#and there were 3 openers so I was standing for 6.5 hours with no break at all

[voiceshearingyouloud]

Me rocking up to the line for the fall out boy pit in jean shorts and a floral t-shirt meanwhile everyone else is full goth 👍 I’m definitely cool

[the-mangled-readings]

Project AI0.043 (Part 5)

lA/N: With Today’s new Part, I wanted to move things ahead just a little, so we can have a better understanding of what’s going to happen on the future parts, it will all make sense, I promise. 

Pairing: Five Hargreeves x Reader

Story Summary: On the 12th Hour of the first day of October 1989, 43 women around the world gave birth. This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began. Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible. He got seven of them but never found the last one.

Chapter Summary: We jump WAY ahead into the present, when Five comes back to the Past, and learn a little about the situation Five and the Reader got into.

Warnings: Spoilers, violence, blood, Language.

Word Count: 3,030

Tag List: @featuringcone9​ @lesbianismybitchname​ @fiveisadorable​ @here-in-never-land sweetingcas @whatawildone

PROLOGUE | PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 5.5 | PART 6 | PART 6.5 | PART 7

November 22, 1963 -  John F. Kennedy Assassination Day

“Alright, I’m in position Foxtrot ... What's your status?” You spoke through your headset, waiting for Five to answer. Nothing. “Foxtrot ...”

“I’m here Alfa, I’m just enjoying the view, my partner looks marvelous with that infantry rifle.” He praised, making you grin at his comment. “It’s a 6.5×52mm Carcano Model 91/38, if I may say ...” You teased over the headset. 

“Hey, um-I’ve been thinking lately ...” His tone quickly changing. “Yeah, about what?” You asked, repositioning on the spot. “I think I know the equation ...” The both of you stayed silent, you knew what those words meant, he founded a way to go back. “Five, we can’t do that now ...” You warned him. “Yeah well, I think I don’t got much of a choice now, do I Anya” 

You knew he wasn’t going to let this go, he was hardheaded when it came to going back in his time, at the beginning you had promised him that you were going to help him, and you did but through the years, the both of you became closer than ever, you had been married for a decade and you knew if he left, all of those years would be gone too, but you knew it was also important to him, since his siblings died in the Apocalypse. “Anya, I need you t-” 

“No, please, not right now.” You quickly cut him off, your voice breaking on the process. “If not now, then when, huh?”

(Announcer on Radio) 

... Dallas Love Field, the Dallas-Fort Worth area broadcasters bring you a special description of the arrival of President John F. Kennedy. 

“Please Anya ...” Five begged. Time was running out, if he was going to do this, it was now or never. 

And the crowd yells, and the president of the United States ...

“Okay ... Give me a second.” You finally gave in, taking a deep breath you teleported part of yourself towards Five location, leaving another double on your previous spot. “I’m here ...” Placing a hand over Five’s shoulder he smiled back at you. 

(Announcer 2 on Radio)

... To get another view of the president as he and his First Lady depart Love Field.

“Are you sure you got the right equation this time, I don’t want to repeat Vietnam.” You insisted, only making him chuckle. “I’m sure of bit, it’s going to work I promise.” He held your chin up, wiping a tear away from your cheek. “And if it doesn’t ... I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t ...” He held your hands up, kissing them softly. “How do you know that ...”

“Because I trust you Printsessa ...” You never knew how, but he would always take your breath away, even with the simplest thing, it always had an effect on you. “Okay ... get ready then.”

(Announcer 3 on Radio) 

The presidential car moving out.

The president and First Lady ... head out for downtown Dallas, where thousands should already be on the street right now ...

Five quickly pulled out an old book, scanning through it, trying to find again the equation. 

“Come on Five ... we don’t got much time.” You insisted. 

(Announcer)

Dallas police out here in force today, doing a beautiful job of handling the crowd along with a contingent of Texas Rangers. 

“Found it ...” Five whispered, placing the book on his right side, closing his fists as tight as he could, concentrating deeply. You watched as the air slowly whooshed through you, and began to head electricity crackling through his fists. 

“Anya ... Do it ... Now!” Five begged, and you did as you told. Raising your right hand towards him, your body began to light up, your veins and eyes glowed a bright orange, your breathing began to deepen. Fives body was trembling but right ahead of him, a blue like portal began to appear. The wind howled, but everything around them seemed to be stopping in time, and then through the portal, he noticed 5 figures.

“We did it, Anya ... We d-” He turned to see his wife who was tearing up again. “I promise everything is going to be okay, we’ll be together in no time.” He looked back at you, not so sure of his words, which you already knew. “Jus-just G-go ...” Your voice was cracking up from the pain. “I love you, Anya.” 

He turned to the portal again, and then saw an object flying through it, a fire extinguisher? But quickly pushed himself through the portal, yelping on the progress. It burned, every second of bit burned, but he didn’t care, it was now or never. He pushed and pushed until he went through it and fell into the floor.

Five slowly got up and watched the figures he saw approach him, it was his sibling, all grown.

“Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me?” He heard Klaus asked everybody, and that’s when it hit him. Little? Five looked down and sure enough, he was back as a 13th-year-old boy. “Shit ...”

“What’s the date? The exact date.” Five sighed as he reached over for some bread. “The 24th” Vanya answered, everybody’s eyes were on the small boy. “Of what?” He insisted again. “March.” Taking a moment to think he nodded. “Good.”

“So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?” Luther watched Five closely as he placed two slices of the bread on the wooden board, not saying a word. “It’s been 17 years.” Luther insisted, standing in front of Five, making him scoffed at his statement. “It’s been a lot longer than that.” He teased as he walked through the taller sibling. “I haven’t missed that.” Luther muttered.

“Where’d you go?” Diego continued. “The future. It’s shit, by the way.” Five answered, reaching for marshmallows this time, and returning once more to his previous spot. “Called it!” Klaus pointed. “I should’ve listened to the old man. You know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice.” Five explained, placing some peanut butter on the table, quickly making a pause, looking over at his perplexed siblings.“Nice dress.” 

“Oh, well, Danke!” Klaus said excitedly.

“Wait, how did you get back?” Vanya asked still confused. “In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time.” Five explained again, only making them more confused. “That makes no sense.” Diego whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Well, it would if you were smarter.” Five teased, making Diego mad, but Luther quickly stopped him. “How long were you there?” Luther continued.

“Forty-five years. Give or take.” Making everyone sink even more on their seats. “So what are you saying? That you’re 58?” 

“No, my consciousness is 58. Apparently, my body is now 13 again.” Five scoffed at the question, walking away with his sandwich. “Wait, how does that even work?” Vanya insisted. “Anya kept saying the equations were off. Eh.” Five looked away while taking a bite. “Bet she’s laughing now ... but then again, she was right, I needed her help.” 

“Anya?” Vanya asked, making everyone look at Five even more curious. Hmm. Five walked over the table again, picking up some newspaper. “Guess I missed the funeral.” He said while reading over the news of his deceased adoptive father. “How’d you know about that?” Luther asked blankly. “What part of the future do you not understand?” Five’s tone was now annoyed. “Heart failure, huh?” He asked for confirmation. “Yeah.” Diego nodded, but Luther quickly answered with a “No.” Making everyone in the table roll their eyes. Hmm. Five clicked his tongue. “Nice to see nothing’s changed.” He finished, walking away. “Uh, that’s it? That’s all you have to say?” Allison turned to Five, who continued to walk away. “What else is there to say? The circle of life.” Everyone either shook their head or sighed at his response, clearly, he wasn’t worried one bit about the sudden death of their adoptive father. “Well ... That was interesting.” Luther turned to everyone.

Five made his way to his old room, noticing that nothing hadn’t changed around the house either, everything was still in the same place; Scratches, holes, cracks, everything was where it used to be. As he made his way through the door, he quickly opened his closet door, eager to get rid of his old suit only to be welcomed by his old uniform suits. “Ah, shit.”

After changing, he made his way to the old fireplace, standing just ahead of his portrait. He began to hear Vanya’s steps behind him. “Nice to know Dad didn’t forget me.” He turned to see her smiling. “Read your book, by the way. Found it in a library that was still standing.” He began to circle her, noticing her smile quickly dropping. “I thought it was pretty good, all things considered.” He praised. “Yeah, definitely ballsy, giving up the family secrets.” Finally turning to her. “Sure that went over well.”

“They hate me.” Her voice softly breaking. “Oh, there are worse things that can happen.” He reassured her. “You mean like what happened to Ben?” 

“Was it bad?” Five asked, but Vanya only nodded painfully. A long and thick silence began to take over them, while outside the thunder only rumbled.

After the long and awkward funeral, and Luther’s and Diego’s typical fights, Five had enough.

“We don’t have time for this.” He whispered as he walked away from his siblings. Hearing Ben’s statute being thrown into the floor, Five sighed deeply. “The world is going to end sooner.” Making his way into his room, he laid on the small bed, thinking in his father’s words.

“Nietzsche once said; 

Man is as a rope stretched between the animal and the superhuman. A rope over an abyss. It is a dangerous crossing, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling, and halting. As much as you must strive for individual greatness, and strive you must, for it won’t come to you of its own accord ... you must also remember that there is no individual stronger than the collective. 

The ties that bind you together make you stronger than you are alone. They will make you impervious to the pain and hardship the world will thrust upon you. And believe me when I tell you, life will be hard. It will be painful. 

We can accomplish anything when we accept responsibility together. This is what creates trust. 

Together, you will stand against the reign of evil ...”

Hours passed before he noticed he had knocked out. Quickly making his way down to the kitchen, he began to look around for his energy boost, Caffeine. Hearing someone approaching, it was Allison. “Where's Vanya?” She asked, dropping her coat on one of the chairs, turning to Klaus and Five. “Oh, she’s gone.” Klaus answered, playing with a bass guitar. “That’s unfortunate.” Five point out as he lifted an empty jar. 

“Yeah.” Allison responded, not knowing he meant the empty coffee jar. “An entire square block. Forty-two bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, but no, not a single drop of coffee.” He snapped, making Allison frown. “Dad hated caffeine.” 

“Well, he hated children, too, and he had plenty of us.” Klaus joked, but they just stood there in awkward silence. “I’m taking the car.”

“Where are you going?” Klaus asked while putting his guitar away. “To get a decent cup of coffee.” Five scoffed. “Do you even know how to drive?” Allison teased. “I know how to do everything.” Making the 13th-year-old snap at her, while jumping through space and ending on the old family cars seat. Turning the engine on and quickly driving off into the nearest coffee shop. 

Griddy’s Doughnuts sign shined through the cold and dark night. 

The old family car breaks screeched as Five hit them. Quickly parking it on the side and sprinting inside the coffee shop, he took a seat on one of the bar stools, hitting the bell eagerly. Hearing behind him the doors opening too. Sighing, he turned to see an old man, exhaling deeply as he was sitting next of him. 

“Sorry, sink was clogged.” A small old blonde waitress appeared, chuckling at the pair. “So, what’ll it be?” She began pulling out her pen and notebook. The man next of Five began his order. “Uh, give me a chocolate éclair.” He smiled warmly at her.

“Mm-hmm. Sure. Can I get the kid a glass of milk or something?” She asked innocently, as she turned to the now annoyed 13th-year-old boy, scoffing at her request he simply said. “The kid wants coffee. Black.” Making the blonde look over at the man next of Five, chuckling nervously. “Cute kid.” Turning to find Five forcing a smile, taking it as her cue that she needed to get going. 

Five sighed deeply and turned to the man.  “Don’t remember this place being such a shithole. I used to come here as a kid. Used to sneak out with my brothers and sisters and eat doughnuts till we puked. I even brought my wife in here once, and we ended up making it a tradition, to come every year in our anniversary, we used to order milkshakes. Simpler times, huh?” He smiled at the joyful memories he had in this place, not noticing the frown on the man’s face. 

“Eh, I suppose.” He answered, still confused as to why is a small boy like him was talking like a grown-up, like if he actually meant it. The small waitress came back and handed them their orders, the man ended up paying for Five, and he couldn’t help to notice that he worked for Ishmael’s Towing. “You must know your way around the city.”

“I hope so. I’ve been driving it for 20 years.” He said smiling. “Good. I need an address.”

After a couple of minutes, the man left, leaving Five alone with his warm coffee, not long before someone else came into the shop. Five noticed a group of 4 armed men, dressed in black, stand behind him. “Hmm. That was fast.” He said bluntly. “I thought I’d have more time before they found me.”

“Okay. So let’s all be professional about this, yeah?”One of the men spoke, he was just inches away from Five, his gun aimed directly at the boy’s head, while everybody else stood by, watching them. “On your feet and come with us. They want to talk.” He ordered.

“I’ve got nothing to say.” Five’s tone was so calmed, the men started to worry. “It doesn’t have to go this way. You think I want to shoot a kid? Go home with that on my conscience?” The man insisted. “Well, I wouldn’t worry about that.” Five turned to face the man. “You won’t be going home.” And with that Five slowly grabbed a knife that the waitress had given him, and quickly turned to the man, teleporting behind the armed man and stabbing him behind the neck. 

One by one, they all dropped dead. 

Five sighed and walked over to one of the dead bodies, taking his tie off his neck, and quickly fixing it on him. He began to hear gruntings from the other side and slowly walked over, kneeling over the struggling man, snapping his neck instantly. He was about to leave when he noticed a blue butterfly fly over the shop, landing on his right forearm. “Hello, Printsessa .” He smiled and turned his gaze towards the butterflies direction, a green glowing box, it was a tracker. “I guess I got no choice, huh.” And the butterfly stood still, making his way to one of the tables, Five took one of the man's knife and rolled up his sleeve. The butterfly watched on top of the coffee cup, as Five slowly cut through his right forearm, groaning from the pain he took a small green chip, that wouldn’t stop beeping, watching it closely, he turned to the butterfly. “I guess they’re smart after all, I hope you’re okay wherever you are Anya.” And with that, the butterfly faded away. “Until then Printsessa.” 

Five walked away from the bloodied cafe, dropping the chip to a puddle, and fixing his tie once more, before getting in the car and driving off. 

After driving around downtown, he founded Vanya’s apartment and decided to make a quick visit. He looked around, she kept it simple, not so much to stare but it sure needed some locks. He heard the jingle of her keys and turned the light on as soon as she stepped in.

“Jesus!” Vanya yelped. “You should have locks on your windows.” He persuaded. “I live on the second floor.” She said while dropping her keys on the side. “Rapist can climb.” He insisted. “You are so weird.” She rolled her eyes while closing the door, behind her.

Taking a seat by him, she noticed blood on his forearm. “Is that blood?”

“It’s nothing.” He brushed her off. “Why are you here?” Five sighed and looked up, not meeting her eyes. “I’ve decided you’re the only one I can trust.”

“Why me?” She insisted. “Because you’re ordinary.” He said only making her look down. “Because you’ll listen.” And with that Vanya quickly ran to the bathroom to retrieve some alcohol, gauze, and tape to clean him up. Five slowly rolled up his sleeve, letting her clean him up. Vanya inhaled deeply as she saw the wound, it looked deep, but Five didn’t even flinch, not even when the alcohol made contact with his skin. “When I jumped forward and got stuck in the future, do you know what I found?”

“No.” She softly said. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

“As far as I could tell, I was the last person left alive. I never figured out what killed the human race, but ... I did find something else. The date it happens. The world ends in eight days, and I have no idea how to stop it.” He confessed, watching Vanya's terrified reaction. “I’ll put on a pot of coffee.”

[she-is-tim]

I love hating you | Elu enemies to lovers AU | Ch.14 END

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6.5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Lucas is an angry, closeted and frustrated gay teenager, while Eliott is the handsome, smart and popular guy in school. They hate each other… but not forever.

Happily Ever After

After three days of staying in Eliott’s apartment and basically not going anywhere, they decided that it’s time to spend some time with their friends. Lucas asked the girls to put together some kind of event for everyone and of course Daphné jumped on the opportunity immediately. They decided to meet in the park and have some outside party. Emma and Alex were taking care of the booze, Daphné got music and decoractions, Idriss brought his soccer ball in case anyone wants to play, Manon made cakes, Alexia got the sandwiches, while Yann, Arthur and Basile got some pizza. The boys were on their way to the park and Lucas was just so happy, he had to post something on insta. They kinda got obsessed with showing off their love online. It just made him feel good and proud. 

Eliott was giggling next to him as he read the comments under the picture. It was good to see him being happy outside of the safety of his apartment. He made sure to leave only if his boyfriend feels better enough to be amongst other people. And since he said that he will be fine, Lucas had no intentions to stay inside either. He missed his friends and the spring break was coming to its end, so it was nice to have a little party. Not the getting high and drunk until you throw your guts out, but a chill, eating, drinking and talking kind of one. 

When they got there, everything was already set up, people were talking and having fun. The music was loud, but not too much. It was Sofiane who spotted them first, basically running towards them and wrapping his arms around the boys happily, squeezing them together. Eliott laughed and with his hand that wasn’t entwined with Lucas’ hugged him back. The short boy did the same and they stood there like this for a few moments until the others joined them.

“Finally! I thought you guys will never arrive.” Yann said, holding a bottle of beer in his hand, smirking at the boys. 

“I am so happy for you guys!” Daphné screamed and threw herself on the boys, much more agressively than Sofiane did, almost knocking them off, but they managed to stand still, enduring the blonde girl’s hug, until she pulled back with a bright smile. 

“So, is everything good between you two?” Arthur asked, offering two plastic cups to the boys, probably filled with some alcohol. Lucas accepted it, but Eliott just shook his head, he decided to stay sober for today. 

“Better than ever.” the short boy answered after taking a sip of his drink. It was whiskey coke, he liked it a lot. 

“Are you okay too, bro?” Yann asked with honest concern in his voice, turning to Eliott. Lucas felt happy and proud that his best friend cared so much for his boyfriend. It was truly endearing to see it, and seemingly the tall boy felt the same as a wide, happy smile spread on his face.

“Yeah, I’m doing well, thank for asking.” he said on a joyful tone and let go of his boyfriend’s hand just to throw his arm lazily around Lucas’ shoulder, pulling him to his chest. He chuckled and leant on him happily as everyone started to walk back towards the place where they were dancing. They had three tables, one for the food, one for the cakes and one for the drinks. Eliott snatched an iced tea for himself and they just joined the gang after that. Sofiane and Idriss were dancing with the girls now.

“So...” Basile started speaking and Lucas immediately felt like this is not gonna end well. He was right. “Did you guys have sex?” he asked shamelessly and the short boy wasn’t even that shocked by the question, but that can’t be said about Arthur or Yann. The blond one hit him in the side roughly enough to startle him, so Baz almost spilled his drink on the boys, but like they were one person, just stepped back out of reflex. Yann on the other hand tried not to choke on his own drink, coughing wildly. 

“Are you insane?” Arthur raised his voice, staring at their curly haired friend with pure disbelief. 

“What?” Basile whined while massaging the place where he got hit. “We are teenagers, this is a normal question to ask.” he said, trying to came off as the innocent one. 

“He is not wrong.” Eliott said suddenly, taking a sip of his drink and earning some shocked looks from the other three boys, while Basile looked like he found his Lord and Savior. “And answering the question, we did have sex. Multiple times actually.” he said smirking, making his boyfriend choke on his drink now. 

“Eliott!” he screamed between two coughs. Basile clearly beamed at what he just heard, while his other friends were laughing. 

“Can’t I talk openly about or sexual life?” the tall boy asked with a charming smile after his boyfriend stopped the choking session. Lucas rolled his eyes now, but still leaning to him, letting out a soft sigh. 

“Look at our sweet Lulu becoming a cute boyfriend.” Arthur was cooing at him, even pinching the short boy’s cheek. He squinted his eyes at his friend and hit away his hand, just slightly annoyed, but a little smile was tugging at his lips. 

“Yeah, Eliott managed to tame the beast.” Yann said smirking, earning a hit on the shoulder from his best friend. 

“It’s good to have my own little beast.” Eliott smirked and placed a kiss on his boy’s hair, sliding his arm from his shoulders down to his waist. “He is the best.” 

“Stop it.” Lucas chuckled and pushed him just lightly, still staying in his arms though, a soft blush creeping up on his cheek from the kind words.

“Ahw, they are so adorable!” a voice came from behind them. Both Lucas and Eliott turned their heads to see Idriss standing there and before they could even have a chance to escape, he wrapped his long arms around them. Eliott just laughed, while the short boy tried to catch his breath in the tight hold. He was indoors with his boyfriend so much, that all this hugging started to make him feel just a little bit uncomfortable. But he endured it, because he loved these people. 

“Okay, that’s enough, Idriss.” Sofiane walked to them now, pulling back his friend by his shoulder. “You are strangling Lucas.” 

“Oh, right. Sorry.” he laughed and took a step back, smiling brightly. “It’s just so good to see Eli being so happy again.” he explained.

“I’m actually happier than ever.” Eliott said, squeezing Lucas in his arm gently. “I am completely in love with this guy.” he smirked and kissed his boyfriend’s cheek. 

They stayed for hours just hanging out with the others, making jokes, telling stories and just having fun in general. Lucas enjoyed being outside, openly affectionate with his boyfriend in the presence of their friends. He might have had a fallen apart family, but these people made him feel like he was safe and loved. He loved how free and happy Eliott looked all the time as they were in the park, his life seemed to be just perfect like this. 

When Manon got a new camera that was on sale for a really good price, all hell break loose. She wanted to photograph everything, take pictures of food, of Lisa chilling on the couch, but most importantly, she was begging for the boys to let her take pictures of them. Eliott would agree to it from the beginning, but Lucas was too nervous and insecure to do it. Yes, they took photos of themselves and their friends did too, but it was different to actually pose for a “professional” to take pictures of them. 

Then a month later, around the end of school year when Eliott and him were studying together, the topic came up again. Lucas was sitting on the bed, reading his biology notes, while his boyfriend sat at his desk, doing math homework. They were supposed to do a literature assignment too, but it wasn’t as important like their current works. Everything was hell in school around this time, they had a shit ton of homework and even more things to learn for. Lucas couldn’t even remember when it was the last time that they went on an actual date and not studying together or doing homework. He missed their morning coffee dates, but both of them had things planned for most of the time before classes. 

He was so occupied with his notes that he only noticed the third piece of crumpled paper that hit his face and then landed on his lap. He looked up at Eliott, who was turned to him smirking, throwing another one at him that bounced off his chest, then joining the others in his lap. He raised an eyebrow, not understanding his boyfrend’s childish behavior. 

“What?” He asked, putting his notes to the side and turning his body towards the other boy. 

“Pay attention to me.” he said pouting, like he had any rights to do that. Lucas rolled his eyes, he got better at ignoring the cute faces that Eliott kept pulling off to get from him what he wanted. 

“We are supposed to be studying. Bac remember?” he sighed, glancing at the books laying on Eliott’s bed. 

“But we haven’t kissed since hours now.” his voice was almost high-pitched and the short boy couldn’t hold back a smug grin. 

“Oh yeah?” he asked, like he didn’t care, just to fuck around a little. “I didn’t even notice.” he lied, still having that shit-eating grin on his face. Eliott gave him a disapproving look, throwing a pencil at his direction, but he missed, so it landed on the floor. Lucas chuckled.

“Don’t laugh! Come here and let me smooch that adorable face of yours.” He said with a grumpy look on his face. The short boy smirked, getting up from the bed and walking to his boyfriend, stopping between his opened legs. A huge, happy smile appeared on Eliott’s face. Lucas gently put his hands on his boyfriend’s cheeks, cupping it softly before planting a kiss on his lips. It was innocent at first, but then the tall boy’s hands wandered down from his waist to his butt, grabbing it wildly, forcing out a moan from him. He used this opportunity to slide his tongue into his mouth, deepending the kiss. 

They were making out for long minutes like this, Eliott sitting on the chair, Lucas standing between his legs, arms roaming on each other’s body. Then they had to break apart for air, wheezing like they just ran a marathon, foreheads knocked together. The tall one was smirking victoriously, being satisfied with himself that his silly plan to distract his boyfriend worked so well. 

“I wanna ask you something.” he whispered after their breathing started to normalize. Lucas opened his eyes slowly, looking at him with anticipation. “Can you let Manon to take photos of us?” he asked, eyes filled with hope and excitement. The short boy sighed, they haven’t talked about this since a long time now and seeing how much Eliott still wanted it just made him come to the conclusion that he would do anything to make this guy happy.

“Yeah, okay, sure.” he mumbled into the tiny space between their lips. His boyfriend made a squeaky noise before he started laughing and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. Lucas couldn’t help but laugh with him, wrapping his arms around his neck and burying his face into the soft, messy hair. 

Lucas texted Manon not much after and she got so excited, bombing them with ideas, locations, sample pictures they could recreate. The short boy was overwhelmed, so he let his boyfriend handle this situation and he handled it so damn well. They sat down with the girl at a calm saturday to talk about the photoshoot. Eliott made sketches and claimed that they had to take the pictures on the school yard after classes. Manon agreed that it’s not a bad idea and she loved the sketches too. They seemed to agree on everything with Eliott in the end, so that is how a week later Lucas was posing for couple photos at school with his boyfriend. 

The weird thing was that he didn’t hated this at all. Yes, the first few pictures felt awkward and he felt like he’s a complete mess compared to his boyfriend, but after a while he got comfortable. Manon was mostly quiet, just giving them soft instructions once in a while, but it was mostly Eliott who put themselves into the next position. Lucas was grateful that they were wearing comfortable clothes, nothing too fancy. He even had a baseball cap, feeling like he will need it to cover his mess of a hair, but Eliott didn’t let him put on, so most of the time he was just holding it in his hands. 

When they were done, Lucas was shocked that more than an hour passed by. He felt like it was just a few minutes with Eliott by his side. They sat down on a bench with the girl, quickly going through the pictures and he was stunned by them completely. Manon did a great job and seeing how excited his boyfriend was just made him extra happy. As a reward for the awesome pictures, the boys invited Manon for a dinner and of course she agreed. They went to a nice burger place nearby, having fun there for almost three hours, going through the pictures over and over, sometimes laughing at the expressions on the boys faces where they were blinking or sneezing. Then both of them decided to pick a photo to post it on instagram, both because they were proud of the great work Manon did and they wanted to share their love with the whole world, like always.

August 10

Lucas almost stumbled in the boxes as he got up from the couch, cursing as he made his way to the kitchen. He was only wearing his briefs and a shirt he had stolen from Eliott. He yawned while he was pouring coffee into his mug, leaning to the counter and watching his boyfriend still sleeping peacefully. He couldn’t hold back a happy smirk, looking through the boxes scattered around the flat. 

When he finished his drink, he prepared some cheese toast and another mug of coffee, walking back to the living room with those. He sat down on the couch and kissed his boyfriend’s hair softly. He let out a little groan, turning around, slowly opening his eyes. When he saw the boy next to him, a soft smirk appeared on his face. 

“Good morning, my love.” he mumbled, voice still a bit hoarse. Lucas chuckled and planted a gentle kiss on his lips.

“Good morning, handsome. I made you breakfast.” he said softly, showing the plate with the sandwiches and the mug in his hands. Eliott slowly sat up, leaning on the back of the couch and rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes, yawning. When he finished that, he took the coffee first, taking a few sips and letting the caffeine spread in his body, waking him up a little. It had just a tiny bit of sugar in it, which was perfect. 

“You always make the most delicious coffee for me.” Eliott claimed, giving his sweet boy a peck on the lips before taking the plate of toasts, placing it on his lap. 

“Isn’t that obvious? I am making you coffe every morning since months now.” he said with a proud grin, placing himself on the couch a bit closer to his boyfriend, resting his head on his shoulder. 

“Of course, but that doesn’t mean I can’t compliment you.” he replied and took a bite of his toast, then handing it to Lucas. He didn’t grab it, just took a bite and smiled at him softly. They were always sharing breakfast like that, that’s why Lucas never bothered to have two plates of food, when they can do this instead. 

“When will Idriss arrive exactly?” Lucas asked after they were almost done with the eating. He looked through the boxes and just wished they could get this done as quick as possible. He hated packing stuff, but today was a special day for both of them, so he pushed those negative thoughts aside. 

“Around 10.” Eliott shrugged and continued drinking his coffee. “We will be done by noon, don’t worry.” he said softly, kissing his boyfriend’s cheek. 

“I’m not worrying.” Lucas pouted and buried his face into the tall boy’s neck. “This is was we have planned since a month now. I just hate packing stuff.” he mumbled, making Eliott laugh.

“Come on, Lucas. You don’t even have that many things. It’s like five or six boxes, no furniture and most of them were already boxed.” he reminded him kindly, kissing his forehead before drinking the rest of his coffee. 

“Yeah, because they banished me to this couch from hell.” he said bitterly, wrapping an arm around Eliott’s waist, leaning his body on him a bit more. 

