#donna voice anywhos

[elianamarie-blog]

The Things You Give Pt. 29

Woooooooww. It's been WAY too long! I'm so sorry my loves. Thank you for still reading my content though! I can't tell youhow much it means to me. You all are amazing and make my day by your likes and comments! I lost a lot of inspiration towards the end of last year and it was hard to write when you don't have that or any of the creative juices flowing, but I fought it because of you guys, so thank you for keeping me writing! Anywho, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Much love!

February 28, 1979

Point Place, Wisconsin

Forman Residence

Eric Forman’s Basement

“You guys, listen to this ad,” Eric announced. “Do you like to draw? Well, I have been known to trace my hand and turn it into a turkey. If so, have your artistic ability evaluated by the cartoon academy of Fort Lauderdale.”

“Ooh, I think Picasso went there,” Kelso said.

“All I have to do is send in my drawing of Sanchez the turtle and a money order for $19.95. 20 bucks to get judged by a panel of cartoon experts? I'd pay twice that,” Eric said, grabbing a pad and pen.

“Okay, besides that, Donna…how’s the radio station going?” Jackie asked.

“It’s good,” she responded. “I get to host Tuesdays and Thursday’s from one to five A.M. Boss man is even thinking of letting me cohost with—get this—Jerry Thunder!”

“That’s awesome!” Kelso cried out excitedly. “You get to work with ‘The Sound!’” He lowered his voice, imitating the radio station announcement.

“Do you have any idea what this could mean for my career?” Donna continued.

"Oh, my God! You're going to be famous!" Jackie squealed.

“Exactly,” Eric responded. “Awe, my girl is going to be radio famous.”

“What about you, Steven?” Jackie asked, turning to him. “How’s work going?”

“Fine?” Hyde questioned, eyeing her. “Why are you so interested in other people’s lives?”

“Can’t I be interested in my friends’ lives?” she asked innocently.

“No,” he said flatly. “You’ve never have. What’s gotten into you?”

She sighed. “Well, Markus told me that I need to start taking an interest in other people’s lives other than my own, otherwise people won’t really love me like they say they do. And when I said that they do actually love me, he said they were lying to me. Is that true?”

Everyone went silent; not knowing how to respond.

Y/n clicked her tongue. “Um…well…”

“Who’s going to tell her?” Hyde asked. “Because I’m about to hurt her feelings."

“Oh, it’s true!” Jackie whined. “I thought I was being lovable. You know—like the nice princess from The Wizard of Oz.”

“Yeah,” Eric said slowly. “You’re not. You’re more like the wicked witch of the west.”   

“Alright, as fun as this is, I need to get to work,” Hyde announced.

“Who’s running the store while you’re here?” Donna asked.

“Angie. She’s really wound tight on when we open,” he responded, rolling his eyes. “She’s always bitching about me not being there early and opening up on time and not closing early. It’s stupid.”

“Man, Angie is so pretty,” Kelso cooed.

“What have I said when talking about my sister?” Hyde asked gruffly.

“Don’t put her name or pretty or anything of the like in the same sentence,” he responded, not making eye contact.

“That’s right,” Hyde responded. “Anyway, Angie likes to jump my ass about everything. I didn’t close last night so now it’s apparently my fault that the store looked like a mess this morning.”

“Well, then who closed?” Y/n asked.

“Me. I closed six hours early and apparently that’s bad business. But in my defense, I had an important appointment to go to.”

“Oh, your baby appointments?” Kelso asked as he started throwing a ball into the air.

“No, I had an appointment at my darts tournament.”

  “Steven,” Y/n lectured. “I know your sister is hard to work with but maybe you shouldn’t make her make your life more miserable.”

“Betrayal!” Steven cried out, pretending to be offended at his wife.

Y/n shook her head at him.

“I thought you guys didn’t get along?” Fez asked. “Why are you defending her?”

“Hey, right is right and wrong is wrong,” she replied. “And right now, Steven is wrong.”

“I think this calls for a divorce,” Eric said.

“Shut up, Eric,” Y/n said, propping her feet up on the table. “Steven, if you want her to get off your ass, maybe try pulling your weight around the store. It’s called running a business.”

“I’d hate to admit it, Hyde, but she’s right,” Donna said.

 “What’s going on here?” Hyde asked. “I can’t believe you’re on her side!”

“Normally I wouldn’t be, but this time she’s right,” Y/n responded. “It’s like me doing all the cooking and cleaning around the house and taking care of the kids while you’re away at work, and then coming home just to go to bed.”

Steven blinked at her. “Okay, where’s the lesson in that?”

“Steven!” she screeched. “My point is you can’t just show up and not expect to do any work. Especially at your own store.”

Steven made a face and sighed. “Fine. But I’m going to complain the whole time.”

She shook her head at him. “That’s fine. As long as work gets done. And I expect the same at home too!”

“Sure. But just so you know you’re going to have pay me too.”

“I can’t. It’s illegal if I do,” she sassed.

He smirked at her. “I love you.”

She smiled. “Love you, too.”

“Alright, well, I’m going.”

“Oh, don’t forget, we have a class later tonight.”

  “What class?”

 “A class on how to take care of a baby,” she said. “Remember? I signed us up for it with my mom. The same class Kelso and Brooke took.”

He groaned. “Come on, Y/n, do I really have to go?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m not going to be the only one changing poopy diapers.”

“See, I was thinking I could be in charge of what goes into the babies and you’re in charge of what comes out.” The look on her face said otherwise. “Fine.”

She perked up immediately. “Thank you. It’s at 6. Be here by 5:30.”

He huffed. “Okay.” With that, he walked out the basement, leaving the rest behind.

 “And I’m hungry,” Y/n said and brought her feet down. “Babies and I want a snack. Maybe a bowl of fruit. And then some ice cream.” As she struggled to get up, Donna reached out to her. “No, no I got it.” She pushed herself up, but fell back into the chair. She sucked in a breath and launched herself out of the chair, barley landing on her feet. “See,” she said, breathing hard. “I got it.” She wobbled upstairs.

“What did she mean by that?” Fez asked innocently.

“What do you mean?” Jackie asked.

“When she said it’s illegal if she pays him. I thought getting an allowance was normal?”

Everyone giggled.

“What? What’s so funny?”

“Think about it, Fez,” Jackie said. “Really think. Long and hard.”

Fez was quiet as everyone looked at him, waiting for him to get it. It didn’t take a long for a sly smile to break out on his face. He giggled. “I get it.”

“We should probably go too,” Kelso said and tapped Fez’s shoulder. “We have an apartment that we’re going to go look at.”

“You guys haven’t found an apartment yet?” Jackie asked. “Fez, where have you been sleeping this whole time?”

 “With me,” Kelso responded. “But I think my parents are getting sick of us.”

“What—you guys giggle like a bunch of school girls all night?” Donna chuckled.

Fez’s eyes grew a fraction. “Have you guys been spying on us?!”

“It’s true?!” Eric said, laughing.

“You know what? We really need to get going,” Kelso said and grabbed the scruff of Fez’s jacket. “See ya!”

“I swear, they’re in love or something,” Donna chuckled.

“Eh,” Eric shrugged. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”

                                    --Time Skip—

Y/n and Steven walked into the classroom that night. Plastic babies littered the room and a few other soon-to-be parents were all there and seated.

“Come on, Y/n, do we really have to do this?” Steven whined.

“I think it’s a good idea,” she said. “We’ve never been around babies before so we need to be prepared.”

Just as she said that, a large impregnated woman waddled by them and sat in a seat farthest away from them.

“Oh, my God,” Y/n said under her breath. “She has to be in her third trimester. That looks painful.”

“Either she’s having multiple kids or her baby is going to rip her apart.”

“Not helping, Steven.”

“Hey, you two,” Kitty cooed excitedly as she walked up to the couple. “Steven, you ready to talk about burps, boo-boo’s, and binkies?”

“Yeah, sure,” he responded flatly.

“Oh, come on don’t be such a sour puss,” Kitty said. “You should be glad to be here! Especially since I’m going to be the one to guide you into parenthood.” She gave them an excited, crinkled smile.

“I wouldn’t say I’m glad—” Steven started, but was cut off by Y/n.

“Shut up, Steven.”

He clamped his jaw shut as Kitty continued.

“Well, I am so glad that you’re here anyway,” she said. “It makes it better knowing that I’m guiding you to become better parents for my grandbabies!”

“Thanks, Mrs. Forman,” Steven said genuinely.

“You’re welcome, dear.” She turned to address the rest of the class. “Okay, everyone have a seat!” Kitty announced from the front. As everyone sat down, Kitty began. “Now, when your little bundle of joy is first born, they will spend almost 20 hours a day pooping and sleeping. Who else can tell me what else they’ll be doing?”

Y/n raised her hand eagerly. “Eating.”

“Great job, Y/n!” Kitty praised. “Now, what do babies eat?”

“Breast milk and formula!” a red-headed woman said eagerly.

“Yes, great job! Now, when your baby is born and it’s time to breastfeed, don’t be alarmed when the first couple of feedings may feel uncomfortable. Once the baby latches on properly to the nipple, it should feel less uncomfortable and more of a tugging on the breast.”

As Kitty continued her teaching, Steven leaned into Y/n’s ear and smirked. “So…nothing new for you then, right?”

“Shut up, Steven,” Y/n said, blushing.

He snickered and leaned away, eyes forward.

“And just so you know,” Y/n whispered, leaning into his side this time. “You just burned yourself.”

“What? How so?”

She chuckled breathlessly. “You basically said that all you do is tug…like a baby.”

 His smirk dropped immediately. “I didn’t say that.”

“Yes, you did,” she chuckled. “You just got burned, sucka!”

The room went dead silent as Kitty stared at them.

“Is there something you two would like to share?” she asked the couple who looked at like deer caught in the headlights.

“No,” Steven said.

“No, ma’am,” Y/n said in unison.

Kitty gave a curt nod before returning to the board.

                                                    ⧝⧝⧝

“Hey, this place is nice!” Kelso exclaimed as he and Fez walked through the empty apartment. “Big enough to bring the ladies over.” He smirked at his friend.

“And your daughter?” Fez reminded him.

“Oh, yeah, that too.”

The two young men walked around the two-bedroom apartment, admiring it. The living room was spacious with the bathroom and master bedroom immediately to the left of entering. Straight ahead was a decent sized kitchen with a half wall bar looking straight into it. There was a hall to the left of it that lead to the smaller bedroom and a sliding door.

“I think we should go fill out an application before someone else nabs it,” Fez said and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m going to go find the landlord before I—oof!” As he had turned around to leave, he had bumped straight into someone. “Oh, I’m sorry—oh, it’s you.”

The man stood there with a disgusted look on his face and folded arms across his chest. He was skinny with short thinning brown hair with a matching mustache. “Fez,” he said.

“Fenton,” Fez replied in the same tone and matched his stance.

“What are you doing in my apartment?”

Fez brought his eyebrows together. “What do you mean ‘your’ apartment?”

“Oh, you didn’t know?” Fenton smirked. “I’m the landlord of this joint. And before you fill out an application, the answer is no.”

“What? Why?” Fez asked, disappointed.

“You know why,” he responded and turned to Kelso. “But…I’d give it to you in a heartbeat.”

Kelso shifted uncomfortably in his place. “Uh…thanks man, but I don’t swing that way.”

“You don’t have to for me to give you this apartment. You’re way too pretty to pass that easily.”

A smug smile pressed into Kelso’s lips. “I know.”

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you this apartment right here, right now under one condition: You don’t make him your roommate.”

Kelso looked between the two men, stumbling for words. “I don’t—I can’t—”

“Are you serious? You can’t decide right now?” Fez asked, hurt.

“Well, I mean—I need a place, man. A place to raise my daughter.”

“But you can’t just leave me! You need a roommate to help pay the rent and I need a place a live!”

“I know, man, but I got to think of me and my daughter,” Kelso admitted sheepishly.

“I can’t believe this,” Fez said. “I thought you were my friend.”

“Fez, I am your friend!”

“No, you’re not, you son of a bitch!” He stomped out the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

“Fez!” Kelso called and started to run out the door, but Fenton caught him by the shoulder.

“Hey, the offer is still on the table, my friend.”

Kelso shook his head. “No. Not from you.” He walked out, to go find his friend.

                                                        ⧝⧝⧝

“Oh, that’s great Kyra,” Kitty said, watching the redhead wrap a cloth diaper around a baby doll. “Snug so that it fits well and comfortable, but not too snug to cause rash and discomfort. And certainly not too loose! You can imagine what happens when it is!” Kitty laughed and moved onto to the next couple—Y/n and Hyde.

Y/n was struggling to wrap the diaper correctly around the plastic baby. The diaper wouldn’t stay pinned, or it wouldn’t fit right. She was beginning to get flustered and frustrated.

“I don’t think that’s how you do it,” Steven muttered.

“I know how it’s done, Steven!” Y/n snapped.

“Really? ‘Cause it doesn’t look like it.”

“Shut up,” she grumbled and finally pinned the diaper. “There!” She held up the baby in the air, showcasing it to her husband.

Kitty stepped up to their side with a look of concern. “Well, that’s very good, Y/n, but the needle of the pin isn’t supposed to go into the baby’ stomach.”

Tears pricked the corner of her eyes. “Oh, forget it!” She threw the baby down onto the table. “I’m going to be a terrible mother!”

“No, no, you’re not,” Steven said gently and picked up the baby. “I’m probably going to be a worse father—” Y/n shot him a glare. “I mean…a bad father while you…my darling…are you going to be the best gosh darn mother out there.”

She made a face at him, not believing him.

“L-look, it’s not that hard, see?” he stammered and unpinned the needle from the baby. With gentle hands, he undid the diaper and folded the bottom up, then left, and then right. He carefully pinned the diaper down and brought the baby up.

“Wow, great job, Steven!” Kitty cheered. “This looks amazing!”

“Where did you learn to do this?” Y/n asked, confused and marveled at the diaper.

“Well, when my mom would bring home one of my ‘uncles’, he sometimes would bring a kid and my mom, being the terrible person that she is, would make me in charge of watching these kids. Sometimes they were still in diapers. And if I didn’t want my house smelling like crap, then I had to learn how to change a diaper. So…viola.” He held the baby in the palm of his hand.

Y/n stared at it for a second with watery eyes before turning around and stomped out the room.

Steven sighed and set down the baby. “I better go after her. I’ll see you at home, Mrs. Forman.”

Y/n was about to exit the building when Steven called after her.

“Y/n, wait!”

“Please, leave me alone,” she said. “I don’t want to talk to anybody right now.”

“Look, come on,” he said, now at her side and grabbed her elbow. “You know you’re going to be the best mom you can be.”

“How can you know that? If I can’t put on a simple diaper, what makes you think I can do anything else?”

Steven chuckled at her.

“This isn’t funny, Steven!”

“No, no, it’s just that I find humorous that it’s you instead of me.”

“What?” she spat.

“I mean I thought it’d me feeling this way instead of you. I always thought you’d be the one to know what to do before me.”

“Well, I’m glad I could to be of service,” she deadpanned.

“Look, Doll,” he said and grabbed her hands. “You’re going to be great, I promise.”

“I’m not so sure,” she said solemnly and withdrew her hands. “I need to go, I’ll see you at home.”

“Where you going?”

“There’s someone I need to go talk to.” She pushed open the door to walk out.

“You can’t go!”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because we drove here together!”

“Oh, right.”

                                                    ⧝⧝⧝

Y/n raised her fist and nervously knocked on the door in front of her. Padded footsteps could be heard from inside before the door swung open.

Brooke stood in front of her in a pink night gown, hair brushed and braided down her back. “Y/n…what are you doing here?”

“I’m so sorry to bother you this late, but…I was wondering if I can talk to you?”

“Uh…sure,” Brooke replied, a little surprised to see someone she barley spoke to standing on her doorstep. She opened the door wider, gesturing for Y/n to come in. She made her way to the kitchen. “Have a seat and make yourself at home. Would you like some tea?”

“Um…no thank you,” she replied and closed the door behind her. “I won’t be here long.”

“Okay,” Brooke said, grabbing a mug of hot tea and sat down next to Y/n. She smiled at the visibly bothered girl who sat down beside her and crossed her legs. “What’s up?”

Y/n sighed, struggling to find the right words. “When—when you were pregnant with Betsy…were you nervous?”

Brooke tilted her head in thought, jutting her lower lip out. “Well…sure. I mean, who isn’t when it’s their first child?” She chuckled, remembering the thought. “Especially when the father of your child is…well…Michael.”

Y/n couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, I can imagine.” Her gaze dropped to her hands that laid in her lap. “Did you ever feel like you were going to be a bad mom? Because you had no idea what the hell you’d be doing?”

Brooke nodded. “Yeah…I did. Michael and I went to that baby class Mrs. Forman teaches and I could barley put the diaper on that stupid plastic baby.”

Y/n perked up. “Me too! How did you learn to do it?”

Brooke smiled gently at her. “It became second nature once I held Betsy in my arms.”

Y/n was silent for a minute. “But what if it doesn’t? What if—what if I do everything wrong and fail my babies?”

“You’re not going to,” Brooke soothed and tapped Y/n’s knee. “Once they are born, your motherly instincts will kick in. It’s expected.”

“Wasn’t for Steven’s mom.”

“Steven’s mom is a special case,” she responded, rolling her eyes. “You’re not going to be like her.”

“Well, I know that!” Y/n exclaimed, making Brooke laugh. “I just don’t want to be dunce that can’t figure out how to keep a baby happy.”

“You want to know the secret to a happy baby?” Brooke asked, leaning in.

Y/n perked up. “Yes!”

“There isn’t,” she deadpanned. “You’re never going to have a happy baby 100 percent of the time. They’re going to cry when they’re hungry, tired, have a full diaper, or just want to be held. Sometimes, they’re gonna cry just to cry.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah. At some point they’re going to get old enough to throw a fit. Betsy is old enough now to scream when she gets mad.”

“Really?” Y/n asked, most surprised than the last time she asked.

“Yeah,” Brooke sighed and rubbed her temples. “I love that little girl with all my heart, but sometimes I just want to give her a small taste of my mother’s bourbon in her milk so she can go to sleep.”

“Wait…do you?” she asked, taken aback and if she were being honest…a little amused.

“No,” Brooke chuckled and took a sip of her tea. “It’s tempting though when it’s three a.m. and she still isn’t asleep.”

Y/n chuckled. “I can imagine.” She looked down into her lap as a sudden pressure formed on her chest. “You know what? I think I’ll take that tea now.”

Brooke noticed her sudden change in demeanor, nodded quickly and rushed to the kitchen to grab her a cup of tea. When she rushed back in with a hot cup, she saw Y/n taking slow, steady breaths. Y/n accepted the cup graciously.

“I’m don’t think I’m ready to have kids,” she quivered, taking a sip from her tea.

Brooke looked at her awkwardly. “Erm…wouldn’t you rather be talking about this with your friends—"

Y/n didn’t even bother to hear what she was saying. “I’m going to make a terrible mother. I mean—I don’t know anything about babies! I read in the book Eric got me for Christmas that babies have six different cries. SIX! How am I supposed to know which ones which?”

“Okay, I guess we’re talking about it.”

“And then top of that, if I somehow manage to keep them alive, I have no idea what kind of parent I’m going to be.”

“Y/n, it’s going to be okay,” Brooke said nervously, trying to soothe her.

“No, it’s not,” Y/n practically sobbed. “I have no idea what I’m going to do!”

“I felt the same way,” she responded calmly.

“You did?”

“Oh, yeah. I had no idea what I was doing when Betsy was born. But eventually, it got easier.”

Y/n let out a small breath of relief. “Maybe I have a chance.”

“Of course you do. Every mom that is worried about being a good mom is a good mom.”

She moved the corner of her mouth upwards. “You think so?”

“I know so.” Brooke scooted a little closer to her. “Listen, becoming a new parent is stressful enough as it is. It doesn’t help when you’re eighteen and just starting your career at the library and you get knocked up at a Molly Hatchet concert.” She clicked her tongue, staring off angrily in the distance and shook her head. “Stupid Michael.”

Y/n’s gaze flicked to her and then anywhere else in the room, confused. “I assume we’re no longer talking about me.”

Brooke shook her head. “Sorry. Look, my point is, you’re going to make an amazing mom. I was scared too, but now I can’t imagine my life without my daughter. Regardless of how you feel, you’re going to make mistakes, but that’s not going to make your children love you any less.”

She smiled at Brooke. “Thanks, Brooke. That means a lot.”

“Anytime,” she hummed and leaned back. “So…what’s it like being married to one of the stooges?”

Y/n chuckled. “You got some time?”

                                                          ⧝⧝⧝

“Push, Y/n, push!” Steven encouraged as he held his wife’s hand.

Y/n sat there with her legs hiked up on a table, a female nurse sitting between her legs.

“Steven, before we continue, I just wanted to say that you’re the best sex I’ve ever had,” Y/n said with a certain twinkle in her eyes.

Steven smirked. “I know. Now, come on just a couple more pushes!”

She hunched forward and barley pushed before a squealing baby could be heard.

“Congratulations it’s a boy!” the nurse exclaimed.

“Oh, my God,” the couple breathed together as they watched another nurse take the baby away.

“Okay, one more time,” the nurse said and had Y/n push once again. As easily as the first, another baby popped out, it’s cries echoing the room. “Congrats, it’s another boy!”

As the Hyde’s sat back to relax, satisfied smile on their faces, the doctor perked up.

“What?” Y/n asked. “What is it?”

The nurse’s eyes lifted to meet Steven’s and Y/n’s. “Another baby is coming out…”

“WHAT?!” the couple yelled in unison.

“That’s impossible,” Y/n panicked.

“No one told you were having triplets?” the nurse asked.

“NO!” the couple once again said in unison.

“Okay, this is almost unheard of!” she exclaimed almost excitedly. “Okay, Y/n I’m going to need you to push one more time.”

“N-no! I’m not ready to have another baby!” she cried out.

“It’s a little late for that now!” Kitty said from the corner of the room. “You should’ve used a condom!”

“Mom?” Y/n asked through her quickened breaths. “When did you get here?”

“What are you talking about? I’ve been here the whole time!” she said. “Now, saddle up and push!”

All Y/n had to do was barley push for the baby to come out.

“It’s another boy!” The nurse held the baby in her hands before her eyes grew wide. “Another one is coming!”

“NO!” the couple screamed together.

“It’s a girl! Oh…another one!”

The couple screamed as the baby came out without Y/n needing to push.

As the baby girl came out, another one came out, and then another, and another…and another. They kept on coming until there was a total of 100 babies—crying, screaming, pooping, and drooling.

“Look, Steven,” Y/n gushed. “Look at our beautiful family.” As she spoke, her voice grew deeper and distorted.

Steven stared at her in disbelief at her sudden attitude change when not even a minute ago she was panicking.

“Wait—what?” he asked through bated breaths. “This isn’t—this isn’t real. This isn’t happening.”

“Oh, but it is,” she replied, her smile growing in a distorted and an unnatural way. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think she was possessed—or the joker. “Steven, there’s no way out of this. You did this to me and now you must face before your consequences.”

“I didn’t say I was going anywhere. I—you’re not Y/n. My Y/n knows that.”

“You’re right,” she replied, now standing up. Her body seemed lankier, her limbs longer now. Her eyes grew dark as her skin paled. “Y/n is not here anymore.”

“Steven…” a weak, fragile voice came from behind him. He spun around to see a mirror facing him. Instead of seeing his own reflection, he saw his wife standing there. She looked small and frail, but it was her. Her hair once beautiful hair was dull and lacked life. Her face looked gaunt and her eyes were sunken—exhausted. What once was life and happiness and love in her eyes now only showed sadness.  “Steven, I want out.”

He ambled over to the mirror, scared and confused in what appeared in front of him. “What the hell is happening?”

“I need help,” she cried. “Please, I need help!”

“With what?! Just tell me what you need and I’ll do it!”

“You should know! You caused this!” Y/n screamed at him, tears rolling down her face.

“Caused what?!”

“This,” the other Y/n croaked in a deep voice and pointed a long finger at the mountain of screaming babies. “You failed your family.”

“No! I—I swear I didn’t—I don’t want to!”

“But you did!” The real Y/n screamed. “You left me! I was drowning and you did nothing but watch me! Now, I’m nothing but an empty shell of what I once was! How could you do this to me?! You promised me!”

“But I’m still here!”

“For now,” the ugly, creepy Y/n said. “You’re going to leave just like the man who raised you did.”

“This is all your fault!” his real wife screamed, eyes now wide and erratic. She pointed her finger at him, tears still streaming down her face. “Your fault! Look what you made of me! This is your fault!”

“No!” Steven cried out. He screwed his eyes shut, shaking his head. “This isn’t real! This can’t be.”

“But it is,” a familiar voice came from the mirror. Steven opened his eyes to not see his wife anymore, but to see the one person he thought he’d never see.

“Dad?” He asked, shakily.

“Hey, Steven,” Bud said, shoving his hands in his pockets casually. His shaggy brown hair still hung passed his ears and he wore a flannel shirt and jeans—the last outfit he saw him in before he left him.

