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sunmoonandeddie · 3 years

Text

and he kissed me right here

pairing: modern!bucky barnes x reader

word count: 6,100

summary: I've always been sure that all I ever wanted was a glamorous life.

warnings: Cuss words, mentions of the Afghanistan war (Bucky is a veteran), angst, happy ending, cheesy romantic confessions, age gap

a/n: This is based on the song 'Stars and the Moon' from Songs for a New World! It's the first one shot in my musical series! This is written in first perspective, but there is no physical description or use of a name in this!

Twenty-Two

I sighed as I tossed a few more dirty plates into the dish window, wiping my brow. After a shitty dinner rush and an even shittier rush around two in the morning consisting only of drunk ass college kids looking for some sort of carb to suck up all the alcohol in their systems, I was ready to go the fuck home.

“Sweetheart, you head on home now,” the head chef insisted as he watched my head nod slightly as I tried my best to fight off sleep. “Ain’t nobody comin’ in before Melissa gets here. No point in you staying on your feet any longer.”

Louis was a godsend. At sixty-seven years old, you’d think he would rather be anywhere but a diner at almost four in the morning.

“Nah,” he had said when I’d asked him a few months after I’d first started. “My Ginny died a few years back, and since she’s been gone, I don’t really have the stomach to sit around that house all alone.” He had laughed, but there’d been a deep sorrow that had come over his deep brown eyes. “Kids are worried, but… Sleeping the day away is better than laying up at night staring at her side of the bed…”

“You sure, Lou?” I asked even as I headed for the back room where all the employees clocked in and kept their possessions in their own little cubbies. I did my checkout in view of the security camera, just like always. I didn’t want anyone to be able to say I stole anything.

Everyone who knew me knew that I wouldn’t, but I’d worked at two many places where the girls tried backstabbing each other and sabotaging everyone else to get them fired.

Though people were a lot nicer in Louisiana than any of the other places I’d lived.

Louis chuckled as he set a to-go box in the window, nodding towards it. “Mmhm. Long as Buck is getting you home safe.”

I gave him a joking eye roll as I took the to-go box gratefully, grinning at my name written in all caps with green Sharpie on top. “You know you don’t have to make me dinner every night.”

“Yes, I do,” he said, shooting me a look. “How else do I know you’re getting enough food in you, huh?” He pointed his rag at me. “Now you go ask him to get you home. Tell him I said he can clock out, and that he’s supposed to text me when he sees you safe inside. You better not say you’re gonna ask him again just to walk yourself home.” The old man shook his head as I headed for the back door, muttering to himself, “Damn girl thinks I’m gonna believe she’s feeding herself good enough when she’s risking her damn ass walking home alone.”

Despite the fact that I’d put off asking for Bucky Barnes’s service, I really did appreciate how fiercely Louis cared about me.

It had been a real long time since anyone had cared so much.

I hesitated at the back door of the diner, my hand resting against the cool metal.

What if he said no?

Granted, he most likely wouldn’t. But what if he said yes, and he secretly thought me some dumb little girl that couldn’t take care of herself?

What did I care if he thought that?

“I don’t care what he thinks of me,” I huffed as I straightened my shoulders, holding my chin a little higher.

“Stop talking to yourself and get going!”

I jumped in surprise, before shooting a glare in the direction of the kitchen. “Stop listening in on my private conversations!” I demanded before storming outside with new found vigor.

Only to freeze when Bucky looked up from where he was sitting on the curb, smoking a cigarette.

God, he was handsome.

“You okay, doll face?” He asked, his New York accent a sharp contrast to the southern drawls you were used to.

“Um… Y-Yeah,” I said faintly, glancing back at the door that I’d come in from. “Um… L-Louis wants me to ask you… Can you walk me home? Or give me a ride? I don’t… I don’t know if you drive…”

“I do drive.”

“O-Oh. Okay. Great.”

“But I don’t have my car on me.”

I peered at him curiously. “Oh. Um… I can just walk by myself. I don’t wanna… I don’t wanna be a nuisance…”

He stood up, tossing his cigarette to the ground and stomping it out. “Don’t be ridiculous, darlin.’ Come on. I’ll walk you.” He shoved his hands in his pockets as he began to head for the street. “Besides… It’s a real nice night.”

“Oh…,” I said in surprise at how ready he was to be of service. “Okay. But only if you’re sure.”

A faint smile graced his lips as he glanced at the ground, letting out a faint chuckle that rumbled deep in his chest. “I’m sure, darlin.’ But you gotta lead the way.”

I was surprised by the rapid pitter patter of my heart beat as we walked side by side down the street, the chorus of ‘Yellow Brick Road’ getting stuck in my head on a loop.

Bucky was an enigma that I found myself wondering about more often than not, but I always ended up talking myself out of going there. After all, he was an older man. A much older man. At least fifteen years older than my own twenty-two years, or something along those lines, not that he looked it. The man looked like some kind of rugged Greek god. Like Hades if Hades was born in the eighties. His dog tags clinked together under his shirt as we walked, his metal prosthetic glinting in the moon.

“So how did you end up in NOLA?”

It took me a moment to even realize that he was talking to me, my heart skipping a beat and my face going hot in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” I asked.

His bright blue eyes flickered over to look me over. “How’d you end up in New Orleans?”

“I actually don’t know,” I snorted, avoiding his eyes as I kicked at a few broken up pieces of asphalt. “I just… Picked a bus ticket and ended up in one of the Carolinas. Then I picked another bus ticket and ended up in Minnesota. And then I picked another, and another, and another, and then I actually just… ended up here.” The months I’d spent alone on those Greyhounds felt both so long ago and also like it was just yesterday. “The diner was the first place someone recommended for food that’s good but cheap, and as I was eating my mountain of cheese fries, I saw the flyer that said they were hiring. So here I am now…”

“Huh,” he said, his brows furrowed. “I didn’t take you for the type of person to run off on your own… riding buses all over the country…”

Head tilting to the side, I gave him a long look. “You didn’t? What kind of type did you peg me for?”

Bucky gave me a long look, a single brow raised as though silently telling me that I jumped to conclusions. “Just that jumping from place to place can take a lot outta someone,” he said slowly, his voice low and soothing. “Hell, if you were my girl—” He broke off as his cheeks flushed a pretty shade of pink, his long hair falling in his face.

I swore my heart had stopped inside of my chest, and I swallowed thickly around the lump in my throat. “Oh?”

He rushed to try to correct his wording. “I-I just mean, a lady should be comfortable. And if I had a g-girl like you, well… You’d never want for anything,” he stammered, stumbling over his words like a flustered school boy. “Hell, I… I’d give you the stars and the moon…”

I was shocked into silence, staring up at him like he was the sun itself. “Bucky…”

“No, no, don’t say anything. I… I know that was a lot,” he insisted quietly, unable to meet your eyes as he stared up at the shitty apartment building you called home. “Hell, you probably don’t want a gross old man hitting on you.” His metal hand, glinting in the low light of the street lamp, reached up to brush against my cheek for just a moment before it quickly dropped. “Just let me walk you home each night so I can make sure you’re safe, yeah?”

“Yeah,” I breathed out, unable to take my eyes off of him as he took a few steps back.

There’s a somewhat playful smirk on his lips as he watched me stumble up the steps, continuously glancing back at him. “Goodnight, baby doll.”

“Goodnight,” I said, barely audible before I finally headed inside.

Bucky kept his word. He walked me home every night, and honestly, there wasn’t a moment that I wasn’t thinking about what he had said, about if I was his girl.

What if I was his girl?

But… with that meant I’d have to give up the life I’d dreamed for myself. I wanted luxury, to never worry about bills or where I was gonna get my next meal or if I could afford to buy the nice work shoes or if I could only get the cheap ones that would fall apart in three months and then I’d just be right back where I started.

I wanted the life that celebrities lived. Hell, I wanted to go to parties on the same yachts the Kardashian-Jenners did, even if I couldn’t fucking stand them.

And with Bucky… I wouldn’t have that.

“So why’d you go on the run anyway?” Bucky asked one night as we sat on the curb, eating ice cream in the Louisiana heat. “I know you told me how you got here, but you’ve never told me why.”

“You’ve never told me how you ended up here or why either,” I shot back, nudging his shoulder with my own.

Somehow the age difference seemed non-existent as we sat there. Honestly, I felt like we were just a bunch of dumb teenagers, shooting the shit and enjoying each other’s company.

Bucky took in a deep breath, his shoulders sinking in a way that made it look like he had all the weight of the world on his shoulders. “I was over in Afghanistan for a long time,” he admitted quietly. “When the war first started, I was 19. I had no idea where my life was going and I had no options except my dad’s mechanic shop. So I enlisted with my best friend, Steve. The one I told you about.”

It’s completely silent except for the sound of an occasional car horn off in the distance.

“Neither one of us knew what we were doing. We realized very quickly that we had no reason being over there, but… but there was nothing else,” he said, swallowing around the lump in his throat. The ice cream he was holding was melting in his trembling hands. “I didn’t know how to do anything else, so I stayed. Steve moved up in the ranks, but I stayed pretty low… I didn’t mind. Kinda liked being the older guy all those young kids could talk to, could rely on… Because they were just like me, getting into a fight that wasn’t theirs because they had nothing else.”

My heart was shattering inside my chest as I scooted a little closer, my knee knocking against his as I tried to give him some sort of silent comfort. He’d been through Hell and made it through.

Bucky let his head rest against mine, his eyes closing as he breathed in the scent of my perfume. “They eventually moved me to some kind of specialized team… Called us the Howling Commandos. I found out that Steve was heading it and he picked me to be part of it. That’s how I met Sam, because he was on some sort of similar team with the Air Force, except it was just him and his friend, Riley,” he continued, taking a bite of his chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. “I am proud to say that I didn’t kill a single person while I was over there. I just couldn’t. Hell, they’re people just like me, terrified and unsure of what’s going to happen.” His lips pressed against my forehead, letting it linger. “But then about five years ago, I was on a mission with the Commandos, Sam, and Riley, and… this bomb went off while we were playing a game of soccer. I wasn’t even in a fight. That thing took my arm and it took Riley.”

Tentatively, I let my fingers find his, holding his hand and squeezing reassuringly.

“Sam decided to come home with me.” There was a forlorn look in his eyes, as though he was right back at that game of pick-up soccer. “After losing Riley… he couldn’t find a reason to be over there. And then Steve decided to stay, and hell, he’s still over there, leading that fucking team…” Glassy baby blue eyes finally found mine, the both of us doing our best to not cry. “I couldn’t face my family for a long time, so Sam asked me to come stay in Louisiana with him and his family, and I haven’t left since.”

“Have you gone to see your family?” I asked slowly, almost like I was scared I’d frighten him if I spoke too loudly, like a wild animal. “Let them know where you are? That you’re safe?”

He turned to look at me, his baby blues shining. “You worried about me, baby doll?”

“I can’t help it,” I said honestly, unable to tear my eyes away. I hadn’t opened up to someone like that in so damn long. “I can’t help but worry about you.”

The way that I felt about Bucky absolutely terrified me, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. It snuck up on me, like a train coming around a bend.

I hated it.

“What do you want out of this life?” Bucky asked on one walk home, his arm linked in mine. He’d become so much more… tactile. If anyone took a moment to look at us, they’d think we were a couple on a romantic stroll.

Perhaps we were.

But I couldn’t help but grin as I looked up at the sky, taking in the warm air. “I wanna live like how the movie stars do… I want a big house on the beach and twenty cars and a yacht and… and…”

He looked at me long and hard. “And you never wanna have to worry about where your next meal is coming from, if you’re gonna have a place to sleep at night…”

For some reason, I’d felt a bolt of panic over whether or not he’d understand. Whether or not he’d think differently of me, but I should’ve known that he wouldn’t. Hell, he knew me better than anyone else.

“You understand,” I said quietly, my hand squeezing his bicep gratefully. “I want to live how the other half lives for once. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

A small smile graced his features as we shuffled along. “There isn’t. But… What about love?” He asked.

“Love?”

“Love.”

Love.

Could I even have love? Did I want it?

“I don’t know if there’s a lot of room for love in my plans,” I admitted after a long moment. “In my experience, love has always just been a lie. A word used to manipulate and eventually abuse.”

Letting out a snort, he let his fingers tickle down my tricep until his fingers intertwined with mine. “I’d show you it’s not… I’d show you what real love is,” he said. “I’d give you every part of me, give you all my strength to help you grow into who you wanna be, even if I don’t particularly care about being famous or rich…” He brought my hand to his lips, kissing my knuckles. “I’ll give you a love story, a life, that’s a million times better than any recycled Hollywood plot… I’ll give you the stars and the moon, if you would just let me.”

I hated the way that he made my heart beat faster, the way my breath hitched. “Jamie,” I breathed out quietly, the two of us having stopped in our tracks to just… take each other in. Live in each other’s presence for a moment. “I…”

“You want a big life… one a lot bigger than little old me,” he said simply, shrugging. His blue eyes were so honest, so loving. So warm. A warmth I hadn’t ever experienced before. “I know. But that doesn’t change that I’m in love with you. And if you ever change your mind…” Bucky reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card, pressing it into my free hand. “This is where you can find me. I figure it’s time for me to go home.”

We’d come to a stop in front of my building, and I was shocked at how tight my chest felt. My eyes watered as I stared at him long and hard. “Jamie, please… I⏤”

“Don’t say it. It’s okay,” he insisted as he cupped my cheek, letting his thumb run over my skin as though he was memorizing it. “I just want you to be happy, darling. You got that?” His lips pressed to my forehead, letting it linger. “Go get that life you’ve been dreaming of.”

Twenty-Three

I left New Orleans the next day, grabbing a bus ticket after throwing all of my belongings into my old duffel bag. It was time to move on.

But God, did it hurt.

I didn’t stop crying for weeks, fighting the urge to go right back to Louisiana and tell Bucky to take it back, to get him to beg me to stay with him.

But what kind of life would that leave me with? Working in the diner day after day? Never getting anywhere?

But you’d have James, a voice inside my head reminded me snarkily.

Then again, he most likely wasn’t even in New Orleans anymore, if what he said was true when he gave me the business card of his father’s mechanic shop. Was he really planning on going home to New York City?

A few months later, and I’d worked my way all through the southwest to Santa Fe, where I met Pietro.

My heart was pounding as I pressed in the familiar numbers, having memorized them from the business card now soft and faded from how often I held it in my hands like a lifeline. “Come on… Pick up… Pick up…”

“Barnes Tires and Motors, this is George,” a man said in a gruff voice when he finally picked up. “How can I help you?”

“H-Hi, is James there? James Barnes? Bucky?” I stammered out, hands trembling so bad that the old payphone was almost rattling.

There was a pause, and then muffled talking away from the phone.

And then I heard it being picked up. “This is Bucky,” he said.

It felt like the wind had been knocked right out of my lungs. How had I gone so long without hearing his voice?

Breathing in sharply, I tried to figure out the words to say. But my throat was dry and it was like I’d suddenly forgotten the entire English language.

That was all that it took for Bucky to realize it was me. “Baby doll? Baby doll, is that you?” He asked quietly. “I…” He took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “You don’t gotta say a thing, sweetheart… But just know that if you’re in trouble or you need help or… or anything at all, you better call me…” His voice wavered, as though he was fighting tears just like I was. “God, I miss you so much, baby doll. I love you.”

I love you, too.

I hung up before I could actually say the words. “God, I’m so fucking stupid,” I whispered as I leaned back against the wall of the gas station I’d found myself at, rubbing the heels of my hands into my eyes.

My dumb ass had decided to wander from the bus station, and I’d walked over a mile away. Unless I was staying in Santa Fe for a bit, I’d need to start making my way back.

“You okay?”

In my distress, I hadn’t even heard the rumbling of the motorcycle or noticed the handsome man making his way to me. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” I said even as I wiped my nose with a pathetic sniffle.

He eyed me for a long moment, his eyes roaming over my figure. “You hungry? I know a great little place nearby. My treat.”

And well, I was never one to turn down free food.

Even if that ‘little place’ ended up being a food truck.

“You know, when you said it was a little place, I didn’t picture it having wheels,” I said teasingly, licking salsa off of my lower lip. “Though, it is the best food I’ve ever gotten from a food truck before.”

“Oh, come on. This is the best food of all time!” He laughed, shaking his head.

“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” I snorted, finishing off my flautas.

Pietro looked at me long and hard. “So, are you gonna tell me what the hell was going on to have a pretty girl like you all teary eyed?” He asked, his head tilting to the side.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Was this your plan all along?” I asked. Wiping my hands off on a napkin, I did everything I could to avoid his eyes. “Get me all fed and then question me?” But at the same time, the thought of being able to finally talk to someone about it was so appealing… After a long moment of hesitation, I finally gave in. “I fell in love with a man, and he let me go because he knew that I want a life he can’t give me,” I said. “And I was a bitch who didn’t even tell him I love him back when he said it to me.”

Pietro took in a deep breath, slowly letting it out. “Damn. You really are a stone cold bitch, aren’t you?”

“Hey!” I indignantly threw a chunk of tomato at him, glaring. “I just opened up my heart, you dickwad.”

“Dickwad?!” He said, blinking at me in shock. “No one’s ever called me a dickwad before.”

I raised a single eyebrow at him. “Maybe not to your face, but they definitely have.” He gave off the vibe of a fuckboy, of a really, really bad fuckboy.

“Well, since you’re running away from your feelings, how about you spend a week or two with me on the road?” He asked with a grin.

I couldn’t help but blink at him in shock. “What?” I let out a laugh, pulling one of my legs up to my chest. “Do you throw that line out to every girl you meet? Or am I just special?”

Pietro threw a chip at me, and I barely managed to dodge it. “No, I don’t. But… You remind me of me. Needing adventure. A life bigger than four walls and a fence.”

Instinctively, I wanted to snap back that sometimes, four walls and a fence could be an adventure, could be the biggest life there was, as Bucky’s face flashed across my mind.

But I couldn’t do that. Not when I wasn’t ready to face the truth myself.

“Come on, sweet cheeks,” he teased as his foot hooked around mine. “Just think of it. The open highway, a rhythm beneath your feet… Nights full of passion and days of adventure…” Pietro’s voice was deep and husky, as though he was trying to lure me in. “No strings… just warm summer rain soaking us to the bone before we find some cheap motel to huddle down in…”

Plastering on a smile, I stood up and brushed myself on. “Thanks, but… I’d rather be drinking champagne, and the quicker I get to LA, the sooner I will be.”

He let me go with a kiss on the cheek and his cell number pressed into my hand, with a promise to come and pick me up the second I rang.

And despite how sweet he was, how wild and funny and charismatic, there was only one man I wanted to call.

Twenty-Four

I sipped at my martini as I sat at the rooftop bar, absentmindedly watching the television that was mounted on the wall as people droned around me. I’d been in Los Angeles for a year, and I’d spent my time finding the best places to find a husband who could give me the life I dreamed of.

As much as I didn’t want to admit it, it took connections to build a career, and the best way to get a foot in the door when nepotism was so rampant was by marrying someone in the industry.

My silk dress was the most expensive thing I owned, something I’d saved up for months for, had skipped meals for. And fuck, was it worth it. I could feel the stares, the lingering gazes on the little bit of thigh that was exposed by the slit in the dress.

I’d already turned away several men, able to tell just from their expensive watches and cheap suits and shoes.

It was amazing how all the up and coming finance bros thought they fit in with the truly big dogs.

“Well, hello, gorgeous.”

I turned to see who was speaking, my heart skipping a beat when I realized who I was speaking to.

The world famous (or infamous) director, Tony Stark.

