#but anyways this is a rambling mess of thoughts good luck navigating it

[shuriflurry]

Season 1 of Owl House: complete. And it was fine. It was ok. It was 19 episodes of mostly wasted potential. But that's ok (I guess).

I really liked the 2nd to last episode, which is unfortunate in a way because it made me question even harder why the previous 17 episodes had been so bleh. It really feels like the creators were focusing on all the wrong aspects during this first season. This is gonna get long soooo....

The best example I can think of for how the team wasted time was by them needing to show us repeatedly that Willow gets bullied. Like, I understood that from the 3rd episode. I didn't need to be shown and have entire episodes about how Willow gets bullied. The subplot between Amity and Willow's past also felt unnecessary (Amity saying "I can't be friends with them. They're mean!" did make me go into an actual fit of hysterics though. God forbid Amity just be a nasty, feral demon child). I think one of the benefits of this being a Disney channel Y7 show is that viewers can pick up on little stereotypes and tropes to make inferences about character archetypes and such and get a feel for the characters without needing to be shown or told (and don't tell me kids can't do that. Children are not stupid). Which isn't to say that means they should have removed ALL backstory. It just means IMO that the back stories they focused on really didn't add to the greater story and instead seemed to exist as a way to purge Amity of any wrongdoing.

I didn't mind Lilith's role in the season, but I found her motivations to be muddy and the timeline didn't seem to make much sense. I also found it hard to believe she was forgiven that easily for what she had done. I don't hate Lilith, and I 100% see what they were going for, but I think it needed a bit more time on the writing table/it needed to be mentioned earlier.

Like, instead of Eda learning Lilith is the reason she's cursed, get mad at her, then forgive her in the course of like one week (being generous), have Eda have learned about it years ago. Have Eda be festering in her anger for what her sister did while also missing her terribly. Have Lilith be trying to fix it the only way she knows how to (I'm blatantly ignoring the pain sharing spell because it's dumb). And have them finally make up at the end when the one thing Eda was convinced Lilith would never do - betray the Emperor - is exactly what she does and it's only then they can fix their relationship.

Speaking of the Emperor: I'm into that funky dude. I liked his little chair (both of them!). I liked that he had a cool room. LOVED the beating heart over him. Liked the thought of him dealing with elementary school children in his house. He seems threatening? He has a cool blue eye. Willing to do public executions. All good things IMO. My only complaint is that he was such a non-entity for every other episode this season.

I think it would have been really cool to drop little hints about him throughout the earlier episodes, but because we see the world through the eyes of Luz it gets brushed off/not addressed. For example, statues of him in the background, or the book King was reading in the finale on a table during the library episode. Just anything so when he does finally appear it means something lmao.

These thoughts are very disjointed and I'm sorry if they don't make sense. But I also feel like that's the best way to summarize my feelings towards The Owl House season 1. It was disjointed. It was sloppy. It went off on unnecessary tangents. It had plots that seemed interesting and then made no sense or got dropped.

I still love Amity even though she is already starting to be a shell of her former self. I like Belos even though I know he turns out to be one big nothing burger. But even still, I'm tentatively positive Season 2 will be more solid.

[danadeservesadrink]

Do You Believe in Fate Chapter 6

Are You Free On Thursday?

Read on AO3 here 

Tagging @today-in-fic @baronessblixen and @suitablyaggrieved

“Dana Scully speaking”

“Are you free on Thursday?”

“What’s Thursday?”

“Well Thursday really could be anything you want, but I really could use another tour of the town, and I believe I still owe you a trip to your favorite restaurant…”

“Oh, so Thursday’s a date?”

“Yes”

“I really, really would love to, but my car is in the shop and I don't want to have to make my mother drive me all the way to the city, could we do Saturday?”

“I can pick you up.”

“Mulder that's silly, you’d be driving all the way here and back and I have to be in the city the day after anyway, early too-”

“You could sleep with me?”

“Mulder!”

“Not like that. I can take the couch and you can have the bed. It’ll be like a sleepover. You can stay the whole weekend”

“I have a hotel room already. I just can’t check in until Friday night.”

“Oh.”

“But I suppose a ride to the city and comfortable accommodations are too good of an offer to refuse”

“Don’t forget the free dinner”

“How could I? You’ll have to meet my mother when you pick me up. Think you can handle that?”

“ Scully , meeting the parents already? Should we be picking out china patterns?”

“Don’t make that joke in front of her, she’ll take it seriously”

“Trust me, I’ll be ok. I met your sister and that went well”

“On the taxi ride back from the bar she discussed repeatedly the ways she would have taken you down had you not been so charming”

“See! She likes me.”

“Mhmm”

“I promise. Best behavior, cross my heart”

“Alright Mulder. I’ll see you Thursday”

“See you Thursday”

Mulder was nervous. Probably more nervous than their first date. How was a second date more nerve-wracking than a first?

Because you’ve finally convinced her that you're a half decent man worth spending her time on, and if you mess this up that will most certainly be the nail in the coffin for any form of a relationship with the incredible Dr. Dana Scully. And also you’re meeting her mother.

The entire drive up he had been focusing much less on the road and mostly on the thought of the visit that was to come. It felt like he’d been in the car for eons when he finally pulled up the gravel driveway to the Scully household.

The house looked like a home. It looked lived in, with the various shingles tilting down at an angle and toys strewn about the front yard. There was a garden containing marigolds and tulips, but wildflowers sprouted up between neatly planted rows. A small red tricycle was left abandoned next to the spot where he had parked. He left his car and walked up the front porch, observing dolls, shovels, and magnifying glasses left on the staircase like an archaeologist. If he wasn’t mistaken there was a plastic pizza pie slice wrapped in the tendrils of a morning glory plant. He found himself thinking about how Little Shop of Horrors would have been a lot funnier if Audrey II preferred pepperoni as he rang the doorbell.

He was hoping Scully would answer but instead he was greeted by the one Scully he hadn’t met yet.

She was just as short as the rest of them, but instead of the red hair usually accompanying the Scully women, her hair was a curly brown, tucked behind her ears as she watched the child pressed to her chest fuss. When she saw him she beamed and he recognized the Scully smile.

“Dana, your friend is here!” She shouted back over her shoulder, and then turned back to Mulder. He grinned back sheepishly as he extended a hand. She shifted the child on her hip and shook it warmly.

“Fox Mulder” he didn’t know why he sounded so formal, but she chuckled anyway and it reminded him of Scully.

“Maggie Scully, dear. Come in, make yourself at home.” He walked into the house, hands in his pockets and took in the warm chaos of the Scully household. It looked just like the outside but more clustered. Toys littered the floor and he found himself watching his step as he navigated the room. The living room had a large fireplace surrounded by bricks, the mantle decorated in family pictures and wooden statues. Maggie bustled about, picking up a stuffed duck off the couch and handing it to the baby, who immediately cooed and wrapped its arms around it.

“Sit” she insisted, pointing at the leather couch, so Mulder sat and sunk deep into the comforting cushions. “Did you want anything to drink dear?”

“No thank you” he replied, and watched as she headed into the kitchen, still taking in every element of the Scully household. It was in stark contrast to the household he grew up in. His childhood halls had been decked with wax fruit baskets and wine cabinets, shelves stacked high with glass teacups that he was not permitted to run near, the tinkling of their dainty handles alerting his mother to any misbehaving. His mind wandered to thoughts of a little red-headed Scully running through these halls.

Maggie returned sans baby and began picking up more toys that he hadn't even seen under the coffee table.

“Dana’s upstairs getting ready, I’m sure she’ll be down in a minute. So tell me Fox, what do you do?” He chuckled to himself hearing his name spoken aloud. When it came from the mouth of a Scully, the typical disdain he felt for it was absent. Perhaps it was because of the genuine warmth with which she said it, warmth he was unfamiliar with coming from even his own mother, that he didn't correct her. Instead he simply grinned back and answered.

“I work at the FBI.” She raised an eyebrow and he could tell she was holding back a comment. He hadn’t expected to make it through the day completely unscathed. He felt more like he was picking up his date for prom now.  

“I see. I assume you went to a good school then.”

“I went to Oxford. Got my Ph.D there as well.” That seemed to impress her more than it had impressed her daughter. Delighted at the change of subject, Maggie began to ramble.

“Oh England is just beautiful isn’t it. I’ve always wanted to go, but my husband never had the chance to take me before her passed, and now with Emily…”

“Emily?” Mulder was confused, forgetting momentarily about the infant in the next room.

“Oh did Dana not tell you?” Maggie looked genuinely concerned as she spoke, glancing over his shoulder at the staircase Scully would presumably be coming down. He was quick to correct.

“No no, I’m aware, I just… I never knew her name” He stared down at his shoes, feeling remarkably embarrassed that he had never asked. Maggie considered him for a moment then rose from her seat.

“Well I suppose you need a proper introduction then. Come on.” She walked back into the kitchen and Mulder followed her, feeling more like he was meeting a new boss than a baby. The disorder of the house seemed to be contained in the living room, the kitchen seeming far more clean. He noticed pencil scratches on the side of the doorway, making a mental note to check if Scully had always been so little.

Inside the kitchen was one of those toys that looked like a space shuttle control board for children, with a little girl bouncing inside, pressing buttons and spinning plastic rings to launch what he imagined were very adorable space ships. The girl upon spotting Maggie, babbled and raised both arms, bouncing up and down causing the toy to rattle and shake.

