#and she constantly promised us a happy ending and she fucking delivered and it was so worth it

[biblionerd07]

I’ve been rereading Check, Please and all the extras and tweets and just remembering how fucking FUN it all was when it was happening in real time!!! Ngozi seriously created a full-on EXPERIENCE for us and it was just an absolute blast. Like there was the normal screeching and wailing when we got comic updates, like you’d get when you’re watching an ongoing show and getting weekly episodes. But then we also got extras and ask-a-Wellie and the TWEETS!!! We all had alerts set for Bitty’s twitter and we’d just get no warning before getting tidbits about the team or about his state of mind or vague-tweets about his crush and we would all FLOCK to tumblr to analyze and speculate and squee. It was a fandom experience I really haven’t had before or since and I just!!! It was so fun!!!! And she gave it to us for free!!!!

[gemini-sensei]

CW: talks of first times and loss of virginity, and smut. That's about it.

Binary Boyfriends Demetri and Hawk who after so much avoidance and trying to ignore their feelings finally get together. Their friends are so happy for them and Miguel and Sam are constantly dragging them on double dates all the time. Hawk chooses the most inappropriate of times to be super flirty with Demetri, which flusters the lanky guy to no end. Hawk just loves making his boyfriend blush all the time. Demetri swears left and right about how much he hates it but it secretly riles him up and turns him on because he loves it when Hawk is dominate over him in public places. Thats just part of their day to day. Life is normal for the couple.

That is until Reader rolls into town. She's kind and sweet and innocent. But of course they didn't know that until they got to know her better.

They guys are at the comic store when they first see her. She's looking through a section of women written comics that look cutesy but are deeper than that. A male employee asks if she needs help and she asks if they knew when they'll get the newest issue and they have a whole conversation about the series and they're having a nice time until he gets pulled away by another customer. She waves him off with a laugh and goes back to browsing.

Demetri can't help himself from walking over and asking her about the series. He's never read it before and he couldn't help but overhear her excitement for it. Hawk was a little too busy looking through some old comics that he didn't notice his boyfriend wasn't beside him anymore until he hears a squeal. He looks over and sees Reader shoving a first issue comic in his hands and telling him all about how great the series is. He's nodding along and smiling, promising to read it if she's so enthusiastic about it.

Hawk walks over and asks them what's up. He's actually a little jealous seeing a pretty lady talking to his guy like that. So when he walks over, he gives Demetri’s ass a hard squeeze. He introduces himself as Demetri's boyfriend so Reader knows. But Reader doesn't really show any reaction to it. In fact, she smiles and giggles and puts her hand out to shake Hawk's. He's a little startled because for a ment he thought she was using his boyfriend's interest in comics to get close and flirt with him. But that smile isn't a sneaky smiles. It's so sweet and genuine.

They end up hanging out in the food court talking about Reader and how she ended up in the Valley. The longer she talks, the more both guys are enamored by her. She has this laugh that just enchants them and now Hawk feels bad about his earlier thoughts. Then they learn she's never been in a relationship before and so it was easier to move to the Valley with few ties back home. And it's shocking because she's so sweet and beautiful, and Demetri tells her as much. But she just.shrugs it off and laughs.

They exchange information and part ways and it seems like they've made a new friend. Except for days after, the boyfriends can't stop thinking about her. They don't talk about it at first, but oh boy when she does first come up, they can't stop talking about her. They don't think much of it. She's a nerdy and sweet new friend. That's all. But it quickly becomes more than that, especially when they start talking about her in bed.

Hawk tells Demetri while they were fucking, "I bet you wanna fuck Reader, be the one to take her virginity! Am I right?"

And Demetri can't even respond. He's so overwhelmed with the idea that he comes all over their sheets and he's whining. He shakes his head, wanting to be degraded, waiting for it.

And Hawk delivers: "Well you can't. You're too big for her. You'll break her in half. You can't be her first - fuck! - you'll just hurt her. It should be me! I should fuck her just like this and- fuckfuckfuck! Gonna fucking ruin her better than you can! Better than you ever could!"

He comes and fills Demetri’s guts, not at all hiding the fact that he wishes they were with Reader in this moment instead. They end up laying in bed panting, sweaty and messy, daydreaming about her between them; touching her curves, kissing her tits, making her moan and scream.

"We should invite her over," Demetri says. They've been texting her nonstop and promising to show her around the Valley.

Hawk nods and licks his lips. "Yeah, yeah we should."

Part two

[multifandom-girlie]

𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚 ?

Imagine: He asks you what you'd like for Christmas and you take it up a notch since he asked.

Pairings: Human!Elijah x Human!Reader

Warnings: Smut and a sweet family moment.

A/N: Hey guys! I just wanted to apologise in advance because this ended up being a lot longer than anticipated because I got a bit carried away and added the sweetest little family moment at the end anyway no more spoilers but enjoy!!

I had just unlocked the door to Mine and Elijah's apartment, where I had just got some a sexy Christmas outfit for Elijah's Christmas present, since he said I was enough and that he didn't want anything. I thought I'd give him me.

I was just finishing my hair, when I heard the front door open and close, that meant Elijah was home and just in time. He decided to be nice this Christmas and give Klaus and lift home since he got hammered at Rousseau's for Christmas and why not. 

“Beautiful ? I'm back.”

“Okay baby, just wait in the living room. I'll be out in a second.”

“Okay sweetheart.”

I smiled at the terms of endearment, it's a usual thing but I love it so very much. I get Goosebumps and start to blush whenever he says things like 'beautiful' or 'sweetheart'. I looked at myself in the mirror and smiled, I know he's going to love it. He always likes it when I dress up just for him.

I opened the bedroom door and stepped out, before walking towards Elijah and standing in front of his chair that he was sat in.

“Happy Christmas, Handsome.”

He gaped for a second and then closed his mouth regained his usual posture and smirked. His hands reached out to grab the diaphanous fabric of the lingerie I was wearing and muttered under his breath.

“Happy Christmas indeed. Wow....I feel terrible I didn't at least get dressed up for you.”

“No, it's okay. Don't worry about it.”

“No it's not. Tell me what you for christmas.”

“Santa ? Is that you ?”

He chuckled and I kept my act up and sat on his knee whilst his arm wrapped around my waist and his other hand rested on my knee.

“It is indeed. What would you like for Christmas this year ?”

“I've been thinking very hard about this Santa because I really don't want anything except one thing. So I would really appreciate it if you have it too me....”

“It better be a good thing to ask for because that was a hell of a build up...”

“I promise it is....”

“Well then, what would you like ?”

“I would like you to fuck me hard. Please.”

I looked at him lustfully and he returned the gesture. Before pulling both my legs and wrapping them around him, making my heels rest on his back. We were inches apart and very desperate to make good on my wish.

“As you wish, my beautiful.”

We grinned at eachother and kissed eachother roughly, passionately....lustfully. I'd never been so turned on as I was then in my life. He was about the rip the lingerie off of me but luckily I stopped him before he could.

“Wait, I spent too much on this for you to rip it straight away. At least let it get 2 wears in.”

“Fine.”

He left it on instead, luckily for us both, there was no bottom half to it. The lingerie was a just a transculent dress really. He pulled the cups of the dress under my breasts so they could breathe however they were immediately suffocated once again, only this time on the sweet mouth of Elijah Mikaelson. His tounge encircled each nipple, one by one and discharged a quiet moan from me.

I clutched at the nape of his neck and began to rub myself against his hard on immediately. He let out a small groan and tightened the grip he had on my nipple with his mouth, which inspired a slight screech from myself. I ripped the belt off of him and I threw it behind him to an empty space by the tree. I continued to rip his clothes off and one of the articles of clothing hit the tree and disturbed us because a bauble had smashed on the floor. We pulled away and started giggling at eachother and we're also incredibly out of breathe. He slipped his boxers off and I immediately blushed.

Everytime I saw how much I affected him, I blushed and I thought it was such an awkward thing to do. I had expressed how I felt about it before to Elijah but he reassured me that he very much adored it but I still feel that tiniest bit awkward. 

I still continued to rest my body on my knees and wrap my lips around his cock, he threw is head back and groaned before he forced himself to pull me off of him and stood up and made me sit down in the chair before kneeling down and lining himself up with my entrance. The action made me bite my lip in anticipation and my lip almost flew out of my mouth as soon as he thrust into me.

My hands gripped the arms of the chair and he consistenly thrusted into me at a slow pace. I stretched around him and his hips slapped against the back of my thighs and he deepened himself further inside of me. It was a tantinisingly slow pace but I knew he was making it last though.

It's not often that we get to just have sex without arranging it. The kids were staying with Rebekah and Marcel for the night and we were going to have a quiet night alone. We often have to plan we have sex though, which makes it less special and it's not even the kids we have to arrange it around...it’s also Klaus. He's incompetent without Elijah with him, I swear he has separation anxiety. I do feel bad for him though since Hayley doesn't like him seeing Hope alone because she's worried he's constantly drunk. He just missed Camille and has just attended the wedding of the love of his life and someone he saw as a brother to him.

Elijah gripped my legs, leaving handprints embroidered in my skins. He pulled out suddenly and flipped me around on the chair. I gripped the back of the chair and my knees sunk into the fabric of the bottom cushion. His large hands stroked my hips tightly before getting down on his own knees and licking and kissing my entrance, earning a few sweet moans to erupt from my throat. Not long after, he sprung back up and stroked my clit with the tip of his cock before suddenly thrusting straight into my entrance which caused a loud moan to echo around us. One of my hands gripped the arm and one gripped the back of the chair, as his pace quickened and he created slapping sounds between our bodies. He kept rocking his hips back and force at a never ending pace. Groans emitting from his body aswell and his hands founding the best grip on my hips. I started to tighten around him and not longer, I came all around him. 

He pulled me to stand up after I came and sat down himself before gently pulling my hand and prompting me to sit on his lap. He positioned himself at my entrance as I was still a bit shaky from my release. I sat down on him slowly whilst letting out a long breathy moan. His hands found my hips again and mine gripped his shoulders. I was too overstimulated to keep moving, so he moved my hips up and down on his lap so he could reach his orgasm. He started throbbing, stimulating me more and more until we both released all over eachother, making a mess. His juices were running down my thighs and dripping down his cock, falling onto his stomach. Mine, combining with his...again running down my thighs and drenching his now flaccid cock.

I carefully removed myself off of him, to grab a warm towel to clean us up with. The sheer material of my dress, tickling my legs as I walked. I walked into the bathroom and looked at myself. I knew I wasn't ugly but damn do I look good after sex. Although it never feels like just sex when it's with Elijah, it feels like pure, physical luck. I always feel like the luckiest women in the world...not forgetting the best looked after cause wow is he godly in physical act of love, for lack of more appropriate words. I walked back in after finishing cleaning myself up and handed him a cloth too, before giving him a kiss and going to run a bath.

“Hey Lijah handsome, I'm gonna run a bath do you wanna get in with me in a sec ?”

“I would love too, beautiful.”

He just finished and stopped in the doorway to our bedroom and turned to him.

“Can you b-"

He cut me off.

“Yes, I will get the wine. Give me a second sweetheart.”

I giggled and walked off. He walked into the bathroom, seeing me already in the bath. Surrounded by candles and and the sweet aroma of the Christmas candle burning, that smelt like cinnamon, hot wine, vanilla, ginger, orange,honey and chocolate. Just a warm, inviting smell to relax too on Christmas day. He got in and poured some white wine he had delivered, along with himself.

“Here we go beautiful.”

I grabbed the glass he handed me and we spent the whole bath talking about nice thing like: the kids, new years eve and complimenting eachother. After about 45 minutes, the water started to go cold so we decided to get out and get into some more comfortable clothes and tidy up a bit. We started to relax by sitting on the sofa and throwing a blanket on top of us whilst watching ‘It’s a wonderful life'...and let me tell you it most certainly is. We were just about to go make some hot cocoa when there was a knock on the door, confusing us both. We glanced at eachother in wonder and when I opened the door, Rebekah and the kids were standing there. I smiled at them as they ran in to say hi to their dad. I turned to Rebekah.

“I’m sorry, I know I promised I'd have them for the night but they wouldn't go to sleep unless Marcel read them a book or your and Elijah were there, but Marcel passed out whilst we were watching a film. I really wanted you and Elijah to have a night to yourselves and I really tried bu-”

I chuckled at her and held my hand up.

“Rebekah, it's fine we don't mind. Honestly, I was missing having the kids here anyway and we were just about to make hot cocoa anyway. Calm yourself down and go to sleep, you look exhausted.”

“Thankyou Y/N, I owe you one !”

“No you don't!”

I closed the door, to see the kids sat with their dad watching home alone. I smiled at the view, this is why I'm lucky to have Elijah.

OUTFIT

MASTERLIST

[bodyswapmischief]

The Crossroad Contract

Are you okay?

Yeah? What do you mean?

I don't know ... you have been distracted all night. Like you have been thinking about something. You been constantly looking at your watch. And, you keep looking around like you expecting some one to show up.

Okay, I get it, I get. I don't know ... I guess I just been stressed lately. But, it's nothing you need to worry about.

Are you sure? Because if I didn't know better it kinda feels like your trying to hide from someone. We been dating for a year now, so I know when something is wrong. Did you get into trouble?

No, it's nothing I promise. It just a lot is happening at the ... at the gym. In fact we are planning on creating some branches. I've been waiting to hear from Mark because we are expecting to meet up with some sponsors to help us expand. That's why I've been anxious. We should be having an online meeting, tonight.

What!? That's great! I know once they see how fit and hot you are, you'll have them eating out of your hand. You don't got anything to worry about.

Jason and Eric continued the rest of their date. Jason tried his best to act normal in front of his boyfriend, but inside the fear of what was coming ate at his mind.

Do you want to come inside?

No. I actually got the text from Marc. I need to rush home and get my presentation ready for the zoom meeting we are having.

Jason gave Eric a tight squeeze, as they hugged. Even though Jason was taller, bigger, and stronger than his boyfriend, he felt safe in Eric's arms. He loved this feeling. He loved everything about this past year. And, he wanted to stay in this moment for ever.

But, he knew he couldn't. It wasn't safe to be near Eric, as the night grew later. He gave Eric a kiss a turned back to get into his car. As he drove home, his strong musclar arms shook with the the growing intensity of fear.

Reaching his apartment he prepared himself for what was to come. As the time past, Jason did all he could think to do, pray.

Dear God forgive me for what I did. For give me for my sins. I need you now. I need your strength.

His isn't listening.

The room filled with an echoed laughter. Jason opened his eyes and noticed the room was even darker than before. Sitting on the couch across from him was a what looked like a man. He stretched out comfortably. He was extremely attractive, dressed in an all black suit. His eyes matched, as their were no whites. His eyes were pools of pure black. The expression on his face was one of twisted joy.

It always amuses me that people like you feel worthy of forgiveness.

The figure laughs. And Jason instantly started shaking with fear. He was sure that he head more time. Looking at the clock, 11:00 pm, he should have had an hour left

Do you need to be reminded of the 5 soul you destroyed to summon me? The poor souls you used to selfishly stir up this deal. The things you did to have the body of your dreams.

The man continued his laughing. Jason tried to speak up, but fear gagged any attempt at sound.

What cat got your tongue? Don't you remember how you stabbed your father in his heart, as he slept. What about your mother? She woke up to the bloody sight. Your father bleeding out. She started screaming. How many times did you stabbed her in the neck? And your poor sister, at first she thought you enter her room to protect her, but once she saw the blood she knew the truth...

Stop!! Shut the fuck up!!! I don't want to hear it!!!

Tears started streaming down Jason's face.

Wow, someone has major balls yelling at a demon. But, your right ... what you did to your two friends was way worst...

Please shut up! If I could go back, I would have never done it. I'm sorry... Take this back ... I don't want this ...

Jason collapsed on the floor begging to the demon he summoned a year ago. His heart screamed with the pain of what he had done.

It's a little late for that, now isn't it. We made a deal. Those 5 souls for your "perfect body." It's not like I can just recreate those 5 souls for you. That body is now permanently yours for as long as you live. Live... now that's a funny word. Because it brings me to my real reason for coming here tonight. You know what I'm talking about. It's been a year buddy ... and you haven't delivered a new souls to hell. Do I need to remind you about the second clause of our agreement.

No... I know.. In order to stay alive in my new body. I must continue to kill a minimum of 1 person every year, otherwise I'll be dragged to hell.

Jason wiped away his tears feeling of defeated. In a strange way he wanted this. He felt like he deserved it. The guilt of killing his family and friends weighed on him for the entire year.

Well then do it! Take me to hell.

The demon smiled as chains emerged from him. They snaked around the room and wrapped around Jason. The strung around him and stabbed into his skin. He screamed out in pain. And, painfully his body started moving on its own.

Tears started forming in his eyes, as he feared his fate. In the corner of his room, a figure started to take shape. The closer he got the clear the figure became and the more he tried to scream. But, all that came out of his mouth were moans of panic.

Standing in front of him was a monster. The creatures body was tall with stretched limbs. It's skin was pale and was patterned with sores and cuts. It stood on bended knees. It fingers were long and curled, in disfigurement. It's nails black and sharp, resembling claws. The face was long and sunken in at the empty eye sockets. The skin hung loose on the bone. Holes done by picking reveled deep layers underneath the skin. It lips were cracked and torn.

The demon laughed.

Do you still wish to go to hell?

Jason was able to regain his movement and feel to the floor. From the corner of his eyes Jason could see the creature lung down towards him. Expecting to be ripped apart by the creature he closed his eyes. But, seconds past and nothing happened. Slowly he open his eyes and looked up. The creature was also looking up. The Demon started to do a soft chuckle.

Jason slowly picked himself up, not sure what was going on. The creature did the same. The Demon's chuckles got louder. Jason started slowly walking backwards away from the creature. The creature did the same creating more space between then. The demon was laughing hysterically now.

How do you not see it it? Are you really that blind to the situation?

The words rang through Jason's mind. His faced turned to shock. And in a twisted way the creature face also turned to one of shock. As Jason looked at the empty sockets of the creature, his brain works 1 billion times per second. He was looking at himself. He looked down at his body and still saw the ripped muscular body of his dreams. But, looking back at the creature he could see it was also him twisted, stretch, tortured, and mutilated.

What the hell is going on? What did you do to me?

I didn't do anything. I'm just merely showing you your true reflection. Yes on the outside and to the world, you look like a beefcake. But, once you leave that vessel. Once you die, this is your truth. Your true form, this is how you really look.

Jason stood in shock. He lifted his hands to his face. Touching his features and the creature did the same.

This can't be.

What!? You sold your soul Jason. You couldn't think your soul would still look pure and beautiful. God has disowned you and cursed your appearance to match. You are scared of becoming a monster. But, you already are one. Let yourself be one.

Jason fell to the floor, sobbing, The adrenaline from the fear starting to wear off. He was tired and defeated.

So what now!? Your going take away my body and torture me for all eternity, while looking like some type of monster!

Well that's up to you, Jason. You signed the contract. You know the consequences. Either take a life and live in this extremely attractive vessel for another year, or lose everything and be tortured until that mind of yours becomes just as twisted as your soul. Either way you become one of Lucifier's pets. But, doing it the easy way, at least you continue to look hot and have some sense of yourself still intact.

But, this body won't last for ever. Eventually it's going to die... so. I'd have nothing eventually.

Jason!! What don't you understand! Your a demon now. You are basically employed by the devil. Once that body becomes obsolete, and you are in good graces with Lucifer, you will receive a new body, in order to complete the work Lucifer ask of you.

So if I make the devil happy ... I can live the life I always wanted... and more.

Now, someone's getting it. Let the monster within, be unleashed. Let your dark desires free. You've killed once and you can do it again. Deep down you know you crave it. But you better work fast. By the looks of the clock ... you only have 30 minutes left.

Why are you telling me all this.

Your my recruit... if you do a good job... it also make me look good. And, I'm looking for a promotion.

The demon winks and with a flash he vanished. Jason looked around the room and catches a glimpse of his reflection. For a split second, he saw the demonic reflection of his soul. And, in that moment everything clicked. He had to stop pretending. He had to let loose and be himself. Be the monster. He knew what he had to do. He couldn't let everything he worked for slip away from his grasp. The souls of his family and friends would just be wasted. He might be a monster but he didn't have to look like one. He still deserved happiness, right? He deserved power. He wanted more power.

Now, that he knew what was at stake he started to really think to himself.. if this body was just given to him for signing a contract, then what else would he be able to achieve if he continued to make Lucifer happy.

He went to his kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife he had and slid it inside the back of his pants.

He pulled out his phone and started texting.

Hey babe, the meeting ended and it went really well. There was no reason to be anxious, in the first place. You were right. I thought I'd come back to your place. So, we could celebrate and I can release this tension I been holding in all day. I'll be there in 5 minutes. I'm dying to stick it in you 😉

Wow, the meeting must have gone great! You're not usually this flirty and direct. But, I like it. It's turning me on. Hurry, I'll be here waiting.

Jason looked up from his phone and smiled as he walked to his boyfriends apartment, a few minutes down the street. The thoughts of ramming his knife, into his lover, turned him on.

[yesttoheaven]

I SEE YOU – chapter II

pairing – arthur fleck x female!reader

wc – 2.4k

warnings – none, just some rude people. It's gotham.

a/n – I'm late with this chapter, I know... 🙃 but I hope you like it!

chapter one here:

English is not my first language. I am getting help from google translator and he is not always a good ally, so I apologize for any typos or grammar errors.

Y/N – your name

Y/L/N – your last name

A week has passed since Y/N met Arthur Fleck. It was a long week for her – with TV appearances, some biased rumors about a possible affair with her co-star and problems with the city's main NGO. The place was invaded and looters took what little they had to offer to the population. Gotham police were doing their best to find those responsible, but it would take some time.

Despite the problems, Y/N constantly found herself thinking about the brown-haired man. At some point he was always in her thoughts. Since the day she left him in front of a building on Winslow Avenue, they haven't seen each other anymore. Y/N would like to know what he thought of the movie, but the man never came.

Maybe he didn't like the movie, she thought. And that was totally fine. What was not right was this desire to find him again.

On Wednesday, Brian asked if 'the guy with the big shoes' had called her, but the actress confessed that she had not given him her phone number. What the young actress didn’t know, was that Arthur had crossed the city – more than once – just to tell her what he thought about the movie, but his attempts were marked by misunderstandings.

"The entrance for employees is on the other side." The receptionist informed, attracting the attention of Arthur, who was walking through the luxurious hotel lobby. He didn't know if she was talking to him directly, but he approached the counter anyway.

"Huh... Y-You talked to me?"

"You are the new janitor, right?" The woman stopped what she was doing and finally looked at him, repressing the urge to roll her eyes.

Arthur shook his head and with a small smile, he said:

"I'm looking for Y/N Y/L/N." The mere fact of saying her name made his heart run so fast. Arthur could not explain, but since he met Y/N, his days have become colorful. He still suffered from the brutality of the citizens of Gotham, but everything became more bearable.

"Y/N Y/L/N? The actress? Are you sure?" The receptionist asked incredulously and at the same time seemed to hold herself back from laughing. It really seemed like a joke to her. What could this strange man want with Gotham's Golden Star?

"I need to deliver this to her." Arthur showed the VHS tape, hoping it would guarantee his free pass. "What room is she in?"

"Listen, I don't know how you got through security... but you certainly saw all those people out there. Everyone wants to talk to Y/N or just ask for an autograph. The problem is that none of you are allowed to be here."

"Autograph? I'm not here for the autograph! She wants to know m-my opinion about her new movie."

"I'm sure the only opinion that matters to her is that of the Academy of Oscars."

"You are not understanding... We are practically friends, she saved my life in that alley! Ask her! Say that Arthur Fleck is here... S-She... She will remember me!" While Arthur was stuck in his own words, the woman called the security guards.

The moment two men approached, Arthur realized that things were going very, very badly. In his mind everything seemed easy. He found Y/N and she was happy to see him, but in practice he hadn't reached the elevator yet and the security guards were already putting him out.

"Wait! You got it wrong..." He tried to explain and get rid of the men who were holding him, but the receptionist just shook her head, telling them to get him out of the lobby before the residents showed up to see this show. This would not be good for the hotel's image. "I just want to see Y/N..."

"That's what everyone wants." One of the men said, laughing.

"And I wanted her to dance for me." The other security guard confessed, sighing sadly, while that desire would remain only in his dirty imagination.

Near the main door of the luxurious hotel, they treated Arthur like trash, throwing him on the sidewalk. The poor man managed to maintain his balance and remain standing with the little dignity that remained, but that disappeared as soon as a painful laugh cut his throat.

"Go back to your filthy home! You are too old for this fan and idol thing."

...

When the elevator doors opened, Brian left the metal box accompanied by two officers. Because of the police's satisfactory commitment in this case – obviously Y/N's status contributed to this – the actress received good news. The stolen supplies from the institution were found in a shed and a man was caught in the act. Other suspects are still being sought, but the only piece that doesn’t fit, is that the owner of this shed is Thomas Wayne, candidate for mayor and also owner of WayneCorp.

"Tell Miss. Y/L/N that we will capture the responsible."

"Or those responsible." The other officer added, reinforcing his commitment to the citizens of Gotham.

As soon as the officers left the building, Brian intended to go back to Y/N's room and check on her, mainly after receiving new information about the case, but his plans were interrupted by Susan, the receptionist. She showed a big smile, waving, and he approached the counter trying to look friendly.

"Hey, Susan! How was your day?"

"You know, check-in, check-out... The same things." She laughed, shaking her head. Her job was not exciting, but it paid her bills. That was enough. "I saw the cops... Do they have any suspects?" Curiosity was plastered on her face and Brian sighed, fully understanding why she had called for him. Gossip.

"Unfortunately I can't give too many details, but they are doing a good job." He stated, satisfied with the investigations.

"I don't know if that can help anything, but maybe he participated in the theft..." The woman murmured. The words seemed to be directed at herself, like a loud thought, but the bodyguard was unable to ignore and asked:

"What are you talking about, Susan?"

"A man was here looking for Miss. Y/L/N. His insistence scared me. He was determined to go into her room, only God knows what he intended to do, so I called the security guards, they put the man out. But Carl saw him across the street for three days straight."

"You did the right thing. It's unbelievable how Gothan became a fucking asylum!"

"Do you think I don't know? Sometimes it feels like we're living in hell... But the freak left his name. Arthur Fleck. I don't know if it's real, but you should check with the police."

"I will do this... Wait! Did you say Arthur Fleck?" Brian questioned, as confusion appeared on his face. That name was familiar to him.

"It's a strange name for a strange guy."

If it were possible, a lamp would be shining next to Brian's head right now. Arthur Fleck is the name of the guy with the big shoes.

Without any explanation, Brian ran for the elevator, leaving Susan extremely confused behind. When he arrived at the actress' room, he found her talking on the phone. She didn't look happy.

"Oh, he does not want to talk to me? Very busy, huh? You know I don't like to get involved in these problems... but he started it, Alfred!" Y/N had crossed her limit. The only thing she wanted to do was talk to Thomas Wayne about the NGO supplies that magically appeared in his shed, but that would be impossible. Alfred insisted, saying that the billionaire was at an important business meeting and that he had no connection to the theft. "Okay, I will not insist. Maybe when you regain your senses, you understand my side. Have a nice day, Alfred!" She ended the call and looked at Brian.

"I can't believe you called Thomas..."

"Likewise when he called the mayor’s office trying to ban the showing of Midnight Seduction." The actress argued, showing a fake smile. "These NGOs that I help, they are hindering his path, it is not very difficult to see. You know how men like Thomas Wayne build their empires. It's not pretty."

"God, I know... but be careful what you say. It is a very serious accusation." He advised, concerned for her safety. Y/N just walked over to the table in the center of the room, picking up her glass of scotch and drinking all the amber liquid.

"Don't worry, I'm used to white-collar men."

"Oh, I can see it, but I hope you're used to clowns too, because I have news about the guy with the big shoes." Brian started, capturing her attention immediately.

"Arthur was here?" Y/N's voice took on a hopeful tone and a beautiful smile formed on her lips. For a moment it was as if all her problems were gone.

"Well..." Brian cleared his throat, choosing the right words to tell her, but deep down he knew it wouldn't work. "Arthur was committed to seeing you, but Susan did not allow his entry."