“Hello, handsome,” I said smoothly, my lashes fluttering innocently as I took a sip of my horrible drink.

I fucking hated martinis. Always had.

But ordering a martini was more sophisticated than ordering a frozen strawberry margarita.

“Is this seat taken?” He asked as he motioned to the empty bar stool right next to me, even as he was already sitting down. “Let me buy your next round.”

“I can’t think of anything better,” I said, feeling as though my dream life was already in reach.

Twenty-Eight

“Tony, where are you taking me?” I laughed as I let my boyfriend lead me to the private dock at our Malibu mansion.

Well, his mansion. I just happened to also live there.

It had been a whirlwind of a year since I had met Tony, and he’d bought me that second round. He’d taken me all over the globe, anywhere my heart desired.

But I made sure to avoid New York City, though he never understood why. I would never tell him.

Not when I was so close to my dream. I could practically taste it.

“Come on, come on. I have a surprise for you,” he said, keeping his hands over my eyes. He was sure to keep me from tripping and busting my ass, thank god.

The ocean waves were so comforting as they hit the shore, a sound I’d gotten used to over the past year.

He finally brought me to a stop, quietly telling me to keep my eyes closed. “Okay,” he said finally. “Open them.”

My eyes slowly opened, adjusting to the bright light of the California sun. But I was more shocked by the sight of Tony on one knee in front of me, holding out a box with a sparkling diamond ring in it. “Tony?”

The ring was the size of a fucking meteor. It was easily the biggest ring I’d ever seen.

“You know, I never thought I’d meet someone like you,” he said quietly, his dark eyes shining. But his voice was steady. “Someone who understands me, who doesn’t expect me to change into someone I’m not. You accept me as I am, and that’s why I want to give you the world.” He couldn’t help but grin as he nodded to the right. “Starting with that yacht you’ve always dreamed of.”

I hadn’t even noticed that there were two yachts at his private docks instead of just the one. The new one had SS Princess emblazoned on the side, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh… Tony…”

“So, what do you say?” He asked, bringing my attention back to him. “Will you be my wife?”

“Yes.”

Thirty-Two

Swallowing nervously, I looked down at the business card in my hand for the millionth time, the stock paper soft from how often I’d looked at it in the past ten years.

Hell, just how often I’d looked at it in the past six should’ve made it fall apart by now. Not that I didn’t have it memorized.

I’d finally ended my marriage after being miserable for so long. I’d gotten my yacht, my fancy houses, my career, all the jewelry that I could dream of, and none of it made me happy. Tony and I… never grew. And I never dreamed. Every day was the same, and every day was torture as I realized that I didn’t have the one thing that actually mattered.

The garage in front of me was busy, music blasting and the sound of men shouting to each other as they worked.

Suddenly I felt absolutely ridiculous wearing a Chanel dress and Gucci heels, an Hermés bag on my arm.

BARNES TIRES AND MOTORS was lit up along the top of the shop in bright red letters, though the lights in the ‘r’ of ‘motors’ were out.

I felt like a fool. I had wanted the life I had so desperately that I gave up everything for it. I got the movie star life, my name on billboards and my face on magazines.

But it wasn’t ever enough.

My heels clicked against the blacktop as I slowly made my way towards the front area of the shop, bells clinging above my head to let them know someone was there.

“Can I help you, ma’am?” A man asked as he came around the corner.

He looked so much like Bucky, it punched the air straight from my lungs.

“H-Hi. I’m looking for James Barnes. Is he here?” I asked after a long moment of hesitation. There was no way that the man was Bucky, but I didn’t doubt he was related.

The man raised his brows, wiping his hands on a rag. “My son’s in the shop. I’ll take you to him.” His full head of hair was white, his thick facial hair matching. Even with all the wrinkles on his face, he was a handsome man. Holding open the door for me, he led me into the loud shop, some eighties rock song blasting over the speakers.

I couldn’t help but smile as ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’ by Scorpions came on. It was one of Bucky’s favorites back when we worked in the diner together.

“BUCK! YOU GOT A VISITOR!” The man shouted, causing several people to look our way.

My cheeks felt hot as I avoided their gaze, hoping they wouldn’t recognize me. I didn’t want to be a famous movie star anymore, a celebrity that had to beg for scraps of privacy.

My mind went numb, my heart stopping inside my chest as he stepped around a gray Ford Escape another man was working on.

He was even more handsome than he was the last time I saw him.

“Can I help y—” He broke off, his blue eyes going wide when he realized that it was me. “Hi.”

All of a sudden, everything I’d planned to say flew out of my head. All of the eloquent words I’d strung together were gone. And I just proceeded to word vomit.

“Did you know that, uh, when you marry someone you’re not in love with, you won’t… you won’t grow into it?” I asked, my voice shaking. “Um… I married a man who could give me a life I thought I always wanted, and he just… sucked.” Eyes stinging, I fought back against tears. “And I thought that all I ever wanted was the life I have now, was the life movie stars and the Kardashians lived. But… But I hate it. I hated every second I was away from you.” I let out a weak laugh, unable to stop the tears. “I wanted to turn around the second I got on the bus in New Orleans, but my stupid stubborn ass didn’t. I should have. I should’ve gotten off and just run right back to you because I… I love you, James. I always have.”

The garage had gone almost deadly quiet, and my heart sank when I realized Bucky looked almost frozen in shock.

“I know that I shouldn’t have showed up like this,” I scrambled to say. “But I… I’ve been trying to get my divorce finalized for two years and I finally did, and I kept telling myself that once it was done, I’d never hold myself back from what I really want ever again. From who I want. If… If you want me.” My face felt like it was on fire, my hands shaking. I shook my head as I took a step backwards. “What am I thinking? There’s no way you’re not married. I… I’m so so—”

Before I could finish the word ‘sorry,’ Bucky had closed the distance between us, his hands cradling my face so gently. He held me like I was made of fine crystal as he kissed me. He kissed me like his life depended on it, like I was the one source of oxygen.

And I kissed him back just as fiercely. “I love you. I love you so much,” I breathed out in between kisses, unwilling to let him go as my Hermés bag fell into the dust and oil on the concrete below.

Bucky smiled into the kiss, his arm wrapping around my waist to keep me pressed to his chest. “I love you so much, darlin.’ God, I’ve missed you…” His nose nudged against mine as we finally broke for air, both of us breathing heavily.

My knees felt like Jell-O as I held onto him. His grip was the only reason I hadn’t fallen to the ground already.

“I’m sorry I was a dumb twenty-two year old,” I said, snorting as he stole another kiss.

“No… Don’t be sorry,” he insisted, his fingers massaging my scalp as our foreheads pressed together. It was like he was scared to stop touching me, like I would disappear at any second. “You were young… You had to go out and make your own mistakes… I’ve just been waiting for the day you were ready.”

All the years apart melted away and all that remained was the two of us, two souls so intertwined that there was no way to truly separate us.

Our lips were half molded together as I said, “I’m never leaving you again. I promise I swear on everything…”

My heart almost stopped inside my chest as I heard someone clearing their throat, looking to see Bucky’s father staring at us with his arms crossed over his chest. “M-Mr. Barnes, sir…”

He gave a crooked smile that was so reminiscent of Bucky that I couldn’t help but grin back. “The Mrs. will wanna know if you’re staying for dinner.”

“Yeah,” I said as I looked up at Bucky, toying with a strand of his hair. “That sounds perfect.”

Later that night, Bucky and I laid in his bed, a mess of bare limbs as his fingers ran up and down my back soothingly. “What do you want from this life, baby girl?” He asked absentmindedly.

Humming, I traced shapes on his bare chest, sometimes pressing a kiss to where his prosthetic met his shoulder, on the tender scar tissue. “You.”

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth, despite the already mischievous look on his face. “Really? Not even the stars and the moon?” He asked teasingly.

I knew he’d give it to me anyway, give me all that he could. But I was sure now that the only thing I wanted from this life was his love. “Not even the stars and the moon.”

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky x y/n #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes reader insert

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princecharmingmendes · 5 years

Text

Valentine's Day | Shawn Mendes

“Valentine’s Day is always hard for some people that are single, but it’s harder you have a loved one that’s on another country, but lucky you, he always had his ways of making everything better”

Hiiii! I’m going to try to post this weekend other to Valentine’s Day oneshot, but the other two will be one with Raul and the other with Peter, they’ll all be called the same {Valentine’s Day} and that’s it, hope you guys like it!

Peter | Raul (coming soon)

Word Count: 3.7K+

Warnings: cursing, mentions of sex and a lot of fluffy boyfriend material Shawn.

Posted: February 15th, 2020.

-*-

You love Shawn with every single cell in your body. I mean, how could you not? He’s everything anyone could possibly ever want. He’s the kindest, sweetest and most loving person you’ve ever met, he would literally run a marathon barefoot just to put a smile on your face and he would say that to anyone who was close enough to hear it. You’ve met him three years ago and been together practically all these time. You two met at a common friend’s birthday party and he couldn’t stop talking to you or trying so ridiculously hard to make you giggle just to hear it, at the end of the night, you had a date on the next day. And you couldn’t stop seeing him ever since and it was magical, for the first two months.

I mean, not that he changed or something, he’s still the same doofus cheesy 6’3 guy I fell for, it’s just that he’s not just Shawn, he’s Shawn fucking Mendes, a sweetheart with two identical brothers and a rockstar for a living.

The only thing that makes it hard is when he’s away. He tries his best to compensate with FaceTime calls and sending me surprise gifts and stuff, but that doesn’t make things easier. He also suffers from it, even though he doesn’t want me to see that or to think that, I know he does, his parents and friends told me that sometimes it gets harder for him and he just spends the hold day in a bad mood. But still, whenever he’s back from the road, everything’s better and it’s lime he never left. He clings to me like a giant teddy bear and follows me around like a lost puppy and I’d do anything he asks me with those hazel orbits and when he holds me, I just know things are going to be okay.

But right now, things don’t seem to be okay.

I mean, between us, things are great, he’s been as present as he could as he was working his ass off in LA on his next album. But on the rest, it was all just a big mess. My parents are constantly screaming at each other due to a family thing on dad’s side, my brother left the house for college recently and wasn’t actually talking to anyone and work and college were trying to kill me, and the cherry on top was this stupid project I had to finish and publish that was a huge part of my final grade. Everything’s falling apart and I haven’t been able to talk to my boyfriend for real for like, two days. I know it’s ridiculous, but I needed so bad just to hear him saying “you’re going to be okay, honey, you’re the smartest person I know”. But I can’t call him and stuff his head with my shitty problems, I don’t want to keep his mind away from his work. So I called his brothers instead.

Peter told me he could stop by at the end of the night if I felt like I needed help, and Raul offered to take me out to dinner to relax a bit since I’ve been going mad over this. And I love them for trying, but it’s simply not the same thing. So that’s why I’m sitting in Shawn’s living room (since he asked me to move in the past month and I did) surrounded by papers, textbooks and my computer on my lap, running my temples and trying to get some work going when my phone started ringing and my computer screen stopped working, Shawn’s face appeared all over it as he called me on FaceTime.

“Hey” I said as soon as I picked it up.

“Hey, baby, God, I missed your pretty face”

“You called me two days ago, weirdo”

“Still missed you tough”

“Okay, so... what’s up?”

“Hm, nothing, just got back to the apartment and I’m so tired and I miss you”

“I miss you too, kinda wish you were here”

“I’ll be back soon, I promise”

“I know” I said sighing and placing a few strands that fell of my messy bun behind my ear.

“What are you doing?”

“Just some stupid project”

“Apparently not that nice”

“No, it sucks, I have to submit it until noon”

“Tomorrow?”

“Uh, yeah”

“Oh shit, am I interrupting? Shit, I’m sorry, baby, I didn’t even considered the possibility of you being busy or something, I just needed to see you”

“No, hey, it’s okay, I was about to take a break, it’s okay”

“Sorry, I’m so sorry”

“Hey, bubs, it’s okay”

“Okay, so what are you doing tomorrow after submitting it?”

“I’m gonna go grab lunch with Peter and then work, probably later than I should, but you know my boss and his lovely situation with his ex, so he’ll probably keep us late due to Valentine’s Day to keep his mind busy, but after that, Raul is coming over for dinner since he’s single and you’re not here, Pete’s got a date”

“With that girl he likes?”

“Yeah, that’s the one”

“I think he’ll actually have something with her”

“So do I! He’s very happy whenever he talks to her or about her”

“He’s Peter”

“That’s true, what about you?”

“Me? Oh, just work stuff, I was curious about you to see if I could call you or something, but you seem to have way to many plans”

“No, you can call me after I leave work, I can text you, letting you know when I park or leave work so you can call me, Raul wouldn’t mind”

“I doubt that, but I don’t really care about what he thinks about it, text me when you leave work and I’ll call you”

“Okay, any new songs to show me?”

“Not yet, I want you to see only the finished product”

“Boring”

“You still love me” he sang song and I couldn’t stop myself from giggling at his boyish side.

“Bubs, I’m so sorry, but I gotta hang up, Kate’s calling me to help out with a thing I’m struggling with” I said sighing as my phone started ringing again.

“Hey, it’s okay, I should probably try to get some sleep, I have to be up early due to a meeting”

“Yeah, so should I but... Not finished, no sleeping” I said motioning to the paper on my lap.

“You should really try to sleep, honey, it’s late and I’m pretty sure the project is practically done, you’re just attached to details”

“Oh, you know me so well”

“Of course I do, I’m your boyfriend after all”

“That’s true, okay, I really gotta go now, Shawn, I’m so sorry”

“Don’t apologize, there’s nothing wrong, now stop worrying, add your finishing touches and go to bed”

“Okay, sir, goodnight”

“Goodnight, baby, I love you” he said chuckling.

“I love you too” I said smiling at the camera before hanging up, trying to call Kate back to get some help with some of the things I was not happy about before I could fall asleep.

-*-

Waking up on the other day was torturous since of the lack of sleep, but stepping outside was worse. I don’t get bitter on seeing other people happy, I really don’t, but seeing couples with flowers and holding hands broke my heart into a million pieces, because that was just a reminder that I wasn’t going to see Shawn for another week, which meant he was away for a month already. And it was everywhere.

When I was able to just hand my teachers a copy of the project and leave, it was like a thousand pounds left my shoulders and I could finally breath again, so I fished my phone from my pocket to text Shawn, but finding out he had already texted me early in the morning. This paper was eating me alive and I didn’t even noticed ‘till now.

“Hey, can you talk?” I said as soon as Shawn picked up the phone.

“Yeah, anything wrong?”

“No, everything went smooth apparently, I just left college and I’m going to meet up with Pete now”

“That’s great! Are you feeling better now?”

“So much better, I just called you to thank you for... I don’t know, being so supportive, I guess, and for texting me ‘good luck’ this morning”

“Oh, sure, that’s my job!”

“No it’s not, you’re just perfect and I fucking love you”

“Love you too, baby, but I gotta run now, I’m sorry”

“No, it’s okay, I’m sorry, I won’t hold you back”

“You don’t, relax for a bit, and thank you for calling me, I love hearing your voice, and soon I’ll hear it again personally”

“You’re too cheesy for your own goo, Mendes, goodbye” I said and I head his laugh through the phone, making me smile almost instantaneously.

“Bye, honey” he said hanging up.

-*-

The rest of the day was fine. Lunch with Peter is always amazing, he always now crazy and random facts about everything and he is way too sweet. Going to work sucked a bit cause my boss was being a bitch the whole day and just finding flaws were there weren’t any, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. When I left, I went to a grocery shop to buy some stuff for my dinner with Raul that he asked and sent a message to Shawn telling him I was going to be home in thirty minutes, and he replied with a simple ‘kay, baby, talk to you later’, which I found weird but tried not to read too much into it. He was probably busy anyways.

But what sucked was parking at the garage and calling Raul, only to find out he was not going to make it.

“Hey, Raul, I just got home and I can start the food if you want”

“Oh shit, I completely forgot to tell you”

“Tell me what?”

“Shit, I’m so sorry, Y/N, but this kid come into work today and his situation is pretty bad, I can’t leave him alone, I’m so damn sorry, I... shit, I don’t even know what to say!”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, it’s not your fault and I’m not mad, you’re not bailing to go drink or something, you’re working and saving a child’s life, Raul, chill, dude, I’m not mad!”

“Thank you so much, you’re the best, I gotta go now, Y/N, again, I’m so incredibly sorry, thank you so much, bye” he said hanging up.

“Bye” I said into the empty lot and opening the door to grab my bags.

I pressed the button of the elevator and got in, holding the bags with one hand to text Shawn with the other one a quick ‘hey, Raul’s not coming, I’m at the elevator, you can call me anytime you can now xx’. When I got to my floor, my phone started ringing and it was Kate calling, so I picked it up.

“Hey, Y/N, are you busy?”

“No, it’s okay, how are you? By the way, thank you so much for the help yesterday, I really appreciate it” I said as I placed the phone between my cheek/ear and my shoulder to fish the keys in my bag.

“Oh, I’m fine, thanks, so... I’m calling you exactly because of the project”

“Oh really” I felt my heart going to a stop “something wrong?”

“The only think wrong with your project is in your extremely perfectionist brain, dummy”

“What do you mean, Kate?” I said finally being able to place the key on the lock and turn it.

“Bitch, you got an A, YOU GOT AN A, do you know what that means?! Your project is perfect! You don’t even need to do the test if you don’t want to! God, I hate you so much right now”

“Holy shit, Kate! Are you kidding me?! How do you know that?!”

“Mr. Saltzman just published the grades”

“I can’t believe it!”

“I know! And you know what happens to people who get an A on this thing?! YOUR ARTICLE IS GOING TO BE PUBLISHED! I’m so damn proud of you”

“I can’t believe it” I said finally getting out of my trance with a wide smile on my face as I got into the condo, closing the door right behind me, still trying to balance everything I was holding and lock the damn door.

“I know, I mean...”

“Wait a second, Kate” I interrupted her as soon as I heard a noise coming from the empty apartment “I think I heard something.

“Is everything okay? Where are you?”

“I just got home and I heard something, but the door was locked, so I don’t know, it’s probably nothing, I’m just overreacting” I said as I paced to the kitchen to get rid of the grocery bags, my heels echoing on the empty rooms.

“Are you sure? Do you want me to come over?”

“No, it’s oka... shit” I said as I almost dropped my phone and I suddenly felt the bags being pulled from my arms from behind, I was at the verge of losing my shit when I saw his reflex on the big window on his kitchen

Standing behind me was the 6’3 rockstar teddy bear that I got to call mine holding the bags that were almost falling from my arms for me as I just stared at him completely shocked. He just grinned at me through the reflection and I almost lost it, but kept frozen in place.

“Y/N? What’s going on?” Kate’s voice sounded clear now through the phone.

“Oh shit, sorry, Kate, I almost dropped my phone and I... I gotta go, I just found out Shawn’s home, I, I’ll talk to you later, bye” I said as I hung up, turning around in shock as I stared at him.

“Hi” he said barely louder then a whisper, placing the bags on the counter and picking up the bouquet of tulips that he picked up from the counter.

I couldn’t even understand what was happening, but my body decided to take the natural lead and jump on him, wrapping my arms around his neck and burying my face on his neck. He quickly wrapped his arms around me to keep me off the ground and in his embrace. I wrapped my legs around his torso and just took my time to process the information that he was actually here, with me. When I finally pulled back from his neck, I could only stare at his eyes that were already on me, with a look of pure love and adoration, so I just did what felt right, I crashed my lips on his. And all was right in the world again. The kiss was so passionate and so in sync that only made the fuzzy warm feeling I always have when I’m around him intensify a million times. I only noticed that I was crying when I felt his hand coming up to caress my cheek softly while his other arm kept me tightly in place.

