#because i honestly hate his mother for just ditching him like it was nothing

[saveme-storybrooke-potc]

Such a heartwarming scene in the show. I can't wait to see the family dynamic in the next season.

[bluegekk0]

Ok im back and sorry for the oc question but I’ve been thinking about this for awhile…Another of my vessel group is Albus, His whole Character Arc is trying to find the pale king and the white lady (he misses his family and didn’t understand the whole ditching in the Abyss thing) I wrote my Ocs in the context of the Embrace the void ending, So in the end the other siblings in the group help Albus find the white lady, And then he kinda just….sits there…Because Albus doesn’t understand parental love, He thinks parental love is siting in their general vicinity, So he just kinda sits next to white lady,Unless his siblings come back to check on him, Then he gets up for a minute to spend time with them, Os how would fpk react to this random vessel just…Showing up and start siting in his general vicinity? Like honestly I want to know

I think it would be very awkward to him. He's still haunted by the guilt of what he did, so in his mind all the vessels have every right in the world to hate him. Holly was, in his mind, just an exception, one he was able to rationalize - he hurt them by sacrificing them for nothing, but unlike the other vessels, they did experience some of his affection and care. Of course it wasn't enough for a child, but it was enough for them to get attached to him and crave more, so even though he felt like he didn't deserve their kind welcome after all those years, it at least made some sense to him.

But with a vessel that hasn't experienced anything but the cruel difficulty of climbing out of the Abyss? He would have no idea how to go about it. They had every reason to hate him, so why don't they?

That's not to say he would act distant towards them, he would without a doubt show them kindness, they are his child after all and they deserve affection. He wasn't able to show it to them back then so he has an obligation to do it now. Though he wouldn't do it just because it's right and what he's supposed to do, he does see them as his child, and he is very affectionate towards his offspring. I fully believe that if the vessels were never meant to be mindless void beings, and instead were born in normal circumstances, that he would love them as dearly as he loved hornet. His error was incorrectly assuming that they didn't think or feel, which unfortunately ended in the death of many sentient beings. He may have not killed them directly and intentionally, but their suffering was his fault, and he'll never forgive himself for that.

But to get back on point. It would be awkward for him, sure, but he would reach his hand towards them to show them affection. He wouldn't just ignore them and treat them like a background prop, the way this AU's White Lady would - she never felt the same inherent affection for the children as he did, unfortunately. And while she does feel guilt about her part in the act, she doesn't see them the same way FPK does. Though I doubt she would be very affectionate towards a legitimate child either. She's very cold and distant, affection isn't something she prioritizes, and that often makes her seem quite self-absorbed. She always says she loved FPK, and in her own way she did, but she rarely showed him actual affection, even in intimate situations she was more occupied by her own needs than his feelings. I jokingly say that he was her trophy husband but that's not even far from the truth. To their subjects, he was the king and she was his queen, but in reality their dynamic was far closer to the opposite, where she called the shots and he danced to her requests. Perhaps to a being similar to her that relationship would be perfectly healthy, but FPK is a very emotional being so he ended up hurting throughout the entire marriage. But to bring this closer to the point, I don't see her being a loving mother, that kind of close emotional bond a child would need isn't in her nature. Which is why she never planned to have any actual children in the first place, and why she wouldn't treat this vessel any different. She would try to be nice to them and invite them to her garden mansion, but that's about as far as it would go. They would be treated as a guest, not like her offspring.

But enough of the WL tangent, what would FPK do exactly the moment the vessel showed up? Well, he would invite them inside first, give them something to eat, and then perhaps show them what he's working on in the workshop. He wouldn't immediately grab them and give them a hug, since he still feels like he doesn't deserve that after hurting them. The difference between this situation and his reunion with Holly was that Holly made the first step, they were actively seeking his love so it was easier for him to give it to them. But here? If they're just sitting there, he wouldn't know what extent of affection would be appropriate. What if he tries to hug them and they think he wants to hurt them? If they never experienced any love, that would be understandable, and the last thing he'd want to do is to scare them. But if he saw that they were comfortable with it, then he would show them affection more directly.

So in short. He would try to show them love, but it would be a slower process than normal since he'd have to stop and examine their reaction to every step he takes, to make sure they're comfortable. But he would try his best to make them feel loved and cared for, that's for sure.

[illegally-blind-and-deaf]

On the topic of Tintin backstories

Ok look it's midnight so this will be dumb Bea ramblings but I've discovered that you can ramble on this website and no one bays an eye, so-

There are many may many many many many MANY different possibilities for Tintin and his childhood cause WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN NOTHING ON THE LAD (we don't even know his NAME for heavens sake-)

So, as per usual, I had made up about 49762.

Not actually, but it feels like it.

Anyway here they are, or at least some of them

As is rather common with the fandom, (and the majority of these headcanon,) he's an orphan. The fun thing is HOW he became an orphan and the result of that. One of the most basic ideas I had was him losing his parents tragically at a young age, probably in a house fire or something of the sort and living in an orphanage or a children's home with nothing but half of his name, hence the name Tintin. It's not a pleasant ride and he ditches at like 13 (It's 1945, it's a wild time an no one is batting an eye at a 13 year old renting an apartment because the world just tried to kill itself this is nothing)

Other possibilities include losing his dad in the early stages of WW2 and his mother later on, whether it's by a bomb (I have two different bomb scenarios,) or by the Nazis directly because WHO DOESN'T LOVE A GOOD HISTORICAL MOMENT IN HERE (also if he did lose his mother to the Nazis, it would probably be because she was helping kick Nazi butt, which suits Tintin's character quite well if you ask me)

Spiralling on from the bomb ideas, Tintin and mother trying to escape occupied Belgium, bombing raid on refugees, shellshocked Tintin who's gone amnesiac because of the trauma trying to navigate the UK (yes it's a fic I'm writing)

Now where did Tintin learn to completely kick butt? The Belgian resistance in ww2, obviously. Could also be how he gets into reporting as well because there were a bunch of undercover newspapers (and Le Faux Soir which was such a passive aggressive act honestly), but also in the ACTUAL resistance cause there were quite a fee schoolboys who helped out. Also, small kid with a lot of spunk who's witty, intelligent and completely unfazed by everything except spiders? Yeah he's perfect, no one would suspect him. He'd do amazing in the Belgian resistance, and so he decides to keep kicking evils butt after the war too. (Also could be how he learnt how to operate a radio...)(little Tintin hiding in an attic somewhere decoding a message coming through the radio is such a powerful image for me LITTLE TINTIN RADIOING THE BRITISH FOR THE FAIX SOIR CAMPAIGN AH- THE ANXIETY-)

Stemming off from the resistance idea, Tintin discovering that he's wanted by the Gestapo for some resistance activity (probably the 20th convoy incident because where there's a train going wrong there's a tintin) and sneaking into France because no one would think that a 12/13 year old would so casually run across the border like that... Anyway- Tintin joining the much larger resistance in Paris, Tintin joining one of the Maquis after the raids in Paris on the resistance, Tintin running around the French countryside with a beret and a gun causing absolute chaos for the Nazis... thats a fun thought honestly. (Also when Tintin interviews a pilot??? And American pilot who crashes and they just adopt into their Maquis?)

ANYWAY, GOING BACK TO ORPHAN TINTIN: Moves in with an emotionally/mentally abusive uncle who makes him feel as though he is worthless and not good enough- Tintin unconsciously believes that even when he thinks he's over it all because when he fails on one of his cases he just keeps posing and pushing until he literally breaks down because if he fails then who is he? (Basically, he thinks that he's only worth a lot because of his career and fame and that if he messes up, he's worthless again and he's lost it all)

And now to a very DIFFERENT idea: Tintin's parents are alive and well but holy heck are they manipulative little millionaires who hate their son because he's too loud/obnoxious/childish/quiet/reserved (he's too everything apparently) and so he runs away CAUSE WHAT ELSE DO YOU DO WHEN YOURE AN IMPULSIVE CHILD he hates wearing an actual suit because it makes him feel like he's back there again and when Haddock makes him wear one for a silly dinner party Tintin suddenly becomes this snarky, abrasive person and Haddock is like "who are you an what have you done to my angel"

I also had a bunch of AU ideas, one of them being that he's Russian (technically ukranian but it's the Stalinist Soviet Union, so if he says that he gets shot,) and he's the very younger brother of Lyudmila Pavlichenko (I really hope I got that right) and he sneakily enlists for the Soviet army in ww2 and follows his super amazing sniper sister around and learns from her until the battle of sevastopol where he thinks she's been killed (she was just injured) and he gets captured by the Germans but RUNS AWAY and ends up wandering through Nazi-occupied, snowy Europe and eventually collapses by a road in a random country and is picked up by none other than MRS FINCH (I love her too much she + Mrs Hudson + Mrs Hall= chefs kiss) who nurses him back to health and helps him get a fake ID and teaches him French cause heck yeah is she in the resistance babyyyyyyy

I also had another AU idea where him to was born in Germany and he and his blind mother moved to live in country side Belgium after his dad gets arrested or smthing I haven't fleshed it out yet but basically they have a massive fight because he wants to know why she won't let him support his home country (I.e. Germany, I.e. Tintin's a clueless kid who doesn't understand what's happening), she's so exhausted and tired because Belgium's been occupied and she s scared and she ends up saying something about how she will always love him but there may come a point where she cannot welcome him with open arms again (implying that if he becomes a Nazi, she won't have it,) he runs off, comes back later to find that she's been taken away to "a special institution to help people in her condition" I.e. she's been taken away to get killed cause she's blind and Tintin from that point onwards is like "I'm such an idiot and I must do everything to prove to my mothers ghost that I am not a nazi" and yeah idk lol

Right I'm going to bed the end.

And yes, I have spent waaaay too many hours scouring the internet of Belgian live under German occupation (Did you know that they opened a hitlerjugend for Flemish boys in the 2nd half of the war? I did not)

If you wanna know more about the resistance things I mentioned, don't be afraid to ask, just expect a really long reply lol

[repentarium]

the truth is i've been dreaming of this tired, tranquil place tag 9/??

ao3

Eddie has this way sometimes of looking at someone, at Steve, and seeing through any walls, no matter how carefully constructed they are, reading the DNA and the writing in his bones, and acting like it's normal, like it's nothing. Like his eyes, dark until the light hits them just right and shines them up, have some kind of superpowers. In Hawkins it wouldn't be out of the question. 

For Steve, who hasn't really had anyone care in such a meaningful way, not really, not ever, it can feel huge and nearly overwhelming. 

They've been living in the apartment over the cafe for a little over two months when Steve gets a call. It's the early evening, and he and Eddie had just sat down to dinner and TV. When the phone rings, Eddie is on the way back from the kitchen with a couple of beers, so he snags the phone on the way. 

'Hawkins Morgue, you slash 'em we stash 'em, this is Eddie.' His eyes widen and his posture straightens and he says 'yes sir', then props the phone up and flips it off, whispering 'your shit dad' at Steve as he heads back to the couch. He hands him his beer on the way, then uses his free hand to ruffle what Steve is sure is calm vibes into his hair. He cheers him and flops onto the sofa, and Steve drains half of the bottle in preparation before he even stands. 

'Hello?! Steven?'

'Hi.' he says, mostly because he knows his dad hates the greeting, thinks it's 'too casual and unprofessional'. 

'Good god I thought you were in a ditch somewhere, I had to call the video store to get your number! Where are you?'

If you wanted to get really technical about it, Steve hadn't told them he'd left the Harrington house, not really. He'd left a message with his dad's office assistant and then kind of forgotten about it, honestly. 

'I moved out.' He learned long ago that short and to the point worked best with his dad; he was going to get mad no matter what, and stalling just made it worse. 

There's a long silence on the other line, and Steve meets Eddie's eye and takes another drink while he waits for his dad to process. Eddie sends him a thumbs up. 

'Out of the house? With what money?'

'With my money.'

'Well that's smart, wasting your tiny paycheck on what, some apartment? And leaving the house completely empty, too, who knows what-'

'You left it empty, Dad. I'm not the one who bought the damn thing.'

'Well you're going to get back here now so we can talk about this and you'll move your things back in. Use your head for once, your mother is worried sick.'

'We've been here for like… two months?' he looks at Eddie again, and he holds up three fingers, waggles them. 'Three, three months. And you never returned my calls and haven't said anything to me the whole time.'

'That's bullshit and you know it, Steven-' Steve hangs up the phone, delicately unplugs the cord from the back, and sits down to have dinner. Eddie gives him a high five when he sinks into the couch next to him and they don't talk about it again. 

—

Sometimes when Steve is working during the day and Eddie isn't, Eddie will bring him lunch. Usually just a sandwich and a Coke, maybe a handful of chips in a little bag, but it's one of the nicest things anyone has done for Steve and he keeps doing it. 

He always plays it off, says it's not a big deal, he needs to get outside anyway or he'll just hang around in his underwear all day or whatever, but it's a big deal to Steve. 

It's a slow day and he's sure Eddie will come by any minute, he knows it’s his day off; he's waiting around, bored, when he hears a commotion outside. At first he ignores it, thinks it's not his business as long as it's humans and it’s not his humans, but he hears a loud and dramatically enunciated 'fuck off' that he recognizes and he's past the counter and through the door before he even realizes. 

Eddie's just outside of the Family Video, hands up in a placating move even though his eyes are hard and angry enough Steve can see them from the door. 

There's a small group around him, none of them the original headhunters from when he was wanted for murder, but enough of them in Hawkins Tigers jackets Steve knows exactly what's happening as he walks up behind them. The fact that they're a new generation doesn't change the way they'll be.

'There a problem here, fellas?' he walks up behind the group, claps a hand on the shoulder of the one closest to him so he can shift him to the side and walk through. As he gets closer to Eddie, he sees a crushed little paper bag on the ground. He nudges it with his toe and looks Eddie in the eye, and they have one of those telepathic conversations that go ‘are you okay?’ and ‘yeah’, communicated in a tension in the eyes and a lifted brow. 

Steve knows he fell from grace a long time ago, but he also knows while he was in school he made enough of a name for himself that standing next to Eddie means something, even in his annoying work vest, and even against the young shitheads across from him that he’s sure he’s never even met. 

'Harrington, fuck off.' 

Okay, maybe it means a little less these days, but it's not like he's gonna leave Eddie alone out here so he stands straight, arms crossed, an inch away from Eddie's arm in what he hopes is obvious solidarity. 

'Buddy, I don't even know your name but you're barking up the wrong tree here.' He makes the mistake of glancing at Eddie and sees him mouthing the word 'barking?' back at him in disbelief and it almost makes him burst into laughter, but he's shaken back to seriousness when the mouthy one talks again. 

'What are you, his fucking boyfriend? We should have all guessed, you stick together, you fa-'

'Get the fuck out of here.' Steve escalates from annoyance to the kind of absolute anger that has him swinging a bat at a creature so scary these idiots would never imagine, biting into the leather of a demobat, slamming it against hard craggy ground. It's a fast enough transition that it's like his adrenaline is overwhelming, like he could actually fight the whole group on his own with no punches pulled even if they are human kids, just a group of a different kind of hive mind. 

He'd do it, too, in that moment, it's like his muscles are coiled and tense and just waiting for a wrong move. The mouthy one must see something in the set of Steve's jaw and the grit of his teeth, or maybe his eyes look a little wild, because he scoffs and kicks the paper bag on the ground at him, gets too close to him and shoves a shoulder against his as he passes, but he does pass, and the rest of his gang of asshats follow him off, laughing and shoving at each other and probably off to ruin someone else's day, someone who won't put up as much of a fight maybe. Steve watches them go until Eddie clears his throat, his hand on his arm making him jump a little. 

'Hey, it's okay.' 

Steve looks at him and swallows, feels shaky. 'Yeah, sorry, yeah.'

'Don't apologize, man, you probably saved me a tussle. You were a little scary though. Not, like, to me, but it felt like you channeled a little Hell Babysitter, you know. Metal.' Eddie's hand is still on his arm and he pats it a little before leaning down. 'Those monsters got your sandwich, though, I'm afraid.'

'Come back in with me anyway? It's slow.' Steve doesn't say 'I still feel weird and shaky and my stomach hurts bad enough I don't think I could eat it anyway' but he bets Eddie can tell what he means with his weirdo insight because he follows him in with a hand at his back. He tosses the crumpled up bag into the trash as they go in, and he sits with him behind the counter, feet up by the register, as he calms down a little. 

All at once it's like the adrenaline leaves his body and Steve is exhausted and feels crumpled and his stomach is still all twisted up. Eddie pulls a bottle of Coke for each of them out of his inner jacket pockets and opens them braced against the countertop with a crack of his palm, one at a time, and hands one to Steve. 

He should get stock in Coke or something, he is thinking loopily as he takes a drink, the sugar feeling sticky in his mouth. He uses it like medicine so often. His dad would call it a smart investment. 

'You okay?' Eddie is watching him with big concerned eyes over his own bottle. 

'I should be asking you that.'

'But I'm asking you. You seem a little peaked.'

'Adrenaline, man.'

'And probably PTSD.'

Steve just hums at him, takes another drink. Eddie swings his long legs back down and walks around the counter to the snacks, grabs a bag of potato chips and a couple of candy bars. He pops the chips open and brings them back around to share with Steve. 

'Thanks for sticking up for me, though. Less scary to face a horde with you on my side, you know. We could have taken them.' he makes a half-hearted fisticuffs gesture, and it makes Steve chuckle. 

'I think we could have. We have enough freak energy between the two of us that it would have given us an edge.'

'Amen to that. You're getting it now, Harrington, the appeal of the freak.' Eddie taps his bottle against Steve's, and Steve thinks he hasn't called him Harrington in what has to be months. He hums into his drink, tears open a candy bar. 

It takes him a long time to feel like his heart is consistently beating normally, between the phone call from his dad that he can’t quite shake and the guys outside and Keith yelling at him for marking more snacks as damaged in the inventory, but when he gets home Eddie has made them a sweet little snack plate for dinner, which is one of Steve’s favorite things because you can have two bites of like a million little cheeses and veggies, and it’s not so bad. 

The next day, though. The next day is hard. 

He's got the day off from Family Video, which usually means he'd find something to do to get out of being home alone. The thing is, there's a cold front, paired with a light rain, and it's so hard to motivate himself to get out of the house. 

The kids are all in school, and he only gets through to Robin for a few minutes on the phone between classes before she has to hang up, quicker than he'd have liked. It was good to hear her voice, but God does he miss her. 

He's feeling… itchy. Like his skin is freezer burnt and scratches against everything it touches, like his muscles are jumpy and his eyes are dried out. 

It used to be when he was feeling itchy, floaty and unmoored, he'd go on a date, go play basketball, maybe have a party and invite people over to play in the pool or dance smushed together, but it's never really been this bad. He thinks it's maybe because he hasn't done any of that for so long, and maybe because he hasn't seen Robin since school picked up, and maybe because he's been working full time and it's cold outside. It's probably a little bit of everything, but it's making him feel kind of bitchy and like he should lock himself in his room before Eddie gets home, not that that would help himself at all but maybe it would keep Eddie safely out of the blast range. 

He'd said he'd have dinner ready, though, and he's not going to skip out on that, so he's rushing through making it in hopes he can leave it warm on the stove and be 'asleep' by the time he gets back. 

Of course he's not lucky, he's never been lucky, really, and he’s trying to finish the pasta when he hears a pounding at the door. 

He figures Eddie left his keys or something and dries his hands on the towel on his shoulder, pulls open the door hard to get past the part where it’s been sticking since the weather turned cold, and already has a half-joke about the keys ready to leave his mouth when he realizes he’s not looking at Eddie.

‘Dad.’ A brilliant observation. 

‘So this is your new palace, Steven.’ he says with distaste clear in his voice. 

‘What are you doing here?’

‘Aren’t you going to invite me in?’ He only pauses for a few seconds before he pushes past him and into the apartment. Steve grinds his teeth and pushes the door closed, gives himself a second to shift tracks in his brain before he peels his forehead from the sticky paint of the door and spins around to greet him. 

When he turns, John Harrington is scowling at the giant popcorn standup. 

‘This is tacky.’ He mutters. He wipes a finger across the top of the tv and frowns at whatever he sees on his fingertip. 

Steve rolls his eyes and crosses his arms in front of his chest but he has this clench of fear behind his ribs and he hates it, hates that his dad still has this effect on him, but it’s there all the same. ‘What can I help you with.’ It doesn't come out like a question. Steve doesn't really want an answer, he just wants him to leave. 

‘What are you doing here?’ John is frowning directly at him, now, standing in the middle of the living room. Steve hates that he’s there, like he’s contaminating the space he’s finally built up around himself, like he’s ruining it somehow. 

‘Well, Pops, I live here.’

‘Pops.’ he scoffs and takes a step towards Steve. Steve doesn’t think he’s going to hit him, thinks he’s probably not drunk because he probably drove here from Loch Nora, but he’s got that shitty kind of anger burning up behind his eyes that makes Steve feel like he has to actively try not to flinch or step back. He tenses his fingers into his sweater instead, hidden under his arm, and hopes he looks unbothered, hopes his poker face holds for once. He doesn’t want an argument, he just wants to be left alone.

‘Where did you get my address?’

‘Nancy Wheeler’s kid brother Michael, you know he’s working at the burger joint in town, he’s shaping up to be quite the young man-’

Steve mostly keeps the scoff in but he’s a little hurt actually, not that he has ever told anyone he’s hiding from his family or anything, he’s not really. Mike.

John looks like he's gearing up to say something annoying and loud and probably hurtful when Steve hears keys in the lock. The door gets shoved through that part where it's been sticking, and Eddie is saying 'Honey, I'm home!'. He says it literally every day but Steve feels the blood flush out of his face and his skin grow cold and his eyes widen as he looks at his dad standing there, taking in the deep and kind of rumbly voice and, he's sure, Eddie's bright eyes and smile as he shrugs out of his jacket and comes fully into the living room. 

'Oh. Hello! Sorry, didn't realize we had company.' As loud and big as Eddie could be, he was usually pretty polite until you gave him a reason not to be, especially these days, but there wasn't going to be any saving face with John. 

'Who the hell are you?' 

Before Steve can say anything, Eddie steps forward to shake John's hand and say 'Eddie Munson, sir, at your service!' with a big smile. He looks back at Steve finally and he knows he can see that something foul is happening because Eddie visibly gulps and his smile falters as he takes a step back. 

'The murderer, Eddie Munson.' John is impossibly redder than he has been, maybe ever.

Steve catches Eddie's eye, sees how far his face and posture have fallen, and gestures at John. 'My uh, dad. John Harrington.'

'Oh-ho I see.' Eddie lets all of his breath out in a whoosh. 'Okay, Johnny Boy, not so much at your service actually, but if you'd like to leave I would be so happy to walk you out.' Steve snorts a chuckle at that and looks at Eddie, whose eyes look kind of fierce and pointed in a way that Steve doesn't usually see. It's like with a full change of demeanor he's become a completely different person, bigger and maybe even a little scary. 

John sputters in disbelief. Steve would bet actual real money no one has ever called him Johnny-Boy in his life. 'You can't make me leave. I'm here to talk to my son.'

'For once.' It comes from the side of Eddie's mouth, tilted cartoonishly in Steve's direction, but he knows John heard it.

Steve feels buoyed by the smartass responses from Eddie, who's now standing right at his side, shoulder pressing against his. 

'I beg your pardon.' John is flustered. 

'Oh he said "for once", like a reference to your whole absentee parent thing I think.'

John takes another step towards Steve, and he is close enough now that he thinks maybe he was wrong about not getting hit. He takes a huge breath that balloons out his chest and shoulders, but he doesn't get to say whatever it is he plans to before Eddie is interrupting. 

'Oh absolutely not, my guy. It's time that you leave.'

Eddie calling John 'my guy' is surreal. He must think so too, because he's sputtering angrily but not really saying much. 

'I'm not usually a cops kinda guy but I know a couple of ‘em who'd be happy to escort you off of private property that you don't own.' He steps behind John and bravely puts a hand on either shoulder. He's taller than John. 

