#and then i was interrupted and didn't finish it til three weeks later

[ashclouds366]

[bambisgirl]

confident ; 32. the truth untold

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“oh, hi heeseung!”

he closes the door behind him as he enters the dorm room.

“am i interrupting something?” he raises his brow and both you and sunghoon shake your head. heeseung nods and throws his giant backpack on the floor.

today marks a month since you and sunghoon became fuck buddies. 

neither of you expected heeseung to come home early from the gym today — thank god you were already finished by the time he got here. you were so startled as soon as you heard the door open that you’ve almost tripped over jake’s pile of clothes.

heeseung takes off his shoes and neatly places them on the doormat, now glaring at the two of you. “well, i’m glad i didn't come in the middle of something.” he simply raises his shoulders, giving both of you a soft smile.

the air isn’t awkward at all and the tension that was usually present between sunghoon and heeseung disappeared as well. character development much?

you silently watch him as he takes his black coat off, subtly glancing at the white tee sticking onto his sweaty chest, his defined collarbones on full display. god bless the decelis gym.

“how was gym day?” you casually ask, taking a seat at jake’s desk. sunghoon was laying on his bed, hair all messy and his arms under his head.

you’ve been talking to heeseung everyday as always so everything felt natural.

the only difference is... the whole room smells like sex. and he obviously noticed as soon as he stepped in.

“so tiring.” he sighs. “jake is obsessed with his goddamn leg day while jay only lifts weights, so they’re dragging me around.” his hand goes through his hair and you suck in a breath. your best friend looks so damn hot with his grey sweats and sticky forehead. you can see his toned pecs peeking through his almost damp shirt.

“man, you should come more often to the gym, i need you.” he turns his head to sunghoon this time, chuckling a bit. you remember sunghoon mentioning that him and heeseung were always together at the gym because jay and jake had their own specific workouts. “anyway... i’m going to take a shower, see y’all later.”

he makes his way to the other room where the bathroom he shares with jay is. sunghoon is looking at the ceiling and you know he’s thinking about how he’s neglected his friends lately because of you. he’s been skipping their gym days and hangouts, seeing it as an opportunity for you to come over when they boys aren't around the dorms.

little do you know that all three of you are overthinking in this exact moment.

in the room next to you, as cold water hits heeseung’s skin he realizes he’s not okay. he’s never been okay.

as he tries to relax his muscles he closes his eyes and pictures of sunghoon’s hand around your waist or jake’s hand holding yours while you study together cross his mind.

fake it til you make it, he thought. but it’s fucking hard to see your best friends all over the girl you’ve been in love with for the past decade.

he doesn't realize he’s crying until an involuntary sob comes out of his mouth. and another one. and another one.

he’s crying in the bathroom while you and sunghoon are probably making out a few feet away from him.

he really tried to stop noticing every little thing. the way whenever you hug jake, his hands linger on the small of your back way longer than they normally should. how jay secretly glances your way whenever you enter a room and stays like that until one of the boys slaps him on the back of his head to pay attention. the way sunghoon is happier, more lively and bright ever since you started messing around with him. 

heeseung lied. he’s not a deep sleeper. he heard all of sunghoon’s giggles after that night weeks ago when he came to your dorm with ice cream.

“i... i can't do this anymore.” he says through uncontrollable hiccups and sobs, maniacally clutching onto his wet hair, almost ripping it out.

he knows he can’t be selfish anymore, though. it’s not good. 

but he can’t give up on you either.

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notes: sorry for the angst <//3 all feedback is very much appreciated so pls talk to me thru asks / replies / dms hehe ♡ 

PAIRING. enhypen hyung line x fem!reader (ft. enhypen x reader)

SYNOPSIS. after graduating high-school and having a major glow-up over summer, you became more confident in yourself and got the title of the most popular girl at decelis university in your first week of freshman year. you instantly dethroned all of the sophomore girls, on top of being so pretty, kind, smart and sexy… girl you have it all. yet you’re still the same kind, naïve and funny y/n that can’t refuse anyone coming her way. after all, you know what they say… confidence is the sexiest thing a girl can have but kindness is key!

