely on par with the previous seasons. A hilarious and fitting sendoff for one of the greats of adult animation.

7/23: Beautiful Katamari - This was one of my first Xbox 360 games, but a frustrating temperature-based level made me put it down for 16 years. “Maybe it won’t be as bad now that I’ve beaten the first two games and am better at Katamari,” I thought. Nope! Still an absolutely dogshit level. But also, turns out the whole game is only like two hours long lmao. It’s still Katamari, so it’s still fun - the final level in particular, which seamlessly takes you from ground level all the way to space, feels like a logical endpoint for the series - but beyond that it just doesn't have the same soul without Keita Takahashi's input.

August

8/4: Doom Singer (Chris Farren) - I’ve been waiting so long for Chris and Jeff to do another Antarctigo Vespucci album, but god damn. This is the best of Chris’s solo work, and a contender for his best record, period. Every track’s a banger, with more energy than some of his previous solo work but also a good deal of variety. Favorite tracks: First Place, Cosmic Leash

8/4: Transformers Earthspark (Season 1) - This show had a bit of an uneven start, unsure if it wanted to have the emotional maturity of a more serious action cartoon or a preschool cartoon where the characters have little kid mood swings and outbursts and learn basic lessons. It also felt like it was speedrunning its Wholesome Found Family Dynamic with characters who just met, which didn’t feel earned. While these problems never completely go away (see: the cheap and corny way the otherwise very dark season finale suddenly resolves), the show improves quickly, and the positives outweigh the negatives. It’s so great to have a Transformers cartoon that feels fresh, giving us a post-war setting with a bunch of new characters and new dynamics between the Cybertronians and the humans. The returning characters are also uniformly great as the old veterans overseeing the new generation. (Reformed Megatron! Danny Pudi as Bumblebee! Steve Blum returning as Starscream! Keith David as Grimlock!!!) And those super dynamic action scenes! I can nitpick, but Earthspark’s a ton of fun, and easily the best new Transformers cartoon since Prime and Animated.

8/5: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (remaster) - Everyone who told me this game was a masterpiece was right. I had played the first chapter when it dropped as the demo for the iOS version years ago, but never went further than that until now. What a game. Absolutely incredible through and through. Great story, great twists, great characters, great puzzles, great art direction. Everything comes together so perfectly to form a totally unique, unforgettable package, a top tier video game murder mystery. Everyone should play this, preferably going in as blind as possible.

8/15: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Season 16) - Wow! Recent seasons of Sunny have been kind of up and down, with some interesting experiments (Mac Finds His Pride, the Ireland arc, etc.) paired with some comedic duds. Most of this latest season is standard fare for the series with fewer big creative swings, but it’s just hit after hit in terms of comedy. Not a single dud, whether we’re seeing Mac and Dennis try to start a rental business for inflatable furniture or watching the gang meet Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, believing the entire time that the latter is Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle. Even the attempts at topical comedy landed better. Easily the funniest season in years.

8/16: One Piece Film Gold - It’s easy to see why this one has kind of been forgotten in the wake of Stampede and Film Red, which revolve around established fan favorite characters, but this was still pretty fun. Perhaps a little too long, but it’s fun to see the Straw Hats fool around in a giant casino and do a heist. They definitely cranked the fanservice up even more than usual in this one, though, as I probably should have expected for a movie made alongside the anime’s adaptation of Dressrosa.

8/17: One Piece: Stampede - This one goes for a different kind of fanservice. While most One Piece movies are isolated from the ongoing plot and its expanded cast of characters, Stampede instead asks “What if we just put damn near every active character on the same island and had them fight?” The answer: a fun time! It would get old if all of the movies were like this, but after a bunch of movies that are just like “the Straw Hats are gonna land on another new island and fight some more weird guys” it’s fun to see characters like Law and Buggy and Smoker get in on the fun. It’s also nice to get a movie with the Wano era art style, and Usopp surprisingly gets some really good character moments in here.

8/18: One Piece Film Red - This really is the best of the One Piece movies, huh? (Baron Omatsuri is a close second.) It really feels like a change of pace after the last four with the most interesting and emotionally engaging story out of any of them. And even if the events of these movies are never canon, it still feels significant in my understanding of Shanks as a character as we move into the final phase of the manga.

8/21: Pikmin 4 - The opening hour of the game made me really question if they’d changed too much, with all the focus on your new dog unit over your Pikmin and the extremely dull, drawn out dialogue scenes with your new companions back at the base. But once I got into the swing of things I had a blast. This is probably my new favorite Pikmin game. There’s a great mix of activities here to keep things fresh. I also really ended up liking Oatchi’s role as basically your second captain who can also serve as your tank or a rideable mount. The Dandori stuff and nighttime missions in particular show off how useful Oatchi is for your multitasking without necessarily overshadowing the Pikmin.

8/22: Never Get Tired: The Bomb the Music Industry! Story - I literally backed this on Kickstarter eight years ago (my name is in the credits!) and then never got around to watching it for no reason. It’s on YouTube now, and Jeff’s got a new album out next week, so now feels like the perfect time to watch it. And man… what a great documentary. Obviously I’m just a fan of the band, but this also really spoke to me as an artist. Jeff wanting to stick to his principles and give out his music for free and play cheap all ages shows, his discomfort over the idea of selling merch, and the struggles that come with not playing the game like that… It's hard. They readily admit that Jeff is an idealist, that people fight him on this stuff, that he’s missed out on some big opportunities because of these stances, and that he’s had to compromise a bit on some of these things over time. But that incredible climax with their final show, including a full opening performance of the slowly building “Campaign for a Better Next Weekend” and the closing performance of “Future 86” where the whole audience is singing along as the members of the band are hugging and crying… it’s beautiful. This may have been a band where the members had to go back to their shitty day jobs after every tour because they weren’t selling out arenas, but their art meant something to people, and that makes it all worth it.

8/25: Nimona - I haven’t read the original comic (yet), so I can’t compare them too much, but it’s nonetheless pretty apparent that some things were softened and easy kids’ movie jokes were added by the studio to squeeze this graphic novel for teens into a PG animated movie. Regardless, the emotional throughline hits REALLY hard, particularly the very blatant trans allegory and the climax. (It’s no wonder Disney was afraid of this movie seeing the light of day lmao.) The animation is also very squishy and fun to watch throughout. Great movie.

8/26: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - Spider-Verse really has done so much for animation, huh? This one was as good as everyone said. Beautiful use of stylized color and lighting throughout, and every time this movie very conspicuously shifted to different framerates for a flashy fight scene it owned. Very cute and heartwarming story, too, which thankfully gave its second act plenty of time to explore the cast and let them go on their journey, unlike a certain plumber movie that came out a few months later. Also I would let Death [redacted]

8/28: Holocure: Save the Fans! - This isn't really something I can beat, but I've been addicted to Holocure lately. I don't even watch VTubers aside from maybe seeing a funny Korone animation every now and then, this is just a really, really good freeware Vampire Survivors clone with a huge roster of varied characters to pick from.

8/31: HELLMODE (Jeff Rosenstock) - A new album from Jeff is always a major event for me. If there were any worries that he was starting to go soft at 40 (because one of the three singles off this album was a gentle acoustic piece), the frantic opening of this album put those worries to rest. The first two tracks are Jeff screaming out for help as he’s pulled in a million directions by the chaotic state of the world, a theme that becomes the thesis of the album. I’d say it lags slightly in the middle, but overall this is another extremely well-rounded record full of bangers that’s unapologetically Jeff, with possibly my favorite closing track he’s ever done. Favorite tracks: I WANNA BE WRONG, 3 SUMMERS

September

9/3: One Piece (live action, Season 1) - They did it. I can’t believe it, but they did it. While I have my nitpicks (Usopp and Sanji don’t get enough big moments to shine), this is an extremely solid and faithful adaptation of the first few arcs of One Piece with a great cast. For the most part the changes feel smart and logical, and the big emotional beats of the story are all there and executed very well. I doubted it a little in episodes 2-4, where the Orange Town and Syrup Village arcs saw some major changes to shift the action indoors, and the increased focus on the drama in favor of repeating every gag and battle from the manga 1:1 took a bit of getting used to, but by the end I was having a blast. It’s a different take on One Piece, but it still feels like One Piece. Genuinely very excited for season 2.

9/4: Pseudoregalia - A great little N64-style 3D Metroidvania focused on platforming and very satisfying movement. I always love entries in the genre that are less prescriptive in what order you have to tackle areas in, a la Symphony of the Night or Hollow Knight, and this one’s great in that regard. While there are a number of new moves to find, most of the map is open to you very early in the game, and smart use of your moveset can allow you to “sequence break” without even realizing it. (You would not believe how long I went without getting the wall run.) I do wish it had a map, but that’s already being patched in.

9/6: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk * - Not a bad game at all, but I quickly remembered how bad I am at skating games, so like… eh? Not sure I have much desire to play past chapter 2. Also the soundtrack is sadly kinda hit or miss for me outside of the obvious Naganuma tunes.

9/9: The History of the Minnesota Vikings (Dorktown) - Jon Bois never misses. Even as someone who doesn’t actively follow sports, Jon Bois is a master storyteller, using graphs and statistics and funny anecdotes to explore these deeply human stories. He can convey why people care so much about these teams, these people, and sports in general, and how our popular sports reflect on American culture. He could tell the story of just about any team or player in any sport and I just know I’ll come out the other side a misty-eyed fan. And what a fascinating cast of characters we have this time, with origin stories for everything from the Hail Mary pass to a Minnesota state supreme court judge to the Griddy. Nine hours well spent.

9/10: Timespinner - A fun and highly polished Metroidvania that maybe doesn’t quite have enough of its own identity in its quest to replicate Symphony of the Night…but also, like, this was pitched as a Symphony throwback on KickStarter in a pre-Bloodstained, pre-Hollow Knight world, so I can’t really blame ‘em! Stopping time to avoid boss attacks is fun, the pixel art is gorgeous, and I liked the dark science fantasy story about warring empires and meddling with time a lot more than I thought I would - lore journal text dumps and all.

9/14: The Decay of Sam & Cat (Quinton Reviews) - All the stuff at the end with Matt Bennett (the actor who played Robbie on Victorious and Sam & Cat) in this was really good and sweet. It’s that kind of thing that makes these videos feel like they’re still worthwhile on some level. But the padding and the things Quinton chooses to spend the colossal runtime on does drive me more and more insane with each passing Nick sitcom video. I don’t know how much longer he can keep this schtick up. I hope he’s able to move on to other things before too terribly long instead of continuing to extend this “miniseries.”

9/19: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales - AKA Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 1.5. It’s fun for the same reasons Peter’s first game was fun. I had a good time swinging around New York again in preparation for the sequel, and there’s a lot of cute stuff with Miles becoming Harlem’s neighborhood hero, but WOW did the Underground v. Roxxon conflict fall flat for me.

9/20: I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson - I understand so many posts now.

9/25: Spider-Man (2002) (rewatch) - It’s you who’s out, Gobby! OUT OF YOUR MIND!

9/25: Futurama (Season 8) - I was ready to be a hater, recalling the fact that Futurama has already had three “perfect endings” with the show getting a little weaker with every revival. Then I watched the first new episode on a whim and thought it wasn’t bad, so I was like, eh, sure, I’ll watch the rest. Overall Hulurama is hit or miss. There are chuckles to be had, and it sure as hell beats modern Simpsons, but almost every episode is either a belated take on an overplayed Topical Issue (the pandemic, Amazon, cancel culture, etc.) or a direct sequel to an old episode people liked. Or both! It’s also really noticeable that certain voice actors sound way older - Billy West is struggling with the Fry voice in particular, and it hurts his comedic timing. But just when all hope seemed lost after the nigh-incomprehensible toy-themed anthology episode, possibly the worst episode of the entire series… the last episode, where the Planet Express crew explores whether or not the universe could be a simulation, was really, really solid. Great note to end on to make me not regret my time with this season as a whole.

9/26: Spider-Man 2 (2004) (rewatch) - Once the GOAT, always the GOAT.

9/27: Spider-Man 3 (rewatch) - Revisiting this movie for the first time since I saw it in theaters… it’s not bad. It’s fine! It continues to have the heart and sincerity that make the first two movies work. It’s just not as concise with three villains vying for the spotlight, but I also wouldn’t cut any of them, necessarily. I guess Eddie/Venom would be the easiest, but Peter getting the black suit and giving in to his resentment feels too central to cut. (Yes, even with Emo Peter becoming a meme.)

9/28: Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake - I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this one, especially since I was never really a fan of the genderbend episodes in the original show. (At the time they mostly just felt like an excuse to crank up the teen romance stuff to 11.) But MAN. This was a fantastic coda to the original series. It made me care about Fionna and Cake and their friends as their own characters separate from their original counterparts, it gave the Simon/Betty arc a much more satisfying (if no less bittersweet) resolution than the original finale had time to do, and it even managed to be a multiverse story that didn’t make me roll my eyes in 2023. A+ all around. Makes me wanna rewatch the original show again. [spoiler: I did]

9/29: Meanwhile (aivi & surasshu) - It’s been a whole decade–they were busy with, you know, all the music in Steven Universe, among other things–but we finally have a new aivi & surasshu album! Their chiptune/piano fusion style is familiar, but they’ve definitely grown as composers in subtle ways. Favorite track: Time Travel

October

10/1: This is Financial Advice (Folding Ideas) - A lot of the nitty gritty finance law stuff turned into white noise for me, but still, great video. I had no idea that the GameStop stock craze devolved into this bizarre cult that thinks they’re going to crash the global economy and rise from the ashes as the new kings with the value of their GME stocks. Glad this video exists to try and balance out the narrative.

10/5: Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon DLC - Good ideas, absurdly frustrating and tedious execution. Full thoughts here.

10/10: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (rewatch) - I didn’t plan this, but very fitting that I would end up rewatching this on 10/10.

10/12: Half-Life Alyx but the Gnome is Self-Aware (wayneradiotv) - ha he! (Seriously though, that finale was a fucking masterpiece. The RTVS crew has an incredible knack for using the framing device of video game livestreams to blur the lines between comedy and horror, or ironic anti-humor and complete sincerity. I’ve never seen anything else like this.)

10/15: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Not sure how much I can say that hasn’t already been said. The most visually creative movie I’ve ever seen, grounded by some really excellent storytelling about Miles (and now Gwen) that’s probably better than his actual comics. But it also does feel like it’s about to end and then the movie just keeps going like ten times over lmao. Can’t wait to watch this a second time on a better TV.

10/20: Sonic Superstars - A mostly really solid and fun 2D Sonic game that’s unfortunately dragged down by an extremely hodgepodge soundtrack and some overly drawn out boss fights. I spent HOURS trying to beat the final boss of the bonus scenario (which is required for the true ending in this one) before giving up. Really a shame that that’s the note I’m leaving the game on, because I otherwise enjoyed it, but ah well. More thoughts here.

10/27: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 - Another good Spider-Man game from Insomniac. Liked the story more than the one in Miles Morales, but maybe not as much as the first game. Extensive thoughts here.

10/28: Venom - Was in the mood for more Venom after the game. As expected this was not a very good movie, but the dynamic between Eddie and Venom made it a fun watch. Tom Hardy is constantly about to shit his pants in this movie. It’s great.

10/28: Venom: Let There Be Carnage - I had a way better time with this one. Is this a good movie? No. But it cranks the insanity of the first movie up to 11. Goofy as fuck in an extremely watchable way.

November

11/5: Pluto - An absolutely masterful series that anyone interested in sci-fi needs to watch. The anime adaptation was great, and I immediately understand why people who’ve read the manga speak so highly of it. Really makes me want to get into Astro Boy more, and also read some of Urasawa’s other works.

11/18: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off - Wow, just wow. When news of a Scott Pilgrim anime broke I was cautiously curious to see if we’d get a more direct adaptation of the comics, and instead it veered off in the exact opposite direction in the best way possible. This is almost entirely a different story, one that’s in conversation with the previous versions (sometimes in very meta ways), and I think it’s really valuable to see O’Malley revisiting these characters with new things to say about them. The major story divergence gives us a chance to examine the characters from a new angle - particularly Ramona, who’s the real protagonist of this version, and the evil exes, who completely steal the show. This was a great reminder of why I fell in love with this series as a teenager. I now genuinely hope we get more Scott Pilgrim.

11/22: Void Rivals (Issues #1 - #6) - The first arc of the new Robert Kirkman series that kicked off Skybound’s new “Energon Universe” is now complete, and I’m left thinking Void Rivals is… okay? I thought the first issue was a decent (if not particularly original) sci-fi comic with an appealing art style, which just so happens to also briefly have a Transformer in it so there can be a Big Surprise. And the series still hasn’t quite shaken that feeling to me. It’s an okay sci-fi series that arbitrarily dedicates a couple of pages of every issue to something from Transformers, but I’m not really sure what the shared universe stuff adds to Void Rivals, or what Void Rivals adds to Transformers and GI Joe. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

11/22: Journey to EPCOT Center: A Symphonic History (Defunctland) - Yeah, gotta be honest, I only got halfway through this one. It seems like Kevin just 1) really wanted to push himself creatively and 2) make a love letter to Epcot, and while I respect that, I think it suffers as a historical documentary. It’s Fantasia but for the creation of Epcot. That might be very impressive on a technical level, but it feels more like a piece of Disney propaganda than prior Defunctland videos due to a lack of context and nuance.

11/24: Aperture Desk Job - A short, sweet, and funny little tech demo for my new Steam Deck set in the Portal universe. More effort was definitely put into this than was strictly necessary.

11/26: ESCHATOS - I am not good at bullet hell games, but I enjoy them from time to time and I really love this one’s FM synth soundtrack, so I picked it up on a whim in the Steam sale. I only beat it on Easy, but still, I had a lot of fun with it! It’s straightforward but very flashy, with the camera dynamically zooming around from set piece to set piece at ridiculous speeds and each level segueing directly into the next. The lack of a powerup system on the main mode in favor of just needing to know when to use your different shot types makes it feel very approachable.

11/27: Lunistice - A great little 3D platformer with a good soundtrack that I had fun hunting down all the secrets in. This is an easy recommendation for fans of games like Kirby or Klonoa - whimsical games set in colorful dream worlds where the underlying story can get a bit more somber. (Although the story in this one is mostly told through mildly cryptic lore dumps, so your mileage there may vary.)

11/28: Spark the Electric Jester 2 - The leap from 2D to 3D here is impressive, but this is very clearly a rough draft for Spark 3. Very, very fun Sonic-style 3D platforming, but the combat is lacking and the storytelling is just kinda bad. More extensive thoughts on this and the above two games here.

December

12/2: Fortnite (Chapter 4) - This was my first full chapter of Fortnite, after having been roped into the game by the siren songs of Zero Build mode and Goku during Chapter 3. This means it’s harder for me to compare this chapter to previous ones, but still, Fortnite remains a genuinely very well made Battle Royale shooter that’s a blast with friends. If I have any complaint about this Chapter, it’s that they would regularly introduce zany ideas and then slowly reel them back in, whether it was the Augment system or the increasingly mundane movement items. It also felt like it was a little too easy to get the perfect loadout in every match, meaning the final showdown would almost always be against players with Slurp Juice and gold shotguns. And I missed the smaller mid-season map updates of Chapter 3. But overall I still had a really good time, and look forward to playing more for the foreseeable future.

12/4: Plagiarism and You(Tube) (HBomberguy) - This will get written off by many as “YouTuber drama,” but this really is an excellent video essay that feels like the kick in the pants that YouTube needs. If video essayists are gonna be a major source of information for so many, then they gotta have standards. I also think it does a good job of highlighting the people that have been plagiarized and trying to drive more attention their way in an attempt to right those wrongs.

12/6: Transformers (Skybound comic) - We only got the first three issues of this in 2023, but I just HAVE to say something about how incredible this series is here. Daniel Warren Johnson is knocking it out of the park. This is the new bar for Transformers. The hand-inked art is extremely dynamic and full of character, and the story is using the familiar beats of G1 Transformers but doing very new things with them. You can tell this from the very first page, but the emotional scene of Optimus accidentally crushing a deer in the forest and realizing how fragile life is on Earth sealed the deal for me. And yet in the very same comics Optimus can do suplexes and clotheslines and lord knows how many other wrestling moves on Decepticons, and it doesn’t feel like tonal whiplash? These comics just fucking rule, and anyone with even the slightest interest in Transformers should be reading them.

12/8: What We Do in the Shadows (Season 5) - [spoilers] WWDITS has very much settled into being a status quo show. Every season has its own little arc where one or two things change to keep things interesting, but then everything returns to normal by the end. Guillermo finally becoming a vampire, only to become a human again in the end, might just be the most egregious example of this yet. But also… the show’s still really funny? And I continue to be happy that Kristen Schaal has stuck around as a series regular as the Guide. So it’s hard to complain. I could see the show running out of steam over the next few seasons, but it’s still hitting for me right now.

12/12: Pony Island - Finally got around to this since the trailer for the sequel dropped. I feel like playing this years later in a post-Inscryption world where Pony Island is a known quantity kind of lessens its impact, but still, it’s a fun and funny puzzle game where you try to hack your way out of a possessed arcade machine. I’m not sure I found it particularly scary, but I’m not sure it’s supposed to be? The way the game messes with you during the Asmodeus “boss fight” was probably the highlight for me. I also like being able to say things like “The part where you have to not kill Jesus was so hard. I kept getting terrible butterfly patterns.”

12/16: Breaking Bad VR but the AI is Self-Aware (wayneradiotv) - As always, Wayne and co.’s commitment to the bit is unrivaled. This kind of got interpreted as just a way to troll HLVRAI fans, but so many moments in this genuinely made me laugh out loud.

12/18: Soul of Sovereignty Prelude - As someone who would list Cucumber Quest as a big creative influence, I was naturally very excited for this first chapter of GGDG’s new visual novel. Their mentality of both scaling things back in terms of labor while also going more shamelessly self-indulgent in terms of storytelling after burning out on making webcomics has really spoken to me, and WOW, the end result of that new process of theirs is shaping up to be something really special. The art and music are sparse but extremely evocative, giving you the rough sketch of the world and letting your mind fill in the rest. The story blends literary high fantasy vibes with the style of fantasy seen in ‘90s JRPGs (you can definitely tell this came from an idea for an RPG), but rather than constantly winking at the audience and making self-aware video game references it plays these storytelling ideas extremely sincerely, giving them real dramatic weight while still indulging in fun tropes to their fullest extent. While it’s a far cry from their most famous work with much more mature content, GGDG always excels at creating characters and worlds that immediately grab me. I can’t wait for the rest.