'You're one to talk, you'll never own property in your life-' 

'And you're a complete jackass and a shit dad, we've all got our crosses to bear.' Eddie starts moving him delicately towards the door, and Steve wants to tell him to look out and that he can be like a wasp waiting to sting, but it must be just as shocking to John because he goes mostly without struggling. 

He's not going without talking, though, he's saying all of the things he knew about Steven, all kinds of slurs and points about how he and his little boyfriend were lower than low and not only going to hell but hopefully soon. 

When Eddie shuffles him through the doorway he says 'okay, sweetie, we will see you there, buh bye! No really, goodbye!' through the door as he closes it, flips the locks, and presses his back against it, John pounding and yelling at the door for a long few minutes. It's still less time than Steve would have imagined before he's stomping down the stairs and slamming the outside door open. When he hears the car start outside he can finally let his breath out again. 

Steve feels like he's going to throw up. 

But in all, it wasn't as bad as he'd built it up in his head. His dad was just some guy, it turns out, and something about facing monsters and death and loss the way he has the past few years has shrunken him into being Just Some Guy who sucks, absolutely, but is still Just Some Guy. 

He slides down the wall to sit on the floor, and Eddie goes to make sure the stove is off (drains the pasta too, it sounds like) before he comes and sits right next to him, their backs to the wall and arms pressed together. 

'So that sucked.' Eddie says to him, head rolled so he can look at him, probably reading his thoughts again. 

Steve chuckles. 'I was just thinking it went pretty well actually.' 

Eddie doesn't smile, is still looking at him. 'It's okay to say it sucked.'

'No it did, it totally sucked, but like. It's one of those things where in my head he was so scary and he's just.'

'Some asshole?'

'Some asshole. Like a bully. We deal with them enough, why would he be any different? You know?'

Eddie is quiet for a minute, thinking. 'It's different because that asshole was supposed to be your dad.' 

'Hmm.' Steve is feeling that old shame, the one that says 'it is because of you, your dad would be better if you were better'. 

'No, stop it. He was supposed to be your dad and he wasn't and that's on him. I know a little about that. My dad was an asshole too, remember, and it had nothing to do with me. If I said it did you'd be pissed.'

'I would.' 

Eddie grabs hold of Steve's hand. It's grounding and present and nice, soft and warm like home. 

'It helped that you were there. I've never seen him so out of his league.' Steve laughs, tilts his head back against the wall. 'He didn't know what to fucking do when you called him Johnny-Boy, the disrespect.'

'I told you, I don't have a lot of patience for asshole dads'. He grins at him and shakes his hand a little before letting go to stand. 'Let's get some food, okay? I bet something stupid is on TV.' He stretches his hand back out to help Steve stand. 

They sit and eat and laugh at some sitcom, and when they go to bed Steve doesn't have nightmares but he does have a dream that he and Eddie and Robin are sitting behind the counter at Family Video, and there are faces pressed all against the glass like a Romero film but it's Hagan and it's Carver and it's the new bullies and it's his dad. They can't get in though.

[literatigifs]

anonymous asked: You know the most baffling thing about seeing Jess hate in the tags is when you immediately find out that the same people that hate him as a character and love Logan or Christopher or Dean then say something like "sure, Jess had it rough, but that is no excuse for how he behaved!" and yet they seem, completely fine?? With how the rest of the men in this series behaved?

I gave up on going into the main tags for this exact same reason because once one of them starts complaining, an entire league just picks up the pace and you get the same old points be regurgitated by the same 3 people over and over again. It's just boring at this point, like they spend so much time obsessively hating Jess and yet they can't even make up new reasons for it? I know that going as far as saying shit like "he probably sold meth as crystal candy to underage toddlers in New York in order to make some money in season 5" takes a lot of creativity but if you can't beat that, then your obsession with this character seems pretty pointless lmao.

And it's always the same with their reasons for liking Logan and Dean or preferring them, too! There's literally zero substance or interesting takes being given about these characters from their fans and it's so baffling to see at times?? Like the reason I love Jess is because his familial relationships, and even his ongoing connection with Rory are ripe for analyzing and talking about. I would extend this favor to Logan to a point because while his rich boy background is overwhelmingly generic (emotionally absent father who drinks habitually and cheats on his wife, mother who is a nervous wreck and the stereotypical wife of a rich man who married him for his money), there's still some aspects you could lean into and even dissect like how his destructive tendencies can be easily paralleled to his father's behavior AND to their relationship with each other. But again, nothing is done with this by his fans! They just repeat the same shit over and over again about how Logan was "the most perfect husband material to ever exist", despite the fact that there's various red flags given throughout the series even in season 7 where he goes back to his old habits and doesn't even communicate with Rory properly before he abruptly proposes, then ditches her. If they would at least admit that the so-called "ignorant writing choices" are also part of a larger pattern with his character and embraced his faults I'd get it, but they don't?

The same thing goes for Dean's fans. Dean has frankly nothing to credit him as being an interesting character because he practically exists to be Rory's first boyfriend (and then first experience in being the other woman 🥴). Every other relationship we see him in like with Lindsay, Luke or even Lorelai border on embarrassing to incredibly frustrating and negative, given how Dean seems to be completely fine with demeaning Luke's relationship with Lorelai because of his own personal history, or freely taking part in an affair despite being married to Lindsay. Like, he literally gives Lindsay more consideration only AFTER he has cheated on her and publicly humiliated her with that fact. I'm truly confused as to how Jess antis go on to say that even Dean was better than him when he willingly ruined his marriage with an affair by sleeping with Rory, an act that neither Jess or Rory ever did when she was with Dean. Last time I checked, Rory didn't try to sleep with Jess multiple times in season 3. And of course his fans just vaguely say they don't support that before then going on their 500th tirade about how Rory, an average high-schooler who's only dated one guy in her 17 year life by that point, had the audacity to develop a crush on a guy who liked her back and just wanted to spend time talking to her. Their reasons are frankly predictable at this point and honestly for all their complaining about Jess fans, the ones I see in the tags don't come off this obnoxious and holier-than-thou as they do.

[babymetaldoll]

"Victory" (Spencer Reid/ Reader)

Requested: Yes

Summary: Spencer's daughter hates her father's girlfriend. But when he is in prison, life pushes them to finally get along.

Warning: Cursing, a little angst, a mean teenager, and fluff.

Word count: 5,4K

A/N: Hello, pretty people! How are you? I've missed you! Life has been a little messy and filled with angst, so writing hasn't come easy in the lastest weeks. Hope you like this story, and I hope I can bring you a new one soon 😉

Masterlist

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Spencer's daughter hated her dad's new girlfriend. And she wasn't subtle about it. She hated that her father was now dating, 'cos she didn't want to share his love. So now she didn't even want to be around him anymore 'cos he was so happy, it was annoying.

It wasn't that she hated her father, 'cos she loved him. But she was never going to face the fact she was jealous. She didn't want to share Spencer with anyone because he was all the family she knew, and they were a team.

Victoria Reid was twelve years old. She had grown up alone with her dad 'cos her mother had ditched the two of them soon after she was born. Spencer had tried to explain to his daughter her mom had left 'cos she wasn't ready to deal with the responsibility of being a mother, which was true. He, on the other hand, was happy to know he was going to be a father, and he repeated over and over again she was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

That was true.

When Spencer and his ex found out they were going to be parents, he was ecstatic. He couldn't wait to hold his baby in his arms and watch them grow. He didn't know his girlfriend had other plans, though, and soon after Victoria was born, she had left the two of them and never looked back.

Spencer wasn't going to lose the chance of being a dad. Even when he knew he was too young, Reid was ready to raise that baby on his own and give her all the love he had.

That's why he and Victoria were so close. Spencer was the only parent she had ever had. He was her world. And though Spencer was only 24 when Tori was born, he had given her his best.

Tori was the BAU's baby girl. Everybody in the team was a part of her life because she had grown up with them. Penelope was her best friend and godmother. Victoria would spend a lot of time with her while her dad was away on a case. Derek was her cool uncle. He helped her train to get into the basketball team and taught her how to dance. JJ was the closest to a mother figure in her life. Tori would spend time with her after school, playing with Henry. Spencer always said JJ was like a sister for him, and that's why they were all like family. Tori actually called Henry and Michel her cousins.

Emily was like her best friend. They could talk about anything, and at least twice a month, they would go out together shopping, just the two of them. Spencer always respected his daughter's relationship with his friend 'cos they were their little extended family. Tori called Rossi "Nono." He had taught her himself, and she loved going to his mansion, 'cos he always had new video games to play with her.

But then came (Y/N). She had joined the team when Victoria was only six years old, and for the first five years, they got along just fine. (Y/N) would come along shopping with her and Emily, sometimes she took Tori out for some pastries, and talked about bands, boys. Victoria loved her.

That until the incident.

She hated (Y/N) after the incident.

Victoria refused to talk to her after THE INCIDENT.

It was a warm spring afternoon, Spencer and (Y/N) had the afternoon off, and they were at his apartment... heavily making out on the couch. That's why they lost track of time.

(Y/N) and Spencer had started dating a few months before. They had been in love with each other for years. Still, neither of them had acted on it until Rossi's birthday party, when they had a little too many drinks and finally confessed their feelings. They wanted to take things slow, but when you make out in front of the whole team, it might be a little harder imagined.

But they had decided to wait for the right time to tell Victoria. But, unfortunately, the right time didn't come soon enough.

- "Dad!! I'm home!!"- Victoria opened the front door and froze in shock at the scene going on in front of her. The twelve-year-old had asked her best friend's mother to drop her home earlier when Penelope told her Spencer had already gone home. In Garcia's defense, she had no idea what was going on in Reid's residence, and if she had known, she would have never let Victoria know her dad was home.

(Y/N) widened her eyes and quickly grabbed a pillow to cover herself. She was shirtless, sitting on Spencer's lap. She still had her bra on (thank god), but anyone could tell that scene was leading to the bedroom in a few seconds.

- "Shit!"- Spencer whispered and closed his eyes as he realized what was going on. (Y/N) held her breath as she stared into the young teen's eyes. Victoria didn't know what to do or what to say, so she simply ran to her room and slammed the door.

- "Ok... so I think Tori knows about us"- (Y/N) tried to ease the mood and smiled at her boyfriend as she put on her shirt. But Spencer sighed and covered his face with both hands- "Oh, come on. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. Let me talk to her."

- "No, (Y/N), let me talk to her first."- Spencer stood up and kissed (Y/N) 's nose- "I know she is mad, and I should be the one dealing with her anger."

Reid knew his daughter well enough to anticipate her behavior. People had often told him he could be a little passive-aggressive when he was upset. And his daughter was just like him.

- "Victoria, open the door!"- he said and waited a few seconds after knocking.

- "Go away!"- the teenager yelled, laying on her bed. She felt betrayed and confused. But most of all, she felt angry that her father had decided to have a girlfriend. He had no right to do such a thing. He had to take care of her and her grandma. No one else.

- "Victoria, we need to talk about this!"

- "You seemed too busy with your girlfriend to talk to me, dad. So go away!"

- "Victoria Marie!"- Spencer knocked on the door but got no answer from his daughter. (Y/N) heard it all from the couch and tried to think of a way to fix things with the young girl.

Sadly, it wasn't going to be easy, and in the months that followed, everything was far from being normal again.

- "I hate her!"- Victoria huffed and left her book aside. Spencer was trying to explain to her why (Y/N) would stay with her and Diana while he took a short work trip for the weekend. But the girl didn't want to hear a word about it.

- "You used to get along with her just fine until we started dating."- Spencer tried to dialogue with his daughter. Still, it was honestly getting harder and harder each time they touched the subject.

- "Used to. You just said it. I have the right to change my mind about people. Why can't I stay with auntie Penelope for the weekend?"

- "Because I want you to make an effort and try to get along with (Y/N) again. Victoria, we've been through this before. I love you, and that's not going to change just because I am dating (Y/N)."

- "This is so unfair! I hate you!!"

Spence tried to stay calm, but after over four-month having the same argument almost every day, he was losing it. Victoria stormed out and slammed her bedroom door behind her back. Maybe it was better not to push it, Spencer thought, defeated, and called Penelope to ask her if his daughter could spend the weekend with her, 'cos he had to travel. Maybe Victoria and (Y/N) weren't going to get along if he forced them to spend time together.

Everyone had already tried to talk to her about what was going on: JJ, Emily, Penelope. But Victoria wasn't ready to give in. She wanted to hate (Y/N), and nothing was going to change that. Or so she thought.

The day Penelope showed up in Victoria's school and announced her something had happened to her dad was engraved in the girl's memory forever as the worst day of her life. Her father had been arrested in Mexico, but Garcia had assured her, the whole team was working to bring him home safe. Meanwhile, she would stay with her in her apartment (she was already there anyway), and Diana would stay home with her nurse.

Victoria's heart was broken. She was basically alone in the whole world. Her father was her anchor. Her protector. Her superhero. Her best friend. And now, all of a sudden, he was gone, and though everybody told her it was going to be ok, she knew it wasn't.

- "Hey,"- (Y/N) walked into Penelope's office and found Victoria doing her homework- "Pen told me you were here, and I thought maybe you'd like one of these."

The young SSA said and handed the girl a box of fresh chocolate frosted with sprinkled donuts and a strawberry milkshake. Her favorites.

But Victoria didn't reply. Instead, she looked at (Y/N) right in the eyes, not moving a muscle, and then returned to her homework.

It had been two weeks since Spencer had been accused of murder, and he had been transferred to Virginia. But the team was far from solving the case.

- "Ok, Tori, please stop this. I know you don't like me dating your dad, but this is not the right time to fight. I know..."- (Y/N) made a short pause and took a deep breath before resuming her idea- "I know how you feel."

- "No. You don't."- Victoria Reid's voice was loud and clear, like thunder, hitting earth with anger. So clear, in fact, (Y/N) widened her eyes when she heard her.

- "You have no idea how I feel. Your dad ain't in jail accused of killing some woman in Mexico. You have no right to tell me that!"

- "My boyfriend and best friend in the whole world is in jail right now, and it doesn't matter if I work myself to death 18 hours every single fucking day; I still can't find the way to help him. I feel lost and alone, and most of all, scared, 'cos I've come to realize I have no idea how to live without him anymore. I'm guessing that's very close to what you feel."

(Y/N) poured her heart with complete honesty to her boyfriend's daughter, fighting the tears back, though you could feel the desperation in her voice. She didn't know if it would be of any use, but she had to take that from her chest. She missed Spencer so much she felt she was going insane. She had no idea what to do.

Victoria stared at her, furrowing her eyes and pouting. She didn't want to cry in front of (Y/N) 'cos she didn't want her trying to console her.

- "Just because you are dating him doesn't mean you have to take care of me. I can take care of myself."- Tori said and looked at the donut. She was hungry, they looked delicious, but the teenager didn't want to accept any gift coming from (Y/N).

- "I am not here because you are my boyfriend's daughter. I thought you were a cool kid way before I fell in love with him."- (Y/N) tried to calm herself down and sat across the table from Victoria- "And I am not trying to steal him from you. I just wanna... make him happy."

- "We were happy,"- the teenager's comeback was like a slap on (Y/N) 's face, but she did her best not to take it personally. She knew it was useless fighting with a teenager.

- "I have a visit scheduled for tomorrow. If you'd like, we could go together."

Tori held her breath. She hadn't seen her father since he left for Mexico. Of course, Victoria wanted to see him and hug him. It was all she wanted in the whole world. But... she didn't want to be friendly with (Y/N).

- "If I go... it doesn't mean I like you."- the young girl whispered.

- "I know"- (Y/N) nodded, feeling already triumphant.

- "And it doesn't mean I'm ok with you dating him."

- "I understand. I just know you miss him, Tori. I really know how you feel, and I'm gonna help you whenever I get a chance."- Victoria didn't answer; she just sighed and grabbed a donut. (Y/N) tried not to smile, feeling she had a small victory.

Spencer couldn't believe it when he saw his little girl waiting for him sitting next to (Y/N) instead of his lawyer in the small grey room. Victoria stood up and ran to him the second the door opened and wrapped her arms around her father as tight as possible.

(Y/N) looked at the guards, thankful neither of them had tried to stop the teenager.

Spencer kissed his daughter's cheek a few times and whispered how sorry he was to put her under those circumstances. He didn't know what to do or what to say. He was speechless. A part of him hated the idea of his daughter visiting him in jail, but he also missed her too much to argue with (Y/N) for bringing her over.

- "I'll go fill a few forms. Be right back"- (Y/N) whispered and saw Spencer's warm smile as he mouthed "Thank you," still hugging his daughter. She whispered, "I love you," and walked outside the room. She knew Victoria would appreciate a few minutes alone with her father, and she didn't want to take that away from them. She really wanted to make Spencer and Tori happy, and spending time together was what they needed.

- "I know this is hard, peanut, but we'll get through it. I'll be out in a few weeks. I promise"- Spencer held his daughter's hands as they sat across the table.

- "I miss you"- her voice was a soft whisper, as she kept trying not to cry anymore. She didn't want to make him feel guilty, sad, or anxious.

- "Me too. How are you? How is living with aunt Penelope going?"

- "Ok... we watch a lot of movies."

- "And school?"- Tori shrugged.

- "Ok, I guess."

- "Victoria..."

- "I got a C on my history paper."

- "Baby..."

- "I know, I know, I should have tried harder, but I really didn't want to do it."

Spencer was torn between lecturing his daughter for getting a bad grade and actually telling her it was ok, 'cos they were going through a rough patch. It was obvious she might get bad grades, all things considered.

- "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you"- it was all Spencer managed to whisper.

- "Don't say that, dad. I'm sorry I slacked off."

- "You know, you could ask (Y/N) for help,"- Spencer suggested, but Tori just rolled her eyes, annoyed- "She has a master in the subject..."

- "Dad, please don't force me to talk to her."

- "I'm just saying... you don't have to be her best friend, just ask for help when needed, especially when it comes to school. Besides, it's clear she isn't a bad person if she brought you here today."

- "She just wants to win me over."- Tori mumbled and crossed her arms on her chest. But she knew her dad was right in one thing: (Y/N) had done a pretty good thing taking her to see her dad and letting them spend time together on their own.

Victoria thought she was losing her mind after three months had passed and her father was still in jail. It didn't matter that (Y/N) took her every Saturday morning to visit, played her favorite music, and bought her all the pastries she loved. She needed to live with her father again and do all the small things they loved: making breakfast together, playing scrabble, taking long walks in the park, eating ice cream. Tori even missed her father's annoying habits. She missed his rambling and how he always had an answer for everything, even for the things she didn't want to talk about with him.

Spencer was an amazing father, no questions asked, and Victoria Reid knew she couldn't ask for a better dad than him. She just wanted him back.

But things weren't going to improve soon.

When the team found out Diana Reid had been kidnapped, (Y/N) had to take a minute and lock herself in the bathroom to cry her heart out. She felt bad things were never going to cease, and she didn't want to tell Victoria. The girl had already been through so much, adding the abduction of her grandmother wasn't fair. Tori was just twelve. She shouldn't be going through all that.

- "Victoria?"

Prentiss decided she was going to be the one to tell the girl what was going on, and (Y/N) offered herself to look for her. She was in Rossi's office, reading a book curled on his comfy couch. That poor kid almost lived at the BAU by then.

- "My homework is done."- she replied, not taking her eyes from the page she was reading.

- "That's good. And what are you reading?"- Tori sighed and showed her the cover- "Something Wicked this way comes," I love that book"- (Y/N) smiled and took a look around.

- "Figured my father forced you to read it."

- "Actually, I read it when I was ten, and it's one of my favorite books."- (Y/N) looked at Victoria, but the teenager kept pretending to read, ignoring her- "Emily needs to talk to you."

- "And why are you here? Why didn't aunt Emily come? Are you her secretary?"- there was something about Victoria's attitude that reminded (Y/N) of Reid.

- "I wanted to see you, see how you were doing, and take you to the conference room"- Tori sighed and stood up. She hoped Emily had good news about her father, 'cos she was honestly going insane.

But of course, Prentiss didn't have any good news.

- "I'm sorry, Tori, but... you are going to have to stay here tonight"- the girl frowned, confused, and looked at the whole team around her. Everybody looked like they hadn't slept in days. Which, by the way, was very accurate.

- "Why?"

- "'Cos we are going to have to..."- Emily paused and held her breath, staring at her niece's eyes.- "I'm sorry, Tori, but this is the truth: the woman who framed your father has kidnapped Diana, and I'm scared she might try to get you too. So until we catch her, the safest place to be is here, at the BAU. With us."

Tori gasped and covered her mouth with both hands as tears filled her eyes in a second.

- "Nana? Is she ok?"

- "We don't know yet, but we are working to bring her home safe as soon as possible"- JJ caressed Tori's arm and tried to hold her, but she pushed her away mad frowned.

- "You keep saying that, you keep telling me you are working to bring my family home safe, but so far, you haven't done anything!! I am still alone! Dad is in jail, and everybody knows he is innocent! And now nana is gone too!!"

- "Baby, we know it is hard, but..."- Emily wanted to explain to Victoria everything was more complex than they had expected, but the girl covered her ears and shook her head, yelling as she stormed out of the room

- "I don't wanna hear you!! I want my dad!!"

It was painful to hear those things, 'cos the team was doing the best they could for Reid and his family, but they could understand the frustration and, most of all, the fear that little girl felt.

- "I'll talk to her,"- (Y/N) said and turned to Emily- "You guys continue what you were doing. I'll try to calm her down."

- "Are you sure you wanna go?"- Emily asked and cut (Y/N) a short smile.

- "Yeah, for once, she is mad at all of us, not just me."

The young SSA walked to Garcias's office, where Tori was hidden underneath a desk, crying.

- "Hey."

- "Leave me alone."

- "I know I'm the last person you wanna be with right now, and I am sorry I can't do anything to make you feel better. I can only promise you this: we are doing all we can to bring your dad and your grandmother back home safe." - (Y/N) whispered as she walked slowly towards the girl, who sobbed, whipping off the tears from her eyes.

- "Just leave me alone. I want to be alone,"- Tori mumbled and wrapped her arms around herself, sobbing.

- "I'm not gonna leave you alone, Tori. You are not alone here with us."

- "I am alone!! I want my daddy!! I need my daddy!!"- the girl continued crying her eyes out, hidden underneath the desk. (Y/N) kneeled next to her and sat on the floor.

- "Come here"- it was a bold move, 'cos (Y/N) knew the girl was going to reject her, but she didn't care. She couldn't deal with her sadness, and it scared her to think how bad the child was feeling. So, (Y/N) opened her arms and moved the teen closer to her.

Surprisingly, the girl didn't reject her. Instead, she cried against the fabric of (Y/N) 's sweater and sobbed, shaking, as (Y/N) caressed her hair carefully.

- "I swear, we are not gonna rest until he is free and until Diana is home."

- "I want my family back,"- Victoria mumbled and sighed.

- "You'll get it. I swear, I'll do everything I can to bring them back to you."

That was the first time since (Y/N) started dating Spencer that Victoria let her close. In the middle of the mess they were all lost into, it felt like a little break of peace. Another small victory for the young woman.

(Y/N) didn't mind spending the whole night awake going through an endless pile of files if it meant there was a chance to bring Spencer back home. Tori stayed in Rossi's office, where she made something that looked pretty much like a fort on the couch, with blankets and pillows, to hide from the rest of the world.

It was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, looking at the girl hidden there, trying to read, trying to draw, trying to do anything to take her mind from reality. Penelope brought her something to eat, but she rejected it, saying she wasn't hungry. Emily and JJ had tried to talk to her, but Tori kindly said she wanted to be alone. Even Morgan had called her and announced to her he was taking a plane from Chicago to help the team looking for Diana.

None of that cheered Victoria up.

- "I bought you this,"

Around ten, (Y/N) opened Rossi's door and walked in, holding a box of frosted chocolate donuts with sprinkles.