"Why she did it? Usually she talks to me first..."

"It is the protocol, but in this case she considered his behavior to be atypical. I don't know if he was nervous and had another fit of laughter in the middle of the lobby, but she believed that he could present you with some danger or even be involved in the theft of the NGO... The security guards kicked him out."

For the first time in this conversation, Y/N didn't know what to say. The words were stuck in her throat. She felt stupid for not giving Arthur her number or simply putting his name on the reception list. Any of these options would have avoided the embarrassment he went through.

"Maybe you should talk to him. Do you know where he lives." The blond-haired man suggested. It was clear as the day outside that Y/N was silently blaming herself for what happened and that was not fair to her. "What do you think?"

"Arthur possibly hates me now..." She murmured, walking across the room. First he was beaten in a dark alley and now humiliated, practically compared to a criminal. All Y/N wanted at the moment was to go down to the lobby to clarify some points with Susan, but Brian was right. Talking to Arthur is the best she could do. "Prepare the car."

"What? Now?" The surprise was tangible in his voice.

"I don't know, maybe next month?" She rolled her eyes. "You have an appointment?"

"No, but you have." Brian added, crossing his arms. It took a few minutes, but as soon as the actress finally remembered, her mouth opened in a perfect O.

"The dinner with Charles is today! I completely forgot!"

"And before that I need to get Misty. If she gets here with the makeup artist and you're on the other side of town, we'll be in big trouble."

"Maybe not." Y/N smiled.

...

"If Misty finds out where we are..."

"First: You need to calm down. Second: She will only know if you open your mouth and tell her." Y/N listed it on her fingers and then took off her sunglasses, looking at the building across Winslow Avenue. "Just trust me."

"I think I will regret this later." He whispered to himself, leaving the interior of the car and opening the door for her. Y/N accepted the help and together they went to the entrance to the building. The next step would be to find out which floor Arthur lived with his mother. "And now what do we do, genius?"

"I confess I didn't think about that part..." The actress replied, looking around curiously. The place was nothing like the luxurious buildings in downtown. There was no lobby to ask for information and the reality here was completely different.

"Do you need help?" Brian and Y/N were surprised by a female voice and found a woman near the building's front door, holding some groceries from the market.

"Oh, hi!" Y/N smiled as the woman approached where they were. "We are a little lost... Do you know which floor Arthur Fleck lives on?" After that question, a mixture of confusion and surprise appeared on the woman's face.

She didn't believe it when Arthur said that a downtown girl saved his life, especially when that girl was the Gotham's Golden Star. It seemed impossible, but now Y/N Y/L/N was here, asking to see him.

Abandoning these thoughts, Sophie smiled, agreeing immediately.

"You are lucky. Arthur and I live on the same floor, I can accompany you there."

The actress smiled appreciatively and Brian offered to help with the bags from the grocery store. As soon as they were inside the metal box, the woman pressed the number 8 button and looked at Y/N, saying:

"By the way, I’m Sophie Dumond."

"Nice to meet you, Sophie. I am..."

"Oh, I know who you are." She stated, dispensing with the introduction. "I mean... Gotham breathes you!"

"Sometimes it is strange to open the window and see your own face on a billboard or on TV." Y/N confessed. The fame was glamorous, but sometimes suffocating.

"It sure is better than opening the window and seeing a pile of garbage. This is the privileged view we have here." The woman argued, laughing at the situation and the elevator stopped on the eighth floor. "Well, Arthur lives there." After leaving the metal box, she pointed to the end of the hall and while Brian helped her with the bags from the grocery store, Y/N thanked Sophie for the information and walked to the location indicated.

Looking at the "8J" sign, she took a deep breath, wishing she had a mirror nearby to check her appearance. She wanted to be presentable to finally meet Arthur again, even though he might be mad at her. Gathering courage, Y/N knocked on the door. To her disappointment, no one came. The apartment continued in absolute silence.

"Don't tell me there is no one at home." Brian appeared beside her. Realizing that the actress was anxious, he knocked on the door again, with more insistence this time. "We can come back another day..."

Without a better option, Y/N was ready to go back to the elevator, when the door was opened unexpectedly, revealing a woman on the other side.

"Hello, you must be Arthur's mother! I'm Y/N and this is Brian, we are friends of your son."

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a/n – I really don't know if anyone is going to read this, but I would be happy to know what you think of the story :)

[sweater-daddiesdumbdork]

Welcome To The Pack

Full Moon Run

Summary- 7.3k Alpha!Steve x You. Next day is the full moon run, a ritual important to bonding of wolf packs. Steve learns a bit more of what you dealt with. Warning- Violence and mentions of abuse.  

A/N- Mood Board made by @omega-nicole Thank you babes! Its beautiful and perfect ❤🐺

Chapter One  / Pack Master List

Steve was gone before you even made your way out of bed and in the shower. But the scent of coffee had your nose lead you to the kitchen, and there was a handwritten note set under an empty mug, words scribbled on it in a rush. 

‘Make yourself to home Y/N, be back sometime tonight for the run. ~Steve.’ 

Simple and to the point, your finger brushed over the letters and they were well dry. He's been gone some time, the coffee has a bit of burnt smell from being on the brewer for a while. It didn't matter, you got to indulge a bit. Who would have known something like a ready-made cup of coffee would make you excited. 

Your little wolf lolled on her back and stretched her legs out, twisting her body back and forth like she was scratching her back. <Because you weren't allowed these basic things before Y/N> 

I remember, trust me I haven't forgotten. You thought back as you lifted the mug to sip the black coffee, and searched out for a sugar bowl. Once you found it, you scooped in enough for a taste and looked around the cabin. Alone once again, you smiled to yourself. Honestly, this kind of life you could get used to. Morning coffee out on the deck, have the freedom to be in your human side or wolf side. Not have your old alpha breathing down your neck, controlling all your movements. Your hand absently came to an old scar on your shoulder, rubbing at it as it started to ache. One of the many bites you've been issued from your old pack. Although never properly claimed, you would never lose any of them. 

Shaking it off, you popped open the door and came out to see that The Compound was bustling, trucks coming and going from the large garage at the other end of the clearing, a bunch of kids were herded into another vehicle, and across the lot, Sara headed over with a greeting, a wave of her hand before she got close enough to speak. “Hey, I was heading into town, you wanted to come? Can hook you up with some clothes and such.” 

You look down at your outfit. Wearing a woman's named Wanda's shorts, and wearing the oversized tee that you had a feeling belonged to Steve, knotted at your side so it wouldn't fall almost to your knees. “I would but... well I didn't come with anything. I don't have any cash or such.” You tried to shrug off your situation and Sara dug in her pocket pulling out a card. “Steve dropped this off to me this morning, and we know Alphas don't take no for an answer. Might as well come along and get what you want.” 

“I don't know...” You started, rubbing at your arm. “Steve didn't exactly say I could leave the grounds. And I don't want to upset the Alpha already.” Sara frowned and shook her head, smiling. “Trust me, Steve isn't like that at all. He won't mind, I know he wants you to have what you need while you're here. If you want, I can call him? I know Sams got his phone on him, and they went up together to the lot.” 

You finally give in, and finish off the last swallow of your coffee. “Okay, I trust you. Give me five and I will be ready to go.” You pop back in the house and Sara comes up the steps, following you in to wait. Going to the bathroom, your finger brushes your hair, glancing around to see if Steve happened to keep a comb or something. Probably in his room, but you weren't risking that again. 

<Chicken shit> your little wolf snickered, and you rolled your eyes at your reflection, muttering under your breath. “your such a bitch.” 

<Sure we are> sharp yips echoing in your mind as laughter. Deeming yourself looking fine, you come back out, lifting the back of your shorts back up as they slid down a bit, scowling. “Clothes are desperately needed. These are just too big.” 

“That's the spirit” Sara loped and arm through yours, and ou two headed out of the cabin and to a vehicle that Sara dug keys out of her back pocket. You two headed out of the compound, and you couldn't help a bit of the panicked feeling, which Sara must have picked up on. Your breathing and heart race both lifting slightly. “Hey, I promise he's okay with this. Giving a nod, and taking a deep breath, your little wolf shook out her nerves before settling back down. 

<Steve won't hurt us.> Stated so sincerely and with conviction, you let yourself agree, and settled in the seat, taking in the scenery and Saras talking about how she and Sam met. You couldn't help but smile to yourself listening, it was apparent how much she loved her mate. For the first time in a long time, you just did something as normal as hanging out and shopping. You were happy, as well as your little wolf, although there was the occasional pining for Steve, which you promptly continued shutting that down with frustration. If you don't stop, I'm throwing up the maze for you to work through... 

<You got enough, let's go home.> prancing in places, her tail wagging at the idea. You couldn't help but smile at how happy your wolf side was now. There wasn't cowering aggression constantly rippling through you anymore. Soon, we will head back to the cabin. 

<Home.>

Maybe home. Were not sure yet. 

<After tonights run, it will be home.> you're yanking a shirt off over your head, retorting back. Its been a whole day, and who knows if we're still being hunted? You are so damn ready to bond with this male, and then what? That's it. This is where we will always belong.

<What's wrong with that?>

Before you could even answer your wolf, or pause Sara at the dressing room door since you were distracted between the two simultaneous happenings at the same time, the door open. "So I thought this color- oh sweetie" she gasped at your back. Grabbing the shirt you had just pulled off and holding it to your front, trying to spin out of sight, but this is a dressing room, and there was no hiding from all the mirrors behind you. 

"Are you okay?" Sara is sure to close the door and you still clutching the shirt. "Who did that to you?"

"It doesn't matter.... " shame floods your face and your little wolf whines while wrapping around herself, a soft quivering ball in your mind going down your spine. "Please... Don't say anything, I don't want anyone knowing." I don't want Steve knowing. 

Sara breathed out and her gaze went from the mirror to your face, that looks of sadness just bringing more shame. Her hands came up to cup your face and make you look at her. “I won't say anything, it is your story to tell. But if you want to, I'm right here. Steve too, he would want to know.” You wolf whined at his name, the feeling of yearning rolling through your chest, to have him see you and not turn away. But your last Alpha deemed you useless to mate, to marked with bites to bond with anyone. Why being collared and sold was your only option. 

“Thanks Sara... I think I'm ready to head back.” You say softly and go to pick up your shirt and slip it back on, all the memories and feelings slipping back darkly in your eyes. 

Sara gathered up the clothing you had picked, worried features pinching her face. “Let me just ring these up sweetie and we will head on home.” 

Miles away Steve stood to survey the damn delimber they used to clean the logs, arms folded over his chest until he lifted a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, cursing. Sam, he's underneath it, hands up in the machine, looking at parts. 

“Mmmhh, Just as I thought, they stuck that oversized pine into it and jammed it all up. These parts are gonna take at least a couple weeks to replace.” He rolled out from underneath and stood, brushing off his backside. 

“Standstill?” Steve asked, his headache starting to form at his temples. Not that they would be financially strapped, but there was a large order coming in, and they had won the bid to fulfill it. Steve always made sure to deliver on time, and this set back might be pushing that back, in any business, it was all about the name and word of mouth. Something he had worked fucking hard on in the years he's been Alpha. 

“Not quite, gonna be a bitch though. Clean them up by hand, it will be slow though.” Sam stated honestly, and rubbed the back of his neck, a slight bit of hesitation in his voice. “Or, you can contact Stark, see if he has the parts on hand. I know you've been wanting to drive up there to discuss Nat and Clint coming back from there internship in New York.” 

Steve remained silent, staring at the broken piece of machinery, willing it to be fixed. <If you study that thing any harder, you are gonna give us a migraine.> His wolf huffed, impatient. The beast didn't like staying still, studying, thinking. Wanting action, to do something, anything besides just staring. Well what do you think we should do, wait on the parts, or ask Stark Towers for help? 

<I think you should just get done this crap and let's go home to our mate. I bet shes back now, and just as ready to see you.> The wolf stated smugly, is no help in his current predicament. 

You know what... So am I. Checking his watch, he decided it was time to just call it a day. All of this, well it would be a problem to deal with in the morning. Maybe that would bring him the answer he needed. “Let's pack it up Sam, it's getting late, and I can think about which we should do.” 

Sam broke out in a relieved grin, grabbing some of the tools he had used, and tossed them in the back of the pickup. “I'm not gonna say no to that. Sara sent me a message that she was done shopping with Y/N, and they were headed back.” Grabbing the walkie off the passenger seat, he pushed the button, hearing it crackle then turn to a hollow soft hum, he spoke telling everyone they were knocking off early and shut it all down. The woods slowly stopped humming with the sound of machines miles away in another lot. Another cackle with a “Sure thing Wilson” and it went silent. 

Hearing that You had spent a day out shopping made Steve warm, blossoming with soft happiness swirling from his stomach and up to his neck, turning his ears red at the thought of you twisting in a mirror to see all of you. Now he wished he was there handing you the clothes, have you model for him, see the way your eyes would light up and your cheeks bloom pink with his compliments. Of course his wolf appreciated the visual image, pressing for more control, making Steve get behind the wheel with Sam and drive just a bit faster back. 

When is the last time we've been excited to return home? Steve considered, fingers thrumming on the steering wheel as they pulled off the logging road to Route 2, speeding along to The Compounds entrance. 

<It's been a while since life's been this good.> The large wolf shook himself out, itching for the little wolf at home. <Full Moon run we will get to see her set free for the first time.> 

That made Steve smile more thinking about getting to see you shift. Having only seen you once, your wolf had been a beauty to him. Long-legged for swift travels that wolves in the south typically had. You were still smaller in size next to the northern packs such as there pack was, with a long slender muzzle that ended in a pointed nose. Large eyes that at the time were fearful. This time he hoped to see the joy in them. 

When Steve and Sam parked the truck, the two men stepping out and discussing tomorrow's plans for the crew tomorrow, Steve inhaled your scent, and whipped his head around, searching. Upon the front porch, both You and Sara are lounging in the deck chairs, feet kicked up on the railing, and a glass of iced tea in each of your hands, laughing together. Neither of you realized that that the men were back, but as they approached, Sara dropped her feet and jumped up to lean over the railing, see them. “Well look what old mutts finally arrived back! we've been waiting for you.” Sam paused and his hands went to his hips. 

“Woman, you gonna come say hello, or am I gonna have to come up there and drag you down?” A wide grin flashed her teasing, and she skipped down the stairs and raced over to him, jumping in his arms to give him a racy kiss and playful ones all over his face. “Missed you Stud.” That just made Sam grin, and let her fall back to her feet, her arm wrapping around him. Steve in the meantime walked up the steps, and you to had come to a stand to welcome the Alpha home. 

<I can tell you how to welcome him home. Look at him! He wants you to be all his like those two.>

Please give it a rest! You plead as you take in the sight of Steve coming up the porch steps, his hair a mess, they tee clung to his chest where he must have sweated at some point. Yes, yes he did, cause that just barely hit you too. Normally someone's scent would make you pull back a bit, but not his. It warmed through you, screaming MAN in your mind. Healthy and strong, your Little Wolf appreciated it, rumbling out. <Alpha, even in human form. He certainly wouldn't tire easily...> Teasing lilt to her tone. 

God your really a bitch.

Steve was looking you up and down, once he saw your outfit, his gaze seemed pleased at the choice you made, and although simple, nothing more than a pair of denim shorts, and still that men's tee tied in a knot just a few inches above the top of your shorts, he seems to fully approve of the relaxed look. “Do you want me to go get you a beer? Or make an iced tea like Sara and I are having?” 

“No, I got it. I heard you went out with Sara. I hope you were able to get everything you needed?” 

“Oh yes, thank you... you didn't have to do that Steve. But I appreciate it.” his wolf rumbled happily hearing you, and although the two of you weren't touching, you were close enough that Steve could just reach out, brush fingers along the curve of your face, grasp your chin... Enough! 

<Shes close, see the way her eyes are taking us in? She sees were strong and would protect her. If you would just make the first fucking move!>

“It was not a problem Y/N, nothing I wouldn't do for anyone.” and your eyes seemed to shut off a bit, pull back at Steve's words, leaving his wolf growling and snapping at Steves behavior. Giving an awkward nod as he reached for the door, Steve escaped inside, and you breathed out a held breath, a bit taken aback from his comment. 

Your Little Wolf paces now unsettled, nuzzling into you as she knows your upset feeling. <He cares, he's just afraid of pushing you.> so calmly said, you sink into your thoughts. I don't know, maybe I misread the situation. Besides, this is what I wanted. Nobody special, I'm just a member of this pack. You glance at the closed door. <No you haven't! Just wait, the run will prove it. I feel his wolf calling to me. Why do you keep lying to me?> You have nothing to respond with, and turn your attention to Sam and Sara coming up on the porch. Sam sat in Sara's previous chair, and Sara perching on his lap, falling right back into conversation with You. You make yourself pay attention, ignoring Steve's comment from earlier. Or trying to. 

On the other side of the door, Steve leaned against it, cursing under his breath. “Son of a fucking bitch, why did I say that?” he pulls away and tugs off his dirty shirt, balling it up and as he went into the bedroom, he tossed it with frustration at the hamper, still mentally cursing himself out for the sheer awkwardness that made him up. 

<I don't know either, I mean you just let me take over, your mate wouldn't be out on the stoop now trying to figure out your mixed fucking signals.> 

Opening his closet door, Steve grabbed a plain grey tee and tugged it on. And what do you know about any of this? She's here for protection, not to be my next anything. He snapped back as he headed into the bathroom, and ran the water to let it warm up. Soaping his hands and scrubbing vigorously before cupping to splash water in his face. <Well I know enough not to let her think she's not wanted> The large wolf roared back in frustration and as Steve dried his face, and looked up in the mirror, he stared back at yellow eyes staring back at him, not his usual blue. The wolf was pissed off, and threatening to finish taking control. Grasping the edge of the sink, he let his head dip so he didn't have to see it anymore, dragging in air deeply and letting it out slowly. The next time he glanced at himself, all was normal. The wall he slammed up in this mind would control his beast... for now. 

On his way back out, he grabbed two beers from the fridge and stepping out on the porch, he rejoined the three of them, handing Sam the beer before leaning back against the railing. The two women were animated talkers, telling Sam all about there shopping trip. Steve admired how your hands would wave in the air, and your head would tip back, long tresses of hair falling down your back as you laughed. The anger he felt dissipated in your presence, and you would look up at him with a grin, and what he wouldn't do to be the one making you feel this way. 

“And here we are.” Sara leaned back against Sam's chest, taking his beer bottle and taking a drag off it. “Y/N, how you feeling about the run tonight?” The Little Wolf pranced joyfully to be able to run in a pack again, and you hug around yourself for a moment, Steves eyes flicking to see the defensive move you made, even your scent changed slightly to him. Tinged with fear, although your smile remained on your face. “Excited, it has been a while since I've been able to do something like that. A long while... “ You drifted off and picked up the iced tea glasses. “Excuse me please.” You dipped inside and Steve pushed off the railing, taking another drag of beer. 

“Meet up with you two later?” Steve went towards the door, and Sam picked up on what he was saying, tapping Sara's thighs. “Come on Baby, how about you come to show me what you bought.” The two of them standing, Sara bit her lip and looked towards where you had disappeared. “Steve....” Sara drifted off, and Steve looked over his shoulder with an arched brow at the woman. She waved it off suddenly and went down the remaining stairs. “See you later.” Taking Sam's hand, the two-headed off. 

Weird... Steve popped open the door and went inside to see you remaking more teas. “They headed on back home till later tonight.” He let his elbows leaning on the counter while you paused. “Don't worry, I will take Saras.” Reaching out to take it, you chuckle just as he took a swallow and winced. 

“I haven't put the bit of sugar in it yet Steve.” Chuckling as you took it back and sprinkled some in. “I would have said goodbye if I known.” 

“You will see her again in just a bit,” Steve started and watched as you finished making yours. “Y/N earlier when we were discussing the run, were you okay?” The wolf perked back up at this, his ears straining towards the woman, silent though. They were both vividly aware of her nervousness at the question. 

“Sure Steve. Wh-Why do you ask?” You are not looking at him, seeming to avoid his gaze, watching with interest at the glass before you, the spoon spinning the liquid around and around. Steve reached forward once more and took the glass from you, and set it aside. 

“Y/N, please look at me.” His voice was different this time, and Steve could see the inner battle crossing your face. A bit stubborn? You have been nothing but compliant since you've arrived, and this surprised him a bit. <Tell her again, we have to find out what's wrong.> Steve tilted his head though instead and tried to catch your gaze, his tone sterner this time. This was absolute. Your Little Wolf wouldn't let you disobey him anymore. “Y/N, look at me?” This time he saw your features smooth and you did look up at him. “because you smelled of fear, If you are afraid to do this, You don't have to.” Pushing off the bar, he instinctively circled the counter to stand near you, a hand lightly touching your arm, hoping that you would be able to answer him. 

“Sorry, yes, I'm very excited about this. I haven't... I haven't been allowed to run with a pack in over a year.” You tried explaining, and Steve frowned at this. Being denied to run with your pack? It was everything a wolf craved, the closeness, working together. Steve had never thought of denying any of the packs the right to run together, and his wolf growled with a bristle of fur along his spine. <What kind of Alpha is this? He doesn't lead a pack with honor, denying his wolves the run.> Steve let it sink in that you've been semi-isolated as a wolf. 

<We need her to tell us everything that this Alpha is doing, selling wolves, denying the run... what else could the Alpha have done to her?> 

We will see if she tells us. 

“Y/N, why would he deny that to you?” Steve asked and you wrinkled your nose to keep from letting your emotions take over. Picking up your glass and taking a swallow, you set it back down, your nails tapping against it. “Because I was to be collared and sold. I was kept away from the pack with the other unmated wolves. That way we wouldn't find a partner in the run. He would lose his income.” You wipe at your face and ask softly. “Please... can you release me? Let me look away.” 

It took a minute till it clicked for Steve that you were serious, your eyes big and round staring at him, shining with held back tears, he suspected now from being forced to listen. “Of course, you can do whatever you want Y/N, you don't have to look at me anymore.” And you lost the rigid attention, seeming to sink in on yourself. Head bowed, shoulders dropped a bit with a shudder. Taking your glass of iced tea, you skirted around Steve, keeping your voice low “Was there anything else you needed right now Alpha?” 

“No... no. We will come to find you for the run in a couple of hours.” How hard did he restrain himself from reaching out to touch you, give comfort at your unease. But you didn't seek it, and he wasn't going to force it on you. Promptly you disappeared to your room. Once you were out of sight, Steve didn't look away from your door, processing everything he had just learned. 

<Her free will had been taken away... She would have obeyed us if we told her to harm herself.> His wolf whined out, ears pinned back against his skull at the unease of the situation.  

Why we will not use that on her again if we can help it... and it's time to find out more about this pack. Pulling out his phone from his pocket, and sent a text to Bucky explaining what he needed to be done. He received a simple text back with a “Done” and set his phone aside. It also reminded Steve he needed to get back with Stark about his wolves on an intern with him. If the twins Natasha and Clint were back, he would have sent them. Glancing outside, Steve noticed the moon starting to edge over the lake, and he found solace in that. At least he could be the one to give her the first run in over a year. And tonight's moon looked like a Super Moon, large glowing orb that would recharge them. Tonight will be a good night... 

Later you heard a knock on your door and you stirred in your bed. “Y/N, it's time... “ Steve poked his head in and flashed a grin of excitement that made him almost child-like. Swinging your legs off the bed, you can't help but catch that excitement, and stretch out any kinks in your back. Your Little Wolf started hopping and slapping her front paws in anticipation, just feeding your mood. 

“I'm kinda nervous” You breath out as you pass Steve, and head for the door, you're biting your lip as you look over your shoulder at him, grinning. Any discomfort from your earlier conversation just seems magically gone as both of you slip more into the wolves personas. As you opened the door, Steve came up behind you, tickling along your hips. Laughing, you sprang out of reach and leaped off the porch, and spun on your feet in the soft grass to face him, smirking as you looked up at him tugging off his shirt to toss it aside. Your breath sucked in, and fingers flexed wanting to drag your hands across his pecs, through the hair dusting down beyond his slightly softer stomach. Even your Little Wolf stopped her exciting dance, licking her muzzle with a sweep of her tongue, whimpering. 

<Y/N....> whining out and you whimpered yourself inwards, taking a teasing step back from the Alpha who started to stalk you playfully down the steps. Trust me, I see... You bolt away before he can even reach you, racing down the path where you see other people similarly playing with each other, Steve was quick to catch you, and swinging you up where he grasped your waist, your feet kicking out and laughing. Prying at his fingers, you growled at him with flashing wolf eyes. “You don't seem too nervous right now Y/N, growling at your Alpha,” Steve stated against your ear, inhaling deeply against your neck while setting you down, and your dancing away from him, your legs stretching and twisting, making you itch to shift. Your breathing was coming out in rushes at being so close, pressed against the wall of his chest, his scent having washed over you and making your body ache for so much more. 

<You can have more if you let him. I told you he wanted you.>

He's caught up like I am in the full moon, that's all it is. The Little Wolf snaps a bit at you in frustration.  

Steve pulled up quick to admire you dancing through the moonlight, your head tipped back to be washed in the light, your eyes shimmering in the wolfish way as they reflected the moonlight when you looked back at him. <Shes so beautiful Steve, this is the way she's supposed to be. Your mate, dancing in the moonlight.> And Steve really couldn't rebut the Wolf's observation at this moment. “You haven't given me a reason to be.” You turn and say simply, and before he could respond, Sara came jogging over, Wanda in tow. “Were stealing out girl here!” Sara sass's while booking an arm through Your arm, and Wanda takes over the other side, smirking at Steve, who's folding his arms over his chest. 

“Oh really, and what if I say no?” Steve retorts. Leaving Sara snorting at him, the two women already dragging you away. “Since when do we listen to you?” Slight amount of panic races through you. <He didn't say we could go Y/N, you have to go back before he gets angry!> and you're about to pull away from the women to return to the Alpha. 

Steve watched as Sara and Wanda started to lead you away when he saw your back tense up and the way you glanced at him over your shoulder. Even your scent was once more tinged with fear, now picking up that sharp sting in his inhale that mingled with your usual honeysuckle softness. Before his wolf could point out the obvious to him, he nodded at you, letting you know it was okay, you were safe to go. It was immediate, the change of relief, and you turned back to follow along with Wanda and Sara to join other women, as was how their pack started to run. 

Breathing in deeply, it surprised Steve how easily he was able to follow you, easily picking you out of the other mingled scents that made up the pack, and content that you were safe, excited and he would be seeing you within a few minutes, he decided it was officially time to start. Not bothering to go down to the lower field where the males were showing off moments of bravado and boasting as large groups of the male species did, Steve lost the last of his clothing and started to let the wolf take over. Although uncomfortable, it was fairly quick for shifters. Their bodies melding from human to wolf. When he opened his eyes again, the world was different, the night now belonged to him and he was more than ready to claim it. The silver beast tossed his head back and paid homage to the moon, officially starting the pack run. Answers called back, some as sharp yips and others as low dragged out songs. 

You had never met Wanda, but her scent was familiar as the borrowed clothes. Just as with anyone you've met so far aside from Bucky, she introduced herself and that was it, you were her packmate and she treated you as if she's known you for years. “We better be quick.” She states as she lets you go and starts tugging at her clothing, yanking it off without any hesitation, and the others around you are doing the same. A bit more tentative, trying to keep your back hidden you start doing the same. Tossing a shirt and dragging down your pants, already Sara has shifted, a sleek black wolf and Wanda is right behind her, and red wolf stretching out with long front legs stretching behind her, head was thrown back to the moon. Sara tilts her head towards you waiting as Steves howl starts. Soon you're surrounded by howling wolves, and your own Little Wolf is pushing to join. 

Releasing her, she was quick to take over and your howls are dipping right in with the rest. A ripple went through the pack, as haunches coiled underneath and a wave of wolves leaped forward, moving into the forest beyond The Compound. Sara waved her tail, and you to stretched out to run alongside her, brushing up against her as the two of you worked in sync, soon passing others on your left and right. It's not long before the larger males join, weaving among the females, snapping at them in play, out of the corner of your eye, you can see Sara pull up, and twist into a mottled brown wolf. Recognizing Sam from the day before. She leaped at her mate, brushing up against him and nipping under his chin. The pair weaved around each other, fondly biting each other's ruffs and showing affection in the way wolves do. 