Steven couldn’t respond. He ran his hands through his hair, but when he did he saw Bud mimic his movements. As he brought his hands back down to his side, Bud did the same. He waved at the mirror only to his horror to see his supposed father wave his hand. When Steven inched closer to it, Bud followed suit.

“I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Bud continued, a smirk painting his face. “Get a grip on reality, Steven. This is your future!”

“No, I am nothing like you!”

Bud clicked his tongue. “Then why did you do what you did?”

Steven shook his head. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, you keep thinking that. But you’ll eventually end up just like your dad.”

“No, I won’t!” Steven seethed. “You don’t know me.”

“But I do. You’re just like everybody else in this family—a lowlife. You’ve got nothing to bring to the table.”

Steven’s chest was heaving from anger. “Go to hell, Bud.”

“I’ll see you there.”

“What—?”

Before Steven could finish his sentence, the ground beneath him disappeared and swallowed him whole. He screamed as he fell through the never-ending darkness.

“No!” Steven screamed as he jerked awake. It took him a minute to take in his surroundings, gathering his bearings. When he realized it was just a dream, he was heaving and his heart was racing. He glanced over at the bedside clock and it read 4:40am. He looked to his left to see his wife sleeping peacefully beside him. Seeing her there and looking healthy and not possessed brought him a wave of peace and relief. His sudden jerking movements must have wakened her because she stirred awake.

“Babe?” she asked groggy. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Yeah,” he breathed, his racing heart calming down. “Just a bad dream.”

She hummed, her eyes fluttering shut. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He stared down at her, taking her in, trying to forget the image of her from his dream. "No, I'm okay."

"Come here.” She opened her arms and he graciously fell into them. She rubbed his back and caressed his hair, making him feel safe. “It was just a nightmare. It’s over now. You’re safe.”

His grip around her tightened and her belly pressed into his stomach. “I know.”

“Good.”

As they began to fall back into their slumber, Steven felt something move across his stomach. At first, he thought Y/n had shifted her position. But it wasn’t until he felt a little poke to his stomach.

“What the—” Steven said, scrambling away from his wife. “Did you feel that?!”

The feeling jolted her awake as well. “Yeah, I did.” She felt more movement and another poke to her stomach. “Oh, my God…I think the babies are kicking!”

“Seriously?!” he asked, surprised. He pressed his hands to her stomach, waiting for another kick. When it came, his heart skipped a beat. “Oh, my God. There’s actually something in there.”

“Yeah,” she replied, holding her stomach in awe. “There is.”

Steven looked up to meet her loving gaze. She cupped his face before he kissed her belly. “Does it feel weird?”

“Yeah,” she chuckled. “But a good weird.”

Another kick to her stomach. “Man, these kids are kicking like crazy!”

“I know! This is incredible.”

“It really is,” he whispered.

Y/n tilted her head. “You okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah…just. Makes it real, you know?”

She placed her hands over his. “I do.”

He huffed through his nose and pressed his lips to her belly once more. “I promise to be the best dad I can be.”

Y/n’s heart and stomach filled with butterflies. “And I promise to be the best mom I can be.”

He looked at her once more before reaching up and placing a sweet kiss to her lips.

                                            ∞∞∞ 

“So, he’s not talking to you now?” Donna asked Kelso as he, Jackie, Eric, Y/n, Steven and Kitty sat in the kitchen waiting for brunch to finish cooking.

  “No,” Kelso responded. “He packed up his stuff and left. I called his host parents and they haven’t heard anything from him. He hasn’t called me to make sure he’s okay. I don’t know, I’m worried about him guys.”

“Hey, Kelso, if things don’t work out with Angie, you and Fez should get together,” Y/n joked.

 “Wait, why Angie?” Steven asked, glaring at his friend. “Kelso, what does she mean by that?”

  “Nothing. It was a joke,” Kelso chuckled nervously and shot a glare to Y/n.

“Was it?” Steven pushed and turned to his wife. “Now, darling, were you joking? You wouldn’t lie to your husband, would you?”

Y/n gulped nervously. “N-no, of course not.”

“Then what did you mean by that?”

“Nothing,” she stuttered. “I was just…making a poor joke.”

Hyde squinted at her behind his glasses. “I don’t believe you.”

“Wow! Look at the time I really should be going!” She tried to get up quickly, but the new weight of her stomach slowed her down. She achingly stood and tried to stand, but Steven grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

  “Y/n,” he said sternly. “Tell me the truth. Or I’m going to stop doing the thing that you like.”

“I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that,” Kitty said, stirring the pan of the food.

Y/n stared into her husband’s eyes before cracking. “Kelso has been secretly dating your sister!”

“Y/n!” Kelso shouted. “What the hell?!”

“I’m sorry!” she cried out. “I can’t lie to him! He’s my husband. Besides, when he threatens to take certain things away, he means it.”

Steven smiled proudly. “Damn straight.”

“Look, man, I—” Kelso began, but was cut off by Hyde.

“Nah, you listen to me. I told you to stay away from Angie and you went behind my back and did it anyway. Now, you’re going to pay.”

“Wow, this sounds familiar,” Eric piped up, pretending to think. He looked at Hyde, smirking. “Oh, yeah.”

“Shut up, Forman!” Steven snapped and turned his attention back to Kelso. “Look, I’m not going to tell you again. You’re going to end it, and you’re going to end it now.”

“What? C’mon, man it’s not like we did it or anything!” Kelso defended. “Yet at least.” He stuck his tongue out and nudged Y/n.

“Yeah…I’m not going to do that,” she responded, resting her hand on her stomach.

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want you knocking her up too,” Hyde said. “And if you do, I will put you six feet under.”

“Yeah, how terrible would that be?” Eric mocked, still smirking.

Hyde glared at his brother-in-law. “I said shut up.” He turned back to Kelso. “I mean it. You and her? Are done.”

“Alright, man, jeez,” Kelso said and leaned back in his chair.

“Alright,” Steven said, satisfied with the answer. “Now, Y/n…”

“Yes, dear?” she asked nervously.

“I’d like to know why you tried to cover Kelso’s ass.”

“I didn’t,” she said, her voice getting higher.

“Yes, you did.” He leaned back in his chair, slinging his arm down the back, and cocked his head to the side. “You want to tell me why?”

“Uh…” she stuttered, her mouth going dry. “Guys, the babies kicked last night!”

“What?!” Everyone shouted, her diversion successful.

Kitty ran over to her and placed her hand on her daughter’s belly. “Oh, my God! My grandbabies kicked!” After a few seconds of no movement, her eyebrows furrowed. “C’mon, babies. Kick for Grandma. Kick!”

“Mom, I don’t think that’s how th—” Eric began, but Kitty cut him off with her joyous screeching.

  “One of them kicked!” she cried out. “I can’t believe it! One of them kicked! Red! Red, honey, get in here!”

“What?” he asked calmly, entering the kitchen.

“The babies kicked!” she replied excitedly.

“Oh, that’s great,” he said with a grin.

 “Come feel it!”

Red cleared his throat and stayed near the door. “No, it’s okay. I believe you.”

 “Red, come feel your grandchildren,” Kitty scolded.

   “No, I really don’t want to.”

   “Red Forman, come feel the life your daughter is bringing into this world right now!”

“But…it’s so awkward,” he whined and cautiously stepped over to Y/n. His hand hovered over her bulging belly.

“It’s okay, Dad, it’s not going to bite,” Y/n chuckled.

Red sighed grumpily before barley placing his fingertips on her stomach. He stood there for a few seconds before he felt movement. His eyes widened slightly before pressing more of his hand onto her belly. Another kick to his hand caused him to withdraw.

He cleared his throat. “Well, uh, there’s that.”

“Red, those are your grandchildren and that’s all you got to say?” Kitty asked.

“Well…there really are babies in there.”

“Yeah, and in three months they’ll be here,” Kitty mentioned, but when she did Hyde’s and Y/n’s faces dropped.

“Th-three months?” Hyde stuttered; his previous frustration complete dissipated.

“Well, yeah!” Kitty answered. She gave them an astonished look as they stared back in panic. “Did you guys think that they weren’t just going to come?”

“No, I-I just thought that w-we had more time,” Y/n said and looked to her husband in a panic.

“What do you mean by that?” Kitty asked, straightening up.

“We, uh, we don’t exactly—” Hyde started.

 “Oh, my God!” Kitty yelled. “You guys don’t have anything for the babies?”

“Not exactly…” Y/n answered, looking down.

“Okay, then what do you have?” Kitty asked, standing straight and put her hands on her hips.

“We…have the onesies…that Eric gave us,Y/n said hesitantly.

 “That’s all you have?!” Kitty screeched, causing Eric, Y/n, and Steven to cover their ears closest to her.

 “Mom, please…dogs can hear you,” Eric said, walking away.

  “Steven, what are we going to do?” Y/n asked, worryingly looking to her husband.

He sighed and rubbed his neck. “I don’t know. I can ask WB if he can give me an advance on my paycheck. I can’t imagine how much this stuff is going to cost.”

“No need,” Kitty said, excited. “This gives us a perfect opportunity to have a baby shower!”

“No!” Red shouted. “No. More. Parties!”

“Red, it won’t be for us,” Kitty argued. “It’ll be for them.” She placed both hands on her daughter’s belly.

 “Don’t do this,” Red said. “Don’t use our unborn grandchildren as a way to get your way.”

“I’m not!” she responded and stood straight. “We can have this baby shower and get everything that we need! We won’t have to spend a dime!”

“We still have to spend money on the party!”

“Actually, we can cover that. Right, Steven?” Y/n asked.

“Uh…do I have to be there?” he asked.

“No,” Y/n answered, knowing the answer will satisfy her husband.

“Then yes we can!” he said, more upbeat.

“There you go!” Kitty said, facing her husband. “And I think this calls for the godmother to get everything ready.” She eyed Donna who was chewing on a piece of bacon.

“By myself?” she responded with wide eyes.

“Wait, what?!” Jackie screeched. “You made her godmother?!”

“Well, yeah,” Y/n answered honestly. “She’s my brother’s girlfriend and my best friend.”

 “I’m your best friend!”

“I told you not to tell her,” Y/n said to Kitty who looked away awkwardly and busied herself with preparing more food. “Jackie, you are my best friend. But I can’t make you my maid of honor and the godmother of my children.”

“Well, why not?”

Y/n made a face at her. “Because I have other friends.”

“Yeah, but I’m the best one!”

"Y/n, let me handle this one,” Eric said and turned to the petite brunette. “Nobody cares. Alright, moving on.”

Jackie clicked her tongue and huffed, sitting down at the counter.

“Okay, back to the topic at hand,” Kitty said. “We need to decide when we can have the party.”

“Hey, are we just going to forget about my problem?” Kelso piped up.

“Oh, yeah,” Steven said. “Kelso, the best thing you can do is…to stop talking about it.” He grinned at his friend when he shot him a glare.

 “Steven,” Y/n said firmly and turned back to Kelso. “Just give him a couple days. He’ll come back around.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he mumbled.

A beat passed when the sliding door opened and Fez walked in.

 “Hello beautiful people,” he greeted cheerfully before his eyes landed on Kelso. “Oh, hello.”

“Hey, buddy. We need to figure this out,” Kelso said.

“There’s nothing to figure out,” Fez said bitterly. “You picked an apartment over me! From my arch nemesis out of all people!”

“Fez, he’s not your arch nemesis,” Eric pointed out. “He just gets on your nerves.”

“It doesn’t matter; he still chose the apartment over me!”

“So I can have a place to raise my daughter!” Kelso defended. “Fez, man, you’re my best friend, but I got to think about my kid.”

“Alright, I’ve had enough,” Red said. “I’m going down to the apartment with you and talking to that damn landlord.”

“Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Red. That means a lot,” Fez said sweetly.

“Don’t think I’m doing this out of the goodness of my heart,” Red replied. “I don’t want you moving back into my house!”

“Also, a fair point,” Steven said in a taunting way and got up to put his plate in the sink.

“Be ready in five minutes,” Red said, grabbing his keys. “I don’t want to deal with this crap any longer.”

“Can we please get back to the topic at hand?” Kitty asked. “When should we have the shower?”

“How ‘bout next Saturday?” Donna suggested. “Gives us enough time to plan and not scatter like we did for the wedding.”

“We’re having a party?” Fez asked. “I want to go to a party.”

“Well, I think that’s a wonderful idea!” Kitty cheered, ignoring Fez. “Oh, I am so excited! I’ll start the guest list!”

“And I’ll start the food and decorations!” Donna said.

  “Make sure you put cake on that list,” Y/n said. “I’m on a chocolate kick.”

 “Oh, and finger sandwiches!” Kitty exclaimed. She gasped. “And tea!”

“Are we having a baby shower or a tea party?” Fez asked.

“Are you coming?” Y/n asked.

“Why wouldn’t I?” he responded. “I love planning parties!”

“Fez, it’s a baby shower,” Jackie said. “It’s not going to be a party.”

“Awe, party poopers,” he responded disappointed.

“Well, we could use you,” Donna said. “We could use your theme expertise.”

“What about me?!” Jackie said. “I have a good taste!”

 “Fine, Jackie and Fez can work together,” Y/n said, exhausted already.

   “Yay!” Jackie cheered, clapping her hands. “Oh, Fez we have so much to go over!”

“While this is going on, me and the boys will be at the bar,” Steven smirked and continued eating his food.

“Can you guys take Markus with you?” Jackie asked. “I’m trying to get him ‘in’ with the group.”

“Doesn’t he have any of his own friends?” Steven asked, annoyed.

  “Duh, but I’d like him to get closer to you guys because I don’t like his friends,” she said candidly.

“Why not?” Y/n asked, grabbing for a strawberry.

 “They’re just…eck,” she responded.

“What do you mean ‘eck’?” Eric asked.

“I mean…they’re weird!”

“Weirder than us?” Donna asked.

“Yeah, believe it or not!”

“Jackie, I don’t want to take my ex’s new boyfriend out on guy’s night,” Steven said. “It’s almost like returning to the scene of the crime.”

“No, it’s not!” she protested.

“I second what Hyde said,” Eric said, “It’s weird.”

“Ah, c’mon guys, please!” she begged. “I’d like for him to be here more often.”

“Then, he can just be here more often,” Donna said, pointing out the obvious.

“Alright, let’s go,” Red called out. “I want to get back to catch the Packer’s game.”

“But I want to talk about the party!” Fez whined.

 “You want join in on some tooty frooty baby shower or do you want to get a house that has a roof and running water unlike the hut you came from?” Red threatened.

Fez’s eyes widened. “See ya.” He ran out the door to meet Red at the car.

                                                  --Time Skip—

“Are you Fenton?” Red asked as he walked into the empty apartment. In the middle of the room stood the familiar bald man with a mousy moustache. “I’m here to talk about the apartment.”

“Well, you’re in luck,” Fenton responded, flamboyantly and smiled. “It’s still available. And F.Y.I so am I.”

Red scrunched his face at him. “Look, I have a wife.”

“And I have a football, but I never use it.”

“Red!” Kelso called out, storming into the room. “I know you told us to wait in the car, but Fez keep playing his bongo music!”

“It’s called jazz, you philistine!” Fez yelled, trailing behind him.

“Oh, you’re with him,” Fenton responded, unpleased. “Deals off. I gotta get to yoga.”

“Hey, can’t we talk about this?” Red asked.

“No,” he said shortly.

“See, I told you he was going to be—” Fez started, but was cut off by Red.

“Just shut it, or I’ll shut it for you!”

Fenton looked at Red, impressed and if he was being honest, maybe a little turned on. “Well, you just don't take crap from anyone, do you, Mr. Man?”

Kelso sighed. “I knew this was gonna be a waste of time. Come on, Fez. We'll go figure out some other place to live with the baby.” He and Fez walked out in a huff leaving Red and Fenton.

“Baby? No one mentioned they had a baby. That... that's so progressive,” Fenton said.

Red cocked an eyebrow at him. “Progressive?”

“Well, how can I not give the apartment to two men raising a child together?”

Red smiled, understanding what Fenton was implying. “Oh. Yeah, progressive. Yeah, that's what they are. They're as progressive as hell. Why, they're likenewlyweds."

“Mhm,” Fenton hummed. “I wish I knew what that was like. Always a bridesmaid, but never a bride.”

Red nodded. “Right. So, we got a deal?”

“Alright, fine, but they mess up once and they’re out of here.”

Red wanted to open his mouth, but chose to keep it shut. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

                                     --Later in the basement—

“Guys, I can’t believe I graduate in a few months,” Jackie mentioned while the gang hung out. “I’ll finally become a woman!”

“Jackie, you became a woman the night you lost it to Kelso,” Y/n responded, leaning back against the couch. Her big belly now starting to cause her back pain and ankle pain.

“Man, I can’t believe I graduated a year ago,” Eric said. “Man, time really flies when you take two naps a day. I didn’t really do anything.”

“I don’t really think you…I mean you did do…man, you really sat on your ass,” Donna said, giving on trying to comfort her boyfriend.

  “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Eric said glumly. “I mean, I got a letter from the contest and they think I have no artistic talent. You know, I’m starting to think that the cartoon academy of Fort Lauderdale isn’t legitimate.”

“Yeah? What gave it away?” Y/n deadpanned.

“Yep, Forman, we’ve all passed you by,” Hyde said smugly. “I’m running a record store. All the while banging your sister—”

“‘Banging?’” Y/n glared at her husband. “Don’t you mean ‘married?’ I mean, I’m even carrying your kids for God’s sake!”

“You didn’t let me finish,” he said calmly and turned back to Eric. “I’m also hitched and about to have kids, Donna’s a deejay, Kelso’s a cop…even Fez has a job now. What’s it again, man? Shower girl? Makeup lady?”

“Shampoo boy!” Fez said loudly and shortly.

“Eh, I was close.”

“What did you being married to Y/n and her carrying your kids have anything to do with the conversation?” Eric asked.

Hyde shrugged. “Just another thing to rub in your face that I’m much further along than you.”

“Wait, so I’m the loser of the group now?” Eric asked, pointing to himself.

“I mean, you’re the one still living with your mommy,” Kelso said.

“Hey, I still live with my mommy,” Y/n said.

“Yeah, but you’re still married to someone who is successful,” Jackie said, leaning against the washing machine. Y/n furrowed her brows, not feeling any better. “Eric just stays home who’s mommy still cuts the crust off his sandwiches.”

Eric ignored Jackie and turned to Kelso. “Man, you’re still living with your mommy.”

“Not for long. Me and Fez are looking for an apartment and the only thing I’ll need my mom for is to do my cooking, laundry, and taking me to the dentist.”

“Well, Eric I feel kinda bad,” Jackie said. “You wouldn’t even be thinking of this kind of stuff if you hadn’t been caught in the brightness of my future.”

“You know what else is scary? If this year went by really fast, imagine where Eric will be in ten years,” Fez said.

                          Eric’s crappy future, ten years later…

The Vista Cruiser rolled into the Forman driveway in the late afternoon. Eric and Donna exited the car, dressed in Star Trek outfits, coming home from a convention. Eric wore the traditional fleet command uniform while Donna sported a black wig and red general commander dress.

“Thank you for coming to the Star Trek convention with me…Uhura.”

“You can call me Donna now,” she said displeased and walked into the house.

“That’s good, Fez,” Kelso said,  coming back to present time. “But I think it’s going to be more like this…”

                          Eric’s crappy future, ten years from now…

The Vista Cruiser rolled into the Forman driveway in the late afternoon. Eric and Donna exited the car, dressed in Star Wars outfits, coming home from a convention. Eric dressed as Luke Skywalker and Donna dressed in the familiar gown and rolled side buns.

“Thank you for coming to the Star Wars convention…Leia,” Eric said proudly.

“You can call me Donna now,” she said and shuffled back into the house.

“No, you’re both wrong,” Hyde said, smirking. “It’ll be more like this…”

The Vista Cruiser once again rolled into the Forman driveway. The doors to the car opened, Eric jumping out and rounding the car.

“Thanks for coming to the convention with me…Leia,” he said.

Kitty got out of the car and walked over to Eric wearing Leia’s gown and her hair in the same style. She stared at him displeased. “You can call me Mom now.” She hurried inside, eager to get out of the itchy costume.

The gang laughed at Hyde’s theory, upsetting Eric.

“Whoa!” Eric screeched, jumping off the couch.

“They’re just joking around, Eric,” Donna said calmly. “It’s funny.”

“No, it’s not!” he defended, inching towards the stairs. “In fact,…it’s completely possible!” He bounded up the stairs, freaking out.

Y/n laughed and high-fived her husband. “Nice.”

                              A few moments later…

“All of my friends are on career paths. Even Kelso. Kelso! The kid who thinks N.A.T.O is Japanese for neato,” Eric ranted to his parents who sat in the kitchen. Red was reading the newspaper and Kitty was reading a magazine.

“You know it’s just not fair,” Red said, sarcasm heavy in his tone. “You sleep late, you watch TV all day…the job offers should be pouring in.”

“Why don’t you look into that chiropractic school I suggested?” Kitty asked. “They’re having an enrollment seminar. You know, being a chiropractor is a very prestigious job. Even if you move somewhere where there’s no real doctors.”

“Well, I guess chiropractor is as good as anything I've come up with. I have wasted an entire year doing absolutely nothing.”

“Hey, how bout a job stating the obvious?” Red asked, giving Eric a fake smile. “Because you’re really good at that!”

                                             Later…

“So, you’re going to the school, huh?” Y/n asked as they once again gathered in the basement. This time, Markus had joined them who was sitting next to Jackie and Y/n on the couch, with his arm around her. “When do you start?”

“Well, they start Monday, so…probably then,” Eric responded sarcastically.

“Want me to come with you?” Donna asked.

“Wait, really?” Eric asked and turned to his girlfriend.

“Yeah. I think it’d be fun.”

“Awe, you’re such a good girlfriend,” Fez cooed before pretending to gag.

“What was that about?” Hyde asked, leaning back in his usual chair.

“All of you are in loving relationships and I’m over here more single than a freakin’ pringle,” he responded bitterly.

“Hey, I’m single too,” Kelso piped up from the lawn chair.

“Yeah, but knowing you, you’ll have a new girlfriend in, like, five minutes,” Fez replied and slumped on the couch. "I'm going to die alone."

"No, you're not,” Y/n comforted, rubbing his shoulder. “You’ll find someone.”

“Why are you lying?” Eric asked.

“Eric!”

“Yeah,” Jackie agreed with Eric. “He is one freaky, horny little dude.”

“Just ask the couch,” Hyde added in.

“I’m right here!” Fez whined. “Can’t even have the decency to wait until I walk out the room!”

“Jackie, what did we talk about comforting friends?” Markus asked, like he was talking to a toddler.

Jackie looked at the ground. “Don’t be mean.”

“And?”

Jackie rolled her eyes and sighed. “And if I can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.”

Markus nodded and looked up to everyone. “We’re working on talking nicely to others.”

“Wow,” Eric said amazed. “I like him. Can he stay?”

“Don’t listen to them, Fez,” Donna said. “They’re just being jerks.”

“Hey, I have an idea,” Y/n said. “Why don’t one of us set you up?”

“How?” Fez asked. “Do you know anybody?”

“Wait, wait…you’re not going to set up a party with all women are you?” Hyde said. “Because that was annoying.”

“No, no. Something better than that,” Y/n said. “Donna, are there any single ladies at the radio station?”

“The only lady we have there is the receptionist and she’s eighty-eight years old,” she responded.

“Is she single?” Fez asked seriously.

“She’s a widow…does that count?”

“Hm, no,” he shook his head and sat back. “I don’t want to be second choice.”

“That’s what’s stopping you?” Eric asked. “Not the fact that she’s seventy years older than you?”

“Yeah, and you won’t be able to have sex without thinking she’s going to break a hip,” Kelso said. “Or a heart attack.”

“Okay, gross,” Y/n said. “Anyone else that knows a single girl?”

“Well, I mean there’s Simpson from the police academy,” Kelso said.

“No, we all know how that turned out,” Y/n said and turned to her husband. “Do you know anyone at the store?”

“Aren’t you going to ask me?” Eric asked.

“Do you know anyone from staying at home all day?” his twin sassed. “Oh, yeah, you must’ve met someone at the Bum Factory.”

“Damn, did you have bitch flakes this morning?”

“Yeah, along with your sitting-on-your-ass-all-day scrambled eggs,” she snipped.

“Is this about what happened earlier?” Eric asked. “I already said I was sorry!”

“What else would it be?!”

“What happened earlier?” Hyde asked, scrunching his eyebrows together.

“Your idiot brother-in-law happened!”

“It wasn’t that bad!” Eric argued.

“If it wasn’t, then I wouldn’t be pissed!”

“You’re so dramatic!”

“Will you two shut up and just tell us what happened?” Hyde snapped. “I need to know if it’s funny so I can make fun of you or kick your ass. It depends.”

“It was just a slice of cake!” Eric said, turning his attention back to Y/n.

“The last slice!” she cried out.

“Just go buy a cake,” Jackie said calmly. “What’s so special about this one?”

“My mom made it! And no one else can make it as good as she can!” Y/n said.

“She probably puts kalua in it,” Jackie said. “She taught me how to make fudge once, and she said kalua was the secret recipe. That’s when I learned that she may have a bit of a drinking problem.”