12/18: Barbie - I’m only… what, five months late for the whole Barbenheimer thing? Perfect timing. Anyway! On the one hand, I get the critiques saying that this movie is just a major corporation funding a self-aware feminist critique of their own product as a marketing ploy. And I kinda agree with that. And the movie is a little too long, and I don’t really know what to think of the way the Barbie/Ken conflict plays out. Anthony asked me to summarize what the story ended up being about, and I had no idea what to even say. But also… I did still like the movie? We don’t get a lot of cartoonish, absurdist, fourth wall breaking comedies like this anymore, and this is a good one of those. Also the whole cast is great, the set design is kind of stunning, and the cinematography is consistently appealing. I wouldn’t say it’s a revolutionary work of feminist filmmaking by any stretch, but it’s a good comedy movie.

12/21: Dr. Stone: New World - Man, Dr. Stone is great. I’ve said this many times, but I just love that this series uses all the trappings of shounen that would normally be used to hype up the protagonist learning a new move to instead hype up things like the protagonist building a loom or a hot air balloon. It’s shounen Bill Nye. I didn’t completely love everything about the Treasure Island arc this season, but it all built towards a really fun climax with a lot of satisfying turnabouts where the heroes use their ingenuity to just barely win.

12/23: The History of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out World Records (Summoning Salt) - Truly one of my favorite Summoning Salt videos ever, even with how repetitive Punch-Out can get to watch. It’s just so hard to beat “and that runner… was me.”

12/24: Super Mario Bros. Wonder - What more can be said that hasn’t already been said? It’s the best and most creative 2D Mario game since the ‘90s. The only real flaws are that it’s a little easy, the Search Party stages are annoying in singleplayer, and I wish that every boss prior to the final boss wasn’t just some form of Bowser Jr. fight. But those aren’t nearly enough to drag the whole experience down. It was a blast.

12/24: Do a Powerbomb! - Got this from Anthony as a birthday present. This is the previous series by the creative team currently doing the new Transformers comics I was gushing about a few entries ago. Even with the high bar set by those comics, Do a Powerbomb! exceeded my expectations. Holy shit. An absolutely entrancing fantasy wrestling miniseries full of dynamic, energetic action and tons of heart. These comics where a guy wrestles a giant talking orangutan almost made me cry. Twice. An instant favorite.

12/25: Adventure Time (rewatch) - We ended up finishing our rewatch of Adventure Time (the main series, anyway) on my 30th birthday, which feels appropriate. I already kinda knew this, but this rewatch has truly confirmed that Adventure Time is my favorite TV series of all time. The entire show is even better on a full series rewatch. In hindsight, even parts that annoyed me when they aired end up being important parts of the beautiful tapestry that is this series. The many low points of Finn’s adolescent love life are important stepping stones in his growth as a person, which leaves him in an extremely satisfying place by the end. Jake having kids didn’t get to be a huge status quo change because they grew up instantly, but then they did a bunch of fun episodes about Jake’s relationships with his adult children that deepened him as a character. And most of the big lore questions they kept teasing over the years (“Where’d the humans go?” “Who are Finn’s parents?” “When’s Finn gonna get a robot arm?” etc.) ended up getting satisfying and creative answers, because the show left itself the room to figure those things out later. This is a truly special, one-of-a-kind series, one that lasted nearly 300 episodes and yet still seems like it was over too soon. And yes, I did in fact cry during the final montage, like I knew I would. I will always cherish this show with all of my heart.

12/25: Olive the Other Reindeer (rewatch) - Haven’t seen this one since I was a kid! It was a favorite of mine back then, and while it might not be quite as funny as I remember it’s still very cute, with a 2D/3D hybrid art style that remains very unique and appealing. As an adult I can also appreciate the cast they got for this, with like half the cast of Futurama bolstered by guests like Michael Stipe from REM and The Sopranos’ Joe Pantoliano.

12/26: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio - Anthony and I capped off our Christmas with the most jolly and festive stop motion movie of all! Jokes aside, man, what a beautiful movie. The animation is immaculate, and we really just don’t get children’s animated films like this anymore. Ones that overtly feature real world politics and religion and so many other dark themes in a way that doesn’t talk down to kids or sugarcoat things. This one hits hard. We need more movies like this.

12/31: Oppenheimer - This was an interesting one. Despite being three hours, the way that first hour jumps around in time makes it feel like Oppenheimer is constantly being propelled forward through life at a breakneck pace, swept up by the rising tide of nationalism in spite of his personal left wing politics, never really reflecting on what he’s doing until it’s too late. Then when he’s no longer useful to the empire, he’s chewed up and spat out, only to eventually be honored as a national hero as a symbolic gesture. It’s a compelling story. However, I’m a little torn on how certain aspects of history were framed. Does the abstraction of the bombings detract from the true weight of those events, in favor of sympathizing with the man who built the bomb? Or is it clever a way to show how the realities of the war were compartmentalized away by people who were complicit in its most heinous acts of violence? One minute a bunch of physicists are talking theory, thousands of miles away from the theaters of war, and the next they’ve killed 200,000 people. So which is it? Eh, probably somewhere in the middle, I guess. But I liked it overall.

12/31: Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe - I’ve been really surprised by how good this rerelease is. It kind of flew under the radar for me. I liked the original game, but at the time it also almost felt like the New Super Mario Bros. of Kirby. It was a straightforward throwback game where you went through a grass world, then a desert world, then a water world, etc., and also they added four player co-op. But returning to this one after the kinda mid Star Allies has made me appreciate just how solid RtDL is as a Kirby game. I really like the updated graphics, too - yes, even the new cel shaded outlines around the characters - even though I didn’t think it looked that great in screenshots. Also the two new copy abilities (Sand and Mecha) are fun, the minigame collection is shockingly fleshed out to the point that they could’ve sold it as a standalone eShop game, the collectible character masks are fun, and the new epilogue mode where you play as Magolor is one of the coolest bonus modes they’ve ever done. This is a top tier Kirby remake any fan of the series should check out.

Ongoing things I followed in 2023 that don't have a blurb:

Halo Infinite multiplayer

IDW Sonic the Hedgehog (main series + specials)

One Piece

Chainsaw Man

My Hero Academia (not caught up)

The JOJOlands (not caught up)

Things I started in 2023 that I still need to finish:

Freedom Planet 2

Hi-Fi Rush

Live A Live

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Picross 3D Round 2

Rhythm Heaven MegaMix

Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team ProtoMan

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Spark the Electric Jester 3

Sonic Dream Team

One Piece (Wano arc, anime)

Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 (I’ve already read the Shibuya arc already in the manga, though)

Astro Boy (2003 anime)

Futurama (original run rewatch)

One Piece (manga reread)

The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee/Ditko era)

Scott Pilgrim series (reread)

And finally... my favorites of 2023!!!

Overall favorite game: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Favorite indie game: Pseudoregalia

Games remastered in 2023 that are now among my all-time faves: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, We Love Katamari

Most pleasant surprise in gaming: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Favorite film: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Favorite live action show: Barry

Favorite anime: Pluto

Favorite anime written by a Canadian guy and an American guy based on the Canadian guy's old graphic novel series: Scott PIlgrim Takes Off

Favorite live action adaptation of an anime that I still can't believe they didn't fuck up: One Piece

Favorite Western cartoon: Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake

Favorite older cartoon I only got around to watching in its entirety this year: The Venture Bros.

Favorite documentary: Double Fine PsychOdyssey

Favorite semi-improvised semi-scripted absurdist comedy/horror/tragedy Twitch livestream performance art thing: Half-Life Alyx but the Gnome is Self-Aware finale (wayneradiotv)

Favorite manga: Chainsaw Man

Favorite older manga that I only read this year: Berserk

Favorite Western comic book: Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers

Favorite album: HELLMODE (Jeff Rosenstock)

And that's a wrap!!!!! Happy new year, everyone! Here's to me maybe actually reading a goddamn book this year

#bobby writes #i don't have a writing tag so i'm making one now to save this and other things

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just-aake · 10 months

Text

Boundless Devotion - Part X

Pairing: princess!Natasha Romanoff x fem!reader

Summary: MedievalAU. Natasha is the eldest princess of the Romanov Kingdom. As the time of her coronation approaches, she is suddenly forced to make a decision – either find herself a partner or her parents will choose one for her.

Warnings: slight angst, violence/abuse

Words: 6296

The once warm and bright morning sun has since disappeared behind looming gray clouds as a gentle breeze drifted through your open window, bringing a subtle coldness to your room.

Despite the gloomy skies and the promise of rain, you can imagine yourself enjoying this kind of ambiance, sitting in your window seat with a good book, accompanied by the soothing sounds of rainfall as you read.

That would have been a nice way to spend the remainder of the day — if it had been your choice.

At this point, you’ve gotten used to your father’s strict and outrageous behavior. Forcing you to stay in your room is arguably not the worst thing he’s done to you, so there's not much point in getting angry.

Besides, you have a certain someone who is already upset enough on your behalf.

“That insufferable tyrant of a man! He doesn't care about anyone but himself, always stalking around with that condescending attitude of his...”

Sitting at your desk, you glance up from your book to look at Wanda, who paces around angrily as she continues her rants of frustration about your father.

Seeing the familiar red mist emerging around her hands as she gets more heated, you decide to call out to her.

“Wanda, your powers are reacting to your emotions,” you remind her.

Thanks to Carol’s gift of the sorcery books, you and Wanda have learned more about her powers, such as how they work and the things she can do.

With enough time and practice, Wanda can eventually gain control of her powerful abilities without it causing too much of a strain on her.

In the meantime, however, as her powers grow stronger, they have recently been appearing more frequently and unexpectedly, especially during emotional moments like these.

Wanda looks down at her hands in confusion before sighing and dissipating the red mist with a wave of her hand. The red glow in her eyes also fades back to its original green color — a new effect of her powers that you both recently discovered.

Your expression twists down slightly in concern at the sight.

Hiding Wanda’s abilities from others, especially your father, will be more difficult if this continues, and your original plan to quickly find a partner so that you can take yourself and the twins away from him is not progressing as well as you hoped.

Then again, at the beginning of your search for a partner, you never expected to find yourself in a fake relationship with Natasha — the same relationship the princess had pointed out this morning as nearing its end, and you know she was right.

With Rumlow hopefully having given up on pursuing you after the way you treated him as well as Natasha’s encouragement for you to be with someone else, it reminded you to refocus on your original goal of finding a decent partner for yourself.

However, now this time, you have to deal with getting over your feelings for the red-haired princess as you continue your search.

You internally sigh at the difficulty of your situation.

Why did your feelings for Natasha have to be brought to the forefront of your heart after all this time?

It was simpler when the two of you just remained as friends, without all of the pretending complicating your relationship.

Unfortunately, you don’t have time to deal with your confusing feelings right now.

There is a more pressing matter.

Your eyes glance to Wanda in contemplation.

Maybe you should consider asking Kate about taking in Wanda for a bit to give yourself some time to review your plans.

Though, you already know Wanda would reject the idea since it would mean she has to leave your side.

You wipe away your worried expression when Wanda turns to you.

Placing her hands on her hips, she questions your calm attitude.

“I don’t understand how you’re not upset about this. He’s basically restricting your freedom.”

“Well, I still have you and Pietro,” you point out before shrugging. “Plus I was going to continue my research anyway, so it’s not like I’m going anywhere else today.”

Wanda huffs at your response, crossing her arms and looking away from you exasperatedly to glare at the wall.

With Wanda somewhat calmer, you return your attention to the book on your desk that you were previously reading.

Despite what you said earlier, instead of continuing your research, you were actually reading accounts detailing the previous war between the Romanov and Stark kingdoms again, specifically focusing on any sections about Captain James Barnes.

His backstory was compelling.

Despite a tragic accident resulting in the loss of his arm, Barnes still rose in rank to become the Captain of the Stark Kingdom where he served with loyalty for many years and was even a formidable force during the war.

Everything was going well for him — prestige, honor, strength. He was well-liked by all in the kingdom.

Then that one tragic event took everything away.

All the books depict the same conclusion after the war. Captain Barnes killed the Stark king, queen, and their newborn daughter in cold blood on their way home.

No further details are provided other than that.

Furrowing your brows, an uncomfortable feeling nags at you about the strangeness of the situation.

Why would anyone with his kind of reputation do something like that?

Your suspicion from your previous conversation with Queen Melina about the Black Widow operations emerges again concerning the captain.

Despite your father’s denial of any involvement in that tragedy, this connection could be a possible explanation for the animosity between the two of them earlier.

However, it doesn’t explain the mystery behind why this so-called stranger seems to recognize you or be so concerned about your life here.

A commotion outside your room interrupts your thoughts, and Pietro’s voice echoes from behind your door.

“Move! She’s not going to run out the moment you open the door!”

You laugh lightly at his words, turning to see the other twin slipping inside with an annoyed huff.

“Man, I hate these new guards,” Pietro comments as he shuts the door behind him.

His hair is slightly disheveled, probably from all the running, and tucked under his arm, he holds an elegantly wrapped box.

You make your way to him and reach up to fix his hair gently as you ask.

“Did you find out anything?”

Ducking away from your fussing, Pietro nods and replies, “I overheard some of the guards were taking him to the prison.”

Wanda comes up next to you, folding her arms as she joins the conversation.

“Are you two talking about that criminal?”

She turns to you in concern.

“Y/n, you shouldn’t go near him. He’s dangerous.”

You unconsciously rub your wrist at the memory of Barnes attempting to take you away while saying those confusing comments about you.

At Wanda's expectant expression, you shrug and try to explain to her.

“I know, it’s just…something that he said keeps bothering me.”

But now there’s no way for you to question him since he’s already taken away from the manor.

Your shoulders slump with a resigned sigh, “I just wanted to see if I could get a chance to know what he meant.”

The twins exchange a surprised glance at your words — it was rare that you expressed wanting to do something for yourself.

The two of them silently signal each other with their eyes to do something to distract your mind and cheer you up.

Pietro snaps his fingers as he remembers another piece of information.

“Oh! Princess Natasha and Yelena also came by the manor just now.”

Despite your attempt to push your feelings away for Natasha, you still can’t help but perk up at the mention of her name.

“So where are they now?” Wanda asks.

Pietro winces at the question before replying sadly.

“They were turned away by Lord Dreykov.”

Wanda huffs and throws her hands up in frustration.

“That man ruins everything!”

Your mouth turns down slightly in disappointment at the news, but you decide that this was probably for the best anyway. You haven’t had enough time to sort out your feelings for the princess yet.

If you were to see her again so soon, you’re not sure whether your heart would skip or break at the sight of her.

Noticing your still sullen expression, Wanda decides to try another approach, nudging your shoulder in a teasing manner.

“You know, with everything going on, you never told me how your 'date' with the princess went this morning,” she probes gently.

Startled at the sudden topic change, you huff lightly and give her an exasperated look.

“I told you it wasn’t a date. It was just a chance for Natasha to relax for a bit. This is a very stressful time for her.”’

Wanda rolls her eyes at your denial, turning to her brother for some backup before noticing the box at his side.

“What’s that?” she points.

Pietro smirks proudly as he offers the box to you.

“I snuck it away from some of the guards. Apparently, this was another gift from Princess Carol that they didn’t give to you,” he reveals.

Smiling in surprise at the information, you take the box, your fingers lightly running over the cursive letters of your name written in the familiar handwriting of the other princess.

Wanda raises an eyebrow at your reaction curiously before her eyes narrow suspiciously in a teasing manner.

“Wait, you spent a lot of time with her at the festival. Is there something happening between you and Princess Carol?”

Wanda gasps dramatically, her hand landing on your arm and shaking it lightly.

“Is that why nothing is happening with Princess Natasha? Your heart is torn between the two royals vying for your affection!”

Rolling your eyes at her teasing and pulling away from her excited grip, you move to place the box on your desk while replying over your shoulder in an attempt to clear all the misunderstandings.

“Nothing is happening with either of them,” you state firmly.

“Carol is just a friend, and Natasha…” you trail off sadly as you remember your earlier conversation with her.

With a soft sigh, you continue sadly, “Natasha doesn’t—”

Two gasps of surprise interrupt you, prompting you to turn around quickly toward the twins.

Both of them have expressions of shock and amazement on their faces, their gazes fixated on something across your room.

Confused, you turn to the cause of their reaction, only for your eyes to also widen in surprise at the sight.

Natasha is outside your opened window, her arms casually resting on your window sill, holding her up.

“Hey,” Natasha greets you normally with a tiny wave and a small grunt of exertion as she adjusts her grip on your window sill.

“Can I come in?” she asks casually.

“Ohmy—Natasha?!”

Hurrying over, you help in pulling her through the window, the both of you stumbling and falling to the ground.

With Natasha on top, she quickly braces one hand on the floor to catch herself, while her other hand covers your head protectively.

After ensuring that the two of you landed safely, Natasha leans her head down in exhaustion against your shoulder, chuckling softly.

“That was harder than I remember," she remarks jokingly.

At her words, you pull back from her embrace and begin to check on her with a small frown.

“I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t do that anymore,” you chastise her as your hands brush carefully across her face, examining her.

There were times in your childhood when Madam B wouldn’t let you go out to play until you finished the vast amount of studies that she assigned to you.

During those times, Natasha would sneak in through your window to spend time with you without anyone knowing.

That is, until one day she had gotten a small cut on her hand from the climb, and you had told her not to attempt it again.

“Well, Lord Dreykov wouldn’t let me in…,” Natasha catches your hand against her cheek, leaning gently into your touch.

Her eyes soften fondly as she looks at you before continuing, “…and I really needed to see you.”

You swallow nervously under her gaze — it is more intense than anything you’ve seen from her before.

You’re not sure of how to respond, her warm presence already dispelling the previous coldness in your room, distracting your mind.

An awkward cough from Pietro catches your attention, snapping you from your thoughts and reminding you of the others in the room.

Pulling your hand away slowly from under Natasha’s, you clear your throat slightly as you stand and compose yourself.

Wanda wears a sly smile as she raises her eyebrows at you, but you give her a firm look, silently signaling her to refrain from any teasing remarks before she has a chance.

Natasha stands up next to you and dusts herself before giving you a smirk.

“I thought I was the princess, so why are you the one who is locked away?” she teases gently.

You hold back your amused smile as you try to maintain your reprimanding expression, shaking your head at her.

“Natasha, you shouldn’t be here. If my father finds out…,” you begin.

Natasha frowns at the mention of him.

“Yeah, about that, why isn’t he letting you out?”

Wanda steps forward before you can reply.

“Because he’s a terrible person and he treats Y/n horri—”

“Wanda, that’s enough,” you cut her off with a meaningful stare.

Wanda presses her lips together in a pout but she listens to your words and doesn’t continue.

Natasha raises a brow and tilts her head questionably at you, her eyes glancing between you and Wanda in suspicion.

You let out a sigh and shake your head as you explain.

“He’s being temperamental and unreasonable right now…which is why I think it’s best if we get you out without him knowing,” you say while glancing at the door in thought about how to sneak the princess out.

Seeing your worried expression, Natasha takes your hand gently to get your attention, turning you back to face her.

“Hey, I don’t want to get you in trouble. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

Her thumb caresses the back of your hand gently as she searches your eyes before asking seriously.

“Are you okay?”

You open your mouth, hesitating as you consider how to respond.

You know that Natasha isn’t supposed to be here, with Queen Melina having already told you the details about Natasha’s busy schedule for the next couple of days.

The last thing she needs is to be worried about something as trivial as you being confined to your room.

With a deep exhale, you reassure her with a small smile.

“I’m fine, Natasha.”

Natasha examines you closely for a moment, a doubtful look in her eyes. She eventually relents reluctantly when you give her a resolute nod.

Turning towards your window with a sigh, she offers, “I can sneak back down if you want me to go.”

Your eyes widen at the suggestion, and you grab her arm to pull her back to face you before she can move, giving her an incredulous look.

“You can't be serious,” you exclaim in disbelief.

When Natasha just blinks innocently at you in confusion, you give her a deadpan expression as you state firmly.

“You are not climbing down, Natasha.”

Before she can argue, the sound of your door handle turning causes you all to snap your attention to it in panic.

Pietro swiftly blocks the door, slamming it closed with his body.

“Open up!” the guard’s voice calls out from outside.

“Haven’t you heard of knocking?” Pietro shouts back before shrugging his shoulders and gesturing his hands at Natasha frantically.

Ignoring her small exclamation of surprise, you quickly usher Natasha into your closet, closing the door just in time as the guard shoves his way into your room.

He inspects the room critically before looking at you, standing with your back pressed against the closet door.

“I heard another voice,” he asserts, moving towards you in suspicion.

With his focus on you, Wanda silently steps up from behind him, her hands already enveloped in a red mist as she raises it next to the guard’s head.

She moves her fingers sharply, and the mist shoots towards his head, causing his eyes to glow red for a second.

The guard stops suddenly and shakes his head in confusion before looking around again.

“Never mind,” he says slowly. “It must have been from somewhere else.”

With that, he leaves the room and begins to walk away to investigate elsewhere.

Once he’s gone, Wanda falls to the ground with an exhausted exhale, and you and Pietro rush to her side quickly.

“How are you feeling? Are you okay?” you ask while checking her condition.

Wanda nods and raises her hand in a stopping gesture at your fussing before replying weakly.

“I’m fine. Just feeling a little tired.”

“That was amazing!” Pietro exclaims. “What did you do to him?”

“Yeah, what did you do?” Natasha comments as she steps out and looks at the three of you curiously.

The twins turn to you with wide eyes, expecting you to respond.

At Natasha’s questioning gaze, you wave your hand vaguely in the air, trying to come up with an explanation.

“Um…Wanda just has a special way with people,” you say with a slight wince at your pathetic answer.

Natasha squints at you suspiciously with a knowing expression, already aware that you’re hiding something, but she doesn’t press any further.

Wanda glances at her briefly before turning to you.

“You should take this chance to get the princess out before they come back.”

Seeing your conflicted expression as you try to examine Wanda again, Pietro rests his hand on your shoulder, stopping you, and gestures to the door with his head.

“Go, I’ll make sure she’s okay,” Pietro reassures you.