“We have some good memories with this couch, though.” the tall boy said smirking. “When Manon was at Emma’s, Lisa visited her parents and Mika had a hookup with someone.” he reminded him, whispering into his ear. “You were quite loud that day, even louder than the couch.” he continued, placing a kiss on his earlobe. “I can still remember how you moaned my name. It makes me hard just to think about it.” he finished it by biting the boy’s neck, making him let out a squeaky moan. Lucas felt his face burning and he gently slapped his boyfriend’s chest.

“Stop this! Everyone is still sleeping.” he muttered into the tall one’s shoulder, trying to get rid of the blush on his cheeks somehow. 

“See, that’s why we’re moving together.” Eliott huffed with a bit of annoyance in his voice. The short boy looked up, studying those steel blue eyes with curiosity. “I wanna be able to tease you in the morning without worrying to get caught by your flatmates.” he sighed and placed his hand on the boy’s cheek. “Maybe even having some morning action.” he winked at him playfully which made him giggle. 

“Yeah, I have to admit that I would love that.” he said smiling, leaning into the warm touch of Eliott. 

“Then let’s get dressed and pack up the rest of your stuff, please.” he said smiling and got up from the “bed”, looking for his pants and shirt on the floor, while his boyfriend just kept laying there, adoring his half naked body from behind. “Baby, if you keep staring at my ass, you’re going to drool all over your sheets.” Eliott said as he put on his pants and glanced at his boyfriend over his shoulder, smirking. Lucas blushed heavily, looking away and getting up from the bed, sniffing his boy’s shirt one more time before taking it off and dressing up into his own clothes. 

Hours later they were done, box packed into the trunk of Idriss’ car, boys sitting in the back, heading to Eliott’s apartment. Lucas was kinda nervous, holding his boyfriend’s hand all the way. It was one thing staying at each other’s place for days, spending almost every day together and living with said person. What if he says something stupid when he’s upset with school? What if they fight and Eliott needs space? 

So many questions he didn’t know the answers for. He will also miss the presence of Manon, Mika and Lisa, their happiness, complains, everything. Of course despite the bad things that was going on between them, Mika cried when the boys announced to the flatmates that Lucas is going to move in with Eliott. He hugged the short boy tightly, sobbing that he is not gonna say amen to this, because he needs his cute son. It was both annoying and endearing at the same time, since he had no rights to forbid anything, but he also cared so much that he couldn’t just let go of Lucas. It took them hours to calm down the older boy, reassuring him, that they will still come back to hang out with them sometimes and that he should be glad there won’t be anymore living room action he could come home to. 

As they arrived Idriss, Lucas and Eliott carried up the boxes to the third floor, where Lucille and Sofiane was waiting for them. They made sure there is enough space for Lucas’ stuff, also the girl decided to cook for everyone while they are packing. Sofiane hugged both boys after they put down the boxes, congratulating them for this big step and saying how proud he is. Lucas was a bit overwhelmed and excused himself, joining Lucille in the kitchen, while his boyfriend kept chatting with his friends. 

“What are you cooking?” he asked softly. Lucille turned around her head and smiled at him. She had longer hair now, not that curly, but still only wearing light makeup which made her really beautiful. 

“Hey, Lucas!” she greeted happily, waving for him to come closer and as he did, she kissed him on the cheek. “It’s good to see you. I’m cooking some chicken stew with rice and vegetables.” she explained, stirring the tasty looking meal in the pot. 

“Smells nice.” he said and jumped up on the kitchen counter, making himself comfortable. It was weird to think of this place as his own, not just as Eliott’s now. “Where are you gonna stay now, by the way?” he asked curiously after a few minutes of silence. “I mean, I wouldn’t have any problems of you staying here while you’re in Paris, but...” he tried to quickly explain himself, but Lucille cut him off. 

“It’s fine, I don’t wanna cockblock you guys.” she said smirking and winked at the short boy playfully, which made him giggle. “I was actually thinking of finding a flat for myself.” she said a bit quieter and Lucas almost fell off the counter as he leant forward to make sure he hears her well.

“What? Are you serious?” he asked excitedly. In the past few months he and Lucille become really good friends, amusing themselves by teasing Eliott to the point where he couldn’t handle being in the same room with the two of them. It was beautiful and the boy couldn’t wish for a better sister-in-law, if he could call her that. And Eliott had no rights to complain, because he and Yann seemed to get along very well, sometimes even hanging out just them, without Lucas or the boys. It made him happy how their lives seemed to go into a very good direction. His mother and Eliott’s parents were also really supportive, having some issues at the beginning, but now it was all smooth and clean. 

“Yeah, I am looking for a job here.” she nodded and put the stove on lighter heat, turning to the boy now, arms crossed. “I just haven’t told Eliott, because I don’t want him to think that I wanna come back to watch over him.” she sighed and looked down. The boy hopped off the counter and walking to her, he might be the short one, but he still felt like he has to make sure Lucille feels loved. So he wrapped his arms around her, hugging her gently and stroking her hair. 

“I’m sure Eliott would never think that.” he said softly. “And if he does, I knock some sense in his fine ass, don’t worry. I am so happy you wanna stay in Paris.” he said with honesty, squeezing the girl a little, which made her laugh. 

“Thank you.” she said, softly pushing him away now, but planting a kiss on his cheek before turning back to the stove, continuing the cooking. Lucas smirked and placed himself back on the counter with a beer in his hand he grabbed from the fridge. He looked around happily and proudly, relizing that now he has his own apartment that he shares with the love of his life. It was so unreal, so new, but he loved every bit of it. He wouldn’t have thought it at the beginning of the year that he’s going to live together with Eliott Demaury, having an established and healthy relationship.

When the boys walked to the kitchen to get some drinks for themselves, Eliott basically launched himself on Lucas, smooching him like there’s no tomorrow, while the other two walked to Lucille, kissing her cheeks from each side. She just giggled and waved her hands at them when they tried to taste the food. The boys laughed at them, while cuddling each other, Lucas sitting on the counter still, legs open with Eliott between them, leaning his back on his boyfriend’s chest, making himself become the little spoon. 

School time was coming, both of them were busy with getting ready. Eliott was going to start his studies at college too, studying art and cinematography, while also working at a coffee shop. During the summer Lucas also had a job, helping out in a flower shop that Lucille showed him. He liked the place a lot and was sad that he has to finish it once school starts, but with the graduation and everything going on in their life, he couldn’t handle that too. He also had a dog to take care of now. It was tough at first, but as they both got used to its presence and learned what they can and can not do, it become as easy as breathing. Their morning routine started with Lucas making breakfast, feeding the dog, Eliott making coffee and taking a shower, then they eat together before heading out to work or just start their day at home. Luna was a really lazy puppy, only cewing on the legs of the coffee table sometimes, but she barely caused any troubles. 

They were a happy little family and Lucas felt like nothing can make this better, cause it was already perfect. Well, he was completely wrong. When their one year anniversary started to become a close event, Eliott started acting weird, needing more alone time than he usually wanted, saying that he’s working on a college project that is really important for his studies. Lucas tried not to read too much into it and just let it go, but he still felt suspicious. 

Then just a week before their anniversary, Eliott visited him at school, on a friday afternoon. They went to the common room in hopes to hang out with the others, but the place was strangely empty, not even one student were there playing table soccer or using the computer. Lucas found it weird, but his boyfriend didn’t let him too much time to chew on it, because he dragged him to the mural they painted last year. He was about to ask what is going on, when suddenly Eliott was down on one knee, holding a tiny blue box in his hands, slowly opening it, revealing two rings in it. They were made of white gold with one blue steel stripe in the middle. Lucas gasped, placing his hands on his mouth, not believing his eyes.

“Lucas Lallemant...” Eliott started, looking deadly serious with a soft smile on his face still. “Will you marry me?” 

Lucas opened his mouth, but he couldn’t force the words out, his eyes filling with tears, so he could barely see his boyfriend, but he started to nod quickly, before he could think that he doesn’t want to. He could hear Eliott’s relieved sigh and then his chuckled as he reached up for the short boy’s hand, standing up slowly. He tried to rub the tears out of his eyes, smiling like an idiot when his boyfriend slid the ring up on his finger slowly, then kissing his knuckle. He grabbed the other ring, doing the same for Eliott and then jumping into his neck happily, crying again. 

As they were cuddling, laughing and crying, the door of the common room slammed open and all of their friends stormed in screaming. They surrounded the couple, creating one gigantic group hug, then all of them started to congratulate, asking questions. Daphné seemed really excited, asking if she can help with organizing the wedding, Yann and Manon just looked at them with knowing eyes, while Mika hugged Lucas happily, talking about how proud he is that his only son is getting married. 

They soon left the common room, since half of the people weren’t even students of the school, moving to the flatshare, because that was the only place where this many people could fit in. On the way they bought snacks, drinks, takeout, everything that is needed to celebrate an engagement. When Lucas voiced his concerns about leaving their dog alone for so long, his boyfriend reassured him that Lucille is taking care of her, which now explained why she wasn’t there with them. 

“I wonder what my mom is going to say about this.” Lucas mumbled as they were sitting in the armchair at the flat, surrounded by chatting friends, while some chill music was playing quietly in the background. Everyone drinking beer, buice, whatever they liked and they seemed really happy. 

“Well...” Eliott started, hands running up and down on his boy’s arms slowly. “I actually asked her about this.” he mumbled, burying his face into Lucas’ fluffy hair. 

“What?” he asked surprised, moving his head to the side, trying to look at his hiding boyfriend.

“I just... I wanted her permission.” he said, still avoiding the short boy’s look. “To make sure she’s okay with this.” 

Lucas didn’t say anything, but grabbed his boyfriend’s chin, lifting up his head and smiling at him fondly, placing a gentle kiss on his lips. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was with such a soft and lovely boyfriend... well, fiancé, actually. He had to laugh into the kiss as he thought about this, because it just made him feel so soft and warm inside. Eliott shot him a confused look, disapproving that his boyfriend just broke their soft moment.

“I love you so much.” Lucas whispered, biting his bottom lip just a little for teasing. 

“I love you too.” Eliott smirked and placed his hands on the boy’s waist now, pulling him closer, like they aren’t in the presence of a dozen people in the room. “And I will love you forever.” 

“Is this when movies say that they lived happily ever after, right?” Lucas smirked at him, running his fingers through his messy hair, rubbing their nose together. 

“Yeah, this is our happily ever after.” he whispered with a cute giggle, before initiating a really intense and inappropriate kiss with his beloved fiancé. 

They were really living the best of their life together. 

This was a long ride guys, but thank you so much for sitting through it with me, reading all this mess I wrote, enjoying the chapters, getting nervous at the angsty parts! I cannot express how much I love all of you, all the messages and comments! I can’t wait to start writing my next story, I hope you all going to like it! Have a nice day and Bisous to all of you 

[multidumplings-content]

Seventeen college AU- HOME part 13 (last part)

Seventeen college AU Jeonghan x reader.

What happens when hometown acquaintances meet again in college? Y/N and her best friend from back home stumble upon the obstacles of hatred and love in college. How will they handle it?

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 4.5 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 6.5 - Part 7  - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 

“Casual cute” he said, “but make it sexy” he said, probably as a joke. How the heck am I going to interpret that?” you thought to yourself. It was kind of your first real date, but how does one dress casually sexy-cute? And what activity is appropriate for that? Minyoung was busy out at campus doing god knows what, probably hanging out with Chan or someone else, so she couldn’t help you. “It’s not like your fashion sense is bad, Y/N, just put on something, he probably doesn’t care” Minyoung said as she left the dorm room, leaving you to yourself and your constant outfit crisis. An hour went by as you danced around to your favorite playlist, finally deciding on a mid-thigh moss green skirt and an orange low cut v-neck long sleeved shirt. You also wore a pair of see-through black stockings in case it got cold on the date. You left your hair down, but opted for orangey-red makeup to go with the shirt. Picking a jacket and a pair of shoes seemed harder than it should. Jeonghan was always the fashionable type and he always looked on point, it didn’t bother you before the two of you started dating, but now it somehow intimidated you. It’s a crippling fear in the back of your head ´”what if I don’t look good enough for him”, a though you never thought you’d have. “It’s not like me to get this insecure” you thought, stopping in your tracks. You looked through your hangers with jackets and outerwear to see your options again. The autumn weather was upon you, and the choice was between a long beige-nude coat with black buttons or an oversized black puffy jacket. Jeonghan was going to pick you up at the dorm, so you thought it would be best to see what he was wearing before deciding. Along with it you chose a pair of peach ankle boots, thinking it went well with the autumn weather colour-scheme, also they’re comfortable as heck, you thought. You had just put the shoes by the coat rack when someone knocked on the door. You didn’t have to think twice about who it was since it was almost time for the date. That, and a few seconds later Jeonghan shouted “let me in”. In an attempt to tease him you sassy said “no” which only resulted in him flatly saying “then I’ll just leave again”. It didn’t take you 2 seconds to open the door to the dorm, to face the taller and beautiful looking boy in front of you. Jeonghan’s hair was getting a bit long, but it framed his face perfectly. His pout quickly turned into a toothy smile when he looked at you. “You ready?” he said, not breaking eye contact with you. Without even thinking you responded “Yes, but will you help me pick out my jacket?”. You turned around just as soon as you realized what you’d said, and stood in front of the coat rack with the two choices hanging on there. You had to play it cool, and when Jeonghan appeared beside you, you pointed to the jackets on the rack. “These are the choices, what do you think?” you said, catching a glimpse of him looking intensely at the coats. He looked between you and the coats a few time before announcing that the black puffy one was too winter like, and the beige coat was better for the autumn weather. You slipped on the shoes you placed there earlier,  as he took the coat off the hanger and helped you put it on which made you physically snort. “What??” Jeonghan said with a forced sadness in his voice, which only made you laugh more. Jeonghan stopped in his tracks and moved to stand in front of you with the biggest frown on his face. “Here I am, trying to romantic and gentleman-y and you just laugh at me? I am offended Y/N, I thought you were better than this” he spoke, pulling the most offended looking face and voice. You shook your head at his statement, not responding but grabbing his hand and walking out of the dorm room. After you had locked the door you took Jeonghan’s hand and intertwined your fingers, making you blush even though you took the initiative. “Sorry Snakey, I just find it funny when you act all cute” you giggled, looking up at him “anyways, where are we going?” you skipped, smiling to make him warm up, which of course worked. “You’re gonna love this day then” he whispered, barely loud enough for your ears to registrate it. “We’re going apple picking, you mentioned once that you haven’t gone before…” he said, which made your insides go to mush, because that’s literally 3 years ago you said that. “Well, I don’t know if you’ve been since... “ He said a bit shakily, looking at you. “-So I don’t know if this will be your first time, or, but I thought it’d be fun anyway” he followed, smiling. “I haven’t been before, so it is my first time” you said swinging your hands, because this was something you’ve been wanting to do for so long, and now you got to do it with Jeonghan. “Oh okay, good” he smiled, probably relieved that this wasn’t a terrible first date idea for the two of you. These past few days has been quite weird, but also filled with butterflies and smiles and blushing and kisses. Things you weren’t used to, and especially not with the boy who you, not too long ago, considered your enemy. Even though he hadn’t said it, you knew you guys were headed for the bus and as he could read your mind he said “we’re taking the bus, and it will probably take about 40 minutes to get there..” he trailed off, “I brought earphones because I have some songs I’d like to show you. - But I don’t know if you’d like that”. You looked up at him and he was blushing, looking at his shoes as you walked. “Jeonghan” you said softly, but he didn’t lift his head, “Jeonghan” you said again “I don’t mind.” He lifted his head to look at you, as you reached the bus stop. You took both his hands in yours, looking at him, it wasn’t like him to be like this, nervous. “I like being in your company, whatever we do. Okay?” you swung your hands a bit, and it made Jeonghan smile. “I just want this to be perfect” he said softly, his dark eyes looked so soft and round it almost made you melt. Paired with the following words he spoke, you could have sworn that your stomach did a flip “I’ve waited so long for this, I don’t want to mess this up”. You face felt warm and your smile gave away how happy this made you. Never would you have thought that the two of you would end up like this, but it was much better than you expected.

The bus ride didn’t take as long as you would have thought, or at least that’s how it felt. You spent the entire 42 minutes sharing music with each other, taking selfies and joking. It felt so natural to be in each other's company like this. It made you feel at home, something you hadn’t felt in a long time. A normal Wednesday turned into the most beautiful scenario when you reached the apple field. The sky was blue and as the evening rolled in, an array of gold, yellow and orange flushed over the sky. “Wait!” Jeonghan shouted as you took a few steps forward, and as you turned around you noticed Jeonghan pulling out his phone to take a picture, something he’d done a lot on this trip. He made sure to point out that he wouldn’t post them anywhere, but keep them to himself. You whined a pit and pouted at him, you just wanted to see more of the field and not take more pictures, “just one more babe” he said, and the both of your expressions turned into shock as you realized what he had said. “Okay, babe” you said to mock him, it only resulted in him running towards you in a chase. He only managed to catch up to you because you almost stumbled over a stick on the ground. Laughter filled the air around you, this was the happiest you’ve been in a long time. The golden sky made this the perfect scenario for the two of you, nothing could take this moment away from you.

“You’re all I’ve ever wanted” Jeonghan said before kissing you softly. “Home is where you are.”

This is the end of Jeonghan’s college AU - HOME, we hope you guys liked it as much as we liked writing it..

NOTE: for some reason, this was not posted at scheduled, and I’m very confused as to why, but its here, 3 weeks late.... Sorry  - Rosea 

[brokemultidotexe]

Unexpected Pt.19

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

Summary: You never expected your trip to Seoul to end up like it does. You didn’t expect to step off the plane and have coffee pour down your shirt. You also didn’t expect the guy to offer to show you around the city. You notice things about him that don’t quite make sense, like how he shows interest but will only see you when he has the time which is at random hours during the day and night. Who knew your only friend in Seoul would turn out to be an international star and just how difficult things could get.

Word Count: 2.6k

Warning: None

Genre: Romance/Friendship

Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6.5 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10.5 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 14.5 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |

“He knows you’re avoiding him Y/N. He’s not stupid, he knows that you know about the video and he’s freaking out.” Jimin sighed.

You shifted your phone from one shoulder to the other as you spread peanut butter on a slice of bread, “I know he is. He’s been blowing up my phone but I told him this was one thing I was worried about. I don’t belong in your world Jimin and I told him I didn’t want this type of thing to happen.”

“He’s already gone to Bang PD. They’ve pulled the video and replaced it with a version that blurred out the both of you in the background. You’re making this out to be worse than it is. I’ve seen the video there is no way that anyone would be able to tell it’s you.” You set the bread and the knife down on the counter and grabbed your cellphone with your hand and switched to the other ear and walking out of the kitchen.

“Jackson knew.” You pointed out.

“Because he knows that you hang out with us so you can’t go based off of one person. Look, neither of you are in trouble because you didn’t do anything wrong. Yeah he told you guys to be careful and try not to be on camera and you could see when you guys realized you were in frame and you left. The editing team should have caught it and blurred it out in the first place.” You heard a noise in the background and you heard a muffled voice that you couldn’t understand.

“Yeah that’s fine. Let me just finish up here and then I’ll come get you.” You stayed quiet knowing that he wasn’t talking to you but whoever had come into the room. “I’m talking to my mom, I’ll be done in a minute.” You felt instant crushing guilt knowing that he was now talking to JK and he was having to lie to him.

You heard the door closed on his side and you instantly apologized, “I’m so sorry you had to lie.”

“Y/N I won’t lie to him again.”

“I don’t expect you to.”

“He just found out our tour date was pushed up and he looks like he’s about to lose it, so I’m asking you to please put him first right now and deal whatever you have to at another time.” You were kind of shocked at Jimin’s request but you also knew that Jimin was really close with JK and probably knew exactly what he was thinking and probably a million other things you had yet to learn about him.

“Okay.” You whispered.

“Look, I need to go check on him but I really hope you’ll reach out to him today.” The two of you said your goodbyes and he hung up the phone and you stood there feeling ten times worse than you did before you talked to Jimin.

You could admit to yourself than in your panic you may have over reacted and you were trying to figure out how you truly felt about the situation. You had a bad habit of closing yourself off when you tried working through something and you kept hurting JK in the process which was never your intent. Jimin was right about you putting JK first. JK constantly put you first at every given moment and you were too afraid to do the same because a fear of getting hurt. You looked at the front door and sighed knowing what you had to do.

Agreeing to the total of the Uber made you die a little inside after seeing what it cost to get you from your apartment to the groups apartment complex. It took you a little bit to even find the address because JK had only taken you there once and it was just for him to run in and grab something and come back out. You knew which building and which apartment number it was but you had never actually been to their apartment even though you had received the invitation many times. You and JK had always opted to just stay at your place.

Your heart was hammering in your chest as you got out of the elevator on their floor and walked to the door of their apartment. You stood there and stared at the door trying to get up the courage to just knock on it. Your hand hovered in front of it for a second before knocking your knuckles against it. You felt incredibly nervous even though you had no reason to feel that way. You were about to knock again but the door swung open and your eyes met Namjoon’s.

“Y/N?” He seemed a little confused to see you standing there. But your eyes fell to the head that popped out around the corner. Jimin smiled at you and walked towards you and Namjoon.

“I’ve got it hyung. She’s here to see Jungkook.” When the words left Jimin’s mouth it looked like everything clicked and he gave you an appreciative smile.

“I’m glad you’re going to talk it out.” Your mind went back to the first time you had met the group and he had asked that instead of shutting JK out to please talk to him instead. Knowing you had shut him out at first made you feel guilty even though you were on your way to fixing it.

Namjoon stepped aside and Jimin motioned you to follow him. He led you to a door at the far end of the hallway and stopped in front of it where the door was cracked. “Thank you.” The sincerity in his voice made you nod. JK was lucky to have his brothers because they all cared for him so much. You didn’t have any siblings but you could tell they all cared very deeply for one another and took care of each other. Jimin gave your shoulder a reassuring squeeze before leaving you standing alone in front of JK’s bedroom door.

You took a deep breath and knocked on the door and opening it a little bit to see JK sitting at a desk that was under his bed with a million different things on it. “Hyung, I’m not in the mood.”

“Should I leave then?” You asked quietly.

JK’s head whipped around to look at you. Jimin wasn’t exaggerating because JK looked like hell. Only a day had passed since the video incident but it looked like the whole situation had made him age five years. “Y/N.” He seemed shocked to see you standing there.

“Can I come in?” you chewed your bottom lip a habit you had when you felt extremely nervous.

“Yeah.” He stood up quickly so you could take the computer chair but you just sat on a mini fridge tucked off to the side that was across from him. JK’s room was nothing like you imagined it. He wasn’t lying when he said he had a lot of things and his bedroom was cluttered. There were things everywhere but the room suited him. You could see evidence of his hobbies littered around his room.

JK was the first to break the silence between you once he sat back down, “I tried calling—“

“I know.” You said softly.

“I talked to Bang—“

“I know.” You gave him a small smile.

“If you know then why did you avoid me?” He seemed hurt and confused.

“I talked to Jimin this morning and he told me about you going to Bang PD and having them fix the video and I appreciate that.”

“Of course. I know how you feel about the whole thing Y/N. I promised you I would do everything I could to shield you from anyone knowing about you. I plan to stick to that promise. I know I’m already asking a lot from you because I want to be selfish and I don’t take a single second I have with you for granted. You’re important to me.”

You sighed, “I know that JK.”

“If you know that then what would make you think I wouldn’t fix it as soon as I found out about it?” you could hear the frustration in his voice and it made you feel guilty.

“It’s not like that at all JK, it’s not that I don’t think you would fix it. But see it from my point of view, okay? Something that was between just the two of us was suddenly on the internet and it wasn’t just a few people that saw it. Your YouTube channel has millions of subscribers JK and a cut of that video was already making its rounds on Twitter. Hell I mean Jackson called me to tell me to go look at the video. Do you have any idea how weird it felt? That people were seeing something that should have only been between the two of us? Or suddenly the girl your with has your fans already trying to figure out who it is. I’m a normal girl from America that doesn’t even live in a city so yeah the whole thing was overwhelming and it freaked me out and I just needed to catch my footing because I wasn’t prepared to deal with it.” You felt your body sag after getting your explanation out. “It has nothing to do with what I think about you or anything like that. It’s just the whole thing in general. Sometimes I forget about how much of your life the public cares about.”

JK reached out and grabbed your hand and tugged you towards him. You stood up and he pulled you over and pulled you onto his lap. Your legs hung over the arm of the chair and you melted into him your head resting against his chest while he wrapped his arms around you. The two of you stayed like that for a while, “They moved up the tour date.” His voice was barely above a whisper, “because of some scheduling conflicts they’ve had to start it earlier than planned.”

“So when do you start?”

“Less than a month.”

You sat up and looked at him, “What? How do they go from 3 months out to less than a month?” It felt like the floor had just disappeared under you because you felt your stomach drop. You had it in your mind that you still had a few months left not a few weeks. You weren’t ready to give him up yet.

“I don’t know. We have a meeting tomorrow to find out the exact departure date but they dropped that information on us a few hours ago.” Jimin’s change of tone after JK had come into his room now made sense because suddenly the two of you had a lot less time and wasting it over a stupid video wasn’t worth it.

Jungkook tucked a stray piece of hair behind your ear, “I’m not ready for this.” you whispered. Your brain was still processing and you felt panicked and it felt like someone was clutching your heart in their fist.

“Hey, we’ll figure something out. We don’t have to figure it out right now though. I just want you here with me. That’s all I care about right now.” He had gently grabbed your chin to look at him and the way he looked at you made your heart race but feel like it was shattering all at the same time. When he dropped his hand it looked like he wanted to say something and you waited for him to say it but whatever it was it looked like he was battling himself pretty hard. “Would you stay?” the question confused you and he could tell so he went on. “Would you stay here with me tonight....instead of you going back to your apartment?”

You felt yourself nodding before you had even fully processed his request but part of you didn’t want to leave.  A month wasn’t long and you wanted to make sure you could spend as much time with him as possible.”Yeah, of course.”

He smiled and pulled you towards him and kissed you lightly on your temple and whispered a quick thank you in your ear. You gave his arm a reassuring squeeze while he still had his arms wrapped around you. You continued to sit on his lap with your legs dangling off the armrest and JK’s arms wrapped tightly around you keeping you close to his body.

You weren’t sure how long it had been before he suggested going to lay down on his bed. You slid off his lap and realized you didn’t have any clothes to sleep in. “Umm...JK.” he turned to look at you, “I don’t have anything to sleep in.” He walked over to his closet and you saw a bunch of white tshirts hanging up. He grabbed one and then pulled out some joggers and handed them to you.

“I’ll wait outside, just open the door when you’re done.” he kissed your forehead and left you alone in his room. You took the moment to look around. His room was packed with a million different things. He had recording stuff and photography stuff. You couldn’t even comprehend it all. You slipped on the clothes he gave you and his scent enveloped you. You sighed as emotions built up in your chest. You weren’t ready for him to leave yet and you didn’t know how you would handle any of it. You knew you couldn’t dwell on it because it would only make the time you had left depressing. Once you had yourself situated you opened the door and you saw Jimin talking with JK. They both looked at you once you opened the door and Jimin smirked seeing you in JK’s clothes and you felt your face heat up.

JK left Jimin and walked towards you with a smile on his face and closed the door after he stepped into his bedroom. He stood at the bottom of the ladder and motioned for you to go ahead and climb up. You couldn’t remember the last time you had to climb a latter to get to a bed. You had a bunk bed when you were younger but it felt weird climbing into one as an adult. You scooted across the bed once you were up there and JK followed right behind you after turning off the light making the only source of light a lamp to the side of you. The two of you slid back and he laid down and pulled you with him so you were laying on his chest. You would have thought that you would feel awkward or incredibly nervous about spending the night with him and sharing a bed, but it didn’t feel weird at all if anything it felt right. 

“We’ll make the most of the time we have left before our tour, I promise. You’ll be sick of me by the end of it.” His fingers were running through your hair.

“If there’s one thing i’m sure of, it’s that I’ll never be sick of you.” You curled into his side as the warmth of his body caused you to scoot even closer to him which you weren’t sure was even possible. The one thing running through your mind before you fell asleep was how you were going to make it through him leaving.

AN: I was originally going to post this tomorrow but since tomorrow is my birthday i figured i would gift you guys as well. I hope this chapter gives everyone some type of feeling. Their days are numbered and they’re making the most of what they have. I love you all and i hope you enjoyed!

[wrldtravler]

The Price We Pay (A 6.5 Fic)

Hello! So, I have this little thing for @thebookjumper‘s AMAZING Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon. I absolutely loved it last year, and it’s definitely much needed since our poor bb’s are stupidly separated, once again, by a finale (yes, I’m low key throwing shade at the former Arrow writers, because... just why??).

Consider this a 6.5 fic, but it’s definitely NOT speculative because, let’s be honest, it looks like we’ll never see a proper honeymoon for them. This is a little late, but it’s for the Week 3 prompt, Hidden!

Enjoy :)

The Price We Pay

Prompt: Hidden

Rated: M

"Is that what it will take?"