“What the hell, Shawn?” I asked as soon as I pulled back for air.

“Hi, lover, I love you too and missed you lots”

“You do know I love you and you also know I missed you so bad, but what the hell? Weren’t you supposed to come home only in a week?”

“Well, that’s what everybody told you cause I asked them, you really thought I was going to leave you here alone in Valentine’s Day?!”

“Wait a second, Mendes, everybody knew you’re coming home today?!”

“Uh yeah?”

“So Raul wasn’t going to be with me at all?!”

“Nope” he said popping the ‘P’.

“Did he lie to me about being at work?”

“No, but he also never cancelled his shift today to be with you”

“So why the heck did he sent me grocery... is that why I have all the ingredients for chocolate chip muffins?!”

“Uh, maybe?” Shawn said with a sheepish smile on his face “don’t get mad at me, I wanted to surprise you”

“Mad at you? How could I be mad at you, bubs?”

“I don’t know, I can do some pretty stupid things”

“That’s true”

“Outch, you weren’t supposed to agree to that”

“Sorry, but I thought we didn’t lie to each other”

“Okay, I’m going back to LA” he said threatening to let me go.

“No! I’m kidding, I love you and you know I can never get mad at you, cause even though you make same stupid things, they’re never harmful and always innocent, so no, I’m not mad at you”

“Good, cause I have a whole night planned”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t like to go out, so I grabbed your favorite Italian dish, you bought the wine, I’ve set up our room, we can take a bath and then cuddle while we watch Harry Potter or Grey’s Anatomy and eat our food, then we’ll go to bed and I’ll cuddle the fuck out of you”

“You’re so weird, dude” I said and he chuckled, placing me on the ground again, but still not letting go of me.

“Yeah? Then why are still with me?”

“Because you’re the Shawn Mendes” I said and he laughed holding me tighter.

“Is that all?”

“Well, pretty much, of course, you’re pretty and stuff, but yeah, your career is all that matters to me”

“Thought it was my bank account... so if I go ugly and my voice disappears you’ll dump me?”

“Obviously” I said tapping his strong chest playfully and he held my wrists, bringing my hands up to kiss they’re back, so I took the opportunity to cup his jaw gently “but for real now, I don’t care if you loose your career, bank account and all your hair, it wouldn’t change a thing for me. Of course it’s amazing to be dating someone who gets to play in sold out arenas and travel around the world with a guitar case in his hands, you’re really talented and I’ve told you a million times that you always mesmerize me with everything you put on, you’re fascinating for sure”

“Thank you” he mouthed in the middle of my speech and I couldn’t contain myself from standing on the tippy toes of my shoes to place a sweet peck on his lips.

“Where was I?” I asked as soon as I pulled away “oh yeah, but honestly? That’s not what’s best about you. You’ve got the kindest soul I’ve ever met, you’re so caring and loving, you always put everyone that matters first and always makes me feel special, even on the toughest days, you do not measure consequences when it comes to pleasing someone you love and also, you’re the best person I’ve ever met and I’m so lucky to able to call you love of my life, I love you, Shawn Mendes, not only for the fame and the amazing...”

“...sex?” he suggested with a smirk on his face.

“Well, no, but that’s actually right as well. Anyone, and the amazing music you make, but for the real Shawn, the guy the grew up in Pickering and that watches rom-coms for a living” I said and he smiled softly, attaching his lips to mine again in a sweet kiss.

“I was the one supposed to make you a speech, I was not expecting that but thank you” he said kissing my forehead “ and also, thank you for being patient with me and allowing this relationship to work out”

“You don’t have to thank me for anything” I said softly as I caressed his cheek with my thumb “thank YOU, Shawn”

He smiled down at me and kissed me again, this time, deepening the kiss faster than before, quickly grabbing the back of my thighs and picking me up as he licked into my mouth, making my head go dizzy with the sensations.

-*-

After the bath, pretend to watch whatever we picked to put on the TV while we made up for the lost time on his couch and then ate or food to recover, we finally decided to head back to our room, cause after all, he got on a plane today to see me and my work was exhausting. We were laying in bed, Shawn in his underwear, and me in only his shirt laying half on top of him. He was gently running his fingers through my hair as I drew mindless circles on his bare abs, minds far away as we laid close just enjoying each other’s warmth and company.

“I forgot to get your present, it’s on my suitcase” he said more to himself then to me.

“You shouldn’t have”

“Ooh, shush, I like to buy you presents and spoil you, and you never allow me to do so, I just have to grab every opportunity I have”

“Fair enough, yours are on the closet”

“We can do that tomorrow when I’m making you breakfast”

“You?”

“Yeah, learned how to do pancakes!”

“Really?! I’m so proud of you, bubs” I said and he smiled, kissing my forehead.

“Thank you”

“Hey, Shawn” I said lowly after a while, breaking the silence again “thank you so much for coming home and doing all of this, it means the world to me, every single detail was perfect, and I can’t believe you actually bought me tulips! They mean...”

“They mean ‘declaration of love’” he said complementing what I was going to say “yeah, I know, Peter helped out on that one, not gonna lie”

“Just the fact that you took your time on asking what each flower meant it’s enough to make me love you even more” I said pecking his soft lips delicately.

“You should sleep, honey, you seemed tired when you arrived”

“I am”

“So sleep, I’ll still be home when you wake up”

“Do you promise?” I asked nuzzling my face further on his collarbone.

“I promise” he said softly “I promise I’ll always come home to you, happy valentine’s day, honey” were the last words I heard before I drifted off to dreamland, in the arms of the man I love with every single cell of my body.

-*-

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

*Please reblog or like this post if you liked it so I’ll know.

*I’m sorry if there are any spelling mistakes, I had to finish this in rush to post it on time.

*Please do not repost this without giving me the credit, this is a completely original piece and I do not give permission to copy this!

*Hope you guys enjoyed it!

*xoxo

-🌙

... : @fivefeetapartt

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barnesandrogersfanfics · 4 years

Text

Rose Coloured Glasses - Part 9

A/N: Bit of a shorter chapter to move us along!

Thank you to everyone who is liking/sharing this fic it means so much! ILY 💕

"Frank.... what are you doing here?"

"I really needed to see you, to explain about earlier"

"Nows not a great time"

"Please? I feel awful"

"Cant this wait until tomorrow? Im about to have dinner...." a phone ringing from the living room made me look over my shoulder and Frank was trying to look around me.

"You already have company?" He asked looking surprised that i wasn't alone.

"I..."

Just as i was about to answer Andy came walking out now wearing his suit jacket and coat and Frank scoffed shaking his head as if everything in the world made sense now.

"Hey, i gotta go pick up Jacob" he said to me before looking at Frank and the two exchanging their usual greeting "thanks for locking up tonight i owe you" he patted some keys in his pocket "see you in the morning?"

"Of course"

"Okay, goodnight"

"Goodnight" he smiled at me as moved around Frank and headed to his car, i couldn't help but notice how much he turned back to look at me.

"Guess i know why you wouldn't invite me in..."

"What?"

"You sleeping with him?"

"No! God Frank we're not all like you jumping bed to bed! He came to pick up the office keys" i lied about why Andy was really there.

"Sorry, guess i got a little jealous"

I couldn't help but laugh at Franks words, he was the one sleeping with other people and his saying he got jealous??

"Its not funny....."

"It kinda is considering your the one who decided to slut it around town"

"I..... please can we talk inside?"

A pizza delivery vehicle parked up and young boy came rushing over to hand over my pizza.

"Thank you" i smiled passing him the money and taking the pizza, the boy smiled and was soon back in his car driving away.

"You hungry?" I offered still unsure if this was a good idea but i was starving and Frank didn't show any sign of leaving.

"Sure, i could eat" he nodded following me inside.

Frank made himself at home quickly and i had to admit it was nice to have him around again....I had missed him. But i had to remember he would never be the guy to commit to just one person and i didn't want to think about him with other women when he wasn't with me.

"So i guess we should talk about the other morning?"

"Not really, it was pretty obvious what was going on Frank. Im not stupid" i scoffed.

"I didnt mean for it to happen.... i was more than happy with what we had going on" he motioned between the two of us "we were great together, we had fun right?"

"Im not saying we didn't have fun, i was enjoying what we had" i told him honestly "really enjoying it! But seeing you with that woman....."

"Look i only hooked up with her because i was pissed you couldn't make it.... i had far too much to drink and one thing lead to another...."

"Wow..... you were pissed at me?? I told you why i couldn't make it. Its not like i just couldn't be bothered! You try dealing with hundreds of questions about a dead kid all day and then feel up to partying! i was exhausted! I told you id reschedule its not like id never go meet your friends"

"Im sorry okay, can't we just put this behind us and carry on...?"

"I cant Frank i'm sorry. Seeing you with that woman made me realise i'm not okay with the casual dating thing. The thought that when your not with me your probably fucking some other woman..... i can't do it"

"But you knew what this was..."

"And i thought i could deal with that" i shrugged "i need someone i trust not to hurt me. I need that commitment..."

"And you think your gonna get that from Andy Barber?"

"What?? This isn't about him! Why do you keep bringing Andy up?"

"Incase your forgetting sweetheart, Andy is married. He cant give you what you need either"

"I think you should go, this conversation isn't going anywhere. You cant give me what i need.... your scared to commit to one person and thats what i need. Im sorry Frank, i loved our time together i really did".

"I can try....."

"Its not what you want" i shook my head "you'd get bored with me in no time and then you'd go find someone else"

"You don't know that" he looked at me with sad eyes but shook his head because he knew i was right.

"We can still be friends but thats all i can give you right now. Maybe in the future if you ever decide to settle down things might be different"

"Well i know where to come if that ever happens" he chuckled "but yeah id like us to be friends still..." he reached out and pulled me into his arms holding me tight, he buried his face in my neck and pressed a kiss under my ear.

"I should go" he finally said standing up grabbing his jacket from the chair "thanks for the pizza".

"We should do it again, we can watch a movie and hang out"

"Sounds great sweetheart" he pressed a quick kiss to my forehead and then he left without a word.

After throwing out the empty pizza box i settled on the sofa with a fresh beer. A new episode of The Walking Dead was about to start when my phone lit up with a message. I looked and saw Andy's name, my heart started racing and i suddenly felt very nervous!

Andy: Hey, everything okay there with Frank?

I couldn't help but laugh a little and shake my head.

Y/N: You checking up on me? Lol

Andy: No? Lol

Andy: Kinda..... i know you two were close

Y/N: Nothings going on i promise, he stayed for some pizza while we talked things through and then he left.

Andy: Good. I hated leaving you like that.

Andy: are you okay about what happened with us?

Y/N: didn't i seem okay about it then? Lol i thought it was pretty obvious that i was into it.

Andy: just checking lol i'm a bit rusty at all this.....

Y/N: its all good i promise :)

Y/N: What are you up to anyway?

Andy: looking over Patz's file trying to find something.... anything that might help. Im not getting anything but a headache.

Y/N: You should go get some sleep, have a look at it again tomorrow with fresh eyes. I could meet you at the office and go over it with you?

Andy: yeah? You wouldn't mind?

Y/N: Not at all

Andy: Okay, i think i'll take your advise and pack up for the night. I'll see you in the morning?

Y/N: Yeah, i'll bring the good coffee ;) Goodnight Andy xx

Andy: Your the best! Goodnight Y/N xx

Little did i know the shit storm that was about to hit tomorrow, this was definitely the calm before the storm!

Everything taglist: @jesseswartzwelder @dumblani @barnesandrogersworld @patzammit

Rose Coloured Glasses taglist: @readermia @princess-evans-addict @jennmurawski13 @matsumama @ex-bloodjunkie @kaithezaftig @rynabarnesrogers @rainbowkisses31

#sebastian stan #chris evans #bucky x reader #reader insert #steve rogers #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes #steve x reader #eb!frank #eb!frank x reader #andy barber x reader #andy barber #endings beginnings #defending jacob #rose coloured glasses

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youreverycolor · 5 years

Text

An Unlikely Love: Fight For It, Pt. 2 (Rafael Barba x Anna Stein)

AN: Prompt #43 from 200 Prompts from @drink-it-write-it (“Do you believe in soulmates?” – “No.” – “Oh, well, that’s a shame, because I’m it. I’m your soulmate.”)

The conclusion of Fight For It. I hope you guys enjoy. Comments and reblogs are always appreciated. :)

Special thanks to @madpanda75, @thatesqcrush, and @misssirenlove for love, support, idea-bouncing, and generally being wonderful women.

Tagging: @danahart1 @nikkijmorgan @ele-esposito @dianilaws @sunnyfortomorrow @mommakat32 @lucifersadvisor @gibbs274 @oliviamariathegirl @evee87 @tropes-and-tales @garturbo @delia26 @neely1177 @jennisdirtyimagines @lostintech0011001 @letty-o @lucifersadvisor @sunnyfortomorrow @literallyprentissstwin @gibbs274 @dianilaws

Song: "Ours” by Taylor Swift

~*~*~*~

There was nearly a decade between Amanda Rollins and Anna Stein, but they could easily be mistaken for sisters, only a year or two apart. Of all the squad members, Anna was closest with Olivia, and so she might have asked if the lieutenant could use some time away from work, but she thought better of it. Olivia was Rafael’s best friend, after all, and he would probably want to talk to her over the course of the week. However, since the party he had thrown to celebrate Anna’s first semester grades, Amanda and Anna had also formed a fast friendship. Amanda was a lot of fun and up for anything without needing an explanation, as Liv might have asked for. As it turned out, she also had a copious amount of vacation time saved up. So, she bribed Carisi into taking Jesse for the week—with the use of her sitter for the daytime—and told Olivia a slight fib about a “family emergency back home.” By Tuesday night, she and Anna were on a plane headed to Tennessee.

Originally, Anna had suggested Vegas, but Amanda—a recovering gambling addict—quickly countered with Nashville. Anna had never been there, but Amanda said she would love it: all the fun of Vegas bars without the price tag, and the added bonus of hot cowboys. Amanda knew Nashville like the back of her hand; she had graduated from Middle Tennessee State University. The college was only about thirty miles from downtown Nashville, and Amanda and her friends frequently went into the city on weekends. So she knew exactly where to go and what to do, and Anna was more than happy to let her lead the way.

Although in some ways, Amanda had become a hardened New Yorker, she quickly reverted to her roots after only a day in Tennessee. She took Anna along for the ride, converting the native Californian to a Southern belle. During the days, they visited the Parthenon, Music Row, and the Country Music Hall of Fame. They took walks along the riverfront and even went to the Grand Ole Opry. Amanda had done most of these things already, but she was content to do them again with her friend, who clearly needed the distraction.

At night, they teased their blonde hair (Amanda joked that “the higher the hair, the closer to God”) and wore obscenely short denim skirts and cowboy boots while drinking on Honky Tonk Row. At some point, they found themselves in a karaoke bar, and Anna shocked the hell out of Amanda by singing the mysterious, little-known third verse of Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places.” They talked about their families and how much they missed them; Amanda’s mother and sister had moved back to Atlanta and she rarely got to see them, while all of Anna’s family still lived in Los Angeles, where she also had lived until four years ago. But all the while, Anna did not bring up Rafael once, and Amanda didn’t ask about him.

But by dinner on Monday, Amanda’s curiosity got the better of her. They were sitting at a bar nursing vodka tonics and eating the best burgers Anna had ever had, when Amanda asked, “So, since we’re scheduled to fly out tomorrow morning, you gonna tell me why we came?”

“Sorry?”

“Well, as much fun as this trip has been—”

“So much fun!” Anna said. “It’s honestly been the best girls’ trip I’ve ever taken.”

Amanda smiled. “I’m glad you had fun, but I have to ask…”

Anna set her burger down in favor of a sip of her drink. “I don’t want to make it weird for you when you have to deal with him at work,” she said. “It really wasn’t that big of a deal anyway.”

“Okay, first off,” Amanda began, “unless you’re telling me about whatever weird kinks Barba has in the sack, nothing you could say would make me feel weird around him. And second, it must have been a pretty big deal for you to want to get out of the damn state for a week.”

“Maybe I just wanted to do something fun over spring break with a friend,” Anna replied, avoiding eye contact.

Amanda raised an eyebrow. “You know I’m a detective, right?”

Anna laughed. “You and, like, half my other friends.” She put her face in her hands and then turned on her bar stool toward Amanda and told her the whole story, starting with Rafael’s Spanish-laced tirade when he arrived home to the moment he stormed back out. Amanda listened quietly the entire time, the same as she did when investigating a case. Her face betrayed nothing—no doubt a skill she learned in her gambling days.

When Anna finally finished, Amanda took a deep breath. “You know, I can’t say any of this surprises me.”

Anna raised her eyebrows. “What?”

Amanda downed the last of her vodka. “Well, let me start by saying that you did the right thing getting out of there. A lot of women would’ve hung around waiting for him to get home. Took a lot of guts to do what you did.”

“What, run away?”

“You planning to go back?”

“Of course,” Anna said, a little taken aback.

“Then you didn’t run away. You decided that for the good of your relationship, you needed to take some time for yourself. No shame in that.”

Anna took a moment to process this. “It really was a stupid fight,” she finally said.

“Yeah,” Amanda agreed. “But, you know, all couples fight. At least you’re fighting about stupid things than about, I don’t know, whatever the hell my old partner, Nick, and his wife used to fight about.”

“I guess,” Anna said.

Amanda put her hand on top of Anna’s. “Anna, look at me.” Anna looked up, pushing a wisp of her hair away from her eyes. “You’ve gotta understand, Barba has been alone for a long time. And take it from me, when you’re alone that long, you get used to thinking you’re right all the time because there’s no one telling you otherwise.”

“I get that, but maybe we’re just too different. Maybe he’s been alone too long. Maybe I don’t take things seriously enough. Maybe it’s just too—”

Amanda held up her hands. “Look, I get it. He’s a stubborn pain in the ass. Hell, he’s hard to work with, so I can’t imagine living with him. You’ve got a pretty big age gap, and you’re both really busy with work and school. So I would completely understand if you decided you weren’t right for each other.” Then she softened her voice. “But I told you once before, I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you. And when I asked if you were planning to go back, you looked at me like I was nuts for even asking that question. That says something to me.”

Suddenly, the bartender came over with two shots of whiskey. “From the gentlemen down that way,” he said, gesturing to two young, extremely handsome men sitting at the end of the bar.

Anna and Amanda looked at the men, then at each other. “You wanna go talk to ‘em?” Amanda asked, a sly grin on her face.

Anna hesitated for a second, looked at the men again, and then took out her phone. “Give me a second.” A minute later, she put it away and grabbed one of the shot glasses. “Okay. Ready.”

They clinked their glasses, tapped them on the bar, and downed the shots. “Sisters, right?” Amanda asked, referring to their cover story.

Anna hopped off her barstool and the two of them linked arms. “Sisters.”

***

Rafael was miserable.

Anna had only texted him twice a day since she’d landed in Nashville the previous Tuesday: once in the morning, and once at night. It was largely the same message every time: good morning or goodnight, and that she hoped he had a good day. He appreciated that, despite her anger, she at least wanted him to know that she was safe. And he wanted to give her the space she had clearly demanded, so he didn’t message more than that. He wasn’t a jealous man who needed to know what his girlfriend was doing every minute of the day, after all. Anna had gone on a handful of trips with her friends over the course of their relationship. That wasn’t what bothered him. What bothered him was that this time, she did it to get away from him rather than to get away with other people. That made all the difference. He trusted Anna implicitly. But every night, after he’d finally dragged himself home to bed, his brain went to a dark place where she met some stranger in Nashville, some ridiculous cowboy, who made her realize that he wasn’t worth the effort.

