#completely wrong apart from her name which I made an educated guess on

[becaexists]

The temptation to write a new fic just about the volta siblings

[sailtomarina]

The Artist's Daughter

She was here again.

Draco Lucius Malfoy, First and Only Prince to the kingdom, stayed hidden in the stacks next to a row of tomes dictating the genealogies of the royal families dating back hundreds of years. He had his private tutor to thank for the tiresome task of locating the volume listing the exact ancestor Draco had failed to name correctly in his latest exam. The other day, he’d been here searching for a text that would answer which crops their kingdom specialized in for exports. Ridiculous, really. As if he wouldn’t some day have advisors to do all this research for him.

Then, just like today, he’d seen a girl wandering through the shelves. She hadn’t noticed him, of course. Draco was far too sneaky to be detected by some muggle, which she had to be given her unaware musings as she walked around with her nose buried in a book.

The first time, he’d remained hidden, even going so far as to cast a disillusionment spell on himself. As surprised as he was to see a stranger, he supposed that if they were to wander any of the handful of libraries in the castle, this was the most appropriate one. It was situated on the ground floor not too far from the entrance and ballroom. This is where most of the muggle texts were organized, along with an unfortunate number of historical texts currently pertinent to Draco’s education.

She’d struck him as pretty, albeit in a muggle sort of way. She’d worn a simple lady’s gown in a pale yellow that contrasted with the rich dark curls tumbling down her back. Freckles sprinkled generously across her pale skin, markings his cousins would have glamoured over from birth. If he guessed correctly, they weren’t too far apart in age, perhaps fourteen or fifteen. That was another indicator of her humble breeding—he didn’t recognize her, not from school or from the countless balls and feasts he’d attended growing up. She couldn’t be a noble.

Today, she wore a dress in a lovely sage green with tiny white flowers embroidered along the scoop neckline. Draco imagined her eyes to match the green, or to perhaps blink at him in a hazel hue. He needed to know.

“Who are you?” His voice came out much harsher than intended. 

He’d stepped out in front of her just as she was about to pass, causing her to come to an abrupt stop before crashing into him. Startled eyes, irises dark brown and glinting with a hint of gold, gazed up at him. He’d been wrong about the colors.

“Oh! I didn’t see you there. I’m Hermione Granger. And you are?” She stepped back to an appropriate distance from him, hugging a few books to her chest like armor.

“I’m Draco,” he said simply.

“The prince?” She didn’t sound too surprised, and eyed his unmistakable platinum hair.

“The very same. Why are you here in the library?” He’d finally tempered his tone to a more congenial one. 

“I was told I could read whatever I liked in here. My father is painting your Grand Ballroom.”

Ah. She was the daughter of the painter.

His mother made it a point to elect a new project as soon as the previous one was complete. Previous years had resulted in a reworked Imperial Garden, which boasted rose gardens with every imaginable variety, both magical and non-magical. A formidable greenhouse was added shortly after, and the caretaker they’d employed soon obtained and cultivated the rarest of specimens for use in medicine and potions. 

This year, Queen Narcissa turned her attention to the Grand Ballroom. She and his father adored hosting balls at every opportunity. What better way to display their love for art and beauty than to paint the entire ceiling and all its walls with depictions of magical beasts and figures from history. Circe. Merlin. Rasputin. Titania and Oberon.

Draco had assumed they’d hire a wizard, but he should have known that when it came to art, the king and queen saw no difference between magic or not. They simply wanted the best, and if that happened to be stationary art, then so be it.

“Find anything interesting?” He feigned interest, intent on keeping her talking. She was far more entertaining than pouring over volumes of ancestors alone.

She perked up at his question, and Draco could have sworn sections of her hair floated for just a brief moment.

Certainly not.

“I did! Did you know your castle is situated on top of the most powerful spot in the kingdom? All of the most prominent ley lines converge here underneath our feet!” She stomped one foot in emphasis. He wouldn’t be surprised if she went through several slippers a season if she always beat on them in that manner.

Wait.

Did she say “ley lines”?

“Are you a witch?” he blurted out, once again wincing at the gracelessness of his question. His mother would be mortified if she could hear him.

Hermione looked at him as if he was stupid. “Yes. Why else would your family let me wander around here by myself?”

“I don’t know, maybe because this is the one library of many where muggles are allowed? They do come here occasionally, muggle nobles, to garner favor with us,” he sputtered. He still couldn’t quite believe it. She was a witch. She was an unknown witch of his age. “Why don’t I know you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before.”

“My parents are muggles. I might have a squib ancestor somewhere, but as far as we know, I’m the only magic user in the Granger family. They sent me abroad for schooling since Hogwarts doesn’t currently accept muggle-borns.” She raised her eyebrows as if challenging him, but Draco couldn’t find it within himself to care about her background.

Hermione didn’t fawn on him like the other girls who had paraded themselves around him at school. She didn’t bat her eyelashes or titter behind a gloved hand. She didn’t wear gloves at all, her slender fingers wrapping around ancient texts as if relishing the touch of the worn covers. She probably thumbed the pages like his instructors told him never to do.

He would have thought that would annoy him, but he instead found himself intrigued in this muggle-born witch who liked reading, wore slippers instead of heels, and forewent glamours.

“Do you want to see the other libraries?”

His words were like a spell, as effective at getting her to brighten as a cheering draught.

“Oh, can I? The king and queen won’t mind?” She nearly vibrated in her excitement.

Her hair was definitely twice the size it was before.

“Not if you’re with me,” Draco said with a smirk, though that was partially a lie. If they’d wanted her in the other libraries, they would have explicitly told her. 

“Well, in that case, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” She made to dash away, but he caught her shoulder before she could do so.

“Allow me,” he said with a gesture towards the books still clutched to her chest.

“Oh, I can carry these.”

“Please, I insist.” It wouldn’t do if either of his parents not only caught him skiving off lessons with the girl, but allowing her to carry around books like some commoner. When she finally let go of her findings, he cast a featherweight charm and looked at her knowingly. She flushed an adorable shade of pink.

“They really weren’t very heavy, but thank you anyways.”

They spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring, only making it to two additional libraries. Hermione had only added to the pile of books floating behind Draco. He had to refresh the charm multiple times due to the sheer weight.

“You do realize you can’t remove these from the castle, don’t you?” He hoped this wouldn’t be the last time he’d see her, that she’d continue to visit along with her father for as long as there was work. “How long will it take your father to finish the ballroom?”

“To answer your first question, yes, I do understand that I’ll need to reserve these books to read later. I was hoping you could help with that.” He nodded his agreement, even as he inwardly danced with joy at the thought that he now had a reason to continue seeing the girl. “And to answer your second, it could take my father years.”

“Years?” Draco was aghast at the approximation.

“Years,” she repeated. “If you go take a look, you’ll see why. He’s not even working alone—he has an entire team helping with the moldings and scenery.”

Trust his mother to pick a project of such staggering proportions that it required multiple artists. On the bright side, that meant he’d have a long time to get to know Hermione, even if it was only during the holidays.

“It’s a shame you can’t attend Hogwarts.” It wasn’t until she tutted in agreement that he realized he’d said the words aloud. If she’d been like any other girl, she would have pounced on any hint of attachment on his part. She, however, did not.

“Well, if the king’s word is true, then I may soon. In exchange for my father’s work, yours agreed to update Hogwarts’ policies. I love Beauxbatons, but I can’t disagree that staying closer to home would make everything a lot easier on my family.”

“If you do,” Draco said the words slowly, hardly believing they were coming out of his mouth but needing her to know before it was too late, “then you should ask to be sorted into Slytherin.”

His heart sank at the way her nose wrinkled and lips turned downward in a grimace. “Isn’t that house renowned for pureblood ideology? I was leaning more towards Ravenclaw, myself.”

He nodded somewhat agreeably. “Books and cleverness…you could certainly do worse. They’re not a bad lot, if you ignore their tendency to disappear into their studies. Though…” he trailed off, reluctant to give away his feelings again without assistance.

“Though it might mean we don’t see each other? I wouldn’t let that happen outside of exams,” she said offhandedly. “I’ll keep in mind what you said. Snakes can be quite clever, in a sneaky kind of way.” The pointed look she sent Draco reminded him of how he’d approached her in the first place.

“Quite.”

A gentle melody played in the air, noting the top of the hour and finishing with eight long chimes.

“And that’s my cue. Hold on to those for me, would you?” Hermione leaned up onto her toes, laid the palms of her hands atop his shoulders, and pressed a kiss onto one cheek, then the other.

Draco could do nothing but stand still in shock at her forwardness. Then he remembered where she went to school and the strange habits the people of that land practiced. He cleared his throat to cover his awkward silence, but the crooked smirk she wore proved the attempt useless.

“When will I see you next?” He realized how needy that sounded as it came out, and hastily continued,“Just so I know when to have them ready?”

She flitted to the doors and didn’t respond until she was nearly through them, “I’m sure you’ll find me!”

And just like that, she was gone, leaving behind her stack of books, the echoes of her soft lips on his face, and the sweet scent of apple blossoms in the air. Draco wondered if she had perhaps cast some sort of love spell on him. How else could he explain his complete lack of reservation around her, or why her humble origins didn’t matter to him like he thought they should?

Queen Narcissa found him still in contemplation shortly after, and was impressed at the amount of reading material gathered around him.

“My dragon, there you are! Wilfred said he’d sent you to recover texts on our family history ages ago.”

“Mother, did you know the painter has a daughter?”

Narcissa blinked as she processed the odd question. “Master Granger? Of course. Hermione is a lovely, bright little thing. I told her she could read whatever she liked in our First Library. Why do you ask?”

Her son continued to stare at the wall, and she had half a mind to cast a homenum revelio.

“Draco?”

He came to with a shake and gave her one of his rare, full smiles. “No reason. I think we’ll be wonderful friends. You should make sure Hogwarts changes their acceptance rules before school starts again.”

Bewildered and bemused, she stroked a hand over his hair, so like his father’s. “I take it the two of you met?”

“We did. These are all hers.” He gestured towards the books once more.

“And here I thought you’d finally taken an interest in your studies.”

He snorted and she nearly pinched him on the arm for his cheek. She made do instead with a tickle to his side. He ducked away from her with a laugh, holding up his hands in surrender. “Mother, please! That isn’t fair! You know all my weak spots.”

She desisted in her attack with another indulgent smile. “And don’t you forget it. Just be careful with Hermione, dear.”

“What do you mean?” He tilted his head in confusion and she nearly sighed at his naivety. The young could be so oblivious, but she envied them their freedom.

She thought back on her own upbringing. The Blacks were more ancient and arrogant than even the royal family; her marriage to Lucius had been agreed upon at birth and as expected as the fact that clouds brought rain and Blacks were as pure as pure could be. She knew she was his from the beginning, and no amount of pining after others or imagining life in another place with a different name would change her fate.

Narcissa looked at her son, a near perfect replica of her husband aside from the softer grey eyes she’d bestowed upon him and his smile. He’d been so much like her at the start, but over the years he’d become more and more like his father. Now, today, he was like his younger self again.

She didn’t care what Lucius intended for his heir. She just wanted him to find happiness.

“True friends are difficult to come by, particularly for people of our station. I have a feeling that, if you nurture your relationship with Hermione, she’ll be someone worth keeping at your side.”

“What would father say?” he asked, caution and desire battling for domination on his face.

“He prizes power above all else.” This much was true. Lucius just happened to have a bit of a blind spot outside of magical families. “Apply yourself to your studies, help one another, and I’ll take care of Hogwarts and your father.”

Listening to his mother, Draco started to relax and let a bit of his earlier hope trickle back in. He wasn’t sure how Hermione had secured her approval, but she had. Greater deeds had been turned into ballads.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a bit terrifying sometimes?”

Narcissa smirked, immediately reminding Draco of wild curls and a smattering of freckles. The two women looked wildly different, yet they gave off a similar air of confident capability.

“I have been told. Once or twice.”

He made a note to tread carefully around Hermione in the future. If she turned out anything like his mother, he never wanted to be on the opposite end of her ire.

Oh, the feats they would accomplish together.

WC 2606

DHRMonth Prompt: Week 4 - Alternate Universe, September 22 - Royal AU

Cross-posted to AO3

I have half a mind to write a full story in this setting, since it spiraled into something I want to know more about. I didn’t think I used to have a thing for royal AUs, but maybe I do???

[marblesphere]

Marriage Lovers

Well, the basic idea was taken from manga/anime 'More than marriage couple, but less than lovers' Some readers might be familiar with this manga/anime. In short, the school made a rule that students in their third year, if I remember correctly, have to sign up for this program mandatorily. They then will be paired to become a couple (must be a boy and a girl pair) and undergo the program of living together in an apartment provided by school like a married couple.

Thanks to @ReySim (ao3 friend) who helped with brainstorming ideas that the fanfic is finished safely. 😆 Thank you, Bestie.

!!Warning!! Teeth rotting fluff, high sugar content, suggestive theme (a teeeenyyy bit), blood and violence (a little)

Now, I hope you enjoy this. Happy reading!!!

“I finally arrived here.” A girl is looking at a school building from the entrance gate. Her eyes are full of hope and determination. “Yosh! I have a feeling that he will be here.” She pumped herself up. Soon, she will meet with her first love. The boy whom she met a long time ago. A kind boy who gave her his pudding because she was crying. It was the sweetest pudding she ever had.

“We are getting new students today. I heard it’s a girl!!!” The whole class is becoming noisy, while Satoru is napping on his desk. Head slumps on his hands which are on the table. I, his desk mate who sit beside him are patting his soft hair.

“New student…” Yae sighed.

“What’s wrong?” I blinked at my friend.

“No, it’s just after the implementation of new rules, our school is sure becoming more popular.” Her mouth twitched.

“Ah, that marriage program, right?” I ‘aahh’ed in understanding.

“Yep.” Yae nodded. “A program that was made to teach students how marriage will be. Seems like due to the high rate of divorce lately. Couples, especially young couples don’t truly understand that marriage is a partnership in everything. So, they clashed and divorced.” Yae said.

“Well, this program is supported by the government. They think education in this field is very important, and thus the program is implemented. Our school is the first to implement this program. No wonder a lot of students are signing up this year.” I giggled. “This is a chance for them to meet with maybe their true love.”

“Not to mention, if you can complete the marriage program with the highest score, you will be given a full scholarship and a letter of recommendation to any university of your choice. It’s pretty high in return.” Yae said.

“Though the couple will be selected randomly, it’s not like we can’t choose our own partner.” I smiled. “If we have the legal document signed by party A and party B and their legal guardians. It’s possible to be partnered up with each other.”

“Yeah, usually wealthy kids with prior engagements will be using this as a trial for their upcoming marriage.” Yae nodded.

“By the way, Suguru applied for you and him. Congrats.” I smiled.

“…What?” Yae blinked at the news. It was new to her.

“Oh, you haven’t heard?” I smiled in amusement.

“No…” Yae turned to Suguru who was sitting beside her.

“Let’s do our best, love,” Suguru smirked.

“…Rai-chan…how about you and Satoru?”

“Rai-chan, don’t stop…” Satoru whined.

“My hand is tired.” I pouted.

“I guess I shouldn’t ask. It’s already obvious.” Yae sweatdropped.

“My name is Mayami Hinako. Nice to meet you all.” The new student bowed. After the usual 20 questions, the new student was finally allowed to sit. But I sense she is secretly glancing at Satoru.

‘Hmmm… I wonder why…’

Today is the start of the new school year. The Sakura trees are in full bloom and the weather is quite chilly. I am drowned in Satoru’s blazer. I like having long sweater paws, and Satoru likes to see me drowned in his oversized clothes. It’s a win-win situation.

Today is also when the newly implemented program, which is officially named Marriage Lesson program will start. Our homeroom teacher will announce the selected pairings. We are required to stay in an apartment owned by the government. ~”~

“Heeee~ They gave us a separate bedroom.” Satoru raised an eyebrow. The apartment is a very simple but luxurious 3-room apartment. Kitchen with connected living room, a bathroom and 2 bedrooms. “We only need one bedroom, right, Rai-chan.” Satoru grinned as he put our luggage in one bedroom and began to unpack. The bed is big enough for the two of us, so there will be no problem. Whereas I inspect all the rooms first, trying to see if there’s a problem or not. After making sure the stove, water and the house facilities are functioning normally, I go back to our shared bedroom and see Satoru has finished unpacking.

“We need to stock groceries.”

“Okay, let’s go.” Satoru got up and fixed his blazer on me again. “Rai-chan, you make me want to just manhandle you.” Satoru leaned his weight on me, squashing my already small stature.

“Let’s go. I want to come back before dark.” I flailed my sweater paws and pouted.

“Too cute!!!” Satoru rubbed his cheek on me. The moment the door was opened, we also saw our neighbour getting ready to go out.

“Groceries.” Suguru and Satoru said in unison and laughed. In the end, the four of us are going to get groceries together. We buy a week's worth of groceries. No worries about the money, we were given fixed money every month to be managed. We have to submit each of our purchases to school by the end of the month.

Arriving at the supermarket, Yae and I, arm in arm begin to hunt for cheaper but decent-quality ingredients while having the boys handle the trolleys. They should make themselves useful.

“That will be 12.000 yen.”

“Here it is.” I gave her two ten thousand bills.

“Here is the change. Thank you very much.” ~”~

“Too bad Shoko and Nanamin didn’t apply.” Satoru sighed.

“…Nanamin would rather spend time by himself…” Suguru sweatdropped. “Shoko also would rather spend her time dissecting.”

“Besides, Shoko and Nanamin are in different schools from us. Shoko’s school is strong in medical academics. It’s her shortcut to her first choice of university. Nanamin is the same, his school is strong in business.” Yae said.

“Will it be alright to have a doctor who likes to dissect people? She won’t be called a modern mad scientist, right?”

“She won’t. Shoko will be fine.” I rolled my eyes.

“Ah…” Our attention shifted to another person who came down from stairs. “G-good afternoon…” She bowed.

“Good afternoon.” We replied to her greeting and waited for her to fully come down before we could go upstairs. But the thing is, the girl doesn’t budge. She keeps staring at Satoru while seemingly deep in thought.

“Are you going to come down? Because we need to use the stairs.” I frowned. My mood worsened by her staring.

“A-ah, I am sorry, I didn’t mean to trouble you.” She quickly came down. “Please…”

The rest of us are going up back to our apartment. I sneak a glance at the new transfer student and sure enough, she is staring at Satoru. ~”~

“Satoru.” I puffed my cheek at the taller male who was making dinner. He is wearing a cute pink frilly love apron because it made him cuter, he said.

“What’s wrong, love?” Satoru chuckled as he poured the beaten egg into the frying pan. We are having a simple omurice today.

“She is staring at you.” I fumed.

“…who?” He blinked.

“That girl. The new girl. She has been staring at you since morning.”

“Ah? Really? I didn’t notice at all. I prefer if you were staring though.” He grinned and flipped the egg mixture.

“She smells trouble. I don’t like she is staring at you.” I crossed my arms and cocked my head to the side. Now, wearing my supposed sleepwear, shorts with Satoru’s black long-sleeved sweater. The sweater drops into mid-thigh, drowning the shorts.

“I also don’t like being stared at, except from you.” Satoru nodded.

“You need to coax me better.”

“How about I coax you into bed later.” He whispered.

I shiver at the tone he used, “!!! This pervert.” I grumbled, blushing while Satoru cackled.

“Cuddle me later.” I stomped to the sofa and turned the TV on.

“Will do, love.” As promised, I have a cuddling session after dinner. Satoru’s hand rests on my bare stomach as I sit on his lap, watching TV. “Have your mood gotten better, love?” He hummed.

“Yeah, a little…” I mumbled as I began to doze off.

“Shall we go to bed now?”

“Hmm… please…” I mumbled sleepily.

“Aren’t you precious, love.” In my haziness, I hear his cooing and I snuggled closer to him. ~”~

The next time I open my eyes, a nice smelling aroma waft to my nose. The right side of my bed is empty, meaning, the occupant is not there anymore. “Satoru…” I walked to the living room/kitchen to find him donning the apron and making breakfast and our lunch.

“The breakfast will be done soon, Rai-chan. You should wash up first.” But I ignored his words and wrapped my sweater paws around his torso from behind.

“Cold…” I mumbled.

“Sorry, love.” Satoru turned around and hugged me back. “I will be done soon.”

“…okay… brush my hair later.” I reluctantly released my hold on him.

“Of course.” I go to the bathroom to wash up and change into my uniform and at the same time prepare our school bags. When I came back to the living room, the breakfast is done and the lunches had been packed and wrapped in nice blue wrapping clothes.

After breakfast, Satoru is brushing my hair while I enjoy it while dozing off. “It’s finished, Rai-chan. We should go to school now.”

“…’mkay.” I nodded.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, Yae, Suguru.” I yawned.

“Still sleepy? You really are not a morning person.” Suguru laughed. My body shivers from the cold.

“Here, Rai-chan, wear this.” Satoru changed my blazer to much bigger of his, allowing me to savour some warmth it offered.

“Good morning!” We were greeted by the transfer student, energetically in the morning.

“…m’ning.” I slurred. Satoru’s blazer is making me all sleepy again.

“Tsk.” Then we heard an unhappy click of tongue from her supposed partner.

“Well, I guess we won’t be bothering you and your partner. Please excuse us.” Suguru said politely, but he is clearly mocking them.

“Let’s go, Rai-chan.” Satoru guided me with his hand and I just blindly followed him to the school.

“…What’s wrong, Yae?” Suguru asked his quiet partner.

“…No, must be my mistake…” Yae shook her head. ~”~

‘It’s him… It must be him… my first love!!!!’ Mayami Hinako screamed internally. She must not be wrong, the white hair and blue eyes. She has never once forgotten what he looks like. She finally met him! Her first love!!!

Mayami Hinako squeals excitedly, but her excitement quiets down when she finds out that her first love is already in a relationship with another girl. ‘No…no…’ She shook her head. That girl must be only his partner in this Marriage Lesson program and they do all the lovey-dovey stuff just to get more points. ‘Yes, that must be it!’ She nodded to herself.

“But… they are really good…” She mumbled. There’s no unnatural movement from their interaction. It’s as if they truly love each other. “No… I can’t give up now. Even if he already has a girlfriend. I should have at least told him that he is my first love…who knows…” Her imagination is going wild. “Kyaaa!!!!” She screamed by herself.

“Shut up, woman.” Her partner rolled his eyes in distaste. “Don’t forget, we will need to reach the top ten to be able to exchange partners.”

“I am not forgetting anything. Don’t worry.” She huffed. When she was partnered up with him, she was pretty disappointed. Her partner doesn’t have the best personality, but when they talked about their goals, they decided to become accomplices. She was aiming for a full scholarship at first, so she doesn’t care who her partner is. But meeting her first love was a bonus. Now, she can get her scholarship and maybe a future boyfriend. She is really glad that she signed up for this program.

Her partner, Yanagizawa Hibiki, was aiming to be Hisaki Raika’s partner. Apparently, he has been in love with her since forever. Mayami Hinako sympathizes with his situation. Much like her, she also hoped to be her first love’s partner. So, they agreed to help each other. As long as they can get enough points to be ranked on top, they can request partner exchange. But the problem is how to get consent from the said pair. Well, let’s think that for later, for now, they should focus on collecting points. ~”~

“Today we are having the surprise test. I hope you guys were studying last night.” Our homeroom teacher grinned. Loud groans and protests soon fill the class. “Well, it’s already included in the rule that school can spring up this surprise test.” He laughed.

The test was not that hard, since we are just beginning to study the new curriculum. The test consists of mostly the previous year’s meaning, the second year’s curriculum. As long as we don’t do that badly, we won’t get a punishment to attend extra classes.

“Done.” Satoru was the first one to finish it and went to sleep for the rest of the period. I nudge Satoru’s leg and his hand begins to trace the answer on my blazer-covered thigh. All I need is to write it down.

At lunch break, as usual, the four of us combine our tables and have lunch together. “How did you do on the test?” Yae asked knowingly.

“I did good,” I said confidently.

“Mmh… Rai-chan did good.” Satoru patted my head.

“He-hello… can I eat lunch with you guys?” Here she is again, the transfer girl. From now on I will call her Girl A. Girl A smiles nervously while sneaking a glance at Satoru, again.

‘Seriously, what’s this girl's problem?! How come she keeps coming to Satoru?’ I frowned. “No, we only have four tables here and we are four people. You should just eat with your partner to deepen your relationship. Who knows he might be your true love.” I glared at her.

“Eh?! No!” She squeaked out. “I mean as a new student… I want to get along with everyone…” She blushed, she is looking at Satoru, silently hoping for him to accept her request.

“Rai-chan, open your mouth, aaahhh…” I nom obediently at Satoru’s chopstick.

“Can’t you see…” I swallowed the food, “We have no more room for you? if you want to make friends, there are also others.” I huffed. *nom* I was fed again.

“O…oh…” She deflated. “Sorry…” She apologized but looked very reluctant to leave us.

“By the way, I heard Shoko applied to a medical cram school. She will be swamped with homework every day.” Suguru laughed.

“Shoko will be alright. She has a gift in the medical field.” I said.

“Yeah… but her explanation…” The two males remembered how she explained to them when they didn’t understand what was going on.

“It’s ‘fwoo’ and then it goes ‘hyoi’. ‘Fwoo’ and then ‘hyoi’, get it?” Shoko explained to them. The two males are emitting smoke from their brain, not understanding what she said. “You’ve got no sense in this.” She sighed.

Seems like she takes the hint and leaves us alone, for now. ~”~

End of the month, it’s a time for the school to announce the score for all students who signed up for the Marriage Lesson program. The first rank is Yae x Suguru pair. Well yeah, it’s no surprise. Satoru and I are placed in second. Not that we mind much. No matter what rank we are, it’s important to just enjoy this. It’s quite sad for Girl A and her partner that they aren’t in the top 10, but they aren’t that far, they are in 12th. Anyway, we have decided to go on a date after the score is being announced.

“Okay, now we are ready.” Satoru zipped his purple high-neck jacket on me again, while he was donning a light blue turtle neck long-sleeved sweater, black hooded fur jacket, jeans and sneakers.

It’s 10 10-minute walk from our apartment to our destination, a cat café. “Welcome.” The waitress greeted us as we stepped into the café. “Table for two?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Please follow me.” She giggled seeing my sweater paws. Some cats approach us and tag along to our table. “Here is your table.”

“Thank you.” I smiled, waving my sweater paws to her.

“You are very welcome. Please call one of us when you are ready to order. And here, cat food. You can feed the cat.” She giggled as she handed us a container for cat kibble.

The cats jump onto my lap and start meowing for attention. Instead of ordering I begin to play with cats. Satoru just watches with a soft indulgent smile on his lips. “Here.” I gave him a cat to play with. Satoru chuckles softly as he takes the cat from me and begins stroking the said cat. The cat purrs loudly, thoroughly enjoying it. Hearing that, some other cats begin to approach Satoru. No sooner than 5 minutes, a lot of cats are perching on Satoru’s body. Satoru laughs lightly when they seek attention by rubbing their cheeks and meowing.

“…booo…” I was the one who felt irritated now. Satoru didn’t give me any attention at all. I look at the headband on the waitress’ head. I walk to her and ask if I could borrow that. The waitress smiles as she lends me her cat headband. Now armed with a cat headband on top of my head, I go back to Satoru’s seat, gently moving the cats away and plop myself on his lap.

“Nyaa.” I looked at him as I meowed.

Satoru blinks once, twice and then chuckles as he strokes my head. “The biggest cat is here.”

“Nyaaa~~~” I grinned. But some cats are still persistent in getting his attention. “Nya!” I pouted at the cat. “Nya!” I wrapped my hand around Satoru, showing them that he was mine.

Satoru’s shoulders tremble as he suppresses his laughter. Just see how cute his future wife is, fighting with cats to get his attention.

“Nyaa~~~” The cats pulled their kitty eyes on me.

“Nya! (Still no)” I pouted.

Some cats change their tactics, instead of getting Satoru’s attention, they are trying to get my attention now. Some cats plopped in my lap and I began to nya, nya’ing and play with them. Not noticing the whole guests are now watching us while gushing ‘how cute’ some even experience blood loss due to cuteness.

“Ex…excuse me…” One of the waitresses approached us, blushing slightly. “Can…can we take a picture of you?”

I tilt my head and then nod, “Nya.” I grinned.

“Kya!” I think I heard her scream in excitement. So, I got my picture taken while sitting on Satoru’s lap, having my hands posed like a cat, with long sweater paws, the cats are crowding around us.

We stayed in the cat café longer than intended. But it’s time well spent. “Is this really the bill?” I looked at the bill, which was way cheaper than what we had ordered.

“Yes. It’s a special discount from us. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts that you healed us.” She smiled.

“Eh?” I blinked.

“Please come again. Next month, we are going to launch a new menu.” My eyes brightened at this and I looked at Satoru, batting eyelashes.

“I got it. We will come again next month.” Satoru laughed at his endearing cute lover.

“Nyaaa…” The cats are crowding around us.

“Oh, the cats seem to be sad to see you go.” The waitress said.

I bend down and look at them, “Nya! Nya nya nya (I will come next month, until then be good kids and wait)”

“Nya~~” The cats chorused. Seems like they get what I am trying to say.

“Do tell me since when did you learn cat language?” Satoru raised his brow in amusement as we stepped out from the cat café.

“Since I met the cats.” I giggled.

“…You learnt on the spot…?” His jaw dropped.