- "They always cheer your dad up, so I'm counting they will do the trick with you too"- the young woman tried to joke but found Victoria crying quietly insider her fort.

- "Please, just leave me alone,"- she whispered and hid her face with both her hands. (Y/N) didn't pay attention and sat with her inside the fort.

- "Not a chance."

- "I really don't wanna do this now, just leave me alone,"- the girl sighed, defeated, and continued crying.

- "Come here, I told you, you are not alone."

- "I am alone, (Y/N)! My dad is in jail, my grandma is kidnapped, and my mother left me 'cos she didn't love me!"

- "No, baby, don't say that"- (Y/N) wrapped her arms around Tori and kissed the top of her head.

- "I know my mom didn't want to have me, and maybe she was right... maybe I am cursed, and all this is my fault."

- "Victoria Marie Reid, you are talking senseless" (Y/N) held the girl's shoulder and looked into her eyes.

- "You are an adorable young girl who deserves the best in the world. Why did this happen? I don't know, bad shit happens in life, and we must try to learn something from it. That's it. There's no reason or cause. Shit happens, baby, but we must raise stronger than before. You are an incredible young girl, and I know your dad is proud of you. I am proud of you, 'cos you've been so courageous and brave."

- "You are just saying that 'cos you are with my dad."

- "No. I would say that even if I hated your dad. You know why? 'Cos I am not lying, you are awesome, and I love you, get that into your head. And you are not alone, 'cos I am here, see?"- (Y/N) ran her thumb on Tori's cheek, whipping off a few of her tears- "I'm here even when you don't want me to be, so I don't know if you can tell, but you are doomed, you can't get rid of me now. I'm like a disease, but a good one... I don' know if there's a good disease. I'm sure your dad would have the answer for my random comment right now."

Both Victoria and (Y/N) chuckled at the same time, and the girl nodded.

- "He definitely would..."

- "He would also lecture me why I shouldn't give you sugar after dinner, but he is not here, and I am not telling him, so please don't tell him 'cos he is going to be mad at me... and at you."- (Y/N) handed Tori the box of donuts, and the girl smiled.

- "I won't tell him."

- "Great, we have our own little sugary secret. Eat all the donuts you want; I'm going to be with the team in the conference room. Emily has a meeting early morning with the judge."- (Y/N) kissed the top of Vitoria's head and stood up.

- "If you need anything, I'm across the hall."- the SSA said, and the girl nodded, chewing a donut.

- "Thank you, (Y/N)"

By the next day, the miracle had happened. Victoria couldn't stop crying when (Y/N) announced she was taking Spencer back home. Tori stood in front of his father's girlfriend and felt how the tears filled her eyes in less than a minute. Happy tears, for once.

(Y/N) smiled at her, glad to know the young girl was going to have her life back. It surprised her when Tori hugged her, wrapping her arms around her tight. (Y/N) stayed still for an instant, trying to understand what was happening. She hugged Victoria and kissed the top of her head. The child was crying, and suddenly, so was she. The nightmare was over. At least a part of it. They still needed to find Diana. But the fact they were going to have Reid back was already giving everybody the peace of mind they needed to finish the task.

(Y/N) held Spencer's hand tight all the way from the prison to the BAU. He kept his eyes locked on their hands, fingers tangled together. He couldn't believe it was actually happening. He couldn't believe he was a free man.

- "How's Tori?"- he whispered and turned to his girlfriend. Penelope and Luke were in the car with them, but somehow, Spencer could only register the presence of his girlfriend. Not because he didn't care about his friends, but because he could only take just a small amount of information at the time. It was all too much for him at that moment.

- "Good. She has been incredibly strong."

- "Did you tell her about mom?"- Spencer was afraid to ask but needed to know what was going on with his daughter. (Y/N) nodded and sighed.

- "We decided it was better if she knew what was happening, we had to keep her at the BAU, and she was going to get suspicious she couldn't go to Penelope's... sorry."

- "Don't be. You did what was best for her."- Spencer turned to his girlfriend and smiled at her for a second. It was a short, sweet smile. Almost shy. But it was enough to warm her heart and wake the butterflies in her stomach. She was so in love with Spencer Reid, everything he did fluster her.

Victoria thought her heart was about to burst as he waited for her father to arrive. Spencer looked at (Y/N) one last time, and she squeezed his hand kindly, smiling when the elevator door opened, and all he heard was:

- "Daddy!!"- Tori yelled and ran to hug Spencer as soon as she saw him. He couldn't even step out of the elevator when his daughter nearly tackled him, wrapping her arms around him tight.

- "My baby!"- he whispered and spun her in the air a few times- "Are you ok?"- he held her face with both hands and took a good look at her. She was crying but smiling as she nodded.

- "I'm so happy to see you, dad."

- "I missed you so, so much"- Spencer kissed the top of her head and sighed. (Y/N) smiled, and whipped off the tears from her eyes as she stared at the scene. Garcia and Luke stood next to her, enjoying a brief moment of happiness and peace.

- "Me more,"- Victoria whispered and hugged Spencer again- "I swear I'm never going to fight with you again."

- "I'm taking a mental note of that,"- he answered and felt her body shaking as she giggled. Spencer hadn't heard his daughter laugh, giggle, or even watched her smile in the three months he had spent away from her. And that sound was sweet and warm, like a balm to his soul.

- "I'm sorry, Spencer... but, we have to..."- Emily interrupted the moment and smiled at her friend. They all knew they still had to do one more thing before celebrating. They had to take Diana Reid back home safe and sound. Victoria let her father go and smiled at him.

- "I love you, dad."

- "I love you too, princess."

And as the team walked to the conference room to brief Spencer about the case and update him with the latest information, (Y/N) felt someone hold her hand.

- "Thank you,"- Victoria whispered and cut her a smile that warmed her heart.

- "Come here,"- she answered and turned around to wrap her arms around her for a second. Spencer looked at them, and for once, he didn't know what to say. Victoria and (Y/N) just stood in the middle of the hall, hugged for a few minutes, and Reid couldn't believe it. It was so heartwarming and emotional; he really didn't know how to react.

- "Come on, dad!! You are going to miss the movie!"- Victoria yelled and set the popcorn on the coffee table.

- "You can pause it!"- Spencer yelled from his desk, where he was finishing writing a letter for his mother.

- "Or you can hurry!"- Tori answered and sat on the couch.

- "Here's your tea, your highness"- (Y/N) walked to the girl holding a tray filled with cups and more snacks- "Come on, honey! We are not waiting for you!"

Three months after prison and life had never been so good for Spencer, Victoria, and (Y/N).

- "I had never seen you so eager to watch a Marvel movie, since when are you two fans of Thor?"- Spencer walked to the living room, hearing his girlfriend and daughter laugh.

- "Always, huge fan."- (Y/N) smiled and tapped on the couch. Reid sat between his two women and sighed.

- "I can smell the sarcasm in the air."

- "No, honey. We love Thor, right Tori?"

- "Yes! Big fans, huge, the biggest fans"- Spencer looked at his daughter and raised an eyebrow.

- "Ok, I'll buy it. Let's watch the movie."

(Y/N) and Tori giggled at the very same moments like they were sharing a secret joke Spencer couldn't understand, but he didn't really matter. He was happy, his heart was content, and there was nothing more perfect that minute, 'cos his family was all on the same couch, watching a movie, enjoying an afternoon together. Like he had always dreamt of.

----

Spencer taglist

@calm-and-doctor

General Taglist

@all-tings-diego @spenxerslut @ash19871962 @babebenhardy

[girlwiththereapertattoo]

begin again - part three

Jax Teller x female!Reader

Summary: Y/N and Jax grow closer... I don't know what else to say without revealing spoilers haha

Word count: 4k words

Warnings: very bad language, mentions of blood, physical & verbal abuse, angsty & some fluff

Author's note: I appreciate all the positive feedback I've received this far! It's much appreciated :) also, I'm bad at writing these summaries

If you’re in an abusive relationship or you suspect that someone you know is being abused, speak up and reach out to the correct people!

Beta read by @crucifixedbitch

PART ONE | PART TWO

💀💀💀💀💀

He’s late. The thought brings about a familiar uneasiness and your mind conjures images of a bloodied Jax lying unconscious in some dingy ditch. Jesus Christ.

“Mommy, why did you stop reading?”

S/N’s soft voice draws you back to reality. You look over to his bed where he’s laying beside Abel. “Did I stop reading?”

He giggles, “Yep.”

Oh. You look down at the book in your hand then back up at the boys. “I’m sorry, ace. I guess Mommy’s a bit tired.” And apparently, she’s distracted. You look back down at the book, willing yourself to remember your place.

“Cooper the Cat was stuck in the tree,” he reminds you.

“Right, Cooper the Cat!” your eyes hastily skim through the short paragraphs until you land at the right sentence. “Got it. ‘Help!’ cried Cooper from the tree…”

And just like that, all thoughts of Jax and his safety are shoved to the back of your mind to deal with at a later time. It’s your lucky day today, the boys have had a long day and they’re out before you reach the end of the book.

“I love you, ace,” you whisper to your son after you’ve kissed him goodnight.

It’s because of your love for S/N that you left Jax and the endless bullshit that comes with him. Anxiety-filled nights like this one are a thing of your past and you know you can’t allow yourself to be consumed by thoughts of him. Once you start, there’s no stopping you. You know this, very well, so why is there a sick feeling twisting in your gut? Because a small part of you is still in love with your ex.

Hope blooms when your phone vibrates in your pocket but it’s only B/N. It’s not that you’re not happy to see your boyfriend’s name on your phone screen, but the anxiety’s gnawing at your mind, and you’re desperate for it to be put to sleep. Fortunately for you, B/N’s in high spirits. He’s been frustrated with you lately, and wants you back in Charlotte — his insecurities about Jax are beginning to show.

It’s for that reason that you don’t tell him about S/N’s friendship with Abel.

“This time next week, you and S/N will be back home,” he muses.

“Yeah, we both can’t wait.” You feel disappointed at the realization, “It feels like forever, doesn’t it?”

And S/N has been asking about B/N more and more these days but you don’t tell that to him, afraid that he’ll catch the earliest flight to California. Truthfully, you’re not exactly ready to let Jax out of your life which you’ll be forced to do if B/N’s in Charming. You see, he’s… protective and doesn’t like the idea of you hanging around men. Especially Jax. Hell, he almost stopped you from attending your own mother’s funeral.

Of course, it was under the guise of being the protective boyfriend. “Are you sure it’s safe for you to be in the same town as your violent biker ex?” He said all the right things and did everything in his power to talk you out of the decision but in the end, he failed to convince you to stay away.

“Goodnight, I love you.”

You hang up just in time to hear Jax’s motorcycle pull up out front. The relief is quickly overshadowed by concern when you open the door and are greeted by a bloody-faced Jax.

“I’m late.”

“I’m more concerned about that gash on your brow. Come in.” You open the door wider, “If you’re here to get Abel, he’s asleep. You can fetch him in the morning.”

“Shit.” You step aside to allow him access into the house, “I’m sorry, Y/N, I got caught up in Oakland.”

“It’s fine. S/N was happy to have Abel stay the night.”

He smiles, “Thank you.”

You return his smile, “We should clean that before it gets infected.” Before you can process your actions, you’re leaning closer to take a better look at the cut. “I can’t see much, you should rinse it with water. I’ll go grab the first aid kit.”

“It’s late, I’ll have Chibs take care of the cut.”

“Meet me in the kitchen,” you start for the bathroom, “rinse the cut.”

You grab the first aid kit from the bathroom and find Jax sitting at the breakfast table, pensively staring into space, a half-drunk bottle of water sitting in front of him.

“Here.”

Your voice pulls him from his reverie. His eyes drop to the pill container in your hand and he arches a brow.

“It’s for the pain.”

“Thanks.” He accepts the pills and pops the cap open, “I should’ve called.”

“It’s fine.” You do your best to keep a casualness in your voice when you ask, “What was happening in Oakland? Is everyone okay?”

He gazes at you for a long while before he responds, gauging where your head is at. “Yeah, we’re all fine.”

“Should I be worried?”

He slowly shakes his head, “No.”

You watch him take the pain medication, there are so many questions to ask, questions only Jax has answers to.

“Is it safe for you to be here?”

He swallows the pills and smiles, “I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t safe. Don’t worry, you and S/N are safe.”

Hesitantly, you nod as you pull a chair from the table. In a bid to lighten the mood, you tell him, “No offense, Jackie, but you look like shit.”

“I feel like shit,” he chuckles.

You take your seat in front of him and suppress the urge to smile, “Who punched your handsome mug?”

“I was pistol-whipped.”

“Ouch.” Scooting forward in your chair, you lean towards Jax to get a better look at the rinsed cut, and for a very brief moment, your eyes lock with his before they dart up to his cut. “It’s like the good ol’ days, isn’t it?”

“You playin’ nurse?”

“Yeah.”

Back in the day, nights like these were common. Jax would sit at this very table, at the very chair he’s sat on, whilst you tended to his cuts and bruises. Mother would be sitting in the living room, hurling insults at both you and Jax. She would take any chance to remind you that you were making a mistake you would regret for the rest of your life.

“Your mom hated me.”

Your eyes lock with his, “In her defense, you would always be finding ways to antagonize her.”

And in return, your mother would call Jax all kinds of names but even that wouldn’t keep him away. Nothing ever could keep him from you. Memories of Jax sneaking into your room late at night come to mind. “I had to come kiss my girl goodnight,” he’d tell you.

“We were pretty wild back then,” you reminisce.

And you were madly in love with each other, however, you keep that part to yourself. The situation’s complicated enough without the added layer. You’ve barely mustered the courage to mention B/N’s existence to Jax because, in all honesty, you’re not quite sure how he might react to another man raising his son. The thought of his reaction fills you with dread. Heaven knows he’ll give you a hard time about leaving next week.

Gah, it’s all too much! With a shake of your head, you dismiss all thoughts and grab the ointment from the kit. “Shall we?”

He nods and shuts his eye for you to apply it on the cut. A silence descends upon the kitchen and neither of you makes an effort to fill it.

“You’re good to go,” you announce once you’re done.

“Thanks.”

“I couldn’t risk it getting infected.”

More than anything, you don’t want S/N to see Mommy’s friend sporting cuts on his face. He’ll ask questions, probably mention it to B/N, and you’re not looking to have that drama in your life.

“Are you hungry? I’m assuming you haven’t had your dinner…”

“Nah, but I should get going.”

Your mood deflates at his announcement. The truth is you don’t want him to leave but how do you stop him without giving him the wrong idea? Why are you even stopping him from leaving?

“Stay,” you blurt out.

“Stay?”

“Yeah, there’s the guest bedroom. It’s late and you’re medicated and you shouldn’t be driving and–”

“I have nothing to wear.”

“Sure you do.” You take a breath to compose yourself, “I was cleaning out the closets the other day and I found some of your old stuff. They’re clean, I uh, washed them. Everything is oversized, they should still fit you.”

You had intended to take them to Goodwill and you will but right now, Jax needs them.

“Look, I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.”

It isn’t a lie but it isn’t the full truth. Honestly? You just want him near you. It’s wrong, and you understand the implications and know that B/N won’t be happy should he find out, but one night wouldn’t be harmful to anyone, right? Besides, he’ll be sleeping in the guest bedroom.

He thoughtfully considers your proposition. After a stretched silence, he reluctantly accepts your offer.

“Great,” you perk up, “I’ll warm up your dinner.”

You make some conversation over dinner, none of the heavy shit, mostly catching up on all you’ve missed in the four years you’ve been away. He tells you about the club, and that Opie met someone and they’re now married.

“And how about you? Is there anyone special in your life?”

He doesn’t answer your question, not that you expect him to. You just can’t help but be curious. After dinner, he heads over to the bathroom to take his shower whilst you load the dishwasher and dig through the laundry to look for Jax’s old t-shirts and sweats. The guilt sets in and you fight the urge to call B/N to tell him about Jax.

You’re dialing his number when you stop yourself. “Geez, Y/N!” you toss your phone into the laundry basket and step back to create distance between you and the device. Think about this. The last thing you need is B/N bulldozing into Charming and starting shit with Jax and the M.C. — that could be fatal. No, Jax staying the night is you helping out an old friend, there’s nothing more to it.

Grabbing the folded pile of clothing, you make your way down the hall to the guest bedroom and find Jax waiting patiently on the bed for you. Nothing but a towel tied around his waist.

“I should’ve knocked, I’m sorry.”

He rises off the bed and that’s when you get a clear view of his torso, and the tattoo inscribed on his ribcage.

“You’ve proved your point, Jax, now let’s go.” “No, why?” You look over your shoulder to the big, tattooed man standing over by the counter, laughing at whatever joke he’s just been told. You’re at some grimy tattoo parlor, somewhere in Reno, and Jax’s about to get your name tattooed on his body. His ribcage to be exact. The sentiment is sweet, you admit, but it’s a permanent decision, and you’re only 17. You look back at Jax who’s now laying shirtless on the tattoo chair, “Do you realize how insane this is?” He smiles brightly as he shakes his head. “Do you have a death wish? Gemma’ll kill us both when she sees this.” Part of her rage will be due to the fact that it’s your name on his ribcage instead of hers. “And what if they find out we’ve lied about our age?” “Babe, will you relax? They won’t, this place is a dump.” Which is exactly why he shouldn’t get his first-ever tattoo done here. “There’s no talking you out of this, huh?” “No.” He laces his fingers with yours and raises your hand to press a kiss to its back, “This is what I want to do. I don’t care what my mom thinks.” “And the pain? You don’t care about that either?” He shakes his head, “No.” You glance at the stencil transfer on his ribcage and sigh. “I know you don’t have to do this–” “I want to do this.” “And there’s clearly no talking you out of this.” “Yeah.” You squeeze his hand and flash him a reassuring smile, “Do you want me to hold your hand?” His smile returns, brighter than ever, “I’d appreciate it, darlin’.” “You’re insane, you know that, right?” He nods. “Only because I love you.” You lean over to lock your lips in a kiss — you don’t doubt it for a second.

You pry your eyes from his torso, forcing yourself to face the now smirking Jax. Right, his clothes!

You hold out the pile to him, “Did you put your clothes in the hamper?”

He accepts them and murmurs ‘thanks’ before he responds to your question. “Yeah, just like you said.”

“Okay,” you fight off the urge to look down at his ribcage. He kept it. “I’ll see you in the morning. Goodnight Jax.”

Spinning on your heels, you scurry out the room before you do something you’ll regret later.

💀💀💀💀💀

“Mommy! Come see!”

S/N and Abel’s laughter sounds from the living room. Saturday mornings have always been your favorite. Sleeping in is always a winner in your books, a vital part of any Saturday routine, and once you’re up, B/N takes S/N out of the house whilst you prepare breakfast. Last weekend was S/N’s first Saturday away from B/N and he was miserable. This Saturday is different.

“Mommy?” More laughter sounds, “You will miss it!”

Lowering the heat, you abandon your cooking and make your way over to the living room. A slouched Jax is taking up most of the three-seater with S/N and Abel on either side of him, all three pairs of eyes fixed on the television screen.

“What’s got you laughing so much, ace?” You take a seat on the armrest and press a kiss to the top of your son’s head. “Beaky Buzzard?”

“Yeah.” He looks up at you, “Are you coming to sit with us?”

“No, Mommy’s got to make breakfast.”

You’d like nothing more than to stick around and watch cartoons with them but there’s breakfast to prepare. When you walk back into the kitchen, you discover your phone vibrating on the counter and you just know it’s B/N. It’s his fifth attempt in the last half-hour, probably looking to speak to S/N, but that just isn’t a good idea. Not when Jax is in the house. You’re being deceitful to both parties, but the timing just isn’t right.

B/N would lose it if he found out about Jax’s regular visits, and you don’t know how Jax would react to B/N’s existence in your life and the role he plays in your son’s life. It would ruin a perfectly good morning. The day got off to a good start with the news of the sale of your childhood home, and your son’s mood is the best it’s been all week. Why would you even think to ruin it by starting trouble with B/N?

It’s not worth it. You’ll just have to come up with a story to tell him later.

“Breakfast is served!”

The boys come barreling in and take their places at the breakfast table. You assist the two youngest boys to plate up their food before you plate up for yourself. Everyone digs into the food, and the compliments you receive are a definite boost for the ego. You listen intently as S/N and Abel excitedly recount the Looney Tune episode they’d watched earlier and S/N’s beside himself with laughter.

The happy moment is disrupted by the unwelcomed vibration of your phone on the counter.

“Is that Daddy calling?”

Shit! You wince at the name ‘Daddy’. It’s what S/N always calls B/N but somehow, it doesn’t feel right when Jax’s sitting across the table from him.

“Mommy?”

“Yeah, ace?” you look over to him, very aware of Jax’s eyes burning into the back of your head.

“Is that Daddy calling?”

“No, it’s probably the estate agent.” It’s not a convincing lie, but you’re caught off guard and can’t come up with something better. “She’s calling about the house.”

“When is Daddy calling?”

“Probably later.” You hate that you’re being so dismissive. “We’ll call him after Abel and Jax leave, okay?”

He looks like he might ask another question, maybe press for a better answer, but he resumes eating his food. You avoid Jax’s eyes for the remainder of breakfast. He helps you clear the table and load the dishwasher in painful silence. Once Jax has helped you load the dishes, he leaves you alone in the kitchen. Can the morning get any worse? Apparently, it can. You unlock your phone to find multiple texts from an irate B/N.

He didn’t take kindly to you ignoring all ten of his calls. Shit. You’re on the verge of tears when Jax saunters into the kitchen.

“Abel and I are leaving.”

You nod, unsure of how to respond. “You’ll ride on your bike with Abel?”

“No. Ratboy’s waiting out front with the van.”

“Ratboy?”

“The new prospect.”

“And will we see Abel tomorrow?”

His impassive expression says it all. Your gut twists with anxiety at the thought of not seeing Jax again before you leave Charming. How do you make this right?

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He slowly shakes his head. Just then S/N and Abel sprint into the kitchen, bustling with energy. Abel hugs you goodbye before the boys run back out of the kitchen and out of the house onto the front yard.

“I’m leaving my bike here. I’ll come by to get it later.”

“Cool. Yeah, that’s fine.”

You walk Jax out, and just like he’d said, Ratboy is waiting out front in a black van. Together with S/N, you watch Jax and Abel climb into the van and drive off.

“Can we call Daddy now?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” you lift him up and carry him towards the house. “Did you have a good time with Abel?”

He nods his little human head, a bright grin plastered on his perfect face. Once inside the house, you dial B/N’s number but he doesn’t pick up, in fact, it seems his phone’s off. Strange.

“I think his phone’s off, ace.”

His face falls. In an effort to brighten his mood, you suggest driving over to the playground.

“When is Abel coming back to play?”

You inwardly sigh. It looks like today’ll be one long ass day.

💀💀💀💀💀

The last person you expect to find standing on the other side of your front door is B/N and yet here he is, and he looks anything but pleased with you. Oh, shit. Your heart sinks at the sight of him, the chill of fear coursing through your body, and your mouth dries.

“B/N?”

His unsettling smile causes the hairs on the back of your neck to raise. “Hi, Toots. Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

Your movement’s robot-like as you step away from the door to make way for him. He walks past you, and once inside, his eyes search around the small space.

“Are you home alone?”

You seem to have forgotten how to speak.

“Toots?”

“S/N… He’s, uh… He’s asleep.”

He murmurs a soft ‘good’ before he turns around to pull you into an embrace. For a moment, you stand frozen, your brain seized up and you feel like a foreigner in your own body.

“What’s the matter, Toots? You don’t look too happy to see me. Were you expecting someone else?”

Yes. “No.” Moving one arm at a time, you return B/N’s embrace and do your best to calm your nerves. You’ve done nothing wrong, he’s not going to hurt you, you repeat over and over until he releases you from his hold. “I just wasn’t expecting you to come all this way.”

“It’s only a five-hour flight.”

Why the fuck are you here?

As if he read your mind, he tells you. “I missed you guys so much, I thought I’d surprise you,” with a tight smile, he adds, “You’re not very good at answering my calls.”