You hesitate, looking at Wanda once again, and she, in turn, gives you a reassuring nod.

With a resigned sigh, you stand and grab Natasha’s hand, pulling her along as the two of you move quietly through the manor.

After a moment of sneaking through the hallways, Natasha breaks the silence.

“About what Wanda said earlier, with your father—” Natasha starts.

“It’s nothing that you need to worry about,” you interrupt with a small reassuring smile over your shoulder before turning back around, not noticing Natasha’s frown at your words.

Deciding to change the subject before she can press further as you check around the corner, you decide to ask her something else you were curious about from the moment you saw her at your window.

“So what was the reason for this visit? I know you have that meeting today.”

Natasha rubs her neck nervously as she remembers her original purpose for coming to you.

“Um…this morning, after you left, I realized something.”

Your eyes widen in surprise, both at her words and at the sight of guards coming from around the corner toward your position.

Turning around, you quickly push Natasha into the nearby supply closet before she can continue and close the door, enclosing the two of you inside.

You hold your breath as you listen carefully until the sound of the footsteps passes by and eventually fades away before relaxing.

“I think they’re gone. We should be able to go now,” you exhale gently.

When Natasha doesn’t move or respond, you finally focus your eyes on her.

That’s when you realize the closeness between the two of you, standing in the small closet.

Moving your head slightly, your nose lightly brushes against hers as you examine your positions.

Natasha’s arm is propped next to your head, her hand pressing against the wall behind you, which is the only reason there is some distance between your bodies.

The small light coming in through the cracks lets you make out her face faintly in the dark.

Her eyes appear lost in thought and unfocused as she stares at your face, giving you that same intense look from earlier that made you lose your breath.

You feel a small exhale from her against your lips, making your heart speed up slightly.

“Natasha?” you whisper nervously against her when you feel her face begin to lean in closer.

Your voice seems to bring her out of her thoughts as she reels back in surprise.

Natasha clears her throat in response, looking away to the door.

“Y–yeah, let’s go.”

After leaving the storage closet, you and Natasha stand awkwardly in the hallway, with you trying to understand what just happened and her trying to compose herself.

With a determined breath, Natasha places her hand on your arm to turn you to her.

"Y/n, about this morning—"

Before she can finish, a figure comes rushing around the corner.

“Pietro?” you tilt your head curiously at his appearance.

He has a sheepish look on his face as he looks between the two of you awkwardly.

“Sorry, am I interrupting?” He gestures back towards his previous direction. “Wanda is resting already, and she said to go help you.”

You subtly take a tiny step from Natasha at his comment, not noticing her small pout at the action as you shake your head at him in response.

“No, it’s fine. We were hiding from some guards.”

Pietro nods in understanding.

“Yeah, they’re swarming the manor.”

Natasha sighs at the interruption, crossing her arms as she asks calmly.

“Is there a way to reach an exit without running into any more patrols?”

Pietro thinks for a minute before snapping his finger with a thought.

“There’s the old staff tunnels in the library that leads out to the gardens.”

At your agreement, the three of you make your way to the library where Pietro reveals a hidden door behind a banner in the far back, concealed by the cover of bookshelves.

Right as Pietro pries the door open, the sound of the library door bursts open, and your father’s voice booms in the space.

“Whoever’s in here, don’t bother hiding. You can’t escape.”

Pushing Natasha to Pietro, you whisper to him hurriedly.

“Take Natasha and go.”

“But—” he argues.

You give him a firm look that leaves no room for arguing.

Pietro frowns, but he relents and grabs Natasha’s arm.

She promptly brushes him off and takes your hand before you can leave, pulling you back to her.

“I’m not leaving you. This was my choice. I can take the responsibility,” Natasha insists.

Gently covering her hand with your own, you give her a small squeeze in appreciation and a bittersweet smile before slowly pulling your hand from her grip.

Your other hand moves up discreetly to her shoulder, and with a hard shove, you push her into the tunnels as Pietro closes the door behind them.

“Hey—” Natasha whispers harshly in surprise at your action.

“Pietro, please get her out safely,” you tell him through the small opening on the door.

He has a displeased look on his face, but he still nods determinedly at your request.

Footsteps come closer to your position as you re-cover the door with the banner.

“Come out now, or I’ll have you dragged out,” your father’s voice threatens.

With a deep breath, you step forward from the shadows.

Dreykov rolls his eyes at the sight of you and gestures for his guards to stand down.

As if returning to his original task, he hands one guard an envelope and dismisses him with a wave and order.

“Make sure this is delivered to the handler in the Stark kingdom. Quickly.”

The guard takes the envelope with a bow and turns to leave the room.

Furrowing your brows at his words, you eye the envelope suspiciously, the object giving you a bad feeling.

However, your attention is diverted when your father turns to face you again. His hands cross behind his back as he slowly steps closer menacingly.

“I believe I told you to stay in your room,” he says, his tone low in a displeased manner.

“I just came to get some books,” you lie smoothly.

Dreykov scoffs and gestures with his hand dismissively.

“Does that servant boy of yours no longer run to fetch you things anymore?”

You frown, and your hand clenches in anger at his words. That protective instinct over the twins washes over you, and you can’t help but correct him.

“His name is Pietro, and he’s not a servant.”

Dreykov eyes you critically in annoyance before shaking his head in disapproval.

“That is why you will always be weak, viewing those orphans as anything other than what they truly are — disposable tools.”

You know you shouldn’t push your luck, but his words cause you to remember your earlier suspicion about him and the old captain, and your accusation comes out before you can stop yourself.

“Was Captain Barnes also a tool for you?”

The room grows cold immediately at the silence that follows, and in response, you wrap your arms around yourself defensively, already missing the warmth of Natasha’s protective presence.

Dreykov's eyes narrow at you, as if trying to gauge your implication.

After a tense moment, he finally speaks up in an indifferent tone, issuing a command to his guard.

“Hold her.”

Your arms are restrained as he calmly steps closer to you.

You press your lips in a thin line in preparation, already knowing what comes next after such disrespectful behavior.

His hand hits you hard enough to knock your head harshly to the side, and you feel a small amount of blood drip from the corner of your lips.

Shaking the pain away, you return to your original position defiantly — his reaction already giving you the answer to your question.

At your expression, Dreykov sneers at you before hitting you again.

This time the impact was strong enough to knock you to the ground. Without giving you time to recover, he roughly grabs your hair to pull your head back to look up at him.

You press your mouth shut to prevent yourself from crying out in pain, not wanting to give him the satisfaction.

He presses his finger against your head in a mocking gesture.

“You would think your simple mind would learn already that I do not tolerate such disrespect in my presence.”

Letting go of your head with a dismissive throw, Dreykov turns around sharply and heads towards the door while gesturing to the guard.

“Take her back to her room and make sure she stays there this time.”

The door shuts behind Dreykov as the guard pulls you to your feet and tightens his grip on your arm.

Despite the throbbing pain on your cheeks from the impacts, you feel more relieved that Pietro was able to get Natasha away.

The guard moves to shove you back in the opposite direction towards the other exit.

However, his grip on you is suddenly removed, and you turn in surprise to see him now unconscious on the floor.

Natasha stands beside the unconscious body, breathing heavily at the figure in anger before looking up at you, a mixture of fury and concern in her eyes.

~~~~~~~ ⧗ ~~~~~~~

Soon after you disappear from view behind the hidden door, Pietro swiftly pulls Natasha further into the tunnels while she is still distracted in shock by your action.

Not too far along in their path, Natasha realizes what is happening and breaks away from his grip, turning around swiftly to return to your side.

However, Pietro is faster, rushing past her to block her path.

Natasha shoots him an intimidating look.

“Move, Pietro,” her voice is calm with an underlying warning tone.

“I can’t do that. Y/n told me to take you away,” Pietro responds determinedly.

“You would leave her behind like that?” Natasha exclaims.

Pietro’s expression twists down with a painful and regretful look at her words before returning her stare with a defiant expression.

“I don’t like it either, but this is what she asked me to do,” he argues.

“Even if it means you’re abandoning her,” Natasha accuses.

“I’m not abandoning her!” Pietro replies angrily. “You have no idea what Y/n has done for me and Wanda. I am doing what I can to not cause her any more trouble.”

Natasha opens her mouth to argue against letting you sacrifice yourself to take the blame for her actions when a loud echo of what distinctively sounds like a slap travels in the space, causing Natasha’s eyes to widen as she snaps her attention towards your direction, realizing what the sound implies.

Her body moves instantly towards you, but Pietro blocks her path again.

“Get out of my way,” Natasha warns dangerously, her patience thinning by the second. She doesn’t want to hurt him, but she will force her way through if she has to.

“Don’t go,” Pietro pleads, fear appearing in his eyes, though it was not caused by her.

He holds her back, pressing his hands against her shoulder before releasing a shaky breath and shaking his head as he reveals the truth.

“He’ll do worse if you help her.”

Natasha freezes as she snaps her attention to him.

“What did you just say?”

Pietro’s head falls to his chest in shame.

The memory of the first time Dreykov had hurt you after his return to the manor flashes in his mind, and how his attempt at helping you and doing what he thought was the right thing only ended up causing you more harm.

It took three days for you to recover from your injuries after that.

You never blame him, of course.

You never blame anyone.

Since then, he has never been able to get the courage to help you during those times, not that you ever let him. He could only stand back and watch helplessly.

Pietro flinches at the sound of the second hit, and his hands fall back to his side in defeat as he lets the princess rush past him back into the library.

At least, with this, he can let someone with more strength than him save you.

Natasha returns to the library and sees the guard pull you up from the ground roughly, and red instantly fills her vision.

In the next moment, the guard is swiftly subdued, unconscious on the floor.

Looking back up to you, Natasha sees your surprised expression, but she is more focused on the sight of the harsh redness on your cheek and the blood at the corner of your lips.

She instantly makes her way to you and cradles your face gently, inspecting you carefully with a concerned expression.

You wince away from her touch, grabbing her hand and pulling it away slightly.

“I’m fine, Natasha,” you murmur under your breath with a small sigh.

Natasha's eyes widen in disbelief and she shakes her head vehemently.

“No, you are not fine! He hit you!”

Her eyes instantly snap angrily to the door that your father just left out of.

Recognizing her expression, you quickly pull her into a tight embrace before she can charge after him.

She’s practically shaking with anger, but she doesn’t push you away.

You tighten your hold on her, pressing your head comfortingly into her neck, trying to calm her down.

“Don’t, Natasha,” you tell her firmly against her skin.

With her coronation so close, this is not the time for her to cause a scandal by attacking a noble like Dreykov.

Rubbing her back slowly in a soothing pattern, you whisper into her ear gently.

“I’m okay.”

Eventually, Natasha lets out a deep shaky breath against your shoulder before whispering to you in defeat.

“How long?”

When you don’t answer her, Natasha closes her eyes fiercely in realization and tightens her grip around you, as if trying to wrap you protectively in her arms.

Meanwhile, your eyes glance up at a movement behind Natasha, and you spot Pietro standing a small distance away, his gaze staring at the floor sadly and his body curled into himself in guilt.

You let out a knowing sigh at the familiar sight, already figuring out what is bothering the twin.

With a resigned breath, you extract yourself from Natasha’s embrace slowly before gripping her hand and pulling her back towards the staff tunnels.

“Come on, we can all talk after we get outside,” you remark softly.

As you pass Pietro, your other hand reaches out to grab his hand, and you give him a reassuring squeeze as you pull them both along.

The three of you make your way through the staff tunnels in silence and exit out of the manor and through the garden without any more incidents.

You make your way toward the side gates of the manor near the stables.

The entire time Natasha follows you without saying anything as she tries to process and piece together the new revelations.

It’s been a year since Dreykov has returned and remained in the kingdom.

During the year, you had avoided her enough that she did not see you as often to be able to notice anything unusual.

Her eyes glance at your hands clasped in hers, and it drifts up to your wrist as she remembers something from before.

Right as you reach the edge of the stables, Natasha stops moving altogether, causing you to stop and turn to her in question.

Her gaze remains fixed on your wrist for a moment before looking up into your eyes with a sad expression.

“The injury on your wrist from before, that wasn’t from an accident in the kitchen, was it?” Natasha asks in realization.

You don’t respond, but Natasha can already tell the answer from the look on your face.

With a resigned sigh, you turn to Pietro and ask him gently.

“Can you get a horse prepared to go?”

Pietro nods wordlessly in understanding and leaves the two of you alone for some privacy.

With a deep breath, you rub a comforting pattern on the back of her hand.

“Natasha, you don’t have to worr—“

“Stop saying that I don’t have to worry about you!”

Natasha closes her eyes briefly in frustration before looking at you.

“Why didn’t you tell me this was happening to you?”

You withdraw your hands from hers and wrap them around yourself defensively.

“I’m handling it, Natasha,” you tell her stubbornly. “You have more important matters to deal with in the kingdom than me. Not to mention your coronation is literally in a couple of days.”

With a huff of disbelief, Natasha holds your shoulders, shaking it slightly to make you understand.

“You are the most important thing that I care about right now.”

Natasha’s face shifts into an expression of pain.

“What kind of ruler can I be if I couldn’t even protect the person that I love?”

Your eyes widen slightly at the word, but you quickly brush away the feeling, remembering how emotional Natasha must be feeling at the moment.

Her instinctive protectiveness of her friends must have made that word slip out as meaning the friendly kind of love.

You place your hand atop hers and squeeze it comfortingly.

“You don’t need to do anything. I do have a plan to get away from him. It’s just taking some time,” you explain.

“Then come stay at the castle for the time being,” Natasha reasons. "He can't hurt you there."

“Natasha, I don’t think—”

“Please," Natasha brings your hands to her chest, giving you a pleading look as she rests her forehead against yours.

"Let me at least offer you that.”

You hesitate, but before you can respond, Pietro returns with two saddled horses in tow, causing you to give him a confused look.

“What's this?” you ask him, gesturing to the second horse.

Pietro gives you a small smile as he hands you the reins.

“You said you wanted a chance to get some answers. I think this is a good opportunity for you to go get it.”

You realize he is referring to earlier when you expressed your desire to get more answers from Captain Barnes.

"This is not really a good time," you remark.

Pietro nods in a gesture to Natasha.

“I’m sure the princess can get you access,” he states confidently.

"I'll go with you," Natasha agrees, not ready to leave you yet and determined to continue the previous conversation with you.

You glance at Natasha briefly, already guessing the reason for her quick agreement despite not knowing the complete situation, before giving Pietro an unsure look, but he rests his hand on your shoulder comfortingly.

“Wanda and I can cover for you until you return,” he insists.

Seeing his resolute resolve, you pull him into a hug, remembering how he was like in the library moments ago with that guilty expression that you recognize from before.

“You did good, Pietro. You always have,” you remind him.

He tightens the hug appreciatively in a silent response.

When you finally pull away, you ruffle his hair playfully, causing him to fix it back with a pout as you laugh lightly.

“I'll be back soon. Check on Wanda and keep each other safe until then, okay?”

He gives you his usual playful smirk as his finger taps the tip of your nose teasingly.

“Always.”

After he secures you onto your horse, he points to Natasha with a serious expression.

“You better take care of her,” he tells her in warning.

“Pietro!” you chastise his blunt tone with the princess.

Still, Natasha nods firmly in understanding before glancing at you.

“I will,” she promises.

~~~~~~~ ⧗ ~~~~~~~

Series Masterlist : Boundless Devotion

a/n: Thank you for reading! This was a hard chapter to condense, but I think this was the best that I could do.

Taglist: @lightwhoranoutoflight, @taliiiaasteria, @romanoffprentiss, @canvascoloredin, @silentwolfsstuff, @blacklightsposts, @arcturusseer, @presser24, @dvrkhcld, @jujuu23, @screechcat, @vivs46, @cd-4848, @youneversawmehereooooooo, @pancakefan7529, @confusedspaceotter, @natbelovasblog, @izzy-b09, @iamheartless, @mrsrushman, @fxckmiup, @natty-taffy, @2silverchain, @traveler-at-heart, @autorasexy, @natsxwife

#natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x fem!reader #natasha romanoff imagine #natasha romanoff fanfic #natasha romanoff x you #black widow x reader #natasha x reader #natasha romanoff

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schemmentis · 5 months

Text

La Cosa Nostra - Pt. 12

Cowritten w/ @janeyseymour

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11

Summary: Melissa's side business begins, and you begin to feel the heaviness of your situation.

WC: 2.3k

“Good morning, Tony.” Shaw greets the salon manager as he steps towards him and his partner. “Where's Y/N?”

Tony crosses his arms. “Takin’ a vacation.” He answers coldly. “You got more questions; you're gonna have to ask me.”

“Tony,” Danik sighs. “We've been through this before, haven't we? The first time we were here. You know how it works, how about you save us the time and call your boss down here?”

“My boss?” Tony echoes. After a moment he nods. “Yeah, sure. I'll call my boss for ya.”

The last time they were here, the agents had paced the front of the salon as they waited, eyeing everything they could in their search. Today, they stay in a corner, watching the few stylists and Tony at work. Danik is a moment away from asking Tony how long this is going to take when someone walks into the front from the back of the salon.

The man is tall. His dark hair slicked back on his head, shiny with the product used to keep it in place. He looks at ease, calm, as he approaches the agents. He flashes a smile when he nears, white teeth shown and his eyes crinkling at the edges with the motion. His hand is held out to Danik and Shaw individually.

“My apologies for keeping you waiting, Agents. I had to finish things up with my other business.”

“I'm sorry…” Shaw starts as he shakes the man's hand. “Who are you?”

The man chuckles, nodding. “Ah sí, sí, mi scusi. I forget myself this morning. Luca Bellino, at your service. I'm happy to answer any questions you have or walk you through the back again if you like.”

The agents share a look between each other.

“I think there's been some misunderstanding.” Danik says as she looks back to Luca. “We asked to speak with Y/N.”

Luca’s head tilts to the side, looking back at the confused looking agents, matching their expression. “Did you?” He asks as his brow furrows. “I was told you requested the owner.”

“Well, yes.” Shaw says, a bit slowly. “The owner. Y/N.”

“Ah, I see, I see.” Luca sighs in sudden understanding. “Please, come with me.” He requests, turning and leading the agents to the back office of the salon.

“You must not have been informed.” Luca says as he steps through the office, opening a drawer of the filing cabinet and pulling a yellow file folder from it before closing it once more.

He sets the file folder to the desk, facing the agents standing on the other side of the wood. Deft fingers open the folder, tapping the papers now visible. “You see?” Luca says, looking back up to Danik and Shaw. “I'm the owner now. The salon was signed over to me a few days ago.”

“Y/N sold the salon to you?” Danik asks as she's studying the forms in front of them.

“Sí.” Luca answers as his hands cross at the wrists to rest at his waist, his head nodding. “You've seen our books, no? The salon hasn't been as profitable in the last few months. Y/N tried to bring it out of the red but in the end it was safer to sell, especially with her little family to think about.”

“So, now you're going to try to bring the salon’s profits up?” Shaw asks.

Luca smiles, though this time it doesn't reach his eyes. “Do not tell the stylists, or Tony.” He says softer, leaning a bit forward. “I haven't had the chance to speak with them yet and I'd hate for them to learn from anyone other than me but I’m working out the details of shutting the salon down.” Luca sighs, looking for all the world like he wishes he had another choice. “It's just too much to turn around and the clients aren't coming in like they used to. It's the best thing we can do before it gets worse.”.

Danik raises a brow, but he relents.

The two agents head out, but not before Luca calls out to them, “Whatever you have against the Schemmenti family, drop it. They had nothin’ to do with Bobby’s demise.”

Your day is uneventful. You have nothing to do now that the girls are at school, Melissa is at work, and the salon is out of your hands. You mill around the house, doing as much cleaning as you possibly can before you groan and fall face first onto the couch, bored out of your mind.

You lay there for a few moments before you finally sigh and grab your keys. You make your way out of the house and towards Twelve Tables.

Melissa would say she’s shocked to see you when you come in through the back- but she isn’t. She knows how hard this is for you to not be involved in any of your work right now, both salon and other wise.

“Hi, my love,” you sigh as you pick up a knife and start chopping the broccoli next to her.

“What’re you doing here?” She just briefly glances at you before going back to her own work.

“I think I’m dying of boredom,” you tell her. “I can’t remember the last time I had this much time off from everything.”

“Would you mind chopping this up then while I attend to other business?”

“Other business?” Val asks as she makes her way out of the walk-in fridge.

“I have things to do in the office,” Melissa says, just a bit too quickly. “Scheduling, finances… I think we may need to look into other companies to deliver.”

You raise a brow, as does the manager, but you nod. You know that what she’s actually doing is trying to clean up the area in order to run your other business alongside this one. If you’re going to execute this, and execute it well, everything has to be in it's own place.

So, that’s what the redhead heads into the office to do.

“Melissa seems frazzled lately,” Valentina notes softly. “Is everything okay at home?”

You shrug. “I uh… had to sell the salon,” you lie through your teeth. “It hasn’t been making money, so… you know. She’s probably stressed over that.”

The woman hums, and for the rest of the time that you’re there until you have to pick up your girls you’re directed on what to chop, dice, slice, and grate.

Finally, you pop your head into the back. “Mel? I have to go pick up the girls. Are you coming with me?”

“Hmm?” Her eyes don’t even leave the new ledger that she’s creating. “I have to wait for the shipment to come in, so… I’ll be home for bedtime though.”

She isn’t. And your girls are beyond confused as to why the three of you can’t stop down at the restaurant for a quick hug and kiss from Mommy and why they can’t have coloring time with Valentina. You can’t tell them the real reason- you just explain that Melissa is busy.

“But Mommy is always busy, and we still always get to go there!” Rosie whines.

“Not tonight, sweetheart.” You sigh. You know you still could, technically, take them down to the restaurant. Just long enough to say goodnight. Except you can feel your wife glaring at you from across town if you did. Or worse, picture her having to keep her attention away from your girls because she's so busy.

It becomes a point of contention the rest of the night. Your girls both throw fits because they don't understand. Just getting them dinner fed has you stretched thin. By the time you're fighting with them about bath time you're feeling yourself begin to shake slightly. The girls’ attitudes and fits this evening aren't really what upsets you; it's just the last straw on top of everything else.

You just barely get them both towel dry from the bath when you tell them to pick out their pajamas. The one thing they don't argue with you on this evening as they get to choose their own clothes; one of their favorite things.