“Yep. I am amazing, aren’t I?” I walked two steps ahead and waved my sweater paws at him.

“Yeah, you are really amazing, love.” He chuckled. ~”~

It’s another normal day in school. We are in our second term already, the couple scoreboard was dominated by the invincible couple, Yae x Suguru. They place the first every month. They are called the golden couple. As for me and Satoru, we are sometimes in second or third. But the most important thing is, that we go on cat café dates every month.

Right now, I am on my way back to the classroom after being called by the teacher. “Raika.” A boy stopped me.

“Can I help you?” I looked at this unfamiliar boy. “And don’t call me by my first name. We are not close.” I frowned.

“I can call you what I like.” He said. “And, you.” He suddenly grabbed my arm, “How long do you think you are going to be stuck with Gojo? You are mine, remember?”

“…” I looked at him blankly. “I don’t even know you,” I answered.

“Heh! Are you angry that I am paired with that new girl?” He smiled in a deranged way.

“Let me go.” I shook off his hand.

“Don’t worry, I will request a partner exchange. You will soon be with me.” He licked his lip while looking at me and then he went away.

“…Sick man…” I grumbled. “How dare he touch me and wrinkle Satoru’s blazer? I am going to kick him next time I see him.” I harrumphed. ~”~

“Gojo-kun, Hisaki-san is not a good partner for you. You should have changed her while you have the chance.” Girl A came over to Satoru and suddenly said something like this to him.

“Are you crazy?” Satoru rolled his eyes as if he would believe what this girl was talking about.

“I am not. Hisaki-san is cheating on you. Look at this.” Girl A showed him a picture. A picture where Rai-chan was being held by her arm by a boy. “See, she even already agreed to exchange partners.” She continued.

“Exchanging partner needs consent from all parties involved. I will never agree, so there’s no way Rai-chan will exchange partners. Not that she will agree herself.” Satoru mumbled.

“No, but she really said it.” Girl A continued to say.

“I don’t care. You are annoying me. Get lost.” Satoru glared to her and then quickly went to see Rai-chan. Rai-chan won’t let some other people touch her easily. And that face of her clearly showed that she was surprised, angry and uncomfortable.

‘Why…why he doesn’t believe me?’ Girl A looked at his back sadly. ‘No…’ She shook her head, ‘I can’t give up yet. It’s still too early for me to give up. I will definitely make him realize that Hisaki-san is not as good as he thinks she is. Evidence, I need a lot of evidence.’ Just like that Girl A is resolving to collect the evidence of Hisaki Raika’s cheating affair. ~”~

“Rai-ch-!” I launched like a rocket to Satoru. “What’s wrong, Rai-chan? Where’s my blazer?” Satoru looked confused because I was without his usual blazer.

“A mental person touched it. it’s dirty now. He ruined your smell. I hate him.” I threw a tantrum.

“Did he do anything to you?” Satoru asked worriedly.

“He touched my arm…” I grumbled. “He also spouted some nonsense about me being his. Who does he think he is? I am no one’s.” I pouted.

“Aren’t you mine, love?”

“You are mine.” I huffed, looking at him with serious eyes (and a triangle mouth)

“…yes, that’s right, isn’t it?” Satoru smiled in relief and patted my head.

“Let’s get a new blazer for you.”

“Okay, Rai-chan.” Satoru allowed me to drag him to request a new blazer.

To appease my bad mood, Satoru cooks my favourite dinner for today and even buys some kikufukus. “Why are you still pouting, love?”

“I am still angry because he ruined your blazer. Now I can’t have sweater paws again.” I huffed.

“I still have another one.” Satoru smiled.

“But I won’t have anything to wear when it’s going to be washed,” I mumbled.

“The new blazer won’t take too long.”

“It doesn’t smell like you.” I cried.

“…” Satoru chuckled. “Come here, love.” Hearing his soft indulging voice, I crawled to him, sitting on his lap. Satoru’s hands quickly wrap around me. “I will let you wear my high-neck jacket, will that do?”

“…okay…” I nodded.

“Good girl. Now, what do you want to do? We still have time before going to sleep.”

“Silly Satoru, we still have to do our skincare routine.” I rolled my eyes.

“Oh, yeah. I almost forget about that.”

“I will go get them.” Not long after, I came back with the necessary cat headband towels and skincare tools and products. The two of us then do the skincare routine to each other face, giggling while putting the mask on. And now watching some rom-com movie, munching some kikufukus. ~”~

Starting the next day, I am wearing Satoru’s high-neck jacket instead of the usual blazer. The new blazer will need more time to smell like him. I thought this would be the ordinary normal day as usual.

“Hisaki-san, I want to request a partner exchange.” Girl A came over to me and said that.

“I don’t want to,” I answered lazily.

“You…you can’t be like that! Gojo-kun is too good for the likes of you.” She said and the whole class quieted down.

“Too good for me?” My mouth twitched. “So, you think he will be perfect for you?!” I glared at her menacingly. “Know your place, peasant. Who do you think you are? Your status can't even measure up to my pinky.”

“Status is not important in love!” She glared back. “Because…because Gojo-kun is my first love!”

“…You must hit your head hard.” I blinked.

“I am not! Gojo-kun is my first love! I knew it when I saw him! I still remember how he gave pudding to me when I was crying back then.” She suddenly went into her delusion.

“Satoru…gave pudding to you…?” I repeated. “There’s no way. Satoru won’t ever give sweets to someone that is not me.”

“What? You don’t believe me? Of course you are. You think you are a perfect match for him because the school paired you two up. Gojo-kun will soon remember about me and we’ll see.” She huffed haughtily.

“Where did you meet?” I frowned.

“Curious now?” She snorted. “I won’t tell you.” She smiled in triumph and went back to her seat full of pride.

‘…This girl…must be mental too…’

Satoru, Yae and Suguru came back from the faculty room. Girl A suddenly makes her way to him. “Gojo-kun, do you remember me?”

“…Who are you? Do I know you?” Satoru frowned. Yae sensing something is not right, quickly comes to my side.

“What’s wrong?”

“That girl is mental,” I answered.

“Seems so.” Yae nodded solemnly.

After school, we gathered in our apartment to discuss what happened at the time they were gone. So, I narrated to them how that girl suddenly asked for a partner exchange and said that Satoru was her first love.

Satoru makes a face at that statement. And then I continued about how Satoru gave pudding to her when she was crying. The problem is, that Satoru never left my side in our childhood until now. Wherever I was, Satoru would be there, and vice versa. We are heirs of big companies. So, we usually mingle with kids with the same status. There will be no chance that Satoru will meet her, lest giving her sweets. Satoru only ever gave me sweets.

“She must be mental.” They came to the same conclusion.

“Let’s run a background check on her,” Suguru suggested.

“Yeah, and her partner too. He harassed Rai-chan once.” Satoru nodded. After Yae and Suguru go back to their own room, I cling to Satoru like a koala, with all limbs wrapped around him tightly.

“Still angry?” Satoru hummed as he patted my head.

“I hate her.” My voice is muffled by his clothes.

“I don’t like her too.” Satoru adjusted me so I won’t fall down. “Let’s forget about her now. I want to spend time with my lovely Rai-chan.”

“I bought a new movie.” My eyes sparkled.

“You set up the movie, okay, love. I will make some snacks for us.”

“Okay.” I jumped back down, excitedly fluttering away to set up for movie night. “Hurry up, Satoru.” I pouted at the slow him.

“I’m coming.” Satoru came with various sweets and snacks and my favourite fruity-flavoured drink. I bring a blanket and pillows from our bedroom. I have a feeling we are gonna end up sleeping on the sofa, so I make it more comfortable to sleep.

“Hurry hurry.” I waved my sweater paws excitedly and crawled onto his lap the moment he sat down. As usual, Satoru’s hand automatically slips into his oversized sweater and rests on my bare stomach and I have a blanket covering us, I press play and then lean back on his chest.

“It’s a horror story?” Satoru peered down at me.

“Yep, so I can cuddle with you if I am afraid.” I beamed at him.

“That you do.” He chuckled.

Throughout the movie, I have Satoru to feed me snacks, I don’t want my sweater paws to get dirty now, do I?

“Satoru, kiss.” From time to time, I asked for a kiss instead of a snack. The problem is, for each kiss I ask, the longer the kiss will be.

“Let’s not go over PG 13, yeah,” Satoru whispered on my lips.

“But I like your kisses.” I pouted. “Why does it matter anyway? It’s not like we can’t turn off the camera anyway.” The only drawback is we won’t be getting points. That’s why we sometimes fall down in ranking. There were times we turned off the camera.

“You are being naughty today, hm.” Satoru licked his lips. His hand starts tracing a pattern on my stomach.

“Yep. But you will indulge me, won’t you?” I giggled.

“Yeah, I can’t never deny your request, love.” Satoru’s hand searched for the remote control and turned off the camera. Now we are free to do whatever we want. I giggle as I wrap my hands around his neck and pull him into tongue battling kiss.

Remember how wealthy engaged kids are using this program as trial and error for their upcoming marriage life? That’s why legal guardians were using loopholes to have their engaged kids partnered up with each other.

Satoru and I have been engaged since we were born. So, following this program is just a way for us to get used to the upcoming marriage life. Not that this helps much, we are used to each other presence so much that it will actually feel weird if we aren’t together. The two of us being together is as natural as breathing. We need each other to continue living.

Long story short, we are satisfied and happy in the morning. ~”~

The following days were pretty annoying because Girl A either pestering me to exchange partners or pestering Satoru about being her first love. We got the report on their background, and it was clearly stated that she had never met Satoru face to face. First, Satoru never went to her hometown even once. Second, there’s no way Satoru was allowed to go out alone as a kid. Three, Satoru never go anywhere without me.

So, it was clear she was delusional about Satoru being her first love. One thing concerning me is that Girl A partner who from now on I will call him Thug A. Thug A, according to the report my subordinate gave, has an unhealthy obsession with me.

‘He is mental…. What do I expect from a mental person?’ Apparently, he has a lot of pictures of me that were taken without my consent. My witty subordinate already made sure to take them as evidence. The biggest problem is he…cut up every picture of Satoru. I am worried he will do anything to my Satoru.

“You worry too much, love.” Satoru pinched my nose. As usual, we are cuddling on the sofa

“You are not allowed to get hurt. Satoru is my property.” I huffed.

“I won’t.” Satoru laughed affectionately at my declaration. “Here, eat this kikufuku.” He prodded my pouting mouth with kikufuku and I opened my mouth to eat it. “Delicious?”

“Very.” I licked my mouth clean.

“Which one is more delicious, this kikufuku or me?” Satoru traced the bottom of my lip while desire reflected in his eyes.

“You.” My tongue swirls around his thumb.

“Shall we decorate the bed with you pinned underneath me?”

“Who’s being naughty today?” I giggled.

“Me. I am being naughty today.” Satoru grinned, but his eyes softened. “You will listen to your cute, handsome, awesome fiancé’s request, won’t you?”

I jump out of his lap and Satoru looks at me with a pout. “Come here, silly. We are going to the bed, aren’t we?” Satoru’s eyes brighten up and he trails behind me like a puppy. ~”~

Another month, another cat café date. As usual, the two of us are walking to the said café. The owner said they are going to have a new menu today, named, Catoru, courtesy of me. I am in a good mood because no one is bothering us today. Girl A and Thug A are strangely quiet after being annoying for a little while.

Speaking of Thug A, since I was cornered that one time, Satoru made a point to never leave me alone. It’s either he or Yae and Suguru will be beside me, making less chance for them to do anything against me. I also make sure not to leave Satoru alone, because Girl A will pester Satoru who is her first love. She is the type that won’t hear anything aside from what she wants to hear, so explaining was useless.

“You are feeling happy today, love.” Satoru noticed the light skip I had.

“Yep. No one is bothering us.” I nodded happily, swinging our intertwined hands. I am so happy that I accidentally bumped to another person, “Oh, I am so…” I blinked as I saw a deranged smile of Girl A and pain shot through my side. “You…” I took a stab back and felt something being pulled out.

“Rai-chan!” I saw Satoru’s face turn into horror.

“It’s your fault, Hisaki-san. How dare you steal my first love. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!” ~”~

When I woke up, it had been 4 days since the stabbing incident. Yae and Suguru are filling me in on what happened in these 4 days and the reason for Satoru being absent now.

First, right after the stabbing incident, Girl A was apprehended by police right away, she didn’t even retaliate, all she did was laugh at my condition. Only after she heard I was in no life-threatening danger, she became ballistic. She obviously has some mental health issues going on. She kept saying how Satoru is her first love and I was a boyfriend stealer. My and Satoru’s and even Yae’s and Suguru’s families are furious and outraged at what happened. They make sure she will stay forever in a mental hospital far far away from us.

She wouldn’t believe that Satoru was in fact never giving her a pudding or even meeting her. Seems like the truth of the story was, that she was attending the birthday of a wealthy kid in a hotel. The hotel at the same time, hosted another event for big companies which we attended. Girl A tried to follow us after being attracted to Satoru. Of course, security wouldn’t let her pass. Her parents were also on the scene. She then threw a tantrum right there and then, but then a boy around her age suddenly gave him his pudding so she would stop crying.

“Don’t cry. Here, you can have my pudding.”

It’s apparent that Girl A’s mind was not normal, her mind conjured that the one who gave her the pudding was Satoru, or at least the boy looked like Satoru. Hence, she believes wholeheartedly that Satoru was her first love.

And since they are getting rid of trouble, they pull out all of the roots. Thug A’s assault also made its way to our parents’ ears. Backed up with the stalking evidence, he was taken to court with legal action. There’s also a possibility of attempted murder going by the fact he wrote hateful comments and even planned a murder plan to kill Satoru.

His stalking and harassment warrant him a maximum of two years, but adding to the attempted murder charge, he will be added for 4 years, which will total six years. But no worries, a lot can happen inside the prison. Satoru made sure he wouldn’t be appearing anymore along with the girl. Papa and Mama won’t just stay quiet after seeing their daughter being stalked and stabbed now, will they?

Safe to say, Girl A and Thug A, along with their families will forever disappear from Earth soon. Now, Satoru is finalizing the whole matter, so he is absent.

“He should be back soon. Don’t pout.” Suguru pinched my nose.

“Because… I want to see Satoru the first thing I woke up.” I sulked.

“Rai-chan!!!!”

“Here he is.” Yae smiled.

“Satoru!” A big grin adorned my face. “Hug.” I extended my hands. What I want, is what I get. I want a hug, then a big smothering hug is what I get.

“Satoru, don’t use too much force. Rai-chan’s side is still hurting.” Suguru reminded.

“It still hurt?” Satoru pulled back and asked worriedly.

“A little. So, you have to tenderly care for me until I recover.” I nodded.

“Even after you recover, I will still tenderly care for you, love.” Satoru grinned.

“Heheheh. I know.” I gave him a silly smile.

“Rai-chan. You have woken up!!!”

“Ah, Mama and Papa. Oh, Aunties and Uncles are here too.” I waved to them, I poked my head to see my parents along with the others’ parents all crowding my VVIP room.

“You scared us to death, Rai-chan.” They frowned.

“Sorry.” I smiled.

“But it’s good that you are fine now.”

“Yep, I am fine now. Satoru said he’s going to give a lot of love to me.” I giggled.

“Rai-chan…about staying in apartment…” Mama opened her mouth.

“Mama, I want to stay there with Satoru. Because I can finally live alone with Satoru. I don’t want it to end yet.” I whined.

“You two are going to live together forever anyway.” Mama rolled her eyes.

“I know. If I stay with Satoru now then my time spent with Satoru will be considered longer.” I wanted to flail my arms, but my side would be hurting, so I won’t do it today.

“Satoru spoiled you too much.” Mama pinched my nose.

“Because Satoru loves me.” I huffed. “Like you are one to talk Mama. I still remember you two make all of us,” I gestured to Yae, Suguru and Satoru. “,play dates so you could have time to be spoiled and spoiling Papa, no? Aunties and Uncles are also guilty as charged.” I rolled my eyes.

My childhood friends and fiancé laugh at this while the older generations are blushing while clearing their throats. In the end, I will be staying in the apartment until the Marriage Lesson program finished, which is also means our high school graduation. ~”~

“Satoru.”

“Yes, love?”

“I want to be spoiled a lot today.”

“How do you want to be spoiled today?”

I grin mischievously as I whisper into his ear, “Down there, using your mouth, on the bed.” No sooner than the sentence was finished, I was carried to the bedroom. My giggle echoed until the bedroom was closed and locked.

The good thing is, that the apartment is well-soundproofed all around, especially the bedroom.

[invisibleanonymousmonsters]

Childhood

Father of Mine – Part 1 and Part 2

+ This Game of Ours

Jason’s eyes snapped open at a sound that no human should be able to hear.

Ever since he’d been resurrected from the Lazarus pit, his senses had grown abnormally acute – amongst other strange things. 

Sometimes he swore he could even hear Y/N’s heartbeat. It was easiest to do with her, after all he was so intone with her very being.

But all of that made nearly impossible for anyone to sneak up on him – let alone in his own home. Which someone was. He could feel it.

Jason’s eyes glanced down at Y/N, who was sound asleep on his chest.

Ever so carefully, he lifted her body off of him so he could slip out of bed.

But Y/N was a light sleeper, unfortunately. She must’ve inherited that from Bruce, even though she wasn’t even raised by the man.

Y/N winced as her eyes opened just in time to see Jason grabbing one of his hidden guns from below their bed frame.

“What’s going on?” Her voice raspy.

“Nothing,” Jason lied. “Stay here.”

Now that she found out about another hidden gun in their apartment, Jason knew he was going to return to a lecture from Y/N. She never hid her hatred for guns, and had asked him to keep them out of their apartment.

“Jason…” Y/N whispered desperately, now more awake and concerned.

“Stay here,” Jason said, more firmly this time.

Then he quickly kissed her, leaving even less room for her to argue.

In only his black boxer briefs, Jason snuck out of their bedroom and into the living room without making any sound. Y/N had always been shocked at how quiet her giant boyfriend could make himself.

Just as Jason raised his gun, he heard the familiar voice.

“Put some clothes on, Todd.”

Damian stepped out of the shadows.

To Jason’s surprise, he was in civilian clothes and not in his Robin uniform.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, breaking in like that?” Jason reprimanded as he uncocked the gun.

But before Damian could defend himself, the bedroom door squeaked open and Y/N was rushing out into the living room.

“I told you to stay there,” Jason growled.

Y/N rolled her eyes at her boyfriend’s overprotectiveness. “Obviously I recognized Damian’s voice, Jason.”

Then Y/N looked at her half-brother for a second and quickly realized Damian had come there for a reason.

“Everything alright, Damian?” She asked carefully.

“Yes,” he lied.

Jason remembered when Damian despised Y/N. He saw her as a threat to his claim to the Wayne throne. But Y/N had immediately made her intentions clear. “I have my own reputation, money, and career that I built without a name attached to me. I want nothing to do with Wayne Enterprises,” she had told Damian as soon as she realized he saw her as some sort of competition.

It took Damian months to even acknowledge Y/N. And he really only did because both his father and Dick – basically his surrogate father – scolded him for not doing so.

Slowly but surely, the two grew closer.

Y/N didn’t put up with Damian’s attitude. But she also didn’t scold him like a child. If he was rude or aggressive, she spoke to him the same way she would speak to a grown man who behaved in such a manner. Somehow it made the boy slowly start to respect her more.

Eventually, they bonded over their mutual love of the arts. Damian was impressed with her photographs, while Y/N was honored whenever Damian decided to share his drawings with her. Y/N had gifted Damian his first camera. And Damian once gave her a few lessons on the basics of sketching and painting.

Who knew Waynes were the creative type?

And it was when Damian’s pets all seemed to be obsessed with Y/N that the boy finally decided to get over his original opinions and feelings.

It was by no means a short or easy battle. But the rest of the family was relieved when Damian finally accepted Y/N as one of their own.

“How about I make us some hot chocolate?” Y/N offered Damian.

The boy just shrugged, but she noticed his eyes subtly light up.

She never understood why he refused to let himself feel joy in the simple things. It was like she could catch him stopping himself from being a kid.

“I’m going to bed,” Jason announced with exhaustion.

It was clear to him that Damian came to see his sister, not him. And he was nice enough to leave the two of them alone. Even though he was a bit bitter that his girlfriend was being stolen from their bed.

Before turning back to the bedroom, Jason invaded Y/N’s space and gently grabbed her jaw before pressing a kiss to her lips.

“Gross,” Damian groaned.

Jason glared and pointed at the boy. “You’re in our apartment, demon spawn. I’ll kiss my girlfriend if I fuckin’ want to.”

Y/N just laughed as she watched Jason close their bedroom door behind him.

“Come on,” she nudged her head in the direction of the kitchen. “Let’s make some hot chocolate. I think I have some of Alfred’s cookies hiding somewhere, too.”

“I don’t know what you see in him,” Damian mumbled.

Y/N smirked and shook her head. Tonight, she wasn’t taking the bait. 

Once Damian decided he didn’t hate Y/N, he jumped right to making it known that he did not think Jason was good enough for her. But she knew it was an act – mostly.

“Why aren’t you on patrol?” She asked casually once they had giant mugs of hot chocolate and cookies in front of them, making sure to give the boy extra marshmallows. 

“I’m grounded,” Damian muttered.

Y/N tilted her head. “Grounded?”

It seemed like a far too normal concept for a family of vigilantes.

“Yes,” Damian confirmed.

“I’m guessing that means Bruce and Alfred don’t know you’re here…?”

“I snuck out,” he admitted.

“Why did you get grounded?”

“Father found out I was skipping school. And then that I skipped the school dance.”

“Why does it matter if you skipped the dance?” She asked, clearly confused.

Y/N was also struggling to imagine Bruce caring about such a trivial thing like that.  

“Father wishes for me to have normal experiences that young man of my age is expected to have,” Damian said with a roll of his eyes.

“School dances are lame,” Y/N commented.

Damian sat up straighter, not expecting that to be her response.

“I skipped prom. I didn’t want to go,” she added.

“Why not?” The boy challenge, somewhat caught off guard by that.

Y/N shrugged. “Bad music. Bad dancing. Tacky dresses. Just wasn’t all that appealing to angsty, teenage me.”

Damian just nodded slowly, and then got quiet.

“I have no desire to be normal,” he finally stated after a few minutes.

“I’m not taking his side, but I get why Bruce wants you to do these things, Damian. You were robbed of a lot of things because of the way you were raised. I’m not saying that it’s bad or good. But I think Bruce just wants to give you the opportunity to experience the life of a – well...of a kid.”

“And was your life normal?” Damian quickly asked.

Y/N nodded. “So normal that it was boring.” She laughed, “My entire life was normal until I met all of you weirdos.”

That got a smile out of Damian.

But then it slowly dropped and he seemed to get lost in his head.

“I don’t…I don’t have any friends,” Damian finally whimpered.

Y/N was shocked by the boy’s emotion.

Damian was always composed.

“It’s like they speak a different language. And it’s one I can never learn.”

“Oh, Damian,” Y/N sighed as she rushed from her seat to kneel beside him. “I know it must be hard to try and fit in. But you’re not doing anything wrong. None of that’s your fault.”

“Father is more than aware that I don’t need the education,” Damian’s voice shook as he tried not to cry. “He only forces me to attend so I can make friends. And that is one thing I am unable to do.”

Y/N let him breathe and have an opportunity to continue before she spoke again. 

“I hate school, so I skip. And the school dance seemed so ridiculous to me, so I skipped that too – even after father specifically requested that I attend.”

Y/N sighed, “And did you tell him how you’re feeling when he grounded you?”

Damian shook his head no.

She hadn’t expected anything different. She could easily imagine Damian lashing out at Bruce when he received his punishment, saying that the requests were a waste of his time and beneath him. 

Damian was good at hiding his emotional pain – maybe even better than their father.

Y/N was sure Bruce didn’t have a true understanding of what Damian was going through.

“Can I stay here tonight?” Damian asked.

“Of course,” she gave him a sad smile. “How about we take this hot chocolate to the couch and watch a movie?”

Damian shrugged. But it wasn’t a no.

Y/N let him pick the movie.

He chose Fantasia. 

When Y/N didn’t hide her surprise, he explained that he respected the animation and loved all of the classical music. Even when they did a child-like activity, he still always found way to remind the world that he was no normal child.

An hour later, both of them had fallen asleep on the couch with the movie still playing.

When Damian felt another presence, he awoke with a jolt and grabbed his hidden knife, holding it to the throat of the intruder.

But it was Jason, gently bringing Y/N’s sleeping body into his arms.

“Once again, demon spawn, you’re in our apartment,” Jason hissed with annoyance.

The man was completely unfazed by the feeling of a blade threatening to slit his throat. 

Damian huffed.

“I’m taking her to bed,” Jason explained the obvious. Then he nudged his head at the love-seat across from Damian. “There’s a blanket right there if you want to sleep on the couch. Or you can sleep in the guest bedroom.”

But Jason paused, with Y/N sleeping in his arms, as he noticed a strange look on Damian’s face.

“What?” He urged.

“If you ever hurt her, I’ll kill you myself,” Damian growled softly.

Jason looked utterly unimpressed. “You’d have to get in line,” he answered, making sure to keep his voice quiet to prevent waking Y/N.

But then Jason’s face softened. “Look, kid, I think you know that she’s the best thing to ever happen to me. I’d die before doing anything to mess this up.”

“Hmph,” was the only noise Damian made in response.

Jason rolled his eyes and carried Y/N back to their bedroom.

In all honesty, he couldn’t fall asleep while she had been in with Damian. With Jason’s weird enhanced hearing because of the pit, he was able to catch a bit of their conversation.

Jason softly place Y/N back in bed and pulled the covers up to her shoulders. When he joined her on the other side of the bed, she didn’t even wake as she slid back into his arms.

Now Jason could finally go to sleep.

When there was a knock on the apartment door the next morning, Damian and Y/N shared a look.

“I’ll get it,” Y/N sighed.

Jason had made all three of them breakfast that morning.

But now Damian pushed the food around his plate, knowing this was the end of his small rebellion. Who knew what his new punishment would be?

Y/N opened the door to unsurprisingly find her father.

Bruce was wearing a full suit, despite it being a Sunday morning. On top was a heavy, black overcoat with the back of the collar slightly propped up.

“You could have least told me he was here,” Bruce greeted his daughter.

She smirked mischievously and shrugged. “I’m no snitch.”

Damian appeared behind Y/N, not seeing the point in dragging this out any longer than necessary.

“Alfred’s downstairs with the car,” Bruce told his son evenly.

The disappointment in both his expression and tone was obvious.

Damian looked up at Y/N. “Thank you for having me, Y/N.”

“Next time, use the actual door so you don’t give me or Jason a heart attack.”

Damian smiled at that before walking past his father and down the hallway.

“Can I talk to you a second?” Y/N asked Bruce.

Her father seemed surprised by the request, but nodded anyways and closed the door behind him.

“I think Damian is really struggling – more than you think, I mean.”

Bruce’s brow furrowed and he crossed his arms. “He hasn’t even been remotely injured from patrols in months…”

“No, Bruce,” she quickly cut off. “Not as Robin. As Damian.”

Bruce was quiet.

“He doesn’t know how to fit in, Bruce. And you’re putting a lot of pressure on him to live a normal life. Bu he’s never gonna have normal. That was taken away from him before you even knew he existed.”

“He said that to you?” Bruce asked.

She nodded. “In so few words, yes.”

“And I’m assuming you have some advice,” he quirked a brow.

“Well, yeah. Maybe you should just homeschool him.”

“Y/N, the whole point of him going to school is to be around kids his own age. We both know the education is beneath him already.”

“But that’s the thing, Bruce. He’s never going to relate to any of those kids. Going to school makes him feel like a freak. Let him get homeschooled.”

“He needs to learn to make friends,” Bruce argued.

“You’re right. He does. But not with the spoiled brats of Gotham Academy. How many superheroes are you friends with?”

“He doesn’t consider them friends!” Jason shouted from the kitchen.

Y/N rolled her eyes. “Fine. How many superheroes are you acquainted with, who have kids around Damian’s age?”

Bruce’s jaw tightened.

“I know you like to keep your personal life away from Batman. But those are the only kids that Damian is ever going to relate to in some way. Do you get what I’m saying?”

To her surprise, Bruce nodded. “You’re right.”

Her brows shot up. “I am?”

Y/N had really expected him to fight her on this.

Bruce chuckled. “Of course you are. Out of everyone in this family, you are the only one who can say they had any semblance of a normal childhood.”

Suddenly his phone dinged and he glanced down at it.

“I have to go,” he regretfully told her.

When he looked back up at her, his face softened. “Come to the manor soon for dinner,” he asked her gently.

She gave him a soft smile and nodded, “I will.”

Bruce nodded in the direction of the kitchen where Jason was hiding. “And bring that one with you, will you?”

Y/N laughed. “He’ll go wherever I go. He’s like a puppy, that one.”

“I can hear you!” Jason called out.

Bruce laughed and stepped forward to give Y/N a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for looking out for Damian, Y/N.”

“You don’t have to thank me, Bruce.”