“Shut up, Jackie. You’re not making it any better,” Y/n said angrily.

“Well, damn. Pregnancy has made you bitchier than before,” Jackie said and got up from the couch to grab a popsicle.

“I’m sure she’ll make it again,” Donna said. “If you ask her nicely, I bet she will.”

“No,” Y/n whined and leaned her head against the headrest of the couch. “I want it now.”

“God, you’re needy,” Eric said. “When are you going to stop?”

“When I get some damn chocolate!” she replied.

“Okay, would it be better if I ran to the store and got you something similar?” Hyde offered. “Anything to make you happy so you can stop whining?”

“I second that,” Eric said.

“No, Eric should go buy it for me,” she pouted. “He’s the one that ate my cake. And he should buy me Fatso Burger because I’m hungry. I’ll call it square then.”

“But I don’t have any money!” he whined.

“That sounds like a you problem,” Y/n said. “Want me to quit being needy? Get me food.”

“Well, why don’t you borrow money from Hyde?” Kelso asked, ignoring the fact that Hyde was moving his hand sharply against his throat, saying to stop. Talking. “Hyde has a lot of it!”

“What?” Y/n asked, looking at Kelso. “Steven and I don’t have a lot of money.”

“Of course, he does!” he continued, still ignoring Hyde as he was now waving his hands.

Y/n looked behind her and Steven stopped quickly, pretending he was just as confused.

“Steven, what’s he talking about?” she asked.

“I have no idea,” he replied. He glared at Kelso through his aviators and when his wife turned back around, he mouthed: Shut. Up.

“Yes, you do!” Kelso said. At this point he was amused and continued. “You’ve been telling me that you’ve been stashing money in your secret savings.”

“In your what?!” Y/n screeched.

“No, no, Kelso doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Hyde defended. “He’s talking nonsense from his concussion.”

Kelso scrunched his eyebrows together. “I don’t have a concu—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Hyde threw a soda can at his head. It flew across the room at an impressive speed and smacked Kelso right in the face. No one moved as it was a day-to-day occurrence. At this point, even Markus was desensitized.

“Ow, my eye!” Kelso yelled, dropping to the floor.

“Wow, that was incredibly fast,” Donna said.

“That’s gonna leave a mark,” Jackie commented, covering her mouth with her fist.

“Hyde, you jerk!” Kelso yelled, stumbling back up to his feet. “I’m going to have a black eye and picture day at the academy is tomorrow!”

“First off: Kelso, here,” Y/n said and grabbed a bag of frozen peas from the freezer and tossed it across the room. It thumped against his chest before he caught it and pressed it against his face. “And now you,” she growled at her husband. “A secret savings?! Are you kidding me?!”

“It’s not so much of a secret savings as—” he started, now standing from his seat but was interrupted.

“How much is in it?” she asked, her eyes burning a hole in his head.

“Not much,” he replied. “And it doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t matter?!” she yelled, angrier than before. “You’re hiding money from me!”

“Actually, you said you have about two grand—” Kelso began but was cut off by Hyde.

“Do you want me to blacken the other eye?!” he barked at him.

“Two thousand dollars?!” Y/n screamed. “I can’t believe this! Do you have any idea what we can do with that money?”

“Yes, that’s why it’s in there!” Hyde yelled back.

“Now, does this happen every day?” Markus whispered to Jackie.

“No…no this is not,” she whispered back.

“What do you mean that’s why it’s in there?!” Y/n asked, bringing everyone’s attention back on them. “Why are you hiding it from me?!”

“Because of…reasons,” Hyde said.

“Reasons like what?! You don’t trust me?”

“No, I don’t!” he yelled back.

 "The air in the room dropped. It was like it was sucked out, leaving everyone completely breathless. Y/n felt like she had been punched in the gut.

She was so hurt and angry that she couldn’t speak. She stared at him as the silence grew louder. He refused to break eye contact with her, but his body language—turned halfway away from her and his hands on his hips—said he regretted what he told her.

After what felt like an eternity, Y/n finally broke eye contact and stomped her way upstairs without saying another word. After a minute of still silence, Markus decided to speak up.

“So…what else do you guys do for fun?”

“And this is where we’ve talked about speaking in awkward moments,” Jackie said from the corner of her mouth.

Fez sat there, frowning. "Are we supposed to just forget about my problem?!”

Taglist: @not-shy-nanya @taysirene @maddieschampagneproblems @mdittyz123 @undead-sierra @random-thoughts-004 @lieswithoutfairytales @chloem4a1 @srhxpc @zhonglibxitch

[sharpestasp]

Fem February: Music

Okay my brain instantly went hard mode when I saw 'female fronted bands', before catching 'singers'. Because I was having a hell of a time remembering names of mixed gender bands with female singers.

Five faves, huh? Of Women Singers/Fronted Bands?

Muses of Yore, if you ever grace me with the name of the black heavy metal lady with the braids I will love you forever. I remember her from Headbanger's Ball but never did remember to write her name down. If this rings a bell with anyone, HER. She had fucking stage presence like whoa, and was awesome.

Anywho, moving on to the ones I can actually name.

TRACY CHAPMAN. Fucking hands down, Tracy is my all-time favorite woman singer AND song-writer. "Fast Car" might have been the gateway drug to knowing about her, but "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution" sits in my soul and won't let go, right beside "Give Me One Reason". Her voice is in the perfect range to soothe and call to me, and the lyrics bring all the emotions, evoking a lot of how I grew up.

Janelle Monáe. She is (they are? I cannot remember where Janelle stands on pronouns at this moment), without a doubt in my mind, the absolute perfect heir to Prince's legacy. From the concept albums to the sheer vitality of the music and lyrics blending, Janelle is my favorite of this century so far.

The Bangles. Wait, Asp, really? A bubblegum pop girl group? At least pick the Go-Gos or something — NO. "Walk Like An Egyptian" slammed them onto my awareness. I LOVED the way vocals alternate between the women. I was over the moon that one of their names was Michael. That she was connected back to the Runaways just made that sweeter. The videos were great (they got Leonard Nimoy in one!). I truly blame the music business for them not going further, with the insistence on headlining Susanna Hoff as the lead singer.

Basia. While it is common for non-English speaking singers to lose their accent when singing English songs, Basia's still came through on her earliest albums. It added a different quality to the music that hooked me. Her second album was one of several in rotation as self-soothing on-repeat listens for me.

I'm going to cheat on number five, because I have three younger stars of the current century to highlight, and their sound/subjects all pull at me in a very similar fashion. Maggie Rogers ("Light On"), Rosa Linn ("SNAP"), and Alessia Cara ("Scars to Your Beautiful") were likely all introduced to me by my son's musical sharing. All three of these woman have a soothing range that I can listen to for hours. The way they approach life and love in their songs strikes a chord with me.

(I could go on for hours. Others considered for this included Donna Summer, The Pointer Sisters, Dionne Warwick, Florence Welch, Sarah McLachlan, Tina Turner, The Eurythmics, Enya, and Melissa Manchester.)

[l3m0ncyan]

New to Life | Chapter 9

Steven Grant/Marc Spector x Hispanic!Teen! Reader

Masterlist

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

Warning: angst (again)

Note: when y’all see -()-, play Cien Años by Pedro Infante. Gives you a better feel on the scene ;)

———————————

You take a deep breath in and your eyes widen. When you lifted your head, you were met with a coughing fit from your throat. Smacking your chest with your hands to try to get the oxygen in your lungs moving again.

Squinting at how bright it is, you feel as if you're in a fever dream; neither it nor you feel real. Your muscles appear to be numb, but they are beginning to move again. It's chilly, which makes you want to hug yourself, especially since you were in 90-degree weather just a few minutes ago.

“Jesus! You ok Y/N?”

That voice sounds familiar. You turn your head to the left and notice someone from the past. It was one of your close friends from middle school. They looked just like how they did before. You gulp and stare at them confused on why they are there.

“How- what?” You try to regain your breathing.

They just smile and give a small laugh, “You fell asleep. We’re you up all night watching your senpai~”

Your entire body cringes. You really did try to bury all the embarrassing memories from your puberty years. All the incorrect Japanese pronunciations you and your friends attempted. You guys fetishized gay men in comic books and anime. You close your eyes, hoping to keep those thoughts at bay before ripping your brain out.

Speaking of which, you begin to turn your head around rapidly. You notice you are back at the same old spot where you and your old friend group would hang at during lunch. Sitting by you, we’re the rest of your them. All still looking like they did before.

"Anywho, last night I was watching Yuri on Ice, right? Man! When Yuri and Victor kissed I was scream-"

“How? We’re not- I graduated highschool, how am I back?” You look around to look for clues on why you’re there.

They each looked up at you as some ate chips or food from the school. They held a puzzled look.

“Man are you ok? Did you eat some of Justins edibles?” One asks with a joking tone.

You look down and realize you're not wearing the pants and green shirt Marc lent you. Instead, you were dressed entirely in burgundy oversized sweatpants and a hoodie. What happened to Marc? How about Steven?

That’s when the faint memory comes to you like a flood. You were shot by Harrow. You limped and fell onto Marc’s arms. Last thing you remember is just him saying to stay awake. Then it just faded black.

I died? You think to yourself and start to get up. This isn’t right. Wasn’t the afterlife supposed to be just clouds and sunshine? Not middle school of all places.

Before you can try to walk around to find where you were, the bell rings. That same bell that always told you it was time to go and endure lectures while you dealt with some of the most annoying people.

Your friends begin to pack up and one gestures you to come along as they see you stunned there.

“Come on, we’re gonna be late for history”

You blink and just nod, not questioning it. You follow them through the hallways and nostalgia just comes to you.

There’s the restrooms where you and your friends would die laughing. The spot where you guys would meet up in the mornings. Where you would hide as you and your group would spy on another as they had a romantic moment with their partner. Wrinkling your face, you feel the second hand embarrassment come again.

You notice some of the people are old classmates but notice how some of the teachers walking look way too familiar. As you walk past by one, you examine their face and see that they look like Donna. You may be going crazy but you know damn well that she wasn’t at all part of your middle school years.

Then comes another teacher, the girl who Steven stood up in their date. Again, she may be older than you but you know that she would not be a teacher in this time.

Continuing to tag along, your feet walk on their own as they begin to remember the route to your old history class. You and your friend walk in, heading straight to your seat. You take in the decorations and the way the desks are arranged. Just like how they looked 6 years ago.

She begins to gather her supplies while sitting next to you. You simply sit and look around. As you feel and smell the air, more memories begin to surface. You notice the kid who used to bully you all year in the corner of your eye. One example would be when he teased you about having a crush and then proceeded to tell them about you. However, he dropped out of high school and is now struggling as a want tobe rapper. The karma almost makes you laugh.

Staring at him for too long causes him to notice you and make a disgusted face. He jolts his body forward, as a way to scare you or that he’ll fight you. You roll your eyes and continue to look around. You forgot how childish kids from back then were, you wonder how they would react to seeing their past selves.

"Watch out, his girlfriend is coming" Your friend whispers to you. You furrow your eyes.

You hear a chair move and footsteps coming your way. Looking up, you see one of the kids friends coming up to you. The girl who had a crush on him which caused her to be the rudest and nastiest person. She was only stuck being his friend to try to win him over, which never happened. Instead, she lost all that friend group by highschool. Now she’s studying to be a nurse. Jeez do you feel bad for her future patients.

“Why the fuck are you staring?,” she says and then smirks, “Wait don’t tell me you have a crush on him!”

She begins to cover her mouth and gives her high-pitched laugh that always annoys you. You just stare in amusement. Noticing her features, she is still her young self. You look back at your body and see that you have accomplished puberty. Meaning you must be an 18-year-old among a bunch of 12 years olds. And no one cared, which leads to more speculation that you are not supposed to be there.

“Hello! I’m talking to you!” She snaps her fingers infront of you, “oh my god, why were you staring at me? Oh shit! Don’t tell me your a lesbian! You have a crush on me don’t you?!”

She continues to laugh and at this point you are trying to hard to not pull this girls hair. Being older, you should have an advantage on keeping her quiet at least. Remembering the rumors of how her dad was seen sleeping with her moms sister, you decided to use that.

“Girl are you okay? I know that your dad loves to keep it in the family, if you know what I mean” you whisper, “but you don’t gotta be a bitch about it”

This shit might be real cringy in the future or wouldn’t work but right now it might be the best someone hears as a roast in middle school.

She stands there in shock, “Fucking bitch” she says before stomping back to her seat.

You can hear how the guys are snickering and her telling them to shut up.

The door then opens and the teacher comes in. Expecting for the old 7th grade one to come in, instead you see a slouched man walk in with coffee in his hand. He’s wearing a cream cardigan and brown button up underneath with slacks.

“Alright how was lunch, gators?” A British accent comes out.

You shoot your eyes up to the front and see Steven smiling to the class. Everyone returns it and hear some respond back. He nods and prepares whatever it is on his desk for the lesson. You however are still in shock to see Steven in an environment like this.

“Todays agenda will be on Egypt. My favorite subject” he sighs dreamily.

You stand up instantly, “Steven! What the hell?”

Everyone in the class stares at you and whisper to each other. Your friend just looks at you weirdly and avoids their gaze at you.

Steven is caught off guard and clears his throat, “Now Y/N watch your language. Also it’s Mr.Grant, sit”

“No no no, you aren’t a middle school teacher, you are or well were a gift shopist”

The same girl from before chuckles, “Damn she’s a crackhead!”

There are a few laughs and Steven shakes his head, “G/N that wasn’t very nice. Y/N you seem tired, why don’t you head to the nurses office?”

He gestures outside and you see another face, Marc wearing security clothes. It seems like he came by to check out what the ruckus was all about. Seeing that you are the one disturbing the class, he gestures for you to come out. Seeing the two in the same place was weird but you quickly snap out of it.

“Oh come on! Don’t you see how you guys look the same?!” You point at Marc.

“I mean we are brothers…” Steven smiles.

The class yells a ‘what’ and begins questioning him, just like any would. Steven puts his hands up to try to quiet the class down. He says something but you can’t hear because Marc is pushing you out the door

You two walk through the hall with small steps being heard. The hallways are empty and all the classroom doors are closed, when usually there were some open. Once the door closed from your history class, everything was quiet. You looked over to Marc who was just staring straight ahead.

“Marc, you have to listen to me. You have DID and Steven is one of your alters. You had powers that came from a god named Khonshu!”

Marc shakes his head, “You probably have a fever or something”

“It’s true! We were in Cairo trying to find the tomb of Ammit!”

“Alright alright, how about you tell that to the nurse” he opens the door to the nurse's office and pushes you in.

Before you can turn to try to explain more to him, you are met with the door shutting in your face. You stand there trying to think of what to do next. Well, the only thing you can do is play along. Maybe it's a dream or something while Marc and Layla are trying to help you on the other side. Like those weird dreams people in comas get.

You turn to where the nurse's desk is and there are chairs lined up against the wall. On the opposite side, there are two doors that lead to the main office and the vice principal's office. Walking through the center, you notice that one of the kids sitting there.

However, they look older than the rest of the school. Pausing by them, they look up and your heart stops.

It was the guy who you saw at the alley that one night. He wore a hood and all his clothes were dark. His under eyes were dark and he seemed over everything.

"You. You gave me that fucking parasite thing!" You confront him. Walking to him in a stand off-ish way.

He furrows his eyebrows and scowls, "What are you talking about?"

"I tried to help you and all you did was cause me problems! If it weren't for you my parents wouldn't be-"

"Is there something wrong?" a feminine voice pops in from the corner.

Layla is standing to your right with a badge hanging around her neck. Her hair is tied back and she seems more, happy. She’s wearing a long grey cardigan and tight jeans.

"Layla! Please tell me you remember what happened!" Ignoring the guy sitting, you run toward her, "You were with Marc and me trying to find Ammits tomb, we were chased by mummy priests!"

She shakes her head, "Oh Y/N, I believe that was just a dream you had" she places her palm on your forehead.

You move her hand away, "It wasn't! I don't know what's going on, but I know that this," You wave your hands around the air to gesture to the school, "This isn't real, it's all fake!"

Layla pouts and places a hand on your shoulder and squeezes it reassuring, "Y/N...I believe you need to see your counselor"

You stare at her and she notices your confusion. She then gestures to the left, a door where a sign hangs with the word 'counselor'. You look back at her for reassurance and she simply nods.

You take slow steps, mainly because you wonder who might be behind that door. Maybe Khonshu? You kinda chuckle at the thought of Khonshu listening to every kid's problems. Maybe even wearing cardigan like Layla and Steven did. Drinking coffee or eating salad for his lunch every time.

When you open the door, you see a desk with a comfortable chair in front of you. A bookcase with many books and small decor is located in the back. Nonetheless, you can identify small objects. When you look closer, you notice that some of them are statues of Egyptian gods, the same ones you used to stock in the gift shop. Aside from the decor, the counselor is nowhere to be seen.

Footsteps are then heard from behind, "Sorry, I went to get a donut from the cafeteria, the staff bought a few dozen for us. Well not the student but you know”

A man walks in and heads to his desk. You stand there in shock as you see the man who killed you. The one who was the cause of you and Steven having to be in Egypt all of a sudden. He has his grey hair that's slicked back while wearing a cardigan. Harrow takes a bite from the donut and looks at you with a smile.

Was he smiling because he knows he killed you? Or because he won?

You glared at him as you sank into the chair. He notices and slowly nods his head. Putting the food down, he dusts off any crumbs from his shirt and takes out a file from a drawer. He then takes out a pair of glasses and puts them on.

You take a glance at it and see your picture clipped onto the documents. On the said documents you can tell it has information on you but not precisely what since it's upside down.

“It’s nice to see you again L/N, but from the looks of it, you don’t seem to agree” he gives a small laugh.

You don't say anything and just stare at him. He takes in your silence and sighs.

"Y/N, I have noticed lately that you have been staying in this, fantasy world. And this fantasy world has taken up your mind that caused you to not be able to tell what is real and what is not," You don't say anything but just give him a scowl.

"Look, I know. I too feel like going into a world where I feel like I am a powerful...what is that one show you kids like?" He thinks and then snaps his fingers, "Tokyo ghoul! A ghoul creature with those tentacles, but that's not real Y/N. What was real, was when you used to be an excellent student and daughter-"

"What do you want? Why, why are you acting like I forgot that you shot me" You finally breathe out.

"Y/N I am only trying to help. I never shot you. If I did, you would probably be in the hospital and I in jail" he laughs.

"You think I'm stupid?" You stand up and lean your body on his desk using your arms as support, "You shot me out there! At the tomb, because you were trying to steal Ammits ushabti thing!"

"I see Mr. Grant's history lessons have been also feeding into your imagination...Y/N this has become rather worrying and I might have to-"

You slam your palms onto the table, "I am not crazy! I am not!" You begin to pull your hair.

"Right, Y/N I am saddened to say this but I will have to call your parents so we can come up with a...plan on ways to help you"

“No...you’re not doing anything until me and the others stop you"

You hear the door open and security Marc is standing there ready to take you away. You look around for an escape route but the room is too small to do anything. So the only plan is to push through Marc and run out.

Of course, Marc grabs you but you use what he taught you before to unlatch himself from you. Layla calls out to you but you ignore her calls and run through the door. You pause to look around where to go but see Marc marching to you.

You follow your feet's lead and turn your heel, beginning to runoff. Running through the corridors, you notice that there is no one else there despite the fact that you recall the number of people ditching or going to the restroom. Hearing Marc and Layla call out to you send your adrenaline skyrocketing. You notice a few Egyptian jars strewn about the halls as you run.

What? You think to yourself

You don't even know where you are running to but you are hoping that this dream ends with you waking up to the real Marc and Layla. Feeling your legs begin to burn, you look for any door near but there isn't any. You then realize that the hallways keep going and that usually you would have been met with a wing of classes.

You turn one corner and see a door. Hoping it's unlocked, which it is, you rush in and close it immediately. You crouch down to hide your silhouette from the small window. Taking in your surroundings, you see that you are inside the janitor's closet.

Hearing the voices of the fake Marc and Layla fading away, you decide to stand up cautiously. Looking through you see the coast is clear and you open the door.

Everything changes as you walk out. It's not the same walls you remember from middle school. It was now an all-white hall with brick walls and tiles on the floors. It is lit by fluorescent lights, which give the space a cold feel. This time, there were several doors leading to who knows where.

Although it looks creepy, you were actually happy. It meant that you didn't have to experience pubescent years again plus deal with being called crazy. Also this is a sign

You place your palms on your knees as you catch your breath. Practically laughing. Now you have to find out where you were and how to get back to the real world.

You begin to walk through the hall to where there are two wide doors. Pushing them open, you notice how in the second part there have dangling lanterns that are swaying side to side. Continuing to walk through, you see how there are rolling steel tables with white towels folded on top.

Instantly, you hear voices coming from the next part. Still paranoid about Harrow sending fake Marc and Layla, you carefully push the doors open.

Your gaze is drawn to a figure exiting a room with caution. It has dark brown curly hair and is dressed in a white sweatshirt and sweatpants. The way they're coming out makes you think of someone.

"Marc?" You say in a low tone.

He turns around and his eyes widen at the sight of you. He stands still for a minute, trying to comprehend if you're really the one standing there.

"Y/N?" he almost smiles with saying your name.

The two of you stand like that for a few seconds before another figure comes out with a black outfit this time and with timid language. He looks confused as to why Marc might have stopped.

"Is that..."

"Steven" Marc grins and gestures to Steven.

Steven turns to you and smiles widely, "Y/N?"

You don't think about what the next steps should be because all you want to do is hug them. Perhaps it's to ensure they're real or it could be that you really missed them. The ones who stood by your side when you were lost in a different country. You dash forward and practically leap into their arms. The two hug you tightly, scared that if they let you go, you would leave them again.

You two stay like that for a few seconds before you pull away. You glance from Marc to Steven, puzzlement finally hitting you.

“This is so weird,” you breathe out, “how?”

“I really dont have a reason” Marc shrugs.

“He just found me locked up in a sarcophagus. We’re you locked in one too?” Steven looks at you.

You shake your head, “Nah, I was actually back at my old middle school, it was weird. You were a history teacher, Marc was a security guard, Layla a nurse, and Harrow a…counselor?”

The two look baffled, “Harrow? The one who’s trying to end the world?” Marc asks.

You nod, “Yup, he wanted to send me away I think because I was crazy for imagining gods and curses”

“Ironic because it seems we are in a mental hospital” Steven looks around the hall.

Remembering you two were still there, you squeeze yours eyes trying to think, “Wait quick question, what happened after I was you know, shot?”

Marc breathes in, “Harrow and his men found us, Layla ran away luckily while I tried to distract them. But…”

“We we’re then shot by Harrow” Steven grimaces

“Which had you guys killed” You confirm.

The two nod and you stand there with a hand on your chin. If the three of you died, why were you in weird places? Especially a mental asylum? You weren’t all religious but wasn’t heaven supposed to be clouds and rainbows? Unless you did not go to heaven or hell but are now stuck in purgatory. Not a goal on your bucket list might you add.

“Then that means, we’re dead while Harrow is out there trying to kill everyone” You begin to panic.

Steven thins his lips and pats your back for reassurance. Marc shakes his head and looks to the opposite side of the hall.

“No, we are getting out of here. We aren’t staying dead,” Marc looks firmly at you and Steven, yet it feels like that last statement was directed more toward you.

He motioned for you two to follow him and he begins to take long strides while checking if it was safe to go. Steven sort of followed his movements but you just walked normally and checked around.

You three passed by an open room with another sarcophagus inside. There was a banging from inside, and it was shaking. Because it was standing, you were surprised that it didn't fall with the sudden movements.

“Any of you opening that?” You asked

“No”

“Don’t think so”

Taking that as a fair no, you guys continued to walk to the end of the hall where there was another steel table with towels. By the wall, we’re more white chairs lined on the wall. Most importantly there was another pair of big doors at the end.

When you see heavy footsteps approaching and a large shadow looming on the other side of the door, the three of you come to a halt. You stand guard, looking for any weapon you can use because you can't use your powers. The footsteps become increasingly close. As your anxiety grows, you can hear your heartbeat through your ears. You stand your ground between Marc and Steven, ready to fight anyone.

The doors swing open and out comes a hippo with gold circle on top of her head. She wears a dress with a blue beetle placed on her chest.

You three look up at her in shock, feeling your heart pounding. There’s a moment of silence before she raises her hand and waves.

“Hi!” She says cheerily

This immediately causes you three to scream in terror. You grab both Marc and Steven's arms and hug them tightly, hoping to keep the hippo at bay. As a result, the two lean on you for protection as well. You're all hugging for dear life at this point, like one of those cartoon characters.

-

Your screams continue and you notice that you are in a different place again. The screaming dies down and you see that you are back to the old counselor office, except Harrow is infront of you.

“Calm down. Y/N? Y/N. Your mind is spiraling out of control” He looks at you with concern.

You breathe in heavily, still trying to get a sense of how you ended back there.

“You keep coming back to being a student in middle school to a fantasy you have created where you are some hero’s sidekick in London. Plus some reason, make Ms.La Fouly, Mr.Grant, and Mr.Spector a parental figure…”

You squeeze your eyes and slowly open them to try to keep the pain in your head from growing. Looking at Harrow confused he continues on.