Your fast run slowed to a jog, letting your nose lead you now. Once in awhile another wolf would brush up against you, enticing you in play. Slapping front paws against the pine needles, tail high in the air, waving above you like a flag before you two would charge at one another. This, this is what you missed when with your previous pack. How your Little Wolf leads you two through the night with fleeting bursts of speed. Your howl, rang clear as a bell being struck through the night. 

Steve cocked his head listening to the wolves' cries, picking you out right away, the large Alpha spun in place, his nose high in the air, seeking... until he found you. With a loose jog, he followed the tail like bread crumbs, his tongue lolling out to taste the air, and a swipe over his muzzle like a beast getting ready for dinner. Finally he saw you, teasing another packmate with leaps and bounds, back and forth chasing one another through the brush. You twisted away from yawning jaws and snapped back in play till you saw Steve. Shaking out your fur vigorously, your ears perked at him, yellow eyes flashing in the darkness at him. Rolling forward into a lope, you packed up to him, and lowered to your belly in submission to your Alpha, sidling up underneath his chin, and licking nibbling at him. The wolf softened, and nuzzled back, gentle as he bit the top of your muzzle, accepting that you now belonged to him, his packmate as well.

So easily the wolves accepted each other, now if only the humans could as well.  

Once he let go, you nipped playfully at his ear, tugging it and brushing alongside, the two of you bounding off as a pair, soon catching up with the rest and bypassing them as well. The only other pair matching you two was Sara and Sam, long-legged leaps eating up the ground, you couldn't pass up the challenge that the two of them gave, and with a burst of speed, you pulled away from the large silver wolf matching you, your legs stretching and claws barely grazing the pine needles before they flew out again, Sam huffed at being beaten watching your tail whisk at him with a laughing bark from you. 

The Alpha had never seen anything quite like it, Sam had many years ago earned the nickname Falcon for his speed, but here you were, outpacing him easily. Your sleek fur brushing back, and your muzzle sharp and streamlined you. Like a bird of prey spiraling into a dive, you twisted in the air once you got to the border, paralleling yourself along no man's land, the rest of the pack came up from behind. Soon you eased up, falling back to pace with Steve, your nose low to the ground, tracking the border scent. Half the pack weaved out to the right, the large group ominous to any that might challenge them. Steve relaxed into your touch every time you weaved back into him, your scents now intermingling, becoming as much as an imprint on others as it was on you. You were now officially part of the mountains, losing the scent of your old pack life. 

It was early hours when the pack returned to The Compound, weaving among each other, tiredly pacing with each other. Adults carried pups from the scruff if they were small enough, heads hanging low enough that the pups backsides would bounce a time or two off the soft grass, even Steve is carrying one back, the pups yawning, and blue eyes blinking sleepily up at him, licking at his chin before his head flops down to give a tiny snore. You follow along next to Steve, chuckling at the dangling pup. Soon his mother comes and collects him, bounding off towards home. 

Home... what a thought for you. You never really expected any place to feel like home, but as you pause going up the wooden steps, Steve not far behind, you watch as the rest of the pack settle down wherever they were content. A few stayed outside, circling one another in mismatched pairs, tucking head over another's back, and giving a sigh. Some returned home, Sara and Sam trotted past, still playfully nipping at one another and giving a yip in greeting before they went towards there own cabin. Steve brushed past you, mouthing your ear with affection before he went inside, you right behind, and to your room. The human persona edging for control again and a leap sent you into bed. 

You were laying there, right on the edge of a deep sleep when a hand muffled over your mouth and a sneering face loomed over you, whispering. “Make a fucking noise, and your throat is ripped out before I die.” Your eyes go wide in panic, and your hands go to claw at his chest, trying to push away. Where was Steve?!?! Your Little Wolf is snarling, pushing to shift but to exhausted from the run earlier, and your body ripples in the frustration and pain, causing you to tell out before your back to your human self. Outside you hear loud snarls of wolves fighting each other and the man cursed, that's when it clicks it's the Tracker on your trail just a couple of days ago. Grabbing you by the arm to drag you out. 

Steve is sound asleep when his senses tingle. <Intruder... someone is in the house.> His eyes shot open, and quiet as he moves to get up, yanking on a pair of sweats near the bed. Soft steps send him to the door, and his wolf is bristling in silence, honed in for any noise that might be made by the individual. It certainly wasn't anyone he knew but did carry your old scent. That's when he heard the scramble in your room, and he burst into the hallway, your scream of pain making his fist slam against the door. The door was thrown to embed into the wall, and the man had his arm fisted around your neck, wrenching your head back, you're trying to connect a fist or foot at him to release you, and Steve takes this all in a glance before he's tackling at the man, ripping him to release you, where you fall to the ground, trying to drag air back in your lungs and coughing. 

Now Steve has the upper hand, dragging the man from his house, his oversized hands wrapped along the back of his neck, ready to snap it with a twist the other fisted in his shift to haul him along. Kicking his front door open, outside was a whole other scene. Bucky must have caught the second intruder, the lookout outside the cabin as he was returning home from his time in the town. Blood streaked down his white chest and along the side of his muzzles, the wolf at his feet dead. Steve snarled in the man's ear. “You better start fucking talking or that's going to be you in five seconds.” Fingers digging in threat along the back of his neck just above the spine, the man tried twisting in his hold at an attempt to save his life. “NOW TRESPASSER" 

“She's not yours! My brother and I were told to bring her back to our Alpha. He didn't release her, you cant lay any kind of claim to her. “ The man's voice panicked, eyes rolling up at Steve looming above him. “It's our job, our Alphas command.” Just as he's saying this, you step out onto the porch, tears streaming down your face. You knew this was what would happen, Pierce never let anyone get away from him, not unless it was with death or from a sale. Steve happened to see you, and lowly growled out. “Go back inside Y/N....” But you took another step forward to descend the stairs. His anger at the situation left Steve roaring out. “Right Now" and you had to listen. Your wolf couldn't disobey her Alpha, and you raced back inside, the door yawning open to show the darkness of the interior. Now that Steve was sure you were away from the men, the pack coming out to gather around, Sam racing up alongside Bucky to kneel near the dead wolf and inspect him. 

“I have a message for your Alpha, the only reason I'm not killing you,” Steve growled out as he twisted his hand, strength making the man cry out. How easy would it be to snap his neck right now. “Tell your Alpha if he wants her, he has to come to get her from me.” Tossing him away to sprawl against his dead brother, Bucky snapping right at his face, spit and blood scattering across the man's face like splatter, leaving him blinking in shock at the white wolf. Steve snarled out. “Get out of here, and be sure to haul your brother away to. Count yourself fucking lucky. If you come back, I will rip your throat out.” Sam and a few others ready to escort them right out of town. Bucky sighed almost wearily as they marched away, and Steve dropped a hand to his friends back. “Thank you Buck.” The white wolf eased away, leaving Steve alone. 

Inside your panicking, your chest aching and pacing around. Steve came in to find you wide-eyed, his shift hanging loosely whipping around you as you snap back and forth between the kitchen and living room, there wasn't much space in between so if you went like that for long, sure to wear a hole in the floor. 

<Go to her... she needs to know it's okay, that you are here to protect her.>

“Y/N... “ Steve starts, but you snap out instead. 

“I knew, I knew this would happen. I didn't go far enough, I should have gone further north. He's coming, he's coming to destroy you all and drag me back. I can't fucking believe I caused this, Fuck fuck fuck, Steve I'm so sorry I brought this on.” 

Before you could continue, you twist to go the other way and slam into Steve's bare chest, his hands wrapping around you. You are momentarily struck into confusion, pulling away, but his voice is soft against your ear, calling you to attention. “Hush, you didn't do anything wrong, and nothing is going to happen to us. Let him come... the man needs to be removed from what he did to you what he is doing.” Your panting as your forehead least against the center of his chest, and he loosens his hold now that you are not fighting him, keeping it loose around you. 

“I shouldn't have brought it to your doorstep, Steve.” You cry out softly, unable to hold it back anymore. Warm tears fall on his chest, and he rumbles softly. 

“I'm fucking glad you did Y/N.” He allowed himself to let his head drop to press a kiss at the crown of your head. Let them try to claim you...  

<Oh yes... please let them try.> The Silver Wolf grinned in the darkness of his mind, wickedly curved canines flashing white, just waiting to be used. 

Tags- @what-is-your-plan-today @p8tn0lish @official-and-unstable-satan @kimisama1989 @stardancerluv @patzammit @princess-evans-addict @alexakeyloveloki @ayamenimthiriel @irishflutiegirl @fallenoutofrose @caffiend-queen @southerngracela​ @bigandprettyyyy @djeniiscorner​ @irespostthingsiwanttoseelater  @rinkashirikitateku

[angelikook]

Yoongi As Your Brother

Everyone knows how soft he is with the boys.

He's also like that with you, multiplied by 100.

Because you're his only sister.

And you were born right when he wanted to have a baby sister.

He's also overprotective because of that.

So overprotective he never lets you meet the boys.

Like ever.

But you're determined to change that.

“Yoongi, why don’t you ever bring me to work? I want to see you practicing.”

“No. You're just going to annoy us."

"I won't. I'll stay quiet."

"We all know you can't stay quiet."

"Touché. But just give me a chance. All the boys' siblings have seen BTS except me."

"You don't need to see them."

"But I want to know if BTS is like what the media portrays."

"I'm BTS."

"It's different. Please, Yoongi just this once."

In the end, you win much to his dismay.

Because you know there's no way he can say no to you.

Since you both were young, you only have each other because your parents are busy making money.

That's why if you have a problem, you'll come to him and vice versa.

"Y/n, do you have some time to talk?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"Lately I just feel not good."

"Like what?"

"Like I don't know what I'm doing."

"You know, I felt the same thing too."

"What did you do to overcome it?"

"I just focus on the things that I like doing. What do you like to do?"

"I don't know…"

"There's your answer. You need to find what you like to do first. Then you'll find your purpose and you'll feel better."

"Thanks, bro. I owe you one."

"Yeah you do. Buy me food."

"Again?"

"You said you owe me, though?"

"Sure. Whatever."

You constantly annoy him just cause.

But he just lets you.

Only you, though.

"Yoongi, what are you doing?"

"Working on my album."

"Can I listen too?"

"No."

"Come on! I'll tell you my opinion on it too."

"No, thanks."

"Yoongi, please."

"Y/n no."

"Just this once."

"And you won't annoy me ever again?"

"Well… I can't really promise that."

"Fine. Here, I'll play it for you only once."

"Yeay, thanks!"

Misses you 24/7.

Especially when he's on tour and has no time to call you.

"Why are you so glum?" Jimin asks one day.

"He misses Y/n," Namjoon answers.

"Just call her now. You still have some time before we go up."

"Jimin! You're a genius."

"Your welcome."

Unfortunately, you have a class when he calls.

So he slumps back into his chair, disappointed.

But after his concert ends, you call him back.

"Yoongi! Sorry I was in a class. What's up?"

"I just want to check up on you, mom, and dad. How are y'all?"

"We're good. Just focus on your job."

"I am. Do you have some free time before the tour ends?"

"Why? You want me to visit you?"

"If you can."

"I wish I can. Exam is coming up, so I need to study. Maybe mom and dad can come, though."

"But what about you? Will you be okay at home alone?"

"I'll be fine. Have you forgotten that I'm a grown up?"

"In my eyes, you'll always be that stupid kid who fell into the toilet."

"Hey! I thought we're way past that."

"It's too funny to forget."

"In my eyes, you're still the same evil Yoongi who chased my boyfriends away in middle school."

"You deserve much more than just those rowdy boys."

"Whatever. At least now you're on tour so I can date anyone I want."

"You're still not allowed to date until you're 30!"

When you're sick and he's still on tour, he panics.

He can't focus on his performance at all.

"What's wrong?" Jin asks after the concert ends.

"Y/n's sick and I haven't been able to call her."

"Tell our manager, I'm sure he'll let you visit her. We have a couple of days before our next concert."

After getting his manager's approval, he flies the first flight he can get.

Only to see you at home watching TV while eating popcorn.

"Y/n! Mom said you're sick."

"Why are you here?"

"Answer me first."

"Yes. I was sick, but now I feel better."

"You made me worried sick. You didn't even pick up my calls."

"Sorry. I just don't feel like opening my phone."

"Don't do that next time."

"Sure. Now that you're here, let's go eat pizza."

"Are you sure you're sick? You have a big appetite for a sick person."

"I eat to cope. Let's go."

"Only because you're sick."

He remembers you all the time.

Even when he's on vlive.

He likes to talk about you.

"Someone asked 'how's your sister?' to me."

"She's fine and healthy, thanks for asking."

"She actually was sick a couple of days ago."

"Thankfully she recovered pretty quickly."

"That brat got me worried, I flew back home as soon as I heard the news."

"And only to find her chilling in front of the TV."

When he's with the members, he still likes to talk about you.

"Y/n just finished another semester."

"Wow, that's great! I'll call her and congratulate her."

"No need, Jimin. I'll deliver your message to her."

"Why not? She's not busy or anything, right?"

"She might be sleeping, though."

"It's funny how she likes to sleep, just like you."

"It's because a genius brain requires more energy."

"So she's smart?"

"I'm her brother, of course she's smart."

"Interesting."

"Yes. It's interesting how she's way out of your league."

"Stop being so overprotective. She's already in college and probably meets a lot of people."

"True. But I told her not to date anyone until she's at least 30."

"Isn't that too cruel?"

"Nope. She's my baby sister and will stay that way forever."

When you have a fight with him, he holds your hand.

It's a technique he knows can calm the both of you down.

(And he uses it when he has conflicts with the members, too)

"Where have you been? It's midnight, Y/n."

"Out."

"With whom?"

"Friends, of course."

"I told you not to go out too late. What if something happens?"

"Nothing happened, Yoongi. Look! I'm perfectly fine and at home right now."

"Still! There are a lot of bad guys trying to get girls like you."

"I can keep myself safe, thank you."

"No you can't! You're just a girl."

"I'm a woman, for fuck's sake! Stop treating me like I'm a baby."

"Y/n, hold my hand."

"What?"

"Just hold my hand. I'm sorry, okay. I don't treat you like a baby. I'm just scared something bad happens to you."

"I'm sorry, too. I don't mean to lash out on you."

"Next time just tell me if you're going home late, okay?"

"Okay."

He never tells you how much he cares about you.

But you still know from the way he treats you.

He buys you your favorite food when you're PMS-ing.

He sits beside you quietly when you're sad, waiting for you to tell him your problems.

And when you start telling him everything, he's not even once interrupting you.

But if you're not ready to tell him, he'll just leave quietly after patting your back a bit.

When you're happy, he's also all smiles.

He buys you little gifts on your important days.

Like your birthdays, graduations,

Or even when you passed the exam week,

Or when you're alone on Valentine's day (partially because of his no-dating-before-30 rule).

Basically, you're his little princess and he doesn't want it to change. Ever.

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[obsidianfr3sk]

five valentine’s day that went wrong and one that (almost) didn’t

@queercreators event 02: romance — [ five valentine’s day that went wrong and one the (almost) didn’t ]      [ “Five Things” Fic ] “

dedicated to my dear Reneweys [ @nodrianbcyes @honey-hippie-harper​ @healing-winston-pratt @alecjamesartino @bluenoctuary-art @everyone-has-a-nightmare ] ♡

Summary: They always managed to ruin their Valentine's Days one way or another, but it didn't matter. Because there was no way they could ruin what the two of them had.Boy, he would like to see someone try.

AO3

Well, hello there!!! It’s been a while since the last time I posted something x’d I know I always say the same thing but it’s true skjdfhkjdfs I started this fic during the first week of febreary when I had this shot of adrenaline and started to do a lot of creative stuff, and originally I wanted to post this during Valentine’s Day, but... the shot of adrenaline passed x’d and let me to deal with this alone.

As you can see for the description, this a “Five Thing” fic. At first I wanted to post each chapter seperately, but idk, it seem a little bit... weird x’d so, here in Tumblr, the six chapters are all in one post. If you don’t like the format, but want to read the fic, you can find it on AO3! Don’t forget to leave kudos and a comment if you liked it:’)

Now... I’m not used to write happy sttuf in general x’d AND I’M LESS USED TO WRITE HAPPY STUFF ABOUT HUGH AND SIMON BECAUSE SKJDFHKJDSF the angst, dudes:))) but I think I did. Like... I actually wrote a fluffy fic:’) I’m so proud of myself dkjfhkfdshjk

Tag list: @the-lady-with-the-pen @chiyuki-hiro @all-weather-is-bad @styeenza

First try

Year 2

It was the second Valentine's Day after the beginning of the Age of Anarchy, and the capacity that the human being had to adapt themselves to the most terrible of conditions never ceased to amaze him. The economy had collapsed, the government had fallen, his school was practically one of the last ones still in open, and there was a “fucking junkie” ruling the city...

But the world celebrated Valentine's Day anyway.

Or at least in his class did.

The teacher had brought a bunch of cardboard boxes, that looked like she had fought with some tramps to get them (which she probably did, they were too many boxes for one person to generate) (unless she was a crazy person who collected boxes). She gave one to each one of her students, took out the last bottles of paint, pieces of colored cardboard, and rusty scissors, and then told them that today they were going to learn how to make a mailbox.

At first, Hugh had no idea what turning a box into a mailbox had to do with the curriculum the school was supposed to follow. It's not like people sent a lot of letters anyway. But when the girls got excited, he remembered that February 14 was something like an important date. And then, he remembered an activity that they did during his first year, when everyone decorated a box for their classmates to put letters and sweets in it.

First year… And now he was in his third year.

Time flies by.

After telling them which parts to cut into (Hugh had to share his scissors with other three classmates because there weren't enough for everyone), she invited them to pick the decorations they wanted to put on their mailboxes. The girls pounced on the pink, red, and even white paint, while most of the boys laughed, saying it was a stupid activity and they didn't want to do it. Hugh felt the urge to agree, but he didn't

He had already tried to make them like him. It hadn't worked for him.

So he grabbed a bottle of navy blue paint, some cartoon bear stickers, some notebook paper, and a bitten pencil. That would be enough to make his mailbox and his cards.

After a while, he started to have a good time. Crafts had never been his strong suit, but he was proud of how it ended up looking. One couldn’t tell his mailbox used to be a cereal box because the paint he used was so dark, that it only needed two coats of it and it dried much faster than Abernathy’s, who had practically finished the pink paint trying to hide the face of that missing child in the milk carton box the teacher gave to her. Hugh realized that she was holding her tears back, and as the good classmate that he was, he told her not to worry, that the missing child could be decoration if she painted him a mustache or something, and it would look very funny. Abernathy, far from finding it funny, acted super offended, assuring she had never met a child as rude and insensitive as Hugh Everhart, and she ran out of the classroom, hiding her face in her hands and screaming like a baby.

Unfortunately, the rest of his class agreed with her, and when it came time to deliver the cards, Hugh did not receive a single one. Although he doubted it had anything to do with that missing boy thing.

They wouldn't have given him anything anyway.

He wasn't sure if they knew he was a prodigy. Maybe they had noticed that it wasn't normal that Hugh had practically broken a chair in two when he placed his backpack on it to get something out, or that he had left the PE teacher unconscious when he accidentally threw a ball at his face while they were playing soccer. The teachers, if they noticed, didn't say anything. After all, that school was supposed to be only for normal kids.

Not prodigies. 

But children could be very insightful. Most likely, they did notice and therefore did not want to be associate with him.

Or maybe— 

Maybe they just didn't want to hang out with Hugh, because of… that.

Because he was Hugh.

He decided to wait for everyone else to leave before starting to cry (or before breaking another chair, whichever came first). Or at least that was what he was about to do when he heard that someone had come up with the same idea as him and started crying first. 

Simon Westwood had never been too talkative. Even before his older sister and mother died, he liked to sit at the last table, not speaking to anyone, and some older kids were constantly picking on him, without any teacher trying to do anything to stop them.

Not that Hugh was paying much attention to him or something.

The teacher practically ran to see what was going on with Simon Westwood, asking him what happened and why hadn’t he finished decorating his mailbox. Simon Westwood tried to explain it to her, but he was mumbling his words so neither the teacher nor Hugh could understand what he was saying. 

Hugh didn’t get mad with him though. His mom had died. His sister died too, a couple of weeks later. He wouldn’t be in the mood for doing cheesy crafts if the same had happened to him. But the teacher wasn’t as benevolent as him, and started to say things like she was trying really hard to bring joy to her students, and that she was sure that if he tried a little bit harder, he would be able to enjoy Valentine’s Day, like the rest of them. 

“Let’s see what nice things your classmates have said about you,” she exclaimed. But that only made Simon Westwood start crying again.

No one had given him a card. 

Like… no one.

And Hugh was listening to all of this conversation, just sitting there, trying to stay as stiff as he could so they wouldn’t notice he was there (as if he weren’t literally right in front of them). Seeing Simon cried like that made him think that maybe he was just acting though when the other kids laugh at him because of his looks, his ratty old clothes (older and rattier than theirs), or just—

His mind exploded. 

He suddenly understood why the other kids didn't like Simon Westwood. It was before he was him.

Just like how they didn’t like Hugh Everhart because he was Hugh Everhart. 

When the teacher went out of the classroom with Simon, saying something about calling his dad (although he knew they wouldn’t be able to do that, since no one had a functioning phone those days), he took one of the cards he did for his classmates, cards that he never gave to them, and put one inside Simon Westwood’s mailbox/cereal box. He had left his backpack and his things there. When he came back to take them home, he would see the card too.

A voice in his head told him to get out of there before he came back, but another one told him to stay. Maybe Simon Westwood and he could be friends. Maybe he would understand what it felt like to be hated just for the way you were born. Maybe he was a prodigy too. 

Or maybe he wasn’t.

He couldn’t take that chance. 

So Hugh went home, but promised Simon Westwood (and himself) he would keep an eye on him. 

After all, friends were there to have each other’s back. 

Because they were friends, even if Simon didn't know it yet.

Second try

Year 9

They were friends. 

He had never seen Hugh before meeting him on that alley where Simon got his powers. Like— he had seen him because he was in the same class as him, but he hadn't really seen him. During his childhood years, Simon was more focused on other things. Like being a little depressed and anxious ball with skinny legs and skinny arms, for example.

It wasn’t like he wasn’t depressed or anxious now. Nor it was he had gotten super muscular all of the sudden, like Hugh (he had always been bigger than the other kids, but he practically turned twelve and already looked like a teenager, except for the voice and the face). 

But at that moment, he wasn’t depressed or anxious. He felt weirdly at peace. 

He and Hugh were walking down the street, thinking about which store were they going to rob that day to get dinner for them and their families, when Simon noticed a couple holding hands in front of an abandoned café. She had dark hair and he had blue eyes, which looked at his girlfriend as if she was the Virgin Mary or something. Then, she kissed him and gave him a small blue flower and a heart-shaped card. The guy looked so moved by the gesture that he kissed her on the lips again, with so much more passion than before. 

Simon looked away before they realized he was looking at them, not only because he didn’t want to come off as creepy, but also because he knew how awkward he would feel if they started to make out or something. 

“Love is in the air,” Hugh sang.

Simon chuckled. “You noticed them too?”

“I noticed them when she gave him the flower,” he told him. “I had never seen a girl giving flowers to a guy before.”

“Times have changed, I guess. That’s why they don’t feel uncomfortable giving such public displays of affection. Kids in our day weren’t like that.”

“I know, right?” said Hugh continuing with the joke. “They are so perverted. There are children present, for God’s sake.”

Simon chuckled again and Hugh stopped to tie his shoe. While he was there, Simon noticed he was throwing glances at them. 

“You know, giving them the death stare isn’t gonna prevent them from being in love,” Simon told him.

“I can try,” Hugh joked. Then, he shook his head. “It’s not that. I just—”

He waited for him a couple of seconds before asking, “Just what?”

He finally answered, “Someday we’ll have something like that.”

Simon frowned. “Huh?”

“You know,” Hugh mumbled. “We’ll have girlfriends and— and all of that.”

“Oh!” Simon exclaimed. “Yeah, someday, yeah.”

But before Simon could keep talking about it (or just develop some opinion on the topic) Hugh shrugged and urged him to keep walking. “I guess. I didn’t even remember today was Valentine’s Day though. They were my reminder—” he turned around and waved at them “—Thank you, exhibitionists, you reminded me what day is it!”

Now, Hugh probably didn’t mean for them to hear him say that. Simon knew him well enough to know Hugh thought he wasn’t being loud, but the thing was… Hugh was always loud. He could be “whispering” and the whole neighborhood would hear him ask Simon if he knew how bars with strippers worked because he did know, and wanted to brag about it. Then, Simon would feel embarrassed, because, in fact, he didn’t know how bars with strippers work.

Simon immediately turned around and realized the girl was looking at them with an expression he couldn’t read. He turned invisible and pushed Hugh inside of an alley, hoping those trashcans hid them well enough in case the guy turned out to be a freaking animal and wanted to kick their flat asses for calling them exhibitionists. 

Simon felt the anxiety kicking in, when Hugh started laughing so loud, that said anxiety turn into the need of punching him really hard on the arm.

So he did it. Multiple times.

“Dude, dude, shut the fuck up, dude,” Simon said keeping his voice low (because he could keep his voice down, unlike others), “that guy’s gonna kick our asses, for real. Dudeeee—”

But his voice kinda cracked when he said that “Dudeee—” and that made Hugh laugh even more, so Simon kept punching him, using a vocabulary that would make the most dangerous of gangster blush. And he probably would have kept hitting him, if the anxiety of being discovered hadn't been overshadowed by how weird it made him feel to see his best friend laugh.

When Hugh laughed, his cheeks would turn red and his eyes would water. They could be in the most embarrassing situation ever, one where no one was laughing, and if he found it funny, he was going to do it, because he wasn't going to be able to help it. And it wasn't like Simon would stop him, either. Not at all. He liked it when he laughed. 

Even though he ended up making him laugh too. Like at that moment.

Most of the garbage ended up in the drains, the sidewalk, or anywhere else except where it belonged, the trash can. Generally, Hugh always refused when someone hinted at sitting on the floor, precisely for that reason. However, on that occasion, the two were sitting in that stinking alley, throwing pebbles at each other, playing with some bottle caps they found on the ground, and arguing about who would win a bare-handed fight, Wonder Man or Phantom Feline.

They decided it was time to go home when a cat-sized rat appeared out of nowhere, and the two of them came out screaming like idiots, even faster than they would have run if that guy with the girlfriend would have chased them. They ran until they reached Simon's house, all sweaty and tired, their hands on their bent knees and breathing heavily.

Then Hugh laughed again. And his cheeks were flushed again, and his eyes were watery again, and he made Simon laugh again until Mr. Westwood came home from work and told him to go inside, that it was too late to be outside.

Once he was locked in his room, with his younger sister playing in the living room and his father in the kitchen, the image of that guy kissing his girlfriend did not make him feel anything. So, he tried to imagine kissing a lot of girls that he considered a thousand times more attractive, but just when it seemed that the idea was beginning to be something desirable, Hugh came back, with his laugh, his screams, and his eyes, like one of those freaking trains that he dreamed of having the opportunity to stop one day and that never missed a single chance to tell Simon all about it. 

The truth was that Simon did believe that Hugh might be able to stop a train with his bare hands, but he doubted he would be able to stop the train of thought that Simon hopped on whenever he thought of him. And he was so ashamed to know that not even the strongest prodigy on the planet was capable of doing that, that he decided to take those memories from the collar of the old blue hoodie that each one of them wore and bury them alive in the backyard of his memory.

Forever and ever.

Thrid try

Year 12

Two months ago, after their first date, Simon told Hugh he would never plan another important date, forever and ever. But now, Simon had let him plan their first Valentine's Day together without putting any objections, proving that he trusted him. And he was happy for him; Simon had always had problems when it came to trusting other people. It was nice to see the other grow to become a better person. 

And it was even nicer when you were no longer only friends, but a couple. 

So yeah, he wanted to make Valentine's Day special. It was kind of a big deal. 