You kneel on the tile, letting the bath water out. One of the girl's towels still in your hand you lean to wipe up a small puddle. You toss the towel to the pile near the door to put in the laundry. You sigh, and instead of getting up you let yourself shift backward to sit on the bathroom floor with your back against the wall.

You bury your face in your hands as you try to stop the sudden tears from overflowing. You just need a minute, you tell yourself. Just a minute you'll let it happen and then you'll pull yourself together. Except you can't. You force deep breaths but you can't stop the tears still rolling from your eyes down your cheeks. You lean your head against the wall as you hear little voices calling.

“Mam! Mam!” It's both Cat and Rosie, steadily getting closer.

You really try to stop as you wipe your eyes. You don't want them to see you like this. Yet each swipe at your face just sees more tears filling your eyes.

“Mam! Look at my slippies! I did them on myself!” Rosie exclaims as she shuffles into the doorway, looking at her feet. She's wearing your wife’s house slippers. Backwards.

“Mam!” Cat is saying beneath her sister speaking, appearing at her side at the same time. “I don't have slippies! It's not fair, Rosie has slippies!”

You go to look up, but you hate showing any signs of weakness in front of your girls, so your head stays down as you attempt to pull yourself up from the floor. You lean against the sink, hands tightly gripping the porcelain sink, knuckles growing about as white as the utility in front of you. You keep your back to them, not wanting them to see you as the mess that you are right now.

“Girls,” you sigh shakily. “Mam cannot right now. Get yourselves to bed, and I’ll be in to read your story to you in a few minutes.”

“But Mam!” Cat whines out. You hear her stomp her little foot against the cool bathroom tile, and you can practically see the way that her arms are crossed over her chest- a look that she absolutely picked up from your wife. “Rosie has slippies, and I want-”

Wiping away your tears, you turn around. “Caterina Ann.”

At seeing your face so distraught and aged, both of your twins’ faces drop. “Mam?” They both ask.

“Mam just needs a minute,” you sigh softly, hating the way that your voice breaks just slightly. “Please, girls.”

At that, both of your girls slink off. Your oldest walks off while your youngest shuffles her feet quietly. You half-expect to hear her giggles at the way she’s heading down the hall, but you don’t. Even at their young ages, Cat and Rosie understand that your crying in front of them is not okay- something isn’t right.

When you find it in you to pull yourself out of the bathroom, you head for their room. When you get there though, they aren’t in their beds like you expect them to be. In fact, their pillows and the stuffed animals they insist on sleeping with every night have vanished too. That only means one thing.

You appear in the doorway of your own room, and you see them curled up in your bed. Silently, you thank God you had let your wife talk you into splurging and getting a king-sized bed. It comes in handy for nights like this when both girls worm their way into your bed and Melissa will be getting home and sliding in too.

“Mam,” Rosie pats the spot in between her and her sister. “We leaved room for you.”

Despite the sadness that had inhabited your soul just a few seconds ago, you let a soft smile slip at the kindness and thoughtfulness of your girls. You may not be doing everything right in this world, but you are raising two wonderful, wonderful young ladies.

“Give me a few minutes to change and prepare for bed,” you sigh softly as you wipe new tears from your eyes. “And then I’ll be in.”

It’s about ten minutes later, once you’ve gotten into your sleep apparel and shed a few more tears without the girls’ knowledge, that you slip in between them. Cat hands you a book- your favorite book to read aloud to them.

After their story, they both curl up into your sides and promptly fall asleep, tired from their crazy day in kindergarten.

And once they’re asleep? Your tears return. Silent sobs shake your body as you mourn the death of Bobby all over again, one that you never wanted in the first place- you had actually pleaded for them to not order the hit on the man. You bite your lip and let the tears flow over the fact that you’ve been taken off of the salon- that you have no idea what’s happening there now despite the fact that it’s only been a few days. You hate the fact that your wife is taking all of this on- that her restaurant is in danger now because you got the feds on your tail and don’t know how to shake them loose. Your heart breaks when you remember that Barbara is now in danger because she holds onto the ledger that determines your, and now your wife’s, fate, and she was still there for you in a moment of weakness at the church. It gets to a point where you’re just crying over it all, a hand clamped over your mouth as the sobs bubble up inside of you, and you have to muffle the noise or else you’ll wake your girls. You end up crying yourself to sleep, body exhausted with all of the emotions coursing through it like a river. You’re drowning- absolutely drowning in it all.

#melissa schemmenti fanfiction #melissa schemmenti x reader #melissa schemmenti x you #abbott elementary fanfiction #la cosa nostra #collab fic

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theineffablesociety · 6 months

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I'd like to plan a Good Omens meetup for Saturday October 19th, 2024. Poll below!

Edit: If you're looking for the Discord link, please message me!

We're currently looking at a hotel in Langhorne, PA that has a good bit of space. Just need to see about availability and cost.

For our immunocompromised and vulnerable fellow fans who plan to attend, we're going to include a masking policy in our event spaces and hallway/foyer outside those rooms. We'll have extras available.

All ages welcome; under 18 must attend with a guardian.

Start original message:

The Ineffable Society Meetup is a thought that's brewed in my brain since June 2023 when a bunch of local GO fans chanced to meet for the first time at the King of Prussia PA screening of series 2 episode 1 and 2.

It is time to stop brewing and let others contribute.

Here's my initial thoughts:

I'm willing to organize but not alone. We'll need to work together.

I live near Philadelphia, PA so this is the area I'm willing to do what needs doing primarily in Eastern PA, Central NJ, surrounding areas therein.

I'd want everyone attending to be 18 or older, please. I encourage those 17 and under to organize something together!

Taking suggestions for type of venues to host, think like a family reunion or larger.

I'm not interested in handling money, so would seek at least 2 people to oversee financials if that comes into play. (Finances might be needed to cover renting a space, any printed materials, little swag gifts.)

As mentioned, Saturday October 19th. Because it's close to the Earth's Birthday. :3

Afternoon through evening could be good. Maybe a 3 hour window on the small end; most of the day on the larger end. Will depend on location and on how many helpers step up.

Good Omens related fun: encouraging cosplay, script book readings, discussions, games, swaps. Maybe screening an episode together (there's copyright law to contend with here though). Depending on how much time we have together and space. Simplest plan would be an informal Good Omens afternoon mixer type.

If fewer than 12 people are interested:

We could just meetup at a restaurant that has a function room! (Not super ideal for allergies, as there's probably nowhere that's good for everyone. But does it in a pinch. And would probably not be a big up-front cost. Often there's a small room fee and then the assumption everyone will eat.)

If more than 12 up to 40 people are interested:

We might consider renting some conference rooms at a small hotel. (That does make it easier for people to find accommodations: already there! At a hotel! Downside is this will require chipping in.)

Any more than 40 people and uhhh... We'll figure it out.

WHAT I NEED TO KNOW FROM YOU

There will be more questions to follow, but most important one is below.

Please answer YES if you are:

A Good Omens fan

18 or older

In the Eastern PA to Central NJ area

Or are otherwise willing, able, and interested to go there

For transparency. A little about me:

I'm North (SeedsOfWinter). They/he.

Over the past two and a half decades, I've organized or been a member of organizations that planned meetups, game nights, reunions, and nerd events for friends and strangers alike.

I've been a Good Omens fan since June 2019. I run @rareomens. I am a mod for @ineffableeraszine and @bildadzine. I was a mod for the Our Side Zines, Pin Me Up 2, and many more. I was a founding admin for the LGBTQIA+ Fans of Good Omens groups.

I've been part of convention presentations for Good Omens at The Ineffable Con (virtual) and DragonCon (in-person, Atlanta GA). I love to organize fan photoshoots and meetups.

I know that any attempt at gathering people requires a team to make it happen; and that there's pitfalls and perils to all of it, especially when you're dealing with a bunch of possible strangers meeting for the first time! But the end result (you all getting a chance to connect together as fans) is feeling pretty worth it.

#good omens #good omens fandom #the ineffable society #ineffable society #the ineffable society meetup #fan meeting #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley

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breebirds · 2 months

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OKAY I have more Gotham Knights opinions. So like first, I played exclusively as Red Hood cause my plan is to play as each character all the way through and then go back and play it a 5th time were I interchange

Also I played on PS so it might be different to when you play on PC but here are my thoughts

1. The controls? Whack. There’s no actual jump button, you hold X when you’re near a ledge to climb or vault but there’s no actual designated jump button

(I learned the hard way if you run and hit crouch you slide… I had to restart a mission cause I slid in when I was supposed to not get caught and immediately got caught…)

2. The first Mr Freeze boss fight is stupid and I hate it. I never finished the Mr Freeze story because I just could not get past that stupid fucking boss fight. His health is too high, he has too many fucking lazer types, there’s no cover after round one, it’s dumb, I hate it, fuck whoever designed it I hope you pillow is always warm and your bananas are always rotten!

3. A lot of the time you have to stay undetected but it’s hard if you don’t know what you’re doing. So like, when you first have to break into GCPD, you just have to fucking book it while crouching for the door otherwise you will get caught. Didn’t know that the first time, hid for ages and got caught. It’s also really hard to tell if you run a certain way, if you’ll be seen or not. Inside the GCPD bull pen, I alerted all the guards to yellow cause I tried to run for the fence and vault but again, vaulting in this game SUCKS

The combat is like… fine I guess? I’m dyspraxic as fuck so I’ve always struggled with like button mashing and shit like that but sometimes you’re fighting someone and it’s like, impossible. The bog standard talons were harder to fight than the upgraded with knives or the big brute dudes cause you cannot hit them you have to shoot and it’s awkward trying to get the angle to line up, especially if there’s like 4 of them.

Also the final fight with Talia, right at the end she dodges waaay too much and you cannot hit her, it’s so annoying.

It was a good game, I enjoyed myself, I will be replaying it at least four times (currently started my Nightwing play through) but also… there’s issues that really should have been considered. I had to google how to do levels and seen others complaining so it’s not just a me thing but yeah… also, I love Jason’s build in the game but he looks a little old (he genuinely looks older than Bruce in some scenes) and man needs hair. Just give my boy a mop of black with white hair PLEASE

#gotham knights #batman #batfamily #jason todd #red hood #nightwing #dick grayson #batgirl #barbara gordon #red robin #tim drake #video games #bree yaps

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cbrownjc · 3 months

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As an older fan, I’m starting to get some major Sherlock-vibes from the show, in the sense that fans are coming up with all these big-brained theories to explain weak writing that we have to have faith will come to fruition in some future season. Why make the change to Lestat saving Louis? Why is Louis seemingly stronger than Armand? Why have the Loustat reunion, only for Louis to leave and challenge the entire vampire world (despite the fact that he’s apparently in a better place mentally-speaking)? Why publish under Daniel’s name, when that would clearly paint a target on his back, especially now that he’s a vampire? What’s going on with Daniel’s eyes?

The whole “spite” thing seems like a clear mis-direct, but with only like 8-ish episodes a season and Dubai-era Devil’s Minion being 100% subtext so far, I don’t think the writing team can do DM justice. All the inconsistencies seem like they’re being written off because it’s the unreliable narrator show, when they’re actually just plot holes.

Like…I 100% think the writing team forgot makers can’t telepathically talk to their fledglings, and that’s why they had to add in the throwaway line of Lestat actually whispering to Louis in 1x02. There was no hidden reason we were meant to find, it was just inconsistent internal logic justified because Louis can’t remember anything correctly.

IDK. I don’t want to be a downer, but a lot of my hype for the show just kinda fizzled out with the finale. I'm still gonna watch S3, but I think I'm just gonna wait til the whole thing comes out this time.

Hi!

So I never watched Sherlock nor was every in that fandom, though I did hear about some things after the fact. So I can't compare it to that fandom. But I can compare things to another book series that was being adapted fandom I was in which was Game of Thrones. And I think wrt things we are at least nowhere near that level of things and theorising. Yet.

Maybe because, unlike ASOIAF all the VC books are written and done. So that's a plus.

And see, the thing is? I can actually see a lot of methods to the madness of some of the things you've listed. Especially given the nature of how the story in the show is told through POVs. Where the issue comes into it is not ever knowing if what you are seeing is true, false, or just an interpretation of the truth -- as in Louis' POV of the play-trial rehearsal.

And I'd really like to know if how they ended this season is how they plan to end every season when a full book has been adapted? Something that wraps up the main character arc and story, but just leaves a host of other questions that, if we weren't getting a Season 3, would have never been answered. And who knows if they will all be answered in Season 3? As far as Devil's Minion goes, or Armand himself, I'm not expecting it to be now, given that Season 3 is The Vampire Lestat adaptation and Armand is a straight-up villain/antagonist in that book and Daniel doesn't appear in it at all, so anything we get with him will be extra anyway.

Now, as to whether Rolin Jones and the writers have a plan, Rolin says he pitched an 8-Season (or so) Arc to AMC before he was given the show to run. So at the moment? That is the only solid thing we have to go on right now wrt if there actually IS a play or not for the show.

But see (and oh boy, please forgive me as am I about to go into a big digression here), plotting a TV show is much harder to do than a book or a movie. TV writing is way more organic given that unforeseen circumstances can occur that you've never planned for when you go into a new season of TV production. Such as the studio asking you to split the first book you're adapting into 2 seasons instead of one, leaving you with only a month to rewrite the scripts. Or, a writer's strike and then an actors' strike a few weeks later, delaying production for months. Both of which happened to IWTV wrt Season 1 and then Season 2.

So organic things beyond the show's control are why it is much harder to plan out every little detail of a TV show in advance over multiple seasons. Take another AMC show, Breaking Bad. It's known that Season 2 of that show was intricately plotted out in advance but then, after that, the writers plotted and wrote the rest of the show as things came along for the remaining seasons, with no grand design to it -- even though the creator of the show, Vince Gilligan, knew way in advance how the show was going to end. And the show was able to get there, to that ending, without having a meticulous plan over seasons on how to do so.

I mean, the character of Jesse on Breaking Bad was originally supposed to die at the end of the first season. But instead, he lived through the whole damn thing. That was not planned at all.

And I think that might very well be the situation we have going here wrt IWTV. I think there are larger things they already know in advance about the show -- which books out of all of them will adapted into full stories vs which will only get references. Which characters in the show will make it into the show as full characters vs which characters will either be cut or combined with other existing characters (as Sam Ried revealed in his interview with Autumn Brown that that is going to happen -- that some characters will be combined with others). And what end point they want each of the main four characters -- Louis, Lestat, Armadn, and Daniel -- to be at when they get to at least Season 8. (If not Season 10, which is what AMC wants, 10 seasons). I think those are things Rolin and the writers very much know.

But I don't think the show has every single little detail plotted out for every little thing wrt how they are going to get to certain things. Not super far in advance at any rate.

I do think they'll purposefully put in seeds for later -- that they very much know they are going to need later -- though I think at most they do it one season ahead if it's a little thing. I very much do think that is what the things from episodes 1x02 and 1x03 very much were, since Season 1 and 2 were supposed to just be one season originally. Or the fight in 1x05 only being shown from Claudia's POV. I think that was also deliberate and they are very much planning on visiting it once again in Season 3, as they did in Season 2.

But I also think there are some things the show has not plotted way in advance and only figured out when they are writing that particular episode. Or maybe just decided to do that season as they were writing it, and not before then. Just like how almost every other TV show works, even ones that might very well know the ending they are working toward.

So I in no way think the show has figured and plotted out every single moment and beat of Armand and Daniel's relationship. Why? Not only because much of it happened in the past -- which yes I very much still think it did -- which covers 12 years of time, but because if you look at this clip, Rolin Jones kind of hints that they haven't plotted it out completely point for point even though there are some things they've thought and figured out:

tumblr

video credit: Rei Gorrei on Twitter

So as far as Devil's Minion goes, I think Rolin and Co -- mostly Rolin -- has an endpoint for it in mind. But how they get to that endpoint is probably not planned out to the letter, super far in advance. And something they very likely just come up with as they are writing that particular season. At most? I'd say they've put things in this season that will be relevant next season and that's it.

So, I'm not going to say they can't do it justice. Not yet. I frankly don't have enough data to call that in a yes or no fashion since we haven't seen anything adapted from it aside from the 3-4 days Daniel spent in a cage, which is just the very start of how Devil's Minion begins. Basically one or two paragraphs. That's all they've really adapted when it comes to it at the moment.

And hey, it's okay if you feel down about all of this. If it helps, I'd say try and take a pragmatic approach to the show season by season, and if you feel it's better to binge it than watch it episode by episode for a time, that's good too. This is going to be a long journey after all.

#Devil's Minion #The Devil's Minion #Daniel Molloy #Armand #The Vampire Armand #Rolin Jones #Interview with the Vampire #amc iwtv #iwtv #iwtv spoilers #video #tv production

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whalyrae · 1 year

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THE OLD GUARD CHAPTER 2

"We don’t get a say on how it ends, we never have. But we can control how we live."

Summary : You are a powerful witch, cursed and hurt through ages. Owner of your esoteric shop, you were resigned to live this lonely life when the powerful magic of soulmates and fate came to you.

Pairing : poly BTS x reader (she/her)

Genre : soulmate au, demons bts au, witch y/n au, fluff, angst, eventual smut, polyamory relationships

Status : In process

Word Count : 4.3k

Warnings : eventual smut, angst, mention of depression, death, suicide, past trauma, violence, blood, past (sexual) abuse, past torture, PTSD, scars, self harm, and more.

Tag list : @blackrockshooter780 @babyymeme @starrlo0ver @suckerforv @mushroom-main @m1sss1mp @prettydancingdamzel

A/N : IT'S HERE !! The big one.... Took so much time to write this part... Unlike Dance With me, the chapters here are longer, and will therefore take longer to be published. I like to take my time writing… plus with my adhd it's hard sometimes to stay focused especially since I have my finals coming up soon and I have to study… AND I have a lot of mental breakdowns where I want to delete everything because I have no confidence in myself and my writing skills LOL

Ah, thank you so so much for all the loves you give with this story with all the likes and the shares and the comments ! Love y'all ♥

Masterlist | ao3 | wattpad

Chapter 1 // Chapter 3

☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾

When Namjoon returned home, saying he was ecstatic was a euphemism. He’d finally found her. Their last soul mate. After all these years. He met her by accident in a shop that his friend had recommended to him. What was the probability? Shit, he should thank Bangchan properly. He will be eternally grateful to him.

But her reactions when they met worried him. Something happened to her. Something that frightened her at the thought of bonding with her soulmates. They needed to know everything about her. Her past, her wounds, her fears, so that Namjoon and his other soulmates could help her. He wanted nothing more than for them all to be together, as they always wanted, as they always talked about.

They all had so many exciting projects to do. But they always waited, they didn't want to do anything until they were all together.

The time has come. Finally.

But to do all of that, he needed to tell them about her.

He slammed the door so hard that he woke up the black cat and Hoseok who were both sleeping peacefully on the sofa.

“Sorry hyungs,” he apologized before taking off his jacket, “I have something really, really important to tell you and…-”

Namjoon, what’s that smell?

Yoongi’s voice echoed in Namjoon’s and Hoseok’s head. Namjoon wasn’t surprised he already noticed it. In his cat form, his hyung’s senses were sharper. Hoseok frowned and came near his boyfriend to smell him. Slowly, he lifted his eyes to meet his partners. Her sweet vanilla scent was still barely on him, but enough for demons like his boyfriends to notice it.

“Joonie, you’re finally back! Oh, something happened, Hobi? You should see your face! ”

Jungkook appeared behind Hoseok, giving him a back hug while his head rested on his shoulder. The others joined them quickly. Everyone was there for Namjoon’s relief. On the way back to their home, he was afraid that the maknaes had decided to go out on the town as they used to do.

But unlike Hoseok and Yoongi, they didn’t seem to notice her smell on him.

Fuck, he didn’t even know how to tell them. Why was he so nervous? They all waited for that day.

But he couldn’t forget how she acted towards him. When their eyes finally met each other, how was her reaction during their handshake. The way she read the part of the book, the tears she had held back.

She didn’t reject him though, he was sure of that.

“Is everything okay? Oh… you smell really good, is that a new perfume ?”

He shook his head at Jin's question. Namjoon noticed the oldest’s face changed quickly. Jin was confused in some way Namjoon didn’t understand. He, too, must have wondered where that sweet smell Namjoon had on him came from.

He looked at each of his boyfriends and took a deep breath before finally saying the words that would change their lives forever.

“I met our last soulmate.”

The room remained quiet for long seconds. He noticed that Yoongi had returned to his human form, and had the same look as his boyfriends.

Suddenly, they all started asking Namjoon questions. Who’s this person? What’s their name? Was the vanilla smell theirs? Was Namjoon sure they were their last soulmate? If so, why didn't he bring them here?

The only one who stayed calm was Jin. He was standing behind Namjoon, staring at him in a somewhat strange kind of way that Yoongi had noticed. But he said nothing. He probably had to absorb the information too.

“Okay, okay, can y’all please stop talking at the same time ?” Namjoon finally asked.

“But hyung, I want to meet them !” Jimin whined.

“Me too, it’s not fair you’re the only one who’s got the chance to talk to them !” Taehyung added with a pout.

“Tell us where you met them, please! At their work? Or maybe in a library? You like to visit libraries after all! ” Jungkook asked beside him, clinging to his arm. His big brown eyes shone with impatience and excitement.

Namjoon pinched his nose and sighed. These were exactly the reactions he had expected. Especially from the three youngest. Well, he couldn’t blame them for that. If he were them, he’d react the same way.

Jin, Hoseok, and Yoongi were calmer, but he knew they were burning with impatience and even envy towards him for meeting her first, and especially for being the only one to know her, for now. He couldn't be upset with them for being so impatient, he'd probably have reacted the same way if he'd been in their situation...

“Okay guys,” Jin finally spoke, in a strangely calm voice, and wrapped his arms around Taehyung and Jimin’s waist, “Maybe we can let Joon explain to us… right? I’ll make some coffee and tea for everyone. ”

He separated from his two boyfriends and disappeared into the kitchen before receiving any response. On the one hand, because he didn't need to wait for answers, he already knew what each of them would drink. But also because the second the smell of vanilla had reached him, a sudden headache had taken over him.

Now alone, he had leaned against the work surface and closed his eyes. His face suddenly tensed.

Flashbacks invaded his mind.