GENRE. college au, social media au with written parts, humor, romance, fluff, angst, suggestive, smut

[ghostbustermelanieking]

oddly specific memories i have of listening to tma

in honor of the finale, and because i am a sentimental asshole, i bring you this potentially uninteresting and completely pointless list. i'm gonna miss this show a lot

half my original reasoning for listening to the podcast was to motivate me to walk on the treadmill. this did not work. but i did it the first time, when i was going through the trailers and anglerfish, and i remember the room where my dad keeps the treadmill is really dark and the spooky chanting sort of freaked me out

after the treadmill, i ended up listening to the bulk of the first four episodes on the couch, and halfway through i let my oldest cat, winnie, who always lived outside (i know, i was very against actually keeping her outside) in the house. and she jumped up on the couch with me, which she literally never did. (she was very grumpy and not super affectionate.) i had that cat since i was five, and she passed last june, and i really miss her. quarantine kind of gave us the opportunity to hang out with her a lot, because we were home so much. so i'm glad these memories are kind of intersected in my mind. (below: a pic i have from that day.)

my friend sarah relistened along with me the first time around, which was extraordinarily sweet of her, and also led to some interesting interactions. for example: she forgot when it was revealed that sasha was dead, so she accidentally spoiled that for me when i asked when the others would find sasha (and i spent all of season 2 just like. anxiously vibrating over this fact). she also made this post, when i was still in like early first half of season 1, and my immediate thought was "oh no martin is dead." i hadnt even MET martin at this point

back in early quarantine, my mom had this rule that we had to do something new every day (to keep away the depression... ha ha). anyways, all i wanted to do in my free time was sit around and listen to tma (and also watch this show i was into on netflix), so i came up with some lame excuses, one of which was "i'll give myself a pedicure." this led to the memory i ultimately associate with mag 56 (trevor herbert 2) being me sitting out on our roof balcony thing, giving myself a horrendous pedicure

another time, my family wanted to go play tennis, and they brought me along and brought a hammock for me to lay in. there was this excess material from the hammock, and the sun was in my eyes, so i ended up pulling it up and over me to block the sun and creating this ridiculous hammock cocoon thing. one of the episodes i listened to that day? "tucked in."

before i ever started the show, my friend sarah stayed with me while i was pet sitting. i remember when she got there, she'd just listened to 150 and was telling me how freaky it was (she was still trying to get me into the show), and she was like "of course we're staying on a CUL DE SAC." (that was also the weekend she watched us for the first time and was very upset because i slept through the whole thing, which is scary when you're staying somewhere by yourselves.) anyways, i spent the whole show waiting for the scary cul de sac episode

while i was listening to the show for the first time, my step-dad (an artist) started painting an EYE on the door downstairs near my bathroom. a fucking EYE. he didn't finish it til i had finished the show. but still weird!!

i binged like 12 episodes in one day to finish season 4, which is not impressive at all, but it's still my personal record. i just remember staying up late in my dark bedroom (til like.... 11 i'm lame and i go to bed early), listening to like 158 & 159 & 160 and just being knocked on my ass by how good it all was... i was SUPER spoiled by this point, through my own fault, and i knew exactly what was coming, but actually experiencing it was nuts

the second week i listened live was 167, where the public release was delayed by a couple hours by accident. i spent like 20 minutes refreshing spotify, thinking it was broken, before going on tumblr and seeing what the deal was. (and 167 remains one of my favorites of s5 because i remember just going "thank god it was worth the wait.")

this one car ride where sarah and i made some of our friends listen to the first three episodes of the show. it was the middle of the night and we were just like blasting down i40 listening to anglerfish and do not open etc

the night the what the ghost episode publicly dropped was the night after my graduation, and i was sleeping out on the couch in the living room so my grandfather could sleep in a bed. it was super dark, and i am a jumpy person, and i Remember being mildly disgusted with myself because the corny sound effects were actually freaking me out. (i think i mightve actually seen something weird that night, maybe, but that's another story.)

