#chapter nine coming tomorrow or saturday

[clumsiestgiantess]

Chapter nine of the Other-world Universe; drunken shenanigans! Amongst other things. (This chapter’s one of my favorites)

all chapters linked here

[Hangover? I hardly know her]

On one boring Saturday, several weeks from my first attempt at redemption, I left for the other-world after dinner.  It seemed so much more inviting now that Erica had forgiven me.  Well, not forgiven me, actually.  It was more along the lines of facing the reality that I occasionally wandered through her world whether she wanted me there or not.  I had a better feeling about things, regardless.  I still wanted to make a better impression than I had when we first officially met.  Erica had willingly spent time with me, and she'd actually enjoyed it.  She said so herself.  The thought of that rainy day made my heart skip a beat.  Befriending the people of the other-world was a lot more gratifying than sitting around invisibly controlling them.  Albeit, it was a lot harder.

It wasn't raining that evening, but large clouds hung heavily in the air.  Erica's house was empty when I meandered past the cliffside, and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sorrow at the sight.  What was I going to tell her, anyways? I asked myself internally.  'I came back because my world's boring and you aren't?'  No, it was for the best that she wasn't home.  I could wait for tomorrow — maybe get there a bit earlier.  I’d come later into the night, but then again, I always come around dark.  It stresses me out less and makes me feel a bit more hidden.

Wandering further through the outskirts of the city, I debated controlling someone to get closer to its center.  However, since everything that happened, I was really trying to be less lenient with my own rules.  'Absolutely necessary' was already vague enough.  Deep in thought, I stumbled over a car in the street, not even realizing it had turned down the road I was walking on.  I glanced backwards to find the vehicle flipped upside down in the road behind me.  Too many bystanders had seen it happen, though.  This was a residential area, and people were already flocking out of their homes to witness the damage.  Like so many other accidents I'd caused, I could do nothing to help without making a scene.

I guiltily slunk off to a different, less inhabited place.  The streets were filled with pawn shops and sketchy offices that were most likely fronts for a plethora of illegal things.  I quickly moved on from that section and continued around the outside of the city.  After finding nothing of particular interest, I was ready to call it a night and head back to my own world.  A split second from vanishing away, I felt a magnetic-esque tug.  Erica.  Should I look for her?  Will she think I’m stalking her if I do?  In the end, I decided to just check in on her, then head back home.  Strange streets slowly became more recognizable as I traversed the roadways trying to follow my and Erica's sixth sense.

Once the old club came into view, I picked up the pace, suddenly realizing where she must be.  Erica was nowhere in sight when I arrived, and I had to wait later into the dark morning for her to emerge from the building.  This time, she actually recognized her car, so I assumed she wasn't too buzzed.  However, the second her car was running, she proceeded to put it into drive rather than reverse.  She came horribly close to smashing directly into the car parked in front of her.  Thankfully, my reflexes reacted before my brain did.  I quickly stopped the vehicle in its tracks with a free hand.  Eyeing the empty streets for any passerby, I brought her car to the empty lot I'd sat in to watch the city over a year ago — only a block or two down the street.  It took a few moments after I'd placed it down, but Erica eventually stepped out of her car and looked around the lot, confused.  "This isn't my house," she stated confusedly after examining the darkening streets.

Oh boy.  "Erica, what are you doing trying to drive this drunk?" I asked quietly, slightly exasperated, "Weren't you already arrested for doing this?"   She whirled around towards the sound of my voice, glancing around the dark with a bewildered expression.  "H- hello?  God, is that you?"  Shortly afterwards, she dissolved into a mess of giggles and slumped back down into the driver's seat.  "Don't take me yet!" Erica exclaimed drunkenly, "Wait until the hangover starts, then I'll want to leave."  Sighing, I kneeled on the concrete and considered my options.  I couldn’t leave Erica in the lot; she was far too drunk to stay by herself in the city, especially at night.  My first thought was to take her home myself, but that meant I’d have to pick her up either in her car or just in my hand.  I knew for a fact that sober Erica would passionately refuse both options.

Taking her car was basically out of the question, though.  It would be way too risky trying to hide it from the view of all the people in the other-world who might look up and spot it, even if it was the dead of night.  The only way to get Erica home is to carry her there.  I debated my decision for a moment.  “Erica, can you come out of the car for a second?  I- I need to take you home, but I’m honestly not sure how.”  Erica shrugged and stepped off her seat, stumbling on the cracked cement.  Hesitating a few times, I reached for her.  Unfortunately, I had to keep myself invisible in the outskirts of the city.  Erica would have a fit if I were to try this while she was sober, but I had no other choice.  

My fingers slowly curled around Erica’s torso, lifting her a few inches into the air.  The second her feet left the ground, she shrieked like she was being murdered.  I quickly set her back down, regretfully watching as she scrambled behind her car for safety.  Her bubbly mood was replaced with a newly terrified one.  It was heartbreaking; all her newfound trust in me was instantly revoked.

Erica’s frightened voice echoed from her hiding spot.  “I can’t be controlled again.  Please, it has to stop.  I don’t want to be a puppet.”  She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.  Was she really this scared of me, or is that the alcohol talking?  Sitting up as much as I could without fully standing, I surveyed the area for people.  Streetlights and neon signs hummed with life, but otherwise the surrounding streets were completely dead.  Tentatively, I came out of invisibility.  “Erica,” I called softly, “It’s just me.  I won’t control you, I promise.”  Her head popped up from her hiding place behind her car.  “You’re not?” she asked, looking me over warily.  I shook my head and she slid out of hiding.

Erica meandered around the lot for about 20 minutes afterwards, blabbering drunken nonsense and pacing around aimlessly.  She tried twice to drive home, but I refused to let her get in her car.  I’d quickly slide my hand over the door every time I saw Erica make a move towards it.  The second time I blocked her, she pressed herself into my fingers, trying to force them apart so she could get past them.  It was strangely adorable, but I still refused to let her in.  Driving in her disoriented state was basically a death sentence.  

“Come on,” she whined, “I wanna go home already!”  “I can’t let you drive this drunk,” I replied.  She sighed, giving one last attempt to pry my fingers free.  Finally, she sat down tiredly on the back of her car.  A few minutes later, Erica nearly slid off her seat in drowsiness.  I quickly reached over and caught her before she got a face full of cement.

Immediately, Erica slid out of my grip and hurried to the newly opened doorway.  At that point, I was worried I might have to hold her car aloft to stop her from using it.  However, Erica paused at the door, hand hovering over its handle.  Slowly, she turned to look up at my exhausted expression.  "You're..." she paused, considering my large form sitting cross-legged in the lot, taking up more than half the empty space.  "You're my friend, right?  I can trust you?"  

I was baffled by her questions, but immediately had the answer.  "Of course you can trust me."  Erica gave me an oblivious, innocent smile, "That's good.  I like you.  I'd invite you over to my house, but you won't let me go."  She wandered over to my hand, laying back on it like a bed.  "Guess I'll just sleep here tonight.  But I’m going to make it your problem."  I sat stunned while Erica rambled on in a half asleep voice.  In her slightly delirious state, she'd asked me where my house was and questioned whether I even had one or just slept in the mountains somewhere.  Before I could try to explain my situation to her, she'd fallen asleep.

After a few minutes, I bent over to see her closer, fingers cupping around her ever so slightly.  I didn't dare get too close though, just in case she woke up and my closeness scared her.  Butterflies flitted around my chest as I gazed down at Erica tucked sleepily in my palm.  I gushed over how sweet a moment it was before realizing something like that would probably never happen again.  Once she sobered up, I doubted Erica would ever be that trusting of me.  I can enjoy this moment now, though.  Before it ends, and I go back to being seen as an 'untrustworthy monster' not a 'safe friend'.

My pulse quickened slightly as I felt Erica shift unconsciously on my palm.  Her arm slid over my thumb, pulling it closer to herself as she nestled her head on the pad of another finger.  The feeling was so overwhelming, I felt my eyes tearing up.  Seeing her sleeping soundly was making me doubly tired.  It was definitely well past midnight, and I still hadn’t slept, myself.  Even when I closed my eyes to get some rest, there would always be some suspicious sounds out on the street or a slight movement from Erica, and I'd suddenly be woken again.

Eventually, I must've fallen asleep, because when I woke up the sun had drifted above the horizon.  My heart dropped in panic as I quickly became invisible once more.  Hopefully no one had spotted me while I was sleeping.  Erica was still out cold, so I slid my hoodie out from its previous use as a pillow for myself, and placed it on the ground with Erica on top of it.  My hand prickled awfully from the loss of blood over the course of the night.  I had to hold it still for hours so Erica wouldn't wake up.  As I shook out my hand and bent my fingers to get them back to normal, I pulled away from the building behind me to check how much damage I'd undoubtedly caused by leaning against it.  There was a large dent in its side where my back rested.  Thankfully, the building looked long abandoned.

Early city sounds started up for the day, and I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.  Horns blared in the direction of the highway, and a flock of tiny pigeons scattered into the sky.  Suddenly, a small yelp startled me mid-yawn.  I glanced over at my hoodie where Erica was now sitting upright in confusion.  "What-  Where am I?  What happened?  Alexis, are you-"  "I'm here," I replied softly, not wanting to draw too much attention to myself.  Erica flinched slightly at my voice before calming down once she recognized it.  A few seconds passed as she stared into the distance, possibly remembering vague details from the night before.  

"You.. wouldn't let me drive home last night..."  "Because you were ridiculously drunk and almost crashed within five seconds of trying to drive," I finished.  Erica sucked in a pained breath of air as she clutched her head and slowly laid back down.  "Fucking hangover," she cursed under her breath.  "I think the drinks might’ve been spiked.  I.. I really shouldn’t keep going back there.”  She rolled over and clutched fistfuls of my hoodie closer to herself. “Thank you though, for keeping me off the road.  I could've died; I wasn't really thinking." I smiled, breathing in the early morning air.  "You're welcome."

"I have some water in my car," Erica realized aloud.  "If I could just get it..."  I would offer to get it for her, but I doubted I could get to the bottle without accidentally tearing the door off.  We sat in the lot for some time, Erica trying to power through her headache long enough to make it to her car.  She got two thirds of the way there before doubling over in pain.  I had to reach out and catch her before she fell to the ground.  Erica froze when she felt my fingers hoist her back up, but she quickly got over it and made her way into the driver's seat with my help.  Finally, she got out the bottle and swallowed a few sips, slumping over in pain and exhaustion afterwards.

I noticed her cast a longing stare directed at my hoodie.  Erica wanted to lie back down, but didn't want to keep me here longer than she already had.  She sat sideways, legs still dangling out of the car, and looked up in my direction.  "Did I-” she stopped for a second then started her sentence again.  "I don't remember much of last night, but.. did I fall asleep in your hand?" she asked hesitantly.  "Yes," I confessed, "You wanted somewhere to sleep, and since I didn't let you into the car…"  "I'm sorry," Erica interjected, "That's.. embarrassing, I'm so sorry.  I kept you here all night."  I let out a breathy laugh, "No, it's fine Erica.  I really didn't mind!  It's not like anyone's missing me back home."  She seemed slightly concerned for a moment, sitting up to get off her seat before letting out a small yelp of pain and reaching for her temples, again staring longingly at the comfortable pile of fabric a few feet away.

"Hold out your hand," I instructed.  Shockingly, Erica made no argument.  Her tiny digits brushed over the pads of my own, leaning her weight onto me.  Gently, I hauled her up out of her seat.  With small careful movements, I managed to guide her back to my hoodie so she could lay down again.  With a wan smile, she burrowed herself in its folds.  "Did you know I'd be out drinking last night?" Erica asked after laying there for a while, her eyes closed in a half-sleep.  "No, I was just sightseeing in the city again," I answered honestly, "I was about to leave when I felt you were nearby and went to investigate."  

"By 'investigate', do you mean 'spy on me'?"  When I answered with a dull silence, she opened her eyes and sat up slightly to look at me.  Well, to look at the empty space that I sat in.  "That was supposed to be a joke, sorry.  I wasn't trying to chastise you."  This was new.  I don't think Erica had ever apologized to me before.  Not that she had anything to apologize for.  "I'm just glad I came when I did," I replied, "before anything happened."  She must've sensed my tone shift a bit, because she frowned at me and stood slightly before realizing that wasn't helping her headache.  "You were worried about me?"  Erica asked, looking slightly flattered.  "That's.. really sweet of you."

I nodded vigorously, though Erica couldn't see me.  "Of course I was worried about you!" I exclaimed before realizing I should probably keep my voice a bit quieter.  It hurt my throat, but it probably kept me a bit more secretive.  Even if it didn’t, whispering would also be better for Erica’s headache regardless.  "Imagine how awful I'd feel if I came back to the mansion to visit and you weren't there.  I guess I would think you blew me off, but I'd really start to worry once you were gone for weeks afterward."  

Erica sat silently for a bit, deep in thought.  "I..." she started, "I guess I didn't realize you cared about me that much."  A long silence followed, her last words resonating in the empty air.  Erica's expression became clouded with emotions I couldn't quite read.  "Are you alright?" I asked uncertainly.  The silence broken, Erica shook herself off and straightened up.  "Yeah, I'm just thinking.  I really should head home, though."  "Alright, I guess I'll do that too.  Do you need help?"  She shook her head and stood slowly, "I should be alright until I get home."  I watched her return to the driver's seat, readily waiting to catch her if she fell.

Before closing the car door, Erica slowly turned to look at me.  "Thank you, again, for dealing with me last night.  I swear I'll try not to get that drunk from now on.  It’s not that I want to, it just kinda.. happens, I guess."  I laughed slightly, "You work on that."  Erica started up the car, smiling lightheartedly.  With a little wave, she drove off back to the mansion, leaving me behind on the cracked concrete lot.  Just in case, I trailed her car from a distance.  She said she was alright to drive, but I wanted to make sure she made it home safely before I left.

I could barely sleep that evening, far too awake thanks to the events of the day, along with the fact that I’d just woken up.  Erica had trusted me so wholly that she’d slept in my hand.  I felt giddy just thinking about it, but at the same time, I had to come to terms with the fact that the incident had everything to do with the alcohol and whatever else she’d consumed and nothing to do with her actual trust in me.  However, even when she’d slept it all off, Erica had still trusted me enough to touch her that morning.  

I hadn’t touched her or even got very close to her since I’d grabbed her during our first true meeting.  She made it crystal clear that she didn’t want my massive appendages anywhere near her since then.  That was until just this morning, when she’d willingly taken my hand.  It might’ve just been Erica being in too much pain to be stingy, but she was stubborn; if she didn’t want to do something, it was near impossible to get her to change her mind.  The only reason I say near is because of my abilities, but using those was obviously out of the question.

Exited that Erica finally seemed to be warming up to me, I eagerly returned on the following Saturday.  I’d chosen Saturdays simply because they were the day I had the most free time.  I raced downstairs right after lunch and zapped off to the other-world, almost jogging to the cliffside before realizing the tremors I would undoubtedly cause.  Stepping up to the mansion, I found Erica on the phone with someone inside.  Resting on the cliffside a bit further down, I waited for Erica to finish the call and come to the door.  It was taking a suspiciously long time for her to get there, so I began wandering off to the areas nearby.  

Eventually, I noticed the glass door, which had now been fixed, sliding open.  Erica stepped hesitantly onto the patio outside.  "Alexis?  Are you out here?"  I made my way over to the mansion again.  "Yeah," I answered, "It's Saturday.  I'm here."  My sudden voice caused Erica to jump a few feet in the air.  Her face scrunched up in thought, “You came today?  It’s.. not the best time for me.  I have errands to run today."  I stared blankly at her, suddenly feeling very awkward.  "I.. oh."  I felt so stupid — it was all I could say.  “N- Nevermind.  Sorry to bother you.”

Erica snickered, shaking her head slightly in embarrassment for me.  She thought for a moment, then made a small 'aha' gesture.  "Hey, you know what?  While you're here, do you think you could help out with stuff?  I was just on the phone with a decor store.  See, I have this new couch coming, but the store's being big jerks about it and they won't deliver it for me.  They said they'd have someone help load it into my car, but.."  She stepped out a ways, gesturing to her two-seater sports car parked in the driveway.  Its trunk was only a few feet long, and that was in other-world measurements.  "It won't exactly fit.  I told them that, but I don't think the lady on the phone particularly gave a shit, so.. I'm thinking maybe, while you're here and everything, you can get the couch for me?"  

I mulled her idea over.  I don't really have anything else to do, and I was planning to spend the rest of the day here anyway.  "Well, I can't just go there and get it by myself, you have to go and claim it."  Erica waved a hand to shush me, "Yeah, yeah, I know.  I'm coming too.  I just need someone to take the couch."  "Alright," I agreed, "I'll help out.  I was planning to be here today, anyway."  My agreeance was instantly rewarded with a rare genuine smile from Erica, which was compensation enough for me.

It took Erica a few minutes to get herself ready, but soon we hit the road.  Well, she hit the road and I followed from a distance.  I was still amazed by how easily I could keep up with vehicles like her car.  Technically they were only toy-sized so I guessed it made sense.  We had to diverge paths for a bit when the highway turned through a forested area I couldn’t walk in, but using our sixth sense, I was still able to follow her despite not being able to see her.  When she got to the parking lot, she took a space at the very far end.  

“Alexis?” Erica called, stepping out of the car.  “I’m here,” I replied quietly, kneeling down.  There was an empty dog walk beside the lot on this side that gave me just enough room to stay.  Erica had probably parked all the way over here because of it.  “I’m going to have them leave the couch out on the corner over there.  Do you think you could take it without anyone noticing?”  “In front of the entire parking lot?” I asked skeptically, looking out over the stretch of asphalt and cars, "I'll try."  Soon, the new couch was brought out to the corner.  Erica told the employees who took it out there that a truck would be coming by any second to take it, but they insisted on waiting for it to arrive so they could load it inside.  It was their policy or whatnot.

Erica began to get annoyed, realizing that they would get suspicious when no one actually showed up.  Spying a van nearby, I got an idea.  I made sure Erica was preoccupied with the moving guys before stepping over and latching onto the driver.  I had them pull up to where the couch was waiting, then call out to the movers and Erica.  ("I'm here!  Is this the couch?")  Erica's eyes went wide in shock, her face paling as she rapidly figured out what I’d done.  I instantly regretted my decision, but the two movers got right to work placing things inside.  

The moment they left, Erica glared at me through the person she realized I must be controlling.  "My car.  Now."  I hesitated, but begrudgingly had the person drive out and park beside her fancy red sports car.  Erica marched up to the driver, "What the hell is wrong with you?  I thought you weren't doing any of this shit anymore!"  It was weird watching her yell at the innocent person I was controlling instead of my actual self, who was watching invisibly from above.  ("They weren't going to leave, so I thought this might help,") I explained.  She stared at the driver a moment, "Can.. Can whoever you're controlling see what's happening right now?  I remember it was like spacing out and watching things happen around me…”  Her expression shifted from anxious to enraged in a matter of seconds.  “Alexis, you can't do this to people!"  ("I know, I know.  I just need to do one thing, then they'll go off and forget this ever happened.")

Erica stood irritated the entire time as I, myself, got the couch out of the van.  Quickly, I had the driver pull away and forget the last few minutes.  "See, they're gone.  It's like they were never here," I said quietly.  I knew what I did was not going to be cast aside that easily.  "Can we just… go back to the mansion and I can explain-"  "Explain what?  You controlled someone right in front of me!"  "Erica, I controlled them for five minutes.  They were completely fine and I did nothing to hurt them.  I- I understand that what I did to you was very wrong, but it wasn't like that.  I had someone do us a favor, and that's all."  "Just bring the damn couch home."  Erica slammed her car door and sped away before I could reply.  I took up the piece of furniture and held it beneath my shirt to keep it hidden.  

I stood in numb shock as I watched Erica’s car disappear down the freeway.  What was I thinking, controlling someone in front of her, even if it was only for a moment?  On my way back, I realized that without my sixth sense to guide me, I was a bit lost.  I followed the trail of places I recognized, unsure whether I recognized them from the trip today or from another time.  The sudden sound of something ripping apart startled me from my pensive mood.  I nearly tripped over a stoplight when I looked up.  

A pitch-black tear broke through the sky to my right.  It was as if the atmosphere itself had been cut open, filled with a gaping black void of whatever was inside.  There were only two or three other cars on this backroad, but everyone who saw it stopped and watched in frightened awe.  The tear looked exactly like the strange instance of black lightning I’d noticed from a distance a long time ago.  I’d completely forgotten about it until then.  Now that it had opened a yard or so away from me, I realized that the strange phenomenon was definitely not natural.

A few seconds of stunned silence later, the tear slowly closed back in on itself, sealing up the sky once more.  What in the world was that!?  Clearly, no one else seemed to know either.  A crowd of bystanders formed in the street by their abandoned vehicles, debating over what exactly they’d witnessed.  Talk of aliens and dark magic drifted to my ears from the road below me.  Whatever strange things were going on, this time, they were not my fault.  Not wanting to stick around in case any government agencies came looking, I backed off and continued the long walk to the mansion.

When I got back, Erica was there waiting for me.  Silently, she opened the back doors and pointed inside to where the old couch used to be.  I delicately placed it inside like you would a piece of dollhouse furniture.  It wasn't completely dark yet, but it was getting there.  It had taken me a while to find my way back without Erica to guide me.  Her back was turned and it looked as if she might shut the back doors on me, so I quickly shifted to visibility.

"Erica, I'm sorry.  I'm so, so sorry," I pleaded, "It's not fair what I did.  It should never have been that long, I- I just got into the habit and didn't stop…"  She turned around to face me.  My eyes were brimming with tears, and I was gripping the cliffside so hard that chunks of rock came away in my hands.  "You're not talking about today, are you?" Erica asked, leaning tiredly against the doorframe.  I shook my head, bending down to look her in the eyes.  "You.. didn't deserve that.  I stole eight months of your life, and I convinced myself that you were better off because of it…"  I took a shuddering breath and continued.  "I don't want to scare you or hurt you, I promise."  

There was a long moment of dull silence where I could've sworn Erica would tell me to leave her alone, but all she did was sigh and step inside.  My stomach plummeted.  I stepped away, trying desperately to keep myself from full-on crying.  I had come so close.  "Hey, I'm-  I'm still here," a whisper echoed from the second floor of the mansion.  "I just came up here to talk to you easier."  I wiped the tears from my face as best as I could in the pitch dark of the coming night before stepping into the light of the house.

"You genuinely care about me, right?" Erica asked once I came back over.  I nodded furiously.  "You're lucky that I care about you, too.  We’re friends, which means we’re supposed to look out for each other.  So just.. Please don't control people anymore.  It’s not right and it freaks me out."  She crossed her arms defiantly, "And if I ever see you do anything like that again, even if it's for a few minutes, even if a person isn't affected by it in the slightest, that's it.  You and I are done."  I blinked, slightly astounded despite my awful predicament.  "There's.. there's a you and me?  We’re friends?"  Erica rolled her eyes, "That's what you got out of all this?  You know what, maybe there isn't a you and me after all."  "No, no!" I backtracked, "I agree with what you said before, I won't control anyone again!”  "You better not," she chided, pointing a finger at me, "Or else."

I stood feeling chastised while Erica glanced awkwardly back into her house.  “I should really go make dinner," she mused, more to herself than to me.  "I haven’t had anything to eat since eleven o’clock this morning.  I’d order in because I really don’t feel like cooking, but I did that yesterday.”  I stood up so fast, Erica flinched.  “I can get us something to eat!”  Instantly, I vanished into my world and grabbed the backpack I’d been planning to bring.  A few sandwiches were packed inside.  

Moments later, I was back at the mansion.  Erica still stood hesitantly on the balcony.  “It.. might be a bit too much, but I have these,” I said, offering her one of the sandwiches.  It occurred to me then that I probably seemed a bit desperate to make amends by doing this.  I watched Erica’s expression.  She mostly seemed shook by the fact that I had a sandwich the length of the room behind her.  “Are you trying to win me back with food?” she questioned, glancing at me smugly.  I looked away, embarrassed, “I just.. don’t want you to be mad.”  “Then maybe you should listen to me the next time I tell you not to do something.”

“Ok..” I answered guiltily, letting the sandwich fall to my side in my hand.  She did have the right to refuse my peace offering.  “Woah, wait,” Erica stopped me, “I take bribes, hand that back.”  At her sudden remark, I let out a surprised laugh and took the sandwich out of the bag it was in, breaking off a piece that would be semi-manageable for her.  “Here you go, then,” I offered it to her.  We spent the rest of the evening eating and talking until we both started getting tired.  Before I could say my goodbyes, Erica stopped me.

“I.. You..."  Erica paused, mouth opening and closing silently as she searched for a way to tell me what was on her mind.  "You’re not controlling me anymore, are you?  And then making me forget?”  “What?” I asked, genuinely confused.  “L- Like that guy in the parking lot?  You made him forget about what he did.”  I leaned over to rest my head on my hands, propped up on the side lawn.  “Why would I want to control you?” I asked her earnestly, “What would I possibly hope to gain from doing that to you now?”  

Erica hesitated, thinking.  “I only did that to make you live an easier life.  Now that I know I was only making things harder for you, why would I keep doing it?”  She sighed, resting her head face down on the railing in front of her, staring silently at the floor for a while.  “I guess that makes sense.  And I don’t have any strange gaps in my memory like I used to.  That.. was you making me forget stuff, I think.  Some people just don’t care about others’ opinions, you know?” she explained, “I just wanted to know if you listened to me about that at the very least.”

I nodded, understanding.  Slowly, I shifted back upright.  It had to be scary — realizing that someone could take a part of your life away without you even knowing about it, or knowing what that piece of your life was for that matter.  “I swear on my life that I haven’t controlled you since the night you called me out on it,” I promised.  Erica’s head lifted, and she scrutinized my expression, searching for the truth.  “I believe you,” she said after a brief silence.  “And if I need anything in the future, like.. I don’t know.. Iike how you forced John to leave me alone, or when you stopped me from getting in a drunken accident a week ago, you’ll still be here, right?”  

“I’ll be around,” I answered.  “Every day I’ll come over here for a minute or two, probably right before I go to bed.  I’ll come check on you, and if you need anything, you can let me know, and I’ll see what I can do.  How does that sound?”  Erica let out a relieved breath, “It sounds like the right way to help me fix my life.  Thank you.  I- I guess it was wrong of me to tell you I wanted you to stop controlling people, end of story, because I agree that it is a useful ability.  So maybe you should only do it if I ask you to?  I don’t know, it just.. it scares me.”  I so badly wanted to hug her.  My hands twitched at the thought, inching closer before realizing she probably wouldn’t enjoy my giant form encroaching in her small space.

Hesitantly, I brought a hand over to the balcony and reached out a single finger instead.  “You shouldn’t have to be scared when I do that.  I want you to know for certain that I will never ever even try to control you.”  Erica stepped backwards in concern, unsure what I intended to do as I got closer.  When I paused right in front of her, her eyes widened slightly, and she stared at the outstretched digit in awe.  Slowly, Erica’s gaze lifted to meet mine.  “It’s alright,” I told her softly.  With a shaking hand, Erica reached out and delicately put her hand over the pad of my upturned finger, mouth dropping open slightly in wonder.  She dazedly traced the swirling marks of my fingerprint, shook by something so much larger in scale.

A brief moment later, I took back my arm, leaving Erica standing there speechless.  “I’ll be back tomorrow,” I promised, “to check on you like you asked.”  I backed off the cliffside and smiled at her hopeful gaze.  After a small goodbye, I left for my own world with Erica still standing wide-eyed on her balcony.

The following few months were filled with similar affairs.  Erica and I got together for a few meals, and she’d started letting me in on a few things that had been happening in her life that she’d previously kept hidden.  She admitted she’d been afraid that I’d mess with things again if she told me about them — a subtle hint to the fact that she was no longer afraid of my ability to do so, and realized that I really did never intend to use it on her again.  

Once we even had an accidental meeting when her car died in the back roads by her house.  It was deathly hot out now that summer was coming, and without any air conditioning, it was stifling.  Thankfully, I came by a little while after the car died.  I’d already been to her house and decided to walk back through the mountains where there was a bit more of a breeze, only to find Erica’s very noticeable car on the side of the road there.  Erica had been halfway passed out from the heat by the time I found her.  Her phone had died as she tried to call a towing company because she spent all her time trying to find a well-reviewed one.  

Hesitantly, I'd asked if she wanted me to get someone to help, but she strongly refused, knowing that meant I'd have to control someone again.  Even when her life might depend on it, Erica refused to break her own rules — something I seemed to be in the habit of doing, though I was getting better at it.  All she’d done was tell me: "I'd be too nervous sitting in someone else's car while you're controlling them," and I immediately halted mid-argument.  If Erica wasn’t comfortable with it, then neither was I.

I ended up taking the car back to the house with her inside it — a quick transport to the air-conditioned mansion.  Erica was thankful for the lift, even though she didn’t approve of my methods whatsoever.  I had to argue with her for fifteen minutes straight just to convince her that I wouldn’t accidentally drop her.  Erica claimed she nearly had a heart attack when I picked up the vehicle without warning.  Still, she thanked me with a gift: a bottle of champagne.

“My last bottle of alcohol in the house,” Erica admitted, “It’s yours.”  She handed me the tiny bottle, which couldn’t have been more than an inch long.  “I’m finally going sober.”  Erica beamed up at me; her eyes shone with an excitement I'd never seen before, even when I showed up to meals with oversized food from my own world.  Ever since I’d brought her that sandwich, it was like she’d finally realized that I had a whole world full of comparatively gigantic things.  Many of my recent trips, I’d brought along either food or an item for Erica to mess with.  She’d practically fainted when I came with a full-sized tube of lipstick a few days ago.  It was nearly as tall as she was, and she’d made a huge mess of it when she tried to use it herself, staining her outfit red, permanently.

Now, I stared down at the tiny champagne bottle in my hands, feeling the same strange wonder of seeing something normal at an entirely different scale.  "How about you start that tomorrow?" I asked, referring to Erica’s remark about being sober, "Go inside and get yourself a glass, will you?"  Erica nodded happily and disappeared into the mansion, returning with one of her champagne glasses.  She took the bottle from me and poured herself a cup, carefully handing it back so it wouldn't spill.  Taking the bottle between two fingers, I held it up to Erica's glass.  "Cheers," I announced, "to you finally getting your life back."  "Oh, I'll definitely drink to that," Erica remarked, clinking her glass with mine before taking a sip.  I took the wine bottle and poured the entire thing into my mouth.  It was barely more than a sip, but it tasted good.  It occurred to me then that I wasn’t supposed to be drinking alcohol; I was only a few months into being eighteen.  It wasn’t much, and I didn’t really care, but still.