And because of what? A damn pen.

The day after she left, he threw them all out.

He felt like a bachelor again, but this time it wasn’t self-imposed. Nevertheless, he had reverted to his bachelor ways, working as much as he could until the wee hours of the morning. On Thursday and Friday mornings, Carmen had found him asleep on his office couch in the same clothes he’d worn the previous day. He worked right through the weekend, up until Sunday night. The good news was that he actually seemed to have caught up on a good deal of his backlogged work. The bad news was that he couldn’t even enjoy the spoils because he had no one to enjoy them with.

He had lunch with Olivia a couple of times and didn’t mention what was going on. She noticed something was off, but he deflected, saying he just hadn’t slept well that week. It wasn’t a lie.

Since he had gotten caught up with work that week, he decided to take Monday off. He cleaned out his closet, donating a bunch of clothes he hadn’t worn in a year. Anna had said more than once that she wanted to get a rain shower head, so he went out and bought one and installed it. Carisi came over with Jessie and a pizza that evening. Rafael had never been comfortable around children, but he had to admit that watching Carisi play with Jesse made him want to participate. So he and the detective and Amanda’s daughter colored and ate pizza—and for a minute, he forgot about being alone. Then, he got the nightly text from Anna, and was reminded all over again that she wasn’t going to be next to him in bed.

By Tuesday, he was climbing the walls. Work was the only thing he knew would take his mind off of the long wait until she arrived back home, so he threw himself into it that day. He had to give his phone to Carmen so that he wouldn’t be tempted to check it every ten seconds. She gave him a weird look but took it anyway. When three o’clock hit, he gathered his things to head home. Anna’s flight was due in at four, and he wanted to be there when she got home so that he could tell her what he’d failed to tell her before she left.

***

The light in the bedroom was on when he got home. For a split second, he was terrified—was there an intruder? And would his briefcase be enough to knock said intruder unconscious? But then he noticed the suitcase against the wall adjacent to the living room.

His heart raced. She must have gotten back early.

He found her in the master bathroom putting her toiletries away. She was wearing old, beat-up jeans and a t-shirt, and her hair was in a messy ponytail, but to Rafael, she had never looked more beautiful. He stood watching her for just a second, breathless. He worried if he said anything that it wouldn’t come out right. The last conversation they had turned out terribly.

But as soon as she turned her blue eyes up and locked onto the green of his, words were the last thing on either of their minds.

She flew at him, leaping into his arms and knocking him backwards onto the bed. She kissed him everywhere; on his cheeks, his nose, his forehead, and, finally, finally, his mouth. He kissed her so deeply that he thought he might actually be able to drink her. She tasted like mint and smelled like ripe peaches. She had come back to him in a flood of living memories. She had come back to him, period.

He finally pulled back to look her in the eyes again, his own wet with tears. “Te amo,” he said. “Te amo, mi corazón.” He repeated it like a prayer, so many times that he worried it lost meaning, but to Anna, nothing ever sounded better.

Rafael made love to Anna for the next two hours, and every time he moaned her name, “I love you” wasn’t far behind.

After they were both finally spent, they lay under a throw blanket on the bedroom carpet; at some point in their lovemaking, Anna actually rolled off the bed and they just continued there, laughing and kissing all at once. She told Rafael about her trip and all the things she and Amanda had seen and done. He hung on every word. But there was one more story she had to tell, and she hoped that when he heard it, he would understand why she reacted the way she did when he arrived home.

“So,” she said, “I don’t think I mentioned, we had a cover story on this trip that we were sisters. We didn’t use our own names with anyone we met the entire time. It was like being undercover. So last night—”

He laughed. “Okay, I have to know. What was your UC name?”

“I was Ariel and Amanda was Aurora.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “You seriously used Disney princess names?”

“Well, if you’re gonna go UC, no better cover than a mermaid and a narcoleptic princess, right?”

“Does that mean I get to be Eric?” When she gaped at him, he said, “We’ve been together for over a year. I think you underestimate how much Disney trivia I’ve picked up in that time.”

She drew in a deep breath and focused her eyes on his. “So, as I was saying, last night, we were having dinner and two really hot cowboys sent us shots of whiskey.”

He sat up slightly, alarmed. “Okay, why are you telling me—”

“Because you need to hear this,” she said, pushing him back down and propping herself up on her elbow. “Amanda wanted to go talk to them. And we ended up having a really good conversation. It was a lot of fun.” He looked stricken, and she softened her expression. “Raf, you know nothing happened, right?”

“Of course I know that,” he said, although he was glad for the confirmation. “I just—it’s not that I don’t want you to go on trips with your friends. But this time…I guess I wish I could have been there with you.”

She smiled and kissed his shoulder. “You were, Raf. That’s what I was trying to tell you.”

He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

“Right before we went to talk to them? That was when I texted you goodnight. Because I wanted to make sure I said goodnight before you went to bed—whenever the hell that was this week. I didn’t want to do it late and have you wonder if I’d forgotten you.”

He felt tears welling in his eyes again. “Anna, I never would have thought that.”

“Even still. You were on my mind every night and every morning. I wasn’t just texting you to let you know I was safe. I wanted you to know that no matter what happens, no matter where I am or how things are between us, I’m always thinking of you. And,” she added, “I’ll always come home to you.”

He sat up and wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck, into her hair, and brought his lips to hers. When he pulled back, he whispered, “I’m sorry.”

She pressed her forehead to his. “I’m sorry, too.” Then, she grabbed his watch from the nightstand above them. “I know it’s not our usual date night, but I could sure as hell use dinner and a movie right now. How about you?”

He smiled at her and ran a hand along her hip, memorizing the curves. “Sure,” he said. “I’ll even let you pick the movie.”

***

Anna wiped away her tears, which had been flowing for the last twenty minutes. After they’d eaten, she and Rafael had settled in to watch her favorite movie, What Dreams May Come. The plot was simple: the two main characters, Chris and Annie, lose their children in a horrible car accident. Annie has a mental breakdown and is institutionalized until she and Chris manage to rebuild their lives. But four years later, Chris also dies. His afterlife is beautiful, and he is reunited with his children. But when Annie commits suicide and is sent to hell, Chris journeys there to save her.

Even though Anna had seen it a thousand times, watching the two characters reunited at the end of the movie never failed to turn her into a weeping mess. She didn’t even try to hide it. “God,” she said, “That scene where they’re in Hell and he’s about to join her there and—Raf? Are you okay?”

Unlike Anna, Rafael preferred people think he was born without tear ducts. But there was no mistaking the sound of his sniffling next to her. “I’m fine,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady.

She leaned over and turned the end table light on. As her eyes adjusted, she caught him wiping his cheek with his shirt sleeve. “You’re crying!”

“I am not—”

“Yes, you are.” She handed him a Kleenex from the box she’d judiciously placed next to her before the movie started. He took it and blew his nose. “I warned you it was a gut-punch.”

“When you said it was a movie about soulmates, I think I expected, well, the usual tropes. I wasn’t prepared for something that seemed…realistic.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Almost the entire movie was set in heaven, and this is the one you’re calling realistic?”

“That’s not what I mean. Usually, movies make it seem like soulmates are perfect together and never fight and read each other’s minds. But come on, who gets that?”

She laughed. “People in movies.”

“Exactly,” he said. “People whose lives are literally scripted. But I don’t think our lives are predestined. For instance, I don’t think whatever higher power there is intended for you to be assaulted so that I could meet you.”

She cast her eyes downward. “Well, I’m glad to know that, because if that were the case, I’d think God was a huge asshole.”

He shifted on the couch to face her. “You want to know what part of the movie it was that got me?”

“Of course.”

He took a deep breath. “It was when they finally explained what their double-D anniversary was.” In the movie, Chris and Annie had a special anniversary; it commemorated the day they decided not to divorce after their children died and Annie had her breakdown.

“Oh, I know. When he told her not to give up—”

“No, it wasn’t that.” He cleared his throat. “When I first heard them described as soulmates, I was internally rolling my eyes. But then, we saw them suffering in two completely different ways. He pushed the pain away, and she collapsed under it.”

“Life’s like that,” she replied. “People react differently to things.”

“Yeah. But that’s what got me. They weren’t on the same wavelength at all. They didn’t just push through everything together like it was easy. They had to make an active decision to do it. When they chose to stay together, even after the gargantuan amount of suffering they went through…”

She pushed her hair over one of her shoulders and tilted her head. “So you do believe in soulmates now?”

“You know,” he said, “I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility. But like I said, I think soulmates aren’t people who are perfect together.” He took her hand. “I think they’re two people who aren’t perfect together—maybe even two people don’t even make sense together—but who make the choice every day to come back to each other. They fight, sometimes blow up, maybe don’t even speak to each other for a week, but they actively choose each other every day.”

She moved closer to him, tucking her legs underneath herself. “That sounds…very plausible.”

“Plausible,” he repeated with a chuckle. “In what world am I the romantic in this relationship?”

She grinned. “We can share the title.”

“I was thinking about the fight we had,” he said, pivoting so fast that Anna was worried he was shutting down on her again.

“Okay?”

“It was a nothing fight, but it turned into this big blow-up,” he continued. “A lot of couples would have let it get into their heads and make it into something about the relationship itself.”

She picked off a piece of lint from his shirt and smoothed the fabric over his shoulder. “Well, we’re not other couples.”

He nodded. “And I know how people look at us when we’re out together. They see you, this beautiful, young, vibrant woman, and then they see me—”

“A handsome, distinguished, slightly silver fox?” she offered, gently touching his hair, the silver in it just beginning to show.

He smiled and put his hand on her cheek. The softness of her skin was like her generous heart: it never failed to amaze him. “The point is, despite what people think or say, or when life makes love hard, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we work at this, even through the hardest days, because we want to. We choose each other, every day—even if we need to go to other states to do it.” He winked at her.

She lifted his hand from her cheek and kissed his palm, her heart beating so hard it might have jumped out of her chest. “Are you saying…”

He didn’t complete her thought, but he didn’t have to. She knew the answer when he gave her that half-smile she loved so much. It made him look like a man much younger than his years, almost timid, a little mischievous. “I know, I just destroyed my grumpy, cynical persona. Don’t tell the squad; I have a reputation to keep up.”

For a minute, he was afraid that she would think he was silly or—worse—being disingenuous. But then he caught her eyes with his, and they were sparkling. She crawled from her spot on the couch into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You know, in the movies, this would be when the boy asks the girl to marry him,” she laughed.

He pulled her to him, so that their lips almost touched. “Well, we’re not other couples,” he said, just before he closed the gap between them.

***

Two weeks later, Anna had fallen asleep on the couch hours ago while she was reading and he was reviewing case files. He couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t fallen asleep when she read on the couch. She would lay with her legs stretched across his lap and he would run his hands along her calves, sometimes massaging them if she’d had a particularly hard day at the diner. She thought it was for her benefit, but the truth was, he loved doing it. Knowing he could relax her into sleep just with the touch of his hands was an intimacy he loved even more than sex. And so it was that he found himself lifting her legs off of his lap carefully, trying not to wake her. Mercifully, she was a heavy sleeper. It would probably be a struggle to get her into bed later on. For now, he decided to just change into pajamas and do the rest of his work in the home office. But there was something he wanted to do first.

The fight they’d had was a turning point. It had been a result of nothing more than mishandled stress on both of their parts. It hadn’t been anything deeper than that. But it had scared him more than any other argument they had ever had. She had gone away on trips before that, but he hadn’t been lonely. Their apartment still felt like their home because he knew she would be back. But when she’d been away with Amanda that week, he had been afraid she would realize she was happier away from him. So their home had temporarily transformed into just a place to keep his stuff. It didn’t feel comfortable. It didn’t feel warm. It just felt like four walls he slept in. Waking up without her was excruciating, as was knowing he would have to fall asleep without her there. He’d missed her laughter, her smile, the way he could smell her shampoo for hours after she’d left the bed. He’d missed seeing her body wash next to his in the shower.

He had missed her legs on his lap.

He crept into the bedroom and turned on the nightstand light, the dimmest in the room, so as not to wake her from afar. Then he went into the closet and opened one of the drawers. She never went into his closet, saying that she was afraid she would get lost under a pile of ties and vests, never to be seen again. He reached deep within the drawer, toward the back, and found what he was looking for.

Anna had joked that, in the movies, after a boy told a girl she was his soulmate, he would ask her to marry him. Although he had deflected the comment with a kiss, for just a heartbeat, he thought she had somehow tripped, fallen, and landed in his sock drawer. He had managed to compose himself, but now, his overstimulated, paranoid brain needed to make sure she hadn’t actually found what he was holding.

He looked over his shoulder, and then carefully opened the velvet box in his hand. The ring he had bought was still there, the question within it. All he had to do was choose a day to ask.

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aweirdkindofyellow · 4 years

Text

Here I Am, There You Are Pt. 15

Jack Barakat x OC ‘Rachel has been best friends with Alex, Jack, Rian, and Zack since high school. What happens when one of them gets married?’

Part 15

Jack and I had Alex and Lisa over for a week. Since they didn’t have a house out in LA anymore, they always needed to find places to stay when they did need to be on the West Coast. Since Alex and Jack were working on some band stuff and Lisa was organising the last bits of a wedding at the same time, we had offered to help them out by giving them a place to stay. Afterall, after months of not seeing each other, it was nice to actually have friends around again.

While making dinner for everybody, the fact that I was 36 weeks pregnant hit me pretty hard. I was standing there on my painful feet, cutting up some vegetables when my body decided to warn me that I shouldn’t push myself and take enough time to rest. It was nearing the end of their trip, and I wanted to give them one last impressive meal, but my back said no. Luckily, Alex was more than happy to give me a hand. He let me direct him around, doing most of the work while Lisa and Jack were gulping down some rosé.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t really enjoy the food we had cooked together. My back was in pain and I was feeling quite nauseous. It wasn’t alarming, though. It happened more often; my lower back would decide it had been carrying around the extra weight for more than long enough, then everything would just feel very uncomfortable, and then I’d also start feeling a little sick. Usually, it didn’t end up in my throwing up, but it definitely wasn’t the most pleasant of feelings.

I got a few bites in, but in the end I was mainly just picking at my food. The baby usually loved a combination of vegetable and tomato sauce, but it wasn’t happening that day. Luckily, I wasn’t really hungry anyway. Lisa and I had gotten a pretty big lunch earlier, so I had had more than enough to eat already. Since everybody already knew I wasn’t feeling great, and because I had made the food myself, nobody was particularly worried. It happened, pregnancy wasn’t just happiness and people telling you you looked like you were glowing.

But my back really was hurting, and I could just feel myself going into an unsafe territory. The territory in which I’d no longer be fun to be around. Before I got too annoyed at jokes and laughter, and any other sound made, I knew I had to distance myself.

“I think I’m going to go to bed,” I announced after putting my fork down. I knew it was early, it was only past dinner time. But it sounded like the only bearable thing right now.

“Everything alright?” Jack checked up on me, taking in just how uncomfortable I looked.

I nodded and pushed my chair back. “Yeah. I just need to lie down and I’m pretty tired. Why not combine both?”

“Call if you need anything, okay?”

I got up and pressed a kiss to the top of his head to show that I definitely wouldn’t think twice to call him if I needed him. He really was the best husband right now, he had been the entire time really. He’d help to tie my shoes when I was really struggling, he’d bring me snacks when I was hungry, and he’d help me get as comfortable as possible, even if that meant rubbing my back. Of course, we had our arguments, but he was the most supportive person, always there to help me out.

I said goodnight to everybody and retreated upstairs to our bedroom. Olive decided to join me, watching me as I got ready and climbing onto the bed when I got under the blankets. It was a bit strange since she’d usually stay down where the food was being shared, but she probably sensed that I wasn’t feeling great. She kept a watchful eye on me as she curled up right next to me.

The two of us just laid there together. Petting her long fur was quite comforting, but it wasn’t enough for my body to decide that it was time to relax and no longer be in pain. If anything, the queasy feeling in my stomach was getting worse. I just figured our cheese puff had shifted a little and was squishing all my insides since I had to get up to pee quite a few times as well.

When Jack finally joined me hours later, I was still awake, scrolling through my phone. The entire time I was switching between social media platforms and even tried watching some Netflix, although the shows didn’t exactly keep my attention.

“You’re still awake?” Jack seemed surprised as he closed our bedroom door and pulled off his shirt.

“No, I’m just sleepwalking,” I joked back and reached around to put my phone on my nightstand.

He kicked off his jeans as well and started towards the bathroom. “Are you feeling a bit better, though?”

I hummed back and shrugged.

“No?” He looked back as he turned on the bathroom light.

I pouted at him. “My tummy hurts.”

He gave me a worried look. “Is cheese puff okay?”

I nodded and scratched Olive’s head, snuggling further into my pillow. “He’s good, still kicking. I just feel like I might shit myself at any moment.”

He frowned and finally went to our sink. “Gross.”

I watched as he grabbed his toothbrush and squeezed some toothpaste on it. “Well, I’m not going to. I would have done it long ago if that were the case.”

“If it happens, I’m not cleaning it up,” he mumbled through the foaming toothpaste in his mouth.

“You better get used to cleaning shit soon.”

He scrunched up his nose in disgust and faced the sink again. After scrubbing his teeth for a few more seconds, he turned on the tap, spit out the toothpaste and washed out his mouth. Once his toothbrush was back in its place, he turned off the bathroom light and made his way over to the bed in just his boxers.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked, looking down at me as I cuddled underneath the blankets. My stomach was starting to hurt a little more. “You’re not in labour, are you?”

I gave him the look. The one you give when you can’t believe what the other person is saying; the one where what they’re saying sounds incredibly absurd. It required a slow blink and a hint of being fed up.

“Of course not,” I urged as he joined me in bed. “It’s way too early for that. I’m not due for another four weeks. It’s just some cramps, maybe he’s getting in position for later.”

He eyed me suspiciously. “Are you sure? It might be premature labour.”

“Jack.”

“Okay, okay,” he dropped it and leaned in to give me a kiss to wish me goodnight.

However, before his lips could even touch mine, Olive started freaking out. At first, it was just a low growl, but as soon as Jack leaned over her to get closer to me, she started barking loudly. And it wasn’t a bark that asked for attention. It was a threatening protective bark, warning him to stay away from me.

“Excuse me!” Jack gasped loudly and directed his gaze down to Olive who was still tightly against my side.

“Olive!” I scolded and pointed at the end of our bed. “Down, now.”

She looked at me with guilt written all across her face, but moved down anyway. Her movements were slowly and sneaky, showing just how much she knew she was being told off. Once she reached my feet, she laid down and kept staring at me lowly and carefully.

Jack reached out to touch me, only for her to growl again. All I could do was frown as he retracted his hand. And she stopped. Jack and I both watched her as he slowly went to graze my shoulder. The closer he inched, the louder the growl became. The further he moved away, the quieter she got.

“What’s up with her?” Jack cocked his head in intrigue and confusion.

“I have no idea…” I shook my head in bewilderment. “I guess she can sense I’m not feeling great.”

“Huh…”

I quickly stretched out to plant a kiss on his lips instead, getting no reaction out of Olive at all.

“One-sided much?” Jack gave her a little glare before reaching back to turn off the lights.

