#but the colour has dried out so I went out again and got a new can because I want to colour the bedroom tomorrow

[disneyprincessdxminatrix]

is 7pm too early for bedtime on saturday evening? time is a construct right it’s been darf for almost 2 hours so that’s definitely night and night is time for sleep

[vivwritesfics]

Hooked On A Feeling

Chapter Twenty-Five - Future Mrs Ricciardo

Daniel is a Formula One driver, but, more importantly, he was a single dad to a wonderful little girl. He wants her to be a normal little girl, to have a normal social life, so he sends her to daycare. That was where she met Milo, her future best friend.

Milo's mother was incredibly stressed. She worked so hard to provide a good life for her son. But then he makes a new friend, a friend who has a hot dad (ofc they fall in love)

1.6K

Single Dad!Daniel x Single Mum!Reader

warnings: light smut

Series Masterlist

Daniel spent all of December and January ring shopping. It was just so difficult, trying to decide on the perfect one. He'd seen the dainty rings she wore on her finger. All of them were flat. None of them were the kind of ring with a rock.

Something flat. Daniel knew she would like something flat, something that didn't have any kind of diamond sticking out. But that made finding the perfect one so much harder.

First, Daniel wanted to ask her and Milo to move into his house. By February, he'd decided it was time, decided he wanted to pick up all of her things and move them to his house. He wanted to see her books on the shelves, her blankets on the sofa, her mug beside his in the cupboards.

Fast forward to Valentines day. Olivia was supposed to be at her mothers house, but Kerry-Ann had a date and begged Daniel to take her.

(She watched the entire interaction, watched the way Kerry-Ann stepped closer to Daniel. Her hand touched his chest and she pouted her lips, begging him to take Olivia while she went on her Valentines date. The fact that she thought she needed to beg showed she really didn't know Daniel at all.)

Olivia and Milo spent the night at Olivia's Grand Parent's house. They watched movies, ate dinner in front of the television and filled in their colouring books until they went to bed.

"I'm thinking dinner and a movie," said Daniel as he pulled her towards him, pulling her onto his lap.

She straddled him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I think I like what you're thinking," she said and kissed him, playing with the hair at the back of his neck. "But I'm also happy with staying here and breaking the couch in."

Daniel couldn't help but frown. "The couch isn't new," he answered, and she bounced in his lap. His eyes widened. "Oh wow," he said. "Wow, yeah, I like that." His hands settled on her hips. "But I do still want to take you out for dinner."

When she pouted, Daniel kissed her and her pout disappeared. "Come on, my love," he said. "It's our first Valentines day together and I want to treat you."

She kissed him again. "Okay. But, instead of a movie, we can come back here and..."

"I love it." He stood up and gently put her on the floor. "Go and get dressed. I wasn't to get you back here as soon as possible." Daniel pointed her in the direction of the bedroom and smacked her ass, as if to get her going.

She got showered and dressed in as quick a time as she could. She dried and brushed her hair, styling it with pins, and did her makeup. If they were going for dinner, she was going to make sure she looked fucking perfect.

When Daniel walked into the bedroom to retrieve a his own clothes, he covered his eyes. "I'm not looking, I swear," he said as he dug through the closet.

He got changed in the living room, folding his clothes and leaving them on the couch. When he was ready, Daniel sat down and called his daughter.

When she walked out of the bedroom and into the living room, Daniel damn near dropped his phone. "Is that my momma?" Milo asked, his face appearing on the screen.

"Yeah, Milo, it is," he said as he strode over to her. He turned the camera around, showing Milo and Olivia just how gorgeous she looked. She did a twirl and took the phone from Daniel, saying hello to the kids as he stood behind her, hands on her hips.

"Well, we'll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?" She said to Milo and Olivia.

"Bye, guys!" Daniel called from behind her.

"Bye!" Milo and Olivia chorused, ending the call.

When Daniel turned her around, she slipped his phone into his pocket. She kissed the underside of his jaw as Daniel gripped her hips. "You know, now I kinda regret insisting that we go to dinner."

She stepped away from him, giving him an unimpressed look as she did so. "I did not get all pretty like this for nothing." She pressed a finger to his chest as she said it. "C'mon, Honey Badger. Take me to dinner."

Dinner was, well, fantastic. It was a small Italian place. Daniel hadn't given his real name when making the reservation, and they damn near shit their pants when he walked in.

They couldn't be more apologetic that they'd sat them in one of the worst seats in the house. But it was Valentines day and it was incredibly busy.

But the food was good, the service was good and the wine went to her head a little bit. Their table was lit by candles. Everything was perfect.

Daniel had his arm wrapped around her as they walked down the street. They didn't head back to the car immediately, instead walking under the stars. "Hang on," he said, stopping to tie his shoelaces.

But his shoelaces were tied already. And, suddenly, he had a little black box in his hand. "Y/N," Daniel called and she turned towards him. "I've got an important question."

Her hands covered her mouth as he pulled open the box. What kind of ring would a man like Daniel choose for her? Whatever it was, she'd wear it with pride.

But the box didn't have a ring inside. No, it had a key. "Will you move in with me?"

She couldn't stop herself from hitting his shoulder. "Asshole, I thought you were going to propose!"

Still, Daniel was on his knee, waiting for an answer. "Yes," she said, taking the key from the box. "Yes, I'll move in with you."

Daniel stood up and kissed her. "Let me take you home, Roomie," he said with a grin, taking her hand and leading her back to the car. "I just gotta know, will you smack me like that when I do propose?"

"Propose and find out," she said with a grin as Daniel pulled open the car door for her.

When the season started a month later, Daniel wanted to take her everywhere with him. He wanted her by his side as he walked through the paddock, wanted her watching him as he drove.

But she was still working and he went alone. But it was okay, it just meant that she'd be at home, watching the race with the kids.

The drivers that had met her, loved her. They asked Daniel about her whenever they got a moment. He loved talking about her. He loved talking about all of his little family and couldn't stop once he'd started.

Only Max knew he was going to propose. Only Max had seen the ring. Only Max knew how Daniel was going to do it. He just needed to give his friend a little reassurance.

It was back in Australia. Daniel had a weekend of no racing and he wanted to get away.

He booked a cabin for the two of them, took her away for just the weekend while Milo and Olivia stayed with his parents. Daniel didn't tell her. He didn't tell her until he was packing their bags (with no idea what to pack for her).

She walked in on him, shoving things into their bags. "Danny," she said softly, placing her hand on his shoulders. "What're you doing?"

He let out a sigh as he stood up. "I... am taking you away for the weekend."

Holy shit, he was going to propose.

Wordlessly, she began putting things into her bag. She grabbed things from her underwear drawer and put them in her bag without letting Daniel see what it was.

Once her bag was zipped up, she turned to him and threw her arms around his shoulders. "Love you," she said as she kissed him.

Daniel could hardly keep himself from telling her as he drove them up to the cabin. He kept his hand on her thigh as he parked up (doing that thing where he drove with one hand, palm against the steering wheel).

Their bags weren't heavy, but Daniel insisted on carrying both of them. The cabin was nice and secluded, the next one a few miles doing the road.

"Have you ever fucked on a porch?" He grinned as he carried the bags into the cabin, flexing like crazy.

They had sex on the porch. They had sex on the rug, sex by the fire. It was damn near impossible to separate them.

Daniel was constantly looking for the right moment to propose. He wanted to, he so badly wanted to. But it wasn't the right moment.

The right moment came on Sunday. They'd spent the night unable to separate, his cock moving through her folds, her body moving on top of his.

In the morning light, with her body wrapped in the white sheets, hair covering the pillow, Daniel found his moment. He wrapped his arms around her mid section and pulled her closer. "Marry me," he said and kissed her bare shoulder.

"Sure," she muttered, fingers tracing his tattoo.

"No, I'm being serious," he said, turning her body to face him. "Marry me."

She grinned and leaned in to kiss him. "Yes, Daniel Ricciardo, I'll marry you."

Suddenly Daniel was out of the bed. He ran to his bag, pulled the ring from its box and slipped it onto her finger. "Future Mrs Ricciardo," he whispered and kissed her, pulling her body against his.

(When they picked up the kids later that evening, Daniel introduced Y/N to his parents as his ex girlfriend. Nobody was impressed by that.)

FIN

TAGLIST (CLOSED): @biancathecool @rewmuslupin @prettiest-at-the-party @hellowgoodbye @spideybv28 @andydrysdalerogers @landossainz @purplephantomwolf @ggaslyp1 @layazul @phantomxoxo @minseok-smaus @gills-lounge @hollie911 @annispamz @lily-ann-b @cixrosie @amalialeclerc @teamnovalak @tallrock35 @chiliwhore @darleneslane @sava207 @thatsusbitch @formulaal @leptitlu @landosgirlxoxo @msolbesg @cherry-piee @bathedinheat @chanshintien @ilove-tswizzle @woozarts @trouble-sistar @mysticalnightenthusiast @lewisvinga @spilled-coffee-cup @starkeyellow @fxrmuladaydreams @viennakarma @lightdragonrayne @millinorrizz @xemiefx @ellies-world61 @the-depressed-fellow

[cositapreciosa]

Redemption

Alejandro Gillick x gn!reader, (gun wound, blood, the usual for the movies) 1047 words

a/n : super duper self-indulgent Alejandro fic cause I'll write whatever gives me wings at this point. This gif might not be from Sicario but yhlqmdlg Benicio is hot anyway

Tagging the besties-that-might-like-this as usual @narcolini @drabbles-mc @anunhealthydoseofangst

‘’ Stay still, I don't want to hurt you. ‘’

Any more than he already has. Still, it hurts when Alejandro puts his hand on your stomach, hard and warm against your abdomen. The bullet grazed you, thankfully, but deep and bloody, straight in between the Kevlar, slicing through your shirt. You can’t help but jerk when he presses his fingers into your skin, teeth baring in a hiss. It is dusk now, the sun dipping below the horizon, painting the scene orange and red. How long has it been since he left you in this ditch? Why did he even bother to come back?

‘’ You fucking shot me. ‘’

It comes out of you in a cough, as if you can’t believe it yourself. You are probably in shock, you realize, cold and losing blood for what seems like hours at this point. Where is my gun? You taste the blood in your mouth as you speak again. Where am I?

‘’ You fucking shot me. ‘’

You struggle against his hold, opposite hand grabbing his wrist in an attempt to get free. Let me go, you want to tell him, let me be, but it feels like paste in your mouth, dried tongue, you can’t get the words out.

‘’ Stay still. ‘’ He pushes back, and you can do nothing but let him, ‘’ They would have shot you anyway, your cover is blown. ‘’

‘’ Yeah, no shit. ‘’

Every word feels like sandpaper in your throat, scratching on its way out, keeping you from saying more mean and distasteful things. You let yourself fall back against the sand, letting the dust settle again in your lungs. Matt had told you they had caught rumours of your CIA affiliation through the low ranks, but you still went anyway, believing you could work your way through it. Pinches narcos de mierda. Alejandro fetches gauze out of his backpack, pulling you closer to cut the strap of your bulletproof vest with his knife. You feel blood moving down your chin.

‘’ If you heard what they were telling me they would do to you before you got there maybe you wouldn’t be so feisty about this. ‘’

‘’ You threw me in a ditch. ‘’

‘’ And they think you’re dead, you’re welcome. ‘’

He gently wipes the blood off your chin with his glove before turning his attention back to your shirt. It tugs on your skin as it separates from the dried blood, raw, stiff, a new colour from what it was this morning. You let Alejandro turn you to your side, inspecting the wound he inflicted, tucking your face in his elbow as he presses the tissue on your wound.

‘’ You’ve lost a lot of blood, but it’s not that deep, you’ll be fine. ‘’

‘’ I’m surprised they don’t think you’re CIA now- ‘’

You hiss when he starts moving the tape around your torso, pulling it tighter every time he starts another round.

‘’ I guess shooting you was a good move, they don’t suspect a thing. ‘’

Idiots, you want to say, all of them. You remember them dragging your body in the back of a car, carelessly tossed across the seat next to Alejandro, you remember how easy it was to play dead, how cold you were, how the pain made your whole body numb, Alejandro’s hand on your vest to keep you from rolling over as they drove in circles for hours.

‘’ It’s a fucking miracle. ‘’

That he isn’t dead, that you aren’t, that no one caught your whimpers after every bump or Alejandro softly shushing you afterwards. A fucking miracle.

‘’ You tell me. ‘’

He issues no warning as he pulls you up, knees bending, one hand on your shoulder, the other creasing your shirt in a tight grip. His movements are tactical, precise, moving your body in a way that works for him when your whole being can’t seem to follow. Alejandro wraps his hand around your neck as it swings back. You can feel the blood rushes back to your head, feel it in your throat. Hey, he says, stay with me, but the words barely make it to you, everything is thick and foggy and-

Hey, don’t die on me now. The world comes back in a buzz, loud and crackling in between your ears. ‘’ Matt will have my head if you die like this, you hear me? ‘’

His fingers are warm around your scalp, pressing a little, to make sure you really are here, back with him. You notice his eyes for the first time, how brown they are, deep, honeyed, the slight wrinkles that shape between his eyebrows when he frowns.

‘’ Loud and clear. ‘’ You mumble as he steadies you once again.

‘’ Good. ‘’ Good. You can see the relief cross his face, the weight that leaves his shoulder. ‘’ Think you can walk? ‘’

‘’ I don’t know, you tell me. I didn’t shoot myself, did I? ‘’

He scoffs, dismissing your sarcasm, you could mistake it for a laugh, ‘’ I missed for a reason. Let’s get you home, yeah? ‘’

Alejandro doesn’t pick up on your answer, something along the lines of it being a waste of time, that you are cold already, weak. Cállate, he wants to tell you, Cállate, you can do this, let me. He wants to try, for you, for him. And he does, he drags you through the desert, hiding in the streets, makes sure you press ‘right there, hard’ whenever he changes your bandages. His hands slip and hurt, but he does, he has to.

Told you so, he wants to say when he finally sees the bright lights, but he doesn’t. The second he makes it to camp, he brings you to the infirmary first, before Matt, before the men at the gates can ask any questions or take into account the blood that stains both of you. Told you so, but he keeps his mouth shut and tries to forget the way his finger hesitated on the trigger this morning, even when he knew it had to be done, that he hates how relieved he felt when he realized you were still alive.

He hates it, but it is true, it seems pretty clear to him now why he even bothered to come back.

Told you so.

[monstersandmaw]

Laces for a Lady - 18th century, poly, shifters x human romance - Chapter Seven (sfw)

Disclaimer which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me. 

Contents: some passing comments comparing two different female body types in a negative way, and some measurement taking and a dress fitting that leaves Nel a little breathless. Who knew Mr. Nancarrow had it in him to be so smooth. Mr. Darcy hand-flex fans, be warned...

Wordcount: 3931

Catch up here: Part One (sfw), Part Two (sfw), Part Three (sfw), Part Four (sfw), Part Five (sfw), Part Six (sfw)

Edmund flushed at Nel’s boldly obvious compliment, but was saved any further embarrassment by Mr. Fordyce announcing that it was Nel’s turn, and that he would have to take Nel’s measurements since he didn’t have them in his records as he did Winnie’s.

This time it was Nel whose face turned hot, but she met Edmund’s gaze again as he stepped forwards, rested his cane against the nearby table gently enough not to cause the arrangement of dried flowers in the centre even to quiver, and then he carefully passed the ribbon of paper around her waist. He kept his eyes down, but his long, delicate fingers moved with nimble grace as he held the paper and snipped the tailor’s marks in it which would correspond to the various locations of the measurements.

“And now inhale,��� he murmured, and she obliged, letting her ribs inflate naturally. She could feel his knuckles pressing ever so slightly against her body through the fabric of the thinner, less structured dress she’d chosen for that day, and she tried not to shiver.

They had begun at her waist, but a moment later she found herself scowling at Mr. Fordyce when he made Edmund kneel down on the hard wooden floorboards to measure the length of her leg.

Edmund got down alright, if stiffly, but he gasped and sucked in a sharp breath as he pushed himself upright with his cane, and he went rigid with another sudden inhale, eyes screwed shut and head bowed forwards as he breathed through a stab of pain. For a lurching moment when he raised his head again she thought he was going to pass out as all the colour drained from his face.

