#and yes i DO mean that each character should kiss their counterpart. just to be clear

[lessnowon]

instead of treating the IT miniseries and the IT movies as rivals... have you considered that maybe... they should kiss?

[lokiondisneyplus]

Yes, Loki series director Kate Herron knows about your fan theory about the show, the analysis you posted to social media. No, she won’t tell you what she thinks about it, or whether you were right.

“I follow all the conversations on Twitter,” Herron told Polygon in an interview shortly after Loki’s season 1 finale. “I don’t always weigh in on them, because I made the show, so they don’t want me weighing in like, ‘Actually, guys…’ I think that’s the whole point of art — it should be up for debate and discussion.”

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for season 1 of Loki.]

Loki has been a hit for streaming service Disney Plus — episode 6 of the show, the final installment for this season, was reportedly watched by more households than any of the platform’s MCU finales to date. The series has been a popular source of fan conjecture and argument, with one particularly big rolling conversation focusing on whether the budding romantic relationship between trickster Asgardian Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his alternate-universe counterpart Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) is a form of incest.

Herron is willing to speak up about that one. “My interpretation of it is that they’re both Lokis, but they aren’t the same person,” she says. “I don’t see them as being like brother and sister. They have completely different backgrounds […] and I think that’s really important to her character. They sort of have the same role in terms of the universe and destiny, but they won’t make the same decisions.”

Herron says thematically, Loki falling for Sylvie is an exploration of “self-love,” but only in the sense that it’s Loki learning to understand his own motives and integrity. “[The show is] looking at the self and asking ‘What makes us us?’” Herron says. “I mean, look at all the Lokis across the show, they’re all completely different. I think there’s something beautiful about his romantic relationship with Sylvie, but they’re not interchangeable.”

Directing the final kiss between the two characters was a complicated process because it had to communicate something about each of them over the course of just a few seconds. Herron says the primary goal was creating a safe, comfortable environment for Hiddleston and Di Martino, and after that, she had to think about how to bring across Loki and Sylvie’s conflicting goals in that moment.

“It’s an interesting one, right?” she says. “Emotionally, from Sylvie’s perspective, I think it’s a goodbye. But it’s still a buildup of all these feelings. They’ve both grown through each other over the last few episodes. It was important to me that it didn’t feel like a trick, like she was deceiving him. She is obviously doing that, on one hand, but I don’t feel the kiss is any less genuine. I think she’s in a bad place, but her feelings are true.”

Herron says directing Hiddleston in the scene mostly came down to discussing the speech Loki gives Sylvie before the kiss. “That was really important, showing this new place for Loki,” Herron says. “In the first episode, he’s like, ‘I want the throne, I want to rule,’ and by episode 6, he isn’t focused on that selfish want. He just wants her to be okay.”

Loki writer and producer Eric Martin recently tweeted that he wished the show had been able to focus more time on two of its secondary characters, Owen Wilson’s Time Variance Authority agent Mobius M. Mobius, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer. “I wanted to explore her more deeply and really see their relationship,” he says, “But covid got in the way and we just didn’t have time.”

Asked if Loki and Sylvie’s relationship suffered from similar necessary edits, Herron says it’s true that the show’s creators and audience still don’t know everything Sylvie went through to make her so different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s original version of Loki. “We’ve seen her as a child, but she’s lived for thousands and thousands of years, in apocalypses on the run,” she says. “I think there’s so much more to delve into with Sylvie […] You’re filling in the blanks. You see [her on the planet] Lamentis, and it’s horrific. And you’re like, “Well, what kind of person would she be, growing up in apocalypses? What kind of personality would that give her?”

Herron says Sylvie’s backstory actually reminds her of the 1995 movie Jumanji, where a young boy is sucked into a magical board game in 1969, and emerges 26 years later as a full-grown man, played by with typical manic energy by Robin Williams. “It’s such a weird reference, but…” she says. “He’s a little boy when he ends up captive in that game, and when he comes out, it’s obviously been a life experience. With Sylvie, it’s similar. She was a child when she had to go on the run, so she’s had a very difficult life. I would love to see more of it. As Eric said, she’s a rich character, there’s so much to be explored.”

Herron says, though, that during her time on the show, material about Sylvie was added rather than cut — specifically, those scenes of her as a child, being kidnapped by the TVA. “This was before my time, but I know in the writers’ room, there were lots of avenues exploring Sylvie on the run and what her life was like,” Herron says. “I wouldn’t want to speak more to those, because I wasn’t there when they were being discussed. But something wasn’t in there that was important to me — I felt we should see her [history] in the TVA. Me and the team were talking about how it made complete sense, because episode 4 is all about twisting the idea that the TVA might be good on its head. And so that’s something that came in later, once I joined, was seeing her as a child. I think we needed to see that, not to understand her completely, but to get an idea of her motivations, why she’s so angry at this place.”

Talking more broadly about the series finale, Herron says the last few episodes weren’t as heavily referential as the first episodes, which she intended as “a love letter to sci-fi.” While early images like the TVA’s interrogation rooms had specific visual references from past science fiction, episode 6’s locations were drawn more from collaborations with the crew.

“The idea of the physical timeline being circular, our storyboard artists came up with that,” Herron says. “I had in the scripts, ‘We move through space to the end of time,” and then me and [storyboard artist Darrin Denlinger] discussed how we could play with the idea of time, while also adding MCU nods. He was like, ‘What if the timeline is circular?’ I think that’s such a striking image, like the Citadel at the End of Time is the needle on a record player. I just thought that was such a cool image, but it wasn’t necessarily taken from anything.”

Episode 6 focuses heavily on the mysterious figure He Who Remains and his citadel, a space she says was largely conceived by production designer Kasra Farahani. “I remember he brought in the art of the Citadel, and I thought it was beautiful,” Herron says. “He said, ‘The Citadel has been carved from an actual meteorite,’ which I thought was such an inspired idea. And He Who Remains’ office is the only finished portion of it.”

She says there are only a few direct homages in episode 6, including the zoom shot through space, which directly referenced a similar sequence in Robert Zemeckis’ 1997 film Contact.

“And then I have my Teletubbies reference for episode 5,” Herron says. “I wanted the Void to feel like an overgrown garden, like a kind of forgotten place. And I realized I’d pitched it as the British countryside. I remember trying to explain it to ILM, who did the visual effects, and saying, ‘Oh, you know, it’s like the Teletubbies. It’s just rolling hills, but they go on forever.’ That actually was quite a helpful reference in the end, which is funny.”

Asked for her favorite set memory from shooting the season, Herron says it comes down to Tom Hiddleston starting a mania for physical exertion before takes. “Sometimes he runs around set to get himself in the right mindset before he performs,” she says. “He does pushups. You know, you’re going into an action scene, you want to look like you’ve just been running. And it became infectious across all the cast. We’ve got so much footage of — I think Jack [Veal] ended up doing it, who plays Kid Loki. I’ve got [shots of] him and Sophia doing pushups and squats, just to get ready. It was so funny watching that echo across all the cast. I think all of them ended up doing those exercises with him at some point. It was so funny.”

“That might be my favorite set story, but it’s honestly, not a sweet one,” she adds. “I would say my favorite thing is his enthusiasm. He’s a very kind empathetic person. We were filming this in quite tough circumstances, a lot of people were far from home and isolating, and he brought this warmth and energy and joy to the set every day. And I think that made everyone feel very safe and very bonded. I’m forever grateful to him for doing that.”

[littlemisslipbalm]

hi so i just thought of this scrolling through tik tok and a vid popped with the song sleepwalk playing and i was wonder if you could write a one shot or something where harry styles and y/n meet at a halloween party and y/n is dressed as the corpse bride and harry is dressed as victor and they dance to the song sleepwalk

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS REQUEST!! I love the corpse bride and also have been meaning to get some writing up so I really grinded to get this out bc im literally busy 99.99% of the time at college so I hope you all enjoy and happy halloween OH AND BE SAFE AND COVID CONSCIOUS this would take place when covid is gone/doesn’t exist. LOVE YALL remember to like, reblog and whatever

(i dont usually take requests but always feel free to message me bc i just might do it!!)

---

On October 30th, she ascended the grand stairs that led to the entrance of the mansion. Within said mansion, there was the Halloween party of the year raging within. She hadn’t thought too much about what was going to happen when she arrived. The host was a colleague from work… that usually means it’s casual.  Except for when you work in Hollywood and your colleague from work is actually famous and invited all of their elite celebrity friends.

As it was her first Halloween in Los Angeles the rules weren’t exactly crystal clear. She strode up the stairs and was greeted by her friend from work. He was dressed as Quentin Tarantino and she laughed at the inside joke from work that surrounded that costume. They hugged and kissed and then he directed her into the room and pointed out the bar at her request.

When she reached the bar, eager for a drink, she was greeted with many smiling faces. A celebrity party was so strange. She saw actors and actresses commingling with musicians and other random celebrities you would have never guessed would know each other. Then, on top of that, they were all in the most elaborate costumes money could buy.

A specific costume stood out to her. A tall slender man, painted with rather pale skin and gaunt features, was dressed as Victor from the Corpse Bride. It wasn’t a particularly uncommon costume as the movie was particularly popular and it was relatively easy. Why it caught her eye? She was dressed as Victor’s counterpart, the namesake of the movie, the Corpse Bride Emily. She had felt a little self conscious about the revealing and torn wedding dress she had found. Her blue wig and makeup made her stand out enough, she didn’t feel like being the center of attention.

Luckily for her, celebrities are self-involved so she didn’t have to worry about that all. But, now she wondered about the man across the way from her. He was laughing and casually sipping a beverage with his presumed friends. As she waited for her drink, she watched him. The way he moved was entrancing. He seemed much more lively than the character he was portraying and it made her smile.

With her drink in hand, she took a sip and glanced around the room she was in. The dj was in the corner, spinning music that was Halloween and others. It had only been upbeat since she got there. About three songs had passed and just as it began to finally change to something slow, her eyes roamed to her Victor once more. This time though she wasn’t just looking at the side of his smiling face or the glint of his jawline as he listened to his friend. This time she was met with his wild eyes. They were piercing and strong. They were entrancing. Normally she would look away quickly when accidentally making eye contact with a stranger, but she couldn’t with him.

Sleepwalk began to play and it felt like the world began spinning in slow motion. Her Victor crossed the room towards her and she took a shaky sip of her drink, unsure what she was supposed to do as the man approached her. Like we said, she wasn’t exactly well-versed in how celebrities acted at parties. Was it normal for people to introduce themselves to absolute strangers. Plus, she couldn’t quite make out who this guy was under all the makeup he had on.

“Hello there, Emily,” he says as he stands closely to her. Not alarmingly so, simply close in an inviting and comforting way.

She’s not nervous anymore. His smile and presence calm her instantly.

“Victor,” she gives a curt yet flirty nod of her head.

“Would you like to dance with me, my bride?”

She laughs, unable to stop herself. “I’d love to, my darling!”

He extended his hand to her and she took it graciously, following his lead to the center of the room, where couples had begun to pair up and sway.

The somber tune floods the room as he takes her in his arms, pulling her close to his warm body. The fabric of his suit felt expensive underneath her hand that rested on his strong shoulder. His hands were big and warm too, full of rings and painted black. She felt utterly safe and welcomed despite just meeting him.

She leaned in and breathed in his cologne. Up close she felt like she recognized the man under the makeup, but she still wasn’t sure. As she studied him, he smiled down at her with an amused smirk on his face.

“What’s on your mind?” His voice sounds gravelly over the old-timey guitar strumming in the background.

“I can’t figure out who you are for the life of me.”

“I’m Victor,” He grins.

“Who you really are,” she pats his shoulder, swaying with him, following his movements gracefully despite the heels she had on.  

“Does it matter?” He leans down and looks in her eyes, a smile still resting on his beautiful lips. His eyes once again are piercing and she swears she recognizes them from somewhere.

She knows it shouldn't, she just hates the nagging feeling that she should know who he is.

“No...so how do you know the host?”

“I don’t remember agreeing to play twenty questions. Do you?”

She laughs into his shoulder, her head deciding to rest there, rather than be entranced by his face.

“Fine, silence it is, my darling.”

He snorts and nestles his head on top of hers.

“Don’t be mad, pet. It’s Halloween.”

She smiles at the nickname and his soothing voice.

The song begins to fade just as they really feel like it’s going to last forever. She lifts her head as another song comes on. He looks at her, expectantly.

“It was lovely having this dance with you, Emily,” He says when she’s silent.

“My name is Y/N. But yes it was really nice dancing with you...whoever you are.”

“It’s Harry. I’m Harry.” He finally admits and it all dawns on her, but she keeps calm. The pieces fall together easily in her head, how she knows him, why he’s here.

“It’s nice to meet you, Harry. I hope you have a nice rest of your night.”

She begins to walk away but he grabs her forearm and she turns around to see a grinning Harry. “It’ll only be nice if I get to keep seeing your face. You’re dressed as Emily, not Cinderella, so don’t run away darling.”

Tonight was going to be unforgettable.

[total-ass]

leonard does not deserve nearly the amount of hate that he gets. i’m tired of seeing leonard slander every day in the tag, i’m tired of seeing my king in the bottom of every tier list. i’ve seen him put below characters like amy and beth and stephanie who literally ruined every scene they were in. on what planet is leonard worse then an abuser or a fujoshi?

leonard has a lot of great things about him. for starters he’s one of the few nerdy characters that’s doesn’t wear glasses which is important...in a way. this fandom has an apparent “thing” for nerds with characters like noah and cody and harold and being popular. and yet, canonically nerdy characters like sam or leonard get little to no appreciation. it’s like this fandoms only interpretation of a nerd is conventionally attractive/white/skinny person oh, so you like nerds so much until they don’t look like they’re straight out of a tiktok house?

people say that he’s useless and annoying, ok and? the majority of total drama characters are useless and annoying. only 4-5 characters a season ever actually try to win. total drama fans are more forgiving on white characters being useless and annoying compared to their melaninated counterparts because they see the “”potential”” in them. that’s why people are so quick to stan staci or ezekial for...existing? but never consider characters like b or beardo or justin or leonard.

leonard was robbed twice in a row because fresh thinks poc are disposable unless thier arc revolves around the mustiest white boy imaginable. leonard had just as much potential as ezekiel and yet no one talks about it because this fandom actively ignores characters that aren’t white. ridonculous race was at least a few months after pahkitew iirc? they could of shown how much he’s matured since then, they could of given him a real motivation to win, they could of expanded his relationship with tammy; are they dating, are they just close friends? does one attempt to keep the other grounded in reality? how does the rest of the cast react to them? they could of had a character arc about realizing they don’t actually have powers and how to grow from there but since they weren’t a toxic couple with a comphet plot line, fresh immediately disposed of them. and no one cares because leonard isn’t cody-colored.

i’m not saying leonard should of won pahkitew or ridonculous race by any means, i’m not sure the world is ready for that much leonard, (personally i am but i know most total drama fans are cowards) but, you can’t act like it’s not a little suspicious that characters like him, katie, b and beardo were all first boots (with leonard being first boot twice) while the rest of the people of color that made it past the 5th episode were forced into the worst “”romance”” plotlines imaginable. (except for maybe dj, but he still got dealt really shitty plots for no reason >:/) if leonard had hooked up with sugar or if tammy was white i guarantee that fresh would of kept him around much longer.

i know only 5 people actually care for pahkitew but jesus, the lack of leonard art is appalling. leonard easily had one of the cutest designs in the show. i genuinely want to kiss him on the lips, he’s so adorable. that lanky man must truely be a wizard, cause he cast a spell on my heart, i can see what sugar saw in him. however, the only characters people are interested in drawing from the pahkitew cast are jasmine, shawn, sammy, scarlett and um...dave :/ (im not trying to shit on anyones favorite character but like..dave? the incel? ,,.really? :/) and surprise, surprise, 90 percent of that jasmine and dave art is ship art, with a white person. shocker :/. why does no one ship leonard and dave or something? this fandom loves shipping characters that hate each other so much. oh wait i know why, cause this fandom is repulsed by things that don’t involve white twinks. that’s why crack ships like dundie are universally praised to this day while iconic ships like notie are forgotten. (only real ones remember 2008 notie smh)

now for the record, i’m not saying hating leonard automatically makes you racist. i’ve seen a lot of people come in here and claim that not liking dave or sierra or cameron or whatever poc makes you inherently racist. while [white] total drama fans tend to use more explicitly derogatory language in regards to characters of color they don’t like (ex: the way gwanon talks about courtney vs. the way they talk about duncan despite hating both of them) but the difference between leonard and those other people is that leonard is actually well written and doesn’t suck. he only had positive qualities. leonard literally did nothing wrong and he gets so much hate for what??leonard didn’t actively hurt anyone, leonard didn’t commit any crimes, leonard didn’t fetishize someone’s mental illness. so i can’t help but side eye people that say hate leonard..it feels like they simply hate to see a nerdy black non binary wizard winning.

anyway, leonard deserves the entire world and i’m tired of people not recognizing it. so leonard antis ask yourself, why do you hate leonard so much? he’s just a funny wizard boy. and before you ask, yes i sent this is in as my college application.

[btschooseafic]

Hey you, what’s your dream?

Pairing: platonic!oc x ot7

Details: manager!oc, predebut/idolverse, partial BTS World!verse

Summary: Debut day!

Warnings: This is a fictional story based on real events. The characters presented here are not the same as their real life counterparts. (TW: panic attack, dieting mentions) [Masterlist]

Track 22: Debut!

Started From the Bottom- Drake

“Started from the bottom now we’re here

Started from the bottom now my whole team fuckin’ here.”

Debut Showcase, Gangnam Ilchi Hall-June 12, 2013

“Aviva-yah,” Yoongi called. Aviva looked up with her camera, only to be faced with Yoongi snapping a picture of her with his. He looked down at his camera and grinned. “Looks good.”

Aviva looked him over. “So do you. I really like the skirt.”

Yoongi did a little twirl. “Hip hop!”

“Ah… I’m so nervous, I’m stiff as a board,” Jin muttered.

“Want a massage, hyung?” Jungkook offered. Jin blinked at him.

“Seriously? Yeah, that would be great.” Jin sighed happily as Jungkook massaged his shoulders. Aviva walked over, getting a shot of them. “You’re good at this. How come you don’t do it more often?”

“Cause this is a special occasion,” Jungkook told him. “Don’t get used to it, hyung.”

“…I’ll pay you in food,” Jin offered.

“…I’ll consider it,” Jungkook said. Aviva laughed. They glanced at her.

“Yah, go away, camera-ninja,” Jin said.

The boys preformed Bulletproof Pt. 2, No More Dream, and Like to round it out. In-between changing their outfits, Aviva got a quick word with Yoongi and Hoseok.

“How’s it going out there?” She asked them. Yoongi and Hoseok looked at each other.

“Good~?” Hoseok said.

“Good~” Yoongi agreed. Namjoon stepped up behind them, putting his hands on their shoulders. Hoseok clutched his chest as Yoongi plastered on an overly surprised face.

“What’re you guys doing?” Namjoon asked.

“Talking about how great you guys are,” Aviva told him.

“Yah!” Namjoon flushed. “It’s time to get back on stage!” He pointed his finger in the air. “Let’s go!”

Afterwards, Aviva stood off to the side, watching the boys get interviewed about their first performances.

Yoongi spoke about how they were more authentic than other idol groups doing hip hop. Namjoon spoke about wanting to reach out to teenagers and get them to think about what their dreams were, and wanting to win a Best New Artist Award.

At the end of the night Aviva presented them with a custom-made cake. “Sorry I didn’t bake this one,” she said. “But I saw an ad for this bakery, and I thought it could be cool.”

“It is!” Jimin assured her. “Your cakes are probably the tastiest, but this one is very pretty.” Aviva clenched her fist.

“I’m going to improve my cake decorating skills.”

“Ah, that’s not what I…” Jimin smiled at her determined expression. “Okay, I can’t wait to see what you come up with—shall we eat?”

M!Countdown Debut! June 13th 2013

At their debut M!Countdown stage, Aviva was carrying around her camera again, to get behind the scenes footage.

Joonho and his assistants were working hard to mark sure every item of clothing was perfectly place. Jihye and Eunjung were chatting as they waited for their turn. However, Aviva could see that Eunjung had already gotten to Namjoon earlier this morning with an important addition to his hairstyle.

Aviva laughed, stretching her arm up and tracing the letters RM that had been shaved into the side of his head. “I haven’t seen this yet…”

“What? You don’t like it?” Namjoon said nervously.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “It’s just… I wonder what you’ll think about this style when you look back at it. Fashion is so changeable…”

“All the more reason to enjoy it now!” Hoseok said, popping up behind them, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and the other around Namjoon’s back.

“You would say that,” Aviva said, flicking the spiky mask.

He laughed. “You really like this thing, huh?” He struck a dramatic pose. “What I do for the sake of art!” She and Namjoon both laughed along with him.

Jungkook and Jimin walked over. Jimin spotted the camera and swerved slightly to sit on a nearby bench.

“I’m going to practice,” Namjoon said, turning towards the wall and taking a few deep breathes before launching into one of his verses. It was the quick one.

Hoseok mimicked him jokingly. Jungkook watched and then did the same. Hoseok laughed.

Namjoon frowned, pointing at Jungkook. “I hate this kid.”

“No, you don’t, Namjoon-ah,” Aviva said easily.

“If you’re gonna copy me, try and do it properly, at least,” he challenged. Hoseok shrugged. Jungkook tried. “Not similar!”

“He can’t do it so well when he’s under the spotlight like that,” Hoseok told Aviva.

“Well, Namjoon-ah does have his own style of rap,” Aviva thought. “You should rap like yourselves, not like him. That’s what makes you all special.”

“Aw.” Hoseok poked her on the cheek. “Cutie, manager-nim.”

“…Can we move on?” Aviva said. “Your audience doesn’t want to hear about me, they want to hear about you.”

Jimin quickly rapped the verse, blushing when they turned to him.

“Ah, sorry,” Jimin said in English for some reason.

“No, it was cool,” Namjoon told him, patting him on the shoulder. “You’re the coolest.”

Readier, the boys loosened up by seeing who could rap the fastest in English. Then Namjoon moved on to walking through their performance. Aviva could see the maknae line’s eyes glazing over as he spoke. Taehyung spotted her and blew her a kiss. Jimin noticed and laughed quietly. He moved over to her.

“Shouldn’t you be listening to your leader?” Aviva teased.

Jimin grinned sheepishly. “Ah, well… I thought maybe our fans could use an update on what we’re doing? That’s who you’re recording this for, right? Our fans?” He thought. Aviva nodded. “Right now we’re in the waiting room.” Jimin pulled at Jungkook’s arm. “Jungkook-ah.” Jungkook turned around and stepped closer to them. “The camera’s on, see?” Jungkook bent down slightly.

“Yah, you don’t have to bend down,” Aviva said. “I’m not that short…” Jungkook laughed. “What will you do next, Jiminie?”

“Next we will…”

“Lose weight!” Jungkook said. Aviva frowned.

“Eh? Why~”

Jungkook laughed. “Stop with the aegyo, noona, you’re too old for that!” He turned back to Namjoon, walking closer over to him to listen.

“…Jungkookie’s a little grumpy today, isn’t he?” Jimin thought.

“Nervous?” Aviva wondered.

“I am,” Jimin admitted.

“I meant Kook... but, yeah, probably everyone is. I mean, I’m nervous and I’m not even performing!”

Jimin grimaced.

“Namjoon-ah, Jungook-ah, have you changed your socks?” One of the assistants asked. The boys broke up to continue getting ready.

“Well… we’re going to lose weight now, I guess,” Jimin said. “Yes, going to lose weight diligently. So I can show you great abs.” He looked down at himself.

“Your abs are already great,” Aviva told him honestly. Hoseok popped up behind Jimin, his plainer mask hanging over his chin.

“What are you doing?” He wondered.

Jimin blinked at him. “What?”

“Jiminie’s giving the fans an update!” Aviva told Hoseok.

“Right now we’re changing into our cool outfits before rehearsal,” Jimin told her and the camera. He wiggled his many ringed fingers at her.

“Bling~Bling~” Hoseok said. He held up his own gloved hand. “It says Bangtan Sonyeondan on it!”

“They are cool gloves,” Aviva agreed. “But you’re interrupting Jiminie.”

“Yeah, don’t interrupt me while I’m speaking to the camera, hyung!” Jimin said. “I get…” He glanced at Aviva and then looked away from her, staring at his feet. “…Shy.” He laughed nervously.

“Why?” Hoseok wondered. “It’s just Avi-yah.”

“It’s fine.” Aviva switched off her camera. “We can take a break.”

“Thanks, noona.” Jimin smiled at her.

“Cookie?” Yoongi offered, holding a small snack bag out to them.

“Ah, no thanks, hyung,” Jimin said. “I’m still dieting, so…”

Yoongi shrugged, holding it out to Aviva.

She took one. “Thanks.”

“You know, your shyness is cute, but you have to get used to the cameras if we’re going to debut now,” Hoseok said to Jimin.

Jimin frowned. “Yeah, well, how do you suggest I do that, Hobi-hyung?”

“Hmm…” Hoseok grinned. “I dare you to flash your abs to the camera.”

“Eh?” Jimin said. “Why?”

“Why?” Aviva agreed.

“Well, he’s going to be doing it on stage all the time now, so it’d be good practice, right?” He figured.

Jimin’s brow furrowed. “He’s got a point.”

“Yes, but the internet is forever,” Aviva reminded him. “If I post this…”

Jimin let out a breath. “Let’s do it.” He gripped the edge of his shirt. “Film me, noona.”

Soon they moved upstairs to the stage for the rehearsal. She got a shot of them moving up the stairs. Jungkook spotted her and waved.

“Ah, manager-noona, when did you get here?”

The other members shot her peace signs as they passed.

They moved straight from the rehearsal into the pre-recording for No More Dream. Aviva watched from the side and then ran around the corner to meet them as they exited the stage.

