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beanmachine69 · 9 months

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can you please right a lance stroll fic where they both love each other but don’t know it yet?

Blankets | Lance Stroll

The season had ended, it was early December and as per tradition, your families were in their cabin in the mountains. It was a silly cliche, but over the years you’d grown to look forward to it, especially since Lance started his f1 career and you two would rarely get to relax together like you usually would. Having grown up around each other, you two were practically inseparable; falling into all the childhood best-friend categories you could find. You’d support his career as much as you could, cheering him on from home and sometimes the paddock- you two were seen so often together that at some point some dating rumors had sprung up too.

You had known Lance all your life, you two had spent most of your childhood together. He was almost two years older than you, which made you the youngest of the bunch and though Chloe always treated you like a little sister, hanging out with her wasn’t always an option because of the major age difference. Your families had been together for generations, your fathers being family friends since they were kids themselves too- the Strolovich family feeling like your own second home.

“Fires’ nice and warm outside.” Your mother commented, passing the lounge to reach the kitchen, “You two sure you wanna stay here in front of the TV?”

“Yeah, I’m not in the mood to hang out with my drunk father, that's your job.” You replied, eyes still plastered on the large screen in front of you.

“You both become the same person when you’re drunk y’know.” Lance mumbled, eyes not moving to look at your phony expression of betrayal.

You playfully shoved him away from you, only for him to bounce back and press his side against you again. You two were always close, having had very little physical boundaries around one another as you grew up. You’d had plenty of cozy moments, none of them meaning anything more than what they were to either one of you. Albeit, this proximity would look far more romantic than platonic to strangers, you two had learned to keep it reserved for private spaces, the last thing you needed were more rumors for Lance to have to deal with later.

Movie nights at the cabin were more than what the rest of your families had understood them to be. You could still recall how you two would bond over these nights, and how often you’d whisper secrets to each other in the blanket- secrets that neither of you would have the guts to share face-to-face. You had told Lance about your awful first kiss while some silly 90s’ comedy movie played, and he had told you about his first failed talking stage while you both rewatched Criminal Minds for the millionth time. These shared moments under the blanket and in front of the TV were sacred to the both of you, it was like a little safe space for any and all confessions, it was these moments which made your bond so inseparable; under the blankets, with the faint light of the television seeping through the fabric to illuminate the cozy space as the conversation was muffled from others by the blanket and the background noise- it was a weird tradition, but one which you both cherished.

You didn’t mind horror movies, or the genre in general, but perhaps binging a bunch with Lance late into the night in a cabin far from civilization wasn’t the best possible idea. So there you were now, afraid in your bed after having been forced by the instagram algorithm to continue your horror binge, alone in your room with all the curtains drawn out of the fear of a mountain creature. Your fear was irrational, you had no reason to be as scared as you were, but it still managed to keep you from falling asleep. You decided if you were going to be consumed by a horror beyond human comprehension, you might as well get a snack before doing so.

The walk downstairs to the kitchen was frightening enough, but now you could hear the wind a lot clearer now, and every breath that escaped you seemed to sound unlike your own, your own shadow frightening you with every surface that it fell on. As you began to eat the chips you and Lance had bought earlier, your mind managed to consume itself in more theories and possibilities- kidnapping, demonic possession, a gruesome death by the hands of a wendigo, could Slenderman be here somewhere?-

“What are you doing up?”

Those five words were enough for your brain to completely haywire, accepting all possible scenarios to be true all at once, your flight or fight response kicked in, making you scream and drop your chips. Not particularly fight or flight, but it was something, in the case of any of the terrifying scenarios you had pictured earlier to come true, this would have possibly been the last sign of you your family or friends would have heard.

“Jeez, why are you screaming?” Lance laughed, aware of how his efforts to spook you had worked out.

“Oh my God Lance, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” You scolded, shoving him in the arm.

Your hand was on your chest, feeling your heart pounding from the sudden burst of adrenaline.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d shit yourself.” Lance continued to laugh, clearly finding amusement in your reaction.

You rolled your eyes as you tried clearing up the little mess you made by dropping the chips on the floor; Lance stayed in the kitchen, wordlessly grabbing you a replacement and one for himself too. You two stood there, not saying a word, only looking at the remnants of the fireplace outside as you finished your snack.

“It’s really cold.” You mumbled, eyes on the burnt out logs.

“Hm? Yeah.” He replied, moving his eyes from the window and back to you.

The kitchen was dimly lit, with neither of you bothering to turn on any more lights than the countertop lighting that was already on. It was cozy, but for some reason the house was still cold despite the central heating. There was a dense silence between you two, your breathing being a silent acknowledgement of the other person, it was comfortable to be in someones’ presence and not feel the need to fill the space with words.

“I can’t sleep.” Lance sighed, breaking the silence and prompting you to turn around to face him instead of the window.

“What, you scared?” You asked, teasingly nudging him a bit.

His features looked enhanced in the dim light of the kitchen. You were never one to pay attention to how his face looked in different lighting, but the scarce light emitting from the below the cabinets and above the counters deepened his features; his brows almost seemed to cast a shadow over his dark eyes, making them seem black almost, the light shadows under his cheekbones and jaw seemed to be darkened in the sparse lighting- he almost looked intimidating to you for the first time. He didn’t seem like the pleasant and joyful friend you knew, but some serious and solemn man for a moment, only for a fleeting moment did you see that version- momentarily you quite literally saw him in a different light.

“Shut it, do you wanna go upstairs? You could hang out in my room for a bit.”

The moment passed faster than it had appeared, making you question whether it had ever appeared or not.

“Sure.”

Lance propped himself against the headboard, watching you as you sat across from him on the chair. The room was surprisingly cold too, was the heater not working or were you just cold?

“You never told me about that date you went on by the way.” Lance asked, putting his phone away from him; a gesture he did often to indicate his undivided attention was directed at you.

“Which one?” You asked, not recalling any dates in the past few weeks.

You brought your legs up on the chair, closer to your chest in order to prevent the cold you were feeling. His eyes followed your movement, tracing every bend and taking into account all of the little gestures you made, including the little hook your fingers made when you were confused.

“Y’know that stupid date your friend set you up with? The IT guy from the US?” Lance probed further, reminding you of an old date which you had successfully forgotten all about.

“Oh that’s old stuff.” You mumbled, arms wrapping around your knees.

“Yeah we haven’t really got a chance to sit down and talk for a while.”

“I guess…” You trailed off, distracted by the surprise you felt by how cold it was and how Lance seemed to just not care for it.

“So, the date?”

“Right, yeah no it went fine, but I don’t know he just wasn’t it.” You replied, shrugging and sparing him the details.

Lance pouted a bit, before adjusting his posture so he was lying down more than sitting up and patting the sheets next to him.

“Come on, you’re clearly freezing.” He noted, steering the conversation to a completely different route.

You didn’t think much of it, you two would sleep in the same bed plenty of times when you were kids, it wasn’t odd at all. Even now, when Lance would crash at your house he’d sleep in your bed next to you- it wasn’t odd it was just the comfort you two had with each other. So when you crawled under the sheets and scooted closer to Lance, the both of you ignored the way your eyes locked for a moment.

“So, what was wrong with him? What made him not it?”

Aversion. That’s what one would call it; he averted his eyes and changed the topic, that moment where your eyes locked as you moved closer to him under his sheets in his bed was nothing but a fleeting moment.

“I don’t know Lance, he just wasn’t my type.”

“I thought you said you didn’t have a type.”

“I don’t… it’s just that I guess I hate having to get to know people romantically, it just seems like such a bother. Plus, remember the hell I had to be put through the last time that happened?”

Your ex wasn’t the peachiest person imaginable; he was manipulative and constantly accusing you of having a more complex relationship with Lance than you would admit to. “You two look at each other like nothing else matters, you don’t even look at me like that!”, accompanied often with several “There’s no way you two are just friends!”. His words hadn’t affected the friendship you had with Lance, obviously, but it did put a damper on the amount of time you two would spend with each other. In the end it truly wasn’t worth it considering he cheated on you with his own best friend.

“God, he was a dick.” Lance mumbled, scooting lower on his bed and completely lying down, bringing the blanket up till his neck.

“Yeah, getting cheated on isn’t fun.” You mumbled, covering your face with the blanket; not because you were ashamed or wanted to hide your face, but because you were cold and your nose felt like it was going to freeze.

“Oh my god, how cold are you?” Lance asked, accompanying you under the blankets, swatting them a bit so the thick material wouldn’t hide your face from him. He reached over to grab your hand, only to let out a small yelp after feeling how cold they were. “Woah, you’re fucking freezing.”

“Yeah, I don’t know why I’m this cold.” You replied.

There wasn’t much need to ask or say anything, words weren’t a necessity in communication between you two sometimes. He just knew you well enough to know what you’d need and you knew the same, and so he covered the distance, and wrapped his arms around you, enveloping you in a warm hug.

Several moments had passed and though you were still feeling cold, his body heat had managed to warm you up enough for it to not be a problem. As an unspoken token of appreciation, you had begun gently rubbing your fingertips on his scalp, something you knew he liked.

“Do you remember when we were teens and we’d sneak into each other's rooms like this and watch all the shows we weren’t allowed to watch?” Lance whispered, not needing to talk at a higher volume due to the proximity.

“We used to sneak into each others’ rooms all the time, remember that annoying nanny our parents would bring along? That old lady who was convinced we were up to no good?” You laughed, remembering how often she’d complain to your parents about your antics and how Lance wasn’t a good influence on a young girl like you.

“Oh God, she was the worst. She used to be on your ass about everything, she always said you weren’t proper enough.”

“Ooh ooh, remember when we managed to sneak out with Chloe and go to that party with her friends in the summer?” You chimed, remembering something completely off-topic.

“Yeah, that time her friends forced us to kiss in that stupid truth or dare game, I swear I told your dumbass to sit next to me but you just had to sit next to that stupid guy.” Lance scoffed.

“Oh my God yeah, that was my first kiss.” You replied, recalling how flushed you were and how glad you were now to have that memory be with someone like Lance and not with some weird, much older guy.

“Wait, really?! I thought that was just something you were messing about!” He pulled away to look at you better.

“No! Why would I lie about that?!” You asked, pulling away from his chest a little too, craning your neck to look at his face.

“I…. I don’t know.” Lance replied after thinking for a while, pulling you back into his chest to avoid having to look you in the eye, “I guess I didn’t want to believe that your first kiss was with me.”

“Why not?” You asked, the question laced with confusion and several different emotions you couldn’t identify, “I never told you about my first kiss, I always thought you knew it was you.”

A silence fell between you two, a sort of uncomfortable silence which made your hand stop stroking his hair, and made his grip on you loosen a bit. The cold hit again and though Lance was still close, it just didn’t seem like enough; for the first time in your life-long friendship you felt like a wedge had made its’ way in a moments’ notice, drawing you two apart.

You had told him the night it had happened, on the way back to your house, you leaned in and told him that he was your first kiss. It was the earliest stages of his racing career, just a little before he debuted in F4. It was so long ago, you had forgotten about it, it really was just a silly little dare, but now you felt like you’d imposed a boundary you didn’t know existed.

The silence between you two had lasted longer than either of you would prefer, yet neither of you had mustered the courage to disrupt this silence, hiding behind it from one another like you had never done before. The cold began to make its presence known to you once again, the blanket not providing much comfort any longer.

He had never given it much thought, it really wasn’t a big deal and he wasn’t upset, rather just confused. He had been looking forward to this family vacation more than he usually would, and until he saw and hugged you, he couldn't seem to figure out why. You were his best-friend and as cliche and silly as the title sounded, he couldn’t ever just call you a friend, you were so much more than that, yet whenever anyone called you his sister he’d just end up feeling uncomfortable; he’d never seen you in that light, the thought was just weird. Realizing that he was your first kiss made him feel something he had previously averted from a few moments ago, except now, aversion wasn’t something he could do- it wasn’t something he wanted to do. He understood the reason that he hadn’t consciously accepted the fact that he was your first kiss was because he knew he liked the idea far more than he should have; he liked that he was your first kiss and he liked the idea of having that card over all the other men you had dated, he liked that you two had shared that sentiment, he liked that he was your first and most importantly: he liked the idea of kissing you.

The situation felt awkward and you mentally decided it would be better off to just go back to your room, and so you did, quietly moving out of his bed and making your way to your own room. You had gone as far as tucking yourself in till your thoughts finally started piling on.

What if I pissed him off? Why did he get so quiet? Did I fuck things over? God, how did I manage to mess up the one friendship I thought would last forever? Why does it matter, we’re just friends and the idea of us kissing shouldn’t ruin a life-long friendship, should it? Unless he has another girlfriend again, God I really don’t want to have to go through that again, Wait, why not? It shouldn’t matter if he dates someone, right? I mean I haven’t been the biggest fan of his exes but who am I to-

Your thoughts were interrupted when you heard the door to your room open, followed by shuffled footsteps and a weight on your bed. You turned to make out what you correctly assumed to be Lance, crawling under the blanket with you. You heard a huff of breath as he got comfortable, wrapping his warm arms around you again and pulling you into him once more.

You were confused momentarily, not having been able to completely exit your mind palace before you had to register all that happened. However, it only took you a few moments to adjust before you hugged him back, adjusting yourself against him slightly before fitting perfectly into his arms.

“Do you remember how we’d sit under the blanket and cover ourselves completely in our blanket forts to talk in private when we were younger?” Lance asked, his smile almost audible in his words as he recalled the memory, not addressing the conversation earlier.

“Yeah,” You chuckled, “We’d call for ‘blanket meetings’ and all….”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m kind of calling for one right now.” He said, pulling away slightly, preparing to hold the blanket over your heads.

You didn’t need to say anything, you smiled as you grabbed your phone and sat up, adjusting yourself under the blanket as Lance sat up too, the blanket forming a little tent around you two as his head held it in place. It took a little more shuffling around till you both were completely covered and comfortable and it was then when you pulled out your phone, turning on the flash and placing it in between you two so you could see each other. Having done this your whole lives, you two knew exactly what to do.

“God, the blankets seemed so much bigger when we were kids.” You laughed.

“The blankets were always big on you, pipsqueak.” Lance laughed.

“Oh, fuck off.” You laughed, “Alright, so why did you call this meeting?”

“Oooh, professional.” Lance laughed, locking eyes with you as his laugh faded.

“If it’s about our conversation earlier, then I don’t really wanna talk about that, can we just go back to pretending that that never happened?” You asked, eyes averting his.

“No, we can’t. I don’t want to pretend like that didn’t happen, if anything I’m really glad you had your first kiss with me, I’m a much better option than that creep you thought was cute, if anything I was the best option in that whole party.” Lance spoke, voice hushed to match the vibe.

“I mean yeah… Wait, did you just say you were the best option? You know my ex was there too, right? I mean sure we dated after years but we met for the first time at that stupid party.” You recalled, ready to contradict his statement, unsure of what your argument would be considering your ex was awful.

“Yeah, I stand by what I said.” Lance spoke, a determination present in his voice. “You know how I felt about that loser anyways.”

“Oh please, you never seemed to like any of the exes I have.” You scoffed.

“Like you like any of mine.” Lance scoffed in return, eyes still looking into yours despite your attempts at looking away.

“I mean-” You tried to defend yourself when he cut you off.

“Oh come on, you know we don’t like any of each other's exes.” Lance persisted.

“I mean yeah, but I don’t like them because I think you deserve better.” You replied, content with your argument.

There was a moment of silence before Lance spoke and in that moment you watched his face as he thought, the way his brows momentarily furrowed and how his brown doe-eyes looked into yours, not breaking contact and making you more nervous than you had anticipated.

“Well, I thought the same, y'know, I kept comparing them to me and how I’d treat you so much better than those losers.”

His statement was calculated, and you could tell. It had completely thrown you off and confused you beyond expression, it left you dumbfounded and staring at him with your mouth open to say words you knew didn’t exist.

“Come onn, You never thought about it? You’re telling me you didn’t think about the kiss all the time after it happened?” He probed, examining your face for a clearer answer.

To be fair, the second Lance had found out the kiss you shared was your first, a whole barrage of feelings and thoughts had bombarded his mind and he had no idea what to do or say, so when you walked off he barely registered what happened and when he did, he decided to resort to old tactics to talk to you and try to comfort you. Admittedly, Lance knew he should have understood that something was up when he realized that he didn’t hate the dating rumors between you two, nor did he hate the proximity you shared, if anything, Lance looked forward to these holiday retreats with your family because it meant you two could live together for a few days and he loved that- he also loved how close you two were and how in all honesty he truly wouldn’t want to date anyone but you. The realization that he had been comparing all his past relationships with you and why they’d never work out wasn’t something he had expected to come to so abruptly, yet here he was, risking everything for a whim.

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that to be our last kiss.” Lance smiled, hoping that this last statement would break the silent oath you seemed to have taken.

He leaned in closer, looking at you for a response, which you gave in the form of a small nod, before he gently landed his lips onto yours, holding your face as the blankets around you readjusted to the movement. His hold was gentle, like he was scared he’d hurt you or something, while your lips clumsily, eventually found a rhythm.

You were bright red when you two pulled away for air. You mentally cursed yourself for turning the flash on. The prospect of you two being more than friends always seemed like a crazy thought, it always felt like something you felt wrong thinking about, like you weren’t allowed or something. But kudos to Lance for somehow always managing to understand what you two needed faster than you, whether it was making road-trip decisions or Tim Hortons’ order decisions, credit where credit was due, that man could read you like a book. And now he had made it apparent that he was capable of reading in between the lines too. You never knew you had wanted Lance more than a friend and now that the option was brought to your notice, you couldn’t, even for a moment, consider giving it up. The kiss hadn’t lasted long, but it had erupted feelings in you that had laid dormant for far too many years, all of which overwhelmed you enough to not think of your decision again before crashing your lips back onto his, this time allowing your hands to find the back of his head to push him into the kiss, which he enthusiastically reciprocated, his hands landing on your waist to pull your whole body closer. Suddenly, air didn’t seem like much of a necessity as the kiss deepened and you two got more comfortable against each others’ lips. It wasn’t till you two pulled away again, locking gazes as your chests heaved against each other, stupid grins adorning both of your faces.

“Why didn’t we come to this realization earlier?” You asked.

“I don’t know… I’m just glad we came to it, better late than never no?” He laughed.

Now you didn’t feel so guilty admiring the way his face scrunched up when he laughed and how the skin around his nose crinkled and how you could see the slight gap between his side teeth and his front teeth. There was so much about him that you had mentally noted and admired that seeing him this close didn’t even feel like anything new- it was just Lance after all.

“I still can’t believe I was your first kiss and we still didn’t do anything up till now.” Lance smiled, his lips parting to show his teeth.

“I mean, I don’t know I didn’t really understand what I was feeling till now I guess.” You mumbled through a smile, lips barely moving to get the words out.