“I’m sorry.”

B/N hauls his luggage from the porch and dumps it onto the floor before he makes his way over to the living room. You follow slowly behind him, watching as he settles onto the couch and searches for the television remote.

“C-can I get you anything?”

“Join me,” it’s an order.

You drag your feet over to the couch and take your place next to him. Casually, he slings an arm over your shoulder and forcefully pulls you into his side.

“There. Now you’re close.”

You can’t bring yourself to fake a smile. Too petrified. He presses a kiss to the side of your head and whispers into your ear to relax.

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

He’s told you that lie far too many times in the past.

“Are you enjoying being back in Charming?”

You nod, the words caught in your throat.

“What are you? Mute? Use your fucking words, Toots.”

“It’s good to be back.” Your voice is shaky, barely recognizable. “I missed it here”

His fingers start stroking up and down your upper arm. “Good.”

Your eyes fix on the blank television screen in front of you.

“Is he here? Is he hiding in one of the rooms?”

“Who?”

“Your white trash biker ex!”

You jump up, surprised by him raising his voice so suddenly. “Jax? No! Why would he be here?”

“You lying piece of shit,” he spits out, shoving you away from him, the force sending you to the ground. “I saw his bike parked out front. I’ll ask you again, is he here?”

“No, B/N,” tears fill your eyes, you know exactly what’s to follow but still, you plead, “Don’t do this here. Not now, please, baby.”

“Shut up!” He raises to his feet, towering over you, and kicks at your trembling frame. “No one’s touched you, why the fuck are you crying?”

“I’m sorry.” You swipe the tears from your cheeks. “I’m so sorry, baby. I don’t… I don’t know whose bike that is.”

“Are you cheating on me, you whore?”

Frantically, you shake your head.

“I said use your fucking words.”

You bring a trembling hand to your mouth to muffle your sobs.

“I asked you a question, you dumb bitch!”

“No. No. No.” You crawl over to him, closing the distance between you. “I’d never, baby. Never ever.”

“That doesn’t explain why a bike’s parked outside your house.”

“B/N, please,” you plead softly. “S/N’s asleep, we can do this another–”

The words are lost when he harshly grabs your face and shoves you onto your back. Both hands cover your mouth to muffle your pained cries. He’s vicious, and tonight, he’s out for blood.

“Get up, you–”

Knock, knock, knock! You’ve never been more relieved in your life. B/N shoots you a warning glare, daring you to make a move. A few moments later, the knocks sound again, a little louder this time around.

“Y/N?”

It’s Jax. You are faced with two decisions: do you call for Jax to help you or do you take your deserved punishment?

“Y/N?” he knocks louder. “Are you in there?”

You’re sobbing so much, your body’s trembling. B/N kneels beside you, placing two additional hands over the ones already covering your mouth. His additional weight pushes your head further into the hard ground, causing your head to hurt. It’s sure to leave a bruise. With a final knock, Jax gives up and some moments later, you hear his motorcycle ride off. Once he’s certain Jax’s left, B/N removes his hands.

“Why is he here at this hour?”

“I don’t know.” You gasp when he wraps his hand around your neck and applies pressure, making it difficult for you to breathe. “B/N, please…”

“You’ll regret cheating on me,” he murmurs softly before his hand connects with your cheek in a hard slap.

💀💀💀💀💀

PART FOUR

tag list:

@princesssterek @derangedcupcake @furiouscopshepherduniversity @crucifixedbitch @holl2712 @sweet--catrastrophe @marvelsmylife @brittjulianne97

[shinescape]

What are we?

Neighbour Yunho x Fem Reader

Requested!

note: bf material Yunho is what matters. Saving the anon who requested this from the drought. Enjoy the read!

They seem to think you were lying this whole time about being in a relationship and you’re about to prove them wrong. You’re starting to regret making friends with the two girls in front of you as one was scrolling on her phone and the other watching you with a smirk and arms crossed over her chest.

“I guess we were right. You took some random guy’s photo and showed it to us for the past three months. What’s new I guess?” You swore to cut ties with them after this, making friends in college was full of meaningless lies that you had to make up to keep them stay with you. But seeing how these two only care about your love life, might as well shove it into their faces and leave for good.

“Oh he’ll be here alright. Just running a bit late.” You said through gritted teeth as the girl who has been on her phone finally looked up at you. “I think he either ditch you or he doesn’t actually exist. I think we should go shopping-”

“Baby, there you are!” Her words were cut off by the voice that you hate to hear but glad that he finally came to shut these pretty faces up. “You got lost again, am I right?” You asked as he made his way to sit beside you and pull you in for a side hug. He smiled at you sheepishly before turning to your friends.

“You guys must be her friends. I’m Yunho, nice to meet you.” He waved a little and the only thing they did was blink at him, mouth slightly agape. You rolled your eyes and tapped Yunho on the arm. “You want to order anything, the smoothies here are nice.”

He turned to you and you swore his smile was way too fake to not be fooled. “Nah, I’ll share with you. So why did you call me here?” He took your drink without hesitation and sipped from the same straw you did earlier.

You watch in horror at his actions and the girls were as shocked as you were. They haven’t said a word since he came and you knew you already won. “My friends thought you’re an illusion I made but turns out you’re real.” If a smile could kill, yours would strike through their hearts that instant.

He laughed and looked at them. “You probably thought a girl like her won’t have a boyfriend right? But turns out I’m real.” His words sounded like it's mocking you instead of reassuring that you’re indeed taken.

“Now that you see him, say something. Did I lie?” You cocked an eyebrow at them and watched how they were fumbling with their words at the same time trying to appear presentable in front of your boyfriend.

“Fine. We believe you.” One of them said but you weren’t done yet. “I think you have something more to say to me.” They rolled their eyes and looked straight at you. “We’re sorry okay.” There was a short silence before one of them spoke again, “So tell us how you meet. He can’t be the one chasing you right?”

Your fingers curled on the table and were ready to lunge at them when Yunho’s palm stopped you from it. He smiled at them and was about to say something when his phone rang.

He excused himself and took the call. After a minute or so, he looked at them and back at you. He came closer to you and whispered to your ear. It was uncomfortable but you had to keep your cool.

“I forgot that I promised the guys to go to the movies. Can I leave?” You pushed him away because his voice was tickling your ears. “Yeah sure. No worries, babe.” He patted your head and saw the look in your eyes, as if telling him this is not over yet.

“Is there something wrong, Yunho?” Both of you turn to the voice and he let off a chuckle. How dare she say his name with that made up cute voice of hers, you thought annoyed.

“Yunho has to go back home, his mother needs him to fix a new cupboard she bought. Right?” “Ah yes. I’m sorry to suddenly leave like this. You girls have fun alright. See you later, baby. Love you.” He went straight to kiss you on the temple and stood up, jogging out from the shop. You were still trying to process what happened as the girls had curiosity written on their faces.

“You both have fun shopping, I have somewhere else to be.” You ran out before they could get more lies from you. Honestly, you have no other plans then going home and rethink about this fake relationship you had with your neighbour as well as childhood friend, Jung Yunho.

Yunho is your ‘on-call boyfriend’ meaning that he’ll come and as much as you hate to admit, rescue you when you get stuck in sticky situations like earlier. It started as a joke but somehow he agreed with no further questions. But today he really went overboard with the display of affection that you strongly thought was unnecessary.

- What’s with the PDA earlier?-

- I thought we were supposed to be convincing?-

-Exactly. Convincing not realistic-

He replied with a string of laughing emojis right after and you clicked your phone off, annoyed. He should explain at least but what if it’s not what you wanted to hear? Pushing back the thought away, you decided to stop by your favourite bakery before heading back home. Trying not to think too much about what happened earlier.

Weeks passed by and you stopped hanging out with the girls and was friendless around campus. It felt lonely but at least no one was bothering you about your life anymore.

They still talked to you but you made sure they were not invading your bubble anymore after that incident. That stupid incident where you remembered everything Yunho did on his own accord without feeling guilty or embarrassed as you were.

You were in your room, doing nothing but staring at the books lined up on your desk. How you wish that memory would disappear from your head but that’s not going to happen so easily.

“Honey, can you give this to Yunho?” Your mother passed you a bag filled with dishes she made for dinner. “Why can’t you go give it to him?” She patted your thigh a couple of times and left.

“What is with everyone not giving me proper answers these days?!” You stood up angrily and took the bag with you. With a sour face, you left the house and made a few steps to the front and knocked on his door. It’s that close yet your mother always made you do it.

The door opened and it was not Yunho or his parents. “Yes?” Your eyes were glued on the stranger’s face that you forgot what to say. “Is Yunho here?” He told you to wait for a while before shouting out for your neighbour. You stood there smiling as he accompanied you at the door.

The moment Yunho appeared you grabbed his arm. “Who was that guy?” Yunho looked at you suspiciously. “My friend...no more questions. I’m not giving out free info.” He shook his head at you.

“Your dinner. Bye” You gave him the bag and was about to leave when he stopped you. “Thank you.” You gave him a weird look. “Your welcome. You’re acting weird these days, it’s not too late to see the doctor.” With that, Yunho stared at your closed door before retreating back only to find curious eyes waiting for him. “I’m not explaining anything.”

Another day, another errand from your dearest mother. You were currently walking back home with no other than Yunho. “Don’t you get bored seeing my face everyday?” You asked him all of a sudden. “Not really. Why?” “I feel like I see you so much lately. It’s bothersome.” You grumbled and adjusted your grip on the grocery bags on both hands.

“Well, I’m not leaving any time soon. So expect more I guess.” He joked that made you elbowed his arm in return. You thought it was time to tell him about what’s been bothering you these days, he was a part of it so it’s now or never. “Yunho, I think you should stop being my on-call boyfriend. No one is bothering me anymore.” You explained.

“Then, should I be your boyfriend instead?” You stopped walking and looked at him. He can’t be serious? But he’s not even laughing. “I mean your mum knows I like you so I guess if you’re okay then we can just date.” He continued on as if it’s nothing.

“Wait, my mum knows what? You like me? You’re kidding right?” Your hands were hurting so you started to walk again, not caring whether he answered you or not. It was like that day with the girls where you had to process everything.

“Don’t you want to try it out?” His words sound so foreign to your ears. You hated to think that this was happening and he’s waiting for you to answer. “We’ve been friends since forever. I don’t think it’s going to make any difference.” You said not putting much thought in your words.

“Exactly. What’s the difference, we’re going to see each other like usual.” Yunho peeked at your face and saw how unhappy you looked. “I’ve kissed you a good amount of times so what’s the problem now.” Your eyes widened at his words but luckily he didn’t notice.

The problem is you don’t want to believe that you’re catching feelings for him. That’s what it was this whole time. “I’ll date you if you answer this question.” He looked way too calm about this and it scared you a bit. “Sure, what is it?”

“The day when you had to leave for the movies, did you like me back then too?” You bit your lips, obviously nervous about his answer. “I’ve liked you way before that. That’s why your mum kept on making you send food to me every now and then.”

It has been that long. Your apartment was already in sight and his words were still ringing in your ears but the group of boys watching you and Yunho made you stop functioning altogether.

“There you are! Your mum told us you went out. Oh, who is she?”

With a confident smile, he answered. “My girlfriend”

[doorsclosingslowly]

There’s someone waiting out there with a mouthful of surprises

The Jedi recovered the bisected Sith apprentice from Naboo and imprisoned him underneath the Jedi Temple. A young Anakin finds the way down to his cell.

Anakin is twelve when he declines one of Chancellor Palpatine’s invitations for the first time. The resulting devastation looks wrong on his kindly old face, and Anakin wants to take it back—besides, it’s just an opera and a glass of bubbly, where could be the harm?—but he remembers golden eyes pleading up at him and then a skull-patterned face scrunched up into a splotch with how hard it’s trying to hide utter desperation, and he repeats his invented excuse.

It doesn’t matter that this one-sided rivalry for Anakin’s attention that has developed between the mutilated imprisoned murderer Sith (slave) he has befriended and the Chancellor of the Republic is honestly deeply stupid, from Anakin’s point of view. It’s not like he couldn’t spent time with them both: his missions with Master Obi-Wan have increased in number recently, but still, he’s been talking to Palpatine once a month and he’s also managed to fit in the regular trips down below to the high security carcer. It’s ridiculous.

But Anakin understands loneliness—and fear and attachment and jealousy and all the other disturbances of the peace he shouldn’t feel—he didn’t have friends for years in the Temple, after all, and it makes sense, at least a little, that Maul is scared he’ll be forgotten down there when Anakin has any other option. Not a lot of sense, because really what he’s saying is that he thinks Anakin so disloyal he’ll just ditch the only real friend he made on Coruscant, and Anakin would get back at him for the insult if it wasn’t for an energy gate perpetually between them and the fact that it’s a just a little bit unfair to tussle with a guy crawling on the floor because he doesn’t have legs… The jealousy is still kriffing stupid, but if anyone knows stupid fears it’s Anakin.

So he declines, and he keeps declining, and two years later the invitations stop.

.

Anakin is eleven when he starts smuggling droid parts down into the top security oubliette underneath the oldest parts of the Jedi Temple. The first time is, in retrospect, a terrifying accident. He’s built a tiny moving starfighter that Master Obi-Wan just glanced at and said, “Well done,” nothing more, like Anakin didn’t need to use pincers to weld the tiniest engine parts together, like he didn’t cast the alloy all by himself. He sulks in his room, the ship buzzing at his head, and then remembers that there’s at least two more people who might like to see. Palpatine is probably busy, and that leaves…

The Sith prisoner is a far more appreciative audience than Anakin’s Master. His eyes glint and widen when he sees the presence next to Anakin’s head, and he even pulls himself off his berth: pulls himself off the edge and tumbles down head-first, and then panting and with his nails dug into the duracrete he drags his torso over to the energy trellis that separates him from Anakin.

He looks up at the droid in childlike wonder.

There’s a tenderness to his questions that he hasn’t shown Anakin up until now, and it’s not just the hoarse panting of exertion that takes away the last dregs of his usual intimidating mien. He wants to know everything, from the full-size model of the ship it was based on to the assembly process to details of every single one of Anakin’s new projects.

“I can—I could feel the movement of the droids I built, in the force,” the prisoner whispers reverently. “They were a constant presence when I was young.”

“Right? Right?” Anakin is excited. The Jedi have been trying to tell him that droids don’t have force presences, and he’s almost believed them by now, but if he’s not alone in feeling it then he was right. Master Obi-Wan was wrong. He knew it.

He brings down the next droid he builds—yes, two days after the first trip he did realize he brought something easily used as a weapon to the dangerous Sith prisoner, but all he did was talk mechanics with Anakin so clearly it’s harmless—and the next and next. He watches the prisoner drag himself across the floor. He sees the abrasions covering the prisoner head to abdomen—covering him on every inch of the body he still possesses—the injuries that he must be sustaining from his only mode of movement. He feels the shame radiate out from the prisoner down on the floor, painful, cloying. He watches him try to play it all down.

One day, Anakin brings down a ship that he designed himself to meet the exact dimensions and functionality of a short humanoid’s prosthetic thigh. He pushes it against the barrier. It moves through.

.

Anakin is almost ten years old, and he knows that down in the bowels of the Jedi Temple there lives a monster. The Sith is caged so deep below that no-one can hear his growls and mutters, his whimpers, his pleas, or so Master Obi-Wan promised Anakin yesterday when he’d worked up the courage to ask about the sounds he keeps hearing whenever he closes his eyes. He’s locked down so deep that the shivering of his despair and the gall of his hatred must be a hallucination. He’s been caged for months, first interrogated daily, then found useless and forgotten. But not by Anakin.

(He saw the monstrous enemy of the Jedi for the first time when he’d just turned nine. It pulled its black hood off its bright head and panicked Master Qui-Gon and Master Obi-Wan, and Anakin was sent away for safety that quickly turned into cosmic warfare. Before that moment, he knows, on Tatooine it tried to run Anakin over with its bike. After that moment, he’d seen the monster—or what remained of it—being carried out of the Naboo palace on Master Obi-Wan’s back, moaning and delirious with pain, but dangerous nonetheless. It had bitten Obi-Wan so hard he’d flung it reflexively to the ground.

Down there, it had begged. “Honor,” it had rasped. “Give me honor. Give me death.”

Master Obi-Wan had picked it up by its arm, and it had whimpered in protest, “I fought with honor!”

Obi-Wan had ignored it. Anakin would have, too; this thing had killed Master Qui-Gon, and whether it had done so with honor or not didn’t matter when Master Qui-Gon was dead. It had killed the Jedi who’d won him, who chose to train Anakin, who was the only guarantor of his future safety, and he didn’t know what would happen now, and he hated it.

It had grown more frantic then, terrified. “Kill me, Jedi, please, when my Master—”

And Anakin had swallowed a cry of shocked recognition.)

Anakin will be ten in two months, and today he’s gonna see the monster again. It’s not the force that calls him down staircase after staircase to the oubliette below the oldest parts of the Jedi Temple. He’d be able to explain if it was the force, if he got caught, he thinks, but that’s not what’s going on. It’s just homesickness, and loneliness, and it is that word.

The way he said it.

Anakin has met more Masters in the last year of his life than ever before, has uttered the word more often than on Tatooine, and he’s doing pretty well, he thinks. He doesn’t flinch with his body when he says it and not with his face either, and even the highest Masters—there it is again—they can’t feel the acid in his force presence anymore.

He greets Master Obi-Wan in the morning and he bows to Grandmaster Yoda whenever they meet.

He doesn’t talk about his childhood. He doesn’t talk much, nowadays, to anyone but Master Obi-Wan or his teachers. He knows he’s weird. He wasn’t on Tatooine, but here… He doesn’t know the things the other padawans do, and his reflexive associations, his interests, his memories shock them. There’s no point, Anakin has learned, in expecting people who can say Master without galling—who don’t need to pretend enjoy it—to listen to him. They’ll never wake up in cold sweat and feel for the bomb that was cut out of their neck, that was injected into it while they were awake and their mother cried, that had so often almost gone off. They don’t cry for their Mom. They’ll only shush him when he talks of his past.

When he talks of his fears.

Of himself.

They’ll never understand him. No-one will. No-one will let him be the Anakin he really is, without fussing over him and muttering and looking like he should know better by now. No-one wants anything beyond the parts of himself he can salvage that are untainted by his past. The parts that don’t remember his mother.

The only person who listens to all of him is Palpatine, and even he often doesn’t know what to say.

No-one will understand, possibly, but…

The monster that lives down below the Jedi Temple had forced out Master like the word tastes of fire and dread.

Like it heralds pain.

The monster is a fellow slave, Anakin is sure. He’s the only being on Coruscant who might understand; the only person who will let him be whole. He’s killed Master Qui-Gon, yes, but he didn’t have a choice, just like Anakin wasn’t allowed to disobey his Master and neither was Mom or Kitster or Beru or anybody else back home.

It was so obvious, the moment he said it.

The monster’s a slave.

Point: Anakin is so tired of having to pretend he never was a slave.

Point also: He just found a map of all the layers of the temple in a garbage chute, wedged in a decommissioned droid’s dataslit. A map that shows the oubliette for ancient evils.

Point also also: Master Obi-Wan’s fast asleep, and Anakin can’t get his thoughts to stop racing.

The monster’s a fellow slave.

Ergo: it’s time to sneak down and make a friend.

What must be hundreds of meters below the current Jedi Temple, at the bottom of the bottom-most staircase, smells faintly of sweat and boredom and despair. The only illumination Anakin can make out is a set of force trellises, and if the schematics he found were right then that’s exactly the spot that he’s looking for.

Pulling his hood down deeper just because it’s chilly and definitely not because he’s nervous and needs something to fidget, he sneaks closer.

Victory!

The Sith’s inside the cell. He looks just like the attacker Anakin remembers, with a red-and-black face and some horns and a scowl. He looks completely different, too: he’s naked, or at least his torso is. The lower half of his body is just missing. Did the Jedi—but no, Anakin can dimly remember Master Obi-Wan mention the way he beat him. That he’s still without prosthetics, even though his scars are well-healed… Anakin knew a woman who’d survived a bomb blowing off her leg, on Tatooine. She lived off of fellow slaves’ charity, for a few months. Her head wasn’t all there anymore from the pain, Mom told Anakin, and her Master had just let her leave. Why invest in a prosthetic when you’re not getting any use from its recipient?

The Sith is doing better than her, at least, even if he’s missing way more flesh. He’s doing pull-ups off the head piece of his callow berth. His yellow eyes gleam in the soft light of the force trellis when he looks over. When he notices Anakin. For a long moment, he looks stunned, and only then he remembers to snarl.

“Hi,” Anakin says.

The prisoner puffs up his defined arm muscles, as well as he can when he’s still hanging off the frame of his bed. He must have decided that dropping down onto his torso—and probably his face—would be even less dignified, though, because he stays put, sweaty and glowering out at Anakin from under his armpit, like he’s desperately trying to look threatening and tough in an unfamiliar situation where the other person has all the power.

It’s a scene Anakin has known intimately for most of his life.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” Anakin says.

A beat.

Right.

“The Jedi didn’t send me,” because in his situation that’s what Anakin would most like to know. The Jedi are not this guy’s slave masters, but they do have all the power over him right now.

“I was a slave too, before they took me here. You can trust me,” and at least that gets a reaction: the prisoner looks absolutely apoplectic and even opens his mouth. Finally! He’s angry, which isn’t ideal—Anakin should have remembered that some slaves don’t want to admit they are—but they’re talking!

But the Sith just closes his mouth again.

He keeps his sullen silence for what feels like hours while Anakin tries one conversational gambit after the other. He just can’t have blown his one chance at talking to someone whose mouth makes the right shape for Master. Anakin refuses to accept that.

But it grows later and later, and Master Obi-Wan will wake up at some point, and he doesn’t have to concede defeat for forever, after all, but maybe for today…

“Fine.” Anakin puffs out his chest. He should say something soothing that’ll buy him a foot in the door next time, but he’s been pleading and pleading, and it hurts. “I don’t even care if you don’t want to talk. I’ve got plenty of friends. Chancellor Palpatine asked me to come over for tea just yesterday!”

The voice is so threadbare that he almost misses it, but it’s there. The Sith clears his throat. He sounds more sure and velvety when he repeats his plea to Anakin. His golden eyes are so wide it looks painful.

“Wait! Repeat what you just said!”

.

Anakin is nineteen when he climbs down into the bowels of the Temple for the last time. He hasn’t slept for two days, barely even closed his eyes, because on the insides of his lids is his mother, writhing, pleading.

No-one up in the Temple can give him any help. All they have to offer is platitudes about Uncertain the future is and Let go of attachment you must, but it’s his Mom, and she’s being tortured! She’s dying! She can’t be dying! She’s Anakin’s Mom!

He’s pleaded to be sent to Tatooine on a mission, but Senator Amidala’s protection detail is more important Master Obi-Wan said, and he can’t just go against the will of his… He can’t go. His Mom’s dying every moment he closes his eyes and he can’t go.

Maul is his last hope.

No-one will even notice that Maul’s gone. He’s been locked up for a decade now, and only the meal droids and Anakin still climb down to his level. Anakin’s friends with the meal droids, too, and he can definitely talk them into keeping silent about the Sith prisoner’s disappearance.

Maul’s a fighter, and he was able to find them on Tatooine and follow them to Naboo so he must be able to find Anakin’s Mom, too, wherever she’s been dragged off to. He’ll be able to save her.

He’ll—

Anakin has already sliced the force trellis control panel and turned it off when the fear grabs him. He’s spilled all his nightmares of his mother’s death, has shared the only plan for her survival. He’s received the assent he was sure to get. Now, he’s helping Maul put on the smuggled prosthetics that have been hidden in the stuffing of Maul’s prison berth, kneeling down before him.

And suddenly, all he tastes in the air is raw hatred.

He flinches. The trellis must have functioned as a shield from Maul’s presence before, keeping Anakin from realizing the true depth of Maul’s anger, the extent of his strength.