Georgia and Tamaya brainstormed with him places he could take Simon to. They all agreed that it had to be a place safe enough and that it wouldn't put them in a situation where they had to reveal their powers, and by consequence, their secret identities. But then, everything started going downhill, especially because Georgia had some very odd ideas (like something about flowers, a choreographed dance, and poetry) and Tamaya was as romantic as a rock (“Just don't end up nearly killing yourself in front of him, that should be enough.”)

It was February 13th, and Hugh was on his cot, a bit angry at Georgia and Tamaya, not only because they couldn't help him on such an important mission as they promised, but also because they blamed him for their failure, telling him that he "had no imagination" and that he "thought with his dick", just because he thought all their ideas were horrible. 

Maybe he should have phrased that better... 

Simon and Evander slept on the bunk bed Simon used to share with his younger sister. Simon was taking a shower, so he was all alone with Evander and Kasumi, who sometimes went there to visit her best friend, even if Tamaya told her not to do it because it smelled horrible in there and she would bring the odor to the girl’s bedroom (Hugh thought the room didn't smell bad at all, and if it did, it was because Evander acted like he was living in the street yesterday and had no sense of personal hygiene). But Kasumi didn’t seem to mind, and she spent most of her afternoons cuddling with Evander on the top bunk, while she read an old book and Evander read one of Simon’s comics (because Hugh would join the Anarchists before letting Evander touch his comics).

They started whispering at each other about who knows what, and even though he kind of wanted to know what they were talking about, he was just too tired, so he decided to put a pillow on his face and try to fall asleep. But then, he heard, quite clearly, that they said his name. 

And he couldn’t let slip that. 

He pulled the pillow off his face, and said, “What are you saying about me?”

They both peered over the edge of the bunk. “We were talking about how you're not good at romance,” Evander replied.

The audacity of that b— boy.

“You are eleven years old," he told him. “What are you going to know about romance?”

“No more than you,” Kasumi acknowledged, very solemnly.

Hugh made his “See?” face and he looked away.

Then, Evander asked, “Why don’t you take him to Cosmopolis Park?”

Oh, stars. He couldn’t be serious.

Cosmopolis Park.

A freaking theme park. 

Evander was eleven, all right. His idea of a date was probably something out of a princess movie he and Kasumi watched from time to time (sometimes Tamaya joined them too and she always acted like she was just watching it to make fun of it, even though everyone in the house knew she had a weird soft spot for cheesy princess movies). But Hugh was technically an adult now. He should know better, and knowing better was not taking your boyfriend to a theme park for Valentine’s Day. That wasn’t very romantic.

“What a stupid idea.”

Kasumi got red all of the sudden. For the look at Evander’s face, Hugh knew he had fucked up even before she said, “It was my idea…”

“Oh— no, Zoomie, I… what I meant was that—”

“Don’t fix it, bro,” Evander interrupted him. “You’re gonna make me want to punch you more.”

He wasn’t afraid of Evander punching him because he couldn’t compare a kid’s strength to his, but he obeyed him and mumbled a small, “Sorry.”

The “sorry” was for Kasumi though, not for Evander. If Kasumi hadn’t been there, he probably would have told Evander something like “Oh, yeah? You’re gonna punch me, little punk? Come on, punch me, don’t be a pussy” (and then Georgia would have stormed into the room, telling him not to use the word “pussy”, and they would have pointed at each other saying “He started it!”)

After giving him a goodnight kiss, Kasumi got off Evander’s bed, with the book under her arm. Before leaving the room, she knelt beside Hugh to kiss him goodnight, as to show his comment didn’t cause her to feel any kind of resentment towards him.

Because of course it didn’t. Kasumi was like that.

“I was just saying— Valentine’s Day is also a day to be with friends,” she whispered. “And you and Simon are not only boyfriends but also... you know, friends. I bet that wherever you take him, it'd be magical for both of you. Because you find magic in each other's company, even before you knew you were in love. So... why not?”

She turned off the lights on her way out.

He never thought Kasumi’s tendency to romanticize everything was odd or weird. It was something that he expected from a teenage girl, especially one who has such a vivid imagination. But he also never expected that imagination would help him in some way. And he never expected for her to say the exact words he wanted to hear, even before he knew he wanted to hear them.

She was so wise.

Cosmopolis Park didn’t sound like a bad idea anymore when Simon entered just after Kasumi, wearing his pajamas, and asked him with a teasing voice, “So… where are you gonna take me tomorrow?”

Hugh didn’t know if Evander was already asleep, so he just smiled at him and told him it was a surprise. Simon rolled his eyes and gave him a soft kiss on the nose before getting into his own bed. 

It was his way of telling him he trusted him. And relationships were supposed to be built upon trust. He didn't need anyone to tell him that.

As far as he knew, Simon hadn't been to Cosmopolis Park in years, probably before the Age of Anarchy began. It was no secret that the park was currently full of gangs and drug addicts but it was still a relatively peaceful place. At least peaceful enough that the park was full of families, groups of friends, and tons of couples.

Although there weren’t any couples...

Well, there weren’t any couples like them.

He wondered if Simon noticed that small detail too, but when he turned to ask him that, he knew it would be better if he just kept his comments to himself. Because he wasn't an expert reading other people's emotions, but Simon...

Simon looked so happy at the moment.

The two walked side by side, their shoulders brushing against each other's, but their hands tucked deep into their pockets. Hugh was trying to keep his eyes fixed forward to avoid bumping into anyone, but the small chuckles Simon let out every time he saw something that surprised him, made said task impossible. Suddenly, he no longer wanted to avoid the embarrassment that would cause him to bother someone by bumping into them; he wanted to look at him.

He wanted to look at him trying to hide his laughter by covering his mouth with his hand, as if he wanted to suppress some kind of dark feeling, without realizing that his joy was so full of light that it was practically impossible. He wanted to continue to see how his dark eyes, with very long lashes and deep bags under the eyes, perfectly captured the lights of the Ferris wheel and the food trucks. He wanted to see the tiny smile he had the entire time they were at the park because even if Simon didn't smile like that very often, when he did, Hugh felt as if he was witnessing the most wonderful of miracles.

Hugh took his hands out of his pocket, and when he turned his attention back to Simon, he was looking at him too. They stopped in their tracks, not caring that people passed around them, sometimes unintentionally pushing them a bit or stepping on their shoelaces. 

Hugh took a step forward and Simon did too. 

Then Simon pulled a hand out of his grey jacket's pocket, making him wonder if he was dreaming or if it was really going to happen.

Hugh held his breath and felt the blood rush to his face, along with the overwhelming feeling that everyone around him was staring at them, with the newly acquired gift of recognizing those two faces that always hid behind pair of colorful masks and now were gazing at each other with true devotion. He desperately wanted to know what was going through their heads, he wanted to know if they still considered them worthy of their admiration and respect, and he wanted to know if he had been right when he assured Simon that, someday, the two of them would hold each other in public without thinking it twice.

But then, just as Simon's fingers brushed his cheek, his attention was completely diverted to someone behind Hugh.

“Are you talking to me?” he asked awkwardly.

Hugh turned to see who his boyfriend was talking to. He was a slightly older man, juggling three balls and standing on the table of his own stand. He was smiling at Simon and he had a mustache that quite frankly made him look like a ridiculous comic villain.

“Yes, you!” and he threw a ball at Simon.

Simon covered his face with his hands, but Hugh caught the ball before it hit him.

Who did this guys think he was?

The guy, far from mocking Simon's reaction, seemed intrigued. “Do you want to win a prize, big guy?” he asked Hugh.

Hugh was ready to say no to him in the kindest way he could, when the guy pulled out a laundry basket, like the one Georgia put on his head every Sunday, saying "Laundry time!" in a voice so high that made birds explode. 

“You just have to throw that ball you have in your hand—” he raised the basket “—here. And you can win a prize.”

He finally gave him a chance to reply. “No, thank you, we’re fine.”

He shoved his hands into his pockets again and told Simon to keep going. But the guy did not give up.

“I see,” he crooned from afar. “Your dad didn't play ball with you and that's why you don't think you're capable of throwing it correctly. It’s fine.”

Simon put his hand to his mouth as if thinking "Oh, stars, he did not."

And Hugh looked at him as if thinking "Oh, but he did."

If that guy knew who he was talking to, he would probably think it twice before making comments to strangers mocking their lack of a father figure.

So he turned abruptly and threw the ball into the basket.

If Hugh had been a little calmer, he probably would have been able to remember that, before leaving the house, Tamaya had told him that theme parks were full of games that had the sole purpose of scamming people and that one of them was that game in particular. The balls bounced so much that even if they made contact with the bottom of the basket they would jump back to whoever threw it, making them technically lose.

He would also have listened to himself, to Hugh, who told him that it would be best to turn around and get on with their lives, and not to Captain Chromium, who was determined to win that freaking game because he won every single game the world put in his way. 

After three balls, the guy turned to Simon, extended his hand at him, and told him, “It's fifteen dollars.”

That was enough to make him lose his mind. Hugh told him that it was not worth arguing with him, but Captain Chromium did not tolerate that people tried to take advantage of him, and he spent about ten minutes screaming with the mustachioed man, until Simon panicked (or lost his mind), grabbed one of the balls and threw it right in the man’s eye.

Then, he did take Hugh by the hand.

But just to be sure they both got out of there before someone tried to stop them.

They ended the evening at a hamburger stand several blocks away from Cosmopolis Park (because obviously, they weren't going to stay there after the show they had put on). They did not have enough money to buy two sodas, but they bought a strawberry juice carton to share and sat on the sidewalk to eat their hamburgers of doubtful provenance, ranting against the man, against the park, and, especially, against those damn balls.

“I can't believe there are people like him breathing the same oxygen I breathe,” Simon commented, before taking a bite out of his burger ravenously. “He had no right to make that joke.”

But Hugh was so distracted by how attractive Simon looked when he bit his hamburger like that all he could say was:

“If my dad knew I couldn't win that stupid game, he would abandon me again.”

Simon frowned a little bit, repeating the sentence in his head until he finally understood the joke, and laughed so hard he began to choke with his food. Hugh started to panic and told Simon he would give him five back blows like he read he should do when someone started to choke. That was enough for Simon to spit his food on a napkin. Both were so grossed out by it, that they started laughing again. Simon hid his face on Hugh's shoulder, practically using his fit of laughter as an excuse to snuggle against him, and Hugh used his own angriness as an excuse to stay right there, telling the entire world to go to hell, and willing to keep doing it forever, just as long as the conversation didn't end and they had to go home. 

Georgia and Tamaya would kill them. It was already late at night. 

Fourth try

Year 17

It was already late night when they arrived at the motel.

Simon had stayed invisible the entire time they were at the reception like he always did when they had one of those more… private nights out. Hugh was the one who was in charge of booking the room because Simon got too anxious anyway at the mere idea of ​​having to interact with one of the receptionists.

It was one thing for his entire family (or the Council, as they had been calling themselves lately, as a joke) to know that tonight he was going to have sex. Strangers knowing it was a completely different thing.

He still wasn't quite sure which one was more embarrassing, but yeah. It was different.

He only became visible again when Hugh closed the door behind him.

Simon looked at the huge sports bag that Hugh carried with him. “What you got there?”

“Nothing important,” he assured with a shrug. He was smiling like he was a kid getting a bunch of presents at Christmas, and Simon was extremely happy too, so, without asking any more questions, he kissed him on the lips and went to the bathroom to give both of them time to get ready.

Not that they hadn't done that before. They didn't like having such intimate moments in the house. And even if they had wanted to, it was practically impossible to have even a minute of privacy there. The last time he had slept in a room by himself had probably been… never. And the number of occasions someone had opened the bathroom door while he was there were more than he could count. The door lock had been broken for a few weeks but nobody knew how to solve the problem because they had no idea how doors worked. Georgia had tried to implement a serious policy of knocking before entering any room with the door closed, but the only one who paid attention to her was Adrian because the rest of them were simply too used to walk around the house as if they were in their own houses. (That they were their house, but it was more Simon's house than theirs.)

In fact, it was the first time in forever that he was in a bathroom and he didn't have to put his hand on the door, to stop whoever tried to open the door before they ended up seeing him in the most vulnerable of positions, so Simon took off his T-shirt, his jeans, and sat on the toilet, wearing his underwear and his jacket, trying to enjoy his first moment of privacy in a long time.

At least until his legs started to feel cold and Hugh told him that he could go out now.

When he came out of the room, Hugh, who was lying on the bed, widened his eyes. Simon was already ready to hear a flattering comment, but instead, he frowned and asked, “Are you going to leave your socks on?”

Simon looked at his feet automatically. He had indeed left his socks on.

He didn't see anything wrong with it.

“The carpet is filthy,” he replied. “I don't want to get fungus or something like that.”

Hugh found no fault with his logic. “Okay, but take them off when you get on the bed,” he asked.

Then Simon realized that Hugh, not only never stopped doing that ridiculous pose that pretended to be sexy throughout the entire conversation, but he also had thrown out the (probably dirty) bedsheets from the motel bed and put instead one of the blankets they took out of the closet to cover themselves during winter.

So that's what he carried in his sports backpack.

Hugh seemed to realize that Simon was looking at the blanket and not at him, because he immediately said, “Oh, I hate motel bedsheets.”

Simon couldn't help but laugh. “You hate them?”

Hugh finally stopped doing that ridiculous pose and sat down. “You just never know who sleep in them before us, Simon,” he replied, “and you never know when was the last time they washed them. Maybe they— ” he pointed to the pile of blankets thrown away “—are covered on the… bodily fluids of twenty other people, and you want me to lie on them? Is that how you want us to make love? Like animals?”

Simon kept laughing, but Hugh wasn’t laughing. “Simon, stop it!” he exclaimed. “A new class of bacteria could be there, ‘cause— oh, I am convinced that those things have a new kind of bacteria no one has discovered yet, and— ”

And he went silent when Simon put his hands on his shoulders, still with a smile on his lips.

“What?”

“Hugh, have I ever told you I think you're really sexy when you out crazy me?” Simon asked, running his fingers through his hair.

Hugh stood still, looking directly into his eyes. “No, I think you haven’t.”

Simon shrugged. “Well— I think you're really, really, sexy when you out crazy me.”

“Well, I think… I think—“

Hugh could no longer continue his sentence. Even though Simon wasn't doing anything to stop him from speaking.

He was literally just standing in front of him, one knee leaning on the mattress and one hand on Hugh's head.

“You think?” he asked him. “That’s new.”

“Simon, wait, I'm trying to seduce you,” Hugh said.

Simon took a step back, pointing to the bathroom door. “I think I’d wait over there.”

“No, wait—” he gently grabbed his wrist before he could move further away “—I’m starting to… Let me think of something.”

Simon chuckled. He put his knee on the mattress again and Hugh grabbed him around his waist, pulling him close to him and resting his head on his chest, while Simon rested his chin on his head. He had just taken a bath when they came out of the house, so Hugh’s hair smelled of him and lemon zest because they have been using dish soap as shampoo the last week.

That was the kind of privacy that they sometimes lacked at home. He was no longer talking about sex. Simon craved to have him like this, so close to him. Both in their underwear, both in a practically unknown place, and both completely vulnerable, but together. Feeling at home, even if technically they weren't.

Because Hugh was his home.

He was sure he saw him that way too.

Simon was so focused on trying to capture that moment in his memory so that he could repeat it over and over again for the rest of his life, that he was totally thrown when Hugh blurted out:

“I think you have a nice dick, dude.”

Simon broke the hug ... “What?”

Hugh’s cheeks turned even redder. “Tell me I didn't say that.”

He put a hand up to try to hide his laughter. “No, I think you did.”

He still couldn’t believe that was Hugh’s best try to seduce him. And apparently, Hugh couldn't believe it either.

“Then— forget about it,” he stammered. “Let's all of us forget about it.”

Simon realized that he tried to grab him by the waist again, but he moved away just in time, pretending to be extremely offended. “So I don't have a nice dick.”

“Let's just stop saying the word dick, please.”

“You started it.”

“I PANICKED, ALL RIGHT?”

“PANICKING IS MY JOB!”

“I’M TAKING YOUR JOB THEN. AND I’M GONNA STEAL YOUR BOYFRIEND TOO IF YOU KEEP LAUGHING!”

Simon didn't try to pretend that he wasn't laughing, because he was more than aware that it was already too obvious at this point. 

So he decided it was better to play along.

“No, don't take my boyfriend!” he exclaimed dramatically, putting his hands on his shoulders. “Take me instead.”

Hugh took him by the waist and pulled him close. Simon didn't try to walk away this time. “Deal.”

But when Simon was about to start kissing him, he diverted his attention from Hugh for a split second, making him realize the curtains were wide open. “Oh, shoot, wait— the curtains.”

Luckily he hadn’t taken off his socks yet.

With quick steps, he headed to the window. He put a hand on each curtain and was about to close it completely when the lights of a car approaching from the end of the street caught his attention. It was a yellow sports car that looked more like a ripe banana than a vehicle.

Shit.

It stopped a few feet past the motel they were at. Out of it came a short man, with scars on his face and thin hair, and a tall blonde woman in a yellow dress, very inappropriate for the occasion. Not because it was provocative thought. It’s just that no one would wear such an expensive-looking dress in such a dangerous neighborhood unless they wanted to be robbed.

Or that they had enough status not to be.

Simon turned to see Hugh. “Hey—” Hugh looked up slightly. “—Come here.”

Hugh obeyed, a little bit confused, after putting his socks on (obviously). Simon had closed the curtains just enough for them not to be noticed but also not so much that they couldn’t see what was happening on the street.

Hugh gasped. “Are those—“

Simon swallowed hard. “Cyanide and Queen Bee in person.”

“What are they doing here?” 

Simon had as much an idea of ​​what Queen Bee and Cyanide were doing there as Hugh had, but he responded with the first thing that came to his mind anyway.

“Probably celebrating Valentine's Day,” he replied. “What a shitty place to take your girlfriend during Valentine’s Day though.”

At least take her to a motel. Like I did with Hugh.

“Do you think Queen Bee and Cyanide are together?” Hugh asked Simon.

Simon shrugged. “I don't know, but I know Queen Bee has a thing for Ace Anarchy.”

He had the slight hope that Hugh would take the bait and give him a chance to discuss his theories about Queen Bee's fixation with Ace Anarchy (which he always talked about with Tamaya), but Hugh, despite being very nosy, just kept quiet, watching Queen Bee and Cyanide argue outside the car.

How could that woman walk in such big heels?

“Or maybe Cyanide is the one who has a thing for Ace Anarchy,” Hugh blurted out suddenly.

Simon turned to see him. “Wait, really?”

“Don't be so heteronormative, Simon,” he scolded him. “Plus, I've never been in the cathedral, but I bet that when you enter there, it reeks homosexuality.”

“Dude—”

“I just know.”

And they kept watching. 

There was something very personal about seeing two people arguing from a distance, like old ladies peering out of their home windows whenever the neighbors had a particularly loud fight. Simon almost considered it romantic.

Then, Queen Bee tried to turn around to turn her back on Cyanide, but something went wrong with her heel and she went face first towards the sidewalk, letting out a scream that could make someone think she was being murdered, and causing Cyanide (and the two of them) to laugh out loud.

How could that woman walk with those heels? Well, apparently, she couldn't.

The tension he felt when Cyanide interrupted his laughter and turned around as if he knew someone was watching them, made him remember that they were not gossiping old ladies peeking out of the window of their house and that those two were not some neighbors having a little fight. No, they were Dread Warden and Captain Chromium, stuffed into a hotel room like they were fugitives from the law or something, and those two little people in the middle of the street were two of the most feared and powerful villains in the world.

There was nothing romantic about that.

So Simon immediately closed the curtains. 

But now neither of them was in the mood to have sex anymore, really.

“We should do something.”

“I'm on it.”

Hugh was already crouched slightly by the bedside, pulling his unmistakable superhero suits out of his sports bag.

Simon was so puzzled that he couldn't even stop to enjoy the… image that Hugh was inadvertently giving him by bending down like that.

“Wait, did you actually bring our supersuits to our date?” he asked him.

“Yeah,” he replied without looking up.

Who knows what kind of demon got into Simon at the time, but a not very family-friendly thought crossed his mind, and that thought was the one that made him ask, “Why?”

Hugh, completely unaware of what he was thinking, handed Simon his clothes and dropped the two pairs of boots on the floor as he sat in the bed. 

Only the stars knew how he had managed to fit a blanket, their shoes, and their suits in that sports backpack.

“Because I thought something like this was gonna happen,” he explained while putting on his leggings. “You know, crime doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day the same way we do.”

Oh.

The little not very family-friendly thought hadn't been right then.

Simon felt a bit sick admitting that he wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed.

“Oh. I thought...”

Hugh looked at him, intrigued, and a second later, he understood what Simon was thinking. “Oh, stars, no. I was not thinking about that.”

“All right then.”

Now it was Hugh's turn to watch him change. Simon knew that was what he was doing.

Because he knew his look better than he knew anyone else's.

When he was fully dressed, Simon reached out to reach for his shoes, and Hugh put his own hand over his', to get his attention.

He already had the mask on, but he could see that he had turned red. If Simon had been white too, he probably would be redder than him. 

He swallowed. “Unless— unless you're into it?”

Simon swallowed too. But he didn’t plan to answer him right now.

It had been hard enough to put on their suits. They didn’t need to start taking them off. 

So he pulled his hand away and started putting on his shoes.

“Hugh, the villains—” he reminded him.

“Right, right.” Hugh brushed off his knees. “The villains. That’s important.”

After making sure the door had the lock on (and that said lock worked), they turned off the lights, Simon turned invisible, and Hugh climbed onto the roof, pushing himself off the window frame as fast as possible so that Queen Bee and Cyanide, who were turning their backs on them, standing in front of the door of an apparently abandoned building as if waiting for someone, did not see him. Afterward, Simon followed him, assuring him that he could climb on his own.

The two remained hiding behind the building's water tank. Well, Hugh was behind the building's water tank, and Simon was in plain sight, invisible, with his hood on and his cape fluttering behind him, making him feel…

He wanted to say that it made him feel heroic, but the truth was that Simon also felt very sexy when he got into this mysterious and threatening mode. 

Simon turned his hand visible and pointed at them as if to say "Are we going or what?"

Hugh turned to see them with a frown, analyzing the situation. But when Simon was about to ask him what they were waiting for, Hugh turned to see him, with the same smile he had on his face when he was about to let the world know the coolest plan of all the plans, completely ignorant that in reality, it was the dumbest thing he had ever came up with.

“Wait, I have an idea.”

And in that situation, Simon had to take the role of being the one to tell him that his idea was bullshit and that it wasn't going to work, but he used to listen to his idea before expressing his comments about it. Not only because he didn't like talking without knowing all the facts first, but because may he could go to Tamaya the next day and tell her what had happened in the last episode of Hugh Had an Idea And It Went Wrong.

(They also enjoy episodes of Evander Acted Like An Animal Again and Queen, Realize That Junkie Doesn’t Care About You, Please.)

“Do you remember that song Evander used to sing to us?” he asked him.

Oh, Simon remembered it and cringed every time he thought about it.

But the cringe wasn't enough to stop him from singing the song.

“The Warden and the Captain are sitting in a tree—”

Hugh cringed too. “That one, yes. Stars, I hate it so much—” and he pointed to Queen Bee and Cyanide “—Let's make them hate it too. ”

Simon seriously tried to take his role as the voice of reason in that situation. He let his imagination (or rather, his anxiety) run wild, making him imagine the thousand and one scenarios in which that specific fight could turn out worse than they usually did if Hugh made that comment. Queen Bee would probably call Hugh a "lesbian" (“You have a lesbian haircut, honeybun, accept it”), Cyanide would go crazy trying to find Dread Warden to melt his skin slowly and painfully, everyone would wish death upon everyone, and the only reason the fight would end would be because either Cyanide would finally manage to injure Simon or because Queen Bee’s stilettos would break.

He didn't see how teasing them with an attack worthy of elementary school kids would make the situation worst.

Besides… it was going to be hilarious to see that.

He didn't see why he couldn't co-star in Hugh Had Idea and It Went Wrong.

“I'm in,” he replied, trying not to raise his voice too much. “I'm super in.”

Hugh rose his hand and Simon high-fived him quietly. But Hugh seized the opportunity to take his hand, running his finger across his knuckles. “Okay, but you sing the spelling part, because—”

“You don't know how to spell,” Simon interrupted.

Hugh let go of his hand. “Well, when you said it in that tone, it sounds a little mean.”

Simon rolled his eyes and took his hand again. Then the logical part of his brain (yes, the same one that always insisted on being the voice of reason in situations like that) began to yell at him that he should convince Hugh to let Cyanide and Queen Bee did whatever they wanted, while the two of them did whatever they wanted.

But that the logical part of him had no voice in that situation because the logical part of his brain was not the part that loved Hugh. After all, there was nothing logical in loving the way he made a kind of mini-horn with both hands, took a deep breath, and yelled with all his might:

 “CYANIDE AND THE QUEEN BEE SITTING IN A TREE—”

Fifth try

Year 20

K-i-s-s-i-n-g.

That was what he wanted to be doing. He wanted to be kissing Simon. He wanted to be with him, walking in the park and watching life go by in front of them. The birds singing from the trees, the children chasing each other, and the wind ruffling their hair. The day was going to be so perfect that he was going to be able to ignore homeless people getting high on corners or young people dealing drugs (that should be) illegal, focusing all his attention on Simon and how happy he felt that this time, everything he was going well.

He didn't want to be crammed into the living room with the rest of his family, listening to the thunder and the rain crashing down on the ceiling.

But apparently, that's what he was doing.

Tamaya was sitting on the floor, covering herself with her wings. Simon had sat on the other end of the three-seater couch, looking out the living room window with a thoughtful expression, worthy of a character in a Shakespearean play or something. Evander was leaning over him and had Kasumi on his lap. She was watching him play (or rather trying to play) a Tetris game that he had on his phone, putting her icy feet on Hugh's arm, probably without realizing it, and Hugh was on the other end of the couch, first starting at Simon, thinking of how handsome he looked when he was thinking, and then at Georgie. She had been smart enough to sit on the reclining sofa, which gave her the space she needed to cuddle with an inconsolable six-year-old Adrian.

“The storm will end soon,” she was telling him. “The storm will end soon.”

But that was not enough to comfort Adrian. His mother had already been telling him for about an hour that “the storm will end soon”, but the storm just ... did not end. And each time they heard a new thunder, Adrian let out a howl and clung to his mother with more force, asking her to please not go away.

Everyone knew that when Adrian asked Georgie not to go away, he was actually asking everyone not to go away. If any of them left the room, he would probably lose his mind.

He felt the urge to tell him that she wasn't going anywhere. That wasn’t very Georgie. Georgie didn't leave people who needed her like that, scared, crying, and begging her to stay. So since Georgie didn't do it, neither did the others.

It is not like they could have gone anywhere though.

Georgie realized that Simon hadn't stopped staring out the window.

“I'm sorry you couldn't do anything special this Valentine’s Day,” she whispered. Simon blinked as if he were waking up from a dream. “What did you have planned for this evening?”

Simon turned to see him, disappointed. Hugh decided to answer for him.

“We were going to have a picnic at the park,” he replied.

Georgie blurted out something that sounded like “Awww”, and Evander scoffed.

“That’s gay.” Hugh put his arm behind Kasumi and smacked Evander on the back of his head. “BRO, YOU LITERALLY MADE LOSE ME.”

Tamaya laughed and Kasumi shook her head. “I want to play too—” she tried to take the cellphone and Evander pressed it closer to his chest “—Vandy.”

Georgie intervened (without letting go of Adrian). “Vandy, give Kasumi the phone. It’s her turn. And then it's mine.”

But Evander didn’t want to. 

“But it only has ten percent of battery left,” he exclaimed.

“Perfect, it's more than enough for Tamaya, Kasumi, Simon, Hugh, and I to get a turn too.”

“Hugh punched me! He does not deserves a turn.”

“I didn't punch him,” Hugh said. “I just hit him very slightly.”

“My brain almost felt out of my head.”

“Do you still have a brain?” Tamaya asked. Hugh high-fived her. “I've been thinking about that joke for weeks, dude.”

“Evander Wade, share the phone,” Georgia said. “I'm no longer asking.”

“No! It's my phone.”