It also occurred to me that I had no idea how old Erica was.  She didn’t look that much older than me, but I’d never asked.  “Erica,” I began, resting myself on the edge of the cliff so my head was even with the patio.  “How old are you?”  She froze mid-sip and glanced over at me.  “Why do you ask?”  “I just realized that I technically shouldn’t even be drinking alcohol at my age.  Not that I mind the tiny amount I got from this bottle,” I added with a shrug. “Are you.. I mean…  You’re out drinking all the time, so I assume you’re at least twenty-one, right?”  The look of guilt that sprung to her face immediately made me think otherwise.  “W- Well how old are you?”  I shook my head, “You first.”  “I’m.. I’m only twenty,” she confessed, “but legal drinking age is.. like.. eighteen so…  Yeah.  Now answer my question.”  

It took a moment for me to respond after that.  Not only was I unsure whether she was lying about the age a person could drink in her world, I realized that when I first saw her a year before, absolutely wasted in the parking lot, trying to break into a car she’d mistaken for her own — she was only nineteen.  In my book, that was too young an age for her to be in that situation, and way too young an age to be in the situation with John in the alleyway.

“Alexis?” Erica asked questioningly.  Her voice held the tiniest tinge of fear in it.  “I’m eighteen,” I told her.  My junior year of high school’s almost over.”  She nodded, “Unpopular opinion, but I actually liked high school.”  As I voiced my opinion against her own, claiming she probably just wasn’t remembering it clearly as a joke, I noticed her look darken for a moment, but chose not to press her about it.  I changed the topic entirely and made some small talk for a bit before we parted ways for the night.  I kept the empty champagne bottle as a souvenir, rubbing it thoughtfully between my fingers in bed that night.  "Cheers," I whispered to myself, "to finally getting things right.

[timeless-fanfic]

Plans ATM

Okay so...

I am working on several projects at the moment so here are some updates:

Destined Paths Series: I am trying to come up with ideas on where to take the story next, but I am a bit dry right now. If you have any ideas or plot points for our favorite characters, please send me an ask!

The Letters: I will try to post 1-2 of these when I sit down and do my little Writing Nights (WN) These will be done at random unless they are requested specifically...there is no timeline on this and it is not urgent at all (there are far too many to give myself a deadline).

Husband/Father Headcanons: This was originally a request. I am hoping to do 1-2 of these on my WN. I will do one of these for each disciple eventually (hopefully before the end of September, but definitely before the end of October at the latest).

Romantic ABCs: Same things as the Husband/Father Headcanons.

Restoring Faith: Okay so I wrote a TON of this tonight. I am going to try to post all of the rest of the nine chapters at once either tomorrow night or Saturday night!

Priorities (these will likely change a bit over time):

One-Shot Requests (All caught up!)

Series Requests (All caught up!)

Headcanon Requests (Romantic ABCs and Husband/Father)

The Letters

Destined Paths (This will move up to the top when I get over my writer's block...)

[taintedevesayori]

Tainted Eve ~ Chapter Nine

“Are you serious?!” Rena exclaimed. “You actually want to go shopping?! Please tell me we are buying you a new wardrobe!”

It was a Friday after school. Sayo was gathered with the girls in their classroom as usual. Since Rena wanted to hang out with them, they weren’t immediately going to Kisa’s house. 

A little over a month had passed since she had moved in with the Mukami brothers. She was more or less used to living with them by now and had to admit her assumptions about them really had been wrong. By now she could confidently say she got along with the brothers.

Living with them was much better than the church. She had her moments of peace, many of which were times when she was up during the day, but also lively times with the brothers as well. Kou was still a handful, although she wasn’t surprised that didn’t change.

Since everyone was together, she decided to bring up an idea she had been toying with for a little while now. She was getting sick of Kou poking fun at her clothing from time to time. Maybe it was time to bite the bullet.

“I don’t want to spend that much money,” Sayo scratched the back of her head, feeling rather awkward. “But I do need new clothes…”

“Leave it to me!” Rena grinned. “We’ll find you all sorts of cute things!”

“We’re all gonna go, right?!” Kisa was just as excited. “Taking Sayo shopping for the first time…! You never buy anything when we go!”

“You don’t have to blow it out of proportion…” she chuckled.

“Leave her alone, you two,” Lei chuckled as well. “Why don’t we go after practice on tomorrow?”

“Sounds like a plan!” Kisa punched her fist up in the air. 

“Shall I meet you at the shopping center we always go to?” Rena asked. “How is three o'clock?”

“That should work,” Sayo nodded. 

“This will be so much fun,” Emi smiled. 

Saturday band practice seemed to fly by and soon enough, the girls were meeting Rena at the cafe in their favorite shopping center. Both Rena and Kisa seemed much more excited about Sayo buying new clothes than she was. They were brainstorming what sorts of outfits they wanted Sayo to try on. 

“They’re overthinking this…” Sayo muttered to Lei and Emi. 

“No kidding,” Lei laughed. “I see where they’re coming from, though. You never comment on clothing so I’m curious what type of outfits you’ll pick.”

“I think you would look really cute in elegant yet simple clothing,” Emi smiled. 

“Hm…yeah, you’re right,” Lei agreed. “I can’t really see you in a dark, flashy style like Kisa…or Rena’s cutesy flashy style.”

“Cutesy clothes like mine don’t seem right either,” Emi nodded.

“Yeah, I don’t think I would look good in clothes like that. I never really paid much attention to clothes so I can’t say what I would like. Maybe casual clothes like you, Lei. Emi’s idea could be cute too, though.”

“That’s why we’re here!” Rena grinned, her and Kisa now tuned in on the conversation. “We’ll find you all sorts of cute things!”

“Yup! We’ll go wild once you find a couple of things you like,” Kisa nodded enthusiastically. 

“Just don’t go overboard…” Sayo resisted the urge to grimace. 

Their first stop was a large department store so that there were a lot of different options. After that, Rena decided they would find a store that catered more towards the type of clothing Sayo liked. So far she had picked out a couple of tops and bottoms, in both a casual style and the simple but elegant style Emi pointed out for her. She did have to admit the latter style of clothes looked better than she expected. All of the girls were in agreement with that. And so, after trying those couple of items on, Rena and Kisa split from them to search for clothing they wanted Sayo to try on. 

“Those two are a little too into this,” Sayo muttered as she casually looked around with Lei and Emi. 

“Maybe just a bit…” Lei admitted. 

“I hope you aren’t overwhelmed, Sayo,” Emi said, looking rather worried. 

“Not at all. It’s just strange. I never thought something like this would happen if I’m being honest. 

“At least not super soon,” Lei nodded. “We would have taken you shopping eventually, even if it was just to get a few things.”

“Sayooo~!” Rena sang as her and Kisa came bounding over to them.

“Oh jeez…” Sayo mumbled, now feeling a bit overwhelmed considering their arms were both full of clothes.

“Time to put on a fashion show!” Kisa grinned. “To the dressing rooms!”

“A fashion show?” Sayo grimaced as Kisa grabbed her hand, pulling her along. “Isn’t that a bit much?”

“No way! We gotta see what kinds of clothes look good on you so you know what to buy.”

There was no getting around it, so Sayo held her tongue. In the end, Kisa and Rena continued to toss her different clothing for her to show off. At first, she saw it as a bit of a hassle but everyone’s reactions were amusing so it ended up being fun. 

“There’s too many to choose from…” Sayo muttered as she stared at the pile that everyone decided were potential keepers. 

“Just get them all?” Rena suggested. “Then you have a whole new wardrobe!”

“That’s way too much money to spend in one go, though.”

“She has a point,” Lei agreed. “Let’s go through it again and weed more out.”

“Fine, fine,” Rena replied. 

The five girls sat back down, rooting through the pile once more. But at a certain point, Kisa and Rena both kept insisting they shouldn’t get rid of anything else since Sayo needed new clothes so badly. There wasn’t any point to it if she only got a couple of things. 

“I guess you have a point…” Sayo admitted. “I didn’t think I would buy this much but maybe I should.”

“Exactly!” Rena nodded enthusiastically. “It may not be a full wardrobe but it’s enough to not have to wear your old clothes all the time as well.”

“Alright, I cave. We’ll stick to this then. But that means I’m not buying anything at any other stores.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Kisa agreed.

“Shall we go check out then?” Lei asked. 

“Probably a good idea before these two decide I need anything else,” Sayo teased Kisa and Rena.

The group chuckled as they gathered up the collection of clothing she had settled on. After they left the store, Emi suddenly stopped everyone. 

“I have an idea. Sayo, you should change into one of your new outfits!”

“That’s a great idea!” Kisa and Rena exclaimed. 

“So you two are in sync now?” Lei laughed.

“Hm…guess that’s not a bad idea. Let’s head to the bathroom then.”

The girls followed behind Sayo as she led the way. 

“Which one should I choose…?” She muttered, digging through one of her bags.

“Hmm…” Rena peeked into the bag. “We’re out shopping right now…so something that would fit a casual outing between friends.”

“That…doesn’t help me.”

“Let me take a look,” she offered. 

Sayo handed her bags over, letting Rena look through them. She already had an idea of what outfit would be good for the occasion. It wasn’t too hard to find the one she was looking for. Rena pulled out a burgundy skirt with a black top. 

“It’s perfect!” She grinned, handing it to Sayo. 

“It is a cute one. Alright, will someone hold my bags while I go change?”

“Roger that,” Kisa grinned, taking them from Rena.

Once Sayo was changed, she headed back out from the bathroom to meet the others. 

“I know we saw it earlier but it’s so cute!” Rena gushed. 

“It really suits you,” Emi smiled. 

“Thanks,” she chuckled. “Where to next?”

“I’ve been dying to check out the records shop!” Kisa exclaimed.

“Let’s go then,” Lei said, leading the way. 

Later that evening, the girls were picked up by Lei’s brother, Tetsu. He hadn’t seen everyone in a while, so he offered to drive them all home so they could catch up. Sayo was reluctant at first considering she didn’t want anyone to see the fancy manor, let alone the possibility of accidentally seeing one of the brothers, but decided it would be okay to let him drop her off down the street. He questioned it but in the end couldn’t change her mind. 

As she neared the front door, she glanced down at herself, feeling a bit awkward. By now all of the boys knew how plain her clothing was. This was definitely much different….Wearing a new style of clothing  would take a lot of getting used to.

There was no point in lingering outside the front door. She used her arm to push it open since she was carrying two large bags. They had gone a bit overboard. Kisa and Rena really were bad influences. 

She made it halfway up the stairs before noticing Ruki was standing up there on the second floor.

“Hey, Ruki,” she smiled.

“What’s all that?” He asked, motioning to her bags.

“I went shopping with my friends. I, um…may have gotten more than I planned on…”

“The new clothes suit you. It’s about time you bought something for yourself.”

“Thanks…” her cheeks flushed pink. “I’m going to put all this away.”

“I’m going to make dinner soon. Come down and help when you’re done.” 

“Sure.”

Luckily, she didn’t run into anyone else. As she began sorting everything to put it away, she glanced down at herself once more. The thought of walking around the manor like this felt strange. So should she change? The rest of them would see her new clothes eventually. It didn’t have to be today. After debating on it for a moment, she sighed, deciding to keep them on. 

Once she was done putting everything away, she headed down to the kitchen to help Ruki. The rest of the boys hadn’t gathered yet by the time they were putting the dishes out on the dining table. As they were finishing up, the three came in.

“Ah! Sayo!”

“Hm?” 

She turned, only for Kou to throw his arms around her. 

“H-Hey!”

“Where did you get those clothes? They’re so cute!”

“Oh…I went shopping with the girls. I figured it was about time to buy some new ones.”

“Aw~” he pouted. “I wanted to help you shop. Why didn’t you ask me?”

“Err…sorry,” she wiggled out of his grip. “I just thought they would think it was fun since I never buy anything when we go.”

“Leave ‘er alone,” Yuma said. “You can always go some other time.”

“Your new clothes…are pretty,” Azusa smiled. 

“Thanks…” her cheeks flushed pink. 

She wanted some alone time after dinner, but sure enough, Kou followed her up to her room. 

“Well?” he grinned, flopping down on her bed. “Show me everything! I want to see your new outfits on.”

“I’m not having another fashion show,” she sighed. “Once with the girls was more than enough.”

“Aw, come on~” he whined. “Please? What about just one or two? Pick your favorite ones!”

“Wouldn’t it be more fun to be surprised when I wear them?”

“I can be surprised with the other ones,” he puffed out his cheeks. “Pleeeeaaase~?”

“Alright, alright,” she sighed. “I’ll show you one.”

“Alright!” He grinned. 

“That means you have to wait in the hallway.”

“I can’t help you change?” He smirked, leaning towards her. 

“Absolutely not. Now, out or you aren’t seeing anything.”

“Fiiiine,” he replied, stepping out into the hallway. 

She closed the door and locked it before going over to her dresser. She could pick any random outfit. It really didn’t matter what she showed him. However, when she pulled out the first few items, she changed her mind. They were all on the simpler side. She didn’t particularly care about impressing Kou, but if she was going to go out of her way to show something off, it should be one of the nicer ones. 

And so, she got dressed in a nice, white tank top and a black lacy skirt. Once she was done, she unlocked the door before calling Kou back in. He stared, looking her up and down for a moment before grinning. 

“You look so cute, Sayo! It really suits you.”

“Thanks. Kisa and Rena went a little crazy finding all sorts of things for me to try.”

“That sounds like fun. I wish you would have gone shopping with me,” he sighed. 

“I don’t really need to go again any time soon but we can probably go together at some point.”

All of a sudden, she noticed something odd. It looked like one of his eyes had changed color for a moment. 

“I’ve been curious about something,” Sayo walked directly up to him, getting closer than he thought she would. 

“What is it?” He was rather surprised by the sudden turn. 

“Your right eye…it’s a different color, isn’t it?”

“Oh, you can tell? Want me to lean down so you can get a better look?”

“If you want to.”

He leaned down towards her, so she reached up to brush his hair away from his eye. Sure enough, it was a different color. She had thought his eyes were pretty before, but this one was like a gemstone. It was beautiful. However, that wasn’t the only thing she wanted to know. She was sure it had turned red before. 

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” He grinned.

“It is….Can it turn a different color?”

“You’ve noticed that too, huh?” 

His eye began glowing red to show her. She cocked her head, now even more curious as to how it happened. Even though she tried, she found she couldn’t look away.

“How do you do that?”

“You could say it’s a special power of mine. That eye allows me to read thoughts to see when someone is lying to me.”

“I see…you used it in the classroom that day to see if I was actually worried about you,” she realized. 

“You may not have noticed, but I’ve used it on you since then,” his eye went back to normal. “You’re more truthful than I first thought you’d be.”

“So you thought I was a liar…?” She grumbled, letting his hair fall back into his face. 

“I’m not very good at understanding other people’s feelings or trusting others,” he replied, standing up straight. “This eye helps me do that.”

“Really? I’m a little surprised to hear that.”

“Ruki says I’ve gotten a little better since Yui was with us,” he admitted. 

Now that he mentioned it, she vaguely remembered Ruki saying that back when they first kidnapped her. 

“So have you caught me in a lie before?” She teased. “It’s a little mean that you assume I’m lying to you.”

“No, I haven’t caught you lying. Should I be worried?” He teased her back. 

“I do my best not to lie, so I wouldn’t say so.”

She paused for a moment. “I have a request.”

“What is it?” Kou was a bit surprised that she would ask him for something.

“Will you try not to use your eye on me anymore?”

That wasn’t what he expected. He was a bit disappointed she didn’t want something from him. He would much rather it be a request for a gift or something like that.

“Ehh?” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Why? Afraid I’m going to see something you don’t want me to?”

“No, but doesn’t it sound unpleasant to have someone looking into your mind all the time?” She pointed out. 

He could see where she was coming from. He wouldn’t want someone poking around in his mind either. And she really was being truthful. The problem was, he relied on his eye so often. Karlheinz and his brothers were the only people he actually trusted. Could he trust her enough to stop peering into her thoughts?

She could sense his reluctance. “How about this? What do you want in exchange for not using it on me?”

“Can it be anything?” He grinned, his mood doing a 180. 

“Err…within reason.”

“Let’s go on a date!”

“A…date…?” 

“Yup! Since you didn’t take me shopping with you, let’s go on a date.”

Her cheeks flushed pink. “What do you have in mind?”

“It’ll be a surprise,” he smirked. 

As much as she didn’t like the idea of going on a surprise date, she had to admit she was asking for a lot if he really relied on his eye that much. One date wasn’t an unreasonable request. 

“Alright, I give. How’s next Sunday?”

“Perfect!” He grinned, throwing his arms around her. “It’s a date!”

“Agh! Personal space, Kou!” She attempted to push him off. 

“Aw~” He pouted. “You still aren’t used to my affection?”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be,” she sighed.

Tainted Eve Masterlist

[brightjimini]

Drenched in Darkness: prologue

Bruce wayne x f!waterbender!reader

A/N: Well… its been a while, sorry. Its my bday tomorrow so here is a little present: my new series. (that i will finish unlike some others that still need to be finished) Ill try to upload every week. i think every saturday. enough bs. let me know what you thought because i dont know if i can write anymore and i promise the next chapters will be longer.

Warnings: child abandonment, no bruce.. yet, o yeah and murder

-

I had lived in Gotham my whole life, at least as long as I could remember. Like most people here my life wasn’t so easy. But that is normal, especially for 80 percent of Gotham. My mother abandoned a younger me at the orphanage, the people working there had told me that my dad wasn’t with her. She had left her contact information with them.

But when I was old enough to try and look for her I found out that she had lied about almost everything on the filled in survey. So much for a happy family reunion.

I hated living at the orphanage. I had not hated it my whole life. I only started hating it when weird accidents started to happen and all the kids around me started pointing at me when one of the caretakers would ask what had happened. Water pipes would suddenly burst, the water in a glass next to a bed would splash on the wall at the other side of the room, rain would turn into little ice shards.

By chance all those things happened when I was angry. Throwing my little arms around and screaming or shouting. Nine year old kids had not gone through as much stuff as adults. But they could make the connection between my anger and the accidents. Before the Waynes donated money to the orphanage regularly, it was short staffed. So hardly any of the adults saw what was happening. Except for that one time.

An elderly  woman who had worked there since I could remember had seen “something weird” happen twice. After the second time she took me to her little office. I was eleven years old. I already knew that I wasn’t like the other kids. So I tried to avoid confrontations and kept mostly to myself. Kids can be awful but kids without supervision are cruel. The bullying went on and on. Sometimes I snapped. But the longer it went on the longer the periods became between each outburst.

The elderly woman was named Elsie. Everyone called her Miss Elly. She taught me to stay calm when I was afraid or angry. I followed her around while she was doing her chores. The other employees didn’t say anything about it. I loved her like a child loves her mother. At least I think so. She called the things I could do to water a little gift, and tried to help me practice with little plastic cups filled with water. (Glass was too dangerous, because I had let the glass explode when I was frustrated.)  And that I shouldn’t share this secret with everyone unless I was old enough to know the consequences.  

She died from a heart attack when I was seventeen. At least that is what all the other caretakers had told us. But I saw the crime scene tape. I was one of the oldest there and not everyone could read. And the way the caretakers said it without looking us in the eyes was weird.

So I decided to find out what really happened. When I snuck in Miss Elly’s room I immediately smelled the iron and decay in the room. When I turned on my flashlight everything was red. The bedsheets were covered in blood. Bloodsplatters were on the wall next to the bed and there were smudges of blood coming from the bed leading to her tiny desk in the corner. I always assumed she had tried to call someone while she was bleeding out. Because she kept the landline phone there in the corner on top of her desk.

I hurried back to my bed. The police came back the next day at the end of the same day the tape was gone and the room was cleaned.

I lasted a week there without Miss Elly before I ran away from the orphanage. I would be sent to a women’s shelter if I still wasn’t adopted before I turned eighteen. My chances of being adopted were slim to none. The only thing that kept me there for seven more days was to come up with a plan. I was hired at a restaurant as a dishwasher, on the rainy days I would stay at shelters and on days where it didn’t I would sleep on rooftops in wealthier neighborhoods. I still went to Gotham City High Public Highschool. The orphanage didn’t try to contact me; they rather spent Thomas Wayne’s money on other kids.

I didn’t blame them. I could take care of myself.

I only used my gift if it was absolutely necessary, mostly against creepy men. At seventeen I had underestimated the real world. Because it was even worse than the orphanage. Thankfully there were hardly any rumors about that.

Now I am in my twenties, I got my own place, I hardly used them at all.

Until I got fired as a chef because of the flooding. Now I rob wealthy families with corrupt ties to their wealth.

[all-the-things-2020]

No Better Place - Chapter 3

Summary: Chucho volunteers Javi to help Cassidy fix her corral.

Javi knew his dad wanted to talk about something the moment he sat down at the dinner table. “I was at the feed store this morning,” Chucho began. “Ran into Cassidy.”

Javi sighed. “Oh, yeah?” He shoved a spoonful of chili into his mouth so he had an excuse not to say anything more.

Chucho leaned back in his chair and took a sip of beer. “She thanked me for helping her catch that loco horse of hers. She wants to get the vet out to geld him soon but she needs to fix the fence on that pen first.” He sat his beer down and leaned forward to catch Javi’s eye.

Javi deftly dropped his napkin onto the floor and bent to pick it up. “Shouldn’t take her long,” he said as he wiped his lips.

“I told her you’d help her,” Chucho said. He smiled innocently and took a huge bite of chili.

Javi cursed under his breath. “Why the hell did you do that, Dad?”

“Because I’m running out of shit for you to do around here,” Chucho said simply, “and you spend too much time sitting in your bedroom drinking and smoking and watching movies. You need to get out more.”

“I go out on Saturday nights,” Javi mumbled.

Chucho laughed. “To the Lobo to pick up women,” he scoffed. “Don’t think I don’t know what goes on down there.” He shook his finger at Javi. “Joe told me you have a few beers, a few shots of whiskey, then you go home with whatever puta will have you. And I know you come straight home afterward, because I hear you trying to sneak in at three o’clock. You couldn’t get past me when you were a kid and you still can’t.” He took another swig of beer. “You’re wasting your life, son.”

“It’s my life to waste,” Javi said. He wasn’t hungry anymore and he pushed his half eaten bowl away. “Besides, I’ve done plenty already, haven’t I? Don’t I deserve some time to myself?”

“You aren’t even forty years old, mijo. You’ve got years and years ahead of you. You can still do some good in the world.”

Javi shook his head. He’d had enough. “I tried to do some good and look what happened,” he said. “I fucked up. End of story.” He shoved himself up from the table and stalked out of the dining room. Why the hell can’t he just leave me alone?

“Whatever,” Chucho called after him. “You’re still going out there tomorrow at nine to help her fix that corral.”

“Fine!” Javi shouted just before he slammed his bedroom door. The bed was a mess, just as he’d left it that morning. He flopped onto it anyway, not bothering to straighten out the covers. He fished a bottle of whiskey out from the bottom shelf of the nightstand and poured himself a few fingers. No need for an alarm clock with his dad around to roust him out of bed to work in the mornings, so the nightstand held only his whiskey glass, the reading glasses he pretended he didn’t need, an ashtray and the remote for the VCR.

Leaning back against the headboard, Javi took a long sip of whiskey, relishing the warmth as the liquor slid down his throat. It took more and more whiskey to numb the pain these days, but booze was cheap and easy to get in a town like Laredo. He opened the drawer of the nightstand and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and his lighter. It was a cheap Zippo he’d picked up at the gas station. He’d left the nice one Murphy had given him for his birthday in Colombia, along with a lot of other things. Like his pride and his faith in humanity.

He lit a smoke and took a drag. Between the whiskey and the nicotine, he started to relax just a bit. He got up, turned on the VCR and crawled back onto the bed. Another night watching crappy telenovelas, but what else was he going to do? He sighed and took another drag on his cigarette. At least he hadn’t stooped to watching porn. Yet.

*********************************

As he pulled up next to Cassidy’s house, Javi spotted her pushing a wheelbarrow full of dirty straw out of the barn. When he’d seen her the other day, she’d had on a shapeless old sweatshirt, with her hair shoved under a baseball cap. Today, she was wearing a tight pink tank top and her light brown hair was done up in a long braid that trailed down her back. “Holy shit,” Javi muttered to himself as he watched her maneuver the wheelbarrow to the muck pile and easily tip it out. She had thin but muscled arms and her bra straps were peeking out just a bit. As she tipped the wheelbarrow, her shirt rode up, exposing a strip of pale skin just above the waistband of her jeans, a strong contrast to the golden tan on her arms and upper chest.

After she dumped the wheelbarrow, Cassidy wiped the sweat from her forehead with one arm and raised the other hand in greeting. Javi slid out of the truck, his boots hitting the ground with a thump that raised two tiny clouds of dust.

“Thanks for the help,” she said as she approached. Javi tried not to notice how a rivulet of sweat trickled down her chest and disappeared between her breasts. “Taking care of four horses by myself doesn’t leave me much spare time for extra projects.”

“Thank my dad,” Javi said. “I just do what he tells me to do so he doesn’t kick my ass out of the house.”

Cassidy laughed. “A grown man like you? I don’t believe it,” she said. “I think you’re just as good a neighbor as your father is.” She waved him toward the corral. “I had the wood delivered two days ago, but I haven’t had a chance to get much done. I need to finish mucking the stalls, but when I get done, I’ll give you a hand.”

Javi walked slowly over to the corral. One section was completely destroyed and needed to be rebuilt. The post on the left side was cracked and would have to be replaced, but the other one still looked sturdy. It should take him a couple of hours at the most, but it would be hot work with no shade. Good thing I wore the stupid hat today, he thought as he started sorting out the boards and figured out his plan of attack.

Cassidy disappeared back into the barn with her wheelbarrow and Javi soon lost himself in the rhythm of his work, wrestling the boards into place and securing them with hammer and nails. He was careful to make sure no nails protruded from the wood when he was done, so there was no danger of a horse getting hurt. As his dad was fond of saying, if there was one sharp thing in a five hundred acre field, a horse would find it and impale itself on it.

“Need any help?” Cassidy asked at one point, but Javi just shook his head and grunted at her, since he had a nail clenched between his lips. She disappeared again and he returned to his work. Finally, he was finished. The new boards were bright and pale compared to the rest but otherwise it looked just like the rest of the fence.

“Nice job,” Cassidy said, as Javi stood back, lifting his hat to wipe the sweat off his brow. He turned to look at her. She had two dripping bottles of beer in her hand and offered one to him. “Come sit in the shade and cool off,” she said, nodding toward a pair of lawn chairs she’d set up against the side of the barn in a narrow strip of shade.

Javi gratefully took a beer from her and dropped into one of the chairs. “My momma would tell me to offer you sweet tea or lemonade,” Cassidy said as she sank into the other chair, removing a bottle opener from her back pocket before she sat down. “But I thought you’d appreciate a cold beer more.” She leaned over and popped the cap off his bottle, then settled back and opened her own.

Javi watched the muscles in her throat work as she swallowed, and tried not to let his eyes trail down toward her cleavage again. He tore his gaze away from her and took a long pull of his own beer. “Ah, that hits the spot,” he said. “Thanks.”

“Least I could do after you fixed the pen for me,” she said, stretching her legs out in front of her and crossing her ankles. Her boots were dusty and caked on the bottom with manure, but they were good boots, real working boots, not the fancy tooled crap that a lot of the wannabe cowgirls in town wore.

“Just being neighborly,” Javi grunted, taking another drink of beer.

Cassidy laughed. “Still,” she said. “It was nice of you. Now I can get that colt cut and have a place to turn him out while he recovers.” She tipped her head back and took another drink of beer. “I need to figure out what to call him. I got his Jockey Club papers when I bought him but he just doesn’t seem like a Murphy to me.”

Javi nearly choked on his beer. “Murphy?”

“Yeah, his registered name is Murphy’s Law, but I don’t like it,” she said lightly. Javi relaxed a bit; she clearly had no idea. “What do you think? What’s a good name for an asshole horse who’s too smart for his own good?”

“Javi’s already taken, unfortunately,” he replied wryly. “But I’ll let you know if I think of anything.”

They finished their beers in companionable silence and then Javi stood up. “Well, I’d better get back, see what else Dad has for me to do,” he said. “Good luck with the asshole.”

Cassidy walked him to his truck. “Thanks again,” she said. “Come by in a couple of days, once the asshole’s had his brain surgery, and you can help me pick out a name for him.” He wasn’t sure if she was just being nice or flirting with him, but either way, it wouldn’t hurt to stop by in a few days and see how his handiwork was holding up.

“I’ll try,” he said. “Have a good day.” He tipped his hat the way his dad had taught him to do and climbed in the cab of the truck. He caught one last glimpse of her in his rear view mirror as he drove away, standing with her hands on her hips, a pose that emphasized her boobs. He shook his head to rid himself of the image. Don’t even think about it, Pena, he told himself. She was too good for him, too nice, and too … normal. The last thing she needed was a fucked up mess like him in her life.

[hexiewrites]

make this inn our own: chapter 9

for @thefreakandthehair’s spicy six winter prompt challenge! thank you @reindeerrobin for the graphic!!!

ALSO! if you're currently reading this fic, I have a lil poll about posting schedule for the next few chapters. pls feel free to reply here what you'd prefer (granted i can, uh, finish writing it). let me know!:

a) one chapter a day tomorrow (wednesday) and thursday, and then 3-4 chapters on friday? b) two chapters tomorrow, thursday, and friday c) one chapter a day tomorrow, thursday, friday, saturday, and two on sunday (christmas)?

read it on ao3

chapter nine: out of the woods

Eddie was standing in front of two trees, peering between them, leaning forward and back like an artist looking at his canvas.

“Which one?” Steve asked, wrapping his arms a little tighter around himself. It was chilly out, and the snow—though it wasn’t falling too heavily—was that soft light drift that managed to work its way into any gaps between your scarf and coat.

Eddie snorted out a laugh and set off walking again. They’d been doing this for ages now, Eddie staring at trees until Steve asked him to pick, and then scoffing and moving on to other, similarly identical trees. They’d been out for what felt like an hour, though Steve had lost track of time when his toes had started to numb so it was hard to truly say.

“Come on, Eddie,” he pushed, digging his hands further into his armpits. “We’re going to run out of daylight here. Surely one of these trees is going to-“

keep reading on ao3

[darklydeliciousdesires]

Beyond the Blood Tie - Chapter Twelve.

Since I'm going to be working all weekend (BOOOO!) I'm updating now, besties! Enjoy! :)

Previous Chapters - One  Two, Part One Part Two  Three  Four  Five  Six  Seven  Eight  Nine  Ten Eleven

Words - 5,877

Tag list - In the comments. Please DM to be added/removed

Warnings - 18+ content throughout. Minors DNI!

Edie's POV 

"Come here, big fella. You've got guacamole in your beard!" I tell Ahmed, leaning across the table and wiping the spot of green with a napkin, while we're sitting in the gorgeous late afternoon sunshine on Tuesday getting drunk. Technically, we should be at work today, but we've got a slight problem with a family of racoons who moved into one of the air conditioning vents, and half of the CD chambers have to be taken apart to get the little furry fellas out again. Aileen and I had to be forcibly removed from the building yesterday, being all womanly like and gushy as Max put it, because we wanted to see the racoon babies. They should be done tonight, meaning we can go back in tomorrow. 