Clearly mortified, he looked like he was going to struggle through it despite the fact that he seemed to have been robbed of his faculties for a moment, but Nel abruptly turned to Mr. Fordyce and made a calculated assumption about the egotistical, self-important little man. "It must be such work for you to keep up with constantly changing fashions when you’re so far from Town here in Polgarrack," Nel said, and Mr. Fordyce immediately puffed up like a show pigeon under scrutiny, and graced her with a condescending smile.

"Oh, indeed, Miss Bywater, it is certainly not without its challenges. But!” he went on, brandishing his forefinger in the air as if lecturing a small and rather resentful child, “A successful tailor must be a true artist, and he must find something new and extraordinary at every turn for his patrons. So, I do make frequent journeys to Town to make my observations. That way, you see, the nobility situated further from Town are still provided with the very latest in taste and elegance without the inconvenience of a journey so long and arduous."

He pursed his wet lips and then went on while Edmund's face was a blank, porcelain mask of pain beside her, his shoulders turned slightly to hide his face from Mr. Fordyce who was currently standing perched on a small footstool near the window for a vantage point to ‘better view the proportions of the lady for whom he would have to work a miracle’. Or so he claimed. Nel just thought he felt short and didn't like pontificating at someone who was taller than him, even if only by an inch or two.

She tried not to let her face show her distaste at the master tailor’s outrageously overblown opinion of himself, but in this case, it was buying Edmund time to recover. “What a sacrifice you make for your art,” she said flatly, and he missed the sarcasm entirely.

"Indeed. A tailor ought to have a quick eye; to steal the very cut of a sleeve in passing at the merest of glances, Miss Bywater,” he intoned in an almost sing-song voice, conspiratorially leaning a little closer from his little footstool. She hoped he toppled off it. “Any common bungler may cut out a shape when he has the pattern on the table before him, but a good workman will take it by his eye in the merest passing of a carriage…" He flourished his hand as if he’d magicked something spectacular into existence at that very moment. All she saw was spittle and hot air.

"Extraordinary indeed," she said blandly, studiously keeping her eyes off Mr. Nancarrow while trying to gauge whether it was necessary to indulge Mr. Fordyce's nauseating pomposity any further. He still looked like he might appreciate a few minutes more, so she pulled out a rather higher card from her metaphorical hand. "You must truly be a master of your craft then, Mr. Fordyce, if the rose-petal gown you made for Lady Penrose's birthday in August is anything to judge. Truly, I had never seen its like before, not even when I attended the Russells’ Christmas Ball with Lord and Lady Mercer and their son last year in London." She wondered if she’d taken her flattery a step too far with that last, but he drank it up like sweet summer wine.

His watery eyes lit up at the mention of Lord and Lady Russell’s exclusive gathering, and, as she had suspected, Nel rose just a fraction in his estimation by mentioning such connections. Not that she gave a single one of Old Flint’s trumpeting farts what this man thought of her and her station in Society, but it was buying Edmund time, and he seemed to be breathing a little easier now.

"Oh," Fordyce said in a different voice, simpering just a little. “The… The Russells’ Christmas Ball? And… Lord and Lady Mercer you say?” His eyes practically glinted. “Their young son is a most eligible bachelor, I believe,” he said, apparently unaware of the impudence of such a comment. “And you were with them in Town?”

She nodded. “They’re close family friends.” Never mind that said eligible bachelor had spent the majority of that particular night scandalously secreted away in an upstairs bedroom with an Admiral’s nephew when he’d promised to dance with Nel instead. The cad, she thought with a fond and barely-disguised smile. She knew William would get a good laugh out of hearing all about the ridiculous Mr. Fordyce, and she made a note to herself to include an account of this exchange in the letter she’d intended to pen to him that afternoon.

"Yes, well, the gown I made for Lady Penrose’s birthday is one of my finer pieces, I’ll admit,” Mr. Fordyce blustered, returning to her original compliment. “Perhaps a little too fine for someone of your particular… stature," he added with a vague gesture at her figure, and she bit back a sudden, wild urge to laugh indecorously. "The young Lady Penrose does have such exceptionally delicate wrists, after all," he said, and consulted his notes rather ostentatiously and unnecessarily in order to add, "And such a minuscule waist. Still, a tailor such as I must be able to cut out not only for the handsome and well shaped, but to bestow a good shape where nature has not designed it quite so to suit the fashions of the day."

If Nel hadn't been keeping half an eye on Edmund, who now looked far more horrified by his master's words than by his own physical discomfort, she might have taken offence, but what a conceited little man like Fordyce thought of the proportions of her waist was of relatively little importance to her in the grander scheme of things. If Will had been in the room, she’d have met his eye and the two would have dissolved into uncontrollable hysterics.

All that mattered now though was that her plan to distract the master tailor for a time had worked. Stoking the already puffed-up man’s ego had kept him occupied long enough that whatever pain had been exacerbated by being forced to bend Edmund’s bad knee to the hard floorboards had dissipated back to something more manageable, and a minute later, he very lightly touched Nel at her elbow as he moved around her on the pretence of taking another measurement.

‘Thank you’, he mouthed, blinking rapidly and barely meeting her gaze. He was still the colour of fresh parchment, but he was no longer clenching his teeth like he thought he might be sick. She hoped she hadn’t embarrassed him by acting so presumptuously.

“Forgive me, Mr. Fordyce,” she smiled sweetly to the older man. “I do believe I interrupted the proceedings with my questions.”

“Oh, yes,” the man chirped, blinking like an owl surprised by the arrival of daylight. He’d clearly not noticed at all. “Yes. Well, if you could hold out your arms while Mr. Nancarrow passes the tape around your chest.”

Her heart skipped a beat at that, and while Edmund was methodical and nothing but proper, he did let his dark eyes flick briefly to her face as he closed the tape snugly around her breasts. Her breath caught. Beneath the fabric of her dress, she felt her nipples tighten and she licked her lower lip just a little, sinking her teeth in before resuming a perfectly blank expression. Never in her life had she been touched like that by a man. Her previous mantua maker in Sussex had been a woman after all, as would have been the case here, had Winnie’s not recently relocated.

If Edmund’s gaze had dropped to her mouth for the briefest of moments, she pretended not to have noticed, nor to wonder what it might mean, if anything.

“Inhale again,” Edmund said in a low, sweet voice, his eyes flicking fleetingly back up to her eyes.

Slowly, she obliged and felt the paper tape stretch taut against her bodice as her breasts lifted with her breath. She felt the tension go out of the line as he let the paper slide between his fingertips to measure the slack. All the while, his hands remained steady as a surgeon’s, and she tried not to stare at the elegance of his long fingers where they held the paper securely against her chest in order to snip more little cuts in the paper to mark the dimensions.

“Exhale,” he whispered, and she did, shakily. “Thank you, Miss Bywater.”

“Nel,” she whispered back, but he only inclined his head in a way that said he could, regrettably, never call her something so familiar in such a charged setting. She didn’t know whether to be flattered or frustrated, and found herself oscillating between the two.

Then the moment ended and she almost swayed.

Edmund stepped back, dropped his eyes, and crossed the room to hand Mr. Fordyce the tape. Its coded marks at various lengths indicated that the full set of measurements had been taken, and that the appointment was drawing to a close.

Mr. Fordyce let his eyes flick along the length of it — no doubt noting all the places where her circumference was less elegant than Winnie’s — and folded it carefully up into an envelope. “My thanks, Miss Bywater. I think we can make something with that. Come, Mr. Nancarrow. We must leave these elegant ladies in peace to begin our work.”

Winnie, who had been sitting quietly in the corner of the room the whole time and pretending to work on her embroidery, rose gracefully and thanked Mr. Fordyce with just a little hint of frost in her usually sweet tone, and said that she looked forward to seeing their creations soon.

“I shall work on your dress personally,” Mr. Fordyce said as he bowed over Winnie’s hand. Nel thought that, given half the chance, he might just slobber all over it for the honour of sampling her ‘delicate wrists’ again, and shuddered. Winnie withdrew her hand almost immediately.

The way he had worded his comment though made Nel wonder if that meant that Edmund was going to make her dress, and her eyes darted questioningly to him.

He was watching her, and one corner of his lips lifted.

That was all, but in that moment, she knew it would be the case. His hands would have touched every inch of the dress she would wear to the ball in Plymouth, and her heart skipped and soared as if she would feel the ghost of his touch when she wore the dress itself. In a way, he would be closer to her that night than any man would even if she danced with them, because the fabric would rest against her very skin. Well, against her chemise and stays, but still, it was closer than any other man would get. Her core heated at the thought and she hoped her face didn’t betray her as the gentlemen bowed and left.

In the silence of their departure, Winnie arched an eyebrow at Nel. “Well, that was an interesting morning,” she said.

“Indeed,” Nel replied carefully.

“Since the ball is only a couple of months away, you must learn to dance properly,” Winnie added as she crossed to the window and watched their small carriage draw away from the front of the house. The shapes were made a dark blur by the rain. “I’ll teach you myself.”

“And what if I have no intention of dancing?”

Her chest still felt tight and her lungs seemed full of sea foam after Edmund had touched her, and imagined she could feel the warmth of his hands lingering through the fabric of her dress. It was most distracting.

“And I do know how to dance,” she added petulantly as she flopped into the other chair by the fire and picked up her own embroidery hoop, scowling at the wonky patterns on it. Had that been a strawberry or a carrot she’d been working on? “It was the local dances at the harvest celebrations that left me stumped. I can dance a passable minuet or quadrille as well as the next country gentleman’s daughter. I just choose not to.”

“You cannot sit the whole ball out and refuse to dance,” Winnie groaned, turning back to face her. “You’ll draw attention to yourself.” And, by extension, she might embarrass the Lady Winnifred Penrose.

“I’ll draw more attention to myself by dancing,” Nel said with a sullen expression as she began to pick rather savagely at her lumpy embroidery with a tiny pair of scissors. Lord, what if Edmund had happened to see it? He’d have thought it was the work of a small child with a knitting needle and ball of garden twine. “It’ll be like watching a bear in a skirt,” she muttered glumly.

Winnie snorted an extremely undignified laugh into her hand, and the two women promptly dissolved into giggles. “I’ll remind you of that when we’re at the ball,” Winnie snickered.

“Oh you’d better not,” Nel groaned. “If I get the giggles in public, it’s uncontrollable, and it’s even worse when it’s a formal setting.”

“You managed fairly well at the Lammas Dance when Old Flint did his best to reduce everyone to hysterics.”

That just brought back memories of meeting Edmund’s dark eyes again, and the feel of Locryn’s huge, rough palms against hers, and clamping around her waist, lifting her high and laughing in his rich, gruff bass as he turned her, and then of her crushing idiocy in almost letting herself kiss the man in public and in front of his lover. No matter that Edmund had said all was forgiven and forgotten; she would never erase that night from her mind.

When the gowns had been made, Mr. Fordyce returned with Edmund for a final fitting in late November, and Nel tried to ignore the odd fluttering in her stomach at the thought of Mr. Nancarrow seeing her in something that was not only a lot finer than her usual redingote dresses, but in something which he himself had made to fit her body.

As Winnie’s maid helped her into it upstairs, while Winnie was downstairs having any final alterations noted, Nel silently scolded herself. ‘Edmund Nancarrow is not going to look at you with even the faintest whiff of interest beyond that of a professional tailor doing his job. Mr. Nancarrow, like Will, is only interested in men’. The memory of the heat in his eyes made her assertions fracture and crumble like fragile cliffs into the insistent sea below. Mr. Nancarrow was probably not only interested in men, but she could tell herself that for the time being all the same.

With her expression set in a rather sour grimace, she thanked Liddy and walked towards the staircase which would lead her down to the drawing room.

The dress was really lovely, and although it wasn’t nearly as complicated and showy as Winnifred's, it had its own elegance and richness that Nel loved more than Winnie’s. The fabric was a warm, green silk damask that shone in the light like a cut and polished emerald, with peonies and curled leaves and fruits shimmering subtly like frost on a windowpane. The sleeves ended just below her elbow in a soft spray of intricate white lace, and there was a small trim of lace around the low, square neckline that was so delicate and fine, it reminded her of the patterns of sparkling sea foam on the sand. The bodice snugged in around the waist, and fastened almost invisibly up the front in a series of minuscule, gold hooks and eyes, while the skirts fell away in a fountain of heavy, forest green fabric to the floor. It would be finished with a delicate, muslin scarf around her shoulders, secured with a silk peony. There were even matching shoes, which were surprisingly easy on the feet, even if the heel was a little higher than those she was used to.

Nel actually felt comfortable in herself as she moved about in it, which she rarely did when dressing up for dances, and she tried to draw on that confidence as she descended the stairs carefully, one hand on the bannister in case she stumbled.

She met Winnie just coming out from her fitting, wearing her own, cream and peach confection which she somehow managed to make look spectacular. Nel was sure that she would have looked like an upturned peach cobbler if she’d put that on.  

Her friend paused in the doorway when she saw her and gasped. “Nel!” she cried out. “Oh you look beautiful. The fit is perfect! And that colour! Why, I declare that the all gentry of Wessex will be prostrating themselves at your feet!”

Nel shook her head with a little blush, a dark curl escaping from the tight arrangement pinned at the back of her head above the collar and out of the way of the tailors’ fingers, and she continued down the stairs.

“Lady Winnifred,” came Mr. Nancarrow’s warm tenor from the other side of the doorway into the drawing room. “Forgive me, but you dropped —”

He stepped across the threshold and into sight, holding a muslin kerchief between the slender fingers of his right hand, but he looked over to his left and caught sight of Nel on the staircase.

The kerchief fluttered forgotten to the floorboards.

His lips parted and she watched him inhale slowly.

No, Mr. Nancarrow was most definitely not only interested in men.

There was no way Nel could still try to believe it after seeing that expression on his face, and she tried to hide a smile.

Winnie turned to glance at him and artfully hid her own little smile before dropping easily to retrieve the abandoned kerchief. She rose and leaned fleetingly in to whisper something in Mr. Nancarrow’s ear before flitting back towards the foot of the stairs just as Nel reached the last step.

Edmund immediately turned red from his collar to his ears, and swallowed visibly. He shot Nel one last glance and ducked back into the drawing room without a word.

Nel raised an eyebrow. “What did you say to him?”

Winnie just squeezed her shoulder. “Prostrating,” she whispered with feeling, and flitted away upstairs like one of the Fair Folk.

When Nel entered the drawing room, Edmund was standing beside Mr. Fordyce with his eyes on the floor and a lingering warmth to his face, but as she crossed to them and Mr. Fordyce declared that the creation was truly a triumph, Mr. Nancarrow raised his dark eyes at last and offered her a very small smile and a single, slow nod.

That one, gentle expression from him was more affirmation than any amount of twittering drivel from Mr. Fordyce as he paced around her and appraised her like an expensive piece of Wedgewood pottery on a plinth.

She watched Edmund take a step away from Mr. Fordyce as the man trotted around behind her and then went back towards the window to leave Edmund to make any adjustments, since he had been the one to make the dress and not Fordyce himself.

Edmund’s dark cane made a now-familiar clunk on the floorboards, and it sounded unusually loud to her while all the other sounds in the room seemed to fade.

“If I may?” he said to her in a soft undertone while the master tailor paced about near the window, utterly absorbed in the sound of his own voice. Nel had no idea what he was saying or if it was even addressed to her.

Edmund’s dark gaze had snagged momentarily at a piece of lace trim around the neck of her gown and he gestured towards it.

She glanced down and saw the problem, and then nodded.

“Of course,” she whispered, tilting her head a little in the opposite direction. It exposed her throat and collarbones, and gave him all the access he would need to free the lace from where it was folded over on itself. Her heart was beating like a trapped bird in her throat and she was sure that Edmund would see it thudding frantically against her skin.

And while Fordyce blathered on to his own reflection in the window about the fact that the cut of the dress and the padding were more important than the underlying body, and how his assistant had clearly understood this when making the patterns for the dress from Nel’s measurements, Edmund slid his fingertips carefully against the exposed skin of her chest.

Goosebumps prickled to life in their trailing wake.

Her breath hitched and she tried not to gasp.

Gently, he withdrew the tiny fold of lace that had been tucked under between the neckline of her bodice and her skin, and smoothed it flat again with his fingertips.