––––––––––––––––––––

[taegyuun]

scared ice prince

requested by: @nico-nico-niki MWAH !!

genre: fluff, childhood best friends to enemies to lovers, angst-ish

warnings: swearing

word-count: 2.8k

ALRIGHTY LETS GET STARTED

as children you and sunghoon lived nowhere near each other

literally on the complete opposite sides of the town

so you may be asking “how did we meet”

now now

your friendship started in one place that was right smack dab in the centre of the town

the ice rink :D

both you and sunghoon started around the same time but you started just a tad earlier maybe like a week or two so y’know you already knew like the basics like how to tie your skates properly and what not

sunghoon did not

so this is how your friendship started !!

when he first came in he was this TINY tiny child literally the most adorable little thing baby baby <333

he was incredibly shy not shine tho and didn’t speak to anyone not even the instructor

and you could see that he was struggling to tie his skates so you walked over and crouched down before untying your own

he looked over curiously and you started showing him step by step how to do the basic knot so he could follow without even saying anything

and then you were basically inseparable LMFAOO

ik crazy how tying a skate lace can blossom such an incredible friendship

whenever the instructor asked to pair up for a skating assessment you two were already stuck together like glue

literally no one tried to separate you two bc they knew if they did, it’d either end in very LOUD tears or them having bruises

but like i said, you two lived on the opposite sides of the town and as little 8/9 year olds you couldn’t exactly venture out on your own and just walk to each other’s houses

so outside of the weekend figure skating practice, you two barely saw each other

your parents once in a while, maybe every two weeks, drove one of you to the others house so you could play and what not but you both had busy parents so it wasn’t always a constant routine y’know

but as you grew older you became more and more inseparable

like in middle school, you forced your parents to move you to his school so you two could be together which they actually agreed on but that’s only bc his school had better education-

and then in highschool everyone thought you were dating

even though you didn’t really potray any sort of skin ship other than smacking the other one across the head 💀

you two were just so close that everyone just assumed

oh and yes you both carried on your figure skating career !!!

when you entered high school that’s kinda when it got a lot more competitive

middle school, sure you both competed but it wasn’t really anything crazy

it wasn’t like a proper competition that you felt accomplished for winning - it felt more like child’s play

but now that you’re both almost adults- you went to actual tournaments and competed with other incredibly talented figure skaters

this also meant spending less time with sunghoon and more time at the ice rink

you were both incredibly passionate about the sport and it clouded both of your minds so much that it was bascially the only thing you would think about

you stayed at the same ice rink that you started at- the one in the centre of your town

while sunghoon transferred to a more “prestigious” one that was closer to the city

it’s not like you couldn’t afford it you just weren’t bothered to travel that far for the same schooling that you got here

you weren’t exactly sure why sunghoon transferred

i mean, the teachers taught you the exact same things in the same ways

you did have your suspicions of him not wanting you to see his practices bc you were both starting to compete against each other but if that was the case he could just have fully private lessons instead of lessons with you

you never really thought about it too much, you just focused on yourself and how well you were doing with the sport

the reason for sunghoon transferring was the exact reason that you guessed

he didn’t want you to see him practice.

sunghoon, well, ice skating was basically his whole life

it was his joy in this cruel world

and he loved it so much he forgot about anything else that was in the world because of it

it also made him forget about his best friend of the last decade...

he became incredibly competitive - especially when he was skating against you

he made it his priority to win every time but he tried even harder to win when you were in the tornament too

he wasn’t sure why but similarly to you, he didn’t bother thinking much about it especially when the sport was filling his thoughts so much

it’s like he almost had no time to think about anything but figure skating

it’s like he didn’t even want to think about anything but figure skating

so this is exactly why you two fell apart and became ‘enemies’

he basically lost all contact with you out of nowhere once you two started competing properly

you tried to reach him at school and whenever you had the time to see if something happened or if you did something

but he would always dismiss you or simply ignore you

you tried to get jake, your other best friend and the only person you knew who actually could talk to him, to get him to contact you

but every time jake got back to you it was a shrug and a “idk y/n, something got to him and he won’t listen to a single word i say... hes a completely changed person”

so yeah sunghoon turned into a dick in the span of a few months

it did hurt you

it hurt a lot

he was really one of your only friends who you were so tight-knit with that you felt like you could tell him anything

i mean - you were literally best friends for a decade!

you even contacted his parents and they were confused themsleves

your parents were even worried for him

but we move i guess we can’t be crying over some stupid boy in this household youre strong >:)

even though you two never spoke anymore, becuase of your shared friendship with jake, you two still saw each other frequently at school - especially at lunch

you would always catch him sneaking glances at you every time you laughed at something jake said or when you teased jay for some stupid things he said

jealous sunghoon????

but like i said WE MOVE !!! you did not pay him any attention at all and as you should bc the kid literally randomly dropped you for no reason at least that you were aware of

other than school lunches, you mainly saw him at competitions

and however much you disliked him for what he did, you could not deny that he was an incredibly talented skater

when he glided across the ice you could feel his happiness and how peaceful he felt even when doing intricate spins and jumps

and even though you knew you couldn’t, you felt happy for him

ok maybe you felt more than happy for him

you couldn’t deny the feelings that were present 😐✋

as much as you didn’t want to, you started falling for the boy you saw on ice because that same boy that was gliding so effortlessly inside the rink reminded you so much of the boy you used to once see and speak to everyday without any worries

but the second he stepped off the rink and met his eyes with yours your feelings instantly deflated

you then once again felt the same rage rushing through you at what he did to you

you were still waiting for an explanation as to what the fuck was going on

and everytime he stepped off the rink with the widest smile, his eyes would meet yours as if he was searching for you to see if you watched

but when he met your dejected and angry eyes, his smile would drop and let out a sigh

he was angry at himself for what he did to you

he was frustrated that some stupid sport had ruined the best thing that had ever happened to him in his whole life

he knew he was in love with you

he knew for so long

and maybe that’s the reason why he begged his parents to let him transfer to another ice rink

so he didn’t have to watch you gracefully skate across the ice and not have to worry about somehow fucking up and saying the wrong thing

he was scared of being in love with his best friend

becuase that trope either turns into an endless love or the everlasting sorrow of losing your best friend to dumb feelings

so instead he acted upon some MORE dumb feelings and locked you off from him

he tried hard, he really did

but he couldn’t stop thinking about you

he looked for you at every competition and for some reason, he always found you there even if you weren’t competing

in school he always looked for you and every time he said something stupid or said some sort of joke he was waiting for a smack on the back of his head or one of your incredibly ugly but somewhat endearing snorts

but that never came

however! something was present

you always tried to hide your smile by dropping you head and looking at the table during every lunch

or when you met his gaze you’d look away and pretend to be interested in the wall beside you

he knew that you felt something as well and it wasn’t just him

but he may have realised that a tad late

but i mean it wasn’t just him who was doing these things

you were also unconsciously looking around for him after every performance and during school to see if he was ok

now now how do you two become lovers you may ask?

i am getting to that now

funnily enough both of your instructors were siblings and they wanted their companies to partner up together and hold this one big performance for the end of the year

in that performance they wanted all of the skaters to skate individually and then two people to skate together in a “romantic” performance

they thought it was a cute way to start the year ok-

you can see where i’m going with this cant you 😼

and well bascially the way it was done

was they put everyone’s names in a hat and chose two out

sunghoon and arrabella

arrabella was some random ass girl from sunghoons ice rink you literally never saw her at the competitions but alright

you were secretly hoping to hear your name being called out and not so you could hold hands with sunghoon while skating 🙄

but bc you wanted him to finally speak to you one on one and tell you what the frick happened

arrabella was clearly a big fan of sunghoon as he almost passed away from hearing her name and his together

sunghoon looked quite disgusted ngl

so he walked up to the instructor and whispered something in his ear to which the instructor nodded at

you then watched as he dunked his hand in the hat again before pulling out another piece of paper

your name was called

you were like ????? bc wasnt it meant to be only two people performing??

and then they told everyone that you and arrabella were switching places bc she wasn’t fit for the performance

sunghoon didn’t actually tell the instructor to chose your name he just asked him to chose another person bc he knew all she’s do was gush over him instead of actually learning rhe perfomance

but yes he secretly hoped you’d be chosen and TA DA !!!!

so you stand up and skate over to where sunghoon was standing as the instructor shows you the video that you were going to recreate

it involved a lot of waist grabbing, hand holding and touches.

let’s just say you had to take a few deep breaths

you and sunghoon haven’t properly spoken for the past few months and we’re almost at the brink of hating each other but now you have to do this ??? good lord give me strength

but in all honesty you both put your feelings aside when it came to practice bc you didn’t want to disappoint your instructors and wanted to make a nice perfomance for everyone

so every time you had practice with sunghoon you put your professional game face on and just did what you had to do

trying to ignore his large hands on your waist or the way hes softly but tightly hold your hand when you had to do some sort of spin

and alas

the day came of the perfomance and up until then both of you barely said anything to each other, only minor things that helped the other improve in the dance

after the whole perfomance happened and everyone was finished, you both received a lot of praise for such a stunning show from literally everyone

the most frequent comment you got was “wow! your chemistry was indescribable,,, that was the most beautiful relationship i had ever witnessed” and you’d just look at each other like “uh-“

so you both stayed behind to collect some things that you got given and well

you both figured it was time to finally speak about what was going on

“so i-“

“do you mind-“

he lets you speak first wow what a gentleman 😐

“so do you mind telling me what the fuck this was all about? you randomly dropped me and acted as if i didn’t exist yet you always looked for me during your competitions or at lunch?? sunghoon, i don’t know what i did wrong but please for the love of god tell me what is going on we can’t keep acting like this”

sunghoon just started at the ice quite dejectedly

he had this whole speech to say to you that was a whole apology and also a confession but for some reason it completely slipped his mind the second he faced you

he didn’t even realise how much time passed as you started to turn around and slowly skate away after saying “if you’re not going to speak to me i’m leaving”

well obviously mr. park had to get his shit sorted out so he quickly skated to you and grabbed your wrist wow what a classic move

you turned around and huffing looking down at his hand on your wrist before looking back up at him as to say “what now”

so now it’s time for his explanation wow took you long enough

“ok first of all i’m so fucking sorry y/n idk why i did this i think it’s because i was scared to be in love with you and i didn’t want to ruin our friendship with some stupid feelings but instead i did exactly that and instead of actually having the weight off my shoulders for you finally knowing i just had more put on because i ruined what we had in the worst way possible and i know this is an incredibly shitty apology, if you can even call it that, but it’s been so hard without you i’m so frustrated at myself for doing this i just wish i cou-“

then he felt your lips on his

oh my god he burnt up so much at the contact he thought the ice beneath him would meltn

he obviously kissed back and you felt relieved that it was the right decision to do

as you pulled back you said “i forgive you and i love you too but pull that shit on me one more time and i’m burrying you in ice.” and then kiss him again <3

after that sunghoon decided to move back to the old ice rink so the same one youre in and oh my god

the relief everyone felt when they saw you and sunghoon back together all happy and smiley and giggles and sunshine’s and what not

every time jake sees you two he internally sighs and thanks whatever is up there for giving him his friends back - sure a little more lovey dovey but they were back

YOU DONT EVEN UNDERSTAND THE RELIEF BOTH OF YOUR PARENTS FELT-

i mean they knew you’d end up together at some point it was painfully obvious but still-

and you lived happily ever after

the end

[too-scared-to-do-this]

Prestige

Chapter one - Welcome to Weltingston Heights

Sanders side fanfiction

Idea by: @hestianerd1

Wordcount: 1094

Pairings: so far the main one is prinxiety :)

TW: cursing and some hostility, but let me know if I've missed any! :3

The summery of the whole story: Prestige. Such a simple construct. All you have to do is act the way you want people to perceive you, keep up the image, wear a big proud smile and never ever dare make a mistake. That’s why Weltingston Heights University is such a well known school. Everybody knows that anyone who got in must have some prestige tied to their name. Educational records, family history, or even literal fame. So why not treat students the same way? Because what’s a little more pressure on their young and strong bones?

But prestige and image are precious things. You slip up even the tiniest bit, step out of the line you drew for yourself and it’s all gone. So now that the pressure is on, and everyone already knows their place in this small circle of society, only one question remains. How far are they willing to go to keep the false image up?

(Or: Very over-dramatically with a noticeable amount of sarcastic undertone: "Oh my god! They were roommates!")

---------------------------------

Chapter one - Welcome to Weltingston heights

The halls were packed. So packed in fact, Virgil barely had space to move around. And that rarely was the case!

Usually, people just cleared a path for him - not wanting to catch a disease or something he presumed (rumors are so stupid). Mostly, people just feared him.

When you’re growly all the time, with a hoodie on, head low and headphones on, people tend to react that way. And the makeup and dark clothing probably didn’t help either.

Either way, they usually ran the moment they saw him.

But not today - no! This day out of all the days they could’ve chosen - they chose to not scatter. The filthy glory of move-in day.

Welcome to Waltingston Heights.

This day was already a nightmare. And yet another new room and roommate on top of it and Virgil was ready to throw himself over the ledge. He clutched his box to his chest and swallowed hard.

Just breath Virgil. You’re almost there. Count your steps. - he thought.

Room 223… 227… 234…

Room 236. Finally.

A quick (and very clumsy) fumble with the keys and Virgil was shutting the doors behind him. Hard and fast - falling against cold hard wood in the darkness.

Thank God for the hot weather outside - the staff had to close the curtains to protect the rooms at least a little from the boiling sun. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Two more trips to his car. He can do that. Obviously, he can.

…

But maybe he’ll unpack this box first. People might just thin out in that time.

And so, V took of his backpack, forced his legs to work and took a good look of the room.

Not too big, but bigger than what he had at home. One bathroom and a small kitchen of to the side. This pretty much supplied as a small apartment - just like the exact same looking once from previous years. It was suitable. Livable in.

Now, only if the roommate situation was the same.

It wasn’t the question of who, honestly, but rather why anyone at all? He did go to headmaster Berry with this, but that helped nothing. The man lacks empathy and that’s all he’ll ad.

Dropping the box on one of the beds (right side. Always the one under the window.) he started pulling out pieces of identical clothing and neatly folding them away into the drawers. Setting up a small table-lamp, an alarm clock. Dealing with the bed sheets.

Pushing the box aside, he fell onto his new bed. Home for the next two months max.

It didn’t matter who the roommate was, they always eventually requested him moved. Without fail. (Those days the old man decided to show some empathy - how convenient.) But they were in the right - he didn’t blame them. Didn’t like them as much, either.

He had to get up and go get those other boxes. He knew it. But he didn’t really want to leave the safety of the quiet room… And his idiotic ass also left his headphones in the car… Okay. Deep breath.

It was on his third trip back - the last one thankfully - when the students finally started thinning out. No more stupid elbowing through crowds, no more unwanted bumping or pushing. Not nearly enough space yet, but better.

Balancing the box in one hand, he reached out for the door handle. He was about to push the door open when it got yanked, pulling V with it.

Laud laughter and chatting filled the anxious boy’s ears. “Oh my, I’m so sorry! Are you alright?”

“Obviously.” he grunted elbowing his way into the room. Plopping his box down, he turned to actually face the guy he had to spend the two weeks with (didn’t give it longer).

And god, out of all the people in this school, it had to be this guy. He hated this situation. Eyelids lowered, mouth a thin line, Virgil growled. “You.”

“The one and only. Roman Velez.” the other bowed with a grin. A young girl behind him giggled at the sight and said something in Spanish, which made the actor grin even wider. “And you, dark and broody, must be my new roommate.”

“Not for long hopefully.” V grunted, turning back to his boxes and starting unpacking again.

Was it really too much to ask for some quiet and piece this year?

“I didn’t catch your name, emo.”

“That’s ‘cus I didn’t say it, dumbass.”

“Such pristine vocabulary. I just asked to be polite, anyways. I know you’re Virgil Reat. Everybody knows that.”

Virgil was just about to quip back when a completely shocked high-pitched voiced beat him to it. “That is him?!” the girl squawked.

Roman immediately fixed her with a glare. “Shut up, Cas. Go help dad.”

His sister was the best thing in the world, but she just could not keep her mouth shut. “Oh my god! Ro! You-“

“Now.”

“Wait till dad hears about this!” and she was gone, evil giggle fading with distance. Leaving the two boys in the not-so-small room.

Roman looked back at the short bundle of unhappiness and wondered what went wrong in the board-members heads to assign them as roommates. But he couldn’t say that out loud, now could he. So, he went with the next best thing - when in doubt, wear a smile and act friendly. “You don’t have much decoration.”

Virgil just razed an eyebrow. Then gestured at Romans’s side of the room. The man had literal toys everywhere. Glittery letters, a plush unicorns and bunch of stuff from plays he assumed. Like that sword hanging on the wall over there. Were they even allowed to bring weapons (no matter if fake) to school? “There wouldn’t be no place to put it with all the shit you brought.”

“Well, I’ll let you know, these things are not ‘shit’. They hold emotional value. And at least I’m not afraid to express myself.”

“And that’s exactly why most people find you annoying.” and with that (and a very cruel, obviously fake, polite smile), the box was tossed to the ground and V’s big black noise-canceling headphones were finally on his head. Blasting whatever his crappy phone would offer at that exact moment.

Roman was left staring at the rude little leprechaun laying on his bed. Ignoring him!

“Hey!” he called out. But V only turned the volume up and closed his eyes.

Roman scoffed in disbelief. “Welcome back to Weltingston, I guess.”

This is going to be a fun year.

---------------------------------

Welcome to a new series! I hope you'll enjoy it <3

(Also, I wrote Roman Spanish because I just love the concept, but I don't really speak or know much, and I really don't want to come of as offensive! That's the last thing I want... So if anybody out there is kindhearted enough to help me correct anything that might seem off or with some correct translations into Spanish in later chapters, I'd really appreciate the help! (I don't trust google translate with something like this XD) I really don't mean to make anybody uncomfortable, and if this helps me prevent it, than I'd be very grateful! Thank you <3)

[nny11writes]

For we will raise you, in safety and peace

Okay, tumblr ate the first attempt at this post, hopefully it doesn’t devour this one as well! Here’s the deal, I can’t seem to figure out a good ending for this fic to save my life and I don’t want it to languish in the pile of unfinished wips. So I’m going to post what I have here on tumblr to at least get it out there somewhere. If anyone has suggestions for an ending I am all ears! HUGE shoutout to @venn364 for helping me figure this fic out to this point and for helping me Horde-ify hush a by baby! 

Rating: Teen (for some cursing) Category: F/F/F Relationship(s): Glitradora (Glimmer/Catra/Adora) Characters:  Glimmer, Catra, Adora Warnings: None apply, this is a fluff fic Additional Tags: Multiple PoVs, fluff, happy fic, happy ending, crushes, idiots in love, dorks in love, young children, Catra deals with the curse of being cute, Adora is a massive dork but what else is new, Glimmer tries to flex on her crushes by singing, lullaby, hush a by baby, post war, post canon Summary: During the post-war reconstruction of Plumeria, Glimmer volunteers herself and voluntells her crushes to take care of the local children to keep them out from under foot. She just, didn’t expect the Horde to require childcare as part of their regular duties and rotation. Or Three Sapphics watch one another interacting with young children and go, “Well guess I’m somehow more in love, cool cool cool.”

Adora and Catra looked at one another and shrugged. “Yeah okay.”

Glimmer was relieved, don’t get her wrong, but that was…not exactly what she’d expected. “Just like that? That simple?”

It wasn’t like she’d expected them to just hop on board with her, even if she’d wanted this to all pan out.

Catra rolled her eyes, a bit too theatrically thanks, before answering, “Well, I mean, sucks to be doing Cadet chores again, but, whatever. Just a buncha kids.”

“I feel like I’m missing something,” Glimmer grumbled, rubbing a hand at her neck. “You’re not trying to act too cool, and you’re not freaking out enough.”

They shared another confused look before Adora spoke up. “I mean, why would I? We’ve done a bunch of rounds at the Infant Pods, more than our fair share in fact.” That last part she said with a pointed look at her oldest friend.

Catra stretched lazily, “I will not apologize.”

“Point is, we can do this. It’s pretty simple over all, especially with you there as a third!” 

Glimmer laughed, “Wait. Hang on, seriously? I’ve never babysat before but you two have?”

“Really? Weird. But, uh, yeah. Everyone in the Horde has some child rearing experience, it’s literally part of your Cadet chores and rotation.”

The galaxy must be on it’s side right now. The Horde, the EVIL Horde, had enforced babysitting chores. “Why?”

Adora shrugged, “Well someone has to make sure they’re clean and fed, doing their homework-”

“Not destroying property or getting in dangerous situations before we could send them to the meat grinder-”

“Keeping them out from underfoot, and getting their energy out too.”

“Also the whole, sometimes babies just die when you don’t, like, hold them enough thing. ...What? Did you think Hordak was at the Pods rocking them to sleep?” Catra laughed.

It certainly was an image. Glimmer giggled as she pictured Hordak overwhelmed by a literal wave of babies. “No, I just never thought about it I guess. You’ll have to teach me.”

They both grinned and Glimmer felt her heart skip a beat. It was, look, don’t judge, it was a really, really good look on them, okay? 

It only took a few minutes to arrive at the temporary nursery Perfuma had set up. While Plumeria was still being cleaned up, she’d wanted a safe place for the children to go, and only needed a few extra hands to help as she pulled her subjects to help redesign their homes. Not that she’d put it like that. Something about syncing their harmonies while reconnecting with their innermost roots? The point was that Glimmer had offered to help mostly to help and partially to avoid another extremely long and boring meeting, but one teleporting queen with no childcare experience was not ideal. Perfuma had been the one to suggest Catra and Adora, seeing as the reconstruction really relied more on Perfuma regrowing the homes in this particular space.

So, they were working with what they had. And apparently that meant Horde soldiers. Experienced Horde soldiers who knew what to do with kids. Weird!

~

When they arrived, it was chaos.

Catra couldn’t help the small grimace she wore, she’d never been fond of IPD. Kids are loud, they don’t have boundaries or respect for other’s boundaries either. She doesn’t know how many times some toddler or Junior Cadet had petted her or pulled her tail and ears with their mysteriously sticky little hands while covered in snot. But she could also say that the one good thing about it was, without fail, some baby was going to think you were the hottest shit ever. And it had done wonders for her low self esteem as a Cadet to know that she’d always collect a gaggle of kids who everyone claimed were impossible to handle doing exactly what she wanted.

It had actually been kind of hilarious out in the Crimson Waste to use some of the tactics she’d learned in the IP against grown gangsters and thugs.

Catra could also say that the very next best thing about it was watching Adora either slowly unravel into a total mess or watching Adora get all the other kids under her thumb. Not that Adora would think of it like that, the goody two shoes, but kids seemed to naturally either love the blonde or desire nothing more than to destroy her. 

Especially at the time, Catra could relate.

She was actually kind of interested to do this now just to see Adora go at it again.

And also Glimmer apparently had no experience with kids and Catra would kill to watch that skiff wreck. No, ugh, she had promised to help hadn’t she? Alright, no watching that skiff wreck unless it happened before she could intervene.

She snickered a little as, just like she used to, Adora gave the attention claps that none of these particular kids would know. Embarrassingly, the old rhythm still made Catra’s back straighten a hair just thanks to the amount of times she’d heard it. 

Adora’s voice rang loud and clear across the little fenced in area, “Atten-shun!”

The kids mostly stopped, but Catra had a feeling that was due to an adult shouting and not out of their training. Did rebellion kids have training? They had to get some kind of education for sure. Huh. Probably should look into that, like, now that it was post war and all.

“Hello, salutations, and greetings!” Adora started her old spiel as if she’d never stopped, putting on her ‘force captain’ voice which was almost a mockery more than anything else. Not that Adora realized that. “I am Adora, this is Catra, and this is Glimmer. Today we will be watching, caring, sharing, and not botching a wonderful day of enrichment with you. Starting now we will do our very best to educate, captivate, and celebrate without need to castigate! It is time to have fun and run, uh, under the sun! Can I get a hoo-ra?”

The part about their newly acquired sun was a nice touch, Catra mental gave Adora extra points for finally having learned to change it on the fly. Catra weakly lifted a fist to mutter ‘hoo-ra’ with a few confused kids. Oof. Rough, but not unexpected. These ankle biters hadn’t been trained to respond promptly and loudly to Horde commands.

Yet it still had about the same effect. The children were already split down the middle looking at Adora like she was a complete idiot or like she was the best thing ever. Soon more of them would think she was the best thing ever than not, kids loved Adora’s canned speech. It always got a few laughs. Kids were easily entertained by someone clearly putting on a show and rhyming. 

Adora put on an over the top look of bewilderment, putting her fists on her hips in some sort of quasi-power pose before asking, “What kind of hoo-ra was that? I want you to shout from deep in your lungs, you won’t sound dumb when it’s all in good fun! Now can I get a HOO-RA?”

Catra gave a slightly more enthusiastic call, and was delighted when Glimmer gamely screamed her head off and then blushed as the kids stared at her, because they had still not shouted. Alright, this had already paid off! Nothing better that watching Glimmer blush like that.

Adora was smiling warmly at the queen, that was always a good look on her. “I SAID HOO-RA!”

This time they managed to get most of the brats on board. A whole army of kids no taller than her waist who were thrilled to scream, a few even did it more than once. It was kind of nostalgic.

“THAT’S what I call a call! I am floored by this horde-” Adora’s eyes widened in panic as she tried to pivot her pre-written speech for a second time. “-o-of wards! Floored! I am floored!”

Aaaand twice was one too many alterations. As much fun as it would be to watch Adora fall apart over it, Catra knew it was mean. And she was trying to, you know, to be less mean.

“Ca-Adora,” wow this was harder than she’d thought. She hadn’t almost called Adora a Cadet in years. “Will be working with any of you who’d like to play a singing and marching game. Line up in front of Adora if you want to join.”

Catra grabbed Glimmer’s hand to pull her forward, which really was only for the benefit of getting to hold Glimmer’s hand. “Anyone who does not want to play a game can join us, we will be taking care of the infants so it’ll be quieter.”

She was not surprised when most of the children flocked to play. There were always a few quiet ones or nervous ones who would hang back, and she was counting on it. Sure enough four kids shuffled their way instead of towards Adora, who was already sorting her little platoon into rank and file, teaching them a quick sound off to learn their names.

Catra motioned between her and Glimmer, “You know our names, what are yours?” The kids shifted awkwardly, looking at one another to start. Catra smirked. “If you don’t want to say I will give you a nickname. For instance, this is now Sparkles.”

Glimmer glared at her, but Catra didn’t stop or let her get a word in edgewise. She pointed at the first kid with glasses, “You can be Specs, short for specification.” A bold faced lie if she’d ever told one. “Stripes, I like your shirt!” Less of a lie. “Flower Power just like Princess Perfuma,” she nodded to the boy with a flower crown. The last kid was nervously shifting hoof to hoof, “And Two Step you got some fancy looking moves.”

“And what do you all think we should call Catra?” Glimmer asked, grinning evilly, as if the kids wouldn’t just suggest kitty or fluffy or whiskers. Maybe tails if someone was feeling creative.

“Kitty!”

Catra chuckled, it was like clockwork. “How about Big Cat? It’s cooler than Kitty!” They nodded gamely to the change. “Cool. Now, does anyone want to help me with the babies? We just need to hold them.”

That was how Catra found herself leaning back against a tree with an infant sleeping on her chest after she’d situated Glimmer and the quartet. All while snickering at some of the concerned looks being shot their way as Adora got the platoon marching and singing. If they weren’t gonna get their asses in gear to manage all the hyper kids, then they could suck it up. Besides, it wasn’t even that intense of a song.

“I think that learning is cool!” The kids echoed after Adora. “Which is why I will stay in school!”

It was schlocky and dorky, if she’d been over there she’d have died of embarrassment already.

Still, Catra couldn’t help but melt a little as Adora exaggerated a high march and then kids behind her did basically whatever they wanted as she marched them around the nursery. It was nice. Even if it made Adora look really dumb, it also made her look happy.  Something Catra hadn’t seen a lot of from her in years. Oh no, she was getting mushy about this now? 

Disgusting. She needed a distraction stat.

“Anyone have a good story?” Catra asked and after a beat of silence, promptly ignored the kids as they started almost talking over each other to tell something about their day or who knows what. Thankfully Glimmer seemed interested even if a little stiff and awkward. Catra was grateful that her fur hid a sudden blush as she watched Glimmer holding a baby and being enthusiastically engaged in the kids' stories. 

Wow. 

She gets away from the Horde for less than a year, and now she’s getting sappy over Sparkles. 

Gross.

~

Adora, of course, had a plan. A good one with details and everything! 

She was using her patented IPPA (thankfully, things had to be going pretty bad for her to resort to Infant Pod Plan B) and so far things had gone well. She’d taught her platoon to march, even got them to make up some rhymes to sing for it (even if she’d had to backtrack after one of the boys said ‘butts’ and everyone then started to just scream sentences with little sense ending with ‘butts’). After a bit of that she got them doing some basic exercise with her. Jumping jacks and running, she’d then start a game of charge and was already wincing in sympathy pains as some of the kids hurled themselves full speed at the enemy team only to fold in half around their linked arms. Still, the point was to give them free reign here to lose their minds and wear out their bodies a little in preparation for a well earned nap or quiet play time.

After making sure that Catra had eyes on her group, Adora left to hunt down water for everyone, and maybe spent a little time making heart eyes across the field.

Catra, despite what she thought, was pretty good with kids. Especially little infants. Between her fluff, heat, and purrs she was an instant baby soother. Adora would know, she was once the only big baby that Catra would soothe the same way. When they’d been younger, Catra used to lose her temper during IPD, but the older they got the more she’d pull it together. There had always been something heartwarming about watching Catra sit down with a kid who was upset and listen to them intently. 

