#but I’ve got a requested one shot filled and more coming up the pipeline

[precious-little-scoundrel]

Y’all want a Sarge update tomorrow? 👀

[pluckyredhead]

Thanks for doing the RAICES fic fundraiser! It's inspiring to see people making art for good causes. Receipt: imgur(.)com(/)oGHPVPE Ok, so, Iron Fist was a mess but I love your Danny, you do a great job with him. So I'd like to request Danny-centric Defenders mini-casefic or team found family good-natured sass? Otherwise, if you're not good with that, I could go for some fabulous Pride lawyer silliness. Thanks!

I love writing Danny, thank you! (And thank you for donating!) This got…real silly, and ended up being as much about Jessica as Danny, and also Danny steered HARD into the goofball curve, but it was fun to write. Hope you enjoy!

Jessica had not been thrilled to be woken up by a phone call from Danny. Sure, it was two p.m. when he called - but on the other hand, it was Danny, and that didn’t seem worth getting up for any hour of the day.

But Danny had been insistent that she come over now, and so Jessica had pulled on her least stained jeans from off of the floor and sulked her way across town in a cab she fully intended on making her own personal Ralph Macchio pay for.

Now, as she stood between Luke and Matt, gaping at the thing Danny was holding in his lap, she was starting to understand his urgency.

“Is that…” Matt started to say, closed his mouth, opened it again, and shook his head.

Colleen, sitting on the couch, put her face in her hands. She looked tired.

Matt tried again. “I’m assuming that my senses are letting me down right now and that is not, in fact, a dragon?”

“It’s totally a dragon!” Danny said, beaming up at them. The green, slinky thing in his lap stretched and yawned like a cat before burping out a puff of fire. “Isn’t it awesome?”

“Sweet Christmas,” Luke said.

-

“Where the fuck did you get a dragon, Rand,” Jessica said, once she’d found some alcohol in Danny’s fridge - Mike’s Hard Lemonade because he was an actual child, but better than nothing.

“Farmers’ market,” Danny said, scratching the dragon under the chin.

“What,” Matt said.

“It wasn’t a farmers’ market,” Colleen said with a sigh. “I told him to meet me at the farmers’ market and he got lost and wound up at some weird street fair instead. With dragons, apparently.”

“You can buy dragons at a street fair?” Luke asked.

“No,” Danny said, in a tone like Luke had said something ridiculous. Well, like Luke had been the first person in the room to say something ridiculous. “I bought a dragon egg. I’ve had it for months.”

Jessica and Luke looked at Colleen. Even Matt pointed his chin at her.

“Don’t blame me for this!” she said, throwing her hands up. “This apartment has ten bedrooms! I don’t check them all on the regular for mythological beings.”

Danny shrugged. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I figured it was a scam or a dud, or just, you know, a really cool paperweight. It’s really hard to get dragon eggs in this hemisphere. But it was only a couple thousand dollars…”

“Oh, of course,” Luke muttered.

“…and even if it wasn’t a real egg it was so cool looking. You guys didn’t see the shell, it was neat. And the guy who sold it to me kept winking, like, hey man, this is the real deal. So I thought I’d stick it in a spare bedroom, crank the heat up in there, and if it didn’t hatch in a few months, that was that. But…” Danny gestured to the dragon as if anyone else had been able to stop thinking “HOLY SHIT THERE’S A DRAGON IN HERE” the entire time he’d been talking. “It hatched!”

“And then it peed everywhere,” Colleen added.

“And then it peed everywhere!” Danny agreed. Jessica had never seen him so happy.

-

If Jessica was good at anything, it was finding out weird shit on the internet. She sat down in Danny’s “office” - more like a sticker collection room than anything, honestly - and opened his laptop. “This is too nice of a computer for you to use for nothing but Neopets, you know,” Jessica muttered.

“I needed to make sure my little dudes were still alive!” Danny protested. “I was away a long time.”

Jessica rolled her eyes and started searching. “Are you going on the dark web?” Danny asked, craning over her shoulder. She put a hand on his face and pushed him away.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Luke said, then glanced at Jessica. “Are you?”