"Appreciated, dude. I was saving it for later, but oh well," he jokes as we sit and demolish a huge plate of nachos. 

"So, how was your night after I left on Saturday, since I completely forgot to ask you yesterday," I inquire, taking a sip of my drink.  

"It was really great, yeah. Shame you left early really. I erm, I met a girl. One I plan on seeing again too.” Oh? He's very, very fussy with women, my boy here. Hence my surprise that he's finally found one it appears he'd like to begin dating. 

"Oh really? Do tell, buddy," I ask, swiping the last jalapeno covered nacho and shovelling it into my mouth. I adore spicy food. Anything that makes my tongue tingle and I'll eat it. I remember when Ahmed's mom came to visit him and she cooked a spicy potato tagine with olives when I came for dinner one night. I was in heaven. Damn, Mrs Khamir can cook! 

"Her name is Brooke, she's twenty-three and works on the reception of that new gym that's opened up just outside of Vegas, we're into all the same kinda stuff and she loves all of my scars with the kind of interest I've never really seen in a woman before. Oh, and if the way she kisses is anything to go by, well, I've got a damn good time coming to me, if you'll pardon the pun," he grins, making me laugh. He hasn't always had the best of luck with women, because he is quite formidable in appearance, his very good looks often get overshadowed by the six-inch scar to his face, the eye patch and all of the other many scars also littering his gorgeous body as well. But if you like your men to look like a barbarian warrior, Ahmed is the guy for you. 

"I'm really happy for you!" I begin excitedly, reaching out and rubbing his arm enthusiastically. "It's about time you met someone nice."  

"It is, I'll agree with you there. What did you do after you left us, just go home and go to bed?” It is here that I decide to let on a little piece of information that I've been keeping from my friends. 

"That was my original intention, but it got side tracked by the fact I had a visitor, or rather someone who was gentlemanly enough to walk me to a cab, so I invited him home. I didn't want to say at first because I wasn't sure, and also, I know your reaction to it might be a little, well, erm..." I begin, trying to find the words. 

"Edie, you know when you say either too much too little? Now is a time you're saying too much, just spit it out!" he interrupts me with. 

"The vampire, he's the one who came home with me. He came to see me last week, and on Saturday I just so happened to be walking past a bar he was in and he zoomed right out and told me he didn't want me walking unaccompanied past vampire bars the way I was dressed, because vampires like taking humans for themselves unless they belong to another vamp," I explain, watching his face twist into many expressions of disbelief as I talk. 

"For real? Edie, how can you trust him, really? I mean, I know you told me about what happened in the chamber, when he made you confess to the secret you've kept about your mom's suicide note and he comforted you and all that, but Jesus fucking Christ, girl! You've a damn short memory to how he was behaving before!" he announces with concern. And so, I sit and explain it all for him, the way Angel has proven himself to be trustworthy to me, how he actually truly does seek friendship with me and how I feel perfectly at ease around him now. 

"Okay, after hearing all that I feel a little better about the situation, and you know I'll never dictate to you who you should and shouldn't hang around with. One thing though, Edie. Are you definitely sure he just wants to be friends and he isn't trying to get between your legs, and that this is the whole reason he's being nice to you?" he then asks. 

"No, no he definitely isn't. He's confessed that he'd like to, but he respects my wishes when I say I'm not interested in vampires. Also, there's a specific reason he isn't interested, and it's the same for all human women. I can't tell you that though, because that's his business and he made me promise I wouldn't.” He nods after a few moments of silent contemplation, looking satisfied.  

"Alright, I can live with it. But I'd pack earplugs when you decide to mention this friendship to people like Vic and Aileen, who both look at you like you're their daughter," he warns, making a cord of memory strike within me. That's exactly what Angel said about Aileen, that he thought she viewed me as one of her own. 

"I'll bear that in mind." I feel the urge to discuss something else with my large friend here, I have to say, but think better on it, biting my tongue and filing it away into the realms of girl talk which I'll have tomorrow lunchtime when I meet up with Sasha and Miley. Ahmed isn't good with all that kind of stuff; he's a guy, after all.  

For the rest of the afternoon and evening, we keep on drinking, getting so wasted that we have to get a cab home, and then once I've slid out, I practically have to crawl up the drive. I stumble to the kitchen upon entrance, force myself to drink half a litre of water and then go straight to bed. Because of the water, I wake up feeling much less hungover than usual. Sometimes I just can't be bothered, my bed calls out to my drunken self much too loudly. 

After taking some painkillers, I keep on drinking water and eating fruit to try and cleanse myself of the slightly icky feeling I have, and then go and take a long bath. It's while I'm lying there reading a poetry book recommended to me by Miley, comprising of works by Edgar Allen Poe (and finding a lot of it hard to understand, actually) that my mind wanders to what I want to talk to her and Sasha about later at lunch, or rather who. Yes, you guessed right. The gorgeous Latino vampire who I can’t seem to shake from my mind.  

I was so surprised to see him at my door on Sunday, and to be honest with you, the first thing I thought, well, I shouldn't have thought it. Something automatic went off in my head and I instantly thought to myself that he must really like me, turning up like that just a day after I saw him, and then remembered that of course, I'm not dating him. This isn’t what it is. 

I really don't know what's come over me, why I'm starting to see him in a much different light. Vampires have never been attractive to me because of the simple fact that they're dead, but he is, and in a way that goes beyond me just noticing that attractiveness now. Now I'm beginning to think about what it would be like to act upon it, even though I know I can't. The tricky thing here is the fact that he's told me he's attracted to me in much the same way as well, and he alludes to it a lot, too. He's very flirtatious with me.  

But we can't. 

I don't want to die.  

How dramatic did that just sound? It's true, though. Perfectly true. Or maybe I'm only thinking this because I can't have him? Because of that exact reason of him being off limits indefinitely. When we're told we can't have something, human nature often dictates that we'll only crave it further. All this and more I voice to my girlfriends over lunch a couple of hours later, and they have some insightful thoughts. 

"Well, something told me to expect as much, that he'd get in touch with you again," Sasha begins, while spearing more salad leaves with her fork. "Everything else you followed with though, well I agree with what you're thinking. You can't have him, for whatever the reason is, and that makes you want him even more. He's got that forbidden fruit thing going for him. I wish you could tell us why, but I respect that you're being a good friend to him, because I've never known you to be anything less, and keeping a secret he's trusted you with shows that," she then finishes, taking another mouthful of the spinach and rocket leaves from her plate. Of course, I didn't reveal to either her or Miley the reason why I can't be interested in him, the secret he entrusted to me. 

"I think it'll get lesser the longer you know him, the attraction and sexual urges, you'll both just get used to each other more and it'll sink in that you can't go there. I mean look at you and Ahmed, you obviously find him attractive and you've actually had sex with him, and you two don't have anything like that lingering any longer. It's all just friendship," Miley then offers to the conversation. She then drifts off a little dreamily, looking up at the ceiling. “There’s a spider up there. Do you think she thinks we’re in her house, or she’s a visitor in ours?”  

Sasha smiles lovingly, stroking her arm. “Who can say?”  

“Hmm.” Miley nods, turning back to me. 

"It's a little different with Ahmed, sweetie. I'd known him a few years before we had sex, it was a onetime thing and not anything either of us planned on repeating, and I just don't feel the same pull to him as I do with Angel. It goes beyond just the physical attraction. I just, well... I feel really happy when he's around. I enjoy his company. I just hope those little feelings don't get in the way of us being friends. That is essentially what I'm worried about," I voice, both her and Sasha nodding in understanding. 

"Well, you know it'll never be, don't you? That's what you have to keep telling yourself. Miley was right with what she just said, that it'll probably calm down a little the longer you know him. I wouldn't worry too much, once it’s sunk in that you definitely can't have him no matter how much you want him, you'll just see him like any other friend and you'll be fine," Sasha assures me, while I go back to eating the rest of my by now cold fries, wondering if things will truly work out that way. 

"Yeah, yeah you're right. I'm twenty-eight years old now, and if I can't handle being adult like and being friends with someone who I want to have sex with but can't, then when the hell am I going to start? It's cool, I'll get over it." I say with a dismissive wave of my hand.  

Our conversation moves on to us all deciding upon places to go and shop for outfits for our usual night out this Saturday, heading to our favourite location of Hell's Gate once more. While browsing the stores, I manage to find myself a new skirt to wear with the little black leather corset I won on eBay for a steal recently (twenty-six dollars!) in record time, leaving me to keep my eyes peeled for my friends since their decision making wasn't as swift as mine. It's while my eyes are roaming around the women's section of the department store we're currently in that I see something that catches my eye, but for my own reasons. 

"Oh, oh hello perfect tattoo design for my cover up." I say to myself as I reach up to the peg that I see a t shirt with a very interesting design on the front of, taking it down for a closer look. Even though my original tattoo has colour in it (but very, very washed out in tone) I want the cover up to be black and grey. I hope that this is big enough to be able to do that. The print on the t shirt itself is of a few stems of lilies all wrapped around each other and spraying out in a cluster towards the top, with trails of ivy and little stars surrounding it.  

Taking my cell from my bag, I hang the t shirt on a lower peg, take the picture and then return it to its proper peg before typing out some accompanying text to go with the picture. 'I just saw this; I'd really like it or something close to it as my cover up. Can you work with this, or do I need to buy the t shirt and bring it to the shop?' I type before sending the message to Angel's cell, ready for him to see when he wakes up at sundown. 

When I do receive a reply from him much later that evening, when I'm taking my break at work, I read the message he sent me roughly an hour ago and see that Saturday isn't going to go how we've planned it. 'Hi Edie, sorry it's a no go for Saturday, I'm afraid. If you can make Sunday though, I can do it then? We're having the front counter refitted, and the only time the guy can come and do it this Saturday night, so we've had to move all our appointments to Sunday and open up then instead. No worries if you can't, just let me know ASAP. No problem with the photo you've sent me either, I'll start drawing something up for you tonight. How’s 10pm for you?' the message reads.  

‘Yep, that’s fine. See you then.’ Sending my reply, I can hardly wait. A new tattoo and getting to see Angel. What’s not to like? Okay, so I’m mostly looking forward to seeing him again, above all.  

I know, I know. I’m ridiculous. I need to extinguish this flame I have within myself for the vampire who is off limits. I really do. Easier said than done, though.  

Angel's POV 

"Oh my word, that's absolutely beautiful," Ursula tells me as I sit at my desk in my room, drawing the design Edie sent me a picture of earlier today. 

"It's just a starting sketch to see how she likes it. I'll need to alter it a little to go with the contours of her body, so I’ll have to adjust once I've measured this to fit her back and such like, and then form the proper line drawing. Unless she trusts me to free hand it," I reply while my creator pulls up a chair next to me and takes a closer look. 

"She must be a special client, for you to be prepared to work on a design for her in your spare time," she observes, twirling a golden lock of hair around her finger as she watches me add shading to the sketch. 

"She is. It's for Edie," I confirm, and then swiftly wipe the big smile off my face that speaking her name often prompts. 

"You're becoming quite fond of this new friend of yours, aren't you, my boy? But yet I sense some unsettlement coming from you. Do you wish to discuss your thoughts? Are you struggling with feeling attracted to her, like you thought you would?" Oh yes, nothing much gets past Ursula. 

"Yeah, I do actually," I begin, putting down my pencil and turning to face her. "I'm becoming attracted to her, but more than just sexually, like we spoke of before. Don't get me wrong, the sexual side of it is prevailing most right now, the urges I have for her in that respect burn brightly, but I have noticed little things that I don't want to. Namely, it’s the fact there's something about her I can't quite put my finger on, something that draws me in closer to her. I don't want to notice it, because in my one hundred and thirty-six years on this planet, there has only ever been one other woman I've felt that with, that unfathomable thing about her that interests me."  

"Luisa?" Ursula asks. 

"Precisely," I huff. 

"Oh dear, please don't tell me you're considering acting upon this? You told me Edie is not attracted to us vampires either, so wouldn't this be massively disrespectful to her wishes if you did try to pursue her sexually? Actually, we need to take that out of the equation. You can't do this, Angel. Full stop," she states, telling me what I already know, and what I am beginning to loathe. 

"Of course, I'm not. She doesn't deserve to end up dead, even if she did change her mind about being attracted to me. I just don't want it hanging over me, I want to try and enjoy being her friend, and although I am, I have the way I felt when I first met Luisa hanging over me so much that it clouds that enjoyment and frustrates me. It's something I don't imagine will get better or more manageable either," I lament, watching Ursula frowning with concern. 

"It is something you must steel yourself to, my child. Give it some time as well, these feelings are likely to settle the more you get to know her, or perhaps go the other way and you find these feelings begin to deepen. If that happens though, you'll only be frustrated further. It is perfectly within your capabilities, to be staunch with yourself and continually remind yourself too that she is unquestionably off limits. Anyway, I just thought I'd come up and check on you before going to visit Sissy, enjoy the rest of your evening." Kissing my forehead, she leaves me to it, departing in a blink. Sissy is a vampire friend of ours, and every time Ursula mentions her, I get the biggest dick twitch ever. Sissy is one hell of an incredible fuck.  

Maybe I should have offered to go with her, but then again it would ruin Ursula's evening with her friend. Sissy and I only have to look at each other and we're halfway to sex. Getting on top of someone would take my mind off Edie, though, and just when I think of calling Natasha to make that happen, I have another visitor in the form of a naked EZ. 

"Fucking faucet is jammed, I'm using your shower," he announces as he walks through to my bathroom, leaving the door ajar. We vampires aren't quite as precious over certain things as you humans. Nudity is one of them. Then again, my brother was exactly the same when he was a human, he's very comfortable strolling around naked. "That's a good drawing you're working on, by the way. I thought you said to me you hated doing flower tattoos?" he then adds as I hear the shower being switched on. 

"I never said I hated them; I said I hated the regularity I was sticking the same flash sheet design upon the women coming in for them. I actually like doing the more intricate and feminine looking tattoos, they're more of a challenge," I reply, suddenly having an idea on how to make this design I'm working on a lot more detailed, beginning to sketch out that idea. Instead of regular stems, I'm going to shape them into filigree patterns to make it look prettier. A girl as pretty as Edie deserves a pretty tattoo, and not that mess Helena 'I can't draw to save my damn life' Smith etched upon her while she was still in business. 

"You're spending your own time doing a drawing for a client? Wow," EZ observes from the shower. I never usually let work encroach my private life, so hence the surprise from both him and Ursula. 

"No, for a friend," I tell him. 

"The girl who beat the shit out of you?" he laughs. 

"You know her name," I chide, laughing a little in reply. 

"Edie. Is it for Edie?" I've told him all about her, of course. He told me it was admirable, for me to seek friendship with a human, and even went as far to say he thinks he's noticed a difference in me since I have. 'You seem a little calmer since you've been visiting her, so that tells me she must be doing you some good, since your visits have only been a recent thing. Just don't mess it all up and stick your dick in her' is the advice he gave me. 

"It is, I'm doing it for her this Sunday," I reply. 

"And you're tattooing her when?" EZ then asks in joke, making me laugh more loudly. 

"Shut the fuck up!" I exclaim. 

"Never!" Exiting the shower wrapped in a towel, he takes a seat next to me, rubbing his hair with a smaller towel, looking closer at the design with a nod.  

"Speaking of humans, Eric wants to go to Hell's Gate this Saturday on a human hunt, and he's roped me into it too. Fancy joining us? There'll be a few of us there, I think," I ask him, deciding to see if I can get him interested in it, a rare evening out with me on a Saturday since I'm usually working. He agrees, and with that our conversation moves on swiftly. What is swiftest though is the passing of time between now and Saturday, with me entering Hell's Gate at 1am with a group of other vampires in what feels like a blink of an eye between then and Tuesday, when I asked EZ to join us. 

“Oh, man. Check that girl out at the bar. Wow,” Sal speaks, nudging my arm. I’m just about to speak of her good looks, when she promptly turns around and throws up all over the floor. As a human, that’s bad enough to smell, but imagine that when your senses are a thousand times sharper. 

"And with that, I’m outta here,” I exclaim. God damnit, that’s gross. 

"I think I'll join you, actually.” We both get up and seek out EZ, who said he was going for a walk around. The club is absolutely massive, on three floors with two rooms per floor, one of which we walk through without seeing much of interest until we head over to the room where they play the dance music, and we see a completely different breed of women, those who aren’t throwing back so much alcohol, they puke.  

Right now, we’re viewing the kind who like to dance all night long, in teeny tiny outfits. They're certainly very pleasing on both our sets of eyes as we stand on the top balcony and look down at the dance floor itself, Sal moving at speed over to a tall blonde who is all tiny waist, big hips and huge green eyes after picking up on her admiring look. He's currently kissing her hand, and she's giggling shyly.  

Turning back to the floor below, it's as I'm watching the many writhing bodies down there that I suddenly spy one I recognise, her violet hair all curled in loose ringlets and tumbling down to just past her shoulders, wearing a little grey and black plaid skirt that barely covers her ass, finishing it off with knee high boots and a black leather corset. Edie, you just took the breath I do not even need to breathe away from me with how you look tonight. Stunning doesn't even begin to cut it. What a body. God, she’s fucking stunning. And I’m stuck being just friends with her. Fucking hell!  

"What's caught you eye?" EZ asks at my side, trying to follow my line of vision. 

"See that girl in the plaid and leather? That's Edie," I point, watching his eyebrows rise significantly. 

"Now I see what all the fuss is about. She's certainly very sexy. Must be hard, knowing you can't go there," he replies, amusedly. 

"I'm managing with it, and I will have to continue to do so as well.” I have no other choice, do I? 

"Well, I couldn't do it, keep my hands to myself around her if I were you. I mean just look at her, look at those legs. Imagine feeling those legs tightening around you in the throes of ecstasy. I think I want to know what that feels like," EZ taunts me with, looking at Edie with the look he gives women five seconds before he advances on them. 

I glare immediately. "If you do, I won't speak to you for centuries. Besides, she's not into our kind, as I told you.” He simply returns a look of pure apathy. 

"She would be if I took her home, but the way you're looking at me, well, while the centuries of silence do sound appealing, I won't. You're annoying when you're pissed off." He then heads over to where Sal is sitting with the blonde and a group of her equally attractive female friends, his attentions now turned away from Edie. She still hasn't seen me, but enough other vampires have seen her, since it seems Eric invited just about everyone he damn well knows (and he's very popular) here tonight, and then they invited their friends, too. Hell's Gate is a human club, but the humans here are wilder, they're more approachable with the idea of vampires fucking or feeding on them, so hence why so many are here currently. 

This isn't good though, because if any of those vampires currently watching Edie (and there are a couple doing just that) know she's here alone, then they'll be all over her like a rash, wanting her to be theirs. Of course, they have to leave her alone if she belongs to another vampire, though. When I see a vampire in particular who Edie really doesn't want anything to do with in the slightest staring at her from the other side of the balcony, I know I have to act fast, so move from my side of it and down onto the floor where Edie is dancing within a blink.  

Latoria Jackson, the third eldest in Vegas after Charles and Ursula is the one with her eye on Edie. To say she's a bitch is putting it mildly. She's pure evil, feared as much as she is respected, and the way I've heard she keeps her humans… well I don't want that for Edie. I just have to hope she doesn't turn and punch me for what I'm about to do. I have to convey strongly to Latoria that Edie is mine (even though she isn't) so she won't try to take her against her will, because that is exactly what'll happen. I've seen her do it to humans before. 

"Do not react to this in a hostile way,” I begin, Edie turning to look at me a little confused. 

“And good evening to you too, Angel,” she says, laughing softly.  

“Seriously, Edie. Go along with it and everything I say and do, and trust me, I'm doing this for your own good.” My hands slide around her waist, moving her hair and beginning to kiss the side of her neck. Oh, god fucking damn, this feels too good. The way she smells, how soft her skin is against my lips, the fact I just felt her pulse quicken sharply. I want her, so fucking badly. This is absolute torture. Still, I wait a moment for her leg to come flying up between mine and hit me right in the dick, but incredibly, she trusts what I said just as Latoria arrives in front of us. 

"She's yours?" she asks, arching an elegantly groomed eyebrow as she stares at Edie, her eyes roaming all over her. 

"I am, very much so," she informs her before I can speak, reaching her hand up to stroke my hair, turning her head to kiss my cheek. That feeling, the warm pucker of lips so soft is beyond the realms of any kind of scintillation I've felt before, probably because I want her so much and I can't have her. But then when she stares at Latoria before slowly turning in my arms and planting her lips upon mine, I want her so much I can begin to feel it slipping, my resolve not to fuck her. It isn't a full-on kiss, but it makes Latoria leave again at speed, back up to her place at the balcony to keep an eye out for the next unattended human she likes the look of. 

"I take it she wanted me," Edie whispers in my ear, our arms still around each other. I don't like this. It feels too good to have her in my arms, which is the very place she can't be. 

"She did, but not half as much as I want you.” Yeah, shouldn’t have said that, should I? The words just fell out, though, continuing to state at her unflinchingly, our gaze heavy, full of what I now realise is entirely mutual longing. The energy grows, the air between us becoming heavy, the atmosphere between us denser, building all the time. As I hold her to me, I can feel her heart thundering in her chest, I can hear it too, beating away with such force I don't even hear the music any longer, the booming bass from a dance song I recognise from my human years, Barbers Adagio for Strings, people all around reaching for the lasers beaming overhead, dancing euphorically, without a care in the world to the beat of synths meeting strings.  

They’re not even here to me, it’s just me and the human I know I'm becoming obsessed with, the sound of her heartbeat like thunder in my ears, crashing against her chest so rapidly, it only tells me one thing. She feels the same, no matter what she said to me before; I know she feels it too. They have their euphoria through synthesised music, and I have mine. Her name is Edie. 

If I needed any further confirmation of that, I receive it when after our faces have begun to drift together again, we kiss once more. This time though, it isn't a kiss for appearances, it's a real kiss, an unbreakable, earth shaking, magmatic kiss of one hundred percent need and longing for one another. It’s everything that has been building between us, for probably a lot longer than either of us would wish to admit. It's a kiss so arousing, so blindingly passionate that immediately my fangs pop out (as they always do when I'm excited or annoyed by something) and it takes me all I have to retract them again so I can kiss her without piercing her tongue on my teeth.  

She clings to me, body pressed against mine as one hand curls around the back of my neck and the other rests on my chest, both of mine still locked around her waist, erotic energy coursing through me so strongly that if I could, I'd have sex with her right here on the damn dancefloor. I can feel myself beginning to draw breath through my nose without even thinking it, Edie suddenly jumping up into my arms, her legs locked around me as we continue to kiss each other hungrily. This girl, this fucking beautiful, amazing girl, she makes me feel like all the dead inside me came alive again. My death just bloomed. I’ve never felt that before. 

This moment we share does nothing but grow in intensity, especially for me, since I can smell very clearly how aroused she’s getting, and it’s like a fucking beacon, my arms tightening around her, tongue circling with hers, my hand moving to grip her thigh, her nails trailing my scalp making me shiver pleasantly, before suddenly, she pulls away from it, clambering down to her feet once more. 

"I thought you said you weren't attracted to my kind?" I ask, realising that this thing being mutual will make it a thousand times worse. That was one hell of an incredible kiss, so incredible I really couldn't think of anything else to come out with other than the stupid, dumbfounded words I just spoke. I also cannot believe I let my resolve completely melt like that, but it felt so good doing it, indulging in a little of what I want so very badly. 

"I'm not. It's you, it’s... it’s just you. Please, excuse me I need to go and be embarrassed by myself for a while, I'm sorry, but I... I just...I can't be around you right now," she cries, moving away from me while I try to hold onto her. 

"Edie you've nothing to feel embarrassed about, it’s okay!" I try and reassure her, hating the fact she's now starting to panic and get upset. 

"Yes, I do! I can't have you and I just went and kissed you! I'm out of my damned mind, acting like this around someone I know can only ever be a friend to me!" she exclaims, this time managing to wriggle out of my hold upon her wrist and fleeing.  

I let her go, but follow her from a distance to see where she's gone to, seeing her heading straight to a table where her friends are, talking to them briefly, watching the three of them then getting up to leave. After – and again from a distance - I've left the club and watched them get into a cab, I head back inside and suddenly really don't feel like partying any longer, for the only person interesting to me in this entire club just left it, and took that bloom she made me feel with her.  

I really hope I see her tomorrow when she's meant to come in for her tattoo, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if she didn't turn up. I think this is the point where being just friends is about to become difficult, now I know that she wants me just as much as I do her.  

Fuck.  

[casspurrjoybell-26]

Too Old For This - Chapter 9 - Part 1

*Warning Adult Content*   

When Leroy got the text, he simply hummed to himself and put his cell-phone away before turning in his bed and going to bed.

The text was nice but Leroy had been planning to head over to Zachary's place regardless... he'd been planning to since the middle of the week.

He'd just asked out of the blue because heading over and hanging out on the lawn wasn't the same as visitation rights to go inside the house.

He hadn't been inside Zachary's place since the last time he was invited in, even though sometimes he would stroll out into the porch so that they could talk or at least exchange looks as Leroy pet whatever cat that had made it a mission to ingest grass that day.

The night went by and Leroy woke up a little past nine in the morning the following day to the sound of his sister laughing her ass off from the living room.

He sat up, frowning a bit before pushing the hair away from his eyes and forehead.

He got up, put on his inside slides and grabbed his phone before making his way to the living room to see what in the world was going on.

On his way, he scrolled through text messages, PlayStation alerts and a few tags he'd gotten on discord.

His pathfinder group wanted to video chat tomorrow for a game and he noticed a text Zachary had sent early in the morning buried under the hip of notifications.

The older man had asked him what he wanted to do when he came over and what time he saw himself getting there.

Leroy tilted his head a bit, quickly drafting a text that stated he'd be there at around twelve in the afternoon and they could watch a movie, before tucking his phone into the pocket of his pajama pants.

When he strolled into the living room, he noticed his sister was sprawled on the couch with her phone pressed against her ear.

She had the widest grin on her face... it almost looked painful.

The television wasn't on like Leroy had been expecting.

The noise was coming solely from his sister and just as he wandered off to the empty one-seater to take a seat, his sister let out another string of giggles that made him roll his eyes.

Gosh, she had the ugliest laugh but whoever was on the other end didn't seem to mind.

In fact, they seemed to be actively encouraging it.  

"It can't be that funny," he mumbled and his sister looked up, sticking a tongue at him before going back to giggling at whatever the person on the other end was telling her.  

Leroy sat there and scrolled through his phone, occasionally looking at his sister who was all smiles and grins.  

'A new boyfriend?' he wondered, raising a brow at her.

'Well good for her,' he told himself, getting off the couch when he realized he desperately needed something to munch on.

His mother wasn't awake yet, which was a relief.

Leroy could confidently avoid her most of the time except when she woke up for breakfast or dinner.  

He didn't want to see her today... he didn't want to ruin his mood before he went off to meet Zachary.

It wouldn't be fair to the older man.

He knew how stressed out and irritable he was after a crappy interaction with his mother.

He spent the next few hours looking forward to seeing Zachary and when it was eleven-forty, he made his way out of the house and began his walk to the older man's place.  

When Leroy walked up to the familiar house with the signature tall grass.

He hopped over the fence, walking up to the porch stairs before looking around for DeDe, the black cat that was often squished somewhere under the stairs, when he didn't find her after a few minutes he walked up the stairs and over to the door before knocking.

Usually, Zachary would open the door after the first few knocks but this time that didn't happen.

Leroy knocked a few times and then again and some more when he still didn't get a response.

He frowned, starting to wonder if he maybe misread the date in the text.

It had definitely been Saturday.

Was Zachary out?

No, he was sure he'd mentioned he was coming over at twelve in the afternoon.

So, he knocked again and this time someone groaned from the other end.

The sound of footsteps became loud and then dull and then loud again.

He heard the sound of cutlery and soon after the knob on the door twisted.  

Leroy stepped back and the door opened to reveal someone who was definitely not Zachary.

"Well, are you coming in?" the lady who'd opened the door said, as he looked him up and down.

"Zack's in his room. I'm cleaning up before I head out."

It took a while for Leroy to compute that this was Zachary's sister.

They didn't look anything alike.

It seemed odd to say but that was the case.

Well, for instance, she was dark skinned and Zac was not.

Or maybe he was?

What the fuck did Leroy's ass know?  

"Oh, thank you," he mumbled when he snapped out of his mini-shock.

He walked into the house, tucking his hands into his pockets before looking around.

"You know where his bedroom is, right?" the woman asked, making Leroy look over at her again.

She was at the kitchen counter now, going through food prep bowls.  He nodded.

"Yeah, I've been here before," he said more to himself before wandering into the hallway.

He spotted a cat or two that quickly scurried away as he approached Zachary's bedroom door.

He stopped in front of it, knocking before waiting in silence.  

"Leroy?"  Leroy could hear Zachary say from the other end.

"Yeah, it's me," the younger man said, turning the knob of the door before walking in.  

[havecourage-darling]

Right Side Up // 2

Princess Peach Series

<< Chapter one: It's you and me || Masterlist || AO3 || Chapter three: Unaware, I'm tearing you asunder >>

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Female Henderson!Reader

wc: ~11k (it's starting to get away from me lmao)

general warnings: cursing, mild smut, S4 spoilers, angst with a happy ending

A/N: um, y'all, the response I've gotten via messages, tags, reblogs, comments -- literally give me life. thank you so much, pls I love you all.

Chapter Two: If I only could

By the time you had made it back to your car, you’d run into two more people that you knew and a teacher who had stopped to ask how your freshman year was going.

Then, two minutes into you driving home you realized you needed gas. When you had finally made it home, it was already late afternoon. You promised Eddie that you’d at least start packing so you weren’t stuck frantically shoving things into your bag that Saturday night.

The past week had been filled with frantic study sessions and stolen moments with Eddie. You were running on little to no sleep and it was all starting to hit you.

“Ugh,” you groaned as you set out your outfit onto the foot of your bed. Taking a few minutes to pick the right shoes, you set those aside too. You tucked the small gift you’d gotten him into your bag, not wanting to forget.

Angelina helped you pick out a new black choker, something you had picked specifically because you knew Eddie would love the second that he saw it on. Glancing at the clock, you realized it had gotten later than what you had anticipated. You still had two hours before Eddie would come by for you, he was probably just getting home from Hellfire, so you crawled into your bed. A yawn cracked your jaw and you felt your eyes slide closed.

You only wanted to close them for a moment – just a few minutes. Eddie had kept you up almost all night and you needed to be up early to prepare for your last closing shift tomorrow. Your bed was just so soft and warm.

The sun had mostly set, the dark sky taking over the faintest of orange. Not bothering to turn your light on, you yawned again. You pulled your phone onto your bed since you knew Eddie would call you before making his way here. You’d get ready then.

Eyes closing, you turned to your side and let sleep take over. Just a few minutes…

The first thing you noticed when you opened your eyes was that you’d somehow managed to crawl under the covers. Stretching your limbs languidly, you groaned when your back cracked. Slumping back onto your bed you smacked your lips, throat dry, and rubbed your eyes.