He couldn’t recognize or remember the place, the situation, or the person he was with. They were faceless. He couldn’t tell which one of his soulmates he was with. Or was it none of them? But if so, who was it?

What were these memories? He didn’t even remember living any of them. Were these memories even his own?

“Jin, are you okay? ”

He jump-started when he heard the voice of Yoongi behind him. The second oldest had noticed the suddenly strange attitude of his elder.

“Yeah, just a headache, nothing serious, don’t worry.”

Jin smiled to reassure him, but Yoongi wasn’t naive. He came closer to him and put his hand on his forehead.

“I’m a demon, Yoongs,” he added in a more serious tone and gently grabbed his hand, “I can’t be sick like humans.”

“Then why do you have a headache? Hm? You never had any before now. It oddly coincides with Joon’s arrival and this… sweet and delicious vanilla scent he had on him.”

He caught a whiff of that wonderful smell on Namjoon, even though it was already very faint. He also hadn’t understood that these sudden flashbacks probably had something to do with that aroma.

Of course not, he couldn't make that connection. He had never smelled that scent before.

Or so he thought.

Jin frowned a little and shook his head, walking away from Yoongi to prepare the drinks.

“I’m fine Yoongi, I promise.”

Yoongi did not believe him, his senses told him not to. Jin and him were the first two to meet. They were together for several years before their paths crossed with Namjoon and Hoseok. The three younger ones were the last to arrive, decades ago.

He knew his elder very well. He knew something was up, something probably related to their last soulmate, which they had all been looking for and waiting for all these years.

Jin said nothing when he saw Yoongi join him to help. But Yoongi couldn’t deny that he, too, felt rather strange at the thought of Namjoon meeting their soulmate. A mixed feeling of excitement, and impatience but also stress and apprehension when he saw Namjoon's serious and worried face. He thought to himself that the same was probably true for Jin and that he was perhaps worrying a little too much.

Yoongi also thought he should check things out on his own, one way or another.

Several minutes later, the two boys were back in the living room. Everyone was settled in front of Namjoon and impatient while he was still standing, and nervous as he fidgeted with his fingers, which everyone quickly noticed.

“Okay,” Namjoon took a deep breath, and ran his hand through his hair, “please, let me finish before asking any questions, because we’ll need to find something to help her.”

°°°

After her breakdown in her apartment, Handong and Gahyeon took her to theirs, not really far away from her home. where the other girls were waiting for her with blankets and food. But she didn't eat anything. The pain and sadness were so big and intense that her stomach was in knots. The thought of eating any kind of food made her feel nauseous. Her head hurts from crying so much.

She was silent at first, but finally, she started to speak and told them everything. Her meeting with Namjoon, how sweet and kind he was towards her, what she felt, the connection that people experienced with the person or people were meant to be with.

A soulmate connection.

All the girls were seated around her. They listened carefully. Bora and Gahyeon were at her sides while the others were in front of her, two on the small coffee table, the three others sitting on the floor.

After that, Siyeon asked her in a soft and calm voice why she reacted like that. Siyeon and the others thought she would be happy to finally meet her soulmate, especially since she also told them that Namjoon and her were linked to six other people, people that Namjoon already knew, making her the last person missing from the bond.

And there’s the moment when she felt tears appear again. The truth was that Namjoon wasn’t the first one she met. Gahyeon remembered her whispering a name when she broke down in her arms. A man named Jin. Who was he? Someone she loved, and who wasn’t her soulmate?

“No, absolutely not,” she answered to Gahyeon when she asked her, “Jin is… one of my soulmates too…”

She took a deep breath. She didn’t want to cry again. She was tired of crying.

She felt Bora’s head leaning on her shoulder and hugging her tightly.

“Can you tell us what happened, unnie ?” she asked in a calm and sweet voice.

Her heart ached for all the memories she had buried inside her to suddenly return. Bright memories, where Jin and she were together, happy and eager to meet their other soul mates. But also, when they had been forced to be separated, when he lost his memory when they had not been strong enough to protect each other. When she was imprisoned by those humans, accused of being a witch, and sentenced to death. How she survived, marking the beginning of her immortality, and escaped to them, and all those hurting centuries she passed alone.

She let out a sigh and finally nodded. She trusted them, they never judged her, and they were always gentle, and understanding. Gahyeon and Handong did not hesitate to come to her house after her message at almost midnight because she needed them. They were the kind of people you only met once in your life. They were true friends.

More than that, she saw them as little sisters.

She could open up to them, she could trust them, about her past, what happened with Jin, how she lost him, and most importantly, why she spent most of her life alone, surviving instead of living.

°°°

“ No! That’s not fair! It wasn’t your fault! ” Gahyeon shouted suddenly.

She stood up, angry and nearly crying, Minji joined her and gave her a comforting hug. She had just finished her story. It has been so long since she talked about it...

Bringing up all her memories was painful, but at the same time, it felt quite good to finally be able to share her pain and sorrow with them. Yoohyeon took Gahyeon's place, taking her hand in hers.

“ She’s right y/n, Why do you blame yourself? You and Jin... you were just victims! ”

“Is there anything you can do to restore his memory ?” Siyeon asked.

“Memory magic is… complex but also very powerful.” she started to explain, playing nervously with her fingers, “Brain and memory have always been a very mysterious subject, and even after all these centuries of studying it… medicine and neuroscience, for human or not, have never managed to unlock all its secrets. He's a demon, like most of you, but your brain is relatively the same as a human's… ”

She shook her head.

“Besides that, we got separated, and after I escaped from those humans, he was gone. I looked for him. I traveled the world, in vain. I never knew where he was. Was he back in the demon realm? I never knew, I tried to summon him, to invoke him, again and again, in vain. He never came to me, and I never knew why... ”

Demons could live freely in the human world if they wanted to. Otherwise, most of them lived in another world, outside time and space, parallel to where they lived now. A world where only demons could enter and leave at their will.

She sighed. She felt tears welling up again, which made her let out a swear.

“We were young and stupid, we didn’t want to waste our time with those stories of invocations and everything…”

“But now, you know where he is, you can see him again !” Yubin suddenly exclaimed, “I’m sure he hasn't forgotten you! Well, maybe for now, but the moment he sees you, all the memories will come back! He's your soul mate y/n, damn it! ”

She looked up at her and sighed again before standing up. She walked to the window and looked through it. The moon was almost full in three days.

“I’m…,” she began, her voice shaking, and she took a deep breath, “I’m scared to face him again, to face all of them. And what if he never remembers me? What if they don’t want me because of that ?”

She bites her lips. Damn it, her heart was beating faster, and not in a good way.

“And what if… she’s still alive? What if she’s still after him and she finds out that I'm still alive, and that I've found him? She could still go after him, or even our other soulmates, and even though I'm more powerful than before, she has become more powerful too… but on the other hand…,” she turned to her friends, and despite the smile on her lips, tears were running down her cheeks, “I want to see him, I want to meet them…”

Those words she just said out loud, she hasn't controlled them. They came out of her lips without her controlling it,

When she met Namjoon, a few hours earlier, her reactions towards him were more about surprise and shock at finding another soul mate. Especially since she had immediately sensed that Jin was there too.

All those memories, all those traumas, and all the things she experienced and had buried inside her were suddenly brought up, causing a surge of panic and anxiety.

But now that she had been able to confide in her friends, to talk about it, to hear their advice and support, she was able to put her thoughts in order.

Okay, learning from one day to the next that she had met not only her soul mate but also the other six, one of whom was her first love lost dramatically was something quite... sudden and abrupt.

After Jin, she never had a love affair and never fell in love again. Of course not, how could she?

Now, the idea of seeing him again, of meeting these six other people who were related to her, too, but who had also taken care of him for… she didn't even know how long...

She didn’t even want to hear the word “soulmate” or anything related to love and bonding. Because she would have felt like she was betraying Jin. She couldn't even imagine being happy with a soulmate or soulmates without him.

“You deserve it,” Minji suddenly said, pulling her out of her reverie, and gently placed her hand on her shoulder, a gentle smile on her lips, “you deserve it more than anyone else. You spent your whole life helping anyone who asks for help, sacrificing your life more than once - literally - for the helping and saving. You deserve to be happy, with those who are destined for you. And I'm sure they too have been waiting for you and are looking forward to meeting you, and to being reunited with Jin.”

She winked at her and wiped her cheeks wet with tears.

“And about this demon bitch,” Yubin continued, making a fireball appear in her hand with a fake smile, “She can come and try if she wants!”

“Yeah! We’re waiting for her! ” Gahyeon added.

Her lips stretched into a slight smile. Things were different than they had been centuries ago.

She was older, more mature, more powerful.

After all these years, decades, and centuries spent alone, hope was finally awakening in her. Hope for a better future, where loneliness would no longer exist.

“Oh girls, wait a minute !” Gahyeon suddenly shouted, “How will she meet them? Namjoon has left his shop and they have not exchanged any contacts!”

“Oh, you know for that, I’m not worried.” Handong replied with a smirk, “He knows where she works. I can bet anything you want that at least one of them will visit her very, very soon.”

°°°

Handong was right, but she didn't know it yet, or at least she didn't believe it.

She wouldn't think that Namjoon would talk about her as soon as he returned home to his... no, to their soulmates.

But he did.

He even specifically asked his partners not to rush to see her. They had to come up with a plan to approach her, enter her life, and bring her into theirs, being attentive to her inner wounds.

He thought he had convinced them. Or so he thought.

The day after she met Namjoon, at dawn, she left her friends' apartment and returned to hers. It had been a short night and she talked a lot. After she confessed, Minji and Yoohyeon convinced her to eat. She then fell asleep against Gahyeon, lulled by their conversations about random things, she didn't even remember them.

She was exhausted. But she had a business to run. There was also the possibility of creatures needing her help. The full moon was coming up in a few days, and she knew that at this time of year, werewolves often accidentally hurt themselves.

She also needed to focus her mind on something else, only for a few hours.

And anyway, she had no information. She didn't know where Jin, Namjoon, and her other soulmates lived, whom she didn't even know yet.

And then, let's imagine she found herself facing Jin., what would she do? He wouldn't even recognize her. He would see her crying and not even understand why.

She might be his soul mate, but to him, she was yet a stranger.

Maybe it was better if she didn't see them again. Maybe Namjoon would never talk about her after their catastrophic first meeting yesterday, and go on with his life as if nothing had ever happened. Maybe that was the only way.

She sighed and left her apartment after taking a quick shower and changing her clothes. She walked down the stairs to her bookstore and turned the sign to announce that it was officially open.

She had done what she did every day: arranged and dusted the books on the shelves, correctly tidied and cleaned the various crystals, watered her plants, collected the petals and fruit from some of them, dried them for later, and made them into ingredients for future potions or spells and finally, swept the bookshop.

Her day was like any other, except maybe she was more clumsy than usual. She would have liked to blame it on tiredness, but she knew very well that it wasn't because of that.

A dark spot outside caught her eye. In front of one of the windows, sitting and staring into her bookstore, a cat.

Oh, it wasn't just any cat. It was much bigger than the cats she was used to seeing. It was also more graceful and probably the most beautiful black cat she had ever seen in her life.

She was completely mesmerized by this cat, so much so that she put her ballet down against her counter and approached the door she had opened.

She was used to this kind of situation. Stray cats often came to visit her. She got into the habit of feeding them, giving them water, and even healing them if they arrived injured, which, fortunately, was much rarer.

"Hey kitty," she murmured in a soft voice, a little smile on her face, “are you hungry? or thirsty? come in, I'll take care of you.”

She didn't dare approach the cat, she didn't know if he was afraid and would run away if she tried to touch him, or even be aggressive. She didn't want him to go away either, strangely though. She didn't want to be alone.

So she walked away from him, leaving the door open behind her, and went into the back room to get a bowl and a bottle of water.

When she came back, the cat was not only in the bookstore, but he was sitting on the counter. He was seated with his back straight, his dark eyes staring at her intensely.

She didn't know why, but she suddenly felt intimidated by this cat.

She approached him, and put down the bowl to fill it with water. She then walked away to put the ballet away.

And then the truth hit her.

He couldn't be a real cat. Well, yes, of course, it was a cat. But she felt something coming out of him, something magical and mystical.

Something supernatural. Like a shape-shifter.

She turned her head towards him, silently observing the animal that lapped up the water with an almost disconcerting slowness and tranquility.

She took a long breath and the cat raised his head, hearing her, and ran his tongue over his lips, his eyes resting on her.

That deep, dark look. No, even if she was exhausted, it couldn't be the look of a simple cat. Her witch senses were tingling, she couldn't ignore them. She had crossed paths with many shape-shifters in her life, she knew the signs.

“I know you’re not an ordinary cat,” she finally said to him with a soft, non-accusatory voice, sitting in her chair in front of him, “I’m a witch, a very, very old witch to be honest, you’re not the first metamorph I met,” she adds with a small laugh.

The cat’s ears bent slightly at the sound of her voice, he blinked slowly, without taking his eyes off her.

“Are you stuck in your animal form?” She asks, resting her chin on the palm of her hand, “I can help you.”

It took only a few seconds before the cat came a little closer to her.

Namjoon was right, our new soul mate is a person with a big heart and breathtaking beauty.

A deep, raspy, and seductive voice echoed in her head. She frowned, slightly confused, as she looked around. Eventually, she realized where the voice was coming from.

Wait. He said Namjoon's name, didn't he? It can't be...

Did you genuinely think he wouldn't tell us about you and your first meeting? Come on, sweetheart, we've been waiting for you for so long.

She took one step back, and another. Honestly, yes, she thought he wouldn't talk about her.

She couldn't deny that his last words warmed her heart. So, had they been looking for her, too?

He also asked us to wait…

He continued, turning his back on her to jump off the counter.

I mean, before coming to meet you. But I am his elder after all, why should I obey him? I love Namjoon with all my soul, but he asks too much from us when it’s about you, our precious and pretty soul mate.

She heard him chuckle and looked down at him. She breathed deeply. She breathed in, and out, slowly. She was trying to calm the rhythm of her heart which was fast, too fast.

Ah, maybe it's talking to a cat that disturbs you and makes you speechless? You knew from the beginning that I was a shapeshifter, didn't you?

She shook her head slightly to recover her senses.

“Not really, I thought you were a real cat at first” she admits, “and no, it’s not the first time I’m talking to a metamorph and... even if I did, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've done in my life. But, can you…”

Oh, yeah, sure. Sorry.

It wasn't talking to a cat that troubled her the most. She was curious. Curious to see what he looked like. What her soul mate looked like.

In the blink of an eye, it was not a black cat that was facing her anymore, but a man. A very handsome man. His beauty was just as breathtaking as Namjoon's but in a different way. Black hair, pale skin, thin facial features, yeah, he was beautiful. Moreover, he was stunning.

Shit, if they were all as handsome as Jin, Namjoon and this guy, she was in trouble.

His gaze was the same as in his cat form. Piercing, quite dark, but now she could read something else in it. Tenderness.

Seeing her reaction, a smirk appeared at the corner of his lips. He ran a hand through his hair and took a step towards her.

"Thanks for the water, by the way, I was very thirsty." he bowed his head with a slight smile and a soft voice that made her shiver, "I'm Min Yoongi, it's very nice to finally meet you, Y/n."

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pengweng-quack · 7 months

Text

Being a Witch with Vampires

Carlisle Cullen x Witch!OC

Summary: Stella (A witch) and Carlisle (A vampire), and how they blossomed from roommates to friends(?) to partners

Chapter 5/7

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7

Notes:

This was inspired by this fanfic on tumblr by lis-likes-fics titled "In My Defense, I Was Left Unsupervised"

This is also on Ao3 under the same title and same username too if you'd like to read it there (https://archiveofourown.org/works/53448940)

Posting is random lol, hope you guys enjoy this story

The end of Being a Witch with Vampires is nearing, thank you for all the support that you've given for this series, you are all appreciated beyond words! <3

Word Count: 2774 words

TW for this chapter: Blood mentions

Timeline: Breaking Dawn

Masterlist

“We’re home.” Carlisle announced, walking in the house with the other Cullens. Bella and Jacob shared one look at each other, realizing that they wouldn’t be able to hide it, especially with Edward’s abilities

“Where’s Stella?” Edward asked loudly. Bella and Jacob looked at each other, they knew that he knew her disappearance already

“She said she’ll be staying in our room.” Carlisle answered with confidence. And that broke Bella’s heart. This was what happened to Stella years ago, with her confidence high knowing she’ll be going home to someone, only for it to crumble.

“She’s not here.” Jasper said, looking at Carlisle and Stella’s room

“What do you know?” Edward asked Jacob, grabbing the collar of his shirt

“She had to leave.” Jacob answered, knowing he had no way out “Didn’t tell us anything.”

“I can’t see into Stella’s future anymore either.” Alice said, trying to do another vision but it causing just a headache

“She’s blocking her thoughts as well.” Edward added

Because of Stella's absence, the Cullens were even more stressed. Everyone understood, though, that Carlisle was the most affected of all. It felt like a payment for leaving her a while back, an overdue one, but still was a payment.

“Still nothing?” Carlisle quietly asked Alice as she shook her head no

The Cullens didn’t know what Stella’s reason of leaving was. But they hope that it was for a good cause. Carlisle continued reading on every scripture that he and Stella has collected over the years, distracting himself from Stella’s continuous absence.

Stella has quickly made her way to her old home in Italy, the place where she lost her freedom and regained it at once. She walked up to the door and knocked, knowing that it was still Sam that owned the house.

“Who’s— Stella?” Sam asked, opening the door. It was obvious on his face that he was shocked seeing her again. Especially when it has been almost 300 years since they last saw each other

“Hi.” Stella greeted politely before he greeted her back with a hug, whispering his ‘I miss you’s’ to her

“Are you—

“Sam, no.” Stella called at once as she enters the place that she once called home, it was left the same as how it was when she left. She remembered that night like the palm of her hand. How could she forget anyways?

It was the place where Carlisle has saved her from her initial fate.

“Right.” Sam realized, a disappointed smile on his face

Stella immediately rushed to the library, scanning through books that could possibly help with Bella. She had one glimpse of a book that discussed about how witches affected vampires, so she decided to grab that and put it in a separate stack away from the books that could help Bella’s case.

“Why are you back?” Sam asked, resting on the doorframe and watching her grab piles and piles of books from the library

“I needed the library.” Stella answered immediately, using her magic to grab any book that mentioned a human-vampire relationship

“I thought…never mind.” Sam started before shutting his mouth

Stella decided to have a chat with Sam once and for all. For the proper closure he needed. It was wrong of her to leave him in the middle of the night all those decades ago, but she wanted to be selfish of her own happiness. Choose what she knows will make her happy with her life.

And that was with Carlisle.

“Sam.” Stella called, he immediately looked at her

“I owe you an apology.” She continued, going closer to him and facing him

“Can I ask you a question?” Sam asked, Stella nodded immediately “Does the vampire treat you right? Are you happy with him?”

“The happiest I know I will be.” Stella answered earnestly, remembering Carlisle and his ways of making her happy

“Then I’m happy.” Sam said, a genuine smile on his face, grabbing her hand and squeezing it softly “No need to apologize for choosing your happiness.”

“I’m sorry.” Stella repeated “You didn’t deserve to be left like that. I really just wanted the freedom that Carlisle offered to me.”

“I know.” He simply responded

“I used the guidance, asking if there were any chance that you will come back. The guidance told me no, it told me that you were destined for more than what a simple witch life will offer to you. That was the reason why you were made the strongest among us all.” Sam explained, making Stella look at him

“You used the guidance?” Stella asked, Sam nodded immediately

“It was tough learning it, and scary.” He added to his answer

“I’ve only asked the guidance for two things: if there were any chance that you will come back, and if I had a chance of getting my own happiness. Greatly weakened me, those two.” Sam continued, scoffing lightly at himself “I couldn’t use any type of magic for a while after doing it.”

It was a huge realization on what she needed to do, a branch of magic she never wanted to study. But, her family needs this. Her family needs her to be brave.

For her family.

“Mind if you teach me?”

Stella landed in front of the Cullens after leaving for over a week. She was anxious in seeing them again but she knew that what she did was for a good cause. Walking up to the door, she knocked on it, waiting for someone to open it.

“Stella, you’re back.” Jacob said, opening the door and letting her in

“I got some reading on Bella’s case.” She announced, entering the house

Carlisle’s head popped up from the kitchen, and was about to ask Jacob on who was on the door. His face showed shock with Stella being back, he didn’t know how to properly react. But she knew something about Bella’s case, he would be damned if he doesn’t welcome her back

Not that he could even think of shunning her away.

“What is it?” Jacob asked

“Blood. Bella needs blood.” Stella answered before Carlisle fully walked near them

“What do you mean?” Carlisle asked

“The baby in Bella is taking a lot of Bella’s blood, she needs to get blood from another source.” Stella explained immediately, grabbing her bag and pulling a blood bag

“Your blood.” Carlisle said once he’s had a scent of the blood. Stella saw how Carlisle closed his eyes and turned his head away, trying to stop the scent of her blood from influencing his next decisions

“It’s not gonna do anything to her, blood’s too old for that. I decided to try it out with my own blood first, seeing as me and Bella had the same blood type too.” Stella explained, grabbing a bottle with a straw and dripping the blood in it “A witch’s blood is sweeter than human blood. She needs to get used to the blood’s feeling first before switching to a human blood.”

“I’m gonna be sick.” Jacob said, moving further away from the two

“I suggest you get used to this.” Stella said, before walking fast to where Bella was, Carlisle trailing behind her

“Stella, you’re back.” Bella weakly called, trying to plaster a smile

“Oh dear.” Stella said, seeing Bella’s case “You look—

“Like I’m gonna die, I know.” Bella continued for her, a sad smile on her face

“Take this.” Stella ordered softly, sitting next to her and offering a straw “It’s a witch’s blood.”

“Her blood, in particular.” Carlisle added, kind of assuring Bella

Bella drank from the straw. It was a horrifying sight, but she was willing to go to any length to keep Bella alive. Even breaking the pledge that she made to herself

She eventually began to drink more, slowly finishing the entire glass. The sight astounded Carlisle, Bella appeared to be in better health than before, and he felt that things would be easier now that Stella had returned with newfound knowledge. After all, she is his clever and confident witch.

“Stella?” Edward asked, entering the house just after a hunt. Rosalie, Jasper, and Emmett behind him with curious and shocked looks on their faces

“Bella needs to get blood from another source. The baby in her is taking all the blood that she could have.” Carlisle explained to them “Stella found it from her readings.”