We shuffled around to get more comfortable in the dark. It meant I had to maneuver around Olive a little, since she kept trying to be as close to me as possible, but eventually Jack and I managed to get into a position comfortable for us. He was on his back while I stayed on my side and had my head on his shoulder. We laid there in silence until Jack suddenly turned around to face me.

He put his hands on my belly and looked down at it. “You better stop hurting mommy, okay? She’s been growing you, you’ve gotta be kind.”

I guess he could somehow tell that my stomach ache was only getting worse as time slowly passed us by. I could only smile softly in response. As if nothing had happened, he flipped back onto his back and let me snuggle into him again, practically using him as a body pillow. I kissed his cheek and nuzzled my nose against the side of his face, hoping for sleep to finally consume me hours after I had originally gone to bed.

Things didn’t go too great during the night. I was up a lot. It was still relatively okay at the beginning, but I kept waking up randomly. The pain in my stomach was definitely still there. It also wasn’t getting any better. If it was getting worse, though, I didn’t know. I was constantly in a state of being half asleep. It was difficult to even notice all my senses at that point.

I finally fell into a nice sleep at around six am, when the sun had already risen. Unfortunately, I was woken up just a few hours later by Jack, who was trying to slowly bring me out of my sleep by peppering butterfly kissed all over my face. I groaned, feeling anything but rested, wishing he wouldn’t have even tried to wake me up.

“It’s nine am,” he told me in a whisper.

I breathed out heavily. “That means I’ve had three hours of sleep.”

“What?! Why!”

“Because I didn’t feel great,” I grumbled, the pillow against my cheek preventing me from talking properly.

“Shit, do you still feel bad?” He sat up and ran his fingers through my hair. “Should we maybe call the doctor?”

“I surprisingly feel okay right now…” I suddenly realised. Yes, I still felt a little nauseous and uncomfortable, but the pain was mainly gone.

“Thank god,” he sighed in relief and started getting out of bed. “You get some more sleep and I’ll make sure Lisa and Alex get their breakfast and coffee.”

“Okay.” My eyes felt heavy, but I still grabbed his hand before he could walk away. “I love you.”

“I love you,” he responded and gently kissed my hand before dropping it and disappearing to take a shower.

I fell asleep again right after. It was a proper deep sleep. Finally. I didn’t wake up for another few hours, but when I did it was very abruptly. Let’s say I didn’t wake up ‘naturally’, or better to say I didn’t wake up because I was fully rested. Instead it was pain that woke me up. It started in the middle of my stomach and grew out. If there hadn’t been a bump in the way, I would have curled up and cradled my stomach.

Slowly, it dissipated and I was left to feel a bit better. I quickly got out of bed with my heart thumping like crazy. Whatever was happening wasn’t good. My doctor had told me all about braxton hicks contractions, and I did have them before. Only it hurt more this time. Maybe I just felt them a bit more this time?

But while I was taking a shower and brushing my teeth, the pain kept coming back in random intervals. There was no real pattern to it yet, but I just knew. I didn’t wait any longer to go downstairs. Alex, Lisa, and Jack were all in our formal living room having even more coffee than they had with breakfast. They were just chatting while Lisa was also busy doing something on her iPad.

“Rachel!” Alex was the first to notice me, giving me a big smile. “You feeling any better?”

“About that…” I breathed out and supported my back with my hands, making eye contact with Jack. “You were right.”

“What?” He shook his head in confusion.

“I am definitely in labour right now.”

I could just see everybody’s face turn into surprised and worried expressions. They were all staring at me. Alex and Lisa were mainly shocked, unsure how to react (although there was also a hint of excitement is Lisa’s body language). And Jack? Well he just looked pale. I got it, though. I felt the way he looked. We thought we had a bit longer to properly prepare, especially mentally.

Jack only managed to say one thing. “Shit, really?”

“No, I was just…” Another contraction hit me, making me breath in sharply and I tried to get the rest of my sentence out, “messing… with… you.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, that helps, thanks.” I gave him a sarcastic thumbs up as the pain already started fading away.

He got up quickly and raked his fingers through his hair harshly. “I mean– I just– shit.”

“Would you like to sit down?” Alex offered me, also starting to stand up to be of my assistance.

I nodded my head yes, but also didn’t really accept his proposal. He was ready to help me to the couch, yet I just lowered myself onto the floor and sat there instead. It seemed like the more comfortable position, even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back up later. Olive immediately walked over from her spot on the carpet to come sit by my side again, ready to protect me from any harm.

“Alright,” Jack was finally ready to take action, “should I call somebody? Do I need to do something specific?”

“Call the doctor,” I instructed, trying to stretch out a little to see if my back would feel any better, “because I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to be in labour yet.”

“Okay…” he jumped away from the couches and ran upstairs even though he had his phone on him.

I just let him do whatever, figuring rational thinking wasn’t exactly his top priority right now. While he was off doing that, I gave my full attention to Olive. There wasn’t much else I could do. I was in too much pain to go and clean up the house a little, as much as I wanted to come back to a clean house after giving birth. And I also didn’t really have the power to entertain Lisa and Alex right now. All I could do was sit and wait for this baby to come out of me.

“Are you okay?” Lisa asked with concern.

“Yeah,” I replied, continuing to rub Olive’s ears. “I knew this was coming, but I didn’t think it would be so soon.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?”

I shook my head, already dreading the next time a contraction hit. “Not really, no. Unless you’d like to switch bodies and do this for me?”

“I think I’ll let you take that one by yourself,” she chuckled.

I huffed, trying to focus all my attention on Olive to distract me from the pain that started up again. I could tell that my contractions were starting to become more regular and longer, but they definitely didn’t feel like one minute long yet. My doctor had said that there was no point going in until my contractions were five minutes apart and sixty seconds long. But I was unsure about that now. It was too early.

A few minutes later, Jack came tumbling down the stairs again, wanting to go faster than his feet could handle. He was carrying a duffle bag sloppily on his shoulder and his phone was clutched in his hand. Somehow, his hair was now a complete mess and he looked like he had seen something traumatising.

“I have spare clothes, baby clothes, toiletries and important documents,” he stated as he dropped the bag on the floor. “Is there anything else we need?”

I just stared back at him. Where was this sudden need to panic and rush coming from?

“Fuck! Car seat!” he suddenly exclaimed and ran to the stairs again. “I haven’t even finished building the crib yet! Shit!”

I raised my eyebrows and looked at Alex and Lisa while Jack was dashing upstairs. “Is he in labour, or am I?”

“I’ll go check up on him,” Alex chuckled and took the same path Jack had, only much more calm and collected.

Which left just me and Lisa downstairs.

“We’ll take care of Olive while you’re at the hospital,” she told me, looking at the dog who was still stuck to my side like she was the only thing keeping me alive right now.

“Thanks.” I smiled back. I had completely forgotten about Olive even though she was the one thing I was trying to pay attention to right now. “My parents were supposed to come over at the end of next week to help us out, but it’s a little late now.”

It didn’t take long until Jack and Alex came back downstairs. Jack seemed much calmer now as he carried down the car seat we had bought a while ago, full of extra blankets for our baby. He wasn’t one-hundred-percent normal, of course. There was still a lot of worry and stress behind his eyes. Afterall, he was becoming a first time dad and I was in premature labour, but he was no longer pacing around and swearing.

“Alright,” he announced as he picked up the duffle bag again, “we should go, the doctors wanted us to come as soon as possible to keep an eye on everything.”

I nodded and let go off Olive, putting my hands behind me to try and push myself up.

“Here,” Alex quickly jogged up to me and held out his hands.

I took hold of them and let him pull me up, which was relatively difficult. But it worked, he was somehow strong enough. I walked up to where Jack was already at the front door and grabbed a pair of shoes, not even bothering to put them on now. It would be dreadful to get down and tie them right now. Luckily it was warm enough for me not to need a coat.

“You guys know where everything is,” Jack told Alex and Lisa while he opened the front door. “Just eat whatever you want.”

“Good luck!” Lisa shouted as we left.

Jack practically threw everything onto the back seat before helping me into the car. Although I insisted that I could do it myself, having his hand on me supportingly did actually help, especially when a contraction hit me again just as I was about to sit. Once he shut my door, he quickly ran to the driver’s side and got in as well.

“Okay, let’s do this!” He sighed with a cheer, turning on the car. “Well, actually, you can do this!”

I chuckled and rolled my head to the left to look at him.

“In just a matter of time, we’re going to be parents.” He smiled at me and picked up my hand, bringing it to his lips to press a kiss to it.

Although the pain was excruciating and long, it really did feel like just a matter of time in the end. It took hours before I was finally giving birth. I was lucky enough to be in labour now and not just a few weeks earlier. Jack was allowed to stay with me the entire time. If it had been earlier, he would have been forced to stay away until the actual birth. All because of safety precautions against the virus.

I really couldn’t have done it without Jack. Our baby wasn’t born until the late evening, meaning I had technically been in labour for more than 24 hours, but only really felt anything for ten. It was one horrid excruciating experience. I was ready to completely swear off sex for the rest of my life. But as soon as I got to hold him in my arms, I would have done it all over again.

Our baby Archie Jack Barakat.

He weighed six pounds and had the cutest little fingers and toes. His eyes were brown and he only had the tiniest bit of brown fuzz on his head. Honestly, I didn’t know if he looked more like me or Jack, he just looked like a baby, but he was absolutely beautiful.

We were lucky enough to already be able to go home the next day. Although he was born prematurely and was pretty small, there was nothing seriously wrong with him. I was absolutely exhausted, and was glad that we were already allowed to take him home.

As soon as we walked over the threshold to our house, Alex and Lisa were waiting for us. They had cleaned the entire house, gone out to stock us up on groceries, and even built the crib for us. It was the best thing to come home to after a hectic day and restless night. They really didn’t have to, but they still did. Even after all that, they offered to stay until my parents came over, who had rescheduled their trip to arrive in two days.

It was amazing.

Little Archie.

–––––

Archie was three months old, and it was pretty exhausting… as much as I loved him. Every two to three hours, he’d wake up and start screaming. It made complete sense, of course, he was a newborn and needed constant feeding, but that didn’t mean that the sleep deprivation was getting to me. Jack was still there the entire time the first two months, but during the third, he was gone most of the time. Although the world wasn’t fully back to normal again, All Time Low was doing things again. Small things, but it still required him to travel. Which meant I was the only one there to constantly wake up.

Luckily, Jack came back again after three weeks. He took over his half of the ‘shifts’ again, which was great for my wellbeing. The first day he came back, he actually let me catch up on sleep during the day while he spent time with Archie. It was like our roles were flipped. Usually, when Jack came home, he was the one that would need hours of sleep. Now I was the one that needed that well deserved nap.

Like we always did, Jack and I switched who would wake up every time Archie would call us. It was around four am, when I had finally fallen into a deep sleep, that we could hear clear cries coming from the nursery and the baby monitor.

“Your turn,” I mumbled while lying on my stomach, my face squished into the pillow.

“I know,” Jack responded and yawned before forcing himself out of bed.

While he was out tending to Archie, I started drifting off to sleep again. There was just one issue. It was difficult to actually fall asleep with the crying still going on. I was on the edge of the deep plunge that would bring me to a nice deep slumber until it was my turn to wake up at six. But hearing my baby cry made me stay alert. Maternal instinct, if you will.

When it felt like it had been way too long, it was impossible to actually fall asleep. I woke up fully and just had to check up to see what was going on. I was sure that Jack would come to me if something was wrong, but I still had this need to check.

So, out of bed I got. I stretched out as I left the bedroom and walked down to the room we had turned into the nursery. The hallway was completely dark, but there was a little light coming from Archie’s room, enough light to guide me to the right place.

I knocked on the doorpost and rubbed my eyes a little. “Jack? Every good?”

“Everything fine,” he responded quickly while rocking Archie back and forth in his arms to try and sooth him, facing away from me.

It did seem like Jack was telling the truth. But then he turned around and I could see that it was a lie. Jack’s eyes were bloodshot and tearing up, his lip trembling just a little as he was trying to hold back his own tears. Archie was screaming in his arms, flailing around his own limbs.

“What’s wrong?” I gasped in concern, rushing up to him. I wiped away a tear that started rolling down his cheek.

“I can’t get him to quiet down,” he inhaled a ragged breath, “he won’t take his bottle and won’t stop crying!”

“Hey, it’s okay,” I tried to calm him down and took Archie from him. “Come here.”

I bounced Archie a few times and he slowly stopped his crying. It turned into fussing and hiccuping until he completely quieted down. He stared up at me expectantly, waiting to get fed. I wasn’t sure if he could recognise me, but he knew the routine by now.

I looked up at Jack, smiling to show him that everything was okay. But I just found Jack already watching us with tears streaming down his face. Immediately, my own face fell.

“Jack…” I breathed out, not knowing what was going on.

He took a step away and tugged on his hair as he shook his head. “He doesn’t like me.”

“That’s not true.” I frowned.

“He only screamed louder when I picked him up,” he argued back, the tears not showing signs of stopping anytime soon. “He’s in your arms and he’s happy.”

“That’s just because I’m his main food source,” I comforted, still rocking Archie back and forth to keep him content for now. “When he’s older, you’ll be his favourite. You can teach him to speak, you’ll bring him back cool toys from all around the world, you can teach him how to ride a bike, you’ll be there to give him all the tasty unhealthy snacks. You’ll be his hero.”

Jack tried to wipe his tears away, but it wasn’t really any use. He continued to be on the verge of crying himself. I would have blamed it on the exhaustion, but he had gotten more sleep the past three weeks than he had gotten the entire two months before that. I got it, though. I was lucky that I immediately had a close connection with Archie, but I had been so afraid that that wouldn’t have come, especially with how Jack did most of the work in the first week.

“Just–” I guided Jack to the chair we always fed Archie in and made him sit down. When he seemed to be comfortable, I took a seat right on top of him in his lap and nudged his arms. “Hold Archie for me, will ya?”

He did as I asked, and wrapped his arms around me to support the small fragile body. With my own hands now free, I rolled my shirt up and exposed my left breast, which was the one Archie tended to like the most. I directed Jack with slight movements and touches to make Archie line up. Once he got a good hold, I relaxed into Jack and nuzzled my head into the crook of his neck. He looked down at Archie with something that almost seemed like fascination. Maybe it was admiration.

There was still some sniffing, but the tears were starting to dry up.

“You see, he just wanted me for food, he’s perfectly happy in your arms,” I whispered.

Jack just hummed in response, not taking his eyes off Archie for even a second. After a few seconds of silent love and adoration, he finally spoke up and said. “He’s so small.”

I nodded. It was true, he was still pretty small, but he was also already so much bigger than when he was born. For now, he was still a newborn, but it was starting to go so fast. Before I knew it, he would be walking around and babbling, he’d have his first day at school, he’d be graduating and moving out. I didn’t want it to go by so fast. All I could do was savour every moment and hold onto it forever.

“Do you really think I’ll be his hero?” Jack questioned, shifting Archie in his arms a little so they wouldn’t start tingling.

“Of course!” I responded and pressed a kiss to his jawline. “He’ll always love you.”

“He’ll probably hate our music,” he chuckled. “I’ll be the uncool dad who plays uncool music.”

“Or he’ll love it and want to be a guitarist just like you.”

He broke away his gaze for the first time and glanced at me with shock and fear. “I hope not! He shouldn’t drink as much and party as much as I have.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “I love you.”

“I love you,” he kissed the top of my head and then looked back down at Archie, who was still drinking away peacefully, “and I love you too, Archie!”

–––––

When Archie was nine months old, Jack’s schedule had practically returned back to normal. He was touring again. The venues were small as not many people were allowed to go to the shows, but they still happened. Jack was just excited to go out and play live music again, even though he hated leaving me and Archie behind. But it was what we had signed up for. I never married Jack thinking he’d drop everything and stay with me.

I had always made it a point to visit Jack at least once on tour. With a newborn, that promise had kind of been broken, but now that Archie was getting older, I dared to take him on a plane with me to flight out. It was strange to think that he was now older than I had ever been pregnant with him. Nine months. It had flown by.

I had Archie in his pram, a bag with all the stuff I needed for him, and a suitcase of my own as I walked through the airport. Before having a baby, I managed to visit Jack with just hand luggage. Now I had to check in a large suitcase, have a bag full of diapers and bottles, and have an easy handbag for our passports and my phone and wallet. It was like I was going on a four week vacation, not a quick one week trip.

Although I knew to plan in extra time in case I got slowed down with Archie, I also made the decision not to go to the airport too early. Hanging around and waiting to board the airplane with a baby constantly wanting attention while feeling uncomfortable wasn’t a good plan. Somehow, I had managed to time it all perfectly. We made it through security with 20 minutes left to spare before boarding started. It was enough time for me to change Archie’s diaper and for me to go to the bathroom myself.

I was mainly afraid of the flight. It was four hours long, which was actually relatively short, but I had no idea how Archie was going to react. I didn’t want to be that one parent who couldn’t get control of their kid as they kept screaming their little lungs out. I didn’t want to annoy everybody on the plane. Fortunately it wasn’t an overnight flight, that would have been a nightmare for me.

Once we started boarding, I was forced to leave the stroller behind for them to put it in along with the check-in baggage. Then, the trek to my seat started. It was somewhere in the middle of the plane, but luckily I did have an aisle seat. Since Archie was going to have to sit on my lap the entire time, I welcomed the slight extra space and ability to get up and walk around.

When I finally found my seat, I was glad to find that the person next to me was already seated. That meant less standing up with Archie clumsily in my hands as a whole row of people waited behind me. I somehow managed to get my bag up in the overhead lockers, getting a bit of help from the guy behind me. When I finally sat down and put Archie on my lap, he started pounding his hands on my legs and cooing.

“Are you excited to see dada?” I asked him. Whenever I spoke to him, I tried to throw around the word dada as much as possible. He hadn’t said his first word yet, but I practically always begged him to say it whenever Jack and I were facetiming. It would make his entire year.

“Isn’t he a cute one?” The old lady next to me said, leaning forward and giving him a little wave.

I chuckled softly as Archie reacted positively to the extra attention he was getting. “I hope he stays cute during the flight. He’s never been on a plane before, so I have no idea how he’ll react.”

“He hasn’t? He seems to enjoy it so far.” She held out a finger, which Archie immediately grabbed and started playing with.

“No.” I shook my head and kissed the top of his head, taking in his baby scent. “We were planning on getting him used to travelling early on, but that wasn’t exactly an option anymore.”

“Things have changed, haven’t they?” She agreed and looked up at me while Archie kept hold of her finger. “Did you travel a lot before?”

“Sort of, yeah. Well, actually it’s my husband who travels a lot for work and is gone for long periods of time. I occasionally go out to see him. Now it’s the first time Archie gets to come along!”

She beamed at the name. “Ooh, Archie! My father’s name was Archibald.”

“It’s a nice name.” I didn’t really have the heart to tell her that Archie’s official name was just Archie. Both Jack and I knew it was actually a nickname for Archibald, but we just didn’t want to give our child a name that sounded so… fancy… old?

“I think it suits him very well!”

I never did catch her name, but she was like a saint the entire journey. She kept me distracted, making sure I didn’t worry about Archie getting unruly, meaning that he also couldn’t react to my non existing stress. Sometimes the stress I felt when he was crying only made him cry more.

We spoke a bit about ourselves. She told me about how she was flying out to see her daughter, who she hadn’t seen in months now. I told her a little bit more about Jack and our relationship. She helped me keep Archie busy and even took him from my lap so I could get up and go to the bathroom. I really was lucky to have been seated next to her. It made the trip so much more bearable.