the weekend my parents moved me into college, we couldn't get the cable in the house we were staying in, and we were all sitting around doing nothing, so i jokingly suggested starting tma with them, and they were like ok grace. my step-dad promptly fell asleep and my mom zoned out -- which is probably good, she doesn't like horror and she's super claustrophobic, so it's probably better we never got to do not open

my brief roommate in college talked about how she was into those youtube channels where people just read scary stories, so of course i was like try tma out. so she listened to the first episode on her own, and we were out one night, and she started mag 02 while i went into an ice cream place. she was into it (she kept being like open it, ya pussy) and wanted to keep listening while we went home, and even back in our room. i had only been in town for a couple weeks, and barely knew my way around, but i also didn't want to turn the gps on and be interrupted every five seconds. so i tried to find our way back on my own. it took the entirety of mag 03, and into mag 04, before i did it. so now i will forever associate across the street with all those wrong turns i took in a dark, semi unfamiliar city, trying to get back to our college without a gps

the day of the early drop for 179 was the day i moved back home from college -- a five hour drive by myself. i ended up listening to it on the final stretch of the trip, when i was super tired and it was dark and i knew it'd probably be a crazy episode. just me full blasting down i40, drinking an energy drink (which i never do) through a hole punched in the top, listening to daisy's death

186 early dropped the day after initial u.s. election day (when we still didn't know anything). my mom had set up a "watch party" in the living room with these giant air mattresses, and we all sort of spent the day crowded around the TV watching the numbers. not much of a memory, but i remember sitting on that air mattress and listening to martin's monologue in the midst of that messy week

i had a virtual therapy appointment on the day of 187's early drop, and my dad was home, so i drove to an empty parking lot to do the session in some privacy. i was trying to listen to the episode before the session started, so i ended up listening to the last half sitting in my car, in the pouring rain, just staring at my radio in shock (187 remains one of my favorite s5 episodes)

my friend sarah had just come home for winter break the day 189 dropped, and we decided to listen together, just like driving around in circles drinking coffee and listening and speculating on whether or not that was really martin

i started my relisten right after thanksgiving and was just kind of blowing through fast as i could through the whole of december. i had to go back to college to empty out my dorm, and i went to the beach after, and i ended up listening to mag 11 while just like walking around in circles in the tide pools. the closer it got to christmas, the more christmassy i wanted to keep things, so i would like. listen in the mornings and turn on one of those Netflix fireplaces and get all cozy

my other friend went with me on a mini bagel road trip in december, and he was still trying to get caught up, so we listened to mag 169, 170, and 171 on the drive home. (by this point, i was accustomed enough to s5 and smiting scenes to automatically reach for the volume controls when jude perry and jared hopworth died.)

when i relistened to mag 47, i was sitting with my cat beezus. i paused the episode to write this big long meta, so i was in a different headspace when i pressed play again. jon immediately yelled for sasha and i immediately jumped, and beezus gave me a searing glare and just got up and left

i relistened to piecemeal while i was cooking, which i thought was kind of funny and also disgusting

after christmas, i got into the habit of bringing my cat georgia into my room in the mornings, and she'd crawl under the covers with me while i listened to tma

one story i've always liked to tell from my first listen is how when i first listened to the meat arm grinder episode, my dad asked me to help him cook hamburgers later that day and explained how hamburgers are ground up (to my disgust). i hit meat grinder in my relisten and um. you'll never fucking guess what i made for lunch that day

so i had all these arbitrary rules for myself when i started tma last april, and i've broken like all of them. i started listening to tma while virtually working -- you just pull it up on your computer and it works. (i got the life scared out of me when one of my coworkers started talking over the podcast, wondering who it was that had walked into jon's office and why he wasn't reacting and why i didn't remember it.) i also started listening a lot while driving, which led to several long meta posts i wrote being typed up in a parking lot somewhere

i spent the entirety of 194 anxious-cuddling georgia. (i tried to do this for 198 and then didn't have any anxiety to cuddle her over.) i fully plan on doing this for 200, where i am sure i will need it again

my favorite place to listen to tma probably ended up being the roof room at my mom's, and unless something goes awry, this is where i will listen to the finale. (with georgia, of course.)

this list is super uninteresting, like i said, but here it is. i'm gonna miss this show a lot. i can't wait to return to it, later in life, and make all new listening memories in the process

[ulec-elec]

Chapter 1

"Aaaand now we're a couple." Ra finished the story, while pulling Mantha closer. She was giggeling. "I always knew it! Best couple! I was already wondering what took you so long." Casper laughed excitely while the three made their way back to Ra's and Casper's room.