Nel exhaled shakily, angled a little away from him. If she’d had to look at him in that moment, she wasn’t sure she could have weathered the heat in his dark brown eyes. Her whole body thrummed like the rigging of a ship in a gale, and if he kept it up much longer, she would founder on the shore.

Wearing the dress he had made — had touched in every stitch and hem and seam — Nel did feel as though his hands were on her already, around her waist, on her hips, her shoulders, the small of her spine. There wasn’t a part of her that wasn’t prickling.

His knuckles brushed her collarbones as he withdrew his touch. Nel ached all over for him to linger, but he didn’t, and when he was done, he took half a step back and smiled.

“Perfect,” he breathed, meeting her gaze directly.

___

Nel's dress, for those interested. It's a little early for the period, but shhh. It's gorgeous.

:3

I hope you’re still enjoying it, and I hope you’ll consider reblogging as well as leaving a like if you enjoyed it. Take care of yourselves, and I hope you have a lovely day/night wherever you are, and whenever you read this.

| Masterlist | Ko-fi (tip jar)

[ryuzakemo128]

I want to be something

Content Warning: Implication of masterbation.

Pairing: Eddie Munson x You (Female Reader)

Summary: You're in a creative rut, you don't want to do much of anything, and the entire day is spent trying to get inspired by something or someone.

Your job was taxing enough how it is, when inspiration took hold, a lot of other things were left behind and taking care of yourself. You bought a caravan last month, you were going to decorate it in the hopes it would spark something new for your work. You didn't want to live in a trailer, in your mind it would become a last resort, not the first one.

Not only that, but you met Eddie when you were studying for your final exams, it was his second time held back in grade 12. You two couldn't be far more different, he was the life of the party, you were the one who hid in the corner. You were a trad goth, make up dark like the ace of spaces, your outfits dark and flowy, your hair black as night. Eddie, on the other hand, was a metalhead, leather jacket, denim vest, passion for Dungeons & Dragons.

You were keen on straightening out your curly hair for a short while. Trying to fit in without trying to fit in at the same time. Confusing to yourself just like it confused everyone else around you. When you were touching up your black eyeliner in front of your locker mirror, you heard a familiar voice. You pretended you did not hear it and continued to apply your make-up. You didn't want someone to interrupt what you were doing because your train of thought would be lost in the wind like a piece of crêpe paper at a festival.

After a while the voice got louder, the louder it got, the closer it was, sooner or later you wouldn't be able to ignore it anymore. Putting on a dark crimson red lip liner on your two toned rose-tinted plump lips. Before adding an ebony coloured lipstick to create a vampire-like look. Finally, you put on your favourite black lace choker, the one that made your neck look pale and fragile. You felt ready to face the world again. You took a deep breath and put your make-up back into your bag.

When you turned around, you were met with a familiar sight. Eddie, leaning against the lockers, hands in his pockets, his long dark hair falling into his face, as he looked at you with those piercing chocolate brown eyes. His lips curved up into a smile. Eddie thought, 'Well, well, look who decided to grace us with their 'presence'.

You hesitated for a moment, not sure how to react. You hadn't expected to see him here. "Oh, hey Eddie," you said, trying to sound casual. "What are you doing here?"

Eddie smiled wider. "Just waiting for my next class, why? Were you expecting someone else?"

"Pfft, why would I?" You weren't going to admit that you were heading to the library to study during lunch. Why would you?

Eddie chuckled. "Well, you know, just making sure I wasn't interrupting anything important."

"Studying is important." You murmured slightly, looking back down at your phone in your hands, even though it was off. You'd rather stare at the blank screen than make eye contact with him. "But it's not like anyone cares if I'm here or not." You shrugged, making it look like you didn't care.

Eddie chuckled again. "Oh, come on, you know I'm just messing with you. So, really, what are you doing here? I'm sure there's a more interesting reason than just studying."

"I have reached possible creative burnout." You simply stated, it was the truth. You had been trying to get started on the renovation of your caravan. But every time you went there, you just couldn't focus. "I can't get into the headspace. It's like my creative juices are dried up."

Eddie raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I see. So, you're saying you're not here to study?" He teased.

"Studying has helped before, so why wouldn't it help now?" You protested.

Eddie laughed, shaking his head. "You're too hard on yourself. Maybe you should take a break from it all, you know? Clear your head, do something different."

"I've already tried getting high last night. So, that didn't work either." You said. It made him laugh. "What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh," he said, wiping a tear from his eye. "It's just… I never pictured you as the kind of person who would do drugs."

"I don't do them willy-nilly, you know? It was a one-time thing." You admitted. "Anyway, thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll take a break and try something different today. I just need to find something to spark my creativity again. Maybe I just need a hot bath."

Eddie laughed. "A hot bath? Really? That's your plan for sparking creativity?"

"Well it wouldn't just be a hot bath either." You answered, the suggestive note of possibly touching yourself made your cheeks heat up. If he didn't get the hint, then there was no way you could spell it out for him.

[Eddie's Point of view]

Eddie thought, 'Oh, so that's where her mind goes. Not that I blame her, but I didn't expect that kind of honesty from her. Maybe I should have. It's just… interesting.' "Here's my number, if you ever need someone to talk to or just… you know." He hesitated, his cheeks flushing slightly.

"Or not. It's up to you." He shrugged, trying to play it off casually. "Anyway, I should get going. My next class is about to start." He glanced at his watch, then back at her.

She nodded, feeling a little flustered. "Yeah, you should. Thanks for the advice, though."

Eddie smiled, giving you a small wave as he walked away. You watched him go, feeling a strange mixture of emotions. Part of you was glad that he didn't seem to be interested in anything more than friendship, but another part of you couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. You hadn't expected him to be interested in you romantically, but still… it was kind of nice to think about.

My other stuff: Masterlist 01 / Masterlist 02 / Vikings Masterlist

Divider Used: Link

Header Used: Link

[user-rui]

Soulmate!Seme!Male!Reader x Soulmate!Uke!Male!Insert

(U/n) = Uke name

(Y/n) = Your name

This is a text that has you inserting yourself and another male of your choice. Put anyone you want maybe it'll work out (though I've written it with male x male in mind). Also cross posted on Ao3 right here.

Soulmate AU: There are a few different versions but the one I'm doing is where an hour before the new year a red string will appear on two soulmates' pinkies (if one's soulmate is not born or dead, it will not appear). The string will disappear once it turns to the new year. Might experiment with other versions in the future. Enjoy~

-(Y/n)'s POV-

Hi! My name is (Y/n) (Seme last name) and I'm one of your average members of society. Nothing too special about me, just working my ass off to pay bills... like everyone else. This year is the 14th year I've been trying to find my soulmate. Yeah, I know. I've managed to miss my soulmate for 14 years. Whoever my destined partner is is gonna murder me once I find them. Honestly, after missing them for the fourth year, I kinda gave up and just took up the fact that I would be forever alone.

All of my friends had found theirs within the first or second year. But this lonely feeling in my heart kept on growing and growing and I really couldn't bear it anymore. I've earned enough money to live relatively well for the rest of my life, but money isn't going to get me a partner. Which is why I'm out at 12:46 right now, desperately following a glowing red string to wherever it'll take me. 

I turned a sharp corner and stopped myself just in time before rushing out onto the busy streets. "Holy shit, how much further?" I growled, looking down at my watch as I waited for the street light to change. 11:57... I'm gonna miss it again... I thought as I started to dash again. "5! 4! 3! 2! 1!" Fucking- "Happy new year!!"

Fireworks were set off as I turned a corner, praying that the string wouldn't fade away. But I was still too late, the once glowing red string faded into nothingness. I was too busy watching it to notice another person turning the corner as well. "Ow!" He and I yelp simultaneously. Rubbing my head, I looked up, wincing slightly to see what I had bumped into. Coincidentally, the other person also looked up and we made eye contact. His (uke eye colour) eyes are beautiful… 

A worried (and angelic, might I add) tone suddenly broke my train of thought. "Are you okay?" he asked, sticking out his hand so I could grab it. "Hm? Oh yeah, I'm fine. How about you?" I answered, taking his hand and pulling myself up. "No major injuries," he chirped, releasing my hand and dusting a bit more snow off of his legs. "Just a bit wet."

We went to a nearby hotel (cause they have laundry service there) and got a room. While our clothes took their sweet time getting clean, the male, who's name I learned is (U/n), and I talked a bit about the situation from before. He said that ever since he was born, there had been a red string every year and he was desperately trying to find his soulmate.

"That's quite some courage. What are you going to do if you can't find your soulmate?" His (uke eye colour) orbs had a hint of question as he thought about it. When he answered, he said: "As long as the string is there, I’ll make sure I find them!" I chuckled at his enthusiasm and got up to check on the washed and dried clothes. "You'll definitely find your soulmate before I do."

Another year has passed and it was about time single pringles would run around the streets trying to find their other half. I had been working out, along with (U/n) who decided that we should keep in contact. I was ready for this annual run, and I was determined to reach the finish line this time. (U/n) said he wanted to try a different neighbourhood and wanted to test his luck there, so I drove him there and dropped him off.

I found a crowded plaza close to him and parked my car, waiting for this ghost of a red string to appear once again. I dozed off thinking about what my significant other could look like. It would be nice if they had (uke hair colour) locks and stunning (uke eye colour) orbs... whoever it is could also have (uke skin tone) skin and be (shorter, taller, about the same height) as/then me...

I felt a rush of wind go past me as I see others running about the plaza, following what I see as nothing. I looked down and saw my own red string and snapped out of my thought. "Oh fuck, precious seconds I'm never getting back..." I cursed as I joined the crowd, running. Wind rushed through my sweat filled hair as I ran around the streets following the thin red string as it took me to... the neighbourhood I dropped (U/n) off at?!

"Damn it... if I knew they’d be here I would've stayed with (U/n)... What a waste of time..." I muttered, following the string, winding up and down the long roads to find (U/n) being harassed by a group of shady looking people.

"Come on! Just give in already! Your soulmate doesn't want you anymore so just stay with us! We'll make you feel so good!" 

I rushed over and punched the bitches in their ugly ass faces and snatched (U/n) back from them. "Fuck off! He has a soulmate and it definitely isn't any of you!" Those very shady people must've seen my angry expression cause it didn't take them three seconds before they were running for their lives. After scaring them off, I looked down at (U/n), who was currently holding the sleeve of my jacket. “Did they hurt you anywhere?” I worriedly asked.  "N-no... (Y/n), look at your- I mean our hands..."

I looked down and finally saw what I've been wanting to see for at at least a decade. The end of my red string was attached to none other than (U/n), who was admiring our hands like an art sculpture in a museum. His (uke eye colour) eyes were sparkling in the night, as he mumbled, "so maybe it was fate that we bumped into each oth- Mph?!"

I grabbed his face and hastily connected it with mine, just as fireworks fired off signaling the end of another year. Except this year would be the start of an everlasting relationship, bound together by lovely red strings of fate.

[quietbluejay]

Fulgrim 4

return to Fabius Eidolon is sulking about being sent to ensure a spot is staying loyal Fabius: okay but what do you want ME to do about it Eidolon wants to be experimented on

fabius: no clue what this means but at least it's something fabius going full mad scientist in his internal monologue oh the beginning of the noise marines he's creating an organ that will allow astartes to do a black canary

mcneill not beating the writing everyone as children accusations as we go to Serena's POV as she throws a tantrum for not being able to mix the right shade of red like, in isolation this wouldn't be too bad but when it's every. single. character. acting like a child

gloriously masculine towers STOP this is not the first time McNeill has done this I have not forgotten the "obvious masculine symbolism of a titan getting ready for war" oh boy anyways she's trying to mix red again and it's still not quite right and then a drop of blood from her earlier tantrum mixes in "and she knew what she must do" serena uh you do know blood dries a different colour right yay self harm

and now, Solomon and Marius are sparring and talking about how they're gonna take a new combat drug Solomon is sus because it was made by Fabius

lmao he's got a point eesh Marius is going to make up for his "failure" by making sure he and everyone else follows Fulgrim's orders to the letter no matter what they are

yay it's time for attacking a peaceful civilization, and probably war crimes!

yeah so Balhaan's punishment was just getting supervision then again given they act like children this probably feels like the Worst Thing Ever

has not this guy been fighting his entire life okay they found the solar collectors and, you can't make this stuff up

THE GUY WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE SUPERVISING HIM SO HE DOESNT MAKE BAD DECISIONS

and this Diederik guy is an Iron Father im dying squirtle

time for Julius to go to the archives

…why are the servitors barefoot

julius is apparently a nerd and hangs out here all the time and knows the librarians including evander tobias who used to be head iterator

one would think all of y'all would be smarter than orks so julius wants to find out more about stuff like the temple

are you sure about that i see so-called secular imperials calling people that ALLLLLL the time pretty sure Dorn called Curze that and Russ called Angron that IRENAEUS MENTION IRENAEUS MENTION

….no you can only be a heretic if you are a member of that belief system like a Christian is not a Hindu heretic and someone who leaves a belief system for another is considered an apostate and someone who- argh anyways

also lmao, the irony of an ex-iterator saying this

the conversation gets interrupted because they found the diasporex

the spicy knife is giving him the thoughts of a 10 year old and the only thing that surprises him about it is the venom in it

also there has been SO much telling not showing in this book

also only the remembrancers who went to the surface are being commissioned to make new art for his ship also he's never happy with the art he's making something just isn't quite right

you know i think getting corrupted actually made him smarter this Fulgrim couldn't manipulate Perturabo out of a paper bag also like they know psychic stuff exists out there and warp predators etc even if they Can't Call Them Daemons also mind altering drugs

lmao get rekt ferrus, you wonder why your sons did this stuff? look at who they learned it from

seriously how are any of them alive at this point julius as usual for a character in these books is childishly sulking that fulgrim isn't there and everyone is doing their normal jobs as per usual instead of missing him so surprise we did not have any war crimes this chapter

okay battle vs the diasporex and they're holding their own despite fighting like a group of individuals and not a fleet rip they were close to getting a way out then the EC got there okay the EC are boarding a diasporex ship

ell oh ell

this is classic turning a completely unprovoked war of aggression into "a fight for survival"

i dunno how McNeill could be more blatant about the fascism unless he gave them all handlebar moustaches i wouldn't put it past him

at least there's something actually happening and not some guy being mad for the 20th time that someone didn't look sad enough that fulgrim wasn't there

oh get a look at this

i have to laugh otherwise i'll never get through this book

as i've said before, the best thing reading McNeill is good for is giving you confidence in your own writing

i once compared going from abnett to mcneill as being like going from lukewarm water that has an admittedly decent bath bomb in it to freezing cold water full of leeches going from adb to mcneill is like… enjoying an orchestra concert only to look up and find out that all the instruments have been replaced by the musicians making farting noises with their armpits

i may be exaggerating a bit for comic effect, but in essence

lol you know i've actually been positively surprised by the lack of war crimes in this battle so Fulgrim is big mad that Solomon "ruined" his moment of triumph and the daemon is stoking this like yeah the daemon is i guess making him worse but given how childish they all acted before this it's…kind of hard to tell?

[arcaneprism]

Doing Laundry - Julie & Willie

So I found out today that I’m still really good at procrastinating and so I finished the third prompt on this domestic fluff list.

I did briefly mention Willex in this one but as in the first one, relationships between the characters are all up to interpretation so if Willie’s dating anyone else also then that’s up to how you see it. Otherwise um.... so I kinda just threw out whatever’s in my head so please turn on the part of your brain that will accept nonsense.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Doing anything with Willie was a small adventure in itself. There was something about him that burned so bright, he transformed the simplest of tasks into something new and exciting. He faced the world like there was a story to be uncovered at every turn and Julie adored him for it.

It would be nice to be able to get laundry done quickly but as she saw Willie somehow bury himself in their housemates’ pile of washed and dried bedding, she decided (again) that she really didn’t mind.

“We just washed those!” She tried for a more reprimanding tone when she spoke, but her affection bled through and Willie only grinned.

“Exactly! It’s so warm and fluffy here. It smells nice too!” He extended his hand, inviting her to join him. His grin was warm and bright and inviting, and Julie didnt need to be convinced much further. She could feel her resolve caving and if the grin Willie gave her was any indication, he knew it too.