Desperate, Tamaya reached out to take Evander's cell phone, and he stood up so fast that Kasumi ended up falling on Tamaya.

“MOTHERFU—”

A thunder. Again.

Adrian started crying. Again.

And they all went silent. Again.

Hugh took advantage of the fact that Evander got out of the coach to move closer to Simon. Evander didn't say anything to him because he was too busy handing the cell phone to Tamaya, who then gave it to Kasumi. Kasumi refused to sit down with Evander again and stayed on the floor with Tamaya (although resting her head on his knees, as if they were a pillow).

Simon rested his head on Hugh's shoulder.

“Next year will be better,” he whispered in his ear. Simon didn't answer him; he only put his hand on the window, leaving the trace of his fingers on it. “Are you all right?”

Simon put his hand on Hugh’s waist and pulled him closer to him, closing his eyes for a while. “I'm tired…”

“Rest then.”

After all…

Hugh was tried too. 

There had never been a day when they didn't have to face a new threat. It seemed that the Anarchists, instead of getting weaker, were getting stronger. Even with the many new allies the Renegades had, no one seemed to have a second of the day to rest. Adrian got more and more nervous when they went out as days passed by, and it was becoming more difficult to calm down him during his tantrums. Even he, who was a child, could feel the tension in the city.

But precisely because of that, because he was a child, he could not understand the enormous responsibility that the Renegades had on his shoulders and that they could not stay with him, no matter how much they wanted to.

Maybe that was why no one had tried to leave the room. It was their way of telling Adrian that they were still there for him.

He was about to fall asleep when Simon pulled him away. His first instinct was to pull him closer, but as soon as he realized that Simon was just standing up, he let go of him.

Suddenly, he looked happier. Much happier than anyone else in that room.

Everyone noticed that change.

“Are you still too tired to celebrate Valentine’s Day?”

Even Hugh didn't understand what he meant.

Evander turned to see Georgie. “Georgie, you told them no hanky-panky in the house.”

“Vandy—” Kasumi intervened.

“Zoomie.”

“Don't say hanky-panky.”

“Yeah, you sound like a grandma,” Tamaya told him slightly punching him on the leg.

Hugh shushed them. “Shhh, guys, let Si talk.”

“No, go on, guys—” Simon told them “—Let us show you.”

And he held out his hand.

Obviously, Hugh accepted it.

He had no idea what Simon was planning to do, but he wasn't too tired not to celebrate Valentine's.

He was never too tired of him.

Adrian immediately reacted to this. “Hey, no, don't go...” he cried, stretching his little arms towards them.

Luckily, Simon looked like he already had that covered.

“We're not going anywhere, Adrian,” Simon assured him. “You are coming with us.”

Adrian and Georgie's eyes widened at the same time. 

“Me?” Adrian asked pointing to himself.

“You,” Simon replied, confidently. “But it's a very special mission,” he added in a lower voice, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You can't tell anyone.”

Adrian rubbed his eyes and Georgie looked up at the ceiling as if she were making sure a new leak hadn't magically appeared. Tamaya, on the contrary, didn't understand, and she stared at the scene, very intrigued by Simon's plan too. Luckily, Georgie noticed it, and with a frantic movement of her hand, told her to stop staring. Hugh made the same move, but this time, directed at Kasumi and Evander.

When Adrian opened his eyes again, everyone but the two of them was pretending they weren't listening to the conversation.

“What mission is it?” Adrian asked in a thin voice.

“Look, we can't go out to celebrate Valentine's Day,” Simon explained, “but what we can do is bring Valentine's Day here with us.”

Adrian looked puzzled.

“Hey, but you're going to need a superhero name to be able to participate in the mission,” Hugh commented, trying to get Adrian more interested. “Do you have any ideas?”

Simon scratched his beard, thinking. “Hmm, very good question, my dear Captain,” he commented. “Maybe—”

“Oh, I know what superhero name I'll have,” Adrian exclaimed, grabbing Simon by the cheeks. “Hey, your beard feels funny.”

Simon grabbed him by the cheeks too. “What’s your superhero name, then?”

Adrian whispered it in his ear and Simon's face lit up. “It's a perfect name, Adrian.”

Adrian shushed him. “Shh, don't say my real name! I have to use my superhero name, remember? It's a mission.”

Evander scoffed again and Kasumi shushed him immediately. 

“And can he tell me your superhero name?” Hugh asked Adrian. 

Adrian stopped to think about it. “Yes, why not?” he finally replied.

Then, Simon stood slightly on tiptoe to reach him and whispered in his ear the most perfect superhero name he had ever heard.

Sketch.

Hugh took Adrian by surprise when he graved him and carried him in his arms, making him gasp in shock and excitement. Even Georgie started to laugh out loud at her son's reaction.

“Ready for the mission, Sketch?” he asked him making his voice lower than it actually was.

Adrian gave a military salute. “I was born ready, Captain!” he exclaimed, moving his feet in the air.

Georgie stood up too. “Where you taking my son, guys?” she asked dramatically.

Hugh placed Adrian on his shoulders.

“Don’t worry, mom,” Adrian told her, “I’ll be fine. I need to accomplish this mission.”

Georgie pretended to start sobbing. “No, but you don't have to, son of mine, you're too young!”

“Listen to your mother, kid,” Tamaya intervened. “Stay with us, stay safe with your family—“ and she passed her wings over Kasumi's shoulders.

“Tamaya has two wings,” Kasumi pointed out. “And they're warm.”

“Really?” Evander asked.

But Tamaya’s face changed immediately. “It's not for you, it's for Adrian.”

“GO WITH THEM, LITTLE SKETCH, GO!” Evander yelled standing up on the sofa. “GO SAVE VALENTINE’S DAY!”

That was enough for Adrian. He kissed his mother on the cheek and told her that he would be back soon. Then the three of them began their journey to the kitchen while the others stayed in the living room.

Simon pulled out a bag of bread from the refrigerator and asked Hugh to pass him the peanut and hazelnut butter jars from the cupboard. Adrian took it upon himself to count the remaining loaves of bread and separate them into pairs, spreading them on the table. Simon encouraged him to count how many pairs there were and Hugh had no problem helping him when he got stuck at number five. Then Simon toasted them on the stove, and he allowed Adrian to pile them up like a tower on a red ceramic plate.

When it was time to make the sandwiches, Simon and Hugh sat at different ends of the table, each holding a butter knife. Simon would spread peanut butter on one of the loaves, Hugh would spread hazelnut on the other, and Adrian would gather them together and wrap them the best he could in a napkin, before putting them in a makeshift basket that Kasumi had made long ago.

“Mommy, no!” yelled Adrian when Georgie dared to enter the kitchen. “It's a secret mission!”

“Don’t worry, don’t mind me,” she told them pretending not to notice what they were doing. “I'm just gonna prepare myself some strawberry milk.”

As soon as Adrian looked away, Georgie winked at Hugh. And Hugh winked back.

“I think we're done with this mission now,” he replied using that ridiculously deep voice again. “You have to break the news to the rest of the team, Sketch.”

Adrian jumped out of his chair and practically ran into the living room, holding the basket with sandwiches in his hand.

The three of them had been so into their mission, they didn't realize that the others had put several blankets on the floor and Tamaya was cursing under her breath for being unable to use a lighter to turn on the candles. Kasumi approached Adrian, with a VHS in each of her hands, asking him which movie he would like to see, and Evander came over too, but to try and tell Adrian to pick the action movie, not the romance movie the girls wanted to see.

Simon seemed like he wanted to join the conversation too, but Hugh thought he had done enough. And he meant it in a good way. So he took him by the hand and they lied down on the couch, not caring that perhaps one of the others wanted to sit on it.

Adrian had already chosen the movie (he chose the period drama over the action movie, thankfully) when Georgie walked into the living room with a stack of plastic cups under her arm and a jug half full of strawberry milk, carrying it as it were a trophy. During her birthday, everyone in the house had raised money to buy her a huge pot of strawberry milk powder, which they made her promise that she would not share.

Some promises could not be kept.

The adults got two sandwiches each, but Adrian had practically all of the strawberry milk. Throughout the movie, Kasumi was sighing and muttering how much she wanted to wear a dress like the one the main character wore in the movie during that elegant dinner. From to time, Tamaya frowned and muttered something about how problematic she found a line or scene. Georgie braided their hair and when she finished, she would undo the braid and start over, laughing out loud at Evander's comments about how horrible the romantic interest looked and that he did not understand how that was the ideal of beauty that women had. Adrian fell asleep in Simon's arms about halfway through, and about that exact time, Hugh began to notice that Simon was starting to have a hard time trying to stay awake.

He looked adorable when he was thinking, but he liked it even more how he looked when he was falling asleep.

He kissed the back of his head. “Are you tired?”

He nodded slightly. “Yes… but never of you.”

Hugh kissed him again. “I was thinking the same thing.”

“What thing?”

Georgie turned around for a second and realized that Adrian had fallen asleep. She stopped braiding Evander’s short hair (for some reason, Evander had let her braid his hair) and sat on the recliner chair, hugging Adrian like a stuffed animal.

She winked at him once more. And Hugh winked back, one more time.

“Nothing— ” he laid himself more comfortably on the couch and allowed Simon to get on top of him, resting his head on his chest. “—Sleep for a while.”

Simon made no further objection. “You too.”

Hugh did not fall asleep. In fact, he stayed awake for the three hours the movie lasted, even though by the time the credits started, Tamaya was snoring and Kasumi and Evander were under her wings, rolled up, and cuddled up to her. Georgie ended up falling asleep on the couch, covered in the same blanket Simon used to cover himself a few hours ago.

When the clock told him it was 7 PM, Hugh knew it was time for them to go patrol. However, the rain had gotten even worse, and Simon...

Simon looked so peaceful.

He hadn't realized how deep the bags under his eyes had gotten, nor that his face hadn't looked as relaxed as it looked right now for weeks, because he frowned most of the time. He hadn't held him that close either or had the opportunity to give him as many kisses as he had been doing in that time. Not because he didn't want to, it was just ... well, they had been busy trying not to die.

How tiring it was to try not to die.

He knew Simon was tired because, again, he was tired too, and he bet that the rest of their family felt the same as them. But Simon was the only one who had overcome his tiredness and his moodiness to just... make them forget their sorrows for a moment. 

He was like that.

Hugh gave him one more kiss on the cheek.

Thank you. 

If Simon had been awake, he would have asked him "Thanks for what?"

And Hugh would have answered him, "For just being you."

Someday they would get their happy ending. But for the moment, all he wanted was to be crammed into the living room with the rest of his family, listening to the thunder and the rain crashing down on the ceiling.

He doubted that happiness would ever end.

Sixth (but not last) try

Two years after the Day of Triumph.

Just over a year ago, Simon had been on the roof of the same building he was currently in. Of course, it looked very different from how it looked now. It didn’t have any windows, no furniture, and, obviously, no electricity. It was the vile shell of what had once been one of the most beautiful skyscrapers in the city. Simon was thinking about that when he realized that he did not have a single memory of having seen that place when it was in its maximum splendor and that the only proof he had of it was the stories of those adults who arrived before him.

That sooner or later, he would become one of those adults. Those who told stories of the past to the generations that came after them.

He thought of Adrian. He thought that there would come a time when he would be curious to know certain things that happened and would ask questions that Simon would not be too sure how to answer. Not precisely because he didn't want to or because he thought he wasn't ready to hear the truth; he just didn’t know those truths at all. 

Why did people change for the worst? How did the world use to be when prodigies weren’t divided by heroes or villains?

What happened to Lady Indomitable?

How did the world use to be before she was gone?

Then Simon, with tears in his eyes, looked up at the crescent moon and the six stars lined up in such a way that they seemed to form a smile. He hadn’t seen anyone in his family smile for… a very long time. 

Because when Georgia Rawles left, she took with her their capacity to smile. 

Yet, at that moment, Simon could feel her. He could feel her when he was crying, asking her to please fly again and to help him get down from that skyscraper. He felt her hugging him, keeping him from falling to his knees and cutting his skin with the shattered glass that was on the floor. She promised him that she would never give up on him and assured him that every time he saw the sky, he would find those six stars forming that smile, which from that moment on, would be hers. 

Simon didn't want her to make promises, but… it was Georgie. His Georgie. The Georgie who made pinky promises even though she was about to turn thirty because you were never too old for pinky promises. The Georgie who always protected him and never gave up on him, even though there were times when Simon thought she should.

So since she was his Georgie, Simon accepted the promise. As she turned around and rose again to the sky, he wondered what would happen when the city was so full of light, that the stars (Georgie’s smile) faded away and everyone, including them, forgot about them (about her). 

But, after all this time, Simon was looking at the stars, on the roof of that same skyscraper that had now been turned into a fancy restaurant, holding Hugh's hand across the table, and noticing that Georgie was still smiling at him from above.

As it always should be.

“Did you ever expect things to turn out like this when you were little?”

He turned to see Hugh again. “What things?”

But Hugh kept staring at the stars. Simon didn't care. He liked to think that the sparkle in his blue eyes was due to them. “Us.”

Simon shook his head, “No,” he answered when he remembered Hugh couldn’t look at him. “Did you?”

Finally, Hugh saw him again. “I think that when I was little, I didn’t know one could be as happy as I am with you right now.”

Simon rolled his eyes. 

“I'm serious,” Hugh insisted, taking him just a little tighter by the hand. “I'm so glad we finally made it out.”

Simon leaned forward slightly. “We really did, huh?”

Then, Hugh gently pulled him closer to him, making their foreheads bump and closing his eyes. “And I'm so glad that now, nothing bad is gonna happen to you, to us, and to what we have.”

Simon closed his eyes too. He would have liked to promise Hugh that it would be like that. That this new chapter of their lives, the chapter of getting married, having kids, and rebuilding a city together, was would turn out as well as the last one, when they fought crime, defeated the bad guys, and held hands only when they were not wearing the armors that protected them from the outside world. 

But he could not promise that. And anyways, Hugh was not very fond of promises. He said they were very easy to break.

So he grabbed his chin and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before saying, “It's getting late. We should ask for the check.”

Hugh nodded and called a waiter. He noticed that Simon was reaching into his pocket and quickly told him not to do it, that he got it. Simon knew there was nothing he could do to make him change his mind, so he instead just asked if he could get a slice of chocolate cake to go. Adrian would love to have chocolate cake for breakfast.  

The waiter returned a few moments later with the bill (and Adrian’s chocolate cake). Simon almost winced when he saw the amount of money they had spent on a meal that hadn’t been that good in the first place (although he did not know if it was because of the lack of ingredients or because gourmet food kind of sucked). However, Hugh didn't seem at all concerned and reached into his pockets to get his wallet.

Suddenly, he leaned his elbows on the table. “Simon.” 

Simon leaned his elbows on the table too. “Yes?”

“Have I mentioned you look very handsome tonight?”

He tried to remember. “No,” he replied. “But thank you for noticing. I even took a shower.”

“Wow,” Hugh exclaimed with too much enthusiasm. “Feeling fancy today.”

“I do feel fancy today,” Simon replied, adjusting the jacket he had put on over his pink button-up shirt at the last moment because Hugh had told him that the restaurant had a pretty rigid dress code.

Simon almost didn’t put on the jacket out of pure spite. In fact, he spent all the way ranting about how it was stupid to have such a specific dress code in a place like Gatlon City, and that he bet that the owners of that restaurant, who now were acting like total snobs, had spent most of their lives wearing only a t-shirt and old jeans, like the rest of them.

Hugh, who had been wearing the jacket from the beginning (a blue one), was quiet, listening carefully to what Simon was saying until he blurted out:

“We can do something else if you want to.”

He didn't say it in an “I’m hurt by your comment” tone. Instead, he said it the same way he would tell him that they could watch another movie or that they could get take out instead of cooking dinner. He said it as if the reservation he made was not at stake, or as if he hadn’t been sending him hints of wanting to go to that specific restaurant since New Year.

Simon knew that if he had said yes, Hugh would have taken him wherever he wanted. However, Simon also knew that it didn't matter where they went. They had spent Valentine's in an alley, at a fair, fighting villains, and in a house too small for seven people. And in all those places, he had a great time.

Surely that place was… snobbish, but he could have a great time there too.

After all, they were together. 

He was sure Hugh knew that too. 

Hugh nodded, agreeing with him. He hardly ever agreed with someone other than himself anymore.

“Is this your strange way of making me say you look good too?” he asked him then.

And Hugh’s smile grew bigger. “Simon Westwood, you are the love of my life,” he replied taking his hand, “and this is my strange way of telling you I forgot my wallet at home.”

Simon laughed so loudly that the other customers turned to see him. But he couldn't care less. He kind of wanted them to saw them. He wanted them to notice how much he was laughing and he wanted them to see him kiss Hugh as he reached for his pockets…

Oh, no.

“Hugh.”

He tensed. “Yes, dear husband of mine who’s going to pay for this dinner?”

“You look good too.”

That was enough for Hugh to realize that Simon had also left his wallet at the house.

The two remained serious for a long time. But then, Simon could see how Hugh's brain clicked in a very strange way, which made him see this whole situation as the funniest thing that had ever happen to him.

He kissed him once more.

They always managed to ruin their Valentine's Days one way or another, but it didn't matter. Because there was no way they could ruin what the two of them had.

Boy, he would like to see someone try.

[yolobloggers]

Forever After Goodbye (I)

~Summary: The reader has taken some off to mend her heart and move on. What she didn’t plan was falling in love and finding her happily ever after with the powerful hybrid, Klaus Mikaelson.

~A/N: Hi Lovelies! I am so happy with the response I have gotten on the The Last Goodbye. Now I’m aware some of y’all were rooting for the reader to end up with Elijah but deep down *I’m a Klaus girl* and when it came to choosing one, I really couldn’t. Therefore my beautiful and talented co-writer ( @justlostinautumn ) and I decided to do two alternate endings. Here is the one where the reader ends up with Klaus and hopefully we’ll have the Elijah part up soon :) xoxo

~Characters and Pairings: Klaus Mikaelson x Reader, Damon Salvatore x Reader(Platonic), The Mystic Gang and The Mikaelsons.  

~Warning: Swearing.

Part One: The Last Goodbye

Y/N POV:

‘What have I done?’ It wasn’t till now that I realised what I had done. I hadn’t just left the only place I ever called home, but I also left my sister on the day of her wedding, I left my brother, my friends... I left without a word.

“Fuck!” I sigh as I lean my head back in my seat looking at the roof of my car, they must be freaking out. But, I couldn't just sit through the ceremony, not after what I had to say to Damon. I don’t know what was worse, the blank look he gave me or the fact that he said nothing… he just gave me that empty look I had seen him give so many. I looked out the window and saw New Orleans around me, I’d turned my phone off as soon as I got out of mystic falls knowing that it would constantly be ringing. It had taken a day to get here only stopping to get petrol… the wedding was long over but the thing was she didn’t want to hear about how Elena feels and how I let her down. For once I want someone to ask me how I’m feeling… how I’m doing. A heavy sigh passes my lips as I pull out my phone turning it back on. Notifications started to pop up, dozens of missed calls, texts and voicemails. Calls from Jeremy, Elena, Caroline and Bonnie; but the thing that caught my attention was the text message from Damon.

‘Come home Y/N. Everyone is panicking, let’s sort this out. Think about Elena. - D’ There it is, think about Elena, it will always be Elena… just a puppet to be used when needed.

‘I will not cry over this.’ I think to myself as I blink away the tears. I think about who the best person to message would be and I decided it would be Jeremy. ‘Hey J, I know I left without a word but I think it’s time I move on and leave… I know I didn’t pick the best day to do so, but I think it’s time that I get to learn who I am and mourn the ones I lost too.’ turning my phone off after the message was sent and delivered, I didn’t want to know what his response would be… what any of their responses would be. Swiping my bag off the seat next to me, I put my phone in it along with taking my car keys, locking the car and throwing them in too.

I catch my reflection in the window of a shop and I pause to look at my reflection, there is something different about my face and I can’t seem to put my finger on what it is… I then notice my eyes. It’s my eyes. There is an emptiness, a loneliness… they’re hollow. I quickly turn away, not wanting to look at myself much longer and start towards the French Quarter.

New Orleans is a beautiful city, so lively, crowded and full of culture. Something that Mystic Falls is missing, where everybody knows everybody, new faces are rare, and secrets rarely stay secret. The hairs on the back of my neck begin to rise as I feel eyes on my back, a shiver runs down my spine as I look over my shoulder to see who it could be. But, there was nothing, other than the usual hustle of tourists. Shaking my head, brushing off the feeling I continue on my way down the street taking in everything around me and for the first time in a while I felt a slight tug at the corner of my lip as I watched tourists being hustled out of their money. I paused outside a bar named Rousseau’s, making the mental note that this was definitely a place I will need to check out but the thing that had caught my eye was the jewellery shop a couple of doors down.

It’s clear that the French Quarter was popular with the tourists, with the amount of souvenir trinkets that littered the shops. But, walking into the Jewellery shop I find it’s small and quite almost like there is magic in the air, I notice a beautiful charm bracelet with a wolf charm on it. The bracelet itself looked like a twisted vine, the wolf that was linked to it reminded me so much of Klaus. Smiling, I took it to the counter and bought it, I initially struggled with the clasp before I looked up to the sweet woman who sold it to me asking if she would help me put it on, smiling at me when she helped and wished me a good evening.

Walking out the shop I looked at it one more time. Once I was outside that hair rising, spine tingling feeling of someone watching me came back. This time I spin around and I still see nothing suspicious around me and this time I can’t suppress the shiver that runs down my spine. I continue walking until I see someone painting on the sidewalk, I tilt my head as I watch this man create a masterpiece in awe and amazement. I can’t help but look around hoping to find the reason I came here and there stood in one of the archways was the man who I was looking for. Without a second thought I ran across the street and barrelled into him engulfing him a bone crushing hug, if he wasn’t as strong as he was I’m pretty sure we would both be on the floor. I could feel his soft chuckle as he held me close to him, I couldn’t help the soft sobs that escaped me and he pulled me closer, “Miss me that much, my love?”

I couldn’t answer his question because I was only just holding on. I was clutching him like he was the only thing that was keeping me standing… keeping me from drowning.

Third Person POV:

Klaus had followed her through New Orleans as soon as she got there. He got a message from Caroline that she ran from Elena’s wedding and they had no clue where she was going, or why she left. He knew that Caroline had the thought that she might be coming to him otherwise she wouldn't have contacted him. Klaus was certain she was, he had told her that she would always be welcomed here with him. There was something about her and he couldn’t put his finger on it… the emptiness in her eyes had thrown him off, he had never seen her like that. But as she made her way through the Quarter he noticed some light coming back into her eyes. She had stopped in a witches shop, not that she knew that and she bought something asking the witch to help her put it on her wrist. It was funny she could sense his eyes on her but she didn’t see him. She continued to the square where there was an artist painting and he couldn’t help the smile that formed on his lips as he saw her looking around all hopeful and he couldn’t help but hope she was looking for him.

When their eyes met, she moved quickly barreling into his arms and he couldn’t help but laugh at her. “Miss me that much, my love?” He asked as he held her close but he quickly realised her shaking form wasn’t because of laughter it was because of tears. She was holding onto him as if her life depended on it and it worried Klaus because he doesn’t know what could be causing her this kind of pain. He pulled back and looked her up and down observing her closely, running his hands along her body looking for possible harm. She noticed what he was doing and couldn’t help but give him a watery smile, he has always taken care of her no matter what.

“Are you hurt Y/N? Why are you crying?” The worry in his voice rang out and she continued to clutch onto him and he only brought her closer. She wrapped her legs around him like a koala bear and he caressed her face in his hand. She leaned into his touch and then decided she needed to be closer to feel his warmth and buried her face in his neck and she continued to cry as he rocked them both side to side running his hand through her hair and whispering calming words in her ear.

“I’m here to take your offer Niklaus. You said I could always come to you and you’d never let me go… please don’t let me go.” She clung to him tighter and his grip on her became firm and she continued to cry into his neck and he swore to himself in that moment, right there and then he would never let her go. Klaus was worried because he knew everything that she had gone through so without a second thought he whisked her back to the compound. He softly lowered her to the ground and she shrugged the whiplash off and looked around the compound and he could see the amazement in her eyes. “Welcome to the compound love.” Klaus said, pulling her into his side, kissing her forehead, there was a tug of his familiar smug smirk that made her push his side softly, shaking her head at him. “It’s beautiful, Nik.” There was a shy smile that he rarely saw but it always made him smile, where is Elijah and Rebekah?” She questioned looking around and he couldn’t help the soft chuckle that passed his lips, he knew how close she were with his siblings and he couldn’t help how it tugged at his heart about how much Y/N cared about his family.

“They’ll show up at some point my love, but I think it’s time we talk about the elephant in the room. Don’t you?” He tilted his head as he watched her closely noticing how she looked down at her hands. The hybrid wanted nothing more than to ignore everything and whisk her away on all the adventures that he promised but the thing is he needs to know what happened so he knows how he can actually help her… he doesn’t want it to just be some quick fix. Offering his hand to her, he takes her into the living room offering her a drink which she gratefully accepts.She takes a long drink before looking at him seeing that he’s waiting for some sort of explanation. The thing was she didn’t know where to start. “I was drowning… I couldn’t stay there anymore Nik, I knew I would be leaving the town sooner or later and I picked sooner. I was drowning… but there is always something going on. I couldn’t walk down the aisle and smile as my sister married someone I’m in love with. I told him. I told him before I left and you should’ve seen the look he gave me.” She let out a bitter laugh as she drowned the rest of her drink getting out to collect the bottle to bring it back with her. “I didn’t know where to go. Home doesn’t feel like home anymore. Then I thought of you and I remembered you promised me you’d never give up on me and never let me go…” She had trailed off and Klaus knew that she was lost in her own thoughts and memories.

“Y/N?” He spoke to her softly, her eyes flicked to his and they were filled with tears. He’d known about her infatuation with Damon, she had confessed it to him while drunk once. But, he also knew that Damon and Elena took her love for them for granted. Something crossed his mind, something he had been meaning to say to her for a long time. “I’m sorry.”

“What are you talking about?” She frowned slightly looking at him. She was trying to figure out why he would be apologising to her, “wait, do you not want me here?” The heartbroken look she gives him makes him take her into his arms and hold her close to him.

“No, love. I was going to say sorry for all the pain I’ve caused. I know I didn’t make your life easy… I know I killed your Aunt Jenna and Uncle John. I don’t think I ever apologized for that.” Klaus spoke to her and a sob ripped through her that filled the room and her body began to shake.

“You have many times.” She sniffed and left Klaus in shock.

“What do you mean?” Klaus frowned looking down at her.

“You’ve saved my life countless times, you’ve saved Elena, you’ve been nothing but nice to me.” Y/N gave him a watery grin that tugged at his heart and he held her close resting his head on hers.

“Did you ever mourn?” Klaus curiously asked if it was something that he had always wondered. He had seen her allowing everyone use her as a shoulder to cry on, but he had never seen her mourn. She always just got up and carried on with her life like nothing was happening.

“Yeah?” She frowned at him, but she thought about it and realised that maybe she hasn’t. She never mourned when Jeremy and Alaric died. It didn’t matter if they were alive again, she never had the chance to come to terms with the reality that for a while they might not have come back.

“You know it’s okay for you to mourn, right? you don’t always have to be strong… you don’t have to be the one who carries everyone else burdens. Who carries your burdens?” Klaus looked her in the eyes and tears began to fill them as she allows all the pain she has kept buried all these years. The broken sob she lets out causes Klaus to move quickly and take her to his room where he watched her curl in on herself as she let out all the things she had been feeling.

“Please don’t leave me.” She grabbed his hand before he could walk away, she looked so lost and scared and it hurt him seeing her like this. He got into the bed next to her and she curled up on his chest. He swore he would be her shoulder to cry on. He would be the one who would help to carry her burdens, like she had done with him.

~ A Week Later~

It had been a week since Y/N had arrived in New Orleans. It had been a week since she had left the safe confines of Klaus’ bed. She only moved when she needed the bathroom. Klaus had been making her food and gently encouraging her to eat and drink even though she hated the idea of it. Rebekah was the first one to see her when she got back, she walked into the house and could hear the soft sobs coming from upstairs in Klaus’ room and she was intrigued. Running upstairs she saw Y/N tightly wrapped around Klaus. There was something missing in the girls eyes, the usual warm that was there. Rebekah was worried for the girl who had been there for her when her mother died, who’d been there to comfort her when she thought that Klaus was dead, she was the only person that she could truly call her friend.