“Up, up!” she bossed, and Mulder could see the resemblance. Maggie bent and hoisted the little girl out of her play station, and walked over to Mulder.

“Emily, sweetheart, this is Fox. Can you say hi to Fox?” Mulder offered up a little wave, stooping forward to be on eye level with her. Emily decidedly did not like him, and buried her face in her grandmother’s neck. He chuckled and Maggie rolled her eyes at the little one. She turned to aim the baby’s face at Mulder, and her eyes briefly locked onto his, bright blue and quizzical. He waved again and smiled. She didn’t break the gaze, although she still clung to Maggie like a life preserver, so he took that as a victory.

“She doesn’t like strangers” came a voice from the doorway, and Mulder turned to see Scully leaning on the frame, her height almost matching up to one of the scratchy little marks. He beamed when he saw her and she stared bashfully at the ground, attempting to contain the smile on her lips. Maggie noticed and smiled herself.

“Well it's never too early to learn stranger danger” he crossed the kitchen to stand close to her while Maggie placed Emily back into her seat. “You look beautiful”

She smiled and looked back up at him. She was only in a sweater and jeans but she still took his breath away.

“Do they teach stranger danger in the FBI academy Mulder?” she quipped, and he was filled with the urge to bend down and kiss the smirk off her lips. She saw it in his eyes and glanced over at her mother in silent warning.

“You two should get going, it's a beautiful day out and Dana hasn’t been outside all week.” Scully looked embarrassed as Mulder chuckled and mouthed “All week?” at her. She swatted him away but he saw her grin.

“I’ll get her some sunshine, don’t you worry. You ready to go Scully?” Scully nodded and gave her mother a kiss on the cheek, then followed Mulder back out of the house.  

He opened the door to his Ford for her and she thanked him.  They buzzed in impatient silence until Mulder had backed out of the driveway. He didn’t hit the bike on the way out.

“Your mother is nice” Scully smiled and Mulder was just so relieved the meeting had gone well.

“She can be a handful sometimes but she takes good care of us.”

He nodded, unfamiliar with what it felt like to be satisfied with a parent. He decided to try his luck.

“She’s a cute kid, Emily.”

Scully nodded, and he noticed she was staring out the window. Typically when he complimented a baby, the mother would begin to gush. One of the women in the bullpen had a kid and hasn’t shut up about it, plastering the kids face all over her cubicle, talking about how well he was eating his Cheerios and counting his toes. But Scully just stared silently. He noticed how Maggie seemed to be the only one to hold Emily. He wondered how long it took Scully after her return to pick her up. He thought about the cognitive psychology behind the mother-child connection and how its best formed in the early months after the birth.

With a thousand questions pinging around in his brain, he decided instead to turn up the radio. He turned back to the road just as she turned to look back at him, their eyes never quite connecting. He let his hand rest over the center console and he felt her pinky nudging his cautiously. Their hands did a little dance and with a flutter in his heart he gently interlaced their fingers, eyes still stuck on the road in front of him.

“So what do you have planned on this sunny Thursday afternoon?

-

It was a picnic. He had planned a picnic, basket and all and her heart was beating out of her chest with feelings for him. He had refused to tell her in the car so she was bursting with anticipation by the time they arrived in the city. He drove past all the restaurants, much to her confusion, and straight to a rolling park she had never had the chance to explore while she was living there. He popped the trunk and pulled a picnic blanket and basket you and her heart melted. She watched him carefully navigate the sandy path down to a lake, spread the blanket out with a flourish, and gestured like a magician at the ground for her to sit.

She obliged, and he followed suit shortly after.

“So I’m hesitant to ask, but please tell me you brought actual food in that basket. I’m starved”

“Scully you wound me. You think I would take you out on a lakeside picnic and fail to serve you any food?” He reached around her and brought the basket between them, coming close enough where she could smell his cologne.

“I didn’t know you cooked”

“I didn’t.” He opens the basket to reveal 4 takeout containers and a small bottle of white wine with glasses.

She was absolutely and completely charmed.  

In between bites of sweet and sour chicken she talked about her job, about how Missy is moving apartments, about everything and nothing all at once. She talks with such passion about her job, about the kids she treats. He has no doubt she has memorized each and every one of their names. She tells him how Joseph has been doing so well lately, and how she hopes he’ll be home by the end of the month. He can see the glow of pride in her cheeks when she tells him how she received a letter from one of her older patients telling her she just graduated high school. With every story and anecdote Mulder could see truly how much love Dana Scully had in her heart. He found himself desperate to hear her talk of him in the same fashion.

He studies her lips as they wrap around the final bite of rice. He hasn’t gotten the chance to kiss her again since their last meeting. That kiss was all passion, his lips fuzzy from the liquor, a kiss meant to show gratitude, to convey belief. Her receptiveness was everything he needed and more. His dreams were now grounded in the solidity of her lips on his, and when he woke from them he could still taste the honey sweet beer and salt.

He wanted to taste her again. He wanted to kiss her with spice and wine on her lips. He wanted to taste her with nothing but chap-stick and her sweet, intoxicating scent. He had never wanted anything more.

She noticed him watching her and raised an eyebrow. He leaned over and took the wine glass out of her hand, placing it safely on top of the basket. She was about to question his actions but he leaned over on all fours so his hands bordered her hips and any complaints she had were sucked back in with a gasp. He smiled at her as she stared into his eyes and hoped with every fiber that she could somehow understand everything his eyes were saying.

He closed the gap and pressed his lips into hers, almost knocking her backwards, but she snaked her arms around his neck and clung to him. This kiss was about passion, but not the desperate, I need you to believe me , kind. This was the kind of passion shared between two souls who have been intertwined for millennium, like comets in orbits destined to crash into each other. In a park neither of them had never been to, under the sun and God and whoever else was watching he made a promise to her that he would never leave.

She understood. He knew because of the way her hand caressed his back, dipping under the collar of his shirt. He knew because of the way she arched into his chest, pulling him closer yet never breaking their kiss. He knew because she whimpered in his ear when he moved on to sucking the skin around her pulse point. He knew because they threw all of the empty containers and dirtied glasses haphazardly into the basket, and she pulled him towards his own car and insisted he drive them home.

[rohad93]

Sea Glass: Ch - 13

18+

The strong winds pushed the boat through the water at a quick clip. They had lucked out that this small sailing boat was quick and agile as it cut through the water in a spray of mist. Mercifully it had been empty as well, so they hadn't had to drop any... unwanted cargo over the side to start with. It was always easier if you didn't have to start with a mess. 

At least in Blue’s opinion. She prefered not to have to leave a boarded ship a bloody murder scene if she could help it, though it was sometimes unavoidable. 

Yellow was sitting with the map spread across her knees, the corners of the paper flapping in the breeze and doing her best to track their trajectory and estimate when they might make landfall. Not the easiest of tasks in the day with no stars to guide them or with no compass to help her accurately measure anything, but Yellow was a more than experienced sailor and navigator, as was she, but it was just easier to let Yellow do it than have a pointless argument about it when she didn’t care that much to do it anyway. 

She preferred to let Holly do all formal course charting, Blue just picked the destinations more often than not. Though when she wanted to be alone she would steer the ship herself.

Whoever this boat had belonged to had taken good care of it, she could tell just by the sheen of the deck and the intricate and well-done knots in all the rigging. By a few of them she would have to say someone who at one point had been in the navy.

Yellow grumbled to herself as she moved, the fingers of her right hand trailing slowly across the map, trying in vain to accurately plot out their course. 

Blue smirked to herself watching from the corner of her eye before turning back to look at the ocean as they sailed through the water; nothing as far as the eye could see but water and sky. 

Just the way she liked it.

This was probably the most relaxed she had been since this entire debacle had started.

The ocean was the only place that had ever really been home to Blue. She could remember quite clearly every torturous day she had spent landlocked before she had found her true calling at sea.

She stared out at the waves, the salty spray on her face, along with the sounds of the water, and the wind whipping through her hair created a white noise that pushed her mind into that quiet, contemplative place as she thought about those days that she would rather leave behind her.

Even then the sea had been her greatest source of comfort, though in a very different way.

She'd had the most spectacular view of it from one of the windows in the downstairs sitting room. From the fainting couch pushed against the farthest wall, she'd watch the waves break against the rocky shore below the ridge the house sat atop in flashes of white foam for hours. The sounds of the water rushing over the stone and sand was one of the only things that eased her mind. 

 Rose sometimes sat at her feet playing on the smooth, pale, cedarwood floor of the parlor. 

She'd smile down at her and the ten-year-old would grin back at her before going back to whatever game she had concocted for herself, totally unaware of the situation they found themselves in every day in this house by the sea. 

Which was exactly as Blue wished to keep it, though, it wasn’t to be, she simply hadn’t known it at the time. 

Sometimes they would play ‘I spy’ despite the fact that they had long ago run out of new things to spy in the never-changing room. There were other rooms, but more often than not servants would be nearby, watching, and she trusted none of them, a lesson she’d learned the hard way.

More importantly, this room offered the best view of the sea from inside its blush-colored walls

Every day here made her wish for something else, anything else, anywhere else.

Days passed by nearly unaccounted for were it not for the physical changing of the seasons she witnessed outside the windows. The changing of the leaves in autumn and the ice and snow that followed in the winter. 

