#anyway you go where i tell you young lady now eat the fucking cheese

[enha-woodzies]

➸ CHAPTER 9 | " THE SPACE BETWEEN US "

starring: enhypen ft. i-land daniel

pairing: jungwon x fem!reader x sunghoon

genres: royal au, romance, angst, slowburn, 18th century setting

warnings: very mild swearing; brief arguments

word count: 2.5k

taglist: @serendipitysung (betareader) @en-sun @affectionaterainoflove @renkiv @softforjungwoo @jislix @gyeraniee @fluffi @stxrryemxlys @jungwon-luv-bot-pt3 @lost-lepord-beanie @hyunsunge @hooniecore @thenoceurgirl @thonkingdeepo

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START OF PARK SUNGHOON'S POV

I stood there at the side, leaning against the arched entrance. I never meant to eavesdrop in the conversation you were having with the firstborn of the Yang family. It piqued my interest upon hearing your troubles and impulsively decided to help you. To pass time, I guess… or to stall my father into giving me his magnificent title of a duke and have me marry some lady I don’t even desire to have.

Without any significant bargain in the offer, I suggested anyway with the thought that maybe this could help me look at myself the way everyone did before I made history with your brother. The physical bruises and scars we both afflicted on each other faded with time, but the torturous memory continues to haunt us. I may look fine around his presence, but he never had the slightest idea of how I curse myself every single night knowing I not only ruined him and his tender affections with Yena, but our budding and steadfast friendship as well.

I was heinous then. But I swear with my whole heart, I don’t ever intend to hurt you now the way I did with your brother. The moment I let myself drown in your alluring gaze under that brightly lit moonlight, I told myself I won’t take another girl for granted. Not just because I owe it to Niki, but because you were the first person who looked at me without judgment despite knowing your brothers detest me with the entirety of their souls.

I’ve been courting you for over a month now and I’m completely aware of the things we’ve agreed upon about the ruse; needless to say, one might catch feelings in the aftermath. I know this was all a show to give Jungwon a headstart for his own game, but why am I gravely pained every time his name slips out of your lips? Why do I keep myself up on most nights thinking about this lingering question of who do you love? Why do I want to hold you even closer to my side every time he looks at us in dismay?

I’ve come to know that I had myself caught in the middle of whatever this is between you and him; that I’m just the fuel to the fire that’s already been there, left neglected within time. But I can’t help but feel like I need to protect you from him; from whatever hurt he might cause you over time. Although I know my place in all of this and where I stand, it still stings thinking that it isn’t in your heart.

Why would it be, anyway? I’m only just a page you couldn’t keep; a filler in your romantic novel who had the part of the villain origin story but couldn’t fight your hopeless hero. Sadly, Jungwon’s five steps ahead of me. So much for telling the ton there was us in the making, but you weren’t even mine to begin with.

Your mother invited me and the Yang family for dinner a sennight ago. She said it was to properly introduce me as your husband-to-be to your family, that includes your lover’s sitting across the table discussing the recent blow from the Daily Tattle, which was, of course, us.

“Jungwon, dear, have you wished your friend, Y/n, luck on her future wedding with the duke-to-be? Need I remind you that she’s going to need some of it from her best friends.” Lady Yang gently nudged her son who was busy tapping his spoon and fork upon the table. “Jungwon here is finally courting someone, have you heard of that, dear? Lady Choi, daughter of the-”

“The ever famous cheese merchant of our city, Viscount Choi, whom without, we wouldn’t be eating this opulent cheese on the table right this very moment.” I finished, which made the two mothers impressively smile in my direction. Realizing how uncomfortable you become at the very slightest mention of Jungwon’s new lover, I figured butting in could end your agony; seeing that your man is stupid enough to not read the situation in front of him. He seemed more occupied with the utensils than your disheartened state.

As predicted, you excused yourself, and it went without saying that Jungwon followed after you as you rushed out the dining hall and out to your garden. Your brothers and his soon left the hall and went with their casual discourse on the parlor, leaving his and your mother exchanging wedding plans with the company of champagne bottles and cheese. I held my head up high as I walked into the library to reflect on matters that kept me wondering at night. Until Niki strode in, with a pocket watch in hand.

“Riki, I’m-”

“Save your breath, Your Grace. You’re going to need it in case you piss the hell out of Jungwon and he lands his knuckles on your pretty face again.”

“Why don’t you do it then? Can’t get your hands dirty for your sister yet you can for Yena?”

“Do not fucking tempt me, Sunghoon.”

“Too bad. I’d love to see you try, though.”

“And I’d love to see your little mouth shut, Your Grace. You’re impressive, but I’m sure you’ve always been told that. For a moment there you really had me thinking you were about to apologize to my brother. Turns out you’re still the coward that you’ve always been.” Jay walked in unannounced, slightly scaring me. He’s like a lion ready to hunt for prey, even though he’d just sit there looking unbothered. I’ve always deemed your eldest brother with veneration. All I did was drop my head low when he threw me those harsh words, though I completely agree as they embody me in so many ways possible. I hate it.

“A wedding, huh? Don’t you think you’re going too far, already? This ruse is nothing but a shame to both our families. Heed me while I’m asking you nicely to end this foolishness you’ve invoked on our sister.”

“Forgive me… but I’m afraid I can’t.”

Fortunately, Niki was quick enough to grab a hold of Jay when he was about to come at me. I must say this now before it’s too late, and better be in front of your brothers than your lover.

“I will take full responsibility for Y/n. I will be a man of worth to her and a word of honor, I will end any future causes of grievances upon us both. I will protect her from it, just as I’m doing now.”

“You’re doing nothing but stall her from her fate with Jungwon!”

“And how do you know she still cares for him? Haven’t you seen the look on your dear sister’s face whenever Jungwon’s name is brought up? Haven’t you seen that man strolling around the town with a fancy girl in hand a week after breaking your sister’s heart? I thought so. But you just want things to go your way. I’ll respect that. For now.”

I dashed out of the library after giving them a piece of my mind. Though I had planned to apologize to Niki, Jay’s words got the best of me. I headed towards the garden to look for you, but before I could have your attention, Jungwon already did.

END OF PARK SUNGHOON’S POV

 Jungwon rushed to the garden, following Y/n’s quick pace in an attempt to block out any possible thoughts about her lover. Basking under the bright moonlight, Jungwon grabbed her by the wrist, making her turn and crash against his jabot-clad chest.

“Y/n, please-”

“Really, Jung? God! You totally had me fooled that day when I thought we were having a moment!”

“We did! But-”

“But what? You can’t hold yourself accountable for the things you left me with so you squander your way with another lady? Tough blow, don’t you think?”

“Please, Y/n, I just need you to listen to me and-”

“I’m tired, Jung. All these years, you let me wait for you for five years just to have you run back and hurt me again. I’m tired of you making a fool out of me, and I’m dumb enough to always let you. Because I love you. I love you so much, it fucking hurts. I have so much love for you yet here you are, always welcoming me with fleeting bliss and leaving me with endless torment. But the damage has been done and I’m out. I love you, but I guess I’m going to have to leave it like this.”

“You still do?”

“God! I poured out my heart for you and all you could say was that? Jung, how can you be so dense?! I wouldn’t have let you hold me that day in the forest if I don’t love you! I asked you for a new start but you ran off and a week later you’re traipsing around Northumberland with Lady Choi! Right in front of me!”

“You were with that man that day too, in front of me! You look at him with so much admiration with your hand hanging on his arm. How do you think that made me feel?!”

“More than the damage you did to me? What a load of nonsense, Jung! And here I thought you already knew that Sunghoon and I were just fooling around to get to you.”

“Well, I’m here now, Y/n! I’m all yours now!”

“No, you’re not. You just can’t bear the truth that you lost me to him. At the end of the day, it will always be your pride. It always has been. I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I’m apologizing but I still will. This ends here, Jung. I wish you well.”

The entire time that Y/n and the young lord were arguing out the garden, Jay and Niki were carefully listening from the library’s window; Niki figured it was finally time to spill the truth to his sister.

Niki followed Y/n to her room, taking note of the soft sobs and sniffles she emitted. She turned around when she felt her brother’s footsteps trailing after her.

“Riki…” Niki was suddenly enclosed by Y/n’s tight embrace, dampening his jabot shirt with her tears. He returned the warm hug as he gently rubs her corseted back, feeling the constant huffs from her crying.

“I’m sorry about Jungwon.”

“He doesn’t deserve me.” The lady muffled against her brother’s chest.

“Maybe you’re right. And neither does Sunghoon. Listen, Sister. There’s something I need to get off my chest. Come.” The two entered the lady’s room and Niki carefully shut the door tight, locking it in the process. He sat atop the neatly arranged bed while patting the space next to him, gesturing Y/n to sit closer to his side.

“Jay isn’t happy with the sudden announcement of your engagement, and neither am I. But always know that I will always have your back, just like how you always have mine. I’ve seen how Sunghoon made you smile and laugh like how you used to with Jungwon back in the day. This day feared me but we’re here now, and I must tell you the reason why we’re all against him courting you in the first place.”

“Remember Yena? The girl I told you about in the letters? Sunghoon… he deceived her. He made her cheat against me, fed her with lies, and tricked her into thinking our love was nothing but a hoax. I saw them one day in his father’s garden, I followed them, curious enough to see how he made her happier than when she was with me. Until he kissed her. He took her first kiss when I thought we’d be sharing it with each other. And she kissed him back... like I wasn’t even someone to reckon with. Needless to say, I attacked him. The boys went against him afterward. Jungwon was there too. With all the lies he wired into her brain, Yena never looked at me the same after that day. And the many days that followed. She and Sunghoon just suddenly stopped seeing after the fight that erupted between us.”

“The thing was, sister, Sunghoon never loved her. He was young and didn’t want to let the opportunity pass, that’s what he told us when I had his collar by my clutch. That was the only excuse he could ever give us. The asshole that he is.” Niki clicks his tongue while dropping his head low, gaze fixed on the carpeted area on the floor across them. “Fuck. I would still have Yena if he didn’t try to treat things like we were playing a game of who could get the girl first. Thinking about the time he wasted on nothing genuine, Yena could have spent it on me instead and I would have had her here, introduced to Mother and the ton.”

Y/n placed a hand on her brother’s closed, shaky fists. Niki let out soft sniffles, trying his best to keep himself from cracking. “I’m sorry, Riki, I didn’t know. He told me it was all in the past and that he desires to make amends now.” Niki jerks up, eyes fixed on his sister’s eyes. “You’ve only heard his point of view, you never heard mine. Sunghoon’s made a whole record in university, Y/n. He goes around the grounds breaking hearts like he owns them. Girls would swoon over him and he would gladly oblige. What an ambitious, cunning little prick. And now he has you wrapped around his fingers, the same way he did to Yena.”

“I’m sure he means no harm now, brother. He’s been nothing but kind and gentle to me. He makes me utterly happy; the part of my romantic story where I used to want Jungwon to be consistent of.”

“You know, I’ve always been considerate of your choices and aspirations, sister. But I will not lose you to Sunghoon like this. I’m afraid Jay and I will have to be very uptight with you seeing him from now on. I’m sure by now you’ve come to understand why Jungwon’s scared of surrendering you to him. He means well, sis, Jungwon…”

“I will not settle for someone whom I have to spend a lifetime second-guessing whether he wants me in his life or not.”

“But he’s been missing you a lot lately, hasn’t he?”

“I’m afraid him missing me is far too different from him wanting to marry me.”

Niki only sighs before planting a soft kiss on his sister’s temple and fixing his fit to present himself back to the lobby. Y/n was left in her room, fidgeting with her fingers while anxiously biting her bottom lip in deep contemplation.

Sunghoon may have stolen her attention from Jungwon, but she had to admit, she never regretted it. She has felt safe with Sunghoon the past months they’ve been together. Jungwon did nothing but torture her constantly with every chance he got. Although they hadn’t been sticking around their ruse’s ground rules lately, she feared the time between her and Sunghoon would be up soon and she wouldn’t feel his comforting presence around her anymore.

Sunghoon may have gotten her used to their dilly-dallying that time apart from each other could make her feel miserable. Not to mention the embarrassment that would come with it considering she is foretold to be Northumberland’s next duchess after all.

*send me an ask or a message if you wish to be added on this series' taglist!

ㅡ © ENHA-WOODZIES, 2021

[mirkwoodshewolf]

You love him more than me; Tony Stark x teen reader

*Author’s note*

Wow it has been a long while since I posted anything Marvel related on here hasn’t it? But this request came to me literally last year on Wattpad so I figured now that I’ve finally gotten around to writing it, as well as having it be on Wattpad, I thought I’d let you guys here on tumblr read it too.

Warnings: BULLYING IS HEAVILY MENTIONED (don’t be an asshole and bully people, whether physical, verbal or cyber, it’s a total DICK move), angst, father-daughter fights, but some fluff in the end? 

Anyways my lovelies until the next update :)

Taglist:

@psychosupernatural​

@plethora-of-things​

@waddles03​

@ixchel-9275​

@platawnic​

_______________________________________________________________

I just don’t see it. Why would he go pick someone else? Ever since the fight with uncle Steve, my dad’s always been on the fence when it comes to either him or the accords.  But when the fight in Germany happened, he went ahead and picked some random kid off the streets of Queens to fight alongside him and the rest of ‘Team Ironman’.

Now he barely acknowledges me anymore.  Hell it’s like I’m invisible girl now or something. Either way I hate it, all of it. And I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Peter Parker for ruining my life.  It’s like he’s trying to take my dad away just when I need him the most.

Like today for example when I was targeted by the most obnoxious asshole in all of Midtown School (yeah I go to the same school that Parker goes to all thanks to my dad) Flash Thompson.  God he was such an asshole and a jerk I don’t even know why he’s the popular guy, just because his daddy’s got some money doesn’t mean he can act like an asshole.  

Hell my dad’s three times richer than his pops is, and he’d have to work for another 50 years just to get to where my dad’s wealth is.

So anyways today Flash thought it was a good idea to announce to the whole entire school during gym that while Parker had claimed a ‘Stark Internship’ with my dad, that meant that I was getting kicked out of the family and being replaced.

The entire school mocked me for it started calling me ‘the bastard child’ as a Jon Snow reference (even though I am a Stark by blood) and I tried to compose myself and not cry in front of the whole school for the entire day.

When the hellish day finally ended, I was quiet in the car as Happy drove me back towards the newly remodeled Avenger’s facility where my dad had us living from now on since he sold Stark Towers.

“You okay back there (y/n)?” asked Happy.

“I’m fine Happy just drive. No more questions either.” I didn’t mean to snap at him, really I didn’t but I was just so angry right now that I just wanted today to be over with.  Maybe I can blow off some steam in the gym.  Training always seems to calm my anger down.

When we finally arrived at the newly remodeled Avengers facility, the second Happy stopped the car, I jumped right out and raced straight towards the gym.  I threw my backpack to the wall of the gym and got on my boxing gloves and went up to the closest punching bag.

Immediately I began to take off all my anger out on the bag, all the while hearing the taunts of my peers.  Flash’s voice making the announcement, the laughing, the teasing and the Jon Snow comparisons.  Each punch was harder than the last as I now began to picture Parker’s ugly face in the punching bag.  God he infuriated me so much I just wanna……it was then I had actually punch the punching bag so hard that it ended up being blasted away.

I took off my glove and saw that my emergency Iron angel glove had materialized and shot out the automatic repulsor blast. With sweat dripping down my forehead and my heavy breathing I deactivated the glove when a voice said.

“The only other person to destroy a punching bag was Steve, should I be worried?”

“No Uncle Rhodey, there’s no need to call an emergency lockdown.”

“Good. Everything okay?” he asked me.  I turned towards him to see him walking towards me.

“Everything’s fine.”

“Uh-huh because that punching bag ends up like that on a good day with you.” he answered sarcastically.

“Gee anymore smartass comments you got left?”

“Hey you better watch your mouth little missy less you want you dad to get involved in this.” I scoffed.

“Go ahead, tell him. He doesn’t care about me anymore anyways.”

“What was that?”

“Oh you didn’t hear? Apparently dad’s replacing me with a male version of me.”

“Now wait hold on a second (y/n),” uncle Rhodey started off as he placed a comforting hand to my shoulder. “Your dad loves you beyond anything else.”

“Yeah, used to love me. Now ever since Germany he’s always around Parker. He hardly notices me anymore. And do you know the hell I’ve had to endure because of that?”

“Bullies?” I turned away from him and shut my eyes as tight as I could to hold back the tears. “Who all has bullied you at the school?”

“What can you do about it?”

“I’ll call the school and tell them to get the kids responsible for this to be punished.”

“Like that ever really works. They’re just gonna get warnings and tell us to work it out.”

“Not if they hear it from me.”

“You know what forget I said anything. I appreciate the help uncle Rhodey but there’s nothing that not even you can do. I’ve got homework that needs to be done.” I tossed my other boxing glove away and grabbed my backpack and left the gym and locked myself up in my bedroom for the rest of the day.

The next day it was my lunch period.  I was currently eating the ham and cheese sandwich I had picked out when I heard Flash’s obnoxious voice exclaimed.

“And lookie what we got here! The female Jon Snow. How’s it hanging out in the house of Stark?”

“I’m not in the mood Flash.”

“Oh c’mon Snow. Can’t take the newbie Penis Parker moving on in and kicking you to the curb?”

“Flash I’m serious stop it.”

“Nah I don’t think I will. It’s sad that Penis Parker found your dad, seems like the great Tony Stark wanted a son more than a daughter.” Okay that’s where I drew the line.  Something snapped inside me as my glove materialized around my right hand and I fired a shot right at Flash’s chest sending him flying across the cafeteria.

All the kids who had the same lunch period I did were all in shock at what I had just done.  After realizing what I had just done, I immediately knew that I was screwed.

I was sitting outside of the principal’s office and I could hear the principal talking with my dad about my punishment and how the school doesn’t accept this type of bullying (he’s the one to talk, Flash started it).  I didn’t hear a word out of my dad other than some yeah’s or uh-huh, before finally ending with a ‘okay she’ll be dealt with.’  The door opened and I just looked up at him through my lashes.

“Care to explain?” I remained silent. “You know what, I don’t even have time for this. Get in the car.”

“So you’re really not gonna even try to hear me out?”

“Not here, just go to the car.” He demanded as he forced me onto my feet and shoved me towards the exit.  We got into the car and it was just dead silent.  Happy tried to relieve the tension by asking us random things like the weather or just what the principal wanted to talk about.

Of course my dad told him to drop it and just keep driving.  Finally after what felt like hours we arrived at the facility and just like the other day, I stormed into the facility.

“Hold it right there young lady we’re not done talking about this!”

“Well I am!”

“Friday initiate protocol Birdcage.”

‘Yes boss.’ It was then the living room was now sealed up and I couldn’t enter anywhere else.  I was now trapped like a bird in a cage.

“Friday deactivate protocol Birdcage.” I demanded. But nothing happened. “Friday I said deactivate dad’s protocol.”

“No can do kiddo, see I had Friday deny any further action unless given from me when it comes to protocol Birdcage.” I groaned and sat down on the couch. “Now you are gonna explain to me just why you used your Iron angel glove against an innocent civilian?”

“I would hardly call Flash innocent.”

“No this is where you zip it! Okay the adult is talking? What if he had died from that blast? Okay cause that falls on you. And if you get accused for—heroine misdeeds on a civilian. The accords will be affected and—I already lost half of my family. I can’t afford to lose my flesh and blood.”

“That’s the first time you’ve even acknowledged me in the past three months.”

“What?”

“Oh c’mon! You’re Tony freakin Stark! Genius, playboy, philanthropist, billionaire you of all people can’t be that stupid. You’ve never been there for me!”

“What are you—”

“No! Not this time! This time you’re gonna listen to me! Ever since Peter came into the picture it seems like I didn’t matter! I didn’t matter to you anymore!” All the rage, the sorrow, the pain that I have been feeling for months were finally being released.  

Tears pricked the corner of my eyes but I refused to let them fall.  

“And with Peter blabbing on about the superhero business but disguising it to your little secret ‘internship’. The other kids at my school call me the female Jon Snow cause now I’m the bastard’s child. Flash has made me a fucking living meme and I hate it! It’s your fault. It’s both your faults. I should’ve sided with Steve when I had the chance.”

Silence rang out from the room as I collapsed onto the leather seat beside me and turned my back on my dad.  Shoulder’s shaking and heel tapping aggressively with anxiety on the floor.  I felt a hand gently take my mine and I looked up to see my father, his eyes showing for the first time since the Avenger’s breakup, sorrow and regret.

“(Y/n).” he started off. “Baby girl I—I had no idea.”

“Of course you didn’t. You love Parker more than me.”

“Now that is not true.”

“Could’ve fooled me.” I snarked sarcastically.

“(N/n). I—things haven’t been easy since…..the Avengers splitting. And pushing you away was—the last thing I wanted to do.” I gave him my best glare. “I’m not doing so great right now am I?”

“Not even close.”

“I know. I’ve never been so good at these types of talks. But I need you to know something sweetheart. Just because the kid is looking at to be the next Avenger, that doesn’t mean he’s replacing you. Because he’s gonna need someone who knows the game inside and out and that’s you. My Iron Angel. One day I’m not gonna be here, and I need to make sure I can count on you to be the leader the next Avengers need, should the time come.” My glare softened and I looked down at my feet.

“Then why did you have to make it seem that Parker was your long lost son that you never had?”

“I should never have let that on. And that boy uhh—Flash is it? I’m gonna deal with that shitshow as well as anyone else that has bullied you.”

“With what? Bribes? A chance to work at Stark Industries? Blackmail? No offense dad but they don’t care. All they care about is making hell for me. So don’t even bother cause nothing will work. Not even the faculty is good enough to see someone being bullied and harassed and they don’t do a damn thing about it!” I breathed sharply before finally finishing out in a choked tone, “Now tell Friday to cancel Birdcage protocol. I’m done with this.”

“Friday, do as she says.”

‘Yes boss.’ Soon the living room opened and I immediately ran up the stairs for my room and slammed my door shut before locking it.  Immediately I went into my bed and just buried myself under the covers and allowed the tears to fall down my face, until I had cried myself to sleep.

A weeks passed after that whole Flash incident and I was finally relieved of my suspension.  But unlike any other day, the entire school was called in for an assembly.  Which was weird cause we only have assemblies when it comes to new students coming in, graduations, or special guests coming in to do a seminar.

I was sitting on my own but for some reason Parker and his friend were sitting just several seats away from me.  It was then the principal came up and he said into the microphone on the stand.

“Good morning students. I know this assembly was short notice but this will be worth it. Now I would like to bring to the stage our honorary guest who would like to say a few words in regard to something very important. Please give a warm Midtown High welcome to Mr. Tony Stark.” What the f—the students soon went crazy as my dad soon came up onto the stage.

“I LOVE YOU TONY STARK!!” I heard Flash proclaim out just a few rows in front of me.

“Thank you Midtown High. Now I’m assuming you all are thinking I’ve come here to shine a light on a new opportunity for an internship or chance to let Stark Industry do a funding on your latest project. Sadly, you’d be wrong.” At that moment the students were all murmured amongst each other. “Instead I wanna bring up a serious matter. And that’s bullying. When I was a kid—I was picked on as a child. People always compared me to my dad and—it hurt me. As I got older and threw my life away through parties and drugs. Word of the wise don’t ever do them, this was back in the 70’s when they were new and fresh, we were stupid back then our fault.”

“Oh god dad why?” I muttered to myself as I rubbed my hand against my face in annoyance.

“Anyways back on track. Bullying is not cool. Now I know nowadays that physical bullying isn’t all the rage like it was, now it’s through the internet. Or Verbally calling someone out, spreading rumors about them. See I’ve fought against people I’ve trusted, psychotic gods with daddy issues, mad aliens, and sociopathic robots, but the one true villain is right in front of you when you look into a mirror. Any one of you that has taken part even just for a fraction of a second of spreading a rumor, if you know your friend’s in on the bullying that makes you an accomplice because you didn’t speak up. And bullies—they’re just about the worst super villain anyone could ever face. Thank you.” the auditorium was dead silent.

So quiet in fact I think I could hear water leaking from the faucet outside.

“Well, thank you Mr. Stark for raising such an awareness to an issue that we here at Midtown High take very seriously.” Yeah right. As I watched my dad go backstage, I got out of my seat and slipped out the nearest exit and ran down the hall to catch him leaving for the backdoors.

“So that was it?” he stopped and turned towards me.

“Well I figured that I’d pull a little guilt trip on them. It worked all the time with you when you were little and make them feel bad about what they had done without naming any names. If you’d like I could’ve just full out embarrassed you, had you come up on stage and tell them all how much I love and adore you and—”

“Alright, alright I get it! Thank god you didn’t.” I lightly scoffed. “I still can’t believe you willingly did that.”

“You know I would do anything for you. You’re my little girl (n/n). And I am always, always, always gonna love you. No matter what. And just to prove it to you, next time I go out of line like that, you have my full permission to blast me with that glove of yours.” He said as he came up to me and placed his hands on my shoulders, gently rubbing them.

“Can’t I just do it now and cash it in?”

“Nice try.”

“Worth a shot.” He softly chuckled and brought me into a tight bear hug.

“I love you (y/n). I hope you know that.”

“I do now, thanks dad.”

[cylonalyna]

Alyna watches Xena! S01x01 – Sins of the Past

Beware. For the road is long and full of spoilers… I mean, if a 25 years old show can be spoiled. But fair warning.

I was never a fan of Hercules so when I watched the pilot I didn’t know what Xena’s back story was and that it was Hercules who convinced her to change her ways. And because I didn’t know that, I thought Xena was just this ex-evil warrior who changed her ways because of some reason known to her. Anyway, I remember watching this episode out of boredom and thinking it’s just a female version of Hercules, but oh boy, was I wrong. Thankfully. And this thing here was supposed to be short but I made a very long recap of the episode. Sorry not sorry, I’m gonna be making recaps of the series. Yes, every single episode… Not regularly... And it's gonna be long… Deal with it.

And maybe read it and let me know what you think. :)

Oh, and if there are any grammatical or punctuation errors also let me know. English isn't my first language so there might be some things to fix. :)

We start with Xena is going through some burned village reminiscing on her past when she was just killing, pillaging and burning villages… And people too, I guess. And then there’s this boy coming out of a burned house asking for food. And when Xena asks him where his parents are, he says Xena killed them. He describes her attack as if the goddess herself showed up and fucked the village up for no reason and Xena is all like:

And it’s really one of the best moments of a pilot, because we’re shown flashback of the attack so even without watching Hercules and meeting Xena there we can see she used to be a bad bitch. So before leaving she gives the kid some bread and cheese so he could hide in his burned house and eat something before he dies of some sickness, gets killed, is eaten by wild animals in search for food etc. Brilliant plan boy, you’re a prodigy.

So then we have the scene where Xena digs a hole and puts her armor her sword and chakram there and frankly, she’s not really a clean lady since there’s still blood and some meat pieces on her chakram.

*rule #1 - wash your weapons from enemies intestines*

And suddenly, a whole bunch of villagers is chased by some warlord taken straight from Mad Max movie. Xena observes the situation, the Mad Max warlord says he’s gonna get the girls (men, smh) and then this blonde girl is all like “take me and leave everyone” and warlords are like “lmfao, nope” and Xena is all like:

*Carless Whisper saxophone solo intensifies*

Because frankly, who wouldn’t be? I know I had the same reaction to Gabrielle so I get Xena. I totally get it.

So when the warlord wants to whip Gabrielle for being insubordinate Xena suddenly jumps into action and starts kicking ass. We get backflips, kicks, punches and a really awesome action sequence until Xena is hit in the head (because she was watching if Gabrielle was safe and it got her distracted. Again, totally understandable).

Men are standing there groaning “argh, grr, rghhg” or something like that and then BOOM! Xena takes out her sword from the hole and with a laugh starts fighting them. And you can see how much fun she has. She kicks warlords’ asses and realizes they’re from Draco so she tell them to say hello from Xena. But who’s Draco? What does he do? Is he more evil then Xena? We don’t know! And… opening!

In a time of ancient gods, warlords… Well, you know it.

So later on Xena is in this small village surrounded by the villagers and Gabrielle is fawning over her and the whole situation, and Gabrielle’s father comes in being all like “thanks for saving us, but now GTFO” and this tall dude behind him wants to take Gabrielle. But Gabrielle is all like “dude, I know I’m supposed to marry you against my will and then die in childbirth or of boredom, but I’m not gonna listen to you. GTFO”. So when he leaves, Gabrielle begs Xena to take her with her. Xena being stoic and supposedly unmoved by Gabrielle words of course disagrees, because “she works alone” and… Then she tells Gabrielle she’s going to Amphipolis, because OF COURSE Gabrielle wouldn’t try and follow her. Nope. Not at all. And she goes like “don’t follow me, you don’t wanna make me mad, do you?” and of course Gabrielle is all like “yeah, no sure, I get it” but then is of course “meh, she’s not that scary. I just need a plan!”

So we move to Draco’s camp where he’s without shirt exposing his bare chest, being all handsome and shit, and being badass when catching almost four arrows at once. But then he’s sort of colorblind… I mean he notices the color of the arrow that wounded him but can’t see who has green arrows when the dude’s arrows are visible from behind his back...