Then there was Glimmer. Gosh, she’d been so nervous going in, but seemed to be quickly becoming a favorite. Because Glimmer always listened to people, no matter their age, and her high energy responses appeared to be winning her fans. The more she integrated with the kids, the more she relaxed too. And there was something absolutely mind blowing about watching her bounce a little baby in her arms, while gasping in genuine delight at something a kid had scribbled into the dirt with a stick.

Adora didn’t even blush, didn’t feel a lick of shame as she quietly got affirmation that yes, girls.

“Ew,” one of the kids snickered after finishing their water, looking right at her before making a face. 

She smiled, shrugging and offered her best, worldly advice. “Girls are great.”

“Ew.” They repeated before giggling and skipping away to their friends.

Whether they eventually agreed with her, liked boys instead, like everyone, or even no one, Adora felt very assured in her assessment of wow girls pretty, so she let it slide.

Later, standing at the barrel and handing out gourds of water or helping kids re-apply their protective balms (the sun was nice, but the sun could apparently burn you which was insane), she did another check. Taking note of any particularly worn out kids to send over to Catra’s group, and was very pleased that no one seemed to be really injured. Man, this was way easier than manhandling Recruits who were about to be Junior Cadets. Maybe she could do this more often? Without all the jockeying for power and praise it was actually fun.

After another thirty minutes whizzed by according to her internal clock, Adora decided it was time to start her platoon’s cool down for water and snacks. Maybe a nap after that. It was all smooth sailing!

Adora managed to make eye contact with Catra, flashing a quick few hand signs they’d made up when they were eight and almost lived in the pods between Adora’s clumsiness and Catra’s random bursts of high energy. Catra nodded, both hands occupied as she bottle fed one of the infants, and Adora almost died. First of cuteness, because Catra was looking so cute! But also from laughter because Glimmer’s tongue was sticking out between her teeth in concentration as she carefully fed another infant. And also because she looked super cute doing it!

What a sight! It took her another minute to realize she was just standing there staring at them with a horrifically soft smile on her face. And Catra was staring back with an equally mortifying soft look. And Glimmer was now looking between them with her own embarrassingly tender look. 

So this is how I die, public affection.

For some reason this was the thing that set her off. Blushing as red as her jacket, Adora pivoted around to call the platoon to get some snacks and more water. Which, considering most of them were either still singing or making up marching songs, took a little bit to organize.

~

The snack and water break had been decently timed, they had just finished burping the last of the babies when Adora called all the kids over. Catra waited with Glimmer until everyone else had something to eat, before mingling as best she could. It was more second nature to keep her head on a swivel, making sure no kids were making a jailbreak and no one was beating someone else’s face in. Although that probably wasn’t a concern on the Rebellion side. Maybe she’d have to rescue a kid from suffocating under a bunch of hugs? 

She shrugged and got a gourd of water, barely finishing it before Two Step tugged at her hand. They’d only gotten more energetic the longer they’d been helping, so she wasn’t even surprised when they asked, "Can I pet your fluff!?"

Catra sighed heavily. This is what she got for wearing a crop top around children. She turned to look at the Two Step and smiled as best she could while also dying inside. If she didn’t let it happen following her own rules, many kids would simply find a way to make it happen anyways. Better to get it out of the way and without sticky hands. Seriously what do kids even do that makes their hands that sticky? "Sure, but only if I can touch your antlers, they look fuzzy."

They almost stabbed her in the stomach with said nubbly antlers in their excitement, apparently oblivious for at least a moment about how fragile they were. Two Step was still wiggling around the way they had the whole afternoon as they rushed to explain, "They are! They’re new and growing in bigger and my dad says that someday they’ll be HUGE like his!"

She ran a few fingers carefully along the warm velvet and nodded, it was softer than she’d actually expected it to be, and it almost seemed like she could feel the blood pumping in them? Or maybe her brain was messing with her? Either way, weird. "Neat. Your turn kiddo."

Catra did her best to not groan in annoyance when the girl simply leaned forward to rub her face on the fluffiest part of her belly.

"You said pet."

"I am petting!"

"Petting is done with your hands, not your face."

"Says who?"

Well shit, had her there. “...alright, well played.”

She glared as the trademark a high pitched whistling sound of cooing alerted her to Glimmer and Adora looking at her with hearts in their eyes and sparkles around their faces. Not literally, but she could picture it. The traitors. She could see Glimmer mouthing the words so cute and groaned. She was not cute! Ugh!

“Okay, I think that’s enough.”

Two Step grumbled but let go. “Thanks!” And with that they skipped away to hang out with the other kids. 

Oh yeah, definitely time to put the kids down for a nap if they could.

~

It had taken longer that Glimmer expected to calm down the kids. A small handful of them went tearing off around the field cackling like loons as Catra easily loped after them on all fours. Which of course resulted in more kids wanting to get chased for some reason, shrieking in delight each time Catra put on a hair more speed to tap their arms or legs. Eventually even they were exhausted and fell panting into the grass for Adora and her to watch while Catra continued herding. It was adorable and Glimmer was never, ever gonna let her live down her afternoon of being a sheep dog. If only Bow or Entrapta were here to take a picture!

Glimmer reluctantly left her post of watching and jeering at ‘Big Cat’ to help Adora get the youngest ones situated and sleeping rolls or blankets laid out. For the ones who refused to take a nap (whether because they weren’t tired or wanted to pretend they weren’t tired), Glimmer asked around to find a few decks of cards for them to use. She wrangled a promise from each group to be quiet so their friends could sleep, and by the time she’d finished that it was tempting to take her own nap.

Adora was efficiently sorting kids into sleeping spaces, and Glimmer smiled a bit at the way she let pairs and groups just pile up together. Having seen the impossible looking ways Adora and Catra could be found tangled up after a nap, she felt pretty confident that they knew what they were doing.

When Catra finally arrived with the last two kids, both of whom she carried under her arms as they giggled, Glimmer was grateful for the chance to relax a little with her friends. She nudged Adora’s side as they passed and whispered, “Maybe afterwards you can use She-Ra? You know, give them a climbing gym or swing them around.”

Adora blinked rapidly before breaking out in a huge grin and did a little over the top flexing before they made their way over to sit with Catra. And for a few minutes they sat in a peaceful silence, enjoying the sounds of the forest and leaning against one another. 

“Pssst,” Stripes rolled over to look at them, making huge puppy dog eyes before asking, “Sing us a lullaby?”

Glimmer’s eyes sparkled as she turned to watch Adora and Catra apparently debate the issue, because hello! Getting to hear them sing lullabies! They rapidly signed back and forth, faces squashing and stretching as they added emphasis to the conversation before they turned and nodded.

“Okay,” Adora said softly, “but you can’t laugh, we only know Horde songs.”

“The Horde had songs?” A little boy asked, popping up from his blanket with a huge smile.

“Yeah we did. To be fair, they’re not uh,” Adora faltered and quickly looked at Catra, which to be fair Glimmer hadn’t considered that the songs they knew might be inappropriate. She quickly decided that she also didn’t really care.

“Adults probably wouldn’t like them here.” Catra supplied with a mischievous grin, apparently knowing that the kids would all be desperate to hear them now.

“Catra!” Adora hissed in what was probably supposed to be a whisper.

“I want to hear!” Glimmer added fuel to the fire and snickered at the look of betrayal on Adora’s face. “What? I do!”

She threw her arms in the air before huffing in her fake annoyed voice, “Fine, I’ll sing a song!”

There was a moment before Adora shakily started to sing both a very familiar tune set to very different lyrics.

Hush-a-bye baby, your crying will cease For we will raise you, in safety and peace If the walls crumble, there’s no need to bawl We’ll burn the villains, princess and all

Glimmer sputtered, accidentally ending it before it even started, not just because the lullaby included a line about burning rebellion citizens to death including princesses. But also because her mother used to sing this to her! “Wait, wait, wait, that’s- that’s not how that song goes!”

“Wha- yes it is!” Adora huffed, arms crossing as she blushed, “I said you couldn’t be mean!”

“First of all, you said I couldn’t laugh and I didn’t! Secondly,” Glimmer cleared her throat to sing her version. She’d always loved singing, even took lessons when she was younger before deciding she’d rather do it for fun. But what was the point of being able to sing flawlessly under pressure if not to flex on your crushes?

Rock-a-bye baby, thy cradle is green; Father's a nobleman, mother's a queen; And Buckley’s a washer, who wears a gold ring; And Tambour’s a drummer, who drums for the king.

Not that she got any further than Adora did before being interrupted as well.

“Ew, it’s all princessy!” Catra jeered playfully getting a few giggles from the kids.

“Uh, yeah, my mom sang it to me when I was a baby!”

“Gross. Ours is better!”

Adora laughed nervously, apparently unsure what to do as their play fight went down in front of a room full of impressionable children. Which, really, was her own fault for not expecting it.

Glimmer puffed up and leaned forward, tapping Catra on the nose just to be a brat before issuing the challenge she knew would get results. “Prove it!”

Ah, the good old stand by of “prove it”, as equally effective as a double dog dare!

So Catra, looking genuinely affronted, took a breath and sang in a wholly and unfairly good voice.

Hush-a-bye baby, your crying will cease For we will raise you, in safety and peace If the walls crumble, there’s no need to bawl We’ll burn the villains, princess and all

Baby is drowsing, valiant and brave With Hordak’s power, disorder we’ll stave Though cadet’s sleeping, her dreams we all share For order and harmony’s, our duty to bear

Hush-a-bye baby, do not you fear Never mind, baby, your squad is right here Strong little fingers, but eyes must shut tight Stay sound asleep now, until morning’s light

“People sang to you as babies about Hordak’s power and burning people?” Glimmer asked, both perplexed at the Horde-ified version and slightly disturbed. No wonder some of their soldiers bought the Evil Horde’s propaganda if this was what they were taught from the cradle!

“Glimmer, I love you, and I say this with as much respect as I can,” Catra said without an ounce of respect in her body or soul, “We grew up in the Fright Zone under the eyes of commanding officers of the Evil Horde. What did you think they sang to us about?”

Well shit, had her there.

[geekkatsblog]

Grey's Anatomy season 17×06 Review

(How the f**k they just gonna leave me on read like this till March 4th)

The episode was a rollercoaster but something tells me the real ride is going to happen from the next episode.

___________________________________________

Maggie

I knew Winston was gonna show up in person at some point or the other. When he dropped the long distance wasn't working line and put the phone down in her ear so he could get some 'eggs' I knew he was in Seattle, good for her she's going to need him to lean on seeing that Mer freaking crashed again. At least she'll have somebody there for her because all her other support is personally attached to Meredith as well.

Besides Winston turning up, treating Tom and her being understandably giddy at Mer being awake there was also a scene where she educated Amelia on some things now I won't get into the details again but I'm just in love with the fact that Grey's isn't afraid to touch on controversial topics, they use their large platform to raise awareness and their speeches are always on point.

___________________________________________

Teddy/Owen

(She needed the time off more than Bailey did tbh)

My God was it satisfying when Richard literally just tore into her. She put herself in the situation and is now taking her anger out on others which is really in poor taste. Poor Helm, I hope she didn't take it personally. At this point it's her time to annoy me, I miss the season 6 Teddy, hopefully she redeems herself soon. After being torn apart by Webber's words she then proceeds to make things worst by revealing yet another big secret to Owen at work. (At least this time it was on purpose.) She just needs to take some time away and think on what she really wants and needs to reflect before spontaneously starting potentially life changing conversations. First it was telling Tom they had a chance then it was telling Owen that she still loves him and the kids while also revealing that she named their daughter after not only her best friend but also the woman that she was very much in love with. Pick a struggle Teddy at this point she's seeming confused more than anything else.

___________________________________________

Owen

For the past few seasons Owen was one of the characters getting on my nerves but lately he's been fine. He hasn't redeemed himself yet but his probation is going fine. Watching this show really shows how good of a person a doctor has to be in order to follow the ethical guidelines. If I had that scum bag for a patient I would have literally just pretended to fail at saving him and let the guy die, (guess that's why the Lord made me suck at Chemistry and Physics) his response to Bob about him being at the devils barbecue was badass, gave me serious season 5 Owen vibes or vibes like when he punched that guy out for disrupting the ER when he was chief, Major Hunt reporting for duty.

As for him and Teddy I can get why he was upset, her he was about to attempt to make amends at probably rekindling a friendship or maybe their relationship and she revels that your daughter is named after her lover, she could have atleast told him that when they were in the naming process, he deserved to know exactly who his child was being named after. I'm kinda a bitch but there was no way I'd feel comfortable having my child named after my partner's lover. On the other hand he should hear her out he has literally cheated twice and both times he sat and was able to share his side of the story and the woman he was with listened to his explanations. Teddy deserves as much, it might hurt but he did the same and Karma unfortunately is still a bitch.

___________________________________________

Bailey

(I just wanted to give her a hug the whole night.)

She has a really unhealthy habit of working through her grief, first her miscarriage and now through the death of her mom. I'm honestly sad that Ben had to be the one to comfort Tuck and tell him his grandmother had even died (she's always so busy, Ben is pratically the one raising him at this point.) And I'm also upset that I haven't gotten to see Ben being there for her either. I'm assuming it might be a protocol on the sets.

At least she took time off of the cases, I understand why she didn't want to go home as a doctor she has the highest risk of transporting the virus, but her mind understandably wasn't going to be in the doctoring game. I really thought they were gonna make her freeze up and accidentally kill a patient or something, but at least they didn't go down that line. And what even happened to her dad? did he take the Covid test? Wheres he staying now? Is he safe?

The conversations between her and Deluca were sweet, it's another unexpected friendship, before the only one she really disclosed any details of her life with was Richard but now they're opening her support group which is fine. I'm also glad that Deluca was able to look past the whole fiasco last season and hold no grudges. She has now fully redeemed herself completely, she's still my all time favorite character but from season 13 to probably mid season 16 she really had some storylines and scenes that irked me to watch and made me question some things, but now she's back on track at least to me.

Also I know that Richard is the chief of chiefs but how are they just gonna let him take back over the surgery unit like that again? I mean I did miss him as chief but now Bailey just basically seems like a regular old surgeon with a fancy office, idk it just seems kinda weird to me.

___________________________________________

Jackson

Not only carrying on the work and teachings of Mark Sloan but also using his boatload of cash to rescue a patient's mother from racist police who should have been the ones actually in prison. That was basically it for him though.

___________________________________________

Jo

Oml I honestly almost forgot she was even really in the episode. She had so little screen time. She's still in the middle of transitioning to OB. I have no issue with that because OB's still can do surgery, so we'll still get to see her and she'll be happy again plus it's about time that Grey's cashes in that Regulars card on Carina. We see her on Station 19 as an accessory I want to see the Jo and Carina tag team.

___________________________________________

Amelia

Not really much in this episode. No content with Link she just did surgery to save the scum with Owen. They may have made a mediocre couple but they work good as friends. Also I'm assuming she's off of maternity leave now? Did they mention that I'm not sure but she's back now.

___________________________________________

Richard

Not much of a storyline, he made the decision to put Meredith on the Vent and is busy running the hospital as the chief of the hospital again I guess. And also spitting the much needed facts that Teddy needed to hear.

___________________________________________

Tom

They're finally showing more of Tom's good side, I mean I always liked him and saw the potential in his character but they never really showed his soft side for a prolonged period like they did today. May I just say I enjoyed his and Meredith's friendly banter they have the same lowkey dark humor and at least it would have taken their minds off of being sick especially for him because he basically has no one else. Hearing him open up about his son and expressing how he'd do anything to hear him say dad again was sad I can only imagine his pain. Meredith was his reason for holding on especially after he had to witness his roommate die from Covid, the same thing he's suffering from right before his eyes and now Mer back unconscious this time with a tube down her throat I'm just really hoping that he keeps the faith, the last thing we need is a death right now.

___________________________________________

Meredith

(God damn it Mer all you had to do was stay awake.)

For a few brief moments all was right with the world Meredith was awake and everyone was happy and then she just had to go be Wonder Woman and over exert herself, but that's the thing they would have probably needed armed guards at the doors to keep her from putting someone else's life above her own, its one of her best qualities and at times one of her worst. I knew it was too good to be true when she was awake and laughing. It was giving me Mark Sloan final episode vibes. They better not kill her off that would be the worst ending for me, what about the kids? Step off the damn beach Mer you've gone through too much to let Covid take you out. On the other hand this gives us more beach scenes. It's more unlikely to have a live character return but there's still lots of dead ones to choose from, her mother is always a likely suspect, Denny loved being on the show and I think Breaking bad had its final season, Mark is a toss up based on how he cut ties with the show and Lexie is also a toss up because she is filming Supergirl in another country, however anything is possible with Grey's. I thought the beach scenes were over because she was waking up but look how wrong I was. All I hope is that they don't kill her off its unlikely because she's the main character but still its Grey's they like to go out with a bang.

___________________________________________

Deluca

I left him for last because to me he really did have the biggest storyline of the night.

Firstly I'm glad to see that at least part of the earliers season's Deluca has returned. I loved him as the passionate, badass and almost cocky guy as well but I always missed his more compassionate and softer side more. I'm glad to see it back and I'm also glad to see that he's taking his meds and resting, and I can confirm that having support is a needed factor in treating mental health. As strange as it was seeing the Bailey and Deluca chat it's good that they both have each other. They both suffer from mental illnesses and can relate to each other on a different level. They have me wondering now if they're going to use his mental health issues as a way to separate him and Mer, or use it as the reason why he pursued her, kinda like how they tried to blame Amelia's tumor for her bad decisions and then used it to break her and Owen up. I guess we'll just have to see where Merluca will go from here or if it will manifest Merhaynes instead.

Now onto the big stuff, the whole sex trafficking thing the whole episode I was literally yelling at the tv for either Deluca, Bailey or Carina to see that bitch, the moment it was connected that the kidnapper was involved in trafficking and she showed up I knew shit was about to go down. My heart was racing when I saw her with Schmitt. I really thought she was going to attack him with how sus she was being, luckily she had to go to avoid further suspicion. They need to put security on those girls' door. They've been through enough. If she goes to finish off Bob then no one cares but the girls don't deserve to go through anything else and Deluca after seeing her decided to go after him himself instead of calling the police, granted the police wasn't doing anything helpful but the last thing we need is for him to go after her himself like Superman and trying to save the day. At least Carina went with him so she can help talk him down if necessary but there's only so much she can do.

___________________________________________

There are too many damn superheroes in that hospital.

___________________________________________

My questions are:

• Will both Tom and Meredith make it out of the Covid sickness or will one or even both of them die?

• Will Teddy finally make her mind up so that the Teddy, Tom and Owen love triangle can finally have an ending?

• Who the hell is coming to the beach next? And can they tell Meredith to get her ass off of the beach and never return until she's like 80?

• Will Superman, I mean Deluca save the day without needing medical attention afterwards? Or worst yet needing a casket?

• Is Jo actually switching specialties?

• Are they going to go after the girls or kill Bob instead?

• How is it going to go with Maggie and Winston now that he has arrived in person?

• And lastly and most importantly what am I supposed to do with my Thursday nights until March 4th.

[bush-viper-cutie]

Working Together - DAY 3

Pairing: young!severus x reader

Word Count: 3,055

Rating: E for Everyone

Plot:  Severus and you are assigned to work together for Herbology. Things keep happening and unless you want to fail first term, you must take action.

Warnings: none

A/N: Day three! My own challenging prompt for October again! HAPPY SPOOKTOBER! :D (late upload but it IS complete! but not spooky D:)

Posted: 10/3/20

Masterlist

~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~

“…and Snape and (L/n), please grab a planter box.” Professor Sprout rolled up her scroll and threw it behind her on a pile of parchments and papers in a large pot. “Alright class, two hours, that should be plenty of time to get set up.”

You looked around for Severus, spotting him in the back of the green house by the planter boxes. He was already grabbing the materials before even meeting up first. You rolled your eyes and made your way to his usual spot, sitting down next to his book. He was one of the only ones with a textbook out and he was always scribbling in it despite not really needing to. Sprout never quizzed the class on all the extra stuff she said.

Severus turned, arms carrying the planter full of soil, seeds, and growth potions, and spotted you already waiting for him. He averted his eyes as he walked up to you and set all the stuff down on the table.

You hadn’t ever talked to him, but you knew well enough how he got. He only ever talked to his friends and anyone else could be noisy wind for all he cared. You pressed your lips together and began tearing the dirt apart in the planter so that it was soft and perfect for the roots that would eventually be pushing through it.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Severus grumbled.

You stepped aside and put your dirty hands to your hips. “Then why don’t you – ”

He immediately fixed the soil, breaking it apart further and then patted it down. “The top needs to be hard or else the roots will push through. They don’t feel which way is down. They grow into the easiest path.” He wiped his hands on his trousers and started mixing the potions into little containers.

“Oh.” You took the little seeds out of their pouches and pushed them through the dirt, patting it back down like Severus had done. “Can I do one?”

Severus stopped pouring into the last small container and sat back down on the stool, handing you the two bottles of PlantGrowth. You took them and poured in the clear one first and then looked at the other greener one.

“How much of this do I put in?”

He furrowed his brows. “If you don’t know how to then why ask to do it?”

You brushed off his comment with a laugh. You did feel like a fool, but you couldn’t help wanting to be involved. “Just tell me, will you?”

He stood again, almost bumping shoulders with you – he stepped to the side quickly just before – and touched the container with his dirty nail, holding it still as you poured. You both sat as the mixtures turned from light green to dark.

“Do you like herbology?” You turned to him.

He was picking dirt out if his nails and stopped. “Like it?”

You didn’t think the question would be so complicated for him. “Yes. Is it one of your favorites? It seems like it is.”

“No. It’s just a class.”

“But you put a lot of work into it. Into knowing and remembering everything.”

He shrugged, finally meeting your eyes. “What do you care anyways?”

You scoffed. The rest of the class went by slow as you waited for the potions to be ready. The second they turned a deep enough green Severus poured them over the dirt and labeled the box with his name and handed you the marker. You put down your own and grabbed the planter, setting it with the others. Class was over and by next week the plants should be in full bloom.

~ * ~ * ~

You knocked on Professor Sprout’s door nervously. You’d never been called to her office before and wondered what had happened. The door opened and you stepped in, ducking under some long leaves from one of her floating pots. Severus was in a chair next to the one she was motioning for you to take.

“I’ve called you in here because of your planter box.” She shook her head and sighed dramatically. “Well I’m not sure how to let you two down easy so I’ll just say it. Your leaves grew – in fact I believe they were the first to mature so good job – but they were destroyed. Completely ruined.”

“What?” Both you and Severus exclaimed and looked at each other.

“Wh-what happened to them?” You thought about your only involvement in the project and wondered if somehow you messed up the potion. It was a two-step mixture but you had been known for messing up much easier and far simpler things.

Professor Sprout shook her head. “I thought it was some sort of pest but none of the other leaves are harmed in any way. Something went through and completely bit only your leaves.”

You looked at Severus, trying not to look like you blamed him. You did know he had a bad habit of getting into fights with some of the other students. His eyes flicked to you and his face went red.

“I’ll be looking into it but I’ll ask you both to go down right now and redo it so that by next class they are at least grown enough to re-pot, alright?”

You nodded and stood, heading straight for the door. You marched out into the corridor and waited, hands on your hips, for Severus to come out. The second he closed the door to Sprout’s office you rounded on him finger pointed.

“You know who did this to our plants don’t you?”

He glared and headed towards the green houses.

You followed close behind. “Maybe if you stopped hexing them back they wouldn’t constantly be messing with you trying to ‘get back’ at you. Just let them have the last laugh! I don’t want our planter getting ruined again before next lesson!”

He turned sharply, trying to keep a faster pace but you jogged, staying close. You saw him glance at you several times but he didn’t respond, making you madder than you needed to be. You crossed your arms and breathed out, trying very hard not to blame him.

You got to the green house and stopped at your planter. It was completely ruined. The dirt was carved into, the leaves were brown and brittle, and the roots were torn completely from their seed bodies. This looked like the pathetic work of that group of boys who thought it’d be funny to cover the whole third floor in suds.

Severus took down the planter and dumped out the soil. You got the two bottles of different PlantGrowth and set the little glass containers down in order while Severus prepared the new soil and seeds. Within hours the planter was ready to put up again.

“It looks kind of sad next to all those better looking leaves. Ours is so empty. Maybe we should rough the others up a bit.” You turned to Severus and wiggled your brows, trying to lighten the mood.

He looked at you and rolled his eyes, but you could have sworn you saw a little twitch of his mouth. He left the green house leaving you standing there feeling weird. It was an odd feeling being able to make the grumpiest boy in school have to hold in a smile.

~ * ~ * ~

“WHAT?” You and Severus stared at your planter box.

“Ruined. Again.” Severus spoke through clenched teeth.

Professor Sprout was looking around through the soil, trying to spot anything that would indicate what ate all the leaves again. “Look. I’ve looked into several people – ”

“It was Potter and Black and Lupin! It’s them that did this!” You picked up a dried leaf and crushed it.

Severus stared at you but didn’t join in the accusations.

Professor Sprout held out both hands. “Now, now! Let me just say that Potter and his friends were with me all day, helping me clean up green-house one and two when this happened. I had JUST checked on your box and can say with certainty it wasn’t them.”

Your jaw fell open. Severus was smirking at you.

“Well you need these plants for tomorrow so why don’t you start over and just use my Super Growth from green-house four. It’ll be ready by tomorrow.” Professor Sprout clapped her hands and dirt fell off onto the ground. “It’s almost after hours so please finish up fast. I’ll be back to check on things after you’re both gone.”

You watched Sprout leave the green house and turned to Severus. “Why were you smirking?”

He pulled his mouth into a frown and left to get the Super Growth, leaving you alone to your thoughts. You had a feeling that come tomorrow morning the plants would be ruined again. This was your final grade for the end of first term and far too important to leave it to chance.

“We should stay here all night,” you said the second Severus walked back in.

“What? We’d get caught… or get detention.” He shook his head.

“And what happens when James and Sirius also ruin this one? I know you think it’s them too.” You stared at him until he was forced to react with a shrug.

After a while of working on the planter box Severus sighed. “Fine. I’ll stay as well… But tell me exactly how you think it’ll go. Because if you think you’ll be able to somehow stop them – ”

“Why is it suddenly just me? You just said you were staying too, didn’t you?”

He grumbled. “Fine. Then what? Do you think we’ll just ask nicely?”

You shook your head. “No, we’ll make another one, and switch it out.” You ignored his confusion and walked over to the extra wooden boxes and packed one full of dirt. “We’ll place this one on the shelf and switch it out when they leave. Give me the Super Growth.”

You popped several random seeds from a jar into the dirt and poured a small amount of Super Growth inside. “Let them destroy this one.” Within minutes, little leaves were growing out of both boxes. Severus put up the correct box on the shelf while you held onto the decoy. “Hide under here.” You pointed under the farthest table and shimmied under it, hugging the decoy box tight.

Severus hesitated before crawling in after you. “This is a bad idea. But I somehow doubt it’s your worst.”

You let your jaw drop and gasped. “Don’t pretend you know me… even if that was a lucky guess.”

“It wasn’t lucky, it was educated.” He raised his brow at you.

You squinted at him and leaned back against the table leg. He tried to do the same but his long legs barely fit. “Just throw them over mine.” You extended your legs out and motioned for him to place them over yours so he could have more room.

He looked at you cautiously and then did so, letting his feet poke out and leaned against the table leg with his arms crossed. He sat still for the next hour, watching you as you squirmed in your spot, hating having to sit still.

After an hour under the table had passed, and light no longer entered the green house, Professor Sprout looked in and checked the planter before locking the green house up with a simple spell.

“That’d never keep anyone out,” Severus commented when she left.

“Shhh. We’re still hiding from people!”

“Sorry.”

You giggled and blushed, pressing your hand to your lips. It was dark and impossible to see your face and you were glad for it. Hearing Severus apologize for rude or sarcastic comments was a rare event. Maybe you had gotten the wrong impression of him. He seemed a lot politer than the other boys he fought with – less kind – but still polite.

“Severus,” you whispered.

He didn’t respond at first. Then, “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry I blamed you for what happened with our plants. It wasn’t your fault. And those guys deserve what you give ‘em.” You scraped the wood box with your nail, waiting for him to respond. “It’s not your fault,” you repeated. He didn’t answer, but he kept his legs on yours and didn’t pull away.

After several more minutes he broke the silence. “You should change planters now.”

You nodded and crawled out from under the table. You switched them and crawled back, sliding your legs back under his and setting the leafy box to the side. Perfectly secure.

~ * ~ * ~

It must have been an hour in silence when you heard the voices. You smacked Severus’ leg in excitement, trying to get his attention.

“I heard them already!”

“Sorry.” You smiled.

They opened the door and someone whispered “Set it in and don’t forget the boundary!” Someone ran from the door to the boxes, whispered something, and ran back to the door. Then the same boy from before whispered “We’ll get it in an hour. Let’s go.” Then the door closed again and you and Severus were left alone in the shadows once more.

You stood up and looked towards the box of random leafs. The moonlight was hitting the boxes perfectly and there was a little creature sitting and chomping down your plants like a king at a feast. You walked closer, Severus approaching behind you as you put your hands to your hips.

“A knarl.” You looked at the tiny hedgehog-like creature and sighed.

“I’m surprised they were smart enough to give him a boundary.”

You laughed and turned to Severus. “What do we do now?”

The moon hit his face and you saw a grin appear. “We could undo the boundary.”

You laughed and pushed his shoulder. “And I’M the one with bad ideas? We can’t destroy everyone else’ plants.”