“I know, I think we’re on the same page.” Lance replied, pulling you in for a hug, the blanket finally beginning to feel warm again.

“I want you to be my last too.” You laughed, wondering if he’d get the reference.

“Seriously? You’re quoting one direction right now?” Lance asked, exhaling as he felt your body against him, warming him from the cold he hadn’t even realized he was feeling.

“Always the right time to quote One Direction.” You laughed, knowing you were the reason he’d secretly be listening to them now.

“That reference barely made any sense y’know, technically they talk about wanting to be the listeners last first kiss, not their first and last kiss.” He corrected you with a cocky grin you could practically hear.

“Anndd you ruined the moment.”

“You’re welcome.”

A/N: I'm so sorry for posting this so late! completely forgot about it, hope you like it nonetheless<3

Also, no I have no shame throwing in a One Direction reference in like that heh

As usual, criticism and requests can all be sent in through the ask box!

#lance stroll fluff #f1 fic #f1 fluff #lance stroll one shot #lance stroll fic #lance stroll imagine #lance stroll x reader #f1 blurb #friends to lovers

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ellieslaces · 5 months

Text

DANCING WITH OUR HANDS TIED.

part I ; part II ; part III ; part IV

featuring: prince!leon x princess!reader (royalty au)

synopsis: the Crown Prince, Leon, had never desired to marry, but obviously the decision was never up to him. his mind is slowly, and ultimately changed when he meets you, his betrothed

content warnings: harsh language; mentioned violence; strangers to lovers; mutual pining; little angst; misogynistic themes; eventual smut (more detail in later chapters)

notes: royalty au; Leon is an Italian Prince; user is British/English; some old English dialect; misogynistic themes bc this is based on old views of royal women’s only purpose to bare children; Leon’s family’s palace is based on Palazzo Ducale in Venice

word count: 2.83k

chloe talks: yeah ok, I caved. a royalty au has been on my mind for a little bit and while listening to Dancing With Our Hands Tied by Taylor Swift on the way to my endocrinologist appointment today, I had to write this. this is partially inspired by a bot on c.ai by wesker420 and another royalty au fic on here by @hispg so I don’t take full credit for the idea. but anyways, enjoy

playlist

Leon had never desired to marry, he never believed a happy marriage was in the cards for him. Especially when his mother and father were the only example set for him all his life. He was content with a life of politics — council and war meetings, endless nights spent in local taverns, his bed warmed by women who didn’t mean anything to him. Until he met you.

You were a princess from the North, a born and bred English noblewoman. And you were terribly single and of marrying age. Your country and Leon’s country were in dire need of allies, so naturally you were introduced to each other as betroths.

Of course, this was far from an easy process for either one of you. Leon did not wish to marry at all, and you wished to marry for love, not convenience. This was a damning future for the both of you.

And it only became increasingly worse as your marriage date was pushed closer — a fortnight away now. Your family traveled to Leon’s castle, staying there for the next two weeks. Your family was set to leave the night of the wedding, leaving you completely alone with a man you were forced to spend the rest of your life with and his family.

This arrangement was far from ideal for you. You knew next to nothing of the Crown Prince. And he knew nothing of you either. It was an unfortunate affair — two young nobles who could have anyone or anything now tied down to each other by pressing expectations. It was truly a tragedy.

It became increasingly apparent to Leon that you were miserable in this arrangement the day you arrived a fortnight before the wedding ceremony. He and his family greeted your family in the throne room — much more lavish and beautiful than your own at home — and he could so clearly see how dismayed you were.

Hell, he couldn’t blame you. A young woman, beautiful and intelligent, brought up with the best opportunities available to her was now being sold off as a piece of property. All for peace among nations. Leon supposed he could complain, but he was a man. He wasn’t tied down by the duties of being a wife as you would be. He felt bad for you — even if some small part of him resented you for this sickening arrangement.

Soon enough, you were carted off to your chambers where you would reside until the night of the wedding ceremony. Your mother tried her best to console you, saying it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. It was futile though, you were set to be miserable. To be resentful of how your parents could sell you off to the highest bidder for a bit of political gain.

Though, the palace grounds were beautiful. High ceilings covered in extravagant artwork, glass windows, the grand canal right outside the Eastern side of the palace. There was much to explore in the two weeks you’d spend there — or the rest of your life.

You spent the first week of your stay exploring the castle. Looking at the array of artwork, the different rooms. You did this mostly alone, your mother would occasionally join when she was not required to sit through perilously long political meetings. When she was not able to join you, your handmaiden — and best companion — Maria, would walk with you.

Always a few paces behind to keep up appropriate appearances. Though, Maira more than often would end up walking beside you.

In fact, it was three days after your initial arrival that Leon saw you for the first time, alone. You had decided to take advantage of the pleasant Italian spring day and explore the West gardens. Maria was walking beside you grinning, hands folded in front of her as she informed you of the latest gossip among the grand palace’s servants.

That was also the first time Leon had ever heard you laugh. You had a gloved hand covering your mouth, the sudden sound of your lilting laughter causing him to immediately stand as you rounded a corner of the hedges.

Leon has simply come outside to study a leather bound book of political speeches his father had written, sitting on the bench to also enjoy the weather. At the sudden sight of the prince, Maria stopped in her tracks, eyes wide and bent at the waist in a bow.

Maria’s sudden prostrate position caused you to pause as well, dropping your hand and looking up at the prince — your betrothed.

You as well, curtsied, face ground-ward as your smile fell in an instant. “Your highness.”

Leon almost smiled then, at the sight of your sudden respect and change of attitude. He bowed his own head as you straightened, offering the same sign of respect. “Princess. I hope you are enjoying the grounds.”

“Yes, your highness, I am. Thank you.” You nodded, your eyes hesitant to look in his direction. It didn’t go amiss to Leon that your cheeks had been painted in a pink tint as well.

“Good,” he nodded, at a loss for what else to say. His eyes darted to Maria, your handmaiden who had righted herself and taken a few steps back. He nodded to her as well, offering a kind smile.

This was the first time you’d felt any form of warmth for the prince. His subtle kindness to your handmaiden, whom any other noble would dutifully ignore. It brought a small smile to your lips, eyes finally meeting his as he looked at you.

“What are you reading?” You questioned, eyes flicking to the leather bound book in Leon’s hands. An awkward attempt to be polite.

“Just some political notes my father wrote up for me to review. He has been pushing me to be more involved as of late, my future quickly approaching as he likes to say.” Leon’s head tilted to the side, motioning to the book.

To his surprise, your interest had seemed to pique. “Anything interesting?” You asked, voice soft yet filled with an element of excitement. A princess interested in politics was not something the prince had ever come across.

“Not particularly, just some civilian requests and meeting reviews.” He shrugged, seeming bored. However, you seemed anything but.

“I see.” You stepped forward a bit, seeming to be a bit hesitant but foraging on nonetheless. “I do hope I am not being forward, but, I wonder if you would mind informing me of anything you hear in the meetings.”

Leon frowned at this. “You are not invited to meetings?” He didn’t realize you may not have a place in the political side of royalty.

You shook your head, a small look of annoyance gracing over your gentle features. “No, my father says it isn’t a princess’ place. He believes I am far too delicate for such heavy matters.”

Leon could tell how much it annoyed you, despite the fact that you never explicitly said it did. He frowned, nodding to himself.

He looked back up at you — his lips pulled into a devastating smirk that nearly took your breath away. “Well, princess, you have my word. I will inform you of anything I hear from future meetings.”

You hadn’t expected him to actually agree. Most men would have said you were being silly and had no need to hear such trivial matters. It made that prior spark of warmth blossom into a small flame in your chest.

He was kind. Not just handsome — horribly so, which you and Maria agreed upon — but he had a good heart. No matter his seemingly rough exterior, you could see the prince meant well.

“Well, thank you, your highness. I deeply appreciate it.” You smiled, that pink tint on your cheeks ever present as the prince stepped forward to you.

“Of course, princess. If there is anything I can do to make your stay any more pleasant, please do let me know. We are going to be married, are we not?” He offered with a half smirk, bowing his head again.

“Thank you, your highness.” Your own lips pulled into a small smile as Leon gently gripped your gloved hand, pressing his lips to the back of it with a whisper of a kiss. He smiled again, dropping your hand and walking away, through the hedges of the gardens.

He was kind, you’d somewhat expected that, but you hadn’t expected him to be so romantic. At least, that’s how you would put it. You’d met your fair share of suitors, each appealing in their own way. But none had ever offered you the kindness or grace Leon had. It was dizzying.

And those dizzying thoughts plagued you always. The kindness in his eyes, his devastating smirk, his gentle voice — it all stayed in your mind. Never leaving you a moment to breathe. Maybe, he wasn’t so bad. It was entirely possible that you wouldn’t be miserable here. However, you decided to make that decision upon whether or not Leon kept his promise.

And to your surprise, he had. Two days later, you awoke in the late morning to a small stack of parchment on your nightstand. The top sheet displaying your name in what could only be Leon’s swirling handwriting.

You’d laid in bed for two hours that morning to read through the notes of every meeting for the past week that you’d been there, missing breakfast. It wasn’t in Leon’s hand script, but in a neater script. The official royal note taker, you assumed. But it was all so interesting.

Never had you been informed of any such political activity before, unless it was pressing or dangerous. It was a refreshing feeling to be informed. To know things like anyone else.

You’d read over the papers, soaking in each word until your eyes hurt. Until you committed each event listed and discussed to memory. In sudden realization of how kind the act truly was, you racked your brain for a way to thank Leon. It was possible he could be punished for this, you didn’t know exactly how confidential this information was.

It wasn’t until dinner the following night after you’d received the papers that you saw the prince again. You had been seated beside him for the first time — probably due to visiting political figures. It was quiet between the two of you, a bit awkward, because what were you supposed to say? The men were all conversing about the situation in the West, Leon looking bored and not caring much to weigh in. So you took your chance.

“I wanted to thank you for the notes.” You spoke up, quiet as only Leon could hear you as you pushed the food on your plate around.

The prince paused, his glass raised to his lips as he sipped the maroon wine. “I trust you enjoyed them?”

“Very much. Thank you, it means a lot to me you did that.” You looked at Leon as he set his wine glass down, offering him a smile to display how much you truly did appreciate the kindness.

“Of course, princess. I am just glad to offer you some solace here. Whether it be politics or roses.” He joked, blue eyes glimmering in the bright candlelit dining hall.

You set down your fork, sipping from your own glass before looking at him again. “I do hope I did not get you into any trouble.”

“No. And even if you did, it would be worth it. So long as you are happy here.” Again, the prince’s kindness was overwhelming. You smiled, cheeks tinged pink again.

“You flush a lot. Is this normal for you, or is it just me?” The prince questioned with a teasing lilt.

A small laugh fell from your lips, shaking your head. “I am afraid it is just you.” You nodded to him, head tilted to the side.

The prince offered you another smile, sipping from his glass before his father began to speak to him, in a way forcing him to engage in conversation. For the first time in your life, you could listen to a discussion of political issues and know what was happening. And it was all thanks to a kind prince.

You sat through the dinner, a small smile taking permanent residence on your pink lips. Eyes sparkling with quiet knowledge.

It was then Leon realized he liked your smile. And it was then you realized you could fall in love with Leon.

2023 ©️ellieslaces please do not repost, rewrite, translate, or submit my work to AI or any other platform. please support your creators by reblogging, liking, and following!

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#leon s kennedy #leon kennedy x fem reader #leon kennedy x reader #leon kennedy x you #leon kennedy #resident evil 4 #resident evil #royalty au #leon #kennedy #prince leon Kennedy #resident evil 4 remake #leon kennedy x y/n #leon kennedy re4 #Taylor Swift #dancing with our hands tied

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formulas-bitch · 1 month

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unknown sister - lance stroll

4.2k words

As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting an ethereal glow over the city, Lance Stroll found himself wandering aimlessly through the bustling streets. His mind was elsewhere, lost in thought, as he weaved in and out of the throngs of people. He had no particular destination, no particular purpose - he was just there, existing. And then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw her: a girl, no more than a few years older than he was, who bore a striking resemblance to someone he once knew. Intrigued, Lance followed her at a discreet distance, his heart racing with anticipation.

As she ducked into a quaint little café, Lance hesitated for a moment before mustering up the courage to enter after her. The moment he stepped inside, the familiar scent of coffee and freshly baked pastries enveloped him, sending a wave of nostalgia washing over him. His eyes searched the crowd until they alighted upon her: sitting alone at a table in the far corner, lost in thought, a steaming cup of coffee in front of her. His heart skipped a beat as he realized that this girl was his sister; the one he had never known existed.

Cautiously, Lance made his way over to her, his steps slow and deliberate. He cleared his throat, trying to gather the words that seemed to have deserted him. "Um… excuse me?" he finally managed to say. "I'm Lance Stroll. We… we might be related." There was a long pause as he waited for her reaction, his heart pounding in his chest.

The girl looked up from her coffee, her eyes widening in recognition. "Lance?" she whispered, her voice trembling with disbelief. "It can't be…" She set her coffee down and pushed it aside, her gaze fixed on him. "You're Chloe's brother?" Nodding, Lance felt a lump forming in his throat. "I am. I found out about you a few days ago… I just… I had to see you for myself." He swallowed hard, struggling to find the right words. "I'm sorry if this is weird or confusing for you. I just… I wanted to meet you."

For a long moment, the sibling just stared at each other, the air thick with emotion. Then, slowly, the girl stood up and moved around the table, her arms opening wide. "I'm Layla," she said, her voice choked with emotion. "And yes… I am your sister." She pulled Lance into a tight hug, burying her face in his shoulder as they clung to each other.

Lance was at a loss for words, but he hugged her back just as tightly, feeling an overwhelming sense of love and connection. As they pulled apart, their faces wet with tears, Layla wiped at her eyes and forced a shaky smile. "I can't believe it," she whispered. "All this time… we had no idea."

The siblings took a moment to compose themselves, each ordering a cup of coffee before settling into a comfortable booth. As they sipped their drinks, Lance began to fill Layla in on the details of his life: about Chloe, their parents, and his time in formula 1. Layla listened intently, her eyes wide with wonder and curiosity. In turn, Layla shared stories of her own, about her life growing up in another part of the city and her dreams of becoming a professional dancer.

As they continued to talk, the café around them seemed to fade away, replaced by a world where the only thing that mattered was their connection to each other. They spoke of their shared memories, both real and imagined, and began to forge a bond that transcended time and circumstance. They laughed together, cried together, and found solace in each other's company.

Eventually, their conversation turned to the future. Layla confided in Lance that she had been struggling financially and was considering giving up on her dancing dreams. Upon hearing this, Lance was determined to help her. He offered her a place to stay in his apartment and promised to use his connections in the entertainment industry to help her get her foot in the door.

Layla was overwhelmed with gratitude, and they hugged tightly once more. As they pulled away, Lance could feel a new sense of purpose and direction in his life. He knew that finding Layla had been a blessing, and he would do everything in his power to make sure that their bond only grew stronger.

as they were catching up, lance had received a call from their dad.

"I hope you haven't forgotten about the race this weekend, son," he said, his voice booming through the phone. "You've got a lot of fans out here who are counting on you. Don't let them down."

Lance smiled at his sister as he listened to their father's words. "I won't, Dad," he assured him, before turning back to Layla. "So, how about we grab some lunch and talk more about your dancing? I have a few ideas on how we can make things happen for you."

As they left the café and ventured out into the bustling city, Layla linked her arm through Lance's, a gesture of sisterly affection that filled him with warmth. "I can't thank you enough for this, Lance," she said, looking up at him with shining eyes. "You have no idea what this means to me."

Lance shrugged off her gratitude, feeling it was an understatement. "It's the least I could do," he replied, his voice gruff with emotion. "You're my sister, after all. We're in this together."

Their walk took them past a park where a small festival was taking place. The air was filled with the sounds of laughter, music, and the sizzle of food on grills. They stopped at a booth selling kebabs and shared a plate, chatting animatedly as they ate. Layla told Lance about a dancing competition she'd heard of, one that would offer a substantial prize and a chance to perform in front of a prominent choreographer.

"I think that's something we should definitely look into," Lance said, wiping his hands on a napkin. "I'll see what I can do to help you get sponsored. And if you need any contacts in the entertainment industry, just let me know."

As they continued to walk through the park, they stumbled upon a group of people practicing some intricate dance moves. Layla's eyes lit up and she immediately went over to join them. Lance watched her dance with a mix of awe and pride, marveling at how graceful and talented she was. He couldn't help but feel a surge of protectiveness as well, wanting to make sure that no one ever underestimated her or stood in her way.

After watching her for a while, Lance noticed a young man standing off to the side, obviously captivated by Layla's dancing. He walked over and introduced himself as Adam, a fellow dancer who had been struggling to find his place in the industry. The three of them exchanged numbers, and Layla and Adam quickly became friends, often practicing together and offering each other advice and support.

As the weeks passed, Layla's audition for the dancing competition grew closer. Lance had been working tirelessly behind the scenes, using his connections to secure her a spot in the competition and even managing to find her a talented choreographer to help her prepare. He couldn't have been more proud of his sister, and he knew that no matter what happened, she would make him and their father proud. even though their dad dint know that lance had found Layla and was in contact with her .

Adam, too, had become a close friend to Layla and Lance. He had been an invaluable source of support and encouragement, always offering a listening ear or a helpful hand when needed. The three of them had developed a special bond, and Lance couldn't help but feel grateful for the positive influence Adam had on his sister. He hoped that their friendship would only continue to grow stronger in the years to come.

As the big day of the competition approached, Lance found himself feeling both nervous and excited for Layla. He'd never been one to dance himself, but he'd seen her practice countless hours, pouring her heart and soul into each routine. He knew that she had what it took to win, and he was determined to make sure that she had everything she needed to succeed.

The day of the competition finally arrived, and Lance, Layla, and Adam made their way to the venue. The atmosphere was electric, with dancers from all over the city gathered to showcase their talents. Lance helped Layla with her hair and makeup, making sure she looked her best before she went onstage. As she waited in the wings, he could see the determination and focus in her eyes, and he knew that she was ready to give it her all.

The competition was fierce, with each dancer bringing their unique style and technique to the stage. As Layla's turn approached, Lance felt a lump in his throat and a knot in his stomach. He knew that no matter what happened, he would be proud of her. When she emerged onto the stage, the audience erupted into applause, and Lance couldn't help but feel a surge of pride.

She danced with a grace and power that Lance had never seen before, her movements fluid and effortless. The choreography was stunning, and Lance could tell that the judges were impressed. As she finished her final move, the crowd rose to their feet, showering her with cheers and applause. It was clear that she had won over everyone in the room.

Lance couldn't believe his eyes as Layla was named the winner of the competition. He felt a wave of emotion wash over him as he watched her accept her trophy and give her speech, thanking him and Adam for their support. He couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, knowing that he had played a part in helping her achieve her dreams.