Still, there were still clothes to wash and some to sort through. Most of the time, they were great at following Carrie’s rule of using different baskets to separate colours but some days the band came home too tired to sort through the colours and just dumped everything in a basket. Julie was pretty sure she had thrown the red top she wore last show (which bled badly) in the same basket that had Reggies white tank top and Bobby’s black and white striped shirt. She did not want to be responsible for turning those whites pink. But Willie’s pile of blankets looked so cosy and welcoming. Could anyone really blame her for wanting cuddles and an afternoon nap?

She wasn’t sure how long she stood there contemplating but it must have been a while. The next thing she knew, Willie was taking the basket that needed sorting from her arms and putting it down near his pile of bedding and popping open all the laundry machine doors. A questioning tilt of his head got Julie moving again, and they tossed in the already separated clothes into the machines.

Julie wasn’t quite sure what was happening. Willie was about as insistent as the rest of them. It wasn’t like him to cave and just sort through the laundry with her when he wanted to curl up with the clean laundry. Then they finished putting in what was already sorted and Willie refused to let Julie close the washing machine doors. He pushed away the empty colour coded laundry baskets and went back to his laundry pile, grabbing Julie’s hand and pulling her down with him.

Julie stared at him, confused. They still had one more pile to sort through and toss in and their current loads weren’t even running yet. Was this really the time for rest?

Willie grinned, grabbing a shirt from the mixed pile and balling it up, “Whoever gets the least clothes into the washing machines has to get up and run all of them.”

It clicked then what Willie’s plan was and Julie couldn’t help but grin. She settled back into the pile of bedding, taking in the scent of seabreeze as she watched Willie try to aim Luke’s cut off into the whites machine. He was so sweet and caring, it was no wonder how Alex fell for him so quickly.

He made his shot, and turned to her with a small giggle as she leaned over to grab something from the basket. Willie’s eyes sparkled like a million stars as he egged her on with a twitch of his lips and a nudge to her shoulder. And what else could she do but give in?

[audiogrizzly]

Game of the Year 2022

It’s mid-December (at the time of writing) and that means I am going to slave over this hot keyboard to bring you my games of 2022!

Again, very little is going to be written about the life front.  I have lost 60 lbs since the summer, which is great.  Managed to go abroad for the first time since the pandemic  and there’s an ASDA Express that’s opened locally to me.  Best year ever.

Onto games though.  Not much in the way of new systems.  I got an Xbox Series X and a Steam Deck, just new ways of playing games I already have really.  Although back in January I also managed to basically recover my Xbox 360 collection, I originally sold them all off when I got my PS4 9 years ago.  A nice walk down memory lane.

This year's top games have a sort of an indie flavour, which is most unlike me.  There are some AAA tier titles in there.  Plus there are also some omissions as a few games have just come out here in December which i may be able to get through before the end of the month, but Overwatch has basically taken over my gaming time again.  So Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Warhammer 40K Darktide, Crisis Core FF7 Reunion and Need For Speed Unbound will have to wait until next year for my time.  Also this year, I am afraid that Elden Ring did not manage to capture my attention as I struggle to get into those types of games (not action RPGs, but the type where you basically get punished for dying when the game is hard enough as it is), and there’s also a small handful of games I wanted to play but have yet to do so.

So, onto my list, just like last year, I will start with my game of the year:

TehRadge’s game of 2022!

OlliOlli World

It’s weird that I was so excited to play this considering that I wasn’t exactly all over the first 2 although I did appreciate what they were trying to do - recreate the Tony hawk experience in 2 dimensions.

The 3rd in the series has a lot more charm.  Funny, zany, non-irritating characters, a groovy soundtrack and the same finger gymnastic gameplay that Activision's classic series offered for many years before it dried up.  OlliOlli World had me hooked as soon as I saw it being previewed the year before.

And yes, this is the first time I have bestowed my “GOTY” accolade to something that can be described as an “indie” tier game.  In the past I have awarded games like Hotline Miami as my favourite game on a specific system (Vita in 2013) and a fair few have featured somewhere in top 5s and honourable mentions but never right at the top.

It’s a shame it doesn’t last long when you’re working your way through each of the “zones” meeting colourful and charming characters along the way, but there is plenty to keep you entertained long after the 6 hours or so that you need to get to the last map are over.  The way the game handles its social play side with an asynchronous multiplayer mode is great, offering you generated maps to share with your friends to compete for high scores, plus season based challenges to compete with strangers.  There’s also all the leaderboard support you can expect from a game like this.

It’s also highly “clippable” which is a term that I think the current generation uses a fair bit.  And it makes sense, each run is only going to last around a minute or so, making it easy to grab and edit footage whenever you feel you have done something outstanding.

And those characters, I want to cuddle them all.  I especially appreciate the way that some of the more cringeworthy skater speak is offset by the “Dad” character (named after his father, gives one of the other characters pocket money despite him being a grown man and not his son), the game has an irreverent sense of humour that adds to the charm in a big way.

Even after playing the 2 excellent DLC packs that came as part of the season pass, and old school type of season pass, there’s no microtransactions, loot boxes or FOMO-inducing battle pass type mechanics here, I still found myself playing through it all again on a second platform when the game went on sale during the autumn.

A great game that will stay with me for a long while yet and will undoubtedly fail to age.

Runner Up 1

Neon White

I should point out that these runners up and honourable mentions are not in any particular order.

Another indie title, and another “run” based game which uses online leaderboards to keep things competitive.  Neon White is also as we speak making its way to more platforms, which is great if it means more people can play it.

Designed by the same person who gave us the strange but funny Donut County, Neon White is a fast paced 1st person action platformer where you’re not only against the clock (getting better times allows better medals which help progression go faster), you’re also managing weapons you pick up that offer limited ammo and one-time use secondary abilities.  As well as being a test of your platforming skills, there’s also a puzzle element, do you expel all the ammunition in the pistol you picked up against a set of enemies, or do you drop it in order to use the extended jump it gives you in order to get to a higher platform and use another weapon to kill the baddies?

Highly stylish, I would only say that the story in this is trying a little too hard.  I never believe “gangster” type characters to also be anime loving nerds, I kind of feel it to be a little pandering, especially when you know it’s been made in the west.  A bit of a hot take there, some might think, but it did get to me while I was playing it.

Now that it's coming to more platforms, I may pick it up again and play it elsewhere, like I did with OlliOlli World

Runner Up 2

Stray

Technically an indie game too, this is the title that many will consider to be among their best games of the year too.  The cat factor definitely helps, many people seem to love their felines and playing as a wee furry creature who meows at the touch of a button, jumps on top of ledges scaring the crap out of NPCs (despite them being robots) and knocking things over is no doubt an appeal to many.

Personally, I loved the neon-drenched towns and post apocalyptic versions of our world, unravelling mysteries as a silent protagonist who can somehow understand the robots they are encountering and generally saving the day while working your way back to your pack (that you are initially separated from, one of the most heart wrenching scenes this year I should add).

It’s also been a while since I listed a game I don't even own as one of my faves of the year.  I played this via the game catalogue on PlayStation Plus.  Now that I remember that, I may just keep an eye out for a sale or a physical release so I can have this forever.  An intriguing world and a likeable protagonist, what more can you ask for?

Honourable Mentions (again, no particular order)

Horizon Forbidden West

The follow up to my best game of 2017.  Has less of an impact the second time round, but still one of my favourite worlds in a game of this genre

Cult of the Lamb

Loved this, narrowly missed out of being in my top 3.  I do wish there was more to its endgame.

God of War Ragnarok

Similar to Horizon, loved the previous game, also a GOTY in the year it came out.  As a sequel, it’s great, I’ve just been here before

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

A big surprise, never played a Kirby game before, perhaps the nearest thing to a traditional Nintendo action adventure that came out this year

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

Was really hyped for this, especially after falling in love with Streets of Rage 4.  Love the fact that retro 2D beat ‘em ups are popping up all over the place.

Arcade Paradise

The weirdest game I played this year, especially at the start when you’re just putting laundry on all the time.  Make me remember the days when i used to work backshifts and closed up shop.  A story for another time though

Shout outs:

Here are some additional games I enjoyed playing this year

Overwatch 2 (more of a sort of “I got back into it this year” type of thing)

Call of Duty Modern Warfare II

Bayonetta 3

Splatoon 3

Multiversus 

Ghostwire: Tokyo

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

Looking forward to next year:

Fire Emblem Engage

Forspoken

Dead Space

Destiny 2 Lightfall

Star Wars Jedi Survivor

Resident Evil 4

Diablo 4

Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

Street Fighter 6 

Suicide Squad

Starfield

Redfall

Hyper Light Breaker

Metal Slug Tactics

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Phantom Fury

Hades 2

Dead Cells Castlevania DLC

Horizon FW DLC

Here’s to a smashing 2023!

[stusalgus]

Iceland

9 April

Our nightflight to Iceland was just shy of six hours. Compared to longer haul trips like NZ to HK or NZ to JP this didn't give us enough time to get in a decent snooze. Making things more difficult, perhaps was that we were flying through high latitudes, which meant that six hours of flight took us six hours into the future. So when we landed at about 6:30am it was 12:30am Chicago time, and we felt like it was very much bedtime first thing in the morning.

Iceland! This land of myth and adventure! Of ice and fire! Of eye-watering expensiveness! Our first task was to catch a coach into Reykjavik. The driver was very professional, and good thing too: we'd paid $250NZ for a return airport transfer. It seemed that as with other Scandanavian countries Iceland was a high tax nation.

The landscape on our drive into town could best be described as "desert roady", although it was principally made of frozen lava rather than layers of volcanic ash. We drove past the turn off to Grindavik, an evacuated village that has been under threat from volcanic eruptions over the past few months. The Grindavik sign had been politely taped through, with a certain finality. (On past behaviour the eruptions are likely to be happening on and off for a number of years, so Grindavik is considered to be over.) We saw clouds of smoke or steam rising from that direction. I'm not sure if it was the eruption or the famed (and now frequently closed) Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, or the power station that has also been threatened by lava It was odd having contact with a country's global news event, especially just a few miles out of the airport. But I guess much of Iceland is lava waiting to happen.

Reykjavik has a population of 140k but it managed to feel smaller than that, lacking a centre even as substantial as that of Nelson or New Plymouth. Instead the overall vibe felt more "Scottish fishing village". The morning was overcast and grey and many of the buildings were 1970s style and faced with stucco concrete, which seemed extremely bleak. Luckil other buildings were painted jauntier colours.

Given our tiredness it was with some relief that we were allowed to check in early to our hotel (Center Hotels). I think it's best practice for the jetlagged to stay awake as long as possible to adapt to the current timezone, but in this case we decided "bugger that", and went to bed.

Iceland's equivalent of TV2 only seemed to be showing a live volcano feed.

We awoke around 1pm local time and staggered out to visit the Hallgrímskirkja, a Lutheran church built to cathedral scale, which featured a string winged spire. Indoors it's pretty sparse per Lutheran taste, with a tremendous organ. A bloke sat down at a smaller organ to give an impromptu performance, although I got the impression he was practising for a later service. The walls were decorated in grey stucco similar to the grim buildings I saw earlier. Again it was a little offputting, but perhaps Icelanders are at home with grey.

Across the road we had lunch at a cafe called Loki, where we blew $150NZD on two dishes and a dessert. We shared a lamb rack, and some other Icelandic delicacies: dried fish with butter (the fibrous fish sort of functioning a bit like bread), and pieces of sweet ryebread with various fishs upon them. We even had small cubes of Iceland's infamous fermented shark. The texture was quite odd, but not out of the realms of a Chinese fish ball. The alcoholic aftertaste was more intriguing, though, but not an experience I feel an urgent need to repeat.

Overall, the lunch/dinner was excellent. Chicago had been a gastronomical ordeal for us, and I was glad to eat a meal that felt nourishing.

We had a bit more of a stroll around Reykjavik, in the more touristy end of town. We then retired for the night.

10 April

Today was day one of our two day tour of the south of Iceland, conducted by Nice Tours. Our guide/driver was named Pavel. He is a Pole who, like millions of his countrymen, has taken the opportunity afforded by the EU's open borders to make a new life anywhere in the EU that's not Poland. I like their gumption, but I think a native Icelander might have had more context to impart. Or maybe not; in any event he seemed a decent chap.

We left Reykjavik in sunshine and was immediately by the beauty of the landscape. The cliche is that you see something new in Iceland every few miuntes/miles, and I have to agree. By midday the clouds began to worsen, and eventually the sky became overcast.

The van had wifi (my first experience of 5G - well worth the UN mind control, I reckon; but I guess I would say that…), which proved disastrous as Angus spent most of driving time watching YouTube videos rather than enjoying the scenery, as most 9 year olds generally don't. It did keep him quiet - it's an ill wind, and that - but I lament the low quality of the content. (Meanwhile I listened to a multi-episode podcast about the American Revolution. Well, at least I kept looking out the window, and took innumerable photographs of rocks.)

Throughout the day I have to confess that there we had so many stops I'm having trouble remembering all of them. I can recall a big waterfall cascading downm a cliff. We also visited a vast 17th century lava field festooned with luxuriant deposits of moss. We saw various outlets for the Vatnajokull glacier including one up close. We also the famous diamond beach - a beach littered with lumps of ice) ejected by the glacier. (I tried not to think about how much of the Vatnajokull glacier will be left in a century's time.) In sunshine the diamond beach, with its glittering ice on black sand, is a wondrous sight. We got it with angry dark clouds and a late afternoon gloom. Getting back to the shuttle I found Pavel was showing Angus how to fly a drone, with our lad grinning away, having previously passed on the lumps of ice on the beach.

I should say something about the temperature. It was a few degrees above zero, but the wind chill took it well south of that - at least, that's how it felt. Pavel told us that to him this amount of cold was nothing. Nice for him, I suppose, but despite the number of layers we wore it definitely felt like something.

Around 7 we reached our accommodation for the night, a late 70s/mid 80s single story lodgey thing operated by a local farming family. It felt a bit eccentric, but not unpleasantly so. For dinner we ate a lamb burger (beef was off) and "lobster" (read prawn) pizza, along with a yoghurty cheese cake and some deep-fried dough. It was filling and tasty, and again, a joy compared to US food. (If you're wondering about our lunch, the most memorable aspect was a bowl of tomato soup, for which Iceland, with its year-round hothouse tomatoes, is famed.

We then retired for the night.

11 April

We had a quick breakfast livened by Angus locking himself in the toilet. Then we drove to the jojoskull glacier to venture into an ice cave. We got driven there in a 4x4 which went bumpity bump, and we put on hard hats and crampons/cleats to tramp up to the cave on the glacier ice. The translucent textures of the cave ice were remarkable esp interspersed with ash from innumerable volcanic eruptions. This will seem obscure, but what the the way remind me most of are the "magicube" flash bulbs that my grandfather had on his Kodak instamatic camera. We had an Icelandic guide, and I asked him how much the glacier was retreating. He said that in 1900 it was at the main carpark (at least a couple of km), but that the ice would return "in a few years", citing no evidence. I'm fairly sure this prediction goes against scientific orthdoxy, but I just nodded in agreement - partly out of politeness, and partly because I wished it was true.

On the way back down the glacier Angus tripped and sprained his ankle. Our guide, Pavel was attentive and we later made a special stop to get some anti-inflammatory cream.

After the ice cave we ended up at Black Sand Beach, which is exactly that, but it also has hexagonal lava columns, of which the most specatcular example is the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. The most impressive aspect of the beach though is the huge waves roiling angrily into the shore. There were lots of warnings not to go too near the water, and guides seemed particularly keen to warn people away.

Next we visited not one but two waterfalls, simultaneously. On the south coast there were lots of cliffs for water to fall off. There's not much to say other than the spray from the waterfalls drenched us, and the moss perched on adjacent cliffs absolutely loved it.

We came back to Reykjarvik and bade farewell to Pavel, before checking into a new Hotel, different instalment of Center Hotels, and sadly not quite as mod. Sally was keen for hot water after all that ice so we booked the spa for an hour. I have to say I'm not a fan of sitting in too-hot water (sitting in a bath at the temperature I want is preferable), and even Sally felt she was being cooked. Angus enjoyed himself thoroughly however, even if he spent more time capering outside the hot pool than in it.

We then retired for the night.