When Elijah saw Y/N, she wasn’t crying, she was just staring at a wall not seeing anything, lost in her own world, the lights were on but nobody was home. This was so different from how he normally saw the lively and energetic girl, who was always interested in what book that Elijah was reading and learning about the history the world had to offer. But, most of all, she cared about their history, their story, not the rumours or the legends that were circulating about The Originals. She was the first person he had met that wasn’t horrified or deterred by the stories about them. Kol was the last one to see Y/N, he couldn’t bring himself to see her while she was crying or in a comatose-like state. It hurt him too much. By the time he saw her she was sitting up in the bed talking quietly which was a relief for the family as they were seeing parts of her shining through again.

She was curled up in the bed, emotionally drained. She had been crying for the last week. Rebekah had come to sit with her and comfort her, especially when it came to Damon and Elena. Klaus had rarely left her side through it all. He was adamant that he would be the shoulder she would cry on. Elijah would read to her and Kol would tell her stories that made her laugh. She knew it would take a long time to mourn everything, but after a week of being in bed, letting it all out help. She felt a little less hollow and a little more whole. Klaus was next to her smiling down at her as she let out a heavy sigh.

“What’s wrong love?” Klaus frowned slightly.

“I think I’m ready to get out of bed.” She smiles up at him, Klaus melted at her smile.

“Oh really?” He smirks at her before he starts to tickle her and the pearls of her laughter fill the room.

“Stop it! Nik! I’m serious.” She giggles, trying to wiggle away from him.

“Why now?” Nik was leaning over her looking down smiling at Y/N softly.

“Because I’m tired. Tired of being in bed and feeling sorry for myself. It has been a week and I am ready to live… I’m ready for you to fulfil your promises.” Y/N tilts her head smiling at him as she gently boops him on the nose. He scrunches his nose and looks down at her and sees her laughing, he can’t help his heart warming at the sight of her laughing and generally looking happy. “Also, I kinda want to eat out… don’t get me wrong I’m 100% grateful that you cooked for me, but I don’t think I can eat pasta again or soup… not for a while anyway.”

“How about I go and get you breakfast? Anything you want in particular?” Klaus rolled to the side to look at her, as she rolled on to her side to look at him.

“Pastries, maybe some fresh fruit and coffee!” She groaned at the sound of caffeine, Y/N rolled on her back and looked up at the ceiling.

Elijah couldn’t help but smile at his brother as he watched him take care of this girl, who always brought the best out of him.

“It’s like when we were human.” Elijah commented to Rebekah who was by his side.

“You did always say, she brought humanity back to him. I think it’s the fact she doesn’t care what or who he is.” Rebekah answered.

“She brings it back to all of us.” Kol spoke up as they watched the couple in Klaus’ bed smile and a giggle escaped Y/N’s lips making them all smile. They watch her as she stretches and gets out of bed and heads to the bathroom. Klaus walking towards them with a broad smile

“Can you sit with her? I’m going to get her some food.” Klaus smiled at his siblings and they nodded at him walking into the room to see Y/N walking to sit on a chair on the balcony.

“She moves!” Rebekah smirks at her.

“Ha ha, Bekah.” Y/N snorts.

“How are you?” Elijah asked hesitantly.

“I’m good Li’jah. I actually mean it this time.” For the first time they saw a smile shining through.“What are your plans?” Kol asked, it was a question they all wanted to know what was going to happen now. They had to admit that they were scared that she would leave them to go back to Mystic Falls and they didn’t want that.“I was hoping, if it was alright with you that I might stay here with you guys… I have nowhere else to go, this has felt more like home than Mystic Falls has in a long time.” She looked down at her hands avoiding eye contact. She knows that Klaus said it was fine, but she didn’t want to put out the rest of the family. What she didn’t realise was the smile on all their faces, Rebekah rushes over to her and sweeps her into a tight hug making both girls laugh.“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Rebekah kisses Y/N’s cheek as she pulls away and smiles broadly at the girl she calls not only her best friend but also sister.Klaus and Y/N were just sitting on the balcony listening to the sounds of New Orleans around them, after enjoying a day of laughing and smiling with his siblings. Letting them drown out any thoughts of anything remotely negative. Klaus’ voice breaks her concentration and he is staring at her like she is the only thing in the world, which makes her breath get caught in her throat. “He's your first love. I intend to be your last. However long it takes." Taking her hand, kissing it softly, smiling at her before he walks back into his room leaving her staring at her in shock.

~ A Month Later~

It had been a month since her week of mourning, she had met Freya and she became like another sister just like Rebekah and had led to you guys having many girls nights, causing nothing but chaos for Klaus and his brothers. Klaus had been taking her on little dates over the last two weeks, bringing her food, flowers and gifts just to see her smile. He kept his promises he made her and showed her what life had to offer her since she got to New Orleans, something changed in her. She seemed freer than he’d ever seen and he loved it.

“Where do you want to go next?” Klaus smiled at her, he could think of all the places he wanted to take her, but he wanted her to pick.

“Hmmm… maybe Italy? England? France?” She smiled as she looked at people pass as she drank her coffee, her eyes flickered to Klaus and a smile formed her lips and she tilted her head to the side and looked at him. “Where do you wanna go?”

“Anywhere as long as it is with you.” He smiled at her and her heart fluttered, she knew he had heard it because she saw a small smirk forming on his lips and deep red coloured her cheeks.

Later that day, Y/N was standing in the kitchen making dinner for the family, humming quietly to herself when she felt someone grab her sides, causing her to let out a scream. “Quit spooking me Klaus'' she scolded him hitting his shoulder, but the smile on her lips said she was anything but irritated. Rebekah looked at this cute moment between her sibling and her best friend.  A soft chuckle passed his lips as he watched her pout at him.

“Come on love.” Klaus gave her big puppy dog eyes and Y/N couldn’t help but fall into his blue eyes as they looked at her like that.

“That was mean of you, Nik.” She pouted at him trying her hardest not to smile at him. Before anything else could be said Klaus got a handful of flour that was on the side for when Y/N decided she was ready to roll out the dough and blew it in her face laughing at her pissed off face.

“NIKLAUS!” She shouted and all the siblings ran into the room and couldn’t hide their laughter. Y/N was covered in flour and had fire in her eyes and Klaus was bent over laughing, before she could react Y/N had dumped a load of flour in his hair and Klaus paused and stood up to see a triumphant smile on Y/N’s face.

“This means war love.” Klaus smirked at her and she laughed.

“Bring it Wolfie!” She giggled as she ran away from him and past his siblings before she decided to use Elijah as a shield and Klaus ended up throwing the flour on Elijah. Soon everyone was partaking in this particular food fight.

Finally after getting all the flour out of their hair and cleaning up she sighed as she curled into Klaus on the sofa as he sketched and she read. He put his hand on her thigh squeezing it softly getting her attention. She shifted to sitting up putting her book down and moved his sketchpad to the side and moved onto his lap. Sitting on his lap she caressed his cheek, there was a sadness in his eyes, he closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. She leaned down and rested her forehead against his waiting for his eyes to open.

She had been thinking a lot during this last month. The month that had been filled with sweet dates and soft words. Y/N couldn’t think of the last time someone went so out of their way just to make her smile, to make her feel safe and cared for. Y/N, had been thinking about how Klaus made her feel and how he made her want to do and be more… not for him, but for herself. In the last month with Klaus she has refound her love for writing, art and dance. She has felt more alive in the last month than she has since Damon came into her life and shook it all about. Y/N realised that she would rather be here cleaning flour out of her hair than back in Mystic Falls pining after someone who never loved her. For the first time in a long time Y/N felt the unconditional love she craved. One month of being with Klaus and his family and she realised she was worth more than she ever thought, she didn’t compare herself to her sister and she didn’t feel like she wasn’t meeting anyone expectations… for the first time in a long time, Y/N felt like she could breathe again.

“There are those pretty blue eyes.” She smirks at him. A smile spreads on Klaus’ lips and she leans down and kisses him. It’s soft and takes him by surprise. He pulls her in closer to him and runs his hands up her neck and into her hair. Pulling away to take a deep breath they looked into each other's eyes. He sees peace in her eyes for the first time in a while.

“I’m ready to go anywhere with you.” She places a soft kiss on his lips sitting back on his thighs looking down at him.

“Anywhere?” Klaus smirks at her.

“Anywhere.” She laughs.

~ Six Months Later~

Somehow they ended up back in Mystic Falls. The Gang had called Klaus. One thing they didn’t know was that 3 months after them both admitting their feelings… Well, Y/N admitting hers, she asked Klaus to turn her and he did… well, Freya did! Freya had gifted immortality like her siblings using the same spell that her mother did before her. When Y/N had asked her why all Freya said was she wasn’t going to risk the chance of losing a sister. It had been three months of learning how to control the cravings and she found out that she was actually pretty good at it.

“Nik.” Rebekah stormed into the room and a smirk formed on Y/N’s lips as she watched the pissed blonde look for her brother. “How are you so calm?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s just I’ve found my home now… with you guys.” Y/N shrugs, not taking her eyes off her book. Rebekah was still not used to the off handed comments like this that Y/N would make and it always made her eyes fill with tears she would blink away.

“When was the last time you spoke to any of them?” Rebekah frowned, dropping next to Y/N. Y/N could see the fear that she would leave them as soon as she saw them. Y/N softly rested her hand on Rebekah’s leg giving it a reassuring squeeze before looking back to her book before answering.

“Well I put the sim in my new phone when Freya turned me. They haven’t tried to find me, I know Bonnie did a location spell so they know where I was. But, they choose not to come for me.” Y/N shrugs going back to her book. She had to admit it hurt a bit that not even her family came looking for her. It was Rebekah’s turn to reach out and lay a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Y/N decided she wanted to go to the Grill after texting Klaus, Rebekah and Elijah telling them where she was going she quickly left. Since she turned she had this new confidence about her and she embraced it. She slides into a seat at the bar, not really paying attention to anyone around her as she thought about all the changes that have happened to her in the last couple of months since she moved to New Orleans.

“What can I get you?” A familiar voice asked her and she looked up to see Matt and surprise crossed his face at the sight of his old friend sitting in front of him smiling like it was only yesterday when they last saw each other.

“Bourbon, Matty.” She smirks leaning back in her seat, she knew word would get round quickly now that she was home and it wouldn’t take long for the gang to come hunting for her… it wasn’t like she was hiding from them. She saw Elijah walk in and he nodded his head to the bathroom and she tilted her head when she thought she saw blood on his suit but dismissed it he would tell her later.

She moved to a booth and ordered a load of food. The bell above the door dings and in walks the gang they didn’t believe when Matt told them that Y/N was back, but when he sent the picture they all moved quickly to see. They all stood in disbelief for a while staring at the girl that left without a word sitting there casually ordering food like nothing happened and once she placed her order she went back to reading her book like it was any other day.

“Y/N?” Elena asked and Y/N looked up from her book to see her sister looking at her.

“Elena.” Y/N nodded her head formally and then looked at everyone around them. “How may I help you?” They were all taken aback by her, they had never seen Y/N so confident.

“Sorry I’m late Love. Rebekah was talking my ear off.” Klaus slid into the seat next to her giving her a soft kiss, softly stroking her cheek and Y/N leaned into the soft touch smiling at him fondly.

“Rude brother.” Rebekah snorted at Klaus, before looking at Y/N to really explain why they were late. “We were looking for Elijah.”

“I got food.” Y/N smiles at the siblings, a knowing smile. “Elijah is in the bathroom.”

“What?” They both look at her and she is smirking back and they can see the laughter in her eyes and they both can’t help but smile at her shaking their heads..

“He got here about 5 minutes after me, it looked like he had blood on his suit… I don’t really know I didn't pay too much attention.” She smirks at Klaus, who let out a heavy sigh shaking his head at the girl in front of him before he kissed her again. She was intoxicating and Klaus couldn’t seem to get enough of her.

“You didn’t think to tell me?” Klaus smirks at her.

“The thought did cross my mind, but some old… friends came up to talk to me.” Her head tilt, her eyes narrowed and flickered to the people Klaus and Rebekah chose to ignore and they all noticed her pause at the words friends as if she was deciding if that is what they were. The silence was tense when Elijah came out of the bathroom.

“I think this conversation should be had elsewhere don’t you agree?” Elijah looked at everyone and they all nodded and he gave a firm nod of his head and continued. “We shall come to you then.”

They all agreed to meet at the Salvatore Boarding House. After the tense interaction in the Grill the gang left and all headed back to the Boarding House.

“Does Y/N seem different?” Matt asked.

“Yeah.” Elena frowned at her sister's attitude toward them.

“They turned her.” Damon spoke up for the first time since he saw Y/N with Klaus.

“What?” Elena and Jeremy shouted. They were all pissed but nothing could be done or said until they all met up and actually talked about what was actually going on and what was really happening.

Y/N, Klaus, Rebekah and Elijah all walked into the Boarding House, she looked around and noticed that not a lot had changed in the months that she left. Y/N thought that she would feel something walking back into the house that she ran away from seven or so months ago. But, she didn’t.

“Why did you leave?” Elena asked, she sounded hurt as she looked at her sister who just walked through the door. The gang saw something flicker in Y/N’s eyes as they watched her sift uncomfortably.

“Because I was drowning.” Y/N started looking at her sister. “I was drowning with everything, from the loss of our parents to Jeremy and Alaric coming back… I never got to mourn like everyone in this room. I guess that was my fault always helping everyone carry their burdens no matter what. You weren’t the only person to lose everyone Elena. Your wedding was the last straw, so I left for me. I had to be selfish, because otherwise I might have lost my mind.”

They all looked at her at her outburst and noticed when Klaus wrapped his arm around her waist pulling her closer to him. What they didn’t know was that she wasn’t just turned, but a gift from his sister Freya, turning Y/N into an Original like her siblings. They saw her visibly relax as she leaned back into his arms.

“So you left us for them?” Damon looked pissed, Y/N couldn’t help but tilt her head and slightly frown at him. She was confused why he cared so much.

“Klaus promised I’d always have a place with his family… he promised he’d never let me go.” She looked Damon in the eye and she saw that realisation hit him.

“We looked for you.” Caroline said softly, but she couldn’t look Y/N in the eye.

“But you never came for me. I know Bonnie did a locator spell. I know you guys knew where I was pretty much after I left. I also know you didn’t come for me.” Y/N sighed heavily, she was tired and leaned more into Klaus who held her closer.

“I have to thank you, Damon.” Klaus smiled at the vampire who gave him a confused look.

“For what?” Damon frowned holding onto Elena’s hand tightly.

“For pushing her away. For letting her go without a fight.” Klaus smirks kissing Y/N’s forehead and the girl in question rolled her eyes and pulled away slightly looking at the gang. She thought she would feel some sort of pain seeing them again, that she would miss them or maybe crave to come home and be with them. But, the truth was… the truth was looking at the people she once called her family she felt nothing but pity for them. She was ready to walk away and never look back.

“I’m assuming our duties are done here, Klaus and I have some…” A smirk formed on her lips as she trailed off, “exploring to do.”

~ A Year Later~

It’s been a year since they last stepped foot in Mystic Falls. It had been a year since Klaus whisked her away to Italy, England, Spain and the list is never ending. But they were in France at the top of the Eiffel Tower looking at the City of Light. Looking down at her hand Y/N notices the diamond twinkling like a star and she can’t help but smile as she leans back in her lover's arms and sighs at the peace and happiness that she is feeling.

“Forever and Always?” Klaus asks her with a smile on his lips.

“Forever and Always.” They kiss in the moonlight overlooking the City of Lights.

This was their Happily Ever After… This is what love really felt like.

(Gifs credits goes to the rightful owners)

~Tags~

The Vampire Diaries/The Originals & Supernatural:

@akshi8278

The Last Goodbye:

@thefandomplace 

@a--1--1--3​

@misselsbells06​

[bbyannabeth]

can u do against percabeth 2 and 3? pls love the way you write💘

2. “You started drinking again, didn’t you?”

3. “You promised you’d stop drinking.” “And you promised you wouldn’t hurt me!″

tw/ mentions of alcohol and brief mention of assualt  also i know it’s meant to be angst but it has a happy ending okay sue me --

She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t expected something to go wrong today. Though she hadn’t expected it to go this wrong.

The worst part was that Percy was so good at hiding it. If Annabeth hadn’t caught a glimpse of the plastic rings that held a six-pack together in the trash, she would’ve never guessed. But she did see it. And then she saw the six empty cans when she shoved garbage out of the way.

Annabeth bit her lip hard and washed her hands quickly, trying to fight off tears. Once her hands were dry, she rested them against the counter before eventually pushing off and storming towards Percy’s room where he was in bed, waiting for her to bring snacks like she’d set out to do. She stopped in the door frame and he looked ready to say something before he saw her face, confusion and concern taking over. “Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, setting his laptop aside.

“You started drinking again, didn’t you?” she said. Her voice was weak but still angry. Percy blinked, looking like a dear caught in headlights.

Then he sighed. “Yeah,” he said. At least he wasn’t denying it, the last thing she wanted to was deal with him lying too. “It was just one six-pack.”

“But you’ve been doing so good,” she whispered, finally entering the room, crossing it until she was on his bed. She was angry, no doubt about that. But she was upset, too. He wasn’t an alcoholic but he’d become accustomed to drinking most nights and more often than not, he got wasted on weekends.

One night, a month ago, Percy had broken down, saying he needed to stop before he became anything like his ex-stepfather. Annabeth easily assured him he was nothing like Gabe and never would be. Since then, he hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol. Until now.

“I know.” There was an edge to his voice that told her there was a much deeper reason than simply wanting to drink.

“Why?” she asked, trying to keep her voice light. He chuckled humourlessly.

“Why not?”

Annabeth blinked at him. “Because you promised me you’d stop drinking. You promised yourself you’d stop,” she said, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear.

“Mmm, and you promised you’d stop hurting me, but here we are.” His voice was cold and looked at her with a blank expression, though anger and sadness were brewing in his eyes.

Her hand dropped. “Excuse me?” she asked. She racked her brain, trying to think of anything she could’ve done recently to hurt him but nothing came to mind.

“A couple of days ago,” he started, his gaze drifting around the room aimlessly as he spoke, “we were at your apartment. You went to the bathroom and left your phone on the couch. Face up, might I add, so I didn’t touch it before you try to pull that.

“And you got a text,” he continued. “Without thinking, I looked over at it. I don’t remember if I had thought it was my phone or if I had just been drawn to the noise and the screen lighting up. But I looked at it. And it was from Luke.”

Annabeth tensed immediately. Luke wasn’t an ex, but he was a very toxic friend she’d had for years. A few months into dating Percy, Luke had suddenly confessed his undying love for her and tried to kiss her, despite her clear protests. After that, she hadn’t spoken to him for about six months.

But she thought about him constantly. Which Percy knew and hated, even though he understood why she thought about him. He had been one of her best friends and he’d been there through thick and thin. Even if he had been awful and manipulative sometimes, she still cared about him.

Annabeth tried not to bring Luke up often because it tend to upset Percy but sometimes, he managed to pull it out of her. It always led to an argument including Percy reminding her of the way he used her for years and borderline assaulted her. She knew he was right, Luke didn’t deserve her attention, but she always fought back because there were good things about him too. Not many, but a few.

And despite telling Percy a while ago she was done caring about him so much, a few days ago, she’d made the decision to reach out, just to see how he was.

The text Percy was referring to was likely the one that read, Yeah I’d love to meet up sometime. I’m surprised you reached out to me after what happened.

“Percy,” she sighed. “He was my-”

“Yeah, your best friend. I know, trust me.”

His anger only made hers flare-up in retaliation. “You’re not being fair. I’ve tried to stop caring about him, because fuck, I know he doesn’t deserve it. But he was family to me.”

“I know. But my issue is that you told me you were done with him. And then when you changed your mind, you decided not to tell me? So, yeah, obviously I’m a little pissed that you were trying to see him after he fucked you over and completely ignored our relationship to confess his sudden love for you.”

Annabeth pressed her hands to her face for a moment. “I would’ve told you before meeting him. And I suggested meeting up without thinking and regretted it very quickly, so chances are I never would’ve anyway. But you didn’t need to start drinking. You could’ve just talked to me.”

He faltered at this because he knew she was right. “I know. I just got mad and I wasn’t thinking.”

Annabeth understood that and some of her anger deflated. She also understood that she was in the wrong too, so she opened her mouth to apologize but stopped when she had a better way of doing it. “Hand me my phone,” she said quietly. Percy looked at her confused before reaching across the bed and grabbing it, handing it to her. She turned and leaned back against him, not missing the way his arm immediately wound around her waist despite being angry with her.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Just watch,” she replied before navigating her way to her and Luke’s texts. He tensed briefly behind her. All the previous messages were simple things like, how are you, how’s work, are you doing okay. Easy small talk that Annabeth didn’t care in the slightest if Percy saw. She typed out a message carefully after a moment.

I think messaging you was a mistake, Luke. I’m sorry and I’m glad you’re doing well but I think it’s best if we don’t contact each other again.

She sent it, waited until it was delivered, and then blocked him after. Annabeth set her phone down and leaned further back against Percy. “I know you’re right,” she said quietly. “He’s shit and doesn’t deserve anything from me. It’s still just not easy to hate him like I should. I’m sorry I ever texted him in the first place.”

Percy’s grip on her tightened, crushing her back against his chest and he kissed the side of her head a few times. “Thank you,” he whispered. “You didn’t have to do that. But thank you. And I’m sorry, too.”

Her eyes filled with tears again and she twisted out of his grip to wrap her arms around your neck. “Please don’t do it again,” she said gently. “If you get upset or mad at anything and it makes you want to, please talk to me. I’m here.”

“Okay,” Percy said. “I won’t. I promise.”

[cafedanslanuit]

✦ • ° *.  — Ｓａｅｒａｎ＇ｓ　Ａｆｔｅｒ　Ｅｎｄｉｎｇ —  . * ° • ✦

chapter guide  |  buy me a ko-fi?  |  chat with me

summary: Saeran has finally found MC and is ectasic to finally be able to enjoy the good ending his tumultous life has reached. But with Saeyoung still missing and Mint Eye around, his happiness may have to wait a little more. Was love really capable to win against his inner demons or will he have to learn to fight for himself?

chapter warnings: (check chapter guide for story warnings) mentions and/or descriptions of mental illnesses.

c h a p t e r   o n e   —   guess i need to trust you when you say you love me

It had been the most hectic months MC had ever gone through.

From the moment she had been taken into a cult, she never thought it could get worse than that. She was proven wrong when just a week later she was in the middle of a war that included said cult, the arrest of their leader, corrupted politics and kidnapping.

At first, she had been glad when the police had captured Rika. After everything she had witnessed during her time at Mint Eye and judging from the way Saeran kept having constant nightmares, even two months after leaving the cult, she wanted nothing but justice to be served. She wanted Rika to put away for good, far away from Saeran and anybody from the RFA. Every time she remembered Saeran’s tears and the scratches she had found on his shoulders and body, she felt her blood boil at the sole mention of the blonde woman. So, when the news broke she had been taken by the police, she was more than ecstatic. Rika had lured hundreds of people, manipulating and drugging them for almost a year and now, she was going to be judged for her actions and would get a punishment according to the law.

That didn’t quite happen. But MC didn’t want to think a lot about it.

She watched Saeran in silence as he put the sheets over their new mattress. Their bed had just been delivered half an hour ago and thanks to the fact both of them had fit their respective belongings inside a small suitcase, moving had been an easy job.

It was supposed to be a good day. Saeyoung was getting out of the hospital soon and they would get to start fresh in a new house, away from the bunker, the hacking, the cult and everything that came with that. But there was something she had to do, even if it broke her heart every time she thought about it.

The last couple of months with Saeran had only proven how foolish she was. She was in love with him, yes, but for a moment, she had dared to dream her love had been enough for him to heal. Her arrogance had played tricks on her, because she couldn’t have been further away from the truth.

Saeran had been fine the first week. He had been collaborating with Jumin in order to rescue Saeyoung, which meant he had to go back and use his hacking abilities to figure out where their father was keeping his brother. MC knew the fact Saeran was still doing hacker work after leaving Mint Eye plus having to deal with his own feelings towards his brother had paid a toll on his sanity. After a few days into the job, he had started having nightmares. MC would wake up in the middle of the night by Saeran tossing on the bed, his cheeks damped with tears and incoherent mumbling that she couldn’t decipher. She would take him into her arms and softly rock him back and forth until the nightmare went away. Once, she had been accidentally hit on the nose while Saeran was in the middle of a vivid nightmare. Her high-pitched scream had woken him up, only to start crying again once he realized he had hurt her.

After that, Saeran’s downfall had been more noticeable. In their leisure time, Saeran needed MC to give him a task to do, or else he would just sit and wait to be instructed. It made sense. He had always been told what to do, and MC thought old habits die hard. Saeran’s protectiviness had perdured after Saeyoung had been rescued, to the point she could notice his ragged breathing when he called her. He always said he just wanted to check if she was okay, and while she wanted to understand his constant alertness, she knew going to the mall for half an hour wasn’t a good sign.

It had been good Saeran had agreed to see a therapist, even if MC thought he would have agreed to anything she proposed. They tried out different psychologists, taking a joint session as a trial, but MC could tell Saeran was far from comfortable with any of them. Thankfully, Saeran had ended up resonating with the fourth psychologist they had seen. She was a young woman in her thirties with short hair, her style and way of speaking similar to Jaehee. But the kindness in her eyes and validation of their main concerns (such as questions regarding the type of therapy and Saeran’s reluctance to take psychiatric medication) made them decide for her. They had scheduled for a first session two weeks later and while it was a reassurance to MC things were going to get better, it also reminded her of the conversation she had to have with Saeran..

MC looked down at her phone and searched for V’s number. She knew he wouldn’t respond, but she sent a message just like she had done since the last time they had seen each other.

‘Saeran and I finally finished moving. Hope you’re doing better xx”

Her eyes darted back to the figure of Saeran, who was now looking at her from his sitting position on the bed. She put her phone away and sat next to him, pressing a kiss against his cheek and then taking his hand.

She had to do it. She had to do it now, before he realized she had left her suitcase in the living room and not in their bedroom.

“We are moving to our new house tomorrow,” MC started, stroking Saeran’s hand with her thumb. He nodded and gave her a soft smile.

“I know.”

“Will you be okay living with Saeyoung?” The smile on the young man disappeared. He pursed his lips and shrugged.

“I guess. I mean, I… I do understand everything that happened. I know he’s not… a bad person now,” he said, an uneasy expression on his face. “And we’ve talked a lot while he was at the hospital. So I guess it’s okay.”

MC nodded. “You’re also starting therapy next week,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, I know,” Saeran said, looking down at their joint hands. A couple of seconds later, he scrunched his eyebrows. “Is there something going on?” he asked, squinting his eyes at her.

This was it. She needed to tell him now, whether she liked it or not. Even if she didn’t want to, she knew it would be the best for the person she loved and therefore, it would be the best for her as well.

MC took a deep breath and stood up. She turned around, facing Saeran and sunk to her knees, grabbing both his hands in hers, her pleading eyes filled with worry.

“I don’t think a relationship is the best thing for you right now,” she said, her voice slow and careful, trying to gauge any reaction from Saeran. As expected, his mouth opened slightly, panic rising to his eyes.

“You don’t want to be with me?”

“I do! I want to,” she assured him, squeezing his hands. “Saeran, I want to be with you because I love you. There’s nothing in this world I want more than that. But I… I think you need some space to heal. You need to heal without the pressure of having a relationship with me,” she explained, but it only seemed to make Saeran’s eyebrows knit together even more.

“Being with you is no pressure,” he quickly said. MC gave him a sad smile.

“But it will be, eventually. I’ll… get mad at you for forgetting a date or ask you to watch a movie you hate with me or--”

“I’d watch anything you wanted me to,” he interrupted her.

“I know, baby. I know,” MC nodded, placing a kiss on the top of his right hand. “That’s why we can’t be together right now. I don’t want you to adore me or feel you have to do anything I want. I want you to fight for yourself. I want you to be able to say no to me.”