Aviva filmed them walking off stage, down the hall. The assistants were waiting with tissues to blot at their sweaty faces.

“This leather…” Namjoon muttered, pulling at his shirt, which was sticking to him with sweat. She switched her camera off, letting it hang off her neck. “Honestly.”

“Bend down.” She motioned at him. He did and she carefully dabbed at his face with a tissue, not wanting to ruin the makeup artist’s hard work. “There’s water and towels in the dressing room.”

“Good,” Yoongi said as he passed her. “It’s hot.”

Aviva froze, spotting Jin crying as he stepped off the stage.

“Oppa…” She frowned, noting one of the other cameramen was following him closer to get a shot. She followed them too. “Yah, give him some space.” The camera man hesitated. Aviva flashed her employee ID, and a glare at him. The camera man waved his hand and retreated out of the room. Jin was surrounded by assistants who were wiping his face and fanning him. Jimin and Namjoon were hovering, watching him concernedly. “Hi, Jinie-oppa. It’s okay to cry, you know.”

“But, I’m the oldest," he choked out. "I'm not supposed to..."

“You may be the oldest, but you also have the most sensitive heart,” she thought. “It’s a curse and a blessing.”

“I need to… get ready… for the… performance.”

She frowned at his ragged breathing.

“Seokjin-oppa.” She leaned up, brushing his hair away from his face. “Can you breath with me? Copy my breathing. Come on, slowly in… and out… good job.”

“Sorry,” he muttered, as his breathing settled.

“Hey, it’s a big moment, it makes sense to have big feelings, you don’t need to apologize, okay?”

“Okay.” He smiled slightly. “Guess I’ll say thank you, then.” He bent and kissed her forehead. “Thank you, manager-nim.”

“You two are being very sweet, but you should know, Avi, that he’s crying because his pants kept falling down,” Namjoon teased.

“Yah!” Jin protested, his face turning pink. Namjoon laughed as Jin got him into a headlock and rubbed roughly at his head.

“Ah, watch it—Eunjung-ssi is going to yell at you!”

“Eh? I thought it was because he made a mistake?” Jimin said to Aviva. Jin glared at him. Jimin patted him on the arm. “Don’t cry, hyung, it makes me want to cry too.”

Jin rejoined the others to do their huddle and cheer before they stepped back out onto stage to preform Bulletproof Pt. 2.

Jin waved at her as he passed. Yoongi gave her two thumbs up. Namjoon flashed her a peace sign.

After the performance, Aviva was waiting for them again near the door.

“We did well!” Jin said, hugging her. She laughed.

“Ah, oppa, I’m filming!”

“Our first broadcast recording!” Jin hugged Hoseok.

“First success!” Hoseok did a double fist pump.

“Oh yeah!” Namjoon echoed him as Jin moved on to hug Yoongi. “We’ll do even better on tomorrow’s stage.”

“We will do better tomorrow,” Jin agreed, though he was more subdued than the other two. He smiled weakly. “I have confidence for tomorrow.” Aviva couldn’t find the words. Instead she reached up and brushed his hair out of his face again.

Music Bank, No More Dream Debut!- June 14th 2013

The next day during rehearsal, Yoongi showed off his shirt with his stage name on it to the camera.

“I’m Suga, you see that?”

Aviva nodded. “Otherwise I wouldn’t know who you are.”

“Yah, you brat, it’s for the dry rehearsal,” he said. “You know that.”

Taehyung laughed behind them. Yoongi made a silly face at him. He laughed harder.

Aviva went out into the seats out a couple rows away from the stage to film their rehearsal.

“Yah, noona, don’t you have confidence in me?” Jimin whined after they finished the rehearsal and gathered back in the dressing room. “I know I made a small mistake with the kick, but I promise I’ll practice—and I always get the jump right every time. Every time!”

Aviva was taking a break from filming to charge her camera.

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“The part when I jump over Hobi, I saw how nervous you got!”

Aviva blushed slightly. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Jiminie, I just… you know I worry.”

“Then don’t watch that part, close your eyes,” Yoongi suggested.

She frowned.

“I can’t do that. I have to support you guys, and get behind the scenes footage, and—“

“Okay, okay.” He waved his hand. “It was just a suggestion.”

She chewed at her lip. “I like the thing with the hat though. It’s cute.”

“I’m not sure cute was what Hobi was aiming for, but I’ll take it!” Jimin said.

Aviva got her camera back in time to film Jimin and Yoongi practicing their dance moves. Taehyung joined them.

“We have to do well,” he told Aviva seriously. “There’s only one chance.” She tilted her head.

“One chance for…?”

He blinked at her. “There’s only, one chance~” He started to sing.

She nodded. “One Shot, B.A.P.”

“Ding, ding, ding—correct!”

Meanwhile, Jungkook trying some of Namjoon’s throat spray.

He coughed. “Are you supposed to drink water with this?”

“Hmmm?” Namjoon looked at him sleepily.

Aviva turned to get shots of the other members. Jin spotted her and waved with the sleeves of his leather jacket, which he was wearing backwards. She laughed.

“Why are you being so cute?”

He pouted at her. “Are you suggesting I’m not usually cute?”

“You’re not usually this shy,” she thought.

“Ah, I did a shy introduction, so I’m still shy now,” he explained.

She nodded. “Well, that’s okay, oppa, I like both the shy and confident versions of you,” she said honestly. He blushed. “Where did Kook go? He was just here...” He laughed.

“Ah, yeah, he’s fallen asleep again.”

Jungkook had almost passed out in his chair.

“Drink,” she ordered him, handing him a water bottle as one of the stagehands fanned him.

“What?” He smiled at her, dazed. “Oh, manager-noona, hi.”

She frowned. “You need to eat something, get your blood sugar up.”

“But I’m on a diet~” Jungkook said. “You can’t make me~”

Aviva sighed. “What about some juice?”

He blinked and nodded. “Yes please.”

“I’ll get it for him,” Jin offered, pulling his jacket on the right way around now. Aviva glanced over at Jimin, who was still practicing.

“Get one for Jiminie too, please.”

Jin nodded.

“One juice for the maknae and one for the Bagel Man, got it.”

Aviva squinted after him.

“Why is Jiminie a bagel?”

“It’s a combo between baby face and glamorous body,” Jungkook explained. He smiled. “Namjoon-hyung told me I’ll probably be like that someday.” His brow furrowed. “Hmm, where did Namjoon-hyung go?”

“I’ll look for him.”

She found him sitting on a chair in the hallway, his head in his hands. He looked like The Thinker, except even stiffer than stone. She switched off her camera, having a feeling he wouldn’t want the fans seeing him like this.

“Namjoon-ah…” Aviva punched lightly at his back. “You’re so tense. Come on, man.”

He squinted at her.

“If that’s an attempt at a massage, you’re failing.”

“No, I’m just hitting you.”

“Oh. You’re doing great then.”

She sighed, laying her hands flat and smoothing them over his shoulders, kneading at the tense muscles.

He made a bit of a happy noise.

“Better?” She asked in his ear. He jolted and then stiffened again. “Sorry.” She withdrew from him.

“No! I…” He turned, his face red. “It’s fine. That was… nice. Thanks. You, ah, weren’t filming that, were you?”

She shook her head. “I do still need some more footage though.”

“You’ll find it,” Namjoon said confidently. “You’re good at this.”

“You’re so amazing, Syub Syub,” Hoseok was saying to Yoongi back inside the room. “You actually danced.” Yoongi turned, spotting Aviva with the camera.

“I usually don’t show off my dancing,” he explained to any future viewers.

“You’re so cool,” Hobi praised. Yoongi smiled awkwardly. Hoseok turned to Tae. “V-ssi, you should show us too.”

Taehyung blinked. “Show what?”

Hoseok hummed one line of the song. “That part.”

Tae did a confused little head wiggle for the camera.

It was cute, but awkward.

“The truth is, V-ah doesn’t do that part,” Yoongi told the camera.

“Oh?” Hoseok smirked.

Yoongi squeezed Taehyung’s shoulder.

“You don’t need to know that part. It’s not yours.”

Hoseok shot an apologetic look at Tae, who was frowning, and then attacked him with a hug, biting his shoulder for some reason.

“Ah, hyung, you’re not a vampire!” Tae said, laughing.

“You’re so cute I just wanna eat you up!” Hoseok told him. Taehyung ran away from him, hiding behind Aviva.

“Yah, leave Taehyung-ah alone,” Jin said, stopping his neck stretches to glare at Hoseok.

“Are you okay?” Aviva asked Yoongi as Tae leaned on her. “How’s your shoulder?” He frowned at the camera. “Ah, sorry, I can edit that out.”

“Please do. The shoulder’s fine,” he told her. “Right now, I’m a little nervous for the pre-recording. I feel dazed, but I’m keeping myself on my toes.” Hoseok and Jin popped in and out from behind him making faces. Tae flashed a peace sign in front of the camera. Yoongi completely ignored them. “We’ll work hard. Please watch over us.” He smiled, just a tinge of annoyance on his face.

“But you’ve been great in front of the camera,” she told him. “I really appreciate it, since it gives me more material to pick from… but don’t force yourself, okay?”

“I’m not,” he told her.

“Swag!” Namjoon called out as he passed the camera, ready to preform. Aviva tried not to laugh. Yoongi bowed slightly. Hoseok and Jimin flashed peace signs.

Aviva watched from the side, grinning as girls shrieked at Jimin’s abs reveal, and cheered at Jimin’s leap.

“We finished it!” Namjoon said as he came off stage, smiling in relief.

“Ah, that was scary!” Yoongi said, rubbing his chest.

Jungkook pronounced it, “So-so.”

“The end!” Hoseok said, flashing a peace sign at the camera.

“Hi.” Jin waved shyly. “We did well, I think.”

“The end!” Tae said, flashing a peace sign. Aviva laughed.

“Hobi just did that!”

Tae pouted.

In the dressing room, Aviva looked at Jimin.

“Have you been avoiding me?”

“Not you, necessarily…” He eyed the camera and stepped closer, pointing. “That red light scares me the most. It makes me wonder what I should say.”

“Just be yourself,” Aviva told him. “If I record anything you’re uncomfortable with sharing, I can always edit it out. I promise not to post anything you don’t want me to.”

Jimin smiled, stroking the lens like it was the face of his lover.

“You’re a good girl, huh?”

“I won’t be if you keep touching the lens!”

He laughed.

Across the room, Jin was making faces at Aviva, passing his hand over his face, and changing his expression dramatically. A sleepy Taehyung was sitting next to him as he got his makeup fixed, clearly not amused.

“Wow, I’m so nervous,” Jungkook said as they headed back towards the stage for the live broadcast.

“You got this!” Aviva told him.

During the performance, Aviva was out in the audience again, catching shots of the fans cheering, especially when the boys flashed their abs, and got into their dance solos.

Afterwards, the boys made more faces at her as they came off stage. The photographer had disappeared somewhere, so Aviva was put in charge of taking the after-performance group photos for the fans. Tae and Jimin were reaching across the group to hold hands, as Hoseok bit down on Jimin’s head for some reason.

“Hobi!” Aviva called out to him. “Do I need to get you a teething toy?” The boys laughed, including Hoseok.

“Ah, we are born in the year of the dog, after all! Come play with us!” He walked over and grabbed her hand, waving at one of the assistants. “Hi, hi, noona, can you get a picture of us with our manager too?” He patted Aviva on her head, ignoring her protests. “We won’t post it anywhere, so just stay still and let us commemorate this moment. You’re part of it too, you know.”

[microsuedemouse]

man it has been a MINUTE since I made my own post about anything fandom-related on this website but @suzirya is blogging about The Old Guard and I haven’t seen anyone else talking about it really and I’ve got. some thoughts

I had literally never heard of this movie at all until a few nights ago when we were eating dinner in the living room and my dad pulled it up and said ‘hey I want to watch this’ and played the trailer for my brother and me. We were pretty much like yeah, sure, we all enjoy a good action flick, and aside from my other brother (who was occupied with D&D) it ended up being the whole family watching it. and I enjoyed it WAY more than I’d anticipated, especially for something I’d never heard about.

if you don’t know what I’m talking about: drop what you’re doing and go watch The Old Guard on Netflix. (it’s a Netflix original so yes it will be there.) it’s a very fun and good action film based on a series of graphic novels about a small group of immortals trying to do what’s right. there are many selling points but one of them is that it will be very good for your little gay soul, bc Charlize Theron stars (in a character with no explicitly-stated romances but lots of relationships that will make you Feel Things) and two of the other main characters are two men who met during the Crusades and are just amazingly in love with each other. And not in a vague way that the straights can interpret as Powerful Friendship. They are explicitly in love with each other and so devoted and ugh.

ANYWAY. putting the rest of my chattering under a cut bc spoilers and also I’m a wordy piece of shit

1 - early in this movie I was thinking about how glad I am that Charlize Theron has stepped into this role of like... cool female action star, but also, her characters are never super sexed up. almost any female characters I can think of in action movies, if they’re part of the action rather than victims/bystanders, are always made sexy. even when they’re Strong sexy, they’re still... a lot sometimes? I was thinking especially of some Angelina Jolie stuff, Scarlett Johanssen, etc. there are probably lots of exceptions to this that I just don’t know but still - we’ve had Theron in several roles like this recently, and appearance-wise she’s treated with the same respect as her male counterparts, which is so fucking cool and also such a fucking relief. we all love beautiful ladies, obviously, but it’s so SO good to see our female heroes just doing their jobs, without us ever being made aware of their sexuality.

and as the movie went on this was hitting me more and more, and I was also thinking it about... everyone? like. the other female lead, played by KiKi Layne, was arguably more feminine than Theron but not any more sexualised. even once she’s out of her army fatigues she’s dressed with practicality in mind, and again, we never have her female-ness pointed out to us. and I was so about every bit of that. both objectively and as a person whose relationship to female-ness and femininity is kind of weird, it’s such a good thing to see leading women whose gender and appearances and bodies aren’t being focussed on that way.

and as a sidebar to that, while I wouldn’t describe any of the prominent male characters as unattractive by any means, none of them were like... Marvel-actor hot. and I just, idk, especially in action/superhero movies, that’s refreshing to me. a lot of them looked like Regular Dudes in a way that I find very appealing.

2 - can we TALK about Joe and Nicky. holy shit. my brother and I kept leaning over to each other to be like ‘if anything happens to either of them I’ll riot.’ I MEAN.

we got a genuine, explicit, on-screen established romance between these men. it was not implied, it was not just how the actors played it in the hopes that people would catch on - it was right there. they hold each other to sleep, they kiss each other with such love, they talk to other characters about how much they adore each other. they met during the Crusades. they’ve been in love for centuries! and they’re so sweet, so devoted, so adoring! and they never have any arguments or tension to further the plot (one of my personal most-hated plot devices in any story with an established relationship). they just spend this movie loving each other, protecting each other and their weird little family, doing anything they can for each other. they’re taken prisoner and spend their time awake joking and making each other smile. and the one singular bit of casual homophobia they encounter on-screen is met with a declaration of love so heartfelt and intense that the guy who made the shitty comment literally doesn’t know what to say - which is a brief but extremely good scene in the movie, imo.

oh, also worth noting: this romance is biracial and interfaith (inasmuch as either of them may be men of faith after being alive for centuries). just to add to how good this is to see on-screen. all of this on top of them being IMMORTAL AND UNKILLABLE. NO GAYS BURIED HERE

2.5 - can I talk for a second about how goddamn much I love seeing non-hetero romance in genre fiction!!! I know it’s getting easier to find, but still. genre fiction is very much my domain and I love seeing queer romance there, especially when it’s simply an accepted fact and the characters’ queerness isn’t central to the story. narratives about queerness are good and important and serve a function but most of them aren’t really my thing, personally. a story that’s about all kinds of other things but also has queer characters there, being themselves, being in love, is so 1000% my shit.

3 - also? Charlize Theron’s character, Andy?? fascinating from a queer perspective. she doesn’t have any explicitly-stated romance with anyone, but her relationships with other characters are so compelling and so interesting. The backstory about her and another immortal, Quynh, very very distinctly gives you the impression that they were women in love. everything about Andy’s guilt and bitterness over not having been able to find/save Quynh feels so much like there was a romance there. it could have been platonic or familial - they were together, without anyone else, for centuries at least, and therefore obviously developed a very deep love - but the way Andy talks about Quynh it feels so much like there was something left unsaid, or unresolved.

also, her scene with the clerk in the pharmacy. oh my god. this woman clearly recognises that whatever is going on with Andy, something is wrong, and she offers her help, no questions asked. she takes her into the back room and patches up her wound. this scene has such an inherent intimacy because of the close quarters and the privacy and the act taking place, but... there’s also this really interesting connection happening between them, where they recognise something in one another but don’t state it. (personally, I couldn’t help wondering if the clerk was a domestic abuse survivor, maybe? but there are so many ways you could interpret her character from her behaviour and dialogue in that scene, and I’d love to see other people’s takes.)

and then on the other hand you have her relationship with Booker, who’s been with her the longest out of any of the living immortals. they’re incredible. their relationship is so, so interesting and well-depicted! they have such chemistry, that you can easily read as romantic or platonic. they’ve been together for so many hundreds of years and they work together, trust each other, with such a deep understanding and love and respect. and it never quite tips over into the romance you kind of think it will, which imo only makes it that much more compelling - there are so many directions you could take that dynamic.

4 - and then on the topic of Booker: I am SO into the way his betrayal was handled.

he did, undeniably, betray the others. there’s no argument on that fact. his motivations were understandable (and heartbreaking), even to Andy, though certainly not an excuse. so yes, they were furious with him. reasonably so! but... that didn’t actually break their relationships with him. they didn’t leave him behind in the lab, even if in some ways they might have wanted to. and in the ensuing battle, they were still able to work together and trust each other as they always have. the damage done to their larger relationship was put aside to be dealt with after all of this, as it should be. and even when they did deal with it, what they agreed on was just a century of exile from their group. given the lives they’re all living, that seems like such a mild sentence.

but to me, it makes so much sense. again, these people have lived for centuries, and there are so few of them. they need each other. the bonds they’ve formed over all this time together - the trust, the love, the sense of family - would not only be vital to both their survival and their sanity, but also incredibly difficult to truly break. what he did would seem unforgivable from an outside perspective, and even after that century passed I’m certain he’d have to earn back their trust and respect, but it makes absolute sense that they’d be willing to take him back one day.

god. GOD. I’m sure there’s more I could talk about but this is what I can think of right now and I’ve been typing for like forty minutes probably so I’m done for now but.

god.

this movie and its characters GOT ME, guys. I’m really in it. ugh UGH

[ms-rampage]

Family Reunion 4

Warnings: Light swearing, Light smut (towards the end) 

Word count: 2k+

Characters: Sam and Dean Winchester, Castiel, Lucifer, Gabriel, Paige and Kate Winchester (OCs).

Summary: Paige and Kate are brought back to the bunker by Castiel and get some serious news from him where they can be protected by two Archangels.

I'm gonna make this into a series!!!. I'LL BE WORKING ON PART 5 SOON. There's an actual plot!!!!!!!.

Note: I've said Sam, Dean, Paige and Kate aren't related but each others counterparts. FUCK IT THEY'RE RELATED. 1ST COUSINS.

******************

Arriving back into the bunker by Castiel, and being greeted by their cousins. Paige and Kate are somewhat relieved from being saved from the Archangels.

The two sisters are in Paige's room talking about their encounters with the two Archangels.

"What did Gabriel do to you?!" Paige asks, sitting down on her bed, leaning against the headboard.

“Uhh, well he took off my pants. Only halfway. He sucked on my neck, kissed it. It felt, it felt kinda. Really nice. We were- we were in a really nice hotel room" Kate says, hesitantly, "So what did Lucifer do to you?!". 

"He pushed me onto a bed, he put his hand between my legs, fingering me, and he fucked my neck" she says.

"Uhh you mean he sucked your neck?!?" Kate asks, furrowing her eyebrows. 

"Yeah, well it felt like he fucked my neck with his mouth" Paige says, trying not to think, or get into detail about it. 

Kate narrows her eyes in confusion, "Umm okay?. Did Lucifer say, or mentioned why he took you?!". 

Paige shakes her head, "Nope, did Gabriel say why he took you!??!". 

Kate shakes her head, "No, but he did mention that I'm "clearly not like the other two Winchesters" meaning Sam and Dean". 

Paige chuckles, smiling "Yeah, we're somewhat different from Sam and Dean. But we still carry the bloodline, and the last name". 

"Yeah we do" Kate says, chuckling softly. 

From down the hallway Dean calls out to them "Paige!, Kate!. We got takeout!".

They leave the room, walk down the hall towards the library, and see Sam and Dean with burgers, and fries. 

"Eat up" Dean says, as he eats his burger. 

They sit down at the table, and eat their food. Their first meal for that day, looking like a couple of starving children, scarfing down their food. 

"So" Dean says, mouthful, and balling up his burger wrapper. 

"What did Gabriel and Lucifer want with you two?!"

"We're not sure" Paige says, shrugging. 

"Cas said he found you guys underneath them?!" Sam says, with an uncomfortable tone. 

Dean looks at him with wide eyes. He turns to his younger cousins. 

"They wanted you two for sex?!?" he asks them. 

"Most likely, but we're not sure why" Kate says.

"I'm just glad Cas showed up when he did. I didn't feel like carrying a Nephilim" Paige says, somewhat relieved.

Wings flutter, and a slight breeze catches their attention. Castiel steps into the room. 

"I got some information" he says, walking over to them.

"About what?!" Sam asks, concerned. Castiel takes a seat next to the two sisters. 

"On why Lucifer and Gabriel took them". 

Paige turns to her cousins, and back to Cas. 

"Why?!" she asks, furrowing her eyebrows at the angel. 

He sighs, "It doesn't make sense. To me at least, but they apparently wanted you two because-" He trails off trying to find the right words, and put them together. 

After a few minutes, Dean speaks up. 

"Because of what Cas?!?" he asks, breaking the dramatic, and painful silence. 

"Because they-they wanted to, I guess "mark" you. If that makes sense" he says, still trying to find the right words. 

"Mark us?!" Kate and Paige ask in unison. 

"Mark them?" Dean asks, narrowing his eyes at him, "Mark them as what?!. Their property, or something?!". 

Cas rubs the side of his head, "I'm guessing as theirs, probably a territorial thing, but it could mean they wanted to protect them". 

They all look back and forth at each other, confused and not understanding what the angel is saying. Protect them? Protect them from what?!. Territory? They're humans not land, or property!. Apparently Archangels see them differently only because humans are inferior to them times 100. 

"Protect them?" Sam asks. 

Cas sighs again, "From what I've heard. I thought it was just a misheard rumor, or something that the demons made up". 

"The demons?!" Paige exclaims, her eyes wide, "What rumor?!?!".

He takes a deep breath, "Apparently, Paige is Abaddon's true vessel, and Kate is Lilith's true vessel" he says with a hint of shame in his voice. 

"What?!!?" Dean exclaims, getting up from his seat. Running his hand through his hair, pacing back and forth. 

"Wait, wait, wait Cas?!" Sam stammers, trying to piece everything together, "You mean like how I'm Lucifer's true vessel, and Dean is Michael's?!?". 

He places his hands over his face, and moves them away, "Yes. I didn't want to believe it. But that's what I heard. Heaven, the angels were talking about it". 

"I thought Lilith was dead?!?!" Kate asks, wanting all this to be a nightmare. 

"And Abaddon!!!" Paige adds. 

"Yes, but apparently, Crowley, Asmodeus, Alistair, Cain or some other powerful demon. I'm not sure who, is planning on bringing them back" Cas says, "And they need vessels that are strong and-and worthy enough to carry them".

Piecing everything together, and connecting everything. Paige and Kate start to feel anxious, worried. No words can describe how they're feeling. They're both the true vessels to two powerful demons. 

"So let me get this straight. Abaddon, a Knight of Hell is supposed to be in Paige's body?!?" Sam asks, pointing to his younger cousin, "And Lilith, the first demon to be created by Lucifer, is supposed to be in Kate's body?!?". 

Before Castiel could answer Sam's question, a way too familiar voice from behind them basically answers the question for him. 

"That's right!", they all turn around, and see Lucifer standing in the doorframe to the hallway. "She wasn't my favorite to be created"

He pushes himself off the doorframe, and approaches the group. 

"And yes Lilith is her other half" he says pointing to Paige. 

They all look at each other in confusion. 

"I thought Abaddon was my "other half"." Paige asks, cocking her eyebrows at the Archangel. He slowly approaches her with his head tilted to the side. Sam and Dean stand on either side of them, and Castiel stands in front of the two sisters.

"Aren't you Kate?" he asks, pointing to Paige again. 

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, "No, she's Kate" she answers pointing to her younger sister, "I'm Paige'' she points to herself. 

"It's not hard to tell them apart, Luci" another familiar voice says behind the 4 Winchesters and Castiel. 

They turn around and see Gabriel standing on the opposite side of the table. 

"You almost get into her pants, and you forget which one she is" he mocks him.

Sam and Dean both have their guards up, angel blades ready in hand and are willing to protect their younger cousins. Probably the last ones of the Winchester family, the last ones of the bloodline

"Kate is the short, cute one, and Paige is the taller, slightly aggressive looking one." Gabriel says walking around the table towards his older brother. 

"They both look alike" Lucifer responds, crossing his arms. Tilting his head to the side while staring at Paige.

"No we don't!!" the two sisters say in unison, making everyone look at them. 

"Anywho. Yes I wanted to mark her, and I still do" Gabriel says winking, and pointing to Kate, "To protect her from Lilith". 

"Why?!" Dean asks annoyed, glaring at the Archangel, "Why do you want to protect her from Lilith?!". 

"They're both dead" Sam informs them, "We killed them!". 

"Well!" Lucifer says, stepping closer to them, "A few demons, or some of Crowley's, or Alister's lap dogs have been busy". 