He was watching you with a gentle smile. His eyes traced your face and he finally nodded, looking much less mischievous. “What if we undo the boundary and put him on the ground. It can’t come up to eat anyone’s leaves but… it’ll scare those idiots when they can’t find it.”

You nodded with excitement and took out your wand, undoing the boundary. The knarl had just finished digging around when it saw the other leaves and lunged for them.

“Oh! No!” You pushed it away and Severus placed it on the ground. You watched the knarl crawl into the shadows and turned to Severus suddenly. “Severus… where’s our planter?”

His eyes widened, searching your hands. “YOU had it!”

“No! I got out first, leaving you the box!”

“Well I didn’t know you were leaving it for me!” he hissed.

Severus and you lunged for the floor, aiming your hands into the shadows for the little creature that would ruin your grades in a matter of minutes. Your body knocked into Severus and he groaned at the elbow jabbed into him.

“Get the box!” you yelled.

He crawled into the darkness towards the end table. “The last one!”

There was panic in his voice that sent a violent shiver down your body. You ran over, yelling “Lumos!” and spotted the knarl with a full plant in its mouth, roots and stems and everything. Without thinking you reached for it, almost fully diving onto Severus in order to capture the creature just out of reach of him.

“Ah! Don’t bite down!” You dropped your wand and held the knarl’s mouth open with your fingers while Severus shimmied around under you to get on his back and pull out his wand to shine a light on the situation.

He pulled the very delicate plant away from the tiny razor sharp teeth. “Got it!” he laughed.

You dropped the knarl, relieved Severus had rescued your last plant and laughed with him. You placed your hands on his chest and sat back, slowly realizing the position you were in. Severus’ wand hand slowly came down and his knuckle touched your knee softly. He watched you from below, unmoving with cheeks flushed.

Blush spread over your cheeks as well and you looked down at the soft touch of his knuckle that had turned into the soft rubs of his finger. He was gentle in the way he brushed the back of his finger over your skin. You smiled and looked back into his eyes, still staring at your face. They shifted back and forth, analyzing your eyes as if he could read your very soul.

You found yourself leaning forward, until your hair fell down like a curtain around your face, slowly encircling his as you kept going. You closed your eyes and within seconds your lips touched his. He was warm and so tender and cautious as he followed your movements.

You pressed in deeper, feeling his nose poke into your cheek and reveled in the warmth seeping into you. The air warmed as his arms wrapped around you. You let your body rest on his while your hands found the ends of his long black hair sprawled on the floor. You scrunched it up and brought it close to his scalp for a fistful to squeeze and pull.

He moaned and your lips finally parted from his as you smiled.

As much as you were enjoying kissing him on the dirt covered floor in the shadows of the third green house in the dead of night, you knew it had to end. “We should put that plant in a small pot and take it with us.” You felt Severus let out a breath on your lips and felt him nod.

You rolled off him and stood, brushing off the dirt and helped brush him off as well, smiling kindly at him as you did. He potted the plant and together you left the green house. Just as you were walking over one of the small hills of the grassy grounds, his pinky reached for yours, and you took his hand.

For a final goodnight kiss you pressed him to a wall and allowed his fingers to tangle in your hair. The kiss was rougher and more self-indulgent. When you finally parted he squeezed your hips and gave you one last quick kiss before leaving, clutching the pot, keeping it safe in his arms.

~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~

Masterlist

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Day 3 Prompt: Shadows + knarl (small magical hedgehog almost identical to its Muggle-world counterpart and found across northern Europe and North America; known to savage gardens)

---

General Taglist:

@severuslovebot @bionic-otp

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[dessarious]

The Angel of Death Pt17

Inspired by this Story Starter by @someone-ev

AO3   Prologue   Beginning   Previous   Next

Three days. That’s all it took for Tris to decide that she wanted nothing to do with this school or the teachers who insisted on talking down to her because she knew their material better than they did. One even had the audacity to correct her and when she cited six different primary sources to back up her position he’d sent her to the headmaster's office. The man didn’t seem to know what to do with her, no one in the school did.

“Which teacher did you piss off this time?” She looked up from her seat outside the office to see Adrien coming towards her. His always cheerful expression made her worry about him sometimes but he was pleasant to be around.

“All of them.” He let out a bark of laughter but then frowned at her.

“You’re not serious are you?” She just frowned back.

“Of course I’m serious. What else would I be?” He didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. “They’re all in there trying to get the headmaster to expel me.” His eyes grew wider with every word.

“By all of them you mean…”

“All of them. Even the study hall teacher because apparently he took offense to my comment about it being a wasted period since the classes here are far too rudimentary to require any serious study.” Adrien coughed to cover a laugh before pulling out his phone. She didn’t see what was funny about any of this. “What are you doing?”

“Texting Chloe. If she finds out I knew about this and didn’t warn her so she could make sure you stay enrolled I don’t think anyone would find my body.” Tris rolled her eyes, but given that Chloe's father had hired the Angel of Death it was possible she could find someone capable of that. Not to mention Kagami was a bit of a wild card. Tris couldn’t be sure exactly what the girl’s skill set was.

“Tell her not to bother. There’s absolutely no point in my being here to learn if no one is going to teach me properly.” They didn’t even teach proper study techniques given the fact that she’d helped all her roommates, including Luka, with their study habits. It was no wonder burnout was an issue when they didn’t give their students the proper tools.

“What if you switch classes to subjects that you don’t already know so much about?” Adrien was still typing away on his phone and it sounded like an off hand comment but Tris frowned in thought.

“Given some of the misinformation I’ve heard come out of the teachers here I’m not sure I trust the staff to teach me anything accurately. But I suppose I could supplement their teaching with my own research. What kind of classes though?” Adrien gave a thoughtful hum.

“Well you’ve been banned from the gym so sports are out.” She scowled at the reminder. She still didn’t think it was her fault that the teacher had told her not to hold back and she ended up breaking another student's nose within the first five seconds of the match. She also didn’t understand why the boy had cried about it. “There’s music, art, architecture, religion and cultural studies, design… oh and they just started a graphic design and video game development course!”

“Why would anyone waste time on such a useless pursuit? Video games are a complete waste of time when you could be doing something productive.” Adrien’s expression fell and she was once again reminded of a kicked puppy. She really didn’t like that look. “I guess art or design wouldn’t be terrible.” At least the knowledge would be useful and creative thinking was always an asset.

“Great! I’m sure Chloe will get everything figured out. Just try not to injure anyone else, or make another teacher cry.” He sounded extremely amused by the last part though she couldn’t understand why. Watching a grown man cry as she picked apart what was apparently his doctoral thesis had been rather pathetic. If he can’t handle the criticism he  should have put more effort into it in the first place. She’d heard a rumor that he’d taken a sabbatical and checked into a mental institution, but wasn’t sure she believed it.

“If the teachers were competent it wouldn’t be an issue.I should not have to correct their misinformation and it honestly worries me that so many people have been taught such flawed curriculum.” Adrien let out a sigh before sitting down next to her. They all seemed to be under the impression that she was being far too critical of the school.

“Perhaps you’re right, but nothings going to change and long as you keep putting their backs up. People get defensive when someone challenges them. Maybe you could try being nicer about it? That way they might actually be willing to listen to what you have to say. Because right now all you’re doing is forcing them to stick to their flawed teaching or admit that a student that has far less education than them knows more about the subject they’ve basically dedicated their lives to. No one likes to admit they’re wrong, especially if they feel like it’s being rubbed in their face.”

Tris considered his words carefully. Criticism had been a daily, if not hourly occurrence in her life from the time she was taken. It had ceased to bother her not long after, but she did vaguely remember being annoyed when anyone corrected her at something she felt she knew. She hadn’t realized that’s what she was doing to those teachers. She still thought they needed to get over it, but this might be one of those things she was supposed to learn.

“I’ll try to be more sensitive in the future.” Adrien beamed at her.

AO3   Prologue   Beginning   Previous    Next

Ko-Fi

Tag List

@kceedraws @theatreandcomicfreak @krispydefendorpolice @magic-miraculous @chocolatecatstheron @mooshoon @northernbluetongue @interobanginyourmom @rebecarojas07 @dast218 @abrx2002 @damianette-is-life @yin-390 @fontegagrilledcheese @bigpicklebananatree @tbehartoo @nobodyw8s4evr @linim2503 @ladybug-182 @marinettepotterandplagg @daminett4life @thethirdwheelfriend @corabeth11 @emotionalsupportginger @shizukiryuu @toodaloo-kangaroo @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @hauntedfreakdeputyhero @sassakitty @my-name-is-michell @multplelifes @sassydepression @danielslilangel @winter-gardenflower @animegirlweeb @romanoff-queen @nanakeid @paradoxal-occurance @theg0ddesspersephone @hinata3487 @irontimetravelflower @the-real-gingakid @heaven428 @peachedpocky @justafanwarrior @gentlemanoftimetravel @18-fandoms-unite-08 @kittycatwowmeow @pale-lady-dreamer @i-is-mysterious @captainartsypants @write-for-your-life2 @queengeorgiaaa @schrodingers25 @thecaptainthunder @elspethshadow @stela-likes-drawing @loysydark @lozzybowe @renscorpio @elmokingkong @the-fusionist @tis-i-beanbandit @smolplantmum @iwantwhirlledpeasandlotsatrees @colorfulmongerpsychicranch

[beca-mitchell]

fool’s gold (1/1)

Summary: Beca finds herself in Colorado bidding on a date with one Chloe Beale. Accidentally, of course. Besides, it’s for charity. Set after PP3.

Word count: 4,216

Rating: T

Read below or on AO3.

Beca finds out about it accidentally. A total accident wherein she did not intend to find out this information. She had been perusing the Bellas groupchat, a chat which she had been slightly too busy to participate in recently, when something caught her eye.

Chloe’s name plus the word “date”. It had taken a few tries and a few shaky swipes of her finger before she figures out that Chloe is participating in some charity event.

Beca hesitates at first, about to type out a message to Chloe right in the groupchat, but she quickly switches over to her private conversation with Chloe and winces when she realizes that her and Chloe haven’t really kept up an ongoing text conversation (and hardly any phone calls) over the past few months.

Beca sighs, flipping back to the groupchat and hoping against hope that somebody else—probably Aubrey or Flo—will ask Chloe about it.

Flo F. What kind of charity is it?

Chloe Every year, the senior vet students run some kind of fundraiser. This year it's for research. In the past, this auction thing has been a huge hit!!

Fat Amy So you’re selling your body? Nothing wrong with that of course.

Chloe No, I’m just…auctioning off a date.

Beca puts her phone down slowly.

Had three and a half years really flown by that quickly? Chloe was almost done with veterinary school and Beca felt like she was still struggling to stay afloat herself.

Well, that was a little untrue. Six Billboard Top 100 hits, a Grammy nomination, a North American tour with an international tour on its way, her first album had gone platinum with the second hot on its heels—

It’s just that Chloe Beale had always seemed so wholly unattainable even with everything that had transpired between them. And Beca wasn’t completely stupid, she knew some of this was her own fault, but life just came at her too fucking fast.

(This being the whole ‘we definitely have feelings for each other but we are also definitely not doing anything about it because one of us is in Colorado and the other is in California sometimes but not always’ thing. God, that always knocked the wind out of Beca. In any case, it had been one weekend of Chloe visiting Los Angeles and a drunken kiss that led to a little more, but nothing really, then an unspoken decision to never speak about it again.

Yeah. This.)

— — — — — 

It takes Beca another two hours to finally message Chloe and she almost has a heart attack when she pulls up their conversation.

Chloe’s last sweet dreams! xo stares back at her accusingly. 

Beca So, a date huh?

She groans. 

Yes, obviously a date. Aubrey already asked for more details an hour ago and the groupchat had long moved on.

Chloe’s reply is nearly instantaneous.

Chloe ?? 

Beca The whole auction thing you know for charity 

Chloe oh haha, yeah. It’ll be nothing. Just some rich student with too much to spend. I don’t have my hopes up or anything.

 But if Chloe could have her hopes for somebody in particular…Beca’s fingers tap anxiously on the edge of her table as she stares back at Chloe’s innocent-enough message.

  Beca oh, well fingers crossed lol

Chloe yeah.

 Beca winces at the one-word response, telling herself not to read too much into it—it doesn’t mean anything, they’re fine, they’re fine, they’re fine—

  Chloe I miss you

She sighs in relief.

Beca miss you too chlo

— — — — —

“You didn’t ask her out yet?” is Theo’s confused inquiry. “Wait, you weren’t dating already?”

“Just—just look up flights to Colorado.”

“I’m not your assistant, just in case you forgot.”

“I know, but Jeff’s on the fritz today and I don’t need another snide remark from him.”

“Snide remark? About what?”

“…about Chloe.”

“Ah.”

 — — — — — 

 Beca isn’t sure how she ends up here, but she ends up doing some casual research about this supposed senior tradition at CSU’s veterinary college and it ends up being more of a thing than Beca originally expects. Like a super serious thing where people buy tickets to attend. 

All proceeds go to the National Animal Disease Center and the Animal Welfare Institute. Tickets at the door will be $55.

Beca stares at the long list of details and scrolls for an embarrassing amount of time until she finds a list of “Auction Participants”. She exhales noisily through her nose when she finds Chloe’s name, surprised to see separate profiles attached to all the students participating.

Chloe Beale, Rising 4th Year Veterinary Student, DVM Candidate

Chloe enjoys singing and morning runs. She will probably fight you over whether the CSU Rams could hold up against the Barden University Knights. In her spare time, she enjoys volunteering at Larimer Humane Society as well as the CSU Zoo. You might have seen her running a few weekend educational programs for children 10 and under.

PS. She’s single!

Beca isn’t sure what grates on her more, the fact that the description doesn’t say anything about how Chloe hums her favorite songs when she gets nervous, or how Chloe’s hair grows at least a shade and a half lighter during the summer, or—or how Chloe can talk at length about nearly anything if she thinks it’s something that another person will find interesting. She is selfless and beautiful inside and out. 

And that last line. Beca’s fist clenches. She isn’t sure why it annoys her so much, but she hates the idea of this auction gimmick even if she knows instinctively that it is all in good fun and Chloe genuinely wouldn’t have consented to it if she didn’t believe in it or trust everybody who would be participating. Still, maybe Beca doesn’t want Chloe to…be single.

Her brow furrows at that last tapered-off thought.

To distract herself, she taps Theo’s number into her phone and waits with bated breath.

“Hello?”

“Did you book the ticket yet?” she asks in lieu of greeting.

She’ll let his amused chuckle slide this once.

 — — — — — 

 So maybe it isn’t really an accident.

She’s in Fort Collins, Colorado, on a beautiful but pretty damn chilly campus. Beca pulls her windbreaker tighter around herself and tugs her scarf up over her mouth and nose. She hasn’t been recognized yet, but she has a suspicion that there have been two young ladies following her, but she can’t be certain.

Though her fame is manageable, it still flares up unexpectedly and at inopportune times.

Like the last time she had visited Chloe on campus and they had spent the weekend eating at Chloe’s favorite spots and drinking cheap wine until they were laughing and leaning heavily against each other. Beca had loved the scent of Chloe’s shampoo as it wafted up from where Chloe had her head pressed against Beca’s shoulder and neck, her giggles tapering off into nothing. Back then, they hadn’t kissed yet—Beca was still recovering from the sting of seeing Chloe kiss Chicago even though it had happened months prior, but nothing had ever transpired.

And for a moment, when Chloe lifted her head off Beca’s shoulder, Beca had thought Chloe was going to kiss her. And she wouldn’t have minded, not at all. It had been something she had been thinking about for so long that Beca’s heart began to pound in anticipation. Then Chloe’s roommate had let herself into the apartment despite Chloe’s insistence they were going to be alone and she had recognized Beca surprisingly quick considering Beca had only one or two viral music videos released at the time. Beca hadn’t been sure, but Chloe had looked supremely disappointed.

Focusing back on the present, Beca gazes at the familiar, yet unfamiliar campus. She had made sure earlier that there hadn’t been a completely strict dress code for the event and opts for a loose wool sweater and nice jeans (a memory of Chloe’s fleeting “those jeans make your ass look good” passes through her mind, but she pays it no mind). She buys a lanyard with the CSU name and mascot emblazoned on it. Just to add to the look.

She finds the student center soon enough. Happy to be out of the chill for a moment, Beca pulls her scarf down but leaves her toque on, keeping it tight over her eyebrows.

“Hey,” a voice calls instantly and Beca jumps because for a moment, it sounds like Chloe. But that would be impossible, she’s barely been there five seconds— “I know you, you’re Chloe’s friend, right?”

Beca turns to see young man, around her age, smiling in a completely nonthreatening manner. She vaguely recognizes him from some of Chloe’s social media posts, but she can’t quite place his name. “Hi,” she says instead.

“Did Chloe invite you to this?” he asks, sounding entirely too amused for Beca’s liking.

“Uh…” Beca isn’t sure what the better answer would be—yes, Chloe invited poor hapless Beca Mitchell to watch her get auctioned off and alternatively the implication that Chloe would need some pull from somebody like Beca which is dumb because despite the crappy dating profile on the website, Chloe needs no help at all; or no, Beca invited herself because she’s there on a mission. “Hm,” she says evasively instead. “Sorry, what was your name again?”

“Benjamin, but you can call me—”

Beca smiles. “Ben,” she finishes. It’s cute how much he reminds her of Benji. “Chloe posts about you a lot.”

“Yeah, we kind of…” he laughs, pushing up his glasses. “Bonded, I guess. She’s been a good friend. Helped set me up with my boyfriend.” He nods his head towards the door. “Want to come sit with us? We’re mainly here for the show and the food. Do you have your ticket?”

Beca blushes but tamps it down as best as she can. “Uh no, I was gonna buy at the door.”

He grins again, but says nothing about that. “Okay, we’ll see you inside. We’re kind of near the back. Turn left when you get in.”

 — — — — — 

 The emcee is fairly decent and Beca cracks a laugh at a few jokes. She has a pretty good view of the stage and she feels comfortable enough sitting near Chloe’s friends. They seem to take a shine to her and teasingly press an auction paddle into her hands.

“For an emergency,” Ben says, mirth in his eyes. And something akin to knowing, as if he knows something Beca doesn’t. She tries to scowl at him, but she misses that opportunity because Chloe is being walked on stage looking like—

“Oh,” Beca murmurs, blushing when she can feel eyes on her. There is no way Chloe can see her in the crowd because she’s sure the spotlight is bright enough based on Chloe’s squint and embarrassed smile. But otherwise, Chloe looks stunning, wearing a pretty blue sundress and white doctor’s coat. Beca blinks back the unexpected surge of emotion—not quite tears, but her eyes do sting a little—that she gets upon seeing Chloe in person for the first time in at least a year.

God, she had gone a whole year without seeing Chloe’s face—without having Chloe’s hands to hold and Chloe’s arms around her.

She never wants to do that again. She never wants to be apart from Chloe for that long, too afraid of her own feelings to push for something she knows Chloe wants as well. She had seen it in Chloe’s eyes over the past decade and more of knowing her. Chloe, her best friend and confidante—the person who most got on her nerves but also knew how to put her back together in more ways than one—

“We’ll start the bidding at fifty dollars! Ten-dollar interval minimum, please and thank you.”

There’s some cheering and laughter in the crowd from a group near the front. Chloe blushes again under the spotlight, but she flips off the group whom Beca assumes consists of people Chloe knows well enough.

“That’s kind of low,” Beca comments.

“You should bid,” Vlad, Ben’s boyfriend, suggests.

“No, I’m just here for support,” Beca replies distractedly as another person bids up to $100. Beca’s fingers tighten momentarily around the paddle before she relaxes and wills herself to scan the crowd as nonchalantly as possible. But before she can really settle down—

“Two hundred!”

It’s arguably the biggest jump Beca has heard over the last few auctions and the murmur that rushes through the crowd indicates that they think it’s something worthwhile as well.

Beca tries not to think about how she made two-hundred dollars in the first minute—probably less—of releasing her second single on Spotify.

“Two-fifty,” a female voice calls out, distinctly confident and self-assured. Beca notes that the blush on Chloe’s face is a little different now, this time a little shy and demure like she knows that person and is touched by the gesture.

“Who is that?” Beca asks quickly.

“Oh, I think that was Amelia,” Vlad says when he notices that his boyfriend is not responding. “She’s in Chloe’s cohort.”

But who is she, Beca wants to demand further.

“Two-seventy,” the same male voice from earlier counters, though with a tinge of hesitation.

“Three hundred,” ‘Amelia’ counters.

A pause. “Three-twenty.”

“Four-fifty.” Without hesitation. An excited murmur ripples through the crowd. Chloe’s hands are now covering her face, but Beca sees that she’s smiling ever so slightly.

“She likes her,” Ben says simply.

“Who likes who.” Beca considers this a very important distinction.

“Amelia likes Chloe.”

“And does Chloe like Amelia?”

“They’re friends.” He stares at Beca pointedly. “Like you guys are friends, right? So what’s a little competition.”

“But Chloe and I are—we’re—”

Beca finds she has no real justification, no real insight to offer because she and Chloe have been teetering on that edge of almost for so long that she has forgotten what it meant when competition came along.

Until Chicago.

And before that, for Chloe, Jesse, but Beca had been nearly completely blind to it.

And now this.

Beca’s hand is rising before she can stop herself. Her brain seems to shut down completely—the rational part at least—as her heart grabs the reins. It’s stupid, it’s archaic, but this is for Chloe (almost literally, but Beca will never succumb to the belief that this is any valid way to date somebody). “Seven hundred,” she calls out. Her eyes widen when heads swivel to her and she quickly ducks, pulling her scarf back up to her nose and mouth. She waves her paddle above her head, too embarrassed to see whether Chloe’s eyes are scanning the crowd for her.

“Holy shit,” Ben mutters.

“Eight hundred,” Amelia counters somewhere in the distance, but suddenly Beca’s ears are roaring with the oddest sound—like a chorus of fucking angels or something.

“Oh my God, the animals are lucky today,” somebody mutters somewhere to Beca’s left.

“A thousand,” Beca counters.

“Um—” Ben seems to think better of it and clamps his mouth shut, though he looks like he might laugh, or worse, smile at Beca. God.

“A thousa—”

Beca’s had it. “Two thousand!”

The shocked silence that follows is enough to tell Beca that she’s completely lost it.

(But she lost it long ago—somewhere between agreeing to join an all-female acapella group when she was eighteen because of that girl with blue eyes and a killer voice and that chaotic year that followed, somehow ending with her kissing the wrong person at the end of it all. No more of that.)

“Um,” the auctioneer has apparently lost all capabilities of auctioneering. “I…guess…? Sold to—” He peers over the crowd. “You?” he asks again, still unsure. “For two thousand dollars.”

Beca quickly presses the paddle into Ben’s hands and sinks lower in her seat, distinctly avoiding all eye contact. Those closest to her finally seem to catch on and she catches the faintest hint of whispers.

“Is that…?”

“No fucking way.”

“God, I knew Beale was lying when she said they weren’t hooking up.”

Beca tries not to think about any of that, suddenly very interested in the patterns on the carpeted floor.

 — — — — — 

  Beca i did something really stupid

Aubrey Yes, the auction was livestreamed. Chloe sent me a link.

Beca holy fuck could you see me???

Aubrey No, but thank you for confirming. Two thousand dollars, Beca Mitchell.

Beca is about to type something incredibly cheesy in response to the mild snark in Aubrey’s text, but she is distracted by Ben’s shadow appearing over her.

“Hey, so uh, you have to actually meet Chloe backstage. To set up the details and stuff. And they’re going to need a check or some other form of payment? For that two thousand dollars you just dropped?”

“Do they accept Amex,” Beca deadpans.

“Yes, I believe so. So now that that’s covered, shall we?” He holds out an arm for Beca.

Beca sighs and clicks off her phone, decidedly ignoring the very long paragraph of text Aubrey just sent to her (she caught words like “my best friend” and “hurt her” and “bear trap” so she figures that’s something she can laugh or cry over when she is inevitably sent back on a plane to Los Angeles).

“Does she know it’s me?” Beca finally asks.

“I honestly don’t know. You’re kind of short and I don’t think she could actually see you.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Beca says, feeling lightheaded.

“It’s going to be fine.”

“Yeah, of course, why wouldn’t it be? We’re friends. We’ve done stupid shit before. She stayed back three years to just be part of an acapella group.” And to be with you, an annoying voice sounds in her head.

Oh, that was actually Ben. Who sounded eerily like Aubrey in that moment. Beca steps away from him.

He stares at her pointedly, pointing at the door.

Fuck, Beca thinks.

It is a simple study room and when Beca opens it, she isn’t expecting the space to be so small and so brightly lit. She winces immediately and nearly steps back out, but Chloe’s gasp is enough to keep her rooted to the spot.

“Beca,” Chloe squeaks. “What the fu—what are you doing here?”

“Hi,” Beca says, waving. Chloe continues to gape at her. “Hi?” Beca tries again.

Before she realizes what’s happening, Chloe is flying towards her and wrapping her arms so tightly around Beca that all the air rushes out of her in one fell swoop. She has enough sense to grip tightly at the back of Chloe’s coat, her fingers scrabbling on the thick, coarse fabric until they settle easily into each other like no time had passed before.

Beca sighs—literally sighs—like a disgusting teenager in love and she kind of thinks Chloe does the same before Chloe is pulling back and punching her in the arm oncee she’s at arm’s length.

“Ow! What the hell?”

“You seriously paid two thousand dollars?”

Oh right, that happened and was still happening.

“It was an accident,” Beca says instinctively and defensively.

“You raised the price by a thousand dollars accidentally,” Chloe clarifies.

“Don’t—don’t call it a price, like you’re…” Beca gestures uncomfortably. “Like you’re on sale or something. And I totally believe it’s your right to do what you want with your body and stuff because you should be allowed to have all that agency and—”

“Wow, Beca slow down.” Chloe grins affectionately. “Nobody’s doing anything with my body, not without my permission anyway. These things usually just end in a quick dinner or like. Laser tag or something. It’s never that serious.”

“I knew that,” Beca says quickly, trying to ignore her own blush at Chloe’s choice of words. “I just…I wanted to be…I wanted to,” she takes a steadying breath, “go on a date with you. And be your girlfriend. And do couple-y things. Because we’d be dating…as girlfriends.”

“You did?” Chloe asks quietly and so delicately that Beca’s breath catches. She tries to maintain eye contact as best as she can.

The air around them feels so heavy. “So much.”

“So you…” Chloe’s brow furrows. “Came to Colorado and paid two thousand dollars to go on a date with me? And I’m assuming you flew…so even more than two thousand dollars.”

“I…it sounds weird. I know. I’m weird. I just—” Beca heaves a breath. “I panicked, okay? I had this crazy vision of you ending up with somebody…with somebody else. That wasn’t me. And that sounds crazy jealous and crazy possessive and I have no right, but I’ve been thinking about you so much and I don’t know that I’ve ever really stopped thinking about you since that first day at the activities fair that entire fucking lifetime ago.” Beca feels winded suddenly and quickly looks up at Chloe with desperation. “I should have just…” she trails off, unsure.

She should have never let Chloe slip away the first time. Then the second time when she had the chance. When Chloe met her in the middle so many times before.

“Beca,” Chloe whispers, pulling her out of her swirling thoughts. “It’s…” She struggles to think of a word for a moment. “It’s okay. I’m not mad, I promise. It’s just…a lot.”

“I’m just so sorry because it seems like I’m always like…just one step off from you. And I just want to be on the same page. I want to be what you deserve.”

“Me too,” Chloe replies, reaching forward to take Beca’s hand. She doesn’t hold Beca’s hand however, opting instead to gently grip her wrist, her thumb beginning to trace soothing circles along her wristbone. “I want to be what you deserve too.”

Beca swallows the immediate protest. She lets it die in her throat because she knows Chloe is right—that they have so much to work on. But they can do it together.

“Things have been weird between us, haven’t they?” Beca asks quietly. She fixes her gaze on the “Since you came to visit me. And we…” she swallows. “We kissed.”

“We did,” Chloe murmurs.

“And have things been weird?” Beca presses.

“A little,” Chloe admits after a pause. “But things have always been a little weird between us.” A small smile slips across her lips as she uses her free hand to tilt Beca’s chin up so their gazes meet once more. “But I’ve liked that.”

“You have?”

Chloe shrugs. “Kind of.”

“We…we don’t have to go on this date, you know?” Beca clarifies, eyes flicking between Chloe’s eyes and her lips frantically. Chloe draws closer. “We…” Beca’s voice cracks. “Don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“What do you want to do?” Chloe asks, her finger still tracing the underside of Beca’s jaw and the side of her neck.

Beca’s eyes flutter shut. “I want to kiss you again. If that’s okay.”

“Do you…” Chloe’s breath is warm against Beca’s mouth as she moves closer still. “Do you…have another thousand dollars?”

Beca’s eyes would fly open if she weren’t completely lost in the sensation of both of Chloe’s hands coming up to tangle into her hair. She moans at the sensation before she can help herself and immediately closes the distance between them, their lips bumping uncomfortably for a second before they settle into a somewhat familiar rhythm. Just like that, with a hint of banter and the way their touches soothe each other, they settle back into familiarity—back into what made them work all those years ago.

Instantly, Chloe’s body seems to press into hers with ease. Chloe’s head tilts and her mouth parts and Beca just about loses her mind. She reaches up to grab Chloe’s shoulders with difficulty before she moves her hands down to hold Chloe’s waist while subtly tugging her closer. Chloe sighs a little into the kiss before she pulls back with Beca’s lower lip trapped between her teeth for a brief moment.

