#another nate post because i love him

[itspyon]

compilation post of commentary youtubers talking about dream, no drummyaches edition !

note, i might not exactly like 100% of the things said in these videos BUT they ultimately redeemed dream to a very large audience

starting with i think is the most viewed video right now, Will Dream's Response Actually Fix Anything? by Lessons in Meme Culture. it's 2:40 minutes long and the point is simply to open conversation about him being able to successfully redeem himself, but it has a lovely comment section if you want to scroll through that

Dream Just Responded To Everything by AugustTheDuck, had already spoken about Dream pretty positively, lovely guy, lovely summary [ touches earpiece the main studio is telling me august actually was a dream hater but turned around recently, so noting that down ]

Dream's Response was Perfect, But... by EntLaiser, who previously made a video actually speaking negatively of Dream, completely changed his opinion and talked about how meme culture is being used to justify mass harassment, along with being nice to Dream stans and defending them

Pyrocynical made a video. its bad. don't watch it. he gets cooked in the comments though so that's okay. Acheeto also made a video but i don't like the guy so i'm not linking that either, but it was a good video

Dream Finally Responded To The Allegations by sensitive soci3ty. i really like this video but i especially like the comments that bring up a lot of great points, it was refreshing scrolling through them

LIES! by Omni. Omni is really big on the commentary community so his input is valued, this video is long and goes through a lot of unrelated stuff because it's a news segment, but i linked to the timestamp he talks about Dream. it is long, it is thorough, he READS THE DESCRIPTION which i haven't seen anyone do, pretty good

Dream Might Actually Be Innocent by Saverino. this guy is like, the perfect representation of "i only consumed Dream content through social media for years", the most passive onlooker in the world. and his video is awesome, he took a lot of notes, he resumed Dream's video pretty well, and i feel the way he thinks of Dream is how people will look at dream from now on

Dream Finally Responded by Dolan Dark. it's a slob but it's fucking Dolan Dark and he says he believes he's innocent so who cares W for us

other creators we already know and knew they believed Dream, Hot Sauce Beats did a live reaction and so did Nate Alyn if you'd like to go and support them

Dream's Response Was Actually Good by Saamuel. dream hater admitting he was wrong. all is good in the world

Dream Finally Responded To The Allegations by Optimus. don't watch this video lol. he says a bunch of stupid shit, his comments call him out for it, but i am linking it because this guy is huge on the community, a lot of people were waiting on this video on twitter, and he's very clear on saying the allegations are fake, along with shaming twitter antis for their behaviour

Dream's Response Wasn't Good Enough by luhrix specifically talks about the reaction from antis on twitter to the video and how unreasonable some expectations are when it comes to responding to allegations

Does Dream's Response Make Him Innocent? by Blissolic who VERY BRAVELY calls out coyglone ( the guy behind the dreamwastalen account ) for being a piece of shit

Dream Responded... by Repzion. excellent video no notes, less about dream himself and more a critique of how people consume serious topics as "drama" and farm engagement through it

I Was In Dream's Video by orangepeanut. it's kind of ass but he is in dream's video ! he's the "dream sucked his own dick" guy. he says sorry for baiting and actually apologises to dream which is kind of funny, and he does say dream is innocent. just noting it down for reference

Dream's Response Was GREAT! by TekuToji. another excellent video, nice summary. he did thought the poki xqc dms were real but he corrected himself on the comments lol

Dream Has Returned ( and why you should be excited ) by PurpleMatter. sweet video ! go leave a nice comment :D

this is a different one as it is a full reaction, but it is by Kenji, a VERY famous vtuber, and he was awesome about it and called out his chat several times when they spoke misinformed shit. it's very fun and i'm glad a completely different audience now has a positive view of Dream

[mattscoquette]

my experience meeting the triplets/ going to their tour ౨ৎ ⋆.˚ ✧

first i just wanna say, i am so so so insanely grateful to have attended both tours and to have met them twice. i’m not trying to brag or anything but a lot of people ask me and i figured it be easier for me to make one post rather than answer inbox questions a million times that get lost.

2/5/23 - let’s trip tour

i met the triplets for the first time during the let’s trip tour. i vividly remember being at work when the tickets went on sale and i was gonna go w my coworker but things fell thru and i went alone, and that alr was nerve wrecking enough. but i met a lot of cool people on line and everyone was super friendly. i got the pre-show small talk package, so i got to meet them before i saw them on stage. i also wrote them letters (idk if they ever opened them) but it was honestly fate when i stopped to drop them off in the present bin because there was a group of three girls in front of me so i wasn’t super rushed when i was meeting each triplet.

i met chris first! i was soooooo nervous but the second i started talking it all went away. the first thing i noticed was how small they are irl and immediately after was how fucking good chris smelled 😭 he was soo sweet. i told him how i loved watching their videos w my mom and that she was his favorite. i can’t rlly remember what else i talked about him with, and i tried to screen record my camera but i didn’t turn the mic on so i lost all the audio 😭😭

next was matttttt the loml. i was immediately soo comfortable around him, i was literally just talking like a normal conversation without even thinking. i asked him how the tour was going and he told me he was sad it was ending soon. and then i told him how one of my best friends is a triplet and we talked about that, he told me his dad is a twin and that everyone thinks he nick and chris are identical but they aren’t. he was so sweet and really listen to what you have to say, i had such a nice time talking with him.

when i met nick my auto pilot like shut off and i froze 😭😭 i literally out loud was like “i am so nervous” and he was so sweet about it, he hugged me a second time and was like “no don’t be it’s okay!” lmfaoo. i didn’t get to talk to him as long but i remember him telling me it was super nice to meet me after.

on line for the red carpet, i met madi! she was just walking around the venue, and she was over by me and i asked for a photo. she was soo sweet (and so pretty irl omfg). i didn’t wait in line for the red carpet for very long, i got merch, and then i did my photo w them :,) tbh i honestly don’t lovee it because i rlly don’t look the best in it lolol. bur ill pull thru and show u all. but this was back when u got to pick ur own poses and we all did hearts with one another (idk if that makes sense) and i stood next to my mannn😛😛

i look so diff now like i actually hate how i look when i met them but that’s beside the point 😭😭 but they all looked sooooo good. also for reference im about 5’3-5’4ish.

show-wise, it was sm more fun than the versus tour tbh. i got to see yung pleit perform and he opened w miss me and everyone was going insaneeeee. i was literally like one person behind the baracade, i was so close it was so so so cool. the triplets went on for maybe twenty minutes but they read the question i asked them which was so cool. and mary lou, jimmy, justin, and nate were all at my show!! they were on the balcony above the stage and were waving to us it was so cute. i had such a fun time at this show i wish i could go back

10/9/23 - the versus tour

this show was soooooo so so so special to me. i was going through a really really hard time. and this show made me so happy and gave me such a nice break from everything. this show wasn’t as close as the first show so i went to with my mom (she was team orange lol). i also got to meet some old online friends i made which was so nice :,) like the last tour, i got pre-show small talk. my only complaint though is that when i bought tickets backstage wasn’t available, some friends and i called the venue and they told us there was no backstage , but there actually was :( but im still sooooo grateful i got to meet them!

the order was the same as last time- chris, matt, then nick. i was so nervous about meeting them again, i literally almost forgot to take a pic w chris LMFAO. he was so sweet, he asked me how i was doing, if i was excited, all that good stuff. this time was a lot more rushed than the first, but i still got a decent amount of time with each triplet. i also got them each to draw me my fav angel numbers to get tattooed, i still haven’t gotten it yet but when i do i’ll post it :)

i was sooo nervous to meet matt again lmfao but as soon as i went up to him i felt fine. i complemented his outfit (he had on his white eeyore jacket 😭😭 so cute) and we took our picture and when i was leaving he told me it was rlly nice to meet me :,)) he is sooooooo pretty irl like his eyes r so blue and his earrings r so sparkly i was literally like in a trance. omfg.

nick was soo sweet he gave me such a big hug and was so smiley and asked how i was doing, same as chris. he also rested his head on mine when we took our pic togetherrr. he was so so kind.

my show was a monday so they had uploaded a podcast while i was on line for the red carpet, so i listened to that a bit while waiting. this tour we had pre-picked poses, but i did the hearts again. i stood in between matt and chris, and i said i wanted hearts and matt immediately did half the heart and put his arm around me so we did the heart tgth 😭😭

lowk not a fan of this pic either but :( so sweet. i love them so much. i also wore platform shoes this time lol so that gave me some height.

the show was so good! so much more entertaining than what the triplets did the first time. it was very engaging, and so fun to watch. lowk bitter i didn’t get picked to be matt’s teammate but we move. anyway. each challenge was so fun, me and my friend knew almost all the trivia questions they did 😭😭 and jenga was sooo stressful to watch lmfao it was so close the whole time, i think we had one of the longest jenga shows of the tour lmfao. chris ended up winning bc matt dropped the jenga tower and they were both tied. it was such a fun experience im so grateful to have gone !

© mattscoquette

[mistydeyes]

eyes for the stars

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summary: The 141 boys can't help but feel slightly jealous about your celebrity crush. They can't help but wonder why you're so obsessed with them.

pairing: 141 x civvie! Reader

warnings: swearing, spoilers for Euphoria!

a/n: a little self indulgent because i too have all of these crushes (love my problematic ladies, sydney and phoebe <;3)

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price: pedro pascal

The minute you laid eyes on him you were hooked. From episode 1 of The Last of Us, Pedro became your very apparent celebrity crush. Who doesn’t love a strong parental figure who will do anything for his unconventional child?

Ever the observer, Price noticed how your Instagram stories were filled with reposts of Pedro at award shows, magazine covers, and even behind-the-shoot pictures. He even noticed the growing collection in your shared home of Mandalorian memorabilia. He couldn't help but feel hurt that his partner posted a celebrity more than him.

As Gaz looked over his shoulder he commented, "Looks like a more handsome version of you, Sir." "Get back to work, Sergeant" Price commanded, before shoving his phone back in his pocket. He couldn't believe that this was getting to him.

“You have a type, love,” Price said as you sat watching another episode of Narcos. It was your turn to pick a show to binge and of course, you picked this one. Price secretly wished you spent his leave watching anything else. You were glued to the screen as you sat in your boyfriend’s arms. “I do not,” you argued, “you and he are so different.” You rolled your eyes and he let out a small chuckle.

“He’s an older man who is surprisingly resourceful and doesn’t let many people in until he’s given someone to protect with his life,” he began and you realized the similarities, “Plus, look at him. I might start shaving my beard and only having a mustache for you.”

As the realization hit you, you couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed at his observations. You paused the episode and held his face gently. "I'd much rather have this mustached face here with me than him," you said and shared a loving kiss.

Price was later happy to say that your stories of the man were significantly less than before. Good thing he didn't see your phone wallpaper was of the very famous Pedro Pascal edit (yk the one).

soap: sydney sweeney

You both were unapologetic about your love for the problematic blonde on Euphoria. Although you couldn't condone her rumors about Glen Powell, you couldn't help but obsess over the gorgeous woman. A new Syd’s garage TikTok? Queue you running around your house to find your boyfriend. You both religiously watched her in episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale and White Lotus. Don’t even get me started on when she appeared on the red carpet, your texts were flooded with pictures and emojis.

There was always one rule between you and Soap: don't watch any Sydney Sweeney movies or shows without the other. He instituted that rule once the new Euphoria season was predicted to come out. As he left for another mission for the 141, he kissed you and said, "No Sydney without me, promise?" As you gave him your pinky, you wouldn't realize you would be breaking that rule later on that year.

To be fair, no one could have predicted that their mission would have taken until the end of November. Also, it was technically Soap's fault for not binging the show before he was deployed. However, since the call to duty was ever present, he didn't want to start a show without knowing he could finish it. You waited until August to finally start it. You had been dying since the season ended in February and had blocked all spoilers.

The minute the show started, you knew you couldn't stop. The plot line between Nate and Cassie was just TOO GOOD. Hours later, you had finished and were ashamed of yourself. You just had to know how the drama between Maddy and Cassie ended. Logging out of your account, you tried to hide all the evidence before your boyfriend inevitably came home.

It was December when Soap returned, excited to be home with you and even more excited to start Season 2 of Euphoria. As you made you both some popcorn, you heard an ear-piercing scream from the living room. You rushed over to see what happened but Soap stood there with a shocked face. "Bonnie, why does HBO say you finished all the episodes?" he accused and you knew you were done for. "I-" you started before he interrupted. "You betrayed me, worse than Graves," he said almost as if he was crying. As you looked at him sheepishly he said in a soft voice, "Please tell me that the rumors about Cassie and Nate aren't true."

gaz: henry cavill

Who could compete with Superman? Certainly not Gaz, in fact, he would get a little jealous when you mentioned your little crush. You loved Henry Cavill specifically the DC Comic version of him, not The Witcher. Gaz regretted ever letting Soap get you into the new films.

For the past year, your boyfriend would not hear the end of your pining for the dark-haired beauty. You were non-stop, always talking about his latest interviews and always having his films on repeat. Gaz even had to stop you from putting a framed picture of Henry on your fireplace mantle. You finally agreed that Henry belonged on screen, not in a frame along with your loved ones and your boyfriend.

Gaz miraculously was home for Halloween, a first! You had been invited to a party by your friends and decided on a Cat Woman costume. Oddly enough, when you asked Gaz what he was wearing, he said he already had it covered. This was his chance to show you who the real hero was. You tried to find out the best you could (even looking through his search history) but you could not find what it was.

"Babe, can you at least tell me you're on theme?" you asked over the phone, it was a few weeks before his return and you were anxious to know his secret costume. "Trust me, love, you'll be pleasantly surprised" he answered and you audibly groaned at his mysterious tone.

“Kyle, are you ready?” you called, dressed in your Cat Woman costume. You loved Lois Lane but something about the powerful energy Selena Kyle had plus her sexy attire made you pick this instead. As you adjusted your all-black outfit in the mirror, you heard your boyfriend descend the stairs. You turned around to see him dressed in Superman’s signature costume. The costume was of surprising quality, perfectly defining your boyfriend's physique and making his butt look great.

“I heard there’s someone who needs a superhero,” he triumphantly said as he struck a pose. You smiled widely and took many pictures. “You look amazing, babe! This is just like the movies,” you said excitedly as you kissed him on the cheek. “Bought it just for you” he winked, “Gotta let you know who the real hero is.” You laughed and punched his arm lightly. “Let’s go my Lois Lane,” he said and you grabbed his hand, getting ready to face the world with your hero.

ghost: phoebe bridgers

Now Ghost isn't like the rest of the 141 boys, he won't let his jealousy get the better of him. BUT COME ON, you were in love with Phoebe Bridgers, the haunting singer of Boygenius whose grey hair glistened in the moonlight. You owned every single record of hers and constantly pined over the TikTok videos of her on Taylor Swift's tour. You even bought you and Ghost her matching sweatpants with bones on the front and her name on the butt. He wouldn't admit it but he did love her style. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little twinge of jealousy whenever Kyoto came on the radio.

While on duty, Ghost could feel his phone ring. He answered immediately, knowing you only called for emergencies. He was greeted by you screaming. "BOYGENIUS IS COMING TO LONDON WE HAVE TO GO!!" you yelled excitedly. Ghost mentally slapped himself, he would have to remind you that this line was only for major injuries or death. "Love, Boygenius is not an emergency," he said sternly before you responded, "SIMON, PHOEBE FUCKING BRIDGERS WILL BE SHARING THE SAME AIR AS US," you yelled back. Ghost was glad no one was around because he would never hear the end of it. "Calm down, I'll see what I can do," he said before reiterating his love for you and hanging up.

When Ghost returned home, you were in a deep depression. You opened the door and looked sadder than he had ever seen you. "What's wrong?" he asked, closing the door behind him and taking you into his arms. You let out a few tears as you sat on the couch together. He noted you were all decked out in one of your many Phoebe hoodies and shorts. "I wasn't able to get tickets," you sniffled, "they sold out immediately." You knew it was stupid but your heart was crushed. You would never get to see her live.

"Well good thing I know a thing or two about computers," he said before pulling out his phone to show you a confirmation email. Your eyes widened when you saw he had secured VIP tickets to meet the band and watch from the pit. "Happy anniversary, my love," he said and you were speechless for a moment. "Simon, I think I could marry you," you whispered as you hugged him tightly. "Anything for you darling," he said and kissed you. As you excitedly confirmed all the details and peeked at the set list, Ghost felt the need to poke fun at you. "Do you love her because she has a thing for skeletons too?" That earned him a light slap to the chest.

The day of the concert, you could've fainted upon meeting the band. They were all so much cooler than you could have ever imagined. As you talked Julien's and Lucy's ears off, Phoebe walked up to Ghost. "Sick mask dude, gotta get me one of those," she said in her deep, chill voice. Moments later, Ghost almost had to subdue you as you tried to force the mask off his face to give it to her.

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[misskingshit]

𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 summary: You are finally able to express what you really feel with Rafe. note: This is inspired by how Maddie opens up to Nate in the final season of Euphoria. (Here's a little storytime, I had another account called lenacameron, or something like that, and I lost it because a super genius (me) forgot my password, so I'll be posting the stories I posted on my old account here, so I don't lose them!). Italic and bold letters are memories. xoxo

You were dancing a slow song with your boyfriend, the great Rafe Cameron, popular, super rich.

You sure know him.

His light blue suit fit him perfectly, it was tailor-made for him, surely. With his hair combed perfectly back, with probably pounds of gel, perfect.

That was him, perfect, he had everything he wanted with just the snap of his fingers, or maybe his father's, but that didn't really matter. That gave him a kind of power over everything and ... everyone.

"Y/N come here!" the boy screamed.

"I don't want to, just leave me alone!"

"Open the damn door!" he thrashed loudly "leave you alone? What do you think will happen if I leave you, pogue" contempt was clear in his voice "you have nothing without me ... you are nothing"

"Shut up" Y/N said, Rafe couldn't hear her, her words were choked between tears and his throat closed.

A few seconds of silence were enough for everything to turn around.

"I'm sorry love, I'm so sorry" he said regretfully, as if two seconds had not passed since he insulted her without mincing words "I love you, you know how I am, I'm sorry".

However, no one seemed to notice everything that happened and everything they felt behind those fake smiles, because Rafe might be a son of a bitch, but she wasn't that innocent either. She went out of her way to make life miserable, maybe yeah, it was to put all the shit back, but we all know it's not the right way to deal with a problem.

"I really hate you" her soft voice spoke above the music

"you are abusive, psycho, most of the time I really hate the way you make me feel" she felt her boyfriend's heartbeat speed up thanks to her head resting on his chest.