Samanda Watson observed her for a moment, those calculating, unforgiving eyes carefully noting every little change in her expression. "Yes. You do this for the FBI and I can give you what you want in return."

Her heart soared with hope that might be too premature. "You can guarantee we'll be alone?"

There was an unimpressed eyebrow raised in response. "I keep my word, Mrs. Smoak. And I trust you to keep yours because you know what you lose if you renege our deal."

Felicity pursed her lips, lifting a nervous hand to press her glasses back into place. She had never been a fan of Agent Watson or her condescending tone. "I can handle it." She retorted. "And William stays with me." She reminded, pinning her fierce eyes on the FBI Agent.

Leaning back in her chair, Samanda smirked. "Of course." She confirmed with a nod.

A soft breath left her. That was the biggest concern. She didn't care what happened to herself, as long as she could still look out for William... that's all she needed from this. "So, we have a deal?" Felicity confirmed, standing and holding her hand out across the desk.

Slowly, Samanda nodded her head. Rising to her feet, she met Felicity's hand with her own for a quick shake. "It seems we have ourselves a deal."

He didn't know how long he had been out. The moment he did drift back to consciousness, he knew he wasn't in Slabside anymore.

It was warm. Not oppressively hot, but that delicious warmth one experiences while basking in the glow of a beautiful day. His ears picked up on the typically annoying caw of gulls overhead. Now, it sounded like music to his ears. Stretching his achy limbs, his fingers brushed soft sand. Those same fingers closed around the pliant material moments later, savoring the soothing feeling. Then, there were the waves. The rhythmic push and pull of water nearby nearly lulled him back to sleep.

And, that might nearly have happened if it weren't for his mind going into survival mode.

His eyes popped open, but he was forced to squint them shut again at the immediately blinding brightness of the sun. Throwing his hand over his face for protection, his bought his eyes some time to adjust as he scrambled to his knees. His eyes didn't leave any corner of his immediate surroundings untouched. But, it was just endless beach and an equally endless tree line.

And from that very tree line, Oliver picked up the sound of unnatural rustling. His eyes immediately swung to the spot, just to his right, and then frantically searched his surroundings once more. There was nothing to use for cover. He had no idea what was in the ocean behind him, so that was a no-go as well. So, he got to his feet quickly, bracing his body for battle.

Moments later, his "assailant" emerged from the tree line, less than twenty feet from him, glowing as bright as the sun above him in her white sundress. The sight should have relaxed him, even been euphoric, but it was quite the opposite. He hadn't considered that he was still dreaming... or even hallucinating. It seemed, at first glance, to be another Lian Yu situation - maybe the FBI trying to discretely dispose of him, or they were pulling an Amanda Waller and send him on some suicide covert mission without his knowledge or consent. However, the sight before him certainly meant hallucination or dream. Maybe all the beatings he took from the other inmates were finally taking their toll on his brain...

"Oliver."

Her breathless words were nearly carried away by the strong sea breeze, but he caught them. It was a single word, but it was broken, relieved, and full of so much love. It didn't dare to hope, but the emotions were too raw for his desperate brain to conjure on their own.

"Felicity?"

His own voice sounded foreign. Just as broken. The word, one he hadn't spoken in months, tasted foreign in his mouth.

From the way her face screwed up and her watery smile, she was clearly fighting tears. Something resembling a cough and a sob slipped from her lips, which she attempted to cover with a hand.

At the sound, his shoulders drooped. His own eyes teared up, and not because of the sun still cutting into his vision. Sucking in a shaky breath, he tried to open his mouth to say something else, but his lips only quivered around the words.

Even as she started towards him, tentative at first, he didn't move, still holding on to his last reservations. He couldn't let himself really accept that this was real because of the crushing disappointment that would likely follow if it wasn't. But, as she stepped into his space, her body nearly brushing his, he caught the glint of her wedding band against the sun as her hand came up to rest against his chest.

Like a dam breaking, his eyes only flashed back up to her loving gaze for a moment before he swarmed her. Wrapping his arms firmly around her waist, he pulled her close, burying his nose into the crown of her head. With a deep inhale, he hummed. Her smell. It was strong. Nothing like the faint memory he sometimes dreamt about. Somehow, she was here, in his arms again, nails digging almost painfully into his back through the thin shirt he wore. Yet another confirmation that this moment was real.

He wasn't ready to let go, but the urge to really look into her eyes again drove him to pull back. With the shift, Felicity lifted her face to his, her eyes now wet with happy tears. Her radiant grey-blue eyes clashed with his own piercing blues. Then, his lips were on hers, his hand sliding into the hair at the base of her neck.

Digging her fingers deeper into his back, Felicity pressed herself up onto her toes to meet him. It was desperate, filled with a need on both their parts to feel the human contact they had been deprived for so many months.

"How?" He forced out between heavy breaths when they parted. "How is this happening?"

Felicity stiffened in his arms. Lifting a hand, she cupped his now fully-bearded jaw. Quietly, she dropped her eyes to his chin, stroking her fingers through the soft hairs.

"Fe-li-ci-ty." He pressed, his stomach sinking at her actions.

"Oliver, I..." She started quickly but cut off with a sigh. Lifting her eyes back to his, they were hesitant now. "Come back to the house with me, then we can talk... about everything."

Oliver's brows pinched together with a quiet but frustrated huff. He needed to know what Felicity had gotten herself into to arrange this, but they needed to talk about more than just that and this wasn't the place for that conversation. "Lead the way."

Despite the tension of their looming conversation lingering between them, they made the entire walk hand-in-hand, never drifting far from the other. If Oliver weren't solely focused on what he was going to say to Felicity in a few minutes, he would have noticed that the hidden bungalow they entered was stunning – like something made for a romantic getaway.

Felicity led him to the spacious couch situated in the beautiful open space, the sea breeze swirling into and out of the bungalow through the open walls. Once seated, they were only inches apart on the count, bodies instinctively turned towards the other, Felicity's leg that was curled underneath her on the couch resting lightly against his thigh.

"What is this, Felicity?" He asked hesitantly.

Gulping, she turned her gaze to a random spot to their left. As she nervously curled her lower lip between her teeth, a familiar crease marred her brow. Reaching out, he placed a hand on hers fidgeting in her lap, drawing one of them away and linking their fingers. Turning her eyes back to him, she squeezed his fingers in hers with a small smile.

"We have 24 hours... well less than that now." She started, and now that the dam was open the words tumbled out. "I couldn't... The way you left, it wasn't right. I miss you, so much. We never got to really talk about all of this. We never got a proper honeymoon. So, I made a deal with the FBI, my services for 24 hours, totally alone, with you. To talk. To be with you. To do this the way it should have been done. I couldn't wait until your release, because there's no way of knowing that will ever happen..." She finally trailed off, fresh tears welling in her eyes at the thought.

Squeezing her hand comfortingly, he reached up to brush a stray tear that finally found freedom. He didn't want to give her false words – he'd learned recently that it wasn't wise to make promises he didn't know if he could keep. And, as always, Felicity was right. About all of it. "I'm surprised you want to see me at all." He offered weakly.

"No." She fired back quickly, her voice rising. "Oliver Jonas Queen, you are still my husband, so stop thinking like that, mister. You can't get rid of me that easily. But, you do have a lot of explaining to do before we continue."

He reared back, surprised by the sudden change. After leaving the way he did, hiding the deal from her the same way he failed to disclose that William existed, he feared she wouldn't wait for him like she always promised. Said fear kept him up most nights, so to hear her words now soothed his heart.

One thing still nagged at him, though. "Before we continue, what deal did you make?"

As quickly as her bravado came to her, it faded with the question. "I uh made my own deal with Watson. I traded my own serviced for the next year for 24 un-interrupted hours with you on this island. William will stay with me of course, that was non-negotiable, but we'll be under FBI protection now. I agreed to help them track down high profile criminals around the world..."

"Felicity!" He hissed, standing from the couch suddenly, breaking their contact. Quietly, he paced in front of her, hands flexing at his side. "Why would you do that?" He turned on her suddenly with desperate eyes. "You know you're in their custody now. You have no freedom. They say it's only a year, but there's no way they're going to let you go after this. Why would you give that up for this?"

Rising to her feet, she stared him down, chest-to-chest. "You're one to talk about making life-changing deals! And don't tell me that this isn't worth it. That's wrong, and you know it." She nearly growled, emphasizing her point with a firm poke to his just as firm chest.

"I did what I did to protect you and William. I didn't see any other way."

"How is this different?! I don't know if you're ever coming home, Oliver. I couldn't stand by, wondering what if, letting this thing fester between us. You, me, our love, your commitment to William. My freedom is a small price to pay to save what matters most to me."

Clamping his mouth shut, he huffed a frustrated breath through his nostrils. But, he couldn't argue her point since he did do the very same thing with his own choice.

"Why did you hide it from me?" She pressed on, not giving him any time to breath before diving back in.

"I was afraid." He murmured, dropping his gaze from hers, the fight quickly leaving him.

"Afraid of what?"

"I knew you would convince me otherwise. How many times have you told me we find another way." He reminded with a tired laugh. "We were outnumbered and if we didn't stop Diaz while we had the advantage... I couldn't risk anything happening to you and William if he was still on the loose."

Felicity snorted at that. "Ironic isn't it? That, after all that, we didn't end up catching him, and here I am." She remarked dryly.

Oliver was quiet, head drooped, pulling his ashamed eyes away from hers.

"But, that's not the point... You're not on your own, and you know damn well that you haven't been for a while now. Your decisions have consequences, and not just on me anymore. We have William, now. I know you meant well, but he just lost his Mom a year ago, Oliver, and then you took yourself away from him, voluntarily! He's confused." She continued.

Before Oliver could open his mouth to retort, she held up a hand. "I know. He has me. And, I love him, but I'm not his biological parent. He's known me for six months, and suddenly I'm his sole guardian. That was unfair to him, babe."

Those words hit home, making Oliver wince. "Is-Is he okay? How's he doing?"

"He's strong, just like his father." She said, a hint of pride lacing her weak smile.

Oliver took one of Felicity's limp hands in his, lacing their fingers together. "How are you doing?"

"I- I miss you. Some days are better than others. Adjusting has been... difficult."

It was subtle, but his face contorted with pain at her words. "Can you ever forgive me?"

"Yes." She responded instantly, but there were words left unspoken in her eyes.  

Despite that, his heart thumped with momentary joy. "But, not yet, right?" He ventured.

Folding her lips together, Felicity nodded. "I'm not going anywhere. I. Love. You." She reminded him with firm words, cupping his jaw. "Trust me, I am under no delusion that we're perfect, but, Oliver, we still have to work on being a team. If... no, when we get out of this, we're going to take time to be better."

Leaning into her hand, he nodded. "Anything." He breathed. "I thought I learned from all of the mistakes of my past, but I guess that isn't true. I want to be better for you and William because you both are the best things that have ever happened to me." Leaning forward, he pressed a soft kiss to her upper lip. "I'm sorry."

When he pulled back, Felicity's eyes were half-open now, a serene smile on her lips. "Hmm? I don't think I caught that."

That pulled a grin over his own lips. "I'm sorry." He repeated with another kiss, winding an arm around her waist to pull her close. "I'm so, so sorry, for all of this." He whispered against her lips.

She wound an arm around his neck, pressing herself against him. "Why don't you take me over to the bed, show me how sorry you are, and get our honeymoon started." She purred, nibbling playfully at his lower lip.

Deftly, Oliver slipped his hands under her thighs, lifting her off the floor which forced Felicity to wrap her legs around his waist and arms around his neck. "Anything for my beautiful wife." He smiled, pressing a kiss against her lips as he started for the bed in front of him.

This time, the kiss didn't end so quickly. Oliver took his time worshiping her lips, even as he sat down on the bed with Felicity in his lap, her dress completely bunched around her waist in the new position. Her fingers tangled into his unkempt hair. Tugging on the strands, Felicity pressed herself into him. He growled against her lips as his body immediately responded to her.

When he finally did tear his lips from hers, it with a new mission on his mind. His hands went to his shirt, tugging it off hastily with her help. He allowed her, for a moment, to explore, running her hands reverently over everything: his shoulders, chest, scars old and new. Oliver's own gaze watched her as she soaked it in, the fascination and hunger in her own gaze testing his control.

It snapped quickly. Wrapping his hands around her thighs that straddled him, he pressed them higher until he brushed the material of her dress. Before she knew what his intentions were, Felicity wiggled her hips against him, begging for his touch elsewhere. Pressing back against her, his grip around her dress tightened briefly, fighting the needs of his body as he forced himself to drag the dress over her head.

But, as soon as the dress was on its way to the floor, Oliver wrapped a tight arm around her waist and flipped them over, nearly throwing Felicity on the bed in his haste.

"Oliver!" She squeaked with a giggle as she settled into place in the middle of the bed.

"What?" He asked innocently against her lips. Through his grin, he placed a lingering kiss to her lips before rising to his full height at the foot of the bed. Quickly, he discarded the rest of his clothing. Felicity took the hint and discarded her last remaining item as well. Though Oliver would have been content to stand there and gaze upon his gorgeous wife spread out over the silky white sheets, his body demanded they complete their task, so he quickly crawled back between her legs as soon as she successfully removed the item of clothing.

The moment he re-joined her, her hand dipped between their bodies to palm him. Oliver's head instantly dropped to her shoulder with a groan. "Felicity, please... It's been a while, I don't think..."

She had the audacity to laugh but didn't stop her ministrations. "That would be such a shame, dear husband, because I've been looking forward to feeling you insi-"

He cut her off quickly, crashing his lips against hers as he reached between them to still her hand. Replacing it with his own hand, Felicity hiked one leg up over his ass just in time for him to line himself up and slide home.

"Oh... yes...." Felicity gasped, digging the heel of her foot into his backside as she pressed her hips up against his.

Oliver's hands curled into the sheets near Felicity's head. "Yeah." He laughed out with a giddy grin.

Craning her neck, Felicity pressed a kiss to his lips through her own smile.

That woke something in Oliver and he started to move against her. Their lips parted, but they remained close, noses and lips brushing with every thrust. As Felicity's pleasure rose, her fingers dug into his back, her body slowly arching. For Oliver, his pants turned into soft grunts and his thrusts became more urgent.

Sliding a hand down the thigh wrapped around his waist, Oliver dug his fingers into her ass, pulling her as close as he could manage. It didn't take long for his rhythmic thrusts to quicken. "Felicity, I..."

"Please." She urged against his lips, starting to writhe under him with the slightly new angle.

With that simple word, Oliver stilled over her with a broken groan as he finished.

Shifting his weight onto one of his arms, Oliver wasted no time in slipping a hand between them. The moment his fingers brushed her, Felicity gasped under him, throwing her head back. Dipping his head, he brushed his lips under her jaw in a particularly sensitive place for her. "That's it, hon, let go."

His fingers didn't have to work much longer because she tightened around him shortly after, her hands desperately grasping at his back as her orgasm slammed into her. "O-oh god, y-yes." She moaned, writhing erratically under him.

Removing his hand, Oliver curled it around her waist to hold her close, letting her ride it out as he peppered her jawline and neck with kisses.

As her spasms subsided, Felicity relaxed back into the bed and placed a hand on his jaw.

Lifting his gaze back up to hers, Oliver gave her a content smile. Felicity, with her shining eyes, returned his smile. They met in the middle, lips coming together in a tender kiss. When they separated, Oliver took a moment to slip out of her before rolling onto his back, taking her with him so she remained curled in his embrace.

"Am I forgiven?" He asked, only slightly teasingly, as he tilted his head down to press a kiss into her hair.

Felicity lifted her head, resting her chin on his chest so she could meet his eye. "I don't know. I think you need to apologize some more." She said, trying to keep her voice even, but the glint in her eyes had Oliver grinning.

"You said we're completely alone, right?" He confirmed. "Totally hidden away on this island?"

She nodded against his chest. "Mmhmm." She hummed, folding her lips together.

Placing finger under her chin, Oliver urged her closer until he could capture her lower lip between his. "How about..." He started between kisses, "I make us some food, and then we go for an evening swim." He offered, still peppering her lips with slow kisses.

"That's not what I meant, babe." She pouted against his lips, wiggling against him.

Reaching down, Oliver stilled her hips with a soft laugh. "Trust me, I don't plan on sleeping, but I think you'll like this, very much." He promised, nibbling on her lower lip.

"Well... when you put it that way." Felicity relented with an amused huff, placing a hand on his bearded jaw as she leaned in to meet him for a lingering kiss.

"Happy honeymoon, Felicity." Oliver whispered against her lips.

Pausing, Felicity pulled back just enough to look into his eyes. The contentment and love in his gaze pulled tears to her own. "Happy honeymoon, Oliver." She echoed, sealing it with another of the many kisses they would share over the coming hours.

[hockeyandstuff91]

How did this happen? - Part 9

Word count: 2,264

Players: Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn (mentioned)

Other people: Katie (mentioned) , Ashlyn (mentioned)

Warnings: cussing

Authors note: Okay! So this was an interesting part to write.. But its finally getting us somewhere! I work for the next two days so I don’t know if I will have time to get another part out tomorrow or the next day, but I’m going to try my best. I do however have 5 days off following Saturday so I hope to write lots during that time! haha

Also Savannah is just a made up character, to my knowledge Tyler hasn’t dated anyone by that name lol

Hope you all enjoy this part!

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3    Part 4    Part 5    Part 6   Part 6.5     Part 7    Part 8   Part 10

(Brooke’s POV. First part continued from last part)

I made it back to Tyler's house and walked inside, setting the takeout bag on the kitchen counter. I heard him walking around upstairs for a minute before his footsteps lead to the stairs and I heard him come down.

"Hey," he said and walked over to the counter and opened up the bag.

"Hey," I smiled at him. "How was your day?" I asked, sitting down on one of the bar stools.

"It was fine, just kind of boring," he smiled back. "How was work?" he asked as he grabbed us some plates.

"It was fine. Oh Kyle from the restaurant says hi by the way," I said as I grabbed some food.

After a few minutes Tyler was almost done with his food but I had barely eaten anything. This whole time I had just been thinking about how I was going to tell him that I saw her and with someone else.

"Whats the matter?" Tyler asked me.

"Nothing why?"

"Brooke you only pick at your food when you are nervous about something. Whats up?" he asked as he took the last bite of his own food.

"Do you know a Ryan Adams?" I asked him.

"Yeah.. He was part of an old group of friends I use to hang out with why?"

"Are he and Savannah friends?"

"I mean she was part of that group but they never hung out why?"

"I saw her and him at the restaurant when I went to go pick up the food," I mumbled as I took a bite.

"What?"

I looked up at Tyler who was staring at me, not sure how to process the information I had just given him. "I'm sorry Ty," I said.

He shook his head "No its fine, they probably just went to go catch up since she hasn't been around in over a year," he said, getting up to clean his plate.

"Ty.." I started.

"Brooke don't."

I sighed and set my fork down, not as hungry as I was an hour ago. "Tyler look. I know you and her had a thing. I also know how that said thing ended.."

Tyler just shook his head, still not facing me. "No she isn't like that anymore Brooke or I wouldn't of given her another chance."

"Tyler-"

"Brooke I don't want to fucking hear it," Tyler's voice was raised which he had never done with me. I had a bad feeling this was going to be our first fight and I wasn't sure how to take it, but I wasn't going to sit by and let my best friend get hurt.

I got up and walked around the counter and over to where he was standing. "Tyler I don't care if you don't want to hear it or not. Kyle said that he had seen her in there more than once this week, and always with a different guy. He knows who you are and your name didn't pop up on the list," I responded, folding my arms in front of my chest.

Tyler grit his teeth, grabbing the edge of the counter before he spun to look at me. "Stay out of it," he almost growled which made me step back in response.

"No Tyler I'm not going to watch my best friend sit here and get used by some bitch. She doesn't give a fuck about you clearly. She just wants someone who looks nice and has money. I know her type."

"You've never even spoken to her before!" Tyler was now yelling. Two could play at that game.

"Tyler I don't need to speak to her! All she cares about is getting whatever she wants and moving on. She already cheated on you once in the past. She hasn't changed she just made up some story to make herself look good and to have you take her back. Don't be a fucking idiot you deserve better than that."

"I don't believe that."

"You are really going to sit here and say that you don't trust me? What do you think I'm lying to you Tyler?"

"I don't know."

I laughed at that "You have got to be kidding me. Out of anyone why would I your 'best friend' lie to you about something like this?"

"Because you hated her from the start! You have made it very clear you don't want me anywhere near her."

"So that is a good enough reason for me to try and get you to break up with her?! I'm trying to protect you!"

"I don't want to talk about this right now," He said and pushed by me, going to the living room.

I shook my head and took a deep breath. I gave him a moment before I walked into the living room and found him sitting on the couch, furiously typing on his phone. "Once you figure out that I would never lie to you about this, you let me know. Have a good night," I said and walked down the hall to the front door, slamming it behind me and got into my car, driving home with tears running down my face. I was just glad that Jamie and Katie were going to be home tomorrow.

(Tyler's POV)

It had been two hours since Brooke had left after our fight and I wanted nothing more than to call and apologize to her. In the two hours I had found out that she wasn't actually lying to me and that Savannah really was the shit person that Brooke had called since the start. I couldn't believe that I had just potentially lost my best friend and gotten cheated on for the second time. I really was the biggest idiot that everyone else kept telling me I was lately.

I knew that she probably wouldn't answer my calls tonight so I decided that I shouldn't bother her until tomorrow. I felt like the worst best friend ever right now and I was so mad at myself. I couldn't believe that I was so dumb to actually think Brooke would make this up just to get me to break up with Savannah. That's not the type of girl Brooke was and I knew that.

Brooke was different, and I knew that from the moment I met her. But it scared me to have someone different. I was used to being used for a few months and then moving on to someone else. It was easier that way, I knew that they were the shit person and I did nothing wrong, but now I was the shit person who just pushed away someone who actually cared enough about me to tell me something was going on behind my back. Someone who would never use me and genuinely cared about me as a person. She didn't care that I had money, she didn't care that I was a professional athlete, she just liked me for who I was and in this world that was hard to find.

Brooke was the first girl who ever stood up to me and put me in my place. She wasn't scared to tell me that what I was saying was bull shit. Honestly it was kind of hot since no other girl I knew did shit like that. It was something I appreciated.

Jamie was right, which I hated to admit, but he was going to love hearing later. I was going to mess up my chance with this one if I didn't act on it. And why was I being so dumb to care so much about being free to be with whoever? When was I going to find another down to earth girl like her that wouldn't turn out to be a bitch in 2 months?

There was still a part of me that was hanging on to my freedom and didn't want to let go. I was worried that there was something about this that wasn't going to work and then I would lose my best friend too. We had been super close since the start of our friendship but there were still some things that I needed to figure out before I made this official with Brooke, but at least I could tell the guys that I was going to do it soon. Maybe then Jamie would stop yelling at me so much.

(Brooke's POV)

It had been two days since Tyler and I's fight. He apologized the next day, which I was kind of surprised about but I was glad that he finally believed me and got rid of her once and for all. I had just finished getting ready for work when my phone lit up with a text message. It was from Tyler asking if I wanted to hang out after I got out of work, I replied with sure and told him that I would call him once I got out.

Things were still a little off between the two of us but I was hoping maybe we would be able to fix that tonight and talk about it. I wanted to apologize for yelling at him, though honestly he deserved it.

I made my way into work and took the elevator up to the floor that the business I worked for was on. I walked in and went over to my cubical and set my purse down on the desk. I looked over and noticed there was a piece of paper on my keyboard.

Unfolding it I scanned the paper, it was from my boss saying that he wanted to speak to me this morning. I set the note back on my desk and walked over to his office. I knocked on the door and waited for a reply before walking in.

"Mr. Callaway you wanted to speak to me?" I asked as I stepped into his office and closed the door behind me.

"Yes Brooke please take a seat," he smiled.

I walked forward and sat in one of the chairs that was in front of his desk. I knew that this couldn't of been about my work as I had finished it all ahead of everyone else. This job was pretty easy, just entering a lot of data into computer system which hadn’t taken long to learn. I had got the job less than a week after I moved into my apartment which was great because that meant I was able to save the money in my emergency savings account and not use it on rent.

"So I'm sure you saw the email last week about us downsizing the company," he said, taking his glasses off and setting them on the desk in front of him.

Mr. Callaway was a nice man, in his mid 30s, taking over for his father who had fallen ill. The company hadn't been doing as well over the last year but he hadn't seemed worried about it until these last two weeks.

I nodded my head in response.

"Unfortunately we have had a bad year, and this last month was even worse. We don't want to downsize but with the way the market is going right now we can't afford not to. Sadly this means we are going to have to let some people go..."

I already knew where he was going with this. I sunk in my seat a bit not wanting to hear him say it but I was one of the newer people so of course I would be let go first. I had only been working here for a little less than 4 months and no one else had been hired since I was.

"You have done amazing work for us Brooke and if the company starts picking back up soon we would love to keep you on the books so we can offer you your place back, but as of right now-"

"It's okay I understand. Thank you for the opportunity," I smiled and stood up.

"If you need any recommendations or anything from me just let me know, I would be happy to help you," he said, sitting back in his chair, rubbing his hand over his face.

"Thank you I appreciate that," I smiled again and turned, walking out of his office.

"I promise if anything opens up I'll give you a call," he said as I left.

I just nodded in response and walked back to my desk. I grabbed all of my things and put them into a box, carrying them out to my car.

I climbed into the driver seat and leaned against the headrest. I had held it together pretty well while inside and saying goodbye to everyone but as soon as I was in the safety of my car the tears started to stream down my face. The one thing that I feared after moving away from home had happened, I lost my job and I had no idea where to go from here. I was thankful that I had the emergency fund and that would give me a month to look which should be plenty of time, but still it worried me.

I sighed, wiping my cheek and grabbed my phone out of my purse. I unlocked it and looked at the time, Tyler should be up by now. I took a deep breath and let out a sigh, trying to calm my breathing as I hit the call button and waited for him to pick up.

"Brooke? Are you okay?" He asked, his voice sounding a little worried. There was never a reason for me to call him at this time since I would be at work right now.

"Physically yeah. I um.. I just lost my job," I said, sniffling.

Tyler didn't say anything for a few seconds. I heard him sigh before responding "I'm sorry. Do you want to come over?"

"Please?"

"Of course," he said and we both hung up as I started my car and headed over to his place.

(Brooke's POV)

The next couple weeks I spent a lot of time with Tyler. He was being super sweet in trying to get my mind off of being fired. I was just glad to get some time to relax for a little while but after a couple days I decided that I should probably start looking for another place to work. I applied to a bunch of places but being that it was the start of summer not many places were looking right now, they had already hired high school students and had no more openings.

"Ty?" I called out for Tyler as I walked through his house towards the patio doors. I was scrolling through my phone trying to find some job listings but was having no luck finding anything that I qualified for.

"Yeah?" He was playing in the back yard with the boys, throwing three different tennis balls for each of them.

"I give up," I sighed and put my phone back in my pocket, sitting down on one of the lawn chairs.

"No luck still?" He asked and walked over to me, sitting next to me in another chair.

I shook my head and put my head in my hands. I was starting to get really frustrated and really worried. On top of not being able to find a job my rent had gone up meaning I wouldn't be able to stay more than another month with what I had saved. It was like everything was coming at me all at once, I was just glad that things between Tyler and I were back to normal or I would of felt completely lost.

"Hey," he said softly and leaned over, rubbing my back. "Stop stressing," he said and grabbed one of my hands, pulling it away from my face and lifting my chin so that I was looking at him.

My eyes were watery, threatening to spill over onto my cheeks. Tyler stood up and pulled me with him and walked me back into the house and over to the couch. He sat down and brought me with him, wiping under my eyes.

"Don't cry," he said and kissed my forehead. I closed my eyes in response and leaned against him. "Listen I have watched you over the last three weeks stress about this and lose sleep. You are exhausted and that's not okay with me. I know that you wanted to do this on your own and you wanted to be able to support yourself. And more importantly I know you are scared that you are going to have to move back home," he said, rubbing my back again.

I pressed my face closer into his shoulder, not wanting to think about leaving here. I couldn't imagine having to move so far away from everyone and be alone again back at home. It was the last thing in the world that I wanted.

"Hey," he said and pulled back to look at me. "I've been thinking.. why don't you just move in with me?" he asked.

I looked up at him surprised. It was not something I was expecting out of him. I knew that he enjoyed me being around and spending time here but I also knew that he liked living on his own. I knew that he would especially not want me here if he was going to bring a random girl home from the bar some night, though come to think of it he hadn't done anything like that since he broke up with whats her face.

"I'm serious," he said, clearly reading my mind of being surprised. "It'll be great, you will have a lot more room here for your things, the boys love you and your company. During the season it will be great because I know that someone will be here to watch the house while I'm gone," he started but I shook my head.

"Ty, no I can't ask you to do that."