Ra told the ghost about their date in Dis, a city in the underworld. "Cool what are you doing then?" The ghost asked. „Well we'll go to the most expensive and fancy restaurant I could find." Ra joked. "Yeah, we'll go to Mc Donald's." Mantha explained. "Like I said, expensive and fancy." The prince repeated. Casper giggled. "And when?", the ghost wondered. „I guess in like an hour." Ra answered, when Casper opened the door. Mantha stepped in, then Ra followed and Casper shutted the door.

They sat down on Casper's bed. Well Mantha sat on Ra's lab, while the mummy wraped his arms around her waist. He hid his face in her shoulder, while she giggled. She pulled his face near her's and immediately both started kissing and giggeling.

Casper was just sitting until Ra proceeded to slid his hands underneath Mantha's hoodie. "It's not that I'd like to interrupt but that's my bed and I'm sitting right in front of you." The ghost laughed akwardly, which let both freeze and stare at their best friend. "Sorry." Mantha laughed nervously after a while. "Nah, I don't really mind. It's more embarrassing for you than it is for me." He teased grinning. The couple smiled embarrist.

In the following two hours they chatted about anything, mostly about the new dream couple of Scare School, but Ra and Mantha had to leave since they wanted to go on their date. Casper took them to the door and smiled. "Have fun you two and don't forget to use a..."

"Casp!", Mantha hissed blushing, while Ra laughed. "I just don't want to become an uncle yet, you know.", the ghost teased. "Shut up.", Mantha muttered and crossed her arms infront of her chest.

Ra winked."Don't worry dude I'll be carefull." He asured. Casper smiled, while they left. Hearing clearely how Mantha lectured Ra, while the mummy laughed and playfully apologized. The ghost closed the door and sighed.

Ra was the winner. The ghost had already expected that, but it really hurted, now that it happened. He wasn't mad or anything. The boys talked about this before. If one of those two would get her, then the other one wouldn't be mad. It needs two lovers for a relationship and it was a important part, that Mantha had to find out about her own feelings.

Anyway his best friends were a couple now and would probably spent the first days or weeks of their relationship together, as just the two of them. Especially since the schooltrip was coming. He would hang out with Wolfie, maybe Flyboy. The ghost shook his head.

He needed to distract himself. He decided to grab some soda and search for Wolfie or someone. He grabbed some money and flew trough the door, out of the dormbuilding and trough the halls to the janitor's room. The place where the vending machine was located. Some good things about the highschool building. Could almost let you forget about the broken doors, which were thin as fuck.

Finally. He passed the door wich lead to his goal quickly. Casper didn't mind the rumbling sounds, since at Scare School it would always rumble something somewhere.

Immediately he could see what, or rather who caused these sounds. A certain vampire was standing in front of one of the shelves, one of the planks was broken and a few tins layed on the ground. "What?" Thatch yelled, when he noticed Casper. Usually the ghost would've asked politely what was wrong but first of all he guessed he knew what was the problem. Dummy and Slither recently became a couple and Thatch wasn't really known for his inner peace.

In addition to that: Thatch wouldn't let him help anyway. So he just flew throuh him and landed infront of the drinks dispenser. While the ghost trew two coins into the machine Thatch sank down to the ground and leant his hand against the shelv he just broke.

Casper stopped and sighed. "You want something too?" He asked rather monotone. That vampire looked confused at the ghost but the sighed. "AB+." He muttered. Casper threw a third coin into the machine and pressed the buttons. Thatch could hear the tins falling out of the dispenser and few seconds later Casper threw one of the cans at him. The vampire caught it without really looking, before the ghost sat down next to him and opened his soda. "Love is hard." He smirked with a dull voice. "Oh what do you know? You know no shit about my problems." Thatch hissed immediately. "Yeah sure." Casper answered sarcasticly bevore taking a sip. "What do you even want?" Thatch asked angrily and got up.