*seriously Draco…*

Anyway, later he’s alone and Xena sneaks in and they have the whole who's tougher bitch, which is Xena of course, and she asks him to leave the village alone (because of her future wife or something) and Draco’s all like “yeah, sure… If you join me” and when Xena says she can’t join Draco, being a typical man he asks why. And we get this really awesome scene where Xena dramatically turns her back, stares at nothing and says she’s going home. OH, DRAMA!

So Draco becomes even a bigger drama queen than Xena and tells our warrior saying he’s dreamt of being in love with her or… fighting in battle or whatever, can’t remember, but Xena turns and Draco goes all soft and says he’ll spare those villagers. But he also asks Xena what's she looking for at home. Being still in drama mode he tells her that when he tried to come home his dad beat the shit out of him with a blacksmith’s hammer. And he survived that. Damn, he IS badass! I mean, have you people ever seen a blacksmith hammer?!

*10/10 wouldn't recommend this an educational tool*

Meanwhile, Gabrielle wants to escape home in the middle of the night and while sneaking out she… Hits strategically placed table waking up her sister Lila. Gabrielle explains to her she needs to follow Xena because she’s in lo… She wants to be a warrior like her and that she doesn’t love Perdicus and it’s her destiny. So Lila being a supportive sister is all like “Go, chase your girlf…. Dreams! Just do it!” and Gabrielle leaves.

*Lila being a supportive sister*

It’s daylight and Xena is riding Argo when suddenly her horse stops all afraid. So Xena gets off the horse that suddenly runs away and… The Blind Cyclops shows up with Draco’s dad’s blacksmith’s hammer! (I honestly don’t know if I used Saxon Genitive in the right way, but I hope you get the meaning). Xena is all like “Fuuuck, that’s a big hammer!” which makes the Blind Cyclops even more badass than he already is, but she stands to fight and humiliates him by dropping his pants. He starts bawling like a baby and Xena leaves him and continues her journey to Amphipolis, because she has no time to deal with Cyclops drama.

But Draco is plotting against Xena. He decides to attack Amphipolis and pretend it was Xena who told him to do it. Plot thickens, you guys.

Gabrielle is afraid of bridges… And gets caught by…Yes, you guessed right. The Blind Cyclops. But being a smart girl she says she’s out here to find and kill Xena because… And here we have very subtexty dialogue:

C: “How’s the young thing like you is gonna kill Xena?”

G: “That’s the point. She’d never let a man get close enough to do her. At least not that kind of do her. But a young, innocent looking girl like me, I’ll catch her totally off guard…

*You sure will, Gabrielle. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)*

At the same time, Xena is being followed by Draco’s warlords. They’re dumb enough to think she doesn’t know so she goes all ninja on them, fingers the Mad Max warlord… I mean, she cuts the blood to his body… Pervs. ;) And when she learns about the plan she leaves to stop the invasion.

In the next scene, Gabrielle is chilling out on the road when some old dude stops and tells her to GTFO, because she’s blocking the only route to Amphipolis. So Gabrielle convinces him to take her with him and the old dude agrees.

So while Gabrielle and the old man are traveling on the only route to Amphipolis, Xena is taking a detour through the hills for dramatic effect or something. Basically, New Zealand… I mean Greece is a beautiful place so why not show it, right? Right?

She meets those peasant women singing Bulgarian…  I mean Greek chants and rides through them, but they don’t give a shit being too into chanting and putting on stacks of… Hay, I guess. Meh, whatever.

So Xena reaches Amhipolis and goes into a tavern to drink wine and sleep with beautiful women. But unfortunately it’s not that kind of a tavern and there’s no wine and beautiful women to sleep with. All she meets are angry people, silence and… wait for it… her mother, Cyrene!

Cyrene grabs Xena’s sword and tells her she’s not welcomed there and she should GTFO. Xena wants to rally people against Draco but Cyrene is against and she tells Xena she’d rather die and that she’s not her mother. And it’s a rather powerful stuff, because we only know glimpses of Xena’s past so we don’t really know how big her crimes are. Of course burning one village and killing peasants is a big no no, but Xena is too big of a character to be hated for such a minor offense. Anyway, villagers in the tavern also tell Xena to GTFO so she does.

Draco is pissed that Mad Max warlord told Xena about his plans and tells him to pick a weapon. Sadly it’s not Draco’s father’s blacksmith’s hammer because that’s been stolen by the Blind Cyclops, but a simple spear. Still, Draco proves to be truly awesome by kicking Mad Max warlord’s ass and killing him while telling new plans to his people. Truly, he was a great choice for a pilot.

In the morning, Xena comes back to the tavern looking around hoping to find some wine and beautiful ladies to sleep with, but to her disappointment there are still none. But her sword is there. And her mom is there. Oh boy, this tension between them could cut diamonds in half. But we get a bonding moment where Cyrene and Xena open old wounds so they could heal, and Xena tells her mother she might not be able to set things right, but she’s gonna spend the rest of her life to try. It’s another great moment in this show where we see Xena in her vulnerable state and not all powerful and strong. And this moment is ruined by villagers coming into the tavern saying Xena’s army is burning fields to which Xena answers they’re lying, Cyrene feels all hurt thinking it was all a ruse and leaves, and villagers start throwing rocks at our warrior princess.

But then Gabrielle comes to the rescue! Because Gabrielle has a natural talent to talk her way out of troubles, she uses it to save Xena. She uses a cunning bluff of “if you hurt bad guy’s girlfriend imagine how pissed he’ll be”. So the villagers reluctantly agree and decide to not commit murder. After a small talk Xena takes Gabrielle on her horse and takes her to her dead brother. Because, you know, there’s no better start of a romance than a visit at the crypt.

So Xena is talking to his dead brother saying she’s lost but that she’s gonna be ok, but that she’s alone and then Gabrielle shows up saying she’s not. And by the way that they’re looking at each other we’re to believe these two weren’t into each other from the beginning? Please.

*they’ve known each other for like 1 hour and we get those looks already? So straight indeed*

Meanwhile, the villagers are waiting for Draco to make a deal, but when he shows up he’s threatening to destroy everything and kill everyone unless they tell him where Xena is. And this is another great moment for Draco, because he really is a scary and ruthless dude and I really wish he was more in this show then just 3 episodes. It was a wasted character, imo.

Anyway, while threatening the leader to kill him, Xena shows up and Draco makes fun of her asking about the homecoming. Again, he tries to convince Xena to join him and goes all Palpatine saying she should “celebrate her dark side”, but Xena is all like “pfft, fuck off and let’s fight to the death”. Draco tells her to choose weapons, but Xena leaves the choice to Draco. Now, Draco being a really smart guy and someone who knows how good Xena is with swords, chooses staffs. I’m sure he believes it’ll give him advantage or at least even oit the odds. Xena chooses the conditions and her conditions are to fight on a scaffolding. The first person to touch the ground is gonna die. Draco agrees and tells his people that whoever falls first is to be killed.

Doing a flip with the help of his people he gets to a scaffolding and grabs his staff. Xena is way more of a showgirl. She hits the dude with his staff and when he leans down she jumps on his back and then on a head of another warlord and jumps to meet her opponent.

They start fighting. It’s an even fight and Draco proves to be a worthy opponent. Soon Xena has to fight to stay on the bamboo scaffolding as it starts to fall off. The archers prepare to shoot, Cyrene shows up and everyone is thinking if she’s gonna fall. But no, Xena standing on one bamboo stick starts hitting bamboos under Draco’s feet to make him back out and leave him vulnerable. But Draco stands tough and very soon he manages to make Xena almost fall again. She manages to hang on her staff, her legs barely touching the ground. Cyrene starts panicking, being all teary, because, come on, she’s a mom. No matter how pissed our moms are at us, they worry 24/7.

Draco starts hiting Xena’s hands wanting her to let go and fall, asking her why she would die for the people that hate her. But Xena grabs Draco’s staff with her feet and doing a truly awesome backflip she manages to stand on the scaffolding again attacking him. Draco almost falls but jumps on people’s heads and give Xena a signal to join him.

And the same villagers who earlier denied Xena her wine and beautiful women to sleep with, and wanted her dead are now supporting her… Literally. She manages to stand on the arms of one person and attacks Draco. They do backflips, kicks, punches and all that for a few minutes and then with one swift kick to the chest Draco falls down on the ground and Xena jumps on his chest looking down upon him to let him know he’s just a little bitch and not a match to her skills. Xena promises to spare Draco if he leaves the valley and he agrees.

But one of his warlords decides to sneakily attack Xena from behind. Gabrielle’s warns her, but before the warrior can react Draco throws his knife at him. After all, Draco may be a ruthless warlord, but he’s honorable.

After the fight Xena is preparing to leave when Cyrene shows up and hugs Xena, who asks again for forgiveness and is, of course, given that. It's a truly awesome moment in this pilot.

But, and honestly I have no idea why, Xena doesn’t stay in the tavern for wine and beautiful women to sleep with. Maybe there is no wine and beautiful women to sleep with after all. Instead, Xena starts a fire near some woods when she hears some noise and goes into a warrior mode. But, as it turns out, it’s just Gabrielle saying she wanted to follow Xena without her noticing, but she couldn’t start a fire and it’s cold and there are mosquitoes looking lkke eagles or something.

Xena wants to send her back home, but Gabrielle says she won’t go. There’s a talk about not belonging there and Xena seems to understand Gabrielle completely. So when she gives Gabrielle a blanket we get one of the most beautiful moments in the pilot.

*couldn't find gif so you're stuck with bad screenshot*

And in the morning we see Xena and Gabrielle travelling to new adventures to right wrongs, drink wine and… Oh forget it.

This episode is all kinds of awesomeness. It’s a great introduction to a character of Xena even to those, like me, who didn’t know her from Hercules. It has tons of very well choreographed fights, amazing music and it’s a rreally strong pilot that makes you wanna see more.

10/10

[feverinfeveroutfic]

chapter two: you’re all i’ve got tonight

“i don't care if you hurt me some more, i don't care if you even the score. you can knock me and i don't care, and you can mock me and i don't care, and you can rock me just about anywhere, it's alright.” -”you’re all i’ve got tonight”, the cars

Bill wasn't necessarily cruel to her, albeit not from how Sam saw her parents and the way in which they communicated with one another during the mornings when she was growing up, and given she hardly saw him during the week except in the mornings and in the evening; however he seemed on the verge of cruel to Matilda and Cassandra. The first morning Sam spent the night there at the house, following Marla's departure and her realization that she was alone there in Lake Elsinore, she sauntered into the kitchen for a cup of coffee and a bite of breakfast prior to their leaving for school and Bill about to head off somewhere outside of the house—and he never said where he was headed either—no sooner had she sat down in the chair when Mattie stopped her.

“We eat in the dining room,” she told her in a flat tone of voice.

“Really? When I was growing up here in Elsinore and then up in Reno, my parents and I always had breakfast in the kitchen before school.” Mattie shook her head at that. Sam frowned but she figured it was for the best regardless of what she dealt with as a kid. She picked up her coffee and her bowl of cereal and took her spot there near the end of the table in the next room over.

“I sit there,” Mattie told her, still in a flat voice. She moved over one. “Cassie sits there.”

Careful not to let her see her rolling her eyes, Sam took her spot right across the table from her. Soon Cassie came in the room, already completely dressed for the day. Indeed, Mattie was fully dressed herself. They merely sat there as well with their hands in their laps, while Sam had one hand on her spoon and another hand on her cup of coffee, still in her pajamas and with her hair unbrushed. They sat there and watched her.

Within time, Bill stepped in the room with two bowls of what Sam initially believed to be cereal and he set them down before them. She looked over at the tops of their bowls, at the plain oatmeal inside. It wasn't even oatmeal, just porridge.

The times in which she had oatmeal at her parents' house, Ruben always sprinkled some brown sugar or fresh blueberries on the top. But that was plain porridge as far as she could tell. Moreover, all three of them moved in robotic fashion, especially those two girls. They moved like clockwork to the dining room table there downstairs and they even ate their porridge in unison, to the point it made Sam squirm in her seat.

Even with her parents' marriage about to crumble apart four hundred miles away, all of her memories of the mornings before school consisted of having breakfast and watching cartoons, especially when she was their age. They were tiny adults as far as she could tell, but even as an adult herself, she knew they were lodged in a whole other world different from her. She drank down the rest of her soy milk.

“Don't you want to like—put some sugar on those oats, or something?” Sam wondered aloud.

“Why?” he asked.

“Plain oats in a bowl of water can't be very appetizing. When I was a kid, and on the mornings I had oatmeal, my dad always jazzed it up with brown sugar or fruit because he knew that there's no way it can be good for a kid.”

“But they are. These oats are inexpensive, but sugar is—forget it with brown sugar. I had to bust out a whole five dollars for a bag of that stuff just to satisfy your request for a cup of coffee. Same with the soy milk. I always look out for good deals, even with indulgences such as that. No way I'm wasting fruit on that, either. Cutting it up into pieces and then disposing of the rinds and the cores like that when they could be put to good use? Forget it.” She frowned at that. It seemed so strange to her; she remembered that Joey was rather thrifty himself, but he always managed to find a way to make things enjoyable with her. They had a strong bond to boot as well.

“How's the coffee?” Bill curtly asked her.

“Delicious. Nice and warm.” But then again, it missed something. The kiss of cream was perfect for her, but it lacked something within. She took another sip to wash down the soy milk and the rest of the cereal, and she stopped right in her tracks when Mattie and Cassie took another bite of porridge in unison. It made her shudder right in her seat, and she picked up her cup so she could go into the other room.

“Where are you going?” Bill asked her, still in a brusque tone of voice.

“I'm just—I'm just—” She could hardly speak.

“No, you sit at the table and finish your coffee. First off, it was expensive, as was that bottle of cream in there. The bag of coffee was five bucks, and the cream was two.” Sam almost burst out laughing at that; there was her answer to that. “Second, there's that nice carpet in the living room—you're not spilling coffee on that.”

“I won't?” she said with a raise of her eyebrow. He folded his arms across his chest at that and she stayed still there. All the times she had stood up for herself, and when Lars told her to do so that one time given the nature of her very name. She climbed off of the chair and she walked towards the kitchen doorway, when he stepped right before her, still with his arms folded across his chest.

“You're a rebellious little thing, aren't you?”

“Bill, this isn't school,” she scoffed as she adjusted one of the straps of her camisole. He shook his head at that.

“Not in front of the girls, please,” he told her without moving a muscle.

“They're just tiny adults!” she pointed out with a gesture back to the two little girls at the table, both of whom still moved in robotic fashion. “Look at them!”

“They're children,” he insisted and he never raised his voice for a second.

“They don't act like children,” she argued.

“Sit down,” he commanded, and he never flinched for a moment when he said that.

“Why?”

“Sit down.”

“No.”

“Sit down or I take your coffee.”

“Take it then,” she scoffed and she handed him the cup, and she stormed past him into the kitchen. She needn't drink down that cheap coffee, anyways. She needed to get away from those creepy children.

“You splurge on those type of crackers again, I'm locking you in your room,” he called after her, to which she whirled around and gaped at him.

“What?” She couldn't resist chuckling at that.

“Yes. I am locking in your room if you splurge on cheese crackers like that again.”

“I got those for them!” she insisted, “and what do you—” She laughed at that. “What the hell do you even mean by 'splurge'? They were like a buck fifty! Not even that! They were like seventy five cents each.” And he shook his head.

“By the way, you owe me a new glass.”

“By the way, how 'bout you buy your own damn glass,” she retorted, and he lunged for her right then. He never grabbed her but he did stop her right in her tracks by his mere presence.

“Don't you dare curse at me again, young lady, or I'm really locking you in your room. You're never leaving this house if you curse at me again.”

“Like you would,” she persisted. “Like you would do such a thing to your precious star student.”

“I would,” he persisted himself, and with a cold look on his face. She trembled a bit, much like when she scolded at Aurora back on New Year's Eve. The sole exception was that she didn't have the safety net of the telephone and a restaurant in Ithaca around her.

“I most certainly would,” he repeated her. She sighed through her nose, and then she realized where she had moved to: they may as well have been in arm's reach.

“By the way, I should tell you that I have friends nearby who might to want to come over at some point,” she said in a single breath.

“In fact I might as well just do it now,” he replied to that.

“Why?” she demanded, but he never replied to her. “Why, Bill? Why?”

Instead, he almost bumped her with his chest from his standing so close right before her. She staggered back. He kept on moving closer to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted all manner of recyclables stashed away in the corner of the laundry room. The man did not throw anything away.

“Why!” she yelped.

“Get upstairs now. Or I'm tying you up while I'm at it.” Sam fixed her straps once more.

“Do you want to see your precious friends again? Get upstairs.” He downed the rest of her coffee right then and there. He held the cup right before his chest even though Sam could clearly see on his face that he hated it. Fuming, she stalked back upstairs to the loft.

“Fucking sack of shit,” she said aloud as she closed the door right behind her; the joke would be on him, anyways, because the door opened into the room. She returned to the dresser on the other side of the room, right next to her bed, and she picked up her hair brush. The way in which her hair moved through the bristles made her think of Rapunzel.

If her hair grew long enough, to well past her waist, she could in fact hone her in at any given moment in the future. She need not dye her hair blonde, however, but she could in fact behave like Rapunzel. She pictured Testament outside, down on the lawn, and with Joey right before them as well, complete with the guitar before his body. He sang to her to let down her hair: given the very nature of his voice, she knew she could hear him from afar, from thirty feet off of the ground.

She stood there before the dresser when the warm summer breeze blew in through the window next to her.

The very start of August, almost time for the Santa Ana winds, or the Diablo winds as they were referred to up in the northern half of the state, when things were dry as a set of bones and easily set on fire despite the cold piercing feeling of it all. She returned to the thought of Joey, her prince who had come to save her from the tower, from the house upon the windy moors.

She turned her head again and she wondered if Bill would in fact seal her door shut at any given moment. It felt beyond reason, especially given he fretted about buying a bag of crackers for one of his own children: there was no way he would do such a thing, not with her being his supposed star student, unless he was genuinely cruel at heart.

She brushed her hair once more before she turned to the door once again and propped it open.

No way he could do it now: she was alone up there anyway. She left it open as she took her spot at the desk and began on a brand new drawing for herself.

That very thought of Joey down on the grass, with Testament right behind him. Or rather, she figured she would draw Joey solo.

She was near the Los Angeles area again. Somehow, she had to make her way there, and it wasn't until she and Chuck ran into each other at the supermarket when she made a mental note to ask him and Tiffany to take her to an art shop when they swung by the house in the next week. She also made a note to call up Marla again when things became quiet again at the house.

But things remained rather quiet downstairs all the while, such that she had no clue as to whether the girls left for school already and Bill had left the house as well. She waited until the winds picked up some more before she headed on back downstairs to the kitchen for some more cheap coffee.

Regardless of it being cheap, she brewed herself a new cup with a little kiss of cream. She yearned to have coffee with Joey again, and she yearned to have coffee with Alex at some point. So much more to that boy than she had originally assumed before, and she was about to see more of him when the time came. Something behind that cool demeanor and she wished to see it as she stood at the kitchen sink and she sipped on her cup.

Every day since Sam saw Chuck at the supermarket, and given school had already started despite the very heart of summer, for the whole five days a week, she always took to the desk in her room. Whenever she opened her drawer for one of her pencils, she always saw that piece of rice paper at the very bottom. Every so often, and careful not to damage the delicate nature of the paper, she slipped it out of the bottom for a better look at Alex's signature and his handwriting.

Almost three years she had had this piece of paper with her and it felt like a whole eternity ago back to the time Cliff was alive.

When she could make her way up to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit that field again, just to get a sense of his presence, to feel the mere memory of it all again even with his body incinerated and cast about that grass, was a whole other question. Metallica themselves were still up there, as far as she knew anyway. Meanwhile, she had no real means of driving up there, and she held out the hope that something would crop up and serve as her ticket out of there.

At one point, on Friday afternoon, she had considered calling up Marla again to find out if she had landed something at the school. But then again, if she did, then Bill would have said something to her about money. But then again, he kept the whole thing to himself. In the meantime, she wondered what she could wear that night when they came to pick her up the next week. Indeed, she wondered how they would even come to the house as well, given Bill dismissed the whole thing on that first morning.

She hoped to see Chuck again at some point between that day and the next Friday as she made her way down the block to the supermarket again for another sandwich and some better coffee. She had her own money to herself but she could see how Bill fretted about that sort of thing.

Every time she broke even with a dollar, she pocketed the change. There had to be something more to the house, however: if there were all manner of old books there, there had to be something more, like an empty jar given how much he worried about money and ridding of things. Or so she figured if that first morning was anything to go by.

When she returned to the house and she made her way back upstairs, she thought about that night in the following week. She recalled that Bill never replied to her suggestion that friends could come over when they so felt like it, and thus she could only assume that he disallowed it.

Or perhaps he did allow it, however he never said anything, much like how he never said anything about what carried importance such as money. She set down her things and then doubled back down the stairs for the cordless phone, and she returned once more up the stairs for Chuck's number. She sat down at her desk and she dialed it; at the same time, she had no idea if he was even home back up in the Bay Area.

And yet, it didn't even ring once.

“Hello, hello?”

“Hey, Chuck, it's Sam.”

“Oh, hey! I was just thinking 'bout you, um—hang on a second—”

“Sure, sure.”

He disappeared and in his wake, a hissing noise emerged on his end, such that it made her move the phone back from her ear.

“Yeah, just like that,” he said in the background, and someone behind him chuckled. He returned to the phone right then. “Sorry—I'm making chorizo for Alex, Greg, and Louie right now. Complete with homemade tortillas, too.”

“Oh, my god, that sounds so delicious.”

Someone behind him said something.

“It's Miss Samantha,” he told them.

“Hi, Sam!” Greg shouted in the background.

“Hey, Sam!” Louie chimed in.

“Hi, Samantha!” Alex followed suit in that big voice.

“They all say 'hi'.”

“Hi, fellas!” she said, and she couldn't resist the smile on her face.

“Hi, fellas,” he echoed her, and they both laughed out loud. There was a metallic clink and then he returned to her again. “Anyways, how's it going?”

“Um—listen about the Death Angel show next week—you guys might hell of a time getting here.”

“Why's that?”

“Um—are they right behind you?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you guys keep a secret?”

“I can.” He turned his attention to the three of them again. “Can you guys keep a secret between all of you?”

“I can,” said Alex.

“Yeah, I can, too.” The sound of Louie's voice made her think of what he told her about Zelda in the hotel room. The secret was out of the bag as well, and she wondered if Louie even could keep a secret as dire as that from someone, anyone, especially if that someone was Joey.

“I'll try to,” Greg confessed.

“D'you get all that?” Chuck asked her.

“Yeah.”

“Wish we had like a speaker or something to hook the phone up to,” she heard Greg say, and Louie laughed out loud at that.

“Okay, so. It's not complicated, but my counselor—whom I came out here with for my senior project—apparently—kinda—sorta—married me.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah. When Marla and I came out here earlier this week, he made me sign some things, and they were like concealed so I couldn't see what they were, and apparently they were nuptial papers.”

“Oh, my god—is he even allowed to do that?”

“What is it?” Greg inquired from the background.

“When she and Marla came out here the other day, her counselor made her sign some papers and they were apparently for marriage. Like he duped her into it.”

“Is that even legal?” she heard Alex ask him.

“I dunno,” Chuck confessed, “doesn't sound legal.” And then he returned to her. “So what does have to do with the show?”

“He is so—cheap and controlling.”

“The dude's a control freak,” he told them.

“Total control freak,” she corrected him.

“Total control freak,” he echoed her.

“He actually threatened to bar me in my room!” she exclaimed.

“He actually threatened—wait, what?”

“Yeah! He threatened to seal me in my room if I spend money on certain things.”

“The guy actually threatened to lock her in her room if she even so much as spends money,” he relayed back to them.

“What the actual fuck,” Louie blurted out.

“Yeah, I don't get it, either,” she confessed. “I tried to stand up to him—”

“She tried to stand up to him,” he relayed it back to them.

“—and he like bullied me into submission. Like—literally backed me into a corner.”

“Just totally backed her into a corner.”

“God,” one of them muttered in the background.

“I kind of worry about you guys coming over here, to be perfectly honest.” She sighed through her nose and bowed her head a little bit. It was the truth: she didn't know if they could in fact break through to him, that is if they could. There was another metallic clink, followed by another loud hiss of the chorizo in the frying pan, and then it went away.

“Off the heat, boys,” Chuck told them, and then he returned to the phone again. “You said he's cheap, too?”

“Like, really cheap,” she replied. “I spent a dollar fifty on a couple of little bags of crackers for his two daughters and he yelled at me for that.”

Silence on their end.

“Chuck?” she asked him. “Are you there?”

“Sam, I will swim in that lake and burrow under the house if I have to,” he vowed.

“No, don't do that,” she told him. “Don't, Chuck. Please don't.”

“No, he's gonna be dealing with a guy who rides big bikes in his spare time,” he continued.

“Most badass—” Alex cleared his throat and then he leaned in closer to the phone. “Chuck is the most badass Native American since Sitting Bull. Mark my words, Samantha.”

“Uh, yeah, what he said,” Chuck quipped. “That sick bastard's not going to want to mess with me. I'm sure he wouldn't mess with Joey, either. Mr. Hockey Player. Hockey player who knows how to fight dirty.”

The mention of Joey's name made her close her eyes. She had only been away from New York for less than a week and yet she missed him so much, as if he had slipped through her fingers like grains of sand.

“Sam?” he asked her.

“I'm still here.”

“By the way, why does she wanna swear us to secrecy?” Greg called from the background.

“Yeah, why are we sworn to secrecy about it?” Chuck asked her.

“I don't want Joey to worry about it,” she told him.

“She doesn't want Joey to worry about her.”

“He should probably know about that sort of thing, though,” Louie pointed out from behind him. “You know, her being his girl and everything.”

“I don't know, to be honest,” Sam confessed, and she had to stop herself from laughing at that sentiment. “I'd rather he'd just miss me.”

“D'you hear that absolute statement, Lou?” Chuck asked with a bit of a snicker.

“I did, yeah.” Sam thought about Louie, and she knew that she had to call up Zelda at some point as well. Marla did advise her to call either of them in any instance whatsoever.

“Besides, Joey has enough to worry about, I would think,” she pointed out.

“Oh, yeah, he definitely does,” Chuck answered to that, “Anthrax are in the studio right now. Or—no. They went on tour—just yesterday, actually. Brand new tour, too! But—it would make sense, though. But—you want us to keep it all under wraps, though. So we gotta honor that wish.”

“Yeah, I won't tell a soul,” Alex promised from the background, and she remembered that he didn't really have anyone to talk to about that sort of thing anyway.

“I still want to come along to the show, though,” she insisted. “You know, I wanna see Death Angel, and I wanna see you guys, though.”

“She still wants to come along with me and Tiff to the show,” Chuck echoed her. “By the way, you coming with us, Alex?”

“Yeah, I might as well. Don't really have anything better to do at the moment except sit on my butt and read.”

“Don't blame her,” Greg said, “I don't blame her one bit. I'm coming along, too.”

“I don't, either!” Chuck proclaimed. “She wants to get away from that mother fucker and out of that damn house.” He then returned to her. “We'll figure out how to get you out of there,” he promised her.

“I can always do a Rapunzel sort of thing,” she suggested, “like let down a rope of sorts and climb out the window.”

He laughed out loud at that. A big hearty laugh that made her smile in response.

“I dunno if push will come to shove in that instance, but we'll figure something out, though.”

“Enjoy that chorizo, by the way!” she declared; ever so faintly, she heard the front door open.

“Oh, they are,” Chuck assured her, “especially Alex. A little too well, might I add.”

“This is damn good, though,” Alex insisted in a muffled voice.

“Before I go,” Sam started again, “you mentioned Anthrax are doing a brand new tour and a new album soon?”

“Yeah! Uh—State of Euphoria, I think it's called.”

“I like that,” she told him, and she smiled again, that time out of a time gone by her. “When's it coming out?”

“September, I think? I'll have to ask Charlie the next time I see him.”

“Anyways, I gotta go,” she told him.

“Okay—we'll come and get you Friday night. Don't know how but we're gonna do it, though.”

“Gonna get you away from that pig,” Alex called from the background.

“What he said!” Chuck said again. “You be careful until then, little Sammich.”

“Yeah, you guys have a good weekend.”

They hung up at the same time, and it was right then, she had no clue what was about to go down that weekend. She sighed through her nose as the silence fell over the bottom floor. The door propped open and she couldn't hear anything what was going on down there. She stood to her feet but she lingered there by the chair. She listened closely to the silence from downstairs.

It was tempting. It was tempting to walk out of her room and listen to what was being said down there, in the softest of voices.

And she bought into the temptation to an extent.

She stood within the doorway and she turned her head to the side to better hear them. All the shows she had gone to in the past never damaged her ears as much as the silence from downstairs, silence penetrated only by the intermittent soft voices of two small girls. The noise never damaged her ears, anyway, given she always wore ear plugs.

Careful not to make any more noise, she crept over to the top of the stairs and she stood there with her back to the wall. Mattie and Cassie's voices echoed up the first stairwell from downstairs. She wished to see what they were doing there at the very bottom floor. But she had no idea as to how to do such a thing without jarring them for even one second.