Tyler put his finger up to my lips. "Sh. I'm not letting you say no to this. I don't want you to be stressed about making rent or finding a job, I want you to be happy and have time to relax. I don't want you to have to move back home, we would all miss you too much. I want you here," he said and I just nodded. "Okay?" he smiled and dropped his hand from in front of my face.

I nodded again "okay," I said softly and smiled at him. "I seriously appreciate this Tyler, you have no idea," I said and wrapped my arms around him, giving him a big hug.

"I know. But hey it's not just for you, its for me too."

"Oh?" I laughed and looked at him. "I get to cook and clean for you and you don't have to pay people to do it anymore right?" I smirked.

He laughed "I mean if you are offering.." he teased and I rolled my eyes. "No Brooke I appreciate your company, those other things are just a plus," he smiled and I nodded, not fully believing him but I would give him the benefit of the doubt.

[myneighborhood-thelake]

Davis Double Century, May 2001

The short of it:

Two hundred miles is a really, really long way to ride a bike.

Ride:         Davis Double Century (http://www.davisbikeclub.org/ddc/2001/index.htm)

When:       Saturday, May 19, 2001.

Route:       Loop course from Davis, through Napa, Solano, Lake and Colusa counties, back to Davis

Distance:   197.6 miles (by my computer)

Time:        16 hours 34 minutes total clock time, 12 hours 35 minutes bike time

Average Speed:       15.7 MPH

Max Speed:        46.5 MPH

Weight Loss:           14 pounds   (195 pre ride, 181 post ride)

This was my first double century, and it was a great and incredibly tough experience. The Davis Bike Club puts on a great ride. It’s very well supported and well marked. Compared to other California doubles, the Davis Double has less climbing and more frequent rest stops which makes it a great first time double, so they say.

That said, it was still 200 miles in the saddle on a very hot day.

Lesson Lived:  Slow and steady.

Lesson ‘I would like to’ Learn: I need to train for these things. With only 157 road miles under my belt in 2001 and about 50 in 2000, this was a big jump in miles.

I started in the dark at 4:50am and finished in the dark at 9:34pm. I always knew that ultra-cyclists were a tough breed, but this gave me some new respect. There is a series in California called the Triple Crown where you have to finish three double centuries in one year. Per the Triple Crown website Davis is listed as a good beginners double century “with only three moderate hills.” If those hills are moderate, then I don’t want to see anything tougher! I salute anyone who has accomplished the Triple Crown. One 200 miler was tough enough for me. Three or more in one year is amazing.

About the course: the first 45 miles are flat, the next 90 are hilly with three tough climbs and the last 65 are supposedly downhill. By the time I hit mile 135 I needed much more than a 1% downgrade to help me along. My cadence had slowed dramatically, and everything was focused on staying hydrated and fueled in order to have the energy to finish. At that point it all felt like an uphill to me. I was very glad that it was downhill, but it just didn’t feel like it.

For the most part I only thought about 2 minutes ahead at all times. I focused on the here and now, and that really helped. The hills were going to come no matter what, so why worry about them?

I only got worried once, around mile 167, when I saw a line of hills in the distance. I could only think, “please, don’t make me try and climb those hills. I won’t make it.” Luckily I was able to forget about the hills because at mile 167 I had the attention span of a gnat. By the time I started worrying I forgot about what was causing me grief. And the road turned before we had to do any severe climbing

The day was very, very hot. The forecast high was for 90deg, but there had to be a couple of sections on the course that got close to triple digits. By the end of the ride both my jersey and shorts had a coating of white on them from all of the salt that I had sweated out. The fluids on the course were Gatorade and water, and I took one Thermotab per hour. I don’t know if the salt tablets actually help or not, but I tend to do much better when I use them.

I did my best to stay within myself and hold a pace that I knew I could handle. I rode the first 100 miles in about 7 hours and 10 minutes and the second 100 in 9 hours and 24 minutes. I took naps at rest stops 5, Lunch (6.5) and 9, and I pulled of the road and took a break several times during the ride.

The only “low” point came at mile 170 when I wanted to keep riding but my legs had absolutely nothing left in them. I took a break by the side of the road, watched a bunch of people go by, ate some Gu, drank a bunch of water and recovered for a while. Other than that I just kept plugging along. It wasn’t pretty, but it was fairly steady, and I got the job done.

The weirdest part of the ride came at Rest Stop #7, mile 133, the top of Resurrection which is the toughest hill on the course. I was sitting on the ground and I noticed that my calves were moving. Both calf muscles were pulsing and twitching all by themselves. They almost looked like a heart pumping away. I have no idea what it meant as I never cramped and they pulsated for the next 4 rest stops and 67 miles, but I made damn sure to keep my fluids and electrolytes intake up. If anyone knows why muscles just start pulsating at will, I would love to hear the answer. It was very disturbing to watch.

After Rest Stop #10, mile 178, I got a bit barn sour and pushed pretty hard to get to the finish line. I just wanted to get it over with. This is probably where I did the most damage to myself as I forgot to drink for almost an hour. For most of the ride I could eat and drink, but at the end I could not even stomach solid food which for me is a major sign of dehydration. The post-ride shower felt incredible even if it was hard to stand up for more than 5 minutes at a time.

I knew that I couldn’t make it home that night, so I found a hotel and passed out cold. I think that the waitress at IHOP was a little shocked when I asked for extra sour cream with my omelet, but I deserved it!! What’s a few grams of fat when you have just lost 14 pounds……..

The long of it:

Goals: - complete as much of the ride as possible - stay within a manageable pace - don’t bonk, or at least don’t bonk hard

I have thought about the Davis Double Century (DDC) for several years now. For some reason it sounded like a good challenge, and after last weekends incredible century, the I Care Classic, I chose to take the plunge. My road miles over the last two years totaled 157 pre-DDC,  and my MTB miles probably ran about 100 or so. I had to reset my computer, so I lost count of my annual total. Basically, by completing the DDC I almost doubled my total mileage for the year.

NOTE: undertraining for a double century is not cool.

I left work at about 4:30pm on Friday to drive up to Davis. I figured that it would take me about 2 hours, but with SF Bay Area traffic I was on the road for 3 solid hours arriving at the check-in at 7:30pm. I had planned well for the drive and did my best to eat and hydrate. The forecasted high for Saturday was 92deg F, and I knew that I would need to be well hydrated.

Check-in took all of about 15 seconds. The Davis Bike Club is extremely well organized. After picking up my registration envelope I drove out to my hotel, checked in, unloaded my gear and turned on the room air-conditioner. It was about 8:15pm and even though the sun was setting it was still very warm. Tomorrow was going to be a challenge.

Time for dinner, and where else to eat but Denny’s? For some reason I was looking forward to the processed hamburger that they call chicken fried steak. My pre-race meal was deep fried battered chicken fried steak and instant mashed potatoes smothered in gravy and a side of peas (soaking in butter). It may not sound like the best choice, but I was going to need the salt and calories in the morning. Plus it tasted pretty darn good.

Saturday morning.

The alarm went off at 3:30am. According to the literature the ride starts from 5:15am to 5:45am, and I want to be there right when we can start. I knew that it was going to be a long, hot day, so I wanted to get a few miles in before the sun comes up. I grabbed a cup of coffee at Denny’s, ate a banana and a Gu, packed up the car and drove the 9 miles to the starting line.

I arrived at the ride HQ, Davis Senior High School, at about 4:35am, and there were people already heading out. It turns that ride morning registration is open from 5:15am to 5:45am, but if you check in the night before you can head out anytime you want. On the course I met a tandem couple who had started out at 4:15am, and after the ride I talked to a volunteer who said that people were riding as early as 3:00am. You can start anytime that you want just make sure to bring lights and remember that the first rest stop (22.9 miles) opens at 5:30am.

Clothing had been a big concern for me. What should I wear? How much extra should I bring? The sun was not even up yet, and I was very comfortable in my sleeveless bike jersey (read: already warm).

Oh man, it’s gonna be hot today, so I chose to go with my sleeveless jersey. I put a pair of arm warmers into a jersey pocket just in case. That would be “just in case” I wanted to carry some extra weight around the course because I wasn’t going to need any cool weather gear today. I hustled to pump up my tires and clip on my lights, and I was rolling at 4:50am.

4:50am – the beginning:

Miles 0 to 2

The first mile or two is through town, and I was grouped up with about 5 other riders. This was OK because they were holding a decent pace, and they had better lights than my cheap Cateye. I don’t like riding in pacelines with people I don’t know, but I relaxed my rule for a little while. Soon we were out into the farmlands.

Miles 2 to 23

The first few turns are well marked and there are volunteers out (even at 5:00am) to waive you in the right direction. I carried a course map with me, but that was more for general info and knowledge of upcoming terrain because I never looked at it for directions.

After about 8 miles I chose to peel off of the paceline, and they dropped me in short order. The sky was getting lighter and the course is really well marked, with volunteers at most of the morning intersections, so I was fine alone.

I did hear talk on the course that there was a major crash (possibly a fatality) in the early morning before rest stop #1. It’s very dark, the pacelines are moving fast and there are some heavily trafficked roads. If you do choose to do this ride, please exercise some caution.

I soon learned the ‘secret’ of the DDC. After several pacelines screamed by me, I started noticing a trend. Very few of the pacelines were led by single riders. At the DDC if you want to make time – get behind a tandem. Over the course of the morning I must have seen 10 or 15 tandems pulling about 30 riders each. By the afternoon, the course hits the hills and the pack break up.

Right at about mile 20 I was cruising along peacefully and it dawned on me that the hardcore folks doing IM California hadn’t even hit the water yet. I made a mental note to watch the time and when 7:00am hit, send out a mental “Good Luck” to everybody pulling a full IronMan today.

Other than that little epiphany, I was content to motor along in my little chainring until rest stop #1.

Rest Stop #1 (which also doubles as Rest Stop #10, but we’ll get to that later…)

I stopped only long enough to pull on my sunglasses. As soon as I started rolling again a semi-truck blew by me. Actually it was a paceline being led out by 4 tandems. Speaking with some riders later it turns out that the lead tandem was hoping to break 9 1/2 hours on the course. I cannot even imagine averaging over 20 MPH on a double century. Wow!

Miles 26 to 40

Rest stop #2 was 19 miles of gradual downhill and 3 miles of climbing ahead. A nice portion of the first 19 miles was on a newly paved farm road with wide shoulders. I was riding South and the sun was just coming up which made for some great roadside shadows. I was able to use the shadows to critique my bike positioning, and I have to say that I didn’t look too bad with a flat back and extended legs. I was looking quite good!

Then again, it was only mile 30…… and speaking of mile 30, it was right around here that the clock hit 7:00am. I sent out my mental “Good Luck” and hoped that it would reach down to San Diego. As silly as it sounds I was more concerned about the people doing IM Cali, especially the Iron-Virgins, than I was about myself. Granted I only had 157 road miles under me in the last two years, but my mental state was already dialed in.

- I had 200 miles to ride (now only 170). - It was going to get very, very hot. - I was totally under-trained.

And, most importantly, there was NOTHING that I could do to change any of those facts!!!

Just ride baby, ‘cause there’s nothing else to do today.

Cruising along a creek just before the climb into rest stop #2 brought a nice chill to the air and more than a few pickups pulling boats out to Lake Berryessa. The road was packed with cyclists, but there didn’t seem to be much of that “pickup versus cyclist” animosity, and that was nice to observe.

The climb into rest stop #2 was a good wakeup. I geared down and pedaled on up mainly because there wasn’t much else to do. It was really early in the ride, and I had no desire to push my pace.

Rest Stop #2, Mile 40

Rest stop #2 was packed. I find it amusing that where the riders are grouped up the most (early morning) there are the fewest porta-potties. The line was easily 50 riders long for the one or two units that were available. I didn’t need the facilities, so I filled my water bottles, grabbed a couple slices of nut bread and headed out. I had a handlebar bag full of Gu which I was planning on eating at least hourly, but for an event of this length I needed some solid food too. I also took a Thermotab (salt tablet).

It may have been early in the day, but I was already sweating profusely.

Miles 40 to 58

The ride from rest stop 2 to rest stop 3 has a big climb called Cardiac Hill. As I pedaled my way to the top I was passed by a couple of guys who wanted to know what my race schedule is for the year. I wish that they had asked that question because I was going so darned fast but it was because my Km40 tri-bike stood out like a sore thumb in the 99.95% roadie crowd. The 0.05% was me….  ;-)

My unscientific study showed only one 650c wheeled bike doing the DDC – mine!

Overall I think that I did fine on my steep-angle frame, but I can’t help but wonder if it would be better to take on distance rides with a more traditional geometry. One of these days perhaps.

Other than that there isn’t much to report for this 18 mile stretch. I just kept those pedals turnin’, drank a bunch of water and ate a Gu. Slow and steady.

Of course I couldn’t miss the fact that the sun was now up, and the temps were rising fast!

Rest stop #3, Mile 58

It’s already getting warm.

Scratch that. It was warm at 5:00am.

It is now starting to get hot!

I grab a couple more slices of nut bread and fill my water bottles. I am feeling a bit tired, but I don’t have any desire to hang out in the rest stop so I move on.

Miles 58 to 75

As I rolled along I looked at my watch and saw that is was about 8:50am. I’ve been riding for about 4 hours now, but more importantly the swim leg of Ironman California is reaching its cutoff time. I again sent out a silent “good luck” to everybody who I hoped would be well onto the bike leg by now.

The ride from rest stop 3 to rest stop 4 is actually pretty fun. There are no major obstacles, and we are rolling along through some great foothills. The only major problem for now is my hands. With my TT bars, there are not too many hand positions to switch around to. I hadn’t felt the fingers on my left hand for most of the morning, so I road right-handed for a while and shook my left hand vigorously. After several minutes I finally get some blood flow back into my left hand.

Fingers are good to have, and I would like to keep mine.

Rest Stop #4, Mile 75

Can you say “hot”?

Can you say “no shade”?

Rest Stop #4 is at the Pope Valley Grange Hall, and it’s rural California at it’s finest – a dirt parking lot with very few trees around. At this point riders are starting to get serious about the heat. Almost everybody is filling water bottles and soaking their heads with the hoses. The water will evaporate quickly, but it sure feels nice for a couple of minutes.

Again I fill up my water bottles, but I don’t grab any solid food at this stop. It’s Gu from rest stop 3 to rest stop 5. I don’t feel like hanging out in the rest stop for long with the lack of shade, so after a minute or two I start riding again.

Miles 75 to 95

There is one hill between rest stop 4 and 5. I make it up OK, but it takes a bit out of me. Somewhere near the 90 mile mark, just past the Guenoc winery, I pull off and down a Gu. I am breathing way too hard to eat, and I am starting to feel weak, so I take a break on the side of the road. I drink, eat the Gu, catch my breath and start rolling again.

It does dawn on me that I have ridden over 90 miles, and I’m still not even to the halfway point of the ride.

Slow and steady. Slow and steady. I just keep making sure that my pedals keep going round and round.

Rest stop #5, Mile 95, Middletown High School

It is almost amusing how different rides can be so completely opposite. On my century last weekend I was hammering at mile 95. Today I can barely feel my legs, and I still have another 100+ to go.

In addition, I am craving solid food, but I know that I cannot eat and ride immediately afterwards. The temperature is way up there, so I decide to make this a long stop.

I eat one and a half peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and three Oreo cookies. I usually try to avoid cookies because of the sugar high, but they looked really good. They tasted good too. After I ate I laid out on a concrete bench for a power nap. I give myself 15 minutes to relax, digest the food and just rest my legs.

It was a bit of an odd scene at the rest stop/high school. There was an “invasion” of multi-colored, lycra clad cyclists eating, drinking and sleeping, and in the school’s gym there was some sort of dance rehearsal going on. There was a constant stream of girls running back and forth from the gym to the coke machine and payphone and back to the gym. All of the young ladies were wearing dancing dresses, complete with sequins, tiaras, etc. I am not sure who looked weirder to whom.

My 15 minute power-nap was most refreshing, but getting my legs back would be tough.

Miles 95 to 105

Although it is only 10 miles between Rest Stop 5 and 6, it is a very tough 10 miles.

OK, in all honesty, it was tough for the first mile as my legs got used to riding again. Then it was fun for the next 6 miles, and then it was Hell for the next 3 miles.

No wind. No shade and a monster climb up through Big Canyon. By now it was full-blown hot! This section was easily pushing the 100degF mark.

The 10 miles still took me about an hour to cover.

For some odd reason, I could not guess the average speed at which I was traveling, but I could precisely estimate the time at which I would arrive at the next rest stop. From rest stop 3 all the way through the end of the ride I would roll out of a rest stop knowing how far I had to ride before my next break. I would then say, “I’ll be there at 2:40pm” and I would arrive exactly on the mark. For some I rode straight through, and for some I stopped several times on the way, but I would always arrive exactly at the mark that I had set.

Big Canyon is the second hardest hill on the course. It would probably be the hardest hill on the course as it is the longest climb, but the hill at mile 125 is much tougher – mainly because nobody wants to climb a hill at mile 125.

….. and now back to Big Canyon.

The entrance into Big Canyon is a deceptive downhill. As I coasted along, getting my cycling legs back, one of my water bottles fell out, or so someone told me later. I had started off with three bottles, and I thought that I could get by with two given the frequency of the rest stops. Also, that bottle had fallen out about three times by now. I was tired of turning around to pick it up, so I let it be.

Had I been aware of the bottle falling I would have stopped. This was my favorite water bottle, a big blue QR bottle that I picked up at the ½ Vineman in 1998, but I was already down the road a ways. There was no way that I was going to backtrack in this heat.

Somewhere along the way I crossed the halfway point. 100 miles down and 100 more to go.

Up I climb into the canyon. It’s hot, and I am moving slowly. I do have my climbing cassette, a 13x26, installed today, but I did not swap out my chainrings. I am riding with a 56/42 front end, and at 7MPH I am grinding out at a cadence of less than 60 RPM’s.

Slow and steady. Slow and steady. Normally, that would have been my mantra, but on a hill like this with my current gearing it’s more like “Grind baby, Grind.”

Did I mention that it is really hot?

Actually it is getting to the “brutally hot” stage as “hot” and “very hot” are no longer adequate adjectives for this temperature.

Surprisingly I was able to catch and pass several people on the climb up Big Canyon. No matter how slow you are there is usually someone who is even slower.

By this time, full strength Gatorade is almost unpalatable, so I stick with water. I drink as the road curves left, and I drink as the road curves right. It’s incredibly hot, and I do not want to get dehydrated. I wish that I could bring in some drama to make this story more interesting, but, in truth, it was a grind, a long grind, a really long and really hot grind.

Almost at the top of Big Canyon I started feeling dizzy, and I had a hard time collecting my thoughts. Luckily there are a few trees around, so I pulled of to the left to take a break, slam a Thermotab and drink some more. An older couple pulls up on a Seven tandem to enjoy a bit of shade. Wow, what a sweet bike! A custom made titanium tandem. We chat for  a couple of seconds then I mount up and head off to rest stop #6.

Rest Stop #6

It turns out that #6 was only about 1/4 mile away, just around a blind right corner. I could have been resting where there was fresh water instead of just on the side of the road, but it didn’t really matter. I really needed that roadside break.

It had only been 10 miles since the last rest stop and I was feeling hammered. Luckily this rest stop had a new food item – watermelon. Sweet and juicy watermelon is as good as it gets. I wolfed down 3 slices, filled up my water bottles, sucked down a Gu and started riding again.

Miles 105 to 114

Did I mention that Rest Stop 6 is NOT at the top of Big Canyon?

Nooooo, there’s still another 2+ miles of uphill to go! Luckily I feel better with my new found love of watermelon and I actually have cool water in my water bottles, so I am content to sit and grind my way to the top.

The next rest stop is the lunch stop, and it is only 9 miles away. On the way up I chat with a guy who is a nursing student and a father and he also rides the Davis Bike Club Brevet series. I am not too sure where he finds the time to get all of that done. A couple of years back he qualified for Paris-Brest-Paris which is way out of my league. My first 200-miler is the only goal for the day. The 750 miles of PBP is not even on my horizon. It is more than a little amusing that he feels compelled to tell me how little he has been able to train this year, only 100 miles per week on average. I chose not to clue him in that having just ONE 100 mile week would have been great for me.

We chatted about components and life until we hit the downhill that comes just after the Top of the DC right at mile 110 or so. I picked up some well earned speed and left him behind.

The downhills in the Davis Double Century are really nice. Good, non-technical turns that you can carry some nice speed through. My Km40 handles like a pig, but I am not even on my brakes once.

The last time that I rode this far was at Ironman Canada in 1998. It’s been three years since I have ridden 112 miles, and I cruise through mile 112 today with a smile on my face!

Rest stop #7, Mile 114 LUNCH!!!!

As I wait in line to make myself a sandwich I start talking with the guy in front of me. It is almost comforting to know that no matter how insane your non-athlete friends may think you are you can always bump into someone who is far more mentally unbalanced than yourself at an event like this.

Last weekend I rode a century – 100 miles. Last weekend the guy in front of me road a double century, and today he is riding another double century. That’s two double centuries in two weekends. Compared to him I feel relatively normal.

Sandwich and Sprite in hand I find some shade underneath a big tree, pull off my shoes and take on whole bite. My stomach rebels at the solid food.

I manage to pack in a couple of bites, but there will be very little solid food for me at this stop. I just can’t eat, so I sip my Sprite and lie down for a little while. The conversations drone on around me:

“How many Death Ride’s have you done?” “This will be my third Triple Crown” (at least 3 200-milers in one year). “Where are riding at next weekend?”

It’s mile 114, and there are people contemplating their next ride. I’m just contemplating some sleep. I pop up at my appointed time, gear up and start riding again. It has not cooled off any over the last 30 minutes or so that I was at the lunch stop.

In fact it has probably gotten just a bit hotter.

86 miles to go.

Miles 114 to 133

The course turns left and crosses over a stream leading into clear lake. Normally one can hope for some cool air near a stream.

Yes, one can hope, but it is not going to happen today.

Mile 115.4, take a left at the entrance to Wal-Mart. How nice, Wal-Mart has invaded the rural town of Clear Lake too.

The hill called Resurrection starts at mile 126, and I wind up pulling a paceline halfway there.

This is ludicrous! I am probably the least trained rider on the course, and people are stupid enough to suck my wheel. Do these guys know anything about me? Why do they trust me so much? No offense intended, but I think that it is pretty stupid to get that close to someone you don’t know. It’s almost worse than tailgating in a car.

I swerve left to let them by and they won’t budge. I swerve right and they follow blindly. Finally I give up and ignore their existence. If they take me down due to stupid riding I am going to be really pissed off. At the base of a short uphill they finally pull away.

POINT OF ETIQUETTE: If you draft off of someone for 5 miles, at least say “Thank You.” It’s not that hard to do considering that someone else has just helped you along – not that I’m bitter…..

And now back to the ride……

This is a monumental point for me. I have never ridden more than 120 miles.

At the base of another exposed, treeless hill I switch my computer from speed to distance to see when I break my personal distance record.

120 MILES !!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now entering uncharted waters. Only these waters are hot and steep not dark and deep. I slowly make my way to the top of the hill. The downhill onto Resurrection is a blast. I max out at 46.3 MPH without even trying, but that all comes to an end at the base of Resurrection.

From the elevation chart it looks like Resurrection climbs about 1000 feet in about 4 miles which only averages out to a 5% grade. In spots it is probably steeper, but let’s take a little quiz.

What is more fun than climbing a 5% grade?     Climbing a 5% grade that comes at mile 125!

What’s better than that?      Throw in temps that are well above 95degF and probably pushing 100degF.

What’s even better than that?      Why yes, a headwind is just the thing!

I would like to say that I felt miserable, but I wasn’t feeling very much at all. I couldn’t feel my left hand, and my legs were just plain tired. I keep promising myself that if I saw a shade tree then I was going to stop and rest. After I pass a couple of trees I finally stop where another guy has taken refuge.

Soon a sag wagon comes along. It turns out that the other guy is toast – he’s heading in. I get some cold water from the sag and sit down for a break. A couple more riders pull in too. Soon I am back on the road, going uphill. After a few minutes my water bottles have been sun baked and I’m drinking warm water again.

Has anyone noticed that “uphill” is a common theme here?

I stop again a few miles down the road. Only this time I stop next to the guy who is riding the beach cruiser. That’s not too good for the ego – here I am on my multi-thousand dollar ultra light racing bike, and lo and behold, some guy on a beach cruiser is keeping pace with me. Ouch.

In all honesty, it didn’t really bother me at all. We were both out here for our own reasons, and it was incredibly impressive to see this guy hammering along on a 35+ pound 5-speed.

Rest Stop #7, Mile 133, almost the top of Resurrection

I dropped my bike, grabbed my water bottles and lined up for a refill. The line was at least 25 riders deep, and I was not looking forward to the wait. One of the young volunteers is asking each person if they would like her to fill their bottles for them and most declined.

I may be insane, but I am not stupid.

“Yes please, one bottle with water and one with ½ Gatorade, ½ water.”

If she is willing to let me sit down while she fills my bottles then I am more than willing to let her. I grab some watermelon and a coke while my water bottles are filled for me. That’s really nice!!!

There are no trees at this highway pullout, so I find a spot underneath an umbrella and sit my butt down. At this point I took a look at my legs. My calves had taken on a life of their own. I was not moving, but my calves were. They were pulsing and twitching almost like a heart muscle. I wasn’t cramping and they were not in pain, but that was the first time that I have ever seen any of my muscles moving of their own accord.

After a few short minutes I realized that it was too hot to get much relief, so I saddled up and hit the road, pulsating calf muscles and all.

Miles 133 to 147

After a miniscule rise to the top of Resurrection, it’s all downhill to Rest Stop #8.

That’s not totally true.

From the profile map, it looks like it’s completely downhill, but there are a couple of flat sections thrown in. After climbing Resurrection and Big Canyon it’s really nice to get in a gravity assisted ride.

I was basically alone for this 14 miles, and it was awesome. I was actually able to catch one other rider, but other than that it was just me on a two-lane country road. I was able to hit my big chainring for a few miles of what one could almost call “hammering” (if you wish to be charitable). I wasn’t riding fast, but I felt pretty good. And it is awfully nice to feel just a little good when one is over 130 miles into a ride.

Unfortunately this feeling didn’t last too long. About a mile away from Rest Stop #8 I could feel the energy draining from my legs. I hadn’t overtaxed myself in the last few miles even though I had been riding a bit faster than before. Then again, this was mile 147, and I had been out here for over 12 hours by now. Loosing a little bit of steam was just to be expected. I often find it amazing that the highs and lows during a long event came occur almost simultaneously. One second I was feeling like a million bucks, and the next second I was struggling to keep the pedals turning.

Mile 147 Rest Stop #8

By this time I was sitting down at every rest stop, if only for a few minutes. This one even had chairs and the shade of a big old oak tree.

I loaded up on Gatorade and water and a few cookies, took a few minutes rest and got back on the road. My mental state was incredible. I was tired, I had over 50 miles to go, it was still very hot and I could have easily sagged it home, but that wasn’t even a consideration. There was riding to do, and I needed to get it done.

Miles 147 to 165

Fatigue was really pushing me down in this section. While it is slightly downhill it still took some pushing on the pedals to keep the wheels turning. Mentally I was feeling really good. I knew that I was tired and my legs had almost no energy left in them, but I also knew what I had to do.

I kept to my plan which was to drink as much as possible, eat often, take a salt tab or ibuprofen as needed and keep those pedals turning round and round.

By my standards this was a beautiful section of the course, and that helped a lot. I grew up in a rural section of California in the foothills, and this section was exactly that. True, the few trees that were around were oaks and not pine, but the effect was similar – a two lane country road cruising through the foothills under a wide open sky. I was in a good frame of mind.

Also the sun had reached its zenith some time ago and was heading down. It was still hot, but relief was in site. I was hoping to be back at the start/finish by the time it got dark, but I wasn’t too sure that was going to happen. In the past the knowledge that I had would not meet a goal – being done before dark – would have frustrated me to no end. But not today. There was nothing I could change about where I was, how far I still had to ride and how much energy I had to get it all done, so why waste energy on negative thoughts?

Although it wasn’t as hot, the air was incredibly dry. I had to drink constantly to keep my mouth from feeling like a dust storm. This was a good thing as it forced me to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

Rest Stop #9, Mile 165, what used to be a one room schoolhouse

Since I was fatigued I knew that this was going to be a long stop.

I laid my bike down and walked over to the food line. Yet again the spread was amazing. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, salted potatoes, cookies of all sorts and a new treat – Cup o’ Noodles soup!!! Normally I would avoid Cup o’ Noodles because the sodium content is high enough to kill a Clydesdale (the horse, not the triathlete), but today was definitely NOT normal. Noodles submerged in salt broth sounded like just the ticket.

I gathered up my food just as the perfect resting spot came open, one of those folding beach lounge chairs. I plopped my butt down and started to feast.