She felt like a specter, moving about the houses three stories and multiple halls and rooms aimlessly, like she was lost on the other side, looking for the purpose that would finally let her rest in peace, her dark crimson gown trailing behind her wherever she went. She’d long ago stopped caring about dragging it through the dirt and dust of the floor. 

He didn’t like that, and scolded her for it whenever he caught her. 

The second-floor balcony also had a spectacular view of the ocean and the new 'lighthouse', as they called it, that had been newly constructed several hundred yards out in the water.

She was rarely permitted outdoors though, and the view was not worth the risk of what might happen were she caught. Even the two first floor porches on either side were off-limits to her.

She was to be seen only when he allowed it, which was rarely. 

Thus, she was relegated most days to the fainting couch and the window that looked out over the ocean, wondering what lay beyond the horizon line and wondering what it would be like to see it for herself. 

Ringed fingers fisted into the fabric of her trousers.

"Are you feeling ill?" 

Blue was jerked from her memories by the question. 

Yellow was looking at her with furrowed brows and dare she flatter herself by saying, worry, in those bright amber eyes. 

“I’m fine,” she assured with a smile. Yellow just stared back at her for a long moment before humming and turning her gaze back to the map in her lap with a pointed glare that made Blue grin.

Always so serious, but she had to admit, it was charming in its own way. One knew exactly what they were getting with Marigold “Yellow Diamond” Faust. She was blunt, brutal, and straight to the point. 

With hidden talents and depths that Blue had never really considered before now. 

Her smile fell away, lips pressing into a straight line as she thought about something, it had been eating at her off and on since she’d woken up but she hadn’t yet had the chance to say anything, they had been a little preoccupied after all.

While she had been out of it, for the most part, she had a very clear memory of being half-awake, and watching herself, as though she were watching someone else’s hand reach up and run their fingers over the brand on Yellow’s arm.

She’d sailed around the Caribbean enough to know that brand, but her mind had been too foggy to figure out what she was looking at at the time, much less speak. Her mind had since cleared up 

In very rare form Yellow had given where she hadn’t even been asked, granted she thought Blue was so fevered that she probably wouldn’t remember, she had still shared something with her that seemed to have incredible significance to herself and for once, Blue felt guilty.

She doubted Yellow would have ever shared that information with her if she thought she had been lucid enough to remember and guilt about it was strangely eating at her insides. 

Blue could probably count on one hand how many times she had felt guilty about something since she had first set sail, and all of them had involved her sister in one form or another. 

Not to mention there was still the matter of her damned drunken rambling and how rum made her lips much to loose for her liking. 

There seemed to be more and more unspoken things between them everyday for two people quite literally chained together.

She worried her bottom lip between her teeth, glancing back at the blonde from the corner of her eye. 

Amber eyes roved over the map, glancing up occasionally to look at the sail, gauging their heading

Blue sighed to herself, leaning back as she turned her gaze back to the sea. She didn’t have it in her to start the kind of conversation any of those things would make.

There was a small island coming up in front of them, more a large pile of rocks and dirt than a true island. Past that, a barely visible smudge on the horizon.

Blue squinted into the distance.

“What is that?” she mumbled to herself, before turning to Yellow and tapping her leg. “Give me the spyglass...” She held out her hand. Yellow grunted, pulling the tool out of her coat pocket and handing it to Blue, but otherwise didn’t look up.

Peering through the glass, Blue could see that the smudge in the distance was actually a large galleon ship, at the top of its main mast was a solid white flag. 

Who was flying a flag of surrender?

A chill shot down Blue’s spine and it was an effort to make her mouth and lips do what she wanted.

“Marigold…,” her voice came out barely above a whisper, the lump in her throat blocking most of her breath.

Yellow’s head jerked up, hearing not only her name but the dramatic shift in Blue’s tone.

“What is it?” Her face contorted into concern as she rolled up the map and slipped it back into it’s bottle. 

Blue swallowed thickly and simply held the spyglass out to Yellow.

The blonde took it and peered out at whatever had made Blue turn so pale. 

Her spine stiffened as she spotted the ship sailing the white flag.

“White Diamond…,” she breathed before tearing the looking glass away from her eye and shoving it into her pocket. “We need to change course, now!” 

They moved as quickly as the chain allowed them and changed course to the opposite side of the small island they had been coming up on and let the ship wash ashore.

They stayed low, and silent, after a while they saw the large galleon flying it’s solid white flags sail by a way beyond their small hub.

“I’d heard she was in the far west, terrorizing Jamaica and Port Royal…,” Blue mumbled as they watched the infamous ship grow smaller and smaller in the distance, the knot that had suddenly tied itself in Yellow’s belly slowly coming loose as it was once again a smudge on the horizon line.

“It seems she's back…,” Yellow sneered, still looking out into the distance.

White Diamond, that was it. Just White Diamond. 

If she ever had another name, no one knew it, not anymore. There was only the moniker that every other pirate in the Carribean knew her by. That and the tell-tale white flags she chose to fly. 

The white flag, traditionally a symbol of the bearer’s surrender, but not on White Diamond’s ship. It was a sign that any encroaching ship should surrender, or be destroyed down to the last man. 

Though Yellow knew for a fact though that there would be total slaughter on any ship White Diamond boarded, regardless of any previous surrender. Surrendering to The Prism was as good as standing before a firing squad.

She’d been terrorizing the seas since Yellow had been a child, she couldn’t believe she was even still alive, and was still the most feared pirate anywhere in the Caribbean. 

The ‘Diamond’ moniker she had had for years was the reason that She and Blue had garnered their own similar epithets. 

White had been the only well known female pirate for years, when Yellow had come along, with her amber eyes and bright blonde hair and a name like ‘Marigold’, and people had been quick to saddle her with “Yellow Diamond”. The same could be said for Blue a few years later,’ Ciel, with her cerulean eyes and penchant for the bright cobalt colors in her wardrobe, had quickly been titled “Blue Diamond” by friends and enemies alike.

She had seen White Diamond only once, with her own eyes, years ago. 

She was the reason Yellow had left the first ship she had ever sailed on. She had attacked it, killing everyone on board. Yellow had only barely escaped.

She unconsciously reached up to rub the scar on her forehead, an old, hot, hatred bubbling up in her gut.

Yellow had been quiet for a long while, and Blue looked at her questioningly, but Yellow seemed to be lost in thought, running the fingers of her right hand across the scar on her forehead. 

“It should be safe to go…” Blue stood up, dragging Yellow from her thoughts with the slight tug of the chain that made both of them flinch. 

“Yeah…,” Yellow mumbled as she stood, her hand falling away from the old but still very distinct scar that bisected her brow and disappeared into her hairline. 

They managed to get the boat pushed off the sandbar and back out into the water, though it was no small feat, especially climbing back in while being tethered together by the wrist. 

The salt water splashed up their legs and arms, seeping beneath the cuffs and burning the tender flesh. 

Once the sail was back up, it was quickly positioned back in the right to direction to have them sailing back toward Grenada.

[ezrisdax-archive]

getting to know you (it's not what I wanted)

Slowly, and begrudgingly, Agnes grows on Raffi. (also here on ao3 and more a pre-slash than anything but they’ll get there)

~~

“I haven’t been on a ship in a while.” Agnes was rambling and she knew it. The quiet of the ship was just getting to her. “Well I was never on too many ships anyway. That’s not something we did much in my lab at Daystrom.”

“Does she every stop?” Raffi interrupted, glancing over not so subtly at Agnes.

“Oh.” Agnes at least could take the hint. “Sorry.”

Behind them Jean Luc was smiling and Cristobal was rolling his eyes.

“It’s just, where are we going? I noticed this isn’t heading towards Freecloud and I thought we’d decided on that and-”

Raffi sighed, shaking her head.

“We’ve got some stops to make first.” Jean Luc told her, making Agnes look back from where she was sitting. “I need to pick up another friend.”

“Can we at least background check this friend first?” Raffi asked, her voice dry and she was looking back over at Agnes.

“You could background check me. I worked at Daystrom, obviously. But before that I was in Starfleet.”

Raffi winced and exchanged a glance with Cristobal.

“And before that-”

“I’m not actually looking for your life story.”

“Right. Sorry.” Agnes shrunk a little in her seat and stared out the viewscreen.

~~

“You know I didn’t get your name. But Picard called you Raffi, right?” Agnes held out her hand again. She’d fallen asleep in the navigation chair, the adrenaline of the day getting to her as it wore off. Jean Luc had woken her and then pushed her towards a small quarters and a helpful EMH had told her they were hers to use.

Then she’d woken up, hungry and wandered out into the hall and straight into Raffi.

Raffi looked at her hand and then up at her face, ignoring the proffered hand. “He did.”

Agnes dropped her hand, her smile losing some of it’s shine but still there.

Raffi sighed and slowly uncrossed her arms to offer her hand, “I guess if you’re going to be here you can call me that.”

Without hesitation Agnes took her hand and beamed at her. “What do you think about synthetics?”

“Not quite my area of expertise.” Raffi pulled her hand away and turned to walk off but Agnes kept up pace with her.

“It’s my area. Well it was until Starfleet cut it, but I still work with it in theory! And the idea that out there is an advanced synthetic lifeform that doesn’t even know what it is? I cannot wait to see it.”