“No,” she said. “There’s this forum, Strange Tales dot com. People talk about weird stuff they’ve seen and heard, try to get confirmation of it. These days it’s mostly people debating whether it’s Avengers shit or not, but sometimes there’s sightings of, oh, a man in black backflipping off a roof. A guy punching his way out of prison.” A flying, super-strong woman, too, but she’d done her best to discredit those sightings with the several identities she’d created on the forum until she hadn’t been able to hide any longer. “If anyone knows how to get rid of a dragon, these nutbars do.”

“But I don’t want to get rid of Shou Little!” Danny protested, hugging the baby dragon to him. It bit him. “Ow. I love her!”

“Shou Little?” Matt repeated.

“The dragon I got my powers form is named Shou Lao. She’s much smaller, so…” Danny shrugged like it was obvious. “I just shrugged, sorry, Matt.”

“I know,” Matt said.

“How do you know she’s a she?” Jessica asked. If mystical kung fu monk training involved studying dragon genitals, she officially quit.

“I don’t, not really, but she’s pretty tough, so I just assumed,” Danny explained. The dragon - Shou Little, apparently, bit him again. “Ow!”

Okay. Maybe Jessica wouldn’t quit just yet.

-

“If dragons are real, what else is real?” Matt asked.

“My disinterest in this conversation?” Jessica asked, glancing away from the computer for a minute. Matt and Colleen were stretching side by side in matching and frankly implausible looking poses, while Danny lay sprawled on the floor beside them. Luke at least knew what furniture was for, and had commandeered the office couch.

“I’m asking Danny, not you,” Matt said. “Okay, we have dragons. Does this mean…unicorns are real? Pixies? Demons?”

Luke raised his eyebrows and lifted his hand. Shou Little hung determinedly from his finger. She had been gnawing on him for ten minutes, ever since he’d offered himself as a more durable chew toy than Danny. “Worried you’re going to get in trouble for biting the underworld’s style?”

“Look, we’ve already dealt with resurrection and now dragons. I’m just wondering if mermaids are next down the pipeline,” Matt said.

Danny shrugged. “Unicorns and pixies are western mythology. Shou Little’s a Chinese dragon. I have no idea if that means the European ones are real, too.”

“Okay, so what else is in Chinese mythology?” Luke asked.

“K’un-Lun isn’t really part of China per se, but, uh…fenghuang,” Danny said, glancing at Colleen.

“Nian,” she added. “Fox spirits. Spirits in general.”

“And mermaids?” Matt asked.

Jessica turned all the way around. “What is it with you and mermaids? You really into clamshell bras or something?”

Matt gave her that annoying deadpan look that meant he could be joking or just that weirdly intense. It was harder to read when he was upside down. “We live on an island! It seems like pertinent information.”

“I’d worry less about mermaids and more about water dragons,” Danny said matter-of-factly.

“Water dragons?” Luke repeated.

“Grawr,” Shou Little added.

-

It took Jessica thirty-eight minutes to sort through all the tinfoil-hat selfies and conspiracy theories to find rumors of an honest-to-fuck dragon sanctuary in Ghuizhou Province, eleven minutes of Danny and Colleen having two separate phone conversations in Mandarin to confirm that this place was apparently somehow for real, forty-seven minutes for Matt and Luke to go to the nearest grocery store with Danny’s gold card and buy all the fish they could carry to feed the little monster…

(“She likes gummi worms too,” Danny had assured them. “I checked.”)

…and going on two and a half hours trying to convince Danny that no, he could not keep a dragon in a midtown Manhattan high rise.

“It’s a big apartment!” he insisted, clutching at her. “She’ll have plenty of room!”

“Didn’t you say Shou Lao filled an entire mountain?” Colleen asked.

“Maybe Shou Little won’t get so big! Her name’s only Shou Little, not Shou Big!”

“You named her that! Today!”

“You have neighbors,” Matt pointed out. “Neighbors who will notice weird noises and floors shaking and the fact that you’re covered in blood from dragon bites all the time.”

“Says the guy who crawls half-dead into his own apartment four nights a week,” Luke muttered. Matt frowned. “What? You think Claire doesn’t tell me all your business?”

“Matt’s still right, even if he is also stupid,” Jessica said. “Do you want to be stupid like Matt, Danny?”

“Hey,” Matt said.

“No,” Danny admitted.

“Hey!”

“She doesn’t belong here,” Colleen pressed. “She was stolen. She needs to go home.”

Danny was clearly weakening, but he still clung to Shou Little. “But she loves me!” Shou Little bit him. “Ow!”