"I know" was a simple answer, but what else could he say?

"It's not good for us, maybe like, we shouldn't be together."

And she no longer received an answer, she only felt him kiss her on the head.

Internally, Rafe was thinking about the words of his girlfriend, because, unbelievably, she was everything to him. Neither of them were ready for a relationship, that was more than obvious, but neither of them were ready to end it.

[security-chief-odo]

To Love and Be Loved in Return - Chapter 3

Roy Kent x Reader

Read chapter 2 here

Description: Roy reluctantly gets advice from the remaining Diamond Dogs

Note: So sorry it took me so long to post.

Word Count: ~1.3k

• • •

Back in the coaches’ office at Richmond a loud thud fills the silent room as Roy throws his phone across the room.

Beard glances up from the book in his hands and looks pointedly between Roy and the phone. “You wanna talk about whatever made you do that?”

Roy lets out a gruff “No.” and buries his face in his hands. Beard shrugs in response and side eyeing Roy still before returning to his book.

“Fine.” Roy huffs as if Beard’s silence had somehow forced him into opening up. “I fucked everything up and I’m pretty sure she hates me now.”

Raising an eyebrow, he asks “Who hates you? Y/n?” Roy has never said anything, but Beard is more than aware of his crush on you. Roy was softer with you than with anyone else, and on days you weren’t there? Heaven help that whole damn team.

“Yeah, probably.” Roy sighs.

“You know what this problem sounds like it needs?” Roy raises an eyebrow at Beards question before it dawns on him.

“Don’t say the fucking Diamond Dogs.”

“Afraid so” Beard replies with a certain mischief to his voice as he picks up his phone to text Nate and Higgins.

Before long Roy finds himself surrounded by three adult men who are quite literally howling with excitement. “I hate you all,” he grumbles.

They all settle down and Higgins is the first to speak up. “What can we help you with, Roy?”

“Well I like,” he hesitates before opting to try to maintain some secrecy on the matter, “this woman–”

Nate chimes in “Oh, y/n, right?

Incredulously Roy replies, “Does everyone fucking know?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Higgins nods.

“I think so.” Nate shrugs.

“Well you haven’t exactly been subtle.” Beard adds.

“Fuck, well, yesterday I was talking to y/n about my schedule and she brought up the gala. I asked if she was going, she said she didn’t know if she was invited and I offered to bring her as my plus one.”

“And she turned you down?” Nate asked in confusion, assuming that would have to be the problem.

“No, she said yes, I’m buying her a dress.”

“Then what’s the problem exactly? She said yes to being your date. ” Higgins questioned.

“Well it’s not a date. She made that clear when she told me I’m the “best boss ever.’” He added air quotes as he repeated what you had said. “Then today, I asked her to a lunch date and she said she had plans with Rebecca and Keeley – which is fine – but then she just texted she isn’t coming back to work today and I can’t help thinking that it’s because I made her uncomfortable and now she’s avoiding me until she can find a kind way to reject me.”

They all nod along as Roy continues, “Now I don’t know how to fix things. I never should have fucking asked her out. I’m her boss, she clearly wouldn’t have feelings for me. I’m so fucking stupid.”

“Uh sorry if I’m wrong here, but uh,” Nate hesitantly adds “I don’t think you ever actually did ask her out.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Roy fires back.

“No, I think he has a point.” Beard nods.

“Yeah, you said that she agreed to go to the gala but clarified that it wasn’t a date?” Higgens started to pry.

“Well not exactly.” Roy sort of bashfully added. “She said I was the best boss for buying her a dress, but I was actually the one who said it wasn’t a date.”

“Right. So then the lunch date. Did you phrase it like that?” Higgins continued his interrogation.

“Well, no, but she said no to lunch.”

“Right because she had lunch plans already. Did she say anything else about the lunch that would make you think she thought it was a date?”

“No, uh, she asked to reschedule it for next week.”

Beard leans forward, “So let me get this straight, you didn’t ask her out twice, both times she agreed in one way or another, and you decided to clarify that it was entirely platonic?” Roy nods in agreement. “Now, she went out to lunch with her friends and is starting her weekend early, and that means she hates you?”

“Well when you say it like that it sounds fucking stupid.”

The other three exchange knowing glances at that, which does not go unnoticed by Roy.

“Alright, fuck off.”

**********

Roy gets home late after spending hours on paperwork that was really just an excuse to stop thinking actual thoughts.

He settles onto his couch and for the first time since lunchtime checks his phone. He’s missed several texts from both you and Keeley. Hell, he’s even got one from Rebecca, which of course he opens first because that is somehow scarier than anything you could have said.

REBECCA: You’re an idiot.

Well, at least he hasn’t been fired. He considers asking why, but decides it’s best that he doesn’t know. Next he decides to open up the texts from you and is bombarded with kind messages.

Y/N: You’re a great fucking boss.

Y/N: You’re always so kind and understanding, even if you’re grumpy about it. Jamie called you grumpy today.

Y/N: He told me that you like me.

There was no fucking way even Jamie fucking Tartt had figured it out.

Y/N: You’re such a good friend.

Roy let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding in. At the very least, if Jamie knew something, he hadn’t told you.

Y/N: You’re sooo funny too.

Y/N: YOu’re so sweet too. Not with everyone, but with Phoebe, you’re so sweet.

Y/N: You just pretend to be mean.

Roy couldn’t help chuckling to himself in sheer confusion.

Y/N: Royyy

Y/N: Why are you ignoring me?

Your last text came in 10 minutes ago. He moved onto Keeley’s messages, which were almost entirely photos. He swiped through them. The first was a selfie of the three of you, the next a picture of you dancing, then three more of you dancing, and one of you all doing shots together.

Suddenly your texts all made sense. You were drunk. Very drunk.

He stares at the photos of you for a while, then more come through. Once again, all photos of you.

Fuck, did literally everyone know how he felt? Was Keeley doing this to tease him? Just seeing you looking like you were having fun and seeming so relaxed does something for him. You will be the death of him.

He looked over your texts again and finally decided to call you.

“Roy!” you excitedly yell into the mic.

“Y/N,” he chuckles to himself. “Had a lot to drink?”

“Maybe,” your words slur.”It’s not my fault. Rebecca was buying us shots. Who am I to turn them down?”

“Ok, ok. You almost ready to head home?”

“Yeah, Rebecca was about to call a car.”

“Tell her not to bother. I’ll come get you all. Send me the address.”

“Ok,” you reply. “You’re so nice.”

Roy sighs as he grabs his keys. “Get me that address please y/n”

“Yes, sir” you let out a giggle and a smile lights up Roy’s face at the sound.

“See you soon.”

“See ya!” you reply, hanging up the phone call.

Roy shakes his head at himself. He is absolutely fucking smitten with you. He gathers himself with a deep breath as he heads out the door to go get you.

• • •

Taglist: @infinetlyforgotten @taytaylala12 @siriuslyreads @ashy-kit

Chapter 4

[geekynightowl1997]

Okay, okay. You all are probably ANNOYED about my Leverage posts- and I was on the fence about posting this one because I'm only on season 3. However, I just have SO many thoughts and I need to process them. So- here it goes;

*takes a deep breath*

Leverage is home. Like, I don't- I don't know to explain it. In another post I said the show was intoxicating and that's still true. But it's also- it's also home. Maybe I'm the only one, but when I watch it- I feel like I belong. Which is ridiculous. I'm not talented at all- but Leverage is almost like a security blanket. It's- it's safe and warm... it's home.

The only thing I can think of why it's home is because of them. Because they make it feel like home. They make feel safe and like your being cared for. Like your not alone. Even if you don't think your good at something- Leverage has your back. It gives you a sense of security. Which is weird because their criminals. But- like they said; Sometimes the bad guys are the only good guys you get.

I mean- you have Nate Ford who is always two to three spaces in front of the bad guy. Who sits there and listens to victims and gives them hope. Who talks to his team and bounces ideas off of them- instead of talking down to them. He's the kinda guy that watches from the background and sees all sorts of angles. Gets into the minds of both the victim and assailant. And if the con goes wrong- he has a second one ready to cover. Whose weakness is an empty bottle in an occupied barstool.

You have Sophie. A terrible actress whose good at acting. She can play any part. Be unseen- while being seen. Whose brave, kind, and gentle- but can kick butt when needed. She's not a damsel in distress- but she'll play the part. And the thing about that part is; it's so convincing- even she believes it too. Despite that- she's honest and sincere, she'll tell you what she thinks. Her heart is gold. Her trust is thin. She's like a snake- hypnotizing. Her weakness is the love she gave to a man who thinks too much and feels too little.

You have Eliot. A man that- if you just look at him- you'll just shrug him off. He's like any other brute. Big and brawny. And that's why you shouldn't ever judge a book by it's cover. He's so much more than that. Yes. He's brawn. A real southern charmer. But he has a brain and a heart. He's that big brother and gives you hugs and you can't help but melt into the security of that feeling. That feeling of safety that you just know has an ocean of anger underneath. But your not scared, you can't be scared. Not of him. He's the kinda guy you run towards- because you know he'll keep you safe. And yeah- maybe he'll use his brawn to keep you safe, but he'll also use his brain and his heart. He'll get you out of the situation in one piece with a grumble and a growl. His weakness is his kindness and that's why doesn't let it show.

You have Alec. The brainiac. The hacker- who isn't all that much to look at (compared to Eliot,) at least not at first glance. Yet, there's something about him that screams safe. Just as much as Eliot. He's outgoing and kind. Smart and funny. And the way that he's got everyone's back- even when it doesn't seem like it. He's your go to- to find any kind of internet mistakes and he's a good shoulder to cry on. He's that brother who is dorky, awkward, and nerdy- but he's honest and sincere. His weakness is not being able to be there when it really matters.

And- and you have Parker. The thief. The master thief- that didn't belong anywhere. Nimble and lean as she flips and slinks through vents. She's the little sister the family didn't know they even wanted. Until finally they realized she was what they needed. She's bright and cheerful despite how she grew up. Her life wasn't easy foster care and street living is a rough life- but she still believes in good things; Santa clause, Nate, Sophie, and Eliot. Most importantly she believed in Hardison. She was on her own until she was found and working with a team. Then she belonged to them. Everything she had done- was so that they knew she loved them. Her weakness is having the ability to not get caught.

To end this; Leverage is an amazing shoe- because it reminds us that no matter our background. No matter how many times we've messed up and haven't belonged- we are all human. It tells us that we will find our home, our tribe, our safety. That no matter our weakness- we'll always have somebody who can take our weakness and become our strength.

I'm only on season 3. I'll more than likely have more thoughts come by season 4/ season 5. (If you agree or disagree- don't hesitate to message me!

[polyklok]

Movies I think Dethklok members would really like

No this is not based on anything I’m just in a mood™ rn

Nathan Explosion

Mad God

So, no, I did not have any ounce of an idea of what this movie was about when I originally watched it, and I’m still not 100% sure tbh but an hour and a half of these pure vibes would totally be up Nathan’s alley. The post-apocalyptic setting, all the gore, the details of the various monsters, and I think he would just really appreciate it from an artist’s standpoint as well. This movie would just resonate with him, even if he wouldn’t have a fucking clue what was going on the whole time.

Mary and Max

I’m, personally, a bit on-the-fence about this movie, but it is undeniably sweet and I headcanon Nate to be on the spectrum so 🤷

This would be, like, his guilty pleasure film. The movie he knows is for kids and is totally not brutal but he loves it anyway. The, “I do not feel disabled, defective, or a need to be cured” really hits for him every single time. He rewatches it at least once every few months, especially when he’s in some sort of emotional slump.

Mandy

Another one that just like, like, big Nathan energy, you know? He just seems like a guy to really love loose plots with trippy visuals and strong emotions attached to them. Also, this movie is so completely badass, it is certified metal in his book. He also finds the story incredibly tragic; having the love of your life stripped away from you in such circumstances really tugs at his heartstrings, but in a way that gets him pumped up rather than sad. This is probably his go-to when people ask, “what’s your favorite movie?”

Pickles the Drummer

Son in Law

Okay this is my guilty pleasure movie. I usually don’t like stoner-comedy from the 90s, but this movie hits different. Maybe I just find Crawl hot. Anyway, I’m projecting that onto Pickles. He honestly probably finds a lot of crappy comedies to be peak film, and this is no exception. Pauly Shore pretending to be a country boy for a whole movie? Hells yeah. Pickles would watch while high off his mind, laughing his butt off and going to town on some cheez-its or something. And you know what? He deserves it.

Opal

I’m counting short films because I feel like Opal is the movie for Pickles. He’d watch it on a whim, because these are not usually the types of things he enjoys, and then he’d in tears over the emotional rollercoaster he did not agree to go on. Like, he grew up in a neglective household with authority figures that were overly-selfish and projected their own problems onto the youngest one in the house, to which he had to hide within his own brain more often than not just to properly function. And then he just…watched it happen all again in the hypnotic style of Jack Stauber. The Mom’s song had him in gasping tears for a while, the way you get when a movie somehow perfectly captures your own trauma right in front of you. And the ending??? Ugh. Go watch Opal, guys, it’s on YouTube.

Nathan and Pickles both get very emotional about certain stop-motion films, isn’t that crazy?

House

Thank you to Lucy for this Letterbox review that I think he would write

Anyway-

This movie is actually so insane. It’s not scary in a horror-movie way, like it meant to be, it’s scary as in ‘What the hell is happening and why do I understand it?’ Pickles doesn’t like most traditional horror films, as the long, quiet suspense bores him and the sudden jumpscares freak him the hell out way more than they should. But he loves the campy-wacko-type horror that they were apparently making in 70s Japan. It’s just scary enough to get his heart pumping, but the pure silliness of it all overrides that, getting him in a giddy mood and excited to see what happens next.

(No I am not done but tumblr won’t let me add more pictures)

[mitskijamie]

Headspace is so crazy if my gf was telling all my coworkers and her ex about how clingy and annoying I was I would walk into the ocean. And he apologizes?? Like he’s in the wrong for not reading her mind??? Healthiest couple on the show 💕🫶🥰 this is the future liberals want

Unpopular opinion

I pinpoint Headspace as the exact episode that they took a left turn with Keeley's character and never recovered. I've noticed that some TV shows nowadays try so hard to avoid vilifying female characters that they just end up making their female characters one-dimensional girlbosses while their male counterparts are actually afforded the depth and complexity of real human beings. I think TL makes this mistake in a big way with Headspace and then just digs that hole deeper and deeper until the finale

Simply put, Keeley becomes uninteresting to me post-Headspace because she loses all autonomy. All the bad things that happen to her happen because another character did something bad to her (through no fault of her own, of course) and all the good things that happen to her happen because another character decided to be nice to her.

Prior to the latter half of season 2, Keeley's arc is driven by decisions she makes, for better or for worse. She chooses to leave Jamie. She gets herself a job offer from Rebecca by actively showcasing her talents in a way that the audience can clearly see, and then she takes time to consider whether she can/should accept the offer. She pursues Roy actively. She invites Jamie up for sex. She considers whether she wants to be with Roy and demands a certain level of respect from him before agreeing to date him. She sets boundaries with Jamie. We see her actively doing her job frequently - she finds the pundit job for Roy, she gets various brand deals for the boys, she has to deal with the fallout of the thing with Dubai Air, etc.

Are all of her decisions good decisions? Is she always in the right? No!!!! Which is a good thing, because real people don't always do/say the right thing!!!! But more importantly than whether she's making the right decisions, she is MAKING DECISIONS. She's advancing her own arc!!!!

After Headspace, things start happening TO Keeley rather than because of her, and that's where they lose me. She becomes a fundamentally passive character. What are Keeley's major plot points in s2e8-s3? Jamie tells her he loves her (+ Nate kisses her lol). Jack decides to pick up KJPR, not for any particular reason the audience can see. Roy leaves her. She does choose to hire Shandy, but Shandy pretty quickly becomes the advancing character in that storyline, going off the rails for reasons that have nothing to do with anything Keeley does. Jack starts courting her. Someone else leaks her nudes. Jack leaves her and stops funding KJPR. Rebecca steps in to save KJPR. Then she rejects Roy and Jamie, to show the audience that it's feminism and she ultimately has the ability and good sense to reject both of them, which I appreciate, but feels hollow given the complete lack of autonomy inherent in her s3 storyline

It's just like. Idk. I wish we could've seen even just a little of what Keeley's family and childhood were like and how they influence her behavior, or where her unhealthy coping mechanisms come from, or how she felt about the breakup beyond "sad," etc etc etc. Compare the narrative complexity of Roy, Jamie, Ted, Nate etc. to Keeley. She was completely shafted. She's like a really interesting outline of a character with nothing filled in

[sh0ek0]

heartbeat (part 1)

please find the other parts via my masterlist or the #sh0ek0 tag, I'm having some trouble with my posts not showing up in the tags and I think the links are messing this up

genre: angst, smut, dark content, kinda all over the place content warning: 18+ !MINORS + AGELESS BLOGS DO NOT INTERACT! mentions of alcohol and drug use, smoking cigarettes, name calling, Maddy x Nate kinda love (Euphoria), toxic relationship, violence, emotional abuse, implied sexual violence (kinda?), fingering, choking, rough!megumi, slapping, prob more but I am new where is my guide to this?? pairing: Megumi x Reader (lil bit of Choso x Reader) word count: about 6.2k

summary: Megumi was the perfect boyfriend - until he wasn’t so perfect anymore. When you both met he became so obsessed with you but his obsession quickly turned into possessiveness. You were his. After you suspected him of being unfaithful to you for the first time your change in behavior caused him to act up and he began beating up every guy that even dared to look at you. That was your little game, you flirted with every guy that crossed your path to get his attention and he protected what belonged to him. Your toxic relationship fueled the both of you until someday, out of nowhere, he left you on your own.

recommended songs: Fallin Out Of Love With You - Montell Fish / NEW MAGIC WAND - Tyler, The Creator / Heartbeat - Childish Gambino / Still Don't Know My Name - Labrinth

(I have a very specific outfit in mind so here you go)

With a cigarette resting between your slightly parted lips you're sitting on the sill of the open window in your dorm room. Your eyes wander as you take a drag, the cigarette now between your fingers. A soft sigh leaves your mouth and your gaze falls on the bottle of wine and the box of frozen pizza on the table in front of your small kitchen unit. While the bottle of red wine actually has a bigger chance of being your dinner than the actual food next to it, you do consider just going to bed without having either of it. You are just so tired and you know that not even alcohol can mend the numb feeling in your chest.