“Good for you.” Raffi said sharply, trying to cut the conversation.

“What was it you were looking for on Freecloud?”

“Not your business.”

“Oh.” Agnes said and was quiet as they reached the room that served as a mess hall.

The EMH came to life as they entered.

“Our programmed selection is lacking a little but I’m certain I can help you find what you need.” He said, smiling at both of them and it was a little odd that he looked like Cristobal with none of the harshness.

“I’m good.” Raffi said.

“Thank you for the help!” Agnes said at the same time. “We appreciate.”

“We?” Raffi began, “I didn’t invite you to lunch.”

“Did I sleep past breakfast? That isn’t like me…” Agnes mused, ignoring the important part of what Raffi said.

Raffi rolled her eyes and begrudgingly allowed herself to have a lunch companion.

~~

Elnor didn’t talk much when they picked him up from the planet which Raffi didn’t mind at all.

They’d had one hell of a time on the planet, in the city that had been declared Romulan only and Picard had refused to read the sign and had them enter anyway.

Agnes certainly seemed shaken up, her leg bouncing as she sat down.

“I thought you were Starfleet.” Raffi finally said, having enough of the nerves. “Didn’t you ever go on away missions?”

“Not really.” Agnes replied, smiling at her though it was strained. “That wasn’t much my thing.”

Raffi hummed, her fingers itching for another hit after the harrowing experience. She could just leave, not offer anything, it wasn’t her business.

“You get used to it.” Raff said instead as she stood up.

“You think?” Agnes craned her neck to look up at Raffi, her eyes wide.

“Maybe.” Raffi shrugged. “Only time will tell.”

“Right.” Agnes agreed.

As she was leaving Raffi could hear Agnes mutter to herself ‘I can do this’ and suppressed an amused smile.

~~

“Why do you do that?” Agnes asked, finding her days later in the mess hall.

The ship had taken some damage from Romulans chasing after them and was in need of repair. They’d all been working throughout the day trying to get it manageable again.

Raffi looked down at the stick in her fingers, the drug held within it calling to her.

“It helps.”

“Helps what?”

“To forget.” Raffi said, her voice angry and bitter and sad all at once.

Agnes shifted on her feet and after a moment of hesitation took a seat next to her.

“I listen to music. When I need to empty my head because all the thoughts get too much.”

Raffi glanced over at her from the corner of her eye. “What kind of music?”

Agnes’ eyes crinkled in the edges when she smiled. Up close they were hazel, something Raffi hadn’t taken notice of before.

“EMH?” Agnes asked and he appeared before them, smiling at Agnes.

Raffi snorted in bemusement that they already seemed like best friends.

“Please play the selection I uploaded yesterday.”

Classical music filled the air and Raffi shut her eyes. She took another hit without a word and leaned back, her shoulder brushing Agnes.

She didn’t bother moving away.

~~

“Wait!” Agnes rushed to get out, her breath catching in her throat.

“We don’t have the time.” Raffi shot back and grabbed her hand to drag Agnes along.

Behind them Romulans were getting ever closer.

“In here.” Raffi said and without giving Agnes time to argue she pulled them down an alley and into an open door that she then shut.

Instantly Agne’s free hand danced over the console and then the door clicked shut at is locked.

“Do you think that’s enough?” Agnes asked, her face impossible to see in the dark but Raffi could imagine her eyes were wide and full of worry.

“We’ll see.” Raffi tried hard to still her breathing but her lungs burned. The drugs did her no favours in moments like these, stealing what oxygen she needed.

They both stiffened as footsteps raced past them. Agnes hand squeezed hers hard enough to hurt but Raffi didn’t pull away.

When the footsteps fell silent they breathed a sigh of relief.

“Come on. We’re not done yet.” Raffi grumbled and tugged at Agnes hand.

She could have let go after that.

She didn’t.

~~

“Here, I rescued what I could from the data.” Raffi said and passed over the padd to Agnes. She’d gone on the away mission to gather a cache of Maddox’s data that Agnes had discovered on a blip transmitting on a secret channel.

Agnes’ face lit up and she grabbed the padd but a second later reached over to hug Raffi.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“It’s just data.” Raffi muttered but leaned into the hug.

Agnes pulled back, still grinning. “It’s important to me.”

“Yeah. I figured.” Raffi rubbed at the side of her waist, feeling too warm from the hug but not necessarily bad. It could have gone on longer, she wouldn’t have complained.

Too much.

Agnes was lost, her eyes darting around the padd and taking in everything and Raffi sighed as she settled down next to her.

“Hey, EMH?” Raffi called out as she dug her stick out of her pocket.

He appeared with a flicker.

“Play our songlist.” Raffi said and ignored how the EMH raised an eyebrow at her.

~~

“You’re leaving?” Agnes sounded betrayed. Like Raffi hadn’t warned everyone this was coming.

“We’re almost at Freecloud. I’m getting off then.” Raffi refused to look up at her, continuing her packing.

“But…what about everything we still need to do.”

“You can do it without me.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

Raffi did look up at that and instantly regretted it. The look of devastation across Agnes face tugged at her heart and was exactly the reason Raffi needed off this ship.

She didn’t need this.

Counting on people got you nowhere.

“Tough luck.” Raffi made herself say.

Agnes stormed out much to Raffi’s surprise. Her throat felt tight as she watched Agnes goes and her eyes burned as she turned back to her bag.

“Here.” Agnes said, rushing back into the room and shoving something in Raffi’s face. “Call if you need us.”

A commbadge was tucked into her hand and Agnes held it there, the metal warm between them. Her eyes met Raffi’s and held her gaze and Raffi couldn’t look away if she wanted to.

It was on the tip of her tongue to say she’d stay.

Except then Agnes pulled away, blinking back the tears.

This time when she left the room she didn’t return and Raffi was left there with the horrible silence.

~~

She was going to live to regret this.

If she lived at all.

Raffi jumped over the fallen table, landing roughly on her ankles and hissed in the pain.

She didn’t have the time to focus on that however as even with the phaser fire around them her hands were suddenly full when Agnes threw herself at her at her and wrapped her arms around Raffi.

“You came back! I knew you would. I mean Jean Luc did too and even Cristobal was betting on and Elnor didn’t say anything but he never does so-”

Raffi pressed her face into Agnes hair to halt the laughter that threatened to bubble over from her.

“I didn’t miss that you know.”

“But you missed us.” Agnes rebutted, finally pulling away.

“All right, all right.” Raffi relented. “I missed you.”

Agnes’ grin was still annoyingly bright but Raffi could deal with that.

[trademarkblue]

100 Days of R/Hr: Day 12

Prompt: tiny apartment

Prompted by: LilyMay77

For the record, my canon is pretty much that they moved in together at the end of her 7th year at Hogwarts (either with Harry or just on their own), but let’s go with this for fun today. Hope you enjoy! x

It had actually been sort of an awful week. Not only had the Aurors failed to make any real progress on their current case, but Hermione had been so busy with reports that she hadn’t been able to visit when he’d had a few free hours in Inverness on Tuesday. Now, it was late Friday- no, Saturday morning, really… and he could at least feel relieved that he’d not had to stay in that dusty old cabin with four other blokes sleeping on bedrolls in the same room through the weekend as well.

He’d just started turning the key in the lock of his flat door when he heard… a cat meowing?

Pausing to listen, he was sure it was coming from inside his flat, which made him a lot more curious than nervous. For a moment, he almost convinced himself he was delirious from lack of sleep and had been trying to unlock the wrong door. But the key turned the rest of the way quite easily, and he stuffed it into his pocket, removing his wand and opening the door cautiously.

“Crookshanks?”

A fluffy ball of orange fur stared up at him, and he lifted a brow, realising that Hermione must have been here recently, though it was strange for her to bring her cat along and then leave him behind, unless…

He took off his coat and turned to toss it in the vague direction of the sofa when his eyes landed on the coffee table, and he grinned. It was absolutely covered in books, stacked several deep and filling every inch of space aside from one small corner that housed an empty tea cup and saucer. As he looked closer, he noticed that an avalanche of books continued to the floor, torn scraps of parchment stuck randomly between the pages as place holders. His old orange patchwork blanket was lying in a heap on the far sofa cushion, twisted with a navy wool jumper that he recognised as his own, though he’d definitely not left them there last Sunday as he’d vacated his flat for his assignment. As he moved toward the short hall that led to his bedroom, he spotted Hermione’s trainers sitting neatly behind the sofa, solidifying his suspicion.

He’d been conflicted, when he’d arrived at the Ministry an hour ago, about really preferring to go directly to her parents’ house to see her, but he didn’t want to wake anyone after midnight. Now that he was home, this was far better. He held his breath as he pushed open his half-closed bedroom door.

She was lying in the middle of his bed, on her side, sound asleep. Her hair was fanning out over his pillow, half-obscuring her face, and one of her feet was sticking out from the end of his twisted sheets and blankets. His heart lodged in his throat as he stared at her in the dark, and he wondered why he hadn’t asked her to just move in with him before. Maybe because he hadn’t known this… whatever he could call the fact that she had been evidently living at his flat while he was gone.

He was so torn between wanting her to know he was there and not wanting to wake her, but he tried not to make a sound as he walked slowly further into his room, wondering if he ought to kip on the sofa at least until she did wake up. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t shared his bed on plenty of occasions when she had stayed over with him before, but she rarely slept all the way through the night, and she was currently sprawled in the dead centre of the bed, making it hard for him to imagine climbing in with her without disturbing her.