Beca shudders. “Unfair,” she murmurs, momentarily forgetting her own name. Chloe’s name. Amelia. Ben.

There is nothing but this moment, with Beca’s heart threatening to burst from nerves and excitement and passion and sheer joy at the feeling of having the woman she loves in her arms once more.

“Never wait that long to ask me out again,” Chloe teases, pressing her forehead against Beca’s. “This was like…weirdly romantic, but I don’t need you to drop two thousand dollars. No matter how rich you are, miss Grammy nominee.”

Beca tilts her head to steal another kiss. “Again? As in we’re going to have multiple dates.”

“If you play your cards right.” Chloe’s nose brushes against Beca’s lightly. “Not your fancy credit card though.”

“Oh,” Beca says because Chloe’s hands are tugging through her hair again and somehow her toque is on the floor and they’re kissing again.

She could get used to this.

But of course:

“Wait ‘til I tell the girls you paid two thousand dollars to go on a date with me.” She doesn't need to sound so smug, but Beca would be remiss if she didn't acknowledge how hot Chloe sounds saying that.

It isn’t an accident that Beca shuts her up with a kiss.

fin.

[rukia-kuchiki-divided]

Can you write about the adoption scene from Rukia's perspective? Pls??

~Sure why not? Angst hours it is then! Under readmore for length because... I have no self control~

The unused study room at the end of the hall sat completely empty when Rukia arrived. Sighing softly as the door shut behind her, grateful that it was enough to effectively muffle the remarks about her origins in the Rukongai. Wasn’t it bad enough that she was surrounded by stuck up nobles who lived life without a care in the world? Meanwhile, she was back to rationing out her meal supply until she could manage to sneak out to the outer edges of the Seireitei and replenish her stash. 

Renji was supposed to meet her here so they could take their lunch break together. It had been a few days since Rukia really had a chance to talk to him. They’d both been training late into the night, normally too exhausted to exchange much more than pleasantries in the evening before giving in to sleep in their respective dormitories. Males and females were generally kept apart though Rukia felt safer sleeping up in the branches of the nearby trees then in her small closet of a room. It wasn’t that she wasn’t grateful to have a place to keep dry in the rain. But compared to living in the Rukongai with it’s wide open spaces, she found it a touch claustrophobic for her tastes.  

Wondering just how long his exam was going to take, Rukia let out another long sigh. This was his second major exam that would allow Renji to excel into the next level. If he passed, he’d be more than just an advance class above her. She should feel happy for him. She was happy for him. But that dark shadow of doubt weighed heavily in her chest which rendered reading her open textbook impossible. 

“The gap between us just continues to grow.” Rukia muttered to no one in particular. “Eventually, that bond will snap. Am I holding Renji back?  I  wish I was able to forget the Rukongai as easily as he seems to have done.” 

Groaning, Rukia tapped her forehead against the text book. What is wrong with me? Renji’s excelling and here I am feeling sorry for myself. Snap out of it, damn it!

So when the door suddenly opened, Rukia had already resigned herself to put on a happy face and congratulate the red head despite the pang of jealousy in her heart. 

“About time, baka. I thought you were gonna stand me up for-” 

Rukia’s eyes widened as she realized she did not feel Renji’s usual warm familiar reiatsu. Quickly jumping to her feet, she recognized the signs of nobility  from the kenseikan to the servants accompanying them, even to the way they watched her low bow with a critical gaze. 

“Forgive me, I thought you were someone else.” 

Rukia apologized, keeping her head low as she was taught. The last thing she needed was to piss off a noblemen who might have a say in how their classes were graded. There appeared to be two noblemen while the others were their attendants. Wait  - not just attendants but soul reapers! 

The younger one with the kenseikan had a zanpakuto in addition to an intimidating amount of spiritual pressure. It felt cold and hard like a steel blade on a cold winter morning. They match his hard grey eyes that look over Rukia’s face critically, as if searching for something. She watched as a flicker of immeasurable sadness crosses his gaze for an instant before it is locked behind a wall of steel. Was that pity?

“Forgive us, as it is we who interrupted your studying.” The older man spoke with a deep baritone, motioning for Rukia to stand up straight once more. “You are Rukia, is that right? From Inuzuri in the Rukongai?” 

“Yes, that’s me.” But how and why would nobles like them care about her or where she was from? Her brow furrowed slightly as she ran through a list of possibilities.

The older noblemen glanced at the younger one, his facial expression asking an unspoken question. Rukia watched as the younger one inclined his head slightly, an almost imperceptible nod of approval.

“I see.” The older man looked Rukia over once more  with stern eyes behind those delicate glass lenses and she felt significantly more uncomfortable. The way his eyes lingered on her worn red uniform and the smudges of dirt on her shoes made her feel as though she was being assessed for a price.

 “Then let us get on with the purpose of our meeting. Rukia, my name is Nobutsune Seike. I am the cleric elder of the noble Kuchiki Clan. This is Byakuya Kuchiki, the head of our noble house.” The pride in his voice as he spoke was overwhelming. Even Rukia had heard of the Kuchiki clan, though only in rumor as if they were a fairy tale to be sought after. 

“We would like to make you an offer to join our family.” 

The world seemed to suddenly turn on it’s side. Rukia blinked once and then twice to regain her composure. Surely she had misheard the elder?! Perhaps he was confused and misspoke?! Her violet eyes glanced up at who she now knew was Byakuya Kuchiki himself, looking at him for any sign of disagreement. But his face was stoic and still, as if he was made of steel himself. 

“My apologies,” Rukia managed to stammer out. “But I must have misunderstood. What would a noble clan want me to joint their family for?”  

For a split second, Rukia could have sworn she saw a look of disgust cross the elder’s face though he disguised it well. “Ah a very blunt question. But we can get to the details of things after we present our offer. Rukia, we would like to extend to you an offer of adoption. Not only would you be part of the noble Kuchiki Clan, but Byakuya Kuchiki himself will adopt you as his younger sister!” 

His younger sister? But... why? It didn’t make any sense to her. Before Rukia could interrupt, Nobutsune held up his hand. 

“Please, allow me to lay out the terms of our offer. You would become Rukia Kuchiki, no longer a nameless soul of the Rukongai. Your home would be the main Kuchiki house with all its amenities. Of course, you would be subject to the laws of our clan as any other member of Kuchiki house along with the additional requirements the main family house entails.” 

He paused again, looking Rukia up and down for the third time while pushing up his glasses. “We understand that there is a ... gap in education due to your upbringing. We are prepared to tutor you in our home as well as propel your soul reaper career. As a member of our noble house, you will not need to bother completing the Academy’s training course as we will arrange for private training. You will be allowed to join an available squad of your choosing and test for a seated position if you should qualify.” 

This was unreal. She had to be dreaming. There was just no way that the Kuchiki clan, of all the noble houses in the Seireitei, had found her and asked for her to join their family. Something was wrong. In Rukia’s experience, if an offer seemed too good to be true, it most likely was. There was always a catch. 

But - family. The idea of having a family with all the bonds that went with it was certainly appealing. Renji. His face instantly surfaced in her mind as he was the only one she had any semblance of a bond with at this time. What would he think of this? What would this do to their already fraying friendship? Nobility came with chains. Rukia was well aware of that. 

“What exactly would my extra duties require of me?” Her violet eyes carefully flickered between the elder and Byakuya, trying to gain any insight they might offer. 

“As part of the main family, you are expected to attend certain functions, maintain a strict code of conduct especially outside of the walls of our home. Your comings and goings will be restricted as well as your social circle and those you interact with on a casual basis. You will be allowed to continue your soul reaper career, as mentioned before, so that will be the exception to this. When the elders of our clan deem it appropriate, you will be wed to a suitor of our choice who meets the Kuchiki clan standards. In exchange, all of your needs will be provided for and your career elevated.” 

His thick white eyebrows raised above his glasses in a way of finality. “Well, do we have your interest, Rukia of Inuzuri?” 

Rukia was processing everything he had said, not missing the subtle way her freedoms would be restricted. Her gaze fell to the ground, heart torn. Could she do this? Could she really sell her soul for this? 

Again, Renji’s face swam into her mind’s eye. Of course not! Renji was her family. If she were to join the Kuchiki’s, then she would not be permitted to speak to Renji. That alone was enough to make her doubt this offer. But was she holding Renji back in his own life? Doubt crept in, a cold chill running up her spine.

“I..I’m not-” 

As if on cue, the door burst wide open and almost caused Rukia to jump. Renji’s excitement was rolling off of him as he blurted out his news. 

“Rukia! Guess what? I passed the second exam! Can ya belie-” 

The way his face shifted from exuberance to confusion was almost comical. Rukia saw the look of recognition as Renji took in Byakuya’s kenseikan and the spiritual pressure in the room. “Uh..” 

“It seems our negotiations have been interrupted.” Nobutsune eyed Renji with only thinly veiled disgust. “This place is no longer suitable for us to continue our discussions”

 He and Byakuya already began making their way back through the entrance as Renji moved aside for them to pass. “We look forward to hearing a favorable answer, Rukia.” 

Rukia’s mind was conflicted, thoughts rolling into each other as she tried to untangle them. But Renji was here now. He was the strategist, the one who kept his feet grounded between the two of them. He was her best friend, after all. If anyone could see the flaws in this plan and understand her view on nobility, it was him. 

“Renji..” 

He seemed startled out of deep thought, not having moved from his position beside the entrance way. “Oh Rukia! What - what was that all about, eh?” 

She averted her gaze, not trusting herself to look Renji in the eyes at the moment. “They were from the Kuchiki clan. They.. want to adopt me into their family.” Rukia was already shaking her head, holding one arm with the other across her abdomen to steady herself. “I don’t know what to do. Renji-” 

The last thing Rukia expected was to hear Renji exhaling in what seemed like relief. His hand moved to her shoulder, grasping her as he started to chuckle. 

“What do ya mean ya don’t know what to do? This is great! The Kuchiki clan is a powerful family! Oh man, yer gonna be living the life of luxury just like we always dreamed about!” He shifted his hand slightly on her shoulder as Rukia watched his face intently. “I wonder what you’ll be eatin’! Ah! I’m so jealous!”  

Fake. That was the first thought that crossed Rukia’s mind as she watched him. He was lying to her about how he felt. But why would he do that? Unless... she had been a burden holding him back this whole time? And now he had a way to severe their bond without feeling guilt. That was the only explanation that made sense to her, the only reason she could think of that Renji would lie to her - to spare her feelings. 

It was an almost audible snap in her heart as she felt the bond between herself and Renji break, finally frayed to it’s last thread. She understood now that there was nothing left for her here. He was giving her away, without even an after thought. She was a reminder of where he came from, a life Renji was desperate to forget as he fit in with the others in his class. That’s all she would always be to him - a painful reminder of why he would always be different. 

I see now.. Rukia felt the pinpricks of tears threatening to spill out of the corner of her eyes. This was kindness on Renji’s part. He was letting her go in the gentlest way possible. She reached up to grasp his hand with both of hers, gently pulling it off her shoulder. He looked down at her, meeting her gaze before she tore her eyes away. 

“Thank you.” 

Before Rukia allowed herself to say anything else lest she give away how broken hearted she felt, she did the only thing she knew how to do. It saved her life time after time and would be her saving grace again.

Run. Don’t look back. Just run. 

She ran straight down the hall, not stopping until she had caught up with the Kuchiki elder and Byakuya. 

She bowed, wiping away any semblance of tears that remained on her face before meeting their gaze.

“I accept.”

The elder bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement, glasses gleaming in the sunlight. 

“Welcome to the family, Rukia Kuchiki.” 

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #406

“turned on all the lights, the tv, and the radio  /  still, i can’t escape the ghost of you”

Have you ever had an ulcer? No. Do you have any rare medical conditions? I believe AvPD is considered to be a rare mental disorder. Do you have to carry an epi pen? No. What color is your mailbox? I think it's black. I don't pay attention. Would you ever want a job working with animals? I'd love to. The thing is, without a degree in something, my duties working with animals would almost certainly involve cleaning up after them, which I am WAY too squeamish with fecal matter and vomit to do. It's extremely embarrassing, but I've never even been able to clean up after my own pets if they ever had an accident or got sick. I obviously couldn't do it with random animals. Did you have a good high school experience? It's... so odd, retrospecting on high school. In some ways, it was the best time of my life because of my memories with my friends and especially Jason, but at the time, I absolutely loathed it and was horribly depressed. But at least I saw a future for myself. I took better care of myself, all that stuff... That Brittany would be fucking mortified to get a glimpse at who she becomes. Have you ever watched any Monty Python movies? Which one is your favourite? I know I've seen some of at least one. Would you ever get a "below the belt" piercing? Nah. If a couple is married, do you think there should be any legal punishment if one person cheats? No...? Like don't get me wrong at all, I am firmly against cheating under any circumstance, but for there to be legal retribution seems extreme. What is the greatest source of anxiety for you? My future. Are there any hallucinogenic drugs you’d like to try? Nah man. What made you choose your current job? I'm unemployed. Do you feel uncomfortable on the dance floor? Or are you confident with you dancing abilities? Oh hunny, you won't see me on the dance floor. Unless MAYBE if the Cha-Cha Slide comes on, or the Cupid Shuffle. That's as skilled as I get, haha. Is it exciting to you to imagine having an affair with a teacher? ... No??????????? It's fucking creepy. Adultery isn't exciting. Do you like your smile? No. I absolutely look high when I smile. What is something silly that you believed to be true when you were a child? That I could invoke the traits of any animal, which I just referred to as my "animal powers." Like for example, if I "called upon" a kangaroo, I could jump higher. I was a weird fucking kid. Have you ever been in a relationship with someone you completely connected with on a mental/emotional level, but did not find physically attractive in any way? Was physical intimacy a problem? How did it work out? I was never really physically attracted to Girt, but it was never a big deal to me. I cared way more about his personality and how much he cared about me. We were never really "intimate," per se, we just would give each other a simple peck. It didn't work out, but not at all because of physical things. He was just too much of a brother to me. What classic or cult movie have you never seen and have no desire to? Hm. I know there's some, but I'm blanking. Does The Human Centipede count here? Like everyone knows about it, so I would assume it does. I have ZERO desire to see a second of that repulsive movie. Have you ever taken a real liking to a band/singer you never ever....ever thought you'd enjoy? Maybe Melanie Martinez? Her voice is so cutesy, as are some of her songs, but I really enjoy how dark her lyrics can be. People who know me would probably be shocked to hear I thoroughly like her. After seeing the movie Avatar did you suddenly view our Earth as ugly and/or boring? If you have not seen the movie, do you think it’s worth your time? I've seen a little bit of it, but I never finished it because I was very tired and chose to go to sleep. I actually do want to see the full thing, though; it looks very good. How helpful are your parents to you? Would they help you to pay for your first apartment? College? Where does the line end? My parents are truly incredible with helping me the best they are capable of. They helped me pay for school, among other things, but I doubt they'd help with my first home, whenever that is. I wouldn't really want them to, either, because that's my responsibility for sure. Do you like playing video games? If so, what do you usually play? I love video games, and horror is absolutely my favorite genre. I also love fantasy games though with deep stories. I've never been the best at playing super long games, like Final Fantasy games, even if I'm seriously invested in the story, though. I burn out. Have you ever sewn a garment? No. Are there any plants in the room you’re in? No. I don't bother with plants. What’s your highest level of education? Some college. What’s the most important thing in any kind of relationship? Proper communication, probably. If you wear lipstick, what’s your favourite colour to wear? I only really put on lipstick to occasionally take a picture, and it's pretty much always black. Is your style feminine, masculine or somewhere in the middle? Somewhere in the middle, I guess? Are there a lot of dragonflies around your house? I've never seen one around this house, and I doubt I ever will because it's too urban. When we lived in the woods, however, I saw them a lot. Of all the Disney couples, which one would you say is your favorite? Kovu and Kiara came to my mind first. Do you think it is cute/funny or disgraceful when a child swears? It's shocking, more than anything. You don't expect it. I don't believe it should be encouraged, but only because children just don't know when swearing really isn't appropriate. If/when you have a baby, how do you think you would want to decorate its room? I don't want kids, but I'll entertain the question and assume this is before the child is born and develops interests. Whether it's a boy or a girl, I'd probably go with a cutesy animal theme. Would you more likely buy a shirt with a picture of Mickey/Minnie Mouse, a Winnie the Pooh character, Snoopy, Hello Kitty, or Tweety Bird on it? None, honestly. Perhaps like, a gothic Hello Kitty. Of all the states you have been to, which one did you have the best experiences? Putting aside the AWFUL heat and humidity, I probably had the best time in Florida. I loved all the palm trees, seeing so many lizards on my grandma's patio, and going to Disney World was a blast. I liked that swimming pools were always warm, too. Have you ever had a crush on someone “too young” for you? No. Do you regret losing your virginity to who you lost it to? No. I was madly in love with him, so no regrets on that. If your boyfriend ever hit you, would you dump him? HA, BYYYYEEEEEEEEE MOTHERFUCKER. ZERO hesitation. Did the one person who hurt you most in your life apologize? He did, but I honestly don't know if he meant it. Is there anything you want to say to someone? It'll probably go unsaid for the rest of my life. If they were to televise a live execution, would you watch it? Yikes, hard pass. If you could be the president of the USA, would you be willing to do it? Noooo thank you. Did you wake up in the middle of the night? I always do. Does your animal sleep with you? My cat does. Venus obviously sleeps in her terrarium, but she is in my room. Last color you dyed your hair? Red. Will you keep your last name when you get married? Very unlikely. I don't like my last name. What are you looking forward to? Hearing back again from the woman whose wedding I shot literally two years ago. I thought she ghosted me, but she messaged me the other day about seeing the pictures again and going through them to actually buy some. I don't know why the hell it took her two years, but whatever, I guess? I spent two whole hours resizing the files and re-adding the preview watermark (I deleted the OneDrive folder for space forever ago, but I have the files still), so I hate to sound like an ass, but she better buy something. Between sweating my ass off on location when I shot the wedding, editing those 100+ pictures two years ago, and now re-doing the previews, I have invested so much goddamn time into them that yeah, I think I have the right to be pretty damn salty if I don't hear back from her again. If your significant other cut sex out of your relationship for any reason, what would you do? It'd be whatever. I mean sure, that sort of intimacy is a very special part of serious romantic relationships to me, but I can live without it pretty easily. What was the last thing you said out loud? "Thank you for dinner" to my mom. She brought home Hardee's. Who are your godparents? I don't believe I have any. Do you like Gushers? omggggg yes Can you touch​ your nose with your tongue?​​ No. Is there a particular sport you follow on a regular basis? Nope. Are you waiting for something to arrive in the mail? No. Think of the last film you watched. Who was your favourite character? Uhhhh what was it... The Shining, I think? I didn't really develop a favorite. Do you have a friend whose name starts with ‘L’? Describe him/her. Lisa. <3 She's one of my WoW friends. She'll talk your ear off, but I don't really mind. She is SO sweet and caring for other people and loves to cook. She recently had triplets, and seeing as she had a son only months before accidentally getting pregnant with the triplets, she's obviously been MEGA busy so we haven't talked much lately. When you’re being kissed do you like it when they hold your face? Yeah, but not too early on. Doing that has a promise of seriousness and passion in it to me, and it would probably weird me out if that happened too soon. Last thing that made you cry? My health. Would you ever consider getting a piercing in your septum? Nah. I don't think it would look good on me. Do you enjoy being outdoors? If it's cool outside and I have a place to sit when I want to, yeah. Do people tell you that you have an accent? Only sometimes. It's definitely not as bad as your average Southerner, though. Do you enjoy watching fireworks on the 4th of July? Ha, what nice timing. I think they're very pretty, but I believe I went over in a recent survey how I don't encourage their usage in consideration of veterans with PTSD as well as being conscious of animals and the absolute terror it can cause for them. What’re some unspeakable subjects for you? So my sister is a children's social worker, and she shares a LOT of stories with Mom (and me, if I'm present) that I can't listen to. The ones that involve pedophilia and/or rape, especially from the child's very own parent(s), I just cannot listen to. Period. It's so fucking repulsive and just unimaginable to me how even a monster of a human can commit something THAT goddamn vile. What’s your opinion of root beer? I'm not a big fan. I mean I can tolerate drinking some of it, but I don't really *enjoy* it. Have you ever seen The Breakfast Club, and what’s your opinion of it? I have, and I didn't get the appeal at all. Did you have a Furby when you were younger? Oh god, I did. Those things are so creepy. If you had a baby boy, what would you name him? Damien, most likely.

[mayascherub]

ethan ramsey x mc fanfic - “dirty pig”

pt. 2 of the ethan ramsey x mc fanfic “I love you no matter how you look. From the beginning, I was attracted to you. Not your appearance”

⚠️ warning: talk about fat shaming, sexual harassment, sexism, misogyny

Tag list:

@drethanramslay @sekizincimektup @ethandaddyramsey @openheart12 @noboundariesplease @caseyvalentineramsey @kaavyaethanramsey (tell me if you want to be added or removed!)

Thank you guys so much for the support! I am glad how much the last fanfic meant for a lot of you🥺

————

The weeks got by quickly. Ever since Ethan had confessed his love for Casey, her brain was only occupied by him. And his by her. It would not be nearly enough to only say thoughts, as every intention, action and dream screamed “Casey! Ethan! Together!” in both of their brains.

It could not be explained exactly how they got through the diagnostic team meetings, interaction with patients and medical staff without sounding and looking completely dumbfounded - but they did, amazingly enough. Only twice did someone comment suspiciously. June had to ask Ethan a question four times before he finally could focus and give her only an mildly adequate answer. Casey giggled, well knowing of the look in his eyes - all it screamed was “Casey”.

Casey was pouring Jackie a cup of coffee in their apartment, being so unfocused on the coffee, since she tried her very best at remaining cool whilst her roommates’ conversation was about Ethan. “Casey! What are you doing?” Jackie yelled as Casey accidentally poured coffee all the way down Jackie’s wrist. “Are you immobile?”

“What? Sorry!”

Now it’s important to state that Ethan and Casey never slept together after their talk, nor did they simply kiss or share any other romantic interactions. Although, his love was confessed and Casey wanted answers.

Casey looked at the door with his name on it for quite a while. Casey, you have to act now. People will think you are paralyzed. She thought and therefore quickly grapped the door handle. Ethan was standing with his arms crossed, looking sternly at a man in his mid-forties.

“Oh! I’m so sorry Eth- Dr. Ramsey”

Ethan looked annoyed at Casey but his gaze quickly softened.

“It’s fine, Dr. Valentine. Dr. Talbot was just about to go”

Ethan waved his hand at the middle aged man and gestured towards the door. The man looked mockingly at Casey and snorted.

“Are you serious, woman? We are having a conversation. Get your ass out”

Ethans jaw tightened, but kept his cool.

“Well Dr. Talbot. Or, now Mr. Talbot I guess. You have received your punishment from Dr. Banerji, I frankly don’t understand why you came to me in the first place.”

Casey swifted uncomfortably on her feet, realizing which man she had met. Dr. Talbot was fired by Naveen, since a patient had reported sexual harassment against him. After that, several of the nurses and a few of the interns also came forward with sexual harassment allegations against him. He was currently on trial, and therefore finding the circumstances of his firing unreasonable - he was now asking Ethan if it could be reduced to suspension, since he wasn’t proved guilty yet. Naveen couldn’t be persuaded into doing it, so Dr. Talbot instead went after Ethan - thinking he would be on his side.

“Well.. Dr. Ramsey. I can’t imagine that you haven’t.. a few times.. made some mistakes, y’know? Mistakes like thinking some women would appreciate some attention, I mean.. they usually do. And then they just blow up with all this sexu-“

Ethans face welled up with so much anger and disgust as he interrupted Mr. Talbot, making Casey able to feel his revulsion.

“No. Mr. Talbot. And don’t you dare make your actions sound like small mistakes. It clearly is a pattern of yours, being extremely misogynistic, disgusting and overly inappropriate. And if you think every man in power is misusing his power and privilege to do such vile actions, you are wrong. Very. Wrong.”

Ethan grapped his arm and shoved him towards the door, making Mr. Talbot pass Casey on his way out.

“Go. And if I see you around here I promise I will fucking punch you.”

Mr. Talbot looked suprised at Ethan, and stopped right beside Casey. He gave Ethan a smirk as he swifted his attention to Casey.

“I see. You are putting on your feminist for this little thing.” He looked at Casey and let his eyes rest on her chest, but continued to her stomach. Casey felt her hairs on her neck rise as she uncomfortably hugged her torso and looked down in the floor.

“Or. Not little. Are you banging this fattie, huh Ethan?”

Mr. Talbot let out a chuckle and looked up at Ethan again. Just as Ethan have had enough.

It was like a little switch inside Ethans brain got turned on. Unfortunately for Mr. Talbot, it was the switch-of-protection-for-Casey. It was only one, but a very tough and quick punch directed right in the middle of Mr. Talbot’s face. Swuush. Continued by a loud bang as he lost his balance and fell to the floor.

“Argh!”

Ethan retreated, coughed and straighted his tie as he opened his mouth.

“And that was for fat shaming.” Ethan bend his knees so he was in eyesight with the fallen man.

“Want one more? You deserve a hell of a lot more for what you’ve put the other women through”

Mr. Talbot finally realized the much taller doctor’s intimidating glance.

“I.. n..no. Dr. Ramsey. I..” he got on his feet “I’m sorry” Ethan also stood up, crossing his arms.

“You are sorry?”

Ethan mockingly snorted and looked to the side, his jaw clenching once more.

“Don’t apologize to me. I can’t use it for shit. Apologize to Dr. Valentine. And after that, you can get the fuck out of this hospital and write apology emails to the other victims. I don’t think they want to see a dirty pig like you again”

Ethan took a step closer to Mr. Talbot and looked intimidatingly down at him.

“I know I won’t”

“I... I’m sorry Casey” Mr. Talbot stuttered and looked scared at Casey.

“Well.” Casey just realized how she had been almost completely silent throughout the whole interaction. She was baffled with Mr. Talbots behavior, but still relentlessly falling more and more in love with Ethan. What felt like just the other day, he was being supportive and body-loving, which made her feel comfortable around him - even though she still was working on her insecurities, it was delightful to know how he felt. She knew she didn’t need his validation, but how his views were, made her able to focus on herself.

Now he had literally punched a guy for her, because - of not only fat-shaming, but also because of his views on misogyny, sexism and the #metoo movement. Ethan was a feminist, and she would lie if it wasn’t attractive as fuck.

“Well. To you Mr. Talbot, it’s Dr. Valentine. I am an educated doctor, y’know. Just like Dr. Ramsey. Only my close friends can call me Casey. Thank you for protecting me, Dr. Ramsey. But I would like to say something myself”

Ethan smirked and looked annoyed at Mr. Talbot as he coughed uncomfortably. “Of course. Sorry Dr.”

“Promise me that you won’t ever do this again. And I will put in a good word with Dr. Banerji”

Ethans face quickly fell as the smirk turned into a confused glare at Casey. But he kept silent as she continued.

“I want you to beg.”

Mr. Talbot just chuckled but quickly realized she was being serious.

“Oooh. Ok.” He scratched the back of his head and opened his mouth once more. “Please talk to Dr. Banerji for me, everyo-“

“No. This is not working. On one knee”

Casey smiled from ear to ear. Ethan tried to hide his, but knew what she was doing. Mr. Talbot was about to refuse, but got on one knee.

“I.. Please. Everyone deserve a second chance”

He held his hands together and begged.

“Ok. That’s quite enough. You can go, Mr. Talbot”

He glanced once more at Ethan but hastily left the office. Casey closed the door and bursted out with laughter.

“As if I would ever mention him again to anyone.. and to Naveen??? Is he mental???”

Ethan just smiled at her and sat down on his desk.

“You did well. I’m sorry if I was being.. a little..” he was searching for the words “Over-protective? Perhaps? I just.. i’m tired of men like him”

Casey bit her lower lip and let out another of her bright smiles. “No! I.. I appreciate it.”

They locked eyes, feeling relieved and lost in each other’s presence.

“So? Ethan the feminist?”

“Yes. And people - especially other men - like to make jokes about it. I am proud of it.”

“You should be.”

Casey knew why she originally entered his office. To find out more about the love for her, that he had declared. But now she couldn’t. She was loving the moment to much to harm it. Casey was not dumb, and she knew her mentor pretty well. It would get awkward and probably uncomfortable if she mentioned their former talk. She knew he wanted to keep it professional. But.. he already told her that he loved her. Why back down?

“I should.. go to my patient” were Casey able to say.

“Oh. Ok. Yes. You.. uhm. Yes” Ethan stood up and turned his back to her.

Both with unspoken words left behind.

[kayteewritessteve]

DT - Drunk Twitter 1/3

Description: One stupid drunken night leads to an uncomfortable week from hell. That only gets worse when you are forced to face the problems, that your drunken escapades caused, head on. Yeah, you are never going to drink ever again.

Masterlist HERE.

Word Count: 8,380 ish.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader.

Rating: PG.

Warnings: Lots of curse words, awkward moments, and a slightly frustrated reader. Little angst here and there, but lots of stupid humour.

Requested: Nah, this just randomly popped into my head and I ran with it.

A/N: I sadly don’t own any of these characters. And no beta reader, so I do proudly own all the errors and this story, so there’s that.