As they left the venue, Lance could feel the weight of the world lift off his shoulders. The constant worry and stress about their financial situation had been consuming him, but now, with Layla's victory, he felt a newfound sense of hope and optimism. He knew that things were going to be okay, and that Layla would have the opportunity to pursue her passion without having to worry about money.

as layla and lance made their way out of the competition, they were approached by Lawrence, their dad, well more like lance's dad as he didn't know it was Layla his eldest daughter standing in front of him, as he had left her mom when she had found out she was pregnant with her.

Lance was about to introduce them but then thought better of it, he would let them have their moment, so he stood back and just watched with a smile on his face as his sister and their dad reunited. It was a moment of pure joy and happiness that he would never forget. He could see the surprise, shock and then disbelief in his dad's eyes as he looked at Layla, taking in her beauty and grace, and then the realization hit him that this was his daughter, the one he had never met, the one he had missed out on all these years.

The emotion in the air was palpable, and Lance felt a lump form in his throat as he watched the two of them hug, tears streaming down their faces. It was a moment that he knew would change their lives forever, a moment that would bring them all closer together, a moment that would help them heal from the pain of the past.

As they pulled apart, Lance could see the love and pride in his father's eyes as he looked at Layla, and it filled him with a sense of hope and joy. He knew that their relationship would take time to build, but he believed that with patience and understanding, they could create a new family, one that was based on love and acceptance.

Layla seemed to feel the same way, as she introduced her father to Adam and Lance, her voice shaking slightly with emotion. Lawrence, taken aback by the depth of her feelings, could only nod in acknowledgment, unable to find the words to express his own emotions. The four of them stood there, bonding over their shared experience and the love they had for Layla, their amazing daughter.

As they continued to talk, Lance noticed a change in his father's demeanor. Where before there had been shock and disbelief, now there was a quiet determination to be a part of their lives. He wanted to make up for the time he had missed, to be the father Layla and Lance deserved. It was a moment of clarity for Lance, one that made him realize that perhaps their father's love was not as lost as he had once believed.

The rest of the evening was a whirlwind of introductions, hugs, and tears. Chloe and Lance's mother, who had never quite forgiven their father for abandoning them, seemed to soften as she watched the emotional reunion unfold between his other daughter he never got to see grow up. There was a new understanding in her eyes, a recognition that perhaps Lawrence had not been as heartless as she had once thought. It was a fragile peace, but it was a start. she soon introduced herself as Lawrence's wife and Chloe and Lance's mother.

As they all left the venue together, arms looped around each other's waists, they felt a sense of hope and unity that they had never experienced before. They knew that their lives were about to change drastically, but for once, it felt like it was for the better. They were going to be a family, a real family, with all its flaws and imperfections.

Lawrence, still struggling to process the events of the evening, couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in Layla's accomplishments. He knew that he had missed out on so much of her life, but he was determined to be there for her now. He promised himself that he would do whatever it took to make things right with her, Chloe and Lance, and to earn their trust and love.

As they walked to the car, Layla took her father aside and gave him a small, leather-bound book. "This is a journal I kept during my time competing," she explained. "It's full of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I wanted you to have it, so you could get to know me better." Lawrence, touched beyond words, promised to read it carefully and to treasure it always.

" Next week is your sister Chloe's wedding and we would love for you to come and celebrate with us"

Layla's face lit up with joy as she hugged her father tightly. "Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world." She glanced over at Lance, a small smile playing on her lips. "It's going to be a special day for all of us."

Lawrence returned her smile, feeling a sense of warmth spread through his chest. "It certainly is. And I want you both to know that I'm here for you, no matter what." He placed a hand on each of their shoulders, his gaze meeting theirs in a show of sincerity.

The rest of the evening was a whirlwind of celebration and joy as they all attended Chloe's wedding together. Layla and Lance glowed with happiness, clearly proud of their sister and excited to share this special day with their newfound family member. Lawrence found himself feeling more and more at ease with them, beginning to form real connections and bonds that he hadn't thought possible.

As they danced and laughed throughout the night, Lance couldn't help but notice the way his father looked at Layla. There was a sense of awe in his eyes, as if he couldn't believe the incredible woman she had become. Lawrence, for his part, seemed to be relishing every moment of spending time with her, treasuring each conversation and memory they made together.

Chloe and her new husband, meanwhile, were beaming with happiness as they shared their special day with their newly expanded family. They had been through so much, but seeing their father there, a part of their lives once more, made everything feel just a little bit brighter.

As the night wore on, Layla and Lance began to dance together, their movements fluid and effortless, mirroring the deep connection they shared. Lawrence watched them from afar, a small smile playing on his lips as he recalled his own wedding dance with their mother. He couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder at the journey that had brought them all here, to this moment, together as a family.

Chloe and her new husband, meanwhile, had taken the opportunity to steal Lance and Layla away for a slow dance, twirling them around the dance floor as they shared heartfelt words and hugs. It was a moving display of love and support, and it brought tears to Lawrence's eyes to see his children so happy and loved.

As the night wound down, the guests began to say their goodbyes, but not before Layla, Lance, and Chloe insisted on gathering everyone together for a group photo. They posed arm in arm, beaming with joy and pride, their newfound bond shining through in every image. Lawrence stood behind them, his hand resting on each of their shoulders, feeling a sense of peace and contentment wash over him.

As the last of the guests departed, Chloe pulled her father aside. "Thank you," she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. "Thank you for coming tonight, for being here for us. It means more than you'll ever know." Lawrence, unable to speak past the lump in his throat, simply squeezed her hand and nodded, his own eyes misting over.

Meanwhile, Lance approached Layla with a gentle smile. "You were amazing tonight," he said, his voice low and sincere. "I don't know how you did it, but you made everyone feel so welcome, so included. I'm so proud of you, sis." Layla blushed, her cheeks flushing, but she didn't miss the warmth that spread through her chest at his words.

"Thank you," she replied, her voice trembling just a little. "I'm glad I could help. And thank you for being there with me tonight. You were amazing too, you know." Lance chuckled softly, reaching out to take her hand. "We'll always have each other's backs, right?" Layla squeezed his hand in agreement, her gaze meeting his.

As they stood there, lost in their own thoughts and feelings, they were unaware of the approach of their father. Lawrence cleared his throat gently, drawing their attention back to him. "You two are an incredible team," he said, his voice rough with emotion. "I couldn't be more proud of you both." His words hung in the air for a moment, heavy with meaning, before Lance and Layla stepped forward to embrace their father in a tight hug.

The night air was cool and crisp as they made their way back to the car. Layla and Lance had switched places, with Lance now driving his father's rental and Layla riding shotgun beside him. As they drove, the city lights reflecting off the buildings and streets, they found themselves lapsing into silence, each lost in their own thoughts about the day's events.

"Do you think he'll stay?" Layla finally asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Lance glanced over at his sister, then back at the road ahead. "I don't know, sis. It's a big change for him, moving out here and all. I mean, he's got his job, and he seems to be enjoying it, but…" He trailed off, shrugging slightly. "Who knows? Maybe he'll find a way to make it work. We can only hope, right?"

As they pulled into the driveway of their parents' house, they both glanced at each other, a mix of emotions playing across their faces. They got out of the car and walked together up to the front door, taking a moment to gather their thoughts and compose themselves. The night had been full of highs and lows, but they both felt a newfound sense of connection, not only with each other, but with their father as well.

Inside, their mother was busy cleaning up the remnants of the party, her movements efficient and graceful as she worked. "How did it go?" she asked, looking up from her task with a tired smile. "Did everything go alright?"

"It went better than alright, Mom," Lance replied, taking her hand and leading her into the living room. "Layla and Chloe did an amazing job tonight, and everyone seemed to have a great time." He gestured towards the photo album they'd put together earlier, sitting prominently on the coffee table. "We even got a group photo."

Layla nodded in agreement, her eyes drifting towards the album. "It was hard work, but it was worth it. I think everyone who came felt welcome, and that's all we could've asked for." She glanced over at her father, who was sitting in the corner of the room, looking thoughtful. "And Dad seemed to really enjoy himself too."

Their mother smiled warmly and squeezed Lance's hand. "I'm so proud of both of you," she said. "You've grown into such amazing young adults." She paused for a moment, her expression turning pensive. "And I hope that tonight was a step in the right direction for all of us, finding our way back to each other."

as they talked in the kitchen , Lawrence made his way and joined them, pouring himself a cup of coffee. He looked at his children with a mix of pride and sadness in his eyes. "You both did an amazing job tonight," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me to see all of you together, enjoying each other's company." " i was thinking Layla, why don't you join me and lance for his race next week?" asked Lawrence, trying to sound casual. "I'm sure it'll be fun, and it'll be great for all of us to spend some quality time together."

Layla looked at her father, then at Lance, her eyes filling with hope. "I'd love to, Dad," she said, her voice trembling slightly. "That sounds like a great idea." Lance nodded in agreement, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. They all knew that this wasn't just about a race; it was about trying to rebuild their family, one small step at a time.

As the weeks passed, they all threw themselves into preparations for the race. Lance trained harder than ever, determined to do his best for his father. Layla helped out with logistics and publicity, using her organizational skills to make sure everything ran smoothly. And Lawrence, well, he was there for moral support, offering advice when asked and lending an ear when needed.

The day of the race finally arrived, and the entire family made their way to the track. The air was filled with the roar of engines and the excited chatter of spectators. Lance's heart pounded in his chest as he strapped himself into the car, but he felt a calm confidence wash over him when he saw Layla and their father standing nearby. They were his biggest fans, and he couldn't have asked for anything more.

As the race began, Lance focused on the track, determined to navigate the twists and turns with precision. He could feel the adrenaline surging through his veins, pushing him to go faster, to outperform his competition. But even as he raced, his mind kept drifting back to the people he loved standing on the sidelines. He knew that this race wasn't just about winning or losing; it was about proving to himself and to them that he could be the man they needed him to be.

In the grandstands, Layla and their father cheered him on, their voices carrying across the track. They could feel the raw emotion in their words, the unspoken love and support that flowed between them. As Lance neared the finish line, they held their breath, willing him to cross it. And when he did, emerging victorious amidst a cloud of burning rubber and deafening cheers, they erupted in applause, their eyes shining with tears of pride.

Lance climbed out of the car, his chest heaving, and threw his arms around his father. They hugged tightly, sharing a moment of connection that felt like it had been eons in the making. Layla joined them, wrapping her arms around both of them, and for a brief moment, it felt like everything was going to be okay.

As they walked back to the pit, Lance couldn't shake the feeling that this was just the beginning. There was still so much work to do, so many bridges to mend. But for now, he was content to bask in the glow of victory and the love of his family. He knew that with their support, he could face any challenge that came their way. and he finally had another sister who he could share his dreams with.

#lance stroll x reader #f1 blurb #f1 x reader #lance stroll #ls18 x reader #ls18 #aston martin f1 #lance stroll imagine #lawrence stroll #Ls18 x imagine #lance stroll blurb #f1 imagine #f1 fanfic

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afeelgoodblog · 1 year

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The Best News of Last Week - March 27, 2023

🐢 - Why did the 90-year-old tortoise become a father? Because he finally came out of his shell!

1. New Mexico governor signs bill ending juvenile life sentences without parole

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed a bill into law that prevents juvenile offenders from receiving life sentences without eligibility for parole. The bill, known as the No Life Sentences for Juveniles Act, allows offenders who committed crimes under the age of 18 and received life sentences to be eligible for parole hearings 15 to 25 years into their sentences.

This legislation also applies to juveniles found guilty of first-degree murder, even if they were tried as adults. The move puts New Mexico in a group of at least 24 other states and Washington, DC, that have enacted similar measures following a 2021 Supreme Court ruling.

2. Promising pill completely eliminates cancer in 18 leukaemia patients

An experimental pill called revumenib has shown promise in curing terminal leukemia patients who were not responding to treatment in a long-awaited clinical trial in the United States. The drug works by inhibiting a specific protein called menin, which is involved in the machinery that gets hijacked by leukemia cells and causes normal blood cells to turn into cancerous ones.

The pill targets the most common mutation in acute myeloid leukemia, a gene called NPM1, and a less common fusion called KMT2A. The US Food and Drug Administration granted revumenib "breakthrough therapy designation" to fast-track its development and regulatory review based on the promising results of the trial.

3. Spain passes law against domestic animal abuse

Spain has passed a new law on animal welfare, accompanied by a reform of the penal code that increases prison sentences for those mistreating animals. The law will make compulsory training for dog owners, and will prohibit them from leaving their dogs alone for more than 24 hours.

It also mandates the sterilisation of cats, with exceptions for farms, and increases the penalties for mistreatment of animals to up to two years in prison, or three years in the event of aggravating circumstances.

4. Bravery medals for women who raced into 'rough, crazy' surf to save drowning girls

Elyse Partridge (far left) and Bella Broadley (far right) raced into dangerous surf to save Chloe and Violet from drowning.(ABC North Coast: Hannah Ross)

Bella Broadley and Elyse Partridge saved two 11-year-old girls from drowning at Angels Beach near Ballina, an unpatrolled beach in Australia. The younger girls, Chloe and Violet, became trapped in a rip and overwhelmed by waves and the current. Bella and Elyse jumped into action, using an esky lid as a flotation device to help them swim to the girls. Elyse helped Chloe back to shore while Bella swam further out to help Violet.

Elyse and Bella were on Wednesday named on the Governor General's Australian Bravery Decorations Honours List, which recognised 66 Australians for acts of bravery.

5. Almost every cat featured in viral Tik Tok posted by Kansas City animal shelter adopted

Let's find homes for the rest

youtube

6. A 90-year-old tortoise named Mr. Pickles just became a father of 3. It's a big 'dill'

These critically endangered tortoises are native to Madagascar and have seen their numbers decline due to over-collection for illegal sales on the black market. Captive breeding programs have helped produce new radiated tortoises, but the species still faces extinction in the wild.

That's why the arrival of these hatchlings, born to 90-year-old Mr. Pickles and his 53-year-old partner Mrs. Pickles, is such great news. Mr. Pickles is considered the most genetically valuable radiated tortoise in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Species Survival Plan, and the births represent a significant contribution to the survival of the species.

7. EU strikes ‘ground-breaking’ deal to cut maritime emissions

The European Parliament and EU ministers have agreed on a new law to cut emissions in the maritime sector. The law aims to reduce ship emissions by 2% as of 2025 and 80% as of 2050, covering greenhouse gas, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions.

The European Commission will review the law in 2028 and will decide whether to place carbon-cutting requirements on smaller ships. The agreement will also require containerships and passenger ships docking at major EU ports to plug into the on-shore power supply as of 2030. Penalties collected from those that fail to meet the targets will be allocated to projects focused on decarbonising the maritime sector.

- - - -

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to share this post with your friends.

#best news of last week #Youtube

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ronwestbreeze · 1 year

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TO YOU , WORLDS AWAY : PART TWO : CHAPTER TWELVE

pairing: jake sully x fem!reader

summary: in which it is the year 2159

word count: 2.4k

author's note: hello hello! TYWA part two has arrived! now updating is going to be a bit different for this. i'm thinking posting each chapter once a week will be what I will do from here on out that way I can have time to write future chapters whilst you all read the one's I have already written! just remember, don't demand me to post, it doesn't help with motivation or make me want to keep writing it! anyways, thank you for the patience! and without further ado, part two!

AO3 | prev | next

“I keep having these dreams. About this girl. Every time I saw her, it felt like I knew her for years. Like she was my best friend in the whole world. And I couldn’t imagine a life without her.”

“Tell me about these dreams.”

“Well…they always start with fire and…”

“What’s wrong? Baby girl, what is it?”

“You’ll think I’m weird, Daddy.”

“I won’t, I won’t. I promise.”

“When I wake up, I’m sad. Like I’ve lost someone. And it feels so heavy…Daddy, I hate it!”

“Sssh, ssh, it’s okay, it’s okay. I’ve got you, alright? I’ve got you.”

“I miss her, Daddy. I miss her so much.”

“Miss who, baby girl?”

“That’s the thing. I don’t even know her name…”

Year 2159

It had been five years since the RDA were exiled off of Pandora and Dr. Chloe Parker was still trying to find her footing on this planet.

Before the battle, she had been well into the late Dr. Augustine’s Avatar Program. Trained and studied learning to control her own avatar and then using her time to explore all of Pandora’s plants and herbs. And it was interesting, learning about all the medicines here, the potential use for them.

Then the battle at the Tree of Souls happened. Killing dozens of wildlife, many humans and Na’vi alike. It was a sad day to say the least. But after Jake Sully took over as the clan leader for the Omatikaya Clan and exiled the RDA off of Pandora, things began to change for the better.

Dr. Chloe had been one of the humans allowed to stay on Pandora, mostly because she didn’t contribute to the war that struck the planet and because Dr. Max Patel vouched for her and some of the other scientists and avatar volunteers. Now she had spent her time continuing to explore all of Pandora, working with the Na’vi in different clans to study their ways of medicine and perhaps teach them some of the stuff humans do, even though she knew they would probably never use it.

For the past few months, Dr. Chloe, and her small research team, took their avatars and their next journey to the Olangi Clan. A very nomadic clan that worked very closely with the Omatikaya so their home wasn’t too far from the former’s. Their clan leader, Akwey, had allowed them to stay and start their research there as long as they didn’t pose a threat to his people and were respectful of the lands and their ways. Which wasn't a difficult task, especially when there were no more military men flanking the planet anymore.

But as of recently, Dr. Chloe had been requested to retrieve the Tsahik of the Omatikaya Clan, Mo’at since the Olangi’s Tsahik had died in the battle against the RDA. So, instead of researching like the rest of her team, she had been made into a messenger, going back and forth from each clan speaking of something called Eywa…Dr. Chloe wasn’t really too spiritual to care much of who this Eywa was. But if it made the people happy and content, and kept them from shutting down her research, then Dr. Chloe would take one for the team for now.

On the other hand, she wasn’t entirely too comfortable leaving her very first patient alone so much. A patient very important to her research.

When Dr. Chloe found Mo’at, she was with her daughter, Neytiri if she could recall correctly. Dr. Chloe never really had a conversation with the woman—mostly because of her obvious distaste of Dr. Chloe’s presence—and today was no different. Once she arrived in her avatar form, Neytiri hissed and walked away. One of her children, a young boy, followed after her closely.

“Why has Akwey sent you now, Chloeparker?” Mo’at greeted her while crushing up what looked like herbs in a small wooden bowl. Dr. Chloe’s Na’vi wasn’t perfect but she could understand a lot of it after years of listening to both Dr. Augustine and the people talk expertly in it.

“An elder died yesterday.” Dr. Chloe informed her, stuffing her hands into her shorts. “Akwey wishes for you to perform the ceremony.”