The second thing you noticed, far slower, was that the sun was up. Wait. The sun was up?

You jolted up, covers falling to your waist. How was the sun up? You had reservations at nine at night. Eyes darting to your alarm clock, you gaped at it when you saw 10:00AM blinking back at you.

How the fuck had you slept through the night? Had you been that exhausted? You stood on wobbly legs and walked towards your window. Your mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway but Dustin’s bike was tossed by the front lawn. The sun was bright and nearly blinding.

“What the fuck?” You mumbled. Where the hell was Eddie? Had he ditched you?

Immediately, you shut down that answer down. Eddie would never. He wouldn’t have – if he couldn’t have come for some reason, he would’ve called you. Had you slept through the call? You knew, with all you had, that if you hadn’t answered Eddie would’ve been climbing through your window before morning.

So, where the hell was he? Where was your mother? Wait, Dustin. He’d been with Eddie last night before he was supposed to make his way here.

Just as you finished the thought, you heard your front door slam. You darted back to your window, watching as Dustin grabbed his bike quickly and Max hopped onto hers.

“Shouldn’t we ask your sister?” Her faint voice floated into your window.

“She’s probably with him Max! We need to find them, now!” He said, voice urgent and…scared. Scared in a way you hadn’t heard in a long time.

Voice caught in your throat; his name came out on a croak. You coughed, running out your room and promptly tripping on Fluffy.

“Jesus Christ Fluff, your timing is impeccable,” you grunted at the cat, limping towards the front door.

You stumbled onto the driveway barefoot, the cement warm under your feet. “Dustin!” You shouted, looking in both directions and frowning when you realized they were long gone.

“Fuck,” you muttered, running back inside. Heading towards your room, you sat at the edge of your bed.

Shouldn’t they ask you what? Why did they both sound freaked out? Your gut told you that you needed to find Dustin and you needed to find him now. They couldn’t have gotten far you thought to yourself, shoving your prepared outfit aside and grabbing a pair of jeans and one of Eddie’s old Iron Maiden t-shirts.

Before leaving, you grabbed your phone and quickly dialed Eddie’s number.

“The phone number you’ve called has been disconnected…”

Staring at the receiver you shook your head. You must’ve dialed the wrong number, you thought stubbornly, ignoring the fact that you never had before.

Calling again, the same message parroted back to you and the bad feeling in your gut grew to the point of discomfort.

If Dustin was looking for you and he knew you’d had a date with Eddie – he would’ve gone to his trailer, right? You nodded to yourself – trying to stay calm – and grabbed your bag. The box at the back of your closet came to mind and you hesitated. What if…Billy’s body strewn across the mall floor flashed across your eyes.

Frowning, you shook your head. El said it was over. They told you it was over – Hopper and Joyce had closed the gate. This was supposed to be done.

Groaning frustratedly, you stuck your hand behind all your clothes and pulled the familiar box out. With a shaking hand, you pulled the gun that Hopper had given you two years ago and shoved it to the bottom of your bag.

Without thinking twice, you whirled around, grabbed your car keys and ran out the house.

You were not entirely sure how you’d managed to get to Forest Hills Trailer Park so fast but you didn’t question it. Your heart was all but slamming against your chest, your pulse quick and hands clenched around the steering wheel. Taking the last right turn slowly, you stopped at the corner.

Cops.

There were cops stationed at the entrance to the park.

No, no, no.

The bad feeling in your stomach migrated to your chest, its vines stretching out towards your neck, threatening to choke you. Stepping out the car, you walked the last block to the entrance and your legs almost buckled when you saw crime scene tape around Eddie’s trailer.

“Shit,” you muttered, “shit, shit, shit.”

What the hell was happening? Where the ever-loving fuck was Eddie? Oh my God, a stray thought suddenly felt like you were falling into an abyss. What if…Eddie had been in an accident?

You felt all the blood in your body drain and your heart dropped to your feet. No, you told yourself, swaying, Eddie had to be okay.

“Stay close,” a deputy called out, motioning to the trailer by the entrance. Instinctively, you ducked behind a nearby car and watched as Wayne waved a hand in the air. He walked slowly, his shoulders by his ears, and lit the cigarette in his fingers.

Hidden by the cars, you waddled over to the side of the fence that circled half of the park. You got just close enough to see Wayne a few yards away from you. A branch under your foot snapped and he whirled around.

His surprised eyes fell to your crouched figure and he blinked at you, cigarette dangling precariously from his hand. The sound of a news van driving past you both pulled you out of your reverie. You ducked lower behind the truck and Wayne took a step back towards the trailer he was beside.

‘Where is Eddie?’ You mouthed.

Wayne shook his head. ‘With you? Dinner last night?’ He mouthed back.

Fuck. You shook your head. ‘Never showed up. Can’t find him.’

If his stressed expression was any indication, you knew you probably wore a similar one.

‘Is he okay?’

Wayne glanced over his shoulder before shaking his head again.

Shit, fuck, shit. You barely resisted the urge to kick the tire next to you. If Dustin and Max were worried, you knew this problem ran deeper than it seemed. You should’ve grabbed your walkie.

The sound of heavy footsteps startled you both and Wayne frantically gestured for you to leave. Without wasting another second, you scrambled towards the bed of the truck and ran for your own car.

“Okay, breathe, don’t panic,” you mumbled to yourself, turning the engine over. “One problem at a time.” You needed context to be able to find Eddie or what had happened to him. Dustin. You needed to find Dustin.

If he was looking for you and knew you weren’t at Eddie’s trailer – he’d probably go to Mike’s.

Shit, Mike was on a plane to California right now. Okay, Lucas? But didn’t he have a game yesterday? Where else could you go? Shifting the car into drive, you headed towards the Sinclair home.

You’d barely knocked on the door when it swung open to reveal an unimpressed looking Erica.

“Lucas isn’t here,” Erica said, sighing. She shot you sympathetic look and you frowned. “I’ve been covering for him for the night but my mom’s going to figure it out soon enough.”

You didn’t want to ask about Eddie, not until you knew what was happening. You definitely didn’t want to involve any more children than already were.

“Have you seen my brother?” You asked.

Erica’s brow rose and you could practically see the gears turning in her head. “Why?”

“Erica.” You knew she liked you and never pushed as far with you as she did with the others.

She sighed. “No, not since yesterday at Hellfire,” she said.

“Okay, thank you,” you said, leaning forward and squeezing her hand. You knew she was prickly with most people but even in your state of panic – you’d always had a soft spot for Erica Sinclair.

She nodded, smiling a little before closing the door as you left. As you settled into the driver’s seat, alone again, you felt the vines start to tighten again. The familiar numbing sensation started at your feet and you began to choke on air.

Anxiety licked at your feet like it was a flame, burning your skin every time that it brushed you. Where the hell was Dustin? Where the hell was Eddie?

Okay, deep breaths sweetheart, deep breaths, his voice in your head instructed. You closed your eyes and leaned your forehead against the wheel.

I know you can do it, match my breathing, come on.

After a few steadying breaths, you gulped down air greedily. Get it together Henderson, you snapped at yourself. This wasn’t your first rodeo and you needed to stop acting like a rookie.

Suddenly the idea came to you.

Steve fucking Harrington.

Making a sloppy U-turn, you ignored a loud honking behind you and sped the two miles to Family Video. Parking quickly in the first available spot, you sped towards the doors. Without preamble, you slammed the front door open and saw four people behind the counter freeze.

“Shit,” you said, hands shaking as Dustin whipped his head around towards you. His face morphed into something close to relief and he jumped clumsily over the counter. Your feet moved you towards him and you both slammed into each other. Wrapping your arms tightly around him like you hadn’t seen him an hour ago, you squeezed him.

“Where the fuck have you been? Holy shit, I’ve been worried sick!” Dustin shrieked, sound a lot like your mother. Had you not seen the police at Eddie’s trailer and Wayne’s stricken expression, you would’ve teased him. His curly hair tickled your nose but you didn’t care, you squished him to you tighter.

“Where have I been? Where the hell have you been!” You smacked his shoulder, making him stumble. “I was still in my room when you and Max ran off!”

“I told you doofus,” Max sighed.

“You told me you were going to the Trattoria with Eddie! I thought you stayed over at his place!”

Pinching the bridge of your nose, you sighed. “I was supposed to! He told me he was coming over for me at eight. I went to sleep like at six and woke up this morning.”

“Shit,” Dustin hissed, turning to Max.

“I told you,” she said, almost triumphantly, “I told you what I saw.”

“What?” You said, walking up to the counter.

Max shifted, eyes a little nervous. “I saw him bring Chrissy Cunningham to his trailer. She looked nervous but they walked in and like five minutes later I saw the lights in my trailer flicker.”

You glanced at Steve, who was standing with his arms crossed. He looked at you sympathetically but you could see the worry beginning to grow behind his eyes.

“And…well, we all know what that was a sign of before,” she said, “so I looked out my window and saw Eddie run into his car and speed off.”

Almost slumping in relief, you brought a hand up to your head. He was alive, he was okay.

“He didn’t do it,” Dustin said, “you have to know he didn’t do it.”

“Do what?” You asked, confused.

Robin ducked under the counter and reached for you, as if already knowing you needed someone to brace you.

“You don’t know?”

“Have you seen the news?”

The headache that had planted itself in your temples was growing into a full-blown migraine. “Someone just tell me!”

Max nodded. “Chrissy’s dead. They think Eddie did it but, I swear when he ran out, he looked…scared.”

You swayed, Robin’s arms keeping you steady. Dustin hurried back over to the computer, scattering a few more tapes, but you couldn’t hear past the roaring in your ear.

Chrissy was dead? But…

“She was just here,” you told Robin.

“I know,” she said, keeping you close.

“I just saw her,” you said, confused. It was impossible. Chrissy couldn’t be dead. A random thought popped into your head, making your stomach swoop. “Oh my God, did she overdose?”

Max and Dustin glanced at each other and your stomach dropped again. “No, I saw her body – it looked deformed. I don’t know how to explain it,” Max said, shuddering, “I’ve never seen something like that before.”

“Which usually means….” Steve sighed, wiggling his fingers. Right. Monsters, Russians, the Mind Flayer.

“But the gate was closed,” you turned to Robin, “right? The gates were closed. The Russians left. This was supposed to be over.”

“I know,” she said.

Dustin sighed. “We thought El had closed the gate too, remember? This shit keeps coming back.”

“Shit,” Steve straightened, “the police are probably going to want to talk to you.”

“Me?” You squeaked.

“You’re their suspect’s girlfriend!” Dustin turned to you; eyes wide. “Do you have an alibi?”

“Did you not hear me? I was home! I fell asleep! You didn’t even know I was home, oh my God,” you said, groaning.

“Okay, everyone - take a deep breath,” Robin said, “we can’t panic before we know what’s going on.”

“The only person who knows that is Eddie!” Max replied, glancing over Dustin’s shoulder.

“Eddie is not a murderer," you said simply, unable to accept any other truth. "He would not hurt anyone. Much less Chrissy."

"Are you sure?"

Both you and Dustin whirled around to glare at Steve, who immediately threw his palms up in the air. “I didn’t mean it like that – he’s my friend now too. I mean – Jesus, I only meant - it could’ve been an accident!” Max smacked his shoulder and you shot her a grateful look.

"How do you accidentally deform a body?” You asked, hands on your hips. “I was with him yesterday afternoon. I was supposed to be with him all night. It's our six-month anniversary next week, we were planning to drive up to Gareth's uncle's cabin by Lake Monroe. Who plans a trip this weekend with their girlfriend and then goes and murders someone?"

"I'm sure plenty of people," Max said, shrugging.

You glared at her and she straightened. "I am totally on your side, by the way."

"Alright, Henderson, where would he be hiding?"

You frowned. "Did you check with his friends? The Hellfire Club?"

"Yeah, they haven't heard anything from him," Dustin said, slumping in his seat.

“He said he’d pick me up after he gave Chrissy what she needed. Shit. I fell asleep and I should’ve driven over to his place when he didn’t show,” you said, guilt clawing at you.

"There's no way you could've known," Steve said, patting your arm. "Is there any place he'd be right now?"

"He doesn't have any family nearby and if he's not at - oh. Oh, he might be at his supplier's place," you said, sitting up so quick you got dizzy. "Rick lives by Lover's Lake."

Dustin glanced at Steve. "That's pretty far out, deserted, and a great place to hide."

Not waiting for anyone, you'd already grabbed your bag from the counter and were running towards your car. Robin shrieked and Dustin scrambled to run after you.

"Jesus, wait for me!"

“Shouldn’t we wait for it to be, I don’t know, darker?” Steve asked.

“It’s almost three,” you said, “do you want to wait until night time?”

“REEFER RICK! EDDIE!” Dustin continued to shout as he pounded on the door.

“It’s no use, no one’s home,” Steve said. “Also, don’t scream that out, Jesus.”

“EDDIE!”

You and Steve glanced at each other, both of you sighing at Dustin’s increased panic. The house looked abandoned, the front yard deserted and the windows dirty.

Steve peeked into the windows and Robin sighed. “Shit, if he’s not here then we’ve wasted time. The drive back is going to take us forever.”

“Wait, look,” Max said, pointing to the shed. The four of you peeked over her shoulder and Max started towards it.

“If that is him,” you grumbled, stepping forward eagerly, “I’m going to smack him for leaving the light on.”

Robin snorted, immediately following you with Dustin. “Hello?” She called out tentatively, her eyes darting across the shed. “Is anyone home?”

“What a dump,” Steve said as you stuck close to him. You kept an eye out for Dustin as he wandered and jumped when Steve smacked one of the boats with an oar.

“Fuck,” Dustin said, hands flying. “You scared the shit out of me!”

"Steve, what are you doing?" You whispered as he poked at another tarp.

"Something could be hiding!"

“So take the tarp off!” Dustin hissed.

Steve whirled around to glare at you both. “If you’re so brave, you take the tarp off!”

“Hey,” Max called out, breaking up the bickering. “Look over here.”

Your eyes flittered over to the empty food packaging littered across the nearby table. Eyeing the beer, you faintly recognized it but didn’t know from where. “Someone was here,” Robin said, turning to shoot you a look.

“Maybe he heard us? Got spooked and ran?”

“Why?” Steve asked, leaning his weight on the oar. “We’re his friends.”

“Friends that might take his eye out with an oar,” Dustin grunted. Steve rolled his eyes and they started squabbling again.

"I'm not gonna poke his eye out, jeez," he said, smacking the next tarp. “Let’s just be honest, considering the fact that everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times – I don’t personally find it funny-”

For the second time in a span of a few minutes, you flew back in shock as the tarp moved with precision towards Steve. The wild mess of curls trembled as he slammed Steve into the wall and immediately froze.

“Eddie!” Dustin screamed.

“Harrington?” Eddie croaked, dropping the beer bottle onto the floor. “Holy shit.”

“You almost slit my throat dude,” Steve gasped, hands flying to his neck.

Eddie blinked and you watched him take a few steps back and sink to the floor. You started to reach for him but Dustin shot you a look. Ignoring him you almost shoved them all aside as you skidded to him.

“Eddie?” You called out before touching him. “Sweetheart?”

His eyes shot up to yours, as if he hadn’t seen you, and you almost cried at the sight of him.

“We just want to talk,” Dustin said quietly, hovering over your shoulder. Max shot you a curious look. “We want to know what happened.”

“You won’t believe me,” Eddie said, shuddering. His eyes looked passed you, as if he was remembering something that made him flinch. You looked over your shoulder and Steve’s eyes widened. You knew that look his eyes – you knew it because Eddie had helped you through the residual effects. It was the same look you saw in everyone’s eyes. What was left after someone saw something that shouldn’t have been possible. Something that shouldn’t exist.

Max broke the tense silence. “Try us.”

Taking a gamble, you slid up to him, pressing your left side to his right and letting your warmth sink into him. Slowly wrapping your arm around his waist, you pulled him tightly to you. His shivering stopped and his shoulders dropped a few inches. Eddie smelled like sweat, leather, cigarettes, and old beer. You watched his chest rise and fall, a physical reminder that he was okay, he was here. His hand reached for yours and you let him pull them to his stomach, anchoring himself.

“Chrissy said she wanted to buy something from me, remember?” He started, squeezing your hand.

Robin’s eyes flew to you but Steve spoke. “Yeah, she came into the store on Thursday morning. Chrissy said she was looking for Eddie and Henderson told her she’d pass along the message.”

Eddie looked up at them. “I thought she just wanted a gram or a joint, I don’t know! She kept pushing, saying she wanted to meet me behind the football field. You told me she looked off and I promised I’d poke around and see if she was okay.”

“She looked scared,” you explained to Robin and Max. “She didn’t seem like the type to smoke weed.”

“Which is why I found it weird when she asked me for something stronger,” Eddie said, stunning everyone. “I thought she meant like coke or meth; I didn’t understand. I don’t carry that but I had some special K from a mix up with Rick. I thought if she’s going through something this bad who the fuck was I to judge? I was going to give her barely enough to feel but they were back in my room.”

“Which is what Max saw,” Dustin said.

Eddie nodded. “We had reservations, I needed to pick you up – I wanted to hurry because Chrissy needed a ride back to her house like ten minutes away. I couldn’t find the fucking thing since it’d been so long. When I found it, she had this…look on her face. Her eyes – they weren’t normal.”

“Weren’t normal?” Robin asked, crouching next to you both.

“Yeah,” Eddie frowned, eyes glazing over, “they went white and hazy. It was weird and I tried to wake her, I swear, but she wasn’t responding. Her body just, like, lifted into the air and…she just hung there. Her bones…they…started to snap.”

He flinched and you tightened your hold on him. The cold metal from his rings dug into your skin but you didn’t care. The entire reason you hadn’t told Eddie was because you wanted to keep him out of this. All of this wasn’t supposed to be happening.

“Her eyes man,” Eddie said, turning his face up to Dustin, “it was like there was something there. Something inside her fucking head, pulling. I didn’t know what to do…so I ran away. I left her there.”

At the pointed silence Eddie scoffed, wringing his hands together.

“You all probably think I’m crazy, right?” He groaned, rubbing his free hand down his face and suddenly turning to you.

Your heart broke for him. “I don’t-”

"Princess," he interrupted, eyes wild and frantic in a way you'd never seen before. "I swear on us, on you, I swear - I didn't kill her."

"I know, Eddie, I know," you mumbled, running a soothing hand over his hair. “I cut my hand that time cooking and you almost fainted, remember? You couldn’t do something like this.”

Robin and Max snickered but Eddie just sighed, relieved.

“No, we don’t think you’re crazy,” Dustin said, looking suddenly a lot older than he was and you hated it. You hated all of this.

“I know how this sounds,” Eddie started.

“-we believe you,” Max said, firmly.

Eddie scoffed like he knew better and you heart broke into smaller pieces. You curled around him, relieved when he accepted your affection, and wished you could protect him from all of this.

“Look,” Dustin started, shooting you a look, “what I’m about to tell you, might be a little difficult to take.”

“Okay?” Eddie said, eyes turning to you. Looking down at your intertwined hands, you sighed. This is where everything changed. There was no going back.

“You know how everyone says that Hawkins is cursed?” Eddie nodded. “Well, they’re not that far off.”

“There’s another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins,” Dustin’s eyes were solemn, sad almost, like he knew this changed everything. “Sometimes…it bleeds into ours.”

“Like ghosts and shit?”

You buried your face into his neck, pressing your nose into his skin and taking deep breaths. Eddie’s hand came up to your shoulder, rubbing you comfortingly.

“There are some things worse than ghosts,” Max said and you knew she was thinking of Billy. How you let her curl into your lap on the mall floor, her brother’s body bleeding out in front of you both. How she screamed, her fists clenching your shirt to her like she was afraid you’d be ripped from her too. How you’d both clung to a trembling El.

Dustin sighed. “These monsters from this other world. We thought they were gone. I mean, they’ve come back before. That’s why we needed to find you – if they’ve come back, we need to know.”

This time, Robin stepped closer. “That night, did you see anything? Dark particles, maybe?”

“It would almost look like dust, swirling dust,” Dustin said and you could see it in front of you – floating while you curled your body around Dustin’s and Steve’s arms gripped you so tight you had bruises for weeks.

“No man, there was nothing you could see or touch,” Eddie said, coming out of his daze a little. His arm tightened around you, like he was trying to crawl under your skin. “I tried to wake her dude. She couldn’t move. It was like she was in some type of trance.”

“Or under a spell,” Dustin muttered.

Eddie straightened and you leaned back to glance at him. A knowing look flashed across his face. “A curse.”

“Vecna’s curse.”

Steve stumbled forward. “Who’s Vecna?”

“An undead creature of great power,” Dustin said, exchanging looks with Eddie.

“A spell caster.”

Dustin looked worried and that made your stomach flip. “A dark wizard.”

“Shit,” you muttered, needing to pace. Untangling from Eddie, you kissed his forehead, before pacing the room.

"So, wait, you're telling me that you've fought these monsters from the other world?" Realization took over his expression and he eyed you. “Your nightmares - the panic attacks you get.”

“Demogorgons.” Steve sighed, eyes tracking you as you nervously walked back and forth. "We once hid on a school bus in a junk yard and one of them got too close to Dustin. She literally ripped off a piece of the bus and bashed its skull in. She then kicked its corpse so hard it reverberated another one climbing up towards Max.”

"You're welcome," you said to Dustin, who rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I owe you my life, can we get back to the point?"

"You’re telling me that my girlfriend, and her kid brother, are monster hunters?" Eddie breathed, eyes looking a little dazed. You almost sighed in relief when you saw his blind panic leave him entirely as he processed the information.

"Monster hunters?" Steve added. "At this point we all are. You are pretty badass."

“She sucker-punched a Russian soldier in the throat once,” Robin said, “saved us from him.”

“That was after Steve bashed his head in with the phone,” you said, clenching your fist, remembering your blind panic and the flash of pain, “it wasn’t exactly hard and his goddamn jaw almost broke my knuckles.”

Eddie choked and you glanced at him. His eyes were wide and you almost snorted when you recognized the look that he was giving you.

“Don’t undersell yourself,” Robin insisted, pulling your attention to her.

You mock bowed.

"Huh," Eddie said, his eyes raking down you appreciatively.

"Only you would be terrified and turned on at the same time," you mumbled. Steve choked and Max scrunched her nose.

"Dude," Dustin groaned, covering his ears. "I am right here!"

"In my defense," Eddie said, shifting suspiciously, "I'm usually terrified and turned on with you."

Robin laughed, offering up her fist and Eddie bumped it.

"I think I need to bleach my ears," Dustin said, looking traumatized.

“We need to find Nancy,” Max said, “and Lucas.”

“Shit,” you breathed. “We need to go home. Mom needs to see at least one of us.”

Dustin nodded, his hand already going to his backpack. He pulled a walkie from the bottom and handed it to Eddie. “It’s freshly charged in case you need anything.”

Everyone started to stand, mumbling among each other and you felt torn.

You looked at Eddie and Dustin, both of them talking lowly. You didn't want to leave Eddie alone but you couldn't stomach the idea of anything happening to your brother, even if he was just going home.

"We're not going anywhere dangerous, I promise," Dustin said, ever the mind reader, "I wouldn't do that to you."

"We never think it's dangerous until shit hits the fan," you retorted.

"I'm going to go home, tell mom that you're over Robin's house and then I'll come get you in the morning. I promise."

"If anything, I'm worried about you two staying here," Steve said, glancing out the window of the shed.

“You can’t stay here,” Eddie said and you appreciated Robin’s huff of laughter. “It’s dangerous, if anyone sees you with me – they’ll think… no, no.”

“If it comes down to it, I can leave in the morning,” you said, acknowledging that you should probably keep a low profile. “My car is parked by the trees; I don’t think anyone from the main road can see it. Steve, get my brother home safely, okay?”

Steve nodded, a knowing expression and he reached out to hug you. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Ditto,” you muttered, squeezing him.

Everyone filed out and you grabbed Dustin by the collar. “The second anything serious happens, you call me. My main priority is your safety. Okay?”

Dustin whined your name but you shut him up with a glare. You shot out your pinky and Dustin sighed. Linking his with yours you pulled him in for a hug and he sighed. “I promise.”

“Alright, get out,” you said, pushing him towards the door. You watched from the window as Dustin hopped into Steve’s car and drove off. Turning around, you saw Eddie clutching something.

"Maybe drop the broken bottle Eddie," you said gently.

"We can't just sit here, undefended!" He said, “Not if you’re staying.”

You snorted. "Undefended?" You opened your backpack that you’d dropped when you saw him and pulled out your pocket knife, a taser, and the Beretta 950.

Eddie gaped at you and you shrugged, a little embarrassed. "Hopper gave it to me in case of an emergency! When you see what looks like a demon trying to kill your family not once, not twice, but three times, you get a weapon."

Slumping down to the floor, Eddie nodded, looking a little dazed. "I'm sorry and you questioned me earlier when I said you didn't know how I could be scared and turned on at the same time?"

Relieved that he didn't find you completely insane, and clearly felt better enough to joke, you exhaled. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"I would've believed you," he said after a beat of silence.

"Would you?"

Eddie shot you an insulted look. "You're my girlfriend, of course I would've. You believed in me."

"Because even I'm more violent than you are," you pointed out, sitting down next to him. Eddie placed his hand on your thigh, as if unable to keep apart from you for too long, and sighed when you dropped your head onto his shoulder. "I was afraid."

"Of my reaction?"

"Partly," you admitted, "Dustin and I - we were sworn to secrecy. I've literally had someone from the government tell us that we can't tell anyone. I didn't want you to ever be in danger because of that. I’m pretty sure we fought the KGB and I’m pretty sure they’re keeping tabs on Hawkins, on us. I thought this was over, I thought we were over all this bullshit."

"Princess," he frowned, pulling you into his chest.

To your horror, you felt tears build.

"Sweetheart, you know I hate it when you cry," Eddie said, his lips coming up to pepper your face. You smiled despite the tears and buried your face back into his neck.

"I can't let anything happen to you," you mumbled into his skin, wanting to get even closer. “You’re too important, you’re all too important to me.”

"Nothing is going to happen," Eddie said. "We'll be okay. We've got help."

After you’d managed to stress cry all the tension out of your body, you broke the hold Eddie’s arms had on you and smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I think I’ve been on edge all day. When you didn’t pick me up – when I woke up and realized, I thought – I thought something had happened to you.”

“Nope,” he said, smiling, “I had a really normal day, went to school, had an English test, went home.”

You laughed. “I’m sorry for crying all over you.”

“Please don’t ever apologize for that,” he said, pushing your hair back from your face, “I’m sorry that you’re being pulled into this again.”

“It’s my fault,” you said, words tumbling out before you could stop them. “I’m the one who told you to check on her. I should’ve – I don’t know – turned her away.”

“Princess,” he sighed, “she would’ve found me at school anyway. This is not your fault.”

“I fucking hate this. It’ll never end, it just keeps coming back again,” you said, sadness melting into anger.

“Well, this time you’ve got me,” Eddie said, standing up and pulling you to your feet, “and we’ll close this entire book once and for all.”

You snorted, rubbing your eyes. This day felt like it was never going to end, it felt like years since you’d woken up this morning. “The optimism of a rookie, it never lasts long,” you sighed, wrapping yourself around Eddie like he was a life jacket in the middle of the ocean. His arms came around you instantly, his cheek resting on your head and heartbeat steady under your ear. You wanted to sink into him and never let go.

“We’re okay,” you said quietly.

“We are.”

After a few deep breaths, you loosened your grip and felt stable enough to tread water on your own. You didn’t know what was going on, but for right now you were all okay.

“I think if we grab everything, we can find we could make a nest in one of the boats,” Eddie mentioned, yawning now that the sun had lowered considerably.

“Why didn’t you stay in Rick’s house?” You asked.

Eddie’s brow rose. “It’s locked, I tried it. I thought about throwing something through the window but thought it’d look suspicious.”

“I can pick a lock,” you said, grabbing your bag and opening the front door to the shed. Looking around carefully you motioned for him to follow you. “Where is Rick?”

“He’s in jail,” Eddie hummed, “probably for a few months.”

“Well, bad for him – good for us,” you said, dropping into a crouch and pulling the clip from your hair out. You searched the bottom of your bag for a paperclip and got to work.

“Sweetheart, were you serious about picking the lock?”

You stopped what you were doing and looked up at him. “Why would I not be serious?”

Eddie tilted his head. “Because that’s shit only people in movies do!”

“We just told you that we’ve fought monsters from another dimension, three times, and this is what you find too outside the box?” You snorted and kept going until you heard the door click. The paperclip snapped under the pressure but you were able to turn the knob and push the door open. “There you go.”

“I swear to God,” Eddie started and you looked back at him, “I should be worried about why you needed to pick up that skill but I’m just really turned on.”

“Jesus Christ Eddie,” you rolled your eyes but were unable to keep your smile off your face. “Does your mind always drift there?”

“Uh, when you’re my age and have a girlfriend that looks like you? Yeah. It’s a fucking miracle I’ve got any room in my head for anything else.”

“You’re an idiot,” you said, knocking your elbow into his. “How do you not know how to pick a lock?”

“Unlike the popular opinion of me, apart from the drugs – I don’t have many illegal skillsets,” he tilted his head like he was deep in thought, “well, one or two…”

Laughing as you surveyed the small cabin, Eddie closed the door behind you and caught your hand. “Hey,” he said, stopping you, “thank you for coming for me. My warrior princess in shining armor.”

“Remember,” you said, bringing him down for a kiss, “we’re in this together. We’ll get through it.” Eddie pressed his forehead into yours, his hair tickling the side of your neck. You cupped his cheek and closed your eyes. You were okay right now, whatever would happen – you were here now.

As if he could read your mind, Eddie kissed your temple. “Let’s raid the kitchen, he’s got to have something to eat,” Eddie pulled you towards the far-left door. “Then I think you owe me a story.”

You scrunched your nose. “It’s a long story Eddie, you need to sleep. The adrenaline crash is going to hit you like a truck.” You would know – from experience.

“I can sleep when I’m dead,” he huffed, starting to look through Rick’s cabinets, “when your girlfriend tells you she’s a monster hunter, you want all the details.”

“Alright,” you sighed, “well, I wasn’t in it from the start. Dustin found Eleven in the woods with his friends and Steve kinda got me looped into it all.”

Eddie scoffed. “Of course, it was Harrington and Dustin.”

You shook your head and reached for the few cans of pasta you saw. “It’s always them, isn’t it?”

“Menaces to society,” he agreed, taking the can from your hands and grabbing a pot.

“Well, I’m sure you know Steve had a little phase there where an alien took over his body and he became an asshole. We call it the King Steve phase.”

“Ah yes, I do remember this era,” Eddie said, turning the stove on, eyes coming back to yours.He motioned for you to continue.

“So, it all started on my end when Steve was going to Jonathan’s house to apologize for being an asshole….”

Eddie glanced at you, making sure you were okay, before walking towards the front door. The story you had told him…was a lot for anyone to have gone through – much less four teenagers and bunch of kids.