She closed her eyes and she pictured Chuck, Alex, Greg, and Louie in a small warm kitchen up in the Bay Area somewhere, all congregated around a small table and with plates of fresh spicy chorizo and homemade flour tortillas rested upon their laps. So simple, and yet she wondered how those little girls down below would react to it.

She thought about Alex and his cold stone face, the way he was so mature despite his youthful age and the gray streak on his head only added to it. She was able to crack through to him a bit, but these two girls felt like a challenge, especially with Bill never too far away from there as well.

Sam thought about her first weekend there, given they had started school so early.

Then she heard one of the two girls mutter, “Amen.”

She opened her eyes at the sound of that. They had come home and whispered a lengthy prayer. She never saw a cross anywhere in that house.

Alex's parents may have been non traditional Jewish but he wore a yarmulke and a Star of David once in a while: they probably celebrated Hanukkah and Rosh Hashanah to boot, too. But to hear that word only brought up more questions about this little family here before her.

The front door opened again.

“Hello, father,” one of them said in a flat voice. If it was Sam and Ruben, she would've been overjoyed to see him at the front door.

“Hello, girls,” Bill greeted them; his voice floated up such that if Sam moved a little closer to the railing down below, he probably would have seen her. But she moved forward a little bit, and she made out the sight of his blond hair near the front door. “Did you say your prayers?”

“Yes.”

“Did you read your scripture?”

There was that one instance during Anthrax's tour of New York City the year before, that morning where those women who walked by her and Zelda and they called their music Satanic as they kept on walking. Indeed, come the next Friday, she was about to see a band called Death Angel with three guys from a band called Testament; the only thing to make it even more potent was to have Exodus there with them as well. She squirmed in her spot there on the stairs and her stomach turned at that thought.

“Have you done your homework yet?”

Sam frowned at that.

“They're elementary school age,” she muttered. “Why would they have homework?”

One of the girls said something that she couldn't hear.

“Well, remember, the Lord is always on your side, especially on the bus rides to the school.”

And then it dawned on her. They started school so early because they went to a religious private one rather than a public, and ultimately free, one. No wonder he was so stingy with money!

She began to wonder if Marla had said anything to the people at the school about his still being on the payroll. If she did, then he would be removed from it.

And then he would lose his money and his sole income as far as she knew. Therein lay his reason for why he was so cheap. It worried him so that he was willing to become cruel to Sam herself. The whole thought made her heart hammer inside of her chest, and yet she couldn't speak to him about that sort of thing. He forbade her from speaking about it.

Instead, she ducked back into her room and she clasped her hands to her head. She didn't know what to say right then, either, and Chuck, Alex, Greg, and Louie already had it out for the guy, too, after his threat to seal her away in her room. Add to this, she knew that there was no way she could feel okay with his being cruel to her, either.

All she could do was wait out the weekend and maintain an appearance to herself. If something happened at the school, surely it would remain a secret as well.

“Miss Shelley?” he called from the second floor, such that it jarred her, and she dropped the cordless phone. She scooped it up and she stuck it under her mattress.

“Are you home?”

“Yes!” she called back.

“Okay, good. I need you to make dinner tonight.”

She surfaced from the room right then, and he stood there at the landing beneath her.

“What would you like?” she asked him.

“I found some really good deals on pasta—there's a couple of boxes awaiting you in the kitchen. And then just some sauce.”

“Okay! Sounds easy enough.”

He nodded but he never smiled at her.

The whole entire time she made dinner, she thought of Chuck in that kitchen up north. She considered tossing in a little bit of spices into the vodka sauce to liven it up a bit, but the one spice she found in the cupboard above the stove was cinnamon. Indeed, as she made up that pan of sauce, she took the jar down from the rack and she unscrewed the lid.

Not true ground cinnamon, but the very aroma of it reminded her of Cliff. How she yearned to have a cup of Mexican hot chocolate again, and how she wished to see him again.

Soon, dinner was ready and she served the plates to Mattie and Cassie, both of whom awaited her with their hands in their laps. After her realization, she felt a little more sympathetic towards them as she set the plates before them both.

They never thanked her but they picked up their forks and ate in unison once she and Bill took their seats in silence. He glanced up at her with a thoughtful look on his face.

“This is quite good,” he told her with his hand up by his mouth. “Excellent, actually. It needs a little salt, but it's good, though.”

Neither of the girls said anything but they did help her clear the table afterwards. Later, she turned in for the night with a new perspective on it all.

But at the same time, she needed to get away from that house. Away from the tightness of it all, especially since they were probably of the crowd that saw Testament and Anthrax as the music of Lucifer herself.

On Sunday morning, the three of them left for church, and even though Bill offered her to attend along with them, she turned it down given she didn't believe in the same things they did, either. Instead, she took her seat there at her desk with the cordless in hand and she dialed Marla's number.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Marla.”

“Oh, hey, Sam! How's it going?”

“Alright, I guess. I ran into Chuck the other day—he, Tiff, Alex, and Greg are all gonna take me to see Death Angel down in L.A. this Friday.”

“Cool! Um, listen—I wasn't able to get a job at the school, as of yet. I got put on a waiting list for something, though, and Bel got me an interview at the glass studio she works at. Commutes to Albany are tough but I think I can do it, though. But I was able to tell Mrs. Robinson, mine and Bel's old counselor, about Bill still being listed on the payroll. She told me that's going to be rectified at the end of the month, like they have to send out the final check in two weeks and then he gets a notice on the fourth week.”

“Listen, about that—”

“Oh?”

“Apparently Bill's daughters go to a private religious school. He literally doesn't say shit about this sort of thing with me, but my guess is it's a bit pricey. Those payroll checks were the only way he's able to send them off there.”

“Oh, shit,” Marla blurted out.

“Yeah.”

“Well, he's gonna have to do something else, though. After the way he treated you and me both, and after he legitimately threatened to lock you in your room!”

“How'd you find out about—” Sam stopped. And she closed her eyes. “Louie,” she muttered with her head tilted back away from the phone, and she returned it to her ear.

“Sam, you can't let him get under your skin like that!”

“I feel kinda bad about it, though.”

“He'll figure something out, though. If he was able to maintain a spot on payroll this whole entire time after he got fired, he can figure something out for him and his girls.”

“They're creepy, by the way,” Sam confessed.

“They are? How so?”

“First off, they don't behave like little girls. They sit quietly at the dining room table before breakfast and dinner, like they don't even talk to each other. And they eat simultaneously, too, like completely in sync with each other. It's really weird, like unsettling, I want to say. Everything is really strict here—like really strict. Alex grew up in a bit of a sheltered household, but I doubt it was anything like this. It's all because of the whole faith thing and also because of the whole money issue, too. I imagine that getting worse when he gets kicked off of the payroll for good, too.”

“Ew.” Marla shuddered on her end. “Besides, how're the boys even gonna come and get you on Friday night? Because I remember how that place is laid out. There's no way around it.”

“I have no clue. Chuck even told me he has no idea. But—you know.” Sam rolled her eyes at what she was about to tell her. “I have faith in those guys, though.”

Marla giggled at that.

“Yeah, I have faith that they're gonna have faith in themselves.”

Marla laughed some more at that. It was good to hear her laugh again, even if it was for a few moments.

Over the course of that week, Sam made more art for herself, until Friday night came about. She had set aside her nice black blouse, the same top she wore when she saw Testament and Stormtroopers of Death both the first time around, and her black jeans, which had gotten rather low slung with the passage of time so they accentuated the curvature of her hips and ultimately her body. Testament themselves were going to be all that she had that night as well: the best she could do was sneak out of the house and meet up with Chuck and Tiffany at the property past the house.

The sun began to hang low over the tree line and the haze from the Los Angeles area not too far away from there.

Bill and the girls were downstairs doing some kind of study with their Bibles, which meant she had to use the back door to get out of there. But even if she used the back door, she still had to go past the living room and within their line of sight. No makeup on her face lest he question her for a second, but she had to time it right.

She reached the second landing of the stairs and Bill said something to the girls. A rustling noise and she knew that he had stood up.

“Shit,” she muttered. They were waiting for her outside—she didn't even have to look out the window in order to know that they awaited her—and yet she had no way out of there without a bit of inquiry. Sam returned to the loft on the third floor so as to gather her bearings and rethink things.

The front door then opened. Bill said something.

“Is Sam here?”

Greg!

Sam gasped and she hurried down the first flight of stairs at that moment.

“I'm—here to see her?” he replied; she reached that top landing where she spotted Bill before the doorway with his hands pressed to his hips. Greg looked so funny there in the doorway with him, that long beautiful dark hair down over his chest and the little stubble of a mustache over his upper lip, and his slender body wrapped in a black T shirt and low slung black jeans.

Like a dark version of Jesus himself.

“Well, she has a lot of work to do, son,” Bill sneered at him.

“No, no, it's okay, Bill!” Sam called out to him from the landing. He turned his attention to her with a finger pointed up to her.

“You have a lot of work to do, young lady—get back up there.” Greg widened his eyes at that.

“Well, I can take a break, can't I?” Sam pointed out. Bill shut the door right on Greg's face, to which followed a loud “ow! That was right on my nose!”

“Get back in your room,” he ordered.

“Don't slam the door on his face!” she yelled as she stormed back upstairs to the loft. She shook her head as she made her way to the window. Out there, on the block right behind the house as it ran along the lake's edge, she spotted Greg as he walked on back to the low two door hatch back royal blue car over there. Chuck awaited him on the outside of the car. From a distance, she watched Greg shake his head.

“Damn,” he declared as he rubbed his nose. “Got me good, too!”

“Well, fuck,” Chuck said.

“Well, we've got to get her out of there somehow,” she heard Alex tell them from the back seat; even from upstairs and a distance, she could hear his big loud voice. “Show's about to start in like an hour.”

“What!” Chuck was stunned at that.

“Yeah, dude! It's seven fifteen!”

“Shit!”

“Hey, there she is!” Tiffany called from the passenger seat. Chuck and Greg turned to the window and Sam waved both arms at them.

“Gotta get her out of there,” she heard Chuck tell them. There was a pause as she looked on at him, just like Rapunzel. If only there was a way in which she could tell him that the way out was through the back door, and she was close to it as well. Greg said something, which was then followed by another pause.

“Hang on, I got an idea,” she heard Chuck tell them. “Greg, come with me—this is gonna get us killed but it's gonna get her out of there, though.” He got off of the side of the car and the two of them walked along the road, along the lake's edge. Sam knitted her eyebrows together as she watched Chuck and Greg all the way to the back of the house.

“Wait here,” Chuck said to Greg, and he turned his attention to her. “Meet him here at the back door.”

She nodded her head at that, and she doubled back to the door with her purse over her shoulder.

Another knock on the front door.

“Who is that now?” Bill grumbled as Sam reached the second stairwell again. When his back was turned to her, she hurried down the next flight of stairs to the very bottom. He opened the door only to see Chuck right there, dressed in heavy black leather and with a red and white feather attached to one side of his head.

“Peek a boo!” Chuck lunged for him.

“JEEZ!”

Sam made a run for it right there to the back door. Right in her line of sight. Greg awaited her out there.

She jiggled the door handle. Locked!

“Son of a bitch,” she muttered, but then she turned her attention back to the front door right as Bill shut it. She ducked into the kitchen and the window there over there sink. Greg nodded at her from outside. She opened the window and, with one foot on the sink basin and her other foot right out the window, she climbed through. She poked her head out, followed by her arm.

“Greg!” she called out to him and he hurried over to help her out.

“You got me?” she asked him as he took her hand and set a hand on her knee.

“Yeah. You got it?”

“I think so—” It was a struggle given she almost slipped on the sink basin but she managed to take her other foot through the window. She climbed out through the kitchen window and she landed onto Greg's slender little body. They fell on the grass in unison, and he groaned at the feeling.

“You okay?” she asked him as she lifted herself up into a push up position.

“Yeah.” He gasped for air and he gazed up at her with a goofy grin on his face.

“Hey, Sam hill,” he greeted her, and that brought a laugh out of her.

“Sam hill, is that what you called her?” Chuck laughed along from the side of the house.

“What in the sam hill is going on 'round here?” she laughed as well. She helped Greg to his feet and then she led him out of the back yard and into the street. The three of them ran back to the car right as the setting sun touched the tree line on the far side of the lake.

“Let's get you the hell out of here,” Chuck advised her as he took the keys out of his pocket. Sam reached the passenger door behind Tiffany and she poked her head into the back window where Alex awaited them.

“Alex?” He leaned forward and greeted her with a big toothy grin.

“Hey—” He froze right in his tracks with those deep eyes wide with fear despite the sun.

“What's the matter?”

“What's wrong, Alex?” Tiffany wondered aloud.

He pursed his lips together and held still, and then he bowed his head a bit.

“Very slowly—look—over—there,” he said through gritted teeth and without moving a muscle. Sam turned her attention to across the edge of the lake to the back door of the house, where Bill stood there with his hands pressed to his hips.

“Get in the car!” Greg shouted. “Get in! Get in!”

Alex scooted over and Tiffany leaned the seat forward for Sam and Greg.

“We gotta go,” Chuck declared as he climbed into the driver's seat, “—we gotta go—we gotta go—we gotta go!”

He fired up the car and they lunged forward down the street, only to find it was a cul de sac.

“What the hell!” Alex declared, but they were quick to make the turn around in there, all past the small houses there at the end.

“Hang on, everyone—” Chuck called back as Alex, Sam, and Greg leaned to the side with the turning. But then they doubled back down the street as fast as they could to the next block over. They kept on going until they past the supermarket. Out of breath, Sam leaned back in her seat.

“We out of sight?” Tiffany asked him.

“I think so,” Chuck assured her as they proceeded on to the heart of town. “Didn't look like he can get very far, either.”

“No, there's no way he's getting very far,” Sam added from the safety of the back seat and from in between Alex and Greg.

“That was intense,” Greg admitted.

“Very much so,” Sam added. “I wanna thank you guys, though. I couldn't be happier to be here right now. You guys are all I've got right now tonight.”

“Yeah, we get to hang out for real now!” Alex said with a twinkle in his eye.

“Oh, yes, it's all fun and games now from here on out!” Chuck declared as he reached for something in the center console. “Little pre show ritual, ladies—and gentlemen. Some Motorhead to set the mood!”

She pictured Marla running down the street in Manhattan to those fast drums on that first song “Overkill”. They drove along fast to it, especially once they reached the freeway and began towards the heart of Los Angeles against the sunset. She nestled down in between Alex and Greg all the while: add to this, not only did her parents not know about it, but Joey didn't, either. And it was right at that moment, as the wind fluttered through their hair and Lemmy's growl sliced through the noise of the road underneath them, that she realized she had become a true bad girl.

[nanasarea]

M’lady ii I zch

Prompt: You never knew helping an old woman would give you the responsibility quiet this big, but it’s a good thing you don’t have to share it alone. 

Genre: crack fluff

Pairing: ladybug!reader x chat noir!chenle

Word count: 2.5k (literally the longest i’ve ever written omg)

a/n: slight spoiler for miraculous ladybug if you haven’t seen the finale yet haha also this is so long overdue and not proofread i apologize also pollen and hyuck’s interaction where he’s like “fuck that bitch up” is @jaemallow​ ‘s idea so thank you so much, moonie, i love you! 

prequel to M’lady  (kinda)

Indent + italic = flashback

“When I first got here, you hated me!” Chenle said “What? No, I didn’t!” You tried convincing him, to which he only gave you a “don’t bullshit me” look. “Fine, maybe a little.” 

“Who is he anyway?” You asked, the disgust in your voice very noticeable, which is what your friend, Ryujin mentioned first when answering.

“Woah, don’t get too excited.” She said, laughing.

“His name is Zhong Chenle. He recently started attending this school. He use to be home schooled but his parents finally let him come to public school. I heard everyone is surprised that he’s not going to a private school, since his family is so wealthy.” Ryujin explained as your attention stayed on the tall boy sitting in the 3rd row. 

“Why now?” You asked.

“Ask him, why don’t you.” She winked before going to sit on her seat.

All day, all you heard was Chenle, Chenle, Chenle, it’s all people talked about.

Sure, he was cute, and wealthy, and he might have wowed everyone with his piano skills while you waited for your music professor to come to class, but what you couldn’t understand was why. 

“A little?” He asked, laughing. 

“I did think you were cute if that helps.” You joked. 

“Now, I know we’re not suppose to say too much but when did you get the box?” He asked. 

You kept thinking about Chenle, all day. So much so that you got distracted on your walk home and didn’t even notice the old lady almost being run over by a  motorcyclist.

Fortunately, you snapped back into reality at the right moment, so you could help her out. 

You ran towards her as fast as you could and tried to guide her away from the motorcycle before it could run her over. 

“Are you okay, ma’am?” You asked, concerned for her safety. 

“Oh, why thank you, young lady.” She thanked you warmly before she turned to face you. 

“You seem very kind.” She added.

“No problem! I would like to think everyone would have helped in my situation.” You nervously said.

She took your hand and said “One would like to hope, but not everyone is as kind as you.” She smiled before giving you her goodbyes and leaving your side. 

“Ma’am, you forgot th-” “I assure you, I never forget anything.” She cut you off before you could ask her about the box she left in your hand. 

It was a small red oval wooden box with black dots all around. You decided to put it in your bag and open it once you got home, which you did.

You stared at it for half an hour, wondering what it could be and if you should actually open it or not. You finally got the courage and opened it.

“Hi, y/n! My name’s Tikki!” The small being greeted, which caused you to fall back along with your chair.

You let out a scream before asking “What are you? Who are you? Why do you know my name?” You asked. 

“I’m a kwami, as I said, my name’s Tikki-” “A k-kwami? What’s that?” You asked. 

“Kwamis are divine, sprite-like beings who embody "abstract" concepts. They give certain powers to people with Miraculouses, transforming them into animal-themed super beings!” She explained as you continued to stare at her in confusion. 

After she finished explaining how the old lady was the guardian of the miraculous and when she met you, she knew she had to give you the miraculous of creation.

She also explained that when you say “Tikki, spots on.”, you transform into a ladybug-themed superhero and to switch back, you just have to say “Tikki, spots off”.

On top of it all, she explained the powers of the lucky charm and so much more.

“But why me? How could I posses the power of creation?” You asked. 

“No worries, y/n, master Dupain-Cheng makes no mistakes! I would know, I was her kwami when she was your age!” Tikki smiled before telling you the story of how her previous master was the same as you. 

“What about you?” You asked, wondering how his first encounter with Plagg went.

“He was a handful, he kept asking for cheese.” He laughed

He was making his way to the car when he saw an old lady almost trip and fall but he thankfully got to the elderly in time to save her.

“Are you alright, ma’am?” he asked “Yes, I’m fine, young man, you are very kind.” She smiled as she put a hand on his bag.

“My apologize, at my age, you don’t really have your balance anymore.” She laughed.

“Do you need help with anything?” He asked, smiling.

“No thank you! I’ll manage, kind sir. Have a good day!” She said quickly before making her way back home.

“Chenle?” His assistant asked, to which he quickly ran towards the car.

Once he got to his room, he threw his bag onto his desk, only to find a box flying out of it.

“That’s...strange...I don’t remember owning such a box.” He said to himself before taking the box into his hand and staring at it.

“When did you get in my bag?” He asked before opening the box and seeing a small flying creature staring at him.

“Hey, you’re cool! Like a genie in a bottle or something.” Chenle excitedly said

“Yeah yeah, I met him once, he’s a big show off. I’m way better. The name’s Plagg. Nice to meet you! Do you have any food? I’m starving!” and with that, Plagg started flying across Chenle’s room.

“Hey! Hold on! What even are you?” Chenle asked .

“I’m a kwami, I grant powers, yours is destruction, understand?” Plagg asked.

“Not quite.” Chenle answered.

“Good, now where’s the camembert?” He asked before searching the room.

“D-did you not hear me?” Chenle asked.

“Camembert and then we talk!” Plagg commanded.

After getting him his precious cheese, Plagg started explaining. Not that it mattered, since it made no sense, but Chenle at least learned about the guardian and his powers.

“Let me get this straight. All I have to do to transform is say Plagg, claws out?” Chenle asked to which Plagg nodded before Chenle felt his transformation starting.

“Woah, awesome!” Chenle yelled before running to the nearest mirror.

“I do look very cool and handsome if I do say so myself.” he commented as he continued to check himself out in the mirror.

“I have to admit, the first time I met you, or ladybug, to be specific. I thought you were cute too.” Chenle replied, blushing and looking down at his iced chocolate. 

After the day you met Tikki, you had done some research on kwamis and Miraculouses, when you weren’t obsessively questioning everyone’s liking to a certain new classmate.

This day, you were hanging out at your friend’s place. It was suppose to be her brother’s birthday party but you couldn’t help but read the book you downloaded on your phone on the history of Ladybugs. 

“No offence, but you are going to have to put down your phone and enjoy. If not, I’ll be sad.” The brother said as he sat down next to you. 

“Sorry, Jeno. I was just doing some research.” You apologized. 

“What on?” He asked, causing you to panic, as you had no time to come up with an excuse “Sorry, rude to pry.” Jeno added before you could answer. 

“No worries.” You chuckled before saying “Nice guitar” as you saw him moving forward to grab it.

“Wanna hear me play?” He asked “Of course!” You replied, smiling at him. 

“What does she even see in him?” Chenle asked on the other side of the room.

 “Maybe the fact that he actually talks to her?” Jisung laughed at his best friend’s pout 

“You know what? Who even asked you.” Chenle scuffed as he took a sip from his drink.

With the nighttime approaching, Chenle’s annoyance grew, but so did Jeno.

You see, if Jeno hated anything, it was people calling him unfunny. Yes, it was a joke most of the time, but it hurt.

When his friends called him unfunny, he just laughed along, but once other classmates, who only see him at school did it, he got mad. It got to the point where you noticed a purple butterfly fly towards his guitar.

“ Oh no.” You whispered to yourself.

“Jeno watch out! There’s an akuma flying straight to your guitar!” You yelled but before you knew it, it had already made contact with his guitar, causing his whole body and guitar to be covered in a purple substance before he transformed.

This caused everyone to run away from him, including you and including Chenle. 

“So, I’m guessing this is the part where I have to transform and do my thing?” You asked the floating kwami, to which Tikki nodded happily. 

“Tikki, spots on!” You yelled as you felt your clothes changing. 

“Plagg, claws out!” Chenle yelled in the bathroom, unknowingly not so far away from you. 

You ran out to catch up with Jeno, or his akumatized self. 

“Meow, who are you?” The sudden comment stopped you in your track, causing you to turn around and see a tall boy in a black catsuit. 

“I’m guessing your the infamous Chat Noir, who’s going to accompany me in taking down Hawkmoth?” You asked, to which he just stared in confusion. 

“Hawk what now?” He asked.

 “Did your kwami not tell you anything?” You asked, chuckling at the confused boy in front of you.

“Plagg...likes to eat more than he likes to talk.” He nervously admitted before you realized the situation you were in. 

“I would love to give you a history lesson, but we have some people to save, so shall we?” You asked, so he nodded before you started your chase after Jeno.

“And I was super jealous of Jeno.” He added “Why?” You asked.

“You gave him a lot of attention! Plus, he looks like that and he can play guitar! Can you blame me?” Chenle laughed.

“Oh please, you have nothing to be jealous of.” You jokingly winked at the boy.

“At least I didn’t get akumatized that day because of him.” He added.

 “That would have been a disaster.” You agreed. 

“Like that time we had to ask Haechan to help us.” Chenle jokingly scuffed.

 “Oh my god, don’t even.” You sighed. 

It was just another normal day. You were hanging out with Ryujin and some other friends when you heard a loud bang come from the town square. 

“That means ladybug is on her way. Gotta go, need more content for my ladyblog!” Ryujin yelled, to which they all followed. All but you, since you had to convince them you were too scared. 

“Scaredy cat.” Ryujin joked as you quickly excused yourself to “hide.” 

“Y/N, I think you’ll need some help this time.” Tikki commented. 

“But I have Chat.” You reminded.

“More than Chat this time. I’ve heard this sound before and trust me, you’ll need the bee miraculous today.” Tikki explained, to which you just sighed and made your way to master Dupain-Cheng. 

“Master?” You asked as you entered the room. 

“Yes, dear?” She asked.

“Tikki said I might need another miraculous today?” You said, nervously.

“Ah, yes, Pollen. I had a hard time with this one myself.” She giggled, fondly looking at her miracle book before placing it on the floor in front of us.

“Is there anyone you know you can trust with this?” She asked as she gave you the box.

 “A specific person did come to mind actually.” You answered, smiling at the box. 

You quickly arrived at Haechan’s house and knocked on his door. You went to the same school and shared some mutual friends. From what you heard, he does a good job at anything he does, so your mind first went to him. 

“Lee Donghyuck, this is the bee miraculous, which grants you the power to immobilize your opponent. You will use it for the greater good.” You smiled at him once he opened the door, to which he smiled fondly and looked at the box and back at you, as if to ask you for reassurance.

You nodded and moved the box closer to him, which made his smile even wider. 

He opened the box and the small bee kwami started flying around him before stopping and saying “At your service, my king”. 

“You will return your miraculous once the job is done. Can I trust you?” You asked, to which he nodded while placing the hair pin into his hair.

“To transform, just say “Pollen, buzz on.”, my king.” Pollen said as the building next to them exploded. 

“Oh no you didn’t. That’s my best friend’s house.” Haechan angrily sighed. 

“Pollen?” He asked.

“Yes my king?” Pollen asked, to which Haechan scuffed and said “fuck that bitch up” in a smug tone. 

“Pollen, buzz on!”

Once you caught up with Chat Noir, you explained to him that you needed an extra hand today, to which he only scuffed. 

“Who even is he? Besides, I’m the only help you need, m’lady. We’re purrrfect together.” He smiled at you with almost literal heart eyes. 

“Hey, tuna breath, you need me, so buzz off.” Haechan commented before Chenle sighed and rolled his eyes. At the end of the day, he did fuck that bitch up as he promised, but he also annoyed the shit out of Chat Noir so you had to promise him not to ask Haechan for help again.

“I can’t believe I didn’t realize you were my purrfect match sooner, bugaboo.” Chenle said, winking at you before his ears turned into the color of your superhero suit. 

“To be fair, your hair does change slightly when you transform. Mine doesn’t.” You laughed.

“But still, those beautiful eyes don’t change.” He said, to which you only blushed while sipping on your iced chocolate. 

It was nice looking back on your hero adventures with Chenle, who you would never have guessed was Chat Noir.

Tikki even said it’s funny how you developed crushes on both of them but never noticed they were the same person.

If it wasn’t for the ring, you might not have even noticed now. After you both found out that day after school, you both awkwardly decided to ask one another out. 

“Finally! And to think I had to listen to the whole “do I like y/n or do I like ladybug?” rants, ugh.” Plagg complained, to which Tikki and Chenle’s eyes widened while your cheeks heated up. 

“To be fair, I wasn’t so quiet about you either.” You confessed, trying to soften the mood. 

While you placed your drink back on the table, your eyes focused on the tv in the corner of the small cafe. 

“It’s Nadja Chamack! Don't be bemused, it's just the news! Today, we’re reporting live from town square where another civilian has been fallen victim of Hawkmoth’s akumatization!” You heard from the tv and looked at Chenle. 

“I guess that’s our cue.” You laughed before you both ran to the bathrooms to transform.  

[pigeontheoneandonly]

Cheeseburger AU

I’m so exhausted I’m almost drunk on lack of sleep, so have some Phyto Burger insanity:

Nathaly Shepard smiled brightly over her register.  “Would you like fries with that?’

The gesture was forced.  The middle-aged customer pursed her lips, her pair of children swarming at hip-level, standing on tip-toes to see over the counter.  “My darlings don’t need all those empty calories.  They will have orange slices.”

“We don’t have oranges.”

The customer’s chest swelled.  “They have oranges at Burger Town.”

“Yeah, well, we don’t,” Shepard said shortly.  It was spaceport fast food.  Two months and she still didn’t understand people who came in expecting a high standard of quality.  “We got phyto-fries or cheese sticks.  You want some or what?”

“Don’t you dare be short with me.”  Her eyes narrowed.  “I am a paying customer.”

The younger of the two children giggled, glancing from her mother to Shepard.  Shepard sat back on her heel.  “Lady, you haven’t even glimpsed short yet.”

Her face went purple.  “I’m glad my daughter will never find herself working in a nasty place like this.  Does your mother know you dyed your hair that filthy shade, or is she not around?”

Shepard’s hand went to her blue hair before she could stop herself, where it bunched up in the back to fit under the food-safe paper hat.  Her hard gaze settled on the customer.

“My test scores are in the top three percent of my class.”  There was no need to mention her grades were barely passing.  “Maybe your daughter should dye her hair.  Might help.”

The little girl stopped laughing.  Her mother seized her hand.  “I’ve never been so mistreated.  Cancel the order.  I’ll have your job for this!”

“Good luck with that,” Shepard replied, without interest.

The customer swept from the store.  Shepard hit the void button on the register and braced for what was coming.

It didn’t take more than twenty seconds for McCandless’ door to creak open the barest crack.  “Shepard! Office.  Now!”