Mo’at hummed, not looking up from her work. “One day, he will have to come to my daughter as she will be the next Tsahik of the People. And I will finally rest.”

“Let’s hope that day isn’t soon then.” Dr. Chloe commented with a thin smile. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but your daughter doesn’t seem to like me much.”

“You are Sky People. Of course she doesn't like you.” Mo’at stood with the bowl and finally looked at Dr. Chloe. “I am not too fond of your people either.”

Dr. Chloe could understand that in a way. But she was a bit tired of being grouped with the people that tried to destroy Pandora and take it over. Then again, she really couldn’t blame them. If she were in their shoes, she’d hold a grudge too. It didn’t matter if they were the same or not. That anger, that resent, it was uncontrollable and rightful. Dr. Chloe could do nothing but shrug.

“Touché.”

“Mmph.” Mo’at then handed her the bowl. Dr. Chloe took it, surprised at the sudden gesture. “I understand you are a doctor among your people. This can be more useful than whatever technology you Sky People insist on using.”

Chloe held the little bowl delicately but frowned, “The technology is not all useless, you know. It does help sometimes.”

“Sometimes.” Mo’at pointed out. Dr. Chloe tried not to roll her eyes.

There was small movement behind Mo’at and Dr. Chloe did a double take. She hadn’t realized they weren’t alone until Mo’at had stood. It was a little girl that didn’t really look like Na’vi. Actually, when Dr. Chloe looked at her closely, she realized the little girl looked awfully similar to someone.

Before she could wonder just who the little girl reminded her of, her earpiece suddenly beeped, alerting her that one of her team members was calling her from back at the Olangi Clan.

Dr. Chloe excused herself before answering her earpiece, “This is Dr. Chloe—”

“You need to get back here fast!”

She blinked in confusion at the urgency in her fellow researcher, Simon's voice, “Why, what’s happening?”

There was a pause, “…Okay, don’t get mad but we decided to take her out of cryosleep—”

“WHAT?!” Dr. Chloe covered her mouth when Mo’at gave her a disapproving scowl and the little girl watched her curiously. She cleared her throat and lowered her voice before continuing, “Why the hell would you do something like that—she’s not even stable enough to take her out—”

“Just let me explain!” Simon interrupted with an exhausted sigh. “We connected her to the machines we’ve been working on for months ever since we first started working on her, remember?”

“Those aren’t even ready yet!” Chloe hissed into the earpiece, walking out of the tent where Mo’at and the little girl still were. “Simon, what the hell were you thinking—”

“It worked, Chloe.”

She went quiet. Her eyes wandered aimlessly around the forest, unsure if she had heard him correctly. When Simon called her name again she finally responded in a hushed whisper, “You’re not shitting me, are you? Y-Your saying—”

“It worked, Chloe, it worked.” She could practically imagine the growing smile on his face as he said this. “She could wake up at any moment now. But with her condition, it’s not exactly permanent and I don’t imagine she herself would be happy with the results, but they are supporting her. They're keeping her alive until we know how to deal with the heavier wounds.”

This was definitely a development. This had been something she had been working on for two years now, hearing that it worked, on a person no less? Chloe couldn’t help but start packing up her things and leave.

“I’ll be right there! Don’t do anything without me!”

And with that, Chloe rushed back toward the Samson she had arrived in, ordering the pilot to take her back to plains.

There was a lab within the tall trees the Olangi Clan lived in. Chloe had it built when she first arrived in the plains. Even though she technically wanted to build one in one of the trees, having a lab hanging from a tree wasn’t exactly the safest position. So, they went with having it on the ground.

Plus, if they had done it in the tree, then the lab wouldn’t be as spacious as they needed it to be.

When Chloe arrived back, she came out of her link bed with Simon waiting for her.

“How is she?”

The two walked side by side with each other, leaving the link room and walking down the long hallway. Simon carried a holographic pad in his hands as he spoke, “She’s stable, still has yet to wake up, but things are looking good so far. The doctors want to start on the severe wounds right away.”

“How exactly bad are these injuries?” Chloe found herself asking. Really, when they first saw the patient, they had already decided to quickly put her in cryosleep with how badly injured she was and freeze her wounds before it became any more lethal to her body. Chloe hadn’t exactly seen it for herself but she’d always kept hearing about how bad it was.

Simon frowned, “Third and second degree burns, a broken rib, and a her lungs might've collapsed, I'm not entirely sure.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah, I hear she was a lot worse and the doctors managed to work on some of the less lethal burns, but she’s not exactly out of the woods yet.” Simon sighed as they stopped in front of the closed door. “We have twenty minutes with her before the doctors get to work.”

Chloe frowned, staring at him incredulously, “What should we say to her if she does wake up?”

Simon shrugged, “Tell of the situation, maybe fill her in since she’s missed basically five years of her life, and…I don’t know, comfort her the best we know how?”

“Comfort is not either of our strong suits, Simon.”

Simon rolled his eyes before finally opening the door.

What did death feel like? Was it this bright? This cold? Were you supposed to feel so heavy, so numb as if you couldn’t feel your body. Maybe your consciousness was floating above your body. There were stories like that, you remember reading about people who have died for a few seconds and were able to see their body outside of themselves.

Okay, maybe you weren’t actually dead. You may not have known what it felt like but you were pretty sure you weren’t supposed to be able to recall a memory as if it were another day. Then again, your body didn’t feel like a ton of anvils had fallen onto it and was pinning it down, preventing you from moving.

You hadn’t realized your eyes had been open until a shadow came into view, blocking some of the light above. Your vision was blurred, really you didn’t know when you had woken up or how long you had been staring up at the ceiling. Yes, that was definitely a ceiling.

Either hell was some bright room or you were somehow still alive.

Muffled voices echoed into your ears. You hadn’t realized, at first, that the voices were coming from the shadowed heads above you. It was like using your ears for the first time, like you were a newborn baby. Hell, your eyes felt like they hadn’t been used before.

Soon, you started registering the voices.

“You think she fell into some sort of vegetative state?” This voice belonged to a woman.

“I don’t know. It’s a possibility. Coming out of a cryosleep can be a little much.” This voice belonged to a man. Neither of them were familiar to your groggy mind. “We might need to get the doctors.”

Soon your vision began to clear.

“Wait, hold on…” The woman above you whispered. She was staring directly down at you, eyes wide with wonder. “I think she’s…”

Your eyes then moved to the second head, the man, when he came back over and appeared in your vision. And like their voices, they were both unfamiliar to you. Even in your foggy mind, you could not recall a single memory where it included these two strangers. Wait, maybe the woman. Back before you had stopped going to Hell’s Gate, you might’ve seen her a few times in passing.

Wait.

Hell’s Gate.

The bombs.

The ship crashed.

You should’ve been dead.

“Dr. L/N?”

The woman’s voice pulled you out of your thoughts, you refocused your gaze on her and she grinned excitedly. “You can hear me? Understand me?”

With great difficulty, you nodded. Or maybe your head shifted slightly similar to a nod, you didn’t really know.

“Holy shit.” The male muttered in amazement.

The woman continued grinning, “Welcome back, Doc.”

Before you could ask her where you were, before you could question who these people were, it suddenly hit you.

And it really hit you. Worse than a pile of anvils. More like an out of control train that crashed right into your body and dragged you along the way.

That was the type of pain that struck your body once your senses had begun coming back. This pain was unimaginable. It was unlike anything, unlike any pain you had ever felt in your short life.

This was worse. This was what death felt like.

You didn’t remember much of what happened after your chest jolted forward from the shock of the pain. All you saw was the two that had been standing over you, rushing away, shouting for what sounded like help. And in the next few seconds you kept blacking out a few times. The world went in and out. Every sound clashed together around you. Most of the pain, you realized, was coming from your waist, hell, just your entire upper body.

You wanted to scream. But all that came out of your mouth was choked gasps, barely any words or cries. You were crying. You were crying. Yes, you were sure of it.

There was a sharp prick against your neck.

And in the next second, it was like you were falling out of the world and back into the blackness.

Falling.

Eventually, you would hit the ground…

And Jake Sully would wake up.

#to you worlds away #jake sully x reader #avatar jake sully x reader #avatar jake #avatar jake sully #jake sully #avatar way of water #avatar the way of water #atwow #avatar fanfiction #avatar 2 #finally!!!

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thewritingofspencerrose · 4 months

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In a World of Boys

Lance Stroll x pregnant!OC

josie.jackson

liked by lance_stroll, chloestroll, scottyjames31 and 20,589 others

josie.jackson in a world of boys, he's a gentleman 🤍

lance_stroll my whole heart 💚

fan01 someone please tell me i'm not the only one who noticed the white and green hearts???

"Did you really have to post that middle photo? I did not need to see my brother-in-law shirtless," Scotty complains, glancing up from his phone to meet my eyes from where he's sat on our couch, Chloe wrapping in his arms while Daniel sits to his other side, only fueling our constant joking that he's the one truly married to Scotty.

Before I can even answer him Chloe has wapped him upside the head, turning around with a glare. "Shut up. Now. They're cute and in love and I've never seen Lance happier. Plus I love Josie more than I do him so if you ruin this I swear to-"

"Okay, that's enough of that," Lance hushes, his voice vibrating through his chest as he holds me close on his lap. "Also, I'm insulted Chlo. I thought we were closer than this."

"We are," Chloe assures with the softest smile, turning to me before continuing. "But then you brought her into my life and she's my new favorite family member."

"Awe, Stroll I really think you're closer than you know to losing your girlfriend and baby to your sister," Danny comments, his smile bright as the sun at the opportunity to tease Lance, Scotty chiming in with his own laughter.

"You boys need to leave him alone," My tone chimes in, sounding like a mother already. "We all know I won't be leaving Lance for Chloe," I assure, although I do send Chlo a wink, Lance wrapping me tighter in his arms and starting to poke at my sides, making me giggle. His hands come to rest on my stomach, baby boy kicking at his father's attention.

"How have you two kept the little one such a wrapped secret anyways? Does Lawrence even know?" Scotty questions, having asked the original question a couple years ago. Does Lawrence know his son is dating someone? The answer had been no, but Lance had gotten his personality from his father, and it was clear as day when Lance first introduced me to the original L.Stroll.

And I thanked Lawrence that day, nearly six months into my relationship with his son, for raising not just a boy, but a gentleman in a world of boys.

Lawrence's response? A hearty laugh and the question on if I was talking about the right man.

"No, we're going to announce it at the family Christmas party," I answer on our behalf, my hand joining Lance's over baby boy. "I've managed to get away undetected so far with large Aston Martin gear and loose dresses, but when I'm not able to attend the first few races next season, Lawrence will have questions."

"Ah," Daniel grins, gathering our attention. "The grid nepo baby has a baby, I can see the headlines now."

#lance stroll #formula 1 fanfiction #formula 1 #f1 fanfic #f1 social media au #lance stroll x oc #original character #the writing of spencer rose #formula one

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felixisourayofsunshine · 6 months

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Okay so I really wanted to talk about emonette's character plus Shadybug and Clawnoir's relationship......... Well this is gonna be a long one so sorry in advance

Okay let's go!!!

So as we saw in the special emonette said that she was constantly bullied by Chloe(guess she doesn't change in any universe 😔 that damn brat I hate her.... not more than Lila though) and considering how broken she sounded that was not the same bullying that Chloe of this universe did to Mari that shit must've been extreme. However, I donot think that the bullying alone there must've been more aspects which lead her to the path of evil.

Well, while we're at it let's talk about this scene.. God this was so heart wrenching....

When she said that-

"I'm sorry mommy dear, I fine I just- just dropped my sewing kit it's A BIT DAMAGED"

When she said the above line while glancing at her face which reflected on those broken pieces of mirror.... I swear I wanted to cry. Don't you see how poetic this was, while she seemed to be taking about the broken mirror we can clearly see that the one who is broken Is her some one once said

"But that's the irony, broken people, are not fragile....."

So while emonette is completely broken inside she never lets show on her face, no matter how sad, how broken, how miserable she is she keeps moving forward, you wonder why? Well, because it's MARINETTE for crying out loud.... no matter what universe it is our Mari puts on a brave face in front of other, she tends to hide her scars and crying silently not letting others know. Even in the original universe she would have broken much sooner if it was not for Alya finding out her identity. But as emonette said herself she doesn't have loving parents, a best friend and a supportive boyfriend, she was left all alone to suffer without anyone by her side

I still wonder what her wish really was though, knowing her it certainly not power. Could it be something else which she yearns for. Okay so hear me out do you remember what she said to Mari? She said:

"Do you think that it'd be any different from how it is now? Guess what, I don't have your nice little life. The world where I'm from there are no awesome girlfriends to inspire me everyday, no amazing bff, lovable, calm and gentle mom or a boyfriend who doesn't think I'm a total loser...."

These lines broke me though 😭...

So my theory is that in that universe Tom is dead and Sabine is abusive( I totally can't imagine that tho) that would explain why she behaved like that with Sabine and she works in her dad's bakery to keep his name.

Oh well I have a worse on........ Both Tom and Sabine are dead and she was adopted by someome who were very abusive(let's consider that after she graduated junior high she moved out of that school and is probably out of Chloe's grasp) they even intended to sell the bakery, the only belonging of her late parents she was left with. That was when she met supreme and he offered her that in exchange of killing her abusive guardian she will have to work with him. So maybe her wish could be returning to those happy times with her parents without Chloe or any suffering. Well I guess it was a bit far fetched but anywaaaays.... 😅

Okay let's analyse another scene..... The one where she was reading Mari's diary.

What's interesting about her in Mari's room was that she certainly recognised her room and we can see that she does live in the bakery after all. The reason why she acted that way was to save her identity getting exposed to Claw Noir(which I don't think she cares that much about) or she really wanted to find out if this version of her had a better and happier life than hers.while she pretended that she wanted to look for clues, she went through Mari's personal stuff life her computer, her diary and her other things not because she was looking for clues but because she wanted know what kind of life this MARINETTE had.

Look, she was crying while reading that diary. She wants this life.

Just look at her... Looking into the life of a version of herself she wishes she could be. A world where "THERE ARE AMAZING GIRLFRIENDS TO INSPIRE HER EVERYDAY, AN AMAZING BFF, LOVABLE AND CALM MOM AND A BOYFRIEND WHO DOESN'T THINK THAT SHE IS A TOTAL LOOSER".

You see.. behind that evil mask there is a broken girl who longs to be loved. she wants a shoulder to cry on, hands who would embrace her tight when she is crying. She may look like a total badass who doesn't need anyone but no! that's not the case at all.

Aaaand I think she does have someone like that in her life already, and that person is the one and only CLAW NOIR. ........Even if she refuses to acknowledge it.

So, while she was shutted down, abandoned, bullied and absused her whole life and had no one to helf her up, Claw Noir was there for her,even though he is a total dork who teases her all the time.

Well yeah he is hella rude and disrespects her A LOT, it may look like she may never fall for him normally, but lets consider emonette's circumstances...... As much as we know she doesn't have anyone to rely on, no friends and probably no family. She never had anyone to inspire her. In a life like this...... After she got her miraculous and met Claw Noir, she finally had a reason to live, a reason to fight and a person, she could work together with and trust just a little bit yeah not totally cuz well he does let her fall head on..

In Mari's room when she reads the diary and learns about Ladybug and Chat Noir's relationship, their friendship, their partnership. She does look like she wants that too. (Also this may not apply to everyone but sometimes two people who like each other tease each other a lot....... )

They may fight eachother and not consider each other as partners, but they do make an amazing team. They may not be partners but they've got eachother's back at time of need. Just how Shadybug needs Clawnoir's strength while fighting and how Clawnoir relies on Shadybug's plans.

Also this scene...... While you can say that he is acting this way because he now knows that she is Marinette, the girl he likes.., but we know he is Adrien afterall he may care about Shadybug deep down without realising it and with him now knowing who she really is has realised it.

Just look at him he looks sad when he sees her cry too. He may act like he doesn't care but he actually does. He is like "I am the only one who can hurt her, anyone else who dares to do that must pay....." .

And the scene where she opens up to Mari was just so emotional, I literally started crying. There was pain, sorrow and grief in her eyes. She was suffering and was jealous of Mari,'cuz she thought that she had everything for granted, she thought that she never knew what suffering was like. Her words were so sad. But after Mari made her feel that they really are alike and changed her for better I felt so happy......

And after that when she met (now improved) Claw Noir they felt like they were more to each other and I loved it..

All I want now is a ShadyClaw series.. we need to know what happened after that.... And before they landed in the multiverse.

Well aren't they the cutest.

I wish they become a couple in future.....

Oh well that was a long one.....

Well I had it in mind for quite a long time but couldn't write it because I have exams coming 😭. But wanted to finish it before I forgot it. So here I am. I hope y'all liked it though.

Okay let's end it with a quote:.

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

I hope this becomes true for our beloved emoadrinette.

Bug out!🐞🐾

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egcdeath · 1 year

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I love the spectator sport AU and the hurt and comfort! Can you write Joel having a nightmare? Maybe the reader comforts him?

in the dead of night

pairing: joel miller x reader (pairing from the soccer parents AU)

summary: joel has a nightmare, you comfort him.

warnings: nightmare, hurt/comfort, domestic fluff

word count: around 400

author’s note: i wrote this in a few minutes on my phone. i cannot be held liable for any grammatical errors.

i’m also taking more drabble requests!

Being a mother, you’d woken up to all sorts of strange things in the middle of the night. Whether it was Chloe shaking your shoulder because she had a nightmare and didn’t want to be alone, or the absolutely lovely sound of your baby wailing through the night. Despite your extensive knowledge of strange wake-up calls, this one was definitely a first.

Fingernails dug into your skin, causing you to wake up with a yelp. A cold dread washed over you for a second, your sleepy brain thinking that maybe there was a deranged home invader whose preferred method of invasion was scratching their victims awake.

The reality was far less scary—for you, at least. As your eyes adjusted to the dark room, you recognized the fingers gripping you extraordinarily tight as your partner’s. You slowly became a bit more awake, and realized that Joel was shaking just the slightest bit, and that perspiration beaded at his hairline.

“Joel,” you whispered, removing his tight grip from your shoulder. After quietly saying his name, all you got in response was an unintelligible murmur.

“Joel,” you repeated, this time slightly louder, but still aware of the fact that your children were sleeping in the next rooms over.

At this utterance of his name, he stirred slightly more, but was very clearly still asleep, and still grappling with whatever strange thing was happening in his dream that had him sweating and gripping onto you like you were going to slip from his fingers.

You set your hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him while saying his name one more time, this time with a sense of urgency and concern. That somehow managed to be enough to finally wake the man in bed with you up, and Joel gasped as he awoke.

“Joel,” you said softly, hovering over the man. “Are you alright?”

He looked up at you wordlessly, blinking a few times before pulling you into a rib-crushing hug.

“I thought I lost you,” he mumbled into your shoulder.