While he was certain you had only managed to find him because you knew his thoughts before they could formulate into anything tangible – he didn’t want to take any chances on anyone else trying their luck. The lock had jammed while you’d picked it – and what a glorious moment that had been – so Eddie grabbed a metal chair from the living room and shoved the back against the handle. He closed the blinds, made sure the windows were locked, and tried hard not to think about the darkness of the trees around Rick’s cabin.

Demogorgons? Mind Flayer? What was all of this? How could this be real?

Will Byers, experimenting on little kids, the fire at Starcourt. The fact that all of this happened while Eddie had thought you’d regretted making out with him at a high school dance.

When you had told him that you had a lot going on in the year in between, you hadn’t been joking. His heart ached a little, worried that this was going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. The one piece that went too far for you. What the hell did Vecna want? Who was he? Why was he attacking random teenagers?

Before Eddie could descend into a swirl of chaos, your voice pulled him out of his head. “Yeah?” He padded over to the bedroom and found you sitting on the edge of the bed. Your fingers were clamped around something, nervous.

“Are you okay?” He asked, pulse quickening. What else could go wrong?

You nodded, your hair shifting as you did and Eddie realized you had his old shirt on. It made him smile, imagining you tucking it into your bag – he was pretty sure you had half his wardrobe by now. He didn’t mind. There was something about seeing you in his clothes that made his chest tighten with affection.

“This is so stupid and really bad timing but,” you smiled softly and it shot straight to his heart. You unfurled your fingers and shoved a small velvet box in his direction.

Eddie felt a surge of amusement at the nervous jiggle in your leg. “Princess, are you proposing to me?” He watched you become increasingly flustered but you rolled your eyes. Eddie grinned and leaned over you, bed dipping with his added weight. He exhaled against your ear and bit back an excited smile when your eyes fluttered. “I mean, if you wanted to get me into bed you really didn’t need to go so far. You’ve got me wrapped around your pinky.”

“Just open it, you lunatic.”

Laughing as you shoved him, Eddie propped open the box and stilled. There was a ring settled in the center. “Sweetheart, I was joking but if you really are proposing-”

“For fuck’s sake Eddie, it’s an anniversary gift. I’m not asking you to marry me, calm down,” you said, laughing. “I was going to give it to you at the restaurant.”

Eddie was struck by three things. First, that he hadn’t realized that you had gotten him anything. No one really…gave him presents. Sure, the guys and Wayne tried for the holidays and his birthday but usually it tended to consist of handing him a few bucks. The gold ring shined under the soft lantern light and he strained to see that there was something written on it. As if struck, Eddie straightened and darted his eyes back to you.

You couldn’t have.

“Is that…Elvish?”

Grinning, you ducked your head. “I found it in the most random store with Steve that time I went with him to Chicago for Christmas. The guy said he could do an inscription and send it to me. I know you like silver but Dustin said the One Ring was gold…”

Eddie immediately slid it onto his left middle finger and knew he’d wear it until it fell off or wore down. “It’s perfect, I love it.”

I love you, his stupid heart shouted.

Your pleased smile was bashful and radiant. He wanted to tuck you into his arms and never let you go.

The second thing he realized was that he’d left your necklace in the duffel bag in the corner of his room. He sighed. “I got you something too but it’s in my room,” he rubbed a hand down his face. “Do you want to know what it is?”

“No,” you said quickly, hands coming up to intertwine with his. “Give it to me when we’re done with all this.”

Eddie rose a brow. Done with all of what? Being a murder suspect?

“It’ll give me something to look forward to – because, the universe owes me that much,” you said, looking up at him through your lashes and he was done for. His hands made their own way to your body, pulling you tightly to him.

“I – you’re amazing, thank you,” he said, his heart stuttering.

Your smile was slow and warm, it illuminated every corner of his soul. Eddie understood now, why his mother stayed with his father for so long. Eddie had judged her and resented her for her weakness at times. He didn’t know, he didn’t get why or how someone could lose themselves in another person. But if what his mother felt for his stupid deadbeat father was even a fraction of what he felt for you – he truly understood. If this was how it felt to be in love, to just know that this was the person you belonged to – then he couldn’t fault her, not anymore.

The last thing Eddie realized as he glanced down at his new ring, your thumb rubbing a comforting circle across his knuckles, was that he really wouldn’t mind being married to you. The thought of a similar ring on your hand, physical and tangible proof that you belonged to each other, was too much for him to handle. And that scared him. A yawn surprised him, his eyes watering with the force of it and you laughed when he shot you a sheepish smile.

“It’s been a long day,” you said, cradling the side of his face. “Why don’t you try sleeping? I won’t fall asleep. I can take first watch.”

Eddie knew that protesting would be futile, you’d never fall asleep and you would both end up like zombies. “Promise to wake me up?”

“Yes,” you said, crossing your heart. He hugged you to him and the familiar scent of your hair products drifted up to him. He could see you wrinkle your nose and pluck at his shirt.

“I told you it was a bad idea to not wash this first. It’s practically standing up on its own.”

Eddie smiled. He glanced down at his Hellfire t-shirt and as he had intended, the image of you withering beneath him with it on came to mind. The soft sounds he had enticed from you, the feel of your legs around him, your tongue on his neck, and the way your breath stuttered when he’d sunk into you.  

“Go to sleep,” you urged, swatting a rogue hand that had seemingly travelling to your lower back suggestively. Eddie had to fight a laugh. He knew you well enough to write biographies about your tells and knew by the hitch of your voice that you were interested. His ego swallowed around that tidbit of information while he crawled up towards the pillows. Despite what his body wanted, you were right, he’d been running on adrenaline for so long he’d probably drop off into sleep halfway through anyway.

“Promise?”

“I’ll be right here, go to sleep,” you whispered, lips brushing against his brow as he settled his head onto your chest. Your steady heartbeat had his eyes closing within seconds. Eddie felt your arms twine around him, holding him close to you.

Eddie woke up feeling incredibly warm and surrounded by something soft. Blinking away sleep from his eyes, his hand instinctively reached for yours. The bed was cold and the sight of an empty bed was enough for panic to shoot through him. Struggling to sit up in the sheets he’d been wrapped in, anxiety pooled in his stomach. Words caught in his throat when he noticed you sitting in a chair right by the door frame. Your hands were wrapped around a steaming mug, your eyes staring out the window in the hallway – the one hidden behind the old oak tree.

You hadn’t noticed that he’d stirred and Eddie took the moment to take you in. Your brows were furrowed slightly, expression a little worried – and protective. Like you were guarding him. The sun shifted through the window and a beam illuminated your face. For a moment, as the leaves fluttered, you looked like you were glowing.

Eddie loved you so much, it started to feel inconceivable to him. Something he’d been running from for months now felt like they were moments from bursting from his chest. An unbridled thought floated to the front of his mind. What did your connection to him mean now? Would the town come after you also? Everyone had seen you two together, rarely apart. If Jason thought he’d murdered Chrissy – wouldn’t he want revenge? An eye for an eye. The thought was enough to have his heart thundering.  

He couldn’t let you go down with him for this. You had a bright future and it’d be a cold day in hell when Eddie let him or this town mess that up for you.

But he also knew you well enough to know that you’d never leave his side. He could argue his life away but you’d still be wherever it was that you wanted to be. The way he’d follow you anywhere, he knew you were right there behind him.

Was that what love was? He wondered. If your places had been reversed – if you had been the one to be accused – he’d never believe it. He’d fight whoever he had to fight to get back to your side. To make it better. To help.

Is this what it felt like when you had someone supporting you? Is this what family was supposed to be like?

“You’re a goddamn liar Henderson,” he said, startling you. “You were supposed to wake me for the second watch.”

Your head whirled around to him, your frown turning into a haughty grin. “You’re not the boss of me, Munson,” you said, tone welcoming a rebuttal. Your eyes trailed down his body and Eddie felt the morning strain against his pants within seconds.

For the love of - “Princess, don’t look at me like that this early,” he groaned, slumping back down.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” you snipped back and Eddie smiled into the pillow. The challenging tone in your voice turned him on to no end and you knew it. This was how most mornings started when you woke up together. He tried to not be the reason you were late to class and you would snip at him until his tenuous willpower snapped. After, you’d both rush around his trailer, with fresh bite marks and a flush in both your faces. He was always the first to admit that he loved your little back and forth – he loved how easily he knew you. How you knew him. How much like home you felt like.

“We don’t have condoms,” he reminded you, “and maybe a tiny Munson isn’t the best solution to this problem.”

“I wasn’t coming onto you,” you said, he laughed at the obvious lie, “we’re in the middle of a crisis with yet another monster and your mind is in the gutter? Jeez, Munson, sort through your priorities.”

Eddie grinned, his cheeks hurting.

“…there are also other things we could do that don’t end in babies, just so you know,” you sniffed, your nose in the air, “not that I would suggest them at a time like this. I have my priorities straight.”

Eddie threw his head back and laughed, the sound echoing throughout the cabin. He clutched his stomach, the tight leftover grip of terror in his chest loosening, and shook his head.

“You’re something else, you know that Henderson?” He said, sitting back up to look at you. Eddie felt his stomach flip at the soft, affectionate smile you were shooting his way. You hadn’t moved, but your face radiated love and Eddie’s heart slammed against its cage.

Let me out, it screamed at him, I don’t belong here anymore.

The words were on the tip of his tongue, ready to be shouted into the world, but Eddie didn’t want the first time he said them to be while you were both in a virtual stranger’s house while hiding from the police.

Your look turned knowing and you smiled doubled. “I got you to laugh, didn’t I?”

“I-” love you, his brain shouted. Instead, he patted the seat next to him. “Come here.”

Shaking your head, a glint sparkled in your eyes. “If I sit anywhere near you until you’ve got that situation under control, we’ll end up in a conspicuous position.”

“Seducing me with your collegiate vocabulary isn’t helping the problem,” Eddie said, and it really wasn’t.

This time, you laughed loudly. Your shoulders shaking as you did, hand coming up to your mouth and your eyes bright. Your laughter died down gradually, Eddie keeping his eyes on your small smile, and he sighed. The last few days might’ve been a shitshow but, he was clearly doing something right if he had you. He looked at his new ring and grinned, love was scary but fuck was it worth it. Unable to stand the distance anymore, he crawled to the end of the bed and padded over to you.

“Why do you have the habit of making my coffee go cold?” You asked, not protesting when he drew you up to your feet.

“Because I really, can’t get enough of you,” he admitted, sincerely. You must’ve noticed because you didn’t tease, you just smiled and surged up to meet him.

Like a fire had ignited within him, Eddie pulled you into his arms. Your own went around his shoulders, one of your hands carding through his hair. You pulled it back, sending a bolt of desperate want through him, as you latched onto his throat.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. All rational thought emptied out of his brain and all he could think about was the way you pressed your hips to his. Your teeth nipped at his skin the way he liked and your fingers dislodged from his scalp. Eddie took the opportunity to slide a knee between your thighs and was rewarded with a soft groan as you instinctively buckled into the pressure. There was an urgency to both of your touches, you pulled him tightly like you were afraid he’d disappear.

The sun illuminated the entire cabin through the flimsy blinds, beams scattered around the entire living room. Eddie had backed you up into the nearest surface, the kitchen counter, and he hauled you onto it. Fervently, you both clutched at each other, hands both lingering and scrambling for purchase. 

“We could be at the lake house right now, blissfully unaware of anything going on,” Eddie said, letting his mind wander to where you two would be if this weekend hadn’t gone to shit.

Your thumb trailing across his cheekbone brought him back. “We’ll get there. Summer break? I still have that bikini that doesn’t stay up well.”

Eddie’s hand came down to your chest and you sighed, leaning into his touch. It was addicting having someone who’s touch you craved and who eagerly welcomed his own.

The three unsaid words burned in his chest and Eddie fought with himself.

A sudden thought popped up. What if he didn’t get the chance again?

He squashed it as soon as it came up. Nothing was going to happen to either of you. As if reignited by the thought, he poured all of himself into the kiss. You pulled him closer, your heat impossibly searing and Eddie felt his body respond eagerly, his hands already fumbling for the buttons by your waist with practiced fingers when –

A loud knock on the window scared you both so bad that you almost went tumbling off the counter. Eddie caught you in time but he had a hard time breathing. Holy shit, how had they forgotten to close that small blind? Eddie turned and saw Dustin’s heated glare and Robin’s cheery wave.

“I’m going to kill your brother,” he said, willing his heart to slow back down to a normal pace.

“Get in line,” you grumbled. You moved the chair from under the door and opened it so the rest of them could pile in.

“Do you both have no morals?” Dustin said, throwing bags of groceries onto the dining table. “You’re in hiding. From the police. For murder.”

Eddie snorted at the murderous look on your face and shrugged. “Your sister’s hot, Henderson. It’s been a stressful day. What do you want me to say?”

Steve laughed as Dustin groaned, slapping his hands up to his ears and Robin rolled her eyes. You tried to hide your smirk but Eddie caught it before you could school your expression. Without prompting, Eddie watched your hands reach for the box of cereal nearest to you and you ripped it open. Eddie grabbed a bottle of chocolate milk and sighed when the sugar hit his system.

Steve walked over to you, hand coming to your shoulder, and asked if you were okay. You nodded, looking a little tired, and smiled up at him. He made a comment that Eddie couldn’t hear and you both started to bicker. Max joined in, seemingly on your side, and Steve puffed up like he did when he was getting riled up.

Robin bumped her shoulder with his and he grunted. “How you holding up? Seems like you’re both super bored up here alone.”

“Oh yeah, nothing like getting the shit scared out of you to put you both in the mood,” Eddie scoffed, gulping down more milk. “Chicks dig that. Peak romance.”

“That one does,” Robin said knowingly and Eddie fought his grin. He’d always liked Robin the best. “You’re both sickening to watch you know.”

“You say the sweetest things.”

Robin barked a laugh. “We’ll be okay,” she said as Dustin brought the last of the bags in and shut the door. “Trust us.” Before Eddie could say anything, Dustin sighed.

“So, we got uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?”

Eddie straightened. “Bad news first, always.”

“All right, bad news – well, we tapped in the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro and they’re definite looking for you. Also, they’re uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy,” Dustin said, rushing through the words.

For a moment, the ground shifted beneath him. He jumped when he felt your hand in his. Squeezing tightly, Eddie tethered himself to you.

“Like, a hundred percent convinced you killed Chrissy,” Max said, shooting you an apologetic look.

“And the good news?” You asked, tucking yourself under Eddie’s arm. He pulled you closer to him, your hip hitting his.

“Your name hasn’t gone public yet.”

“But if we found out about you, it’s a matter of time before others do too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is going to gunning for you,” Robin said, a scowl on her face.

Eddie nodded. Of course, because why would anyone else think otherwise? That’s what he was to them, wasn’t it? A cult leader. A Satan worshipper. The bad guy.

“Hunt the freak,” Eddie muttered.

“Exactly.”

“Shit.” You pinched his side and Eddie grunted. “Your words, princess, your words.”

“Don’t call yourself that,” you hissed. While you hated when Eddie called himself that – he didn’t entirely mind. It was label he was happy to embrace; something to wear as a badge of honor.

Dustin sighed. “Also, um, they’re looking for you too.”

“What?” Eddie said, head snapping in his direction. Why the hell would they want you? Had someone seen you here with him? Eddie felt like he was going to crawl out his goddamn skin.

“The cops know you’re his girlfriend,” he said, nervously, “they said they’d be going over to our house to try and interview you. They want to know when the last time you saw Eddie was.”

“We think the town will be gunning for you too, if you don’t – well, help,” Steve said, looking like he had a headache.

Eddie felt like he’d been dropped on his head. The way people treated him – like he was shit they’d stepped on – he couldn’t handle it if the town turned on you too. He didn’t want you anywhere near the line of fire and opened his mouth to say as much when you pulled away from him.

You slammed your hand onto the kitchen counter, startling everyone, and a ripple of attraction tore through his indignation at the sight of your determined expression. “They want to have a manhunt for him and expect me to cooperate? They can kiss my ass.” You hissed, eyes narrowing dangerously. “Let them try and come after me. I’ve been foaming at the mouth to kick Jason Carver’s ass since that turdbucket was a freshman. And Tommy! Fucking idiots.”

“Alright, calm down Tiger,” Steve said, rubbing your shoulder. “We don’t need to fight everyone.”

“Holy shit, you really are a monster hunter,” Eddie said, pulling you into a kiss. Of course, you’d try and take on the entire town for him because of course you would. He’d do the same for you.

Surprised, but eager, you kissed him back.

The entire room groaned, Dustin all but shoving his face into the couch. “My eyes! My eyes!”

You pulled back, the ghost of a smile disappearing and your brows furrowing. “If they want to get to you, they’ll have to go through me,” you said fiercely.

“Remind me of this moment the second I ever decide to pick a fight with you,” Eddie joked.

“Alright, alright,” Steve clapped his hands like he was trying to corral puppies.

Dustin cleared his throat, eyes darting anywhere but you two. “Before any of that happens, all we need to do is find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence.”

“That’s all, Dustin? That’s all?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Listen, I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional but we’ve actually been through this before,” Robin assured him, “I mean, they have a few times. I’ve only gone through it once. Mine was more human-flesh-based and there’s was more smoke-related, but! Bottom line is, collectively, I feel like we got this.”

“We usually rely on a girl who has superpowers,” Steve interjected, “but she doesn’t have those so…”

“Eleven, right?” Eddie turned to you.

Dustin’s face scrunched. “You told him?”

“Yes, Dustin, I did. What? Did you think he wasn’t going to ask? He’s in it now!”

Eddie sighed. “So, you don’t have a plan yet.”

“We’re in a brainstorming phase,” Max said, staring pointedly at Dustin who nodded.

“There’s nothing to worry about!”

You groaned and Eddie glanced at you. “That’s his lying voice,” you sighed. “Alright. Clearly, you all need me to step up to the plate.”

Dustin rolled his eyes and you reached out to pinch his arm. “Stop! Wait! No,” he groaned, running as you chased him.

“Listen, we’re going to-” Steve stopped and everyone froze. Eddie’s eyes darted to yours as you had Dustin in a headlock.

“Hide,” Robin whispered, “hide!”

Eddie dropped to the ground and crawled towards the couch. You barreled forward to the window with Dustin, both of you shoving each other along the way.

“It’s like I’m talking to the wall,” she hissed, Eddie snorting. He learned a long time ago that Hendersons did what they wanted regardless.

Eddie listened tensely as what sounded like a few police cars and ambulances rushed past on the main road.

“Fuck,” you said, expression pinched. You walked over to Eddie and squatted down. He could read your expression clearly. You didn’t want to leave him alone.

“Go,” he said quietly, “you need to be seen around town or else I’ll just drag you down with me.”

“Don’t say that,” you admonished.

Eddie smiled. “Just stay away from Carver. Even if he believes you didn’t have anything to do with it, he’ll want to hurt you if he thinks I hurt Chrissy.”

“I would relish breaking that asshole’s nose,” you said, furious. Eddie couldn’t help himself, he really couldn’t. He surged upwards and kissed you again.

“I’ll be okay. No one knows I’m here. I’ll lay low. When you’re done, we’ll be back together tonight,” Eddie said, leaning to speak into your ear. “We can have no morals together.”

You finally smiled at that and Eddie internally fist pumped. He knew it was a rare superpower to have but the ability to make you smile in any circumstance was an honor he’d take seriously.

“We’re going to follow the cops,” Steve said, interrupting your moment. You nodded and straightened to see him beyond the couch.

“I’ll drive myself home then to the station. I’m coming back here after,” you said. Steve shot you a thumbs up and Dustin frowned.

“Remember, just tell them you were at home,” Dustin said.

Eddie smiled when you rolled your eyes. “I was at home Dustin!” They filed out and you squeezed his hand one more time.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” you said, “I’ll bring you a change of clothes and anything else I can find.”

“You have most of my band t-shirts,” he said, pulling at the front of the shirt you wore.

“They smell like you,” you admitted, “it helps me sleep.”

Eddie smiled. Would letting you go ever not feel like a sucker punch to the stomach?

“I’ll be back soon,” you said, kissing him one last time. Eddie reached out and grabbed your hand. You stilled and looked down. “What?”

“Nothing, just…be safe, please,” he said, squeezing your hand three times. His chest cracked open at your responding smile.

“You too,” you told him, squeezing back.

[layanasstories]

If not in this lifetime...

----

"but it’s true, you can fall in love with people’s souls. With peoples gestures, hearts and morals. With people’s smiles and with people’s minds-without exchanging a single kiss, and without saying a single word."

- R.M. Drake

----

Chapter 5

My work week started quietly, I had the normal work load. And because we both had to work, we didn't have much contact, apart from the good mornings and goodnight texts. Or some quick casual updates on how we are doing. On Wednesday my work became crazy busy, as deadlines were pushed forward, projects to be completed, which meant I had to work late. The same was true for Thursday as well. I didn't get home until nine o'clock, hadn't had time to eat yet and was very discouraged to cook for myself. When I open my mailbox to check on my mail, I find a postcard. Curious to who sent it to me, I open the envelope right away. As soon as I see the front of the card, it had me laugh because it is so cheesy. But what's written in the card makes me silent. "How does he do it?" I whisper to myself.

(Credits image: Tastemade)

I hold the card in my hand, I close my mailbox and then take the elevator to my floor. Once I am at home, I put on something casual. And call the number, it is indeed a restaurant. I tell the person who answers that my account must be in Jake's name, and the man on the phone immediately knows what I'm talking about. Should I be surprised, yes, but I'm not. After I had placed my order, I sit down on my couch. With the card in front of me, I grab my phone. I see Jake is already online.

Layana: Hey 😊

Layana: I don't really know what to say. Except thank you. 😅

Jake: You're welcome. :)

Jake: It was a small effort.

Layana: Maybe a small effort for you, but I'm sitting here almost in tears.

Jake: Oh god, was it too much? Have I crossed a line that I shouldn't have?

Layana: No, it's the perfect surprise. Exactly what I could use right now. 🤗

Jake: Phew, because that's what I was hoping for. ;)

My doorbell rang. I am told through the intercom that my food is here. So I push the button to open the downstairs door to let the delivery guy in.

Layana: My food is here. 🥰

Jake: Then don't let me keep you any longer. Enjoy your food :)

Layana: Jake?

Jake: Yes?

Layana: Thank you for doing this for me. 💕

Jake: Anytime :)

I took plenty of time to eat and even had enough left over for tomorrow. After putting the leftovers in my fridge, I took a shower. In there I got an idea. I quickly put on my sleeping shirt and crawled into bed.

Layana: The food was delicious. 😄

Layana: And I'd like to ask you out on a date. A real date.

As long as he doesn't come online I can continue typing without the doubts set in.

Layana: Does Saturday morning suit you?

Layana: At seven o'clock, at the Brown Badger Forest?

If he does something for me, I want to do something in return. And an early morning walk, which he likes, followed by breakfast at my favorite bakery, seems like a nice date.

Layana: Just let me know. Good night 😊

It had become such a habit that I was surprised that there were no messages. Not from last night, and not this morning. Did I push it too far? Despite all the doubts that are now running through my head, I still send him a good morning message. Then I do my morning ritual, and go to work. It is around lunchtime when I get a message.

Jake: Hey, good afternoon.

Layana: Hey, are you okay?

Jake: Yes, I am okay. Right after our conversation, I received a notification via standby that there was a security failure at a customer.

Jake: I had to work until late at night. I just woke up.

Layana: Oh, were you able to solve it?

Jake: Yup. ;)

Layana: That's nice. 😊

Jake: Anyway, I'd love to go on a date with you. See you tomorrow at seven. :)

Layana: See you tomorrow.

[freckleslikestars]

Battle of the Sexes

Mulder and Scully perform a...scientific experiment...of sorts. It’s a multichap of filth. More filth than you could ever imagine.

I wanted this to be fully complete before I posted it, but I just keep end up going back and tinkering with the bits I'm happy with rather than actually writing more so I'm hoping by posting it, it will encourage me to write more of the bits that need writing. That means that updates will not nearly be as regular as I had initally hoped, but each chapter will be long. And incredibly smut-filled and filthy. :D

Prologue

A very, very hard explicit

460 words, read here on AO3

It was a bad idea. The whole thing had been a bad idea. From retaliating to the suspect’s comments on the superiority of the male sex drive to continuing the debate with Mulder over beers on his couch, to drunkenly filling out their PTO forms and emailing them to Kimberly at three in the morning.

And despite the little voice telling her, every step of the way, to turn back, go home, forget any of it had even crossed their minds, she was still the one instigating the whole thing.

Dana Scully loved a scientific experiment, empirical data and clear-cut evidence, and this situation was no different.

They had set down ground rules, scrawled on the back of the Thai takeout menu in his drunken chicken scratch. No kissing. No arguing. No jealousy after the fact. No drugs (a scandalous look from Mulder, as if he’d ever). No toys (a lot of consternation over this one: what if he couldn’t please her like she liked? What if he ran out of steam first? But it was agreed that to provide valid, reliable results they needed to limit the number of uncontrollable variables. This was for science, after all). And, when the week was up, they each went their separate ways, no mention of their time together and anything the other felt uncomfortable revealing to the other was not to be brought up again.

Meanwhile, Scully had prepared a list of supplies and preparations. Bottled water, Gatorade, cereal bars and bananas had all been written down immediately, along with deodorant, condoms and lube.

‘We should get bloods done first, just in case. Condoms aren’t one hundred per cent reliable. I can take them tomorrow, send them to the lab and push them through. They should come back ready for next week.’

‘Good idea. And birth-control-wise, you’re all good?’

She quieted for a moment, chewed on the end of the pencil she was writing with, before nodding, ‘yeah, all good.’

‘Good.’

‘We should probably refrain from any self-pleasure until the experiment starts. For the sake of accuracy.’

‘Of course,’ he nodded solemnly.

Watery grey light was filtering through his living room window by the time they wrapped up their lists and shook hands on their deal. Scully would book a hotel room, under assumed names, for nine days commencing next Saturday, giving them a week for their experiment followed by a weekend of recuperation, or in the unlikely event that neither of them had given in by the end of the seventh day, two more days to continue until one of them cried mercy. All bills would be split fifty/fifty, and no other monetary bets would be placed.

With all their planning and safeguards in place, what could possibly go wrong?

Chapter One_______________Chapter Masterlist

Tagging @today-in-fic

[rowanaelinn]

Fire on Fire - Chapter Ten

chapter nine // chapter eleven

Aelin was plunged into a magical world, full of dragons, magic, fairies, and vampires. She was so deep into the story it was hard to stop herself to point out the few grammatical mistakes in the text, which was her job, what she was paid to do, and the only reason why she was reading this right now.

She loved this job, for her, reading books all day long was the closest she could get from heaven. She had never thought she’d one day end up here, in her own office (even if it was very small) being paid to do what she loved the most.

Three knocks on her door tore her away from the magical world, she couldn’t help but think the colors of real life were bland. Everything was so… plain. “Come in.”

It was no surprise who was behind the door. She put the manuscript on her small desk, waiting for her boss to say something.

Technically, her office was just his assistant’s office, the one with a connection to his own, but for whatever reason, it was the one she always got when she worked at Hamel Publishing.

“Having fun?” He nodded towards the manuscript.

She nodded, a small on her lips. “I love it, it’s hard to stop.”

“A good book does that to you.”

“You’d know that,” She said, referring to his own books. Gods, she had spent nights staying awake just to finish them and then had felt so empty when everything was over. Sure, she could read them again and again, but nothing would feel the same as they did the first time. “What is it?”

“It’s twelve-thirty, I’m taking you out to eat.”

Was it that late already? She took her phone out of her pocket to check and yeah, she really had spent three hours working without any break. She was proud of herself. Her phone showed her notifications and she couldn’t help but smile at the last text she received. I’m here.

“Hum…” She started to clean her desk. “Maybe tomorrow?” He furrowed his brows, his face the portrait of confusion. She never refused him. “I’m eating out with a friend today. He’s already down there, actually, so…” She got up of her chair, walking past Arobynn to get out of her office. He followed her, closing the door behind him.

“You’re eating out with someone?”

She turned around, a small laugh leaving her lips. “Is that so unbelievable that I have friends?”

“No, of course not.” He said, pressing the elevator button for her. Well, apparently he was going with her. “I just thought you’d rather celebrate with me your new job and the amazing grades you had at your exams than going out with random people. I also have something to tell you.”

“He’s not a random person,” she corrected him. Gods no, Rowan was more than that. “But I’m sorry. I didn’t know you wanted to take me out, I would have told you I couldn’t, otherwise.” She sighed, stepping into the elevator, him following closely. She didn’t know why she felt like she had to apologize. “Let’s do it another time?”

He eyed her suspiciously and she shifted on her feet, uncomfortable under his gaze. “Sure,” he ended up saying and she smiled at him. “Saturday night, is it okay for you?”

“Yeah, I can’t wait.” Maybe it would be like old times, she didn’t see him drink a lot lately, he was doing better. A small part of her was proud of him. She missed the Arobynn she met at sixteen.

“Is ‘friend’ a new word for ‘date’?” He asked bluntly.

“What?” She choked on a laugh. “Why do you want to know that?”

“Just answer the question.”

“No, it’s not.” She said defensively as if she needed to justify herself. “Gods, no.” She had just barely started being friends with him if things went deeper than friendship… It’d be too much.

“You’re blushing.”

“Because it’s hot as hell in there.”

“You’re the world’s worst liar.”

“You already said that,” He did, multiple times but she would never forget the first time he did. “But I don’t think it’s true. I’ve kept every single one of your secrets.”

He chuckled softly, tucking both hands into his pockets. He looked more imposing this way. If both of them were plants, he would be taking up all the space in the elevator, all the light, and Aelin would be a little plant begging for him to share some of the light. She looked so small against him. So weak.

“Secret keeping and lying are two very different things, contrary to what everyone thinks.”

“I still lied for you, many times. And I never got caught.”

“That’s because no one knows you as I do.”

She wanted to answer but the doors opened, she didn’t want Arobynn anywhere near Rowan. She was feeling too defensive of her new friend, and she didn’t know why. She got out of the elevator quickly, just turning back to give a small smile to her mentor but his face was colder than what she was used to seeing. Her muscles stiffened, but she ignored it. Lunch with Rowan, that’s what she would focus on.

“Don’t be late,” was the only thing he told her before the elevator’s doors closed once again. She let out a long sigh as she walked toward Rowan who was waiting for her, standing in front of the reception, a hand tucked in his jeans pocket and the other holding his phone, he didn’t see her coming.

“So, where are you taking me?” She interrupted him, causing him to flinch slightly. Aelin laughed loudly at the little noise of surprise he let out, she had to cover up her mouth with her hand to stiffen her noises. “Oh Mala, you should have seen your face!”

“Of course you’d find it funny.” He shook his head but couldn’t hide the hint of a smile on his own perfect rosy lips. It was her turn to shake her head, why did he spend that many seconds focusing on his lips? What the hell was wrong with her.

“So, I can get very hangry when I don’t get food before one in the afternoon,” she warned him.