“What she’s drinking now is my blood but left out in the open for a few days, if you’re confused with the scent.” Stella explained to them “A witch’s blood is sweeter than a human blood. What we’re just gonna do is to get her used to the texture of the blood before switching to a human blood.”

“How many bags of your blood do you still have?” Carlisle asked Stella

“I have three more.” Stella answered calmly

“So, are we not gonna talk about how Stella just left and came back like it was nothing?” Rosalie asked. Stella stared at Rosalie and realized that her quick departure had betrayed her the most, but she had no choice. She had to do everything she could to help Bella, especially because Carlisle was just as uninformed as the rest of them.

“I had to return to Italy, where I had left most of my books, and I wanted to know whether any of them mentioned a vampire-human kid and how the mother can survive.” Stella explained to them “I’m sorry for leaving without some sort of goodbye, but I know you all will not let me go if I tell you that I’m leaving for Italy.”

She went in front of Rosalie and opened her arms for a hug. Rosalie quickly rushed in for the hug, missing the mother figure that she’s had ever since her transition to vampire. The others joined in the hug, all mentioning their wishes that she doesn’t do something like that ever again.

Carlisle learned from too many late-night chats with Stella that she never wanted to return to Italy since the only nice thing that came out of it was him. He felt something stir in him when Stella decided to take lead in this moment where he had little knowledge.

Suddenly, them being together made perfect sense.

“Stella, help!” Edward called in distress. Stella rushed in, seeing Bella be the most fragile thing there is in the room

“Have you injected the syringe?” Stella asked and he quickly nodded

“Where’s Carlisle?” She asked again, watching as Edward starts doing chest compressions on her

“Outside, they’re fighting off the wolves.” He answered, biting all skin available in hopes that she had just enough time for her transition from man to vampire

Stella rushed out, seeing her family fight off wolves, she pushed one away from Alice with her magic before hearing the shapeshifter’s thoughts

‘The witch is mine’ one wolf ordered to the others, before a pure black wolf attacked her, pulling her by her shoulders

“No!” She heard Carlisle yelled, quickly punching the wolf attacking him and rushing to where she was. Seth attacked the black wolf, helping Stella get composure and tie the black wolf with red ropes from her magic.

Carlisle pulled Stella near him, not wanting to be separated from her. They moved to be near the house, doing everything in their power to fend off the wolves against Bella.

They were outnumbered. Stella looked at Carlisle, hoping that this wouldn’t be their end. If they were attacking this aggressively, it meant one thing.

Bella was dead.

Stella being distracted from Bella’s death had gotten her to be dragged away by a wolf, throwing her into the depths of the forest, hitting her back into one of the trees. She winced in pain but decided to stand up and fight from behind. She started flicking her hands, throwing the wolves just as they had thrown her.

One attacked behind her, pushing her to the front of the vampires, she was sure that something in her was bleeding. Carlisle helped her up, she was wincing from the pain. Jacob was in front in his wolf form, he was intimidating the wolves.

“Jacob imprinted. They can’t hurt her.” Edward announced to everyone

“Whoever a wolf imprints on can’t be harmed.” He continued, a look of relief on his face “It’s their most absolute law.”

“Da columbam albam si spes nulla est (give the white dove if there is no hope).” Stella chanted over a small white candle

“Duce, mea numina (give me guidance, my gods).” Stella prayed again, closing her eyes and murmuring the same two spells two more times before blowing the candle out

“Your forbidden spells.” Carlisle said, hearing her chant in Latin

“Carlisle.” Stella called in shock. She had planned to hide it from him for as long as possible.

“Since when?” Carlisle asked, sitting next to her

“When I left, I knew that I had to learn it. For Bella.” Stella explained

“But you said before that you feared using that in fear of using the guidance instead of accepting the consequences.” Carlisle said

“And let her die?” Stella asked “I know my limitations. And I know that you’ll help me with controlling my desire too.”

“When I came back to Italy, Sam was still there.” Stella started, getting Carlisle’s full attention. He moved to sit next to her, scared that this will be one of the last moments that he’ll be with her

“What happened?” Carlisle asked. He was scared to hear whatever was gonna be her answer, because it could lead into him losing his mate

“He went and hugged me, thinking that I was coming back for him.” Stella said lowly “I told him that it wasn’t my purpose there.”

“What happened next?” Carlisle asked

“When I went home, I did some reading. Not just on Bella’s case. But also, on witches’ mates.” Stella answered

“If a vampire were to offer themselves to a witch, a witch could go and deny them. But not because of not wanting them like I have been taught all my life.” Stella explained to Carlisle

“What is it then?” Carlisle asked

“If a witch does accept the vampire’s offer, the witch and a vampire will then be bonded. Your pain becomes my pain and my pain becomes your pain.” She continued; Carlisle was still not understanding what was the meaning of what she was saying

“If anything happens to you, it will only be a short matter of time until something fatal happens to me.” She explained “The reason why witches deny the vampires is because they know that vampires are easy to kill. No witch is strong enough to accept that their life will end after their mate dies.”

“Do you think that it’s a big deal?” Carlisle asked quietly

“I want you to live after my death.” Stella answered, the thought of Carlisle dying when she dies haunting her. Her accepting his offer to be his mate would be a life sentence for him

“Do…do you think that I’ll be able to live a life without you in it?” Carlisle asked quietly as Stella wept from the possibilities of her death causing an end to his as well

“I cannot ask you to do that for me.” She murmured “They will need you; you know that.”

“I need you.” Carlisle said almost immediately “I need you to know just how much I’m willing to be yours.”

Carlisle softly grabbed Stella face, wiping all of the tear marks off her face. Before pulling her for a soft kiss. Stella wasn’t a master with words, but the emotions that Carlisle felt during their kiss made him understand just how much she needed him too.

Carlisle understood now, that if he were to offer Stella to be his mate, that she would accept wholeheartedly.

He wanted it done soon.

He wanted it done now.

“I’m yours, mi amor. All yours.” Carlisle softly announced to her

“You own all of me. Even before you had the thought of loving me.” Carlisle continued, rubbing his nose against Stella’s nose

“I’m all yours to love. All yours to live with. All yours to be with for an eternity. I’m all yours.”

Carlisle pulled her for another kiss, but this time it was softer. And calmer, but so, so filled with love.

It was right when they say that they’ve waited far too long for this.

“I love you.” Stella whispered as she pulled away from the kiss

“I love you more.” Carlisle answered back immediately, cupping her cheeks as he plants kisses all over her face

#carlisle cullen #carlisle cullen x reader #twilight saga #alice cullen #bella swan #edward cullen #jasper hale #no esme on this one (i love her though i promise)#rosalie hale #the cullens #emmett cullen #twilight renaissance #twilight x reader #twilight

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dragonflycap · 18 days

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What to expect from the stock market this week

Last week, the review of the macro market indicators saw heading into the unofficial end of summer and with August in the books, that equity markets showed a preference for some rest after the 3 week move higher. Elsewhere looked for Gold ($GLD) to continue its uptrend while Crude Oil ($USO) consolidated in a tightening range. The US Dollar Index ($DXY) continued to bounce to the upside while US Treasuries ($TLT) consolidated in their downtrend. The Shanghai Composite ($ASHR) looked to continue the downtrend while Emerging Markets ($EEM) consolidated over support in a possible start of a new uptrend.

The Volatility Index ($VXX) looked to remain low and stable making the path easier for equity markets to the upside. Their charts looked strong, especially on the longer timeframe. On the shorter timeframe the week long consolidation left the $SPY with only 2 hours to rocket to just shy of a new all-time high close while the $QQQ and the $IWM ended near the high of the week. All were prepped to start September stronger.

The week played out with Gold holding at the highs in consolidation while Crude Oil broke down to a nearly 10 month low. The US Dollar fell back from its quick bounce while Treasuries rose to test the December 2023 high. The Shanghai Composite fell to a 7 month low while Emerging Markets broke support to hit a 1 month low.

Volatility rose Monday out of the teens and held the rest of the week. This put pressure on equities and they responded by moving lower all week and closing the mid-August gaps. This resulted in the SPY, the QQQ and the IWM confirming lower highs as recession fear overtook the market. What does this mean for the coming week? Let’s look at some charts.

SPY Daily, $SPY

The SPY came into the week holding in consolidation just under the all-time high. It dropped Tuesday touching the 50 day SMA and held there through Thursday before a second big fall Friday closed the mid-August gap down. It closed at the lowest level since August 13th. The RSI is falling below the midline after making a lower high with the MACD crossed down but positive. The Bollinger Bands® are squeezing in with price now closing in on the 100 day SMA.

The weekly chart shows the confirmation of a reversal with a strong move lower following the doji. It ended at the 20 week SMA. There is also a momentum divergence with the RSI making a lower high as price made a higher high. The RSI remains bullish over the midline with the MACD positive but moving lower. There is support lower at 540 and 537 then 534 and 530 before 524.50 and 520.50. Resistance higher is at 542 and 545.75 then 549.50 and 556.50 before 561.50 and 565.50. Broad Consolidation with Possible Change of Character.

SPY Weekly, $SPY

With the first week of September in the books, equity markets reverted to weakness, trending lower all week. Elsewhere look for Gold to continue its uptrend while Crude Oil continues to move lower. The US Dollar Index continues in broad consolidation while US Treasuries show signs of a possible new uptrend. The Shanghai Composite looks to continue the downtrend while Emerging Markets drop back into a short term downtrend.

The Volatility Index looks to shift from low and stable to low and rising making the path more difficult for equity markets. Their charts look weak om the shorter time frame as price pulls back from a lower high, but they remain above making a lower low for now. On the longer timeframe they look stronger, but vulnerable with the SPY strongest then the IWM and the QQQ the weakest. Use this information as you prepare for the coming week and trad’em well.

Join the Premium Users and you can view the Full Version with 20 detailed charts and analysis: Macro Week in Review/Preview September 6, 2024

#$GLD #$USO #$UUP #$DXY #$TLT #$ASHR #$FXI #$EEM #$VIX #$VXX #$SPY #$IWM #$QQQ

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screenplaytestingground · 2 months

Text

Bridgerton Season 4, Episode 3 - So Long London

It's starting to get a bit more challenging to reference the book (An Offer from a Gentleman) and still tell the story of Benedict and Sophie the way I hope the show will next season. This episode features the first of a few planned Benedict and Eloise swing conversations!

Two scene preview below, the full script is linked as a PDF.

Enjoy!

SCENE 1 - BENEDICT LOOKING THROUGH ART SUPPLIES

INT. BRIDGERTON HOUSE ATTIC/STORAGE ROOM - DAY

BENEDICT is opening and closing chests and looking through boxes, moving stacked crates and reviewing what is inside.

BENEDICT finds a chest full of his old sketches and drawing supplies. BENEDICT sits on a nearby chest, bringing a stack of sketches to his lap and reviewing the art, wistfully.

BENEDICT stands and searches through another CRATE full of blank sheets and drawing supplies. He gathers the supplies into one CRATE and picks up to take with him.

BENEDICT exits the attic

TRANSITION TO BENEDICT’S BEDROOM

BENEDICT enters with the CRATE of art supplies and places it on his DESK. He begins to unpack the art supplies, laying them out on his desk carefully.

~ 2 minutes.

END SCENE

SCENE 2 - BENEDICT AND ANTHONY TALK ABOUT ART

INT. BENEDICT’S BEDROOM, DOOR SLIGHTLY AJAR - DAY

BENEDICT sits at his desk, sketching.

ANTHONY passes by in the hallway, and looks into BENEDICT’S ROOM.

ANTHONY enters BENEDICTS BEDROOM.

ANTHONY

Back at it again? It seems I haven’t seen you pick up a sketching pencil in quite some time.

BENEDICT

I guess it has been years since I have been inspired to create anything … of note.

ANTHONY

And what is it, after all this time that has inspired you so?

BENEDICT

I am not sure if I can put a name to it. Or if I should try.

ANTHONY

I do think you should try to find out what t is. So that you might bottle it and save it for a time you are less inspired. So that you might maintain your passion longer than mere fancy allows.

BENEDICT

Why should I try to create when I am not inspired to do so? When my enthusiasm wanes, should I not put down my pencil? Lest I create something that embarrasses the senses.

ANTHONY sits down in the CHAIR near the desk.

ANTHONY

I am no artist, but I do not think putting down your pencil is how one trains the hand, or the eye. You used to have such passion, and seemed fearless in your endeavours; only to abandon it at the slightest chance you might be judged unfavourably.

BENEDICT

No artist likes to be judged.

ANTHONY

You do not have to enjoy being judged, but it seems like an inevitable circumstance any artist will encounter. Being evaluated. Any piece hanging in the great halls of a gallery is open to interpretation and analysis by its observers. However knowledgeable those observers may be. That is where the fearless nature of artists is born, is it not?

BENEDICT

Well I suppose I am not so fearless then, am I?

ANTHONY

I just do not want that fear, that self consciousness to prevent you from taking a risk that is worth it. That could be life changing - that should have been life changing.

BENEDICT

I did not want to be judged as a fraud. I do not think that was a risk worth taking.

ANTHONY

I do not think you were scruntized as such. Everything I heard, from you, and others, was that you have a real talent, regardless of your path to find it.

BENEDICT

That path being money and influence?

ANTHONY

Why do you think any observer of your works will care that you are the second born Bridgerton? You are the only person that holds that against you. Sees your namesake as an impediment to your art career.

BENEDICT

So you think I gave up my chance too soon?

ANTHONY

I do not think you have lost the chance at anything you desire to pursue. But I do think you should not abandon something you truly want because of the opinion of others. Especially if their only opinion is based on the fact that you are a Bridgerton.

BENEDICT leans back in his chair.

ANTHONY stands, looks at BENEDICT solemnly.

ANTHONY

I do hope you understand my words are meant as counsel, not judgement.

ANTHONY exits.

FOCUS remains on BENEDICT.

END SCENE.

#benedict bridgerton #bridgerton #polin #anthony bridgerton #benedict x sophie #eloise bridgerton #colin x penelope #penelope bridgerton #bridgerton season 4 #bridgerton season 3

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ironwoodprotectionsquad · 9 months

Note

Some Christmas Ironqrow headcanons for you!

1. I always headcanon that Ironwood's relationship with his parents was rocky at best and he was an only child, so I feel like he didn't really celebrate Christmas before he and Qrow started getting closer, he'd always just work through it because why not. Meanwhile ever since Qrow went to Beacon, Summer and Tai had introduced Qrow (and Raven) to Christmas, and he loved it and always tried to make sure to be home for Christmas while Yang and Ruby grew up. So I think it'd be important for Qrow to bring Ironwood into his Christmas traditions. 2. I think that the Rose-Xiao Long-Branwen household always wear Christmas sweaters and do stockings and unwrapping presents under the tree, and Qrow wouldn't want Ironwood to be excluded from it and would buy James a sweater and presents and a stocking and try to fill it with sweets. And James would be so touched and love the sweater so much he'd wear it around the house all the time whether or not it's Christmas. 3. I headcanon that James is just a really good cook, and he'd be so grateful to Qrow and his family for involving him in their family Christmas that he'd want to do something for them too and decides to make Christmas cocoa without realizing that Qrow and Ruby both love chocolate. So then they'd be really happy about the cocoa and James would be all proud of himself. 4. Because of Qrow's semblance, I feel like every single Christmas there's usually some kind of disaster, like the tree catching on fire or a Christmas present getting broken or something. But when James is there, he just kind of notices things that might go wrong and casually fixes them. And he realizes Qrow is anxious about 'ruining Christmas,' and assures him that if anything does happen, it can be fixed. And so Qrow actually relaxes for once and stops worrying. 5. Yang and Ruby definitely try to get the two of them under the mistletoe together. XD Qrow tries to avoid it because he doesn't want to make James uncomfortable, but near the end of the day, they do wind up under it all alone and James kisses him on the cheek and Qrow thinks it's the sweetest thing. 6. The two of them would definitely curl up by the fireplace listening to Christmas carols while James read some book Qrow had gotten him for Christmas, and Qrow would fall asleep on his shoulder. 7. James would want to involve Penny in the traditions the next year and Ruby would be super down for that, and I feel like Ruby would try to get them all to snowball fight with her with Penny on her team. Tai and Yang would team up, and Ironwood and Qrow would team up, and they'd have like an all out (good natured) war with it. XD But James would let Ruby and Penny win. XD

So yeah, those are just some thoughts about Ironqrow Christmas I have. XD

Oh my gosh I love these all so much and they line up with a lot of my headcannons!!!!

I also headcannon James and his parents did not get along and so the holidays for him are really rough until he meets Qrow and he finds joy in the holidays again.

I just love the idea of Qrows semblance acting up more when he’s super nervous but when he’s calm he can control it better and love the idea of James helps him stay calm and relax so his semblance doesn’t act out as much.

Ohh I love the mistletoe thing especially if they haven’t gotten together yet and they’re trying to help them get together! Even better if James sneaks a kiss on the cheek when no one is looking.

I know this isn’t necessarily that kind of Au but give me papa James to Penny any day and I’ll eat it up lolZ XD. Penny would excitedly drag James into the fight and he’d surprisingly get really into it. He and Qrow would get into a heated fight and have a blast with it.

And then after a long and cold day in the snow they’d curl up by the fire and get just a little too cozy and both fall asleep on the sofa and comfy and cozy.

I love them all so much for these thank you for that. I know you know but this Christmas season has been really rough and weighing me down so these headcannons where so nice to see I’ve really needed a pick me up.

#james ironwood #IronQrow #qrow branwen #answered ask #headcannons

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pisupsala · 2 years

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One for The History Books [Chapter 21] [Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw]

[Summary] You are an archivist at the Pentagon, sent on assignment to TOPGUN to catalog and report on a top-secret mission. In the days under the Californian sun, a certain naval aviator puts your once orderly life in a tailspin that you might never recover from.

[Pairing] Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw x fem!reader / Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw x fem!oc

[Warnings] Mature content: swearing, (explicit) smut. 18+ only.

[Words] 10.3k

[Library]

Chapter 21 - Landfall

“You know we don’t have to open it tonight, right?” You’ve noticed Bradley has been eyeing the box with a sort of nervous apprehension—his eyes flicking back and forth while you eat, still seated on the floor.

It feels like that’s the best place with zero pretense instead of sitting on the sofa, or god forbid across from each other at the table. “It can always wait.”

That’s not to say you are not dying to know what’s in the box and why Bradley brought it. But you shouldn’t push it—especially not today. Everything still feels raw, precarious almost.

But still, Bradley took the massive first step in trying to fix the situation between you, and give you what you had been asking for him. Pushing him more right now wouldn’t be fair.

It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed. Bradley kept his suffering locked away for so long, and carried the burden of his traumas by himself while directing you away from it. Now he’s made the conscious decision to let you in.

All you can really do now is listen to him and support him in the way that he needs you to. And no matter how hard it might be for you, that also means backing off sometimes.

Bradley shakes his head in response. “I want to,” He looks at you with those warm dark eyes, still full of pain. “Because I want to make sure there’s not a doubt left in your mind that I’m giving every part of me to you before I leave.”

You can’t help but blush under his intense gaze.

“You’re really all or nothing, aren’t you?” You smile before turning serious. “But Bradley, I don’t want you to hurt yourself on my account like that. I don’t want you to tear yourself apart because you think this needs to be fixed completely, like, right now.”

Pressing a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth, you add: “I don’t doubt you. And I’ll be here when you come back, waiting for you. And the box will be here too.”

“I don’t want to lose my nerve.” Bradley admits sighing lightly. You sit in silence for a moment, contemplating.

“Then, let’s do it.” You conclude, smiling up at Bradley. “Let's get rid of the pizza boxes first, though. Do you want another beer?”

“Are you sure you’re done?” Bradley looks at you somewhat skeptically as you get up from the floor. “You ate less than half of your pizza.”

“Oh, yeah—I’m pretty full.” You shrug.

Truth is, as that pizza was the first big meal you’ve had in about a week, the three odd slices you had made you feel overly full. You only started feeling hungry after the enormous dark pit in your stomach finally dissolved—because this is not the end. This is a challenge you need to overcome. And together you will.

“Are you okay?” Bradley’s words are pointed, not accusatory in any way, but worried. “We haven’t really talked about—well, my week was absolute shit.”

You chuckle humorlessly. “Well… same here.”

Obviously, you hadn’t been okay. At all. Like, Bradley is probably too much of a gentleman to say anything, but between the bruise, bags under your eyes, messy hair, and pallid skin, you look at least partially as shitty as you’ve been feeling.

You pushed yourself through the days at work, numbed by a near-constant stream of music, podcasts, and movies, collapsing in your bed the moment you came home, exhausted beyond belief. Yeah, it sure as shit didn’t help you could barely keep anything down, the corrosive feeling in your stomach pretty much locking you up from the inside.

“But I’m okay now.” You assure Bradley with a small smile, before adding teasingly: “If you give me a kiss, I’ll feel even better, actually.”

You lean in, bending at the waist and resting your hands on Bradley’s broad shoulders for stability. With a playful grin, he obliges you, pressing his lips against yours.

“It’s making me feel better, too.” He murmurs against your mouth softly. You squeeze, feeling Bradley’s muscles move under your fingers. You’ve missed him so much, but your kisses don’t go any further than that. You can feel his hesitancy—he’s not done with his bloodletting yet.

He still thinks there is a chance you won’t want him anymore. It’s pretty clear to you that this is just as much for himself as he says it’s for you. He needs to confront his past to start making his own peace with it; only then can he move past it.

And you will let him take the lead as long as you keep going forward, supporting him every step of the way.

Breaking the kiss, he rests his forehead against yours.

“You good, babe?” You half-whisper, eyes closed, reveling in his proximity.

“Much better, darlin’.” Bradley murmurs back, his voice deep and rough. It sends a jolt down your spine.

Not the time.

Putting the pizza boxes in the kitchen and grabbing two more beers, you sit back down on the floor next to Bradley. He’s fidgeting, peeling the label off his nearly empty drink.

You pop the new bottles open, offering him one. In a single swig, he empties the beer he had been nervously handling, setting it back on the small coffee table off the side before accepting the new bottle.

Reaching out, he pulls the box closer so it sits just between both your legs. His hand rests on the lid for a moment.