The ghost did the same to show all his confidence, even though Thatch was bigger and stronger than him. The ghost snapped: "Listen Mate, I was just beeing nice, like always, uh you're welcome by the way. I thought we could bond over the fact, that we're kinda in the same situation." „I'll never be in the same situation as you. I'm not a loser.", the vampire hissed. The smaller one roled his eyes. "Oh get a load of yourself, you've lost the girl and you're butthurt about i-" Thatch pushed Casper against another shelf, which caused some tins to fell onto the ground. "Shut up you piece of shit!" Thatch yelled.

"Oh insulting me won't get you anywhere just saying." Casper smirked. "Yeah and annoying me won't change the fact that Zombie-Girl chose Toiletpaper Boy. Well I understand that. He's rich and attractive. Well I'd generally say everyone is better than you." The taller one yelled. That one hit hard.

Usually things that Thatch said stopped bothering him. Troughout his afterlife people were pretty mean. Thatch was completely harmless against that.

But this one did really hurt. He shivered bevor angrily grabbing one of the cans that were laying on the ground. He was ready to throw it, when a big hand grabbed his wrist from behind.

Casper looked at Thatch who stood in front of him, completely shocked. Then he turned around and flinched facing Franken Gym Teacher glaring at him. He then started yelling. "What is this mess?! Clean that up immediately! Oh wait til Alder and Dash learn about this!"

The boys trew mad looks at each other. Casper was annoyed. What was this vampires deal? He was acting like he would care about Dummy Girl. He never cares about anything. He was Thatch Manora, he could get anyone really. He probably just started to care when Dummy Girl prefered Slither over him. Casper tought about this and concidered this as amusing and idiotic at the same time but a little bit more amusing. He had to grin but snapped out of it when the coach complained about it.

After the cleaning and a way to long time spent in Alder's and Dash's office, they were free. For the rest of the day at least. The punishment was pretty okay though. Well at least Casper thougt that, he never really wanted to go on that trip anyway. Three days with a couple in the 'puppy-love-phase? Thanks but no thanks. Thatch didn't seemed that disappointed about it either.

Neither of them dared to speak. The silence bothered the ghost. He opened his mouth but was interruped. "Casp! Are you alright? What happened! Wolfie said you were taken to the headmasters! I bet you have something to do with that Batboy!" Mantha hugged the ghost. Each of her sentences was spoken in a different emotion.

His friends glared at the vampire with a very angry expression. Thatch rolled his eyes. "Guys I'm fine I promise. It's not Thatchs fault." Casper asured and added: "Buut bad news." "What news?" Ra asked suspicoiously. "No schooltrip for me." he explained. "What? For real?" Ra gasped. "But what about the adventures and remember we wanted to draw funny stuff on statues" Mantha whined.

The ghost snickered. "Oh guys. It'll be alright. Now you'll be able to spend quality time together. You know, as a couple." Casper smirked. His best friends sulked. "Come on guys. It's fine." the blue eyed boy repeated. "That's not cool." Ra complained. The ghost felt sorry for them, they really were looking forward to this. "I know Ra but that is what the headmasters said. Sadly I can't change that" he explained.

His friedens stayed quiet. "Hey how about you two get us a table I'll follow you in a few seconds." Mantha and Ra nodded and glimpsed angrily at the vampire before leaving.

"Hey, I'm sorry." Casper apologized to Thatch who'd whatched them. "It's okay I guess. This trip would have sucked anyway." He muttered. The ghost smiled and agreed: "Yeah probably." They froze for a few seconds. They just agreed on something. They stared at each other. After a few seconds Casper clreared his throat and stepped back, turned around and flew after his friends.

——-

Get sum fanfic

[solarbird]

What do you know, this does have a chapter two!

Amélie Lacroix used to be the Widowmaker. She's not, anymore. Talon is gone, and the threat is over. But few if any governments are really willing to forgive a known terrorist with dozens - no, hundreds - of kills under her belt, so coming in from the cold wasn't really an option.