She raised her eyes briefly to the ceiling, a universal appeal for sanity, and trudged towards the back of the store.

The manager’s office was barely more than a closet, and he had to share space with the mop and bucket.  Shepard yanked the door the rest of the way open and folded her arms.  “What?”

Roy McCandless was a man gone to seed in the way of men who were ten years past giving up on any kind of long-term relationship or rewarding career.  He lifted his eyes from his terminal.  “What in the fuck did you just say to that customer?”

“She was a total bitch—”

“She was a customer.”  He thumped his fist on the strip of plywood that passed for a desk.  “Damn it girl, that was the fifth one this week.”

“Better than last week, then.”

He jabbed his finger at her.  “I swear to god—”

“What exactly is your problem?”

“You disrespect the customers.  You forget your greetings and your upsells.  How fucking hard is it to remind the damn customers that all of our patties are grown in-house?”

She was in disbelief.  “Nobody finds that appetizing.  That convinces exactly nobody to eat here.”

“A lot of corporate people with marketing degrees think otherwise.  Our same-store sales are down 15% from this time last year.”

Shepard tossed her head, exasperated.  “Maybe if you came out and helped instead of sitting in here and jacking off all the time, we’d make more sales.”

He reddened. “Little girl like you has no idea what she’s talking about.”

“I’m sixteen, not eight,” she protested.  “I recognize your goddamn porno music when it’s playing behind me the whole shift.”

He glanced from her to his terminal display.  Clearly, he hadn’t realized it was audible.  Shepard rolled her eyes.  “Can I go back to work now?”

“Yeah.”  He wouldn’t look at her.  “Sure.  Just… try to… yeah.  And straighten your damn hat.”

She saluted him, facetiously, and returned to the counter.  In the restaurant, a young man waited with a somewhat nervous air, glancing around for a cashier.  

Shepard looked over her shoulder and saw McCandless’ beady eye staring out at her from behind the door frame.  A brief fantasy of taking her hat and showing him precisely where he could stuff it flitted through her mind.  But there was also her father, who was so proud that she was finally getting her life together, and the idea of telling him she quit only eight weeks in was unbearable.

So she took a breath, put on another fake smile, and did her best to keep the sarcasm from her voice.  “Welcome to Phyto Burger, home of the best beef that’s never lived.  What can I get you?”

He stuck his hands in his pockets.  The shyness was unexpected.  He seemed only a few years older than her, easy on the eyes with close-cropped black hair and a warm brown gaze.  Her irritation softened a bit.  “We do a pretty good chocolate milkshake.  You look like you could use one.”

“Nah.”  He glanced up at the menu, without caring much. “I’ll have a number four combo.”

“Sure thing.” She punched in the order.  Now that he’d finally looked at her, he was staring.  Shepard collected stares like some kids collected shoes— a lot of people shared her earlier customer’s sentiments— but this felt different.  She eyed him.  “Something else you need?”

He gave himself a shake.  “Sorry. You, uh, missed an eyebrow.”

“What?”  

“One red, one blue.”

She leaned towards the shined countertop to inspect her reflection.  “Shit.  My friend did my hair.  I’m going to kill her.”

“That seems a little extreme.”  He shrugged. “It’s kind of cute, anyway.  Different.”

Shepard smiled— real, this time.  She was the kind of sixteen that was all limbs and elbows, and gifted with an abrasive personality.  Cute wasn’t a word she heard a lot.  “What brings you to Mars?”

“Layover on my way to Triton.  I’ve got a summer internship with Ultradyne.”

She transferred the order over to the robot.  “University student?  What are you studying?”

“Electronic engineering.”

Shepard smirked. “Fancy.”

He blushed. It was adorable.  She leaned over the counter.  “You seem kind of unsure of yourself for a college kid.”

“I’m nineteen. I haven’t been in that long.”  He paused.  “You know what, I think I will have that milkshake.”

[alynawatchestv]

Alyna watches Xena - 01x01 Sins of the Past

Beware. For the road is long and full of spoilers… I mean, if a 25 years old show can be spoiled. But fair warning.

This thing here was supposed to be short but I made a very long recap of the episode. Sorry not sorry, I’m gonna be making recaps of the series. Yes, every single episode… Not regularly... And it's gonna be long.

Comments and reblogs are appreciated. 👍👍👍

We start with Xena is going through some burned village reminiscing on her past when she was just killing, pillaging and burning villages… And people too, I guess. And then there’s this boy coming out of a burned house asking for food. And when Xena asks him where his parents are, he says Xena killed them. He describes her attack as if the goddess herself showed up and fucked the village up for no reason and Xena is all like:

And it’s really one of the best moments of a pilot, because we’re shown flashback of the attack so even without watching Hercules and meeting Xena there we can see she used to be a bad bitch. So before leaving she gives the kid some bread and cheese so he could hide in his burned house and eat something before he dies of some sickness, gets killed, is eaten by wild animals in search for food etc. Brilliant plan boy, you’re a prodigy.

So then we have the scene where Xena digs a hole and puts her armor her sword and chakram there and frankly, she’s not really a clean lady since there’s still blood and some meat pieces on her chakram.

*rule #1 - wash your weapons from enemies intestines*

And suddenly, a whole bunch of villagers is chased by some warlord taken straight from Mad Max movie. Xena observes the situation, the Mad Max warlord says he’s gonna get the girls (men, smh) and then this blonde girl is all like “take me and leave everyone” and warlords are like “lmfao, nope” and Xena is all like:

*Carless Whisper saxophone solo intensifies*

Because frankly, who wouldn’t be? I know I had the same reaction to Gabrielle so I get Xena. I totally get it.

So when the warlord wants to whip Gabrielle for being insubordinate Xena suddenly jumps into action and starts kicking ass. We get backflips, kicks, punches and a really awesome action sequence until Xena is hit in the head (because she was watching if Gabrielle was safe and it got her distracted. Again, totally understandable).

Men are standing there groaning “argh, grr, rghhg” or something like that and then BOOM! Xena takes out her sword from the hole and with a laugh starts fighting them. And you can see how much fun she has. She kicks warlords’ asses and realizes they’re from Draco so she tell them to say hello from Xena. But who’s Draco? What does he do? Is he more evil then Xena? We don’t know! And… opening!

In a time of ancient gods, warlords… Well, you know it.

So later on Xena is in this small village surrounded by the villagers and Gabrielle is fawning over her and the whole situation, and Gabrielle’s father comes in being all like “thanks for saving us, but now GTFO” and this tall dude behind him wants to take Gabrielle. But Gabrielle is all like “dude, I know I’m supposed to marry you against my will and then die in childbirth or of boredom, but I’m not gonna listen to you. GTFO”. So when he leaves, Gabrielle begs Xena to take her with her. Xena being stoic and supposedly unmoved by Gabrielle words of course disagrees, because “she works alone” and… Then she tells Gabrielle she’s going to Amphipolis, because OF COURSE Gabrielle wouldn’t try and follow her. Nope. Not at all. And she goes like “don’t follow me, you don’t wanna make me mad, do you?” and of course Gabrielle is all like “yeah, no sure, I get it” but then is of course “meh, she’s not that scary. I just need a plan!”

So we move to Draco’s camp where he’s without shirt exposing his bare chest, being all handsome and shit, and being badass when catching almost four arrows at once. But then he’s sort of colorblind… I mean he notices the color of the arrow that wounded him but can’t see who has green arrows when the dude’s arrows are visible from behind his back...

*seriously Draco…*

Anyway, later he’s alone and Xena sneaks in and they have the whole who's tougher bitch, which is Xena of course, and she asks him to leave the village alone (because of her future wife or something) and Draco’s all like “yeah, sure… If you join me” and when Xena says she can’t join Draco, being a typical man he asks why. And we get this really awesome scene where Xena dramatically turns her back, stares at nothing and says she’s going home. OH, DRAMA!

So Draco becomes even a bigger drama queen than Xena and tells our warrior saying he’s dreamt of being in love with her or… fighting in battle or whatever, can’t remember, but Xena turns and Draco goes all soft and says he’ll spare those villagers. But he also asks Xena what's she looking for at home. Being still in drama mode he tells her that when he tried to come home his dad beat the shit out of him with a blacksmith’s hammer. And he survived that. Damn, he IS badass! I mean, have you people ever seen a blacksmith hammer?!

*9/10 parents wouldn't recommend this as an educational tool*

Meanwhile, Gabrielle wants to escape home in the middle of the night and while sneaking out she… Hits strategically placed table waking up her sister Lila. Gabrielle explains to her she needs to follow Xena because she’s in lo… She wants to be a warrior like her and that she doesn’t love Perdicus and it’s her destiny. So Lila being a supportive sister is all like “Go, chase your girlf…. Dreams! Just do it!” and Gabrielle leaves.

*Lila being a supportive sister*

It’s daylight and Xena is riding Argo when suddenly her horse stops all afraid. So Xena gets off the horse that suddenly runs away and… The Blind Cyclops shows up with Draco’s dad’s blacksmith’s hammer! (I honestly don’t know if I used Saxon Genitive in the right way, but I hope you get the meaning). Xena is all like “Fuuuck, that’s a big hammer!” which makes the Blind Cyclops even more badass than he already is, but she stands to fight and humiliates him by dropping his pants. He starts bawling like a baby and Xena leaves him and continues her journey to Amphipolis, because she has no time to deal with Cyclops drama.

But Draco is plotting against Xena. He decides to attack Amphipolis and pretend it was Xena who told him to do it. Plot thickens, you guys.

Gabrielle is afraid of bridges… And gets caught by…Yes, you guessed right. The Blind Cyclops. But being a smart girl she says she’s out here to find and kill Xena because… And here we have very subtexty dialogue:

C: “How’s the young thing like you is gonna kill Xena?”

G: “That’s the point. She’d never let a man get close enough to do her. At least not that kind of do her. But a young, innocent looking girl like me, I’ll catch her totally off guard…

*You sure will, Gabrielle. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)*

At the same time, Xena is being followed by Draco’s warlords. They’re dumb enough to think she doesn’t know so she goes all ninja on them, fingers the Mad Max warlord… I mean, she cuts the blood to his body… Pervs. ;) And when she learns about the plan she leaves to stop the invasion.

In the next scene, Gabrielle is chilling out on the road when some old dude stops and tells her to GTFO, because she’s blocking the only route to Amphipolis. So Gabrielle convinces him to take her with him and the old dude agrees.

So while Gabrielle and the old man are traveling on the only route to Amphipolis, Xena is taking a detour through the hills for dramatic effect or something. Basically, New Zealand… I mean Greece is a beautiful place so why not show it, right? Right?

She meets those peasant women singing Bulgarian…  I mean Greek chants and rides through them, but they don’t give a shit being too into chanting and putting on stacks of… Hay, I guess. Meh, whatever.

So Xena reaches Amhipolis and goes into a tavern to drink wine and sleep with beautiful women. But unfortunately it’s not that kind of a tavern and there’s no wine and beautiful women to sleep with. All she meets are angry people, silence and… wait for it… her mother, Cyrene!

Cyrene grabs Xena’s sword and tells her she’s not welcomed there and she should GTFO. Xena wants to rally people against Draco but Cyrene is against and she tells Xena she’d rather die and that she’s not her mother. And it’s a rather powerful stuff, because we only know glimpses of Xena’s past so we don’t really know how big her crimes are. Of course burning one village and killing peasants is a big no no, but Xena is too big of a character to be hated for such a minor offense. Anyway, villagers in the tavern also tell Xena to GTFO so she does.

Draco is pissed that Mad Max warlord told Xena about his plans and tells him to pick a weapon. Sadly it’s not Draco’s father’s blacksmith’s hammer because that’s been stolen by the Blind Cyclops, but a simple spear. Still, Draco proves to be truly awesome by kicking Mad Max warlord’s ass and killing him while telling new plans to his people. Truly, he was a great choice for a pilot.

In the morning, Xena comes back to the tavern looking around hoping to find some wine and beautiful ladies to sleep with, but to her disappointment there are still none. But her sword is there. And her mom is there. Oh boy, this tension between them could cut diamonds in half. But we get a bonding moment where Cyrene and Xena open old wounds so they could heal, and Xena tells her mother she might not be able to set things right, but she’s gonna spend the rest of her life to try. It’s another great moment in this show where we see Xena in her vulnerable state and not all powerful and strong. And this moment is ruined by villagers coming into the tavern saying Xena’s army is burning fields to which Xena answers they’re lying, Cyrene feels all hurt thinking it was all a ruse and leaves, and villagers start throwing rocks at our warrior princess.

But then Gabrielle comes to the rescue! Because Gabrielle has a natural talent to talk her way out of troubles, she uses it to save Xena. She uses a cunning bluff of “if you hurt bad guy’s girlfriend imagine how pissed he’ll be”. So the villagers reluctantly agree and decide to not commit murder. After a small talk Xena takes Gabrielle on her horse and takes her to her dead brother. Because, you know, there’s no better start of a romance than a visit at the crypt.

So Xena is talking to his dead brother saying she’s lost but that she’s gonna be ok, but that she’s alone and then Gabrielle shows up saying she’s not. And by the way that they’re looking at each other we’re to believe these two weren’t into each other from the beginning? Please.

*They’ve known each other for like 1 hour and we get those looks already? So straight indeed*

Meanwhile, the villagers are waiting for Draco to make a deal, but when he shows up he’s threatening to destroy everything and kill everyone unless they tell him where Xena is. And this is another great moment for Draco, because he really is a scary and ruthless dude and I really wish he was more in this show then just 3 episodes. It was a wasted character, imo.

Anyway, while threatening the leader to kill him, Xena shows up and Draco makes fun of her asking about the homecoming. Again, he tries to convince Xena to join him and goes all Palpatine saying she should “celebrate her dark side”, but Xena is all like “pfft, fuck off and let’s fight to the death”. Draco tells her to choose weapons, but Xena leaves the choice to Draco. Now, Draco being a really smart guy and someone who knows how good Xena is with swords, chooses staffs. I’m sure he believes it’ll give him advantage or at least even oit the odds. Xena chooses the conditions and her conditions are to fight on a scaffolding. The first person to touch the ground is gonna die. Draco agrees and tells his people that whoever falls first is to be killed.

Doing a flip with the help of his people he gets to a scaffolding and grabs his staff. Xena is way more of a showgirl. She hits the dude with his staff and when he leans down she jumps on his back and then on a head of another warlord and jumps to meet her opponent.

They start fighting. It’s an even fight and Draco proves to be a worthy opponent. Soon Xena has to fight to stay on the bamboo scaffolding as it starts to fall off. The archers prepare to shoot, Cyrene shows up and everyone is thinking if she’s gonna fall. But no, Xena standing on one bamboo stick starts hitting bamboos under Draco’s feet to make him back out and leave him vulnerable. But Draco stands tough and very soon he manages to make Xena almost fall again. She manages to hang on her staff, her legs barely touching the ground. Cyrene starts panicking, being all teary, because, come on, she’s a mom. No matter how pissed our moms are at us, they worry 24/7.

Draco starts hiting Xena’s hands wanting her to let go and fall, asking her why she would die for the people that hate her. But Xena grabs Draco’s staff with her feet and doing a truly awesome backflip she manages to stand on the scaffolding again attacking him. Draco almost falls but jumps on people’s heads and give Xena a signal to join him.

And the same villagers who earlier denied Xena her wine and beautiful women to sleep with, and wanted her dead are now supporting her… Literally. She manages to stand on the arms of one person and attacks Draco. They do backflips, kicks, punches and all that for a few minutes and then with one swift kick to the chest Draco falls down on the ground and Xena jumps on his chest looking down upon him to let him know he’s just a little bitch and not a match to her skills. Xena promises to spare Draco if he leaves the valley and he agrees.

But one of his warlords decides to sneakily attack Xena from behind. Gabrielle’s warns her, but before the warrior can react Draco throws his knife at him. After all, Draco may be a ruthless warlord, but he’s honorable.

After the fight Xena is preparing to leave when Cyrene shows up and hugs Xena, who asks again for forgiveness and is, of course, given that. It's a truly awesome moment in this pilot.

But, and honestly I have no idea why, Xena doesn’t stay in the tavern for wine and beautiful women to sleep with. Maybe there is no wine and beautiful women to sleep with after all. Instead, Xena starts a fire near some woods when she hears some noise and goes into a warrior mode. But, as it turns out, it’s just Gabrielle saying she wanted to follow Xena without her noticing, but she couldn’t start a fire and it’s cold and there are mosquitoes looking lkke eagles or something.

Xena wants to send her back home, but Gabrielle says she won’t go. There’s a talk about not belonging there and Xena seems to understand Gabrielle completely. So when she gives Gabrielle a blanket we get one of the most beautiful moments in the pilot.

*couldn't find gif so you're stuck with bad screenshot*

And in the morning we see Xena and Gabrielle travelling to new adventures to right wrongs, drink wine and… Oh forget it.

This episode is all kinds of awesomeness. It’s a great introduction to a character of Xena even to those, like me, who didn’t know her from Hercules. It has tons of very well choreographed fights, amazing music and it’s a rreally strong pilot that makes you wanna see more.

10/10

Edit: I got the gif. Thanks @girl4music​ :)

*there’s nothing gay here. nada. zero... mhm...*

[ladyhistorypod]

Bonus Episode: Cut Content

Attributions: Police Scanner Clips

Click below for a transcript of this episode!

Alana: When we first started this podcast my parents had the feedback that maybe there was too much banter. And now they're not allowed to call me on Shabbat. I went back to dating apps recently, fifty percent because I got those quarantine lonelies and fifty percent to plug the podcast. I'm dead serious if you find my like Bumble profile, I do have the Lady History account hooked up to it to plug the podcast. And some dude from Hinge listened to the first episode and was like this really seemed to drag on but you sound like you're having a good time. And I was like I think that's the first time I've ever been negged, never been negged before I think that's what negging is? But so I said to him, I said you have misread the situation and I only take praise. And then I unmatched with him. So anyway we did take that to heart, mom, dad we were listening and we cut out a lot of banter. And all of it was good especially from episode nine there is probably gonna be a lot from episode nine because all that banter was good. Lexi: And we love animals and that was we just kept going. Alana: We love animals. But here it is. All of the banter that my parents made me cut. Lexi: Dear listeners if you hear little cracks, little swallows, little tap tapping noises. It's because, it's almost Christmas and let Lexi the editor is tired and she's decided that because the bonus episode doesn't really matter. So if you like me have misophonia I apologize but now you k:now what it feels like every day when I edit Haley We be humans not robots. Alana: We be humans not robots. Lexi: I wish there was like an AI podcast editor. [INTRO MUSIC] Alana: So my latest project in the Sims, aside from trying to get to, I think my total is thirteen hundred and sixty hours. For like the police training thing. So far I'm at eight seventy two. Which I have passed Pennsylvania which is eight fifty nine. And I think next is there are two that are eight eighty and I think one of them is Rhode Island. Hawaii is zero hours by the way. Lexi: Wait what. Alana: Zero police training hours. Lexi: You just sign up and you- *frustration sound* We’lll pull that apart another time. Alana *laugh* Yeah.  But. So I'm recreating the restaurants from the area where I grew up because that's like the only thing I miss about Santa Clarita is my restaurants. So I recently I recreated my favorite. My favorite Mexican food place it's in the gallery if you want it it's called Sim Cuco because the name of the actual restaurant is Don Cuco and so I changed it. I also made Eggs-n-Things is my favorite breakfast place and I called that I think I called that Eggs and Sims and then I made In-n-Out and called it Sim-n-Out. Lexi: That is amazing. Police Radio Sound Effect, Male voice: No one wants to go to jail for things. Haley: That makes sense. That makes absolute sense. Lexi’s Brother: Ah precious baby! Lexi: Dude, dude. Alana: Dude. Lexi: Dude. Dude. Could you close the door? Lexi’s Brother: Yeah but look at him. Lexi: I know. Lexi’s Brother: Wait I have- Lexi: Oh, okay everyone come in and hug the dog in my room. Haley: I heard precious dong and I got real scared with your library background. Lexi: No Every it's. It's ten o'clock which is bed time here and so everyone comes in to tell the dog they love him in my room. Haley: That’s acceptable. I'm obsessed with my cat right now and then making him a very nice blanket like look at this! And I just found out I had been allowing him to sit on this Michael’s box. Lexi: This is why he stays in my room, Dad. Because I don't mess with them I let him have a space; he's a Big Boy. Sorry. Haley: My cat peed on my Michael's box and pee was on yarn and I'm like well ya fucker, you just peed on my yarn. Lexi: You can wash yarn though. Haley: I guess. Lexi: Bundle it and put it in the washing machine. Haley: I hope it’s not the box of yearn ya can't wash. But like it got cat pee on it and it's supposed to be his second blanket like his really big blanket that I was gonna like fold up into like a cat bed is this is just gonna be like a little - Lexi: Well then you know what it’s perfect that he peed on it. Alana: He peed on his own yarn. Haley: I know that's what my dad was like just like making him fucking deal with it but I was like but I don't want to have knit with it. Alana: Yeah. Lexi: Wash it. Wash it on a cold gentle cycle. Haley: And I think of what you were saying like let's see the compostable dog toys like that's not something you can go down to your like ShopRite and be like that’s what I need. Lexi: Well I need corn based PLA and a 3D printer which both things I could not purchase down the street. Haley: Maybe the Whole Foods would have that. Lexi: Corn-based PLA? PLA is the material that feeds into a 3D printer to print stuff out. I don't think Whole Foods carries that. Alana: They should. Haley: I now say whole foods doesn't have it it's just it doesn't exist. Speaker 1: Because there’s a Whole Foods next to my parents that's just massive and my mom her response to everything was like go to whole foods and I’m like there's so much more than Whole Foods. There's a Trader Joe's, a Stu Leonard's, an Acme, Stop and Shop. Just now that I have more than like one grocery store at my disposal is- Alana: You have a Trader Joe's. Haley: Oh yeah, Trader Joe's is the best. Lexi: I love Trader Joe’s. Talk about a good business. Alana: Talk about a good business. Lexi:+Did you guys ever use lime wire? I know we were very young when I was a thing. Haley & Alana: Yeah. Haley: Ya, no I’ve use it. Lexi: But when I found out what that was... Alana: Well I was actively not allowed to do it because I could just be like, “Hello” I mean I'm very privileged. “Hello I need an iTunes gift card to buy songs” and my parents would be like “okay”. Lexi: I used it and when I found out it existed. I really went all in. I had the original iPod Shuffle the white brick. That my dad got at an events for work at the Trump golf course in New Jersey. He's not a Trump supporter this was in what 2006 and it was. Alana: Before Trump was a Trump supporter. Lexi: Yes I believe at the time Trump was a Democrat but he wasn't there because of that but his company rented out the golf course for an event and they all got gift bag that said like Trump hotel so my mom had to rip that part of the bag off when we we re-used after that. But I got this- one of the party favors was a white brick iPod. This is all relevant trust me. So... Alana: It’s also like the peak of technology in 2006. Lexi: Yes and I loved it. You couldn’t pick what song you just went with it. So I downloaded, we were going to the beach and my mom said okay you can take it as long as you don't let it get sandy so the night before I went on my morning downloaded like all this stuff and I didn't really check it I just threw it on the iPod. So I'm sitting in the car going to the beach. I'm listening to my iPod shuffle, my white brick with a USB stick and this thing comes on like and I’m like I don’t remember I downloading this? It’s Bill Clinton saying I did not have relations with that woman. And I was like what the hell is this. Didn't cross my mind until I was like a teenager and I kind of became more of the internet and I realized that back in the day on like limewire and other platforms like that people would as a prank put that quote instead of songs and I was like oh my god that's what happened to me when I was ten, eleven whatever that was and that was the first Bill Clinton moment I ever had in my life. My favorite thing to dislike about Bill Clinton is that he decided it was okay to go play saxophone. That made me uncomfortable but it is one of my favorite things to love to hate to love to be a uncomfy about. So yeah that's my Bill Clinton story. Bill Clinton: But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me I'm gonna say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Miss Lewinski. I never told anybody to lie not a single time. Never.

Haley: Ah okay so there's this thing you can look it up it's Susan Lawrence in Chappaqua, New York so overpriced d for excellent food and it kind of is like a boujie Jewish deli because like you just walk up to the counter be like I want half a pound of kale salad and they just give you the kale salad but then there's like food all around you like black and white cookies which is also something you'll see in New York Jewish deli. And it's just fabulous their mac and cheese cups A+. In the summer with their iced teas because they put half ice when the ice tea and on top they put like lemon sorbet it is beautiful and I've always wanted something like that so I can... Alana: It’s like an Arnold Palmer float. Haley: Yes. Alana and Lexi: I want that. Haley: So so so good. Alana: I'm gonna try that. Haley: Such a cute little seating area and like their part like so they have like the actual food you can eat but then like amazing pastries and cakes so in my head… Alana: Um Haley: What. Alana: You can still eat pastries and cakes. I just want to point that out. The actual food that you could eat. You said that they have actual food that you can eat and also pastries and cakes. You can also eat pastries cakes. Haley: I can't because all the pastries and cakes have eggs, so in my head that's not real food. Lexi: Haley was thinking everyone in the world can't have eggs. You just look at cakes. Haley: That’s how like I describe restaurants to people. That's like not food that all has eggs. Alana: It’s poison. Haley: Food a lot of it has eggs or cross contamination and in my head like Greek restaurants are just not viable for me.

Haley: Can we have like an episode. . . I know this isn't lady but completely can we have like an episode about how like most of the founding farmer, founding not founding farmers, founding fathers Lexi: Just little DC tings.. Haley: Yeah. Were queer. Because boy howdy I have been watching so many youtube videos on that. Alana: I’m in. . . this is totally off topic and it's fine and I'm sorry that Lexi will have to go through all this when editing. Lexi: I don't care. Alana Whatever, cut content. There was a tumblr post awhile ago. That someone was like UWU Alexander Hamilton my bisexual baby with anxiety and then someone repblogged it and was like actually he own people and now he's dead. And I so firmly belong to both of those camps. I am so like yeah he own people and now he's dead. Fuck that dude. I hate him. I hate that dude. But also it's really important to like see queer people throughout history because like it's not- it's not a new identity and I think that's important so I'm all I'm like very much yes he was queer also he sucks. Lexi: This this is like more shit for me to cut but I just have feelings. The thing that irks me is when people equate the character with the history. Separate them. Okay? The character can be UWU your baby because it's not a real person and we don't give a fuck. The real person was a complicated person with lots of different feelings, emotions, and realities. Alana: It's almost like people are complicated. Lexi: It’s important to acknowledge that there were queer people in the past. And that telling your bro how great he smells was probably a sexual thing. Alana: Gay. Lexi: It's probs gay. And, also bad people can be gay too. Haley: Thank you! Alana: Okay so this is something that I was complaining- this is like years and years ago -but I was complaining to my dad about how I think Apple is an evil corporation and he was like but their CEO is gay and I was like yeah dad it's 2018. Queer people can be anything. Lexi: Wait. If you don’t think queer people can be bad like every Disney villan doesn’t make sense. Because so many of them were queer. Alana: So I mentioned that in the witch episode briefly. I have a lot of feelings about this because almost every Disney villain is either Jewish coded or queer coded and it's no bueno. We don't like that. It's not okay.  I'm trying to think of one who isn't. Haley: Scar. Alana: Queer coded. Haley: Yeah. Alana: I guess Hans? He's pretty heterosexual. Haley: Hans was pretty heterosexual. Haley:  Captain Hook was not like as a small child I was like Captain Hook is gay. Lexi: You don’t think Hans has bi vibes? Alana: I guess. Haley: I think. . . Alana: But... Lexi: Everyone has bi vibes to me. I can’t comprehend the straight. Alana: Everyone has bi vibes to you.That's true. Lexi: Literally when you said that thing like all the founding fathers were queer, like isn't everyone a little queer. Haley: Everyone’s a little queer, not gonna lie. Alana If Bonobo chimps are anything to be . . . anything like humans. Haley: I feel like Hans is like 3% in him. Alana: Yeah. Haley: It’s not much. Alana: But like so. I think he's the only one, They're moving away from it in there. . . Lexi: Oh my god I know what it is. Okay Hans is like Winston Churchill where like he hooked up with a guy one time and had a fling with them but like it was just one time in his life. Alana: It’s just a one time thing. Lexi: Just this one time. Alana: He was experimenting. But like he's not queer coded. I think there was not really, there wasn't really a villain in Frozen II was there? Haley: No it was like the universe was like the villian like. . . Lexi: Yeah it was like the world. Alana: Queer coded! Jew coded! Lexi: Okay, okay. Go on to your story. Alana: Ok.

Daveed Diggs: Uh, who provided those funds? Haley: Uh, France?

Haley: Lilac, chartreuse. Oh no not chartreuse is that bright one… Magenta… Alana: Wait wait wait. What color is chartreuse? To you? Haley: It’s green. Alana:  Chartreuse it.. So apparently that's one of those like Mandela Effect things that some people think it's a green and some people think it's pink. Lexi: It’s pink because Chartreuse was Blue’s neighbor and possible lesbian lover. Haley: No that’s Magenta. Alana: No that’s Magenta. Lexi: Oh my god is that a Mandela Effect? Haley: No, no. Alana: No. That's just you being a dumbass. Haley: I always, okay so here's the thing I always thought chartreuse is green and then that Mandela Effect was explained to me so now I always get it mixed up but I think like the best like colors for kitchen are like muted neutrals so it looks like the woods is coming into your baking zone. Lexi: Nah, teal. Ocean kitchen, ocean kitchen! Alana: You guys should see my Sims kitchens. I just made a beautiful little like all black and white... Shout out to the jungle adventure pack. Lexi: The jungle adventure pack is so good. Alana: I also really wanted to doo like a little dining nook but freaking sims don't know how to slide across the booth apparently so it didn't work. But.