A cold breeze from outside sends shivers to your spine so you mindlessly grab the big black hoodie laying on the table next to your dinner. You put away the cigarette so you can slip into the soft piece of clothing. As the smell of the dark fabric hits you, you have to swallow and close your eyes for a moment. Before you allow yourself to get lost in your thoughts you pick the cigarette back up to finish it.

"Fuck." you curse under your breath after trying to light it for the sixth or seventh time. You were about to throw the lighter away and call it a night when finally you could see the flame lighting up. You hold the black ashy end of your cigarette to the fire, immediately taking a deep drag and blowing out the smoke right away. 

"I should really buy a new lighter." you mutter while taking another drag. Or you could just quit smoking altogether.

Eyes closed, head resting against the window frame you're taking in the familiar smell of the hoodie mixed with smoke and your mind wanders off to its original owner. You can make out messy black strands of hair and pale skin before your inner eye, a cold expression directed at you. You can almost feel his hands touching your face, your hair, your body. His deep, raspy voice whispering sweet nothings while you're like wax in his hands, lying in his embrace.

How much you still loved him. Even though he was so cold and distant and hurtful at times you knew he just acted that way because you came too close. It probably was your fault, you pressured him too much. You asked too much of him. You hurt him. You were so needy and your behavior towards him was so disrespectful. You gave him no other choice and somehow you still miss the toxic mess the two of you had.

"Ouch!" you wince and shake your right hand, throwing the cigarette out of the window. You forgot about  it resting between your fingers and it burned all the way down, leaving a small burn mark between your index and your middle finger. Rubbing the burned skin you slid off the window sill, close the window and shuffle over to the kitchen table. 

While you opened the bottle of wine and filled up the only glass left in the cabinet, you saw your phone light up with a notification and then another. You knew there were several parties going on tonight, Nobara kept rambling about them during classes earlier today. You honestly did not care much about going out lately, maybe because you were crying yourself to sleep almost every night. 

It always started with a bottle of wine that you drank alone in your dark dorm room, listening to the same songs over and over again but it seemed like someone wanted to keep you from this fate tonight.

NOBARA: "I'll be there in five so empty that bottle fast and get ready." 

She knew you so well.

ITADORI: "I rly hpoe you and Kugisaki get your sexxy asses over here soon choso snd me bought waaay to much booze." 

Someone was very drunk already.

You take a look at the glass you just filled up to the top and then read Nobara's text again. You shrug and do as you were told, putting the half-empty bottle back into the cabinet. Why waste your own alcohol when you seemingly have no other choice than going out to that house party with Nobara and getting drunk there anyway. Like Yuji said: They bought way too much booze and you should be a good friend and help them out.

Y/N: "Dw babe your fav girls are on their way." you texted Yuji back.

There's a knock at the door just as you're putting on your mascara. You flinch and almost poke yourself in the eye with the brush. Hell, usually you're not so easily startled. Seems like you're afraid of who you might bump into tonight.

"How are you still not ready y/n?" 

A tiny woman with auburn hair and a skimpy little blue dress and color-coordinated heels storms in and examines you from head to toe. 

"You just texted me five minutes ago and I read that text probably one minute ago." you remark in a calm voice. Nobara huffs and disappears into Maki's and your shared bedroom. Speaking of Maki you remember that you have not really an idea where your roommate is right now - hopefully already taking shots with Yuta and Toge. 

You look into the big mirror right next to the door with parted lips and smudge the mascara along your lower lash line, then you draw an eyeliner and finally brush through your brows. Just as you were about to apply some lipgloss you can make out Nobara from the corner of your eyes. She pulled your favorite dress out for you and now stands behind you as she presents it with a big grin on her lips. 

"This will make him want to die. I want him to want to die." she says in anticipation. 

The black halter neck dress in her hands reaches just above your ass. It is so tight that it hugs your curves perfectly and it has a drop-shaped cut-out in the area of your cleavage. From behind it is completely backless and it has long, tight arm warmers, which only left your shoulders bare, to go with it.

You roll your eyes and yank the dress from her hands, slipping out of your shorts and the oversized hoodie in front of her. You don't care that you're only wearing panties - it's just Nobara. Your best friend. You put on the dress and turn back to the mirror. Hearing Nobara pour herself a glass of wine you decide to slick back your hair with a black stretch-comb hairband. Finally looking at yourself with a satisfied expression you slip into your heels and grab your little purse from the coffee table.

"Hurry up now." you tease and put on your big silver hoops. You look like the perfect mix of slutty and utterly seductive - just the way you love it. You send Nobara a smirk and she downs the glass of wine, grabbing her phone and keys from the table where she put them earlier. "Let's go then." She sounds just so excited and it really makes you wonder how the night is going to turn out.

*** You could hear loud music blaring and people shouting through the closed front door of Yuji’s and Choso's shared flat. You frantically fix your outfit and notice how sweaty your hands are - seems like you really are nervous. Nobara turns to you and gives you an encouraging look which you return with a pained smile. You wipe your hands on the velvet fabric of your dress before Nobara takes your hand in hers and squeezes it gently.

"Here we go." she sighs when suddenly the door flies open and a seemingly drunk Yuji tumbles towards you two.

"Hey! Wow look at you guys. What a sight for sore eyes." he slurs with excitement in his eyes and waves you in while looking you both up and down. As his gaze lingers a second too long Nobara pushes past him and pinches his ear. 

"Shut up you weirdo." she says and glares at him.

"Ouch- What the fuck Nobara I literally just said that you two look pretty." Yuji defends himself and rubs his ear. 

You laugh at the two who continue to bicker with each other.

"Thanks Yuji." You say sweetly and the pink-haired boy pulls you into a big hug. 

"How are you huh?" he asks, looking down at you. His voice still sounds quite drunk but now a little bit more concerned. 

You dodge his question and look around the apartment instead. The air is heavy and heaves with the smell of booze, weed and cigarette smoke. Music blasts from several speakers and you feel the bass pounding hard in your chest. There really are a lot of people in here, quite a lot of your friends and also many people you don’t know. Most people seem to be college students like yourself but there were a few older guys standing around a table and taking shots. Probably some of Gojo’s friends, he somehow always sneaked himself into Itadori’s and Choso’s parties. Speaking of him - you spotted him with a bottle of Tequila in hand with Geto close behind him. Geto waved at you from afar, you smiled at him and sent him a heart that you formed with your index and middle fingers. Doing this gesture you remembered your little accident from earlier and notice that the burnt skin on your finger still stung.

"Guess the guest situation has gotten a little bit out of hand." Yuji says, as if he has read your mind.

"Mhm," you answer "hey Yuji do you have a band-aid or something?" You turn to him and he looks at you a little confused. 

"Uhhh 'course" he says and motions for you to follow him. He leads you to the small bathroom near the front door and closes the door behind you two. 

Yuji rummages in a small cabinet under the bathroom mirror and finally takes something out of it. You wordlessly hold your finger out to him and he just as silently removes the protective tape and sticks the band-aid over the injured spot on your knuckle. 

"All done." he mutters and squeezes your hand, just like Nobara did before. You smile at him.

"Y/N are you -  I mean how are you-" he struggles to find the right words. 

"You seem to be sobering up quite a bit, let’s do something about that." you’re cutting him off and take his hand, leading him out of the door and towards the kitchen. Coming out of the small bathroom you don’t really pay attention to the people around you or how you might look holding hands with one of your closest friends. Honestly, you don’t care. 

Entering the kitchen you can see Maki, Yuta and Toge chatting and signing by the kitchen counter. Your roommate is sitting on the counter, Toge and Yuta to the left and right of her. Nobara and you really showed up here a few hours late, everyone was already either drunk or high on other substances. You greet them  excitedly and walk over to them.

"Honestly? I didn't expect you to show up here. I'm so glad to see you not in your pajamas for once!" Maki  yelled in excitement, throwing her arms around your neck. She smelled of booze and cigarettes. Toge poured two shots for you and Yuji and put them in front of you.

"Ya’ need to catch up." Yuta states and motions for you to take the shot. Yuji has his hand on your lower back as the two of you look at each other, grinning and downing the vodka shot simultaneously. You grimace and chat with your friends for a moment, not noticing that Yuji has left your side. Toge also disappeared for as second and came back shortly after with rolling papers and a grinder in his hands. You take it as a sign and excuse yourself to leave the kitchen. 

You look around the apartment again and see Choso sitting on the couch not far away with both arms wrapped around two different girls, holding a blunt in his right hand. Nobara was deep in conversation with some guy you have never seen before, standing near the roof terrace door and drinking from a red plastic cup. She threw her head back exaggeratedly, laughing at something he said. You grin and turn back around where you spot Yuji who hands you a cup as well. Vodka soda - he knew your drinking habits. 

"Thank you babe." you wink at him and he blushes, looking away for a brief moment. He shuffles a bit and looks down at you. 

"Y/N he might be here somewhere I don’t know if you w-" he stutters.

"Yuji I really don’t fucking care where he is or what he does." you snap at him and roll your eyes, immediately regretting your tone. "We are not together anymore." you add quietly. Yuji nods.

Not only was that a lie - you did care a lot. But also Yuji had nothing to do with all of this, it was not his fault and you shouldn’t treat him like that. All he ever did was being kind to you and taking care of you, like the good friend he was. 

You can still remember that one time he picked you up off the floor as you sat in front of the locked door of Megumi's dorm room, a few days before you two broke up. You were sure he was inside his room fucking someone else. You cried and screamed as you pounded against Yuji's back, but he carried you back to your room and put you to bed while him and Maki made sure you wouldn’t leave again or hurt yourself out of desperation. 

Another time, right after you and Megumi broke up, he found you stumbling around campus at two in the morning. It was raining heavily and you were completely soaked, a bottle of Tequila in your right hand and both of your high heels in the other. A group of guys were already following you for a while and god knows what would’ve happened if he did not see you out there by coincidence. He took you home with him, let you take a shower and sleep in his bed while he spend the night on the couch.

He really cared about you.

You chug the drink in your hand and shove the cup back into Yuji’s hands before making your way over to the couch. You couldn't stand this conversation right now. Choso was still sitting there slumped over with barely open, dark red eyes. The girl to his left had already disappeared but the other one kissed his neck, leaving lipstick stains on his pale skin. Her hand rested on his thigh, slowly moving upwards towards his crotch. You snatch the joint from his hand and take a deep drag while you drop down on the opposite end of the couch and cross your legs. 

"Y/N!" a deep voice slurs out your name, his tired eyes suddenly beaming when he sees you. The girl flinches at his reaction and turns around, looking at you in irritation, her eyes then widen for some reason. She frowns and looks back at Choso, but his attention was already on you only. The girl mumbles something inaudible, stands up and adjusts her tiny skirt before disappearing towards the roof terrace. 

"I was hoping you'd show up eventually." Choso grins at you as you take another deep drag from his blunt when suddenly he wraps his arms around your waist and pulls you closer to him - the fast movement, the alcohol and the drugs, that slowly but steady went to your head, making you feel dizzy.

"Easy," you say giggling "guess you really missed me, huh?" You look up at him with a smirk on your lips. The weed had already wrapped you in thick layers of cotton and everything felt so much slower and fuzzier. Choso had his dark hair wrapped into two messy buns, like he always did. His dark eyes watched your every movement. He looked so handsome, completely smoked out and spread out with his arms around you. 

"Well, look at yourself." He took the joint from you and put it between his soft lips, smoking a bit. You watched him taking a deep drag and french-inhaling it immediately after. That view really did something to you and as he lowered his mouth right to your ear it sent shivers down your spine.

"How could I not look forward to seeing you," he breathed into your ear, his lips practically on your skin "I want to eat you up right here and now." his voice was so raspy from all the smoking and it made you swallow, hard. You look into his pitch-black eyes and then down at his lips before catching yourself and meeting his gaze again. You laugh and shake your head, leaning back and throwing your legs over his lap before stealing the blunt from his hands.

"Oh, I'm not stopping you from anything." You take another hit and give it back to him. He takes the joint and puts it out without taking his eyes off of you. All of a sudden you feel Choso’s lips on your neck, sucking on your soft skin while his left hand caresses your thigh, slipping under the hem of your dress and slowly moving upwards.

You can feel the blood rushing through your body. Your face feels so hot while your head is still all dizzy from smoking. It sure was good stuff, you did not even need much of it. Choso’s lips wander up your neck and you can feel your pulse hammering against your skin. He is kissing and sucking his way up to your jaw, before grabbing it kinda rough and turning your face towards him.

"Choso-" you pant, biting your lip. Your arms were already wrapped around his neck and just as you were about to close the distance between your mouths, longing to finally kiss him, you perceived something out of the corner of your eye. Lost in thought, your gaze wanders over to the open door of the roof terrace.

And your heart stopped.

There he was. He stood in the doorway. A tall, slender, shadowy figure. Jet-black hair that fell into his face. Choso, hand still on your chin, did not even realize what was happening right now.

Megumi’s blank stare and his hands that were already clenched into fists triggered your fight-or-flight reflex. Deep down you already knew what was about to happen and suddenly you were completely sober.

Your pulse rises and your blood freezes as you meet his gaze and see him move towards the two of you with lightning speed.

"Megumi!" you hear Yuji shout as he suddenly pushes himself between you and Choso. He shoves you aside and you stumble backwards into Maki's arms, who is now right behind you. Yuta and Toge were both standing not far away from you while more and more people gathered around the scene that was about to unfold.

"Yuji get the fuck away from me." Megumi growls, his deep voice filled with anger. He pushes Yuji away from him, Yuji loses his balance and falls over the back of the couch. As quickly as you can you rush over to him and try to get him up, while your heart is hammering so fast that it threatens to jump out of your chest.

Megumi grabs Choso by the shoulders and pulls him towards him before smashing his fist into his face at full force. Choso goes straight to the ground, but Megumi grabs him by the collar and straightens him up so that he is standing upright in front of him again. His fist lands in his face a second time and Choso goes down for good, this time Megumi follows and hovers over him while slamming his fists into Choso’s head over and over again. 

You can hear people screaming around you while you’re just frozen in place. You knew he would react that way. When you saw his stare earlier, you knew what was going to happen. That's how it always went down. He always reacted like this. You knew his facial expressions, his body language. 

Even if he had decided to leave, you still belonged to him. You were his. 

***

"Megumi stop, you're hurting me." you coughed, trembling. He pressed you into the mattress of your bed and held you in place with his body weight. Tears streamed down your cheek while Megumi's hands closed around your neck, squeezing tight. Your throat ached and you tried to swallow to relieve the pain, which only made you choke on your own spit. You tried to fight your way free, your hands clawing at his, but it was useless. He was just too strong and your fighting only made him tighten his grip even more. Just when your eyes slowly rolled to the back of your head and you were about to lose consciousness you finally felt the pressure on your neck ease. You frantically gasped for air and couldn't stop sobbing while your boyfriend soothingly caressed your cheek.

"You're so pathetic Y/N." you heard him whisper, his voice sounded so vile and so calm at the same time. You were still crying and your whole body was shaking uncontrollably.

"Now look at you. You think you can replace me, don't you? You think you can just get rid of me. You think you can just decide that on your own and not deal with the consequences." Megumi’s voice sounded so calm that it was just downright creepy. He was totally out of his mind. "So fucking pathetic." he degraded you again.  

How had he even gotten in here? You texted him that morning that it was all getting too much for you. His behavior towards you, his impulsiveness and his aggressiveness that not only you had to endure, but everyone else around him. You did not get an answer from him and your lecture that day had dragged on endlessly. After class you went straight to the gym and you were so exhausted and tired when you arrived home that you just threw your things in the corner and immediately jumped in the shower. Your hair was loosely wrapped into a towel and you were only wearing a pair of panties as you entered the bedroom. Being so worn out you didn't even notice the shadowy figure standing in the corner next to your closet.

Just as you were about to lie down on your bed, someone wrapped his arms around your waist and put his hand over your mouth. Adrenaline shot through your veins and you tried to scream, desperately trying to wriggle out of the tight grip, but you were overpowered and pushed onto the bed. As the dark figure turned you towards him you suddenly found yourself staring at your boyfriend's face. He had pulled the hood of his sweater deep into his face and his black hair hid some of his features, but it was definitely him.

"You are such a goddamn fucking slut, Y/N. Who were you with, huh?" he spat at you and you still couldn’t stop crying. Your throat hurt so much, it had to be all bruised up by now. 

"M-Megs I 'was n-nn-nowhere I promise I just went to the gym after m-" you sobbed. Your cheeks were red and burning hot, your heart was beating so fast. You just wanted to get out of this situation, put some clothes on and just go to sleep. You needed to wake up from this nightmare but he wouldn’t let you. 

"I don’t believe you." he said in a calm voice. His left hand was still loosely wrapped around your neck and he used the other one to support himself. "You’re lying to me." 

You were exposed, almost completely naked and scared to the bone. "M-Megumi p-please I am not lying to you I prom-" you whispered but your sobs swallowed the words that tried to come out of your mouth. 

The black-haired man hovered over your stiff body, the hand that was just gripping your throat slowly moved down, caressing your collarbone and breasts while long, slender fingers circled your nipples. You gasp but his hands already moved over to your waist and down to your hips. His fingers hooked into your panties, trying to pull them down before he paused for a second. You tried to catch your breath . "P-Please 'Gumi I am sorry for that text I promise I-" you cry and close your eyes. 

"Take them off." Megumi ordered and you opened your eyes to look at him. Silently crying you shook your head, barely visible, while your gaze never left his. He lowered his head down to your ear and opened his mouth slightly.

"That wasn't a request." he cooed and pulled back for a moment. He grabbed your panties with both hands and almost ripped them while pulling them down and throwing them to the side. You flinched, now completely exposed, crying and trembling. Your whole body was shaking with fear and yet - there still was something else. 

Megumi pulled the black hoodie he was wearing over his head and carelessly threw it into the corner of your room. You were just lying there watching him admire your naked body. His eyes lit up before he leaned down to you again and started kissing your neck, softly humming against your skin. Your thighs clenched at him sucking and biting on your neck and his hands all over your body made you slick with arousal. Your heart pounded against your chest and you closed your eyes for a moment, a small moan escaping your lips.

"You really have enough of me, don’t you?" his deep voice teased you while his fingers were circling and pinching your nipples. You squirm under his touch and look up at him, your still wet hair already soaked your mattress. The cold, wet fabric made you shiver and your nipples got even harder. "You want me to stop, huh? You don’t want this?" he asked, not waiting for his question to get answered. He smirked at your body's reaction to him and leaned back for a moment. You arched your back to try to close the distance between you and him, longing to feel his warmth and his hands on your skin again. 