"But why have sex with us to mark us?!" Paige asks, "Isn't there another way to mark us humans or something?!?". 

They both shrug, "Yeah, but sex is always the fun way of marking humans. Instead of the proper way" Gabriel says. 

"A hand print is the proper way" Lucifer adds."A hand print??!?" Paige asks, eyebrows raised. "Yeah, a hand print" Gabriel says, "So if we could get on with the marking in the fun way. That would be great". 

Sam and Dean stand in front of their cousins, blocking them from the Archangels. Castiel glaring at his older brothers. 

"That's not happening!" Dean snarls, "We promised to keep them safe, and we meant it". 

Lucifer rolls his eyes, stepping closer to them, and says "Okay Dean enough with the whole tough, macho man bit. It's not working". 

"We're not gonna let you take them again" Sam says, narrowing his eyes at them. 

"I think they should decide for themselves" Gabriel speaks up, crossing his arms. He looks over at Kate, "What do you say honey?". 

Both Archangels look over at the two sisters. They turn to each other, and whisper to one another. 

"What should we do?!" Kate asks, her whisper sounding like she's mouthing her words.

Paige shrugs, "I don't know". 

Lucifer whistles at them, mainly at Paige, "Come on cupcake I don't have all day!!". 

Sam and Dean turn to their cousins, "You don't have to go with them" Dean says to them. They both nod in agreement, 

"We don't want them to hurt you" Sam tells them. 

"They don't need protection from Abaddon, and Lilith" Castiel speaks up, "Sam and Dean killed them before, and they can do it again". 

"Umm no they can't, because from what I've heard. They're both gonna be stronger than ever!, and I mean stronger. That's why they need your little cousins as their vessels" Lucifer explains to them, “Because they’re “worthy”, and “strong’ enough to carry them”.

The 4 Winchesters and Cas exchange looks, not knowing what to say, and put everything together. 

"Come on Katie, ya know I can keep you safe" Gabriel says in a flirty tone. 

Kate shakes her head, and says in a nervous tone "No I'm fine". 

Lucifer pats Gabriel on his shoulder, "Whelp sucks for you little bro" he says, "Sooo Paige, Paigey, Paigey Sue. Come on I can keep you safe. From Abaddon". 

Paige shakes her head as well, "Sorry Luci, but I can protect myself from Abaddon". 

Both Archangels scoff. 

"Ya know we can just take you, or I can just take you" Lucifer says in a threatening, but also somewhat “friendly” tone. 

Sending shivers down Paige's spine. The elder Winchesters were able to banish the two Archangels out of the bunker. Accidentally banishing Cas as well (Sorry Cas). Knowing they aren't gonna be very happy about it. Might end up killing Sam and Dean later. 

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

A few hours later, Paige and Kate are in the library. 

Kate's working on a psychology assignment, or that's what Paige thinks she's working on, and the elder sister is doing research for a case. 

Sam, and Dean went to investigate a case, and Cas stayed behind to make sure Lucifer, and/or Gabriel didn't show up, and snatch their cousins again.

"I just find it weird that they chose us to be their vessels" Paige says to her sister. 

"Yeah, yeah that's odd" Kate mutters, not looking up from her laptop screen, concentrating on her "assignment".

"I just don't understand it. Sam killed Lilith all those years ago, and Dean killed Abaddon with the First Blade" she says, tapping her nails on the table.

"Mmhh" Kate hums, still not looking up from her laptop, looking at something that is memorizing.

Paige grabs her laptop and turns it to face her. 

She glares up at her younger sister, "Really? You're researching Lilith?!". 

"I'm nervous!!!" she exclaims, "Okay I do worry whenever someone is after us. Why don't you?!?". 

She grabs her laptop, and faces it towards her. 

Paige sighs, "Because they need our consent to enter our bodies". 

Kate corrects her knowledge, "That's Angels. They need our consent to enter our bodies".

Paige lets out a soft huff, "Whatever, the bottom line is, I'm not gonna let Abaddon harvest my soul, and let her take over my meatsuit. That ain't happening!!".

Half an hour later Sam, and Dean return from their case, just your typical heart ripped out of your chest kind of thing. Nothing big, or unusual for them at least. 

That night they all get ready for bed. The two sisters in their rooms, the two brothers in their rooms. 

Cas went back up to Heaven to get more information on the whole Lilith and Abaddon situation. Both sisters fall fast asleep, Kate wakes up 3 in half hours later around 1:30 am, and goes to the restroom. Half asleep, walking down the somewhat dark, cold corridor.

Sucks her bedroom doesn’t have a bathroom like the others do. Stepping inside, doing her business. Afterwards, a cold breeze makes her whole body shake, goosebumps all over her body. 

Once again, walking down the corridor, she power walks back to her room. Wanting to get back into the warmth of her blankets.

She makes it back, closing her door, locking it. She goes back into bed, and closes her eyes. Drifting off to sleep, she hears shuffling movements, thinking it's all in her head, she ignores it.

Then an extra weight next to her, makes her open her eyes. She gasps softly, looks next to her, waking up to an empty bed. She sits up and looks around the room. Confused, thinking her imagination is messing with her, or perhaps a certain Trickster is messing with her to get her attention.

A voice next to her, makes her fall out of bed.

“You got that right sugar”.

Kate falls out of bed, getting tangled in her sheets, and sees Gabriel laying on her bed. Struggling to get up, and untangle herself from her bedsheets. She manages to get out of it.

“What are you doing here?!?!” she whispers, angrily. 

He smirks at her, and says “Oh you know exactly why I came here”.

She squints her eyes at him, “The marking?!?”

He nods his head, then wiggles his eyebrows “The fun way sugar”.

Kate rubs her face, hoping that this is all a dream. When she opens her eyes she’s back in bed with the Archangel lying next to her.

“So. Let’s get busy” he says, laying on his side, resting on his arm, “But first. I need your consent”.

She looks at him confused, “What? Consent?. You didn’t ask me before”.

He bobs his head side to side, and says “Yeah well, I’m gonna be inside you, and I need your consent. I need your permission”.

He looks at her with a look of sincere, wanting her to trust him. This isn’t for him to get a piece of action from a human. He’s her guardian angel, he wants to protect her especially from Lilith.

“You need my protection. They won’t be enough to save you” he tells her, moving her hair away from her face, looking down at her with those bourbon color orbs. 

“Okay” she whispers, giving him permission to mark her, or to her, have sex with her. 

Marking her from the first demon. He snaps his fingers, making his clothes, and hers as well disappear. Gabriel climbs on top of her hovering over her. Aligning himself with her, and slowly inserts himself inside her.

Making her gasp, and moan softly. Her hands immediately go to his shoulders, looking up at him as he slowly thrusts inside her. He starts to pick up the pace, his grunting gets slightly louder, making her bed squeak. As it starts to get hot and rough. Kate wakes up to an empty bed and fully clothed. She looks around her room, and no one in sight. Empty room. 

"That felt so real" she whispers to herself before falling back asleep. 

[sweetestrequiems]

Enough is Enough

Requested by: An anon as lovely as a sunrise. Thanks for sending a letter! 

Summary: Anne Boleyn and Catalina de Aragón tend to act all tough against each other on stage. But one night, something about Boleyn’s tone during the show had hit Aragón right in the heart. A knife felt as if it was stabbed and twisted into her chest. Boleyn comes to the realization her delivery might have been enough to hurt the Spanish queen.

Character(s): Aralyn (Catalina de Aragón / Anne Boleyn) (Yes, the other Queens are in this.)

TW: mentions of miscarriages, mention of Boleyn/Howard beheadings (“I had not one, not two, but three miscarriages!” / “Nice neck, by the way!”)

A/N: Y’all want angst? I’ll give it to you. But I have never written Aralyn in my life so this might end up more hurt/comfort than angst if anything, really. I really hope y’all don’t crucify me and throw me out to the wolves. I tried my best. 

Nuestra Señora de Providencia, la Virgen María... this IS hurt/comfort.  

Have mercy on me, Aralyn shippers. 

Tag List: @bchcadcd | @mindless-pidgeon

––––––––––

A normal show night for the six wives of the Tudor monarch tended to end in laughter with their ladies in waiting.

But on this peculiar night, that was not the case for one of the six wives.

The show had been progressing on as normal, until the end of All You Wanna Do, which did bring quite a heart wrenching reality into the show. And then came the fight Catherine Parr always had to break up. Normally, the ladies knew their tones and how to keep it lighter than the subject matter, but tonight felt off. And the feeling of being off came from the first and second wives of the Tudor monarch: the Spanish paragon, Catalina de Aragón, and the supposed mystery, Anne Boleyn. Was it just stress, or something else? They did not know. And quite frankly, they would probably never find out.

“Oh, okay. Fine, fine! But then, when Henry decided he had had enough of me, he didn’t even have the decency to say goodbye!”

“Same!” Responded the young Katherine Howard. She looks over to her cousin Anne Boleyn, who looked rather aggravated.

“Oh, yeah, same!” The brunette’s voice was laced with anger. “Nice neck by the way!” 

Something seemed to have hit Catalina in the heart when Anne so aggressively delivered what normally was Katherine’s line. With a gulp, the Spaniard knew she had to keep going. “Okay, alright. Well, now live up to this: when my one and only child had a raging fever, Henry didn't let me– her mother!– see–” The usual cut off from Jane Seymour. “Oh, boo hoo! Baby Mary had the chicken pox and YOU WEREN’T THERE to hold her hand? Ha, y’know, it’s funny... because when I wanted to hold my newborn son... I DIED!”

The slightly comedic cut in from Anna of Cleves. “Guys, I have the plague!” Followed by, “Lol, just kidding! My life’s amazing. But in defense of myself, I was humiliated on an international scale.” Anne Boleyn was just seeming slightly more snide with her deliveries today. And it all seemed to be pointed towards the Spanish queen. “Oh yeah! I can’t imagine what that must've felt like. Who else could possibly relate?!”

“Oh, pipe down Anne!” This was the more difficult part of the whole argument. This is what hurt Catalina the most to say, but tonight, the pain just hit her like a train. The mistresses bit came out just fine, but oh heavens, Anne went to take a full swing with her attitude. There was an angry smile on her face. “Well, I had not one, not two but three miscarriages!” Was Catalina not catching the hint about something? Or was Anne genuinely angry at her? She, quite frankly, could not tell.

So much so, that her confusion upon delivering the response line of her five miscarriages was a little weaker than usual. The other four queens had noticed this shift in Aragón’s tone from confident to slightly meek, and the aggression in Boleyn’s. They all glanced at each other, the concern carrying into the next moment, but nothing was physically said until the show was over. A hand grabbed Anne Boleyn’s shoulder, and tightly squeezed her until she turned around. Catherine Parr, who normally had to act as a mediator for the show, now had to do it outside of the show.

“Anne, what was that?” The sixth wife blinks, the concern coming back to her face. The second wife took one of her in-ears out, raising an eyebrow. “What are y’on about, mate? What d’you mean ‘what was that’? I’m fine.” In typical Boleyn fashion is how the brunette answered. With a soft sigh, Parr furrowed her eyebrows. “Anne, your delivery tonight of your lines? Extremely aggressive. Especially towards Catalina. What got into you?” This only got a shrug. “I was just doin’ my usual thing, Cathy. Relax, would you?”

“The usual for you isn’t unwarranted aggression we all felt, especially Catalina, and I’m quite sure of that! You need to find a way to tone it down, Anne.”  The second wife gave a carefree shrug, humming to herself as she headed on past the sixth wife. With a bit of a miffed sigh, Parr just hoped Boleyn would maybe realize she was being a little too... calm about all of this. But to where as Boleyn was calm, Aragón was not. A rather concerned Seymour and Anna of Cleves were with the woman, trying to calm her down.

“Did I do something wrong? Was it something I said?”

“Nein! Du hast nichts falsch gemacht!” The fourth wife crossed her arms, a little aggravated her Spanish counterpart would blame herself for something so trivial. Most of her was willing to bet that Boleyn was experimenting with her delivery of lines and went too far, but a small part of her really thought there was true animosity between the two. She was aware the couple had been together, but she also knew they had trouble getting along at first because of the historical past. Maybe Boleyn had some suppressed anger from something? No one knew.

Cleves furrows her eyebrows, sitting down next to Seymour, opposite of Aragón. “You two haven’t fought recently, have you?” A shake of the head from the Spaniard. Her eyes looked a little defeated, and even Seymour could see the hurt. The confusion in the Spaniard’s eyes had the Englishwoman’s lip quivering into a pout almost. “Go talk to her, Lina,” the meek voice of the third wife somehow tended to bring comfort to even the most bothered of people. A tensed up first wife made eye contact with the fourth, and then the third, nodding. “I will, I promise.”

Of course, dinner that night at the household was rather... quiet. None of the queens were really talking much, but Aragón herself wasn’t at the dinner table. The first wife was eating dinner in her room, with a Netflix show playing as background noise. She wasn’t minding it much attention, because her mind was elsewhere. She kept trying to remember what she had done wrong, or even what her and Boleyn had recently argued about. Nothing could come to her mind. She was humble, loyal, and really tried to swallow her pride all along. A knock came to the bedroom door.

Probably Seymour, so Aragón allowed for whoever it was to come in.

She was not expecting for it to be her partner.

“Lina...” The second wife seemed to have guilt written all over her face. “I came to check on you... since you were talking to Anna and Jane earlier, I didn't want to interrupt.” A nervous smile. Boleyn must’ve began feeling the weight of her guilt in the realization Parr had hit her with much earlier that evening. “Lina, I’m sorry–”

“Did I do something wrong, Anne?”

There it was. The hurt and confusion reflecting in Aragón’s eyes, and it made Boleyn feel but the worst, too. Maybe, just maybe... she should have warned her partner she was going to try and change the delivery of her lines. Almost immediately, the second Tudor wife paced over to the first and pulled her into a tight hug. “No, Lina. No... no. You didn’t do anything wrong, I just impulsively do a lot of stupid stuff without telling other people.”

Silence. The embrace was warm. It was helping Catalina calm down.

“I changed my tone tonight because I wanted to try something. Seeing if maybe getting just a little more heated would add anything. I did it to Jane, and to Kat even. I didn’t realize though, it would actually feel like a stab in the heart to you. They weren’t very happy about it either, if it brings any comfort. But really, Lina, I’m so sorry...” The brunette gave her partner a kiss on the cheek. “I should’ve probably sat down and spoken about it. I would never actually intend to–”

“I know, Annie, I know. I’m just glad you managed to come and apologies about it.”

[miraculouscontent]

Pokemon anon again! I'd like to hear anything you have strong opinions on (either your personal ships, ones you dislike, etc). I just really like reading your thoughts, so whatever you feel like sharing is fine.

Welcome back, Pokénon!

And sure, I can do that!

Alright, so in terms of ships I dislike (I’m going to go with the English names just so I’m not constantly using both names)...

I guess I should get the obvious ones out of the way, because I’m not really a fan of either “Ash ship” extreme:

Poke//Shipping (Ash X Misty) and Amour//Shipping (Ash X Serena)

I don’t like either of them.

For Poke//Shipping, I have never liked aggressive tsundere characters and Misty is basically a textbook example of that. It’s not that I have a problem with strong/tomboy-ish (though honestly I don’t consider Misty a tomboy anyway) female characters, which I know it sounds like that when I have a distaste for characters like Alix too, but when they’re brash and angry and just so generically “TOMBOY GIRL POWER,” it grates on my nerves.

The idea of having an aggressive character - y’know - be aggressive to their love interest and then cue the sad music when the love interest argues with them or makes any sort of hurtful implication just... no.

Like, I want you to imagine the most sarcastic Clarity possible and then picture me as a little girl watching the scene where Misty is officially leaving the group, because that was literally just me like, “oh noooo, she’s goooone.”

It’s the same reason I don’t do Rocket//Shipping (James X Jessie). One character is too aggressive and the other character doesn’t even come close to balancing it out.

There’s also the fact that nothing comes out of Poke//Shipping. Misty is canonically crushing on Ash (*flashbacks to the friggin’ second movie where they shove it in your face*) but it’s just... there, not to mention that scene where Misty is talking casually to Ash like, “you and I will be married too someday,” which came completely out of left field and - whether for a joke or not - made little kid me very uncomfortable.

Like I said, it’s just there and doesn’t go anywhere, and Ash is already so oblivious that of course he wouldn’t get that Misty is in love with him. It’s basically a long-running gag of Misty pulling a surprised Pikachu face whenever Ash doesn’t understand that she likes him/wants to stay with him/literally wants anything specific from him.

As for Amour//Shipping, I did admittedly like it at first, but just--ugh, oh boy.

First, it’s shipping fanservice, kinda like Pokemon 2000 throwing a bone to the shippers except now it’s the whole two seasons. My followers know how I feel about fanservice just for fanservice and that’s basically all that Amour//Shipping is. That’s why Serena was already made to have met Ash when they were children; so the writers could get a “headstart” on all the blushy fanservice they could squeeze in on Serena’s end.

I fell off the ship sometime around Wulfric, particularly with the scene where Serena comforts Ash. Just that whole, “this isn’t like you,” and then trying to compare her contest losses to Ash’s battles as if Ash hasn’t been at this for seasons upon seasons and battles aren’t a completely different category because they involve actually watching one’s Pokemon get physically hurt (Pokemon battles are a sport, yes, but it doesn’t change anything; Ash also has a special Greninja so of course he’s going to be upset that having all this experience still isn’t enough to just sweep). Like, to relate to someone, yes, it helps to have something you can use as a mental comparison, but that comparison is (usually) supposed to stay mental.

Anyway, after Ash shouts at her because she doesn’t know how he feels at all (because she doesn’t) and he just wanted to be left alone (because he did), Serena throws snowballs at his face and that apparently helps make Ash feel better because Serena can do no wrong here and that just so happened to be exactly what he needed.

(I mean, that whole gym battle and what follows is already pretty trash but that solidified it for me. Basically everything XY&Z added were things I just didn’t care about.)

Oh, and Serena is also implied to steal a kiss from Ash at the very end of the season and you guys know how I feel about that. It’s mostly the fact that she’s so non-apologetic about it, just smiling and blushy and all happy whereas here’s me like, “Wait, I’m pretty sure we just missed a crucial step here??? Since when were you sure that Ash had a thing for you???”

So yeah, I’m not a fan of either ship. I have vague opinions about basically all other ships (The ship between Ash and Iris aka ”You’re such a kid” girl can rot), but Poke//Shipping and Amour//Shipping are the ones I have the strongest negative feelings for.

Brock being shipped with basically anyone is a no no for me. The guy flirts with anything that moves and I have never found it funny or charming. The closest thing young me ever came to a ship with him was Luck//Shipping (Brock X Pike Queen Lucy) but that’s basically it, and it honestly could’ve just been me thinking the idea that Ash and Brock both getting together with Battle Frontier people (I was for Ability//Shipping - Ash X Sailor Maiden Anabel - at the time) was a neat idea and both episodes that featured the respective ships had BLUSH FUEL.

I recall being into Advance//Shipping (Ash X May) when I was young (I was a multishipper back then, you see) but I avoided thinking about it too much because I wasn’t a huge fan of Max (aka “Iris before Iris existed”) and Norman’s game counterpart infuriates me even to this day so I just didn’t want to imagine Ash having to deal with those sorts of things. Plus, looking back on it, he and May were little too similar (then again, maybe that’s why I liked it?).

I expected to enjoy Aurelia//Shipping (Ash X Lillie) when I was getting into the Sun&Moon seasons but it didn’t really do anything for me. I guess maybe I was so burnt out after Amour//Shipping that I wasn’t in a shippy mood anymore? Though, it could also be that their relationship isn’t as “balanced” as I would’ve liked.

Anyway though, as for the ships I actually really like instead of just being indifferent towards or outright disliking, the big one really is just Pearl//Shipping. I suppose it makes sense given that I’m not a multishipper, don’t like Brock enough to ship him with anyone, and most other travel companions are ones I either hadn’t gotten attached to or that I’d paired with Ash long enough that, once I got older, I couldn’t really picture them with other people because my memory of their moments wasn’t strong enough.

Yeah though, PEARL//SHIPPING, I ADORE IT. Like, I’ll try to explain it as best as I can without rambling, but basically:

Dawn doesn’t make excuses when she wants to go with Ash. No “my bike," no meandering, just really casual.

THEY SING THE JAPANESE OPENING TOGETHER AND IT’S RAD. “High Touch” is like, my favorite opening theme???? And they do a duet for it??? I just???? Yes???????

It’s the little things. High-fives are like, their thing. They traded Pokemon with each other which is like, really rare for the series and it made total sense. They both have a Pokemon they keep out of their Pokeball who doesn’t want to evolve (Piplup was the Eevee partner from Let’s Go before it was cool) and no, Misty’s Togepi doesn’t count because it was Gold and Silver’s posterchild. Ash and Dawn also both gave up a speedy physical Pokemon (Primeape and Ambipom respectively) so they could participate in some sort of Pokemon sport that doesn’t exist in the games while I scream in the background because I really like said Pokemon.

DAWN IS ASH’S CHEERLEADER. SHE LITERALLY CHEERS FOR HIM DURING GYM MATCHES. THAT’S PRECIOUS.

They help and get ideas off of each other, which I think is really cool. Them trading Pokemon just furthers that sort of dynamic.

Them just supporting each other in general. There’s a moment where Dawn takes a pretty harsh loss and Ash can be seen sulking like he really gets how she’s feeling.

It also helps that Diamond and Pearl were one of the better seasons of the anime. Paul is a solid rival, I really like the creative battle techniques like spinning and countershield, and just Chimchar in general honestly. I remember the baking episode “Cooking Up a Sweet Story!” vividly and all the feels it gave me.

Yeah though. It’s not any sort of OTP pairing or anything, but out of all of the anime Pokemon ships, Pearl//Shipping is probably my favorite. I’d probably ship them a lot more if they were a little older (like, on par with the protagonists of the Black & White games, who are closer to 14/15; it’s just easier to get a gauge on personality that way).

[alj4890]

Kiss Prompts

(Maxwell Beaumont x Nadia Park) with the prompt: A gentle kiss that quickly descends into passion, with little regard for what’s going on around them as requested by Anonymous. (Thomas Hunt x oc*Amanda) with the prompt: Staring at each other’s lips for a moment before moving closer, as if drawn together by some unseen force also requested by Anonymous. And the prompt: "I shouldn't be here." As requested by @krsnlove​

(Maxwell x Nadia) (Thomas x Amanda) in a The Royal Heir/Red Carpet Diaries/Perfect Match crossover Fan Fiction

@lxaah11   @alleksa16   @penguininapinktuxedo   @blackcoffee85   @stopforamoment     @hopelessromantic1352     @krsnlove​     @annekebbphotography        @hopelessromantic1352   . @sunflowergirl05   @desireepow-1986  @greywitchyshots   @lilyofchoices @moodyvalentinestories  @emceesynonymroll   @my-heart-beats-for-ya @aworldoffandoms   @ab1901     @lolablackwrites     @flyawayboo   @i-bloody-love-drake-walker​   @trappedinfandoms​   @kate-mckenzie​

Masterlist

A/N Another day has come. Plans are made. Some are beautifully executed. Then there’s always that one, teeny tiny little unforeseen occurrence that makes it all fall down.

Part 1 

A Not So Perfect Match (Part 2)

The Beverly Wiltshire, Amanda’s suite, very early morning…

“So?” Maxwell poured himself a cup of coffee. “How did each little conversation go yesterday with Ryan?”

“What?” Amanda yawned behind her hand. “Fine, I suppose.”

“Fine, huh?” He waggled his eyebrows. “I’m assuming there was a lot of flirting.”

“You would be wrong.” She muttered, reaching for the cup of tea he prepared for her.

“What do you mean?” Maxwell sat down across from her. “He didn’t flirt once while talking to you?”

“Not at all.”

His brow creased in thought. “Maybe he is a method actor and has to stay in character throughout the shoot.”

“Or maybe he isn’t attracted to me.” Amanda countered, yawning once more.

“That’s impossible.” Maxwell declared. “You’re the whole package! Sweet, intelligent, pretty, supportive, sense of humor. Who wouldn’t love you?”

A tender smile peeked out at him from behind her teacup. “That’s sweet, but I think we can add Ryan to the list of men who don’t see me as the whole package.”

“I’ll talk to him.” Maxwell decided. “Make him see how great you are.”

“Maxwell, look at me.” Amanda leaned over the table. “I don’t want a man who has to have everything positive pointed out to him by someone else. If he was the one, wouldn’t he able to see all that for himself after hours spent around me?”

“Yeah, but, he isn’t in date mode. He’s in acting like me mode.” He countered. “A little nudge is what is needed to open his eyes to you.”

“It isn’t any big deal.” Amanda promised. “In fact, I don’t really feel anything for him either. He’s still handsome and charming, but I can actually talk to him like he is just some average guy.” She shrugged. “No love lost on either end.”

Maxwell stood steadfast in his belief. “But you belong with someone charming, great sense of humor, and handsome.”

She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “Why do I need that when I already have a best friend with all those attributes?” Her lips curved into a smirk. “A girl can only take so many charming men in her life.”

“You need the Royal Romance Treatment.” He responded, squeezing her hand affectionately. “If I could do it for Riley, then I’m doing it for you.” He reached for the plate of eggs. “And Ryan Summers is Hollywood Royalty.”

 ******************

Thomas Hunt's new home, still early morning...

"Hellllloooo!" Rachel called out. "Thomas?"

She shut the front door and walked throughout the downstairs, pausing to admire each room she passed.

"Thom--"she stopped at the sight of the stranger in the kitchen.

He turned around and flashed a friendly smile. "Can I help you?"

Rachel blinked at how cute she thought he was. "I was looking for my brother."

"You must be Rachel." He walked forward and held his hand out. "I'm Steve Petellier, the architect Thomas hired."

"You designed this?" She said, not bothering to hide the awe in her voice.