“Look, man, we can just get you a puppy,” Luke said.

“I’m a millionaire. I can have both.”

“Dragon might eat the puppy,” Matt pointed out.

“Dragon might eat you,” Luke added.

“Come on, Jackie Paper, give it up,” Jessica said. “We’ve been here for hours and I have paying clients to meet with…” Malcolm had her schedule. “…eventually. Probably.”

Colleen sat down next to Danny and put a hand on his knee. “Hey. Danny, talk to me. What’s the actual issue here?”

Danny frowned at her, then dropped his gaze back to the dragon in his lap. His eyes softened. “Look, I know she doesn’t belong here,” he admitted. “I do. But…I get what that’s like. Not to belong. And I thought that maybe if the two of us didn’t belong with anyone else…”

Matt’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s what this is? You’re looking for another fish out of water?” Shou Little raised her head at the word “fish.” “No, you had your dinner. These are metaphorical fish.”

“Stop arguing with the lizard, Murdock,” Jessica muttered.

“There wasn’t anyone like me in K'un Lun,” Danny said. “And there’s not anyone like me here.”

“You think there’s a lot of bulletproof dudes walking around this city?” Luke asked.

“Or people who can hear heartbeats?” Matt added.

“I carry a sword around a crowded metropolitan area,” Colleen pointed out.

They all looked at Jessica - well, except Matt.

“What?” she asked. “I’m completely normal. You four are the weirdoes.”

“See? And then there’s Jessica,” Matt said. Jessica flipped him the bird. “I know you did that.”

“That’s why I did it.”

“You’re not the only freak around,” Colleen said. “So why don’t you let Shou Little go back to where she belongs, huh?”

Danny sighed. Then he looked up at them and grinned. “Only if Jessica says she loves me just the way I am.”

Jessica crossed her arms. “Looks like we’re keeping the dragon.”

“Jessica.”

“What?”

-

This whole dragon thing was unutterably stupid, but Jessica wasn’t going to pass up a free trip to China if Danny was willing to cart all of them there. She’d take a week’s vacation in China over snapping dirty photos of cheating spouses any day. Even Claire and Misty and Matt’s fluffy lawyer friend had managed to get themselves invited.

Of course, it was entirely possible that Danny had invited them all because the kid was terrified of flying. He’d been deathly pale the whole way to the airport, and clutching the armrests of his seat long before they even started taxiing. Jessica was no good at comforting, so while the others kept Danny distracted and soothed up at the front of the plane, she sprawled sideways across some seats in the back, staring out the window and working her way through a few of those tiny bottles of hooch.

A scratching noise made her look up just as Shou Little - who Danny had given free run of the plane because he had a brain like a Hostess snack - clambered up onto her seat. Jessica sat still and wary as the baby dragon picked her way up over Jessica’s legs, her tiny claws poking through the denim. Shou Little sniffed at the bottle in Jessica’s hand, sneezed, then sat down and looked up at Jessica with shiny black eyes.

“What,” Jessica said.

Shou Little stared at her.

“Go on, go cuddle up to Danny,” Jessica said. “Or Nelson, he lost his mind over you.”

Shou Little didn’t budge. Jessica thought about dumping the thing off her lap, but…oh, fuck it, she wasn’t a total monster. And when was she going to get to chill with a dragon again?

“Fine, stay there if you want,” she said. “We’re landing in less than an hour anyway.”

She turned her head to gaze out the window again at the unfamiliar landscape far below. Shou Little inched closer, up over Jessica’s thighs and belly until she could peek out the window herself.

“What?” Jessica followed the dragon’s gaze to the ground. “That’s where you’re from. Whadya think?”

Shou Little stared blankly at Jessica, and Jessica realized belatedly she was talking to an animal like it could understand her. On the other hand, it was a magic animal. Who knew what the rules were?

Still, she dropped her voice so that the others couldn’t hear her. Well, Matt could still hear her, but if he tried to make fun of her for it later she had a list of burns as long as her arm that would probably make Lawyer Boy cry.

“Come on,” she said to Shou Little. “You didn’t want to stay in New York. It’s basically a pit. Way too many people and way overpriced. Plus you’d have to live with Danny and he’d probably make you do Mommy and Me yoga or something. You don’t want to sink to that level.”