I had been holding pretty much to myself for most of the ride, but the crowd here was very engaging. One rider was a double century junky with the Terrible Two (16,000 feet of climbing) and the Devil Mountain Double (18,000 feet of climbing) to his credit. After chatting for a bit I nodded off for some needed rest.

Have I mentioned that doing a double without training is very taxing on the body????

I woke up later and one rider was making his decision to pull out of the ride. He’d had enough. I found it most comical to listen to him.

“Two years ago, I spent 45 minutes in this very rest stop and then continued on. I ain’t going to do that again.”

Cool, I had only been here for 35 minutes – I had another 10 minutes to go…. ;-)

Soon those 10 minutes were up, and it was time to hit the road again.

Miles165 to 178

It took me a couple of miles before my legs felt like pedaling again, and shortly thereafter they didn’t want to pedal at all. I did what I had to do. I stopped, pulled off the side of the road and sat down for a few minutes. Two sag wagons came by, but I waived them off. This was just a tough spell. I knew that I could finish. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t make it home before dark, so I just listened to my body and took a needed break.

One water bottle and one Gu later and it was back to the bike.

At one point the two lane country road widened and improved considerably. There was now a real bike lane and the pavement was great. A couple of miles later the local casino came into view. If you want people to gamble I would guess that you better have some good roads for them to drive on. Yes, the casino’s parking lot was full.

There was one little rise in this section, and it really hurt to ascend what could only have been about one hundred feet. Mentally I was doing great. I was setting the appropriate expectations, but they were very, very low expectations. What at one time in my life might have been “let’s try to break 20MPH” became “let’s try to pedal this bike.”

Slow and steady. Just get the job done.

Finally we were back in the farmlands and it was time to make some right and left turns. After being on essentially the same road for about 60 miles it was great to have to pay attention to the course markings again.

Rest Stop #10, Mile 178

I know this place!!!

Well, OK Rest Stop #1 doubles as Rest Stop #10, and I had been there once before in my life some 15 hours ago.

By now you probably know the drill – fill water bottles, grab a bit of food (this time a banana), sit for a spell and then get back on the road. Yet again the volunteers were awesome, arranging chairs, delivering food, checking on general well-being. This ride is a class act.

I only had 22 miles to go, and I knew that I would make it. It gave my ego a bit of a boost to see someone who had dropped out drive out to the rest stop to meet some friends who were still riding. I was sitting near them, and I listened to him describe how tough it had been for him with today’s conditions. This was not a competition by any means, but it felt good to know that I had done a great job of listening to my body and pacing myself. Coming into this event undertrained could have been a disaster, but I was doing great and only had 22 miles to go.

22 dark miles as the sun was now gone, but at least it was cooling off.

Miles 178 to 193

Since we were now back into the farmlands we had the added benefit of evaporative cooling from the irrigation canals. It was starting to feel quite pleasant other than the fact that I couldn’t feel the fingers in my left hand and my legs were hoping to jump ship to a new body.

Through the fields.

Earlier in the day I had enjoyed my shadow as it revealed a very nice aero-position. Now, the sun was down, so I didn’t have to see my shadow in what had to be a less than stellar hunchback impersonation.

Surprisingly I made a pretty big mistake once the weather cooled off. With the cooler temps and moisture in the air from the irrigation canals I forgot about drinking. In the last 20 miles of a 200 mile ride, I let myself get dehydrated because I quit thinking about one of the most important aspects of ultra-events – Hydration. The air was cool. I felt OK. Why drink?

Luckily it was no big deal this time, but I cannot forget this lesson in the future (especially when I try to ride more than 200 miles).

Rest Stop #11, Mile 193 or Where I Really Didn’t Want to Stop but Had no Choice

The Davis Double is well supported, well marked and has very few rules. One of those rules is, in my opinion, a good idea.

- After dark, riders must leave rest stops in groups of 5.

This increases the cyclists chance of being seen by motorists on the unlit two-lane farm roads that surround Davis. OK, this sounds like a great rule, at least logically, until you are the one who just wants to get the hell back to town and get off of your bike!!!

At the Plainfield Fire Station I was waived in by a volunteer and told to wait for 4 more riders. Two came in shortly after me, and they were raring to get back on the road, but since we had to wait for two more one of them decided to use the rest room. Soon two more riders came in and we had our five-some. As is usual in any cat-herding situation the second two-some decided to use the rest room because we had to wait for the first guy. After they left, the woman from the first two-some decided that it was finally a good time to hit the facilities.

During this interlude the volunteer in charge of headlight enforcement took a break to deal with some medical issues that were occurring on the course, and a tandem and a lone cyclist were able to cruise by without stopping.

Aaaaaargh, can we just get going now?

Miles 193 to 200

Not being a good team player I dropped the hammer when we hit the road again. It wasn’t much of a hammer, but I could see the lights of Davis and I was ready to be done.

I have no idea how fast I was riding because it was pitch black by now, and I could not see my computer except when the occasional big truck went by and shared his bright headlights with me. Who cares how fast I was going? To me it felt like I was flying!

I caught the tandem and the lone cyclist and left them in my wake, or so I thought. As usual they jumped onto my wheel for a free ride. I gotta look back more often.

I backed off the pace about 2 miles outside of town. Soon I started seeing streetlights. Civilization and the end of the ride coming up! A few left and right turns and there stood the Davis Senior High School.

SWEET!!!!

Home Sweet Home.

I parked my bike, checked in and rode the two blocks down to my car where I called my wife to let her know that I had finished the ride safe and sound. I love cell phones for calls like that.

After packing up my bike I drove back to the high school for a well-deserved shower. I just wanted to go to sleep, but I held myself up long enough to wash off a serious layer of salt deposits. Both my jersey and my shorts were well coated with a white layer of sweated salts.

I tried to eat some of the post-ride Mexican food, but due to dehydration my stomach could not tolerate any of it.

So I drove off into the night……. only to call my wife minutes later to tell her that I was going to find a hotel room for the night. There was no way that I could make it the two hours back to home without falling asleep at the wheel.

I drove around a bit and found a Budget Inn or Comfort Inn or Beside the Freeway Here’s a Bed Inn that had a vacancy. I further validated my choice to find a place the crash when I fell asleep while resting my head on the counter at the check-in desk. I was one tired puppy.

I was also one very satisfied puppy!

200 miles in one day. That feels pretty good.

On a down note, it took me about 5 weeks to recover. Losing 14 pounds in 16 hours is not a recommended diet for anyone. While I usually never get sick, I caught the flu a couple of weeks later that had me laid out for several days.

I’m pretty sure that better preparation (read: training) would have resulted in a much shorter recovery period, but then again……

that was one of the coolest things that I have ever done!

A double century without training.

Epic! Truly epic!

[auburnfamilynews]

Do any of ya have the guts to play for blood??

With puffed out cheeks and incredible heartburn, we bring you the illustrious College & Magnolia staff picks for the 125th edition of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. Who will #BARNHARD? Who will BARN mildly? Who ain’t even barnin’ at all?

Auburn @ Georgia (-6.5) (O/U 44.5)

AUNerd

In my mind, this game is a true toss up. UGA will have the best unit on the field Saturday with their defense but I think they might also have the worst unit in their offense. Stetson Bennett looked good in relief. He took care of the ball and gave his playmakers a chance to make plays. Defensively, UGA was as solid as you would expect. As Auburn fans well know, it’s never easy to beat UGA especially in Athens.

But I like Auburn’s chances this weekend. In my non homer opinion, Auburn has the passing attack to keep this UGA defense on its heels and at least move the football. Defensively, if the Tigers can carry over their 2nd half performance against a better UK OL they have a chance to shut this UGA run game down & force whomever is at quarterback to consistently make plays through the air.

The most important key to Auburn’s victory is the offensive line. Can this rebuilt unit give Nix the time to get the ball to his wideouts? Can they pick up that needed 3 & short to keep the drive alive? I don’t expect Auburn to chew the Dawgs up on the ground but if they can be good situationally that might be all AU needs.

Turnovers & special teams will be huge in this game. Both Arkansas & Kentucky had a chance to pull the upset but both melted down with some terrible turnovers and bad special teams play. I don’t see either Auburn or UGA having similar meltdowns but one big returns or one ill advised throw could be the difference.

This series has hurt me more than any other. So many times Auburn has come into this game with a better team only to leave beaten often by insane margins. I understand folks’ hesitance to buy into this team getting it done. After all, it’s not like Gus Malzahn has excelled in top 10 road matchups.

But I believe in Bo Nix. I believe in this Auburn defense. I believe in Seth Williams and these wide receivers. And I believe this team gets it done in a stressful but ultimately cathartic way this weekend.

Auburn 23 UGA 17 (Auburn wins outright; under)

Jack Condon

I know I’m not alone in feeling all tied up in knots this week, and maybe that means we all realize that this game is important. If you were privy to the College and Mag group chat you’d know that there’s a thought that this game could end up being a turning point in Gus Malzahn’s career. He’s failed to beat Alabama, Georgia, or LSU on the road during his tenure, and despite some excellent chances in all three venues, Saturday night’s game might be the best opportunity Auburn has had to beat the Bulldogs in Athens.

We saw what happened last week, and we laughed and laughed as they trailed 7-5 to Arkansas at halftime. Still, the most Georgia-quarterback-named Georgia quarterback turned up and put up some points in the second half and made them all feel a little better. Arkansas is no real threat yet, and still they had the Bulldogs on the ropes for much longer than Kirby Smart would have liked. Georgia’s got exactly one playmaker in George Pickens, even though he only caught 4 passes for 47 yards. The offensive line looked like a mess, and Arkansas missed some serious opportunities to roll up big plays against a defense that’s among the best in the country.

Auburn, meanwhile, turned the corner in the second half against Kentucky. The defensive line came to play (you’d know that if you studied your AU Nerd articles) and the offense kept pressure off of Bo Nix, whose trust allowed Seth Williams to bless poor Kentucky defenders. We need to see more out of the running game, and we need to avoid a slow defensive start that would give a tepid Georgia offense some confidence, but I think Kevin Steele’s more than up to the task.

I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate admitting the small bubble of hope in my stomach, but I think that this actually is a turning point for Auburn and Gus. What an entire season usually builds up to will happen in the second week of the year, and I think that ripping off the band-aid will be beneficial for Auburn. We’re going to see Nix and Williams show a top team that they’re a top combination in the SEC, and we’re going to force a couple of turnovers from whoever plays quarterback for the Bulldogs. Those are the difference, and I think both Chad Morris and Kevin Steele get exotic Saturday night. Auburn 23-20 (Auburn wins outright; under)

Drew Mac

So, in case you didn’t know, I’m from Valdosta, Georgia. For those of you that don’t or have never lived in Georgia, this is my Iron Bowl. This is the reason I hate this game every year. Because winning it is fantastic. Losing it is so much worse. Therefore, since I have already started to have an evening beverage to calm my stomach for a game that is more than 72 hours away, I have recruited my good friend and selected brother Brad Tillery to give my prediction for me (because if it were me, I would say Dawgs 55-0 in the hopes that the it would trick the heathen Football Gods into giving us a win).

Brad: If you’re going by recent history, Georgia wins this game. They’ve won 8 of the last 10 in the series. Auburn hasn’t won in Athens since 2005. Even favored Auburn teams have played terribly against the Dawgs over the last 15 years. But history is just that: history. Auburn comes into the game with an experienced QB who protects the football, a plethora of talent at the skill positions, and a salty defense that should make life hell for whoever Georgia decides to put behind center Saturday. The Auburn offensive line could be a concern against the UGA front seven in the run game, but I expect Chad to lean heavily on Bo Nix’s right arm in this one. I also trust the AU defense to force a turnover or two as well against an inexperienced Georgia offense. Special teams should favor the Tigers here too.

A lot of younger Auburn fans may not realize that there was a time when Auburn dominated this series in Athens. It’s been 15 years since we’ve been able to pick some of the hedges as souvenirs. That streak ends Saturday.

AU - 20 UGA - 14 (Auburn wins outright; under)

Dr. Will

I feel like it’s been said before and it needs to be said again: This is a Must Win for Gus Malzahn. You have Georgia early on the schedule after years of having to worry about playing Georgia and Bama nearly back to back. Not this year. While you’ll have some in the stands, you don’t have a full stadium of people barking at you to deal with because of COVID. You’ve got the more experienced QB in this game as I don’t think anyone knows for sure what to expect out of the QB position for UGA this weekend.

And despite all of this, I’ve been burned multiple times when I try to Barn Hard. So this week, I’m taking the cautious approach.

The reason? Quite frankly, the 2016 game has scarred me. Never go into Athens (over) confident. Everyone thought for sure that would be the day Auburn would break through and win in Athens. Even Georgia fans that I came across in Athens before the game thought that. It didn’t happen.

This is your chance Auburn to shift the narrative in the league, to turn the heat up on Georgia in both recruiting and the shape of the SEC for years to come. To whip the dog crap out of Kirby on his homefield.

But the bottom line is this: Gus has to win the big one on the road before I can trust picking Auburn in this kind of game. So that said..... I hope like hell I’m wrong and we get the break-through win we have been waiting on for years but.......

Georgia 20 Auburn 17 (Georgia wins, Auburn covers; under)

Ryan S. Sterritt

This is the one you have to win if you’re Gus. No excuses. You have the established quarterback. The healthy offense. The good first week. With a 2-6 career record against Georgia, this is the one you Have. To. Have.

It’s going to be tough sledding for the Auburn offense. They figured things out in the second half vs Kentucky, and looked pretty polished in doing so, but this Georgia defense is loaded with talent. By my count, they’ve got four different guys in Tankathon’s Big Board Top 100, including two corners. Auburn is going to have to run the ball better than they did against Kentucky, which I think is possible, but not a given. I also think they know Seth Williams is a superstar, and they’re going to give him double coverage all day long. That leaves it up to Chad Morris and Bo Nix to figure out what the weak spot is. Are Anthony Schwartz and Eli Stove going to be left wide open? Will Bo need to run the ball? They don’t pay me the big bucks to figure that out, but I can’t wait to see.

On the other side of the ball, this is a chance for this defense to really show out. The Georgia offense looked wretched in the first half, and *fine* in the second half against Arkansas, but that Arkansas defense ranked 88th in the country in defensive SP+ last year. Even if they’re marginally improved, they’re still not good. Just like Seth will be the UGA defense’s focus, George Pickens is THE guy in the Georgia offense. I imagine he will see a healthy dose of Roger McCreary, but there’s no telling who wins that battle. Who knows what Georgia will be trying at quarterback, and while they have elite talent at running back, the ground game really looked rough against Arkansas.

Overall, I like Auburn in this one, and I don’t really see how Georgia is getting a touchdown in this game, unless you really believe last week was week one jitters. I think the Auburn playmakers get enough done on offense to post up a few scores, and something tells me whoever is taking snaps for Georgia is going to have a long night. Auburn breaks the drought in Athens, 27-20. (Auburn wins outright; over)

Josh Black

I think this game is one that we’ll look back on in 2 years and be able to make sense of where there are some potential program shakeups in the conference. The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry has gone from one of my most anticipated weeks of the year to something I dread.

Oh, you thought it was because of the feeling that we are going to lose? No. Nah. Not that. I can live with that. No, I’m tired because it is getting increasingly more difficult to find fresh, relevant content that appropriately conveys just how long it has been (14,518 days as of this writing) since Georgia last did something other than underachieve as a program. It’s a burden, along with consistently reminding Spencer Hall of how Wes Byrum is, in fact, pretty cool, that I proudly tote along with so many of you fine people. But let’s be honest…we all got a gift with the Braves winning a playoff series so that we could remind the world that their last playoff series win was 19 years ago, which was 21 years after Georgia’s last title. Like, what a blessing! But that aside, I’m really having to do some deep dives.

Like, I realized today that my house, which was built 30 years ago, is in a neighborhood that most definitely did not exist 40 years ago. I live in Birmingham. Basically my mind drifted to realizing that the entire bane of so many folks’ existing, the 280 corridor, literally did not exist because it was all woods and farmland 40 years ago outside of Lloyd’s Restaurant. Georgia’s greatest accomplishment is essentially that old country kitchen restaurant that serves a hamburger steak with gravy and onions that your parents took you to with your grandparents when they were in town after church. Sure, there’s fond memories there, but my God who needs that sort of gut grenade in this already awful year?

Anyways, let’s talk about the game. And let me go ahead and once again remind all of you that I am the absolute worst at this “Barnin’” thing y’all do. The world is against us and when we overcome the world it is because Auburn Jesus has smiled down upon us. I wish I could feel differently. I really do. But the only time I’ve ever truly felt safe was when I could see the joyous smile of Cameron Jerrell Newton.

Let’s get to some keys to victory:

For us to win this game Georgia is going to have to look less like ass than they did a week ago, but with some of that assiness sifting over to the defensive side of the ball.

Auburn doesn’t need to rush for 150 yards to win this game, but I do think the number needs to be around 120. We have to give the defense the threat of a ground game for us to get in positions with Georgia’s secondary that are favorable.

For Auburn to win, I am going to single out Eli Stove as a huge reason why. Everyone has spent all week talking about how amazing Seth Williams was last weekend, and everyone knows the legitimate threat Flash imposes on every single snap he’s in the game. It’s time for Eli to flourish in an offense that will let him loose. He’s the most likely to be in favorable coverages Saturday, and it’s high time he show off why he was a highly recruited kid for us like…a decade ago?

Like others here, I expect the right side of Georgia’s offensive line to be a liability. Plainly put, their run blocking last week was an embarrassment and lacking in fundamentals. That’s an advantage because it shows they’re missing much needed reps to gel in fall camp. Wouldn’t hurt my feelings one bit to see the refs have no reason not to throw the flag on some obvious holds like last weekend.

Knock George Pickens on his ass. We can win without doing that, but I wanted to get that in here somewhere.

Here’s the thing that sucks about this…I’m trying to go with my gut as opposed to my heart. And in these early games in a year where football is being played during a pandemic that cost the sport all of spring training and almost every team massive inconsistencies with personnel during fall camp, the most known and trusted commodity on the field Saturday is the Georgia defense. And it’s my belief that our offensive line will improve throughout the year, but asking them to give us 120 yards on the ground and keep that defense honest in week 2 after not having much time together as a unit this summer thanks to Covid is asking too much.

Georgia 17 Auburn 13 (Georgia wins, Auburn covers; under)

Josh W

I joked on twitter the other day that I wasn’t healthy enough for Auburn/Georgia. I get the feeling that Saturday night will be an absolute nerve-wracking 60 minutes. COVID robbed us of March Madness, so my body is not yet conditioned for ultra-high tension Auburn athletics. Last week’s game against Kentucky was a great warm-up, but if I’m being honest, I never truly felt like Auburn was going to lose. I hardly felt any tension at all. Saturday night will be the exact opposite of this.

I know this isn’t true for all of you reading this, but Georgia is my personal biggest rival. I’d rather beat Georgia than anyone else on the schedule (that includes Alabama! Shocking!) We have no idea what we will see out of Georgia’s offense. I don’t think it’s going to matter much; neither team will need much offense Saturday night. Look for a low scoring bloodbath between these two institutions. Hit the under (trust me) and look for Seth to have a 6+ catch game.

Auburn 19 Georgia 16 (Auburn wins outright; under)

AU Chief

@#$% Georgia Auburn 27 - Georgia 0 (Auburn wins outright; under)

Crow

This is the weirdest football season of our lifetimes and it’s a terrible time to have a game that somehow decides the legacy of a coach. That said, there’s a decent chance this game has a lot more riding on it than the usual high stakes of rivalry and bloodlust. If there is one thing I know about Gus, it is that he seems to have an uncanny ability to win the games he “needs” to win. Which is why he is going to go into Athens and come out with a 5 year extension. Auburn 29 dwags 14 (Auburn wins outright; under)

AU_Jonesy

During the Braves 13-inning marathon win over the Reds on Wednesday, my smartwatch had my “resting” heart rate at over 100 for about 2 hours. I have a feeling Saturday evening is going to be even worse. Auburn absolutely should win this game. They have the better quarterback. They have the better receiving corps. They have the better linebackers. Roger McCreary probably gives them an equal secondary by himself.

I was there in 2005, and I was there in 2016. I’ll believe Auburn can win in Athens again when I actually see it. Something will go horrendously wrong. Watch out for the return game. Georgia had excellent field position all day against Arkansas, and that’s something that could be marginal enough to change this game. My heart says Auburn by 14. Alas... Georgia 19 Auburn 15 (Georgia wins, Auburn covers; under)

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2020/10/3/21498178/staff-picks-4-georgia-vs-7-auburn

[taww]

Review: Silverline Minuet Grand loudspeakers

Silverline Minuet Grand

The Audiophile Weekend Warrior (TAWW)

TAWW Rating: 5.0 / 5

Alan Yun's latest and greatest assault on the $2k price point, and it's a masterpiece.

PROS: Superb midrange resolution and rightness, great dynamics, punchy and accurate bass, does everything else well too.

CONS: Could be slicker-looking, treble could be more refined.

Silverline’s original Minuet speaker debuted with a splash a decade ago, making waves on the show circuit where Silverline proprietor Alan Yun would fool people into thinking larger speakers were playing. It was one fun little speaker, and a huge hit for Silverline that continues to be refined and improved (it’s now the Minuet Supreme Plus, USD $700).

Like its little brother, the Minuet Grand (USD $2,000), or MG for short, also debuted with a splash and aspires to punch way above its price point. But with 3x the budget to play with, Alan Yun has created a different beast, one that exudes true high-end aspirations from the first notes it plays. Read on to see why it’s worthy of your consideration, even if you’re prepared to spend twice as much.

Design

The first thing I noticed is the depth of the enclosure - while the baffle has traditional bookshelf proportions (12″ high by 8″ wide), the cabinet is a hair over 14″ deep. It’s more volume than a typical 5.25″-woofer bookshelf, and it’s vented with a relatively small and short port lined up directly behind the tweeter to aid in relieving its rear-wave pressure. The combo of oversized cabinet and conservative porting make for an interesting bass alignment, something I’ll hit on in the listening notes.

The driver complement includes a 5.25″ treated paper woofer and 1″ titanium dome tweeter, crossed over at 3kHz. The hand-assembled woofer sports a rigid diecast basket and high-excursion motor + surround, and the cone is treated to SIlverline’s spec. The choice of a titanium dome tweeter is interesting considering that the MG’s stablemates, the little Minuet and floorstanding Prelude, have moved from metal to silk domes over the years. Unlike most speaker manufacturers who share common components across many models, in the Minuet/Prelude family Silverline employs 3 different tweeters (titanium, silk and aluminum/magnesium) across 4 models, which shows you just how much Alan is tweaking with and optimizing each design. The minimal crossover has 5 passive parts: 2 air core inductors, 2 wirewound resistors and an SCR metallized propylene capacitor - hooked up to bi-wireable binding posts that thankfully accept both standard 1/4″ and larger spades.

I wouldn’t exactly call the MG a looker - it a boxy affair, and the depth of the cabinet gives it somewhat awkward proportions. I think an all-rosewood treatment like the little Minuets might look better than the satin black baffle of the MG, but like all Silverline speakers the overall fit and finish are superb, with a real sense of craftsman.

Setup

The MGs were propped on my trusty Osiris 26″ stands, heavy dual-column steel affairs loaded with sand. They were unfussy of placement, with good off-axis response and an even tonal balance in most any reasonable position. Surprisingly I could place them as close as 12″ from the back wall without ill effects - trying this with most rear-firing port designs results in bass that’s out of whack. I preferred them toed in slightly, with their centers about 6.5′ apart and my listening position 8′ away.

Primary amplification was the 60wpc Ayre AX-7e integrated, which had no trouble driving the 8 ohm, 89 dB-efficient MGs to plenty loud levels in my 13′ x 19′ living area. The Bryston B60, another 60wpc integrated, also proved to be a good partner, delivering a bit more midrange richness than the Ayre, albeit without the same level of speed and resolution as the Ayre. I wish I had tried a more powerful amp, as the MGs definitely seem like they can handle it, but alas I didn’t have one on hand.

For speaker cables, I found the Cardas Clear Light to be a better match than the Audience Au24 SX (which isn’t the most logical pairing anyway given that it costs much more than the speakers). Though the Audience is a more refined cable, it was a bit too laid back and mellow with the MG; the Cardas wasn’t as silky smooth in the upper registers, but the extra midrange pop and forwardness made for a more engaging sound. Methinks you could get away with a more affordable cable than the Cardas too - e.g. while I didn’t have them on-hand, the DH Labs Silver Sonic T-14 is a reliable wire.

One critical tip: immediately toss the included gold-plated bi-wire jumpers. Most any wire will sound better than the stock metal affair, which imparts a coarse texture to the treble. Just make sure not to interfere with the primary connection between the speaker wire and terminal. E.g. if you have cables terminated in bananas, clamp down some solid core copper in the posts - anywhere from 14 to 18 gauge copper from your local hardware store should work just fine. Alternatively, if you’re using spades or bare wire for your main termination, you’ll probably want to use bananas for one end of the jumper. I used nice Cardas jumpers from my Merlins, which sounded good. Or you can splurge some disproportionate amount of money on specialty jumpers, if you feel so inclined (I wouldn’t be).

Sound

By my measure, the Minuet Grand is an excellent speaker in many important aspects of musical reproduction. But where it really shines is in the all-critical midrange, where it's emotive and communicative in a way that many more expensive speakers struggle to achieve. The term "musical" is thrown around to describe gear that sounds euphonic, but the MG achieves its musicality the hard way - through artfully-balanced fidelity. Designer Alan Yun has carefully played his cards between being fast and warm, forgiving and revealing to create an articulate and dynamic speaker that's easy to live with.

Let's start with what it does well, keeping in mind that my frame of reference is my Merlin TSM-MXe, a nearly $5k speaker in its final iteration a few years ago. Being a ported design, I expected the MG to be fuller but looser in the bass than the ultra-damped, sealed-box Merlins. And it was certainly fuller, with low-end dynamics and extension that the Merlins can’t touch. But it was also incredibly tight and well-defined, with a comparable level of speed and resolution. After a couple hundred hours of break-in, the bass started to really open up and develop both tunefulness and pop. In my room it didn't have a ton of output below 60Hz or so, so I still preferred it with my REL T-9 subwoofer, but it was also quite satisfying on its own. Low string sections of a symphony orchestra had satisfying heft, and bass lines in pop songs were enjoyable. I particularly liked its reproduction of the C string of Colin Carr's cello in his live recordings of the Bach Suites (Tidal) - it had depth and weight without sacrificing clarity or articulation. The lower registers of the piano had similar naturalness, and I really enjoyed any works that involved piano accompaniment, e.g. Debussy songs performed by soprano Susanna Phillips (Tidal). The only thing I could fault was a hint of chestiness in the upper bass, probably from a cabinet resonance, that the Merlin was free from. The MG's cabinet is solid, but not as inert as the fanatically braced and damped Merlin. It's a very slight coloration that tends to manifest at higher output levels, and was barely a concern in my listening. From my quick audition of the Dynaudio Special Forty (USD $2,995), the MG is significantly better balanced through the upper bass and lower midrange, but the Dynaudio has a ridiculous amount of bloom and weight (probably too much). 

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I was pleasantly surprised by the naturalness of the treble. I tend to be allergic to metal domes, having heard so many of them sound zingy or artificial in the past. The MG's titanium dome had none of that - if you blindfolded me and told me I was listening to a good silk dome, I wouldn't have doubted you. Compared to good soft domes in speakers like the Merlin or Role Audio Canoe ($1,500), the MG had a bit more speed and tinkle to it, and perhaps a little less inner detail in the lower treble, but overall pretty close in quality. You get a bit more sparkle on triangles and cymbals with a hint more splash on brighter recordings and dynamic climaxes, but nothing untoward. Spending 50% more on the Dynaudio Special Forty (or nearly 4x for Silverline's SR 17 Supreme) will get you an Esotar tweeter which is in a different league, but the MG's tweeter is no slouch and doesn’t commit any major sins to detract from the music. And most importantly, it blends really well with the midrange, but more on that later.

Soundstaging and imaging were also excellent, and the speaker plays much, much bigger than you'd expect. There was plenty width, depth and layering with big symphonic material, e.g. Brahms Symphonies (Berlin Philharmonic/Simon Rattle - Tidal) or Mahler Symphony No. 5 (Philharmonia Orchestra/Benjamin Zander - Telarc) symphonies, and it had a sense of scale that totally belied its form factor - it plays much bigger than the Merlins and similar 2-ways, almost like a floorstander. But I also loved how it could scale things down and sound intimate with chamber and solo works, or get super focused and tight with pop tracks like from Carley Rae Jepsen's Emotion (Tidal). Little blips and sound effects coming from hard left or right were often startling in their clarity and distinctness. Compared to the Merlins, which are razor-sharp in their spatial resolution, the MG's lacked some stage height and air, and weren't as precise with image size and positioning, but they were more than satisfying in their portrayal of a soundscape.