Erika: So what I'm currently watching which I watched before is New Girl. I watch it when I have anxiety. Haley: Yeah Erika: So I started again. And then when I'm just like vibing or whatever and watching something that I haven't seen six hundred times I started watching Schitt's Creek. Haley: I’m watching Schitt’s Creek! Lexi: So good. Erika: It’s like.. Like dry funny. And it like almost lands and then it doesn’t. Alana: It’s like. . . Erika: It like pulls back. Alana: It's like Arrested Development but if the characters like had growth. Erika: Yeah Lexi: Yes and I love both series equally. Alana: Ew, David. Lexi: Alexis Erika: I don't get the hotel manager person. Alana: Stevie. I love Stevie. Lexi: I love Stevie. Her character arc is so good. Alana: Imagine the two queer people on the podcast being like I love Stevie.Stevie’s not queer but like she has lesbian vibes. Haley: I tried- Lexi: That’s her whole stick she is straight butch. Alana: Reminds me of someone else I know. Haley: Wow, got called out there. Well the thing that was said is true but the words still hurt. Lexi: You can find this podcast on Twitter and Instagram at LadyHistoryPod. Our show notes and a transcript of this episode will be on ladyhistorypod dot tumblr dot com. If you like the show, leave us a review, or tell your friends, and if you don't like the show, keep it to yourself. Alana: Our logo is by Alexia Ibarra you can find her on Twitter and Instagram at LexiBDraws. Our theme music is by me, GarageBand, and Amelia Earhart. Lexi is doing the editing. You will not see us, and we will not see you, but you will hear us, next time, on Lady History. Haley: Next week on Lady History, we're having a blast from the past and going back to our undergraduate degree to talk about some goddesses be there or be square.

[tangyyyy]

You Like That About Me

Little fun and smutty Elu one shot that I had a looot of fun to write!

Hope some of you could enjoy it.

You can find it on AO3 or... Well... here, on tumblr, obviously...

WARNING : Explicit sex (nothing very nasty or kinky or “gross” but it’s sex between two boys who are in love sooo... Yeah. I warned you ;))

You Like That About Me

"Oh! You're here! I'm so happy to see you here my love!"

In the middle of avenue Parmentier, in front of the video club where Eliott worked, Lucas threw himself wholeheartedly into his arms and crushed his lips against his. Surprised to see the young man so amazed to see him, Eliott smiled. They had however agreed to meet there a few minutes before by text.

"Yeah... I'm happy too..." Eliott tried to free himself from his embrace but his lover refused to let him go, tightening his arms around his thin waist. He stuck his nose in the crook of his neck and took a deep breath. "You smell good... You... The sunshine of my tropics, the solace of my sight, the blood of my vein, the never of my always, my love, my love..." Eliott giggled, his eyes almost completely disappearing under the features of his laughing face. "My, my... It's a Carla Bruni's song isn't it?" He replied, placing his hands on his hips in a gesture as tender as practical in order to hold back as much as possible, the loving impulses of the young man. "Oooh... Interesting! Then you know that cheesy love song! Mister "I-only-listen-hard-and-weird-dubstep"..." Lucas replied, tickling with the tip of his tongue a small vein on Eliott's neck that he knew was ticklish. "Yeah well... My mom had bought that record few years ago, she loved it, anyway..." Eliott forced Lucas to pull back slightly and lokked into his eyes. "Lu, are you drunk? -Oh fuck, yeah, I'm wasted!" Exclaimed Lucas, making great arms gestures without any specific meaning. "It's..." Eliott took his cell phone out of his jeans pocket and looked at it. "6.13 pm Lucas. -So what? -Isn't it a little bit too early to be completly wasted? -We were at the share flat with the guys. Arthur is sooo down with Alexia, his dad and all this shit you know, we wanted to cheer him up. -Cheering him up by drinking your souls, clever! -Oh, sorry Daddy, I've been naughty..." Lucas teased in a smile full of innuendos and a knowing look. Eliott rolled his eyes. If sometimes this euphoria and this couldn't-care-less attitude could be annoying, this behavior was, for the vast majority of the time, very funny and rather distracting. Drunk Lucas was always very funny.

Eliott shrugged. "I hope he's gonna feel better soon." He said. "Who?" Asked Lucas, absently, busy peeling a bandage off one of the fingers of his right hand. "Your mom..." The young man raised a wary eyebrow at his boyfriend. "Arthur, duh! -Oh yeah... Yeah he'll feel better soon for sure. Anyway... Can we come back home already? I'm staaaaarving! -Okay, let's go." Eliott replied, placing an arm on Lucas' shoulders as usual. The latter, grabbed his waist with both arms, making their progress much more complicated than usual. Eliott, more amused than anything else, didn't complain. "What do you want to eat?" Asked Eliott geniously as the couple walked up Darboy Street. Suddenly, Lucas slowed down. Eliott looked down at him, he seemed scared. "Oh please, please..." Began to whine Lucas. "Don't take advantage of my altered state of consciousness to make me eat your cooking..." Eliott laughed heartily and resumed a normal walking pace, taking Lucas with him. "No, I was thinking more about ordering something." -Oh thanks God, you're not an abusive bastard! -I still think you're way too harsh towards my cooking skills though... -Yeah, yeah... Tell that to my traumatised stomach! -Anyway. So? -What?" Eliott, with a smile, rolled his eyes again. "What do you want to eat Lucas? -Oh right! Hmmm... Let me think... Some Falafels!"

It had been a long time since the couple had stopped in the tiny Lebanese restaurant located near their home, the idea seduced Eliott. "Mmh, good idea." Replied the young man. "No, wait! -What? -Not falafels, I want a pizza." Eliott smiled. "Ok, pizza it is. -I've eaten one yesterday though... -So... Not pizza? -No. Oh I know! I want chinese! I could kill for a good chinese noodle soup. My kingdom for a prawn spring roll!" Amused, Eliott looked at Lucas out of the corner of his eye and giggled at his great excitement at ingesting anything edible. "Right, chinese! It's been a while since we haven't..."

Lucas stopped suddenly, interrupting Eliott in his answer. The latter breathed and stared at him. "What? -I know, I really know what I want. Eliott... " The young man took his hands between his and looked at him with a serious look. "I found the Holly Dish." He declared in a solemn voice. Forcing himself not to laugh, Eliott raised his eyebrows. "The Holly... What? -Pastas. With a lot of butter and a tone of grated cheese." All that for this? Eliott smiled again. He took a step back, bulged his chest and made a face as serious as Lucas's one. "Is that really what you want? Lucas Lallemant, speak now, or forever hold your peace. Do you want to eat pastas with a lot of butter and a tone of grated cheese?" He asked, overplaying the pompously official speech. "Yes. Yes I do." His blood singularly lacking some alcohol to keep this ridiculous roleplay for a long time, Eliott laughed. "Great, I can cook it then. I think we have everything we need in the fridge already. -God! Why?!!! Why me?!! Is it because I'm black?! Is it because I'm fat?!" Cried Lucas, raising his arms to the sky. "It's because I'm a filthy sodomite isn't it?!" He added. Catching sight of the outraged look of a lady passing by them with two young children, Eliott blushed and approached Lucas quickly in order to make him quiet. "Hush! Lu! -I can't eat Eliott's food... I really can't, I won't survive. O Lord give me some Mercy... " The young man continued, mimicking to totter on his two legs, a sly little smile on the corner of his lips. "Oh come on! Stop it already you moron, I can cook some pastas!" Replied Eliott. He put a firm hand against the top of his back, between his two shoulder blades. "Mom was right... Apocalypse is upon us..." Lucas mumbled, lowering his head, presumably to hide his hilarious face from Eliott. "Shut up and walk!" He intimated the latter by pushing him on the back to walk again.

A few minutes later, the couple were approaching their apartment when Eliott turned into a small street to their right without warning. Lucas, surprised, stopped dead. "Where the fuck are you going Demaury? Home is straight ahead. -I need to stop off at the drugstore. No more meds. Then I'd like to find some painkiller balm for my neck. -Oh ok. -You can wait for me here, I won't be long. -You're going nowhere without me Mister Boombastic." Eliott laughed. "Come on then." He said to him in a gesture inviting him to join him. "Hi." Eliott said politely as he entered the drugstore toawards the woman behind the counter. The latter returned her greeting with a discreet nod and a kind smile. "Hello Miss!" Exclaimed Lucas, who came in right after Eliott. "He... Hello." Replied the woman, unaccustomed to such a loud volume in her establishment. Eliott, Lucas on his heels, walked throught few aisles to finally find the kind of items he was looking for. "Let's see... Which one is the best..." Knowing Eliott and his propensity to hesitate for hours and hours on the smallest purchase, Lucas began to wander his eyes all around him. He had to find any entertainment quickly or he would die of boredom soon. On his left, at the end of the aisle, his gaze fell on a few items that caught his attention. Leaving Eliott to his hesitation, Lucas walked behind him and headed towards the said items. "Bubblegum!" Intrigued, Eliott turned his head towards Lucas who had just exclaimed "Bubblegum!" in an excited and very loud voice. The young man held in his hand a small pink box of condoms, leaning over the writing on the back of the box, Lucas seemed absorbed by reading the precautions for using condoms. Eliott's eyes widened. Embarrassed, he saw, very close to Lucas, a very young boy who was already there when they came in. Trying to hide himself in the babies items aisle, the teenager, with a red complexion, seemed to revolve around condoms without really daring to take too much interest in them. Lucas' arrival must have interrupted him in his discreet approach. He looked at him with his round eyes, visibly impressed by the casualness that Lucas displayed in the middle of such a section. "Eli, can you believe it?! Bubblegum flavoured condoms! I already knew the boring ones, banana, strawberry but I didn't know that bubblegum flavoured condoms were a thing!" The young man spoke loudly, too loudly and seemed excited like a child in a toy store on Christmas Eve. Feeling shame gripping his stomach, Eliott felt the scandalised look of an old lady standing beside him, weighing on him. "Hmm. Yeah..." Eliott mumbled, trying to focus on finding the perfect balm capable of treating his painful neck. Maybe if he ignored him, would Lucas stop fussing like this?

"Cola! Wow! That's insane!" Eliott bit his lip of awkwardness. Which of its balms had the most beneficial properties... "Oh. Of course, strawberry, good old classic." Eliott turned his head again towards Lucas. The latter was now holding three boxes of condoms against his stomach. The young boy behind him gaped at him. "Lucas, could you please be quiet?" Eliott whispered, giving him a murderous look. "Oh come on love! This is all very natural!" Lucas replied. "Don't think these "sensuous vanilla" flavoured condoms are very organic though..." He added, laughing himself with his own joke. Closing his eyes for a few seconds, Eliott returned to his balms. A few seconds went flew without Lucas opening his mouth again. Maybe he was finally tired? As Eliott indulged in a pleasant sense of relief, his state of mind was violently broken by Lucas's voice. "Mutual climax condoms!" At these words, Eliott heard behind him the sound of objects falling to the ground. He turned his head and saw the old lady who had just let out her plastic bag filled with pharmaceutical items. The face of the latter was borrowing a scandalised expression. Beeing at his wits' end, Eliott grabbed the first balm passing under his hand and walked towards Lucas with long strides. "Ok, babe, enough, let's go." He said, grabbing his arm. "Wait, wait." Lucas replied, freeing himself from his grip. "What the fuck does it means? "Mutual climax condoms"... Weird... " He mumbled, turning the box over. "Ribbed, delaying, performance enhancing, textured... Eli, this sounds awesome! I take it..." Eliott pressed two of his fingers against his closed eyelids to keep the little calm he still had in his tired brain. "Lu... Do I have to remind you that we got tested few weeks ago because we wanted to get rip off condoms?" He whispered softly into Lucas' ear. "Oh yeah... Stupid boring taste of your naked dick..." Eliott almost choked on his own saliva. A few yards from them, he saw a man, in the plasters department, turn his crimson face in discomfort towards Lucas. "Shut your drunk mouth!" Eliott whispered, trying to catch Lucas's gaze. "More, I'm sure you don't really think my dick is that boring..." He added in a tiny voice that only Lucas could hear. "Yeah well, ok, I admit it, it's not boring at all! But being tested doesn't mean we can't have fun times to times!" Exclaimed Lucas again. Loosing all patience, Eliott grabbed his arm again with an authoritarian gesture. "Ok, that's it, let's get out of here." He started to drag him towards the counter but Lucas struggled again. "I haven't finished yet! Look at all these sorts of lubes!" Eliott huffed. "Ok, you know what? Do what you want, I'll wait for you outside... " Then he turned around and walked away.

In front of the the counter, red cheeks because of shame, Eliott put the balm close to the woman and took a prescription from the pocket of his jeans. "I'll take this and 4 boxes of 10mg Abilify please." He said, handing her the prescription. The middle-aged woman, seemed to have heard everything from Lucas's speeches, she too seemed a little embarrassed and bit her cheek to, obviously, prevent herself from laughing. Should he apologise for Lucas's behaviour? Eliott quickly decided not. It was better to hurry out as quickly as possible without saying anything to anyone. The woman disappeared in the back shop to return a few seconds later, 4 boxes of antipsychotics in her arms. No sooner had she placed them on the counter than Lucas appeared, silently, from behind Eliott and put on the counter, a whole stock of condoms and lubricants of all kinds. In his haste, he dropped two boxes on the other side of the counter, forcing the woman to bend over to pick them up. "We're gonna take all this too." Announced the young man with great self-confidence. The woman looked up questioningly at Eliott, looking to ask if she should, in fact, collect the items. "Yeah, yeah, let's take all this..." Eliott huffed resignedly. "Lu, please, go wait for me outside. -No! I don't leave you!" Lucas replied, wrapping his arms around his thin waist, like a little monkey clinging firmly to his mother. "Yeah... That's infortunate sometimes..." muttered Eliott. The woman giggled. While the latter was busy collecting the improbable number of items brought back by Lucas, the young man grabbed one of the boxes placed in front of them in the large paper bag. "Intense orgasmic gel... It says that it feels warming and cooling and tingling! How brilliant is that?!" Eliott bowed his head, not daring to look at the woman. "Lucas, for fuck's sake, shut up... -Oh relax!" Lucas watched the woman cashing the items. As she passed a white box under the machine, the young man addressed her directly. "Vegan lube... Oh yeah, great invention." The woman, a shy smile on her lips, nodded politely. As if electrocuted, Eliott turned to Lucas. "Vegan lube? Seriously? Have you tried to find the most useless and expensive thing in the drugstore?!" He asked in a tense whisper. "No, of course no. Or else I'd have pick those XXL condoms... Which are pretty scary by the way..." Deciding not to dwell on this last remark, Eliott shook his head. "No but... Vegan lube? You're the less vegan person I know... -Curiosity my love, curiosity..."

A minute later, when the pharmacist had finished collecting all the items, she looked up at Eliott. "Do you know how to take them properly? Do you need any advices or are you used to them? -It's okay, I... -Don't worry Miss, we're actually very familiar with this kind of products, safe and fun sex is our mantra!" Lucas cut him off, grabbing the paper bag. "Oh God... Lucas, she's talking about my meds..." He said to him in a weak voice, mortified with shame. "Oh yeah, it makes sense..." After quickly greeting the woman, Eliott hastily led Lucas to the exit. On his walk, the latter jostled slightly the young boy who had obviously found the courage to choose a small box of condoms. No doubt Lucas's lack of embarrassment had helped him take the plunge. Passing the door, Lucas exclaimed "Bye guys!" And the couple finally found themselves on the street. "Lucas Lallemant, you're gonna be the death of me!" Eliott exclaimed, his cheeks red with embarrassment as he rushed towards their apartment. "Oh come on, admit it, it was fun! -No, it wasn't fun at all." If Eliott was really honest, the situation as embarrassing as it could be was fundamentally funny and he would probably be laughing heartily about it soon but for the moment, only one desire prevailed over everything else: Get away from this damn drugstore as quickly as possible and never set foot there again. "Anyway, I'm so happy that we bought all these things, we're gonna have great fun trying them all..." Eliott said nothing. Lucas took advantage of his silence to continue in a cheerful voice. "Quick, let's go home, I can't wait." At these words, Eliott slowed down and looked Lucas straight in the eyes. "Lu, let's be clear. There's no way we're having sex right now. -Not right now of course, we're in the middle of the street Love." Lucas replied very seriously looking around them. "No, I mean, not right now of course but not even at home. -What?! Why?!" Shouted the young man, his face tinged with real disappointment. After the child in the middle of a toy store, the child deprived of his favourite toy... "Because I don't want to, it's pretty simple." Eliott explained, keeping walking. "But I want to have sex with you!!" Lucas complained in a voice still far too loud. Crossing the puzzled look of a passerby, Eliott pressed his hand against his forehead. "God Dammit, Lucas, shut up and stop this little tantrum of yours..." He said without being able to hold back an amused smile and fastening the pace. "No, I won't shut up! Not until I have your bubblegum flavoured dick in my mouth!" Lucas exclaimed shamelessly. "Ok, that's it, I don't walk with you anymore, you're way too embarrassing!" Eliott decreed as he started running towards their nearby apartment. "Eliott! Eliott come back here!" Lucas called him. "We'll meet again at the flat!" Eliott replied, taking care not to slow down the pace. "Ok then we'll fuck?! -Oh God... I don't know that guy, I swear I don't know him... " Said the young man by crossing a young woman who had obviously missed nothing of their talk. "Eliott Demaury! Answer me ! Will you fuck me hard?! -That guy's insane, he thinks I'm his boyfriend but I'm not all." Eliott said to a new passer-by while laughing at Lucas' insane obstinacy. The latter, tired of shouting, started to run in his turn to catch up with Eliott.

Breathless and messyhaired, the two young men finally came into their small apartment. Eliott put the drugstore bag on the small table of the living room and turned to Lucas. "You're such an idiot..." He whispered, a big smile on his lips, wrapping his arms around his neck. "You love that about me..." Lucas replied, hoisting himself on tiptoe to put his lips on Eliott's. "Mmmh, yeah, I kinda do..." Admitted the latter against his lips before kissing him. "I love you." Murmured Lucas as he peppered kisses on his mouth, his cheek, his jaw then along his neck. Eliott sighed and smiled as he raised his eyes to the heaven. Slowly, Lucas lifted the hem of Eliott's hoodie and ran his hands along the skin of his belly. He raised his face again to nit at his lips. Eliott giggled. "I was serious though..." He smirked against Lucas's lips, running soft hands on his back. "About what?" -We're not having sex." As electrocuted, Lucas's body stiffened. "Why??" He asked as he raised puppy eyes into Eliott's. The latter took a step back. "Don't look at me like that, it won't work this time." He said in a warm smile. "Is it because I'm drunk?" -Yes. -Oh come on! I can assure you I'm more than consenting..." Lucas whispered as he walked into Eliott's arms, trying to kiss him again. Smiling, the young man raised his face to deny him any more kiss. "I know that." He sighed as he ran his fingers along the slope of Lucas's shoulders. "I want you Eli... -Yeah, I know that too... " He laughed. "We can sign a contract! Then later, if I complain that I didn't really want to have sex, you could show me that paper..." Proposed Lucas, leaking and slightly bitting his collar bone. "This is not the point you idiot!" Answered Eliott, stroking his soft and messy hair. "So what?" Lucas asked, pinching one of Eliott's butt cheek through his jeans. The young man took another step back. "Crazy good drunk sex is a myth, Love." Lucas remained silent. "Believe me, I want to have sex with you too... -Great! So let's do it!" Shouted the young man, trying to hug Eliott again. This one escaped his embrace. "No, no, no, no! There's no way I'm having sex with you right now. It's gonna be sloppy, clumsy or boring. -Well... Thank you very much ... " Muttered Lucas as he crossed his arms against his own torso. "Don't be upset..." Eliott whispered, softly stroking his cheek with his hand. "You know what? -What?" Lucas asked, raising sad eyes into Eliott's. "Go take a good shower while I cook pastas with a lot of butter and grated cheese. Aren't you hungry anymore? " Lucas bite his lower lip. "Yeah, well, a bit... -That's what I thought. We'll eat then... We'll see. -We'll see?" Said Lucas in a mischievous smile. "Yeah, we'll see." Eliott answered as he dropped a small kiss on Lucas's lips. "But... There's something which bother me..." Mumbled the young man. "What is it?" Asked Eliott, his hand tracing some comforting patterns on Lucas's back. "If your cooking kill us we won't be able to have sex... -Oh come on! Go take a shower you idiot!" Eliott exclaimed in a laugh, pushing Lucas toward the bathroom.

Half an hour later, Lucas came out of the bathroom, invaded by hot steam, skin reddened by warm water, hair still dripping on his large and comfy hoodie. The young man sat down at the small kitchen table in front of the plate of pastas that Eliott had just served him. The latter sat down in front of him. Suspicious, Lucas brought his plate to his nose and sniffed it for a long time. "No weird smell..." He said. "Of course there isn't weird smell, it's pastas!" -Yeah... Well, we can never be too careful... -You're an idiot..." Lucas grabbed a single pasta with his fork, carried it close to his lips and carefully put the tip of his tongue on it. "No suspicious aftertaste..." He said again. "Eat, you moron!" Against all odds, Eliott's pastas turned out to be delicious. Mouth full of pastas and melted cheese, Lucas closed his eyes. "Oh it's so good... It feels so great, I was starving..." Lucas whispered in a soft voice. "I'm glad you appreciate my cooking skills to the full at last. -Don't take that for granted my Dear, I'm still the one who cooks in this house." The young man answered, spitting a bit of pastas in front of him. "What did I do to deserve such a mistrustful boyfriend?" Eliott sighed, swallowing a mouthful of pastas. "Poni. You did poni." A few minutes later, his plate engulfed, Lucas leaned against the back of his chair, put his hands on his full stomach and stretched his legs to put them on Eliott's knees on the other side of the table. "It was good... Thanks.” He sighed with relief. Eliott put his hands on his bare ankles. "Yep, I feel so full right now but... You know what I'd love?" Lucas raised a wary eyebrow at him. "What? -A dessert to finish properly the meal. Something sweet. -Don't we have yogurts anymore? -Nop, I ate the last one yesterday... We have nothing sugary." A small silence settled. Suddenly, an idea of ​​genius crossed Lucas's mind. His eyes lit up and a broad smile settled on his lips. He straightened up and put his feet back on the ground. "I know what we could eat as dessert! -What?" Asked Eliott, looking at his boyfriend with eyes full of curiosity.

The latter got up quickly and went to the small table in the living room. He grabbed the drugstore bag and went back to the kitchen. One hand in the bag, he stood next to Eliott, the latter staring at him, still sitting on his chair. "This evening, Mister Demaury, we have some desserts for you..." He randomly took out one of the boxes bought earlier that evening. "Cola. Or..." He put his hand back into the bag and pulled out a small purple tube. "Blueberry lube, a house specialty served with..." He grabbed a new box. Not recognizing this one, he quickly read the writings on the back. "Abilify, antipsychotics... No, no, not this one." The young man sent the said box into the little wicker basket where Eliott used to store his meds before putting his hand back in the bag. "Strawberry flavoured condoms! What a nice mix!" Eliott laughed hard. "But if fruits aren't your cup of tea, we still have bubblegum." Lucas continued, putting a new small box in front of Eliott. "Oh and after dessert you could even taste some..." He plunged his hand into the bag again. "Mojito!" He exclaimed proudly placing another umpteenth box on the table. "Mojito?! Are you serious?! This is insane..." Eliott wondered as he grabbed the box of strange green condoms. "Yeah... Science can do so many great things nowaday. What a great time to be alive!" Eliott laughed again. Dropping the box of green condoms next the others, he looked up at Lucas. "You know that all these things are gonna be lame or even disgusting right? -Maybe. But we can't be too sure before even trying them. -Right..." "So? Have you made your choice?" Lucas asked. "Mmmh... I have to admit that the mojito ones seem very appealing... But you have some more stuffs in your bag, don't you? -Yeah but they aren't flavoured. We have... Intense orgasmic gel." He said while taking out new boxes. "The well known vegan lube." Eliott rolled his eyes. "The mutual climax condoms, the "glow in the dark "condoms... -Wait... You bought these while you're the one who love to have sex in the light? -They seem fun! Think about it... All is dark except for a dick which is blowing. A dick which isn't attached to any body! So fun!" Eliott giggled. "Then, to finish... Two lubes. One which is tingling and one which is wharming. -This is gonna be awful..." Eliott laughed. "Yeah, maybe. Anyway..." At these words, Lucas knelt in front of Eliott and took his hands in his. He stared into his eyes before clearing his throat. "Eliott Demaury..." He began to say solemnly. "Will you have sex with me?"

With a big smile, Eliott shook his head then leaned over. He cupped Lucas' cheeks in his hands kissed him. "As I could say no to you for too long... -Answer me. -Yes, yes I will, you idiot." He said, way too amused by the way Lucas acted as if it was their first time. "Yes! Lallemant is in da place! Lallemant is always winning!" Lucas exclaimed in a gesture of victory, like a soccer player after a world cup goal. Eliott chuckled and shrugged before standing up. "Go wait for me in the room." He said as Lucas hopped on the spot with great excitement by gathering in his arms all the boxes of condoms and lubes. "Why don't you come with me?" Asked the young man. "I gonna grab a towel in the bathroom. I washed the sheets yesterday. These condoms and lubes are gonna be sticky, grassy and messy, I don't want to get our fresh clean sheets dirty. -Oh yes... Talk dirty to me Daddy... -Stop with your daddy shit already!" Eliott shouted, laughing and rolling his eyes again. "Go!" When Eliott joined their room, a large brown towel in his arms, he found Lucas, sitting cross-legged on the bed, busy unclipping all the boxes from their plastic packaging. He invited him to shift slightly, spread the towel over the white sheets then sat behind him. Eliott rested his lips on the young man's neck and started to lay a myriad of little kisses on his warm skin. His hands came to rest under his hoodie, all against the skin of his thin waist. "You're so beautiful..." Eliott whispered as he pressed his lips against the base of Lucas's neck again. "So sexy." He made his way up to his earlobe, driving Lucas to moan involuntarily at the feeling of his breath on his skin. "Wait, Eli, I want to finish that..." Lucas said, working harldy on one of the boxes. "If I don't finish it, this fucking plastic will drive me mad when I gonna want to try these on your dick... -Hurry up then... " Eliott answered, his voice deep and husky. Focused Lucas was gorgeous. Eliott could have look at him during hours. His mouth slightly open, his big and serious eyes focusing on his task, those small forehead wrinkles as he frowned. He always made the same face, as with his homeworks as these condoms boxes. Eliott smiled and put his forehead on his shoulder, waiting for Lucas to complete his difficult but very important mission, his arms still slowly stroking his belly's skin under his hoodie. As Eliott felt a wave of such affection for his boyfriend, which left him almost breathless, Lucas jumped a little bit on the mattress. "Done!" He shouted before he turned slightly and caught Eliott's eyes. "Let's get it on baby!" Eliott giggled as Lucas turned around to face him. He sat in between his legs and kissed him, his hands slightly poking his cheeks. Eliott closed his eyes and felt Lucas's hands reaching inside his pants. The young man arched into his boyfriend's touch. The latter stroked him quickly and hard. Astonished during a few seconds under strong waves of pleasure, Eliott couldn't do anything until he made his mind a little bit. He opened his eyes, took Lucas's hand in his and forced him to stop. "Wow, wow, wow. Hey, wait! What the fuck are you doing? -Handjob Eli, it calls a handjob." Answered Lucas, smirking. "Yeah, no shit! I got that, thanks but... -I need you to get hard if I want to try all the things we bought. -No, no, not like that." Eliott whispered as he get Lucas's hand out of his pants. The later grumbled a bit but didn't resist. With a lingering kiss, Eliott pushed Lucas on the matress. "You're way too romantic..." Whispered Lucas in his mouth. "You love that about me..." He slowly peeled Lucas's hoodie then he leaned down to place a kiss against his stomach, loving the way the young man shivered. Eliott striped off his own hoodie and tee-shirt, enjoying the sight of his boyfriend's naked torso. Even after on full year of relationship, his breath was still caught by Lucas's nakedness. His stocky, muscular body, so nervous... Most beautiful boy ever. "Fucking beautiful..." Eliott's eyes flashed. He kissed Lucas's stomach and liked his nipples. The later's hands shifted, running through Eliott's head, tugging lightly at his hair and tilting his head to the side. Laying fully down on him, Eliott rolled his hips forward and Lucas could feel that he was already a bit hard against his thigh. He shifted his hips a little so that they lined up, and then thrust upward. Eliott let out a gasp. Slowly, Lucas unzipped the zip of Eliott's jeans. The later, still kissing and licking one of Lucas's nipple, smiled against his skin. "Pants off." Whispered Lucas. "Bossy..." Eliott teased, bitting the soft skin of his collarbone. "You were the horny one, undress me." He retorted before getting on his knees to allow Lucas to sweep his jeans off. Eargerly, the young man straightened and reached for Eliott's pants and trousers. When he had his boyfriend naked, he looked his body, liking his lips. Lucas grinned, quickly getting rid of his own tracksuit. As Eliott fell down again on Lucas, their noses bumped and their teeth clicked together, they laughed for a bit then they kissed and kissed again. Lucas's hand went down, stroking Eliott's torso then hip to reach their lowers areas. The young man wrapped his hand around both of them, gripping both of their dicks and sliding them together. "Oh fuck..." Eliott groaned out, his hand gripping Lucas's forearm. They didn't really kiss anymore, their noses rubbing together, their hair surrounding their faces. Their dicks were hard now but not very slicked, which Lucas appreciated, it was time for their little experiments... Suddenly he shifted their bodies to put Eliott on his back. Without any trace of shiness, Lucas was eying Eliott's dick like if it was the tastiest dish he had ever seen. The later smiled, knowing what Lucas had in mind, he put his hands under his head and waited patiently. He gasped loudly as Lucas bent over in front of his dick. "I wan't to suck you..." Whispered Lucas with greedy eyes, letting his hot breath dancing on Eliott's erection. "Well... Do you need any invitation? -Weren't you the one who was worry about consent? -Oh fuck, blow it already Lucas..."