“Y/N, why is it you don’t accept your parents?”

You scoff, “Alright this is funny, really, but I gotta get going” you begin to stand up.

“Y/N were still not finished, please let me help you”

“Nah, you ain’t trying to help. You’re just pretending to be I don’t know,” you gesture your hand to him, “A counselor? Really?” You laugh.

“This is real Y/N I am not some villain made up in your head. I am just a man who rides the bus to get here and who tries to help young teens, like you, find yourself”

Shaking your head, you try to walk away.

“Please Y/N, we are close to making a breakthrough. Last time, you said something about a car ride?”

You breathe in and bite your cheek. To the corner of your eye, you see a cane appear next to the door. Eyeing it, you see a crocodile head on top, it was Harrows. Moving your hand close to it, you grab onto the stem and turn to Harrow.

“Hey, thanks. I really do feel very…counseled but uh, I really don’t like you” you walk closer to Harris and wind your arm back with the cane in hand.

The door opens and security comes in, holding you back while one tries to grab the cane from you.

“Let go! He’s going to kill everyone! Listen!” You screech but hear the electric sound of a taser.

Seconds later, you are met with a static feeling to your side and you fall down. Everything becoming blurry.

-

Your vision returns to normal, and instead of falling, you are now standing between Steven and Marc. Your screams subside, and you take a deep breath to try to comprehend what has just occurred.

“Oh shit, that was a real mind trip” you give a small laugh and hold your head. You let go of the men and take a few steps back.

Marc who is also trying to understand what happened, looks over to you “Did you go somewhere different too?”

“Yeah? I take it you did too” you begin to regain your breath.

“Are they always this intense?” The hippo asks Steven.

“Them? Uh well him almost every day. Her, not so much” he shrugs. He looks over to you to see if you are alright. All you do is just hold a thumbs up.

The hippo nods and then points to Steven and Marc, “Are you two like twins?”

“No” Marc counters but Steven doesn't, making Marc give a sigh.

She nods and then looks at you, “Are you their sister?”

You give a fake laugh, “Uh no. I’m actually a friendly neighbor of theirs"

“Ok, great. This really cleared this whole situation up for me” she smiles.

"Yeah, same here. I thought we were shot to death" Marc breathes out.

The hippo giggles, "Oh well this will really bake your noodle, but I am afraid you guys are actually quite dead"

You three stiffen up and stare at the hippo.

"Sorry what?" You smile awkwardly smile.

"I'm dead? Were dead?" Marc clears.

Steven stares into space in shock. You for an odd reason are taking it rather well; either it was due to the realization from earlier or you are going through shock.

"Actually I have..." she pauses and begins to pull out paper rolled together, "Hold on, it has been a minute since we've had a soul pass through here"

She unfolds the paper and reads off it, "Aha! Okay, here we go. Welcome, gentle traveler- Er well travelers" she corrects herself.

She starts to use hand movements to make the welcome seem grander.

"To the realm of the Duat"

Steven then blurts out, "Duat? The Egyptian underworld...this is Tawaret, goddess of women and children, and she is guiding us through our journey to the afterlife"

"The afterlife? This is our afterlife?" Marc asks and begins to walk around, trying to comprehend this is where he will stay for eternity.

"An afterlife. Not the afterlife. You would be surprised how many intersectional planes of untethered consciousness exist," She then gives a small gasp, "Like the Ancestral Plane. Oh! Just gorgeous"

"Wait, then why are we in a…"you take a second to look around, “mental ward?”

Tawaret snaps her fingers, "Actually I have cards about this hang on," she begins to flip through many cards, “Ahah! So since the Duat is something that the human mind can’t comprehend, you may perceive this realm as something more easily recognizable for you, a psych wards the first but hey, we can roll with it right?”

“Then why would we imagine this realm to be a psychiatric hospital?” Steven asks.

“Because we’re insane” Marc exhales, “we’re insane”. He begins to walk away slowly and begins to ramble on why they or he is insane.

“I mean a talking hippo and bird, you being out of my body, you being dead,” he points to you, “and now the afterlife right?”

“Marc?” Steven calls out to him.

You look at him as if he really did lost it. Maybe it was some sort of shock he was going through.

“Hey man, I don’t think we should wander off” you look back to Steven for guidance but he just apologizes to Tawaret for Marc’s actions. Sighing, you continue to stare at Marc as he begins to walk away.

“Oh man, Dr.Harrows right” Marc continues

“Dr Harrow?”

You tilt your head, “Was he a doctor for you?”

“Psychiatrist” Marc clears, “Ill prove to you guys right now that we are insane. I’ll open these doors and we will be back at the ward where no gods exist and Y/N is just away at college”

You look to Steven again, whispering how Marc has lost it.

“I feel conscious enough to know that I am definitely not part of your hallucinations dude” you cross your arms.

Marc ignores you and walks towards two set of doors, “Watch, there’ll be a bunch of patients and there’s Crowley probably about to yell-“

“Hey hey Marc, don’t go in there” You warn

“Marc? Marc” Steven gestures to Marc to stop.

Marc opens the door wide, “Bingo-ohh! Oh my god!”

You and Steven follow behind to see what stopped Marc.

Walking through the doors, you find yourself towards the front of a ship that is covered in wood planks. At the edges, there are tall poles that have those same orange lanterns hanging above. Infront of you, there is what seems to be a scale that has an Egyptian statue holding both plates. At the end of the boat, there is another statue of a god.

Aside from the ship, the sky is covered in purple toned clouds which hide a yellow tint sky. Instead of hearing waves crashing against the ship, you hear grains of sand crashing from the weight.

“I’m not crazy” Marc laughs in relief, “I’m dead, we’re dead”.

“I’m glad you aren’t, didn’t want to deal with that” you tease.

He looks over to you and his smile falls, realizing now that you too are dead. “Where did you say we’re going?” He looks over to Tawaret.

“We’re sailing to A’aru. To the field of Reeds, right Tawaret?” Steven asks her.

“Ah so he’s the smart one?” She smiles

You nod, “Yup, trust me. This guy knows more Egyptian facts than a history teacher”. You pat his back and he smiles. Pretty much taking it that you are somewhat proud and happy with it instead of embarrassed.

“Gladly appreciated then. Oh, well if your hearts balanced in life, then you will spend eternity in paradise. The Field of Reeds!” She smiles.

You nod and continue to look around the ship, avoiding the edge of course.

“But before we get there, I’ve just got to do a quick little…” she walks closer to Marc and Steven, plunging her hands into their chest.

You gasp as you hear squishing sounds before she pulls out two hearts. The hearts look like marble that were sculpted into that shape.

“Oh goody! It worked! Here was little old me worrying I’d blow your chest wide open” she smiles and walks down to the scale.

“Wait what?” The two say

“What’s she doing?” Marc’s eyes follow Tawaret.

“She’s weighing our hearts on the Scales of Justice and the feather of truth. Egyptians believed your heart was the sign of who you really were in life. If the scales balance by the time you end the journey, then your soul is allowed into the Field of Reeds”

“What if they don’t?” Marc asks.

“You get thrown overboard. Whoo!” She cheers and makes a gesture of you falling off, “You will then be dragged down by the dead into the Duat, where you’ll be frozen in sand forever”

She then looks over to you and smiles, “Oh right, let’s not forget you”

You back away, “Hey hey, not after you saying my chest might explode!”

Tawaret waves it off, “Oh you’ll be fine! I promise”

You hesitate for a second and take two steps towards her. Marc and Steven look at you both with worry.

Tawaret then puts a hand in your chest and you feel your breath stop. In your chest, you get a cold and airy sensation and is then stopped when she pulls out another white heart.

“See easy” she then takes it away.

Another scale then appears and Tawaret places your heart on it. It begins to go up and down, meaning you would wait to be balanced. You begin to feel your chest, thinking that you were left with a gaping hole. Fortunately you were fine.

The two men walk to the edge and you cautiously follow behind. You guys look down and see dunes of sand and rocks around. The thrashing of the grains of sand fill your ears.

“Oh ok, yeah uh if the boat to Mogarts scared me, this shit is freaking me out more” you step away and the boys do the same.

“It’s alright you won’t fall” Marc reassures you.

“Yeah, and if you trip, we’ll just catch you” Steven smiles and you smile back at them.

“I don’t care what this hippo says. There’s no way we’re ending up down there. And we’re not going to the Field of Reeds, either” Marc whispers to the both of you.

You pout, “Oh and here I wanted to go explore it. Have a sweet vacation” you sarcastically say. Unfortunately the boys don’t take it as a joke and stare at you.

Holding your hands up in surrender you reassure them, “Jokes! Just jokes”

“Right, well what are you proposing?” Steven gazes at Marc.

“If it comes to it…kill the hippo and steal the boat” Marc whispers even lower.

“What?!” You and Steven say.

“Um fellas?” Tawaret calls to you three.

Walking up, you see how Marc’s and Stevens scale is still trying to balance but this time there is a rusty sound coming from it.

“What? Why is it doing that? Why is it moving like that?” Steven inspects.

“I don’t know. I do not have a card for this” she gives an awkward laugh. She takes the hearts off the scales and notices the change, “It’s the hearts, they aren’t full. It’s like they each feel incomplete”

“What does that mean?” Marc crosses his arms.

“Without balanced Scales, the Duat will eventually claim your soul” she says seriously, “This boat contains all of a life’s memories. Now I don’t know what you two have been hiding, but my advice is get in there and show each other the truth. Balance your scales before we reach the Field of Reeds”

They nod and Steven looks over to you, “What about her? Is she alright at least?”

You look at Tawaret with hopeful eyes and she walks to your scales next. She sees how they almost seem balanced but they are moving slightly still. She looks at it confused and grabs your heart and sees the scale balance.

“What does that mean? Do I have a empty heart or something?” You ask, waiting for her answer.

Tawaret turns your heart at different angles and stops at an area, “It seems like, your heart has a crack”

You take a long blink with the news, “Excuse me what?”

“Hmm, if theirs are incomplete then that means you just need to fix it. Perhaps there are a few memories you decided to block out. Just get closure from them and soon you would be able to cross over” she smiles.

You slowly nod, “Wouldn’t Tumblr eat up the picture of my heart and what you said just now”. You look to the other two and they nod.

The three of you make your way back to where you came out of. The doors shut behind you and are now met with the long hallway from before.

“So how are we supposed to do this?” Marc walks down the hallway.

“Not sure…You think Laylas all right?” Steven asks.

“You really like her huh?” You smirk at him and he just gives you a blank stare, “I think she’s fine, she’s a strong woman”

“Knowing her, she’ll go on a suicide mission to stop Harrow herself”

“That means we better hurry, doesn’t it?” You nod to Stevens comment.

“Know what Layla would be all right with?”

“Don’t, just don’t say it”

“I’m just saying there is one hippo and three of us. And this ship can’t be that hard to steer”

“Marc, we are not about to have all the gods come after us just cause we killed their sweet hippo goddess” you look at him.

“Oh are you falling for her too?” Marc tilts his head.

“What? No! I’m just saying-What do you mean by too?” You feel your face heat up.

“You we’re quite fond with Hathor. Specifically her avatar” Steven backs up Marc.

“Oh you’re in on it too. But hey she’s a pretty lady and I can’t help it” you shrug.

Marc smirks, “Right, then you wouldn’t mind me telling her about your teenage crush on her when we get back to the living world?”

You turn to Marc and point a finger to him, “Spector, don’t make me tell Layla how you call out for her in your sleep”

Marc stays quiet and scoffs, “No I don’t…when have I ever?”

“Back at the hotel mate, I hear it even when I’m away” Steven teases.

“Oh you too huh? Don’t act like I haven’t forgotten about that kiss back there”

“That was unexpected, not gonna lie” you thin your lips.

Steven turns red and shakes his head, “Shouldn’t we be trying to cross over?” His voice going high pitched.

Marc and you realize, causing you three to stop.

“Oh yeah, so uh I guess,” you look to a door and notice a yellow light coming from within, “I’ll be going my way then”

Steven grabs your shoulder, “Wait shouldn’t we come with you?”

You look to him and Marc who wear a concerned expression. You gently smile, “I think I’ll be fine. Plus I don’t think you would want to see my cringy memories or you with me”

They hesitate but nod, letting go of your shoulder, Steven holds up his pinky finger.

“Promise me you’ll be safe and that together we will go back” you stare at his offer and then at him. He seems to be a bit serious even while smiling.

“Jeez, you make it sound like you won’t ever see me again” you laugh. You bring your pinky to Stevens and bend them together. From the corner of your eye, you see Marc standing awkwardly waiting for you to say something to him.

“Do you want to promise too?” You smirk.

He rolls his eyes but brings his pinky to you too. You two wrap your pinkies together.

“See you later” he smiles.

“Later”

You open the yellow lit door and wave to them as you enter.

-

Walking in, you notice how you are no longer in the white walled ward. Now, you are back to your middle school hall way. This time it is longer than it usually is and notice doors close together on either sides.

You walk down the hall and see how one doors window is showing a view of a memory. In this memory it is where you are talking to Steven while working back at the gift shop. Smiling at the memory, you continue on and see that on the opposite side, there is another memory of you and Marc eating a hawawshi.

Continuing on, you see a door open. A bit creeped out, you walk cautiously towards it and see a classroom. However the few desks are moved towards the sides to make a path through the room. At the front there is a white board with a teachers desk by it.

Catching your eye, you see that the walls are covered with many flyers. Stepping closer, you notice they aren’t flyers but past certificates and awards you received from elementary to highschool. Seeing them all together, it sets in that you really did get many.

You turn to the other side of the wall and notice old work from your school years with high scores. The ones that you notice more are the ones from kinder and such. The ones where you were tasked to draw or count the shapes. Remembering how easy life was back then.

“Man, do I wish I can go back”

You then notice one sheet marked with a red color, 11/30. It was a low score. You remember when your teacher showed it to your mother during conferences. Did it make your mother angry? Yes it did.

Even with all these high scores and achievements, this one thing she didn’t let slide. You look down and then hear a quiet chime. Turning to the sound you see how the scale from before is on the teachers desk.

Walking towards it, you grab your marble heart and see how on the crack, a glowing white piece filled the beginning of it. You still had more to go but now knowing what the goal was, it would be easy to get back to Marc and Steven.

Walking back out, you look for another door to go to. With the amount of doors, it feels like it’ll take forever but thankfully the ones you needed to go into made themselves obvious. At the end of the hall you notice another open door. Shrugging you decide to walk towards it.

Through it, you see how you are back in the living room of your house, the one where you spent your childhood. Nostalgia hit you so much with how the furniture was placed and the old decor. Even the smell was driving you to past memories. You look around and walk into the kitchen, there your mom is chopping vegetables to make lunch.

She looks younger and probably a bit happier. She had her hair tied in a low ponytail and she wore a blue striped shirt with cargo pants, while wearing sandals.

“Y/N! Ontas?” She called out.

Hearing small footsteps running in, a little girl runs through your body giggling. Your mother picks her up and kisses her cheek. The little girl giggles in return as her mother kisses spots that are ticklish.

“Ay mija, te ensuciaste” she smiles and wipes off whatever it is on the girls face.

The little girl then turns her face, there you notice it’s little you. You smile as you see her jump down and grab a juice box from a pack.

“Háblale a tus hermanas que me ayuden a cocinar” your small head nods at your mothers command and you run to your older siblings room.

Following behind, excited almost to see the old room where you used to hang out. To feel like a cool kid. Well before you were kicked out by the preteens.

“My mom says to help her cook” your voice being high pitched catches you off guard.

You never knew how your voice has changed until now.

Your older sister rolls her eyes and nods. You look more into the room and see the bright colors and the 2000s style decor.

Your child self however was not too interested on seeing the details and walked into your room that you shared with your parents. You only had bits and pieces of how it used to look but now it was all cleared up. You saw the old queen bed, the corner where you had your toy box, the box tv, and the old drawer filled with your clothes.

Tiny you walked over to your toys and pulled out two dolls. There she started to play with them, coming up with a whole scenario for them. Crouching down, you smile at how you had no care in the world. The only important thing to you was whether Clawdeen and Barbie would find the missing jewels.

The door opens to your mother grabbing her purse and changing out of her sandals. She looked over to younger you.

“Me falta ingredientes para el ceviche, voy a la tienda, quieres ir?” She asks you. You shake your head and lift your dolls.

She nods and says she’ll be right back. Hearing the car drive away, you continue on to play with your dolls. Soon enough, your oldest sister walks into the room.

“Hey, can you keep a secret?”

Younger you nods.

You start to remember, you don’t like where this is going.

“We’ll…I will be moving out and I got the house. Want to go see?” She grins at you.

Of course this excites you. Dropping everything, younger you nods and begins to grab her shoes. You follow behind the past you and your sister. Taking a better look at your older sister, you can see she has her belly growing. This was back when she was pregnant of your first nephew, you realize.

“Alright, remember, it’s a secret. So you can’t tell my mom” she places a finger on her lips.

This realization hits even more when you see the rest of your siblings getting ready. You shake your head automatically and back away, seeing yourself happy to see your older sister and nephews future home.

“Oh don’t go. Please, don’t go” you look at your younger self but she can’t hear.

Following behind your siblings, when you walk through the door, you are now at a different house. The house in which your sister moved into. Everything was still empty and there were a few boxes and furniture still waiting to be set up.

You see how younger you is running around with all the big space. Your parents house was small, and you remember always watching movies and shows where it showed a family in a big house. Fantasizing that you would get to experience having your own room. Being able to walk up and down the stairs. Especially imagining walking down to see your family sitting all together watching tv just like those tv shows did.

Hearing whispers from the corner, your attention on younger you is taken and you turn to where your two older sisters are talking.

“My mom can’t know” Your sister who was pregnant said, “She’s going freak out and I don’t know what she’ll do but she’ll try to keep me at the house”

You tilt your head, you don’t remember hearing them talk about this. Then again, you were just a kid who wanted to play in their imagination.

“Yeah don’t worry, we won’t say anything. Just make sure we get home before she comes back” Your other sister says.

You feel your self freeze up and your heart pound faster than it did before. The part from your memory was coming close, the one you didn’t like thinking about.

“You guys have to go now. Before she comes. Just go!” You look into your sisters eyes but she doesn’t notice your presence.

You breathe heavily and run your hand through your hair. At this point, you are having an anxiety attack. Closing your eyes, trying to imagine a different place, you open them to see that you are at the front yard of your parents house. You look around and see your mom standing outside, angrily watching as she sees you and your sisters come out of the car.

Your sisters don’t notice since their talking but once they turn their faces become grim. Younger you smiles, seeing that your mother is home. Running up to her for a hug, she shoves you back.

Your throat tightens as you see younger you look hurt as she stares back to your mother.

“Onde estaban?!” She yells at you three.

Your sister stares down, “Nomas fuimos a la tienda por algo…”

Your mom not believing it, looks at you, “Y tu? Me vas a mentir también?!” She harshly says.

Remembering how your sisters said to keep it a secret, you stay quiet for a second, “A-a la tienda…”

You stare at younger you afraid. You just want to go and pull her away. To scream at your mom to leave her alone. In your child self, you were thinking about your father coming to the rescue but he was working. Obviously, you never really got to see him since he always overworked himself. Leaving you and your sisters to deal with your mom.

Suddenly your mother grabs child you and drags her to the car. Hearing your sisters telling her to stop, your mother ignores them and pushes you into the passenger seat. She walks around the car and hops into the drivers seat.

“No, no, no. I ain’t doing this. No” you turn and run into the house.

-

The house is no longer one but now a classroom. This time, it was your old elementary classroom. More nostalgia comes through as you see the past school supplies laying around. Taking a moment to calm down, your attention is caught when seeing your old teacher sitting at her desk and infront of her is you and your mother. This time you are a bit older, probably 8 years old now.

Walking towards the three, you hear your teacher talking to your mother.

“Su hija está siendo bien en sus lecturas, pero en las matemáticas no tanto,” your teacher then pulls out a worksheet from a folder and slides it to you mother. On it, it shows many math problems and on the corner of the sheet is the numbers 11/30 with a red circle around it.

You mother doesn’t say anything and nods. Your teacher explains ways on how to help you understand the problems and how to work through them. She then hands her a stack of what seems to be practice problems.

After the conference ends, you follow behind your mother and younger you out the school. Walking to the car, you mother begins to talk.

“No entiendes esto?” She shows younger you the low scored sheet. All you do is shake your head.

“No…pero ando tratando-“

“Como es que no lo entiendes? Tu prima Jessica lo puede acer, a ella le dieron un certificado”

Younger you stays quiet and just looks down.

Well maybe it’s because she doesn’t have to stress out with shit from you every single second, you glare at your mother.

You and your mother step into the car and begin to drive away. You stand there as you see them leave. You roll your eyes and turn around.

-

This time it is night now. Loud music is blasting and you hear people laughing. You see many tables scattered with leftover food and a few bottles of beer around. Taking in the surroundings, you see that you are at your aunts old house.

Trying to figure out who the party is for, you walk around and see a table decorated with the name of that same cousin your mother compared you too. Everything decorated beautifully with candy and such scattered.

You groan, knowing damn well it’s a party for her birthday and with her getting an award your aunt made it a big deal that she decided to host a huge celebration because of it.

As everyone danced, in the corner of your eye, you see now 13 year old you sitting at a table. Away from everyone, just watching them with hatred. The way everyone was faking it. The way they hated each other but pretended to get along. You hated it.

You had a black jacket with a green shirt underneath. For pants you just had a normal pair of jeans on with sneakers. Back then, you never cared for parties which meant you didn’t pay much kind to your outfits.

The music is suddenly turned down and your aunt calls out to everyone, saying how she has a speech. Pre-teen you rolls her eyes as she has her arms crossed. People gather around her and your cousin, waiting for what the announcement will be. Fortunately, you are at a safe distance where you are away but can still hear what she will say.

“Hello! I’m glad everyone was able to come and share their time for my daughter,” she says with an accent, “Nomas quer��a darles gracias por venir y también para felicitar a mi hija. Es una niña muy inteligente, y estoy muy orgullosa por ella. Ella a ganado muchas certificados y premios, que más puede pedir una madre. La quiero!”

Everyone cheers, yelling praises to your cousin. You see past you look at your parents who are also part of the cheering crowd. Her expression falls and saddens. You’ve never seen them be so happy and proud of you. Instead that attention was going to your cousin. Someone who wasn’t even close to them.

You scowled and turned to your cousin, staring at how she and your aunt hugged each other tightly.

That scowl then fades and you frown. You would never admit this, but you did feel envious of them. Why did your cousin have that kind of relationship with her mother? It never seemed like she had to try to please her. Anything she did made her happy. Hell, it made your parents happy. To top it all off, her father comes in and gives her a hug, following with a “Te quiero”. There it was, something you never heard your father say to you.

Even after everything you did, your parents never did give you the attention you deserved.

When you tried, all your parents would do is just say a “Well done” and move on with their day. Anything you did, it never went noticed. You always wondered whether they even cared about your effort.

Someone walks to younger you and takes a seat by her. It’s an older man, with grey hair and wrinkled cheeks. Wearing a thick jacket and holding a cane.

Recognizing your grandfather, you walk closer to him and kneel down to him. Feeling tears trying to escape. You smile and reach out to feel his face but your hand goes through. You slowly pull your hand back and sigh.

“Hmm, estas la primera vez que los miro así de felices junto” he says rather amused.

Younger you turns to him and smiles, “Si, me sorprendió. No vas a ir a bailar?” You say with a teasing tone.

He scoffs and shakes his head, “Si voy, no me van a dejar. Van a tratar de obtener su herencia al mentir que me quieren”

Young you just nods and smiles, “Quien crees que no lo está fingiendo?”

Your grandfather takes a second to think and turns to you, “Tu”

“Porque?”

“He estado aquí en la tierra el tiempo suficiente para decirte quién solo está ahí para ti cuando necesitan algo y cuando alguien solo necesita alguien a su lado ”

You smile, remembering the quote that he told you that night, now using it everywhere you go. And that quote is probably what helped you befriend Steven. You were able to tell he was a person who just needed someone by his side, and it was true. He has never been happier. Even with Marc, all he did need was someone but he tried pushing them away. That was until you broke that cycle.

Remembering you were still in your memories, you looked around to try to leave. Perhaps it was enough to make your heart no longer broken.

Seeing a door open at your aunts house, you walked over to it and walked through. Ending up in your parents living room, the one of now, or technically from a few months ago.

-

Past you was sitting on the couch, your leg bouncing as you thought of how to break the news to your parents. Your mother and father walked in and sat on the couch, they both smiled as they waited for you to speak up. It was weird how they were more happy now than they were a few years ago. That’s what grandkids did, they became the parents you wished you had.

“Uh, tengo algo para decirles…” you twiddled your thumbs trying to get the confidence to tell them. To tell them that you were accepted to Kings College London. A college with nursing programs and such. How you were planning on moving out there, away from here.

“Una universidad en Londres me aceptó. Tiene un programa de enfermería y tiene buenas críticas”

You sense your parents tense up and look at each other.

“Estás asegura? No ay otros universidades con la misma programa aquí? Así que te puedes quedar en la casa” you mom says and looks to your father for support.