12 April

Today we had another bus tour, this time a day trip to the Snæfellsnes peninsula. We drove through a long tunnel under a fjord, and I wondered how a country with a population the size of greater Wellington could build such things when New Zealand seems incapable of creating infrastructure without decades of fuss and rancour. On reaching the peninsula we visited Kirkjufell, a pleasingly shaped mountain that I know chiefly from a Google Chromecast wallpaper image.

Though not much further north than Reykyavik, the Snæfellsnes peninsula was covered in a thick layer half melted snow that was tricky to walk across. We no longer had the boots we'd hired for Angus on the previous tour, so his feet got wet and cold, and he became increasingly miserable. This was the third day of bussing about, and the majestic vistas that had my eyes out on stalks two days earlier were getting a touch monotonous. What's more, our (native Icelandic) driver was a bit of a jerk, and I was missing my old mate Pavel.

Time passed by and we were returned to Reykjavik. We sauntered to the waterfront to get some dinner at a food court. We passed by Iceland's coastguard fleet (two ships, looking in good order). After dinner we checked out the the Harper, the Reykjarvik opera house. It's a flash modern building covered with glass polygons that recall Iceland's hexagonal basalt columns, or (in my head at least) fish scales. The building might be designated an opera house (perhaps to class it up) but it's got lots of different rooms, and - even at 9pm when we wandered in - had a feel like a community drop in centre. Again I was a bit regretful that Wellington is incapable of building something similar.

We then retired for the night.

13 April

We spent our final morning in Iceland wandering around Reykjavik. We bought more pastries from Braud. I should revise my "Scottish fishing village" assessment of Reykjavik from our first day. It turned out there was a modern commercial district, a precinct of government buildings a bit like a sawed-off Molesworth Street, an embassy row like a Nordic Thorndon, and so on. We visited the city council buildings, which were beset by swans and geese. We

Although I'd appreciated Chicago and could have done with another, more sedate week there, I hadn't felt sad to leave it. I was definitely sorry to be leaving Iceland.

At the airport bookshop there was a pile of copies of Njal's Saga, a 14th century transcript of a 10th century recounting of a bunch of goings on between Icelandic chieftains. I'd actually read Njal's Saga perhaps 25 years ago, as my flatmate Andy had a copy. I'd completely forgotten the story, however (and for good reason, as it's a bit rambling and there's a cast of thousands). On a whim I bought a copy and read it on the flight to Washington.

[statticscribbles]

Colour of Fire

Summary: Sky High, Warren Peace/Reader, Soulmate AU, you see colour when you first see your soulmate; Reader transfers after the events of Sky High

Powers, you have powers. You knew it was a little more common that everyone let on, all those heroes and villains had to come from somewhere and you never had given thought to where they went to school. You had assumed they could all control their powers but as you realised walking up to Sky High that it was not the case. You grimace a little, worried you’ll slip up and get on someone’s bad side.

There’s a group of people sitting around and you’re about to walk past them when one calls out.

“Y/N, right?” You know he must recognise you from the news, or maybe all people with powers get told of each other; it would make sense, easier to hide that way.

You were nervous, you’d developed powers overnight, neither of your parents had powers and you weren’t sure where they came from. Everything was black and white still, you were a little surprised that going to Sky High, the school for superhero’s didn’t reveal your soulmate. You’d gotten a tour from Layla and she was happy to let you sit with her and her other friends.

They were saying how you’d come into the school at a good time; there had been some issues with a villain at the school, but now that it was resolved a loy of the clique problems had vanished. You’d learned that the school usually divided the students into heroes and sidekicks based on their power levels.

While they still did that; you didn’t have the best control so you were in the sidekick group, it wasn’t as an intense social divide as it had been.

“So your soulmate here?” Magenta grins and you shake your head.

“No still black and white for me, you?”

“Saw them the second I laid eyes on these two.” She gestures and laughs and you grin at her, happy that your new friends are together. Layla and Will had been soulmates since they were little kids so no one was surprised.

“Warren hasn’t found his soulmate either, so you won’t be the only one to not understand colours.”

“Warren?”

“Mhm, he has a cold today..” Will howls with laughter and you frown, wondering why his friend being sick is so funny.

When Warren shows up later in the week, fire dancing on his fingers you understand why him having a cold was so funny. When they flames disappear and he shakes your hand, looking you in the eyes, do you realizes how relieved you are that your powers are water based. You blame his heat on the steam between both of you, not the sudden realization at how beautiful the brown of his eyes is.

“Oh.”

“What?” Lyala interrupts and Warren grins, your stomach fluttering at it.

“Never thought I’d be happy to have my flames extinguished, but here we are. What else can you do then?”

“Not much, I don’t have good control…”

“Well let's turn up the heat and see what happens?” He laughs again and you can’t help the water that soaks him, causing steam to rise up from his hair and clothes as he dries himself off.

Warren stays by your side and carefully explains the best way to get to every class, what the teachers are like and the best places to sit for lunch, one of which is with him. He winks when he says that and it makes you blush a little.

“So you don’t know how you got powers?”

“Yeah both my parents are non-powered. Little bit of a shock when I woke up and everything was floating…”

“I’ve heard of that happening before, I mean Mr. Big Shot himself was a late bloomer.” Warren waves his hand over to where Will and Layla are sitting.

“Yeah and you're half the reason I ended up getting them in the first place!” Will waves back. You know there’s probably a really good story behind that, like all hero’s you supposed but you focus back on what Warren is saying.

“Being a late bloomer isn’t anything to be ashamed about, just means you get more free passes.” He smirks a little and you shrug,

“I have okay control, well unless I get scared or angry, or…”

“Too emotional, yeah I understand that. I’m pyrokinetic, so I feel a little too much and then things go on fire, not the safest.”

“Sounds pretty bad, have you had any issues recently?”

“No, pretty much after the whole uhh villain thing, with Royal Pain…”

“What happened there? All the civilians got told was that there was an issue with some superheroes.”

“That’s basically it.” He grins at you and you smile back.

You’ve been dating Warren for three weeks. In that time he’s actually helped you figure out your power control and the things that seemed to trigger it the worst. So far the biggest trigger seemed to be you being cold which was something Warren was always happy to cuddle you to relieve.

“You okay Y/N?”

“Huh, yeah…” You blink out of your stupor and Warren gives you a look that say you’ll be talking later.

Later is actually in the hallway on the way to class when he pulls you into one of the empty classrooms.

“Whats..”

“My mom cheated on my dad which is why my powers were late…”

“Oh. Fucking hell Y/N, when did you figure that out?”

“Last night.. He was a villain, got out of jail, my mom made a comment about it and my dad got pissed, then they argued and she told him and I was coming back from school so i heard it..”

“You should be, uh not here. I was going to say go home, but that’s probably not the best..” You can't help but laugh at that and Warren grins back. 

“Glad I didn't upset you.”

“I do think you could ever upset me, one of the things I love about you.”

“Love?” he questions and now you're laughing nervously.

“yeah, I uh, I love you.”

“I love you too, now how about we go get some chinese food?”

“You’re just saying that because I can get you a staff discount.” He grins and you nod laughing when he pulls you in for a hug kissing you.

Support My Writing?

[magniloquent-raven]

(pt1 here)

billy grew up afraid of finding his soulmate.

when he was eight his father caught him trying to wash nail polish off with soap and a hand towel.

he’d heard girls at school saying it was what you did when your soulmate was a boy. you were supposed to paint yourself up all pretty and find the person who matched. and it was easy enough to sneak into the vanity and steal a bottle of his mother’s nail polish. but once the paint dried he realized it would be impossible to hide from his father, and he panicked.

his mother showed him the bottle of nail polish remover after neil left. dabbed some on a cotton ball to rub at the thick layer of paint. she was silent, kneeling on the floor in front of him cradling his sprained wrist while he sat on the edge of the tub and cried.

they both had questions, but neither of them got answers.

it took billy months to work up the courage to try again.

he wasn’t sure why he was bothering, at first. he knew he couldn’t look for his soulmate the traditional way. and he was constantly terrified that his father would find the supplies he’d started hoarding. it seemed like more risk than reward, and yet. he couldn’t stop himself.

every time he was allowed to wander off in a store alone he’d slip something into his pocket. a tube of lip gloss. a compact full of shiny powders. he wasn’t even sure what some of it was, he just liked the colours. liked the pictures they hung alongside the displays. he wanted to look like that. beautiful.

and in his heart of hearts, he wanted the boy who was out there waiting for him to know he existed. whether they’d be able to find each other or not.

he’s more careful with this than he was with the nail polish. his father works saturday nights, and his mother always visits their neighbour while he’s at work. despite having the house to himself he locks his bedroom door.

the first thing he tries is the watermelon lip gloss. it’s sticky, and the wand doesn’t fit in his hand comfortably, but once he’s smeared it on he feels...good. he likes the way it catches the light. likes the way it smells. he looks at himself in the mirror and likes seeing something different.

the high doesn’t last long, it inevitably gives way to paranoia, anxiety that has him glancing at the locked door every thirty seconds, heart pounding, wondering if just maybe his father will get home from work early, and he jumps at every sound, hearing boots thudding on the porch and car doors slamming and anything that could be neil coming through the door.

cleaning himself up is hard. panic makes his hands shake, his eyes well up. he drops everything on the floor when he tries to tuck the bag away. and he has to spend twenty minutes with his back to his bedroom door getting his breathing under control when he’s finished.

but he does it again the following saturday. and the one after that.

for five months he does this. locks himself away with his stolen treasures and lets himself live a little. it gets easier as time goes on. and his mind wanders sometimes. to a future where he gets to share this with someone. the boy out there who’s supposed to love him one day.

it’s a small bubble of a dream. one he doesn’t spend too much time dwelling on. not when there’s neil’s voice in his head, telling him that no one could love a fucking freak, ‘cause fags don’t get real soulmates anyways.

he wants and he wishes, but the more he thinks about it the more he doubts. he’s never gotten a mark from his soulmate, and even if he did some day, what if his father’s right, and his “soulmate” doesn’t want him or makes him miserable or...worse.

so he does his makeup for himself.

until, like all good things in his life, his father ruins it.

he never found out what set neil off initially, something going wrong at work maybe, or the martial strife of the week getting to him. whatever it was that started it, neil eventually decided billy should bear the brunt of the fallout.

so he went through his things. said billy’d been acting cagey lately, and he was going to find out why.

and then found the makeup bag stuffed into an old sweater in his closet.

it was ugly. the things neil said that day would play on repeat in billy’s head for years afterwards. the scars his belt left on billy’s back were nothing in comparison.

the next saturday came and went. billy spent the evening curled up under a blanket not bothering to wipe away the tears dripping down his face.

by morning he’s resolved to forget the whole thing. to put it behind him. because it was stupid, and risky and childish and maybe his father was right. he’s almost convinced himself. and then he notices ink on his arm, as he reaches up to rub his eyes. messy scrawl, i bet you looked pretty crookedly written up his forearm.

he didn’t think he was able to cry any more, but he manages it.

for the first time his soulmate isn’t just a concept, or a what-if, he’s...a person. he’s a real person out there somewhere. someone who doesn’t even know billy and still wanted to reach out, to offer comfort. it’s more than he’s gotten from anyone else. even his mother. who he knows loves him, and she does her best to protect him, but when she found out about his makeup stash she just looked sad, and she’s said nothing to him about it.

but his soulmate…

can never, ever meet neil.

the thought hits him right in the chest.

whoever he is, he cares, he’s good. and neil breaks good things.

billy falls asleep that night tracing the empty space where his soulmate’s message used to be, wrapped up in worries and dreams, and terrified for someone he’s never met.

the doodles that come and go over the years are terrifying and exhilarating and billy manages to hide every single one from his father. they only ever show up during the day, and they don’t linger. something billy is both grateful for and resentful of.

sometimes he’ll watch other boys’ hands in class. check them for drawings. he thinks he’s being careful, but a girl in his chem class, becca, catches him. she says it’s only because she knew what to look for. they share a cigarette under the bleachers and she tells him about a girl who likes green eyeshadow and writes homework reminders on her wrists using stars instead of bullet points.

it takes billy six months and a couple shots of tequila to tell her about watermelon lip gloss and bet you’re pretty and they both cry when he starts to wonder if his soulmate will be disappointed that he isn’t a girl.

on a rainy april afternoon she asks him to go to a gay bar with her. he tells his father he’s going on a date. she tells her’s that she had to reschedule a tutoring session and it’ll run pretty late.

they wait til it’s dark and get ready in a dingy gas station bathroom. when she’s smearing on her eyeliner she catches sight of his face in the cloudy mirror. he wasn’t going to ask her for anything. he wouldn’t have brought it up. the twinge in his heart and a hollow feeling of longing aren’t anything new, he can deal.

he feels and empty kind of rage every time old, well-meaning relatives give max girly lip gloss kits and eyeshadow pallets and shit normal preteen girls who care about finding their soulmates actually appreciate. she always rolls her eyes and throws them away. susan will fish them out of the trash sometimes, and leave them under the bathroom sink, like if max just sees them there she’ll suddenly give a shit and start using them. like them being there does anything but taunt billy with what he can’t have.

neil watches him like a fucking hawk every time that shit comes into the house. and max doesn’t fucking care. doesn’t notice.

but becca offers.

and.

he’s not about to say no.

he should’ve said no.

it feels good at first, like it used to, it feels like freedom and he likes what he sees when he looks in the mirror, and he kisses a boy for the first time and it isn’t fireworks but it’s something, and he thinks maybe it’s going to be a good night, but then…

neil is waiting on the curb outside becca’s house. they were heading there first, because her parents wouldn’t notice, she said it would be fine, she has makeup remover he can use, he can clean up and head home and everything was supposed to be okay, except. it wasn’t.

it’s the last time he sees becca. neil tells her parents what was actually going on, and she isn’t allowed to visit him in the hospital.

and then six months of rehab, one rushed wedding and a big ugly sold sign later, neil carts them off to hawkins, indi-fucking-ana. as a “family.”

billy was certain this town would be nothing but a prison. it’d be somewhere he’d never find a place to be himself, neil would make sure of that. there wasn’t a single thing to like about this place and its bullshit small town sensibilities. for all the open space it might as well have been stone walls and steel bars.

except.

except...here was a boy with soft eyes and nimble fingers, who gets a little wrinkle between his brows when he concentrates, and is always moving, fidgeting, fiddling with zippers and touching his elbows and looking at him makes billy itch. to touch, to soothe, to take, and…

things get complicated when aimless blue waves scrawl up billy’s arm. when steve follows him out into the parking lot. calls him pretty to his face. and suddenly billy’s eight years old and realizing this shit is real. terrified of what that could mean. spinning fragile dreams like spider’s silk, hard to shake but easy to destroy.

even entertaining the idea of putting on makeup while he’s still in hawkins is stupid and dangerous, but goddamn if he hasn’t risked more for less.

he’s sure he’ll regret it. like he’s regretted every other desperate bid for freedom. but when faced with steve harrington’s smile, he can’t find it in himself to say no.

(edit: pt3 here)

[tarosin]

The great adventures of y/n, Tommy, Jack and Tubbo

Requested:yes/no

Pairing: Platonic jack/tommy/tubbo/reader

Summary: another day another adventure

Content warning: cursing / I didn't proof read

An: reader has bright unnatural hair I wrote a lot, I can't figure out how to add read more on mobile I'm sorry

The music you were currently listening to was interrupted by the discord group notifying you that you have a new message.

Tommy: Y/N HOW BUSY ARE YOU TUBBO HAS COME TO VISIT AND JACK IS HERE

y/n: I mean I've currently got hair dye on but it’s being washed off and dried in around 20 minutes, why?

y/n: WAIT TUBBO?!?!

tubbo: oh yeah I forgot to tell you

y/n: how did you forget you know what nevermind, I’m glad you’re here :]

jack: we should be here in an hour so you have plenty of time to get ready

tubbo: what colour dye y/n

y/n: you’ll see soon enough as apparently, you’re all showing up at my house

Tommy: I suggest you wear comfortable shoes

y/n: I am terrified

Tommy: you have nothing to fear... for now

•••

luckily it had only taken you just over 40 minutes to get ready giving you roughly 20 minutes to prepare for the adventure ahead. or so you thought, as soon as you sat down ready to check your phone the sound of Tommy and tubbo laughing could be heard from your room, jack sent a message “hey we got here extremely early I’m sorry there’s no rush the others have been distracted by dreams music :)”

grabbing a backpack from next to your bed you had quickly chucked your phone and purse into the bag unsure as to what you’re going to need today.