He could kill Anakin right now. He could attack the temple, and it would all be Anakin’s fault.

The frailty and humiliations of the prisoner’s mutilated body have lulled Anakin into reacting with kindness. He’s seen a man who is weak, helpless, and of course he offered help.

The cadence of Maul’s voice has made him sound like a friend.

But he’s the Sith who slaughtered Master Qui-Gon.

He’s filled to the brim with hatred and jealousy and pain, the force around them screams, will never release them to meditation like Anakin has tried and tried to do; he’s everything the Jedi Council saw in Anakin that day a decade ago and that he’s tried so hard to bury. He’s a Sith.

He’s warm.

It’s not just the hand he rests on Anakin’s shoulder but the very air he expels. Anakin expected the dark side of the force to be frigid, the way his own loathing and terror have kept him shivering and cold, but this is a hearth: protection, purification, an almost magnetic pull. It wraps around them. He shudders again.

“Do not be afraid,” Maul says, and from the soft look in his eyes he has misunderstood completely. “I shall find your mother, apprentice. You will do admirably while I’m gone. Just remember everything I taught you.”

And then, the darkness curls around Anakin again, hot and possessive. “While I’m gone, don’t talk to Palpatine.”

.

Anakin is twenty-three when he decides to brutally murder the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. His wife is laying in the delivery room, holding the boy twin—holding their baby boy!—while he strokes her hair reverently, and there is his Mom beside him, holding the girl twin—holding their baby girl!—and next to the door, scowling, stands Maul.

“Do you want to hold her?” Mom asks Maul gently. She knows him best now, and if she decides Maul’s standoffishness towards the twins—his twins!—is shyness rather than dislike, then Anakin will forgive him for not cooing over the babies—his kids! His and Padmé’s kids!—like any rational person would.

“Even His patience runs out one day,” Maul whispers.

Anakin’s hairs curl in shocked recognition, and he doesn’t even need to hear the word, but—

“I told you, Shmi, he started talking to Anakin as soon as he arrived. Somehow I managed to keep them apart, to interfere with the attempts at molding him, but the very fact He showed interest must warn us… As soon as he learns of this birth, and His spies are everywhere…” Maul turns back towards the door, palms laid across it as if he could keep the gate shut. The force burns with shielding hatred. “My Master will come for your children. Soon. Palpatine likes them young.”

[weelittleweasley]

Little Lion | Ron x Reader

Prompt as requested by 2 anons: Naturally as a Slytherin, you exude confidence and intimidation. Ron Weasley, on the other hand, not so much. But that’s what made you so attracted to the other, much to everyone else’s surprise. Question is will he muster up the courage to ask you to go to the Yule Ball with him?

Warnings: None!

Word Count: 3.8k

A/N: IMPORTANT NOTE: I know, I know, I know, the Yule Ball is only around for the Triwizard Tournament, but let’s pretend like it doesn’t exist just then!! I wanted to age everyone up to year six and give Ron and opportunity to redeem himself from the robes his mother sent him hehe. I literally am a fucking fiend for Ron Weasley, my love for him should be ILLEGAL. Ron content on here is MINIMAL TO NONE! If anyone has any great fic recs for Ron, PLEASE SEND THEM MY WAY. LOOK AT THAT MOTHERFUCKER!! I AM IN LOVE WITH HIM!!!!!!!!!!!

All it took was for you to walk down the hall to get people to look at you and start whispering between each other. It wasn’t a bad thing at all, in fact you quite liked it. You were a confident girl and sometimes that confidence intimidated people. It gave you this sense of power that you liked to use when you needed something out of someone. Not to mention the people you surrounded yourself with in your house were also quite intimidating people, one of them being Draco Malfoy. 

You and Draco were best friends, a dynamic duo of sorts. People thought that you two would end up together, falling madly in love. But Draco was like your brother. He took you under his wing when you got Hogwarts and he was the person who helped you unlock that unfaltering confidence within you. Besides, Draco and you’s personalities clashed too much for it to work with you. You were both dominant, confident, intimidating people; Both of you needed to be in control at all times. Far too similar. 

Instead, you took a liking to people who were more reserved. People who thought before they acted upon their impulses. You needed someone who balanced you out. But someone who could dominate you and keep you at bay when you needed it. Only problem was people like that were scared of you or found you unapproachable. Which you understood, but at the same time, you wished that those people could suck it up and make a move.

As you walked down the hall today, Draco made his way next to you. “We should skip Potions today,” he states as you roll your eyes. Sometimes Draco kept this cool boy act up too much and you knew he was a big softie on the inside and he actually enjoyed school more than he liked to admit. “Seriously. We could ditch Slughorn’s class and hang out in the common room or by the Black Lake,” he tries to tempt you.

“Dray, we’re going to class whether you like it or not,” you speak as you continue to walk to class, Draco groaning when you tell him this. “Slughorn is may be old, but he says valuable things,” you push his shoulder.

The blonde boy just sighs. “I hate when you’re right.”

The both of you walk into Potions class, your face lighting up when you see that your other friends from Slytherin were already in class, awaiting your arrival. You grab a seat with Draco on your right and Pansy on your left. Pansy already starts gossiping about people who you could honestly care less about, but you give her the attention she wants anyway, her being one of your closest girl friends in the school. 

As she blabs on about some poor girl from Hufflepuff that she picked on during lunch, you watch as some Gryffindors enter the classroom, your eyes sticking on the Weasley boy. Ron Weasley was someone who you watched from afar. He was one of those boys who had that boyish charm that made you blush. The ginger was funny, for sure, but he had thoughtful and kind mannerisms that made your heart flutter when you watched him. You picked up on how he would notice when Granger would get distressed and he would offer her a sweet from his backpack that he had stored for occasions like this. You watched how he always packed more than one quill because Potter always managed to forget his. You watched how his eyes widened with fear when Slughorn would talk about how Potions can go wrong quickly, the Weasley boy fearfully concocting his. All of those little ticks made you develop a little crush on him after months of watching him.

Ron sat down in his typical seat next to Hermione and Harry, but he could feel a set of eyes on him from the moment he walked into the classroom. “Is she looking at me?” he nervously asks Harry. 

Harry glances over in your direction, watching that your eyes were glued on Potter’s best friend. When you notice Harry looking at you, you quickly turn away and pay attention to Pansy who continues to ramble. “She was,” Harry reports back. Ron nervously groans. “Oh come on, maybe she has a crush on you.”

“I highly doubt it. I bet she’s planning how to rip my heart out of my chest and then serve it to Malfoy on a silver platter,” his voice cracks. “She scares me.”

Hermione rolls her eyes, “Oh, please, Ronald. Just because the girl is confident and knows what she wants doesn’t make her scary; it makes her smart. I don’t know why she would have a crush on someone like you.”

Ron just looks at Hermione. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he exclaims.

With a huff, Hermione turns to Ron and Harry. “It means I’m surprised that she doesn’t have a crush on someone like Draco or Blaise Zabini. She likes someone like you, Ronald. Merlin, I didn’t think I would have to spell it out for you,” she turns back to the board, ready to start class. 

Your conversation with Pansy is interrupted when Professor Slughorn appear in front of the classroom and starts class, telling you to get into pairs. You turn to Draco, who was always your partner, Pansy with Blaise, Crabbe with Goyle. Everyone in the class regardless of their houses worked with the same people. Slughorn notices this and asks, “How about we switch it up and work with different people?” This earns a chorus of groans from the class. “I’m glad all of you are so eager to work with each other,” he says sarcastically. “I’ll assign the partners.” This earns more groans from the class.

Slughorn starts to pair people up with each other. You start to think that Slughorn is trying to make drama in the class when he starts. “Parkinson and Potter,” he announces.

“You’re bloody joking,” Pansy huffs making you laugh with Draco, making Pansy turn beet red. She grabs her things and moves to a work table in the back of the classroom. 

Slughorn continues to rattle off names of unlikely duos. “Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy,” Slughorn continues as you have to stifle your laugher and Draco whispers multiple profanities, slapping your shoulder, him grabbing his things in a huff. Hermione was definitely not happy about this pairing either as she has a scared look on her face as she looks at Ron before she moves to the back tables. “Miss (Y/L/N) and Mr. Weasley,” Slughorn announces.

Your heart quite literally stops and Ron looks like a deer in headlights. You did not expect this pair to happen. You can hear Draco cackling in the back of the classroom as you whip your head around. “Shut it, you nitwit,” you spit at him as he continues to laugh. You grab all of your belongings and make your way to a back table as Ron follows. Draco is still laughing, so you waste no time, slapping him upside the head, him letting out an ow! as you do so. “Bloody moron,” you huff at him before plopping down at a table with a shy Ron next to you. It is awkward. 

Slughorn calls out the last few partners before giving you the assignment for the  day. After he finished speaking, the class is silent for a long beat before the small chatter beings. You turn to Ron and offer him a small smile which he nervously reciprocate. The poor bloke is afraid of me, you think too yourself. “-so-”

“-um-”

The both of you talk at the same time. “You go,” you insist to Ron.

He shakes his head. “No, no, go ahead, I don’t even know what I was going to say, something stupid probably,” he tells you. His comment makes you lightly laugh. You suggest how you should start the task given. “Yep, much smarter than what I was going to say.”

You laugh again, “I’m sure what you were going to say was not stupid, Ron.” You had him a few vials of liquids needed to craft this potion. He carefully takes them from your hands and you notice how he actively avoids touching his hands against yours as if they were poison. Your heart kind of sinks at this. Were you that intimidating to him? You start, “You know,” you grab a pair of gloves, “I don’t bite. I know other people in the school say otherwise, but I’m not that bad.”

Ron gives you a genuine smile and laughs, looking down as his feet. “I’m sure you don’t,” he tells you as you blush lightly. “I guess pretty girls scare me.” Your heart rate picks up at the compliment, gulping a little bit, not making eye contact, too scare to. This was so unlike yourself. Ron clears his throat, “Anyway, let’s start, shall we?”

Within thirty minutes, you and Ron have completed all of the assignments for today’s class. You still had thirty minutes left of class, but Slughorn comes over. “Everything looks right to me!” he exclaims with excitement. “Well done, Miss (Y/L/N) and Mr. Weasley! Since you’ve completed your work, I can dismiss you early from class!” 

“What? That’s rubbish!” yells Draco from the other side of the room. You stick your tongue out at him before grabbing your things and thanking Slughorn for the great class. 

You and Ron exit the class. “Job well done, indeed,” you laugh as you nudge Ron’s shoulder as he laughs. The two of you walk side by side down the hall. “Um, well, I guess I’ll see you around, Weasley.”

Starting to walk in the opposite direction, you hear Ron call, “Wait! Uh...” You turn around to see Ron behind you. “I have nothing to do for the rest of the day, and I was, um, do you wanna hang out by the Black Lake? I had snacks that I stole from the kitchen this morning.”

You cannot prevent the smile that forms across your lips. “Yeah, sounds fun.”

Ron’s lips form a cheeky grin. “Wicked.”

The two of you made your way to the Black Lake, making small talk here and there until you reached your destination. The both of you sat side by side on the grass as Ron handed you a bag of crisps from his backpack as you thank him for the snack. “So,” he starts, “this might be a weird question, but...why are you friends with people like Malfoy and Parkinson?”

You smile and lightly laugh at the question. “Draco and I are like siblings. He’s the brother I never had. When I got to Hogwarts, as hard as it may be to believe, I was really shy. I didn’t talk to many people and he took me under his wing. He helped me find my voice. I owe that to him. But that’s all that Draco and I are. Friends,” you stress, trying to express that you and Draco’s relationship was simply platonic. Ron nods. “Pansy on the other hand, she and I became friends because of Draco, but to be honest, she annoys me more than she does entertain me.”

This makes Ron laugh. “I thought I was the only one who found her dreadful,” he chuckles.

“What about you? Why are you friends with Harry and Hermione?” you ask him before munching on a chip.

Ron takes a deep breath in. “Like you said, Harry’s my brother. He gets me into deep shit, but he’s my brother.” You laugh at his passing joke, Ron looking at you out of the corner of his eye. “But seriously, Harry and I met on the train to Hogwarts. He and I have been inseparable since. Hermione, on the other hand, butt her way into Harry and I’s friendship. Again, she gets me into some deep shit, too, but here I am...The two of them are much braver than I am though, so I don’t quite understand why they think I’m a good addition to this team.”

You nudge his shoulder. “I disagree with that,” you speak truthfully. “You’re a Gryffindor! You’re like a lion,” you shimmy your shoulders, making him laugh.

“A little lion,” he retorts. 

“More of a lion than I am,” you counter, making him blush.

-------

More classes like this came along. You and Ron partnered up and finished your assignment for the day early, escaping class to hang out by the lake, eat snacks, and clown around. The more time you spent with Ron, the more comfortable you were with each other. But most of your interactions were limited to Potions class and your Blake Lake encounters. Other than that, you hung out with different people, spend your free time doing different things. This made you both cherish your private moments more. 

You sat by the Black Lake today, eating biscuits that your mom sent in a parcel to you. As you munched, you spoke, “The Yule Ball is coming up.” The mention of the Yule Ball makes the both of you tense. Neither of you had dates yet and you both secretly hoped the other wanted to go with each other. “You reckon you know who you want to ask?”

Ron munches on his biscuit quietly before swallowing. “Not really,” he lies through his teeth. I want to take you, Ron thinks. “What about you?” You shake your head no. I want to go with you, you think. “I’m sure you’ll have someone ask you, (Y/N). How could you not get a date? Look at you,” he tells you as you blush. 

You wanted to scream at him to ask you. That you wanted him to take you to the Yule Ball so you didn’t have to go with someone like Crabbe or Goyle. But you don’t. You just sit and finish your biscuit. “I think I’m gonna head back,” you confess, not really wanting to stay any longer with Ron no matter how much you actually wanted to capitalize on your time with him. 

As you rise, Ron watches you gather your things. You bloody idiot, just say it, he thinks to himself. Mustering up all of the confidence he has, Ron stands up and stops you. “(Y/N)?” he asks, stopping you from walking away from him. You look at the Weasley, waiting for him to say something. Anything. Ron takes a deep breath in and then says, “Go to the Yule Ball with me.”

Your heart flutters and the biggest smile appears on your face followed by beet red cheeks. Ron stares at you, relishing in how beautiful you look in this moment with kind eyes and rosy cheeks. “Okay. Yes,” you shake your head, making Ron smile wide.

“Brilliant,” he whispers, picking up his bag, walking back to the castle with you. “I’m glad you said yes.”

Nudging his shoulder, you tease, “Well, you didn’t make it a question, little lion.” Ron chuckles. “I would have said yes either way,” you admit.

-----

The Yule Ball rolled around and you were ball of nerves and excitement. You couldn’t wait to just go downstairs and see Ron and spend the evening with him. You looked at yourself in the mirror one last time, smoothing your hands over the satin crimson fabric of your dress. You smiled to yourself, you chose this dress mostly because of how beautiful it was, but also knowing it was the colors of Gryffindor. You wanted everyone to know who you were at the dance with. You were wearing these colors with pride tonight. 

Before you made your way to the ball, you met up with Draco. “Wow,” he claps as you walk towards him, you rolling your eyes. “You look stunning,” Draco tells you as you smile.

“You look fine,” you shrug as Draco teasingly slapping your shoulder. “I’m kidding, Malfoy, you look great.”

Draco offers you his arm as you both make your way to the hall where the Ball was. “I never asked you,” Draco says, “who was the lucky bloke who asked you?”

As you turn the corner to the hall, there Ron was, dressed in a black suit with a jacket that was a smidge too big on him. Probably a hand-me-down from Fred or George. Regardless, Ron looked handsome as ever. Your heart thumped out of your chest when you saw him. “Him,” you whisper breathlessly. 

Draco chuckles at first because he thinks you’re kidding. “You’re going with a Weasley?” he asks in disbelief. You ignore his snide comment, disjoining you from Draco, and you walk over to Ron. Draco turns to Zabini, “Did you know she was going with Weasley?” Zabini shakes his head. “What has gotten into her?”

Ron feels as if he may faint. You looked absolutely breathtaking in your dress of crimson, hair perfectly falling to frame your face. He felt like a fish out of water in his older brother’s old suit, but his thoughts were pushed aside when you approached him. “You are gorgeous,” he blurts, making you blush. “I can’t believe you’re my date,” he lightly laughs, grabbing your hand. “I’m the luckiest guy here.”

Smiling at the boy in front of you, you squeeze his hand. “I can’t believe you’re my date,” you confess. “I have the kindest, handsomest boy as my date to the Yule Ball.” Ron blushes a deep shade of red, almost matching your dress. “You want to go in, lion?” you call him his nickname. Ron nods and guides you inside to the ball. 

-----

The Yule Ball was fun for the first hour and a half. But soon enough you grew tired of dancing and jumping around. Ron looked over at you and spoke over the music, “You wanna get out of here?” You don’t even have to answer him, you just grab his hand and start making your way out. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he laughs. 

When you are outside of the hall, Ron tells you, “Give me one minute. I need to grab something from my room before we go. I’ll be right back.”

You watch him leave, a big smile on your face as you smooth out the material of your dress. This night felt nothing short of magical. Ron was a gentleman, making you laugh, dancing with you the whole night, making sure you were comfortable. He was perfect.

“You went to the ball with Weasley? (Y/N), you can do so much better,” Pansy laughs from behind you. “He’s a complete git.” Anger starts to rise in your chest. “You really could have anyone in this school and you chose the man who wears his brothers’ old clothes. He can barely stand up for himself, he has to let Granger fight his battles for him.”

“Will you shut it, Parkinson?” you snap. “Just because Draco didn’t ask you to the Yule Ball doesn’t mean you have to pick on everyone else’s dates because you are unhappy that you had to settle for Goyle. It’s not my fault that you get upset when people are happier than you. So how about this? Keep your opinions to yourself, because I can assure you no one wants to hear them. Not me, not Draco, no one.” Pansy’s face turns sheet white. “I like Ron. I think he’s brilliant. And I’m going to enjoy my night with him.”

The silence between you is deafening when you finish. Pansy just stares at you as you catch your breath from yelling at her. You hear someone clear their throat behind you. Spinning around, you see Ron behind you. You wished you could feel embarrassed right now, but you don’t. You just grab his hand and leave a shocked Pansy behind. “Merlin, remind me not to make you angry,” Ron diffuses the situation, brilliantly. You laugh at him before intertwining your fingers, leaving the Ball behind and escaping to your signature spot.

Draco leaves the hall and sees you leaving with Ron, hands clasped together. “Can you believe her?” Pansy asks Draco.

Draco just looks at Pansy. “I don’t care who she’s with. As long as she’s happy and they make her happy. That’s all you should care about too,” he speaks before walking away from Pansy with Crabbe and Goyle not too far behind him.

Soon, you and Ron arrive to Black Lake and sit beside each other on the grass in your ball attire, not caring if it gets dirty at this point. You look out at the lake as it shimmers in the moonlight. The night was beautiful. Just chilly. Ron immediately notices you shiver and without hesitation, he takes off his suit jacket and places it over your shoulders. “You don’t have to,” you insist.

“Yes, I do. Don’t want you to get sick now, do we?” Ron smiles at you, wrapping an arm behind you carefully as you lean into him. 

The two of you sit in a comfortable silence, you resting your head on his shoulder as he lays his head on yours. “What did you have to grab from your room?” you curiously ask him. 

You can feel Ron smile against your hair. “Reach into my jacket pocket. The left one.” You do so and pull out a small red rose. Its petals were lightly crushed from being pushed into his suit jacket pocket. You look up at Ron, eyebrows furrowed as if to say what’s this all about? “I wanted to get you a whole bouquet, but they wouldn’t have fit in my pocket,” he jokes as you laugh. “I like you, (Y/N). A lot. I like spending time with you and being around you. You make me happy. So, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to be my girlfriend?” 

His confidence is palpable. You’d been rubbing off on him. He must have been rubbing off on you because there is a deep shade of red on your cheeks, you feel almost unable to speak. You finally find the words and say, “Of course I’ll be your girlfriend, Weasley.”

Ron smiles big and just gawks at you. “You’re my girlfriend now?”

“I’m your girlfriend,” you repeat as he laughs. “And you’re my little lion now.”

The two of you just look at each other for a moment before he speaks, “I’m going to kiss you...if that’s okay.” You nod your head and close the gap in between you two. The kiss is gentle and his lips are soft against yours. He kisses you like he is afraid of breaking you. His hand cups your cheek, pulling you in closer. You smile lightly into the kiss before pulling away slowly. “Bloody hell,” he whispers, inches from your face. “I’m so glad that this went better than I expected,” he admits as you laugh at your boyfriend.

[imonthinice]

The Criminal Psychology Majors, Jason Todd x Fem!Reader Part 6/?

Word Count: 2.6-2.7k idk exact

Author’s Note: Y/N - Your name, A/N - Any name (your best friend’s name)

MUSIC IS INCLUDED THIS TIME! Please enjoy my personal music playlist, or at least a snippet of it.

TO THE PERSON WHO REBLOGGED AND SAID THIS WAS CUTE (at least the first part) you straight up made me cry omfg

Warnings: Swearing, gets really fucking heated at the end (no sex, yet), no beta bitch we die like Jason Todd

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (Part 9) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 20)

Outfit Context:

Y/N:

Jason:

(Cause I finally found an outfit I liked on the boy, men’s fashion isn’t my strong suit,,, heh :) )

“Sorry, is my mouth hung open?” he asked.

“Yes, sir. Very much so,” she mocked.

Jason closed his mouth and outstretched his hand for Y/N’s, cupping it with both hands and kissing the top of it.

“You just look so lovely, Y/N.”

“And you’re chivalrous, Jay. Now, should we get going?” she asked, putting her free hand on top of his two.

“Yes, let’s go,” he let one of his hands go of hers and lead her to the Porsche he brought with him, not intertwining his fingers with hers.

He opened the passenger’s side door and let Y/N get in, not letting go of her hand til the last moment he could hold it. He got in an turned on the radio,

It felt like a good night, for dancing in the moonlight,

In empty streets, well, everybody's got a reason why,

If we could only just get it right,

Maybe it will all work out like in the movies,

But I know Romeo must die before the ending,

With a final poison kiss delivered gently,

Because you don't get lucky twice, and that's the truth,

“Sing to me sweet just like my memory, 

If New York City Still moves me then I’ve found something real,

I’ll be okay, I could go on for days,

But I just don’t have the courage that it takes to be real,

And even if it’s dark at least we’ll be together,

Slowly sinking in the Earth to lay forever,

You better grab a hold and hold on for your life,

Because you don’t get lucky twice,

No, you don’t get lucky twice,” She sung with the tune.

Without the Bitter the Sweet Isn’t as Sweet - Mayday Parade

“You, you have the voice of an angel,” he said.

“It’s not that hard to mimic works of art with my voice.”

“Did you ever take singing lessons?”

“I did when I was younger, so I could sing French lullabies to my cousins.”

He placed a hand on her thigh as he drove them through the countryside of Gotham to Metropolis, taking the long way on what seemed like purpose. So he could encapsulate the moment in his memory for as long as he knew her and what she was to him. She was an adventure waiting to happen, a love story not yet written to tell for ages, a rock ‘n’ roll song written to please the masses in hidden corners of the world.

And to her, he was a masterwork of intertwining memories of pain, sadness, luck and beauty. A mind of complexity she was just waiting to dive into and see how it functioned. A story behind the white tuff of hair he had, why he was jacked to the masses if he was a book nerd. A story of his favourite book and his favourite sibling, his favourite trope, his love, his pain, him.

The moments where she stuck her hand out the window and traced symbols into the Autumn air swirling past the two as they cruised down the empty back roads. When he laughed as she sang Reste by GIMS and Sting. He didn’t understand the lyrics, but she did, and she called it a love song. Well, he got the parts Sting sung, but French wasn’t a language he knew like she did.

“I guess being Bilingual helped you out massively with that one, huh?”

“It’s a talent I never knew I needed, apparently.”