As he navigated toward his chest of drawers for a change of clothes, he spotted her jeans on the floor and smiled wider, continuing in his discoveries by locating her folded jumper on the arm of the chair by the window and yet another large book on his bedside table. He managed to almost silently extract boxers and a clean shirt from a drawer before leaving the room again and turning right to enter his small loo, closing the door behind him so the sound of the sink wouldn’t bother her.

No longer very surprised at this point, he grinned at her toothbrush inside the cup he used as a holder, her hairbrush on the edge of the sink, and… bloody hell, another book. He’d just stripped off his clothes to pile on the floor, put on his clean pants and brushed his teeth when he heard her soft, tentative voice.

“Ron?”

He opened the door and grinned out at her, taking in her flushed face and embarrassed expression… noting that she was only wearing one of his flannel shirts… and possibly knickers underneath, though he could use his imagination-

“I didn’t expect you back til Sunday.”

“Nice to see you, too,” he teased, abandoning the loo and the clean shirt he hadn’t put on yet to move closer toward her, but he hesitated at the way she bit her lip apologetically.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

She grimaced and tucked a thick clump of messy, sleep-tousled hair behind her ear.

“I’d planned to clean up and go home tomorrow.”

“I told you you could stay whenever you wanted,” he reminded her. “S’why you’ve got a key.”

“I know… but I didn’t ask if I could be here all week, and I’ve sort of made a mess of your flat, and my things are everywhere, and I didn’t want you to see it like this,” she rambled, looking even more flustered.

“Oh yeah, because I’m an incredibly tidy person, myself…” he said sarcastically.

“That’s not the point,” she sighed.

He suspected she had narrowly avoided rolling her eyes, even though she was still giving off the impression of mild shame that he’d found her here. His lips twitched, but he knew he still had some work to do to reassure her of how absolutely fine it was that she was here.

“I should have asked you,” she concluded.

“You never need to ask. But would you have told me you stayed, if I hadn’t come back til Sunday?”

Guilt filled her features again, and she didn’t really have to answer.

“Hang on,” he said, slowly. “Have you done this before?”

She closed her eyes tightly, for a second, and when she opened them again, she almost whimpered her next words.

“I’m sorry.”

His stomach was fluttering wonderfully as he shook his head.

“Stop that. Hermione, you can move in if you want. I don’t care.”

“You…” she started, wide eyes staring up at him, arms crossed over her chest. “What?”

“I’m really glad you’re here. I was worried about waking everybody up if I showed up at your parents’ house. And, to be honest, I loved finding all your shit here… even Crookshanks.”

She chewed her bottom lip for a second in contemplation.

“You don’t want me to live here. You’d never have time alone-”

“Don’t want time alone.”

“But…” Her eyes darted between his, as if looking for some sign of hesitation. Good luck, he thought. She wouldn’t find any. “I don’t think you realise how much stuff I have, and your flat is tiny.”

“I’ve been in your room plenty…”

She licked her bottom lip, and he tried mostly unsuccessfully to hold back a grin.

“Have you looked under the bed?” she asked, shyly.

“Why? Is it all just books under there? Just put ‘em under my bed then. I think mine’s bigger than yours, anyway.”

She exhaled sharply through her nose, still staring sceptically up at him.

“Point is, you could move in tomorrow, and no I don’t need time to think about it, and no I don’t give a damn how much stuff you put in every room because, if you did move in, it would be your flat, too.”

She blinked rapidly for a second, and he realised her eyes were watering.

“You’ve always wanted your own space, Ron. You said so when you left the Burrow…”

“I didn’t mean away from you. Just didn’t fancy living in my old room after… y’know, the war and being on our own.”

“But now you have your own flat and furniture and- and everything. That has to matter to you.”

It was starting to make sense, now. He blinked at her, realising he’d somehow miscommunicated something rather important.

“You’ve really thought, for almost a year, that I needed to be here alone?”

“I don’t know,” she said, tightening her arms across her chest. “You never said. And I know how important it always was to you growing up to have something that really belonged only to you.”

“Yeah, alright. I see why you thought- I should have explained better. There’s no real difference between something that’s mine and something that’s ours, yeah? I haven’t thought of it like that since… yeah, prob’ly since the tent, honestly.”

“Since the tent?” Her eyes widened, and she started breathing between slightly parted lips. He shrugged, smiling.

“Reckon it was you keeping a lot of our stuff together in your bag, and… I dunno, I liked it. Made me feel like we were sort of living together. I mean we were, technically, but not like that.”

She swallowed and took a small step closer.

“I felt like that, too. That’s exactly why I did it,” she admitted.

The left corner of his mouth lifted up into a lopsided grin.

“I’m really glad you’re back early. Missed you so much,” she sniffed.

“C’mere.”

She took a step toward him, and he cupped her face in his hands, ducking to kiss her. She rested her palms on his bare chest, stood up on her toes to reach him better, and he skimmed his hands slowly down the front of her body, between them, shivering as she let a low groan vibrate into his mouth. He held her hips for a moment, and then his hands found their way inside the back of the flannel she was wearing, fingers spreading over her bare skin and bringing her closer as she looped her arms around his neck.

She finally pulled away a bit, gasping in a breath, but her glistening eyes were gazing back into his, and he tightened his arms around her waist, picking her up as she squealed with surprise.

“Missed you, too,” he said in a low rumble, against her ear, before burying his face in her hair for a second and lowering her back to the floor, smiling.

He released her only to take her hand and lead her back to the bedroom, happily noticing her bracelet and elastic hair band looped over the bed post as he climbed in and tugged her close, quickly replacing all the rest of the pronouns in his head from his to theirs.

[angrykittykrys]

October 27th

A/N: So, I’m usually really hesitant to post any of my original fiction, but as I really want to share the stuff I write next month, this is kind of a test run to make sure I’m comfortable enough to post original stuff for strangers. That said, this is the first story I wrote for a series of short stories set in a universe where the “Date” you meet your soulmate is written on your wrist. I hope to someday have a story for each day of the year.

Word count: 1718

“Alright guys, does everyone have their flashlight?”

Lexi raised her flashlight high, along with with her other three friends and all of them laughed nervously, excitedly. They were standing outside the corn maze on the edge of town, the one that Reagan’s boyfriend and Better Half, Thomas, swore was the scariest one he had ever been to. Tonight the four of them were going in, determined to show Thomas up. It had taken him and his boys over an hour to make their way through, but Lexi, Reagan, Sam and Amanda were determined to make it through from beginning to end in fifteen minutes. They had looked it up online and found that time listed as the shortest possible route through the maze.

They were smart girls. They could do this.

Giggles and screams erupted from the maze every few minutes, heightening Lexi’s anxious state as their group walked forward to pay for their tickets. The late October evening was freezing and she wrapped her coat tighter around herself, wishing yet again that she had remembered to bring her gloves. By the end of the night, she was sure her fingers would be frozen, curled in the shape of the flashlight that she needed to navigate her way through the maze. It was a stupid mistake and one that she was sure she would be paying for. And speaking of paying…

***

One twelve dollar ticket later, the four girls stood at the start of the maze, Lexi trying not to let her friends know how terrified she was. She was such a scaredy cat, but they were her best friends and she couldn’t bear to let them down, scared or not. So… she supposed she was heading into the creepy, dark maze. Despite the fact that she just knew she was going to be one of the screamers she kept hearing.

“Okay, ladies. Remember the game plan, everyone takes a different route and we meet at the end in fifteen minutes,” Reagan said excitedly and then disappeared into the path to the far left before Lexi could question (yet again) the brilliance of splitting up.

She watched as Sam and Amanda grinned at each other, high fived, and took two of the other routes, leaving the last one on the far right for her. She took a deep breath, flicked the button of her flashlight to turn it on, and stepped into the darkness of the maze

***

Lexi had to face facts, she was lost.

She had checked her phone every few minutes since entering the maze and unfortunately the fifteen minute time limit had come and gone… several times over. She was lost in the maze and the worst part was that even though she could hear other people screaming and laughing from other areas, she hadn’t seen a single person in her section since she got started.

Her phone buzzed in her hands and she jumped, feeling like an idiot for being scared of something so commonplace. It was yet another text message from Reagan, this one a little more snippy than the one she had gotten twenty minutes earlier:

Have you even made it around the first corner yet? Seriously, where ARE you?

Lexi sighed and shoved the phone back in her pocket, trying not to be annoyed with her friend, but failing miserably. It had been Reagan’s stupid idea to split up in the first place. She had no reason to be upset with Lexi just because her particular route tended to wind around in circles instead of leading to an exit of any kind. And at this point she was tempted to just walk through the corn stalks until she found her way outside the maze. She had been inside for over an hour and half and she was getting nowhere. At this point she almost welcomed one of the people who worked there (no matter how scary they were) because she needed directions to get out of here. If she didn’t make it out soon she was pretty sure her friends were going to take off and leave her behind.

Not to mention the fact that her bladder had started screaming at her half an hour ago.

The maze had gone eerily quiet while she was messing with her phone and she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. She wasn’t alone, though she wasn’t sure how she knew it.