"So fucking needy," he groaned "You love being such a good little slut for me." When everything he did was degrade you all the time, you soaked up every little word of praise you could get out of him. So you nodded eagerly at his statement and blinked at him through tear-soaked eyelashes. "I-I will do anything you w-want me to," you whisper "I’m yours." you add, almost too quiet to hear. 

Not even five minutes ago you were scared to death while he stared down at you, squeezing your throat so tight that you were certain he was going to kill you. And now your head was blank. You should be scared, trying to get out of this situation, but instead you hoped he wouldn't ever stop doing what he was doing

You gasped audibly when all of a sudden you felt his hands roughly spreading your legs apart and his long fingers pressing into your wet cunt. "Fuck- Megumi don’t stop- please-" you moan while two long digits kept pumping in and out of you. You closed your eyes and threw your head back in pleasure, loud moans begging him to keep going. 

"Look at me." his growled command snapped you back to reality and you do as you’re told. Steel blue eyes met yours, his gaze full of lust and adoration. His thumb circling your clit made you cry out in pleasure and  finally Megumi crashed his lips onto yours, closing the distance between your bodies. 

Your pussy started clenching around his fingers, his thumb still drawing harsh circles on your clit. He licked his lips as he watched you pant and play with your nipples. "Fuck, please 'Gumi please-" you moan, his fingers fucking into you just right, stretching your walls open and hitting all the good spots.

"'Please' what?" he groaned, completely indulging in your pleasure. You heard the clink of Megumi’s belt meeting the floor as he took his pants of hastily, already in anticipation of what you’re begging him for. He leaned down to you, his eyes fixated on yours. 

"Please fuck me already." you moaned with a devilish smile on your lips and with that Megumi lost it. Pulling his fingers out of your pussy and leaving your dripping hole clenching around nothing he grabbed your hips. "Turn around" he growled before already manhandling you himself, bringing you to your hands and knees and pulling your ass up to meet his crotch. You could feel his hard cock bulging through his briefs, your sopping pussy dampening the fabric. He got rid of his underwear with a quick hand motion and his dick sprung free, slapping hard against your bare ass. You wiggled a bit as he tried to position himself at your entry, causing him to groan in annoyance. 

"Fucking hold still." he spat, grabbing your still wet hair and roughly pushing your head into the mattress. Your scalp hurt while he held your hair in his fist and pulled it, the other hand tried to push the leaking tip of his dick into your clenching hole. As soon as he brought himself into position he rested his hand on your lower back, falling forward a bit and bottoming out with a rough slam of his hips against your ass. He did not even wait for one second before he started grinding into you at a harsh pace. 

You wanted to scream but instead you could only let out a muffled moan, your face still pressed into the mattress. "Oh," you whimper "Fuck, Megs - feels so good." you cry, tears forming in your eyes. Your scalp felt like it was on fire as Megumi pulled you up to him by your hair, your back meeting his chest. He then let go of you and wrapped one arm around your waist, his other hand rested on your hip. 

Megumi pounded into you relentlessly while your thighs started shaking and the moans that escaped your lips became louder and louder. You were practically screaming. "Shit I- Fuck, ’s too much- so big-" you brabble, eyes closed while he breathed into your ear, groaning with every deep thrust. The hand that rested on your hips moved down to your wet heat. Your pussy started fluttering around his dick as his thumb met your clit once again, rubbing frantically, making you cry out in ecstasy. 

"Holy shit, you’re so fucking tight- look at you taking this dick so good, baby," he praised, his rough pace made Megumi pant out the words, he tried to catch his breath but he only got lost in his own moans. "Fuck- such a good girl for me. Such a fucking dirty little whore." His words alone were almost enough to bring you over the edge. 

"P-Please, I’m gonna-" you whimpered and closed your eyes because it just was all too much. His thick cock pounded into you at such a deliciously fast pace it made you lose your mind. You felt your orgasm approach when suddenly Megumi pushed you away from him, your face meeting the mattress again. He slapped your ass so hard you were sure it would leave a mark. You cried out as both of his big hands grabbed your hips and he completely bottomed out a few times, slamming his cock deep into your trembling cunt. "Shit- I’m gonna- gonna- fuck," your loud moans filled the room and as his thrusts became sloppier you came, pussy creaming around his dick, a white ring forming at his shaft.

"Fuck, Baby, keep squeezing me so tight." Megumi groaned, your fluttering cunt clenching around his girth. As his hips started shaking you felt him getting sloppier with each thrust. You looked back at him over your shoulder and heard a deep moan before you sent him over the edge and he came inside of you. 

He breathed hard and paused for a brief moment before he pulled out and let himself crash onto your body. With you now laying on your back he crawled up to you and layed his head down on your chest, still trying to catch his breath. You pulled his body towards you and stroked his back soothingly, brushing through his hair with your other hand.

"I love you," you whispered quietly "I love you." Megumi still didn’t say a word as he raised his head to look up at your face. Your eyes met and he leaned in to pull you into a deep kiss that made you gasp for air once again. When your lips finally parted, your eyes met again and you felt like an addict. What did he do to you? 

"Don’t ever try leaving me again," he said. His gaze was completely cold, you had no chance of interpreting it. "I love you." he adds quietly.

"I am only yours." you whispered in a shaky voice, stroking his cheek. You finally felt every muscle in his body relax and he laid his head back on your chest.

"Only mine." he repeats quietly and you continued stroking his cheek, soothing him by drawing circles on his back with your other hand and already thinking about excuses to tell your friends about the bruises on your neck.

After all this time, you were able to convince your head, but your body was still shaking. You were utterly terrified and so addicted to him that you were unable to get yourself out of this. 

*** 

You snap back to reality when suddenly someone attacked Megumi from behind and pulled him off of Choso, slamming him to the ground, hard.

You can spot pink hair and realize that it is Yuji.

"You fucking son of a bitch," Megumi panted, voice filled with rage "I saw you two coming out of that bathroom earlier, fucking get away from me." he spat and freed himself, throwing yet another punch at his best friends jaw.

Yuji dodged his punch and pressed his arm to Megumi's throat to hold him still. He didn't answer him but his look was so full of anger and disappointment. They were best friends for so long and Yuji would never even think of making a move on you. 

You looked over at the two of them, Maki was at your side again holding you close. Nobara was also standing next to you and out of the corner of your eye you saw Gojo and Geto hurrying over. Geto grabbed Yuji and pulled him off of Megumi, while Gojo pulled Megumi back to his feet and threw him towards the glass door.

"What the hell man, what the actual fuck’s wrong with you?" the white haired man spat at him "Get the fuck out of here." he growled and shoved Megumi outside, following him shortly after. You’ve never seen Gojo this angry.

Tears welled up in your eyes.

"Is everything okay, man?" you heard Geto ask Yuji. 

"Yeah I’m fine." he replied through clenched teeth.

Your vision became blurry while Nobara tried to soothe you by stroking your back. Maki held you tight in her arms. 

You give Yuji an apologetic look, but he looks past you, over to Maki. You feel her nod and hold you even tighter. 

"Let's go home, Y/N." she says softly, and you realize what's going on. 

"Let go of me." you say, stopping as she tries to move you towards the door. 

"Listen, this is not a good idea. Let's just go home." Maki responds firmly.

Nobara looks from you over to Maki and back to you. Yuta and Toge exchange glances with each other as well, and you suddenly realize how often your friends must have had conversations about you when you weren't around. 

"I have to-" you mumble, unsure what to say next. "I-I…get the hell off me, Maki" you say, now very upset, and tear yourself free of her grip.

The people around you had already dispersed. Yuji and Geto were taking care of Choso and the party was in full swing again, as if nothing ever happened. Thankfully, no one was interested in you anymore but between you and your friends, the world seemed to have stopped.  You looked from Yuji to Nobara and Maki, then over to Toge and Yuta. Your look was full of guilt and also full of shame. You wanted to say so much and instead you just turn around and walk away from your friends, towards the roof terrace. You‘re shaking while tears streamed down your face.

You had to make sure Megumi was okay.

**important note ** honestly, this is my very first piece of writing I ever published on some kind of platform. I always LOVED reading fics and all kinds of writing on here and all of you guys are just so talented. I have a habit of talking myself down and making myself small so want to try and keep it to a minimum. You have literally no idea how much I already wrote and deleted in a fit of hating myself so I hope you like this. English is not my native language and I KNOW I really have to improve in quality and grammar and overall use prettier words but I am trying and I hope I can improve my writing rather fast. I would love your feedback and maybe some advice if u have any. What really made me pull my shit together is some post I saw on here about how writing is supposed to be fun and that it doesn't matter if its good or bad and that Tumblr really just is a place to express yourself and yeah I really liked that so now you had to endure this I am deeply sorry

[gemini-care-barr]

On the topic of Hal Jordan being maybe a bit better than anyone gives him credit for…

[I’m kidding ofc, we all know he’s a great guy, but bear with me for the sake of this post hahaha]

⚠️ Spoilers for Green Lantern #5 ⚠️

I get it, y’all, I really do. Hal can be pushy when it comes to love. And pretty undeserving of the love he pushes for because I mean how good is a guy that keeps professing his love to the same girl only to ditch her for long and unspecified stretches of time. Like of course, Carol keeps moving on, Hal, there’s absolutely no reason why she should wait around for some guy that loves her, but still leaves her! But hear me out…

Maybe Hal being pushy doesn’t actually change the fact that he’s a good guy. Maybe his pushiness is sincere. And maybe, just maybe, he’s a big enough person to set the whole “all is fair in love and war” thing aside to do what’s right and that’s what makes him so dang hard to resist.

So, this all stems from the latest issue of Green Lantern by Jeremy Adams and Xermánico which features Hal setting out to put a stop to Sinestro’s reign of terror across the earth. Hal’s first stop is Ferris Air as Sinestro has taken over all their unmanned drones to enact his plan. Carol catches Hal up on the situation and as he’s leaving to do his superheroics Carol hands him some nifty new communicators designed by her new fiance, Nate, y’know, the guy that Hal has been at one-sided odds with since the first issue of this new run. Hal, predictably, makes a snide little Hal-comment about Nate being smart and Carol, predictably, gives him no rope when she shortly replies that he’s “very” smart. I’ll always love these terse little exchanges between them.

Hal later runs into the problem of the last two drones being too far away from each other, and too close to their intended targets, for him to reach them in time. This leads to him coming up with the idea of putting his piloting skills, and indomitable will, to the test by simultaneously sending two constructs in opposite directions to catch the last two drones. Carol puts Nate on the line, and this is where my admiration for Hal, and Adams as a writer, grows considerably, as rather than getting another typical Hal remark we get a man on a mission.

Hal doesn’t care who’s guiding him in, he doesn’t care that he’s lost the love of his life (for no reason other than his own hubris) and that the one who has earned her love is now talking to him one-on-one. Rather than taking the easy drama route of giving Hal yet another opportunity to undercut his latest rival, Adams instead opts for the much more in-character route of having Hal just be the hero that he is. Hal’s only care is that there are people in trouble and Nate is the only person who can help him. And man, do they make a great team.

And this is a fact that neither gets nor needs any particular highlighting from the story itself. No remarks about Nate being the one to guide Hal in are made. Nothing is said about how well Hal followed directions from his rival-in-love. And that’s kinda my favorite part of all of this, the conclusion that I’ve come to, that Hal is not in the least bit petty and is a wholly honorable person, is not a conclusion that the story busies itself with proving. It just is. Hal just is a hero. He just is a good guy. He just does the right thing because that’s the right thing to do and, man, does that make it hard to say no to him.

[trivalentlinks]

🔥 - i'd like to order an unpopular opinion on leverage, please!

Sorry for the very, very late answer, but to make up for it, have two unpopular opinions:

The first one's a bit of a cop-out. I think it's the less popular opinion, but probably because most don't care that much either way:

I head-canon that Damien Moreau is actually a banker/financier, ie, his primary source of income is actually derivatives investments and market prediction, and all the buying countries, arms deals and other such clandestine activities is just to give markets slight pushes in the direction he wants. (I've previous talked about this here (my last reblog addition))

This opinion seems "unpopular" in that the more common reading is that he's a mob boss who just calls himself a 'banker' to make himself sound cooler than he actually is. Which I think is a totally valid reading, consistent with what we are shown in canon! Like, he's all about image, and it's totally believable that the entire financier/banker persona is just that.

One reason I prefer the actually-a-banker reading is, as I described in the other post, because I like the parallel with team leverage and their "alternative revenue stream". This is also why I like to head-canon that when Eliot and Moreau were starting out (after Eliot met Toby and left the PMCs with his newfound conscience), before things got bad, they actually did good--only destabilizing horrible, abusive dictatorships, using their alternative revenue stream to help people. The parallels are just so compelling to me this way.

Another reason I prefer the actually-a-banker reading is that it's more relatable to me. I know people who work as financiers (hedge fund/high frequency trading/crypto firm founders or high-level quants etc).

None of them (that I know of) would actually do illegal things to manipulate prices, but it sometimes seems like if they were a little less risk-averse, a little less ethical, who knows? And when they tell me about the people they know, people they describe as "if you took a person's stats and dialled 'ethics' all the way down to zero"... These friends think anyone too stupid to see through a cryptocurrency white paper deserves to lose their life's savings. So when they say someone has ethics dialled to zero, well. You don't wanna know.

On the other hand, I don't know anyone who's anywhere close to being a mob boss.

-

Here's a more genuinely unpopular opinion, in that I think most people believe the opposite, and actually do care:

I really like Jimmy Ford. I find the character very relatable and very compelling. I feel like a lot of people in the fandom just write him off as a bad father, but I don't think that's fair.

I talked a lot about this here (skip past the "..." paragraph; above that were my old early thoughts about Moreau, before I reformulated them to be my current thoughts)

As I mentioned there, I see in Jimmy Ford every parent who didn't understand their kid, but loved them, and as Jimmy said to Nate, that's more important.

Every parent who grew up at a different time, in another country, in a harder, less forgiving world, who wants to ensure their kid can survive that old environment, without realizing that that isn't the kid's world anymore, that their kid is actually thriving in this new world, the one their parents sacrificed to raise them in

Every parent who flipped out when their son decided to major in sociology instead of computer engineering, because they could never have made a living with a degree like that

(but he's going to do more than make a living with that degree; he's going to make a difference)

Every parent who constantly monitors their daughter to ensure she waits for marriage, because in the old country she would have been shunned or worse if she didn't

(but she's not there right? her parents worked and sacrificed and bled to bring her up in this more forgiving world)

Every parent who sits next to their kid for hours a day until they get their daily hour of piano practice done (and yells at them until they do every day, disturbing their neighbour, who's just trying to focus on doing her research and grading her students' papers, not that this is personal or anything), because the parent managed to survive and to move to this country by working relentlessly at everything they did and can't imagine a world where a 7-year-old is allowed to play and to find their own interests

(but they will, maybe not then, but one day, years down the line, they may even end up liking music)

Maybe it's that I'm a kid of immigrants who knows a lot of kids of immigrants, but I think I'm more forgiving of people who raised their children in a culture different from their own and struggled to adjust to that.

[kodaloveschris]

Echoes of Silence

Matt Sturniolo paced the length of the small, rented cabin. The Versus Tour had taken a toll on all of them, but tonight was different. Tonight, Matt felt the weight of everything crashing down. Chris and Nick were out celebrating another successful show, but Matt had opted to stay behind. He needed the quiet, the solitude, to sort through the chaos in his mind.

He glanced at his phone, the screen lighting up with a picture of his brothers at a club. They were smiling, surrounded by fans, living in the moment. A pang of loneliness hit Matt hard. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he didn’t belong, that he was just a shadow in the bright lights of their fame.

His thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of his phone. It was a text from Nate.

Nate: Hey Matt, you okay? Saw the posts. Why aren’t you with them?

Matt sighed, typing a quick response.

Matt: Needed some time alone. Just… thinking.

He tossed his phone onto the couch and walked out onto the balcony. The cool night air did little to ease the turmoil inside him. He loved his brothers, but lately, he felt like he was drowning in their shadows. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to find his own place, his own voice.

The door creaked open, and Matt turned to see Chris standing there, concern etched across his face. “Matt? What are you doing out here?”

Matt shrugged, avoiding his brother’s gaze. “Just needed some air.”

Chris stepped closer, his brow furrowing. “Why didn’t you come out with us? We missed you.”

Matt’s heart ached at the words. “I just… I don’t know, Chris. Sometimes I feel like I don’t fit in. Like I’m just here because I’m your brother, not because I have anything to offer.”

Chris’s eyes widened in shock. “Matt, that’s not true. You’re a huge part of this. We wouldn’t be where we are without you.”

Matt shook his head, tears welling up. “It doesn’t feel that way. I see you and Nick out there, shining, and I feel like I’m just dragging you down.”

Before Chris could respond, Nick joined them on the balcony, his face pale with worry. “What’s going on?”

Chris looked at Matt, urging him to speak. Matt took a deep breath, his voice trembling. “I feel like I’m losing myself, Nick. Like I don’t belong.”

Nick’s eyes softened as he moved to Matt’s side, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “You belong with us, Matt. Always. We’re sorry if we made you feel otherwise.”

Chris nodded, his voice earnest. “We get caught up in the craziness, but that doesn’t mean we don’t see you or appreciate you. You’re our brother, and we love you.”

Matt looked between them, the sincerity in their eyes breaking through the walls he had built around his heart. “I just want to find my own way, my own voice.”

Nick squeezed his shoulder. “And you will. We’ll help you, Matt. Whatever you need.”

Chris stepped closer, hugging Matt tightly. “We’re in this together. Always.”

As they stood there, the cool night air wrapping around them, Matt felt a glimmer of hope. The echoes of silence that had haunted him began to fade, replaced by the warmth of his brothers’ love and support. He wasn’t alone. He never had been.

Together, they could face anything

[wyattjohnston]

you always did feel just like home - nathan mackinnon

summary: valorie hadn't meant to be away from nova scotia for so long, and she hadn't meant to immediately insert herself back into nate's life. mysterious how the universe works.

word count: 11,365

warning: not exactly healthy alcohol consumption

note: it is finally time for me to put my money where my mouth is and post my exchange fic instead of just bothering everybody else! this is written for the winter fic exchange 2k23 and i wrote it for cait (hey @blueskrugs that's you)! i hope you like it! thanks to @matthewtkachuk, @comphy-and-cozy @farbutnevergone & @laurenairay who have all provided feedback as this grew to be a lot longer than anticipated.

playlist: | looking back - parachute | wait - knuckle puck | longshot - catfish and the bottlemen | selfish - the kite string tangle | i'm in love with you - the 1975 |

Valorie hadn’t intended to be late and it meant that she was immediately the centre of attention when she walked into the café. She spotted the table of her friends that was discretely to the side and out of the way, though that discretion flew out the window when Amber and Valorie squealed as they saw each other.