“Oh baby,” you cooed, playing with the hairs at the back of his head as he tightly embraced you. “I’m not going anywhere.”

#joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #the last of us fanfiction #soccer parents au

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becasbelt · 17 days

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here's a little thing about moving that's definitely not inspired by recent real life events.

* * *

Beca sets the box down with a grunt, straightening and pushing it to fit against the rest of the boxes better with her foot. She has no idea what Amy put in her box literally labelled "bit and bobs" to make it so heavy, but honestly she's too tired of going through boxes at the moment to find out.

Brushing her hands together, Beca surveys what they've done in apartment so far - if the one room studio they were renting could be considered an apartment, that is. She, Amy, and Chloe had spent the better part of the day unloading the U-Haul they'd driven from Barden to New York, and now the sorting through everything part is making Beca long for more trips up the stairs.

She's successfully managed to separate their boxes into different piles throughout the room: three piles for each of their personal belongings and one for the kitchen. Amy's stuff takes up an entire side of the room, while Chloe's modest stash sits nicely in a corner.

Beca's things consist of three boxes, two duffel bags filled with clothes, and a carry-on with her music equipment.

Somehow, after getting rid of any furniture she'd acquired over the last couple of years, Beca had walked out of college with hardly more than she started with.

Beca stares at her small pile and considers how motivated she's feeling. Upon deciding that more unpacking can wait until after dinner, she slumps onto the couch to stare at the wall for a minute or two.

Amy and Chloe had volunteered to make a food run to reward all their hard work. Beca had opted to stay behind, citing the need for some alone time, leaving her all alone to wonder just what the hell they'd all gotten themselves into.

One of their windows doesn't latch properly, creating a draft over the place where Beca and Chloe will sleep. The walls are spotted with stains that Beca isn't sure will ever come out. Their bathroom is literally in the kitchen. There's a strange smell coming from the closet that makes Beca's nose wrinkle every time she opens it.

Beca leans her elbows on her knees, puts her head in her hands, and tries to take a deep breath.

It was fine. Everything was going to be fine. They could clean, they could light a candle, they could come up with a system for dealing with the kitchen-shower.

The traffic is loud outside the window. A far cry from the quiet street the Bellas' House at Barden resided on.

Beca tries for another deep breath, cheeks puffing out as she exhales. She rubs her eyes with the heels of her palms until she sees spots, then blinks to clear them again.

All the uncertainties keep staring back at her.

Beca's fingers curl around her phone. Without thinking too much about it, she scrolls through her contacts until her thumb presses the call button.

The other end rings five times before it's picked up. "Hey, Bec."

The air leaves Beca's lungs in a shaky exhale. "Hey, Dad."

"Is everything alright? How'd the move go?" There's a hint of surprise in his voice, as if he hadn't been expecting to call. Which is fair, honestly.

"No, yeah, everything's good," she says, tucking her arms in close to herself. "Made it in one piece. We just finished unpacking the truck."

"Good. Well that's- that's good, then," her dad says. There's a moment of awkward silence, and it hits Beca just how little she tries to make small talk with her dad like this, even when they lived in the same city.

"Yeah," Beca says dumbly. She tucks her feet onto the couch and hugs them tight to her chest.

"So how's New York?"

"It's... different," Beca replies hesitantly. "Um, good different, I think. But different."

Her dad chuckles. "Yeah, I get that. I felt that way when I moved to Barden. But you'll get used to, just give it a few days. Maybe invest in a white noise machine to cover up the traffic."

Beca huffs a laugh. "Yeah, maybe. If Amy's snoring doesn't cover it up first."

They share another laugh, and Beca feels the tightness in her chest ease ever so slightly.

"Bet you're glad to be out of Barden, though," her dad ventures. "Seems like you always wanted to move to the big city."

"I grew up in Seattle, Dad," Beca says with an eye roll. "It's not like I grew up in the middle of Wyoming."

"Okay, okay," he concedes. "I mean a city where things are happening, right? Like LA: you always wanted to live there. Isn't New York just a grittier, more compact version of LA?"

Beca snorts. "I think there's a few more differences than that, but sure. I guess I see your point."

"So there you go," he says, and Beca can practically see that annoying side smirk he gets on his face whenever he feels like he just won an argument. "You're on the right path, even if it's in a different place than you imagined. And I'm so proud of you for taking that jump, Bec. Even if I wasn't always supportive of it."

A lump forms in Beca's throat and she finds herself blinking against stinging eyes. "Thanks, Dad," she says, voice tight, then clears her throat and shakes her head. "That, uh, that means a lot."

"It's true," he says kindly. There's another lull in the conversation, this one less awkward than before. "You know, it'll be weird not having you ten minutes away anymore. I won't be able to force you into coming over for dinner once a month."

Beca grins a little. "And I don't know what I'll do without you knocking on the our door to ask if I've done my homework every other week," she teases. "But maybe I can be convinced to video call every once in a while."

"That would be nice," her dad replies, and Beca can tell that he really means it. "So, how's the apartment."

"It's small, and it's got some quirks, but it'll do for now," Beca says, looking around the studio again. "There's this weird smell coming from a closet that makes me kind of want to throw up, though."

"Try baking soda," her dad says. "Or coffee grounds. They should absorb the smell. Or you could put a bar of soap in a sock, I've done that before. Or you could try..."

He continues rambling about ways to get rid of bad smells, and Beca smiles while she listens, leaning her head against the back of the couch, and breathes deeper than she has all day.

#this is straight up not even bechloe #but beca deserves some good moments with her dad damit!#anyway do not perceive me #pitch perfect #fanfic #beca mitchell #maybe i'll add this to almost canon later if i'm not too lazy #we'll see

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corruptedcaps · 10 months

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Letting Her Hair Down

“Sarah! You have to help me! I don’t have much time, she’ll take over again any minute. You have to find a way to destroy my ponytail. It’s the reason I’ve become a bully and a bitch and… and… ohhhh no I can feel her taking over again ahhhhhh…. Sarah? What do you want loser? I have places to be. God you’re such a tragic fashion case.”

Sarah looked at Chloe, the resident queen bee of high school and her former dorky friend, with confusion. One minute had been walking down the hall looking like the poster child for being an entitled princess, the next second she slipped and banged her head on the ground.

Sarah being the good person that she was rushed over to help her back up when Chloe started rambling about her ponytail being evil and controlling her. Had she just been pranked by Chloe with this insane story? Then again it did make some sort of sense. Before Chloe had had her bitch makeover she had been a kind and reserved girl, with an underdeveloped body but a good heart. But ever since she got back from her vacation sporting her new bougie and haughty look, with bolted on big tits and a piercing hot stare, she had been a terror to everyone, especially Sarah. Could it be all because of her ponytail? Sarah needed to find out but for now she had to play dumb.

“Oh sorry Chloe it was nothing.” Sarah said sheepishly. Chloe rolled her eyes and pushed Sarah out of the way and left.

As Chloe sauntered off, Sarah's mind raced with thoughts. She couldn't let her former friend suffer in this bizarre predicament. Determination filled her, and she made up her mind to investigate further. If there was any truth to Chloe's claims, she had to find a way to help her break free from the ponytail's grip.

Determined to find answers, Sarah delved into researching anything and everything about hair that could control someone. That’s when she came across the Hairasite.

According to the legend, hairasites were parasitic organisms that resembled strands of hair but possessed a malevolent consciousness. They were known to attach themselves to unsuspecting hosts, taking control of their minds and manipulating their behavior. Sarah's heart skipped a beat as she read accounts of women exhibiting striking similarities to Chloe's transformation.

She discovered that the hairasite's control over its host could be severed by severing its physical connection. The only solution was to cut off the strand of hair hosting the parasite and destroy it completely.

With her newfound knowledge, Sarah formulated a plan to free Chloe from the hairasite's grip. She knew she had to get Chloe alone, away from prying eyes, to execute her daring rescue mission. After careful consideration, she decided to trick Chloe with an offer she couldn't refuse—a coveted invitation to an exclusive fashion event.

Sarah knew Chloe's new vanity would be her downfall. She crafted a fake invitation to a fictitious cheerleader fashion showcase, one that would lure Chloe into a private dressing room on the far side of school where Sarah could safely carry out her plan. The invitation, complete with glamorous details and a promise of VIP treatment, was carefully slipped into Chloe's locker.

As Chloe entered the private dressing room, her eyes which had been full of anticipation soon turned sour as she saw nothing but an empty room. Then she heard the door behind her click as it was locked.

As Chloe turned around to see what was happening, Sarah pounced. With a surge of strength, Sarah lunged at Chloe, grabbing her by the shoulders and wrestling her to the ground. They grappled with each other, their struggle fueled by a mix of desperation and the raw determination of friendship.

“Oh I am going to enjoy getting revenge on you when I get out of here.” Chloe said with a bone chilling laugh as she fought back fiercely, getting the upper hand. Sarah could feel the hairasite's influence giving Chloe’s body strength. But Sarah refused to give up. With a final burst of energy, she managed to pin Chloe down and swiftly reached for a pair of scissors.

In one smooth motion, Sarah snipped the ponytail clean off Chloe's head, severing the hairasite's connection to its host. The air crackled with tension as the room fell into a stunned silence. Sarah watched in wonder as Chloe’s body started to revert back to normal. Her kind soft face emerging from the cruel sharp facade it had once been. Her too nearly slipping off her as her breasts deflated and her height shrank. Disheveled and panting, she stared at Sarah with wide eyes, realization dawning upon her.

Chloe's gratitude poured forth as she regained her senses, her voice trembling with emotion. "Sarah, thank you... thank you for saving me from that nightmare. I don't know what I would've become without you."

However, as Chloe expressed her heartfelt gratitude, a sinister voice slithered into Sarah's mind, intertwining with her thoughts. "Sarah, dear Sarah, I underestimated you," the hairasite hissed, its voice silky and persuasive. "Imagine the power you could possess, the beauty you could radiate if I had chosen you and not Chloe. Join me, embrace me, and together we will rule this world."

Sarah's eyes widened in disbelief as she looked down at her hand to see she was gripping the ponytail she had snipped off Chloe’s head. She watched it’s tendrils reach for her like a weak newborn. Chloe's voice became distant, muffled by the seductive promises echoing in her mind.

The hairasite's voice grew louder, insidious and persuasive. "Sarah, don't you want to be admired? Don't you want to be noticed and feared? You have the power within you. Just embrace me, and we will become unstoppable."

As Sarah grappled with her inner turmoil, she locked eyes with Chloe, desperately trying to maintain her connection to reality. Deep down, she knew she had to find a way to rid herself of the hairasite's influence, but it was becoming harder by the second to not succumb to its alluring promises.

Chloe noticed the change in Sarah's demeanor, her concern deepening. "Sarah, what's wrong? You feeling ok?"

Ignoring the hairasite's relentless persuasion, Sarah took a deep breath and locked eyes with Chloe. "I need to destroy this hairasite once and for all. I have to get to the teachers lounge." Without another word Sarah unlocked the door and ran as fast as she could to the boiler room.

As Sarah's heart pounded with determination, the hairasite's voice grew more desperate. "Sarah, don't you see? I can give you power, beauty, everything you've ever wanted. We can become an even bigger bitch than Chloe was. We can bully her just like she did to you."

Sarah knew she needed to end this fast as she was starting to get turned on by the thoughts the hairasite was putting in her mind. Images of her commanding a clique of beta bitches to do her bidding and lording it over Chloe was making her unbelievably wet.

Breathing heavily, Sarah burst through the door of the teachers lounge, thankfully empty. She saw her goal though, the disused and often forgot about fireplace. With a trembling hand, built a small pyre of sticks and lit a fire beneath and watched the flames dance around and consume the wood, hungry for more.

The hairasite's voice intensified, filled with urgency as it tried one last ditch effort. "You can be in control!" It said as Sarah was one swing away from destroying it forever.

Sarah's hand paused mid-swing, uncertainty etching across her face. She turned to face the hairasite, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. "You have 15 seconds, explain."

The hairasite seized this opportunity, its voice dripping with convincing charm. "Absolutely, Sarah. I took full control of Chloe because she was boring and dull and had no interest in being a bitch but you… you I can sense want it. You crave it. You want to possess unparalleled dominance over those who have ever underestimated you. I don’t need to control you if you’re lust for the same things I do. Just me on your head, and I'll grant you the power you desire."

Hesitation clung to Sarah's every fiber, but the allure of control tugged at her deepest desires. The longing to be noticed, respected, and feared intensified within her. Swallowing her doubts, she cautiously lifted the severed ponytail, gingerly placing it atop her head.

As the hairasite made contact with Sarah's scalp, a sharp jolt coursed through her body. She winced, feeling the hairasite burrowing deeper, intertwining itself with her being. A surge of power rippled through her veins, and she could feel her entire existence beginning to transform.

As the hairasite's influence surged through Sarah's veins, her transformation continued with astonishing speed and detail. Her nails, once short and plain, elongated into sharp, perfectly manicured talons. Each nail shimmered with a deep shade of crimson, perfectly complementing her newfound allure.

Her makeup shifted dramatically, reflecting the captivating charm the hairasite bestowed upon her. Her eyes were accentuated with smoky, seductive eyeshadow, emphasizing their piercing intensity. Thick, luscious lashes framed her gaze, fluttering with a hypnotic allure. Her cheeks radiated a soft rosy blush, enhancing her flawless, tan complexion.

Her skin took on a sun-kissed glow, a subtle tan that exuded the vibrant energy of a cheerleader on the field. It enhanced her already alluring features, lending an air of radiant confidence that demanded admiration.

Sarah's lips transformed into a pout that demanded attention. They became plump and sensuous, painted in a vibrant shade of pink, adding to her irresistible charm. Each word that escaped her now-glossed lips would drip with a confident magnetism, captivating those who dared to listen.

In addition, her breasts seemed to have defied gravity, becoming more ample and accentuated, drawing attention to her newfound confidence. Her figure, now curvaceous and alluring, would command attention from all who laid eyes upon her.

Sarah's demeanor shifted entirely. Once a kind and compassionate soul, she now exuded an aura of dominance and entitlement. Her voice carried a sharp edge, dripping with venomous superiority. Her posture adopted an air of confident dominance. Her eyes sparkled with an icy gaze that dared anyone to challenge her.

Sarah had become the embodiment of the hairasite's promises—a captivating, powerful force that would leave a trail of both admiration and fear in her wake. As she surveyed her transformed reflection in a nearby mirror, a wicked smile spread across her face.

As she twirled a lock of her glossy, transformed hair between her fingertips, Sarah couldn't help but revel in the newfound attention she would undoubtedly receive. She was now a force to be reckoned with, leaving a trail of admirers and envious gazes in her wake.

As Chloe cautiously entered the teachers lounge, her eyes widened in shock at the sight before her. Standing there, radiating confidence and exuding an aura of dominance, was the transformed Sarah. Her gaze turned icy, and a unnerving smile curled upon her lips as she locked eyes with Chloe.

"Well, well, well," Sarah sneered, her voice dripping with cruelty. "Look who decided to follow. Surprised to see the new me?"

Chloe stumbled backward, her voice trembling. "You let her go! It’s me you want, she doesn’t deserve this! Fight it Sarah, don't let this control you!"

A mocking laughter escaped Sarah's lips as she relished in Chloe's bewildered expression. "Oh, Chloe, I’m not being controlled by anyone or anything expect my long buried desires. It's time you realized that power and beauty is all I’ve ever wanted. I've shed my former self, and I won't be held back by weak friendships anymore."

Chloe's eyes welled up with tears, hurt and confusion etched across her face. "No! You’re lying! I don’t believe you! Give me my friend back!"

Sarah's expression hardened, devoid of empathy. “Friend? That's amusing. I have no use for the weak and pitiful. And just to prove it’s me, how about I let my hair down?”

Sarah reached up to the ponytail tie and pulled it. Her blonde hair cascaded down and flowed hypnotically with every sway. She ran her perfectly manicured fingers through her locks, feeling a pleasurable tingle.

“See? There is no hairasite anymore. No Sarah. We are one cruel, manipulative and sexy bitch called Sasha and you’re just a loser nobody who could of had it all but now you’re just in my way.”

With those cutting words, Sasha pushed past Chloe, leaving her standing there, shattered and betrayed. The transformed Sasha reveled in her newfound power, savoring the control she now held over Chloe's emotions, and soon the rest of the school.

#f2f #corruption #bitchification #corrupted hair #power transfer

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mysterious-moonstruck-musings · 7 months

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Destiny & Deliverance: Chapter 22

Destiny & Deliverance Masterlist ||| Dieter Bravo X OFC New as of 9/30/2023

SUPPORT YOUR CREATORS. REBLOGGING & COMMENTS ARE APPRECIATED.

Series Rating: Explicit (18+)

Series Summary: Natalia Cohen is experiencing major life changes, beginning with leaving an emotionally abusive husband. She is learning how to navigate life on her own while dealing with high functioning anxiety, depression, and mild PTSD. Everything is looking up for her. She is a highly respected consultant for a major LA firm, has her best friend, Lauren, by her side, and is on her path to healing. Everything changes when she meets a handsome and broken stranger on a work trip. He turns out to be a well-known actor, with a heart-breaking past. They quickly develop a connection that will forever alter their lives.

Warnings: Themes dealing with mental health, emotional trauma, alcohol use, and discussions about suicide. There will be fluff, tears, spicy language, and smut. This will be a slow burn type of story. Read at your own risk.

Chapter Quote: "I could feel the darkness setting in."

It had been three days since the call with Dieter that turned my life upside down. It had also been three days since I was sober. I was spiraling. Hard. Lauren and Gabby had both tried calling me, but I refused to answer, sending the calls straight to voicemail. Their text messages followed, making it clear that they knew something had happened. The only response I would give them is that I didn’t want to talk to anyone about it for the foreseeable future.

Dieter had posted pictures on his social media account from the movie set. Several of them showed Chloe hanging all over him. He had removed the picture of the two of us, taken by him when I was sleeping, that he had previously shared on his account. That alone was a clear indication that something was going on. Not just to me, but to everybody - if it hadn’t tipped off Lauren and Gabby, the tabloids most certainly would notice. As always, they loved reading between the lines. To make things worse, they had published a series of photos from when I visited Dieter on set. Most of the images showed us together and happy, but there was also a candid shot, taken right after his confrontation with Craig. Unsurprisingly, the narrative provided did not match what had actually happened. The gossip rags made it seem like he and I were having an argument. It was all completely fabricated nonsense that only added more fuel to the already blazing fire.

That evening, I was sitting on a lounge chair next to the pool as the sun started to set over the hills. I stared blankly at the water rippling in the pool, my mind hazy as I occasionally took a swig from the bottle of vodka in my hand. It burned in my throat, despite the liquor being top shelf, but it didn’t bother me too much; every time the sting hit, it helped shove away the thoughts crawling through my head.