“Do you want to open it?” You quirk your eyebrow at Bradley’s sudden request. Gently putting your hand over his, you shake your head with a ghost of a smile on your lips.

Your instinct keeps telling you to help him, ease his discomfort, and carry the brunt of the situation because you know you’ll be able to handle it. You would do anything to lighten his burden, but some things are not up to you. You understand now this is not one of them. There’s no need to tell him—he knows—he needs to do this.

As Bradley slides off the lid, you can’t help but lean forward to get a good look at the contents of the box. The entirety is messily filled to the brim with pictures and what looks like albums. Some seem to be thrown in haphazardly on top of the rest, edges bent and damaged from being jostled.

“Oh…” The sound escapes you involuntarily as you realize what’s on the pictures. They are family pictures. Bradley’s family. Your heart clenches for a second—Bradley really took your words to heart.

“It’s ehm-,” Bradley hesitates for a moment, clearing his throat, searching for words. “These are all the pictures I have left from my family.”

Your head snaps to look at him—Bradley is looking forlornly at the pile of pictures, fingers tracing one that is on top before grabbing it. He studies it for a second, and then wordlessly shows it to you. Your eyes flicker over the picture before returning to his face.

“I don’t really—I have no idea what to do with this.” He admits with a deep sigh. “I wanted to show you, but now that I opened it…” Bradley trails off.

“Is that you with your little league team?” You smile up at him kindly, pointing at the picture in his hand. “Where was that taken?”

You gently guide his hand closer to you both, so you can look at the photo better. There’s a gaggle of kids in the picture, all still very young in cute and messy little baseball uniforms.

“I - I think that’s still back in San Diego.” He starts hesitantly. “I think I was too young for little league there, that must be something like the local tee ball team.”

“Which one are you? — Wait, don’t tell me. I want to see if I can guess.”

Having faced a myriad of difficult decisions and situations in his life, Bradley didn’t think he’d view opening a box of old pictures as such a hurdle. His heart is beating loudly, and he has to consciously keep his hands steady.

He hasn’t really thought it through, and he hadn’t really prepared—he barely remembered what was in the box, or what state it was in. What was he actually going to do with this?

Somewhere, having to go through those pictures was always going to happen, but he’s been putting it off for so many years now that he can barely believe the moment is here.

But for one thing, he knows he can rely on you. Your kindness, your empathy. Your love. You wouldn’t let him struggle through this by himself. Like now. With gentle questions, you steer his thoughts away from anxiety and focus on the small things.

You keep guessing wrong which kid he could be, picking ones that have darker hair. Not being able to keep a small grin off his face, he points to the small and skinny kid squinting against the sun in the second row.

“No.” You look at him with comical disbelief. “You were not that blond as a child.”

You scoot closer to him as you bring his hand with the picture up to your face.

“That’s a trick of the light though, isn’t it?”

“Nope. Wait, I’m sure there’s more in here.” Bradley grins despite himself. “I think there might be a whole baby album.”

“Well, I for sure need to see that.”

Bradley leans forward, casually rifling through the pictures at the top of the box. Not being able to stop yourself, you spring up to stop him.

“Bradley, the pictures will get damaged like that.” You admonish him mildly as you carefully pick them up one by one and setting them aside. “Your memories deserve to be handled with care, don’t you think?”

“You’re right.” He concedes as he feels his heart do a strange little jump. It’s almost painful, but it gives Bradley a strange feeling of elation. Back when he was moving around a lot from his childhood home to college, to boot camp to his first station, he simply consolidated all pictures into this box without much thought.

And here you are, carefully picking every picture up and arranging them in neat little piles on the floor next to the box. The gentleness of the gesture feels deeply intimate. Like you give every snapshot of his life a little bit of attention as you handle it with so much respect. Kindness. Love.

A kind of mercy he hasn’t allowed himself in all these years.

Much more carefully, he pulls out the baby blue album. His baby album. In all these years, he didn’t think he’d actually be looking through that again. That’s a thing for moms to do, right? Show every embarrassing childhood picture to your girlfriend and tell them every awful story.

For a second, Bradley thinks about Mav - he knows so many stories. He was there for them for all those years. As were many others that flew with his dad, although not as much.

In the end, Mav was there for more stories of them than his own dad was. His mom was there for all of them—well, almost all of them. Some teenage mistakes Bradley would rather take to the grave, and would be more than happy if Mav did too.

Throwing up riding on the back of Mav’s motorcycle when he got too drunk for the first at a house party at the age of 15 would be one of those. Mav had laughed at him so hard, Bradley was sure would never live that one down. In all fairness, he never told Bradley’s mom what happened. He just got Bradley home.

Bradley leafs through the baby album, your chin on his shoulder, loving the little notes his mom made. The first plate of spaghetti (it was a massacre), the first time on a swing (never wanted to get off), first day at preschool on base (many tears), on the pier waiting for daddy to come home.

“You look so annoyed there.” You chuckle, pointing at the picture of a 3-year-old Bradley holding a scrunched-up welcome home sign in his little fists, barely dried tears staining his rosy cheeks.

“Oh man.” Bradley laughs lightly. “All I remember from that is we just stood there on the pier—it took forever, and it was so hot that day.”

He pauses, trying to remember.

“I begged for an ice cream and my mom would tell me it’s a little bit longer; we had to wait for dad.” He reminisces. “That must have been the longest carrier docking in all history.”

You giggle, thinking back to the past summer. Waiting for the carrier to dock and the sailors to disembark was tortuous under the summer sun for you, let alone for a small child.

“The next time I remember waiting like that…” Bradley trails off, suddenly deep in thought. “My dad never walked off the carrier.”

You hold your breath for a second.

“Only Mav came back.” Bradley swallows. “I could barely understand why we were there. Why we were leaving without dad.”

“That must have been really hard.”

“I mean—I don’t know… I was so young, it took me a while to comprehend my dad really wasn’t coming back.” Bradley has a pensive look on his face, as he stares at the far end of the room rather than at the album in his hands. “I remember much more vividly suddenly having to move out of our house, going out of state, living in a smaller place just together with my mom.”

“How old were you?”

“Barely four. I think?” He shifts uncomfortably. It was easy to talk about the light stuff, although it always inevitably leads to dark memories. His dad not coming home, his mom always crying, moving away. Exactly the things he doesn’t like thinking about.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” You supply sincerely. God, his dad died so young.

“‘S okay” Bradley mumbles.

“Is that why you never wanted me to wait for you at the pier?” You inquire carefully, remembering Bradley’s exact argument of it being too hot and too boring.

“Yeah, no—a bit, I guess. But, no one had ever been waiting for me, you know?” He leans his forehead against the heel of his hand. “I went through all those rites of passage in the Navy by myself, just me. I thought I was fine with that.”

You regard him carefully as he still stares ahead, but you’re not sure he actually sees anything.

“I mean, none of my friends or girlfriends ever came. Sure as shit never invited them.” He just drops that casually into the conversation as you feel your eyebrows pull into a slight frown. “I guess none of them were tenacious enough,”

His eyes finally meet yours as he grins.

“Or pigheaded enough to just go find everything out and show up.”

You scoff lightly, a grin pulling at the side of your mouth. “You say that as if you didn’t want me to be there.”

“No, no, darlin'—I fucking loved it.”

“Do you think you are that undeserving?” Your question cuts sharply through the conversation.

“What do you mean?”

“You say I was pigheaded for showing up, but you were just as pigheaded for not inviting me—or anyone for that matter.” You cock an eyebrow. “So don’t you think you deserve anyone to wait for you?”

Bradley sighs heavily.

“I suppose—I guess because there might be a day I don’t walk off that ramp, and I thought it would be easier if no one is waiting.”

“You believe that to be the inevitable outcome?” You intone mildly.

“No, no—I just…” You can tell by his manner, Bradley is getting frustrated.

You’re digging.

Back off.

Let him take the lead.

“I’ll wait for you here at home or on the pier—wherever you want me to be.” You sooth.

“I’m sorry.” Bradley apologizes softly. “I don’t mean to be so dark about it.”

“It’s okay. I’m sorry too.” You reply. “We don’t have to talk about it now. We have plenty of your pictures to go through.” You joke lightly, before adding more solemnly: “And we’re here for each other. That matters.”

“That’s all that matters” Bradley replies, pressing a kiss to your temple.

For a few moments of silence, you look through the next pages of the album. Bradley’s mom’s neat script shortly commentates every milestone. She clearly took a lot of care in making the album and took pictures prolifically.

Back then—before the age of video calls and digital photography—you suppose it was the only way to document everything that had been happening at home while Bradley’s dad was away.

“Your mom is so pretty.” You lightly trace the edge of the photo, adding: “I can see where you got your looks from.”

Bradley chuckles in response. “You should see my dad—wait -” He leans forward to grab another album from the box. As he lifts it out, pictures slide from the pages, falling out of the bottom. You quickly sit up, helping Bradley tilt the album on its side, so the pictures top falling.

“For fuck’s sake.” He sighs, annoyed.

You pluck the pictures that fell out of the box. They are wedding pictures of Bradley’s parents—they look resplendent, both dressed in white, smiling broadly. They are an incredibly good-looking couple. It strikes you how much Bradley looks like his dad—tall, generous smile, and of course the mustache. He looks dashing in his Navy whites, the same way Bradley does.

“You really look a lot like your dad.” You say pensively. “But I definitely see your mom in you too.”

“Mav used to tell me how much I resembled my dad when I was growing up.” Bradley carefully cracks open the album to straighten some loose photos. “I always took a lot of pride in that. Recently, he mentioned my temper is definitely my mom’s.” He chuckles dryly.

Carefully, you tuck one of the photos that fell out between the empty page. “Do you agree?”

“My mom…she—she always kept up a brave face.” Bradley shrugs somewhat uncomfortably. “She would never get really mad or sad, even though… she was. She would always hide it from me.” He slowly leaves through the album, eyes running over the pictures of the happy couple. “All the way to the end.”

Bradley pauses for a moment, as you tuck the other picture that fell out on another empty page.

“I overheard my mom and Mav have an absolute blow-up argument at the hospital. That was months before she passed away— I’ve never heard her so angry, like, screaming at each other. They stopped arguing the moment I walked into the room.”

“I was nearly 18, not really a kid anymore, but mom never told me what they argued about. And even then, she would only cry when she thought I couldn’t hear.”

“It sounds like she was trying to protect you.” You supply kindly.

“I think she bottled everything up to the point of explosion.” Bradley sounds distant. “I guess I’m kind of the same way.”

“I still think…” Bradley swallows before continuing. “I believe that she never really got over my dad’s death. Mom would look at these pictures every day in the hospital, and I think she bottled up all her grief for so many years, it broke her heart for good.”

“I’m sorry, that’s really sad.” You say softly.

“I try not to think about it too much.” Bradley shrugs again, in a slightly more agitated manner. “It just makes me think about how she spent all those years grieving by herself and I couldn’t help her… was she ever happy again?”

There’s no answer to that question.

“I think you can be happy about things even when still feeling the loss, because it’ll always kind of be there, right?” You begin slowly. “And our mom still had you. From what I hear, she clearly loved you a lot, going to great lengths to protect you from her pain. Maybe your happiness became her happiness.”

“I hope it did.” Bradley sighs. Every page turned, every picture finally uncovered again, is like the weight is slowly rolling off him. Bottling up hurts. And it hurt for so long, the pain became a constant background noise. You’re right, he’s had moments of happiness despite the pain. Becoming a pilot despite the odds. Making it to TOPGUN. Surviving that mission. He’s been happy with you.

It’s mostly in hindsight that he’s aware of the grief he still has in him at every moment. Bottled up. Closing the wedding album, he traces his fingers over the cover. It’s a matter of perspective.

Ironically, he pushed the happiest memories into a dark corner—literally in the back of his closet—never looking it at them because he couldn’t separate the happiness from the grief. And maybe, they don’t need separating. You’re right, the loss will always be there, but that doesn’t mean the happiness of those moments disappears.

Ultimately, Bradley is becoming more and more sure of one thing. He couldn’t do this without you. He wouldn’t want to do this without you. Putting away the album, he wraps his arm around your neck, pulling you against him. You easily accept his gesture and lean into the hug, putting your arms around him.

Bradley realizes that today is the first time in many years he allowed himself to reach out to someone for comfort emotionally and physically and that it was so readily given to him. Finally, the ever-present pain seems to dull.

“Thank you for sharing all this with me.” You whisper against his neck.

“It feels right.” He admits. “Things just feel right with you.”

You can’t help but smile as press yourself into Bradley. You’ve struggled with how… right things feel with Bradley. Always aware with the looming of darkness in the back of your head that this thing might not be more than a blip on the radar. Just a temporary madness.

Like a knot being pulled loose, a new calmness anchors itself in you. It feels right. You can finally, unequivocally accept that.

Slowly untangling from each other, you talk about look through one of the pile of pictures. Bradley laughs as he talks about breaking his nose during a training game in middle school baseball after a pitcher from the opposing team nailed him in the face as he was batting. Convinced he did it on purpose, Bradley waited for him after the game and started a fight. Getting a black eye and detention to boot, he elected to call Mav to pick him up and go to the hospital, too embarrassed to call his mom.

“God, that dude was massive—had at least 50 pounds on me. I have no idea what I was thinking.” Bradley rubs his hand over his eyes, still laughing.

“What did Mitchell say about it?” You ask, laughing too.

“Mercifully very little—all he told me was to get my temper in check or to get stronger and learn how to fight better.” Bradley grins as he rummages through the box.

“Solid advice.” You drawl sarcastically. Although you haven’t worked with Mitchell much directly, you’ve seen plenty of him in action and his unorthodox method of leadership. You are not at all surprised he would tell a 12-year-old that.

Bradley suddenly stills as his hand comes upon an object of smooth wood. He tries to keep his breathing even - fuck.

He forgot this was in here.

You notice the sudden shift in Bradley’s demeanor, his hand half-hovering in the box, clutching an oddly shaped box. The moment you catch a glimpse of the dark polished walnut, the realization strikes you. It’s a display case with his father’s funeral flag and medals. Judging from Bradley’s reaction, it’s not a pleasant find.

“I - I -” The words are dying in Bradley’s throat. When he turns to you, you see the panic in his eyes. Carefully, you reach out to him, resting your hand on his shoulder. You don’t speak, leaving Bradley space to sort his thoughts and emotions.

He pulls out the display case, weighing in his hands hesitantly. He sits in silence, looking at the neatly folded flag behind the glass. Bradley swallows heavily, like he wants to say something, but the words won’t come. You rub your hand in soothing circles over his shoulder. You bite your lip to stop yourself from speaking. He needs this.

“My dad was Mav’s RIO.” Bradley’s voice is so soft, so broken, you would have missed his words if you had not been looking at him. “He died ejecting from their aircraft over the ocean.”

You move closer to Bradley.

“He just didn’t walk off the boat one day.” His fingers run over the wooden sides of the frame. “And I barely remember.”

Bradley pauses to steady himself.

“I don’t know where the stories from my mom and Mav start and my own memories end—like playing the piano. I know my dad used to teach me simple tunes, but I…” He trails off for a moment. “But I remember the piano gathering dust for several years a lot more, and my mom crying when I started taking lessons.”

From the corner of your eye, you see Bradley blink rapidly.

“You know…,” You lick your lips nervously, trying to choose your words with care. It kills you to see him like this. “Memories are just one aspect of remembering. We remember through our actions too.” You turn to look at Bradley. His eyes are wet, as he stubbornly stares at the display case.

“Whether it’s through telling those stories, pictures, or playing the piano,” You continue, voice gentle. “That’s how you keep memories alive.”

Bradley doesn’t reply, eyes still trained of the blue and white of the folded flag, fingers twitching.

In a sudden move, he pulls you against him, practically dragging you from your spot next to him into his lap. He tucks his face into the crook of your neck. His fingers are digging into your flesh as he seems hell-bent on crushing you into him.

You let him.

You run your fingernails through the short hair on the back of his head comfortingly. Bradley is taking shaky breaths, his shoulders jerking lightly..

He can’t remember the last time he cried. Was it as his mom’s funeral? Or some time when he got way too drunk after boot camp? But now he can’t seem to stop himself. The tears just keep coming, like all the pain is suddenly fresh again.

You don’t say anything, and Bradley appreciates that. He presses himself into you like he wants to drown himself in you, trying to focus on your soft breathing to calm himself down.

You have no words to help Bradley feel better, but sometimes it’s not necessary to speak to offer comfort. So you sit like that together on the floor, wrapped up in each other. Time could have been standing still all around you, and you wouldn’t have noticed.

Eventually, slowly, Bradley’s breathing evens out. It’s like the atmosphere evens out with it—the final slivers of tension, the precarious balance of emotions and rawness in your hearts— start dissolving around you, leaving only love.

Bradley presses a kiss against your jaw and whispers a thank you.

“There’s nothing to thank me for, babe.” You chuckle, hugging him a bit tighter against you.

“I’m thankful for you.” He replies sincerely, pressing more kisses against the column of your neck. You pull away a fraction to capture his lips with yours. Lightly biting down on his bottom lip, finally, he tilts his head in such a way that lets you deepen the kiss. You can’t even describe how much you need this: to feel Bradley again.

Gracelessly, you try to get up while guiding Bradley up with you without breaking the kiss. It’s a mess of limbs and hurried movements. You stumble as your foot gives out from under you, nearly falling onto the sofa. Bradley easily catches you.

“Fuck - my foot is asleep.” You wince as the pins and needles shoot up your ankle.

Bradley laughs. Light dances in his eyes as he hoists you up, legs wrapped around his waist. Seeing him like this makes your heart soar.

“Don’t let go of me.” He warns you, still smiling.

“I can’t.” You echo. “I don’t think I ever can.”

With practiced ease, Bradley steers you both to the bedroom. You’ve spent the evening in the past and you need to get back to the present to ground yourself in each other.

The bedroom is a mess; sheets crumpled, pillows strewn around the bed. But neither of you cares. Bradley gently lays you down on the bed, your legs still hooked around his hips while he rests one knee on the mattress for stability.

His hands run up your sides, bunching up the silk of your blouse. Your breathing gets heavier as you feel his large warm hands through the fabric. Your fingers dance up his forearms, past his elbows, over the rippling muscles of his upper arms, pulling yourself up by his shoulders as you sit up to capture his lips in a searing kiss.

Gently grabbing one of your wrists, Bradley slowly lays you back down.

“Let me take care of you now, darlin’.” He practically purrs. A giggle escapes you as his lips latch onto the column of your throat, his thumb running over the erratic pulse point on your wrist.

You sigh as you close your eyes, allowing yourself to feel even more. Bradley’s free hand is deftly undoing the buttons of your self-proclaimed armor. Arching your back off the mattress, brushing your bra-clad breasts against his chest, the silk shimmies off your body.

Momentarily leaning back, Bradley easily shrugs off his own shirt as you pull your arms from the sleeves—both garments end up somewhere in the dark of the room. Not missing a beat, you trail kisses up his broad chest towards his neck. Lightly biting down on Bradley’s collarbone, he hisses. You love that sound.

Fingers brushing down his stomach, you feel his muscles move under your feather-light touch as you reach the waistband of his jeans. Before you can do anything else, Bradley swipes your hands away, smoothly bringing them over your head and pinning them down.

“I’ve got you, sweetheart.” He murmurs against your lips, free hand undoing the button of your slacks, and slipping into your panties. “I’ll take care of you.”

You moan in response. Bradley wastes no time running his fingers up your slit, rubbing your clit at a tortuously slow pace. He knows your body almost as well as you do yourself; keenly feeling when to speed up, add pressure, mapping out every sensitive spot.

Your hands twitch, but Bradley doesn’t yield his grasp on your wrists. His lips travel down from your jaw, over your throat, nipping on your collarbone, down to the lace edge of your bra. The sensation of his hot breath through the thin fabric makes your head spin. You arch your back, trying desperately to maximize contact.

“Plea- please.” You beg in a whisper. Bradley just grins as he gently nips at the flesh of your breast. He has a need a regain control, a push to assure you, but mostly himself, that despite your relationship fundamentally changing with new emotional depths he never explored with anyone like that before, he is still him.

He plunges two fingers into you, his thumb on your clit finally speeding up. Bradley leans back up just a little, hearing you whimper at the loss of contact, so he can take a good look as your body moves under him—hair mussed, blush spreading down your chest, breathing heavily as you buck up against his hand.

Fuck, you look so good, you feel so good.

And you’re like that just for him.

Your eyes search Bradley's—pupils blown, dark with desire, a light blush dusts his cheeks—they are filled with warmth. Love. You tilt your hips up, muscles taut, as the pressure starts building in you. Bradley immediately responds to you without needing a single word, knowing exactly what you need: his fingers hooking up in you, moving in tandem with his thumb. It tears an incoherent moan from you.

Finally he releases your wrists and without hesitation your hands tangle into his curls, pulling his mouth to yours non-too gently. As he leans over you, never missing a beat, pumping his fingers in your pussy relentlessly, he uses his other hand to push away the lace of your bra. His fingers immediately pinch and pull your nipple, adding to the building pressure in you.

“Bradley…” You moan unabashedly. His skin is so hot under your touch, everything about him sets you aflame. You buck your hips harder, feeling so close already. Bradley drags his teeth along your collarbone, stopping at the pulse point at your neck, and biting down.

You scream out in ecstasy, your muscles coiling tight, wrapping yourself around Bradley, pulling him along in your wave. Bradley’s mouth crashes into yours, swallowing your scream. As your cresting wave makes landfall, a calm settles back into your tired bones, and suddenly tears spring up behind your closed eyelids. Bradley is still kissing you deeply, his tongue moving against yours, devouring every thought.

You break the kiss to catch your breath, your teary eyes meeting his for a few seconds. As he hovers above you, you take every bit of Bradley in. Your muddled brain tries to come to a coherent thought, but in the end, you feel it more than you can formulate it.

You are the luckiest girl alive.

Hands moving of their own accord, you reach for Bradley, nails lightly raking down his chest. Bradley pulls you up with him, cradling your face in his hands as he presses a kiss on your lips. You pop the button of his jeans, sliding your hands down his boxer shorts. Grasping his rock hard shaft, you start pumping slowly. Bradley groans as he nibbles your bottom lip.

“I’m not done with you yet, darlin’.” He teases.

You giggle softly. “But I want you.”