Carefully, she walked around the next corner, as though she had all the time in the world and wasn’t aware that someone was stalking her through the maze. As soon as she was around the corner (and hopefully out of sight) she took off running, her shoes pushing against the ground and propelling her forward. The corn whipped at her face and hands, scratching her up so the cold air stung even more, but she didn’t stop… couldn’t stop. She could hear them behind her now, a rasping laugh whistling through the air as they chased her down.

Damn them and their single minded devotion to their stupid job.

When that thought registered, she stopped running and laughed weakly. This was a scary corn maze, right? The person chasing her wasn’t going to actually hurt her, just scare her. It was stupid to react this way, stupid to run when all she was going to do was hurt herself.  She laughed again, louder this time, and turned to face the person chasing her down.

Of course she had to ruin her cool, nonchalant action by screaming and falling flat on her butt.

Her pursuer was dressed all in black, blending into the darkness of the night, and holding a very lifelike severed head, complete with gouged out eyes and plenty of blood. It would be enough to frighten anyone who wasn’t expecting to see it… and possibly even a few who were.

The whole thing was too much. She was done with the maze, with him and everything else that was going on tonight. She had reached her breaking point.

“Are you freaking kidding me?!” Lexi screamed, pushing herself back up off the ground and brushing the corn leaves and dirt off herself. “I’ve been lost in here for almost two hours, my friends are threatening to leave me out here and head back into town, and now you chase me down with a severed head in your arms?”

No, she wasn’t making much sense. She was rambling and angry, her body shaking with everything she was feeling, but she couldn’t stop herself. She hadn’t really wanted to come in the first place and now she was lost, alone, frightened and so so angry. She just wanted to get out of here.

All of the emotions began to churn inside her and suddenly, without warning, she was sobbing. She felt stupid as well as angry and scared, but still the tears wouldn’t stop. Damn her friends, damn this guy, and damn this stupid maze. Why hadn’t she just stayed home?

“Hey, hey, don’t cry!”

The guy dropped the fake severed head at her feet and unzipped the top of his morphsuit so he could pull it off his face… and goodness he was better looking than she had expected, and maybe just a few years older than her eighteen. It was just her luck that a total hottie would be the guy to scare the crap out of her and make her cry. A total hottie that looked terrified of her tears.

He reached out for her in a clear sign of wanting to comfort her, brushing her face with his hand and making her jump back in surprise. Even through the thin morphsuit, she could still feel the electricity between them and it freaked her out. It wasn’t the normal warmth or attraction that passed from one person to another. It was reminiscent of something she had heard about from Reagan, from her experience of what had happened when she shared her first kiss with Thomas.

His eyes were wide as he took a step away from her. “Is today your Date too?”

Lexi nodded, unable to form words to respond. Out of everything she had expected tonight, sparking with a hot guy who chased her through a dark maze hadn’t been on the list. She actually hadn’t given much thought to the fact that it was her Date. She never did. She figured it would happen when it happened and she wasn’t one to go out looking for it on purpose. Now it had happened (if that was what this was) and she had never been more embarrassed or horrified in her life.

What a first impression to make. On both their parts.

“Do you… I mean… would you like me to walk you to the exit? It’s part of my job anyway,” he suggested, still looking as awestruck as she felt.

“Yeah, actually, that would be helpful. Though, my friends may have already left. Reagan isn’t very patient.” Lexi sighed and tossed his a weary smile. “Sorry if I’m not what you expected.”

He grinned back at her and picked the prop head off the ground. “That was going to be my line.”

Her lips twitched, she couldn’t help it. What a pair they made. A guy who worked in the scariest after dark corn maze in the state… and the coward. It was ridiculous, ironic, and yet somehow exactly right.

“Do you think you could hold my hand? Just so I don’t get scared again?”

He slipped his free hand into hers, the electricity still dancing between their skin through the thin mesh. “I’m Matt, by the way.”

“Lexi.”

“If your friends did take off, would you be interested in sticking around until I get off my shift in an hour or so? We could go out for coffee, maybe get to know one another a bit better?” He asked.

“Yeah, I think I’d like that… to start with anyway.”

He brought her hand to his lips and brushed a kiss against her knuckles, winking as he caught her eye. She flushed, but couldn’t stop the wide smile that had taken root on her face. Tonight hadn’t started out well, but it was definitely looking up. She’d have to thank Reagan for suggesting it.

[survivormontenegro]

Episode 12: “Phase One: Get the Grandma’s Boys Back Together” - Jones

I have thoughts.

1 I still feel bad for telling Tom to fuck off but also,,,,, I don’t ???

2 I hate that I’m the one who has to apologize to *****these men***** when they were the ones who apparently threw me under the bus in the first place

3 I miss Julia

Ok I don’t feel like doing the number thing anymore that shits dumb.

Um if Mitch is gonna let an alliance slide through the cracks again he’s not playing hard like he said, he’s just playing dumb and out of fear. Benj is probs gonna do whatever Mitch says tho so maybe it’d be better sooner or later to get one of them out before we split up the Jason/Tom/Ali trio

Speaking OF,, Julia went out saying that that trio is the biggest threat to win, but that’s only true about like,,, only Ali SKSKKDKF to me it’s kinda clear that Jason and Tom are Ali’s goats and they’re gonna be the easiest to beat for him in a F3/2 situation. Ali is by far the biggest threat to win and probably has been since Alex got voted out. Bc who doesn’t love Ali yk??? It’s gonna be hard to get him out but I feel like at least my 100% people (Caeleb and Mo as of this vote) would be down to vote him if he was the biggest threat.

Um also ??? These guys REALLY think Alex left with the durmitor idol???? Which is SO shocking because I cannot keep a secret for my life and I’m so easy to read. But um that’s a plus for me tho so woohoo? I’m not gonna tell anyone else ab it tho Bc,,,, obviously. This cast is messy as fuck I don’t want anyone else that I DONT trust to know about it. So I’m happy that my little inner durmitor triangle are the only ones that know.

I think this is mostly me rambling at this point so i’m gonna sign off I think.

okay so I really did a crap job of confessing last round, so I have a lot of catch-up to do.

so first off, i think i already confessed about this, but i have TWO IDOLS NOW jklasdfaf, the budva idol and the merge sapphire idol. like assuming i play them right, i can fast track myself to F6 already, which is SO EXCITING.

also... last vote was such a mess. so after the last vote, where i was left out-ish, in that Jones/Caeleb/Benj told me what was happening, but don't know that each other told me. Me and Julia (who was truly left out) talked, and I was genuinely hoping to group up with her. Benj suggested a F4 of me/him/Tom/Julia last round, and I was SO DOWN. Like I've genuinely wanted to work with Julia all season, I should have told her about the Alex vote, but I've been with her this whole time, so its frustrating what happened next.

So... I'm on call and Mo/Mitch tell me to vote Julia, and I agree, knowing I'm lying because I'm in a chat with Jason/Julia/Tom where we are trying to vote off Mo or Jones. But then Mo being shady, and I literally told Julia this to, tells Julia that everyone is voting her out, and Jones says Tom is who threw Julia's name out.

Julia. Goes. Nuclear. She goes on call, outs the alliance, says we are all shady and tries to blow up our games. I'm REALLY frustrated that she did that, because Mo/Mitch were literally voting her and we were stopping it, but she let them mist her. Also... I didn't want to vote Tom or Julia, they are both outsiders, as am I, and we needed each other. Tom/Julia were both not apart of the Jules vote, we just had a fight amongst the outsiders which... dumb.

Once Julia did that, I was sure Tom was gone, I was totally sure. But Tom managed to flip Mitch, which good for him. But I don't know how he did that, getting Mitch to vote with me, when Mitch has been paranoid about me above everyone else. But now... Mitch will likely be suspicious of me, Jones/Mo will know for sure that I'm targeting them, and I'm no closer to breaking up that group.

So now I'm confident I'll need to use the idol to fracture that group. A scenario I could see happening and working, is next round maybe Mitch/Jones/Mo/Benj and maybe Caeleb vote me, Tom/Jason vote Jones/Mo and I vote the other, which means my sapphire idol can both save myself and break up that group. I'll have to stay tuned on that one though.

This reward challenge flash game is very annoying, so I'm probably not gonna win. Considering how much I popped off for the last immunity, if I win two in a row, it might cause me problems. Hopefully the immunity challenge is do-able, because if I win that, I'm guaranteed a spot in FINAL SEVEN YAY.

I haven't done one of these in a while, but ideal bootlist moving forwards:

Jones > Mitch > Jason > Caeleb > Mo > F3: Me/Tom/Benj or F2: Me/Benj

And if I am voted out eighth, the order in which I would vote for people at FTC:

Mitch > Jason > Caeleb > Benj > Jones > Tom > Mo

also just wanna stay like... how much i stan jones? like we literally have not voted together pretty much at all across merge... but we stan?

she is just so much fun, like our game relationship... is fragile at best, but on a personal level I am and will remain a Jones WARRIOR.

Omg I no longer have the most votes cast for me cuz now Tom does. Even though 2 of Tom's votes are HIMSELF the bafoon.