This time he let out a small laugh, making Aelin’s grin bigger. “You’re impossible.” He nodded towards the exit, Aelin followed him.

He came into her room yesterday, right after she woke up after that awful birthday party, telling her he took her out for lunch today. It was blunt and sudden but she didn’t care, she just told him he was paying and he went back to his room, shaking his head but smiling. His tattoo shop, or her uncle’s tattoo shop, was just down the street so it was easier to eat together. She might like this better than eating alone in her office or with Arobynn at some fancy restaurant where you paid so much for so little actual food on your plate.

“It’s a bloc away,” he told her, starting to walk towards the restaurant. “I think you’re going to like it.”

She bit her lip, walking right beside him. “I follow you.”

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

“Do you eat here often?” She asked, turning her head in every possible angle to see the restaurant from where they were sitting. It was small but cozy, the benches were dark red and tables black, both of those her favorite colors. But even if the colors were dark, you didn’t feel like in a cave thanks to every window on the walls. Aelin had never seen a restaurant so naturally illuminated.

In the places she tended to frequent, there wasn’t any window. The tables were white, the chairs were black and just so you didn’t think you’re in an old movie, the walls were cream. All the light was produced by those huge glass chandeliers above the customers.

Aelin liked this small restaurant, The Mistward Rowan had called it, much better.

Rowan shrugged, “Kind of, I know the owners.”

Before she could ask more question, a man with a notepad in hands came at their table, the smile on his face brought warmth to Aelin. His hair was grey and his skin was tan, even if Aelin could tell he was old his face didn’t show any sign of tiredness, only happiness. “Rowan, you don’t usually come here on Monday.”

Rowan’s face was lighter than she was used to seeing, it felt good to see this. “Hi, Emrys.”

“And you brought a girl,” Emrys said, awe in his voice as he winked to Aelin. She couldn’t keep the joyful laugh inside her.

“Emrys, this is Aelin,” Rowan presented her, and the man didn’t seem to recognize her or if he did, he didn’t care. It felt good. “Aelin, this is Emrys, he and his husband own this restaurant.”

“This place is lovely.”

“Thanks,” Emrys smiled and looked at Rowan in a way she couldn’t decipher. Rowan coughed, bringing Emrys’ attention to his job. “What can I get you?”

“The usual,” Rowan told him, his eyes fell on her. “Did you have time to choose?”

She didn’t even open the menu. “Not necessary, I’ll take the same as him.”

Emrys seemed surprised but sent a smile to Rowan. “You sure?” Aelin nodded. “Okay, I’ll get that ready.”

Emrys left, leaving Aelin and Rowan alone. She wasn’t quite sure what to say, she was shifting in her seat and fidgeted her hands on the table. She only noticed when Rowan put his hand on hers, stopping her movement. “Relax, is everything alright?”

Aelin nodded and smiled. “Yeah, I’m always fine.” She winked at him, only earning a roll of the eyes.

“I think we both know it’s a lie.”

He was right, but it didn’t mean she would start opening up. “What about you? Tell me the deep stuff.” She wiggled her brows, trying to change the subject. Rowan shook his head, sitting more deeply in his seat, a clear proof of his discomfort. “C’mon. If I have to open up, you have, too.”

That seemed to set him off. “First, you don’t have to do anything, not with me. Second, I’m sure you didn’t even tell me one percent of your story, so let me some damn time to do the same.”

His tone was hard but not mean, she was used to meanness from Rowan but it wasn’t it this time. It was like… a plea. To let him find his words and open up to her in the best conditions. He was right, she had barely told him anything, so she could be patient and wait for him to trust her a bit more. Aelin only nodded, a sign of agreement.

“What’s your favorite color?” She asked, making Rowan snort at the sudden change of subject. The smile on his face brought one on hers.

“Green. Yours?”

“Red, like blood.” She said, grinning like a fiend as she took her straw in her mouth and took a sip of her drink. She had ordered a cocktail and had tried to ignore Rowan’s disapproving looks. What if she drank once every day? It helped. It wasn’t as if she was drinking enough every day to be drunk. Sometimes, in life, you just require some help.

Rowan rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything, instead, he asked another question, understanding Aelin wanted the meal to happen with a light tone. “Favorite food?”

Aelin’s eyes light up at the mention of food. “Fries with cheese on top of them, with a burger with a lot of cheese. Basically, I’m a sucker for cheese.”

Rowan’s face seemed between amused and disgusted. “Gods, you eat like a child.”

Aelin laughed. “Bad time to say I also love letter-shaped nuggets?” The man in front of her burst out laughing and she did too. “What? I like to write something before I eat.”

“You’re so…”

Aelin laughed, hiding her smile with her hand as much as she could. “I’m so what?”

“You. You’re so you.”

Her laugher calmed down but she kept a smile on her face. “What’s yours?”

Rowan winked at her. He winked, what was happening? Was a meteorite about to crash to earth? “You’ll see.”

The conversation kept going and Aelin’s smile hurt her cheeks by the time Emrys came back with their plate. She learned Rowan was more of a cat person, claiming dogs were too dependent. Aelin argued with him for long minutes, saying that dogs were better because they were dependent on you. Seriously, who rather have an animal that didn’t care about you instead of the man’s best friend? She’d die on the hill that dogs are better than cats. Period.

Rowan had snorted and rolled his eyes more times than she could count but his lips had stayed curled the whole time as if his annoyance was more pretend than real.

“Here you are,” Emrys said, placing two plates in front of them. She smiled at him before studying what was on the plate. She looked up, seeing that Rowan was already looking at her. He seemed almost excited to see what she would think.

“Meat on a stick?”

Rowan lost his smile for real this time, rolling his eyes once again. Aelin had to keep her lips pressed together to avoid letting her laughter out. “It’s called a meat skewer.”

“Your favorite food is meat on a stick.” She couldn’t hold back her laugh this time.

“Isn’t it fine enough for your mouth, miss cheese?” He raised an eyebrow.

She laughed, offended. “You did not just call me that!”

“One wrong word against meat on a stick and I’ll call you this forever.” He threatened her, his face was more than serious. Would he do it? She couldn’t stop laughing.

She waved her little white napkin, a sign of peace. “Okay, you won.” He smiled, satisfied with his victory. “Today,” she added and winked at him.

“I like her,” Emrys said, as if she wasn’t here, to Rowan. Aelin had totally forgotten about the old man.

“Of course you do, she never agrees with me,” Rowan replied, dipping into his food. He was probably used to eat and speak with Emrys at the same time.

“Exactly, you need some action in your life.” Aelin choked on her water. What did he just say? Okay, she was known for having a dirty mind, but it wasn’t her, right? It was a dirty joke?

Rowan’s eyes crinkled, he was probably wondering what was going on with her. He was even probably thinking she was a weirdo. Oh gosh, she was humiliating herself.

She needed to think about everything but her and Rowan. Nope, nope nope. Never. She wouldn’t ruin a friendship with sex, never. At least, never again.

How much that goddamned buzzard was attractive didn’t help her. Friends. Barely. They were just starting to open up to each other, she couldn’t be clingy and call him her best friend, even if he was. Rowan disliked dogs because they’re clingy, she couldn’t be clingy with him.

“Are you okay?” Emrys asked, looking genuinely concerned. It surprised her, she was used to people asking this as a subtle way to say you were loud.

She nodded, taking another sip of water to let her cough pass. “Yeah, sorry. I swallowed wrong.”

He gave her a smile. “What are you waiting for?” He nodded toward her plate. “Try it, it won’t be as good when it’s cold.”

Aelin decided not to embarrass herself with a fork and knife, seeing Rowan was using his hands to bring the stick to his mouth.

Rowan had dipped his meat in a bowl of brown sauce, she imitated him and brought the food to her mouth. She had never been a big fan of meat, had been told all her childhood that it was unladylike. It was such bullshit, but it had stayed in the back of her mind.

She let out a small moan at the taste. Okay, it was good. Very good, even. Rowan looked at her, a victorious look on his face. Told you so.

Shut up.

“It’s very good.” She told Emrys, bringing a smile on his face.

“I’ll let you two to it, then.”

But before he could leave, a boy, well more like a teenager, almost ran to Emrys’s side, facing Rowan. He was walking and speaking at the same time, his voice higher than what she was used to hearing, but she was living in a house with three men who were addicted to sport, so she couldn’t say anything. “Rowan, why do Emrys and Malakai say you brought a chick he-” He was cut up by a hand on his shoulder, Emrys forcing her to stop speaking.

The boy faced her, his eyes going wide and his mouth opening and closing like a fish. “Hi, I think I’m the chick you’re talking about?” Aelin’s tone was enough to tell him she was being playful but considering Rowan’s groan, he wasn’t.

“Oh my,” the tall boy began. “I’m so sorry.” He tried to smile but it was so obviously forced.

“Don’t worry,” she winked, holding her hand toward him. He looked at her as if she was an alien. “I’m-”

“Aelin Galathynius, I know.” He cut her off. Well, at least someone recognized her. Wasn’t it amazing?

She swallowed, looking at Rowan in a way that would make it clear for him that she was begging for help. She was having a good time, enjoying herself plenty. She was just Aelin. She didn’t need her past to come back to the surface. She felt like breathing was hard as if she had a football team sitting on her chest, preventing her from breathing.

“Luca, why don’t you go back with Malakai?” Rowan asked in a way that wasn’t a question. It was more like “do what I say before I use all the strength I develop at the gym.”

Oh gods, now she was thinking about him at the gym. She internally groaned, it was better than panicking over some teenager knowing who she was but still.

“Wait! No! I’m so sorry I offended you, Miss Galathynius,” he winced at this. Was she old enough for people to call her “miss”? She already missed being nineteen. “I didn’t know you were dating Rowan.” He stopped there, turning to Rowan. “Wait. You’re dating Aelin Galathynius?” He almost screamed. Gods, she wanted to hide underground. Was it possible?

“No, I’m not,” Rowan growled, his voice angrier than she had ever heard it. He had never been that angry with her, and she thought it meant something. “When you’ll grow out of your teenage hormones, cousin, you’ll learn that men and women can be friends. Now, go back to the kitchen.”

The boy, Luca, seemed unfazed by Rowan’s anger. He let out a small laugh. “Okay, good. Because I was wondering how you could pull someone like her.”

Before he could speak more, Emrys put a hand on his mouth and pushed him toward the kitchen. He apologized on behalf of his nephew and went with him.

Aelin took a deep breath, trying to stop the shaking in her hands. “Hey, you okay? I’m sorry about this, he can be intrusive as shit.”

She looked up and found Rowan’s concerned gaze. He was here, he was with her. He tried to protect her. She wasn’t alone anymore. “Cousin?” She asked, not wanting to talk about how scary it was to be connected to her past.

“Well, yeah. But not really.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I spent a lot of time here, growing up. My family was very poor and I used the computer at the back of the restaurant to do my school work. Emrys and his husband Malakai saw me growing up, they offered me a job in high school and everything. They’re family, more like my parents than my actual ones. They adopted Luca when he was a babe, after Malakai’s brother, Luca’s dad, died. So we kind of grew up together.”

Whether he wanted it or not, Rowan had opened to her today, and if it didn’t make her fucking happy. She smiled at him and reached around the table to grab his hand. “Thank you.”

—————

taglist: @sheharahu // @morganofthewildfire // @thestoriesyoutell // @fromthelibraryofemilyj // @swankii-art-teacher // @itsforeverinnocent-blog // @becarefuloflove // @imnotsogoodatthis // @rowaelinismyotp // @a-court-of-milkandhoney // @feysand-loml // @themoonthestarsthesuriel // @live-the-fangirl-life // @story-scribbler // @loves-books // @fangirlprincess09 // @theysayitscrazy // @hellasblessed // @danibutterr // @endlessdaydream // @thegreyj // @gracie-rosee // @acreativelydifferentlove // @cretaceous-therapod

[babymetaldoll]

DIWK - Chapter eight: "There is no I in Team"

Word count: 8,4K

Summary: It's Spencer's birthday, and the team meets Mikey, Lu, and Frank. Reader is no longer in denial, but she has no idea what she is doing. Also, Rossi is here.

Warnings: Cursing, frustration, please don't hate me.

A/N: Hi! I hope you enjoy this fluffy chapter 'cos... well... things are a few chapters away from getting a little messed up. Thank you for all the support! your likes and comments keep me writing! Love you all!

Masterlist

Chapter one | Chapter two | Chapter three | Chapter four | Chapter five | Chapter six | Chapter seven | Chapter eight | Chapter nine | Chapter ten | Chapter eleven | Chapter twelve | Chapter thirteen | Chapter fourteen | Chapter fifteen |

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(Y/N)'s point of view

Suddenly, working at the BAU wasn't just catching serial killers. After almost two years at the FBI, I was dealing with some serious issues that were starting to get in the middle of me and work: Spencer Walter Reid.

I didn't want to face it, and I knew I was trying to deny it as much as I could, but even when I kept telling everybody no, deep down, I knew the answer was yes.

I was falling for my best friend.

But I refused to deal with my feelings. There were more important things to do, like catching killers and celebrating Spencer's 26 birthday. So yes, I was screwed.

Penelope organized a breakfast celebration at the BAU with the whole team on his birthday, and I was in charge of the cake. I baked it myself the day before, and Lu decided to help me. And by "help me," apparently, she actually meant "drive me crazy."

- "So, when is Spencer's birthday?"- she sat and sipped her tea at the kitchen island as I continued mixing ingredients.

- "Sunday, October 28th, why?"

- "Just asking. And what's the plan?"

- "Tomorrow Friday, we'll throw an early birthday breakfast at the BAU. Then, I was planning to have a huge surprise party for Spencer here Saturday night. If we are called on a case, then we are doomed. But if we are home, we should definitely celebrate Batsy's day."

- "Aha"- I cut her a questioning gaze, and she just smiled- "I was just trying to make conversation."

- "Ok..."

- "And waiting patiently for you to face the fact you are in love with Spencer."

I nearly dropped the mixer bowl as soon as I heard those words.

- "Lu, what the fuck?!"- I knew I was all kinds of shades of pink, but I did my best to keep my cool and pretend to be stony.

- "I'm just saying it's about time you drop the act and deal with your feelings."

I hated the fact she was right. I was in love with Reid. But I didn't want to talk about it. Honestly, I wasn't ready to acknowledge those feelings out loud 'cause it would make them real. And all I wanted at that minute was to pretend those feelings didn't exist.

- "The only feeling I am dealing with right now is with how pissed I am with your innuendo."

I turned my back at Lu and started looking for the right pan for the batter. I had bought three sizes just to make sure I'd get it right. I also made a mental note not to tell her that.

- "There's no innuendo. I'm telling you upfront. I know you are in love with Spencer."

- "What?!"- Lu laughed and walked to the kettle to pour herself another cup of tea.

- "You do remember I've known you since we were six years old, right?"

- "Yes, I remember that. But that doesn't mean you know how I feel about Spencer."

- "No, of course not. It means you can stop acting. I see through you! you are baking the man a cake."

- "So?"- I looked at her and raised an eyebrow, trying my best to look serious and not busted at all.

- "So you've never baked a cake for me, or Mikey, or Frank!"

- "Well, if you are all jealous, I'll bake one for your birthday then!"

- "(Y/N), please. The cake is just an example. You and I both know you are in love with him."

- "I am not"- I sighed and turned off the mixer, 'cos the batter was ready.

- "(Y/N)"- my friend whispered a few seconds later in a softer voice.

- "Lu?"

- "You are in love with Spencer Reid."

I took a deep breath and crossed my arms on my chest as I looked at her. She was smiling, pleased. It made me think of Frank's request a few months earlier when he asked me he and the guys wanted me to date Reid. I thought it had been cute. Now I was wondering if they all suspected I had feelings for my best friend.

- "Lucy, why are you so obsessed with this?"

- "'Cause he is in love with you too, and I want you to be happy"- and her answer kind of broke my heart.

- "Reid is not in love with me,"- I whispered and returned to the cake to pour the batter into the pans.

- "Why are you so sure?"

- "'Cos I know him! And I know he is in love with someone else"- Lu frowned and shook her head, in disagreement with my words. Like she knew him better.

- "Spencer Reid is in love with you, (Y/N). I've known it since the day I met him."

- "Spencer Reid is in love with JJ. I've known it since the day I met him 'cos he actually asked her out."

- "Oh, come on! You told me that story! Nothing happened!"

- "'Cos she doesn't like him, but you should see him when he is around her! and now that she is dating, it's so obviously killing him!"

I let my arms fall at my sides, defeated, and Lu tapped on the seat next to her. So I sat by her side and held the cup of tea I had left forgotten earlier when I had started baking.

- "So, tell me why you think Reid likes JJ"- Lu demanded, and I somehow managed to tell her what I felt without looking desperate. Or that's what I thought.

- "He worships the floor she walks upon. And I get it, she is cute, she is fun, blond, and friendly. I bet every guy she meets loves her. And it's awful 'cos I love her too, she is my friend. She's the sweetest."

- "But?"

- "But what?"

- "Sounded like you were going to tell me something like "But I hate her 'cos I am in love with Reid."

- "I don't hate JJ! I'm happy she has Will, though she hasn't told us about it. And I love working with her! she is sweet and amazing!"

- "But you are sure Reid loves her"- I just nodded- "Well, you are wrong."

- "Trust me, I'm not."

- "Well, then I'll have to meet that JJ girl and see if Reid looks in love with her."

- "How are you planning to do that?"

- "I don't know"- Lu simply shrugged and smiled- "Something will come up."

And something did come up. Spencer's birthday party. October 28th, 2007.

We threw him a surprise party at my apartment, and everybody came. Derek, Garcia, Prentiss, JJ, Hotch, Lu, Mikey, and Frank. It wasn't just Spencer's 26th birthday party. It was me not hiding anymore. I couldn't hide myself from the team if everybody were invited to my house and about to meet my friends. But I didn't care. I didn't actually think about it much at the moment, 'cos all I cared about was giving Spencer the best surprise birthday party on earth.

And I think I nailed it, 'cos he had no idea what was going on when he knocked on my door at eight. He was innocently holding a bag with some snacks I had asked him to bring for the movie marathon I told him we would have. And he believed me. He was adorable.

As soon as I opened the door and saw him there, my heart skipped a beat. Maybe that's why I didn't say much; I just smiled and invited him in.

- "Is your electricity out? Why are all your lights off, (Y/N)?"- he innocently asked, right before turning on the light and hearing everybody yelling "Surprise!!"

- "What the..."- Reid looked around in shock, not getting what was going on. Frank jumped over and nearly tackled him with a hug, making me laugh. Garcia turned to me in shock, but I just shook my head. That's Frank.

- "Happy barf day, doc!"

- "Thank you so much! Hey!"- Spencer looked around and looked at me. I smiled and watched how everybody got closer to him and hugged him. I don't know if he was ok with it, but he didn't seem to complain. The birthday boy hugged everybody that night.

Spencer's point of view

I don't think anyone had ever thrown me a surprise party before. I never suspected it. Not even a little. I was so glad they had done it, though. I was so happy to have friends and family to share that day with.

It was my fourth birthday at the BAU, the second (Y/N) had organized, and somehow I didn't feel alone anymore. People weren't friendly to me for being condescending. They actually liked me.

- "Doc! You are gonna love these!"- Frank nearly tackled me with his present- "It's from Mikey and me. We thought you might appreciate some new addition to your collection."

I chuckled and held the vinyl records he had given me: Elton John, The Clash, and Arctic Monkeys.

- "Collection?"- Morgan asked and looked at me, surprised- "You collect vinyl records, Reid?"

- "Yeah, I do actually,"- I smiled and kept my eyes on the records- "I think it's a unique classic format. It sounds better than digital, and it includes warmth, richness, and depth to the music you don't find in a cd or mp3."

- "And not just classical music?"- Derek was somehow surprised- "You actually listen to any other musical genre?"

- "What are you talking about?"- I argued, almost insulted- "Just because you think I'm a nerd doesn't mean I only listen to classical music. Last year I got a Johnny Cash record. You were there!"

Morgan raised his hands and smiled, defeated. I chuckled and looked at Frank and Mikey.

- "Thank you, guys."

- "Don't worry about it, come here"- Mikey opened his arms and pulled me into a hug. I tapped on his back and smiled.

I noticed JJ's look at Penelope and wondered if she was surprised I had friends out of the BAU. (Y/N) and I were always together, and we usually talked about what we do with her friends during the weekend. Our friends. They were our friends.

- "We already gave him his presents this morning,"- Garcia explained to Frank. I don't know why maybe she thought it was necessary to make sure he understood and let them know they weren't the only ones who had given me presents.

- "Ok, kids, we've got pizza, beer, and a Halloween cupcake for the birthday boy"- (Y/N) walked over and put on a party hat on my head. I smiled and also received the bottle of beer she handed me.

- "Thank you, chipmunk"- I whispered and felt her arm around my waistline, wrapping me sweetly as she rested her body against my side.

- "You are welcome, honey. Happy birthday."

The way she looked at me made me feel I was the most important person in the world for her for a solid minute. And I wondered how I could make her feel the same.

- "So, doc. How was the cake?"- Lu stood by my side and smiled at JJ, who was just talking to me about nothing important.

- "Good! It was delicious! Did you help (Y/N) bake it?"

- "No!"- she shook her head and chuckled- "I just came for moral support yesterday."

- "It was good! Real good! you can't go wrong with chocolate and raspberries."

- "I'm glad"- she smiled and looked at JJ. I shook my head, embarrassed, and made the proper introductions, though (Y/N) had already done it.

- "You have been (Y/N)'s friend since you were kids, right?"- JJ asked, and Lu smiled again, nodding.

- "We were all neighbors growing up. And... you and doc, how long have you been working together?"

- "For the last... three years, I'm the communication liaison of the team"- Lu nodded and sipped her cup of tea.

- "He has been an incredible addition to the Three Stooges' lives"- Lucy joked and turned to me for a moment. Then, she scanned my face carefully, keeping a big, warm smile on her face.

- "Mikey and Frank were so excited to hang out with you. They keep hoping to find Lila Archer each time they go to your house."

I heard JJ laughing and looking at me, surprised. Lu just kept her eyes on her tea for a moment and then stuck out her tongue to me playfully.

- "Lila Archer?"- JJ asked, shocked- "Are you two still talking? Is there something I don't know about?"

- "No! no!"- I quickly tried to explain- "The guys are obsessed with her. Frank, mostly, and they love to bug me with her."

I turned and looked at them. Frank was hugging (Y/N), and Mikey kept trying to steal her beer from her hands as she just chuckled. I stared at them for a second, and I know I smiled. Somehow I felt slightly jealous of Frank and Mikey for always being so physical with her, not overthinking everything they did around her. I always wished I could be like that. But then again, they weren't in love with her.

- "So you and (Y/N)'s friends get along pretty well"- JJ's voice was curious. I kept thinking she was shocked I had other friends.

- "Actually, we consider Spencer our friend,"- Lu answered and chuckled- "Please, don't tell them I told you this, but they always get excited to see you."

- "Me?"- I was shocked- "Why me?"

- "'Cos they admire you a lot. Frank keeps saying you are the coolest guy he has ever known."

I didn't know what to answer. I had never been one of the popular guys, so having Lu telling me those guys thought I was cool was pretty shocking and heartwarming.

- "Hey, doc! I heard you met Mrs. (Y/L/N),"- Frank said from the other side of the room, causing everybody to look at me. I nodded awkwardly and took a sip of my beer- "She's hot, isn't she?"

- "Frank!!"- (Y/N) yelled and hit his arm- "You are talking about my mom!!"

- "I am not ashamed, Nugget! You know what I think about her!"

- "Wait, princess!"- Morgan was still laughing when he started talking- "Your mom is Mrs. Robinson?"

- "I don't know! Frank is just a perv!"- my best friend argued, looking disgusted.

- "Your mom is a hottie. Deal with it!! Mikey thinks so too!!"- Frank threw his friend under the bus trying to save his own ass. Everybody kept laughing as (Y/N) gasped and turned to see him.

- "You are a sick bastard too!!"

- "I haven't said anything!!"- Mikey tried to explain, but it was useless. Everybody kept chuckling.

- "You are thinking about my mom!!"

- "Well, I'm pretty sure Reid thought about her too!"

- "What?! Why me?!"- I shrieked, and I know I blushed.

- "You saw Mrs. (Y/L/N)! Didn't you think she was hot?"- Mikey looked at me and snickered.

- "She was very welcoming and cordial with me"- I tried to say the most neutral things possible.

- "Dude! come on! she is hot!"- Frank argued and looked at me in shock

- "She is my friend's mother!"

- "Yes! please stop talking about my mother!!"- (Y/N) kind of shouted but chuckled a little at the end.- "Instead, can we talk about how hot Morgan looks tonight?"

- "What?"- Derek raised an eyebrow- "Where is that coming from, princess?"

- "Pure honestly"- (Y/N) replied with a warm smile- "Doesn't he, Garcia?"

- "My chocolate thunder is always the center of my attention,"- Penelope answered and winked at Morgan- "And it's not just tonight. He is always delicious."

I shook my head and took a look around. All my friends were together in the same room. For the first time ever. Only Ethan was missing.

- "(Y/N), where do you have more dishes?"- Prentiss asked her as (Y/N) walked back from the kitchen, carrying a tray with drinks.

- "I'll help you"- I quickly ran to the kitchen and grabbed a few more dishes, plus napkins and a few coasters.

- "Thank you, honey bunny"- (Y/N) whispered and smiled at me when I walked back with everything.

- "You surely know your way around this house."- JJ pointed out, with a somehow suspicious tone of voice.

- "We hang out here a lot."- I explained and looked around, trying to find my beer.

- "Here you have, doc"- Mikey handed me a cold one, and I nodded- "The band has a gig Halloween night. If you are in town, you have to go."

- "Sure! I'd love to!"

- "You have a band?"- Garcia asked awed, and Mikey nodded- "You two? together?"

- "Yeah"- Mikey confirmed and looked at Frank, who talked with Morgan and (Y/N)- "Nugget and the doc are our biggest fans. They never miss a show when they are in town."

- "You go to rock shows?!"- Garcia was now in shock and hit my arm- "Does he go to the shows wearing band's t-shirts and jeans?! or in his usual wardrobe??"

Mikey chuckled and looked at me with a confused stare.

- "They don't hang out with you outside work a lot, do they?"

- "Yes! We do!"- and Penelope nearly jumped, insulted by those words- "We are just surprised 'cos there's a whole lot of our resident genius we haven't seen yet! like... going to rock shows!"

- "So you haven't seen him drunk? 'cos drunk doc is a beast!"

- "I am not a beast!"

- "I haven't seen him drunk! Boy wonder!! Why are you wilder with (Y/N)'s friends and not with us?"

- "We are his friends too,"- Mikey corrected her and smiled- "And we might push doc a little further, like the day we bet we couldn't drink a box of milk in 30 seconds."

I laughed, thinking about that moment, embarrassed and amused at the same time. It was true; the guys and I had a completely different dynamic than the one I had with my work team. Probably because from day one, neither Lu, Mikey, nor Frank labeled me as a dork. Well, sure, I was one, but so were them. They made me part of the group instead of being the "weird one" of the group. Somehow with Mikey, Lu, and Frank, I could be just plain Spencer and not Doctor Reid and allow myself to do silly, weird, dorky things, not afraid to be judged.

- "When did that happen?!"- JJ was in shock, overhearing that conversation and walking over with Lu.

- "A few weeks ago,"- Mikey answered and chuckled. I wasn't drunk that night; we just had a few beers. And it had been Frank who was incredibly persuasive about trying the milk challenge.

- "I made an equation, and we tried to beat it,"- I explained JJ, and Mikey laughed right away- "According to it, a regular human being might drink a whole box of milk in 33,3 seconds, and Frank argue he could do it in 30."

- "Spoiler, he couldn't"- Mikey added- "But he gave it a good fight, nearly died, choking."

- "Technically, he would have drowned"- I corrected- "It's called "dry drowning." It happens when water is in the mouth or nose and the vocal cords spasm, trapping the water, causing the person to asphyxiated."

- "That's a real thing?"- Garcia questioned in shock.

- "Yes, you drown, but you don't get any water in your lungs. Instead, it goes through your nose and your mouth, and the muscles close off and spasm."

- "Wow"- Mikey tapped on my back a few times and smiled- "I love that you know so much weird shit, doc. Happy birthday!"

- "Thank you..."

My birthday celebration was a blast. Mikey, Lu, and Frank were the hit of the party, and the BAU loved them. Penelope had a rocky start with Mikey, I think 'cos she was a little jealous I had done more weird things with them than with her, but everything was smooth after they shared their third beer.

I laughed so much my face hurt. Morgan and Frank told the weirdest and most incredible stories. Prentiss came up with a few fun games to play, and everybody was on board with them. Even Hotch. Lu and JJ talked a lot, and the two of them seemed to get along just fine.

(Y/N) was incredible. She made sure everything was perfect. The fact my birthday party had Halloween decorations melted my heart. She had all my favorite snacks, pizza toppings, and drinks. Even a Halloween cupcake. What else could I ask for in life? I had everything I always dreamt of: a family. And a best friend who loved me. Not in the same way I did love her, but you can't always have everything in life, right?

- "Thank you for everything, Munchkin!!"- one drunk Garcia hugged (Y/N) for the hundredth time, standing by the door. At two in the morning, she was the only one left, along with Morgan, who was her drive back home.

- "See you Monday at work, batgirl"- (Y/N) hugged her and giggled as Garcia nearly choked her with her tight embrace.

- "And you come here!!"- Penelope hugged me too and kissed my cheek- "I love you so much, boy wonder!! I'm so happy you are happy, 'cos you deserve to be the happiest you can be!"

- "Thank you, Garcia,"- I giggled and looked at Morgan- "Are you going to be ok?"

- "Hey!"- Penelope hit my arm (for the hundredth time that night) and frowned- "What do you mean if he is going to be ok? I can behave!"

- "I know you can! I'm sure you can! I'm asking Morgan 'cos it's late and he has to drive!"

- "I'm gonna be ok, kid."- Derek answered and smiled at me- "Do you need a ride?"- I shook my head and heard the words I was secretly waiting to listen to all night long.

- "You can crush the couch if you want to,"- (Y/N) suggested and turned to me, shrugging.

- "I can help you clean,"- I added right away, and she smiled. Morgan stayed still, staring at me, and I swear he was trying to read every single facial movement I could do. So I just looked at him and smiled.

- "Ok then, we'll leave you two alone. See you Monday at work"- Derek tapped on my back and gave (Y/N) a small hug. Garcia winked and walked out.

Just like that, it was finally just the two of us.

- "Did you have fun?"- (Y/N) whispered after she closed the door and rested her back against the wood. I nodded and smiled, staring at her eyes shine.

- "Very much. This was actually my first surprise party."

- "Ever?"- (Y/N) questioned and frowned- "Really? then I am glad I didn't know that before, 'cos I don't think I could have managed the pressure of having to make you the best surprise party on earth."

- "You raised to the occasion"- she smiled and walked to the kitchen. And I followed her.