Saeran hastily took away his hands and stood up, walking to the center of the bedroom. MC sighed, and lowered her head, trying to find the perfect words to make the man she loved understand why she had taken that decision. She stood up and walked to him again, even though the way his breathing was shallow and quick let her know he was having a hard time.

“This is nonsense,” he whispered, passing both his hands across his hair.

“It’s not. This is best for you.”

“The best for me is you leaving?” Saeran asked, turning his head at her. MC quickly shook her head.

“I’m not leaving. There’s no fucking way I’m leaving. I’ll stay here with you, I’ll be by your side just like I’ve been these past few months. But… I’d probably move to another room, so you can have privacy too.”

Saeran looked at her in silence, trying to work her words in his head. He paced around the bedroom in quick steps, his eyes glued to the floor and his hands constantly messing with his hair.

The next time he looked at her, his eyes were full of tears.

“D-did I do something bad?” he stuttered. “I-- I’ve neer been anyone’s anything and-- I’m sorry. I wanted to give you only the best but I--”

“No, no, no,” MC interrupted him, walking towards him and holding his face in her hands. “Baby, no. You are perfect. You are kind and sweet and I love you more than you could ever imagine. I love you so, so, so much,” she breathed, caressing his cheeks with her thumbs. “I love you. That’s why I want you to focus on yourself for a moment. I don’t want this relationship to be extra weight for you. You’re starting therapy soon and that is something you need to do by yourself. And it will help you so much. Trust me, I would know.”

“You went to therapy?” he asked, his hands softly finding their way around her waist.

“A few years ago, yes,” she whispered, putting some strands of his hair behind his ear.

“Did something happen?”

“You don’t need to burden yourself with that at this moment,” she assured him. “I promise I’ll tell you about it in the future. We have our whole lives for that,” she said, evoking a small smile from him. “Now, you should be your top priority.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” Saeran breathed out, his hands clasping on the fabric on her blouse.

“I know. That’s exactly why you need to try. I’ll be just in the next bedroom whenever you may need me, at any time. I won’t leave you, I would never do that.”

Saeran nodded and pulled her closed, her arms circling his neck while he rested his face on her shoulder, his arms tightly secured around her waist. They stayed a moment in silence, basking in the sound of the other’s breathing and their now familiar scent.

“I still don’t like this,” Saeran mumbled against her skin. MC chuckled.

“Neither do I, if I’m being honest,” she admitted. “But it’s for the best.”

“How long will you…?” he asked, pulling away and searching her eyes. MC sighed.

“I don’t know. Everybody has their own pace in therapy.”

“That lady, the doctor, she said it could be years. You’re asking me to wait for years?” Saeran insisted, a trace of fear present in his features once more.

“Oh, uh… I actually hadn’t thought about that,” she confessed. “We could… set a date? Like, to sit down and see if we can start dating again?”

“You sound like Jumin,” Saeran said, rolling his eyes. MC couldn’t suppress her laugh, letting her head fall on his shoulder.

“Oh God, don’t say that!”

MCe pulled away after a few moments, a ghost of her laughter still present in her lips. She looked into Saeran’s teal eyes and took a deep breath.

“Okay, how about…” she started.

“A year?”  “One month?”

Both of them looked at each other, dumbfounded.

“One month!?” “One year!?”

“Okay, okay, neither of them are going to work,” MC said, rubbing Saeran’s shoulders in a soothing motion. “It’s okay. Then, how about six months from now? You, me, happy hour at that ice cream store downtown you like,” she offered. Saeran let out a long sigh and closed his eyes. She felt his arms tensing and could only imagine the turmoil occurring inside his head.

“Fine, six months,” he mumbled bitterly after a long pause. He took another look at her and rubbed the small of her back with his thumb. “I… I miss you. Even if you’re here. Is that weird?”

“It’s not,” MC chuckled. She pressed a kiss on his cheek. “I’m going to take a shower, okay? We can talk about dinner later,” she smiled, before turning on her heel and leaving the room.

Saeran watched her in silence until her figure disappeared through the door. He tried to go over their conversation in his head one more time, but it only made his head start hurting. He walked to one of the boxes and took out his painkillers, swallowing one pill without any water.

Saeran sat on the bed, elbows on his thighs and his head resting on his palms. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t get rid of the intrusive thoughts in his mind, one after another, plummeting against the little hope he had that MC was actually telling him the truth.

She's getting bored.

She's running away.

She just doesn't want you to know.

She's sliding away.

She’s getting bored.

She’s better than you.

She’s tired of you.

She's met someone else

She’s leaving.

She’s leaving.

She’s leaving.

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[whoreforfanfiction]

They Confess Their Feelings (Mystic Messenger Preferences)

Yoosung

- you two would have to be friends for a while before he felt ready to confess his feelings

- of course, he’s talked to Zen countless times about you already, but never took his advice on telling you how he felt

- at least once a week you were at his house 

- and at least once a month you went out for dinner (which he always insisted on paying for, even though you knew it drilled a hole in his pocket)

- basically, you two spent a majority of your time together

- your favorite was when you’d spend the entire day at his house playing a video game marathon

- you got to spend the most time with him during those

- today though, you two were just sitting on the couch, talking about the new professor that hates him 

- “He’ll come around and see how fun you are,” you commented trying to cheer his sad face up. 

- An immediate blush rose to his pale cheeks

- “You think I’m fun?” he said sheepishly while scratching the back of his neck

- “Of course, silly. Why else would I hang out with you all the time? You’re my favorite person to be around,” you admitted. 

- he knew this was his moment and he tried to remember what Zen had told him to say

- they rehearsed it a million times, but his memory was failing him horribly

- he stumbled around trying to find words to return you with but he eventually just blurted out “I like you!” 

- you were shocked into silence for a second, and he took it the wrong way

- “S-shit forget I said that,” he tried to recover but you had already heard those 3 majestic words

- “No no I like you too! You shocked me there for a second,” you giggled and you pulled him into a shy kiss on the cheek

Zen

- really not shy about his feelings at all

- super self-confident, which is one of the things you liked most about him

- you were friends for a few months and after sharing conversations with you, he knew you were the one

- confided in Yoosung about his feelings since those two are like brothers

- Yoosung knew you liked Zen back

- he said it was a “vibe” he had picked up during your encounters 

- and because you always asked for more selfies in the messenger

- and today, Zen decided he was going to change your friendship and make it something deeper and more meaningful

- you were scheduled to come over to marathon a TV show you both enjoyed

- Zen made sure the scene was set

- he had popcorn, your favorite drink, cozy blankets, tissues for when you cried about characters dying

- really tried to play out every single situation in his head and plan around it 

- when you came over, he made sure you were more than comfortable

- after you two finished your marathon session, you were both somewhat drowsy

- and drowsy conversations lead to deep talk times

- “I like being here with you,” you commented, “I feel safe here.” You cozied up more inside the blanket.

- this boy has never felt more complimented in his life

- “Yeah? Well, I like you!” he said with a slight chuckle that confused you

- “Like? Or like like?” you tried to clarify but ended up sounding like you were gossiping on the elementary playground

- he looked at you, dead in the eyes, “Like like, of course.” 

- “Hehe, I like like you too,” you said as he pulled you closer to his warm body

Jaehee

- very analytical and logical

- she had a theory that you liked her, based on your conversations, but was too scared to actually test it out

- she also knew she felt very strongly towards you 

- more than a friend

- she found herself checking her phone constantly to see if you texted her back

- often got in the way of her work and Jumin started to take her phone for some periods of time

- was in the chatroom CONSTANTLY just hoping you’d show up

- took her breaks when you did enter the chatroom

- you two called at least twice a week after she got off work so she could rant about how bad her day was

- today, you decided to surprise her with chocolates to ease her stress

- you hid behind her desk and jumped out when she came to sit down which did give her a mini heart attack 

- “SURPRISE!” you said as you whipped the chocolates out from behind your back

- her face was firetruck flaming red

- stuttered over her words a lot

- “I like you a lot Jaehee, homo intended, and I wanted to make sure you had a good day today,” you confessed hoping she reciprocated you feelings

- she pressed down her skirt and composed herself

- “I like you too, and I promise next time I will return your kindness,” she stated lovingly while grabbing the chocolates out of your hand

Jumin

- didn’t know what his feelings were for the longest time

- finally, he decided to talk to Zen about them since he is the king of feelings

- “You stupid heir!! You like her! Tsk it’s so sad you can’t even tell that” Zen scolded

- like? that was a new emotion and this one he enjoyed very much

- whenever he was around you, he got these feelings in his stomach and felt a burst of energy

- he was never sad or upset when he was in close proximity with you

- very inexperienced with relationships and didn’t know the best way to show you how much he cared about you 

- Zen also warned him not to throw his money at you because you might get scared off

- he was going to think of an old-fashioned nice way to show you he liked you, without using his money

-  watched lots of love movies to study up because he wanted this to be meaningful

- the common theme he deduced from all the movies was flowers and he happened to know a phenomenal florist

- was going to call, but remembered that he shouldn’t use his money

- walked around nature for a good 4 hours picking out all the flowers he thought you’d like

- tied them together with string to make a bouquet

- but how to deliver them? shipping them to your house would be easiest since you lived on the other side of the city, but he knew that wouldn’t be personal

- he also didn’t wanna arrive at your door in his limo or one of his expensive cars 

- he didn’t want it to come off as him flexing his wealth in an attempt to woo you

- so what did he do? he walked

- this rich boy walked 7 miles to your house

- which was fine until it started to rain

- you heard a gentle knocking at your door and rushed to let him in

- “You’re soaking,” you commented in concern as you ran to the bathroom to get him a towel 

- “I like you,” he got to the point and handed you the dripping bouquet

- you innerly squealed with happiness

- “I like you too!!” you said as you jumped and hugged him around the neck

- you tried to pull away after a second, but he held you there for a moment longer

- “I’m glad you like it,” he said exhausted then sat down on the couch

- drifted off to sleep not much longer aww poor baby

Saeyoung

- you two talked ALL THE MOTHER FUCKING TIME - hung out rarely because his house was a mess and didn’t want to expose you to Mary Vanderwood 

- but there wasn’t a moment where you weren’t texting or facetiming

- which pissed Vanderwood off 

- you face timed which he worked

- you two didn’t talk much during those times, but you appreciated having the company

- at night before bed though was when you two really talked

- he asked about your day and let you talk first

- you could tell he actively listened and truly cared about even the most mundane things that happened that day

- “When you went, did you get the barista you liked?” he asked knowing he hacked into their system to change that person’s hours to when he knew you’d be visiting

- “Yea! I’ve been having him more often now! I’m very happy and my tastebuds are happy too!” You were completely oblivious to his meddling and he thought it was adorable

- one night on facetime, you picked up an hour later then usual and he was upset

- “What’s wrong?” you asked after noticing he had been short with you

- “God dammit M/C I like you and this is the best part of my night! I hate when it’s delayed for one second, let alone an hour,” he complained not knowing he had just admitted his feelings towards you

- “Y-you like me?” you questioned back. you knew you heard him correctly, you just wanted to hear it again.

- “Damn it,” he swore just now noticing his slip up

- you were giggling over the phone

- “What?” he crankily asked, hating the situation thinking you didn’t return the feelings

- “I like you too my defender of justice,” you said while flashing him the biggest smile

- his heart got all warm and happy and all he did was sit and smile in silence for a while

IF YOU WANT ME TO ADD V AND SAERAN MESSAGE ME AND I’LL DO IT TOMORROW BUT IM TIRED RN

[demivampirew]

Don’t judge a book by its cover Chapter 6 (final chapter)

A Cap. Syverson story.

Triggers: Heartbreak ;use of curse words; crying; puking.

Synopsis: Rebeca is an Argentinian girl who a few months ago moved to the USA (Washington D.C) to study in university thanks to a scholarship that she was granted. She’s lonely. People don’t treat her well. Some could be understood but most of them just hate her for being a foreigner. She meets Syverson because he’s a man from the South and she has not had a good experience with people from there, but she may find out at the end that she shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Tag:  lunedelorient 

You’ll find a note at the end of the chapter, which is an explanation of what is being said when the * appears.

Things couldn't be better for Rebeca. She had been dating a wonderful man for the last three months and he treated her like a true queen. She passed all her exams with high grades and now was rightfully enjoying her spring break. Now she had time to hang out with her friend Danielle and even would have double dates with her and her girlfriend Phoebe. She couldn't be happier. One morning she woke up feeling like hell. She had to run to the bathroom to puke. At first, she thought that could have been something that she ate the day before that settled badly in her stomach, but after several days of waking up nauseous and feeling awful but then feeling better the rest of the day, she realized that something else was going on. She decided to take a pregnancy test - two actually, for more certainty- at both gave positive as a result. She was expecting a baby. They usually were careful when having sex, but there were two separate occasions in which they didn't use a condom. She was nervous. What would happen now? Could she lose her scholarship due to her pregnancy? What if they wanted to kick her out of the country and separate her from the child once he had him/her? Would Sy be happy with the news? Should she have the baby at all? The only answer she knew was the last one and it was yes; that baby would be her's and Sy's. She needed now to find out how he felt about it. As long as he was ok with the baby, she'd know that everything was going to be ok, because he always going to be there for her, to help her solved any troubling situation she might be in. After work, she went straight to Sy's house to share the news with him. She was quite nervous, but also excited. If he was happy with the news, then she would get the family she always dream of. She entered the house using the key he gave her and once inside the house she searched for her boyfriend. She found him sitting in the couch, crossing both on his arms in his chest, looking at the space in front of him, lost in his thoughts. Something bad had happened, she could feel it. She caught his attention and he looked at her in silence for a few moments. "Fuck" he cursed and she knew that whatever happened, it was really bad. He sighed and asked her to sit in the couch with him, that he needed to talk to her. - I got the call - he said with sadness. No further explanation was necessary, she knew exactly what that meant. - How long? - she questioned. - Maybe a year or more. They need me there, it has to be me. The locals already know me, I'm the only one who might bring some peace there. - he answered. - I knew I shouldn't have started a relationship. I knew that this day would come in eventually. I didn't want to hurt you, babe.- he apologized. - What are you saying? It's a year or maybe a bit more. I'll wait for you. - Beca assured him - Darling, I may never come back, that's how things go there. I tell you is a year and might end being more. Last time I was supposed to be only for a few months and ended up staying for three years. That's a lot of time. You're young, you cannot spend the rest of your days waiting for a man that might never come back. - he tried to reason with her. - You're breaking up with me then? - she asked with tears on her eyes. - I am, yes. This is best for you. - You promised me that you'll always be going to be there to protect me, but you were lying. You're going to leave me alone.- she recriminated him. - I'm really sorry, baby. It hurts my soul knowing that I'll have to leave you, but I have to go. I have to. I don't have another choice. - But you do. You could leave and found another job and never go back, but you want to. You want to be there because you want to save people, is in your nature. That's who you are. You want to help even if it costs you everything. - she replied, filled with sadness. She stood up a walk to the door with the intentions to leave. He followed her. - Beca, stop. It's late, don't go. It can be dangerous. - he pleaded her to stay the night. She wanted to act like a stubborn child and just leave, but she knew he was right. I was nighttime already and was dark outside. And she needed to think in the baby. "the baby" she thought, reminding herself that now she was going to be alone in this predicament. She was going to be a single mother. She accepted to stay, but she would sleep in the couch, he tried to persuade her to change places, so she would sleep in the bed and him on the couch, but he knew that'd be a waste of energy, she was too stubborn to listen. She spent at least two hours crying silently and thinking in all the mess she was caught on. She was going to have a child in a country that wasn't her own and probably wouldn't want her, an inmigrant with a study visa, to have an American kid. She would probably lose her visa and her job because there was no way she could study and work with a baby and also would not be able to afford childcare. There was only one solution she could find: she needed to go back to her country. There, her family would help her and she would be able to study in her former university and work while her parents looked after the baby. That was the only solution. Then she thought about Sy; the fact that she'd probably never see him again and how he could even die in the battlefield. She got up from the couch, went into the bedroom and saw that he was awake, probably thinking as much as she was. As soon as he saw her, he sat on the bed and stared at her. First, she looked mad at him, but then she started to cry and he extended both of his arms, waiting for her to accommodate herself in his chest so he could hug her. After a bit, she felt a little bit better. She looked into his eyes and kissed him. If that was the last time she would ever see him, she wanted to be a night that neither would forget. A proper goodbye. Neither of them spoke again, they let their bodies do the talking. He made love to her for the very last time, taking the sweet taste of her lips with him forever in his heart.                                           ----------------------------------------------------------- Two years later Syverson was back from the Middle East. He was promoted and now he would never have to come back there again. He was ready to settle down alive and normal life. He would help train new soldiers and would help the new captain there from America, giving orders of how to proceed, but he would never go back. The first thing that crossed into his mind, the main reason he fought to never go back, was to see Rebeca. She was on his mind constantly. There wasn't a single day he wouldn't think of her or dream with her. He planned to search for her, and if she hadn't moved on with her life, he would beg her to take him back. She was his everything. He went to her place and found a young man living there. The gentleman told him that he never meet the former tenant of that house and that he's been living there for over a year and a half. Syverson then looked for her in the grocery store, but she wasn't there either. Another girl was working there, who told him that the owners of the store were on vacations and that she never meet any former employee and that she had been working there for a few months. College was his last resource. He waited for her to get out of the building, but that never happened. After the place was almost empty, he lost his hope in seeing her. He was about to leave when he saw a familiar face leaving the place. - Danielle! - he called at the girl. She turned around and recognized him immediately. - Sy!- she greeted him, surprised to see him.- How are you? - I'm fine. How are you? - he asked politely - I'm great, thanks. - she replied- What are you doing here? - I'm looking for Beca. I've been searching for her everywhere but I haven't been able to find her. Her phone is not the same, she moved and she doesn't work in the grocery store anymore. - he explained confused.- Is there any chance you might now where is she? - I do, actually.- he admitted and took a pause before delivering the bad news- She went back to Argentina. - What? -he questioned, shooked by the news. It was like an ice-cold shower - What happened? Did she lose her scholarship? Did something do something to her? - he asked worriedly. - No, she's fine, don't worry. She went back shortly after you left - the young lady informed him- She said she missed her family a lot and didn't want to stay any longer in the country. She didn't lose her scholarship, she gave it up.- Sy was speechless. He has lost her forever. He couldn't accept that just like that. He needed to see her again, somehow. - Do you have a phone number by any chance? - he asked her - No, sorry.- she apologized. After a little pause, she continued - I have her address, though. She sends me an email with her address and I sent her mine so she could send me things she wanted me to try from her country and I'll send her things that only could find here.                                          -----------------------------------------------------------

He had learnt enough Spanish from two Latino soldiers on his squad to be able to handle short conversations. So, thankfully, it wasn't to difficult for Syverson to order a taxi at the Argentinian airport to go to Rebeca's house. He got out of the taxi and took a minute to see her house. It was quite beautiful, it had flowers in the front. There were bars in the front of the house, so he had to press the doorbell for someone to open the door for him. Moments later, a woman in her late forties or early fifties open the house door. - Hola, qué necesitabas? (Hello, what do you need?)* - asked the woman - Hola. ¿Está Rebeca? (Hello. Is Rebeca here?) - questioned Sy, struggling to hide the fact that he wasn't a Spanish speaker. - Decime tu nombre, así le aviso que la estás buscando (Tell me your name so I tell her you are looking for her) - Digale que Sy la busca, por favor. (Tell her Sy is looking for her, please) - he replied. The woman clearly heard about him, because she looked surprised at looked at him from head to toes, like inspected him. - Espera acá un minuto, ya vuelvo (I'll be back in a minute, wait here) - said the woman and entered the house, closing the door behind her. While waiting, he took a look around the place. Pedestrians were walking around, looking at him, just like some old ladies who were sitting in the porch of the house chatting. For a moment, he felt like a zoo animal. Around ten minutes later, the door opened again and Beca appeared, closing the door behind her and walking towards him. She opened the bars door and let him in. They looked at each other in silence for a moment and then hugged, like if neither of them could believe that was happening. After the hug, he pressed his head against her forehead and smile. He missed her so much. He looked at her and couldn't even believe it. She was way more beautiful than he remembered. - Why did you leave? - he asked her - It's a long story. -she replied. - I thought I lost you forever.- he replied, sighing in relief to know that he was finally with her again. - I ... Why are you here Sy? Why are you in Argentina? - I came to you. I want you to come back with me. - he begged her. - I can't. I lost my visa when I gave up my scholarship. - she explained - You can get it back or maybe a work visa - he suggested - It's not that easy, Sy. You know it. - I'm not giving up. I'm going to find a way to bring you back. Please, take me back. - I would, but I don't think I can get back there. Things are way more complicated than you think. - she paused and took a deep breath. Then, she looked into his eyes and asked him to follow her. They entered the house. Rebeca asked him to wait in the living room as she went into another room. While waiting, Syverson inspected the place. It was a homie. It wasn't different from his house or any other American house, but it felt different. The smell of homemade food being cooked; there was a certain cosiness and warmness that it was hard to explain. No wonder she wanted to go back there instead of staying in the coldness of the solitary house she used to live in Washington.  He heard a room door open and he settled his eyes in the direction in which Beca disappeared. He froze as he saw her enter the living room with a little girl on her arms. She had the same eyes and curly brown hair that Rebeca, but her face...her face looked like him. It was like looking at the pictures that his mother had of him as a little kid, but with long curly hair. Rebeca sat in a chair next to a table, while looked at the little girl, who was shyly hiding her face on her chest, grabbing some of her curls. Sy kneeled before them, without taking his eyes out of the little girl, speechless. He tried to stroke the girls' hair but she hid even more. Beca caressed her and told her that it was ok. - He's daddy. Do you remember daddy? I showed you pictures of him and talked to you about him? He's here. - she explained the little girl. - Does she speak English? - asked Sy, without even thinking. He still was in shock. - Yes. I decided to teach her both English and Spanish at the same time. She's still learning, but she understands when you speak to her in both languages.- she explained. - Hi, baby. I'm your daddy.- he replied, with tears in his eyes. He couldn't believe he had a daughter. - Why... -he began, looking at Beca. He didn't have to finish his question because she knew exactly what he was going to ask. - I was going to tell you that day, but then I couldn't. For lots of reasons. I think you might understand why I did it. - I do. - he agreed. She didn't need to explain anything. Whatever happened, happened. He knew that somehow Beca made the right call. It wouldn't have been the same those years if he would have known that she was alone taking care of his child, but he couldn't leave his squad alone either. He felt terrible for losing a year of his daughter's life; for not being there the day she was born, her firsts steps, her first word. Nonetheless, he would be for the rest of her important moments. And no matter how hard I'd be, he would find a way to take his woman and his daughter back with him.

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

- Mommy, mommy, look what daddy bought me! - said Alma running into her mother's arms to show her the new toy she's got. It was a plastic gun. - See? Now I'm a warrior like daddy. - the little 5 years old girl told her mother while pretending to shoot with the gun. - Seriously, Syverson, a gun? - Rebeca reprimanded her husband for the toy he gave to their daughter. - Hey, she chose it herself, ok? - he defended himself, grabbing her wife by her hips and kissing her. - A kiss is not going to get you out of trouble, mister. Tell me, do you think a gun is an appropriate toy for a little girl? - Girls can be awesome soldiers too, ma'am. - he pointed out - I'm not saying that's not an appropriate toy because she's a girl, I'm saying that toy isn't appropriate for a child of any gender. - Apologies, my lady, you're right. But, you know her, she'll leave it on the floor and forget about it in two days, as she does with all of her toys. - he said grinning. - You're lucky you're right, sir, otherwise there was not going to be more kisses for you. - And that would be the end of me. - he finished the conversation, kissing her while he stroked her face.

The end.

Notes: *In Argentina, is a polite way to ask people you don't know who they are and why are they calling at the door.

[welcometothebookreport]

In 2020, I read 40 books (with maybe a few more to be added after I post this) after discovering my love of reading all over again. I am not a very hard reader to please, so it will be rare for me to rate a book with a low score, so I doubt you’ll ever see any criticism from me. So, here we go!

A few things before I start: There are three series in this list (but technically only two, because I’ve only read Serpent & Dove so far) but I’ve limited myself to no repeat authors. That must have been the hardest part for me. Since Jessi went the extra mile and ranked them in order, I’ve decided to make myself suffer the same. And while most of these were not published in 2020, they were read in 2020.

I am (sometimes) a picky reader, but any book that is on this list, I have loved. I chose not to rate them because honestly, they would have all been high. I give ratings easily, and try not to pick things apart even for books I truly did not like.

Please keep in mind that I do my best to add trigger warnings, but you should always check for certain triggers before reading. Triggers vary for everyone.

10. Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

Warnings: There’s a male character that’s a creep and you’ll spot him as soon as you crack this one open. This tale deals with Peyton being sentenced to prison, and their mother practically glossing over what he’s done by victim blaming.

I have read Dessen’s books since I was 13 and I truly still enjoy her stories as much as I did then. While this was a re-read for me, it’s a tie for my favorite book of hers. It’s tied with Along For the Ride.

Sydney is left in the aftermath after her older brother, Peyton, is sentenced to prison after a drunk driving accident that paralyzes a boy. Formerly in his shadow, Sydney struggles to discover what it is she wants, and how she wants to be seen as her own mother seems to gloss right over her. It’s a YA read that always feels like more than the romance that originally interested me.

9.  Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Warnings: Misogyny. The church and religion plays an extremely heavy part of this plot, which was hard for me to get into. It’s clear that some characters do not value women in their actions and words toward Lou. It made me uncomfortable in spots because I just wanted to get past it, but I plan to read this one again since I know that it won’t bother me this time! Still, there is: violence in parts, religious zealots (in case that’s something that makes you uncomfortable like it did me), derogatory slurs toward women, and again, misogyny.

I finished this one two days ago, and I sincerely cannot wait to dig into the sequel. Lou is a witty, snappy character that was such a breath of fresh air from the normal. You usually see the male lead that’s a bit crude, a bit quick to pull the trigger, and the one that’s harder to crack. Is that what happened here? Absolutely fucking not. Shelby Mahurin took something I loved, enemies to lovers, and kicked its ass. Forced marriage? UM YES. A witch and a witch-hunter? Mortal enemies? Characters that can never possibly love each other? DONE DONE DONE.

It’s hilarious in parts. Serious when it needs to be. A bit spicy too, while not a lot, which I certainly appreciate. Reid’s character development is a wonder to watch, at least for me, and by the end of the book, I am so in love with him that I don’t know what to do with myself. I have so many annotations for this novel.

8. The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller

Warnings: There’s a fair bout of murder. Women are expected not to take lovers before marriage while men are not held to the same standard. Gross. Allessandra is continually underestimated so let me say: let the women do the work.

It’s called the Slytherin romance we’ve been waiting for, and I agree. While this is a shorter read, and a standalone, I was pleased with it. Both characters are incredibly ambitious, but it’s Allessandra that steals the show. The plan? To enter the palace, woo the king, and then kill him in order to take his kingdom. She’s wicked in all the ways I love.

I loved this book, and each page, but this was the line that will make me return to it: “I’m not a trollop,” I announce to the empty room. “I’m a sexually empowered woman, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

The Folk of the Air Series by Holly Black

Warnings: Aside from murder, there’s nothing that stands out to me as a trigger.

A series! The first! There’s something interesting about this series for me, and it’s that I didn’t fall in love altogether, all at once. It was gradual, like wading into water until it went right over my head. By the final fourth of The Cruel Prince, I was fully invested in this world and I absolutely needed to know how Jude and Cardan would become, well, Jude and Cardan.

As a YA series, I was not expecting the sheer amount of mystery, political intrigue, and plot twists that came with this series. However, I never knew what was going to happen, and if I did guess what was coming, Black had at least two more twists to send me for a loop. The Queen of Nothing was likely my favorite book of the series, with The Wicked King as a close second.

6. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Warnings:  Discussion of attempted non-con assault, forced disclosure of sexuality

I laughed until my eyes watered and I nearly cried in this book. Delightfully funny, and snappy, RW&B delivers on everything I didn’t know that I needed. I had never read a book where LGBTQ was represented in such a positive light. As someone raised in a more conservative household, I’ve known my own sexual orientation for a long time, but this book made me feel like I could relax in my skin because this story was stunning.