Shou Little sank down against her and rested her head against Jessica’s stomach.

“Oh no,” Jessica said. “Don’t try to get around me. Better babies than you have tried. Malcolm…” Who she had eventually befriended and hired. Bad example. “Okay, Danny…” Who had convinced her to fly around the world on the silliest escapade she’d ever been a part of. “Whatever. Bambi eyes don’t work on me. And neither does cuddling."

Shou Little let out a tiny squeak of a yawn.

“…Ah, fuck it,” Jessica said, and gave in to the urge to pet the little monster, right behind her frilled crest. Shou Little closed her eyes and rested her head on her front claws.

“You’ll be okay,” Jessica told her. “Apparently there’s other dragons at this place. I guess even freaks of nature can manage to find each other.”

Something made her look up. Back up at the front of the plane, Danny was facing her, looking less pale than he had before, and Claire was leaning in saying something low and probably extremely sensible to him.

His gaze flickered to the dragon in her lap and then back up. Jessica scowled at him.

He grinned and gave her a thumbs up.

Jessica rolled her eyes and looked back down at the sleeping Shou Little. “See?” she whispered. “Even that dope. Even me.”

She looked out at the green, terraced landscape beneath them, growing closer every minute. “Yeah,” she said, running a finger down Shou Little’s spiny back. “You’ll be just fine.”

[avaalons]

Chris Evans Fic: Starting Over

Lil’ angsty ficlet for you here with a smidge of hope on the horizon: another anonymous request. You nonnies are just loving the angsty break up fics lately!

Enjoy!

***

Chris drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, impatient for the stop light to flash green. He just wanted to get this over with, because it was going to fucking hurt.

Driving to his own home, where he wasn’t currently living, to pick up his kids just so he could see them was something he never thought he would be doing. He’d waited so long to actually settle down, waited for his career to be at the right point so that he could give his all to his future wife and kids, that he just kind of assumed that when he finally did find the ‘one’, it would be for good. Never, not for one moment, did he envisage eight years after his wedding day, he’d have to knock on his own front door for his wife to let him in.

But that’s what he was doing. Only, it wasn’t his wife, you, that answered. It was the angelic face of his eldest daughter that peered around the door.

‘Hey dad,’ her voice was subdued. She was still sad and angry that her dad wasn’t living in the same house as her at the moment, and her seven year old brain didn’t know how to deal with it. She didn’t know who to blame: him for leaving or her mom for not letting him back. As long as she wasn’t blaming herself, that was the main thing. She stood back to let Chris in and turned to shout back into the house. ‘Boys! Come on, dad’s here!’

‘Cassie, sweetheart, you know you’re not supposed to answer the door,’ Chris kept his voice steady, not scolding, 'Me or your mom will…’

He drifted off as he realised what he said. He wouldn’t be answering the door because he wasn’t living there.

Her lip wobbled and Chris immediately dropped to his knees, opening his arms to her, 'Come here, baby girl.’

She flew to him, wrapping her little arms around his neck, burying her face against his tshirt.

'I hate you not being here. I just want you to come home, daddy!’ Her voice was muffled but thick with tears and he squeezed her gently, trying to soak up all her grief. He could feel tears prick his own eyes.

'I love you and your brothers so much. So much. And that will never change, okay?’

'It’s just not the same. I wanted special Mickey Mouse pancakes for my breakfast this morning because it’s Saturday, but you weren’t here,’ her words were punctuated with chest-wracking sobs.

Jesus. He could barely breathe for his own desolation. It had only been just over a week since he’d packed up a few things and reluctantly left the house to go and crash at a buddy’s and it was still raw. So raw.

Chris had done a lot of soul searching over the past week, trying to work out where he’d gone wrong. There hadn’t been anything major. No one had been unfaithful, there hadn’t been a massive, ear-blasting argument. You had both just… stopped being in a relationship with each other. But had you fallen out of love? That was the biggest question. If it was a matter of talking more, more date nights, doing special things for each other… that could be fixed but if the love had gone, that was much more terrifying.

Chris had no answer for the pancakes comment. He wouldn’t be here to make them in the morning as a Sunday alternative instead. And he couldn’t make them for her where he was staying because there wasn’t enough room for the kids at his friend’s house. The very thought of having to find a rental, or even worse, a permanent place to live, made him want to be sick.