Ah yes, and finally, we get back to the midrange. This is where the MG punches way, way above its weight class, and performs with a degree of polish and conviction that can measure up to some of the big boys in the high-end. It is fast and resolving, revealing layers and layers of detail and expression in the music. My Merlins have remained entrenched for years because they have a uniquely satisfying blend of midrange speed, clarity and naturalness. Based on my experience with the original Minuet, I was expecting the MGs to be musical, bold and fun, but I wasn’t prepared for it to be so refined and incisive that I wouldn’t immediately miss my Merlins. Even my wife, a sharp-eared musician who’s very partial to our speakers, needed no aural adjustment and liked the MG off the bat.

The MG balances this with terrific density, as opposed to overt warmth. Let me explain... generally, when we have a speaker (or any gear) that sounds full and fleshy, we call it "warm." But in my mind, warmth is a coloration - it's a constant deviation from accuracy, whether it be via resonance, frequency response or some other aberration. A warm speaker will never be truly accurate because it will bias all reproduction in a certain tonal direction. And that's ok, because warm speakers can sound wonderful which is what counts, but I want to call it out nevertheless.

On the other hand, density is about reproducing the natural fullness and completeness of a sound when called for, without adding undue coloration when it's not. Density, not warmth, is what the MG has in spades. Listen to the famous Adagietto of Mahler Symphony No. 5, and you'll melt at the lushness of the string sound; but switch to Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1, and all that will be replaced by the robotic austerity of the opening motif. The MG is able to flip a switch and follow these contrasts faithfully with a fundamental rightness to its midrange reproduction. In this respect, it addresses a longstanding grievance with my Merlins - its overriding leanness, particularly with solid state amplification. I would feel comfortable recommending the MG in a wide variety of systems because it is so beautifully balanced in the midrange and perfectly rides the line between warmth and leanness.

Complementing this is a harmonic completeness that reproduces acoustic instruments with great fidelity. My wife found its depiction of wind instruments to be both realistic and lovely, which just the right amount of body and brightness to oboes. I found a similar rightness with strings, e.g. it convincingly captured nuances of Jascha Heieftz's inimitable violin tone and clearly differentiated the timbres of celli, violas and violins when playing in a similar register. And you could clearly make out the changing overtones of a piano as it worked through its range, its lower registers exciting the entire body of the instrument while its upper registers rung brilliantly. All this contributed to a musical realism that drew you into the performance and made it easy to forget all the hi-fi stuff. 

Ok, I've been gushing for a while now - surely there's a catch?? The frequency extremes, as I mentioned, are worthy supporting partners to the exceptional midrange, and the bottom end in particular is impressively dynamic and punchy. That said, they're not at the same level of performance as that glorious midrange - for that, you would need to give up something, and/or pay some big bucks. I suspect there’s a very slight emphasis in the 250-500Hz octave that enhances the midrange magic and subtly highlights vocals. I enjoyed pop songs immensely for this reason, even more so than on its much more expensive big brother the SR 17 Supreme - the MG was a bit more forgiving of suspect production quality and really brought out the catchiness of a lyric, but it's a slight deviation from absolute accuracy. And while the woofer and tweeter blend beautifully, I did sense a slight speed gap between the two drivers, which results in the upper midrange sounding a bit less resolving than the treble immediately above it. Alan seems to have made a couple wise design choices here - crossing over the tweeter at a relatively high 3kHz, and treating the paper woofer to dampen its breakup modes. Methinks this is what keeps both of them clean in that 2kHz to 4kHz range where the ear is so sensitive, with the tradeoff being the woofer is asked to go a little higher where its resolution drops off. It's the right tradeoff IMO, and makes the MG easier to listen to for extended periods than my Merlins which have some peakiness in the same region.

To use an automotive analogy, the MG reminds me of a fine European sports sedan that handles extremely well, but has just a touch of understeer dialed in to make it more forgiving at the limit and keep the driver out of trouble. By this I mean that the MG has terrific speed, detail and neutrality, but at the edges of the performance envelope it errs towards forgiveness to save you from potential disaster. Feed it a bright pop recording, and it’ll give you plenty of insight and energy without letting the inevitable harshness of the track burn your ears off. Crank on a Mahler symphony, and it’ll gently compress the extreme dynamics rather than pushing itself to the limit and breaking to pieces. Pair it with a brighter source component and the tweeter will let you hear the brightness, but it won’t ruthlessly remind you of it every waking moment. It's a skillful balancing act that makes the MG uniquely coherent and flexible, and able to work with a wide variety of musical genres. I listened to Magdalena Kozena in Mozart Concert Arias (Tidal) or Ella Fitzgerald in Ella and Louis (Tidal) time after time, totally captivated with the beauty of their singing, but when the mood struck I could cue up Synchronicity by The Police and feel fulfilled on a totally different level.

Verdict

Silverline has created a masterpiece, one that captures much of the joy of high-end music reproduction at a very reasonable price. $2k is a substantial amount of money for most people, but in a world where some designers seem to make excuses for their $10k “budget” models, Alan Yun delivers an incredible amount of performance, musicality and coherence for the money. If you cherish the beauty of acoustic instruments and vocals, I can’t think of a better speaker near the price - and yet it’s also more than capable of rocking out, with great bass slam, midrange dynamics and overall extension in a compact package. Add ease of placement and system matching and you have the perfect speaker for the apartment dweller or music lover who wants maximum satisfaction with minimal fuss. I immensely enjoyed my time with the Minuet Grands and give it my highest recommendation.

Specs & Info

Description: 2-way, bass-reflex bookshelf loudspeaker. 1" (25mm) titanium dome tweeter, 5.25" (13cm) treated paper woofer, first order crossover. Rated frequency response: 40 Hz to 25 kHz +/- 3dB Dimensions: 11.875” (300 mm) x 7.875” (200 mm) x 14.125”(352 mm) (H X W X D). Shipping weight: 44 lbs (20 kg) per pair. Price: USD $1999/pair

Silverline Audio P.O. Box 30574 Walnut Creek, CA 94598 USA Phone: (925) 825-3682

Correction: I initially stated the Dynaudio Special Forty's price as $4,000, however it is $2,995.

[klainelynch]

2017 in review

I always say that I’m going to post a “how my year was” at the end of the year, but I have an awful memory so I never remember what happened in each month. This year, I tried to post about each month as it finished- the good and the bad. Under a cut because of course it got long, and I never seem to post about my real life, so this may be boring if you don’t actually know me.

January

Got a snow day after having students for just one day

Accidentially read a book in one night (Perfect) because of aforementioned snow day/borrowing it electronically from the library/not knowing how many pages there were (not that many since it’s YA)

Got two more snow/ice days because my county has mountains in it and we’re in the South, so we’re not prepared for winter

Saw Hidden Figures and cried about how good humanity can be when we actually allow and encourage all people to be their best (black women!!!! they did that!!!!!!!)

Helped my students navigate our county’s program of going one-to-one with Chromebooks (there were many good things, such as getting my kids to play freerice for extra credit; there were many bad things, such as a quiz getting screwed up because I shuffled the questions but had asked my co-teacher to help me by reading the quiz [as she normally does] to a half dozen students...who all had a different order of questions...).

Went to a conference for new teachers and while a lot of the information was repetitive, there were a few things I got from it (such as 6.5 professional development hours aw yis).

Got to see lots of family I don’t usually see on this weekend!

Started reading The Diary of Anne Frank with my students because this country allowed fascism to be A Thing™ and I’m going to resist however I can.

Got two (!!!!!!) days off at the end of January for sick days (apparently other students in the county? not us but we benefitted!!!!)

February

Finally had an entire 5-day week of school

Then got another two days off for sickness (8th grade was doing our part by asking ENTIRE classes “Hey! Anyone feel sick? Anyone want to go get their temp checked???”)

Went to an open house at a local mosque, and y’all, I live in The South™ but their parking lot filled up a good 15 minutes before the event even started and there was an overflow room and so much support for this community during the Muslim Ban and it just filled my heart with joy

Got a haircut (it was literally down to my butt y’all!!!!) and now it’s right below my shoulders

Had pedal extensions installed in my car because I’m 4′9 and would have literally died if the airbags went off.

March

Got my professional teaching license! I’m no longer an apprentice! I don’t have to have 4 observations a year!!! Only 2! And while I’m REALLY good at playing the observation game (and am MUCH better at this than the testing game), it will be nice to not think about it so much.

My mom came to stay for a few days because it was her and my sister’s spring break.

During that week, I had a LONG 4 day week, which included staying at my school until 7:30 for a town hall meeting/carnival/extravaganza. F U N.

My spring break was purposefully low-key. I rested a lot, read books, caught up on Netflix, shopped at Old Navy, and went to the local art museum for the first time (I’ve only been in this city for 8 years...)

April

I found that I actually enjoy teaching how to write an essay. The 5 paragraph essay, while it has many faults, is a really good place for beginning writers (which 8th graders are) to begin. I had a student tell me that she liked how I made each sentence have a specific purpose because she was able to plug in her evidence and thoughts more easily- this honestly made my whole day.

That being said, I HATE teaching essays when students are absent. Trying to get them caught up and keep everyone else on track is SO MUCH WORK. Especially when the absent students don’t come to me during my plan to make up their work...

For two whole days, my last period class was not allowed to use erasers because some people (two boys, as it turned out) were shredding and throwing them at each other.

I turned 26

The Welcome to Night Vale Live Show FINALLY TRAVELED TO TENNESSEE AND Y’ALL CECIL (REAL CECIL NOT THE CHARACTER) IS FROM KNOXVILLE!!!! The weather singer was super fun (she played Rocky Top and we ate that shit up like biscuits and gravy with no shame whatsoever) and the show itself was just so much fun even though I went alone. It was almost an hour of normal segments with the plot of the glow cloud, but they also brought in Steve Carlsburg and Tamika Flynn (I diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiied when she walked on stage because I majorly crush on that actress whoops) and watching those actors interact on stage was so much fun.

May

End of the school year is always chaotic and better left forgotten tbh

We took the 8th graders to the local theme park, and it was really good (though my expectations were super low because last year’s trip SUCKED). The weather looked like it might rain, but it was nice all day, the kids were pretty good, and the rides were fun.

There were some really sad community deaths around this time :(

The teacher who normally MCs the 8th grade commencement is now an administrator, so while we still had him open the ceremony, I gave out several of the awards, and I don’t think I did a bad job (two of the other teachers hate public speaking and the last one was new to the team this year, so I was really the only choice).

June

Worked my church’s festival, which is always fun. The crowds are never what they ought to be (due to a combination of rain threats and poor marketing), so a lot of people missed out on some really great food and music.

Great music included a new band- Southern Avenue- that I got to see again later in the year.

I had to miss the third day of the festival because of a friend’s baby shower. I knew a few people (besides the couple), but they left early; luckily, the people throwing it were a lot of fun. We played games (don’t get caught saying “baby”; pin the sperm on the egg; etc) and decorated diapers/onesies/bibs for the baby). The next day, we went to church (IN A MOTHERFUCKING MONSOON) and for Mexican food.

Started my reread of Harry Potter (it had been about 5 years since I’d last read the series). I cried in almost every book, and not always at sad parts. I’ve become very protective of Harry as I’ve gotten older.

My younger brother found an NES, which was the console I grew up with and my parents gave away years ago. They really loved to play on it, so this was a wedding anniversary present for them. The Legend of Zelda is the shit.

July

I finally got a new phone (I’d had mine about 3 years, and it died in May) and I know it’s fun for iphone users to shit on Android users, but I really do love the camera quality on my Samsung.

Rachel came to visit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We drank wine and went to the zoo and got real bbq and the best donuts in the world

Had a Treat Yo Self Day which included:

WAFFLE HOUSE

BITCH!!!! B I T C H

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU CAN GET AT THE WAFFLE HOUSE

DO

YOU

KNOW

COUNTRY HASHBROWNS!!!!!

aka

biscuits and gravy minus the biscuits plus the hashbrowns

I just had regular biscuits and gravy BUT ALLI HAD THE GLORY

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

McKay’s

I bought Pokemon yellow because I never played/watched it as a kid, and while at my house for the summer, I found the old black & white gameboy an older cousin gave me, so naturally I had to do it.

Pokemon Go

yes still

You know what once I was back in town I went to my favorite library almost every day for an hour or two and read while opening Pokemon Go every few minutes so there

Went with some of my best friends to visit another one of our best friends who lives in the middle of fucking nowhere and had adventures including, but not limited to: getting pizza because we were too weak to change out the gas’s grill, waiting 5ever for food at dinner, and watching the entire Flowers in the Attic series.

August

School started back up, and at the kick-off for all the teachers, I won $500 in a drawing of all the people who hadn’t used a sick day last year!!!!!

And I didn’t even realize that I’d won $200 at the previous school board meeting in the same type drawing!!!!

New class started off with 85 students. It was a DREAM to be able to focus on individuals and not just herd cats.

I actually felt more confident in the classroom with my early units (poetry & our whole class novel).

September

Still felt confident in the classroom!

I got my testing scores back from the previous year (this shit takes 5ever and it’s dumb) and did better in about the only way I could have, so that was good to see.

I had about 10 county people in my classroom (principals, academic coaches, etc) to see a certain style of teaching ELA that the county is working on. It’s basically making sure that teachers keep students engaged in complex text (which is what I do almost every day anyway) and I had been to two of these trainings already, so I knew what sort of lesson worked. Well...they LOVED it!!! The kids were in small groups and did SO GOOD discussing evidence/answering questions (they all got candy afterwards) and I got some good feedback about how I talk to my students. Then that same day the superintendent came in my room (one of several rooms he visited while doing his yearly observation on the principal). That visit was super unannounced, but still fine.

The academic coach got rid of my classroom’s desks and found tables and chairs instead!!!! My classroom is tiny and weird shaped, so this works SO MUCH BETTER.

I help coach volleyball (aka I keep the books) and the girls won district (beating out a team with a redneck grandma in the stands who literally came up to our girls and yelled at them for cheering on their own damn team in the previous game). They didn’t do so well at sectionals, but that’s ok.

October

Holy shit I won another $200 in that drawing!!! And this time my parents let me buy them plane tickets so we could see family over Christmas.

LESLIE ODOM JR CAME TO MY CITY AND HE PERFORMED BEAUTIFUL MUSIC AND I WAS THERE AND I DIED

Got to see a lot of family at my cousin’s ‘wedding party’ (he got married last year in Europe since he met his now wife over there, and wanted to have a family party here). I learned that my uncle and his son dance exactly the same at the same level of alcohol.

November

I should have known something was up when my first 9 weeks went so well. Apparently my county is in the bottom tier for the state, and now everyone is freaking out (never mind that the data to support this was mONTHS LATE AND BASED ON STANDARDIZED TESTS WHICH WERE A CLUSTERFUCK TO BEGIN WITH) so there was a lot of school stress during this time.

Nice things though- got to see friends when their baby was baptized and went home for Thanksgiving, where my dad came into the Catholic Church.

I organized most of the 8th grade field trip for the semester- going to see “A Christmas Carol” put on by my old college’s theatre. I was stressed the entire time because if something went wrong it would be on ME, but it was absolutely wonderful and I cried which honestly surprised me. We went to the local mall for our lunch and it was good to see the kids just relax. It was a great field trip and several people including the principal thanked me for my hard work which felt great after a hard month.

December

School was nothing but survival mode per usual.

Hosted the Christmas party for my friend group at church and it was a lot of fun.

The actual break was fast- we flew to Texas with one of my mom’s sisters and her family to visit their brother and his family. I hadn’t been to Texas since high school, so it was fun to explore and eat good food.

My final count for books was 93 (67 new and 26 reread) (I’m trying to finish an audiobook I’m borrowing from the library but I still have 80 minutes left and literally 4 hours to finish it so we’ll see!!!).

[she-is-tim]

I love hating you | Elu enemies to lovers AU | Ch. 8

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6.5, 7

Lucas is an angry, closeted and frustrated gay teenager, while Eliott is the handsome, smart and popular guy in school. They hate each other… but not forever.

I want the best for you

Lucas was staring at his phone for probably an hour or so. He was at the flat with the boys, sitting on the couch. They were playing some video game, but he couldn’t care much. He kept checking his followers on instagram, seeing the blessed username still being there. Of course he immediately followed Eliott back, but since then there was no sign of him. He didn’t text Lucas or liked any other posts on his profile. He was still nervous, afraid that it was just a mistake and the boy could unfollow him at any second. 

When he was refreshing his follower list for like the hundredth time, Yann let out an annoyed sigh and snatched the phone from his hand. Lucas made an inhuman noise, getting the attention to the other two friends. Basile quickly paused the game. The short boy still tried to get back his phone, but his best friend had long arms and kept him back by placing his hand on Lucas’ chest. 

“No, this stays at my hands. You are being obsessed, man. What are you even looking at?” he asked, checking the phone screen and rolled his eyes. “Are you serious? He’s not gonna unfollow you.”

“Why not? Maybe it was a mistake and he will unfollow when he notices...” he started to ramble.

“Lucas, he’s trying to reach out, you shouldn’t be so worried about it.” Arthur said with a serious look, putting the controller on the coffee table. 

“But what if...”

“Lucas, just stop talking.” Basile said, surprising his friends yet once again. “You said that you like this guy, right? He’s out there, liking the post you made about him, following you on instagram and sending you drawings. What is holding you back? He is into you, I’m sure about that.” his face was serious, looking straight into his friend’s eyes, Lucas couldn’t respond to that, because he had a good point. Arthur on the other hand was smiling brightly, making him look even more handsome. 

“Baz, you really make that damned braincell work hard lately.” he said and squeezed his friend’s shoulder proudly. 

Yann smirked too, still holding Lucas’ phone in his hands, making sure that his best friend doesn’t check his instagram again. The short boy sighed with a fond smile on his face, then he got up to bring some beer from the kitchen. Not too much, since it was only wednesday, but they still can have some fun. He couldn’t remember the last time he was together with the boys like this. Just chilling home, playing video games, drinking beer and talking shit. 

Thursday went by eventless, Lucas didn’t see Eliott all day, even though they wew supposed to have literature together. He got just a tiny bit worried, but he tried to live up to what Basile said to him, But he couldn’t help himself. After school, he had to open his chat with Eliott and the chaotic idiot in his head decided to text him.

lucallemant Literature was boring today, we were talking about Rouge et Noir, did you read that one? 

He locked his phone now and put it down next to him on the couch, trying to focus his brain on the tv. Lisa was sitting not too far from him, wrapped in a blanket, staring at the screen with the dumbest face she could just make. Lucas smiled a little, he started to like her inevitable presence here, it made him feel like he wasn’t alone. He got up and walked to the kitchen, making some sandwiches, since he just noticed how hungry he was. 

When he finished eating, he walked back to the living room, hopping down next to his flatmate, who let out a disapproving groan. Lucas giggled, grabbing his phone and checking it. He almost had a heart attack when he saw Eliott’s username on the screen, unlocking it quickly and checking the message he got from him. 

srodulv Yeah, it’s a great book, you should read it too 

Lucas heart started to beat insanely fast and he wished he could have a room to run back to. He wanted to jump up and down in happiness, squealing like a baby seal and then throw himself on the bed as he types an answer. But he had to accept the little space on the couch, pulling up his legs, shaking uncontrollably. He had to start the sentence at least five times, because he kept making typos and writing stupid shit. He had to keep himself at the subject and not bringing up things between them. Eliott answered because he was talking about literature, which is one of his favorite subject in school. 

lucallemant I’m not a big reader and that book is LONG 

srodulv Books are supposed to be long

lucallemant Yeah, not my thing

srodulv You are just one grumpy hedgehog, huh? 

lucallemant I guess that’s my speciality

After that he got no response, but he still felt like he is the happiest guy on this planet. He hugged the phone to his chest, enjoying the serenity taking over his thoughts. Long minutes passed and the light buzz in his hand pulled him out of his thoughts. He was hoping it was a message from Eliott, but he felt just a little disappointment seeing the username of the sender.

sofalaoui Did you do something?  Lucas, he is fucking smiling I can’t explain how happy this makes me, but he’s smiling again 

Lucas was overwhelmed by his own feelings that these messages caused him. It was from Eliott’s best friend, who knew him better than anyone. He was saying that Eliott, the guy he was head over heels for is smiling again, after long times of being sad and depressed. He couldn’t handle this, so he just went to the bathroom, washing his face and staring at his reflection for long, agonizing minutes. 

He got startled by the knocking on the door. It was Lisa, she had to use the bathroom, so Lucas left and took his opportunity to lay on the couch. He was holding his phone to his chest, humming happily. Minutes passed when he felt buzzing, quickly checking what it was. Another text from Eliott.

srodulv So Rouge et Noir is the current book? 

lucallemant Yeah

srodulv Okay, just wanna make sure I’ll catch up on things for tomorrow

Lucas felt his heart beating in his throat, reading the text over and over again. Was this meaning that Eliott will come to school tomorrow? That they will have literature together? After such a long time. He tried to breathe through his nose, calm down his heart while he texted back.

lucallemant Good, gotta keep up that reputation of yours, right? 

srodulv Sort of 

lucallemant Tomorrow is going to be a long day

srodulv Why is that? 

lucallemant Daphné asked me and the boys to repaint that mural from hell after school

srodulv I see

Lucas didn’t know what to answer to that. He didn’t wanted to seem pushy by inviting Eliott to the common rom with them. It wasn’t easy for him to text back, so he probably doesn’t wanna rush meeting in person. And they will have literature together, so he’s going to see and be close to Eliott no matter what. At least he was hoping that it will be the case.

In the morning Lucas panicked. He was running around in the house, into the bathroom, then to the kitchen, back to the living room and repeated that circle until he bumped into a really annoyed Mika. The older boy grabbed his waist, making sure that he stops whatever he was doing and looked him straight in the eyes.

“Kitten, I’d really appreaciate if you’d stop this like right now.” he said, sounding like a disapproving parent.

“But Mika... I don’t know what to do, Eliott is going to come to school today and we’ll be having a class together and I just...”

“Okay, stop.” Mika raised his hand to stop his flatmate from rambling. “Is Eliott the guy you like? The one you had a thing with? That broke your heart?” he asked, raising his eyebrows so high they disappeared behind his dark locks.

“Yeah... also no. I mean, he didn’t break my heart... not completely...” he mumbled and looked at the ceiling now, letting out quiet curses under his breath before continuing. “I am still into him and it seems like he feels the same... we just had a conflict.” he tried to explain things without saying too much. It was burning inside him to tell people why it was difficult with Eliott, but he knew that sharing information about his mental illness wasn’t something he could just do.

“Okay, so you are so whipped for this Eliott guy that you don’t know... What to wear to school?” Mika asked, voice a bit high-pitched, a playful smirk appearing on his face and Lucas can feel the blush taking place on his cheeks.

“Well... I just... It’s not...” he mumbled and then just sighed. “Yeah, sort of.” he admitted. 

After that there was a really long and painful moment where Mika tried to pick him nice clothes that Lucas dismissed immediately. He tried to fix his hair, but the boy cut him off after he saw the hair products in his flatmate’s hand. All in all he put on navy blue jeans, a nice grey shirt and his favorite grey hoodie. He packed up black sweatpants and a shirt too, just to not ruin his outfit during the painting after school. 

He finally left the place, hearing Mika yelling stupid shit after him like “Go get him, tiger” and “Make that man yours”. Lucas felt really embarrassed and just wanted to get to school in one piece, without having a heart attack. At least his stupid flatmate helped him forget about the Eliott issue. He only remembered it again when he entered the school building and saw him. Standing by the lockers, cocky smile on his face as he talked to Alex. 

Lucas stopped by the doorway, staring at him, like he’s a unique statue on an exhibition. He could be. Considering that he looked so damn fine on this beautiful friday morning. Hair messy like always, shining in the sunlight, wearing black jeans, black shirt and a navy blue denim jacket. The sleeves were rolled up, showing off his forearms and that sweet tattoo on it. Lucas remembered how many times he traced his fingers up and down, kissing it even. 

He got so lost in his thoughts that he jumped a little when Alex yelled his name. His face felt much more warm that it should have been as he looked up from Eliott’s forearm and their eyes met. There was something in them that made Lucas’ stomach do a backflip. He couldn’t look away, especially not when that familiar, soft smile started to take place on the tall boy’s face. His heart fluttered in his chest. 

“Lucas, are you here?” he jumped yet once again when Alex snapped his fingers just inches from his face.

“What? Who... Yeah, I’m here.” he mumbled, shaking his head and looking away from Eliott, who stayed at his place thank god. “Good morning, Alex.”

“Morning.” he said with a wide smirk now. “How’s it going today?” 

“Good... yeah, I’m doing okay. What about you?” he asked, trying to play cool, not glancing over the tall, handsome boy who seemed to have fun watching him being awkward. Fuck you for being so smooth, Eliott! 

“I’m fine. You know, Eliott and I were just talking about my party tonight.” he explained.

“You’re throwing a party again?” Lucas raised his eyebrows. “But you had a party like... two or three weeks ago.” 

“What can I say? I love doing parties and my parents are always out for business.” he said smirking, shrugging it off easily. “You wanna come?” 

“I’m not sure. I have to repaint the mural in the common room with the guys. You know Daphné, she’ll kill us if we don’t do it now.” he said with an apologetic smile. He really wanted to go, especially if Eliott will be there, but he can’t choose him over his friends once again. That would be a dick move after all of their support.

“Sure, I get it.” Alex said and gently punched him on the shoulder. “Take care, little one.” he smirked and walked back to Eliott. 

Lucas let out a sigh as he watched the two boys just walking away. He pulled out his phone to check something, probably the time, but he wasn’t even sure, when a notification popped up at the top of his screen that he got a message. He clicked on it and almost had a heart attack.

srodulv You look pretty when you blush

Okay, this was not the right time to panic, but Eliott was just straight up flirting with him, shamelessly. While they were on bad therms. He didn’t know what to respond, so he just shoved his phone into his bag and walked to his class. This was making no sense. Eliott ignored him for almost a whole week, avoiding the only class they shared and now he was back with his cheesy flirts and soft smiles? How is he supposed to react to that? 

Lucas didn’t know how to feel during the day, especially not when literature class came and he had to sit next to Eliott. The boy seemed to be in a good mood, but they haven’t really talked to each other, he was actually doodling in his notebook during the whole class. It was just weird and Lucas started to have doubts. He really liked Eliott and wanted to try this relationship with him, but these sudden changes just made him confused. He was thinking that this might be because of his bipolarity, but he had to get rid of that thought. He had to shut out the negativity and just jump into this. It was something that made him happy, made him feel things he never felt before. This was the right thing. 

Lucas was mad when the boys said they will be late. He just finished his classes, walking towards the common room. It was already 15:34 and he still had to wait for that three idiots to get their shit together. He didn’t wanted to stay in school until midnight to paint a damn wall. Not like he had better things to do and he really hoped that his friends weren’t planning on ditching him. He put away his phone after texting back the boys, opening the heavy door. 

The common room looked so different, furniture moved to the sides, covered in plastic sheets, so is the floor, while the ugly ass mural was now fully visible in its terrible glory, having two spotlight on the sides of it. Lucas was glad that Daphné and the girls did the preparations and bought the paints for them, because he had no patience for that part. But he suddenly forgot everything when he saw a person, standing in front of the mural, hands shoved into his pockets. Lucas could only see his back, but he could pick out that hair from the biggest crowd anytime.

“Eliott...” he mumbled, dropping his bag on the floor. The door behind him slammed shut loudly, which startled the tall boy. He turned around and looked at Lucas with a shy smile on his face.

“Hey.” 

“What are you doing here?” he asked shocked, looking around to make sure no one else is in the room. It was just the two of them. 

“I was the one who offered to repaint the mural in the first place.” He said and shrugged. 

“That’s true... but I told you that I’ll do it with the guys.” he mumbled, talking nonsense, since his brain decided to take off the rest of the day apparently.

“Lucas, can you please notice that I’m trying my very best to have a face to face talk with you... alone.” he said, looking serious now, turning his whole body towards the short boy. Lucas had troubles breathing now, but his legs moved on their own, walking forward until it was just a few steps between them. 

“Okay then. I am here, we are alone.” he said, looking into the stormy eyes, feeling everything at once. Attraction, nervousness, fear, excitement, happiness, sadness. It was overwhelming, but he could handle it, if Eliott was there by his side.

“I think you should tell your friends to not come.” Eliott suggested with a little smile on his face. “If you really want us to have alone time...” 

Lucas just nodded, pulling his phone out of his pocket and opening the chat with the boys. He felt a bit bad that he’s ditching them once again, but this was important for him and Eliott. They had to talk and if it had to happen in the common room while painting a fucking wall, then so be it. 

Lucas Guys, I’m so sorry, but can you not come to the common room today? 

Arthur What’s wrong? We’ll be there, just late.

Yann  Yeah, don’t be so upset, Lulu

Basile I have great ideas

Lucas It’s not that... Eliott is here and i wanna be alone with him 

Arthur Woah, that was unexpected

Yann I don’t like this... 