Alex and Henry left me with so much hope that it’s impossible to ever put the lid back on. I’m so happy I read this.

(oh, god, we’re in the final five.)

5. The Caraval Series by Stephanie Garber

Warnings: Physical and emotional child abuse.

I could dedicate multiple posts to this series. Maybe I still will. While this is at number five, it’s my favorite series I’ve ever read. If I could only have one series to read for the rest of my life, I would choose this one. Hands down. Full stop. These characters live in my head constantly and I would give an obscene amount of things to read it all over again for the first time. I actually read this with two of my closest friends in our many book club, and we all loved it.

Doused in magic, this world is unveiled to us with excellent descriptions. Truly, Garber owned my heart within a few chapters. Scarlett is the elder sister, Tella the younger, and if you don’t love Tella by the end of Caraval, I promise you will. I know because I was skeptical, but here I am. I’ve said it to my friends, but Scarlett is the one who holds my hair while I have a hangover. Tella is the one that helps me start the bar fight.

With non-stop turns, and magic, everything comes to life on these pages. And the romance, the romance. Please, please give me my great love in this style. It’s not too much to ask for, is it?

4. Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer

Warnings:  loss of sibling, loss of parent, alcoholism, mention of infidelity, mentions of previous physical and emotional child abuse.

Mae sent this recommendation to me, and I devoured all of Kemmer’s books post-haste. Declan and Juliet fall in love without knowing who the other is, while also not liking the real version of their penpal. Juliet has lost her mother, and she’s treading water, but not well. Declan has suffered in the years that follow a family tragedy, and he’s not adapting to life with his new step-father.

But he opens with CemetaryGirl (Juliet) and it’s raw in the best of ways, and the openness between them that eventually moves from their bubble to reality is one of the most pleasing things to read. I’ve read it twice this year. I will read it again next year too.

I also read this twice this year and will for sure be reading it again in 2021.

3. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Warnings: Child abuse.

This was another novel that I fell in love with as I went, and that’s definitely because of the non-linear narrative. It was a little confusing, but I’m going to read it again someday since I know everything now! I read this to follow-up to Caraval with my book club pals, and it’s just what I needed to leave Caraval behind. Marco and Celia are incredible and I absolutely believe that the ending of this novel is one of the best endings I’ve ever read.

My book club has not finished this book entirely this so I’m not sharing any spoilers, but I would like to share one of my favorite quotes. “What did you wish for?” “I wished for her.”

2. Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

Warnings: Cuba is in the middle of a revolution, and it’s tense in parts. There are some bittersweet elements and I think the parts of the ending are like the punch in the gut you need in order to wake you up and remember to live.

This was my first read once I really dug back into this hobby in August. It was picked by Reese Witherspoon for her book club, and she always picks good books. This is a dual timeline romance, and mystery. It’s an absolute stunner of a book. It’s a dear favorite to me now. I’ve never been to Cubs, or heard stories, but Cleeton manages to make you feel like you’re right there feeling saltwater spray across your face.

The romance made me feel breathless, but truly it’s the strong familial ties that make this such a beautiful gem. It leaves you with hope even in the dark and with love in the absence of it. I could scream about this book for the rest of my life, which I absolutely intend to do.

Favorite line? “You’re going to be difficult to walk away from, aren’t you?” “I hope so.”

1 In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren

Warnings? There are none that strike me. This is a lighthearted read that pulls at the heartstrings, but it’s by no means short on the laughs. And, I’m sorry for the long wall of text below.

In A Holidaze is the story of a woman stuck in her ways of never going after what she truly wants until a stray wish lands her in a time loop over the holidays. It's only after repeating the same day a few times that she quite literally says "fuck this," and starts living for HER. I really expected this to just be a Hallmark kind of read, but it was SO MUCH MORE. You should read it, even if it's after the holidays.

It's witty, and heart-wrenching, and it's just everything I didn't know I needed. Mae is snarky, and brave when she figures out that there is nothing stopping her, and the romance is - GODDAMN. Andrew. I need an Andrew and a fan.

It's not quite a love triangle, which was what I expected and I was so pleasantly surprised. I have grinned like a goddamn fool all day. I have giggled all day in front of customers, and my co-workers. I have nearly CRIED in my bedroom when my heart fell out of my ass and landed somewhere near my ankles, because hello, it's gonna get you.

This is going on my yearly re-read list for the holidays.

In the two days since I’ve finished, I’ve convinced my two friends in book club to read it, convinced Jessi to order it from Book of the Month Club, convinced another friend to read it, and bought it for Mae on Christmas day because her library had a six month hold and that was simply unacceptable.

[ambitionsource]

Any Asher Lucas head canons I really love their friendship?

hello anon i am back as promised with the second half of answers to the lucasher asks i got a handful of weeks ago!! seeing as its the tail end of asher’s appreciation day, i am here to deliver on discussing their friendship

so to start, i would say that marking dylan as an outlier and not to be counted (especially on asher’s end), both of them would without a doubt call the other their best friend. asher flexes a bit on this, as jade is also arguably his bestie, but for lucas there’s absolutely no contest. asher is his best friend -- he even said so in 209, which took a lot of emotional vulnerability for him to manage to verbalize -- and that title really means something to him.

to that point, though, i think it took the events of s2 for that to really cement. as we know, lucas has issues with connecting with + trusting others, and so he kind of keeps people at arm’s length. i think asher has always been a bit of an exception to this rule (which i’ll explain in a bit), but lucas was mentally able to still keep him removed emotionally in his mind bc he was like... you know, his inferior in rank / his lieutenant rather than an equal. i don’t mean that he like thought of asher as inferior, because he doesn’t -- lucas hates himself so he thinks everyone is better than him anyway lmao, but he’s also had a lot of respect for asher -- but there was able to be this... mental barrier in his head, if that makes sense. but when asher finally stood up to him, multiple times (in 207 with their argument and then in 208 when he Truly put his foot down and basically walked out of his life), that put them on equal footing on all levels and broke that barrier in his brain. and, thusly, is part of the reason lucas was suddenly able to articulate it in the following ep

but, on that note, one thing that i think makes them such good friends is that they’re both very like... not mushy. at least, not with each other. they both don’t mind side-stepping more complicated emotions and just assuming things are unspoken but understood, but are getting better at knowing the moments where something should be said

but they’re like equally weird about the same stuff, like they both don’t like birthdays + being paid attention to on their bday bc they don’t know how to process it (sans the exception of dylan, who of course asher will allow to be extra on his birthday), so they will straight up just like not tell each other happy birthday on their bdays and people are like doesn’t that upset you?? did he forget?? and they’re like no actually lucas / asher is my favorite person bc he ignores my birthday fDSJLFKGSJKGLJSGL like... they’re so fucking weird

asher is constantly trying to improve lucas’s fashion sense + design sensibility and it does not work. like nothing sticks. asher will spend an hour casually (but actually very intently) telling lucas about the nuances in color between shades and then later when he asks him a question about which shade of red they should use in the set design lucas goes “idk they look the same to me just pick one” and asher is like. bitch ur jokin... it’s lowkey funny that he keeps trying tho like lmao

so in terms of asher being slightly different than others even early on, the way this most manifests is that i think for whatever reason, asher feels safe to lucas. its an inexplicable thing, and something i dont think lucas even really realizes consciously. but he starts their friendship being like oh i’m gonna protect asher the strong must protect the sweet this lame nerd needs me, but then what it actually ends up being is more that lucas needed asher. like yes he gets asher to loosen up and let out more of his authentic self, but asher gave lucas a friendship to anchor to, someone who seemed to genuinely like him not because he was reckless or cool but just because of who he is. and even when he fucked up, asher still seemed to believe he could be better / saw him as more than that, and lucas had never had anyone in his life before like that, let alone someone where it felt that way (i.e. dylan also sees lucas that way especially now, but something about asher just made it so pointedly clear)

and how this ends up changing things is that lucas finds that like... he wants to talk to asher. he wants to be real with him, not put up the defensive, aloof façade. so you have lucas going to convince him to sneak out freshman and sophomore year so they could hang out just the two of them (a thing featured briefly in the “younger” sequence in 208), and those were the moments where he got in those conversations. and asher liked those nights too because they made him feel special, like all the people lucas could choose to hang out with and he chose him to bother and coax out into the night... for a kid like asher, younger than everyone else and an anxious mess and nerdy and he knows it, that’s like. the craziest thing ever. so those one-on-one hangouts meant a lot to both of them, though for different reasons

what’s nice too is that their friendship definitely matured and grew with them the longer it lasted, because there was an element of hero worship on asher’s end and almost belittling underestimation on lucas’s end when their dynamic started, but then it grew organically past that. and when they actually got to know one another, for all their complexities, it made them better friends. and now those misconceptions are long gone, but they still hold a lot of respect for one another.

also to this point, i do not remember if i’ve said this yet on the blog or not but so major point here -- asher was actually lucas’s first (and only, pre-riley) crush. being demisexual, he has to form a deep emotional connection with someone before he really falls for them (riley being semi the exception to this because even though he didn’t really fall for her until they became friends from the get-go he was like okay so she pretty....... whatever tho idc like uh huh sure lucas). and like late in freshman year, maybe even early that summer, lucas and asher had become pretty good friends and were spending a lot of nights hanging out together and talking, and one of those nights they were talking about something semi-serious, and lucas was just looking at him and just realized like wow hm i could kiss asher... and then he was like WAIT HUH?!?!?!?!?!?! cause he’d NEVER had thoughts like that before and suddenly he was having them about his best friend, and that best friend was dating his other good friend and it just FREAKED him out he was like HELLO BAD WEIRD WRONG??? so he stifled that deep down and lowkey ignored asher for like two weeks until it passed -- which of course made asher worried he did something wrong or pissed him off, but thankfully that passed without much commentary or further discussion. lucas has mostly forgotten about it now.

that being said, if you ever told asher he was lucas’s first crush, he would never ever believe you.

they really enjoy discussing / debating each other, especially since lucas is truly equally as clever as asher, but it’s a really careful line because one wrong comment from either of them can send them tipping into actual argument bc they’re also very good at pushing each other’s buttons. this is why dylan’s presence is extremely helpful at keeping them balanced.

and this is kind of a key trait to their best friendship, which is that they make awesome best friends, but my god they would make TERRIBLE romantic partners. they cannot communicate when it really matters (especially about stuff that makes them embarrassed like romance, which they can barely do with their actual partners); they push each other’s buttons; they love each other’s flaws as friends but would drive each other crazy as lovers. like the people they’re with for love are exactly the people they need, understanding, soft, patient, and good at communicating. if lucas and asher dated, they would kill each other within the first week.

one of the first times dylan, asher, and lucas really hung out as a trio involved “wilding” asher, which meant dressing him like lucas and getting him to be more reckless and freewheeling for an afternoon. they didn’t do anything crazy, but lucas let asher borrow one of his t-shirts and snapbacks for the occasion. asher still has both buried in his closet, mainly because he keeps forgetting about it but also because there’s a sentimentality to them. not that he would ever ever wear them again -- yuck. asher would rather vomit

it should not be understated that the first people lucas verbally said i love you to were asher and dylan. it’s important. don’t ever forget it.

-- Maggie

[xoruffitup]

Adam Driver on SNL: 1/25 Dress Rehearsal Recap

I’m having dejavu of the best kind. I’m sitting here on the bus on my way back from NYC in hungover euphoria and overjoyed disbelief at everything I just experienced, texting new friends and old, recounting everything in my head and smiling so hard. The September 2018 weekend of Adam’s last SNL show lives in my memory in unmatched infamy, so my excitement was off the charts to do it all again. And because this show was absolutely fucking INCREDIBLE, this weekend delivered in every way all over again!! Seriously, my face aches from how I can’t stop smiling aksnksj HELP :’)

My friends and I were in the Dress Rehearsal, so below the cut are retellings of ALLLL the skits including those cut from the Live show - and no small amount of helpless emotional flailing.

I had an idea of what to expect after attending Adam’s 2018 show, but I nevertheless felt sky-high levels of anxiety when Sarah and we arrived at the NBC shop at 6:30. I knew rationally that our chances of getting into Dress were good with numbers #12 - 14, but every now and then there’s the occasional oddity of only a handful of Standby people getting in. Though even without any uncertainty in the equation, my entire being goes on Hyped/Anxious Overdrive anyway whenever I’m about to be in the same space as Adam sO really there’s nothing for it. :’)

They lined us up by numbers, I did a lot of emotional wobbling like “I can’t believe we’re here again together guys waaaah” (have I mentioned I met these girls at Adam’s last show? Full circle moment of the highest and most beautiful caliber and it had me hella verklempt), and thennnn - drumroll and hushed silence please - the main security guy comes up to the giant line and asks the first 20 people to come with him.

As they constantly remind you throughout this thoroughly nerve-wracking process, there is no guarantee you’ll actually get into the show until you’re physically in the seat. It’s a long, harrowing trip from the NBC store where the line gathers, up stairs, elevators, and through hallways to reach the studio, and you can still be cut even as far as the very last checkpoint if all seats fill up with the people ahead of you. So as you get closer, the excitement spikes higher and higher but so does the worry! We went through security, and then I clung to our new Standby line friend Catherine’s arm as they lined us up two-by-two on the first staircase, with Sarah and @reylonly right behind. I was likely extremely annoying as I couldn’t help being rambly and weird in my nerves and compulsively hugging my girls’ arms. @reylonly did her very best to calm my hot mess down, bless her.

About 45 minutes later (Maybe? I had no idea what time was, lbr) we reached the final point of the elevator and last hallway, and were held just outside the studio. THEN - the woman there instructed the next 4 to follow her in (thank GOD because we were terrified of being split up), WE WENT INTO THE STUDIO WHEW YAYAY OMFG WE WERE THERE!!! - but then oh no it happened so fast that she pointed @reylonly down to a single seat in the center and then the other 3 of us to seats towards the left side of the stage. They were all single seats, but thank GOSH they were all end seats of rows right next to each other. So Sarah was right in front of me and I could grab her shoulder (which I would do a lot in increasingly desperate excitement over the next 2 hours), and Catherine and I could reach across the aisle to cling to each other’s hands! @reylonly was on her own but in an incredible seat, and during commercial breaks we would lean forward to wave and blow kisses to each other and mime flailing or crying as one incredible sketch after another played out in front of us. I made sure to be friendly and talk to the people sitting next to me so they wouldn’t be too annoyed with me and Sarah always grabbing at each other, but LOL they probably thought I was at least a little insane. I mean, maybe for the moment alone when I saw a girl I’d made friends with in line but then lost track of in a seat not too far from me, and we started waving and dabbing at each other. Once we were seated there in the studio, all the anxiety gave way to surging excitement and I was practically bouncing in my seat, so overjoyed to be there and see my dear fandom friends there with me!

Michael Che warmed up the audience with some standup, the House band jammed, and Sarah and I momentarily got Extremely Excited when we saw them setting up the hell backdrop set for the cold open and thought at the time it was supposed to be Tattooine for a Star Wars skit, lolol. But then the actual show started, and with our Adam-eagle eyes Catherine reached out to whisper “there he is! In the blonde wig!” And, heart in my throat no matter how many times I see this man in person, I frantically squinted at all the people waiting just off to the side of the set until I saw that unmistakably Tol Broad back, and then he stepped onto the set and into the lighted camera’s view and I was cheering and clapping so hard for his first appearance that I couldn’t hear who he was supposed to be playing. xD I was just tapping Sarah’s shoulder in front of me, bouncing in my seat a little, and trying not to start levitating with the sheer force of my excitement and joy to be there.

OKAY from here I’ll break this up by skit! Anything that was different or missing from the Live show I put in bold font if you want to skip to that! Starting with...

Intro Monologue

WHAT A GOOD MONOLOGUE, ITS LIKE THEY JUST LET ADAM RUN WITH IT AND WRITE IT HIMSELF IT WAS SO HIM AND HILARIOUS AND WEIRD AND YET CHARMING IDEK I WILL NEVER COMPREHEND THE WONDER OF THIS MAN??

So when he dropped the bomb of “I’m a husband and a FATHER” I clapped Sarah’s shoulder SO HARD, then he made he joke “I’ve made it very clear to my son that he’s second in everything” and I could not bELIEVE the wonder of what I was hearing omfg. I heard the words “my son” come out of his mouth with my own ears WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED, SURE AS HELL NOT ME????

Then he went into the audience to demonstrate how “approachable” he is and was so awk/weird/hilarious I was just losing it, then took his time meandering around the stage and making weird faces into the camera and I was just LOSING IT. And AKSKSJA after that he wandered over to another camera that was lower and kind of hummed as he lifted his shirt and put it over the camera so we got a full on belly button view for 2 unbelievable glorious seconds!! He looked up at the monitors as he was doing it and went “oh you can’t see anything” so that’s probably why he sadly didn’t flash his belly in the Live show.

“Cheer” with Adam as one of the team coaches

I’m going by the skit order in Dress, and this one was first after the monologue. Best part for me was the accent reminiscent of Clyde Logan. :3 But tbh, of the 6 skits they did for the Live show, I kind of wish this one had been swapped for the one performed last in Dress that was sO Wild and would have made fandom absolutely lose its shit aksnksal more to come on that.

UNDERCOVER BOSS AKA RANDY THE INTERN

THE BEST GIFT WE COULD HAVE RECEIVED!! BLESS YOU SNL AND ADAM FOR GIVING US KYLO CONTENT TO BE HAPPY OVER AND LOVE WHOLE HEARTEDLY. T___T

Honestly, I cannot even properly describe my reaction when the Undercover Boss intro logo appeared on all the monitors oHMYLoRDDD. I nearly leapt out of my seat, like my heart nearly jumped clear out of my chest oh my fuck and I was legit holding onto Sarah so much I almost slid out of my seat - I just couldn’t believe it and I cheered SO LOUD. The entire audience erupted with this “HOLY SHIT” vibe outburst and I was SO happy to be there in that moment - knowing that our entire fandom was only hours away from this!! I honestly didn’t expect it at all - after they didn’t do one of these the second time Adam was on, I thought there was no chance. But IT HAPPENED AND IT WAS SO QUALITY HILARIOUS WE ARE SO BLESSED - THANK YOU TO RANDY’S LIL BEANIE AND VEST AND HIPSTER PANTS.

Pretty sure I like half curled up on myself laughing so hard my feet left the floor at OK BOOMER. And at the part with “will Rey take his hand?” I swear MY SOUL NEAR LEFT MY BODY I MEAN IS THIS THE REAL LIFE IS THIS JUST FANTASYYYY

..... Can someone come promise me we really didn’t just collectively hallucinate that??

SAG Awards Fashion Red Carpet

I’m not too disappointed this one was cut. Of all the amazing skits performed, I would have ranked this one lower. Adam and Kenan Thompson were fashion critics talking about celebs’ looks on the SAG red carpet. A minute in Adam says, “We should be paying more attention to the kids!” Kenan: *nervous laugh* “uh, should we??” Adam starts talking about/admiring the outfits for like Finn Wolfhard etc, with hilarious but bordering creepy descriptions like “masculine but not quite fully grown,” until Kenan is like “umm maybe we shouldn’t be talking about kids this much?”

They interview a girl who’s supposed to be Jojo Siwa and Adam’s like “you should know I think you’re beautiful. Kids need to hear more often that they’re beautiful.” Kenan panics, going “alRIGHT we’re gonna cut back to the studio now!” The skit ended with Adam: “I got a ticket to the Nickelodeon afterparty and I’m gonna swipe one of those kids in my pocket!”

“Slow” Digital Short

HONESTLY, this competes with Undercover Boss for my favorite skit of the night. I can’t even tell you - I had literal tears running down my face I was laughing SO fucking hard during this entire thing. From the first moment we heard Adam’s deep-ass voice I absolutely and entirely lost my shit oh my GOD. We’d been so pumped for Adam in some kind of rap sketch when we saw the photos of him and Kenan filming the day before, but it was SO FUCKING GOOD. I will never ever in all my days not bust out laughing at “Bring that ass here” and “In a 65 hour lane going 2” aksnskns I’m on the bus struggling to fight back laughter just thinking about it SEND HELP!!!

It’s just brilliant. The turtle next to his expensive loafers. His cheesy sunglasses. That shot of his glorious bare arms. His deep voice “Baby” when they’re at the door and “But I brought ice cream” oh my god I love it so much BLESS YOU SNL BLESS YOU. I never in all my days thought I’d get Adam rapping but it’s every single thing I never knew I needed.

Del Taco Commercial / “Aw Man I’m All Outta Cash!”

ADAM’S SLEAZY LOOKING LONG WIG LMAO. This one was a wild and funny time once you got into it and just let it go. Once Kyle, Beck, and Adam were all yelling the line and Adam went “You don’t want to kill yourself, you just want a taco, Jesus” everyone was ROLLING. I think the only difference (is this even worth color coding lol) was that after Kyle took his pants off Adam kept slapping his thigh during Dress bahaha.

“Hot Dad” Adam dealing with a clogged toilet at a teenaged girls’ sleepover

Adam and Kate McKinnon comedy together YES PLEASE. This one was all the same as far as I can remember, but I will say that a woop/cheer rose from the people sitting near the set for this one at the line about Adam being a “hot Dad.” Yep sounds about right.

(Halsey’s first song, Weekend Update)

Medieval Renaissance Fair

You can’t have Adam host SNL without giving him some ridiculous character skit ala Oil Baron Parnassus. I absolutely loved how intense and deep he was for this kind of nonsense xD We can thank this skit for giving us footage of Adam yelling “Whore!” and spitting, lmao. Also.... I’ll just say in that outfit and wig he looked even Extra Big in comparison to everyone around him.

Courtroom Trial / Sinbad on Cameo

I’m also okay with this one being cut, but I was biased to enjoy the hell out of it live because the set was right in front of where I was sitting and I had such a perfect view of him. <3

Adam was supposed to be the defendant in a case where a female coworker claims he harassed her by sending “threatening” videos. Adam goes up on the stand and the prosecutor asks “are you familiar with these videos?” Cut over to Kenan Thompson, who’s pretending to be Sinbad on the app Cameo, making videos for the woman that are like “Hey you better give Mark a chance! Otherwise he might come after you!” Adam responds with disbelief: “I have no idea who this Sinbad person is and frankly, your honor, this is pissing me off.” Kenan acts a few more videos which keep getting funnier because he keeps eating things or being in crowded public places while filming them. But in the final video he references Adam’s character’s name so it’s clear he was the one requesting the videos. Adam gets all sad on the stand: “It doesn’t matter. No one likes me anyway!” It ends with Kenan as Sinbad crashing into the courtroom in person.

This was more Kenan’s skit as he really was hilarious, but someone had to explain to me afterwards who Sinbad is and how the Cameo app works so I didn’t quite ~get it while watching. BUT more importantly - Adam looked great despite the weird brown wig he had on. During the second of Kenan’s videos when the cameras were on Kenan instead, Adam’s face definitely started quivering with suppressed laughter until he visibly locked it down like NO FOCUS ADAM. Most of my attention stayed fixed on the buttons of his shirt because hOOo boy were they straining! Without me even saying anything, Catherine reached across the aisle for me immediately afterwards and whispered, “That shirt did /not/ fit well.” OH YES I NOTICED >:33

PBS Science Show

Another one which was performed right directly in front of us!! I already knew this was going to be a good one because Adam went right over to the skeleton mannequin when he came on set and started playing with it, like making the arm and wrist wiggle around. The biggest dork cutie you’ll ever see.

He was standing right under me, which meant once he started handling the balloon I got mighty distracted watching his MASSIVE hands around that tiny-looking balloon. >:)) Then I cracked up so hard when he got exasperated and threw something back against the window. WE GOT TO SEE HIM SMASH SOMETHING IN PERSON YESSSS

Ketchup bottles

Oh my GOD EVERYTHING WAS AMAZING ABOUT THIS ONE FROM START TO FINISH. The best part though might have been the prep beforehand. Someone carried the giant Ketchup and hot sauce bottles onto the set before the actors came on and we were like wtf? (For a minute I was triggered remembering Kanye coming on in his Perrier bottle during the 2018 show) But THEN Adam and Cecily Strong came on in big red shirts and people started lifting the giant plastic bottles over them and LOL we realized where this was going. They definitely struggled for a minute getting Adam’s bottle up over his head because of his height xD People in the audience were already laughing just watching this costume set up, and once Adam got the bottle on a WOOT cheer rose which I later learned was none other than @reylonly aka my hero. It was followed by someone yelling “THATS HOT”, which akndosjan made Adam laugh and raise his arms with a hilarious little shimmy in the bottle. He really seemed to be enjoying himself during the whole show, but during this ridiculous and incredibly hilarious skit especially so.

Game Night / Movie Quote Competition

OKAY this is the skit it’s a real tragedy didn’t make it on air! There were lines in this I couldn’t beLiEvE my ears were hearing, and if we ever get a recording I’m pretty sure the fandom would basically implode. 

Three couples are sitting around a living room having a game night. Adam is sitting with Kate McKinnon with his arm around her. After they finish playing Settlers of Catan, Heidi Gardner suggests they play a movie quote game where one of them says a line from a movie and the rest have to guess the movie. She is clearly very into it, and the others reluctantly agree. It quickly becomes clear that Adam is just as good at the game as she is, and they immediately start becoming competitive. They reach the point where they quote three lines from Captain Phillips in a row, trying to trick each other. As the game gets more heated, they exchange aggressive flirty banter such as:

Heidi: You really know your movie quotes, huh? Adam: Yeah I do. Heidi: And with some BDE over there. Adam: Yeah, I got that too.

AND !!!!!!!!!!

Heidi: You’re quite the movie flick daddy. Adam: I’m the world’s biggest flick daddy.

!!!!!!!!! HE CALLED HIMSELF A DADDY HELP CALL 911 EMERGENCY !!!!!!!!!!

The game keeps escalating until Kate tries to calm Adam down and he brushes her off. Everyone else tries to tell Heidi to relax, and she responds “What?! I’m supposed to lie back and let (Kate’s character’s name)’s hot husband rail me??”

I WAS FLOATING ON THE CEILING BY THIS POINT, I literally couldn’t believe what my ears were hearing alsdfjsldafjlsdkfj!

It gets to the point where they’re both standing, shouting completely vague snippets of lines at each other while the other continues to guess correctly. Until finally Adam exclaims, “I got a good one!” He grabs her and fULL ON kisses her. 

(Pictures from The Adam Driver Files twitter.)

Immediately afterwards she goes, “I know! That was the kiss from (Movie X - I can’t remember the exact title).” Adam: “HOW DID YOU KNOW?!” Heidi: “From how you moved your tongue!”

I’m still reeling from this one. Adam calling himself a daddy, talk of “getting railed” by him, and intense kissing?! Oh my lORDDDD. I’m still trying to keep it playing on a loop in my ears. I’m not sure if we as a fandom could collectively survive a full video of this, but GOD I hope we get the chance to test ourselves. RELEASE THE UNAIRED VIDEO, YOU NBC COWARDS!!!

FLICK DADDY INDEED

...Aaaaaaand that was a wrap! After 10 skits and nearly 2.5 hours, it literally felt like I had run a marathon at a full sprint. I was just trying to process everything I’d just witnessed, while trying to focus on committing every single thing to memory. I just couldn’t believe the range of amazing and hilarious things I’d just seen Adam doing: Play a talking ketchup bottle, call himself a daddy, awkwardly talk about feminine products clogging his toilet, yell “WHORE” then spit and swing a medieval mace around, rap hilariously, and yell about umami?? It was all almost TOO MUCH. 

For full-circle and emotional fulfillment reasons, I wore my Save Ben Solo shirt to the show just like I did at the 2018 show. I had debated beforehand whether it would be too bittersweet to wear it after TROS, but now I’m so glad I did. All these hilarious and zany skits were just what we all needed to continue the cycle of fandom excitement and positivity despite the last month. I’m so incredibly grateful to SNL for such great material for Adam to work with and us to laugh at, and for giving us the perfect reminder that there’s still so much to whole-heartedly appreciate and love. Most of all, Adam himself. <3

THANK YOU SNL AND ADAM FOR ANOTHER LIFE-HIGHLIGHT WEEKEND! <3