"Guilty." He leaned closer as if to impart a grave secret. "Though most of this is all because of your brother's ideas."

"Yes, but you made his ideas a reality." She responded. "It's beautiful."

"Thank you." Steve smiled even more at her. "Your brother should be out in a minute. He had to take a phone call."

He returned to the blueprints he had spread out on the kitchen table.

Rachel set her box of pastries down on the counter and tried to catch peek at what he was working on over his shoulder.

He glanced up and grinned at her interest. "These are a few ideas for his guest house."

She blushed at being caught sneaking a look. "Oh."

He stood up and pulled a chair out for her, apologizing for not doing so earlier. "Would you mind giving me your opinion?"

"Mine?" She stuttered. "I'm not sure I could give one worth having."

"You did just say how beautiful this is," he reminded her. "Though I would love to hear more compliments, I would like some constructive criticism on these."

She nervously tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Of course."

He smiled again, causing her heart to beat a little faster.

What is wrong with me? I never have such instant attraction to--

"Ms. Hunt?" Steve tilted his head to the side when he heard her shortness of breath. "You okay?"

"Yes. Fine." She closed her eyes briefly at her inability to talk like the intelligent woman she prided herself on being.

"It is, Ms. Hunt, right?"

"Huh?" She shook her head. "No. I mean yes. I'm single. I mean...please feel free to call me Rachel."

She longed to bury her head in her hands.

Steve didn't bother to hide his amused smile.

"Good to know." He placed a rendering of the outside of his first drawing in front of her. "Rachel, what does this one make you think of?"

She missed his question completely. Something about the way he said her name just...sigh...she never liked it as well as hearing his voice utter the two syllables.

I've become a romantic idiot.

"Pastries!" She abruptly jumped up.

"The house reminds you of pastries?" Steve asked.

"Yes. NO!" She stilled, trying to get a grip. "I brought pastries. Would you care for one?"

"Thank you." He reached into the box she shoved in his face. "I'll admit these are my weakness."

Her lips curved when he bit into the powdered doughnut. Sugar covered his bottom lip.

Her cheeks burned with the thoughts she was having about his mouth.

"Rachel?"

She let out a startled yelp and spun around. "Thomas! There you are. I came by with breakfast and to see your new home."

He grimaced. "I appreciate it, but I have to get to the studio." He glanced at Steve. "I should be back in a few hours."

"No problem." He stood up and gathered his plans. "It will give me a chance to draw up some other options."

Rachel felt her shoulders slump at not being able to spend any more time with the architect.

Perhaps it was for the best. He had made her forget her true mission for coming by: encouraging her brother to date Nadia.

Holly popped her head around the corner. "Leaving boss?"

"Yes." He checked his bag for the script. "If you wouldn't mind, would you finish unpacking the books in the study?"

"On it." She then greeted Rachel.

Rachel managed to barely say a goodbye as both Thomas and Steve walked out the door.

Steve backtracked. "Hey Holly! What time are we supposed to meet at The Blvd?"

"Six!" Holly yelled back. "Addison says she can't do another late night."

He chuckled and noticed Rachel still standing there. "It was nice to meet you, Rachel."

"You too." She replied, smiling until he shut the door.

Before she could think too much about why she needed to know, she hurried in the direction Holly had vanished to.

"Holly?"

"Yes?" She mumbled, twisting her hair into a bun.

"How do you know Steve?" Rachel blurted out.

"He lived in the boat next to mine." Holly replied.

"Oh.” Holly’s words finally hit her. “A boat?!”

"Yes. I always wanted to literally live on the water." Holly admitted. "So, I saved up to rent a houseboat one year." She smiled over her shoulder at Rachel. "Steve had rented the one next door."

"Oh." She sank down into a chair. "How long have you known him?"

Holly paused in her sorting of books. "Must be about six years now."

"He seems nice."

"He's one of the best." Holly turned around, wondering why this sudden interest.

Rachel noticed her looking curiously at her. "I guess I better go."

"Don't rush on my account."

"I--Steve is so--I have to go." Rachel nearly tripped over her feet to escape.

***************

The Royal Romance Set...

Amanda wandered about behind the scenes while her friends were meeting with their acting counterparts. She had walked by the same sets over and over to the point that she was a little bored.

"Excuse me."

She turned around and smiled at the costume designer. "Yes?"

Addison held her hand out. "I'm Addison. I'm the one who keeps everyone clothed appropriately. "

"Amanda." She laughed and shook her hand. "I have to say that if you ever get tired of making the costumes for movies, that you would be in high demand in Cordonia." She pointed toward one of the ballgowns an extra was wearing. "These are gorgeous."

"Thank you." Addison beamed at her, already planning the wedding gown she would make for Amanda when she married Thomas. "It's my break right now and I know how long those meetings can go..." She crossed her fingers behind her back. "Would you like to see more of the studio?"

"Can we?” Amanda exclaimed. "I am dying to see more."

"I have access to another soundstage." Addison tried to play it casual. "It has begun to be set for Thomas Hunt's next film--"

"Brighter Than the Stars?!" Amanda apologized for interrupting. "I'm a big fan of his and read that the sci-fi romance was his next project."

Addison laughed, now planning stylish maternity wear she would create for her. "That's the one."

Amanda softly squealed. "Addison, you are now my favorite person in Hollywood." She leaned closer to whisper. "I would say world, but I don't want to hurt Maxwell's feelings."

Delighted with her excited response, Addison continued to talk to her about her life in Cordonia while answering questions about Thomas as they left The Royal Romance set.

****************

Soundstage 26…

"Wow." Amanda stared at what had to be a long hallway in a spaceship. A large window showed what appeared to be the vastness of space. A lone planet with three moons and twinkling stars was seen in the distance.

Addison nudged her. "Want to go up there?"

"Can I?" Amanda asked, hesitating. "I won't touch anything."

"Of course!" She gently urged her forward. "You're helping me out by doing so."

"I am?" Amanda stepped up on the metal platform.

"I have a couple of costumes in mind for the main character. I could use someone standing there, looking wistfully out the window, like Xo--"

"Xora?" Amanda interrupted.

"You do know a lot about this movie." Addison teased.

The duchess blushed, lowering her eyes. "Sorry. I get carried away with movies." She cleared her throat. "I read up on it when it was first announced."

"I think--" Addison paused when she heard the door open.

Amanda froze when the one she had most hoped to meet walked up to her. Without looking directly at her, he handed her the script.

"Start at page 43, after Caiden explains his findings."

"I--" Amanda swallowed. The script shook in her hand when he finally lifted his eyes up to her face.

Addison unashamedly filmed the entire encounter for Holly and Steve. And, she thought,  also the future babies that will be brought into the world by the two I match together.

Her face hurt from smiling at Thomas being struck momentarily speechless.

Amanda tried to hand him back the script. "Mr. Hunt, I'm--I shouldn’t be here."

"Thomas." He finally uttered.

She smiled shyly at him. "Thomas, I'm afraid you are mistaken. I'm not an actress."

He blinked before turning toward Addison. "This is her first role?"

"You could say that." Addison winked at Amanda.

He turned back toward the now confused woman. He leaned in closer, causing her hazel eyes to widen. The gold flecks shimmered in the dark, gray-green depths, before her long lashes hid them for a moment.

Amanda looked directly in his brown nearly black eyes, nearly swaying toward him. She allowed herself to take in the rest of his handsome face before ending this charade.

"Your eyes," he muttered, “they’re perfect." He straightened from her. "Er, for the film."

She pressed the script in his hand. "Thank you, but I'm only here taking a tour."

"A tour?" He repeated.

"She's one of Maxwell Beaumont's friends." Addison explained. "Amanda is a fan of your movies and I wanted to show her your next project."

"Oh." His eyes narrowed when another thought struck. "Didn't you call me with a possible actress?"

"I did but she had to leave." Addison felt a twinge of guilt for the lie but she knew she had to keep him from taking his frustration out on Amanda. "Family emergency." She decided to admit to the deception after their wedding. Probably during the toast.

"I see." He stepped off the platform and gathered his things.

"Thomas!" Addison hissed.

He looked up. She gestured impatiently toward Amanda. "She is a fan of yours."

He rolled his eyes at this unwanted aspect of stardom. "Forgive me." He looked over at Amanda. "Is there anything you want me to autograph or..." He blinked when she smiled warmly at him.

"I won't bother you with something like that." She assured him, stepping down off the set. "I'm just happy to have met you." She held her hand out to him. "And perhaps a little thrilled you thought my eyes were perfect."

A smile tugged at his lips while he took her hand. "I hope you know that it will be impossible to find an actress with eyes that emote like yours."

"I am sorry for the mistake." She tilted her head up at him. "But you made my day with that compliment." She reluctantly eased her hand from his grasp while thanking Addison for bringing her here. "Good luck with the film, Thomas. I can’t wait to see it."

"Thank you." He watched her leave.

Addison cleared her throat a couple of times when he still had his eyes on the closed door that the duchess had walked out of.

"Professor?"

He snapped out of his daze. "Er, right. You should get back to Phelps before you're missed." He dropped his bag and quickly snatched it up. "This evening, I'll try and look over those designs you sent over."

"Don't worry about it." Addison replied, ready to drop another temptation his way. "Holly and I are meeting Steve at the Beverly Wiltshire. Those two are curious about the Cordonians."

He paused. "They're staying at the Beverly Wiltshire?"

"Hmm?" Addison pretended to be distracted by her phone. "Oh. Yeah. The whole group is there. I overheard Maxwell saying that they would be dining at the hotel's Blvd restaurant around six."

The director remained silent in thought before muttering a farewell and walking out the door.

*****************

6:05p.m. The Beverly Wiltshire...

"...I thought I saw him get into an elevator earlier, but it was some other man." Nadia concluded. "He was not impressed with my nearly running him down in the hope that he was Maxwell Beaumont."

She noticed how quiet Rachel was.

"Did you hear anything I said?"

Rachel jerked her eyes away from the restaurant. "Sorry. I was keeping an eye out for Ste--the royal couple."

"Do you think they will come down here?" Nadia rose halfway out of her barstool to look about.

"Possibly." Rachel muttered, wondering what time Holly and Addison would show up with Steve.

How could she casually bump into him if she didn’t know when he would arrive?

The two were soon seated at a table near the back.

"I think we will have a hard time seeing if they come in." Nadia mumbled.

"You're right." Rachel slumped in her seat.

*************

6:15 p.m. The Blvd's Lounge...

"An old fashioned please." Amanda slid onto a barstool and checked her messages.

Everyone was running late. Maxwell sent one more group text.

I called downstairs. They'll have us another table by 7:30.

Amanda sighed softly at an hour of waiting on them. She was tempted to go back upstairs and order room service.

"What can I get for you?" The bartender asked the person who sat down beside her.

"Scotch on the rocks."

Recognizing the voice, she looked up and smiled. "Hello again."

Ryan smiled back. "If it isn't my favorite duchess."

She laughed and lowered her eyes. "I bet you say that to all the nobles."

"You caught me." He admitted, making her laugh once more. "Seems like we are the only two on time tonight."

She grimaced slightly. "Did you get Maxwell's latest text?"

"I did along with a number of crying emojis." He held up his phone for her to see. "Should I be worried?"

"Only when there are no words along with them." She teased.

"Phew. I was about to change my charming cool guy portrayal to charming crazy guy for the movie." He joked.

"Good to know you still would have kept Maxwell's signature charm."

"I meant my charm." His smile grew when she started laughing again. "I suppose I have to adjust it to his now."

***************

6:22p.m.

"What is Ryan doing with Thomas's future wife?!" Addison hissed.

"I'm going to go with flirting." Steve whispered.

"I think it's more his I just can't help myself charm." Holly added. "Not serious flirting."

"It's going to make Thomas stay away from her if he sees them like this." Addison pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath through her mouth. "If only I could have thought of a way to lock them up on the set."

"Who? Ryan?" Holly asked.

"No! Thomas and Amanda." She huffed, flopping back in their booth. "I showed you the footage. You can't tell me there weren't sparks."

"There was definitely something there." Steve readily agreed. "After working with the man for months, I've never seen him like that around a woman. And my firm has a number of ladies that cause men to do a double take."

"He ignored them?" Holly asked.

"Only unless speaking directly to them about the house." Steve chuckled. "I at first thought that he was playing hard to get, now after watching that video, I see he just needed to meet the right person."

"Thank you!" Addison threw her hands up. "That's what I have been saying for years now."

"So, what's the plan?" Holly asked. "We go interrupt what could or could not be an honest flirtation on the very unlikely chance that Thomas does decides to show up to pursue--" her eyes widened at seeing Thomas walk into the lounge.

"Hurry!" Addison sprang out of her booth.

"What about the food?" Steve gasped when Holly grabbed his tie and yanked him out.

"This is no time to be thinking of your stomach." She grumbled.

"I’m only thinking of breathing now." He choked out.

****************

Thomas paused at the sight of Amanda and Ryan talking at the bar.

He didn't know if he should approach or--

"There you are!" Addison called out to Ryan.

Everyone at the bar turned toward her.

"Maxwell invited you to dinner too?" Ryan asked.

Thomas relaxed some at that. It was not a chance meeting or a date. They were all waiting on the other Cordonians.

As the Hollywood group talked, Amanda looked about the bar, backtracking when she saw Thomas.

The same smile he had been the recipient of earlier that day now flashed once more.

He returned it and made his way over.

Ryan called out a greeting and introduced him to Amanda.

"We've met." Thomas explained, taking the barstool on the other side of her.

She turned away from Ryan and the others, focusing on him. Addison squeezed Holly's hand at the telling action.

Thomas felt a quick burst of satisfaction when she did. He had seen first-hand that many women rarely turned away when Ryan was near and was his usual charming self.

"What brings you out tonight?" Amanda asked, after warmly greeting him.

"I had a desire to go out to dinner." He explained. His eyes briefly dropped down to her mouth. "And it looks like I came to the right place."

"Would you like to join us for dinner?" She asked. "I wish you would." A slight flush on her face and neck was visible in the dim light. "I promise I won't pester you with too many questions." Her teasing smile reappeared. "A hundred isn't too many, right?"

Thomas didn’t bother to subdue his answering smile at her invitation.

His eyes raised back to hers. "I would love to."

***************

7:50 p.m.

"Something must have happened." Nadia blew a frustrated breath. "We should have seen them by now."

Rachel handed the waiter a signed receipt. "I think you're right." She looped her arm through Nadia's as they walked through the restaurant. "We need ice cream."

"I think I'll just crawl into bed and dream about what could have been." Nadia mumbled.

"At least you'll meet the love of your life tomorrow night." Rachel added, thinking happily about one of her plans succeeding.

"The love of my--" Nadia stilled. "I completely forgot about the blind date."

"Understandable." Rachel squeezed her in a side hug. "If I had met Maxwell Beaumont and knew he and the others were here, I would only be thinking of ways to casually bump into them too." Just like I was hoping with Steve.

The two missed the large party that had been set at a table to the far left. They would have recognized a face or two.

"If you're going up to your room, I'm going to head home." Rachel reminded her of the shopping they would do in the morning before her date.

They parted in the lobby and Nadia went over to the elevators.

She stood there a few moments, watching the numbers count down. When the doors opened, she was nearly knocked over by a blur in black.

Arms wrapped around her to keep her upright. Her eyes lifted to the shocked face that quickly became thrilled at seeing her again.

"I think fate either wants you injured or us to plan on meeting so that I don't hurt you in the process." Maxwell teased.

Nadia smiled, unable to think of anything other than Maxwell Beaumont was most definitely flirting with her.

"Where are you going?" He asked, letting his arms remain around her waist.

"To my room." She motioned with her head toward the restaurant. "I just met a friend for dinner."

"Have you had dessert?" He asked.

She shook her head.

"Good. Then you will have it with me and my nearest and dearest." He took her hand and held on to it as they walked.

"I saw some of your paintings." He added as they entered the restaurant. "You're really talented."

"Really? You think so?" She asked.

"I do." He rubbed the back of his neck while grinning. "It took forever to find you online since I only know your first name and that you are from New York. There are a lot of artists named Nadia in that city."

She laughed and shook her head. "That might be the sweetest compliment anyone has given me." She tilted her head to the side, watching him flush at her smile. "I don't think I've ever had anyone go to so much trouble to see my work."

His bashful grin deepened. "Seemed only fair that I have a chance to fangirl over your talent too."

"Fangirl huh?" She placed her free hand on her hip, playfully scowling at him. "I believe I was a little more dignified when you splashed me." Her lips trembled with mirth. "I only squealed after you left."

He burst into laughter, causing many patrons to stop and look at the two. Seeing the many curious stares, he threw his arm around Nadia and guided her on to their table.

He paused during the introductions at the four uninvited guests.

Addison silently pleaded he wouldn't out them for pretending to be invited.

He smiled at her. "Okay, I know that's our awesome costume designer, Addison, and I'm assuming those are her friends--"

"Holly and Steve." Addison added.

His brow furrowed at who was sitting beside his best friend. It was not the actor he was working towards matching her with.

"Thomas." The director said when Nadia said hello.

Her eyes widened in recognition. "You're Rachel's brother."

His lips parted in surprise. "Nadia Park?"

She nodded, suddenly wishing the floor would open and swallow her whole.

He shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you. Rachel always speaks of you fondly."

Steve grimaced when both Holly and Addison elbowed him on either side of his ribs.

"You're the Nadia Rachel brought home for Thomas!" Ryan exclaimed, when her name struck him. He then noticed the death glares from his Hollywood friends. "Er, I mean, her former roommate from NYU."

Maxwell's arm slipped off her waist. He turned his head back and forth between Nadia and Thomas, hoping one would say it wasn't true.

Amanda did the same, feeling her heart sink. Knowing the polite thing to do would be to offer her seat to Nadia, she rose from the table.

"Please, sit here." She smiled apologetically at everyone. "If you'll forgive me, I will say goodnight." Her hand trembled as she rubbed her forehead. "Sudden headache."

"Amanda, wait--" Thomas rose as she quickly skirted around him.

"It was nice to see you again." She said softly, leaving his side before he could respond.

Ryan spoke up. "Let me know if we need to reschedule our dinner tomorrow night."

Thomas's head jerked around toward him.

Amanda ignored everyone staring at her in shock. "Thank you, Ryan, but I should be fine by then. I'll meet you there." With another strained smile, she turned on her heel and hurried off.

"Excuse me a moment." Thomas muttered. He tossed his napkin down and stalked after her.

Maxwell held Amanda's empty chair out for dejected Nadia before sitting down across from her.

An uncomfortable silence settled over the table. Eyes darted first at the director chasing down the duchess then back to the artist sending pleading looks to the man she had entered in with.

Unable to take another second of the strained atmosphere, Maxwell leaned forward and plucked up a discarded menu. He forced a smile at everyone else while avoiding direct eye contact with Nadia. "Any recommendations?"

*****************

"Come on." Amanda muttered as she waited on the elevator to come down.

She knew she shouldn't feel this way over a man she had known for only a handful of hours, but she wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed and not necessarily cry but at the very least be blue.

She was certain Thomas had been in the process of inviting her to see his new home when Maxwell arrived with Nadia.

And poor Maxwell! He had talked nearly nonstop about the lady he had nearly drowned. Now to see she was setup with another must have been a cruel blow.

If Nadia is as wonderful as Maxwell seems to think, then Thomas will fall in love with her too.

And I will go back to Cordonia and lead the life I was before I came here.

Alone. Utterly. Hopelessly. Alone.

"Amanda?"

Why?

She directed her silent question to the heavens before answering the man behind her. "Yes?"

Thomas cleared his throat. "My sister insisted I take her friend out to dinner."

"That's actually very sweet." Amanda mumbled. "She knows you both and probably realizes you'll be happy together."

"I don't think it will work out like she expects." He closely observed her reflection in the elevator doors to gauge her reaction to his words.

He wished she would turn around and talk to him.

Amanda bit her lip while doing the only other decent thing she could in such a situation. "You'll never know until you try." The doors opened and she nearly sagged with relief. Turning her head toward him, she nodded in parting. "Goodnight."

She walked inside and offered him a half-hearted smile. "I am happy I had a chance to see you again." She pressed the button for her floor and kept her eyes downcast.

He slipped inside right as the doors were shutting.

Her eyes widened. "What are you doing?"

He trapped her escape by placing his hands on the wall, one on either side of her shoulders.

"This dinner with Ryan," He began.

"Tomorrow night." She reminded him, needing to prove to the universe that she wasn't going to sit in her room and pine away for Thomas Hunt.

His eyes narrowed briefly at that not so subtle jab. "Is it a date?"

It sat on the tip of her tongue to say it was. Her pride practically screamed that she say yes, the actor took one look at me and fell head over heels in love. Ryan’s got it so bad for me. But...she knew deep down that Ryan honestly thought of it as a kind gesture and a way to learn more about the man he was portraying

"Maxwell set it up with the intention to be a date, but Ryan is under the misconception that it is for his part in The Royal Romance." She responded, disgusted with her inability to lie to this man in front of her.

Thomas leaned in closer. His eyes remained on hers. "And how do you want it to go?"

"I..." She swallowed and tried to think. "I intended to keep it platonic."

"Intended?" He wondered at her choice to use the past tense.

"Intend to." She corrected. "I intend to keep it platonic."

She folded her arms, eyes narrowing at his question. "I don't understand why you need clarification about what my dinners out with others are labeled as."

He lowered his eyes to her mouth once more. "If I were to invite you to dinner..."

The doors opened on her floor. She waited an extra three seconds for him to continue.

"If you were to invite me to dinner?" She prodded.

His eyes lifted to hers. "Would you want it to be a date?"

Thomas eased away from her, hoping she would answer him.

She bit down on her bottom lip and stepped out of the elevator.

Amanda paused and looked back at him. "Yes, I would."

His eyes widened at hearing her admittance just as the elevator doors shut.

****************

A few hours later...

"Maxwell! Wait!" Nadia nearly slid down in her heels as she chased him outside.

His shoulders stiffened. Unable to ignore her yelp at nearly falling into the pool, he stopped and waited on her to catch up.

She still jogged over; afraid he would end up taking off. "That blind date with Rachel's brother--"

"Thomas Hunt." He muttered.

He decided then and there to dislike the man. The guy didn't know how lucky he was.

"Yes, him." She gripped his arm while balancing to adjust the strap on her shoe. "The date was--"

"Former underwear model." Maxwell continued, counting off each job title on his fingers. "Actor. Director. Screenwriter. College pro--"

"It was set up before I met you!" Nadia burst out.

Maxwell shoved his hands in his pockets and scuffed his shoe against the concrete. "Yeah, well, it must be a pretty important dinner for you to fly across the country for it."

She placed her hands on her hips. "I came here because of you."

He snorted. "Sure, you did." His ocean blue eyes cut to her face. "My coming to Hollywood was never in the news."

"Perhaps not directly, but Thomas Hunt has been invited to a party Tommy Phelps is hosting for you. When Rachel told me that Thomas would take us both to it, so I could meet you, I jumped at the chance to get here." She let out an irritated huff. "The date was only agreed upon because it was Rachel asking me. I'm sure with how you describe your close relationship with Riley, Liam, and the others that you would have done the same if they had asked you."

Nadia almost did not think he would respond to her speech. Why she was explaining herself to this man she had obsessed over, she would never know.

"Now that you've met Thomas..." Maxwell said softly. "Do you still want, I mean, is there any spark for him?"

"Spark?" Her lips eased into a smile. "Like the kind you get when nearly knocked down at an elevator?"

His own dimples deepened. "Or partially drowned?"

She laughed and shook head. "I didn't feel any of that when I met Thomas."

Nadia covered her mouth with her next confession. "I was secretly hoping he wanted your friend."

"Amanda?" Maxwell shook his head. "She's meant for Ryan. They are perfect for each other."

Nadia took a step closer to him. "My point is that I wish it was you I was meeting for a romantic dinner for two."

*********************

An hour later at the Blvd lounge…

"What. A. Disaster. Thomas can't go out with Nadia! She's clearly crushing on Maxwell." Addison dropped her head on the bar. "Ryan and Amanda...how did I miss that blind date?!"

"Yeah." Holly hiccupped. "I keep hoping it is just as a friend."

Addison's brow furrowed at the hint of bitter sadness in her friend's tone.

"It really is a small world." Steve took a long sip of the fruity cocktail Holly had ordered for them. "Who knew that Thomas's Nadia would show up?"

"About that..." Holly squirmed in her seat. "That might be our fault."

"Our fault?" Addison sat up and leaned her head on her hand. "What do you mean?"

Holly focused on Steve. "I think Rachel Hunt might have been here with Nadia earlier."

"Why would you think that?" Addison asked.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Steve asked, leaning away from Holly.

"I think she likes you."

He snorted and shook his head. "Good one, Holly."

"I'm serious!" She narrowed her eyes on him. "I think they both came to not only see Maxwell and gang but also to see you." Holly persisted. "She overheard our time and place, then came to ask me how I knew you."

"Really?" His jaw dropped. "I- I don't know what to say." A goofy grin formed the longer he thought of the striking brunette coming out in the hopes of bumping into him.

"Do you--"

"Shh!" Addison waved her hands for the other two to stop talking.

"Addi- "

"Hush!"

"Okay, why are you--"

"Seriously, stop talking!" She ordered. "I'm about to be brilliant."

Steve and Holly closed their mouths and focused on her scrunched in deep thought face.

"Oh yes. This will work." Addison jumped up. "Come on. We have work to do."

[kayteewritessteve]

Fated - 2/8

Description: You’re a rogue werewolf, a bounty hunter. It’s not the most glamourous life, but it keeps you paid well and highly entertained. But when a long time acquaintance resurfaces with a mission and a lot of money to throw around, you finally relent and take a job from him. And then things get crazy when you stumble upon your Fated Mate along the way.

Catch up HERE.

Word Count: 6,000 ish.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Werewolf!Reader

Rating: PG.

Warnings: Curse words. Sassy comments. Depictions of fight scenes and fighting, the same as canon stuffs.