They rushed to close the distance, throwing their arms around one another in a hug that only remained upright because Mike was standing close enough by to keep them that way. Valorie, after pulling away from Amber, greeted Mike with a more subdued but no less friendly hug.

Neither Mike nor Amber were who she’d noticed first, though, because the third person at the table was Nathan MacKinnon and he was a man who was impossible to miss.

Despite how much she wanted to step forward and greet him in the exact same way, Valorie wasn’t sure where the boundaries were, so she opted for saying, “I would have thought you’d be far too good to hang out with us lowly commoners.”

Nate smirked, looking as if he’d been expecting it, but it wasn’t him who spoke next.

“We haven’t seen you half as much as him in the last seven years,” Mike said, thumping his hand across Nate’s broad chest. Valorie was momentarily distracted by just how broad it was; those years had been very good to him.

Mike continued, “Dogg knows where he came from.”

“Yes, yes, I’m the worst,” Valorie said with an eyeroll as she pushed everyone back to their seats. Nate paused for long enough that Valorie greeted him with a hug and a lingering kiss on his cheek.

Valorie sat opposite Nate, tucking her legs underneath her own chair to avoid accidentally entangling them with his—the length of his was a memory firmly engrained in her mind.

Immediately it became clear that the conversation was not going to trend towards the Cup like she’d been hoping. It was far and away the most exciting thing she could think of for any of them to talk about, but she supposed that everyone had had the same thought since Nate arrived back in Nova Scotia.

Instead, Amber lifted Valorie’s wrist to get a closer inspection of the bracelet she was wearing and the boys leant in, too.

“Got to keep the jewellery, I see,” Amber said, her voice slightly awed. Valorie couldn’t blame her.

“Everything but the car,” Valorie said. “It would have been useless up here anyway. Definitely not meant for winter tyres.”

“You should have kept it and flipped it,” Mike said, tapping against the table in thought. “An Audi, wasn’t it?”

“Porsche.”

Mike whistled low and impressed, Nate’s eyebrow twitched—Valorie almost missed it—and he leaned back in his seat. Valorie could only imagine what cars Nate was driving around Colorado or Nova Scotia. As nice as her Porsche was, she was sure it paled in comparison.

Valorie pulled back her hand, hiding it away under the table to stop Amber playing with it any longer.

“You still wear what he bought you?” Nate asked, his voice curiously tight as his eyes flicked between her face and where the bracelet was hidden under the table.

Valorie thought for a moment, cataloguing everything she had put on that morning. “I think everything I’m wearing was a gift from him. It wasn’t a bad break up; no bad memories associated with any of it.”

Until that moment, Valorie had been perfectly comfortable with the idea of it—her entire wardrobe had been bought by her ex so she didn’t have much choice anyway, but under Nate’s careful gaze every inch of fabric felt suffocatingly heavy.

“Why did you break up?” Amber asked. “It sounds perfect.”

“I wanted to come home,” Valorie answered simply, one shoulder rising in a shrug as she tried to casually avoid eye contact with her friends.

“He had enough money; you could have come home whenever you wanted.”

“What? You think I’ve been back, like, twice in seven years because that’s what I wanted?” Valorie asked, somewhat viciously, directing her words and the accompanying glare at Mike. “There was always someone to meet, something to do, somewhere to be and I couldn’t ever get away. I missed home.”

Mike, rightfully chastened, lowered himself down in his chair just enough to let Valorie know he regretted what he’d said. Nate and Amber were sitting in an awkward silence and Valorie had to speak just to move them along.

She continued, “And I was bored as hell. I was asked if I’d be interested in the Real Housewives of Miami reboot and if I stayed much longer I would have said yes just to have something to do.”

Amber’s laugh was raucous, eliciting the same from Valorie, and she said, “You’re too young to be on that show.”

“That’s most of the reason I said no!” Valorie shrieked, still laughing. “That and I was actually a housewife? The other women on that show have, like, careers and are important and aren’t just sitting at home complaining about doing yoga.”

“I’d watch a show that was you doing yoga.”

Three heads turned to Nate, all barking out surprised laughs at his deadpan voice accompanied by the casual expression that remained on his face—almost as if he hadn’t said anything at all.

Mike thumped Nate across the chest, as he’d done earlier, and said, “We all know you would, Nate.”

“That’s really it, though?” Nate pressed on, not even looking at Mike as he thumped him back, “You couldn’t come up with a schedule where you got to come home more?”

“It wasn’t going to work,” Valorie said firmly. Nate tilted his head but was kind enough to not press her any further.

Despite all the talk of Valorie living a lavish lifestyle, when it came to ordering food she was conservative with her money. She didn’t have a choice when that money was coming out of her own, not very large bank account. It didn’t matter in the end, because Nate quickly took over and promised that he’d pay after ordering a ludicrous amount of food all the while flicking his gaze to Valorie every few seconds.

After they’d finished eating—having spent so long that it was clear they were only being allowed to stay because they were with Nate—Mike and Amber hurried off before they were late to see Amber’s parents, leaving Nate and Valorie on the sidewalk out the front.

“Where are you living?” Nate asked, his keys twirling in his hands. “Do you want a ride?”

Valorie nodded, surprised but please, “Oh, yeah, thank you. I’m staying with my parents. They haven’t moved.”

He didn’t say anything as he started moving towards the parking lot behind the café. It hadn’t changed much since they were 16, slowly walking back to Nate’s second-hand truck after a date neither of them really wanted to end.

“You’re back with your parents?”

“I haven’t had a job in seven years, nobody will hire me, and nobody will let me lease a house without pay cheques so…”

“That’s rough.”

“It’s fine,” she insisted. Nate’s face screwed up, so she added, “I still get on with my parents so it’s really fine.”

The Porsche Cayenne he led her to wasn’t so much a surprise, given the dealership that would have jumped at the chance to have one of their vehicles driven by Stanley Cup Champion Nathan MacKinnon—it was, however, a reminder of the 911 she’d left behind in Miami.

Of everything she’d left behind in Miami.

They were sitting in the Cayenne out the front of Valorie’s parents’ house, her hand on the door handle, when Nate said, “I’ve got room at my place if you want it.”

“That’s really sweet of you, Nate,” she smiled back at him, appreciative, “but I don’t have any money to pay rent.”

Valorie opened the door and looked back into the car when she was standing upright, to thank Nate for dropping her off.

“I don’t need rent from you.”

“Nate.”

“Just say the word, Val.”

Moving into one of Nate’s spare bedrooms was easier than Valorie had anticipated; Nate picked her up a few days after he dropped her at her parents’ home in Crichton Park, loaded some bags into the trunk and unloaded them into a bedroom with a lake front view in Grand Lake.

He’d declared that everything in the house was hers if she wanted it and raised a challenging eyebrow when she walked into the wine room and declared that she’d start with the most expensive bottle and work her way down—she knew exactly which one it was, too, even with a cursory glance at the bottles lining the walls.

“It’s probably not as nice where you lived in Miami,” Nate said as he finished the tour.

Valorie laughed, “The lovely Mediterranean Revival home that he gutted and turned into a Hypermodern nightmare so the inside and the outside clashed? The one that didn’t even have a view of the beach? I’ll miss a lot of things about Miami but that house is not one of them.”

“I didn’t know you cared about that stuff.”

“Architecture?” she clarified, waiting for Nate’s slow nod before she shrugged. “I had a lot of time to kill.”

Valorie spent most of that first day on the deck overlooking Grand Lake, it wasn’t quite warm enough for her to venture into the pool, but it was perfect to just sit and watch the water and the occasional jet-skier zip past.

Nate left her to her own devices for what might have been a few hours before he joined her and started asking questions about what she’d like for dinner so that he could head to the store.

“You gonna cook for me, Dogg?” Valorie asked, tilting her head over the back of the chair so that she could see Nate properly. “What if I want risotto?”

There was a brief moment where it looked like Nate’s brain short-circuited before he collected himself and said, “I can offer you steak or chicken breast. Salad or vegetables.”

“So many options,” Valorie said, a small laugh in her voice, as she pushed herself off the chair. “If you cook the steak, I’ll make the salad.”

“Sorry, there aren’t more options.”

“Two more than I’d be able to offer.”

The admission didn’t seem to surprise Nate, who just accepted what Valorie had said without question—Mike and Amber had surely passed on a few things about Valorie’s time in Miami and the chef she had was one of their favourite thing to bring up.

Valorie used Nate going to the store as an opportunity to wander through the house. It wasn’t as large as she was expecting, so it didn’t take very long at all—especially not when she avoided Nate’s bedroom out of respect for his privacy. She opened every cupboard in the kitchen, just to make sure she knew where everything was kept, and then unloaded the dishwasher when it beeped at her incessantly. In the fridge was an open bottle of sparkling red wine, so Valorie helped herself to a glass on the balcony while she waited for Nate to return.

The calmness of Nova Scotia was something Valorie had forgotten she’d missed until she was back; even in the height of summer, with the excitement of the Cup coming back, she was more relaxed than she’d ever been in Miami.

When Nate returned Valorie greeted him with a big smile as she raised the wine she’d poured herself—her second of the afternoon—and he returned it without hesitation.

She continued to drink as they made dinner, her easy and boring salad taking no time at all, and Nate cracked a beer while he grilled and then opened a new bottle of wine for them as they ate on the balcony overlooking the lake as the sun slowly began to set.

Despite the view she had—she’d been staring at it all day, after all—Valorie couldn’t help but watch Nate as he ate, mostly scrutinising the lines of his face that were so much different to what she once knew.

“You keep looking at me like you don’t believe I exist,” Nate said. Valorie didn’t even flinch; another two glasses of wine making her particularly carefree.

“I don’t know if I do,” she admitted, sighing as she realised that even his voice had changed. “I’ve seen you on the TV and in photos and everything but for the past seven years the image of you in my head has always been you the last summer I saw you. You were a kid and now you’re a man and I really don’t know how to deal with that.”

“Yeah,” Nate agreed, his voice a lot softer and more serious than it had been. “I know. I get it.”

Amber and Mike came over to spend time on the lake not too long into Valorie’s time with Nate. It was a perfect day, which Valorie had come to expect, and being out on the Sea Doos was the perfect way to spend it.

It was nice to have company.

Nate had taken to visiting his parents’ house if he was going to see them. He always offered for Valorie to join him, but that felt like it was encroaching on boundaries she wasn’t even sure they’d set. She’d tried, though, to get him to invite them over only to be met with a shake of the head—maybe he was worried about different boundaries being breached. Valorie didn’t know.

Amber and Mike were good company, at least. Valorie was always happy that Amber had stuck by her even when she wasn’t around. Mike… Mike she could take or leave depending on the day.

“Why’d you really leave what’s-his-face?” Mike asked, apropos of nothing and a few beers deep.

Amber glared at him, though it went unnoticed. Nate sat up a little straighter and Valorie couldn’t work out if it was Mike-related or Nick-related.

“I already told you,” Valorie said, forcing a polite twinge into her voice even if she was dreading whatever might come next.

“Yeah, but there’s gotta be more to it,” Mike argued.

“Why?”

“I love this place, but if Amber wanted to move to, I don’t know, LA and never come back I’d do it in a heartbeat. And with the money you had? Easiest decision I’ll ever make.”

“He doesn’t want kids,” she relented, though it was not without steeliness as she tried to put a definitive end to the topic. “No amount of money was worth not being a mom.”

“That’s some serious self-control,” Mike said, shaking his head almost as if he was in awe. “I can think of a lot of things I’d give up for the life you were living.”

“It’s all Valorie ever wanted,” Nate said, his voice deep and low. “She was born to be a mom.”

Valorie’s gaze moved slowly to Nate as she replayed the words in her mind. He hadn’t moved from how he’d been sitting at the start of the conversation, hadn’t even looked away from Mike. She wanted him to look at her, to make eye contact to be able to get a read on him; to see if the skip it caused in her heartbeat was for an actual reason.

“It took you seven years with this guy to work out you were on a different page?” Mike asked incredulously, earning a half-hearted shrug from Valorie who looked back to him with hesitation.

“He said he was undecided. I loved him, you know? I was willing to wait it out in the hopes that kids would be on the table.”

Mike then agreed, “I’d wait seven years if I spent the entire time being a trophy wife.”

“It wasn’t about all the material possessions,” she snapped. “I know that’s what it looked like, but I’m upset you all think I’m a gold digger.”

“If the Louboutins fit,” Mike said with an eyebrow waggle.

“We know you aren’t a gold digger,” Amber said, finally, and firmly, contributing to the conversation, “or you wouldn’t have come back.”

Mike leaned back in his chair, pointed up at Nate’s house watching over them and said, rather loudly, “Right into Nate’s sweet digs.”

His loudness was met with silence, thick and tense, and the three people that stared at him didn’t seem to bother him at all.

“Do you even like me, Mike?” Valorie asked, tired.

“Come on, Val. I’m just joking around.” He added, after a hearty hunk across the back of the head courtesy of Nate, “I’ll cool it.”

The weather had turned quite quickly and quite dramatically—what had been the perfect weather the week prior had turned so miserable that Valorie was looking out the floor to ceiling windows as if her death stare could part the black clouds.

Nate was somewhere on the island doing something hockey related that he’d told Valorie about the night before while she was half asleep on the couch, so she was, once again, left in the house to her own devices.

A second car had appeared in the garage a couple of days after her arrival and Nate had assured her that she could drive it whenever she needed; Valorie was going to avoid driving it as long as she could.

The wine room was taking more of a hit than Valorie had expected when she’d joked with Nate about drinking it all; she had very few places to go, and her mother was more than happy to drive to Grand Lake to pick her up if there were family plans so she rarely had to drive, so the day drinking was getting more out of hand than she wanted to admit. It was a similar problem to Miami, she was realising, but Nate’s house wasn’t filled with quite so many time-wasting objects and there was only so much baking she could do when Nate rarely had any visitors.

Her response to the door opening had become Pavlovian, especially since being confined inside by the rain. Valorie was on her feet, pretending to walk to the kitchen to refill her glass of red, so that she’d be able to start a conversation with Nate when he walked in.

Only, it wasn’t Nate.

“Uh… Sidney. Hi. Nate’s not here. I’m Valorie—Val,” she said, all in a rush, putting her glass on the counter and desperately hoping she didn’t have red teeth.

“Nice to see you again, Val,” Sidney said, polite and friendly. “Nate told me to let myself in; he’ll be back soon.”

The shock and awe Valorie felt being around Sidney—Sid—had disappeared after exactly one summer of learning that he was nowhere near as cool as she had built him up to be. That being said, she had not expected him to remember her for a second.

“Do you want some cookies?” she asked, quickly, noticing that Sid was hovering uncertainly. “I made way too many.”

Sid smiled, nodded, and sat down at one of the bar stools on the other side of the counter while Valorie plated up an assortment of ginger snaps, Florentines, sugar cookies and Afghan biscuits all while trying not to let the wine she’d been drinking rattle her.

“Killing the boredom of being stuck inside all day?” Sid asked, drawing the plate towards him and inspecting his choices as if she was going to stop him at one.

“It’s what I do and what I’ve done for years now.” Valorie shrugged. “I drink and I bake.”

“I hope you don’t mind if I say that sounds… underwhelming.”

“Oh, no!” Valorie gasped instantly. “I mean, I got really into yoga and reading, too. I wasn’t just some boozy housewife. I love to bake, though. I could do it all day. Wine?”

Sid agreed to a glass, and Valorie pretended that she didn’t know he was doing it so she wouldn’t be drinking alone.

“Are you happy to be back here? Back home?” Sid asked around a not-yet-finished mouthful of ginger snap. “You’ve been gone a long time.”

It was, to say the least, unnerving to have Sidney Crosby—anybody, really—sitting across from her and calling her out for being gone. They weren’t friends, like Amber and Mike, or whatever else, like Nate, and she couldn’t wrap her head around why he would care to bring it up.

She took a healthy sip of her wine, savouring the taste for longer than was strictly necessary and said, “I was always trying to get back. It just never… It was hard to get away. I’m glad to be back.”

“I’m sure the island is happy to have you back,” he said, removing the unease in Valorie’s stomach flawlessly as he looked out over the deck to the lake. “Sorry the weather didn’t hold up for you.”

“It was nice for a while,” she conceded, following Sid’s eyes, “and at least it’s the same all day. I was really not impressed by Miami deciding there was a torrential downpour every afternoon after the perfect morning. Seven years there and I never got used to it.”

Valorie moved their conversation to the couch, carrying the wine with her while Sid carried the cookies he was slowly making his way through. She let Sid talk about his off-season plans, to what he’d already done since returning to Nova Scotia, noting that he was absolutely downplaying the vacation he and Kathy had taken and skipping over the extraordinarily nice or expensive parts. She loved Antigua, knew it inside and out, but was happy to let Sid tell her what he thought was appropriate—he may have been happy to ask her why she’d been gone so long but it was clear not much more information than that had made it his way.

By the time Nate was home—his definition of ‘soon’ stretching Valorie’s just a little—she was desperate to just be anywhere that wasn’t near anyone, not just Sid and the way he knew too much yet absolutely nothing. She excused herself within moments to use the bathroom, heading downstairs to her ensuite.

On her way down the staircase, she heard, the beginning of their conversation:

“Val was just filling me in on her time in Miami.”

“She really enjoyed it, right? It sounds great.”

“That’s… one way to put it.”

Walking through Halifax with Nate by her side was an experience. He’d mentioned it in passing, that people were more interested in him than normal, but Valorie hadn’t taken it to mean it was quite so relentless.

Kids wanted their jerseys autographed, everyone wanted a photo and every other person wanted to stand there on the street with Nate and listen to him recount his entire career from Bantam to what training he’d been doing since he got back to Nova Scotia.

Their trip into Halifax had been for no reason other than the sudden realisation by Nate that Valorie hadn’t left the house in an alarming amount of time outside of her new part-time job at one of the local hobby stores, so it wasn’t like the constant stopping was preventing them from doing anything in particular.

It was, however, resulting in Valorie entering a lot of stores that she otherwise had no intention of going into just so that people could gush over Nate. And at least one purchase of a dress she didn’t need.

One person who stopped them was a classmate from high school who stopped them to question Valorie about her disappearance just as much as she stopped to gush over Nate. Valorie didn’t even remember her name and the woman hadn’t taken the time to introduce herself.

“It’s so cute that you’re back for Nate, though,” she said. “I always knew you guys would end up in the same place.”

“Well, that place is home for us, so.”

“Oh, I know, but I heard all about you in Miami and obviously Nate’s making magic in Denver so it’s just nice to see you two in the same place again.”