Bradley only responds by unclasping your bra and sliding it down your arms. You press yourself against him, wanting to feel him against you. His hand is massaging your breast, tweaking your nipple, sending jolts of pleasure down your spine.

Skimming his fingers down your sides, he tugs your slacks and underwear down your legs in one smooth gesture. They end up somewhere in the darkness of the room, along with the rest of your clothes. You push his pants down his thighs—he easily steps out of them and you pull him with you onto the bed.

His hot mouth is on your tits, as you palm his cock.

“I need you inside me.” You breathe. Bradley doesn’t respond at first, kissing and nipping his way down your body.

“I’m still not done with you.” His breath is hot against your soaking pussy. You whimper, blindly reaching for his hair as his tongue presses against your still-sensitive clit. Hooking your knee over his shoulder, using the leverage to tilt your pelvis just so, you know you’re not going to last very long under his assault. He squeezes your thigh as you tug his hair painfully. You roll your hips against Bradley’s face, setting a much-needed feverish pace. He acquiesces, tongue flicking against your clit without break, tearing a litany of swears from you.

“F- fuck, Bradley - don’t stop,” You beg, breathlessly. “You’re so fucking good.”

His free hand harshly squeezes your breast, pinching and manipulating the nipple as he hums—you feel the deep vibrations go through your core. Your body feels electrified, the pressure building in you from Bradley’s onslaught. He can feel your body stiffening, hips jerking, breath quickening. He knows you’re close, and he wants to pull you over the edge of pleasure.

You are mumbling incoherently, Bradley’s name on your lips like a prayer, as the coil in your stomach is wound almost painfully. Just a little bit more. He is relentless in his mission, tongue lashing against you. Splaying his hand on your lower stomach, Bradley stills your hips, building the anticipation even more.

Just when you think you cannot take it anymore, the coil in you springs. You cannot even begin to care how loud you are right now. Bradley is still holding you down, his mouth buried in your pussy as you cum, moans filling the room.

It feels like your breath has been ripped from your lungs. You are only vaguely aware of the tears leaking from your screwed-shut eyelids—your brain feels like it has been disconnected from your body completely, static electricity flickering through your veins.

“Fuck, darlin’…” Bradley is panting. His voice is suddenly close, concerned. “Hey, are you okay?” His finger trails down the wet streak down your cheek.

Slowly opening your eyes, colorful spots filing your vision, you look up at Bradley. You don’t know why there are tears on your face. The intensity of the moment is overwhelming, but you aren’t sad in any way.

“I’m okay.” You croak, softly pressing your lips against his, tasting yourself on him. “You just completely blew my mind.” You joke lightly.

“I’ll accept that reason.” Bradley grins. “Do you need a break?”

You shake your head almost petulantly. “No, I need you.”

“Please.” You add softly, wrapping your arms around his neck. You want Bradley close.

“Anything you want, sweetheart.” He whispers in your ear. “Anything for you.”

He slides his cock into your slick pussy, drenched in your own cum, in one swift motion, filling you to the hilt. You moan as Bradley swears under his breath.

“Fu- fuck, darlin’, you feel so, so good.” His voice is deep, rough, and so close, his mustache is brushing against the shell of your ear – it’s sending shivers down your spine.

Bradley sets a slow, almost leisurely pace. He wants to savor this; your blushing face, glassy eyes looking up at him as you wrap yourself around him. Your look of love. This is how he wants you committed to his memory forever, and quietly wishes this would be the look he would see in his dreams.

In the meantime, he will make to be worthy of that look every day. So you will look at him like that every day. Only at him. Your fingers are running down the side of his face, a small smile gracing your lips. He grabs your hand and presses a kiss against your palm before intertwining your fingers with his, squeezing your hand as he rolls his hips against you.

It feels so intimate. So much more intimate than ever before.

You always tried to be strong, but you had also shown your vulnerability and insecurities to him. You cried, you were angry, your hands shook when you unbuttoned his shirt. Now that you know him, arguably better than almost anyone else, Bradley cannot help but feel like the axis has tilted. He trusts you. With himself, with his pain and his love.

Admitting and accepting that makes everything so much clearer.

“I love you.” The words come out naturally. It’s a verbalization of what he’s been feeling for a long time now and saying the words is familiar, because really, he’s told you many times in many different ways already, just not with those words.

“I love you too.” You gasp. “S- so much.”

Leaning on his elbow, fingers still intertwined with yours, Bradley speeds up the pace—his cock driving into you hungrily. Your tits bounce deliciously every time he fills you to the hilt, your hips rising to meet his every move. He missed you so much, he knows he’s not going to last long.

You feel Bradley’s hips starting to stutter irregularly as he’s speeding up, a light sheen of sweat forming on his brow. Your nails rake over his back, tilting your hips for more friction. Bradley groans, brow furrowed as he searches for release.

“Will you cum for me?” You encourage sweetly. “Cum for me, Bradley, I need you.”

How can he refuse, when you ask him like that?

Bradley pounds into you, your moans and his swears filling the room. He squeezes your hand painfully, as he closes his eyes for a moment, never losing the relentless pace.

“Fuck, sweetheart, I’m so close.” He grinds out.

“Please, Bradley -” You beg in a whispery voice.

Bradley moans loudly, swearing as his movements turn erratic, trusts turning irregular until his hips stutter to a halt. Breathing heavily, he rests his forehead against yours—your breath mingling before his body slowly sinks into yours. Together you lay there in a bubble of contentment, between the messy sheets, clothes strewn around and the chaos of your week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Darlin’, are you awake?”

You blink heavily against the sunlight streaming into the room. You went out like a light last night. Both Bradley and you were so exhausted from everything that happened that week, you pretty much fell asleep on top of each other. You only managed to go to the bathroom before completely conking out, Bradley was already fast asleep by them.

“Wha- what time is it?” You ask, voice thick with sleep. It’s only as you gain some awareness of your surroundings, you notice Bradley is not in bed with you anymore, rather standing next to it, bent over you. He’s dressed in only his boxers, while you are still naked under the covers.

“It’s a little past 11.” He replies, pressing a kiss on your temple. Fuck, that late? “But more pressingly, sweetheart; you don’t have any coffee. Actually, you don’t have much of anything in the house.”

Oops.

“Yeah, I kinda forgot to go shopping.” You mumble, rubbing your eyes.

“And here I was going to make you breakfast.” Bradley teases. “Come on, get up. At least let me take you out.”

“I need to shower,” You yawn, scratching your head. “Ugh, and wash my hair.”

“Well, let’s go take care of that.” Bradley grins, as he scoops you up from the bed, causing you to squeal in delight as you scramble to grab onto him. He effortlessly pulls you up from the bed, the covers still wrapped around you. You laugh together as he carries you out of the bedroom.

The shower take way too long—mostly because you spent less time washing, and more time pinned against the tile wall, moaning in ecstasy. Gasping for breath, wetter from sweat than water and Bradley’s cum dripping down your thighs, you end up kicking him out of the shower. You’re going to be stuck there for the rest of the day and your water bill will be through the roof. He leaves you with a wink.

You make quick work of washing your hair, lathering it with conditioner and shaving for good measure. Hair wrapped in a towel, you get dressed in comfortable jeans and a simple cotton shirt. You’re going to need to blow dry it before you go out—also you should really do your makeup. The bruise is slowly getting over the worst of it, but it’s still pretty visible.

Head bent down, rubbing the towel through your hair, you walk into the living room. From the corner of your eye, you see Bradley sitting on the couch, fully dressed already. “Babe, are we really out of all coffee?” You’re dying for a cup.

When he doesn’t immediately respond, you look up, holding the towel up from your face. Bradley is gingerly holding his parent’s wedding album, carefully moving the loose pictures into place.

“Do you think it’s fixable?” His voice is quiet. “It was my mom’s favorite album.”

You blink, before rewrapping your hair and sitting down next to him. Carefully, you pick up one of the pictures and inspect it.

“Yeah, I’ve seen this happen a lot with picture collections we get. It looks like the glue disintegrated.” You note as you look at the back of the photo. As you suspect, the glue in the corners has left only brown residue and has long-lost its function. “We do restorations regularly—well not me, per se, I did it as part of my rotations as an intern—but it can be anything from humidity, or just a bad batch of glue…” You trail off, realizing you’re rambling.

“Can you fix it?”

“Me?” You cannot hide your surprise at his request. “I mean—I can get some of the supplies we use at work.” You regard Bradley carefully. “Do you want me to do that?”

“Yeah…” He sighs. “I’m kind of… scared I’ll ruin it.” He looks at you from the corner of his eye. “And you’re the archivist here.” A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth.

“I’m not really a conservation specialist, but I’ll do my best.” You reply earnestly. This feels like a pretty serious responsibility. “I’ll get some special glue, and maybe some protective sleeves and smaller boxes to store all the other loose photos, okay?”

You smile lightly at him, feeling a blush creep up. The way Bradley puts his trust in you to care for the last tangible memories he has from his parents gives you butterflies. “Your mom did such a great job dating all the photos, I can order them for you.”

You pause for a moment.

“If you want, that is.” You backtrack, unsure. This is not a history project, it’s not an anonymous donation to archives from someone’s estate, these are Bradley’s memories. It should be his choice. “I will do what I can to help you.”

“Thanks sweetheart.” He carefully closes the album. “I trust you completely with this—you know so much better than I how to care for all these things.”

“But they are still your memories.” You say, voice soft. “And in the end, you need to be happy with it.”

“You make me happy.” Bradley replies mischievously.

“You are impossible.” You grin, as move to get up.

“Impossibly in love with you?” He teases.

Okay. So it would be a complete lie if that doesn’t make your heart jump so hard it’s making your rib cage rattle as blood floods to your cheeks. Regardless of how fucking cheesy that is.

You try your best to shoot him a withering look, although it probably lacks power. Bradley is trying to get a reaction out of you. You can tell by that cheeky glint in his eye, the way his mouth is pulled in that cocky half-smirk and the casual figure he cuts, leaning back on the sofa; he knows he succeeded.

You just grunt in embarrassment, pulling the towel back over your face as you leg it out the room, leaving Bradley to enjoy his victory.

Bradley ends up taking you to a diner—which is fine by you, because regular refills on coffee is exactly what you need right now. You slide into a booth together, Bradley immediately wrapping his arm around your shoulders.

If Bradley was tactile before, he’s turned it up to 11 today. Not that you are complaining. It feels like you need to fill up on everything Bradley—like you’ve lost precious time, even if it was just a week—before he leaves again.

Rationally, you know it’s only a month. He’s been gone for longer. You’ve been through this together. But it suddenly all feels strange again, a little bit apprehension under the surface, as you see your connection in a new light full of new heights and depths. It never felt better, but this time being apart will be different from before.

You eat your breakfast in relative silence—honestly, after the first bite of your blueberry pancakes, you realize how much you are starving. You lean back against Bradley, nursing your coffee.

“Hey babe,” You start, looking up at him through your lashes. “You’re flying out to Texas on Tuesday, right?”

Bradley nods. “Yeah, about that…” He trails off, while he fidgets with his mug. “No, never mind, it’s stupid.”

“What?” You sit up, looking at him curiously. The tips of his ears are red as he avoids your gaze. “Come on, tell me.”

“I’m flying commercial, so I was thinking to change my ticket to fly out of D.C.”

“Won’t that be expensive, changing it so late?” You ask, not unkindly.

“Well-” Bradley hesitates, eyes roaming the room nervously. You are seriously wondering what has him out of sorts like this suddenly. “I was thinking you could drop me off at the airport Tuesday and take the Bronco. You can use it when I’m gone, it’s safer than your car anyway. It would make me feel better if you use my car.” He ends his sentence hurriedly: “And then you could come pick me up again whenigetback.”

Letting out a deep breath, Bradley continues, voice forced light. “But it’s stupid, you have work, and you’re right, it’s probably kind of late to change my ticket.”

“Hold on.” You cut in, gently placing your hand on his cheek and turning him to face you. “Babe. Do you want me to take you to the airport and pick you up when you get back?”

“Yes.” He replies earnestly. “But it’s such short notice, I don’t want you to get into trouble with work…”

“I’ll handle that, don’t worry.” You smile. “Of all places, the DoD will understand I have to say goodbye to my handsome naval aviator boyfriend because he’s leaving for a month.”

“I’d love to do that for you. I want to be there for you.” You tell him honestly. “And I’m not saying that just because you’re lending me your car for a whole month.” You add with a grin.

Bradley laughs loudly at that. His eyes crinkle, the apprehension suddenly leaving him. He presses a kiss against your lips. “I’ll be rebooking my ticket then.”

“You do that.” You smile—it means you will have him with you for two more days, instead of him leaving on Sunday already. Sometimes things just work out like that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Bradley leaves for Texas, you spent your evenings going through the pictures from the box. Gently cleaning them, tucking them in protective sleeves and ordering them chronologically in new boxes where they won’t be thrown around so much.

As you clear out the box Bradley left you, you find small trinkets that must have been thrown in at some point. A small plastic soldier, scraps of paper, lots of dust. You clean everything and save everything that might be of worth in an envelope. It’s not up to you to throw anything away.

Stuck in the corner of the box, you find a pair of dog tags that belonged to Bradley’s father. They are smudged and dirty—you have no idea if that’s from being in the dusty box (which was stored god knows where for how long) or this is the way they were returned to the family.

You want to ask Bradley, but elect to do so when he is back. He calls you almost every day, but you notice his unease when you ask about objects from the box. It’s still difficult for him. And he tries so hard.

So instead, you order a flat, rectangular box through work, once that is specifically used to store small items. You fill it with soft foam, cut to measure, and carefully pin the dog tags into place. Bradley can decide what he wants to do with this later.

It’s late at night, almost halfway through Bradley’s training mission, you find something unexpected.

It’s a crushed ring box.

The hinges are rusted and twisted, the top of the box sitting at an awkward ninety-degree angle. It’s empty, the once soft fabric on the outside torn and stained. The button to open the box is loose in the socket, jiggling sadly with every movement.

It mostly likely got torn apart between the heavy albums between different moves, just loosely thrown in, unsecured in any way.

It doesn’t look like it can be salvaged. Not only that, but it’s beyond your skill, that’s for sure. Still, you carefully place it in an envelope. Maybe you can ask someone at work if they know someone (a jeweler? A carpenter? Who actually repairs things like these?), although it looks like a commercially produced box. Getting it restored will probably cost a lot more than getting a new one. But this is not your decision to make.

More importantly: there is a ring box, but no ring?

You should go to bed. But you cannot resist a good mystery. A missing puzzle piece.

It’s late, so Bradley is probably already asleep. He mentioned he has an early start tomorrow and you don’t want to disturb him. But you also don’t want to wait almost two weeks before you can ask about the missing ring.

You take out the last items from the box—it’s as good as empty now.

You use the torch on your phone to get a better look, fingers running along the edges of the cardboard. There’s a dust bunny, a few scraps of paper and what looks like a lone Lego brick. No ring.

Carefully peeling back the flaps on the bottom, you lean closer for a better look. Still nothing. You wiggle your hand under the flap, fingers exploring every nook and cranny. Your hand is getting coated in dust and what feels like grains of sand.

Yuck.

Still no luck.

Maybe there is no ring, and it’s been long lost between Bradley’s moves.

But that’s kind of boring.

Putting your phone away, you sit back, rocking on your heels.

Fuck this.

You flip the box over, shaking it with some vigor. Sand, dust and Lego hit the floor with soft thuds. Suddenly, a soft-

Ting.

Metal hitting the wooden floor.

Ting.

It bounces.

Quickly, you push the box out of the way.

There, between the dust and the grime, landed a golden ring. The almond shaped topaz, set between two smaller diamonds, glitters like the sun, even under the artificial light of your living room light.

Carefully picking it up, you study it. Like everything in the box, it’s kind of dirty and scuffed. As you look at it—it is a beautiful ring—it dawns on you. It looks familiar.

But… from where?

Oh fuck.

Pulling out the wedding album, you flip the pages until you find the picture you are looking for. You’ve spent a better part of a week, every evening after work (sometimes while on the phone with Bradley), carefully peeling the pictures off the page and painstakingly reapplying them until your back hurt. You’ve gotten plenty familiar with every photo.

There it is.

Bradley’s parents, in close up, smiling at each other lovingly. But more importantly, her hand is resting on his shoulder, and there, clear as day, sits that exact ring.

It’s his mother’s engagement ring.

Suddenly, your heart is beating so loudly, you can barely hear yourself think. You know Bradley didn’t leave it in there for you to find. Hell, considering the state it’s in, he probably forgot it was in there in the first place.

But.

You cannot deny that you’ve not allowed yourself a little dream here and there. In the long term, you indulge in the fantasy of getting married to Bradley. Would Bradley marry you? You’ve never talked about marriage, or kids, together.

Finding this ring now sets your mind into overdrive. He would look so good in his formal uniform. He would kiss you so sweetly at the alt- oooh, this is bad.

You pinch the bridge of your nose.

Okay. Focus on the practicals.

The ring box is busted, so you need to find a place to store the ring. You could order a new ring box online, but you don’t want the ring to just lie around your desk in the meantime.

It feels a bit too forward to place it in your own jewelry box. It’s not yours, it shouldn’t be there. The only other place… the box with the dog tags.

Your breath sounds loud in the otherwise silent room—adrenaline is still coursing through your veins as you open the small box. With the thin blade you use to lift pictures off the page, you slice a small slit into the foam, next to the dog tags.

The ring slides in easily, glinting happily in the light, cozily tucked next to the dog tags.

It looks… right, you decide.

You close the little box lovingly.

It feels right, having them together like that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today is the day. You are bouncing on your heels, trying to see over the crowd of people in the arrival hall.

You’ve checked signs at the exit at least a dozen times. It’s really this exit. Every 30 seconds, your eyes flicker over to the display—no, the arrival hall for Bradley’s flight hasn’t changed, yes, it’s still the same exit. The airport app only confirms it.

You fidget with the belt of your light trench coat.

Why are you so nervous?

It’s only been a month.

You’ve arrived too early—Bradley’s plane hasn’t even landed yet. But you’ve been having this dreadful, horror-filled premonition you’d be late—when he finally asked you to wait for him.

You can’t fuck this up.

But now you’re here, a good 20 minutes early, nervously shifting your weight from foot to foot, watching people around you mill about. Weary travelers rush past you to taxis, while people have small and big reunions, and designated airport pick-ups hold signs with bored expressions.

It’s torture.

You should have brought a book. Or at least your AirPods or something. Anything to distract you from looking at the clock every 5-odd seconds, getting distracted by every announcement made, and ultimately disappointed every time with how slowly time is going.

Trying to stop yourself from pacing like an absolute madwoman in front of the exit, you stroll around the shops in the arrival halls—always in the line of sight of one of the information displays. Not that anything changes.

Listlessly you page through cheap romance novels, read a couple of headlines on the magazine rack and inspect small trinkets. There is a particularly unfortunate-looking plastic model of the Washington monument, leaning precariously forward like it’s in a tower of Pisa contest (you almost buy it because you feel so bad for it).

Unfortunately, that’s only 5 minutes gone.

You recheck your pockets for what must be the 348th time today. Phone, house keys, car keys. Chapstick, chewing gum, wallet. Everything is still there.

You walk past the flower stand, where big bouquets and bunches of roses in vibrant colors contrast starkly against the gray marble airport tiling. Aluminum balloons swing softly as people rush home. The smell of overpriced cheesy pastries wafts through the air.

You quickly stop by the bathroom—brushing a stray strand of hair from your face. The bruise on your face has long disappeared. You look fine.

It’s too cold for the summer dress Bradley seems to favor, so you’ve opted for a wrap dress with longer sleeves that is more appropriate for the weather. You like to think that cut flatters you. You look good.

Slipping your hand back into the pockets of your coat, you slowly head back to the exit. Still no change on the display.

You repeat two more slow rounds around the shops, trying not to look like a total weirdo, when the display finally shows Bradley’s plane has landed. Faster than necessary, you leg it back to the exit, as if he could come out any minute. Yes, you know he still needs to make it off the plane, wait for his luggage, and then walk all the way where you are waiting but Bradley is here.

You’re about to burst with anticipation, hands clasped around your phone that you hold up to your chest because you don’t think you can stop fidgeting otherwise, and because it feels like your heart might leap straight out.

“waiting for luggage x”

Bradley’s message is simple and to the point, but makes you feel like you might just float above the crowd in front of you and straight into his arms.

He is so close.

Every time the sliding doors open and people file out, you bounce onto your tiptoes to see that familiar head of caramel curls with that confidently easy-going gait and that cocky smile that makes you weak at the knees. Bradley knows exactly the effect he has on you, and you’ve decided to just own it.

Fuck it, you’re in love.

And you know it’s mutual.

It’s like you’ve developed a sixth sense for Bradley. The moment the sliding doors open again, you feel him before you see him. He’s here.

Bradley’s stance is confident in his crisp khaki uniform as he steps out, not faltering for a second —but his eyes are scanning the crowd nervously. You stand rooted to the ground for one second before your brain jolts you into action: he’s looking for you.

Bradley’s heart is beating anxiously—where are you? — when, your voice rings out over all the noise around, clear as a bell.

“Bradley!”

You are weaving through the crowd, about 90 feet away, trying to get past the horde of people waiting as quickly and somewhat as politely as possible. He can see your shining eyes even from the distance: they are his beacon home.

Unceremoniously, he drops his bag on the floor, not really caring it’s in the middle of the path. He only has eyes for you now.

Finally, you break free from the line, running forward with your arms outstretched. Before you can take two steps, Bradley is running up to you.

You crash into each other, Bradley lifting you off your feet in one fell swoop. You wrap your legs around him, not really caring how the skirt of your dress is bunching up around your thighs. Your hands got to cradle Bradley’s face, lips inching close like you’re sharing a secret just between the two before you kiss him.

“Welcome home, lieutenant.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[note] aaaaand that it's for the main story. Almost. There is still an epilogue in the works where I'll try to tie up some of the leftover threads. Plus there's one side story that I'm particularly excited to write. Soon I'll probably take some time to thoroughly edit the story. I know for a fact some story elements fell a little to the wayside, and not everything works quite like I wanted it to (let alone that some sentences read like I've had a stroke half-way through).

Thank you for reading. Thank you for all the comments and encouragement. Thank you for helping me re-discover that writing can still be fun and it's okay to self-indulge. Ultimately, I hope my story brought you some joy!

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