“Well, you did know you needed.”

“That’s fair,” she laughed, “ I guess I did always need it as a skill.”

“Do your cousins speak English too?” he asked.

“Yeah, a bit? It’s better English than my father.”

“Can he not speak English?”

“Well, he can, just not well. But my mother is also Bilingual in English and French so they never had to worry about my father being bad at English. My twin sister and I grew up knowing both languages,” she rambled, still playing with the wind, “I guess it’s a one-up I have on a lot of people, being able to just talk and talk in another language, travelling advantage,” she kept going, Jason intently listening to her as she went on and on, he liked the silence being filled by her voice, “You know? You might know, I don’t know how you were raised to a T,” she finished.

“Well, I can assure you I only know English so you have that theoretical one-up on me, too. But I choose to see that one-up as something you can teach me as time goes on and we progress,” he paused, “If you’re down to get serious eventually, that is,” he panicked.

“Well, maybe we’re at that point where we can say we’re casually seeing each other and exclusive, but not serious. Hopeful, but not pressuring ourselves into something that’s going to be put under a lot of pressure as we go on,” she said, still playing with the wind.

“We’ll see about that after dinner.”

“Where are we even going?”

“Fancy little restaurant with a balcony facing over the city,” he assured.

“Really out here living for the moments?”

“Well, most girls crack under the pressure of the paparazzi, you, however, flipped them off, and that’s being rewarded for showing that you can’t give a fuck about those dingy ass tabloids and how they treat you, by taking you out to nice places,” he said.

She laughed, “I’m glad I’m never going to live that one down, it was really fun to do.”

“I hope it continues as we go along, I would hate to see that behavior change when it brings a smile to everyone who’s ever been harassed by paparazzi” when they pulled over for a second, Jason quickly loosened his tie a tad, “Honestly, I want to ditch this fucking tie,”

“It’s not you,” she said, “It’s just not.”

“And you know me that well to take that guess?”

“I could see you struggling with it from a mile away, Jason. Maybe the fancy restaurant isn’t us,” she laughs, “But we aren’t going to not take that dinner date.”

“Oh we’re so going to take that date, but I’m thinking from here on out we do whatever the fuck we want, no fancy dates. Thoughts?” he asked.

“Done deal,” she said.

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

In the restaurant, the two of them were basically the worst people to be there, it was levels of fancy that neither of them actually wanted, they both wanted simplicity, but they both thought the presence of the other person was enough of a takeaway from the completely wrong choice of restaurant. They had Dick to blame for this one, and Jason made that clear to Dick in a joking text while Y/N snuck off to the bathroom to ‘fix her hair, she was actually checking her breath.

Dick, this fucking restaurant is a god damn bust, man. We aren’t you and Barbara, that’s what we’ve discovered today. lol.

Bummer! We really like that place.

I can see why it screams Dick and Barbs.

You kissed her yet though?

No.

Wuss! Cat got your tongue? Just do it, man.

And at the same time, Y/N was texting A/N about Jason and what to do,

Girl! Thank you so much for reminding me to bring mints, my god, food ruins your breath so much.

You really want the pretty boy kiss huh?

No, I’m eating the mints to not kiss him, YES I WANT THE KISS.

Ha! Honesty is key, just go for it.

She laughed as she packed her phone into her dress pockets (Yeah there’s fucking pockets :) ) and went to leave the restroom to meet up with Jason again. To which, Jason had already paid and tipped the waiter.

“I could have at least helped on the tip, Jay.”

“I tipped him 200%, but if you want to drop more cash, go for it.”

“You tipped that much?” she asked while slipping in a 50$ she had on her.

“Of course, food service workers deserve a lot more than what they get, especially when they have to deal with terrible customers,” he said as he went and grabbed her hand again, not intertwining fingers again, “And my best friend, Will, he complains about people who don’t tip and praises people who quote ‘over tip’ but I think that he deserves 200% each bill for the shit he puts up with.”

“Did you tip him when we went there?”

“No, I called in a ‘No questions asked’ favour. And before you say anything, he did the same to make me babysit his daughter-”

“Your best friend has a daughter?”

“Well, he’s older than me, but yeah, he’s a single dad because her mum kind of sucks, lovely little girl, I’m her godfather.”

“Does she call you Uncle Jason?”

“Well, Uncle Jay, it’s like one of the only works she knows how to say properly, and Dada,” he laughed, “Great little girl,” he said, nervously, “This doesn’t change anything, does it? ‘Cause if he, knock on fucking wood, lord forbids, dies that will be my daughter.”

“Well, he’s not dead and you’re not worrying that he’s going to die, so nothing has to change. God kids are god kids, noble that you took on your best friend’s kid if, lord forbid, anything happens to the man, really,” she assured.

He sighed and kissed the back of her hand, “Then that is just a gift on top of what I did,” he smiled and lead her back to the Porsche once again, opening the car door for her and she slightly turned on the radio, he let out a small laugh to himself, he got the pretty girl. He got into the Porsche again and began backing out.

“There’s something about ditching a really expensive dinner date that leaves you wanting more,” she said, absent-mindedly.

“What kind of more?” he asked.

“The kind you see in the movies, fully exposed and adventurous, you know?”

“Well, we could always sneak into the Wayne Manor Gardens and dance the night away under the stars like lovers do,” he half-joked, placing a hand on her thigh again and pretending like he did it subconsciously, but he was hyper-aware, especially when he caught her smile as she laughed.

“Wayne Manor? With your brothers, sisters, dad, and grandfather?” she paused, “If you’re serious, then no, not tonight. If you’re pulling my leg then, hell fucking no,” she joked.

“Maybe one day, then, huh?”

“One day, for sure. When it isn’t scary to accidentally run into your family on their property running around with you,” she said.

“Well, we can always go into the Wayne Enterprises Ballroom and dance the night away, no one should be in the office for a while and even then since there are no classes in the entire school tomorrow you can just hide out in my office if we stay too long,” he paused to make sure she was still listening, “Security can’t question me because I’m Bruce Wayne’s son, and security is tight as fuck so paparazzi can’t get to us,” he paused to put a little bit of pressure on her thigh, “What do you say? Can I have this dance, Milady?” he half-joked.

“You want to know something Jason?

“Always, Y/N.”

“I took dance lessons when I was younger, can you Waltz?” she asked.

“Yes ma’am, I can.”

“Then I’m in, let’s go.”

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

She loved the feeling of being back in her new hometown, Gotham. So when they pulled into the massive black building, she felt even more welcomed, security at the gates did ask ‘Who’s the girl?’ but Jason just explained it very easily,

“You know that date of mine that flipped off the press and you lot loved it?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” the man responded.

“You can call me Jason, you know that. But this is that girl.”

And they were let through the parking gates and into the underground parking system, they had to travel surprisingly far to Jason’s reserved spot in the lot, but the did get there before it hit AM. Once out of the car, Jason grabbed her hand and they ran into the building’s employees doors. It was a tight squeeze, but the feeling of Jason pressed so close to her sent chills down her spine. They went through many halls and reached the Ballroom, and entering it was like a dream for her.

Walls lined with intricate shapes and colours, but the colours never brought away from the stage at the far end from the door, the curtains seemed to redden with each step towards them, the 3, maybe 4 chandeliers hung above her like crystals in the ocean, it was amazing and beautiful. Checkered floorboards to give it a little bit of dimension, but it was the same colour as the main wall so your brain and eyes wouldn’t hurt after looking at it. It was stunningly beautiful and that’s what drew her in.

When he grabbed her hand and put on Never Let Me Go by Florence + The Machine, pulling her close to his chest and slowly Waltzing her around the room, spinning her when it felt right for him to do. Neither of them worried about the sloppiness or how it looked to the naked eye because it was for them. no one got satisfaction like they did at that moment. And grabbing her for one last dip was Jason’s goal when the ending of the song hit, although out of breath and his face stuffed in her chest as they both panted, he did pull her up so they were face-to-face on the dancefloor that they wiped clean.

“Did I tell you that you look stunning, Y/N?”

“I think you mentioned it a few times, Jay,” she said, staring directly into his eyes.

“Well, I mean it.”

“And I’m going to mean this,” she paused, taking her hand and placing it on his cheek, “ The way your eyes are a green-blue tint makes me lost in them, they’re like a sea of this mind I find myself liking more and more every day,” she paused to put her other hand on his other cheek, “And the way your nose and cheek freckles frame them is amazing.”

And he went for it. Somehow when he pressed his lips into hers, it felt like they were meant to match, and they both opened their mouths to play the coveted game of tongue-war, but they didn’t play by the rules, it was soft and sweet but full of passion and love, not lust. His hands would travel to her waist and lightly grip her, while her hands would travel to his neck and drape around the back of it.

They pulled away at the same moment to take in air, something they had clearly been missing as they were connected, they both let out a small chuckle before she put her hands in his hair and went in for round 2.

This time it was hungrier, and they both played with the shapes of the other so much more as time went on, he would grab her ass and she would pull on his hair slightly before he picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist and moved one of her hands to the nape of his neck, this time, they would break for seconds only to start moving towards his office, which, conveniently, had a couch.

To say he threw her on that couch would be an understatement, he fucking thrust her on that couch and climbed on top of her, it was like 3 days of passion and lust combined themselves in a matter of minutes from their first kiss to them meeting on the couch. They both knew deep down that it couldn’t escalate further than this, especially at 1 in the morning, but time moves fast when you’re connecting in this way.

They finally broke after their passionate exchange and he fell to her side and began to spoon her, “Worth it,” he whispered.

“Worth what?” she asked.

“It was worth it to take a chance and defy my anxieties to ask you on that first date.”

“I don’t like a reality where you didn’t ask me on that date.”

“Neither do I, and I’m positive of that.”

[strawberrymilkyumyum]

why is Iroh wrong to consider Azula dangerous? She tried to murder Zuko and seriously injured both Iroh and Zuko

Hi, I’m just gonna assume you’re genuinely wondering about my opinion instead of trying to be rude so here you go. (also sorry about the late response)

First off, Azula is dangerous. But the way to treat a violent patient isn’t by responding with more violence. 

Also- it isn’t wrong for Azula to be violent. It’s not just her personality- it’s a trauma response. There are really two main ways that children can respond to trauma in an abusive household (which hers clearly was.) you can be unable to adapt to your environment, triggering the adult more and more, unable to comprehend what’s happening. This is 100% Zuko. He’s also not stupid for any of this. Not being able to understand why your parent is abusing you or even understanding that you’re being abused doesn’t make you stupid. The other main response is adapt and survive. We also see this from Mako, but we mainly see it with Azula. She is not a psychopath, we see in her breakdown, that all she wants is for someone to care for her. Her entire life, Ozai told her that violence and fear are the only ways to be powerful and being the favorite child, there were more pressures on her than Zuko. In her breakdown, she realizes that in the end she has no one who cared for her. Even her own father, who bred her just to be like him, ditched her the first chance he got. I’m not condoning her actions, but I do understand them. 

Also, I don’t know who needs to hear this but IT IS NOT ON THE CHILD TO BUILD OR FIX THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR PARENT OR GUARDIAN. Maybe Iroh couldn’t have taken her with him, but we see that he hasn’t spoken to her in YEARS. We are supposed to root for the man that left this girl alone with Ozai without a second thought? Hell no. 

We also see that Azula already doesn’t like her uncle and, honestly, I don’t blame her. If my brother got a priceless knife for a present, I’d also be pissed that I got a cheap doll. We don’t see them ever interact with each other in the palace. Once again, it was not Azula’s job to fix her relationship with Iroh. Instead, he left her too without so much as writing to her.

Not only that- but he also convinces Zuko that he has to hate her too! When they first escape Azula, Zuko says he knows he should be nicer to her even after she tried to imprison him. Instead of agreeing Iroh says ‘Oh no she’s crazy and needs to go down.’ in what world is that ever okay to say about your 14 year old niece??? He encourages Zuko time and time again that she is not worthy of redemption by emphasizing the fact that she’s terrible and crazy and zuko needs to be the one to finish her off. It would be different if he told Zuko that he would have to fight his sister in a solemn tone, but he doesn’t. 

Let’s say that Iroh had to leave her behind. He had to never write to her. Had to tell Zuko that she was crazy. Had to convince him to fight her. Had to tell Zuko that he would need to face her. All of this would have been better if he had simply been remorseful or regretted anything. But he didn’t regret anything. 

We see Iroh as a hero because he was on the good side in the end. He did help Zuko become a better person and he led the reconquering of Ba Sing Se. But, if you actually look at his individual actions and not his arc as a whole, he’s not as good a character as we make him out to be. He is not wrong to think that Azula is violent in the end, because she was. Again, the response to a violent patient is not violence. There is a reason that we don’t do things like have patients wear straight jackets anymore. All it does is cause more outbursts. She also wouldn't have been violent if Iroh had shown her the same love he showed Zuko. No child is irredeemable. 

Long story short, it’s not Azula’s fault for not being a ‘good victim’ and resorting to violence. It is Iroh’s fault (and her mother’s from what we’ve seen but Ursa can be tricky) that she knows nothing but violence and fighting. Instead of simply caring for her, Iroh leaves Azula behind because she’s not Zuko.

[dalekofchaos]

Ways I would change the Monsterverse

I love the Monsterverse, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any problems I have with it. But these are what I would change about the movies if I could.

Godzilla 2014

Joe Brody would live. It still pisses me off how they wasted Bryan Cranston’s role in this movie. You have Bryan Cranston, who was hot off the ending of Breaking Bad and you don’t even make him the protagonist of your first movie in your cinematic universe??? But what I’d do is Joe would live. Both Joe and Ford would work together in stopping the MUTOs and aiding Godzilla. Joe would be asked by Serizawa to join MONARCH. 

I’d recast Elle Brody by having Taissa Farmiga play her and we’d tease Elle and Ford’s child by naming her “Madison”(Reason for the recast. Elizabeth Olsen is too attached to the MCU to ever return.) Also I would have Elle be a scientist for MONARCH who is a Nurse as a cover. 

More scenes with Godzilla

A scene mocking the 98 movie. Maybe someone asks “didn’t Godzilla attack New York City in 1998?” Serizawa would correct them by saying that was not Gojira, it was Zilla and not even a Titanus Class. Also, Zilla would be the product of the French government attempting to create their own Titan, but ultimately failing

Kong:Skull Island

Movie’s perfection, I would change nothing about it

Godzilla:King Of The Monsters

Madison would be the daughter of Ford and Elle Brody. Reason? I fucking hate Mark Russell or as me and my friend refer to him as Blandy McBlanderson Dad.(Especially because literally all he added to that movie was "Waaaaa! I hate Godzilla because my son died in the MUTO attack! He should have not fought the MUTOs and let them kill even more people!" Oh, with a side of mansplaining.) Plus it makes more sense for the family to be the family we’ve known from the first movie as the human protagonists of the Monsterverse. 

Same story. Elle and Madison are held hostage by Alan Jonah. So Ford and Joe assist Monarch so that their family could be saved. 

Joe would sacrifice himself to save Godzilla and Serizawa would live

Elle would die in place of Emma

Godzilla vs Kong

I would ditch the Hollow Earth plot. Not necessarily a bad idea, but a bit too far fetched if you ask me. Instead of "We need to find the Hollow Earth", it'd instead be "We need to find a way to get the storm on Skull Island to dissipate". As for what Monarch would be looking for? The Weather Control Capsule. In Son Of Godzilla, The weather control devices were set up on Sogell Island to attempt to alter weather patterns. On their first test, in an attempt to cool the island, something went wrong. The Radioactivity Sonde blew up, causing the island to heat up and mutate the native giant mantis into Kamacuras because of the radiation. The device also caused massive storms, revealing Minilla's egg. The device was used again during the fight between Godzilla and Kumonga. It worked successfully, and jets of gas were released from the towers which caused temperatures to drop and a snowstorm to begin forming.  Monarch would raid a facility in Apex to get the weather control capsule and we would find out that Ren used it to cause the storm on Skull Island. They use it to end the storm and balance to Skull Island is restored.

Oh, and the natives of the island wouldn't be killed off. That just didn't sit right with me.

Madison and Jia would get to meet and be friends. How we get this to work? Madison is interning with Monarch and currently at Skull Island with Kong (though there'd probably be a line of dialogue referencing how, while she likes Kong, she's biased and Godzilla remains her favourite) Madison and Jia are pretty much friends and the closest thing Jia has to a sister. And Madison would be the person who interoperates with Jia with sign language. ALso Madison would represent the team Godzilla fanbase, while Jia would represent the Team King fanbase.

Since Madison would be with Monarch, her father would be there to watch over her. Ford would later die in Mechagodzilla’s attack

Replace Ilene Andrews with Mason Weaver. Kind of disappointed no one from Kong Skull Island returned. But yes Mason would return if I had my way. 

Actually do something with Ren Serizawa, make him the villain behind Mechagodzilla. I would say is he took the ashes and assets of Jonah's group and formed Apex Industries. His philosophies differs from his father. He believes humans should be the apex species so he created Mechagodzilla to kill his father's precious titan and reclaim humanity's dominance over Earth as the Apex Predators

Touching scene between the Serizawas I'd say it'd reveal what had been up to that point hinted at throughout the film; what Ren's reason for his belief is his reason and motivation is that Ren sees the chaos the titans cause on the earth and believes something must be done. While Ishirō believes the dominant Titans need to keep the other Titans in line. But there is something more personal. Ren’s mother died when he was just a boy and he always held resentment towards his father for not choosing to stop the Titans.  And honestly, I think it'd be good to have both Serizawas being emotionally vulnerable and showcasing that they both hate how they've been driven apart by their conflicting beliefs and that, while Ren really does stand by what he's doing and will go through with it, he hates that it's hurting his father. After their reunion and consolation, Ren would attempt to deactivate Mechagodzilla, for a brief moment Mechagodzilla is deactivated and it looks like everything was solved, but then it reactivates itself, having become self-aware and kills Ren.

Mechagodzilla would be built on the skeleton and skull of one of Godzilla’s ancestors instead of Ghidorah’s remains. Remember the skeleton of Godzilla in the 2014 movie? Use that for Mechagodzilla

Change the Mechagodzilla design. I do like what we were given. But I would want something more bulky like the Monsterverse Godzilla design. Something like this concept by eatalllot 

Give Kong a win. First battle would take place on the boat. Second battle would take place on Skull Island. Third and final battle would take place in Hong Kong. In the attempt to find a solution for the storm, they transport Kong. Godzilla attacks the boat and Kong retreats to the island. Godzilla is coming to make Kong submit and then we have the fight between Kong and Godzilla on Skull Island. Since Skull Island is the homefield advantage, that's where King would win, even in the storm.  During the fight. Kong would rip off one of the dorsal plates and make the axe. This would send Godzilla in retreat, Kong looks dominant and Godzilla is fucking pissed, he has more important matters to deal with in Apex. Then the fight in Hong Kong would remain the same and the team up with Kong and Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla would remain the same and ends with Godzilla and Kong recognizing each other as equals 

It ends with Kong, Jia, Lind and Mason returning to Skull Island. Serizawa would take in Madison and mentor her. And two final shots of Godzilla and Kong as the dominant titans

[ushiwakaout]

Valentine’s Day with the Haikyuu Boys

Various x Female Reader || Different Lover Tropes (sfw)

Iwaizumi Hajime (Friends to Lover Trope)

Y’all have been friends for as long as him and oikawa have been friends- but just a little more distant

You’re the person he goes to when he has girl problems or problems in general

So when he isn’t feeling particularly well about himself he goes to you.

He lays his head on your chest, your shoulder, your lap (usually 99% always your plush thighs)

He makes you play with his hair and his hands when he’s feeling sad because you care for him like no one else has (well, his mother but you know what I mean.)

But tell me why y’all haven’t dated. No one fucking knows. Not even oikawa.

So a few days before V-day you ask Iwa if he was a valentines and he says No and questions why you asked him.

You tell him not to worry and plan out everything

HE’S SO SO EMBARRASSED WHEN YOU BRING HIM A SINGLE WHITE ROSE A HOMEMADE CHOCOLATES

He’s like? “W-why? Why’d you do that?”

and you obviously have the tsundure qualities he has so your like “B-because i like you stupid!!! Now are you taking the damn gift or not? I know Oikawa would-”

He’s like- NO NO. Stop right there. “Give me that! SHITYKAWA WOULDNT APPRECIATE THIS THE WAY I WOULD!” Iwa is barking at this point

You: “FINE! THEN! TAKE IT- NOT LIKE I CARE!”

whole school it just watching you guys romantically bark at eachother

Iwa: “FINE! THIS MEANS WE’RE DATING, RIGHT?”

You: “YES.”

Iwa: “GOOD.”

You: “GREAT.”

it’s so awkward the whole day. like grossly awkward. but the tension dies down when you sit next to him during lunch and slowly caress the back of his hand the way you did when you weren’t dating

he’s glad you opened up to him because it would have taken him much longer to admit that he liked you

Time Skip Iwaizum Hajime 

Buys you a bouquet of 23 white roses the day before valentine’s day to give you the twenty-fourth on valentine’s day. He does this every year now.

You guys invite friends over because as (almost) 30 years old you think it’s a little cheesy, Hajime acts like its Valentines Day every day. So when Matsukawa and Hanamaki come over, they get really drunk and they appreciate you guys for not being lovey dovey around them and they start sobbing and laughing bc they’re single.

This becomes a tradition but ofc, sometime iwa calls ahead of time to tell them not to come over for... certain reasons.

He’s probably the cheesiest man on earth because he does not romance well- neither do you but he tries his best.

Would probably ask you to marry him on valentines day if you hadn’t told him before hand “If you even think about proposing on valentines day- I will rip out your organs... Ugh- thats so cheesy, everyone gets engaged on valentines day... Do it like the morning after new years or sum...”

*iwa secretly putting a red velvet box back in his underwear drawer* 

*laughing nerveously* “Hahaha, right- fucking stupid...”

You look at him blankly “Don’t tell me you where about to propose?”

Iwa: “NO! NOT AT ALL.”

You: “What are you hiding in your underwear drawer then, Hajime?”

Iwa: “NOTHING WOMAN, STOP BEING NOSY.”

Osamu Miya (Platonic)

You look so pretty when you come into the gym and everyones like “looking good y/n.” and it’s normal bc your their manager- ofc they’d hype you up.

But the closer they get, they notice your crying.

Osamu isn’t in the gym, he’s getting water in the back and he sees that Aran is holding you in his arms and he just knows something is wrong and everyone is trying to hold him back because he knowns exactly what happened. He’s calling Atsumu over and he’s ready.

Everyone is chasing them down and Osamu already has his guy pinned to the floor (lets just say he has baseball practice)

You’re rushing to get Osamu off but get gets a few swings in before you completely pull him off.

Samu: “You’re too good for this Idiot anyway.” he looks at Kita, “I’m ditching practice and I’m taking her out, I’m not taking no as an answer.”

It was the first time anyone has stood up to Kita and he just nods.

Samu: “Let me wash up, alright? I’ll take you somewhere nice.”

He kisses your forehead and runs your thumb on your cheek, “Stop crying, makes you look ugly.”

As much you wanted to frown, you bursted out a laugh before shoving him away, “Not as ugly as Atsumu.”

Time Skip Osamu Miya (Boss/Employee Trope)

Osamu calls you really early in the morning to ask you to work on valentines day. For some reason, he hates this day more than anything. He doesn’t like how girls (of all ages) bring him stuff and he ALWAYS has to reject them but now since your working you’re the the ones who kicks them out.

He loves watching you run them away with a sweet smile and when you turn around you have the most annoyed look on your face, it’s really cute.

Samu: “Thank you princess.”

You: “Yeah, shut up and get to cookin’ boss.”

He just smirks and tilts his little onigiri hat and starts on orders again

Once the shift is over and the restaurant is closed, cleaned and organized, you’re waiting for him at one of the tables you didn’t pick up yet and he brings you out a really cute meal.

You: “What’s this for?”

Samu: “A thank you, for- *clears throat* not leaving my side... and I-uh don’t want you to do so, any time soon.”