He stays quiet for a moment, “Que es la diferencia allá? Vas estar estudiando la misma cosa come acá. Una sobrina que tengo, estudia en uno en-“

You cut him off, not wanting to endure more comparisons “Dicen que pagan para el vuelo y donde me quedo”

It was a lie of course, you were saving up money to afford a flight over there plus to get your own place. All you wanted to do was leave. All your siblings had moved out already and you were alone. Alone with your parents criticisms. Alone with the comparisons. And alone with dealing with their arguments.

Your parents nod and hesitate, “Pues, si es la universidad que quieres ir, no te podemos parar”

You were actually surprised they let you go. But you were glad. You were able to meet Steven, Marc, and Layla.

-

With a blink of an eye, you were then transported to the backseat of a moving car. You looked around and hear your mother yelling at someone. Moving closer to the front, you see how younger you from before is frozen on the passenger seat, looking down.

“No puedo creer que me hayas mentido. Después de todo lo que he hecho por ti” your mother grips the steering wheel.

“Sorry mami,” younger you says but it goes unnoticed.

“Ya estoy lidiando con tu hermana que nos avergüenza con su embarazo. Te lo puedes creer? Tenemos una puta en nuestra propia casa”

Shaking your head with how she insults your sister you glare at your mother, “How can you say that about your own daughter? Especially infront of your youngest”

“Sabes, tuve que casarme con un hombre que ni siquiera amaba ni él me ama. Dar a luz a sus hijos por los que me sacrifiqué tanto. Solo para que me traten como una mierda” your mothers voice breaks and begins to cry.

This is where younger you starts to think over this statement. Seeing her own mother hurting and saying how having kids was a sacrifice, a seed was planted. If she or her sisters weren’t born, her mother would have been happy. Maybe there was a way to make her happy and that was to be the best in the family.

“Mami, lo siento, no te mentiré más” younger you pleads, hoping that she’ll just turn back and you get to be home.

Younger you is crying at this point but your mother ignores it. She continues on about how her own family hates her.

“Al mejor me tengo que matar, así ustedes pueden estar feliz” she says which causes your child self to freeze and shake her head. Telling her mother not to, that she’ll miss her.

“Ya párale! Nomas es niña! Nomas fui niña!” You yell out to your mother. Tears are now rolling down your cheeks and you feel your throat clench.

This was the memory you hated. The one you despised. It reminded you how any good you’ve done for your mother, goes unnoticed when one bad happens. But it mostly made you think of how you still try to appease her when all she ever did was build anxiety in you from the start.

-

Blinking again, you are now standing and you are under a green tent. Infront of you is a coffin with many people surrounding it. Everyone wearing black and crying. There are a few chair set up around with a few personal items.

You see your aunts and cousins holding tissues up their noses as they sob. Next to the coffin, you notice 14 year old you just staring at it. You’re not crying. You wouldn’t be showing everyone else your emotional side.

Walking close to the coffin, you see the ring of flowers that are by it, have a picture in the middle. It was your grandfather. It was his funeral. He died a few months after that one party, no one knew he would. But the tumors in his torso said otherwise.

Past you then turns to your cousin who is sobbing and talking about how she was very close to your grandfather.

“I always talked to him and he always had jokes to tell” she blows onto her tissue.

Anger boils within 14 year old you and just stares at her. But the thing to tip her off was the next line.

“He told me before he died, that I was one of his favorite grandkids. The only one who tried to spend time with him, if only I had more”

That was it, you needed an outlet for emotions and here was your chance.

“Can you shut the fuck up?” You snarl at her

Everyone pauses and stares at you, “Excuse me?”

“You know damn well you never talked to him. You never did. You said it yourself, that he was an annoying old man!”

She looks around and furrows her brows at you, “I would never say that!”

Her mother then steps in, “No le hables a mi hija de esa manera. Sé que los celos te están engulliendo, pero tienes que controlarlos”

“Y/N, ya párale” your mother says firmly.

Ignoring her, you look at your aunt, “Oh, no me digas eso cuando lo sepas muy bien, acabas de jugar a la buena hija solo para que puedas conseguir terreno!”

She looks shocked and stays quiet.

“Y/N ya!”

“Por qué ustedes están actuando como si ahora el los importaba cuando siempre lo ignoraban? Todas ustedes son perras-“

Slap!

Your cheek was stinging and you stood there shocked. You slowly turned to see that your mom just slapped you.

“A mi familia no se habla así!” Your mom. Your own mother. Standing up to her sister instead of her own daughter.

You turn to your father who was standing behind her. Hoping he would stand up for you, but he doesn’t. All he does is just shake his head

You glare at them, “…Claro, no me sorprenden que los quieren mas que su propia hija”

Your mothers eyes widen. You push past everyone and as you walk past a cooler filled with beer. You grab one and just walk away as you hear your sisters protests.

You follow behind past you and find her sitting by a tree as she stares into the distance. With the beer already open, she takes a large sip. Her eyes are tinted red and she continues to grip onto the beer bottle.

You remember the thoughts from that day.

You hated how this family worked. How your mother always chose her family instead of the one she made. How your father was never there for you.

Then it went to sadness. Why did your grandfather leave you? Didn’t he know you would be alone? That the family would be in chaos without him. Or was this his way to escape it. If so, she wanted to escape it too.

Past you took another gulp of beer and let the heavy tears fall. Those quiet tears then became loud sobs. She then threw the bottle and cried into her arms.

As you watched her cry, you couldn’t hold it in anymore. You didn’t even notice how past you disappeared and how you were now alone. You dropped to you knees and sobbed.

Remembering how you were just a kid who wanted to have fun. To make her family proud. All this responsibility on her shoulders. Having to deal with her mothers negative thoughts. You were just a kid.

A kid who wanted to have a mother who was as caring as the ones from movies. Where she would be happy with anything you did. One that didn’t compare you at every chance she had. A mother who wouldn’t use you as an outlet for her problems. One that chose you before anyone else.

Wanting a father that you spent most afternoons with. One that wouldn’t miss your birthdays or award ceremonies. Who would make you laugh. Where he would stand up for you. One who would spend time with you no matter what. A father who protected you from every danger.

Your cries became loud and you screamed out, holding your arms close. Your throat hurt from the sobs but you didn’t care. All the sadness from years ago were finally coming out. You tried to breathe but crying made it hard.

A few feet away, the scales were starting to balance out again. You couldn’t see it, but the crack on your heart began to heal the more you cried. This was all you needed.

You lift your head up, trying to calm down. Your eyes felt swollen and your body weak. The ground began to change from grass to wooden floorboards. Continuing to hold your chest, you saw how the scales balanced. From behind you hear Tawarets voice come close.

“You did it. You balanced your scales” she said with a warm smile.

You stayed on your knees and looked up at her, “Does that mean…”

“You can now be in the Field of Reeds”

-()-

Turning your head slowly, your view is no longer a sky painted with purple hues nor sandy dunes. Now it is a sky with a yellow sunset. Looking down, you are no longer on hard wooden floors but soft earth. Up to your shoulders we’re many stems with a fluffy top.

So this was the Field of Reeds.

Even with Steven describing it, you never thought you would see it yourself. Or even believed it would be this beautiful and calming.

You just stay staring out to the sun as you feel a soft breeze hit your face, drying up all the tears you let go of before. Your breathing began to regulate and you continued stay on your knees.

At this point, you didn’t care where you were or what had to be done. You even ignored Tawaret who stood behind. All you wanted was to take this moment of peace.

——

“Where is she?” Marc walks away from the hippo, trying to find you.

He too was in the Field of Reeds now. Except he wasn’t exactly happy, no he found it as a step back from trying to leave. Plus now, you two have lost someone from the trio.

“She is over there,” Tawaret pointed to where you continued to sit in the distance, "She has sat there for almost thirty minutes. Quite worried about her". Marc took a quick second to stare at you before he began to walk towards you.

No longer crying but just holding a stoic expression as the reeds gently hit your body. Staring at the sun, expecting it to go down but after minutes passed by, it still stayed in the same spot. Something you liked since you never got to see the sunset.

Footsteps came near but you ignored them. Marc walked to your side and looked at you. Making sure you were alright but the red, puffy eyes said something else.

“Y/N?”

You didn’t respond which caused him to crouch down to your level. Taking a closer look, he can see your tear-stained face. You were in deep thought before you began to talk.

"You know, the real reason why I moved to London wasn't just because my 'dream' school was here, but to run away from feeling overlooked" Marc decided to sit down, readying for the conversation.

"I thought that being here would stop me from wanting my parents to appreciate me. Even a slight bit of it," you laugh, "yet I'm over here trying to become a nurse just so my parents can see that I was worth the effort."

Marc remains silent and gazes out at the sun. You just needed someone to listen and hear you out at this point. You seemed to be keeping everything inside back in the living world. It reminded him of himself, back when he was a teen.

"It's even more degrading when I even apologize for every mistake I make. I can't even remember a single time in my life when someone has apologized for hurting my feelings."

That's when you finally turn to Marc, eyes warming up again with tears threatening to fall, "I've been the best I can be, and my parents don't see it. Why? Why don't they?"

Marc draws you in for an embrace, pressing your head against his chest. Your body reacts to each cry you make, unbothered that you appear vulnerable. Marc’s hug feels protective and safe, something that you needed. You pull away and wipe your face after he notices your body relaxing.

He thinks of the next thing to say, knowing that you are hurting from whatever memories you have seen.

“I don’t have a clear answer on why your parents can’t see you, but just know they have to be blind,” he smiles and places his palm on your back.

“You have got to be the most hardworking and kind person I have met. Before you and Steven met me, I remember seeing how you got shit done at the shop. How at the same time, you would stand up for Steven when others didn’t. How you have the balls to go and what? Tag along to try to save the world? What person your age does that?”

“I heard rumors that Spider-Man might be 16, saving the world” you sniffle.

“That’s because he has powers that he learned to use and a suit to make himself look pretty. He signed up for it but you didn’t, and you still went out there to kick ass, like how you were throwing guys into the river back at Mogart’s.” he gently elbows you.

You give a small laugh and it makes Marc happy to see you feeling better.

“Kid, just know that no matter what your parents think, me, Steven, and Layla will always have your back. And if it makes any difference we think you are the best daughter there is” he smiles.

“Really?”

Marc nods and you smile at the gesture.

“If we do get a tomorrow, will you guys be there?” You ask, hopeful at the question.

“Of course” He hugs you and you hug back.

When you let go, you look around trying to find the other twin. “Where’s Steven?”

Marc frowns and looks down, “The Duat got him…”

You look at him and your eyes shift more wide. Steven the one who made you see the better side of the world was gone. You felt a sort of emptiness in your heart and you wanted to do something about it.

“Is there a way to get him back? There has to be right?”

“There is,” Marc smiled, “But if we try to, we won’t be able to come back here”

You pause and take a look around the plane. It was beautiful and quiet of course. It was the peace you always looked for, but, if Steven wasn’t there to share it with him, what was the point. After everything Steven has done for you, it would seem unfair to not try to save him.

“So what do we do?” You begin to stand up and so does Marc.

“We’ll go back and go through a gate to get us back to our bodies” He said with a determined tone.

“Yes, but he also forgot to mention that you two will be returning to bodies filled with led” Tawaret appeared from behind you two.

Whipping your heads around, you looked up to the hippo goddess.

“Marc might be able to come back with the help of Khonshu but unfortunately for you Y/N…” she held both her hands.

“…I would just die again and come back” You say, aware now of your choices.

Marc stares at you and shakes his head, “No, I won’t have you die again. We’ll figure something out. Khonshu probably has some kind of healing magic or something for you”

Tawaret thinks for a moment and hesitates, “There may be a way. Maybe having Y/N become an avatar for Khonshu might work”

Marc shakes his head, “Not happening”. He looks away and ponders for a minute, “…I can maybe strike up a deal to have you be his avatar, temporarily”

“What kind of deal would we be talking about?” Furrowing your eyes as you wait for his answer.

“…I would stick around him longer after we stop Harrow”

You knew Marc and Steven didn’t like Khonshu as much as you did. Noticing the way they seemed more laid back when he was gone, you would understand why they wouldn’t want to be with him anymore. But he was willing to leave that behind just so you can live.

You stalled but nodded to the offer. Marc took this as a sign to go and he began walking away. Following behind, the scenery changed to no longer a bright yellow scene but to the dark purple from before. This time, you two were on the sands of the Duat.

Looking around, only dunes were seen from a distance. That was until you two noticed a tall rock but it had gods carved on a side. In the center there was two big doors with engravings

Aside from that, infront of them was Steven. But he was frozen in place and his body was made out of sand. Half of his body was also deep in the sands, meaning he’d probably been there for a while.

Walking close to him, Marc crouches down and so do you. Now face to face with Steven.

“Man Steven, this does not suit you” you give a small laugh but really it pains you to see him like this.

Marc smiles at your comment. He moves his head closer to Steven and speaks in a low tone.

“I don’t know if you can hear me…from the moment you arrived, way back then, we were so young. You saved me” Marc’s voice begins to break.

Seeing as how he is having a moment with his alter, you stand up and give him some space. You wonder what it was that they saw that caused you three to be there. Besides that, you did wonder what it was that caused Marc to have an alter.

You remember searching up more into the subject back at the hotel and ways one would gain it was through trauma. Recalling the emotions you got when you thought of Marc’s past ached your heart. You never tried to ask him about it since it may have been triggering to think of.

Your thoughts then stop when you feel your toes to your ankles becoming weak. Looking down, you see that your body is slowly turning into sand. If you stay there longer, you might look just like Steven.

Peering back at Marc, you saw that his body was turning into sand too. Although it was a whisper, the last thing you hear Marc say was;

“You are the only real super power, I ever had”

Marc puts his hand on Stevens and they are then turned into sand. Freaking out, you stare at them and then at yourself. Shocked that you still weren’t turned even though you and Marc had been here for the same amount of time.

“No, no, no, no! Guys come on!” You limp your way to them but stop when you hear the large doors before you open, revealing a bright light.

Using your arm as shade for your eyes, you look down to the two and notice their heart glow a pale yellow. Crinkling sounds are then heard from Steven and his head starts turning back to normal, soon his entire body, plus Marc and they both breath out. The heart disappears and they sit there now conscious.

“Marc? Y/N?” Steven looks at Marc and then at you with a smile. Beginning to stand up he begins to nag you two, “You guys came back? What the hells wrong with you two?”

“I did a whole speech there” Marc smiles

“Hey I couldn’t leave my best friend behind” you grin.

Steven struggles to walk to you but you grab him before he falls. He gives you a squeeze and Marc joins in.

“Jeez will the gods know us for hugging huh?” You poke fun at.

They pull away and laugh. Seeing that the gates are open, you three hear a loud rumble come from behind. Looking back, you see a large wave of sand coming towards you.

“Oh shit! Come on!” You help Steven drag Marc to the gate, since he is still turned to sand.

“I’m slowing you guys down, just go without me” Marc says.

“Hell no” You shake your head.

“Nope, we are almost there. We can do it”

You guys continue to limp your way as fast as you can. Adrenaline pumping as you hear the sand coming closer.

That’s when you hear a loud laugh come from behind. Turning back you see Tawaret sailing her ship on the the wave.

“Osiris, you old softie!” She then rams the ship against the wave, giving you three time to cross, “Now run!”

Steven puts his arms up and cheers, “Hippo!”

“Let’s fucking go!” You roar as well.

Marc begins to pull you two back as he says to go. You guys continue to charge but you begin to slow down.

Remembering what would happen after you come back to the world stayed in your mind. Marc and Steven would have to deal with Khonshu just for the sake of you. How could you do that to your own friends.

“Come on! We’re almost there” Steven yells out.

You let go of Marc and stand still, thinking of the choice you would make. Sensing that you were staying back, the boys look at you concerned.

“What is it Y/N? Let’s go! We’re almost there” Steven smiles.

“…kid?” Marc notices your in deep thought.

You gulp and look into their eyes, “I can’t have you give up your freedom from Khonshu, just to let me live another life again…”

Steven looks at you confused, “What? No, Y/N you still have much to live for”

You shake your head, keeping your grin and feeling your eyes water once again, “Thanks for making me look forward to life and making me feel cared for,” a few tears fall.

“Y/N, it’s alright, we don’t mind being with Khonshu. As long as your with us, that’s all that matters” Marc tries to grab you but you push his hand away.

“Marc, thanks for listening” you look at Marc and then turn to Steven, “And Steven…thanks for unlocking that door for me”

Putting both hands on them, you use all your strength to push them through the gates. They yell at you to stop and to come with them but you ignore their pleases. With one final push, they then disappear through the bright light.

You stand still as your body is turned into sand. Closing your eyes, you feel a sense of coldness consume your body, then everything turned dark.

-

Marc stands up as bullets fall out of his wounds. Cloth begins to wrap around his body until he is covered in grey. He looks at himself through the reflection of the water around him and makes the mask disappear. Walking over to Y/N’s body that was left by the tomb of Alexander the Great, he crouched down and moved the hair out of her face.

Steven then grabs control of the body and stares at her with grief.

“There has to be something we can do, she can’t be gone”

Marc gets control again and also stares down, “There’s nothing, least we can do is stop Harrow. She would have wanted that”

Steven stays quiet, “Can we at least take her body somewhere else? She shouldn’t be around other corpses”

Marc nods and picks Y/N up, walking her out of the pyramid.

Outside, Khonshu awaits for them with his staff as the sun begins to set. Once Marc is near him, he places Y/N’s body down where the sun hits her.

“I see the maggot didn’t make it out” Khonshu comments

Marc glares at him as he positions her arms over the stomach.

“I did not mean to offend. In honesty, I will be missing her snarky remarks” Khonshu says.

Marc ignores him and gives Y/N one last look before he leaves. He was planning on coming back, to give her a proper burial and ceremony. Away from Egypt and England, back to where she was safe. For now, he was about to release the anger he was feeling on a few in Cairo.

-

You open your eyes and see that you are back at the Field of Reeds. Everything was the same, with the sunset and plants everywhere. However this time there was a statue standing by you.

“Ah your here!” Tawaret says.

Turning to her you tilt your head, “Why? I thought-“

“That darkness would be your eternity? Nope! Luckily for you, someone wanted to save you” she grins.

You scrunch your brows together, “Are you making me your avatar?”

“Oh no, although I did like you, I found another. You may know her”

“You got Layla didn’t you?” It immediately clicked.

She nods and then remembers why you’re there.

“Right! Y/N someone wants to meet you” she gestured to your side.

You follow the direction and find yourself looking up at a woman. However she had the head of a cow with horns. The horns had gold rings on them and in between the horns was a red circle. Her ears had piercings and her head was adorned with long gold strands that gave shape of hair. She wore a red long dress that had a blue ribbon tied around her waist. On her biceps and wrists, she had blue adorned cuffs. Around her neck was a gold Egyptian collar that had many blue and red jewels.

Aside from her appearance, she gave a gentle aura which made it easier for Y/N to feel comfortable around. She smiled down at you and gestured to Tawaret that she was free to leave.

“Hello Y/N, you may not remember me, but we have met before”

You continue to stare at her and think of where you might have met a goddess. The day you went to the Ennead hit you and your eyes widened.

“Hathor? W-what happened to-“

She frowns, “Yatzil, sadly was killed by Harrow. Her spirit although is running free in the Field of Reeds, something you may be familiar with?”

You nod and rub the back of your neck. Yes, you might have developed a small crush on her avatar but Yatzil was kind. Being killed just for trying to save humanity sparked something you.

“So I take it you want me to become your avatar instead”

She nods, “Precisely, I found you to be the one suited to be one. Aside from the irony that you and Khonshus avatar are friends just like how me and him were, is enough reason. However, the way you stick by friends till the end, literally, was something that made you stand out”

You breathed in, prepared for her question. You wouldn’t lie, it was quite exciting but with the way Marc made his experience with Khonshu sound, made you think otherwise.

“Y/N, do you accept becoming my voice and protecting all of those worthy of my love?” She says.

Thinking about the powers you already have back in the living world, you feel like you are cheating in life.

“Can we make this a temporary thing? Like just after we kick Harrows ass, you and me go out separate ways? I don’t know, I feel like I am being given too much power for puny mind to comprehend” you use your hands to speak.

Hathor laughs at your remark, “You are quite funny, unfortunate I won’t have you as my avatar for long. Yes, unlike Khonshu, I am fine with that offer”

Surprised she didn’t send a lighting bolt at you, the choice is easier to make now.

“…alright, let’s go” you extend your hand out.

She smiles and shakes your hand, wind begins to spiral around you and reeds go flying. Vision becoming blurry, you swear you passed out.

-

With a great gasp, Y/N immediately holds her rib area. The pain coming rapidly back as she is revived. She looks around and notices that she is no longer in the dark tomb from before surrounded by water. Now she is laid on sand with only the orange skies left from the sun, turning into a shade of pink and purples. Beginning to sit up, she feels a wave of air from behind.

“Then rise and become my Noble Sun ” Hathor’s voice is heard from behind and Y/N begins to stand up, letting go of her wound.

Yet there was no wound and she felt stronger than ever. She extended both arms as she felt a sort of power coming through. Wind was rushing around her, making her hair rise up.

As her eyes began to glow white, her clothes began to transform into something else. Her shirt lost its sleeves and collar, becoming a red top that rounded on her chest. A gold armor piece then enveloped over her waist that had bumps. Pants turned into grey cotton ones and her shoes changed into golden boots that had leather pieces to tighten them.

From the waist below, came out the same color red of her top to create an open skirt, outlined with gold. A big piece of gold armor came around her wrist that went almost up to her elbow. On her biceps were gold cuffs that had blue jewels on them.

To finish the suit, a gold Egyptian collar appeared around her neck that had vertical blue pieces of metal that created a pattern. From the top of the collar and up was another gold piece that had ridges on them. Finally a band of gold, wrapped around her head with the symbol of Hathor; two horns connected with a red jewel in the center.

Y/N looked down and up to her arms, feeling the new outfit. She smiled seeing that she looked like a hero. She felt a piece of metal touch her arm and she looked down. On her side was a gold thick piece shaped as an ankh. Seeing that she was confused, Hathor gave a small laugh, “Concentrate your power on it”

Y/N listened to her command and the ankh suddenly extended which caused her to hold it away from her. She analyzed the piece and noticed the end was sharpened to act like a spear. Concentrating her focus on it again, the ankh shrunk back to its normal size. Holding it with both hands, she smiled.

“This is something else”

————————————

Picture of suit + visual of Hathor

Okay so I apologize for making this shit too sad and making the reader you cry but it was part of the plan 👍🏼.

Also why did I change it from calling the reader “her” to “you” and then back to “her”? Well it was to show that in the afterlife, you are more aware of yourself and shit like that. Like before, you were focusing on what Marc was doing right? But now it’s just focusing on you and your “backstory”. Also I apologize if it sounds weird, it’s been long since I wrote it in second point of view.

Btw with the song I chose for when you go into the Field of Reeds, I wanted the same feel from the show where that one Spanish song plays when Marc goes there. So why not use a old popular song 🤷🏽‍♀️. You can change it if you want but I felt like it fit. Also when you read it, imagine yourself in the field to be more with the reader LMAO

I hope y’all liked it and stay tuned for the next chapter :)

Taglist: @itsjusspele @dustyinkpages @moongirln @scoliobean

[pitbullwithaship]

DOCTOR WHO LIVEBLOG 2009 SPECIAL PLANET OF THE DEAD

I am ridiculously glad to get to watch Dr Who tonight cuz I just spent a 4 hour long rehearsal standing motionless and occasionally marching around and my legs and knees are killing me. AnyWHO time to watch!!

Ominous music

Ooh art museum at night optimal setting for interesting stuff to happen

Goblet (of not-fire, presumably)

BURGLAR we getting troped

WHATCHAMACALLIT CAT

Ooh she's cool

ACT NATURAL AND STOP SPRINTING DOWN THE STREET IN ALL BLACK CLOTHES

You're just gonna trust that they're genuine?

HELLO DOCTOR lol

They never saw her face I thought, why does he know it was her

Teeth joke

I'd eat it if I was her

Lol she's very confused

Usually epic police chases don't involve clunky city buses

The Voices tm

Oh wow that's very weird

Disappearing bus oof

Very bright

Desert fun

Okay chill in the bus until you figure out what happened or you'll all get heat stroke and die

Alien hand

Voices again

Oof dead isn't very alive omen

Transition lenses

Licks sand

It tastes like death oooOoOOOOooooOOOo

Okay he's dead

Very dead

Just a little out of your depth

Girlie is kinda awesome and young dude is kinda smart

I like Christina

He's a great peptalker I want to steal that quality

Hello UNIT

Portable shovel lol

I hate sand

Stares at phone confused

All the peeps on the bus must be so confused about why these people are so excited to meet him

Genius dude is kinda silly

#besties

Ooh those look like fly eyes

Shiny storm!! I love shiny things

Okay maybe shiny things aren't good

Definitely fly eyes

Etc

Very flyee

That's a gorgeous city

Stop flirting my dude

It's never that simple

Oof that's a sudden climate shift

That's a large amount of dead people

Disassociates

That's a lot of sky rays

Ooh that's a really cool creature

Christina is smartie smartie

Amazing creatures!