Lucas It’s gonna be fine, and he was the one who offered Daphné to repaint this shit anyways, so...

Basile But I wanted to impress Daphné...

Yann We’ll go somewhere to drink You do you and smooth things out with that guy, Lulu

Arthur Good luck

Lucas sighed and put away his phone, looking at Eliott, who was now looking through the buckets of paints, checking all the colors. He opened the white ones, also grabbing a paint roller. The boy had to smile seeing his determined expression. He really wanted to make something out of this mural. 

“I told the guys.” he said which got the other’s attention quickly, glancing at Lucas over his shoulder. 

“Good, help me with this then.” he said and nodded his head towards the supplies. “Grab a roller, we’ll be painting it white first, making a clean canvas.” 

“Sure thing.” he said and did exactly what Eliott asked him to. 

They both had a bucket of white paint, starting to cover up the mural with it. None of them said a word during the process, but it felt alright. Lucas was sure that this was just to make both of them relaxed and comfortable before starting the real conversation. He hoped that the tall boy will soon open up to him, telling him whatever he feels about him... about whatever is going on between them. 

“You failed there.” he heard suddely, being startled by the closeness of the voice. Eliott was stading right next to him, pointing to a little spot where the mural was still visible under the paint.

“That wasn’t on purpose.” he mumbled, feeling dizzy now that this handsome, tall boy was being so close. 

“I can’t let you fail like that on me.” 

“I am not failing on you. Have some trust in me.” he said a bit angrily, looking at the boy, who now had a huge, blinding smile on his face. Lucas let out a relieved sigh. “You are beautiful when you smile.” he mumbled, surprising both Eliott and himself. 

“Say that again.” the tall boy demanded, leaning close to him. Lucas blushed heavily, turning his head away, staring at the almost fully covered mural. He made a squeaky noise when Eliott slid an arm around his waist, pulling him closer. “I missed you.” he whispered, resting his chin on the boy’s shoulder now. Lucas shivered and turned back to face Eliott, their lips were almost touching like that. He looked into the stormy grey eyes, letting out a soft sigh which made the tall one smile softly.

“I missed you too, Eliott.” he mumbled, letting the paint roller slip out of his hand, wrapping his arms around Eliott’s neck. 

“I think we have things to talk about.” he kept whispering, leaning his forehead to Lucas’. “I said... mean things to you.”

“Yeah, but so did I.” he admitted and closed his eyes for a moment before continuing. “I hit you... I shouldn’t have done that.” 

“I kinda deserved it...”

“No, you didn’t.” Lucas shook his head and slid his hands on Eliott’s face, cupping it gently. “All of this was my fault, I kissed you in public, not the other way around.” he said and sighed. 

“I should have told you about my bipolarity sooner.” 

“Listen here... Having a mental illness is something people can’t just talk about casualy. I understand why you were hesitating with it.” Lucas smiled, caressing his cheeks with his thumbs. “You know... my mother is ill too.” he said suddenly, feeling like he had to get this rock off his chest, be honest with this guy in front of him. 

“What?” Eliott asked a bit shocked, leaning back a little so he could study the boy’s face. 

“She thinks that the apocalypse is coming, that Jesus and God are talking through her to save our soul.” he started, looking into the other’s eyes. “She is going to therapies and doing well, but sometimes she snaps. I don’t see her often, because... we had a hard time in my family. My father left us last year, cause he couldn’t handle her outbursts, then my mom’s condition got worse, I had to skip school to stay home with her, but I was just so useless... The only thing my father did for her was to hire a nurse and pay for her therapy. I was really sad and upset those days, Mika found me in front of a gay bar, totally wasted. He took me to his place and let me stay in their basement for a few weeks. When Manon found out about me, she was already packing up to London, so she let me take her room.” he finished his story with a deep sigh, leaning his forehead on Eliott’s chest. He couldn’t say anymore, this was already too much at once. His fucked up family could be enough reason for the boy to leave him right now, before things go further. 

“Okay...” Eliott sighed and wrapped both of his arms around Lucas now, pulling him as close as possible, burying his face into the soft hair. “Thank you for telling me all that.” he said softly. “I guess it’s my turn to share my dark backstory now.” his tone was a bit playful which made Lucas smile. He looked up at Eliott with that blissed expression on his face that was basically too seductive for the tall boy. He had to breathe in and then out, holding himself back from kissing this beautiful person in his arms. 

“You don’t have to.” Lucas said softly. “I can wait.”

“I really don’t think I deserve you, Lucas.” he sighed now, touching their foreheads again. “I’ve been through so much shit in my life... especially after I got diagnosed... And here you are, looking at me like that... making me harder to not kiss you.”

“Why can’t you kiss me?” he pouted, looking like a sweet hedgehog now who didn’t get his afternoon cuddles. Eliott chuckled. 

“Because we have a wall to paint.” he started, nodding towards the almost completely white wall. “And serious things to talk about.” he said, cupping the boy’s face now. “If I kiss you, we wouldn’t be talking, just making out and I will be fine with it... but there’s things I have to tell you.” 

“We will have time to talk...”

“No, Lucas.” he sighed and let him go now, taking a few steps back. He needed to keep distance, otherwise he would do something he doesn’t want to, just yet. 

“It’s okay, I am not scared.” the boy said seriously.

“You should be.” Eliott said now, looking at him dead in the eye. “There will be times when I won’t be nice, Lucas. When I don’t want you around. I will yell, send you away, slam doors at you... I will hurt you and I don’t think I could survive that. I want the best for you, but that is not me.” his voice cracked at the end, eyes filling with tears. He couldn’t look at the short boy in front of him, he just couldn’t do it. He had to say this to make things clear. He had to break things for good. 

“Okay, that is a bullshit.” Lucas said angrily, putting his hands on his hips. Eliott’s head shot up, looking at him in disbelief.

“Say what?” 

“I said that is a total bullshit. You can’t tell me what is good or bad for me. This is my life, Eliott. If I wanna jump into a relationship with a guy who has bipolar disorder, then so be it. You can’t stop me, because I know you want it to. So cut the bullshit.” he said with a serious and determined look on his face. 

Eliott was just staring at him for a few minutes before a huge smile spread on his face. He took that few steps towards Lucas, scooping him up into his arms into a bone-crashing hug. The short boy laughed happily, hugging him back immediately. They looked into each other’s eyes and not knowing who made the first move, they were kissing. Wildly, passionately, trying to catch up on all those missed out days they weren’t together. Eliott let Lucas down, leaning after him, not letting go of his lips for one second. He held his waist, keeping him close and enjoying this sweet moment. 

Lucas was incredibly happy, feeling the butterflies flutter in his stomach as he wrapped his arms around Eliott’s neck. Their lips were making sloppy and slurping noises. After some time they got a bit dizzy and the tall boy tried to find themselves a solid place to sit down to, but he stumbled into a bucket of red paint, causing him and Lucas to fall, right into the paint. They looked at each other shocked first and then started laughing. Lucas dipped his hand into the bucket and wiped it into Eliott’s shirt. The older boy didn’t let this unanswered, he pulled closer a bucket of blue paint and sprinkled Lucas’ shirt with it. They continued this until their clothes were completely covered in paint, just like their hands, but then Eliott grabbed the short boy’s face, pulling him into a demanding kiss. 

Hours later they were standing in front of the repainted mural, looking like they were swimming in a pool of paint. Following Eliott’s suggestion, they tried to do some Jackson Pollock-looking galaxy out of it. The base was blue, pink and purple mixed together quite well, then above that just while, yellow and light blue sprinkled stains. Lucas was actually proud of their work, ignoring the fact that they totally ruined their clothes and wasted way too many paint in the process. Daphné will understand for sure. 

The dried paint on their face, their clothes and in their hair started to feel uncomfortable, but it was kind of embarrassing to leave the room like this. They could still hear some students walking and talking on the hallway. It wouldn’t be hard to make an excuse, but since both of their mouth were a shade of purple mixed from blue and red paint, that couldn’t be explained easily. Lucas glanced at Eliott, who was staring at their work with a satisfied expression on his face.

“We should take a shower.” Lucas said which catched Eliott’s attention. The tall boy looked at him, raising his eyebrows playfully, which made Lucas blush. Thankfully it wasn’t visible with all that paint covering his cheeks. “To get rid of the paint.” he said, trying to sound serious. “I’m pretty sure it’s not good for our skin to have this much paint on it.”

“It might not be healthy, but you look damn hot like this.” he said smirking, while Lucas rolled his eyes. 

“Sure, yeah.” he said clearly unimpressed and walked to his backpack now. He heard the steps behind him on the plastic sheet. Good thing Daphné covered the whole floor, because there was a lot of paint everywhere. 

“How about you get your attention back on me, huh?” Eliott said, sounding like a stubborn child. Lucas shot him a disapproving look over his shoulder before he continued searching in his bag. 

“I have clothes to change to. What about you?” he asked now that he found his jeans and clean shirt. 

“All i have is you, right here, showing that fine butt of yours to me, which is quite impressive, I gotta say.” Eliott replied which made the short boy to turn around and gave him the look, again. 

“Eliott Demaury, stop with the flirting. We gotta wash off the paint.” he said seriously, but a little smile was playing on his lips. He couldn’t be mad at this gorgeous person who made him so damn happy today. 

“Okay then.” he gave up, raising his hands now with a cheeky smile. “Let’s go.”

Lucas woke up feeling all sorts of pain in his body. His head felt dizzy, like he was drinking last night, which he was sure he didn’t do. He opened his eyes and turned to his side, but was shocked that he was alone in his “bed”. He sat up so quickly the rom started to spin with him a little. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and looking around. He was in the living room, on the pulled out couch, half naked under the blanket, arms still stained with paint, but Eliott was nowhere to be found. 

He felt waves of feelings washing over him, his eyes filling with tears. He thought that all of yesterday was just Eliott’s way to say goodbye and let him go. That their relationship ended even before it could start. He almost started crying when the tall boy appeared in the living room with two plates in his hands, wearing nothing but a boxer and Lucas’ grey hoodie, unzipped. He smiled brightly until he noticed that something was wrong. He quickly walked to the boy, putting down the plates to the coffee table, cupping Lucas’ face and forcing him to look at him. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked worryingly, caressing his soft skin with his thumbs. Lucas could still smell the paint on his hands and it calmed him down.

“Nothing, I’m sorry.” he mumbled, sobbing a little. “I was just...” he looked at the bed and back at Eliott. The older boy chuckled and gave him a soft peck on the lips.

“Oh my. You thought I left?” he asked with a gentle smile on his face. “I would never leave you, not after what happened yesterday.” he said, leaning forward to knock his forehead on Lucas’ like he always did. The boy smiled now, eyes still a bit red. 

“I know, I was just...”

“I gave you good reasons not to trust me, I know.” he sighed.

“No, it’s not that... It’s just so hard to believe that we are... together.” he mumbled, not really sure if that’s the right therm to use, but it made Eliott’s smile brighter, so he was happy with it. 

“Yes, we are together for sure.” he said and kissed the boy deeply, passionately. 

“Looks like someone found their prince charming on this fine saturday morning.” Mika interrupted them, leaning to the wall that was separating the living room from the hall, having a big smile on his face. Lucas broke the kiss which made Eliott make a cute whining sound and looked at his flatmate over the boy’s shoulder. 

“How nice of you to giving us some privacy.” Lucas said with as much sarcasm as he just could so early in the morning. 

“Grumpy kitten must have a little morning tent in his underpants that has to be handled, huh?” Mika shot back with a wide smirk that made Eliott giggle. Lucas gave him a disapproval look before glancing back to his flatmate. “Just leave, please.” 

Mika just chuckled and waved as he walked into his room, victoriously. Lucas sighed, deeply and looked at the boy in front of him. He had stains of paint on his face too, but he was still that perfect guy he fell for. His hands cupped Eliott’s cheeks before he kissed him slowly, passionately. The tall boy didn’t hesitato to open his mouth and let Lucas deepend the kiss, playing with his tongue. His long fingers wandered into the boy’s long, soft hair, grabbing it just a little to pull him back, getting a little moan out of him as he kept kissing him, a bit more wildly than before. 

They pulled back after long minutes, lips swollen, eyes fully on each other, smiling like idiots. Lucas stroked Eliott’s neck softly, tracing around the stains of paint on his skin. The older boy enjoyed this, but then looked at the plates on the coffee table.

“We should eat it before it gets cold.” he said softly, letting go of the lovely boy, grabbing the plates and giving one to Lucas. 

The boy accepted it, making himself comfortable on the bed and also scooting to the side, giving space for Eliott to sit next to him. It was relaxing to just have a quiet breakfast on his damned couch with the most handsome guy he had ever seen. Who was now apparently his boyfriend too. 

Monday morning came like a lightning bolt. Lucas and Eliott spent the weekend at the flatshare, annoying the hell out of Mika and Lisa, while Manon usually just smiled at them like a proud mother. Of course Eliott had to announce their relationship to the whole world by posting on instagram, first by putting a video in his story where he filmed Lucas playing a video game with Mika. Then Lucas decided to fuck it and took a picture of Eliott laying on the couch, wearing Lucas’ clothes, putting it to his story with bubbling heart gifs around. He was so stupidly in love that he did that. Then Eliott asked him to take a selfie together, and Lucas had nothing against that, so now every single follower of Eliott knew that they are a couple. And to be honest, Lucas felt proud and happy. 

I hope you guys liked this one, I felt like this is a good way to finish it for now and pack some more fluff to the next chapter. Make sure to tell me your opinions on this. And the insta post is just a little extra, I’m not gonna put insta posts in the chapters of course, but this is just a soft way to end the chapter. 

[gobigorgohome2016]

Jury Duty, Wedding Planning, and Mileage Ramping

Hi.  I’m still alive!  ...there’s nothing quite like serving as a juror on a murder trial to remind you of that fact.  The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind.  In a nutshell:  I am steadily building mileage, I got engaged, and I learned that serving on a jury is really stressful while balancing mileage, wedding planning, and having your puppy-parent-co-pilot out of town.

On May 31st, Dave and I decided that after 7 years of being together (4 living together) it was time to get married.  Let me rephrase in an utterly unromantic way:  after me not having health insurance since July 2015 and Dave having an adult job with benefits, we decided it might be time for me to stop playing Russian roulette.  Let me rephrase in another utterly unromantic way:  this was all decided through tears in the Whole Foods parking lot (let’s be real…how many excursions to Whole Foods don’t end in tears, though?)  We bought a simple ring together two days later and have been wedding planning ever since.

Unintended consequence:  it turns out that getting engaged – no matter the circumstances – makes you really happy and remember why you got together in the first place.  I thought that after spending so much time together, getting engaged would just be a formality.  Instead, there seems to be an ever-so-slight shift in the way we interact with one another, which has been a lot of fun. 

Now, obviously we are both extremely nontraditional people.  We chose a date (July 29th of this year) solely around the fact that my two best friends (who now live in Idaho and Australia) were just randomly going to be within an hour of my hometown that weekend.  I was in their weddings, and I would love for them to be in mine. 

So, yeah, we planned our wedding around two my bridesmaids’ schedules. 

I don’t fancy myself to be a bridezilla (I mean…my engagement ring and dress combined cost less than our celebratory meal…), so I never thought our wedding planning would be stressful.  We are funding the day ourselves, which already relieves decision fatigue.  Seat covers? Table linens? Wedding favors our guests will leave at the table?  Can’t afford them, doesn’t matter!

Putting together our website has been a lot of fun...and a lot of work.  The biggest stressor has been that we had so little time to secure a venue (found one- the Washington Park Zoo!) and send out invites (they arrive tomorrow and will be sent out Friday) that we had to cram A LOT of planning into a short period of time.  Oh yeah, add to that the fact that Dave was out of town for 3 days last week and 4 days this week, which has made things slightly more difficult, since he is very  much involved in the planning of our day.  [if I was making statuses saying “Future hubby asked if he could help make a small decision with our wedding!  So #blessed” he definitely wouldn’t be the one I am marrying.]

All of this wedding planning reminded me how terrible I am at multitasking.  Suddenly, 5 hours have gone by while we are at my computer designing our invitations (which ALMOST got purchased without the wedding date on them…) and I haven’t had a bite to eat, much less gone for my run.  I have had to really double down on planning the day and doing a better job about compartmentalizing tasks, as well as taking time to care for myself.  I am living off of Orgain nutritional drinks, cheese, and Lara bars.

Over the weekend, my (20 year old) niece/ bridesmaid spent a few days with me.  She helped me plan a few things since she is in another wedding this summer, and also kept me focused (apparently she has never seen a person have so many internet tabs open at once..).  Even though having her here was awesome, I definitely didn’t get as much sleep as I needed, especially because I was getting up extra early to run and work so that we could spend uninterrupted time together.  On top of a lot of late nights the previous week so that Dave and I could do wedding stuff, I was already pretty tired.  She reminded me on Sunday night to call the courthouse to see if I had jury duty, and unfortunately I did.  So, I woke up at 6 AM, grinded out some work, and arrived to the city county building by 8 AM.  Nbd, I’ll just get my run in after I’m released from the jury pool, I thought, because surely a far left liberal feminist with a master’s degree in analytical chemistry isn’t going to make it onto a jury for a murder trial, right?  (at least that’s what everyone told me).

During jury selection, I was asked if I felt that certain circumstances could justify a crime, and how I felt about false confessions.  I was honest:  I do not believe in victim blaming, and I think if someone falsely confesses to a crime I would have to question the person’s mental capacity, which makes me wonder why he/she is fit to stand trial in the first place.  Surely my honestly meant that I wouldn’t be chosen for this murder trial right?  Wrong. 

Until 5 PM on Monday we listened to the strangest case I have ever heard in my life.  Side note:  in middle school/high school I was involved in a volunteer organization called Teen Court, which taught me a lot about the legal system.  If you have kids that need to volunteer for honor society or whatnot, I HIGHLY recommend. 

Since the trial is now over, I can legally share details:

Woman 1 (W1) was (unhappily) married.  Husband brought home Woman 2 (W2) (who was married to W1’s ex-husband) and suggested W1 and W2 be sister wives.  W1 said no.  Meanwhile, W1 brings Man 1 (M1) home and has him sleep in her bed “for security purposes.”  She also meets Man 2 (M2), who happens to be her 4th cousin, and they develop a close (romantic?) friendship.  Husband upsets W1 by continually sleeping with W2, so W1, M1, and M2 plan to murder Husband.  M1 and M2 murder Husband, but leave body, vehicle, and murder weapon at the scene.  M2 (who was on trial – M1 and W1 have already been convicted) was charged with murder and conspiracy.  He confessed to the crime, but defense was arguing it was a false confession given under duress. 

We made it through most of the witnesses on Monday, but the defense motioned to break for the day right before we were shown the confession tape.  We had to be back by 9:15 on Tuesday.

I make it home around 6 PM and have two attention starved dogs.  I take care of them and then am utterly EXHAUSTED.  I still need to run. 

In my own personal coaching, I tell my athletes that sleep comes first.  Never force a run when you are completely sleep deprived.  So, I listened to my own advice and took a nap…and fell asleep for the rest of the night.  I got up at 6 the next morning and took the dogs for an hour long walk, then went for an hour long run.  I hurried up and made it to the courthouse, only to wait.  And wait.  And wait some more.  At noon, the judge told us that we were released, but had to return by 9 AM on Wednesday.

Fortunately, this meant I would be able to catch up on wedding stuff, go for another run, and tire out the dogs, since we were told that the case would last all day and into the night on Wednesday.  I woke up at 5:35 AM today, took the dogs for another hour long walk, and then went for an 8 mile run.  I can’t believe I would regularly meet my friends at 5 AM to run in grad school.  I was dragging both yesterday and today.  When that happens, I break my run up into 10% segments.  Today, I just thought about 6.5 minutes at a time.  Make it to 10%, then 20%, then 30%....  It helps.  I got to the courtroom only to be greeted by the bailiff and both attorneys.  It turned out the defendant signed a plea agreement and we were no longer needed.  Kind of a bummer that I drove all the way downtown, BUT, the bailiff said that we still get our per diem for the day.  I will walk away from the last three days $120 richer (plus whatever they give me for mileage).  Not a bad way to make a little extra cash for the wedding.

As for running, I’m actually really happy I had this experience.  I am aiming for 70 miles this week, which has always felt like a hard in-between mileage week.  It takes more effort than 50, because it is usually when doubles start, but it isn’t as exhausting as 100 mile weeks.  However, since you’re in the process of building, it feels like you’re running more than you are.  Having a sleep deprived schedule has reminded me how fortunate I am that I’ve been able to build my life around training, and I’m going to try and remember not to take that for granted!

[brokemultidotexe]

Unexpected Pt.17

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

Summary: You never expected your trip to Seoul to end up like it does. You didn’t expect to step off the plane and have coffee pour down your shirt. You also didn’t expect the guy to offer to show you around the city. You notice things about him that don’t quite make sense, like how he shows interest but will only see you when he has the time which is at random hours during the day and night. Who knew your only friend in Seoul would turn out to be an international star and just how difficult things could get.

Word Count: 3k

Warning: None

Genre: Romance/Friendship

Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6.5 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10.5 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 14.5 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |

“Okay so explain this to me again…” you looked at Jimin who was standing in front of you with a huge smile on his face.

“If I keep explaining it then it ruins the fun, don’t ya think?”

“No…I think it does the exact opposite.” You crossed your arms with a huff. You weren’t really frustrated but you really didn’t get why he couldn’t tell you anything.

“I’m not ruining his plans for you, so don’t even start to try and look at me like that.” He covered his eyes with one hand and pointed at you with the other, only the finger wasn’t really pointing at you it was quite a bit to the left.

“Can you just give me one hint? Please. I have no idea what to expect and it’s only making me even more nervous.” You sighed, “Why did I agree to this?”

“Because you love him. You can’t tell me that you don’t want to be with him, consequences be damned.” He sat down on the arm of your couch looking at you.

“Jimin…I can’t go through that. To have him and have everything I want and suddenly having to let that go and be an ocean apart is just torture. Yes of course I want that, but realistically you know I’m right.”

“Why do you have to go back to America? I get your family is there, but from what I’ve seen you enjoy it here. You could at least stay for a year or so and at least give this whole thing with Jungkookie a try. Before you think anything, no he hasn’t asked me to talk about this with you. Truthfully he was pretty clear that I shouldn’t talk about it, but it’s hard watching you two.” He shrugged.

“Why does everyone keep bringing that up like it’s such an easy answer? There’s so much that goes into a decision like that. I would have to find a job and apply for a work visa. Not to mention a million other things that go along with that. Also, what are you talking about when you say watching us is hard?” You were looking at Jimin trying to read him. While your friendship was new you were closer with Jimin than with any of the other members and you were starting to pick up on small things, like how he always smiles when he talks about JK.

Jimin turned to face you a little more while still sitting on the arm of the couch, “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen two people who fit together like you guys do. If I didn’t know any better, I would guess that the two of you have known each other for years. I’ve never seen Jungkookie as happy as he has been since you came into his life. He really cares about you Y/N and I don’t think it’s a fling either. When you guys look at each other it’s like witnessing something intimate and a lot of times we leave the room, not that I think either of you notice.” He ran his fingers through his hair and licked his lips before continuing, “Jungkook has always had a hard time connecting with people on a personal level and he’s very shy. You’re the first girl he hasn’t run away from and I don’t mean that figuratively. There’s something about you, there’s something different that allows him to open up to you. When you took the time to try and figure things out I’ve never seen him like that. The thought of you never wanting to see him again really plagued him and I think it’s still something he worries about with what we do for a living.”

“Jimin…” his name hung in the air while you tried to find words, “Does that not prove what I’ve been saying? On just how much it will hurt him when I leave?  I don’t want to hurt him Jimin. I know I’m hurting him in certain ways right now, because I won’t be with him but it will be a million times worse if we’ve been together.”

“I see how you are with him. I don’t think you realize what it’s like to watch you two. Its heart breaking in some aspects because everyone knows how you feel for each other and we’re watching you guys dance around the whole thing and we can see the pain it causes sometimes. We see the stolen glances you guys give each other, and we sure as hell don’t miss the way the two of you lean on one another.” Jimin slid off of the couch arm rest and sat down on the couch right beside it but still facing you. “Look, I can’t tell you what to do and I know you don’t know me that well, but I do know Jungkook and if you did stay you would never regret it. He would do anything to make you happy and you don’t find that in someone very often.”

You didn’t say anything to that but you nodded your head so he knew you heard what he said. You had been battling with yourself ever since you promised to go on the date with him. You would go between excited and anxious constantly. You wish it really was as easy as everyone said it would be. JK made you happy, you couldn’t remember a time in your life where you were happier than you were when you were with him. Even if it was just sitting on the couch and both of you reading it was always a good day when he was around. Whenever he wasn’t near it felt like a piece of you was missing and it seemed like he felt the same because you started coming to a lot more things as long as you were allowed to.

In doing so you had become a lot closer to the other members of his group. It was no longer awkward if JK had to walk away and leave you with one of the members which was nice. It seemed like the trust that you had needed to earn was finally paid because the members told JK that you were allowed to come to the dorm any time but neither of you had taken them up on the offer yet. JK would complain that he didn’t want to share you and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes. Thinking about all of that caused your heart and mind battle on what to do.

“Okay he just text me. You okay to go, or do you want a few minutes?” The way Jimin cared was always appreciated.

“No, it’s fine. Let’s go.” Jimin grabbed his bag and he instructed you that all you would need is yourself and a coat just in case. It made you raise an eyebrow at him in question but he just smiled. You knew that it was going to be impossible to get anything out of him. It looked like JK had let Jimin borrow his car because when you walked outside you saw it parked at the curb. Even though you know JK wasn’t there it still made your heart jump in excitement because his car at the curb had been a welcomed sight. The drive into Seoul was mostly idle chit chat but still pleasant. When Jimin got closer to the downtown area of Seoul he reached over to the glove compartment and grabbed a blindfold and handed it to you.

“Ummm….i didn’t know you were into that kind of thing.” Your filter was yet again lacking.

His cheeks tinged pink, “Put it on.” he handed it to you and you slipped it over your eyes.

“Sorry if i made you uncomfortable, I lack a filter sometimes and forget my audience. I don’t really have a filter around JK so it’s become a small habit.” You situated it comfortably and leaned back in the seat.

“It’s okay.” he laughed, “I’ve been getting used to it the more i hangout with you.” You smile at that and the both of you just listened to the radio the rest of the way and you couldn’t help but laugh when one of their songs came on. You had briefly listened to some of their albums but you just hadn’t gotten around to listening to all of them. Hearing Jimin sing along in person took you by surprise. You’d heard his vocals before because you’d heard their music but it was the first time you were hearing his voice in person that wasn’t being blasted over a packed crowd during a concert.

“You have a great voice Jimin.” you hoped that made him smile.

“Thanks.” he seemed reserved at accepting the compliment. What was it with JK and his members feeling awkward when they were given compliments.

You felt the car take a sharper turn than the others and start to slow down before coming to a stop. Your heart felt like it was going to jump out of your chest and run off down the street. You had already started to fidget before Jimin had even gotten out of the car. You heard your door open and he grabbed your hand to help you out which in turn led you to have a death grip on his hand.

“Relax Y/N. You’re still the same two people hanging out its just in a different setting. He really wanted you to have a good time, so just remember that. You’re here to have fun and hangout with your best friend whom you love.” you gave his hand a harder squeeze after that in warning.

“Ah!” he pulled his hand away from you, “You’re so violent, but I still stand by what i said.” you felt his hands on your shoulders as you were guided to move forward, “Watch your step.” you hesitated until you found the step and continued on.

Jimin stopped you to open a door, or at least that’s what it sounded like, before guiding you inside. You had no idea what was going on and you were dying of anticipation and you really did want to see JK it had only been two days but you hated the days you didn’t get to see each other. He said to just look forward to today to help you get through it, which it helped a little but you really just wanted to see him.

Jimin pulled you to a stop, “Here she is.” you could hear the smile in his voice and your heart sped up when you heard JK’s voice.

“Thanks hyung.” Jimin whispered a quick ‘have fun’ in your ear and you smiled as he turned to leave. “I hope you didn’t give him too much of a hard time since he wouldn’t tell you anything.”

“I did. I tied him to a chair and threatened to break his fingers but he still wouldn’t budge.”

“That’s a loyal brother, i’ll need to thank him later.” you felt his finger ghost across your cheek before pulling your blindfold off slowly. You blink a few times to adjust to the lighting in the room. The first thing that came into view was JK’s smile. A smile that reached his eyes and it made heart flutter. You noticed that he looked more exceptional than normal. He was normally dressed casually and comfortable but today he chose to wear a black fitted t-shirt with dark jeans. Your eyes glanced over his body and he didn’t miss it because when you got to his face he was smirking.

“Shut it.” you mumbled while your cheeks turned pink. It was only then that you noticed where you were at. Your eyes tried to take in everything in front of you but you were speechless. When you did finally gain brain function you looked at him, “you brought me to an arcade?”