“Yeah, it’s great,” Nate said, nodding even as he was subtly moving out of her way and directing Valorie in the same direction. “We’ve gotta head off, though. It was great to see you again.”

“Of course, sorry! You must be so busy! We should definitely catch up!”

There was more nodding and agreeing as they walked past her, Valorie checking back over her shoulder quickly in one last attempt to help her remember?”

“What was her name?” she asked Nate when they were well out of earshot.

Nate admitted easily, his face lighting up with a guilty smile, “No fucking idea.”

Valorie walked into him as she laughed, unable to control herself as it erupted from her mouth. Nate laughed, too, the guilt shifting from his face and they were holding each other up on the sidewalk as they struggled to breath.

The laughter continued, albeit subdued, as they made their way to the one thing they’d agreed upon getting: ice cream. It was an otherwise peaceful work, seemingly already having run into everyone who wanted a few minutes of Nate’s time.

Being out in public with Nate was different to being alone with him at home, Valorie noticed, and it was different to how they’d been as teenagers. He always carried himself with a confidence that was beyond him in years, almost a quiet arrogance as he always knew where he was going to end up—Valorie would have given anything to know when the arrogance disappeared. Was it because of the Cup win? His accomplishment proof enough that he was everything he ever said he was going to be. Was it seasons earlier when it didn’t look as clear?  

At the ice cream shop, Nate ordered Butterscotch ripple and then laughed under his breath as Valorie ordered Maple Walnut.

“Why is that funny?”

“You’re so Canadian.”

Noting the children around, Valorie glared at him, mouthing ‘fuck you’ before she continued out loud, “I’m going to enjoy all the maple flavoured things. You can’t stop me.”

“I wouldn’t dare. I will laugh at you, though.”

They sat on a table out the front, Nate saying hello to a few starstruck kids as they did so.

“What are you staring at?” Valorie asked, her cheeks warming up under Nate’s watchful eye.

“Just wanted to see if you were still a psycho who bites their ice cream.”

Valorie made direct eye contact with him and bit into the top of her ice cream, causing Nate to shudder dramatically.

Halifax was bustling in a way that Valorie had never seen. The decision to not have the parade in Cole Harbor was purposeful, a clear differentiation from Sid’s parades and a nice thank you to Halifax for his time with the Mooseheads.

She made her way through the crowd unimpeded, even as she headed towards the rooftop she’d been told to head to near the end of the parade route, overlooking City Hall.

Nate had let Valorie know that it was where Sid would be, hidden out of sight—a decision he’d made himself. He hadn’t even relented when Nate, drunkenly, begged him to be beside him; Valorie was grateful that Sid had the awareness to decline.

Sid was already at the rooftop with Kathy, set up with a table, chairs and some food and drink to get them through the parade and the speech Nate was going to give after.

“I hope it’s okay that I’m here,” Valorie said sheepishly, unsure if Nate had told them she’d be there. “This is where they sent me.”

“More than okay.” Sid pulled up a chair from the group of them nearby. “You didn’t want to be down there with him?”

Valorie stepped to the edge of the roof, taking in the swathes of people lined along the streets. Sid and Kathy were both watching her curiously as she turned back to them and took a seat, putting Sid in the middle.

“It wouldn’t feel right. Nate and I aren’t anything, you know.”

“That’s not true, though, is it?” Sid asked. “Or you’d be in the crowd, not up here.”

Valorie froze in her seat, only her eyes moving to follow Sid’s hand as it disappeared beside him and came back with a cooler bag that he pulled wine from.

“Do you moonlight as a shrink?”

“For Nate, yeah, I feel like I do.” He carried on, no beats missed, “I don’t have red, will white do?”

It played in her mind as she drank her wine and ate from the platter that had been set up. Nate hadn’t offered for her to be by his side—she would have turned it down immediately even if he had—and when he’d suggested she sit with Sid it felt, to her, that was the next best thing.

She wasn’t overly talkative during the wait, choosing to just stare out over the edge of the roof at the other side of the street and the people who were in nearly chaotically good spirits. She was hearing vague parts of the conversations Sid and Kathy were having, and answering questions when asked, but for the most part she was lost in the magic of the Stanley Cup being back in Nova Scotia.

Valorie had been in Cole Harbour for Sid’s 2009 Cup Parade as a small and spindly 13-year-old, watching the Cup from a distance.

That morning she’d been able to run her fingers across the engraved names.

“Is it the happiest you’ve ever been?” Valorie asked, not even bothering to quieten her voice so that Kathy wouldn’t hear. “He doesn’t talk about it as much as I thought he would.”

Sid shifted his entire body to face her and Valorie immediately felt like she was about to get a talking to; she forced herself not to shrink.

“If you want him to talk about it you have to let him know he can. I promise you he won’t shut up about it.”

“Oh. Does he think I don’t care? That’s not true,” she said, worried. “I don’t want him to think I don’t care.”

The timing was on point for the parade to enter their vision, no longer just the distant sound of the band. Even as Valorie continued to think about the possibility that Nate didn’t know how much she cared about what he’d achieved, she couldn’t help but be delighted by the sight of Gabe and Cogs very, very drunk in the first carriage that came through.

When Nate came clearly into view, the Cup held high above his head, Valorie felt her heart swell and tears prick the corners of her eyes.

“It is,” Sid said, barely audible over the band and the crowd. “The happiest I’ve ever been.”

Nate had a million things planned for the rest of his day; had a lot of people to introduce the Cup to. Long after he had disappeared from the parade and after the streets of Halifax started to clear, Valorie remained on the roof with Sid and Kathy, swapping stories until their skin was turning pink.

The fact that Sid remembered her, let alone willing to talk with her like an old friend, was still very much blowing Valorie’s mind but it wasn’t something she was going to draw attention to lest it ruin the chill vibe they’d settled into.

They walked to the bar where the party would really kick off, Sid easily blending into the small crowds still milling around Halifax—the occasional person shouting at him, at everyone near them, at the wind. The excitement felt like it was never going to leave.

Waiting for Nate felt like an age, somehow felt even longer than all seven years Valorie had been away. Maybe it was sitting beside an already very drunk Mike, or maybe it was the intense anticipation coursing through her because she knew that Nate could walk through the doors with the Stanley Cup at any moment.

Maybe it was that she was pulled into a conversation with Gabe Landeskog who looked only marginally more sober than he had in the carriage; the beers he was double fisting were sure to fix that.

“Long time no see, Valorie,” he said, his tone giving no indication whether that was good or bad. “All the way back at Nate’s first game, right?”

Valorie was hesitant to respond, and opted for an honest, “That was the only one I got to, yes.”

“He missed you a lot that year.” Gabe paused to drink from one of his beers and Valorie waited for the rest of the thought. “The year after, too, but different.”

“I missed him, too,” Valorie admitted readily; that wasn’t something she’d ever been shy about.

Gabe nodded at her, then raised his chin to say hello to someone who had just walked into the room—it wasn’t Nate, Val checked—and then put his beers down on the table between them so that he could collapse into the empty seat.

“It’s good you’re back together. He’s really happy about it.”

“We’re not—he’s happy because he’s done the one thing you guys aim to do. He’s beaten the final boss. The Elite Four were no match for you guys.”

“No, no, sure he’s happy about that.” Gabe insisted, “It’s a different happy now. A more complete happy.”

“I don’t think you’re making any sense. You should go drink some water.”

Gabe protested, downing one of the beers in a matter of seconds as if that would prove he didn’t need water. Her lip quirked up at the action, both from amusement and bemusement.

Nate finally walked in, well after everyone else was a few drinks in and getting rowdy. His arrival increased the already loud bar enough to make Valorie cover one of her ears while raising the other into the air as she joined the hollering.

Nate finally walked in, well after everyone else was a few drinks in and getting rowdy. His arrival made it worse in that the noise levels were high enough to make Valorie cover one of her ears while raising the other into the air as she joined the hollering.

He and the Cup were moved around the room like he was in a pinball machine, from person to person, from shot glass to shot glass, until at last he was in front of her. The Cup had been deposited somewhere else in the room and Valorie didn’t care enough to locate it; after all, she wasn’t there to see the Stanley Cup.

With a lack of hesitation that couldn’t even be passed off on any drinking she’d been doing, Valorie threw herself at Nate, overcome by the need to make sure he knew she cared about what he’d achieved.

Nate wasn’t immediately ready for it, Valorie’s arms around his neck as she pulled him closer, but he soon realised what was happening and moved his arms around her waist to pull her off the ground.

“I’m so proud of you,” she said, breathless and rushed into his ear. “You’re so good at—at hockey and at knowing me and at taking care of me. But hockey, Nate. I want to hear all about it, okay? Probably tomorrow so I can appreciate it, but I do. I watched it. All six games. I cried I was so proud of you. I am so proud of you. You’re so good.”

“You watched?” he asked back, his warm breath brushing over her own ear and causing her to pull back with her head tilted and her face contorted.

“Yes, Nate. Of course. I thought you knew. I didn’t think I had to tell you.”

Nate pulled her back in, his face buried in her neck. The room may as well have been empty with the way all of Valorie’s senses honed in on Nate—he’d showered before coming, put on cologne that made her head spin, and his warm breath fanned across her neck which made the spinning worse.

If a loud, roaring round of applause hadn’t broken out, Valorie could have stayed pressed against him all night. As it were, though, she pulled back in a dramatic fashion and put a reasonable distance between them before contributing to the clapping—putting gross enthusiasm into it.

Nate laughed, then made a few embarrassed gestures of acknowledgement, before accepting a beer that was being handed to him.

Valorie disappeared, leaving Nate to be bounced around the room again, and hid away with Amber and Mike. They were good and spoke to their other high school friends, all of whom were surprised to see Valorie in the flesh. Luckily for her, the Cup was more than enough of a distraction from any of them asking her what she’d been up to while she was gone.

As the night grew later, it became very clear that Nate’s long day was catching up with him. He was trying, valiantly, to be the last person kicking at the bar, though his demeanour was getting progressively testier as time passed.

“I’m gonna head out. Do you want to come or stay?” she asked, brushing her hand gently over Nate’s shoulders.

“You’re leaving?” he asked, sullen, his arm snaking around her waist and pulling her towards his chair. “You should stay.”

“Amber’s driving me home—if I leave you here can you get home?”

“You should stay,” he repeated, eliciting a laugh from the group he was sitting with.

Valorie laughed with them and ran her hand over his head, insisting that she was leaving whether or not he was coming with her. He hummed, resigned, but let her go so that she could follow Amber outside.

Valorie waited against the wall outside, her head resting back against the cool brick, while Amber went to get her car—Mike went with Amber, mostly because Valorie refused to be the one responsible for him keeping to the sidewalk and off the road.

The door opened and Valorie turned her head, expecting to just wave to somebody as they left, and was surprised to see Nate stepping out.

“Everything alright? You coming home?” she asked, reaching out to him without a second thought. Nate went to her easily.

“I’m going to stay for a bit longer,” he said, standing in front of her. He wasn’t boxing her into the bricks but he was definitely close enough that it wouldn’t take much at all to get there—Valorie thought it would be nice if he did.

“Why are you out here, then?” she asked, her fingers resting in his belt loops.

“I need to…”

Nate didn’t finish his sentence, just lowered his head little by little. Valorie tilted her chin up, pushing back against the wall to get a bit more height.

He wasn’t the same Nate she’d kissed at eighteen—he was broader, bigger in every sense and it was intoxicating to be pressed against the wall by the Nate she’d come to learn. In her mind she was expecting desperation, a need to make up for lost time. It didn’t come, though, and yet Valorie still felt lightheaded when he broke their kiss.

“Will you be in my bed when I get home?”

Valorie scoffed, a little disappointed, “Nate.”

“Not for like—I just want you there. I always want you there.”

She breathed out an “okay”, and kissed him again before sending him back inside to be with his lingering friends.

When he was gone and her head was clearer, Valorie opened her eyes and jumped off the wall at the sight of Amber’s car in front of her and Mike hanging out the passenger’s window.

She pushed Mike back into the car on her way to the backseat, asking before she even sat down, “How long were you there for?”

“Saw it all, babe,” Amber said, beaming into the rear-view mirror. “Never been happier to roll up on two people hooking up outside a bar.”

Valorie knew the second she woke up that things were different. The most immediately apparent difference was the snoring coming from beside her, accompanied by the warmth of an arm over her waist and a chest pressed against her back. Even the mattress underneath her felt different.

Then there was the fact that Nate had kissed her the night before, the catalyst for the other changes she supposed.

It wasn’t a bad different was her first major takeaway, and she relaxed back into the mattress. She couldn’t just lay there forever but she could for a little longer and enjoy the all-encompassing presence of Nate.

She had a fair idea of what time he usually woke up but couldn’t translate that into what might happen when he was hungover—which he was sure to be, and she couldn’t begrudge him that—so after lying in long enough that an ache started to settle in her sides, Valorie pulled herself out of Nate’s embrace and decided to start making breakfast.

Nothing fancy, of course, but she could whip up bacon and eggs and put some pods in a Nespresso machine without too much hassle. She hoped that the smell of food would wake him up, whether he was up to eating it or not and her hope was fulfilled when he wandered out while she was eating her own plate.

“You told me you couldn’t cook,” Nate said, dropping an easy kiss onto Valorie’s head as he passed her to the kitchen.

“I can use a fry pan.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

Eating across from Nate, with him smiling at her in a way he hadn’t since her return, was exactly what Valorie had been after and hadn’t known. Listening to him tell her all about the things she’d missed when he was off doing Stanley Cup things and filling him in in return. Everything he said was perfect and when he moved into telling her about the Cup win itself—“You have to do it again so I can be there.”

“I’ll give it my best go.”

Valorie grinned, picturing it all in her head. She held the image in her mind as she cleared the table and it all came crashing back down when she looked at Nate over the kitchen counter as she realised that their future relied on them talking about the new state of their relationship.

“We probably need to have a conversation or two,” Valorie said hesitantly, eyeing Nate over her coffee to check for any reaction at all. When he didn’t so much as blink, she added, “It’s just been like… six weeks and I don’t actually know what we are to each other.”

He wasn’t pleased, mumbling, “Do we have to have that conversation?”

“If we’re going where I want us to, then yeah, Nate.”

That caught his attention enough to have him properly look at her, no longer buried in his coffee. His question came slow and unsure, yet simultaneously hopeful, “Where do you want us to go?”

“I want us to be together again.”

His previously wary face transformed into a smile, small and barely noticeable. Valorie smiled back at him as she continued to drink her coffee. She didn’t know how to start whatever conversation it was that they needed to have—conversations were one of their strong suits as teenagers, Valorie was able to frame things in the perfect way or ask just the right questions to get Nate talking.

Just as she was trying to come up with a way to get him talking, Nate was the one who spoke first.

“Why’d you move to Miami with him?”

Valorie froze. It made sense, in hindsight, that Nate would be the one leading the conversation when she was the one who’d left, and yet it was still like being doused in cold water to have the question asked of her so directly.

She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat, and provided the simplest explanation she had, “I thought I was going to marry him.”

“I thought you were going to marry me.”

“Obviously that didn’t happen, Nate.”

“Yeah,” he said, because it was entirely obvious that it hadn’t happened and the look on his face showed that he didn’t like to be reminded of it. “And I’m still trying to work out why.”

“Nate, it was seven years ago.” She added, stressed, “We were kids.”

“I still don’t know why you broke up with me, Valorie.”

“Valorie?” she all but screeched, her full name coming from his lips sending a horrible quake down her spine and through her body.

Nate powered on, “You broke up with me and you left and to this day I don’t know why that was.”

“I wasn’t happy, Nate.”

The abrupt silence was worse than the conversation. Valorie sat there, wishing she could take back those four little words—she would if she’d known just how instantly Nate would close up.

His entire face, which had at least been showing his unhappiness and discomfort, was no longer telling her a single thing about how he was feeling. Except with that, she knew exactly how he was feeling.

She opened her mouth, ready to try and do damage control, to try to take it back so that he wouldn’t look like that, except not a single word came out.

Nate beat her to it, though, the sadness gone from his face but still very present in his voice. “Why didn’t you talk to me? I know that the long distance wasn’t great—why didn’t you talk to me?”

“None of it was your fault, Nate,” Valorie stressed, reaching across the table towards him even though he was out of reach. “You were the best thing I had going at the time. I couldn’t keep a job and I couldn’t continue with college because I kept failing the classes and I needed to leave so that I could work on all of that and not drag you down with me.”

“Did it work?”

“Yeah, over the next twelve months I learnt a lot, I grew a lot. I actually was going to ask if you wanted to try again when we were both back here the next summer, but you brought a girlfriend.”

“Rachel.”

“She was lovely,” Valorie said, truthfully.

“Why didn’t you talk to me?”

“And fuck up the thin hold you had on your mental health by dragging you down with my problems?”

“Breaking up with me and then ghosting me did a pretty good job of that.”

Valorie finally pulled her hands back to her lap, knowing that that one sentence was a sure sign that Nate wasn’t going to hold them. Him leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest made it even clearer.

She didn’t know what to say, no amount of explaining was going to be enough and she didn’t want him to think she was making excuses. At the time it had felt like the right thing to do, breaking up with him without any real reason, in the years that had past she’d come to her own realisations that maybe it wasn’t.

Nate’s voice was gruff when he asked, “When did you meet Nick?”

“The first year I was gone…” Valorie said with a sigh. “Sometime in early 2015. Before I came back that summer. We weren’t together at that point because I thought… I thought we—” she gestured between herself and Nate “—could try again. But you know…”

“Rachel,” Nate filled in, uncrossing his arms.

“Rachel. So I went back to Miami, I found Nick because he’d been good to me while I was there but we’re here now anyway. You and me.”

He nodded, still expressionless. Valorie’s leg twitched under the table, up and down repetitively, as she tried to will herself to let Nate be the next person to speak.

“You and me?” he asked, after a long silence.

“If you still want me.”

Nate sighed, pushing his chair back and standing. Valorie watched him, worried that he was going to walk away from the table—from their conversation. He walked around the table towards her, though, and Valorie didn’t have to be told to stand and meet him halfway.

Nate didn’t have anything special planned for his birthday, much to Valorie’s horror. He was going to see his family for lunch—with an invite extended to Valorie which she was more than happy to accept. She couldn’t help but laugh when she arrived and saw Sid and Kathy sitting at the table on the back porch.

“You’re almost like a second father,” Valorie joked, in lieu of a proper greeting. “You’re just everywhere. All Nate’s big moments.”

“I’m really not that old,” Sid argued.