Cool cool I bet that weird goblet has something weird going on with it

Is she gonna go down there!!

She's awesome

Spaceman awww I miss Donna too

Good boy IM SORRY?!

Oh close call there

Oof lots of rays

Okay so bug guys are dead then

Those are incredibly sharkie rays

I love malcolm

Very trigger happy

Hammers it

GIRLIE YOU FUCK

Flies a bus lol

Oh they better make it in time

CLOSE IT MALCOLM

OH NO

NOT NOW IM BUSY I love this man

Why do you look so surprised my dude you were very furiously flirting with her the entire time

I love Malcolm

Oh he is mot in the space to have a companion now

At least explain my dude, communicate your brain a little bit

THANK YOU FOR ONCE

Aww poor Christina

HE WILL KNOCK FOUR TIMES WHAT

His face lol

Aww sets Christina free

Lol

Christina and the flying city bus sounds like a kids book

[sapphire-scribblings]

Flufftober (2/31)

Author's Note: This one was inspired by the Taylor Swift music video "You Belong with Me" and Carrie's garbage and out-of-pocket behavior in 1x03. I won't go into it, or this A/N will be longer than this story. Anywho, enjoy!

I felt a thrill of excitement as I shut my bedroom door. Dinner tonight felt like it was never going to end. My little sister Harper kept going on about a book she started, and my parents yammered on about upcoming social events. Don't get me wrong. I adored my family and knew I was fortunate to have them. But when a cute boy was waiting for you, the family could be more of a hindrance than a help. My heart was racing as I changed out of my clothes from school into my cozy pajamas. Maybe I could bribe Kat again into stealing one of Sebastian's sweaters like she did with his jacket. She teased me about the jacket when I first asked, but I knew it was all in good fun.

I grabbed my older brother Mark's walkie-talkie and moved to my window. Pulling open the curtains, I grinned when I saw Sebastian sitting in his window waiting for me. His hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and he wore a sweater that seemed to make his blue eyes glow. My walkie crackled as I turned it on and pressed the button on the side.

"Hey, Kydd."

He grinned and lifted his walkie. "Hey, Campbell."

I curled against the window, wrapping my free arm around my middle. "Donna LaDonna cornered me in gym class today when she saw me wearing your jacket. Did I tell you about that earlier?"

"No," he replied, shaking his head. "I had a few guys asking me creepy questions, but I brushed them off. Your ex Charlie looked like he wanted to rip my head off when he saw me wearing your scarf in Chemistry class. But what did Donna say to you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Just faking concern for me. She said that you had way more experience than most guys and was worried I wasn't ready for all that. I just-"

Sebastian shook his head and looked down. I stopped talking. The whole school knew about Sebastian Kydd, the bad boy kicked out of three private schools. I knew that he had a past with some painful baggage attached. Kat knew about it, but anytime I asked her, she told me that it was Sebastian's story to tell. I won't lie and say I wasn't tempted to cut corners to find out. My dad was the principal, and my mom was the guidance counselor. It would have been easy to access the school files with either of their keys and find the truth. But then, I remembered the pain in his eyes whenever someone brought up Trinity, his last school. Digging into something he kept hidden would be a breach of trust.

"Listen," he said after a moment of silence, "I got experience, that's true. But what it took to gain that...sometimes I wish I didn't have it. But that don't mean I'm going to act like your ex and pressure you for something you're not ready for. That's shitty. I'm here for the slow burn."

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. "Are you sure you're a real boy? You don't act like any I've ever met."

"Trust me, Campbell," he said with a wink. "I'm real where it counts."

That comment sent me over the edge and onto my bedroom floor. I swear, this boy was going to be the death of me. I stored that comment and the look in his eyes when he said it away for future nighttime fantasies. It wasn't until my cheeks stopped burning and his voice crackled over the speaker, begging me to come back, that I climbed back next to the window. Glaring at him, I stated, "You can't just say shit like that, Kydd. I'm only human."

He was unapologetic. "Just adding fuel to the fire, baby."

"Menace," I said with a smile. "Anyways, my mom noticed my scarf was missing when I came home today."

His eyes widened as I continued. "She was curious about the jacket I was wearing, so I told her about us."

"You told your parents?"

I understood his trepidation. My parents had warned me about Sebastian when they noticed us getting closer. I assumed because of their knowledge of his record from previous schools. They warned me that he was "troubled." As if he was somehow dangerous.

"Technically, I told my mom, who told my dad," I replied. "I think they saw the writing on the wall and knew forbidding me wasn't doing any good. So, they want you to come over for dinner. Meet you officially."

"Officially," he repeated, which made me nervous. All this talk of him rushing things too fast for me, and I might have just done the same things for him. "I've never met a girl's parents before."

"It would just be dinner here," I explained quickly. "My dad will probably try and pull his tough dad act, threaten to bury you on the fifty-yard line at school if you hurt me, but I promise it won't be too weird. My mom will stop him, plus Harper really-"

Sebastian began waving his arms to cut off my wave of word vomit. My cheeks burned as I stopped myself and took a few deep breaths. His mouth curled into a smile that never failed to drive me crazy. "I didn't say I didn't want to, Zelda. Hell, I was going to ask you about meeting them tomorrow. This is my first real relationship. I want very much to do it right."

My stomach erupted into a storm of butterflies. I knew he was serious when he called me by my first name. He only seemed to use it when he wanted to get his point across about something. Not for the first time, I compared him to Charlie. He never volunteered to meet my parents, let alone have dinner with them. Then again, my parents trusted him because his parents were a part of the community, and he was the star quarterback. Not a "troubled" boy from the city sent to live with relatives by parents who didn't seem to want him around.

"My mom and Harper loved carnations," I said in lieu of a transition. "My dad acts like he's this big tough guy, but if he sees you make an effort with Harper, which you already do, that will go a long way with him."

I smiled when I saw him grab a notebook to write everything I said down. I wanted him to get this right. Not for me, but to show my parents how wrong they were about this boy.

A/N- Happy day two!

[sharperthewriter]

Chapter 4 of Roneo and Kimliet

Chapter 4

(2:15pm)

The bell rung, signaling the end of the period. Kim and Ron exited the Drama classroom with Tara and Monique behind them. The final class they had before study hall was American History. They then assembled over at Monique's locker, which was a corner locker that connected G-Hall (which was the section of the school for fine arts) with F-Hall (which was the section of the school for the college-placement courses)

"I'm just glad that's over!" Tara said while holding her backpack tightly.

"Why did Barkin give the power of directing to the Glee Three?" Kim asked, "They are totally control freaks!"

Rufus popped out of Ron's pocket with a miniature Hamlet skull.

"To be...or not to be!" the mole rat squeaked.

"And why do I always end up as the tree, KP?" Ron wondered, "You know they only have two eyeholes for that costume and not enough holes for hands to hold the branches!"

"It's for safety reasons...unlike the Cowardly Lion incident..." Kim muttered.

"They control the Drama Club, Kim!" Monique explained, "They totally have the power over the art of plays, and things of that nature."

"On the bright side, Monique, I actually perfer to be directing from a table rather than being on the stage itself." Kim explained.

"Oh right, I remember that part!" Ron exclaimed, "It happened in freshman year..."

"Uh, Ron!" Kim explained, blushing before lowering her voice to a whisper "Not in the hallways of school please?"

"I'm guessing that is something that is kept under wraps?" Monique asked.

Kim continued to whisper.

"Ron...I want you, Monique, and Tara to meet me behind the gym after school. Don't tell anyone else. Got it?"

"You can count on me, KP!" Ron said in a low voice.

"Lips are sealed shut, baby girl!" Monique added while Tara gave a nod of her head.

The four of them headed off to their respective classes.

Little did they know, however, that Ashley B overheard what they said, for she was around the corner of the hallway.

"Ooo...I may need to find out what scandalous secrets they have!"

(3:45pm)

The bell rung for the final time for today.

"Now we can officially put today in the books." Monique said to Tara as they came out the doors.

Monique looked around and saw that the coast was clear.

"Okay, T, gotta head to the gym!" she instructed.

"Right, Monique!" Tara said before the two girls snuck over to the back of the gym. Ron was waiting for them.

"Hey, Monique and Tara!" Ron said in a low voice.

"Why are we talking quietly?" Tara whispered.

"KP was the one who suggested it." Ron said quietly.

Kim then approached the trio.

"Is everyone here?" the redhead asked.

"Present!" echoed Ron, Monique, and Tara.

"Good...now, as Ron was about to say before I had to cut him off." Kim said, "I am not a natural for the stage!"

"Are you kidding, girl?" Monique asked, flabbergasted. "You blew Bonnie out the water in the talent show and broke her 'Rockwaller Family Tradition'!"

"Yeah, there's that though Ron did win the event." Kim admitted.

"Quanity over quality, as Barkin said, KP!" Ron chimed in.

"Anywho, Monique." Kim said while getting back on topic. "Singing on a stage for three minutes is one thing but doing a play for three hours is a nightmare in of itself for me!"

"But, Kim, I did get a starting role that was not tree-based." Ron added.

"Oh yes...the Cowardly Lion incident. Sophomore year...Wizard of Oz..." Kim groaned.

(flashback: November 2004)

"KP, do you thing this Cowardly Lion costume is a bit too loose for me?" Ron asked. He was in his aforementioned costume.

"Nah, I think it fits you just right, Ron!" Kim said, smiling at him.

"Ronald, we are so proud of you!" Donna Stoppable exclaimed.

John Stoppable added, "You are finally doing a role that is not holding up the branches!"

"Thanks, Mom and Dad! I know I can count on you two!"

"Good luck out there!" Donna exclaimed, "It is our way of telling you to make us proud!"

Kim explained, "Everything went almost well in the play until it got to...that scene. Ron wolf-whistled at the female Robotics Team captain earlier in the week and she did not like that at all."

"You gotta hand it to her, KP...she did look pretty cute." Ron admitted.

Ron (playing the Cowardly Lion), Jamarcus Hall (playing the Tin Man), Josh Mankey (playing Scarecrow) and Marcella (playing as Dorothy) were walking along the Forbidden Forest to Oz on the stage.

Kim continued the flashback.

"There were supposed to be cardboard cutouts of the...things...but..."

All of a sudden, 20 Chimpy Monkey dolls rose on the stage. They were all tied to toy helicopters with smart sensors on them for some odd reason.

"Flying...MONKEYSSSSS!"

Ron screamed in terror as he ran off the stage. But the toy helicopters gave chase to him. Much of the audience was laughing at Ron.

"MONKEYS! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE MONKEYS?!"

Kim got off her seat and followed the toy helicopters.

Ron got to the entrance of the school and his Cowardly Lion costume got stuck on the door handle. Wanting to get away from the stuffed flying 'monkeys', he ripped through his costume...only to realize that he was clad only in his underwear.

The 'flying monkeys' continued to chase Ron with Kim chasing after them.

The female Robotics team captain whom Ron had wolf-whistled at earlier in the week, was controlling the head copter...as well as the entire Robotics Team.

"Fly, my pretties! FLY! FLY!"

She gave an evil laugh.

[einsteinsugly]

1995. The Real Gang Reads the T9S Pilot Script.

Donna (flipping through the pages, annoyed): They think I would have a kid at twenty-one, and then name her freaking Leia.

Eric: Yeah, they think I would name my daughter Leia, when you *erratically motions to Donna* were clearly my Leia, until...

Eric's eyes widen in horror, wincing at the memory.

Eric (continuing, voice cracking): Y'know, we all discovered Luke and Leia are related.

Hyde (with a smirk): You mean they're twins?

Eric (erratically pointing at him): Shut up! *Awkwardly clearing his throat* Anywho, they think I would devote my entire life to Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars. *Tossing the pilot script into the trash* Star Wars is only a small slice of my life, and I would never, ever name my daughter after a character I consistently fetishized, back in the day. Before George Lucas threw me for a loop, but this thing is throwing me into even more of a loop, y'see...

As Eric trails off, Jackie picks up the script, out of the trash. Leafing through the pages, absolutely horrified.

Jackie: Oh please, they think I would've accepted Michael's marriage proposal, had his baby, divorced him, and then married him again! *Glancing over at Hyde, who is now leafing through the pages himself* I love you, and...

Hyde (annoyed): Where the fuck am I in this thing?

Donna: In the author's note, it said the actor who plays you is on trial for rape. So you just get a Led Zeppelin poster in the basement, in your honor.

Hyde (ripping the pilot into pieces, before tossing it in the trash): Fuck this shit.

Eric, Donna, and Jackie (toasting, with beer): Fuck this shit!

[shatteredfears-arch]

anywho random lil things im thinking abt in my pained delusion:

cassie, in any sort of rel whether w someone new or someone from the past she cant remember. just. being held. she wouldnt get it at first. not understand it at ALL. but that weird sense of comfort???? she’d be into it.

exploring donnas inner thoughts. none of the threads i could ever have with her that dont include angie would be dialogue heavy, because donna cannot speak. when you hear ‘her’ voice, shes forcing that voice into your head. shes making you believe she’s speaking. and idk, theres just something im really heavily interested in and focused on in the reality of her thoughts, because she has the least screentime of the lords. Yet shes the one who studied ethan the most to use what she learned against him in what she believed was a fun game, but he saw as a traumatic, horrendous thing that it was. her headspace and her trauma and what the hell happened that made her create that giant fucking goblin spawn just, its interesting to me. Shes basically a fucking teenager forever, shes the youngest of the lords, the least experienced, and avoids everyone due to her fears. its just, its interesting, idk.

roses mind, everything, her reactions her struggles. there are so many people between who eveline killed, who miranda experimented on, the rest of the connections who were working with it. hell, even Oswell Spencer is technically likely part of that because he was there, and most spreads so fucking easily that even a second there would have been enough. She turned into that hive mind for awhile as an infant. her power is so strong and unbelievable that its mentioned multiple times and both miranda and karl are afraid of an i n f a n t. theres just a lot there than can be opened and exposed and deserves to be imo

[ifyoulovemeletmebinge]

day 1 of studying for ap exams ✅

[countesskittymeow]

And here we are for episode two. Couldn't watch it last night cz my kid woke up xD anywho, first thoughts, Im kinda digging this green and gold marvel logo a lot more than the boring red one xD

Mind control? Evil Loki Variant does mind control. I wonder if this Variant ever faced Thanos. Also! They used the song! Its one of my favourite songs!!! Now i wanna sing along but unfortunately I can't because my kid is asleep and I dont want to wake her up in the middle of the night. I do wonder why the variant kept the hot commander alive unlike all the other attacks

Why does the TVA have such a retro vibe?

Loki definitely wants everyone to know how awesome he is.

There used to be a HULK LOKI??? Also the look on Loki's face 🤣

The one after the hulk is just... I honestly don't have words to describe that one.. just wut???

I love the geeky Loki telling them about the nuances of magic (Im already creating a headcanon that this is an act and he's only showing them what they want to see i.e. an eager to please, slightly duplicitous version of Loki who wants them to know he's super useful to keep around)

Professor Loki. I do like the sound of that even if I suddenly flashed back to all of the harry potter crossover fics i used to read where Loki became a teacher at Hogwarts.

Mobius just gave Loki an answer from Doctor Who!!! Well sorta like that, not the same one but its all wibbly wobbly timey whimey stuff!

Loki is making his attempts at manipulation very very obvious and somewhat desperate. I'm really really reallllllly hoping this is an act. Come on writer people dont make me regret my decision to watch this show. I really wanna love it but I'm in that once bitten twice shy boat regarding the handling of his character so I'm either gonna come out of this series absolutely loving it orrrrrr I'm gonna hate it FOREVER and happily live in my headcanons.

It was an act! We finally see the real Loki! There is hope for this show yet!

Also the way his voice goes from the higher pitched eager to please tone to that deeper, slightly sinister yet 'i know I'm powerful and you should fear me' tone was fun to see.

This had better still be an act. He's supposed to be awesome at playing the long game.

He got shushed! So he shushed her back!

So wait... The total population on Asgard less than 10,000? Really?

Yeah Loki. Stabbing people in the back is boring. Stab them in the face! Much more fun that way.

Total Doctor Who vibes! They went to Pompeii! Ohhh imagine how fun it would be to see Doctor and Donna strolling somewhere in the background. Not that that would happen but now its my new headcanon and you'll have to stab me in the face to pry this headcanon from my claws xD

Loki, I'm loving your enthusiasm but the word Volcano was coined AFTER Pompeii's destruction. I doubt they know what you're talking about 😂 also, there's a volcano 'splodin! In the background, where the hell are the earthquakes?

Magic lizards. Loki really has a way with naming things doesn't he

Existence is chaos. Loki is the god of chaos. Since in algebra if a=b and b=c then a=c=a SO Loki is the god of existence and the variant Loki has already reached that conclusion so now the magic space lizards are feeling threatened by variant loki's potential and they want the variant dead to keep being the most powerful magic space lizards inside and outside of existence! Guys! I've just solved this season's plotline. If I don't live react to the remaining series episodes, know that I was found by you know who and taken for giving out spoilers.

Mobius: You're very clever!

Loki: and that surprises you? O_o

Asgard getting destroyed was a class seven apocalypse but the thin in 2050 is a level ten? I wonder how these classifications work.

The grin! The grin! They're both doing the grin!

You guys mean to tell me that NONE of the product packagings or designs have been altered or upgraded in thirty years? Dove, Axe, Vaseline, Tresseme, its all literally the same as the stuff I saw on the shelves at the grocers this week 🤣 i know it's a minor thing but I find that kinda hilarious.

Whyyyyyyy does Loki keep getting knocked around so much. Also, why isn't he using any magic. Grrrr... I find this most displeasing

She blond?!? Why is she blond??

Poor Mobius. I feel kinda sorry for him tbh.

And that's wrap on this episode. Still having mixed feelings about the series. There are parts that I like and then there are parts which keep bugging me. I'm not familiar with the various plotlines in the comics so I dunno whatever happened in those to the Loki though I find it interesting that Lady Loki (why is she blonddddd??? Why not make her a redhead instead? Loki was a redhead in most of the depictions pre-avengers, wasn't he?) has that broken horn on her headpiece like that one version from the comics.

[estrelio]

LMAOO!??????????!!??? that anon message was so funny I’m sorry I HAVE to laugh, w*ncest shippers are another breed SHEESH

*donna voice* ANYWHOS have a good day ely I’m happy to be celebrating the saileen wedding with you today <3

fbdhsj lmao it's like?? am i supposed to feel upset? at this point i really can't bring myself to care dbsjs

but yeah thank you!! 🥺 you have a great day too!! 💗

[therachelperspective]

BOOK | Unqualified by Anna Faris

Remind me to pay more attention.

When I was about to begin this book, I was blindsided by the subtitle that I have never seen and only found on the official title page once I opened it. This is not just Unqualified by Anna "Rhymes with Donna” Faris; this is Unqualified: Love and Relationship Advice from a Celebrity Who Just Wants to Help. Excuse me WHAT?! Turns out, I’ve been under a rock and this is the gist of both her podcast and her book. And here I thought I knew things. *facepalm*

While she may not necessarily be qualified in the love department, she is actually qualified to write a book. Or at least a little more qualified than some other celebrities. Our lovely Anna actually has a degree in English from the University of Washington, and that honestly gave me so much hope going into Unqualified. One thing I always struggle with is when celebrities are given book deals seeming to only sprout from their fame; most are horrible writers, but I suppose that’s what gives those books their charm, proving even in the slightest that yes, celebrities are just as flawed as we are, except with more money. ANYWHO, finding out that Anna knows her stuff was such a promising fact. ‘Cause let me tell you, if I based reading a book on it’s Foreword, I would have put this one down and walked far away. (That’s not entirely true, but you know what I mean).

Let’s start by talking about the Foreword by her then-husband Chris Pratt.

First and foremost, I want to say that, knowing that Anna and Chris announced/got divorced shortly after the publishing of this book in 2017 kind of puts a damper on the whole thing. Not because it may insinuate to some readers that she should not be giving advice on love and relationships, but rather because they were such a cute couple and, as many fans said once it was announced, makes it feel like love is dead if these two couldn’t make it. So the dedication, the foreword, and the plethora of times she discussed her relationship with Chris throughout the book were all so sad. And the way she talks about him and the anecdotes of what he’s done for her... it really is so difficult to believe that these two didn’t last.

Secondly, Chris Pratt should not be writing. This foreword was so painfully awkward that, like I said, if I were basing my continuation of a book on that first introduction, I would not have read it. And if you Google the topic, you will find numerous online articles with this same connotation; we all agree it is baaaad. Not only did he spend more time talking about himself and how he doesn’t know what a “foreword” is, he also made it sound like it was just an obligation with a word count. “I love her and respect her and told her I would” was his reasoning. Not once did I feel like he set the mood for the book from a more personal perspective, as a person who was her family for a decade, but rather he was giving us a short biography of Anna – things like how they both grew up in Washington, how they’re both actors that play idiots (his Andy Dwyer to her Cindy Campbell), how acting is her passion, various traits of her personality (how she is kind and what he calls an “information collector”). There was one line that made me believe that he was writing this foreword as a way to convince us to give Anna a book deal as if we were the publishers. He says “Anna deserves this book. I can promise you it will be a great and interesting read.” Yes, Chris, it was. But your foreword could have provided so much more than a grade-school style report on your ex-wife. I’m so glad Anna also wrote her own introduction. If you do end up reading this book, please just skip right to her intro.

In the first handful of chapters of Unqualified, I wasn’t entirely convinced that this book was worth reading.  Especially during those times where she straight up admitted that she was giving advice based on speculation instead of actual experience. I’m not saying that Anna has to have experienced everything experience-able in order to talk to people about it, but saying that she didn’t actually have a relationship related to a certain topic just puts a damper on what she’s trying to help with. Like the list of men she says to not date; it includes musicians, doctors, athletes, chefs, therapists, and actors. (It also includes magicians, but I think most women steer clear of them anyways lol). With the exception of actors, none of those are based on her own personal experiences with anyone in those professions. She even says to us “I have zero experience.” So who should you date, as per Anna Faris? Woodworkers. Or a guy who makes boats, because they brood. *shakes head* Girl, I can’t even.

While I’m indifferent to the portions of Unqualified regarding her childhood through most of her young adult life (college shenanigans don’t really pique my interest), there is a passage that has stuck with me long after finishing this book. Anna’s childhood crush/ “boyfriend” (she was 8 years old here, call it what you will) had just dumped her. So she goes home, grabs an orange from the fridge, writes this horrible boy’s name on it in marker, and then proceeds to chuck said orange into the forest behind her family’s home as a means to get over him. Anna dubs this the “orange ceremony,” which she says she must have felt it symbolic, wherein casting fruit into the “abyss” would rid her of the emotions of the situation. She may have been a child at the time, but as an adult, I absolutely love this concept. This sort of symbology is very reminiscent of various practices in paganism. Obviously not her intent as I highly doubt she was a practicing pagan at eight-years-old, but the truth is, things like this can actually work. Some of us older individuals would just need a lot of oranges.

The reason it has taken me soooo much longer to write a review for Unqualified (I finished it months ago, yikes!), is because I honestly just don’t know how I feel about it. My notebook is filled with pull-quotes and excerpts that stirred me in some way, shape, or form – and many of them, very good! – but as an overall novel, I can’t decide if I should keep it for a future reread, or donate it.  The only thing I feel that really sticks out in my mind about this book was how much I hated Chris Pratt’s introduction. And that is sad and depressing.

I did like that Unqualified was not just purely about love and relationships advice, and that it was intermixed with her personal memoir. I say that because there were plenty of times where her advice was not even advice at all. Like, for example, when she moved to Los Angeles with/for her then boyfriend. It’s reminiscent of an action many women take in tales of love. However, Anna also followed a career venture. This wasn’t solely about following her boyfriend out of sheer infatuation; if the relationship didn’t work out, she still had something there to fall back on, and that’s not something typical of an experience like this. Granted, yes, it’s kudos on her part for going for her own reasons, as well as for a guy, and it plays into her discussion of feminism at the beginning of the chapter. But in this of many parts of the book that was supposedly advice-driven, I made the note that maybe one sentence or one small paragraph at the end could have passed for guidance. At least, in most cases, she’s aware it’s not helpful.

Despite my typical qualms with books like Unqualified, at least for the time being I think it will remain on my shelves with my other keepers. Although her counsel is indeed questionable at times, it’s hard to deny how much I relate to Anna Faris and agreed with a good handful of the statements she makes in the book. And instead of doing all the talking herself, portions of Unqualified found basis from her podcast listeners through "Listener Responses,” as well as discussions and interviews with some people in her life (like Sim Sarna, her podcast partner in crime, and then husband Chris Pratt), and I like that aspect about it. It’s not just Anna retelling information from her perspective; it’s letting those people she has learned from have a voice as well.

I jotted a final note that I think sums up my thoughts on this book pretty well: Unqualified probably could have just remained a podcast. But for those of us not necessarily interested in listening to hours upon hours of content, the book is a good alternative, especially since Anna mentions in the beginning that the book is based on what she learned through two years of the podcast. A lot of Unqualified contained thoughts and experiences I personally could relate to and has happened to me, so, to quote myself “I suppose her book did what she wanted it to do.”