You’re looking at him blankly. He forgot how blunt he had to be with you.

Samu: “I- God, I’m trying to ask you to be my girlfriend.”

You: “OH! Oh my god.... Really? Are you sure?”

Samu: “Y/n, I- You’re lucky I love you....”

You: “L-Love me?”

He looks at you like a deer caught in the headlights... “Uh-I uh... crap- I didn’t mean-”

You: “Shut up and kiss you Idiot.”

Samu: “Okay- yeah good idea.”

Matsukawa Issei (Best Friends Older Sister || First Love Trope) @sloppykyuu

You’re only two years older than him but ever since he became friends with Hanamaki (around the age of 7) he came over once and you bumped into him and he blushed to the point he looked like a cherry tomato

Maki thought it was gross that he suddenly started liking his older step sister

You and Hanamaki get along really well now (You’re 18, making Maki and Matsun are 16), so whenever Matsukawa is around you jokingly called him “Nii-san.” When Hanamaki wasn’t there and he spit out his drink. 

You laughed so hard and just ruffled his hair a little and left him alone for the rest of the day

Ofc you teased him a lot but the second you turned 18, they cooled down a lot. 

So when he gives you a bouquet of Sakurasou (Primula Sieboldii, which signify desire and long lasting love. 

Matsukawa: “ Please accept the flowers- I know you’ve been keeping your distance because of your age and you don’t have to accept my feelings for you but please accept these flowers.”

The sweetest boy you’ll ever meet ngl, “Thank you Matsun...” you gave him a kiss on the cheek and ruffled his hair. “As me again when you’re older, yeah? I’ll always be willing to give you a chance.”

Timeskip Matsukawa Issei

When he turns 18, you weren’t single. He was so miserable watching you be happy but when you come home a little sad looking, Hanamaki and him are pretty confused when you tell them that YOU broke up with your boyfriend

Maki: “Everything was going alright with you guys- what happened?”

You: “I uh- I lost feelings... Nothing against him or anything, I just... just happen to like someone else now.”

You don’t look at Matsukawa so he’s like- ugh.... another guy? he’s heartbroken just a little.

3 years later when both of you got drunk when Maki was out for a valentines day date- Matsun was like, “Admit it already, you’ll never find a guy who dedicates to you the way I have.”

You’re a blushing mess since your drunk and you just pin him to the floor, a little teary eyed, “Maybe your right... Maybe I should give you your chance. You’re still so in love with me? After all this time?”

He brushes a strand of hair away from your face and smiles, “Of course I have... You I would have lasted being friends with Maki if it weren’t for you?”

Maki: “I HEARD THAT!”

Both of you laugh but you lay your body on him as he wrapped his arms around you, kissing your forehead as your step brother grimaced at the sight. “Took both of you long enough, disgusting...”

 Ushijima Wakatoshi (Reunion Romance Trope)

You’ve known Ushijima the longest out of everyone, even Tendo. And every year you ask him to be your valentines and he agrees bc your friends.

From the start it was always a friendly thing but at some point, your feelings for him changed during high school.

You don’t tell him, you never dared because you know his dedication towards volleyball would always go before his feelings.

One day you’re down the hall from his class and you notice that he’s talking to a girl- or more the girl is talking to him, so you hide in the corner. She was offering him a box of chocolates but he politely denies by saying “There’s only one girl who’s allowed to be my valentines, but please don’t take this personally, she mean’s everything to me.”

D-did you just here that right? Your leaning against the wall and sliding your back all the way to the floor, blushing like a mad woman.

So when Ushijima walks down the hall and sees a small figure to his side, he’s really worried as to why you are on the floor looking hot. “Y/n? Are you alright? Do you have a fever?” 

THIS MAN DOES NOT PUT HIS HAND ON YOUR FOREHEAD BUT HE PUTS HIS OWN AGAINST YOURS 

You’re trying so heard not to breathe onto his face but then he looks into your eyes when hes doing this and you shove his gift onto his chest. “PLEASE GET OUT OF MY FACE AND J-JUST TAKE THEM, IM FINE...” His warm fingers graze your for a second when he takes the chocolates and you just can’t do it anymore “I N-NEED TO GO NOW, BYE TOSHI- WAKATOSHI.”

Doesn’t question you, like ever.

During graduation you tell everyone that you are leaving over seas and Toshi honestly looks like a kicked puppy- his best friends, they’re all leaving. 

You’re crying into his arms when he’s dropping you off at the airport.

Timeskip Ushijima Wakatoshi

7 years. It’s been 7 years since wakatoshi has see your pretty face. 

You send a valentines post card and somehow it always gets there a day before, the day after or sometimes- even on valentines day.

You forced him to give you his address when he moves every time bc you send him a basket of goods. Usually a fruit arrangements bc you know he has a sweet tooth for fruits covered in chocolate- even tho he doesn’t really understand them

But this year nothing has arrived yet, until you text him to open the door since something was dropped off.

He’s a little confused as to why you noticed him but he opened the door, and there you where- standing right in front of him with luggage and his yearly valentines gift. 

“You’re looking at me like you’ve seen a ghost?”

He doesn’t say anything but pull you into a hug.

“...I missed you too big guy.”

After several, long virtual calls- he finally got to see you in person.

He pulls you back and looks a little upset.

You: “What? What’d I do?”

Toshi: “I might have sent flowers to your home.”

You low key wanna start crying, “What kind of flowers?”

WHYD YOU ASK THAT, HE LOOKS ALL FLUSTERED NOW, PLZ TELL HIM THAT YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW

Toshi: “Um.... anarrangementoftwentyfourwhiterosesbecauseiwantedtotellyouhowifeltbutididntknowhowtodoitanyotherwayandididntwanttodoitthroughacomputerscreen.”

You: “I hope you know, I understood every single word you just said.”

You give him a soft smile and lean down to pick something up that was covered by your bags. A bouquet of 24 white roses.

You: “I think... I feel the same way.”

He has never wanted to kiss someone so bad.

Toshi:“May I kiss you?”

You: “Do you really have to ask?”

Sakusa Kiyoomi  (Enemies To Lovers || Secret Admirer Trope)

You probably get 20 confessions on valentines day every year, every time it’s the same handwriting and sometimes it’s new.

But one day, a specific letter get’s into your desk instead of your locker, a black envelope with a white pearly wax stamp with silver lettering on the back “From your secret admirer :]”

The smiley face is a little distorted and you smile at it, but it turns into a scowl when Sakusa naps it from your fingertips. Luckily it was lunch and not may people where in this class. “Secret admirer? Who’d like your dumbass.”

You pull the note out of his hands and sit back down, “Maybe a bigger dumbass, now leave alone asshole.”

He rolls his eyes and sits on his desk, that just happens to be at your back left.

He noticed the smile you had on your lips when you sat back down and looked at the letter. He could tell that your mood had changed when you leaned back and read the letter with awe. He obviously couldn’t tell you in was him.

If he did, you’d probably think it was a joke. But it was nothing like that, he never meant to create an awful relationship between you to but he had made a nasty joke about you and you happen to overhear and have disliked him every since.

He’s kept the bully act ever since and now doesn’t know how to go back.

You looked giddy all day after reading the love letter he left for you, he didn’t know how to feel.

He never stopped sending the letters.

Around the third year, they began to stop and so did Sakusas bullying- but only because you didn’t have any classes together. So when one day you’re walking towards your locker, really late because you had to clean up the classroom. You see him slide a letter in your locker. 

You don’t confront him right then and there but you decide to let him walk a way just a little before you quickly get to your locker and open the letter.

You scan over the letter and you see that famous distorted smiley face and all the feelings they had written down. You where furious.

“Hey Sakusa!” You somehow where able to catch up to him and pushed his back as he walked away. “Is this funny to you?! Is messing with people’s feelings fucking funny to you?”

When he turned around he didn’t expect to see you crying, so he just stood like a deer caught in the headlights. 

“Answer me! Why’d you do this? Three years, three fucking years I thought this was someone who actually had feelings for me, someone I thought I could fall in love with myself but I guess this was just some joke right? Some prank? Who wrote these? You know what- It doesn’t even matter. Fuck you and your fucking letter.” You shoved the letter at his chest and push him in the process.

 He freezes a little but he’s running to catch up with you, “Y/n! Y/n stop walking away. L-Let me explain. Y/N!” He’s able to snatch your wrist and pull you towards him.

The tears are still running down your cheeks and his heart is shattering. “It wasn’t a joke. It- it was never a joke, never a dare. I promise, every word in those letters, are what I truly feel.”

You: “Bull- How do I even know that you wrote them in the first place, you can just be the messenger.”

Oomi: “If you put every letter together, it spells my name.”

You roll your eyes at him. 

Oomi: “Don’t believe me?

You: “Of course I don’t.”

“Fine, umm.....”

Both of you didn’t really notice how his hand was still wrapped around your wrist. “Every time I just happen to catch a glance at you when you aren’t looking, it seems like peace on earth... There is no other sight i’d rather see then to see you smile at me, at me only. I want you to look at me the way you look at them but I know in my heart that it will take years for you to look at me that way.”

You pull your wrist away from his hand and wipe your face clean from the tear that have dried down.

“The day you heard me make fun of you... I don’t have any excuses for it. I did it and I regret it and- and I’m so sorry.”

You shake your head and begin to laugh... “I don’t even want to believe you.”

“I know, I just please let me make it up to you.”

Timeskip Sakusa Kiyoomi

You: “Oomi, I thought you hated valentines day.”

Oomi: “I do, but you deserve flowers because I was an asshole for so long.”

You: “... that was like 8 years ago...”

Oomi “Your point?

He hands you over the flowers and gives you a soft kiss. “You deserve so much more, and every day I will give you more, understand?”

You begin to giggle mid kiss, “Yes sir.”

Oomi: “Do you still have those letters?”

You: “Of course, I read them every time your gone.”

A/N: THIS TOOK ALL DAY- I WORK TOMORROW BUT I MIGHT WRITE SOMETHING UP BC IVE BEEN OBSESSED W NANAMI LATELY 

[imagines-by-a-typical-fangirl]

Californian Dream (Pt. 01 of 11)

Pairing: Billy Hargrove X Reader

Word count: 2.8 K

Summary: Being part of one of the richest families of California doesn't mean you're happy. Your life is boring, and you're surrounded by meaningless people and their meaningless talk. Even during Summer, with the break you have from college, there's nothing good going on. Nothing but the new pool guy, Billy, the most handsome man you ever saw. You were successfully avoiding him, not wanting to act like an idiot in front of the guy until Billy accepts to be your date for a fancy gala you're forced to attend. The night was going well, even better when he sneaked you out to go to the beach. But a gang of criminals breaks into the party, kidnapping the heirs to the wealthiest families, which includes you. So, for your safety, your parents want you to stay with Billy, living in his apartment until the criminals are caught. And that could take weeks, maybe even months.

Warnings: Light violence

Next part (02)->

{Stranger Things Masterlist}

{Dacre Montgomery Masterlist}

×

Lemonade

Ignoring the meaningless chattering, you drink what's left of your water, then put the glass against your neck, hoping the cold will help with the hot weather. Summers in California are always this hot, and since you're under the sun, it doesn't help. Some of your friends, or better saying, the family friends, the people you grew up with, are here again, using your pool as if it was some kind of club they can attend. Standing on this badly shaped circle, you pretend to listen as Ryan goes on about some mansion he helped his father sell this weekend. He's excited, gesticulating a lot, and the others seem to be quite interested too. But not you. Honestly, you couldn't care less.

Through the corner of your eye, you see someone moving on the other side of the huge pool, behind some trees. Turning your head to see it better, you easily recognize the new pool guy, Billy Hargrove. He's been working here for only a couple of months, coming a few times a week to clean the pool or to fix something. You always pay attention to the staff, because nobody else does. You like to know them since they're working at your house after all, and that made you befriend a lot of them throughout the years. But Billy? You haven't even crossed paths with him yet. On purpose.

Billy is by far the most handsome guy you ever met, and you just don't think you can say anything to his face. He probably thinks you're one of the silly, rich chicks he meets on his job, and for some reason, it bothers you.

“(Y/N).” Ryan snaps his fingers on your face, dragging you out of your thoughts. “Are you in there? Aren't you listening?”

“Yup. Sorry, I tuned out for a minute.” Politely, you apologize. “What were you saying?”

“The gala. Who are you going with?”

“Uhm... Not sure yet.” Playing with the empty glass, you move your weight from one leg to the other. “I don't have any good options.”

“What?” Gisele exclaims, giggling. “Robert wants to go with you. Daniel would easily ditch his date for you. And Michael–”

“Don't wanna go with neither of them.” Cutting her off, you decide to just say it. Robert is the most hateful person you ever met. Daniel has been chasing after you for years, it doesn't matter how hard you try to make him understand you don't like him, and every girl he dates, he does it to try and make you jealous. And Michael is a manipulative jerk. All three members of the most prestigious families of California, and desired bachelors. And yet, you can't stand them.

“Who are you going with then? The pool guy?” Gisele gestures at something across the pool, and you know at who.

“Maybe. I bet he's way better than Michael, Daniel, or Robert.” This makes all the five of them laugh, in a very mocking tone. But you mean it. “I might go by myself. Who cares?”

“Are you crazy? Your parents will care, and people will talk, you know that.” Ryan rolls his eyes, lightly slapping his friend's arm. “C'mon, Antony, let's find (Y/N) a fourth option.” The two guys smirk and walk away, and you don't even bother to ask what they're up to. You don't care.

“For real now, (Y/N),” Alice says, running her fingers through her hair. “Gisele is right. The three guys are so into you, and Robert...” She chuckles, exchanging a glance with Gisele. “He's hot. He's... So damn hot.”

“Why don't you go with him then?” You ask her, taking a deep breath and already thinking of an excuse to get away from this conversation and back into the secrecy of your bedroom.

“Because I'm dating.” She answers as if it was the most obvious thing. As if she didn't have a different boyfriend every month. “James Whayland. The one and only, heir to the Whayland fortune? Do you happen to know him?” A rhetoric question, of course. Everyone knows who the Whayland are. “I'm so gonna marry him.”

“You must,” Gisele adds. “You'd be like, stupidly rich.”

And they go on with that, a conversation you don't even try to follow. A lot of girls do that, getting married to join the fortunes and shove more money into their pockets. Your mother herself did it, and she tries to push you into doing the same, pointing out the richest bachelors of California. But you'd never do that. You rather never get married than getting married without love. It's so obvious, yet, if you bring that up, it always becomes an argument. ‘Love comes with time’, she says. ‘Once you're provided financial stability, you'll learn to love the provider.’ None of that sounds appealing to you. You're hoping to fall in love one day. It hasn't happened yet, but you'll patiently wait.

“Hey, Earth to (Y/N).” Ryan raises his voice, and, a little annoyed, you look up at him.

“What?”

“You're welcome.” He says with a wicked smile.

Furrowing your eyebrows, you tilt your head to the side. “For what, Ryan?”

“For getting you the best date ever for the gala, sweetie.” He and Antony laugh, and soon enough the others follow. “The pool guy is taking you to a high society party. How amazing is that?”

It takes a while for you to even process what he's saying, but his mean tone makes you angry. He thinks he's superior to anyone who doesn't have a collection of fancy cars in their garage. “First of all, Ryan, the pool guy has a name, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. You're always close to the staff.” He emphasizes the last word, making a disgusted face.

“Second...” What? Second what? You know you can't go with Billy. That would get people talking. But then, the other options make you sick to even consider them. And honestly, you couldn't care less about what people say. It'll probably get you a hell of a lecture from your parents, a few weeks of gossips and mean comments, but that's it. Soon enough someone else will become the hottest topic. “You know what, forget it.” Putting the empty glass on the table, you walk away, ignoring how they call you, telling you not to be silly.

Maybe the guys are joking. Maybe they're just pulling a prank on you, but there's no problem with finding that out. Walking around the pool and into the garden, you walk around the supply closet, following the low noise of something being put into the metal shelves. The supply closet is open, so you patiently wait on the outside, barefoot on the grass as you move to stand to bellow a tree. Bouncing your leg, you look around, breathing deeply and trying to understand why the hell you decided to face Billy now. He's the only guy who works here you're making sure not to have any contact with.

“Good afternoon.” The voice startles you, and you immediately turn to face him. Billy is closing the closet door shut, eyes focused on you. And yes, he's far more gorgeous from up close. “May I help you, Miss–”

“(Y/N).” You cut him off, cursing yourself for doing so. “You may call me (Y/N).”

He simply nods, walking closer and stopping on a shadow spot too. “Do you need anything from me?”

“Uhm...” For a moment, you gotta think a little to remember what brought you here. “I just wanted to ask if maybe some two jerks came to talk to you... About a party... And... Taking a girl to this party...” Playing with your fingers, you wonder if he already thinks you're a total idiot.

“Yes. They said you needed a date for some gala.” Billy crosses his arms, not looking away from you. “If you need it, I can take you.”

Oh. Would he really do that? “Uhm... Look, Ryan and Antony meant it as a joke.” You gotta be honest, even if it means he'll give up the idea. “I mean, not for me, they're just... They're jerks. And they...” Holy crap. You have to get your shit together. “They thought it would be funny to make you think you could take me to this gala.” Taking a deep breath, you push the words out. “But... I would like it if you could because all my options suck. It's either Michael or Robert or Daniel, and you probably know they're all fighting for the award of the worst person on the face of Earth.”

“It might be really hard to make this decision. Might as well split the award in three.” He speaks up and you giggle. The staff don't usually speak like that about the families they work for. But Billy doesn't seem to care and you like that.

“Yeah. So... I know people will gossip about it but I'd be forever grateful if you could do me this kindness.” You're blushing now, biting your lip. “Because I know it's not your job or anything but I could pay you if you want.”

“There's no need.” Billy shakes his head, shrugging his shoulders. “It's a party, right? It will be fun.”

“Oh... About that...” Calling such events ‘parties’ is a misunderstanding. Almost a crime. “These things... Suck. It's super dull, full of rich people donating, trying to donate more them someone else just so they'll show off how rich they really are... You'll absolutely hate it. I do.” Gesturing at yourself, you give him an apologetic look. “I'd owe you for life if you help me get through it without having to put up with any of those assholes.”

Billy nods, looking down before his eyes meet yours again. “I believe I'll have to wear one of those suits right?”

“Well, I'll be in some uncomfortable dress, so we'll both be unhappy about our clothes.” Your mind goes to the lilac dress your mother made you buy, extremely expensive.

“Alright then. It's on Sunday, right?” You nod. “Should I pick you up?”

“Yes. At seven.” He gives a small nod before gesturing at the garden. “I gotta go now.”

“Sure...” Billy waves before walking away, and you stand there, wondering if you should go back to your so-called friends. You're sure Ryan will have that stupid smile on, eager to know what you and Billy have spoken about. And you won't tell anything, but you also don't want to deal with that shit right now, or else you might tell right to their faces how much of a jerk they are. So you decide to follow Billy through the garden, easily finding him by a particular big tree. He's opening a leaf tarp on a clean space on the grass before taking a fan rake. “This tree is dying.” You say, getting his attention. Billy turns around, furrowing his eyebrows. “That's why there are so many fallen leaves. See how some of them seem healthy, normal green leaves? It only happens when the tree is dying.”

“Then you should have someone cut it down before someone gets hurt.” He says, looking a little confused. “Shouldn't you go back to your friends?”

“Yeah, I probably should.” You're tired of all the things you should do, so for today, you won't do them. As silly as it may be. “Do you need some help?” You ask, stepping forward a little.

“No, I'm alright.” It sounds like a question, and you blush from the way he stares at you, for several seconds, before focusing on his task, raking the leaves to the tarp.

“Ok.” Whispering, you move to sit on a wooden table, one of the many you have scattered around the property. You try not to look at Billy too much, noticing how weird it feels to do this. You barely know the guy, he'll be your date for a gala, and now you're awkwardly seated here, watching as he works. Well, it is better than whatever your friends must be talking about now. “So... What exactly do you work with?” You ask, hoping to get any kind of conversation going. “I thought you just took care of the pool.”

“I work for a company. BJ's Associates.” Billy starts, and you take this chance to look at him. Despite the distance, you can see the sweat glistening on his forehead. “They send me to any place I'm needed. Some of them are scheduled weekly, others are random. And–” He makes a pause suddenly, giving you a look. “Are you bored yet?”

“No.” Shrugging your shoulders, you giggle. “I actually wanna know.”

He turns his head to look at the pool, which is a little distant now. Maybe he thinks this is some kind of move, and you wouldn't blame him, judging by the way the guys probably came to talk to him. “That's it. I clean pools, fix cars, might paint walls or something, clean gardens... The list goes on.”

“You know how to fix a car?” Raising an eyebrow, you move to seat on the table, placing both your feet on the wooden bench. “My car is making this weird noise and I'm sure it's not some normal noise.”

“How does it sounds like?”

“Like a clunking, I think... every time I hit the breaks, even when it's softly.”

“It could be some damage to the brake caliper.” He's quick to answer, and you raise your eyebrows, impressed. “Or it's badly mounted.”

“Damn, you're good.” You exclaim, giggling at his funny face.

“I just–”

“(Y/N)!” Amelia's voice reaches you, and Billy stops talking, resuming his job. “I've been looking for you.” The old lady, with her gray hair tied up on a perfect, sophisticated bun, comes to the table you're at, a tray with a jar and six glasses on her hands.

“I've been here chatting with Billy.” You tell as she lays the tray down. “And no, I won't go back to the pool.”

“They're talking about James Whayland.” She starts, rolling her eyes. Amelia is the only one in this house, well, the only one you know who understands you. “Alice Martin was talking about marrying him...?”

“Yup.” A stronger wind messes with your hair, so you use a hand to keep it away from your face. “Something about joining their fortunes and being the king and queen of California. Some shit like that.”

“Poor Alice.” Amelia breathes out, taking a glass and pouring some lemonade on it before handing it over to you. “That Whayland kid is not the nicest guy on Earth.”

“Poor James!” You giggle, putting your glass down and serving her some lemonade too. She doesn't like when you do that, since she's here to serve you. Amelia, the woman who raised you is here for nothing else than to serve you. So unbelievable it almost makes you laugh. “Alice isn't nice either. She can be very manipulative to get what she wants.”

“Don't I know?” She mutters. “Well, I must go. Serve this to your friends.”

“No, no, no. Take your glass and leave the rest. If someone complains tell them I'll drink the whole jar.” Taking the tray from her hands, you place it down on the table again.

“Alright, Miss–”

“(Y/N). Honey. Bunny. Anything, but not this formal stuff, ok?” You correct her, and Amelia gives you a bright smile.

“Alright, (Y/N).” She repeats before turning around and walking away, cordially greeting Billy.

Taking a sip from your glass, you smile to notice Amelia's lemonade is as good as always. A little too sour for your parents taste, but you like it better this way. Your attention goes back to Billy, still dealing with the fallen leaves, despite being almost done. If you ask, he might say no, so you just pour another glass before jumping to the ground, making your way over him. “Here.” Raising your voice, you get his attention. And once again he has this confused expression on his face when he sees the glass. “Lemonade. It's hella hot out here and this might help.”

“Thanks.” Squinting his eyes a little, he takes the glass from your hand, taking long sips, drinking almost everything.

“Sorry if it's a little too sour. I don't like much sugar on it and Amelia knows so...” When he's done, he gives you back the glass. “Why are you looking at me like that? I swear I'm not a ghost.”

“That's not it. I'm just not used to being treated like that by the owners.” Billy's voice gets a little darker, and he pronounces the last word with certain anger. But you can imagine exactly why. Most of the people you know aren't very fond of their employees. They're just the people they pay off to do what they can't do by themselves.

“I know how some of the families can be mean.” Drumming your fingers on the empty glass, you stand there, staring at Billy, just now noticing the deep, beautiful shade of blue from his eyes. Involuntary, you breathe out, smiling.

“What?”