Lucas was fully smirking now. He ran his hands down from his hips to smooth over his thighs, then lower, rasping his fingers through the dark hair of his knees and long legs. He gently took hold of Eliott's shins, spreading his legs wider to be able to slot himself in between them. Lucas brought his mouth to the base of Eliott's dick. He licked a long, slow stripe up from the base to the head, making Eliott jerk wildly. Then he licked his own lips. "Hmmm ... Pretty good but still a bit boring..." He whispered before getting up on his knees again. Quickly, he bent over the amount of small boxes, took the pink one, took a condom outside of it and used his teeth to tear it open. "Oh shit! I think I bite the condom too..." Said Lucas as he frowned, looking seriously worried, looking at the pink piece of latex. At these words, Eliott still laying on his back and looking at Lucas, snorted loudly. Lucas raised his eyes on him. "What? "Lu, really I love you but sometimes you're killing me... -Why? -We got tested, we're clean! We don't ever need any fucking condom! You could chew it, it wouldn't matter... -Oh yeah, right... -Really Lucas..." Eliott whispered in a big smile, openly making fun of his boyfriend. "Watch your mouth or I'll chew that condom right on your dick!" Shouted Lucas as he unrolled the condom meticulously over Eliott's cock. The latter groaned deeply as Lucas licked his head again, but then quickly took nearly all of his dick in his mouth. Eliott gasped sharply as his boyfriend began to suck slow and hard. "Oh fuck, yeah..." Eliott murmured, fisting Lucas's hair roughly. Lucas started to graze the highly sensitive skin and took him even deeper. Eliott pulled him closer by the hair, unable to help himself but slightly fucking his mouth. Despite the condom, and as usual, Lucas was slowly driving him crazy. He could feel himself getting closer. "Don't stop, don't st..." Of course Lucas chose that moment to stop. He raised his face, a thin trickle of drool still connecting his swollen lips to the pink condom. Lucas staired at Eliott who was trying to keep quiet, utterly frustrated by the brutal end of this pure bliss. The latter look into his boyfriend's eyes. "This doesn't taste good at all..." Said Lucas, making a weird face. "I'm not even surprised..." Answered Eliott, a bit breathless. "Come here. Let me taste." Lucas crawled through his naked body. Eliott had flushed cheeks and his lips were parted, still recovering after this very short hint of blowjob. Lucas bent over and slipped his tongue inside Eliott's smouth. Sliding Lucas's waist, Eliott pulled him closer. One of his hands slipped down to squeeze his butt. Lucas's mouth tasted as sweet plastic. Like an old toy covered by some weird liquid candy. "This is disgusting!" Eliott exclaimed. "See?" Smiling, Eliott kissed the tip of Lucas's nose. "My turn..." He whispered. Suddenly, the young man rolled them over to be on top again.

Never taking his eyes away from Lucas, Eliott got on his knees, threw the disgusting condom around him on the ground then grabbed another condom box. Opening one with his fingers, he grasped the tip of the condom firmly between his tongue and the roof of his mouth. Every Lucas's muscles tightened as Eliott unrolled the condom with his mouth around his dick. "I almost forgot this little trick of yours..." Lucas purred. Eliott smiled around his cock and then took him down to the base, nosing at the wiry pubic hair. The young man started a punishing rhythm of sucking and swallowing against the flavored latex, maintaining steady pressure and holding Lucas at the hips. Lucas gasped, clutching the sheets and the towel below him with white knuckled fist as the hot, wet tongue swirled around his sensitive head. The talented mouth playing over him, finally removed his ability to speak in anything other than broken groans. Using his tongue the way he knew drove Lucas absolutely insane, Eliott fastened his rythm, sucking harder and harder on his dick. "For fuck's sake... Eli, please..." Groaned Lucas, bitting his own lips. "What? -Throw that fucking condom away, I... I want to feel your mouth for real..." Eliott chuckled around his cock in his mouth. The young man let Lucas's dick popping out of his mouth. He took off the condom, threw it away and as he was ready to get back to business, Lucas stopped him by putting his hand against his forehead, he pushed him away. "Wait... Which flavoured was this one? -Mojito. Lucky me, it wasn't that bad... -Can I taste it?" Eliott slightly stroked Lucas's dick with two of his fingers, collecting a bit of precum and rest of the condom's flavoured lubricant. He raised his fingers to Lucas's mouth. The latter greedily licked on them as on a lollipop, looking into his boyfriend's eyes. "Oh... Pretty tasty indeed..." The two boys remained motionless and smiling for a moment. "Anyway... I think you were in the middle of something, weren't you? -Hn? Nope... I don't remember anything... -Tease... " Lucas hissed. Smirking, Eliott chuckled then bent down again on Lucas's erection. Very slowly, the young man wrapped his lips around his balls. He rolled them gently between his lips and sucked on them too. When Lucas reached down, in a sweet groan, to touch himself, Eliott slapped his hand away. "Wait for it Baby..." He said in a whisper on Lucas's skin. Eliott took Lucas's ball in his hand then started to mouth at the base oh his dick. He followed the prominent vein to the top. Then, quickly, he started to bob his head again, up and down, up and down, his tongue dancing around Lucas's throbbing member. The latter lifted one of his hand and buried it in Eliott's messy hair. Lucas could feel the pleasure building up and he needed more, always more. Amazed and aroused like Hell just by hearing the sweet moans and groans his boyfriend were now making without any way to control them, Eliott opened his mouth wider and let his throat relax before going down until every inch of Lucas's dick was in his mouth. Lucas cried out in pleasure and arched. Hearing hisboyfriend taking more and more pleasure, Eliott liftted his head and kissed his groin.

"Hey... Why... Why have you stopped?" Panted Lucas. "I want to be in you..." Whispered Eliott, kissing his soft skin again. "Oh. Yes... yeah ok. Take one of the new lubes..." Smiling, Eliott got quickly on his knees and chose the "warming" lube. He took the small red bottle, squeezed a copious amount of gel into his palm. He covered two of his fingers with the substance before laying down next to Lucas. He kissed his cheek and put an arm under his head. He kissed him again. "Spread your legs..." Eliott whispered in his mouth. So did Lucas. The young man reached in between his legs and circled his sensitive rim before pushing slowly, very slowly one first finger. Suddenly, Lucas's body stiffened. He opened big round eyes and frowned. "Wow... No, wait... Eli, stop! -What?" Eliott asked, no moving anymore. "The lube, it's... It's terrible. -Oh come on, it's just a bit warm... -I'm serious Eliott, get out of my ass!" Lucas wriggled, moved away from Eliott's hand then sat down on the matress, trying to get rid of the traces of lube on and in his butts. Breathing out deeply, Eliott started to lose some patience. All this sex was a nonsense... The young man only wanted to be in Lucas's arms, making love to him then getting to sleep. Was that way too complicated? He sighed, exaspered. "You're overreacting... You could have used to it... -No, Eli, I swear, it's terrible." Replied Lucas, wipping his ass with the towel. Eliott shruged. "You drama queen..." Lucas, a bit upset by his boyfriend's attitude, raised his eyebrows at him. "Oh yeah ? You really think I'm overreacting? "Well..." Eliott mumbled as he sat next to him. "Ok, let's see that..." Lucas took the small red bottle of lube, put a large amount of gel in his hand then rubbed it all along Eliott's dick. The latter opened his mouth to say that this lube wasn't terrible and quite nice actually but a very unpleasant feeling of burn explosed on his dick. "Wh... What the Hell is that?!" The young man shouted. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! This is awful! -Ah! Who's the drama queen now?!" Lucas exclaimed, very proud to have proven his point to his arrogant boyfriend. "Give me that fucking towel!" Said Eliott, trying to make some fresh air with his hands around his burning dick. "Hn, hn. What to we say first?" Replied Lucas, hidding the towel behing his back. "Oh come on Lu, this isn't funny!" Eliott shouted, desesperatly wiggling. "What do we say first? -Please Lucas, give me that fucking towel, you were right, I'm sorry. Please, please, please my love! " Finally, Lucas gave the towel to him. The young man grabbed it quickly then rubbed himself with it during long and long seconds. "I don't even understand how they dare to sell this kind of shit..." He grumbled.

After a minute, once their butts and dicks cleaned of any stain of burning lube, the two naked boys, still on their knees in front of each other, looked into each other eyes. "We're ridiculous..." Said Lucas in a smirk. Eliott, agree with him, started to laugh. "Guess we wouldn't have had all these problems with vegan lube..." These last words made Eliott laugh harder and it wasn't long before Lucas joining in. The two of them laughed so hard, they ended up wiping tears from their eyes. "Come here..." Eliott said as he opened his arms to Lucas. The latter crowld into his embrace. The couple cuddled each other in a warm (sweet warm this time) atmosphere. After some time, Lucas opened an eye and looked upon Eliott's shoulder. "Look at this mess..." He whispered. The two young men were surrounded by dirty towel and sheets (despite Eliott's care), a dozen of condoms all across the room and by two dirty condoms, dripping lube and precum on their new carpet. "I feel so gross..." Mumbled Eliott, lowering his eyes on their two sticky bodies. "Do... Do you still want to fuck?" Asked Lucas, kissing Eliott's chin. "Well... If you want to but... You know what I'm dreaming of right now? -What? -Shower, just a good hot shower. -Oh I'm so in!" The two young men, before spinning in the shower and without even bothering to get dressed, took the time to clean the room a bit. Eliott put new clean sheets on the mattress while Lucas worked to find an empty drawer where he could store all the lubes and condoms. The two young men took pleasure in throwing the lube from Hell in the nearest trash can and disappeared in the bathroom. Under the warm, pleasant and saving water, they stroked each other again, this time slowly, tenderly, without laughing or joking coming to intersperse their endless kisses. Each cum into the other's hand in a peaceful groan of pleasure. A little bit later, in the bed, under the soft and thick duvet, Eliott let the hazy warmth enveloping him. On his back, the skin of Lucas who was spooning him as usual. The young man sighed happily. "Eli ... -Yeah? -I love you. -I love you too my love." "Eli? -What? -You smell good. -Thanks, you too. Sleep now babe." "Eli? -... -Eli, are you sleeping? -Not yet... What? -We forgot to try the glowing in the dark condom... -For God sake, Lu, sleep now!"

[purplecloaks]

A Doe Becomes a Wolf, Part One

Pairing: Jon Snow x OC, Robb Stark x OC

Warnings: Cursing, smut, loss of virginity

Words: 2211

Everything tag: @squirrelacorngliterfarts @kawennote09 @sherrybaby14

           The carriage feels stuffed with four people. I feel like I’m sitting on top of my mother and siblings. I long to be riding my own horse, like Father and Joffrey. But that’s not ladylike apparently. Fuck that. I don’t want to be a fucking lady if I can’t ride a horse. The carriage slows down. I nearly beat the door down trying to get out.

           I look around. We are not in Winterfell. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Again. I let out a groan and drop to my knees. Why can’t we be there already? We’ve been riding for a month.

           “Ilyana!” I hear a shriek from behind me. It’s Mother. I look back at her. “Get up! You’re going to ruin your dress!”

           “I’d rather be wearing trousers anyway,” I say. She gives me a look. I slowly stand up. Myrcella and Tommen come out of the carriage. Father walks over with Jaime behind him.

           “When will we be there, Father?” I groan.

           Father laughs. “Tomorrow. We will be in Winterfell tomorrow, Ilyana.”

           I groan again. Then an idea pops into my head. “Mother!” I spin towards her.

           “Yes?” she says.

           “Can I ride my horse tomorrow? Since it’s the last day? Please?” I ask.

           Her eyebrows push together. “Ilyana, we’ve had this discussion before.”

           “Oh, just let her! It’s too cramped in the carriage for her. We brought her horse for a damn reason,” Father says.

           Mother pauses. “Yes dear,” she says finally. I do a little dance. Mother rolls her eyes. “You’re so dramatic, Ilyana.”

           “Wonder where I get it from,” I say. Myrcella and Tommen laugh.

           A table is set up for us to eat dinner at. There’s bread, cheese, almonds, apples, plums, salted pork, and pigeon pie. Way too much food for the six of us. I sit in between Tommen and Mother, Father is across from me. We eat in silence, as usual. Mother, Father, Joff, and I drink wine. Myrcella and Tommen drink water because Mother says they’re too young to drink wine.

           Tyrion joins us halfway through. He pulls up a chair next to me and picks at my pork. I playfully glare at him. He’s by far the person I’m closest with. When we finish dinner, I lay on the ground to watch the sunset. Tyrion sits by a tree reading something close by. It gets dark fast though and I’m called to bed.

           The next morning, I’m excited to put on trousers. Excited to ride today. I wonder how far it is to Winterfell. I kind of hope it’s a long way because I want to ride for a while.

           When I get outside, Mother, Myrcella, and Tommen are just about to get into the carriage. I wave at them. Father comes up to me.

           “Your mother isn’t happy that I’m letting you ride today. She says that you need to be a lady,” he says. I roll my eyes. “I know how you feel about that.”

           “She’s suffocating,” I say.

           He laughs. “I know what you mean. Soon, you’ll be married, and you won’t have to deal with her.”

           I pause. “Who am I marrying?”

           He hesitates. “I’m hoping Ned will let me marry you to his eldest son Robb.”

           “When were you going to tell me this?” I ask.

           “It’s not set in stone yet, Ilyana. And it’s not the end of the world,” he says.

           “What about Myrcella and Tommen?” I ask.

           “What about them?”

           “I’ll miss them,” I admit.

           Father laughs. “You won’t miss Joffrey?”

           I wrinkle my nose. “Would you?”

           He laughs again, loudly. He claps me on the back and walks over to his horse. “Better start the ride.”

           The journey to Winterfell passes quickly. Soon enough we’re entering the gates. I hop from my horse and hand the reins off to someone. Mother steps out of the carriage as I walk over there.

           “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I tease.

           Her expression softens. “It was less cramped, I must admit.”

           “Father wants me to marry Robb Stark,” I say quietly.

           Her eyes narrow. “Of course, he does.”

           “Did he talk to you about it?” I ask.

           “Of course not. I would have told you earlier,” she says.

           “I figured,” I say.

           She cups my cheeks. “I guess it is time. You’re sixteen. I don’t particularly want to though. But your father will force me. He’ll say I’ve held onto you long enough.”

           I laugh. Father calls me then and I run over to him. He’s in front of Ned Stark.

           “This is my eldest daughter Ilyana. I had hoped she would marry your eldest, Robb,” Father says.

           Ned smiles at me. “It could be arranged, your grace.”

           Father nods then Ned and him go to the crypts.

           Ned’s wife comes up to me. “So, you’ll be marrying Robb?”

           “I guess so, Lady Stark,” I nod.

           She smiles. “Please call me Catelyn.” She holds my hand in hers. “Let me introduce you to Robb.” She pulls me towards a curly, auburn haired boy. I don’t see my mother glaring at us. “Robb,” Catelyn calls.

           Robb looks over towards us. “Yes?”

           “This is Ilyana Baratheon. According to your father and the King, you will be marrying her,” Catelyn says.

           Robb takes my hand from Catelyn and kisses it. “It would be a pleasure to marry you, my princess.”

           I laugh. “Just Ilyana.”

           He smiles and takes my arm and pulls me away. It’s then I get a good look at who he was talking to, another curly haired boy, this time black. He looks to be the same age. I assume him to be Ned Stark’s bastard, Jon. He looks over suddenly, like I had called his name. Our eyes meet and I feel something surge through me. I get the urge to run to him and take him in my arms. He takes a step towards me like he feels the same but then shakes his head and steps back again. This happens in the span of a few seconds. I look back to Robb to see if he noticed but he didn’t seem to.

           “Who were you talking to?” I ask warily when we’re away.

           “That was my half brother Jon,” he says.

           I knew it. What was that feeling? I shake my head and try to put it behind me.

           Robb brings me to their godswood. We sit down beside the Weirwood tree, next to a black pond. We’re silent for a moment.

           “I’ll try to be a good wife,” I say hesitantly.

           “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Robb says.

           It’s silent again.

           “How many siblings do you have?” I ask.

           He smiles. “Four not including Jon. There’s Sansa, Ayra, Bran, and Rickon.”

           “I have…” I start.

           “I know. Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen,” he laughs. “I know a bit more about you than you know about me.”

           I blush. “I guess so.”

           “How do you all get on?” Robb asks.

           I sigh. “Joffrey is a dick. Myrcella and Tommen are sweet though. But they’re also so much younger than me.”

           “I get on with all of my siblings,” Robb says.

           “Including Jon?”

           He laughs. “Including Jon.”

           “What’s it like having a half brother?” I ask.

           He shifts. “You have plenty.”

           My eyes widen. “Well yes. But none of them live with me.”

           “I suppose that’s true. My mother doesn’t like him, obviously. But he loves us and is kind to us,” he says.

           I hum.

           “What was it like growing up in King’s Landing?” he asks.

           I pause. “It’s much hotter there. Stuffy in more ways than one. There’s always someone guarding you. My upbringing is probably about the same as your sisters. I wasn’t raised to uphold the throne; my brother was,” I finally say. “You were raised to lead the North.”

           “Yes. It’s not unlike how your brother was raised to take the throne, although I won’t be ruling the kingdoms,” he says.

There’s a pause in the conversation.

“What’s that?” he asks suddenly, pointing to my waist.

           I pull my dagger out of the sheath. “It’s my dagger. My father gave it to me for my thirteenth name day.” I place it in his hands. “It’s Valyrian steel.”

           “Do you know how to use it?” he asks, looking down at the dagger.

           I laugh. “Yes. A sword too. I wanted to learn so Father had Jaime teach me.”

           Robb hands the dagger back to me and I sheath it.

           Suddenly a boy runs up to us. “It’s time for the feast,” he says.

           “Thanks Bran,” Robb says. He stands up and then helps me up. Bran runs back to the keep. “I shall walk you to the feast, my princess. Will you sit next to me?”

           “Sure, Robb,” I say. I take his arm. He leads me into the keep.

           When we get inside, Robb pulls my chair out for me. I smile as I sit down. He sits down beside me. Throughout the feast, we have polite conversation with each other and others. My mother keeps looking at me warily.

           After I’ve eaten my fill, I excuse myself and head outside. The cold air feels good on my hot cheeks. I walk into the courtyard and see a boy using a sword at a dummy. I recognize him as Jon. I stand and watch him for a moment before he notices me.

           “My princess,” he says, bowing his head slightly.

           “Please, just Ilyana,” I say. “Why aren’t you at the feast?”

           “Lady Stark thinks it would be impolite to seat a bastard with the royal family,” he says, putting his sword down and walking over to me.

           I laugh. “I wouldn’t have minded. I think the only one who would have minded would have been my mother. My father has dozens of bastards.”

           “Do any of them live with him?” he asks.

           “I suppose not. But it’s all the same to me, Jon. You’re still a person,” I say.

           “Some wouldn’t agree,” he says.

           “Fuck them,” I say.

           He laughs. Then he pauses. “You’re very beautiful, Ilyana.”

           I blush. “Thank you, Jon. You’re quite handsome yourself.”

           “If I was a true born, we might’ve been getting married.” He steps closer. We’re a hair away from each other.

           “Do you feel it too?” I whisper.

           “Yes. What is it?” he asks.

           “I don’t know. I’ve never felt like this before, Jon,” I say.

           “I want to kiss you. Can I kiss you Ilyana?” he murmurs.

           “I’m going to be your sister by law soon, Jon,” I hedge.

           “You’re not right now,” he says.

           “True,” I admit and then I nod my head.

           He surges forward the small amount and presses his lips against mine. It’s soft at first, but it’s like we can’t get enough of each other; the kiss soon turns heated. I pull away after a moment, out of breath and lean my forehead against his.

           “I want more,” I admit after a minute of silence.

           Jon stares at me for a moment before he turns and tugs me after him. Neither of us notice Robb going back inside after witnessing our kiss.

           Jon takes me to a broken tower. He turns towards me and stares. “Have you…have you ever…?” he stutters.

           “No,” I shake my head, now nervous. “Have you?”

           He shakes his head.

           “We won’t be interrupted here?” I ask.

           “No. No one comes here,” he says.

           I step closer to him and cup his cheek. Our lips meet in a soft kiss. He lays me on the floor and pulls his pants down to his knees. His cock is hard and rubbing against me. I pull away from the kiss and take my belt off, throwing it aside, then take pants down as well. He rubs his cock against my slit a few times before pushing in. It hurts at first but then he’s bottomed out. He pulls out and thrusts back in.

           “Ilyana,” He whispers in my ear.

           “Jon,” I moan out. It feels so good. I pull his lips to mine.

           I recognize what I’m doing is wrong, but in that moment, pressed so close to Jon, I don’t care. Eventually a feeling seeps through me and I realize that I’ve cum. Jon’s thrusts stutter, he pushes in deep and cums as well. After that, we just lay there kissing. I think we both knew that this feeling was love in the purest form even though we had only met that day. Is this what having a soulmate feels like?

           I don’t know how long we lie there, just being with each other, but eventually I come to realize that people will be looking for us. Or at least me. I didn’t know if Jon’s family would mind if he disappeared. I kiss him one last time and then push him off me. I stand and pull up my pants. I grab my belt and put it back on.

           “We’d better get back,” I say shyly. “Will we…will we do this again?”

           He looks down sadly and shakes his head. “Probably not. You’re going to be married soon and I’m leaving for the Wall.”

           I kiss him fiercely. “I’m glad it was you,” I say when we part. He smiles.

[tidsoptlmist]

Walmart - G.D.

Authors note: this probably sucks ass but im gonna post it anyway so enjoyyyyy

Summary: Based on the writing prompt: “I’m on the verge of tears because of a rude customer and you step in and stand up for me”

▸ MASTERLIST 

In contrast to what felt like everyone else in the world, you never liked Fridays. For you, Fridays consist of two lectures of 4 hours each by Professor Thompson (a 100-something year old with a monotone voice). And after those dreadful lectures you still had to work from 7pm till midnight at the 24-hour Walmart down the street.

This Friday had been an exceptionally bad Friday. You woke up with a sore throat, spilled your coffee all over your new sweater - which almost  made you late for class since you had to change shirts and when you finally got into the right lecture hall, you found out you forgot all your writing utensils at home.

So, it didn’t come as a surprise to that you were in a awful mood by the time you were making your diner (macaroni and cheese). After a quick meal, where - of fucking course - you burned your lip, you changed into your work clothes, grabbed your keys and phone and left your room.

The only good thing about this Friday was that it wasn’t raining during your walk from the campus to the Walmart. But considering that you studied in Los Angeles, that wasn’t as much as a win as it could have been.

You walked into the store and checked in, dropped your keys and phone into your locker and walked to the schedule to see which cash register you had today.

‘Number 4 it is,’ you mumble to yourself as you walk to the right register. You type in your code on the computer and wait for your first customer. The first one of this Frightful Friday was a big lady with a happy face and blonde hair. She greeted you and placed her grocery’s on the register. You scanned all the things and asked if she’d like a bag. She didn’t need a bag; she brought her own. Her total amount was $43,55.

Time went by slowly. It’s not that busy, and, after what felt like years, you’re finally on your first break at 9pm. The only good thing about working Fridays is that there aren’t many staff members. So no meaningless awkward small talk!

After your break, time seemed to even go slower. There were about three consumers in the whole store and of course the all go to self checkout. You start to zone out. It’s close to 11pm now, which means just one hour left until you can leave. You start scraping the nail-polish of your thumb. Suddenly you’re loudly awoken from your daydream by a harsh voice.

‘Excuse me?! Are you deaf?!’ You look up into an aggressive face. It’s the face of a big man: he’s over 6ft and his arms are tatted and muscular.

‘I’m so sorry, how can I help you?’ you ask him nicely, trying not to sound as scared as you actually are.

‘I asked you where I could find the engine oil but I think firstly you need to get those ears checked out!’ He screams at your face. You look at him with big eyes.

‘I’m sorry, I don’t really know where to find that, maybe you could asks one of our stock clerks? I could summon one for you,’ you tell the man as calmly as you can.

‘You work here don’t you? Then why don’t you know where the fucking engine oil is?!’ Splatters of spit land on the register and tears are beginning to from behind your eyes. Fuck, you think, I can’t cry now!

‘I work as a cashier, I don’t know the store layout by heart. Asking a stock clerk would help you way faster. Like I said, I could call one for you right away!’ Your hand hovers to the phone on your right and you notice your hand is shaking.

‘Do you think I’m stupid or what? Don’t you think I already asked a stock clerk?!’ He growls at you.

Suddenly a new voice can be heard from behind the big men. ‘Don’t you think you’re being a little rude towards her? She said she doesn’t know and instead of walking aimlessly through the store with you, she offered you to call a clerk: whose job it is to know.’

A young man, around your age, emerges from behind the men.

‘Who the fuck asked you for your opinion, pretty boy?’ The men turns around to face the boy. And oh Lord, he was a pretty boy! He was around 6 feet, maybe a little taller. He had short dark hair, which looked messy - as if he had run his hand through it a bunch of times. He has broad shoulders and muscular arms. A dangly earring hung in his left ear and his hazel eyes looked angry at the men in front of your desk.

He is wearing a grey sweater with ‘DUKE UNIVERSITY’ written on it, along with two crossed lacrosse sticks. The sweater hugged his arms nicely and underneath his nike shorts came muscular thighs. In his hands he held a pack of a 100 colorful balloons, two packages of ramen noodles and a box with a dozen eggs.

‘No one asked you to be rude to her either!’ The boy looks a the man angry and clenches his jaw.

‘You know what?!’ The man turns to you angrily, ‘keep your fucking engine oil!’ He dumps the rest of his groceries and storms towards the exit.

The sound of breaking glass makes you tear your eyes of the man and look up. Only now you realize that the man was carrying a 12 pack of beer bottles. Only 3 of them survived the drop and beer is dripping from the register onto the ground. You quickly get up and grab the roll of paper towels from underneath the cashier. You walk around the register and kneel down to dry the beer off the ground. But firstly you try to pick up as many of the big glass as you can. A shadow falls over you and you look up. It’s pretty boy. He kneels down with you and starts helping to collect the glass.

‘You really don’t need to do that..’ You say and look up. Pretty boy smiles but keeps picking up broken glass. ‘I know, but I want to! You’ve had enough shit for today after having to deal with that asshole!’ You can feel your cheeks heating up and you quickly look down and grab some more glass.

‘Ouch!’ You cry out when you feel a sharp pain in your right pointer finger. A small cut becomes visible and you bit down your lip. Tears are beginning to from in your eyes.

‘Of-fucking-course!’ you mutter, ‘as if today couldn't get any worse!’ You grab some of the paper towels to wrap around your finger to stop the bleeding. A tear rolls down your cheek and you can feel your cheeks heat up from embarrassment. Here you are, sitting in spilled beer which you could have sold, with your finger cut open, crying in front of one of the hottest boys you’ll probably ever talk to.

‘Hey, don’t worry! Everything will be okay!’ You feel a strong hand on your shoulder. Pretty boy squeezes your shoulder in reassurance.

‘I’m so sorry!’ you say, wiping away the tear. ‘This is so embarrassing! It’s just.. I’ve had the worst day ever!’ You confess to him. You’re kinda surprised you’re telling this stranger about your day. This isn’t something you’d normally do. But today you have to.

‘It’s okay! Don’t worry! When does your shift end?’ Pretty boy asks you and you glance at the clock above the exit.

‘In two minutes,’ you tell him softly. Pretty boy smiles and you can see his perfectly white teeth - of course he has good teeth as well! Some people just have everything, don’t they?!

‘Great! Let’s clean this up and I’ll pay for my stuff and we’ll get some coffee at the McDonald’s across the street! I’m Grayson by the way,’ he puts out his hand for you to shake it.

‘I’m Y/N, nice to meet you Grayson.’ You smile at him while you shake his hand.