[bamby0304]

Apple of my Eye- Ch.21

Series Masterlist

Summary: When Sam and Dean were pulled back into their world, you were left behind. Stuck in the hustle bustle of Hollywood life, you have no choice but to play along, leaving almost all of your old life behind. Seven years later, when a rip in time and space opens up, you are finally able to go home… but you don’t go alone.

Warnings: Angst. Fluff.

Bamby

You jumped out of the car and reached for the door behind yours, opening it up to find Dakota stretching her arms and legs.

“Come on, you.” Reaching in, you unbuckled her belt and pulled her out of her seat.

She yawned as she clung to you, not exactly making it easy to get her out of the car. You didn’t say anything, though, because you needed her close. Soon things were going to get messy, and you needed this moment where everything was fine. Having her close meant she was safe, which meant you could breath easily for now.

“Why are we stopping?” Kaia asked as she got out of Patience’s car which was parked by yours.

Everyone was moving to stand between the two vehicles when Jody answered, “We’re taking a breather. I called in some backup.”

Patience shoved her hands into her pockets. “Like what, the National Guard?”

“Oh, better,” Jody assured her.

Right on time, a car honked as a pickup drove down the road and by the edge of the lake where the rest of you were. Standing there, with Dakota on your hip, you watched as the truck parked before the door opened and a woman jumped out.

She smiled widely at your group. “Hiya ladies.”

Alex didn’t waste a moment before heading over to the newcomer. “Hey Donna.”

Donna wrapped her up in a tight hug before looking over Alex’s shoulder at Claire. “Okay, you too Rainbow Bright, come on bring it in.”

Claire’s lips actually tugged into a smile before she joined the hug.

“Patience, Kaia, this is Sheriff Donna Hanscum. She’s uh, she’s killed a lot of vampires.”

“Vampires?”

Everyone paused at the small sound of your daughter’s voice. It was easy to forget a child was around when tensions were high...

“Oh gosh, Y/N, I’m so sorry.”

You shook your head at Jody reassuringly. “It’s okay.” Setting your daughter on the ground, you crouched down in front of her, and grabbed her hands. “Hey.”

Her eyes looked to the other women. “Mummy, what’s going on?”

“Okay, so…” Might as well get it over and done with. “You remember the show I was in, when we lived in that other world?”

She nodded quickly. “Supernatural. You worked with Uncle Jen, Jare, and Mish.”

“Exactly.” You smiled up at her. “You remember how I wouldn’t let you watch it because of all the monsters?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Well… in this world, those monsters are real. And in this world there are people who really fight them.” You looked over your shoulder and gestured to Jody. “You see her?”

“Yeah.”

“She fights monsters, and she’s a cop,” you explained. “And Claire? She was hunting a werewolf before she came home.”

“What about Alex?”

“She’s a nurse, so when everyone comes home with cuts and bruises, she fixes them up.”

“And Patience?”

“Oh she’s special,” you started, smiling up at your daughter as she looked at all the women. “She can see the future.”

Her eyes went wide. “Really?”

“Really.” You nodded. “And Kaia.” You gestured to the girl in question. “She can travel to different worlds in her sleep.”

“Wow.” Dakota was in awe.

Looking up at her, seeing the way she looked at them, it made your heart swell. Hiding the truth from her had been hard but something you thought you’d always have to do. The world you were in before had its own dangers, and that included the lack of belief. If you were to say something back there it could have put you in an asylum.

Here, however, things were different. Things were less black and white. But with those murky grey moments came two facts. One, monsters were real here, and so danger levels were higher. Two, you didn’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not… you didn’t have to lie or act anymore.

“Are you a hunter, too?” she asked suddenly.

“I was,” you admitted. “And then I had you.”

Her brows furrowed. “So you don’t hunt the bad guys anymore?”

“Well, I gotta be home to keep you safe.”

“Who keeps everyone safe, then? There’s lots of monsters, we need lots of hunters.”

“There are lots of hunters. Sam and Dean are hunters, too.”

“So every time they leave they’re out hunting?”

“Exactly.”

“And you’re at home.”

“Yeah…”

“So they could get hurt because you’re not helping them?”

Ouch. “It’s not like that, sweetie. Someone has to be home to take care of you.”

“I go to school now,” she countered. “And we have friends.” She nodded to the other women. “There are people who can take care of me while you go to work. Back in the other world you would work really late and Cliffy would take care of me.”

“Back in the other world I didn’t have to worry about monsters.”

“There’s monsters everywhere, Mummy. Just because there’s vampires here doesn’t mean this world is more dangerous.”

Your daughter’s intelligence often surprised you. The way she could so easily understand and accept things… it amazed you. But then you’d remember who her father was and it all made a little more sense.

“You should hunt, and you should help Jody find De and Sammy.” Her mind was made up, there was no getting out of it now.

“Okay.” You nodded. “Okay.” Getting to your feet, you turned to everyone else. “You heard the girl. We’ve got some Winchesters to save.”

Donna smiled widely. “You got yourself a strong girl there.”

Pride filled you as you looked down at Dakota who was now standing strong and determined. “I know.”

“Anywho, so, I brought the basics.” Donna turned to the back of her truck and opened it up, revealing a trunk full of weapons.

“Ooh!”

You reached out to put an arm in front of your daughter. “Look with your eyes, not with your hands.”

“Why do you have all this?” Patience asked as she stepped up to the trunk.

“I’m from Minnesota.” Donna shrugged, smiling widely once more.

“Kaia,” Jody called, catching your attention. “Where were you when this went down with Sam and Dean?”

“I don’t know.” Kaia shook her head. “We were heading west out of Mankato towards Sioux Falls.”

“So Route 14,” Donna filled in.

Kaia went on, “We got run off the road. We pulled into an abandoned boatyard, I didn’t see a sign.”

Alex pulled out her phone and did a quick search. “There’s a Larsen Brothers shipyard just off Route 14, shut down in ’08.”

Jody looked to Donna. “We’ll check it out?”

“Yeah.” Donna gave a quick nod.

“I’m going, too,” you told them.

“Okie, but what about…?” Donna gestured to Dakota.

“I got her.” Patience stepped over to your daughter. “I’m not much of a fighter, and someone has to make sure she’s safe.”

Shrugging, Donna reached into the back of her truck and pulled out a shotgun. “You ever used one of these?” she asked Patience, who promptly shook her head. Donna stepped up to her and handed the gun over. “Aim in their general direction, relax and squeeze. Squeeze, don’t pull.”

Patience looked down at the gun with uncertainty. “I don’t-”

“I would feel safer if you had that with you,” you noted. “Here.” Stepping up to her, you handed your car keys over. “When things get crazy, get in the car and drive. Don’t stop. If they’ve caught our scent they’ll follow the cars. If you keep moving you shouldn’t need the gun, but you should still have it just in case.”

“Just in case.” She nodded slowly. “Okay.”

...

Donna was looking out of her window with some binoculars, checking out the abandoned shipyard.

“You think this is the place?”

“Oh yeah, you betcha.” Donna reached back to hand you the binoculars.

Taking them, you looked out at the yard and instantly spotted Baby. “This is the place.”

Seeing her out there, alone, it broke your heart. Dean would never leave his car. Ever.

Not needing anymore evidence to know if this was where you needed to be or not, you climbed out of the car. The two other women were right behind you, jumping out and heading for the back of the pickup. Donna handed out some guns before you all started for the shipyard.

You noticed a pathway by Baby that led to the large abandoned ship that was still in the water. No words were needed to be shared before you began following the path, knowing the others weren’t too far behind.

Entering the ship, you scanned the place for anything abnormal.

“There.” Jody gestured to a doorway on the next level.

From where you stood, you could see a bright glowing light coming from upstairs. The buzzing that came from the light was familiar…

Not thinking it through, you bolted.

“Y/N!” Jody called out for you.

You didn’t stop, though. You rushed up the stairs as fast as you could, taking two at a time. Reaching the next level, you followed the light and went up another level. Eventually you threw yourself around a corner, only to come to a stop when you saw it.

It looked exactly like the one Jack had stepped through when he found you.

As you stepped towards it, Donna hurried around the corner and grabbed the back of your jacket. “What are you doing?”

“Sam and Dean are in there.” You didn’t fight against her hold, but you didn’t look away from the portal either. “I need to go in there. I need to save them.”

“You need to stay alive, for your daughter.”

At the mention of Dakota, you froze.

Donna seemed to notice and went on, “What are we supposed to say to your little girl if you get stuck over there? How are we supposed to tell her that, huh?”

Jody stepped in front of you, blocking your view of the glowing vertical crack floating in the air. “If things go bad, we need to make sure you’re on this side of that portal, understood?”

You hesitated, not wanting to give in so easily. While you understood their logic, and you knew they were right, you couldn’t get passed the horrible feeling in your gut. That feeling that made you feel like a failure of a mother.

“She doesn’t even know he’s her father.”

“Then you should tell her.” Jody tilted her head to meet your gaze. “You should tell her yourself.”

The thought of leaving her without a dad and a mum… that’s what broke you. Putting yourself in danger was like second nature to you. Stepping into the role of a hunter was like stepping into yourself. With a gun in your hand, and a job to do, you felt more at home than you had in years.

But all of those things were from a life without Dakota. Being a hunter, saving the world, saving people and hunting things… you never had to worry about whether or not you made it out alive because there was never anyone you had to stay alive for. Now there was. No you had someone dependant on you, and that changed everything.

“Okay.” You nodded, relaxing, no longer on the edge of fighting against Donna’s hold to get to the portal. “Okay.”

Jody opened her mouth to respond but was cut off at the sound of something crashing down on the bottom level.

“Ah, ladies… I think we’ve got company,” Donna noted, letting your jacket go to get a better hold on her gun.

…

Moving through the ship carefully, with Jody taking the lead, you were just about to round the corner when you spotted not one but two of the creatures. Acting quickly, the three of you ducked around the corner again, pressing yourselves against the wall.

“Jeez! Is that a... umm?” Donna asked.

“Yup,” Jody answered shortly.

The sound of the monsters moving had you all falling silent and going tense. You listened, waiting as they moved about. Eventually, however, you realised they weren’t heading your way but were moving to the next room over.

Looking to each other, the three of you made up your minds without a single word. You needed to get the hell out of there, and fast. Three measly guns weren’t going to be enough to keep you alive. You needed more weapons, and backup.

Dashing towards the exit, you all carefully made your way down to the bottom level. You could see the exit, practically smell the fresh air. It was so close…

A monster snarled behind you. Turning quickly, the three of you began to shoot. Pulling the trigger over and over, trying to stop the monster as it ran towards the three of you, you shrieked as a second jumped down from the second floor.

“Come on!” Jody grabbed your arm.

You tried pulling the trigger again, only to find you were out of bullets. “Shit.” Dropping your gun, you didn’t resist any longer and let Jody tug you away as you made a break for it.

Bamby

[onesparrow]

An essay on why Mama Mia is about a bunch of sirens and takes place in the same universe as Kingsman

Buckle your seatbelts kids, and let me tell why all the leading ladies in Mama Mia are sirens and how this applies to Kingsman. (and James Bond, sometimes)

So it’s the 80’s and Kingsman is keeping tabs on MI6, as they do, when they see that they’ve sent 007 to Greece of all places. Merlin assumes that this is because of the very bizarre reports they’ve been getting about possible mind control drugs, and when 007 is reported being seen with Donna (Meryl Streep), he sends Harry out under the guise of Harry Bright.

Off he goes, discovers that there are, in fact, no drugs, and comes back. All is fine and dandy, no one is any the wiser of the siren thing, and nothing happens for twenty years or so. But then Harry gets an invite to a wedding, Merlin catches wind that 007 is also going, and yeah that’s a little suspicious, so Harry gets sent back off to Greece.

“Remember that Harry Bright is not spontaneous and a dork,” Merlin reminds Harry as he ships him off. 

Queue Mama Mia, the movie, and Harry getting dragged into a bunch of song and dance routines while Merlin makes sure to record every second for posterity. Merlin eventually figures out that it’s not mind control drugs, it just so happens that Donna and Co are sirens and are much more powerful in numbers than they are on their own. Both Donna and Sophie are a good deal stronger than Donna’s friends, but that’s neither here nor there. They also have zero interest in using their powers for any purpose except for seducing the occasional person and throwing really wild parties. So he tells Harry to ride it out, which is why Harry pays for part of the wedding (with Kingsman money), and also claims to be 1/3 of Sophie’s dad even though there is no way that she’s his because Kingsman has all their agents on birth control. Even though there is nothing worth seeing (from a Kingsman perspective), Merlin has Harry stay for the rest of the wedding, James Bond gets married, and Harry has a brief fling with that Greek dude because why the hell not.

Merlin does a bit more research on sirens, and discovers the following;

Sirens are pack/school/pod whatever creatures and their powers are amplified in a group setting. The more of them there are, the more convincing they are, and can pretty much get entire crowds to join in. Since humans are also group based creatures, once there's a large enough group doing an activity, others are likely to jump in even if they aren't as easily effected. (like in flash mobs! there's always randos joining in)

Their powers are centred in suggestion, and since song is a really great way to get people to remember things, singing always works best for sirens. Plus makes it easier for other sirens to be in sync, vs just shouting things at random.

While sirens did use to bash ships onto rocks and lead men to their deaths, they only did so to protect their own territory. But now there’s laws against that, and also things like wifi. Sirens like youtube videos of baby animals just as much as the rest of us.

Sirens can’t really use their powers on each other; it’s just very tempting for other sirens to join in when they’re singing. There’s a certain pull there, but it’s easily resisted.

The siren gene is passed down on the mother's side, but not all sirens are female; there are male sirens, but they're a lot rarer just since there is a guarantee that female offspring will be sirens, but there's only a 50/50 shot that the male one will be. Female offspring are also more common, occurring 75% of the time.

And now let’s get back to Kingsman under the cut. 

Because you know who is a siren? Michelle Unwin, that’s who. I have evidence for this, but we’ll get to that later so bear with me. Like I said before, sirens are highly social, group based creatures; so when Michelle fell in love with Lee, it was VERY difficult for her to leave her family. But she loved him, there were tearful goodbyes and promises to visit the little coastal town she was from, but it wasn't on any main rail lines and they were busy with baby Eggsy and then Lee had to go off and join Kingsman and die. So while Michelle used to sing to Eggsy when he was a baby, she gets too depressed after Lee’s death and is trying to keep the two of them afloat, so she stops singing entirely.

Once Dean comes around, Michelle hasn't sung in years, because any songs of grief she would have sung for Lee would have been group based, as all siren songs are, and she hasn't been around any other sirens in years. She's too buried in her grief to consider going back to her family, and has lost contact anyhow, and then she meets Dean and she’s stuck there.

She's not 100% certain that Eggsy is a siren, but she forbids him from ever singing along with anything. Probably under the guise of 'Dean will hate it' or something, maybe even going as far as to telling him that Dean had complained about the quality of his voice (which is MASSIVELY taboo in siren culture, to tell another siren that their singing voice isn't up to par; that's just not a thing. It's not something you can ever say with any breadth of kindness) Eggsy is a good kid though, so he doesn't sing, even when he gets the urge.

He doesn’t sing at all until Daisy is born, and even then he’ll only sing when it's just the two of them, and only when she's upset. But even then it's super quietly, and only bits and pieces of a song. Daisy will always calm down when he sings, will just stare up at him and wave her tiny fists around happily or just go to sleep. Since Daisy is female, she’s for sure a siren (it's why Michelle was so terrified, when she called Eggsy in hysterics and demanded he come home from the army; she couldn't protect a baby from Dean by herself if she started to show her abilities). Singing and talking happens around the same time for baby sirens, and in the same way you can't forbid a baby from screaming or crying, you can’t forbid them to start singing if they get the urge. Since Eggsy sings to her, sometimes, she still has that social aspect that keeps the siren powers ‘awake’, even if it's weak. So her cries don't bring everyone running, but it does keep Dean and his men from trying to do anything unfortunate to keep her quiet. Sometimes they'll start to push past it, but once they get close enough to her crib she'll shriek loud enough that the 'back off' message is just strong enough to get them to leave her alone. Even baby sirens aren't helpless.

Side note; sirens have larger lung capacities which they use for singing, and are great swimmers because their preferred habitats are islands and they’d swim out to crash ships to protect them. Which is why Eggsy can hold his breath so long in that water test in comparison to the others.

Here’s how this ties back in properly to Kingsman; Valentine’s tech were based off of siren song. Originally, they were trying to reproduce it to the point so they could, like sirens, suggest a specific idea. That proved to be too complex though, so they settled for just suggesting a certain emotion, and then amp that frequency the hell up. So when the devices go off, Michelle has been suppressing her siren abilities for a solid seventeen years or so, so she gets drawn into it though. Daisy though? Daisy has been using it on and off, and she’s nearly a toddler when V-Day happens. Toddlers are entirely capable of the feeling of anger, and at the very least she should be throwing a temper tantrum, but instead she just sits in the bathroom and gets upset while her mother goes berserk and tries to murder her. Latent siren powers, huzzah!

Anywho, the rest of the Kingsman film goes as scripted, Eggsy becomes Gwaine, Harry comes back from the dead, neither Roxy nor Merlin die, Eggsy does not move out of Harry’s house, time passes, Harry and Eggsy get together, etc etc. I should mention that I have not seen Mama Mia 2 yet so we’re just going to ignore everything that happens there, but Harry gets an invite to Greece. Merlin insists that not only does he need more data points on siren abilities, especially post V-Day, Harry needs a vacation, and MI6 is there so he has to go. Harry points out that James Bond lives there with Donna, and therefore it doesn’t count as MI6 having a presence. Harry argues until Merlin mentions he’ll be sending Eggsy with him as backup, and suddenly Harry is thrilled to see his 1/3 daughter.

Both Eggsy and Harry work on some resistance training against siren song best they can, which is pretty easy because Harry has been actively been working on it since V-Day. Meanwhile Eggsy is a. stubborn as all hell b. has spent nearly his whole life resisting the urge to sing, which is half of the deal. They get to Greece, and Sophie IMMEDIATELY takes a shine to Eggsy, and is absolutely thrilled that Harry found someone to be happy with. Eggsy thinks Sophie is great, and that dorky Harry Bright is adorable. After the first few days though Eggsy is fairly stressed because he’s surrounded by several very powerful sirens and keeps resisting their siren songs, AND Harry keeps getting viciously hit on by everyone. I mean they're hitting on Eggsy too, but he doesn't notice because he's too busy being territorial; there is a very tan Greek man who keeps making doe eyes at Harry because they shacked up last time. (fun fact, greek dude from Mama Mia is also a siren, Merlin is cackling in the background)

The power keeps building as the third day goes around, and that night is when the party REALLY starts. Sirens feed off of group emotions, which is why they’re always so quick to cheer each other up, since otherwise you can end up bumming out everyone in the vicinity. It’s also one of the reasons that Valentine’s tech worked so well; the more people got involved, the more powerful it got. Anyways, by that point Eggsy’s jealousy has built and he’s fairly worn down by the constant barrage of “let’s throw a rager and flirt with everything that moves” mood the sirens have been throwing off the entire day. So when the karaoke thing starts, and Sophie goads him into doing a song, Eggsy is like “Yeah fuck it who cares if my voice is shit I am getting my ass up there here goes”.

Meanwhile Harry is also concerned because he’s been living with Eggsy for a year now and has never heard him sing, not even at Daisy’s birthday party where everyone sang and he just mumbled along. So he’s viciously texting Merlin about how he thinks that Eggsy has been effected and is going to make a fool of himself or something against his will, and please delete the recording as soon as it’s over, and then never bring it up. In the meantime Eggsy has vaulted up onto the stage, still stubborn and scowling, but once he gets up there he realises that he’s on a makeshift stage and has never sung anything before in his life. But he commits, because Sophie is giving him a thumbs up, and he’s not going to climb back off the stage now, is he?

Sophie puts on ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’ and while Eggsy is a little shy for the opening line or two, by the time the chorus starts he’s completely into it. By the second chorus the rest of the sirens have joined in, and Eggsy has jumped off the stage so that he can confidently put himself in Harry’s lap and is generally radiating such a strong ‘back the FUCK off’ vibe that he’s cleared a good sized circle around them. Donna is thrilled and is shouting things like “YOU TELL EM BOY” and Sophie is cackling because she’s placed bets on whether or not Eggsy had siren blood in him and will be collecting good money that night.

Harry is entirely shocked at first, and Merlin is 50% thrilled because this will be so useful and 50% pissed off because how did they not know about this earlier?!

The rest of the trip goes very well, aside from some shenanigans about whether or not James Bond is James Bond (Harry and Eggsy both swear that they’ve met James Bond, but Eggsy insists that that’s not him, because James Bond is blonde and blue eyed and together with MI6’s version of Merlin, and that’s how they figure out that James Bond is as much of a title as Galahad is), Sophie and Eggsy bond and she gives him a bunch of super secret siren tips that Merlin really wishes he hadn’t overheard. There’s singing, there’s dancing, etc etc.

Once Merlin gets over the things he heard and Eggsy and Harry get back to HQ, he already has a bunch of tests for Eggsy lined up. Which is how Eggsy and Roxy get locked in a sound proof room while Merlin hangs out on the other side of a sheet of soundproof glass with a mic and a cup of tea while Eggsy tries to get Roxy to join in on a duet of a Spice Girls song. That then inspires Merlin, and Eggsy finds himself staring down Roxy saying "tell me what you want, what you really really want" in various intonations to see if they could possibly use Eggsy's abilities as a truth serum. ((The answer is no, in part because Roxy can’t stop laughing))

They discover that Eggsy's powers mostly extend to people who are either susceptible to a good mental push (like drunk people, or those of particularly weak constitutions) or people who are letting themselves be pushed (like Harry, if they're alone and he's feeling like indulging Eggsy's brattiness). But as Merlin puts it "Unless we have an influx of targets hanging out in karaoke bars or greek islands, I don't know that it'll come up often”.

Oh and when they need more recruits Eggsy nominates Sophie. She’s been taught to fight by James Bond in the past few years so she has a leg up there, but she passes with flying colours and joins Kingsman.

Anyways thanks for coming to my TED talk on why Harry Bright is just Harry Hart’s cover and Eggsy and the ladies from Mama Mia are all sirens.

[darveyfics]

Darvey angst where she is feeling down on Christmas Eve and wants to be with Harvey. They don’t work together any more and she barely sees him any more.

Since Donna kissed Harvey they’ve been at a loose end, not talking for months and it gets to Christmas Day and Harvey realises what a dick he’s been and he turns up at donna’s parents house and admits he loves and wants her 

Concept: Your arms are wrapped around me as we lay in bed. We talk and make jokes and call each other empty insults to make each other laugh. You press kisses to my cheek every so often and I can feel your fingers tracing my side. We’re finally together and everything feels right and happy. hungover in bed on New Year’s Day 

AN: I may have gone a bit off prompt here, seeing as how this is only a NYE fic, and I took liberty with adding/omitting some details, but this was inspired by these set of prompts. Anywho, I hope you still enjoy and happy New Years!

“Resolutions”

“Ugh,” Donna turns off the television with a hard press on the remote, a sour expression on her face. She had spent the better part of the last half an hour summoning all of her effort to try and enjoy what she could during the last few hours before the new year. But in doing so, she had to succumb to seeing happy couples being displayed near Times Square, kissing and huddling close in the cold, even witnessing a couple of too-cheesy proposals. She couldn’t take it anymore, couldn’t watch any more of the festivities when her heart was already in shambles.

With a sigh and a shake of her head, she pushes herself off her couch, picking up her empty wine glass and walking over to her kitchen, where she pours herself another helping of red. Her eyes grow watery then, blurring her vision as she watches the crimson liquid filling the glass she held. Donna mentally curses herself, angrily wiping away a tear in the corner of her eye before it could make its way down her cheek. Picking up the glass, she lets out a small dry laugh as she brought it up to her lips. As the bitter taste meets her tongue, a knock nearly makes her spill her drink.

She freezes in place, her breath hitching as two familiar knocks follow. Slowly, the redhead deposits the glass on her kitchen island, watching as a few scarlet drops make their way to tint the white marble countertop.

“Donna,”

His muffled voice makes her eyes close on their own accord, her heart racing its way to rest in her throat, where an uncomfortable lump begins to form.

“Donna, it’s me.”

She stays frozen, hovering over her kitchen island, her knuckles turning white with the visceral grip she held on the counter, a meek attempt to keep herself upright lest she pass out. It’s the first time she’s heard his voice in days, the two glasses of wine already seeping into her system, making her limbs feel like jello upon hearing the low timbre in his voice. She finds herself unable to move, silently willing her former boss to leave, hoping he would get the hint with her lack of response.

“Donna, please, I know you’re in here. I went to your mom’s- she uh, she told me you’d be here.”