“Nothing!” You burst out, clearing your throat and finding your legs again, making the way back at the table. “I–”

“(Y/N)!” A shout startles you, and when you turn at the source of the voice, you see it's Gisele. “Get back here! You won't guess who just got here.”

“If it isn't Michael Jackson ready to perform Beat It, I'll be disappointed.” You mutter, only loud enough for Billy to hear it as you walk back to the pool.

“Call me if it's him,” Billy says and you giggle, giving him one last look.

It's not Michael. Well, it is, but not Jackson, just Michael Rothford. He stands by the pool, where everyone gathers around him. Trying not to look pissed, you move closer, offering a polite, fake smile. “Good afternoon, Mike. How have you been?”

“I'm way better now.” He answers, and you try to ignore how everyone moves a little, giving you more space to move closer to Michael. He takes your hand, giving it a shake, and awkwardly squeezing it softly. “I'm here to ask, once again, for you to let me take you to Sunday's gala.”

The two idiots, Antony and Ryan start giggling, and you know exactly why. “Sorry, Mike, I can't.” Pulling your hand away, you cross your arms. “I already have someone, so...” Thank God you have the perfect excuse, and it's not even a lie. You're so damn relieved you won't be forced to attend to such a boring event with someone like Michael.

“Who?” He snaps, suddenly pissed. “Daniel is going with that Angela chick. Robert, you can't stand. Andrew isn't in the country, Willian–”

“You don't know him, alright?” Cutting him off, you sigh.

“Oh, shit,” Ryan mutters, and you give him a look. He has a hand covering his mouth, trying to control a laugh. “You're really going to the gala with the pool guy.” Antony burst into laughter, and the others try to control themselves not to.

“You rather go with the staff than with me?” Michael sounds offended as if he was punched in the face. “Are you kidding me, (Y/N)?”

Quickly, you try to think of something to say. You can't say the truth, that he's a hateful human being you can't stand being next to. But nothing comes to your mind. “No, I'm not. I... Actually wanna go with Billy.”

“Honestly, (Y/N), screw you.” He barks, and before you can answer, he grabs both your shoulders and pushes you straight into the water.

Everything happens way too fast for you to process, so there was no way you could tell him you absolutely can't swim. So the moment you hit the water, you just sink, your body moving to the bottom, way too far from the surface. You do try moving your legs a bit, uselessly. But you're suddenly pulled, strong arms moving you through the water until you finally reach the surface, gasping for air. Breathing fast, the terror finally starts kicking in, and you push yourself up, stumbling a little, ignoring all the hands that offer help. Once you're out of the water, seated on the edge, you finally see who saved you, Billy, also pushing himself up, only with a lot more grace than you. You exchange a glance, and his hand is the one you take, pulling yourself back to your feet.

“You can't swim?” You hear Michael's voice, a curse caught in your throat. “I never met a Californian who can't swim.”

Not minding the small crowd around, you make you walk to Michael, losing no time before slapping him right on the face, the loud noise of your wet hand colliding to his cheek startling some of your friends. “Asshole!” You yell before storming away, embarrassed, still struggling to catch your breath, feeling cold thanks to your soaked clothes.

“Hey.” Someone calls, but you ignore them, walking fast into the house. “(Y/N).” Your arm being grabbed makes you stop walking and turn around, ready to make hell rain on whoever it is, but your fury melts away when you see Billy. “Are you ok?”

Taking a deep breath, you relax a little, nodding. “Yeah, I just... Got scared.” He lets go of your arm, but you don't step away, looking into his blue, calming eyes. “Thank you, though. You saved my life.”

“Can't believe he threw you at the water like that.”

“See why I need you to take me to that stupid party?” Crossing your arms, you pace around. “I can't even begin to imagine how it'd be to spend the night with that prick.” Looking down, you notice how you and Billy are dripping, soaking the white floor. “I gotta go change, and you should... I don't know. At least you got to enjoy the pool for a while.”

“I'd rather enjoy it when you're not drowning.”

“Yeah, that would be better.” Shyly smiling, you give a step backwards. “I gotta go... But thanks again.” Stopping in your tracks, you decide to be just a little brave. Stepping closer, you tiptoe to place a quick kiss on Billy's cheek, before turning around and rushing upstairs to your bedroom.

×

@multific @dontxfearxthereaper @nope-thanks @nikkixostan @shinydixon @alwaysadreamingoptimist

[marauders-venting]

Hi,, I read your posts,, and they were all sooooo amazing!! I just loved them. That's why I wanna ask if you will write prompt for me. Prompt: Remus/ Sirius first date. Both of them are nervous, and share the reason of their nervousness with lily and James. Sirius/ Remus is nervous because he is preparing for the date. While other is nervous about looks or other stuff. And then how the date goes...,, English is not my mother tongue so, pardon me if their are some errors. <3

The Last Chance

pairing: wolfstar (remus x sirius)

genre: fluff

warnings: hints at death

words: 3865

note: i wrote this with @ probably_wizardingworld_art on instagram. I wrote the part with remus and lily and she wrote sirius and james and we wrote the rest together. they came up with the title too.

a/n: hi! thank you so much that makes me so happy :D! this is my first prompt so im very excited. i actually had a lot of fun writing this so if you guys want to send me requests/prompts i'd be glad to try write some of them (you can send the request on tumblr or instagram)! anyway sorry this took me so long to get to but i hope you like the result! :)

Sirius was nervous, which didn’t happen often so they were pathetic at dealing with it. He needed to talk to James immediately or his head would probably explode or something. When he entered the common room they were lucky enough that Prongs was already there; he was talking to Lily, but that didn't matter right now. He walked up to them and slightly tapped James onto the shoulder, making him jump a little.

“Hey James, can I talk to you for a moment?” Sirius asked nervously, fidgeting around with one of their many rings.

“Of course Pads,” James said. He seemed a bit concerned because Sirius Black was rarely that unconfident, especially when there were people around. “Wanna go onto the roof for it?” Too tense to give a proper answer Sirius just nodded. James gave Lily an excusing look and the two boys went up to their dorm, climbed out of the window and onto the rooftop.

“Okay Padfoot, tell me what's bothering you,” James requested softly. Sirius took a deep breath before he managed to start talking at least two times as fast as usual.

“I know it's silly and I know I'm probably already bothering you enough with this stuff but… you know our graduation is only a week from now and everyone is asking someone out? I wanna ask Moony out but I'm hella nervous about it and I don't know what to do…”

“I can tell,” James muttered quietly. Not quietly enough though, as Sirius still punched his arm slightly and called him an “insensitive idiot”.

Picking up the original issue, Prongs said, “Pads, we both know you've been wanting to ask him out for at least a whole year now and I also know you always kept saying you would do it next time. But Sirius, just in case it's not clear to you, there isn't gonna be a next time. No next weekend at Hogsmeade, nothing; this is our graduation Sirius, it's your last chance to do it. Don't let it slip like all the others. Ask him to go to the dance with you; you would regret it if you didn’t.”

James was right of course, this was his last chance but that made it even worse to him. There wouldn't be enough time after this to fix the friendship when Remus wouldn't want to go to the dance with him.

“For two years actually. But Prongs… what do I do when he says no? What if he doesn't like me this way? Our friendship would become weird and there would barely be time to fix it. I don't wanna ruin everything y'know?” They tried to explain his fear to the other boy.

“Well, if he says no you can still act as if you wanted to go as friends, can't you?” he shrugged. “Even if I can't see why he should say no. It won’t be much of a surprise when Moony likes you the same way you like him, honestly.”

“And if he will refuse because well, we're two boys and there are a lot of people and dammit we both know he hates getting a lot of attention. Do you think people would stare at us? Not that I’d mind, of course, just thinking about Moony there.” They knew the anxious tone of their voice betrayed his words, but he wouldn't admit that.

“You wouldn’t be the only ones though. Lily told me that Marlene asked Dorcas out, so there’s no need to be worried about being THE gay couple. I don’t know why you think you’d be that interesting anyway.” James earned a stern look for this comment, but he just laughed at that, then added, “really Pads, you’re thinking too much; that’s not good for you.”

“Okay… I will do it. I can do that. Totally not scared anymore. And HOW the fuck am I gonna do this?” They hadn’t even given himself a moment to let the decision sink in and had already started panicking again. James seemed to find it hilarious though because he was laughing his head off.

“Sirius, calm down for fuck’s sake. If I managed to ask Lily out you can ask out Moony; he really isn’t that scary.”

“I never said Moony would be scary, arsehole.” He gave James a playful shove before he continued. “Besides, you definitely can't compare that! You and Lily are already dating, she would have been goin’ with you anyway. AND Moony would KILL me if I would make it a big, public thing like you did. Would definitely fit my attitude, but if I want him to say yes I’m not gonna do it like you.”

“Guess you're right about that. Maybe just ask him to talk in private then? If you won’t get it done until tomorrow, I solemnly swear I’m gonna lock you two up in our dormitory,” Prongs said, grinning mischievously.

“Bloody hell, Potter! You definitely WON’T do that, got it??” James just poked out his tongue at that.

“Don't worry about it too much mate, it's gonna be alright,” he assured him.

“Thanks for helping out Prongs,” Sirius spoke genuinely.

“Any time Padfoot.” The two lads climbed back into the dormitory. James went searching for Lily to continue their conversation. Sirius was alone in the room so he sat down on his bed and started thinking about what he wanted to say to Remus, just in case he would remember any of it when he actually had to ask him out.

---------

“So do you know who you’re going to the dance with?” Lily asked.

“No,” Remus said.

“Why not?”

“Well, it may have escaped your notice but we don’t all have boyfriends who’ve been in love with us for six and a half years,” Remus snapped.

“Geez,” Lily said. “I’m sorry I mentioned it.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Remus said. “It’s not you, I just… I’m kind of really dreading this dance.”

“What? Why?” Lily asked. “It’ll be fun.”

“No it won’t,” Remus said. “It’ll be really stupid and there will be a ton of people. I don’t know, I just don’t really want to go.”

“You’re not going?” Lily asked.

“I don’t know,” Remus said again. “Probably not.”

“What? No, Rem, come on. You have to come. it’s better than sitting in your room stressing yourself out about how you did on your N.E.W.Ts.”

“Why? It’s not like anybody will miss me. You’ll be with James. Marlene and Dorcas will be together. Peter’s probably going to ask that Hufflepuff girl to go with him and he’ll spend all night with her. And Sirius… Sirius won’t miss me. He’ll be with their date.”

“Who is Sirius going with by the way? Do you know?”

“No,” Remus said, sounding agitated again.

“Then how do you know he has a date?”

“Lils, it’s Sirius. Of course, he has a date. Literally, half the school is head over heels for them.”

“Does that half include you then?” Lily muttered under her breath.

“W–what?” Remus said.

“Nothing, nothing,” Lily sighed. “So you’re really not going?”

“I’d just be standing there alone in the corner. I’ll be even more awkward than usual.”

“You wouldn’t be alone, Remus. Do you really think we’d all ditch you just because we have dates? We’re still your friends.”

“Fair enough,” Remus said. “And thanks for the offer but as much as I would enjoy third-wheeling with you and James, it’s a hard pass.”

“Come on, Remus, there must be somebody you want to ask to the dance,” Lily insisted.

“No,” Remus muttered. “There isn’t anybody I want to go with.” But the blush on his cheeks gave him away.

“Remus, you’re a horrible liar,” Lily said. “Now spill the secret. Who do you want to ask?”

“Nobody!” Remus insisted, but his blush only deepened. “There’s no secret!”

“You know you can tell me anything, Remus. Don’t you trust me with your secret? We’ve been best friends for seven years.”

“Which is exactly why I know not to trust you with my secret,” Remus said.

“Aha! I knew there was a secret!” Lily said. “Come on, just tell me.”

“You’ll laugh at me,” Remus said. “You’ll say I’m ridiculous for suggesting it.”

“No I won’t,” Lily said. “Rem, I swear on my life, I won’t. Just tell me.”

“Fine,” Remus swallowed. “Sirius.”

“I knew it!” Lily yelled. “I fucking knew it!”

“Keep your voice down!” Remus said.

“Sorry,” she whispered. “I knew it though.”

“Great, I’m a bad liar, you proved your point,” Remus said. “Now do you see why I would be going to the dance alone?”

“No, actually, I do not,” Lily said. “You want to ask Sirius to the dance so ask him to the dance.” Remus snorted.

“Yeah, right.”

“What?”

“Lily, if I ask Sirius to the dance one of two things is going to happen. One, they’ll assume I mean as friends and I’ll look like a complete idiot. Two, they’ll turn me down and then everything will get awkward and he’ll hate me and if that happens I might just die.”

“Oh calm down, Remus,” Lily said. “You accuse Sirius of being a drama queen all the time but you’re just as bad. First of all, Sirius would never hate you—”

“You don’t know that,” Remus said.

“Yes I do,” she insisted.

“How?” he asked skeptically, crossing his arms.

“Remus, a friend who undergoes a long and complex magical transformation for the sole purpose of helping you, is not going to hate you just because you have a crush on them.” He had to admit that Lily was making a pretty good point.

“That doesn’t mean it won’t be awkward,” Remus pressed.

“You know, Remus, I actually think they might like you,” Lily said. Remus laughed but even he could hear that it sounded bitter and forced.

“Lily, please,” Remus said. “Maybe he won’t hate me but they definitely do not like me. Not the way I like him.”

“Why not?” Lily said. “I was right about you liking him, wasn’t I? So who is to say that I’m not right about them liking you?”

“Lils, have you seen Sirius? He’s way out of my league. They literally have no reason to look at me like that.”

“Remus, you do not give yourself enough credit, honestly,” Lily sighed. “So how long have you liked them?”

“Since the start of fifth year,” Remus said, not meeting her eye.

“That’s almost three years,” she said.

“It is,” Remus sighed, still not looking at her.

“Remus,” Lily started, “I really think you should talk to him.”

“Lily—”

“No, Remus, listen. Do you trust me?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Bitch,” Lily said, jabbing him in the ribs with her elbow.

“Kidding,” Remus grunted.

“So talk to him,” she insisted. Remus hesitated.

“What if he already has a date?” he asked.

“Ask them,” Lily shrugged.

“And if they do?”

“Hmm I think you know exactly what you’re going to do if Sirius already has a date and you don’t need my advice at all so I would like to propose the alternative,” Lily said. “What if he doesn’t have a date?”

“I—” Remus buried his face in his palms, “I don’t fucking know.”

“Hey,” Lily said, gently. “It’s ok. Everything will be ok, regardless of what happens, Remus. I promise.”

“I don’t want to lose him,” he said, quietly.

“You won’t,” she said. “Remus, look at me.” He did. “You won’t. You know it as well as I do. You won’t lose him, no matter what.”

“Ok,” Remus sighed. “So I guess I’m asking Sirius Black to the dance.” He felt a flutter in his stomach as he said it. He was really going to do it.

“I guess you are,” Lily said, smiling.

---------

Remus walked into the dorm and found himself alone with Sirius, who looked up as he came in.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi.” Ask him, said a voice in his head. Lily’s voice. It was his chance; the dorm was empty, it was just the two of them. He needed to stop putting this off.

“So, um… do you have a date to the dance yet?” he asked timidly.

“Nope,” Sirius said, looking back at the floor. “Do you?”

“No,” Remus replied. “So the Sirius Black doesn’t have a date to the dance yet?” Remus added, trying to relax. Just talk, he told himself, just talk to him like you normally would.

“How’d that happen?” Sirius shrugged.

“I don’t know,” they said. “I just didn’t really fancy any of the people who asked me.”

“Is… is there someone you wanted to ask yourself?” Remus asked, heart racing in his chest. Sirius hesitated a moment before answering.

“Yes,” he said slowly.

“So why didn’t you?”

“Same reason as anybody, I suppose. I didn’t want to be turned down.”

“Pfft like anybody would turn you down,” Remus said.

“I will ask him, though.”

“When?”

“Within the next five minutes probably. What about you? Why don’t you have a date?” Well, here it goes.

“I’m hoping to,” Remus said. “Soon enough.” Maybe it was his imagination but Remus thought he saw the spark leave Sirius’ grey eyes, the smile faltering slightly on his lips.

“So who’s the lucky lad or lady who’s swept you off your feet?” Sirius asked. Suddenly some gusto of bravery possessed Remus and he took a step towards Sirius.

“Well, you know them,” he said.

“Do I, now?”

“Yep,” Remus said. “He’s in this room right now.” Sirius’ eyes darted in every direction but found Remus again when they realised that there was nobody there but the two of them.

“Wait,” Sirius said, realisation growing in his eyes. “Are—are you trying to ask me to the dance?” Remus gave a small nod.

“That,” he said, “and tell you that I… I’ve liked you for a long time now.”

“No, no, no, you can’t do that,” Sirius said. Remus ducked his head, feeling the tears filling his eyes. He knew it would end like this. It was stupid to cry when this was exactly what he had expected. But that didn’t make it hurt any less.

“Sirius, I’m so, so sorry. I never meant—”

“I was just about to ask you to the dance!” Sirius said. “You totally stole my moment!”

“I— what?” Remus said, looking up. “You… you were going to ask me to the dance?”

“Yes, I’ve been trying to all day,” Sirius said. “But I kept stalling until James told me to suck it up and just do it already.”

“Wait, I— wha— I’m so confused,” Remus said, trying to get a hold of the situation.

“You… you wanted to ask me to the dance?”

“Yes, Remus,” Sirius said, taking his hand in their own. “I wanted to tell you that I… I’ve had a crush on you since we were like fifteen and… nothing would make me happier than to go to this dance with you.”

“Really?” Remus asked.

“Yeah,” Sirius said, wiping the tears out of Remus’ eyes with his thumb. “But then you got there first.”

“Maybe next time try to be a little bit faster then,” Remus laughed.

“Fine,” Sirius said, grinning. And then before he knew it, Remus was being kissed by Sirius Black. Sirius had closed the gap between them, kissing Remus firmly on the lips. And for a moment, Remus couldn’t breathe. Because this was too good to be true. Far, far too good. Sirius wanted to go to the dance with him. And he wanted to go to the dance with Sirius. He was going to the dance with Sirius. He’s kissing Sirius right now.

---------

For the fifth and last time, Remus checked his reflection in the mirror. It hadn’t changed within the last few minutes of course, but he was nervous, really nervous.

“Calm down Remus, you look good.” It was James. He had just come out of the bathroom, finally wearing his suit too.

“Really Moony, you’re worrying too much,” Peter assured him.

All of them had decided to wear a simple, black suit but somehow they’d still managed to look completely different. Maybe it was the fact that James was wearing a normal tie, Peter was going for a bow tie and Remus himself had just left open the top two buttons of his shirt. Remus didn’t know what Sirius was going to wear, as they dressed with the girls to avoid Remus seeing him in his outfit before he was supposed to.

In less than a minute James and Remus were supposed to meet their dates in the Gryffindor common room so the three boys decided to get down there and wait for them.

As soon as they reached the common room the door of the girls’ dormitory swung open and Lily started walking down the stairs in a beautiful, emerald green, backless dress, followed by Sirius and Marlene.

Remus thought he’d faint when he saw Sirius’s outfit. He was wearing a DRESS. And they looked absolutely stunning in it. The dress was a beautiful dark blue and floor-length with a plunging V-neck and a split skirt, and he was wearing a goddamn underbust corset. It was breathtaking. He only noticed he’d been staring a bit long when Sirius was standing right in front of him, staring right back, lips slightly parted. They swallowed visibly before he said, “You look good Moony.”

His face was probably deep red, but somehow he still managed to say something.

“And you look absolutely marvellous in that dress.”

Was that possible? Sirius Black, blushing? Apparently, it was and it was cute.

They had to be at the Great Hall any minute now, so Remus took Sirius’ hand and they all started leaving the common room.

When they arrived at the Great Hall they saw that it had been entirely transformed for the event. The long house tables that were usually in the middle of the room were pushed against the walls and held a large variety of food, snacks and drinks, leaving the middle clear for students to dance. A big banner reading Class of ‘78 was strung against the back wall of the hall and there was music playing although where it was coming from remained a mystery.

Marlene and Peter spotted their dates already in the room and hurried to greet them.

“May I have this dance?” James asked Lily, kissing the back of her hand. Lily rolled her eyes but Remus noticed her blushing slightly.

“No, Potter, I came with you so that I could dance with somebody else,” she said sarcastically. “Of course you can have this dance. Come on.” And she dragged him onto the dance floor, leaving Remus and Sirius standing by the door.

“You wanna get something to drink?” Remus suggested, trying to delay the moment when he had to dance in front of everybody and make a fool of himself. Why had he come to this dance again?

“Yeah, sure,” Sirius said. They stood by the drinks table, drinking juice (yes, juice) and talking for a while but Remus saw Sirius looking wistfully at all the dancing people.

“You’re going to make me dance, aren’t you?” he said.

“Oh come on we have to dance a little,” Sirius said. “It is a dance after all.”

“But we both know that I cannot dance. Like at all.”

“Come on, babe, dance with me please,” Sirius pouted.

“Babe?” Remus said, a smirk playing on his lips.

“Um, I-I mean… uh…” Sirius stuttered, his cheeks flushed. They put their head on Remus’ shoulder, hiding his face. “Sorry.” Remus kissed the top of Sirius’ head, lingering to smell Sirius’ hair.

“Don’t be, I… I like it,” Remus said, blushing hard.

“You do?” Sirius asked.

“Yeah.”

“Ok. So will you dance with me?” Sirius asked hopefully. Remus hesitated a little before answering.

“Yeah,” he said. “I will.” And he took Sirius by the hand and pulled them into the center of the Great Hall.

Remus was right, of course. He could not dance. But he was trying. The more upbeat the songs were the more difficult but as soon as a slow song came on, Sirius wrapped him in their arms and took the lead, making it significantly easier to dance but also significantly harder to breathe.

Right now they were dancing in each other’s arms, swaying slowly to the music. Remus closed his eyes and rested his forehead against Sirius’.

“I love you, you know,” he said. “I’m in love with you.” Sirius stumbled on his feet and stopped moving.

“Really?” they asked. Remus froze, realising what he had said.

“Uh I–I mean…” Remus stuttered, “that depends, is this a good or bad reaction?”

“Good,” Sirius said, quietly. “The best.” And then he kissed Remus. There, in the middle of the great hall, in front of all their friends and all their classmates and all their teachers, Remus and Sirius stood, kissing each other like their lives depended on it, like they needed the other more than they needed oxygen. And at that moment, at that moment that Remus' lips connected with Sirius’, at that moment that Sirius slid their tongue into Remus’ mouth and pulled him closer, at that moment Remus didn’t have a care in the world. He didn’t care that people were watching, he didn’t care that he might fail his examinations, he didn’t care about the war waging outside the walls. All he cared about was Sirius and the feeling he had when they were together. As long as he had Sirius, nothing else mattered.

When they broke apart, Remus’ breaths were shallow. He held Sirius close, their foreheads pressed together, his arms around Sirius’ neck as Sirius’ hands cupped Remus’ face.

“I love you too,” Sirius whispered. He could’ve yelled it, could’ve made a scene. The whole room was watching them anyway. But this wasn’t just something for attention, Remus knew. Sirius meant it. They meant what he said. He really meant it.

“I thought you would hate me if you ever found out,” Remus said, not moving away.

“Well, then you’re an idiot,” Sirius said, “because I could never hate you. Not even if I tried.”

“Me neither,” Remus said. “I could never hate you either.” Remus knew it was true the moment he said it. But despite that, the universe decided to put him to the test. It was barely four years later when Remus was desperately trying to fall out of love with Sirius, to hate him. Because how could you love your best friend’s murderer? You shouldn’t. But apparently, he could. It took another twelve years for Remus to be able to admit that he had not hated Sirius. Not really. He thought back to the day he told Sirius that he could never hate them. He wasn’t lying that day. Remus was unsure of many things these days. Everything seemed rocky and unstable. Anything good could disappear at any moment and more often than not it did. But this he was certain of, without a shadow of a doubt: for as long he lived, he would be in love with Sirius Black. And nothing could change that.