Grayson helps you clean the beer and glass, pays for his balloons, noodles and eggs and waits for you when you get your phone and keys from your locker. He also helps you put the plaster over the cut in your finger.

Together you walk to the McDonalds across the street. You both decide to get a McFlurry and eat it outside. The weather is nice, it’s been a hot day and it just started to cool down a little bit. You sit next to Grayson on the curb in silence, both eating your ice-cream, when you can’t stand the silence anymore.

‘So what brings you to the Walmart at 11 at night, buying balloons, ramen noodles and eggs?’ You ask Grayson. He laughs and takes one more bit from his ice-cream before he answers.

‘Me and my twin brother have a YouTube channel. We agreed I would get the props for the video we’ll be filming tomorrow but I forgot. So I waited for him to fall asleep, so I could go to the store real quick and now he’ll never know I forgot to buy the things!’

You can't help but laugh, ‘Wait! There’s another boy who looks exactly like you?!’ You exclaim with a smile. Damn!

Grayson laughs and ruffles his hand through his hair, ‘Yea! His name is Ethan. He’s older but less funny so...’

You laugh out loud. ‘Wow he must be a funny as a funeral if he’s not as funny as you!’ Grayson puts his free hand over his heart as if he’s very offended.

You ask Grayson about his channel. He tells you about how Ethan and him got a warehouse where they film their videos and how he had been editing all day today.

‘I mean I really like editing videos, but it tires you out! I feel like I look like a zombie right now,’ he sighs and takes another bite of his McFlurry.

‘I think you look good! I mean if you look like this tired I don't even dare to imagine what you look like normally! Not that you don’t look hot right now! You’re very hot! I mean-’ you ramble. You can feel your cheeks and neck heating up in embarrassment. Dear mother Earth, please, swallow me whole now!

Grayson just chuckles at your discomfort. ‘You’re cute,’ he says softly. You almost choke in your ice-cream. And Grayson rubs your back, trying to help you catch your breath. It doesn’t help though, the places where his hand touched your back burn and tingle worse than your throat.

‘Do you want to come to the warehouse tomorrow? I can show you around and you can meet Ethan! I think you and him will like each other!’ Grayson asks you. ‘I can pick you put or I can give you the address?’ He says softly.

‘I’d love to visit!’ You smile. Grayson smiles back you. ‘Okay, can I get your number? I’ll text you the address!’ He says, still smiling.

‘Smooth boy!’ You grin at him as your type your number into his iPhone X.

‘Fancy phone Mr-I-Do-YouTube-With-My-Twin-Brother!’ you nod at the phone as you give it back to him.

‘Might be one of the worst things I bought to be honest!’ Grayson chuckles, ‘I can’t even use the facial recognition; Ethan can get into my phone because of that! Apple hates twins!’

You laugh at that, ‘I guess so!’.

Once you finished your ice-creams and loads of stories, it’s almost 1:30am.

‘Do you want me to walk you back to campus?’ Grayson asks you. You act like you’re thinking about it, although you already know the answer. You don’t want the conversation with Grayson to end.

‘That’d be nice! Thank you,’ You smile at him and you lead the way back to the UCLA campus. The conversation between the two of your turns deeper and soon you’re deep into the midnight conversations topics about love, what the point of living is and death.

‘This is me...’ You say with pain in your stomach as you approach your room. ‘I wish we could talk longer...’ You confess.

‘Same!’ Grayson says, ‘but we’ll hang out tomorrow!’ He smiles, which makes you smile too.

‘That’s right.’

‘Good night Y/N! It was lovely meeting you.’ Grayson says, and you wish him good night.

Suddenly, he hugs you tightly. ‘I already can’t wait to see you again Y/N’ he whispers into your ear. Your heart skips a beat.

You wait in the doorway of your room until you can’t see him anymore. Then you lock your door and fall onto your bed. A buzz sound  makes you look up.

Unknown number: Hi Y/N! This is Grayson! Although it’s not the same midnight-talking, maybe we can midnight-text? X

sooooo yeahhh ..... i hope you liked it! leave a comment if you feel like it! 

[artificialqueens]

Crazy, stupid, sudden (Craquaria) Part 2 - Catrina

A/N: This was gonna be only a one shot bc I didn’t know if you would like it, but you asked, and I delivered. I had so much fun writing this, I hope you like it as much as I did. Some things: 1. Thanks @likeuranus for giving me ideas and opinions, ily! 2. I used Miz as Cracker’s name in the first part bc I was confused about it (for the anon who said it was like calling Miss Fame ‘Miss’) 3. I didn’t expect you would like it so much! PLEASE REMEMBER TO send some feedback if you liked this part and make me know if you want a third part? 4. Would you be insterested if I do a kind of “side chapter” where I explain Sharon and Alaska’s story better? Make me know at @the-glitter-skeleton and feel free to talk to me lmao I need friends <3 That’s it, enjoy.

Miz is going crazy. She just can’t understand —even when Monet tells her there’s nothing to understand— and her stubborn mind isn’t helping at all.

“So, in summary, you have a crush” her friend says, turning to her locker.

“I do” Miz sighs tiredly, leaning her back on the locker next to Monet’s. “And I don’t know how to get close to her”

“You drool over her since last year, didn’t you have enough time to plan shit like that?” she mocks, changing books into her bag.

Miz opens her mouth indignantly, ready to argue. “I don't—”

Monet closes the door of her locker suddenly, looking at her friend with a raised brow. “Christmas party, five months ago; you, Blair and I were outside the theater when certain girl with aquatic name walked by. ’She’s the prettiest thing I’ve seen around here’ quote by you”

Miz knows she’s defeated when her cheeks burn with embarrassment. “Smart bitch” she whispers as she rolls her eyes. “Are you helping me or what?”

“Brianna, I wasted my time investigating the bus route on Monday for you. After that anything is easy” Monet giggles when they start walking to their first class. “At least you took the chance when you saw her in the bus; she knows you now. And driving her to school was a good start, you got to see her everyday. That’s something”

“But out of my car we don’t talk at all! The longest conversation we had was about weather. Every time we get here she just thanks the ride and goes away” Miz pouts. “And don’t call me Brianna, only my mom calls me that”

“Whatever, Miz” she remarks ironically. “What I’m going to is that you can go closer easily now”

“But how?”

Monet stays silent until they sit at the back of the classroom. The teacher doesn’t arrive yet, and everyone is too busy chatting to care about it. She looks at Miz with a concerned look that makes her friend know she’s focused. She smiles when an idea comes to her mind, tapping on Miz’s arm to get her attention.

“You have to ask her out!”

-

Fridays are boring. But when Aquaria thinks of it, she realizes everyday is boring. The only interesting part of her days seems to be the way to school and home, when the sees Miz.

But then, everything goes down.

She doesn’t know what’s happening. It’s out of control her every time she combs her hair a little better hoping Miz notices it, or every time she sneaks to Sharon’s room to steal her perfume because it smells better than hers.

It becomes stronger when she looks at her and she can’t help but smiling like a maniac. She knows the feeling, she isn’t dumb; she knows perfectly it’s something she can’t bury. The word love burns into her brain like acid.

Aquaria doesn’t like that word. It’s tough and merciless. She saw the perfect prove with her own moms; destroyed after giving everything they had. Even when Sharon mentions how happy she is now and Alaska assures she’s better alone, she knows Sharon still conserves pictures of her wedding in a box under her bed and Alaska prefers going on business trips so she doesn’t have to be in her huge house that used to be filled with Sharon’s voice.

She doesn’t want that. Miz is nice, funny, special. She’s everything Aquaria has ever wanted and she’s too scared to go for.

It’s useless. She closes her eyes and tries to throw every single idea that has been around her mind this morning away. Her eyes are on the table, quietly chewing on the bread with dry cheese and too much ham of her daily sandwich when a noise makes her lift her head suddenly. It just takes Miz a second to sit by her, looking directly at her soul with those gorgeous big eyes of hers.

“Hey” she smiles. “Mind if I stay here?”

Aquaria almost chokes on the bread as she swallows as fast as she can to answer. “It’s fine” she manages to say, receiving a smile from Miz.

For a moment, they don’t do anything more than eat silently.

“What are you doing tonight?” Miz asks suddenly, her eyes on her food over her plate as she carelessly stings it with a fork.

The question surprises Aquaria. She thinks for a second; she hasn’t anything planned, maybe watching a movie and make dinner for Sharon when she arrives from work, but nothing else. What could she do, anyways? With no friends at all, her nights are just as boring as mornings, but she doesn’t wanna Miz to know that.

“I don’t know” she replies, keeping herself from asking why. “No plans yet, I guess”

“Wanna go out with me?” she asks simply. So fucking simply Aquaria can’t understand why it makes her heartbeats increase.

She can’t think of an answer. She knows she should say no, but Miz is looking at her and the idea seems so irresistible she just can curl the corners of her lips into a little smile and nod. “Yeah”

It’s just going out, she comforts herself, ignoring the huge warning signal in her mind. That isn’t gonna hurt anybody.

“We have a date then!” Miz’s eyes shine.

-

Aquaria is finally at home, nervously walking in a circle on the living room. After taking her home, Miz said she would pick her up at seven before she started the car again and drove until it disappeared of Aquaria’s sight.

She takes her phone and goes to do the first thing she knows she should have done before, dialing the number of Sharon’s office as she throws herself to the couch.

“Good afternoon, you’re calling to the office of doctor Sharon Needles. What can I do for you?” a voice sounds at the other line of the phone.

“Hey Max” she replies with a smile. Her mom’s secretary is nice and always sends Aquaria cookies in Christmas, which of course was an easy way to gain her boss’ daughter’s heart. “Is my mom there?”

“Aqua! It’s good to hear you” Aquaria can swear she’s smiling even when she can’t see her. “And sorry darling, your mom is going to a meeting right now. Something you want me to tell her?”

“Yeah. Just tell her I’m going out with… a friend at seven. I’ll be back early and I’m taking my phone if she wants to call me”

There’s a puse before Max talks again. “Alright sweetheart. As soon as I see her I’ll tell her”

“Okay, thanks Max” Aquaria giggles before hanging up.

-

Hours after, Aquaria is still on the couch, watching a boring cooking show she found changing channels with no order. It’s the best way she has to entretain herself a little, even when the meat the old lady is cooking looks gross. It’s way too much salt, Aquaria thinks as she sighs.

Suddenly, the main door opens, revealing Sharon’s figure in the frame. Aquaria jumps in her spot, looking at her in surprise.

“Mom? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” she asks, sitting sitraght.

“I am, but when Max told me you called I had to run here. My baby has a date!” Sharon snaps cheerfully, closing the door and dropping her purse in the other couch to sit next to her daughter. Her smile is the brightest Aquaria has seen in years, and she can’t help but smiling too.

“You left work… for me?” is all she can ask, incredulous.

“Honey, I’d leave that hellhole for you anytime” Sharon assures.

Aquaria knows it’s true when she remembers Sharon dropping the chance to head a stomach surgery in the middle of the morning because she went to Aquaria’s ballet festival to see her perform. Work is her worst addiction, but her love for Aquaria is way stronger.

“Now, are you gonna tell me who is this nice person who asked you out?” the woman talks again, kicking her heels out so she can fold her legs under her on the couch.

Pathetically or gracefully —depends of Aquaria’s mood— Sharon is her best friend. The few hours she gets to see her are to talk about anything, from homework to annoying coworkers, but she didn’t tell her about Miz because the fear was bigger than the confusion and Aquaria couldn’t organize her mind.

But curling her body against Sharon’s, she sighs and decides to shut her mind down for a second. Just for a second.

“Her name is Miz Cracker, I met her days ago. She’s super nice and gentle—”

“Miz is such a weird name” Sharon comments.

“I know, her real name is Brianna, but she doesn’t like it”

“Oh, that’s cool. And you like her?”

The direct question is like a thrown arrow, going right to Aquaria’s chest. Closing her eyes, she purses her lips, looking for an answer. Love, being a group of negative things in her life, is also an untouched topic with Sharon. That makes it even worse.

“I’m scared, mom” she confesses in a small voice.

“Why, darling?”

“What if it doesn’t work?”

“C'mon, you can’t know that if you don’t try. And you’re too young to worry about that. If it doesn’t work, you can try it with someone else! Maybe someone without the name of a cookie as last name” she jokes, petting her hair. “Let those stupid fears outside your head and just enjoy what you can enjoy”

Her words seem to make something in Aquaria’s chest to grow; sudden courage. She doesn’t wanna lose Miz, but if she starts something knowing it can end, at least she’s gonna make it worthwhile. Nodding, she hugs Sharon as tight as she can. “You’re right, so fucking right”

“Nothing new, your mom is really smart” Sharon brags with a smirk, looking down at her watch for a second. “It’s six o'clock, let’s do what I came to! What are you gonna wear?”

Aquaria laughs, being dragged by Sharon upstairs to her room. For some minutes, she sees her mom searching into her closet from her bed, until Sharon turns around with a black dress she hasn’t seen in a while. Her mom looks at it with nostalgia, and Aquaria remembers; is the dress Alaska gave her for her birthday the year before.

Once she puts it on, Sharon takes manage of her hair. She combs it until it’s done and then proceeds with the make up that Aquaria finds unnecessary, but she lets her mom take her as a doll to dress and paint. When she finishes, she can’t stop praising her, petting her head with shining eyes and the biggest smile.

Miz’s car stops outside the house just ten minutes later. Sharon is nervous, maybe more than her own daughter when she hugs her and watches her from the door frame. Miz’s head pocks out of the window, yelling hello and waving at Sharon, who can only do the same.

-

“You look really pretty” Miz praises when Aquaria pulls into the car. She’s all dressed up, wearing a shiny light purple dress that makes her look adorable with her wavy blonde hair perfectly done.

“Thanks” she replies, a smile hiding behind her lips once the door is closed and the car starts. “You look pretty too”

Miz drives through the now dark streets, until they reach a little restaurant Aquaria has seen before. It’s warm and comfortable, and Aquaria feels even better when Miz reaches her side as soon as they’re walking to the door.

When they sit, dangerously close with their knees touching, it feels good. The thrill of disappointment and fear isn’t as big as Aquaria imagined it before, and when Miz smiles at her and asks what are you gonna have? in the sweetest voice, it seems to disappear.

She’s glad Miz can fill the holes in the conversation every time Aquaria just stays silent because the words don’t come out. She talks about her life, her childhood, stupid things that catch her attention —how could Aquaria know Miz actually loved to cook?— and more important, she gets her to do the same. She opens up; grabbing some vegetables with her fork as she tells Miz things she didn’t even remember before.

“I like your voice. It’s good to hear it more than just saying yes, no and I don’t know” Miz mocks, gaining a death gaze from her. “I’m serious, though. It’s really pretty. I could listen to it forever”

“I already listen to your voice always, so I can’t say the same” a high pitched gasp comes out of Miz mouth as Aquaria chuckles, looking down at her plate.

“And she can joke! You’re full of surprises. What else could you be keeping from me?”

“Well, you still don’t know I’m actually a secret agent from the FBI” Aquaria grimaces. “Now that I told you, I have to kill you”

“Okay, you joke about the FBI, that makes you even more perfect now” Miz states in a serious tone that makes Aquaria laugh. “Let’s just marry already”

“I wouldn’t mind that” Aquaria replies, not very attentive of her words. When she realizes what she has said, she bits her lip as her cheeks blush. “I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay, I was thinking the same” Miz puts her elbow over the table, resting her chin on her hand as she watches the girl in front of her. “You’re beautiful when you blush”

“Only when I blush?” Aquaria teases with a raised brow, the tension tangled in her nerves thankfully decreasing.

“Oh, well—” blinking, Miz seems taken aback. “You’re always beautiful, but, you know, when—”

She stops when Aquaria smiles, letting her know she was joking.

This feels just right.

-

When they head back to Aquaria’s home, the smiles are still there, and the comfortable heat that seems to go between them too. The car stops just where it did hours before, full of a very deserving silence after everything they spoke. Aquaria looks at Miz one more time before she open the door and for her surprise, Miz is already looking at her.

“This was a good night” the blonde comments. Her eyes shine under the street light, making Aquaria to fall in a small trance as she can only stare at them.

“It was” with her voice becoming little, she answers.

And again the silence. Aquaria turns a bit to open the door and Miz knows she should say something else before she goes. She can almost feel Monet’s gaze over her when she touches her arm, asking silently for attention.

“Aqua, I want to tell you something” in her head it sounded better, definitely. Aquaria is looking at her attentively and she just sighs, the nerves running through all her body. “I— wait, no. I just wanna say— I… like you, Aquaria. More than friends”

The words come out, floating in the air for a second before Aquaria can process them. And the silence hits the car once again, but this time it doesn’t feel right. And at the lack of response Miz sighs again, but this time embracing a mix of disappointment and dispair.

“I’m sorry. Please, let’s just be friends. Forget that. It was stupid— you know what? I’m drunk! Yes, so fucking drunk, I don’t know what I’m doing! I shouldn’t be driving”

With no words at all, Aquaria’s hand reaches Miz’s.

“No, Aquaria, don’t do that” with her head shaking negatively, she pulls her hand away as she looks down. “Don’t try to comfort me, I should’ve known”

“What should have you known? That I like you back?”

Miz can’t belive it. It doesn’t even sound true when Aquaria smiles warmly.

“You do?” lifting her head she asks, her insecurity becoming adorable for Aquaria, who can only nod to confirm her answer.

“I definitely do”

A smile grows on Miz’s lips. Is the only reponse her body produces, everything else is completely blank. Even when she tried to be positive about the topic, thinking Aquaria would have a mutual feeling, hearing it is completely different.

Her eyes can’t help but stare directly at her lips, those that look soft and sweet, those she wanted to kiss since a long time ago. She doesn’t even realize when Aquaria’s eyes are back on her, and her body moves closer, against hers, not having to deal with the seat belt. Her hand goes to Aquaria’s, holding it tight. Miz feels her chin being lift by her free hand.

When she looks up, Aquaria’s face is just inches away from hers. She can feel Miz’s heavy breathing coming out of her lightly open mouth.

It's sudden when their lips smash into each other, both of them closing their eyes with excitement running through their veins.

It's crazy when their heartbeats increase to a point they seem to be breathless, looking for air in the other’s mouth.

It's stupid when they break the kiss and their lips feel unsatisfaced, wanting —no, needing— more contact.

All they can do is look at each other, too shaken to talk. Their hands are still holding each other, Aquaria’s hand is still on Miz’s chin and the blonde’s hand has somehow found its way to her waist. Everything feels right. No, not right, it feels even better. It feels crazy, stupid, sudden; just like everything between them. And that’s absolutely perfect.

“Would be dumb if I say this is the best first kiss I ever had even when I never had one before?” Miz asks, eyes full of daydream. “I sounded so ridiculous and cheesy but it’s true. This is even better than I thought”

Talking in the calmest tone Miz has ever listened in Aquaria, she looks down with a little smile. “It was my first one too”

“Was it?” Miz’s brows raise with surprise when she nods. Pride grows in her chest; she was her crush’s first kiss. That’s more than something, Monet would say. “May I be your second one too?”

“You can be as much of them as you want” Aquaria eagerly replies, pulling her on a messy kiss as the car fills of heavy breathes and wonderful heat.

It feels perfect.

[currentlyfangirrling]

Taxi pt. 7 (Sebastian Stan x Reader)

Plot: In which a young girl goes to New York for the first time and accidentally gets into an already occupied Taxi

Warning: violence, language, sexual assault, and FLUFF

The next morning my eyes were swollen from crying all night. I know I shouldn’t be so upset considering that I barely knew him, but there was a part of me that felt like him and I would actually end up together. It’s ridiculous for me to believe that, but I did. I let myself fall for someone who couldn’t catch me.

Claire made me some tea and ordered me breakfast. No matter how many chocolate chip waffles I ate, I still felt empty inside.

“I know you are probably not up to do anything today, but we have a lot to do before the wedding tomorrow. And I know that you would never forgive yourself if you didn’t help out," Claire said as she put on her clothes for the day.

“Of course I’ll help! I need something to get my mind off of him anyway.” I got up, took a shower, put on some makeup to cover up my swollen eyes, and put on my clothes for the day.

I looked at my phone to see that Sebastian texted me half a million times. It was obvious that he didn’t sleep last night. All of his messages practically said that he was sorry, that he felt horrible, he couldn’t sleep because he couldn’t stop thinking about me, he wanted to see me, and that he never wanted this to happen. Blah blah blah. I was too exhausted to react anymore. I was fresh out of tears. Plus, I didn’t want to ruin my makeup.

I didn’t reply to his messages and just shoved my phone into my purse without another thought about it. Today I was going to help my friend and I was going to enjoy every minute of it.

First thing to do today was to go help Sarah meet with the flower shop owner to make sure all the flowers would be ready and set up in the correct vases. Sarah was a bit OCD and it definitely showed after it took her nearly 3 hours until she felt comfortable with the arrangements.

After that, we headed to the bakery to check up on the cake. It was almost complete and was being frozen in the freezer. Sarah made sure that the cake was a rich red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

Then we drove to the boutique that had our dresses ready to pick up. Everyone tried them on one last time before the big day. The bridesmaids dresses were long soft pink dresses that hugged everyone’s curves perfectly. When Sarah walked out in her wedding dress, everyone broke down into tears. Especially me.

Seeing her in her dress reminded me of when I was dating Daniel and how I thought I was going to marry him one day. Her dress was beautiful. It was the classic cupcake style dress that had just the right amount of extra. Sarah was alway the typical ‘go big or go home’ kind of girls, so this dress was perfect for her. It was her very own perfect dress. However, the dress weighed about 50 lbs and took up half of the car space, but we managed to fit everyone into the car.

The day was busy and I’m glad that it was. I didn’t look at my phone once. Until we got to the hotel so that we could get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

Sebastian had called me around noon and left a voicemail.

“Hey (y/n), I know that you have read my messages and I feel like a bigger idiot now that you haven’t replied. I know that you’re upset, and I’m so sorry for that. I can’t think properly knowing that you’re upset with me. I’m sorry that I hurt you. I’m sorry that I probably ruined your trip. I know that I have made a fool of myself, but I just wanted to say that I’m sorry one last time. Okay? Goodbye.”

Tears fell down my face. Hearing his voice felt like I was being punched in the gut. I missed him. I wanted to call him back and tell him that I forgave him and that I wanted to be with him, but I couldn’t. I know that if I did things would probably just get worse and I can’t imagine anything worse than this.

I looked at claire, who was standing across from me getting ready. I handed her the phone so that she could listen. I wanted her to tell me to call him back and to tell me that I should be with him. She didn’t. She just shook her head and turned my phone off.

“I don’t know what to tell you. He seems just as upset as you are about this, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk to him anymore. I’m sorry,” Claire said, walking to the closet to pull out her dress.

“You’re right. I just-I don’t know,” I said, sitting on the bed to take off my shoes to put on my heels for tonight.

“I think it’s best that we don’t talk about this and just focus on Sarah for right now,” Claire stated. I nodded my head and continued to change my clothes.

Walking into the rehearsal dinner, I noticed people that I hadn’t seen in a long time. While talking to Sarah’s parents, I heard a voice that made me cringe.

I turned around to see Daniel behind me, “Hey gorgeous.”

I rolled my eyes, “Daniel.”

“(Y/N), you look amazing. How have you been?” Seeing Daniel made me so uncomfortable that my shoulders were practically up to my ears. And ‘how have I been?’ I’ve been horrible and I feel like crawling into a hole.

“I’ve been great, actually,” I lied. “How about yourself?”

“Honestly? I’ve missed you. I haven’t stopped thinking about you and now that you’re here I am speechless,” Daniel said, putting his arm around my waist and leaning in for a hug.

I hugged him back out of politeness, but I actually wanted to stomp on his foot. I felt his hands sneak down my back, giving my ass a light squeeze. I froze. What the hell?

I backed away and slapped his hand off of me, “What the hell are you doing?”

Daniel grinned, “I missed you. Haven’t you missed me?”

“I haven’t thought about you since I caught you and whatshername sneaking around,” I spat.

“You know she meant nothing to me! I want you! I have always wanted you! You were my everything and I made a mistake,” he confessed.

“I need to go get a drink,” I said, walking away from him.

As I grabbed myself a glass of champagne, drank it, and immediately grabbed another one.

Sitting down at my table, I noticed Daniel was seated across from me. Great. I was about 4...5...maybe 6 glasses of champagne in and was not in the mood for this.

I ignored him completely and kept to myself. I could sense him staring at me as I was eating my meal.

Once the speeches began, I got up to go to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, I fixed my hair and makeup. I waiting in the bathroom to waist time before I had to go back out and deal with Daniel. I looked at my phone and saw that I had no notifications from Sebastian. I guess he was serious about saying goodbye.

I left the bathroom and ran into Daniel, who was probably just waiting outside the ladies room so that he could talk to me privately.

“(Y/N), come on. Give me one more chance. I miss you. Please. I know you missed me,” Daniel leaned in to kiss me and held my body close to make sure I couldn’t escape.

“Daniel, stop!” I said, fighting him. He backed away and apologized.

That was it. I was tired of everyone saying “sorry” to me. I pulled myself together. “Daniel, I’m going to forget what just happened and walk back in there to talk to my friends. Don’t follow me!”

He agreed and stood against the wall as i walked away. I was too tired to deal with his. I found claire and told her that I wasn’t feeling well and that I would see her back at the hotel.

When I got to the room I fell onto the bed and fell right to sleep.

The next morning was the big day. Everyone met in Sarah’s room for hair and makeup. We took pictures, had some champagne, and got dressed.

Before we knew it, we arrived at the venue and got ready for the big moment. We walked into the ladies room and waiting for the ceremony to begin. As I walked down the aisle and saw Daniel sitting on the edge with a smile planted on his face.

After the ceremony, Daniel caught me walking alone outside. We were completely alone.

“Hey beautiful!”

I turned around and walked into the other direction, “Daniel, leave me alone!”

“Oh come on! I know you want me,” Daniel grabbed my waist, turned me around, and pulled me towards him.

“You know nothing about me and what I want!” I said, trying to escape his grip.

“Well, why don’t we take this somewhere private and then I could get to know you again just like old times,” Daniel smirked as he leaned into kiss me.

“Daniel, stop!” I said. He continued to force himself onto me. “I’m serious! Stop!” I began to shout.

No one was around to witness this. Until I heard some from a distance shout, “She said ‘Stop’!”

Before I could process what was happening, I saw a fist fly passed my face and making contact with Daniel’s. Daniel fell to the ground and put his hand up to his face to reveal that his nose was bleeding.

I turned around to see an angry Sebastian. He was holding his hand close to his chest in pain after punch Daniel.

“Sebastian! What the hell are you doing here?”

“Besides saving you? I needed to see you! I called Claire and she told me where you would be! (Y/N), I am so sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean it. I just wanted Chris to get off of my back. I could never just ‘end things’ with you! Fuck,” Sebastian explained, still in pain. I turned around to see that Daniel was still on the ground holding his nose.

I ignored Daniel and turned back to Sebastian, “Sebastian, I don’t know what to say. You really hurt me, but-”

Sebastian shook off this pain in his hand and held mine interrupted my train of thought. “I know I did, but I didn’t know how else to deal with Chris. He doesn’t understand how much I love you! Ever since I met you in that taxi-”

“You love me?” I interrupted.

Sebastian sighed, “uhh, yeah. Yeah I do. I love you, (Y/N)!”

I squeezed his hands tightly with excitement before he yanked his hand away from mine in pain. “I am so sorry! I forgot-“

“It’s ok! I deserved that I guess,” Sebastian laughed, ignoring the pain he cupped my face and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around him tightly, making sure he couldn’t slip away.

“Excuse me! I’m going to kill you,” Daniel jumped up and tackled Sebastian to the ground suddenly.

I jumped back, “Daniel! STOP!” I screamed as loud as I could. That’s when I saw people coming towards us. Sarah’s husband and his friends managed to pull Daniel off of Sebastian who was now bleeding from his nose and a little above his eyebrow.

Daniel was taken away as I pulled Sebastian up and helped him inside. I sat him down in a chair and grabbed a napkin and put ice in it so he could put it over his eye.

“Thank you,” Sebastian said, holding the homemade ice pack to his face.

“I’m so sorry this happened!” I apologized.

“It’s ok!” He reassured me.

After a while of talking and helping Sebastian, Claire found us. She gave Sebastian more ice and a wet napkin to clean up the blood.

Once Sebastian was cleaned up and felt better, I lead him into the dining room. Before we walked in I stopped, “Oh I forgot. No one can see us together.”

Sebastian licked his lips and smiled, “I think it’s too late for that.” He pointed to his face.

“Oh right. Sebastian, I’m so sorry. Not only did you get beat up but also now people know about us!” I felt horrible.

“Hold on, I didn’t get ‘beat up’ alright! And it was worth it. I got you now,” Sebastian winked, leaning in the kiss me softly.

Sebastian walked into the room confidently and lead me to the dance floor. He spun me around and pulled me into his chest as we started to dance. Everyone was staring and a few people were taking photos. At first, I felt a little panicked that people were taking photos of us, but then I just looked into his eyes and felt at peace.

“I love you too,” I said before planting a kiss on his lips.

Sebastian smiled and then spun me around then pulled me back in again, “I love you three.”

AN: I don’t know if I should continue this story or not! Leave me a comment below if I should or shouldn’t!