I was not surprised to see Julia go last tribal. I of course did not vote for her, but her craziness kinda sealed her deal. Plus theres the curse within the curse of where someone who gets cursed initially also goes home (Alex, Jules, Julia). Lmao. But seriously, I voted Tom and he got really sad because we had a good thing going, but at the time no one was willing to be cemented on Julia, but Mo and Jones were cemented on Tom. So I went with the "confidence" and voted what I knew was more certain. However, Ali and Benj and Mitch all voted Julia. Ali and Benj are my closest allies so they let me know before tribal, but Mitch is a flip always been so. The two of them (Ali and Benj) are playing very well which makes me nervous. I either have to take control back in this game or start voting them off, even if that makes me a little cut throat. My other option is to let them vote off Mo next time (Benj's idea) and then have them drag me along and lose in FTC. Instead I think I'm going to get Mo, Jones, and Me to vote Mitch next round (taken he doesn't have immunity), with maybe Ali and maybe Tom but I think 4 might be enough. Then next round I work with Benj and Jason and Ali and Tom to vote out Mo. That puts me back in a strong position (I THINK BUT TRULY IM NERVOUS WITH ANY VOTE AND ALL VOTES IM JUST PRETENDING TO KNOW WHAT IM SAYING). I just hope Tom doesn't have it out for me after last time. That could make things hard, and I'll have to navigate trying to get Benj to wait to vote Mo and telling Jason, Benj, and Mitch a wrong vote.

I’m genuinely feeling confident in my score of 10 guesses, I don’t know what’s considered a good score but for me this is stunnin

Oh Jones, Caeleb and Benj tied for a score of 8? That’s cool... Happy for them... In all seriousness though I think Ali might of screwed himself over by doing the challenge drunk because this may very well be our lucky chance to get out a comp beast.

So... I didn't win immunity, which is a shame, but also probably good news, since if I won three challenges in a row, people would likely try and vote me at every opportunity.

I feel like I'm going to need to play one of my idols this round, which... is unfortunate, but also like kinda exciting? I think the ideal situation is that I play the sapphire idol, maybe in a way that since Tom/Jason have exposed votes, if Caeleb/Benj/Mitch/Jones/Mo vote me, and Tom/Jason vote one of Jones or Mo, I vote the other and send them home with one vote.

However, I'm not 100% sure I'll be getting votes, just since Caeleb and I are super close, so I don't see him super wanting to vote for me. I feel like if the plan was to vote Ali, Mitch would tell Benj, who would tell me, or Caeleb might not be down. Regardless, I'm very much expecting to have to pull out an idol tonight!

If I get my way tonight, I want Jones and Mo split up. As people, we love them both, but as players right now, they are too connected and have too much sway. If I got my way, I would want Jones out, since I think she is the glue between the Caeleb/Mo/Mitch, so would defo be worth getting out.

Just realised that if I play the sapphire idol, it gets rehidden which I do not want, so I might just have to play the budva idol if I'm getting votes tonight, which is frustrating but I'll have to deal with it sighhhh.

ding dong the witch is dead (ur welcome johnny)

confessing this because my brain is SO BIG, and I clocked this on call. Caeleb is the boyfriend of Matt who just won Kuwait. MY MIND IS SO POWERFUL

I've been meaning to write this all day but Tom fell asleep on call and I've been distracted the whole time. SO here we are

I'm also typing this out with Google whatever the f*** is Google voice??? So it might sound a bit robotic just bare with me here LOL.

but literally yesterday while I was doing the trash at work I was brainstorming probably one of my favorite moves I've ever and probably will ever accomplish ever?? I'm very excited about it, because it seems like it's going underway,,, like it might work?? and knowing my luck this shouldn't be happening but here we go,,

So phase one: get the Grandma's boys back together. So like,,, me Caeleb and Mo. we basically already trust each other with our entire hearts anyway and besides the Alex but we've stuck together on everything? So we might as well get the band back together you know what I mean? also they're probably the three people I trust the most and the three people that I really want to go to the end with for sure so that's how I'm feeling about that. Check that off the list.

Phase 2: get Mitch and Benj to possibly spill who the other side is voting for and or get them to vote for Tom or Jason. because quite frankly Benj and Mitch are a very obvious power duo and have floated through the middle the entire time and they've been together the entire game so it feels kind of obvious that they're working together. Plus benj told Mitch the plan about voting out Caeleb premerge, so it just feels like it's been a thing forever. call go to be honest thinking about it now, I feel is though we're going to figure out who Jason and Tom are voting for anyway because they do have to vote in advance? So as long as Benj and Mitch vote for who we tell them for, then phase 2 will be a success.

Phase 3: grandma's boys vote,,,,, ALI!!!!! sorry to say, Ali is by far the biggest threat in the game and probably has been for a long time? Not only is he amazing in challenges , but he has like one the best social games ?? Ever???? So no one would Want to vote out Ali, but it's like,,, the best move I think to do now . Esp bc he doesn't have immunity.

And then,,,,, optional step 4: play my idol. That way,,, we can guarantee that a tie scenario doesn't happen,, and then in the split Ali would theoretically go w 3, but if an idol is played either way on them, one of those two will go. SO YA HOPEFULLY THIS PLAN ACTUHLY WORKS HAHAHAHAHA

Update!!! So like I think im in an ok spot. I was the sole vote to send home Julia because I found her unpredictable and she voted me the round previously so.... This vote should be between tom and one of jones/mo/caeleb because they are an obvious trio and im pretty sure one of them has an idol. If there is an idol played and it is flushed, the trio of mo/caeleb/jones is broken up. If it isnt flushed, we intend to do a 3-3-2 with Benj Ali Tom Jason and I splitting between two of them. Id prefer if Jones stays because I feel like I have the best connection with her out of the three, but I also fear that they have gotten closer and closer ever since we have merged. We will find out what happens shortly because as of now, there is still no definitive plan

[sickfics101]

ANOTHER KLANCE FIC. Take it. :V  Prompt from here!

Summary: Keith gets stranded in an unknown city on a cold day with no way to get home. He calls Lance to come pick him up, not knowing that Lance is already sick and should be resting instead.

Last bus: 10:45PM

Next bus: 6:15AM

Keith stares at the sign. His shoulders sag, his breath leaving him in a cloud of white.

He’s doomed. He’s stuck in a city miles away from his own house, and he’s just missed the last bus of the night.

Shivering, he brushes the snow off of a bench and sets his bags down on top of it. His fingers feel like they’re turning to ice, so he shoves his hands into his jacket pockets, trying to keep his body from shaking too badly.

This is all his fault. He’d been the one who had been insistent on coming all the way here. He’d taken a bus after lunch, travelling miles and miles from home just to reach this obscure city–it was the only one that happened to have motorbike parts he needed, and he’d planned his trip so he could navigate using his phone and get back before it got dark.

As it turned out, he’d ended up getting miserably lost in the city, and his phone had died on him due to the cold weather. After spending hours wandering around, he’d finally found his way back to a train station on the other side of the town.

And the last bus left half an hour ago. Just his luck.

He doesn’t know anything about this city, doesn’t have anywhere to stay for the night. It’s too far to walk back, and it’s too cold to sleep out here.

He glances up. The snow slants as it falls from the gaping sky, snowflakes turning gold in the sparse light of nearby streetlights. Shivering, he pulls his jacket closer around him, the spare change in his pocket rattling from the movement.

Change. There’s a payphone across the street.

Keith hates bothering people, especially when it’s this late at night. There are not that many people that he trusts enough to bother in the first place, and most of them are unavailable. Hunk is out of town, Shiro and Allura live too far away, Pidge doesn’t have her own car yet. But maybe if he asks nicely enough, he can convince Lance to drive him back.

He picks up his bags, wincing as his fingertips brush against the frigid bench railings, and starts off to cross the street. This is a bad idea, he’s sure, but he’s tired and cold and he can think of nothing better.

He just really, really wants to be home.

Lance has been feeling off all day.

He’d wakes up with a slight headache and a slight case of the sniffles, but he ignores it and goes about doing work like he always does. But apparently, this is the type of illness that hits really quickly – by noon, his head is pounding and the room is spinning.

Everything is too cold. He shivers, pulling the zipper up on his jacket. Who decided that this was an acceptable building temperature? It really isn’t.

He makes it through the morning–at least, until he runs into his section commander in the kitchen. He’s pouring himself a cup of coffee, but the exhaustion from the past few days is really getting to him: his hands are trembling and he can barely hold the cup still.

His commander takes one look at him and shakes her head. “Go home, Mcclain.”

But he really needs to get things done today. The work deadlines are coming up, and he can’t afford to fall behind. “No, Commander Smith,” he starts, before clearing his throat. “I assure you that can work through this. I promise–”

He’s cut off by a harsh fit of coughing, which lasts for longer than it should. When he finishes, he realizes he’s spilled some of the coffee in his cup, and Miss Smith’s disapproving frown has shifted to an outright scowl. “I wasn’t offering, it’s an order. Go home.”

“But deadlines–”

“This is not debatable. You look like you’re about to fall over, and I’m almost certain you’re contagious.”

Lance’s shoulders sag, and he nods, just once. He is feeling pretty bad, and he doesn’t want to get his coworkers sick. “I’ll clean up the spill and leave,” he concedes.

“Good.” The commander turns on her heels, starting out the door, before she comes to a halt again. “I don’t want to see you here tomorrow, got it? Get some proper rest.”

And so now he’s at home, six hours before his shift ends. He’s been trying to work at home, anyways, but the harsh lighting of his laptop screen is making his headache worse, and it’s almost impossible to concentrate when he’s feeling this shitty.