A/N: I sadly don’t own any of these characters. And no beta reader, so I do proudly own all the errors and this story, so there’s that.

Sorry lovelies! I know you probably all thought this was the L&W update. Which is almost done and should be up in the next day or two. But I just haven’t had much time to write the last few days. And happened to have this part basically done in my drafts, so figured I’d just post it as my blog has been dead the last few days! And I don’t like it! Hahaha anywho, hope you guys like this part!

The large blonde instantly halts his steps, giving you a once over and then his face morphs into one of curiosity, one of intrigue, as he tips his head slightly, just assessing you. Everyone else in the room is deathly quiet, just looking between the two of you. You assume they are all just studying this whole weird interaction as it unfolds.

But not like you are actually paying much attention to anyone but the large man before you.

‘Mark him! We need to Mark him now!’ She excitedly commands but you shush her, needing a moment to just take this all in.

You’d began to assume you didn’t actually have a True Mate, as you’d yet to find them. And most wolves found them young, somewhere between the ages of 16-20. And you’d even travelled around with your Alpha to all the nearby packs often, whenever he needed to seek out alliances or reform territory treaties. And yet nothing. No Fated Mate in sight.

You’d met so many different wolves in your life, and yet not one turned out to be your Mate. But this, this human is. You never would have seen that coming. Yes, he was fucking hot as hell, and much larger than yourself, but WHAT THE HELL WAS THE MOON GODDESS THINKING?!? Pairing you with a fucking human.

‘He’s perfect,’ your wolf sighs out dreamily in your head. Whelp, looks like she’s already on board with this all.

A movement beside him causes your eyes to instantly snap in that direction. And what they land on makes your heart break, instantly. And your instincts to protect your Mate, kick into high gear. And before you can stop it, a deep menacing growl unleashes from deep within your chest.

All eyes snap instantly to you, but yours are locked on the small brunette who now has her hands on your Mate. Her hands clasping his forearm, possessively.

“Babe, who’s the new girl?” She whispers, glancing up at your Mate. And you instantly want to rip her eyes out for just looking at him. And you aren’t even going to acknowledge, or put to words, the bloody thought you just had about what you’d do to her, just for calling him ‘Babe’.

‘I’m going to kill her,’ your wolf growls out and you can feel her trying to take control. And so much for not acknowledging your bloody thought, as it definitely ended with that outcome. You watch as the nails on your fingers begin to elongate, starting to change into claws. You quickly shove your hands in your pockets to hide them.

‘Stop! Stop it!’ You command your wolf but she doesn’t appear to give one shit about that. ‘I’m willing to bet that none of these people even know werewolves exist! and you not only want to shift in front of them, but also rip their friend apart! Are you insane?!’ You yell at her in your head, but she is still trying to push through. And it is taking everything in you to maintain control here, but her need to not only protect, but CLAIM, your True Mate is making that fucking difficult. To say the least. So time to bring out the big guns, time to hit her where it hurts. ‘And on top of all of that, think of Steve, he will NEVER forgive us for that. And you know it. You hurt her, and we can kiss our chances with him, goodbye. And I mean forever!’

She halts instantly at your words, and you feel as the claws retract back and are replaced by your human nails. You release a deep sigh, relieved that she relented. If the Steve line hadn’t worked, that woman would have been dead within seconds. And you’d never stand a chance at winning him over after that. You’d never stand a chance at even having him in your life at all, after that.

He snaps his eyes down to her, a frown on his face, and you get the distinct feeling that he hadn’t even noticed she was in the room, let alone now hanging off his arm. He quickly corrects his expression, and smiles at her, though you can tell it’s forced.

“Y/N!” You hear Fury yell and you cringe. Of course he’d find you right freaking now. Of all times. Damnit!

He enters the room and glances around at everyone just standing there, silent. Then his eyes lock on you, “where the hell did you go?”

“Been here the whole time, Kakashi,” you shrug, hearing Tony snort to himself at your Naruto reference. “I’m honestly surprised it took you so long to find me. You, more than anyone, should know that I’m highly food motivated and would obviously end up in a kitchen.”

He shakes his head but ignores everything you’ve just said. “Let’s go,” he orders, “you need to be briefed on the mission, so you are on the same page as the rest of the team.”

“Can I at least eat first?” You cross your arms.

“No, briefing first, then food,” he sternly says and then promptly exits the room. He sure does like to just order people around and then walk away before they can reply. Which is just still so fucking rude.

‘Now follow me here,’ your wolf starts, getting your attention. ‘What if we eat him, then it can be a briefing AND food. Win, win.’

You snort at that. And notice as Buck leans towards you slightly, whispering, “I’ll bring the steak in when it’s done, Doll.”

You groan happily, and glance at him, “now you’re my new favourite person in the whole of New York. Name anyone you don’t like or want dead, and I’ll happily take them out, just for you,” you wink at him. And receive a chuckle in response as he shakes his head and goes back to cooking.

Your eyes drift to Steve once again. Noticing the small chick on his arm is now blabbering on and on, probably about absolutely nothing. But he isn’t paying much attention to her, his eyes are locked on you, that curious look no longer on his face. But still very much in his eyes, as they glance between you and Bucky. Probably trying to figure out if you two know each other, or have some sort of deeper relationship.

You smile at him as you walk towards him, he quickly moves out of the way, pulling the ridiculous brunette along with him as he does. You nod as a thanks to him and then exit the room, glancing over your shoulder at him as you do, and seeing that his eyes don’t leave you once. Watching you as you go, until you both can’t see each other anymore.

He isn’t a werewolf, so there is no one to inform him that you are his True Mate. But the Mate Bond is an intense thing. Even humans feel the effects of it, instantly, upon setting eyes in their werewolf Mate. Though it isn’t anywhere near as intense to them and it is to your kind.

To them it just feels like this need to know you, to befriend you, to just keep you close. Which, yes, those are all feelings your kind have as well, just in a much, much grander scale and also accompanied with the need to love, protect and Mark and Mate them, instantly. To make them yours and only yours, forever. To show every other wolf that they belong to you, just as you belong to them. It’s like marking your territory, if that territory was a living being instead of land.

Wolf on wolf Mates will usually Mark and Mate within hours of meeting each other, the pull being so strong that they can’t, and don’t want to fight it. But with a human Mate, it’s a lot more difficult, more delicate. You have to tread lightly, build up to that. First you’ll most likely need to open their eyes to the fact that Werewolves actually do exist, which doesn’t usually go too well.

And then you have to slowly build up to the whole Marking thing. First explaining Fated Mates and the Moon Goddess, and then informing them that they are yours. Which also usually doesn’t go well.

And then they have to slowly become used to the idea, to you being ‘it’ for them. And there is this little law—sort of—amongst your kind which states that you can’t Mark a human without their verbal permission. But it’s also the same for Wolf Mates. They have to consent to the Marking or it won’t take, it will just fester and rot, and hurt like a bitch. It can get infected without proper care, but if it is taken care of, it will eventually heal naturally, and there will be nothing left on the skin. No mark, no scar, no signs at all that there had even been a bite there once. That there had even been an attempt at a Mark.

So yeah, him being a human wasn’t going to be easy for you in the first place. But then add the fact he clearly already has a girlfriend, into the mix. Yeah, no, this would be damn near impossible. You sigh deeply as you continue to follow your nose to Fury, following his scent in the air to wherever he stomped off to. Completely and utterly disheartened by this insane turn of events. And honestly, why you?!

‘Us,’ your wolf corrects, sounding just as forlorn as you. But you knew she would be, wolves take Mates waaaay more seriously than their human counterparts. Mates are sacred to them, just as they are to the human side, but on a completely different level.

The human side can deal with the rejection or death of a Fated Mate, they can live on passed it. The human side has to build up to loving their Mate, the feelings are similar to regular human on human love. Though they do feel instantly protective and possessive, but the love takes time to form.

However wolves, they bond instantly. With wolf on wolf pairings, the two wolves instantly love each other. But with a human Mate, there is no Wolf to bond with, so that feeling is passed to the humans themselves. It’s instantaneous, so much so that a wolf basically dies without their Mate. Not literally, but spiritually. They usually become recluses, receding deep within the human’s mind. They don’t talk much, if ever. They refuse to allow you to shift into them. And they basically just cease to exist altogether. Still there, but not present. It’s really not a fun thing to go through for either party involved.

The human loses that constant companion, the creature they have always been able to talk to—well, at least since the moment the wolf first appeared in their mind, on their 16th birthday. 16 being the age a werewolf shifts for the first time. But ever since that moment, they become your closest friend, your strongest ally, your fiercest protector. They become everything to you.

So to one day wake up and no longer have them around, is usually almost more heartbreaking to the human side, then actually losing their Mate is. Almost.

You finally find the boardroom Fury is occupying and slowly trudge in, heading for a chair. You flop yourself down into it with a sigh, you know you need to focus on what Fury is about to tell you. But your mind is entirely preoccupied with your current Mate dilemma. If he rejects you, your life as you know it is over. But if you reject him first, you may stand a shot at your wolf getting through this unscathed. Even if just slightly. But it’s still a much better option than losing her completely.

‘We are not, and will not be doing that,’ she growls. ‘He is ours and we will make it so.’

‘You don’t get it,’ you sigh, ‘he isn’t ours. Yes, he is our Mate, but he belongs to someone else. Humans don’t usually take to these things the same as us. Not at first, at least. But if we reject him formally, maybe we stand a chance of not getting so hurt.’

‘No! I won’t let you do that!’ She stomps her foot.

Fury begins to start talking and you quickly attempt to shelf this conversation. ‘We will talk more about this later,” you sternly say. Much like a parent scolding their child.

She huffs angrily but doesn’t say anything more. You sigh relieved and try to focus your attention on the briefing now. You really need to know exactly why you’re here, and just what you’ll be walking into on this mission.

You walk out of the large glass encased boardroom, the dirty plate and utensils in your hand. Bucky had shown up about 15 minutes after Fury started talking, a plate with a glorious smelling and looking steak in his hand. Your mouth watered instantly and you quickly thanked him. Fury didn’t look too pleased by all of this, but he didn’t say a word, probably just happy that maybe now you’d be able to actually focus.

Which you sort of did. Your mind was still overthinking everything, but you’d managed to catch all the important parts. Basically some high up Hydra goon, named Heinrich, was set on world domination and destruction. You didn’t even realize Hydra was still around, but turns out they were. The American government was just covering it up all this time, and using the Avengers to handle the situation both efficiently and quietly. However, this goon was posing to be a bit more of an issue.

He was a little too good at avoiding the heroes. At hiding from them. He’d gone underground but was still very much calling the shots and moving the plans forward from wherever he was. Nat had managed to track him down a few times already, but just as they’d move in to take him down, he’d escape. He’d get away every time as if he’d been tipped off of their imminent arrival.

So that’s where you come in, not only did they need you to track him down. As all of Nat’s leads and intel kept coming up short or were going stale, and fast. But then when they did actually pan out, he was always a step ahead. Always outsmarting them.

So you were to track, hunt and capture him, with the help of the Avengers, and as fast as you could. Since they had intel that he was going to enact his plans in 2 weeks time. So you had until then to not only find and stop him, but to save the whole fucking world as well. Goddess, what the hell did you just sign yourself up for!?

You shake your head as you enter back into the living space, heading towards the sink to clean your dirty dishes. Mind still all over the damn place with everything that’s happened in the last 24 hours.

You reach the sink, turning on the water and a smell hits your nose, instantly making you perk up. And your wolf, who had been giving you the silent treatment since your little argument earlier, finally reappears.

‘He’s here,’ she says in a happy, sing song voice. And you groan inwardly. Perfect, that’s just what you need right now. Ha! Not.

“Ah hey,” comes his soft, sexy voice from behind you, and a pleasant shiver runs down your spin. His voice quiet, as if he was worried about startling you. If only he knew what you were. That you could smell him in the room, could damn near sense his presence.

You glance over your shoulder, continuing to wash the dirty plate in the sink. “H-hey, Capsical,” you stutter out, instantly wanting to smack yourself upside the damn head. Smooth move, exlax!

Your eyes snap back to the sink, needing to focus on something other than the incessant need to jump him, right here, right now.

‘I vote we do exactly that,’ she offers, being her super helpful self, as always—Note the sarcasm.

You go to sigh frustratedly but the deep chuckle behind you halts that action. You flick your eyes back to him, and the sight makes your heart sore. He looks ridiculously handsome when he laughs, but of course he would. This is just your luck.

He takes a few large strides towards you. “It’s just Steve,” he says as he offers his hand out to you.

You furrow your brows, “oh, but the Stark guy said,” you trail off, confused.

“Yeah, Tony,” his free hand rubs the back of his neck. “He always likes to mess with me,” he gives you a small smile, but his eyes are down, looking at his still outstretched hand. That you’d completely forgotten that he’d offered you! Fuck!

‘Get it together woman! You are ruining this for us!’ Your wolf scolds you.

You quickly place the plate down in the sink, whipping your hands on your jeans, and then taking his large offered hand in your own. “It’s nice to um, to meet you, Steve,” you nod, shaking his hand as sparks shoot up your arm. “I’m Y/N.”

He continues to just stare at your joined hands, and your curious what it feels like to him. What touching you, his Mate, is like. You know the feelings coursing through your own body in this moment, the warmth, the sparks, the tingles. They all feel so amazing to you, but your senses are more heightened than his.

You quickly remove your hand from his, taking a step back. His smell is intoxicating, his nearness is driving you wild, and his touch is warming you in places no creature should be warmed, by just a mere handshake alone. Goddess, it is not going to be easy to stay away from this man. Not one freaking bit.

You turn back to the sink, just before he softly says your name, “Y/N.” As if tasting it on his lips, and his voice saying it makes your knees feel weak. Makes your heart race. Makes your skin heat up. “That’s a beautiful name.”

‘I say we just kill the girl and keep him forever.’

‘Shhh, you aren’t helping. At all,’ you say back to her, needing her to just zip it for right now. Just till you can get a handle on your stupid body.

“Thanks, my mom picked it out,” you shrug one shoulder, hoping it looks nonchalant. But who are you kidding, you know it probably didn’t.

You begin to wash the plate again, even though it is already clean, but you just need the damn distraction. Even more now.

You hear a barstool being pulled out, and almost groan loudly in discontent. Almost. Can’t he just leave already?! Why does he insist on staying here, flustering the hell out of you. You’re a strong woman, but you have your limits. And this, this is bordering on those damn limits.

“Can I ask you something?” He starts, unsurely, and you just hum, nodding for him to ‘go ahead’. All while still washing this stupid, now super clean, plate. “Why um,” he clears his throat awkwardly, “where did Fury find you?”

You glance back at him, quirking a brow, knowing full well that that was not what he was about to ask. What he was really wanting to ask. But you let it slide, knowing he’d ask you in his own time. So you just shrug and turn back to the sink, “known Fury for years. First bumped into him on a job a while back, we were hunting the same guy. He liked my,” you pause, scrunching up your nose as you aren’t entirely ready to drop the werewolf bomb just yet, “skills, I guess. He offered me a job with the little team you got here, I declined. And he has just sort of popped up here and there over the years. Offering me new missions every time, each with larger incentives, probably in the hopes I’d finally say yes.”

“Really?” He questions.

“Mhmm,” you nod.

“What made you say yes this time?”

You take a second to think about that. “Um, honestly,” you place the plate in the sink and turn to face him. Resting against the countertop and crossing your arms, “the money. I won’t lie and say I’m on this mission for honourable reasons. I don’t pretend to be the good guy.” You shrug, “I agreed to do this entirely for the payday at the end. Then when it’s all done, I’ll take my money and go back to my normal life.” You finish, and though your words came out confident sounding, your heart aches immensely at the thought of leaving Steve behind. At going back to your normal life, where he won’t be. You just met him, but already you feel like you can’t live without him. Fuck, you’re doomed. So utterly doomed.

‘We can’t leave now, and you know it,’ your wolf rolls her eyes at you. ‘Plus look at him, how could we walk away from that face!’

He nods slowly, a small frown on his face. One that breaks your heart, and makes you instantly want to cheer him up. Just to get that frown off his lovely lips. “You wouldn’t want to stay after? To join the team, I mean?” He asks quietly, hesitantly.

You sigh, looking down at the floor. Of course you’d want to stay. Fuck, you’d be okay with just moving directly into his room right now. If, if it wasn’t for that brunette. You aren’t a home wrecker. As much as you desperately want to be, you just aren’t. You wouldn’t want whatever beautiful love story you both were destined for, to start out like, like that.

“I honestly don’t know. I like my job,” you shake your head, “I love it actually. It gives me freedom, excitement, something to accomplish entirely on me own. I don’t have to rely on anyone. I just,” you shrug, “I work better on my own now. I’m better off alone now.”

And no matter how many times you say those words aloud, you still don’t really, truly believe them. You are a pack animal by nature, your kind strive to have that connection, the sense of a family. Being a rogue isn’t natural for you, it’s not the way you are wired.

But you can’t go back to your old pack, and most others wouldn’t even hear you out, if you approached them asking to join. Know one cares that you were the toughest warrior in your pack, no one cares that your loyalty track record was perfectly intact. That you’d never once wavered on orders or respect for you true Alpha. No one cares that you were a model pack member before the take over.

They just don’t care. All they care about is that when the new Alpha took over, you refused to accept him, to swear allegiance to him. To that monster. You may not like being a rogue, being packless, but even if you had to go back and relive that horrible moment over and over again, you’d still make the same decision every time. Without question.

“No one truly likes being alone,” Steve says softly, almost knowingly, like he could read your thoughts at this exact moment. But you know he can’t, it’s more likely that he is reading your current body language. Which you know is probably as easy to read as a dang book right now. You’re willing to bet that you’re currently giving off apprehensive, closed off, wary, and maybe even a little disheartened vibes at the moment.

“But being on this team,” he starts, “it’s like a family. We are all misfits in our on ways, we all have dark backgrounds. Or moments from our pasts that we aren’t proud of. But I believe that’s why we are all so happy here, that’s why this team works so well.” He shrugs, “because we all had nowhere else to go, and nothing to lose by being here,” he finishes, giving you a small, sweet smile, that makes you inwardly swoon.

‘Well, we’re sold. Where do we sign up?’

“And here Mike Wazowski said y’all weren’t trying to recruit me,” you playfully scoff, shaking your head. But you can’t stop the smile from forming on your lips, not one bit. And so much for having a poker face with this man.

‘Good. Now someone else can see through your bullshit,’ your wolf snarks, and you almost gasp in feigned and/or slightly real offence. You can’t really be too sure which.

He throws his hands up in mock surrender and chuckles lightly. And yup, that’s your new favourite sound. Hands down. “Not recruiting. Just saying ya don’t gotta go it alone,” he shrugs one shoulder, “if ya don’t want to, that is.”

You nod slowly, and honestly you don’t really want to be alone anymore. You miss having people to watch out for, people watching out for you. You miss having that feeling of family, of support, of love. You force a smirk, and you’re 100% sure he can tell it’s fake, “I’ll take it under advisement.”

He just nods, a knowing smile playing on his lips, but he doesn’t push the conversation any further. “So, Y/N, tell me about yourself?”

You glance down at your feet, arms still crossed over your chest as you shrug. “Not much to tell.”

“Now I don’t believe that,” he chuckles softly again. And damnit, if he could just stop doing that, it’s really fucking with you. “There is obviously a story here,” he gestures to your form. “Fury doesn’t just hound people for years, for nothing,” he shakes his head, quirking a brow at you. “Ex-military? Ex-cop? I’m just curious what you did to end up on Fury’s radar, is all.”

‘That Mate pull though,’ your wolf giggles out excitedly. ‘He wants to get to know us. Give him something, anything. I beg you!’

You sigh at your wolf’s over eagerness to spill all your dirty deeds to this man, without really even knowing a thing about him. Besides the odd stuff you’d heard about him over the years. But you have to tread lightly here, you can’t overstep. You need to remember he is taken, he isn’t truly yours.

“None of the above. It’s a long story, I was ah,” you falter, trying to figure out how to word this without giving too much away. “I was part of a team, I guess you could say. We had an amazing leader, he’d have done anything for us, given his life to protect us. But ah,” you shake your head at the horrible memories of that day. “He was killed. During a mission. And the guy that took over just,” you sigh, “it just wasn’t the same. I couldn’t devotedly follow him, or his orders, like I should have. Like I was supposed to, so I left,” you shrug, dropping your arms to your sides. “Decided to branch out on my own and became a bounty hunter. And a few years later, here I am,” you raise your hands to gesture around the room. “And that’s the whole story, in a nutshell.”

“I’m sorry about your leader, Y/N,” Steve says softly, and you know if anyone can understand the true feelings behind losing someone you care for, it’s him. The man out of time. “It’s never easy to lose someone we care deeply for, but we just keep pushing forward for them. To make them proud,” he smiles, but it isn’t a pitying one. It’s more reassuring. As if to tell you that you are strong, that you can live on past tragedy, and not only that, but that you can rebuild your life. Make it better, or at least just as good as it was before.

You nod, “thanks, Steve.” You can feel the tears pricking your eyes, but you refuse to let them fall. Not here. Not now. You need a distraction, someway to get off this heavy topic and back to lighter conversation. “So, tell me about yourself? What truly interests the great Captain Rogers?” You pause, then snap your fingers, “oh! I know! You collect stamps, don’t you?” You grin widely, pointing a finger at his, “don’t lie!”

He laughs, like truly laughs. The sounds stemming from deep within him, from deep within his belly. And you are instantly proud of yourself for being the cause of such a beautiful sound. Such a spellbinding reaction from this wall of a man. He glances down at the countertop for a moment, shaking his head almost fondly. And then his eyes flick up to you, from under his ridiculously long lashes. “No, I don’t collect stamps,” he grins widely. “I’m actually more into drawing.”

“Huh,” you hum, giving him a once over, appraisingly. “I never would have guessed that. You any good?”

‘Of course he is,’ your wolf rolls her eyes. ‘What a stupid thing to ask. You still suck a flirting, FYI.’

‘Shhhh!’ You hiss back at her in your head. ‘And I’m not trying to flirt with him!’

‘Bull. Shit.’ She calls you out. ‘I swear you forget sometimes that I’m literally in your head.’

‘Like I could forget that,’ you scoff. ‘Now zip it, I can’t focus with your constant narrating.’

He shrugs, “I dunno. I just draw for fun, a way to unwind. I don’t really show many people, so I have no idea how good I actually am.”

You get the distinct feeling that he is so full of shit right now. That he is just being modest, being humble. And now you’re so curious how good he actually is. “Well, if you ever decide to share, I’d love to see some of your work some time.”

He nods, smiling, “of course.”

You nod and then turn around, realizing you never put your plate away. You pick it up and glance at Steve over your shoulder. “Which cupboard?” You ask lifting the plate up for effect. Steve points to it and you quickly put it away, then open a few drawers until you find the utensils one, and put those away as well. Making mental notes of where they went for future food endeavours.

But now as a silence hangs over you both, only one question bounces around in your mind. And even though it’s slightly morbid, your curiosity is getting the better of you. That’s a lie, it’s more than just a curiosity, you need to know what you’re up against here. “So, ah, was that,” you turn back to face him, and you’re positive you look sheepish as hell—Which is a pretty odd descriptive word to refer to a wolf as, but you’ll ignore that currently.

‘We don’t act like sheep,’ your wolf scoffs, ‘we hunt them,’ she shakes her head, a toothly grin on her lips. ‘Now I know I’ve said this once already, but seriously, get it together, woman.’

And she’s clearly still being her extra sassy self. ‘And once again, not helping!’

He nods, urging you to continue. So you do, “that woman earlier, is she like,” you clear your throat, awkwardly. “Like your girlfriend or something?” You glance up at him, trying to gauge his reaction and then quickly add lamely, “she ah, she seemed nice.” Wow, could you be any more obvious?!

‘The answer is no,’ she shakes her head at you again, this time in disappointment.

‘Still not helping!’ You huff.

“Who?” He furrows his brows, looking utterly confused. It’s actually kinda cute. But of course it is. Damnit. “Kelly?”

“I don’t know,” you laugh awkwardly, and shrug, “I guess?”

He shakes his head and is about to speak when you smell two people close by. You tense up but instantly recognize Bucky’s scent, though the second one is new. Your eyes snap up just as Bucky and another guy enter the room.

They come towards you, and once they reach you Bucky gives you a handsome smile, “hey Doll.”

You grin at him, “oh hey, bestie. Thought of anyone for me to take out yet?”

“Take out?” Steve quietly murmurs under his breath, sounding both confused and slightly irked. It’s so quiet that you almost didn’t catch it, but thanks to your enhanced hearing, you had. Making a mental note to thank the Moon Goddess for that enhancement later.

Bucky just chuckles, side eyeing the man beside him, “maybe just one.”

You pick up on his meaning and wink, “consider it done.” He just nods, grinning in response.

“Do I even want to know?” The new guy says as he looks between you and Buck sceptically, his eyes slightly narrowed.

“I honestly think it’s best if you don’t see it coming,” you smirk wickedly at him, and he just stares back at you, looking almost nervous now.

This all earns a hearty laugh from the large brunette. “I can already tell that I’m really gonna enjoy having you around, Doll.”

The new guy looks at Steve, sighing deeply, “damn man, looks like we got two of them now.”

You glance at Steve and see the same curious look in his eyes, just like when he’d first witnessed you and Buck interacting. His eyes just shifting between you both as he assesses the situation. “Yeah, looks like it,” he says quietly, nodding.

You have to fight to not grin like an idiot when you realize it isn’t actually a curious look at all, it’s a jealous look. The last thing you want is to upset him, or make him jealous, in any way. Not a good base for a long term relationship. But at the same time, you will most likely be subjected to witnessing that woman all over him, and often. So maybe a little jealousy on his end isn’t such a bad thing.

You turn to the new guy, offering him a smile and your right hand, “I’m Y/N, by the way.”