When the sliding door near the patio suddenly opened, I saw Lauren stride out of the house with purpose, her eyes set on me. She paused in front of me, staring me down with a look of sympathy on her face.

“You look like shit.”

“Thanks for stating the obvious,” I slurred as I took another drink from the bottle. I tried to think of how to get rid of her. I wasn’t ready to have this conversation and I wasn’t sure if I ever would be.

I felt uncomfortable under her gaze as she took in my appearance. It made me fidget nervously as I avoided her eyes. Besides, I knew how I looked. I hadn’t showered in three days, which had turned my hair into a mess of tangled curls that pointed in all directions. My face was red and splotchy, and I could feel how swollen my eyes were from the ridiculous amount of crying I had done. My outfit consisting of a pair of cotton shorts, a ratty t-shirt, and robe didn’t do much to help me either; I felt like death and probably didn’t look far from it.

Lauren snatched the bottle of vodka from my hand as she sat down beside me, shaking her head when I tried to grab it back.

“No.”

I gave her a look of annoyance and snatched it back anyway.

“Don’t worry, I’m pacing myself.” My eyes drifted back to focus on the water.

She snorted but chose not to reply, for which I was grateful. Instead, she asked, “Have you eaten today?”

I sighed heavily, “Yes, I ordered a pizza.” I stayed focused on the pool, not breaking the trance of my eyes on the rippling water, wishing it would swallow me up and drown out all the thoughts running through my mind.

“Do you want to fill me in on what happened?”

I turned my head to look at her, my brows knitted together in confusion.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” I paused briefly. “I don’t even fucking know.”

It was her turn to look confused, “You didn’t get into an argument at that bar?”

I waved my hand dismissively, now annoyed that even my best friend was apparently reading the tabloids to check in on me.

“No. That’s all a bunch of bullshit.”

She nodded in understanding. “Okay. So, what happened?”, she pressed, once again trying to take the bottle away from me.

“Can we just not? I don’t wanna talk about it. With anyone, ok?” I gave her a stern look as I held the vodka out of her reach, then took a swig. I meant it. I knew she was annoyed that I wasn’t offering any details, because I had never been resistant to discussing certain things with her. But I didn’t want to talk about any of it now. I couldn’t.

“You can see that I’m fine and breathing,” I offered, gesturing at myself. “You’ve accomplished your mission. Can I just be alone now? Please?” I gave her a pleading look. It was clear that she was hurt, but I didn’t have the capacity to deal with that.

Lauren scoffed as a look of frustration formed on her face. She looked like she was about to say something, then stopped herself as she turned around, striding back toward the house as she shook her head. After she left, I felt a wave of anger come over me. I had been trying to push it away for days, but her attempts at making me talk had just sliced open all the wounds again and it felt like anger was seeping from my pores. I grasped the liquor tight in my hands and stood up, needing a moment to balance myself, then made my way over to my craft room.

The painting that I had started for Dieter felt so much bigger than the space it actually took up, and I couldn’t stop myself from walking over to it. Tracing my fingers over the painted canvas, I had to think back to our time in Sonoma. The memories had been on a loop in my head over the past days. He had been so different. I couldn’t understand why he had done a complete one-eighty on me, acting like a completely different person. Maybe Anna was right. Maybe I didn’t know him, and I couldn’t handle him at his worst.

Out of a habit that had crept up on me over the past days, I moved to take another drink of the vodka I was still clutching in my hand, then stopped midway as I stared at the bottle. Fuck. I was losing myself again. It hadn’t just been the anger roaring inside me that had started to seep out - it was actual darkness that had been setting in, carving out places inside of me as it slowly took over, numbing my brain. I let out a frustrated scream as I threw the bottle against the wall beside the painting. I decided in that moment that I wasn’t going to allow myself to go back to that dark place. I had been there before and barely made it out alive. This time it would consume me completely if I let it happen again, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to come back from it.

Clinging onto the sudden wave of clarity, I went upstairs to the kitchen and pulled down every bottle of alcohol that I could find. I poured it all down the sink without a second thought. Then I forced myself to take a shower. The water wasn’t soothing, but rather a slap to my face - first so hot that condensation fogged up the entire bathroom, before I changed the temperature so the cold hit me even harder, giving me goosebumps all over. It helped to pull me out of my head and back into my body. It was amazing how much better I felt afterwards. After that, I set my alarm and went to bed. At that point, I was determined to move on and keep this from affecting me as much as possible. If he didn’t want to be with me, there was nothing I could do about it. Which meant there were zero reasons for me to continue to dwell on it. I was only hurting myself by doing that. He had already inflicted more than enough pain on me than I knew how to deal with.

The next morning, I got up to get ready to go into work. I needed to get out of the house. Away from him. He was still here, a little piece of him in every room. Clothing, shoes, a toothbrush, his scent on the sheets… it was all a painful reminder that he currently existed somewhere that wasn’t with me. I needed to get away from it all and clear my head.

I dressed in a form fitting pencil dress with a matching blazer and black pumps, styling my hair in soft waves around my face and down my back. Some heavier makeup than usual helped to cover the redness left by days of crying.

I knew paparazzi would be outside the office, waiting like they had been doing every day since the Anna incident. They knew I couldn’t stay away forever. If I ran into them, I wanted to make a statement without words. One that said I was moving on and that I was fine. I was no longer the weak and anxious woman I had been with Justin. That was one thing I could thank Dieter for; he helped me get my confidence back. No matter what, I wasn’t going to let anything take that away from me, not even him giving up on us. I needed all that confidence and resilience to get through this.

The paps had obviously gotten a little wiser, now realizing where the employees parked. There were at least seven of them waiting at the entrance to the lot, watching every car that entered. They wasted no time following behind my vehicle on foot as I searched for an open space. As soon as my door opened, they started peppering me with questions about Dieter and the status of our relationship. I attempted to exude confidence as I gave them nothing but a polite smile while I walked toward the entrance of the building. Careful not to give any sort of reaction to their harsh line of questioning.

The atmosphere in the office shifted as soon as I walked in the door. The tension was visible in the faces and posture of every person in the room. They all seemed shocked to see me. No one said anything, they just looked at me with wide eyes. My eyes danced around to each of them before I continued walking toward my office. Kerrie entered behind me after a few minutes had passed. She was clearly nervous and not sure how to act.

“Is there anything you need from me?” she asked timidly.

I stared at her momentarily as I bit the inside of my cheek.

“Yeah, can you get me a status update on our new accounts? And set up a meeting with Steve. I know he has some sort of problem he needs his hand held through.”

She nodded, “Talia, I don’t know what happened but…”

I raised my hand to stop her from continuing, “It doesn’t matter. I would much rather not talk about it. I don’t want anyone to mention it. I’m fine and I’m moving on. Let’s just try to get back to normal, please.”

She gave a slight grimace before nodding in understanding and walking out of the room.

From that moment on, I slid back into my pre-Dieter routine. My day went by quickly. I stayed busy enough that I didn’t have time to think about him, which was refreshing. It was exactly what I needed to recenter myself and move forward. Of course, I was again reminded of him as I walked to my car. The paps that were still hanging around asking questions they thought might get a reaction out of me. I continued with a polite smile and silence as I made my way to leave. Luckily, no one tried to follow me home this time.

That evening, I was determined to remove every trace of Dieter I could find. I put everything that belonged to him in boxes and set them in the garage. I washed his smell out of all the sheets and blankets, wanting no trace of him left behind. I wanted it to be like he was never there. It was the only way I was going to be able to move forward.

Though removing all proof of his existence from my home helped, the following week was a little harder on me. I knew Dieter was scheduled to be on a filming break. It was the few days we had planned for him to come home and spend with me, but I wasn’t sure if he was still coming back to LA or not. I wondered if he would try to reach out if he was in town or if he would even bother to come home at all. The Friday he had been scheduled to fly in, I was anxious and had a hard time focusing while I was at work. Not knowing what to expect was the most stressful thing to me.

I got my answer later that evening when I finally broke down and checked his Instagram account. He had posted pictures of himself with Anna and a couple of other people. The caption indicated they were at a club opening in New York City. In every photo he had a drink in hand and appeared to be intoxicated. I couldn’t be sure that was the case, but his eyes looked different. They seemed darker and emotionless somehow. It made me feel uneasy as I swiped through them. I did take solace in the fact that he was on the other side of the country, and I wouldn’t have to worry about running into him here. Hopefully he was planning to stay there for the entire duration of his break. I hated to see that he was back with his old group of friends though. That was just asking for trouble, particularly because he had been in such a bad headspace.

I sighed heavily as I threw my phone down, rubbing at my eyes as I leaned my head back against the couch, willing myself to stop thinking about him. I left my hands covering my eyes for a few minutes while I tried to clear my thoughts of him, completely zoning out in the process. When I removed my hands and raised my head, I was startled by Lauren. She was standing in front of me with her hands on her hips, a look of annoyance on her face.

I jumped slightly at her appearance, “Fucking hell, what are you doing? Can’t you just announce yourself? You’re gonna give me a heart attack doing that shit.”

“So, you’re feeling well enough to go to work and act like nothing is wrong, but you can’t respond to any of my texts or calls?”

“Jumping right to it then…” I chuckled, but my chest tightened nervously as I knew there was no avoiding her now. “Yes, sorry. I had to spend time cleansing my life of that asshole's existence after work. I’ve been busy.”

“That asshole? Cleansing? What the hell are you talking about?” She now had a look of confusion on her face.

“Dieter, the asshole. I packed up all his stuff. I don’t want any trace of him here. It’s all gotta go.” I said in an eerily calm way as I gave her a serious look.

“Are you ever gonna tell me what the hell happened? How are you in a drunken stupor over him one day, then completely back to normal the next?”

“You wanna know what happened?”, I snapped back at her. “He said I’m a fucking burden and inconvenience that he doesn’t have time for. We’re not compatible and it’s just not working for him anymore. There are better options out there, whatever the fuck that means…”

I gestured wildly with my hands as I spoke, my voice laced with anger. Lauren’s eyes got wider with each word. Her jaw hung open in shock.

“He really said all that?” She covered her mouth with one hand in disbelief.

“Yeah.” I raised my brows as I gave her a tight smile, then shrugged as I shook my head.

“Well, that wasn’t what I expected. I was hoping it was just a misunderstanding or something.”

“No. He ended it over the phone with those exact words.”

She sighed. “Ok, well that makes sense as to why he won’t respond to my texts.”

“Don’t try to contact him, please. It’s not worth your time.” I waved my hand dismissively at her.

She had an odd look on her face, like she was conflicted about something. It was gone as quickly as it appeared, then she was on to the next question.

“That doesn’t explain how you’re suddenly ok… going into work like nothing happened while smiling at the paparazzi like you're living your best life.”

“Oh, is that how it looks? Good”. It was the first thing in days that I actually felt good about, or at least decided that it was how I wanted to come across. “He doesn’t need to know I spent days wasted and depressed over his ass.”

“Talia, what is going on with you?” She now had a genuine look of concern.

“Lauren… I made a conscious decision to move past it. I don’t need him. I’m not gonna pine over someone who doesn’t want to be with me. It’s just gonna make me spiral again if I do.”

I stood to walk toward the kitchen to get something to drink out of the refrigerator. Lauren followed closely behind me, looking confused again.

She scoffed, “So what, you're choosing anger now? I’m not sure that’s the healthiest way to deal with this either.”

I whirled around to face her, almost bristling at the comment. “As opposed to causing my liver to die a slow death? I think it’s a pretty fucking good way of dealing with it. Besides, why wouldn’t I be mad? Those were some fucking hurtful things he said to me.”

Lauren nodded briefly in agreement, “Alright. Fair enough. I can’t argue with that logic.”

She sighed heavily as she leaned against the counter, taking the canned coffee beverage I offered her.

“I guess I should count my blessings. I really thought I was gonna have to come make you take a shower and force feed you after the last time I saw you.” She smiled as she opened her coffee.

I gave her a small laugh in return. She wasn’t wrong. I was a mess that day she came over.

She took a quick drink before changing the subject, “Well, I wasn’t gonna ask, but since you seem to be living your best life these days…I have that art fundraiser thing tomorrow. You wanna be my plus one? I have a painting on display.”

“Of course! I’m not gonna miss out on that.” I gave her a genuine smile this time. I knew that I had been very absent in our friendship lately, and I needed to do better. I wanted to do better.

“It’s kind of fancy. Do you have something to wear?” She grimaced slightly at her words, knowing I wouldn’t be too thrilled about it.

I sighed, “How fancy?”

“Like semi-formal.” She gave me a cheesy hopeful smile.

“I don’t think I do. I’ll go find something in the morning, just for you.”

Lauren bounced up and down, clapping in excitement. She moved to hug me around the neck.

“Thank you for going!” She said somewhat breathlessly. “It might be good for you to get out of the house and do something fun anyway,” she added as she pulled away.

Lauren left soon after that, in a considerably better mood than when she arrived. She seemed satisfied with my current state, which was probably a good thing. I really didn’t want her nagging me constantly. Above all else, I didn’t want her to spend time worrying about me. She had enough on her plate as it was.

After she left, I decided to get ready for bed a little early and watch TV until I fell asleep. Even though I outwardly appeared to be doing ok, sleep had been an issue since that call. It was restless and frequently interrupted for absolutely no reason other than I was wide awake with anxious energy. It was starting to become an issue again. Deep down, I knew it had everything to do with Dieter, but I refused to admit it to myself. I couldn’t allow myself to miss him in any type of way or else I was going to spiral again. I resorted back to taking melatonin, which seemed to be doing the trick for now. Hopefully that wouldn’t change.

I woke up around 8AM the next morning, feeling decently rested. I decided to go for a quick run before I showered. I had been slacking off on that lately and figured it might help me burn some energy off. I opted to go for a run around the neighborhood, making sure to go in the opposite direction of Dieter’s house. I didn’t want any surprises. After that, I got ready to go find a dress for the art fundraiser. I dressed in some ripped jeans and a plain black t-shirt. I threw a hat and sunglasses on for good measure, because, yes, I was that person now.

I decided to go to a local couture dress shop that Lauren and I had been successful at previously. Since it was a small boutique, I was hopeful I wouldn’t run into any issues while I was there. When I entered, one of the employees came over to assist me, introducing herself as Daniella. I gave her the details of what I was looking for, mentioning that it was for the art fundraiser that evening. As I said the words, I immediately wished I hadn’t done so. I needed to learn to keep details to myself instead of mentioning them to people I didn’t know. She left me for a few minutes as she went to pull some dresses for me. After she walked off, I took my sunglasses off and stuck them in the neckline of my shirt because I felt like a loser for wearing them inside.

While I was flipping through the racks, I noticed another employee staring at me with a perplexed look on her face. I sighed; I had a feeling she recognized me. I turned my back toward her and wandered off to another part of the shop, out of her sight, in hopes she hadn’t worked out who I was. Daniella appeared several minutes later with an arm full of dresses. The other employee trailed behind her holding several other options. She introduced herself as Emily. I gave her a polite smile as she continued to stare at me.

“I’m sorry to keep staring, but do I know you from somewhere? I feel like I’ve seen you before,” Emily said as she continued to look at me, her brows knitted together in a puzzled expression.

“I don’t think so. I’ve been here a few times. Maybe you saw me then.”

“I don’t think so, I haven’t worked here that long.”

I shrugged and gave her a tight smile, “I guess I just have one of those faces then.”

Emily gave me a nervous laugh in response. Daniella led me over to the fitting room as Emily followed. They started to tell me about the dresses they had pulled for me. They were particularly excited for me to try a sapphire blue lacy cocktail dress they insisted would look “amazing” with my skin tone.

I thanked them as I entered the dressing room and started trying things on. I could hear hushed voices outside the door as I worked my way through the dresses that I liked. I heard one of them whisper, “I think that’s her,” followed by several shushing sounds. I dropped my head and sighed heavily. It figures this would happen. I couldn’t get out of his shadow no matter how hard I tried.

I got down to the last dress, which was the blue lacy one they were raving about. It fit perfectly. It was a form fitting silky fabric with a lace overlay, showing off all my curves in a very flattering way. The lace fabric extended down several inches below the silk lining at the bottom allowing skin to show through. It had lace sleeves that set slightly off-shoulder and unlined lace around the midsection. It looked classy, yet sexy. I snapped a pic in the mirror and sent it to Lauren right quick. Then I moved to put my clothes back on. She replied just as I was finishing up.

LAUREN: That’s like a revenge dress! It’s perfect! GET IT!

I chuckled at her response. With Lauren’s approval, I was going with it. I really just wanted this shopping trip over with at this point. I was nervous how things were going to go once I walked out of the dressing room.

I put the plastic back over the dress and made my exit. Daniella, Emily, and another girl paused their conversation to turn and look at me with wide eyes. Daniella gave me an overly enthusiastic smile as she asked if I found what I needed.

“Yes, I think so. I actually love the blue one. Thank you.” I tried to give them a genuine smile as they kept staring at me.

“I think I’m ready to check out now.”

“Of course! Right… this way.” Daniella said.

“Are you that Natalia girl that’s dating Dieter Bravo?” Emily blurted out.

I gave a tight smile, ��You caught me, yeah, that’s me.” I didn’t bother to correct her. It still hadn’t been confirmed that we had actually split up.

“Oh my gosh! I knew you looked familiar. Can I take a picture with you?”

“With me? No, I’m nobody to be taking pictures with,” I laughed nervously. She was about to protest when the third girl, whose name I didn’t know, poked her in the back to shut up. Daniella started the checkout process while the other two stood by awkwardly smiling at me. Emily spoke up again, “So are you going to the fundraiser with Dieter tonight?”

I tried to control the pained look on my face as I responded, “Umm no, he’s out town right now.”

“Oh, that’s a bummer, it would have been cool to see you with him in one of our dresses!”

“Yeah, sorry to disappoint.” I gave her a tight smile.

I was trying so hard to be polite even though I could feel myself slowly dying inside. After I collected my card and dress, I thanked them again as I put my sunglasses back on and made a quick exit to the car before they tried to ask me any more questions. I had to take a moment to calm myself when I got in the car. I could feel my heart racing in my chest from that interaction. This had to stop at some point, right? Maybe I should have said we split. Would that make people leave me alone or make things worse? I sighed. “This fucking sucks” I said out loud to no one as I started the car to go home.

I began getting ready for the event as soon as I got home. Afraid that if I didn’t keep myself busy, my mind would wander to thoughts of Dieter. I managed it successfully until Lauren came over. She was scrolling through her phone while she waited for me to finish up. “What the…” She groaned as she came over to show me a post shared by a fan account. One of the salesgirls at the boutique had seriously snapped a picture while I wasn’t paying attention and posted it. They included details about the dress I bought and the event I was attending. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. I shouldn’t even be surprised at this point.