“I know you said it was one of your favorite past times and you said some of your best memories were from there, so i thought we’d create a few here in Seoul.” he looked nervous waiting for your reaction. You stepped into him and slid your arms around him with your face buried in his chest.

“I love it.” your voice was muffled but he heard it because he gave you a small squeeze in return before dropping a quick kiss on the top of your head which hit you like cold water. The two of you didn’t need to be seen out like this and since he didn’t have his mask on. “JK what are you doing?” you pulled back quickly, “if anyone sees us here they-”

“Won’t do anything because we’re the only two here.”

“I’m sorry, what?” you were pretty sure you heard him incorrectly.

“We’re the only ones here, so we don’t have to worry about anything.” he was still smiling down at you even though your heart was still recovering from the scare you gave yourself.

“How?” you took a step back when he didn’t answer, “I swear if you paid to rent this place out i-”

“Will have a good time? I don’t mind paying any amount if it allows us to go out and do something together and not have to hide. Plus, i want this to be a good memory for you.” he put an arm around your shoulder and pulled you into his side as he walked. When rounding the corner you saw pizza boxes laid out on the air hockey table. Even though you had eaten pizza together many times your mind went back to the first time when he brought you cheese pizza to your hotel room. “I figured i would keep it simple.”

You caught his gaze and you both smiled, “Simple is good.” you said softly. He dropped his arm and the both of you walked over to the pizza and each took a slice and started to eat. Jimin was right on the fact that it didn’t really feel that much different than when you would hang out with him, you just happen to do it on a bigger scale than normal.

The both of you had eaten your fill and JK was cleaning up the boxes before turning to face you, “So how does air hockey sound?” he titled his hand towards the table.

You smiled and nodded, “It’s on.”

“We should make this interesting.” you rose an eyebrow at his statement.

“Oh really?” you leaned against the table looking at him, “What do you have in mind exactly?”

He acted like he was thinking but you had a suspicion that he already had planned this and wanted you to think it was on the spot. You shook your head and sent him a knowing smile and he knew he was caught. He laughed, “Okay. You remember when we were trying to get to know each other and we would ask questions back and forth? We know each other pretty well now, but i want to try and get a little deeper. I want to know everything about you.” he shrugged unapologetically.

You bit your lip feeling a little anxious at the thought. JK was always a wild card when it came to anything competitive and you knew you had a hard time turning down things that he wanted. “Okay.” A smile broke out on JK’s face that you instantly questioning if agree was a bad idea.

“Whoever scores gets to ask a question.” you nodded, “You only get to pass on three questions though.”

The two of you played and it went on for a bit without anyone scoring and since the two of you were both competitive neither of you were going to back down. The puck slowed towards the center and both of you went to hit it. You leaned over the table as far as you could to hit it and JK missed it going straight into his goal and he hadn’t even moved to block it. You looked up at him and his eyes were trained on you and you were wondering what he was staring at. He cleared his throat and looked away and you furrowed your brows confused as to what was going on. When you stood up from the stable you realized that your shirt had pulled down a bit revealing a little more cleavage and you felt your cheeks burn in embarrassment.

“That was a mean power play.” He was looking at you now that you had stood up right and situated your shirt so everything was covered and back to normal.

“I don’t play that dirty.” You rolled your eyes.

“Maybe you should.” The words shocked you and you couldn’t help but just stare at him. Had he really just said that? JK could be forward at times but that was even more so than he had in the past.

“Oh really?” you raised an eyebrow at him and he just nodded.

JK gave you a noncommittal shrug, “Just know that it goes both ways.” You could see the mischievous glint in his eye and you shook your head knowing that if he tried anything remotely in that general area that it would be the death of you. Every part of JK was distracting but you had done your best to become immune.

“So I get a question, yeah?” he nodded in response. You hadn’t really thought about what you would ask and you were doing your best to come up with something that was incredibly lame and generic. You wanted to find out things you hadn’t talked about before. You bit your lip, “Why did you write a song about me?”

Your question seemed to catch him off guard, “Umm…”

“You don’t have to answer.”

“No. Its okay, I want to. We haven’t really talked about it since I told you.” He seemed nervous and you couldn’t help but find it kind of cute. He left his side of the table and came to stand beside you and leaned against the edge of the table. “Um…I guess I should start at the beginning.”

You tried to give him a smile that would ease his nerves but it didn’t look like it helped any. The two of you hadn’t really visited the fact that he wrote a song about you since he confessed that ‘Save Me’ was written with you in mind. You were nervous to go analyze the lyrics, well the ones that you remembered since you hadn’t heard it since their dance practice.

“I’m sure the members have told you about how I was before I met you. I stayed at the dorm for the most part and didn’t really go out much. I was going through the motions of each day but making sure to pour everything I had into practices and lessons. I hadn’t really noticed the change in myself until Jimin pointed it out one night when we were talking about you and how I could tell you about me being an idol. I knew my feelings at this point and I was scared of losing you and realized how I had been months before and it felt like you saved me from my internal misery, so to speak. Every time we were apart it would feel wrong and I only ever felt right when I was with you. I started to feel like if I didn’t have you in my life I would lose myself, I would lose this person I had become. So I sat down that night and wrote those lyrics, starting with how vulnerable I was without you and that I needed you to thanking you for everything you’ve done for me by just being in my life.” He looked at you almost as if felt like a weight was lifted off of him. You didn’t know how to reply to that so you stepped forward and wrapped your arms around him and gave him a hug and buried your face in his chest.

The both of you stayed like that for a while feeling comfortable in his arms. It felt like there wasn’t anything in the world couldn’t hurt you. Nothing but the one person standing before you, the person you were so in love with , the person you wanted to be with so badly. It was surreal when you thought about how you got to this moment. You didn’t believe in fate or soul mates or any of that stuff, but JK definitely made you question it. You’d never felt anything like what you feel for him and part of you was terrified because you knew if you let him in completely it would leave you incredibly vulnerable and you couldn’t handle a heart break or losing him which was always going to be a possibility. What you felt for him scare you because you had never let yourself become so vulnerable like you had with JK. You felt like everything in your life shifted before you were ready. No one in your life, other than Jackson, knew about JK and he was a huge part of it and you knew if you ever dated that would have to change. People might find out about the two of you and your relationship could become a media obsession and that scared you. You decided that you weren’t going to think about that right now because you were with JK and that’s all you really wanted. You placed a quick kiss on his chest and he pulled you in tighter and felt your body relax. Yup, you were screwed…you’d fallen too far and there was no coming back from it.

AN: I didn’t proofread this because truthfully i’m too lazy, so i may go back and do it later but this chapter was rough to write because nothing felt right. We’re coming close to the ending of the series so get ready to hate me haha. For all that are still reading, i love you and thank you for being patient. For the rest of the day i’ll be answering any asks that come through about Unexpected so if you have any questions or want to let me know anything go ahead and drop an ask. Again, thank you to all who still read this.

[timemachinegirl]

After 58 hours, I have completed Bioware’s much anticipated Mass Effect: Andromeda. ME: A is a vast, open-world RPG that offers ample opportunity for exploration, solid combat, crafting, and an overall fun experience. However, the space opera suffers from a few common maladies typical of franchises struggling to remain relevant in a sea of available RPG titles, some of which are more sophisticated.

I feel the need to throw out a caveat before I get much deeper into this review/reflection. I have never before completed a Mass Effect game. Five years ago, I started Mass Effect 3 but, after an hour or two, stopped playing. I can hear the Mass Effect fans crying out now (I’m sorry!). But it was an issue of time and the game not feeling “right” on PC. I mention this history to show that ME: A is really my first Mass Effect game and that I didn’t go into it with any prejudice or much expectation. After all, I’ve started plenty of games on PC that just didn’t grab me at the time.

(Minor spoilers of the game’s first few hours ahead!) ME: A tells the story of either Sara or Scott Ryder, depending on the player’s choice of twin. You’re part of an effort to colonize the Andromeda galaxy by way of ships known as Arks. The journey on the Hyperion took 600+ years and results in a rude awakening when the ship encounters a powerful energy cloud. From there, the Ryders, and other members of the ship’s crew that are awake, discover that the golden world they were meant to colonize is nothing like what they had anticipated. A small team led by Alec Ryder, a Pathfinder and the father of Sara and Scott, descends to the planet, Habitat 7, where the team is separated when the shuttle is struck by lightening. They discover an unknown alien race and strange technology on the surface. Reunited, and in an attempt to stop the lightening storm that brought down their shuttle, Alec and Sara enter an alien structure, a monolith, where Sara is hit and her helmet shatters. Alec sacrifices himself to save his daughter who wakes up back on the Hyperion.

From there, Sara becomes the new Pathfinder, essentially a scout and guide who leads the exploration and colonization of new worlds for the Andromeda Initiative. This role also gives her access to a special AI by the name of SAM and to a ship, the Tempest. As Pathfinder, Sara must lead a crew to found new outposts, balance tasks to maintain diplomacy among various factions, and work towards defeating the hostile Kett who are out to “exalt” all sentient creatures (end spoilers).

As an aside, you know your character (as seen on the left) creation skills are subpar when you find several in-game doppelgangers.

Sara can also craft weapons and armor, improve her loadout and the loadout of her companions, upgrade the Nomad (an all-terrain vehicle), romance a selection of characters (leading to an exclusive relationship if desired), and complete many tasks assisting individuals and factions.

Player choice matters to a certain extent (it can impact relationships and create allies and enemies) and can even prevent the protagonist from meeting certain characters. ME: A gives players enough of an impact on the world and reminds players of the consequences of their choices through narrative changes, messages from characters, and during dialogue.

ME: A sticks with the familiar and doesn’t offer much, if anything, in the way of innovation. It plays it safe. There’s security in that, the recognizable, and what has worked before, but is it enough?

In terms of quality, the game is closer to Fallout 4 than Horizon Zero Dawn. Now, you might be confused by that comparison so I’ll explain further. Horizon Zero Dawn is an exciting and original title that released fully-realized. It has a few shortcomings narratively, but the protagonist is interesting, her story is engaging, the game world feels alive, and the combat is satisfying. Horizon Zero Dawn is a complete game that I cannot wait to revisit when extra content releases. What it does, it does really well. Reviews and forum posts generally reach that same consensus.

Now, here’s where I’m going to differ from some critical views of Fallout 4. Many reviews gave the game 9/10 and other such equivalent scores or ratings. I was absorbed in Fallout 4 for well over 100 hours. I lived and breathed it for months. However, Fallout 4 has some problems. I ran into plenty of glitches, some of which prevented me from attaining collectibles, the graphics were meh, if not downright ugly in some areas, and much of the story seemed contrived. I still hold the belief that the survivor’s relationship with Shaun, the director of the institute, and all that arc entails is just plain weird. Having said all that, I still played for 100+ hours. I had a good time.

What I’m saying is that I can enjoy a game, but that doesn’t mean the game is great. I had fun with Mafia 3 for awhile, but the game has its issues. I’m not saying ME: A is anything like Mafia 3, but they both wilt in the light of more original open-world, RPG games to a certain degree. ME: A isn’t outstanding. As a friend said, “It’s a good, fun, flawed game.”

Another thing that Mass Effect and Fallout have in common is that both franchises have a wide, critical fanbase. Bioware and Bethesda are giants of open-world games. It’s their bread and butter. Because of the status of these developers, they can get a lot of flak when a game doesn’t match the expectations of the players. We’ve all seen what expectation can do especially with the anonymity on the internet. RIP No Mans Sky…

Fans of Mass Effect have some legitimate complaints about ME: A, primarily that the game looks worse than previous titles and that the character animations are terrible. Those critiques didn’t concern me quite as much. Instead, my biggest concerns deal with a lack of originality, the same old same, and the story.

It would have been nice if something was different about the game. I will say that the game is vast. There are plenty of places to go. It’s huge! About halfway through, I briefly worried that I had discovered all of the habitable planets. Alas, I was gladly mistaken. But the flip side of ME: A‘s size is that it is full of unmemorable side quests. Simply put, the side missions are in excess. I could forgive this flaw that plagues many open-world games, but ME: A lacks exciting random encounters, like watching a fight break out among machines in Horizon Zero Dawn, that at least makes a game world seem alive and less pre-determined/formulaic.

Beyond main story missions, everything else can be broken down into one of several side quest types: Heleus Assignment Missions, Allies and Relationship Missions, and Additional Tasks. Twice during my playthrough, I felt the overwhelming weight of missions piling up. The first time this feeling caught me, I geared up and cleaned the lists before returning to the Priority OPS Missions. The second time, roughly 40 hours into the game, I abandoned the side missions entirely in favor of the main story. With the main story completed, I easily have another 10+ hours, at least, left in these side missions. I probably will return to them if only to survive this month’s gaming drought.

It’s not surprising that I wasn’t blown away by ME: A‘s story. Quite often, larger open-world games have a more dilute story. It simply isn’t compelling. The beginning feels rushed with one of the Ryder twins predictably being pushed into the role of Pathfinder. The dialogue and voice acting was sometimes so so cringy; I saved some such moments for posterity and future laughs. (spoiler) I also think I’ve grown tired of the parent/child narrative. ME: A uses it, Fallout 4 uses it, Horizon Zero Dawn uses it, The Witcher 3 uses it…You get the picture. That’s not to say the loss/sacrifice of a parent or the strain between parent and child can’t be used in a video game, but I wonder if it’s overdone. Or, maybe I’ve played too many games with that trope (end spoiler).

It may seem that my complaints outweigh the positives, but that really isn’t so. I’m mostly critical of the game’s story, use of side missions, and the occasional glitch that cost me time and progress. Glitches weren’t all bad. As you can see from the screenshot below, I died while fighting inside a monolith and respawned inside the Nomad! I had some fun driving around in there. There are a few other minor things but nothing that stands out as much as the story and lack of originality.

On the positive side, there is plenty to do and see. I looked forward to landing on a new planet—the excitement of a new biome kept me intrigued. I took the Nomad to places it shouldn’t have gone. I genuinely enjoyed the banter between Sara and her companions, and companion to companion. More than a few times, I laughed. Drack, Jaal, and Peebee ended up being my favorites, which is a testament to the moments when the writing was solid. I grew to love my companions as the story progressed, which, in turn, compelled me to complete their loyalty missions because then they had meaning.

If ME: A released a few years ago and if the developers hadn’t switched to a new engine, or had more time to work through such a change, the game would probably be touted as something phenomenal. But we’ve seen many of its tricks several times before. Mass Effect: Andromeda is a 6.5 or 7/10 for me. It’s mostly consistent gameplay, solid combat, sci-fi nature, entertaining companions, and sense of exploration kept me going.

Mass Effect: Andromeda After 58 hours, I have completed Bioware's much anticipated Mass Effect: Andromeda. ME: A is a vast, open-world RPG that offers ample opportunity for exploration, solid combat, crafting, and an overall fun experience.

[hockeyandstuff91]

How did this happen? - Part 8

Word count: 3,473

Players: Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov, Ben Bishop, the rest of the Dallas Stars (mentioned)

Other people: Ashlyn, Katie

Warnings: cussing

Authors note: Yay part 8! I just keep writing and writing this series! haha I keep having ideas which I’m happy about its been easy to write these parts. I hope to have more parts out tomorrow if not earlier than that, depending on if I get a chance to write more tonight or not :)

Hope you all enjoy it!!

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3    Part 4    Part 5    Part 6   Part 6.5     Part 7    Part 9

It had been a few days since Tyler had stayed the night to take care of me when I was sick. I was feeling better, thankful that it was just a 48 hour bug of some sort. However I felt horrible because I'm pretty sure I passed it on to Tyler because he was sniffling this morning before he headed off to the pregame practice. He said that he was fine and it was just allergies but I didn't believe him.

We had made it to the AAC a little early and I met up with Katie and Ashlyn outside of the locker room. We said goodbye to the boys before heading up to our suite, like we always did for home games. The season was coming to an end and sadly the boys weren't going to make playoffs this year, but I was happy they were going to get some time off to relax. I was going to miss going to games all the time, but there was always next season.

The first period had gone by pretty quickly, the boys scoring one goal to put us in the lead. We had hung out in the suite, eating the food we had ordered before heading back down to our glass seats just when the boys had come back out on the ice. I looked over and saw Tyler, gasping when I did. He looked like hell and there was no way that I thought he should be playing right now.

"They probably wont put him in too much if he really doesn't feel too well," Katie said.

I shook my head knowing that wasn't true and he was going to go out and play no matter what. I sighed and watched as half the period went by. He was doing fine and had even gotten two chances to score, sadly the goalie saving all of them though. The boys were on our side of the ice getting ready for a face off. Tyler was standing by waiting for the puck to be sent over to him so he could push it out of our zone. Jamie won the face off and the puck went straight to Tyler, he hit the puck, sending it out of the zone, and everyone chased after it. He had started to follow their lead before slowing down, bending over and putting his hands on his knees.

I stood up, worried what was going on. Just as the other two girls stood up with me his legs caved under him and he fell to the ice.

"Oh my god," I said, not sure what to do.

"Come on," Katie said, grabbing my arm and she rushed me up the stairs and brought me to where the tunnel lead out to the ice.

By the time I got over by the bench the medical trainers were out on the ice, checking on him. He was awake now but still laying there. The paramedics had been brought out and were getting ready to put him on the board.

"Jamie!" Katie called.

Jamie turned around and saw me standing there, my eyes wide with worry.  He skated over and opened the door, grabbing my arm as I stepped out onto the ice.

"He's gonna be okay," Jamie said as he escorted me across the ice, following the paramedics and Tyler. "He said he didn't feel well earlier but he decided to play anyways. We will meet you at the hospital later okay? Text me and Katie when you get there," he said as we hit the other side and I stepped off the ice.

"Thank you," I said and he smiled at me, skating back over to the bench.

I had driven today so I rushed out to the parking lot and got into my car, pulling up behind the ambulance as it headed out onto the road. I followed it all the way to the hospital, worried about what was going on with Tyler.

I parked in the guest parking of the hospital, losing sight of the ambulance so now I was going to have to find out where he was at. I rushed inside, going to the front desk and asking if the nurse knew where he was. She searched the computer but said that it probably wasn't entered in yet as he just arrived. She told me to take a seat in the waiting room and she would let me know when it popped up on the system.

I sighed, the waiting room was thankfully pretty empty so I wasn't worried that it would take long, but I hated not knowing if he was okay or not. After about 10 minutes she called me back up to the front desk and told me what room number he was in and how to get there. I thanked her and walked quickly over there.

I opened the door to his room, not expecting to see that Brianna was already there. How the hell had she beaten me here when I got here the same time that he did? I shook my head and walked in, not caring if she was here I needed to make sure he was okay.

"Brooke," Tyler smiled as he saw me walk into the room.

"Hey," I breathed out and walked over to the other side of his bed. He reached out his hand and I took it in mine and rubbed the back of it with my thumb. "How are you feeling?" I asked.

"A little better," he said said, showing me that he had an IV. "They said I passed out because of dehydration and over working myself," he said rolling his eyes.

"Tyler Paul Seguin," I shook my head and sat in the chair next to his bed, still holding his hand.

He chuckled at the use of his full name. "I'm fine Brooke I promise," he smiled at me, completely ignoring that Brianna was still in the room.

"You scared the hell out of me," I said, pushing his hair out of his face. It had started getting long but I liked it, he was cute like that.

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

"Hey but I got to walk across the ice, so now thousands of people have seen me... so that's.. lovely," I laughed.

"So that was you behind me?" he asked and I nodded.

"Jamie brought me over so I could follow the ambulance over here," I said and he just nodded.

I could see that his eyes were getting heavy, he was clearly very tired.

"Ty, take a nap," I said softly.

He just nodded as his eyes closed fully, and he fell asleep. I sighed and sat back against the chair, my hand still holding his. I looked up to where Brianna had been standing but she was gone now. I hadn't even heard the door open and close, but I didn't really think much about it.

I pulled my phone out and texted everyone to let them know that he was okay and taking a nap right now. An hour later Jamie, Rads, Katie, and Ashlyn showed up to the hospital as Tyler was waking up. They visited for a little bit and then the nurse came in and said he was free to go home, prescribing him some medication for the flu he had and discharged him.

I drove Tyler home and gave him his medicine. I grabbed a glass of water, and a box of tissues, before I helped Tyler upstairs and into his bed. I placed the water and tissues on the bedside table and went back downstairs to take the boys outside for the last time tonight.

When I came back inside I went back upstairs to check on Tyler once more before I went back to my apartment. He was laying in bed with the TV on quietly. He looked over to me and gave me a sleepy half smile.

I walked over to the bed and sat on the edge, feeling his forehead. He felt cooler now which was good.

"I'm gonna head home so you can get some rest," I said softly. He looked over to me and shook his head. "No?" I laughed.

"Stay?" he asked and I sighed, knowing that there was no way I was going to tell him no.

"Alright," I said and crawled in next to him.

Tyler turned onto his side and rested his head on my chest. I smiled and wrapped my left arm around him, rubbing his back while my other hand ran through his hair mindlessly. He had turned his head to watch TV for a little while before quickly passing out, pressed up against my side and his head laying on my chest. I didn't mind holding him this time, actually I liked it. I was enjoying that he needed to be held and I was the one who got to do it.

I wasn't in the most comfortable position but it was good enough. And if I woke up with a stiff neck, I would survive because this was worth it.

(Tyler's POV)

It had been 3 days since I had passed out during the game. The doctor had cleared me to go back to practice but just wanted to make sure that I took it easy. I was pretty much over the flu at this point and felt fine so I was glad to be back with my boys.

I had been one of the first people to show up to practice this morning, which was kind of rare usually Jamie was here before me, but I decided to take a second to answer some messages. I opened my phone, seeing I had a few notifications.

Brooke: Hey I'm glad you're feeling better, but please take it easy. I don't want to visit you in the hospital again. 💜

Me: I will, I promise. Hope you have a good day at work! Text me later during your break ❤️

I kept scrolling through my messages, expecting to find one from Brianna but I hadn't heard from her since the night I was in the hospital. It was nice that she had come to make sure I was okay, but she left without saying goodbye which was a little odd. I clicked on her contact name and started to text her.

I was so involved with what I was doing I hadn't noticed that Jamie had sat next to me and saw what I was doing.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Jamie said, grabbing the phone out of my hands.

"Well I was trying to contact Brianna. I haven't seen her since she was at the hospital the other day but she didn't say bye."

"Are you blind or just stupid?" Jamie asked, standing up now. I stood up in front of him not enjoying being talked down to. "You left a date," he continued "to take care of Brooke when she was sick, and she went straight to the hospital when you passed out at the game. You wanted her there and ignored Brianna, or whatever her name is. Can't you see that there's clearly something between you and her and there's nothing between you and Brianna?" He said and tossed my phone down to my bench.

At this point a lot of the other guys had started arriving as well and over heard Jamie yelling at me. A lot of them were nodding their heads but I decided to ignore them.

"Jamie I'm not ready to settle down." The words came out of my mouth before I could even process them.

He crosses his arms over his chest and looked at me for a minute. "What?" he asks almost like he didn't hear me.

"I'm not ready to settle down. Brooke is different than the other girls and I'm not ready for that."

"So that answers my question, you are in fact an idiot."

"No Jamie I'm being serious right now. Brooke is my best friend and I want her to stay my best friend for the rest of my life. She means the world to me but I'm scared that if I pursued something with her everything is going to change and I'll lose her."

Jamie shook his head and got in my face, his voice lower than normal. "If you don't act on this soon, you are going to lose her anyways. Someone else is going to take advantage of you not going for it because you are scared to lose your fun times with fake girls. Look around at this room Tyler. Look at all of the guys in here that are married or in a committed relationship. Do we look miserable because we only get to have sex with one person? No. So stop being stupid because I'm not going to sit here feeling bad for you while you beat yourself up when you lose your chance," he said and walked away.

"Honestly, Segs, the sex is better when you're with that person anyways," Bish said as he walked by me to head out to the ice.

I sat down in my stall and looked down to my phone. I picked it up and deleted the message I had started typing to Brianna and shut it off, throwing it in my bag before I started to get ready for practice.

(Brooke's POV)

The end of the season had come and gone. Tyler and I were both back to full health and he had left to go visit his family. Sadly both of his grandparents had passed away and he was going to attend the funeral. After he had spent some time with family he had booked himself a trip to go to Mexico with a couple friends. I was kind of surprised that he didn't try and invite me, but also not surprised since he knew that I had to work sadly.

I was enjoying seeing his Instagram stories and snapchats he was sending me from the beaches and him playing golf with the guys. What I wasn't enjoying seeing was him hanging out with random girls from down there. I was trying to ignore it, knowing that was what happened on trips like that but it still bugged me.

I hung out with Jamie and Katie a few times before they headed off on their trip to Ireland, which honestly super jealous they were getting to go there. But Katie promised to send me lots of pictures, so I guess that was okay.

After the trip to Mexico Tyler had went to go visit with Adam Cracknell. I had been on my break at work when I saw that he had posted another Instagram story. I gasped happily when I saw that it was him and baby Lynde. It was so cute I was dying at how sweet he was with her. It made my heart melt and I watched it probably 5 more times before I had to get back to work. That was the side of Tyler that I liked seeing. (video here). And of course the next day he posted another two videos with Lynde. (videos here)

Ashlyn had sent me a message from Russia asking me if I had seen them. Of course I had seen them, like 10 times. She gushed about it saying how cute it was and teased saying that someday that would be my baby. I just laughed and shook my head.

I had gotten out of work a little while ago and headed over to Tyler's house to let the boys out and feed them. I was in the middle of getting them some ice water since it had gotten hot again when my phone started to ring. I looked over and saw that Tyler was trying to facetime me.

I put the water bowl down on the floor and picked up my phone, answering it.

Tyler and Lynde's face popped up on my screen and I smiled.

"Hi!" I said and waved at them.

Lynde giggled and waved back.

"Hey, we just wanted to say hi. And Lynde wanted to see the puppies," he said, smiling.

"Aww well they are eating right now," I smiled and knelt down on the floor and turned the phone towards the puppies. Lynde squealed when she saw the puppies which made Tyler and I both laugh.

We talked for a little while and he told me that he was going to be coming home in a couple days, which I was excited about. I was glad to finally have someone to hang out with again. I didn't really know many other people around here besides the people I worked with but I hadn't gotten super close with any of them yet so we didn't spend time together outside of work. All of the people that I was friends with were the guys from the team and the WAGs but they were all gone so I was just mostly hanging out with the pups lately.

Tyler had come home a few days later and we spent some time together which was nice. Until a girl that he had been with before came into town and asked if they could hang out, which for some reason he said yes to. I wasn't exactly sure why he was giving her the attention since from what he had told me she cheated on him, but then I saw what she looked like and it made sense.

So now here I was alone in my apartment, watching one of the Golden Knights playoff games while he was out with her. At least last time Katie, Jamie, and Ashlyn were here to distract me but this time they were all in different countries and time zones. They all had been sending me pictures of their trips and there was no way I was going to ruin it by telling them that Tyler was being stupid with one of his exs.

Over the last week Tyler had been coming to me all the time, asking me what he should say to her, and what it meant when she had said a certain thing. I was getting sick of hearing about it but I wanted to be the supportive friend so I just dealt with it. She was apparently too busy to hang out tonight so he decided that he had time to hang out with me again, obviously the second choice. Again.

At this point I wasn't upset anymore I was more pissed off. But I wanted to see him so I stopped by our favorite restaurant before I headed home to get some takeout for us. When I walked into the restaurant I was not expecting to see her there, but to see her here with another guy wasn't surprising to me at all. I just shook my head and half laughed to myself while I walked over to the counter.

"Hey Brooke," Kyle smiled as he placed my takeout bag up on the counter. I had come in here often enough that they knew me and Tyler by name now, and our favorite booth.

"Hey Kyle," I smiled back as I handed him my card. "Do you know who that is over there by any chance?" I asked, pointing over to the guy who was sitting across from her.

"Hmm no but I know they made reservations I could.. look I guess if you wanted?"

"No I don't want to get you in trouble," I said as he handed me the receipt for me to sign.

"Brooke.. I own the place I'm not going to get myself in trouble," he laughed and started to flip through the books.

"True.." I laughed and slid the receipt back across the counter and pulled my takeout over to me.

"His name is Ryan Adams," he said and closed the book. "Why?"

"Well I know the girl he is with.. was curious if it was a family member of hers or not, but guessing by the last name, it's not."

Kyle nodded, understanding where I was getting at with that. "Well whoever she is actually suppose to be with, hopefully gets away from her. Because this is the second guy she has been in here with in the past week."

"Oh really?" I laughed "Shocker. Thanks Kyle," I smiled and grabbed my takeout bag. "See ya later! Have a good night."

"You too Brooke. Tell Tyler I said hi," he said and waved.

"I will," I said as I walked out the door and got into my car.

Tyler was probably not going to believe me but I had to tell him. I wouldn't be a real best friend if I didn't.