Archie had practically been awake the entire flight, meaning he was out like a light when we touched down. He continued to sleep deeply against my shoulder as I got off the plane, walked through the airport, got the checked-in luggage and stroller, and even during the entire ride in the taxi. Luckily, I had fed him right before he fell asleep, so I wasn’t very worried about him suddenly screaming as I got us to the venue Jack was at. He only woke up when we got out of the taxi and I was suddenly busy trying to figure out how to carry everything and text somebody that I was outside. It was actually perfect timing.

Archie would be so happy to see Jack again.

As I started trying to find out where to go to get in, I realised that I was on the complete wrong side of the building. But there was only one way to get to the other side. Well, one way other than a sketchy back alley that I was definitely not going to find myself walking down ever. Not even with a personal armed bodyguard. My only route to take was past the front entrance and all the fans waiting to get inside. That was a clear winner.

I pushed the stroller and pulled along the suitcase, trying my best to avoid the queue. Usually, there was bound to be at least one person to recognise me. Although I didn’t mind talking to Jack’s fans, I also didn’t want to overwhelm Archie. He’d already had a busy and adventure packed day. I preferred him leaving some energy to actually see Jack over him crying in exhaustion as soon as I entered the venue.

When I was about halfway past the line, I heard my name being called out. I had no idea where it was coming from, but out of politeness, I slowed down. Suddenly, a small group of three girls were surrounding me.

“Hi!” One of them blurted out with wide eyes.

“Hey,” I returned with a big smile, “how are you guys?”

“Good!” She squeaked back. “Are you here to visit Jack?”

“I am indeed.”

Archie started to get impatient. He wanted to get out and move around after being forced to sit the majority of the day. Ever since he started crawling, he couldn’t really sit still for long anymore. The definition of Jack’s child. He started to kick around his legs in annoyance and made blubbering noises, which he usually did when he wanted to be let out of his car seat or high chair.

“He’s so cute!” Another girl, who was standing at the end of the stroller gushed.

“Thanks,” I acknowledged. Although I often got comments like that, it always made me feel a little proud. Afterall, Jack and I literally made him.

“Can I get a picture?” The first girl asked me as she held out her phone.

“Of course!” I accepted.

She turned on her selfie camera and got in closer. I put on a smile and posed with her as she took a few pictures. Everything was still going fine until she was satisfied with the outcome of the pictures. She put her phone back in her pocket and I realised that the person who had made the comment about Archie being cute was taking her own photos of him. It wasn’t even subtle. She was crouched down, acting like she was playing with him with one hand, but the other one quickly taking snaps with her phone.

“I’m sorry,” I interrupted as she just kept taking more and more, “do you mind not taking any photos of him?”

“Oh, no, it’s okay,” she shook her head and took another one, “I won’t post them anywhere.”

I frowned and glared a little at her. Yes, Jack and I had decided not to post any pictures of him with his face clearly in it except for his birth announcement. We didn’t want to plaster his face all over the internet when he had no say in it. That was for him to decide later in life when he had his own opinions. But the way this girl just dismissed my request was making my blood boil. Her reasoning was not comforting at all.

I would have kept my cool and asked again nicely, but she was just being rude to me. “You do realise that’s even creepier right? You’re taking countless pictures of my son to keep for yourself. How would you like it if some stranger came up to you and took photos just for them to keep?”

She gave me a judgemental look but did stop taking even more pictures. “I’m not going to do anything weird with them.”

“I’m not saying you will, it’s just disrespectful. There’s a reason we don’t share pictures of him.”

“He’s just a baby.”

“Exactly. Would you please mind deleting the photos?”

She gave me the death stare and her two friends just stood around uncomfortably. They were defending her, but I wasn’t sure if it was because they agreed with me or because they were too afraid to say anything. Either way, they didn’t want this confrontation.

“Please,” I repeated, still staring at her to show that I wasn’t going to break.

She huffed in annoyance as if her mom had just told her no dessert until the vegetables on her plate were finished. Still, she reluctantly unlocked her phone and selected all the photos she took. There was some hesitation before she hit the delete button, as if waiting for me to change my mind. But I wasn’t going to. This was my baby we were talking about.

“Thank you.” I smiled while she gave me an unamused scowl. I then looked at the other two girls, “It was nice meeting you guys!”

“You too…” the girl who took selfies with me mumbled.

I then took my opportunity to leave. As soon as they thought I was out of range, the rude girl grumbled ‘what a bitch’, but I really wasn’t bothered. Nobody messes with my child. I didn’t care if that meant she now hated me. I full-heartedly believed that I was right. Actually, no, I knew that I was right. It was not cool to take pictures of a baby without permission, especially a stranger’s baby. They might have felt like they knew me because they were Jack’s fans, but they really didn’t.

Luckily, I wasn’t stopped again and managed to make it into the venue without any further hassle. A member of the crew let me in and brought me to where all the fun was happening before leaving to get on with setting up. I turned the corner to enter the green room and saw a few guys standing around, including Jack slouching on the couch, manspreading like he had all the space in the world.

When he coincidentally looked in my direction, a smile spread across his face. He got up and immediately came towards me. Once he was close enough, he kissed me as a greeting. More than a peck, but still PG-13 with all these people around us. As soon as he broke away from me, he went straight to Archie, undoing the clips of the seat. Archie knew exactly who was coming. He started letting out excited noises and screams, kicking his legs and throwing up his arms. He was so happy when Jack picked him up.

“How has my little man been?” He asked in his voice reserved for Archie, ticking his tummy and bouncing him a little, getting an ecstatic squeal out of him. “Have you been good today?”

While Jack was giving Archie countless kisses all over his little face, I decided to answer the question. “He was so good on the plane. Didn’t even cry during the descent! I was lucky, though, the woman next to us loved him and helped me keep him occupied the entire time.”

“You’ve been so good!” Jack gasped in his baby voice. “Did you like the plane?”

I chuckled softly and left Jack have his moment with Archie. Although Jack had been so afraid they would never bond when Archie was still very young, they were now inseparable. Facetiming ‘dada’ was always one of his favourite parts of the day when Jack was gone. Otherwise, playtime with dada or a nap with him was the best.

“I got you something!” Jack remembered excitedly and walked over to his backpack. Out he pulled a stuffed gray elephant and he started showing it off to Archie. He went to sit down again and started talking through the elephant while Archie grabbed a handful of the toy.

I walked further inside and moved the stroller and suitcase to the side of the room, so I wouldn’t be blocking the doorway. It wasn’t really the best place to put them, they were still a little in the way with how much space they took up, but anything was better than leaving them in a walkway.

“Rachel!” Alex approached, coming from somewhere else in the venue and seeing me from the hallway.

“Hey!” I replied as we shared a hug.

“How was your flight?”

“Pretty good, actually.”

“So Archie behaved?” He raised his eyebrows in surprise. As if on cue, Archie started giggling loudly at something Jack was doing. “Archie! I haven’t seen you since you were born!”

He really was getting all the attention today. Alex even went to sit next to Jack and join in with the playing. It did look fun, and Archie was as cute as ever. But I had just spent four hours with him on my lap. Having other people take over was a nice little break.

“We set up the back lounge to be a big bed for you guys,” Alex informed me, looking up from how he was leaning over to be eye height with Archie.

“You didn’t have to do that!” I told him

“No, no we definitely did,” Jack quickly interrupted before I could change anybody’s mind. “I’m not sleeping in a bunk with all three of us.”

“I was just expecting it would be me and Archie on the couch,” I admitted. A bunk with Archie wouldn’t work.

With all the stuff I brought along I also had a travel crib. It wasn’t really a crib, more like a fold out basket that was made of soft fabric and had a little mattress built in on the bottom. Although I didn’t mind taking naps with Archie, I didn’t want him actually in bed with me at night. I was too afraid I’d smother him with our blankets if we did. But if he was in the crib-like thing, I could put him next to me and he’d be safe.

Alex shook his head. “No, we figured this would work out better. You’d be in the back lounge anyway.”

“Well, thanks, then, I appreciate it.”

A few minutes later, Alex was pulled away to go do something else, meaning I could take his spot next to Jack on the couch. I was leaning against his side, my head against his shoulder, and my legs resting on top of his knees. Archie was still taking up most of the space on his lap. The exhaustion was starting to hit me now, but I couldn’t help but enjoy this moment with my little family.

Jack was still playing with the elephant. Archie seemed to absolutely love that thing already. Usually, it took him a while to warm up to new toys, but this was like his new favourite one. I didn’t know how Jack knew he’d fall in love with it. It was just so cute to see. Both Archie and Jack were delighted, sharing a very similar smile.

“Can you say elephant?” Jack said slowly, holding out the toy for Archie.

All he got in return was something that sounded like ‘eeeee’. Maybe he was trying to copy the sounds Jack was making, maybe it was just a coincidence. But it was definitely exciting to get something that was relatively close out of him.

“What about dada, can you say dada?” I asked, stroking his cheek.

He stared at me with his big beautiful brown eyes, inspecting my face. And then it suddenly happened.

“Da. Da.” He blurted out.

Jack looked at me with wide eyes as he gasped. To be honest, I was a little shocked as well. Ecstatic, but shocked that he just suddenly copied me.

“Dada!” Archie repeated, slamming his fists against Jack’s chest.

That’s all that we needed to know he was copying me and knew at least what it sort of meant. Jack cheered and picked him up. Archie wouldn’t stop laughing and screeching with joy as he was peppered with kisses coming from Jack.

Those two were inseparable.

So, this is the last part of this story. I thought this was a nice place to round it off. However, I have been thinking about writing a few more parts. Only, they'd be much much shorter. Maybe around 700-1500 words. Like little moments in time. If it's something any of you would be interested in, do let me know, otherwise I'll put that time into my other stories.

#all time low #all time low fanfiction #jack barakat #Jack Barakat fanfiction #all time low imagines #Jack Barakat imagines #fanfiction #here I am there you are

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ginger-and-mint · 7 years

Note

Oooh, will you be writing any of the scenarios from that last round of prompts? Because if so I'd love to see your take on the one with the crush ~

Could you write up a thing for the prompt in post/171597999179 please? I’d love the featureless second person style or Person A/B, but any style will be great! Thanks in advance!

Hehe, that was a good one, wasn’t it? Here you go, anons!

Everyone get home safely?

yep! but goddddd am I FULL

ugh same. my belly is aching but it was so worth it!

You send the message to the group chat and then lean back into the sofa, gently rubbing a hand over the aching belly in question. You’ve had to unbutton your jeans because it’s so bloated, stuffed full of a double cheeseburger, a large milkshake, garlic fries, and a big slice of apple pie à la mode.

Your phone buzzes.

Haha no wonder! I can’t belive you finished my onion rings on top of everything you ate.

Oh yeah… and your friends’ leftovers.

You never hold back when you and your friends decide to try a new restaurant. The reviews on this place had promised the best diner food in town and you certainly didn’t leave disappointed.

But you really did overdo it this time. Your tummy throbs with every breath, so full that you actually feel a little sick.

Your phone buzzes again. You glance down, expecting some more good-natured ribbing from your friends.

But it’s not the group chat. The name on the screen makes your heart jump.

Hey, they’ve written. Have you had dinner yet?

- - -

“You’re always telling me how good this pizza place is. And considering how much of a foodie you are, I figured you’d know!”

“Heh, yeah. It’s my favorite.” Your heart pounds at the way your crush is smiling. The way they’re looking at you is like… like maybe they’re kind of nervous too? Or could it be your imagination?

“I’m so glad you could meet me tonight!” they continue, and you feel your face heat up. “It’s pretty late. I was worried you’d already eaten.”

“Oh, well, I….” Your enormous dinner shifts in your belly, as though to remind you that it’s there. “Nah, I only had a small snack earlier. Um—you should try the Italian pizza. It’s the best thing on the menu.”

“Mmm, sounds great! You think it’s enough if we split a large?”

“Oh yeah—that’ll be plenty. The pizzas here are really big.” Ugh. You wish you were exaggerating, but you’re not.

By the time the food comes out, you’re so absorbed in the funny story your crush is telling you that you’ve forgotten about the incoming second dinner. The cloud of savory steam rising from the pizza jogs your memory in a rush of belly pains and vague nausea.

“Oh, this looks really good!” says your crush happily.

Your stomach rumbles unhappily at the idea of holding more. You put a hand on it under the table and say, “Yeah, it looks amazing.”

- - -

“Are you getting full already?”

“Um. No. Urp. No way.” You take another bite of your third slice, chew, and force it down. Owwww. Poor tummy….

“I was gonna say, I would’ve been surprised if you were full after only like, a quarter of a pizza! But you seem to be slowing down. And, um—burping a lot.”

You’re not surprised they’ve noticed your little overfull belches. You’ve been trying and failing to stifle them since your first bite.

“Heh, sorry,” you say. “I, uh—I forgot that olives don’t always agree with me.”

That’s not true at all—you love olives—but it gives you an excuse to pat your stuffed tummy. It’s decidedly round, swollen hard and tight with food. You’re grateful you changed out of your jeans and put on a loose hoodie. You’re pretty sure that under it, the hem of your T-shirt is somewhere around your navel.

“Oh!” says your crush. “You should’ve said something! We could’ve asked for no olives.”

“Are you kidding? They perfectly complement the saltiness of the ham! Do you think I’d let you order pizza from this place and have anything less than the full experience?”

They laugh. Their laugh is so cute that even through the enormous mass of food stuffed into your stomach, you feel a few butterflies.

“I’ve never let my belly’s opinions keep me from enjoying good food anyway,” you say, and take another bite. You chew and swallow, trying not to wince as your stomach tightens painfully.

Full experience indeed.

- - -

“I had a really nice time, you know.”

The two of you are standing outside the pizza place. The stars are twinkling overhead, the street is almost empty, and the night is hot and breezy. It’s all very romantic, and you wish you could enjoy the moment more, but you’re feeling awfully sick and sweaty. Somehow you managed to stuff all six pizza slices into your straining stomach, and it’s still grumbling with shock. All you can think about is ending the evening in a relatively non-embarrassing way and then going home and taking as many Tums as you can fit in there. (So probably, like, half of one.)

“Me too,” you say. “I, um… if you want, I know another great restaurant. They serve the best double cheeseburgers around. Maybe we could go sometime?”

You don’t mention that it’ll probably be a week before you can stand to look at food again.

“Yeah, sure!” they say. So quickly. Too quickly? “That’d be really nice!”

“Cool! I’ve gotta go catch the bus, but I’ll—I’ll text you.”

“Awesome. Have a good night, then.” And… oh god, they’re coming in for a hug.

With an agonizing effort, you suck in your tummy as they press their body against yours. Their arms squeeze around your shoulders, and for one magical moment, your aching belly fades to the back of your mind because every painful bite has been worth it.

Urrrrrrrr-rrrrrr.

“Oh god.” You pull away, wincing. Your tummy did not appreciate being compressed.

Your crush blinks. “Was that—was that your stomach?”

“What? No!” You feel your cheeks redden as your poor belly groans again. “Um—I really have to go now or I’ll miss the bus. Goodnight! And, uh—see you soon!”

- - -

“Ohhh… urp… oooh-ohhh….”

You’re lying on your bed, curled on your side around your big, bloated stomach. It’s a good thing that no one else is home, because there’s no way you can hold back with the groaning. Nor can you stifle the angry tummy gurgles.

You fumble for your phone and send a message to the group chat: guys I did something dumb and now my tummy is gonna burst

The reply is almost immediate: Oh my god, did you seriously eat more?!

remind me to explain tomorrow. for now just pray 4 me k.

You let your phone drop into the blankets and moan as your tummy churns. You can’t blame it for being upset. Just one of those dinners would’ve been too much.

But when you remember the look in your crush’s eyes, you can’t help grinning like an idiot. And even though the thought of food makes you feel more than a little sick, you’re already looking forward to that next double cheeseburger.

“Sorry,” you whisper to your stomach as it aches and grumbles, “but that—urp—that was so worth it.”

#I think it's obvious I was very inspired by this prompt :P #stuffing #stomachache #tummy noises #requests #anon #i made this

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angryhausfrau-writes · 4 years

Text

You Can’t Cross the Same River Twice - Chapter 6

Hawkeye and Trapper fall into a household routine over the next few weeks, based around their respective work schedules. They figure out things like which nights they each cook dinner, when to go grocery shopping, when Trapper goes to the gym - usually while Hawkeye sleeps the sleep of the blameless - and all the other little domestic tasks that come with sharing a home. Because for all that the Swamp was an absolute pit, now that they have a home - a real one - they want it to be well, homey.

They even make time for dates. Sometimes going out to the bar they'd gone to Hawkeye's first night in Boston where they can dance together somewhere other than their own living room. Sometimes they go out to the neighborhood bar to dance and flirt with women - the girls lovely and fun and sweet - and a necessary cover for two bachelors living together. And it's almost like foreplay. Attraction stretching and spooling out between them as they dance on opposite sides of the room, heated glances exchanged over their partners' heads. And when they come together at the end of the night, it's all the sweeter for having to wait for it.

Frankly, their sex life has been pretty fantastic all around. Ever since that first night they'd fucked - the night Hawkeye had taken a desperate, begging Trapper apart and then been taken in turn - it was like a dam had burst. Like Trapper realized he could have this - have Hawkeye - whenever he wanted. And he'd wanted a lot. Which was good because so had Hawkeye. So they've moved back into the sexual relationship they'd had in Korea - fun and hot and ravenous. But something is different. There's an added element of stability. Or a removal of the stress and the fear and the unfun kind of desperation. They have the time to just kiss and hold one another. The time to bring the intimacy and love of their friendship into the sack. And it turns out that's a really nice combination.

Hawkeye's life is domestic in a way he never thought he'd have, didn't know he'd wanted after Carlye walked out. But now that he's had a taste of it, he can't imagine going without. And he and Trapper haven't explicitly said what this is - maybe there isn't a word for it - but they've each made it clear that they're in this for the long haul.

The only thing that breaks their newly established routine is Trapper's daughters coming over for the weekend. Trapper only gets to see them once a month due to his weekend-heavy ER schedule. Hawkeye figures he ought to gracefully bow out so Trapper can have as much time with them as possible. Plus, he's still not one hundred percent comfortable around small children, despite having made progress in interacting with them as patients.

So that Saturday morning, Hawkeye moves enough of his stuff into the guestroom to make it look like he normally sleeps there. And it will feel strange to sleep alone - something he hasn't really done since before Korea, not if he's counting having tent mates - but it's only for the one night anyway. And he's finally gotten his luggage back from the army so he can keep some of the less viscerally sickening items - he hadn't even been able to look at the olive drab fatigues, just told Trapper to toss them before he tossed his cookies - in the guestroom permanently. Less work for future visits.

And Hawkeye pulls an extra Saturday shift at the clinic. It keeps him out from underfoot and they can always use the extra hands. He gets to take the cast off a very exuberant seven year old boy's arm - and learns all about his little league team and the home-stealing slide that caused it - for his troubles. And then it's dinner time and he heads home. Trapper had practically demanded his presence at the meal - and besides, he made a chocolate cake for the occasion and Hawkeye's not missing out on that.

Dinner is fine. Even fun. The girls are happy to talk about anything and everything under the sun. Trapper's conversational efforts amount to reminding the girls to eat their veggies. And Hawkeye just listens. Lets the chatter wash over him. It's almost soothing. The biggest problems these girls have are homework and schoolyard squabbles. Of course, these problems seem like direst threats - and Trapper treats them with all the seriousness of an unexploded hand grenade. But to Hawkeye, they're a reminder that there's still innocence in the world. And that's a balm to his very soul.