- "Are you hungry?"- I heard her asking as she opened the fridge. I grabbed a bunch of dishes and glasses on my way to the kitchen and piled them on the sink.

- "Not really. I think it was really too much pizza."

- "Spencer Walter Reid, there is never enough pizza,"- she argued, trying to stay serious.

- "My stomach is telling me otherwise."

- "So there's no room left for a slice of chocolate raspberry cake?"- I turned around and found her smiling from the fridge. She held a cake and giggled playfully.

- "You baked another?"

- "I had some free time this morning, and I had the feeling this is how the evening was going to end."

I don't think there are enough words in the vocabulary to express how those words made me feel. And most of all, I don't think my brain functioned correctly each time (Y/N) looked at me how she was going that moment.

- "So honey. You, me, your new blu ray of the 7th season of Doctor Who."

- "Which blu ray?"

- "The one I just got you, dork."

When I thought I couldn't love her more. There it was. My doom.

- "You are just making this incredibly impossible for your birthday,"- I joked, and she burst out laughing.

- "You can see through me, doctor. I hate it."

- "I'm the best profiler in the BAU, (Y/N)."

- "Really? then why didn't you discover I was planning this party?"- I made a pause and bit my inner cheek. (Y/N) turned to me again and crossed her arms on her chest, waiting for an answer.

- "I'm guessing 'cos you are the best liar in the BAU."

- "You are god damn right."

We cleaned the living room, left most of the dirty dishes piled on the sink to take care of them in the morning. Then we cuddled on the couch with a cup of tea and some cake each.

- "Are you comfortable?"- I asked her wrapping my arm around her neck as she rested her head on my shoulder.

- "Perfect, you?"

- "Me too"

- "Hit it, then. It's time travel time, doc."

(Y/N)'s point of view

I woke up in Spencer's arms. He was taking me bridal style to my room. My face was pressed against his chest, and I swear I felt butterflies in my stomach just feeling his smell.

- "What is going on?"- I mumbled and saw him smiling at me.

- "You were snoring on the couch, so I'm taking you to bed."- he whispered, placing me carefully on my bed. Then, he took out my shoes and covered me with the blanket.

- "Stay,"- I pleaded and held his hand- "Don't sleep on the couch tonight. Stay with me."

I kept my eyes closed, 'cos it was embarrassing to see him as I asked him to sleep with me on the same bed.

- "Are you sure?"

- "It's your birthday. You can't sleep on a couch. And it's not like it hadn't happened before."

I knew I was right. We had slept together in the same room many times while we were out of town during cases. We had also slept together in the same bed before when Reid was detoxing in my house; though we never actually talked about it, it just happened. Those times we literally just passed out due to exhaustion. But this time was different. That was me asking him to stay with me. And he didn't refuse.

I heard him take off his shoes and then walked around the room until he reached the other side of the bed and got under the covers with me.

- "Good night, batsy,"- I whispered and snuggled closer to him. He didn't even hesitate and hugged me tight, leaving a sweet kiss on the top of my head.

- "Good night, chipmunk"- his voice was soft and careful, just as his hands were caressing my back. I sighed and snuggled even closer, craving more of his touch.

- "Happy birthday, honey bunny."

- "Thank you, ma chère"- those words gave me shivers, and the way he murmured them made me feel things I shouldn't have felt for him, especially if he was in that bed with me.

I didn't want to be in love with Spencer. But I couldn't stop those feelings. I had to remind myself he didn't see me the same way. It was hard to deal with those feelings when I was cuddled with him in my bed. And I knew I had gotten under that situation willingly. But I just couldn't help myself. For once, I wanted to know what it felt like to sleep in Spencer's arms. I could pretend to be cool the following day, but right there under those blankets, all I wanted was to pretend he loved me the way I loved him.

Is that too sad? Maybe pathetic? Holding your best friend close in the middle of the night, pretending he is your boyfriend. Feeling how you fall deeper and deeper in love with him, knowing you will never actually kiss him or even romantically hold his hand. But it doesn't matter, 'cos what he gives you every day is way more important than that.

I snuggled closer to Spencer, feeling how he locked his arms around me. I inhaled deeply, trying to burn in my memory how everything felt like. I looked at him for a second and decided to force myself to sleep. I knew it would be hard, 'cos though I was weary, I wanted to enjoy that moment for as long as possible.

There I was, The Ice Princess like Paul had called me once, melted in Spencer's arms, wishing there was a way to stay there forever.

- "Are you ok?"- I heard Reid whisper suddenly, slightly moving to put an eye on me.

- "Yeah, why?"

- "Because you can't sleep."

- "Am I keeping you up?"

- "No... I was worried you weren't comfortable."

- "I am"- I murmured and sighed- "I was just going over the day again. But I'll fall asleep in a minute."

- "Ok..."

- "Are you comfortable?"- he hummed in response and caressed my back sweetly until I started zoning out slowly.

I didn't want to fall asleep, 'cos being awake for once was better than dreaming.

Yes. As cheesy as that.

I woke up to the smell of coffee the next morning. Spencer had made breakfast, and he had also done pretty much all the dishes. As a result, my house was cleaner than it was before the party.

- "You didn't have to clean the whole place on your own,"- I argued as I sat at the kitchen island and sipped my cup of coffee.

- "I know, but I wanted to thank you for throwing an amazing party- Spencer smiled and held his cup of coffee with both hands for a moment- I wanted to make you breakfast, but all I managed to do was the Spencer Reid Special

- "You know I love it!"- I chuckled and watched him turn around to get me a bowl of cereal and milk.

- "Breakfast of champs!"- I teased and grabbed my spoon- "Did you sleep well?"

- "Yes, very much. You?"

- "I don't think I sleep. I fell unconscious. I didn't even hear you get out of bed. I was too tired. It's been a long couple of weeks."- I chewed my cereal as Spencer sat across from me.

- "Yes. But we've managed well without Gideon"- Spencer brought him up, and that surprised me. He hadn't talked about him or even said Gideon's name for the last few weeks.

- "Yeah, we did a fantastic job"- I reassured his words, and he nodded in silence- "Are you excited to meet David Rossi?"

- "Yeah! I mean, that man is a legend. I can't believe he wants to leave retirement and join the BAU again after all these years."

- "I heard he is freaking loaded"- I finished my cereal and sipped my coffee- "Garcia told me that he shouldn't even work anymore with all the money he has made from his book."

- "Why do you think he wants to come back to the BAU?"- Spencer asked and looked into my eyes with a childish expression.

- "I have no idea. Maybe being a millionaire is not as exciting as catching serial killers."

I stood up as I spoke and opened the fridge. There was still some cake left, and I knew Spencer would love to have his sugary coffee with even more sugar.

- "Or perhaps he has unfinished business,"- he said and smiled as soon as he saw the pastry.

- "I just hope he is nice. I don't want to deal with an asshole with a gigantic ego who can't handle working as a team."

- "I heard Hotch saying he is very nice."

- "Assholes are usually nice with Hotch."

- "Are you implying Hotch is an asshole?"- I set to dishes and frowned at Reid as I cut a slice of cake.

- "No! I am saying assholes respect him. And they are colleagues. I don't know if Rossi will work well with younger people, though."

- "We'll have to see tomorrow."

Reid was right. And I didn't want to create a false idea of David Rossi in my head before I met him. I had already read all of his books, and when Hotch told us he might join the team, I hyperventilated for a bit of bit. I mean it when I say David Rossi is a legend. Working along with him would be the most incredible experience ever. But only if he was nice.

I had worked hard for almost two years to get where I was in the BAU. And I didn't want to go through the whole process again, proving to Rossi I deserved to be where I was.

- "So, do you have any plans for today?"- Spencer asked me suddenly, and I just shook my head- "Mikey said they had a show on October 31st."

- "Yes! And that happens to be also Frank's birthday! So be prepared, 'cos if we are in town, we are gonna party hard that night!!"- Spencer smiled and nodded.

- "Then maybe we could go get him a present later,"- he suggested.

- "Deal. And perhaps some new Halloween decorations."

Oh! His excited face was priceless. That boy loves Halloween as much as I do, and each year we got all the best decor to keep our houses festive all year long. 'Cos we are Halloween dorks.

- "You know, Garcia and JJ were pretty shocked last night when they found out I go out and party with you and the guys."

- "Why?"- I cut him a second slice of cake and put it on his dish. He shrugged and sipped his coffee.

- "I guess they didn't know I am human."

- "Don't say that, honey."

- "It was a little upsetting too."

- "Why?"

- "'Cos they kept calling them "your friends," referring to you, and they kept telling them they are my friends too. What? So now I can't party or have friends?"

Spencer was honestly upset with those facts, and I could totally understand why. Everybody treated him like a kid and a nerd. They now knew he did things that weren't expected from someone like him, like going to rock shows and partying. So, of course, they were going to be shocked.

- "Have I ever told you meeting you is the best thing that the BAU has given me?"- I answered, in a rush of honesty that came out of nowhere.

- "No"- he mumbled and pouted like a kid- "Why are you telling me this?"

- "'Cos I wanted you to know."- I smiled and stared at him for a second- "Never let anyone make you feel you are less than awesome, Spencer Walter Reid. 'Cause you are the most amazing person I've ever met."

The way he looked at me, in a weird mix between shock and gratitude, melted me. After that, he didn't say anything; he just blushed. And I guess I was too scared to continue talking, 'cause all I managed to do next was excuse myself and lock in the bathroom to shower.

Spencer's point of view

I walked into the bullpen the following Monday, ready to spread my Halloween love. After spending Sunday with (Y/N), I was in a fully Halloween mood. We had gotten Frank a birthday present, also did some Halloween shopping, and even got pumpkins to carve that day after work. October is my favorite month, and Halloween is hands down my favorite season.

- "I'm going to eat you!!"- I groaned on Morgan's neck and made him jump in frighten as Prentiss laughed, staring at the scene. I was wearing a Frankenstein mask, carrying bags of candies and a bunch of decorations for my desk and the office.

- "Reid!"- Derek complained, but I just smiled and took off my mask.

- "Happy all hallows eve, folk!!"- I waved and walked to my desk- "To paraphrase from Celtic mythology, tomorrow night, all order is suspended, and the barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily removed!!"- I joked and threw Emily a plastic vudú head. But Morgan wasn't in the mood, I guess.

- "See, that right there is why Halloween creeps me out."

- "You are scared of Halloween??"- I narrowed my eyes and looked at him, not getting what he was talking about.

- "I didn't say I was scared. I said I was creeped out. There's a difference there, youngster. You should look it out."

- "What creeps you out about it?"- Emily asked what I was about to.

- "I don't know, people wearing masks"- he pointed at me and added- "I don't like folks in disguises."

- "That's the best thing about Halloween. You can be anyone you want to be"- I argued and threw some candies to him to cheer up his morning.

- "Nah, I'm pretty good just being me."

- "Yeah, why is it that neither of those points of view surprises me?"

Emily joked and shook her head. I was about to discuss Morgan's point when I saw (Y/N) walk into the bullpen. She was carrying a gigantic plastic Jacko lantern while wearing a zombie mask we had just gotten together the day before.

- "I want brain!!"- she moaned, and Emily laughed as soon as she saw her.

- "Not you too, princess!!"- Morgan whined as soon as he saw her- "We were just talking about this."

- "What? You are not a Halloween fan?"

- "Not as much as you two nerds"- he answered and shook his head- "You know what, though? On the flip side, it does provide a pretty good reason to cozy up with a scary flick and a little Halloween honey."

And as soon as Derek said those words, (Y/N) and Emily frowned, disgusted.

- "Halloween honey, now I am creeped out,"- Emily argued, and (Y/N) shook her head, leaving the Jacko lantern on her desk carefully.

- "Guys, he's here,"- I warned them, trying to be as discreet as possible, but I don't think it worked. David Rossi walked over, along with section chief Erin Strauss. (Y/N) made a gesture and reminded me to take off my mask, as I quickly did my best to look presentable. Rossi just smiled at us and walked straight to Hotch's office.

- "So, do you guys think he is going to stay here for good?"- (Y/N) asked, standing by my side. She reached out and handed me a bag filled with my favorite candies for no reason and just smiled.

- "I don't know. Maybe they asked him to fill in while they find a replacement for Gideon,"- Emily said, her eyes glued at Hotch's office, though none of us could see a thing of what was going on in there. We just saw Strauss walking out and JJ walking over, most likely to announce Hotch we had a case.

- "So, what did you guys do Saturday after we left?"- Morgan asked (Y/N) and me and smiled pleased, probably ready to tease us over anything we might tell him.

- "Nothing really, we got naked and did the dirty on every spot you sat on in my apartment."

(Y/N) answered as casually as possible, not even paying attention to his face. Emily burst out laughing, and I know I blushed, looking down at the files on my desk.

- "There's no need to get all defensive, princess,"- Morgan answered and shook his head, smiling at her.

- "Well, it's not the first time you ask about what we've done with that teasing tone of voice, so excuse me for giving you the answer you wanted to hear."

- "Guys,"- I whispered and looked over. Emily and Derek stood up as soon as they noticed Hotch and Rossi were walking towards us.

- "SSA David Rossi, this is SSA Emily Prentiss"

- "Sir!"- she smiled and shook his hand as he nodded.

- "SSA Derek Morgan,"- Hotch announced, and my friend shook Rossi's hand.

- "It's an honor, agent Rossi."

- "Please, just Dave."

- "SSA (Y/L/N)"- he said, and (Y/N) shook his hand too.

- "Nice to meet you, sir."

- "And Doctor Spencer Reid"

- "Sir, if I could talk to you later about your work with the Scarsdale skinner. Psycho-linguistics is an incredibly dynamic field, and the fact that your profile for his reading habit ultimately led to his capture is something I find so incredibly intriguing."

- "Reid"- I know I was carried away when Hotch interrupted me- "Reid, slow down. He'll be here for a while. You can catch up with him later."

Rossi was a little overwhelmed. I'm guessing it was because he was meeting many new people, which can be pretty intimidating at any age. So I smiled and nodded.

- "Sorry,"- I whispered and looked at Hotch to see if he was mad at me, but no. If anything, he was amused.

- "No problem, doctor,"- Rossi added and smiled.

- "Maybe you guys can talk on the jet,"- Hotch suggested, surprising Rossi.

- "The jet?"

- "We've got a jet now"- and Hotch even smiled at Rossi, who was honestly shocked.

- "Are you serious?"

- "Yeah, it comes pretty handily. Come on, JJ is waiting."

Hotch and Rossi walked away to the conference room. Emily followed them, along with Morgan, who also teased me and smiled. I stood still and waited for (Y/N) for a second and felt her hand on mine as we walked to catch with the team. She just smiled, and I did the same. Moments like those were the ones that made me keep going, kept me sane, and made me feel honestly happy. I didn't want it to end.

But it did. Eventually.

The case took us to Carrollton, Texas. It was the first one we had with David Rossi as a part of the team, and it was weird. Rossi didn't really know how to work as a team, and if there was something the BAU had in its DNA was working together, no matter what.

The first time on the field with him, he barely talked to (Y/N) or me. As a matter of fact, she then pointed out she felt we were on his way. In fact, he collected his thoughts and wrote everything he might come up with but never spoke it out loud. So we had to take the words from him.

- "The man is a legend, (Y/N)"- I sipped his coffee and looked at how my best friend shook her head. We were sitting at the Carrollton police office, waiting for Hotch to finish talking with the police chief so we could deliver the profile to all the officials.

- "So? The fact he is a famous profiler means he can't fucking talk to us? give me a break! he is acting like a diva!"

- "He and Gideon created the BAU"- I tried to make a point, but I knew I didn't have any good point to save Rossi from my best friend's.

- "We are ready to deliver the profile,"- JJ announced, and the two of us stood up quickly- "Hey, I'm sorry you missed your concert,"- she whispered as we walked to meet the rest of the team.

- "Yeah, I was looking forward to seeing Frank and Mikey's band live,"- I said and smiled at her, surprised she remembered it.

- "Were your friends too upset?"

- "No, they are already used to it, which is actually pretty upsetting too. That means we've lost a lot of shows. But they know it's because we are working, and not because we don't want to go"- JJ smiled at me and chuckled slightly.

- "What? You still can't believe I go to rock shows?"- I asked her and raised an eyebrow, trying to understand her reaction.

- "No, it's just that you keep saying "we," and it makes you sound like you are an old married couple who does everything together,"- she answered and shook her head as she pointed at (Y/N) and me. I didn't know what to say at that, and I don't think (Y/N) heard her, or she would have said something (anything) to JJ. I just stared at her confused, and she cut me one more smile before we heard Emily speak.

- "There's a sophistication and patience in what this unsub does that suggests a level of maturity. We believe this puts his age in the mid-30s to 40s range."- Prentiss started describing the serial killer we were hunting. I turned to her and nodded, ready to continue giving the profile.

- "Michelle Colucci was taken from the primary crime scene and disposed of at the tertiary crime scene four days later. That means she was held somewhere for at least three days. You can't really just hold a victim anywhere for days on end, so he most likely has access to a house of some kind."

- "And he's also fairly tech-savvy"- Morgan continued- "The fliers were made on a computer, and it's probable that he used a device to intercept the last victim's phone call."

- "Witnesses in the victim's neighborhood say they might have seen a white man putting up fliers, but none of them could describe him. Even with all the media this case has received"- Hotch added. One of the detectives sighed, annoyed we couldn't give him anything better.

- "Great"

- "Actually, what that tells us is that there is absolutely nothing remarkable about this man,"- (Y/N) said and looked straight into the detective's eyes- "He is exceedingly average. Average height, average build."

- "It extends to his professional life as well,"- I added and nodded at her- "He most likely works in a field where he doesn't stand out. Doesn't really make a mark."

- "His lack of distinction is part of his psychopathy,"- (Y/N) said and took a look around the room- "We have hundreds of interactions with people every day. Most of those involve someone overlooking someone else. Most of us don't pay attention to being ignored, but to this kind of unsub, each oversight is intentional, especially when it comes from this object of sexual desire. He begins to obsess over her until she is all he can think about, and the rage builds until he has to attack that person."

- "So he is pissed off that nobody noticed him?"- the sheriff asked and narrowed his eyes. Most people get upset when they find out serial killers do what they do for such pointless reasons.

Hotch was starting to explain his plan to the sheriff and how we would make him contact the police when his attention focused on the tv. The news showed the exact same mask the killer was using on his victims, something we had explicitly asked everybody not to share with the press.

- "JJ, how'd they get that?"- Hotchner's voice was shocked and upset. JJ looked at him, confused, shaking her head.

- "Not from me! Hotch, I called the local police departments, and I stressed withholding the mask!"

- "I called them"- Rossi pointed to the tv as soon as he walked into the room and didn't give it much thought to what was going on. We all looked at each other, confused, and waited for Aaron's reaction.

- "What?"

- "I said the FBI think the mask means he's impotent,"- Rossi explained, and none of us moved or even said a word. All we could notice was how Hotch's face was trying to hide his anger.

- "Can I speak to you for a second?"- he asked David, and the two of them walked away.

- "So, assholes were usually nice with Hotch, right?"- I whispered into (Y/N)'s ear and heard her chuckle. Morgan looked at us and frowned. I guess it wasn't the time for humor after all.

- "So the legend likes to fly solo,"- Prentis whispered as she stood by our side.

- "Are you surprised?"- (Y/N) crossed her arms on her chest and sighed. All of us kept an eye on the door that separated us from Hotch and Rossi.

- "I don't know. I wasn't expecting this today, but I can't say I'm shocked either"- Emily murmured and shook her head- "I just thought maybe he'd know how to work with a team."

- "Now I'm scared,"- (Y/N) said and looked around- "Do you think he knows how to work with females on the team? Or will he keep asking us to bring him coffee?"- Prentiss chuckled at (Y/N)'s words, and Morgan placed a hand on her shoulder.

- "Come on, princess, he is old but not that old."

- "I already went through a lot to validate myself in front of Aaron and Gideon the last two years"- (Y/N) confessed- "I am not planning to do the same with him. He has to know, everybody in this team is here for a reason."

- "We are not letting him do that,"- Derek assured her and cut him a warm smile- "Personally, I won't let him do that."

We caught the killer later that very same day. Well, Rossi killed him, to be completely honest. The team reached his house and saved the last victim. She was hurt, but she was going to be ok soon. The neighborhood was filled with kids trick or treating, and the fact the area was surrounded by police cars and ambulances alerted everybody.

- "Honey..."- (Y/N) whispered and held my hand as she walked me down the street- "Those kids are watching the police procedure, and I don't wanna ruin their Halloween."- she said and pouted.

- "Do you wanna give them some candies?"- I asked her and opened my satchel- "I still got some of the ones you gave me."

- "I love you so much"- she kissed my cheek and grabbed some of the candies. I stayed still for a second and just stared at her walking to the kids and how their faces lit up when they saw the candies. I guessed that's how I looked whenever she walked to me.

–

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General Taglist

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–

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Next update: June 2nd, 2021

[bandgeek4life8]

Guardians - chapter two the lost city of atlantis

Chapter 1

WC: 3, 453

Season 1, Episode 2: The Lost City of Atlantis

Previously on Guardian in Jim's POV "The Nightmares have emerged once more." Pabbie told everyone.

"GREAT GRONKA MORKA!!" Blinky exclaimed.

"And they attend to assimilate an army. They already have the witch Gothel, the bogeyman Pitch Black, the dragon tamer Drago Bludvist with his mother of dragons Red Death, the prince Hans of Southern Isles and Duke of Weselton, the cursed bear Mor'du, the Pirate "Captain Hook" Killian James, and the Boggan Mandrake. And I have a list of who they want. From my visions. But only two people I wish to say it to: Vendel and... James Lake Jr. Because she wishes it."

"Who wishes for me to know?" I asked him.

"Starling."

Some people are chosen for this life and have no choice but to accept its transgressions. Others spend their life completely in the dark about this life we lead. Some, like me, choose to live this life. It is a lot of work for anybody. Not just anybody can get into this life and survive its trials and tribulations. But we were born for this. To become guardians. But I'm not a guardian yet. I'm just an apprentice.

|{[INSERT_OPENING_SEQUENCE]}|

"Welcome to the first meeting of the Druidia Order." I announced.

"Did you have to name us after a planet in your favorite Star Wars movie?" asked the raven-haired time-traveller Wilbur Robinson.

"Spaceballs is not a Star Wars movie, Wilbur." Currently undercover spy, Walter Beckett told him.

Wilbur rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"Did your dad teach you anything about Star Wars?" asked blonde enpath/ hockey-player from Wisconsin, Riley Anderson.

"Only that he hated the sequels, he loves the originals, and respects what the prequels tried to do." Wilbur said.

"Can we please get to the topic at hand please?" I asked everyone.

Everyone in the room grumbled out a yes and we continued with the precedings. Wow. That sounds way too formal for me.

"Well what can we do? We already made allies with the Arendelle trolls via Elsa and Anna. We had Grand Pabbie alert the Trollhunter of the Nightmares." said Ted Wiggins.

"Which means a group of you have to go find the essence stones." Megamind appeared with a plate of, "who wants cookies?"

"Are you growing soft on us, Meg?" Megamind basically growled at Wilbur for the nickname he used.

"I am trying to babysit Gru's oldest daughter and her friends." Megamind told him looking the kid dead in the eye.

"What do you know of the essence stones?" I asked him, ignoring the intense staredown happening between the two makes.

Megamind turned his attention away from Wilbur only for the time-traveller to blow a raspberry at him and Megamind to turn back and glare at him I rolled my eyes. The same old stupid antics. "I know where you can find the essence stone of the ocean."

"If you tell me we have to befriend Poseidon or-."

"It's in Atlantis." Megamind said.

"Or that." I facepalmed. "And how would you know that?"

"Because I have an evil underwater lair in the city of Atlantis." Cue another facepalm from me.

"And why...? You know what? I don't want to know. So how are we getting there?" I asked.

"It's not a matter of how we, but rather how who is getting there." Megamind said.

"That makes no sense whatsoever, dude." Hiro said as he walked into the room followed by Lucy Tuchi.

"Some of us will go on the mission while the rest research the rest of the essence stones." Megamind suggested.

"You know... your ideas are normally terrible. But this one is actually a good idea." Wilbur told him.

The alien growled. "Easy now, Megamind. When we heading out? And who is coming along for the ride?"

"You, Rayla, Ezran, Callum, Sisu, Hiccup, Jack, Light Furry, Walter, and Toothless." Megamind told us. "And you will leave tomorrow. After school."

"Alright. Before we do anymore planning, I need pizza." I walked over to where Hiro plopped the pizza on.

|{[INSERT_COMMERCIAL HERE]}| "

I cannot believe he has the audacity for this! He knows we're not on the best of terms, and yet he does this." I sighed.

"I'm sure he has a reason." said Hiro.

"It's Megamind. It's a stupid-ass reason." I told him.

Hiro sighed. "But you miss hanging out with Toby and Jim. And you-."

"Don't even finish that sentence. I know what you were going to say." Hiro gapped at me. "I know what you were going to say. Only three people know it. And one betrayed me."

My phone vibrated in my hoodie's pocket and I opened it up to see a text from my grandmother, Margaret. "Is that Marge? What she said?"

"She's wondering about the you-know-what with the you-know-who." I told him. She wants to know about James Lake Jr being the Trollhunter. Grandpa would not be pleased with this anyway. But he's dead. And he doesn't matter.

"You have gym next block right?" I groaned. Of course I forgot. And why of all days did we have to do the Pacer test today!

"And we're doing the pacer test today too!" I would have banged my head on a locker if we weren't coming from History. "Kill me now! Woe is me!"

"Stop being overdramatic. And I'm off my way to Robotics." Hiro said once we got to the hall where we would part ways.

"Don't take over the world of robotics without your team first." I called out to gim.

"Yeah, yeah. Just focus on making chemistry after gym, but preferably during." the smart-ass called back.

I'm gonna kill him one of these days. Just you wait, Hiro Hamada. I grumbled and continued on my way to the ends of the earth. Also known as gym. Because I lack the athletic ability of a worm. My arms are basically noodles before submerged in H20. I got dressed in my PE clothes and walked outside to the bleachers where I plopped myself down on. Gym. The one class I don't have my safety net to catch me. The one block where I feel alone. Completely and helplessly alone.

"Hey, [Y/N]. Mind if we sit here?" asked Toby.

It was just him and Jim. What on Earth are they up to? I scooted some ways away from my spot and patted the spot beside me. Jim took the spot beside me while Toby took the bench in front of us.

"We haven't hung out just the three of us in awhile, huh?" Toby remarked.

"You both seem busy since the semester started. I can't blame you for that one."  I told them. The pair shrugged at me, but it was a lying shrug. I would know. I do the same ones. "Anyway, what are we doing for our History Project, Jamie?" I looked over at him.

"I don't know. Wanna brainstorm some ideas after school?" Jim asked me.

"Can't. I have a family thing." Lying to them has gotten harder since I found out. Hopefully they don't catch. But they're idiots. They won't catch on... I hope. "I can come over tomorrow after school if you want."

"That... Th-th-th-that'll be gr-gr-gr-great." What's with the stammer? It's weird. "Oh, don't forget about Pig Zombies on Saturday."

"Don't worry. I have it all set in my calendar. So, what time is the movie?" I asked them.

Toby and Jim shared a look. Oh that is never good. "We don't actually know."

"Then, what are we going to do about Saturday?" I asked them.

"We're more of idea men." Like they're any close to being men. "Creating a plan is someone else's problem." Of course.

"You two haven't changed at all, have you? I'll get to work on that sometime this evening. You guys still have email, righr?" I asked them.

"Who still uses e-mail anymore?" Toby inquired.

"Good point. I'll just have Lucy drive us to the theater anyway." I replied. "So, how are you and Claire going, Jamie?"

"O-o-o-oh, m-m-me and Claire?" stammered Jim. That's strange.

"Yes, you and Claire. You two are dating, aren't you?" I asked him.

"Oh, y-y-yeah. We're g-g-g-good." Hmm. Peculiar. But Jim's always been like this when pertaining to Claire. Nothing suspicious about that.

I hope.

|{[INSERT_COMMERCIAL_HERE]}|

Jim

"So, you have a study date with [Y/N] tomorrow huh?" Claire teased me while we walked to Blinky's library.

"What-. Wait! You told her!" I exclaimed to Toby who was on my left side.

"Of course, I did. Dude, you've been hopelessly obliviously in love with this girl since she stole your first kiss on the monkey bars when we were nine. And she-."

"She clearly has feelings for you, but she's not gonna act upon them since you know we're fake dating and all that jazz." Claire said.

I sighed. "You're the smart one. Couldn't you have come up with something... um... better?"

"What? Because a wuss like you was going to ask her out if I didn't say we were dating?" Claire asked him, raising an eyebrow at her friend.

I sighed once more. She clearly had a point. And Tobes seemed to catch it too. "He tried to ask her if she wanted to go see Pig Zombie 6 for her sixteenth birthday, but dragged me along with them because he wussed out of calling it a date."

Claire tapped her chin in thought. I do not understand girls. Then, she did the thing where you smack your fist against your hand in an aha! idea moment. Which is what transpired next. "I have a perfect idea for your movie date on Saturday."

"Am I going to regret this?" I asked her.

"I hope not. I'm helping you whether you want me to or not." Yea me! Internal frown.

We made it Blinky's library in which the four arm troll was talking animatedly to Vendell. About Essence Stones? What the fuzz buckets are those?

"Um, what are the Essence Stones?" I piped up.

"The Essence Stones are the only thing that can combat the Oncoming Storm." Vendel explained.

"Which is why we should be looking for them! We already know where one is! The Sea Stone!" Blinky told him.

"I already told you the Starling has this under control. This is her fight. Not ours. We shouldn't-."

"But then why have Pabbie tell us about the resurgence anyways?!" Blinky cut him off. I don't think Blinky has ever interrupted Vendel before. This is a first.

"Because to warn us of an even greater danger, Blinkous!! One that we have to face on our own! As Trolls!" the elder roared.

I never saw a look of fear as intense as the look that crossed Blinky's face when Vendel told him that. A greater danger? Even Aaarrrggghh! and Draal had the same look as Blinky. What did it all mean? Vendel left the library.

"I don't care what the goat says. We're getting the Sea Stone." Blinky told us.

"And how do we acquire it?" asked Claire.

"Hate Gyre." Aaarrrgghh! cried. Oh.

"And where would we find the Sea Stone?" Toby asked. "It's underwater right? And we can't breathe in water? So is it in an aquarium? Washed up on a beach?"

"I'll tell you where when we get to the Gyre." Claire, Toby, and I shared a look before shrugging our shoulders and following Blinky to the Gyre.

When we got there, we reached the Gyre and hopped in. "So, where are we going?"

"Under the sea. In an underwater palace where there is no water inside located in what you humans refer to as The Bermuda Triangle. Get ready for Atlantis." And before the three of us could protest, Blinky put in the coordinates and we zipped off towards... did he really say Atlantis? And the Bermuda Triangle?

But I didn't have time to question it as we arrived in a palace? And our clothes were soaking wet. But we never submerged in water? You know what? I shouldn't question it. Me and my friends huddled for warmth. It'll be awhile before we're dry. But why isn't- you know what? Never mind. I don't care.