“Well, at least the picture is decent, and you are sort of smiling in it. They also said you were nice. That counts for something, right?” Lauren asked hesitantly, trying to brighten my mood.

“Yeah, at least they didn’t say I was a bitch. I’m sure that would have fueled more gossip.” I replied sardonically as I walked toward my closet to get dressed.

As I was pulling up the zipper on the back of the dress, I started to have flashes of memories. Dieter’s hand lightly brushing my back as he zipped me up the night we went to the club, our eyes meeting in the mirror while he adjusted the straps for me. I quickly shook my head to clear the thoughts. I had managed to keep those types of memories at bay for the most part. I didn’t want to start having them now.

I took a deep breath before reaching down to grab my shoes and walking out to see Lauren sitting on the edge of the bed, still scrolling through her phone. She looked up, her mouth hanging open slightly, “Hot damn. You look so fucking good in that.”

I laughed at her as I walked over to the dresser to grab the earrings I had set out, turning back to her as I put them on.

“Ok, I’m ready. I think.”

“I must take a picture of you. Pose please,” she said with excitement as she opened the camera on her phone.

I gave her my best model pose, my hands on my hips, with a playful smile before I burst into laughter at how ridiculous I felt while she snapped away.

“Damn, that’s actually a good picture.”

She turned her phone to show it to me. She had snapped the photo just as I was starting to laugh, so for once it looked like I had a genuine smile on my face.

“Hmm, send that to me. It might be Insta worthy.” I handed her phone back to her.

She got quiet for a minute as she started typing away on her phone, a determined look on her face.

“What are you doing?” I raised an eyebrow in her direction.

She briefly glanced up at me then went back to typing, “Nothing.”

“Lauren.” I said sternly.

She raised an eyebrow back at me, “Just making sure that jerk knows what he is missing.”

“What?!?!” I snatched her phone away just as she hit send. I turned it toward me to see what she had been doing. She had Instagram Messenger open to a conversation with her and Dieter. She sent him the picture with the message “Just wanted you to see what you’re missing out on, asshole.” Above that were several unanswered messages of her asking him what was going on and why he wouldn’t answer her. I realized there was a possibility that she had been missing him too. The three of us hanging out had become such a routine, particularly on Fridays, but it only just now occurred to me that he had bailed out on her as well.

I didn’t have too much time to consider those thoughts; as I was looking at the phone, the message status of the photo with Lauren’s comment changed to “seen” right as I looked at it. I could feel knots in my stomach, knowing that he was on the other end of the chat right now.

“Why the fuck would you do that?”

She shrugged, “Because it’s a big fuck you to him. He deserves it. You look hot and happy.”

I shook my head at her as I looked at it again. The little bubbles popped up indicating he was typing a message, then they stopped. I froze, waiting to see if he would respond. The bubbles started bouncing again, then his message came through.

My breath caught in my throat. I could feel my eyes stinging with tears.

“I’m glad to see she’s doing ok. You two have fun at the art fundraiser. Sorry I can’t be there like I planned.”

“What is it?” Lauren asked as she jumped up to walk toward me.

I handed the phone back to her, “He replied.”

I scoffed, grabbing my shoes to put them on. Wondering how he knew about the art fundraiser as I did so. I assumed he saw the dress shop post making the rounds on his fan accounts. Lauren stood there with her mouth agape. Looking from me to the message on her phone. She started typing again but I shook my head quickly.

“No. Please don’t talk to him. At least not while you're around me. I don’t wanna know anything he says.”

She gave me a sympathetic look, but then nodded at me as she put her phone away. “Alright. I hear you.”

“Let’s go. I don’t want you to be late,” I said, changing the subject.

We took an Uber over to the venue. I was surprised to find several paps outside waiting, because of course they were. They started yelling questions at me as soon as I stepped out of the car. Some of them tried flattery, telling me how nice I looked, before hitting me with questions about why Dieter wasn’t there with me. Lauren and I did our best to ignore them as we walked inside.

We made a beeline to see Lauren’s painting first. True to her style, it was bright and colorful. An open field full of different types of wildflowers framed by a setting sun. The intricate details of each flower were amazing. I, of course, showered her in praise as she turned beet red.

After that, we made our way around that exhibit, chatting with various people as we went. I was surprised when we bumped into Alex as we were walking into the next section. I couldn’t tell if he was surprised to be running into us or not. He gave me a nervous smile, seemingly not knowing how to act around me. I guessed that was normal, given the circumstances with his older brother. I tried to act like he was any other friend, smiling as I pulled him in for a quick hug and a polite hello.

“I didn’t know you would be here,” I said as we pulled away from one another.

“Yeah, I actually have a charcoal drawing on display,” he said, somewhat shyly.

“Oh yeah, what is it? I’ll have to make sure I go see it.” I gave him an encouraging smile.

“It’s the… massive elephant drawing.” He motioned with his hands to indicate its size.

“Cool, I love elephants. I bet it’s amazing.” A slight tinge of red formed on his cheeks.

Lauren stood next to me, a shy smile on her face, glancing between Alex and me.

“Lauren was telling me not long ago she wanted to learn more about charcoal drawing. You should tell her more about that.”

Their eyes darted over to each other, an odd smile playing at the edges of both of their lips. I stood there, giving them a questioning look when I heard someone call my name. It drew my attention away from my thoughts as I turned to see who it was. The tall blonde figure approached me, coming in for a quick hug.

“Max, the DJ, right?” I said with a joking tone. He laughed.

“I thought that was you. It’s so weird seeing you here. I just saw Dieter in New York yesterday.”

I grimaced slightly before answering, “Oh, yeah? Well, I’m happy you two got to catch up again so soon.”

“Yeah, he mentioned you guys aren't together anymore. I’m sorry to hear that. I really thought you were going to be different for him. He’s such a fucking idiot to mess that one up.” He gave a nervous laugh.

“Yeah, well, shit happens, I guess. So, you’re into art?” I asked, attempting to change the subject.

“Not really. I have a friend that has a painting on display. Just here for support.”

He shook his head as his eyes darted around my face. I had a feeling he was about to hit on me, and I hoped that wasn’t the case.

“So uhh, what are you doing after this? You free?” He didn’t seem anywhere near as confident as he did the first time I had met him.

I gave him a small laugh, “I think that's a loaded question.” My eyes started to dart around to look anywhere but at him. I noticed Lauren and Alex’s eyes on us. They were definitely listening.

“I’m not really looking to start anything new right now if that’s what you're asking.”

“Of course. I totally understand. Well, if you change your mind, give me a call.” He pulled a business card out of the inside pocket of his blazer and handed it to me. “It was good to see you again. You look beautiful tonight.” He leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before walking off.

I had a feeling that I had a serious look of annoyance and agitation on my face as I watched him walk away. I turned my head to look over at Lauren and Alex, who were both trying not to laugh.

“What the actual fuck was that?” I asked them, to which they finally started laughing.

“I guess since you're good enough for the biggest star in Hollywood, they all want a piece of you now,” Lauren said jokingly.

“That’s not fucking funny,” I said sternly.

“I’m totally telling my brother that happened. He needs to know other men are already moving in. He fucked up.”

I turned to look at Alex directly in the eyes, a little taken aback by that statement. He wasn’t usually so blunt. Hell, he typically didn’t say much to me at all. I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry. I gave him a tight smile and looked away. I was feeling some sort of emotion I couldn’t really decipher.

“Well, I don’t wanna interrupt you two and your art talk. I’m gonna go see the rest of the paintings. I’ll catch up with you later.”

I walked away, inhaling deeply as I went. Trying to steady my emotions before I lost control of them. I was being hit from all sides when it came to Dieter. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. I was so ready for the day to be over.

I made my way around the next exhibit of paintings, attempting to get lost in the pieces and not think about everything that had happened that day. Halfway through that section, I came to a large painting that immediately caught my attention. There was something familiar about it that caused a lump to form in my throat.

The painting was of a man and woman silhouetted in front of a swirl of gray and dark purple night sky. Stars were scattered around the background. One star shone brighter than the rest, just over the woman’s head. A blue fog surrounded them. The man’s face was completely in the shadows, but the woman’s was just slightly visible. I looked down to read the informational sheet posted below the frame and my breath caught in my throat.

Painting Name: La estrella del norte: La luz en la oscuridad (The North Star: The Light in the Darkness)

Description: The North Star is the light in the darkness that leads lost souls home.

Submitted By: Anonymous

I could feel my heart racing as I read through the information sheet multiple times. It took me several minutes to fully process what it said. Is that what he had been saying to me this whole time? I could feel my breath going shallow as I took it in. For the first time in months, I felt like I was going to have a full blown panic attack. I put my fingers up to the bridge of my nose and squeezed, begging the tears not to come.

“Fuck.” I said a little too loudly as I inhaled deeply, still trying to catch my breath. I could feel the stares from the people standing nearby and it felt like the room was closing in on me. I needed to get out of there. I walked away as fast as I could, attempting to find some space where there weren’t any people around. When I passed by Lauren and Alex, she followed right behind me, grabbing my arm to stop me.

“Are you ok?” She asked with a look of concern on her face.

“I gotta get out of here. I can’t take anymore today.”

I pulled my arm away from her and made my way toward one of the side exits. As soon as I was outside, I leaned against the wall, sucking the fresh air in as deeply as I could. It didn’t help with the lightheaded feeling I had, nor to steady my legs that suddenly felt weak, and it took everything I had in me not to crumble to the ground in tears.

After several minutes passed, I finally managed to get my breathing under control. I pulled out my phone to get an Uber so I could go home. Several frantic text messages from Lauren were on my lock screen, asking what was wrong and where I was right now. I briefly mentioned the painting and said I was going home, then continued with my original task of getting a ride.

Luckily, I didn’t get a chatty driver and made it home without any further drama. I briefly considered having the driver stop by the liquor store but managed to talk myself out of it. Once I was back into my safe space, the anxious feeling that had been lingering seemed impossible to shake off. I felt like I needed to further purge Dieter from my life for good.

I changed into my pajamas and went downstairs to my craft room. Staring at the painting I had started for Dieter, I realized it was all wrong. The colors were too bright and there were too many cheerful details. It needed to be darker, because at this point, we were both lost. I turned on some music, reached for a couple of tubes of darker paint, and went to work.

I started by covering the colorful sunrise with the dark night sky, using shades of navy and black, adding the glowing moon and stars of all shapes and sizes throughout. Including the most important one, the North Star. Once I was satisfied with the background, I began reworking the images in the foreground. I started by darkening the curtains over the window that framed the night sky. In front of the window was the surface of a dark wood table with a vase of three white roses and a gramophone, like the one at the house in Sonoma, now sitting bathed in moonlight. I darkened the colors on those items as well, but also gave them a soft ethereal glow.

It was a simple piece, but it packed in a lot of personal meaning. The white roses seemed to be a common theme between Dieter and me. Remembering that he mentioned the topic, I had looked into the meanings of flowers a little more while I was planning this project. White roses being a symbol of new beginnings still seemed to fit the current situation. They also meant everlasting love and eternal loyalty. As badly as he had hurt me, I knew a part of me would always love him and be loyal to him. Whether I wanted it or not. I also learned that the number of flowers often had meaning too. Three roses simply meant “I love you”.

The gramophone represented one of my favorite memories of us dancing to the sounds of the old antique when we were in Sonoma. I had gathered it was also something his parents would often happily do as well. So, I knew it would have double meaning for him.

I had originally planned to use the morning sunrise for the background. It reminded me of the first time he said he loved me, and wanted us to be together, as we laid in bed during the early morning hours. However, I now felt the dark night sky was more appropriate for so many reasons. We had been laying in the grass looking at the stars when I told him that I loved him for the first time. I wanted to remind him of my love as many ways as I could. Then of course, there was the fact that he had been calling me his North Star, which was the most prominent fixture in the background aside from the moon. I wanted him to know that I now understood what those words meant. I would always be his light in the darkness, and he needed to know that. So, with a little help from google, I signed the bottom right side of the painting with Tu Estrella del Norte (Your North Star). I continued to do final touches to the painting throughout the next week. Making sure it was the way I wanted it before I finally decided it was complete. (More after the image)

For the last round of Dieter’s mini home makeover, new furniture was scheduled to be delivered at the end of that week. Despite having reconsidered this earlier, I decided I would go ahead and handle it myself as planned. He was scheduled to be back in Canada for filming this week, so I wasn’t worried about him being there. Luckily the movers were quick at their jobs and got everything placed where I wanted in record time. After they left, I added the last few finishing touches of artwork and sculptures Lauren had curated for him. The last piece to go up was my painting. It would be the focal piece of the room. The darker colors I had switched to ended up working perfectly with the new color palette.

After I was done setting up everything, I went out to my car and grabbed the boxes of his personal belongings that I had packed at my house. I left them sitting on the counter in the kitchen, along with his house key and credit card. I took a few minutes to walk around, getting one last look at the place that had so quickly become my second home. Silently saying my final goodbyes to him as I made my way toward the front door. As I locked the door and closed it behind me, I felt a sense of relief after having fully purged him from my life once and for all. It also gave me some closure knowing that I was still able to say what I needed to him, without using any words at all - even if I didn’t get to do it that night over the phone. A/N: Anyone in tears yet? The painting thing hits the feels hard. Digital art is not one of my strengths, so forgive my poor attempt at creating the painting, but it gives you an idea of what I was going for. It looks better in my head. 🤣 For next chapter... we get asshole dieter and an interesting interaction with Lauren (which @for-a-longlongtime is still laughing about). I will post a teaser early next week and the chapter will follow as soon as final edits are done. Also, a big thank you to @for-a-longlongtime for working her magic beta skills on this chapter and putting up with me. She made it hit the feels so much harder with her edits.

We are going to hit rock bottom for Dieter starting in Chapter 24 and it's going to be rough. So, consider this your warning to start preparing. I'm not paying for your therapy bills, but happy to schedule a support group meeting afterwards. 🥴🤣 As always, please share your thoughts and theories. You know I'm a sucker for them. 💜 After you check out the chapter mood board (with a picture of the dress) included below, hope on over to this Today's Musings post to learn more about what is going on in Talia's head. Next Chapter

Tag List: @rhoorl @bitchwitch1981 @readingiskeepingmegoing @runningmom94 @for-a-longlongtime @hisandsnakes @chaoticfestninja @survivingandenduring @partyofone3413 @cakipy-blog @titlee78 @poodlebae @guelyury @weho2kcmo @missladym1981 @maried01 @pedrostories

Let me know in the comments below if you would like to be added to the tag list.

#dieter bravo #pedro pascal #dieter x ofc #dieter bravo fic #Destiny & Deliverance Series #pedro pascal characters #dieter bravo x ofc #pedro pascal character fanfic #pedro pascal fanfiction #Pedro Pascal Fanfic #dieter bravo x oc #dieter bravo fluff #dieter bravo fanfiction #pedro pascal smut #the bubble

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arty-shadow-morningstar · 2 years

Text

Damian the Dog

Inspired by Grumpy Cat, written by @adrestar

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So what if Marinette moved to Gotham Academy, probably because of Lila bullshit or Guardian Duties.

She is mostly alone so she get a dog who she named Damian.

I actually look up on what type of dog she would have because I don't have a lot of knowledge on dogs. I wanted a small cute black dog. I am going with a Pomeranian or a Scottish Terrier.

It's all fine and going dandy. When one day, Damian overhears the new girl talking about him.

Marinette of course has zero interest in celebrities so she has no clue she is in the same class as Damian Wayne. Her classmates asked if she had any pets so she starts talking about her cute little Dami and showing off pictures of him.

"Look at my Dami. Isn't he adorable?" Marinette cooed, "I just love running my hands through those thick black luscious hair."

Damian gets the idea that Marinette is a stalker or a fangirl who is deluded herself into thinking she is dating him but brushes her off as mostly harmless. He can correct her at any time she steps out of the line.

Let the misunderstandings commence!

Fast forward the next few days, where Marinette keeps talking about her dog and no one has clued her in on the fact that there is a human with the same name as her dog going to classes with her.

Human Damian thinks she has very active imagination, going as far as to fake bite marks on her arms after a supposed passionate embrace.

(Damian the Dog is still being trained. Idk abt raising dogs so I hope I am right.)

The weekend arrive and Damian is at the dog park with Titus. Then he heard the insufferable voice calling out for him,

"Damian. Where are you? Come out. Damian. Dami."

He hid himself for a while, hoping she will give up sooner or later. But no, she keeps coming closer to the spot where he was hiding and calling out his name. Then, Titus blew his cover by coming back with the ball he was sent to fetch.

Thinking he had no choice but to reveal himself, he burst out of the bushes, scaring Marinette.

Meanwhile, Marinette was at the dog park to let Damian out of the apartment and get some exercise. She was kept an eye on him as he ran around but after a phone call from Jagged Stone for a new jacket, she had lost sight of her dog.

Then, while she looked for Damian the dog, someone jumped out of the bushes, giving her a scarce.

She realised that he was a boy from her classes and before she could ask if he had seen her dog, he began yelling at her.

"Listen up, harlot. Get out of your delusional fantasies of dating me and leave me alone." He yelled at a very confused Marinette. Human Damian continued to threaten her with lawsuits on the grounds of stalking, defamation and false claims.

Marinette gets fucking pissed at what the rude guy was yelling at her for no reasons but before she could retort, he stomped away with his dog trailing behind him.

"Come on, Titus. We don't have spend more time with this waste of space."

Marinette is so furious that if she was in Paris, she would have been akumatised for sure. She decided to calm down and go look for Damian, not the human. Arriving at home, she found a lawyer waiting for her and they handed her a thick files of all the charges she was being sued for. It was official she had met someone worse than the Chloe Bourgeosis.

So Marinette decides to stress bake about the problem. Ultimately, she made too much and decided to give away some to her next door neighbour, Jason.

Marinette had been living in Gotham for about a month and Jason knows about her habit to stress bake. They first met when Jason accidentally snuck up on her and she judo-flipped him who was 3 times bigger than her. Jason is impressed and Marinette is mortified. They became friends. Jason cooks her meals sometimes and she bake him desserts. It was a fair trade.

Anyway, Jason asks about her problem and Marinette starts a rant about this rich entitled dick she met who was from her class and she had coincidentally met him at the dog park while looking for Damian. Then, he called her a bunch of insults and names, accused her of stalking him and he had sent lawsuits to her address. Which was bad because she had her business as MDC to consider and this will affect her income.

While ranting, Marinette saw Jason's law degree which he had displayed, partially for his cover as a normal civi but mostly to brag to his siblings about being the only one who graduated from college and law school and rub it in Bruce's face. (We all seen the Jason became a lawyer to get Joker a death sentence post right? So Joker is dead here.)

"Can you be my lawyer? Or can you recommend me one? I promise I can pay you."

Jason patted her head, "Pixie, I will do this for free. I don't know which prick decided to mess with you but I will make him pay. Besides, I can't stand guys like that. You are actually doing me a bit of a favor to knock someone like that down a few pegs. Legally."