But one has to make a living somehow. A lot of the same skills used to infiltrate for assassination work just as well for other kinds of infiltration, and Amélie always did have an eye for spotting value in art.

[ao3 link]

The Queen's Toaster Chapter 2: The Bird Wives

The dark-haried woman took off her Raptora helmet, and shook her head, short hair immediately spiking up, as it always did.

Flying in this is so different, she thought, to flying a jet.

She looked down at the armoured helmet with its beak-like visor and grinned at herself. It may not be the same as a jet, but flying in it brought her even more of a rush, with so little between her and the wind, and the clouds - and the anti-aircraft fire, too.

Grabbing a cleaning kit and a towel, she wiped the helmet clean, dried it, and ran the towel through her own hair for good measure.

That won't do, I need a shower! she thought. But it'll wait 'til I get home.

The base showers didn't bother with hot water. Lukewarm from the ground was good enough, unless she had the option of better, and she did.

She'd just about finished flight training, at long last. Since the end of Talon had meant a second end for Overwatch - at least, for a while - she'd had to do something with her life. And sure, Helix might not be the same, but having regular income again helped make up for it.

That, and the other benefits.

I wonder if these come in orange?

She popped the helmet into her locker, and started dismantling the rest of her armour, pulling it off piece by piece, for storage and overnight checkout before next flight.

"Oh, please - take your time," she heard from the disarmament station behind her. "It's far too nice a job to rush."

Lena spun 'round, surprised, and jinked forward, past two benches. "You're back! Already?!"

Angela grinned, and kissed her younger wife's forehead as she leapt into her arms. "Yes!"

Lena wasn't settling for that, not under any circumstances, and hopped up on her toes, to give her elder wife a proper kiss. "Fuck, I've missed you. Where's Reeha?"

"Talking with your instructor. She'll be here any moment now."

Lena pulled Angela against her, holding her tightly. "Fuck, I've missed you."

"I've missed you too, Lena. We both have."

The Englishwoman leaned back, smiling broadly, hands on her wife's hips. "How was the conference? How's Winston? How's eep!"

"Come here, tiny wife!" Fareeha said, hauling Lena bodily up into the air as Lena shrieked, giggling, teleporting just to turn in place, not wanting out of her younger wife's arms, but definitely wanting to see her face to face.

"Reeha!"

The two women kissed, as Angela smiled at the sight.

"Your instructor had good things to say - except for your tendency to teleport your way out of trouble."

"And why shouldn't I? 'Use every tool at your disposal,' first rule of combat, you know that." She grinned.

Fareeha licked Lena's nose. "'Don't get into trouble in the first place' is the real first rule of combat, and you know that."

"Yeh, yeh..." She sighed, and put her head down on Reeha's shoulder. "Fuck me, I've missed you so much."

"I will! But not on base."

Lena bit at Fareeha's neck, and Ree snorted, dropping Lena to the ground. "Finish getting undressed first. And shower here. We're taking you out to dinner before going home."

"Oh, are we? I thought we were gonna get some overdue R&R?"

"You have to finish flight training, Captain," Fareeha replied. "But consider this a downpayment. Undress and shower, and be ready to go in five minutes. That's an order."

"Aye-aye, Colonel." Captain Oxton saluted her wife in the most sarcastic way she knew how, and hopped to.

They'd gone straight from their all-too-short honeymoon to a deployment to two separate conferences and training, so there was no way in hell she was going to be late for this.

-----

"She get there?" read the purple text.

"Oh yeah, she got there," Emily typed in reply, in orange text, sitting at her desk in her small office.

Amélie sat out in the living room, on a couch, communicating with her buyer, confirming acquisition and arranging alternate delivery for the package.

"Right where you said she'd be, too. _And_ about to set off an alarm."

"Thanks for picking her up for me," came the purple hacker's reply. "It's not my story to tell, but"

Emily interrupted, the shared cursor turning orange as she typed. "You saying that is hilarious, you do realise, yeh?"

The cursor blinked for a moment, before turning back to purple.

"Yes. It is. I know. But seriously, she's been through a lot. And she was totally going to get busted sooner or later, and I knew it, even if I didn't know how or where All her infiltration training is based around range work. Close up, she has some, but not as much. But she had to deliver on this job, and... well... I had to make sure it happened."