Sighing, he closes the device, plugging it into the charger, and makes his way over to the bed. It’s not a long walk, but he’s exhausted and dizzy, and the world is tilting in ways that makes the trip more difficult than he should be. When he finally gets there, he sprawls himself over the sheets face-first, but immediately starts shivering and has to sit up again to crawl into the covers.

His whole body feels off. Maybe he’s worse off than he’d thought.

He stifles a sneeze into a cupped hand, and then turns over onto to his side, letting his eyes drift closed. He’ll just sleep this off. Hopefully he’ll be better by the time he wakes up the next morning.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t wake up the next morning, but rather late into the night, to the sound of his phone ringing on the bedstand. He picks it up, staring blearily at the blinding screen. Unknown caller ID. He frowns, almost opting not to pick it up. Whatever stranger is calling him at this hour really needs to learn how timezones work.

He presses answer anyways. All of a sudden, a warm, familiar voice is flooding into his ears: “Lance?”

“Keith?” He’s more than a little surprised to hear his boyfriend on the line. “What’s up?” he manages, his voice still groggy from sleep.

“Thank god you picked up,” Keith rambles. He sounds frantic. “Can you come drive me home? I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’m stuck here and I don’t have enough change to call a taxi.”

“You what?” Lance pushes himself upright, blinking back exhaustion. “I… I thought you were taking public transportation home?”

“I got lost. I missed the last bus.”

“Keith, it’s almost midnight. You want me to mess up my sleep schedule and drive for an hour just to come get you?” Lance teases, smirking into the phone. He’s already out of bed, phone tucked in between his ear and his cheek while he searches the closet for his jacket.

“What? I didn’t… didn’t m-mean that...” Keith’s voice wavers on that note. He really sounds shaken up about this. “...but you’re right. Sorry for bothering you. I’ll, uh, f-find a way...”

“You’re lucky I’m the best boyfriend in the world,” Lance says. “Tell me your location and I’ll be there.”

A pause. “Thanks, Lance. Really,” Keith says, sounding better already. He relates the name of the station he’s at, and Lance listens, holding the phone at a distance away from him as he stifles sneezes and coughs as quietly as possible.

“I’m in the car. Be there in 45,” Lance says, “is it snowing where you are?”

“Uh… yeah. It’s… it’s snowing pretty hard.”

“Make sure you keep warm, okay? If there are any open shops nearby, go wait there.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t get lost again.”

“Okay.”

“I need to hang up now, alright? I’ll be there soon.”

“...Okay.”

Keith is asleep on a bench across from the station when Lance finds him. He’s surrounded by a mountain of bags, wearing only a light jacket that definitely isn’t meant for weather like this.

Lance stops his car at the curb, rolling down a window. “Keith?”

Keith stirs, his head tipping upwards at the sound of his name. A fresh layer of snow has settled on top of his jacket hood, but it slips off as he stands up, hastily brushing stray snowflakes from the folds of his clothing.

He moves all of his bags into the trunk, then slips into the passenger seat. Even in the warmth of the car, he’s still shivering, and Lance mentally curses himself for not bringing any extra clothing for him.

“Didn’t I tell you to keep yourself warm?” he asks, an eyebrow raised as he starts the car again. “You could’ve waited in a shop or something.”

“I didn’t want to get lost again,” Keith explains, zipping up his jacket with trembling hands.

“Oh my god,” Lance huffs. “you could’ve just printed out a map before you left home.”

Keith frowns, fishing his dead phone out of his pocket. He stays motionless for awhile, staring down at the unlit screen with an expression that looks like betrayal.

“I was going to use my phone, but it died on me.”

“That’s why you charge it before you leave–”

“I did! It died from the cold, not from low battery.”

“That’s unlikely.” Lance lifts one hand off the steering wheel to stifle a few coughs into his fist. “Was it really that cold outside?”

“Well... yeah.” Keith puts his phone away and leans back again, crossing his arms. “It snowed all day.”

“And you couldn’t have checked the weather?”

“That wouldn’t have–” Keith stops abruptly, his mouth slamming shut. Lance is about to ask him if something’s up, but Keith beats him to the chase: “Are you cold?”

That catches Lance off guard. “What makes you think that?” He scoffs, because yeah, he’s cold, but Keith doesn’t need to know that. “Are you changing the subject because you don’t want to talk about how much of an idiot you are–”

“No, it’s not that.” Keith cuts him off, sounding distracted. Lance takes advantage of a red light to steal a glance at him, only to realize that Keith is already scrutinizing him closely. “You’re shivering.”

Shit. Uh. “I’m not,” Lance lies, trying his best to stop his body from trembling. He hadn’t even realized until Keith pointed it out.

Keith raises an eyebrow. “You’re not?”

“Okay, maybe I am slightly cold,” Lance concedes, absently wiping his nose on the back of his hand. “Why? Aren’t you?”

“No.” Keith blinks, tugging at his scarf so that it unravels a bit, “it’s nice and warm in here. It’s a bit too warm, actually.”

“Yeah, well. Staying out in the snow for half a day probably messed up your sense of temperature.”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Keith turns his head to stare out of the passenger window. Lance pinches the bridge of his nose, stifling two sneezes into his hand while his boyfriend isn’t looking.

The silence that follows is unexpected. Lance clears his throat quietly, ignoring the sharp pain that surfaces as a result. “Did you find the components you needed?”

Keith perks up at that. “Yeah, I actually did.” He’s usually a quiet person, but when he’s passionate about something, he can talk about it for hours. “I needed a particular set of brakes, right? It turned out that the shop I was at ran out of stock, so I had to go all the way to the northern end of the city…”

Lance just listens quietly, too tired to say a word. His head is pounding, and he can’t quite keep up with everything that Keith is saying, but he likes hearing the sound of his boyfriend’s voice. It’s nice.

He drives quietly for awhile, caught in the warm, comfortable haze of the words he hears but doesn’t process. Then, suddenly, he realizes that the Keith’s voice has turned a couple degrees sharper:

“–Lance? You still with me? Lance!”

His name turns from static to sound in his mind, and he blinks, snapping out of the trance. “Sorry, I zoned out. What’s up?” His voice sounds awful. He hadn’t realized how so much congestion had accumulated in such a short amount of time.

“I asked if you could pull over for a sec,” Keith reiterates. “I have something I need to get from the back trunk.”

“Oh. Sure.” Lance maneuvers the vehicle carefully to the side of the street. “Go ahead.”

Keith slips out of the car and shuts the door behind him. Lance leans back in his chair, his posture sagging, and waits as a particularly harsh coughing fit runs its course. No wonder he was sent home. He’s really feeling like shit right now. Driving isn’t exactly the most strenuous activity, but the 45 minute trip here has somehow sapped all of the energy from his body, and his headache from this morning hasn’t let up at all.

To his surprise, a few seconds later, his own car door is pulled open. “Keith, what are you–” he starts, but his sentence cuts off sharply when Keith sets a hand onto his forehead.

“You have a fever,” Keith states, as bluntly as ever.

Lance shrugs noncommittally, drawing away from his touch. “I thought you were getting something?”

“I wanted to check your temperature, but I knew you wouldn’t actually pull over if I phrased it that way.”

“Oh.” Lance blinks, slightly disoriented. “That’s... true.”

Keith is reaching out again, but this time, Lance doesn’t have the energy to move away. His fingers are cold, but not icy, and they feel inconveniently nice on Lance’s too-hot cheeks.

“You’re burning up.

“Or,” Lance counters, “maybe your hands are just too cold.”

Keith removes his hands, and Lance almost wants him to put them back again. “Did you go to work like this?”

“I got kicked out,” Lance admits sheepishly, looking down, “my section commander sent me home.”

“I can see why.”

He scowls. “Shut up.”

“Why did you drive here anyways?” Keith demands, changing the subject. “You should be resting.”

Lance rolls his eyes. “I went home early, I’ve been resting all day–”

“That isn’t enough. Don’t you always lecture me about how sleep debt is a thing? You’ve barely gotten any sleep all week.” Keith pauses, frowning, and Lance deflates a little. It’s true. He’s been so busy with work lately that he hasn’t really been getting proper rest.

“I’m… sorry?” he offers, before twisting away to cough a few times into his hand.

Keith huffs a sigh, resigned but affectionate. “Here, let’s switch seats. I’ll drive.” He takes Lance gently by the forearm and leads him out of the car. As soon as Lance is outside, he can’t stop his body from shivering anymore–it’s utterly frigid. How the hell did Keith manage to spend half a day in this weather?

Thankfully, they’re not outside for long. Keith lets Lance to get settled in the passenger seat, then slips into the other side of the vehicle. He sets the car into motion again, and Lance just stares blankly out of the windshield, wondering how this situation has managed to turn around so quickly.

He’s starting to drift off again when Keith’s voice breaks the silence, steady and warm. “I wouldn’t have called you to pick me up if I knew you were sick.”

“I still would’ve come,” Lance says.

Keith shoots him a glance, skeptical. “What?”

“I still would’ve come to get you,” he repeats, sniffling. His eyes are already halfway shut. He’s so tired.

“Why?” Does Keith really not get it yet?

“Because it’s for you,” Lance says, even though that much should be obvious.

For awhile, Keith doesn’t respond. But when Lance opens his again, he’s smiling.