“I was thirteen when I watched you bring the Cup to Cole Harbour. That makes you pretty old.”

He scoffed, “I turned 22 that year.”

Valorie hummed and nodded knowingly, “Old.”

She watched him roll his eyes, noting the affection on his face, and moved on to greet Kathy properly.

It was, otherwise, an uneventful lunch. Valorie was appreciative of the invite, more than pleased to finally be with Nate’s family—back with Nate’s family, and being treated as if she’d never left in the first place. Her smile was ever present, only growing as she watched Nate shift uncomfortably while Happy Birthday was sung at him. Especially when she knew she was going to sing it at him again that evening.

They stayed there until late in the afternoon and Valorie tried not to let her impatience show because she liked spending time with his family, with Sid and Kathy, but she had plans for dinner that she didn’t want to mess up. Nate knew, though, at least vaguely, so they left early enough that Valorie could relax.

When they got home, she banished him to his bedroom so that she could start to cook and set the table with the fancy table setting she’d bought the day before. She was meticulous about their dinner, returning to the recipe far more than was probably necessary to ensure that it was exactly how it needed to be, and felt a true sense of pride as it all came together.

“Can I come back out?” Nate asked, still hidden behind the wall.

Valorie looked around her, taking in the pan she was using and the cleanliness of the kitchen before she told him that he could.

He bypassed the set table, walked straight towards her, and peered over her shoulder to see what she was cooking. His laugh was gentle and sincere.

“Are you making me risotto?”

“I’ve been practising,” she admitted. “When I went to Amber’s the other day we did a test run and it was actually pretty good!”

She giggled as Nate pulled her back from the stove and turned her around, kissing her so sweetly that she nearly melted into a puddle at his feet.

The whole shop stood still, except for the large bouquet of roses that was being walked to the counter; a deep red expertly pruned and assembled. Valorie knew exactly who they were from before they had even reached her.

Everyone huddled around the vase, customers included, as it was set down on the counter in front of Valorie. She knew who they were from without even looking at the note they came with, but there was a sudden hush when her co-worker read out the note on the card: Happy Birthday, mi amor. Love always, Nick.

“You sure that says Nick?” one of their customers asked—Valorie vaguely recognised her from school, though she was positive they hadn’t been in the same year. “Not Nate?”

“I mean—”

Valorie snatched the note more aggressively than she’d intended, saying, “Nick is a friend.”

The side eyes she got from both the customer and her co-worker were far from subtle but Valorie just buried the note in her pocket and carried the vase into the back room.

They—like everything Nick bought her—were gorgeous. He had somehow managed to send her the most perfect roses from Florida and she didn’t want to think about how much money had gone into them. Every day with Nick was filled with unnecessary luxuries and that only increased tenfold on her birthday.

Until the roses came along, Valorie’s day had been uneventful. She woke up early enough for her half-day shift at the hobby store—granted to her by her boss who was horrified that she hadn’t already asked for the whole day—and discovered that Nate was already awake and making her breakfast, and he planned on driving her into Halifax.

It was the most thoughtful gift she’d received in years.

He picked her up after her shift—and after her co-worker tried not so slyly to ask more questions about the roses—and Valorie was met with a bouquet of flowers as she opened the passenger’s side door. She rushed to sit in the car, pushing the vase of roses between her feet on the floor and reaching for the pink hydrangeas Nate held.

“Oh, they’re beautiful,” she gushed, hugging them to her chest as she inhaled. “Did you have to ask someone about my favourite flower or did you just remember?”

Nate mumbled, “Remembered.”

“I can’t believe it, that’s incredible.” She leaned across the centre console to kiss him and got his cheek when he turned his head but she was too distracted by the flowers to notice. “Should I look into the meaning behind these or are they just beautiful?”

Nate started the engine, keeping his eyes firmly on the road in front of him, and Valorie tried not to read into his tense jaw. Or the way he moved his hand to the steering wheel when she tried to hold it over the gearshift.

“Who did the roses come from?” he asked as they pulled into his garage after a painfully silent car ride.

She answered, cautiously, “Nick.”

“How does he know where you work?”

“I don’t know? Insta? I don’t care about the roses, you bought me hydrangeas.”

Nate only said, “okay” before he got out of the car and left Valorie sitting in it by herself. She watched him walk into the house with slumped shoulders and an aching chest before she tried to manoeuvre herself out of the car with the vase of roses and the very large bouquet of hydrangeas.

She put the roses on the kitchen counter and then scoured Nate’s cupboards for a vase so she could put the hydrangeas at the centre of the dining table. She passed Nate on the couch as she walked to the stairs, leaning down to kiss the top of his head and thank him as she did so.

Valorie tried to put it to the back of her mind as she got ready for her birthday plans—Amber had planned a whole afternoon and evening for her and Valorie had been planning her outfit for a week. It wasn’t going to be as extravagant as anything she’d done in Miami, which she’d assured Amber was more than fine, but it was her first birthday in Nova Scotia in years and her first birthday back with her best friend so she was going to make the most of it.

Putting it to the back of her mind worked well until she ascended the stairs and saw that Nate hadn’t moved from his position on the couch.

“Amber and Mike will be here soon—are you ready?”

Nate sunk further into the couch, his arms crossed tightly over his chest and his chin nearly buried into them which led to a mumbled, “I’m not really feeling it; you have fun.”

“You’re not feeling it?” she asked, hating the way her voice cracked in time with the crack in her heart. “It’s my birthday?”

“You go have fun,” he said, still into his arms. “Don’t worry about me.”

Valorie had never felt more pathetic, standing behind Nate when he wouldn’t even look at her, dressed up in one of the nicest she’d brought with her from Miami and had taken so much care with her make-up—not dressed up entirely for Nate but she definitely wanted him to at least look at her. Maybe even appreciate the effort she had gone to.

“Nate, I—I want you there,” Valorie said weakly, moving closer to him to see if she could get him to turn around. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just don’t want to go out again today.”

Valorie gave up with one last desperate look at Nate and she walked immediately through the front door to wait on the doorstep for Amber and Mike. She wasn’t going to cry about it, even if the furious blinking was barely stopping her—before Amber and Mike pulled up she pulled on her sunglasses and took some deep, centring breaths.

When Amber and Mike did pull up, this time with Amber hanging out the passenger’s side window and jumping out to pull Valorie into a tight hug as she screamed Happy Birthday in her ear, Valorie’s smile was genuine.

At least, it was until she climbed into the passenger’s seat at Amber’s insistence and they sat in the car for a few moments in silence.

“We can go,” she said, hoping that the crack in her voice wasn’t noticeable to anyone but herself.

“What about Nate?”

“I don’t want to talk about Nate.”

“I’ll fight him if you want me to,” Mike offered, completely sincerely, reaching down to unbuckle his seatbelt. “Can’t promise I’ll win but I’ll give it a go.”

“I don’t know what’s gotten into him and I don’t want to think about it for the rest of the day.”

Not thinking about it for the rest of the day was much easier said than done. It put a clear damper on the mood despite the smile Valorie was forcing into her face. For a few blissful moments she did forget, was able to just enjoy the company she was with and the drinks in front of her—and then it all came crashing back down on her with a heartbreaking thud.

Amber tried to talk about, to get an explanation as to why Valorie was upset and Nate wasn’t around and each time she was shut down by Valorie repeating that she didn’t want to talk about it and that she just wanted to enjoy her birthday.

There wasn’t much enjoyment happening, though, with Valorie staring morosely into every rum and coke she was drinking. They’d had Happy Hour cocktails, eaten some of the best steaks Valorie had ever come across and moved on to another bar to continue their night—it was everything Valorie hadn’t realised she missed and it was still being ruined by Nate.

Amber tried again, waiting until Valorie’s glass was empty, and Valorie reacted by standing up and saying that she needed some fresh air. When Amber tried to follow her, Valorie insisted that she was going alone.

Although Valorie had decided to go outside just to get away from any more questions, the fresh air did help. She hadn’t quite realised just how much the alcohol had gone to her head until she was confronted by the breeze coming off the river.

She rested her forehead against the cool bricks of the external walls, her arms crossed above her head, and counted her breaths in and out.

“Val?”

Valorie whipped around, her forehead and forearms scraping against the bricks, and was met with Nate’s concerned face.

“Thought you didn’t want to come out again today,” she said tersely, inspecting her forearms quickly and cringing at the grazes.

“I’m sorry,” he said, readily, without prompting. “That’s pretty up there with the most asshole things I’ve ever done.”

“You made me feel like shit.”

“I know. I didn’t—I’m sorry. I don’t have any excuse that’s good or justified.”

Valorie shuffled her feet, getting to the point where she was regretting her heels, and lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.

“I’d like to make the rest of your birthday better,” Nate said, visibly shrinking in and making himself smaller and less intimidating. “If you’ll let me.”

“I really don’t feel like I should forgive you, you know?” she huffed, throwing her hands in the air.

“Okay, that’s fair. I can go home.”

She sighed, “No, I don’t want you to go home. I—I’m really happy you’re here even if you weren’t before.”

The corner of Nate’s mouth lifted tentatively, “Yeah?”

Valorie nodded, and broke the rest of the tension between them by stepping into his space and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. She relaxed into him, at the feel of his arms around her and the smell of his cologne filling her head. It was going to warrant a conversation, she knew that, but if she could enjoy the rest of her night she would do just that.

She led him back into the bar by the hand, having already been subjected to a brief twirl as Nate told her how good she looked, much happier and lighter than she had been when she’d walked outside.

Valorie, never one to be held down by a hangover, woke bright and early the next morning. Nate was still dead to the world beside her, a pillow pulled over his head to block out whatever noises he’d heard that she hadn’t.

It was bright outside when she left his room with her clothes bundled in her arms, unable to lie there and wait for him to stir, though the clock near the staircase told her it wasn’t even seven.

She had a quick shower—the hot water tap barely turned—and changed before she went in search of her bag, keys and phone and left a note on the kitchen counter for Nate that she was heading out but wouldn’t be long.

The roses had never left her mind, not with the weirdness they’d caused, and seeing them standing tall and proud on the kitchen counter made her know that she was making the right decision.

She wrote another note, tucking it into the flowers and made her way to her parents’ house to leave the roses and the note on their doorstep.

Mom, I think you can take better care of these than I can. Love you xxx

The round trip didn’t take overly long, so Nate wasn’t moving about the house when Valorie returned. She made herself a coffee and sat on the balcony, the caffeine working in combination with the slight breeze to keep any hangover symptoms at bay.

“Where are the roses?” Nate asked, startling Valorie when she hadn’t even heard the door slide open.

She waited until Nate was sitting sidewards on the recliner beside her before she said slowly, “With my mom. She loves roses.”

“You didn’t have to get rid of them.”

“I’m not attached to them… They were clearly making you uncomfortable, so it’s fine.”

Nate hummed, then said softly, “Thank you.”

Valorie smiled at him, grateful for the admission no matter how vague. She stood up, only to sit back down on Nate’s recliner after moving him so she could sit between his legs and relax back into him. She reached for his hands and wrapped his arms around her body.

She didn’t expect him to say anything else, happy to push the conversation they had to have to later in the day and just enjoy a quiet morning. Nate didn’t have the same desire, though.

“A guy doesn’t just send you roses on your birthday if he’s not trying to get you back.” He was speaking into her hair and if he hadn’t been so close Valorie wouldn’t have heard him at all.

She squeezed his arms and said, “If I was going back to him, I would have any of the half dozen times he’s already asked.”

She hadn’t mentioned it to Nate—to anyone—that Nick was sending things to her parents house, not many, but enough that she’d had to call him to put her foot down. The earrings he’d sent that matched the bracelet she’d been wearing the first time she’d seen Nate back in Nova Scotia were the final straw there. She’d never worn them and hadn’t put the bracelet back on, even though it was her favourite piece of jewellery.

Nate’s hesitation was evidence enough of his worry and was only amplified by the way he was holding her close and still speaking into her hair. “He’s not wearing you down?”

“Not in a good way. He seems to think that if he throws more money at me and reminds me of the life we had together and the future we could have; that I’ll just forget that I want kids.”

“Promise?”

“Remember that conversation we had? After the Cup Day? It’s you and me. I’m not going back to him.”

Nate’s forehead came to rest against the back of her head; Valorie could feel his relieved sigh.

The summer was dangerously close to ending. Valorie was counting down the days until she and Nate got on a plane to Denver, excitement and trepidation filling every ounce of her body and only getting more and more intense whenever she saw him.

There was something on her mind, though, the cause of the trepidation. A question she’d been holding onto for far longer than she intended and a question she knew she needed to ask before they left for their new life together—it couldn’t be another conversation that happened after the fallout.

Nate had just finished up his last training session with Andy, and Valorie smiled at him and only briefly cringed when he leant down to kiss her despite the sweat rolling off his body.

Andy followed Nate in, greeting her happily, none the wiser to her inner turmoil—though how could Andy be if Nate didn’t have a clue? He said goodbye to Valorie, that he’d see her when Nate was back in Canada, and she waved at him as he left.

She sat on the couch, staring blankly at the television, and listened to the shower in Nate’s ensuite turn on. With a quick inhale and in an unexpected moment of courage, she decided to join him.

“What a surprise,” Nate smirked, watching Valorie drop her clothes as she entered the bathroom.

The water was nearly unbearably hot though she didn’t falter, immediately wrapping her arms around Nate. He followed suit without missing a beat and Valorie relished in being able to rest her head against his chest and hear his steady heartbeat over the water.

“What’s brought this on?”

“You did an interview a few years ago and I can’t forget it,” Valorie said, taking a deep breath. She was thankful that the shower was hiding the wetness in her voice. “That you don’t like kids? And I—I need to know if that’s still true before… I don’t know.”

“I was never sure about having kids, I’ll be honest,” Nate said, slow, measured, and most definitely confused. “But I always knew that if I was going to have kids it was only going to be with you.”

“Okay. That’s—okay.”

Her relief was immeasurable—she had known it was causing her a lot of inner stress but to have it roll off her shoulders was nicer than she ever could have imagined.

“I love you.”

Valorie pulled away from Nate’s chest, blinking through the fall of water over her face, another sigh leaving her body. She pressed up on her toes to kiss him, unable to express herself in any other way.

Please consider leaving feedback—reblog and write in the tags or send an ask, I’m not fussed. I just want to know what you’re thinking!

tag list: @fallinallincurls @spine-buster @2manytabsopen @xcicix @sorryjustafangirl @senditcolton @shinyfalcon4 @guesswhoispathetic @laurenairay @ripepeach @jarmorie

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[kentjohnson91]

Today we are going to discuss trades/slash free agency signings that have happened this offseason and how and why they made me upset:

Max Jones: Anaheim➡️Boston (free agency)

I love the chaos he ensued with Trevor and the other young guys

Was the first person to post about Jamie Drysdale being traded which was just a video of jamie dancing and smiling but then added like 10 thousand broken hearts

also as a bruins and red sox fan WHY ARE YOU GUYS NOT INCLUDING HIM

Zadorov and Lindholm threw out the first pitch at the Sox game the other night and Max and his wife (i think they’re married but maybe im wrong) were literally there but not invited to do that and also not sitting with the Lindholms and Zadorovs in the nice seats

It was not a numbers thing either because in like 2021 (?) they had like 7 new guys for the B’s on the field at 1 time

Nikita Zadorov: Vancouver➡️Boston (free agency)

As a Bruins fan SO EXCITED

As a fan of chaos i’m sad

Him and Myers reeking havoc on the ice together was so iconic for the short time we were blessed by it😔

Nick Blankenburg: Columbus➡️Nashville (free agency)

This was like one of very few moves i have not approved of by Mr Don Waddell

He was cooking from the start and then this happened

Like Ik he was probs gonna be in the AHL a lot but like for an undrafted defenseman he is good

He’s like 5’9” (more like 5’8 stop lying Nick) and runs around throwing hits on 6’3 or bigger guys

He’s my favorite little man and i want him back. He rounded out the Michigan group on Columbus too well.

Kevin Bahl: New Jersey➡️Calgary (trade)

Ik i say “im not a devils fan i just love him” about like half their team but like i swear its true

I need everyone to acknowledge the childhood friends to NHL teammates arc of him and the Hughes brothers and that is heartbreaking that it is no more

Also i understand it was an underpay for Markstrom but that will always happen for goalies (see Ullmark trade) so all the Devils fans acting like it was a good thing he was gone and not appreciating the time he put in there or the calgary fans mad they got him and hating him already made me wanna cry

Like GIVE HIM A CHANCE

also he just had a baby right before the trade and that means none of his NJD teammates get to see the baby and that will make me bawl (hehe bawl - bahl) like a baby no joke

John Marino: New Jersey➡️Utah (trade)

TOM FITZGERALD WHEN I GET YOU

This poor man who tends to look like a kicked puppy for no reason seemed so happy there

with Jack, Luke, Nico, Kevin, Curtis, Nate like cmon why would you do this to me

Will never cope with whatever the fuck was goin on with him and Luke honestly

WHY UTAH

Ryan McLeod: Edmonton➡️Buffalo (trade)

this was another one like the Kevin one where the fans pissed me off instantly

“the other guy was such a good prospect he was gonna develop more and play for buffalo”

i’m gonna hold your hand when i tell you that McLeod is 24 (almost 25) and 25 year olds can STILL DEVELOP TOO THIS SHIT SHOULD NOT BE NEWS HELLO???

also people who started using what his brother did as an excuse to not want him

while no one knows for sure, randomly assuming with no real reason that he had any knowledge of his brothers part in the 2018 Team Canada Scandal is so unfair honestly

and ALSO they separated him from his pookie (Bouchard) and his gay dads (Leon and Connor)

Not coping

Linus Ullmark: Boston➡️Ottawa (trade)

where do i even begin

no more hugs

no more feeding each other during post game interviews

no more eating cinnamon buns that Ullys wife made them together

no being Matt Poitras dads together

I ofc understand from the business side but it doesn’t make it hurt less

Jake Debrusk: Boston➡️Vancouver (free agency)

This one stung

we all knew it was coming but like

he’s been here his whole career

him and McAvoy were the ultimate duo

scored their first goals on the same night

if anyone saw Charlie McAvoys post about him and Grizz just know i cried for hours over that shit

Matt Grzelcyk: Boston➡️Pittsburgh (free agency)

another one that hurt a lot

once again see charlie mcavoys post

THE ONES OF THEM FROM COLLEGE TOGETHER

ENOUGH CHUCK

also no more amazing interviews with Mr Grzelcyk (Matt’s dad)

He worked in the Garden forever so Matt LITERALLY LEARNED TO SKATE THERE

HOMETOWN HERO AND A HALF

HEARTBROKEN

Anyways if i think of more im forgetting or something else happens before camp ill make another post but anyways

[fallout4-reacts]

How about the fo4 companions (including DLC companions) reacting to a S.S. who was an Ex-Paladin for the BOS and had killed their team after being ordered to kill a synth child and went AWOL, taking the child under their care as a backstory?