You groan loudly as your hand flails out from under your duvet cocoon, blindly searching for the hellish contraption that currently insists on screaming at you. It is far too early for such an ungodly sound, and you are far too hungover for this shit right now.

Your hand finally makes contact with the screeching little asshole that is your alarm clock, causing a loud smash to echo through the room, just from the sheer force of your flailing limb alone. And then instantly your room falls back into silence once again. Though the constant ringing in your ears, both from the alarm and your hangover, makes that last fact slightly unknown to you in this moment.

You groan, grumbling incoherently as you pull your hand back into the warmth of the little blanket bundle that has now become your life. You plan to spend the rest of your days just hiding in this dark little cove, and then eventually one day dying here. Which from the aches and pains wreaking havoc on you currently, might be sooner, rather than later.

Why the hell did you drink so much?! Who let you polish off two bottles of wine last night?! Like, where the hell was your adult?! Clearly from this day forward you’d need someone to constantly make life choices for you, so that you never ended up in this position ever again.

You vow in this exact moment, that from this day on you will never ever drink again.

But then you remember your best friend's birthday is in 2 weeks, and you groan loudly. Okay, so you kinda have to drink for that, but mark your words now, that will be the very last time that you do!

Your phone buzzes on your bed beside you, lighting up the dark little fortress you’ve created around yourself. And whelp, looks like you never plugged it in last night. You’re honestly surprised it’s even still alive. You’d have to write a tweet to Apple about how their phone actually made it 24 hours on one charge. You’re sure that’s something they’d like to know about, as that was a highly uncommon thing to actually happen.

You reach over to grab your phone, picking it up and bringing it close to your face, before hissing at the brightness and yanking it away with such force you’re surprised you didn’t fling it across the room. You squint your eyes as you fumble to turn the brightness down, and once you successfully have you bring the screen back to you. Directly in front of your face so your blurry, dry eyes can actually read it.

And instantly you gasp loudly, your eyes watching as notification after notification pops up on your lock screen. Your twitter is blowing up right now and a cold sweat promptly rips through you. Because oh God, did you do it again?! Did you seriously post something while stupidly drunk again?!

Fuck. You groan, unlocking your phone quickly to check. Because for some ungodly reason, drunk you always insisted on posting the stupidest tweets. Normally you’d wake up the next morning, hungover and a little closer to death than the day before, and you’d open your twitter to find all the ridiculous shit you’d posted about, the previous night. Usually all of which only had maybe a retweet or two, a couple likes and usually at least one comment—thanks to your lovely best friend. Her comments normally consisting of both laughing at you and calling you out for being a crazy drunk tweeter. She just knew you and your quirks far too well. It was seriously a problem.

But this time, this time was clearly entirely different. However that was just an educated guess, due mainly to the hundreds of notifications that you now had, thanks to whatever your dumb drunk ass had posted, which had obviously blown up. And now you’d be lucky if you could sweep it under the rug like you’d always done in the past.

Oh God, please don’t let it be another praising tweet to some figure head or celebrity. That seemed to be your go to favourite thing to drunk-tweet. You had this weird need to cheer random strangers up when you were drunk. This insistent desire to support and appreciate the people you idolized. Oh please God say you didn’t tag the person the tweet was about this time.

Your shaky thumb clicks the iconic blue and white, Twitter app icon. Completely ignoring the ridiculous number in the little red circle on the icons top right corner, as you do. You haven’t even read the tweet yet and already you’re freaking the fuck out.

You quickly make your way to your profile and your eyes widen at the insanely large rant, that’s continued through multiple separate tweets, and is now sitting at the top of your page. Your eyes skim over them all, in order of posting, and you cringe, truly and utterly mortified now.

‘Do you ever just hear of someone in passing, or see them in the media, and have this instantaneous deep longing emotion within you. Not a longing in the sense of wanting them, but entirely due to hoping with everything inside you that they find their true happiness one day..’

‘..‪That they wake up in a few years and smile, like truly smile, because they are exactly where they wanted to be. Where they deserved to be. That they’d ended up with every desire they had yearned for. And I’m not talking about material objects. I’m talking life goals and accomplishments..’‬

‪‘..I’m talking about the true important aspects of life. The things that actually matter in the grand scheme of it all. Well, that is how I feel whenever someone brings up Steve Rogers. Or whenever I see an article or a news story about him. I instantly have this desperate want for him..’‬

‪‘..to be happy. Truly and utterly happy. The man deserves exactly that, and yet so much more. What with everything he has done for us and this planet. If anyone in this world has earned their happily ever after, it’s that man.’ ‬

‪Oh God. You groan, as your free hand comes up to cover your face in sheer horror and embarrassment. I mean, at least the silver lining here is you didn’t make any major spelling mistakes, and you also luckily, completely forget to actually tag him in it. So those are both small victories, in and of themselves. ‬

‪But the fact parts of that rant had blown up, regardless of you actually tagging him, is a little disheartening. You’re pretty sure he’s either seen it or been informed about it by now. And even if by the off chance he hasn’t, you know it’s only a matter of time before that changes. ‬

‪You scroll through the notifications and you feel your heart stop, as all the blood leaves your body and goes—honestly who knows where it goes, but it definitely doesn’t stick around to be apart of this train wreck of a situation. You abruptly sit up, the blankets falling from your upper body and pooling around your waist now.

‪Tony Stark retweeted your post. ‬

‪5 little words that make you want to delete every social media account you currently have, plus move to ‬Lesotho or something. Never heard of Lesotho? Well, that’s exactly why you’d picked to move there. Because most people don’t really know it even exists, nor where to find it on a map. So it would be the perfect place to hide away, and start a new life under a fake name.

Yup, it’s settled. Pack your bags, we’re moving to Lesotho!

You don’t even have it in you to read Mr. Starks response back to your tweets, nor dig any further into your notifications to see who else may have retweeted this whole mess. God, what is wrong with yo—

Your phone ringing scares the complete shit out of you, damn near chucking the metal brick across your room, for the second time this morning if anyone is keeping tabs, as your heart thumps loudly in your chest. However, you manage to keep a firm grip on your phone, but just barely. Effectively saving the thing from an untimely death, thanks to being forcefully introduced to your bedrooms brick wall.

Though come to think of it, maybe smashing it would be the best option here?

You sigh deeply as you finally notice it’s your best friend calling, a groan leaving your throat as you then instantly realize that she is probably calling thanks to your stupid Drunk Twitter rant. You contemplate not answering for a second, you could pretend you’re still asleep. But you know she’ll just keep calling until you answer, or worse, she’ll just show up at your house and let herself in with her spare key. Then you won’t have the luxury of hanging up on her if her teasing gets to be too much.

So as you click the answer button and hesitantly raise the phone to your ear, you prepare yourself for your incoming humiliation. I mean, more so than your already currently experiencing. Which is both surprising and frustrating, because who knew you could ever be this mortified in real life? You certainly didn’t, but yet here you are.

“Oh my God, Y/N!” Lindsey’s loud voice mixed with her unabashed laughter rings out of the phones speaker, it’s so loud that you instantly yanked the phone away from your ear. Your headache coming back tenfold as you groan loudly and message the side of your skull.

“Giiiiirl!!” She hollers now, and so lustrously that you can hear her perfectly, even with the phone still being nowhere near your ear. “What the hell were you drinking last night? And where can I get me some!”

You grumble out a, “you need to lower your voice or I’m hanging up on you.”

“Awe, is someone a little hungover today?” She coos in a motherly voice, though at a much quieter level now, at least enough to warrant putting the phone back to your ear once again. However her voice may be softer now, but the playful and teasing edge to her tone is as loud as a freaking bomb.

“More like dead,” you mumble falling back down to lay on your bed and slinging your free arm over your eyes. “Or at least I wish I was.”

Her gleeful cackle rings out of the phones speaker now. “Girl, don’t say that! I’d miss you too much, and you’re fucking famous now!”

You just groan, not even remotely interested in what she means by that.

“Oh, and why am I famous now, Lindsey?” She says in a mocking tone, clearly trying to impersonate you, but in your opinion not coming anywhere close. “It’s so wonderful you should ask Y/N! Probably because your tweets are all over the news stations, social media and the internet. Even most of the Avengers have already retweeted it, most notably Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson AND Bucky Barnes. Ya know, all of Steve Roger’s best friends. But yet, no one has commented on whether the recipient of your beautiful drunken words has actually seen it or not. Buuuuut we can all assume he probably has.”

“Can we just not do this today?” You roll onto your side, your free hand now pulling the duvet up and over your head again. “I am in far too much pain and far too humiliated to be having this conversation right now. Can we please, for the love of all things that are holy, talk about something else? Anything else, I beg you!”

“Hell no!” She exclaims, you wincing at the abrupt volume change. “My best friend is famous! And all because she drank too much wine and tweeted a ridiculously sweet rant about thee Captain America! Honestly, this. Is. Just. Too. Damn. Good.” She squeals, “you can’t even write better shit than this!”

“Lindsey,” you groan, “I am way too hungover and under caffeinated for this right now. Seriously, I’m going to hang up now and hopefully fucking die.”

“Fine, fine,” she relents but you can still hear the humour in her voice, “I promise I’ll drop it, for now. But get your sexy ass out of that bed and meet me in the kitchen STAT.”

“Uuugh,” you drag the sound out. “You’re freaking in my house right now, aren’t you?”

“I am,” she says gleefully. “But before you flip shit, don’t. I brought coffee and bagels, so be a good girl and get your ass out here or I’m going to eat all of it myself.”

You don’t even respond as you hang up the phone, she had you at ‘coffee’. You quickly flip the blankets off yourself and roll out of bed. Not even bothering to check yourself out in the mirror because honestly, Lindsey has seen you at your worst. So she is entirely used to this from you.

You trudge your way out to the kitchen, seeing your best friend pulling wrapped food from a brown bag and you groan again, but this time happily. Her eyes dart up to you and she gives you a once over, a small frown on her lips now.

“Oh boo thang, you look horrendous,” she says softly, sweetly, as you reach her, and she hands you the large to go cup of coffee. “Drink this. Then go jump in the shower, you stink like shame and poor life choices,” she scrunches up her nose playfully.

“I honestly don’t think a shower will remove those particular smells from my skin. I think that’s just my natural scent now,” you giggle as you take a deep waft of the glorious life juice’s warm aroma, a content sigh coming out on the exhale. You bring the drink to your lips and almost moan. Yes, you are this much of a coffee nut. You take a few generous gulps then stumble over to the counter stools and plop down. “But a shower does sounds like a good plan,” you nod, the cup staying close to your mouth for quick and easy access.

She hums in agreement, nodding as she hands you a wrapped up bagel. “So, should we talk about what caused you to want to get ‘Sappy Drunk Tweets’ wasted last night or?”

You sigh, “I just had a shit day at work. My boss was a raging asshole, yet again.” You shake your head, “but what’s new?”

“I can not stand that evil little man!” Your friend growls. “You seriously need to find a new job, Y/N. You can’t keep working for that piece of shit anymore. And I honestly don’t think your poor liver can take much more of these semi frequent beatings. Somethings gotta change.”

“I know, I know,” you nod, “I’ve been searching for something else, but there just isn’t many available jobs at the moment. But I’m hopeful I’ll find something soon.” You take another large gulp of the sweet, sweet liquid gold, feeling as the warmth radiates throughout your whole body, as your brain slowly begins to rejoin the land of the living.

It’s been a few days since your stupid drunken escapades on Twitter, and a few days since Lindsey visited. You both had enjoyed your coffee and bagels, talking about everything and nothing. Luckily she had kept the drunk tweet talk to a minimum, like she promised. And once you were all done that, Lindsey headed off to work and you hopped in the shower, before spending the entire day on your couch, watching movies and pointedly ignoring your phone. Or rather, the never ending string of notifications on said phone.

So now you’ve been basically hiding out since then, only leaving your house to go to work or to make a quick trip to the store down the block from your apartment. The stupid tweets are still blowing up, people are still retweeting them and talking about them.

You’d hoped this would have all blown over by now, that something else ridiculous would have come along and stolen everyone's attention. But alas, you aren’t that lucky. Because not a damn thing is going on in the world right now, obviously, as everyone is still very much hung up on your whole embarrassing sap fest.

So much so that you are being recognized now as the ‘Steve Tweet Woman’. Which is just fucking outstanding—ha! not!

News outlets, websites and talk shows have been blowing up your phone and email, asking for comments or to set up interviews. Wanting to know if anyone from Steve’s camp has reached out to you, or if you’ve been invited to the tower to meet the team. Also asking if you and the Avengers are now friends, or at the very least acquaintances. And those are just a few of the things they are asking you. Honestly, those are the least ridiculous questions—which is freaking sad.

So leaving your house has become a damn chore now, you have to wear a full disguise just in the hopes no one recognizes you. This is not what you wanted at all. Shit, you don’t even know what you wanted from making that tweet, but this for sure was not it. Not even close.

You’d avoided Twitter along with all your social media playforms since that dreadful morning, as well. You were just too overwhelmed with all the notifications and messages you’d been receiving ever since. Far too many to ever read, let alone even keep up with. Nor did you want to see what any of them actually said.

You sigh, trying to focus back on your computer monitor. You were currently at work, hiding out in your cubicle and keeping your head down.

At the moment you worked as a writer for a news and entertainment website, much like Buzzfeed but nowhere near as large or well known—And I know! Ironic right? Uuuugh! Your damn life was just such a joke.

Your cubicle neighbour, Tyler, springs up over your divider wall. His arms resting on the top as his chin sits on them, a small frown on his face. So this obviously isn’t going to be good.

“Do I even want to know?” You ask quietly before he can utter a word.

He sighs, “probably not. But sadly you kinda have to know.”

“Okay,” you spun slightly in your chair to face him fully. “I’m ready, lay it on me.”

“The boss saw your tweets,” he starts and you wince in embarrassment. “He messaged me as your email keeps sending his messages back undelivered. So you should probably check into that, but first, he wants to see you in his office.”

You groan, dropping your forehead onto your desk with a thud, “my email has been so swamped the last few days that I shut down the receiver.”

“Understandable,” he says quietly, and you can hear that the frown is still present on his face.

“Does he want to see me now?” You peek up at him.

He nods, “yeah, said it was urgent.”

“Shit,” you mumble and sit up, grabbing a notebook and pen quickly as you stand from your chair. “Well, wish me luck, hopefully he doesn’t just fire me the second I walk through the door.”

Tyler shakes his head, “he’d be an even bigger idiot than we all currently think he is, if he did that. Don’t sweat it, at worst he’ll probably just throw a tantrum and give you a slap on the wrist.”

“On second thought, I think I’ll just quit instead,” you say playfully as you walk out of your cubicle. Hearing Tyler’s deep chuckle behind you as you do.

“But then who will keep me entertained everyday?”

“You’ll find someone,” you giggle, shrugging. “My replacement, most likely. Though sadly they will never be as awesome as me!”

“Ain’t that the truth,” he agrees as he lowers back down into his chair and you continue on towards your bosses office.

A moment later you find yourself standing outside of his closed door, notepad clutched to your chest. You have no idea what this impromptu meeting will be about, but you can only assume it has something to do with your stupid drunken posts.

You take a deep breath in, raising your fist up to knock on the door. And a moment later hearing a muffled and authoritative, “enter.” God, he really was just such an entitled asshole.

You open the door and peek your head in, “you wanted to see me, Sir?”

He glances up and nods, “ah, Y/N. Yes, come in.”

You quickly open the door and make your way into his office, closing the door and then hastily moving to stand in front of him.

He interlocks his fingers together and rests his hands on his desk, just staring at you. “Why isn’t your email working?”

“Oh, uh,” you shift awkwardly in your spot. “I um, I shut it off for a bit.” You nod, “just till I could get caught up on the emails I already have.”

He raises a brow at you, “your email is being swamped with messages, I take it?”

You nod again, “ah yes, Sir.”

“Does that have anything to do with the tweets you sent out last week?”

You almost groan, almost, but manage to contain it. “It—it does, Sir.”

He nods, glancing to his monitor, “now normally, foolish shenanigans such as this would be grounds for termination. And I was going to fire you for the embarrassment you’ve brought on this company, but I had a change of heart. So you won’t be losing your position just yet.”

You nod slowly, wishing you could give this idiot a piece of your mind. But your need to pay bills and have a job forces you to bite your tongue. “Oh, um, thank you, Sir.”

“But,” he flicks his beady eyes back to you, “you will have to make this up to me.”

You almost gulp, what the hell does that even mean?! “Um, how,” you clear your throat, “how exactly would you like me to do that?”

He leans back in his chair, a smirk on his lips. One that instantly causes a chill to run down your spin, and this time you do gulp. “There is a press conference in 3 days. You are going to attend it on behalf of our website.”

You nod, following along so far, and honestly this doesn’t sound so bad. Getting to be at a conference first hand is a huge accomplishment. Being trusted enough to be the one present is a big deal in this company. Normally only seasoned writers get to attend such functions.

Yet, something about this feels...off. Like there is a shoe about to drop nearby and you can’t shake that thought. “Okay, um of course, Sir. But what is the press release for, exactly?”

His smirk grows into a full blown grin and your heart rate picks up instantly because of it. “I’m so glad you should ask,” he nods, “It's a press conference for the Avengers. They are opening their new facility and are holding a press junket to cut the rope and answer some questions.”

And instantly you choke on air, no joke, then coughing a few times to clear your airway. Because oh fuck. Fuckity fucking fuck fuck. Why you?! Why does life always do this to you?!

“Um, Sir,” you start quietly once you stop coughing. “I don’t um—this is not to say that I’m not completely honoured that you’d choose me for this job. But uh, I really don’t think it’s a good idea to send me to this. Not with everything currently going on, at least.” You swallow thickly, your hands turning clammy as your nerves pick up. “There, ah, there has to be someone more qualified to send to this event. Ya know, someone other than me.”

He shakes his head, “there isn’t. And even if there was, I can’t send anyone else. You were specifically asked for by name, we weren’t even originally supposed to attend this press release. Only larger media outlets were invited.” He opens his top drawer in his desk and pulls out an access pass on a lanyard, holding it out to you. You gingerly step forward to take it then take a few hasty steps back once it’s in your grasp. “You were the only one invited, and were given an all access pass for the whole event.”

You gaped at him, eyes wide and mouth hanging open as you glance between your boss and the press pass currently in your hand. “But ah,” you shake your head, “why me?”

He shrugs, “probably because of those silly posts you made. You clearly caught someone's attention. So get to work, you have a press conference to prepare for,” he dismisses you with a wave of his hand.

But you just stay firmly planted in your spot, “Sir, I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Oh but it is.” His eyes shoot to you and narrow, “so you either attend that conference or I’ll fire you. We are making the most out of your blunder here, don’t mess this up. You only have one shot at this, and I expect the article from this to not only be outstanding, but also on my desk Monday morning. This is the break our website needs, but if you aren’t willing to pull your weight and fix your mistakes, then we don’t have a place here for you anymore. So it’s your choice, Miss Y/L/N.”

You sigh defeatedly, and nod, “okay, I’ll do it.”

“I figured you would,” he nods once then turns back to his computer screen. “Close the door behind you.”

You nod, spinning on your heels and exit the room. Shutting the door softly behind you like he’d asked and then heading back to your desk to start preparing for this press conference.

But all you can think about is how truly mortifying this whole week has already been. And it’s clearly only going to get worse from here on out. How do you get yourself into these things? Now someone from the Avengers team has specifically requested that you be there. Great.

Were they planning to embarrass you further? Were they going to make a mockery of you because of a stupid drunken mistake? Were you going to regret accepting this article instead of just quitting?

You glance down at the press pass in your hand and sigh, there is no way to know currently just how this will all play out. But sadly, you’ll be finding out the answers to your questions soon enough. And in a little less than 3 days, at that.

You stand in front of your full length mirror—wearing the seventeenth outfit you’ve tried on so far this morning—and trying desperately to find faults with it. In all honesty, all the outfits you’ve tried on had looked perfectly fine and would have worked. But you were determined to stall, to waste as much time on pointless outfit changes as you could, so that you didn’t have to face your reality.

That reality being that today was the day, today was the Avengers press conference at the new facility. And oh God, how you really did not want to have to do this today.

I mean, the moon wasn’t in the right placement. Nor was Jupiter currently aligned. And your horoscope had warned you about ‘life changing events should you venture out of your box.’ And you could only assume said life changing events weren’t going to be good ones, and this was very much venturing outside of your box. Plus like, you just had this strange gut feeling, something deep inside you telling you that something was going to happen today—And one should always trust their gut in true times of crisis.

So really, that was all to say that this was a horrible idea, and you should probably just stay home. Yeah, it’s settled then, you’ll stay home. That was a much smarter plan for sure.

Your hired car pulls up to the large, intimidating steel and glass structure and you instantly feel like you’re going to puke. And if the hired car didn’t charge you your first born for doing just that, you’d gladly probably have puked in this exact moment. It comes to a stop and you thank the driver before collecting up your belongings and climbing out.

Glancing around you notice a bunch of people hanging about, some with large camera’s around their necks, others with microphones. But all are wearing various passes, some look similar to yours, however none match it entirely. Your hand grabs on to the pass around your neck and pulls it away from your body to examine it more closely.

Yeah, yours is the only one like it, that you can currently see. Which yeah, that’s extremely odd, for sure. You release the pass, letting it fall back to your chest and head towards the check in booth, just wanting to get this all over with so you can promptly go home and die of humiliation in your bed. Alone and away from the world.

You give one of the ladies at the table your full name and instantly notice a wicked smirk appear upon her lips as she hears it. Which honestly can’t be a good sign for what’s to come. No, this is a sign you should probably just leave now. The universe is clearly trying to warn you, but your dumb, job needing ass can’t leave. No matter how much you desperately want to.

She hands you a map, pointing to the location where you will be standing for the conference. Then she points behind herself, in the direction you are to head and you mumble a quick thank you before heading the way she showed you.

As you make your way to the location, you continuously glance between the map in your hands and the area around you. The last thing you need right now is to get lost on this insanely large property, and end up missing the press release all together. Oh God, your boss would pitch a fit if that happened.

Your heels click on the cement ground, thankful you aren’t trudging it through grass at the moment. Heels and grass do not mix, and with your luck you’d probably end up twisting an ankle or snapping a heel. And the last thing you want right now is to draw unwanted attention to yourself. Ya know, more so than you already have.

You glance down at the outfit you’d finally begrudgingly decided on, choosing to stick to basic shades to help you blend in a little better. No fancy or colourful prints or shades today. No, blacks and whites was what you went with. Hoping that most of the other press members would be dressed similarly. And with one glance around you, that hope actually came true.

You’d decided to go with a black pleather pencil skirt, that was form fitting but also flattering to all your softer areas. With a long sleeve white shirt tucked into it, and simple black pumps. It was a pretty basic look, but that’s exactly what you were going for. You wanted to blend in, praying none of the Avengers or press would even noticed you, let alone figured out you were the drunken Twitter tweeter.

God, doesn’t that just sound so stupid? The ‘Twitter tweeter’. Just ridiculous. And to think, this is your life now! This is who you are now. Seriously, the next time you drink, you are going to leave your phone at work. As you clearly can’t be trusted with it when you’re intoxicated.

As you make your way closer to the spot the nice lady had shown you, you realize that you are the only one in this location. All the other press are further down, in front of the stage, whereas your place is off to the side. It has a perfect view of the stage, but there is nothing and no one to hide behind.

You halt your steps, and even though it’s a beautiful sunny day, you feel a cold sweat come on. Are they segregating you? Are they going to make an example out of you? Or treat you like some circus clown?

You know these thoughts are ridiculous, these are world heroes we’re talking about here. Good people who put their lives on the line everyday for everyone else. But maybe they are going to force you into speaking to the press, maybe they are going to use you for good PR. Your stupid tweets are the hot topic at the moment, everyone is wanting the inside scoop on you, your life and your possible new affiliation with the mighty team.

But being in the spotlight isn’t your thing, you like to be unknown, anonymous. Just another face in the crowd. And if this is an ambush, then take you the fuck off that sign up list. You are not interested in this being spun around on you. Fuck that.

You turn on your heel and head back to the main press area, you’d just hide out there amongst all the other reporters and journalists. At least you could hang in the back and keep your head down while you take notes.

You might be overthinking this. Or be acting a little too irrational at the moment. But cut yourself some slack, this week has been hellish and overwhelming, to say the least. And your poor frazzled mind is in overdrive mode, overthinking the smallest things and making you a bit of a basket case. Clearly you don’t handle stressors like this very well. That’s obviously a flaw of yours, but one you very much do not plan on addressing today. Or ever, maybe. But definitely not here and now.

You reach the main press area and tuck yourself into a back row chair, lowering your large black purse onto the ground and digging through it to grab your notebook, recorder, pens and your phone. You’d record the whole press release, taking notes and photos here and there. Then when it was all over you planned to hightail it out of here, long before anyone noticed you. Hopefully. That was the plan anyways.

You glance around, noticing a few nearby press members staring intently at you. God, you hope none of them cause a scene and point you out. You quickly glance up at the stage, seeing that it is still empty and none of the team is up there yet. So you drop your eyes down and decide to just doodle in your notebook till the junket begins.

Time seems to be ticking along at an alarmingly slow pace. Probably just because you are so desperate for this to all be over, therefore it’s doing the opposite now. The minutes currently feeling like hours to you.

Finally, after weeks of waiting—at least you swear it’s been that long. You hear commotion up on the stage, and notice as everyone around you is seated now, taking photos. You grab your phone and flick your eyes up to the stage, seeing the mighty group of heroes slowly ascending the stairs and fanning out on the platform.

You snap a few shots and then prepare your recorder, hitting the button to start it once Tony Stark makes his way to the microphone. You balance the recorder on your left leg, your notebook open on your light and pen at the ready. Your phone sitting in between both legs, fully charged, set to silent and camera app open.

The conference starts with Tony doing a speech, thanking everyone for being here and just general PR stuff. You are sort of paying attention, but also not. You know that you can always listen to the recording later if you miss any part of this conference, so there isn’t a huge weight on you to be fully listening currently.

So instead, you get lost in your own mind, continuing to berate and chide yourself for your horrible life choices. Ya know, all the ones that led up to this very moment. You keep your eyes down for most of the event, only glancing up periodically to snap a few more photos here and there. But then they flick back down to continue doodling in your notebook.

On the plus side, the grassy, flowery meadow you have been drawing this whole time is looking wonderful. Even if it’s only in all blue and black pen ink. But focusing on this is better than possibly locking eyes with the poor victim of your latest drunk tweets. You know he is up there, because they all are. And the last thing you want is to look at him currently. Your immense guilt and humiliation preventing you from even entertaining the idea of ogling the handsome man right now. Not even a little bit, no matter how badly you want to. No matter how much you want to see just how attractive he is in person. You can’t allow yourself to.

You don’t even really deserve to be here right now, the only reason you are, is because drunk you is a sappy asshole. Had you not posted those stupid tweets, you wouldn’t have been invited here today. God, how you wish you had a time machine right now.

You’d made a bunch of mistakes throughout your life, I mean, who hasn’t? But this one was by far the worst, you were definitely paying for this one. Tenfold. Maybe this is the wake up call drunk-you needs though. Hopefully she will have learned her lesson from all of this. Buuuuuut knowing her, probably not.

You sigh, picking up your phone to take a few more photos as the time nears to the official opening of the facility. To the rope cutting, which is the true reason you are all here today. You keep your eyes on your phones screen, but movement off to the side of the stage catches your eyes and they snap from the screen to it.

They lock with a greyish blue set, and you see the owner of said eyes glance over your face momentarily, before a smirk breaks out on his lips. Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier aka Steve Roger’s lifelong best friend. You are currently having a stare off with an ex hydra assassin, and an insanely good one at that.

You are just about to break the eye contact when you notice him elbow the blonde super soldier to his right. Leaning in once he has the other man's attention and whispering something in his ear, before his head nods in your direction. Oh God, this also can’t be fucking good.

The blonde furrows his brows for a moment, his eyes scanning the crowd before they land on you. And the second your eyes meet, you are fucking trapped. Because, Jesus! This man is basically a human bear trap, and your ass just willing stepped right on to it.

Greeeeeat. Now you’re having a stare off with thee Steve Rogers. Just exceptional. Note the extreme sarcasm.

And then you notice as he frowns, most likely now realizing you are the crazy lady who tweeted about him. He snaps his eyes away from you, turning to glare at his best friend. Who only grins wider in return and then shrugs his shoulders before nodding his head to the billionaire at the podium. Mr. Roger’s heated gaze then flicks to the side of Mr. Stark’s head, narrowing a little more and honestly, if looks could kill, everyone here today would be witnesses to a murder. To the death of Iron Man, at the eyes of Captain America.

And oh fuck, this is not going well. So much for going unnoticed. You can’t do this, you can’t be here any longer. This is all just too much and you want to go home.

You quickly pack up your belongings, throwing them haphazardly into your large purse. As the tears of humiliation begin prickling in your eyes. What did you do to deserve any of this? Clearly you fucked up in a past life and now you were paying for it in this one.

Your eyes involuntarily glance back up to the stage, tears threatening to fall but you try to force them to hold off until you are away from this place. Away from all the prying eyes. The last thing you need is photos of you crying like a baby, at the Avengers new facility opening, to start circulating the internet and only adding fuel to the fire.

They’d probably play it up like you were this insanely huge fan, and just being here made your crazy come out to play. Bawling your eyes out for just being here, in the presence of the hero you so clearly had lady wood for. But yet, that wasn’t it at all. You know most of these people were probably too focused on Mr. Stark to even notice the moment between the super soldiers. You’re pretty sure you were the only one who actually did see it.