"Okay, so where do we go first?" asked Toby.

"We head for the treasure room. The Jewel of Atlantis is the Sea Stone." Blinky told us.

"Why are we wet, but you aren't?" asked Claire.

"No clue." Blinky shrugged his shoulders.

The three of us grumbled but followed after Blinky with Aaarrrgghh! and Draal taking the rear. This is going to be a long evening. Our little group trudged, our squeaky footprints giving our location to anyone who would be here. And I think someone was here. Because a familiar ball of silver and blue was charging at us. Not us. Me. Followed by a march larger greenish-blue dragon.

"Hi, Azymondias." I said to the baby dragon when he jumped into my arms.

"I see you humans have already met the Prince. Starling's Zym seems to like you Mr Lake." the green-ish blue dragon said. Um... do dragons normally...

"YOU TALK?!?!" Thanks for that, Tobes.

"Of course, I do. I'm Sisu. Starling sent me after Little Azymondias to make sure he stayed out of trouble." Why aren't Blinky, Aarrrgghh!, and Draal freaking out about there being another dragon? And the elf being here?

"You six, now-seven, looking for the Treasure Room?" asked Sisu.

I shivered as a breeze went by. Why was there a breeze? We're in a dry castle underwater! This is just too weird.

"We were headed that way right now!" Blinky told the dragon.

Azymondias coughed. Or sneezed? I don't know. But he zapped me and I yelped and I'm... dry? Well alot dryer than before. Uh, thank you. Living dryer thay could kill me at any given moment. But you're still cute. So you're forgiven if you do.

"Well I wouldn't go that way! That's where Meg put his evil lair at." Sisu told us.

"Lair?" "Meg?"

"Meg is what the time-traveler calls Megamind. And he placed a lair here when he was going through his 'evil' phase." I did not know Dragons did air quotes.

"Time Traveler? Like the Doctor? Or Loki?" askes Toby.

"Looks like a mix of Matt Smith and Loki as a tween with too much hair gel. Alright, kids follow me." Sisu told us.

Zym appeared on my shoulder, wrapping his small body around on my shoulder and we followed the hopping dragon towards the treasure room. We had reached the treasure room, avoiding all the traps (that was on the ceiling for some strange reason). We arrived there. And Sisu peered inside before letting us enter. Strange.

But I couldn't help peering over Sisu's sboulder "Are you really angry that the Trollhunter keeps unknowingly stealing your pet?" That sounded like... no it can't be.

"Azymondias is not my pet. My pet sounds like I chose to take care of him. The bundle of zappy madness chose me to take care of him. So if anything, I'm his pet." Please tell me that's not who I think it is. But the-I'm guessing- Startouch Elf looks nothing like her. Not one bit. Well maybe except for the nose. And the eyes.

"You make absolutely no sense. And yet you love him anyway." the other voice said. A male with slick-back hair. This must be the time-traveler Wow. Sisu was spot on.

"Kids, easy now. We wouldn't want this to get into the wrong hands. Not this close to the Cotillion." A brunette male that appeared to be the oldest of the group. Why does he look so familiar to me?

"I have a question for you, pig snout. Meg said you wouldn't be here. Why the hell are you here? And why are you even here?" the elf asked.

"I stowed away because none of you are smart." the time-traveller said.

"Says the royal dumbass." the female elf sighed. "I'm so young and yet I feel so old." she emphasized. I was half expecting her to do a dramatic fall like they always seem to do in soap operas notthatIwatchsoapoperasinthefirstplacethat'sabsurd.

"I already knew that, dumbass." time-traveler said.

"Go on, Trollhunter." Sisu used her tail to push me toward the elf's group to retrieve the essence stone. "Introduce yourself."

And suddenly I stumbled upon the room making the group's attention turn to me. "Um...hi." Cue the awkward wave. "I'm... James Lake Jr? I'm the... Trollhunter." I held out the Amulet of Merlin. I could practically sense Toby and Claire facepalming at this.

"Starling, I think this one is for you to handle." I now noticed the brunette boy that stood beside the other elf. Is that... Callum Schlott?? Um... I hope if that is him, he doesn't tell [Y/N] about this.

"I am the one they refer to as Starling as you must know. And we don't need you here. To help us." The girl's hand were running up and down a strand of her waist length periwinkle hair. [Y/N] did the same thing when she had long hair. Not the time Jim.

"I think we do. Because the Seastone is missing if you've forgotten." the other elf said. She sounds like Rayla. And sort of looks like her too.

"THE SEASTONE IS GONE!?!?!?" Blinky exclaimed.

"Unfortunately so. Now, one advantage turns out to be a setback." I didn't notice the other brunette who had a black dragon that was acting like a cat by his feet.

"Do you have any leads?" asked Claire as she stepped forward.

"Just a Roman Penny. No clue from where though." Starling told us. "Now, I think it's time you kids return to California. Don'tyouthink."

|{[INSERT_COMMERCIAL_HERE]}|

"So Atlantis was a flopp?" I had already told Draal about the whole atlantis situation.

Luckily mom had another night shift at the hospital, so Draal could walk around freely while I made dinner for myself. Elbow Pasta and Meat Sauce it appears to be.

"Yes, it was, Draal." I turned the TV on and started flipping through the channels to find the one I wanted. "At least, I met Starling. She was not what I was expecting."

"Most elves aren't. You humans expect them to be small and cute because of the Claus, but they aren't." Draal told me.

"Actually, I think," I found what I was looking for. The French food competition show the World's Greatest Chef Competiton. "she was the exact opposite of what all of you were saying. Sure she was a tad harsh to us, but I think she didn't want to involve us in the Essence Stones. Like she didn't want anymore added help. I don't know." A knock sounded on the door.

"Were you expecting anyone?" asked Draal.

"Not that I know. Toby and Claire wouldn't knock. They'll just barge on in." I told him.

And before I got to the door, the door opened to reveal a boy with white hair, incredibly pale skin wearing a blue sweatshirt and brown trousers. "Don't be such a pussy, Hiccup." That was Sisu.

"Yeah, we're only here since Zym wants the trollhunter to be his dragon rider and to train him how to combat magic." white hair said.

"Um... what are you doing at my house?" I asked them as I held my wooden spoon in my hand, ready to strike them if necessary.

"You and Punzie would be great friends, squirt." The platinum blonde ruffled my brown hair to make it messy. My hair now looks like the dragon boy's hair.

"We're here to train you. I'm Hiccup. And this is Jack. Jack Frost." Wait. What? I'm lost. "I live over in Berk Manor. And you have wandered in a den where you cannot get out of." the brunnette introduced.

"Which is why Starling didn't want you to get involved. By trying to help us with the Seastone, you and your friends have put a target on your back. Starling didn't want that. But now we have to help you. To train you. Hiccup here is a Dragon Rider. And even though Azymondias isn't big enough to be ridden. He will be. I suspect sooner than you think, so he's going to train you to ride him. And I and many others are going come here to help you train against magic. Since the people who will come after you to kill you will have magic." Jack Frost told me. Now I'm really lost.

"So let's begin."

@trollhuntersfanatic

[casspurrjoybell-26]

Too Old For This - Chapter 8 - Part 1

*Warning Adult Content*

"Hey... how are you?"  

Zachary wasn't sure what he had been expecting but Leroy's voice sounded small and unsure.

He seemed... nervous but that couldn't be, could it?

Leroy wasn't mostly full of life and a little too forward.

At least from the little Zachary had learned of him, so why did he seem shy about talking back?

Maybe he was just sleepy?

A bit tired maybe?

Fuck if Zachary knew.

He wasn't the best at reading social cues from just a voice.

He only ever spoke to medical professionals, delivery people and his sister on the phone for the most part.

"I'm doing okay," Zachary replied, folding his legs on the bed and upsetting the cat that has taken refuge between them for the past hour or so.

Leroy laughed and Zachary raised an eye-brow.

"Did you hear that?"

"Yeah, didn't sound like a very happy cat."

"I just folded my legs," Zachary said, sighing, as he reached out to per the feline that was bod sitting at the edge of the bed.

"I was in the same position for over an hour."

"You're not supposed to move when cats sit on you."

"Who said that? The pet police?"

And just like the first time they spoke face to face, their first phone call was facilitated by talking about cats.

It was a comfortable filler, where neither of them had to discuss what was bothering them too early or come off too strong when neither was sure of the lines of their friendship.

"Hey, I was wondering if you'd like to see a movie... not soon, just sometime in the future if you're up for it. I was thinking about it yesterday when we were talking about movies. I haven't been to a cinema in ages," Leroy said, making Zachary hum.

He didn't have the best experience with cinemas.

There were only a few spots for wheelchairs and getting in was a whole other task on its own.

People talking all the time made it hard to focus and everyone moving, to go to the bathroom deeply annoyed him but he didn't think he would mind it very much if he went with Leroy.

"Sure, just let me know when," the older man said, feeling his insides curl with an emotion he didn't want to address now.

Their conversation pivoted to the books they were currently reading.

Zachary was the bigger bookworm of the two, so he carried the conversation, going on about the series he'd just started listening to.

There was a knock on Zachary's door that made the older man stop talking mid-sentence to look over at it.

"Who's there?" his sister, Avery said, knocking on the door again.

Zachary sighed and covered the receiver of his cell.

"I'm on the phone."

"With who?"

"I'm on the phone," Zachary repeated and the person on the other end sighed after a withdrawn pause.

There was a thud... probably a bag... then a couple of footsteps that grew progressively fainter and then there was silence.

When it was clear, there was no more knocking, Zachary took his hand off the receiver.

"I'm sorry about that," Zachary said, running the fingers of his free hand through his hair.

"Who's that?" Leroy asked as Zachary adjusted his sitting position on the edge of his bed.

"Hmm?" the older man said, blinking before looking away from the door.

"My sister."

"Oh."

"I wasn't expecting her to be back, until later this week," Zachary explained and Leroy said 'oh' from the other end in a way that made Zachary envision a head nod.

"Well, I can leave you to it, if you need to speak to her," Leroy said.

Zachary noted the hint of hesitance in his voice.

It made him feel better because he'd been clawing at every reason not to end the call for hours.

"It is getting late..." he trailed, noticing that it was a lot darker than when they'd started their call when he looked out his window.

Gosh, they'd been talking for hours.

What was it? Nine?

"You don't have work tomorrow, do you?" Zachary said, when Leroy did nothing but breathe, from the other end.

"Yeah, it's a Saturday."

"We can talk on the phone tomorrow, maybe?" Zachary asked, tapping his clothed thigh, with the tips of his fingers.

The noise was enough to distract him from the whirling feeling of shyness that was starting to take over him.

"Whatever time you want. I don't know if you sleep in late," he added, hoping Leroy would save him from himself and say something.

"Sure. I can call," the younger man said.

"But..." there was a pause and Zachary frowned, wondering if there was a caveat hidden there somewhere.

"But what?" he asked, reaching out to touch the cat that was now nested between him and the headboard of the double bed.

"Can't I just come over?" the question made Zachary's head go blank for a moment, before it burst into haywire, that fired multiple questions over the space of seconds.

'Holy shit. The basement's a mess. How am I going to clean that up before tomorrow?' Is there anything in the fridge to drink? What about Avery? Do I have to tell her I have a guest over?

"Hello?" the sound of Leroy's voice brought Zachary back to the present. 

"Um..." he paused, scrambling for something to say.

"My sister's home."

"Is that a no? I understand if it would be awkward..."  

"No, it's not a no, it's more of an 'I'm not sure. Let me ask'," Zachary clarified before Leroy could finish his sentence.

"I'll text you before noon tomorrow. How's that?"     

There was a pause at the other end, before Leroy muttered...

"That works, sure."

"Okay," Zachary hummed and then the younger man hung up, leaving behind the clicking sound.

Zachary stared at his phone for a bit, looking at the time.

They'd really spoken for three hours, give or take and it hadn't been about anything important but that hadn't felt like it had mattered.

He'd just enjoyed the sound of Leroy's voice.

Zachary was smiling down at his phone when he heard another knock on his door.

He looked up, frowning a bit.

"What?" he asked as he cocked his head at the door.

"You can come in, I'm done with the call," he said, and sure enough, his sister twisted the handle of the door and let herself in.

[yikesharringrove]

Show Pony

Chapter one - Big Sky

Also on Ao3

Billy doesn’t give a fuck about the rodeo. 

He doesn’t care about country music, or fancy horse riding, or the beauty queens, even the bull riders. 

What he does give a fuck about it not being in his house today. 

Not when his dad was obviously itching to pick a fight. Not when Max gave him such an easy out over breakfast. 

“I saw a flyer for a rodeo. I think it’d be kinda neat.”

It was in town for four more weeks. 

And Billy could tell the second he and Max bought tickets, he was about to be spending more time than he ever fuckin’ thought he would spend at a rodeo. 

He based that on the way Max’s eyes lit up the second she stepped inside the big fairgrounds. 

Not knowing that he was right. He was about to spend a lot of time at the rodeo. 

But not for Max. 

For himself. 

And a pretty horse rider named Steve.

He didn’t see Steve that first day. 

Was too busy shelling out his own hard-earned cash to buy Max sugary funnel cakes. Sitting next to her watching the poor suckers get bucked off their pissed-off bull. 

But when Max was in the car she turned to him, the sun setting outside, eyes as wide as dinner plates.

“Can we come back tomorrow?”

And the tickets were dirt cheap. And Billy hates being at home. 

So they did. 

And they watched the rodeo queens. 

And the team-roping. 

But it wasn’t until the calf roping that Billy felt his heart sink. 

Because he thinks Steve Harrington might be the most beautiful person he’s ever seen. 

Tall and broad, smiling like sunshine at his gorgeous black quarter horse, patting her strong neck and leading her to the entry point of the arena. 

His name was loudly announced after the event name. 

Calf roping, with our very own Steve Harrington! Steve will navigate his beautiful June into the arena, trying to rope and tie down a calf as quickly as possible!

Billy had tuned out everything but his name. 

Leaning forward on his bench seat to watch him lead June up to the starting line, give her a few more pats before swinging one leg up, heaving himself up and over her back, settling into the saddle with a grace Billy doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to describe. 

Steve appeared to shake himself out, leaning forward over June’s neck to speak quietly to the sleek horse, wiggling his hips a bit in the saddle. 

And then he sat back up, readying himself and waiting for the countdown. 

He was off like a fucking shot. 

Billy’s never seen anything fucking like it. 

June kicked up dirt as she thundered through the arena behind a small herd of a few calves, Steve ducked low against her neck as he led her forward, his lips moving as he spoke quietly to her, egging her on and forward. He was clinging to her for dear life, his legs straining as he was tossed up and down in the saddle. 

And then he let go of her reins, one hand reaching for the rope on his belt. 

And it was the most hick shit he’s ever seen. 

This flannel-wearing cowboy on his perfect fucking horse, roping a baby fucking cow. 

He slipped the knot around it from his perch on the moving horse, lassoing it easily like that was a common skill, and with a fluid practiced movement, he tossed himself off the slowing horse, getting on one knee to tip over the calf and tie it up like it was second nature. 

And maybe it was. Performing in a show like this. 

That’s all it was, a performance. Practiced and rehearsed over and over for Steve and June. 

It was over in a blink, Steve tossing his hands up to show he was finished, and the calf didn’t break its bonds. 

The whistle blew and Steve’s time was read to the arena. Nine seconds. And apparently, nine seconds was a good time, judging by the way Steve’s raised his fists in the air, and patted June’s neck so gently. 

He mounted back on his gorgeous horse as the calf he had roped was released by a few of the rodeo workers and the next guy took his position at the starting line. 

Steve did a lap around the arena of June’s back, smiling and waving to the crowd. 

And maybe Billy just has an overactive imagination. 

Maybe his stupid gay brain was looking for something not there. 

But he could’ve sworn he saw Steve grin just a little bit brighter in his direction. 

There were a few riders after him. Competing to earn a faster score on the same track. 

But Billy didn’t give a fuck about calf roping if he wasn’t watching Steve and June. 

The sun was setting as Billy finally led Max out of the fairgrounds, one hand on the top of her head, steering her towards the Camaro. 

“So, you think we can come back next weekend” Max was giving him a big shit-eating grin, powdered sugar all done her front from the final funnel cake Billy had shelled out to buy her. 

“Don’t see why not. Get’s us outta the fuckin’ house, don’t it.”

“Plus, there are lots of good-looking cowboys, just everywhere. Did you see the guy doing the cattle roping, or whatever? He was cute .” Billy rolled his eyes. Max was just touching the age when she stopped thinking of boys as gross, saw them as cute, and whatever else she said. It also made her realize that having a gay brother apparently meant talking about nothing but boys. It made Billy wanna slam his head into the steering wheel. He grunted in response as she kept going on and on about Steve. 

Like Billy didn’t see the way his thighs gripped the sides of his horse, like he didn’t watch as he hurled himself off June to tie up the fucking calf. Like he didn’t watch him take that fucking victory lap, shit-eating grin looking like home on his pretty fucking face. 

“You gotta carry your own weight, you know that, right Shitbird? I’m talking, pay for your own damn fried shit.” He bets Susan would give him money for tickets if he acts real nice this week. 

He can’t blow all his savings at the fucking rodeo of all things this summer. He’s got plans for the wad of cash burning a hole in the shoebox in the back of his closet. 

Max huffed at him. 

“What am I supposed to do? Get a job? I’m thirteen .”

“So? Babysit or some shit. Rob an ATM. Fuck if I care. Just quit stealing all ‘a my goddamn cash for your fuckin’ funnel cakes .”

“You’re just pissed off because you didn’t try one. They’re the best. You gotta have one next week.”

“I, unlike you, care about what I put in my body.”

“Yeah, because cigarettes and beer are so much better than fried dough .”

“Whatever.” The truth is, Billy’s gotta watch what he eats. Max didn’t know him when he was prepubescent and chubby. He can’t be sitting there shoving funnel cakes in his mouth and not expect it to all go to his gut. Not like her. There’s not an ounce of fucking baby fat on her. She’s positively scrawny. If anything, the funnel cake might help her out a bit. 

“Yeah, whatever .” She huffed, slumping back in her passenger seat. “But can we come back?”

“Fuck, if you keep askin’ me, the answer’s no .”

She huffed again. She does that a whole lot when they talk. 

“Don’t act like you didn’t like it. I saw the way you were watching Steve race. You were practically drooling .” 

Billy clenched his jaw. 

“Was not .”

“Was too .” 

And Max had a knack of leading Billy into moments like this, childish little arguments that made him feel kinda weird inside. Made him feel kinda warm at how sibling it was. Like they hadn’t been forced together just a few years ago. 

For all his bitching, he really did like the little spit. If he didn’t, he’d be a bigger asshole than she’s always accusing him of being. 

“You don’t even know what I look like when I’m really eyeing a boy, if you think that was it. Just, you know. Respected his riding.”

“ Respected his riding. Yeah ‘cause you wish he was riding-”

“Finish that sentence and I’m pushing you out of the fucking car.”

“I’m right, though.”

Billy just reached forward to turn up the radio, letting Dee Snider drown out any other awful shit Max wanted to say to him. 

Which was probably showing his hand too much. No direct answer pretty much means affirmative when it comes to Billy. And yeah, Max knows that. Judging by the way she’s cackling like a goddamn gremlin over the sound of the music. 

He just pressed his foot down further on the gas pedal, letting them fly down the highway. 

And he thought about Steve and June, thought about how fast Steve could press that girl to go. Thought about him leaning forward, flattening himself to the horse’s neck, gripping onto the reins and urging her forward, urging her faster. 

And if he thought about those strong legs wrapped around him, if he thought about what Max was about to say, Steve riding Billy like he would that fucking horse, his hips flexing as he bounces up and down, well, that’s his business. 

And the next Saturday, Susan slid him a crisp twenty-dollar bill to buy Max some lunch at the rodeo. 

They took it more seriously this time, bringing water bottles, and Max slathering thick white sunscreen on her freckled skin. 

Billy even wore shorts, some old jeans he sacrificed to the summer gods when he wore holes in the thighs and chopped pretty much in half. 

And it was kinda fun. 

He knew what to expect now. Knew the barrel racing was all women, all beautiful horses winding their way along clover-shaped tracks. He knew that the bull riding was a little more fun to watch with a shot in him, and that his fake i.d. could get him an alcohol wristband from the tent at the front.

Max sneered at him when he bought himself a beer later in the day. 

“Uh, you know you have to drive me home, right? Like, and not crash your stupid car on the way home.” 

“Fuck off. It’s one beer.”

“And also that shot earlier, and I know you have a flask.”

“Okay, what are you, the cops? I’m just tryna enjoy myself in this blistering fucking heat. I don’t exactly get my rocks off to any of this shit.” Which is a lie. He’s totally sold on every stupid fucking event at the motherfucking rodeo. 

“Fine. You wanna get stupid and drunk? Then you have to take me to the pageant. I wanna watch it.”

“Since fucking when do you give a shit about the pageant .” Max glared at him. Her nose was beginning to get red. 

Maybe if Billy were less of a shithead he would tell her to put some sunscreen on. But she was really testing his patience today. 

And then her eyes went huge, and her jaw went slack, and Billy was just about to tell her to close it and quit lookin’ like a dead fuckin’ fish when he heard someone cough slightly behind him. 

And when he turned, he almost made the exact same stupid dead fish face as Max. 

Because gorgeous cowboy Steve was standing right in front of him. In another cracker of a flannel shirt, stupid blue jeans, and fucking cowboy boots, because yeah. He’s a goddamn hick that rides a horse and ties up calves in a traveling rodeo for a fucking living. 

And God save Billy, because hot damn. 

Steve had an easy smile on his face, a little bit lopsided, and perfect white teeth showing between perfect pink lips. 

“Hey there.”

“Howdy,” Billy responded before he could stop himself, his face burning up. 

He was hoping he was already sweaty enough Steve wouldn’t notice the flush. 

But thankfully, Steve’s smile went wider, and he laughed, this gorgeous bright laugh, his head tossing back, and that thick hair flowing easily. 

He had gold streaks in his hair, lighter browns tussled within the darker colors. Billy wondered if they were natural, days spent out in the sun on his horse. Part of him hoped they weren’t. Part of him hoped that Steve was that intentional with himself and his goddamn hair. 

He smiled at Billy. 

“I’m Steve.”

“We saw you. Last weekend,” Max blurted out before Billy could kick her. She looked shocked that she had even spoken when Billy turned to give her a death glare. But Steve just laughed his gorgeous laugh again. 

“And what’d you think?”

“She wouldn’t shut up about you on the way home.” And Steve was back to looking at Billy, and his eyes are so fucking big, like, who’s eyes are just. Like that. Just fuckin’. Big. 

“And what about you, uh-”

“Billy. And this is Max. My sister.”

“Well, Billy,” and fuck Billy nearly creamed himself at the sound of Steve saying his name. “Did you like my display of talents ?”

“Could say so. I don’t give too many shits about all this hick farm stuff. But I can respect it.”

“Well, that’s alright then.” And Steve reached out to pat Billy once on the shoulder. “I hope I see y’all around. I gotta head off, June needs some TLC before our time.” He smiled at Max, and her already red face flushed deeper, almost blending into the roots of her flaming hair. 

And then he doubled back. 

“You know what, I forgot why I came over here in the first place.” He was digging through his jeans, rummaging around in his back pockets. 

Billy wanted to slide his hands in there, cop a feel while he helped Steve look for whatever he was going to offer Billy. 

And then Steve brought out two white wristbands. 

“They’re for, uh, VIP seating and stuff. If you’re interested. Gets you closer to the arena. That way I can just see what you look like after I’m comin’ off a ride.”

Hoo boy. 

This little cowboy has some fucking charm. 

And he knows it too, judging by his smug little half-smile he gave Billy while he fastened the wristband around his wrist. 

He helped Max with hers, doing it faster than he had Billy’s, and with a lot less eye contact, which was a good sign. He’s not perving on his twelve-year-old sister. Which is cool. 

And then he was looking back at Billy, and brushing his long fingers over the tops of Billy’s shoulders, his arms out in his shirt, the arms torn off an old Aerosmith t-shirt he found at the Goodwill last year. 

“You should reapply sunblock. Don’t want you burning now.” And Billy’s sure if Steve was wearing a Stetson, he woulda tipped it at them. “Enjoy the pageant.”

And he was off, and Christ, those jeans. How did Steve even successfully ride his horse in those things? They were so tight, showed off his nice peachy ass as he walked through the fairgrounds. 

“Wow,” Max said. And yeah, Billy felt the same. 

“In case it wasn’t clear, based on the way he was flirting with me, and also that he’s way too old for you, but, uh, dibs .”

“Billy, you can’t just call dibs on a person.” Billy just laughed. 

He knows that his twelve-year-old fucking sister doesn’t have a shot in Hell with Steve. Really, he doubts he even has a shot in Hell with Steve, but he also likes to spend his time making her life as difficult as possible without actually being a shitty person. So, he just riles her up. Says shit that’ll get her going. He wouldn’t be doing his brotherly duties if he didn’t say that shit. 

Max calls it even by kicking him in the shin twice and making him watch the stupid beauty pageant. 

Which, like, why the fuck are there beauty pageants at the rodeo anyway? 

Turns out it wasn’t pageant at all, but the four previous Miss Rodeo’s all lined up and looking far too glammed out for this fucking heat. 

Max faked being disgruntled by the disappointment, but Billy knows, somewhere inside that tough bitch little soul of hers, she’s glad she didn’t have to sit through a goddamn pageant just to make Billy miserable. 

Besides, Billy had whipped out his flask a few times, and he was feeling alright. Just buzzed enough that the heat had stopped making him feel quite so disgusting. 

But not too drunk to miss calf roping. 

And yeah, maybe it was a little bit lame to make their way over to the VIP seating earlier enough that they scored the front row. But when Steve came trotting out, leading June behind him, Billy was close enough he could pick out the cluster of moles on Steve’s left cheek. 

So, lame was not in Billy’s vocabulary today. 

It was pretty much the same thing as last week. Steve made everyone in the arena ooh and aah with his riding, tied up the calf in less than ten seconds once again. 

But this time, when he took that jaunty little lap around the small arena, Billy knows for a fact Steve grinned at him. Knows his stupid gay brain wasn’t making up the wink he tossed effortlessly in Billy’s direction. 

And they left, just like last weekend, as the sun was beginning to sink below the horizon. 

“Just, c’mon. Mom gave you money .” Max was whining for a corn dog, of all things. When they have perfectly good, not fried food, at home. 

“Maxine, I swear to Christ, I’m fucking tired. Let’s go home so I can crash, and you can fucking drive Susan up the goddamn wall with your whining.”

“You’re such an asshole.”

“I don’t know. He doesn’t seem too bad.” And Billy felt his insides curdling at that voice, felt himself wilting and shriveling because he would not be getting out of this day without one final, no doubt embarrassing, encounter with his gorgeous cowboy. 

Steve was leaning against a booth selling chili fries, looking like a perfect picture of a Clint Eastwood movie. 

Billy had never liked westerns. 

But he was gonna go home and spend all night watching every one he could get his grubby little hands on. 

Steve pushed off the side of the booth as Max found her words again. 

“You don’t have to live with him.”

“And you don’t have to live with my folks. I’d trade you any day.” 

And Billy nearly died. Right there. On the spot. Because. Holy shit. I’d trade you any day. 

Billy was more than happy to follow this fucking hick around America, watch him ride his pretty horse before fucking him against the stable wall. 

Or whatever. Do they have stables? Billy doesn’t know how a traveling rodeo works. 

But like, they’ve gotta have stables, right?

“Nah, you’d get sick of him. He stinks.”

“Have you ever smelled horse shit? Because that’s the fragrance I wake up to every morning.”

And Max was laughing, and Steve was laughing, and Billy was trying to keep his hands as casually as possible in front of his slight chub. 

“Will I get the privilege of seeing you two again?” And what a way to word it? The privilege. And then Steve was looking Billy up and down, and he was biting that perfect bottom lip and opening his mouth and “I could always give you my phone number. So we can. Meet up. Next time you’re here.”

“‘Course. You can give us the grand tour.”

And Steve was digging in those tight back pockets again, and shoving his phone into Billy’s hand, and he doesn’t have a passcode, but his home screen was a picture of him and his fucking horse which is, just about the sweetest thing Billy’s ever seen. 

And Billy put himself in as Billy Hargrove , and then panicked because Steve doesn’t know his fucking last name. So he settled for Billy and then for good measure shoved San Diego after it because. Billy’s a common name, okay?

And Steve took his non-password protected fuckin’ horse girl phone, and Billy was giving him as charming a smile as he could muster with sweat on his upper lip and saying-

“You better text me, Pretty Boy. So I can save your number.” Billy shrugged, looking off to his left to try and seem. Nonchalant. “In case I wanna see you again.” 

And Max was rolling her eyes, but she wasn’t stopping away. Wasn’t even whining at Billy, no doubt on her best behavior in front of hot cowboy Steve. 

But Steve had a glint in his eye, and if Max wasn’t here Billy would be playing this all different, laying on the charm a lot thicker than he was. 

But he can’t be a horny bastard in front of her. That’s just, like, gross. 

So he settles for making a real show of licking his bottom lip, and maybe flexing his bare arms just a tiny bit. 

“We should probably get goin’. Got a curfew for this one,” Billy jerked his head in Max’s direction. She huffed before she could stop herself. “See you around, Cowboy Steve.”

And Steve gave another one of his pretty ringing laughs. 

“Come again soon, Billy and Max.” And again, Billy’s sure that if Steve were wearing a hat, he would’ve flicked the brim at them as he set off back into the rodeo, dodgin off the main thoroughfare. 

“Wow. That was embarrassing for you.” 

Billy whipped his head around to stare at Max, giving her the most disgusted look he could muster. 

“The fuck you mean?”

“You were so obvious.”

“That’s the fucking point . We were flirting. It’s supposed to be obvious, you demon.” Billy shoved her once before stomping in the direction of the parking lot. 

“Yeah but you were like, making these faces at him.”

“Shut the fuck up. I know what I was doing, okay? It was all very calculated . Let him know I’m down for it, and if he texts, then I’m good to go. If not, then I move on.”

And the thought of Steve not texting was kinda, disappointing. Because Billy really wanted him to text. He wanted to stay up late giggling at his phone and the dumb things Steve texts him and pretend they don’t make him flush like a fucking school girl. 

He pointedly didn’t look at his notification when he reached the car, just shoved an old tape in and turned up Black Sabbath when Max wrinkled her nose at it. 

They were both quiet on the drive back home. Something heavy unsaid between them. 

And only as Billy was pulling into his spot in the driveway did Max suck in a big breath to actually put it out there. 

“I won’t tell. About him. Not even Mom. Not even that I think he’s cool.”

“Thanks. Easier just to. Avoid at all costs.” 

And if Billy were a better person, maybe he would hug her or something. 

But they don’t do that. Instead he sighed and didn’t hip check her violently off the porch like his instincts were telling him. So really, he’s a fucking saint.