Marinette insisted to pay him but Jason compromised to get a cake for an entire month instead for taking the job.

When Jason looked through the papers, he noticed it was from the Wayne Family Lawyers so he decided to go to the Manor to get to the bottom of it. Jason arrived in the middle of Damian on a warpath.

He asked Tim who was the closest and furiously typing on his laptop about what is going on with Damian.

Tim answered, "Apparently there's this girl who is stalking Damian. She claimed to be dating him at school and she showed up while he was out with Titus, looking for him. Right now, I am just checking if she is just delusional and harmless or someone dangerous."

Jason connects the dots between Dog Damian and Human Damian and he tried not to burst out laughing right then and there. "That's good to hear. Anyways, I came here because I forgot something. I am going to see Alfred before I go. Have fun with the lawsuits."

Jason spent the rest of the way home, cackling and the funniest way to win the case.

On the day of the court date,

The rest of the Waynes are surprised to see Jason there in a suit. Dick was understandable, Tim was just there to make sure it goes smoothly, Bruce is also reasonable, Damian is the 'victim'.

"Todd, why are you here?"

"You'll see."

Then, they started telling people to enter before they could get more answers. They soon found out that Jason was the lawyer for the other side.

"Todd, you traitor. How dare you work for the opposition!"

Marinette had arrived with a pet carrier with a dog which Damian claimed was to appeal to his animal lover side.

blah blah blah. Legal procession. I don't know how it goes.

Anyways, it is time for Marinette's defense.

"Your honor, I would like to present evidence which proved that my cilent is innocent in all the charges the plaintiff has accused her of."

"Proceed."

Jason brought out the pet carrier and took out Dog Damian.

"Your honor, this is my client's dog. She was gifted this dog before she moved here to Gotham. I have the receipts to prove this."

"What is the point of this?"

Jason dramatically held up the adorable fluffy black dog which looked like a doll in his hands, "Your honor, the dog's name is Damian." Jason claimed while staring straight at Human Damian.

Dog Damian woofed at the sound of his name. There was a shocked silence that followed.

Jason proceed to give more evidence that yes, the dog name is actually Damian like giving commands using his name and adoption certificate to get rid of any doubt.

"He claimed to have heard her talking about her dating but what were the actual words you heard her say?"

"That I am adorable and she likes running her fingers through my soft dark hair."

"Your honor, my cilent was actually bragging about how cute her dog is and how she likes petting Damian the dog's obviously black fur. And you also claimed that she stalked you to the dog park and called out your name several time. She was there by coincidence because the park is the closest to her apartment and she was calling his name because she had lost sight of Damian. Dog Damian I mean. It was Human Damian's fault for assuming she was calling out for him."

Jason continued to explained how each claim was Damian's own misunderstanding of the situation and there are statements from his classmates who confirmed that Marinette was talking about her pet dog. They didn't told her about Human Damian because they found it funny that her dog had the same name.

"In addition, my cilent had no idea who Damian Wayne was. Only knowing him as her classmate. "

Tim is right now filming and having the best time of his life as he watched Damian wished that the ground would swallow him whole. Dick is trying so hard not to laugh while Bruce's lips were twitching.

Jason decides to make a counter-law suit for the emotional damage and potential financial damage Human Damian had caused Marinette by suing her for millions when she was just a struggling student, getting by on her own income in a foreign country.

Marinette stopped him, "Jason, this is enough. I am fine with a hand-written apology."

"The amount I am asking for is just a drop of water of an ocean for them. They are that filthy rich. Besides, you can get that motorcycle side-car for Damian you had been eyeing a while ago. You can also use the money to buy dog stuff that you couldn't before because of your budget."

Marinette hesitated and agreed. The case ended with it in Marinette's favor.

Tim approached them as they exited with Marinette hugging Damian (the dog) and Jason grinning in glee over his victory and simultaneously humiliated Damian (the human) in the process. Tim high-fived Jason.

Tim offered a job to Marinette because he had done a background check on her due to the potential threat she posed and found out about MDC. He does it because he liked her talent and it would look great to have Wayne Enterprise on her resume. Also the best dirt on Damian.

Marinette told him that she would think about it and he gave her a card.

Damian wrote the apology letter, very embarrassed by the entire trial. His pride wouldn't recover for a while and he took it out on Jason who knew about it the entire time and didn't tried to stop and clear up the misunderstanding.

The next day at school, Marinette went to Damian's seat and said, "Good morning, Human Damian."

"Why are you calling me like that?"

"I am sorry. I thought you would appreciate the clarification of which Damian I am referring to. I wouldn't want to end up in court again after being branded as a delusional fangirl of yours because I was just talking about my adorable Dami. I meant to say My adorable dog, Dami. Human Damian."

For the next few months, everyone keeps referring to Damian as Human Damian.

#maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc #platonic! jasonette #could be read as pre-daminette #enemies to lovers #I really should watch legal drama or read up on court proceedings #Alfred in 'has the same name as a pet' club: *sips tea* welcome to the club Master Human Damian.#this can apply to the suits #Human Robin do you copy #Meanwhile Marinette be going around Gotham with Damian in the side car to get him a cute new outfit #Damian the Dog i mean #I had fun writing this

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the-knight-of-the-stars · 9 months

Text

One of these days I'll finish writting the fanfic of this tiny Trans Reversed-Love Square Miraculous Ladybug AU that has been eating my brain:

— Adrien Agreste is Kitty Noir. Reclusive homeschooled rich supermodel by day, Paris superheroine by night.

—Adrien thinks of Kitty as just a persona he can play with, like a videogame avatar. ('It tootally doesn't mean anything that Kitty feels right, and like home, and like freedom, what are you talkikg about guys?' )

—Kitty is Ladybug's partner in fighting agains crime. Kitty brings the 'there's always time for a joke' vibe to the superhero work that Ladybug pretends not to appreciate.

—One night, Kitty is saved from an akumatized villain attack by a civilian named Marinette, and is heartstruck by her kindness and bravery. (Ladybug was busy that night, if you can believe it.)

—Kitty visits her at her balcony the next night, and Marinette tells her about feeling lonely at school. Kitty knows loneliness, and their night meetings at the balcony become a common ocurrence.

—They become friends. One night, Kitty flirts. Marinette responds (Because tonight she is just a normal girl with a normal life, why wouldn't she?) And Kitty well, she is kind. Her jokes aren't cruel, and she listens to her.

—And Kitty likes the way light hits her hair, and how clumsy and determined she is. Is this what having a friend is like? Wishing time would stop so she could keep lisening to Marinette?

—And ups! Kitty is getting close, and moving in circles around Marinette and Marinette feels safe. Kitty is kind of funny. And Marinette realizes she wants some funny in her life.

—Kitty leans. Marinette kisses her. She is not sure why she did that. Oh! Marinette retreats, but Paris at night makes Kitty's green eyes shine like stained glass. Wait, does she like girls? Does she like this girl?

—Kitty kisses her again, and Kitty is in heaven. Alone. Alone is a far away word. For a second the whole world feels like home. But stop.

—Kitty (or Adrien?) pulls away. 'Because this isn't right' 'Because you are just my fan, you don't know me.'

'Because Kitty isn't real... right?'

—Kitty leaves. Is not ethical, it can't be. They both agree. Just friends. 'Sometimes, I'll catch a glipse of you in the moonlight.'

—Marinette, see, now she was a problem. Ladybug can't be in love with her partner, no way. Is not right, is too distracting. And they have people to save!

—So Ladybug pretends everything is ok. 'Kitty, we have to be focused at all times' she tells her, trying to ignore how pretty her smile is.

—But duty is first, Paris is counting on them. Even if Kitty calling her 'My Lady' keeps her awake at night. 'All girls fantasize about their friends like that, right?'

—Adrien sits on his bed, and thinks about what would happen if he could be Kitty all the time. If Kitty is just a character, just a game, why did it felt so good, so real, to kiss Marinette?

—Marinette liked Kitty, and Kitty wasn't even trying. 'You are so beautiful, you know that, right?' She had said one night, laughing, after Kitty had make her dance. So spontaneous, she had blushed after.

—He was allowed to like that thought, right? Kitty was beautiful. He (she?) was beautiful. 'Am I, beautiful?' How much of Kitty is acting, and how much of her is true?

—Kitty doesn't visit often now. Marinette overthinks. 'She moved on, of course she did, why wouldn't she, I said it was ok, why doesn't it feel ok?'

—One day, Ladybug "accidentally" sees Kitty sneak into the Agreste Mansion. Oh! So she really meet someone else. 'She used to sneak into my house like that' And she meet no other than golden boy Adrien Agreste. Supermodel Adrien Agreste. Rich and Misterious Adrien Agreste.

—Of course, I mean, this Adrien guy is kinda cute. And Kitty is cute. Match made in heaven right? Is non of her buisness anyways.

—But Adrien is a little too misterious, right? He doesn't even go to school! And what was that Alya told her the other day? Oh! He is friends with Chloe?? Too suspicious...

—Is ok, she is just worried about Kitty. They are partners, gals, Marinette just wants to make sure Kitty's boy is the right one. 'What does she sees in him anyways?'

—Adrien meets Marinette one day, at a gala, she designed a hat for him! She is wonderful, and Adrien wants to say hi, but she keeps avoiding him. 'Is just the nerves for the event, she toootally didn't roll her eyes at me.'

—Adrien meets Nino. He is great. He tells him about school, and Adrien dreams about how cool it would be to go to school. He asks his dad, and he actually considers it?

Nino supports him, even Chloe vouches for him. Father says yes, he can go to school!.

—Adrien arrives at his first day, and oh! There is Marinette! How great is this!

—Marinette raises her head, and oh! There is Adrien Agreste! How great is this?

#it got out of hand #but i mean ajahshshwhhdd #i needed to get this out of my system #miraculous ladybug #mlb #ml #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #trans adrien agreste #gender fluid adrien agreste #transfem adrien #bisexual marinette #miraculous au #miraculous ladybug au #marichat #ladynoir #miraculous #ladybug #chat noir

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massivedrickhead · 6 months

Note

#4 or #9 for the sleepy prompts if it’s not too late please!!

Love the ones you’ve done so far btw🫶

Thanks for sending this! I went with number 4.

4. “You fell asleep right on my lap. No no no, don’t feel bad. I actually thought it was pretty cute.”

Prompt taken from here

Read on AO3

“Bec?”

“Hmm?”

“The movie is over.”

Beca blinked and brought up a hand to rub her eyes.

“Oh,” she said. She sat up from where she’d been lying on Chloe’s lap.

The rest of the Bellas were all already heading to their rooms, bidding each other goodnight as they went.

“You fell asleep on my lap like five minutes in,” Chloe said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

“Sorry,” Beca said, cringing. “I can’t imagine that was very comfortable for you.”

“You don’t need to apologise,” Chloe said. “It was actually pretty cute.”

Beca seemed to cringe harder, a blush creeping across her cheeks.

“You know if you were that tired, you could have skipped movie night,” Chloe said when Beca didn’t respond.

“Yeah but then I would have missed the first five minutes of… what did we even watch?”

Chloe laughed. Her smile dropped slightly when she saw that Beca was still rubbing at her eyes, trying to shift the grogginess that lingered.

They were the only ones left in the living room now.

“Is everything alright?” Chloe asked. “You don’t usually fall asleep before eleven, let alone 8:30.”

“Yeah, fine,” Beca said. “I was just up late talking to Jesse on the phone last night. The time difference is making it awkward to catch each other. And now I’ve got to finish a paper that I should have done last night.”

“Oh,” Chloe said, trying to ignore the familiar twinge she got in her stomach whenever Beca mentioned Jesse’s name. “Well, as this is all self-inflicted you don’t get any sympathy. Kidding,” she added when Beca only gave a weak smile in response that didn’t reach her eyes.

“I know,” Beca said. “Sorry, I’m just… I didn’t really sleep at all last night.”

“You were up talking that long?”

“No. Not really. We, uh, we kinda… broke up,” Beca said, trying not to look at Chloe. “It’s been coming for a while and last night, or this morning, it just… happened.”

“Oh, I’m really sorry Beca,” Chloe said, genuinely surprised.

Beca shook her head. “It’s fine,” she said. “We both knew it was coming. We both knew what it meant when he moved to L.A.. I’m just… I’m surprised at how much it upset me, that’s all.”

“You’ve been together for a long time,” Chloe said. “Of course it would upset you.”

Beca quickly wiped her eyes. “So yeah, anyway, after that phone call, I couldn’t really sleep, and then I had an early class. So I’m… I’m tired.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because I didn’t want it to be a big deal,” Beca said. “I didn’t want… fuss.”

“Okay,” Chloe said. “No fuss. Are you okay though?”

“Yes,” Beca said, a little too quickly. Chloe raised her eyebrows. “I will be. I just… I don’t like goodbyes. I don’t like endings, or change. And I…” She trailed off and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“No, go on,” Chloe said.

Beca shook her head again. “I have a paper I need to finish.”

“Beca,” Chloe said, taking hold of her wrist to stop her from walking away. “Talk to me.”

Beca opened her mouth to respond before she was cut off by the sound of one of the Bellas opening their bedroom door and crossing the hall to the bathroom.

“My room?” Chloe asked, knowing Beca was more likely to talk if there was less chance that they’d be overheard or interrupted.

Beca sighed and checked the time on her phone.

“I really need to finish that paper,” she said, avoiding looking at Chloe. “Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologise,” Chloe said, trying to hide her disappointment. “Don’t stay up too late, okay? We have rehearsals tomorrow.”

“Yes captain,” Beca said, giving her a weak smile. “Night, Chlo’. Sorry for napping on you.”

“Goodnight,” she said. “And you can nap on me anytime, you should know that by now.”

They went to their bedrooms, and Chloe began pulling on her pyjamas, trying to shift the knot of sadness in her stomach.

It wasn’t that she was particularly upset that Beca and Jesse had broken up - she’d always privately thought that Beca could do better - but it was more that Beca hadn’t told her.

There was once a point in their relationship where they told each other everything.

Now Beca couldn’t even tell her that she’d broken up with her boyfriend of almost three years.

It made Chloe sad to think they were drifting apart.

Beca was her best friend, and she felt like she was losing a little bit of her every day.

Chloe shook her head slightly and tried to tell herself that it was fine.

They’d be graduating soon anyway, so it made sense that they were all slowly moving apart.

Chloe was just getting settled in bed when there was a tentative knock at the door.

“Come in,” she said.

The door was pushed open, and Beca walked in. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it.

“Is the offer still there to talk?” Beca asked.

“Of course,” Chloe said.

Beca wiped her eyes and crossed the room, taking a seat on the edge of Chloe’s bed.

Chloe put down her book and waited for Beca to speak.

“Jesse was safe,” Beca said eventually. “He’s the first person who ever… wanted me. I never had that before. I was always the weirdo with the dark makeup and the bad attitude, you know? Boys, girls, they never paid me any attention before. But Jesse did. He… pursued me. I’d never been pursued before. And I thought… I thought there was no way he’d hurt me. Even when things get tough, he’ll fight for me. I thought I was safe with him. But when it actually came down to it, he didn’t fight at all. When things got tough, he ran off to L.A. and stopped answering my calls. And when we finally broke up, he sounded relieved.” Beca wiped her eyes again and cleared her throat. “God, I’m fucking crying over a boy, who am I?”

“Hey,” Chloe said, softly, her hand lightly rubbing up and down her back. “Give yourself a break. You’re allowed to cry about things like this.”

Beca shook her head and wiped her eyes on her sleeve again. “If I can’t keep a relationship with Jesse - someone who was so into me and so determined that we were meant to be together that he thought that we were inevitable - what chance do I have with anyone?”

“Bec, Jesse isn’t the only person who’s going to love you,” Chloe said, her heart breaking at the thought of Beca believing that. “And I bet that he wasn’t even the first person who wanted to date you. You can be kinda oblivious about this kind of thing.”

Beca laughed but also gave a shake of her head that let Chloe know she didn’t believe her.

“If I can make Jesse fall out of love with me, I’ve got no hope.”

Chloe had to bite her tongue before she spoke again, and she forced herself to take a slow, quiet, breath.

“Are we at the stage where we can shit-talk your ex?” Chloe asked.

“Go for it,” Beca said.

“Jesse… He’s a romantic, right? He loves the idea of love. He likes to woo, and chase, and date. He’s a movie guy, he lives for the cliches. But relationships can’t survive like that. You’re a real person, with thoughts and feelings. You’re not just there to fit the mould of ‘Jesse’s girlfriend’. I’m… I’m not surprised that he didn’t fight when things got tough. As far as he was concerned, I bet he thought the hard part was over once you guys started dating,” Chloe said. “The movie ends when the guy gets the girl, how was he supposed to know what to do next?”

“Jeez,” Beca said, after a few minutes of silence. “One psych class and suddenly you’re an expert on shitty boyfriends.” She rolled her eyes to let Chloe know she was kidding. “How long have you felt like that about him?”

Chloe shrugged. “I’ve always kinda thought you could do better.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because you were happy, and it wasn’t my place. I don’t think he’s a bad person or anything, and I’m sure he was a good boyfriend for the most part. And if there was a situation where I thought you were actively bad for each other, I’d have said something. I just thought you could do better is all. And I don’t want you to sit here and doubt yourself and your future because of him.”

Beca nodded and sniffed. “Thank you, Chloe. Thank you for saying all of that.”

“I said it because it’s true. I hope you know that,” Chloe said. “There is nothing unlovable, undatable, or unattractive about you. And more people know that about you than you think. You just need to open your eyes to them.”

Beca swallowed. “Yeah?” She asked, the uncertainty and vulnerability in her voice killing Chloe.

“I promise,” Chloe said.

There was more she wanted to say, but it was late, and she didn’t think Beca was in the right state to hear it, so she kept it to herself. Promising herself that she would say it later when things were less emotional.

“Did you get your paper done?” Chloe asked.

Beca let out a snort of laughter. “Like that was ever going to happen.” She checked the time on her phone. “I can do it tomorrow. I don’t have any classes until 2 so I can go to the library all morning.”

“You must be pretty tired,” Chloe said.

“Exhausted,” Beca replied with a laugh. “I can’t handle all-nighters like I used to.” She looked at Chloe’s bedroom door and wondered if she had the energy to even leave the room, let alone climb the stairs to her bedroom. It felt like it would take the kind of strength that Beca didn’t have right now.

“You can stay if you want,” Chloe said, reading her mind. “If you don’t want to be alone.”

“You don’t mind?” Beca asked.

“Of course I don’t.”

Beca smiled. “Thank you, Chlo’. For everything.”

“Anytime,” Chloe said.

They settled back into bed, and it didn’t take long for Beca to drop off.

Chloe smiled, relieved that they weren’t drifting as far apart as she’d feared.

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