All he could do was kiss her hair and hope she knew he loved her more than his own life.

'Where’s your mom?’ he asked gently.

'Right here,’ you replied from your spot in the doorway that lead through to the kitchen. You were stood with your arms wrapped around your middle and Chris had never seen you look so small or vulnerable. Your cheeks were damp from the tears you shed watching the emotional reunion of your husband and your daughter.

You watched Chris stand up, easily picking Cassie up as he went, keeping her head tucked against his neck as her sobs subsided into quiet snuffles.

He approached you slowly, like you were a wounded animal and you could barely look at him, the tragedy of this day overwhelming you and filling your eyes with tears again.

'Hi,’ he said, quietly, 'How have you been doing?’

You just shook your head, pulling your bottom lip between your teeth to try and keep the crying at bay.

'Sweetheart…,’ he whispered, pain etched across his features, but you shook your head again, holding a hand up to him to silently ask him to stop.

He sighed before continuing, 'Are the boys ready?’

You nodded and gestured to the room behind you, managing to get a few words out, 'Just getting their backpacks ready.’

'Okay. Cassie, have you got your things?’

His little girl pointed to a bag she’d set by the front door, her arm limp. Chris set her on the floor and she immediately clung to his leg.

'Can you do a big job for me?’ he asked, trying to placate her and she nodded, looking up at him with big blue eyes, 'Can you go and see what Freddie and Noah are up to? Help them get their bags ready?’

She sloped off to the kitchen, leaving Chris alone with you. You felt like your airways were closing up and you didn’t know what to do with yourself.

'Look at me,’ his voice was soft when he spoke but you knew you’d crumble completely if you looked at him and you promised yourself you’d keep it together.

You could feel him closing the distance and you backed up so you were against the wall. He reached out for one of your hands and turned it over in his before entwining his fingers with yours.

'What’s going on here? What are we doing?’ he pleaded.

You shrugged, 'I don’t know Chris. This just hurts too much.’

'I know it hurts, baby. I just don’t understand why, or how, we got here.’

'I guess we just… forgot how to be a couple. Were you happy? Like really happy?’

'I know I’m fucking miserable now.’

You did look up at him then, letting the tears come freely.

'Me too,’ you admitted, covering your face with your hands as let all your grief out.

Then two arms were around you: one around your waist, the other up your back so that his hand was cradling your head. You sobbed harder than ever and you could tell from his heaving chest that he was crying too.

'It’s going to be okay,’ he was adamant, 'We’re going to fix this, you hear me?’

You nodded against him, bunching the material of his tshirt between your fists. He pulled you back by the shoulders and tucked one hand under your chin so that you had to look at him.

'Firstly, we’ve got three gorgeous kids in there who need their mom and their dad. Secondly, we’ve been together ten years, married for eight, and we can’t just throw that away like this, right?’

'I know,’ you agreed, 'Thirdly?’

'Thirdly, I know you think I’ve fallen out of love with you, and I regret anything I’ve ever done or not done that has lead to you feeling like that, because you are my one. I love you more than I ever thought it was possible love someone else. So, if you still love me, then we’re going to fight for what we’ve got, okay? Because I am not giving up on this.’

Another wave of tears overtook you. Damnit! You just couldn’t get a grip on them.

'So do you?’ He asked tentatively, 'Still love me?’

You placed a palm on either side of his face, noting somewhere in your mind that he’d not trimmed his beard for some time. It was longer than he usually let it get.

'I love you, I do. But Chris, if we’re going to do this, we’ve got to get better at showing it to each other. I can’t be in a marriage where I spend half my time wondering if my husband actually even likes spending time with me or not.’

He closed his eyes, the words tearing at him, 'I’m so sorry, baby, so sorry.’

You rested your forehead against his, 'Let’s just get back on track, okay? I can’t deal with another week like this one, Chris, I can’t. I miss you so much, so much.’

The last words were barely above a whisper, betraying just how the previous week had torn at you.

'Whatever it takes. Do we need to consider therapy, together?’

'Got nothing to lose, have we?’

'Okay. You look into it, I’ll look into it, and we’ll see what we find.’

You nodded again, glad to have even one thing in pipeline to focus on.

'And I’m going to take the kids today, as planned. Could you drop them some overnight things off at your mom’s or my mom’s today?’