“Sam,” he smiles back, shaking your hand, all jokes aside now. “Welcome to the team, Y/N.”

“Thanks,” you nod, “though I’m not actually on the team for good. Just here for the mission then I head home.”

Bucky frowns, “wait, just for the one mission?” He glances around at the other guys, “you aren’t sticking around after?”

You shrug, “not sure, honestly. But that wasn’t the original plan when I agreed to help.”

“Damn,” he sighs, “I was really looking forward to the permanent backup against Bird-Brain over here,” he nods to Sam.

The aforementioned just rolls his eyes, “I’m going to ignore that comment this time. Mainly because now I’m super curious why Fury would bring an outside agent in on this mission. You ex-special ops or something?”

“No,” you shake your head. “Nothing like that.”

“Ex-shield?” Bucky asks next.

“No, definitely not,” you chuckle.

“Okay,” Sam nods slowly, “so you’re enhanced then?”

‘More than you could ever know, Bird-Brain,’ your wolf snickers. Clearly liking the nickname.

“Sort of?” You scrunch up your face. And it’s not technically a lie.

Sam glances at the other guys quickly, then shifts his eyes back to you. “Okay, consider us intrigued.”

“Would you be interested in showing us some of your skills?” Steve asks, drawing your full attention back to him now.

‘We’d gladly show you any ‘skills’ you’d like, big boy,’ your wolf purrs in your head. ‘Just say the word and we’re yours.’

And you straight up almost choke on nothing, but quickly compose yourself before you cause a scene. “Sure ah, yeah,” you nod quickly, “yeah, I can do that.”

“Alright, let’s head down to the training room then,” Sam says excitedly as everyone heads towards the elevators.

Now you aren’t sure exactly what they are all hoping for here, but what you do know is that even the two super soldiers won’t even be able to keep up with you. Not a hope in hell.

They don’t stand a chance against you. Yes, they may be enhanced, but nowhere near as much as you are. And you honestly can’t wait to show them this fact, first hand. You can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when you show them all up.

Because as for your ‘skills’—Well, in the famous words of Tony the Tiger, ‘They’re greeeeeat!’

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

If you want to be added or removed from this stories tag list, just ask! I can make that happen! ;)

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[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

I have reached 5,500 followers and wanted to celebrate with something special. The challenge will be to write a dark!fic with any MCU character(s).

Do I have to follow you to participate?

I’m not that much of a narcissist. You don’t have to follow me but it’s always nice. I won’t check any way. <3

What kind of story do I write?

Now this is a dark! challenge so I think you know what that means. A reminder that it doesn’t need to include noncon but the characters should be darker than their canon counterparts (how you do that is up to you.) However this challenge will not include underage, bestiality, or incest relationships. (if you write Peter Parker, make it an adult Peter and not high school Peter)

You can write reader, pairing, OC, or whatever you’re most comfortable with. Include all necessary warnings, please and thank you.

How do I get involved?

You will choose from the prompts listed below (for each, there is a NSFW gif [mlw, mlm, or wlw] or text message attached to it. You will select one and send in the following.

-your dark! character(s) of choice -your chosen prompt 

After you have sent in your ask/message, I will send you the image associated with your prompt. Please keep in mind that these will be NSFW.

What do I do when I finish?

When you’ve finished your fic, send an ask and tag me in your fic and include the tag #athousandwords

All fics will be included in a masterlist that I will include on this blog 😊

When do I have to get this done by?

November 8th, 2019

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I look forward to reading all of your creations!

Prompts are below the cut!

gifs (m/w)

silk @salimahbicharara-comun

just a peek @vanishingod

knife play @aesthethotic

tied up @kaniac-22

ribbon @waiting4inspiration

clean @hysteria87

kitchen counter @blowmybackoutbuckybarnes

undress @sapphirescrolls

embrace @venusofthehardsells

wash away @friday-ocean

backseat @honeyhan-123

upskirt 1 @avintagekiss24

curves @sagechanoafterdark

steamy @notyetneedcoffee

red dress @hurricanerin

take a ride

under the table @siren-kitten-his

unzip @blameitonthecauseway

buckle up

while you sleep @buckyswinterheart

hands @threeminutesoflife

in my lap @shanominom

upskirt 2 @iwantutobehapppier

gifs (w/w)

under the skirt

lick me @siancore

kiss 1

kiss 2

climax

soft

tattoo

together @cumtothedarkside

take it slow

too much @salimahbicharara-comun

gifs (m/m)

feel it all

grind

on top

fingers

hand

take it off @halflikeyou

tense

the wall @siancore

shadows

speak to me

texts

dinner  @tansypoisoning

innocent @blameitonthecauseway

tongue

mine 1 @persephone-is-here-omg

mine 2 @snowyseba 

mine 3 @docharleythegeekqueen

mine 4 @mom---nicole

need you

baby girl

better

yes, daddy @4charmed

moan @wolveria

don’t care @allaboardthereadingrailroad

bite your lip

beg @ronnie-rebel

wake up @fiction-is-my-friend-for-life

watch your mouth @marionberrywhite

princess @shotsbyshae

bratty

bend you over

*this challenge is like a mystery challenge. each prompt is a hint at what your image includes. choose wisely :)

[lilacmoon83]

Finding You Always

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 211: Uncharted Territory

Aphrodite was lost in her thoughts, as Snow drove them to Andresia and the raven haired beauty looked over at the Goddess.

"She's wrong, you know," Snow mentioned.

"About what?" she asked.

"All those things she said. She's just being a vindictive bitch. To be honest, I can't understand why I ever trusted her. Rumple is right...she is a gnat," Snow replied. Aphrodite smirked at that.

"Be that as it may...I can't really refute anything she says. I have a feeling I don't have some of my memories," she fretted.

"Well...what do you remember?" Snow asked.

"Well…I remember just being one day, on Mount Olympus. Zeus and Athena were there and told me who I was. They said I arose from the sea foam after a great battle with the Titan Uranus. They said I was the goddess of love, beauty, passion, and procreation. But I really had no idea what any of that meant," Aphrodite replied.

"I mean...I got a lot of attention at first ,but he myths got it all wrong. I was so naive and had no concept of...um, pleasing a man," she said a bit shyly. Snow smiled.

"That kind of makes sense. I mean, most of those myths were written by old men. It makes sense that they instantly turned you into some sex symbol," Snow reasoned. She nodded.

"Anyway...Hephaestus pleaded with Zeus to let him marry me and I had no idea what any of that meant. Then Hera, who hated me too, told me what men wanted me for in graphic detail and encouraged Zeus to let him marry me," she explained.

"And don't get me wrong...Hephaestus was very nice, but I didn't know what it was to love yet. I thought Zeus was going to allow, because he liked keeping Hephaestus happy, but he refused his request. He said I was too young and innocent to marry anyone, which considering all the things Zeus did was pretty out of character for him," she said.

"He protected you…" Snow said. She nodded.

"He and Ares almost came to blows, because Ares wanted me too, which was scary and led Athena to take me away to her temple. I spent about a century there, learning my place," she replied.

"Is that when you decided you wanted to champion only the truest love?" Snow asked. Aphrodite smiled.

"Hermes helped with that. She read me love stories from the very enchanted library that we're going to visit now. I think that's what made me angry when I saw many versions of love among both the Gods and mortals that never measured up to what I believed love should be...like the love in those stories," she said. Snow shook her head.

"It always comes back to stories...to the book," she replied.

"It truly does. I almost gave up until I saw the love between Serenity and Endymion. They were in love and the mortals in the Crystal Kingdom were facing a great evil; one that Zeus refused to get involved in. That was the first of many times Hermes and I defied him," she said in amusement.

"And strangely, no matter how angry he got with me...he never raised his voice," she added.

"And you're sure he's not your father?" Snow asked.

"I'm not sure of anything really, but why would he hide it?" she questioned. Snow nodded. She had a good point there.

"After Serenity and Endymion defeated their nemesis and I presented the chalice to them, telling them of their role, I found my own love," she said.

"Anchises...the shepherd," Snow replied with a teasing note in her voice. Aphrodite looked at her.

"Yes...we both have a type, except I don't remember much at all about Anchises, except the love. The love was true and real," she replied.

"Well...it was a really long time ago," Snow offered. Aphrodite looked at her.

"Would you ever forget even one detail about Charming?" she questioned. Snow relented.

"Not in a million years," she admitted.

"So...maybe this is where Blue comes in? I mean, she had a hand in leading her dark half to you and you losing your son, which you obviously remember very clearly. What do you remember after that?" Snow asked.

"Grief...pain...isolation for a really long time. Then Seth ripping all the realms apart, his banishment, and Gothel destroying the tenth realm. Serenity and Endymion survived and relocated their displaced people near Olympus," she said.

"Then my first charges passed on, after their thousand year reign had ended," she explained.

"Then there was a second spark," she added.

"The Dragon King and Queen," Snow recalled.

"Which I had much less interaction with," Aphrodite admitted.

"Really?" Snow asked. She nodded.

"The Dragon King was a good man, but prideful. He loved his Queen very much, but almost never showed her affection in public," Aphrodite replied.

"That's terrible...I can't imagine not holding Charming's hand, not having his arms around me, not kissing him…" Snow lamented. Aphrodite smiled.

"He regime was very militaristic and his true love was not looked upon well, especially since she was from outside his Kingdom. Like I said, he was a good man, but full of pride. His Queen tamed him a bit, but he did not always have the best advisers and generals around him. I did not get to interact with them as much, simply because his court distrusted me so much. And blamed me for bringing their King together with his Queen," she said.

"Wow…I had no idea," Snow replied. She nodded.

"Their time was cut short, thanks to the Dragon and the Dark One, Xanetakos, which we now know was really Yzma in disguise," she said.

"So...if their time was cut short, then you had a time gap between them and us," Snow realized.

"About six hundred years," Aphrodite said.

"And where were you during that time?" Snow asked.

"Sometimes Mount Olympus...sometimes my Temple. The same thing everyday," she replied, realizing how that sounded.

"Like curse memories," Snow said, as she parked the car.

"But why? And who? Why would they take my memories. What was I really doing during that time?" she wondered.

"I don't know...but we're going to find out," Snow replied, as they approached the palace gates. Fandral's head Knight and right hand, a masked man, greeted them with a respectful bow.

"Queen Snow. Goddess Aphrodite," he greeted.

"Hello Knight Zorro," Snow greeted in return.

"We were hoping to see Rose," Aphrodite said.

"Of course," he said, gesturing them ahead into the garden.

"Snow! Aphrodite!" Rose called, as she and her young ones greeted them excitedly.

"Whoa…" Zorro said.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"Well, forgive me, Your Majesty, but while I'm used to the striking resemblance between you and Queen Snow, I guess I did not realize how much the Goddess looks like you both as well," he replied.

"What?" Aphrodite asked.

"He's right...you do, except for the hair. Didn't you know?" Rose asked.

"You know, now that I think about it, you looked different when we first met. I guess I never realized there was a change," Snow replied.

"What do you mean? I've always looked like this…" she said, as she poofed a compact mirror and looked at her reflection.

"And apparently never realized that I look like one of my charges and her counterpart," she realized.

"She looked different when you first met?" Rose asked.

"Yes...maybe it was a glamor spell!" Snow exclaimed.

"Why would someone put a glamor spell on me?" Aphrodite asked.

"Probably for the same reason they wiped away a bunch of your memories. That's why we're here, Rose," Snow said.

"We think the answers to the missing pieces in her past could be in one of your books," she said. Rose's face lit up.

"Of course," she said, as she motioned them to follow her.

"It would be a very old book. It could take an eternity to find it," Aphrodite warned.

"Maybe not," Rose interjected, as she showed them an electronic tablet.

"You got everything cataloged?" Snow asked.

"During the curse. Since I was awake and there wasn't a lot of ruling to do be done under Seth, it allowed me to spend more of my days in the library. Fandral convinced Seth that an electronic system like this would help us organize the texts that he didn't want people reading and tuck them away since he couldn't destroy them. But really it just made it easier to find everything once it was cataloged," Rose said.

"Now, sometimes hundreds of new books appear each day so there's always still plenty of work to do, but the majority, even the ancient stuff, is now cataloged," she explained.

"That's wonderful…" Snow gushed.

"I'm a little surprised that Hermes hasn't helped fill in your memories though," Rose mentioned.

"You know Hermes...she travels a lot and I know she'd tell me if she knew anything," Aphrodite replied.

"Which makes sense that maybe any memories concerning your life were erased from her too. What about Athena?" Snow asked.

"She either doesn't know or something has forbade her to tell me," Aphrodite replied.

"Well, then we need to find the answers on our own," Rose replied.

"And we will," Snow assured.

"If my memories really are missing...then maybe I am cursed. James...he could be in danger just by being with me. What if the Horned King was right?" she lamented, but they put their hands on her shoulders.

"You are not going to lose James," Snow insisted.

"She's right...true love is stronger than a curse and we all know that," Rose assured her, as they went into the library with the children to begin their search for answers.

~*~

David hopped off the Jolly Roger, followed by Emma, Xander, Hook, James, and Fandral, who had met them at the Harbor after David called him.

"This place...never changes," Xander commented, as they walked from the docks and onto the island mainland.

"As much as we hate it...I suppose everywhere has a place like this. Boston had places too that were no picnic," David mentioned, as they approached what appeared to serve as a Main street of sorts. It was lined with bars, clubs, and brothels, as well as an open market that was selling a number of goods.

"Ten bucks says most of those goods are stolen and there's drug trafficking going on at most of those kiosks," Emma said.

"No need to take that bet," Xander said, as he swiped his finger along one of the counter, while getting a glare from the owner. His finger was colored pink.

"Well, it's not white powder so what exactly is it?" she asked.

"Poppy dust. Like cocaine, back in our land, it was ground up and sold. If you sniff enough of it or roll it up and smoke it, you'll get a high like you wouldn't believe," he replied. She sighed.

"I thought Seth destroyed all the poppies," Emma said.

"Around Mount Olympus...but Aphrodite says they'll grow anywhere there's an exorbitant amount of evil," James said, as he pointed to the body they had come for. The poor man, though he was likely no angel, was still laying in the street. No one cared enough to cover him and he had clearly been walked over and jostled in the dirt.

"Okay...now I'm really glad we didn't bring Mom or Eva on this one," Emma said. It was too much. The level of cruelty and bad emotions would have been overwhelming for Eva and her mother as well. While she knew both of them were tough as nails, she and her father still did their best to protect them from this level of cruelty and evil when possible. Which they realized seemed silly since they had stood against Seth and some of the worst alongside them. But this place was decidedly something they hoped they never needed to see.

"He did this…" David said.

"Most likely, but we probably can't be sure until Bashful does an autopsy," Emma replied.

"Yes we can...because he left me a message," David said, as he put a glove on and brushed some dirt away from beside the body, before extracting a smashed and now dead snowdrop flower.

"Damn him…" Xander cursed.

"A snowdrop…" Emma said.

"He's taunting me," David said, as he stood up and looked around.

"It's like I can feel his eyes on us. He's here...watching us," he added.

"Knowing that psycho, he'll manage to get eyes everywhere," Fandral warned, as they put gloves on and ignored the stares they were getting, as they put the body in a body bag for transport.

"Can I help you?" David asked irritably, as one man decided to approach.

"Just hoping you finish picking up the trash, Your Majesty...because your kind ain't wanted here," the man said.

"Like I give a damn. Now, go back into your tavern," he snapped.

"This is Pleasure Island, Sheriff Charming...and we don't obey your laws," he refuted.

"Yet...but believe me, I'm going to find a way to clean this cesspool up, so enjoy it while you can, Mr…" he said, as he paused and glared at the man.

"No need for the Mister...I just go by Grimm and I'm a simple man, trying to run a business," he replied. David smirked.

"Grimm...something tells me with a name like that what you're into is far from simple," he replied. Grimm glared at him.

"Because of men like you. Lawmen...royals, who come and throw their weight around and impose their will on the little people," he said.

"I'm well aware that back in our land there were royals and lawmen that weren't kind and fed their own interests. But that's not me. All I care about is the safety of the people of the United Realms," David countered.

"Well...you have your body so maybe it's time you get back to the people you actually care about and not us...bottom feeders. That's what we are to you," he hissed.

"I have the body, but I don't have the killer," David said, as he pulled up a photo on his phone.

"Seen this man?" he asked.

"Sure have...I gotta say, watching your cat and mouse game with the doctor is satisfying. All that power and you still haven't bested him, though if you ask me, that Queen of yours is a bit more trouble than she's worth," he mentioned.

"No one asked you...where is he?" David demanded to know.

"Around...I suppose I get it though. She is a beauty and so is her product," he leered, as his eyes flicked to Emma. That was a huge mistake, as David punched him in the face and shoved him away. Xander stepped in and put a hand on his son's shoulder, as some of the other men around started to move in. He was having none of it and pulled the chalice sword from its sheath.

"Don't get stupid," he warned. It wouldn't operate at full power in a place like this where magic was suppressed, but it would still do its job.

"Dad...as much as I'd like to arrest this entire island, we need to go," Emma urged.

"She's right...they're never going to tell us where Jekyll is," James agreed. David hated this. He wanted nothing more than to find Jekyll at that moment and end him, but he knew it would never be that simple. He had found the perfect haven to hide and plot his revenge. He was already taunting him and probably enjoying his frustration right now. He relented and sheathed his weapon, as Xander and James hauled the body bag back to the ship.

"Have a good day, Sheriff Charming and kiss that pretty wife for us all, especially the good doctor!" Grimm taunted. David was practically boiling in his own skin, but Emma took his arm and led him back to the ship.

"Don't do it, Dad...he's not worth it," she said.

"I know, Em…" he said, with a sigh.

"She's right mate...Grimm is a bottom feeder for sure. His establishment has it all. Alcohol, gambling, drugs, prostitution and a dozen other things I pretended to ignore in the times I frequented his place in my past," Hook advised.

"Do you know much about him, beyond his tavern?" Emma asked.

"Not really. Pleasure Island is full of outcasts though. He hates royals and anything good. I've never been privy as to why," Killian replied.

"His name is Grimm though...it's curious," Xander said.

"Maybe Rose can find more on him. He seems to have supporters," Fandral mentioned.

"Oh he does...like I said, this place is full of outcasts and they ran rampant during Seth's reign. Before all this, they kept to themselves, but now that a sense of law and order is back...we may have a lot of problems from him and his cohorts," Killian said.

"Great...more troublemakers. Like we don't have enough trouble," she replied, as they boarded the Jolly Roger and Killian set sail back to Storybrooke.

~*~

They arrived back at the stables and dismounted the unicorns.

"Wow...that was easily the most amazing thing I've ever experienced," JJ said..

"I thought you might like that. We can go anywhere you want next," Summer replied.

"So...it's all real. Like the castles, the Emerald City, even Neverland?" he asked.

"Yes, I can show you around Misthaven if you want and Oz is real too. Most of Neverland isn't pleasant, except for Tigerlily's island. She's a very good friend," she replied.

"Well…I'd love to meet her," he said.

"Okay...we can go now. I'll just text my parents and tell them I'll be home later," she replied.

"So...you're going to Boston with them tomorrow?" he asked.

"I am...will you be going back there? You probably have a job to get back to," she said, a bit sadly.

"I do...unless you think the hospital is hiring here," he mentioned. She looked at him in surprise.

"You want to work here?" she asked. He shrugged.

"It sounds exciting, but I think I'll wait and just tag along with you tomorrow, if you don't mind. She smiled.

"I'd like that," she replied.

"Elsa and I have to get back, but go ahead and take Pegasus to Tigerlily's island," Leo said, as the winged horse landed beside them.

"Wow…I think I'll let you steer," JJ said, as she mounted the animal and he got on behind her, before holding on. The animal soured into the air, as Leo and Elsa watched on.

"I think your little sister is smitten," she mentioned and he sighed.

"Yeah…I guess it was bound to happen and he seems nice," Leo mentioned.

"Wow...that's a really mild reaction," she said. He chuckled.

"As long as she's happy and I doubt he'd hurt her, unless he has a death wish," he replied. She chuckled.

"Very true," she replied, as they headed home to Arendelle.

~*~

Jekyll chuckled, as he watched Charming make a spectacle, just as he knew the Prince would. It was a very good thing. He normally worked alone, but having potential allies in the riff raff on this island could prove to be very useful, indeed. He exited his lab and made the trek to Grimm's tavern.

"That was quite a show," he said, as the bartender gave him a weary look.

"I took a punch for you, so I expect some kind of repayment, like making that hotheaded pretty boy pay," Grimm said. Jekyll smirked.

"Oh don't worry...I plan to eventually burn Charming to ash, but it's far too much fun playing with him like this and making him fear me for the sake of his lovely Snow White," Jekyll said, as Grimm poured him a drink.

"It is refreshing to see someone finally stick it to those royal goody goodies," he agreed.

"But all this to possess a fairy tale princess? They are a dime a dozen in the United Realms," he mentioned.

"Oh no...not like her. Even her counterparts can't quite measure up. Sure, one is an actual Goddess and Rose Red comes close as well. But Snow White...she is perfection, even when she's not," he said.

"She is under my skin in a way that I cannot shake and I will break them down until she is ripe for my picking and he is crushed beneath my boot," he hissed, as he finished his drink and returned to his lab to continue his work.

~*~

"Zella...you just got released from the hospital...and forgive me, but this is the kind of thing that got you admitted to the mental ward in the first place," Lucifer fretted, as Drizella examined herself in the mirror.

"Relax Lucifer, I've been given a clean bill of mental health and I am in full control of my mental faculties now," she said.

"Then why are you being fitted for a wedding dress?" he asked.

"I told you...I'm just planning for my future. My future with Prince Charming," she replied. Lucifer sighed and went to get Rodmilla, hoping she would come and talk her daughter down. Things were not good for her either these days. Thanks to Snow White's darker half, she had gone from living in a mansion and a large bank account to living in a tiny apartment and working as a seamstress in this very store.

They had all been surprised to find out that Drizella had a counterpart that was stable and reformed, but the confusion was saved when the other Drizella decided to keep her curse name and now went by Ivy, as her birth name held too much pain for her.

"Drizella...what are you doing?" Rodmilla demanded to know, as she came into the dressing room.

"Relax mother...I'm just trying it on. Is that so wrong?" Drizella asked, as she exited the dressing room so she could use the large mirrors to look

"You see...the old, troubled Drizella would have run out into the streets in search for her dream groom, Prince Charming himself. But I told you that I'm mentally stable again," she said.

"Then you are no longer going after Snow White's husband?" Lucifer asked.

"Oh…I didn't say that. But that little bitch has utterly destroyed this family and left us in ruins. She humiliated me on numerous occasions, took our family fortune and our mansion, forcing us to live in squalor, and made a mockery of us," she replied.

"Meanwhile, she lives in a literal castle, has true love with her Prince Charming, and has turned most of her enemies into friends, including the Evil Queen herself. The entire United Realms looks to her as their Queen, but what is Snow White without the Evil Queen?" she asked.

"Drizella...while I agree that Snow White deserves to pay, we must abandon that road to revenge. We do not have the power or magic needed to face her, not to mention her litter of magical brats," Rodmilla reasoned.

"Very true, mother…" she said, as she stepped to the window and saw him in the town square. He appeared to be with his eldest daughter and a few others, including his counterpart and twin. It was definitely a treat for the eyes, but her desire for him went further beyond the physical, for the other two paled in comparison.

"That's why...I need magic and then a new Queen can be born. And this time...this Queen will make sure she puts Snow White back in that glass coffin...for good," Drizella said. Rodmilla and Lucifer exchanged a wary glance. It was clear that Drizella was still very disturbed.

~*~

Snow idly flipped through a large tome. They had isolated all the very old texts that were both still in Greek or Latin. Then Aphrodite had used magic to translate them all, but searching through them was still a huge undertaking. She didn't mind though and Belle had expressed an interest in joining their search as well, so she was going to drop off some books to her on the way home.

"Nothing…" Aphrodite said in frustration, as she closed her book and huffed, as she stood up.

"We can't give up...we've barely scratched the surface," Rose admonished.

"I know...I'm just impatient. I just can't shake the Horned King's words and if James really is in danger from me, I need to know," Aphrodite fretted.

"You are not a danger to James...I don't care what he said. Love is always worth any risk and I'm sure my brother-in-law would agree," Snow admonished. She sighed and sat back down.

"I know...you of all people have faced losing the man you love more than anyone should have to. It's suffocating," she admitted. Snow nodded.

"It is, but trust in love. Even in the darkest moments, it will shine through," she promised the Goddess. Aphrodite smiled.

"Thanks...but it's getting late in the day. I saw we stop for the day and each take our books home for later," she suggested.

"That's a good idea and Charming must be close too. We'll drop off this pile for Belle on our way to Granny's," Snow said, as her heart fluttered and her husband entered the library with Fandral and James. She smiled at him and saw him stride purposefully toward her. She welcomed his arms and his kiss, as she lost herself in him momentarily.

"Everything okay, my love?" she asked, as their lips parted. He nodded.

"Yes…Pleasure Island is just a very dark place, but you're my light in any darkness," he replied and she practically melted against him, resting her head against his shoulder.

"Oh baby…" she gushed, as she brushed a hand along the back of his neck in a soothing manner.

~*~

"Did you find anything?" James asked curiously, as their lips parted. Aphrodite sighed.

"Not yet...but I have plenty of homework to take with me," she mentioned, gesturing to the stack of books.

"That looks like fun…" he muttered

"Does that mean you'll help?" she asked. He rolled his eyes.

"You know I will if it's important to you. But I just hope you know that what's in your past is irrelevant to me. I love you, no matter what," he replied.

"I know...I just have to know. Something isn't right and there's a chance that I could be a danger to you," she lamented. He cupped her face in his hands.

"You are not a danger to me...you are not cursed," he insisted. She sighed.

"Maybe...but I still need to know what is being hidden from me," she said.