Donna finds herself cursing under her breath then. She had only told Louis of her New Year’s Eve plans- telling the name partner that she would probably make a trip up to Connecticut to visit her mom after having been invited to an end of the year party she was hosting alongside her latest flame- one apparently slightly less annoying than the last. And she had planned on going… until she found herself standing in front of her closet, trying to find something to wear, when another sudden wave of sadness washed over her and she couldn’t draw in enough energy to make herself look presentable, the thought of hanging around other other people, putting on a bubbly facade just to mask the current pain she felt and prevent an unwanted conversation with her mother making her feel dizzy. So, she had phoned the older woman, an apology on her lips as she lied through her teeth and told her mom that she wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t go.

Now, as she continues to grip her countertop, the metaphorical and physical wall separating her from Harvey seemingly growing thicker by the second, her mind starts to cloud over with a plethora of thoughts.

I went to your mom’s.

She wasn’t surprised he had towered over Louis until the shorter man broke under Harvey’s gaze, spilling her plans with no other option. What she did find surprising was that the man in question had driven all the way to Connecticut and back just to talk to her.

Donna shook her head, opening her mouth to speak, hoping her voice could carry its way over through the wall that separates her from the man that she had been equally avoiding for the past couple of days. It had been a mere two weeks since she had kissed him, planted a long-awaited, tension filled kiss as soon as he walked into her office. The arguments had started that night, when she found him on the rooftop of PSL, looking as confused and hurt and angry as she had ever seen him. The hurtful jabs hadn’t stopped there either. It had been a grave experience, having to dive into work everyday with someone she had considered to be her best friend- her confidant- her everything- only to fall victim to the backlash he had expelled on her.

It had been bite for bite, blame after blame, and she had stood her ground, never once faulting under his fierce gaze as he looked at her with what she could only surmise to be hurt, distrust, and something akin to betrayal. His words had cut deep, but she still showed up, countered his words with her own, exuding all the confidence she could muster so as to not break every time he looked at her.

She never expected him to jump into her arms after having kissed him, didn’t expect them to be anything, but she never expected the full continuous wave of anguish she felt every time he spoke to her. Even when she had caught wind that he and Paula had broken up, she still faced his wrath on occasion, until she had blown up on him. She had looked him square in the eye, told him she wouldn’t stand for his shit anymore, and would leave without so much as looking back if he didn’t stop treating her like his enemy. 

That had been a few short days before, the sting of having spent Christmas alone growing ten-fold when he had all but bitten her head off the next morning, and she couldn’t take it anymore. He had backtracked with a look of surprise, and something reminiscent of guilt that she tried to push out her mind. Since then, they had barely crossed paths outside of important meetings, and even then they would use Louis as a buffer, the other name partner oblivious as to what was happening- either that, or he was uncharacteristically stepping out of the way.

Another set of taps on her door shook her out of her thought, his voice mirroring the defeat in his soft knocks.

“Donna… please.”

With a final sigh and a bitter taste in her mouth that had nothing to do with the wine she had been drinking, Donna makes her way to her front door. Her steps were measured and unsure, dragging herself until she stood in front of the piece of wood that separated her from him.

Before she could overthink it further, her hand reaches out, unlocking the door as she swings it open.

Her words catch in her throat as she looks him over- suit disheveled and sans tie, hair sticking up in all directions from when he must have raked his hands through it a dozen times. His brown eyes were nearly rimmed red, underlined by heavy bags to highlight his lack of sleep. She mentally thanked herself then for still donning that day’s makeup, hoping it would mask her own heavy eyes.

Clearing her throat, she musters up as much control as possible, “What are you doing here?”

“Can we talk?” His gravely voice takes her by surprise, and if it weren’t for the lack of alcohol she could smell on his breath, she would’ve guessed he had been drinking.

“Talk about what?” Donna crosses her arms, shuffling her feet and glancing away from his pleading eyes, willing her heart rate to slow down.

“You know what.”

She scoffs then, tilting her head to fix him with a glare that was making her eyes sting, “You weren’t done yelling at me yet? Had a second wind you needed to exercise before you rung in the new year year?”

Her sarcastic words made his lips turn thin, his shoulders slumping at the way her voice cracked and he felt his heart doing the same. “That’s not what-”

“Thats not what?!” She demands, body canting forward in an effort to tower over him, the attempt falling short seeing as she was barefoot and a mere couple of inches shorter than him, “That’s not what you came here for? I’m sorry, I’m also not in the mood for another round of the blame game you were throwing at me, Harvey.”

“Donna,”

“No, I don’t want to hear it, I’m tired, okay? Can’t you see that? If you don’t-” she heaves out a breath, taking a moment to collect herself before continuing, “If you don’t… feel anything, then just let is rest, Harvey. Because I can’t take this anymore.”

Without a word, he’s stepping into her apartment, the sudden bold move taking her by surprise and she steps to the side in reflex. “I do!”

His expel makes her cant backward again, “Do what?” She presses, her eyebrows creased as she stares at the half flustered man before her.

“I do… feel something,” Harvey hisses, his eyes beginning to cloud over, chest rising and falling.

Donna closes her eyes at his small admission, flashbacks to a time in his office taking over her mind.

Love me how?

I told you that so I could make you feel better.

That’s because we have everything.

No, Harvey! You have everything! 

So, are you saying you want everything?

“Feel what?” Donna finally opens her eyes, “Disgust? Betrayal? Because,” she lets out a humorless laugh, “That’s how you kept looking at me for the past two weeks.”

“I-”

“You’ve never been able to tell me how you really feel, haven’t you? Goddammit, Harvey, I really don’t know how much more of this I can take,” a few tears slide down her cheek as her voice breaks, hugging herself close in a futile attempt to protect herself. 

“Donna, please, I just-” His mouth hangs open then, the rest of his words caught in his throat again, and he swallows past the lump that blocks his untimely confession.

“What, Harvey? I’m right here, what the hell is it that you have to say?” Her hazel eyes plead with him, and she hears the distinct sounds of fireworks going off in the distance, knowing that midnight was just right around the corner and the festivities outside her apartment were in full swing now.

“I love you,” he growls in the next second, propelling forward to cup her face in his hands, slanting his lips over hers in a bruising kiss.

Donna always prided herself in seemingly knowing what was going to happen next, what people were thinking, were feeling… but in that moment, with Harvey’s lips firmly pressed against hers, she could confidently say, she never saw it coming.

Her body stays frozen against him, lips barely pursed against his own unmoving ones. It wasn’t until his head tilts to the side, pulling on her upper lip with the gentlest of tugs, does she come alive. Her hands grip the the lapels of his jack, needing something to hold onto as she feels herself falling under a dizzy spell as his tongue snakes into her mouth in a torturous pace. Their lips move over each other like long time lovers, his familiar taste intoxicating her senses, fueling an inner desire she had thought she had suppressed. Her hands find their way to his hair, pulling on the short strands and eliciting a low groan to leave his lips. Before she could fully mold her body to his, he’s pulling back, and it takes her a near full minute to open her eyes.

What she sees makes her knees buckle, and if it weren’t for his hold on her, she was sure she would’ve fallen. 

“I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry,” his eyes are screwed shut, tears free falling down his cheeks as his voice breaks with every word.

Donna feels herself swallowing, her own eyes blurring as she watches Harvey- the man she has only seen cry purely two or three times in all the years that they’ve known each other. His hands slide down from her cheeks then, making their way to rest on her waist as his forehead lands on hers, prompting her own eyes to close.

“God, Donna, I’m-” he shakes his head, lip caught between his teeth as he tries to render in some control, “I’m so sorry,” his eyes finally find hers when he lifts his head, his tears clouding his vision.

“Harvey-”

“I was an asshole, I- I treated you like shit and- I don’t deserve you,” She tries not to get distracted by the way his hands caress her skin over the sweater she wore, his eyes boring into her own in the dim light of her foyer. Donna swallows back the ever-growing lump in her throat, trying to breathe through the stuttering in her chest.

“I fucked up. I screwed up everything because I was too damn proud, too upset, too- confused to tell you…” His voice trails off as he looks at her, the rest of his words getting clogged up amidst the fear and uneasiness he felt bubbling up inside.

“Tell me what?” His earlier confession echoes in her mind, those three little words replaying like a broken record, making her feel dizzier by the second 

“I’m not good at this Donna,” he admits on an exhale, looking every bit as nervous and vulnerable as she had ever seen him.

She purses her lips then, shifting slightly in her stance as her hold on his biceps stays in place, “At telling me how you really feel? Yeah, I’ve noticed,” agitation pulls at her again, and she tries to keep her frustration at bay, hoping he could somehow find it in him to tell her. 

“You think this is easy for me? Being here? Pouring myself out to you?” She nearly flinches at the way his voice grows an octave higher, but she holds her ground, stepping away from him in the next second.

“Do you think it was easy for me? Having to go into work everyday to see the man I’ve considered as a best friend for over a decade look at me like I was the worst thing to ever happen to him? To treat me like absolute crap because one little thing I did?” 

“You kissed me while I was still with Paula! How else did you expect me to react?”

“I expected you to not talk down to me or make me feel like absolute shit after the one time in the last thirteen goddamn years I decided to put myself first!”

Her outburst is like a splash of cold water on him, her voice growing hoarse as the tears slide down, staining her already flushed cheeks.

“Donna,” guilt rises in him, and he takes a step forward again, wincing when she takes a step back in response.

“God, we always end up here, don’t we?” Her dry laugh is followed by another set of fireworks going off in the distance, preceding an echo of laughs and cheers from the street patrons outside of her apartment.

“Where?” He asks her gently, staying put this time.

“Here! With us arguing and you not being able to tell me whatever the hell it is that you want!”

“I want you!” 

She doubles back at his words, her eyes widening and matching his own as he tries and fails to keep his emotions and breathing in check.

“Goddammit, Donna, I-” he rubs his hands over his tired face, his eyes appearing more red than they had been when he had arrived just minutes earlier, “I want more,” he echoes the words she had told him almost a year before. Her mouth hangs open in surprise, silently willing her brain to come alive and provide her with a set of words to throw back in his face, but none come.

“I want- everything with you,” Harvey takes a tentative step toward her, taking advantage of her still frame to take her hands in his own, using his thumb to run circles over her smooth skin.

“Harvey-”

“I’m in love with you,” his eyes study her, taking in the way her lips part at his confession, the words finally slipping out with an unexpected ease. He brings a hand to wipe away the tears that continue to slide down her cheeks, his fingers lingering on her warm skin, “I’m sorry it took me too damn long to realize, to tell you.”

Donna can only nod in turn then, blinking back more emotions as they cascade down her face. “Why-”

“Did it take me so long to tell you?” He murmurs his question, taking another tentative step toward her to gather her in his arms. At her nod, he heaves out a breath, shaking his head, “I’m a goddamn idiot, for one, but I was scared.”

“Of what?” Comes her hoarse response, reaching up to wipe away his own set of tears and he can’t stop himself from taking hold of her hand, kissing the inside of her wrist, the action making her breath hitch.

“Of losing you,” he whispers, his face nearly growing numb when she starts to caress his cheek, “of- misreading your signal, and potentially screwing things up, which, happened anyway because I’m a complete moron, and I was upset with you, but mostly at myself, and I was angry because you kissed me and I was with someone else and I didn’t know what to do, not at first-”

“Harvey-” She tries to interrupt his rambling, but falls short when he continues to rant.

“And even after I broke up with Paula, I was still angry and confused, and it was just an excuse, because that was easier than dealing with what really mattered, who really mattered-”

“Harvey-”

“And God, Donna, I know there’s no excuse, I treated you like shit, and I don’t deserve you, I don’t deserve your forgiveness or even your heart, but I do love you, in every goddamn way I know how to love and I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to prove to you to just that, because I don’t just need you in my life, I never did just need you, I want you,” Harvey takes a moment to expel another breath, watching her own face nearly crumpling and he curses himself for putting that amount of pain in her, “And if you’ll let me…” 

Her lips are on his in a flash, her arms winding around him, nearly making him tumble forward as she pulls herself up on her tiptoes. It only takes him a second to react, his own arms wrapping around her until she was flush against him. Their kiss grows frantic quickly, their lips tangling with their teeth, tugging and pulling in between slides of tongues that has them spilling out twin moans of pleasure and want and need.

“Donna,” Harvey breathes in between kisses, groaning when she pulls at his bottom lip, sliding her tongue inside his hot mouth again, and it takes everything in him not to push her up against the nearest surface. 

“Donna, wait,” she lets out a whimper of disapproval when his lips detach from hers. If it weren’t for the seriousness of the situation, for the way his pants started to grow tighter against every hot breath she exhaled against him, he would’ve laughed at the cute way in which she pouted at him.

“Hey,” he breathes out, using a hand to lock a strand of auburn hair behind her ear, reaching forward to press a feather light kiss to her cheek.

“What is it?” She whispers on a low pant. 

“I’m just- I’m really sorry. For everything. I- I hurt you and I can’t tell you how sorry I am.” 

Donna frowns when another tear slides down his cheek, and she reaches out to wipe it away, her raised feet planting themselves down on her hardwood floor, “I know. You already said-”

Harvey shakes his head, “I just don’t feel like it’s enough. Like it won’t ever be enough.”

Her hand slides down to his lips, slightly caressing the swollen flesh as her eyes look up to meet his, “You did screw up, I think we both did in some way,” she lets out a sigh, “but I already spent the last two weeks feeling miserable and sorry for myself, and hating you just a little bit for how you made me feel,” she doesn’t miss the way his eyes cloud over more at her words, “and I think what we both deserve right now is to be happy, don’t you think?”

“So… you forgive me?” His voice is small when he speaks, and she lets her lips curl up slightly at the ounce of hope in him.

“Yeah, Harvey, I do.”

“Why?” He croaks out, his forehead knit as his eyes rake over her form, nearly becoming dizzy as her scent fills him.

“Because, so help me God, I’m in love with you too.” Her half shrug and laugh makes his chest flutter with something he doesn’t think he’s felt in a long time. He struggles to fight against the way his lips twitch at her words, and he shuffles his feet forward until their lips are grazing each other, their eyes brightly transfixed on one another.

“I’m not going to screw things up,” he promises her then, determination growing in his voice.

Donna hums in response, her hands sliding up his chest until her right hand is resting over his heart, “You better not,” he lets out a watery chuckle at the way she quirks an eyebrow at him, and her own mirth mirrors his.

They sober up in the next second, matching serious expressions on their faces as the gravity of the situation settles in then.

“I am sorry,” Harvey finds himself repeating, his voice low against her.

“I know,” Donna whispers back. Their arms are around each other the next second, pulling each other close together, a tight hold forming around each other.

“I’ve missed you,” her whispers against her, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

“I didn’t go anywhere,” she tells him, though she has an inkling as to what he means. 

“Felt like you did, and I know it’s my own damn fault,” his defeated sigh makes her pull back, her eyes raking over his tired form, eyes still reddened from his tears, guilt written all over his face. She hears more fireworks echoing in the distance now, followed by another round of cheers, and she guesses they were slowly inching their way to midnight.

“You really need to stop beating yourself up, Specter,” she murmurs against him, lifting up on her toes to plant a kiss against his mandible.

“I’m not sure I know how,” he lets out a sigh, his eyes pleading and tired all the same.

“I think I can find a way,” Donna whispers, running a manicured hand through the short strands of his hair.

She almost laughs at the way his brows furrow, confusion written in his still slightly solemn expression, and a sudden giddiness overcomes her when she realizes she can kiss the pout right off his face.

So she does just that.

It takes him a moment to register what’s happening, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise, much like the way he had done when she had kissed him a mere weeks before. And just as he had done then, his demeanor relaxes within seconds, melting right against her, except this time, she doesn’t pull back, his hands are around her, and he reels her in further.

When her hands slide down his chest, blindly undoing the buttons on his dress shirt, his lips pull back from her, “Donna,” he nearly lets out a whimper when her nails sneak inside his shirt, lightly scratching against his skin, “Donna, are you sure?”

Her lips part from his with a smacking sound, hazel eyes appearing black at the way her pupils have dilated. In the distance, she can vaguely make out a countdown.

20… 19... 

Her hands slide up to his shoulders, and in anticipation, he’s hoisting her up, her legs wrapping around his form, the move making them stumble forward. Twin laughs leave them, their teeth clashing in a hurried kiss as he tightens his hold on her, making sure she’s safely secured in his arms.

“Careful, mister, you’re carrying precious goods here,” she murmurs against his lips.

17… 16…

Harvey chuckles at her words, moving in the direction of her bedroom when he finally finds his footing, “Trust me, I’m well aware.”

15… 14…

It’s a mission and a half to get to her bedroom without dropping her, thanks to the way her lips are teasing the curve of his jaw, taking her time to nip and suck at his skin.

12… 11…

When he finally reaches her room, he makes a beeline for the bed, maneuvering in the dark through a space he had only occupied once before.

9… 8…

Depositing her on the bed, she lets out a fit of giggles, the sound nearly foreign to her after weeks of tears and anger. He lets out his own string of chuckles, reaching down to plant a kiss to her lips, his hand moving her golden locks out of the way, until he’s fully able to look into her eyes.

6… 5…

“Hey,” he whispers, his lips hovering over hers.

“Hey back.”

4… 3…

“I love you,” 

2… 1…

Before she can register what’s happening, his lips are landing on hers in another toe-curling kiss, the force of which nearly knocking her off kilter, and she thanks her lucky stars she was already lying down. A string of fireworks go off right outside, one after the other, repeatedly for what feels like ages. She nearly chuckles against him then, the humor of fireworks going off while the love of her life was kissing her not missing her.

“Happy New Year’s, Donna,” his Cheshire Cat grin evokes one of her own, and she’s suddenly feeling light-headed with an overwhelming sense of joy.

“Happy New Year’s, Harvey,” the second the words leave her lips, his mouth is slanting over hers again, and the cacophony of fireworks outside is soon diluted by the rapid beating of her heart, the rhythm growing ten-fold as his own starts to match hers in perfect synchrony. 

His body is molded to hers, right arm strewn across her form over the covers, his face buried in the crook of her neck.

“You okay?” Harvey presses a kiss to her temple, watching as her breathing now settles into a full leveled rhythm.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah,” she sends him a grin over her shoulder, reaching up as best she could in her current position, angling her head to meet his lips in a chaste kiss.

“I could just hear you thinking pretty loudly,” his fingers caress her arm in an up and down pattern, the feeling evoking goosebumps on her skin.

She lets out a snort at his words, “What? You a mind reader now?” 

He chuckles against her, the vibrations alighting her skin on fire, and she bites her lip at the sheer memory of what they were doing just minutes before.

“No,” he presses a kiss to the crown of her head, settling his head on the pillow they shared and coaxing her to turn around until she was fully facing him, “You just seem quiet, is all.”

Her face softens at his words, and her lips curl up into a coy smile, “Yeah well, you tired me out,” she playfully pokes his chest then and he squirms in response.

“Ooh, I forgot you were ticklish,” her eyes grow brighter then, and Harvey takes hold of her hands, swallowing back the slight fear that bubbles up.

“Don’t you dare, Paulsen,” he warns in a low growl.

Donna rolls her eyes in response, a smirk playing on her lips at his sudden semi-panicked demeanor.

“Relax, Harvey,” she lets out a dramatic sigh, bringing her hand up to comb through his hair, “I’m a little too tired to play right now.”

His eyebrows comically wiggle at her words, and she lets out a snort that mixes in with a girly giggle, “You’re ridiculous,” she lets out.

“I’m a very lucky man, is what I am,” he puffs out his chest the best way he could whilst horizontal, causing her to shake her head.

“And cheesy,” she retorts, leaning forward to peck his lips.

“Hmm, I think I’ve found my rights to a couple of sappy words tonight.”

“You were pretty impressive,” Donna purrs against him, teasingly pulling on his bottom lip, causing him to emit a low growl.

“I thought you were tired,” he hums against her, shifting until he was hovering over her again.

Donna licks her lips in response, her eyes hungrily raking over his bare chest, “I changed my mind,” she shrugs.

Harvey shakes his head at her antics, leaning down to start a torturous trail from her jaw to her neck, where he pauses to suck on her pulse point. She finds herself closing her eyes then, the feel of his lips mixed with his tongue on her skin making the room around her start to spin.

“I can’t believe you really drove all the way to Connecticut to look for me,” she breathes out when his lips leave her skin for a second, and the fog in her mind clears up. His head lifts from its place, hovering just over her exposed chest.

Her sudden admission makes his forehead knit in confusion, and he wills his mind to clear up just long enough to take in her words. “What?”

She lets out a small chuckle at the perplexed look he gives her, reaching up to gently stroke his cheek, “Earlier, you said you went to my mom’s in Connecticut, and then you drove back… on New Year’s Eve, when you realized I wasn’t there.” 

“Would it be cheesy if I said I would’ve gone to the ends of the earth to look for you?” He kisses the inside of her palm, giving her a shy look as he still hovered over her.

Donna snorts, “Yeah, a bit.”

“Thought so.”

They share sheepish smiles before Harvey leans down to press a kiss to her lips, just because he could. “I would’ve, you know?”

“I know,” she assures him quietly, her lips turning up.

“Because I’m a goddamn idiot in love,” he sighs dramatically, and realizes all of her dramatic flares have already started to rub off on him.

“That makes two of us,” she murmurs against him before pulling him down for a kiss, “except for the idiot part,” he chuckles against her when she pulls him down for another kiss, their lips melding together, their tongues taking turns to sneak in and tease, tasting each other all over again.

“What?” She giggles against him, watching him in amusement as he breaks their kiss with an uncontrollable fit of chuckles.

Harvey shakes his head, his eyes crinkling with humor and love and something so light he dares to call happiness- pure unbridled joy- settles in his chest.

“I just realized… we basically rung in the new year with a bang.”

She stares up at his slightly flushed expression, eyes bright and wide, staring down at her like she was the best and only thing that mattered in this world. It takes her a full two seconds before she’s doubling back with laughter, the sheer noise making him falter and he’s nearly crushing her as his cackles grow alongside her own.

It’s a while before their laughter subsides, the room saturated with their mingled heavy breathing. Still, little outburst of giggles tumble out of her every time she meets his gaze, and she finds herself wiping away the tears that escape, this time solely due to the joy he had elicited in her.

“That- really shouldn’t have been as funny as it was,” She chuckles, drunk on the feeling of laughing alongside her best friend turned lover, the thought alone enticing another string of endorphins to run along her body.

“And yet…” Harvey grins, kissing the corner of her mouth before he settles next to her again, his body falling heavily against the mattress and he’s reeling her in to him again.

Donna shakes her head, her eyes rolling on reflex. “God, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.”

Harvey’s face sobers up for a moment, his smile fading ever so slightly at her words, “Well, I may have just found my new year’s resolution.”

She sends him a quizzical look, her eyes curious and amused, “And what’s that?”

“I’m gonna spend the rest of the year,” he leans forward to press a kiss to her cheek, “the rest of my life,” he presses another to her parted lips, “making you laugh, making you happy.”

Her eyes sting with a fresh new wave of tears and she blinks them back in attempt to keep them from falling. A fluttering settles in her stomach and she heaves out a shaky breath as she inches herself closer to him, her hand finding its way to rest on his cheek as she finds her smile mirroring his.

“Well, you’re already off to a great start, Specter.”

[einsteinsugly]

April 2003. An Unfortunate Invitation...

Donna's sitting on the couch, watching TV, while Eric comes barging in, leafing through the mail. He puts everything on the side table, except for one solitary piece of paper. Eric (setting the piece of paper on the table, sitting on the couch): Um, we got this...thing, in the mail. Our 25th high school reunion is on August 28th.

Donna (looking at the letter, with a sigh): I told you. You need freaking reading glasses.

Eric (defensively): I do not.

Donna (holding the paper to his face): What does this say?

Eric: Are you trying to give me some sort of eye test?

Donna (unwavering): What does this say?

Eric: Um...you're invited to Point Place High School, to the class of 1978's high school reunion. Let's all be reunited, and it'll feel so good, after twenty-five years, on...

Donna: What is the date?

Eric (squinting): Um...August...August...

Donna: 23rd, dillhole. Not the 28th. Why the hell would our high school reunion be on a Thursday?

Eric: It says 2003. I know that much. *Tossing the invitation on the coffee table* I don't wanna go, anyway.

Donna: Why not?

Eric: I don't really care how most of them ended up. Anywho, I hear enough gossip from my mom. Pam Macy got a boob job, Jake Bradley's a football coach for the Vikings, not the Minnesota Vikings...the Point Place Vikings.

Donna (with a sigh): You don't want to deal with it...

Eric: Yeah, I don't want to deal with some unnecessary crap, inevitably flung in my general direction. *Mimicking some of the ex-cheerleaders, with a high-pitched voice* How did you end up with Donna? Because you're such a dork... *returning to his normal voice* Hey, I'm her dork, her loving dillhole, and at least my body isn't eating its own hair! Unlike your massive buoy of a husband over there.

Donna: I don't think Destroy or Giveback would float.

Eric: Yeah, they'd sink right to the bottom, like the Titanic. *With a dramatic pause* I want most of our former classmates to be far across the distance, with some considerable space between us, thank you very much.

Donna (with a groan): Ugh. Not Celine Dion.

Eric: I know, right? *With a corny smile* But I'll let you know, my heart will go on and on with you.

Donna (with a smile): You're such a corndog.

Eric: It's better than being a horndog, like Mitch. Who would cheat on their loving, dying wife with their secretary? At the very least, wait until she's dead!