[serverthoughts]

FATHER’S DAY 2018 at my NEW Server Job (fail)

Happy Father’s Day to all the daddy’s, mommies, or anyone else that celebrated Father’s Day today. 

Father’s Day is pretty uneventful in my family. I don’t speak to my dad, and my mom’s dad (my papa) and I aren’t really close, even though my car is in his name. Thanks Papa. Happy Father’s Day to you from my tumblr. 

I’m going to occasionally abbreviate Father’s Day or Happy Father’s Day, otherwise I’m going to irritate myself and have to set up a drinking game.

One of my first posts on this blog was about Father’s Day. Read my first FD post by clicking here. 

Let’s get into it. 

When I’m missing in action for a few weeks, it usually means life changing stuff is happening to me. And atlas, I have a new serving job in a better town - 20 miles away from my house.

The cliente are wealthy/tourist/old white people, and pretty much everyone tips minimum 15 percent, but usually more than 20. 

This is the restaurant I belong in. I still work at the OG restaurant that I founded this blog on. Twice a week during lunch, but I usually drop one of my shifts, so I can have at least two days off from both jobs. My new job has been giving me four days. 

I’m going to quit the old restaurant for the final time in August, when I start school. 

I really want to drop the name of the restaurant, but my mom said I shouldn’t because I’ll get sued or wuteva~

Honestly worth it for the likes and reblogs.

I’m really trying to see how long my social media contract I signed twice, lasts for, so I can expose the restaurant and give you all the hot goss.

ANYWAY. I served at my new job this beautiful Father’s Day, and financially, I’m ready for the father’s to start paying again. I’m sorry mother’s, but you all need to step your tipping game up.

In my opinion, the start percent for tipping should be twenty percent, and if I need to teach a class on tipping - I will. Women, high school/college students, tourists will all be invited to this seminar. 

Hell, let’s bring children of all ages to this class. It’s never to young to teach our youth tipping culture. Anyone who wants to come, really. This class is mandatory to the people who don’t want to tip take-out, because they “didn’t eat at the restaurant.”

Eat my entire asshole, if that’s you. I apologize for saying that, Mom, I know you’re reading this. But like, hyperbole is important.

*

I had a four table section today, and the most tables I had was, shockingly, four.

I got the regular’s who seat themselves in a specific booth, and order decaff, regular coffee, raspberry iced tea, and always get a cup of pea soup. (And more). They constantly want refills, but they’re old and tip good, so whatever.

I also almost fought this rude ass bitch, who wanted to get lippy with me. She ordered the kid’s mac n cheese for her daughter, and asked me if it comes with a drink.

No, your daughter has to die of thirst, lady.

Of course, I told her dumb ass yes, it does come with a drink. The mom asked me what the kid’s drinks are. So I did what any good server would do, and told her that they’re listed on the kid’s menu. 

I proceeded to be a great server, and list some sodas, teas, and lemonade for her kid who apparently can’t read.

Now that I think of it, her kid may not have been old enough to read, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that her mother could.

The mother scowled at me and asked me if we have any beverages that are more kid ‘appropriate.’

Hmmm, I didn’t realize I was naming fucking shots of Patron for your 5 year old daughter, or Moscow Mules, rude bitch. 

Also, when did children stop drinking soda’s and lemonades? Did I not get the memo in the mail, or.. 

If looks could kill, y’all. I killed this lady and she knew it. I snapped back, and told her that I did list drinks that children typically order. The mother could tell I was a bit angry, so she took a step back and said “Oh, okay.” 

While I repeated myself, “We have soda’s, tea’s, lemonade, milk (chocolate or regular), apple juice--” The mother interrupted me and told me to get her daughter an apple juice, and that she didn’t want anything to drink.

Good fuckin’ riddiance, I’m glad her ass didn’t want anything. 

Are we suprised that the little girl hated her mac n cheese, so her mom asked me for tomato sauce, and right when I grabbed it from my General Manager...Another manager stopped me to tell me that she rang in a different dish for that same table, because the little girl didn’t like the pasta.

You’re really going to tell my manager your daughter wants another dish, AFTER I’m getting a different sauce for her. Okay, fake.

I’m sorry lady, but you’re not allowed to be rude to me on Father’s Day, it’s not your day.

After that, the lady, her mother, and the little girl were super nice to me and the bitch lady’s mother, even personally thanked me for serving them.

Yeah, whatever, you raised an entitled bitch, HFD to you, lady.

My first table of the day, was nice, a little bit weird. I wished the dad a Happy Father’s Day, and he told me, “Thanks, you too.” I smiled and said thanks, and walked away to the computer terminal. I looked back at him and he was smiling too, after he realized what he said.

Whatever, I can be a daddy too if you want me to be.

Speaking of which, I wished one of my co-worker’s who is without a child a HFD, because he kept telling everyone he’s a daddy, and fuck it, he’s right. 

If he wants to be a Daddy for real, he can hit me up.

FD at this new restaurant, wasn’t really that bad. And maybe it was because I had a small section, and I didn’t get busy, but I wasn’t mad that I had to work.

If you’re looking for a sign to apply at new places, or take that job offer, DO IT. I would of never applied at my new job, but one of my good friend’s kept bugging me to do so. I finally did, and I love it here. This is truly the type of restaurant that I deserve, and love working at.

I know it’s hard to leave a job where you feel comfortable at, and you might put up with the bullshit because you know your position well. I promise there’s a better opportunity out there, and you don’t need to settle for anywhere that treats you like shit! They don’t deserve your undying loyalty and dedication, if they don’t take care of you. That was my sappy bit for this post. 

I would say if you want to keep up with me, wait for new posts, but you all know I’m inconsistent, so message me if you want to bullshit about shitty customers and your restaurant drama.

Xoxo,

serverthoughts.

[biggy-habes]

So we left off with me and Fennie moving in with Amanda. I was a bit nervous about this, because the last 2 girlfriends that I had lived with ended up crashing and burning. One took all of our shit with her while I was at work one day. Nothing better than coming home from a hard day's work to come home to…Nothing. Jack shit. The other one had pissed on our couches and threatened to cut my dick off in my sleep. I slept with a knife in my hand that night. Good times!

So you can probably understand the hesitance. There were some major lifestyle differences between us. She was high maintenance. I am a bit of a slob. She enjoyed being young and having a good time. I was heavily into the drug-free lifestyle of NA. Also…I was a vegetarian. Not just a vegetarian, but a vegan. And a super annoying self-righteous vegan at that. Now how did I get there? How does one go from downing 50 wings at Hooters during a wrestling Pay Per View to eating cashew cheese and lentils? Well it all started with a cat named George. In 2010 I was living in a shitty one bedroom downstairs unit in a shitty part of Lawton, Oklahoma. Every so often a grey cat would be wandering around the tree outside my door. I never saw a collar on him so I assume he just would just wander around the neighborhood. When I would see him from my window I would bring him cold cuts or what not. One day I looked outside and saw him climbing into the tree, however it looked like he had something stuck to his fur. I went out to see what the issue was and give him a hand. I certainly was not expecting to see what was actually in his fur. As I got closer I saw that it was actually burns and scars. It looked as if someone had poured boiling oil on him. I was horrified! This angered me beyond being able to put into words! I felt like I needed to do something. I needed to file a report or something! So I jumped onto my computer and I immediately started searching for ways to report animal cruelty. This would lead to me reading about animal cruelty in general. And this would lead me to reading about animal cruelty in the meat industry. And THIS…would lead to the videos of animal cruelty in the meat industry. And it was that day that I decided that I could not ethically participate in the anything that would promote the things that I have witnessed that day. So from then on I was all about that Vegan Lyfe, son! That was…until I got to Boston.

For my birthday in May we were able to take a few weeks off together and decided to do a bit of traveling. The plan was to spend a week in Boston, come back to Oklahoma, then drive to New Mexico to attend a wedding. Amanda and I had such an incredible time doing all of the touristy stuff that Boston had to offer. I knew a few friends from High School who moved to the Boston area so I had looked up a buddy and we ended up eating sushi at a low key Japanese bar near Boston Common. I figured a walk around after eating would be a nice end to the evening. Unfortunately my stomach had different plans. Soon after we started walking around the Commons I felt a rumble and a grumble. I turned to Amanda and informed her that we needed to find a restroom. STAT! Now here is the thing with large cities like Boston…they don’t just have a McDonalds or a WalMart that you can run into and use the bathroom. And as we continued walking around looking for ANY PLACE where I can duck in and do some damage the sense of urgency just kept rising. It is getting to the point where I am about to settle for an alley and a newspaper. And then, like a beacon of hope, I notice a familiar green mermaid a few blocks away. I immediately start booking with the gait of Abe Vigoda and reach the doors of the Starbucks in a nick of time. I tell Amanda to pull guard while I handle my business. For discretionary purposes I will not dive into the violent details but a few minutes later Amanda knocked on the door to ask if I was alright. And I was. I really was! That is…until I tried to flush. The toilet was broken. It was Dumb and Dumber, but in real life. And happening to me! By now I am looking like I ran a few laps. I am pale and covered with sweat. Like I said…violent. There is NO WAY I would have an explanation for what just went down. So…I did what any rational man would do. I pretended like nothing was wrong and walked out, all the time hoping that no one is waiting to use the bathroom after me. I don’t know what happened after I left that Starbucks that night, but my heart goes out to that poor employee who got assigned that mess.

The next day we had tickets behind the first base line to watch the Sox play the Twins. It was at this game where I came SO CLOSE to achieving a lifelong dream of catching a ball at Fenway Park. A foul ball came into the stands 2 rows behind me! I immediately scrambled to grab the loose ball when a pair of kids ran towards it. I backed off to let them snag an *official* Sox game ball. Good for that kid, right? WRONG! Because he started acting like the cockiest little prick. Talking about how quick he is and teasing his brother with his "trophy catch". I sat there thinking "Listen, you little shit. If you weren't 4 foot nothing and I would have gone after that ball as if you were a grown ass man. You would have ended up somewhere near the On Deck Circle so sit down and shut your fat ice cream covered face!" Now by this time I had been a hardcore vegan for about nine months. And I had gotten GOOD at it. I learned how to spot animal products hidden in labels. I learned which restaurants had off-the-menu vegan options. But being in Boston was going to be the ultimate test. Right now just thinking about being there and not being able to eat seafood is making me the sads. No scallops. No lobster. No chowdah. At the game I was ok with my bag of peanuts while I watched Amanda scarf down a Fenway Frank. But I have always had a weakness for cheese. Not just a weakness though. It is more like I have a problem with cheese. Not the lactose intolerance problem. It is more of an "I Binge Eat Cheese" kind of problem. If I get a night of the sads I will drown my sorrows in a 1 pound brick of muenster. Not just by the slice like a gentleman. No, I have to tear off chunks with my hands like a friggin savage. I happened to notice a lady an aisle over from us eating a slice of pizza. This was not just an ordinary slice of pizza at a baseball game though. This was perfect. The cheese was still hot and melty. The grease glistened from the stadium lights overhead. In a moment of weakness I just had to have a slice of pizza. I turned to Amanda and said "I think I am going to get a slice of pizza." She looked at me, puzzled, and asked "Are you sure? The cheese isnt…" I stopped her right there. I didn’t need to be reminded. #YOLO. So that was the last night that I was a vegan. I held on to being a vegetarian for a few years after that. We can cover that later. Anyways, back to hanging out in Boston.

We tried cramming as much as possible in the few days that we had there. We did a bit of shopping (for her. Amanda was a big fan! Me…not so much. But hey, whattayagonna do?) I took the time to just wander around looking at all the cool sights, the buidings, the people.

Our last night there we went on this super cool ghost tour around Boston Proper. It is one thing to read about these tales about Lizzie Bordon and the great molasses flood. It was a completely different ballgame when you are actually walking around their gravestones! The next day we headed back to Oklahoma, where we has just one day to rest up and pack what we needed for the wedding before hitting the road for Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I did not really know who was getting married. The bride had been a friend of Amanda for a while. Now I know that I am usually cooler than a polar bear's toenails but this was going to be the first time that I would be meeting all of Amanda's closest friends and I was fucking nervous! This was a time where I was very uncomfortable in my own skin and my anxiety was through the roof. The wedding was absolutely stunning! It was held in an adobe brick church that you could not help but marvel at when you walk inside. As the bride walked down the aisle she had a glow to her that caught my attention. It was here that I first imagined Amanda walking down the aisle in a wedding gown. After the wedding we had some time to kill before the reception. We got changed and I put on my game face. I was in recovery at the time and Amanda and her friends still enjoyed partying so I immediately felt out of place. There was also a fair amount of guilt from the feeling that I was preventing her from having a good time. These days when I am in uncomfortable social situations I will usually just start rambling until the conversation gets awkward. However, back then I would just shut down and be the large, weird, reclusive guy. And that is how the wedding reception was. It was just a lot of sipping my coffee and smiling creepily. Thankfully we did not stay long at the reception. I feel like she knew how out of place I felt but was trying my best to power through. Due to the fact that we drove up we were able to bring Fennie along for this leg of the trip so he was a valid excuse for us to leave early.

We took a cab back to the hotel and spent the rest of the night watching TV with the pup. We spent the next day wandering around the city with a few of Amanda's friends. I felt much more comfortable in this setting as I can become charming as fuck in small group situations. Jon Haber is King of the Dinner Table. I spent most of the afternoon getting to know some of her closest friends and let them get to know me a little better now that I was more in my element. There was also something about New Mexico that made me feel at east. The Land of Enchantment has a breathtaking backdrop of mountains and mesas. The architecture of Santa Fe maintains the Pueblo culture and feel.

Amanda had recently started selling jewelry (Translation: She entered a pyramid scheme) and enjoyed looking at the street vendor shops selling various turquoise trinkets. I enjoyed the laid back pace and fresh air. And the food. The food was fucking INCREDIBLE! We went to bed early so that we could head back to Oklahoma the next morning. And that was the end to yet another memorable birthday week. Despite constantly being on-the-go I felt refreshed and grounded. As it turns out I was a hit with Amanda's friends. This was relieving, as the impression that I left on them was constantly in the back of my mind. Overanalyzing the perception that I leave on others has been the one regrettable trait that I have carried in me my entire life.

We returned to Oklahoma and had a week of rest before we hit the road again. This time our destination would be to visit Amanda's mother outside of Vegas. I have never set foot in Las Vegas and was excited to see the bright lights and strange folk that I have heard so much about. For someone who often requires visual stimulation this was perfect!

I am not much of a gambler so I mostly entertained myself by watching the surroundings. It reminded me of something out of one of those In-The-Near-Future sci fi movies. Strangers crowded in the streets wearing any clothing that you could possibly imagine. Celebrity impersonators would have you making constant double takes. Tom Cruise, Pee Wee Herman, Liberace, and of course the stereotypical Vegas strip Elvis. As we were preparing to make our way back to the car the sky lit up like Broadway and an easily recognizable George Thorogood riff blares from all around. Next thing you know Lonesome George is on overhead screens everywhere playing a killer 15 minute set as I sat with my mouth wide open in awe! Being sober I could not take in the FULL Vegas Strip experience but for my first time I was it was thrilling nonetheless.

The next day we went strolling through some of the (free) attractions around Vegas. We had dropped some major coin the past few weeks and were on a tight budget. Amanda's mother lived right outside of Vegas so we had a place to stay. This was the first time meeting her mother. She reminded me a lot of my own. She had a very boisterous laugh and had a light, fun personality. She immediately fell in love with Fennie and was ecstatic to have us staying with her for a couple of days. While we were there I also met Amanda's brother and his family. So if you have been keeping track, in the course of 3 weeks I met the close friends, the mother, the brother, the sister-in-law, and the nephew. This was a pretty significant advancement in our relationship. We had to leave the next morning for Oklahoma so we opted for a nice relaxing day walking around the strip and watching the college kids having their foam parties and beer funnels. It was a great trip and I really enjoyed meeting Amanda's family. I knew that we would be back soon.

And that is where I think we will end this chapter. Join me next time as we wrap up 2011.

And perhaps a big proposal.

[kabrac]

A Small Accident/Fluff Month-Goodnight Kisses

Okay so I wrote this along a long period of time, (like 3 months??) but I really like how it turned out, so have this. (Also kinda for fluff month I guess?)

Warnings: Language and horrible akuma I came up with.

—–———————

“Shit,” Marinette cursed, frantically trying to get out of the shower.

Of course there would be a fucking akuma attack while she was in the shower, and of course it would happen on the worst day of her life.

She had confessed her feelings to Adrien, and he had rejected her, saying he was in love with Ladybug. So basically she was competing with a better version of herself.

She groaned drying her hair, she wasn’t even upset about it. She was more angry than anything, how could she beat herself? If they started dating and it got serious, she would have to tell him anyway. Maybe she could just skip the dating part and tell him she was Ladybug?

Wrapping a towel around her body, she yelled for Tikki, there was no time to get dressed, and she would come straight home anyway, it’s not like she was going to detransform in an allyway.

Tikki came to her side, transforming the shy girl, into the confident, amazing Ladybug. The girl jumped out of her room, quickly finding Chat Noir on a near by rooftop.

“Hey Kitty,” she spoke in a monotone voice, clearly upset, and her hair was still wet from her attempted shower.

“Something wrong M'lady?” He asked, a concerned tone laced through his flirty voice.

“Not having the best day,” She made a face like she had tasted something sour, quickly waving it off, “Let’s just get to the akuma.”

“I am Solver, I will solve every problem that is thrown at me, no one should have someone get in the way of my dreams!” The light-pink haired teen laughed evilly, sending problems at people.

~~~

One akuma fight later, Ladybug had found the item that was akumatized, a book that she used to write down problems, tore it, and purified the akuma. All was well when she said ‘miraculous ladybug’ and she could go home now, thank god.

But that was too easy wasn’t it?

Chat grabbed her by the hand, stopping her from leaving. She groaned in response, having a ready mental list for reasons why she had to leave asap.

“My Lady, please, we’ve known each other for over two years now, and I just think it’s finally time we-”

“Look, I’m not having the best day here, and I really need to go, like now,” she said, in a pleading tone.

“But, LB, please, don’t you think we have to right to,” her miraculous beeped, he didn’t even pause, he’s completely serious, shit, “know? What if something happens in your civilian form and you can’t contact me? What if something happens to your kwami?” He began to list a whole page of reasons why they should know, while Ladybug just shook her head.

And, though she hadn’t registered it, her miraculous was about to run out, and when she became aware of that, she started panicking. She could see the bakery. She could see it, she could make it in time if she left now, so she turned back to Chat, to give him some form of excuse.

“Now is really not the time, I have something going on right now I need to take-” Her transformation released, the towel that was wrapped around her blowing slightly upward in the process, but it didn’t matter it was long on her anyways.

She groaned again, preparing her hand to hold the towel in place. She should’ve been more careful, how could she let something like this happen?! The first time Chat knows who she is, and she’s dressed like this?!

“Now you see what I was talking about,” she growled, angry. This whole day seemed to be filled with that emotion. Anger. It was her least favorite. Ironic.

“S-sorry Marinette, I couldn’t hold out any longer,” Tikki apologized to her holder.

“Don’t worry Tikki it’s not your fault, I should’ve been watching my time better, and someone should’ve let me go back home quicker,” she glared at her partner.

“M-Marinette? I-I’m so sorry, why didn’t you tell me you were… indecent,” he gestured to the cloth draped over her body, blushing and stammering in the process.

“Well, what did you want me to say?! ‘Oh I just got out of the shower to transform, and the only form of clothing I have is a towel’?!” She scolded, pinching her nose, “Just take me home please, we’ll talk about it there, I have all sorts of foods, surely I’ll have something to fit your kwami’s needs, and we should probably get some first aid help too,” she mumbled the last part, they both got pretty beat up, Marinette had scratches on her face, and a small gash on her shoulder that went down below her neckline, and another gash on her neck.

He simply nodded his head, scooping her up. He was still dazed from her reveal, and upset with himself for earlier. He had turned down Marinette for her, well Ladybug, who was her. He shook his head, shaking the thought, and put her down in her room.

“What kind of food does your kwami need?” She asked, nonchalantly, like the whole reveal hadn’t even matter to her.

“Camembert.”

“Tikki, do you know where the cheese is down stairs?” She asked, turning towards the small animal.

Tikki nodded, “But what about your parents?”

“They’re gone for the week on some business trip or something, and you know where the cookies are?” She nodded again, flying down the stairs to go get them as Marinette walked into her bathroom, “We’ll talk about it later okay? Can you help me with some of my scratches while we do? I’ll treat yours after of course.”

“Sure,” he said, barely loud enough for her to hear as she turned the shower water back on, and locked the door. He breathed a sigh, his transformation releasing as Plagg was thrown out of his ring.

When Tikki came back, she carried two cookies, and two small wheels of Camembert cheese, setting them down on Marinette’s desk, by her computer, beckoning Plagg to come eat.

He went over to her, starting to munch on the cheese in silence, “So you’re Chat Noir,” Tikki looked over him with critical eyes, “Are you going to let Marinette know who you are?”

“I don’t know,” he spoke quietly, so the aforementioned girl wouldn’t hear him, “I feel really bad about earlier, I mean,” he paused, “I turned her down so I could have a chance with her, or, I guess, Ladybug.” The room fell to silence once more, Tikki looking at him, feeling sorry for the boy.

She could tell he loved Marinette, even before he knew, he was too blinded by his love for Ladybug to realize it though. The small Kwami sighed, young love, every holder she’d ever had the pleasure of being the Kwami of had it. Young love was so sweet and blissful. It almost seemed like a dream.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden stop in water drops hitting the shower floor, and Tikki rushed to get Marinette some more decent clothing than what she planned to wear when she initially got out.

The spotted creature grabbed a thick strapped tank top that Marinette owned featuring Harley Quinn, and some black shorts to go with the same-colored shirt.

When she got into the bathroom Marinette thanked her companion, and rushed to get changed, she had a sports bra, knowing she would have to take off her shirt when they cleaned each other’s wounds, because of the damned cut that went down to her upper breast. She blushed at the thought, it was embarrassing, though, less than an hour ago, he had seen her in nothing but a towel, so it would be better than that at least.

She sighed, putting on the clothes in a hurry, and she hesitated before the doorknob, “Hey, I’m gonna come out, if you don’t want me to see who you are, Tikki can get you a mask I’ve been working on.

She heard a muffled thank you, and the swish of her hurried kwami to get him the mask, she finally opened the door, holding a first aid kit to help their cuts and bruises.

She sat it down, quickly pulling out the antiseptic, and bandages. She glanced over him, he had some blood seeping through his shirt. She sighed, for what felt like the millionth time today, “Take your shirt off,” a small blush covered her porcelain face as she looked anywhere but at him.

 "W-What?“ He asked, not sure if he heard her correctly.

 "Take your shirt off,” she said it more clearly this time, “You have blood seeping through it, and I can’t get to the cut with fabric over it.”

He blushed, obeying as she looked at the wound, trying so very hard not to think about the place it was.

 She pulled a large cotton ball from the first aid box, soaking it in alcohol, “This is gonna sting, but it’s the worst of your cuts, so it’s better to treat it first,” he nodded as she hesitated to put the cotton ball to his skin, eventually she did, and he hissed in pain.

 "Sorry,“ her face looked like it pained her slightly to see him in pain. She removed the cotton ball, wiping up the access rubbing alcohol with another cotton ball, and wrapping a bandage around his torso to keep it from bleeding any longer. She moved on to assess the other cuts he had, one on his bicep, and another on his cheek, that was partially covered by her make-shift mask.

 She decided to not address that now, it would come later, and if he wanted to take care of it it on his own time, that was fine. She loaded up another cotton ball, and pressed it to the small, but deep, cut in his bicep, he flinched slightly, and she let out a small, "Hold still,” as he did.

 "Now, the last one is,“ she paused for a moment, unsure of how he would react, "It’s under the mask I gave you, on your cheek. If you want to treat it on your own, that’s fine, but if you want me to do it,” she took in a sharp breath before continuing, “you’ll have to take off the mask.”

 His face drained of color, he didn’t have a first aid kit, she’d have to do it for him. He’d have to take off the mask. Seeing his fearful expression, she quickly interjected, “You can treat mine before we get to it, if you want some time to think about it, it’s a small gash, it should be fine.”

 He silently sighed in relief, and nodded, going to pick up the items, he had treated wounds before, it was a simple process. What was not so simple though, the gash on her shoulder, and once she realized what he was thinking, after she saw him staring at the cut for a while, was… she was going to have to take off her shirt.

She sighed, blushing, it was embarrassing, this boy, who she doesn’t know the real name of, was going to see her topless. Tikki wouldn’t be able to help her with it, she couldn’t do it herself, and she certainly couldn’t just leave it be to heal. So she told Chat to look away as she took it off, and when he turned back, he turned a deep shade of red.

She tried her best to act as if it didn’t phase her, but it was impossible, she was also a very deep red.

“Just get it over with already,” she breathed, looking anywhere but his face, “I can’t treat it myself, and Tikki can’t do it either, and I can’t leave it, so just do it quickly,” he nodded, trying to suppress the heat that came to his face.

Once it was over with, they both sighed in relief, and she turned to put on her tank top again. She muttered a, “Thanks,” and moved her hair so he could get the cut on her neck, it wasn’t as bad, so it would be quicker, and less painful.

They sat in silence for a while, not wanting to speak through the awkward moment, until she broke the silence, “Sorry if I seem,” she hesitated, embarrassed at her words, “a bit, moody.”

“What do you mean?” He asked, she knew he meant what caused her to act this way, and she was quick to answer, Tikki didn’t understand her point of view very well.

“I know I mentioned it earlier,” she shifted her position, “I didn’t really have the best day.”

“What happened?” he bit his lip, already knowing the answer.

“I confessed to my crush at school today, and he rejected me,” she had the slightest look of anger on her face, “I’m not sad about it or anything, just… mad, I guess,” she huffed, rolling her eyes at her own foolishness from that day.

“Are… are you mad at him?” He asked, a look of fear covered his tan face.

“No, of course not!” She quickly replied, “It just, he said he had a crush on another girl– Ladybug– how am I supposed to compete with myself? Especially when it’s Ladybug, she’s a better me, a more confident and brave version of myself.”

“I don’t know princess,” he used her civilian pet-name, making her blush slightly, “I think you’re just as great as Ladybug,” he said, hoping to cheer her up.

“You’re not jealous?” She looked absolutely shocked.

“Do you want me to be?” He smirked, making her scowl at him.

“It’s not that! It’s just, well, you’ve been regularly flirting with me for over two years, you can see where my shock comes from,” she explained as if it were obvious.

He simply shrugged in response, finishing off her last cut with a small bandaid, “So the one on my cheek,” he started.

“Can you do it yourself, or do you want me to do it?” She asked, biting her lip, anticipation filling her veins.

“Can you do it?” He asked.

“I can,” she paused, “but do you want me to?”

He nodded his head, hair bouncing ever so slightly, “But the mask,” he reached to touch said item.

“Are you sure you want me to know who you are?” She seemed more unsure of herself, unreasonable in this situation. She had already revealed her identity, “If not, then I can probably cram the cotton ball under the mask.”

She heard the small hum of their Kwamis talking in the background as he answered, “Okay.”

She let out a breath of relief, “Okay, I’ll get to work then.”

   She cleaned the cut, slightly lifting the mask to clean the end of it, he hissed in pain, alcohol did do its job, to clean the wound, but it hurt like hell. She muttered an apology, her face scrunched up in slight worry.

   “There,” she placed a bandaid over the cut, finishing it off.

   There was silence for a while, no banter, only the sound of their breathing could be heard. It was a highly awkward silence.

   “I’m sorry,” he spat out, breaking the silence, Marinette jumped in surprise.

   “What… what for?” She questioned.

   “For, everything, I guess,” he breathed, he was scared that she hated him, “It’s my fault that I know your identity, and I just wanted to apologize.”

   “Don’t sweat it, kitty,” she had a smirk on her face, “I just wish it were under different circumstances,” she laughed nervously.

   “Me too,” he muttered, embarrassed that he had rejected her earlier, only because he had a crush on her alter ego.

   Marinette looked at her clock, “It’s, um, getting late, you should probably head home.”

   “Okay,” he bit his lip, he wanted to stay and tell her how sorry he was, and how he just felt so stupid, and kiss her. He wanted to kiss her so badly, that it almost physically hurt. How would he deal with seeing her tomorrow, not that he knew her secret, how would it affect their relationship?

   “Hey, Marinette?”

   “Yes–” She was cut off by a kiss, and a hand placed on her cheek. A blush could be seen on her face, and she reached to hold his forearm, as if to keep his hand on her face.

   And then it hit her– she wanted this. She wanted Chat, she wanted to be with him, and she was too stupidly hooked on her feelings for Adrien to see it. Was she really that stupid? How could she be so obviously in love, but not know it?

   The kiss ended all too soon, with him pulling away from a dazed Marinette. She looked in surprise as he jumped away, blinking multiple times to regain her composure.

“I-I’ll see you tomorrow,” she stammered, still slightly confused.

“Y-Yeah,” with that, he disappeared into the night.

“Tikki… did that just happen?” She asked unsure if she was dreaming, or maybe she was half asleep?

The kwami giggle in response, “I think it did Marinette.”

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