After dinner is when things get tricky. Hawkeye's knitting in the living room, his usual after dinner ritual, and Cathy is watching him with the same degree of focus as he'd watch the demonstration of a new surgical technique. She's sitting cross legged on the living room floor next to her abandoned book, looking up at him, eyes following the knitting needles like a tennis match.

"What are you doing?" her little voice pipes up.

Hawkeye leans in to mock whisper, "Knitting a sweater for your dad. Shhh! It's a surprise."

Trapper's at the dining room table, listening to Becky regale him with the story of the very gross but very neat frog dissection she got to watch in science class. And he's paying very close attention to her - even drawing out little diagrams to help Becky show off her new knowledge of amphibious internal organs - so Hawkeye knows he won't overhear. But it's still fun to see Cathy's face split into a wide, conspiratorial grin.

"A secret!"

He nods seriously.

"But why are you knitting? That's for old ladies." Her expression is derisive.

"Well, when I was in Korea, it got sooo cold that even the animals put on parkas." Cathy giggles. "Wool clothing was worth its weight in gold. So I learned how to make socks and scarves and hats just to keep myself warm. And the first things I made were pretty bad. The socks were just lumpy wool bags - even the snakes wouldn't wear them! But I got better and started giving them away as gifts."

Cathy still looks skeptical. "But you're not in Korea anymore."

If only he were so certain of that all the time.

"That's true. But I still like to make presents for my friends. And I think it's fun."

She's still looking at him intently.

"Do you want to learn?"

She considers the question and then nods with all the gravitas of a judge in court. So Hawkeye digs out his old needles from Korea and some fluffy pink yarn that he'd originally bought with Margaret in mind that ought to be easier for her to work with. And the needles are awkward in her small hands but he gets her started on a scarf - the easiest project, just rows of stitches back and forth. And Cathy seems to enjoy it, tongue sticking out in concentration as she counts stitches. She finishes a handful of rows before Trapper deems it bedtime and Hawkeye gives her a congratulatory handshake, acting as if she'd won some prestigious award. She's tickled pink by the game and Hawkeye thinks maybe this kid thing isn't so hard. He hadn't once seen her as anyone other than Cathy.

"Thanks for teaching Cathy how to knit," Trapper says after tucking the girls into bed. "She can be kinda difficult to keep interested in stuff that don't involve running around outside."

"No problem, I'm always glad to convert outsiders to the gory of homemade woolens! Besides, I had fun. She's a funny kid."

"Well, I'm glad you had a good time cuz your presence has been requested at the zoo tomorrow. If you think you're up to it."

"Yeah, I think I am. As long as I'm not intruding on your family time. You get little enough of that as it is."

"You are family, Hawkeye." Trapper's expression turns serious. "I know we ain't exactly talked about it, but I figure we'll be in each other's lives for a while and I don't wanna hide one part of my family from the other. Not more than I have to."

Hawkeye gets a little misty eyed, he's not ashamed to admit. "I'd love to go to the zoo with you tomorrow." He gives Trapper a hug. Because if he gave him anything else, he'd never stop giving. "Goodnight, Trap."

Trapper holds him back just as tightly. "Goodnight, Hawk."

And then they go sleep in separate bedrooms.

Trapper comes home from the gym to find Hawkeye awake and making the famous Pierce family French toast. It fills Trapper with an unspeakable joy that Hawkeye is willing to bring Trapper's family into his own like that. That Hawkeye feels the same way about being family as he does. And Trapper knows he's gotta go take a shower and get the girls up and ready for the day, but he can't wait for tonight when they can be together again and he can show Hawkeye just how much he appreciates it.

Half an hour later, syrup sticky and bouncing off the walls with a combination of sugar and excitement, Cathy and Becky practically drag him and Hawkeye out the door. And the zoo's crowded but a lot of fun. He's dragged along by Cathy who's pointing out the animals she likes the best - usually the biggest and bloodthirstiest but she's also taken a shine to the lizards in the reptile house. Meanwhile, Becky tells a very patient Hawkeye all about the animals at the zoo, reading from the signs and information cards at each enclosure. And Hawkeye tells her about Radar's collection of animals - started after Trapper left, so he enjoys hearing about it too - and the various surgeries and medical procedures he's done on them - in child appropriate terms, thank God. This prompts a whole new series of questions from Becky and Cathy about the inner workings of animals that Hawkeye seems to enjoy answering. Including things about rabbit ovaries that Trapper doesn't envy Louise having to field follow ups about.

And then it's time to go home so that Louise can come pick up the kids.

"You mean I can keep them?" Cathy looks up at Hawkeye, overjoyed.

"Sure, sweetheart. After the army lost all my luggage, I went out and bought all new stuff. Those knitting needles are extras. Besides, you still have your scarf on them."

She hugs him, tight enough to push all the air out of his lungs.

"Thanks, Uncle Hawkeye!"

And that. That gets him.

And so does Becky's "Bye, Uncle Hawkeye!" delivered almost carelessly as she runs out the door.

Like it's natural. Like he's family.

Hawkeye seems to be thinking about something pretty big, judging by how tense he's getting. They're lying in bed together after a vigorous and enjoyable reunion - one that had involved Hawkeye clutching desperately at the sheets as he gasped Trapper's name - but it appears that the afterglow is fading. And as good as the sex had been, Trapper doesn't figure it warrented this level of contemplation.

So after what he considers a reasonable interval, where Hawkeye just gets tenser and tenser, Trapper asks, "Something on your mind, Hawk?"

"Just thinking about family."

A pause.

"I still haven't seen my dad. It's been over a month and all I've done is send a few letters. Like he's a friend across the country instead of my own father, only two hours away."

A longer pause.

"I guess I'm feeling guilty because I've met your family now and I still haven't been up to see mine. But I don't know if I'm ready yet."

Trapper thinks about that a minute. "Well, I think you've done a bunch of stuff since getting back that you didn't feel ready for. And that's turned out ok."

Hawkeye laughs. "True, I've only had the one mental crisis. And I'm probably making this out to be a bigger deal than it is. He's my dad. He loves me no matter what."

Trapper figures Hawkeye's luckier than he knows if that's the case.

"I'll go up to see him next weekend. And if it's too much, I can come right back home the same day."

With that decided, Hawkeye snuggles further into Trapper. Mind quiet enough for him to sleep.

#mash #piercintyre #fanfic archive #you can't cross the same river twice #chapter 6

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hardcandyhaz · 7 years

Text

Temporary // H.S. (pt 3)

Harry is a lonely businessman, Rosie is a struggling graduate student, and their agreement is only temporary

Part 2 // Read on Wattpad

Part 3

“Can I buy you a drink?”

Startled, I cut off my conversation with Hadley and swiveled in my seat to see who had taken a spot on the other side of me at the bar. “Harry? Are you stalking me?” I asked and he grinned, shaking his head.

“Just here for a drink after work.” He said. “And I'm hoping I can persuade you toward accepting our agreement. What's your poison?” He asked.

“A Singapore sling, if you insist.” I said, turning around to check on Hadley who had moved to the opposite side of the bar to flirt with a Sig.

“Some friend you have.” Harry commented and I shrugged.

“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do for free drinks.” I replied. “We can't afford to buy any.”

“S’that why you have a water?” Harry asked. I nodded and turned back to him, taking a sip and leaning on the counter.

“I don't tend to attract frat boys quite like Hadley. Didn't have any luck until you came along.” I said as a Singapore sling was set between us.

“Fortunately for me. Now I have all your attention.”

I smiled, sipping on my cocktail. “Yes you do. Better use it wisely.”

***

“Rosie!” Hadley squealed, throwing her arms around my shoulders. “I'm going to go home with Matt,” she continued, pointing at a Sig boy with her thumb.

“No, you're not.” I said, looking at the frat boy behind her. “Sorry, Matt. She's too drunk.”

He simply shrugged and walked away, which I'll admit was much better than past encounters with drunk Hadley and someone who wanted to sleep with her.

“You're mean,” Hadley slurred, resting her head on my shoulder. “Just wanna get laid every once in awhile and you can't even let me do that.” She continued, her words barely intelligible.

“Not when you're this wasted. You'll thank me in the morning.” I said, looking at Harry. “Sorry. I need to get her home.”

“I can take you,” Harry offered. “Safer than a cab or Uber.”

“You sure?” I asked and he nodded. “Okay,” I said. “Hadley, ready to go?”

“I guess.”

Slowly, we made our way outside, Hadley stumbling every couple steps. I helped her into Harry’s sleek black Range Rover and slid into the passenger seat, sighing as Harry started the car. “Sorry, Harry. Can't imagine taking a random drunk girl home is how you wanted to spend your Friday night.”

“Hey, got to spend my Friday night at a bar with you instead of a bar alone. It's fine.” He assured me, driving toward the apartment.

When we got there, Hadley had fallen asleep in the back seat. “Dammit. Hadley?” I asked, opening the door and shaking her. “Had?”

She groaned, rolling over in the back seat. “Rosie,” she mumbled.

“Yeah?”

“Carry me.”

“I can't. You're too heavy. Come on, just a quick walk up to the apartment then we can put you to bed.” I said.

“I got her,” Harry said, nudging me out of the way and lifting Hadley out of the backseat.

“Damn, you're hot.” Hadley whispered and Harry chuckled, looking back at me.

“I am so sorry.” I said again.

Once Harry set Hadley down on her bed, I made sure she got to work taking off her shoes. “Thanks again, Harry.”

“Harry!” Hadley gasped and we both looked at her in confusion. “You're Rosie’s sugar daddy!”

“Okay, that's enough. We're out.” I said, ushering Harry out of the room. “I'm so sorry, oh my god, every time I think it can't get worse it gets worse.” I said as I walked Harry to the door.

“It's alright, darling. I don't mind.” He said, opening the door. “She isn't wrong. Assuming you say yes, I mean. Goodnight, Rosie. I hope to hear from you on Sunday.”

“Bye, Harry.”

***

“Rosie,” Hadley groaned the next morning as I sipped my coffee at the desk. “The blinds. Close them.”

“They are closed.” I said, wandering into to the kitchen to grab some Advil and coffee for her. “You tried to sleep with a Sig boy last night.” I continued when I came back, handing her the pills and setting the mug on her bedside table.

“Yeah, I remember.” She said, her voice croaking as she pushed herself up and downed the pills in quick succession. “I remember everything, unfortunately. Sorry about Harry.”

I shrugged. “He wasn't put off or anything. Said he hoped to hear from me tomorrow.”

“Good.” She nodded, sipping at her coffee. “Rosie?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you please make me pancakes?”

“Sure. Even though you almost scared away my potential sugar daddy.”

“You're seriously the best and I love you.”

I had an uneventful shift from noon to five and once I got home, the rest of the evening was spent lounging in the living room with Hadley while we did homework.

“Shit!” Hadley gasped. “The ticket!”

“The one you got for parking in the wrong lot? What about it?” I asked.

“I had to pay it by midnight yesterday! Fuck, now I have to pay another $25 and that makes me short for rent.”

“It’s okay.” I said. “I have some extra money from the plasma center, use that.”

“I’ll pay you back. Put it on the board,” Hadley sighed, referring to the corkboard of IOUs we had, overflowing with notecards that kept track of how much money we owed somebody.

“No need, Harry will make up for it somehow.” I replied.

“So you’re going to say yes?” Hadley asked excitedly.

“Free college. I’d be a dumbass not to.”

***

“You’re not meeting Harry like that?” Hadley asked when I walked into the living room, phone in hand and ready to call Harry.

“Who said anything about meeting?” I asked, looking down at my sweats.

“You idiot. You asked for it in writing, you’ll have to meet somewhere to go over and sign everything, yeah? You have to put on clothes. And makeup, probably.”

“Fine. But I’m not wearing a skirt again.”

Fifteen minutes later I walked back into the living room looking more presentable, dialing Harry’s number.

“Rosie,” He said immediately upon answering.

“Hi, Harry.”

“I have everything written up, if you want.” He continued. “Join me for dinner at Tilth?”

“Sure, what time?”

“I’ll come get you. Be there in about an hour.” He said.

“Okay.”

“See you soon. Rosie.” He said before hanging up.

I threw my phone at the couch, followed quickly by my purse. “I need to go put on a fucking skirt.” I muttered, stalking out of the room.

***

A little more than an hour later I was sitting at a table across from Harry, sipping on a flute of champagne as he went over the agreement.

“Are you seeing anyone, Rosie?” He asked.

I shook my head. “Wouldn’t be here if I was.”

“Are you interested in dating?”

“Not particularly.”

“Good. It would only complicate things with the press if we were seen with other people.” He said. “You’re in your fourth year, yeah?”

“Yes, but I have a minor that has me there an extra year.”

He nodded, scribbling out a line and writing down something else in it’s place, presumably another two semesters worth of tuition. “Alright, see if this looks good.” He said, sliding the paper over to me.

“Rent, too?” I asked, looking up from the writing.

He nodded. “You’ve had loans carrying you through college, I know, and you don’t have to worry about them anymore, but you still struggle to make rent with the hours the cafe gives you. Since I’m asking you to cut your hours it’s only fair.”

“You have a ridiculous amount of money, don’t you?” I asked, scribbling my name on the dotted line.

“More than I’d care to admit.” He replied. “Keep it,” He continued when I tried handing the paper back to him. “The only person who gets screwed over if this goes wrong is you.”

I shrugged, folding it and putting it in my purse. Just then, our waiter came back with our food. “Alright, one parsnip risotto,” He said, setting Harry’s plate down in front of him. “And a house made gnocchi for the lady.” He continued, setting your plate down in front of you with a wink.

“Excuse me,” Harry said. “I’d thank you kindly to keep your eyes to yourself.”

The waiter’s face flared red. “Of course, apologies, sir.” He stuttered before walking away from the table.

“Be nice, Harry.” I said. “Didn’t have to scare him half to death.”

“Did so,” He replied, sipping his own champagne. “He shouldn’t be eyeing you up like that, not when you’re with another man.”

“He’s harmless.”

He shrugged, stabbing at his risotto with a fork. “I suppose. When’s rent due?”

“Friday.” I replied. “It’s due the last Friday of every month.”

“How much?” He asked.

“Nine hundred even.”

He nodded. “We can meet up sometime this week and get your bank account set up for direct deposit.”

I nodded. “So what now?” I asked.

“Now we finish dinner, then I take you home so you can study.”

***

“I’m home!” I called when getting back to the apartment and Hadley trotted out of the bedroom to meet me like a puppy.

“How is life as a new sugar baby?” She asked.

“Fantastic.” I sighed, toeing off my shoes and falling onto the couch. “It means champagne and food. Real food.” I continued, waving my box of leftover at Hadley. “It’s all yours.”

Hadley snatched the box from my hands, opening and sighing. “It smells fantastic.”

“It is.”

“So when do you quit your job at the cafe?” Hadley asked as she wandered into the kitchen to heat up my leftovers.

“I don’t. Just cut my hours.” I replied, following her. “If this all goes to shit I’ll need a job again.”

“How many hours does he want you working then?”

“Fifteen at the most. Ten preferably.”

“Damn, that’s like nothing. Is he going to get you a new apartment? A new car so I can stop giving you rides and you can live a life of luxury?”

“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” I said.

“Damn, that’s unfortunate. Because you really suck.”

“Excuse me, do you want to eat something other than ramen tonight?” I asked, eyeing the leftovers in the fridge.

“Yes! I take it back!”

“Anyway, it’s late, I’m going to bed.” I said.

“Good night! Sleep well not having to worry about any of your debt!” Hadley called after me and I giggled, falling into bed with a sigh, ready to face the upcoming week knowing I’d make rent.

#harry styles fanfiction #harry styles writing #sugar daddy!harry #by hardcandyharries

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goodnightandbillyrobicheaux · 7 years

Text

Faraquez Cook Off Fic

Josh grinned at the sound of the front door opening and shutting again. "I swear officer! I'm done with the hard stuff! I'm just cooking dinner for my amazingly sexy husband..." He felt a warm pair of lips on his neck shortly after. "I'm afraid I may have to search you for contraband, sir." Vas whispered in his ear, his hand snaking downward to squeeze at a firm ass cheek. "Hey now, slow down there law dog." Josh shrugged him off. "You'll make me burn your dinner." "Hmm." Vas hummed, receiving the soft little kiss on the mouth that Josh offered before he turned his attention back to the stove. Vas kept a hold around his husband's waist as he cooked. "How was work?" Josh asked. "Not nearly as busy as it was yesterday, thank God." Vas replied, resting his head on Josh's shoulder. "What're you making?" "A little seafood medley for my love." Josh smiled at him, flipping the scallops he was currently frying. "I went down to the pier today. Got nice fresh shrimp, scallops, and squid." "That the calamari?" Vas asked with a yawn as he watched Josh cook over his shoulder. "I think you cut it a little thick, Guero." "For your information, oh master chef, these are scallops and I cut them like a damn professional." Josh replied smugly. Vas made a face. "You don't fry scallops." He told Josh. Said red head turned to look at him with an irritated frown. "Excuse me?" He asked. "You can't cook them like that, Guero." Vas continued, letting go of Josh's hips. "Look." He pointed. "They're gonna be all greased up and fatty now." "Your point?" Josh asked. "I don't wanna put a greasy lard ball into my mouth or my stomach. You know I'm on a diet!" Vas argued, hands now on his hips. "Well excuse me for trying to make your whiny ass dinner!" Josh fired back. "If you want them cooked different maybe you should do it yourself!" "Guero don't...." Vas sighed, trying to stop Josh before he removed his apron and shoved it at Vas, then slamming his spatula down on the counter by the stove and storming out of the kitchen. Vas sighed and proceeded to finish the meal on his own. ....... "This is stupid." Vas rolled his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest. "No. It's necessary." Josh countered, setting out all of their supplies on the kitchen counter. "You could just apologize and admit you can't fry scallops you know." Vas grinned hopefully at him. Josh chuckled and shook his head. "Yeah. You wish, buddy. Get an apron on. They'll be here any minute." He told his husband, tossing him a pink apron that read 'Kiss the Cook' across the chest in rhinestones. "Where did this come from?" Vasquez asked, glaring at Josh. "It was my grandma's." Josh but his lip, trying not to laugh. "You went out and bought this didn't you!?" Vas growled. The doorbell rang, interrupting their little spat and possibly saving Josh's life at that point. "Hey guys. Come on in." Joshua greeted the rest of their little gang at the door. They didn't tell them of their plan until everyone had socialized a bit and had a few glasses of wine. In Josh's experience, It was always better to confess whatever you'd been hiding after the alcohol was served. "You invited us here under false pretenses." Goodnight accused. "Hey, look at it this way. You guys get a free three course meal plus alcohol and all ya gotta do is sit there and tell us which plate you like better." Josh tried to convince them all. "May I ask why you're doing this?" Emma spoke up. "You know it's just gonna cause hurt feelings." "Don't be a party pooper." Josh told her. "This is gonna be fun." Red shrugged, taking another sip of wine from his glass. "See? Red's in!" Josh nodded toward their Comanche friend. "Hey, free wine. Free food. I'm happy." Red replied with a smile. "Well I suppose so long as neither of you poisons anyone it could be fun." Jack finally gave in. "There, now see? This is gonna be a party. Now you all stay there and we'll bring the food to you." Josh smiled his signature goofy smile. The others weren't very optimistic at first but the first dish wasn't that bad. The boys started them off with shrimp based appetizers. Josh brought out a shrimp cocktail while Vas made shrimp tempura, which Billy was quite fond of. "Billy that really hurts." Josh whined. "All you did was clean a few shrimp and place them around a glass filled with cocktail sauce." Billy firmly reminded him, defending his position on the matter. "Billy's worth more points." Vas declared. "Him being a professional chef and all." "Bull!" Josh growled. "Boys, just get on with the next course without fighting again please." Sam sighed, rubbing his temples. These children really stressed him out at times. Especially these particular two. There were several complains about dessert being served after the appetizer, but of course Josh wouldn't let the main course come till last. He claimed it was the grand finale. "You can't just serve dessert before the main course." Emma told their two wannabe chefs. "She's right." Teddy agreed. "It throws everything out of whack." "Teddy your brain is outta whack." Josh snorted. "Everyone just be quiet and taste the damn desserts." Vas's ended up being the favorite. Cheesecake with raspberries and white chocolate would be a favorite of any sane person, though. "You all are startin' to piss me off." Josh muttered after the judges had given their ruling. "You're just a sore loser." Vas beamed. "Who doesn't like churros!?" Josh demanded. "Josh it's not that we didn't like them." Goody tried to explain. "It's that they had street fair written all over them. Not upper middle class dinner party." Vas had a smug grin on his face and Josh shot him a glare. By now he was so discouraged that he didn't even want to bring out the main course. They did though, of course, and once again Vasquez's seared scallops triumphed over Josh's fried ones. "Why!?" He demanded the others as they finished up their meals. "Joshua, dear." Goody started. "Everything you've given us has been dipped in fat and fried twice over." "So what? That's what Americans eat!" Josh argued. "Not all." Emma spoke up. "Some people prefer a healthier, less grease filled meal." "Plus, too much fry batter cancels out all the natural flavors." Billy added. "If you're gonna fry something at least be sure you can still taste whatever it is." Josh was defeated and forced to apologize to his husband for the night before. Vas was forgiving, but also a little bit of a braggart. He wouldn't let it drop that he'd won. Not until that night anyway before they went to bed. Josh was sitting up in bed flipping through channels when Vas got out of the shower. "What're we watching tonight, Guero?" He asked, still drying his hair with a towel. "Don't know." Josh shrugged. "There's nothin' good on." Vas climbed into bed next to him, taking his husband into his arms and kissing down his neck tenderly. "I'm sorry I was so smug about winning tonight." He told him. Josh shrugged again. "Guess some people just can't appreciate a nice all American meal." He sighed. Vas chuckled. "Why don't I make it up to you and we can go out to eat tomorrow?" He suggested. "Only if it's Olive Garden." Josh insisted. "Done." Vas agreed, resting his chin on Josh's shoulder as the other man flipped through more channels before finally landing on 'Cupcake Wars'. "This show always puts me in the mood to make cupcakes." Vas told his husband. "Just be glad we didn't have a cupcake contest." Josh told him. "Hm? Whys that?" Vas asked him. "Duh. My cupcakes would dominate yours." Josh stated with confidence. Vas gave a snort. "Want me to prove it?" Josh challenged. "Why don't we just make a midnight run to the bakery downtown instead?" Vas suggested. "Hell, I'm game." Josh replied, swinging out of bed and going to grab his shoes. Vas followed him out of the bedroom, grabbing the car keys and giving Josh's ass a little tap. THE END