"I agree...and that's why I'll help read through all of this," he promised. She smiled and kissed him again.

"Thank you...and I'll make it worth your while," she whispered to him and he smirked.

"You always do," he said, as he picked up the stack of books.

~*~

"Was it bad?" Rose asked, as their lips parted.

"I have seen a lot of villainous places before in my time and it was definitely up there with some of the worst," Fandral replied.

"The victim I'm sure was far from innocent, but it was definitely Jekyll," he added.

"You're sure?" she asked worriedly. He nodded.

"He left a snowdrop on the body, I'm afraid. He is clearly taunting David," he replied.

"He will hide for now, but we will get him," he assured, as they kissed again.

~*~

Blue stormed into the hospital later that night, bringing one of the few fairies that still revered her as the true head fairy.

"What are we doing here?" she asked. She had white hair with pink streaks.

"There is someone I must see. He has secrets that he must help me keep from being unearthed," Blue said.

"Did you bring your wand, Opal?" she asked. The other fairy nodded.

"Yes," she answered, as they arrived at the door that led to the basement. The mental ward.

"I need in here," she said and the other fairy zapped the lock, allowing them in and they took the stairway to the basement. Opal followed Blue to the third cell and she peered in on the comatose King George.

"He's been a vegetable for years...I don't see how he would have any answers for you," Opal commented, but Blue took her wand and used some of the magic. Awareness filled George's eyes and the cell snapped open, allowing him out.

"Blue Fairy…" he uttered.

"We need to talk about your son," Blue said.

"My son is dead," George replied.

"Not anymore...you've been out of commission for many years and Zeus gave him a second chance at life," Blue explained. George was stunned.

"Why would Zeus do that?" he asked.

"You know why," Blue replied.

"Then she's here…" he realized and Blue nodded.

"And she's asking questions. The bimbo has finally noticed there are noticeable gaps in her memory," Blue said.

"And James?" he asked.

"He had no inkling, but if he got his memories back then we both know he could break her curse and she'll know everything," Blue replied.

"And everything we did will come to light," George realized.

"And we can't let that happen," she said.

"My James is alive…" he uttered in awe.

"And he's happy?" George asked.

"Yes, he's happy, but you never cared about that. You didn't want him with her either," Blue replied.

"I didn't, because I feared for his life with her...I took her away and his memories and turned him into what I wanted him to be. And then it got him killed anyway. Perhaps I was wrong," George lamented.

"You can't be serious...it was your idea to keep them apart," she reminded him.

"It was and if Zeus knew what we did, he would have struck us both down," George said.

"Zeus is dead...we will have no interference from him," Blue replied.

"No…James is happy and I won't interfere with that again," he refused.

"And if he finds out what we did...he'll hate you!" Blue warned.

"You promised my Kingdom prosperity if I helped you. Instead, I destroyed my son's life and lost my Kingdom to his twin brother and Princess Snow White," he called.

"In time...James may be able to forgive me if I attempt to make amends and tell them everything. But you...well, I suspect the Goddess will send you to the Underworld for everything you did, because you did unspeakable things to Aphrodite long before my time," George warned.

"Well...then I guess I have to make sure you can't tell your son our secrets. It's not like he or anyone else will miss you," Blue said savagely, as she struck the elder King with the magic of the wand. His face was alight with surprise, as he fell dead to the floor. Opal cried out in horror and was stunned by Blue's cruelty.

"Help me put him back in the cell," she snapped.

"You...you killed him," Opal uttered.

"He was a vegetable before. His death will be surprising to no one...unless you open your mouth," Blue replied, as they placed the body in the cell.

"The...the others were right about you," Opal cried. Blue sighed.

"And here I was hoping that I could count on you," she said. Opal didn't have time to scream, before the magic of her own wand hit her and stopped her heart.

"Now to make this look like an accident," Blue muttered, as she used the wand that was now hers to poof the body away. She then used the wand to disappear. She was certain now that no one would discover her secrets.

~*~

The sheets rose and fell, as the bodies underneath were entangled in the throes of lovemaking. Snow lay atop her husband, kissing him deeply and riding him in a sensual dance that had them lost in ecstasy. After leaving Andresia, they had enjoyed dinner at Granny's with their kids, before bringing Bobby and Summer home with them to their castle. They got their excited kids settled for the night and then were left their own devices, which as usual, led to amorous activities. They were glad to lose themselves in each other, for tomorrow morning, they would board the Jolly Roger and make good on their promise to work with Major Donovan. And facing a world that knew about them and who they were was not at all appealing. But as always, they would face it together.

As they collapsed together, David kissed her forehead and then rolled them over so she was beneath him, as he proceeded to kiss her again amidst the afterglow.

"So beautiful…" he rasped, as he kissed her throat and moved his way down, with her body writhing with every touch of his lips. The trembling in their bodies started to calm and Charming pulled himself from her depths, before settling beside her. Her green eyes flicked to his blue ones, as she remained facing him and pressed tightly against him.

"Are you worried about tomorrow?" Snow asked.

"A little…" he replied, as he kissed her palm

"But I think I'm more worried about what I found today," he admitted.

"Then the body you found...you didn't say so earlier, but you think Jekyll killed this person," she stated.

"I know he did...and probably just to send me a message. I found a snowdrop on the body," he revealed and she sobered at that.

"I feel like a failure...but I suppose that's exactly what he wants me to feel," he lamented.

"You are not a failure...you're my hero. You always are," she insisted.

"I know...I just don't know how I'm ever going to relax until I know he's dead and can never hurt you again," he replied.

"And you will. We defeated Seth and that's why he's hiding, probably holed up in some lab somewhere like the snake he is. He knows that facing you head on is an impossible win for him," she reminded him.

"Which is why he's experimenting with who knows what kinds of concoctions or drugs. The thought of him using something to torment you...I can't sit still," he said.

"And I worry about the same for you. I worry that he will use one of his drugs or creations to hurt you without even touching you," she replied.

"It's exactly what he wants," he realized.

"It is and though we won't be able to completely rest with him out there, I know we are both trusting in our love and really sticking it to him by being together and happy," she reasoned. He smiled and kissed her.

"I suppose you're right," he said. She smiled.

"I am in bed with my handsome husband, my Prince Charming, who just made incredible, passionate love to me and left me breathless and took me to the stars; something only he, being you, will ever do," she replied.

"And now, he's holding me in his arms and there is never anywhere else that I feel the most safe than his arms, he being you," she added.

"Our heart, that we share, beats in sync and my soul is entwined with yours. We're unbreakable...our love cannot be torn asunder. It's not possible and that's how I know peace," she said.

"Have faith...guess I need to take my own advice," he replied.

"Mmm...that's not the only thing I want you to take," she purred, as she hook her leg on his hip and watched his eyes glaze, as his body reacted to hers.

"Well...then I better not disappoint you, my darling," he said, as he rolled her onto her back.

"Oh, that's not possible with you, my love," she said fondly and then knew nothing but sheer pleasure and passion once again.

~*~

"And if you're just joining us, the world is still reeling from recent revelations that we are not alone in this world and no, we aren't talking about beings from another planet. We are talking about people from other places, whether you want to call it alternate dimension or universes, these people are those, until three days ago, that we thought to be fiction. Most of them were found in fairy tales, legends, and myths. And it's all been in this book," the reporter said, as she held up a white paperback book with the words Once Upon a Time emblazoned on it.

"Once Upon a Time, which was published more than seven years ago by a mysterious Henry Swan, is not the work of fiction it appears to be. We still have too many questions to name and our heads are still reeling from the battle just a few days ago. A battle where we saw magic and fairy tale characters save the world. While they are hardly the conventional super heroes we are used to seeing, the world is quite obsessed, whether it is with love or hate," she continued.

"According to various social media outlets and conspiracy theorists, who have now become the voice of reason, the leaders of these mysterious people will walk among us tomorrow. Word has it that they will arrive in Boston to meet with leaders of our country and the FBI. People are already in the streets to either welcome them or protest against them. Rest assured, no matter your views, we will be there to cover this historic event,"

At that point, the man listening to the broadcast muted the television and sipped at his expensive brandy. He was tall, with slicked back brown hair and chiseled features and hazel eyes.

"You've had the news on twenty-four seven for three days. They keep recycling the same story," a woman mentioned, as she entered. She was a beautiful blonde, with blue eyes and dressed in cargo pants and a khaki button down shirt.

"Digging in the dirt again?" he teased, noticing her dusty appearance.

"It was worth it. The jade I managed to get is a small fortune alone," she mentioned, as he poured her a drink and she accepted.

"Yes...another Jade mask and more ancient relics. The envy of any explorer...yet all the true treasures lay just out of our reach," he said angrily, as he finished his drink.

"Relax…" she chided.

"How can I? Even with this exposure, they are out of my reach! And it's my legacy!" he said. She sighed.

"That legacy and that collection is ultimately what got your father killed...both times," she reminded him.

"I don't need reminding or a lecture. All the reminder is right there," he hissed, as he pointed to the television that was showing various images of the two people known as David and Margaret Nolan, whom the world had just discovered were actually Snow White and Prince Charming. True loves, saviors of the world...and the reason for his father's demise, both times.

"The treasures from my father's collection...nothing in this world can compare to what's in Storybrooke," he lamented.

"Well, I'm no stranger to a good heist. We've done plenty of them, but we're talking a place with magic. We'd never make it past town square, let alone get to the Atlantis museum," she mentioned.

"True, but we would have a better chance if I had access to my legacy; my father's operation, which rests in that woman's hands," he said, pointing at the television, which now had an image of Major General Patricia Donovan, senior military official and FBI insider.

"So you still think she killed your sister?" the blonde asked.

"It's the only way she would have ever gained access to my father's operation. Cecily would have never just given it to her. No...she's the first step in getting back what's mine," he said.

"Then I guess we're going to Boston. Can I at least shower first?" she asked. He smirked at her.

"Sure...but you're a vision even like this," he replied. She rolled her eyes at that.

"You just want sex later," she retorted, as she made her way to the bathroom.

"Guilty," he agreed, as she went into the bathroom and he picked up his phone.

"Fuel the jet and tell the pilot we are leaving for Boston within the hour," he said to his assistant.

"Of course, Mr. Clayton. Just you and Ms. Zearing?" the assistant questioned.

"Yes...just the two of us," he replied, as he hung up and poured another drink.

~*~

The Jolly Roger made port in Boston that morning about nine, making the mere two hour journey from the United Realms. Thankfully, Patricia must have managed to make some kind of agreement with the Coastguard, because they were not chased into the Harbor this time. But the docks were crowded with spectators of all kinds, including apparent fans and protesters. The police were keeping them back at a safe distance, but the whole scene was surreal and a bit frightening.

On this trip, all five of their kids had come with them, plus Killian, Xander, Regina, Robin, Roland, Rumple, Belle, and Gideon. Everyone else had stayed behind for now, as they really had no idea how any of this was going to go. But by the looks of the crowd, the hype over them was definitely not going away anytime soon. Nora and JJ had accompanied them as well, as Boston was their home, though such would probably not remain that way for long.

"You're kind of famous it seems," JJ teased lightly and Summer smirked.

"Oh goody...that's going to be so much fun," she commented.

"Well, the fans have to be better than the haters, right?" he asked. She snorted.

"I wish...the fans can be worse. Trust me, my parents get way too much attention from both haters and fans. The haters usually just spout their hate verbally, but never much else, with a few exceptions. But the fans turn into stalkers like Drizella Tremaine and Dr. Jekyll," she replied. He nodded.

"Good point," he agreed.

"Ugh...look at those idiots. A bunch of bored housewives obsessed with a phony love story," Nora said.

"Phony?" Summer asked sharply. Nora smirked.

"Don't both defending your parents true love, sweet cheeks, because it's all a farce or it should be," Nora said.

"You may have come from true love, but I came from the opposite. One drunken night with two broken people, but because you came from true love, everyone believes you're special," she continued.

"But that kind of love doesn't belong in this world. Love may exist in the United Realms, but it doesn't out here. That's why you have bored housewives pining for something they'll never have. It's sad," Nora said.

"Love is not sad. My parents give people hope," Summer argued.

"Hope is a lie and their love is unattainable by most, yet people celebrate them. But some of us know the truth. That your world and this world will never mesh. Your world doesn't belong in this one," Nora said.

"Well, we're here so deal with it," Summer retorted.

"Oh I know...you've stolen my cousin from me. The only family I have," Nora replied.

"She hasn't stolen me, Nora," JJ snapped.

"Oh, so you're not moving to magic town?" Nora questioned and he went silent. She scoffed.

"That's what I thought. See you around," she said, as she left.

"I'm sorry," Summer said.

"Don't be...this is nothing new with her," he replied, as he walked down the gangplank and then offered his hand to help her. She smiled and accepted it.

"This is insane," David commented, as he hopped down from the gangplank and then held Snow's hand, before lifting her down, which seemed to make some of the crowd go crazy.

"Why are they so excited?" he wondered and she smiled at his obliviousness.

"Well...you're Prince Charming and you just did a very Charming thing," she replied.

"What? Helping you down?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" he added.

"Well, you would, because you're you and I hit the lottery in the husband department. A lot of women don't. For many people in this land, romance and love fade over time. But you and I never leave the honeymoon faze," she explained fondly, as she nuzzled her nose against his.

"My love and passion for you will never fade," he promised, as he kissed her and that seemed to make the crowd go crazy too. Which annoyed him.

"Yeah…that won't be annoying or anything," he said, as she chuckled and hooked her hand on his elbow, just as Patricia approached.

"Oh, this is funny to you?" he asked. She chuckled.

"A bit…" she admitted.

"Please tell me we're not having a meeting here," he said.

"Don't worry...I have cars waiting to take us to the Boston headquarters," she said, as they all got into the cars and arrived at headquarters shortly.

David had been there before obviously, but the last time he was, he didn't have his memories. So walking in and receiving stares from former co-workers was unnerving to say the least.

"I feel like we all have giant heads or something the way they're staring," Killian muttered to Emma. She smiled.

"Yeah…I hate the attention and I know dad does too, but at the same time, I want to know how this woman got access to Clayton's entire operation," she whispered back. He snorted.

"Probably not legally. I know your parents are above doing anything shady and we love them for that, but I think if we have the opportunity to get it all back, then we do it and lock the world out," he mentioned.

"I've already talked to Gold and it's definitely on the table. Mom and Dad will agree if they see a threat. They're ready to protect the United Realms," she assured.

"I don't doubt that, love...we just know they have a habit of being very forgiving as well," he warned.

"I know...but I think they've come to terms with their darker halves too. I don't think they'll be as apt to ignore them now," she said.

"Fair point," he agreed, as they followed the Major into the conference room and she shut the door.

"Before we go further...there's one thing I need to know," David stated.

"Ask away," Patricia replied.

"Did Cecily Clayton die so you could get access to Clayton's operation?" David asked.

"She did, but she was far from innocent and I didn't hesitate putting a bullet in her skull and feeding her the alligators," she replied bluntly.

"Oh my God…" Snow cried.

"I know that is blunt and cold, but trust me...I did you a favor by getting rid of her. She would have been out for full fledged revenge on all of you, especially you two," Patricia warned.

"Maybe...but it's hard to trust you when you've committed cold blooded murder," David replied. She smirked.

"And yet you trust the pirate, the queen, and the dark one implicitly," she countered.

"Bloody hell...she has you there," Killian quipped, earning him a nudge from Emma.

"Okay fine...but they've earned our trust over time. You have yet to do that so let's be up front. What do you want from us?" David asked, as they all took seats.

"When I first took over Clayton's operation, my goal was to gather information. That's what I do for this country. I gather Intel. But I soon realized that Clayton's operation goes far deeper than just his collection of magical items and beings," she replied.

"You mean the network of investors he spoke about and that we met when we were captive in Atlantis," Snow said. Patricia nodded.

"Clayton is dead, but his network is very much alive," she said.

"We know Cecily was smuggling ancient artifacts for his museum in Seattle," David replied.

"Oh, but it's much more than that. His investors come from all walks of life. They're embedded everywhere and now that your existence has come to light, they will do what they must to keep their secretive dealings a secret," she said, as she pressed a remote and the screen lit up with a ton of Intel and information.

"Illegal smuggling of artifacts is just the beginning. He had dealings with human traffickers, arms dealers, drug cartels, prostitution rings, and this world's worst scum," she said.

"And you want us to help take down Clayton's operation?" Xander asked.

"Yes...and you of all people know how dangerous he really was," she replied, as their eyes met in a cool stare.

"Now that everything's out in the open, I'm almost certain they'll try to get into the United Realms and someone will want everything in that museum. But we all know they won't stop there," she said.

"It's Atlantis all over again. They want their playground back and we're their toys," David said. She nodded.

"Where do we even start?" Regina asked. Patricia pressed a button on the remote and the image of a man appeared on screen.

"With Clayton's son…" she revealed, shocking them all...

[clairen45]

The Bridge Trope in Star Wars and what it may mean for IX

Besides being iconic markers in our daily lives, bridges are an awesome symbol:

transition and a boundary between sky and earth, life and death, real and imaginary, mortal and immortal,  good and evil, civilization and the wilderness,rich and poor, old and new

marking both a connection and a separation through time and space, between people, between places

Which is why, they are so easily used in stories as a decisive step in a hero’s journey, the Rubicon moment, the ultimate test, when through wit, trick, or strength, a bridgekeeper must be defeated. Let’s say it is a hero’s journey and fairy tale classic.

Add to that the fact that bridges are quite the war movie cliché, they are obvious landmarks to destroy, and vital targets to control. Destroying a bridge often means isolating and weakening the enemy, depriving it from communication and food, water, or medical supplies.

So, of course, we get to meet the bridge trope again and again in Star Wars. And, more often than not, the bridges we get are bridges of Death. From the Phantom Menace’s Duel of the Fates

To Han’s death in The Force Awakens.

It is actually fitting to say that both scenes constitute an interesting framing for the Skywalker saga. Duel of the Fates is a very apt name for the beginning of the saga. Remember that Anakin’s name is etymologically “Ananke”, that is to say Fate, Destiny. Anakin’s fate is in the balance there, and the end result of who gets to become his Master and teaching him about the Force is key. Had Qui Gon lived, possibly, there would not have been any Vader. As for, Han’s death in TFA, the constant play of words between sun and son, and the not so subtle imagery of light and darkness, is supposedly all about Kylo’s fate. If Qui Gon’s death is possibly the first step towards the fate that will turn sweet lovable Anakin munchkin into big bad Vader, Han’s death is the counterpart of this scene, thus the first step towards big bad Kylo turning eventually into lovable Ben Solo. And just as it took three movies to realize the Fate of Anakin, it will take three movies to realize the Fate of Ben Solo. But I digress. Or not.

Because both stories, which interact like mirror images of each other, are perfectly hinged around two other crucial bridge scenes. One in ESB. And one in ROTJ. You know what I’m talking about, right?

And these two are also counterparts. ESB’s bridge scene is Luke’s symbolic death scene: learning the truth about his father, and losing his hand, he would rather choose death and commit suicide. ROTJ’s bridge scene is Vader’s death and Anakin’s redemption, with Luke accepting the truth, Vader losing a hand, and choosing to save his son’s life. Even the placement of the actors emphasize this idea of mirror image. So Luke gets his Troll Bridge twice: he fails the test the first one, falling to the chasm and falling apart, and succeeds the second time around. Doing what? Throwing away his saber. Choosing love. Refusing to kill.

But I would also like to stress out that, from a certain point of view, Luke is not the only one who gets tested there on the Troll Bridge. Anakin, just like his son, also fails the first test and passes the second. In ESB, he has little to no love to offer and tempt Luke to his side: he offers the vague promises of the power of the dark side and ruling the galaxy together (which didn’t work with Padmé either). In effect, he is selfish, abusive, scarring his son physically and psychologically, and does not seem too distressed when Luke lets go and falls “presumably” to his death. In ROTJ, he chooses the losing side, standing against the Emperor to save his son’s life, which he knows, will eventually cost him his life. Thus, he is showing empathy and remorse, and saves Luke through a selfless act of love.

Yep, that is what the OT is about.

And, arguably, these two scenes constitute the very axis around which the other two trilogies are built. Hence my first “digression”.

It is also very interesting to note that in the four cases exemplified so far, the “bridges” in question are seemingly “reactor cores”, excuse my tech ignorance. These scenes are never about bridges out in the open, over a river, connecting two shores. They are always played out over a chasm, surrounded with energy fields, in dark environments with a possible fall into a bottomless abyss... Two possible interpretations:

because they are battle of the brains, moral battle of good versus evil within oneself. Inner battles. Think grey cells, cerebellum connections, as a map for these duels.

because they are battle of the heart. Issues of love. “core”

Honestly, I think they both go together!

Symbolically, they are your typical “choose the right path” bridges, the life and death, good vs evil bridges.

The many bridges of Luke

If you actually consider the OT, Luke’s journey is very much rhythmed by a series of bridges. Which might seem ironic for a boy coming from a desert planet with no water, and thus, no use or concept for bridges (besides rocky arch formation such as we see during the pod race in PM). But consider the last name GL decided to give him: SKYWALKER. That was not the orginial name he had chosen, right, since in first drafts Luke was called “Starkiller”. Consider then what a huge difference it makes when you move from a very martial moniker “Star/killer”, which is all about destroying life and light (and Luke actually comes from “light” etymologically speaking) to choose something that means: the one that walks the skies. Not flies. WALKS. And if you walk the skies, chances are you are walking on a bridge of some kind (like mythological rainbow bridges). Crossing a bridge is very much akin to walking the sky: you are suspended between heaven and earth. So even the name GL chose for his star family is all about “walking” on bridges.

The “bridge” moment in ANH is rather brief, but quite interesting. It is actually the “NO BRIDGE” moment, the one when Luke and the Princess find themselves locked out with no crossing, and stormtroopers shooting at them. This moment:

What does it reveal about Luke? His ingenuity, since he uses his farmboy utility belt to cross the bridge, but then also his instincts, the fact that he can rely on his roots (what he learned as a farmboy), his audacity, his ability to take a leap of faith (something that will play out later in his relationship with his father). But it also sets him apart as a different kind of hero. The NOT MY LUKE people should really pay attention to these details. Sure, he plays the hero, saves the damsel and everything, but in this scene they work together, she also gets to protect them, he trusts her with defending them, she is the one giving him a kiss for luck. This is very positive masculinity. Heroic, but not pushy. Manly, but respectful of women. Physical but also using his brain. Luke is such a dear.

In ESB, the big bridge moment is the one I already referred to. The moment of truth. Having these two characters on a bridge is very clever of course. It’s all about meeting in the middle. A bridge is by essence a balancing act. Can they meet halfway or will they cut all connections? Can opposites reconcile? Will they connect/reconnect? What better way to talk about human emotion and love than put them on a bridge, the very metaphor for communication, leap of faith, and the possible danger of reaching out to the other with your feelings?

But ROTJ goes even further with the bridge metaphor. Going with this when Luke reveals the truth to Leia...

To carry on with Leia and Han, where Han shows more of his emotions ans proves how supportive and selfless he can be when he is just there to comfort her in the end, putting away his jealousy and self-doubts:

Followed with this, for Luke and Vader’s first meeting since ESB when Luke calls him “father” for the first time and tries to bring him back:

To conclude with the bridge sequence already mentioned when Vader chooses to be Anakin all over again.

WOW.

And where does it all take Luke? To a water planet with NO bridges. Seriously. When VII opens, Luke has chosen to sever, metaphorically speaking, all the links to others. As if he had chosen to destroy every bridge that could connect him to Leia and the rest of the world. And when we see him going about the island, there are no bridges. He jumps from one cliff to the other. Interesting thing is on The Art of The Last Jedi you get to see some of the art concepts that they had for Ahch-To that included a lot of variation on bridges:

But eventually they went for the very design that removed any bridge from the place that Luke has chosen to spend the remaining days of his life until his death. Which is, I must say, a very good choice. He disconnected himself from the Force, he disconnected from people he loved not telling them where he hid, it made absolutely no sense to put him on a place that was covered with bridges. The bridges were meant to be burned.

That is... until one very last moment. Which is the perfect segway into my next chapter... Until the end. When he projects himself for one final face-off with his nephew. And that is a big bridge metaphor about reaching out across the stars. And we know that when Luke is on a bridge with someone he loves, this doesn’t mean harm or spite or revenge. Or even fighting. Bridges in SW are not so much about fancy duels as they are about love. Yep, even in PM. There is the love that Obi-Wan (yes, even a Jedi) feels for his master, and the need to extend and take care of a little boy that is all alone in this galaxy. A leap of faith. Love. Which means...

The ST is about crossing that bridge

Yes, there are bridges in the ST. And how Kylo and Rey are going to be able to cross over and meet each other. Let me explain. This happens at the end of VII:

Visually, it tells us that there seems to be no possible bridge between the two characters. Yet, the whole point is that they keep on looking towards each other. The bridge,aka the connection, is their eyes (mirrors of the soul yadiyada). And sure enough, comes VIII, and the bridge is there. WTF, will you say? What bridge are you raving about. Well... that one...

The Force bond.

And how do I presume calling this a bridge? Because...

It was I who bridged your minds

Interesting choice of words. But there it is. Put it as plainly and simply as you possibly can. The Force bond is a bridge, a spiritual bridge between Kylo and Rey. That’s quite something, right?

Which means that, there may be some physical crossing of some kind in IX. Now, I don’t want to be presumptuous and declare for sure, but it would seem like a logical concept. And on Vic Mahoney’s moodboard...on the left, some of the pictures seem very bridgelike...

And that’s also where I want to bring in that clever little TV kid show called Star Wars Rebels.