You looked at him in confusion, 'What? I…’

'Well, I think we need to go on a date tonight. Let’s start simple, yeah?’

'O-okay? Shall I meet you somewh-’

'No, stay here. Be ready to go for eight, okay?’ Chris was in full planning mode now, not wanting to lose this opportunity. He recognised he’d been given a shot and he intended to take it.

He rounded up his daughter and sons, helping them on with their back packs, and herded them into his waiting car. You waved to them from the top step of the porch, framed by the doorway, as Chris pulled away.

Once you were alone, you closed the door gently and leaned against it, trying to process everything that had just happened, and then set about preparing for the evening.

***

The kids seemed to be having fun at least, having temporarily forgotten the turmoil of the last week. Chris had taken them to the aquarium as they were all quite science minded and were interested in all the things they could learn about various aquatic creatures. Freddie especially was enthralled by all the shark exhibitions ('But they’re friendly really dad!’ He’d tried to explain but Chris wasn’t convinced) and Noah liked the turtles and frogs. His little princess, to his horror, fawned over the snakes, calling them cute, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head when Cassie asked if she could get a pet snake.

They all ate lunch in the aquarium restaurant, sat in a booth shaped like a captain’s cabin and Chris was able to quickly get on the phone and make some reservations. He felt positive, a definite improvement on the overwhelming sadness he’d experienced for the last week, and spending some quality time with his children was helping to lift his spirits also. He wanted his family back together as soon as possible, of that he was certain.

After they’d spent a small fortune in the gift shop, Chris typed out a quick text to you:

Grandma’s or Nana’s? xx

Your reply was quick:

Nana’s. Your mom has Carly’s kids over tonight and I didn’t want to to double her workload with ours xx

He smiled at the chatty nature of your reply and the use of 'ours’. You were still a unit.

Okay, see you at 8 beautiful xx

What’s the dress code? xx

Whatever you want. Put your sweats on and still be the most stunning woman around xx

All right Casanova, calm down. I’ll see you at 8 xxx

Your husband of eight years had actually made you blush over text.

***

You were ready. You dug around in your wardrobe for a dress you hadn’t worn in years and managed to put an outfit together that you thought would pass as date clothing. It was a deep muted purple pencil cut with a Bardot neckline. Simple, but sexy. You chose some white gold and diamond earrings that Chris gifted to you on one of your anniversaries and some black strapped heels, your favourite, sinfully high pair that went with everything. You teased your hair into loose waves and combed a deep side part in, tucking the small side behind your ear for an old Hollywood glamour feel. A touch of smoky eye, lashings of mascara and a swipe of soft nude lipstick completed the look and as you stood in the full length mirror, you couldn’t even remember the last time you looked like this.

It had been so long since you dressed up for Chris and you wondered if you should do it more often. You knew he actively liked your yoga pants and thin tshirts and ponytails, you knew he found casual sexy, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t like to see you dressed up once in a while, knowing it was all for him.

When you finished, it was seven forty and you headed to the kitchen for a small glass of Prosecco just to calm your nerves. For some reason, this was more nerve wracking than any first date you’d ever been on, but you guessed it was because there was so much more riding on it. A whole future, in fact.

Well the doorbell rang, you jumped a little even though you had been expecting it. You switched all the lights off as you moved through the rooms, grabbing your clutch bag as you passed the side table in the hall.

You opened the door, anticipation making your hands tremble a little and there he was, looking sharp in a well cut dark grey suit and crisp, white v-neck shirt. He smiled, his blue eyes twinkling, and he held out his hand, pulling you to him to drop a kiss against your cheek when you placed your hand in his.

'Hi, I’m Chris, it’s so nice to meet you, finally. I’ve heard so much about you. Can I just say that you look absolutely breath-taking?’ His polite smile turned to a cheeky grin as he watched your surprised reaction at his game.

'It’s nice to meet you too,’ you replied, playing along. 'Where are we off to tonight?’

'It’s a surprise, but I think you’ll like it.’

He held out his arm for you to hold on to as he escorted you down the steps and into the passenger seat of the car.

You watched him walk around the front of the car, illuminated by the headlights. He settled into the driver’s seat and took the handbrake off.

'Ready?’ he asked, a questioning expression on his face.

You answered with a definitive nod of your head, linking your hand with his over the armrest between you.

'Ready.’