#The Magnificent Seven #Mag7 #Faraquez #Joshua Faraday #Vasquez #Cooking #Vas wins and Josh is pissed #He gets over it though #Poor Josh XD

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tragically-broken · 8 years

Text

Coffee Stains pt.4

Ship: Feysand Type: College AU Word Count: 1,559

Thank you all so much for your feedback!

*BOOM BOOM BOOM*

Feyre woke with a start; what the hell was going on?

“Feyre it’s me. Open this door right now before I burn down this entire building!”

“Nesta?” Feyre rubbed the crust from her eyes and glanced at her phone: 2:34AM

“Would you hurry up already?”

Feyre scampered on cold feet to open the door.

“I thought you weren’t coming home until tomorrow night?” Feyre slurred, still confused what exactly was going on.

“Change of plans. Turns out Elain enjoys the company of muts.”

“Elain got a dog?”

“Worse: A boyfriend.”

Feyre huffed a laugh pulling the covers back over her legs.

“And to make matters worse her new mut has friends.”

“Oh on….she didn’t try to set you up did s-“

“THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT SHE TRIED TO DO!”

Feyre rubber her temples.

“Oh my gods it’s too early for this.” Feyre sat back and took a deep breath knowing Nesta was about to go on a rant.

“I mean who does she think she is??? I fly all that way to spend time with her and what does she do? She leaves me behind to entertain her strays while she flitters off to have a picnic with her mushy boyfriend! And of all the people to leave me with: that BASTARD, SORRY EXCUSE FOR A-“

“Nesta, quiet down you’re going to wake the entire building.”

“Whatever, I’m exhausted anyways. Those egotistical, cocky, know-it-all bastards just about drove me insane.”

“Do you think I could get the whole story sometime when the sun is up, and I don’t have an exam in five hours?”

Nesta let out an exasperated huff and threw herself on the bed.

“Fine. Goodnight.”

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

The alarm clock bleeped 6:30 over and over again until she gained the strength to turn it off.

She glanced over across the room at her sister. It always shocked her how neat of a sleeper Nesta was. Her hair was always in a high pony-tail, her back always turned away from the rest of the room, the sheets were always tucked in, and her whole body was straight and still as a statue under the covers. Meanwhile, Feyre’s bed looked like it had been through a tornado. She had always been a wild sleeper, even before the nightmares…..

There was no time to dwell on the past with an exam waiting. She scampered around the room collecting a pair of black leggings and what she hoped was a clean long-sleeved tee-shirt. Looking at her appearance in the mirror she cringed. Bad hair day. After rummaging around her room she found a tan baseball hat that would have to do. She just hopped she wouldn’t run into Rhys until she had a chance to-

*Knock knock knock*

Feyre grabbed her back pack and flashcards before running to answer the door. Who in the world would be knocking this early?

She swung the door open to find a smiling Rhys standing with two cups of coffee and a brown bag that had to be the source of that wonderful smell.

“Rhys, what in the world are you doing? You don’t have class until noon.”

“I know, but what kind of guy would I be if I didn’t bring the most beautiful girl on campus breakfast before her last exam?”

“Definitely not as good as the guy who does…” Feyre smiled

“Good gods your georgous. How can someone look this good at 6:45AM? Really Feyre, you must tell me your secret.”

“Oh please, I look like a wreck and you know it- wait did you say 6:45?!”

“Yea bu-“

“I gotta get going, my exam starts at 7:00 and Mr. Pilch doesn’t accept late students.”

“Ok here take your coffee and I will walk you swiftly to class.”

Feyre took a sip from the cup as she made her way down the stairs.

“Ick! Do you not believe in sugar?”

Warm laughter echoed in the stairwell.

“I thought you might say that.” He snickered taking the cup from her and pouring four sugars inside.

“I need at least six…”

“Six??? Have you ever heard of diabetes?”

“Shut up and pour.”

Rhys chuckled “As you wish Feyre Darling”

“What’s in the bag?”

“Oh yea I almost forgot I bought you a muffin.”

“Is it-“

“Chocolate chip? Yes, yes it is.”

“Uhg, you’re an angel.” Feyre said as she snatched the brown bag from his hands and dug into the warm chocolatey piece of heaven

“MMMMM this is divine! Here, try it.” She held a piece up to his mouth.

They were only a yard away from her classroom when he took a bite from the piece she held out to him. His lips brushed up against her fingers. That one brush of his lips was all it took for her to remember all the sweet and persistent kisses they shared Halloween night.

“Mhm I did do well.” He mumbled through his full mouth.

“Thank you so much for this; it was incredibly sweet of you.”

“Not as sweet as that so called coffee you’re drinking.” He said smirking

Feyre laughed and kissed his cheek.

“Go kill that exam Darling.”

Feyre rolled her eyes and made her way to the door looking back at him over her shoulder.

He waved and turned away giving Feyre the perfect view of his glorious backside.

Feyre didn’t know it was possible to be so drained from one exam; she was in desperate need of a nap.

As she was dragging her body towards her room when she heard yelling.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?”

Was that Nesta? Feyre stumbled closer.

“You darted off so fast you forgot your wallet! What was I supposed to do?”

“You know there’s this magical thing called a MAILBOX!”

“Well excuse me for thinking you wouldn’t want your driver’s license floating around in the mailing system!”

“JUST LEAVE!”

“I just got here!”

“WHAT DO Y-“

“HEY!” Feyre yelled, approaching the open door.

“What in the world is going on here?”

“Nothing. This brute was just leaving…”

“Oh, don’t even try to act like you didn’t miss me sweetheart.” The handsome stranger smirked.

“And who are you exactly?” Feyre demanded

“He’s no-“

“I’m Cassian, but those who know me call me Cass. Nice to meet you, Feyre?” Cassian extended his hand.

“Yea, that’s me.” Feyre shook his hand reluctantly

“It’s a real pleasure to finally meet you in person.”

“I can’t imagine Nesta talks about me that much.”

“Yea she’s real spit-fire, but you already know that.” He chuckled

“Yes I am well aware…” Feyre smiled back

“Ok, not that I’m not enjoying this quality bonding moment, but it’s time for you to leave.” Nesta pushed Cassian towards the door.

“See you at dinner sweetheart!” Cassian mumbled before the door slammed in his face.

“Would that happen to be a “stray” from Elain’s?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Ok, fine. But he sure is handsome…..”

A pillow flew at Feyre’s face before she could stop it.

“Hey!” Feyre chuckled

“I don’t want to hear another word about that brute.”

“Alright ok, just chill I need to take a nap.”

When Feyre woke from her nap it was 8:00pm…..whoops she over slept big time. She picked up her phone when she noticed a text.

Rhys: What are your feelings about Chinese food?

Feyre laughed silently to herself. She liked where this was going.

Feyre: My stomach growled just thinking about it!

Rhys: Great! Would you like to order Chinese food to my place?

Feyre’s mind ran a thousand miles a minute. His place? Did this mean he wanted them to- well of course she wanted to too- but what If it’s too soon? Of course it’s too soon. She wasn’t the type of girl who slept with someone after only a cup of coffee and a measly muffin! Besides, she wasn’t ready. Not after….she just wasn’t ready, but a girls gotta eat right? Crap- she’s waited too long to respond.

Feyre: Yea Chinese sounds perfect, send me your address :)

Oh gods what should she wear? How does she act? What will happen if he tries to take the next step, but she’s not ready? Would he ever speak to her again? He’s a nice guy he would never do that, would he?

Feyre took a deep breath and looked at herself in the mirror: the perfect definition of a mess.

She decided to keep the leggings because they’re comfortable enough to lounge, but thin enough if he touched her thigh she would no doubt feel it. She tried on a creme tank top, but exchanged it for a deep green short sleeve top that fell to her mid-thighs because she felt too exposed.

She dabbed her favorite lip gloss on her pink lips and swiped some mascara on her lashes. She backed away to look at herself. She knew she was a pretty woman. She’d been told enough times, but she couldn’t help but feel insecure at her reflection. She mumbled to herself how ridiculous she was acting and grabbed her purse and phone before she could chicken out. As she made her way towards the door she noticed a sticky note: Gone to dinner, don’t wait up –N

It looks like both of the Archeron sisters were in for an interesting evening….

I’m thinking about adding a Nessian side fic to go hand in hand with this one…. If that’s something you’d be interested in please let me know!

#feysand #feyre #rhysand #nesta #elain #cassian #elucien #nessian #college au #coffee stains pt. 4 #sjm #fanfiction

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just-jordie-things · 8 years

Text

Just Friends (part four) - Stiles Stilinski

Your knee was bouncing like crazy on the couch of your living room. Your nerves were eating at you like angry gnomes in the pit of your stomach.

“I’m sorry-” Stiles tried.

“No don’t” You shook your head, looking behind you to the kitchen where your mother currently was. She’d invited him inside, and Stiles didn’t have the time to say no before your mom ushered both of you into the house.

“y/n I know you didn’t want me to be here and if you don’t want me here then I don’t want to be here if I’m not wanted” You wanted to protest, but you just shook your head, and avoided his gaze.

After everything you’d literally gone through earlier that day, you thought that this wouldn’t happen. But here you were.

Then your mom came back out, smiling as she sat in a chair across from you. “So” She said cheerfully. “How long have you been together?”

“We’re just friends” You said, voice dangerously close to a mutter.

“Okay, well then how long have you been hanging out?” She asked.

“I don’t know” You lied with a shrug. Even though you knew it was a month and a day.

“Alright... are you going to let Stiles here talk?” Your mom asked, and you looked to your lap.

“Miss y/l/n, it was really nice meeting you, and I’d like to talk again, but my Dad’s been expecting me home for dinner, so I think I should head out” Stiles said while standing. You secretly sighed with relief.

“y/n can walk you to the door, we hope to see you again Stiles” Your mom said, and you just nodded, walking behind Stiles while your mother went back to the kitchen.

“y/n I’m sorry- I don’t want you to be mad at me” He said, a hand on your arm as you stood in the doorway.

“I’m not-” You glanced to the other room, seeing your Mom was in the kitchen, then whispered. “I’m not mad at you Stiles, okay? I’m just glad Jerry wasn’t around”

“So I can come by more?” Stiles asked hopefully, smiling a little bit. You bit your lip.

“I-I don’t know Stiles” You said with a head shake. “Can we talk about this another time?” Stiles got the hint that you were done with the conversation, which happened quickly with this topic. “Just.. just give me a few days and I promise we can talk about it again, okay?” He nodded.

“Can I hug you?” You giggled a little, and nodded your head. Stiles leaned forward, tugging on your arm and pulling you against his chest. Both of his long arms wrapped around your back. Your nose was pressed into the crook of his neck, arms laying on the front of his chest. Stiles set his chin on your head, and after a few seconds, you realized you were swaying back and forth. You let your eyes slip shut, just enjoying this that you have right here.

“Stiles” He hummed in response. “Thanks” And that was that. You pulled away, hands holding each other’s fore arms. Everything that you’d needed to tell him, came in that one word. He opened his mouth to speak again, but you heard the garage door in the back opening. Meaning Jerry was home.

“So-”

“You have to go” You rushed, and he stuttered string of syllables you didn’t quite catch. “Now, please” You begged, opening the door, and you pushed him towards it.

“y/n what’s-”

“Please just please go I’ll call you and we can talk about whatever you want I’ll answer any questions just right now you have to go” He paused, sucking in his lips and nodding.

“Okay” He said, walking out the door. You were about to close it when he turned abruptly, taking your hand. Your eyes shot up to his, and for the five seconds you stared at him, you realized no one had eyes as beautiful as his. His hand squeezed yours, and then he let go. “We’ll talk later” He said, walking off to the Jeep. He got in quickly, and waved a little before driving off.

You stood at the door for a few extra moments, leaning on the frame and staring as his Jeep became a smaller and smaller dot. You breathed out heavily.

Why’d you miss him?

~~~

You had quickly ran up the steps, entering the room, and closing your door silently. You collapsed back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, fingers fumbling over your stomach. You fell asleep curled up on the mattress.

You woke up two hours later to an obnoxious vibration and the sound of ducks. Your eyes flickered open slowly, and you yawned as you grabbed your ringing phone. You glanced at the screen, but pretty much knew only one person would call you anyways.

“’ello?” You mumbled sleepily into the speaker.

“Hey sunshine, did I wake you up?” You shook your head, then realized her couldn’t see you, so you made an ‘nuh uh’ sound into the phone.

“What time is it?” You asked quietly.

“About eight thirty, why gotta be somewhere?”

“No, no just wondering” You said, and rolled over to be laying on your side, curled up slightly under the covers, your phone laying on your cheek.

“So... care to explain earlier?” You licked your lips.

“Yeah okay” You said softly. Stiles was patiently quiet, waiting for you to speak again. “Um, Jerry came home” You said plainly.

“Yeah, and what is it that’s so wrong with him?” He asked with a slight chuckle.

“He just uh... he gets drunk and asks dumb questions” You said. “I didn’t want to embarrass you”

“Please, I don’t know if there’s anything that could possibly embarrass me, I handled your mom right?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right” You lied. If Jerry met Stiles, you didn’t know who he’d beat the crap out of first, you, or him.

“So... I can still pick you up for school tomorrow?” He asked.

“Yeah, yeah okay” You shrugged. “Just text me when you’re here, and I’ll just come outside to meet you” You told him.

“Alright, I can do that” Stiles said. “I’ll swing through Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks on the way, what’s your favorite doughnut?” He asked.

“Oh, I don’t know I probably like any kind”

“Probably? Doughnuts aren’t like any other food, they’re a gift from the Gods”

“I’m an atheist Stiles” You chuckled, and he laughed with you. You suddenly wished that you were there with him, hearing his laugh in person. It always seemed to warm you up, lighten the mood. But here, you just felt cold, and lonely.

“Alright, well should I be hanging up on you and letting you sleep?”

“Eh, we all know I’ll be up all night anyways” You said.

“So we can play games?” Stiles asked, a hopefulness in his voice, which made you smile.

“Yeah okay, what games?”

“Chutes and Ladders?” You rolled your eyes.

“Stiles” You scolded playfully. “What games can you even play over the phone?” You asked, rubbing the corner of your eye.

“Truth or Dare?” He offered. You thought for a moment.

“I think that’d just be truth or truth” You said. “But sure, if that won’t bore you”

“Yeah, sounds cool” He said. “So, miss y/n, truth or truth?”

“Hmm” You pretended to contemplate. “Truth” You answered with a giggle.

“Favorite color?”

“(your answer)”

“My turn” You said. “Best memory?”

“Scott peeing on my sand castle in the first grade” You giggled. “If you could have any pet in the world, what would you want it to be?”

“A turtle” You said. “Not little, but big enough that I can carry them in both hands” You said. “I’d name him Jelly” Stiles laughed.

“How creative of you” He said. “Can I have a turtle too?”

“If I name it” You replied cheekily.

“Okay and what would you name it?” You thought for a moment about it.

“Alexander the Fourth” You replied after a few seconds of silence. Again, Stiles laugh erupted from the speaker. Your heart fluttered for an unknown reason.

You went on playing the game for another hour, your voice growing quieter as the night grew closer. Your mother and Jerry had come upstairs and retreated to their room just down the hall. You didn’t want to get into trouble for being on your phone, so you continued conversations in a whisper.

“Okay, goodnight y/n”

“Hm?” You jolted, not remembering the past few minutes.

“You fell asleep, I’m going to bed now”

“How long was I out?” You asked, checking your phone.

“I dunno.. ten minutes tops” Stiles said through a yawn. You held back your own.

“Okay” You said softly.

“Alright, well.. goodnight”

“Stiles wait-” But he’d already ended the call. You pulled your phone from your ear, looking at the screen as it faded for a moment, before showing you your home menu. “Goodnight” You sighed.

Maybe you’d talk to him later.

i’m so sorry i haven’t posted in a few days and i like to post at LEAST once a day... maybe i’ll write a quick little imagine to make up for that. also. WHERES MY STYDIA FANS BC THAT KISS(ES)!? DAMN! YES! words cannot describe how happy i feel. my skin is clear i’m smiling at strangers and i’m flirting with cute peeps. *high fives self* for once i’m thanking jeff davis. have a good night everyone xoxo ~ jordie

#teen wolf #teen wolf fanfiction #teen wolf imagine #teen wolf scenario #teen wolf x reader #stiles #stilinski #stiles stilinski #stiles stilinski imagine #stiles stilinski scenario #stiles stilinski x reader #mieczyslaw stilinski #dylan o'brien #dylan o'brien imagine #dylan o'brien scenario #dylan o'brien x reader

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