•••

as soon as you opened the door you were met with an ecstatic tubbo who instantly pulled you into a hug unable to contain their excitement of seeing their friend

“I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN AGES YOUVE CHANGED SO MUCH LOOK AT YOUR HAIR”

“I look exactly the same”

“Now I’m no genius y/n but last time we spoke you didn’t have unnatural hair”

you paused for a moment as tubbo had a point the last time you and tubbo were on face time your hair was classed as a natural colour however today as a fuck you to your school which didn’t allow unnatural hair you decided to dye it your favourite colour.

“you raise a fair point now if you don’t mind releasing me from your grasp I have to lock the door so no one gets in”

•••

“Tommy unlock the door let tubbo and y/n in”

“Y/N YOU'RE HERE- HOLY SHIT YOUR HAIR! JACK ARE YOU SEEING THIS”

“Hello to you too Tommy”

“well if we weren’t going to get noticed at the shopping centre earlier y/ns bright fucking hair will definitely cause people to notice us”

“oh I’m sorry I didn’t expect to be going shopping with a bunch of Minecraft streamers today”

“don’t you stream Minecraft?”

“This isn’t about me jack”

the trip to the shops was surprisingly relaxing y/n sat at the front listening to jack sing along to songs playing on the radio, however, it was clear the boys had something they weren’t telling y/n which became evident through Tommy and tubbo bickering in the back of the car about who was going to tell them. it was a relatively short journey due to the fact you lived close to the city centre

•••

“let’s go shopping boys” Tommy practically yelled to everyone, tubbo held his phone in your direction then looked towards you, nodding at him you grabbed his phone and began recording

“I'm vlogging”

Tommy walked over “YEAHHHHH”

walking past cex you had to put up with Tommy making sex jokes until you made it to game, you stood holding back your laugh as you filmed Tommy and tubbo fighting about who’s paying whilst jack went off to buy a Minecraft squishy and mug despite everyone’s arguments against it. soon enough fans came over asking for photos with you all once the group of fans left jack took over recording for tubbo whilst you went off to quickly buy some games that you could play on stream.

•••

“want a wig bro? jack!”

the four of you walked into the shop, you couldn’t help but stand in awe looking at all the bright colours already questioning what colour to dye your hair next the sound of Tommy and jack being amazed pulled you out of your thoughts

“Gogy goggles, I’m actually buying them”

“i wan’t a pair”

“no, you’re getting a wig jack”

“I don’t want a wig I want George”

“y/n has bright hair and they’re not complaining”

“what do you have against people with colourful hair jack hmm?”

•••

“I'm not happy”

“you look lovely jack”

“we’re getting so many looks”

tubbo stopped everyone to ‘fix’ jacks wig which resulted in everyone laughing once you had finally stopped laughing you noticed tubbo had walked off and you were convinced jack had randomly decided to record strangers until you saw tubbo going up and down escalators

“oh there he goes again”

“pov you’re thinking about bees”

“where to next boys?”

Tommy pointed towards the lift

“Is this a lift for us”

Tommy noticed the safety sign and automatically made comments about it

“keeping us all safe is what I would say if I wasn’t carrying a knife”

“oh same Tommy”

“look you can see me”

taking that as an invitation to join the vlog you stood behind tubbo and pointed at the sign again and looked at Tommy and jack

“keeping us all safe is what I would say if we weren’t about to do this-“

the three of you went to jump up and down

“NO”

the four of you quietly left the lift however you were convinced that the public heard Tommy comment on having a knife and you threatening to jump as once the lift opened everyone was staring at you but it could also be due to the fact you had brightly coloured hair and somehow convinced jack to keep the wig on, you all spent a long time trying to convince Tommy to get a new outfit, eventually you went into another shop a certain keyboard caught your eye

“I’ve found my home, ill stay here at the gamer bunker”

you decided now was the perfect time to sneak off to buy the keyboard that had caught your eye, once tubbo noticed it was too late you stood holding the bag with your purchase leaving you stood in the middle of the shop defending your purchase to him claiming that it was a business expense and not just because you thought it looked cool.

“you told me you wanted to save your money”

“it lights up tubbo and it fits the vibe of my room”

Tommy placed his arm on your head treating you as an armrest as you were shorter than him and he knew it annoyed you

“they have a point tubbo it lights up”

once the recording ended you made your way back to the car

“say y/n you wouldn’t mind if me Tommy and jack stayed the night as tomorrow we were thinking-“

“sure thing”

“YESSSSSS”

•••

the next day you were woken up at 9 am by Tommy stood at the foot of your bed

“hi y/n”

“WHAT THE FUCK- oh hi Tommy Jesus christ do you know how horrifying that was to wake up to”

“Sorry bout that but if I didn’t wake you up now you’d only wake up in the afternoon and we need to go soon I’ll leave you to get ready”

you noticed a note was next to a jumper on the floor ‘hi, thanks for letting us stay the night I really liked your hoodie so I decided to wear it today here’s mine in exchange- Tubbo :D’

normally you’d be concerned that someone stole your hoodie as you live with your parents however today was an exception once you were all ready you set off jack pulled into a McDonald's drive-through so you could all get breakfast

“nice hoodie y/n”

“Thanks, someone took mine and decided to make a trade”

“you’re welcome”

the journey was quiet again you sat next to tubbo in the back Tommy sat at the front screaming at jack and trying to distract him and people around you decided to took a picture with tubbo who now had his arm wrapped around you as it was rather cold in the car and posted it to Twitter ‘@ ranboosaysstuff wish you were here :D’ less than a minute later you received 2 notifications ‘ranboosaysstuff replied to your tweet: same’ ‘ ranboosaysstuff has tweeted: *the spongebob gif*’

•••

soon enough you all arrived at mint golf to say you we’re excited would be an understatement

“can I get the shortest club you have”

you stood hiding your face in the jumper tubbo left you whilst you laughed a few minutes later you received a call from ranboo the others said they’d sort everything for you whilst you answered

“what’s up tall one”

“stay safe okay”

“ranboo it’s mini-golf I’m not fighting criminals”

“yes but I know how clumsy you are”

“first of all rude second of all fuck you third of all jealousy isn’t a good look on you” you managed to say through laughter

“jokes aside please come to the UK boo”

“oh sure I’ll go book a plane ticket now” *ranboo ended the call*

ranboo made jokes like that before however this time sounded a lot more serious and you had no idea why he called you so you made a mental note to call him again later. once with friends again you were met with Tommy telling the worker all about you all

“yeah we’re big on the influencing”

“What on earth did I walk in on”

“no time to explain let’s go golf”

you were handed a club and a ball and were dragged away by jack

•••

tubbo joked about getting a hole on one as soon as it was his go, you bet £10 with jack he wouldn't

“hand over the money y/n”

you looked at Tommy who was now recording you handing jack the money “so today we have learnt to not underestimate your friends and that gambling is bad. you lose your money to a tall bald guy”

to put it politely you and Tommy found out that mini golf is not your calling in life

“ill stick to streaming“

“you’re both losing by the way”

“yeah well- why and how does tubbo have soup”

tubbo stood cradling the soup as though it was a child

“Some things I can’t explain to you”

you stood tilting your head to the side questioning where the hell he got soup from

“eh”

“soups like a small child I take care of it as if it was my own”

you couldn’t contain your laughter at this point the confused faces of your friends alongside tubbos happiness of soup sent you over the edge so you decided to just sit down before you fall as your knees were already weak from laughing too much

“where did you get the soup from”

“I manifested it”

•••

after a few solid minutes of arguing over soup you and Tommy dropping the phone you all continued with bowling.

“tubbo get out of the way of my dream ball”

you stood recording jack cheering him on tubbo had different plans and kicked the ball away resulting in jack giving up and copying what you had been doing most of the rounds, after missing the hole 3 times each go, picking up the ball and placing it in the hole however again he missed

“you can’t be serious”

“golf isn’t for everyone big man”

Tommy took the phone from you to record “pov you’re me golfing”

•••

“how do we get across there”

“probably the bridge”

Tommy pulled to rope moving the bridge across the gap

“Why thank you, Tommy, wouldn’t have been able to do it without you”

you laughed

“you're extremely welcome y/n it was extremely easy because I’m a big muscly man”

golf was finally going well till you hit the ball a bit too hard causing it to go over the fence tubbo was able to get the ball back

“I’ve been watching a lot of doctor shows” you stood amazed at how far you made the ball go

“see the issue is its mini golf. if this was regular golf I'd have got a hole in one I'm telling you”

•••

“I'm never being in your vlog again”

jack looked at you and tubbo who was now laughing at you pretending to worship the can of soup in the hole

“Tommy please come back”

the rest of the game was chaos, you kept missing the hole then claiming to rage quit golf tubbo and Tommy kept making jokes jack left his drink somewhere then had to go back and find it, no one had been paying attention to you which allowed you to take the score sheet and make it so you had won the game eventually he game was over you had declared yourself the champion of golf despite the fact everyone was better than you including Tommy

•••

the journey back was chaos you called ranboo who claimed he only called you to plan a video/stream with you however it was clear that wasn’t the reason tubbo whispered to you so no one could hear

“I think he wants to be here with us I think he’s jealous”

you laughed and nodded

“of course”

eventually, you all made it back to yours, ranboo said goodbye to everyone then ended the call now it was time for you to say your goodbyes. since your love language was physical touch you hugged everyone. As you walked into your house Tommy yelled “Y/N HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT PLANES”

[anonymousfiction211]

Hancuffed together Chapter 3: ‘Free’

Summary: Loki and you were hancuffed together, because the team was sick of the two fo you not getting along. Today they come finally back from a mission, setting you ‘free’ from Loki.  Word count: 2.579 words

Warnings: Smut, dubious consent, knifeplay, praise  A/N: I wrote another chapter, hope you like it. If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, please let me know :)!

Click here for chatper 1 Click here for chapter 2

To say you were physically tired would be an understatement. Loki had you in a tight grip, still asleep. He had woken you two times that night to ‘play with you’ as he liked to put it. He was breaking you down. Each time you put up less of a fight and he was starting to push your boundaries. The truth is, you kind of loved what he was doing to your body. It was intense, even painful sometimes, but the pleasure was well worth it. His personality sadly hadn’t changed. He was still as arrogant, egotistic, moody, and snarky as he had always been.

You shook Loki awake, who just grumbled grumpily at you. ‘I’m hungry’ you said. He turned around to lay on his back, eyes still closed. ‘Sounds like a you-problem’ he replied. You sat up straight and tugged a few times at the cuffs. Loki sighed but got up with you. The two of you were eating breakfast in silence. Even tough you were fixing your eyes on your eggs, you felt Loki’s gaze boring into you. You were startled when the rest of the team loudly made their entrance. ‘Tony, you owe me 10 bucks’ Steve said. ‘Ho, ho, there is still time’ Tony replied. ‘So, how has the lovely couple been doing for the past two days?’ he mused. You both glared at Tony who put his hands up in defence ‘Let me rephrase, how are the two of you doing?’ he quickly said.

‘Fine’ you said irritated at Tony and Loki just nodded. ‘How was the mission?’ Loki asked. Natasha quickly explained that they were staking out and tracking some people of Hydra, but hadn’t had much luck. You were waiting impatiently until she was done. ‘So, can we take these off now?’ you asked holding up the cuffs. ‘Sure’ Steve said, motioning for Tony to take them off. ‘How do we know it worked?’ Thor asked them. Everyone looked at the two of you. ‘We’ve come to an understanding’ Loki replied for the both of you. A big smile appeared on Thor’s face ‘I say we keep them together for this day. To be sure they truly improved their behaviour’. If you could murder people by glaring at them, you had just murdered Thor. Before you could protest Loki had already agreed. If you disagreed know, they surely wouldn’t believe the two of you. ‘Can we just take them off for half an hour? So, I can take a shower?’ you asked. After the group had a quick discussion they agreed. But only if you and Loki would willingly put the cuffs back on after half an hour. If not, the two of you were on house arrest together for the rest of the month.

After you were free, even if it was for a short amount of time, you quickly walked to your room and locked the door. You got rid of your clothes and jumped into the shower. It felt good to have some alone time. After a while there was a knock on the door ‘You have 10 minutes left’ Tony said. ‘Just one more day, you can do this’ you whispered to yourself. You got out of the shower and dried yourself off. You walked back to the bedroom to get some clothes out of your closet. That’s when you saw a dark green bustier on the bed with a matching thong. There was a note next to it which elegantly spelled your name. You opened the note: See you in 10 minutes, kitten – L. There was no way you were wearing that. He could be such an asshole sometimes. You were wondering how he even got in here. You checked the door, but it was still locked. It donned on you that the both of you had your powers back. And this must be Loki’s passive aggressive way of telling you that he could go and come as he pleases.

You were absolutely furious at Loki. But two could play it this game. You got dressed and instead of the green lingerie you chose your red bra and thong. If things did get out of hand, and you had a feeling they will, he will be pissed at you for wearing his brother’s colours. After you got dressed you walked back to the living room, where Tony was already waiting with the cuffs. He had an amused smile on his face. Loki entered shortly after you, having a blank expression on his face. Tony cuffed the two of you back together and the rest of the team went about there day. You had to be honest, cuffed together with Loki was awkward at first, but now that the team was here it was a whole lot more uncomfortable.

The two of you settled down on the couch. You both were reading a book, but this time you both had different books and you were wearing more clothes than the last time Loki ‘wanted to read’. After a while Steve wanted to play a boardgame. At first you didn’t want to play, but Loki convinced you that it would be good to show the rest of the team you indeed got along. Thor and Clint joined you and you had to admit you had fun. Loki was friendly, relaxed and funny. You wondered why he wasn’t like that all the time or why you were the only person he didn’t treat like that. After dinner the whole team decided to watch a movie. You really wanted to go to bed, but would only do that once you were free.

You felt someone shaking your shoulder. You woke up and realized that you had fallen asleep during the movie. You blamed Loki for keeping you up all night. The most embarrassing thing is that you fell asleep on his shoulder. The rest of the team, except Tony, were already gone. Tony handed Loki the key and walked out of the living room. Loki grinned at you ‘Don’t for a second that when we’re not cuffed together that you’re free off me’. You sighed ‘Can’t we just leave these days for what they were?’ Loki seemed to ponder over the question, and while you were waiting for him to respond you realized, you didn’t know what response you wanted. You were holding your breath, waiting for him to answer you, which he took a long time doing. He uncuffed the two of you. You rubbed your wrist, it felt good to be free. Loki shot you a wicked grin ‘No, you are mine’

Your breath hitched and you got up, making your way back to your bedroom. To your surprise Loki wasn’t following you. You closed the door behind you, but knew he would be able to enter when he wanted to. You were startled when you heard a low voice right next to your ear ‘Going somewhere, kitten?’. You weren’t proud of it but shrieked a little. You were spun around and now facing Loki, who was towering over you with his dominant figure. ‘Or did you just forget what you agreed to yesterday?’ he purred. His eyes were sparkling full of mischief. ‘I- I said those things because you made me, I didn’t mean that’ you began to argue. ‘I think you did, you’re just too ashamed to admit it’ Loki said while smiling wickedly. You opened your mouth to tell him to get lost, but he grabbed you and slid his tongue inside of your mouth. You were getting lost in the kiss, the fight almost left you.