I didn't do Ada or Longfellow because I didn't get to know them very well. We can imagine Ada didn't really give a shit and Longfellow just accepted it. He is old, he has wisdom... and he is probably drunk (for all I know of him)

Cait : "Bad-ass! I couldn't do better myself, kids not kids. But I take it's a warnin'. Dinnae violate yer morality by...not touchin' a child?"

Codsworth : "So this is what you were doing the entire time you were missing?"

"Yes. I was on the Capital side. I was completely disoriented after what happened to Nate/Nora. I had no idea what to do. And I couldn't bear seeing all I knew... altered in that way. I continued walking towards the capital without pausing. I couldn't find anything better on the road, so I decided to join the BoS. Seek out a place to live and some semblance of civilization. But they're all monsters in the end."

"Except for Danse..."

Sole tries to hide their smile, but they shake their heads and return to their solemnity.

"However, the reason I'm talking to you today is that my responsibilities as a General are taking up more and more of my time. I frequently put myself in dangerous situations. Also, the closer I go to the Institute, the more scared I am of never returning. I would not want my other child to be abandoned or without means."

"Do you still have him with you?"

"I hid him close to Sanctuary. I try to see him as much as possible, but it's becoming increasingly difficult. He requires a healthy environment, and Sanctuary has transformed into a haven of peace and tolerance..."

"Don't say anything else! I'd be delighted to look after this little one while you're away! We will always be at home to greet you back."

Sole expected nothing less from their butler, but seeing his joy warms their heart. The child does require a stable environment. Besides, having a location to return to and be welcomed back would be great for them.

Curie : "How dreadful. Betraying your vows by having to kill all of these individuals. Please be sure that I understand. But betraying a vow must be horrifying."

Sole sighs. Curie is only familiar with Hippocrates' oath. They are well aware that the synth cannot consider betraying it. But they appreciate how she handled the story. After all, these murders and betrayals have been weighing on them for a long time, and it feels nice to finally have someone to talk to.

Danse (Post BB) : "This story was told from time to time in the dorms. But I never imagined it was true, and I never suspected for a second that it was you. I now have a better understanding of your situation. But how is it that Maxson has never had a doubt? And why are you back?"

"It was another era, another time. They had not yet performed ADN testing, so how could they have known? And I needed the BoS to get into the Institute. But if you want a completely honest response, they are simply incredibly stupid."

"I recognize it now."

Deacon (romanced) : There were always moments. Sole vanished from his radar for a few days, then reappeared. They were impossible to trace. He now understands. Sole would never have allowed them to be followed in order to expose the location of this synth child's hiding place. And Deacon has more admiration than ever for this person to whom he has now dedicated his life.

Dogmeat : Love the child. Everything else is nonsense. It's a dog. He simply loves the child... and guards him like a mother wolf.

Elder Maxson (romanced) : Cade is formal. The soldier is the same. But how could it have taken him so long to identify them? How could his officer be so careless? He's not sure how to react now. To set an example, he must surely execute Sole immediately. But can he truly? He doesn't have a choice. As soon as Sole returns to the ship, he will arrest them and hand them over to a firing squad.

He doesn't have a choice...

But what if...

He makes an effort to think. He attempts to figure out who on his team could handle such a delicate mission for him. Then he finds out. Heylan, the scribe, came naturally in his mind. He is aware that she covered Danse. He had been aware of it, yet he accepted it since he himself was hesitant. Because a large part of him was hoping for a loophole in this tricky situation. Because he cared so much about Danse. And now, once again, a dossier in which his emotions and his responsibilities collide. Is this bad luck? When the scribe enters his quarters, he requests that she close the door behind her.

"This discussion never happened, and if you mention it, I will deny everything and you will face justice."

Haylen had not anticipated such a welcome. She was already worried about appearing before the Elder, her nerves had now reached new heights. But she nodded, waiting for what the leader of her organisation intended to do.

"You will return to the ground and follow Sole's trail, trying to find their allies and visiting their colonies. You must deliver a message from me: "I know, never come back."

Haylen cocks her head to the side, unsure, but she nods once more.

"Good, sir."

"Be really discreet. If you do not send this message before Sole returns to the airport, I will be forced to execute them. Do you realise the significance of what I'm asking?"

"Sir, yes. I completely understood."

"Danse trusted you, Sole trusted you, and so do I. Don't betray that trust."

"Never, sir."

And now all Maxson has to do is wait and hope. He did everything in his power. May fate now look after Sole.

Hancock : "Killing BoS? Help a child? And you were unwilling to brag about it?"

Sole frowns and shakes their head.

"There's more to it than that. I deserted my companions; I betrayed those who had placed their trust in me. They were under my command, and—

"You put your duties as they must be. This ends the debate. Is he all right, the kid?"

"Yes, yes, yes. He lives not far away. I hid him in... well, I hid him. I try to see him as frequently as possible."

Hancock's keen stare falls on them, becoming somber.

"Are you too afraid to tell me where he is?"

His friend, embarrassed, lowers their head.

"Understand! I… For so long, I've lived as a renegade, and I've kept our path hidden. It's difficult to put faith in anyone on this subject."

With a slight smile on his face, the mayor shakes his head.

"You've just pointed out your betrayal, your massacer, and its existence to me. It's odd that you paused right before asking me to send Fahrenheit to babysit."

"Pardon?" Sole and the bodyguard inquire.

"Yes, keeping him secure. So many sacrifices, why not give him a life worth saving?"

"Not in Goodneighbourhood! Never!"

"So what? Isn't this the town of outcasts and fugitives?"

Sole mulls on what Hancock has just said, but they sighs deeply.

"No. This is not the kind of life I want for him."

"So it's better to hide him?"

"I'm not sure, but your girlfriend doesn't appear to agree with your plans."

"Fah is my daughter, not my girlfriend."

Sole's eyes widen in disbelief. Hancock busts out laughing.

"A secret for a secret. Where do you plan on putting down roots, for the kid? I mean, seriously."

Gage : "What on earth does that have to do with conquering the Commonwealth?"

Sole grimace. That was something they should have expected. Gage is unconcerned about his last sock. The past is the past, the raiders are not children of the heart, and Gage's objectives are more essential than humans leaving by the side of the road. Sole does not and will never insist. But one day, like this, Gage returns to them, perplexed.

"You know, boss, I've been thinking about something. You betrayed your old patrol for a child who isn't even human. There may be children present when we invade the Commonwealth colonies. Are you sure you're not going to do it backwards?"

Sole's eyes widen in amazement. Then they softly shake their head and smile.

"No way, Gage, never."

But after that, their lieutenant was shot in the head the moment he turned his back.

MacCready : "Killing BoS and protecting a child synth. Yeah. You like risks, it’s twisted, but who am I to judge?"

He sighs and shrugs.

"Say, regarding the events in Vault 81... I hope you don't hold my view in the same regard, and that you're not planning to gut me in my sleep."

"Did you request that this child die? You were upset that I saved him, but you didn't ask for his death. That's not the same."

"No, I didn't... I didn't mind that you saved him! I'm disappointed that you didn't save yourself for whatever reason!"

MacCready is suddenly interested in his weapon, which he disassembles to lubricate the mechanism.

"However, I am not surprised. In fact, an imbecile capable of giving up healthcare in favor of a child's life may well debunk BoS without guilt in order to rescue one."

"It was my team..."

"That was the motto. The past is gone. Winlock and Barnes were both killed by me. You heard me; I don't pass judgement."

Nick Valentine (romanced) : He had a good time that evening. Conversations about the past, Sole in his arms, starry sky over their heads. But, for once, Sole didn't bring up the pre-war topic. They described this horrific event from their recent history nervously, almost fearfully.

"And the kid, what's he become?" The detective inquires flatly.

"Always safe and hidden. I try to pay him visits every few days. But I'm always worried that he'll be discovered."

Sole looks up to Nick, and he sees their anxiety. He strokes their cheek gently.

"Your secret is safe with me. I will never betray you. In the meanwhile, we'll consider where we can best place the child. Perhaps one of your settlements. I suppose he could be quiet at Sanctuary, and you could stop constantly glancing over your shoulder."

Sole's eyes are now bright with joy. They had already considered it, but because this secret had always been closely guarded, they frequently pondered if it was a poor idea without anybody else talking about it. The fact that Nick agrees with them gives them comfort. Yes, perhaps it's time for this poor child to resume his normal existence. And now that they're thinking about it, they're certain that Sanctuary would be the ideal location.

Piper : "Wow! What a tale! I'm not supporting genocide, but these Brotherhoods are viciously slaughtering anything that isn't like them."

"It was not a genocide."

"A slaughter? Don't try and tell me it wasn't a slaughter."

"Do you intend to write an article about this?"

"No! Absolutely not! I'm not stupid enough to put you and the boy in danger, and it could eventually lead to an open war with the Brotherhoods to expose to them that the Commonwealth Minutemen General is a former traitor to their organisation."

Sole gently shakes their head, a small smile on their lips. Piper's intelligence should never be underestimated. She comprehends things better than anybody else, and they were right to put their trust in her.

Preston : "But really, you had to kill these men back then?"

Sole sadly shakes their head.

"They refused to listen to reason. They'd track me down and kill me. I was his single chance to living a free and happy life. I had no choice."

The Colonel nodded slowly, his gaze fixed on the Prydwen.

"I see what you're saying. And I completely understand your distress at seeing this ship. Okay, if diplomatic visits are necessary, I will make them. Meanwhile, return this sad child to Sanctuary so he can have a decent home. It's a disgrace to keep him among the ruins, fearful, when we can give him a better future."

Sole can't keep a smile from appearing on their lips. They were completely right in telling Preston of everything.

Strong : “Boring. No need so much words. Protecting child. Good. Strong strong. Strong will protect child of human.”

Sole smiled slightly. It felt good to talk about it. And as usual, Strong’s simplistic philosophy reinforced their convictions. And now they have one more ally to protect their child.

X6-88 : Sole is sad now. They have since developed a trusting relationship with the Courser. They had placed their trust in his friendship. They assumed that X6 had progressed past certain phases of the Institute. That he had changed. So, they confided in him about everything. Their companion's reply did not take long. He demanded that Sole hand over the infant to the Institute. There have been relatively few synth children created, and they are extremely valuable for research advancement. Sole refused, as they had before refused to follow X6 in some "homework," but the Courser did not sweep the subject with the back of his hand this time. He made a threat against Sole. He threatened them, and everything about his demeanour indicated that he was serious. He stated thoroughly that it was the final straw. If Sole continued to refuse to behave in the Institute's best interests, they would be judged to have chosen to be an enemy. When Sole refused to cooperate, X6 opened fire, claiming that he didn't need Sole to find the child but couldn't afford to have them in his way. Sole is sad since they have to kill someone they thought a friend.

[twistnet]

nsfw alphabet [ nathan drake ]

⋯ WARNINGS ; gn!reader + smut [ oral sex, cum, kinks, masturbation ]

⋯ DISCLAIMER ; if you are under the age of 18, do not interact [ nsfw content under cut ] this content is strictly for those 18+ ; any minors // ageless // blank blogs interacting with this post will be blocked

a = aftercare [ what they’re like after sex ]

nate is kinda cocky -- not in the sense that he’s leaving you high and dry, but that he’s actually quite proud of himself for reducing you to the mess you are beside him. he’ll definitely tease, maybe chuckle a little at your expense but will eventually get up from whatever the two of you were and find something to clean you up with

or, if a shower is available, that’s the first place he’s hauling you to. not only to get rid of all the sweat and fluids, but there’s the possibility he might get lucky with another round in the shower. all up to you though

b = body part [ their favorite body part of theirs, and also their partner’s ]

himself -- if he just had to pick something, probably his arms. he’s strong, got some rough ass hands from the amount of scaling he does and just overall has a good look to them. sure, most of the time, he covers them up due to the elements of the places he visits, but he does enjoy getting to show off every once in awhile.

you -- say it with me, nathan drake is an ass man. point. blank. period. he loves to grab your ass any chance he can get. whether it be walk by and just grabbing a handful, or pushing a hand into your back pocket. he’s going to do it, you just have to come to accept it

c = cum [ anything to do with cum basically…i’m a disgusting person ]

above all else, nate prefers to come inside of you -- although, if there is a consideration where you may be concerned about a possible pregnancy, then he’ll glad talk about different options with you. even outside of that, if you want him to come anywhere else, just tell him. he gets a kick out of seeing you covered in his come too

d = dirty secret [ pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs ]

if you happen to be with him while he’s searching for something, and get into some trouble or you have to run away from someone chasing you, when the two of you stop, he’s almost as hard as a rock. he’s incredibly turned on by adventure and running around just on adrenaline. he’ll heavy deny that he’s turned on though.

e = experience [ how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing? ]

nate has quite a bit of experience. i want to say that he probably lost his virginity at a young age -- maybe seventeen or eighteen. more so just to get it over with. but with him being so young, and most horny, he’s learned quite a few things about the ins and outs of sex. he’s going to apply some of the things he learned to see what your take is on it. but yeah, he knows what he’s doing.

f = favorite position [ this goes without saying ]

missionary -- nate loves seeing your face, and loves the intimacy of this position because he can look into your eyes and show you all the affection he can possibly give

doggy style -- there are fews time in which nate wants to take in you in this position, usually paired with a fast and rough pace that leaves both of you aching and satified

cowgirl -- just like with the above, while nate enjoys getting to see your face in this position, he has a fascination with see you on top of him. in fact, he love sit so much that any way that he can get you to straddle him, he’ll happily do it

g = goofy [ are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc ]

nathan’s cocky, and likes to remind you of that quite often. he’s got some humor to him, and may crack a joke or two if he’s finding that you may be a little uncomfortable leading up. but he does so with intention of getting you to relax

h = hair [ how well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc ]

nate is pretty well groomed, and tries to keep it that way when he can. obviously when he’s out running around and chasing after artifacts, there isn’t a lot of time for him to do so, but when he’s home, he definitely tries to keep up his appearances

i = intimacy [ how are they during the moment, romantic aspect… ]

nate can be very loving and romantic doing the moment, especially if he’s feeling particularly sweet and caring. overall, nate is just a very lovable person and has no problem showing it to you in many ways

j = jack off [ masturbation headcanon ]

doesn’t feel any particular way about it -- yes, he does jack off occasional, but it isn’t for any reason due to the fact you aren’t available or present. but he also isn’t against it entirely. he just does it if he feels the need to

k = kink [ one or more of their kinks ]

role-play -- nate likes to roleplay, really anything that could come to mind, but he his favorites are rival treasure hunters and as cheesy as it’s gonna sound, pirates

l = location [ favorite places to do the do ]

nate doesn’t really fret about the location, but he does know there is a level of dignity that you hold and he definitely doesn’t want someone walking in on the two of you. any location that has a lockable door is okay with him. of course, if you have a different preference then that’s totally okay, but he’s not overly picking about where the two of you have sex

m = motivation [ what turns them on, gets them going ]

adventure // thrills -- nathan loves a good adventure, but sometimes it just gets him going. and the thrill of running around and barely surviving by the skin of ones teeth is something that makes his blood pump

saving his life -- yeah, you’ve probably saved his life more than once. and he just has to show you how much he appreciates you taking out some dude who was seconds away from shooting him dead

n = no [ something they wouldn’t do, turn offs ]

nothing that will hurt you – physically or mentally, and nothing that will cause humiliation. his worst fear is taking things too far and you getting hurt

o = oral [ preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc ]

giving -- nate loves going down on you, and will do everything in his power to do so if given the chance. he’ll always turn do you going down on him, and would much rather show you the upmost pleasure

receiving -- as stated in the above, he will almost always turn down receiving oral. but if you manage to convince him and it’s something you truly want to do, he definitely won’t turn you down after

p = pace [ are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc. ]

nate bases the pace on the moment of the action. he can be fast and rough if the situation calls for it -- where the two of you need to get some of your frustrations out, or it can be slow and sensual where he takes his time bringing you over the edge 

q = quickie [ their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc. ]

nate is always down for quickies -- and even sometimes calls you to see if you want to join him at work for an ‘early lunch’ before pulling you into a small closet and having his way with you

r = risk [ are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc. ]

he’s always down to experiment, and actually encourages it, if that is something you are willing to do. all he asks is that before you both try anything, that you talk out everything to make sure the both of you are on the same page

s = stamina [ how many rounds can they go for, how long do they last… ]

nate prefers to go for one, drawn out round. giving you everything and hitting all the spots in one go before tapping out. he wants you to feel good, and if you really want to go another round, just give him a few minutes to gather himself and he’ll be ready to go

t = toy [ do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves? ]

while nate doesn’t own any toys himself -- aside from the occasional set of handcuffs, he is a big fa of using toys if that is something you want to do. he’ll happily use just about anything you bring, just show him how to use it on you. and he definitely if always up for toys being use on himself, just talk to him first

u = unfair [ how much do they like to tease ]

he may not look it, but nate can and will be a major tease if he wants to be. while he’s into teasing you during the act, he will endlessly tease you as a build up and tries to see how long you’ll last before you tell him you want to go home. to which he will happily do

v = volume [ how loud they are, what sound they make ]

nate is loud, and will eventually get to a point where you can’t seem to shut him up because you’re making him feel so good. if you find that he’s getting too loud, simply gag him -- either with your underwear or sexual tool and he’ll crumble

w = wild card [ get a random headcanon for the character of your choice ]

nathan likes and enjoys to occasionally be tied up. he’ll let you do whenever you feel like and if he’s in the right headspace. but he likes the idea of being at your mercy in a controlled environment -- more than anything he likes having you on top of him and if letting you tie him up gets you to do just that, he’s all for it

x = x-ray [ let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words ]

five inches in length. grows in thickness the closer you get to the base. flared head, slightly bulbous. has one thick vein that runs along the underside. and is around six inches once full erect

y = yearning [ how high is their sex drive? ]

nate as a fairly medium sex drive. considering that he’s always down to have sex whenever you happen to approach him -- i mean, it is you were are talking about. he’s definitely never going to turn you down. but, there are times when he knows it’s not appropriate and can and will hold himself back

z = zzz [ how quickly they fall asleep afterward ]

nathan’s on the verge of passing out -- mostly because he’s so blissed out, it’s unreal. he does his best to stay up as he doesn’t want to be a total sleaze and fall asleep before making sure you’re okay

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