Take it to the Bridge

So Star Wars Rebels came before the release of TFA, in 2014, merely two years after Disney bought LF and therefore all the rights to Star Wars. Let’s look at what they did there and let’s wonder why. I don’t think that it was a random move on their part. They could, after all, have imagined something that took place right before TFA, or come up with the many adventures of Luke and the gang, or even spend more time on the Clone Wars, or go way back in the Old Republic. But no 14 years after ROTS, 5 years before ANH, is the time they chose. And came up with a totally new gang we had never heard of. Except that... well... the new gang got to meet A LOT of familiar faces. From all over the place: Hondo, Rex, Ahsoka, Vader, Leia, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Obi-Wan, Darth Maul, Yoda, Lando, C3P0 and R2, Palpatine, just to name a few... The point is that they get to meet people from the PT AND people from the OT. Thus (you know where this is going) bridging story lines. And, surprise surprise, what special name did they choose for their hero? Ezra Bridger. Gosh, that’s not even subtle, there. And by the way, what does Ezra mean? Helper. So Ezra helps bridging... aka, Star Wars Rebels helps bridging, connecting, if you will storylines. Towards a logical conclusion. And what is this conclusion, pray? The ST of course. And who stands on the bridge? Kylo and Rey.

Even better, what particular storyline did they preciously choose to keep to conclude this new Star Wars story:

the return of the Mortis Arc, balance

the World between worlds, and its very specific bridges that cross through time and space, and the possibility to alter the past/future, plus bringing back loved ones

looking for knowledge (last time I checked it was not so much about knowledge in the PT and OT). But Ezra’s story is all about knowledge.

love and sacrifice, saving the people you love (Ahsoka, Kanan, Ezra), and, come on, Hera and Kanan’s baby (by the way, Kanan is very reminiscent of Canaan, the Promised Land, so keep the prophetic aspect in mind)

Again, how will it play out in IX? I have some ideas but I really can’t tell whether it will show up or not. There have been rumors about an artifact (very SW Rebels) that would require both Kylo and Rey’s powers. So knowledge. So possibly with notions of Mortis implied in there (balance). Love, sacrifice, we have discussed a lot. Remain the bridges. I can totally envision an important scene taking place on a bridge, with Kylo and Rey embracing, or running to each other, or holding hands while everything else around them crumbles. I can also imagine a bridge playing out with an intimate scene as we got in ROTJ in the Ewok village, something akin to the terrace where Anakin and Padmé first kiss on Naboo and finally get married. Again, the film has already been shot. So too late for that already and there’s a fat chance that it won’t even happen. But since we got a bridge of death in VII with Han’s death, we need a bridge of light.

Which might just turn out to be the symbolic bridge of Rey and Kylo coming together and finally uniting the light and the dark sides...

Leaving Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water behind as a great Reylo vibe. Seriously. Reylo vibe, guys!!!!

When you're weary, feeling small When tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough And friends just can't be found Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down

When you're down and out When you're on the street When evening falls so hard I will comfort you I'll take your part, oh, when darkness comes And pain is all around Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down

[btschooseafic]

Hey you, what’s your dream?

Pairing: platonic!oc x ot7

Details: manager!oc, predebut/idolverse, partial BTS World!verse

Summary: There’s no shortage of hard work as they get closer to their debut, with a album photo jacket shoot and a music video shoot.

Warnings: This is a fictional story based on real events. The characters presented here are not the same as their real life counterparts. (tw: small diet mention) [masterlist]

Track 21: Hard work / Part 1 / Part 2

After the Storm-Kali Uchis ft. Tyler The Creator & Bootsy Collins

“The sun’ll come out, nothing good ever comes easy

I know times are rough, but winners don’t quit”

April 26th 2013

There was a knock on her office door. Aviva squinted at it. Usually the boys and Soonyoung just rushed in like the owned the place. The only people who tended to knock were her sunbaenims, none of whom she wanted to deal with at the moment. Maybe if she didn’t answer they would go away? The knocking grew more persistent.

She sighed and got up to answer the door.

She and Jin stared at each other for a moment.

“I’ve come for a meeting of the moms,” he said.

“…What?”

“A meeting of the moms,” he repeated. “Also, I brought lunch.” He held up a heavy looking plastic bag.

“…I’m interested.” She motioned him inside.

They sat down on her couch, slurping up soup.

“So,” Jin said, finishing his soup and putting the empty container down on the floor. “I’m worried about our children. Jungkookie has caught another cold. He’s been struggling with his vocals. And he was already worried about being behind in dance because of that knee injury last month.”

Her brow furrowed. “He didn’t mention any of that me.”

“He didn’t want to worry you, since you’ve been so busy recently.”

“I’m never too busy to help you guys,” she said.

He smiled sadly.

“You should be, sometimes,” he said. “Sometimes you have to take care of yourself before you take care of others, you know. Have you been sleeping at all? You’ve been drinking nearly as much coffee as Yoongi-yah, and that scares me.”

“He hasn’t been sleeping,” Aviva thought. “I mean, even more than usual.”

Jin grimaced. “Most of us haven’t been. He and Namjoon-ah are producing every hour of the day. Hoseok-ah spends his time split between helping them and dancing. I know you’ve been bringing him and Jiminie healthy snacks. Do you really have time for that with all the meetings you’ve been having lately?”

“Tae said they haven’t really been eating because they’re worried about looking good for the photoshoot tomorrow,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to push them, but if there’s anything I can do to help…”

“You can lean on me a little,” he told her. “Let’s switch off. I can make snacks on some days, you can make snacks on the other days.” He tapped his chin. “Ah, and Jiminie is worried he’s breaking out again, so I asked my dermatologist and she said leafy greens, berries, and sweet potato are good foods to incorporate into a clear skin promoting diet.” Aviva reached over and squeezed his hand.

“Let’s cook together.”

He blinked at her. “Sweet potatoes?”

She laughed. “If you want to, but I meant dinner. We’re free tomorrow night. It could be a bit of a celebration for all your hard work, and a break from all the craziness.”

“Our hard work,” he corrected her. “But, yeah, that sounds nice. You—“ He tapped her on the nose, laughing as it crinkled. “—In particular, could use a break—you didn’t even come to Lotte World with us last month!”

She shrugged. “I’m glad you guys had a day off, but I don’t like rollercoasters.”

“Neither does Jiminie, but he still came with us,” Jin pointed out.

“And he was horrified, by the sounds of it,” Aviva countered.

Jin nodded. “And it was hilarious.”

She whacked him on the arm. He laughed.

Album Photo Jacket Shoot, 2 Cool 4 Skool-April 27th 2013

Aviva didn’t envy the boys, waking up early to get dressed multiple times to hold poses under bright flashing lights.

She did her best to work hard too, walking around with her camera, hoping to get some fun clips for a behind the scenes video. She held back a laugh as she filmed Yoongi, Jungkook, and Jimin all pronounce their image in the group shot the best.

“Suga-ssi is the most handsome,” Yoongi insisted. Aviva couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore. Yoongi grinned at her.

“Well, who do you think looks the best, manager-noona?” Jimin wondered, pouting at her.

“You all look good,” she said. They gave her disbelievingly looks.

“Don’t be diplomatic, tell us the truth!” Jimin said.

“No, really,” she said. “You all have something good about you. Jungkookie does this cool thing with his eyes when he gets serious…” Jungkook blushed slightly, smiling. “Jiminie, you somehow manage to perfectly blend ‘cute’ and ‘sexy’.” Jimin held his hands over his face, squeaking. “And Yoongi-yah… when you smile, I can’t help but smile too.”

“…You’re too fucking cheesy,” Yoongi muttered, also blushing.

“So I’ve been told…” She sighed, glancing at her camera. “I’m definitely going to have to cut that last thirty seconds out.”

“What? Why?” Jimin uncovered his face. “I want all of our fans to hear you call me ‘cute’ and ‘sexy.’”

“Not going to happen,” she told him. “Where’s Tae? I haven’t got a shot of him yet.”

“I think he was getting his hair done,” Jimin told her.

Aviva got a shot of Hoseok laughing at Tae, who had somehow fallen asleep while he was getting his hair done. Hoseok then tried on his spiky mask for her, forcing her to hold back her laughter again.

Later, she asked Jin and Taehyung who they thought looked the best in the group shot, thinking it’d make a good follow up to the earlier clip she had filmed.

“Hmm. Either Jiminie or Suga,” Jin said thoughtfully.

“I thought Hoseok-hyung was the coolest,” Tae said, smiling.

That night, Aviva and Jin cooked up a storm.

It took some convincing, but between the smell of the food, and Aviva reluctantly agreeing to watch Taehyung’s favorite horror flick, they all ended up on the couch, eating and watching.

Jimin and Hoseok were latched onto each other, jumping and screeching at every little thing. Taehyung and Jungkook teased them relentlessly. Namjoon and Yoongi snickered.

“It’s not just us!” Jimin huffed, crossing his arms. “Jin-hyung and Avi-noona are jumpy too!”

“Avi-yah is worse!” Jin said. “She’s shaking!”

“It is scary,” she admitted. “But also, I’m cold…”

“Here.” Yoongi wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side. “I’ll keep you warm.”

Jimin snickered. “So cool and sexy.” He wrapped his arm around Hoseok’s shoulders, wiggling his eyebrows. “I’ll keep you warm~”

Everyone laughed except for Jin.

“Somebody get her a blanket or something,” he said.

“Um…” Namjoon glanced around and then pulled up a black Obey hoodie from the back of the couch. Taehyung leaned over and sniffed it. Namjoon shot him an odd look.

“It’s clean,” Taehyung announced, giving him a thumb’s up. Namjoon shook his head, smiling as he tossed the hoodie at Aviva, hitting her in the face. He winced.

“Sorry, Viva.”

“It’s okay.” She pulled it over her head.

“Hmm, you always look cute in my clothes,” Hoseok said appreciatively. Yoongi frowned.

“But that’s my hoodie.”

“Isn’t it mine?” Jungkook thought. The three of them looked at each other in confusion.

May 16th 2013

Aviva was working on editing promotional material in her office when Jimin suddenly came bursting in, dragging Hoseok with him.

“Hobi-hyung hurt his knee!” Jimin said, plopping Hoseok down on her couch.

“Again?” Aviva said, her brow furrowing.

“It’s the other knee,” Jimin told her. “Last week it was the left, this week it’s the right.”

“I’m fine,” Hoseok said, smiling easily at them.

“Let me see.” She came over and kneeled down in front of him, studying his bloodied knee. “Hmmm. Doesn’t seem too bad… let me just disinfect it and get you a Band-Aid. You want a Pokemon one?”

“Yes!”

After she cleaned up his wound and applied the bandage, she noticed him looking expectantly at her. “What?”

“Aren’t you going to kiss it better?” He blinked innocently at her. She rolled her eyes.

“That’s not very sanitary, Hobi.” Nevertheless, she pecked him on the forehead as she stood up. Jimin pouted.

“What about me?” He asked.

“Are you hurt too?” Aviva wondered. “I hope not.”

“I’m not…” Jimin sighed.

“Well, we’d better get back to practice,” Hoseok thought, standing up, and squeezing Aviva’s shoulder before heading for the door. He glanced back at Jimin. “Are you coming?”

“Ah… go on without me, I just want to talk to manager-noona for a minute.”

“…Okay,” Hoseok said, shooting Jimin a suspicious look as he left.

“What’s up, Jiminie?” Aviva said, sitting down on the couch and patting the spot next to her.

He chewed at his lip. “It’s Tae. Are we gonna announce him soon? You should’ve seen how sad he was earlier when we filmed the group vlog without him… He was just standing in the corner, just out of the shot…” He sighed.

“I think they’ll let us announce him by June at the earliest,” Aviva told him apologetically.

“Okay.” Jimin grimaced and stood up. “Oh! There was one other thing.”

“Yeah?”

“When we were reading the posts about our MV shoot coming up, one fan said she would make us lunchboxes.”

“I saw that in your vlog. It’s sweet… but also kind of a security risk,” Aviva thought.

Jimin nodded.

“I thought you’d say that. So… you think you could make lunchboxes for us instead?”

Aviva smiled. “I’ll see what I can do.”

[thatbangtanbloom]

all that glitters || bts [3]

all that glitters | bangtan

prologue | chapter one|chapter two|chapter three

Characters: Jungkook, Taehyung, Namjoon, Jimin, Yoongi, Hoseok, Seokjin, Reader

AU(s): 1920s!AU, Mafia!AU, Historical!AU

Word Count: 3,255

Late springs in New York always proved to be grueling. Clouds lined the somewhat aesthetic atmosphere, hiding away the rain that would inevitably fall. There were the rainy days, causing havoc on the shabbily remodeled apartment buildings, with water leaking through thin roofs. Children were often inclined to pull daisies from people’s flowerbeds and said flowerbed owners often found themselves yelling at the aforementioned. The busy hustle and bustle meant daylight rising earlier and people leaving for work to get a head start on life, to achieve the American dream that was allegedly promised to those daring enough to take a risk. For many, spring symbolized new beginnings. For many, every cloud had its own silver lining.

Yet, you could not find your silver lining. Your routine, however habitual it may have been, was welcoming. You liked waking up at five in the morning to catch the bus to the nearest train station and then squeeze into the metro for a thirty-minute commute to downtown New York. You liked stopping at Sears and Roebuck to buy yourself a sandwich and spend ten cents on a strawberry milkshake for your lunch before reporting to the Yankees Stadium to catch any practicing players for interviews. You also liked working overtime at your small cubicle, just to make the same amount as your male counterparts. You liked having a routine. Until you no longer did.

Gone were the days of your usual routine, because it seemed that the Bangtan Boys were squeezing themselves into every crevice of your life. You noticed the raven-haired boy lingering near the metro station with glasses over his face at six-fifteen in the morning on Fifth Avenue. It was hard to ignore the blonde haired man in Sears and Roebuck as you ordered your strawberry milkshake when his eyes never left your figure, ignoring the waitress when she asked him what clubhouse sandwich he would like. And when you attempted to leave from work at the later time, there was an impressionable car at the corner with its lights on, that always turned off the moment your head peaked outside.

To put it simply, you did not see a single silver lining.

Taehyung was inclined to think clouds had their own silver linings too, especially with your monogrammed memo pad burning a hole into his freshly imported Guccio Gucci suit. His hair that once was an ash gray was now dyed black, matching his own busy eyebrows to give him a colloquial look. Though, it be in vain, for his features were not common in the hustle and bustle of New York City.. but it would do.

Ever since your little game of cat and mouse began a week ago in the speakeasy, Taehyung has been working around the clock to plan a way to lure you back to the speakeasy. He had dropped hints purposely, leaving a single flower at your desk with a note tied to it in efforts to draw you back. He had considered the idea of having Jungkook do the honors of returning your memopad, but the younger boy was shyer than he would like to admit and time was money. Every action one of the seven members partook in was a building block for the enterprise.

So here he was, arriving at your place of work only ten minutes before your regularly scheduled lunchtime with a single bouquet of flowers in his hand and a blue box dangling between his fingers as he walks over the steps and smiles prettily at the secretary.

“O-oh,” She is awestruck when her eyes fall over his dark alluring eyes and his masculine features. She can barely breathe when she notices how deep he stares into her, almost as though he could stare through her.

Taehyung knows that she is not the first woman to fall privy to his charms, so he does not hesitate for a moment to use them against hers. He had one objective and one objective alone - to get to you and to find out what information that you knew. “Darling,” He purrs and she swears that he is the devil incarnate himself. “My… my doll works here and I wished to surprise her. Her name’s Y/N L/N… Is it possible for me to go up there and visit her, darling?”

“Y-yes. Of course. Y/N? She should be on the third floor…” She stutters as Taehyung nods at her every word. She wonders if all men are able to stare that intensely and keep a platonic gaze. She thinks that he is one of one. “S-she covers the sports column from time to time, so she should be out-”

Taehyung sends her his prized boxy smile and he knows that she is a goner. “Darling, do you know if she is upstairs or not? I would hate to have come all the way to visit my dollface and she is not here…” His tone is sultry as he caresses each syllable of each word with his tongue. “Can I just.. Can I just go up there to see her?”

“O-of course! Let me just write you a small note…” She is absolute putty in his hands. She practically trips over herself writing down your cubicle number and department before batting her lashes up at him. “And if she is not here… feel free to come back and keep me company.”

Taehyung only winks in reply, not giving a verbal confirmation. As beautiful as she was, Taehyung had bigger fish to fry. You were at the top of his list, and he would be damned if he would let you escape him for a second time.

“For the last time, do you think Miller Huggins would let Chick Autry bat over Wally Schang? He is a seasoned player.” You lament with a frown as you sit down across from your editor of the sports column, Calvin Bush. He was three years your senior and biologically male to the point where he felt that it was quintessential to run everything by him first. At times, you questioned if he actually took anything that you said seriously or if he only disagreed with you because you did not have the same biological makeup as him.

Calvin scoffs in response as he rolls up his sleeves, glancing over the New York Times’ sports statistics and shakes his head. “Look, I get it. You’re trying to commit yourself to the big leagues, but do not let a pretty face fool you. Chick Autry is the present. Wally Schang is the past. Do you think that because Schang has more experience that he has more precision? That doesn’t suggest causation.”

“I could say the same for you,” You murmur under your breath as you sit back down in front of your typewriter. You were certain Wally Schang would be played against the Washington Senators before Chick Autry would. Breakout star or not, Schang had the consistency that Autry lacked. “Autry was just recruited a couple of weeks ago. He may have the tenacity and the ambition, but precision is something he lacks. We’ve seen that in how he can only bat with his right.”

He pauses, as though considering your words. He did have a point. While Autry was a top pick, it was news that he was having trouble adjusting from his school league to the Majors. But who was he to let a woman one-up him that much? “Not everyone can be as skilled as Schang..” He ends up conceding, deciding to focus his attention on the way your shoulders look under your blouse. That was one perk of the job. “Say, so you think that we could discuss Schang’s greatness a bit more at Sears?”

“That is exactly what I was saying,” You reply, thinking that Calvin had reached some sense in his head. You do not even notice the hidden meaning of his words. You sigh as you go back to writing your article, being greeted with the Courier font before you hear the clearing of your throat.

“I do not believe I appreciate you staring at my woman that way.” A voice says from in front of you and your eyes furrow.  A bouquet of roses blocks your view of the man who spoke and you frown. You certainly were not anyone’s woman but your own.

Calvin scoffs in reply as he stands up straight to meet the gaze of the taller man. He almost feels intimidated, observing the tweed suit that the unfamiliar man wears and how deep the timbre of his voice is. “I did not know that she was taken.”

“Well now you do.” The voice quips with a slight scoff before the owner of the voice kneels in front of you to place the bouquet of flowers into your arms. “My doll.. Mon chéri, my Y/N… I have missed you so.” He purrs into your ear while sending daggers to Cavin. You immediately recognize that purr from anywhere and you know that it is none other than the silver-haired man from the bar… well, now the black-haired man at the bar.

“I am not taken.” You deadpan before unwrapping Taehyung’s arms from your body before standing up. Your blood runs cold that he has managed to know where your job is… Well, it was not very hard for him, considering that it was the only other address that your roommates, Elizabeth and Margot, had given him. “Please leave.”

Taehyung forces a tight-lipped smile as he notices Calvin’s lingering interest before pulling you into a tight embrace. His chest is warm and welcoming despite his intimidating aura. He pulls you between the small aisle and places a soft kiss to your forehead before whispering softly into your ear, “Would you rather waste your time with bluenose* over here or would you like to get information on that Bangtan Rouge place you’ve been scoping?” His voice is low enough so that only you could hear it and your heart skips a beat at how close he holds you. “You’re not a damsel in distress, but some of them won’t take a hint.”

You hate how well he reasons with you, but you concede with the agreement that he will give you the information that you want. “It sure is the berries*.” You murmur as you pull away from him and force a smile. “Can we talk about this in private?”

“I thought you would never ask, baby.” Taehyung absorbs himself all too quickly into the role as your quarreling lover and passes you the flowers before sending one last glare to Calvin like any self-respecting actor would before grabbing your jacket and placing it onto your shoulders. “Let’s go.”

The atmosphere is tense as Taehyung immediately sits in the corner of the Sears and Roebuck with your memo pad still burning a hole in his pocket. He is smirking at you as though you hold the key to all of his problems, and quite frankly, you do. The elder members of the group had been ridiculing him from letting you get away in the first place when he had the largest window of opportunity of bumping you off*.

“You promised to tell me about Bangtan Rouge.” You grumble after you have taken three half-hearted bites into your club sandwich. It was unsettling that Taehyung had paid for you when you knew that you were a fully autonomous woman. Sure, it was 1924, but you would be damned by letting this man upend your life without lifting a snap of his figure.

Taehyung smirks, his red lips contouring into the perfect arch to display his amusement. “I did promise to tell you about Bangtan Rouge, but I think that it is necessary that you tell me first what you know. Would it not be a drag if I just rattled off everything that I know?”

“I think you are pulling my leg here.” You retort with another bite of your sandwich. You glance out to the window, noticing the way that the school children begin to file their way in, immediately running to the candy machines to deposit nickels and dimes to attain sugary euphoria. You wish that Taehyung was that easy to satisfy. “Why would we beat around the bush? I am well aware that you came here to ask me what I know, and the truth is, I know nothing.”

Taehyung scoffs as he leans back into the faux leather suits. He looks like a million dollars, seemingly out of place in the small time diner. You notice how his eyes soften at the sight of the kids playing so happily and you almost forget that he is a complete stranger to you who quite possibly has your very existence’s timeline in his hands. “Then you would not mind telling that to my Boss.”

“Your Boss?” You nearly scoff in reply at the idea of meeting someone who one openly referred to as ‘Boss’. That was the classic signature for mafia talk. The very last person that you wished to meet was Boss.

Taehyung smirks before he eyes your sandwich and slides the small ceramic plate in front of him to take an eager bite before letting his arm relax on the back arm rest. “Yes. Don’t worry, we have no intentions of making you a moll*.”  

“Moll?” You yelp in surprise before Taehyung leans forward to cover your mouth with his hand to silence you. The very idea of being called one shook you to your core and you could not even fathom such things. “I am not and nor will I ever--”

Taehyung finds it amusing to see you freak out in such a way. To put it simply, he thought of you as the cat’s meow. He did not know many women who were not as entangled in life in the underground as you, but he did know a self-respecting girl when he saw one. It was not to say that he did not respect the women he often frequented with, but it was less prominent than how he felt it with you. “You’re a regular sheba*, you know?” He replies with a small grin as his brows wiggle suggestively at the way you eagerly drink your milkshake. “It’s a shame that you witnessed such things. Though, I’ve always wanted a girl with a deadline.”

“I am not that girl.” You retort as you force yourself to look away from Taehyung and his evident prowess. Something about him was overwhelming, and you are unsure if it is his attractiveness or his level of conceitedness.  “I am only a girl who wants to be the head editor and bring back the Times to where it should be. If you are not going to give me the information that I desire or patronize me, do not waste my time.” You reply before putting down your milkshake and forking out a couple bills onto the table.

Taehyung chokes on the sandwich at the sudden statement, “I beg your pardon?”

“I do not know who you are, nor what you are capable of… but I will not let that deter me.” You reply adamantly before you swallow your courage and force yourself to walk around the booth and kneel over him. “All my life, men have tried telling me what to do, when to get married, who to marry, how many children I should have, and practically dictate my entire life without my say in it. You will not be one of those men.”

And Taehyung sits there, utterly gobsmacked and surprised that you had the courage to speak to him that way when your fate is dictated by a mere tug of a string from his hands. Yet, he finds himself all the more intrigued in you. It is almost instantaneous, as he watches you leave the Sears and Roebuck and cross the street fiercely through the crowd of businessman and schoolchildren. He almost thinks you look like something off a silver screen, a modern-day woman. And if he did not realize it before, he definitely knows that he will not let you go anywhere now.

The rest of your day remains uneventful as you go through the motions of listening out the latest statistics of the New York Yankees in your all-too familiar best friend of Courier Font until the lights outside have begun to grow dark. You are left even more unsatisfied as you hear the dewdrops crash against the glass window, distorting your margins and forcing you to groan when you have to start over every so often because of your perfectionist tendencies. You curse yourself, knowing that you would have to run to the subway to try to avoid getting pneumonia, much less in the dark.  You had been warned many times about leaving so late, especially alone, but you were a strong woman. A couple years in Chicago had taught you what it meant to grow tough after leaving your original small town.

Though, you are more surprised to find someone waiting for you when you leave the building with a dimpled smile and an umbrella in his hands. You do not recognize him from anywhere, but you can not help but grow weary as you think back to Taehyung’s statement of you needing to meet his boss. Had this been him?

“Y/N L/N?” His voice is softer than you expect, matching the gentle tone of his voice as his deep brown eyes meet yours. You immediately wreck your brain to try to remember him seeing from before but draw nothing.

You swallow hard before nodding slowly. “That would be me, but who is asking?” You ask, a bit nervous to hear his reply.

“Someone who you will be knowing well in the future.” He says with a soft chuckle, as though he has told you the most charming joke in the world before he hands you a small, beige packaged envelope and the umbrella. “I believe this is something that belongs to you, but I have conditions. Review them and get back to me in three days if you want it to be worth your while.”

You do not even have to open it to know what is inside as you awkwardly hold the umbrella in your hand. You are no longer the one being drenched in water, but now it is him, standing six feet tall with his beige trench coat. He looks like he stepped out of a silver screen film. “I do not wish to have any part in this.”

“It is not a choice.” He replies with a smirk on his face before shaking his head. His voice is sweet like velvet, sickeningly sweet to the point where you question if it is stable to have such thoughts cross your mind. “Do you think that we chose this? It chooses you.. And, you, my lovely butterfly, are our latest addition.”

And that was the last words he spoke to you before climbing into his car and disappearing into the night. You almost wish that you would have been alone until you open up the envelope slowly to look into its contents - your lovely monogrammed memopad with a single note attached to it.

Even angels come down to play with demons at times.

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

1920s Decade Specific Terms:

Bluenose - prude

Berries - something that is attractive of pleasing

To bump off - to murder

Moll - a gangster’s girl

Sheba - a woman with sex appeal

- - - - - - - -

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