Then you realized you had your powers. You pushed him off you and immediately raised a shield around yourself. You thought Loki would be angry, but he seemed to be amused. A green fire bolt appeared in his hand and that’s when you realized, he also had his powers back. He shot the green bolt at you, making your shield crumble. ‘This isn’t fair’ you half yelled at him. He smile only widened, he knew it wasn’t. Your magical nature was healing, while his was that of a warrior. He was trained to fight, you were trained to help and aid. He grabbed you by your waist. You tried to form a magic bolt of your own, but when Loki bit down your neck, you lost your concentration and the bolt disappeared from your hands. He threw you down the bed. You tried to scramble away from him, but an invisible force tied your hands to the headboard. You were struggling against the invisible bonds, but they only tightened around you. ‘Stop struggling, kitten. You know you want this’ Loki sighed. ‘I don’t. Stop!’ you said to him. One of his eyebrows shot up ‘Really? You didn’t put up much of a fight’ he said. ‘I literally put a shield around me’ you argued. He just smirked at you ‘One of your weakest types of shields and you haven’t tried to paralyze me or anything. So, like I said you didn’t really fight me. We both know you want this’

With a wave of his hand Loki made all your regular clothes disappear, leaving you in nothing but your lingerie. Your red lingerie. You hadn’t seen anyone going from amused to furious so fast. The bonds on your hands tightened. Loki wasn’t saying anything to you, but his face made you absolutely terrified. You wanted to make him angry, but now that he was you felt like you made a dangerous mistake. In an instant Loki conjured up a knife and held it to your throat. ‘Looks like someone has been a very bad girl’ he growled in your ear. You started to panic, not daring to move an inch. ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry’ you whispered while fighting back tears. Loki was sliding the knife against the length of your throat. ‘If you’re so sorry, why do it in the first place?’ he asked you. You really wished Loki wasn’t the God of Lies right now. But since he was, you decided to just be honest. ‘I wanted to make you mad’ you said meekly. Loki laughed darkly ‘Well, you have succeeded’

‘I’m s- sorry’ you began to sob. ‘Since you’re new at this and you seem to understand the gravity of your mistake, I will let you off easy’ he purred. His hand grabbed your hair and he pulled hard, making you bare your throat to him. ‘But let me be clear, don’t let it happen again’ he said. ‘Yes’ you replied. He let go of your hair and you relaxed a bit. You felt the tip of the dagger against your throat, which made you tense up again. ‘Now, stay very still or this is going to be a very painful experience’ he commanded you. His blade travelled downwards over your chest, between your breasts. It slid effortlessly through your bra and your breast sprung free. You tried to keep your breathing even, but were startled at how sharp the knife actually was. Loki smirked when he saw your breasts and started to slide the knife around to play with them. Still extremely scared you couldn’t help that tears were running over your cheeks. When Loki looked up at you his expression changed, and you would almost say he was looking concerned.

With his other hand he strokes the tears from your face. ‘Sssh, there’s no need for that darling. You’re doing great so far. Just relax and trust me’ he told you with a soothing voice. Like it was the easiest thing to do right now. You did notice that the pressure of the knife slightly decreased. Loki was sliding the knife up and down your stomach, right above your panties. You took a deep breath and relaxed as much as you could. ‘That’s it, just submit to me’ he purred. Loki slowly cut through the sides of your panties. The sight was somehow quite erotic. The fabric fell from you and Loki withdrew the knife. ‘You did really well, kitten’ he praised you. Loki spread your legs further and placed himself in between them. The invisible bonds faltered, and you laid your hands on his chest. He gave you a smile, which you thought looked quite genuine.

He bent down to kiss you. It started out slow, but he got hungrier and started to kiss you faster. You enjoyed the way his lips felt on yours and how he tasted. You felt his hardened cock nudge at your entrance. You involuntarily bucked your hips, trying to get him inside of you. Loki chuckled darkly against your lips ‘I knew it’ he said in between his kisses. You felt him slowly pushing inside of you, making you moan very loud. Loki had left your mouth and was kissing you up and down your neck. You felt him smile against your skin when you moaned. He started to thrust in and out of you. He stopped kissing you and sat up straight. He was quick to put one of his legs over his shoulder, giving him a better angle. With every moan you made he thrusted faster inside of you. You heard him starting to mutter things under his breath, but you were too far gone to register what he was saying. His hand sought out your clit and you cried from pleasure when he started to stroke it lightly. ‘Please, Loki please make me cum’ you begged him. A little bit surprised that the words left your mouth before you could think about it. Loki seemed to be very pleased with your reaction and puts more pressure on your clit. He himself started to moan and you knew he was as close as you are. After a few more thrusts you walls clenched around his cock and you came hard. It triggered Loki’s own orgasm and you felt his seed spilled inside of you.

Loki pulled out of you and cleaned the both of you up with a hand gesture. That was an upside of Loki having his magic back you thought. He shimmered himself a pair of pyjama pants and laid down in your bed. You just stared at him ‘You’re staying?’ you asked him. He laid on his back, a hand behind his head, looking up at you. ‘Of course, I am’ he said, like you were stupid to even think otherwise. ‘I do suggest you wear something tonight, or you won’t be getting any sleep’ he purred. Not really sure how to get him out of your bed, you decided to let him sleep in your bed for this one time. You grabbed your own pyjama from underneath your pillow. It existed of a pair of black shorts and a red top. You were staring at the top and back at Loki. He was having an amused look on his face, wondering what you were going to do. After you put on the shorts you still were holding the red top. Loki cocked an eyebrow, giving you a ‘really?’-look. When you saw it you quickly threw the top on the ground and got under the blankets with him. He pulled you close so your head was on his chest. ‘Good girl’ he whispered. You snuggled closer to him when he said that, hearing him chuckle. He started to stroke your back and play with your hair, making you fall asleep fast.  

[theficplug]

Taking Erik To The Beauty Supply Store 2 / Barber Shop With Erik

Erik Killmonger x Black Reader

Warnings : mature/sexual conversations?

it's a regular day in the stevens household. going to the beauty supply store again & the barber shop but hey it's fun cause it's you and your man.

First taking Erik to the beauty supply store fic:

“I could beat the brake off her lying ass. First of all, I should’ve known something was up cause she asked me if I’m natural. I said yes. She said well I normally do relaxed hair.. Then said you got to have your hair washed and blow dried already… Talking about she was going to have me serving 90s Nia Long. This bitch got me looking like big momma when she came home for that motherfucking party.” You continue your rant as Erik moves around the room looking for your body butter and your fluffy shoes to put on for the day.

You wanted a cute 90s pixie cut to go along with the theme of the maternity shoot which was like the cheesy 90s mall style set with the faded backdrop.

180 dollars and a lopsided , almost a golden bob later and you are still thinking about snatching her out of that salon.

“I’m gonna try and trim it up myself and dye it before the maternity photos tomorrow. But I’mma get two wigs just in case I mess up.” You explain to Erik as he begins to spread the body butter up your legs leaving a golden glow on your skin.

“Not you down there cackling after getting some hang time on the locs you been growing since high school... It’s quiet, ain't no back talk.” You banter with him and he stops massaging your legs to give you a look and laughs softly before giving you a retort of his own.

“You got a lot to say for somebody that can’t even lotion they ashy lil knees.”

“Your daughter been pushing against my organs for 8 and a half months. I don’t wanna hear nothing unless its about my push present. You know that I like rings… My engagement ring looking reeeealll lonely.” you say to him as you dangle your hand in front of his face.

“You look so fucking good today baby… Say, Big Fine, lemme get your number… I’mma eat the f-” he trails off kissing your legs and letting his tongue trail up it and you grab his chin softly.

“Boy if you don’t come on before you be late for your appointment… Can I stop and get a blue raspberry slushie first though?” you ask him and he sighs softly before giving you a small smile and nodding.

“Yeah, hold on let me grab your shoes and purse and then we can go.”

“And obviously yes when we come back before I install that lace front you can beat, duh.” you reply to him before giving him a peck to his lips.

After he grabs everything and helps you down the stairs. And with his help of putting you into his big ass truck you two are on your way.

“We’re going to get my hair cut first cause I already know you’re going to want to go to 2 different stores and it’s only gon’ take him about 15 minutes at the most to line me up.”

He wasn’t lying with the way that you liked to scan every section of the store before you left because to be honest where else were you going to get a pair of skittle shorts, bomb ass lip glosses, and a cute little panda hand sanitizer holder all in one place?

“Okay, sounds like a plan.. The way that I was supposed to have a hot girl summer this year and ended up with a damn its too hot for me to even put my clothes on mom summer. You really were not playing about trying to start a family on your birthday.” you joke as you crunch on your goldfish and look over at Erik.

“I think you just got finer through this whole thing. Watching my baby grow my baby is something surreal. In the beginning watching you go through all of the morning sickness and the body aches and stuff. I felt so bad you know not being able to physically take on all that was going on with you. I aint gon’ never not be appreciative and awe of you.” Erik replies with a serious comment that you were not expecting and you’d be damned if the hormones aren’t doing their thing.

“I really did not expect you to say that. Baabbbee, come on. You know I cry about everything right now. Love you.” you lean over to wrap your arms around him gently and kiss the side of his face while he’s focusing on the road.

“I love you too…. I think I’mma get my locs cut off soon. I don’t know why I’m ready to get a fade and just call it a day.” he questions before looking over at you briefly

“Either way you still gonna look good. I knew you before you even got your locs so you’re gonna look even better now because you grew into your head. Dee be cutting the fuck outta your hair even though he been bald for a good 40 years.” you say and it causes Erik to let out a loud laugh and shake his head.

You eventually ended up ordering a blue raspberry lemonade slushie, a hotdog and fries because Sonic basically took all of Erik's money at this point in your pregnancy.

The rest of your ride was chill as you both swayed to the music or turned it down for a little chat every now and then.

In public was always very protective of you but especially since becoming pregnant he has been hovering over you like a lion waiting for someone to even look at you for too long.

He hops out of the sleek matte black truck first to help you out and sling his arm around your waist with a hand resting on your belly.

You feel some eyes on you as you walk through the door. Your multi-coloured sundress that showcased your back, flowing with you.

Some of the men, new to the shop you assumed, were eyeing you down before Erik looked over their way and nods at them and they pretended to check their phones.

“What's up E? Damn lil sis look like she’s about to pop! How you feeling baby girl?” Dee greets you and Erik as you both walk in and some of the regulars in there say hey to the both of you.

“I’m alright Dee. Baby is just really ready to see the world. She has been kicking up a storm at times. I think we might have a little athlete here.” you reply and you watch as the greyed man with freckles across his cheeks and bridge of his nose eyes crinkle as he finishes cutting the man's hair sitting in the chair.

“I remember when I became a father for the first time. Shits wild because you think that you know everything there is to know and then when you actually see your baby take that first breath. It’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.” He continues as he shows you a photo of his 4 children and you give him a small smile.

“Ooh, they’re beautiful.” you compliment him as you settle into your seat and scroll on your phone on your phone waiting for Erik to be next.

Some time went by and the men seemed like they were trying to keep their conversation in a hush and you can see some eyes on you as they talked back and forth.

“I’m just saying if you want a threesome with your girl and you expect her to be okay with letting another woman into her bed. You need to match her energy. Could you imagine your girl asking you to bring a whole nother man into your room if that’s not what you’re into? Instead of asking for it. Maybe try bringing toys into the situation. Could spice it up a notch and be in both of your comfort zones. Personally, couples vibrators seem to do the trick just fine.” You advise as you look up from scrolling on your Pinterest feed.

The little huddle of them in front of you stopped talking and immediately looked up at you in silence before Dee’s laugh broke it.

“I don’t know about bringing another man in. That ain't my thing but I get what you're saying. Which ones would you recommend?” The one named Leron asked and you notice Erik is now paying attention , looking from you to them to make sure they stay respectful.

“You better let them know , baby girl! That’s how that baby popped into fruition. She got you with the tantric breathing, huh E?” he jokes and Erik cracks into a smile, his golds gleaming as he looks at you.

“She not wrong. Engage in what your woman like too. Yoga, talking during sex, giving as much as you receive from her, all that. ” He says casually and shrugging and you give him a small smile cause this man done come so far from when you met him.

After he finishes lining up his beard, Erik pays and you’re on your way to one of your favourite places.

“You look so sexy. Your beard is all lined up crisp and stuff. I told you that beard oil was gonna even it out.” you say to him and kiss him below his ear . His hand gripped your thigh gently and you repeated it again.

It didn’t take long before you were at one of your favourite places.

You turned to Erik and asked him to buy a stocking cap for you to try on the wigs that you liked and wanted to see before you purchased it.

You slid on the stocking cap over your hair before grabbing a cute little 27 piece pixie cut wig just to try it on and see what it was giving . You finger combed it and turned to Erik to ask him how it looks.

“Like you finna start singing “Truth is i’m tired. Take me to the king. Here’s my offering-” .” You hold in your laugh as you push Erik’s chest and he grabs your hands.

“I can’t stand your ass !” You say cracking up and Erik grabs the stocking cap from his pocket that he brought himself and slides it over his locs.

You watch as he grabs one of the bobs from the mannequin and sits it half cocked on his head before shaking it side to side.

“What’s cooler than being cool? Ice cold. You know what to do doooo. You know what to doooo.... This is your grand daddy. This is your grand daddy.” Erik starts acting like Andre 3000 and Mr. Brown. You swear this man was gonna make you push out this baby with how hard you were laughing at him.

“Why are you moving your lips like thaaat? What’s your name? B.O.B, so they calling you Bob? Stop playing nigga you know that I’m known for the bob.” you sing the nicki minaj lyrics to him and both of y’all get a good laugh before he takes off the wig and places it carefully back on the mannequin.

He looks over at the one that looked the most like your hair before you got it cut and slides it on.

His expressions changed and he narrowed his eyes at you before putting his hand on his stomach.

“Whew, my god E. You did this to me and for what? My ankles looking like cornbread huh? Look at this shit bae! If my nose swells for real in these next months, we fighting. Damn, I’m getting thick. I look like I'm pregnant in the front and the back. Can you get me two shrimp po’boys and some fries on the way home? ERIK, wake up- You our baby look like Stitch in this ultrasound? Stop playing , im for real.” he sounds exactly like you and mimicked your expressions to a t.

You giggled softly and snatched his wig off leaving him standing there looking crazy in the cap.

“You wanna fight?” You ask him before walking up on him like you’re on bad girls club and swinging the wig at him.

He helped you put the wig back on the mannequin and kissed both of your hands before continuing through the aisle with you.

You both ignored how many times the employee passed by or watched you as you grabbed some of the products from the shelf and put it into your little cart that you wanted to try.

“You wish this was you, huh? You wanted to be Future from 8 Mile so bad, huh? ” you ask Erik , laughing as you point to the full lace faux locs wig that’s in front of you and he shakes his head.

“She got you down bad. This you?” he asks you as he points to the lil gold church wig that’s sitting on the top shelf and you suck your teeth at him .

“You wanna dip dye your hair for tomorrow? A pretty auburn colour would look so good on you or even a baby blue?” You ask him as you move away from the wigs after deciding to put a off black lace front straight wig in your cart and another in sandy blonde with deep waves.

You scan the shelf of dye as Erik wraps his arm around your waist and takes a look.

“This one looks good right here.” He adds as he hands you a colour called Electric Blue.

“This is gonna look so good on you bae.” You compliment him and he leans down to kiss you softly.

“You only tryna compliment me cause you want me to help you install that wig. You think you slick bae.” he calls as he walks off towards the hair care products for his locs.

“Well, if I’m finna use the little energy I have to retwist your hair you could at least extend the helping hand!” You call after him.

“I haven’t tried peppermint oil yet but it should be good to add to my mix? Look, I found this small ass bonnet. She’s gonna be able to match us.” He says walking back to you and showing you the lilac bonnet in his hand and you swear you were about to tear up again cause all 3 of you were gonna have matching bonnets and durag.

“If she takes after both of us she’s gonna have a head full of hair. To cover that melon from your side.” You tease him

“Come on and grab your butterfly wings for your eyes so we can go home and finish our show. I’mma cook them snow crabs for you too.” he says to you and you can see him watching you like you hung the moon in the sky yourself as you venture off.

You grabbed the edge control, lashes, a new lipstick, earrings, glosses, Got2b spray, and some accessories for Erik’s hair before meeting him at the counter.

It took him all of two seconds to pay for your beauty supply store addiction and you were off on your way back to the crib to love on him.

Erik was currently standing behind you while you sat in the chair in his old large tshirt and held down the wig to the Ghost Bond glue.

You were talking him through helping you finish the install because you just didn't have the energy to do it.

“Okay you gon’ take a lil piece and wrap it around the wand. But please be careful baby. This one goes from like 0 to a 400 degrees so fast.” you warn and watch in the mirror as he takes the first piece and follows your instructions.

You watch him for a while focusing on your head and asking if you liked the way that it’s turning out. You smile softly at him and nod.

“I'm so grateful , you know. “ you say to him with a pout

“Damn, I was just about to send you a do you like me back yes or no text after this too.” he jokes and you shake your head.