Your eyes lock once again on the intense pair of blue ones, finding yourself momentarily trapped all over again. Then his eyebrows furrowing snaps you out of it, thankfully, and you feel a tear slip down your cheek. You quickly wipe it away as you turn and hastily make for the press area exit.

You don’t look back, you can’t bare to see the relief probably on Mr. Rogers face now. He is probably thankful you are leaving early. He probably never wanted to actually see you in the flesh. He probably thinks you are just some ridiculous, crazed fan who went out of her way to either try to get noticed by him, or boost her career via the exposure.

God, how far from the truth that actually was. But not like you’d ever get the chance to prove that to anyone now. You vow in this exact moment to delete your twitter the second you get into the Uber. Like completely deactivate your whole account. Then you’d have no way to embarrass yourself ever again. At least not publicly, not in front of the entire world.

As you reach the spot where the hired car had dropped you off, you pull out your phone and open your Uber app. You had a hired car set up to pick you up later on, for when the press release was supposed to be over. But as it was still early and now only over for just you, you needed a ride and fast.

You begin filling out the order, hastily walking down the laneway towards the main road. Like hell were you going to stay standing on the facilities grounds any longer. Risking being seen or stopped by random press members. You’d just meet the car down the road a bit. That was the best plan here.

But as you are making your hasty get away, you hear fast footfalls coming up behind you. And you cringe slightly, too nervous to turn around and see who is coming towards you currently. You pray it’s just someone running to meet their car. Maybe one of the press people has an emergency and needs to leave early because of it?

“Hey, hold up,” a deep voice calls from behind you, effectively killing that last thought dead in its tracks. Much like you wish would happen to you right now. If you could just drop dead in this moment, you totally would. You didn’t have suicidal thoughts, ever, but in this exact moment, you’d take any out you could get. The sheer humiliation of this week finally crashing down on you.

You sigh, quickly wiping your cheeks of the few tears that refused to stay put in your eyes, and slowly turn around as the footsteps near you and come to a deafening halt. You know whoever it is, is now only a few feet away from you and there is no avoiding this awkward situation any longer.

You instantly realize the person now standing mere feet from you, is the very last person you want to be anywhere near right now. Even with keeping your eyes down, focused entirely on the ground so that whoever the person ended up being wouldn’t see the tears, now in your eyes. You still instantly know that it’s Steve Rogers, the newest and current victim of your drunken praise, and it now takes everything in you to not start rambling out a ridiculous apology, while also bawling your eyes out.

A heavy silence looms over you, starting to feel as if you are being crushed by it. You take a deep breath, keeping your eyes honed in on the cement ground. “I um, I’m really, really sorry,” you start, the words coming out raspy from your unused and tear tingled voice. The volume barely above a whisper so you quickly clear your throat, “I shouldn’t have come here today. I ah, I didn’t want to ever make you feel uncomfortable in any way. And I guess I just need to apologize to you for my ridiculous antics last week. And ah, and for stupidly agreeing to come to this junket. I’ll just um,” you glance over your shoulder momentarily. “I’ll just be going now,” you finally glanced up at him, as you gesture with your thumb over your shoulder and take a step back. “Sorry again, for um, for everything.”

But holy fuck, he is so much better looking than you could have ever imagined. Up close and personal he is a freaking dream boat—Argh! You have no right to ogle this man! Give your damn head a shake. You are the very last person on this planet who is allowed to fangirl over him right now.

You quickly turn and continue to hastily make your way towards the road, not even giving him a moment to respond to your words. You don’t need him to say anything back though, he doesn’t owe you a damn thing. You are the dick that brought this all on to not only in yourself, but this poor man as well.

You got the chance to apologize to him, which is more than you could have ever asked for. Now you just want this all to be over. You just want to go home and pretend like this entire week never happened. He can go back to his normal life, and you to yours.

God, you could really use a stiff drink right now, but that’s what got you into this whole mess in the first place. So that’s probably not the smartest idea at the moment. So instead you’ll settle for a giant tub of ice cream and a lengthy, tear filled, phone call with your bestie.

“Wait,” he says softly, probably so he doesn’t startle you any further, as you feel a large warm hand grasp your elbow, urging you to turn back around.

You clench your eyes shut, why can’t this just all be over already?! Why you?! You take a deep stuttering breath in then open your eyes and turn to face him again. He releases your elbow as you do and then you awkwardly lock eyes with him once again.

One of his large hands comes up to rub the back of his neck, the action almost looking sheepish. Clearly he also has a few words for you, and whatever they are you’ll totally deserve them. Even if they are chastising you for your stupid posts. So you quickly steel yourself for what’s about to come.

“I ah, I wasn’t—“ he pauses then quickly corrects himself, “I’m not uncomfortable about you being here,” he shakes his head, “not at all. I just—firstly, I just wanted to apologize to you, actually. I know they probably forced you to be here today, I don’t really know how, but judging by your reaction to all of this, I’m guessing you really had no say in being here.“ He sighs deeply, “I had no idea that they’d actually invited you, so I can only assume that Tony played a huge hand in all of this. He really likes to insert himself into other people's lives, so I apologize that you got dragged into this. He doesn’t really know when to butt out.”

You nod slowly as you glance down to the ground again, “it’s okay. You really don’t owe me anything, I honestly brought this all on myself. I um, I don’t blame anyone else for any of this, but thank you for saying all of that.” You look back up at him, “it really helps to hear. This week has just been—“ you cut yourself off with a deep sigh, as you wave a dismissive hand around, “sorry, that’s really not important. Um, just basically thank you, ya know, for easing my mind with all of this.”

He frowns a little, but quickly corrects it. And you still just honestly want this all to be done with. But he looks like he still has more to say, so looks like your hopes will go unanswered this time. And just as you suspected he speaks up again.

He shakes his head, “don’t mention it, but I should really be the one thanking you.”

Awe, isn’t that just so dang sweet of him—wait, what?! I’m sorry, come again?! Your eyes widen as your mouth falls open slightly. You imagine it’s a super attractive look—note the sarcasm again—but you honestly can’t bring yourself to care about that at the moment. Because what did he just say?

Your eyebrows furrow after far too long of a moment with you just gaping up at him. “I’m sorry if this is rude, but um, why exactly would you owe me a thank you?”

He smiles down at you, then quickly glances over his shoulder before looking back to you. “I’ll explain all that, but first, can I show you something?”

You find yourself nodding before you’ve even realized it. “Um, yeah. Yeah, of course.”

“Okay, great. Just uh, just follow me then,” he says through a hesitant smile as he leads you off and away from the gathering. You aren’t sure where exactly he is taking you, but for the first time all week, you aren’t worried at all. Probably because this is Steve Rogers, the man out of time, and a true gentleman, in every sense of the word.

And maybe, just maybe, your hellish week that all began thanks to one stupid drunk moment, might just end on a way better note. Maybe your Drunk Twitter escapades weren’t all bad. Maybe they weren’t entirely horrible.

But honestly who really knows, you’d just have to wait and find out.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Part 2 of this, from Steve POV, will be coming sometime this week! So stay tuned for that!

@caps-lockdown @itsstillnotwhatyouthink @tfandtws @boxofteenageideas @wangdeasang @giggleberts @casuallydarktiger @theonelittleone @agentbadbitch @ratwrites @starrystellars @bandsandanimefreak @rockyroadthepastryarchy @lovvliies @cuffski @icesoccerer @alwaysright4 @lilsthethrills @steeeeverogers @zombiepotterfour @mu-mu-rs @ledandan1244 @straightforwardly @denzmallows @xremember-me-notx @gwynethjodie @lollipopdomination @capstopavenger @jemimah-b99 @rcvenqers @justkending @alagalaska @silent-loucidity @sabertooth-potato @pies-wands-and-more @interstellarmess @gabriella69816 @phantom-soilder @wordlesscaptain @captain-hammer-of-asgard @starstucknature @viarogers @pixieferry @kaithezaftig @the-kinkiest-goblin @hysterically-original @badassbeckettswan @heyiamthatbitch @zlixlle @capsicledoll @givemehopenfandoms @pretendingandpreposterous @frozen-phoenix17 @emotionallysalty @saturngirlz @atomicsludgedonutbiscuit @ivannagotthebeat @bohemian-barbie @marvelous-capsicle @ivoryhazlewood @steverogersxreader @cjhorseback @jasminecalia @secondstar2disney @jessiedaeum @betsynodak @capricornprince118

[meetevieinthehallway]

stop thinking so much.

in which harry teaches english and some poetry is hard to pick apart.

quotes in quotations and italics: William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

-

he’s studied for this.

god knows this is what he is destined to know— how to take the meek twenty-six letters of the english alphabet and craft them into phrases and words that will convey and pull out human emotion.

although difficult, he spent years of education learning how to decipher literature, how to create reactions from it, how to respond to it.

and now he’s gobsmacked.

they never taught him this—

how to react to this type of poetry—

one with a beating heart and piercing eyes and the most beautiful fucking smile he has ever seen.

harry has never been good with girls.

he was always an awkward, shyer guy: one with a few close friends and a happy family; but who would much rather sit under his backyard oak tree and write than go to a party he wouldn’t even remember the next day. he preferred quiet and isolation and by no means was he a sad, lonely kid with no friends— just wasn’t very social and liked a few people here and there but never took initiative.

he still doesn’t truly know how to talk to people that he likes.

he gets very nervous and tentative— there’s a crippling anxiety in the back of his head that they already don’t like him when he’s barely said hello. he lacks arrogance, but he believes he’s... decent looking? right? (and he knows he would treat any person he loves like a royal.)

that’s why he chose books and that’s why he chose poems.

for the personal interpretations— because he can read a love story and place himself in the roles and live out a dream that can be tucked away later and be kept secretive.

but he finally decided to show himself and he went to school for this—to teach kids how to let words move them—but somehow between the sonnets and voltas and haikus his professors never taught him what to do when he couldn’t decipher a piece— what to do if pieces left you speechless.

because there’s the word pink painted on her lips and there’s songs written in the webbing of her irises and he wants to drown in the melodies that consume her features.

but he fears saying something wrong.

those meek twenty-six letters seem intimidating now; he can’t even conjure up an idea for a simple conversation when he sees her smile and hears her laugh and hears her talk and he thinks his mind has regressed back to when he was an awkward, stuttering mess of a teenager.

the pair has had good conversations in the months she’s been in the faculty and in the room across from harry’s, but after they happen he is left with a doubtful mind and a stomach of chaos that drags him down the rest of the day. it’s swirls and spirals of insecurities and messy script as he scrawls in his journal just to put his thoughts somewhere— a place where they’re safe in a book and where he can reread the conversation and try to correct any flaws for the next time he speaks to her.

it’s more studying and more deciphering and more interpreting like how he’s learned but this time it’s his own mind and they never taught him this.

the first time he met her— oh god no. he still cringes thinking about it, and that was months ago but it’s stuck with him as if the moment is glued to his forehead for all to see and humiliate him with.

he was so terribly stunned by her beauty and by her radiance when she popped her head in his doorway as he was hanging up trim around his bulletin board.

hi!

he turned his head and he seemed to be reacting to a glowing sun as he drank her in.

i’m the new math teacher...

his lips parted and he only stared at her as her voice carried on and started to muffle itself in his ears. he’s staring at her like a fucking lunatic— not listening and only looking and he realizes later that he probably seemed so disrespectful.

she had finished her introduction with a cute smile but a blush rose to her cheeks when he stayed standing there in complete shock.

sorry did i.. startle you? i’m sorry—

no! no no i just—

somehow the shake in her voice threw him off and he stumbled to get down the ladder, tripping and hitting his forehead on the third step.

ow, shit.

oh no! are you okay?

he can’t think about it, and he doesn’t want to.

basically, to sum it up, it was a mess of his flailing limbs and a stuttering voice and a shaky, sweaty hand in a too-long handshake and long story short he made a fucking fool of himself.

harry is embarrassed.

yeah he can’t talk to people he likes or finds attractive but at the end of the day he’s so in touch with his emotions that they embody him— and then he believes someone will outwardly observe them.

he can’t conjure up another word to express how difficult this all is.

maybe the word is “hopeless”.

“thinking of your crush?”

he jumps.

his hand slams to his desk because it feels like he’s leaning forward— the thump of his palm aiding in his jump out of his own mind.

he’s snapped out of his daydream—more like a nightmare as he relives their first ever encounter—and his head shoots up at the sound of a voice in the doorway of his classroom.

he frowns when he sees blue eyes and a playful smirk and registers the tone of voice.

harry looks down and shakes his head, eyes searching for his pen and moving to grasp it between his fingers.

“what do you need, niall?” he grumbles it as he blushes and continues to grade endless pages of essays and words that all begin to blur together.

“wow, not even denying it this time, mate?”

harry frowns and closes his eyes before his fingers come up to scrub at his eyelids. “stop it. i don’t have time for this.”

niall smirks and pads into his classroom, pulling up a chair nearby and dragging it in front of harry’s desk.

“c’mon, mate.” he turns his chair backwards and straddles it, his elbows falling to the back of the chair. he’s staring at his colleauge with narrowed eyes as his chin falls atop of his elbows and harry looks up at him with unimpressed eyes, half rolling them before they settle on him. “haven’t seen you get laid in a while. and i know you fancy the pretty bird across the hallway—”

“don’t call her bird.”

niall smirks.

harry blushes.

“i know you fancy someone,” he corrects himself in a sing-songy way and harry rolls his eyes in full, placing his pen down. “and she is a proper cutie— you should ask her out! hasn’t it been like— months?”

“something like that.” he sighs.

“so ask her!”

he only shakes his head, and niall frowns.

“no?”

“no.”

he huffs. “why not?”

“dunno just—” he shrugs and looks away, his pen in his hand forgotten, “isn’t that like… weird?”

niall furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head shortly, “why would that be weird?”

“dunno. feels like…— juvenile.”

juvenile.

adjective.

of, for, or relating to young people.

and that’s the thing.

if he’s going to ask her out he needs to do it like an adult— a functioning one. but how can he function when she smiles at him like that when he holds the door open for her every morning because they walk in at the same time and— what— it’s not like he intentionally arrives ten minutes early and pretends he just arrived right when she pulls in just so he could see that fucking smile—

juvenile.

it’s exactly how he acts when it comes to her— like a prepubescent teen who gets blushy and flustered at the simplest thing she does.

“...asking somebody out is juvenile?” niall raises his eyebrows.

harry shakes himself from his daze, “not..—” he looks up and shakes his head, “i don’t know, i guess i just... don’t want to be rejected.”

“so you mean you’re juvenile?”

harry’s face turns red and he looks up at his friend with a glaring gaze, “hey.”

“c’mon mate,” niall laughs at his flustered appearance, “you two talk all the time! she definitely fancies you—”

“dunno just—...” he shrugs and looks away. “don’t think she likes me like that.” he rubs his eye again. “said it yourself: she’s cute and pretty and funny and i’m all—...not..that.”

niall huffs. “she likes you, h.”

“dunno.”

“c’mon! she’s always trying t’talk to you! you’re just... shy and... nervous—”

“hi!”

niall halts and harry’s eyes widen and niall twists and harry looks up and across the room.

“i’m going on a coffee run, do you... do either of you want anything?”

harry freezes.

because the beautiful woman that’s been plaguing his thought process is peaking her cute little face between the trim of his doorway with a soft smile and gently asking if he wants coffee, and it seems—and he prays—that she only originally planned on asking him and that—

“i’m set, love. had a cup about an hour ago.”

niall speaks.

harry forgets how.

and then niall—niall this fucking bastard of a friend—turns his body back to harry and gives him a suggestive smirk.

harry’s eyes meet his and he silently sends him a don’t you fucking dare with his pupils.

but no, niall is a little shit who truly only wants good for his two colleagues, so he says clearly—

“you want anything, harry? know you mentioned wanting a tea or summat.”

and he smirks.

harry’s soul dies a bit.

“oh!” she says it from the doorway and harry’s eyes flicker towards her, “i can grab you a tea—”

“actually,” niall interjects, “harry— thought you said you were running out to get it in a few minutes or so...”

another smirk.

another sinking feeling.

“oh! are you still going to go? i was going to get it for whoever wants it but if you planned to then—...”

another taste at that melodious voice from the doorway.

harry swallows, “it’s up to you.” he murmurs, “i can run out for everyone if you’re busy or—”

“or you guys should go together!”

harry really fucking hates niall.

all harry sees when he looks up is her own blinking eyes, staring and wide and he can’t tell if they look more terrified or more of a fuck-to-the-no kind of gaze.

he hates both options.

“o-oh.” she murmurs, and a blush spreads across her nose and a smile plants itself on her lips, “um, we can do that!... if that’s... if you wanna, harry.”

every time she says his name he forgets it for a moment. 

she’s grinning at him but despite her bubbliness she looks a bit hesitant, and harry can see niall’s head turn out of the corner of his eye and green eyes meet blue ones that are twinkling—

niall is staring at him now with a questioning, stern gaze and a go for it, dammit, kind of look and harry’s blood is thrumming and his head is spinning and—

“we can... yeah, go together.”

—

harry’s mom used to tell him he was wasting away a part of himself and his life.

she didn’t say it in a mean way—more of an attemped constructive one—because she would run her fingers through the top of his curls as she said it, with a delicate smile on her cheeks.

my love, your nose is always buried in a book.

and he would smile gently, as a young teen, and shake his head. is that so bad?

and she’d only sigh sadly with that same smile and shake her head, murmuring i suppose not.

that’s the first time harry felt that he was different.

and as a twelve year old, you don’t think that you want to be different.

because anne was right— he’d much rather spend his days in between lines of writing than strain his eyes watching idiotic cartoons like his classmates were. (he used to say that he’d rather picture and process characters his own way instead of seeing visuals already established for him and his sister would make fun of him for it and that’s when he felt that he was different). he realized that he couldn’t always connect with kids his age—he was always a level of maturity ahead than the rest, it seemed—and that he’d much rather wrap himself in some sort of fantasy with dragons and fairies and wizards and even just ordinary people than play video games or go drinking.

somehow, sometimes, the people in books were better than real ones.

he learned that along the way as well.

because the girlfriends he had didn’t understand him in the way he hoped; some were judgmental who just couldn’t fathom wanting to sit in and read by the windowsill instead of going partying at frat houses.

he wasn’t antisocial! he just wanted at least a couple hours a week to absorb himself into his books and he didn’t always want to just go partying like his girlfriends did.

harry was distraught when his third girlfriend broke up with him for the same reason they all had.

when she explained that her friends were mocking her for dating a ‘straight up nerd’ who was boring and ‘couldn’t hang’ and she said it all while looking away from him because she was embarrassed in explaining why he was embarrassing.

irony.

that night he read romeo and juliet for the seventeenth time in his life, crying onto his pages that he had fingered through so many times— his teardrops bleeding the inked words into each other as he flipped through quickly because her words had somehow carved so deep into his chest that he couldn’t focus or breathe and all of the words and plot had blended together—

“Here's to my love! O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.”

somehow harry was searching for answers in a crafted tragedy where he knew there’d be no solution.

because he didn’t reside in a fantasy world that he had made himself believe he was a part of— this was real life, reality, and for so long it’s almost like he forgot that.

“Oh, happy dagger, this is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die.”

he genuinely didn't admire his love for reading anymore.

but it was all he knew.

from that point in his life, at the age of nineteen, he decided to focus on school and books and poems instead of girls.

“Don't waste your love on somebody, who doesn't value it.”

it was easier this way.

someone out there is right for you, harry, i promise.

but his mother had said those words with the same sad smile she wore on that day that she told him he couldn’t lift his head from a book’s spine, and he only wiped at his cheek and nodded with his eyes casted down and his hands folded in his lap.

and as much as he felt that his mom was right—that books were wasting his life and his time—he let himself get lost in them.

it’s all he knew.

there was a period of time where harry wouldn’t really sleep or rest—he would study and annotate and enjoy and laugh and cry at words all night—and he had permanent indentations in his fingers where he would hold a book up to his view as he was doing anything, really.

harry let himself get twisted in romance and life and loss and he meandered through shakespeare and poe and bishop and auden and plath for long stretches of time before he’d fall asleep with words painted under his lips as he dreamed.

he finished romeo and juliet for the twenty-fifth time the night before the beautiful math teacher popped her head in the door, and when he slammed his head on the rung of the ladder it felt all too nostalgic to the feeling of his forehead hitting the pages as he crashed on the top of his desk.

and suddenly it felt like every line of poetry and every beat of iambic pentameter and every voltra in all the italian sonnets was irrelevant, unnecessary, and now he believes his mother was right after all these years—

that he’s wasted his time away.

he doesn't have to read and write and draft and interpret her, this type of poetry— how the webbings of her eyes are soft and how the upturn of her lips creates a stampede of his blood through his veins. because it’s already there for him to admire: this beautiful face and soul and aura and he doesn’t need to delve deep into knowing her to comprehend how utterly beautiful she is.

he’s wasted his time away seeking the words of others and not looking for it right in front of him. this— she is the first time in his life he is unable to say something calculated, something purely crafted, because he doesn't think that he has ever encountered anybody like her.

harry hopes he isn’t wasting his own time anymore— or hers. he doesn’t want to drag out something already dead—or something not even alive to begin with—and he doesn’t want his feelings to overdevelop themselves.

the last thing he wants is to scare her, trouble her.

because yes— she’s been so impossibly sweet to him, but that doesn’t mean that she admires him in the same way.

and now they’re walking side-by-side and harry can smell her perfume as it floats his way to his nose and he feels like an absolute creep for falling in love with it immediately but—

she’s looking around at all the autumn leaves and murmuring how pretty they are and she’s smiling at all the dogs they pass on the sidewalk.

oh, god.

he thinks his heart is going to explode— it’s pulsing and throbbing and he has to look away before he blurts out about how unbelievably cute she is.

the air is brisk— it’s cool and the breeze is slapping his cheeks and it’s helping him take his focus off of her and the way she’s grinning at the sunshine. this is the first time that they’ve ever spent any time together outside school grounds; he feels like an idiot that it’s making his heart giddy because it’s only to the coffee place down the block.

just say something, anything, h, c’mon.

“so... math, huh?”

... yikes.

idiot. idiot. idiot.

one of the first real chances he gets with the girl he fancies and he acts like a complete idiot.

who the fuck says that to start a conversation?!

that’s what he decides to say to her after he chokes on the gentle breeze that is blowing her hair back and away from her face, the sun hitting her skin and illuminating her smile.

he’s had training in words and syntax and poems and novels and somehow he can’t even fucking talk to her like a normal guy— and the minute the words leave his lips he’s already cringing at the awkwardness they hold.

but she doesn’t hear him fully— and it makes the pause after his question that much worse because she looks at him with a puzzled expression.

“sorry?”

and he swallows and somehow with this sudden second chance for rephrasing or asking a different question he asks the same fucking one.

“you chose math to teach.”

no shit she did, harry. she teaches algebra to sophomores.

“yeah!”

but she grins that amazing smile and his heart stutters and he has to clear his throat when she...—

when she adorably is stepping on the leaves that have fallen and giggling when they crunch under her feet and harry has a hard time swallowing because his brain can’t decide if she’s real as he gazes down on her.

she is like how authors describe their novels’ love interest.

a hop in her step and a smile on her face and the cutest, sweetest disposition; but there’s still that unattainable element that harry can’t decipher.

but it’s there.

maybe it’s the mentality of a novel’s insecure protagonist— that she’s too pretty or well-liked or too different in relation to him and he seriously can’t decipher it but he can feel the strain on his heart because he knows that it’s still drawing him in.

“why math?”

and that’s all his years of studying and degrees have brought him to.

and she blushes and giggles again and he’s shocked, and he can’t comprehend how she is so easily sweet and smiley to him: harry, this fucking disaster ever since she stepped through the door of the high school.

“i think it’s fun!” she’s giggling when she says it and his heart throbs a bit in his chest.

“hm,” he nods and looks at his shoes as they continue walking.

“ah,” she grins, “that’s the face of a man who loathes math.”

he actually lets out a small chuckle, a sheepish smile forming on his face. “sorry,” he winces, looking back to her, “not my strongest suit.”

“it’s okay,” she looks at him with a smirk, “i hated english growing up so,” she leans over and nudges him with her shoulder, “guess we’re even.”

a part of him breathes.

because she’s making jokes and making it casual and it’s lessening the intensity of the situation.

a part of him tenses and he feels the pressure of his blood rise.

because her loathing english is her loathing harry’s passion— the one thing that makes the lonely days not so lonely.

but she’s already so different than the others.

maybe she wouldn’t be like the others and wonder why the specific part of him is there, why it is relevant, why it is important to him. maybe if she hates english he can hope and pray she tolerates it, appreciates it, to some degree.

she seems different. please—please—let her be different.

“but do you know what’s interesting about them two?”

his eyebrows bunch in the middle and his eyes meet hers once again. “what?” he quirks a small smile in amusement.

“they both involve lots of calculation.”

he pauses, tilting his head and she meets his eyes and her heart stutters at how they glitter in this light.

“calculation?”

“calculation.”

“how so?”

“well—” their walks slow as they reach the cafe’s door and harry takes the handle, “thank you,” her cheeks bloom roses and harry grins sheepishly as he watches her step inside.

she turns and waits for him to step in himself, their eyes meeting and harry smiles gently when he notices the grin she’s giving him.

“you were saying?”

her eyes round in realization and they unfocus from the daze she acquired as she was looking at him. she shakes her head, “sorry,” she swallows. “well— if you think about it, it’s obvious that math has deciphering and solving, but so does literature!” she says it excitedly.

harry pauses to think about it.

he doesn’t remember the last time that someone who didn’t teach english spoke so excitedly about it.

“hm.” they step forward in line, “i’ve always kind of thought that— that math was more... ‘black and white’, right and wrong, and english and reading was more... colorful and... broad.”

“well english is a bit more interpretive than math, but not everything in reading and writing can—or should—be interpreted.”

he frowns, “i don’t know if i agree with you there.”

she grins at him, “no?”

he shakes his head. “reading is all about interpretation— that’s how other things are written: someone gets inspired from an understanding of one piece and—”

“so you believe it’s essential?”

she cuts him off. he’s taken aback. 

there’s a unknown fire in her eyes and stretched out in her cheeks as her lips pull up; he doesn’t know if he should be trying to extinguish it or keep it live and powerful in front of him.

“i believe so.”

his posture straightens as he matches her smirk because fighting fire with fire only creates more intensity.

he’s not extinguishing her—this. not a chance.

“so you think i’m wrong?” she’s grinning impishly.

he falters. harry’s smirk weakens and he looks away for a split second to gather a response, “i—... no i just... don’t think i agree, that doesn’t mean—”

“you know why you don’t agree with me?”

he splutters, again, worse this time, his shoulders now being the ones to hesitate, “um...—”

“it’s because you—people who love reading and writing and poems and stories—are too busy interpreting to realize that not everything needs to be calculated. that’s kind of the funny thing about it.”

“i— what?...” he doesn’t know what he’s asking, “h-how do you mean?”

her eyes have left him but the smirk has remained; her body has turned more forward as she’s reading over the cafe’s menu list, feigning a lack of interest as she responds. “it’s not so... “to be or not to be”. it’s not if something can or cannot be interpreted,” she looks back to him with a knowing gaze. “it’s the question of if a piece must be deciphered and processed and thought out to understand it; is it necessary to do so for the piece to move you?”

he’s gobsmacked.

she’s radiating such intelligence and wisdom and he doesn’t know what to make of it— he doesn’t know how to respond and he’s staring at her in a wondrous way because she’s so different and interesting and to anyone else this conversation would seem so bizarre and confusing but—

“you can pick apart sonnets and equations in an equal fashion—to define them further and try to pick and prod at why this happens and what causes that— but... is there ever appreciation for just.. what it is?”

harry bites his lip and shrugs, “i mean— yeah, of course. but when you interpret something you’re making it your own and—”

“—i believe that some things are just the way they are and—...” she cuts him off with an impatient tone to her voice and a blush to her cheeks and she meets his eyes, “sometimes i think you should feel and stop thinking so much.”

it’s more than what she’s disguising it as.

he can tell— she falls quiet, then he falls quiet, eyes widened slightly and she bites her lip nervously. and harry feels her fingers brush his and he looks down on both of their hands sharply, like she has sent flames to lick at his skin.

their hands hang next to one another, cold and lonely like orbiting planets that will never attain in touching one another but there’s stardust between their fingers and—

his fingers twitch involuntarily—but was it really?—and his hand takes hers and then they are holding each other in such a simple way and his heart is trembling in his chest.

he hears her sigh but it’s not one of relief and his mind is going going going it’s whirring too fast and chasing after comprehension and it’s too overwhelming to process in real time real minute real moment— he’s thinking in metaphors and paradoxes and dualities and—

harry meets her eyes slowly.

“what did you say?”

she smiles shyly, tilting her head. “stop thinking so much.” she whispers it. there’s an unsure look to her eyes: questioning if this—all of this—is okay. “take chances.” 

he smiles small.

then she cracks a larger smile but it’s still sheepish as both her hands move to grasp his one, “you may be surprised at how something so juvenile—”

she squeezes his hand and giggles and his eyes widen.

“—could be so great.”

he sighs in relief and his brain slows its spinning and he squeezes her fingers once in return, nodding as his smile grows.

she grins fully, a million stars in her eyes.

“you’re right.”

“Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall.”