"I know, I know. What's a favour for a friend? Besides, she's _smokin'_ hot. Totally worth it."

"I told you!"

"You told me, but you didn't _tell_ me, luv. Oh god, it's all I can do to keep my hands off her. But then I'd 'find out' about her too early, and... if she's she who I think she is..."

"I didn't tell you," insisted purple.

"You really didn't," assured orange. "But I'm pretty sure I know."

"Then... in that case..."

"Yeh."

Emily shook out her hands. C'mon, girl. Keep it in your trousers. If I'm right, she's one very hot property.

She looked over at the apparently-black-haired woman whose artificial skin colourant wasn't quite enough to keep a blue tinge entirely at bay in the cloudy daylight.

This is going to be tricky enough as it is. You've laid the table, now just let her decide whether she wants to bite.

"Still - if what you actually will tell me is true," she started typing, in orange.

"It is," purple text interrupted.

"...then hey, maybe you won't owe me one. Maybe I'll owe _you_."

"Now _that_," a glowing purple sugar skull replied, "is what I like to hear."

-----

The newlyweds smiled at each other, leaning back in their chairs, relaxing as the dinner plates were cleared, the dessert course ordered but not yet at the table, the three of them sipping tea, qahwah arabiyya, and abricotine, according to their tastes.

Lena wasn't sure exactly when she'd developed her fondness for abricotine, but she was pretty sure it had something to do with joint testimony to the UN in Geneva - or, much more specifically, when she'd had to share quarters with Fareeha and Angela the whole week. Athena had apologised, calling it an 'accidental oversight,' but at least the one bed was a full king. Hana never let any of them hear the end of it, all while stridently denying being the RPF shipper whose name translated from the Korean meant SoManyBunnies.

Despite what everyone at Gibraltar assumed, they didn't start being "a thing" there - but they had become surprisingly comfortable with each other, very quickly. The actual "thing" would start not long afterwards, the three of them hunkered down in the desert, Fareeha wounded but not in any real danger, waiting for extraction after a successful but extremely difficult mission in the Sudan.

They'd a critical hidden Talon information relay and communications centre deep in the Nubian Desert, on desperately-useful information provided by the Widowmaker herself. At first, all three of them thought of that night as a one-off - the stress of battle will do that, after all - but then there was a dinner, and they found they had so much to talk about, then another dinner, and then an after dinner, and...

Well.

Lena's phone buzzed, and she pulled it from her pocket, hoping it wasn't a callback for mission. Talon may be gone, but Helix's work was never done, not with Vishkar out there, and tensions still high between omnics and humanity, and O'Deorain still on the loose, and more.

But instead, purple text reported Package delivered, and the teleporter smiled, before looking up to her curious wives.

"Is it...?" Fareeha asked, hopefully, as Angela looked to Lena, expectantly.

"She's home," Lena replied, relief in her voice.

"Oh good," Angela said, letting go of a little bit of tension she hadn't been fully aware she carried. "I hope this works out. She's been through so much."

"Yeh," Lena agreed, while replying, "Brilliant. Thank you ❤," and putting her phone away. "She really has."

"So have we," Fareeha noted, having mostly forgiven, but entirely not forgot.

"Yes," Angela said, reaching out and holding her taller wife's hand. "Too much."

"It's in the past," Fareeha insisted, squeezing Angela's hand.

"Not for all of us," Lena replied, as dessert arrived. "Particularly not for her."

"No," Fareeha agreed, after a moment. "I suppose not."

"Still, though," Angela said, "she's in... well. I'm not going to say good hands..."

Fareeha chuckled. "No."

"But," Angela continued, "given everything, probably the best available."

"Give 'er more credit than that, love," Lena said, putting aside her apricot eau-de-vie before picking up a piece of the feteer meshaltet, and dipping it into the lovely black honey served on the side. "It's probably the best chance she'll get."

"For your sake," Fareeha smiled, affectionately, choosing the white honey and cream, as Angela chose, in turn, the soft cheese, "...I'll hope you're right."