“I’m tryna be serious and appreciate you-” you are cut off by him leaning down and pushing his plump lips out for a kiss from you

“I love you too. 2 more weeks and I get to have my two babies in my arms. What more could I want? ”

Tag list: @doublesidedscoobysnacks

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(Long post. Sorry I'm still learning how to do the read more thing! Sorry for being gone from here for so long. This one really helped me ease back into writing especially after how much love the first one received!)

[ladyeliot]

Are you happy? [2/2] +18

Part One

Pairing: Ex!Chris Evans x Fem!Reader

Summary: After almost two years without seeing each other, fate brings you together again, each of you has your own reason for the reunion, which brings your feelings to the surface again.

Warnings: Angst. Sentimental confusion. Infidelity. Unprotected sex.

Word count: 3975

A/N: Sorry for my spelling and grammatical mistakes, English is not my native language, I am learning.

John Steinbeck once said 'One can find so many pains when the rain is falling', you had never understood that phrase, never until that very moment. The drops seemed to descend fiercely, crashing firmly against your face, you hardly realised at what point the intensity of the rain had become so extreme, as you continued to be completely blocked from contemplating the face before you, and time never stopped.

The red brick of the Victorian houses, decorated with colourful flower boxes, seemed to create an idyllic scene of which you two were the protagonists in that narrow alley, but neither of you noticed. Words that could not now be erased from your mind had come out of his mouth, a mouth that was at that moment half-open as if it wished to express something else, but did not. You had had to deal with enough events in your life to know how to deal with any new moment that came your way, at least you thought you had, but you would never have thought you would have to face this. A dilemma opened up in your mind, but also in your heart, you were sure that you loved Chris with all your heart, you had loved him for as long as you could remember, he was your childhood friend, you never knew when your feelings became romantic, he didn't know either, but you had your assumptions.

Anyway, that love had never gone away, and it was never going to go away, it was going to be there for the rest of your lives, but things were not as simple as they might seem. Your love might have worked during your adolescence, during your youth, but when things got serious, somehow or other the relationship didn't move forward. There were no third parties, no cheating on either side, just different paths. Each of you had your own dreams that pushed you further and further apart, so far apart that you decided to end the relationship, which was not in the most amicable way possible.

The last two years were difficult for you, your smile had vanished from your face, but Garret appeared to give it back to you. You believed again that love was possible, and of course, although you always used to keep Cjris in mind, for which you used to blame yourself all the time, life seemed to be much simpler. Partly because of that, and because you loved him, you had accepted Garret's hand a month ago, but unfortunately you couldn't help imagining Chris the moment you said 'yes, I want to marry you'. And now there he was, Chris, in front of you, telling you that he was still in love with you and you could barely say a word because you had no idea how you felt, you didn't want to hurt anyone, you didn't want to suffer or anyone else to suffer because of you, but apparently it was too late.

Raindrops slid down your face, wiping away tears that you barely realised were flowing from your eyes, which were staring into Chris's. The radiant rays of sunshine had disappeared, bringing gloom to an autumnal morning, only the sound of the thunderstorm could be heard. The radiant rays of sunshine had disappeared, offering the gloom of an autumnal morning, only the rumbling of the storm could be heard. Chris finally lowered his face, nodding to himself, as if he had assumed defeat by not saying anything in the situation.

"Alright," those words came from inside him with a sigh. "I guess there's not much more to say," there was a moment of silence, in which he offered you one last chance to speak, but you could not. "All the best Y/N."

The lump in his throat that had been present since Chris had left his feelings open was massified when you heard your name forming on his lips. Before he turned away and continued on his way through the alleyway, he returned his eyes to yours in the hope that you would take control of yourself and stop him, but again you didn't. So you stood there, letting the rain wash over every part of you. So you stood there, letting the rain wash over every part of your body, watching as his figure gradually disappeared until he turned the corner and you lost him, lost him completely.

You had lost track of time since you left that coffee shop, you were stopped in that place for minutes, until your lower limbs mechanically carried you back to the car, where you remained silent for fifteen minutes. Your senses didn't seem to react, perhaps because you didn't want to feel, because you knew that if you felt you would be capable of doing something crazy, which would surely hurt someone a lot and you didn't want that to happen. His words played over and over in your brain, you glimpsed the blue of his eyes, the smile as you entered the cafeteria, his scent flowing into your nostrils, and his touch as you snuggled into his arms. It was like an internal torture that you couldn't get rid of, that you didn't really want to get rid of. Because who would want to get rid of the love of their life?

It was when the moisture on your face dried up that you realised that the wateriness of your eyes was not because of the raindrops but because you were broken. That revealed a large part of your feelings, your true feelings, which you had kept hidden, you loved him, with all your heart, as you had never loved anyone else, you had loved him for as long as you could remember, how could you not continue to love him?

A click made you connect again and brought you back to the real world, maybe your emotions were running high, but for once in your life you decided to act in the moment, leaving rationality aside, which had not allowed you to act before. You started the engine of the car, you knew perfectly well which direction you were going to take, you had travelled that road so many times that you hardly had to think about how to get to his house, where you hoped he would be. Your heart was racing and your adrenaline was pumping, but your hands around the steering wheel reminded you of that engagement ring on your left ring finger, causing you to slow down and stare at it. What the hell were you doing? If you did what you had in your mind two options were open to you, one was to make the biggest mistake of your life, the other was to win back the love of your life by breaking Garret's heart. Whichever you chose, someone would lose out.

Cars overtook you on the left as you kept wondering what to do, while the sky was still overcast and the rain was pouring down. Time became your enemy again, causing you to arrive in front of Chris's house without clearing your mind. You felt like you were back in the coffee shop, wondering whether or not to go in, whether or not to confront Chris. You turned off the engine of the car and dropped your forehead on the steering wheel, you could hear the drops falling hard on the roof of the car, which seemed to help you relax, strangely. You turned your face, staring at the front door of the house through the window, completely wet. The cafeteria had been a neutral place, this house was not, too many memories enveloped those four walls to go inside and not be affected by it. You were lost if you went in there, you knew what was going to happen and that you were going to let your feelings take you.

As if you wanted to give it one last chance you looked at the engagement ring that Garret had given you a month ago, you hoped that something would tell you that the best thing to do was to start the engine of the car again and get away from there as soon as possible, but it didn't. So you played your last trick.  So you played your last trick, a very dangerous one, you asked yourself the same question that Chris had asked you and that you had answered systematically without thinking, were you happy, does Garret make you happy? Then you knew. The next thing you did, you did it with all the pain in your heart, but you needed to think about yourself, the future you wanted, who you wanted to spend it with and most importantly, you wanted to be happy, so there was only one possibility.

Looking at the ring you slowly pulled it off your finger, your eyes started to water, you wanted to do it differently, but Garret was thousands of miles away, so you did what you felt at that moment. Again the rain came down on you as you stepped out into the open, but you didn't care at all, your gaze was fixed on that white door that was going to open the way to your past. As you walked steadily you let the air invade your lungs giving you the strength to face what was about to come. A faint light came through the curtains of the window that overlooked the living room, that erased the doubts that invaded you in case he wasn't at home, and without knowing why your heart skipped a beat.

There you were, a metre between you and his door, a single gesture away from letting him know you were there, and you did it, your index finger approached the doorbell, a squeaky melody sounded inside the house, and you took a step back, marking a distance for when the door opened. You looked down at your hands and fiddled nervously with your fingers, which were dripping from the rain. It was thirty-six seconds before you heard the lock turn and the door open, presenting the figure of Chris before you. You looked up nervously, not knowing what gesture you were going to get from him, but what you could glimpse was a state of confusion and hope mingled in his eyes. You parted your lips, still playing with your fingers.

"I..." was the only thing you could say before a lump rose in your throat and your tears wandered and mingled down your cheeks.

You turned your face and placed the palm of your hand on it, as if to hide the fact that you were crying. At that very moment, arms wrapped around your body and pulled you inside the house, making their body heat and that of the interior of the room cover your body. You broke down emotionally, you knew it was one of the things that could happen, too many emotions to keep them all hidden inside you. So soft sobs began to come out of your throat, you kept your eyes closed and your forehead resting on Chris's chest as he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you closer to his body.

"It's okay," he murmured against your head, letting out a sigh. "I'm here. I've got you."

After those words he placed a kiss on top of your head and then rested his hands on your cheeks, pulling away from you a few inches to search your face with his gaze. That was the last thing you wanted to do, because you felt confusingly embarrassed about the situation that was happening, he knew it, he knew you hated crying in front of people, but it was him after all. Chris gently lifted your chin to force you to look at his face, where there was a longing smile on his lips, but you averted your gaze, causing his smile to widen and he moved closer to your forehead to kiss it before he hugged you again.

"You're completely soaked," he whispered. "Come with me, the fireplace is lit, I'll get you some towels and some dry clothes."

Again the proximity was broken, but not the contact, Chris intertwined his fingers with yours, realizing something, you saw how he looked at your intertwined hands and then stared at you with his lips parted as if he wanted to ask, but he didn't, he preferred to ignore it. Your steps took you to your memories, when you entered the living room it was inevitable not to think about the times you both had occupied that sofa, or the times you had made love on that carpet next to the fireplace, it was an open diary.

"Make yourself comfortable, I'll be right back," he said, unlacing his fingers and heading upstairs via the staircase.

Your decisive mood with which you had left the car had collapsed at the mere sight of him, the little plan you had improvised in your mind had been cut short, putting you back on your own in the face of destiny. But what you were really sure of was what you felt, at least it was something you were sure of, it was him, only him, at that moment looking carefully all around you you realised that you never wanted to live again without him in your life, in whatever way it was, because in truth you were also in love with him, although you had tried to erase him from your mind during those two years.

His footsteps coming down the steps made you alert again, Chris entered the room holding two folded towels in his hands along with a sweatshirt you knew perfectly well and a pair of sweatpants, he stood in front of you.

"You can go and change in the bathroom, or if you prefer in the bedroom," he said offering you the set of items, "you know where everything is... if you want to give me your coat, I can put it in the dryer."

You nodded softly, still looking into his eyes, the warmth of the fire in the fireplace to your right washed over you, and the shadows created a pleasant ambience against the darkness outside. Slowly you undid each button of your coat and removed it from your body, offering it to Chris who took it in his free hand. You didn't know what happened in that instant, whether it was the intensity of your gaze, or the silence that was only broken by the raindrops and the sparks from the firewood, but you didn't stop. Just as you had undone the buttons on your coat you began to undo the buttons on your blouse, Chris's eyes shifted from yours to your hands and every movement they were making. As you finished you let the soaked blouse fall down your arms and onto the carpet, exposing your bare skin, covered only by a black bra.

In those moments, Chris's limbs seemed to be locked as he continued to hold the clothes and towels in his arms, still looking at your body with a look on his face that you couldn't describe. You offered him a few seconds of time to see how he reacted, but he said nothing, your hands slowly moved to the button of your trousers which you undid without looking away from his face, unzipped the fly and pulled your legs out through his thighs, leaving him again next to the blouse. That was the moment when Chris let everything he was holding fall from his arms and without a second thought he wrapped his hands around your body, pulling you closer to him, breaking the tension of the moment, wrapping your lips around his, kissing you as if his life depended on it. A gasp came from inside you as if the physical contact you were having wasn't enough, as if your chest was going to explode from one moment to the next. He brought his hands to your face pulling you away from him, needing to look at you to make sure that what was happening was real and not one of the fantasies wandering through his head.

"Don't stop," you murmured feeling weak as he pulled away from you.

As if on direct order Chris closes the distance again, but this time gently, caressing your lips tenderly, but the wetness of his lips and the roughness of his beard causes a moan of need to be reborn within you. His hands roam over your bare shoulders, gently down your arms, resting on your hips, as yours rested on his neck, preventing him from pulling away from you again. You felt small shivers of pleasure with every touch of his fingers on your skin, you knew that the situation would go as far as you wanted it to, that at that moment you had the reins, but really you had already lost them a long time ago. You dropped your hands until you reached the top of his sweatshirt which you pulled up indicating your need for him to disappear from his body. Chris acted, exposing his body to you.

Your fingertips scanned every nook and cranny that you thought you had lost, that you thought would never be yours again, but there they were before you. Chris brought his lips to your neck, making you lose your reason for being again, as he caressed your back and took the liberty of unclasping your bra, causing it to fall to the carpet. You knew then that you would never tire of the fluidity of his tongue running along your collarbones until it came to rest on your breasts.

A contraction arose in your intimacy making you realise the need you were exploring for him at that moment. Without hindrance you took it upon yourself to undo the button of his jeans that slid down his legs revealing his need for you.

"You can't imagine how many times I've thought about this moment," he mumbled against your lips, undoing his trousers as best he could.

His arms curved to grasp your thighs and encircle his hips, letting your naked bodies collide, that movement alone an action that brought you to lie on the woollen carpet. The softness of his fibres and warmth enveloped your back, as Chris's lips trailed across your belly while your panties trailed down your thighs until they disappeared from the scene. The shadows wandered between you, the fire seemed to want to be part of the moment and you appreciated it, it was warm, but no more so than his lips resting on your centre, sliding his tongue between your folds, making you lose your composure, letting him know the pleasure you were feeling at that very moment. The throbbing in your core began to intensify as his tongue brushed against your clit, until you could take no more and became a prey to your own pleasure, calling out the culprit's name over and over again.

But before you could even relax, before the throbbing could stop, you felt Chris want to be a part of it and gently thrust inside you, causing a deeper moan from both of you to fill the room. It had been too many years together, you knew to the millimetre the sensations the other person experienced, what made them feel the most pleasure, what they liked. Chris loved to feel your throbbing when his tongue made you orgasm around him, and that was a sensation he extrapolated. Inside you, however, he just felt you around the stiffness of his member, he barely made any movement, he just kissed your neck, lying on top of you, waiting for the calmness to take over and transport you back to paradise.

"Move, please," you begged, hoping to prolong the moment of pleasure you had just experienced, preventing him from leaving at all.

His movements began delicately, keeping himself propped up on his elbow while his other hand cupped your hip. Having him on top of you, the two of you lying on that carpet which had been part of your love on so many occasions felt like you had travelled through time. His ragged breaths came against your face, you wrapped your legs around his waist so that the depth of his member was greater. You could feel the rapport between the two bodies, the need to have each other again. Nothing seemed to matter in those moments, you felt his movements erase all the worries that were present in your mind, the only thing that mattered in those moments were the two of you.

His lips were pressed to yours, letting out gasps as his movements increased in speed. Your fingers were lost in his hair, as you kept your eyes closed, exploring how the pleasure continued each time his member slapped against your inner wall. And you felt it, his stiffness swelled inside you, you knew that's what it meant, he was close. You opened your eyes to find that his gaze was focused on you, that he was waiting for some sign from you that would prevent him from carrying out his release, but you merely trapped his lips between yours and placed a hand on his hip to keep him going.

A much smaller free fall than the first one you had felt engulfed you next to him, his moans projecting your name into the inside of your head, his movements becoming irregular and deep, making your bodies move across the carpet.

Calm, after a few minutes, came over you, making you feel the burn of your back from the rubbing of your nakedness against the carpet, making you feel the dampness of your hair still present and the flush of his cheeks from the heat of the fire in the fireplace. After Chris came out from under you and settled right behind you, you curled up sideways facing the fireplace. You felt his lips kiss every part of your reddened back and his arm went around your waist pulling you to him.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he placed a kiss on your bare shoulder.

"I think so," you replied contemplating the sparks from the firewood.

Fortunately you didn't have to project your feelings, he knew how you might be feeling right now, though he didn't get half of what you were really going through.

"I think you know that," he began in a soft tone that matched the atmosphere, "but I need to tell you that I love you," there was silence, as your torturous feelings came over you. "I know your head will be a complete mess right now, I don't want to burden you, I just want you to know that I'm here, that I'm still in love with you and that I intend to never part from you, if you'll let me."

Vulnerability came over you as you heard those words, you felt like you were a child again and you were faced with a decision you weren't capable of facing, you just wanted to feel protected, so you turned your body and came face to face with Chris. His legs wrapped around yours, agreeing to an even more intimate moment if that was possible. When you looked up into his face his smile was waiting for you to relax, to make you see that he was there with you, that everything was okay.

"Everything will be fine," his voice was confident, warm, his voice denoted the future.

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